Tag Archives: Biga

August 24th, 2016

Spelt Mice

Category Rolls Tags: Biga, Butter, Egg, Milk, Nougat, only with yeast, Sahne, Spelt, wheat free 20 Responses

A reader told me about “Schulmäusen” (School mice), a small sweet roll filled with hazelnut praline. She tried to bake similar rolls in a spelt variant but struggled with them getting to dry. My brain worked a while on this idea in the background and came up with a recipe at the end – just in time for school start. As the name “Schulmaus” is a brand name, I decided to call my rolls Spelt mice and formed most of them like a mouse, too. But if you do not roll one end into a long tail, then you get the original form, too.

They are not a healthy snack, but a treat for small and big ones with a sweet tooth. The crumb is fluffy and the filling creamy – a good way to make school start a bit sweeter!

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July 10th, 2016

Spelt & Seed Sandwich Bread

Category Bread Tags: Biga, flaxseeds, Leserwunsch, only with yeast, Seeds, Semmelbrösel, Sesame, Spelt, wheat free, whole grain 24 Responses

This Sandwich bread is a readers wish. But I needed two rounds, until I was really satisfied. In the first Variant I had a boiled soaker with whole spelt flour and seeds, but this added to much liquid to the dough. This resulted in a very instable crumb. The recipe needed adjustments!

The bread (in both tries) is a pure spelt flour with 30 percent whole grain flour and amixture of flax seeds, sesame and sun flower seeds for an extra nuttiness. The preferment is a biga made from whole spelt flour. This has many advantages: the whole grain flour has enough time to soak up the liquid, a biga helps to strength the gluten network and it adds complex flavour nuances, too. As every sandwich bread this bread needs a fully developed gluten network, and spelt is a sensible. So it is needed to keep a close eye on the dough to find the perfect spot.

At the rerun of the recipe I used a bit mashed potato for fluffiness and a soaker with an only moderate amount of water. This makes the dough recognizable firmer, the dough is easier to handle and the fluffy crumb gets enough stability. So what was my lecture of this day? Sometimes less (water) is more!

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May 1st, 2016

Honigreingerl

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: Biga, Butter, Cinnamon, Honey, only with yeast, Spelt, Wheat 13 Responses

I met Honigreingerl some time ago and they trigger my “Have to bake” reflex of immediately. They are small Austrian pastries which are filled with a honey and cinnamon mixture. In their crumb you can find many small openings filled with the flavour of honey and cinnamon.

Original the Honigreingerl are baked in a slightly higher form, but using a muffin tin and brioche forms work good as well. The dough is made with ten percent spelt flour like I used it in the Butterzopf recipe, as this makes rolling the dough easier. The other components of the dough are the “usual suspects”: Biga, some egg and butter – a guaranty for a fluffy crumb and good flavour. And so are my homemade Honigreingerl: a golden crust and a very fluffy crumb filled with the flavours of honey and cinnamon – a divine treat!

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February 7th, 2016

Spelt-Berliner

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: Biga, fried, only with yeast, Spelt, wheat free 29 Responses

There is only one reason to spent carnival Sunday not thinking about the best hiding place: my nice and my nephew. As we invited them to watch the children carnival parade in our little town with us, I even bought some paper streamers and baked some “Amerikaner” (german version of black and white cookies) and Berliner. That is as close as I will ever come to celebrating carnival.

This years Berliner are made with spelt flour and get their good flavour from a biga, which helps to build a strong gluten network, too. For a bit more moisture I added a water roux and like last year I have again a good amount of egg yolk in the dough, which helps to create a tender crump. And as Berliner a for me the best part of carnival, I wish you a good time during the “crazy days”: Alaaf!

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October 31st, 2015

Reformationsbrötchen

Category regional breads, Rolls, Special Occasions Tags: Almonds, Biga, Candid lemon peel, Candid Orange peel, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Macis, only with yeast, Raisins, Vanilla 8 Responses

I can not tell how I learn about the Reformationsbrötchen (reformation rolls). But the idea somehow stuck in mind and so I had to bake them just in time for the 31. October (Reformation day).

This rolls originate from the area around Leipzig and are baked in Saxony, Thüringen and Saxony-Anhalt. It is made from a buttery yeast dough enriched with a lot of raisins, candid orange and lemon peel and almonds. The square form with the red jam in the middle is said to symbolize either the Luther rose, the seal of Martin Luther, or a bishops hat.

My variant is made with a biga preferment for a complex flavour and is rich with raisins and almonds. The candid orange and lemon peel I added in a smaller amount. The crumb is soft and moist due to cream and butter and the tart cherry jam is a great counterpoint to the sweetness of the dough and fruits. A great pastry for the last day of October.

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March 28th, 2015

Bread baking for Beginners VI: Zuckerplatz (Sweet Bread)

Category Bread, Bread baking for beginners, Special Occasions Tags: Anfänger, Biga, Eastern, only with yeast, Orange, Perlzucker, Raisins 13 Responses

Last weekeend I realized how near Eastern is when my mom told me on the phone about her plans of dyeing eggs with her kids at school. And so I changed my plans for the bread baking course and developed a sweet recipe perfect for the Easter Breakfast. It is a sweet bread called which is made with the biga preferement. The subtle acidity of it helps to strengthen the gluten network. For a tender crumb the dough contains cream, egg yolk and some butter. By replacing the butter with cream the dough can rise in the fridge if needed.

For all doughs with a lot of sugar or butter it is important to develop first the gluten network before butter and sugar. Both can inhibit the gluten development. The fat in the butter can coat the gluten proteins so that they can not connect with other gluten proteins to form strands while the sugar draw the water away from the proteins which again strongly reduce the forming of gluten strands. That’s why we will add the sugar in small increments after 10 min of intense kneading. You will realize while kneading in the sugar that the dough will become softer. This is due to the water which is no longer bound by gluten proteins because of the sugar. Continue reading →

March 20th, 2015

Bread baking for beginners V: Potato rolls with Biga

Category Bread baking for beginners, Rolls Tags: Anfänger, Biga, only with yeast, Potatoes 26 Responses

I mentioned already once or twice that I like to at potatoes into bread dough. In combination with a preferment they make the crumb soft and fluffy.

A classic preferment consist of flour, water, sometimes salt and microorganisms. In a sourdough the microorganisms are different lactobacteria and yeasts, while in a biga, poolish or pâte fermentée you will find bakers yeast (because you added them). A preferment will ferment for some time (mostly 12-16 hours) and in this time the microorganisms will release byproducts of their metabolism into the preferment. That makes the flavour of the dough (and later of the bread) complex and deep.

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November 8th, 2014

Weckmann

Category regional breads, Rolls, Special Occasions Tags: Biga, only with yeast, Sahne, Weckmann 28 Responses

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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July 18th, 2010

Pane Pugliese – BBD#32

Category Bread, Bread Baking Day Tags: Biga, only with yeast, semolina flour 5 Responses

Apa269 of Family & Food & other Things choose for Bread Baking Day # 32 the theme “Italian Breads” . Thats a perfect choice for me because it is really hot at the moment and at hot summer days I prefere light breads like Ciabatta oder Pane Francese instead of my normal whole wheat breads.

At our last trip to Metro, a wholesale, I bought a kilogram of durum flour. So I decided to try Pane Pugliese.

But despite the high hydration and the three stretch and fold cycles the crumb was rather dense and not so wide open as I wished it to be. But the crumb was nicely soft and it tasted delicious so I was satisfied. The durum flour gaves a nice yellowish colour to the crumb.

We used a part of the bread for Bruscetta and it was perfect for this.

I submit this bread to Susans Yeastspotting, too.

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April 28th, 2010

JT’s Rustic bread with three preferments

Category Bread Tags: Biga, Poolish, Preferment, Sourdough 22 Responses

MC posted last week the portrait of the Baker John Tredgold , one of nine Bakers of the Bread Bakers Guild Team USA 2010. They train at the moment for the North American Louis Lesaffre Cup which takes place in Las Vegas in September.

And he gave MC the recipe of the bread that won him a spot in the Team, including a excelsheet with the formula in Bakers percent. The bread sounds great (of course it do. It is a winner recipe). It contains three different preferments: Poolish, biga and sourdough. I love breads with different preferments because they give so much flavour to the bread. So I knew instantly that I had to try this recipe.

JT uses malted wheat flour type 85 (85 mg minerals per 10g flour) and all purpose flour. I only have excess to wheat flour type 550 (55 mg minerals) and type 1050 (105mg minerals), so I sat down with the excel sheet of the formula and start calculating. At the end I came down with a mixing ratio of type 1050 and 550 that should yield a similar dough as mixing type 85 and all purpose flour.

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