Sonnenblume means sunflower and brot is bread in german but who cares ...this bread tastes amazing.
Be careful if you are using a stand mixer that it has enough capacity... 5 to 6 Quart mixing bowl, at least 800-Watt power, and a non-stick dough hook... at best a modern mixer with planetary rotation. The Cuisinart 5.5 Quart Stand Mixer overthrew the KitchenAid Professional 600 in Cook's Illustrated latest Review (2008), review 2008 and cuisinart stand mixer, and if planning on baking and providing your family with fresh baked bread on a regular basis and not willing to invest over a $1000 for a Hobart (commercial) mixer, this would be a good choice.
So now that you've been warned, recipes like these can easily "burn-out" an average standmixer... here it is:
Ingredients:
5 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour ("unbleached" or "organic" all-purpose tastes best)
3 cups rye flour (light, not dark rye)
3 tsp. salt
5 tsp. active dry yeast
3 1/3 cups lukewarm (110°F) water ...divided
1 cup dry roasted sunflower seeds (plus extra for the top and sides of the bread)
Preparation:
Mix together flour, rye flour, and salt in large mixing bowl.
Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of the lukewarm water by stirring in a small extra mixing bowl.
Add the dissolved yeast and the rest of the water (about 2 3/4 cups of lukewarm water) to the flour and mix using dough hook starting at lowest level 1 or 2, working up to level 4) until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. The dough can be a little sticky, however pieces of dough shouldn't be sticking to fingers.. if so just add a bit more flour. Take it out of the mixing bowl shortly and knead, forming into a ball and then returning to mixing bowl. This whole process can take between 5 and 10 minutes.
Now pour sunflower seeds (1 cup) on top of the dough.
Mix thouroughly, make sure all the sunflower seeds are evenly distributed both in and outside the dough (helps by kneading with hands inbetween).
Take out of mixing bowl and knead the dough to form a ball. Return to a large mixing bowl, press down forming a big dent in the middle and slightly around the sides. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise on a warm place for about 1 hour (or until double in size).
Repeat kneading, this time forming a large round loaf. Tip: By grasping both ends or sides of the dough (left/right) and pulling together underneath it, the top pops up and levels out very even and round. Can flatten bottom by pressing with fist. May have to repeat this step a few times until you get your ideal loaf.
When you are satisfied with the appearance of your loaf, place it on a greased baking tray, and let rise covered with a damp cloth for about another 45 minutes (or until almost double in size). Be careful not to wait too long otherwise it will become too flat and lose it's round form.
Preheat the oven to 500°F (if an option, use convection heat).
Remove damp cloth and place tray on the second to bottom level of the oven and after about 7 minutes open the oven and spray bread, tray, top/bottom/sides of oven vigourously with water (normal water bottle used for spraying plants works well). Then close and turn the temperature down to 400°F. This spraying action simulates the special steam producing ovens used in commericial bakeries, and gives the bread that highly desirable and hard european crust.
Let bake for another 40-45 minutes or until it sounds hollow when tapping on it.
Just let cool on a rack (leave on rack a few hours before storing) and enjoy.
To store: place bread in 2.5 gallon zip/slider plastic bag and stick in the fridge. Very easy to just slice as needed and restore. (tip: make 2 loaves and provide fresh tasty bread for the whole family for over a week, tastes really good with a thin buttery spread and hard salami or cheese slices from the deli!)
Like the "Bauernbrot", this bread is popular and widely seen in supermarkets in Germany, but naturally not this size (a wee bit smaller, but you could find a bread this size in a german bakery!). So if ever visiting Germany in the future... maybe for the "Oktoberfest"?... keep an eye out for the "Sonnenblumenbrot"!
Search
