The Fresh Loaf

News & Information for Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts

Roggenbauer (German Farmer's Rye)

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proth5's picture

Roggenbauer (German Farmer's Rye)



First the method:





Mix time:

Spiral Mixer 1-2mins

Planetary mixer - 6 mins


(First speeds all)

Final proof

Temp 86-95F

Humidity - 70-75%

Time - 50 - 60 minutes




Time 60 mins.



3 Build (Called Detmolder 3 phase)

Freshening Build

0.040 kg rye starter

0.080 kg Whole rye flour

0.120 l water

Ripening temperature: 77-79F

Ripening Time 5-6 hours

After ripening, remove 0.040kg to perpetuate the rye starter


2nd build

All of the freshening sour

1.000 kg whole rye flour

0.600 l water

Ripening Temperature - 75-80F

Ripening Time 15-25 hours

3rd build

All of the second build

2.700 kg Whole Rye

2.700 l water

Ripening temperature - 86F

Ripening time 3 hours

Final Dough

All of the sour

5.2200 kg Whole Rye flour


0.080 kg fresh yeast (optional)

0.180 kg Salt

3.589 l water



Two stage rye (called Detmolder two stage)

First Sour

0.100 kg rye starter

1.600 kg Whole Rye

0.800 l water

Ripening Temperature - 75-80F



Second sour

All of the first sour

2.400 kg Whole rye

2.400 l water

Ripening temperature 84-87F

Ripening time 3 hours


Final Dough

All of the sour

5.000 kg whole rye flour



0.180 kg salt

3.800 l water







LindyD's picture

Sounds quite hearty....but given it's name, it would have to be.  Farmers work hard and need solid nourishment.

Love sour rye (sans caraway) so will have to give this a try when summer wanes and it's time to start stacking the winter wood supply.  Wonder how it would work out in a Reuben.


proth5's picture

lighter than one might think.  It's on my list, too.  If the hot weather ever moves out of the Rockies...

I'm going to give it a go with home milled - if I can ever get this working for a living thing straightened out :>)


hanseata's picture

is a medium wheat, whole wheat four with some bran removed, it's not a white flour (like Typ 550). It is very commonly used in rye/wheat mixed breads, but unfortunately not available in the US.

"Bauernbrot" or any other German bread name that has "Bauer" (=farmer) in it, is just a generic term for a rustic rye/wheat mixed bread (Mischbrot). Roggenbauer (=rye farmer) is such a descriptive name, probably indicating that there's a lot of rye in it.



proth5's picture

I got the "bauer" part correct - just had an addled memory about the actual title of the bread.  I really thought it was "Bauernbrot" - when it wasn't.

High extraction is commercially available in the US (from a company who is based in Vermont) - but in larger quanitites (50 lbs - probably more to get it delivered) than most home bakers would like.  In the particular breads that I cite, there really is little reason for a US based baker to seek out this more expensive (and difficult to obtain) flour.  There is plently of flavor from the sours and the whole rye. (But I thought you might chime in on the substitution.)

The 90% rye content of both these formulas legally make them "rye" breads in Germany - although they are in fact mixed.

What does puzzle me on your pages defining German flours is your description of Type 1050 - you equate the high extraction with "First Clear."  I know we've had some "more heat than light" discussions on this distinction, but I've been doing a lot of research on flour milling (ref - Hibbs and Posner - "Wheat Flour Milling") and I can't quite reach the conclusion that they are the same. High extraction is as you said - "clear" flours are milled from the outer part of the endosperm, which results in a higher ash content, but they are very different from High extraction.  Does the elevated ash content of a first clear make it a type 1050 (although that seems a bit difficult to believe) - and if so, how would one distinguish between the two in practice?

Thanks, again.


hanseata's picture

You are right, Pat, it is not the same.

I read several comments and descriptions about high extraction vs. first clear flours, and couldn't find a comprehensive conclusion (maybe I didn't look at the right sources). Sometimes it was listed as being the same, sometimes not. Any case, neither is the same as 1050.

For European bakers the distinction between first clear and high extraction is quite difficult. I would be very thankful for your input to present readers a simple explanation or substitution - that's what I was aiming at in my blog post.

I agree with you. In many formulas, it doesn't make much difference whether you use 1050 or a mixture of bread flour and whole wheat. 80% bread flour plus 20% whole wheat works pretty well.

With German rye types 1150 or 1370 it is a different matter. If you don't find medium rye in the US, there is no way to mix flours to substitute those (I tried everything, until I, finally, could purchase medium rye in bulk from a supplier in Utah.)








proth5's picture

extends mostly to US milling practices - I've not got the German language skills to read German milling documents and well, there are only so many hours in a day and lately a lot mine have been spoken for.

With roller mills (which are the primary method to mill in the US) the rolls are set so that very small increments of the whole wheat berry can be milled off in a "stream" from the mill.  First removed are the bran and germ, The a layer is milled that is closest to the outside of the endosperm.  This results in "Clear" or even "low grade" flour.  The protien content is higher, but of lower quality (meaning its performance in baking.)  Because of its higher ash content it is sometimes greyish in color. It is often called out in in recipes for rye breads beacuse the color of the rye will hide this darker color. Clear flour does not include bran - although it comes from the part of the wheat berry that is very close to the bran.

As one moves to the inner part of the endosperm, the flour gets whiter (ash content drops) and although the absolute protien content is lower, it is of higher quality for baking.  This is called patent flour and pretty much every bag of white flour one gets in the US is patent flour.

These streams can then be combined in various combinations - "all" streams (well, maybe except for the germ) for "whole wheat" flour and the clear and patent streams for "straight" flour.

I am told (by a source I tend to trust) that in France, "white" flour is, by law, straight flour. But I do not currently have the data to back that up.

Anyway, if only part of the bran was added back in to the mix (along with the clear and patent flours), one would get high extraction flour from the roller mill.

In stone milling, the whole grain is ground and even though we have clever milling practices to mill off parts of the bran, it is by no means as efficient or controllable as roller milling.  The germ gets milled into the flour and can't be sifted out.  By sifting out part of the bran either during or after the milling process, we obtain high extraction flour.  Clear flour can't really be sifted out because the particle size isn't different enough - whatever remains, even though we sift our little hearts out is straight flour + germ.

I consider it a kind of personal challenge now to mill medium rye because although I find that rye milling is somewhat different from wheat milling there has got to be a way to imitate the milling process that produces medium rye from the roller mill.  Just when I will rise to this challenge - well, TBD.  But if I have the proper specs I can attempt to achieve...

Hope this helps.  Again, I don't know the differences in other countires, but that is what Iunderstand from my research.

Again, though, I wouldn't even bother to try to simulate high extraction flour in the formulas above unless I was trying to be ultra authentic.  The white flour is a mere 10%  and the flavors from the rye and the sours are quite sufficient.


breadsong's picture

Hi Pat,
Thank you for looking up this formula in your German baking manual and posting it; I have never made a Detmolder rye and this is a reminder to try.
:^) breadsong