Rye Bread

As noted previously, I have sometimes had trouble with getting rye bread to rise.  Rye has limited gluten.  Rye has other issues--the dough is usually gluey and messy to deal with, among other things.  One time I left some out of the refrigerator and it got pink mold on it.  I didn't even open the bag at that point but pitched it.

I've had pretty decent luck putting rye into cornbread.  And on occasion I've gotten rye/wheat loaves to rise well.

I recently baked a loaf of 50/50 rye/wheat.  The sponge after 12 hours was pretty dramatic.  The house was still relatively cool in mid-April, so I put it in the oven with the light on overnight.

I'm back to 12 hours' rise for the cooler months, but I may shorten that as the house warms.  Soon it will be near 80 inside again (meaning I have missed my window for sauerkraut this year...I just didn't get to it this winter/spring).

The loaf ended up okay--not great, but certainly much better than the fail loaf mentioned previously.  I don't know that I've ever gotten really vigorous oven spring from rye dough, but it's usually at least decent.