Spelt Bread with Nuts

I made this bread two weeks ago for brunch, but haven't gotten around to uploading this post until now. I'm not very keen on white bread so this is just the kind of bread I like. It's packed with nuts which give it richness and a wonderful flavor. It goes well with cheese. Or just with butter. Plain and simple. Actually, that's the way I enjoy a slice of bread the most.

Recipe

(Original Recipe in German here)

400g spelt flour

400g flour mixture of wheat and rye (German recipe suggests „Bauernmehl“)

12g salt

30g yeast

1 tablespoon honey

5dl water, luke-warm

75g walnuts

75g hazelnuts

75g almonds

In a bowl, mix flour and salt. Press the flour down in the middle so that you have a hollow.

Crumble the yeast with your fingers and mix with the honey and about half of the luke-warm water. Pour this mixture into the hollow. Mix this with some of the flour from the edge so that you have a yeast sponge in the middle. Then dust this with some flour. Set aside at a warm place for about 45 minutes. In the meantime, coarsly chop the nuts.

After 45 minutes, add the rest of the water to the dough and mix everything with a wooden spoon. Then, on a surface dusted with flour, knead with your hands until you have a smooth dough – for about 3 minutes. Then, add the nuts and knead again for about 3 minutes. Put your dough into a large bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let rise until the dough’s size has doubled.

Take the dough out of the bowl and form a loaf. Place onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Cover with a wet towel and let rise again for about half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 230°C. With a knife, cut in the dough crosswise so that you have a grid-pattern. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. Then, reduce the temperature to 180°C and bake for another 30 minutes. Brush the bread with water for a bout 4 times while baking so that it will get a crunchy crust.

Corn Bread with Olives

I always say that I would like to bake more bread. And yet, I hardly ever do it. However, when I stumbled over this recipe, I decided to give it a try. I actually like corn bread a lot, but was much more used to the sweeter version with raisins or chocolate chips. This savory version is delicious as well. We had it for dinner lately together with cheese and dried meat. This bread is probably best on the day it was baked or the day after since it tends to get a bit dry after that.

Recipe
(from LE MENU 10/2014)

2dl milk-water mix (1dl milk, 1dl water)
1/4 teaspoon salt
50g polenta (not too coarse)
325g flour
1 teaspoon salt
15g yeast
about 2dl lukewarm water
100g black or green olives, stones removed, cut into slices
some more flour to dust the surface

For a cake tin of about 28cm length.

In a small pan, heat up milk-water with the salt and bring to a boil. Add Polenta while stirring constantly and simmer for about 6-10 minutes until you've got a creamy polenta. Set aside, let cool a bit.

Mix flour and salt. Dissolve yeast in a little water and then, together with the rest of the water and the polenta, add to the flour and knead until you have a smooth dough. In a large bowl and covered with a kitchen towel, let the dough rise until it's got about double its size.

Dust your kitchen surface with flour, take your dough, flatten a bit. Scatter the olives on the dough and press them into the dough a little. Roll the dough up and place your loaf into your cake tin lined with parchment paper and dust with a bit of flour. Let the dough rise for another half hour.

Preheat your oven to 230°C. Place the tin onto a baking tray together with a little heat-proof bowl of water. Bake your loaf for about 10 minutes. Then reduce to heat to 180°C and bake for another 30 minutes. Then, release your loaf from the cake tin, put it back in the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Happy Easter!

Friday afternoon at Sibylle's was a blast. I just loved spending time with her family in their cozy little house. She's a wonderful host and a big thank you goes out to her - we all had such a great time. And on the pictures below, you can see some of the beautiful eggs we colored. Sibylle had also made a delicious plaited loaf and it reminded me of how much I actually like to bake bread. Since it's Easter, I decided to make little bunnies instead of a plait. One of these is going to be a little Easter present for Edi, my one and only. Time to formally introduce the man to you guys since, for quite some time now, he's been such a precious part of my life. It all started with me bringing cake over to his office - which is why I usually jokingly tend to claim that I've enchanted him with cake. Cooking or baking for your loved one just is a wonderful thing. I truly believe that all the love and affection goes into the food. Well, Liebe geht durch den Magen, or how do you say in English?! The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Recipe

(from Betty Bossi - Knuspriges Brot und köstliche Brotgerichte)

Makes four bunnies:

500g flour

1/2 tablespoon salt

ca. 15g yeast, in crumbs

1/2 tablespoon sugar

125g soft butter

3 - 3.5dl milk

1 egg yolk

a splash of cream

In a large bowl, mix flour and salt. Add yeast, sugar, butter and milk and knead (with the kitchen aid or with your hands) until you have a soft and smooth dough (if you do it with your hands like I did, it takes about 10 minutes). Form a ball, put into your bowl and cover with a kitchen towel. Let the dough rise in a warm place until its size has doubled (about 2 - 3 hours).

Spread a little flour on your kitchen surface. Cut your dough into four equal pieces. Roll each piece into a long thick strand. Then, cut off about a fourth of the strand to form the bunny head. Form a ball and with a knife or with scissors, make a cut to make the bunny ears. To make the body of the bunny, make a knot into the longer strand. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Put the two "body parts" onto the tray. The head and the body will stick together better if you use a little water on the spot where they come together. Repeat for the other three bunnies and let them rise again for another half hour.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Use a raisin to make a bunny eye. In a small bowl, mix egg yolk and cream and brush onto your bunnies. Bake them in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes. If you take them out of the oven and knock onto the bottom with your finger, it should make a hollow sound. Let cool on a wire rack.

Focaccia with Parmesan and Rosemary

This weekend, Mauro and I invited our dear friend Stephanie and her mum Diana for dinner. Diana herself is famous for her fabulous dinner partys and she really is one of the best cooks I know. So I have to admit, I was a little nervous. But I had a lot of fun putting together a menu for our two friends. Inspired from our holidays in Sicily, I decided to have an Italian evening. Mauro and I spent practically the whole sunday in the kitchen preparing our antipasti.

The focaccia was one of my favourites in the end. I have never made focaccia before and I was very happy with the outcome. You don't need many ingredients and baking utensils, it doesn't take long to make and it is really easy. The addition of parmesan and rosemary gives it an aromatic taste.


Recipe:
(from: Betty Bossi - Wähen Pizzas Flammkuchen)

500g flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon of rosemary, coarsely chopped
20g fresh yeast
4.5dl water, lukewarm
2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Add parmesan and rosemary. Dissolve yeast in the lukewarm water. Mix water and olive oil with the flour and stir with a ladle until you got a viscous dough. Pour the dough onto a baking tray lined with a baking sheet and spread until you got a rectangle of about 30x40 cm. Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes (I gave it about 60 minutes). Press your fingers into the dough to make dimples. Put the baking tray into the cold oven and then heat the oven to 220°C. Bake the focaccia for about 30 minutes.

When you take the focaccia out of the oven, brush it with a little olive oil and pour some sea salt onto it. Serve warm or cold.

Buttermilk Bread with Walnuts

Baking your own bread just is such a wonderful thing... You should see my happy face when I make bread dough... I looove the smell of fresh yeast and the feel in my hands when I knead the dough... And the smell that comes out of the oven when there's bread in it...


I made this bread some time ago for my brunch with the ladies. Very often, when I bake bread, I make two loafs in order to freeze one of them. This weekend, I remembered that I still have this one in the freezer and I decided to eat some of it for breakfast. I like this bread very much. Its structure is kind of dense. Due to the buttermilk, it's rather moist and it's got an aromatic taste. I ate it with butter and Gruyère cheese this morning. Yum!

Recipe:
(Source: www.saison.ch)

500g "Ruchmehl" (See comment below.)
250g whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
20g fresh yeast
1dl milk, lukewarm
3dl buttermilk
100g walnuts

(I'm not sure what the appropriate English translation of "Ruchmehl" is... According to my online "research" I guess you could substitute it with wheat flour type 1050. You could probably also use 750g of whole wheat flour and leave the "Ruchmehl" out.)

In a big bowl, mix flour and salt. Form a hollow in the middle, add the sugar. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk and pour that into the hollow. Add buttermilk. Slowly mix the flour with the liquid ingredients (if necessary, add a little milk).

Spread a little flour on a clean surface area and knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic (it will be rather firm though, but that's ok). Chop walnuts and knead into the dough. Form a ball, put back into your bowl, cover with a wet kitchen towel and let rise for about 2 hours (put the bowl somewhere, where it is rather warm).

After the dough has risen, knead again shortly and divide into two halves. Form two balls and put onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Cut in the dough crosswise (1cm deep). Again, let rise for about 40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Bake the breads in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes. To have a good humidity in the oven, put a little ofen-safe cup of water next to the breads. Reduce heat to 200°C. Bake breads for another 40 minutes.

Check whether the bread is baked thoroughly by knocking on the bottom of the loafs. It should sound hollow*.

(If you plan to freeze one of the loafs, take it out of the oven about 10 minutes earlier than the other one. Let cool a little. Then pack into a plastic bag and let cool completely. Then put in the freezer.)


*Honestly, although I love baking bread, I haven't actually done it sooo many times and I am not as experienced as I'd like to be. What always freaks me out is checking whether it's baked thoroughly at the end. How exactly is this "hollow noise" supposed to sound?! I just guess, I interpret it right but I am never entirely sure. I think, baking good bread is something that needs a lot of experience.

I hope, I can present you more bread recipes in the future because I really want to advance my bread-baking skills :-)