December 16th, 2012

Spice Bread

Category Bread, Overnight  Tags: , , , ,   18 Responses

Gewürzbrot

Before the christmas treats take over completly I post another healthy bread.

I baked this bread for our christmas party together with the little Santa Hats. In the winter time I like rustic breads, made with whole grain flour and seasoned with bread spices like fennel, caraway or coriander. Especially in a sourdough bread with some rye flour .

To keep things simple I decided to let the bread rise overnight in the fridge. So at the next morning I just had to preheat the baking stone, slash the bread (as a christmas tree) and bake it while I get ready for work.

And what a mouthwatering flavour filled the kitchen during baking! But I battled the urge to cut the bread directly – just for testing – and waited till our christmas party. But then I tested it and  was satisfied – it tasted as good as it smelled. The spices and sourdough were blend together to a harmonic taste and the crust was crunchy. Very delicious!

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December 15th, 2012

Quince syrup

Category Drinks, Presents from the kitchen  Tags: ,   No Responses

Quittensirup

This year was a bad year for quinces and apples. There were only few on the the trees of my parents, and the fruits stays rather small, due to a mostly cold summer. But anyway, we harvested the few fruits and I cooked quince juice in my pressure cooker. And then I freeze it because the boyfriend protested against more quince jelly, because there was still glasses left from the last year when we had so much quinces.

In December I was planning to cook some little treats from the kitchen for my lovely colleagues and then I remember the quince juice once again. After thawing I cooked the juice with some sugar and vanilla bean, getting a delicious syrup. Mixed with some sparkling water this syrup is delicious, a perfect mixture of tartness and sweet fragrance, with a hint of vanilla.

I decoreated the bottles with some printed labels which I created with Inkscape. If you like, you can download them here.

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December 6th, 2012

Santa Claus Hats

Category Bread baking theory, Rolls  Tags: ,   6 Responses

Nikolausmützen (2)When I’m baking for my colleagues like for our christmas party today, I always try to find special forms for the rolls that fits to the season. This time I got inspired from a recipe from the TV show WDR Servicezeit and bake little Santa Claus Hats. The dough for this rolls is the same like the Spelt Rye Swirls and I let them ferment and bake them like described in the recipe.

The little Hats are easy to make. You have to roll the dough into a ribbon with 1 cm thickness and 12 cm width. Cut the ribbon into triangles with a 7cm width base (1). Now stretch the base and fold it over to form a 1.5 cm width brim (2). Then take the tip and fold it down, too (3). Wet the brim with some water (4) and sprinkle with sesame. To avoid sprinkling all over the hat, use a dough scrapper to shield the rest of the hat(5). For the pompon form a little dough ball with 1 cm diameter, dip on side in sesame and press it on the tip of the hat.

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December 5th, 2012

Piment-Hütchen mit Quitten-Nuss-Füllung

Category Christmas Cookies  Tags: , ,   3 Responses

Kardamom-Quitten-Hütchen

There was a delicious looking recipe in the christmas cookie edition of the magazine “Brigitte”. I do not read this magazine, but I like their cookie recipes and so I was very happy that you can download their recipes as well. The recipe I fell in love with was a Spritzgebäck seasoned with cacao and allspice. I mixed the dough and tried to pipe some cookies. But then I had to realize that I either need a stronger piping bag or that the dough was to dry. And so I put the dough in the fridge and started to rethink the plan. And after half an hour the dough had the perfect consistence for rolling and I had a new plan.

And so I rolled the dough, cut out circle, filled them with a hazelnut and quince jelly filling and folded the sides of the cookie so they formed little triangles. The mixture of allspice, quince and hazelnut fits together very nicely. So I’m not longer disappointed over the original recipe but very happy with my variation of the recipe.

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December 3rd, 2012

Bread Baking Day #54–Round up

Category Bread Baking Day, Overnight  Tags: ,   4 Responses

breadbakingday-roundup

When I announced BBD#54, I was so curios about the “Overnight”-Recipes. But then I had to wait … more or less patiently. It is so strange – I have a lot of patient when it  comes to bread baking – mixing a starter, let it develop, mix the dough, let it rise (probably overnight), baking it and then wait until the bread is cooled before slicing, that needs a lot of patiently waiting. But when I’m waiting for something to happen, like for the results of some very fascinating experiments in the lab or waiting for the entries for BBD, it is so hard to lean back and relax.

And so I’m very happy and exited that I can present you now all this great breads and rolls! We have sixteen entries from Thailand /Holland, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Sweden, Italy, Brazil, Spain, USA and Austria.

I tried to leave a comment at each post, but at one or two it was not possible because I lack the right type of account. So let me tell you here again that you all did a great job and that I enjoyed hosting this Bread Baking Day very much! The next BBD is hosted by Katha from Katha-kocht! and she will announce the theme at 6.December.

And now enjoy all these great Breads!

 

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December 2nd, 2012

Potato Carrot Bread

Category Bread  Tags: , , , , ,   6 Responses

Kartoffel-Möhren-Brot

Some of the best recipe are made by chance. And by chance I bake this delicious Potato Carrot Bread. We had a dish called “Möhren untereinander” for Supper. This is made of mashed potatoes and carrots, a typical dish in the Rhineland. And when we had some leftovers, I decided to bake a bread with it. I love all kinds of potato bread and so a potato carrot bread sounded perfectly to me.

After kneading the dough was still sticky but after three rounds of fold & strech the dough get a smooth sureface and was easy to handle.

In the oven the bread developed a very nice ovenspring and developed a thick, crunchy crust wiht a soft crumb. The taste is complex due to the sourdough and the subtle note of allspice, nutmeg and caraway. It goes perfectly with a bowl of soup or alone with some butter and fleur de sel.

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November 25th, 2012

Sonntagsbrötchen – BBD # 54

Category Bread Baking Day, Rolls  Tags:   10 Responses

20 Stunden-Brötchen

The submission deadline for Bread baking day moves nearer. And since this time I am the hostess of BBD, I should post my “overnight” recipe in time!

And so I have here a recipe for Sunday rolls which is prepared on Saturday around lunchtime. Due to the fact that the yeast amount is so small, the dough can rise about 16 hours at room temperature without any problem and the long fermentation creates a complex flavour. The next morning I will then form the rolls and let them rise during heating my baking stone. Two hours later the still a little bit sleepy boyfriend and me will sit on the breakfast table, enjoying fresh coffee and oven fresh rolls.

When I need a bigger amount of rolls I tend to form the first batch, wait about 20 min and then form the second batch. So all of the rolls go into the oven at the point where they are perfectly proofed.

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November 18th, 2012

Christstollen – the same procedure as last year …

Category Christmas Cookies, Special Occasions  Tags: , , , , ,   One Response

ChriststollenThere are only two weeks left until the first Advent! So its really time to bake some Christstollen.

I baked, without a change (!), my Christstollen recipe – like I did it in the last four years. I know that its unusual for me not to change a recipe, but this recipe did not only convince me but although my gourmet collegues and my unbribable honest father.

This christstollen stays very moist due to the water roux I included in the recipe and the spices I use (vanilla, mace, cardamom and cinnamon)makes it very delicious. Only a little bit of patient is needed because the Christstollen should be rest for some weeks before eating it. It needs the time so that all aromas can infuse the stollen and merge to a heavenly taste.

The recipe can be found here and the “How to form a christstollen” can be found here.

I sent this entry to Yeastspotting, Susans weekly showcase of yeast baked good.

November 9th, 2012

Cardamom Hazelnut Braid

Category Bread  Tags: , , , , ,   5 Responses

Haselnusszopf

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 Smiley

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November 6th, 2012

Bread Baking Day #54: “Overnight”

Category Bread Baking Day  Tags: ,   15 Responses

breadbakingday54It’s been three years ago that I hosted Bread Baking Day, a  blog event which was created by Zorra about five years ago, and we had a great round-up with 48 delicious Sweet Breads. And here I am again, honoured to be hostess of Bread Baking Day #54, too!

After Zorra presented us  a great round-up with 342 breads from all over the world at the World Bread Day 2012 last month, it was time for me to think about a theme for Bread Baking Day in november. And while last time I needed to think a while to find the right theme, this time it was very easy for me . During the last – often very busy – year, I became a big fan of overnight recipes. There are so many possibilities to make overnight breads or rolls!  And so I decided it would be great to use BBD to gather ideas for overnight breads and rolls.

And so the theme of this month BBD is “Overnight”! You could proof your dough or the loaves and rolls in the fridge or even at room temperature.  Play around with a recipe you like and converted it in a overnight version or test something completely new. I’m very curios about your creations!

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