Tag Archives: Rye

December 6th, 2019

Malty Bread with Seeds

Malziges Saaten-Mischbrot (1)[3]This is a typical blogger problem during the winter months: the daylight vanishes at the same time I pull a bread from the oven. If the day was bright enough for nice pictures anyway. The problem can be easily solved with a foto lamp. But with a broken bulb, my studio lamp was as useful for nice pictures as a coat hanger. And so I put one loaf in the freezer and ordered a new LED bulb. Until it was delivered, the weather cleared, too and I was finally able to take a nice picture with daylight.

And I’m very happy, as I like this bread very much. It is a perfect every day bread for lovers of sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Continue reading

November 17th, 2019

Pameln

Pameln (1)[7]The second recipe for rolls from East-Germany which I found in an old Baking book from 1930 is a recipe for “Pameln”. The recipe itself was once again rather short: Use a waterdough with some rye flour mixed in. But at least the description for forming was better this time: Roll the dough into a shape similar like Berliner Schrippen and cut it length wise prior to baking.

I try to research about this kind of rolls like I did it for the Salzkuchen, but I only found some posts of people looking for a recipe. And so here it is, my try on an Pameln. It is a delious roll with a soft crumb and complex flavour due to the sourdough!

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October 6th, 2019

Kneppkuchen

Kneppkuchen-13Is there still someone who is surprised about another traditional sweet bread recipe with rye? The longer I collect the regional recipes, the more sweet recipes with rye flour, raisins and sometimes spices I found. Personally I am only wondering about the fact that these kind of breads somehow did not appear in modern baking.

Todays rolls fit in perfectly in the row of Krintstuut, Onjeschwedde, Berchtesgardener Stuck, Kleenroggen and Westerwälder Neujährchen. The Kneppkuchen is a recipe somewhere between a lean cake and a very rich roll. It is made with rye (of course), raisins, anise seeds and cardamom. Originally the dough is prepared with lard, but for vegetarians and vegans it can be baked with coconut oil instead, too.

In my version, you can find a sourdough for a deeper flavour as well as the fact, that the high amount of fat is mixed to short crust dough before being added to to the dough. This little trick makes kneading in the fat much easier.

When serving you do not need anything but a bit of butter, as their flavour is so deep and rich!

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September 30th, 2019

Mangbrot

Mangbrot (1)

The Mangbrot was a favourite of my grandfather. It is a bread with a long tradition in this corner of germany. The idiom term “Mang” means “Mixed” and referred to the fact that the bread is baked with a mixture of rye and wheat flour. Here, like in other region with cold climate and loamy soil, rye and wheat was planted as mixture. So in good years, the mixture contained more wheat, while in bad years the robust rye prevailed the mixture. I considered this fact and prepared already the sourdough with a mixture of rye and wheat flour. This makes the sourdough a bit milder.

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September 14th, 2019

Weeknight loaf

Feierabend-Kasten (1)I got a bit to optimistic when I tried the first version of this bread. Adding a big portion of  very ripe pâte fermentée was not the best of my ideas, as this brings to much enzymes in the dough and has the same effect like adding sourdough. After 24 hours proofing time the dough was still stable, but the resulting bread lacked volume. A sure sign that the gluten network already started to decline.

And so I put the recipe back on my worktable and sat down to write a better version. This time it is a straight dough which develops its flavour during the long fermenting time. Yoghurt and good portion of whole grain flour adds another aromatic notes to the loaf. In this combination, the dough is stable over the course of 24 hours and the breads have a nice volume. Which can be seen in their crumb, too. It is soft and fluffy and can be toasted very well, too! A perfect bread for breakfasts and lunch boxes!

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August 6th, 2019

Three Grain Bread (Weeknight version)

Dreikorn-Rundling-23

Some time ago a reader asked if my beloved three grain bread recipe could be modified so it would use boiled sourdough and could fit in a busy weeknight schedule. As changing from sourodugh to boiled sourdough meant replacing the soaker as well. This are quite some changes and I decided that were to many chances to give away a recipe variant without testing. Around the same time I got my hands on beautiful big mold glasses from Weck (1050ml) .  They have straight walls and are perfect for baking breads. When the bread is sliced, its slices are perfectly round.  I am totally in love with the new form.

And the bread itself is a delicious as the two other variants. And like always it is a good sign for a favourite bread when I bake a recipe in variants!

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July 6th, 2019

Spelt Farmers Bread

Dinkel-Bauernbrot-13This Farmers bread is the right bread for every one who is looking for a rustic bread for busy weeknights. It uses the same principle like the summer evening bread: boiled sourdouhg. To enhance the sourdough flavour I allowed the rye sourdough to ripen for a long time. This can be troublesome in busy weeks but boiled sourdough has one major advantage: It can be prepared one week in advance. So all you have to do is making it on a not so busy day (maybe at the weekend?) and keep it in the fridge until needed. Then you have a “ready to use” sourdough at hand every day of a week.

In this case it is used for flavour and tiny tangy flavour in this bread which contains about 70% Spelt and 30% rye. Such a rustic bread gain a lot from a tiny amount of bread spice added to the dough. I opted for a small amount which only underlines the complex flavours of the long and cold fermentation. But of course you are free to adjust this amount to your taste: use more for a stronger flavour or leave it away if you do not like it. The mixture can be varied as well. I normally opt for same parts of fennel, caraway and coriander seeds. Continue reading

June 9th, 2019

Scharwaie

Scharwaie-43When I heard the term “Scharwaie” the first time, I had to asked my badish host to repeat the word. Spoken with Baden accent it sounds similar to “sha – wai”.  Even a second repletion didn’t help me. Finally Iasked to write the word down, as my brain struggled to get the letters on the right places. The Term “waie” means flat bread or cake while “Schar” is thought to come from scrabbing left over dough pieces together after forming the regular bread. It is a traditional flat bread that is baked in Baden, a region in the south west of Germany. And as I am a collector of traditional bread I was hooked.

Back home I had to wait for another baking day at the wood fire community oven in our museum. But as I knew that our leftover dough pieces would not enough to feed the whole crowd, I prepared a dough just for this case. It is a dough with 80% wheat and 20% rye which rises over night in the fridge. In combination with some added sourdough, this creates a delicious flavour. Backed for a short time at high temperature, the bread is soft and fluffy and so delicious.

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May 31st, 2019

Röggchen

Rggchen-23Last weekend I felt a hunger for rustic rolls with a good portion of rye. As the weekend was crowded with appointments, I opted once again for my favourite schema for easy sunday morning rolls: Proofing the dough over night. Forming, proofing and baking is something I can normally fit into our sunday morning routine easily.  And having still warm rolls for breakfast is something, we love, too.

For the form I opted for simple but pretty pattern made by a roll stamp. This time I decided to press it down through nearly the whole roll which resulted in a beautiful flower-like looking roll. And so the rolls fulfil all my criteria for good weekend rolls: easy to make and delicious! Is there anything else to wish for?

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May 18th, 2019

Krintstuut

Krintstuut-13Last autumn we spent a week in East Frisia. Our land lady told us, that the bakery around the corner should be the best of Leer and so we had to buy some bread there, of course. Something that rouse my curiosity was a small package of sliced raisin bread called Krintstuut. As it was a busy morning in the bakery, I didn’t ask about the ingredients. Tasting the bread back in our cottage, I was sure that it contained a good portion of rye. And so I used a quieter time in the bakery to confirm my assumption.

Finding rye in a sweet bread is nothing that surprises me any longer as I learned about so many traditional sweet breads baked that way. And it makes sense so much: Rye growth even in regions which are not suitable for wheat. So rye was always a grain used for many peasant breads. Wheat bread was something baked only for holidays. And even sweet breads with rye was something most families ate only on Sunday.

My interpretation of the recipe takes into account what I learned about bread baking in the 19. century: It uses sourdough but as well yeast. Back in time, the yeast was bought often at breweries and used for the “finer” breads like raisin bread.The sweetness stems from raisins alone as sugar was scarce back then. And that is really sweet enough. The bread is delicious, especially with some butter and honey.

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