This is probably the weirdest bread I've made so far. The techniques I used were very different from the standard loaves I've made. Apparently, this bread is the descendant recipe of a loaf used in fifteenth century Nuremberg. A baker surrounded himself with these loaves and darker ones when he got his portrait done. He is my new role model.
The first weird thing is that this recipe uses extra yeast, but no water. It only uses warm milk to leaven. Next, when you are supposed to proof it the first time, you actually fill the mixing bowl up with water and let the bread rise until it sticks out of the water a bit. This made the whole dough one giant sticky mess. You then pat the dough dry using paper towels and cover everything with flour. And then you knead the caraway seeds into it. You then let the dough rise on a sheet with a "tin foil tent," meaning a piece of tin foil propped up so that it does not touch the dough.
After it rises like this, you have to spray it with water every 15 minutes or so while it makes for an hour. Apparently if it gets too brown, you can then construct another "tin foil tent" for it in the oven to stave off the browning.
All in all this bread turned out very well. It tastes just like rye bread again, just a lot softer than the last loaf. It's got a good crust with a little bit of crunch, and a nice light fluffy middle. This bread was kind of a mess to make, but it was super cool and taught me some neat new things.
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