Is there anyone who is baking german-style pumpernickel breads who would share tips and methods with me? I've been baking 100% rye pumpernickel breads (whole rye flour, cracked rye, whole cooked rye berries, rye sourdough, and sunflower seeds, salt & water of course) in my wood fired brick oven for a number of years now and would want to exchange information on this type of bread. I bake this bread in covered pullman pans for 3 hrs at 350F before cooling in the fridge, letting it set for a few days, and the slicing it to 1/8" slices and packaging it.
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Hi roman,
Looks like you have it down pat.
No recent experience on my part though I did try it ages ago with rather disappointing results though I think I have learned a bit since those days and might have another go.
If you search on this site there have been a number of blogs that mention pumpernickel that could prove useful and I seem to recall that Graham might have done some experiments in his bakery making this style of thing. Of course there are heaps of other references out there but don't want to send you away from here.
Good luck with your projects.
Farinam
Thanks, Farinam. What I'm wondering is how the commercial pumpernickel breads can last for weeks on end in the supermarket (not cooled) while the ingredient list does not show any preservatives. The ones I'm baking last for a few weeks but need to be kept in the fridge.
"Real" german-style pumpernickel is baked/steamed at low temperatures (somewhere not much above 100 °C) for much longer times - 12 hours, maybe longer. As always, the longer the baking, the longer things will keep.
Your recipe sounds perfectly fine. Making true pumpernickel in a domestic oven is hard, it's very easy to create a beautiful aroma while steaming inedible bricks.
I keep all my baked loaves in the freezer until I'm ready to use them, then I keep them in the fridge, still in plastic bags (shock! horror!). My vollkorn-style rye (wet dough, 3 hours at 150°C) usually keeps for 2 weeks once I've started to use it, unless it gets damp in the fridge.
ken
Danish Rye bread
Day 1.
1.1 kg Rye flour
2 kg Mix seeds
300 g Sunflower seeds
150 g Lin Seeds
120 g Salt
500g Sourdough
2.2 L Water
Day 2
Dark malt
??g Carrot
500 g Rye flour
500 g Water
Thanks Chef Anders - I'll try the addition of carrots. I would assume they'd be shredded and added raw?