Category Archives: Bread

November 9th, 2012

Cardamom Hazelnut Braid

Category Bread Tags: Cacao, Cardamom, Nuts, only with yeast, Pâte fermentée, Water roux 5 Responses

Where have the past days gone?How could this happen? I missed the fourth Blog-Birthday of “Hefe und mehr”!

And I had already a half ready “Happy birthday” post with the delicious cardamom hazelnut braid! A festive bread, perfect for a birthday breakfast!

The idea to put grounded hazelnuts in a bread was lingering in my head now for quite a while and at some point I decided that using homemade nut butter was an even better idea. Using one of my challah recipes combination with some hazelnut butter and dark cacao created a dark braid with an incredible soft crumb and a well balanced taste of nuts and chocolate. The idea to add some cardamom to the dough was rather spontaneously but the taste of it harmonize perfectly with the cacao and the nuts.

I was very pleased with the braid, and to prevent myself of forgetting the blog-birthday again, I have now a reminder in my calendar on my laptop and mobile

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October 22nd, 2012

Windfall Bread

Category Bread, Overnight Tags: Apple, Quince, Sourdough, Über-Nacht 3 Responses

When Martin presented his Windfall Bread with grated apples I knew that this is a recipe I had to test. And when I looked in the basket with windfall from my parents garden I saw some quinces which looked like they had to be used up quickly. And so I but some grated quinces in the in the bread dough, too.

The bread is really great with a moist and soft crumb and a hint of sweetness due to the fruits.

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October 16th, 2012

Yoghurt Bread

Category Bread, World Bread Day Tags: only with yeast, Pâte fermentée, Yoghurt 24 Responses

It is amazing how fast the year flies. It is already autumn and World Bread Day is knocking on my door. And because baking a bread with yoghurt for this day is somehow traditionally for me, I decided to bake again a Yoghurt bread in this year.

As preferment I decided to use Pâte Fermentée. I did not use this preferment for a bread for quite some time. I don’t know why because Pâte Fermentée is such a patient preferment. While Sourdough or Poolish are not willing to wait when they reach their peak the Pâte Fermentée will sit in the fridge until the baker finds time to come to kitchen and bake.

The Bread I pull from the oven the next morning (the loaf proofed in the fridge over night) had a nice even crumb which stays moist for a long time due to the yoghurt. Very delicious!

Happy Bread Baking Day!

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September 15th, 2012

Honey Spelt Bread

Category Bread, hand kneaded, Overnight Tags: Hand kneaded, Honey, Sourdough, Spelt, wheat free 38 Responses

Some German Bloggers already baked Martins Honungssyrad råg with variations. He played with the recipe, too. For me, the recipe was not so tempting because once again I try to avoid rye to reduce my skin irritations.

But the recipe kept spining in my head. When I can not use rye, what’s about spelt, I asked myself. The combination of spelt and honey is something I like very much. And my sourdough starter was so lively after the last warm summerdays. And so I decided to bake a sourdough bread with honey and spelt.

It has nothing in common with Martins recipe anymore despite the fact that it contains sourdough and honey.

The bread dough is easy to handle, but you need a little bit of time management: The sourdough is prepared in the morning, the dough is kneed in the afternoon and the bread is formed in the evening. It proofs then overnight in the fridge and 24 hours later you pull a delicious smelling out of the oven.

The slight sweetness of honey fits perfect to the mild aroma of the spelt while the sourdough adds a subtle tartness.

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July 24th, 2012

Chocolate bread

Category Bread Tags: Chocolate, Kako, Sourdough, Water roux 8 Responses

This bread deserves a chorous of praise. Already during baking it filled the house with a seductive chocolate fragrance. And then the first bite of the freshly baked bread … it was everything a chocolate bread can be: fluffy and soft, chocolately, not to sweet, heavenly!

And when you warm a slice of bread a little bit in the toast oven and then add a thin layer of Nutella this slice of bread is a chocolate dream which comes true!

And that makes it worth all the effort you have to put in making this bread. It is – I’m sorry to say this – not a bread for beginners. The dough is very soft and so it is not so easy to handle, but who dare the adventure will be rewarded with a gorgeous bread.

Important for soft crumb is to knead the dough to full gluten development like for the very soft and fluffy sandwich bread or the pumpkin sandwich bread. This strengthen the gluten network and allows the bread to rise highly. It helps to develope an even crumb, too, an effect which is enhanced by flattening and rolling the dough twice during forming the bread.

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July 14th, 2012

Flaxseed-Triangle

Category Bread Tags: flaxseeds, only with yeast, Poolish 39 Responses

Last weekend I thought about trying another shape for my loaves then the normal round boules or slender batards. I felt that it was time to bring some geometry in my kitchen and try to shape some triangles.

That the dough should contain 30% whole wheat flour, flax seeds and a poolish I had already decided the night before. A not to wet dough, perfect to test a new shape.

To shape the triangle, I preshape round loaves, let them rest for some time and then I flatten their sides and fold this “wings to the middle of the bread. That created a bread with the perfect triangle shape.

And the taste of the triangle is good, too. The flaxseeds adds a nutty flavor and the poolish give some complexity to the aroma of the bread. The crust is crisp and the crumb is open. A good bread for my lunch breaks!

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July 8th, 2012

Vinschgerln

Category Bread Tags: Caraway seeds, Fenchel, Koriandersaat, Rye, Schabzingerklee, Sourdough 18 Responses

I needed a small present for one of my colleagues. I know that he and his wife like to spend their vacations in South Tyrol and that they fell in love there with Vinschgerln – a rye flatbread, flavoured with caraway seeds, fennel seeds, coriander and “Schabziger-Klee” (Trigonella caerulea ). And I knew also that they tried to bake this bread but their recipe did not work proberly for them.

And so I decided to bake some Vinschgerln for them and give them the recipe, too. I made a little recipe research in the internet and found quite a lot recipes. But some contained not enough water, other recipes had to much yeast and some had a mixture of spices that seemed not original to me. Wikipedia described Vinschgerln as a Bread containing about 70% whole rye flour, and named al the spices needed, and so I decided to build my own recipe.

The bread I bake with this recipe is delious – packed with flavour of rye, spices and and sourdough.

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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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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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April 27th, 2012

Pain Bordelaise

Category Bread Tags: Rye, Sourdough 30 Responses

Here is another recipe for a bread that made already its ways through some blogs until I finally bake it. It started at Sourdough the angry baker, then Daniela from vegetarian gustos si sanatos baked it and at least Zorra from 1x umrühren bitte was very pleased with the recipe. Each of the breads appeared at Yeastspotting, too. The Name remembered me vaguely of something, and finally it came to my mine that I bookmarked this recipe in 2010 when Jeremy from Stir the pots posted the recipe.

I stick nearly complete to the recipe (I just skip the 10g of whole wheat flour – to lazy to mill this amount of wheat), and use Jeremeys instruction for kneading, which is rather short and developed the gluten network with stretching and folding the dough.

The recipe is really great: An easy-to-handle dough, great oven spring, open crumb, crispy crust and a delicious taste.

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