Hi everyone,

I've been searching for a recipe that I would call "Bauernbrot". When I do find a recipe with photos I usually say to myself, "Hmmm—Nice 'Landbrot'!" Then I keep searching

The one I want doesn't have a particularly dark crumb (although that's possible to do with brewed coffee, caramel, molasses, cocoa powder, etc...) On the other hand, the loaf I want has a very dark, almost 'burnt'-looking crust. I live in Japan and one of the best rye breads I've ever tasted goes by the name Bauernbrot—it's always a torpedo shape, rather glazed looking and almost disgustingly brown—seriously—many Japanese would reject the loaf just because of the color. I rejected it too, for a while. It's obviously at least 60% rye and definitely sourdough

One day I was looking for 'Landbrot', my former favorite, but they were out of stock and there wasn't any "Muenchenerbrot", either, so I took a chance and bought the over-baked looking "Bauernbrot". It was a very pleasant surprise! I've made a similar-tasting bread from Reinhart's "Crust and Crumb", p106, in paperback [naturally-leavened rye bread (a 2-3-day build) using a 'barm starter'] but the crust color was fairly normal

Tonight, I found a German recipe for "Bauernbrot" that states the bread must bake for 60-70 minutes...is that the secret I've been missing?  [I've read that the 'real' Pumpernickel, for example, were baked after the regular breads, once the ovens had started to cool down, and that they were left in the untended ovens for several hours.]

The recipe I found tonight looks just like many other German rye breads, although it contains a couple of grated potatoes in addition to the flours

http://www.hegnachermuehle.de/Rezepte-Dateien/Rezept_Bauernbrot/rezept_bauernbrot.html [1]

Any other tips on how to get that 'burnt umber' colored crust?

Thank you,

copyu