This recipe from Dan Lepard for Black Pepper Rye Bread caught my eye at the weekend, as a possibility to serve with smoked mackerel paté. I love rye bread, and this loaf promised to be light and moist, with a good kick from the pepper - sounded just right.
My first attempt was a disaster in terms of texture - it was dry, heavy and hardly rose at all - but I wasn't sure whether it was my technique or whether my dried yeast had died in storage. The flavour, however, was wonderful, just what I needed to fire up the tastebuds at the start of the meal, so I didn't want to give up on the recipe. As ever, Dan was very helpful on his website, suggesting where I might be going wrong, and he even baked the recipe again, and published a set of photographs for future guidance.
The second attempt, pictured above, was much better; the loaf was lighter, moister and rose well. I didn't have any poppy or sesame seeds to top the loaf with, so just gave it an egg wash and a light sprinkle of caraway seeds, which was what I'd used in the loaf with the black pepper. I took Dan's advice to cook the rye and spice mix less, and also took the precaution of buying new yeast, but now it's frustrating not to know if it was the yeast or the change in technique which made the difference. I know that you shouldn't really change two things at the same time if you're trying to get to the root of a problem, but I didn't want another failure.
5 comments:
I love the colour and texture of the crumb in your picture. Is the coffee flavour very pronounced in the final loaf? I'm quite keen on black pepper but not really fond of coffee and just wondered how you'd found it!
Have to agree that Dan's forums are incredibly helpful aren't they!
I don't think you'd know from the flavour that there was coffee there at all. Perhaps it acts more as a flavour intensifier - like when you add coffee to a chocolate cake. The pepper is quite a strong presence - I'm wondering if I need to reduce it for my friends - some of them are quite conservative!
Thanks for the reply - I suspected the coffee might be more of a flavour enhancer, so I'll put this on the (long) list of Dan's recipes to try soon! I'm loving the idea of pepper though - I think it'll go really well with cheese for lunch. I hope your friends enjoy it too!
That looks really good - just the thing for smoked fish. I'll have to have a go!
A point worth mentioning is that the bread keeps very well. I made it on Tuesday afternoon and finished the loaf on Friday morning, when it was as good as when freshly made, except that the crust had softened slightly (I stored it in a polythene bag).
The pepperiness seemed to mellow after the first day too. Still as strong but not as harsh.
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