Adventures with Rye Part 3: Levy's Real Jewish Rye

It's be a long night. For some reason, I haven't been able to sleep well these past few nights. It might be either the heat or that I just have a lot of heavy thoughts weighing on my mind, but I can tell you that it's extremely frustrating. Consequently, I find myself trying to compensate during the day with naps which only makes this a vicious, vicious cycle. I'm willing to look past that just for today because I'm going to Jerusalem tonight to meet my best friend and her new husband (!!) for dinner and I know I'm going to come back delightfully wiped. In other news, the nine days of mourning that culminate with the fast over the destruction of the Temple has started which means no music, no laundry, and no meat. You know what that means: lots of pasta, pizza, and even more pasta. But if you're me, it also means freshly baked bread that's suitable with cream cheese. Fresh bread such as this magnificent loaf that I made from Rose's Bread Bible. In the spirit of trying my hand at rye, I made Levy's Real Jewish Rye, a loaf that for Rose is reminiscent of the ryes that she used to enjoy. As a youngin', I grew up far after that era of well made, flavorful loaves and I can't even remember liking the bread that they used to call rye as it was dry, floppy, flavorless and uninteresting. But this- this was amazing. It is really not difficult to prepare at all, the dough kneaded and handled well, and results in a delightful crust, crusty and chewy and nutty with a really nice sweetness to it. The excellent flavors was a result of my very wise decision to allow the sponge to rise at room temperature for a bit and then develop itself overnight in the fridge. The crumb had a really nice texture, dry-ish, in the way of hearth breads, which is much different from the sandwich bread, which was soft and squishy. My slashing technique has also improved some, and the slashes opened up really nicely and the loaf caramelized well also, which may or may not have to do with my use of malt powder. If I didn't have so many other recipes to try, including her pumpernickel, I would definitely make this again. I'm sure eventually though, I will. This post goes to this week's Yeastpotting.. check it out!

"Levy's" Real Jewish Rye
from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible

Flour Blanket:
351 grams bread or all purpose flour
2 grams instant yeast
14 grams whole caraway seeds
10.5 grams salt
6.7 grams vegetable oil

Sponge:
117 grams bread or all purpose flour
95 grams rye flour
1.6 grams instant yeast
18.7 grams sugar
4.6 grams malt powder
354 grams water
The evening before baking, place the dry flour blanket ingredients into a bowl or container. (If you're kneading by hand, reserve 1/4 cup of the flour for kneading.)Whisk to combine and set aside.In another bowl, place all of the dry sponge ingredients, whisk to combine.

Add the water,and whisk to form a smooth batter.Scoop the flour mixture evenly over the sponge. Set aside to rise for an hour at room temperature. At this point the sponge should be breaking through the blanket of flour. Place in the refrigerator to develop overnight.This is my overnight sponge. Although this isnt so accurate because it got knocked around in the fridge. So this is the saved sponge.When you're ready to make the dough, add the oil to the mixture and stir to make a shaggy dough.Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and need until a smooth dough forms. If you have resistance, allow to rest briefly before continuing. Place the dough into a greased bowl and allow to rise until doubled in size.My dough rose beautifully. When it has finished rising,give it a stretch and fold and allow it to rise again.Once again the dough rose beautifully. This heat does wonders for my yeast!Dust a baking sheet with cornmeal and form your dough into a boule. Set it on the baking sheet and allow to proof. While it is proofing, preheat your oven to 450. Insert a baking stone and another sheet pan for steam purposes to heat as well. Here is the proofed loaf.Slash the loaf as you wish and place it in the oven to bake. Toss in some ice cubes or boiling hot water to create steam. Bake for 15 minutes and then lower the temperature to 400 degrees. Continue baking for 30-40 minutes until the bread is golden brown and a thermometer registers about 190. (Halfway through the bake, you may remove the loaf from the pan and set it directly on the stone.) Remove from the oven and place on wire rack to cool. Enjoy in any number of ways!

Shabbat Dessert Roundup: Chocolate Chocolate Tart

I have a little thing for tarts. They are so elegant, so delicate looking, and so... French. So I constantly buy tart pans but have never had the excuse to use them. They sit lonely and unused in my cabinet. This weekend, I decided to put them to good use. I was going to make a tart. Instead, I ended up making two tarts. The first was a Bakewell tart, using the DB recipe, but I was really unhappy with its flavor so I'm not posting about it. For the second dessert, I had planned to make a black and white roulade- a white jelly roll and chocolate cream. The jelly roll recipe that I used was not as reliable as the last one I made and it flopped. Twice. So it was on to Plan B. Using the chocolate filling in a tart. Brilliant, huh? And a bit hit too, I might add. I poured the cream into a prebaked chocolate tart and voila! Chocolate Chocolate Tart. The cream is extremely easy to make, just melt the ingredients together and chill overnight. The tart dough comes together easily in a food processor. Rich, creamy and delicious, this tart is a winner. Just make sure to keep the tart in the freezer until serving so that the tart slices firmly and easily.

Chocolate Chocolate Tart
taken from different places

Chocolate Tart Dough:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
9 tbsp butter or margarine
cream as needed

Chocolate Filling:
3oo grams cream
300 grams bittersweet chocolate
100 grams butter or margarine
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
The night before planning on assembling the tart, make the cream by placing all of the ingredients in a pot.Place over medium low heat and cook until melted and smooth.Pour into a container and chill overnight.The next day, place all of the dry tart ingredients in the bowl of a food processor.Pulse to blend.Add the fat,and pulse until small pieces are formed.Add the cream in a bit at a time,and pulse until clumps of dough hold together. Adjust consistency as necessary.Remove the dough from the bowl and pour onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough briefly into a ball. Preheat the oven to 350.Crumble the dough and scatter it all around a nine inch tart pan.Press the dough in and up the sides of th e pan. Freeze for fifteen minutes to half hour. Press a greased piece of foil against the dough to fit the pan. Place in the oven and bake for fifteen to twenty minutes. When baked, remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack.Pour the chilled chocolate mixture into a bowl.With a hand mixer, beat until the mixture is nicely whipped. Pour the cream into the tart shell, and spread until smooth. Here is the lovely and decadent tart. Place a piece of plastic wrap over the tart and place in the freezer until ready to serve. Although you could serve this with some whipped cream, in this case it is truly unnecessary.

Peanut Butter Smoothies

What are girls to do when they're catching up on Mad Men without any popcorn?! Send me into the kitchen, of course, to whip up something much better than popcorn. Collecting ingredients from S's pantry and my own, we decided on these Peanut Butter Smoothies from my all time favorite cookie cookbook. These bars were really easy to whip up without any mixer at all and were ready in no time. They resulted in a nice, smooth, moist bar, where the peanut butter did not overwhelm at all and was in perfect sync with the chocolate chips. Of course, due to lack of patience, the S's and I enjoyed these bars quite... gooey. Quite perfect for a late night treat. Feel free though to bake these all the way through, they'd probably feel alot less decadent and less guilt inducing that way. One minor tip- the batter ends up pretty wet so be sure to use a small offset spatula to spread the batter into the pan.

Peanut Butter Smoothies
from the Cookie Companion

6 tbsp butter or margarine
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350. Line a 9x9 inch pan with parchment or grease it.
In a bowl, place the margarine or butter, peanut butter and sugars in a bowl.Beat until smooth and creamy.Add eggs one a time,blending well until smooth after each addition.Add the dry ingredients,and mix until smooth.Add the chocolate chips,and gently mix to combine. Spread the mixture into the prepared pan, taking care not to get on to the sides of the paper, lest they burn and stink up your oven. It happens. To me. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the edges just come away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven and cool completely before cutting. Enjoy with some gal pals!!

Adventures with Rye Part 2: Sandwich Rye Bread

My next experiment in rye-dom was this Sandwich Rye Bread from my go to book, the ultimate Baker's Companion (faithful readers will know which book I'm referring to). This is a straight loaf, requiring no starter, and is pretty simple to make. It calls for rye flours and caraway as well as pickle juice. Interesting, huh? The caraway contributed its signature "rye" flavor and a nice pretty appearance. Over all, this was a really, really yummy loaf with a nice, squishy sandwich loaf texture. It handled like a dream, which always makes me nervous when there's rye flour involved, and rose beautifully as well. The crust browned really nicely- all in all it was a picture perfect loaf that I'd make again. It was delicious with tuna fish--- I guess there's just something about rye and tuna. Another positive step in the right direction. Next time, we try rye with some sponge! Stay tuned!

Sandwich Rye Flour
adapted from KAF Baker's Companion

2 cups flour, bread or all purpose
1 1/3 cups rye flour
1 tbsp caraway seeds
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup dill pickle or sour pickle juice
1 cup water
Place all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl,and whisk to combine.In a liquid measuring cup, place the oil, pickle juice, and water.Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients,and stir to make a shaggy dough.Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface,and knead to make a firm, smooth but somewhat sticky dough.Place in a greased bowl and allow to rise at room temperature until doubled in size.My dough was a very fast riser. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface,and pat the dough into a rectangle.Shape into a sandwich loaf.Place in a lightly greased 8x4 inch loaf pan.Set aside to proof until the dough rises about an inch over the rim. When the dough is almost proofed, preheat the oven to 350. Bake the bread for about 35 minutes or until a thermometer registers 190 and the loaf is a deep golden brown.
Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!