The Fresh Loaf

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"Herbstsonne" - a German Sourdough bread

Salome's picture
Salome

"Herbstsonne" - a German Sourdough bread

I've actually never been much into white bread. I still like to bake it occasionally, to mix up my diet and to have new challenges in my baking, the breads I'm the most fond of though are definitely breads which include some whole grain, some seeds . . . which are overall somewhat nutritious. This is the kind of bread which I like the best as an everyday bread.

I think, the bread I'm about to introduce here, definitely falls into this category. It is a German Bread called the "Herbstsonne" (eng: autumn sun) because of its tipical scoring. I had again some problems with the bread's height, I made a very wet dough (therefore I adjusted the amount of water in the recipe below) and wasn't able to shape it well. I let it proof well, so when I scored it it deflated to much after my taste and didn't get an extraordinary oven spring. Next time, I'd probably bake it as it is or just score a cross in the middle.

Herbstsonne

 

liquid levain

30 g mature culture

165 g rye flour (I used a medium rye, something inbetween white and whole grain rye)

165 g water

soaker

33 g oats

33 g sunflower seeds

23 g flaxseeds

90 g water

10 g salt

 

final dough

all but 30 grams of the liquid levain

all of the soaker

166 g rye flour

66 g whole-grain rye flour

80 g water (adjust amount as required)

flaxseeds and oats

  1. 1. mix the ingredients for the liquid levain, set aside until it's ripe
  2. at the same time, mix the ingredients for the soaker, put in the fridge
  3. Mix the soaker, the liquid levain and the remaining flour and water together, knead in a mixer three minutes on low speed, then three minutes on somewhat higher speed.
  4. let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
  5. shape into a round boule (it's sticky!), if required, wet the dough a little bit so that the flaxseeds and oats can "glue" to the boule (roll the boule in the flaxseeds/oats mixture). Put the boule into a floured proofing basket.
  6. let the dough proof - I retarded it in the fridge: I kept it in the fridge for about twelve hours, and let it finish proofing at air temperature for about another two hours. I poked the dough and it reacted slowly.
  7. I dropped the dough gently on a baking sheet and scored it like a sun. (What I wouldn't do the next time, because it deflated the dough to much in my opinion.)
  8. Baking: 20 min at 230°C, another 25 minutes at 210°C, then I turned the oven off, opened the door and let the bread in there for another 10 minutes.
  9. Let cool overnight.

There's a lot of flavor in this bread! It's very moist, of course it's not airy like a white bread, but that's not what I was looking for anyway. I remember that it had a very good keeping quality the last time I baked it, which isn't surprising because of the soaker.

 

I used some slices for a sandwich today, which I stuffed with lettuce and a home made cottage-cheese-dried-tomato-spread. Yumm! (the spread is very easy. Take some spoonfulls of cottage cheese, cut some tomatoes (the kind in the oil) into pieces, add some salt and pepper, some basil if you've got it on hand, and a tiny bit of honey and mix it briefly. tadaa!)

Salome

Comments

hansjoakim's picture
hansjoakim

Hi Salome,

What a terrific Herbstsonne! It doesn't look like the scoring hampered the dough too much, do you think? Looks very nice from where I sit, at least :)

I've had this once or twice before, and I really enjoy the oats in the soaker. A lovely, müsli kind of flavour, I bet.

Salome's picture
Salome

Thanks for the compliments, Hansjoakim. Well, the scoring wasn't to bad, but I felt sorry for doing it because before it the bread was nicely round and rather high, not as much disk-like. And I like the "natural" crackling from time to time. . .

Where are you from? I suspect you're maybe German, are you?

You say you've had this once or twice before - exactly this "Herbstsonne"? So are you hidden somewhere in the chefkoch.de community, too? Or had you simply some oats in a soaker before?

Salome

hansjoakim's picture
hansjoakim

I like the rustic, natural cracks that occur in rye loaves too. I usually proof rye doughs in Brotforms, and sometimes I put them with the seam side down in the basket. So, when proof is finished and you invert the loaf, you get the seam side up in the oven. That often results in some rustic, unpredictable "patterns" on top :) That could work for the Herbstsonne? You could get this swirling, "sunray" pattern?

Although my name is pretty teutonic, I'm from Norway. We're not exactly known for rye loaves here (even though most of our neighboring countries are...), but I really love the German/East European style loaves. I've had some basic German in school, so I'm able to find my way around some German bread blogs and baking forums.

It's been a while since I made the Herbstsonne... probably last autumn ;) I think I used the Herbstlaib/Herbstsonne recipe from CK too. I really loved it, so I should try it more often. Thanks for reminding me of this terrific bread, Salome :)

Salome's picture
Salome

I occasionally use this seamside-down-in-basket technique as well, I love it. I'm sure it would work with this bread, I'll give it a try the next time.

I don't own any professional proofing baskets, I normally just substitute it by a linen towel and a bowl.

Sweden's got some rye loaves. Surprising that Norway doesn't!

 

tssaweber's picture
tssaweber

Even though this is out of context, it would be nice if this website would display at least the country where the subscriber is from. This would show the internationality of TFL and bread baking/blogging.

Thomas

PS: I'm Swiss, born in Basel and live in the Chicago area and since 2 weeks I'm also a citizen of the US.

 

Salome's picture
Salome

I do agree. Apart from that it would just be interesting where the  people are from, it could be helpful with understanding their recipes better. (Flours, climate, ..., differ quite a lot.)

I'm in a way from Basel me too. My family is from there, but I grew up in the Alps, Graubünden. But just in a couple weeks I'll move to Basel because of my studies. The world is small.

tssaweber's picture
tssaweber

Good luck in Basel. it is a beautiful town. I spent most of my younger years im Wallis, Sierre and Brig on the other side of the Alps. Where do you live im Buendnerland? We just had friends from Davos/Monstein visiting.

Your English is perfect I guess you didn't learn this in a Buendner Gymi.

Thomas

Salome's picture
Salome

Thanks, Thomas!

I live not far from Davos/Monstein, just about one hour away by train, my village is called Schiers. (it's in the valley Prättigau, towards Landquart.)

I learned some of my english in a Bündner Gymi, but most of it I learned travelling, reading english book and surfing on english websites like this. And I had a Californian boyfriend for more than half a year, what probably improved my english somewhat more. ;)

tssaweber's picture
tssaweber

 I know where Schiers is. My parents used to "threaten" us with the boarding school there when we misbehaved or the grades were not to good in school.

The Bündner Gymi did a better job teaching English than the one in Brig I attended, good for you.

Thomas

Salome's picture
Salome

haha =D

Exactly this is it. But nowadays most of the students live at home. Only a few live at the boarding school, most of them are from remote valleys of Graubünden from where it's impossible to go to a Gymi by commuting.

Btw, my parents did the same, but the threatened us with the home for difficult children in Rothenbrunnen, Domleschg. ;)

tssaweber's picture
tssaweber

Domleschg is not a bad place to be even as "difficult" child, but I guess you prefer Basel now.

pmccool's picture
pmccool

That's a huge transition to make, even without all of the red tape.  And our friendly Congress-folk and assorted bureaucrats are making the red tape end of it even more challenging all the time.

Welcome home, fellow citizen.

Paul

tssaweber's picture
tssaweber

Thanks Paul,

we are in the US for more than 11 years and our kids are more Americans with a Swiss background than Swiss-Americans. Also none of us had the desire to go back to Switzerland. Therefore it was a logical step as we all wanted to fully participate in the future of this country.

Thanks for your welcome! (That's what America is all about....)

Thomas

Paddyscake's picture
Paddyscake

Why don't you start a new thread on where we are from. Don't want to hijack Salome's posting on her beautiful bread! I'm sure everyone will enjoy joining in. A while back Floyd posted the demographics on Nationalites of TFLers. It was amazing to see.

Personally, I was born in Tokyo at the US Army Hospital. My mother was Japanese and my father an American GI. We came to the US when I was 11 months old. I grew up in Connecticut and lived there until moving to Oregon 6 years ago.

Betty

 

tssaweber's picture
tssaweber

Thanks Betty for sharing, it is really interesting. At least you moved closer to Japan. Are you often traveling to your former home country.

I don't know if I'm the right person to start the blog you're suggesting. I'm just a junior member here and I think a more senior member or even the owner should do this.

Hope you agree.

Thomas 

breitbaker's picture
breitbaker

what hydration was your mature starter that you use in your liquid levain?

Salome's picture
Salome

most German sourdough breads use a liquid levain with 100% hydration, so normally my mature starter is 100 %. But I'm not always very exact with how much I feed my starter, sometimes I build a liquid levain with other hydrations because a recipe asks for that, and then I just keep some of it for my next bake, whatever hydration it's got. As you use very little starter anyway, it shouldn't matter too much in this bread. Especially because there are many seeds and different flours involved.

good luck with baking, in case you're giving the Herbstsonne a try!

Salome