Tag Archives: Sourdough

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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April 24th, 2013

Champions Bread

Category Bread, Bread Baking Day Tags: flaxseeds, oats, Pâte fermentée, Poppy seeds, Rye, Sesame, Sonnenblumenkerne, Sourdough 31 Responses

Cinzia from Cindystar asked us to bake Bread with seeds and flakes for Bread Baking Day. When my mum asked me for a recipe for “Weltmeister-Brot” (Champions Bread) I knew directly that this would be perfect for this theme.

It is not clear, why this bread is called champions bread. Some Bakers from the german island Sylt claim that they invented it, while others connect it with the swabian soccer player Klinsmann, who is a baker by trade. I can only tell you, that I ate both champions bread and rolls first as a child in the 90th during our family holiday in East Frisia.

I saw the champions bread either baked in a tin or formed as a batard, but I like the batard more. But the recipe would work in a tin, too.

I like the bread very much, with its light and soft crumb and a thick, crunchy crust covered with a lot of seeds. That’s a bread I like!

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April 17th, 2013

Wheat Rye Bread No 2

Category Bread, Bread baking theory Tags: Pâte fermentée, Rye, Sourdough, Wheat 69 Responses

Three Month ago I baked a bread decorated with a rose for Bread Baking Day. My Mum was very much in love with the decoration and asked me if I could bake such a bread for her birthday breakfast with her colleagues. And of course is her wish my command! And so I baked another decorated bread last weekend, with a beating heart – baking something as a present makes me always nervous.

I changed some points of the process. Last time I realised that I don’t need to knead more flour in the dough to make it firmer for the decoration, so I skipped this step. And yes, with the softer dough it is still possible to form beautiful flowers and leaves. This time I felt more confident and decided to take pictures of the process for a little “how to”.

I changed the recipe of the dough a little bit, too (and yes, even my own recipes are not safe from being changed). I added some more rye flour and sourdough and a little bit of butter which makes the crumb softer. The bread is tasted even more delicious as its precurser, and so the name “Wheat and Rye bread No 2” is a little bit misleading, because for me it is the Number one!

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February 11th, 2013

Spent Grain Bread

Category Bread Tags: Caraway seeds, Fenchel, flaxseeds, Koriandersaat, Poppy seeds, Schabzigerklee, Sesame, Sourdough, Treber 15 Responses

Since I gave my boyfriend a home brewer set as birthday present, we learning how to brew beer. For our first try we used the beer kit that came with the set, which is malt extract with hop extract. Nice for the start, but it reminds us of cooking with packaged mixes. That’s not what we want, we want the real adventure.

And so we started a second try using real malt and hop. After mashing – the break down of the starch to sugar in the malt – we had the spent grains as byproduct. Our recipe mentioned that this spent grains can be fed to chickens or cattle or that it can used for bread baking.

It can be used for baking bread? Pass me the sourdough, sweetheart…

The Spent grain bread has a compact and moist crumb and if I would not know that I added some all-purpose flour, I would thought it is a whole grain bread. It is a hearty loaf with the aroma of sourdough and the spices I used. The spent grains add a nutty taste. It goes very well with some strong cheese.

And what am I doing with the remaining spend grain? It is drying in the oven right now, I want to test milling it into flour…

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January 27th, 2013

Wheat and Rye Bread – Bread couture for BBD #56

Category Bread, Bread Baking Day Tags: Brot couture, Pâte fermentée, Sourdough 20 Responses

January is nearly gone and the deadline for Bread Baking Day is near. Jenni from The gingered whisk would like to have a bread fashion show this month. And this is not an easy topic for me. I struggled hard this month to find a good idea how to decorated my bread. Because most of the time I choose soberly some straight slashes when I bake bread. I was near to give up and wait for the next BBD!

But the weather this weekend changed from snow to rain then to rain and snow to freezing rain and back again and forced me to stay indoors. A good time to snuggle myself in a blanket and do some surfing in the web in search for inspiration. Finally my creativity was awakened and a plan was formed.

As basic for the decoration – and we want a good basic, of course – I decided to make a light wheat bread with some additional rye, sourdough and Pâte fermentée for a more complex taste.

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January 20th, 2013

Caraway seed Bread and Rolls

Category Bread Tags: Caraway seeds, Molke, Rye, Sourdough 2 Responses

During lunch at work, a dear colleague and I discussed about bread making. I gave him some sourdough last summer as part of his wedding present as well as a recipe for Vinschgerl– a favourite bread of his wife and him. They bake this flatbread regularly but this time the taste of caraway seeds was overpowering the other fragrances, because the fresh batch caraway seeds he bought taste much stronger then the old one. “The bread taste more like a caraway flatbread”, said he and I was instantly dreaming of caraway seed bread.

I could not stop thinking about Caraway seed Bread during the day and when I was home I decided to bake some. I made a dough with some whole rye and wheat flour and a good portion of caraway seeds. I added some whey – a leftover of cheesemaking – to the dough, too.

The bread was baked with falling heat which gave a nicely crispy crust to the bread. The bread fits well with some hearty cheese, but is very delicious with some butter and salt, too.

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December 2nd, 2012

Potato Carrot Bread

Category Bread Tags: Allspice, Caraway seeds, Carrots, Muskat, Potatoes, Sourdough 6 Responses

Some of the best recipe are made by chance. And by chance I bake this delicious Potato Carrot Bread. We had a dish called “Möhren untereinander” for Supper. This is made of mashed potatoes and carrots, a typical dish in the Rhineland. And when we had some leftovers, I decided to bake a bread with it. I love all kinds of potato bread and so a potato carrot bread sounded perfectly to me.

After kneading the dough was still sticky but after three rounds of fold & strech the dough get a smooth sureface and was easy to handle.

In the oven the bread developed a very nice ovenspring and developed a thick, crunchy crust wiht a soft crumb. The taste is complex due to the sourdough and the subtle note of allspice, nutmeg and caraway. It goes perfectly with a bowl of soup or alone with some butter and fleur de sel.

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October 22nd, 2012

Windfall Bread

Category Bread, Overnight Tags: Apple, Quince, Sourdough, Über-Nacht 3 Responses

When Martin presented his Windfall Bread with grated apples I knew that this is a recipe I had to test. And when I looked in the basket with windfall from my parents garden I saw some quinces which looked like they had to be used up quickly. And so I but some grated quinces in the in the bread dough, too.

The bread is really great with a moist and soft crumb and a hint of sweetness due to the fruits.

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October 21st, 2012

Caraway seed rolls

Category Rolls Tags: Caraway seeds, Sourdough 3 Responses

Since weeks I am longing for bread with caraway seeds. Or for Caraway seed rolls sprinkled with caraway and fleur de sel. These are so delicious that I need nothing else then a little bit of butter with them.

And last weekend I finally found the time to bake these rolls. I made a dough containing sourdough which goes well with the flavourful seeds and some commercial yeast to keep the proofing time shorter.

The Caraway seed rolls match exactly my expectations: a soft crumb with a thin crunchy crust, which is covered with little salt crystals and caraway seeds. When I take them out of the oven they smell so tempting that I eat on while it was still hot from the oven.

Mmmh….

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