Baking Adventures: Brötchen (Rolls)

One thing I love about German bakeries are the plain crusty rolls, the Brötchen, that you can get absolutely everywhere. And for a plain white yeast dough product, there are surprisingly many recipes as well as preferences by the consumers.

Now me, I like mine to have a definite taste, a crunchy crust, but a soft and almost doughy inside that's still satisfying and not completely consisting of air. You know, the kind of Brötchen I remember from my childhood, that taste good enough to eat plain and dry, just tearing off pieces and stuffing them in your mouth.

They are surprisingly hard to find in bakeries though, these days.

Bread Adventures: Wholewheat Bread with Oats and Seeds

I think you've noticed by now that I'm a big fan of Rachel Allen's books. This recipe is from her as well.

A friend asked me the other day for a recipe with a high wholemeal content, and I wasn't sure my usual recipe would work with more than 50% wholemeal flour. So I had a look through my books and stumbled upon this recipe for a wholewheat loaf with oats and seeds, which is from Rachel's Favourite Food at Home.

A lot of wholewheat breads can be very dense and crumbly, but this one is surprisingly light. It is a bit crumbly, but that's probably partly due to the sunflower and other seeds, not just the flour type used.

Bread Adventures: The recipe

Anne asked me for the recipe I used as the base for my herb bread, so I thought I'd share the story as well as the recipe.

It started out with a simple recipe for a basic white loaf. I had found it last year, tried it a couple of times and was very happy with the results. Then one day I wanted to make the bread and had just started, when I realised that I didn't have enough strong flour. It was either very early or very late, with the shops closed, but I'd already crumbled up the yeast into some sugar water, so I couldn't really stop. So I had a rummage in my cupboard, and luckily I still had some left over extrastrong flour (type 1050) and some wholemeal as well. Together they were just enough to make up the required amount of flour. So I mixed all the flours, then kept going with the original recipe, hoping that it would turn out passably.

Well, the result was not just passably, it was pretty nice. A brown bread that tasted like shop-bought brown toast, only better and more... substantial. I had been looking for this kind of recipe but had found it completely by accident.

Bread Adventures: Oregano and bacon breads

My brother asked me to make him a batch of bread dough today, because he's off cycling and having a bbq with friends. He plans to wrap the dough around sticks or branches and bake them over the hot coals.

I did this for him last week too, using a basic white loaf recipe from Rachel Allen's Bake, which I have altered slightly by replacing part of the strong flour with extra strong bread flour and wholemeal flour (1 part each of wholemeal, plain, and extra strong) to make a tasty and slightly healthier brown bread.

Then my brother suggested adding some diced bacon to one half of the dough, and some fresh herbs to the other. He wanted to use basil, but I used oregano, as it has a more intense flavour that I think stands up better to the kneading and baking process.

I don't know what he thinks of it yet, but I sneaked a bit of the herby dough for a roll for myself, and must say I'm very pleased. Now I'm tempted to whip up a whole batch of it, some to eat today and the rest for freezing.