February 12th, 2015

Berliner Ballen with Sweet Starter

Berliner Ballen

I told you already in the last years, that I do not like carnival so much. What I like is baking and eating “Berliner Ballen”, the yam filled german doughnut which is served traditionally during the carnival days. And so I created a new recipe with a lot egg yolks for a very soft crumb and sweet starter for a good flavour and oven spring.

While frying the Berliner I learned a lesson I – in theory – already knew: A glass lid is not as effective in shielding the heat in the pot as a black enameled metal lid. For the first batch I used the glass lid so I was able to observe the doughnuts while frying. But the oven spring was not as good as it should be. So for the next batch I took the metall lid that belongs to my frying pot. And now the oven spring was perfect. The Berliner got the white “collar” – a part of the dough which is lifted out of the hot fat due to the oven spring and which is a sign for a well made Berliner Ballen.

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February 6th, 2015

Wiener Patzerlgugelhupf

Patzerlgugelhupf (2)

The Patzerlgugelhupf is a speciality from vienna. “Patzerl” means “a little bit” and the cake is called like this because of his different fillings: a little bit nut, a little bit quark, a little bit plum butter, a little bit poppy seeds. A cake which is perfect for people who can not make up their mind and a cake which is perfect to use up left overs. I saw a picture of such a cake in the net some time ago and fell into love with it. And so I had to bake him. And because I always love to use the sweet starter as preferment for pastry, I used him here as well. But for those who do not call this kind of sourdough their own: You can replace him easily with a biga! Continue reading

February 2nd, 2015

Baked Apple Cake

Bratapfelkuchen (1) It was snowing in the morning when I got up and it kept snowing. That is more snow then precasted  and we have a nice winter chaos out there. The main problem (like every year) are trucks without winter tyre. The traffic jam on our highway is at the moment about 20 km and I’m nearly happy that I’m on sick leave due to a fevery bronchitis and can stay home.

And so I use the time to show you the baked apple cake I made some weeks ago. The tiny little apples were part of my christmas decoration and slowly they have to be eaten. And because they where great as baked apple before I was inspired to bake a bake apple cake. It was a spontaneous idea. And just when I put the cake in the oven my parents called if we want to take a walk in the woods together in the afternoon. Maybe they smelled already the delicious cake?

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January 31st, 2015

Whole Grain Country Loaf

Vollkorn-Landbrot

Breads with spelt are still highly requested. There was for example the question if the Country Loaf could maybe be baked without wheat and with only whole grain flour. I thought a little bit and changed some details and sent my first draft to the reader. It took some time until I could test the recipe in practice. Here I had to realize that the hot soaker would be better with more water, and so I changed the recipe accordingly. But the rest of the recipe worked as planned.

And the bread is very delicious. Because it is whole grain the oven spring is a bit weaker, and the crumb is denser, but due to the soaker it stays fresh the whole week! The Pâte fermentée makes the flavour mild but complex and the long cold proof in the fridge even improves the aroma. It is really could when there are recipe questions to recipe question :-D!

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January 25th, 2015

Potato Knots

Kartoffelknoten (2)A short look through the kitchen cupboards produced a open glass of yoghurt, some boiled potatoes form our Lunch and a leftover of whole rye flour. Together with a little spoonful of sourdough (a idea I copied from Günther Weber) I kneaded them to a dough and let them rise over night. The next morning I formed and baked some rolls from this dough which rose highly while we splept.

The rolls I served shortly later for breakfast had a soft, fluffy crumb and a great complex flavour. A great roll for breakfast or brunch!

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January 19th, 2015

“Liebster” Award

liebster-award-logoI never like chain mails. In primary school I constantly ignored all the threads they included and threw them away instead of copying and send them forward. Blog awards are way better because their idea is a lovely one. But I do not want to send them forward today. And so I say “Thank you very much” to Backfreak for the “Liebster” (german for dearest) Award and ignore rule three to five:

  1. Link back the person who nominates you
  2. Answer the elven questions
  3. Nominate another (up to 11) bloggers
  4. asked 11 questions
  5. inform the nominated

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January 18th, 2015

Pure Spelt

Pures Dinkel (1)

A reader asked for pure spelt recipe here on the blog and I realized that there a only few and that recipes without sourdough are even fewer. And so I baked a pure spelt bread last weekend. It is a light bread with a little bit whole spelt flour, a poolish and a long rise to enhance the flavour.  I put the whole spelt floor into the poolish, so it had enough time to soak properly. Another part of the flour I mixed with water and placed it overnight in the fridge. The next morning I mixed the autolysed dough together with the poolish and a hot soaker. The hot soaker prevents the dough from baking dry, an often occurring problem with pure spelt bread.

The bread turned out to be a highlight: Great oven spring, crisp crust, soft crumb and a fantastic flavour.

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January 11th, 2015

Wholegrainy Wheat bread with sweet Starter

Korniges Weizenbrot (1)

There are these days when I I have to realize after a look into the fridge that there is no bread anymore. Those days when there is no bubbeling sourdough waiting on the counter. This are the days when I love my darling sweet starter most. After three hours (sometimes even faster) he is ready for baking. And when I combine him with a cold proof over night, then I get a bread with a deep complex flavour.

Last weekend it was one of these days and because I was longing for a bread with a big part of  whole grain flour I decided to feed the sweet starter with freshly milled whole wheat flour. I kept a close eye on him because he still very active and the minerals in the whole grain flour tends to make a sourdough ripening faster as well. And indeed after two hours the starter was ready and I could knead the dough.

After proofing the loaves in the fridge I baked them early in the morning and was very happy with the bread I pull from the oven. It has a crisp crust and a soft crumb with the great flavour of a long, cold proof. It is a good bread for cheese or honey and keeps fresh for a long time!

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January 5th, 2015

Samosa

Samosa

Normally I blog about bread and other delicious things and not about politics. But like Eva I feel stunned about the Pegida demonstrations. And I want to shout loudly: “You are not “the nation”! You are not representing the majority!” And everyone who walks side by side with neonazis is not longer walking in the middle of society but on the very rim! And so I follow Sherrys Appeal and state my opinion here. I want a Germany where we welcome every other culture and in which everyone can find a home. A Germany in which we act upon the human right declaration:

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. “

In my little corner of the world we often experience other culture through food.

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January 1st, 2015

Little Pigs (Glücksschweinchen)

Glücksschweinchen (2) The pig as lucky charm is very common in Germany on new years eve and new years morning.  They are called “Glücksschweinchen” which literally means “Lucky pig”. Often they are made with marzipan and used to decorate the table. For the first day of 2015 I baked in a muffin tin some little pigs made of sweet yeast dough.

I can not remember where I got the idea. A quick search in the internet just provided the side from the Doktor from Bielefeld but I’m quite sure that it was not this side… But wherever I got the idea in first place it is a very sweet one for sure!

I used the dough from my my new favourite braid (with some minimal modifications) because after some time in the fridge the dough is so easy to handle. And when you let the pigs rise long enough before placing the nose, eyes and ears on it they will not loose their face! And so you will have a delicious and sweet looking treat for breakfast, which hopefully brings good luck for whole 2015 for us!

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