Need to find a recipe for bread I saw in Germany

[jim_jimmers]

hi folks,

I was in Germany recently and had a bread i loved but could not find the name of. It was always a part of the hotel breakfast in the form of a roll. It had what looked like pistachios and/or pumpkin seeds in it. I saw this same bread all over Germany and unto the Czech Republic.

Anyone have any ideas?

[JasonTrue]

I can't imagine pistachio seeds, but there are a lot of pumpkin seed roll variations.

Kürbiskern-Brötchen would likely be the proper search term. It's often a whole wheat and rye base (probably 50-50 or so) blended with a sourdough culture of rye and ordinary yeast. Although it's possible to buy prepared sourdough in Germany, you can make the rye culture yourself much as you'd prepare a wheat sourdough, but it's typically not used for leavening as much as it is for relaxing the rye from the resulting acidity, and improving the flavor. Most German breads other than the cheap poppy seed refined wheat rolls are made with slow fermentation and relatively low yeast, if memory serves me correctly.

The peeled pumpkin seeds sold as "raw pepitas" are probably what you want to top the bread with.

Edited August 11, 2010 by JasonTrue (log)

[Snadra]

Interesting! I love the pumpkin seed rolls from Luneburger Bakery, but I was wondering about how common they were in Germany. I never saw them when I was there six years ago, but I was mostly north of Hamburg - maybe they're a southern thing? No matter, as they are certainly delicious.

[jim_jimmers]

Jason, that looks to be it. Thanks very much

[mhjoseph]

Check out Dan Leader's "Local Breads" and Jeffery Hammelman's "Bread". Both have German/Czech bread recipes of the type you're looking for although I don't recall any with pistachios. You could always substitute them for pumpkin or sunflower seeds.

Edited September 2, 2010 by mhjoseph (log)

[JasonTrue]

As for the regionality of this bread, I don't think it's particularly specific. I lived in Hessen, quite central, and the pumpkin seed bread was quite common. I'm pretty sure I saw similar items when visiting Hannover this year. I didn't really spend much time in the Southern part of Germany, other than short trips many years ago, so I'm not sure whether it would be more or less common there.

There are some shops that have more multigrain options than others, though.