Kartoffelbrot

Still on the German baking thing.  We were looking for some crap to watch the other night and ended up watching the Hairy Bikers (/Bakers) in Germany on the BBC.  I'd been thinking of making a Kartoffelbrot anyway, they reminded me, and I used their recipe.

375g/13oz potatoes, peeled and cut into even chunks (300g/10½oz peeled weight; 2 large potatoes)
1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp salt
300g/10½oz strong white flour, plus extra for kneading (or 100g/3½oz strong wholemeal flour and 200g/7oz strong white flour)
1 tsp onion seeds – or use a mixture of caraway (2/3 tsp), anise (1/3 tsp) and fennel (1/3 tsp) seed

You need exactly 300g/10½oz potatoes to make the bread so check the weight once they are peeled.  Place the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with cold water, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat slightly and cook for 15–20 minutes until they are tender but not falling apart.

Drain the potatoes in a colander over a bowl and reserve the cooking liquid. Return the potatoes to the pan and toss over a very low heat for 2-3 minutes until any excess liquid has evaporated.

Pour 75ml/5 tbsp (90ml / 6 tbsp if using a wholemeal / white flour mix) of the warm cooking liquid into a large bowl and leave to cool for a few minutes. When it’s lukewarm, sprinkle in the yeast. Stir in the sugar and leave in a warm place for about 10 minutes until a light foam appears on the surface.

Mash the potatoes with the oil in the saucepan until they’re as smooth as possible, then stir in the yeast mixture and salt.

Mix well with a wooden spoon and gradually add the flour, a few tablespoons at a time, stirring well before adding more. When the dough becomes too stiff to stir in the flour, turn it out on to the work surface and knead the remaining flour into the dough. Don’t be tempted to add more water or the dough will become too sticky to work with.

Knead the dough for 10 minutes until soft and pliable. Place it in a bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 45–60 minutes, or until well-risen and spongy to touch.

Knock back the dough with your knuckles and shape it into a rough ball. Flatten the ball on a floured surface until it is about 2cm thick, then split into three and braid. Sprinkle on some wholemeal flour, for additional texture, on the outside of the loaf. Place it on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, and leave to prove in a warm place for a further 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 220C/428F. Sprinkle the top with your choice of seeds. Bake the loaf in the centre of the oven for 35 minutes until well risen and crusty on top. Cool on a wire rack.


This is really good - came out as a big, rustic, golden-brown braid, and we disappeared almost all of it as soon as it was cool enough.  Nice, soft texture and hearty, comforting taste.

Edit: I've re-made this a few times since and we still love it. It is wonderfully soft and moist, and keeps well - still easy to slice after a week.

baked tofu / miso asparagus

 Baked tofu from this recipe.

1 package firm tofu
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons grated or finely minced ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons mirin or other white wine
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce.

Heat the oven to 375°F.  Cut the tofu into ~10 slices and put them in an oven dish.  Mix the other ingredients, and pour them over the tofu.  Bake for 40-50 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed.

Miso asparagus from this recipe.

1 large bunch asparagus, trimmed
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
4 teaspoons white miso
4 teaspoons white wine
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Heat the oven to 375°F.  Mix all the ingredients except the asparagus together.  Spread the asparagus on a baking sheet and pour the marinade on top, mixing around a bit.  Put in the oven for about 35 min.


I stumbled on the asparagus recipe and it seemed like a great idea as S has been super into miso and to a lesser extent asparagus recently.  And the tofu one was just an afterthought as I had some tofu that needed eating and hadn't tried baking it before.  Actually, in the end I liked the tofu much better - didn't think the miso texture went all that well with the asparagus, but the tofu was dead tasty - the sweetness from the honey, saltiness from the soy and gentle fire from the ginger went really well.

Seelen (Swabian bread rolls with caraway and salt)

Another German baking effort, following a recipe from the same website as the last couple.  I mentioned to S that I was thinking of making Seelen, and he was super enthusiastic.  Apparently they are a forgotten favourite of his, and you only really get them in the Schwäbische Alb region, where he grew up.

500g white spelt flour (didn't have - used ~400g plain flour and ~100g wholemeal flour)
20g fresh yeast (or one sachet dry)
300 ml warm water
2 tsp salt

For sprinkling: caraway seeds and coarse sea salt

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and knead all ingredients for about 10 minutes to get soft and fairly sticky dough.  Leave to rise in a warm place for about 60 minutes, kneading briefly after 20 min and after 40 min.

When the dough has risen turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.  With wet hands shape it into a square of about 20 cm.  Use a wet knife to cut the dough into six strips.  Transfer the strips onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper.  Irregular shapes are fine, even good.  Cover with a clean dish towel and leave to rise for another 20 minutes.  Heat the oven to about 240C / 460F and place a bowl of water on the bottom shelf.

When the Seelen are ready to go into the oven wet them again with your hands and sprinkle with caraway seeds and coarse sea salt.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.


These came out pretty good.  S said they taste almost like the real Seelen - the only obvious difference was the top is usually more golden and shiny.  Probably the lack of spelt flour didn't help (my best guess was the Russian store, they only had wheat and rye flour) - perhaps Amazon.

Easter: Hot cross buns

When I first made these (in Norwich) I guess it was my first real effort at any kind of yeast bread baking, plus I remembered my Mum saying that hot cross buns were a bit of a 'mare to make as the dough gets sticky, so I was pleasantly surprised when they came out looking like hot cross buns.  Alice came round for a cup of tea on Sunday afternoon, bringing tea leaves she'd just bought in Darjeeling, and it seemed like a perfect afternoon tea combination.

In the USA, I discovered that the closest you get to a hot cross bun is an over-sweet abomination with an icing cross.  So I was glad I'd realised I could make them myself, and made a whole lot of mini ones to take into work and share.

I didn't actually make these today, but had some in the freezer and heated them up because it is Easter Sunday.  I can't find the exact recipe I used, but I think it might have been this one.


For the buns:
625g/1.3lb strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground mixed spice
45g/ 1.5 oz fake butter, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
85g/3oz sugar
1 lemon, zest only
1½ tsp fast-action yeast
1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 3 tbsp boiling water
275ml/10fl oz tepid milk
125g/4oz mixed dried fruit

For the topping:
2 tbsp plain flour
water
vegetable oil, for greasing
1 tbsp golden syrup, gently heated, for glazing

Mix the flour, salt and ground mixed spice in a large bowl, then rub in the butter to make 'breadcrumbs'.  Mix in the sugar, lemon zest and yeast.  Add the linseed mixture and the tepid milk.  Mix together to a form a soft, pliable dough.  Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface.  Carefully work the mixed dried fruit into the dough until well combined.  Knead lightly for 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.

Grease a large, warm mixing bowl with butter.  Shape the dough into a ball and place it into the prepared bowl, then cover with a clean tea towel and set aside in a warm place for one hour to prove.  Turn out the proved dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knock back the dough.  Shape it into a ball again and return it to the bowl, then cover again with the tea towel and set aside for a further 30 minutes to rise.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and divide it into 12 equal pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball, then flatten slightly into a bun shape using the palms of your hands.  Cover the buns again with the tea towel and set aside to rest for 5-10 minutes.  Grease a baking tray with butter and transfer the buns to the tray.  Wrap the tray with the buns on it loosely in greaseproof paper, then place inside a large polythene bag.  Tie the end of the bag tightly so that no air can get in and set aside in a warm place for a further 40 minutes to rise.  Heat the oven to 240C/475F/Gas 8.

For the cross, mix the plain flour to a smooth paste with 2 tablespoons of cold water.  When the buns have risen, remove the polythene bag and the greaseproof paper. Spoon the flour mixture into a piping bag (or a plastic bag with a little corner cut off) and pipe a cross on each bun.

Transfer the buns to the oven and bake for 8-12 minutes, or until pale golden-brown. As soon as you remove the buns from the oven, brush them with the hot golden syrup, then set aside to cool on a wire rack.


Shamefully, I have to note that, while these are wonderful, I actually kind of love the slightly gluey texture you get in (British) supermarket ones.

Banana walnut muffins

I have made banana muffins before (especially during the great banana glut of Spring 2011), but felt like trying a slightly different recipe, especially after getting into a discussion with Katy about banana muffin making and the best baking fats the other day - it seemed obvious that coconut oil was the best option, with its combination of tastiness, vegan-ness and melt-in-the-mouth-ness.  Plus its tropical-ness makes it a natural partner for bananas.

Based these on this ppk recipe.

1 1/4 cups plain flour
3/4 cup wholemeal flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup fake milk plus 1 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essence
~1/4 cup walnuts, broken into pieces

Heat oven to 350F.  Mix dry ingredients (first 7) with a fork in a mixing bowl.  Mash the bananas roughly in a separate bowl.  Mix the fake milk and vinegar in the measuring cup.  Bring the coconut oil to melting temperature (the warm side of room temp - I did this by putting the jar in hot water as you would for crystallised honey).  Add the fake milk mix, coconut oil and vanilla to the bananas and mix.  Add the wet to dry and mix til just combined.  Add walnuts and mix briefly and gently.

Prepare muffin tins with liners or grease, then add the mixture.  Bake for 25-30 min, until lightly browned and a skewer comes out clean.  Allow to cool for a few minutes in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.


These came out nice and banana-y.  Felt like they could do with a bit more texture though - perhaps add oats another time, and/or raisins or chocolate chunks.  Also I found the coconut smell / flavour a little overbearing.  Maybe I'll just go back to veg oil.

Apfelbrot

Got excited about German baking and decided to try another recipe from the blog I found: apfelbrot.

Makes one very large tin loaf or two smaller ones.
(I halved quantities to make a smaller loaf - I only have one loaf tin)

750 g apples, peeled and chopped (for 375g used 2 large apples)
250 g demerara sugar  (125g white sugar)
250g raisins or chopped, mixed fruit (125g raisins mixed with candied peel)
100 g ground almonds (50g)
100g roughly chopped hazelnuts (50g)
1 large tbsp dark rum (1 tbsp Pimms)
1 tbsp cocoa powder (1/2 tbsp)
1 tsp cinnamon (1/2 tsp)
1 pinch of ground cloves (small pinch)
500 g plain flour (250g)
20 g baking powder (10g = 2/3 tbsp)

Mix the chopped apples with the sugar and dried fruit.  Cover and leave to stand overnight or for at least 8 hours, so that the apples release juice.

Add the nuts, rum, cocoa and spices to the apple mixture and stir.  Finally add the flour and baking powder and mix until all the flour has been absorbed.  Add some extra liquid (water, rum, apple juice or tea) if the batter is too thick - it should be quite firm though.  Spoon the batter into the tin(s).  Bake at 180C / 350F for about one hour or until a skewer comes out clean.

The apple bread keeps fresh for a couple of weeks, but it should not be stored in plastic (tin foil or a tin is best).


Good stuff, as it should be with all those good things in it: a sum of its parts?  I liked the minimalism of the method: just using the juice from the apples instead of fat and/or liquid. I wondered how the cocoa powder would be, if anything it's imperceptible: certainly not negative.  The sum of its parts, but that's no bad thing.  The half quantity made a good-sized loaf that took us a few days to get through with pretty intensive snacking from both of us: think the double quantity would be massive.

Mohnkuchen (German poppyseed streusel cake)

As a pre-emptive reward for S coming in to my German class tomorrow (show and tell the germans in your life), I asked him what his favourite German cake was and then baked it.  I actually really can't understand why I haven't done much German baking before - there's such a beautiful range of German cakes...

He said Mohnkuchen.  I'm not sure if I've ever eaten proper Mohnkuchen - I've had some nice German cakey things made with lots of poppyseeds, but I don't think I've ever had the full streuselly whammy.  So there was an inherent challenge in this - how to make something when you don't know what it should be like, but the person you're making it for most definitely does?

Ein Stück Mohnkuchen

First challenge, actually, was trying to find a large quantity of poppyseeds.  Happily I managed to find them in the first place I looked: the Indian store in Coolidge Corner.  The package had a very basic label, but with some interesting facts:  the Latin name (Papaver somniferum) and the country of origin (Australia).  The somniferum made me wonder if poppyseeds come from the same poppy plants as opium / morphine / heroin.  And I wondered why they came from Australia, of all places.  Consultation with Wikipedia indicates that yes, these are from the exact same type of poppy as opium (that I also remember growing in the garden in East Linton), and that although there is little opium in the seeds (the latex is the big hitter), there is still some.  Are we going to get high?  There's a lot of poppyseeds in this cake.  Is this why it's S's favourite?  And apparently the USA has a special trade deal with Australia (plus 2 other countries, neither of which is Afghanistan) for supply of poppyseeds, so I guess that's why they came so far.

Next challenge was finding a recipe I could understand sufficiently well to follow.  Obviously most of the authentic ones are in German and are not vegan.  My German is improving, but I can't skim a page like I can in English yet.  The solution to that challenge was the happy discovery of this recipe on a wonderful blog by a German woman living in the UK - there are lots of other lovely-looking things on there I look forward to trying out...


This recipe gives quantities for a round spring form of 23 – 26 cm diameter.  I only have a ~20 cm diameter one so used that, but perhaps a wider one would have given better results.

For the pastry base:

250 g plain flour
80 g sugar
120 g fake butter
1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 3 tbsp hot water (egg substitute)
½ tsp baking powder

For the poppyseed filling:

40 g cornflour (used custard powder)
4 tbsp sugar
1 vanilla pod (used 1 tsp vanilla essence)
500 ml fake milk
250 g ground poppy seed (used a ~ 50 : 50 mixture of ground and whole - S said he preferred whole, I thought some ground might give better texture)
swig of dark rum (or a handful of raisins soaked in rum) (used Pimms as didn't have rum)

For the streusel (crumble) topping:
100 g flour
70 g fake butter
70 g sugar

Combine the base ingredients and knead until you have a smooth ball of dough.  Leave to rest in the fridge.

For the filling, mix the corn flour / custard and sugar.  Add a bit of cold milk and whisk until there are no lumps left.  Boil the rest of the milk with the vanilla (seeds scraped into the milk if using a pod).  When it is boiling remove the vanilla pod and whisk it into the cornflour mixture.  Pour the mixture back into the pan and boil for a minute or so, whisking constantly until the mixture resembles thick custard.  Add the poppy seeds and booze.  Leave to cool slightly.

In the meantime make the topping by rubbing the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, then mix in the sugar.

Roll out the pastry (between two layers of cling film) and use it to line the prepared baking tin.  The edge parts should be about 3 cm high.  Fill the pastry case with the poppyseed mixture and smooth the surface. Top with the crumble and bake at about 180C / 350F for 60 minutes or until the crumbly top is golden brown.  Leave to cool thoroughly before removing from the tin.


I was quite happy with this.  S was too.  He said it could be a little sweeter, but I think we both quite enjoyed that it was not too sweet - the seediness stands out more, and it's a good anytime-even-breakfast-without-sugar-headrush cake because of it.  The best bit is where the mohn meets the streusel.  The worst bit is the pastry base.  The pastry was a bit wet so I wasn't sure about it from the start, but persevered and it came out OK - successfully lined the tin.  But it was a bit thick, especially around the edges where it was difficult to get it to stay in position.  So another time I might use less pastry, and either use less egg substitute, make it less watery, or miss it out entirely.  The relative smallness of the tin probably didn't help.  I also might make the custard a wee bit thicker and sweeter.  All that said, it came out really good - veganising was definitely successful, and I really like the mohniness.