Rye Bread Attempt #1

There are a few things that I really want to get away from buying at the store, and instead make on my own; one of them is bread.

I love a good rye bread, and while most recipes I've looked at also call for bread flour to be added in the mix, I went with tapioca flour so that Rhi (gluten allergy) could also eat it. Rye is a bit of a gamble since it is wheat free, but not gluten free. Rhi has eaten rye pasta before which didn't trigger her allergy  but unfortunately this bread did.

En tout cas, I'm still going to be experimenting with rye flour but will have to enjoy it alone, and I'll also be looking into a blend of confirmed gluten friendly flours in the future.

Note: I'm not using exact measurements because I want to get the feel for the process. When I follow a recipe, I usually get a good (debatable) result, but I don't learn much beyond that. I want to know what the dough feels like when its too dry, too wet, too dense, too fragile, and hopefully eventually, just right. It should be noted I'm not expecting much in the way of a positive result for this attempt.

Ingredients:

- Yeast
- Rye flour
- Tapioca flour
- Salt
- Olive oil
- Molasses
- Water

Directions: (loosely based off reoccurring themes in various recipes I've found)

Terrible dense dough added to reference
for next time.

- Combine rye flour, water and a small portion of the yeast into a bowl and let sit at room temperature covered for ~ 8 hours.

- Add rest of yeast, other flour, salt, molasses and knead away.

- Form into a ball, add some olive oil and let sit at room temperature covered for an hour.

- Pre-heat over to 350F

- On a floured work surface, kneed the dough, form into whatever shape you're going for. Let it rest covered for another 30-40 min while the oven pre-heats.

- Slash the dough a couple times and then bake until done.

Result:

I'm not calling this a complete disaster but only because it was the first attempt. It was edible, but pretty dough-y and dense in the middle. I could tell right off the bat that the dough was too dense while I was kneading it. Probably the result of having to add more flour to adapt my original dough, and not allowing the yeast mix to sit long enough (8 hours was on the short end, most recipes suggested over night).

My theory is if there was a more modest flour:yeast ratio and I allowed the yeast to culture more, the dough would have a greater porosity and ending up more fluffy and bread-like. I also think an increase porosity would allow more hot air from the oven to penetrate the bread and dry out that "dough-y" centre.

We'll see next time I guess.