Hello, dear ones,
I’m glad you ended up here! First of all: I am German – please excuse any translation errors. If you have any questions about the recipe, just write me a comment. Thanks a lot!

Besides travelling, baking is one of my hobbies. I have been baking my own bread since the mid-1980s. When my children were small, I was very busy with healthy nutrition and at that time made some cooking and baking courses into wholefood nutrition. From one of these courses I got the recipe for this delicious brown bread, which I have been baking again and again for many years. I call it „the world’s best brown bread“. We also like to take it with us on our travels. That’s what it looks like:

Ingriedents for my german sourdough bread:

– 600 g rye meal (medium ground)
– 600 g rye meal (coarsely ground)
– 200 g wheat or spelt (finely ground)
– 200 g five-grain cereals or 100 g oats and 100 g spelt, whole grains
– 3 teaspoons organic bread spice (fennel, aniseed, coriander and caraway) finely ground
– 150 g sugar beet syrup, dark – e.g. Grafschafter Goldsaft (no paid advertising)
– 150 g organic sunflower seeds (2 tbsp for the dish and 1 tbsp for sprinkling)
– Grease for the mould
– 100 g linseed organic
– 3-4 level teaspoons salt (I take Himalaya salt)
– Total approx. 1500 g water, lukewarm (approx. 30°C warm)
– 1 box form, 35 cm long, I use these: *Bread baking tin – see photo below.
– 6 tablespoons sourdough

The sourgough stays in the refrigerator for at least 2 weeks until the next baking. To be on the safe side, I always have a portion in the freezer. If I use it, I thaw it the day before baking. Or ask a good baker, maybe you can also get some sourdough there. If you have it once and „care“ for it well, it really lasts for years. The one from the supermarket, whether fresh or dried, unfortunately only gives the sour taste and some driving force, but is not a „real“ sourdough. Yeast has to be added in any case.

Here you get the ingredients:

The grain and linseed and sunflower seeds are available in every organic shop. I prefer to use only organic products for the bread. Many organic shops have grain mills for their customers, so you can grind them yourself or have them grind them. Or you are lucky enough to live near a mill and have it grind directly. That’s what we sometimes have in Northern Germany. I myself have owned a grain mill and a kitchen machine for many years, this investment has been worthwhile for me for a long tbe. I always have freshly ground flour and am independent of shop opening hours. But of course such a mill is not necessary, you also get the ground grain in this way – even in well-stocked retail outlets.

If this is too cumbersome for you in the long run and you would like to grind flour whenever you feel like it: I recommend this great grain mill from Komo:

Production of black bread with sourdough:

You don’t need so much time to make it, just some planning.
For many years I have been using a simple box shape as a mould, which can be bought for less than 10 Euros:
I bought this one to have a second form, because I occasionally bake 2 loaves of bread at once. This bread is very welcome as a present in our family and friends circle.

At first an overview planning/brief instruction:

1. prepare the pre-dough on the evening before baking and put it in the kitchen overnight
2. pour 250 ml boiling water over the whole grains (five-grain mixture or oats and spelt) and leave to soak overnight.
3. the next morning: remove 150 ml sourdough in a jam glas and mix  the rest of the sourdough with all the other ingredients together
4. grease baking tin and sprinkle with 2 tbsp sunflower seeds
5. fill the dough into the mould, carve, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds and leave in the kitchen for another 3 – 4  hours at room temperature (20 °C ).
Preheat oven to 200 °C for 10 minutes – top and bottom heat.
7. place the bread on a grid in the oven (lower shelf) and bake for 30 minutes at 200 °C
8. reset the oven to 175 °C and bake for another 60 minutes
9. turn the finished bread directly from the pan onto a cake rack or grate and leave to cool for at least 12 hours in your kitchen. It also tastes good before, but is easier to digest after this rest.
10. enjoy it tastes good with butter, cheese, sausage, jam, with any vegan/vegetarian spread and lasts 10-14 days. The crust is crispy, the inside juicy.
11. storage: I usually freeze a part of it. I cut off the rest as needed.
How you can storage the bread: Wrap the dish towel around and then put it in a large bread tin or a freezer bag. It keeps fresh for about 8-10 days – if it has not been eaten before.

Preparation

Day 1: In the evening prepare the pre-dough and let it stand in the warm kitchen ( 20°C) for about 12 hours.
In the evening before baking: prepare the pre-dough (= increase the sourdough):
– 600 g rye meal, medium ground (pre-dough)
– 6-7 tablespoons fresh sourdough (see glass)
– 600 g good lukewarm water

Mix these 3 ingredients together and leave to stand for approx. 12 hours. The room (e.g. kitchen) should be at least 20 °C warm. Avoid draughts! Sourdough needs some warmth and time, then the baking is very simple with it. From this pre-dough you have made the sourdough for the next baking the next morning. It will continue to grow in the refrigerator, so please do not choose the glass too small for storage.
The pre-dough
Soak the grains:
Boil 250 g water and pour over the 200 g grains, soak overnight. Add the excess water to the dough the next morning.
Next morning: Stir the bread into the dough.
First of all very important: Remove the sourdough for the next baking. Pour 6-7 tablespoons into a screw glass and place in the refrigerator.

Then add all the other ingredients (coarse rye meal, spelt or wheat flour, bread spice, syrup, salt, sunflower seeds, linseed and water) except for the 3 tbsp sunflower seeds for sprinkling the mould and sprinkling the bread into the bowl and mix well. I am doing it with my Bosch Kitchenmachine.
The dough is right when it rusks without problems from the spoon. If it is too firm, add a dash of warm water. If it is too liquid, I add 2-3 tbsp oatmeal, which binds. If everything is very well mixed, the dough comes into the greased, with sunflower seeds scattered, greased baking form. Cut slightly from above and sprinkle with the rest (1 tbsp) sunflower seeds. First place a piece of baking paper and then a dish towel over it and cover the dish with it. Allow to rise for another 3 hours in the kitchen. During this time the dough will rise again to the edge of the mould. Remove the paper and towel.

Cut the top of the dough slightly so that the bread doesn’t crack Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sunflower seeds and press them down lightly.

Baking:
– Preheat oven to 200 °C for 10 minutes – Adjust top and bottom heat
– Bake for 30 minutes at 200 °C Top and bottom heat +
– Bake for 60 min. at 175 °C Top and bottom heat = 90 min at all
– Remove from the mould, fall onto a grating and leave to cool open for 12 hours.
The result: a super delicious bread that stays fresh for a long time.
Black German bread – organic, vegan and soo tasty!

Conclusion:
Baking bread is easy with the right instructions – try it out! And it saves a lot of money, you know what’s inside and the most important thing: It’s so delicious! And even after many years I still enjoy baking and eating my own bread.
Have fun baking!
Tasty – now still a little butter and cheese, and ready is the dinner or breakfast, depending upon taste. And the perfect bread to take with you to work!
Bon appetit, Your Franzi

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