Pumpernickel Bread is very similar to Rye Bread and is basically a dark rye made with coarse rye flour. There are many different styles of Pumpernickel bread. The varieties that I’m familiar with are American, German and Russian. The German style is very dense and is slow cooked all night long or possibly a day to cook. The Russian Style is a very flavorful dark and moist and is sometimes topped with garlic, onion, poppy seeds, sesame seeds and pretzel salt. The American Style is similar to rye bread but has molasses and coffee added to the dough. My style runs in-between American and Russian. I was just aiming for a delicious bread.

Ingredients for about 25 servings

3 1/2 cups bread flour (+ extra to rest your dough in)

2 cups dark rye flour

2 cups whole wheat graham flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 Tablespoon active dry yeast

1/4 cup caraway seeds

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 cup canola oil

1 1/2 Tablespoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon coriander

3 cups hot water

1/4 cup semolina –  FOR RESTING THE DOUGH on

1 teaspoon granulated garlic

1/4 cup sweet onion – minced

1 teaspoon poppy seeds

2 big pinches course sea salt (one for each loaf)

1 XL egg beaten (to brush on loaf)

 

Directions

All dry ingredients (EXCEPT SEMOLINA flour, granulated garlic, sweet onion, poppy seeds, pinches of sea salt)  in your mixing bowl from your stand mixer. Now add all the wet ingredients (EXCEPT FOR EGG) and stir till combined.

Bring up your mixer to medium/high speed (on mine #6) and let your mixer mix the dough for 10 minutes till the dough is like elastic and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

It should look like this.

Get out a large bowl and put in some bread flour for the dough ball to rest.

Pull the dough off the mixing hook and get all the dough out of the bowl and knead it a bit and make it into a dough ball using a little bit of the flour.

 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for about an hour or until it rises.

Divide the dough into three.

Put down semolina for the dough balls (or flat bread)…..I used some on an oiled pizza pan and some on a wooden board for the loaves.

You can make either three small loaves of bread or a non traditional pizza or sort of flat bread and two loaves of bread like I did.

The semolina that allows your bread to slide off easily and also makes the crust taste delicious and nutty.

Put the resting board in a warm place till the loaves double in size.

I did the pizza first and let the bread rise.

The NON Traditional pizza I put in a 350 degree F oven for fifteen minutes.

I took it out and flipped it over and then topped it with Swiss Cheese, munster Cheese, tomatoes, black garlic, padron peppers, extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper.

Put it back in the oven just a few minutes to melt the cheese.

Now back to the breads. We ate two pieces for lunch and the rest can be frozen for another time.

Back to the breads.

They are nice and puffy so I mixed up the remaining ingredients and brushed them on the loaves.

I put one in the oven at 400 degrees F for thirty minutes and then the other for the same.

They taste great and are attractive too!