Yearly Archives: 2013

November 10th, 2013

“Hefe und mehr”– Das Buch zum Blog

Buch Hefe und mehr

Jetzt ist es so weit.

Jetzt kann ich den Schleier lüften und von dem Projekt erzählen, dass ich pünktlich zum 5. Blog-Geburtstag fertig gestellt habe! Seit anderthalb Jahren habe ich an einem Buch gearbeitet, in dem ich einen ausführlichen Theorieteil zusammen mit meinen liebsten Rezepte der vergangen fünf Jahre zusammengestellt habe.  Und es erscheint diese Woche bei Books on Demand (BoD).

Angefangen hatte alles damit, dass meine Mutter mich bat, die schönsten Rezepte für sie als Buch zusammenzustellen, da die Blattsammlung an ausgedruckten Rezepten in ihrer Küche langsam überhandnahm.  Und so begann ich zu überlegen, wie ich ihren Wunsch umsetzen sollte. Der erste Plan war, einfach alle Lieblingsrezepte mit ein paar kurzen Vorbemerkungen zusammenzustellen. Die erste Rezept-Auswahl war schnell getroffen, genau wie die Entscheidung, das Ganze als Book on Demand zu veröffentlichen.

Doch die kurzen Vorbemerkungen wurden immer länger und ich immer unzufriedener. Denn ohne Grundlagen und einiger Einblicke in das Brotbacken mochte ich das Buch nicht veröffentlichen. Eine andere Struktur musste her. Aber welche?

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November 9th, 2013

Baumstriezel

Baumstriezel

Some recipes are so time consuming that they were only made for big events. The Baumstriezel is one of these recipes, something my Transylvanian ancestors would have bake for weddings and christenings. And maybe for a 5th Blog birthday as well?

A traditional Baumstriezel is baked over red hot coal wrapped around a  big piece of wood, rotating the cake until the sugar starts to caramelize. Even nowadays it is made rather seldom and so I’m always exited when I could get a piece.

So it seemed the perfect recipe to celebrate the fifth birthday of “Hefe und mehr”. But how to make such a cake without open fire in the kitchen (when setting the kitchen on fire was no opportunity)? I decided wrap the dough around a wooden rolling pin  and to use the overhead grilling function of my oven for baking. That means that I had to stay in front of my oven all the time during baking. Every minute I turned the rolling pin a little bit until the sugar caramelized at all sides.

It was quite time consuming but it worked out perfectly. And so I could enjoy some sweet Baumstriezel to honour my Blog Birthday (with ongoing Blogevent).

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November 9th, 2013

5 Years“Hefe und mehr”– Blog-Event and a Sneak Preview

BlogeventIt is time to celebrate! My “Baby” turns five today! Because I missed the blog birthday last year, this year it was marked red in my calendar!

Five years! Did I expect to be still blogging when I started “Hefe und mehr” 5 years ago? I don’t know but times keeps flying. When I look back I see that I baked 147 different Breads, 85 rolls and 108 different cakes, cookies and pastry. Not to mention 57 other recipes which fit in neither of the other categories. In the beginning I baked mostly recipes I found in books and other blogs, but soon I started creating my own recipes. And when I look back I realize how much I learned about baking and taking photos in the last years. The most exiting thing that happened until now was the Adventskalender I wrote for the Kaufmann-Verlag!

To celebrate the blog birthday I decided to start a small Blogevent! The theme is simple: Bake your favourite bread until 30. November 2013 and blog about it. No post from the archive, please! If you all ready posted your favourite bread, bake it again (maybe with some twist) and write a new post about it. Readers without blog are very welcome, too: I need the picture from the bread and the source (book, website, whatever) from you. For Participants with a postal Adresse in the European Union or Swiss I will give away 1x Adventskalender and 2x a Breadbakingbook (that’s the sneak)!

Banner

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November 4th, 2013

Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Kürbis-Zimtwirbel-Brot

I have a weakness for cinnamon. It does not matter in which way cinnamon is included ínto a yeast dough – kanelfläta, cinnamon waffles or cinnamon rolls – I love them all!

And so I was hooked when I saw a Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Bread for the first time. I kept thinking about a recipe for some time. At the beginning I planned to use the dough of my Pumpkin Sandwich Bread but  then decided that this dough would be to soft. And so I came up with a new recipe at the end, with Pâte Fermentée and butternut pumpkin puree and a swirl made of sugar, cinnamon and a little bit flour. The flour in the filling helps to keep the layers of the swirl together. With the same thought in my mind I decided to brushed the dough with water instead of molten butter to stick the filling to the dough.

The bread turned out as great as I hopede: a soft, fluffy crumb, a soft crust and the great taste of cinnamon and pumpkin – I love it!

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October 26th, 2013

Apple Hazelnut Rolls

Apfel-Haselnuss-Brötchen (2)And here is already the second recipe for freshly baked breakfast rolls. They need – similar to the last recipe – only a short time in the morning until they are ready to bake, but need a little bit more attention the evening before when the dough is prepared. The apple has to be peeled and cut, the soaker has to be made and the nuts hast to be roasted and cut. But the rolls are worth the effort! They are slightly sweet due to honey and apple with the deep flavour of roasted nuts and hazelnut oil, combined with the complex flavour of the long, slow rise over night.

That I soaked the apple pieces together with the rolled oats in boiling water was done by purpose. The apple I use is from an old variety (presumably Jakob Lebel) and turn brownish as soon as you cut them. This change in colour is due to the reaction of an Enzyme in the cells which are demaged by cutting the fruit. To scald the apples with boiling water denatures the enzymes and turns them inactive, so the apple pieces will not turn brown.

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October 19th, 2013

Breakfast Rolls with Yoghurt

Frühstücksbrötchen mit Joghurt (2) I was thinking about calling this recipe “Fast Breakfast Rolls” But then I realized that my kind of “fast” is not what other people would consider as “fast”. Fast means for me: I spent 15 minutes the evening before baking (and even then did my mixer most of the job) and need another 45 min the next morning (including shaping and baking) until I can serve the rolls. The ten to twelve hours the dough needs to rest do not count for me because during that time I normally sleep!

And during I sleep the dough develops a great flavour due to a long and slow fermentation. The little bit of yoghurt enhances the taste as well with it slight tangy flavour, similar to my favourite Yoghurt-Sesame-Rolls. The gentle shaping and short proofing period I saw on Brotdoc and it works very well for this rolls.

Flavourful, crusty and with a soft crumb are they perfect start into the weekend!

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October 16th, 2013

Pumkin Potato Bread baked in a baking frame

Kürbis-Kartoffelbrot

Some time ago my boyfriend built me a beautiful wooden baking frame. The frame is now well burned in, oiled and ready to use. And so I baked last weekend a potato pumpkin bread.

I found a sliced halve of a big butternut pumpkin from last year while I sorted the freezer. To make room for something new, I decided to use it in a bread. I baked the pumpkin side by side with some potatoes in the oven. To bake vegetables in the oven enhances the flavours. The already good flavour of the butternut gets even more intense. And this intense flavour can now be tasted in the bread, too, along with the complex flavour of the sourdough.

A great bread – or better said four – for World Bread Day 2013!

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October 13th, 2013

Kanelbullar

Zimtschnecken

Now we are really in the middle of autumn. It is this kind of autumn that makes you searching for your scarf and cap. This kind of autumn that puts soups and stews on top of your “to cook” list. And this kind of autumn which makes you cuddle up on the couch with a good book and a cup of tea. And if this cup of tea comes with kanelbullar, the Swedish cinnamon roll, then everything is good once again.

Would I tend to use exaggerated titles, I would call this cinnamon rolls “the world bests”. But do not and so I will only state: They are the best I bake until now. They have such a soft and fluffy crumb with a strong cinamon flavour, they won me over directly.

For cutting the rolls I used the trick with the dental floss: A dental floss is placed below the log shaped dough and the ends are crossed over the top of it. Pulling the sling together will cut the rolls in a perfectly manner!

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October 4th, 2013

Spelt Pretzel Rolls

Dinkel-Laugenknöpfe

Annette asked at the recipe for Ulmer Spatzen if she could use spelt flour instead of wheat flour for the rolls. I told her that it should be fine to bake the rolls with spelt. Parallel my brain started to work. I was dreaming about pretzels already for quite some time, so baking a spelt pretzel roll sounds great for me.

At the end I made a new recipe, because I decided that I would rather use a pâte fermentée and hot soaker to prevent the pretzel rolls from getting dry, something that can happen easily when baking with spelt flour.

Due to the soaker the rolls has the perfect crumb, dense but soft and not dry at all. A perfect pretzel roll!

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