Yearly Archives: 2011

July 7th, 2011

Mohnstriezel

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: lactose free, only with yeast, Pâte fermentée, Poppy seeds 13 Responses

The weekend two weeks ago was very rainy and grey, and after a exhausting week in the lab I was in a really bad mood. But instead of staring out of window and asking myself where the summer has gone I decided to do something that cheers me up. Baking something is always good to brighten me up and it is my favourite cure against stress and and bad moods. To knead a dough, to feel how it develops and becomes soft and silky, to see how the dough slowly rise and to smell how the tempting aromas fill the house when it bakes in the oven relaxes me and make me happy again.

This time I decided to bake a Mohnstriezel (Poppy seed braid). Because the taste of poppy seeds alone in the filling can be overpowering I decided to mix the grounded poppy seeds with semolina pudding which I flavoured with some lemon peel. And because its sometime boring to use always the same form for this kind of bread I did a variation and cut the filled dough halfway in slices and fan them a little bit. This looks very attractive and taste so good!

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June 26th, 2011

Light Wheat-Spelt Bread with Sourdough

Category Bread Tags: Sourdough, Spelt 21 Responses

Whenever Martin posts a new Bread recipe I read the recipe attentively. His simple recipes and methodes are always worth a try.

This time he was inspired from Tartines Book Bread (its on my wishlist, too) and proofed his bread overnight in the fridge. For the dough he tested both kneading the dough with the kitchen machine and his gentle folding methode and both worked fine for him.

I changed the recipe a little bit (something that wouldn’t surprise anyone) because I don’t like to eat only white bread during the week. When I eat white bread I get hungry again much to fast. That does not happen when I eat bread with whole grain. And so I replace one third of the flour with whole spelt flour.

The bread I drew out of the oven is delicious, with an open crumb and a thick crust. It taste complexly of sourdough and whole grain, mild and not very sour. And it’s not complicated, it only needs a little bit time and scheduling. A new favourite!

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June 19th, 2011

Herb Fan Rolls

Category Rolls Tags: Barbecue, Basilikum, Garlic, only with yeast, Rolls 14 Responses

Baguette spread with garlic or herb butter is a must have at a barbecue for me. But on the other hand eating always the same things is a little bit boring, too. So I take the challenge to find something that is new and exiting for our big family barbecue this weekend.

Susan baked Pesto Fan Rolls some years ago. Something like this would be great. But I wanted something without cheese and nuts, to keep it on the lactose free and few histamine side. And so I puree some basil, parsley and garlic with oil to a beautiful green paste and spread this paste between the dough layers. For the dough I used some Poolish to add aroma and let the rolls rise in the fridge overnight.

The next morning I only had to bake the rolls – that’s perfect for days with less or no time to bake.

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June 18th, 2011

Curry-Ketchup

Category Sauces and Spreads Tags: Barbecue 7 Responses

Ketchup should taste of fruity tomatoes, a little bit sour and sweet. When we were craving for a Curry Ketchup some time ago I filled through “Vegetarian Basics” from Sebastian Dickhaut and Cornelia Schinharl and found a nice recipe.

To add pineapple to a ketchup sounds a little bit strange but nothing ventured, nothing ganined!

And so we started cooking. We didn’t stick to the recipe (what is normal for me). We did not peel the tomatoes (too much work) and add more curry, tomato paste and some vinegar. Without vinegar the ketchup was only sweet, but the vinegar makes it round.

Now is the mixture perfect: sour and sweet, fruity and hot.

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June 13th, 2011

Breakfast rolls

Category Rolls Tags: only with yeast, Poolish, Poppy seeds, Sesame 13 Responses

I like Martins simple “overnight dough” Method very much. In the last month I modified it a little bit so it fits more to my taste. I added a poolish to add more aroma to the bread and folded the dough three times to improve the crumb structure. I used this modified version first time for the simple wheat bread and my mum varied this recipe in the last month – baking it with different flours and seeds – and she was always pleased with the success.

For the rolls I stayed with Martins simple Overnight recipe for a long time, but now I wanted to test my poolish variant with the rolls, too.

I planed to bake buttermilks rolls, because buttermilk makes rolls delightful fluffy. But there was nothing but a tiny little bit of buttermilk sitting in the fridge, so I had to fill it up to the amount of liquid needed using some whey.

The resulting rolls are delicious, with a very thin crust and a soft crumb. This is a recipe I will bake again.

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June 8th, 2011

Wedding cake for my little Sister

Category Special Occasions Tags: Chocolate, raspberry, Vanilla, Wedding, White Chocolate 7 Responses

My little sister married end of april. And to my great joy she asked me if I would bake the wedding cake.

After talking a little bit with her and my (then still future) brother in law we decided that I bake a three tired wedding cake consisting of a raspberry white chocolate torte (28 cm diameter), a Sachertorte (24 cm diameter) and a lactoste free vanilla cream torte (18 cm diameter).

I calculated that I would need two days to make the cake: one for baking the raspberry white chocolate torte and the vanilla cream torte and one for decoration. Our Mum baked the Sachertorte after the recipe of Oma Bucholtz (fund at Schnuppschüss) 10 days before the wedding because this cake needs a long rest before serving.

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June 8th, 2011

Rollfondant

Category Cake & Pastry, Special Occasions Tags: Cake, Wedding 7 Responses

For the Rollfondant for the wedding cake I used the recipe I found in “advanced bread and pastry” from Michael Suas. Its can be made using a kitchen machine – something I like very much because it saves me from kneading a sticky sugar dough with my hands.

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May 29th, 2011

Soft Curd buns

Category Rolls Tags: Bread Baking Day, Curd, only with yeast 18 Responses

The Theme of this month’ bread baking day is “Bread with Curd”. You can find bread and Pastry made with curd very often on our table and I bake already two recipes for BBD with curd.

Because I like sweet buns ( they are called “Weckchen” in cologne”) very much I decided to bake some “Quark-Weckchen” (Curd buns) for bread baking day.

Curd makes bread moist and adds a subtle tartness to the dough. To prevent a to sour dough I decided to use a poolish as preferment. I kneaded the dough very long to make the crumb fluffy and regular and because of butter and egg the crust stays soft.

I do not use so much sugar for this buns, so if you like a more sweet bun like Pani di cena you should increase the amount of sugar.

The buns are everything that I love for a quiet breakfast: Soft, slightly sweet and slightly sour. Prefect for sunday mornings!

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May 28th, 2011

Madeleines

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: Egg, lactose free, low fructose, Vanilla 3 Responses

Marcel Proust connected the taste of Madeleines with memories of his childhood, as he described in “Remembrance of things past”. I do not have any associatations of the taste of Madeleins with memories of my days as a child because the first time I ate a madeleine is only some weeks ago when I used my new madeleine pan for the first time.

But it was love on the first bite. They are a little bit crisp when they are fresh from the oven with a spongy crumb.

Their taste a little bit eggy and my sister told me that their taste reminds her at the egg cookies we ate when we were children (and there he is, the “Proust moment”). My recipe is fructose reduced and lactose free because I used rice malt syrup and Margarine. Of course you can replace the margarine with butter and the syrup with a mild creamy honey like spring flower honey or fruit flower honey when you don`t have to think about such restrictions.

I made the madeleine at the moment often, they are so delicious, beautiful and so easy and fast to bake!

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May 22nd, 2011

Sandwich bread with 2 preferments–very soft and fluffy

Category Bread Tags: Toast 30 Responses

I don’t like Sandwich bread so much – normally. Especially I am not a big friend of toasting sandwich bread – but thats the kind of bread that my boyfrind love and so I bake this kind of bread, too. And I like the challenge to create a soft and fluffy light bread.

To archive a regular crumb which you can tear away in long fibres you have to knead the dough intensively and degas the dough very well before forming a loaf.

This tricks I used for sandwich breads before, but when I saw the extra soft Sandwich bread of TXFarmer at Yeastspotting I note all the Tips and Hints in Handling the dough. The Sandwich bread of TXFarmer contains egg white instead of whole eggs. That’s add extra protein to the dough which makes the crumb more stable without changing the look or taste of the bread like adding whole egg or egg yolk would do.

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