Crumbs!

I'm famous! No nothing to do with the BlogHer do that all the big bloggers are going to, I am but a small speck in that world. This is strictly local fame. I have a loaf of bread that bears my name. Our local Camphill Village bakery, where I go to buy my rye flour, have started baking a new loaf of bread called Kit Bread!

This was after the baker, Henk, asked what I was doing with all the rye flour I kept buying from them (I go through about 5kilos/11lbs of flour a month, just keeping our family in rye bread) . When I said I was baking bread, he riposted that I should be buying theirs.
"But my kids don't like your rye bread. The 100% rye is too sour doughey and the light rye has yukky caraway in it..."

So I gave him a run down on my recipe for Rye Bread.

The upshot of this was that when I stopped by to pick up a new supply of rye flour yesterday, tentatively taking a sample few slices of my bread (after all this is a professional I'm taking my home-made loaf to), I found them baking their second batch of Kit Bread for the village. He was really happy to have found a rye bread recipe that kids and villagers alike will eat. I was well chuffed with my place in posterity and with the supply of flour he gave me in lieu of royalties!

We compared notes, as he'd experimented from his memory of my vague list of ingredients. His had no oil and slightly less honey than mine. I got a loaf to take home and try out on the kids. It was much looser textured than mine, which made it quite crumbly while new and warm from the oven. It firmed up a bit by the next day though. The family all liked it....better than mine, I'm sorry to say.

So now I'm on my mettle. I have to experiment a bit more myself with my recipe, to get it a bit more light and fluffy, without losing the substance and chew that I like. First try today I cut down on the oil I use by half, as Henk said that oil slows down the yeast action, as does honey. The loaves did rise a lot more in the oven, cracking at the side a fair bit and it did give a looser textured crumb, so maybe we're onto something here. Meanwhile I'm learning a bit more of the science of baking from him, rather than my normal hit or miss approach of never two loaves alike. (I exaggerate, but sometimes I get a really nice well-risen loaf and have no idea what I did different - there are so many variables with bread - yeast, room temperature etc). Now I'm a woman with a mission - a quest for the perfect loaf of rye bread.

By the way that pic at the top of my blog is a nice warm and fuzzy shot of my rye bread.

Could you send some of your excess of summer over here please, all you Northern Hemispherites sweltering in the heat...we have cold rain here and snow on the mountains, so it is chilly! Better for baking though. I'll swap a handful of mountain snow for a dollop of sunshine if anyone is on?!