German Bread (Seele)
A recipe for authentic German Bread called "Seele" which means soul and is a chewy dense delicious bread. The soul of South German/Swabian cuisine!
Servings 6
Calories 616kcal
Ingredients
- 200 g all purpose flour
- 220 g water
- 5 g fresh yeast
- 800 g all purpose flour
- 480 g water
- 30 g fresh yeast
- 25 g Salt
- 3 g sugar
- 20 g milk
- coarse salt
- cumin seeds
Instructions
- The night before mix 200 g flour, 220 g water and 5 g yeast in a large glass or stainless steel bowl together with a spatula until smooth and all flour is incorporated into the water.
- Cover with a kitchen towel and leave at room temperature for at least 12 hours (max. 18 hours).
- Add remaining ingredients (except coarse salt and cumin seeds) and combine with your hands.
- Once all combined, continuously knead by hand for about 15-20 minutes. It doesn't have to be fast only constant.
- Cover with a kitchen towel and leave at room temperature for 45 minutes.
- The dough should now be double in size.
- Wet your hands and divide the dough into three sections and twist each of them like you would a wet towel. The dough is still very sticky and this will be messy but try to twist and twist and twist it by holding one end in one hand and the other turning the wrist to twist the dough. Do this with all three sections and return to bowl.
- Cover with a kitchen towel and leave at room temperature for 45 minutes.
- Repeat the twist thing with each of the three sections and return to bowl and let rest 5 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 530 F (275°C)
- Slightly wet a flat surface, pour out the dough onto the surface, slightly wet the dough (preferably with a spray bottle) on top and let rest uncovered for 30 minutes.
- Now form a U with your hands, as shown in the picture above, dive into the dough and lift out bread pieces the size of your two hands, also as shown on the other picture above.
- Place bread pieces on a baking sheet at least 2 inches apart so they don't stick together when in the oven.
- Wet their surface again (preferably with a spray bottle) and sprinkle with coarse salt and cumin seeds.
- Place a baking sheet with one cup of water into the bottom rack of the oven and the baking sheet with the breads into the middle rack of the oven and bake for 10 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to 450 F (230°C), open the oven door and release all the steam.
- Close the door again and bake for 15 more minutes.
- Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely to give the bread time to reincorporate all the steam to the bread core and make it chewy.
- Enjoy!!!
Nutrition
Calories: 616kcal | Carbohydrates: 128g | Protein: 17g | Fat: 1g | Sodium: 1627mg | Potassium: 208mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 1g | Calcium: 31mg | Iron: 7.9mg