Sødmælksfranskbrød - Whole Milk Bread

Sødmælksfranskbrød - Whole Milk Bread

The smell of this fresh baked whole milk bread, is bringing back childhood memories. My mom baked this bread, and served it with, butter, cheese and homemade jam. Somehow the smell made me think of summer days in my parents kolonihave. A kolonihave is a place with small lots, where the city folks could rent a little garden with a small house, to get out from the apartments, growing vegetables and flowers. I have so many fond memories from this place. My dad build the little house himself, and my parents loved working in the garden.  

Anton eating pålægschokolademad for the first time.

The main reason for baking this white bread, was a visit from this little guy, Anton. And as you can see, the whole milk bread with chocolate (pålægschokolade), is approved by Anton. 

This Recipe is from my moms recipe book. 

Makes 2 loafs.

Ingredients:

• 600 ml whole milk
• 50 g butter
• 50 g fresh compressed yeast or 4 teaspoons dry yeast
• 900 g all-purpose flour
• 14 g sea salt
• 10 g sugar
• sprinkles: poppy seeds, optional
• Egg wash: 1 egg + 1 tablespoon whole milk
• Sprinkles: poppy seeds
• optional : two 9x5-inch loaf pans

Directions:

Warm the milk in a saucepan until finger-warm, remove pan from the heat. Melt the butter in the warm milk. Crumble the yeast into the warm milk and stir to dissolve. 

Mix flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the liquid, and knead the dough for 3 minutes, to form an elastic dough. 

Let the dough rise for 30-40 minutes until doubled in size. 

Gently ease the dough out on a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in two, and roll both into tight balls. Let the dough rest covered for 5-10 minutes.

Spray 2 loaf pans with cooking spray, and set aside. If baking in loaf pans.

Deflate the dough, and fold in the sides about ½-inch (2 cm), and roll the dough into a log. Roll the log to fit your loaf pan. Or form to 11-inch (30 cm) breads, and place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cover the breads with a kitchen towel, and let them rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 360℉ (180℃) or if using convection: 320℉ (160℃).

Brush egg wash on both breads, and sprinkle poppy seeds on top. Score the bread once lengthwise for the pan baked. And several times across for bread baked without pans. 

Bake the breads for 35-45 minutes until dark golden, and having a hollow sound, when tapped on the bottom.

Enjoy!

Marzipan Brioche

Marzipan Brioche

Making a classic brioche is time consuming, but well worth the effort. The best thing, it's not hands-on all the time, so you can get a lot of thing done, while making this. Brioche is made from an enriched dough with eggs and butter.  By all means it's not a health food, more likely a comfort food for special occasions.

I wanted to add some more flavor to the rolls, and added some pistachio marzipan. This gave a slightly flaky brioche with a hint of sweetness from the marzipan. 

Makes 10-12 rolls

Ingredients:

Dough Starter (Sponge):

• 30 g (2 tablespoons) water, room temperature

• 12.5 g (1 tablespoon) sugar

• 70 g all-purpose flour

• 1 g (¼ teaspoon) dry active yeast

• 1 large egg, room temperature

Dough:

• 155 g all-purpose flour

• 30 g sugar

• 4 g dry active yeast

• ¼ teaspoon  salt

• 2 large eggs, cold

• 115 g butter, salted and soft

Remonce:

• 100 g pistachio marzipan (ODENSE Dessertmasse med pistaciesmag)

or

• 50 g butter room temperature

• 50 g sugar

• 50 g marzipan

Directions:

Dough Starter (Sponge):

Whisk the ingredients together  in a bowl and keep whisking for about 2 minutes to incorporate air.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Sift together flour, sugars and yeast, then stir in the salt. Sprinkle this mixture on top of the dough starter, do not mix it in. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap again and let it sit to ferment for 2 hours at room temperature.

By now the dough starter will have bubbled through the layer of flour. Add the 2 eggs and knead the dough for about 5-6 minutes, scraping down the sides, until the dough is soft, elastic and shiny. Add the butter a little at a time, making sure to get the butter fully incorporated. The dough will end up very soft and it is meant to be like that. Lightly coat another bowl with some vegetable oil. Using a oiled spatula to scrape the dough into the prepared bowl. Lightly coat the dough with a small amount of oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.

Put the dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour, to prevent the butter from separating. 

Deflate the dough with a spatular, and return it to the refrigerator for another hour.

Letter fold

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and roll it into a rectangle, and make a letter fold, like the one used in laminating a puff pastry dough. 

Carefully brush off any excess flour, to avoid hardening the dough.

Make the letter fold three times, before placing the dough in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. 

Let the dough mature in the refrigerator for 6 hours or up to 2 days. I left mine overnight. 

Remove dough from the refrigerator and let it warm for about 1 hour. Make the Remonce, if using, I used a flavored marzipan instead.

Remonce:

Mix the sugar and marzipan well. Add butter little by little until it’s just incorporated.  Be careful not to over mix or the remonce will be runny when baked.

Forming the rolls:

On a lightly floured surface roll the dough into a good sized rectangle, gently spread the remonce on two thirds of the rectangle. Fold the part without remounce over half the part without, then fold the last part over this. Like the letter fold earlier. Make another letter fold. 

Roll the dough into a rectangle, and roll it up, so you end up with a long log. Cut the log in slices, and place the slices in muffin pans looking like cinnamon rolls.

Let the rolls rise for 60-90 minutes, until doubled in size.  (You can brush off any excess flour)

Preheat the oven to 325℉ (160℃).

Bake the rolls for 15-25 minutes until dark golden.

Serve the brioche warmed and with a nice cup of tea.

Enjoy!

Grove Hveder - Grove Hvedeknopper

Grove Hveder - Grove Hvedeknopper

Hveder is a white cardamom roll eaten before the Bededag aka Prayers Day in Denmark. This year I wanted to add a little fibers to the roll, while still keeping the roll nice and sweet. I think I hit the mark with this recipe. I didn't come up with a heathy version, but 1.6 grams dietary fiber per roll is a little better than 0.

Ingredients:

• 50 g live yeast or 4 teaspoons dry yeast
• 200 ml water, finger warm
• 75 g butter
• 150 ml buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 10 g (1¾ teaspoon) salt
• 5-10 g (3 teaspoons) cardamom
• 25 g buckwheat 
• 50 g quick oats (quaker oats)
• 100 g whole wheat flour
• 450 g all-purpose flour

Directions:

In a large bowl dissolve the yeast in the water. (Add a teaspoon sugar if you are using dry yeast, and wait until it starts to foam.) Mix in the butter, sugar, buttermilk and egg. Mix salt and cardamom with the flours, oats and buckwheat, and add that to the water-mixture. Hold some of the all-purpose flour back, because you want a soft smooth dough, and might not need it all. Knead the dough for about 7-10 minutes until the dough is shinny and elastic. Let the dough rise covered for about 20- 30 minutes.  

Pour the dough onto a lightly floured workspace, fold the dough over 3-4 times and divide the dough into 12-18 small balls. Place the balls only about 1 cm (about ⅓-½ inch) apart on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cover the dough balls with a dampen kitchen towel, and let them rise for another 60 minutes. They are meant to grow into each other, you want the soft sides on your rolls, when you pull them apart.

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃). (375℉ /190℃ for convection oven). 

Bake the hvedeknopper/rolls for 15-20 minutes until they are dark golden brown. Let them cool on a wire rack.

Before serving, cut them in half and toast them. Serve them hot with butter and jam or with a good cheese.

Enjoy!

The Quest for the Danish Morning Rolls

Morning Rolls

I love the Danish morning rolls, aka rundstykker. But event though it's a really simple roll, it's very hard to get just right. They need to have a thin hard crust with a really light crumb, with no chewiness. Apparently this s very hard to obtain for normal people in a normal oven, without steam. 

There are many ways to try to get steam in your oven. Here is a few methods.

• Put a baking pan on the bottom rack and fill it with pebbles or a large stainless steel chain, and preheat the oven with this in the oven. When you put your bread or rolls into the oven, splash ½ cup hot water on the rocks/chain and close the door quickly. This will build up enough steam to help with the oven-spring/the rise of the dough, before the crust hardens in the heat. 
• Place 2-3 soaking wet kitchen towels on a baking pan on the bottom rack, while preheating the oven, and for the first 5-8 minutes of the baking time, and then remove the pan with the towels. Be careful opening the oven the steam will burn you, so stay clear of the oven-opening.
• The simplest way is to spray some hot water into the oven, but this might not be enough to  give a perfect oven-spring.

This is my first version of Danish Morning Rolls. I did get the crumb, that I wanted, but I would still like it to be lighter. The crust was almost right, but it needs to stay crisp and be a bit thicker.

Even though these rolls didn't hit the mark as real Danish morning rolls, they are actually very good.

Makes 10-12 rolls

Ingredients:

• 4 g dry yeast
• 250 ml water, finger warm
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 100 ml  plain yoghurt 
• 300 g bread flour
• 225 g all-purpose flour

Egg wash:

• 1 egg white
• *½ cup cold water

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast in the water, add the sugar, and let the yeast wake up, and start to foam, takes about 5 minutes. Mix in the yoghurt and both flours. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes in a stand mixer. You want a strong gluten structure. Cover the bowl, and let the dough rise in the refrigerator overnight. 

Pour the dough out on a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in 10-12 and roll them into balls. Place 6 dough-balls on each parchment paper lined baking sheet. Let the rolls rise for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450℉ (250℃).

Whisk the egg white with the cold water to make a foam. Use the foam to brush onto the rolls. If you like sprinkles on your rolls, do that now. Cut a fairly deep slit in the roll. (I forgot that, but it will give the roll room for the oven spring.)

Place 2-3 soaking clean wet kitchen towels on a baking pan on the bottom rack, while preheating the oven, this will make the steam. Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes until deep golden brown. Remove the baking pan with the towels after the first 5-8 minutes.

Let the rolls cool completely.

Serve the rolls with butter, cheese or jam.

Enjoy!

Dinner Rolls with Sun-dried Tomatoes

Dinner Rolls with Sun-dried Tomatoes

I really love to bake bread. I love the feeling of the soft bouncy dough. The sweet smell of fresh baked bread makes me think of my mom. She baked the best birthday rolls/buns and a great whole milk bread (sødmælksbrød), sadly the recipe are lost forever, but I can still remember the smell.   

Making bread can be a daunting project, but with a little preparation it's surely manageable. This recipe is fairly straight forward. The stand mixer is doing all the hard work. These rolls can be changed up. Add your favorite herbs, leave out the sun-dried tomatoes or add some chopped olives. The options are endless.

Ingredients:

• 50 g live yeast or 4 teaspoons dry yeast 
• ½ teaspoon sugar - if using dry yeast
• 600 ml warm water (when using live yeast, not hotter than 38℃)
• 900 g bread flour (save 25-50 g to mix with the sun-dried tomato)
• 1 teaspoon (7 g) salt
• 1 tablespoon flat-leaved parsley, minced
• 60 g sun-dried tomatoes, minced
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons melted butter

Sprinkles:

• Egg wash
• coarse salt
• puppy seeds
• sunflower seeds   

Directions: 

In a large bowl (the one for the stand mixer) dissolve (live yeast) sprinkle (dry yeast) over the warm water. If using dry yeast, add ½ teaspoon sugar, this will help to wake up the yeast. Let stand for about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour, and stir until just combined. Let the dough rest for about 20-30 minutes. This lets the flour absorb all the water completely, and helps activate the natural enzymes in the flour, and improves the gluten development in the dough.

Chop/mince the tomatoes and parsley and mix it with the reserved flour.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the dough and knead the dough for about 10 minutes, until elastic, add more flour if the dough gets to sticky. 

Let the dough rise for about 60 minutes or until doubled in size. 

Pour the dough unto a lightly floured surface and divide the dough in 16-18 balls. Place the balls on a parchment paper lined baking sheet ½-1-inch apart in a circle pattern. The balls will grow into each other while rising and baking. This will give the rolls the soft sides.

Let the rolls rise for another 30-40 minutes, until the rolls are “grown” together. 

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃). Place a baking sheet on the bottom shelf of the oven. Place 2 very wet kitchen towels on the baking sheets. This will fill the oven with steam, while heating.

Brush the rolls with beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse salt, puppy seeds and or sunflower seeds. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until deep golden brown.

Let the rolls cool on a wire rack. 

Serve the rolls with dinner.

Enjoy!