Gluten-Free Baking – Gluteinfreies Backen

I had a visit by a rep from my wholesaler, Downeast Food Distributors, who left a sample of a new gluten free bake mix to test some bread and pastry recipes. It consists of a mixture of rice flour, potato starch, sugar, salt and 5 different gums plus methylcellulose. This chemical array is necessary to … Continue reading Gluten-Free Baking – Gluteinfreies Backen →

DOG APPROVED – MIT HUNDE-GUETESIEGEL

Last week I had bad baking karma. On Monday I wanted to make Broetchen, a deceptively simple, crispy, white roll, as German as baguettes are French. After several trials that never yielded the soft, fluffy, "pull-out" crumb typical for Broetchen I finally got it right with Italian 00 flour (from "Micucci" in Portland). But would … Continue reading DOG APPROVED – MIT HUNDE-GUETESIEGEL →

RHABARBER-UPSIDE-DOWN-KUCHEN

KUCHEN170 g Butter, weich454 g Rhabarber, sehr schraeg in ca. 1.5 cm dicke Stuecke geschnitten250 g Zucker135 g Weizenmehl Typ 405 50 g Vollkornweizenmehl 7 g Backpulver (1 1/2 TL) 1 Prise Salz0,5 TL abgeriebene Orangenschale 1 EL Grand Marnier (oder Orangensaft) 2 Eier235 g Saure Sahne (1 Tasse) STREUSEL57 g Butter, geschmolzen (4 EL)60 … Continue reading RHABARBER-UPSIDE-DOWN-KUCHEN →

Hazelnut Survives Lawnmower – Haselnuss ueberlebt Rasenmaeher

Hazelnuts, the cheapest of nuts used by European bakers, are hard to find and quite expensive in Maine. Nurseries don't carry the shrubs; our daily paper never lists them in its (often good) recipes, and many people don't even know what they look like, not to mention what they taste like.But they do grow in … Continue reading Hazelnut Survives Lawnmower – Haselnuss ueberlebt Rasenmaeher →

Domestic Diva versus Vegan World Takeover

After today's baking class (subject: light sourdough bread) I needed something sweet to calm down my adrenaline hyped nerves. The oven was still warm; and we had lots of peanutbutter in the fridge - leftovers from daughters and tenants.Looking for a very peanutbuttery recipe I chose the Chocolate Peanutbutter Swirl Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's "Cupcakes" … Continue reading Domestic Diva versus Vegan World Takeover →

Burnt Bread, Shin and Loving Husband – Verbranntes Brot, Bein und liebender Ehemann

This morning, opening the oven to rotate my baguettes my glasses fell from my nose onto the oven door. In order to retrieve them before they turned into a lump of melted plastic I tilted the pan with the baguettes, they dropped and one broke, of course. Picking up the breads in a haste, my … Continue reading Burnt Bread, Shin and Loving Husband – Verbranntes Brot, Bein und liebender Ehemann →

POPPY SEED FILLING – MOHNBACK

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts. With Christmas looming ahead, I wanted to bake Mohnstollen - German Poppy Seed Stollen. I looked up numerous recipes in my German cookbooks and the internet. Most of them listed "Mohnback" as necessary ingredient, a ready made poppy seed filling you find in every decent German supermarket. Lucky … Continue reading POPPY SEED FILLING – MOHNBACK →

KAPUZINERTORTE – A BREMEN SPECIALTY

I just came back from my trip to Germany. It was gray and cold and rained relentlessly for almost two weeks. In other words, typical Hamburger winter weather. Of course, everybody assured me that it had been really nice and warm until just before I arrived. But I didn't come for the weather, I wanted … Continue reading KAPUZINERTORTE – A BREMEN SPECIALTY →