Russian Black Bread

As requested on my Friday livestream here's the recipe and a video of the making of my Russian Black Bread. This was also an experiment in videography and production by my Little Man. He came up with the idea, as we were preparing to do this, of making it into a school project: he is going to cook foods from every nation in the world. That's a daunting task! We will see how far he gets, but in the meantime...

This is delicious. I highly recommend it as an open-faced sandwich with cold-smoked salmon (gravelox) on a smear of cream cheese, with capers and chives sprinkled over. What a way to start off 2022! 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP8zPovSHC8[/embed]

255 g warm water

7 g instant yeast

14 g brown sugar

106 g dark rye flour

300 g bread flour (divided into 200 g and 100 g) 

28 g butter

30 g molasses

8 g salt

18 g baking cocoa

1 g espresso powder 

28 g cider vinegar

5 g caraway and fennel seeds (two teaspoons caraway, 1/4 tsp fennel)

In your mixing bowl, combine sugar, water, and instant yeast, allowing to bloom for about ten minutes. 

Begin to mix on slow, adding in the 200 g of bread flour slowly. Then add in the rye flour. As they start to incorporate, scrape down the sides of your bowl and add in the remaining ingredients. Leave the 100 g aliquot of flour aside. When the dough is uniformly mixed, slowly add in the 100 g of bread flour and mix at medium speed, scraping down the sides, until the dough is fully hydrated. It will become elastic and pull away from the sides of the bowl, clinging to the dough hook, when this process is progressed. This will take about 5-7 minutes of mixing. 

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until dough bounces back when pressed gently with fingertips. Form into a ball, and put in an oiled bowl, rolling the top to coat well. Allow to stand in a warm place until it has doubled in volume. 

Preheat oven to 350F (160C)

Turn out onto the lightly floured surface again, and punch down briefly, then form into loaf. Place in a pan lined with parchment paper and allow to rise for about 30 minutes in a warm place. Score loaf, and place into the oven for about 40 minutes, until the top of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped firmly. Remove from the pan and allow to cool on the rack. Butter top of loaf while cooling if you prefer a softer crust. Slice when only slightly warm for best slices, or eat hot and delicious but less neatly. 

If you're looking for a book to read while you munch a toasted slice with butter, I suggest The East Witch.