This is my version of the flaxseed rye posted by hansjoakim a couple of weeks ago. I couldn’t resist this one. Not only would it satisfy my ongoing and inexplicable craving for flaxseeds, but it also provided an opportunity to use-up some of the old bread I’ve had frozen and waiting for just such an occasion.
This bread is based on a recipe simply titled Roggenbrot (rye bread) from a cookbook called "Was kocht ma Guats in Schnaitsee". I can't come up with an English translation for this phrase that has quite the same ring to it as the original Bavarian, but the gist is, "Good things we’re cooking in Schnaitsee." The entire book is handwritten, accompanied by sketched artwork and favorite food-related sayings of the various recipe authors.
More tinkering with mixed starters. This time, along with the usual rye preferment, I decided to preferment the whole wheat portion of the flour instead of the usual white flour preferment. It worked out pretty well. Using two starters must be providing a greater margin for error because no matter how I tinker I always end up with something pretty good.
I don’t usually get much time to bake during the holidays, but when I was asked to bake some bread to go with Christmas dinner how could I possibly refuse? This was the perfect opportunity to try Andy’s mixed leaven formula. It’s the sort of bread that will go with just about anything and the overnight bulk ferment suited my schedule perfectly. The only major change I made was to bulk ferment in a 60°F part of the house rather than in the refrigerator to accommodate my s
I have been working through an abundance of whole rye flour and strong bread flour lately so I’ve dropped anchor in the sourdough rye section of Hamelman’s Bread. I couldn’t quite make up my mind this week so I picked two. First was the Whole-Rye and Whole-Wheat Bread, baked pretty much by the book. Next was the Sourdough Rye with Walnuts. I turned that one into something a little different.
I didn’t have time to get creative this week so I flipped through Hamelman’s Bread and settled on the 40% rye with caraway seeds. The only significant change I made was to leave out the yeast. The rye sour (all of the rye flour is prefermented) raised the bread just fine on its own, it just took longer.
I haven't been able to get pumpkin and sunflower seeds out of my head since Franko posted about the combination here. In the end I went in a little different direction, using 25% whole wheat instead of rye and adding flax seeds. No special reason for either change - the flax seeds just happened to be beside the other seeds in the freezer, so in they went, and I've been on a light whole wheat kick lately that isn't quite out of my system. So, I came up with this:
This is my salute to the land of pinyon pines and sage brush, aka home. I can't resist buying locally gathered pine nuts every autumn, even if it means shelling them myself. Of course, shelling them myself means my fingers smell like pine pitch for days but that's half the fun - at least I don't have to go out and fight the squirrels for them.
This bread is growing on me. If I'm going to keep baking it, it needs a name. A really cool sounding name that may or may not make sense in it's native land. A name like: Doppelsauer Bauernbrot. Now, that's a name that sounds like it means business. There's something about Oktoberfest season that always brings my German roots bubbling to the surface!
I've had salzstangerl (salt sticks) on the brain for a while now.
