Marble Rye Bread

ChocolateMeltedbfLOWho knew that melted chocolate – I used 60% cocoa chips – was one of the secrets to pumpernickel bread? Truth be known, the mashed potatoes were a bit of a surprise as well; still, this recipe, from Emeril via Food Network, calls for both, and yields one very nice, if a bit sticky, dough, that gets all wrapped up with an equally nice bit of rye bread dough to make for one pretty darned nifty, if I do say so myself, loaf of marbled rye bread.

It all began with Mehran…

GolnazTastingFilterbfLOHe loves his bread, and watched in horror as his wife Golnaz used a fair amount of the freshly baked loaf of honey rye I’d brought to scoop up samples of the chicken pâté we had just made.

BothDoughsRisenbfLOMehran had asked me several times if I ever made marble rye, as that was one of his favorite breads; so I decided to make up for the poaching of ‘his’ loaf of honey rye with an attempt at this two-loaves-in-one deal.

This is, truly, two loaves of bread rolled into one, so you should prepare yourself for that.

I used the same mixer bowl and bread hook without any trouble, and anyone who’s seen my kitchen knows that bowls for dough rising are not an issue, but I did need to do some juggling when it came to boards to flatten out the two doughs.

RyeHookbfLOStill, I muddled though, and the bread is worth the effort.

INGREDIENTS
•Flour for dusting
•1 large egg, beaten

Rye Dough:
•1 envelope (2-1/4 tsp) dry yeast
•1 tbsp sugar
•3 tbsp melted butter
FlourMolassesbfLO•1 egg
•1 cup warm milk (about 110º)
•2 teaspoons salt
•1 cup rye flour
•2 1/2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
•1 tsp vegetable oil

Pumpernickel Dough:
•2 tsp active dry yeast
•1 cup warm water (110º.) – try 3/4 cup
•1 tbsp butter, melted
•1 tsp sugar
•4 tbsp dark molasses
•2 tbsp finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate, melted
WheatFlourCornmealbfLO•1 tbsp caraway seeds
•1/2 cup cooked mashed potatoes
•2 cups rye flour
•1/2 cup whole wheat flour
•1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

A note on flour for the pumpernickel: my dough was quite sticky, and I ended up adding an additional 1/2 cup of unbleached all-purpose flour and 1/4 cup more of the whole wheat flour to get a dough that was still kinda sticky, but that I could work with. EvaporatedMilkbfLOI have never made pumpernickel bread before, so don’t know if this is just the nature of the dough, or if it needs to be sticky to help fuse the two doughs during rising and baking.

Make the rye dough:
Combine the yeast with the sugar, melted butter, milk (I used evaporated milk), and egg in a mixer bowl and beat for 1 minute with the whisk attachment. Emeril (or his editor) said to do this with the dough hook, mebbe to save aa bit on washing up, and I did as he (or they) recommended, this time. Next time, I will use the whisk.

RyeMixerbfLOCombine the rye and all-purpose flours together with the salt in a bowl and add to the yeast mixture in the mixer bowl.

Swap out the whisk for the dough hook, and mix at low speed for about a minute, until the flour is fully incorporated; then increase mixer speed top medium and continue until the mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl and begins to climb up the dough hook.

RyeBowlbfLOLightly coat a bowl – and your hands – with oil.

Remove the dough from the mixer bowl, shape into a smooth ball, and place in the oiled bowl, turning to oil all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm spot until the dough doubles in size – Emeril says about an hour, mine sat for close to 2 hours while I was waiting on the pumpernickel and all was well.

PumpernickelMixerbfLOMake the pumpernickel dough:
Melt the chocolate in the ‘wave by heating for 30 seconds, then remove and stir. Return to the ‘wave and heat for another 30 seconds, then remove and stir. Add the butter and return to the ‘wave for another 30 seconds, then remove and stir until smooth and cooled a bit.

Add the melted chocolate and butter to your mixer bowl with the water, sugar, molasses, and yeast. Beat on low (again, Emeril calls for the dough hook, I’d go with the whisk) for one minute.

PumpernickelBowlbfLOSwap out the whisk for the dough hook and add the caraway seeds, potatoes, flours, and cornmeal. Mix at low speed until well incorporated, then increase speed to medium and continue until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl and, again, begins to climb up the dough hook. This took a while, and that additional flour – but, that could have been due to the fact that I was using leftover mashed potatoes with butter and milk.

RyeRolledOutbfLOLightly oil your hands and another bowl, remove the dough from the mixer bowl, shape into a ball, drop it into the oiled bowl, turning to coat evenly. cover with plastic wrap, and stash in that warm space next to the rye dough until it doubles in size – at least 1 hour, but mebbe longer.

If you have the space, remove both risen doughs from their bowls onto lightly floured surfaces and pat them each into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle. My spreading out space is limited, so I chose to do mine one after the other on lightly floured boards.

PumpernickelRolledOutbfLOEmeril made his by laying the pumpernickel on top of the rye and rolling. After reading his recipe comments, I opted to do the reverse, laying the rye dough rectangle on top of the pump. Whichever order you choose to do it, roll the dough tightly along the long side; stopping after each turn to press the edge of the roll into the flat bits to seal.

MarbleRyeRolledbfLOWhen fully rolled, tuck the edges and transfer this one HUGE loaf to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet (I chose to cut mine into two loaves).

Brush the loaf (or both) with the beaten egg, cover with more plastic wrap, and set aside in your warm, draft-free space for 1 hour, until the it doubles in size.

After about 45 minutes, heat your oven to 350º.

MarbleRyeAndersonbfLORemove the plastic wrap from the risen bread, and pop it into your now heated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until the bread is lightly browned.

Cool on a rack.

This was a fair bit of work, but it made for one, ermmm, two, if you divide it, fine loaf of bread.

Mehran had his marble rye with some nice feta cheese and was pleased – he even shared with Golnaz!

We had ours over the course of the weekend while visiting family, and most everyone agreed it well worth the time spent.

This entry was posted in Bread/Pastry and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.