Winterfell Black Bread Recipes

BLACK BREAD

Steps:

• In a small bowl, dissolve coffee in 1/4 cup warm water. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine remaining 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons warm water and molasses. Sprinkle yeast over top, stir, and let stand 5 minutes.
• Add honey, flours, cocoa, and salt to yeast mixture. Attach bowl to stand mixer fitted the dough-hook attachment and beat on low speed 1 minute. Increase speed to medium-low and beat until dough is smooth and slightly tacky, about 3 minutes (or knead by hand 15 to 20 minutes).
• Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface; knead by hand, turning dough over, 4 to 5 times before shaping into a ball. Transfer dough, smooth-side up, to a lightly oiled large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide in half. Set one half aside, loosely covered with lightly oiled plastic wrap. Shape remaining half into a 9-inch rectangle, with a short side parallel to work surface. Fold top third of dough towards center, then fold bottom third of dough on top, pressing gently to seal. Turn dough 90 degrees and repeat folding process, pinching seam and sides closed. Place seam-side down and roll dough back and forth with palms of hands to form a loaf about 12 inches long with tapered ends. Repeat shaping process with remaining half of dough. Sprinkle a clean cotton cloth with cornmeal and place loaves on top, spacing about 6 inches apart. Loosely cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel. Let rise in a warm place 45 minutes.
• Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees, with a pizza stone on rack in lower third and a skillet or baking pan on lowest rack, 30 minutes. Transfer loaves to a pizza peel or unrimmed baking sheet dusted with cornmeal. Brush tops with egg white. Using a lame (baker?s blade), razor blade, or serrated knife, make four diagonal cuts, 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep, across each loaf. Slide loaves from peel onto stone. If not using a stone, slide loaves onto a parchment-lined baking sheet dusted with cornmeal. Quickly pour boiling water into preheated skillet to create steam. Bake until loaves are dark brown and hollow-sounding when tapped on bottoms, about 30 to 40 minutes. Transfer loaves to a wire rack; let cool completely.

WINTERFELL BLACK BREAD

Steps:

• 1. In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, and 1 tablespoon of the molasses. Stir to dissolve and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.
• 2. Add remaining molasses, oil, and rye flour; stir to combine. Add salt, caraway, and enough bread flour to create a firm dough. Add flour only to reduce stickiness. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead 5-8 minutes. Return to bowl, dust the top with flour, and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap. Rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.
• 3. Coat a 9" × 5" loaf pan with pan spray and line the bottom and short sides with a strip of parchment. (If you don't have pan spray and parchment, grease the bottom and sides of pan with vegetable shortening.) Turn risen dough onto a floured surface and shape into an oblong loaf. Place into prepared pan and set aside to proof for 30 minutes, or until dough rises above the pan. Preheat oven to 350°F.
• 4. Combine honey and coffee; brush gently onto the surface of risen dough. Bake until golden brown and hollow sounding, about 30-40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes, remove from pan, and cool completely on a rack.

RUSSIAN BLACK BREAD

Steps:

• Combine flours. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix 2 1/3 cups flour mixture, sugar, salt, cereal, caraway seed, coffee powder, onion powder, fennel seed and undissolved yeast.
• In a sauce pan combine 2 1/2 cups water, vinegar, molasses, chocolate and butter.
• Heat liquid mixture over low heat until liquids are very warm (120°-130°F), butter and chocolate do not have to be melted.
• Gradually add heated liquid mixture to dry ingredients and beat (with electric mixer) for 2 minutes at medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Add 1/2 cup flour mixture. Beat at high speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in enough additional flour mixture to make a soft dough. Turn dough on to a lightly floured board. Cover dough and let rest for 15 minutes.
• Knead dough until smooth and elastic (about 10-15 minutes), dough may be sticky. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning dough to grease the top. Cover bowl and place in a warm, draft free place to rise until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour).
• Punch dough down; turn out onto a lightly floured board. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a ball, about 5 inches in diameter. Place each ball into the center of a greased 8-inch round cake pan. Cover; let rise in a warm, draft free place until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour). Bake at 350°F for 40-45 minutes, or until done.
• Meanwhile, combine cornstarch and cold water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture stats to boil; continue cooking mixture for 1 minute stirring constantly.
• As soon as bread is baked, brush cornstarch mixture over top of loaves. Return bread to oven and bake 2-3 minutes longer, or until glaze is set. Remove loaves from pans and cool on wire racks.
• **I have made this recipe both"as is" and also omitting the fennel seeds and onion powder. Omitting the fennel seed and onion powder changes the flavor a bit, but it is still a very good bread.

AUTHENTIC GERMAN BLACK BREAD (SCHWARZBROT)

Steps:

• Combine the water, sourdough starter, and one half of the cracked rye. Mixture will be soupy. Cover and allow to set at about 70° F for 8 to 10 hours.
• After 8 to 10 hours, the mixture will have absorbed water and be similar in consistency to porridge. Save 1 cup of this mixture for the next batch of bread, then add salt and the rest of the cracked rye.
• Allow the dough to ferment at about 70° F for 4 more hours. At the end of this time, work and squeeze the dough with your hands to develop its cohesiveness. The dough is nothing like wheat bread dough. It is very moist and slippery and cannot be kneaded. When a handful is squeezed, it will squirt out between your fingers.
• After working the dough for several minutes, pack it into bread forms, preferably glass. There's not much rising that goes on and too much air space in the bread would be detrimental to the texture. The moistness and acidity of the dough and the long baking time will strongly rust steel pans and etch aluminum ones. Pack the dough into the pan tightly and smooth the top with a spatula. Lay a piece of parchment paper over the top of the form and then cover tightly with aluminum foil. The aluminum foil keeps the bread from drying out and the parchment paper keeps the aluminum foil from dissolving into the bread. Bake at 225° F for 3½ hours.
• Turn the oven off but allow the bread to remain inside for a couple more hours. Carefully remove the bread from the pans and place on a rack to cool and dry. Ideally, you should wait a day or two until the bread becomes firmer before attempting to slice it.