Richard Bertinet: Brot für Genießer/Contemporary Bread

Well, bread baking is easy as pie. Just buy this book and try. Some of the recipes are more complicated thatn others, but every information you need to be successfull you find in here. It's divided into a general part (all about bread baking, techniques, ingredients and equipment needed) and several chapters with different bread recipes originating from a specific dough, for example white bread dough, sweet dough, olive oil dough. The first recipe of the chapter is the basic dough, and the following recipes are variations of it (and they are definitively not boring). There are also some fancy ones like edible soup bowl.

The pictures are great - I usually get in the mood for bread baking just when I'm looking at them.

Recipes I've made so far and can recommend:

• lemon rols
• bread shots
• baguette
• tomato, garlic & basil bread
• sesame plats
• walnut bread
• Somerset Cider Bread
• Pain Viennos

Brot backen fand ich immer etwas schwierig, und anfangs wollte mir keins so richtig gelingen. Aber Backmischungen in den Brotbackautomaten werfen wollte ich auch nicht mehr, das schmeckte mir dann doch zu chemisch. Dann entdeckte ich dieses Buch - zuerst bei einem Freund im Bücherregal - und beschloß es mir dann selbst zuzulegen. Die Rezepte sind simpel aber dennoch raffiniert, so dass keine Ängste bezüglich ausprobieren aufkommen. Ich habe zum Beispiel noch "The Bread Bakers Apprentice", welches ich aber dann schon nur für Fortgeschrittene empfehlen würde, da manche Rezeptanweisungen in Länge und Komplexität abschreckend wirken. 

Ganz anders ist es mit diesem Buch. Nach einem allgemeinen Teil über Aussstattung, Grundlagen und Technik folgen die einzelnen Kapitel mit den jeweiligen Teigsorten. Am Anfang wird immer der Grundteig vorgestellt, dann folgen dessen Variationen. Einige originelle Ideen wie zB essbare Suppenschalen sind auch dabei. Alles in allem ein schönes Buch für Brotback-Anfänger mit vielseitigen Rezepten, ich kann es nur empfehlen!

Rezepte die ich schon ausprobiert habe und empfehlen kann:

• Zitronenbrötchen
• gefüllte Brotkugeln
• Baguette
• gefüllte Brottaschen mit Tomaten, Knoblauch und Basilikum
• Sesamzöpfchen
• Walnuß-Brotring
• Roggenbrot mit Cider
• Wiener Brot

Fridays with Beatrice: Banana, Chocolate and Hazelnut Muffins

I confess: It's not friday. It's the last day of the year, and I feel obliged to post one more time this year. To be honest - those muffins were baked over a week ago; and I took several pictures of our christmas dinner or the cookies I baked. But when it comes to posting I just stare at the display and feel empty - it's not just my blog, all my other internet activities have decreased. I am kind of hibernating I would say.

So I am glad Lena is kind to adhere herself to my (pregnancy related) dietary restriction too - she chose something sweet again, banana, chocolate and hazelnut muffins. Normally I am not a friend of baked goods containing mashed bananas because I think they start to smell kind musty of after a day. But this recipe was different, and the muffins didn't survive to that smelly point. We ate some right from the oven - couldn't resist the soft inside and kind of crispy outside. So if I ever want to make banana muffins again, this is the recipe - forget the rest!

Roundup: THE banana muffin recipe.

Fridays with Beatrice: Millet, oat and apple muffins

This time it was my turn to choose a recipe again, and because I'm limited right now concerning ingredients, I picked a plain & simple muffins recipe. Unfortunately nearly all the recipes I'd like to cook in this book contain ingredients I should'nt eat at the moment, like peas, lentils or cabbage-like vegetables ...

 

Like Lena said in her post, the muffins didn't taste anything special. I liked the idea of using tahini instead of just oil or just butter; and I think I could taste a hint of that when eating the muffins. Because of the tahini and the millet flour they had a very nutty taste. My muffins were moist (just how I like them), but just because I may have used a little bit more apples than recommended. Unfortunately you couldn't taste the apples (which were handplucked from a tree in the garden of my hubby's grandparents). At least the muffins were really satiably, so if I would have children in school age and wanted to provide them with a healthy snack, this muffin would definitively be my choice.

Roundup: Healthy satiable snack for in between, but no fancy or extraordinary treat I would serve at the coffee table.