Thursday 1 August 2013

July BBB challenge: Rheinbrot or Wine Bread



This month Bread Baking Babe Astrid from Paulchen's Food Blog set us BB Buddies the challenge of baking a sourdough bread with wine.
Two things I love, so right up my alley!
The recipe asked for Riesling wine, but unfortunately our supermarket didn't stock any. I decided any white wine would have to do. The procedure was very interesting; wine, water, flour and sourdough starter (I used my rye starter) were mixed into a poolish (or sponge) and left for 4 hours in a warm place (I used my oven with the light on). After that another overnight resting period on the kitchen worktop at room temperature. I ended up with a bubbly, lovely fresh smelling elastic mass in the morning.


Poolish after 4 hours
Poolish after 16 hours



After mixing, resting, kneading (I kneaded by hand for about 20 minutes) and yet more resting and folding, I ended up with a beautifully soft and well developed, but fairly sticky dough, which I managed to get into the proofing basket without ruining it too much. My wood fibre proofing basket worked wonders again: never ever have I found any dough sticking to it!
Following the recipe I ended up with a very airy, fantastic looking and tasting bread with a slightly sour taste, just enough to remind you of ... wine.




Recipe Rheinbrot (My own comments are printed in orange)
The following recipe has been translated form this forum, where the chemics of wine and bread baking are being discussed in this post: Хлеб и вино. Rheinbrot, Рейнский хлеб с Рислингом (Google translate will help a bit)

Sponge:
50 gram semisweet Riesling (or any white wine)
50 gram boiled water, at room temperature
100 gram flour (I used organic strong white bread flour)
50 gram of wheat sourdough at 100% hydration (I used rye sourdough at 100%)
Dough
250 gram flour (again I used organic strong white bread flour)
135 gram water
6 gram salt

1) Mix wine with water and add the sourdough, whisk thoroughly.
2) Add flour  and mix again.
3) The dough ferments at 2 stages:
3a) 4 hours at a temperature 30-32°C, it should grow at least twice its size, will be lumpy looking at this stage and have larger and smaller bubbles. If you stick your nose into the container, the scent will be somewhat unpleasant, it may even seem that the dough has deteriorated. Don't panic, this only means the dough is doing the right things. (The poolish didn't exactly grow twice its size, but was very lively. I never experienced a foul smell.)
3b) Pour the sponge in a bowl and whisk thoroughly to remove all the gas out of it and fill it with oxygen. Cover with foil and let sit for 10-12 hours (overnight) at room temperature. Dough will rise again in half and very often shows smaller bubbles.
4) Now the sponge is ready for kneading: pour in the water and stir until smooth. Add the flour, mix well and give the autolysis a chance to do it's magic for 40-50 minutes.
5) Add the salt and quickly knead the dough (I gave it a good 20 minutes of hand kneading), if it is too sticky add a little four, but be careful not to add too much. (The dough stayed pretty wet and sticky.)
6) Let ferment for 2-2.5 hours. Fold twice after 1 hour and 1 1/2 hour. The dough smells fresh now, no smell of the wine.
7) Form a loaf and let proof in a basket for 1 1/2 hours (doubles in size) covered with a towel in a draft free place.
8) Preheat oven with baking stone to 240°C.
9) Transfer dough to your baking sheet. Make an incision or two and let it slide on your baking stone.
10) Bake for 10 minutes with steam and without steam like 20 minutes at 200°C. (I baked at 240°C for 10 minutes with steam and another 30 minutes at 220°C without steam.)
11) Let cool down for at least half an hour before slicing the bread.

You should have a bread with a nice soft crust and an airy crumb. Enjoy with some nice glass of white wine to accompany the bread ;o)


7 comments:

  1. Your bread looks so beautiful! And the loft is fabulous.

    What a nice idea to use a rye sourdough. And it's good to know that the bread works well with a white wine other than Riesling. (I think I understood from reading the recipe on Homo Pistorius that he thought any white wine would work as long as it had enough residual sweetness.)

    Many thanks for baking with us.

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  2. Great air! Looks beautiful!

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  3. Fantastic bread, look at that crumb and holes. Just perfect. I don't think it makes any difference in what kind of wine you use. Wonderful high loaf too!

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  4. Oh my ... now that is truly lovely crumb.
    "fantastic looking and tasting bread with a slightly sour taste, just enough to remind you of ... wine." that says it all.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Met behulp van Jeroen hebben we een google account gemaakt, zodat ik voortaan kan reageren op je blog. Tot snel op Skype. Mamma

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  7. The bread looks great, interesting recipe with a wine-sourdough.

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