Two loaves of 40% caraway rye
One of the August breads for Mellow Bakers. The shine is from a light wash of cooked cornflour (cornstarch) on the loaves while they are still hot. I never know what makes these breads so orangey in colour, is it the caraway seeds? I wonder who would know the answer… This bread is a sort of compromise between a light rye and a serious rye. It’s not my favourite, but it is still a good bread.
Crumb shot
Other Mellow Bakers who have made this bread so far are:
Steve at Burntloafer
Ulrike at Ostwestwind
Lutz with a very lovely scoring pattern here
There’s a version of this recipe here if it’s a recipe you are looking for.
Zeb Bakes 
But, what a lovely loaf of bread! The color is superb.
Wow.
Thank you my friend Steve! But why is it orange? Did yours have an orange tint? I can’t tell from your photos really. Mine are really orange.
Wow, I think they look just beautiful!! I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the Hamelman ryes so far, so I’m hopeful for this one. Does the recipe call for the post-bake wash, or did you just do that on your own? I think the shine looks awesome!
Thanks Abby! this post by dmsnyder on the Fresh Loaf gives the method for making the cornstarch glaze. I just brushed it on immediately after taking the loaves out of the oven. Don’t use too much!
Lovely looking loaf, Jo! My family aren’t fans of caraway, so I’ll be giving this one a miss…
Wonderful crumb shot, quite open for this kind of bread… you are GOOD!
I am in a bread baking withdrawal syndrome – haven’t baked a loaf in weeks. (insert a few tears here)
Maybe I’ll bake a loaf this weekend…
Thanks @ Celia – you must have enough bread to last for ages with all that fine baking you just posted on your blog. There’s no point in making bread that no one wants to eat, couldn’t agree more!
@ Sally – wanted to ask you about phytic acid, but I think it will wait till you have moved. I was reading one of Farine’s recent posts, she’s an amazing baker isn’t she, and I am interested but confused by the levain/yeast phytic acid good bad thing. Do you know anything about it or have a take on it? (and thanks for the compliment!)
Bread ! Bread! Bread !
I can almost get intoxicated with it!
Your is lovely.
I put a little molasses in mine and thought that accounted for the orange- but I checked out the recipe your group used and NO molasses.
Sorry- no answer here.
I got this colour with the light rye recipe too – maybe it’s just a characteristic of rye when mixed in with wheat flour in certain proportions, say under 50 per cent rye to wheat…. ooh I”m getting a bit geeky here Heidi!
your loaf looks lovely – bet it’s great with some of your blackberry jelly.
Thanks for coming over to my allotment blog to say hello :o)
Hello again! I think your blog is just great!
May I just say…I am in love with your scoring!! Your loaves are stunning, Jo (are you happy with people shortening your name?). I also enjoy seeing the cross-sections. :)
Thank you for the compliment Christine! Lately I have been wetting the knife in between each slash and it seems to help them to open up. The cross section (crumb shot) is for the bread heads mostly, a habit really from when I started posting my pics on Dan Lepard’s site. When you wanted help it was always the best way to ask – what went wrong here? And a cry would go up for diagnostic pictures. I learn so much posting there, from so many kind people.
and sure you can call me Jo (I’m not very fond of Joanne with an e :) though).
These loaves are a beautiful colour. I don’t know what does it, but I doubt it’s the caraway. I’ve made my rye sourdough with caraway and without and I’ve never had this beautiful orange.
Maybe it’s soltan….
Your loaves look stunning as always Joanna! I love the colour and the glaze on them and the crumb shot is great. I know what you mean about Dan’s forums being full of helpful people (yourself included!!!). I may not post much over there but read so much helpful information and really feel my breadmaking is coming on now, but not nearly to your level!