Cooking, Baking and Everything

Coffee or Hot Chocolate?

Both!

Last week I got a tip from a colleague what to do with a nearly empty jar of Nutella. This weekend we tried it … delicious!

Coincidently, today is World Nutella Day. Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso are celebrating it every year on February 5th.

Nutella Coffee

Source:	04.02.2012 by Sus
Categories:	Chocolate, Coffee, Nutella
Yields:	1 serving

Ingredients:

1		Empty jar of Nutella
1	cup (250 ml)	Hot, strong Coffee

Preparation:

Take a jar of Nutella which you would consider empty (not enough left for another slice of bread). Remove the cardboard from the lid. Pour the hot coffee into the jar and close the lid as tightly as possible. Over the sink shake the jar well until all Nutella has dissolved. Pour back into the cup and enjoy!

Index: Chocolate, Coffee, Nutella, Blog Event

Unbelievable …

I can’t believe this: I was just writing this article for the Bread Baking Day #23, this time hosted by imafoodblog.com, when I looked into my feed reader. And what do I detect? Eva of Deichrunner’s Küche has also baked a bread with hemp seed and presented it today. Quite a coincindence, isn’t it?

But whereas Eva did a quite a professional job with long rising times and multiple kneading and folding, I took the easy way: A yeast bread with a very short rising time because of the preheated loaf pan (which wasn’t really necessary at these outside temperatures we have right now: even without preheating the dough tried to leave the pan in record time.)

The hemp seed I found in the organic section of a large department store. According to the brand label it should be found in Germany in almost every second organic supermarket. I always wanted to bake something with it, but somehow for the last six months I didn’t get around to it. Now isn’t this event the best opportunity to use it in a bread, which I haven’t done before?

Ballymaloe Wholemeal Bread with Hemp Seed

Source:	‚Brotrezepte aus aller Welt‘ (‚Bread‘) by Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno, Bassermann Verlag, 1999 Varied 31.08.2009 by Sus
Categories:	Bread, Hemp Seed, Yeast, Ireland

Yields:	1 Bread(s)

Ingredients:

100	gram	Hemp seed
3	teaspoons	Dry Yeast
400	ml	Water; lukewarm
1,5	teaspoons	Molasses
500	gram	Wheat wholemeal flour
2	teaspoons	Salt

Preparation:

Put not quite half of the hemp seed in a mixer and ground it medium fine. Take the other half and let it soak in some milk for about an hour, then drain.

Butter a loaf pan (for 500 g) and preheat in the oven at about 120 °C.

Take 150 ml water and put the yeast in. Let sit for 5 minutes, then stir to dissolve the yeast. Add the melasse and let sit for another 10 minutes. Finally stir in the remaining water.

Mix flour, ground hemp seed and salt in a large bowl, make a depression in the middle and pour in the dissolved yeast. Stir until the dough is strong and heavy. Keep 2 table spoons of the soaked hemp seed and add the rest to the dough. Knead it for approx. 1 minute, until it doesn’t stick to the bowl any longer.

Put the dough into the prewarmed loaf pan, cover it with a clean towel and let it rise for about 25-30 minutes, until it is 1 cm above the pan. Sprinkle the remaining hemp seed on top.

Preheat the oven to 220 °C and bake for about 30 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 200 °C and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan und put it back in the oven upside down. Bake for another 10 minutes until it sounds hollow when you knock on the bottom of the bread. Cool for some time before cutting it.

Index: Bread, Yeast, Hemp Seed, Blog Event,

Breakfast awaiting …

At Deichrunner’s Kitchen I found this recipe with sweet milk croissants. Right now it is très chic to copy and re-invent recipes from other blogs. This recipe has already been copied and changed in more than one recursion. So, if you sit back and take your time, you are able to get inspired by the ideas of your fellow’s ideas and still insert your own mistakes.

Since I may be just in time, I would still like to participate in the 22nd Bread Baking Day, this time graciously hosted by Stefanie from Hefe und mehr .

Milk Croissants and Chocolate Buns (and vice versa)

Source:	Deichrunner’s Kitchen , Chaosqueen und Schnuppschnüss ihr Manzfred 31.07.09 von Sus
Categories:	Baking, Bread, Bun
Yields:	8 pieces

Zutaten:

		Primary dough:
180	g	Spelt whole flour
170	g	Milk
5	g	Dry yeast
		or
1/2	cube	Fresh yeast
		Main dough:
190	g	Fine wheat flour
1		Egg
40	g	Butter; liquid
20	g	Sugar
1	Prise	Salt
50	g	Chocolate Rum-Raisin-Nuts; medium chopped

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients for the primary dough and let sit for about an hour.

Knead well the primary dough and the ingredients of the main dough – excluding the chocolate – and let rest for 20 minutes. Divide into 8 parts and mix the chocolate into four parts. Roll each piece into a ball. Cover with a towel and let rest for about 10 minutes.

Then either flatten a dough ball and firmly roll it into a croissant or let the dough ball be a ball. Cover all for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 230 °C. Spread some milk over each croissant/bun. When inserting the baking tray, squirt some water into the oven. After 10 minutes reduce the heat to 190 °C and bake for 8 minutes more.

Notes:

– The whole spelt flour makes the buns more compact, but gives them a slightly nutty flavour and a nice crunchy texture.

Tags: Recipe, Bread, Baking, Yeast, Bread Baking Day

Pe-Pe-Peppers …

For the Bread Baking Day, which has its second anniversary this month, Zorra from 1x umrühren bitte announced a pizza party .

That’s nice, because we like pizza. The peppers were on sale, the zucchini was the first of a long summer full of zucchinis and the chorizo already was in the fridge for a while. Fits!

In my opinion, for a good pizza you need a good tomato sauce and should invest some time in it. So this was the most time-consuming part. But it was worth the effort.

Bell Pepper & Chorizo Pizza

Source:	28.06.09 by Sus
Kategorien:	Pizza, Bell Peppers, Chorizo
Yields:	1 Baking Tray

Ingredients:

		Dough:
14	g	Fresh yeast
180	ml	Warm wasser (37° C)
1	pinch	Sugar
350	g	Flour (here: spelt flour)
2	tablespoons	Olive oil
		Salt, pepper
1	teaspoon	Thyme mix or fresh thyme
		Sauce:
1		Onion
2-3	cloves	Garlic (or more)
2	tablespoons	Olive oil
1	twig	Rosemary
5	twigs	Thyme
2	twigs	Oregano
2	small cans	Tomatoes
		Salt, pepper
		Topping:
2		Bell peppers, orange
1		Zucchini
1		Red pepper, medium hot
1	medium-sized	Onion
200	g	Chorizo; cut in thin slices
1	twig	Rosemary
100	g	Soft goat’s cheese; im crumbles

Preparation:

Dough:
Dissolve the yeast with the sugar in the water and let rest a short while.

Mix the salt and the thyme into the flour and add the olive oil. Slowly mix in the yeast water, using a dough hook first, then knead with the hands until you have a smooth, soft dough.

Moisten the surface lightly and cover the bowl with a clean towel. Now either put the bowl into the oven at 50° C or into the full sunshine, until the dough’s volume has doubled.

Sauce:
Chop the onion, garlic and the fresh spices and sauté them with some olive oil. Cut the tomatoes roughly still in their cans and pour them into the pot. Now reduce the sauce in ca. 1 hour to half of its volume, stirring constantly. Season it to taste.

Topping:
Slice the bell peppers aund the zucchini. Cut the onion into slices and quarter these. Marinate all with some olive oil, chopped rosemary, salt and pepper.

Roll out the dough on the baking tray (slightly oiled or with some baking paper) thinly. First spread the sauce evently, leaving out the edge, then add the remaining ingredients.

Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes in the oven at 250° C.

Notes:

– My oven has a setting „Intense heat“. I used this and the pizza was very crisp.

Tags: Recipe, Pizza, Chorizo, Blog Event, Bread Baking Day, bbd

Easter Bread

Once again we are invited by Julia from A Slice of Cherry Pie to participate in her annual Easter Cake Bake.

This year I chose an Easter Bread introduced into the blog world by a real German baker.

Easter Bread

Source:	Bäcker Süpke April 11, 2009 by Sus
Categories:	Cake, Yeast, Easter
Yields:	1 Cake

Ingredients:

		Starter:
170	g	Wheat flour
4	g	Yeast
150	ml	Cold milk
		Dough:
170	g	Wheat flour
35	g	Sugar
4	g	Salt
1	small	Egg
50	g	Butter
20	g	Yeast
1		Lemon, unwaxed; use the grated zest
		Vanilla extract
120	g	Sultanas
40	g	Almonds; chopped
		Milk
		Apricot jelly (I used quince jelly)
		Almonds; flaked

Preparation:

The day before wash the sultanas and soak them and the chopped almonds in milk.

Starter:
Knead the ingredients (4 min. slowly, 4 min. fast), but keep the dough temperature lower than 22 °C. Otherwise knead the dough more slowly. Cover it and let it rise for about 2 hours.

Dough:
Again knead the dough (8 min. slowly, then 4 min. fast). Keep temperature below 24°C! Carefully add the sultanas and the almond flakes and let rest again for 30 minutes.

Form a round loaf and put on a baking tray with baking parchment. Again leave the dough to rise (approx. 45 minutes). Keep it moist to prevent it from getting a skin.

After 30 minutes cut it crosswise. Put into the pre-heated oven at about 180-190 °C. Squirt some water into the oven to produce a lot of steam. Bake for 30 minutes. Pay attention to it during baking: the bread darkens/burns easily.

Brush the hot bread with warm ~~apricot~~ quince jelly and sprinkle some almond flakes over it.

Notes:

– I used half again the quantities as written above. So maybe this is the reason the dough wanted to rise horizontally instead of vertically.

Tags: Recipe, Cake, Yeast, Easter Cake Bake, Blog Event

Australian Bush Bread

Mansi from Fun & Food Blog invites us to the 18th Bread Baking Day, originated by Zorra. She chose the theme „Quick Breads“. This is a very good idea, since I’d often like to bake a bread for dinner, but know beforehand, that I’ll not have enough time after work to let a dough rise, knead it, let it rise some more, knead it again, bake it … I think, doing this, dinner would be around midnight. So, most of the time, I simply go to the bakery and buy some bread.

On the other hand, a bread where you just throw together the ingredients, give it a shake or a bit of kneading and bake it immediately is a good alternative. So I am quite excitedly waiting for all the other entries for this event to get new ideas to bake.

The following bread was invented by Australian ‚cowboys‘ camping in the bush, who copied it from the Australian Aborigines. They baked it in the hot ash of the camp fire, most of the time without any leavening agent and no milk.

Damper – Australian Bush Bread with Corn

Source:	March 28, 2009 by Sus
Categories:	Bread, Corn, Australia
Yields:	1 small bread

Ingredients:

150	g	Wheat flour
100	g	Corn flour
2	teaspoon	Baking powder
1/2	teaspoon	Salt
200	ml	Milk
20	ml	Oil (here:safflower oil)

Preparation:

Sieve meal, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre.

Mix milk and oil together and add to the flour to get a sticky dough. Put the dough on a floured surface and knead for about 1 minute until it is soft and smooth.

Shape the dough into a round ball and put it on a baking tray with baking paper. Brush the top with some milk and dust it with some corn flour.With a sharp knife cut the loaf crosswise, about 2 cm deep.

Bake for 15 Minuten in the preheated oven (200 °C), then reduce the heat to 180 °C and bake for 25 more minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the bread sounds hollow knocking on the underside (with your finger knuckles – do not use your nose!). Let cool on a rack.

Notes:

– This is a very small bread for two persons. Use double quantities for a normal sized bread.

– In the original recipes there is no corn flour: Either replace it with ’normal‘ flour or with wholemeal flour. With the corn flour the bread has somewhat more flavour, but it also crumbles more easily.

Index: Bread, Blog Event, Bread Baking Day

She said Potato …

I am happy to have managed to bake a bread for a Bread Baking Day again. So happy that I nearly forgot to blog about it …

The current Bread Baking Day is hosted by Lien from Notitie van Lien and she wanted to see some breads with potatoes. When I made this dish, I wanted some easy-to-bake bread with it. I found the following recipe which is really very easy and only needs some time for the dough to rise slowly.

Flat Potato Bread

Source:	Found in the internet and tried 08.02.09 by Sus
Categories:	Bread, Potato, Yeast
Yields:	1 Bread

Ingredients:

500	gram	Flour
500	ml	Water
100	gram	Instant mashed potatoes (powder)
1-2	teaspoons	Salt
1	teaspoon	Sugar
1	package	Dry yeast
		Topping:
		Olive oil
		Sea salt

Preparation:

Knead the ingredients together to get a firm dough. Let it rest in a cool place for some hours.

Put some baking paper on a tray and spread the dough across. With the handle of a cooking spoon press some holes into the dough. Brush the surface with olive oil liberally so that some of the oil collects in the holes. Sprinkle with a lot of salt.

Bake in the preheated (convection) oven for 10 minutes at 200°C and then for 15 minutes at 175°C.

Technorati: Recipe, Bread, Potato, Blog Event, Bread Baking Day, bbd

To prevent having too much time during the organization of the Gardening & Cooking Event ‚Red and Black Currants‘ I also participate in the bread baking day #11 – Bread with sprouts.

I have very freely adapted my recipe for flatbreads with onion sprouts from here and here.

Originally I wanted to use radish sprouts, but the seeds didn’t sprout but got mouldy instead. Since I didn’t have enough time to try a new batch, I went to the wholesale market, which normally sells every sort of sprouts one can imagine. But too bad: no delivery today. So I took some onion sprouts instead.

Flatbread with Onion Sprouts

Source:	1 x umrühren bitte June 28th, 2008 by Sus
Categories:	Bread, Flatbread, Yeast, Onion, Sprouts
Yields:	2 smaller pieces

Ingredients:

		Sponge:
80	gram	Wheat flour
1	teaspoon	Dry yeast
45	ml	Water
1	pinch	Salt
		Dough:
250	gram	Wheat flour
150	ml	Water
1 1/2	teaspoon	Dry yeast
1/2	teaspoon	Salt
1	cup	Onion Sprouts
		Sponge

Preparation:

Sponge:
Dissolve the yeast in the water, add salt and flour and combine everything. Cover the bowl and let rest for approx. 2 hours on the kitchen table, then for 12 hours in the fridge.

Dough:
Put the sponge and the other ingredients – without the sprouts – into a large bowl und mix evenly. At the beginning this is possible to do with a wooden spoon, later use your hands to knead the dough until it does not cling to the bowl’s sides any longer. This is the time to work in the onion sprouts.

Let the dough rest for an hour, and then make a Stretch ’n Fold.

Let the dough rest again for half an hour. Bring the dough into the desired shape(s) (here: two flatbreads), put on a tray covered with baking paper and let rest again for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 230°C. Before putting the breads into the oven, spray them and the inside of the oven with some warm water. My oven has a setting for baking and keeping the moisture inside instead of venting it. After 10 minutes set the temperature to 200°C and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Attention when opening the oven: Hot steam will come out! The bread is done when there is a hollow sound if you knock on the bottom.

Notes:

The onion sprouts tasted a little bit like onions (really?) and a little bit like nigella seeds. Tasty!

Now, after I’ve read the original recipes again, there isn’t much I did not do wrong. E.g. I used plain wheat meal instead of the fancier ones, then I used way to little, but it seems I compensated instinctively by adding the correspondingly correct amount of water.

The stretch ’n fold technique really worked. It worked so well that I did it three times one after the other just for the fun of it.

For the last resting period I let the dough sit not for two but for five hours. Despite the high yeast percentage of the dough it was quite deflated.

Still, I like them. One day in the future (when I’ll be a grown-up) I will bake the ultimately perfect bread. Until then I have a lot of time.

Index: Bread, Flatbread, Bread Baking Day, Blog Event

Source:	Wir sind im Garten 31.07.08 by Sus
Categories:	Bread, Yeast, Pumpkin, Squash
Yields:	1 Recipe

300	gram	Pumpkin/Squash; coarsely chopped, frozen
500	gram	Flour
125	ml	Vegetable stock; (diluted version)
1	tablespoon	Butter
2	tablespoon	Sugar
1	package	Dry yeast
1	Hand full of	Pumpkin seeds

Nutella Coffee

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Ballymaloe Wholemeal Bread with Hemp Seed

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Milk Croissants and Chocolate Buns (and vice versa)

Zutaten:

Preparation:

Notes:

Bell Pepper & Chorizo Pizza

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Notes:

Easter Bread

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Notes:

Damper – Australian Bush Bread with Corn

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Notes:

Flat Potato Bread

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Pumpkin Rolls

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Flatbread with Onion Sprouts

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Notes: