Lesachtaler Brot (Wood-Fired Heritage Bread)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Dutch oven with lid (24-26cm, cast iron preferred)
• •Proofing basket (Gärkörbchen) or mixing bowl lined with floured cloth
• •Large mixing bowl
• •Sturdy wooden spoon
• •Sharp knife or bread lame for scoring
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the sourdough sponge

   The evening before you bake, combine your rye sourdough starter with 200g of the dark rye flour and 200ml of the lukewarm water in a large bowl. Stir it together until there are no dry patches. It will be thick and sticky, like wet cement. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth or cling film and leave it on your counter overnight, somewhere warm but not hot. Twelve hours is ideal. By morning, the surface should be domed slightly, pocked with small bubbles, and it should smell sour and yeasty, like good beer. This overnight sponge is where all the flavor lives. Skip it and you're making bread-shaped disappointment.

   If you don't have a rye sourdough starter, you can build one from scratch in about five days with nothing but rye flour and water. Feed it equal parts by weight, once a day, and by day five it should be doubling reliably. Rye ferments faster than wheat because the wild yeasts love it.
2. 2

   Mix the final dough

   Add the remaining 150g rye flour, the 150g bread flour, the remaining 150ml water, and the salt to your overnight sponge. If you're using caraway or Brotgewürz, add them now. Mix everything together with a sturdy wooden spoon or your hands. Rye dough does not behave like wheat dough. It will be dense, sticky, and heavy. It will not become smooth and elastic no matter how long you knead it, and that's correct. Rye has almost no gluten network. It relies on the starches and the acid from the sourdough to hold its structure. Knead it for about five minutes, just enough to bring everything together into a cohesive mass. Your hands will be a mess. That's how you know you're doing it right.

   Wet your hands frequently while working rye dough. It clings to everything. A bowl of water next to your work surface saves your sanity.
3. 3

   Shape the loaf

   Dust your work surface generously with rye flour. Turn the dough out and shape it into a round boule with floured hands. Don't try to create a tight skin the way you would with a wheat loaf. Rye won't cooperate. Instead, tuck the edges under gently, rotating the ball on the counter until it holds a rough dome shape. Dust a proofing basket (Gärkörbchen) or a bowl lined with a well-floured cloth with rye flour. Place the loaf seam-side up in the basket. Cover and let it proof at room temperature for one and a half to two hours. It won't double the way wheat bread does. Look for a rise of about a third, and when you press a floured finger gently into the surface, the indent should spring back slowly.

4. 4

   Preheat with the Dutch oven

   About forty-five minutes before the proof is done, place your Dutch oven with its lid on inside your oven and preheat to 250°C (480°F). The pot needs to be screaming hot. This is your Backofen. The sealed cast iron traps moisture from the dough in the first stage of baking, and that burst of trapped heat is what gives you a crust that crackles and shatters when you cut into it. A traditional Lesachtal stone oven does the same thing with thermal mass and a sealed iron door. Your Dutch oven is the home cook's version, and it works beautifully.

   If you don't own a Dutch oven, use a heavy baking sheet with a deep roasting tin inverted over the loaf for the first thirty minutes. It's not as good, but it traps enough moisture to make a real difference.
5. 5

   Score and load the loaf

   Carefully remove the blazing hot Dutch oven from the oven. Take the lid off. Turn the proofed loaf out of its basket onto a piece of parchment paper. It should release cleanly if you floured the basket well. Using a sharp knife or a razor blade, score the top with a single cross about one centimeter deep. This isn't decoration. The score controls where the loaf splits as it expands in the oven heat. Without it, the bread tears open wherever it pleases and you lose the shape. Lower the loaf on its parchment into the hot pot. Put the lid back on.

6. 6

   Bake covered, then uncovered

   Bake with the lid on at 250°C for thirty minutes. The trapped moisture is doing its work now, setting the crust and letting the loaf spring upward. After thirty minutes, remove the lid. Reduce the heat to 210°C (410°F). Bake uncovered for another twenty-five to thirty minutes. The crust should turn deep mahogany brown, darker than you think is right. Rye bread wants a hard, dark crust. If it looks like a wheat loaf, it's underdone. When you tap the bottom of the loaf, it should sound hollow and resonant, like knocking on a wooden door.

   Don't panic at the dark color. Rye sugars caramelize deeply and the bread needs that dark crust to develop its full flavor. A pale rye loaf is an undercooked rye loaf.
7. 7

   Cool completely before cutting

   This is the hardest step and the most important one. Place the loaf on a wire rack and walk away. Do not cut into it for at least two hours, three if you can bear it. Rye bread continues to set its crumb structure as it cools. Cut it too early and the inside will be gummy and dense in the wrong way. The starches need time to firm up. I know it smells extraordinary. I know the crust is singing, literally crackling as it contracts in the cooler air. Wait. Gretel always said patience is the ingredient that doesn't come in a bag, and she was right about this bread more than any other.

Chef Tips

• •The ratio of rye to wheat matters. Seventy percent rye gives you the dense, moist, sour character of a true Lesachtaler Brot. If you go below sixty percent rye, you're making a different bread. If you go a hundred percent rye, the loaf will be very dense and flat, which is traditional in some parts of Austria but not what the Lesachtal bakers produce.
• •Brotgewürz is the spice blend that makes Austrian bread taste like Austrian bread. The classic combination is caraway, fennel, and coriander in roughly equal parts, lightly crushed. You can buy it in Austrian grocery shops or make your own in thirty seconds with a mortar and pestle. A little goes a long way.
• •This bread improves for up to three days after baking. On day one the crust is at its most dramatic, but the crumb is even better on day two. In the Lesachtal, families bake enough to last weeks, and the bread is designed to age gracefully. Wrap it in a linen cloth, never plastic, and store it cut-side down on a wooden board.
• •If your sourdough starter isn't vigorous enough, the bread will be dense and flat with a sour bite that's unpleasant instead of complex. Feed your starter twice a day for three days before you bake. It should double within four to six hours of feeding. That's how you know it's ready.

Advance Preparation

• •The sourdough sponge must be made the evening before, twelve hours ahead. This is not optional. The overnight fermentation builds all the flavor and structure the bread depends on.
• •The finished loaf keeps well for five to seven days wrapped in linen at room temperature. It can also be sliced and frozen for up to three months. Toast frozen slices directly, no need to thaw.
• •If you want to bake in the morning, start the sponge at eight or nine the previous evening. By eight in the morning you can mix, shape, proof, and have bread out of the oven by early afternoon.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 75g)