Cabbage Bacon Bread

Schelli drew my attention to this bread a while back (this bread was often purchased from Gaues-Broterbe…). Unfortunately, he couldn’t give me any more detailed information about the bacon cabbage bread, except that it has a high proportion of rye and has some distinct features.

A strip of bacon and a piece of savoy cabbage on the bottom of the baked loaf are the features. Garlic can also be added but my kids don’t like it so I left it out. 

Driven by my curiosity, I dared to try to bake this bread. To give the bread a strong rye taste, I used dark rye type 2500 and wheat flour type 1600.

From the high water absorption the bread has an extremely moist and dark crumb.

Recipe

Sourdough:

  •    50g Starter
  • 450g Water
  • 550g Rye Flour Type/960

RT: 12 – 15 hours/ at 25 – 28°C

Bread Soaker:

  • 200g Old bread (if you have enough on hand, only use the crust- Taste!!)
  • 300g Water
  •    35g Sea Salt

In order to prevent false fermentation the total salt amount is mixed into the bread soaker. Thus, the bread soaker can stand at room temperature for longer. 

Main Dough:

  • 1050g mature sourdough
  •   535g Bread Soaker
  •   400g Wheat Flour Type 1600
  •   400g Rye Flour Type 960
  •   200g Rye Flour Type 2500
  •        5g Ground coriander
  •      20g Yeast
  •   450g Water

Knead all of the ingredients into a dough and the let rise for 40 minutes. Then two dough pieces are weighed out, each weighing 1.10kg, and formed into round loaves. “Working bread dough round”.
(The rest of the dough is covered again and set aside)

With the seam-side down, the loaves are placed into proofing baskets and left to proof. Once ¾ proofed, place a strip of bacon and a whole cabbage leaf on each loaf.

Now the loaves are turned with the seam side up and baked until well browned in an oven set to 250°C reducing to 200°C with steam.

It is better to place the loaf on a piece of baking parchment, since it will be easier to shuffle it from the baking peel into the oven. If you choose, you can also bake this bread in a pot. If you do so it is likely that you’ll get a more intense bacon flavor. 

“And now you may ask, what is he going to do with the rest of the dough???”

Check back in a couple days and you will find out!