No Knead rye bread with "Karikari"-salted plum カリカリ青梅入り捏ねないライ麦パン

 As I promised in the previous post on no-knead olive rye bread, I made no-knead rye bread with "karikari-koume" カリカリ小梅 or salted small green plums. Initially I thought this bread was a failure, primarily because after 18 hours of rising not all the flour was incorporated into the dough as it should have been. It did not rise much and even after baking it was still a fairly flat loaf. In addition, as I was getting ready to incorporate the green plums into the dough my wife came along and snarfed a plum to taste. (This was the first time she tried one). She made the face reserved for eating raw lemons and blurted, 'how can you ever eat these things?' For her, it was not only salty but also very sour. For me it was salty but not that sour.

Initially, I had prepared 200 grams of the salted plums to add to the dough. After her tasting, and at her suggestion, I reduced the amount to about 150 grams and chopped them into smaller pieces  It turned out this was the right thing to do.

On the cut surface the plums look like green olives.

Ingredients
300 grams bread flour
100 grams rye flour
2 grams instant yeast
150 grams Karikari-koume salted plum, stone removed and roughly chopped (It is easiest to crush the plum with the flat of the knife and then split the plum open to remove the stone. I chopped a bit more finely than for the olives)
300 grams cold water

Directions
Exactly same as the other no-knead breads. Mix everything, cover and let it rise for 12-18 hours. Form the ball on a well-floured board by pulling the edges to the center. Dust with more flour and cover with a floured dish towel (I also placed an inverted large bowl over it). Let it rise for 1-2 hours. Preheat the oven to 450F with cast iron Dutch oven inside for, at least, 30 minutes before baking. Place the dough in the hot cast iron dutch oven, put the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake an additional 10-15 minutes. Take it out and let it completely cool on a cooling rack.

All I can say after this experience is that yeast bread is very "forgiving". Turned out this "failure" bread was not bad at all. The taste was unique and very interesting (in a good way). The addition of the plums was just fine. The bread toned down the sourness and they provided a nice burst of saltiness reminiscent of olives but with the distinctive plummy flavor so characteristic of Japanese dishes. This combination of rustic rye bread and salty plum is similar to a rice ball with "karikari koume". The texture was very moist and the crust nice and crunchy. My wife fully endorsed the final product and said I should make it again.