Blog posts

Pain au Levain from Della Fattoria Bread, by Kathleen Weber

November 10, 2015

David Snyder

Introduction

My brother, Glenn, bought me a surprise present: A copy of Kathleen Weber's bread cookbook. When I called to thank him, he revealed his motive. He thought I'd like it. We Snyder kids do that sort of thing for each other.

There have been other posts dealing with pretzels and whether to use a lye bath or not. I am firmly in the lye bath camp, and I can assure you, no self-respecting German baker would even consider making pretzels without it. And, being a self-respecting German baker, from a long line of German bakers, I give you my recipe for making Laugenbrezeln, with a lye bath ("Laugenbrezeln" means "lye pretzels," so if you don't use lye, don't call them Laugenbrezeln):

1 lb., 6 oz. (5 cups) bread flour

12 oz. (1 1/2 cups) warm water

5 Tbs. of soft, unsalted butter

November 11, 2010 was the day Fedra was born and she's five years old today. Coincidentally, we had some nice stuff in the fridge as well so to celebrate her day I cooked some dishes for us, her and her other four legged friends. I had no more flour to bake with so this week is a test of my cooking skills.


The birthday girl!

I was working at home today, so as well as making a pot of soup I managed to get a couple of bakes in.  The skinny ones are roughly based on these poolish baguettes, though I added a bit too much salt which is why they are kind of chalky looking.

I have 5 children and run a CPA firm from my home...that being said it means I have to be frugal for the sake I have 5 kids and cheap because I am an accountant, and my love of baking is sprinkled there on top. So, this all leads me to baking all the time to keep them fed, my bank account happy, and my inner baker busy.  

Crumby pic

After a rather underwhelming bread experience in an - otherwise nice - hotel last year, I challenged my co-bloggers, facebook friends and hobby bakers from The Fresh Loaf to help fill a basket with "Bread for Götz von Berlichingen", to provide Schlosshotel Götzenburg with a better breakfast choice.