Dan Lepard’s extra moist stollen (Update 23 December 2008)

This is Dan Lepard’s stollen from last week-end’s “How to bake” on the site of the Guardian (recipe here and here).

It is cleverly made with a cooked flour-water porridge which increases moistness of the crumb. Mine looks a bit like brown bread although the amount of whole-wheat flour used is minimal. Maybe the spices? The flavor bears a deep impression of the fragrant mace, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon. It has a warm appeal and is perfect for a quick breakfast with a big cup’o tea in the morning just before leaving the house. Excellent!

I will make this again as soon as this one’s finished and will reduce spices a little to see how the flavor changes. I am a big fan of a clean buttery finish. The scale in the bath room confirmed it.

Update: The second one was even better. Strangely, this time it did not rise at all at any time, but had a great consistency after the bake. Very firm and moist, like a proper Stollen should be. Going to make another Stollen before the year ends – Mick Hartley’s Quarkstollen – a sourdough version of this popular fruit bread.

60/40 rye with old-bread-sourdough starter

I think I had the same idea about making a hearty rye bread at the same time as Jeremy from STIR THE POTS. I have yet to find a bread or baked good that he can not do and eventually it will happen, I am sure, but for now I tip my imaginary hat to his effort on Bauernbrot.

In my loaf, I think the separate yeast starter gave a crackling crust – something usually not associated with German rye breads, which tend to be rather soft. Hm, not quite where I want to be with my never-ending quest for “60/40″. A little bit of rye meal would not hurt to make the crumb a little more rustic. But excellent flavor.

60/40 rye with old-bread-sourdough starter aka “Crusty rye bread”

Old-bread-sourdough starter

• 1 slice of toasted and stale bread, preferably a dark type (~40g)
• 90g fine dark rye flour
• 150g warm water
• 1 tsp of mature rye sourdough, hydration: 100%

Let stand at room temperature for 16 hours.

Poolish

• 50g strong white flour
• 50g water
• 0.1g freh yeast

Let stand at room temperature for 16 hours.

Dough

• 180g fine dark rye flour
• 180g strong white flour or white spelt flour
• 175g warm water
• 5g fresh yeast
• 10g sea salt
• Old-bread-sourdough starter
• Poolish

Bulk fermentation: 1 hour.
Final fermentation: 45-60 minutes.
Bake at 240°C for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 210°C and bake for further 45 minutes.