Transitional German Style Many Seed Bread

This is the second time I made this bread, and I used spelt flour to replace all the rye flour this time. As the gluten and water absorption of spelt is higher than rye, I needed to add more water than the recipe indicated, and the resulted bread crumb was lighter. Actually I made the dough quite soft, which created the light crumb as well. (Actually I would prefer a tighter crumb as it is called German style bread )

On top of the bread were rolled spelt. Though they only had a slight spelt flavor eaten with the bread, they were crunchy. The bread had a light spelt flavor and was quite tasty, but I prefer the rye version.

I like Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Bread book, which allows me to make great bread in just around 2 hrs. In this way I can make bread after work.

Recipe: “Whole Grain Breads” by Peter Reinhart

Five-Grain Levain

Even though this bread contains a high percentage of whole grains (35%), its crumb is not substantial at all, and is the lightest and moistest I ever had. I believe the key is the extremely high hydration (98%), of which 40% is to soak the grains thoroughly.

I used rye meal instead of cracked ryes as I could not find them. Luckily the crumb is still nice.

The bread first gives a taste of the mildly toasted sunflower seeds, then it comes the subtle rye meal and sourdough. A good combination of grains. My new favourite.

Recipe from: “Bread” by Jeffrey Hamelman