After two weeks of sunshine my little garden explodes with green and shoots of all sorts. Unfortunately not only the welcome ones. I´ve been living in my house for about ten years but I did not bother a lot with garden maintenance. One of the kids in the neighbourhood mowed the lan every two weeks or so, every spring I unweeded a bit, and that was it.

This year I had to cut the bay tree in my front garden since it grew exuberantly and everybody had to bend down to come to my front door. Once started with trimming, I couldn´t stop. I did not notice before how feral my garden had become over the last few years. Weeds everywhere, bushes interleaving, and a lot of plants suffocating each other. After three days of hard work I ended up with lots and lots of big garbage bags full of twigs, leaves and weeds – and only my small Mini to dispose them all.

It was getting dark when I was finally finished, the shops were closed and the easter weekend lay ahead. My fridge contained some cheese, salami, eggs, and a lot of vegetables but no bread at all, so I decided to try once more one of Peter Reinhart´s brilliant recipes: The Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire.

I was out of  brown rice, polenta, wheat bran, buttermilk and nearly all of the bread flour. Instead of the requested ingredients I used whatever I had left in my cupboard, but I didn´t change the measurements. It worked very well, and the bread turned out to be delicious, crispy on the ourside, fluffy and chewy on the inside with a delicate flavour from the different grains and the overnight soaker.

Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire

Adapted from Peter Reinhart

Ingredients:

SOAKER:

3 tbsp whole wheat semolina

3 tbsp rolled oats

2 tbsp cracked oats (I pounded whole oats roughly with a pestle and mortar)

1/4 cup water, at room temperature

DOUGH

1 cup wholewheat flour

1 cup oat flower

1 cup bread flour

1 tbsp instant yeast

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp honey

3 tbsp rolled oats

3 tbsp semolina

3/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup yoghurt

1 cup water, at room temperature

1/4 cup poppy seeds

Method:

1. On the evening before making the bread, mix the soaker. Cover and leave overnight at room temperature.

2. The next day stir together the flour, honey,, salt, yeast in the mixing bowl. Add the soaker, semolina, oats, yoghurt, and water. Stir a bit then knead with dough hook of the kitchen machine (or by hand) for about 10 – 12 minutes. The dough should be soft and pliable but not sticky and pass the window pane test.

3. Form a ball, put it in a lightly oiled bowl, rolling it around to coat with the oil. Cover with cling foil and let ferment at room temperature for about 90 minutes or until doubled in size.

4. Remove the dough from the bowl, transfer it to a lightly floured board and form a rectangle about 6 inches (15 cm) wide and and 8 to 10inches (20 to 25 cm)  long. Sprinkle with the raisins and form it to a loaf. I folded it like an envelope but you can do any shape you like.

4. Place the loaf in a loaf pan – or diretly to the baking sheet if you like a freestanding loaf.

5. Mist the surface of the loaf with water and sprinkle on the poppy seeds.

6. Proof the loaf for 90 minutes or until nearly doubled.

7. Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F).

8. Place the loaf on the middle shelf and bake for 40 to 60 minutes. The bread should register at least 85°C (185°F) in the center and have a golden brown crust.

9. Let cool at least for 1 hour. Enjoy!

You think you know all about banana bread? Then try this one!

I love banana bread and today I had four very ripe bananas sitting in my fruit bowl. So what could be more natural than baking a banana bread? Unfortunately, the usual ones tend to be quite rich. Usually, I don´t care that much. If I eat a lot I just jog a little longer. But this morning we had the first night frost and I knew I won´t be out jogging frequently for quite a while. To spare some calories I tried an extra healthy banana bread version without any fat apart from 2 eggs. The four large bananas make for the sweetness, for a moist almost pudding like texture I added an orange, and fresh ginger gives the bread a good bite. I used a loaf pan for mine but the next time I´ll bake it in a shallow 9 or 10 inch cake pan.

It tastes great just on its own but is perfect with a lot of whipped cream and cup of coffee. (Of course, this way I added most of the spared calories, but maybe there will be no frost tomorrow…)

Ingredients:

0.5 cup oatmeal

2 cups wheat flour (you can use 2.5 if you have no oatmeal)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

6 pods cardamon, grounded

2 eggs, slightly beaten

4 large mashed bananas

1/4 cup runny honey

1 orange, peeled and roughly cleaned from the white skin

zest from 1 orange

80 g grated ginger (a generous 1 and a half Tbsp. when you like a bit of bite, but you can adjust to your taste)

icing sugar for dusting (optional but I liked the contrast between the sweetness of the sugar and the less sweet bread)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C), grease a 9 inch cake pan.

Mix flours, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom in a large bowl.

Puree the orange and the bananas in a food processor, mix with the slightly beaten eggs, honey and ginger.

Spoon the dry mixture into the wet and combine thoroughly. The batter is rather liquid.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for minimum 50 minutes (mine took 65 min.) until a wooden skewer comes out clean.

Still hot, dust with icing sugar.

Let cool and enjoy!

The bread does not store well. It´s best on the first day, the next it becomes a bit soggy.

Recipe source: The Bread Baker´s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, Ten Speed Press

At last, I´ve decided to start baking bread. Real bread, not just the quick breads I used to do. On the Internet I rummaged through the lot of books about baking bread and eventually opted for the The Bread Baker´s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.

Three days ago the book arrived. I opened it, ran over the pages – and was petrified. Two days time and different doughs needed for just a simple loaf of bread! Instead of throwing some ingredients in a bowl, a bit of mixing and in the oven it goes, as I have been baking my (soda) bread until now.

The book fascinated me, though. I took it with me to bed, skimmed through the pages a bit more, and soon I was completely hooked. I read for hours, nearly half of the night. I began to understand that there is nothing like a simple loaf of bread. You need just a bit of TLC and a simple loaf can become something extraordinary. Reading about the whole process of baking bread was quite an epiphany for me. With my new basic understanding the recipes suddenly were intriguing and not so frightening anymore.

Even so, I opted for an easy one for my first try: The stollen.

As I expected my mother for tea (she is gluten intolerant) I changed the wheat flour for spelt, and still in the spirit of TLC I soaked my fruits two days ahead in rum. The stollen turned out to be absolutely delicious. My mother got so carried away, she even told me it was better than her own mother´s back then. Maturing for a while should improve the stollen even more but we´ve already finished it.

Peter Reinhart´s Stollen

The recipe is reprinted with permission from the author.

Makes 1 large or 2 small stollen

Ingredients:

SPONGE:

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

4 tsp instant yeast

FRUIT:

1 cup raisins, plus additional for sprinkling on the final dough

1/2 cup candied orange peel

1/2 cup candied lemon peel

1 tbsp orange or lemon extract (I used grated orange zest instead)

1/2 cup rum, brandy or schnapps

DOUGH:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp grated orange zest

1 tsp grated lemon zest

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 large egg

5 tbsp butter, room temperature

about 1/4 cup water

1/2 cup sliveres blanched almonds (or marzipan instead, I used almonds)

vegetable oil or melted butter for topping

powdered sugar for topping

Method:

1. Make the sponge by warming the milk to about 100°F (37°C, just lukewarm) Whisk in the flour and yeast. Cover with plastic wrap and ferment for 1 hour or until the sponge is very foamy and ready to collapse when tapped.

2. Combine the fruits mix, the rum and the orange extract. (I did it two days ahead).

3. To make the dough, in a large bowl stir together the flour, sugar, salt, orange and lemon zest and cinnamon. Stir in the sponge, egg, butter, enough water to form a soft, but not sticky, ball. Mix for about 2 minutes. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

4. Add in the fruits and mix to incorporate.

5. Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, knead (or mix with the dough hook) to distribute the fruits evenly, adding more flour if needed. The dough should feel soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for about 6 minutes (4 minutes by machine) Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

6. Ferment at room temperature for 45 minutes. The dough will rise somewhat but not double in size.

7. Sprinkle flour lightly on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. If you are making two loafs, divide the dough in half. Roll out the dough into 1 or 2 rectangles, sprinkle the slivered almonds and additional fruit over the top. If you use marzipan, put a thin roll on the dough instead of the slivered almonds. Roll up the dough, sealing the crease by pinching the dough with your hands.

8. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer the stollen to the sheet. Curl it into a slight crescent (I let it straight). Mist the dough with spray oil, cover with plastic wrap, proof for about 1 hour or until the dough is 1 1/2 times its original size.

9. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C), bake it on the middle rack for 40 minutes for 2 loafs, up to 60-70 minutes for 1 big loaf. Maybe you need to turn the sheet for an evenly baking. The stollen should be deeply golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

10. Transfer to a cooling rack, brush the top with vegetable oil while still hot, immediately tap with a layer of powdered sugar through a sieve. After 1 minute repeat. The stollen should be generously coated with powdered sugar. Let cool for at least 1 hour before serving.

Storing: When completely cool, put the stollen in a plastic bag.

I´ll definitely bake another stollen this weekend, this time I´ll double the recipe and try the version with marzipan.

I know, it´s not exactly an epiphany but I love it and make it at least two or three times a week. Sometimes I cannot believe that I am really baking my own bread but I never thought it would be that easy. Nothing compares to the smell of bread fresh from the oven and I love the sound of my knife cutting through the warm crust. I am still a bit frightened of the whole yeast thing with soaker and biga, kneading and all rest periods. But some day soon I´ll dare to bake one of those, too!

Out there are countless soda bread recipes. Everybody seems to have one. Over the last few weeks I have tried a lot and this one is perfect for my liking, it´s fluffy and moist, slightly salty, with a bunch of sweet raisins. We eat this bread with everything, cheese, jam, just butter and even with ham and meat. Mostly I use whole weat flour but today I had only white flour left. I ran out of buttermilk as well, so I used yoghurt instead and one more egg as usual. The bread tasted different but also delicious.

This is the basic recipe and a lot of things can be added: e.g. 1 cup of finely chopped apples, 1 cup of grated cheddar, caraway seeds, you can sustitute 1 cup of flour with oats, dust the loaf with polenta, form pretty little scones… just let your imagination run wild.

Ingredients:

4 cups whole weat flour (you can use white one as well or a mixture of both)

1 large egg

2-2,5 cups buttermilk

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

Method:

Preheat the oven to 220 °C (425°F)

Pour boiling water over the raisins and soak them. After about 10 minutes drain well.

Mix the flour, salt and baking soda in a large bowl, in another bowl mix the egg and the buttermilk. Add the mixture and the raisins to the flour.

Work quickly and don´t overknead or the bread will end up tough. The dough should be sticky but if it is too shaggy and cannot hold its shape add a little more flour.

Form the dough into a loaf and transfer it to a slightly greased baking sheet (it will flatten out a bit).

With a serrated knife cut a cross in the top of the loaf (about 1,5 cm deep), to help the heat penetrate the dough evenly.

Bake for about 35 – 45 minutes until golden brown. (If it darkens too much cover with tin foil.) Test by inserting a wooden skewer. When it comes out clean, the bread is ready. When you tap the bottom it should give a hollow sound.

Let the bread rest for at least 10 – 15 minutes and enjoy!