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Rye bread keeps splitting

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ted
ted Posts: 51
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Can any one help me with my rye bread that keeps splitting? I slash the top before baking. I have tried several different "slash patterns" to see if that makes a difference. It still seems to explode from the slash area. I am baking this at about 400 degrees.
Any ideas?
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  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    Ted,
    400^ F may be a little too hot for the bread. I bake a lot of bread and the only rye bread that uses that high a temp is very dark rye. I bake at about 350^ F. Also don't make the "Slashes" too deep. Good luck.
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  • UnConundrum
    UnConundrum Posts: 536
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    Ted,[p]The most common reason for splitting is that you didn't let your dough rise long enough. There was still some extra "ommph" in the dough and the oven spring blew it apart. IOW, once it hit the heat of the oven, the yeast went to town.[p]Slashes should be about 1/2 inch deep.[p]You can find my recipe for rye at www.RecipesOnRails.com[p]
    552-jewish-rye-no-knead.png?1176862515[p]
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  • ted
    ted Posts: 51
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    UnConundrum,
    Thank you for your quick reply. I have tried the longer rise time....it seems to be properly risen. Does the BGE differ that much from the oven? The bread doesn't seem to explode so much when I do it indoors.

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  • Chef Arnoldi
    Chef Arnoldi Posts: 974
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    your gluten has not been devoloped enough - need to knead it at least 10 minutes & also use a minimum of 50% bread flour.
    The slashes are to be no deeper then 1/4" (for even expansion during baking)
    the bread is to be baked when the loaf is in the second rising, but not fully risen (60% of the full rise)
    i bake my breads with 450F for the first 15 minutes & then reduce to 375F
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  • Puj
    Puj Posts: 615
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    Ted,[p]It's not the egg, the problem and the answer will lie with the dough. Under proofing is the logical suspect, but I'm sure you'd prefer not to here this ... again. Another suspect would be the internal dough temp at the time of the start of the bake.[p]If you don't mind me taking a further look, I'd like to read the dough formula that you are using. There may be a clue or two that could be gleaned by reading it.[p]Puj

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  • Clay Q
    Clay Q Posts: 4,486
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    Ted,
    Your dough is just happy to be in the egg, that's all. Hearth baking in the egg is different from kitchen oven baking and the bread gets more 'spring' with brick oven style heat.[p]Try a deeper slash down the longest length of the bread and see how that works. Good luck!
    Clay
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  • ted
    ted Posts: 51
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    Puj,
    Thanks for your input. I have already decided to try a longer rise....even though it seems ready, it seems all roads lead to that! The ingredients in the dough are:[p]Water 3/4 cup and 1/2 cup to proof yeast
    Dark beer, 12 oz bottle
    Pumpernickel flour,1 cup
    Molasses, 1/3 cup
    yeast, 2 tbls (I am also thinking this may be too much)
    Sourdough Starter, 1 cup
    That makes a sponge
    Vegetable oil, 1/4 cup
    salt, 1 1/2 tsp
    all purpose flour 4-6 cups[p]Once all ingreidents are mixed and then kneaded you shape the loaf and there is only the one rise. (I have been rising it about 1 hour)[p]Any thoughts are welcome! Thanks so much.
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  • UnConundrum
    UnConundrum Posts: 536
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    Ted,[p]Waaaay too much yeast. The rule of thumb is that the yeast should weigh about 1% of the weight of flour. That's for fresh yeast. If you're using instant yeast, then reduce to 1/3 of that or 0.33% of the weight of the flour. [p]So, 5 cups of ap is about 18 oz. and the one cup of pumpernickle is about 6 oz. That's 24 oz total or .24 oz. of fresh yeast or .08 oz. of instant yeast, which is about 3/4 teaspoon of yeast.[p]On top of that, if you're making a sourdough, there is natural yeast there too. How active is the sourdough? I make my sourdough breads with no added yeast. I just expand out the starter the night before so most of the ap flour is used in the starter at a 1 to 1 ration with the water by weight.
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  • ted
    ted Posts: 51
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    UnConundrum,
    Thanks for the yeast lesson! I got the recipe from a King Arthur cookbook....seems it needs a bit of adjusting! [p]
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  • AZ Traveler
    AZ Traveler Posts: 664
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    UnConundrum,
    That is a nice loaf, I will be making one of those soon. Thanks for posting it. AZ
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  • UnConundrum
    UnConundrum Posts: 536
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    AZ Traveler ,[p]Thanks for the compliment :) If you give it a try, you should know that my starter is a 50/50 flour to water ratio by weight. So, 1.6 pounds of starter is .8 pounds ap flour and .8 pounds water. Also, use the additional water in the recipe to thin out the starter before you add it to the bin. This will make it a little easier to mix. If I remember right, this dough is a little stiff for a "no-knead" dough, so the initial mixing by hand is a little harder.
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