Loaf 13: rye

This is Loaf 13 of 16, and the one thing that changed from Loaf 12 is the flour: 280 g of the wheat becomes whole rye, which is 70% of the total flour.

Water does not move, so hydration stays at 70%. The starter stays wheat-fed, which is exactly what keeps rye at 70% of the flour and not a gram more. One change, as always.

The frozen four

Four things have not moved since Loaf 1 and they do not move here: 400 g flour, 8 g salt (2%), one 9 x 5 inch (23 x 13 cm) loaf pan, and an oven at 375°F / 190°C. Every baker's percentage below is a percentage of that 400 g of total flour, including the flour that arrives inside the starter.

The formula

Frozen: 400 g flour · 8 g salt (2%) · 9 × 5 in pan · 375°F / 190°C · Hydration: 70% (280 g water on 400 g flour)

The method

1. Feed your starter and wait for it to peak, 4 to 6 hours at 75°F / 24°C.
2. Mix everything to no dry flour, 3 minutes with a wet spoon. It is a thick, sticky paste rather than a dough, and it will not smooth out.
3. Two gentle sets of folds in the first hour, with a very wet hand. Rye tears, so be slow.
4. Bulk at 75°F / 24°C, 3 to 4 hours, to the gate below. Much faster than Loaf 12.
5. Wet your hands, press it into the pan, smooth the top with a wet spoon.
6. Fridge at 38 to 40°F / 3 to 4°C for 12 hours, then bake from cold at 375°F / 190°C, 55 to 65 minutes.
7. Cool completely, then wrap and rest a full day at room temperature before slicing. Rye's crumb sets as it cools and it is not finished when it leaves the oven.

Why this works

Rye cannot make gluten. That is the whole lesson in one sentence, and everything strange about this loaf follows from it.

Wheat has two proteins, gliadin and glutenin, that link into a continuous elastic network once they are wet and worked. Rye's equivalent proteins are called secalins, and they simply do not do that (American Society of Baking). There is no network to build, so there is nothing for your hands to build it with.

Worse, rye brings a second group of molecules that gets in the way. Its arabinoxylans, also called pentosans, make up 6.5 to 12.2% of the grain, and they grab the water and hold onto it instead of letting the proteins organise. Structure in a rye loaf comes from gelatinised starch and from those water-binding pentosans, not from a protein web (review of rye constituents and processing).

So the paste never smooths out. Nothing you do with your hands helps. The loaf will be dense and moist, and that is correct, not a failure. This is also why the two sets of folds in the method are described as gentle: you are not developing anything, you are just making sure the flour is evenly wet.

How you know it's ready

Look at the surface, not at the clock. The paste is bubbled all over and has gone from matte to glossy, and it has risen by about a quarter to a third. That is 3 to 4 hours at 75°F / 24°C in a typical kitchen, and the time is context for the look, never the instruction.

Rye never doubles. Waiting for it to double is the single most common way to ruin this loaf, because while you wait, the failure below is happening.

Bake to an internal 205 to 210°F / 96 to 99°C. On rye, the thermometer earns its place.

What goes wrong

The failure mode this loaf introduces is starch attack, which shows up as a gummy layer through the middle of the crumb and a hollow gap under the top crust. Rye bakers call that gap a flying roof.

One cause: rye's amylase ran unchecked because the dough was not acidic enough. Amylase is an enzyme that chops starch into sugars, it is most active between pH 5.5 and 4.5, and the heat of the oven accelerates it, so it spends the first stretch of the bake dismantling the very starch that was holding the loaf up (Wordloaf on pH and sourdough).

The fix is a genuinely ripe, sour starter and a full bulk. Acidity is the brake. Not more flour, not a hotter oven, not a longer bake.

When it worked

A dense, close, moist crumb, dark and almost sweet, with a hard thin crust. It slices thin, it tastes strongly of the grain, and it keeps for a week.

If you cut it warm it will read as gummy even when it is perfect, which is why the rest is part of the recipe and not a suggestion. Wrap it, walk away, slice it tomorrow.

Bake it twice successfully before moving on to Loaf 14. One good loaf is luck, and two is a skill.