Caraway and Rye Rolls

 Of the two breads included in this post, I'm more excited with the second, the caraway and rye rolls. This first bread isn't bad but its more a testament to my luck in recognizing an error and then adjusting for my mistake. I simply added too much water for the final mix because I forgot to write down my planned formula before baking. This has happened before and it'll happen again. It's good thing I'm not trying to make money at this.      

Starter
150 g at 80% hydration

Soaker
48 g nine grain cereal
51 g water

 Main Dough
300 g bread flour
90 stone ground whole wheat
260 g water at 85F
9 g kosher salt
All of starter
All of soaker

I'm pleased with how my caraway and rye rolls turned out. They're a formula that I've developed for my upcoming bread class for the Kansas State Extension Service. I scaled out these rolls to 180-185 g before baking. They are big but just big enough for the rather large hamburger patties I like to grill. Even better than that, they didn't fall apart while we were eating our sandwiches. My yield was four of these large rolls  but the next batch will be set up to yield six 150 g rolls which should be closer to the "normal" size hamburger roll. The pepper in the photo is a "Jimmy Nardello", an Italian frying pepper. The tomatoes are San Marzano.

Preferment
70 g whole rye flour
48 g water at 85F
<1/8 tsp active dry yeast
This all rye preferment didn't expand very much. One way to judge its growth would have been to sprinkle rye flour over the top and observe the preferment cracking open the flour. I just let it set undisturbed at room temperature for about eight hours. When I lifted the plastic wrap covering, it was making a continuous sizzling sound much like Rice Krispies cereal working double time in a bowl of milk.

Main dough
360 g bread flour
240 g water at 90F
9 g kosher salt
6 g caraway seeds
1/2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 Tbs honey
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
All of preferment.

The resultant dough was a bit sticky but not trauma inducing sticky. The bulk ferment, with two stretch and folds at 30 and 60 minutes, took about two hours to double in size. After dividing and shaping the rolls, they were proofed for an hour under an oiled plastic wrap cover. Baking was done at 400F for 28 minutes on a preheated baking stone.

Our summer time heat is almost over. We just opened up the house windows in anticipation of much cooler weather over the weekend. I'm still hoping for more rain to ease the removal of the weeds and tree saplings that have taken root over the summer when I wasn't looking. There are still some cucumbers growing and a more than adequate supply of tomatoes for the next few weeks at least. The chile peppers didn't do much this year but, as in baseball, there's always next year.

In closing, I'd like to note the passing of Gary W. Sherman of New Bedford, MA, a college classmate and roommate at Fitchburg State College, Fitchburg, MA. Gary was an admirably cheerful man who married his high school sweet heart Jeanne and together they raised four children and became grandparents to three. Gary was also fortunate enough to put his college education to good use as an Elementary Education grades teacher over his entire career. As if all that wasn't enough to keep him busy, he also volunteered his time for his church and an outreach ministry. While he never achieved front page fame and international notoriety, he was a connoisseur of the occasional fine cigar, a good man, fine friend, and considered a friend by many over his lifetime. That's a good track record by my accounting.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.