Subject: [Homestead] Russian Black bread, right way and wrong way
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 18:36:34 -0700
Russian Black Bread
http://bread.allrecipes.com/az/RussianBlackBread.asp (don't bother with
a "bread machine", mix, and bake the old-fashioned way---yeah, you're
permitted to use a bread hook, I use a bent piece of steel rod mounted
in a battery-powered half-inch drill---a "poor man's Hobart" I described
in Countryside when J.D.Belanger was running the magazine---an ascerbic
cat, my kind of guy, I don't find the newer, blander Countryside all
that exciting.
http://countrylife.net/pages/recipes/927.html (now we're getting
somewhere, "fres ground" rye flour---damned store-bought rye flower
would gag an alligator---more on that below at end of this sage commentary.
RUSSIAN BLACK BREAD
This recipe is not particularly rare, but it's a good one. The dough can
be shaped into three round loaves and baked in pie pans or it can be
shaped into four loaves and baked on a cookie sheet. The latter shape
has the advantage when it comes to making sandwiches.
I've never had much luck crushing seeds with a mortar and pestle, but I
successfully grind them up in the coffee grinder. (Makes for interesting
coffee next time, too.) You can use strong-made coffee in place of
instant coffee if you reduce the water accordingly. For molasses, the
best is blackstrap, next best is unsulfured, and the least best is dark
corn syrup.
1 T (two packages) dry
yeast
4 c white flour 4 c rye
flour
1 t sugar 1/4 c
shortening
1 T salt 2 c whole bran
cereal
2 T crushed caraway seed 2 t instant
coffee
1/2 t crushed fennel seed 2-1/2 c
water
1/4 c vinegar 1/4 c
molasses
1 square unsweeted chocolate 2 t onion powder or some grated
onion
1/4 c warm water for
yeast
Oven at 350 deg for 45 minutes. Makes three or four loaves, depending on
shape.
1. Put the yeast to soak in 1/4 c warm water.
2. In a saucepan or mixing pan, heat the water with the chocolate in it
until the chocolate melts.
3. Remove from heat and add the sugar, salt, bran, crushed seeds,
instant coffee, onion, vinegar, molasses and shortening. This has to
cool enough to mix with the flour.
4. Add enough rye flour to make a stirable batter, about 3-4 cups. Stir
well.
5. Add yeast mixture and stir well.
6. Add enough white flour to make a stiff dough.
7. Flour counter, dump out dough and knead, adding more flour to counter
as needed to avoid sticking.
8. Grease bowl, dump in dough and roll around to coat
9. Let rise about one hour.
10. Dump out on counter, divide into three or four parts, depending on
what shape you want. (See above).
11. Shape and place on cookie sheet or pie pans.
12. Let rise for about one hour. Make slashes with razor blade to allow
for expansion.
13. Bake at 350 deg for about 45 minutes. Put back without pans if the
bottom needs browning. (you won't have a mortar and pestle anyway, use
your coffee bean grinder for grinding seeds)
And now to the best of the best of the best, SUH!! Anytime you see
adding stuff like bran, it means your store-bought foour is only good
for making breadballs to catch carp.
The best black bread uses fresh-ground whole grain rye, wheat and
barley---oh, no-no-no, don't use that damned stone grinder either. You
HAVE to have COARSE-GROUND WHOLE GRAIN FLOUR to provide proper bread
texture and moisture content. That means a grinder with corrugated
steel plates. In my sailboat days, a hand-cranked Corona Mill worked
best and I had to regrind the first grind---one grinding wouldn't do it.
It's too long ago for a foggy memory, but I think I used two cups of
wheat grains to one cup of barley and one cup of rye---could be
mistaken, make several batches of my version of Russian Rye Bread,
varying the grain proportions, use dark molasses, no corn syrup--I
didn't use beer, that's probably a matter of personal taste.
Oh, yeah, you must sing "Ochee Chorniya during all stages of Russian
breadmaking. It may be safe to stop singing after about half the baking
period is over. A Russian drinking song may be substituted for Ochee
Chorniya, "ei yknem, Volga Boat Song", or "Proschai, Proschai, Podryga
Daragaya etc (goodbye, goodbye (girl-friend). You have to gaze into her
eyes and sing it with great emotion, or she will suspect you aren't
coming back---and you aren't, you are thinking of that Black Sea darling
you met on your last longboat trip down he Volga.)
http://ingeb.org/catru.html (Ochee Chorniya translates to Dark Eyes)
[Homestead] Russian Black bread, right way and wrong way,
Tvoivozhd, 10/02/2004