Süßes Nussbrot (Sweet Nut Bread)

Hazelnuts, rum and sweet & soft crumb are all essential to this bread. The hazelnuts goes with the rich favour of the bread perfectly.  Without the rum the bread would taste more boring… The sweet and soft crumb makes it enjoyable to eat …haha… I like this bread. I also like it packed with lots of hazelnuts (I like hazelnuts!).

It’s also easy to make – 2-hour sponge plus 1/2 hr first and final fermentations. Though fermentation time is short, the enriched ingredients make the bread quick to prepare and good to eat.

Thanks Bäcker Süpke for the recipe, also his son for translation! : )

Süßes Nussbrot( Sweet Nut Bread) – Make two 800g loaves

(I modified the steps a bit, since I am not sure of some German/ translations, the bread is fine anyway)

• The day before:
• Toast 300g of hazelnuts and chopped into about 8 portions for each (otherwise it’s hard to stick them to the dough as there are many. I skipped the hot water compared with the original recipe)
• 100g toasted walnut soaked in 50ml of rum

• Sponge:
• 300g T55 flour (I used King Arthur)
• 280ml milk
• 17g instant dry yeast or 50g fresh yeast
• Mix and leave for 30-60 mins, until it at least doubles under 24°C (my dough was cold so I left it longer for 2 hrs)

• Dough:
• 300g T55 flour
• All of the sponge
• 60 g sugar
• 60 g egg
• 100 g butter
• 6 g salt
• Vanilla (I forgot!)
• Mix until almost full gluten development. Then mix in the nuts. 1st fermentation for 1/2 hr.
• Shape the dough . Final fermentation 1/2  hr.
• Slash the dough. Bake with steam at 180°C. Then lower to 170°C for 45 mins.

Bäcker Süpkes’ Joghurt Brötchen (Yogurt Bread)

A bread with many seeds is usually associated with a tight crumb in my mind. This bread is different. It features many seeds and grains (totally 6 kinds! Love it), yet has a soft, moist and open crumb. It’s a great choice for those who want a grainy but soft bread. Thanks Bäcker Süpke for the recipe!

Regarding the yogurt, I read on the internet that it acts like Vitamin C or absorbic acid, hastening fermentation and giving a boost to the dough. The milk in yogurt also extends shelf life. I’m going to find out more about it later.

For the recipe I followed it exactly, except kneading the dough using Dan Lepard’s method by hands. I don’t have a machine for mixing the dough, as I feel more “artisan” kneading by hands. I translated the recipe by Google and asking in Bäcker Süpke ’s blog  (the only German language I know is “brot” : P ), so let me know if anything with my interpretation of the recipe. : )

P.S. Not sure if it’s the yogurt or my baking temperature, the crust is harder this time. I will bake the bread in a batard or bigger ciabatta shape, and skip the bread crumb for a smaller crust to crumb ratio for my taste next time!

Bäcker Süpkes’ Joghurt Brötchen (Yogurt Bread)

Make 30 small rolls

Soaker:

*70 g cracked rye
* 145 g cracked spelt
* 36 g salt
* 215 ml very hot water

Pore water into the the salt and seeds. Mix, cover and wait for at least 4 hrs.

Sponge:
* 280 g wheat flour 550 (I used King Arthur All Purpose)
* 1 g fresh yeast (I used a pinch of instant yeast)
* 280 ml of cold water

Mix the ingredients. Cover and ferment at room temp. for 2 hrs. Put in fridge for at least 16 hrs.

Dough:
* 890 g flour 550 (I used King Arthur All Purpose)
* 70 g rye flour 997 (I used Dove Whole Grain Rye)
* 75 g sunflower seeds
* 140 g pumpkin seeds
* 75 g sesame seeds
* 75 g flaxseed
* 55 g fresh yeast
* 220 g yoghurt
* 400 ml water

Slightly toast the seeds (can use other kinds of seeds).

(Dan Lepard’s kneading method) Mix all the ingredients, cover and wait for 10 mins. On a slightly oiled surface, knead for 10 secs. Cover and wait for 10 mins. Knead for 10 secs again. Repeat the fermentation and kneading process for 2 more times. Then ferment for around 30 mins until the dough is about double in size.

Cut the dough into squares (about 95g each). Moist the surface with water and roll onto some bread crumbs.

Final fermenation for about 40 mins until almost double in size.

My baking temperature is 220c with steam for 30 mins.

WBD 09 – Vermont Sourdough with Increased Whole Grain

This recipe is from Jeffrey Hamelman’s “Bread”, a sourdough made of flour, salt and water only, without the use of commercial yeast. It’s the kind of pure yet delicious bread that I like the most.

There is another Vermont Sourdough recipe in Hamelman’s book using 10% rye and 15% starter, but this one are 15% and 20%. According to the book, the higher amount of rye provides more fermentable sugar and minerals to the yeasts in the levain. In addition to higher amount of levain, this bread is more acidic than the Vermont Sourdough. Acidity has tightening effect on gluten structure, hence the crumb of this bread is tighter, chewier, and more elastic.

In terms of taste, this version sweeter and slightly more tang to me. Definitely I prefer this one as I always like stronger taste from different grains in a bread.

I’m submitting this beloved bread to World Bread Day 09. Happy Anniversary! : )

Make 1 Loave

Ingredients:

Liquid-Levain Build

Bread flour 91g (I used King Arthur All Purpose)

Water 113g

Mature culture (liquid) 18g

Final Dough

Bread flour 295g

Whole-rye flour 68g (I used Bob’s Red Mill Dark Rye)

Water 181g

Liquid Levain 204g

Salt 8.5g

1. Mix ingredients for liquid levain build. Cover & let stand for 12-16 hours at 70F.

2. When the levain is done, mix all ingredients except the salt of the final dough to medium consistency. Cover and let stand for autolyse for 20-60mins.

3. Sprinkle in salt and mix for another 1 1/2 -2 mins.

4. Bulk fermentation for 2 1/2 hrs. Fold after 1 1/4 hrs.

5. Shape the dough. Final fermentation for 2 to 2 1/2 hrs (or retard for 8 hrs at 50F, or up to 18 hrs at 42F)

6. Bake at 460F for 40-45 mins with normal steam.

Mooncake (月餅)

Today is the Mid-Autumn festival 中秋節, the second biggest Chinese festival besides the Lunar New Year. It’s on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar. This day the moon is the roundest and fullest. Traditionally it represents 團圓，the day to gather with your beloved ones, family, relatives, to have dinner, enjoy the moonlight, play lanterns, etc. The mooncakes symbolize the moon. We give out and share mooncakes to enjoy this day.

Below is the mooncake recipe. I learnt from a Chinese dim-sum chef 3-4 years before (it’s popular to learn making mooncakes here recently). The ingredients are interesting. More photos are in Flickr (I used a different wrapping method in the photos than the easier one described below).

Tool: plastic mould 膠模 (Traditionally we use wooden ones 木模, but plastic ones are convenient for moulding and storage)

Ingredients (10 small mooncakes):

a) Flour 40g (This 美玫麵粉 is the popular brand for making dim sum and mooncakes, with different ash and protein than flour for making western breads)

b) Lyle’s Golden syrup 金獅糖漿 28g (don’t substitute with other brand as the acidity of the syrup will affect the result)

c) Peanut oil 13g

d) Food lye 食用鹼水 1/8 tsp

Lotus seed paste 蓮蓉 300g

Peanut oil (for lotus seed paste) 2 T

Salted duck egg yolks 鹹蛋黃 5pcs (divide into half)

Egg yolk 1pc

Steps:

1) Mix a) to d) which will be the crust. Rest for 30 minutes.

2) Divide the lotus seed paste into 10 portions. Put 1/4 tsp peanut oil in your hand. Fold the lotus seed paste in your palm. The oil will slowly be absorbed, and the lotus seed paste will soften a bit. Roll it into ball.

3) Wrap the duck egg yolk in the seed paste.

4) Sprinkle flour onto the counter. Roll the crust dough into a roll. Divide into 10 portions (9g each).

5) Sprinkle more flour on the counter. Flatten the crust dough. Big enough to wrap the seed paste with duck yolk. The dough will be very thin. Use a scraper to help taking it out.

6) Wrap the seed paste with duck yolk inside with the flattened dough.

7) Dust some flour to the plastic mould to avoid sticking. Put in the dough. Press on counter. The moulded mooncake will come out.

8 ) Bake at 180C for 6 minutes. Then take out. The mooncakes should be hardened and set. Then put on egg yolk to the patterns (no need to put on to the whole mooncake, so that the pattern will stand out).

9) Bake for an extra 7 minutes.

10) Rest the mooncakes at room temperature for at least 2 days. This is the process of 回油, where the mooncakes will absorb the oil from the lotus seed paste, and the crust will get shinier and tenderer.

BBD#21 – Genzano Potato Pizza

Happy 2nd anniversary to Bread Baking Day! I would love to celebrate the big day with this delicious Genzano Potato Pizza. When I looked for my cook books for some interesting pizzas, Daniel Leader’s book helped solved my thought with this. Though without the traditional tomato and cheese, this pizza is also perfect to eat and share in a party. Incredibly thin & crispy, in additional to the potato flavor, I think this pizza would go very well with iced cold beer, ale, lager, etc. If you have a chance to make this pizza, remember to use some good sea salt instead of table salt, which would definitely bring out the potato flavor without overpowering it! The pizza base also had stronger “bread” flavor as it’s made with natural yeast. My family doesn’t enjoy Western bread as much as I do, but they also enjoyed the pizza.

One thing is I used King Arthur All Purpose flour instead of high gluten, and the dough could not have full gluten development as it’s very wet. Also the recipe said the dough should be 1/2 inch thick in the sheet pan, however mine was only about 1/4 inch. The recipe should make one sheet pan pizza, but it didn’t mention the size. I looked on the web and found mine is a quarter size sheet pan (9-1/2 x 13 inch). So I made 1/4 of the recipe. I am not sure if anything was wrong with this. Anyway the pizza base was finally good as it’s crispy more than chewy. So the gluten development and sheet pan size didn’t quite affect the result (to me).

The recipe is adapted from Daniel Leader’s “Local Breads”. I found the blog “Hungrig in San Francisco” also posted the recipe, so I am not typing it again.

Now I’m submitting this to BBD#21. Enjoy & Cheers!