A commuter-friend travelling with me to London on the train used to live in Ravensburg, in a region in Germany called Oberschwaben.
One day he told me he really misses a speciality from there called Seelen.
They are rolls with an open crumb and a slightly chewy crust, sprinkled with caraway and coarse salt.
Searching the internet I found a number of recipes, and some descriptions of the "original": a roll made with spelt, using high hydration, long fermentation, and a wet, hot bake.
The recipes I found were all nothing like the original description, so I decided to improvise, and I am very happy with the result:
Here the formula and instructions (1000g for 6 rolls):
Google spreadsheet
| Schwaebische Seelen |
| | | |
| Expected Yield | 1000 | |
| Factor | 5.5066079295 | |
| | Percent | Weight |
| Preferment | | |
| Wholegrain Spelt Flour | 30 | 165.2 |
| Water | 24 | 132.2 |
| Yeast (Instant) | 0.2 | 1.1 |
| Salt | 0.6 | 3.3 |
| | |
| Dough | | |
| White Spelt Flour | 46 | 253.3 |
| AP Flour / Strong White Flour (UK) | 24 | 132.2 |
| Water | 56 | 308.4 |
| Salt | 1.4 | 7.7 |
| Yeast | 0.2 | 1.1 |
| Preferment | 54 | 297.4 |
| Yield | 181.6 | 1,000.0 |
| | |
| Processing instructions |
| Dough temperature was about 22C all the time |
| Mix Preferment, leave at room temperature for 2 hours and then refridgerate until used, best is overnight, |
| Let Preferment come back to room temperature, mix with other ingredients and work dough gently. It is very slack. |
| Let the dough rest for amout 2 hours, with 3 sets of stretch and fold during the first hour. Towards the end big bubbles should be forming. |
| Make your work surface thoroughly wet and turn out the dough onto the wetness. Prepare some baking parchament for the rolls. |
| Forming an oval with your wet hands scrape of a chunk of dough, then make a circle with your thumb and index finger, pull the dough through and put it onto the baking parchament. |
| Let it rest for another 30 minutes, |
| Sprinkle with Caraway seeds and coarse salt, |
Bake in a very hot oven with steam, ideally on a stone, mine needed 20 minutes at 230C |
** UPDATE **
Here some pictures of the production process from a bakery in Schwaben:
http://www.seelen-wie-frueher.de/Bilder/bilder.html
