Monthly Archives: February 2011

February 27th, 2011

Spelt Buckwheat bread

Dinkel Buchweizen BrotThis bread has a  “black spirit”. Black beer, dark molasse and “black wheat” (aka Buckwheat) create a nearly black crust and a deep brown crumb. The crumb looks much darker then you would guess from the amount of about 50% whole grain.

The recipe is a kind of using up leftovers. Breadcrumbs made of dried stale bread slices, some dark beer leftover from weekeend cooking and some leftover buckwheat flour which I broughed home from the summer holidays in the Lüneburge Heath (where buckwheat is still grown).

Buckwheat is an old crop, that grows well on low-fertility soil, thats why its often found to be grown in regions like heath. From the botanical view it is no grain but the fruit of a plant from the “knotweed family” (Polygonaceae). The flour contains no gluten so it should added in a low amount to bread doughs. Continue reading

February 20th, 2011

Engelskirchener Landbrot

Vollkornbrot mit 3 VorteigenFinding recipes for the 37. Bread Baking Day was an easy task for me – it was much harder to make a decision what I want to bake because the topic “Bread with preferment/sponge” is really my kind of bread making. Nearly all breads and pastry I bake are made with one or more preferment.  One very delicious is JT’s Rustic bread with three preferments. It use three diffrent Preferments: Poolish, Biga, Sourdough. And this three diffrent preferments create an incredible tasty bread.

For my entry for BBD I planed something similar. Poolish, sourdough and Pâte fermentée make this bread very aromatic. With a nutty taste of whole wheat and the complex flavours of the preferments with a mild acidity in the background. The bread has a fine crumb and a thick crisp crust.

To get a nice crisp crust I used the convection modus of my oven and opend the door slightly ajar, so that the steam can escape and the cust becomes crisp. Continue reading

February 19th, 2011

Sweet Curd Braid

Quarkzopf I like Braids – the one made of dough, my hair is to short for braiding Smiley – and you can see this in my blog, too. I bake already a six strand braid, the fluffy Egg-Bread, Challahs  with and without Lactose or flavoured with orange liquor , and  a zopf filled with nuts.

A slice of fluffy soft Zopf with some homemade marmelade and a big cup of café au lait – is there a better way to start a sunday morning?

For some days there was an idea floating through my brain of a braided bread made with curd. And last weekend I finally put this idea into practice and baked a two stranded braid. Like in most of my Braid-Recipes I used a Pâte Fermentée, because this adds aroma and structure to the bread. And the curd adds a slightly sure taste and makes the crumb niecly soft.

Continue reading

February 13th, 2011

Question about Dough

Fragen

There are a different methods for making a Dough: Kneading by hand, Folding, kneading with a kitchen machine? Which method is the best?

In my eyes there is not “best” method, each method will develop a gluten network and that’s what we aiming for. So it is up to you to choose the method you like most.

When Kneading by Hand I like to use  Bertinets kneading technique because you will get fast a nice developed dough. Continue reading

February 8th, 2011

Flaxseed Rolls

Leinsamenbrötchen

I like rolls with seeds. And flaxseeds are always fine. And so I like the idea of spelt flaxseed rolls wich Ulrike posted on Küchenlatein very much but I prefer recipes with less yeast and a preferment. And I had no spelt in the pantry, so i decided to bake some wheat flaxseeds rolls using my own recipe.

The dough contains a Pâte fermentée and is slightly softer then the recipe that Ulrike used. The dough is still easy to handle and to form the rolls is easy. Just flatten the dough thinly and then roll it into a log.

Half of the rolls I cut in length wise like Ulrike the rest I cut two times in an angle of about 15°  like you would cut a baguette.  The lengthwise cut allow the roll to expand mainly in the width, while the diagonal cuts keep the tension that was created while shaping the roll and so the roll expand in the width and high during the oven spring. I like the diagonal cuts more, to be honest, they gave a nice look to the bread and the shape is more pleasing. I use them most of the time when cutting oval breads and rolls.

The rolls are tasty, aromatic with a nice crumb and good crust but I miss the nut like taste of whole wheat. The next time I would replace 20% of the flour with whole wheat flour. Continue reading

February 4th, 2011

Simple Wheatbread

Einfaches Weizenbrot

I like the caraway seed bread I baked last week very much. So I decided to use a similar Bread basing on Martins Technique. I added a poolish to the recipe to create a more aromatic bread.

I am thrilled about both the dough and the bread. The dough is easy to handle and has a nice oven spring, the resulting bread has fine aromatic taste and a very soft fluffy crumb under a crispy crust. It is a good bread for beginners in bread baking because you do not need a lot of equipment. Continue reading