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Warnemünde is not only the harbor for Hansetown Rostock, but a graceful old Baltic Sea resort. Thanks to the former GDR's lack of money, none of the nice old houses was torn down to make place to modern non descript highrise hotels, like in West Germany.

When I first visited my cousin's family in 1957, houses were grey, with flaking paint, looking more and more dilapidated every year . That changed dramatically after the fall of the wall and the reunion 1989. All the houses were fixed-up, by and by.

It all started when Angelo put ricotta on the shopping list because he likes to have it on pasta sometimes and we didn't have any in the house. I was the one doing the shopping that day, a day or two prior to Easter, and I found the ricotta on sale, with the large tub marked at a lower price than the small tub. So the large tub went in my basket, and then my mind started dreaming about what I was going to do with all that lovely ricotta.

I love cherries and I love vanilla, so what better flavor combination to try to work into a bread recipe?  I have never incorporated a liquor into a bread dough before, so I'm not sure what to expect, but I do have to say it smelled fantastic mixing it up.

The retarded loaf came out almost identical to the non retarded one.  It was perhaps a little more sour.  Tasting the non retarded one from yesterday, it is more sour today and about the same sour as the retarded one just out of the oven.  I would guess the retarded boule will be even more sour tomorrow too.  This bread is hard to make but worth it.  I never had a bread that tastes like it, the crust is dark and softens as it cools, the crumb is moist and open, for 40% whole grain bread.  It is one of the best breads I have ever had, much less baked.&

Sending this to Yeastspotting.

Index for my blog entries

Visiting family for Easter - so I baked a selection of breads:

Firstly, the Pugliese, based on David Snyder's recipe - I originally did this for us, but ran out of time to do another one for the family so this one was substituted

Today is the final day of Easter, and I thought I'd like to put up a couple of things that I've enjoyed puzzling with in the kitchen over the weekend.

 Worth waiting for, part 1