Beebox

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts Whenever I'm visiting my hometown Hamburg, I check out new bakeries. Two years ago I noticed people lining up in front of Bäckerei Jochen Gaues, in Eppendorf quarter, where my Mom lives around the corner. Taking this as a good omen, I joined the waiting line. The shelves full of loaves and rolls looked promising, all with fairly dark crusts - boldly baked, as Ken Forkish ("Flour, Water, Salt and Yeast') would call it. A paradise for crust lovers! Like Forkish, Jochen Gaues is a purist baker, his breads are made with flour, water, salt and yeast. No dough enhancers, no preservatives, no artificial flavoring. Only sourdough and passion for his craft. And he shared his recipes in a beautiful baking book, too. His sunflower seed rolls are hearty, crusty and delicious. (I tweaked the recipe a bit, of course, as I always do). The crumb is rather light and more airy than chewy. You can enjoy them with cold cuts, German meat sala...

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts (folgt noch) After sadly slacking off last year, I hope to be a more productive blogger in 2017. My cookie baking activities are usually restricted to the time before Christmas (except for NYTimes Chocolate Chip Cookies ), but I DO like brownies. Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen promised a cookie with "everything that we expect from a great brownie, a slight crackly exterior, and a plush, fudgy interior". That sounded very enticing, and I was eager to tackle " The Browniest Cookies " - our Avid Bakers ' February project. But I didn't look at the recipe carefully enough, and, instead of mixing the sugar with the melted chocolate-butter, I added it to the dry ingredients. Overmixing the batter was a no-no, and I feared that the undissolved sugar might give the cookies an unpleasant grittiness (it didn't!).  I reduced the salt to 1/4 teaspoon and added some espresso powder to enhance the chocolate flavor.  ...

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts Just in time for Zorra's 2016 World Bread Day event, I received my copy of Stanley Ginsberg 's The Rye Baker in the mail. I met Stanley several years ago at the The Fresh Loaf forum, when he looked for test bakers for his first book, "Inside the Jewish Bakery" . Though, at that stage, some recipes still were a bit rough around the edges (my husband complained about feeling like a guinea pig!), the book was well worth it, and his Onion Rolls are still a great favorite with my customers. Last year, I was happy to help with the translation of some German recipes Stanley considered for his newest book, devoted entirely to rye breads. Leafing through the The Rye Baker, a cluster of spiral shaped savory rolls caught my eye. Not only because the "Swabian Rye Flower" looked so attractive - it was made with a laminated rye dough ! I had never even heard that such a thing existed. The filling was easy: Trader ...

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts When I started baking breads for A&B Naturals , I searched online for some interesting rye breads. A recipe that really intrigued me was made with an intermediate dough, with a batter-like consistency, and just poured into a loaf pan - no shaping involved! At The Fresh Loaf , my Frisian Rye post sparked a bit of a controversy - a Dutch user protested this were not a "real fries roggebrood": a pumpernickel-type bread, dark, and very slowly baked. North Frisian Islands But the Frisian region stretches along the North Sea coast from the Netherlands to Germany and up to Denmark, and there is really no such thing as ONE authentic Frisian Rye. A quick search on Google shows several different recipes, all with different amounts of rye, wheat, seeds, and what not. I was never able to find the original recipe again, but the guy who had posted it said he was from Frisia - so he should know! Whether real authentic or not - this Fr...

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts (folgt noch) When I started my little home based bakery, I wanted to offer a typical German Schwarzbrot. Though "schwarz" means "black", a Schwarzbrot doesn't have to be a 100% rye bread, only most of the flour should be rye. With Peter Reinhart's pre-dough method from "Whole Grain Breads" in mind, I cobbled together different recipes into one I could work with. Baking this bread often (my customers love it!) I played with the formula around, and, over the years, tweaked it so much, that it became entirely my own. It contains whole rye berries, has a little bit of sweetener, but, also, a pleasant natural sweetness, and it is not artificially colored with large amounts of molasses, cocoa, coffee or other additives. People familiar with my blog know that I'm very much in favor of long fermentation. Breads that are allowed to ripen slowly are much better digestible, and long fermentation reduces ...