I've never seen this bread for sale in US grocery stores so this past weekend, I finally got around to looking for a recipe for the stuff to make it myself. There are numerous recipes for Russian Black Bread out there but they all seem to be variations (if not outright copies) of two basic recipes. So I took ingredients and methods from the two recipes and combined them into my own customized version.
My first attempt at the bread wasn't successful...I've never made bread before and seeing as it was cold at the time, the dough didn't rise properly and the resulting loaf was more baked dough than baked bread. But I learned by my mistakes and the second loaf turned out much better! I was a little worried that maybe this loaf didn't rise enough but from searching around the internet for other pictures of black bread, what I baked looked just like what everyone else was baking.
Here's the final result:
Here's the recipe I finally used:
kman's Russian Black Bread recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 to 2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups rye flour
1 pkg dry yeast
1 tbsp instant coffee crystals
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tbsp salt
1 1/4 cup water 2 tbsp dark corn syrup
2 tbsp margarine or butter
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp vinegar
1/4 c. cold water
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup rye
1 pkg yeast (already activated for 10 minutes in warm water)
1 tbsp instant coffee crystals
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tbsp salt
- 1 1/4 cups water
2 tbsp dark corn syrup
2 tbsp margarine or butter
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp vinegar
- Scrape and beat 3 minutes on high.
- Stir remaining 1 1/2 cups of rye and as much of the remaining all purpose flour as you can mix with a spoon.
- Turn out on floured board and knead to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (will be slightly sticky due to rye flour).
- Shape into ball, place in greased bowl, cover with damp cloth, let rise double (1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours).
- Punch down.
- Place in greased 8-inch round cake pan.
- Cover, let rise double (about 1 hour).
- Bake at 375 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.
- Combine 1/4 cup cold water and cornstarch. Cook until thick. Brush over bread during last 3-4 minutes of baking.
- Cool on rack. Makes 1 loaf.
Notes: The dough won’t rise as much as you might expect. The second rise won’t so much double in height as it will spread out in the pan. The resulting bread will be very dense…but tasty!
Recipe variations:
Some recipes call for 1 tbsp caraway seed and 1/2 tsp fennel seed (crushed).
Some recipes suggest adding 1 cup of whole bran cereal.
You can substitute molasses for the dark corn syrup.
