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Jeffrey Hamelman's Black Bread

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    Posted: 01 January 2011 at 13:36
TasunkaWitko and I have had many good discussions on black breads, dark ryes, and how to make them; techniques and ingredients to use along with baking details since neither one of us has ever made such bread. There's a lot of conflicting and confusing information out there~ what little there is~ on how to make (in the average home) a true, traditional, dense loaf of black bread in the old world style.
 
With that, I decided to try this recipe that he found:
 
Quote Jeffrey Hamelman's Black Bread

This recipe comes from Jeffrey Hamelman, a Certified Master Baker (one of only about 130 in this country), and an engaging writer as well. After stints at various bakeries both in this country and abroad, Jeffrey ran his own bakery in Brattleboro, Vermont, for 14 years. He was named captain of the 1996 Baking Team USA, where he led that team of American bread bakers to its first and very memorable victory at the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie in Paris. Following that, he was an instructor at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, until a deep desire to return to Vermont brought him to King Arthur. We're very happy to have a baker of his incredible knowledge and skill "on staff."

Jeff says, "This is an interesting bread, not for everyone. I made it every Friday for many a year. It uses up leftover bread, which gives the new bread a richness of flavor. Brinna tested this recipe, and she says, "In spite of the ingredients, this bread doesn't taste like coffee. It has a real 'bite,' which enables it to go well with winter soups and stews. It might also be perfect with pickled herring and onions. Slice it thinly and spread with butter.

"To proof and bake this bread, parchment and a baking stone are advised. And, because it has so much rye in it, don't expect it to spring in the oven as much as a wheat-based bread.

"Read this recipe all the way through before starting, so you'll know how much time it'll take. You'll need to make the slurry and refresh the sourdough culture the night before baking."

Slurry

2 1/2 ounces re-baked bread*
3/4 ounce ground coffee (from a scant 1/3 cup coffee beans)
a scant 1 1/3 cups (11 ounces) boiling water

*Slice 3 or 4 pieces of bread, about 4 1/2 to 5 ounces fresh. Bake on a cookie sheet in a moderate oven, turning the pieces from time to time, until the bread is very dark, "just this side of carbon." This can take up to and more than an hour, depending on the moisture in the bread. (So you might want to take advantage of the heated oven and roast a few potatoes at the same time.)

Break the bread into pieces, sprinkle with the ground coffee, and pour the boiling water over it. Mix it all up so the bread is good and wet. Cover tightly and let sit overnight.

Sourdough

1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) water
2 1/4 cups (9 ounces) medium rye flour
2 ounces levain or a stiff (dough-like) sourdough culture

Mix the water, rye flour and stiff sourdough together in a non-reactive, medium-sized mixing bowl, and let the mixture sit overnight, preferably for about 16 hours, at a temperature of about 65°F to 70°F.

Dough

all the slurry
all the refreshed sourdough
1 1/2 tablespoons (3/4 ounce) vegetable oil
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) medium rye flour
3 1/4 cups (13 ounces) King Arthur Bread Flour
black caraway seeds (a.k.a. charnushka)

Put the slurry in a blender or food processor and blend until the bread is fairly well pulverized. Scoop this into a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add the sourdough mixture, oil, salt, yeast, and the flours. Mix until well-blended, then let the dough rest for about 20 minutes. Continue kneading and mixing—by hand or mixer—until the dough is well-developed. Because of the high percentage of rye flour in this dough, it'll never become smooth and elastic, as an all-wheat dough would; just knead it for 8 to 10 minutes, doing the best you can.

Place the dough in a greased mixing bowl, cover the bowl, and let it rise until you can leave a fingerprint in it. This will probably take around an hour. Turn it out onto a floured board, and divide it into two pieces. Shape these pieces into rough rounds, and let them rest for 5 minutes. Shape into firm rounds, trying to form tight, seamless balls, and place the loaves on a piece of parchment. Cover them, and let them rise until they're about two-thirds of the way to doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 450°F. To slash the surface of the dough, make one cut across the center, or a cross. Stay away from the "shoulders," or edges. Repeat with the other loaf. Thoroughly mist the surface of both loaves with water until they're quite wet, sprinkle with seeds if you wish and, by sliding a peel under the parchment, slip the loaves onto the preheated baking stone.

Bake the bread for 30 minutes, reduce the oven heat to 400°F, and continue baking for a further 10 to 20 minutes. When the bread is done, the temperature at the center should register about 200°F to 210°F. Remove the bread from the oven, and cool it on a wire rack. Yield: two 1 3/4-pound loaves.

Nutrition information per serving (1/34 of bread, 40g): 105 cal, 1g fat, 3g protein, 20g complex carbohydrates, 2g dietary fiber, 168mg sodium, 111mg potassium, 1mg iron, 10mg calcium, 49mg phosphorus, 42mg caffeine.

This recipe reprinted from The Baking Sheet Newsletter, Vol. XI, No. 2, Winter 2000 issue.

 

Although not an original and true old-world recipe, it will be a good place to start in making a dense rye bread, and give me a familiarity for future experiments in baking this kind.
 
Started with the sourdough base, which takes rye flour, water and a sourdough starter. Luckily Mrs Rivet had a nice bowl of her sourdough starter going for some months now, so I took a couple ladelfuls of it for the mixture, plus 1 1/2 cups water and 2 1/4 cups rye flour.
 
 
Mixed that well for a few minutes. It formed a nice thick doughy paste.
 
 
Next, "the slurry". This will give the bread its familiar color, dark with a nice sharp "bite" to it as well as richness in flavor from the leftover bread. The slurry calls for finely ground coffee from about 1/3 cup of beans...okay!
 
 
Then, I toasted a leftover sourdough bun Mrs Rivet had made the other day. Trick is to toast it "just this side of carbon". Maybe mine was too light but that's good enough for me. About 40 minutes in a 350 oven.
 
 
With a serving fork, I crumbled the bread in a bowl with the coffee dust. The bread was crispy-crunchy and almost fell apart- perfect. Added 1 1/3 cup boiling water and mixed it well into a slurry.
 
 
Then, covered tightly and set aside for at least 12 hours. Good deal.....here's the sourdough which must set in a cool area for 16 hours, and the slurry next to it. I'll pick up the rest of the baking process early tomorrow morning and make some black bread!
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 January 2011 at 10:27
Well here we are on day 2. Doesn't look like the bread's gonna turn out black, so I changed the title to dark rye bread which is more like the looks of it so far...
 
Took a peek at the sourdough. It had risen nicely over night even in the cool kitchen. The kitchen hovers around 55-65 F  over-night during the winter.
 
 
Mixed the sourdough with the slurry together in a big bowl. I thought of removing the crusty cap off the sourdough, but decided to leave it in since with the moistures it would incorporate well once the mixing started. Sure enough, in no time the spatula got it all smooth, and a nice rich color too-
 
 
Then added the rest of the ingredients (1 pkg yeast, 1 1/2 TBSP oil, 2 1/4 TSP salt, 1 1/2 cups rye flour 3 1/4 cups white baking flour) and mixed well. I had a cup of "emergency water" (you can see it on the right) in case the dough turned out too stiff. No worries, never needed it. These ratios are perfect.
 
 
Shortly I had to turn it out on the counter since it got stiff really fast. I kneaded it for about 10 minutes until it was all mixed, let it rest for 20 minutes, then began kneading again for the final 8 minutes. Here's where you guys who have the Hobarts and KitchenAids with the dough-hooks have it made! This old-timey kneading such stiff dough was a work out!
 
For a while there, I thought this dough was going to require the full "Franco-American" Effect in order to get it right, but since I didn't want to remove my shirt just yet, I bulled my way through the kneading and made it work! Big smile (For the background story on the "Franco American" effect CLICK HERE and read the post)
 
 
Let it rest for another 5 minutes, then put it into a lightly oiled bowl to rise. It will rise for the next hour or so, then get shaped into loaves.
 
 
For now it's doing it's thing in the covered bowl, and I'll post more pics and results later in the day once it is done.
 
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TasunkaWitko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 January 2011 at 17:07
i like it so far ~ very nice looking and it's sure to be a winner!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 January 2011 at 17:45
After about 2 1/2 hours, the dough's first rising was done. Looked real nice and had a softish feel to it.
 
 
Gently degassed it, then formed it into round loaves. These I set aside covered in a cotton towel for the second rising. After about an hour and a half, I preheated the oven to 450 F with baking stones in it. Once hot, I sprinkled corn meal on the stones, placed the loaves on it and let them bake for 30 minutes. After that time was up, I dropped the heat down to 400 where they baked for an additional 30 minutes. Then out to cool-
 
 
Once cooled I sliced one open. Very nice crumb, but with a fluffiness that came from the addition of white flour, not as hard and dense as a purely rye flour loaf would make. The loaves also had a nice crusty outside crust. This was fine as it made it a very nice kind of bread to serve with a meal such as a stew or soup....something with liquid to sop up-
 
 
The flavor was rich and dark, no coffee flavor at all, just hearty rye richness. I couldn't detect any sourdough flavor either. I spread some butter on a slice and it was delicious. The butter sure brought out the flavor of this bread, hinting that any toppings such as sardines, mustards, cheeses would enhance the bread and in turn be enhanced by it.
 
 
In all we were very pleased with our first dark rye bread. Gained some baking knowledge out of this and look forward to tackling some true black bread soon.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 January 2011 at 17:56
Allrighty! Time to enjoy this dark rye bread in the old-world style~ took the other loaf and sliced that baby up neatly...
 
 
Old-world to me means Mama Vicky's recipe's, ingredients, tastes and toppings. What better than a typical Polish evening meal of dark bread, mustards, head cheese and such for a wonderful plate? Many times she'd bring out a plate of this goodness as we watched late night TV and, there you go....a perfect snack too!
 
Two days later and the bread is as good as the day it was baked. It has the density and the flavour expected in a dark rye, and I will add that even though it's interior softness is gone, it has not gone stale but rather been replaced with that smooth density we expect out of a dark rye. A very nice and welcomed surprise. This bread may be more traditional than I thought possible.
 
 
From the twelve o'clock position, moving clockwise.... butter, French whole grain mustard, two pieces of Head Cheese (click here for the recipe and story.) Hot habanero mustard, Polish "chrzanowa" mustard, and sharp cheddar cheese.
 
What a delightful way to enjoy this bread, and a perfect accompaniment to a glass of beer as well! (I'll skip the ice-cold "wodka").
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hoser Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 January 2011 at 03:27
God how I envy your baking skills! Wonderful looking bread John Clap
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TasunkaWitko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 January 2011 at 07:19
it looks perfect to me - and worth a try!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hoser Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 January 2011 at 12:31
I hope Kiwi sees this...he was looking for a recipe for a nice, dense loaf of bread a while back...this looks like just the ticket.
Go ahead...play with your food!
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