Twisted Raisin and Hazelnut Breadsticks

I had a reason for a small happy dance yesterday ;)

About five years ago was the last time I was on holiday in the Netherlands.

One thing I remember very distinctly apart from the beach, the wind and having a great time kite flying are Twisters. Twisters? Yes, Twisters.
You haven't heard of them? I have to change that!!! The probably most common supermarket in the Netherlands, AlbertHeijn, sells twisted bread with raisins and nuts in them and I absolutely loved them. You can see them here, but we always bought baked ones to eat right away and not frozen ones like on that website. Sadly, I couldn't find a recipe anywhere for how to make them :(

Two years ago I gave it a try, but wasn't completely happy with it and the procedure was a bit too complicated be justified by the outcome.

After my recent sourdough experiments I decided to give it another try. Also, with me starting my job soon (yay!), I remember that it has proven to sometimes be more practical to be able to just grab a twisted bread stick from the freezer in the morning than to cut the bread loaf and butter the slices and wrap them up.

And surprise, surprise, even though I made the recipe up completely by myself without any references...

... using this chaotic note, but I'm quite sure that doesn't help anyone ...

... they turned out really well! I am so happy about that!

I've had one test eater confirm that and my Mum baked the Twisters herself today and she agrees. As As apparently you say round here .... Happy Days ;)

Twisted Raisin and Hazelnut Breadsticks

Recipe by Ines Feucht

Prep time: 18 hours
Cook time: 3 hours
Total time: 21 hours
Yield: 6 bread sticks

Ingredients

• 125 g wheat sourdough
• 125 g rye flour
• 125 g water

• 300 g wheat flour
• water
• 1 tsp dried yeast (or 8 g fresh)
• ½ tsp honey
• 1 tbsp honey
• 8 g salt
• ½ cup raisins
• ½ cup hazelnuts, chopped roughly
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder, unsweetened
• 1 tsp cookie and cake spice (nutmeg, clove and cinnamon - you can mix this yourself*)
• flour for dusting

Instructions

1. The afternoon/evening before (or 12 hours before you plan to bake) mix sourdough, rye flour and water in a bowl. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 12 hours.
2. Dissolve yeast and the ½ tsp honey in some warm water (max. 100 ml).
3. Add wheat flour to your sourdough mixture. Also sprinkle salt on so that it is evenly distributed. Add yeast-water-mixture, honey, raisins, nuts, cocoa powder and cake & cookie spice. Start kneading. Gradually, if needed, add more water. Knead until you have a soft pliable dough that is not overly sticky.
4. Put back into the bowl and let rise in a warm (!) place (preferably on a radiator or a warm cherry stone pillow) for about two hours or until doubled in size.
5. Line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper / foil or dust heavily with flour. Then knead the dough again and divide into 150 g pieces. This works better with wet hands.
6. Have some flour ready and dust part of your work surface next to your kneading area. Roll the dough pieces into ropes of about 18 cm length. Then lay them one side down on the floured surface so that they have a lengthwise white stripe. Twist each one about three times and place on the baking sheet.
7. Let the twisted bread sticks rise for half an hour in a warm (!) place. If necessary preheat your oven to 230°C (210°C if you have fan heat). During the last ten minutes place an oven-safe baking dish with a bit of water in the oven.
8. Place the bread sticks in the oven and bake for 15 minutes at 230°C (210°C fan heat). Then turn down the heat to 210°C (190°C fan heat) and bake for another 10 minutes.
9. Take the bread sticks out of the oven and let cool on a rack or freeze immediately in freezer bags. If you do that let them defrost in the bags and after a few hours re-crisp on a toaster rack.

* If you do mix the spice yourself grind approx. two small cloves, add a pinch of nutmeg and top up the the teaspoon with cinnamon. DO NOT use equal amounts of the spices! Too many cloves can be quite....strong ;)

my Mum's baking =)

Sourdough & Yeast Bread with Seeds

Yesterday morning, after non-stop rain on Wednesday, I think I could have give a home to some gold fish in my bike's panniers. That's the downside of having waterproof bags, you see .. the water usually keeps out, but if it gets in, it stays in there ;)

My panniers do have a hole...unintentionally...but it doesn't seem to help much in this case.

In any case it is always surprising how much less heavy my bike is without these panniers and the D-lock on it. 

Well, anyway ... I hadn't planned on having a free morning today, but since I now have one, I am tackling the following very urgent issue now:

Finally ... after moving this note from my desk to the kitchen, back to my desk, being carried around on my phone as a photograph when showing a friend how to make this bread  ... I am now putting it into proper writing for you!

Oh, hold on. Maybe you can just use the note? ;) No? Oh, okay then =P

I've made two versions of this bread now; one with seeds, as my Mum's original version was, and one with left-over red lentils and sunflower seeds. I can recommend both versions or simply using whatever you may have on hand.

Sourdough & Yeast Bread with Seeds

Recipe by Ines Feucht

Sourdough yeast bread with seeds, grains, or pulses. Wholegrain rye and wheat.

Prep time: 12 hours
Cook time: 45 minutes
Total time: 18 hours
Yield: 2 loaves

Ingredients

• 245 g rye flour
• 280 g water
• 50 g ready-to-use sourdough-starter (before feeding)

• 120 g mixed seeds, soaked in
• 105 g water OR
• 1 cup cooked lentils/grains

• 350 g wheat flour
• 60 g rye flour
• 16 g salt
• 2 tsp dried yeast (or 10 g fresh)
• honey
• 50 g water

• water
• seeds or flour for decoration

Instructions

On the day before:

1. Mix rye flour, water and sourdough in a bowl. Cover and place in a warm place overnight.
2. Mix seeds of your choice with water and leave to soak OR make sure you have your grains/pulses cooked for the next day. You can also cook them on the next day, but since you wouldn't want them to be hot it is easier to have them ready. You can also add in grains/pulses and seeds.

On the baking day:

1. Dissolve yeast and honey in lukewarm water.
2. Mix wheat and rye flour with salt. Add to the dough you started the day before along with the yeast mixture and the seeds/grains/pulses.
3. Knead until the dough comes together in a ball and keep on kneading for a bit until you have a soft and pliable dough. Knead into a ball, as described here in the kneading instructions and place back into your bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place for two hours.
4. With wet hands remove from the bowl onto a wet surface. Divide into two equal parts and knead into loaves.
• Either: Place on a baking sheet lined with non-stick backing foil or dusted with a very generous amount of flour. Wet the loaves thoroughly with your hands. Dust with flour.
• Or: Wet the loaves thoroughly with your hands. Dip, upside-down into a plate full of seeds. Turn back around and place on a baking sheet lined with non-stick backing foil or dusted with a very generous amount of flour. 
5. Let the loaves rise in a draught-free place for half an hour and pre-heat your oven to 260 °C. If using fan heat only use 240°C. After 20 minutes place an oven-proof dish filled with water in the oven to let steam develop.
6. With a wet, sharp knife cut into the loaf to determine where it will break up. You can choose the pattern. I did a cross-wise grid sort of pattern, as I remembered too late that I used to make my Mum cut hearts into the surface ;)
7. Bake for
• 15 minutes at 260 °C / 240°C fan heat
• 15 minutes at 220 °C / 200°C fan heat
• 15 minutes at 190 °C / 170°C fan heat
8. Remove from the oven and check if the loaves sound hollow when you knock on them to confirm that they are done. Let cool on a rack until completely cooled, then wrap in a dish towel and store in a paper bag at room temperature OR freeze immediately, when still hot, in a sealed freezer bag.
9. Enjoy :-)

Swabian Farmers' Bread

Life has been weird this week ... our house has profited from that in any case, since my housemate and I had a home-improvement DIY day today!
We managed to put up the IKEA shelf we'd been meaning to put up since January and the whiteboard we'd meaning to put up since last year October. ... A small excuse is that we didn't have a drill until May =P Now we've made it and it is nearly straight. For that being the first things we ever hung ourselves that's pretty good, isn't it?
And, well, in fact it must be pretty straight, since the teapot on the shelf is not practising for winter skiing, but is staying in its place :)
Yes, the shelf is now the tea shelf and we were both quite amazed about it until our other housemates came back and told us it was exactly in the walking line and the corner of the shelf really dangerous ;)
So, I guess we'll hang something in neon colours on the edge, but it is not THAT dangerous.



And to keep you up to date in case one of you has started a sourdough here comes the recipe for the first mixed yeast & sourdough bread I made!

Swabian Farmers' Bread

Recipe by Ines Feucht

Swabian farmers' bread with sourdough and yeast.

Total time: 18 hours + sourdough
Yield: 1 bread

Ingredients

• 160 g rye flour
• 200 g water
• 40 g sourdough

• 160 g wheat flour
• 140 g rye flour
• 80 - 160 g water, lukewarm
• 1 tsp dried yeast (or 8 g fresh)
• ½ tsp honey
• 10 g salt
• bread spice (fennel seeds, coriander seeds, caraway seeds, anise seeds)
• flour

Instructions

1. Mix together the first three ingredients (rye flour, water and sourdough). Take the sourdough from your sourdough starter ready for use. Don't forget to feed the remaining starter. Let this sit, covered, in a warm place overnight or for about 8 hours.
2. Grind up bread spice and mix with flour and salt. Add to the dough. Dissolve yeast and honey in a part oft the water. Add to the dough and start kneading. Add water as needed.
• It is considerably easier to knead this with a kneading machine, since rye dough tends to be very sticky.
3. Knead until the dough comes together. Cover and let rest in  a warm (!) place for half an hour. Don't hesitate to use a cherry stone pillow or some other gently warming device.

1. Knead again and form into a dough ball (on a wet surface with wet hands, form into a ball by folding in the sides and rotating the ball of dough until the bottom side of the dough is smooth). Take a bowl and line with a dish towel. With a fine sieve dust the towel in the bowl generously with flour. Place the ball of dough in this bowl, the dough end facing up. With something pointed, such as knitting needles, poke the dough a couple of times. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat your oven to as high as it goes. Place an oven-save dish filled with water in the oven so that steam can develop.
3. Generously dust a baking sheet with flour. You can also use a non-stick baking. In one swift movement turn out the bread on the sheet. Poke the bread again a couple of times. With a sharp knife slice the bread in a grid pattern. The cuts should be about 1 inch/ 1 ½ cm deep. Wet your hands and wet the bread. dust it with more flour.
4. Place the bread in the oven. Bake, turning down the oven over time:
• for 15 minutes at 260 °C (or as high as your oven goes) - this develops the crust
• for 20 minutes at 220 °C and
• for 15 minutes at 190 °C.
5. Remove from the oven and check for doneness by knocking on the bottom of the bread. If it sounds hollow the bread is done.
6. Let cool on a rack or freeze immediately.
• Store, wrapped in a dish towel, in a paper bag at room temperature. OR

• Freeze in a freezer bag, then defrost overnight at room temperature (within the bag) and, if you wish, reheat and crisp up briefly in the oven.

Homemade Sourdough

These past weeks I've done so much, and time seems to pass so fast.

Still, there was time for a trip each week and after the Isle of Wight, last week we went to explore the area around Chichester by bike. We stopped in West Wittering, which has the most impressive beach I've seen since the last holiday in the Netherlands, which was about four years ago.

West Wittering Beach

It was low tide when I took that photograph, but this    s p a c e  ... isn't it amazing :)
I just love the beaches and the waves. Oh, and if you happen to come to this area, do take the ferry from Bosham to Itchenor. It was the most amazing ferry I've ever been on! A three meter boat was totally not what I had expected xD

But now that's enough of impressions ;)

Exciting things have been going on in our kitchen this week! And no, this is not a joke! I was actually jumping around excitedly when my first ever half-sourdough-bread started to RISE in the oven. It had been a very dense ball of dough and it did in fact look less than promising, but it turned out just as if my Mum had made it =) And according to my housemate it looked as if was from the lovely Czech bakery we have in town.

...That's just to let you know what you can expect if you choose to take up the experiment challenge =P
If you want to jump around excitedly then give it a try!

But to start from the beginning: I finally started a sourdough about two weeks ago! Something I'd wanted to do for ages, waiting for the right time to come, which of course has never happened. ... So I just went for it.

Basic Sourdough

Recipe by Ines Feucht

top left: directly after mixing, bottom left: day 1, right: day 3

Prep time: 1 week

Ingredients

• flour
• water
• 1 big glass jar
• 1 cloth
• 1 rubber band

You can use wholewheat flour or regular flour. Don't use any self-raising flour, though!

Instructions

• Day 1: Start with ½ cup flour and and ½ cup lukewarm water. Place in the jar and mix well. Place cloth over the jar and secure with a rubber band. Place the jar in a dark, warmish place.
• Day 2: After 24 hours add ½ cup flour and ½ cup lukewarm water. Mix and cover and return to the warm place.
• Days 3 & 4: Each day empty the contents of the jar into a bowl. Clean the jar, since otherwise mold may develop if the sides of the jar are not clean, since you are keeping it in a warm place. Mix the starter in the bowl. Place ¼ cup of the starter back into the jar. Add ½ cup of flour and ½ cup lukewarm water and mix well. Cover and place back in the warmish place.

You can use the leftover starter in waffles or pancakes - I will post a recipe for you.

• Day 5: Proceed as on days 3 and 4, but only add ¼ cup of flour and ¼ cup of water.

After this time you can use your starter as in any recipe it is asked for.

• Feeding: For feeding keep ¼ cup of starter and add ½ cup of flour and ¼ cup water.
• If you use it on a daily basis, proceed each day as on day 5.
• If you use it on a weekly basis, proceed the same way once a week, keeping the starter in the fridge. In this case you can put a lid on your jar.

Minor deviations from your feeding schedule (missing one day or getting the time of the day wrong won't affect your sourdough, but make sure to maintain your overall pattern.

Note: After day three the sourdough became less bubbly and didn't seem as active anymore. I was a bit worried, but it doesn't seem to have done any harm. So if the same happens to yours, don't freak out and just keep on feeding it.

Thyme & Sesame Bagels

Happy Sunday! I know that, at least if you are in Portsmouth, this may not be the loveliest of days, but it is exactly the right day to read this and think about freshly baked goods ;)

I've got some more novelties lined up for you. Okay, maybe just one, but let's start with the the more important things, such as food, first!

This week I've tried so many new recipes and taken lots of Instagram photos that last night that I couldn't remember when the last time had been that I had had pasta. So, with the surprise bag of ingredients that a friend of mine had brought from the shop I made us some stir fried sweet potato, thyme-mushrooms and bok choi with lemon, soy sauce and lightly fried spaghetti. We loved the result and it was exactly the right thing for the day. For some reason, pasta is a food I often turn to when I feel like I need something that is definitely going to work and is sort of comforting, that is exactly the right thing after a long day and a busy week.

I think that today I may have finally gotten one step further on my dissertation work, so I deserve some time off for posting after spending lots of time on it during the week ;)

Well, I have to admit that I had a day off going on a trip to London. On that day there was a tube strike, so it was crazily busy and it was amazing to be back here in the evening with nobody out on the streets and  . . .  the silence!
It is a great place to visit and we had a great time seeing the ICA and wandering around in Tate Modern, but one day in the city centre is definitely enough for me. I think this time my art interpretation skills were not spot-on, but amazingly there was one, a video of a cube of sugar cubes being drizzled with crude oil, where we actually agreed on what we thought it was supposed to mean. Probably that was completely different from the artist's intention, but let's not be too critical ;)

In galleries I always find it amazing how people have such different opinions about artworks and I like the thinking that in art usually you won't be right or wrong.

These bagels are something that is right, though ;)
It was an experiment, so I noted down some things I would change the next time I am making them, but am sharing these notes with you!

Thyme & Sesame Bagels

Inspiration from these Whole Wheat Za'atar Bagels

Time: 10 minutes + 1 hour rising + 10 minutes + 2 hours rising + 30 minutes + 20 minutes baking

for	7	bagels
	550 g	wholewheat flour
	1/2 tsp	dried yeast
	1/2 tsp	honey
	100 g	luke warm water
	2 tsp	salt
	3 tsp	cornflour-locust bean gum mixture (or 1 egg) *
	60 g	water
		water
	3 tbsp	sesame seeds
	1 handful	fresh thyme, chopped
	1 tbsp	organo, dried
	3 tbsp	honey
	2 l	water
		coarse salt
		sesame seeds

• For detailed yeast dough-instructions, see here.
• Start the dough by dissolving yeast and honey in 100g of water and pouring into a well in the middle of the flour. Let rise, covered in a warm place until the dough has visibly started to rise.
• Add salt, egg/fake egg*, sesame seeds, thyme, oregano and, gradually, water. Knead into a smooth, soft, non-sticky dough. Let rise until the volume has doubled.
• Set 2 litres of water to boil in a wide pot. Preheat your oven to 230°C (upper-/lower-heat). Use 20°C less if using fan heat.
• Divide the dough into 7 pieces of equal size (they will weigh about 120 g). Form each piece into a small roll. Keep water at hand. Wet your index fingers. Poke one index finger from the top through the roll, lift up and poke the other finger through from the bottom. Making rotating movements with both hands, stretch the hole with your fingers until it is about 6cm in diameter. Place formed bagels on a non-stick baking sheet.
• When the water is boiling, stir in the honey and lower heat to a slight simmer.
• Have a soup plate with sesame seeds on hand.
• To boil the bagels (first try with a single one and then you may be able to do two at a time):
• Gently drop bagel into the water. Using a slotted spoon, nudge it from time to time to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot.
• After some time the bagel will rise to the surface. When it does, after 15 seconds, flip it over and boil for another 20 seconds (approximately).
• Lift it out with the slotted spoon and place in the soup plate with the sesame seeds. Flip.
• Return to the baking sheet.
• Sprinkle with a little bit of coarse salt.
• After boiling all bagels, bake for 10 minutes, flip them over and bake for another 10 minutes.
• Leave to cool on a rack and enjoy immediately. If eating them after a few hours I recommend re-heating them on a toaster as it crisps them up very nicely.

• If you want to freeze them, freeze immediately. Let defrost in a plastic bag later and place on a toaster to crisp up when defrosted.

*Video: see explanation below

*Cornflour-Locust Bean Gum Egg:

Mix 300 g fine whole cornflour with 30 g locus bean gum. You can buy locust bean gum in health food stores or organic shops. Make sure there are no clumps. You can use a sieve for this. Keep in an airtight jar. To substitute 1 egg, use 2 tsp of the mixture and mix with 40g water.

And now the exciting news ;)
I did a video of me making these bagels, so have a look (on YouTube itself the quality is a bit better)!

I hope it is useful! I apologise for it not being super professional and me walking in and out of the picture, but as I will never have a perfect first video I thought I might as well get started with this one.

Swabian Hearty Bread Rolls

I have had a very productive and busy day today so far! Besides baking these delicious rolls I spent some time on my job search. So keep your fingers crossed for me that one day I'll be successful ;-) But I guess, as the saying goes, persistence is the key to success ;-) Sometimes, that is...if you don't make the same mistake all over again all the time. After that I indulged in my weekly cleaning project =P and in between ...

... I made these delicious rolls! So here we go in case I have confused you earlier on.

Usually I make a batch and freeze it so that I can take some out each day for lunch without any hassle ... I just love home-baked bread! I have had some conversations about my seemingly snack-like lunch...but, honestly, real, crunchy, hearty bread is so much more than a snack!!!

Bread rolls also remind me of weekends when I was a child. During the week we'd have bread, but on weekends it would be bread rolls. That was before the time when my Mum started baking, so I was a very small child then ;-)

My Dad drove to the bakery in the next village each Saturday and Sunday morning, since that used to be the one where they'd still make the bread themselves from scratch. They used to have different breads and rolls on different days of the week, since, when you actually make things from scratch, you cannot make 30 kinds of bread each day.

That reminds me... ! Have you ever seen Laugenbrot (= pretzel bread)? Actually, myself, I have only ever seen it in this specific bakery. Laugenbrötchen (= lye rolls), Laugenbrezeln (= pretzels) or Laugenstangen (= pretzel breadstick) are very common and available everywhere, but Laugenbrot doesn't seem to be. I loved to pluck it apart, as, since it was braided, like a Hefezopf bread (= braided sweet yeast bread), it was possible to divide into pieces in the places where the different strands met. I love thinking back to all the amazing things they used to bake....but let's get back:

The bread rolls: In the morning we'd have rolls with butter, jam, chocolate spread, honey or Eszet-Schnitten.
Eszet-Schnitten are very thin chocolate slices, available in different degrees of darkness, that you lay on your bread. I don't eat them anymore these days, but putting them on freshly toasted toast (on weekdays) was so much fun! They'd melt and go all gooey and, well ... CHOCOLATE! =)

The following recipe is similar to the Potato Bread one, but slightly heartier. Since it doesn't contain milk you only need items that you may have in your pantry anyway and if you'd been using nut milk it saves you that one step of making it.

Swabian Bread Rolls

recipe inspired by a recipe by Adelinde Häußler

Time: 30 minutes + 1 hours rising + 15 minutes + 3 hours rising + 15 minutes + 35 minutes resting & baking = 5 h 35 min (not all working time!)

for 7 rolls
100 g	water, lukewarm
2 g or ½ tsp	dried yeast (or twice the amount fresh yeast)
½ tsp	honey
450 g	whole wheat flour
50 g	whole rye flour
½ tsp	bread spice (usually a mixture of fennel, coriander and caraway seeds)
125 g	potatoes
12 g	salt
¼ tsp	nutmeg, ground
½ tbsp	red wine vinegar

• Dissolve yeast and honey in water. Grind up the bread spice in a mortar or with a blender. Place flour and bread spice in a large bowl and mix well. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the water-yeast-mixture. Mix with some flour from the sides of the well until you achieve a mud-like consistency. Sprinkle with some flour from the sides and cover with a lid, plate or cling film. Let rest in a warm place for an hour. 

• In the meantime: Cut the potatoes in small pieces (1.5 cm size) and steam until very soft. For this place them in a metal colander or a steaming basket. Take a pot of a suitable size for the colander and add about 3 cm of water. Place the colander in the pot and cover with a lid. Bring to the boil and let cook in the steam for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are very soft. Keep the water.
• Mash the potatoes and add some of the cooking water as you go to achieve a creamy consistency. (I use a potato masher and do this in the pot I cooked the potatoes in, since you need something with an even bottom surface).

• When the yeast has visibly started to rise, add the mashed potatoes, nutmeg and vinegar. Also add the salt, but don't pour directly on the yeast, as direct contact causes some of the yeast-cells to die. Add a slight bit water. Knead until everything starts to come together and add more water as necessary.
• When you have reached that consistency take the dough from the bowl and form into a ball by folding in the sides and rotating the ball of dough until the bottom side of the dough is smooth. Turn over and return to the bowl. Cover the bowl and return to the warm place. Let the dough rise until it has at least doubled in size. This may again take about 2-5 hours, depending on the temperature and the amount of yeast.

• Pre-heat your oven if necessary. You'll want 210°C. Use upper and lower heat. If you have fan heat turn to only 190°C. Place a casserole dish with a bit of water in the oven to let steam develop.
• Keep a bowl of water at hand. Wet the surface you'll be kneading on. Remove the dough from the bowl and put onto your surface. Divide into 120 g pieces and evenly divide up any leftover dough. I had seven rolls.
• Form rolls: Using the same technique as for the whole of the dough before, do this with the first roll. Then, place, open side down, on the surface and move your hand in circular movements, as if you were rolling a ball in circles over the table. This will make the rolls more ball like, as opposed to the flatter shape they may have had before. Don't worry though if it doesn't entirely work, it is all a matter of practice and your rolls will turn out fine no matter what!
• Repeat with all rolls and place open side down on a flour-covered baking sheet. You can also use a non-stick baking sheet. Wet all the rolls with water.
• Let them rest for 10 minutes in a draught-free-place. Bake for 25 minutes. To test for done-ness, tap the bottom of a roll with your finger. It should sound hollow.

• Let the rolls cool on a rack and eat immediately or place into freezer bags immediately after baking and freeze. If you do this take them out a couple of hours before you want to eat them, keep in the freezer bag and the re-heat on top of a toaster-oven.

You can turn this into a bread by baking it according to the instructions in the Potato Bread recipe.

PS: Don't forget you can now follow me on Instagram! The link is on the right side in the sidebar.

Mum's Crusty Potato-Bread

I travelled to Germany on Friday last week for my Easter-break, so this is where I am writing from today. Last Saturday we went to the market in a city nearby and bought a normal German bread... And it was heavenly! I had been looking forward to that for a while after having several conversations about German bread ;-)

Back in England I ordered 5 kg of rye before I left with the intention to bake some real German bread upon returning since I had promised to do so to a few of my friends.

I told my Mum about my plan and she promised to bake some bread with me for practise. So far usually I only watched her baking bread. Myself I usually only made easy bread recipes, sweet things or cake.

My Mum is a fantastic baker! ♡

She has a bread-baking oven where there is a metal plate that heats up instead of the air in the oven heating up. Further on the oven has a steam pipe, but apart from that it is fairly sealed so that moisture (in form of steam developing from the wet dough) is to a great part retained in the oven. This helps develop the crust.
A few years ago, when I was still living at home, my Mum used to bake lots of bread each Sunday morning. Sunday was baking day.

Today we shared the work when testing how to bake the bread with just normal means (no bread baking oven and no massive dough kneading machine). Now I think I’m going to be able to re-create this for everyone I promised to in England!
Of course now you could also give it a try yourself since I am going to tell you now how you can get your very own German bread. Maybe you'll have mastered it already when I am back ;-)

This bread is crunchy on the outside, flavourful and moist on the inside.
It is pure heaven if you slice off a piece while it still is slightly warm, spread dollops of butter on it and enjoy it.
I am awfully sorry if I sound overly enthusiastic today, but I had some warm, crunchy bread for lunch today ;-)

Mum's Crusty Potato Bread

time required: about 4-6 hours of on and off work - not straight of course ;-)

inspired by a recipe from "Brot und Brötchen selber backen" by Marianna Buser

1 loaf	2 loaves	4 loaves
300 g	600 g	1200 g	whole wheat flour
50 g	100 g	200 g	whole rye flour
8 g	17 g	35 g	honey
100 g +	200 g +	400 g +	water
1-2 g	3-4 g	7 g	dry yeast (double if using fresh yeast)
200 g	400 g	800 g	potatoes (the kind that mashes well)
10 g	20 g	40 g	salt
40 g	80 g	160 g	cashew milk
--> 7 g	--> 13 g	--> 25 g	for the cashew milk: nuts, top up with water (or use milk or a double cream/water mixture)
			flour for dusting

If you make four loaves you might need to make the dough in two batches since the amount is rather large.

• Mix the two kinds of flour and place in a bowl. Make a dip in the middle. Mix honey, water and yeast until honey and yeast have dissolved. Pur the liquid in the dip. Mix with some flour from the sides until a thick paste forms. Cover by sprinkling with flour from the sides. Place cling film or a lid on the bowl and let rest in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until cracks are visible in the flour covering your paste.
• In the meantime: Cut the potatoes into small cubes. Leave the skin on. In a steaming basket or a metal sieve fitted in a pot steam the potatoes over water until very soft (about 15 minutes). You could also boil them in water, but when you steam them more nutrients will be retained in the potatoes. When they have cooked save some of the cooking water. With a potato masher, mash the potatoes as thoroughly as you can. Add some of the cooking water if you feel like this will help mashing.

• Then add the mashed potatoes, salt and cashew milk to the bowl with the dough. If you have one use a dough kneading machine for this step. Start kneading. The aim is to have a soft ball of dough that doesn't stick to the bowl anymore. Add more water if necessary.
• When you have reached that consistency take the dough from the bowl and form into a ball by folding in the sides and rotating the ball of dough until the bottom side of the dough is smooth. Turn over and return to the bowl. Cover the bowl and return to the warm place. Let the dough rise until it has at least doubled in size. This may again take about 1 ½ - 2 hours.

• After that time heat up or turn on your oven. For a gas oven use gas mark 9, for upper and lower heat use 260°C, for fan heat use 240°C. Additionally place an old baking tin or any enamel dish filled with water in the oven. This helps to keep the bread moist and helps with letting the crust develop. If you happened to have a bread baking oven you could skip this step.
• Line a baking tray with baking foil or non-stick parchment paper.

• Take the dough out of the bowl and divide into as many pieces as you are making loaves. Using the same technique as before give them a short knead to shape the pieces into balls. Place them on the baking tray, the dough ends facing down. Wet your hands and moisten the loaves. Using a fine sieve dust the dough balls with flour until totally covered. Let them rest for 5 minutes.

• Place the loaves in the oven.
• Bake (these are upper and lower heat temperatures):
• 15 minutes at 260°C (whatever you started with)
• + another 15 minutes at 220°C (turn down by approx. 40°C)
• + another 20 minutes at 190°C (turn down a bit again)

• This procedure will first let a firm crust form. Then when the heat is decreased the bread will slowly bake on the inside (pretty much like a cake).

• Remove the bread from the oven. If you peek under one, tap on the bottom of the bread with your finger. If it sounds hollow the bread is fully baked. This should be the case. Otherwise you would bake it for another few minutes. Place the loaves on a baking rack for cooling.
• If you made more loaves than you plan to eat right away you can freeze them. To do so place them in a freezer bag after 20 minutes when they are still a bit warm and freeze immediately. To defrost, place them on a rack again and let it defrost in the freezer bag. If you want to you can pop it back in a warm oven for a few minutes to get it crunchier again.
• If you eat your bread right away (this is the very best option!) let it cool on the rack for a minimum total of 30 minutes and then slice carefully.
• For fresh keeping any leftover bread a good option is to wrap it in a dish cloth (preferably linen) and place in a paper bag.

Enjoy it =)