It was difficult for me, but I held back from adding any truly interesting ingredients to this bread. It’s the first attempt, you see, at trying to duplicate Westphalian Pumpernickel bread. After my first attempt, I did a bit more research, and arrived at the Wiki article, and then realized that what I’d been making was American Pumpernickel. Long article short (for those who don’t want to go there), American Pumpernickel adds a whole bunch of things to duplicate the color of Westphalian Pumpernickel (namely chocolate, molasses, prunes and the like) and also adds Caraway Seeds in an attempt to duplicate the flavor.
So, I held back on the things I’d usually throw into a savory bread, and ended up with a truly basic, sourdough rye. I started it off with 1 cup of my sourdough starter, but everything past that point was rye. I fed it on rye flour, gave it whole, steamed rye berries, and stirred it every couple of hours for two days (except at night, of course, because that would’ve awakened the birds, who would awaken the rest of the house). It was necessary to let it sour to some degree, because rye flour tends to be a bit alkali, so yeast doesn’t work properly unless you let it sour or give it something to acidulate the flour. Next time I won’t let it go quite so long, as it is truly a sour bread.
I was told at the time that I should have let it raise a bit more, but I was concerned about not letting it over-rise. I shouldn’t have worried, and should’ve let it go, because I ended up with quite a dense couple of loaves. That said, though, the incorporation of such a quantity of whole rye berries gives a good, chewy texture, and the aroma is uniquely rye: slightly bitter, slightly floral, somewhat reminiscent of barley, but its own. Baked at 250°F, the crust is essentially nonexistent. As you can see, it slices quite thinly, which isn’t possible with wheat, necessarily. I don’t know if it’s due to the density, or due to the lower gluten content, but it certainly lends itself to those strange little sandwiches one encounters at parties.
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