March brings fun cooking ideas for St. Paddy’s Day and for other spring recipes. It’s been a busy week here with all the fun cooking ideas popping into my head. For St. Paddy’s Day I made some fresh Pumpernickel Bread with a recipe I found on the Spruce Eats. The plan was to have Reuben sandwiches with the leftover corned beef, but….that never happened because the leftover corned beef turned into hash for breakfast instead. So for now the beautiful loaf of bread is in the freezer waiting for the next corning of the beef adventure soon.
Pumpernickel with caraway is one of my favorite sandwich breads to have with hearty meats like corned beef and pastrami. It’s also great with smoked turkey, ham, tuna salad, well, you get the idea…just about any savory sandwich benefits from this hearty bread. If you have not tried making a rye or pumpernickel previously, it’s really not hard, and the results are well worth the effort for an inexpensive delicious artisan bread fresh from the oven!
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Before final rise -
Baked and ready to eat
Breads with wheats other than plain white bread or all purpose flour take longer to rise, so be allow plenty of time for rising and don’t try to rush the process. The wait is well worth it! If necessary start the dough the day prior so that it can proof overnight for the first rise or two before shaping. If it’s really hot in your house you can proof it covered overnight in the fridge, then bring it up to room temperature in the morning before trying to shape the bread. As you can see, I cut my bread after shaping before the final rise, then brushed it with egg wash before baking. The egg wash gives the crust a shiny, crispy texture. No more $7 a loaf artisan breads in our house when I can make these so easily at home!