all about rye

I still haven't gotten around to trying that rye bread again--which I just realized I never properly "reviewed" here. The verdict was that this was a fine first attempt with great flavor, but as expected (given my substitution of whole grain rye for the medium rye the recipe called for), it was noticeably more dense than usual deli rye breads. I was thinking next time I would try adding vital wheat gluten in hopes of giving it a little lift. But somehow "next time" has not rolled around yet. Laziness.

I did, however, make a great muffin recipe from the previously maligned Whole Grain Baking. As I said in the rye bread post, I marked about five more recipes that will determine whether I give up on this book or, at the very least, copy down the few recipes I found worthwhile and then pass it along to someone who might better appreciate it. It is a huge book and I hate to have it taking up precious shelf space if there are only a couple things I like or want to make from it. But I successfully adapted this recipe, originally ham and Swiss rye muffins, to help use up some of the massive amounts of kielbasa left over from Easter. (My in-laws brought down about 800 lbs of the good stuff with them from a butcher up north.) I so rarely think to make savory muffins, it's terrible; but with this one in my repertoire I think I'll remember the option more readily. Plus whole grains are healthy and all that, which is more than I could say for my (literally) sugar-coated, cakey blueberry muffin recipe, that's for sure...

Sausage and Cheese Rye Muffins
Adapted from King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking, p. 47
Yield: 1 dozen

Note about the yield: I thought my muffin pan was standard, but with this as with some other recipes I've tried, it seemed like all the batter couldn't possibly fit into those dozen cups without spilling over. So I ended up getting another dozen mini muffins out of this. My "regular" sized muffins only took about 20 minutes to bake through, though the original recipe specifies 25-27 minutes. All that to say, your mileage may vary.

2 cups (7 1/2 oz.) whole grain rye flour
3/4 cup (3 1/8 oz.) bread flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1 large egg
1 1/2 c. buttermilk
8 Tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
4 oz. finely diced smoked sausage, such as kielbasa

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease a muffin tin with Baker's Joy, or use paper liners and spray them a bit just to make sure there's no sticking. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the 1 cup cheese and toss to mix.

2. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg, butter, and buttermilk, then add to the flour mixture, stirring just til evenly moistened. Fold in the diced sausage.

3. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan(s) (see note about yield above) and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese over the tops. Bake muffins until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then remove onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Serve warm, or once cooled, refrigerate or (better yet) freeze the muffins. (I think these qualify as perishable because of the sausage.) They will keep wonderfully in the freezer for a couple of months.

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... as a P.S., since this is a very rye-themed post: last month I also made the rye seed crackers from Artisan Breads Every Day (pp. 133-36). I found them startlingly easy and surprisingly delicious. I'm not that much of a cracker person and I loathe rolling out dough of any sort, so I'm not even sure what made me try these, but I am certainly glad I did. They were so quick to make, and the dough was a dream to work with, which I did not expect at all. Highly recommend with cheese and fruit for a picnic-esque meal--- which is in fact how I used them, on our anniversary picnic. Given the "venue," this year's menu was considerably less fussy than last year's, and besides said crackers and cheese included shrimp cocktail (solely because I was craving it and Whole Foods had some fine specimens on sale), an ambrosia-style fruit salad, and a spinach salad with this (very anchovy-ish) green goddess dressing.

I am such a good wife.*

*Or, Rye bread, at long last.

Since marriage I have tried to make the vast majority of our breads and baked goods at home. It's one part the love of baking, one part the superior quality one (usually) gets when making breads fresh, and one part utter sticker shock when I calculate the mark-up on any bread that is bought at the store (let alone at the artisan bakery of your choice).  In my baking "career" I have more or less successfully made white and whole wheat sandwich bread, bagels, ciabatta, rustic Italian bread, baguettes, challah, babka, yeast rolls, biscuits, flatbreads, quick breads, etc, etc. And it only took me four years to get around to making my husband's very favorite kind of bread. Yes. I am such a good wife.

M has suffered through bad outcomes of whole wheat bread experiments for as long as we've known each other. The current (mostly) whole wheat sandwich bread I make, tweaked from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Everyday, is plenty acceptable to both of us for toast and sandwich purposes, and finally we enjoy a  bread that isn't bitter and/or dense as a brick; but it's still not something we'd jump at if we didn't know it was healthier, and therefore a better everyday choice, than white bread.

On a couple of occasions when M was uncomplainingly eating this or less successful bread experiments of mine, he mentioned casually but directly that rye was his favorite kind of bread. Hint, hint. I would nod, and make a mental note to look into that, but forget. Rye flour is expensive (comparatively) and hard to find (comparatively), and frankly since it's not my favorite kind of bread, and I'm the baker here, it has been shoved to the back burner time after time. (So now you know for sure I was being facetious about the good wife bit.)

Over Christmas vacation, making our usual rounds to all the NJ diners he grew up with, M would order rye toast with nearly every breakfast. I started to follow suit and realized, hey, this stuff wasn't bad. When we got back home I determined it was time to find and perfect a rye bread recipe so that my husband wouldn't have to keep hinting and waiting for another however many years. Now, a mere three months later, I have found a rye bread recipe (Baking Illustrated's Jewish deli rye bread), I have made it once with minimal modification (halved to make one "small" loaf for the first trial, and used whole grain rather than light or medium rye), and the verdict? I think it's pretty darn good. But I'm still waiting for the real judge to get home and try a slice.

Jewish deli rye bread. (By the way, does this look like a "small loaf" to you? It's not. That's what the recipe authors call it, but it is not. Fine by me.)

This same day (albeit before the bread had come out of the oven for tasting!) I ordered Baking Illustrated with an Amazon gift card from Christmas (appreciate my restraint--holding onto even part of an Amazon gift card for three months is possibly a record for me). I checked it out from the library a couple weeks ago and have made the snickerdoodles (good), peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (goooood), and now the rye bread (with modification noted above), and given those results plus a strong desire to make probably 95% of the rest of the recipes immediately, I figure I can get my money's worth out of this cookbook in no time. Besides, my only other true baking cookbook, King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, was such a flop, I am sorry to say. (Maybe I will report more on that some time. I recently went through and marked about 5 more recipes to try, as sort of an ultimatum--- if they aren't worthwhile, out goes the book. I need the shelf space.) There are always cooking (and baking) blogs for finding new recipes, but they are never as thoroughly tested (or "guaranteed," if you will) as Cook's Illustrated's are, and the hour is quickly coming when I will have much less time and energy to devote to this or any other hobby. This is because we have a baby on the way, and I hear they are sort of demanding, particularly in the beginning... Check back in a year and this blog (if it's been updated at all) will be all about troubleshooting homemade baby food, and/or maternal diet fare for those postpartum months. Don't say I didn't warn you.

So... off to make some fried pickles for dinner. (Seriously. These. Will report back.)