German Rye Bread

The other day, I was remembering a bread recipe that I used to make in the 1970's.  I remember making it for Christmas gifts for our daughters' teachers.  It has been many years since I have made this slightly unusual bread.

Judging by the yellowed newspaper, I cut it out of a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, newspaper at least 40 years ago.  I do not know who to give credit to.  It makes 3 small round loaves and the bread is almost cake-like.  Absolutely delicious topped with butter and honey or jam.  Not really a sandwich bread though it certainly could be with the right sandwich fillings.  Excellent toasted and very, very moist.  So, if you are willing to try a new recipe, and this one is easy, I hope you will enjoy my recipe for "German Rye Bread."

German Rye Bread

2 cups rye flour
3/4 cup dark molasses or sorghum
1/3 cup shortening
2 tsps. salt
2 cups boiling water
1 package dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
6 1/2 cups white flour
1 egg white mixed with 1 tbsp. water
Caraway seeds

Combine rye flour, molasses, shortening and salt.  Stir in 2 cups boiling water.  Cool to lukewarm.

Add dry yeast to 1/2 cup warm water.  Stir.  Add yeast mixture and one cup white flour to rye mixture.  Beat smooth.  Gradually add remaining flour.  Knead 8-10 minutes.  I let my Kitchenaid do most of the kneading, and finished it up on the counter, by hand.

Place in a lightly greased bowl.  Cover and let rise for 1 1/2 hours.  Punch down.  Knead until smooth and divide into 3 round loaves.  I imagine it would be no problem to shape into a rectangle and put into loaf pans.  I have never tried it though.  Let it rise 45 minutes.

Brush the tops of the loaves with egg white mixture and sprinkle with caraway seeds.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow.

I wish you could smell the bread baking.  It is unmistakably rye bread....the earthy, grainy smell.

It honestly is as good as I remember.  It freezes well also.  Wish you were here!!

Such great bread!!

On my "to do" list for quite some time was Ann's bread recipe from her fantastic blog,
Thibeault's Table.  If you have not looked at Ann's blog, take a moment.  I have admired this woman for quite some time.  Her recipes sound delicious, are delicious and her photography is the very best!

I baked one loaf today and was very pleased with it.  The other half of the dough is in the refrigerator waiting for me to make Flammkuchen sometime this weekend. 

Ann, I don't know why I waited so long to try this.  Oh yes, I do.  I knew I would keep on eating it until it was gone because it tastes that great.  Thanks!

Baguettes

Way back in the early 1980's, I got into some serious bread baking.  I was totally enamored at that time with the Williams-Sonoma catalog.  It would be years later when I would finally enter a Williams-Sonoma store.  It was love!!

Back in 1981, The Trout and I belonged to a "Wine Group".   We were 5 couples who became friends through the local Newcomers Club.  We started out so 'good,' meaning, we would blind taste 5 or 6 wines and only eat a slice of bread to cleanse the palate.  We would try to meet once a month at someone's home.  Just let me say, very quickly, the slice of bread to cleanse the palate made way to some really nice gourmet dinners.  We also took the brown paper bags off of the wine bottles, and simply enjoyed the evening.

During these years - we stayed together in our group for 12 years - I kind of started 'my specialty' which was my recipe for Williams-Sonoma recipe for baguettes. 

Above you see the double metal pans that I purchased so many years ago.  You simply formed your loaves and baked them in them grooved pans.  They held the dough nicely, made a very crisp crust and kept the loaves at a small, petite baguette size.



Well, today was one of those days and I felt I had to revisit the old days, so I baked the baguettes.  I only wish our dear friends were here this evening to enjoy with us a glass of wine and a slice of bread.  We have scattered, as it happens.  So for Gene and Peg, Jim and Laurie, Mark and Kathy and John and Melva....a toast to the good old days.

Williams-Sonoma French Bread (Baguettes)

In a large bowl dissolve 1 envelope dry yeast, 1 Tbs. sugar and 2 tsps. salt in 2 cups warm water.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Stir in about 4 cups all-purpose flour, and turn out onto a floured surface.  Using a pastry scraper, lift and turn the dough, which will be very soft, until it coheres enough to knead.  Add more flour if necessary and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic.  Put in a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for 45 minutes in a warm place.

Dislodge dough from sides of bowl with a rubber spatula and turn out.  Gently pat flat, dust with a little flour, and fold in half to form a half circle, and then again to form a quarter circle.  Return to bowl and let rise for another 30 minutes (the rising develops the full flavor and ultimate lightness.)

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, pat flat and fold in half.  Cut into four equal pieces, form into balls and let rest for 5 minutes.  Flatten each ball into an oval and roll up like a jelly roll.  Form into a loaf almost the length of the pan by rolling back and forth.

Line baguette pan with a pastry cloth or coarsely woven cloth and place formed dough in the furrows.  Cover with a clean towel and let rise again until almost double.  Pull the pans out from under the cloth and gently flip the loaves onto the pans which have been brushed with butter.  Use the cloth to help you, pulling the loaf towards the pan.  Brush the loaves with well-beaten egg mixed with a little water, and slash each loaf diagonally with a bakers' blade or razor blade.  Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.  (I have always reduced this to 425 degrees because my ovens have always seemed very hot)

I have not checked if these pans are still available, but I suppose you could free-form these loaves as well.  Enjoy.

Three good things

Three good things happened yesterday. The Trout was outside early in the morning talking to the neighbors when two large, mature bald eagles swept by overhead. The wingspan of the two of them together was unbelievable. It was the closest I have ever been to an eagle. One flew away immediately, and the other one, below, sat for a while. While the photo is definitely of so-so quality, it was very exciting.

I have tried to convince the Trout for the last year or two to get away from the trout stream long enough so that we could enjoy a round of Montana golf. Yesterday was a perfect day. The view from the course was beautiful. Below you see the Anaconda smelter stack and the Pintler's in the background.

Oh yes, I had a lot of fun. We discussed hearing that a golf ball travels further at a higher altitude. I can't say that I proved that to be right, (ha ha), but we did enjoy the day.

And then, the last excitement of the day was when we stopped in Anaconda and it was market day. The Hutterite colony nearby comes into town to sell their goods on Thursday. We bought this loaf of bread below. It was so tall I had to take a picture. Great for sandwiches, toast and I am even imagining French toast and bread pudding as we near the end of it.

It is bread baking day in the Black Forest

We are in Joklisbauern Hof in Gutach, Germany. This is at the edge of the Black Forest, near the French border. We were fortunate to stay in this farm B and B on bread baking day. Not really keeping count, they said they bake over 100 loaves of white and rye bread every Friday.

The town folk can see the smoke from the wood oven and several hours later, the bread smell starts wafting into town.

At 6 a.m. the first batch is started in the kitchen. A large professional mixer is rolled into the center of the kitchen. It does the mixing and the kneading. After enough proofing time, loaves are formed and left to rest on long boards in the kitchen.

During this time, Martin has built a wood fire in the oven where his father and grandfather also baked bread. The coals are then moved to each side of the large oven, excess is scraped out and the stove is brushed clean with a large, wet brush. The water also helps to provide steam which makes a crackly crust.

This is definitely a two man (woman) job. Martin and Elfriede carry the loaves out of the house and into the small oven room. Notice, Elfriede is smiling. She smiles constantly.

Metal pegs protrude out of the stone wall in the oven room where the heavy bread laden boards are laid. Can you see some of the loaves just drooping off the board?

Elfiede gives each loaf a gentle pat and reshaping as Martin shoves the loaves to the back of the oven. He uses a thermometer which he holds to the opening of the oven and gets an immediate 184 degrees C. "Perfect" he says. That is approximately 365 degrees F. Every 15 minutes thereafter, he turns each loaf to let it bake evenly, otherwise one side will blacken too much. The loaves bake for one hour. They bake three batches like this every Friday.

He bakes 1 kg loaves which he sells for 1.8 euro. The 2 kg loaves sell for 2.5 euro. All day, cars arrive to buy the bread. Just guess who was first at the breakfast table when the warm loaves came out of the oven. "Perfect", I say, "perfect." The rich farm butter just slid off the crusty bread.

French Bread

I made French Bread. I have avoided this pleasant task for quite a while, because the Trout and I usually cannot eat a small amount. We love crusty bread and this bread was no exception.

For years I have made baguettes from a recipe I got a long time ago from Williams-Sonoma. This recipe always pleased and the wine group we belonged to in Wisconsin always had French bread when we were tasting wine at our house.

Today I tried a new recipe and technique and I really like it. Thibeault's Table is a blog by Ann. She has the best recipes, many which we have tried, but she is one fantastic bread baker. So today, I made her French bread using her recipe from Julia Child.

The bread has a thick, crust and crackles when you cut into it. This is the way bread should be. You know the kind. The kind of bread that scratches the roof of your mouth because the crust is so crackly. Just love it.

Ann has perfect directions. I had never used my food processor for making the dough, but was pleased at how well it worked.

Check out Ann's blog and try to make this yourself.

Is it bread yet?

In January, I wrote about a book I had just purchased, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Since that time, I have baked a lot of bread. There has not been a time when the dough was not rising in my refrigerator. I have not baked frequently, because it would be just too overwhelming to the waistline. Bread and ice cream are my favorite foods. I do not keep ice cream in the house because I could not leave it alone. Bread is something else. It needs to be baked which takes time.

Today, before dinner, The Trout asked if we were having bread. I told him I need 1 hour and 10 minutes to get the bread formed, raised, baked and out of the oven. Timing was perfect. You see, making bread this way is so very convenient. The author of the book describes the bread as having a "custard crumb." That is the perfect description. It is not a dry bread, although the crust gives a wonderful loud crunch as you bite into it. The center of the bread is almost creamy like. Not exactly like Italy or France, but we do enjoy it. Sure beats store-bought bread.

The Trout has not tried to make this bread yet, but it is so very simple, anyone can do it. If you love bread as we do, buying this book and trying it will be so worth it.