Transatlantic Pumpernickel

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There's Pumpernickel and there's Pumpernickel....it all depends on where you live.

Traditionally a peasant bread, it was fashioned out of a sourdough starter, rough rye grains and rye flour. As a result, it's traditionally a dense, dark bread that hails from Bavaria.

During the 20th century, it grew in popularity, and with it came a whole host of variations to match national tastes.

American pumpernickel differs from European pumpernickel in that the former uses additional types of leaven. It also includes flavouring and colouring agents, so producing a lighter bread with a shorter baking and production time. European pumpernickel uses coarse rye meal and relies on the Maillard effect and a long baking/fermentation time to produce a dark coffee and chocolate-flavoured bread. The effects on the system clearly gave name to the bread...pumpern means flatulent and Nick is the popular name for Satan..so, it was originally referred to as 'devil's fart' or 'the farting devil'.

It's no wonder it's served in very thin slices.

Our Pumpernickel is a hybrid...a slightly different take based on the approach by Vetri and McWilliams and incorporates a good deal of rye but also a hint of chocolate and treacle. I've called it Translatlantic Pumpernickel so as not to upset the purists.

INGREDIENTS

465 gms of strong wholemeal bread flour

196 gms of strong dark rye flour

264 gms of active rye sourdough starter

46 gms black treacle (you can also use molasses)

476 gms tepid water

26 gms unsweetened natural cocoa powder

15 gms crushed sea salt

11 gms caraway seeds.

METHOD

Into a large bowl add the water, starter, treacle and cocoa powder and mix together. Incorporate the flours and mix until everything it brought together.

Cover and leave for 15 minutes.

Add the salt and caraway seeds and continue to mix until you have a good dough.

Place the dough in a lightly-oiled bowl, cover and leave in a warm spot (18C - 23C) for 90 minutes. Halfway through (at the 45 minute stage...give the dough a good stretch).

Prepare two bannetons.

Spritz your working counter with water and then tip out the dough and divide into two.

Shape into batards or boules (depending on your bannetons) working to achieve good surface tension in the dough.

Cover the dough with cling wrap or place into plastic bags and leave in the same warm spot again for a further two hours.

Baking : You can either decant the dough from the banneton onto a hot steel or baking stone and add a tray of boiling water and a large pan to cover the bread before baking to generate steam or you can use a Dutch oven to trap steam from the dough and help the dough to rise. 

Preheat your oven (and baking stone/steel/dutch oven, etc.) to 240⁰C. Remove the pan or lid after 20 minutes and continue to bake for a further 10 minutes or so until the bread is very dark, almost black. 

Allow to cool on a rack. the bread will last several days if kept at room temperature. 

Happy baking...