German Dark Rye Bread

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These are the ingredients of Sunday bread baking at home. Why do people sometimes say, “The Art of Bread”? My personal adventures with making bread at home had come quite a long way. When I started off apprenticing as a Pilates teacher, hardly anyone had heard of what it is. Some even pronounced it as ‘pilots’.

I met M at mat class that I stood in as replacement for another teacher. Soon she was kind enough for me to be teaching at her home three times weekly. Always after our session, she would invite me into her kitchen to sample her cookies, cakes, kuihs and bread. I admire her dedication to nourish her children with food, made with love.

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M’s infectious passion for perfecting every single recipe she got her hands into

infected me. She took away my phobia of baking bread by allowing me a glimpse into her world in the kitchen.

Just not too many weeks ago, we both reminisced how time quickly time flew by. M has been coming to the studio for almost a year now. So it has been three years I regularly sought her opinion, help and tips on improving the bread I was attempting to make successfully. Only recently I have become comfortable with making decent, edible bread though not up there with M’s high standards yet.

Here are the ingredients, I usually measure them as a percentage of total weight, something I learnt from CIA’s Professional Baking book. 500g yields a decent loaf about the size of a loaf of rubbery Gardenia bread.

70% organic unbleached bread flour
30% German Rye Bread mix
7% active dry yeast
7% malt extract
7% Stabilise bread improver
A pinch of Celtic Sea Salt
A handful flaxseed & pumpkin seed

60-65% water (flavoured with honey, maple syrup or molasses)

Knead dough either with machine or hand.
Let it rise for 1 hour.
Punch it down and knead for a few minutes
Let it rise again for 1 hour
Bake in 190C preheated oven for 30 minutes.

The dark cocoa powder flour you see on the apex is a German bread colouring that produces their all famous dark rye bread. The lady at the bakeshop told me it’s made of burnt rye, I believe her.