Russian Borodinski bread is the most popular and well known of all breads in Russia and the former USSR states. Based upon the traditional dense, dark rye bread, it took on it's fame and popularity following the Battle Of Borodino on 7 September 1812, where the Russian army faced Napoleon's invaders.

 

The following paraphrased from theoldfoodie.com:

 

The Battle of Borodino took place on Russian soil in 1812. The event was the largest, and by far the most significant, of Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign to invade Russia.

There is a particular Russian rye bread called Borodino, or Borodinski Bread which is associated with this day. Myth says that a wife of a General, wishing to cheer the troops on the eve of the battle, made a batch of the staple Russian rye bread, adding wild coriander seeds which she had gleaned that day. Other versions of the myth attribute the invention of this version of their rye bread to a group of local nuns.

The bread has also been described like this-

 

 …The square dark rye is perhaps Russia’s most iconic bread. Sweetened with malt and sprinkled on top with crushed coriander seed it is a dark and dense loaf, full of flavor that can stand up to the toughest toppings; perfect for eating with dry salami or aged cheddar, or dipping into borscht. It is noble bread.

 

How can one resist making "noble bread"? Impossible!

 

So wiith that, my exploration into historical and intriguing old-world bread continues. This sounds like a delicious path....

 

Borodinski bread requires several steps: the mash, the starter or sponge, and the dough. The first step, the mash, requires that a mash be made with rye flour, coriander, malt syrup and water. (The real mash is made with malted rye grain, water and the finely ground coriander for this particular recipe. I don't have malted rye just now, so I made do. It's as close as you can get; the malt syrup is actually the result of mash, so no harm, no foul. Since making this, I have found a brewer's supply store locally where I can get malted rye grain, and will make my next batch with exactly that).

 

This is left to sour a bit and then the sourdough starter is added to it to form the sponge. But first, the ingredients...

 

For Borodinsky bread we need coriander seeds as well as ground coriander powder.

 

 

Also needed is barley malt syrup. This was hard to find, but I did in a health food store. Molasses is also traditionally used if malt syrup is unavailable.

 

 

Took 2 tablespoons of coriander seeds and ground them up real well in a mortar. Mixed with 1 tablespoon coriander powder and a cup of rye flour in a bowl. Added 4 tablespoons malt syrup and 3 cups just-before-boiling water and mixed well. The rye flour absorbs A LOT of water. Added a few dribs and drabs more to form a "mash", mixed it up and left to cool. It will stay this way for the next 3 to 5 hours, and then the sponge step begins.

 

 

I will keep up the notes and pics as I progress on my Borodinski bread.

 

 

It was time to turn it into the sponge. Mrs Rivet has had a sourdough starter going on uninterrupted for over 3 years now, keeping it fed and lively. I dipped from this. If you don't have a starter going on, you need to make one probably a good 3 to 5 days before trying to make Borodinski bread.

 

She fed it yesterday and it was looking strong and smelling lusciously sour!

 

 

That's the key to Russian ryes and Borodinski bread especially; the interplay and balance between pungent sourdough and the sweetness of the malted syrup. I'm thinking the corainder seeds and the little bit of dust is going to go very well in the whole scheme of things.

 

I put in several ladelfuls, about 2 cups total. A bit more than I should have, but I can make up for the extra moisture tomorrow when the dough is made.

 

 

After about 2 or 3 hours, the sponge is rolling along real nice and lively! Smells rich and good and at this point, promises good bread tomorrow.

 

 

Dense heavy loaves of rich and dark rye bread are what we are looking for and should have no problem getting. They take long slow fermentation- though they won't rise a lot due to the 80-85% rye flour.  The slow baking at around 325 to 350 F for authentic development into bread guarantees a dense loaf. Tommorrow we shall see where we end up. 

 

 

Thanks Andy, and once you smell the mash and sponge....you are going to be hooked.

 

The next day, after letting the sponge do it's thing for 18-24 hours, I smelled it and was speechless with a yearning for bread. The smell was indescribably good; one has to smell it to understand, and I now understand the Russian recipes I've read over where they say to call the whole family in just to smell the sponge before it becomes the dough... yes, it is that good. It is also quite active and ready to go-

 

 

Since I had overdone the amount of starter (liquid) I wasn't sure how much flours to add, but I did understand what the final dough should look like, feel like, so I just added the proper ratios of rye flour to unbleached bread flour (80 to 85 % to 20 to 15%) until it got to that consistency. This helped overall, since I do not have a mixer and have to do this by hand. (Have a lot of experience with this muscle-mixing-bread-thing from my http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=1160&title=panne-coccodrillo - Pannes Coccodrillos !) In a mixer, the rye dough will just form into a ball and wad itself around and around, so doing it by hand was probably better, I could scrape the sides of the bowl, and take a rest now and then. I mixed for about 20 minutes total, slowly adding the flours until it was ready. I also added 2 heaping tablespoons of coriander powder and a heaping teaspoon of salt.

 

 

Since rye flour does not have the gluten that wheat flour does, there is no initial rise, or fermentation stage for the dough. It goes straight into the loaf pans.

 

These were generously shot with cooking spray, though one can use oil or butter, and then sprinkled on the bottom with coriander seeds-

 

 

Now the dough is a sticky mess. Keep a bowl of cold water handy (hot water will "set" the rye dough like cement) to keep your hands wet, and put gobs of the dough into the loaf pans then mash and smooth it down like adobe.

 

 

Cleaning hint: immediately put all utensils and bowl into sink full of cold water to soak. After a while you can rub the rye dough off. Otherwise if it dries or warm water is used....forget it.

 

I ground up 3 or 4 tablespoons of coriander seeds in a mortar, and sprinkled them over the loaves like this. They loaves went into a cold oven with the light on to rise.

 

 

The loaves will not rise a whole lot. Just let them rise until they reach the top part of the pan, that's about as good as they may get, perhaps a bit more. It is only the wheat flour with gluten in it that is going to provide the springiness in the loaves to allow them to stretch and rise. This may take anywhere from 1 to 4 hours, depending.

 

 

thanks for posting it!

 

Andy, your statement above made me do a bit of research and want to clarify things a bit. I was incorrect in saying rye flour doesn't have gluten, it does since it is a relative of wheat, but lower percentages. It will ferment like wheat flour, it just will not "rise" like wheat flour due to the bran in the flour from the milling process. This bran interferes with the gluten's ability to stretch and make the dough rise. That's why wheat flour is mixed in a bit with rye flour so there will be some rising going on. Thanks for bringing that up, good point!

 

Ron, I think this is one of those elusive hard, dense loaves you've been looking for to make.

 

After a couple hours, the loaves rose nicely to the top of the pan, just where they need to be-

 

 

They went into a preheated oven at 400F, straight on the racks, no stones. After 30 minutes and a few steamings (spritzes of water on the sides of the oven) I dropped the temp down to 300F and baked them for another 30 minutes, then bumped the temp up to 325 for the last 30 minutes. At this point they were ready!

 

 

Once they had cooled for about an hour, I popped them out of their pans. Real easy, just tipped them over. Onto a wire rack to cool for several hours. The kitchen was filled with an amazing odor of toasted coriander, rye and bread....delicious!

 

 

a good many of the recipes I've run across say that for best look and taste the bread should not be eaten until 24 hours later. This is to allow the moisture in the loaf to re-distribute itself evenly throughout the crumb. A lot recommend that they be wrapped during this time and/or bagged. I split the difference and wrapped them in a couple turns of tinfoil.

 

More pics and tasting notes later today.

 

 

 

 

 

The loaves were heavy, real nice. Our kitchen scale is in storage, but I estimated that each loaf easily weighed 2 pounds apiece. The pans I used to bake them in measure 7.5 x 3.5 x 2.5 inches, so you can imagine how dense these small loaves really are.

 

 

Slicing one open the rich smell of rye and toasted coriander came up from the crumb....a very nice and thick scent. Very fresh, too, just like the bread.

 

 

The crumb is tight and dense just like it is supposed to be. The crust absorbed some of the moisture overnight, so it is chewy and only slightly drier than the insides of the loaf. Much different from the oven-fresh loaves whose crust is crackley. Waiting a full day sure seems to be good advice. Though tight, the crumb is also nicely moist, very fresh-tasting and immediately obvious that this is nourishing bread.

 

This is the type of rye bread that for centuries has provided the peasants with 60 to 70% of their daily caloric intake. I can understand that now; once tasted it is clear that this is more than bread, it is food, in every sense of the word and delicious too.

 

I see now what was meant by this being a "noble bread".

 

 

The interplay between the sour mash and the hint of sweet from the barley malt was exactly what was promised and what I was looking for in a truly "authentic" old-world loaf. Chewing this bread not only filled my mouth with flavor, but those flavors also rose, filling my head with taste and the dance of the sour and sweet and the interlace of the toasted coriander mixed with the powder inside the dough itself. This is heavenly bread, and one that nourishes not only the body, but also the soul.

 

This is rye bread that begs for strong flavors to match it~ raw onion, hearty mustards, rich sausages and stews, salted fish...I imagine tinned fish like sardines or sprats will be a match made in heaven, if not the plains of Mother Russia.

 

The underside of the loaves grabbed hold of the coriander seeds and make them a nice and slightly crunchy addition to the bottom crust. Very nice and very tasty.

 

 

This is the first time I've tried rye bread with coriander in it and know it will be a staple bread at the hacienda. It keeps very well, (frozen too) and I'm sure makes fantastic toast. I've got some http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=1118&title=mama-vickys-borscht - Borshcht leftover in the freezer and this seems like the perfect time to pair the two.

 

 

 

Dave, I chceked your settings for the auto-login, and they are correct. If you have re-set your internet history, the deletion of the cookies may have caused this. Once the cookie is re-set you should be okay.

 

Be aware that this happened to me about a month ago, with no history celaning nor re-set, and then cleared up on its own a couple weeks ago. It is strange, I'll look into this.

 

In the meantime, I'm glad you liked the bread and the post. If you feel like you have some time on your hands for bread and like dark breads, give it a whirl. It is better than good.

 

Found a beer brewers supply store in a town about 30 miles away where I can find malted rye (among other great beer, wine and cheese making supplies) and will make my next batch from a "real" mash starter. In speaking with the pro's that use malted rye, this will add a huge depth and breadth of flavour and richness. I'm looking forward to this, since I cannot imagine that- at all- after tasting today's bread. This bread was so good, and Mrs Rivet liked it so much, that we'll keep some around either fresh or in the freezer regularly.

 

 

All across the spectrum, from books, to the internet, to people- one hears the same story-line that rye flour, more specifically rye dough, won't rise. I believed that until just recently. Thanks to my research I now will share the true answer with you.

 

I will give you the short version, and for those interested, the long version and the food science behind it.

 

THE SHORT VERSION: The answer is YES AND NO. On it's own, with just yeast (and even sugar to prime the yeast), rye flour will not make any appreciable rise. It requires acidification, that is, a drop in pH towards acid, to allow the molecular structure in the rye flour to allow a stretchy rise like wheat flour. This is why most rye breads are made with sourdough starter which is acidic, and acidifies the dough, allowing the slight rising to occur.

 

 

Wheat flour contains 2 proteins that allow for the stretching and rising we love. They are GLUTENIN (a long ribbon-like molecule responsible for the elasticity value) and GLIADIN ( a short "wadded up" molecule responsible for the softness value). These two, acting together, bond with the water molecules and create the "rise" and those soft, stretchy sheets of dough we like in wheat bread.

 

Rye flour does not contain enough, nor in the correct ratios, of both Glutenin and Gliadin to form the elastic  "sheets" in the quantity needed for a nice rise (like only wheat flour has).

 

Rye flour also has 2 sugars in the correct ratios that further reduce the ability of the proteins it does have, to form this elastic sheeting (wheat flour has these sugars too, don't know the ratio). These two particular sugars are called XYLOSE and ARABINOSE. They are important though, helping to trap the water molecules and build the "framework" upon which the elastic protein sheets "hang on to". Much like scaffolding.

 

Starches in the flour help this "framework" hold together, like the nuts and bolts in scaffolding. Unfortuntely, rye flour also has ALPHA AMYLASES, types of enzymes that interfere with these starches, by cutting up the molecules making them unable to perform their function in holding things together. However, by reducing the pH, that is acidifying the dough, these enzymes are inhibited, allowing the starches and sugars to do their job.

 

So, by acidifying the dough, by using a sourdough starter, the pH is dropped, the enzymes inhibited, and it allows the rye dough to rise as much as it is capable, given its differences from wheat.

 

In order to help things along, wheat flour has been traditionally added to rye flour to increase the "rise" and help make the bread a bit less tough and dense. Traditional rye flour recipes include anywhere from 15% to 40% wheat flour in the recipe, depending on the type of bread wanted.

 

I hope that this has helped answer any questions and has been as interesting and informative as it has been for me. I am always amazed at the "magic" that exists in food chemistry, where the slight change in pH results in wholly different things, all tasty and usable to man. Cheese is another fine example in which basically a drop in pH will convert milk into a solid food we know as cheese. 

 

 

 

question about the barley malt and malted rye. naturally where i am from this is going to be tough to find and even tougher to jsutify for purchase - i am wondering if your reasearch turned up anything about how common those ingredients are over in eastern europe etc.? molasses being mentioned as an acceptable substitute, i would GUESS that it is more common there, but i could be wrong.....

 

in any case, this is definitely something i want to persue, especially from an historic perspective. i'd like to come as close as possible to what those peasant wives and mothers were making ~

 

I discovered a home-brewing supply store about half an hour away that carries a couple different styles of malted rye, and dozens of other brewing grains and supplies.

 

With straight malted rye, and hot water, a mash is made that after anywhere from 5 to 24 hours later will provide enough sweetness for the proper making of rye bread as well as adding a whole different depth and flavor to the bread than by using just malted rye syrup as I did with the loaves in the earlier part of this thread.

 

We'll see!

 

Got some nice German malted rye for $1.80 a pound after tax....not a bad deal, and they ground it there for me fresh!~ I had the choice of 1x, 2x, or 3x grinds (times the grain is put through the milling plates) and decided on 1x. This results in the largest grain particle, each broken into 2 to 5 pieces, and will add a nice "whole grain" chew to the bread if I decided to use the spent grains in the dough.

 

 

Real nice grain and tasted delicious as is. It is malted, and lightly toasted, ready for the brewer or baker.

 

 

A pound of malted rye looks to be over 4 cups volume. I only needed 2 cups for this recipe (plan is making 3 loaves again) but at the price, I bought the full pound and put the remainder in a ziploc storage bag in the freezer.

 

Three cups water are needed for the 2 cups grain. The water was heated to between 160 and 170 F. 160 to 165 is ideal.

 

 

Mixed that up well and covered it with tinfoil. Into a preheated oven at 150 F, then turned off. The warm oven is needed to maintain the ideal 80 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit for the mash during the soak. Some folks try for the 170 F for a shortened steeping, but I don't want to mess with the constant stirring that pretty-much-takes for 7 hours. No thanks, it can steep quietly on its own, and overnight, I may just leave the oven light on for it.

 

My plan is to let the mash steep for roughly 24 hours. Here it is after 3 hours.

 

 

It had absorbed A LOT of water. Smells sweet already and very rich. This may very well be all what it is cracked up to be! 

 

Okay!

I’m not going through this again, so I am providing bullet comments for all the salient bits on information you need. Please do not be offended.

1.       Wheat is a “finicky” plant needing warm climate, good soil, adequate and interspersed rainfall to flourish. This was where we think it got its paleontological start with all that- in Central Turkey, where the weather is perfect.

2.       Rye flour, its cousin, doesn’t need that. It flourishes in cold climates, damp, poor soil (including sandy soil), sporadic and heavy rainfall and needs less sun. It too got its paleontological start in Turkey.

3.       Archeological evidence from the Roman Period shows that rye was grown for food in the Rhine and Danube regions of Germany as well as in Britain.

4.       Rye has been earnestly grown as a food crop on a large scale (relatively uninterrupted) in Central Europe, North-Central Asia and Eastern Europe to include Russia since the middle ages.

5.       Rye has a high nutritive value, including B-vitamins.

6.       Rye has been a staple cereal grain in the northern climes of Europe since the middle ages. Wheat was too expensive, too rare and transport costs prohibitive.

7.       Molasses has been cheap and plentiful in Europe since the mid-to-late 1500’s. Caribbean sugar sources quickly discovered that rum and molasses were exponentially cheaper ways to transport sugar than sugar itself. Molasses has been a European (and American) staple since then, as it is cheap, supplies unlimited, spoilage not an issue, and uses many.

So, from a historical perspective this is a definitive food; bread. It is “ur”. Give it a try, you’ll be impressed.

Of course, the Borodinski bread with the coriander is a later version, it is still based on the standard Russian ageless rye loaf.

You should be able to find rye flour at your grocery store. The 5 LB sack in my pics costs $5.39, but it's a "fancy" brand that's all we get here. Up where you are, you should be able to get it cheaper. The malted rye syrup was $6.85, kinda steep, but a whole heck of a lot of sweetener! That'll last for near a year! The malted rye cost $1.80 for the pound, and that's enough to make 2 batches easy of the Borodinski bread.

 

i'll see what options i have up ehre for the rye and the malt - not too hopeful but it is one of those things that just might turn out to be easier than i thought!

 

I'll keep up the post and let you know if the mash was worth the effort or not. 

 

i seem to recall that culinaria germany might have a section on getting a sourdough mash started for rye bread - might be worth a look?

 

The concept behind a mash is to get the sugars from a grain in order to feed the yeasts to make either an alcohol or a bread.

 

In your case , you may just want to look at rye flours, preferably at over 60% rye (100% ideally so you can add 20 % regular white flour).

 

That's  all you need plus molasses and coriander to make this bread.

 

Talk about the next level, I think we're getting there this morning! The mash smelled sweet, but more importantly surprisingly sour. I didn't expect it to turn so quickly, but it did. Mrs Rivet and I were discussing this mash yesterday and she mentioned that this is exactly how sour-mash rye whiskey starts out...and now I see that!

 

I tasted the mash....very sweet, and the sweetness was just like the malted rye syrup- same flavor, but the sourness of the mash added a whole new layer of flavor to the spoonful I chewed and ate. Nicely pungent and sure to combine beautifully with the "different" sourness of the starter.

 

A week ago, I put together a starter with just rye flour, water, yeast and malted rye syrup. Overnight it soured and was very active, and over the course of the week has turned out really nicely. This morning there were very tiny, almost imperceptible bubbles, but it was still active. Since today was mixing stage, I didn't want to feed it to jump start it, it will get that with the mash, so I added 1 teaspoon yeast to the mash first. Recommendations in many places said to do this since (if the starter is not very active) all-rye starters tend to peter out much faster than wheat flour or potato starters. Again, it is that subtle rye difference that makes things interesting. It will work as is, but at a much reduced activity and taking up much longer time frame to get things where we want them.

 

 

Then added about two, maybe three cups of starter, enough to bring the total volume in the container to 6 cups. (The mash swelled a lot overnight). You can see how making a sourdough starter with rye makes it a golden, yellow color as opposed to white when using wheat flour or potatoe flakes.

 

 

Within minutes, the mixture began to bubble actively~ These yeasties love that mash! This was taken within less than 5 minutes of mixing the two together, and the "lumpy looking" things are not lumps, but giant super-bubbles of gas coming up. This stuff is alive and wanting to become good bread!

 

 

I'll let the mash and starter alone for about 4 hours or so to really get to know eachother and start rocking. Once everything is rolling along, we'll turn that into dough and do some baking later this afternoon. I forgot to add the ground coriander, so I'll do it now; I'll ad 2 tablespoons finely ground coriander to the mix. 

 

 

Here's the mash/starter after one hour....rollicking along real nicely~ Looks like the top part of a malted milk!

 

 

And here we are after a couple. It looks so active and frothy, that I don't think there is any more need for sitting around. Time to bake some bread!

 

 

 

I ended up with 3 loaves again, but these rose magnificently! I'm sure the malted rye had plenty to do with that, plus the grains were really swollen with water.

 

 

SInce the grains in the dough had moisture I baked them for an additional hour at 300F on top of all the other bakings, half hour each at 400, 350 & 325 degrees.

 

I set them out to rest overnight, again foiled, and cut them up this morning....

 

 

The dough is clearly much more moist than the last batch, and this is due to the rye grains in the dough itself carrying the added moisture. I preferred the texture of the last loaves better...as is, they will be perfect toasted. They may have even benefitted for another half an hour in the 300F oven.

 

 

The taste was slightly richer, slightly. I expected a lot more to come from the malted rye mash, but that was not the case. Comparativley speaking, the mash stage wasn't worth the extra effort. It was a fine and fun excercise, but for pure taste and simplicity, the malted syrup was perfect. The twin sour flavors combined into one good one and it was no better nor worse than the standard, or previous batch. All in all, I'm glad I did this and have some good tasting bread, too. Thanks for following the thread!

 

here are the specifics on the flour:

 

http://www.bobsredmill.com/organic-dark-rye-flour.html - http://www.bobsredmill.com/organic-dark-rye-flour.html

 

i'm starting a new thread, since this firist rye bread of mine will not involve the borodinski difference of coriander seeds. i'll want to work my way up through a loaf or three before i try any variations.

 

so, with this 22-oz bag, some blackstrap and a sketchy plan involving a rye sour-dough, what do i do next?

 

It's sad that up there in America's rye country you can't get 5 lb sacks of rye flour at "normal" prices.

 

The bag plus regular wheat flour should be fine for your foray into rye bread. Be aware, that 22 oz is not but about 3 cups or so. If you end up using too much liquid you are going to have to fill the void with bread flour, which will dilute your rye, which will result in a bread that is only partly rye, in the 50% range, and not at all like the heavy dense rye you are looking for. Just go real easy on the sourdough (liquid).

 

The first thing you need to do is make a sourdough starter. Just use the good ol' standard we've talked about before using instant potato flakes, water, yeast and a bit of sugar or honey or molasses. Let this sour for 7 days! (Potato sourdough starter takes longer to reach the right level).

 

Next week, just follow my initial recipe from the thread, minus the coriander, and you should be set. I would stick with no more than 1 cup sourdough starter for the entire liquid. That should use up the 22 oz of rye flour, plus the 6 TBSP of bread flour you need for an 80% rye bread.

 

The dough is TOUGH, dense and hard to work. You will sweat. Don't give in to the idea to add just a bit of water. The dough needs to be the way it is for proper baking.

 

I'll be glad to help more when you get there, and congratulations, you are going to discover some fine historical bread if you stick to the directions religiously.

 

 

 

Found these ingredients in the fridge and the fishes in the cupboard. Not pictured was a partial jar I later found of Italian-Style, Spicy Gardineria. Of course, some sharp swiss cheese would have been perfect, but I didn't have any.

 

 

Layers of deliciousness topped off with that Gardineria.....wonderful~ and a frosty mug of beer made this a feast that is one of the better ways to enjoy this bread.

 

 

I think I will seal and deepfreeze the third loaf of this rye-mash-made bread, and save it for later, even though it stays fresh for over a week in the cupboard. I don't want it to go to waste. What a wonderful bread...

 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2615/russian-recipe-borodinsky-borodinski-bread#comment-120237" rel="nofollow - Authentic Borodinsky Authentic Borodinsky Rye By Jonathan Kandell, based on recipes by Auermann and Bolgov and Feldstein Makes one small loaf Overview   Six steps:   1) Making rye sour 2) Scalding the flour (the mash) 3) Making the sourdough sponge 4) Mixing the final dough 5) Final Rise (Proof) 6) Baking I. Making a rye sour. The afternoon before baking add   • ½c rye flour • 2T stored starter (any type) • enough water to make a liquid starter. Leave overnight till the next morning (as you do step 2) at room temperature until it's light airy and full of bubbles. Feel free to follow a different refreshment regimen so long as one way or the other you end up with about ½ cup of active poolish-consistency rye starter. II. Zavarka (the mash)   • Dark rye flour 1 C • Malt flour 3T (grind 3T of malted grain in coffee grinder: I prefer Maris Otter 2-row barley or rye malt, both available at brewery stores) • Coriander seed 1T fresh crushed coriander (not bottled powdered, unless extremely fresh) • Boiling Water 1 ½ c   Scald the rye and malt: Mix ground malt and coriander with 1½c boiling water, stirring while adding boiling water. Enjoy the wonderful smell of malt, gather family and insist they smell it too. When cooled to 85F (slightly colder than your finger), around 2-3 hrs, proceed to step 3. III. Create the levain sponge Mix the active rye starter from step 1 thoroughly into the warm scald from step 2. Let sit at room temperature to ferment. When full of "air" and actively bubbling on top (around 4 hours), proceed to step 4.   IV. Dough • Salt, 1 teaspoon • Coriander, crushed 2 or more teaspoons Stir above into sponge and mix well. Then add: • Dark rye flour 2 cups • White bread or all purpose flour ½ cup • Honey 2 tablespoon (or 1T sugar, 1T honey) Mix and knead. You may need up to ¼ c more wheat flour if the dough doesn't come together, but try not to add much. Rye does not need much kneading, about 10 minutes in a bread machine on dough cycle. This rye dough will not move around the machine like wheat does; it will stay in one place, moist and slimy and sticky and gross. Use a spatula to continually push the dough in toward the blade. You can alternatively mix with a wooden spoon for up to half an hour, taking breaks as needed.   V. Proofing. Form into a loaf in loaf pans. Using wet hands, slap the sticky wet dough firmly down into pan. I recommend a lightly sprayed silicon loaf pan sitting within a glass or metal loaf pan to hold the shape. Let the dough rise to just above the pan, around 4 hours. In a rush you can get away with half of that. VI. Baking Bake at around 350F for 1 hour and 300F for another half hour, or until hollow sounding when tapped on bottom. After cooling, wrap in tin foil and then in a plastic bag. Leave this wrapped cocoon out at least 24 hours. The bread will be moist in middle at first but the moisture will spread evenly after the wait.

 

i will read the posts above more thoroughly when i have time - and may move this recipe to the opening post, if it is the same as the methods john used. it could very well be that they incorporate this recipe above - it's just that by posting the recipe, i'm hoping to consolidate the whole idea together, so that someone can attempt this great-looking bread with some outline as to how it goes.

 

Firstly, the aromas of fresh baking bread fill the home base with cheer and harmony ... Always such a pleasure ...

 

I am quite a fan of rye, black and whole wheat variety breads ... And this recipe is a classic tradition and so pleased to see you have brought it back to the front boards.

 

Would love to see your pictorial to simplify the process.

 

Thanks,

Margi.  

 

You are quite dangerous

 

I am a cheese-a-holic and truly enjoy Smoked cow variety cheeses.

 

There is an absolute wonderful cheese in northwestern Spain in the autonomous province of Lugo, Galicia called: SAN SIMÓN D.O. ( designation of origin ) Vilalba, 1/2 hour from Lugo.

 

A good smoked Gouda is lovely too.

 

Which smoked cheeses do you enjoy ?

 

This is marvelous, if you ever come across it as they are now exporting to the USA.

 

http://www.foodsfromspain.com" rel="nofollow - www.foodsfromspain.com ( their headquarters are in NYC and they can advise which products the USA imports from Spain )

 

http://www.madeinspain.com" rel="nofollow - www.madeinspain.com ( Chef José Andrés - English website )  

 

Kind regards.

Margi.