Senfbrot - German Mustard Bread

The recipe for this Senfbrot, or German Mustard Bread, was discovered by my friend David of Hearth Baked Tunes on a German bakers association website, in German of course, and proportioned for commercial bakers.


Not quite ready to make 48 loaves in a single day, David enlisted another of my breadhead friends, Karin of Brot and Bread, to translate and scale down the formula for the home baker. Thank you David and Karin! You should also check out my friend Cathy of Bread Experience's take on this bread. She used spelt and an overnight refrigeration for the dough.

This bread is unusual in that it contains mustard in the dough, and is also coated with mustard before baking. David says to play with the ingredients, so I used a whole seed Dijon mustard in the dough and yellow mustard for the coating. 

The bread is also filled with cheese chunks. While the original recipe calls for aged Gouda, I used Gruyere, since I love the way that it melts, plus I had some on hand. Cheddar would also be wonderful in this bread. 

This bread is delicious, and smells amazing while it is baking. I slashed my loaves, but in hindsight, that is probably not necessary, considering the wetness of the dough. 

David coated his bread with sunflower seeds, and Karin coated hers with pumpkin seeds. I decided to use a mixture of sunflower, poppy, sesame, anise, and flax seeds. 

You'd never know that this bread includes mustard. You'll just know that this bread is amazingly delicious. 

This bread makes the best grilled cheese. The best. 

Senfbrot - German Mustard Bread

Makes two loaves

Ingredients

Preferment

140 g bread flour

85 g water

1 g (1/4 tsp) instant yeast

2 g salt

Soaker

105 g cracked wheat or coarse wheat flour

70 g rye chops or coarsely ground dark rye flour

135 g water

3 g salt

Final Dough

All of the above

415 g water

550 g bread flour

15 g yeast

16 g salt

66 g mustard of your choice

130 g cheese of your choice in chunks

Mustard for spreading on the loaves

Sunflower, pumpkin, or mixed seeds for sprinkling on the loaves

Instructions

1. The night before baking the bread, mix the preferment and the soaker in two separate bowls. Cover each bowl with plastic wrap. Let them sit at room temperature for about 12 hours. 
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the final dough ingredients for about 6 to 8 minutes. 
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it sit for 30 minutes. Do three stretch and folds from all four "sides" of the dough, 30 minutes apart. After the final stretch and fold, let the dough rise for 30 minutes. 
4. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces, and shape them into two balls. Cover with oiled plastic wrap for 15 minutes. Do a final shaping and place the two loaves into floured brotforms, seam side up. Cover with oiled plastic wrap.
5. Let the bread rise for about 70 minutes. Preheat the oven to 470 degrees F with a pizza stone.
6. Turn the loaves out onto a parchment lined peel.
7. Heavily smear the risen loaves with mustard, and sprinkle with the seeds of your choice. Transfer the loaves onto the pizza stone and spray the oven walls with water. 
8. Bake for 15 minutes with steam or in a covered Dutch oven, and then reduce the oven temperature to 410 degrees F. Remove the covers from the Dutch ovens if using, and bake for another 25 minutes. The interior temperature of the bread should be around 200 degrees F.
9. Cool on a wire rack.