Category Archives: Bread

May 24th, 2014

Honey Bread with Kamut

Honigbrot mit Kamut

Old grain species like Einkorn, Emmer and Kamut enrich the diversity of bread flavours and gives us a lot of new possibilities for baking. When I thought about a theme for the ongoing  Bread Baking Day I realized that I did not bake with these grains for a long time. And so I bought Emmer, Einkorn and Kamut on my next trip to the whole food shop.

Kamut is the trade name of the Khorasan wheat. As a genetical analysis from 2006 showed that its origin lies in the fertile crescent and that it stems from a natural cross between durum wheat and Triticum polonicum. Its flour has, similar to durum flour, a creamy yellow colour and can be used similar to wheat flour.

Because kamut is rather expensivI normally mix wheat flour with kamut flour, and so I did in the bread, too. The honey I added to the dough pairs very well with the mild yoghurt flavour of my very active sourdough and the nutty nuance from the Kamut. The honey although enhance the dark crust colour while some stretch and fold cycles helps to create an open crumb.

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May 10th, 2014

Olive Fougasse

Oliven Fougasse

There are still recipes missing from my big batch baking day before easter. But I haven’t forgot about them! So here comes the next one: Olive Fougasse. The dough of this fougasse is in principle identical with my favourite bread, in which I kneaded some kalamata olives.  For a really good flavour it is important to use real black olive, who could ripe and develop their full flavour, and not the one, which are dyed! It makes so much a different! A Fougasse is the perfect party bread in my opinion. It taste great, looks great and you can easily break it in pieces and share it with your friends. And with some olives added it is a great side for barbeque (at least for olive lovers like me).

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April 28th, 2014

Aggertaler

Aggertaler (2)

Each morning when I take the train to cologne, I look through the window to see the beauty of our little river agger and its valley (Aggertal). An attentive Observer can see Great Crested Grebe dancing their mating dance, discover a doe with its fawn, different kinds of geese and sometime even a hare. And I love to see small waft of mist over the water, enlighten by the rising sun. And sometimes I wish I could ask the train driver to stop so I could enjoy a view a little longer.

And so this bread is a little homage to my home valley, with my very active sourdough starter, flour from the local mill and water which is (of course) from a side river of the agger.  It catches the essence of home between its crispy crust and airy crumb!

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April 21st, 2014

Baguette variations

Baguette-Variationen

 

Another Idea I brought home from our holidays in Alsac is to cover a baguette with poppy seeds or sesame.  For the baking marathon last weekend I put the idea into practice and bake some Baguette au pavot (with poppy seeds) and Baguette au sesame (with sesame). After I formed the baguettes from my favourite dough with sweet starter (you can use this yeast dough Baguette, too) I wet their surface a little bit and turned them in sesame or poppy seeds. After proofing (according to the recipe) I slashed them lengthwise and baked them like written in the recipe,

The fragrance of the freshly baked baguettes were divine. And the taste were incredible, too.

This was not the last time baking these baguette variations!

April 19th, 2014

Attendorner Ostersemmel

Attendorner Ostersemmel (1)

It is tradition in Attendorn, a small city in the Sauerland, that the pastor will issue a bless on the “Ostersemmel” (which means Easter bread) on Holy Saturday. It is a big event, that takes place in front of the church where the citizens of the Attendorn will hold their bread into the air. The Bread is forked on both ends, a shape that should depict the Christian symbol of a fish.

It is a bread made with rye, wheat and caraway seeds. My interpretation of the Ostersemmel is made with 30% Rye and Sourdough, and the recipe yields to breads. With a round cookie cutter I make an inprint for the eye, like I saw it in some pictures.

It is a perfect bread for caraway lovers like me, very aromatic with a soft crumb and a shiny crust.

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April 12th, 2014

Birthday Bread

Geburtstagsbrot

I baked a decorated loaf once again, this time as part of a present for my boyfriends grandmother (as I told before there is a birthday each week in April). But instead of using my normal recipe and shape I decided to go for something new. And so used another recipe and shaped the bread with a small loaf in the middle, surrounded by a poppy seed covered braid and with a little rose on the seam where the ends of the braid meets.

And because I can not cut into a present, I doubled the recipe and baked a “normal” loaf as well. I cut it when it was just cooled and I was in love with its fine crumb and crunchy crust in a moment. A very delicious bread!

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March 9th, 2014

Country loaf

Landbrot(2)

Somedays ago I got a mail from a reader, asking me to help her to transform a recipe so she could proof the loaves in the fridge overnight. The main point to keep in mind when you plan to proof a bread in the fridge is that the amount of fresh yeast should be below 1%. The other ingredients can stay the same. And so the recipe was transformed quickly. But my creative juice were just flowing and so I sent her another variation which use a preferment as well. And I liked the recipe so much that I decided to bake it myself, too.

And the bread turned out very well, too: A good ovenspring and a mild aromatic taste due to preferment and the long, cold proof. I’m really happy that Alexandra asked for a recipe!

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March 8th, 2014

Sübrot

Sübrot (3)We spent our last summer holiday in the Alsace. And we enjoyed the beautiful landscape, the food and the niece people there very and much – and the bakeries,too! During our holidays I scribbled down a list with breads I had to bake when I’m back home.

Among the breads of this list was the Pain Pavé as well as this Sübrot. Sü comes from Sou which means a very small coin and Brot means bread so Sübrot can be translated to “Penny bread”. During wartimes it was a cheap bread that due to its form could be purchased in pieces as well. And even nowadays I was asked if I wanted the whole loaf or only a part of it when I bought it in a Boulangerie in Strasbourg.

Back home, when I decided to bake my own version, I decided to go to a slow rising dough, which fermented over night at roomtemperature. The next morning I divided the dough, shaped two squares and spread a thin layer of oil on top of one of them. The oil layer hast to be really thin to ensure that the bread do not unfold to quickly in the oven, so I removed a part of it again with a paper towel. And that worked very well, indeed. I was sit in front of the oven all the time, fascinated by the unfolding bread.

And the finished bread is a treat, too: Open crumb, crisp crust and a mild but complex taste!

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February 28th, 2014

Sandwich Bread with Sourdough and Sweet Starter

Sandwichbrot (1)

Sometimes I love a good sandwich bread. And then there are long phases it does not appeal me at all. But when I feel a hunger for sandwich bread I tend to bake it as soon as possible. That what happend last weekend.

And so when I saw the beautiful braided sandwhich bread with poppy seeds at Sara bakar I knew how the bread should look like. But I decided to use my own recipe with a combination of sourdough and sweet starter. This combination sounds strange in the beginning, but this combination results in a very mild bread with a slight yoghurt flavour. The sweet starter helps to let the bread rise in a relative short time as well!

The bread has a beautiful soft crumb and a nutty poppy seed crust and tasted so good that it vanished very fast!

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