Borodinsky Bread

Russian dark rye loaf sweetened with rye malt and treacle, baked in a tin and crusted with crushed coriander seed

Origin: Moscow & Russia

From the journey of Rye.

Borodinsky khleb is the best known of the Russian black breads: a tin loaf of mostly rye flour, scalded with red fermented rye malt, sweetened with treacle, soured with a rye leaven, and baked under a scattering of crushed coriander seed. It is dark brown rather than black, sweet and sour at once, and the coriander is what anybody who has eaten it remembers. Its name is attached to a story. The bread is said to have been created at the Spaso-Borodinsky convent, founded on the battlefield of Borodino by Margarita Tuchkova, whose husband General Alexander Tuchkov was killed there in 1812, and the coriander seeds are sometimes said to represent grapeshot. Neither account has any documentary support. No bread of the name is recorded in the nineteenth century at all; it does not appear until the late 1910s or early 1920s, and the recipe in the form now baked was fixed by the Moscow baking industry in 1933. The legend is a good one and the nuns may well have baked rye bread, as every Russian religious house did, but the connection between that bread and this one is an inference that nobody has been able to document. What is documented is the Soviet standard. Borodinsky was among the breads baked to a fixed state specification and sold across the whole Soviet Union, which is why it is still a familiar loaf in Belarus and Ukraine as well as in Russia, and why it tastes much the same from Minsk to Vladivostok. The red malt is essential. It is rye that has been sprouted, fermented until the grain darkens, and kilned, and it supplies most of the colour and much of the flavour. Cocoa or coffee will colour a loaf but will not make it taste like Borodinsky.

Ingredients

Scald

60 g red (fermented) rye malt
80 g dark rye flour
2 tsp coriander seeds, coarsely crushed
250 ml boiling water

Sourdough

50 g active rye sourdough starter
200 g dark rye flour
200 ml warm water (about 35 °C)

Dough

170 g dark rye flour
80 g strong white wheat flour
40 g black treacle or molasses
20 g dark muscovado sugar
10 g fine sea salt
50 ml warm water
1 tbsp sunflower oil, for the tin

Topping

1 tbsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed
1 tsp potato starch whisked into 60 ml cold water, for glazing

Method

Put the red malt, 80 g of rye flour, and the crushed coriander into a bowl, pour over the boiling water, and whisk to a smooth paste. Cover, wrap in a towel, and leave in a warm place for two to three hours.
Separately, mix the starter, 200 g of rye flour, and the warm water, cover, and leave in a warm place for 12 to 16 hours, until bubbly and sour.
When both are ready and the scald is no warmer than blood heat, combine them in a large bowl with the remaining rye and wheat flour, the treacle, sugar, salt, and warm water. Mix with a wet hand or a stiff spatula for five to eight minutes into a heavy, sticky dough.
Oil a 1 kg loaf tin and scatter half the topping coriander over the base. Scrape in the dough with wet hands, smooth the top, and scatter over the rest of the coriander, pressing it in lightly.
Cover and leave to prove in a warm place for 90 minutes to two hours, until the dough has risen close to the rim and its surface shows fine cracks.
Bake at 230 °C for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 190 °C and bake for a further 50 minutes.
Meanwhile bring the potato-starch mixture to the boil in a small pan, stirring, until it turns clear. Brush it over the loaf as soon as it comes out of the oven.
Turn out onto a rack, cool completely, wrap in a cloth, and leave for 12 to 24 hours before cutting.

Notes

Red fermented rye malt is sold as solod by Russian and Baltic grocers and by specialist baking suppliers. It is not interchangeable with pale diastatic malt. The Soviet formula uses a light starch treacle, patoka; black treacle or molasses is the usual substitute outside Russia and gives a slightly darker, less sweet loaf. Borodinsky is eaten with salted herring, with butter, alongside borscht and shchi, and, in Ukraine and Belarus, with salo and raw garlic. Stale slices are the classic base for home-brewed kvass.

The Gastrographer

Name: Borodinsky Bread
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 14
Cuisine: Moscow & Russia
Ingredients: 60 g red (fermented) rye malt; 80 g dark rye flour; 2 tsp coriander seeds, coarsely crushed; 250 ml boiling water; 50 g active rye sourdough starter; 200 g dark rye flour; 200 ml warm water (about 35 °C); 170 g dark rye flour; 80 g strong white wheat flour; 40 g black treacle or molasses; 20 g dark muscovado sugar; 10 g fine sea salt; 50 ml warm water; 1 tbsp sunflower oil, for the tin; 1 tbsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed; 1 tsp potato starch whisked into 60 ml cold water, for glazing

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control