I just returned from vacation and was delighted to find Reggie's request
for a Latvian Dark Bread. The recipe below is for one of my all-time
favorite breads, but it involves a two-day process and is a lot of work.
This bread is a "sweet & sour" type of sourdough rye. It's a heavy but
very hearty bread -- good with soups, meats & cheeses, cucumber & tomato
slices, or just plain butter. It's a peasant bread which was originally
mixed up in a special wooden container called an "abra," using a wooden
spoon devoted solely to mixing this type of dough, and also lots of elbow
grease for kneading. My father once said that the mixing and kneading were
often delegated to children, I suppose to keep them busy. I've run across
a few published recipes for this type of bread, but the recipes were very
imprecise and my results were disastrous. I finally consulted a couple of
very generous older Latvian women about their recipes. My result was to
borrow ideas from both of them and then to adjust for modern technology
using a Kitchen Aid mixer to do the nasty heavy stuff. The peasant version
of this bread was baked in brick ovens, but my regular electric oven works
quite well. I make this bread infrequently, but always in large batches (6
loaves at a time, using 3 Kitchen Aid bowls); the recipe below is for a
single batch (2 loaves). The bread freezes well if well wrapped in plastic
bags; frozen loaves of bread can be thawed and then warmed up in the oven
before serving.
LATVIAN SOURDOUGH RYE BREAD
("SALDSKAABA MAIZE")
3-1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon apple cider;
2 tablespoons caraway seeds;
5-1/2 (or more) cups whole grain (coarse) rye flour (i.e., Hodgson Mill);
1 cup sourdough starter (1:1 ratio water:bread flour);
1 tablespoon yeast;
1 teaspoon salt;
2-1/2 cups bread flour;
vegetable oil spray (Pam, etc.);
OPTIONAL:
1 egg;
rye flakes
Heat 3 cups apple cider and 2 tablespoons caraway seeds to boiling; pour
over 3 cups of coarse rye flour and stir. Let mixture cool. Add 1 cup
active sourdough starter and mix well. The mixture will resemble heavy
porridge as the rye flour absorbs the apple cider. Sprinkle 1/2 cup coarse
rye flour over the mixture but do not stir at this point.
Cover your bowl with a dish towel, and then wrap the covered bowl with a
beach towel or blanket. Put wrapped bowl in a warm spot (next to a heat
register is good) and allow the mixture to ferment for up to 24 hours (less
time if you think it will be too sour).
Dissolve 1 tablespoon yeast in 1/2 cup warm (105-115 degrees Farenheit)
apple cider. Let the yeast mixture bubble and then add it to the sourdough
mixture. Gradually add 1 teaspoon salt, 2-1/2 cups bread flour, and 2 cups
coarse rye flour. Knead with your heavy-duty electric mixer. If the dough
seems too wet, add more rye flour (wet dough will result in a soggy baked
brick). This type of bread is tricky to make, as the dough is always very
sticky from the rye; it takes some trial and error to get a feel for the
dough. If the dough is too wet, it becomes slack after a while; the
correct consistency of dough remains rather firm.
Spray a Formica countertop or a marble pastry board with vegetable cooking
spray. Use a small plastic pan scraper or something like that to scrape
your dough out of the bowl and onto your work surface. Using a bench
knife/dough scraper, divide the dough into two equal chunks. Wet your hands
with water and keep a bowl of water handy for additional dipping. Form the
dough into two loaves on the oiled surface, using just your wet hands; do
not add flour at this point. Place the loaves into oiled bread pans
(8-1/2" x 4-1/2"). Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm place.
Believe it or not, this very heavy dough WILL rise. OPTIONAL (not a
traditional method): Brush on glaze made with 1 egg that's been mixed with
1 tablespoon of apple cider; sprinkle with rye flakes (obtainable from a
food co-op).
Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees Farenheit; then turn heat down to 350
degrees Farenheit and continue to bake for an additional hour. Don't
underbake. Remove loaves from pans and allow to cool on a rack.
POSTSCRIPT: When measuring flour, I do not fluff and scoop into separate
measuring cups; rather I just use my measuring cup to do the scooping and
then level it off with a spatula. My resulting "cups" are probably
somewhat on the dense side as a result of this.
If anyone is interested in a "true sourdough" Latvian rye bread (using only
sourdough starter but no additional yeast), I can post a recipe for it
later on. The recipe differs from the one here in several ways: by
including water and sugar, rather than apple cider; it uses a different
(coffee flavored) glaze; it's a one-day process, rather than two-day like
the recipe posted here; it uses a different type of sourdough starter.
Anyway, good luck and enjoy the bread. IT IS WORTH THE WORK!
Angie Klidzejs