Cast Iron

Sour dough Mischbrot

by:
October 17, 2012
5
1 Ratings
Sour dough Mischbrot
  • Makes one loaf
Author Notes

Mischbrot is the German word for bread made with mixed grains. Germans love their bread and when we came to this country several decades ago what we missed most was our bread. For years we just made our pilgrimages to the German delis until i started experimenting with making my own sourdough starter. I ended up basing my recipe on the no knead method because it produced such a good crust.

After reading all the master bread baker books with their percentages and rather complicated and super precise measurements i threw caution to the wind and went on instinct. I find that this final recipe is very forgiving and yields a very hardy bread that stays tasty for at least four days, if it lasts that long. —koechin

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 12 ounces white bread flour
  • 8 - 10 ounces rye flour
  • 8 - 10 ounces spelt flour
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons whole or ground caraway
  • 2 teaspoons whole or ground golden flax seeds
  • 1/4 - 1/3 cups sour dough starter
  • 1 teaspoon instant yeast
  • 1 1/2 -1 3/4 cups warm water
Directions
  1. Whisk all dry ingredients together. Disperse the starter (i keep mine pretty liquid) in the warm water with a firm dough whisk work into a firm but wet dough. The reason a give variations on the ingredients is that i found different flours and ambient humidity will affect how much liquid is needed. Your initial dough should have the consistence of heavy wet clay. Once you've made it, it's easy to get a sense for how the dough should feel. Now cover your bowl with cling film and leave it alone for 10-14 hours.
  2. Next morning it will have almost doubled. Now use a dough scraper and fold the dough from outside to the middle, turning the bowl a quarter turn each time you fold. Should result in four folds for one complete turn of the bowl. I usually do this twice, then let the dough rest another hour while i preheat the oven with my small roemertopf, or you can use a cast iron or le creuset or le cloche to 475 degrees.
  3. Scrape the dough into the hot pot, sprinkle with a T of flour and make on long shallow cut down the middle. Put the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the lid and lower temperature to 450 and bake another 30 minutes. Check the internal temperature with an instant thermometer and it should be between 204 and 208 degrees. Let cool completely before slicing.
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    Sauerteig-Sabsi

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8 Reviews

Sauerteig-Sabsi
Sauerteig-Sabsi January 11, 2020
My Question to you is whether you tried to used a different mix of flours yet. I'm still trying to come up with my perfect mix, but haven't found it yet. Too much rye makes the dough too sticky, so i usually don't put in more than 25 g. Mixing rye with Spelt & kamut & some hard spring red wheat was nice. And, i always use beer and 30 g of buttermilk for the fluid. I only use water when I run out of beer. 🤭
 
jasonj1908
jasonj1908 August 31, 2020
Hi. I don't mean to pry, but I have a question for you. I noticed you used grams for the amount of your various liquids (I plan on using the beer and buttermilk next time). Did you also measure out how many grams of flour, starter, etc that you used in your recipe?
I'm used to weighing everything by the gram and eyeballing it by the ounce has me Abit flustered. I love the recipe but just need a bit of additional guidance. Thank you!
 
Sauerteig-Sabsi
Sauerteig-Sabsi September 2, 2020
I weigh everything in grams. I grew up in Germany with the decimal system; ounces confuse me. 🤷🏼‍♀️ But I really only look at other folks' recipes for inspiration; I hardly follow it to the T. That said, I make smaller breads with a total of 350g flour, 200g beer, 30g buttermilk or yoghurt, 5g salt, 1/2 tsp breadspice (fennel, coriander, caraway, anise). The liquid amounts are a guideline because they depend on the types of flour used. Some flours suck it up like there's no tomorrow! I hope I didn't confuse you more 😲. I am on Instagram if you have more questions @Donnsabine
 
jasonj1908
jasonj1908 September 2, 2020
That's all very helpful actually. Thanks for responding. The first loaf I made was good. I plan on making it with beer and buttermilk next and a mixture of breadspice. I've learned to do everything in grams when I bake so the ounces threw me off as well. It's true that the type of flour used will dictate the liquid. I used bread, rye and einkorn flours. I'll try some others next time. Thanks again!
 
koechin
koechin December 11, 2012
@ apple annie: so glad you enjoyed the bread. i never thought to use beer as a liquid but i bet it helps with flavor and the rise. will definitely try it. thanks for the hint.
 
AppleAnnie
AppleAnnie December 7, 2012
This is a wonderful recipe, I made it for Thanksgiving, substituting kamut flour for the spelt and using beer for some of the water. A great, easy artisan bread, I plan to make it again tomorrow--thanks for sharing!
 
koechin
koechin December 2, 2012
so glad you liked this. very clever invention using your pizza stone as a lid. i bake it every week and since i only measure with a large flour scoop it always comes out a little different which i like. yes, it's all about the crust. my granddaughter cut her teeth on it and at age 3 still loves it.
 
susan G.
susan G. November 15, 2012
I made this bread yesterday -- it's amazing. I jerryrigged a baking environment, a pizza stone and a 4 inch deep pot (wide one) as a dome. I've never seen such a beautiful crust on a bread I've made. I did need about 1/2 cup more liquid, and maybe should have used more (how wet is 'heavy wet clay?), but I'm happy with the outcome. It's hard not to eat too much of this!