Germany, March 2020. The Coronavirus is keeping the world in suspense and, like many others, you’ve been spending a lot of time between the four walls of your own home. You’ve already finished all your books, and Netflix now knows what you like better than your own partner does. It’s well and truly time for a bit of variety in your day! So why don’t you try baking some bread? Here’s a recipe for our delicious bread that’s perfect for the mountains!
Bread? That’s very funny!
Yes, yes, we know what’s going through your head right now: Yeast and flour – where am I supposed to get those? A little tip: go to your local bakery and ask them for some. Most bakers have enough of both and will be glad of the extra income. But always keep the appropriate distance away from them! Otherwise, you could just make the yeast yourself.
Our “Extreme Spelt” mountain bread: The recipe!
Before you can really get going in the home bakery, of course you need a few ingredients. For the mountain bread, you need the following:
Ingredients (for one 750 g loaf)
Water roux:
90 g spelt flour (type 630)
Main dough:
350 g spelt flour (type 630)
90 g sunflower seeds
13 g salt
10 g yeast
Method
Water roux
For the water roux (sometimes also referred to as tangzhong), simply bring 245 g of water to the boil. Remove the pot from the stove. Add the spelt flour and whisk it in quickly. Leave the mixture, covered, to cool overnight.
Main dough
For the main dough, place the water roux together with the other ingredients and 140 g of cold water in a mixing bowl (preferably in a food processor – otherwise, for the climbers amongst us, you can get a really good upper arm workout at the same time. Knead well for 10 minutes. If you’re doing it by hand, it may take a little longer.
Resting & proving
Cover the dough and leave it to rest for two hours at room temperature, folding the dough once every 30 minutes. Finally, leave the covered dough to prove overnight in the refrigerator.
Warm up, preheat & bake
The next day, take the dough out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature for two hours. After another one and a half hours, preheat the oven using the top and bottom heating elements to 260 degrees Celsius.
If you have a pizza stone, feel free to pop it into the oven! Otherwise, it’s also fine to use a normal baking tray. After the dough has warmed up, use wet hands (with cold water since the dough is really moist) to form the dough into a nice ball.
From there, lay it on baking paper and allow the dough to relax for another ten minutes.
And now it’s time to bake it! Put the baking tray on the lowest rack and ladle a little water into the oven. Then close the oven immediately! This process, known as “steaming,” ensures a great crust. Set your timer for 60-70 minutes. After 10 minutes, reduce the temperature to 210 degrees Celsius.
Your entire apartment will slowly start to smell of fresh bread. Everything is as it should be.
Once the timer goes off, take the bread out of the oven and check that it has baked all the way through. Finally, use a pastry brush to brush a little water on the crust.
And now you have a super delicious loaf of bread. It may take a little longer than usual to prepare, but it’s worth it. We’ve sure got enough time at the moment! If you want to stock up on bread, you can definitely bake several loaves and then freeze them in a freezer bag.
Serving suggestions: after it has cooled down, cut right into it – it’s a dream just with butter alone! And of course, our bread makes for a fantastic summit snack.
