The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Reinhart's German Five-Kern

ryeaskrye's picture
ryeaskrye

Reinhart's German Five-Kern

I baked German Five-Kern Bread from Peter Reinhart's "Crust & Crumb" a few weeks back. This has turned out to be one of my favorite breads and I wish I had discovered it sooner. The Five-Kern is made from coarse dark rye flour (20.26% - I used NYBakers Dark Rye), bread flour (KA), cooked brown rice, polenta, oats, flax seeds and honey. And water and salt, of course. I guess I turned it into a Six-Kern bread with the poppy seed embellishment.

I followed Peter's book closely, but do not feel comfortable posting his commercial formula. It does involve building a rye sponge followed by a firm rye starter over the course of a couple of days. The flavor was incredible, particularly the crust, and the crumb was much lighter than I expected. An enticing aroma filled the house during the bake.

Even with the 2 stage elaboration, the amount of pre-fermented flour was only 15.19%. The final dough hydration was 63.80%, but the crumb of the finished loaves seemed moister than that.

Submitted to YeastSpotting

Comments

kdwnnc's picture
kdwnnc

That looks really good, and I love the nice thick crust!

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Looks absolutely mouthwatering!  Beautiful crumb and crust!

Sylvia

breadbakingbassplayer's picture
breadbakingbass...

Really nice!

Tim

LindyD's picture
LindyD

I imagine it tastes as great as it looks.  There's nothing as wonderful as a well made bread with a boldy baked crust.

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

David

ehanner's picture
ehanner

Really fine looking rye.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Mmmmmm!

arlo's picture
arlo

Those are really nice pictures! And of course really nice looking loaves : )

weavershouse's picture
weavershouse

Those are some beautiful loaves of bread. Great job.

weavershouse

ryeaskrye's picture
ryeaskrye

Many thanks to all of you, not only for the gracious comments, but for a wealth of shared knowledge and experience.

John

wally's picture
wally

Something to aspire to!  Thanks for sharing.

Larry

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi,

As with all the good people above, I agree your bread looks wonderful.

I note you use cooked rice; this will obviously add to the overall moisture content quite significantly.   Rye flour at that level, plus all the other grains in there; beautiful looking [and tasting, I'm sure] bread!

So, to me the hydration is spot on.   The maxim "the wetter the better" does not always hold good.

Best wishes

Andy

AnnaInNC's picture
AnnaInNC

BEAUTIFUL !