It was time to bake bread again, and as always I looked into breadworld.com to choose a recipe. So far, whatever I have tired out of there turns out to be wonderful. Previously I have shown the steps to make Wheat Walnut Bread, on this site. Since then I have tired many others and will continue posting them one by one ;)

With a friend’s suggestion, I decided to bake this Russian Black bread. Despite the fact that I didn’t have everything the recipe was calling for, I went ahead with this choice of recipe by making minor adjustments to the ingredients list. You can see my modifications in the parenthesis below.

This, definitely, is very aromatic and dense bread. Don’t get me wrong; the denseness is not because it is undercooked or soggy, it is simply dense because of the rye flour. As you see below, it also has very unusual ingredients; chocolate, cofee, vinegar!

It was nice to have a slice with dinner but I am not sure how well it will be with jam. I just cannot imagine biting on a slice of bread with fennel seeds and our blackberry jam.

I am actually very suprised that this bread has risen at all! During the first kneading stage I was thinking “how strange, it is supposed to be yield 2 loaves but it only asked for 1 envelope of yeast.” ThenI had an urge to look at the recipe again; I am glad I did that! I had to dissolve another package of yeast in warm water and knead in to the existing dough. Needless to say I also had to add more flour than it was planned to have. Well, after all, these might have contributed to the fact that it is a dense bread, who knows?

Ingredients:
Makes 2 round loaves

1. 2-1/2 cups warm water (100 to 110oF)
2. 2 envelopes Active Dry Yeast
3. 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
4. 1/4 cup white vinegar
5. 1/4 cup dark molasses
6. 1 (1-ounce) square unsweetened chocolate, melted
7. 2 teaspoons salt
8. 2 teaspoons instant coffee granules (I used 2 tsp Turkish coffee)
9. 1 tablespoon Fennel Seed
10. 4-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
11. 5 cups rye flour
12. 3/4 cup imported chopped or snipped pitted dates ( I used rasins)

Directions:

1. Place 1/2 cup warm water in large warm bowl. Sprinkle in yeast; stir until dissolved. Add remaining water, butter, and next 6 ingredients. Slowly stir in 3 cups all-purpose flour; blend well. Stir in rye flour and enough remaining all-purpose flour to make soft dough. Remove dough to lightly floured surface. Cover; let rest 15 minutes. Knead dough until smooth and elastic, about 10 to 15 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 to 1-1/2 hours.
2. Punch dough down. Remove dough to lightly floured surface. Knead in dates. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into 5-inch ball. Place each ball in greased 8-inch round cake pan or on large greased baking sheet. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until done. Remove from pans; let cool on wire racks.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 21st, 2005 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Bread. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.