Alsace loaf with rye - Mellow Bakers Challenge

Mellow Bakers Challenge - Alsace loaf with rye - Dan Leopards recipe

This is my last of the three June challenges.
Where I live in South Australia we are very lucky to have fantastic local growers and suppliers of local grains and local flours. However, in saying that, I did have difficulty in getting these great whole grains at  local stores. ( different story for a different day ). Anyway!!! :-)

I followed the recipe as best as I could except that I dont have alcohol in my home as I dont drink.  Last week at work during friday afternoon drinks when asked if I would like a coca cola, (they know I dont drink alcohol)  I suggested that "I would like 200grams of white wine". The general chit chat around the room stopped, the room was suddenly quiet. They were all curious "why this 'teetotaller' was now asking for alcohol". I didnt really want to tell them what I wanted it for... I didnt want to 'fess up'.  My colleagues and friends obviously know me very well and they asked me ... "what?? are you planning on cooking with it?" So.. I coyly replied   .. "I need to soak rye grain for my bread this weekend" ... hmmm!! Not a good result.
 'Long story short'.... I followed Dan's suggestion and replaced the wine with yogurt.

I cooked the rye grains as per the instructions and then once cooled, soaked them in the yogurt in the fridge overnight. I had to rinse them very lightly in the morning as the yogurt was perhaps not thin enough. The recipe states a certain weight of soaked grains which I found to only be about half of what I had prepared so this is all that I used. I was very wasteful and unfortunately the remainder were discarded.

My home mill came into play to grind whole wheat and whole rye grains for the rye flour and the wholemeal flour that was required in this recipe.

All the ingredients were mixed. Once again that word jumped off the book, "Knead".. and again I thought "really"!!!???!!! This dough was wet and not yet able to be kneaded. My lightly floured board became a little more floured than 'lightly' but it did the trick. I could then do the required 'turns' at half hourly intervals as required.

Once fully fermented, I formed the 'sticks' or 'batons' as Dan described them and layed them on individual strips of lightly floured baking paper for their final rise. I find this method easy as then I can pick them up individually without disturbing the others and also use the paper to turn them over to put them on the baking tray or stone for slashing and baking.

They cooked well at exactly the temp and time shown in the book.

Result:- The taste is delicious. The crumb is light and the cooked grains are really nice.
I'm really looking forward to eating these with pasta for dinner.
I will definitely bake these again.
Of course I must finish by saying "Thank you Dan" for this really nice recipe.