My 42th experiment: Rye bread

After my first experiment with rye flour, I become really curious about it. Here is my second attempt on rye bread. I am now creating my own recipe. It's a pumpernickel. Unfortunately, my experiment is really not quite successful. I end up getting two cannon balls!

Recipe: Rye bread with wild rice and sunflower seeds

Ingredients:
- 1 cup Hodgson Mill stone ground whole rye flour
- 1/2 cup King Arthur whole wheat flour
- 2 TB buttermilk powder
- 2 tp cocoa powder
- 2 TB molasses, unsulfured
- 3/4 tp coarse kosher salt
- 1/4 cup cooked wild rice
- 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
- about 1/3 cup water from cooking wild rice
- about 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 tp active dry yeast

Procedure:
1. Proof yeast in 2 TB warm water.
2. Mix flours thoroughly with buttermilk powder, cocoa powder, salt, and sunflower seeds. Add cooked wild rice. Mix. Then add proofed yeast and molasses. Mix thoroughly, giving the mixture 1 minute of rest after a few minutes of mixing. The mixture will slowly hydrate to form a dough.
3. Once the dough is formed, allow to chill overnight.
4. Warm dough up. Partition into two small pieces. Grease two baking pans. Place dough each each pan. Allow to rise for a few hours.
5. Bake at 350F for 1-2 hours.

Result:
Day 1, 9:47pm, initial mixture of ingredients:

Day 1, 9:57pm, dough ready to chill overnight:

Day 2, 6:04pm, dough after chilling:

Day 2, 6:11pm, dough partitioned into two pieces:

Day 2, 6:11pm, pans greased and dusted with white flour:

Day 2, 6:13pm, dough allowed to rise in warm oven:

Day 2, 8:59pm, dough risen almost 3 hours, constantly brushed with water during the rising time:

Day 2, 8:59pm, dough's height before baking:

Day 2, 9:48pm, loaf half baked:

Day 2, 10:55pm, loaves done, even though internal temperature not reaching 170F:

Day 2, 10:56pm, loaves' top:

Day 2, 10:58pm, loaf's bottom:

Day 2, 11:22pm, a loaf sliced up very thinly, about 1/8" thick:

Observation
1. I don't know what to make out of this experiment. The loaves are just so dense and tough! I wonder if it's just because I do not have enough water, or not enough yeast, or not enough gluten. Anyway, it's a good experiment.
2. The internal temperature of the loaves do not go beyond 170F. The crumb is still moist when done, but the crust is already hard as rock.

When our friends come over for dinner, we show them one of the cannon ball rye breads. They tried giving it a bite. It's really hard, but the taste is good. To my amazement, they actually want to keep the bread, presumably for their pillow fights. Too funny!!!