Swabian Farm Loaf – “Eingnetztes”

‘Eingnetzes’ is a crusty wheat bread typical for the region of Swabia. The dough is relatively soft and it is left to rise in the mixing bowl. The loaf is baked without a tin so its shape varies from time to time. As its surface is not cut before it is put into the oven it rips open at one side, forming a characteristic 'knobbly bit' (called Knauzen in Swabian). The Knauzen is particularly crusty and is seen by many as the best bit of the bread! The word ‘Eingnetztes’ derives from the German verb ‘benetzen’, which translates as ‘to wet’ or ‘to dampen’. This makes sense, because the bread is lifted onto the baking stone or hot baking sheet with wet hands. It is also brushed with some more water for the last few minutes, which gives the loaf its typical shiny crust. Traditionally, the dough was turned out directly onto the stone oven from a wet bowl or large ladle.

The bread is fairly easy to make but the main issue is getting hold of the right flour. Before I started getting into baking ‘serious’ bread I tended to use only plain wheat flour and in some instances wholemeal wheat flour. In Germany the types of flour sold differ considerable from those available in the UK. The main difference – and most relevant for baking bread – is the availability of many different ‘flour types’ (Typen) in Germany. The lower the type number, the whiter the flour or, in other words, the higher the flour type number the more percentage of the whole grain is left in the flour. Regular UK plain flour corresponds roughly to the German flour Typ 405. For baking bread a higher and more rustic type of flour is usually used. Wheat flour used for baking non-wholemeal bread is usually Typ 1050 and rye flour Typ 1150. These are darker than plain white flour, but not as dark as wholemeal. Occasionally I ask visitors to bring me a few bags of Typen flour from Germany or I bring some back when I have been on a visit to Germany myself. However, I have found that a mix of plain and wholemeal flour available in the UK has given me more than acceptable results. All the breads posted in this blog, for example, were baked with regular plain and wholemeal flours.

If you can get your hands on Typen flour I suggest using a mix of Typ 1050 and wheat wholemeal flour. If not, just follow the recipe below. This makes one large loaf. The pre-dough and sourdough keep the bread fresher for longer and they also improve its flavour a lot. It takes a while to make, but it is certainly worth it!

For the pre-dough:

100 g plain flour

100 g wholemeal wheat flour

10 g fresh yeast

200 ml lukewarm water

For the sourdough:

100 g wholemeal rye flour

100 g lukewarm water

1 tablespoon rye sourdough starter

Other ingredients:

300 g plain flour

300 g wholemeal wheat flour

15 g salt

1 tablespoon honey

300 ml lukewarm water

For the pre-dough: dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and mix in the flour. Cover the bowl with clingfilm or a lid and leave to rest at room temperature for an hour and then in the fridge overnight or for about 12 hours. For the sourdough: mix all three ingredients, cover and leave to rest in a warm place (28 degrees are ideal – placing the sourdough in a coolbox with a warm hot water bottle works a treat!) overnight or for about 12 hours.

When you are ready to bake mix the pre-dough and sourdough with all the remaining ingredients and knead well for about 10 minutes. The dough is relatively soft (but nothing like as sticky as pure rye sourdough). Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to rest for about 30 minutes. When the 30 minutes are up fold the dough in the bowl. It is easiest to do this by moving your hand under the dough, grabbing a bit, pulling it up and folding it over. Do this about 4-5 times moving clockwise (or counter clockwise) around the bowl. Leave to rest again for 30 minutes, then fold again and leave to rest while you preheat the oven.

Preheat the oven to about 240 degrees. If you have a bread baking stone you should heat this up in the oven. If not, place a strong baking sheet in the oven to heat up. When the oven is hot take the ball of dough out of the bowl with very wet hands and place it on a chopping board covered in baking paper. Pull the loaf onto the hot baking stone or baking sheet with the paper and spray some water into the oven. Bake at 240 degrees for about 15 minutes then decrease the temperature gradually to 200 degrees. The bread needs to bake for about one hour. You can pull out the baking paper after 20 minutes so it doesn’t burn.

When the bread is done briefly take it out of the oven and wet it with water (you can use a brush or just your wet hands, if you are hard like me). Put it back into the hot oven for about 2 minutes. This makes the crust nice and shiny. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. This freezes very well.

For fun and a bit of blog networking I am submitting this post to Yeastspotting.

Rustic rye bread - 'Rustikales Roggenmischbrot'

 

Unfortunately, I don’t manage to bake sourdough loaves nearly as often as I would like to. Admittedly, these breads are a labour of love and require some planning. The making and baking process itself is not too bad, but just getting the dough ready requires a few fairly lengthy periods of rest and proofing in between the individual steps. Over the past few months the day job just didn’t allow me to engage in this more time-intensive kind of baking very often. Having said this, though, the effort is absolutely worth it. This weekend I managed to reinvigorate my sourdough starter that was waiting patiently in the fridge and then baked another variation of rye bread with sourdough. This bread is made of three components, as described below: the sourdough, a pre-dough involving a very small amount of fresh yeast, and also a ‘soaker’, making the bread particularly moist. As most of the flour used for the bread is left to absorb liquid (water) overnight, the bread is not in danger of becoming dry, as all the moisture is ‘locked’ in the flour and seeds. The addition of a few spoons of walnut oil, as well as a small amount of coriander and caraway seed spicing, underlines the bread’s rustic flavour and appearance.

For the sourdough (my PREVIOUS POST describes how to make your own sourdough starter)

140 g wholemeal rye flour

140 ml lukewarm water

30 g sourdough starter

Mix these three ingredients in a bowl, cover with cling film, and leave to rest in a warm place (28 – 30 degrees are ideal) overnight or for about 12-15 hours.

For the pre-dough:

100 g wholemeal wheat flour

100 ml lukewarm water

2-3 g of fresh yeast

Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water, mix in the flour, cover with cling film and leave to rest at room temperature (the room does not need to be heated) overnight or for about 12-15 hours.

For the ‘soaker’:

150 g wholemeal rye flour or coarsely milled rye grain

100 g sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds, or walnuts (or a mixture), dry-roasted in a pan

230 ml lukewarm water

15 g salt

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rest at room temperature or for 12-15 hours as the pre-dough above.

When all three components are ready to go (the sourdough and the pre-dough should have increased in size and should look bubbly and light) put them all in a bowl. Don't forget to keep a couple of spoons of the sourdough as your starter for the next bread! Then add the following:

250 g plain flour

2 tbsp walnut oil (can be replaced with any other oil)

½ - 1 level teaspoon each of finely ground coriander seeds and caraway seeds (I use a pestle and mortar)

If you have one, leave your food processor to knead the dough for at least 7 minutes. You can also knead the dough by hand (it’s a bit sticky) and a friend told me that he gets his bread maker to knead his sourdough, which also works. Leave to rest for about 20 minutes in a warm place.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and, with wet hands, quickly knead and fold into the desired shape. This dough is fairly sticky, so I usually bake it in a tin, which is easiest. If you are brave, you can leave it to rise in a floured bread proofing basket instead and turn it out onto a baking sheet before baking. 

This is the dough after 60 minutes of rising. It roughly doubled in size.

Leave to rise in a warm place for about 60-90 minutes. Preheat the oven to the highest temperature possible. 250 degrees are ideal. When the bread has visibly increased in size, score the top with a sharp knife or razor blade. Spray some water into the oven (this improves the bread’s crust) and enter the loaf. Bake at the highest temperature for 20 minutes then gradually decrease the temperature to about 190 degrees to finish off. The overall baking time is about 60 minutes. 

When the bread is finished, wrap it in a clean tea towel and leave to cool before eating (if you can, wait until the next day before cutting it). It keeps fresh for at least 5 days and also freezes well.

Spiced Apple Bread - 'Apfelbrot'

 

Yes, this looks suspiciously like a Christmas recipe already with its nuts and fruit and cinnamon. With apples as its main ingredient, though, this seems to me seasonal enough even at the beginning of November (subconsciously, of course, this might well be part of the build-up to the excessive Christmas baking I and many of my fellow country folk traditionally engage in from about the middle of November). Apfelbrot is a very old German recipe. This particular combination is my mother’s favourite and in my view it is the best there is. My feelings about dried fruit and raisins have always been ambivalent, but this recipe is the great exception. The bread is juicy and flavourful with none of this sticky toughness of raisins that I usually object to. Whether it should be classified as bread or cake is a matter of perception. There are no added eggs, milk or butter (which means that this bread is vegan) and it is certainly more wholesome than most cakes. Having said this, the Apfelbrot is sweet and rich and goes very well with coffee and tea. It can be eaten as it is, but it tastes particularly good spread with butter.

This makes one very large tin loaf or two smaller breads:

750 g apples, peeled and chopped

250 g Demerara sugar

250g raisins or chopped, mixed fruit

100 g ground almonds

100g roughly chopped hazelnuts

1 large tbsp dark rum

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 pinch of ground cloves

500 g plain flour

20 g baking powder

Mix the chopped apples with the sugar and raisins. Cover with a lid or with cling film and leave to stand overnight or for at least 8 hours. The sugar encourages the apples to release some of their juice so this period of rest is essential – there has to be enough liquid to absorb the rest of the ingredients.

Add the nuts, rum, cocoa and spices to the apple mixture and stir. Finally add the flour and baking powder and mix until all the flour has been absorbed. The juiciness of apples can vary – add some extra liquid (water, rum or apple juice) if the batter is too tough. The batter should be fairly firm and not runny.

Spoon the batter into one large or two smaller loaf tins. Bake at 180 degrees for about one hour or until a stick inserted into the bread comes out clean. The apple bread keeps fresh for a couple of weeks, but it should not be stored in plastic (tin foil or a tin is best).

Sweet plaited bread - 'Hefezopf'

The Hefezopf (literally translated this means yeast plait) is another one of those bakery staples typical of south-west Germany, and of the region of Swabia – or Schwaben – in particular. To even call this a recipe seems kind of odd to me as it is just so basic. Every person growing up within an 80 km radius of Stuttgart can throw this together in their sleep from the age of three. I prefer having this slightly sweet and very good looking bread for breakfast, topped with butter and homemade jam or honey. I tend to make it for weekends or bank holidays, especially when friends or family are staying over and we have time to indulge in an extensive ‘continental’ breakfast. There are two basic variants of the Hefezopf: one with raisins and the other without. I am not a big fan of dried fruit, so I prefer the latter, but it is a matter of preference. Lately, I have given my Hefezopf a ‘British twist’, spicing it with some of the tasty ingredients used for hot cross buns. This is not traditional and therefore not suitable for purists, but I think it tastes great.

One slight drawback of baking a Hefezopf in the UK is the scarce availability of fresh yeast in regular supermarkets. Of course, this can also be baked with dried yeast, which I have tried. However, the fresh yeast taste is an important feature of this bread. I have been told that some British supermarkets sell fresh yeast and it can also be bought in some organic shops, especially in London. Unfortunately, I have never managed to find fresh yeast in shops that are in my vicinity. One way around this for me has been to buy yeast in bulk from a baker selling it on ebay (the price is very reasonable) and to freeze it in individual portions. Apparently, some traditional baking shops (if you can find one) are also willing to sell some fresh yeast if you ask nicely.

For one large plait:

20g fresh yeast (or 1 sachet dried)

500 g plain flour

250 ml lukewarm milk

1 egg

60 g butter

80 g sugar

1 tsp of salt

Finely grated zest of ½ organic lemon
A handful of raisins (optional) 


For a spiced version try a few of the following: infuse the milk with a pinch of saffron, a cinnamon stick, a cracked cardamom pod and/or a vanilla pod. Add a pinch of ground ginger, nutmeg and/or ground cloves.

Egg wash (one egg yolk mixed with a bit of milk to glaze the bread before baking)

Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk, add to all the other ingredients (apart from the egg wash) and knead until you have soft dough that is not too sticky. Cover in a bowl and leave in a warm place to rise until it has doubled in size. Divide the dough into three parts and roll each part into a string about 40 cm long and plait. Place on a baking sheet covered in baking paper and leave to rise again for about 20-30 minutes.  Mix an egg yolk with a dash of milk and brush this onto the bread (this will give it a nice shine). Bake at 200 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until the bread is a nice golden colour and sounds hollow when the bottom is tapped.

Poppy seed plait - 'Mohnzopf'

Sweetened and plaited breads are popular in Germany – for breakfast at the weekend (or on any other morning of the week if I get the chance), but also with coffee or tea in the afternoon. A favourite variation of mine is this plait filled with a sweet poppy seed mixture. It tastes and looks quite special (even if I say so myself), but it is actually quite easy to make. The poppy seed in the mix can be replaced with ground nuts - hazelnuts and/or almonds are best. Many different variations in flavour are possible with the addition of, for example, grated lemon zest, cinnamon, cocoa powder or even grated marzipan.

 

Poppy seeds are widely used in cakes and other sweet dishes in Central and Eastern Europe. It is not a problem to buy packets of poppy seed in the UK – I usually get mine from the organic supermarket. Unfortunately, I have never found ground poppy seed as needed for this plait and also for other cakes (such as my poppy seed cake). However, poppy seed can be ground (or at least bruised) in a decent food processor or even with a mortar and pestle). I don’t recommend using whole poppy seed, as this has quite an unpleasant, sandy texture.

I usually bake this plait in a large cake tin (about 30 cm long) to give it an even shape. It can be baked without a tin, but this will result in a flatter shaped loaf.

For the bread:

20 g fresh yeast (or 1 sachet dry)

130 ml milk

400 g plain flour

40 g sugar

70 g butter

1 egg

For the filling:

100 g ground poppy seeds

25 g semolina

60 g sugar

175 ml milk

Seeds of one vanilla pod

A good swig of rum (optional)

Dissolve the fresh yeast in the warm milk, add to the rest of the bread ingredients and knead to get a fairly firm ball of dough. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes.

In the meantime make the filling. Boil the milk with the sugar and vanilla, and then add the poppy seeds and semolina. Bring back to the boil briefly and set aside to allow the poppy seed and semolina to swell up and the mixture to cool down. Add the rum and mix well.

When the dough has risen roll it into a rectangle of about 20 by 30 cm. Evenly distribute the topping on the dough and roll up so you end up with a sausage about 30 cm long. Carefully cut this sausage down the middle with a serrated knife. Then twist the two halves into a braid and place in a greased cake tin. Cover and leave to rise again for about 30 minutes.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Rye bread with yoghurt

This was my first attempt at baking a 100% wholegrain rye bread and I am quite happy with the result. Rye dough has a reputation for being difficult to handle as it is so sticky. However, this bread is baked in a tin, which allowed me to circumvent the challenge of shaping a sticky mess into a loaf. Sticky it was, but the baked bread turned out beautifully moist and surprisingly light. This is a variation of a recipe I found on a German internet forum for sourdough enthusiasts, der-sauerteig.com. In addition to a vast collection of tried-and-tested recipes this forum provides the answer even to the most left-field sourdough-related question or problem. Most of the forum is in German, but contributions in English are welcome and there are a few English-speaking users. If you are into baking sourdough bread then this really is an invaluable resource. 

The addition of a ‘soaker’ – wholemeal flour soaked in water before baking – makes this bread particularly moist and it will easily keep fresh for a week. Pure sourdough rye, especially if baked with wholemeal flour, does not rise to the heady heights of wheat and yeast bread and is less spectacular visually. However, this loaf’s flavour demonstrates that there is some truth in this old platitude: looks don’t count for everything.

For the sourdough (I explain how to make your own sourdough starter HERE)

20 g sourdough starter

180 g wholemeal rye flour

190 g warm water

Leave in a warm place (26 degrees are ideal) for 16 hours

For the soaker:

155 g wholemeal rye flour or bruised rye grains

155 g water

12 g salt

Leave to stand at room temperature for at least 4 hours

For the bread dough:

Sourdough from the recipe above

Soaker from above

290 g wholegrain rye flour

10 g honey

160 g natural yoghurt at room temperature

5 g fresh yeast (optional)

Mix all ingredients for the bread dough and knead/mix for about 5 minutes. The dough should be wet and sticky and have the consistency of porridge. Leave the dough to rest for 50 minutes in a warm place then knead/mix again briefly. Pour the dough into a large, greased bread tin (it should not be more than half full) and smooth the top with wet hands. Cover the tin with a cloth and leave to rise in a warm place for up to an hour or until doubled in size. Bake in the preheated oven for about 60 minutes, starting with 240 degrees and slowly decreasing the temperature to about 180. If you like your bread crusty you can bake it without the tin for the last 20 minutes in the oven. Rye bread should mature for about a day before it is cut.

Sourdough loaf with rye and walnuts

I am a fan of traditional British cuisine and I love cooking flavoursome stews, savoury pies and especially these wonderful hot desserts, such as bread and butter pudding and fruit crumbles in all varieties. Every Christmas I treat my family in Germany to a slap up British Christmas dinner and everybody loves it (at least that’s what they say). What I never managed to get used to, though, is British bread. I am talking about those sliced loaves sold in plastic bags in supermarkets all over the country. Of course, some traditional bakeries remain and you can find excellent farmhouse loaves and other speciality breads if you are prepared to look a bit more closely. However, earlier this year I really started missing rustic sourdough bread baked with rye flour, which turned out to be really hard to come by in my East Midlands town. Bread baked with sourdough is the rule rather than the exception in Germany, and bread that includes at least a proportion of rye is also common.  Rye bread is darker than wheat, it tends to be less fluffy and it has a distinctive, aromatic flavour. Because of the specific makeup of its gluten (so I have been told) rye flour needs to be ‘acidified’ in order to be used for baking. This is achieved with sourdough, which probably explains the relatively rare use of rye flour in the UK, where yeast is most commonly used as a raising agent for bread.

Rye bread tends to be associated with savoury toppings, but I think it is as versatile as any other bread. It tastes excellent with butter and jam and especially with a good chocolate spread for breakfast. A real advantage of sourdough bread is that it keeps fresh for a lot longer than bread baked only with yeast. If stored correctly a loaf can be eaten for at least a week without getting hard or losing too much of its flavour.

Making sourdough is a science in itself and I spent a lot of time reading and researching the topic on the internet. Of course I am still not an expert and there is a lot more to learn. Making the first batch of sourdough was quite time intensive, but I have now mastered a small repertoire of sourdough breads that are almost as quick to make as regular wheat and yeast loaves in a bread maker. I ‘grew’ my own sourdough from only organic rye flour and water, which took about five days. But I have seen that readymade sourdough culture can be purchased online, which would considerably accelerate the process (but it would also take away a lot of the fun). Whether you grow your own sourdough culture or buy it online – give it a go! It is definitely worth it! For a description of how to make your own sourdough starter click HERE

Recipe for one large loaf:

To make the sourdough:

2 tbsp sourdough starter

140 g wholegrain rye flour

140 ml lukewarm water

For the bread:

280 g sourdough from the ingredients above (keep 2 tbsp in the fridge as a starter for the next loaf)

350g strong white bread flour (or spelt flour)

210 g wholegrain rye flour

300 ml lukewarm water

10 g salt

5 g fresh yeast (optional)

150 g walnut pieces, dry roasted in a pan

1 tbsp walnut oil

For the sourdough combine the starter with the rye flour and lukewarm water. Leave in a warm place (26 degrees are ideal) for about 12-15 hours. When the sourdough is ready it will be bubbly and at least have doubled in size.

For the bread dough combine the sourdough with all other ingredients and knead for about 10-15 minutes (I use the dough hook of my old Kenwood Chef, but you can also do this by hand). Add a bit more wheat flour or warm water if required so the dough can be handled without being too dry or too sticky. Cover with a cloth and leave to relax for about 15 minutes. Briefly knead the dough again on a surface floured with rye flour. Then place in a greased loaf tin or in a floured banneton (proofing basket) to bake a round and crusty loaf. I bought a banneton for very little money on ebay. But you can also use a round bowl or colander lined with a floured tea towel. The purpose of the banneton is to prevent the dough from spreading so you don’t end up with bread as flat as a pancake. 

Leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size. Depending on the prowess of your sourdough this can take 1-5 hours (the potency of a sourdough tends to improve with age). If you use a small amount of yeast (purists sneer at this, but I usually add a few morsels so I don’t have to take a day off work and/or actually can get some sleep) about 50-60 minutes are sufficient.

Preheat the oven to about 240 degrees. Before you are ready to bake spray some water into the oven – this will give the bread a good crust. If baking without a tin carefully turn the bread from the banneton or bowl onto a baking sheet covered in baking paper. Bake for about 60 minutes, decreasing the temperature gradually from 240 to about 180 degrees. The bread is ready when the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.

Cover the bread with a clean tea towel. Do not be tempted to cut a slice while it is still warm even if it smells extremely good. It will taste best if left alone overnight. The loaf will keep fresh for up to a week if stored in a bread bin or tin. I have been told that the walnut bread tastes particularly good with a piece of brie. But I also recommend trying it with chocolate spread!