Food /
What exactly is Polish Bread? [90]
I am researching polish "black bread" for a story I am writing. The origin of this bread comes from my "youth" (1950s to 1960s) when I visited my grandmother in Westfield, MA. There was a Polish bakery there where we would buy this wonderful black bread. Fantastic taste, a crust that was not crisp but had a great chew to it, sometimes with carraway, most often without. We would buy several whole loaves (they would slice it in a menacing machine if you wanted it) and take it home. Often a whole loaf would disappear before we got back to Lee. I have never tasted anything like this bread again, and I live in CA now where there are fantastic artesian breads of all types. My Father says the baker died in the 60s and took his recipe with him. (Thus the story line.) Anyone have any ideas about what would make such a special black bread? I assume there was a special "Mother". Probably used a combination of wheat and rye. Molasses? Chocolate? Coffee? It was literally a very dark brown/black color, fine grained, not whole grained. Anyone every had a bread like this? Any stories would be appreciated.
