July 29th, 2012

Petit Pain de Beaucaire

Category Bread Baking Day, Rolls Tags: Altes Brot, Bread Baking Day, Sourdough 10 Responses

I baked already a lot of french breads: Brioche, Brioche Tropézienne, Baguette in all Variations, Pain d’Epi, Pain de Mie, Croissants and au chocolate, Pain Bordelaise únd Pain aux Levain aux grains mélangés e noisettes. Did I forget something? Ah, yes, there was also the Pain de Beaucaire. A great bread, which method for forming the loaves fascinated me already three years ago. It was time to dust off the recipe and bake it again. This time I used an old-bread-preferment and reduce the size of the bread to produce rolls instead. This idea I got from Lutz, who unintentionally baked the Pain de Beaucaire as rolls, an idea I liked already when I read his blog entry two years ago.

And like the last time, forming the bread was an easy thing to do, and seeing the great ovenspring in the oven let me already hope for the best. When I pull the rolls out of the oven their crust sang already its crackling song while cooling down, promising me an airy crumb under the crisp crust. An really, when I cut one of the rolls, I was very happy with the crumb I see, open but not to open, perfect for breakfast.

I’m happy, that Cinzia from Cindystarblog choose the theme French Bread for Bread Baking Day!

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July 28th, 2012

Müsli Rolls

Category hand kneaded, Overnight, Rolls Tags: Hand kneaded, Müsli, only with yeast, Rye, Über-Nacht, Yoghurt 21 Responses

For a relaxed breakfast with my sister I planed to bake some rolls. The day before I came home from work lately. It was maybe the only week of “real” (hot) summer we get this year in Germany, and so I decided to enjoy the good weather as much as possible and go swimming first. When I came home I was to tired for long kneading and make some overnight rolls.

As basic I used my all time favourite Recipe for Yoghurt Sesam Rolls, but this time with some whole rye flour and additional Müsli mix. The Müsli is a homemade mixtrue containing rolled oats and barley, raisin, dried apples, sunflower seeds, a lot of chopped almonds and sesame and flax seeds.

I let the dough rise overnight and early in the next morning I formed and baked the rolls, refreshed after some hours of sleep.

And later that day we enjoyed the rolls. They have a crust, which stays a little bit soft – just as my sister like her rolls – and a soft crumb. The overnight fermentation gave them a complex flavour and yoghurt adds some tartness. The perfect roll for sweet marmalade or honey, but great with cheese, too.

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July 24th, 2012

Chocolate bread

Category Bread Tags: Chocolate, Kako, Sourdough, Water roux 8 Responses

This bread deserves a chorous of praise. Already during baking it filled the house with a seductive chocolate fragrance. And then the first bite of the freshly baked bread … it was everything a chocolate bread can be: fluffy and soft, chocolately, not to sweet, heavenly!

And when you warm a slice of bread a little bit in the toast oven and then add a thin layer of Nutella this slice of bread is a chocolate dream which comes true!

And that makes it worth all the effort you have to put in making this bread. It is – I’m sorry to say this – not a bread for beginners. The dough is very soft and so it is not so easy to handle, but who dare the adventure will be rewarded with a gorgeous bread.

Important for soft crumb is to knead the dough to full gluten development like for the very soft and fluffy sandwich bread or the pumpkin sandwich bread. This strengthen the gluten network and allows the bread to rise highly. It helps to develope an even crumb, too, an effect which is enhanced by flattening and rolling the dough twice during forming the bread.

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July 15th, 2012

Cinnamon waffles

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: Cinnamon, only with yeast, Perlzucker 9 Responses

Nearly three years ago I baked gaufres de ligé. Since then I baked them regularly and Chaosqueen and Steph from Kleinen Kuriositätenladen baked them, too. And then Paule baked her Schuedi recipe in a new form: Cinnamon waffle schuedi. This are gaufres de ligé de luxe! Paule got the idea from another blog, where they baked cinnamon rolls in a waffle maker. This Cinnamon waffles are the deluxe version of the the gaufres de ligé.

In my first try I followed her recipe but was a little bit disappointed of them, the dough was a little bit to firm and a high amount of butter leaking from the filling during baking. And so I tried them a second time,changing the recipe by reducing the yeast amount, adding a water roux and some more butter to the dough but reducing the butter amount in the filling.

And now I think they are perfect, caramel and cinnamon in perfect harmony, a sweet dream!

Who can not get belgian pearl sugar (Sucre grain perlé) can use sugar cubes, which are coarsely crushed. Or you should think about a trip to Belgic (Chocolate, good beer, pearl sugar).

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July 14th, 2012

Flaxseed-Triangle

Category Bread Tags: flaxseeds, only with yeast, Poolish 39 Responses

Last weekend I thought about trying another shape for my loaves then the normal round boules or slender batards. I felt that it was time to bring some geometry in my kitchen and try to shape some triangles.

That the dough should contain 30% whole wheat flour, flax seeds and a poolish I had already decided the night before. A not to wet dough, perfect to test a new shape.

To shape the triangle, I preshape round loaves, let them rest for some time and then I flatten their sides and fold this “wings to the middle of the bread. That created a bread with the perfect triangle shape.

And the taste of the triangle is good, too. The flaxseeds adds a nutty flavor and the poolish give some complexity to the aroma of the bread. The crust is crisp and the crumb is open. A good bread for my lunch breaks!

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July 14th, 2012

How to form a triangle bread

Category Bread baking theory Tags: Dreieck, How to do 3 Responses

To shape a triangle bread is not complicated.

You start by forming your dough to a ball and let it rest for 15 – 20 min (1). Now flatten the sides of the ball, forming a higher triangle in the middle (2) with “wings” attached to the triangle. Fold the “wings” into the middle (3 – 5) so that a triangle is formed. Shape the edges of the triangle to sharp points. Then turn the loaf seamside down (6).

July 8th, 2012

Vinschgerln

Category Bread Tags: Caraway seeds, Fenchel, Koriandersaat, Rye, Schabzingerklee, Sourdough 18 Responses

I needed a small present for one of my colleagues. I know that he and his wife like to spend their vacations in South Tyrol and that they fell in love there with Vinschgerln – a rye flatbread, flavoured with caraway seeds, fennel seeds, coriander and “Schabziger-Klee” (Trigonella caerulea ). And I knew also that they tried to bake this bread but their recipe did not work proberly for them.

And so I decided to bake some Vinschgerln for them and give them the recipe, too. I made a little recipe research in the internet and found quite a lot recipes. But some contained not enough water, other recipes had to much yeast and some had a mixture of spices that seemed not original to me. Wikipedia described Vinschgerln as a Bread containing about 70% whole rye flour, and named al the spices needed, and so I decided to build my own recipe.

The bread I bake with this recipe is delious – packed with flavour of rye, spices and and sourdough.

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July 5th, 2012

Apricot Almond Tart

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: Almonds, Apricot, Cake, Frangipane, Vanilla 10 Responses

I thought already last year about baking a tarte with apricots and almonds. But somehow I never made it. When I tasted the first apricots of the year, they where aromatic but sour, and I thought that they would be perfect for a tart!

And so I did not hesitate and bought some of them and baked small apricot almond tarts last weekend. Since I got this nice little tart forms with a diameter of 12 cm I tend to use them all the time, whenever I bake quiche or tart. The small tarts and quiches are perfect for lunch at work or as little present for friends.

For the apricot almond tart I used as custard some frangipane, a custard mixed with almond creme. I wanted to use the recipe from Michael Suas “Advance Bread and Pastry” but then decided to use less sugar but more egg and almonds.

I like the mixture of sweet almonds custard and tart apricots very much. A new favourite cake!

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June 30th, 2012

Virgin Hugo

Category Drinks Tags: Holunderblüten, Limette, Mint 5 Responses

If you would have asked me one week ago what Hugo is, I would probably answered: It is the ghost from the game Mitternachtsparty, one of my favourite board game in my childhood.

But as I learned this week Hugo is a drink, too. It contains sparkling wine, mint leaves, elderflower syrup and limes. To be honest, this would not temp me a lot. But the virgin variation, using sparkling water instead of wine was something I had to try immediately.

I found the recipe at Paules Kitchen, who got it from Nadine of Dreierlei Liebelei. And when I did my first sip, I was directly in love with this drink. A little bit sweet, a little bit sour, with aromatic elderflowers and refreshing mint it is the perfect refreshment for warm and humid summer days.

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June 29th, 2012

Malt beer knots

Category Bread Baking Day, Overnight, Rolls Tags: Beer, Bread Baking Day, Malzbier, only with yeast, Über-Nacht 6 Responses

I’m not a huge beer fan. Seldomly, maybe one or twice a year, I like to have a little bit beer. That happens normally when we are in Belgium and then I prefer some beer from a small (family-) brewery like Brugse Zot. I don’t like Kölsch, a beer that is typical for the region I’m living, and the same is true for Pils, too.

That is not the best starting point to bake a Bread with Beer for the 5. Birthday of Bread Baking Day. I tried it anyway, but was not convinced of the taste of the bread I baked. And so I decided to cheat a little bit and bake some rolls made with malt beer. I used a local brand “Golden Malz” which is produced in a brewery only 9 km from where I live. It is a real piece of home.

The malt beer knots turned out great. Their taste has deep, malty nuance which fits nicely to the nutty taste of the fresh milled wheat in the rolls and the complex aromas which are created during the slow fermentation. The crumb is soft and fluffy and gets a nice light brown hue due to the malt and the crust is crunchy. A good tasting bread for sweet honey or jam but great with cheese, too

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