Desert or Dessert

the monthly event for passionate and to-be bread bakers”  is what I read on Zorra's "1x umrühren bitte" (stir it 1x please) blog.

Hmh, is she talking to me? I am passionate (just ask my family) and I am a “getting there” bread baker.

Now that we got that out of the way I think she is indeed talking to me.

A quick read into the rules “Make sure you got the monthly bbd theme, post your recipe by the specified deadline and email the host with a link to your entry.” has me looking for this month theme.

This month theme is hosted by Cathy from The Bread Experience.

Cathy is also baking in the HBin5 challenge where I first read about Bread baking Day. On Cathy’s webpage I found what I was looking for.

Bread in Pots is the theme.

How perfect is that? I can’t garden this spring. We will be moving back to the states in June and we have to return the garden back to it’s original state (Grass).
With Spring finally here I miss that part of Year when the Garden comes to live and I get down and dirty.

I so enjoy the sound of this challenge.

Another thing I will miss in just a couple of month is canning my strawberries, rhubarb and cherries. Canning is another one of those things I enjoy doing.

The rules for this month challenge stated that any type of pot could be used.“Any kind of pot will do: flower pots, ceramic pots/bakers, clay pots, baking tins, casserole dishes, Dutch ovens, etc.  If you have a pot or tin and can bake bread in it, then go for it!”

I got thinking, why not combine two of my passions (canning and baking) for this challenge.

My pot will be a .5l Weck canning jar and yes, I preserved the bread I baked in it!I found the original recipe here and changed it just a little.

It turned out great. I will be making this bread again many times in the future.

If you are a camper or live in an area where power outages are normal during cold weather or simply enjoy a filled pantry you might want to preserve some of this bread yourself to have on hand.

BBD # 29
Schwarzbrot im Glas (Pumpernickel style bread in a jar)

Ingredients:

.5l Buttermilk (about 2 cups)
4.5 tsp instant yeast (2 packets)
100g Molasses (dark syrup)

250g Coarse Rye Meal - coarsest granulation
250g Coarse Whole Wheat Meal
125g Medium coarse Whole Wheat Meal
125g All purpose or spelt  flour
100g Quark (farmers cheese, strained yogurt, sour cream)
150g Sunflower seeds (I leave those out, soak them prior to using to plump them up)
  50g Sesame seeds
  50g crushed flax seed
2 tsp salt

For this recipe I used some rye and red wheat and  ground it using a mill to my liking.

For the coarse meals I set it to the coarsest setting and for the medium (see picture) i set it half way in between fine and coarse.

If you don’t have a mill use a kitchen machine and just pulse it a few time until the kernels have broken up some. This bread would be great with even some of the kernels left whole and just soaked prior to making the dough.

I warmed up the buttermilk a little and added the molasses to solve it.
Mix all the dry ingredients together and mix with the buttermilk/molasses mixture.

Knead it for about 5 minutes. Use more buttermilk if needed or if you grind your own meal. You will end up with a stiff but tacky dough.

                                Cover and let the dough rest for 60 minutes

Butter your jars and fill them half (up to 2/3) with batter.
I divided the dough into 5 pieces, and formed each into a round, placed it into the jar and pressed just a little. 

 
The recipe talked about baking them with closed lids but at 150C I feel this would create some gooey rubber after the bake (If you are using metal lids with rubber gaskets you might want to give it a try and close them right away, fixing them with a metal band). I baked my jars at 150C (300F) for 90 minutes. I will reduce that to 70 minutes next time. Depending on the size of your jar this might be longer or shorter. The original recipe mentioned 2.5 hours but they did have the lids closed.  
  
As soon as you remove the jars from the oven top them with your lids and close them (I left my rubber caskets in a pot of hot water). If you are using American style jars place your metal lid on the jar now and fix with a metal band.
As the jars cool down a vacuum is created sealing the jars. I made some cakes last fall using this method and they are still good to eat and sealed perfectly.


Jars
I used 5x half liter Weck jars. The recipe talked about 2x 1.5 liter jars so if you have some you could use those too. For US bakers that would be 3x quart jars.