Westfälischer Pumpernickel

Westfälischer Pumpernickel belongs to Westphalia and to the cold table: Abendbrot, the evening bread meal, a Sunday board with ham and cheese, a winter larder that has already done its work before anyone sits down. It isn't a feast bread in the showy sense. It is the loaf you make ahead because it gets better after a day wrapped and waiting.

Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. Westphalia means whole rye, coarse rye meal, sourdough, closed tins, and a 16 to 24 hour low bake with no crust worth speaking of. Elsewhere people call any dark rye pumpernickel, then colour it with malt, coffee, cocoa, or syrup and bake it like a normal loaf. Nicht aus dem Glas. That is dark bread, not this bread.

The technique that decides it is the sealed low bake. Seal the tin and keep the heat low, because rye needs time for its starch to set and for the grain's own sugars to darken slowly through the whole loaf. Turn the oven up and you only burn the outside. Leave it unsealed and the bread dries before the middle has done its quiet work.

Watch the dough like rye, not like wheat. It will be a heavy paste, it will not knead smooth, and it should not double. Pack it well, proof it modestly, bake it slowly, then leave it alone before slicing. Das braucht seine Zeit. Erst verstehen, dann kochen.