What's loaf?
(Got to do, got to do with it, babe)

For this loaf I have chosen to run out of Bread Flour. I had approximately 150 g bread flour, so I decided to make a “rye” bread. Rin has said that when people hear “rye” bread their mental image is a bread with caraway seeds, and I believe this analysis. I did not think I had caraway seeds (I did, I only discovered too late and after buying more at the store for the next “rye” loaf), so I made a “rye” loaf that people would not immediately recognize as rye.

I started the levain at 9:30 pm the night before and at 8:30 am the next day I mixed the water (~95°) with the three flours. The auto-lyse looked more like a paste than anything, both with the high water absorbing nature of the rye and general gray aesthetic, I stuck with 80% hydration but might pump it up for the next rye. I contacted Rin about this bread flour predicament and he told me to add 1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast (ADY) when I added the levain. I let the auto-lyse run for two hours and forty five minutes because of the high whole wheat and rye content, and mixed the levain, auto-lyse, ADY, and salt at 11:15 am. I kept the dough in the oven with the light on, folding four times, once every half hour for the first two hours. The dough stayed around 70°.

At 8 pm I turned and folded the dough and put it in a banneton overnight. I heated the oven to 550° with the dutch oven inside and baked the loaf at 475° for 25 minutes lid on and another 25 minutes lid off, using parchment paper for the dough to sit on and razor. The parchment paper really helps with scoring, allowing me to lift the dough up and set it in the dutch oven with relative ease. I have tried transferring the dough by banneton into the dutch oven that’s been heated to 550° and reaching awkwardly inside to score the dough, this is not a method I like. I have not tried pouring the dough out of the banneton and scoring it then placing it by hand in the dutch oven because this strikes me as a dangerous and stupid idea, but I could be wrong, though I have done many dangerous and stupid things in my life so I believe I have some insight in that department.

The dough had a nice rise, I believe the ADY helped a bit, and good taste, even absent the caraway, yet the crumb was again, rather regular.

Dough
150 g bread flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
250 g whole wheat flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
100 g rye flour (Bob’s Red Mill Organic)
400 g h2o
80% hydration
10 g salt
1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast

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

What I did right:
Despite stumbling into it, my first loaf with only 30% bread flour turned out well.
What I did wrong:
Still a super regular crumb, and after talking to Rin about methods, I have not been resting my dough after turning it. He normally rests his dough for about 15 minutes after turning it, and before folding.
What I learned:
I could probably up the hydration with a rye loaf, and that next time I make a rye loaf, I should do a little homework in advance to get the right hydration amount and auto-lyse.