The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

German Schwarzbrot

reschaff's picture
reschaff

German Schwarzbrot

Hi, all.  I'm new around here, but thought maybe someone here could help me out.

More than 20 years ago I was an exchange student in Wurzburg, Germany (in lower Franconia).  The staple bread in the home I lived in was known as Schwarzbrot (black bread).  I'm not sure if it is native to that area or to Rhineland-Pfalz (my host-father was from there).  Anyway, it was round, strongly flavored, and very dark brown and some loaves were enormous.  I once saw a 2 kg loaf!

Now I'm an amateur baker and am looking to bake this bread at home.  Googling "schwarzbrot recipe" gets me recipes for Pumpernickel (the steamed, square variety) or breads which I can tell from photos are not what I'm looking for - i.e. too light-colored.  My German is way too rusty to go trolling about on German language sites.  Does anyone know the bread I'm looking for and, more importantly, have a recipe for it (I don't care if it's metric, I'll do the conversions).  Thanks for your input!

reschaff's picture
reschaff

Thanks, Ostwestwin!

 The Frankenlaib is the one.  They must just call it "Schwarzbrot" in Wurzburg, since they're already in Franconia.  No wonder I kept coming up with the wrong bread!  I think I can puzzle out the German (I still have my German-English dictionary), but I appreciate the offer.  Now I need to get a rye sourdough starter going and in just a couple weeks I'll be ready to bake :)  If I get this recipe going pretty well, maybe I'll start playing with a the 97% rye version and try to replicate the breads I remember from Germany.  Thanks again!