Russian black bread is a very delicious bread full of flavor that I happened to stumble upon when looking for a different recipe that I still haven’t figured out. I am so glad I found this recipe though, it is amazing. You can see from the photo I let it over proof a little, and lost my smooth top. When I searched through the food blogs, I saw that Smitten Kitchen had a great recipe for it, and some of the big recipe sites did too. I simplified the recipe, a bit, although it still does have 17 ingredients. I used cocoa powder instead of melting chocolate. You can use an once of melting chocolate, but you have to add another step to melt the chocolate in the warm water. This list of flavors may seem a little odd, but believe me the end result is extraordinary. It is a very dense, heavy bread with a beautifully crunchy crust. Its perfect when sliced thin for a sandwich or to accompany just about anything. This recipe makes 2 loaves.
On a different note, I wanted to share with you that I got rid of 8 large pieces of furniture yesterday. I have an over-sized town home filled with estate sale finds, yard sale discoveries, things given to me by friends and family, and auction wins. I have so few things in my home that I have paid for and actually love. Almost everything I have was just bought to fill a space because it was inexpensive, given to me because someone didn’t have room for it or didn’t want it anymore, or things that I took from my mother’s home when she passed. Well, I am finally ready to give all up to charity and downsize to a few key essential pieces that serve a purpose. So my home is in the transformation stage of crazy eclectic to a much more simplified minimalistic eclectic style. I am very excited, it makes me feel wonderful to give to charity, and even better to remove the clutter from my home and simplify my life.
Yield: Serves 4
4 cups rye flour
2 cups wheat flour
2 cups white flour
1 cup bran
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 packs of yeast
2 1/2 cups hot water from tap
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon instant coffee
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Add hot water to stand mixer mixing bowl. Add yeast and sir to combine. Add vinegar, molasses, cocoa powder, melted butter, sugar, salt, instant coffee, and garlic powder. Stir to combine.
Place mixing bowl on stand mixer and attach paddle mixer. Turn on low and add bran. Mix well. Then add wheat flour, rye flour and white flour. Stir until just combined. Remove paddle attachment and add dough hook. Knead for 10 - 15 minutes. You may need to add a little more white flour. However, remember rye flour makes bread dough stickier than a regular white bread.
After dough has needed, place the dough on the counter and add a little more white flour, if needed to get the right consistency.
Place the dough in a large greased bowl and let it double in size.
Then punch down the dough and halve it. For round loaves, place in cake pans, and for loaves, place on sheet pans in an oblong shape.
Let dough double in size again. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
For round loaves go ahead and place them in the oven after they have doubled in size the second time. For bread loaves, roll the dough and place in a loaf pan and let it rise again for about 30 minutes, than place it in the oven.
Bake at 375 degrees until the internal temperature is 200 degrees, about 50 - 60 minutes. I use an internal probe thermometer to check the temperature.
When bread has reached temperature, remove from pans and let cool on a cooling rack.
