75/30 Landbrot

A compact rye loaf reminiscent of old German baking techniques with 70% percent rye flour and an additional 5% of rye meal in the crust. How? An idea I borrowed from the technique of applying a “Dutch Crunch” to a soft sandwich bread. The crust is made as a separate dough and then spread on the surface of the bread before or halfway into the final rest. It’s proved in a dry and warm room, uncovered. Erratic tearing of the crust could have been more pronounced, perhaps, which can be achieved with a shorter final rest, I think. But the flavor is very big and finally, the crust definitely closer to what I’d like to have – firm without being too thick or tough. Very happy with this

Sourdough crust

• 25g medium rye meal
• 50g warm water
• small pinch of salt
• 1/3 tsp of mature rye sourdough, hydration: 100%

Mix ingredients together and let stand covered for 12-18 hours at room temperature. The mixture will look inflated.

Poolish

• 50g flour, Type 1050, or strong white
• 50g water
• 0.1g fresh yeast

Mix and let stand for 12-16 hours at room temperature. The mixture will look inflated and full of bubbles.

Dough

• 360g rye sourdough, hydration 100%
• 135g dark rye flour, Type 1150
• 85g flour, Type 1050 or strong white
• 110g water
• 9g sea salt
• 2g fresh yeast
• Poolish

Mix slowly to a smooth dough. Desired dough temperature: 28°C. There will be no visible gluten development. Let rest for 1 hour in a warm place.

Shape oblong and put seam side down into a Brotform (banneton, proving basket, …). With a brush apply the batter for the crust and prove for 45-60 minutes uncovered. Tilt the banneton and with a swift motion of your hands towards yourself let the dough fall onto a piece of baking paper seam side down.

Bake at 240°C for 10 minutes, without steam. Reduce heat to 210°C and bake for further 40 minutes.

Exploded sesame baguette

Tops flying off whole-grain breads are more or less common (but shouldn’t happen), leaving an unpleasant hole in the loaf. But I have not seen it happening to small breads like this sesame baguette à la Eric Kayser. The oven was quite hot as I had baked a tomato dish in it at 240°C for 50 minutes. Perhaps one reason for the utter ‘failure’. Not really. I stuffed it with stuff (butter, cheese, ham and watercress).

“If the bread has large holes, the baker has been sleeping”. Bakers’ saying.

Dinkelvollkornbrot

I don’t like the word ‘Vollkorn’ (whole-grain) as attribute for a bread or any other baked good. Perhaps bakers, in their shops, like to underline the extra bit of healthiness in their loaves, but doesn’t that give the impression that they chose their ingredients because it was about time to start eating healthy and stop devouring all those baguettes, croissants, brioches etc? And that’s supposed to resonate with customers? Not as long as “whole-grain” immediately translates to “not so tasty” in many people’s minds by giving such loaves too much praise for their (undisputed) positive effects on blood sugar levels, digestion,…

This loaf is moist from the inclusion of a wet soaker but unlike the Rye-Vollkornbrot it is quite mild and tame. Lovely as sandwich with lettuce, cream cheese and ham or as cheese canapés.

Soaker

• 100g sunflower seeds, linseeds or rolled oats (or all)
• 150g coarse spelt meal
• 300g water, cold

Mix ingredients for the soaker and let stand covered overnight or at least 6 hours.

Spelt sour

• 75g whole-spelt flour
• 45g water
• 1 tsp of mature rye or spelt sourdough, hydration 100%

Mix ingredients and let stand covered at room temperature for 15-20 hours.

Dough

• 130g whole-spelt flour
• approx. 100g warm water
• 40g white spelt or wheat flour
• 20g molasses
• 10g sea salt
• 8g fresh yeast
• 1g bread spice (caraway, anis and fennel in equal parts, ground)
• all of the soaker
• all of the spelt sour

Mix to a smooth and sticky dough, let rest for 45 minutes. Shape oblong, place in baking tin, which has been lined with baking paper and prove for about 1 hour at warm room temperature, 23°C.

Bake at 250°C for 5 minutes, then reduce heat to 220°C and bake for further 20 minutes, finally reduce heat to 190°C and bake for another 45 minutes.

I lined my tin this way:

My all-day bread

Perhaps not my everyday bread since I am constantly futzing around with a variety of bread formulas, but it feels almost like turning to safe haven. A no-nonsense mild but flavorful bread made from 40% rye flour and 60% ‘dark wheat flour Type 1050′. Very simple to do, probably hard to perfect and always delicious. If you are facing a higher demand for bread, do double the recipe and bake it in a big round loaf instead of two smaller ones, as that will give bigger slices, hence bigger and better bite.

My all-day bread (one small loaf)

• 240g flour, Type 1050
• 40g rye flour, Type 1150
• 240g mature rye sourdough, hydration: 100%, made from Type 1150 rye flour
• 180g water, 30°C
• 4g fresh yeast
• 8g sea salt
• 1 tsp of honey or molasses (or sugar beet syrup, edited 22 March 2010)

Dillute the yeast in about 50g of water together with the salt and the honey or molasses. Let stand for 20 minutes. Mix with all the other ingredients to a sticky dough, which will take about 10 at slow speed of the mixer.

Let rise for 1 hour. Shape and prove seam down in a banneton. Turn over so the seam is down again, brush with water and slash twice. Bake at 240°C for 10 minutes with steam. Then reduce heat to 210°C and finish baking for 40 minutes. Brush again with water as soon as it comes out of the oven to give the crust a nice shine. When baking the doubled recipe as a big round, bake for 70-80 minutes in total.

Schinkenbrot

Although there is no Schinken (ham) in the dough, this bread is popular with smoked ham from the Schwarzwald area of Germany.

This is a loose adaptation of a recipe found in the book “Knuspriges Brot aus dem eigenen Ofen” by W. Fahrenkamp.

Tip for storing rye breads: Up to recently I rather despised the sliced bread in plastic bags sold in supermarkets. But that makes sense. Unpacked, the loaf will dry out quickly and the crust will turn rock hard within a week, which is the time it takes me to eat a large loaf. Once cool, place the loaf inside a plastic bag (or a suitable enclosed bread container designed for that sole purpose). The crust will turn soft of course, but I think the aroma will even intesify and become more complex.

Recipe for ‘Schinkenbrot’ in a pdf-file