Tag Archives: Hand kneaded

April 28th, 2014

Aggertaler

Category Bread Tags: Hand kneaded, Sourdough, Spelt, Wheat 4 Responses

Each morning when I take the train to cologne, I look through the window to see the beauty of our little river agger and its valley (Aggertal). An attentive Observer can see Great Crested Grebe dancing their mating dance, discover a doe with its fawn, different kinds of geese and sometime even a hare. And I love to see small waft of mist over the water, enlighten by the rising sun. And sometimes I wish I could ask the train driver to stop so I could enjoy a view a little longer.

And so this bread is a little homage to my home valley, with my very active sourdough starter, flour from the local mill and water which is (of course) from a side river of the agger. It catches the essence of home between its crispy crust and airy crumb!

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March 20th, 2014

Baguette rolls with sweet starter

Category Bread Baking Day, Rolls Tags: Hand kneaded, Sweet starter, Über-Nacht 27 Responses

A short glance in our pantry told me last Friday that it was really time for restocking flour. And so the rolls I was planning to bake the next morning was dictated by the flour I had still in stock. And the rolls turned out great! Great oven spring, open crumb, crisp crust and a great flavour, too. And so I decided to post the recipe despite the fact that there is already a bunch of baguette recipe here on the blog.

And I will send them to Zorras Bread Baking Day as well. This month it is hosted by Food for Angels and Devils and is dedicated to the ultimate Baguette recipe.

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March 8th, 2014

Sübrot

Category Bread, hand kneaded, Overnight Tags: Elsass, Hand kneaded, only with yeast, Über-Nacht 21 Responses

We spent our last summer holiday in the Alsace. And we enjoyed the beautiful landscape, the food and the niece people there very and much – and the bakeries,too! During our holidays I scribbled down a list with breads I had to bake when I’m back home.

Among the breads of this list was the Pain Pavé as well as this Sübrot. Sü comes from Sou which means a very small coin and Brot means bread so Sübrot can be translated to “Penny bread”. During wartimes it was a cheap bread that due to its form could be purchased in pieces as well. And even nowadays I was asked if I wanted the whole loaf or only a part of it when I bought it in a Boulangerie in Strasbourg.

Back home, when I decided to bake my own version, I decided to go to a slow rising dough, which fermented over night at roomtemperature. The next morning I divided the dough, shaped two squares and spread a thin layer of oil on top of one of them. The oil layer hast to be really thin to ensure that the bread do not unfold to quickly in the oven, so I removed a part of it again with a paper towel. And that worked very well, indeed. I was sit in front of the oven all the time, fascinated by the unfolding bread.

And the finished bread is a treat, too: Open crumb, crisp crust and a mild but complex taste!

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February 22nd, 2014

Pain Pavé

Category Bread, hand kneaded, Overnight Tags: Hand kneaded, Rye, Sourdough, Über-Nacht 21 Responses

During our last vacation in france I fell in love with the flat, rustic looking Pain Pavé. Pavé means cobblestone and refers to the flat, rectangular shape of the breads. Most of the time they are cut crosswise or with a rhombical pattern.

My version of the Pavé is made with rye sourdough and a long, cold fermentation in the fridge. That helps, together with the folds of the dough, to develope an open crumb and a deep, complex flavour.

It is a bread which goes very well with a flavourful winter soup or very simple with only some goat brie!

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February 16th, 2014

Weekend Rolls

Category hand kneaded, Overnight, Rolls Tags: Hand kneaded, Spelt, Sweet starter, Über-Nacht, Wheat 22 Responses

After all the sweet posts something hearty is needed here on the Blog!

At the moment I bake a lot of bread using my sweet starter because I’m still in love with my not sour sourdough. I hope it is not getting boring for you. But the sweet starter allows me even to make dough which can rise in the fridge for 24 hours or longer without degrading the gluten or getting to sour. I used a cold fermented dough already for this baguettes. My weekend rolls work the same way, the dough rise in the cold for 12 to 36 hours and whenever I need rolls on the weekend I take some dough out and bake them freshly. The recipe will yield 10 Rolls, but the recipe can easily be doubled. A perfect recipe for a lazy weekend!

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January 26th, 2014

Baguette with sweet Starter

Category hand kneaded, Overnight Tags: Baguette, Hand kneaded, Sweet starter, Über-Nacht 50 Responses

I planned to post about a potato bread today (something I will do later this week) but the result of an experiment I baked this weekend made me so enthusiastic that I could not wait to share the recipe with you!

It is a recipe for a baguette made with sweet starter – a very active but not sour sourdough – and a 24 hours rise in the fridge. The Idea to this baguette came to me when I taste a little bit sweet starter which I kept in the fridge for some days. The complexity of the flavour was fascinating. Despite the time the sourdough spent in the fridge it did not taste tangy or acidic. It has a mild flavour of lactic acid, like you would expect it in crème fraiche. Beside that I could taste fruity tones and slight alcoholic taste due to the high activity of the yeast. It was a taste I wanted to catch in a bread!

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January 18th, 2014

Germknödel with sweet Starter

Category Cake & Pastry, Dessert, hand kneaded Tags: Hand kneaded, Poppy seeds, Sweet starter, Vanilla 15 Responses

I’m keep my little sweet starter which I created for baking pandoro in the fridge for nearly a month now. I feed him once a week with one part flour and half a part water and let him rise at 30°C for 3-4 hours, until its volume doubles. This keeps the starter very active, but slowly the acidity is coming back. And so I decided today to refresh him by feeding him three times every three hours (similar as described here), which removes the tangy taste.

But that left me with some very active sweet starter which I didn’t want to throw away. And so I mixed it with some flour, milk, eggyolk, butter and sugar to bake “Germknödel” . I needed some patient, because the dough took its time to rise, so I would advice to use 5g fresh yeast to speed up the process if you are a little bit in hurry! I steamed most of them, but cooked some in water as well. Both worked fine, but like always I prefer the steamed version!

The Germknödel have very good flavour with some complex notes due to the starter but without any acidic tones! A delicious dessert or (that what we do) great treat on a lazy saturday afternoon!

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December 22nd, 2013

Potato Rolls out of the bottle

Category hand kneaded, Overnight, Presents from the kitchen Tags: Geschenke aus der Küche, Hand kneaded, only with yeast, Potatoes, Rye, Über-Nacht 7 Responses

This year you can buy a lot of different bread mixes backed in Weck-Flasks. Even our book stores sells them. When I studied the flasks there I realized that they charge ten Euro for 750g of flour, yeast, salt and some spices or seeds! Really, ten Euro? I mean, ok, the Weck flask would cost something about two Euro. But then there are still 8 Euro left for a little bit of flour.

Home again I grabbed an old juice flask and filled it with layers of wheat flour, rye flour and potatoe flakes. I used the organic instant mashed potatoes from Alnatura which consists only of dry potatoes flakes, salt and spices. Filling the flask took its time, so choosing one with a wide bottle neck would be better! The 500g of flour, potatoe flaks, yeast and salt cost me about 1,20 Euro and the flask was for free. And it is a nice present, even a last minute one, as long as you have the ingredients and a flask/glass with one litre volume at home.

Of course I test-baked the recipe, too! And I was surprised about the potatoey taste of the rolls, and I like their moist crumb and crisp crust very much, too. Maybe I should rethink my “no instant mash potatoe-rule” in favour for easy potato rolls!

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December 12th, 2013

Korianderbrot

Category Bread, hand kneaded, Overnight Tags: Hand kneaded, Koriandersaat, only with yeast, Pâte fermentée, Über-Nacht 7 Responses

Ground Coriander seeds have a long tradition as bread spice. When I roasted some coriander seeds for an indian dish some weeks a go I suddenly had the idea of a bread with whole, roasted coriander seeds in my mind. A bread similar to a caraway seed bread.

Thought and done… The next week I roasted some seeds and put them in a bread dough. I let the dough rise over night at room temperature and the next morning I formed a (big) loaf and baked it.

During baking a aromatic fragrance filled our flat and so it was hard to wait until the bread cooled down before tasting. But the flavour is worth wating! When my teeth hit a seed I can taste the slight peppery flavour of coriander seeds. And like a caraway seed bread goes very well with hearty spreads or cheese. But it is also a perfect side for a soup like the fennel celery soup we had last week.

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July 7th, 2013

Buttermilk squares

Category hand kneaded, Overnight, Rolls Tags: flaxseeds, Hand kneaded, only with yeast, Poppy seeds, Rye, Sesame, Über-Nacht 59 Responses

When Temperature rise above 25°C you will always find a bottle with buttermilk in my fridge. I love this slightly sour and refreshing drink by its own or mixed with some lemon sorbet. And when I have buttermilk in the fridge, I tend to use it for bread baking as well.

My Buttermilk squares are rolls made with my favourite method of over night rising. The dough is mixed in the evening, with a very small amout of yeast, then it can rise over night on the kitchen counter. The next morning I fold the dough into a big square and cut small squares. After preheating the baking stone and proofing the oven, the rolls are slashed diagonal for an appealing look. After one and a half hour I can serve fresh rolls – still oven warm. Perfect for beautiful sunny summer sundays!

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