Summary

Ingredients

For the dough: (pre-dough)

• 100 g wheat flour, 1050
• 100 g water
• 2 g salt
• 1 g yeast, fresh

For the dough: (main dough)

• 400 g wheat flour, 1050
• 280 g water
• 12 g salt
• 4 g yeast, fresh
• Oil (walnut), or another flavorful oil
• Whole wheat meal, or wheat bran

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Instructions

1. Wurzelbrot is a Swiss specialty. The unique taste is achieved through the special dough structure. Acid formation is promoted by the darker wheat flour and the TA (= dough yield, flour-liquid ratio) of 200 in the starter dough. This promotes the splitting of the proteins in the flour, which in turn leads to an increased proportion of gluten and then the main dough with a TA of 176! gives the necessary stability. In addition, due to the long cold storage, part of the wheat starch is enzymatically converted into sugar, which leads to an intense taste.
2. Mix the ingredients for the pre-dough into a homogeneous dough, cover and let the yeast come to a standstill for two hours at room temperature. Then put the pre-dough in the fridge for a whole day, preferably in a tightly lidded bowl.
3. Add the remaining ingredients (except for the oil and the meal / bran) and knead long and hard with a food processor until the dough loosens from the bowl. This should take about 10 minutes on the slow and 15 minutes on the fast and is very important.
4. Now put the dough in a sufficiently large bowl (the dough will take on about 3 times the volume), moistened with walnut oil, oil the surface of the dough and leave it to rise tightly at room temperature for 2 hours. Then put it back in the fridge for a whole day.
5. Preheat the oven in good time on the baking day because the bread goes straight into the oven without any piece of cooked food.
6. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and turn it into a bed of meal or bran. Fold it over once so that the dough gets a little more tension and then divide it crosswise into two equal pieces. In turn, roll the interfaces in the meal or bran and pull the dough pieces apart a little like a corkscrew. Do this as carefully as possible and do not force out any air. It is best to shoot a stone that has been preheated.
7. Bake for 10 minutes at 250 ° C with plenty of steam and bake without steam at 200 ° C in 35 minutes. Let it cool down a little, but not too long, because it tastes best warm.
8. You can bake 4 rolls instead of one bread. Then cut them off in a square and do not turn. The baking time is shortened by approx. 15 minutes.
9. If you want to bake in advance, you can shorten the baking time by 15 minutes. Then let the bread cool, pack it airtight and put it in the refrigerator or freeze it. If necessary, bake in a chilled or defrosted state in a preheated oven at 200 ° C in about 30 minutes.
10. The Wurzelbrot is somehow a hybrid of ciabatta and baguette, but still very independent. It tastes good with everything you would eat ciabatta or baguette with and much more.