Pumpernickel Bread With Sourdough Starter

THE BREAD DOUGH
1 1/3 c The starter
1/3 c Nonfat dry milk
2 1/2 c Warm water
3 c White flour; preferably
-unbleached, (up to 3-1/2)
2 c Pumpernickel flour*; (up to
-2-1/4)
1 tb Active dry yeast
4 ts Salt
3/4 c Stone-ground corn meal
2 tb Molasses
3/4 c Toasted rye bread crumbs or
-wheat germ
Corn meal; (for round
-loaves)

-GLAZE-
1 tb Molasses mixed with 1 tsp
-water

Mix all ingredients for the starter together in a medium-size bowl, beating
into a smooth batter. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place,
such as on top of the stove near a pilot light or close to a radiator. The
starter will rise and bubble up, then sink back. It is ready to use after
24 hours. To keep: put in a screwtop jar – 1-quart size or larger, if you
want to keep adding to it – and refrigerate. About every five days feed
your starter 1/2 cup flour (3 parts white to 1 part rye) and 1/2 cup water
mixed with 2 tablespoons dry milk. Leave, covered, in a warm place until it
bubbles up again, then use what you want of it to make bread; return the
rest – or all of it, if not using immediately – to the refrigerator.

The bread dough: Make a sponge first by mixing 1 1/3 cups of the starter,
the dry milk, 1 1/2 cups warm water, 1 cup of the white flour, and 1 cup of
the pumpernickel flour. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place
2-3 hours.

In a large bowl dissolve the yeast in the remaining cup of warm water. Stir
in the sponge, salt, corn meal, molasses, the bread crumbs, and the
remaining flours, holding back about 3/4 cup of the white flour. Turn the
dough out on a floured working surface after it becomes too stiff to stir
and let rest while you clean out the bowl. Knead the dough, adding more
flour as necessary. The dough will be very sticky. After 10 minutes
kneading, return the dough to the cleaned ungreased bowl, cover, and let
rise until double in volume – about 2 hours.

Punch down the dough, knead briefly in the bowl, cover, and let rise again
until double in volume – about 1 1/2 hours.

Turn the dough out and divide in half. Either shape into 2 loaves to go
into two greased 9-inch bread pans or make 2 round loaves and place far
apart on a greased baking sheet sprinkled with corn meal. Let rise, covered
with a kitchen towel, for about 1 hour.

Brush the loaves with glaze. Bake in a preheated 425 F oven – if you have
tiles or baking stone, slide the round loaves directly onto the hot
surface. Bake 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 350 F and bake 35 minutes
more. Remove and cool on racks.

* If you cannot get coarse pumpernickel flour, use instead dark rye flour
and bran in proportions of 2 to 1.