German Sourdough Rye Bread

When I reactivated my rye sourdough starter to make Kontinenbrot, I ended up with extra culture. As you’ve probably heard me say, I have a hard time discarding sourdough so I decided to make another rye bread with the extra starter.

Many, but not all, German breads contain rye flour. This German Rye Bread would be considered a Krustenbrot. Don’t you just love those brots!  Krustenbrot means just what it sounds like, a crusty bread. This version is baked in a regular loaf pan or freeform, but typically this type of bread is baked in a square pan and would be scored using the cross-hatched pattern. Source: Bread: the breads of the world and how to bake them at home by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter.

 

This German Sourdough Rye is made with a blend of rye and wheat flours and utilizes a long fermentation process. It is also made with a sourdough so it has a noticeable, but mild, sourdough flavor. It makes a good sandwich bread. I particularly enjoyed it as a grilled cheese sandwich. I think it would also go well with sausages if you enjoy that sort of thing.

 

German sourdough Rye

Adapted from: Classic Sourdoughs by Ed and Jean Wood

Makes: 2 Medium Loaves

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (480 ml) rye culture (see process below)
• 1 cup (240 mL) almond milk
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 cup (115 g) rye flour
• 4-5 cups (560g - 700g) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
• Caraway seeds, optional

 

Process:

1) Making the culture proof

Begin by activating the culture and creating the culture proof. Use 2 cups of the culture proof in this bread. Put the remainder of the culture proof in the refrigerator to use as your new starter going forward.

2) Mixing the Dough:

Add the rye culture, milk, salt, molasses, and oil to a large mixing bowl and combine. Mix in the rye flour and the all-purpose flour, one cup at-a-time until it is too hard to mix by hand.  Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and knead it until it is smooth and elastic. 

 

3) Proofing the Dough

Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Put it in proofing box if you have one. Let it proof overnight for 8 to 12 hours at room temperature, about 70 degrees F.  After it proofs, remove the dough gently from the bowl onto a floured work surface and let it rest for 30 minutes. If the dough flattens a lot during the rest, add in a little more flour to give it structure before shaping.

 

4) Shaping the Loaves

Divide the dough in half and shape into two rough balls.  Let the dough balls rest seam side up for 5 minutes.

 

Flatten one dough ball slightly and shape it into a rough rectangle. Fold the top third down and the bottom third up and gently press the edges together.

 

Bring the sides in to form an envelope shape and gently press the edges down.

 

Turn the loaf seam side down. Repeat the shaping process with the other dough ball.

 

Place the loaves in greased loaf pans and cover with plastic wrap.  I used 8 1/2” x 4 1/2” glass loaf pans.

 

5) Proofing the Loaves

Proof the loaves for 2 to 4 hours, until almost doubled in bulk.  The dough should be almost level with the tops of the pans.  Proof the loaves for the first hour at room temperature. Then let them rise in a proofing box, if you have one, at 85 degrees to 90 degrees F.

 

6) Scoring the Loaves

Brush the loaves with an egg wash and sprinkle with caraway seeds if you like. I omitted the egg wash and caraway seeds because I didn’t have any. Make diagonal slashes on the tops of the loaves using a lame or serrated knife.

 

7) Baking the Loaves

Places the loaves in a cool oven, then set the temperature to 375 degrees F. Bake the loaves for 70 minutes.  Partway through the baking cycle, rotate the loaves for even baking.

 

8) Cooling the Loaves

Remove the baked loaves to a wire rack to cool. If you’re using glass loaf pans, let them cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.  

 

Remove the loaves from the pans and cool 15-20 minutes before slicing and serving.  Since I didn’t use an egg wash, I brushed the loaves with a little bit of olive oil after I removed them from the baking pans.

 

I enjoyed these rye loaves. They are slightly tangy due to the sourdough, but not overly so.  The texture is a little lighter due to the inclusion of the all-purpose flour. 

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

A Buttery and Cheesy Sourdough Surprise

I recently joined Google+ and have been enjoying connecting with old friends and making new ones and hanging out in hang outs. In the process of adding new friends to my circles, I ran across a new baking group called Sourdough Surprises. They’ve been having fun using their sourdough starters with friends all over the world for the past several months, but I just found out about them. 

Since I’ve been focusing on sourdough this month, I decided it would be fun to join them. Their challenge for the month was to make sourdough brioche dough and then make babka using the brioche dough. I love sourdough and brioche so I figured you couldn’t go wrong with that combination.

 

It took me a little while to figure out how I was going to accomplish this, but I finally found my inspiration in the Classic Sourdoughs’ method for making cheesy sourdough brioche and Peter Reinhart’s method for shaping bapka in Artisan Breads Everyday. 

I utilized the Classic Sourdoughs’ method for activating the culture and creating the culture proof and referred to their ingredients for the Cheesy Brioche.  However, I used my own process for mixing and fermenting the dough. They only proofed the brioche dough once, after it had been shaped and placed in the brioche pan, and didn’t allow any time in the refrigerator (which I thought was rather odd for brioche) so I did my own thing and let it bulk ferment in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. After the bulk fermentation, I followed the process for shaping bapka in Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Everyday.

The Classic Sourdoughs’ method involves several different steps so I broke it up into two different posts. The first post focused on Activating the Sourdough Culture and Creating the Culture Proof.  This post focuses on making a delicious brioche dough using the culture.

 

Cheesy Sourdough Brioche/Bapka

Adapted from: Classic Sourdoughs by Ed and Jean Wood and Artisan Breads Everyday by Peter Reinhart

Makes: 2 Loaves

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (480 ml) culture from culture proof *
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces (115 g) Gruyere cheese, grated
• 4-5 cups (560 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 6 eggs (I used 6 large eggs, but I think medium would work better or only use 5)
• 1 cup (240 g) butter
• 1 egg yolk (for the egg wash)
• 2 teaspoons water

 

Process:

* Begin by activating the culture and creating the culture proof. Then use the culture to make this bread. 

1) Mixing the Dough:

Place the 2 cups of culture in a large mixing bowl. 

 

Add the sugar, salt, cheese and 2 cups of the flour to the bowl and mix well.

 

I mixed the dough by hand using a wooden spoon to begin with, then I switched to a Danish dough whisk. You can use a stand mixer if you prefer.

Mix the dough until it forms a sticky mass. Then mix in the eggs one at a time.

 

2) Kneading the Dough

At this point, you can turn the dough out onto a floured surface to knead it, but my dough was so sticky that I kept it in the bowl.  Add 2 more cups of flour and knead until the dough is elastic, about 10 minutes. You want to make sure the gluten is sufficiently developed before you add the butter or the dough won’t be able to support it.  My dough was still quite sticky so I let it autolyse (rest) for about 45 minutes before adding the butter.  With that much better, it needed all the help it could get.

To add the butter, break off quarter-size pieces and work it into the dough using your hands and a dough scraper. I added an additional 1/2 cup of flour during this process because the dough was really soft and sticky due to the butter.

 

3) Bulk Fermentation

After I finished kneading the dough, I put it in a clean bowl, covered it with plastic and placed it in the refrigerator to ferment for a couple of hours.

 

4) Shaping the Bapka

After 2 1/2 hours, I removed the dough from the refrigerator and divided it into two balls.  I let the balls rest on the counter dusted with flour for a few minutes.

 

Then, I shaped each ball into a batard shape by spreading the dough out into a rough rectangle and bringing the edges up to meet the center and gently pinching the seam closed.

 

Next, I turned the dough seam side down and carefully rolled the dough out to form a long log.

 

Coil the log into a circular snail shape. The dough was still sticky so I was sprinkling flour as I was doing this.

 

Then you’ll want to stand the coil shape on its end so that it is perpendicular to the counter rather than lying flat.

 

Press down on the coil to compress it into a loaf shape then place it in a greased loaf pan.  I used 8 1/2” x 4 1/2” glass loaf pans.

 

5) Proofing the Loaves

Cover the loaves with plastic wrap or a towel and let them proof for 2 to 3 hours until the bapka fills the pan or has increased in size about 1 1/2 times.  By the time mine finished proofing, the nice coil shape was gone.  I didn’t coil it tightly enough because it was so sticky and kept sticking to my fingers.

 

6) Baking the Loaves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Whisk the egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of water until frothy.  Brush the loaves with the egg wash right before baking. Bake the loaves for 20 to 25 minutes, the rotate pans for even baking.  Bake until the top is golden brown and a wooden skewer stuck in the middle comes out clean. 

 

7) Cooling the Loaves

Remove the loaves to a wire rack to cool.  Cool before slicing and serving.

This bread has been YeastSpotted in the weekly bread roundup hosted by Susan of Wild Yeast.

 

10) Slice and Enjoy

This Cheesy Sourdough Brioche/Bapka is buttery smooth and delicious.  I used gruyere cheese, which is the same color as the dough, so even though I rolled the dough into the babka shape (which was no easy feat with this sticky dough), you can’t see the spiral pattern very well.  In hindsight, I should’ve spread it with jam so you could’ve seen the coils, but I was having too much fun with the cheesy dough.

The good thing about this buttery and sticky dough is that it makes a great tasting loaf whether you call it babka or brioche.

 

I’m a little late to the party, but I really enjoyed baking with the Sourdough Surprises.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Activating a Sourdough Culture/Starter

I wanted to use my apple starter in a special bread recipe, but the starter had been sitting in the refrigerator since the beginning of November. It hadn’t been fed so it was rather acidic.

Normally, when I feed my Apple Starter, I pour off part of the hooch (the liquid stuff at the top), stir it down, and discard all but 250 grams. Then I feed it with 125 grams of flour and 125 grams of water and let it rest on the counter for a few hours until it’s active and bubbly and ready to go.

However, as I mentioned, it had been about two and a half months since I had fed the starter so I opted not to go with the normal feeding process. I chose to activate the culture using a different method that reduces the acidity level and ensures the culture is fully activated before using it in bread dough.

This post focuses on how to activate a sourdough culture (also known as a starter).  The next post will feature bread made with the activated culture.

This is what the starter looked like when I took it out of the refrigerator and before I began this process.

 

I’ve mentioned this method in a couple of my previous posts, but I had such fun with this experiment that I decided to present the process in a little more detail.

This method for activating a sourdough culture, as outlined in the book Classic Sourdoughs by Ed Wood and Jean Wood, works particularly well if the starter has been in the refrigerator for awhile without being fed.

Note: The following process uses the term culture and starter interchangeably.

 

Step 1: Activate the Sourdough Culture

I began by stirring the starter and the hooch, then I filled the jar completely with warm water and stirred until it was thoroughly mixed.

 

You’re supposed to leave a little more than 1 cup in the jar (240 ml) and discard the rest. This is the part I always have trouble with (because I hate to waste things) so instead of discarding it, I put another cup of starter in a different jar. Now, I had two jars instead of one. If you’re going to make more than one loaf, having an additional jar of starter is actually a good thing. I only took a photo of one jar, but you get the gist.

 

Next, I added 125 grams of all-purpose flour to the culture in each jar to make it the consistency of thick pancake batter. The instructions in the book call for less flour, but I found that after I filled the jars with warm water, the starter was really liquid. So I added more flour, but no additional water. If your starter is not as liquid, you might need to add up to 1/2 cup of water to return it to the consistency of thick pancake-like batter.

 

At this point, I had two jars that were each a little over half full. I put them in my proofing box and proofed them for 4 hours at 73 degrees F. I chose that temperature because it was in the middle of the recommended range of 70 to 75 degrees F.

At the 4-hour mark, the volume in the jars had increased and it was fully active and ready to use in the next step. I forgot to take a photo of the fully active starter in the jars. I was ready to move on.

 

Step 2: Create the Culture Proof

The next step is to create a culture proof using the fully active culture. The reason you do this is to prepare the culture for use in the sourdough bread and to optimize the flavor and leavening abilities.

To create the culture proof, you start with a fully active culture (Step 1 above), then you stir it vigorously again and divide it in half. You’ll have two jars of culture at this point. Of course, I had 4 jars since I doubled the initial step.

 

Feed each jar with 2/3 cup of all-purpose flour and about 1/2 cup of water. Then proof the culture for 8 to 12 hours at about 70 degrees F. I proofed the culture for 2-3 hours at 65 degrees F. which was the temperature downstairs. After about 3 hours, I placed the culture in my proofing box and proofed it for the remainder of the time at 70 degrees F. My proofing box doesn’t go any lower than 70 degrees F. so that’s why I let it proof at room temperature for a few hours. This is supposed to help produce good flavor and leavening without making it too sour or inhibiting the yeast.

After the culture has proofed for 8 to 12 hours, it is ready to be used in bread. 

The next post features a Buttery and Cheesy Sourdough Surprise made with this culture.  I also have something special planned for the other jars of sourdough. So stay tuned…

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy