Yeast bread has a really great tradition in our country. Bread is one of the staple foods that we have on our menu pretty much every day. It consists of various types of flour, which are mixed in different proportions with water, salt and caraway seeds. The basis for our Czech bread should be a leaven made from rye flour and water. However, this is no longer commonly used in bakeries. Start making your own bread, you\’ll be surprised how easy it is and how friendly the Czech amateur baking community is.
What you\’ll need
The basis for baking sourdough bread is sourdough. You can get this in several ways. You can buy it from a health food store or bakery and revive it for a few days – this will get it started and you can bake. Another option is to start a sourdough starter at home. It\’s a bit more complicated, but you can find instructions online. A third option is to request a sourdough starter from someone who already bakes. In the group Pečempecen on Facebook you will surely find someone in your area who will be willing to donate sourdough starter to you. I donate sourdough starter quite often myself, and most of the time I am rewarded with a little something, chocolate or coffee.
Besides sourdough starter you will need rye bread flour, wheat bread flour, salt, water, cumin. You can replace the water with another liquid. Perhaps kefir or beer. You can vary the flours, of course, but I recommend starting with these two basic ones and then continuing with others once you get a bit of a grip.
Basic Bread
You need to multiply the sourdough starter you have been given or made. You do this by taking a spoonful of the mother starter, putting it in a bowl with the rye flour and water and letting it ferment for 10 – 12 hours.
– 200g of starter (100g rye flour, 100g water and a teaspoon of sourdough starter)
– 400g of wheat bread flour
– A teaspoon of salt
– Cumin to taste
– 220ml of water
Simply mix all the ingredients together to make a flexible dough. Leave the dough to rise for about 2½ hours and then roll into a loaf. I recommend you watch the YouTube video where you can see the loaf being rolled. Place the rolled bread in a plastic wrap and let it rise again in a warm place for 2 hours. After about an hour and a half, heat the oven with a baking tray or baking stone to 250°C and let it get hot. Put an old baking sheet on the bottom of the oven and let it get hot too. Then carefully roll the bread out of the wrapper onto the baking sheet and place it in the oven. Dump about a pint of water on the bottom baking sheet and quickly close the oven. Leave to bake for 15 minutes at 250 and then reduce to 180 and bake for another half hour. Let the bread cool on a wire rack.