But perhaps even more sublime than the sweet baked goods are the breads. German bakeries excel at bread, and pride themselves on serving only the very freshest. Most bakeries will not sell a loaf of bread more than twelve hours old. The variety of breads baked is enormous.
German bakers categorize the hundreds of varieties of bread in several ways. One approach is to sort them by the types of grain from which they are made. Bakers use flours derived from Weizen (wheat), Roggen (rye), Dinkel (spelt), Vollkorn (whole grain), and mixtures of these. Rye is more common in Germany than in America; many Americans have come to think of rye as a sharp flavor, because it is often mixed with caraway or other herbs. Rye bread without caraway has, to the contrary, a smooth and pleasant flavor.
Breads can also be categorized by their external surfaces. Among the smooth-surfaced breads are both the plain and the shiny, the latter achieving a gloss from a type of glaze applied before baking. Some have a coating of Mohn (poppy seeds) or sesame seeds. Most distinctive is the Laugenbrot, made in the same manner as the pretzel. A solution of lye dissolved in water is prepared; immediately prior to baking, the bread is dipped into the solution and then placed on sheets and put into the oven. This process produces the shiny brown crust.
This use of lye in baking produces not only the pretzel and Laugenbrot - the actual full loaf of Laugenbrot is relatively rare, more often being made of a rope of dough braided into a loaf, or smaller rolls sold as Laugenstangen or Laugenbrötchen - but the beloved bagel. The Jewish Germans - the Yiddish community - use the same lye process. Originally invented by Polish Christians, the bagel was refined and standardized among Jewish Germans, from whom it spread throughout the world.
Many modern industrial bakeries make pretzels or bagels without lye, but purists insist on lye. The boiling lye solution is dangerous and even toxic, but in the course of baking, the heat and the chemical interaction with the dough makes it safe.
Some types of bread or Brötchen feature a slashed surface. Shallow cuts may be diagonal or lengthwise, and allow the dough to rise differently as the yeast works. The cuts also change slightly the consistency and flavor of the crust.
Because of the prominence of bread in the German diet - many Germans go to the bakery every morning to buy the freshest possible rolls for their breakfast - a rich vocabulary has developed around the topic. Rolls are favored because, being smaller than a loaf, they can be purchased daily for ultimate freshness, and are known variously as Semmeln, Wecken, and Brötchen. The best ones taste so good that neither butter nor marmalade is necessary.
