Tag Archives: regional

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 →

September 30th, 2019

Mangbrot

Category Bread, regional breads  Tags: , , ,   No Responses

Mangbrot (1)

The Mangbrot was a favourite of my grandfather. It is a bread with a long tradition in this corner of germany. The idiom term “Mang” means “Mixed” and referred to the fact that the bread is baked with a mixture of rye and wheat flour. Here, like in other region with cold climate and loamy soil, rye and wheat was planted as mixture. So in good years, the mixture contained more wheat, while in bad years the robust rye prevailed the mixture. I considered this fact and prepared already the sourdough with a mixture of rye and wheat flour. This makes the sourdough a bit milder.

Continue reading →

May 18th, 2019

Krintstuut

Category Bread, regional breads  Tags: , , , ,   No Responses

Krintstuut-13Last autumn we spent a week in East Frisia. Our land lady told us, that the bakery around the corner should be the best of Leer and so we had to buy some bread there, of course. Something that rouse my curiosity was a small package of sliced raisin bread called Krintstuut. As it was a busy morning in the bakery, I didn’t ask about the ingredients. Tasting the bread back in our cottage, I was sure that it contained a good portion of rye. And so I used a quieter time in the bakery to confirm my assumption.

Finding rye in a sweet bread is nothing that surprises me any longer as I learned about so many traditional sweet breads baked that way. And it makes sense so much: Rye growth even in regions which are not suitable for wheat. So rye was always a grain used for many peasant breads. Wheat bread was something baked only for holidays. And even sweet breads with rye was something most families ate only on Sunday.

My interpretation of the recipe takes into account what I learned about bread baking in the 19. century: It uses sourdough but as well yeast. Back in time, the yeast was bought often at breweries and used for the “finer” breads like raisin bread.The sweetness stems from raisins alone as sugar was scarce back then. And that is really sweet enough. The bread is delicious, especially with some butter and honey.

Continue reading →

May 11th, 2019

Reutlinger Kimmicher

Category Overnight, regional breads, Rolls  Tags: , , , ,   8 Responses

Reutlinger-Kimmicher3They may not  the most beautiful rolls in the world, but with the thin, crisp crust, the moist open crumb and their complex flavour they won my heart instantly.  These rolls are called  Kimmicher. Kimmich is the Swabian term for caraway seeds. The rolls are similar made as the famous “Eingenetzte”. The dough is proofed for a long time and then formed with water and transfered to the oven in a small bowl.

The recipe is once again a regional one and can be found in the Swabian City Reutlingen. It is a traditional recipe, something that is already  claimed in an old Diamalt book which dates back in 1938. The dough is very wet and has to proof very long at low temperature. That is what is written in the old book, anyway. As the description is vague, and there are on ingredients listed at all, I had to trust myself when I recreated the recipe of the Kimmicher.

Continue reading →

April 20th, 2019

Aachener Streuselbrötchen

Category regional breads, Rolls  Tags: , , , , ,   11 Responses

Aachener Streuselbrötchen (2)A sweet treat which seems to be perfect for Easter Sunday breakfast is the traditional Aachener Streuselbrötchen (Streusel rolls from Aachen). They stem – as the name suggested – from Aachen and are not known above the city borders. And that is a pity, as they are so delicious, especially if you are a devoted streusel lover like I am. So I try today to get these rolls the national (or even international) attention they should have.

Forming these rolls is a bit “brutal”, as the nicely round formed rolls are firmly pressed into the streusel. They come out flat and with an even streusel surface. But this is how it should look, so do not fear. During proofing and baking they will gain height and the streusel surface will part again. And then you will have one of the most delicious breakfast treats you can bake!

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 8th, 2018

Kassler Bread

Category Bread, regional breads  Tags: , , ,   2 Responses

Kassler-13No, I will not start complaining about the rain. I am honestly glad about the constant pouring as the hot and dry summer and autumn left nature thirsting for water. But my foodblogger heart is still grumbles a little bit about the dull light we have. It is rather bad for taking pictures. But that’s what high Iso and the golden side of my reflector is for, isn’t it?

And when it’s raining cats and dogs it is the perfect weather for baking bread. And so I spent the last sunday with baking another regional bread. The Kassler Bread (or short Kassler) stems – as its name suggest – from the city Kassel, but is nowadays baked often in the Rhineland, too. It contains about 30% Rye and 70% Wheat flour and it’s a kind of bread I call lovingly “everyday bread”. It is flavourful and goes well with every kind of topping: from honey to cheese, everything fits with this kind of bread.

Continue reading →

November 30th, 2018

Dortmunder Salzkuchen

Category regional breads, Rolls  Tags: , , , ,   5 Responses

Salzkuchen-23It may looks like a bagel, but it’s no bagel for sure. This crusty roll with its fluffy crumb shares only the shape with the more prominent bagel. It is a regional speciality which is baked only in Dortmund.  It is topped generously with salt caraway seeds and often is spread with Mett. So – it’s said – the Innkeeper will sell more beer because salt increases the thirst.

The roll was inveted already back in the nineteenth century by the bakery Fisher. But the original recipe was lost when the bakery burned down during the bombing in the second world war. But it was reinvented is baked until today. But its distribution area is still restricted on the city of Dortmund. And so I’m very happy that I found this delicious little gem of regional tread!

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 →

November 11th, 2018

Martinsbrezel

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

Martinsbrezel (2)[5]The Saint Martin’s Day is a celebrated through whole Germany. The traditions anyway vary from region to region. In the Bergische Land, where I live, and in the Rhineland, one tradition is to give a Weckmann to each child after the lantern procession. In other regions instead of this weckmann they get a Martinsbrezel (Martin’s pretzel).

I learned about these tradition quiet recently and did some researching then. And interestingly this tradition is rather wide spread and there are differnt kinds of pretzels. In some regions, they are topped with pearl sugar before baking while in other regions they are brushed with butter and turned in fine sugar after baking.

I decided to try the second variant. Due to the big amount of sugar decided to use only a small anount of sugar in the dough. And then these pretzel are big treat – they may not replace a weckmann in this house but are a good addition to them!

Continue reading →