1 Experiments in Baking Black Bread (Schwarzbrot)
2 ===============================================
4 :date: 2019-10-28 21:02
6 :tags: sourdough, bread, rye
7 :authors: Maximilian Friedersdorff
8 :summary: Iteratievly figuring out how to bake Schwarzbrot
13 I want to bake Schwarzbrot, but I didn't (and still don't) have a recipe. I
14 knew that eventually I wanted to bake a bread containing only rye, water and
15 salt, that it should be dark in colour, dense and containing substantial
16 amounts of unmilled grain. I also wanted to avoid kneading the dough.
23 I use the german word Schwarzbrot, literally 'black bread', to describe this
24 type of bread. By that word I mean a bread of the type described above.
28 This is the first stage of the dough. It generally contains all of the liquid
29 ingredients, half the flour and is left to ferment over night.
33 I started by baking breads containing some significant fraction of non rye
34 flour, mostly because I was afraid of dealing with the mostly unpleasant
35 consistency of a pure rye flour.
37 I was also adding large amounts of seeds of various types.
64 I made the sponge the night before baking and the dough the next morning. The
65 consistency was something like thick porridge: Stiring is possible if hard,
66 kneading would have been impossible. I transferred the dough into *ungreased*
67 tins immediately thereafter and baked the bread at 200C for 1 hour after
68 coming home from work that evening.
72 * The dough was a little dry and hard to mix
73 * The bread did not rise sufficiently
74 * I baked the bread too long
75 * It was well received at work. After sitting for a view days it was quite
80 As bread 1, but with 60ml additional water and baked for 50m instead of 1 hour.
81 The consistency of the dough was better and the baked bread was not so dry.
83 I had great difficulty in removing the bread from the tins and the crust may
84 have separated in a few places on the bottom.
88 I realised now that the bread I was baking was relatively expensive. All the
89 seeds, especially the pumpkin seeds, really drove up the cost. When baked
90 it was hard to tell the difference between them anyway.
106 The first all rye bread that I tried to make. This turned out very sour and
107 quite dark in colour. I theorised that the whole grains I was adding
108 previously had a moderating effect on the acidity.
110 As with previous breads, there was not enough dough to fill up the forms.
117 * 250g Barley, soaked for 36h
128 I wrote this at the time:
130 "A dough consistency such as to maximise hardship in transferring dough to
131 forms. Maybe try wetter next time!"
133 The dough was much to dry (at 100% hydradition!), this was exactly the
134 consistency I was afraid of. If I remember correctly, once baked this one
153 The bread fell partially apart when I tried to remove it from the form. It
154 didn't stick to the form, it just fell apart. At the time I thought this
155 was because I didn't bake it for long enough. It was very soft and extremely
175 #. 10m with the oven turned off but cooling down
176 #. 5m in the form outside of the oven
180 The rest period after baking allows the bread to firm up somewhat before
181 removing it from the tins. This together with generously oiling and flouring
182 the tins before adding the dough meant that the bread did not fall apart on
185 Sometime about now I realised that the consistency of the bread changes
186 dramatically in between removal from the oven and when it is cold. Immediately
187 after removal it is like a wet sponge: very soft and extremely wet. I
188 thought that it was underbaked and tried baking it longer with no success. A
189 few attempts later I realised that that is just how it is. After cooling down
190 the crust is still crisp and the bread is firm.
198 #. 10m with the oven turned off
199 #. 5m in the form outside of the oven
203 Removal from the form was easy and the bread was intact. It also tasted good
204 and looked good from the outside. However the crust had substantially
205 detached from the crumb at the top. This was a trend that had been getting
206 worse in the last few baking attempts. I read this might be because the top
207 crust was drying while proofing and trapping a large gas bubble.
211 At this point I bought a flour mill. This allowed me to use rye grain that
212 I could buy in bulk for half the price of the flour. It being whole grain, I
213 could easily buy 25kg. This will take me 3-4 months to use up during which
214 time an equivalent quantity of flour would have gone off.
216 It also allows me to bake a pure rye bread with whole grains, have better
217 control over the fineness of the flour and produce malted rye.
224 * 440g very coarse rye grist
225 * 100g fine rye flour
231 * 540g fine rye flour
237 #. 10m with the oven turned off
238 #. 5m in the form outside of the oven
242 I did not add any whole rye grain in this one. I was afraid that the grain
243 would not soak sufficiently. This turned out to be an unfounded fear. Also,
244 milling this much fine flour was a lot of work (it's a manual mill). The
245 next recipes need to be made with coarser flour.
247 I reduced the problems of the detaching crust by cutting into the top surface
248 after baking for a few minutes. This reduced but did not eliminate the issue.
266 I have started leaving the sponge from the night before baking until the time
267 when I come home from work the next day.
271 #. Cut the top surface deeply
273 #. Slowly cooling down thing as previous
278 Cutting the top surface quite deeply really helped the problems of the
279 detaching crust here. This one turned out great. However:
281 * The dough was a little on the wet side before baking. Next time I should
282 try a 100% hydration dough. It could also be baked a little longer.
283 * The whole rye grain was a little on the crunchy side, especially within
284 the first 36 hours after baking. This improved with time.
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