Pumpernickel 1.0

Last night’s experiment was in Pumpernickel Bread. If I’d read the Wikipedia article beforehand, I might have gone out and bought some rye flour and spent another day at it. As it was, though, I believe that, for a first experiment, I’ve ended up with a nice, American-style Rye.





After final knead Divided

I basically started with my regular sourdough starter, fed it & let it run wild all day on the counter, removed out the piece which goes back in the fridge, and started adding crazy things to it. The crazy things were: lots of molasses, cocoa powder, fennel seeds, caraway seeds, and dill seeds. From there, it was a matter of working in more whole wheat flour, a fair amount of oat bran (2 cups, as opposed to my usual 4 cups of fiber), and some white flour, just for good measure. Oh – and some olive oil, because one of the consistent features of all of the recipes I examined on the web was that they included fat of some kind, be it shortening (!), butter, oil, or olive oil.





15 Minutes into the rise 1 Hour into the rise

After an exceedingly long rise (about 1:20), I felt that they’d finally achieved the amount of rise needed to go into the oven. I don’t know what’s up with that long rise time, but I suspect it’s because of the oil, molasses, and chocolate all acting as inhibitors to my yeast’s growth. In any event, in they went, to come out when they were almost 190 degrees F (probe thermometer). I pulled them early, because I figured they’d carry over, and I wanted a more tender bread.



All Done!

I’m told that it’s a milder flavor than other Pumpernickel, which may or may not be a good thing. I think that, next time, I’m going to go for the sourdough Rye thing, and the long bake time which is characteristic of German Pumpernickel. Just, you know, to see what that’s all about. And also because I found it truly difficult to part with all of that cocoa powder. Really really difficult.

8 Replies to “Pumpernickel 1.0”

  1. Wow I am amazed at how you “throw” something together and it comes out looking so wonderful!! I can almost smell the bread as I read your post! I’ve got to learn to experiment more but I’m so scared of a screw-up, although I have made some really good melba toast from bread that failed to rise 🙂

  2. Well … I must say that I’ve had some failures, as well, but also that I always keep in the back of my mind that I can turn things into breadcrumbs, stuffing, or finch food if it’s really bad!

  3. that is one massive bake! they look beautiful! darker flour breads always take a little longer to bake. but a good home baked rye bread is pretty close to nirvana. and yes i used the dough hook!, thanks for asking. so once my next batch of biga bread is made i may just make up some rye! take care and happy baking!

  4. Yes – I’m scaring myself with the size of these batches now. My poor little Kitchenaid Professional struggles with them (and overheats, sometimes), my chiropractor can tell when I’ve baked recently (because of the knots in my back), I don’t have enough room on the baking stone any more, and am resorting to baking on two racks in the oven! I need to go get some unglazed quarry tiles or something, because my lone “pizza stone” is just too small (and I’m not buying another, when tile will work just as well).

    Sigh.

    It’s sure nice to be able to give it away, though, especially when it turns out so well. 🙂

    I mostly just kinda wish that my sourdough starter wouldn’t be so active as to have to bake twice a week. And it’s in the fridge full-time, and still manages to rise to 4x its volume in about a day.

  5. This bread looks great. I am allergic to yeast but just love sourdough and got introduced to it many years ago when I visited Australia. I can now get it in Ireland but have had disasters when trying to make it at home as the house smelt like a brewery.

  6. Jackie in NB: how long did it take the seeds to get to you? ‘Cause a loaf could get dropped into the mail. 😉

    Mary – can you describe some of your experiments in sourdough? I’m wondering how you’re going about it, especially as sourdough contains yeast. Is it that you’re allergic to it in large quantities, and that sourdough doesn’t contain as much? I’d imagine that you’re probably going for more quickbreads in your recipes? Soda breads, and the like?

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