Tag Archives: Pâte fermentée

November 9th, 2019

Campingwecken

Category regional breads, Rolls  Tags: , , , ,   10 Responses

Campingwecken (4)A dear reader told me last year about a speciality in the north-western Part of germany: Campingwecken (lit. Camping rolls). She descripted it as a roll filled with a mixture of roasted almonds and pearl sugar. I was intrigued and started researching. It seemed, that the variant with almond is a rare one, more commenly is a variant with only pearl sugar. I even found a bakery who offered this kind of rolls in the city of Leer in our last vacation in East Frisia, so I could try this roll.

But as I I’m a curios person, I wanted to eat the almond version as well. And so today I have now Campingwecken in both variants for you!

Continue reading →

April 23rd, 2019

Spelt Easter Wreath

Category Bread, regional breads  Tags: , , , , , , , , ,   18 Responses

Dinkel-Osterkranz-29I hope, you all enjoyed the splendid Easter weather! Is there anything better then a Breakfast in the sunshine with the family? For our breakfast on Easter Sunday I baked a Spelt Easter Wreath.

To be able to serve a still oven warm wreath, I decided to go for another overnight recipe. And so I used only a bit butter in the dough while the bigger part of the fat stems fro m the cream. Instead of binding water in a hot soaker or water roux, I opted for using yoghurt in order to make the bread baking more relaxed. And I used a pâte fermentée as a preferment, so I could prepare it already three days in advance, if needed. This helps to relax the busy Easter schedule, too.

And so I only had to prepare the dough and form it after 90 minutes fermenting time on saturday evening. The wreath proofed over night and on Easter Sunday all I had to do is placing the dough in the oven. Perfect for a relaxed sunday!

Continue reading →

March 1st, 2019

Ruchmehl Rolls

Category Overnight, Rolls  Tags: , ,   5 Responses

Ruchmehl-Weckerl[3]When sorting my flour storage boxes I stumble upon a left over bag full of vacation memories. Or, to be more precisely, a half full bag of Ruchmehl. Ruchmehl is a Swiss flour similar to first clear flour. The amount of flour was just perfect for baking some rolls. And so I put together a preferment later that day. The next day I prepared the dough but time was lesser than planned, so I but it into the fridge instead of baking. Early the next morning I finally shape the rolls and baked them on high temperature.

The rolls were delicous: mild and at the same time complex with a crisp, thin crust.

Continue reading →

February 16th, 2019

Biberacher Fastenbrezel

Category Bread, regional breads  Tags: , ,   14 Responses

Biberacher-Fastenbrezel-27In Germany you can finde a lot of different kinds of pretzels. There is the lye pretzel, of course. But there are all kinds of “white” (aka not treated with lye) pretzels as well. There are sweet ones like the Martinsbrezel, the Burger Brezel and the Neujahrsbrezel, but there are hearty pretzels like the Anisbrezn as well.

Todays white pretzels stems from the little town called Biberach. It is said that once upon time there was a lazy baker’s apprentice who forgot to prepare the lye. His Master Baker was very angry about his forgetfulness and tossed the pretzels in a pot with boiling salt water. And that turned out to be a brilliant idea. The so treated pretzels tasted deliciously and so these pretzels are baked during lent until today. Sounds like a real “happy ever after”, doesn’t it?

Continue reading →

January 13th, 2019

Reutlinger Mutschel

Category Bread, regional breads, Special Occasions  Tags: , , , ,   14 Responses

Reutlinger-Mutschel-23 I am always fascinated how one recipe can lead me to the next (and the next…). Like when I was researching for the Rheinische Neujährchen, which leaded me to the Variant from the Westerwald. And then a reader commented about a tradition from reutlingen called Mutschel day. This day is the first thursday after Three Kings Day and at this day the people in Reutlingen a playing dice games in order to win a mutschel.

The mutschel is a highly decoreated bread made from a very rich dough. The bread has a eight pointed star shape with a bump in the middle. The shape is much easier to form then I first thought as the dough ball just has to be cut like a “#” and the sides then has to be pulled away and shape into pointy tips. I made pictures form the process but used a tinier variant of the mutschel as it was much easier taking pictures from it then from the big one.

Continue reading →

December 24th, 2018

Christmas Bread 2018

Category Bread  Tags: , , , , , , , ,   14 Responses

Weihnachtsbrot-2018-23

I love to bake bread for Christmas. And nearly every Christmas I included one loaf with nuts, as nuts are an essential treat on Christmas for me. So, the 2018 Edition of Christmas Bread is made with walnuts, spelt and emmer. It has a crisp crust and soft and fluffy crumb, perfect to go along any Christmas delicious.

The preferments are inspired by a look in the fridge: a bit of left over Pâte Fermentée and a Sweet starter that needed a feeding. They add complex aroma notes to the dough which is nicely underlined by the flavour of buttermilk and nutty tone from the Spelt and Emmer.

And with this recipe, my dear reader, I start my christmas break here in the blog. For new years eve I will be back for the traditional “Best of 2018” post. I whish you merry and peaceful Christmas Days!

Continue reading →

November 23rd, 2018

Dinkelchen

Category Bread  Tags: , , , , ,   6 Responses

Dinkelchen (2)[3]Most of the time I think that breads with the tag “vegan” are silly. The standard variant of bread means “flour, water and salt” and this is after all so pure and simple vegan that there should be no questions left. But with sweet breads this is a different story. I always try to avoid highly processed replacements like margarine. And so I was fascinated when I read in a description of a organic baker that he uses coconut oil for vegan baking.

Using this fat makes sense as it contains naturally a high amount of saturated fat and so is solid at room temperature. I just wondered if the the slight coconut flavour of the oil would shine trough in the baked good. And to verify this question there was just one option: Baking a bread with coconut oil.

Continue reading →

November 16th, 2018

St. Martins Rolls

Category regional breads, Rolls, Special Occasions  Tags: , , , ,   13 Responses

Martinsbrtchen3Besides of baking Martinsbrezel I tested a recipe as well: St. Martins Rolls. Like for the Martinsbrezel I learned about them from a dear reader. These rolls are stuffed with candid orange peel and hazelnuts and topped with a generous amount of pearl sugar. They are only  baked in the time between St. Martin and Christmas.

And even with the temperature far away from winter, I felt a bit like Christmas when I smelled the candid orange peel and nuts during baking. And on breakfast I fell completely in love with the rolls. Spread with some honey (a gift from a baking course participant) they are so delicious!

Continue reading →

May 6th, 2018

Einback

Category regional breads, Rolls  Tags: , , , ,   43 Responses

Einback-16The Einback (sometimes called Zeilenweck or Micken, too) is a slightly sweet milk roll with fluffy crumb and soft crust. They got their special form form placing the rolls so near to each other they touch during baking.

I had them on my list of regional breads already for some time. I was fascinated by the fact, that they are only a interstage product of the Zwieback production. But the fluffy rolls gained more and more popularity on their own and at some point “Einback” became a synonym for “fluffy milk roll”.

When I bake the rolls, I decided to try them as Einback as well as Zwieback and I like both very much. The Einback is soft and fluffy and flavourful due to preferment and water roux, the zwieback is crunchy and sligthly sweet. I can’t decided which variant I like most…

Continue reading →

April 3rd, 2018

Easter Dove Rolls

Category Rolls, Special Occasions  Tags: , , , ,   3 Responses

DSC_67725And here is a last glance of of what I baked this year for Easter. The little Dove I baked twice. Once with my sisters kids, once alone. In the first version I rolled the dough strand equally thick what resulted in doves with a very plumb body and with a tiny head. For the kids it didn’t matter, they made sure they vanished while still warm from the oven. But I was hooked and so I baked them a second time, this time with a slightly modified formed strand. And this time the birds looked like birds. And to find the pictures next year, too, I have here the “how to” for you. The dough recipe is the same like the tsoureki just without the spices.

Continue reading →