Real Ny Jewish Rye Bread Food

REAL NY JEWISH RYE BREAD

Steps:

• Place bread flour, rye flour, potato flakes, caraway seeds, demarara sugar, yeast, and sea salt in the bowl of a large stand mixer. Turn mixer to low and thoroughly mix dry ingredients. Beat warm water, canola oil, and pickle juice into dry ingredients. Fit dough hook onto mixer and beat until dough is rough and shaggy-looking.
• Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rest for exactly 30 minutes. Remove plastic wrap and knead dough in stand mixer with dough hook until smooth, firm, and only slightly sticky, 6 to 8 minutes. Turn dough onto a floured work surface and knead until smooth, 1 to 2 more minutes.
• Form dough into a ball, place dough into an oiled bowl, and turn dough around several times in bowl to coat with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, set into a warm place, and let rise until nearly double, about 1 hour.
• Grease a 5x9-inch loaf pan. Turn dough onto a lightly oiled surface, shape into a log, and place into prepared loaf pan. Cover with a cloth kitchen towel and let rise until top of dough has risen slightly over top of pan, 60 to 90 minutes.
• Place rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Bake loaf until golden brown and cooked through, about 35 minutes. The internal temperature of the bread should be 190 degrees F (90 degrees C). If loaf browns too quickly, cover loosely with a tent of aluminum foil with shiny side out. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

THE ULTIMATE JEWISH RYE BREAD

Steps:

• In the starter, the caraway seeds can be ground in a coffee or spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle. In the bakery we crush the seeds with a rolling pin. The crushed seeds disappear in the ferment and add a distinctive flavor to the sour. The minced onion helps to hasten the fermentation and adds flavor.
• Starter:
• Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix until smooth. The mixture should have a thin, soupy consistency.
• Cover and allow to stand in a warm spot until bubbly and fermented. It can be left up to 24 hours.
• *Note: Save the rest of the packet for the first dough.
• Rye Sour, Developing and Fortifying: In making sour use approximately ¾ to 1 cup flour to each ½ cup water. (Notice that Stage One calls for a higher ratio. This is done to adjust for the initial consistency of the starter.)
• The object is to make a thick consistency as close as possible to that of a soft dough. It is not necessary to thicken to the point that the mixing becomes burdensome. If the mixture is too soupy, add more flour ¼ cup at a time. Mix until smooth.
• ***
• Stage 1:
• In a large bowl or container, combine the water, 1 ¼ cups of the flour, and the Starter; stir until smooth. The dough should pull slightly and may start to come away from sides of the bowl. Wipe down the sides of the bowl with wet hands or a bowl scraper.
• Sprinkle ¼ cup flour over the entire surface of the sour. Let stand, covered with a cloth or clear plastic wrap, until doubled in size and the floured top appears cracked with fissures spread widely apart. This may take 4 to 8 hours. Avoid letting the sour collapse.
• ***
• Stage 2:
• To the Stage One sour add the water and ¾ cup of the flour; mix until smooth. Wipe down the sides of the bowl.
• Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup flour over the entire surface of the sour. Allow to rise in a warm area 4 to 8 hours.
• ***
• Proceed with Stage Three:
• As the sour begins to rise, you can refrigerate it at any stage for later use or overnight for mixing the following day.
• Refrigeration retards the rate of growth of the sour, which continues to rise slowly. Whenever time permits, I prefer to make two stages the day before, refrigerating the second stage overnight and preparing the third stage the morning of baking.
• If the dough is to be mixed first thing in the morning, the third stage is prepared the evening before, so it can rise slowly all night and be ready in the morning.
• To the Stage Two sour add the water and the 1 cup flour. Mix until smooth. Additional flour can be added to attain a dough-like consistency. The sour, when fully risen in Stage Three, is ready for use in the dough.
• When the third stage is mixed, set aside ¼ to ½ cup and refrigerate in a covered container with a light film of cold water floated over the top. I have kept sour under refrigeration for months at a time.
• *Note: Use warm water if the sour has been refrigerated.
• It is best to stir down the starter every 3 to 4 days if unused. Periodically (every 10 to 12 days) dispose of half and refresh it by mixing in equal amounts of flour and water. If there is some discoloration on the top, it can safely be skimmed off and the sour used as normal.
• When going away for long periods of time, I freeze a small amount of sour. When preparing a new starter from scratch, I add the frozen sour to preserve my original culture. To ensure the proper strength of the sour, in each stage you can only double the amount of starter you begin with.
• For example, if beginning with ¼ cup starter, you can add up to ½ cup water plus flour to thicken. If Stage One contains 1 cup sour, Stage Two can be prepared with up to 2 cups water plus flour. If a large amount of sour is required, extra stages can be added.
• Sometimes the process goes awry. Perhaps there is insufficient sour left to start the next batch, or the sour might have been forgotten and was left standing to get old or dry. There is a remedy.
• The bakers call it an einfrisch, meaning to refresh. A small amount of sour is thinned down with water to a soupy consistency. Swishing ¼ cup water around in what remains clinging to the sides of the empty bowl can yield enough to restart the sour. Let this einfrisch stand, covered, at room temperature or in a warm spot until bubbly. If desperate, add a pinch of yeast.
• When ready, add enough flour to make a first stage, allow to rise, and proceed with two more stages.
• ***
• For the Rye Bread:
• In a large bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm water and add the sour. Add the altus. Without stirring, add 3 cups of the flour and salt. Gently stir the dry ingredients with your fingertips to incorporate, then stir with a wooden spoon, adding more flour as necessary until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.
• Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and knead. If the dough is moist and sticky, add more flour ¼ cup at a time. Knead until the dough feels soft and silky (5 to 8 minutes). Rye dough will be softer than usual and tend to feel sticky.
• Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and turn several times to coat. Cover and allow to rest for 15 to 20 minutes. Punch down, sprinkle with the caraway seeds.
• Shaping:
• Shape the balls into 2 free-standing pan loaves.
• Place on a rye flour- or commeal-dusted baking sheet.
• In the bakery we proof the leaves and bake them on the oven hearth using a wooden peel. Cover and allow to rise until doubled in size. Brush with the cornstarch solution, then cut 3 horizontal slashes on the top of each loaf.
• Baking:
• Bake with steam in a preheated 375 degree F oven until tapping the bottom with your fingertips produces a hollow sound.
• Specifically, the loaves are done when the crust is very firm, the internal temperature is at least 205 degrees and the loaves give a "hollow" sound when thumped on the bottom (35 to 45 minutes).
• When they are done, leave them in the oven with the heat turned off and the door cracked open a couple of inches for another 5-10 minutes.
• The top and sides should feel hard to the touch. Brush again with the cornstarch solution, then let cool on a wire rack. Cool completely before slicing.
• Yield Makes 2 loaves.
• Notes:
• Altus - is European in origin, and little known outside of the bakery establishment. Newcomers to the bakery think of it as a method of using up stale bread.
• However, as with many old-fashioned techniques, bakers find that it enhances the desirable qualities of certain breads. Its use seems to have begun in the making of pumpernickel doughs, and the best of these breads often contain altus.
• Altus is a mash made by slicing and trimming the crusts from leftover sour rye bread, soaking the trimmed bread in water for several hours or overnight under refrigeration, squeezing it dry, and adding small amounts to the bread dough.
• Altus intensifies the distinctive flavor of pumpernickel and rye bread and helps them retain moisture. When using altus, allow for a little extra flour in the recipe. The mash keeps well, covered, in the refrigerator.
• Common flour - called first clear or clear flour, must be obtained from a bakery. You can substitute 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour plus ¾ cup cake flour, but the bread won't taste as good. 2 cups Rye Sour can be used instead of 3 cups for a milder taste.
• Cornstarch solution is used before slashing the top of the bread and placing it in the oven. Bring 1 cup water to boil dissolve 2 tablespoons cornstarch in ¼ cup cold water; then whisk into the boiling water until it thickens. This solution may be kept for several days. For a high shine, brush a second time as soon as the bread emerges from the oven.

EASY RYE BREAD

Steps:

• Weigh out ingredients for the starter in your mixing bowl and whisk together. They should be the consistency of pancake batter.
• Measure out the remaining bread flour into the mixing bowl with starter (on top of starter).
• Make two wells in the dry bread flour, add the salt and caraway seeds in one, the yeast in the other.
• Place mixing bowl on its stand, cover (loosely with plastic wrap or a lid), and let ferment for 1-4 hours. The yeast will become active during this time.
• Measure out vegetable oil and reserve until ready for use.
• After the preliminary ferment, add oil to bowl and mix with a dough hook until a smooth, elastic dough ball is formed, about 5 minutes.
• Turn the dough out onto a greased countertop (olive oil or Pam Spray works well).
• Knead into a ball (1 minute) and place into a dough riser lightly coated with oil. Spray top of dough with oil, cover and let rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size*.
• Preheat oven with a pizza stone to 450°F Be sure that the stone and a cookie sheet (bottom shelf) are in the oven when you start pre-heating it.
• Turn bread dough out onto a lightly floured countertop and divide into two pieces.
• Form loaves and place them on a sheet of parchment paper that is roughly the same size as your pizza stone.
• Cover** and let rise for 45-60 minutes.
• After rising, slash the tops of the loaves using a serrated knife.
• Place the rolls in the oven using a pizza peel.*** At the same time, put a cup of ice on the cookie sheet to humidify your oven.
• Bake at 450 F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 400 F and continue baking for another 40 minutes. If your oven has a convection bake setting, switch to convection for the last 10 minute of baking.
• Cool on wire racks and enjoy!
• *If you are not ready to form the loaves after the first rise, you can punch the dough down and let it rise again until doubled in size. **I use a plastic storage container that is designed to store things under my bed. It is the perfect size and keeps my dough safe from cats, dogs and other critters. ***An inverted cookie tray works in a pinch. ****If smaller loaves are desired, divide dough into four pieces and reduce baking time by 10 minutes.

REBECCA'S JEWISH RYE BREAD

Steps:

• Place the ingredients in the above order in your machine (or in the order recommended by the manufacturer).
• I run my machine on "Basic", "Light Crust".