I roasted myself today. Well, not really. But I decided that 33°C (90°F) outside wasn’t enough. I wanted the same temperature in my kitchen. Okay, that is not true. I don’t tolerate heat very well. (Right now I am contemplating about a trip to the North of Norway to cool me down.) All I wanted was some fresh bread. And indeed,  after the loaf came out of the oven I had managed to bring the kitchen temperature up to almost 90°F. Anyone up for a sauna party at my place? Anyway, the bread was worth all the sweating!

crusty bread

Crusty Bread (makes 1 loaf)

400 g all-purpose flour
90 g dark rye flour
10 g diastatic malt powder (or 10 additional grams of flour)
10 g salt
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast
320 ml water

I did prepare the dough the night before and stored it in the fridge. This isn’t necessary, you can also mix the ingredients, knead until elastic and let sit until doubled in size.
If you do store it in the fridge, let the dough come to room temperature before shaping. This takes about two hours.
The diastatic malt powder is optional, it will give the crust an extra dark colour and a little bit of sweetness.

This bread has an awesome crumb which is the result of a special shaping technique:

Crumb Swirl

Roll out the dough into a rectangle (As thin as possible is best). Brush with olive oil and roll into a log. Shape the log like you would shape an individual cinnamon roll. Cover with an oiled piece of plastic or a damp kitchen towel and let rise until doubled (In the warm kitchen this took 45 minutes.) Meanwhile preheat the oven to 250°C (480°F). Bake bread for 5 minutes and reduce heat to 200°C (400°F) and bake for another 30 minutes.

Look at this swirl

This entry was submitted to Susan’s YeastSpotting.