Macheesmo

I got talked into baking something for Yeastspotting this week by my friend Nick over at Imafoodblog. Ok. So it wasn’t that hard to talk me into it. In fact, all he had to do was ask me if I wanted to submit something because, well, I like to bake.

The only real requirement for yeastspotting is that you have to make something with – you guessed it – yeast.

And so I made this pretty cool looking marbled rye loaf.

I had never made a rye bread before and I had absolutely no idea how to make the light or the dark version of the breads. Turns out that it has to do a lot with these odd ingredients – none of which I normally associate with bread.

Marble Rye Bread

by Nick

Serves:

1 loaf

Prep Time:

20 mins

Total Time:

4 hrs

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From The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

Ingredients

Light Rye Dough:

3 ounces white rye flour (3/4 Cups) - You can find this stuff at gourmet stores like Whole Foods.

6.75 ounces bread flour (1.5 Cups)

1 Teaspoon kosher salt

Scant Teaspoon instant yeast

3/4 Teaspoons Caraway seeds (optional)

1 1/2 Teaspoons molasses

1 Tablespoon shortening

1/2 Cup + 2 Tablespoons (5.5 ounces) water at room Temp

Dark Rye Dough:

One batch of light rye dough

2 Tablespoons cocoa powder, coffee powder, or liquid caramel coloring

1 egg for egg wash

Instructions

1) Mix together the flours, salt, yeast, caraway, and dark stuff (cocoa powder).

2) Mix in the shortening with your fingers and then add the molasses and water

3) Turn the ball out onto a lightly floured table and knead each ball for about 5 minutes until it is a little tacky but not sticky.

4) Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl (vegetable oil is fine) and turn the dough to coat it on all sides. Cover it and let both dough balls rise for about 90 minutes.

5) After the 90 minutes, punch down each ball of dough, and cut each ball in half so you have four dough balls of roughly the same size.

6) Loosely roll each ball into a sheet about 8 inches by 4 inches in size.

7) Stack up the layers evenly: Light, dark, light, dark.

8) Form a basic batard with the dough. Start at one long end and roll the dough up. Right before you get to the other end, when there is maybe 1/2 inch of dough left, seal the dough by pressing it into itself. Then keep rolling the dough a bit until it is an evenly shaped loaf that fits nicely into the lightly oiled baking pan. The final seam should be down.

9) Cover the dough in a pan and let it rise for 60 – 80 minutes.

10) Make a simple egg wash (1 egg + 1 Tablespoon water) and brush it onto the top of the loaf.

11) Cook it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Halfway through the cooking, turn the pan 180 degrees.

12) Transfer right away to a cooling rack when done. After 10 minutes or so you should be able to remove the loaf from the pan and let it finish cooling on the rack.

13) Let the loaf cool for about 2 hours before slicing it. It needs that long to cool completely.

Making the doughs

Pulling the doughs together is pretty straightforward. Mix together the flours, salt, yeast, caraway, and dark stuff (cocoa powder is what I used) if you are making the dark version. And yes, you have to make both. At least if you want it to look awesome.

The caraway seeds are a bit scary, but just do it.

Mix in the shortening with your fingers and then add the molasses and water. For both versions of the dough, you’ll end up with a pretty solid dough. Turn the ball out onto a lightly floured table and knead each ball for about 5 minutes until it is a little tacky but not sticky.

This dough will not be able to pass the windowpane test, so don’t even try. Just to much stuff in there. After you knead if for about 5 minutes it should be a fairly smooth ball and then you are all set. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl (vegetable oil is fine) and turn the dough to coat it on all sides. Then cover it and let both dough balls rise for about 90 minutes.

Ideally, these would rise for the same amount of time, but that is pretty much impossible since you have to make one at a time…. unless you have a kitchen helper. Then you can do both at the same time!

Forming the loaf

After the 90 minutes, punch down each ball of dough, and cut each ball in half so you have four dough balls of roughly the same size.

Then loosely roll each ball into a sheet about 8 inches by 4 inches in size. Should be pretty easy to shape.

Then stack up your layers evenly: Light, dark, light, dark. Easy enough!

After you have the layers stacked up, you need to form a basic batard with the dough. I didn’t really take a photo of this, but basically, just start at one long end and roll the dough up. Right before you get to the other end, when there is maybe 1/2 inch of dough left, seal the dough by pressing it into itself. Then keep rolling the dough a bit until it is an evenly shaped loaf that fits nicely into your lightly oiled baking pan. The final seam should be down.

If that didn’t make sense, check out this page on forming a batard.

Second Fermentation

After the dough is in your pan, it needs to rise a second time. This time for probably 60-80 minutes. Cover the dough and let it do its thing.

It’s okay if your dough rips a bit on top like mine did below. What this means is that basically you didn’t have exactly the same consistency between your dark and light layers so one is rising faster than the other. It’s pretty hard to get them perfect, and unless they are way different, you won’t be able to really tell in the final product.

Don’t stress out if your final loaf looks like this.

Cooking the loaf

Make a simple egg wash (1 egg + 1 Tablespoon water) and brush it onto the top of your loaf. Then cook it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Halfway through the cooking, turn your loaf 180 degrees to make sure it cooks evenly.

This should be your result which you should transfer right away to a cooling rack.

After 10 minutes or so you should be able to remove the loaf from the pan and let it finish cooling on the rack. Seriously, let the loaf cool for about 2 hours before slicing it. It needs that long to cool completely.

Then slice it up!

This stuff makes really awesome sandwiches with a good spicy mustard. It makes okay toast, but the best use I’ve found for it so far is spicy sandwiches. Absolutely awesome. After it cools you can store it in a plastic bag for at least a week in the fridge, probably longer if it lasts that long…