Rye bread forever. I'm encouraged to hear more bakers delving into 100% rye (and high percentage) rye loaves and that customers buy them. Sophie's Up Rye Zine might be the most succinct, helpful explanation about baking with rye I've ever seen.
Fantastic info. Whenever you feature a baker/bakery I just want to go there immediately and taste their breads. But what I really loved were the itty-bitty drawings in Sophie's zine of the Instagram crumb shots - hilarious!
Thanks for posting this fantastic interview, Andrew.
I'm a home baker in NYC and wondered if you could pass a question to Sophie.
Like Sophie, I went through a weird flour thing with the rye I buy -- something changed, plus the grind got finer -- and it started fermenting incredibly fast and all my breads stopped rising well and their flavor got dull. I tried all sorts of things but did not try reducing the innoculation & adding salt to the preferment. What I did do is start spiking the final dough (in a 45% rye -- all prefermented -- /55% bread flour deli-style rye) with commercial yeast. This restored the form and improved the flavor (the yeasted loaves now taste remarkably more sour than the pure sourdough ones.) I wonder if Sophie ever adds yeast to any of her loaves. And if she thinks I could possibly make up for the flavor deficit by reducing the innoculation and/or salting my preferment.
I really enjoyed reading this interview, so interesting and helpful. Now I want to make 60/40 loaf! Do you know if she uses Cairn spring or Camas county flour? Next time I'm in Bellingham I need to stop by her bakery.
Really loved this—and now I’ll feel better about putting rye bread in the refrigerator! :)
Rye bread forever. I'm encouraged to hear more bakers delving into 100% rye (and high percentage) rye loaves and that customers buy them. Sophie's Up Rye Zine might be the most succinct, helpful explanation about baking with rye I've ever seen.
It's amazing! And it's free to download
Thanks for this introduction! It has become so difficult to find good rye, particularly one that might be at the 60/40 mark.
My conversation with Sophie prompted me to work up a 60/40 recipe, and it's really good. Much easier than whole-ryes, and just as nice.
Great interview Andrew and Sophie, thanks for sharing
I've been making bread for decades, and this was really educational. The linked King Arthur article on preferments also made a lot of things clear.
Many thanks!
Oops - the preferments article was not linked; it was one I looked up myself.
Fantastic info. Whenever you feature a baker/bakery I just want to go there immediately and taste their breads. But what I really loved were the itty-bitty drawings in Sophie's zine of the Instagram crumb shots - hilarious!
Thanks for posting this fantastic interview, Andrew.
I'm a home baker in NYC and wondered if you could pass a question to Sophie.
Like Sophie, I went through a weird flour thing with the rye I buy -- something changed, plus the grind got finer -- and it started fermenting incredibly fast and all my breads stopped rising well and their flavor got dull. I tried all sorts of things but did not try reducing the innoculation & adding salt to the preferment. What I did do is start spiking the final dough (in a 45% rye -- all prefermented -- /55% bread flour deli-style rye) with commercial yeast. This restored the form and improved the flavor (the yeasted loaves now taste remarkably more sour than the pure sourdough ones.) I wonder if Sophie ever adds yeast to any of her loaves. And if she thinks I could possibly make up for the flavor deficit by reducing the innoculation and/or salting my preferment.
Rob
What a treat to see this long convo with Sophie! I'm such a fan of her baking and that zine --- now I have to find my copy!
I really enjoyed reading this interview, so interesting and helpful. Now I want to make 60/40 loaf! Do you know if she uses Cairn spring or Camas county flour? Next time I'm in Bellingham I need to stop by her bakery.
Wow, rye is so…complicated…