Crusty Bread Tyrolean Style

Yeast:

1. Put 10 g wholemeal rye flour in a sealable bowl and stir with 10 g lukewarm water. Let it rest well closed for 24 hours at 20 – 24 ° (room temperature). After this time has elapsed, stir again 10 g of rye flour and 10 g of lukewarm water into this already slightly fermenting mass. Close the bowl again and also let it rest for 24 hours. The mass now begins to ferment more strongly. This allows the lid to lift a little again and again. Tilt it slightly to let the gases escape and close the bowl again. After the repeated 24 hours have elapsed, add the remaining 10 g of rye flour and 10 g of lukewarm water to the peeling mass, stir it vigorously and let it rest for the last 24 hours. After the expiry of this period, the ware should smell sour and fermented, as if one were to assume that it was spoiled. Then it is exactly right and ready for further processing.

Pre-dough:

1. To do this, put another 50 g of the items to be put together as well as 250 g of lukewarm water and 220 g of rye flour in a larger, lockable bowl. Stir it vigorously, close the bowl and let this dough rest for 18-20 hours at 20-24 °. Here, too, bubbles appear, but it doesn’t smell quite so fermented. The remainder of the items to be placed are placed in a sterile, well-sealable jar and placed in the refrigerator. When the pre-dough has rested sufficiently, take approx. 40 – 50 g off, put it in the glass with the rest of the topping, stir it and keep this mixture tightly closed in the refrigerator. So you always have a new item to set for the next bread and you can save the 3 days for a new setting. It “sleeps” so to speak and can be reactivated by adding flour and water again (for the next pre-dough). So you always have a new product from pre-dough to pre-dough by branching off 40 – 50 g.

Main dough:

1. Now you need a large bowl. Ideal that of a food processor. Then you dissolve 18 g of salt in initially only 400 g of warm water and put it in the mixing bowl together with the pre-dough. Add 340 g of rye flour, 100 g of whole wheat flour and 4 g of dry yeast and knead it for at least 5 minutes. Then the bowl is closed with aluminum foil and the dough is allowed to rise for 4 hours at room temperature.
2. Then put the bowl back in the food processor, add another 240 g rye and 100 g whole wheat flour and all the spices to the dough, knead everything again for about 5 minutes and let the dough rest, covered, for at least 4 hours. After it has expired, it is still quite sticky. To finish, put the remaining 170 g of rye flour on a work surface, scrape the dough out of the bowl and put it on top. Now the rest of the flour is kneaded in with your hands until you have a smooth dough that no longer sticks to you. The remaining 50 g of water are only for emergencies to balance the consistency of the dough and do not necessarily have to be used up.
3. If you have a bread slider (a larger wooden board is also possible), sprinkle it thickly with flour, put the dough formed into a round loaf on it, moisten it with wet hands, dust it with flour and cut it crosswise in the middle. Then briefly cover with a cloth and now only let it rest until the oven has preheated to 250 °. Place a heat-resistant dish with water on the bottom of the oven. If there is a bread baking stone, also heat it up (but do not dust it with flour yet). Otherwise, push the tray into the oven and heat it up.
4. When the temperature is reached, pull either the stone or the tray out of the oven a little, dust with flour and slide the loaf of bread onto it. Bake for 10 minutes at a high temperature. Then remove the bowl with the water (be careful, very hot !!!), switch the temperature down to 200 ° and bake the bread for another 50 minutes. Then do the “knock test”. If it sounds hollow on the underside, the oven can be switched off and the bread can be left in it for another 10 minutes with the door slightly tilted (stick a wooden ladle in between). So it has a great crust.

Annotation:

1. Baking bread yourself requires a lot of patience. When reading this or other bread recipes you first think: “This is way too much work for me” ….. but that’s relative ….. The individual steps actually only take minutes. The rest times just have to be adhered to, and the rule that counts is: “The longer the better” …. so if you let the dough rest longer because you don’t have time, he doesn’t take it offense, but rather later rewarded with better results. So you can go to work, do your household chores, go shopping … ;-))) The dough works all by itself! The final preparation and baking time is no different than with a cake …..
2. I can only say that it is worth it, because that way you always know what is inside … namely no shelf life or other chemical substances. It will keep for at least 1 week in a closable box. However, the crust will then be a little softer. ………
3. The above personal information refers to a bread of approx. 2000 g.