Russian Black Bread

Name: Russian Black Bread (Чёрный хлеб)
Yield: 2 Loaves
Cuisine: Russia
Ingredients: ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon water; 2½ cups dark rye flour; 2 tablespoons honey; 2 packages active dry yeast; 1 tablespoon instant coffee; 1 square (1 ounce) unsweetened chocolate; 2 cups flat beer; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 cup dark rye flour; 1 cup flat beer; 2 teaspoons crushed whole coriander seed; 1½ tablespoons salt; Cornmeal; 1 teaspoon cornstarch; 2½ to 3½ cups bread flour; 1½ cups bran flakes (not bran cereal)

Чёрный хлеб

Preparation info

2
Loaves

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

A Taste of Russia

By Darra Goldstein

Published 1983

About

In prerevolutionary days, the best black bread in Russia was baked at Filippov’s bakery on Moscow’s Tverskoi Boulevard. Filippov claimed that his secret lay in the flour he used. He shipped his grains in from Tambov Province, then ground them in his own mills before sieving to eliminate all the chaff. Filippov’s loaves were so good that a shipment was sent daily to the royal court in St. Petersburg—and this before the advent of railways!

Today, there is still great bread in Moscow.