In Sunday’s post I shared the process of making, my first ever, seed culture and barm to use in this sourdough rye bread recipe. Today I can share with you how that was transformed into a rye sponge starter and then into the final dough for New York deli onion rye bread.
Again the recipe I used comes from Peter Reinhart’s wonderful book titled “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread”. If you haven’t purchased a copy I highly suggest you do, and that includes if you are a novice baker like I am. By the way I am in no way being compensated for blogging about this book nor the recipes. I just really love both the book and results I’ve had so I wanted to share them with you.
I haven’t the author’s permission to share the recipe, so instead I’ll share the process in photos. The bread took 2 days to prepare and the first step was making the rye sponge starter. This was done by combining the barm, from Sunday’s post, with rye flour and fried onions. First I combined the barm, water and rye flour.
Then the onions were lightly fried in a bit of vegetable oil. While the onions cooled down the starter was left covered to sit at room temperature. Mr. Reinhart notes that the onions are optional but he felt an integral part of true deli taste. I think they are a fantastic addition.
Once cooled the onions were added to the starter mixture — which by the way smelled incredible!
After mixing in the onions the starter was covered and allowed to ferment for a few hours at room temperature. Then it was refrigerated overnight. I was so excited and could hardly wait until the next day to get my bread in the oven.
Day two, the fun part — baking the bread! Today bread and rye flour were combined with a few other ingredients and the starter. (You really need to see the recipe for all the unique and flavour giving ingredients that are included.) One very important ingredient that was included in Mr. Reinhart’s recipe was the caraway seeds. It was a flavour my husband was looking for in this bread so I had to include them. But Mr. Reinhart does state that they are also optional and up to the individual’s taste preference.
Next, and after the dough was kneaded and passed the window pane test, the dough was allowed to ferment at room temperature until it doubled in size.
Then came the shaping of the loaves. I choose to shape them in batards for free-standing loaves, but they can also be shaped into sandwich loaves. Corn meal was used for dusting and beaten egg whites were used for the wash. Now the loaves were left to proof at room temperature.
Finally after 8 days of starting the process, the bread went into the oven. I cannot tell you how wonderful the smell of this bread was. It smelled like warm bread baking, like sourdough bread, like onions and a tad like caraway. The intensely delicious smell wafted throughout the house and eventually hubby showed up at the kitchen asking when the bread would be ready.
The one hour wait before being able to slice into the bread was hard to endure. Finally as I sliced the first piece off my smile grew. The bread was crusty outside and inside was a light-airy bread speckled with tiny bits of onion and caraway seeds. And the taste was out of this world! Honestly I couldn’t believe I had made this bread. It was like one bought from a bakery.
My hubby, who had been nervous about my “science experiment” was delighted with the smell and taste of the bread. It was exactly the bread flavours he had been missing from home. His reaction and enjoyment of the bread made the whole process so very worth it. We each ate a couple of slices the first night, and the next afternoon we had sandwiches on our homemade New York deli onion rye bread.
On Thursday I will share a recipe for another delicious way of eating this bread. See you then, I can’t wait to share it with you…
P.S.
Here’s the book
A wonderful bread! Perfect for making scrumptious sandwiches.
Cheers,
Rosa
Thank you Rosa! It is wonderful for sandwiches, so much flavour.
Your description and photos are fantastic, nice crust and crumb also by the way. I’ve gotten the book from the public library. So want to buy this book now! YUM, New York Deli Onion Rye! Checking out your next sandwish post.
Those who cannot wait for the book delivery, can use the google books site for the recipe;
https://books.google.com/books?id=htveL1MPqYMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=New%20York%20Deli%20Onion%20Rye&f=false
Thanks Audrey! This book is fantastic for the cookbook collection, all of the recipes I’ve tried have turned out fantastic.
Wow,it is absolutely beautiful..I always feel so good making bread from scratch..from a starter was even greater:) Must do again..I NEED carawya seed in my Rye bread too!
Thank you Monique:)
I love this series, Nancy. So glad you shared the recipe. You might just inspired me to start making bread again. When I was in grad school, I grew 65 herbs (not all culinary) and ground my own wheat for flour. Those were the days! We do have good local bakeries now, though…hooray!
Thank you Victoria! Wow, that’s impressive — 65 herbs and your own wheat. Yes we are lucky to have so many great bakeries.
A wonderful artisan bread, Nancy.
Thank you Angie!
One of my all-time favorite breads and nearly impossible to get out here in Seattle. I’ll have to bookmark this!
I hope you give the recipe a try Alyssa so that you can enjoy one of your favorite breads.
I love baking bread at home… homemade is so good…this loaf is a beauty….loved the texture….too good
Thank you Shema!
I’m so proud of you, Nancy! You’re definitely a baker now. :) Sourdough rye is one of my absolute favorite breads to make at home though I’ve yet to try Reinhart’s method (I really need to open that cookbook!). Your bread looks perfect. Wonderful job, Nancy!!!
Thank you so much Jean, means a lot coming from you.:) It’s a great cookbook and the bread tastes amazing.
Congrats on the gorgeous bread, glad it was more than worth all the effort. I really like the fried onions in there!
Thank you so much Evelyne!
You have the most artistic process photos!
Thank you Ms. Yummychuncklet;)
Do I recall you ever saying you a while back that you could not bake… well you are a BAKER!! This is marvelous looking bread. :)
Lol, yes that’s right and I don’t know if I still consider myself a baker. Thanks sweetie;)
Wow, homemade rye bread! Nancy, I know you are not much of a baker (just like me) but I’m really excited that you baked beautiful bread like this – totally giving me courage and you’re inspiring! I’ve been baking more than before, and hope to bake bread next school year when kids are gone. Heheee!
Thank you Nami! You should give breads a try sometime, it’s much easier than it looks.
Suddenly I’m craving a sandwich! What a beautiful loaf of bread. :)
Thank you Kiersten!
Your batards look wonderful, Nancy! Well done :).
A great compliment coming from an established baker as yourself. Thank you Laura!:)
I can almost smell this delicious loaf! Maybe it’s wishful thinking. :)
Thanks Betty!
Your pictures make me want to eat the whole loaf – and I don’t like rye bread!!!
Thank you Laura, it’s too bad you don’t like rye bread.
WOW! Can almost smell your WONDERFUL bread now, TRUE!
LOVE the staging of your photos too!
Cheers! Joanne
Thank you Joanne!:)
This is one GORGEOUS loaf! Looks so beautifully baked and crisp that we can almost smell it too.
Thank you for the lovely step by step photos.
Cheers,
J+C
Hi Judit and Corina,
Thank you so much!:)
Gorgeous loaf of bread Nancy, I like the idea of onion in it…and the photos are awesome as usual.
Hope you are having a great week :)
Thank you so much Juliana! You too have a great week
Love it! Love it! Love it! Beautiful crust and scrumptious bread! Thank you dear Nancy for sharing with us your culinary adventure!
Hugs,
Yelena
Thank you Yelena:)
Love bread, any kind really. This looks awesome!
Me too Ravie, thank you!:)
Great looking bread! I’m lucky in that I can buy that locally, but it’s packaged – nowhere near the flavor of homemade! Thanks for this.
Thank you John!
I´l give it a try ,look just great
Thanks you Jesper and I hope you do give a try.
Your deli rye bread looks and sounds absolutely delicious.
Thank you Karen!
Ok, so no iron pot, I think I found my answer :) It looks soooooo good! Definitely worth waiting.
That’s correct it was just a baking sheet. Thanks Marta!