Home
    Recipes
          Bread

Rye 100 Pcnt Bogenblockenbrod

This is strongly influenced by authentic German Pumpernickel.
My sister coined the name for its laxative properties.
Substitute different sugars or authentic "goldsaft" for variety.
Replace the black malt with rye flour if you don't like it too dark.
The bread should be dark, dense, moist, fragrant and sweet.
It's excellent, thinly sliced, with salty meats, smoked fish or mature cheeses.

Day One

Ferment a starter at room temperature for about 24 hours ...
 200 g rye sourdough starter - amount not critical 
 500 g wholemeal rye flour
 500 g water

Soak whole rye seeds and crushed black malt in boiling water.
Do not drain. Allow to cool. When cool add to the ferment, above.
 200 g rye berries 
 100 g crushed black malt - from beer brewing suppliers
 400 g boiling water
 
Allow about 24 hours to pass.

Day Two

Dissolve salt and sugar in a little boiling water.
Allow this to cool and add to the main batch above.
  15 g salt
 100 g unrefined molasses - substitute other sugars for variety / availability
 500 g wholemeal rye flour
 ??? g water - add slowly to get a somewhat wet bread dough consistency

Knead briefly, then fridge ferment until there is visible dough expansion.
This bread does not rise much at all.
The timing depends on how active the starter is and could easily be another 24 hours. 
Use a lidded Pullman tin or improvise aluminium foil wrapped loaves.

Bake for 18 hours at 110 degrees Celsius.
The added and naturally occurring sugars should caramelise for colour and flavour.
The loaves need to be lidded or foil wrapped to prevent excessive drying out.
It's OK to cool the bread in its tin. It should release more easily if you do.

There should not be a hard crust.
If necessary cool in a sealed plastic bag to rehydrate the crust.
Cool completely.
Freeze portions for longer term storage.