German Bread Recipe Without Sourdough
Course: Bread, Favorite, Featured4
30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalIngredients
335g wheat flour ( e.g. a smooth flour in Austria type 700 with the highest possible protein content, this is shown on the package)
100g Rye (Roggen) flour (since this is the smaller portion, the origin, etc. is not so important here)
12g salt (ideally: without trickling aids, non-iodized)
1g dry yeast (yes, really only that little!)
350ml water (room temperature)
Time. It takes 20 hours for the bread to be baked, after which it should rest a little more. There was none of it to eat 22 hours ago. But then all the more.
Directions
- Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, stir well, and cover. In my experience, this works best with a plastic lid in winter – in summer a tea towel is enough. Don’t be alarmed, the recipe results in a rather sticky dough that you don’t even want to touch.
- Let stand in a warm, dark place for at least 18 hours. When I put the plastic lid on it, I “ventilate” 1-2 times during the 18 hours.
- Tilt the dough into a bowl with a well-floured cloth and fold it up. To do this, carefully fold the floured dough like an envelope four times from the outside to the inside. A spatula helps a lot.
The dough now looks very sticky, smells fine-fruity-sour, and will turn into a really nice bread. I now put the floured (as little as possible, but as much as necessary) dough in a proving basket * instead of in a bowl. I also flour the proving basket well beforehand. Incidentally, those who bake bread for the first time do not need their own proofing basket, I only bought my many attempts later – mainly because I like the pattern that sticks. - Now the dough has to rise again for 2 hours. In no case should you skip this step, otherwise all the work will be in vain!
- Preheat the oven (hot air) for half an hour to three-quarters of an hour before baking. As hot as possible and with a tray inside. Just before baking, put two ovenproof bowls with water in the bottom of the oven.
- Tilt the now-finished bread dough onto baking paper and place it on the hot tray. Do not open the door for the next 20 minutes! Then take out the water bowls and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Experience has shown that it is better to let the bread burn slightly (slightly!) Then bake it too short. Tip: If you have a cast-iron roaster, you can bake the bread in it for the first 10-15 minutes and then remove the lid.
- Take out and let cool on a wire rack. The bread can only be cut properly when it has had time to cool down and rest.
My tips so that the German Bread Recipe Without Sourdough really turns out well
- The wheat flour (available from The Organic Supermarket) helps enormously with the first attempts. There are probably other flours that work well with them, but I couldn’t find one that has such good properties. The flour contains 12% protein (quite a lot compared to others) and is just perfect for an airy dough with little yeast.
- Is best to use one to-stir silicone spatula, which is easier to clean.
- You have to give the dough at least 18 hours. I have also had success with a dough that lasts almost 24 hours, but it is important that the dough does not dry out!
- So that it doesn’t dry out, I use a mixing bowl on which a plastic lid fits (e.g. from the model Margrethe by Rosti in 3L with lid ), this saves one-way plastic foil. Or you can take the help of a shower cap …
- Even more important are that 2 hours after folding, you must not touch the dough and let it rise in peace! Here the volume of the bread unfolds again.
- So, and finally an insider tip: the bread tastes best when you bake twice as much. And when you share it, the joy is twice as great I think then the yeast can simply work better. Sounds strange, but that’s how it is. Incidentally, this is also the reason why pizza dough turns out so much better when you make more of it.
How long does homemade bread last?
The German Bread Recipe Without Sourdough tastes fresh and good for the next 2 days, after which it is either eaten or, if you have baked far too much, you can also freeze it. Depending on where and how you store it, it can last a whole week. Personally, I prefer to cut it into slices and freeze them in a bag with as little air as possible as an emergency ratio. I just don’t like stale bread and prefer it crispy. You can imagine that the toaster is my best friend in the kitchen …
Airy on the inside and crispy on the outside. This is how homemade bread should be!
The bread tastes best with fresh alpine butter, maybe a little apricot jam, or hearty with butter, mountain cheese, pickles, and coarsely ground pepper.
Bread variants with spices and seeds
You can enrich the dough with various spices or sprinkle them before baking. I like the following mixes:
- Bread clover, crushed coriander, and ground caraway seeds in the batter
- Sunflowers in the batter
- Coriander and sesame on top
- Flax seeds, caraway seeds, and fennel in bread (all good for digestion)
Here You Can Find Our Other Naan Bread
