Spicy White Poppy Seed Bread

Put the lukewarm water in the mixing bowl of the food processor, add a pinch of sugar and crumble in the yeast - let stand for 10 minutes. In the meantime, mix the two flours and salt together well.

Grate the coriander, cumin and fennel in a mortar and add to the flour mixture and mix everything well.

Now add the barley malt and the olive oil to the yeast mixture and stir vigorously with the whisk. Now add a third of the flour mixture and let the food processor start kneading.

Gradually add the rest of the flour and let the food processor knead for a long time, the dough should come off the mixing bowl by itself. Cover and let the dough rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

Then knead the dough vigorously again and form a loaf out of it and place it on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Brush the loaf with a little water and sprinkle with the poppy seeds.

Now cut the bread crosswise with a sharp knife - since the bread still rises strongly in the oven, this creates "predetermined breaking points". Cover the bread again and let it rest for another 20 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 220 degrees and after the 20 minutes have elapsed, place the bread on the middle rack and pour half a liter of cold water onto the bottom of the hot oven floor so that a proper steam is created.

The steam is important when baking bread and has the following effect: The surface of the dough remains elastic, as the encrustation only begins after the condensed water has evaporated. The dough volume can increase significantly at the beginning of baking (oven shoots) without the dough surface tearing immediately. The crust of the finished baked goods is browned more (dextrins dissolve in water) The crust gets a pleasant shine

Bake the bread for 40 minutes. Make sure to do a knock test on the bread base, if it sounds hollow there, then the bread is ready. Let cool on a wire rack.