Vollkornbrot - (aka German Rye)

Introduction

I was traveling in Europe this past spring, and while I was there I spent a week at Göttingen University in Germany for a workshop. Of the many wonderful things that I experienced, one unexpected surprise was the amazing bread that they have. Now this is entirely an unjustified bias on my part, but when I think about European bread I think French baguettes, Italian ciabatta, etc. and not so much about the incredible ryes & whole grain breads of Northern Europe. Thankfully my time in Germany has opened my eyes to these wonderful ryes.

In particular the style of bread that really stood out to me were these dense little bricks packed with whole grains, sunflower seeds, and other various good things. At first glance I didn't expect much of the thinly sliced bread on the hotel breakfast buffet, but the flavor was excellent and paired well with both sweet and savory. And if that weren't enough, the name for this type of bread is 'Volkornbrot', which literally means 'whole' (voll) - 'grain/seed' (korn) - 'bread' (brot), and is definitely my new favorite word.

In an effort to recreate what I experienced I have tested out a few different recipes and so far this is my favorite.

The Gänseliesel statue in the market square of Göttingen

 Vollkornbrot mit Sonnenblumenkernen

(this is an adaptation of the Vollkornbrot recipes in Hamelman's Bread)

Rye Flour Cracked Grain Cereal* Water Sunflower Seeds** Starter Yeast Salt (Fruit***)

Mass 655g 290g 750g 115g 20g 5g 17g (190g)

Percentage 69% 31% 79% 12% 2% 1% 2% (20%)

• * I usually use 7 grain hot cereal from Bob's Red Mill. I have also used a mix of whole rye & spelt berries that I chopped in the food processor after soaking. You could also use bulgur, polenta, etc.  
• ** A mix of Flax, Sesame & whatever else you like can be used too
• *** There is a recipe using Currants in Hamelman's bread. I have used stewed Apricots and that was great! You might want to reduce the amount of the seed mix by half if adding fruit.

Cracked multigrain mix soaking - I think this one was cracked wheat (bulger) & oats

Timeline:

Day 1 Day 2

Mix 375g rye flour, 375g water, and 20g starter. Let incubate at RT overnight. In another container mix 290g Multigrain Chops, salt and 290g of water. Let soak overnight at RT. In a large container mix the fermented rye, mutigrain soaker, and all of the remaining ingredients. Let rest for 20-30 min. While that is resting oil/butter a loaf pan and dust liberally with rye flour. Roll the dough into a log and place in the loaf pan. Dust the top with more rye flour and let rise for 1-2h at RT, or overnight in the fridge. Bake at 380F for 2h (w steam for the first 20min) until the internal temp is 200F. Let cool completely before slicing.

The final dough

The finished product - looks very brick-ish but really is a nice texture

Results 

If you are used to strong gluteny wheat flour, working with dough like this will take some getting used to. The base dough is very wet and sticky. This is in part a necessary property of  good rye bread because the rye has so little gluten that the loaf is essentially held together by the starches instead of the proteins. According to Peter Stolz in the 'Handbook of Dough Fermentations', fermenting the rye flour like this is important because it inhibits the amylase enzymes that would otherwise break down the amylose starch that we need to keep the loaf together.

This stuff smells so good when it is finished baking it is really hard to resist slicing it until the next day. But you should, because it really comes together as it rests. The flavor will develop even more with time & because of the large proportion of fermented rye it will last for a long time (weeks in the fridge) and still taste great.

Conclusion

I have been and will continue to make this on a regular basis. Every time I do it seems to get better. Makes a great hearty yet simple breakfast. Also really good with cream cheese and country dijon mustard!

Appendix 

By this point I have tried a few other versions as well. The one above is my favorite for everyday eating & because it is actually a bit simpler to make than some of the others. I also highly recommend the Toasted Barley Pan-loaf and Rene's Rye from Tartine No3 (pictured below)

Toasted Barley for the Toasted Barley Bread - Smells incredilble!

Mixing the dough -

 this is from Rene's Rye in Tartine 3, the recipe above will be (slightly) less hydrated

The seed mix - Sunflower, Sesame & Flax in this case

Mixing the seeds with the dough - it was hard to believe that this would actually form a loaf, but amazingly it did.

Rene's Rye - From Tartine No3

Rene's Rye - From Tartine No3