German Schwarz Bread
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Combine bread flour and whole wheat flour in a large bowl. Add warm water and mix with hands until there are no dry patches in dough. Set aside for 15 minutes to autolyse.
  2. Add salt, molasses, caraway seeds, and yeast to dough, and combine thouroughly by squeezimng dough between fingers of one hand. Do this for about 4 minutes. Dough will be quite sticky and you will need a plastic scraper to remove from fingers. Ste dough aside for 20 minutes.
  3. Wet one hand and begin stretching and folding the dough by pulling a handful of dough straight up into the air, then folding the dough unto itself. You must continue doing this until the dough will not stretch easily (about 4 minutes). Be sure to turn the bowl a quarter turn so that you stretch all sides of dough. Set aside for 20 minutes.
  4. Repeat stretching and folding in step 3 and set aside for another 20 minutes..
  5. Flour your work suface and top of dough. Remove dough from bowl and unto the work surface. Shape the dough by pulling the top of the dough and folding it unto a third of itself. Repeat with the bottom side of the dough. Then also stretch each side. Pinch the dough where all sides come together. Now using a cupping motion with both hands, smooth the top of the dough and tuck into the bottom. Keep doing this until you form a tight skin on the top of the dough. You can now place shaped dough into a floured bowl* or a baking receptacle, such as a covered porcelain dish (greased).
  6. Refrigerate dough for 12-48 hours.
  7. If using a floured bowl or banneton, remove dough unto a piece of parchment paper. Score top with a razor blade dusted in flour. Spray top with water and sprinkle with caraway seeds. Put into preheated dutch oven and place into preheated oven. Reduce oven temperature to 475F and bake covered for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10 mnutes or until you get desired color on crust. Allow to cool completely before slicing!
  8. If using a porcelain container, simply score the top of the loaf then spray with water. Cover, bake, and cool as in step 6. No need to preheat porcelain.