Sechskornbrot Experiment
I stumbled across a recipe for Sechskornbrot on the website for the École Internationale de Boulangerie, where they have a decent-sized recipe collection! Here is also a link to a Youtube video of just the Sechskornbrot recipe. I transcribed the recipe from the video, made a few small tweaks/interpretations, and scaled it down to a single loaf. Here's the recipe I came up with:
The hydration was at 110% based on the ingredients listed in the video, which seemed a bit high to me—even with all of those seeds! The bread is supposed to be rolled in more seeds before it's placed in the pan, so I was especially worried about it being too wet to handle. I bumped the hydration down to 105% for my initial recipe test, but might decrease it even more the next time.
The only other major change I made was adding about 10-15 extra minutes in the oven after the bread is removed from the pan to more evenly bake the sides and bottom of the loaf. That puts the total bake time at 1 hour, when the original recipe specifies 45-50 min.
Here are the results of my first bake attempt! It rose quite well (there was even a little oven spring, which I'm not used to with rye breads!), but I was disappointed by the crumbly crumb! It's still delicious of course, but when I look at the sliced loaf at the end of the video, the crumb looks much more stable. Does anyone have any ideas what might be causing the extra crumbly crumb? Even after bumping the hydration down 5%, the dough was still extremely wet and tricky to handle, so I don't think the issue is low hydration. Let me know if you have any thoughts!
that usually makes the difference. Very very Nice loaf.
You could depan the loaf and bake it on the rack the last 10 minutes or so. Bag it overnight upside down and see if that helps. Letting the loaf cool at least 4 hrs, bag and stand undesturbed for 24 hours before cutting to let the crumb set. Cutting with a thin sharp straight blade, not a serrated bread knife can also help.
That's exactly what I did! I removed the loaf from the pan and baked it on the stone for the last 15 min. Then I waited overnight to cut into it. Perhaps this bread needs a little more time. An interesting twist is that I shared the recipe with my mother, and she followed it exactly and got a beautiful, stable crumb. Maybe I just need to try again :)
Did you use the same flours? I use two different WW flours (KAF and a local brand), and there is a huge difference in how thirsty they are. Might want to come down another 5%.
That's a good point! We do typically use different flours. I was thinking the same thing RE the hydration. I often have to bump hydration down.
to get it into the pan. Any extra folding or shaping or spooning of soft dough?
Did Mom reduce any water? Compare actual oven temps and sizes, location in oven etc.
is that Mom's loaf?
and I have no credible suggestions, but just wanted to share this recipe I found at the website of Boulangerie Archibald in Paris. It's an organic bakery in the 5th? arrondissement. They sell Sechskornbrot but were kind enough to put the recipe on their website. It's in French but easily translatable. http://www.archibald.bio/edito/33-l-archibald-graines
Thanks for sharing! This looks similar to the recipe I used, but with less rye flour. It's funny that the recipe I used is also from a French website—from L'école internationale de boulangerie—but the bread has a German name!
Hi - while this bread may well be German, in some of the border regions such as Alsace, German dialects are spoken and the food is a blend of German and French, with Germanic names. A good example is Kugelhof, a delicious yeasted brioche/panetonne style cake which my friend from alsace-lorraine makes.
Actually, I'm sure I have seen this Sechskornbrot style bread in many boulangeries all over France - it seems to be a popular alternative to their classic lighter breads..
Great point, Saltfish!
Looks fantastic. Sure it tastes great too!
I'm just converting their recipe for a 1500g dough and got 9g salt. You've calculated 12g salt for a 1442g dough. Im going to recheck mine. Can you check yours again?
and srarter flour to the flour to figure salt? I get 13g salt for 2%
Yours should be similar.
In the video the recipe is 60g total salt for the flour, not including the soaker, which is in total 3.491kg making it 1.72% excluding the oats.
I think I bumped it up to 2% because I tend to like my breads on the saltier side! With all of the grains in the soaker, it didn't taste over-salted at 2%. But you're right that a direct scaling down from the recipe in the video would be 9g of salt.
Thanks for the confirmation bakergrun. Rye's do tend to have a lower salt percentage then regular wheat doughs. At the end of the day it's according to taste.
I'm wondering why rye has less salt and two reasons spring to mind. It could be that salt raises the pH level and rye does better with higher acidity. Another reason that springs to mind is the mineral content of rye might be higher and therefore needs less salt to taste.
I never had that experience. If I add table salt to vinegar, it increases the acid effect.
I would think more salt gives a more sour tasting bread.
(Table) salt solutions on their own are completely pH neutral. Regarding its effect of fermentation, I am not sure - what is more affected by salt, yeast or LABs? I think there was a long thread here somewhere a few months ago about that, not sure what the conclusion was.
Salt itself doesn't affect the pH level but salting a starter makes it less tangy.
It was only my assumption though as to why rye often has less salt. Rye works well with acidity. I offered a guess as to why typically there's less salt in rye and made the connection.
I just wanted to post a thank you for sharing this transcribed recipe, sechskornbrat is a favorite in my household and we are lucky to have a wonderful local bakery that bakes these loaves, but i really enjoy baking bread sourdough and thought i would give this a try. I baked exactly as directed and mixed by hand instead of using a mixer (a good arm workout.) I just wanted to share the results! Happy with the crust and crumb and this loaf and a real depth of flavor. Thank you!!