My first (kinda sorry attempt) of Swiss "St. Gallerbuerli"
Got this recipe a couple of days ago direct from Switzerland: St. Gallen is a town in the east of Switzerland and one of their specialities besides St. Galler Bratwurst is the St. Galler Buerli. There are only a few bakeries which makes them " right"! In an article I read it says it actually an art. I was borne and raised in the area of St. Gallen (Appenzellerland) so I am familiar with this Buerli, know what it should look, feel and taste.
Tthe recipe calls for "halfwhite flour" which I did not have. It is also a wet dough (84.5% hydration). In oder not to get tangled up in this really sticky mess, I learned to work with the bench knife. At first I did not pay attention that the recipe is talking about fresh yeast, so I put 7gr of instant yeast in the preferment. When I made the final dough I realized the recipe calls for 17 gr. of fresh yeast all together so I put in another 3 gr. of instant yeast .
In my exitment I forgott to preheat my oven, so the little dough slaks had to stay another 20 min on my counter. Also my oven goes only to 470F, the buerli should be baked at 482F................
After all those downfalls the little sorry Buerli taste pretty good, they don't look like they should and don't taste exactly like they should (I think, may be close). Will do another try and mix some WW in my AP. Will let you know. Feedback is appreciated.
At first I did not pay attention that the recipe is talking about fresh yeast, so I put 7gr of instant yeast in the preferment. When I made the final dough I realized the recipe calls for 17 gr. of fresh yeast all together so I put in another 3 gr. of instant yeast .
Substituting active-dry/instant yeast for fresh/cake yeast shouldn't be too much of an issue in most cases. What problems may arise will probably be in mixing; sometimes it's pretty hard to distribute and mix in dry yeast granules the same way you'd mix in wet yeast paste, possibly requiring a change in your procedure. Other than that, it shouldn't matter a whole lot.
What matters more is the amount. The conversion by weight of fresh/cake to active-dry/instant yeast is very roughly 1/4, so if the recipe called for 17 grams of fresh/cake my calculations suggest you should have used a total of only about 4 grams of instant yeast.
(It's quite common for there to be some yeast in the pre-ferment and some more yeast in the main dough, so that's no surprise.)
Barbara, for a first trial of this recipe this isn't bad at all. You always learn from what didn't go quite right. But if it tastes already pretty good, you feel encouraged to try it again - as I did, many times.
Liebe Grüsse,
Karin
Will give it a try with some WW or even some rye mixed with the AP. Will also play with the hydration a bit. It is VERY humid right now in NC so I think that will affect the dough as well. Will sure bring some Ruchmehl back from my next visit to Switzerland.
Hi,
Those sound really wonderful, and I would love to make some. What final recipe did you come up with? I only ask because in your first post, you said the recipe called for 17 grams of fresh yeast altogether, but in the recipe you gave, it looks like you wrote 15 grams in the first addition and 20 grams in the second, which would make 35 grams total. Would you mind clarifying?
Thanks!
Hi, the yeast mentioned in the 1. recipe is fresh yeast which is often used in Switzerland. I use the Active Dry yeast and it works fine. I made another post: "one more time St. Galler Buerli". If you go there you will see how they should look. I also had a original swiss flour (Ruchmehl) which I am sure helped. That was a pretty good bake :-).
Preferment:
200gr. water
5gr. yeast
260gr. AP
ferment over night or at least 3 hours
final dough:
400gr. water
450 gr. flour (I used 300grAP, 75gr WW and 75gr. light rye. Made a somewhat authentic taste)
16gr salt
1pinch sugar (not sure if this is needed. My last ones did not have sugar)
7gr. yeast
mix the dough 10 min, 30 min autolyze, fold in the bowl 4x every 20 min. fold one more time on the table, cut of pieces , round them and put them in pairs on the sheet. Use lot's of flour because the dough is very wet. Preheat 500F and bake @ 475F for about 30min. 10 min with steam, turn after 20min. Happy baking!