One of my favorite childhood breads: German "Dreikorn" (3 seed) Bread
This must be one of my absolute childhood favorites. It's a basic 50% whole wheat sourdough recipe, but it gets most of its flavor from the copious amounts of seeds: flax, sesame, and millet. It's an instant crowd pleaser and probably the bread that my kids ask for most frequently.
When I first started making my own breads, "Dreikorn" bread was high on the list of recipes that I wanted to reverse engineer. Turns out, it's actually one of the easier breads to make.
| 150g | Golden flax seeds |
| 250ml | water |
| ◇ | |
| 60g | sour dough culture |
| 200g | white whole wheat flour |
| 135ml | water |
| ◇ | |
| 250g | King Arthur flour |
| 180ml | water |
| 17g | salt |
| 3g | dry yeast |
| 100g | millet |
| 70g | roasted sesame seeds |
| 10g | sesame oil |
| ◇ | |
| 2 Tbsp | roasted sesame seeds |
Soak flax seeds in water until softened.
Combine mother starter culture, whole wheat and water, and let rest at room temperature for about eight hours or until doubled in volume
Combine all of the ingredients and knead thoroughly for 5 minutes.
Let rest at room temperature until approximately doubled in volume, about three hours. During this time, stretch-and-fold four times in about 15 minute increments.
Coat a dutch oven with margarine or butter and dust with semolina flour.
Form dough into a boule and transfer into dutch oven. Let rest at room temperature for another 30-60 minutes.
Preheat oven to 500°F (260°C).
Brush dough with water, and sprinkle with remaining sesame seeds.
Cover Dutch oven and bake at 500°F (260°C) for 25 minutes. Remove lid and continue baking at 375°F (190°C) for about another 35 minutes or until interior temperature reads 200°F (95°C).
Remove from oven, let cool for 10min then remove from Dutch oven. Let bread rest on a cooling rack for at least two hours.
And sounds delicious.
Any chance of a crumb shot?
Thank you for the recipe. Bookmarked.
Sorry for the missing crumb shot in the original posting. I had to wait until this morning before "opening" the bread, as the kids were too tired yesterday evening.
But here you go, now:
Very nice indeed! This must be great toasted. The seeds would add such great flavour.
Yes, toasting works really nicely for this bread. You can either use a regular toaster, or put it in a hot skillet with a small amount of butter.
It sure sounds very tasty! Well done!
That looks delicious! I am a sucker for heavily seeded bread. This is going in my keeper file. :)
One question -- Is the reason you chose not to preheat the empty DO in the oven to protect the sesame seeds from scorching (which might happen if you preheated the empty DO in the oven and then placed the boule in the hot DO for baking)?
Over the years, I experimented with different baking techniques, and I found that there is no need for me to pre-heat the Dutch oven. When placed into the 500°F hot oven, it very quickly reaches target temperature. I have never had any issues with oven spring when doing this. On the other hand, I do need to make sure that the oven is fully pre-heated. My oven takes at least 20 min to heat up, and for it to fully reach a stable temperature takes even longer. Not so much for this bread, but for some other breads, I'd ideally like to turn the temperature even higher than 500°F; but unfortunately, my oven doesn't do that.
Given the fact that it doesn't appear to make a difference whether I start with a cold or hot Dutch oven, I absolutely prefer the cold one. I don't like burning my fingers, if I can help it. I do that frequently enough, anyway.
Another nice benefit of starting with a cold Dutch oven is the option to let the dough bench rest in the Dutch oven. That not only removes one extra step, it also means I don't have to handle delicate dough right before baking. One less chance to squish all the precious little gas bubbles.
But of course, if you usually use a hot Dutch oven, then by all means continue doing so. I suspect, you would then reduce the time that you leave the Dutch oven covered. But you probably know best, as you know your own oven and your own Dutch oven. Everybody's tools are a little different and often need minor adjustments.
That also means that some people might need to adjust the reduced temperature that the oven is set to after removing the lid. Or possibly adjust the total baking time. It all depends on how quickly your particular oven reduces temperature.
But hopefully you will spot this and can answer this question. Do you add any remaining water from soaking the flax seeds? Or is the water discarded, or completely soaked up with the seeds. Looking forward to attempting this delicious looking loaf over the weekend.
Thank you so much for the detailed reply. This bread is gorgeous- your method certainly works!