German Rye Bread (Vollkornbrot) – Whole Grain Loaf
★★★★★4.7· 29 ratings · by Vanessa Pur
Really dark brown bread as a wholemeal bread recipe with rye meal and sugar beet kraut or sugar beet syrup. Dark bread that is reminiscent of pumpernickel bread and requires a little more time due to the rising and baking phases, without being complicated.
🇩🇪🇺🇸One recipe, two kitchens — grams ⇄ cups, switch right in the card.
German rye bread is the loaf Americans usually mean when they say they miss “real bread” — dark, dense, deeply sour, and nothing like the soft deli rye sold in US supermarkets. Vollkornbrot is made with whole rye, keeps for the better part of a week, and is cut into slices thin enough to see through. This recipe walks you through it with ingredients you can source in the States. More staples under German recipes.
Time for a delicious dark wholemeal bread recipe with rye meal and sugar beet as special ingredients. The dark brown bread is reminiscent of pumpernickel bread in taste and is easy homemade in just a few simple steps. Although the bread needs a lot of time overall, it does not need any active time on the bread. For me, this is one of the delicious dark breads that I like to bake again and again.
pureFOOD.TV - Recipes & RestaurantsRecipe
Breads & Brioches · by Vanessa Pur
German Rye Bread (Vollkornbrot) – Whole Grain Loaf
Mix wholemeal spelt flour with rye meal and salt with a spoon.
Add the first part of buttermilk and sugar beet kraut and mix well.
Leave the mixture to swell for 4 hours. Start 240 minutes timer here
Add the remaining warm buttermilk and sugar beet kraut to the mixture with the yeast and knead for approx. 10 minutes. Start 10 minutes timer here
Then knead in the sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds and leave to rest in a warm place for approx. 1 hour. Start 60 minutes timer here
Pour the dough into a greased loaf tin and add some sunflower seeds to the bottom of the tin.
Place the bread in a cold oven and bake for 3 hours at 150 °C. Start 180 minutes timer here
Now reduce the temperature to 100 °C nd bake for a further 30 minutes. Start 30 minutes timer here
Turn the bread out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.
Nutrition per serving
147kcal
4 gFat
23 gCarbs
6 gProtein
5 gSugar
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Wholemeal bread recipe for dark brown bread
I grew up eating dark brown bread and grain bread and then ate the darker bread at the weekend during the week to balance out the sweet brioche. Dark bread is perfect for breakfast, although as a child I liked it with jam or chocolate cream, but it goes even better with cold cuts such as cheese and sausage for dinner. Today I prefer to eat the bread with cream cheese and boiled eggs as a topping.
We also had pumpernickel as bread from time to time, but as a child you needed more chocolate cream to be able to stand all the grains. Today it looks different and I will be happy to introduce you to a real pumpernickel recipe in the future. Today there is bread with a similar taste but a more pleasant texture.
Wholemeal bread with rye meal
Our dark bread recipe is first mixed with buttermilk, rye meal and sugar beet kraut with wholemeal spelt flour and left to soak for a few hours. This makes the rye meal soft. If you’ve never seen rye meal before, it looks like extremely coarse wholemeal flour, really coarse-grained. This is precisely why the waiting and swelling time is so extremely important in this wholemeal bread recipe.
The mixture will only become softer and more mushy after a few hours, making it easier to work with. In the end, the bread looks really good in terms of texture and not coarse-grained. You won’t feel the coarse flour in your mouth later either.
Dark bread recipe with sugar beet kraut
I’ve often heard that sugar beet kraut is added to really dark bread for the color. I’ve been wanting to try it for a while, but I didn’t necessarily expect to be immediately convinced by the bread recipe and present the wholemeal bread recipe with rye meal and sugar beet directly to you.
Sugar beet kraut may not be a household name for everyone. I was first introduced to it by my grandmother, who offered me bread with curd cheese and sugar beet kraut instead of my usual chocolate cream. At the time, I didn’t expect this combination to be edible at all, but it tasted really good.
Basically, sugar beet kraut or sugar beet syrup is a sticky molasses mass that is reminiscent of a mixture of honey and maple syrup. Sweet, sticky, viscous and still found today in the yellow cups of Grafschafter Goldsaft. However, I chose sugar beet kraut from the squeeze tube for my bread. However, sugar beet kraut is really more familiar to the older generations.
Best wholemeal bread recipe with rye meal
The bread is baked for three hours at just 150 degrees. This is precisely why the sugar beet kraut in the bread does not burn, but instead develops its particularly delicious taste. The bread is sweet, but healthy tasting. The wholemeal bread recipe reminds me of pumpernickel bread, which is baked without sugar beet kraut, but then for 16-24 hours at only 100 degrees.
I’ve fallen in love with this bread, even though it’s not something you can bake quickly. It also tastes delicious toasted and is therefore a little crispier. Freshly baked, only the crust is crispy and the bread itself is deliciously soft.
The long wait for the bread is worth it, but I will also bake my popular seeded bread recipe just as often. In the future I will also be happy to show you a super tasty wholemeal bread recipe without waiting times and without swelling or resting times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I find rye flour in the US?
Bob’s Red Mill dark rye and King Arthur pumpernickel flour are both widely stocked and work well. For true Vollkornbrot you want whole-grain rye, sometimes labeled dark rye or pumpernickel flour — not the light or medium rye used for deli bread. Cracked rye or rye chops for the grain portion are available from specialty mills and online.
Do I need a sourdough starter?
For authentic flavor and structure, yes — rye has very little gluten, so it relies on acidity rather than gluten development to hold its shape and stay fresh. If you do not keep a starter, you can approximate it by adding buttermilk or a little citric acid to a yeasted dough. The texture will be close; the depth of flavor will be milder.
Why is my rye bread so dense and sticky?
That is largely correct for the style — Vollkornbrot is meant to be dense and moist, not airy. Sticky dough is normal with rye and does not mean you need more flour; wet your hands rather than adding flour. The one genuine mistake is cutting it too early: let the loaf rest at least 24 hours after baking before slicing, or the crumb will smear.
More bread to bake: German Pretzel Rolls (Laugenbrötchen) and Wholemeal Spelt Bread.
I have been baking and cooking for my family and community for years — honest recipes, all tested in my own kitchen and explained step by step so they turn out reliably for you too.
Really delicious and even better than I expected. I was skeptical at first because of the beet syrup… but it tastes really good. Truly like good old pumpernickel. Though I like this bread even better. I froze it and toast up two fresh slices every morning. It lasts you a good while and tastes great as toast too. Even better fresh…
4
MMyGermanBakeryTeam2 years ago
Dear Sabine,
yes, I knew that skeptical feeling too when I first bought the jar, but the flavor is spot on and it really does remind you of pumpernickel bread.
I’ve done the toasting trick a bunch of times as well — it’s always fresh that way, and so nice and warm.
Best,
Vanessa
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Comments 2
Really delicious and even better than I expected. I was skeptical at first because of the beet syrup… but it tastes really good. Truly like good old pumpernickel. Though I like this bread even better. I froze it and toast up two fresh slices every morning. It lasts you a good while and tastes great as toast too. Even better fresh…
Dear Sabine,
yes, I knew that skeptical feeling too when I first bought the jar, but the flavor is spot on and it really does remind you of pumpernickel bread.
I’ve done the toasting trick a bunch of times as well — it’s always fresh that way, and so nice and warm.
Best,
Vanessa