Читать книгу Strudel, Noodles and Dumplings: The New Taste of German Cooking - Anja Dunk - Страница 33
ОглавлениеBAKING NOTES
Yeast – I use fresh yeast where I can because I find it produces a particularly good rise and flavour. Fresh yeast can be found in most supermarkets and food shops these days, and is very cheap. If I have no fresh yeast to hand, I will use dried easy bake/fast-action yeast instead. I always have a tin of dried yeast in the fridge door for occasions of late-night baking.
Salt – I always use fine sea salt for bread baking.
Oven – I use the convection (fan) setting when baking bread. The fan swirls the hot air around the oven to ensure an even bake.
BREAD
Each morning Omi would get up at daybreak and walk to her local bakery for rolls and a quarter loaf of rye bread. Whenever I was staying I would accompany her on these daily trips. The early morning Bavarian air smelt so alive and full of pine until we neared the bakery, which was when the Ofenduft (fragrance from the oven) smacked you in the face like an invisible wall in the air. Such a bold, seductive smell for such a small, unassuming shop – dimly lit, with not even a shop sign above the door, the Bäckerei could easily have been mistaken for someone’s house. I felt like we were part of a clandestine club, sneaking in through the side door for a dawn meeting.
German bakeries are straightforward; they have a no-nonsense air about them. Even as a small child I recognised them as an important part of German society. Although the output of these little, mainly family-run shops was quite large, the process was still wholly artisan, and as you left carrying your cotton bag stuffed full with warm bread, you couldn’t help but feel like the day was going to turn out all right. Sadly, these types of bakeries are now in decline; while they do still physically exist, pre-made dough is often brought in and simply finished off in the oven. This may speed up the process and make life easier for the baker, but convenience comes with a price, and it’s one I’m rarely willing to pay. I remain hopeful – hopeful that they won’t die out, they can’t die out, we need them – I know I’m not alone.
We bake our own bread at home daily, a task which has become so embedded into our everyday routine that I feel out of sync if for some reason it doesn’t happen. Watching a loaf of bread rise into a pillowy mound or a sourdough starter liven up into breathing bubbles with the addition of flour and water is life-confirming – it reassures us that nature is a driving force and connects us to the very process of life itself.
Bread-baking not only binds us with nature, it sparks imagination and brings a little bit of magic into our kitchen each day. Perhaps it sounds over the top, for there is of course a science behind it all, but I am still amazed each day when I watch the miraculous process that water and flour undergo to produce a loaf of bread.
In Germany there are infinitely more varieties of flour on offer in everyday shops than here in the UK. Many breads are made with a mixture of flours, Vierkornbrot (four-grain bread) being a classic example. The differences don’t just stop there, either: you can buy varying grades of each milled flour, some roughly textured and full of husk, others so fine they are like dust. It isn’t uncommon among those who bake bread daily to have a small flour mill in the kitchen. Rye flour is prevalent, which also means that many breads on offer are lower in gluten and higher in nutrients than regular wheat loaves.
BREAD ROLLS
BREAD ROLLS
Mum’s Omi Hedel used to live above a bakery in the East German town of Görlitz. This bakery was serious – it sold only two things: bread rolls – Brötchen – and Roggenbrot – rye bread made with sourdough. Hedel awoke each morning to the smell of Brötchen rising through the cracks in her floorboards – it is no surprise, then, that she never made her own.
When Hedel eventually became of an age where she would be more of a financial burden to the state than an asset, she was granted a move to the West. She went to live in Bockum-Hövel, Westphalia, with her daughter Ursula, my Omi. Before she left, though, she acquired from downstairs a jar of sourdough starter and the bread roll recipe, which I often bake as a standard white loaf. The rolls are deliciously light, yet have a chewy soft interior hidden beneath a crunchy crackling crust. When very fresh and cut through with a knife, the centre rolls up into a little dense cigar of dough – my favourite part.
These rolls are best eaten fresh the day they are made. In Germany they are mainly eaten as a breakfast roll at the weekends but it would require quite some dedication to get up early enough to make them for breakfast, so usually we make and eat these for lunch or dinner at home. I make a large batch, for the simple reason that this is the perfect bread for dumplings, which we make with the stale leftover rolls and eat the following day (see here for dumpling recipe). You can easily halve the recipe, though, if the quantities here are in excess of your needs. Poppy-seed-covered rolls make a welcome change and are delicious spread with quark and jam – usually I make half with poppy seeds, half without.
SOME HELPFUL TIPS:
The knead must be long.
The oven must be very hot – 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7.
The flour must be strong, not ordinary plain flour.
The water must be tepid – not cold, not hot.
The humidity level in the oven is key to the crisp outer crust and chewy interior of these rolls, so a tray of boiling water sitting at the bottom of the oven is essential.
When cutting the rolls and rolling, do not add more flour – use water only to prevent the dough sticking to the work surface.
Do not cover the rolls on their second rise – this allows the crust to dry out, which is half the key to the crispiness at the end.
MAKES ABOUT 14 ROLLS
You will need two standard baking trays and one with high sides
500ml water, tepid
20g fresh yeast, or 10g dried yeast
800g strong white flour
1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
poppy seeds (optional)
Put the water into a jug. If using fresh yeast, crumble it into the jug and stir until it has dissolved. Put the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a free-standing electric mixer), pour over the yeasted liquid, mix together with a wooden spoon, then tip out on to a floured work surface. (If using dried yeast, just put it into the bowl with the flour.) Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes, until it is elastic. If using an electric mixer, knead with a dough hook on a low speed for the same amount of time.
Form the dough into a rough ball and put back into an oiled mixing bowl. Cover the bowl with clingfilm or a clean, damp tea towel, then set aside to rise in a warm part of the kitchen until doubled in volume. Line two standard baking trays with baking paper.
Once risen, splash some water on to the work surface, tip the dough out on to this, and chop it into 14 equal pieces using a dough cutter or a large, sharp knife. Shape the rolls into ovals with pointed ends (almond shape) and place them on the baking trays, leaving space between for them to expand. Set the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7, and leave the trays on the work surface for the rolls to rise a second time while the oven comes up to temperature.
After about 25 minutes the oven should be hot enough and the rolls should be well risen (not quite doubled in size). Place a high-sided baking tray in the bottom of the oven. Tip boiling water into the tray until it comes 3cm up the sides, then shut the oven door to create some steam. While the oven humidity is building up, slash the top of the rolls about 1cm deep, down the centre. If making poppy seed rolls, brush the top of the rolls with a little water, and sprinkle with some poppy seeds before slashing.
Bake the rolls in the oven for about 20 minutes, until they are crisp and golden on the outside and hollow-sounding when knocked on the bottom. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
USING UP OLD BREAD ROLLS:
It is also with these stale bread rolls that dumplings and puddings are made. Every kitchen has a jar of Semmelbrösel
