Bavarian Village Rye Bread
This bread is adapted from a recipe (presented in Joe Ortiz's The Village Baker) used by baker Kurt König, a self described “organic grain madman” in a Bavarian bakery with a history that dates back to 1650. He used a multi-stage dough and combined rye flour, sesame seeds soaked in soy sauce, and pumpkin seeds. I had to try it. My verdict? It’s fantastic.
- Prep time
- 1 hr
- Cook time
- 55 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
- Seed Mixture
- 140 g pumpkin seeds, toasted (1 cup)
- 60 g sesame seeds, toasted in the soy sauce (1/2 cup)
- 10 g soy sauce (2 tsp)
- Rye Starter (night before)
- 30 g starter (2 Tbsp)
- 95 g rye whole grain flour (3/4 cup)
- 80 g water (1/3 cup)
- Rye Sour Sponge (in the morning)
- All of the starter from above (~ 205 grams)
- 475 g warm water (2 cups)
- 130 g rye whole grain flour (1 cup)
- 130 g bread flour (1 cup)
- Final Dough (early afternoon)
- All of the Rye Sour Sponge from above
- 390 g bread flour (3 cups)
- 14 g salt (2 1/4 tsp)
- ~150 grams of the seed mixture (three-quarters of the total)
- Topping (just before baking, late afternoon)
- 1 egg + 1 Tbsp milk beaten together
- ~50 grams of the seed mixture (the remaining one-quarter of the total)
Instructions
- 1
Make sure you look at the Photo Gallery after this recipe to get an idea of dough consistency and expansion at the different stages. This bread is an 18-24 hour process, with the mixing of a rye starter the night before, a large rye sour sponge the next morning, and the final dough in the early afternoon. From there, the bulk fermentation is about 2 hours and the final proof about 1.5 hours. My starter build was in a cold winter kitchen (mid-60s) and the rest of my process was in the new Breadtopia proofing box at 76°F. The duration of each of these stages can be changed by varying your dough temperature. Moreover, you can experiment with less fermentation of the rye sour sponge and "make up for it" with extra time in the bulk fermentation. These instructions show one of many paths to achieve tasty and aerated bread.
- 2
Seed Mixture
- 3
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- 4
Mix the sesame seeds and soy sauce, then spread the mixture on one side of a parchment lined baking sheet. Spread the pumpkin seeds on the other side or on another baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes until slightly browned, stirring the seeds around about halfway through.
- 5
Remove the seeds from the oven. Separate out 1/2 of the sesame seeds and 1/3 of the pumpkin seeds and grind them into a powder (but not a butter) in a food processor, spice grinder, or with a mortar and pestle.
- 6
Combine the seed powder and whole seeds in a bowl and set aside. Later you will use 3/4 of this mixture in the final dough and 1/4 on the top of the dough.
- 7
Rye Starter
- 8
Mix the starter ingredients in a jar with space for tripling. Cover, note the level of the starter and let it ripen for 8-12 hours or until it is at least double in size.
- 9
Rye Sour Sponge
- 10
In a bowl with enough space for a bread dough to rise, whisk together the water and the ripe rye starter. Add the flours and mix thoroughly; the consistency will be thin like a cake batter.
- 11
Cover and let ferment until it is very filled with bubbles. Adjust the time frame up or down based on your ambient temperature e.g. more time for cooler temps. At 76°F my rye sour was frothy and roiling with bubbles in 5-6 hours.
- 12
Final Dough
- 13
Add the dough ingredients (flour, 3/4 of the seed mixture, and salt) to the rye sour sponge and mix thoroughly. Cover and let the dough rest 15 minutes, then stretch and fold the dough to strengthen it and ensure the ingredients are evenly distributed.
- 14
Let the dough rise until it has expanded by at least 50%. My dough needed about 2 hours at 76°F.
- 15
On a lightly floured work surface, shape the dough to fit your proofing basket. This is a relatively large dough, so expect it to fill the basket more than a typical dough.
- 16
Cover the basket and let the dough rise again (about 1/2 inch up the sides of the proofing basket) for 1-3 hours. At 76°F my dough rose for 1.5 hours.
- 17
Topping and Baking
- 18
Preheat your oven and baking vessel to 450°F for 25 minutes.
- 19
Turn the dough out of the proofing basket onto a piece of parchment paper.
- 20
Brush the top and sides of the dough with the egg-and-milk mixture.
- 21
Sprinkle on the remainder of the seed mixture and score.
- 22
Load the dough into the preheated baking vessel and oven.
- 23
Bake as follows:
- 24
450°F for 20 minutes, lid on.
- 25
400°F for 20 minutes, lid on.
- 26
350°F for 15-20 minutes, lid off and until the internal temperature of the bread is over 205°F.
- 27
Let the bread cool several hours before slicing.