"Local Breads" - Polish Cottage Rye (Wiejski chelba)

This is the very last recipe in "Local Bread" which means I have made all the breads in the book - not bad considering the book is 327 pages long!  My intention was to blog about each bread, but some of the Italian breads I didn't particularly love (mostly because they were yeasted, and I'm really only interested in making sourdough bread), and consequently didn't write up, as the website I was initially using to post all my endeavours was really for sourdough bread only.  So maybe I might go back through and find the ones I didn't like and convert them to sourdough and see how they turn out.

So this polish rye.  I have just checked through my notebook, and it would seem I didn't make any notes whilst making this bread, and since I never seem to have enough time on the weekend I make the bread to write about it, and I made this one back in August, I can't remember a great deal!  Hopeless!

I've just turned the page in the book and have found I made my notes on the recipe page!  Doh!

STARTER:
This bread uses 380g of rye sourdough starter, which is a lot more than most breads use (generally about 150-200g starter for a couple of loaves), and Mr Leader does mention in his preamble to the recipe that he has included a 'build' step to increase the amount of rye sourdough, but unless I'm even more stupid than I've already made out above, I can't for the life of me find it in his recipe!  That notwithstanding, my notes indicate that I fed my fridge starter (about 60g) by adding 200g water and 200g fine rye flour to start this loaf off (at 3pm Saturday afternoon).  Enough for the recipe and some to put back in the fridge for next time.

Rye starter ready to roll!

DOUGH:
Sunday morning, I then used my nice bubbly rye starter (he is always SO very happy after being fed, bubbly, smelling wonderful, eager for business!) to make the bread:

380g starter after overnight feeding (put the remainder back in the fridge)
325g tepid water
500g bread flour
10g salt

Given the intro to this loaf said it was the darkest, most rustic of Polish rye breads, I was exceedingly surprised the dough did not contain any rye flour!  But follow the recipe I did.

I kneaded the dough using my Kitchen Aid on speed #4 for about 12mins.  I did stop and scrape down the hook a couple of times as it was a pretty sticky dough.  I also kept a careful eye on the machine as had just had my floor repaired from when it bounced off and broke a couple of my floor boards!  The KA was just fine, nothing broken, but the wooden floor clearly couldn't handle the beast falling on to it!

At 8.30am the dough was put in an oiled bowl and left to ferment at RT but in order to make my bread work around my day, I put the dough in the fridge at 10.30am so I could go out for a few hours.  At 3.00pm I removed it from the fridge, and let warm up at RT for another couple of hours.

SHAPING:
This is a very soft dough, light, springy and delicate - maybe because of the amount of rye starter used? 

I preshaped into one big round let rest for 15mins, then did my final shaping and placed it into my banetton, put the banetton inside a plastic bag and left at RT to proof.  And there my notes stop!  So I have no idea how long I let it proof for!?  I would imagine it was 1.5-2hrs, or until it had increased in size by at least 1.5times.  My rye starter has plenty of oompff, so sometimes it takes a little less time than this.  but if the dough was still relatively cool after its ferment in the fridge, it might have taken a little longer.

Dough proofed, ready to slash and bake

BAKING:
I have a clay tile in my oven, and my oven is very special needs and slow to heat up, so an hour before I'm ready to bake I turned the oven to 230°C to heat up.  This allows enough time for the stone to fully heat up.

I covered my bakers peel with a sheet of baking paper, placed this over the banetton and gently inverted the banetton to tip out the dough.  I slashed the loaf 5 times in a rough start pattern, and then slid it into the oven, along with a handful of ice cubes and baked for 50 mins until nice and golden brown (with a turn around at half time).

Baked loaf

 

Crumb shots

This was nice bread,  nothing startling, but nice.  I still think I prefer the Zitny chelba for flavour, despite the large amount of rye starter in this.  Maybe I would try swapping out some of the bread flour for rye in the dough to see how much that alters the taste.  Would definitely make again and will send to YeastSpotting!

Happiness is making bread!!
K.

 

 

 

"Local Breads" - Dark Silesian Rye (Chelba)

Despite it's name, this bread isn't all that dark or rye-y!  It definitely has more rye flour in it than the light version preceding it, but still . . .

STARTER:
100% rye starter fed as follows - 50g rye starter + 100g rye flour + 100g water, mixed together and left to ferment at RT for at least 12 hours.

Note: The rye flour used for this bread is all fine grade.

DOUGH:
My scales were on the blink when I went to make this bread, so sadly I had to make all my measurements but the cup, which was less than ideal, but worked out just fine.  It made me pay attention to how the dough felt, which was a good thing.

I used all but about 1/4c of my rye starter (200g), added in 1.5c (300g) tepid water and then mushed my starter into the water.  2.25c (350g) bread flour, 1c (150g) rye flour and 2 tsp salt.  Combined this altogether and let autolyse for about 1/2hr, then did my usual 10 kneads 3 times over 1/2-3/4hr (on an oiled bench).  It then fermented in an oiled bowl for 2.25hrs at RT.

SHAPING:
I was supposed to shape it into a round, but instead used my long banneton, as had decided to cut it in half and give it to a couple of my staff at work.  So shaped into a round first, then let rest, the shaped into a long baton and placed in my banneton that had been lightly coated with rye flour.  The banneton was them put inside a plastic bag and popped in the fridge (as I had plans for the early evening and wouldn't be home in time to bake it had I left it at RT).

Shaped and ready to proof

BAKING:
So the loaf proofed in the fridge for about3.5hrs then at RT for another hour before baking at 210C for 50mins.  As per the light Silesian rye, I was supposed to scatter this with caraway seeds prior to baking, then brush with water after baking, but I did neither of these.  I did however slash the loaf 5x horizontally prior to baking.

 

 Baked loaf

 

 

Crumb

 

I didn't get to taste this loaf as gave both halves away, but  both staff members did comment on how nice it was.  Who knows . . . . maybe they were just being polite?!  To be honest, I'm sure it was a perfectly nice loaf, maybe I'll make it again another day to try myself.





"Local Breads" - Light Silesian Rye (Chelba)

Now we're on to the final couple of loaves in Daniel Leader's book "Local Breads" and we're in Poland.  This loaf is traditionally scattered with caraway seeds, but the friends I was baking it for don't like them, so I left them out.  The recipe called for white rye flour, and the closest thing I could find is a very fine ground rye flour.  It is very light and mild in flavour, so I thought it would do the trick nicely.

STARTER:
Using 50g of the rye starter in my fridge I fed it with 100g of fine rye flour and 100g of water and let it ferment at RT for 24 hours.  The recipe calls for 200g of starter, but only gave you instructions to make 200g = nothing left for next time, so I upped the quantities to create an extra 50g for a rainy day!

DOUGH:
200g starter + 300g water + 500g bread flour + 10g salt (+ 5g instant yeast which I left out).  All of this mixed together (I always put in starter first, then mush it in with the water, flour on top, then salt last) until it formed a shaggy dough.  I let this sit for about 1/2hr to autolyse, then kneaded for about 10secs every 15mins 3 times (on oiled bench and put in an oiled bowl covered with a plastic bag in between).  It fermented in the bowl for another 2 hours with a fold after 1hr.

SHAPING:
The dough was divided into 2 equal portions and shaped into rounds then rolled into a sort of blunt ended bullet about 6 inches long with rounded ends.  These proofed in my "couche" in the fridge for a while, then on an ice pack in the back of the car (I was away for the weekend and visiting friends on the way to another friend for dinner, and didn't want to bake it until I got there!) and was finally baked about 4 hours later!

I was very nervous they were going to be over-proofed, but the looked just fine when I uncovered them - phew!

BAKING:
My friend had preheated her oven for me to 200C (no baking stone, but there was a heavy metal tray in the oven in its stead), and the loaves were baked for only about 30mins, although I would have needed 40mins in my oven.  Oh, I also slashed them with about 5 parallel cuts straight across the loaves.


Chelba baked

Theoretically prior to baking the loaves should have been brushed with water and sprinkled with caraway seeds - not this time for me though.  And also brushed again with water after baking to give a shiny crust . . . . yep you guessed it, I didn't do this either!

Allegedly they can be stored for about 5 days in a paper bag at RT, but these were eaten for dinner that very same evening! :)

As you would expect with a white loaf using rye starter, the flavour was very mild, and I have to say, I preferred the taste of the very similar Zitny Chelba I made the other weekend.

Chelba crumb