Focaccia

Focaccia - I should have used a larger baking pan, because the bread came out to high.

I love bread, most kind of bread, but I know its not good for me to just munch on. Anyhow I bought a pound of live yeast, so I have to bake bake bake. 

Focaccia has always been a bread I wanted to try to make, but I have never got around to it. Now was the time. 

I like the crispy top on the soft, salty flavorful bread. I looked up a bunch of recipes and made a concoction. 

Ingredients:

• 3,25 dl water finger-warm
• ½ dl olive oil
• 10 g live yeast
• 500 g all-purpose flour or a high protein flour. 
• 10 g sea salt

Toppings:

• sea salt
• olive oil
• rosemary like spices (or jalapeño)

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add a teaspoon sugar if you are using dry yeast, and wait until it starts to foam. Add the oil. 

Mix the salt with the flour and mix it in to the wet ingredients. 

If you knead the dough by hand, knead it for 12-15 minutes. 

If you knead it in a stand mixer, mix it for 3 minutes at low and then 8-10 minutes on high. 

The dough should be sticky. 

Let the dough rise in the bowl covered by a tea towel for about 3 hours. 

Grease your baking pan with olive oil. Pour the dough into the pan and press the dough with your fingers to spread it out and get the wells for the spices and oil. 

Pour a good olive oil on top and sprinkle with coarse sea salt and rosemary. Press salt, oil and rosemary into the dough with your finger. 

Let the focaccia sit to rise for 45 minutes before baking it for 20-25 minutes at 440℉ (220℃).

Let the bread cool in the pan before serving. 

Kanelstænger - Cinnamon Danish

Kanelstænger - Cinnamon Danish

Kanelstænger, or Cinnamon danish, is one of the more common pastries in Denmark. They are kinda like a large cinnamon roll cut up. Compared with real pastry, where you roll layers of butter into a dough, this recipe is really easy to make. The worst part is the custard, and when you have made that a few times, its easy too.

Ingredients:

Custard:

• 3 Egg Yolks
• 3 tablespoons Sugar
• 2 tablespoon Cornstarch
• 5 dl (2 cups) Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Paste

Dough:

• 40 g live yeast or 3½ teaspoons dry yeast
• 1¾ dl (¾ cup) water
• 35 g sugar
• 4 g salt
• 4 g cardamom
• 1 egg
• 35 g butter, salted & room temperature 
• 400 g all-purpose flour

Remonce:

• 200 g butter, salted & room temperature 
• 200 g sugar
• 35 g cinnamon

Directions:

Custard:

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale in color. Whisk in the cornstarch and vanilla paste.

Heat the milk to a slow boil, set aside. 

While whisking vigorously drizzle the warm milk into the egg yolk mixture, just a tiny bit at a time at first. Once you’ve added about ¼ of the milk, you can add the rest in a thin stream, whisking constantly.

Pour the mixture back in the saucepan and reheat it over medium heat. Whisk constantly until it thickens. Remove from heat an chill the custard in a bowl in the refrigerator. Sprinkle with sugar or press a film of plastic wrap against custard so it doesn’t form a pudding skin.

Remonce:

Mix the ingredients to a brown paste, set aside.

Dough:

Dissolve the yeast in the finger-warm water, add the sugar and let it sit for a few minutes. Add the egg. Mix flour salt, cardamom and pour it into the yeast-mixture with the butter. Knead the dough until it's elastic and shinny. Let the dough rest in a bowl covered with a tea towel for about 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 3 pieces, and roll them to 15x25 cm (6x8 inch) rectangles.

Spread ⅓ of the remonce on the dough, leave a little piece along the long side clear.  Put ⅓ of the custard in a line on top of the remonce covered long side. Fold the dough over the custard and roll the rest like you would a cinnamon roll. Place the roll on a parchment lined baking sheet. 

Using a scissor cut slits at an angle almost all the way through with 2 cm (¾ inch) apart. Flip the dough pieces to the side. The first right the other left, alternating all the way to the end.

Repeat with the last two pieces of dough.

Let the pastry sit to rise for about 45 minutes. Brush with egg-wash and sprinkle with chopped almonds and raw sugar. Bake for about 15-18 minutes at 400℉ (210℃).

If you want to freeze some of the kanelstænger, do that after making the slits in the dough, and freeze them on a baking sheet and wrap them in when frozen.

Source: Lagkagehuset.

Surbrød - Bread with Caraway Seeds

Surbrød - Bread with Caraway Seeds

Surbrød is traditionally used for gravid lax, smoked salmon or open-faced shrimp sandwiches. Surbrød means sour bread, even though it's not made with a sourdough, at least nowadays. A surbrød is a white bread, with a small amount of rye flour and caraway seeds. In my family we rarely had surbrød, only my mom liked it. 

I think it was normal not having surbrød. I had an after-school job at a bakers shop and we didn't sell a lot of surbrød. And most of all it was bought by old ladies. Now, and in the last few years, I actually like bread with caraway seeds, like my soft pretzels - kommenskringler. Does that makes me an old lady, well, I hope not. 😳

The recipe calls for "sigtemel" which is a sifted flour made from 30% rye and 70% wheat, so I made some adjustments to the recipe. Normally you will use buttermilk, but I used whole milk, a splash of lemon juice and a tablespoon of plain yoghurt.

Ingredients:

• 400 g all-purpose flour
• 105 g dark rye flour, sifted
• 35 live yeast (1 pack (7 g) fleischmann's active dry yeast)
• 2 tablespoons (15 g) caraway seeds + some for sprinkles
• 12 g salt 
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 300 ml whole milk 
• a splash lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon plain yoghurt
• 1 tablespoon butter, room temperature

Directions:

Warm up the milk, and dissolve the yeast in the milk. If you use dry yeast add a few pinches of sugar. 

Mix flours, caraway seeds, salt honey and sugar. Pour in the milk/yeast mixture and add the butter, and mix it to an elastic soft dough. Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes in a warm spot.

Knead the dough for a few minutes, and divide the dough in two round balls. Set to rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Brush the breads with milk and sprinkle with caraway seeds. Score the breads with a sharp knife or cut with scissors.

Bake breads for 30-40 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy bread with butter,  with your favorite cheese or with gravad lax.

Gulerodsbrud - Carrot Rolls

Gulerodsbrud - Carrot Rolls

These rolls are so good and delicious. The carrots and sunflower seeds elevates this otherwise ordinary roll to an interesting and delicious treat. I first made these in 2009, when I found the recipe on the Danish Food blog "Newyorkerbyheart", and they have been some of my go-to recipes for rolls for brunch. Originally the recipe is from Claus Meyers “bagebog" - a book with a lot of basic recipes, a book I'm trying to "bake" my way through.

Gulerodsbrud is best the day you bake them, but I like them slightly toasted, or reheated in the oven. Just spread on some butter, a good cheese or my favorite right now, gooseberry jam. 

This time I added some whole wheat flour (20%) to change it up a bit. Next time I'll add a larger percentage, because it was still white rolls, and I was aiming for a healthier bread.

Makes 12 big rolls

Ingredients:

• 50 g live yeast (I used 2 packs fleischmann's active dry yeast)

• 500 ml warm water

• 800 g all-purpose flour

• 200 g whole wheat flour

• 75 g sugar

• 15 g sea salt

• 75 g butter, room temperature

• 2 eggs

• 150 g sunflower seeds (I only had 122 g - but I worked fine anyway)

• 4 carrots, peeled and grated

Directions:

In a large bowl mix warm water 105-110℉ (40-45℃) sugar and yeast. If you use dry yeast, wait until it starts foaming, before adding anything else.

Mix in salt and the flour’s until combined. Add butter and kneed the dough until it’s smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes if kneading by hand. (I kneaded the dough on the kitchen counter, to better stretch the dough.) Cover the dough with a dish towel and allow dough to rise for about one hour.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. 

Make a well in the center of the dough and pour in the cracked eggs, sunflower seeds and grated carrots into the well. Close the dough over the filled well by pulling the dough edges over the well. 

Using a dough scraper, or a large knife, cut up the dough into pieces to mix in the filling. Keep doing this, making sure to scrape the filling into the dough, until you have mixed in the filling. This is a very messy process, but it is worth it in the end. The dough won’t be uniform, but It doesn’t matter, the rolls will also be uneven in shape, but they are really good anyway.

Divide the dough in 12 pieces and place the sticky dough onto the baking sheets. Let the rolls rise for about one hour. 

Preheat oven to 430℉ (220℃). 

Bake the gulerodsbrud fort about 15 minutes or until golden. Let cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Enjoy.

English Muffins

English Muffins

Have you ever had a real English muffin, not the ones you bye at the grocery store, but one made at a bakery? The light, crunchy, soft, delicate, lightly sour muffin is a little slice of heaven. We went to Napa for a weekend and ended up at Model Bakery for english muffins. This visit ruined it for me, now I'm craving these tasty treats, and will never be satisfied with the store bought kind ever again.

I really didn't know anything about english muffins. But reading up on the history the english muffins are based on the recipe for classic english crumpets. Both crumpets and english muffins are originally made in a cast-iron skillet on the stovetop, are generally the same size and are  eaten for breakfast or tea.

According to the nibble "The English muffin, first called a “toaster crumpet,” was invented in 1894 by a British immigrant to New York, Samuel Bath Thomas. Immediately embraced as a more elegant alternative to toast, it was served at fine hotels and ultimately became a mainstay of American breakfast cuisine."

When you talk about english muffin, you will always hear the term "nook and crannies." The nooks and crannies are the little holes made from the gluten structure in the bread, they help catch the spread you put on, wether it's butter, lemon curd or even peanut butter. The best way to keep the nooks and crannies is to spilt the english muffin with your fingers or using a fork. By not using a knife you'll get an uneven surface that will hold the butter better on the toasted muffin.

While I was researching for this post, I stumbled upon Sheryl's blogpost about english muffins. By the reviews and the directions, it looked like the right place to start. So I went with her recipe.

I really like the taste of the muffins, but I would love if they were a bit more fluffy. But I will make these again for sure. When you have the technique down, they are super easy.

Makes 6 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (240 ml) milk

• 1 tablespoon (14 g) butter

• 1 tablespoon sugar or honey

• 1 packet (2¼ teaspoon) dry yeast

• 2 cups (190 g) all-purpose flour

• ½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

At night:

Heat the milk to simmering, then drop in butter and sugar or honey. Stir until it melts and is combined, let the mixture cool. When it’s lukewarm, sprinkle in the yeast, stir, and let it sit for 10 minutes until bubbly. Don’t use an aluminium bowl, because that can interfere with the yeast. 

Mix flour and salt in another bowl. When the yeast mixture is bubbly, add the flour and beat vigorously for a couple minutes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter (not in the refrigerator) overnight. It will overproof – rise and collapse. This is what creates the English muffin’s characteristic sourdough taste and large bubbles.

Next morning:

Scrape the sides of the bowl with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula and remix a little. Then use a spatula and spoon to drop muffin-size dough globs into a small bowl of cornmeal. Don’t try to handle the dough, it’s too sticky. Lift each muffin glob from the cornmeal with a slotted spatula, shake off any excess cornmeal, and place muffin in a ungreased cast-iron skillet.

When the skillet is full, cover it (with a glass top or a bowl), and let the muffins rise for about 30 minutes. They won’t rise much at this point, because all the sugar has been eaten by the yeast, but they’ll puff up a little more when they start to cook. Remove the lid before cooking!

Set your stove’s burner to medium-low. If it’s electric, let the burner preheat. If you have an electric skillet, you’ll have to let the muffins rise somewhere else so you can preheat it. I used a cast iron pan and set the burner to medium-low.

Warning: Do not set the temperature too high. The muffins have to cook slowly, or the inside will be doughy while the outside is burned. Don’t crank up the heat because it’s not sizzling. It’s not supposed to sizzle. 

The muffins can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes per side, depending on how high you set the skillet temperature. Turn them over when the first side is browned.

When the second side is browned, remove the muffins to a cooling rack and let them cool completely. If you don’t let them cool, they will be doughy inside. Also, they taste best if they are fully cooled and then toasted. Split them for toasting by pulling them apart with your fingers, rather than cutting with a knife. This maximises the nooks and crannies that are so great for holding butter and jam.