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Jul 30, 2013

Rheinbrot - A Winey Bread

Rheinbrot - A Winey Bread



This bread is called Rheinbrot because it contains Riesling in the sponge/starter. I've made bread with beer, but never with wine. This was going to be an adventure.


Rheinbrot - A Winey Bread



As I often do, I jumped into the recipe without reading it all the way through, and didn't realize that the sponge needs about 14 to 16 hours of fermentation. Starting at noon (which I did) meant that I would have to mix up the final dough around two in the morning. I love baking bread, but I love sleep too.


I figured out I should have started around 6pm and then let the starter ferment overnight. Fortunately, I was able to slow down the fermentation by putting the starter in the refrigerator after about ten hours and leave it there until the next evening. While the original recipe does not call for a cold fermentation, I am including it in my directions.

What else did I do differently? Instead of baking the loaf in a steam oven, I baked it in a preheated cast iron Dutch oven. While the dough was very loose, the oven spring in the cast iron pot was amazing. Other than the timing and the cast iron pot, I followed the recipe as written.

Rheinbrot - A Winey Bread



How was the bread? Soft, moist, and chewy with a fairly thin crispy crust. The flavor was wonderful, perfect with the rest of the bottle of Riesling.


This recipe was introduced to the Bread Baking Babes by Astrid of Paul Chen's Food Blog.  She found the original recipe on this forum and translated it. I'm so glad she did.

Rheinbrot - A Winey Bread




Rheinbrot Recipe

Ingredients

Sponge

50 grams of semisweet Riesling
50 grams bottled water
100 grams unbleached all purpose flour
50 grams of 100% sourdough starter

Dough

All of the sponge
250 grams unbleached all purpose flour
135 grams water
6 grams of salt

Instructions

  1. Whisk the wine, water, and sourdough starter together in a 1 quart bowl.
  2. Mix in the 100 grams of flour. 
  3. Cover and ferment the sponge for four hours at about 80 degrees F. I usually heat up a cup of water in the microwave and then put the dough in there. 
  4. After four hours, stir the sponge and recover with plastic wrap. Let it ferment at room temperature for 10 to 12 hours. Alternatively, after a few hours, move the bowl to the refrigerator and let it ferment for 18 to 24 hours. 
  5. Remove the sponge from the refrigerator about 1 1/2 hours prior to mixing the dough. 
  6. Add the flour and water, mix until you get a shaggy ball, cover, and let sit for about 45 minutes, covered. 
  7. Add the salt and pinch the dough with your fingers to fully incorporate it. Form the dough into a ball and place it into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it ferment for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Fold the dough over itself at 60 minutes and 90 minutes. 
  8. Form the dough into a boule and place it into a floured bowl or basket (I used a plastic brotform sprayed with oil and sprinkled with rice flour). Cover with plastic wrap. Let it proof until doubled in size, about 60 to 90 minutes. Meanwhile, place a cast iron Dutch oven in the oven and preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.
  9. When the dough is ready, carefully remove the pot from the oven, remove the lid, and dump the dough into the pot. Slash the dough, cover, and place in the oven. 
  10. Bake for 10 minutes, and then remove the lid. Lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees F and bake for 20 minutes more. 
  11. Cool on a wire rack. 


Would you like to comment?

  1. I've never even heard of wine bread before! Sadly, my cast iron dutch oven is in SC and I'm in Hawaii. It just didn't really some reasonable to bring it on the plane for a summer-long stay, but I'll have to ship it when I return in December. The pictures are awesome and this looks super tasty!

    Natashalh

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    1. Natasha, I think even a cheap metal pan with a lid would work. It traps the steam. Oh, and I'm so jealous of your stay in Hawaii.

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  2. I'm so relieved to hear that I'm not the only one who doesn't read through a recipe all the way. Well done in retarding the starter so that you didn't have to get up at 2AM to mix the final dough. (I keep hearing Julia Child's voice: "You are the boss of that dough" in the section on French Bread in "From Julia Child's Kitchen".

    Your bread looks fabulous. I love the golden colour of the crust and the wonderful loft of the crumb.

    Many thanks for baking with us!

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    1. Thanks Elizabeth. I love that quote from Julia!

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  3. The crust on your bread looks gorgeous. What a good idea to bake it in a Dutch oven.

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    1. Thanks Claire! It really seems to help with the oven spring.

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  4. Karen, your bread looks fantastic. I love its shape, crust and colour.
    Wonderful idea the Dutch Oven.
    And since I still have some Riesling left, I may go your way: no more sticky bad experiences. Many thanks

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  5. Your breads look amazing and I love reading your blog. I am going on holiday for a month in Suffolk and I am going to try a bread using a starter, and one of your recipes! Thank you

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    1. Let me know how it goes Candy. Thanks so much for reading my blog!

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  6. Great idea to use cold fermentation and the Dutch oven to bake the bread in. That would've been much easier than what I did. Lol... Your bread looks gorgeous!

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    1. Thanks Cathy. I definitely had my fingers crossed!

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  7. Isn't it great to know there are "control tricks" to speed things up or slow them down when baking bread.
    Glorious color in your loaf.

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    1. Totally great Tanna to have learned the power of slowing things down and speeding them up with bread. And thank you!

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  8. Dear Karen, thank you for posting this recipe!
    So you have inspired us in Germany (Brotbackforum)to bake a bread with german white wine, how funny..!
    http://brotbackforum.iphpbb3.com/forum/77934371nx46130/backtreffen-und-backversuche-f34/weinbrot-mit-riesling-t3515.html
    It's very tasty. I started the fermentation with sourdough and with lievieto madre (half-half). Perhaps it would be tasty with onions and a little bit of cheese in the dough?
    Have a good time...
    Cheriechen

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    Replies
    1. I think it would. I did find your site when I noticed new visitors to my site. How fun! Thank you Cheriechen!

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  9. I am the author of this recipe. Thank you for using it. )

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