Black Bread Recipe

By Gothelp

Ingredients

• 400 ml warm water (105

Details

Servings 1
Preparation time 245mins
Cooking time 290mins
Adapted from 101cookbooks.com

Preparation

Step 1

. I use Dan's ingredient list and the method of bread-making I learned as a kid. Pretty much - mix, rise, punch, rise, bake.

This recipe calls for carrots, which add nice flecks of color, but you can do a potato version as well. Also, I use molasses here, but a lot of you (particularly outside the U.S.) tend to ask me for alternatives - black treacle, or honey will also work. Honey will give you a lighter bread though. For those of you skittish about yeast doughs, I tend to let my dough rise on top of my stove when then oven is on, but a sunny spot usually works nicely too.

In a small bowl whisk the yeast with 1 1/3 cups / 320 ml of the warm water and sugar, and set aside until foamy. If the yeast doesn't activate, try again.

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the cocoa, coffee, molasses, caraway, butter, and salt. Stir constantly until just melted. You want the mixture to be lukewarm when you add it to the other of the ingredients.

Combine the yeast mixture with the grated carrot and molasses mixture in a large mixing bowl. Add the flours, and stir until you've got a soft, tacky, cohesive dough. If you'r dough is too dry, add more of the warm water a bit at a time. Alternately, if your dough is a bit too wet, and you need to add a bit more flour, do so. Turn the dough out onto your counter and knead for about 5 minutes, or until the dough is elastic and springy. Note: you can do this step using the dough hook on your mixer.

Shape the dough into a ball, rub with a bit of olive oil, and place seam-side down into an oiled bowl. Cover and allow to rise in a warm, cozy place for 1- 2 hours or until the dough increases in size by at least half. At this point, gently press down, with a closed fist, across the surface of the dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter, and coerce into a pleasant-shaped round. Place directly on a very lightly oiled baking sheet, then cover loosely with a floured tea cloth or plastic wrap. Allow to rise in a warm place until nearly doubled in size, another hour. Uncover, brush gently with buttermilk, sprinkle with a dusting of flour, ~1 teaspoon caraway seeds, and use a serrated knife to slash an 'X' deeply across the dough (do your best not to deflate the loaf). Bake for 20 minutes at 425F / 220C. Dial back the heat to 350F / 180C, and bake for another 20-25 minutes, or until the loaf develops a structured, toasted-bottomed crust, and the loaf sounds a bit hollow when you knock on it. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 15 minutes on a rack before slicing into.

Make one extra-large loaf.

The bread you should make right this minute - yeast-based, farm-style, made from rolled oats and a blend of all-purpose and whole wheat flours.

A rustic oat soda bread you can make in less than an hour. Seriously. Made from a simple ingredient list of rolled oats, flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk.

I have just recently got into bread making and it's amazing!! Nothing like home-made fresh bread... I like the addition of caraway seeds to. I recently had bread with it on the outside and it was so delicious.

Absolutely Beautiful - I love the rye, carrots and molasses. And just the sound of dill butter makes me melt. Love everything about this.

LOVE that this bread has caraway seeds! I will definitely be eating it with goat cheese when I make it, and I'll be using it to make croutons just a few days later!

I live in Paris, the capitol of (boring, sorry) white bread. Every recipe for rhy bread has me drooling all over the keyboard. I will definitely try this, just two short questions: cocoa and coffee are mainly for adding colour? Can't say why but I'm hesitant about using cocoa in a bread.

This looks great!!! Could you use whole wheat flour in place of the AP flour? (I've got a bunch I'm looking to use up.)

sounds perfect for winter weekend baking! what setting (speed) would you use if using the dough hook on your mixer for the kneading?

HS: Hi Jen - no 3 teaspoons is correct. But if you like more, you can certainly up the amount in future loaves. Or add other types of seeds.

I will be trying it soon since I'm in a serious baking mode these days. I will be adding honey though, there is no way I can find molasses where I live.

I have been obsessed with black cocoa for the last several years. I'm thisclose to making this (I'd have to turn the heat on in my loft though HA!) and using the black cocao to make this black bread even that much more black. Any objections from those who are better bread bakers than I?

I'm not a big bread eater but might make an exception for this one: sounds unbelievable!

me and my dad used to make black bread on the weekend with walnuts and raisins. this looks delish. can't wait to try this version.

I bought some rye flour several months ago with the plan to make some black bread. Just discovered it in the back of the fridge the other day... your loaf has re-inspired me!

This is the bread I have been waiting for. It looks like it belongs in a rustic bakery. I am going to make it and pair it with my kale and cranberry salad. The heartiness of the bread paired with the crisp greens to me is the perfect weekday lunch.

Wow. This looks wonderful. Any idea how one might work in a wild yeast starter in place of the active dry yeast?

I woke up wanting to make a loaf of bread and this looks perfect! I've got everything and I can't wait to give it a try. Thanks, Heidi!

P.S. @ Erin. You need some white flour for the gluten. Or you can use all whole grain flours and add pure gluten -- otherwise your bread won't rise. @ everybody: we often utilize our clothes dryer as a rising chamber because we have a cold kitchen. Turn the empty dryer on for a few minutes, then turn it off and set the bread to rise.

I've been making Deb's recipe for Black Bread lately, and with 17 ingredients it can be hard to make when I'm in a hurry to get the dough together. I'm excited to try your recipe. I can always combine the two...her recipe is carrot free and I think that's a marvelous addition.

heather @ chiknpastry

Lovely! I enjoy the earthy sweetness that carrots add to bread--been using them in cornbread for years. Feeling inspired to make a cumin-infused carrot soup to go with this. Thanks!

HS: Thanks Robin, you should add the ground up beans. Will tweak the wording to be more clear.

Can't wait to get in the kitchen and try this one!! I have made your "easy little bread recipe" many times. Different variations...with walnuts....olives...jalapeño. It's like the little black dress of bread making. Easy to dress it up. :-) thanks once again heidi for your inspiring recipes.

i doubt i can pawn this off on my kids, but HOO boy, may just have to make a loaf all my own!

I have never made bread from scratch and I'm still not ready to, but what made me smile was your mixing it in a pretty old looking blue and white bowl.

i think this looks scrumptious and plan to make it tomorrow for a get-together. however, i need one clarification: is the espresso meant to be brewed (liquid) or just the fine ground coffee (powder). many thanks!

Oh my goodness, this looks and sounds like heaven. Rye bread has now surpassed wheat as the better bread to eat. I think if I make this, my New Years resolutions will go right out the window. I promised to cut back on bread, but I think I would eat the whole loaf...2 days into croutons...can it possible last that long as good as it looks?

What a lovely and tempting loaf! I bet fresh out of the oven with butter makes this bread heaven :)

beautiful shots, heidi. you captured the rustic-ness of the bread perfectly. (and you make me wish i could eat gluten!)

I'm going to make this as soon as my oven is working again!

Oh WOW!!! I am leaving right now to go get rye flour...there is no way i can wait another second to try this!!! That just sounds AMAZING!!! Do you think wheat flour instead of bread flour will work? Wonder if it will make it too dense? Maybe I'll try it both ways and let you know :)

Looks delicious. A great bread to start the new year. Must make it along with a soup soon!

Would love to make this with the lovely organic rye flour someone just bequeathed to me ... but I can't do the coffee (husband allergic). What will it be like without it? Is there something else I should add? Anyone in the same boat?

If I wanted to make this bread vegan, would it be better to substitute the butter in the dough for Earth Balance or oil? And would it be a 1:1 substitution?

Just finished making this recipe - thank you so much, Heidi, for the inspiration! My only trouble with it was that it didn't quite hold its shape, and flattened out a bit while in the oven. I substituted whole wheat flour for all-purpose - could that be the problem? Delightful regardless!

Perfect timing! Just the other day I was looking for a good recipe for nice, dark black bread but couldn't find one that I liked. I can't wait to make this!

I just pulled this out of the oven 2 minutes ago :) Thanks for the recipe! I followed the recipe except for the flours... unfortunately I didn't have rye flour or unbleached a.p. flour. I used some whole wheat flour (which I milled myself - more on this in a sec) and a combination of bread flour and regular all purpose flour because I ran out of bread flour! The 400mL of water ended up being far, far too much - I should have known better than to add it all from the beginning, I usually start with half! Anyway, I believe the flours I used (esp the hand-ground flour?) require a lot less moisture. I ended up having to add in twice as much all purpose flour, ending up with a frighteningly enormous loaf! Next time I will start with 200mL water and add in as needed.

Just lovely! Heading out to pick up the ingredients now! One question...could I use instant espresso powder in place of the finely ground espresso beans? Are they the same thing? Would I use the same amount? Thanks so much!

I was just posting about your latest cookbook and came to get the link to your blog ... and ooooh... I am going to make this TODAY. It is freezing cold outside and we will be having soup later on - not enough of a meal on it's own, but with this black bread - winter perfection. Thanks for posting such doable recipes. Carolina

I saw this recipe yesterday and couldn't wait to make it! My husband and I visited Poland and Russia in September and had so many variations of delicious brown breads. This one was great! I loved the molasses and caraway. I used instant coffee I had on hand instead of grinding espresso beans (maybe i would've had an even stronger coffee flavor if i had). But nonetheless it came out terrific - chewy on the outside and a light crumb interior! It is a huge loaf - could definitely make 2 - but will certainly make again.

I made this bread yesterday just as written, with the exception that I used whey (left over from making paneer) in place of the water. It is wonderful! Used the dill butter on it with soup for dinner; toasted it for breakfast. It's more moist than dense, which was a pleasant surprise. Flavor, texture, the whole shebang is just great. Do make it!

Yum. Sounds awesome. I was just saying that I wanted to make some dark rye bread to go with some homemade gravlax. I am going to make this tonight.

dear heidi, this looks great - do you think it would work with a little less yeast, and then rising in a cool space overnight? i make most of my breads this way, but they are not as complex (or swee) as this one. thanks!

That looks fantastic - so wonderfully dark. I Love the addition of carrot as well...

Modified the recipe to ,make a 2lb loaf in my bread machine. Biggest change was to reduce the white flour to 2 & 2/3 C, for a total of 4 C flour between the white and Rye. The only other change I made, and this was a matter of personal preference, I used milk in lieu of water.

I made this last night, with a few changes... I subbed 1 cup of white whole wheat flour for AP, and added some chopped pickled jalapenos! It was wonderful!

I'm addicted to this bread now. Thank you, thank you!

Hi Hiedi - Thank you for yet another wonderful recipe. You have a talent for picking out fabulous recipes to share, as well as writing them yourself! I have a question for you. I live in southern Virginia, which is very very humid. I don't know if that's the reason why I have a hard time shaping dough. To me, my dough is always extremely tacky. I have a hard time kneading and shaping. Both by hand and in the mixer. I just made this bread and it's on the first rise. It is sticky as all get out. I didn't want to keep adding flour because I didn't want to make it more and more dense - I did end up adding about 1/2 cup more though to make it barely more pliable. Do you have any suggestions for this issue? Thanks again for such a wonderful blog. I love making your recipes.

I just made this, and after I added the flour it seemed really sticky and more batter like than dough like, so I added maybe another cup and a half of flour until it was more manageable. Even then, after I shaped in into a round and let it rise on the pan, it spread out quite a bit. Out of the oven, the flavor is amazing but it's pretty dense. Do you think I should have let it rise longer (I did 1.5 hrs + 1hr)? 400 ml seemed like a lot of water - is that correct?

HS: Hi Melissa - I consistently use 400 ml here, but it could be my flour/environment. i think what I'll do is tweak the recipe to call for 320 ml to start. And then have people hold on to that extra 1/3 cup / 80 ml to add to the mixing portion later (if needed).

This reminds me of the rye bread my grandparents used to eat when we were little. We called it chocolate bread and I thought it was divine! I'm so going to have to make some of this to relive those memories.

Delicious! I subbed 1/2 white whole wheat flour for the AP/bread flour and it worked wonderfully - dense but not heavy. Yum!

Thanks for this recipe for black bread. It sounds like a wonderful addition to most meals.

I love the addition of carrots and cocoa.

I make a fair amount of bread, but this will become one of my all time favourite recipes. It is absolutely delicious and moist. I baked mine on a pizza stone. Thanks Heidi for another great recipe.

I made this on Saturday and it's a great pumpernickle variation. I'll make it again, with a few minor tweaks (as I don't love the taste of coffee, I'll probably cut back to 1 T).

Bread for the hood. Just took it out of the oven. Delish. Huge too. My 2 1/2 year old had the most fun punching down the dough. What he 'makes'; he'll eat...and this is good eating! We could eat the whole loaf...going to share. Stuff this good is meant to...thanks so much for working hard to make a dummy-proof loaf! So going to try making these into dinner rolls...oh such fun! Me later tonight, "What honey? You want more than bread for dinner?!"

Okay okay...update. So we ate it with cream of cauliflower soup (made with the steaming water and evaporated milk) with a dill butter. (The dill butter could be put on the bread or swirled in the soup with bread dunked.) Everyone who has tried the bread loves it! Would it be too soon to make another loaf tomorrow?

I used to have blackstrap molasses, but it seems to have walked off somewhere. I'll try it with barley malt syrup, then maybe I'll buy the molasses and make it with that. can never have too much bread.

This bread really surprised me. The molasses, coffee and cocoa really come out in the flavor, which is very complex. The carrots also make it incredibly moist for a brown bread. Its subtle sweetness makes it hard to say whether its better in the morning with coffee, or alongside a bowl of vege soup for dinner.

Heidi this bread is delicious! Even though yeast isn´t my best friend, the bread turn out great, fragrant and fluffy. Everybody at home love it. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

Would carob work in place of cocoa? My poor mother can't eat chocolate! Also, do you think I could use a gluten free bread flour mix instead of AP flour or would it just be a flop? Thanks.

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