The bread below was inspired by the series, Baking and Pastry  book from The Ferrandi baking school. The books have a young looking Eric Kayser as one of the bakers making all sorts of breads, ranging from Europe to North Africa. 

I tried one of the book's German breads, described as "Pain de Rainure," or circle bread. Probably the name comes from the familiar circlular pattern made from the reed bannetons used in Germany and Austria known as Brotform.

This bread is multigrained, using wheat, rye and farine bise (white whole wheat flour). I used a stiffer levain, specifically a pasta madre. The formula called for a pre-ferment or "old" dough which could mean from a previous batch of dough. In any case, this simple bread is complex in flavor and shaped round. It's then rolled flat and marked with flour. In my version, I pressed it into my Brot form and let it rise, then baked it till quite dark and crusty.