Pumpernickel: an almost black loaf baked for five hours
Traditional Westphalian pumpernickel needs no caramel or colouring — its near-black colour and sweetness are created in the oven, during many hours of steam baking at low heat (in bakeries it lasts at least 16 hours). Over that time enzymes break some of the starch down into sugars, and the Maillard reaction runs through the whole mass of the dough, not just the crust. The home version bakes for five hours and comes out a deep dark brown with a molasses-like flavour, though it is sweetened with just two tablespoons of honey.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Soaking 720 min
- Rising 300 min
- Baking 300 min
- Resting before slicing 1440 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneSoak the cracked rye overnight
Put the cracked rye in a bowl with the salt and cover with boiling water. Stir, cover and leave 12 hours. The boiling water gelatinises the starch and the coarse grain has time to soften — without this, pumpernickel bakes gritty and hard.
Ingredients: 300 g cracked rye · 400 ml boiling water · 2 tsp salt
TipDon't substitute ordinary rye flour. The whole structure of this bread rests on coarsely cracked grain, which gives it its characteristic granular density.
Boiling water on the grain, twelve hoursMix a very dense dough
To the soaked grain add the wholemeal rye, starter, honey and lukewarm water. Stir with a sturdy spoon for 5 minutes — the dough will be very dense, sticky and heavy, quite unlike wheat dough. Rye does not form a gluten network the way wheat does, so there is nothing here to knead.
Ingredients: 400 g wholemeal rye flour · 200 g rye sourdough starter · 150 ml water · 2 tbsp honey
Dense, sticky and heavy, no kneadingFill the tin and level with a wet spoon
Line a 30 cm loaf tin with paper and butter it. Press the dough in, working out any air pockets, and smooth the top with a spoon dipped in water. Scatter over the seeds.
Ingredients: 15 g butter · 3 tbsp mixed seeds
A wet spoon levels dough that sticks to everythingRise for five hours
Cover with film and leave somewhere warm 5 hours. Rye dough does not double — it grows by about a third and fine cracks appear on the surface. That is enough; waiting for more ends in collapse.
Bake five hours in steam
Heat the oven to 180 °C. Seal the tin tightly with foil and stand it in a roasting tray with 3 cm of hot water. Bake 1 hour at 180 °C, then reduce to 120 °C and bake 4 hours, topping up the water every hour. The loaf darkens deeply and starts to smell of caramel.
TipThat low temperature over many hours is the whole secret of pumpernickel. Higher heat would build a crust while the interior had no time to darken — the point is browning throughout the mass.
An hour at 180 °C, four hours at 120 °CRest a day before cutting
Cool completely in the tin, then wrap in a cloth and leave 24 hours. Fresh pumpernickel is gummy and impossible to slice. After a day, cut it with a very sharp knife into 5 mm slices.
A day in a cloth, then thin slices
Before you start
Where the colour comes from
From long baking at low heat, helped by a little honey — with molasses the colour goes deeper still. Some shop-bought dark rye bread is coloured with caramel, which allows a shorter bake: the colour is there, but the flavour lacks the same depth.
What to eat it with
Smoked fish, herring, curd cheese, blue cheese and cured meats. It is very dense and filling, so slice it thin, 5 mm — thicker slices overwhelm anything you put on them.
How long it keeps
Wrapped in a cloth and foil, up to two weeks. The high moisture of the crumb and the acidity of the starter protect it from mould better than a wheat loaf.
Without a starter
Replace it with 20 g of fresh yeast, 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar, 100 g of rye flour and 100 ml of water. The acid is needed not for flavour but because it restrains the rye enzymes — without it they break the starch down too far and the crumb bakes gummy.
