The signature this week was “12 Right royal rye rolls… an alliterative challenge.” I was feeling a little unsure about this one not only because it was something I’ve not really attempted before, but because it was bread (even though I really enjoy it).

My mother has baked bread every week for as far back as I can remember, and although I can bake it, I have problems getting it to prove/rise enough. I have tried a few techniques of placing it in an airing cupboard, by a radiator and in front of a hot oven. I’ve even tried putting the oven on the lowest heat then switching off and leaving the door open while leaving the dough in the middle of the oven (in a covered bowl of course). This last oven method does work, I think it over works the yeast and even though it rises well on the first prove the second is not so good and it doesn’t do much more in the oven when it’s cooking.

So you can understand my anxiety when it comes to this challenge. Not only have I chosen a recipe that uses fresh yeast but rye flour has a low gluten content that requires you to work it more in order for it to rise!

“Rye is an extremely difficult flour to work with because it had less gluten it very tricky because you really have to work that protein to build the gluten up to create the sacks that the air will sit inside”  (Paul Hollywood)

I have to say I agree with what Diana had to say on the show, working with rye certainly helps to concentrate the mind! Hey ho off we go….

I’m met with a lot of options when to comes to choosing a rye bread. You can use just rye flour, or you can mix it with regular and/spelt flour. The flour itself comes in a variety of options, dark, light and wholegrain, to mention a few. It’s a very popular european style bread and a lot of the recipes on the show were working from a base similar to german pumpernickel, danish rugbrød, all the way through to a scandinavian dark rye.

I’ve decided to go with a dark rye flour for my rolls and work from a recipe which is a version of the Scandinavian Vört Limpa, commonly made at Christmas. The dark rye reminds me of a fabulous loaf that we used to get served in the restaurants in Warsaw, when I went on holiday as a teenager. There is a pretty square in the old part of town that has restaurants and bars around the outside. Whenever you sat down to order they would bring you a basket with a wide variety of bread to chose from. I always went for the dark rye, as it had a slight nutty sweet taste to it, and a tiny bit of sourness. Whenever I see anything similar nowadays I always make a beeline for it.

The dark rye that I have chosen needs to be mixed with an equal quantity of regular strong white plain flour in order to increase the gluten levels in the dough. To the flours I also need to add the spices (clove, nutmeg and ginger) along with the salt and sugar.

Now I’ve heard of adding beer, ale or even stout to a bread but this is the first time that I have ever come across a recipe that asked for port in addition to ale! This bake also required me to use fresh yeast.  I have a few tins of the Allisons fast action and dried yeast stored in my fridge, which I think I’ll have to replace as I don’t think I have used it enough! Anyway this rye recipe required fresh yeast and I was a bit worried about where to get this.  I don’t really have any fresh bakers where I live and  the only bakery I could think of was in my local Sainsburys.  I know they bake things in the store, but is that just baking things from frozen ar are they actually making things fresh?  The answer, my dear friends, is that they do bake from fresh and if you ask at the counter they are more than happy to sell you it in 50g portions at 20p each! Brilliant, I just have to figure out what I’m going to use the last 10g for!

It’s important to note that the yeast and alcohol mixture is mixed together in a large bowl so that the dry flour can be added gradually.  I didn’t realise this until I read the next step of the recipe, so I quickly had to change bowls and create more washing up! As the dough comes together it is then turned out onto the floured surface to knead. It’s important to knead this dough well, and that means for a longer time than usual, though hopefully not as long as Jordan who did it for 40mins!

Once the dough was at the right consistency I put it bake in a bowl and used the oven door technique, that I mentioned earlier.  This dough takes considerably longer to rise than the ciabatta that I’d made earlier.  Luckily I have blogging and washing up to distract me from the long wait!

The next stage of the bake was to added the last few remaining ingredients to the proven dough.  During this stage you want to be gentle but firm with the dough, and you don’t want to knock all the air out but you do want the fruit and seeds to be evenly distributed throughout.

After this I weighed out the dough into 13 portions.  Thirteen, not twelve as there is a point to baking a bakers dozen, so that  you can try and test your bake in case it need to bake for longer etc.  The only person on the show that seemed to have the forethought to do this seemed to be Chetna, which eventually saved her in the end.

Now that the rolls were portioned and rolled into mini baguettes it was time for the second prove.  I was worried about where I would be able to find a bag large enough to put two trays in, that wasn’t a black sack, but as always I managed to find one on eBay! Leaving them to prove for another 30 minutes I have time to think and about the decoration and glaze.  The recipe I’m using calls for malt extract to be brushed over the rolls after they come out for the oven, which will create a nice sheen to the rolls.

A sheen is great but I want these babies to have a little extra, so I decided to cut a pattern into them. I’ve cut slits into bread dough before but I always find that it snags a bit when using a knife.  After spending a little bit of time reading up on this it seems that the general consensus is to use a razor blade or a bakers blade/lame. Luckily I have a boyfriend that likes to cut-throat shave so we have plenty of fresh razor blades in the bathroom cupboard.

I know that rolls on the show have to be identical, but I’ve decided to play about with these, by having six rolls dusted with flour and the other six glazed with the malt extract.   Cutting the rolls just before they were due to go in the oven so that they have a nice clean cut that will expand on baking.

When cooking bread and especially these rye rolls, steam plays a big part in creating a good crust. The best way to do this is to have a roasting tray in the bottom of the oven and when you put the rolls in, also fill this tray 3/4 with boiling water. Next time I must remember to boil the kettle before I put the rolls in the oven, and not rush around 30 secs after! Once the rolls were in it was time to sit and wait for the aroma to fill the house!

“The real danger is when they glaze it and it gets too dark before the middle is done”
(Mary Berry)

Glazing the rolls after they comes out the oven gave them a nice sheen, but do it the moment that they came out otherwise the glaze won’t spread and dry, instead leaving them sticky. The only problem with the glaze is that it made them taste sweeter, so they verged closer to a hot cross bun than a savoury roll. The flour dusting looks good but I’d be keen to try the yeasted crust technique that Nancy did. It gave them a nice texture and would like to see this in action. I could do with practising the cuts with the razor blade.

I still like the idea of the two tone rolls that Kate and Louis made and I wonder whether these rye rolls could be made the same way, maybe having the spices in one dough and the fruit in another? I’d be keen to try a few more variations, especially experimenting with the seeds and spices. I haven’t to try to them with cheese and salami as suggested but I’m a little hesitant, that this will work. We’ll just have to see…