Bread/Weapon Recipe
March 12, 2015 6:34 PM Subscribe
I love solid dense bread. Bread that can be cut into ultra thin slices, takes 10 minutes to chew and tastes fantastic with cheese. Anyone got a tried and true 'bread as weapon' recipe?
Such loaves are (sadly) quite expensive in my locale, and finding them can be a bit hit and miss, so I'm looking for a recipe. I assume I'm looking for some sort of European rye bread recipe, but I'm not that fussed so long as the texture is dense and chewy. I'd also like something that doesn't require a whole day of prep, though I realise this may not be possible.
Such loaves are (sadly) quite expensive in my locale, and finding them can be a bit hit and miss, so I'm looking for a recipe. I assume I'm looking for some sort of European rye bread recipe, but I'm not that fussed so long as the texture is dense and chewy. I'd also like something that doesn't require a whole day of prep, though I realise this may not be possible.
I'm kind of on a rye bread-baking streak right now so this is a really interesting question.
Rye heavy breads (> 30-40% rye flour) often need to be made with a sourdough starter. The low pH of a sourdough starter slows down the enzymatic activity that causes the "starch attack" which makes the loaf a dense brick. King Arthur Flours has a good guide on how to make a sourdough starter here.
I've been using Hamelman's Bread book as a source for recipes but thefreshloaf community also is a good resource for ideas, discussion and troubleshooting. Here's a link to the thefreshloaf website for rye recipes.
I've been making a multigrain, pumpkin-seed rye bread that is great for cheeses/cold cuts. It's ~100g grains (a combination of flaxseed meal, millet, quinoa) soaked in about 100 mL water for 24hrs, 300g all purpose (or bread) flour, 200g whole rye flour, 200 g ripe sourdough starter, 50g pumpkin seeds, 10g salt, 300 mL water. I mix it up, let it bulk ferment for 3 hours at 60F, and then shape and proof for 45 min. I bake it in a pullman loaf pan at 475 F for 15 min, and then at 375 F for 35-45 min or until the interior temperature of the loaf is above 200F and the crust is nice and dark.
posted by scalespace at 7:08 PM on March 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
Rye heavy breads (> 30-40% rye flour) often need to be made with a sourdough starter. The low pH of a sourdough starter slows down the enzymatic activity that causes the "starch attack" which makes the loaf a dense brick. King Arthur Flours has a good guide on how to make a sourdough starter here.
I've been using Hamelman's Bread book as a source for recipes but thefreshloaf community also is a good resource for ideas, discussion and troubleshooting. Here's a link to the thefreshloaf website for rye recipes.
I've been making a multigrain, pumpkin-seed rye bread that is great for cheeses/cold cuts. It's ~100g grains (a combination of flaxseed meal, millet, quinoa) soaked in about 100 mL water for 24hrs, 300g all purpose (or bread) flour, 200g whole rye flour, 200 g ripe sourdough starter, 50g pumpkin seeds, 10g salt, 300 mL water. I mix it up, let it bulk ferment for 3 hours at 60F, and then shape and proof for 45 min. I bake it in a pullman loaf pan at 475 F for 15 min, and then at 375 F for 35-45 min or until the interior temperature of the loaf is above 200F and the crust is nice and dark.
posted by scalespace at 7:08 PM on March 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
hamelmans volkernbrot is simply devine. It's the best dense bread I've had the pleasure of eating.
Don't be afraid to tinker with hydration, I found my local rye needed a bit more water to really sing.
posted by smoke at 8:25 PM on March 12, 2015
Don't be afraid to tinker with hydration, I found my local rye needed a bit more water to really sing.
posted by smoke at 8:25 PM on March 12, 2015
I'm not sure if you're specifically wanting German brown breads with a lot of course rye meal, or just something with lots of mouth feel/chew and good tasting. Some of them use commercial yeast some are leavened with sour dough, or a combination of the two.
Dan Lepard's Seeded Rye and Wheat is good and is chock full of seeds and nuts.
Paleo Brod or, a Danish Rugbrod.
The sweetness of rye and the tang of sour without a lot of chewing can be had in Breadtopia's Sourdough Rye. It's my go to recipe when I want a simpler rye. I play around with this recipe quite a bit, and typically leave out the spices and orange rind.
Another dense heavy bread that isn't rye is a Sicilian Sesame ... uh something that's on the Breadtopia site too. The dough sits out to proof for about 12 hours and makes a really tangy loaf probably because of the Durum Atta flour.
Once I find the link I have one other German rye that I've tried that was incredibly good that I'll post later.
posted by redindiaink at 9:48 PM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Dan Lepard's Seeded Rye and Wheat is good and is chock full of seeds and nuts.
Paleo Brod or, a Danish Rugbrod.
The sweetness of rye and the tang of sour without a lot of chewing can be had in Breadtopia's Sourdough Rye. It's my go to recipe when I want a simpler rye. I play around with this recipe quite a bit, and typically leave out the spices and orange rind.
Another dense heavy bread that isn't rye is a Sicilian Sesame ... uh something that's on the Breadtopia site too. The dough sits out to proof for about 12 hours and makes a really tangy loaf probably because of the Durum Atta flour.
Once I find the link I have one other German rye that I've tried that was incredibly good that I'll post later.
posted by redindiaink at 9:48 PM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Hi Norway here! We love this type of bread! It is similar to Danish Rugbrod suggested by redindianink except a bit thicker.
The recipe is in Norwegian but I have used google translate to get the measurements and process.
A couple of words didn´t exactly and remember the oven tempature is 200C :)
AWESOME NORSK RUGBRØD
Here is a similar recipe from food.com but trust me, use the original above and you will be in heaven.
posted by Funmonkey1 at 3:14 AM on March 13, 2015
The recipe is in Norwegian but I have used google translate to get the measurements and process.
A couple of words didn´t exactly and remember the oven tempature is 200C :)
AWESOME NORSK RUGBRØD
Here is a similar recipe from food.com but trust me, use the original above and you will be in heaven.
posted by Funmonkey1 at 3:14 AM on March 13, 2015
Long Winter bread from the Little House on the Prairie cookbook.
posted by Melismata at 5:56 AM on March 13, 2015
posted by Melismata at 5:56 AM on March 13, 2015
Don't have a recipe, but IKEA has a boxed bread mix of just the kind of bread you are looking for in their stores in the food section. It is delicious and very easy to make. So if have an IKEA near you, go forth and procure some boxes - it looks like a milk box carton.
posted by longdaysjourney at 8:33 AM on March 13, 2015
posted by longdaysjourney at 8:33 AM on March 13, 2015
I missed the editing window, but this bread apparently has its own fanclub.
posted by longdaysjourney at 9:43 AM on March 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by longdaysjourney at 9:43 AM on March 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
The bread recipes in Ancient Grains for Modern Meals are quite dense and take less than a day. I particularly like the Pine Nut Bread with Fennel and Sun Dried Tomatoes (available in the Google Books preview), topped with some high-quality butter and a nice pecorino - so good.
posted by melissasaurus at 10:11 AM on March 13, 2015
posted by melissasaurus at 10:11 AM on March 13, 2015
This is the German Rye I wanted to link to earlier. If you're bread making ability is higher (I find some recipes were easily intimidating back when I started to learn) it's easy enough to modify it slightly to get around the dried old dough they add to the mixture, or you could always try the spice blend on another rye heavy recipe.
posted by redindiaink at 11:28 AM on March 16, 2015
posted by redindiaink at 11:28 AM on March 16, 2015
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posted by jedicus at 7:02 PM on March 12, 2015