Category Archives: Bread

September 17th, 2013

Federweisser Bread

Category Bread Tags: Einkorn, Federweißer, only with yeast, Rye, Wheat 29 Responses

I can always see what our Neighbour, the wine merchant, sells when I look out from our kitchen window. But I do not have to observe his offerings very closely, because when he got something he knows we would like, he calls when he see us: “Herr and Frau Neighbour, I have something for you!” And so one of first boxes with six flask of this years federweisser was our as soon as it was delivered to him.

When I came home at this day from work I saw this happily fermenting flasks sitting on the kitchen counter. And when I saw them bubbling, an idea popped up in my mind. Before my love could stop me, I had already mixed a poolish out of Federweisser and flour, planning to bake a bread with the yeast of Federweißer as sole rising agent.

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September 14th, 2013

SpeWaBu

Category Bread Tags: Buttermilch, Honey, only with yeast, Pâte fermentée, Spelt, Walnuss, wheat free 22 Responses

As soon as the temperature drops below 20°C, I feel the urge to bake whole grain breads. And a bread with nuts seems to fit perfectly to the season. I picked whole spelt flour, walnuts and buttermilk – a favourite combination for bread. And while I was thinking about a Name I suddenly hat to think about the story of Robbi, Tobbi and the FlieWaTüüt. The FlieWaTüüt in the book was called so, because it could fly (german: FLIEgen), it could swim on the Water, and drive like a car (the Tüüt was the sound of its horn). And with this story in mind I called the bread SpeWaBu (Spelt, Walnut, Buttermilk).

It is a bread that can convince even people who do not like spelt or whole grain so much. It stays moist due to a hot soaker and the buttermilk helps to form a soft and surprisingly fluffy crumb. It has a mild aromatic taste which pairs well with cheese or honey.

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August 31st, 2013

Farmers Bread for Beginners

Category Bread, Bread baking theory Tags: Anfänger, How to do, only with yeast, Pâte fermentée, Rye 133 Responses

How to start baking bread? I remember that I started with searching for a recipe and just simple following the instruction. I can’t tell you anymore which recipe it was (it was before I started blogging) but I knew that it was far away from being perfect. But I already cached the bread baking virus.

Every now and then readers and friends asked me which of my recipes they should use for their first bread. I send Friends and colleagues, which I can provide with sourdough, directly to my favourite wheat and rye bread, which has an easy to handle dough. But giving sourdough to readers is not as easy and so I developed another recipe.

It is made with Pâte Fermentée as preferment. It is a preferment which did not need a lot of care. You mix it, you put it in the fridge, you wait for at least twelve hours. No fussing about the right temperature or the need of using it while on its peak.

The dough is easy to handle and instead of scoring the loaf, you can press it down with the handle of a wooden spoon, which creates the niece pattern on the loaf on top of the pile. But it is a bread which is great for experienced bakers as well. I used it with great success for making loaves decorated with roses for the 90. birthday of my boyfriends grandmother.

And at the end it tastes great, as well. It has a soft, fluffy crumb under a crisp crust. It has a mild aroma with complex flavour profile due to the preferment.

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August 2nd, 2013

Brewer Bread with Whey

Category Bread Tags: Kleie, Molke, Rye, Sourdough, Spelt, Treber, Wheat 2 Responses

There was no bread left in our freezer, the drawer was completly empty, all the bread was eaten! So it rtime to stock it up again! But what should I bake? Looking around in the kitchen I rembered my spent grain flour and decided to bake a brewer bread once again.

It is always amazing how dark the dough turns when I add the spent grain flour. But when you consider that it has a fibre content of 50%, it is not so suprising! To soak the spent grain flour properly, I scalded it together with oat bran and spelt flour in hot whey. The smell of this hot soaker was incredible, malty and flavoursome!

The soaker keeps the bread fresh for a long time, and makes a great, soft crumb. I like the bread very much, it has a deep malty flavour with a hint of nuts – it’s a new favourite!

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July 21st, 2013

Pain de Campagne

Category Bread, Overnight Tags: Rye, Sourdough, Über-Nacht, Wheat 18 Responses

During hot summer days I prefer light breads. Breads like Baguette or Pain de Campagne bring a reminiscence of french summer days in our life.

For Pain de Campagne, which is although called French country bread, you can find thousand and one recipes and forms. Everyone seems to have his/her own recipe. But most of the breads are made with levain, a wheat based sourdough, and with a small portion of whole rye or whole wheat flour. And so I added some rye flour and levain for my variation of Pain de Campagne, too. A long, cold fermentation phase helps to build a complex flavour.

The bread has a airy crumb with big holes and a dark brown, crunchy crust. A delicious bread that goes very well with some French cheese and a big bowl of salad.

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July 18th, 2013

Einkorn Swirl

Category Bread Tags: alte Getreidesorten, Altes Brot, Einkorn, Sourdough 23 Responses

At my last visit in our small wholefood shop I found a packets of einkorn wheat. Einkorn as well as Emmer and Khorasan are ancient wheat varieties. They have all a higher protein and mineral content. And like in Wheat the main components of the proteins in the grain are the gluten proteins gliadin and glutenin. But unlike to wheat Einkorn contains much more gliadin, the globular gluten protein that makes the dough extensible and sensible in the handling. Dough made from Einkorn flour can easily be overkneaded, so the dough has to be handled with care, similar to spelt dough. And so I decided to use only a smaller portion of einkorn flour. Together with some sourdough and a old bread soaker it makes a great, aromatic bread with distinct nutty flavour due to the einkorn. Very delicious!

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July 14th, 2013

Aroma Bread

Category Bread Tags: Pâte fermentée, Poolish, Rye, Sourdough 30 Responses

I love to bake breads with more than one preferment. My favorite Wheat & Rye Bread or the Young Boar Crust are good examples for the harmony of a yeast preferment and sourdough. But it has been literally years that I bake a bread with three preferments. I don’t know why I waited so long until I baked a three preferments bread once again.

To bake this bread is not so complicated as it sounds. Mixing three preferments instead of one or two needs maybe three minutes longer and this three minutes are really worth the trouble. You will realize it as soon as you take the first bit of this aromatic bread.

This bread is crammed with flavour. Souble sweet notes from the poolish, an alcoholic hint from the pâte fermentée and the slightly sour taste of a young sourdough. The preferments contain about 45% of the flour used for the bread. Some whole wheat flour and dark rye flour adds some nutty flavours while the malt extract adds some additional sugar to make sure that there is enough sugar for the yeast to eat and for the browning of the crust.

I’m completly in love with this bread. With its crunchy crust, tender crumb and the deep, complex flavour it is my Aroma bread!

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June 29th, 2013

Focaccia

Category Bread, Bread Baking Day, hand kneaded, Overnight Tags: Hand kneaded, Olivenöl, only with yeast, Über-Nacht 20 Responses

Bread Baking Day celebrates its 6. Birthday! In 2007 Zorra started this Bread Baking-Event and since then bakers from all over the world met virtually already 60 times. I participated for the first time in 2009. Since then I try to be a regular part of the event. For two times I was already hosting BBD. Time is flying!

Each Bread Baking Day has its own theme and for this jubilee Zorra wishes “Bread with Glazing”. What kind of glazing she left to ourselves.

I had to think for some time about a recipe but at the end I decided to bake a focaccia. Focaccia is glazed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and herbs prior to baking. The olive oil soaks the crust during baking and adds a delicious flavour to the dough. It is a great bread for the summer (even when its raining all the time)!

Dear Zorra, all the best to the Event-Birthday!

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June 23rd, 2013

Bread with Wild Yeast from Honey

Category Bread, hand kneaded Tags: Honey, Raisin sourdough, Wildhefe 30 Responses

I baked already with wild yeast before it get popular in the different bread baking discussion boards. But then the wild yeast was still called “Raisin Sourdough”. After the first test I did not spent a lot of thoughts on this kind of yeast. The theory worked, so I started with new experiments…

Until I read about a “Apple Wild Yeast” somebody grew in store bought pasteurized apple juice. But as we all should knew is pasteurizing a methode for conserve food. And that works by shortly heating up the juice (or milk or what ever) to kill all microorganisms. And that means, that even the precious “wild yeast” in apple juice is dead!

So what is growing in this apple juice? In most of the recipes, a spoon full of honey is added to the mixture. And as I explained before a lot of nectar is yeast can be found in honey. These nectar yeast start to ferment the honey as soon as the honey is diluted with water. This principle is used for brewing mead. Sometimes apple juice is added to the honey as a nitrogen source to speed up fermentation. But it can also be done only with water and honey. And so I started to think about growing wild yeast from honey…

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June 20th, 2013

Spelt Baguettes

Category Bread, hand kneaded, Overnight Tags: Hand kneaded, only with yeast, Spelt, Über-Nacht, wheat free 32 Responses

For me summertime is Baguette time. Or Wurzelbrot– and Ciabatta-Time. I just love to have a light bread together with a big bowl of salat for supper on hot days.

After I baked the delicious Baguettes a la Ridha Khadher I thought about trying a similar recipe with spelt. The gentle folding of the dough is perfect for the fragile gluten network of spelt dough. And so I kneaded the dough really short and then started to fold the dough repeatedly. When the gluten network was nicely developed,I put the dough in the fridge for a long and cold fermentation.

This long and cold rise created a deep and complex flavour which I liked even more then the Kadher-Baguettes, because the spelt flavour adds another layer of complexity to the taste. It was a baguette with a lot of character. Or as my beloved partner (who’s normal praise for homemade bread is eating it rapidly but silent) said: “It is so delicious!”

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