Rye Bread: First Attempt

I feel like it is important to show cooking failures or mistakes on this blog when they happen because learning from mistakes is the best way to learn.  Often times the fear of failure is what keeps us from trying something new which is unfortunate because if we are unwilling to try new things we will never learn new things, which in turn will keep us from becoming proficient at those things and eventually mastering them.

With those thoughts in mind I attempted to make my first loaf of rye bread.  I am not a fan of rye (other than on a Reuben) but I met someone while volunteering on the farm who really enjoys it and I wanted to trade him a loaf of bread for some garlic he had.  I am a big fan of Simply Recipes when looking for guidance in making something new in the kitchen.  They had a straight forward recipe that I cut in half since I only needed one loaf and did my best to follow it to the letter. Other than the few rye specific ingredients (molasses, cocoa powder, caraway seeds) the recipe was a pretty standard bread recipe.

My loaf looked perfect when it went in to the oven:

However it had too much oven spring while baking and exploded through the middle.

Though the bread wouldn't be something that could be sold on a shelf because of it looks, it did taste great.  After it cooled I sliced and bagged the loaf.  I packed it to the farm on my bicycle the next morning where it was shared with the entire staff who seemed to enjoy it (though they may have just been humoring me, it is a very supportive environment).

For my next attempt at rye I am going to try a different recipe and see how the end result varies from this experience.  This attempt was not a failure.  It was a learning experience so that future loaves will be closer to perfection.