German Kastenweissbrot (White Loaf Bread)
"I translated this recipe from "Brot Backen," a German language cookbook I acquired while living in Germany. I used to buy this bread weekly from the bakery in our town and had to track down a recipe for it. I will update the measurements for American kitchens once I have tried this. At the bakery they had little bottles of water that they would spray onto the raw dough before baking to make the tops crispy."
- Ready In:
- 3hrs 40mins
- Ingredients:
- 9
- Yields:
-
1 loaf
- Serves:
- 8-10
ingredients
- 500 g all-purpose flour, approximately
- 4 1⁄2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 100 ml lukewarm milk
- 150 g creme fraiche or 150 g sour cream
- breadcrumbs, for the pan
directions
- Measure out the milk and add yeast and sugar; set aside for about 10 minutes or until frothy (if it doesn't get frothy, start over- your yeast is dead or your milk was too hot and killed the yeast).
- Mix together the yeast mixture with salt, eggs and egg yolk, creme fraiche.
- Combine the flour and the wet mixture until a dough forms (you may need a little extra flour depending upon the humidity that day).
- Knead on a floured board, adding extra flour if needed to keep from being too sticky, until a smooth ball forms.
- Place in a greased bowl, flip over once, and cover with either a damp clean towel or plastic wrap that has first been srayed with nonstick spray.
- Let rise until doubled in bulk- approx 1 or 1 1/2 hours.
- Punch down and knead again on a floured surface.
- Grease a 30cm long loaf pan well and sprinkle with dry breadcrumbs.
- Set dough into the pan and even out the top.
- Cover as before and let rise another hour.
- Heat oven to 175 C.
- Remove cover and using a sharp knife, make slashes in the dough every 1 cm.
- Spritz with a bit of water (this will make the crust crisp up).
- Bake on the second rack of your oven for about 40 minutes.
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Reviews
-
This was a great bread. I didn't use a loaf pan, just made a giant boule. It rose a lot in the oven, and made a big, cubic foot sized loaf. I should have made sure I let it rise significantly longer as a loaf before throwing it in the oven - my shape got a little funky. But it had a nice soft but sturdy crumb that was perfect for beer cheese. -
I could hardly wait to tear into this - and I did not. This made one loaf pan and one free-form round loaf for me. I put all the ingredients in the bread machine. It looked a bit dry to start, but I let it go, and it turned out into a lovely dough. I think I would add a bit more salt next time - perhaps another 1/2 or 3/4 tsp. Also, I mixed it up in the morning and put it into the fridge until the evening. For that reason I put in only half the yeast. Worked out perfectly. -
I absolutely loved this bread. I am german and this reminds me of the bread we had at home. It has a nice consistency. 500 g of flour seemed to be a little too much. The dough was kind of dry and I had to add a little more milk. This is great!
