Category Archives: Bread

February 22nd, 2014

Pain Pavé

Category Bread, hand kneaded, Overnight Tags: Hand kneaded, Rye, Sourdough, Über-Nacht 21 Responses

During our last vacation in france I fell in love with the flat, rustic looking Pain Pavé. Pavé means cobblestone and refers to the flat, rectangular shape of the breads. Most of the time they are cut crosswise or with a rhombical pattern.

My version of the Pavé is made with rye sourdough and a long, cold fermentation in the fridge. That helps, together with the folds of the dough, to develope an open crumb and a deep, complex flavour.

It is a bread which goes very well with a flavourful winter soup or very simple with only some goat brie!

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January 30th, 2014

Oberberger Ärpelbrot

Category Bread, Overnight Tags: Potatoes, Rye, Sourdough, Über-Nacht 56 Responses

In the dialect of the region where I live – the Oberbergische Land – potatoes are called “Ärdäppel” which means earth apple. In a shorter variant it is drawn together to “Ärpel”. And putting some potatoes in a bread dough (which makes it to a Ärpelbrot – Potato bread) was a good idea to all times. In former times this helps to save precious flour (especially in regions where grains do not grow so well like here in the Oberbergische Land), and nowadays we like the effect which potatoes have on the bread, keeping it moist and making the crumb soft and tender.

It is a great bread for all meals, and with the curved slashes it is a beautiful eye catcher as well.

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January 1st, 2014

New years pretzel 2014

Category Bread, Special Occasions Tags: New year, Sweet starter, Zopf 8 Responses

I hope, you all had a good start into the new year!

We spent our new year’s eve very quite with hot tea instead of sparkling wine because I had to fetch a bad cold – but that’s a kind of unforgettable new year’s eve, too 😉

But (and that should proof once again that I’m crazy) I decided to ignore the fever for a while because I can not start a new year without a homebaked new year’s pretzel! And so I take out a leftover sweet starter I kept in the fridge for 5 days. The Starter didn’t mind the time spend in the cold and tripled in size after feeding in only three hours! I then mixed the dough and trusted the sweet starter once again to be enough for a proper rise. The longer time it need to for rising and proofing was perfect for me so I could sleep in between 😉 If you want to speed up the recipe, at a little bit of yeast. Or make half of the recipe of the swiss butter braid instead, which yields a great bread, too.

The pretzel is very delicous, with a soft crust and a fluffy crumb, just the prefect way to welcome 2014!

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December 29th, 2013

Pandoro (pure Sourdough)

Category Bread, Cake & Pastry, Christmas Cookies Tags: Butter, Egg, Sweet starter, Vanilla 28 Responses

Since I tasted Pandoro many years ago I’m madly in love with this cake/bread. I love the light crumb, the flaky crust and its taste of vanilla and butter.

Until now I baked two different recipes: The Pandoro from the sisters simili which I found on Chili und Ciabatta and the recipe from the SFBI, which Susan published on Wild Yeast. The Pandoro of the Simili-Sisters is a yeast based one, with the butter laminated into the dough, while the SFBI-Recipe uses both sourdough and yeast and the butter is kneaded into the dough.

This year I dared to create my own recipe, with laminated butter for a crumb that can divided into long strands. It is risen with the pure power of a sweet starter. Continue reading →

December 27th, 2013

Country bread with sweet starter

Category Bread, Bread Baking Day Tags: BBD, Sourdough, Spelt, Sweet starter 40 Responses

I love to bake Pandoro, but in the busy Christmas time I do not always find the time to prepare the time consuming Sweet Starter. But this year I had enough time for it during the holidays. A Sweet Starter is an extremly active sourdough which is prepared by feeding a sourdough every four hours and keeping it on 30°C. This shifts the sourdough to the yeasty side and creates a sweet tasting sourdough with only hints of yoghurt flavour. And it makes the starter very strong, and so my starter was finally able to double its size in two hours. Such an active starter is a very nice thing and so I decided to increase the amount during feeding until I could use a part of it to start a preferment for a bread. I mixed the preferment in the morning and after four hours the sourdough more then tripled it size and was ready to use. And so I mixed a dough, fermeted it for three hours and then I proofed the shaped loaves overnight in the fridge.

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December 12th, 2013

Korianderbrot

Category Bread, hand kneaded, Overnight Tags: Hand kneaded, Koriandersaat, only with yeast, Pâte fermentée, Über-Nacht 7 Responses

Ground Coriander seeds have a long tradition as bread spice. When I roasted some coriander seeds for an indian dish some weeks a go I suddenly had the idea of a bread with whole, roasted coriander seeds in my mind. A bread similar to a caraway seed bread.

Thought and done… The next week I roasted some seeds and put them in a bread dough. I let the dough rise over night at room temperature and the next morning I formed a (big) loaf and baked it.

During baking a aromatic fragrance filled our flat and so it was hard to wait until the bread cooled down before tasting. But the flavour is worth wating! When my teeth hit a seed I can taste the slight peppery flavour of coriander seeds. And like a caraway seed bread goes very well with hearty spreads or cheese. But it is also a perfect side for a soup like the fennel celery soup we had last week.

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November 23rd, 2013

Rieska

Category Bread Tags: Fladenbrot, Potatoes 2 Responses

I didn’t know that something like Rieska exists until World Bread Day, but when I saw the entry of Miss Boulette I was hooked.

Rieska is a finnish flatbread and can be baked in different variations. They are baked without yeast or other leavening. This recipe, which stems from Scandi Food is made with mashed potatoes. The potatoes keeps the crump soft and moist, while the flatbread develops a thin crust during baking. Served still warm with a bit of butter this is bread is a real treat!

And because Zorra collects Breads baked after a recipe from the WBD roundup for Bread Baking Day, I send this recipe to her!

And if you want to join my Blogevent for the 5. Blog-Birthday, there is still time until 30. November 2013!

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November 17th, 2013

Angeschobenes Weizenmischbrot

Category Bread Tags: Backrahmen, Blog-Birthday, Lieblingsbrot, Pâte fermentée, Rye, Sourdough, Wheat 13 Responses

I wished that everyone bake his/her favourite bread for my 5. Blog-Birthday. But as Zorra and Melanie >I had to face the fact that I already blogged about my favourite bread! And to bake it once again seemed a little bit borring to me. And so I decided to do something I was think about for already quite some time: I doubled the amount and baked the bread in the wooden baking frame, similar to the Pumpkin Potatoe Bread I baked for World Bread Day.

Due the isolating capacity of the thick wooden frame and other breads, the loaves develop no crust on its sides, while bottom and top get a thick, aromatic and crisp crust due to the long baking time. The crumb is very soft and light with only small holes, so that the honey will stay on my breakfast bread, too. A perfect every day bread that taste good with sweet spreads and hearty cheese. And due to the different kind of baking it taste really a little bit different to the “normal” bread, the flavour has somehow more depth.

So this is my part for my Blog Event. Whoever wants to submit a bread can do so until 30th November! Readers without blog can participate, too! All informations about the Blogevent you can find here. Continue reading →

November 4th, 2013

Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Category Bread Tags: Cinnamon, Kürbis, only with yeast, Pâte fermentée 7 Responses

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 16th, 2013

Pumkin Potato Bread baked in a baking frame

Category Bread, World Bread Day Tags: Backrahmen, Kürbis, Sourdough 15 Responses

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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