60% Rye with Coffee Hydration

60% Rye 40% WW loaf made with coffee, malt, and boiled rye kernels

Just like it says. 

It is a sourdough, made with a rye starter.

The liquid was mostly coffee: I asked for the darkest roast that the coffee shop had, and allowed it to cool to room temperature.  To bring the hydration up to 60%, I added a bit of water.  Another 100g of hydration in the form of 1/2 liquid malt, 1/2 water was added when I added the salt.

the starter

the coffee

cup of rye kernels, before boiling

some malt, some water

I wanted a dark, dense loaf, sort of vollkornlich. 

I did fold it about 3 times, once after adding the salt, once to add the rye kernels, and then once more before dividing.

Dough went into a buttered tin and it was allowed to rise 5 hours.  Just before putting into the oven, I painted the top with egg white and tossed a tiny bit of turbinado sugar on it.  I scored it and baked it with steam.

Results
Not quite what I wanted.  I wanted a rich, dark loaf that had lots of chew, some coffee-like bitterness, and tons of flavour.  What I got -- what I often seem to get when I bake these denser ryes -- is a bread that is overly moist inside.  The knife drags through.  I keep wondering how bakers achieve a dark, dense crumb.  Is it from extremely long bakes, at low temperatures?  I want something like pumpernickel, but a bit less bitter.  My crumb is not dark enough, too wet, not quite right.

This bread is only mildly coffee-flavoured.

Just before posting this, I see that Nils Schöner is experimenting with bread again.  His "first attempt" at  the Russian Black Borodinsky Bread is closer to what I am trying to do I think.  But Nils is more careful than I am: he only published a tantalizing picture of a piece of bread.  I assume that he feels he hasn't perfected his recipe, so he does not yet give it to us.  I'll have to keep careful watch.

Meanwhile, having to look elsewhere for the recipe, I find The Fresh Loaf blogs have a forum for the Borodinsky bread, with several variations.  One variation suggests a very high initial temperature, then a long bake at low temperatures.  I'll have to look into this some more.  In the meantime, I have a lot of 60% Coffee-flavoured rye loaf to get through.  Perhaps some of it will end up as altus in another bread…

Notes to Myself

• Look into the Borodinsky Bread to see if this is the sort of loaf you want.
• The Turbinado sugar on top of the loaf turned it a rich, bittersweet dark brown, and that is sort of the taste I was going for throughout.  Is it possible that the dough itself requires more sugar, or more roasted flavours?
• Try boiling and then roasting the rye kernels.  I have never heard of anyone malting rye kernels, but why not?  Sprout them and then dry them and roast them, see what happens.
• Once upon a time, this loaf would have been good enough for me.  Now it isn't.