September 25th, 2015

Federweißer Bread 2015

Federweißerbrot (4)Two years ago I had the idea to bake a bread which is only leavened by the yeast of a young wine (Federweißer). That worked good and was delicious, as you can see at this great breads of others bloggers. When I planned what to bake for the goodby party of my favourite ex-colleague (it is a double ex as we both have left now) there was again a flask of Federweißer sitting on the counter. The dearest was not around to rescue his beloved wine from misuse and so a not negligible amount of it was used to make a rye poolish.  To give the bread a hearty flavour, I prepared a sourdough as well.

The bread developed a good flavour with a slight sweet note from the young wine. The crumb was soft and the crust was crunchy. I hope, that you believe me that, as I can not provide a crumb shot because the bread was a present which I could not cut in advanced, of course.

 

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September 20th, 2015

Swan King Bread

Märchenkönig-Brot (2)Oliver asked me on Saturday morning if I have a recipe for a “King Ludwig Bread”. I did not know a bread with this name, but after some minutes of googling I started to suspect that it is a readymade mixture for bakeries, as so many bakeries are selling it. Some minutes later I found the manufacture of the mix and the ingredients did not sound so well in my ears: “Spelt flour, ry flour, malt, dried rye sourdough, whole spelt flour, coarse meal spelt, gluten, salt, sweet whey powder, guar flour, wheat bran, grape concentrate, ascorbic acid, enzymes”.

The breads seems to have a soft crumb what speaks against a bigger amount of rye and the brownish crumb should be due to malt and not to a lot of whole grain flour. And slowly a recipe starts to appear in my brain.

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September 19th, 2015

Cornucopia with Apple Nut Filling

Cornucopia (11) Cornucopia, the horn of plenty, is a symbol of abundance and nourishment in the classical myths and is often associated with autumn. And when I prepared my little pastries I look on the nuts and apples and that little cornucopia would be the right way to celebrate autumn plenty.

It is apple and  no other fruit that means autumn to me. And I can’t stop praising the heirloom apples which are often much more aromatic then the new breeds. And for baking cake there is no better apple then my favourite Jakob Lebel. It is a tree which gives a plenty of fruits and which is often found in old gardens and orchards. In the beginning of last century the meeting of german pomiculture society named it as one of tree apple variety they advised to grow because it is so fruitful, aromatic and robust. Continue reading

September 13th, 2015

Bread Baking for Beginners XX: Whole Grain Potato Bread with walnuts

Kartoffel-Walnussbrot (2)

As soon as the weather change from summer heat to autumn cold I long for hearty breads with whole grains. A great combination is whole grain, potato and walnuts. For our bread baking course I promised a moist whole grain bread and as I have the feeling that another bread without preferment will find some friends here I designed the recipe accordingly.

But the bread gains a lot if you allow the dough to rise over night in the fridge. It will not only will enhance the flavour, but also gives the bran a longer time to soak and gets softer. For a good soaking of the whole grain flour, using warm water and still warm potatoes helps to speed up this process during the first stage of dough preparation.

And if the dough gets the time it needs you will be rewarded with a whole grain bread with an soft and moist crumb. It pairs perfectly with cheese or honey!

 

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September 4th, 2015

Göppinger Bread

Göppinger (1)

When I talked with my mum on the phone some weeks ago, she asked me if I had an idea for a recipe.  She had a rye sourdough fermenting in the kitchen and was now looking for recipes (I know where I got my tendency to start a preferment before deciding what to bake.) I just baked a delicious Wheat-Rye bread and some minutes later I had drafted a “sibling” of this recipe which fits to the preferment and sent it to my mum. The next day she send me some pictures and wrote that they all liked the bread very much, so I kept the recipe in the back of my head as “to be baked”.

When I was thinking what to bake as move-in present (in germany the classical gift for a new flat/house is the symbolic bread and salt), I remembered the recipe and I finally I baked it. And I like it as much as its faster sibling. It is an aromatic bread  with crisp crust and tender crumb. It is a perfect everyday bread and tastes delicious with sweet things like honey and jam as well as with hearty cheese.

 

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August 27th, 2015

Zwetschgenstreusel

Zwetschgenstreusel (2)Der Liebste ist puristisch, wenn es um Zwetschgenkuchen geht: Hefeteig, Zwetschgen und vielleicht ein bisschen Zucker. Ich hingegen mag Streusel sehr, auch auf den Zwetschgen. Bis ich ihn aber von der Idee eines Zwetschgenstreusel überzeugt hatte, dauerte es. Ich musste versprechen, dass die Streusel keinesfalls hart und das Teig – Zwetschgenverhältnis ausgewogen sein würde. Das tat ich leichten Herzens, denn die Streusel für meinen liebsten Streusekuchen (mit oder ohne Pudding) haben die perfekte mürbe Struktur. Zusammen mit einem dünnen Hefemürbeteigboden (der nicht durchsaftet) und einer kräftigen Portion Zwetschgen ergeben sie einen köstlichen Zwetschgenstreusel, der auch den Zwetschgen-Purist sehr gut schmeckt hat!

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August 23rd, 2015

Buttertoast

Buttertoast (1)I do both rather seldom: Baking soft sandwich bread and baking during the week. Normally my bread baking day is at the weekend and so I need special circumstances to take the flour from the cupboard during a working week. But an tooth emergency leaded to a small oral surgery and subsequently to chewing problems. After three days of soups and purees I was longing for a really soft bread which is easy to chew.

The sweet starter is always great in such situations. Coming home from work I went straight to the kitchen and started the starter. Two hours later its volume already doubled and so I could already knead the dough. The dough contained some yeast (as I wanted to bake before going to bed) and a good portion of butter and a pinch of enzyme active malt. Both helps to make the crump tender. The good amount of butter as well as some sugar also leads to a good browning when toasted. But although untoasted the bread has good, slightly buttery flavour.

 

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August 19th, 2015

Blackberry Jam (without gelling sugar)

Brombeermarmelade (2)The sunny and hot days of the last week turns the first blackberries into dark and delicious treats. And so we went to pick berries early on Saturday morning . Natures plenty was very overwhelming and in little more then an hour we picked three kilogram. And because I read Christine Ferbers “Marmeladenbibel” we picked some red, unripe blackberries as well. The reason for this the fact that blackberries contain less pectin then red currants or blueberries. Adding some unripe fruits increase the pectin content because they contain much more pectin then ripe fruits. They add some acidity as well which support the gelling process as well.

The rest of the recipe is 100% me, as I does not like to macerate blackberries with sugar (as Madame Ferber suggest), because this turns the blackberries into hard, small pieces. And so I cook the jam similar to the red currant and raspberry jam. And after 20 min of simmering even the unripe fruits softens completely and I’m very happy with the delicious jam I got in the end.

 

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August 16th, 2015

Wheat and Rye Bread 80/20

Weizenmischbrot 80 20 (1)

I’m tempted to call this bread a fast bread. It “just” takes 8.5 hours from mixing the sourdoughs to pulling the baked loaves from the oven. So if you (like me) decided at 8 am to bake bread you can serve the already cooled loaf for supper. This is possible because of the short time needed for ripening of the sweet starter and of the “Berliner Kurzsauer”.

The Berliner Kurzsauer is a rye sourdough and was invented by Pelshenke and Schulz in 1942. It is kept at high temperature (ideally 35°C) which promotes the activity of homofermenting lactobacteria (homofermeters are that kind of lactobacteria which produce only lactic acid). It yields a aromatic, mild tasting sourdough. The only backdraw is the fact, that the yeasts in this sourdough will not develop well and so I combined it with a strong sweet starter and a bit of commercial yeast.

 

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August 9th, 2015

Bread Baking for Beginner XIX: Baguette with Pâte Fermentée

Baguette (4)Another wish for the Bread Baking Course was Baguette. And Baguette dough is a simple dough: You need just flour, water, yeast and salt.

But when it comes to forming and slashing, it gets way more complicated. Only one thing can help with this: Practice! For slashing you actually don’t have to even bake baguette, one can start practicing with paper and pen! As PIP onces wrote: “If you can draw them, you can slash them!” And so I made two practice sheets for you. One with reference lines and one without. You can print them and start practising right away. Try to draw the slashes on the “Paper baguette” in fluent movements without stopping while drawing a slash. Repeat this until you feel comfortable with drawing the slashes, then try it with the real one. And other ways then the traditional cuts are possible as well. In France I saw Baguettes slashed lengthwise as well!

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