hanseata's blog

Nobody in Germany thinks of baking regular, plain white rolls at home. You get them freshly baked everywhere, in bakeries, supermarkets, and even in gas stations. Every German region has them, called "Rundstueck" in Hamburg, "Schrippe" in Berlin, "Semmel" in Munich, or simply "Broetchen" (little bread).

The typical Broetchen has a crisp crust and a fluffy, soft, easy to pull out crumb. It has nothing in common with its pale, crustless, chewy US cousin, the dinner roll. And - sorry, guys! - American Kaiser Rolls are just Kaisersemmel wannabes, they share only the pretty star cut with their Bavarian or Austrian ancestors.

One of the greatest woes of German expats is the total lack of this everyday staple in the US. No Broetchen to be found anywhere - perhaps bad imitations, but never the real thing. No cookbook would even list the recipe, no website provides it, the deceptively simple, but oh so elusive good old German Broetchen!

When I finally found and adapted a recipe, and baked my first batch, using regular bread flour, I was in for a big disappointment. The pretty little rolls tasted okay, but the consistency was totally wrong, with a lean and airy crumb like a French roll. My next trial with all-purpose flour only proved AP's limitations - it definitely was not up to THIS purpose! Totally frustrated I shoved the recipe in one of the numerous paper/cookbook/ food magazine piles adorning my office, telling myself to just forget about it.

But then one day at my favorite Italian wholegrocer, Miccucci's, in Portland, I came upon a neat little package of Italian Tipo 00 flour half hidden behind bags of instant polenta. With the predatory instinct of a hawk I swooped down and grabbed it. The next day saw me in my kitchen, the (after a prolonged search) unearthed recipe in view, mixing a new batch of Broetchen dough.

Viva Italia - Tipo 00 was a winner! Finally Broetchen as they should be, crusty on the outside, but fluffy and "pull-out-able" inside! (Later I found out that pastry flour works well, too).

You'll find the recipe here: http://hanseata.blogspot.com/2010/06/weizenbroetchen-german-rolls.html

On a trip to South Tyrol (a border area between Austria and Italy) as a student, I first tasted a sample of the spicy rye breads typical for the region. Hiking up the mountains to a "Huette" (a small rustic inn) we were served Vinschgauer Paarlen with homemade butter and smoked ham (Suedtiroler Speck). The flat bread was quite spicy. I didn't know what herb was in it, but it smelled and tasted wonderful.

Later I found out that there were more than one type of rye bread from Vinschgau (Vinschgauer, Vinschger Paarlen, Vinschgerlen or Vintschgauer) comes in different variations, some with, some without sourdough, some flat, some rolls, and also with different seasonings, but all of them spicy and delicious.

A typical, very unique spice in some Vinschgauer breads is blue fenugreek (Brotklee, Schabziger Klee), it develops its special aroma from growing in the mountains with lots of sunshine. When I baked a batch of Vinschgerlen some days ago, the whole house was filled with the smell of Brotklee.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a source for Brotklee/blue fenugreek in the US - I bought several boxes in a health store during my last trip to Germany. But the German Wikipedia had at least a suggestion for a substitute: dried nettle (burning nettle) with "a good pinch of curry". I haven't tried that, yet, but I know the taste of nettle (and the nasty burn of the plant) and I can imagine that it works.

Vinschgerlen or Vinschgauer Paarlen (= pairs)

Here is the link to the recipe: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/keyword/brotklee

In Quebec the one thing I'm always really looking forward to is, of course, French cuisine. For our daughter's graduation in Montreal we put up in a fairly nice hotel near campus, and went down for breakfast with pleasant expectations.

Heading straight for the croissants I noticed their lack of crispness, cold and tired they were sitting in the display. Well, there was the toaster, and innocently pretending not to understand the warning: "Pas des croissants" ("Nix comprengg!") I revived my lackluster pastry (no smoke alarm).

Back at our table I garnished my croissant with some butter and jam and took my first bite. At once red lights started flashing as my taste buds yelled: "Beware of cardboard!!!" In utter disbelief I took a second bite, and there it was - a total blandness and the faint but unmistakable taste of shortening!

In two days we will be home in Maine, and next time we visit Portland we will go to our favorite breakfast place: "Mornings in Paris", where they have the most wonderful, buttery, crisp croissants...

There are two things members of our patchwork family have in common - we love good food and we hate olives!

Even the pickiest of our kids, Valerie, producer of the famous "square mouth" whenever I made her try at least one bite before she said she didn't like it; and Francesca who ordered "just white rice" when we ate at a restaurant, ended up as foodies. Valerie even became a chef!

The Andersons and their offspring pick olives off pizzas, and leave them untouched in the salad bowl. They don't order tapenade and don't drink martinis. But then something strange happened...

Knowing that a lot of people are olive fans and crave them in all kinds of foods, I looked for an olive bread recipe to satisfy those die-hards among my customers.

I found one in my favorite "Brot aus Südtirol" and decided to give it a try, tweaking it a bit (using a preferment and overnight refrigeration).

It was quite a struggle to force the slippery olives into the dough (maybe they sensed my negative vibes).

I also found it not very easy to roll the dough into the right shape for dividing it into equal sized pieces, without a lot of leftover cut-offs.

No wonder, my first batch of "Pane di Olive" looked like misshapen scones, with dark bruises (from my abuse?), but they didn't smell bad.

                Chef Valerie and proud Mom

With some misgivings and no great expectations I bit in an olive studded roll. Took another unbelieving bite and was deeply shocked - the olive bread tasted good, really good, incredibly good!

I gave one to Richard, the most willing guinea pig of all husbands (but, also, staunchest olive hater of us all) who eyed it with visible distrust. "You should probably call that "Malfatti" (Italian for "badly made") he suggested, but then, just to please me, nibbled gingerly at one corner.

IN NO TIME THE OLIVE BREAD WAS GONE!

Making the olive bread again and again - it proved to be a big hit with my customers at the natural food store, too - I learned a few tricks to make the mixing and shaping easier.

It is very important to use good quality olives, like Kalamata. The bread's taste depends on those olives, so don't skimp on this essential ingredient.

Good quality olives are a must!

Not only draining, but letting the olives dry for several hours on kitchen paper towels, makes them less slippery, and much more willing to embrace the dough. Killing two birds with one pit stone,
this simple measure also takes care of the ugly "bruising" of the bread.

Instead of using a preferment, I find it easier to work the dough with stretch and fold, with an overnight stay in the fridge. This method requires less yeast, so I reduced it a bit.

A template makes rolling the dough to the right size much easier

And, finally, a bit of calculation (not my strongest point) and a paper template made the rolling and cutting of the dough a cinch!

OLIVE BREAD   (adapted from Richard Ploner: "Brot aus Südtirol")
(10 pieces

250 g/8.8 oz Italian 00 flour
250 g/8.8 oz all-purpose flour
    4 g/0.14 oz instant yeast
    9 g/0.3 oz salt
    5 g/0.18 oz honey
  30 g/1.6 oz olive oil
100 g/3.5 oz Kalamata olives, pitted
240 g/8.5 oz water

TOPPING
12 g/0.4 oz milk
12 g/0.4 oz whipping cream
7 g/0.25 oz sugar

DAY 1:
Drain olives in a strainer, chop coarsely, place on kitchen paper towels, and let dry for several hours.

Drying the drained olives kills two birds with one stone

Mix all ingredients, except for olives, at low speed (or with large wooden spoon) for 1-2 minutes until all flour is hydrated. Let dough rest for 5 minutes.

Knead at medium-low speed (or by hand) for 2 minutes, adjusting with a little more water, if necessary (dough should be a bit sticky.) Knead for another 4 minutes, while feeding olives slowly to dough. It should still be somewhat sticky rather than just tacky.

Starting with the top, fold dough in thirds like a business letter

Transfer dough to a lightly oiled work surface. With oiled or wet hands, stretch and pat it into rough square. Fold from top to bottom in thirds, like a business letter. Then fold the same way from both sides. Gather dough into ball, and place, seam side down, into lightly oiled bowl. Cover, and let rest for 10 minutes.

After folding you have a neat little dough package

Repeat this stretching and folding 3 more times, at 10-minute intervals. After the last fold,  place dough, well covered, in refrigerator overnight. (It doesn't have to warm up before using.)

DAY 2:
Preheat oven to 410º F/210º C.  Cut parchment paper into a 24 x 30 cm/12 x 9.5" template. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Over night the dough has doubled in the frigde

In a little bowl, mix topping ingredients, place in microwave, and bring to a boil. Remove, and set aside.

Rolled out and marked

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to a square (24 x 30 cm/12 x 9.5"), using the template (about 1.5 cm/0.5" thick). Trim edges. Using pizza cutter or knife, cut dough square first lengthwise in half, then each half into in 5 equal pieces. The dough will be very soft.

Brush with milk mixture and dock with wooden spoon, so that the breads can't inflate.

Transfer pieces to parchment lined baking sheet. Brush with milk wash. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, press deep holes in the dough, evenly spaced. Cover, and let it rise for 30 - 45 minutes, or until breads stays dimpled when poked with finger.

Bake breads (no steam) for 10 minutes, rotate pan 180 degrees, and continue baking for another 10 minutes, until they are golden brown (internal temperature at least 200ºF/93ºC),

To this day we are still amazed that we Andersons do like olives - when they come with Olive Bread!

Post was completely updated 7/16/13

Submitted to Panissimo:  Bread & Companatico

                                         Indovina chi viene a cena                                            

I had a visit by a rep from my wholesaler, Downeast Food Distributors, who left a sample of a new gluten free bake mix to test some bread and pastry recipes. It consists of a mixture of rice flour, potato starch, sugar, salt and 5 different gums plus methylcellulose. This chemical array is necessary to enable the bread to rise at all and not fall apart.
I haven't tried it, yet, but I don't envy those poor people with celiac disease. I could go without a lot of things, but living without bread? Apart from that they have to pay a lot for gluten free goods: a 5 lb bag of bake mix costs 40 - 50 bucks - wholesale!

Last week I had bad baking karma. On Monday I wanted to make Broetchen, the deceptively simple, crispy, white roll, as German as baguettes are French.
After several trials that never yielded the soft, fluffy, "pull-out" crumb typical for Broetchen I finally got it right with Italian 00 flour (from "Micucci" in Portland). But would simple American pastry flour work, too?
I made a beautiful looking batch, sprinkled with sesame, poppy and sunflower seeds. It went into the oven, I set the timer and started tidying the kitchen. The smell of something burning did not bother me at first, I thought it was some spill on the oven floor.
But the nasty smell grew stronger, and an anxious look into the oven showed a sheet full of charcoals instead of cute golden rolls. Even though not even half of the baking time was over, my rolls were completely burnt. The LED display showed the right temperature, so it must have been a short in the oven's electronic brain - or was it simply a bad bread day...?
Tuesday I tried a new bread - "Wheat Almond Bread", adapted from one of my German baking books. This time the oven meekly supplied the right temperature, and the loaves came out just right, golden brown, and smelling wonderful.
One was for Aaron and Lynn from Richard Parks Gallery, my cheerful part time employers. Their bread was ready to go, but I was distracted and forgot the bag in the hallway. We were not even down Cottage Street when I realized my mistake and went back.
I opened the door, and Buffy the Chow Hound ran upstairs - always a sign of a dog fleeing its owner's rightful wrath. Brown paper pieces littered the floor - but not even a crumb of the Almond Bread. It had been completely wolfed down, in less than five minutes!
I was still steaming when Richard, the best of all husbands, suggested that I might just see it from a different point of view: the Almond Bread was excellent - Dog Approved!