Rheinbrot is a tasty bread made with an overnight sponge of Reisling, sourdough, flour and water. My version includes a portion of spelt and emmer in the final dough for additional flavor and color.
July is baker’s choice for the Bread Baking Babes which means we had the option to choose from any of the July breads featured over the past decade.
There are a few breads from the BBB archives that I haven’t made, but I decided to revisit a bread that I have made before, Rheinbrot.
Rheinbrot got it’s name from the fact that there is (Rhein) Riesling used in the bread dough. A wine widely associated by the Winzers located at the Rhein in Germany.
There are many great choices from the BBB archives, but the idea of a bread made with a crisp and light Reisling in the heat of the summer did it for me.
I made two versions of this bread this go around.
One weekend, I made this Rheinbrot but substituted home-milled spelt for the whole wheat flour. It was delicious! I gave half of it away, and the remaining half didn’t last very long.
The next weekend, I made the Rheinbrot again. However, this time, I scaled the formula to make a bigger loaf, used Sauvignon Blanc instead of Reisling, and substituted a mixture of home-milled spelt and emmer flours for the whole wheat flour.
I also tried my hand at stenciling a few birds on the loaf. I haven’t quite mastered the art of stenciling on bread yet. This one doesn’t have enough contrast. I had spritzed the loaf with water to remove some of the excess flour, but apparently it wasn’t enough. And, one of the birds got messed up when the scoring opened up. Oops!
This just means I need to keep making bread so I can practice stenciling. I’m okay with that!
To me, any way you make or score this bread, it’s delicious! You can use all white bread flour, but I recommend adding at least a portion of whole wheat flour to give it more depth of flavor and a lovely color.
Note: The first time I made this bread, I had a little trouble getting the bread out of the proofing basket. I used a lined proofing basket this time, and it made all of the difference!
- 72 grams sweet Riesling (or other white wine of your choice)
- 72 grams boiled water, at room temperature
- 143 grams white bread flour
- 72 grams sourdough at 100% hydration
- 207 grams white bread flour
- 95 grams whole grain spelt flour
- 55 grams whole grain emmer flour
- 190 - 225 grams water, divided
- 8 grams salt
- Mix wine with water and add the sourdough, whisk thoroughly. Add flour and mix again.
- The dough ferments at 2 stages:
- hours at a temperature 70-75°F, it should grow at least twice its size, will be lumpy looking at this stage and have larger and smaller bubbles.
- Pour the sponge in a bowl and whisk thoroughly to remove all the gas out of it and fill it with oxygen. Cover and let sit for 10-12 hours (overnight) at room temperature. Dough will rise again in half and very often shows smaller bubbles.
- Now the sponge is ready for kneading: pour in the water and stir until smooth. Add the flour, mix well and give the autolysis a chance to do it’s magic for 40-50 minutes. I added more water due to the whole grains, but depending on the type of flour used, you may not need additional water.
- Add the salt and quickly knead the dough, if it is too sticky add a little four, but be careful not to add too much. You may also need to add a little bit of water to dissolve the salt.
- Let ferment for 2-2.5 hours. Fold twice after 1 hour and 1½ hour.
- Form a loaf and let proof in a basket for 1½ hours (until doubled in size) covered with a towel in a draft free place.
- Preheat oven to 450°F with a baking stone on the middle rack.
- Gently flip the loaf over to a piece of parchment paper. Score the loaf in the pattern of your choice, add a stencil design if you like, and transfer it to your preheated baking stone.
- Spritz the loaf with water and bake at 450°F for 10 minutes. Spritz with water 2 more times at 30-second intervals, then lower the temperature to 400°F. and continue baking for an additional 20 minutes.
- Let the loaf cool down for at least half an hour before slicing and eating.
Kelly says
Gorgeous crumb! And I love the flavor emmer brings to bread. Beautiful loaves.
Cathy says
Thank you Kelly! I love the flavor of emmer as well.
Elizabeth says
What a good idea to make Rheinbrot again! Yours look gorgeous. And you are reminding me that I really should make it again too, or rather, make it for the first time. In 2013, I altered the recipe to use commercial yeast. It was delicious then, but I bet it’s even more delicious raised with sourdough!
I bet it’s even more delicious with home-milled grains!
I really like your idea of summarizing your thoughts about all the July breads – I hope you don’t mind if I steal your idea and edit my post to add something similar.
Cathy says
Thanks Elizabeth! The Rheinbrot is really really good with sourdough! Btw, I got the idea from Kelly to summarize each July bread. I thought it was a great idea as well.
Katie Zeller says
Gorgeous bread! And then there is that lovely leftover wine to go with it!
Cathy says
Indeed! Thanks Katie!