Rheinisches Schwarzbrot

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •30cm loaf tin
• •Large mixing bowl
• •Kitchen scale
• •Foil for covering the tin
• •Serrated bread knife

Instructions

1. 1

   Scald the rye

   Put the coarse rye meal in a bowl, pour over the boiling water, stir hard, and cover it. Leave it at room temperature for at least 6 hours, or overnight. The hot water swells the cracked grain before baking; without this scald, the loaf keeps drinking in the oven and the crumb turns sandy instead of clean.

2. 2

   Wake the sourdough

   Use the rye starter when it smells sour and malty and is full of small bubbles, not when it has collapsed and gone sharp. Rye bread gets structure from acid as much as from flour; a lively sour keeps the crumb from turning gummy and gives the loaf its quiet lift.

   If your starter has been asleep in the refrigerator, feed it twice with rye flour before baking. Tired sourdough gives you a dense brick, and the tin won't save it.
3. 3

   Mix the paste

   Stir the starter, whole rye flour, medium rye flour, lukewarm water, beet syrup, and salt into the soaked rye until no dry flour remains. This is a paste, not an elastic wheat dough, so don't punish it with long kneading. Rye pentosans hold the water; overworking only makes it stickier and no stronger.

4. 4

   Pack the tin

   Oil or butter a 30cm loaf tin, scrape in the dough, and press it firmly into the corners with wet hands. Smooth the top, dust with rye flour or a few rye flakes, and cover it. Packing matters because rye dough won't spring into empty corners the way wheat dough does; shape it now or bake the gaps in.

5. 5

   Let it rise

   Leave the tin at room temperature until the dough rises by about one third and small cracks or pinholes show on the surface, usually 2 to 4 hours. Don't wait for it to double. Rye overproofs quietly, then sinks in the oven, and you've earned yourself a hollow top.

6. 6

   Bake low

   Heat the oven to 220C. Cover the tin tightly with foil, bake 15 minutes, then lower to 160C and bake for about 2 hours more, uncovering for the last 20 minutes. Runter mit der Temperatur. The first heat sets the outside, the long low bake cooks the heavy rye paste through without burning the beet syrup.

7. 7

   Rest overnight

   Turn the loaf out, cool it completely on a rack, then wrap it in a clean cloth and leave it until the next day before slicing. Rye crumb sets as it cools and rests; cut it early and the knife drags wet paste through the loaf. Thin slices, good butter, done.

Chef Tips

• •Use rye starter for rye bread. A wheat starter will ferment it, yes, but the flavour is thinner and the acidity is wrong for a loaf this dense.
• •Buy real Zuckerrübensirup or Rübenkraut if you can. Nicht aus dem Glas means no fake dark syrup pretending to be flavour; beet syrup gives mineral sweetness and colour without turning the bread into cake.
• •Slice it thin with a serrated knife. Schwarzbrot is meant to carry butter, quark, cheese, ham, or Matjes, not to be torn in great chunks like a white loaf.
• •Keep the heels. Dry them, grind them, and use the crumbs in meatballs, bread soup, or a dark sauce. Weggeworfen wird nichts.

Advance Preparation

• •Scald the coarse rye the night before; the long soak is what makes the finished crumb slice cleanly.
• •Bake the loaf one day before serving. Schwarzbrot improves after 12 to 24 hours because the rye crumb settles and the sourness evens out.
• •Wrapped in cloth and then paper, the loaf keeps 5 to 6 days at room temperature. It also freezes well in thin slices.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 80g)