I have had some success in the short time I have been making this bread. I have been putting in study hours though. Recently I
made a few Rye breads and a 30% medium rye with King Authur brand I think it was, turned out respectible. Then I wanted to try
a dark rye and bought some Bob's red mill Dark Rye Organic, stone ground and made a 30% dark rye flour loaf and it looked
great. However It certainly didn't clock in as a dark rye in taste or much so in the baked appearance either. I'm sure this sort of
thing must have come up in discussion before, but I'm sort of new to all this yet and if anyone in the know doesn't mind giving me
the story on these brands it would help me out.
Thanks...
For a long time I ordered Bob's Red Mill dark rye, but then they stopped shipping and closed the online store. I went in search of rye and found the Danko Rye that is available from Barton Springs Mill in Texas. Not cheap, but such great flavor.
Happy baking.
Ted
A while back, I did a taste test of three ryes I had on hand: https://weightloss-slim.fit/node/76394/ryes-prize%3C/a%3E. I'm not a fan of Bob's so I didn't even include it. -- Rob
I have used whole rye flour from Janie's Mill, Breadtopia, and Vega (a Serbian import purchased at a Serbian grocer). I have also used Bay State Milling "dark" rye purchased from Stanley Ginsberg's now closed NYBakers. The BSM dark rye actually has more of the outer layers of the grain in the flour than "whole" rye does; its ash content is closer to 2.4% than 1.8% (typical whole rye ash). I believe Ardent Mills dark rye is similar to the BSM dark rye. You might want to look for those flours; Bakers Authority has dark rye that is probably from Ardent Mills.
The BSM dark rye definitely was different from other whole rye flours I have used. It was much darker and absorbed much more water than whole rye flour. I have not done any taste comparisons between rye flours, but I've been satisfied with the ones I have used.
Before Hodgsen Mills was bought out and closed (years ago,now), I used their rye flour and made some great loaves. So where did all the rye grain go that they used to process into flour? Did all the rye-growing farmers go bust? No one else seemed to pick up the slack when they went away.
If you're in the Northeast of the United States, Farmer Ground Flour and Ground Up Grain (both of which, I believe, use rye grown by upstate NY's Oechsner Farms) sell rye flour & rye berries. After a horrible run with Bob's Red Mill, I switched to Farmer Ground's rye -- and it's seriously good stuff. -- Rob
One is a whole rye flour, not really a dark rye. The other is a blend of unspecified composition, maybe not really a medium rye. That's all there is to it. Other than those two, carried by some grocery stores (mine has both), and Great River flour from Amazon your options are reduced to mail-order places and occasional ethnic stores finds.
I contacted King Arthur several years ago about its medium rye flour. I received this email response:
The ash content for the KAB medium rye would be similar to German Type 997 (0% moisture content).
I’ve been very pleased with Janie’s Mill Dark Rye. I pretty much only use their flours.