Richard Hart shares, “Don’t be confused by the word rye in this loaf. It isn’t the Danish hard-core style from the previous chapter. This is truly wheat bread sprinkled with rye. I first ate marble rye when I moved to the States, in 2007. The local bakery in Petaluma used to sell it as a sliced sandwich loaf. I thought it was so delicious. The addition of caraway seeds and the beautiful colour of the dark and light doughs mixed together make a truly great bread.
“Years later, when I was traveling to New York with Tartine to do pop-ups, we were asked if we could design a loaf for the classic Jewish smoked fish purveyor Russ & Daughters. I started working on this marble rye for them, but it wasn’t feasible to teach it to the team in New York—a little too far away from San Francisco—so it never went ahead, but this is still my favourite bread of all time. The colour and flavour are amazing, though it’s worth noting that the colour comes from dark malt powder, not the rye flour itself, which is rather light grey/green. Every time I make it I’m in awe of how great this bread is. I don’t make it very often, because it’s a bit like listening to my favourite album: I don’t want to wear it out.”
Makes two 1kg loaves
WHAT YOU NEED
STARTER
BAKER’S % WEIGHT INGREDIENT
100% 104g Hot water (104°F / 40°C)
100% 104g Whole wheat flour
40% 42g 12-hour wheat or rye starter
CITY LOAF DOUGH
BAKER’S % WEIGHT INGREDIENT
50% 250g Bread flour
50% 250g All-purpose flour
75% 375g Hot water (104°F / 40°C)
20% 100g Freshly fed starter (above)
2.5% 13g Salt
DARK RYE DOUGH
BAKER’S % WEIGHT INGREDIENT
35% 175g Bread flour
35% 175g All-purpose flour
20% 100g Whole wheat flour
10% 50g Rye flour
10% 5g Malt syrup
10% 5g Dark malt powder
70% 375g Hot water (104°F / 40°C)
20% 100g Freshly fed starter (opposite)
3% 15g Salt
3% 15g Caraway seeds
FOR THE RYE STARTER
BAKER’S % WEIGHT INGREDIENT
100% 125g Rye flour
100% 125g Warm water (82°F / 28°C)
WHAT TO DO
To make the Marble Rye City Loaf
Timing
Day 1 (morning): Feed starter, autolyse and mix doughs, ferment, preshape, and final shape: a total of 8 hours (most of which is inactive), plus an overnight cold retard of up to 12 hours.
Day 2 (morning): Preheat oven, transfer dough to Dutch oven, score, and bake: a total of 2 to 3 hours
Equipment
Medium and large mixing bowls, digital thermometer, flexible plastic dough scraper, bowl or pitcher of warm water (for rinsing), two tea towels, bench scraper, two bannetons (proofing baskets), cast-iron or enameled Dutch oven (with a flat, handleless lid), lame, cooling rack
Day 1
Feed the starter: Set a timer for 45 minutes. Autolyse both doughs: Bear in mind that the two doughs will be split and combined with each other to make two marbled loaves. It doesn’t change how you’ll do things, but just so you’re not confused at some point, thinking, That’s not enough dough.
In a separate bowl, to autolyse the dark rye dough, combine all four flours, the malt syrup, malt powder, and 300g of the hot water and mix well by hand until there is no dry flour remaining.
Cover both bowls with tea towels and let them rest until the starter is ready.
Mix the respective doughs with starter and salt: When the starter is ready, add 100g of it to each batch of autolysed dough and mix starter and dough together by hand. (Save the remaining 50g starter for tomorrow’s bread.)
To each batch of dough, add the remaining 75g water and mix by hand. Add the salt to each batch of dough and mix until it is well incorporated.
To the dark rye dough, add the caraway seeds and mix until they are distributed. Fold together the two doughs: Scrape both doughs into a bowl, using the plastic scraper. Gently pull each dough toward you and fold them over each other a few times, to start the marbling effect.
Take the temperature of this dough. It should be 86°–95°F / 30–35°C. If it’s outside that range, adjust accordingly by setting it in a larger bowl of hot or cold water. Set a timer for 45 minutes and cover the dough with a tea towel.
Bulk ferment, preshape, rest, final shape, and cold retard.
Day 2
Preheat, score, and bake.
To make the rye starter
Day 1
Mix the flour and water: In a clean jar or plastic container, combine 50g of the flour and 50g of the water and mix it well by hand to form a homogenous dough. It will be quite sticky. Use the dough scraper to scrape any excess from your fingers and back into the mixture.
Take its temperature. If it’s below 77°F / 25°C, set the container in a larger container of warm water to bring it up a few degrees. The water should completely surround the starter container in order to insulate it. Don’t go crazy with boiling or scalding water, as there is an upper limit (131°F / 55°C) to how warm the starter can be before you start to kill off the yeast and bacteria. Put a lid on the container.
Don’t expect much excitement in the first day or so. As long as you’re keeping the starter warm enough, you can leave it alone for 24 hours.
Day 2
Check on your starter: To be honest, it probably won’t look all that different. It may have separated a bit, with some liquid at the top, and if that’s the case, just mix the liquid back in. Don’t worry! That’s just evidence that the process has started, but the mixture hasn’t entirely fermented yet. It’s completely normal, as unappetizing as it may look.
Put your clean fingers into the mixture and stir it around a bit, to add some oxygen. Take its temperature and warm the container in warm water as necessary. Cover the container and let it sit again for 24 hours.
Day 3
Feed the starter: By now, you should be seeing some noticeable bubbling and expansion in the mixture. Go ahead and add 25g of the flour and 25g of the water and mix it in by hand. Scrape the excess off your fingers and add it to the mixture.
And if you’re still not seeing clear signs of life, don’t worry. Just check that it’s warm enough and wait another day.
Day 4
Feed it again: Check again for bubbling and expansion, which should be evident by Day 4. Discard half the mixture and mix in the remaining 50g flour and 50g water.
If by Day 4, there is no evidence of fermentation in your mixture, despite your having refreshed it and kept it warm, it’s quite likely that your starter is fucked. And definitely so if you see red or orange streaks of mold or other visible growths. You should chuck it out, buy some fresh flour, and start over.
Day 5 and beyond: maintenance
At this point, you should have a nicely fermented starter, with real, clear signs of active life: bubbles and a steady rise in volume over the course of several hours, after which it will likely deflate a bit as the gas bubbles break through the surface. You are now ready to use this starter to make bread.
From here, you will maintain a daily feeding schedule by discarding about 90% of it and refreshing it with flour and water, equal parts by weight. For a rye starter, you can do this once a day. For wheat, I recommend feeding it twice a day, which is what we do at my bakery, because it keeps the starter active and happy, and it fits best with our production schedule.
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