December 5th, 2014

Neu im Shop: Weihnachtliches Geschenkpaket

image2993Ich mache jetzt ganz kurz ein bisschen Eigenwerbung, danach geht es hier aber ganz schnell mit Rezepten weiter.

Aaaalso: Im Büchershop gibt es in der Weihnachtszeit zwei Geschenksets, so dass der oder die Beschenkte direkt mit dem Backen loslegen kann. Das eine Set besteht aus dem “Hefe und mehr”-Buch, einem 750g-Gärkörbchen aus Peddingrohr und 1kg Weizenmehl Type 550 von meiner Lieblingsmühle,. Das zweite Set enthält “nur” das Buch und das Mehl. Beide Sets werden als Geschenk verpackt geliefert (s. Bild) und wer mag, bekommt natürlich auch eine Widmung.

Falls jemand jetzt noch ein Weihnachtsgeschenk brauch … bitte hier entlang

Und natürlich gilt auch hier der Gutscheincode für Versandkosten: 92e5bdafa3

November 28th, 2014

Champignoncremesuppe

Champingonsuppe

As soon as the thermometer drops below 10°C I start longing for soup. It is already half year ago that my sister served us this particular soup (that’s when I made this picture) but since fall started I cooked it already more than once.

It is an easy and fast dinner, especially when I come home freezing. Then I just need about 10 min in the kitchen and a warming soup is ready. Served with a slice of Baguette or a piece of Bread and I’m a happy person again.

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November 22nd, 2014

Lye rolls with sweet Starter

Laugenstange

It is near to self torture to bake lye rolls which has to be frosted as soon as they are cooled. While starring on the still hot rolls I asked myself: “WHY? Why did you not make the double amount?” Because I LOVE lye rolls. But I proofed that I can control myself and did not snack a single one. But just because they were meant for the birthday brunch of my love.  If they wouldn’t be for him, I would not guaranteed for anything…

For this lye rolls I followed Dietmars advice and warmed the lye to 30°C. This gave the rolls an incredible shine! And because they are so delicious and beautiful and a star for every birthday table they are perfect not only for my loves birthday but as well for my blog birthday event!

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November 15th, 2014

Pumpkin seed bread with roasted Pumpkin

Kürbisbrot (3)

The nice sales girl in my parents favourite bakery gave them some slices of bread to test, mentioning that she like it very much but strangely the other costumers did not buy it. My parents tested it and agreed that it is very delicious. At the end, they bought the last loaf.

When they told me about it my brain started to work immediately and soon I had a plan for the next baking day. The basis for the recipe is my favourite wheat and rye bread to which I added roasted pumpkin and pumpkin seeds. For the form of the loaves I tried to mimic a pumpkin, too.

The bread had a good oven spring and smelled divine when I pulled it from the oven. It was hard for me to wait until the bread cooled but my patient was rewarded. The bread had a crisp crust and a regular soft crumb speckeled with orange pumpkin and green seeds.

It is a great bread and for sure not the last time I baked it.

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November 9th, 2014

Six Years “Hefe und mehr” – The Birthday Blog Event

Blogevent eng

It is six years ago since I wrote my first blog post. Can you imagine that? And each year I look back in amazement. It seems to be just yesterday that I press the “publish” button for the first time.  And now my “Baby” is old enough to be a school kid! How time is flying…

The success of my book amazes me , too. It was sold more than thousand times and that without a big publisher or a lot of marketing. I got a lot positive feedback which makes me very happy. I never hoped that so many people would like it! And just in time for the Blog Birthday Bod lowered their prices for hardcover and so I can now offer a hardcover version of “Hefe und mehr” as well.

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November 8th, 2014

Weckmann

Weckmann

The Weckmann is a tradtional bread baked in germany between Saint Martins Day and Christmas. In the Rhineland they are given to children after the Saint Martin procession.

It is five years ago since I posted the last Weckmann recipe.  I baked them than for my first blogbirthday. This year I felt that I would like to try a new recipe, with cream, egg yolk and a biga as preferment. The cream makes the dough very tender and the dough is easy to handle, too. And using cream instead of butter makes it easy to let the dough rise in the fridge, so you can bake them freshly the morning if needed.

They have a tender crust and soft crumb and a perfect to enjoy them together with a cup of hot cacao.

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November 1st, 2014

Seeded Crisps

Saaten-Knusperchen

I admired already for some time the gorgeous looking seeded crisps which I saw on different blogs. They sound like a Mixture of biscotti, zwieback and cracker, with a hugh amount of seeds. That was very tempting but every recipe I found used baking powder or soda as rising agent. I don’t like the taste of baking powder so much and so I decided to make a recipe of my own, using yeast instead of baking powder. I take my inspirations from different seeded crisps and  zwieback recipes.

With yoghurt and butter make a tender crumb, honey and malt add a subtle sweetness and the nutty taste comes from a mixture of hazelnuts, sun flower seeds, sesame, pumpkinseeds and buckwheat. After baking the loaf has to cool completly, best over night. Then it is sliced and baked for another 30 min. This makes the bread crisp and adds a nice flavour of toasted nuts.

The Seeded Crisps are perfect on their own but although great to go with wine and cheese!

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October 26th, 2014

Wheat Spelt Baguette

Dinkel-Weizen-Stange (2)

This Weekend I planed to bake the Baguettes which Sara posted on her Blog. But when I mixed the poolish I ran out of white flour. It was already late evening, it was cold and raining and I did not want to leave home again to run to the supermarket. Instead I checked what was left: rye flour was no alternative, but white spelt flour and a darker wheat flour was looking very good.  And because the planed recipe was now out of discussion I mixed a bigger batch sourdough with the darker wheat flour and made an autolysis dough with the spelt flour.

The next morning I kneaded the dough by hand and let it rise for the hours at room temperature with some folds in between. Then we left home to buy and plant some apple trees with my spouses parents. When we came home late afternoon I heated the oven and formed the dough to baguettes. When I pulled the loaves from the oven they smelled divined. So we ate one while still warm. And it tasted as good as it smelled. Crunchy crust, middle open crumb and a deep, complex flavour due to the two preferments and the cold fermentation. A unplanned bread which turned into a favourite!

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October 24th, 2014

Stollen 2014: It’s time to start planning

Saftiger Stollen

One thought hits me every year out of the blue at the End of October: Its only a month left till advent! And because my family has the tradition to eat christstollen at the first advent Sunday, I have to start my stollen baking early enough because a good stollen needs two to four weeks storage to develop the perfect flavour!

The recipe I use is unchanged since five years and I will use it this year again.And when I stop changing recipes then this means something! In the last years I collected my recipe, tips and tricks on the blog. Last year I although added two variants of my stollen which I baked ADDITIONALLY to the traditional one.

To give you a guide to recipes and tips is here a overview: Continue reading

October 19th, 2014

Quinoa Baguette

Quinoa-Stange (2) The pseudo grain quinoa is a fast side dish I like to make instead of rice. The flat seeds stems from the Andens and are packed with protein and minerals and they are delicious! So I was directly hooked when I saw a bread made with a relative high percentage of quinoa because they contain no gluten. Sadly I can not remeber anymore, where I saw the bread. But I could not get the thought of quinoa bread out of brain and so I decided today spontaneously quinoa baguettes.

I used 30% of home milled quinoa and was surprised how well the dough behaved. It needed a little bit more water then I expected but after some folds it developed a good gluten network. The flavour of quinoa was well recognizable when I knead the dough and while baking the whole kitchen was filled with the aromatic nutty smell. I was really exited when I cut the bread after cooling down. The crumb is not as open as a baguette but moist and flavourful. The nutty taste harmonizes perfectly with some goat cheese and honey mustard!

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