Yes, I have officially made the bread with the coolest name. This bread is begun the day before baking with a rye starter composed of sourdough barm, pumpernickel-grind rye flour, and water. The barm acidifies the rye flour, activating enzymes for flavor and improving digestibility. My starter fermented at room temperature for almost six hours and then went in the refrigerator overnight. The next day I combined it with the remaining ingredients to form the dough. Pumpernickel bread has a couple of unique ingredients. One is cocoa powder, which is added for color but also affects the flavor. The other is rye bread crumbs. Since we didn't particularly care for the 100% sourdough rye bread, I have a good supply of rye bread crumbs in my freezer that fit the bill. After mixing and briefly kneading my dough (briefly since rye doughs become gummy with too much kneading), I left it to rise for two hours. I then divided it in two and shaped and panned my loaves. I'm not actually sure how long they proofed, although I am sure it was much longer than they were supposed to. I baked them as instructed and didn't notice any ill effects of the extended proofing.
We enjoyed this bread. I think it is my favorite rye, although we did like the New York Deli Rye as well. How much we enjoyed this bread may be due to the way we enjoyed it - if you're going to bake pumpernickel bread, how can you not make Reubens? Yum!
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