Yearly Archives: 2012

June 16th, 2012

Bergische Knüppel

Category Rolls Tags: only with yeast, Poolish, Rolls 6 Responses

I was very happy with the taste of the “Berliner Knüppel” but their crust was to soft in my opinion. And so I decided to bake another variation, containing less milk but add some butter to the recipe.

I also decrease the time I gave the rolls for proofing. After I realized that their ovenspring was not as high as expected I go down to 35 min and put the rolls in the oven when still a little underproofed. Now they have the kind of ovenspring I was aiming for.

And after changing the recipe so much I decided to change the name, too. Now I call them “Bergische Knüppel” because I am living in the “Bergische Land”.

The rolls are very satisfying now: a complex aroma, crispy crust and soft crumb, that is how a roll should be.

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June 16th, 2012

How to form “Knüppel”

Category Bread baking theory Tags: Bread baking theory, How to do 2 Responses

Divide the dough into pieces of 80g each. Roll each piece to a ball and rest for 15 min. Press the balls to a disc with thicker rims and a thinner middle. Fold one half of the disk on the other side, forming a halfcircle. Roll with four fingers to a short log.

June 10th, 2012

Berliner Knüppel with Sauerteig

Category Rolls Tags: Rolls, Sourdough 5 Responses

Lutz baked “Berliner Knüppel” this week after a recipe from an old cook book. In the first Variation with no preferment he used a relatively high amount of yeast – to high in my opinion – and Lutz described that he could taste the yeast in the baked rolls. I do not like it when the yeast taste is dominating the bread and so I decided to bake Berliner Knüppel with sourdough. In the same time Lutz created a Knüppel-Recipe with Poolish.

The dough of the Knüppel is firm and to form them properly, it is important to roll them strong enough otherwise the rolls will unfold themself in the oven.

The flavour of the rolls is very nice and the crumb is soft and fluffy like it should be, but the the crust is to soft in my opinion. The next time I will try to replace the milk with water and add some butter in the dough to keep the crumb soft.

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June 4th, 2012

Heath bread

Category Bread Tags: Buckwheat, only with yeast, Rye, Sourdough 13 Responses

This bread is baked memory at a beautiful vacation in the Lüneburger heath two years ago.

In this region, like in other moor and heath regions with meagre farmland, growing grains is difficult. For centuries, buckwheat was grown instead of wheat or rye in this regions, until growing potatoes became popular during the regency of “old Fritz”. In Germany, buckwheat is sometimes called “Heidekorn” what means heath grain, referring to the fact that its mainly grown in heath regions.

Buckwheat is not a real grain, it belongs to the family of Polygonaceae and is related to sorrel and rhubarb. Buckwheat contains not gluten and can added to bread only in small amounts.

When I found some leftover buckwheat flour which I bought during our vacation, I decided to use it an a bread dough.

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June 3rd, 2012

Spelt rye swirls

Category Overnight, Rolls Tags: only with yeast, Rye, Spelt, Über-Nacht, wheat free 35 Responses

I met my mother, my sister and a very good friend for breakfast and promised to supply us with some rolls.

I planed to bake fresh rolls instead of buying some, but the day before I came home late, so I decided to prepare a dough and let it rise over night. As form for the rolls I thought about makeing them as a swirl. I saw this kind of rolls at Chaosqueen, but she used a roll stemp to achive the swirl.

I do not have this kind of stamp, and so I had to think about another way to get the swirls. And so I roll the dough to strands and wind up the strands to form swirls.

The form looks very nice and their taste was very good, with hints of nuts due to the spelt and rye flour and a deep, complex flavour because of the long fermentation. The crust was crunchy and the crumb fluffy, just as a good roll should be!

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May 29th, 2012

Fraisier–eine Erdbeer-Vanille-Torte

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: Erdbeere, Torte, Vanilla No Responses

I tend to bake a torte for my dads birthdays. This year I asked him if he like to have a torte with vanilla and strawberries, he liked the idea and so I decided to bake Fraisier. The Fraisier looks pretty cool because the strawberries at the rim are split, so that you can the them nicely.

Sadly I can not tell you how the cake tasted because I am allergic against strawberries. But nearly the whole cake vanished, so I think the guests liked it :-).

We spent a great day in my parents garden. It was niece weather and niece people, so we could just relax.

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May 28th, 2012

Salzekuchen

Category main courses, Tartes & Quiches Tags: Curd, Onions, only with yeast, Potatoes 2 Responses

I like to watch the regional TV shows from other parts of germany because I always learn something new about this region. This time I learned about a pie called “Salzekuchen” in a TV show about the hessian kitchen. After a little search in the internet, I know now that Salzekuchen is also called Ploatz, Plootz or Bloads and is typical for Hesse, Parts of Franconia and the region of Rhön and Hohelohn. It is made of a Bread dough which is topped with a potato or onion mixture. A typical dish in former days, when the village meets for baking bread. For lunch a part of the dough was set aside and used for Salzekuchen.

I decided to make the potato salzekuchen, but I change the recipe a little bit. The original recipe called for about 200ml canola oil. I think this amount is a little bit to much for nowadays where people normally spend most of their days in offices instead working heavily on a farm.

This lighter variant of Salzekuchen is very delicious and we will eat this again, for sure!

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May 24th, 2012

Sour cream – Curd Ice cream with Raspberries

Category Ice Tags: Curd, Ice, raspberry, Saure Sahne 4 Responses

The last days were really warm and humid – it seems like summer is already here. And so it is time to start the ice cream season.

In the lab we did already the first ice cream of summer, our favourite lemon yoghurt ice cream.

After we spend a lot of time in a hot train on our way home after work, the boyfriend and me needed something to cool down again. And so I inspected the content of the fridge and decided to prepare a sour cream – curd ice cream with raspberries.

I like this kind of fruit ice creams at hot days very much.

This recipe is easy to prepare and delicious creamy, with potential as favourite ice cream of the summer

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May 19th, 2012

Rhubarb Napoleons

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: Rhababer, Sahne 2 Responses

I like rhubarb very much, as I told you before. And when my mum gave me a generous amount of rhubarb fresh from my parents garden I made a second batch of oven roasted rhubarb. Some of the rhubarb I eat with my muesli during the week, and on the weekend I started to think what to do with the leftover jar.

A little bit sweet to our afternoon coffee sounds like a good idea and so I decided to make Rhubarb Napoleons. When you make them with store bought puff pastry, its an easy and fast treat, but made with homemade puff pastry its even more delicious.

The filling is rather easy, but luscious – whipped cream and oven roasted rhubarb.

Perfect for sunday afternoons.

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May 18th, 2012

Sweet potato and Chickpea Bread

Category Bread, Bread Baking Day Tags: Kichererbsen, Sourdough, Süßkartoffel 12 Responses

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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