December 25th, 2010

Christmas tree rolls

Category Rolls, Special Occasions  Tags: , , , , ,   No Responses

Weihnachtsbaum-BrötchenFor raclett with the family on christmas eve I volunteered to bring some bread. I decided fastly, that I want to bake Sacaduros. But then I feel that I would like to bring something with whole wheat, too.  Simple rolls are to boring for Christmas I thought but then I remember something I saw last year on Cindystar: beautiful Christmas tree rolls.

They are not so difficult to make: Rolls in the shape of stars in different sizes are pilled on each other and fixed with a wooden skewer.

Because I do not own big cookie cutters in form of a star I used Bertinets Methode to form Stars. The holes in the middle of this star I filled with small dough balls.

These little Christmas trees are a nice Eye catcher for the Christmas table Continue reading →

December 23rd, 2010

Black and white Kisses

Category Christmas Cookies  Tags: ,   4 Responses

Schwarz-Weiße KüsschenWhen I saw the Black&White Kisses from foodmayhem at Tastespotting  I fall in love with this little meringue puffs. I had to bake them directly! And because I planned to bake linzer cookies I used half of the dough for the kisses instead.  And some left over egg white I always found in my kitchen during Christmas baking.

I use all my left over chocolate which I grind finely. I used about three times of the chocolate amount the recipe ask for.

To make the cookies lactose free I prepared the dough with margarine.

The small kisses are beautiful, delicious and easy to do. I like the feeling when the kisses melt in the mouth. Chocolate and meringue are a perfect couple. Another new Christmas favourite. Continue reading →

December 22nd, 2010

Fruitbread

Category Bread, Bread Baking Day  Tags: , , , , ,   13 Responses

Früchtebrot(2)I planned to bake “Kletzenbrot” this year. Kletzenbrot is named after the Kletzen which are added to the dough and this Kletzen are dried pears. But then I remembered that I have to big glasses filled with dried apples in the pantry because this autumn  I dried a lot of the apples we harvest. (I mentioned before that we harvest lots and lots of apples this year, didn’t I?)

So I decided to use some of this dried apples in the bread instead of dried pears. And so I call it Fruit bread and not Kletzenbrot.  The dough I used is a simple bread dough with sourdough. The sweet of this bread comes from the added fruits and nuts. It tastes most delicious cut in very thin slices and spread with some butter. It is my favorite bread for breakfast at the moment and it keeps fresh for a long time because of the fruits and the sourdough.

This fruit bread is my post for the last Bread Baking Day of 2010, which theme is “Bread with dried Fruits”. Continue reading →

December 18th, 2010

Vanillekipferl(without nuts or almonds)

Category Christmas Cookies  Tags: ,   10 Responses

VanillekipferlVanilla crescents without nuts or almonds? And then made with margarine instead of butter, too?

When baking for friends and family members with special diets like lactose free and with as less histamine as possible you have to consider some details: You can not use any kind of nuts and diary products are not permitted.

But what is Christmas without Vanillekipferl? To me this cookies belong to Christmas like candles and Christmas trees. So I started to search the web for alternative recipes. I found few and all said that the crescents are not as brittle as the original version. I could not accept this and started to create my own recipe basing on my usual Vanillekipferl-Recipe.  I replaced the almonds with starch which made the cookies as brittle as the Kipferl made with almonds. Continue reading →

December 13th, 2010

Lussekatter

Category Rolls, Special Occasions  Tags: ,   3 Responses

LussekatterI fall in love with Lussekatter – Lucia cats – already last year. This little buns are from Sweden and are a traditional treat on 13. December. Last year I had no time to bake them but this year I made the little saffron buns punctual for Saint Lucia’s Day.

Looking for an recipe in the Internet I realize that there are to groups of recipes: one using kesella – a kind of curd, the other one being a normal yeast dough. Adding curd to the buns helps to make them softer. But I decided to use no curd but to add some water roux to the dough which adds more moisture to the dough and makes it soft, too. Then I reduce the amount of yeast found in most recipes, and let the dough rest overnight in the fridge. The cold dough is much easier to handle at the next morning.

The lussekatter are a beautiful treat for the breakfast table during christmas time, with a beautiful yellow crumb and the gentle taste of saffron.

Continue reading →

December 12th, 2010

Thüringer Spitzbuben

Category Christmas Cookies  Tags: , , ,   3 Responses

Thüringer SpitzbubenI tested already some new christmas cookie recipe this year but not one was as good as the ones I bake every year during my christmas baking. But this weekend I came across the recipe for “Thüringer Spitzbuben”. The name Spitzbube left me puzzled because I knew the term Spitzbube as an alias for Linzer Cookies, the delicous cookies filled with red currant jelly.

But the “Thüringer Spitzbuben” are not filled with some jelly, instead an almond is pressed in the middle of the cookie and glazed with some egg yolk. The dough is seasoned with cacao and cinnamon and smells irresistible during baking.

It has no similarity to his namesake but it taste delicious. I like the combination of almonds, cacao and cinnamon very much and so there is a good chance that this recipe will be added to the recipes I bake every year. Continue reading →

December 10th, 2010

Ulmer Laugenspatzen

Category Rolls  Tags: ,   5 Responses

Ulmer LaugenspatzenWhen Petra posted the recipe for Ulmer Laugenspatzen (Lye sparrows of Ulm) I thought instantly “I have to bake this!”. But then I baked a lot of other breads and forget about the little sparrows. But last weekend they told of lots of snow in the weather forecast so we knew that we we would stay better at  home and do little beside of shovel snow and drinking hot tea afterwards. When snow is falling outside I like to be in the kitchen baking Christmas cookies and bread. After baking a lot of cookies I wanted to eat something salty and so I remembered the Laugenspatzen.

I changed the recipe a little bit (of course!) because I used a different preferment then Petra. That was due to the fact that I plan to bake some toast bread and thought that it would be easier to use the same preferment for both dough.

The Laugenspatzen are very delicious, soft and salty. Continue reading →

December 4th, 2010

Apfelpunsch

Category Drinks  Tags: , , ,   No Responses

ApfelpunschI like Christmas markets – if they are not crowded – and when I visit one with friends or colleagues we normally end our tour at a Glühwein stand. I do not like Glühwein not so much so I drink one of the non alcoholic drinks their offer. The hot chocolate is often not so good and the qualitiy of the “Kinderpunsch” differs very much from market stand to market stand.

This year I tested one that was just made from white grape juice and spices which was not bad but for my taste it was to sweet. And then I discovered the Apfelpunsch stand at the Christmas market on the Altermarkt in cologne. This was very delicious, a not so sweet heated apple juice, seasoned with cinnamon and clove.

Coming home after a long walk in the snow we both liked something hot to get warm again. And so I recreated the Apfelpunsch at home. It is easy to prepare and delicous so I think I will serve the punsch more often this winter. Continue reading →

December 4th, 2010

Starting a Sourdough Starter

Category Starter and Preferments  Tags:   111 Responses

It has been month since I bake with sourdough the last time. I was always very busy and neglected my sourdough completely. The little glass in which I store the sourdough vanished somewhere in the depth of the fridge. Now, as the time gets more quite, I planned to bake with sourdough again. But when I opend the glas the dough looked not good and its smell was strange. I tried to reactivate the dough but it was beyond hope. I think I starved it to death.

Lucky for me that I never had a close relationship to a batch of sourdough. I’m not the kind of girl who gives its sourdough a name and a personality, for me it is just a mixture of different bacteria and yeasts. So my dead sourdough did not left me heartbroken at all but a little bit exited because now I had the change to do what I really love: Starting a Starter. It is really the most enthralling part of baking with sourdough. Seeing how the first bubbles are formed and the dough starts to rise, to realize how the smell change that’s the right thing for a biologist.

I love projects in my kitchen which bubble and ferment. And I always planned to post about starting a Sourdough starter. And so we start: Please take out your flour, we start a starter today. Continue reading →