I’ve been baking bread for my annual homebrew festival for a few years now, but I’ve never quite gotten the breads right. This year, things were different. I hit a sweet spot with my roogenbrot (rye bread) and brotchen (German hard rolls), and I’m keeping this recipe written down! The rye bread came out very well, though I’ll admit the center was a bit gummy from me not giving it enough time to fully come to room temperature before baking (dense breads like this one need more time to come to temperature than the starchier Italian and French style breads that undergo a fridge fermentation). And the brotchen came out nearly perfect, I just need to work on a bit more fluffy crumb for the next set, then I’ll have it perfected!

Roogenbrot:

1 cup active starter

3 cups bread flour

0.5 cup stone ground rye flour

2 tsp salt

3 tbsp molasses

2 tbsp honey

4 tbsp baking cocoa

enough water to make the dough

Since the starter has rye in it, and we add more rye flour here, this dough will be dense, as rye soaks up a lot of water. So, we’ll need to really knead this for a long time, to ensure the proper consistency and that we get good gluten development. Knead in the machine, keeping an eye on the texture of the dough, adding bread flour to get it to the proper level of moisture. Check every 5 minutes to keep an eye on gluten development. Once the dough passes the windowpane test and doesn’t stick to your fingers, turn it out into a greased bowl, covered with plastic wrap and let it ferment at room temperature for a few hours, before placing it in the fridge. Keep in the fridge overnight to slowly ferment until the following day. Give the dough plenty of time to come to temperature, 4-5hrs at least. Once the dough is warm, shape it as you’d like for baking, and let it rise another 2 hrs. Bake at 400F for 25 minutes with a steam tray in the oven.

Key steps to remember

Don’t under develop gluten or leave the initial dough too hydrated. It wont rise properly and will be gummy in the center. Don’t bake too quickly after removing from the fridge, it won’t rise properly and the center will again be cold and gummy. Don’t under yeast this dough, since it’s rye, it’ll rise slower given the density.

Brotchen:

Good brotchen is amazing. The thin, crispy exterior and fluffy, white interior, perfectly balanced salt and wheat flavors… Seriously, German bakers have good bread on lock down. Here’s my brotchen recipe, which nearly recapitulates what I enjoyed when in Germany, though I do need to get the interior texture a little bit more fluffy.

1.5 cups very active starter, be aggressive in the feeding schedule up to the time to make the dough

2.5 cups bread flour

3 egg whites

2 tsp salt

enough water to make the dough

Additional egg white for an egg wash, to be used the day of baking

Knead this dough. When you’re done and it passes the windowpane test, knead it some more. You really want to make sure you don’t underknead this! Once the dough comes together, allow it to ferment for 2 hrs, then let it slowly ferment in the fridge overnight. You could bake this dough in a single day if you want. The fermentation should be pretty fast and vigorous, with the dough doubling in size overnight while in the fridge (be sure the plastic wrap is on tight!). The following day, allow the dough to come to temperature, 3-4 hrs on the counter. Set the oven up with the baking stone in the middle or middle-lower rack, and a steam tray below, you don’t want these to brown too quickly. To make the brotchen, cut approximately 3oz piece of dough, and handle them gently, you don’t want to press all the air out of them. Gently – but firmly- form the dough into a boule, then elongate it by pressing underneath and pulling the ends lightly. Once the dough is in the shape you want, set it on parchment paper on a cookie sheet (it’s easiest this way to transfer it to the baking stone) and continue making more. Give them plenty of space to proof in the oven, so don’t crowd the sheet. You will likely need to bake two sets. Set the oven to 450F. Once temperature is reached, beat your remaining egg white with a tiny dash of water, and give all shaped dough proto-brotchen a nice egg wash. Don’t be shy with this, and be sure to get the sides down to the parchment paper, since that will rise up during baking. Score each as you please, I like a single score down the center along the anterior-posterior axis. If you’d like to add salt, diced onion, sesame seeds, etc, now is the time.

Add 1.5 cups boiling water to your steam tray, and give the oven 60s to fill with steam. Add your brotchen and bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. You may bake them longer depending on how dark you want them. Then remove, and let cool for at least an hour before use. I think you’ll find the addition of the egg whites to this dough really adds a fluffy texture that is wonderful, and the crust is superb. It still doesn’t get to the level of the brotchen I had in Germany, but it’s the closest thing I’ve had stateside. I’ll keep working on this recipe over the winter and reporting back.

Key steps to remember

Hydration of the initial dough: If it seems slightly over hydrated, that’s ok, the 24hr fermentation will help with this. Don’t under-hydrate, or you won’t get sufficient over-spring. Scoring it super important, and I could score a bit deeper next time. Don’t be too shy with scoring, and use a serrated bread knife.