Description
Black Bread is a category of old world bread: mostly rye flour, soaked old bread (toasted), spice and molasses or barley malt syrup. It comes from a northern European tradition and each country has its own variations of black bread: Latvian, Czech, Polish and Russian.
This recipe comes from Jeffrey Hamelman’s authoritative classic, Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes. It simplifies and summarizes the different styles. Soaked old bread, milled coffee that gives it bite, a 60-40 combination of rye and wheat flour. It’s baked at a lower temperature for a longer period of time to achieve a strong Maillard Reaction (the caramelization of the natural sugars in the flour and old bread).
It’s called Black Bread, but it’s deep brown in colour. No charcoal or squid ink used here! This darkness means more flavour and intensity, a satisfying chew and many combinations for condiments and salad fixings. An ice cold vodka! Prost!