Onion Caraway Recipe

[sourherbie]

Hi all, hoping for a little help.
I'm very new to sourdough bread making, but my starter is bubbling and seems very happy and I've made a couple successful loaves so far. However,I followed the onion caraway 100% rye sourdough recipe EXACTLY as written in Wild Fermentation and could NOT get it to cook all the way! It cooked for about 3 hours and is STILL gooey in the middle. I'm not sure what to do/what I did wrong? any suggestions? I put it into 2 loaf pans as instructed. My one thought was that even though I used the 8 cups of flour I should've added a little more? It was getting hard to mix with a wooden spoon but maybe could've been a little stiffer? I'm not sure...any thoughts?

[flanksteak]

Hey there! From what I heard, the bread recipes in the Wild Fermentation book weren't all that great--I recall because I wanted to try one but somewhere someone discouraged me from trying, claiming the bread was more of a brick than something to eat. Regardless--- breads made with fairly high percentages of rye are just really wet! I have tried twice now with a 100% rye bread recipe that I bake in a hot dutch oven, and just tonight hacked it all up and made crackers out of it because it was just too gummy, bleh. The rye pulls in moisture from the air as you age it--they say not to even cut in to a rye loaf after 3 or 4 days, the Finns wouldn't even touch them for about 2 weeks and would leave them hanging in the barn. What they did, and what I think is really the only thing one can do with a very rye loaf, is have a really flat loaf. Theirs looked like a rolled disk with a hole in the middle. So, I would say, maybe try the recipe free form on a sheet or baking stone, or find a recipe that calls for more wheat---But I would not add more flour to a recipe, that just makes for incredibly dense and hard/dry loaves. Most of the best breads have a higher hydration percentage, the standard usually somewhere around at least 67-70%. Hope this helped!

[Tibor]

Hey Sourherbie, That recipe is delicious! Don't get discouraged ! I'm wondering if you carmelized the onions long enough to reduce the water content.The onions really do alot for the flavor of the bread.
I had to tinker a bit to get it just right. Like you, it was coming out too moist at first.What I realized was that Sandor's starter was dryer than mine and I had needed to add 9 cups of flour and it was still too moist after 2 1/2 hours baking. So I've thickened up my starter and do the first sponge for 14 hrs.(8am-10pm) then add the rest of the the rye.I end up using about 8 1/4 cups + total and make it kinda REALLY hard to stir.I leave it overnight .In the morning when I transfer it into the loaf pans it still takes wet hands and is still sticky but manageable. Takes 2 1/2 hours or so for me. when it's cool it is hard as a rock but after a couple of days in a plastic bag it is perfect.Like Sandor says,it'll last for weeks so it's basically curing(some people refer to it as "resting") for the first couple of days.The best bread in my opinion. I don't care for caraway so I skip it. If it is still a little moist throw the slice in the toaster. Hope this helps.