Pumpernickel

It bakes for sixteen hours or more in a lidded tin, and the colour is the bake, not an additive.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 500 g coarse wholemeal rye flour
• 250 g whole rye grains, soaked overnight and drained
• 200 g active rye sourdough starter
• 450 ml warm water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon dark treacle, optional

Method

1. IT BAKES FOR SIXTEEN HOURS OR MORE IN A LIDDED TIN, AND THE COLOUR IS THE BAKE, NOT AN ADDITIVE. Its article gives the figure exactly: LOAVES ARE BAKED IN LONG, NARROW LIDDED PANS 16 TO 24 HOURS IN A LOW-TEMPERATURE, STEAM-FILLED OVEN. That is overnight and most of the next morning, and it is unattended -- the oven is left to stand with the lid on and nothing is done to it.
2. AND IT NAMES WHAT THE SHORTCUTS COST. The quick versions FORGO THE SOURDOUGH STARTER, LONG BAKE TIMES, AND STEAMING, AND INSTEAD USE BAKER'S YEAST AND SHORT DRY BAKES THAT DO NOT ALLOW FOR THE SAME DEGREE OF MAILLARD BROWNING. The others reach for COLORING AND FLAVORING AGENTS instead. The brown is baked in or painted on; there is no third way.
3. THERE IS NO YEAST IN IT. A rye sourdough starter does the lifting, such as it is -- this is a dense loaf and is meant to be. The article's words are a TYPICALLY DENSE, RYE BREAD made with COARSELY GROUND RYE.
4. THE WHOLE GRAINS ARE SOAKED OVERNIGHT AND GO IN WHOLE. The article names RYE BERRIES among the ingredients, and unsoaked they stay hard through even a day in the oven.
5. MIX IT STIFF AND LET IT FERMENT FOUR HOURS. Rye has no gluten to develop, so there is nothing to knead -- work it until it is uniform and stop.
6. PACK IT INTO A NARROW LIDDED TIN, no more than two thirds full. Narrow and lidded is what traps the steam, which is what keeps a sixteen-hour bake from becoming a brick.
7. A HUNDRED AND TWENTY DEGREES, LID ON, AND THEN LEAVE IT. Sixteen hours at the low end of the article's range. A pan of water in the oven helps if yours vents.
8. IT WILL NOT RISE AND IT WILL NOT BROWN ON TOP. Both are right. The colour develops through the crumb rather than on the crust, which is what distinguishes it from a dark rye.
9. COOL IT A FULL DAY BEFORE CUTTING, and cut it very thin. Warm, it is gummy; a day later it slices like cake and keeps for weeks.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes