German Rye Bread

I reader of my blog inspired me to make this rye bread.
He recently moved here from Germany and has not been able to find any good German bread.
This is the recipe I gave him and thought I'd share it with all of you as well.
The caraway makes a huge difference in the flavor so don't leave it out if you can help it.


German Rye bread


Starter dough (make one hour ahead of time or the day before and keep in the refrigerator)
120g rye flour
120g white bread flour
Pinch of salt
18g fresh yeast (10g dry active yeast)
160g water
Mix til well incorporated, let rise for one hour before use

Final dough


175g rye flour (I use whole rye flour)
75g white bread flour
5g salt
5g sugar
5g shortening or butter
5g ground caraway (I grind the caraway in a spice mill or coffee grinder)
15g fresh yeast (8g dry active yeast )
125g water

Add starter dough and mix for about 5 minutes in kitchen aid mixer
allow to rise for about 1 hour
shape and rise for about another hour
bake at 425* F  for about 30 minutes

Graduation time!!

Hard to believe my Daughter Andrea is now a high school graduate.  Wow !  Time flies !
Of course who better to make her graduation cake than Dear ol' Dad the Bakerman.

I remember when I graduated from high school, I just wanted to be on my own and away from school and parents.
Andrea is a little different , she is accepted at Western Washington University and is looking forward to More Schooling!
I'm quite proud of her though.  She has done really well in school and has a lot of really nice friends and found a good job.  Real life is just now starting for her.

Graduation cakes are usually pretty boring so I wanted to be a little different without going all "Cake Boss" on it. I decided on a two tier Fondant cake with an edible grad cap surrounded by a bunch of matching cupcakes. Fortunately Andrea's favorite colors are the same as the school she graduated from and the college she will be attending in the fall.

Here's to all the high school graduates out there...
...make plans, shoot for goals (soccer reference there), and always remember people are more important than things.

Best wishes for the rest of your life!

Mike the Bakerboy / Dad for life.

nothing better than a BeeSting!

I made something for work today that I used to make in the Ferndale Bakery all the time.
It's a traditional German coffee cake called Bienen Stich which means Bee Sting in English.
This is a coffee cake but it is made out of a raised sweet dough.  In fact you can use the same recipe that I made the Easter Bunny buns out of in my earlier post.

You gotta try this!  It is one of the most delicious coffee cakes I have ever made.

I will put the recipe for the topping on this post but you have to promise me that you will try making it! 

Excellent for a family gathering or to bring to a party or whatever.

The recipe will be for the topping and fillings only as you can get the recipe for the dough in my Easter Bunny post.


Topping:
2 oz butter
1 oz sugar
1 oz honey
3/4 oz milk
2-1/2 oz thin sliced almonds

cook on the stove until slightly golden and thickened
spread onto the Sweet dough (12 to 14 oz of dough in an 8" cake pan already risen)
bake until beautifully golden brown on the top in a 350* oven.  Take care not to burn it as this can happen easily with a sweet concoction such as this.
Allow to cool and cut in half like a cake layer.
cut the top half into wedges like a pie. I do about 6 to 8 slices.
fill bottom half with a mixture of stiff whipped whipping creme and vanilla creme pudding ,  50/50 folded
together.
lay the top pieces onto the bottom and with a sharp knife cut through each piece.
Savor the joy of a good cup of coffee with a slice of this heavenly "Bee Sting" if you know what I mean.

Simnel Cake and its history... sort of

In my exploration of Easter baked goods around the world (even if it is on the internet) I discovered a cake that seems to be quite popular around Easter at least in the U.K.
I think the thing that intrigued me more than anything else was that the story behind the cake was not all that clear.

The history is interesting and divided.
One idea is that in medievel times it was a "Mothering" Sunday tradition. The daughters who were "in service" (whatever that means) would send a cake home for their Mothers.
Or it could also be that a brother and sister (Simon and Nell) wanted to make a cake for their mother and both had different ideas on how to make it so they combined their ideas, thus Sim-nel.
Or it could be that the word simnel is derived from the word "simila"  meaning fine wheat, of which most cakes were made.

Regardless where the tradition started or what the true history is this cake is interesting.  No icing (unless you count the marzipan in the center and the top.  There are 11 Easter eggs on top that stand for 11 disciples of Jesus (minus Judas who betrayed Jesus).  Colorful fruit in the cake batter itself and a ribbon around the outside of the cake.

Yea  it's kind of a fruit cake but you don't have to use the kinds of fruits you don't like. I used two different types of raisins, regular and golden raisins and I also added some canned chopped pineapple that was drained, I added this to help retain some moisture in the cake.

The basic formula is very simple.  There is no leavening in the cake (no baking powder or soda).  The eggs do all the leavening work. This type of formula is actually the origin of the pound cake, as in  1 lb flour ,1 lb sugar, 1 lb butter, 1lb eggs.


Here is the recipe

1 lb  butter (or margarine)

1 lb sugar

1 lb eggs  (about 8eggs)

1 lb all purpose flour

8 oz raisins

8 oz drained chopped canned pineapple

cinnamon and ground ginger ( I didn't measure this I just estimated what would be enough)

1  1/2 tbsp fresh lemon zest

1 lb marzipan

apricot jam

• cream the sugar, butter and lemon zest until light 
• add the eggs and flour slowly alternating between the two
• add the raisins and the pineapple and mix in until evenly blended
• put half of the batter into a 9 inch springform pan that is lined with parchment in the bottom and sides
• roll out 8 oz of the marzipan into a 9 inch circle and put onto the batter in the pan
• fill with the rest of the batter evenly
• bake in a 325*F  oven for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours 
• if the top gets too dark put aluminum foil over it until it is done
• after cooling  brush the top with some apricot jam (warmed in the microwave)
• roll out about 6 ounces of the remaining marzipan and lay on top and crimp edges sort of like a pie crust
• make the rest of the marzipan into small eggs for decoration

EASTER BUNNY BUNS !

The Easter Bunny was brought to America by the German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch
country during the 1700s  . The arrival of the Osterhase or Easter Bunny,  was considered one of "childhood's greatest pleasures," similar to the arrival of  the Christkind on Christmas Eve.  The Easter Bunny would, if the children had been good, lay brightly colored eggs in nests (usually made of baskets or hats) that the children would place in secluded areas of the house.  From this came the hiding of the eggs and the Easter egg hunt.

I used to make these little sweet dough Easter bunnies when I was a kid,  my Dad would have us kids help him around the holidays making things like this.  Good memories.

I am planning on making some sweet dough bunnies for the Family Easter get together this year.
I hope to involve my kids too this year again although they seem to be getting a little old for this kids stuff.  These bunnies are not your average looking bunny but they are very cute.
This of course brings me back to when I was a kid learning all the basics of baking from my Dad and trying not to get in the way or slow production down by asking a lot of dumb questions or trying to get my Dad to show me how to do things.  Fortunately he was very willing to do just that and is the reason I am still in the business today .  I suppose he was willing partly because I would be sweeping the floors and washing the dishes or cracking the eggs later anyways (yes we cracked whole eggs into buckets for later use in baked goods back when shell eggs were cheaper than whole frozen buckets of eggs).

I'm going to post the recipe I used but you can use any good sweet dough or egg dough.

Easter Bunny Bun Recipe

1 lb bread flour

1/4 oz salt

1 oz  sugar

3  oz shortening or butter or margarine  (I used stick margarine)

1/4 oz baking powder

8 oz  warm water  (8 oz  = 1 cup)

1/2  oz active dry yeast (allow yeast to reconstitute in the warm water)

1   egg

• after reconstituting the yeast in the warm water add the rest of the ingredients and mix in stand mixer for about 12 to 15 minutes or until the dough is nice and stretchy 

• after mixing let stand in a warm place for about 45 minutes or until about double in size
• divide into 3 approximately equal pieces knocking the air out of it and rounding them up a bit
• allow to rest again about 15 minutes
• divide each chunk of dough into 12 pieces or whatever size piece you decide on
• round each piece and roll long as seen in the picture
• let them relax and then roll one end narrower than the other and flatten the fat side down and cut according to the pictures
• make the eyes out of raisins cut in half or whole dry currents
• allow them to rise for about 30 minutes and brush with egg white (for a shine) and bake at 350* for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden and still tender
• brush them with a simple powder sugar glaze while still warm

I hope these become a tradition for your family as it is for mine.

Enjoy

German Amerikaners

I was reminded recently by a friend about a pastry I used to make in the Bakery called Amerikaners.

It's been a long time since I've made those so...   here we are.

These are something like an upside down muffin cap except for they are baked that way on purpose and the flat side is glazed with a citrus flavored glaze. Although I did make some with a coffee flavored glaze which were quite yummy!

I like to kinda get back to the old recipe's and make things that people used to enjoy many years ago.  This is a recipe from a 50 year old recipe book that my dad gave me.  It's actually a commercial baker's book that advertised a brand of shortenings that were sold in Germany at the time.

I do read a little bit of German so I can translate these recipes into English.
Sometimes it's challenging to figure out what the ingredients are but in those cases I just pick up the phone and call my Dad.

This is a very simple recipe and as you hopefully have gathered by now simple is what I'm always about when it comes to baking.

Here is the recipe for these deliciously simple treats.

Amerikaners

1 lb  2 oz  pastry flour  (or 1/3 all purpose flour and 2/3 cake flour)

8 oz  sugar

4 oz  butter or margarine

10 oz milk

2     eggs

1/2  oz baking powder
1/2    tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together until smooth

Scoop onto parchment lined sheet pan with enough space between them to expand a bit

you can either use an ice cream scoop or a tablespoon to drop them with

bake for about 10 to 15 minutes depending on how big you make them, bake at 350*F

they should be just golden brown on the bottoms as seen in pictures
glaze with a simple powder sugar glaze with a touch of either vanilla or lemon flavoring

I hope you try these and let me know how they turn out.

signing out....

Mike the bakerboy

Quality Time

Time...
Wow, we could get pretty deep with the study of time , but I never was much for studying.

The other day My daughter asked if we could make cookies for her to bring to a group of volleyball players she is helping coach. Of course how can I refuse that right? Well truth be told Andrea did most of the work I just "coached" her through it. I always like it when Andrea shows interest in baking and so I take advantage of that and show her some tricks and tips on baking and cleaning and being organized.

She is always telling me how her friends think she is so lucky to have a baker for a dad "you must get this good stuff all the time!" . Not so at the Baker's house. first of all I'm trying to lose a little weight and that doesn't help at all, and secondly I do that stuff all the time for work so why would I do it at home!

I have a recipe for your standard chocolate chip cookies that just turns out perfect every time.
The catch is though that I use a scale to measure my ingredients. Using a scale takes a lot of the inconsistency out of baking. Of course being a baker I compared how we did it in the bakery with how most people do it at home , Cups and teaspoons as opposed to pounds and ounces. In fact I take it a step further and use a scale that has a grams setting which of course means that I had to change all my recipes to metric. Fortunately I know how to do this from my bakery training.

Measuring by volume can be very inaccurate when measuring things like flour because the flour can be either too fluffy or too compacted.
I use a scale that can be zero-ed out after each addition of ingredient which makes the measuring really fast, very accurate, and I can do it right into the mixing bowl. Using a scale guarantees you that you will have the same amount every time.

Here's the recipe

Chocolate Chip Cookies

170 g Granulated sugar
170 g Brown sugar
10 g baking soda
10 g salt
255 g butter/shortening/margarine ( I like using block margarine)
426 g All Purpose flour
2 eggs
227 g chocolate chips

• cream the sugars and the butter or margarine in a mixer until smooth
• add the eggs and blend with the sugar/butter mixture
  
• add the flour (with the salt and baking soda sifted into it) a little at a time while mixing slowly
• when all the flour is mixed in then add the chocolate chips just until mixed in
• make into logs of dough and refrigerate until ready to bake (or bake right away)
• after removing from the fridge, cut into equal size pieces and bake at 350* until light brown around the edges and just set in the middle.

If you need a scale you can buy a decent one at Ikea for about 20$ or you can just use a diet scale if it has grams on it.

I guarantee this recipe will produce delicious chocolate chip cookies every time... especially if you make them with your kids.

Make it with love,

Mike the Baker Boy