Category Archives: Bread Baking Day

January 27th, 2013

Wheat and Rye Bread – Bread couture for BBD #56

Brot couture (4)

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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December 3rd, 2012

Bread Baking Day #54–Round up

breadbakingday-roundup

When I announced BBD#54, I was so curios about the “Overnight”-Recipes. But then I had to wait … more or less patiently. It is so strange – I have a lot of patient when it  comes to bread baking – mixing a starter, let it develop, mix the dough, let it rise (probably overnight), baking it and then wait until the bread is cooled before slicing, that needs a lot of patiently waiting. But when I’m waiting for something to happen, like for the results of some very fascinating experiments in the lab or waiting for the entries for BBD, it is so hard to lean back and relax.

And so I’m very happy and exited that I can present you now all this great breads and rolls! We have sixteen entries from Thailand /Holland, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Sweden, Italy, Brazil, Spain, USA and Austria.

I tried to leave a comment at each post, but at one or two it was not possible because I lack the right type of account. So let me tell you here again that you all did a great job and that I enjoyed hosting this Bread Baking Day very much! The next BBD is hosted by Katha from Katha-kocht! and she will announce the theme at 6.December.

And now enjoy all these great Breads!

 

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November 25th, 2012

Sonntagsbrötchen – BBD # 54

20 Stunden-Brötchen

The submission deadline for Bread baking day moves nearer. And since this time I am the hostess of BBD, I should post my “overnight” recipe in time!

And so I have here a recipe for Sunday rolls which is prepared on Saturday around lunchtime. Due to the fact that the yeast amount is so small, the dough can rise about 16 hours at room temperature without any problem and the long fermentation creates a complex flavour. The next morning I will then form the rolls and let them rise during heating my baking stone. Two hours later the still a little bit sleepy boyfriend and me will sit on the breakfast table, enjoying fresh coffee and oven fresh rolls.

When I need a bigger amount of rolls I tend to form the first batch, wait about 20 min and then form the second batch. So all of the rolls go into the oven at the point where they are perfectly proofed.

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November 6th, 2012

Bread Baking Day #54: “Overnight”

breadbakingday54It’s been three years ago that I hosted Bread Baking Day, a  blog event which was created by Zorra about five years ago, and we had a great round-up with 48 delicious Sweet Breads. And here I am again, honoured to be hostess of Bread Baking Day #54, too!

After Zorra presented us  a great round-up with 342 breads from all over the world at the World Bread Day 2012 last month, it was time for me to think about a theme for Bread Baking Day in november. And while last time I needed to think a while to find the right theme, this time it was very easy for me . During the last – often very busy – year, I became a big fan of overnight recipes. There are so many possibilities to make overnight breads or rolls!  And so I decided it would be great to use BBD to gather ideas for overnight breads and rolls.

And so the theme of this month BBD is “Overnight”! You could proof your dough or the loaves and rolls in the fridge or even at room temperature.  Play around with a recipe you like and converted it in a overnight version or test something completely new. I’m very curios about your creations!

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July 29th, 2012

Petit Pain de Beaucaire

Pain de BeaucaireI 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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June 29th, 2012

Malt beer knots

Malzbierknoten 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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May 18th, 2012

Sweet potato and Chickpea Bread

Süsskartoffel-Kichererbsen-Brot

Since Christmas I did not precipitate at Bread Baking Day. The last month were filled with all the things that happen, when you finish your Ph.d. thesis: long days in lab for the last experiments, then writing (and rewriting) the thesis and at least learning for the Disputation. But luckily everything is done now and I can concentrate on things I love: Baking Bread.

BBD is hosted from Sarah From Snuggs Kitchen in this month and has the theme “Bread with vegetable”. And when I thought what to do with some sweet potato leftovers, I decided to put it in a bread. And the chickpea flour (chickpeas are vegetables, too) I neglected for a to long time would be a nice addition, too. And so I went to work in my kitchen, making bread with sweet potatoes and chickpea flour.

I had to reduced the amount of water which I added to the dough because the chickpea flour makes the dough very soft. But then handling the dough was possible and I placed the loaves in some proofing baskets and let them proof overnight in the fridge.

While I baked the loaves the next morning, the fragrance of chickpea filled the kitchen. And when I take the loaves out of the oven, they started to “sing” immediatly. The crackle of their crust already promised a crispy crust with a soft crumb. And the colour of the crust was stunning, too: A dark brown with deep orange slashes, with accents of white flour. A bread for all senses.

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December 23rd, 2011

Christmassy almond cloud

MandelwolkeThe last Bread Baking  Day of the year 2012 has the theme “X-mas Edition” and is hosted at Cindystar. I get the idea for a bread fitting to this theme some days ago, when I was on my way back home from work. It was already very late, I had lunch about 7 hours ago and I was hungry. So I stopped at the bakery in railway station and bought a bun called “Little cinnamon almond cloud”. That sounds good, doesn’t it? But when I take the first bite I was disappointed. The bun was not stuffed with crunchy almond pieces but with very sweet marzipan in a very sweet dough overpowering completely the faint cinnamon taste. Not what I expected when I read the beautiful name!

When I was sitting in the train I started to think about how I would do such a kind of bread. And so I used the time to develop a recipe for a sweet bread seasoned with cardamom, Cassia buds and allspice and enriched crunchy almond pieces. Its a rich bread with a lot of egg and butter and its perfect for breakfast on Christmas mornings. I achieved a cloud like look with dusting the bread thickly with powdered sugar baking.

This bread with its delicate spices and almonds resembles much more my idea of an almond cloud

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November 21st, 2011

Three grains bread with Cider

Dreikornbrot mit Cider

Autumn means for me nuts, especially hazelnuts and walnuts. But I bake already a Potato bread with walnuts, Apple-Hazelnut Bread and Pain aux Levain aux grains mélangés e noisettes. And before everyone (including myself) get bored with so much breads with nuts I decided to bake a bread with cider for BreadBakingDay because Apples are strongly connected with autumn for me, too.

The recipe I created included a small portion rye, just enough for some nice taste but not enough to challenge my stomach. I used some rolled oats and whole wheat flour, together with grounded caraway seeds which gave the bread a very nice taste. And spiced bread belongs to autumn/winter for me, too.

I liked the bread very much, especially with a hearty cheese and homemade mustard.

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July 24th, 2011

Pudding Pretzels

Puddingbrezel

Pudding pretzels or Pudding pastry are one of the best pastries you can buy in the bakery. They are so delicious that I even ignore that the boyfriend calls them “Eiterbrille” (that means pus-filled goggles). I know this term for them is common in the Rhineland but I don’t like it.

The pudding pretzels you can buy are made with danish pastry dough but when I made them last weekend I decided to use a simple challah dough instead. That saves some time and a lot of calories!

I filled the both of the loops of the pretzels with pastry cream and they bake very well. All of my fears of melting fillings that flood the oven did not hold true. I would have liked it if the filling melt a little bit at last so that the surface of the pudding would be more even. But it stays as rough as it was when I filled it in. Next time I have to take care to smoothen the surface! Continue reading