Black Barley Country Bread
Jan Schluter • October 24, 2025
Black Buckwheat & Millet Loaf
This recipe uses Risen Flour’s Black Barley & Small Batch Wholegrain Flour
Makes: 1 large loaf
Method: Hand mix or stand mixer
Time: 2½–3 hours (plus optional overnight ferment)
INGREDIENTS
Weight (for 1 loaf, ~800 g)
- 325g Small Batch Wholegrain flour - 65%
- 75g Black Barley Flour - 15%
- 100g Strong white Flour - 20%
- 375g Water - 75%
- 10g Salt - 2%
- 0.5% (Instant yeast 7g-if you only using instant yeast) or 100g active starter or a combination of 2g instant yeast and 100g starter
- (If using sourdough starter, reduce water to 340 g and adjust salt to 11 g.)
METHOD
- Autolyse (optional but recommended)
- Mix the flours and water and salt (reserve 20 g water).
- Let rest 30 - 45 min. This allows the bran in the barley to hydrate.
- Mix & Knead
- With the balance of the water add the instant yeast (if using), mix then add this to the bread
- For sourdough - mix the starter into balance of water and mix this into the dough
- Knead by hand 15 - 20 min or until dough is smooth and elastic.
- Or knead in a machine for 10min
- Black barley flour has no gluten, so the dough will feel slightly tacky and denser — that’s normal.
- Bulk Ferment
- Cover and let rise at room temp until doubled, about 1 hour for instant yeast bread - this will depend on your ambient temp.
- Knock back and shape
- For sourdough method - ( 3–4 hours for sourdough). Perform 1 x stretch and fold (or lamination 30min into bulk ferment, then leave for 30min and do 3 coil folds 30 min apart to improve structure - for sourdough - IGNORE this step for instant yeast bread.
- Shape
- Shape into a round (boule) or oblong (batard).
- Place seam-side up in a floured proofing basket (for sourdough)
- Final Proof
- Let rise 45–60 min for instant yeast bread
- for sourdough refrigerate overnight for deeper flavor).
- Bake
- Preheat oven for instant yeast bread to 235 degC
- Once up to temp place your proofed loaf in oven with a bit of steam (in a pan at the bottom of your oven for the 1st 10min. Check on your bread that its not darkening too fast, if so drape foil over the loaf.
- Bake for 25 to 30 min - internal temp should reach 95degC
- FOR SOURDOUGH - Preheat oven with dutch oven inside or a baking stone to 250 °C
- Once oven up to temp, tip bread onto parchment paper gently and score the loaf, place on baking stone with water at the bottom of the oven or in dutch oven (with 4 blocks of ice) and bake 35–40 min, with steam for the first 10 min.
- Cool fully before slicing.
Flavor Notes
- Black barley adds a rich color, nutty sweetness, and gentle bitterness that pairs beautifully with rye, buckwheat, or malted grains.
- The crumb will be slightly darker and moister than a standard wheat loaf.
Variations
- Seeded version: add 50 g sunflower or linseed.
- With malt: add 1 tsp barley malt syrup for extra depth.
- Blend with rye: replace 10% of wheat flour with rye for a rustic rye-barley loaf.
