Swiss Rye Ring with the Bread Baking Babes

This month our lovely Babe Cathy from Bread Experience invites us all to gather around the kitchen table and bake a complex and delicious rye bread that is formed into a wreath shape. This one takes a bit of planning because you need to make a sourdough sponge with rye and a firmer poolish with wheat. It also requires an agile mind and attention to detail as you add flour, to know when the dough is stiff enough, but not too stiff.

Mine seemed very stiff when I made the dough, but when I shaped it and let it rise, it slumped down and spread out, so I had a wide, thin ring of delicious rye bread with a nice, tight crumb and a delightful crust and chewy texture. It's possible that I let it over proof, too. My days have been packed and I might have let it sit just a little too long before baking it. The docking didn't help, knocking some of the air that was left right out of it. Perhaps the docking should happen before rising??

Do try this bread. Your's will probably be higher and nicer than mine and even if it droops like mine, the taste and chew make it an adorable bread to eat. So far I've just cut a slice or two and buttered them to go with soup or salad, but I think I'll be trying slices with salami and with sardines, too.

To become a Buddy, bake the bread, take a photo, and email Cathy with a short description of your baking experience (couldn't resist) and the photo. She will send you a badge and include you in the round-up. Deadline to get it to her is Sept. 29th.

Be sure to check out the other Babes this month to see how their ring turned out!

Swiss Rye Ring/Brasciadela/Kantonsbrot Graubünden

By Stanley Ginsberg http://theryebaker.com/swiss-rye-ring/#more-335 

Rye %:	69%
Stages:	Rye sponge, Wheat poolish, Final dough
Leaven:	Rye sour culture, Instant yeast
Start to Finish:	13-15 hours
Hands-on Time:	30-35 minutes
Yield:	Two 1¼ lb. (575 g.) loaves

Graubünden is Switzerland’s largest canton, extending eastward between Austria to the north and Italy to the south. It’s also Switzerland’s most mountainous canton, home to several glaciers, as well as the 11,853-foot Tödi and 13,284 foot Piz Bernina. Not surprising, then, that its bread culture is based on rye. Like the circular breads of Scandinavia, Brasciadela’s ring shape made it easy to store the breads on poles hung from the ceiling during the long Alpine winter.

I adapted this bread from a recipe I found in the wonderful blog Bernd’s Bakery, which is written by a Bavarian baker who lives in northern Switzerland and who generously has shared his collection of traditional Swiss breads. The original recipe calls for Type 1150 rye, a medium-light grade that’s unavailable in the US; instead, I used a blend of white and medium rye that produces a virtually identical composition.

Like many Alpine breads, this one is built on two sponges – a low-hydration sour rye sponge that favors acetic acid formation and a high-extraction wheat flour poolish that’s refrigerated overnight to bring out the wheat’s nutty sweetness. The preparation and baking are straightforward and the result is a smooth, tight crumbed loaf that combines the tang of its sour, the spiciness of rye, and the mellowness of a well-matured wheat sponge. This is a tasty and basic all-around rye-wheat mischbrot, as good with butter and fruit preserves as with strong-flavored cured meats and fish.

Rye Sponge:

Ingredient	Grams	Ounces	Baker’s Percentage
Medium rye flour	300	10.60	100%
Warm (105°F/41°C) water	200	7.05	67%
Rye sour culture	20	0.70	7%

Combine the sponge ingredients by hand into a stiff dough, cover and ferment at room temperature (70°F/21°C) until doubled in volume 10-12 hours or overnight.

Wheat Poolish:

Ingredient	Grams	Ounces	Baker’s Percentage
First clear flour	200	7.05	100%
Cold water	200	7.05	100%
Instant yeast	8	0.30	4%

Mix the poolish ingredients by hand, cover and refrigerate 10-12 hours or overnight.

Final Dough:

Ingredient	Grams	Ounces
Rye sponge	520	18.35
Wheat poolish	408	14.40
Medium rye flour	110	3.88
White rye flour	210	7.41
First clear flour	82	2.89
Warm (105°F/41°C) water	170	6.00
Salt	20	0.71

In the mixer, combine the final dough ingredients and use the dough hook at low (KA2) speed to mix into a stiff, slightly sticky dough that leaves the sides of the bowl and gathers around the hook, 6-8 minutes. Cover the dough and bulk ferment at room temperature until doubled in volume, 60-75 minutes.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and divide it into two pieces weighing about 26 oz./750 g each. Form each piece into an oblong about 18 inches/45 cm long and 2 inches/5 cm in diameter. Shape each into a ring, wetting the ends to seal, and place on a well-floured peel, if using a baking stone, or parchment-lined sheet pan.

Cover and proof at room temperature until the breads have visibly expanded and surface shows cracks or broken bubbles.

Preheat the oven to 480°F/250°C with the baking surface in the middle and a steam pan on a lower shelf. Dock the surface of each loaf thoroughly and evenly to a depth of at least ¼”/0.6 cm. with a fork, chopstick or docking wheel.

Bake with steam 15 minutes, then remove the steam pan, reduce the temperature to 410°F/210°C and bake until the loaves thump when tapped with a finger and the internal temperature is at least 198°F/92°C, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool thoroughly before slicing.

 Baker’s Percentages:

Ingredient	g	%
TOTAL FLOUR	902	100.00%
Medium rye flour	410	45.45%
First clear flour	282	31.26%
White rye flour	210	23.28%
Water	570	63.19%
Salt	20	2.22%
Instant yeast	8	0.89%
Rye sour culture	20	2.22%
TOTAL FORMULA	1,520	168.51%
% total flour prefermented	500	55.43%
% rye flour prefermented	300	33.26%
% wheat flour prefermented	200	22.17%