Rye Chips
His hand looks freakishly large here, due to the weird angle.
Before we get started, an announcement! Dave, from Happy Acres Blog, will guest author next week’s recipe! If you’ve never seen his blog, you’re in for a real treat! His writing is informative and straight-forward, pictures are to die for, and his narratives are both relaxing to read and highly engaging. We’re doing coordinated posts, so the origin story on Sunday will be all about kimchi, and his recipe will be for kohlrabi kimchi! I cannot wait to try out his recipe!
The last time I snuck out to get a bag of rye chips on the sly, it occurred to me that I should just make them. This post is mostly about being willing to share, because I totally hide my purchased ones since they don’t come in “sharing” sizes. This post is also about using stuff up. I had some milk kefir to get rid of, so that went in here as well. If you don’t do milk kefir, you can use yogurt, milk, alternative milk, water, whatever. I also wanted to use up the last of the New Zealand rye so I could move on to other ryes, and the recipe reflects that. I used dark rye for this, but any rye is fine. Those of you with non-rye starters can totally use what you have to make these; just use rye flour instead of whatever grain your starter normally goes with when preparing the dough (not when feeding the starter). These do not taste exactly like the ones you can buy. The rye flavor is much stronger in the homemade version, and I think there’d be some benefit to mixing the spices directly into the dough with the flour, then kind of “topping it of” with a sprinkle of it before the second bake. I always have wanted some sort of charred rye chips, so I made sure to not stir my chips during the second bake.
Some other things y’all need to know, most of which pertains to this recipe specifically:
This recipe is written for a stand mixer. I dislocated both of my wrists last Wednesday, so I won’t be able to hand knead until that’s all settled down. In the unlikely event I post recipes involving kneading in probably the next 6 weeks, those will be stand mixer recipes a bit, I assume. You can do this by hand, though, if that’s also your preference.
My guess is there will be nothing involving yeast that has to be kneading or shaped posted, though, until I’m done with PT.
Because I was baking while in a lot of pain, I did not take volumetric measurements for the wet ingredients that are listed in grams with volumetric guesses, as the bowl was sitting on the scale and I didn’t want to have to wash extra dishes in that state or try to add more steps than my brain fog could accommodate. Those of you without a scale will need to monkey with the recipe a bit to get it working right for you, and I’m sorry for that. If you do, please let us know what volumetric measurements worked for you in the comments.
This starter was starving before I baked with it. You don’t need to starve your starter. Just be aware that I did, and that had nothing to do with this recipe and everything to do with being a neglectful starter carer. Ideally your starter will be fed.
Here’s what you’ll need
For the dough
500g/17.6oz/4c rye flour
170g starter (no proper guesses, but my memory is that this was probably around 3/4 cup)
130g milk kefir (around 3/4c)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar (I used white, but brown would be better I think)
3/4-1 cup water (this will vary based on humidity and your specific rye)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
For the chips
1/4 cup oil (I used olive; you use what you have on hand)
4 tablespoons garlic powder
4 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons onion powder
Here’s what you’ll do, part 1
Put the flour, starter, salt, and milk kefir in your bowl, then move it to the stand mixer, which you’ll use with the dough hook. Turn the mixer on, and when the ingredients are mostly combined, slowly add water until the dough forms a mass. If you go too far here, it will really be a paste and you’ll need more flour. Add the vegetable oil, then press into some kind of shape, cover, and rise. I meant to do this only 4 hours, but I also found at the 4 hour mark that I was not going to deal with this right then, so it rose for 16 probably, then went in the fridge for 24 hours after that because I still wasn’t having it. You do you, but 4 hours is all you really want; you simply have flexibility to make it work with your scheduling needs.
Once it’s done “rising” (in quotes because rye never rises like wheat), turn your oven on to 400F/200C/GM6, cut the dough into quarters, shape them into bread stick logs, and put those on a sheet tray. They don't need be beautiful, given we’re cutting them up once baked, but you will likely need a lot of oil to shape them. A lot of oil. You also could use cold water.
Ideally, you all won’t be doing this while injured, as these should all be roughly the same length and thickness, but i’m giving myself extra grace on this front since they're being cut up. They also should be smoother. You can probably see the order in which I shaped these.
Bake time, part 1
You oven should now be preheated to 400F/200C/GM6, and once it is, go on ahead and put your tray of sticks in for 30 minutes. Once they’re out of the oven and cooled, put these somewhere out of the way until tomorrow. Two, if you need it. I wouldn’t be inclined to go to 3, but you can.
They should look basically like this, but they will be a little darker if you bake them fully. Remember also that because I’m using dark rye, my final product will be darker than yours is if you’re using regular rye.
Here’s what you’ll do, part 2
Grab your sticks and slice them thinly. 3mm (1/8”) or so is good. I had Ross do this for me. Put the slices in a bowl, and add the oil and spices. Mix this up really, really well for more even distribution. Or ask your kid to do it, if you have any of those. I had Child Tester do this for me. Messy preparations seem to be the most fun!
Those are pretty just as little bread slices and would work well topped with something as a not-twice baked type of snack!
Bake time, part 2
Put all your slices on a/some sheet pans, and pop them in the oven for 45 minutes, or until crispy. If you want them a bit more charred like you see below, don’t stir them up while they’re baking. If you don’t, stir every 15 minutes.
