Cucumber Pickle Juice 40 Percent Rye

Cucumber Pickle Juice 40 Percent Rye

This is a bread I wanted to try ever since I first read about it on the Fresh Loaf Blogs, by baker txfarmer.  txfarmer claims that the original recipe comes from Dan Leopard's 'A Handmade Loaf'.  That is a book that sounds inventive and promising; I may have to purchase it.

I made a few changes: rather than bread flour, I used whole wheat flour.  I was thinking that this might change the hydration requirements drastically, but I kept it to 390g.  I only had about 375g of pickle juice: the rest of the volume was made up in water.  There were some garlic cloves in the pickle juice, and I kept those in, since I like garlic.  I only had dried dill, this time of year: I am told that one ought to use less of the dry than the fresh, but I kept the same amount as the recipe called for, 10g -- I'm not afraid to have this taste like dill, I like dill.  I also used 7.5g of instant yeast, instead of 3g.  I let the dough sit for 1 1/2 hours before the first stretch, rather than the way the recipe reads.  But it still got 3 stretch and folds before I set it to proof.  I didn't divide the dough, but made one tight, small loaf.  I proofed it 1 1/2 hours, letting it proof a full hour before I started to preheat the stone and the oven.

Ingredients:

Mis en place (almost): there is also salt required

• 300g whole wheat flour
• 200g rye flour, toasted 400 degrees F x 15 min.
• 10g dried dill
• 8g salt
• 7g instant yeast
• 390g dill pickle juice

Rye Flour Glaze:

• 19g rye flour (2.5 tbsp)
• 150g water

Method:

• Mix flour, dill and juice, autolyse x 40 min.
  
  
  
  
   Mixing the flours and the dill
  
  
  
   Before Autolyse
  
   After Autolyse
• Add yeast, salt, knead briefly.
  
  
  
  
   First I kneaded the yeast in, then I kneaded the salt in
  
   Make a boule with the envelope method
  
   And let it bulk ferment for about 2 hours
  
  
• Bulk rise x 2 hrs, stretch and fold every 30 minutes 3x
  
   
  
  
   Every 30 minutes, flatten it out...
  
  
  
  ...and fold like an envelope
  
   Make another boule....
  
  
  
   And let it rest another 30 minutes.
• Shape into a batard, proof 1 1/2 hours.
• Score it, paint with water.
• Bake at 430 degrees F x 10 minutes, then 410 degrees F x 43 min
• While baking, boil the glaze while stirring, then let cool.
• During the last 15 minutes of the bake, apply the rye flour glaze. 

 Sort of a batard shape.  As tight as I dare, without ripping the gluten cloak

 Before proofing

 Proofed

 Upended loaf on the edge of the pizza peel: I'd brush off most of this flour before baking

 Scored loaf

 I brushed the scored loaf with water just before putting it in the oven

Results

 Applying the glaze

This bread opened up a fistula where it had been scored, and then just kept opening up until it got really ugly.

The bread tastes good.  It has got some bite to it, in a pickley kind of way.  I think that it is the garlic: once in a while you get a nice chunk of it in the crumb.   The top, however, tears a bit when you slice it, and makes it difficult to cut evenly.  I suppose that this dough needed to be wetter, and needed to be folded more gently.  And it probably should have done the final proof a full 2 hours.

I like this bread.

 Notes to Myself

• This dough smells great, fermenting -- if you like dill pickles (and I do).
• I didn't honestly see much rise in the dough during the fermenting stages, and wonder if my yeast is a bit old and sad.  The dough did relax though.
• In the oven, the bread sort of unfolded, the crevasses on the crust just deepened and deepened until the bread sort of popped open.  This is not oven spring, this is an error.
• Next time, try more hydration.  Do the stretch and fold in the bowl with a spatula, i.e. more gently.  Let the dough sit for a full 2 hours during the final proof.