Caraway, my wayward son

As Rin says, when most people hear ‘rye bread’, they think caraway seeds. Rye is much easier to differentiate in whiskey than it is in bread, tasting (to those such as myself who are not bread sommelier’s) not so much different from “normal” bread. In this spirit, I made a rye bread with caraway seeds, so that when people asked me “Oh is this rye bread?” and I could respond “Why yes it is.”

I mixed the caraway seeds into the flour and added warm water (~95°) then auto-lysed the dough for two hours, though I wanted to do it for more, the levain was already ready when I started the auto-lyse and I didn’t want to push my luck. After two hours I mixed the levain and the dough and salt, stirred, folded, and set in the oven. Repeating the process of oven light + heating to 350° for two minutes every few hours kept the dough warm and expedited the bulk proof. I did not, however, cool the dough before turned and folded the dough, the hydration being at 85% with 9% rye made the loaf much more manageable. I ran the final prove for an hour at room temperature, baked it for 25 minutes top on, 25 minutes top off.

Dough
300 g bread flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
200 g whole wheat flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
50 g rye flour (Bob’s Red Mill Organic)
425 g h2o
82% hydration
10 g salt

Levain
10 g starter
50 g all purpose flour (Kirkland Brand Organic)
50 g water

What I did right:
I produced yet another serviceable loaf with decently regular yet open crumb with nice caramelization on the outside.
What I did wrong:
I’m still doing poorly with the shaping, and as I admitted, I could have chilled this loaf, yet I didn’t, also, I’ve not been cutting very well with the razor I have, I need to watch a video or two to see the technique as the finish on this loaf leaves a bit to be desired.
What I learned:
The bread is tasty, but 10 g caraway seeds did not impart a strong flavor, not that I mind it, but I could add more, maybe even 1.5x, I think, maybe double. I didn’t look up the ratio, but that would have been a smart thing to do, instead of just guessing and hoping.