66 Percent Rye Bread

This is the last of the 18 rye breads in Hamelman. And while I might be sadden that the challenge is nearing its end, finishing the rye breads came none to soon for me. This loaf was not, I regret, a spectacular success. Like too many of the rye loaves, it was a sad, heavy loaf with a coarse crust and a slightly dense crumb. Frankly, I must admit that I don't feel that I've truly mastered rye bread. My low percentage loaves have been fine, but the dense, high rye content breads simply don't appeal to me. When rye content goes above 50%, my interest in the loaf wanes.

This particular loaf fell neatly into this pattern of slightly dense crumb and coarse crust. There were no real problems or surprises with the loaf in that it behaved as many of the other loaves did. It was difficult to get it to pull together having a tendency to pool in the bottom of the mixer. When baked, it tended to break around rather than expand along the scoring. (I did try one experiment with this loaf that didn't really work. I used a template to add flour for a pattern and then tried to score across the pattern in a decorative way. This seems an interesting technique but it didn't work with this loaf. But it is something I'll try again with another bread.)

Not a bad bread, but not one I'll be in a hurry to repeat.