While I was working on this Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge bread, I had the joy of going to Peter Reinhart’s class at Draeger’s cooking school. He’s a very gracious man, and an entertaining, yet solid teacher. Peter was out promoting the techniques in his new book Artisan Breads Every Day, and below is the loaf of hearth bread I baked at home the day after his class. Obviously, it was a good class!
I also got to finally meet fellow BBA Challenger Danielle Tsi, who is as lovely as her blog suggests. We were both giddy from all the bread we got to taste; Peter and the efficient Draeger’s crew baked off hearth bread, three kinds of sticky buns, crumb cake, thumbprint rolls, challah, and a death-by-chocolate version of chocolate cinnamon babka for us. Yes, we tasted every single one in three hours, and I drove home in a carb coma. The things I do in the name of learning.
All of which has nothing to do with this pumpernickel, except that it’s Peter’s recipe, and it was rising at home while I took the class. I was expecting this bread to be something else. Something tasting much darker and less sour. As it turned out, this bread was incredibly similar to the 100% sourdough rye I made, in spite of the fact that this loaf had brown sugar and cocoa powder in it.
The first step in this recipe is to mix sourdough starter with pumpernickel-grind rye flour and water and let it ferment until bubbly. After that sits overnight in the refrigerator, it’s brought to room temperature and then mixed with the remaining ingredients – including bread crumbs from prior loaves of rye bread. The frugal me rejoiced at this use of old bread, but that was kind of where the love affair ended.
I made this bread twice, as I was sure I had done something wrong the first time. I mean, pumpernickel is supposed to be dense, but brick-like density? Really? The first loaf got tossed in the trash, but take two turned out exactly the same way. So I tried it with whipped cream cheese. The flavor was odd. My taste buds couldn’t seem to reconcile the sourness with the undertones of sugar and cocoa. Perhaps because I have a very San Francisco sourdough starter, it’s just too sour for this type of bread? Who knows? But since my family doesn’t like rye, I ended up making croutons with it for my salads. Which just might be the first time I’ve ever made croutons from bread crumbs. And most likely my last.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
It was so nice to finally meet you so thanks again for letting me know about the class
Sorry to hear about how the bread turned out, but the white loaf in your second picture looks pretty darned good!
Wow, I had the opposite experience with my pumpernickel bread. Mine was too light and fluffy and not dense enough for my taste. Perhaps if we mated your dense bread with my fluffy one we might get a hybrid we’d both love!
P.S. I’m jealous of your carb coma experience with PR!
Sorry about the pumpernickel. The hearth bread looks fantastic!
Danielle, have you made the PR hearth bread yet? Would love to trade notes on it.
Cindy, that’s too funny! We’ve learned so much, and yet so much about bread baking remains a mystery.
Oggi, your breads are looking so amazing these days!
Twitter: misterrios
March 20, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Twitter: @misterrios
The pumpernickel bread looks like mine, but yours was baked in a loaf pan, no? Which would mean that I think the bread looks fantastic. This version of pumpernickel is closer to the variations sold in Germany, by the way.
I actually loved this one, especially because my bread crumbs were from another bread and I didn’t crush them all the way through. The bread was dense and flavorful but not sour, or, at least I don’t remember it being sour.