Schnelles Roggenbrot

The trend with "Schnelles" continues. This time it is the "Fast Ray Bread" :)

For one 900g loaf you'll need:

20g of Yeast (Hefe)
50g of Liquid Malt Extract (flüssiger Malzextrakt)
300ml of Water (Wasser)
350g of Ray Flour (Roggenmehl) type 1150
150g of Wheat Flour (Weizenmehl) type 550
15g of Salt (Salz)
150g of liquid Sour Dough Starter (flüssiger Sauerteig)

Flour for the kneading

1. Mix the yeast and the malt extract with lukewarm water. Add the flour, the sour dough and the salt and mix it for 7 minutes (3 slow, then fast).

2. Place the dough on a flouered surface and let it rest for 30-40min under a linen towel.

3. Fold the dough once from each of the four sides into the middle, and flatten it. Cover it with flour and carve a square (without carving the corners) in it with a sharp knife. Then carve a cross in the middle, or any other form you fancy. Place the dough on a tray covered with baking paper and let it rest covered for another 30min.

4. In the meantime, set the oven on 240degrees and place a tray with water inside. Take the tray out as soon as the temperature is reached. Place the bread in the middle of the oven and bake for 10 minutes, then decrease the temperature to 220degrees and bake for another 35 minutes.

Comments:

Malt Extract: the closest thing to the German Malzektrakt I could find in Coop was the Swedish Brödsirap. Sweden offers sirap in a number of variaties as seen under the link above: Light, Dark, White, Light Bread and Dark Bread. I used the Dark Bread Baking Syrup, which is really sugar-based syrup with 20% malt extract, whereas Herr Armbrust suggested to use pure malt extract. We will see whether the result will be enjoyable. The idea of the malt is to give the bread a depth, moistiness and maltiness (!), whereas syrup is a rather sweat thing :)

Salt: I used 2/3 of the salt again as it was just enough to use these proportions with the last bread. Is there different degree of saltiness in salt?

Schnelles Vierkornbrot

The name suggests two things:

1. that the making of this bread is not too time-consuming

2. there are four different types of seed being used

True it is, but only half of it: the seeds. Depends what time you include in the duration.

The bread is made with both yeast and sourdough, which I think is my favourite combination.

For two loaves of 650g each, you'll need:

For the Pre-dough (Einlage):

200ml of Water (Wasser)
50g of Rolled Oats (kernige Haferflocken)
50g of Flax Seed (Leinsamen)
50g of Sunflower Seed (Sonnenblumenkerne)
50g of Pumpkin Seed (Kürbiskerne)

For the dough:

20g of Yeast (Hefe)300ml of Water (Wasser)
350g Wheat Flour (Weizenmehl) type 550
250g Rye Flour (Roggenmehl) type 1150
25g of Salt (Salz)
75g of liquid Sour Dough Starter (flüssiger Natursauerteig)

Extras:

Flour for the kneading
50g of sesame seeds for rolling (Wälzen)
Baking paper

(I increased the ingredients above with 50% as I wanted to get three loaves :)

1. Boil the water and poor it over the mixed seeds in a bowl. Mix it well and let it rest for 2-3 hours. I put the flax seed in first after an hour, as I did not have them at home when started. This gave them less time to swell in the water.

2. Mix the yeast in a bowl with lukewarm water. Add the swollen seed, then the flour, the salt and the sourdough. Mix everything in a foodprocessor for 8-10 minutes (4 slow, then fast), or do as I did and knead the dough by hand. Making it by hand shows to be pretty good exercise to your forearm, and is at the same time very sticky. 10 minutes of kneading feels like a long time for this exercise :)

3. Let the dough rest for 20 min covered with a linen towel on a floured surface.

4. Cut the dough in two (three for me) pieces and form each piece into an oblong loaf. Brush each loaf with water using a pastry brush. Then roll each loaf in the sesame seed and put it on the baking tray covered with baking paper. I managed to get all three loafs onto the same tray, still with enough (for my understanding) space in-between them to let them grow. Cover the loaves with the linen towel for another 25 minutes of rest. After ten minutes, carve each loaf carefully along with a sharp knife.

5. Set the oven to 240 degrees and put a baking tray with one cup of water into it. This will create steam in the oven, which is supposed to give the bread a more crusty... crust. Take the tray out as soon as the temperature is reached. Put the tray with the loaves into the middle of the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Comments:

Sourdough: It was prepared before using a recipe which I will present in another post. I have kept it in a covered bowl in the fridge for about one week. After that I put it in a glass jar, where I hope it can survive the 4-7 days it now takes between I bake.

Oven: The one I use is of unindefinable age - it's probably from the 80's, but could very well be from the 60's. It's a gas oven, it's working perfectly, heats up quickly, but it is difficult to be sure about its temperature. I might think of getting a baking thermometer.

Salt: I used less salt (2/3) as I felt the recipe suggested too much.

Result:

Visual: The visual appearance of the loafs is a little different from the image in the book. The main difference is the colour, which is a little pale in comparison, especially on the loaf baked closest to the oven's door. My loafs also look more flat, which gives an impression of that they probably ought to raise a little more. Is this the effect of too little kneading (I did around ten minutes), or too much flour (I had to put in more when kneading, as the dough was continuously wet. I used Vetemjöl special, which is supposed to raise better and absorb more liquid). It could also be the oven. Or I am just mistaken, and it should not raise more. The seeds stack to the bread absolutely fine, and the bread looks appealing for sure.

Texture: The crust is crisp and the loaf feels firm, not too airy. Cutting goes well, though and although a lot of the sesame seeds fall off the crust, most are stuck. The inside feels firm as I would expect of a sourdough bread, there is no trace of the bread not having raised enough.

Taste: There is a palpable taste of sourdough and ray, not too fierce. The seeds inside are just enough to break the taste with a little more nutty flavour. The texture feels very nice. It is perfectly moist and chewy. There was certainly no need for more salt, so keep it to around 2/3.

Evaluation:

Out of four recipes from the book that I have already tried, this one is my second favourite in taste, after the cornbread. Using less salt was quite perfect, I do not think it needs more than 20g for two loafes. Rating #7