Bread
Description
Delicious baked goods for the whole family. Karelian bread has an incredible “bouquet” of flavors. It is slightly sweet, yet it pairs well with any dish. It keeps beautifully and stays fresh for several days. Serve cooled or slightly warm.
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
Prepare the ingredients. It is best to start the process the evening before: make the starter and the scald.
- 2
Step 2
For making the leaven, prepare the starter (mother starter), 100 ml water, and 170 g first-grade wheat flour.
- 3
Step 3
Dissolve the starter in water, add the flour, mix, and cover with plastic wrap.
- 4
Step 4
Prepare the pre-ferment the evening before: for this take 300 ml boiling water, 100 grams rye flour, 50 grams rye fermented malt, 1 tsp caraway, and 1/2 tsp coriander.
- 5
Step 5
Combine all dry ingredients, add boiling water, and mix thoroughly.
- 6
Step 6
Cover the scald with a lid, place the starter and the scald next to each other, cover with a napkin or tea towel and leave overnight. By morning the starter will have risen in volume and be covered with many bubbles.
- 7
Step 7
Prepare the sponge: mix the starter and scald together, add 230 g first-grade wheat flour, pour in 150 ml water, mix well, cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap, and leave to ferment for 2–2.5 hours.
- 8
Step 8
To make the dough, dissolve honey (or treacle), salt, and sugar in 100 ml of water. Pour this mixture into the sponge.
- 9
Step 9
Pour in 450 grams of first-grade wheat flour and knead the dough. To knead evenly, add the flour gradually. Knead the dough. In the final stage of kneading, fold in raisins that you have rinsed, dried and tossed in flour.
- 10
Step 10
Grease your dough bowl with vegetable oil, add the dough, cover with plastic wrap, and leave to rise for 2–3 hours.
- 11
Step 11
During fermentation, the dough should increase in volume by at least 1.5–2 times.
- 12
Step 12
Place the dough on the table work surface. Do not dust the table with flour. Divide the dough into 2 parts.
- 13
Step 13
Shape the dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and let rest for 30 minutes.
- 14
Step 14
After 30 minutes, shape the bread into whatever form you like. While shaping, you can roll the loaf in bran. So the raisins don’t burn when baking, sink them into the dough.
- 15
Step 15
Place the bread pieces on a baking sheet or in a pan with the seam facing down. In this recipe, pan bread and hearth bread were baked at the same time. Proofing time: 1–1.5 hours.
- 16
Step 16
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Bake for the first 10 minutes at 250 degrees, then lower the temperature to 180 degrees and bake for another 40–45 minutes. For a better crust, bake the first 10 minutes with steam: place a baking tray with water on the bottom oven rack or put several ice cubes on it. Cool the bread completely on a wire rack.
- 17
Step 17
Karelian bread turned out with a beautiful “bouquet” of flavors, thanks to its composition, and it is very aromatic. You definitely won’t find bread like this at a simple bakery.