A Tartine Rye with Chokecherry Jam

A Tartine Rye Variation

This was the first bread I baked when I got home from my camping trip.  It is really just a variation of the Tartine Rye Bread, although the ratio of ingredients are a bit different: all purpose flour 40%, whole wheat flour 50%, rye flour 10%.  My sourdough had only been refreshed once since sitting in the fridge for the whole time I was away, so I wasn't sure how it would perform.  It worked fine.

These cherries are not the same as chokecherries. 
Imagine a cherry not much bigger than the stone in these regular cherries, then you'd have a picture of the chokecherry.

Mother Earth News came today. 
Just think: 2 yrs ago I started baking bread from an article on no-knead bread in this mag while camping.

The same day I made this bread, my wife was busy making some Canadian Chokecherry Jelly from some wild chokecherries that we picked while camping, the day before packing up and leaving.  She kept them on ice until we got home, then ran them through her Dampfentsafter (a German Steam Juicer) to get the juice.  She thinks that this gives the fruit a lot more flavour than if you have to boil them to get the juice.

Here is the Chokecherry Jelly recipe she used.  Most of these come right from the pectin packages, but various fruits require different amounts of sugar.  I find this jam particularly sweet, and of course, very powerfully flavourful.  Goes good with this rye bread, toasted or plain.

Ingredients

• 3 c chokecherry juice
• 6 1/2 c sugar
• 2 pouches liquid pectin
• 1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)

Method

• Pour juice and sugar into large heavy kettle.
• Mix and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
• Stir in pectin and while stirring bring to a rolling boil for 1 minute.
• Remove from heat but keep stirring for 5 minutes.
• If you don't stir constantly you'll get foam that needs to be skimmed off (you can eat the foam).
• Add almond extract if desired.
• Pour into hot, sterilized half-pint jars, leaving 1/4" space at the top.
• Put sterilized lids on and seal in a boiling water canner for 5-10 minutes.

Results

Yum.

Chokecherry Jam on my variation of a Tartine-style rye bread

Notes to Myself

• Make some Tartine bread like this once in awhile for your sweetie, and include some all purpose flour for hers.
• There is a lot of gluten in the 100% hydrated Tartine Starter, a lot more than in the whole wheat starter I'm keeping beside it.