Recipe: Karsten’s Roots Bread

 

I first saw this recipe on an episode of ‘The Hairy Bikers Bakeation’ on the BBC last year where they visited Karsten, a ‘slow baker’ at his bakery in Germany. However it wasn’t until I got the book as a Christmas present that I actually got around to making it. The best thing about this recipe is that it is so amazingly simple but produces a lovely textured loaf, with a great deep flavour due to the long fermentation process. I’ve added a few of my own tips that I felt were missing from the book.

Ingredients:

8g Dried Yeast (not fast-acting)

8g Caster Sugar

390ml Warm Water

650g Strong White Bread Flour

8g Salt

Oil, for greasing

Sprinkle the yeast and sugar over 100ml of the warm water and leave it to activate for about five minutes, until a nice head like you’d get on a pint of beer has formed.

Tip the flour and the salt into a large mixing bowl. Slowly add the remaining 290ml of warm water to the flour, mixing it all together. Add the yeast mixture, and using your hands, mix to a soft dough. Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and knead for at least ten minutes until it is smooth, supple, and elastic.

Lightly oil a large mixing bowl and place the dough in it. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave somewhere cool. At this time of year an unheated spare room is ideal. 

Now all you have to do is leave it for between twenty four and forty eight hours, until it has doubled or tripled in size. I’ve left it for both lengths of time and find that a twenty four hour rise produces a slightly lighter and chewier loaf which is what I prefer but if you have the patience it really is worth experimenting with longer rises.

Now, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knock it back. Divide it into two roughly equal pieces and shape into a roll about 20cm long. Hold a roll of dough and twist it four or five times and place it onto a floured baking tray or stone. Repeat with the other piece of dough.

Pre-heat the oven to 240c/fan 220c, gas mark 9. Place a roasting tin in the bottom of the oven and boil a kettle of water. Put the loafs on the top shelf of the oven and pour the boiling water into the roasting tin, being careful as you do so. The boiling water creates steam which helps the bread rise.

Bake the loafs for ten minutes and remove the roasting tin, again being careful as you do so. Turn the temperature down to 220c/fan 200c/gas mark 7, and bake the loaves for another ten minutes until they are a nice golden brown and have risen well. If the bottom of the loaves sound hollow when tapped then they are ready. If they sound dull then leave them in for another five minutes before checking again.

Leave the bread to cool for twenty minutes. It tastes the best on the first day but will keep well for a couple of days and can be frozen after baking.

Enjoy :).