Juergen Krauss's blog

This is by no means complete - 

just a number of videos I frequently refer to

Kneading

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAvlONuJXP0

King Arthur Baguette making

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=masipMhrV5c&list=PLE2D447C3F9AAD68F

Russian Braid - Ciril Hitz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqGwQXFjHgg

Hot Cross Buns from Hamelman's Bread - simple and simply delicious.

Our favourite

Juergen

http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/national_real_breadmaker_week/

Yes, I'm still baking.

The following are examples of the things I do quite regularly (the title photo is an adaptation of Hamelman's Wholewheat with pecans and golden raisisns)

This is a "Paderborner", Rye sour Detmolder style with 20% wholewheat

Simple white:

Hamelman's Toast

This is how my son likes to see bread  (Toast with some Emmer):

Last Sunday the weather turned British over here, time to do something REALLY BRITISH:

A Pimms party with our neighbours!!!

I supplied some of the food: Tried and tested Sesame Crackers and Swedish Thin Bread (from Bo Friberg's book The Professional Pastry Chef), to go with some hoummous and guacamole.

I will give only a brief description of the process, as making these tasty crackers is really easy, and the formulas and stories around it are published in Friberg's book, which I highly recommend:

Sesame Crackers

Bread Flour 77%

Wholegrain Wheat Flour 23%

Instant Yeast 1%

Malt or Honey 1%

Salt 2%

Sesame Oil 5.4%

Water 57%

Sesame Seeds (mixed black & white) 31%

Mix all ingredients except Sesame Seeds and work the dough.

Incorporate the seeds (if the dough is too stiff let it rest a bit)

Proof for 1 hour.

Divide. (60g balls work very well for me using a pasta machine)

Roll out very thin (I use a pasta machine up to step 4 of 7)

Transfer to a baking sheet, cut crackers to size as required.

Bake immediately at 190C for about 12 minutes.

They should be golden brown but not burnt. Sit next to the oven and watch!!!

2. Swedish Thin Bread

Vegetable Shortening 19.3%

Butter (room temp) 9.2%

Granulated Sugar 9.2%

Rolled Oats 28.6%

Bread Flour 100%

Salt 0.8%

Baking Soda 0.7%

Buttermilk 60.5%

(Yield 228.4%)

Cream shortening and butter until fluffy

Incorporate dry ingredients alternating with buttermilk

Do not overmix. Wetter dough makes crisper bread

Roll out very thin and transfer to baking sheet, 300g for a 30X35cm sheet work well for me.

Score to get cracker shapes (don't tear the dough, you can break them easily after baking)

Bake at 160C until completely dry (ca. 30 min)

Enjoy,

Juergen

Thanks to Kiesger I have got Green Spelt now.

This is the same recipe and process as in my previous post

Götz Brot - Jürgen's Take

just substituting fine Green Spelt (Grünkern) meal for the light spelt.

The formula is here:

I also made a version of this bread leaving out the nettle and fennel.

Both breads are exceptional in taste - much richer than the spelt version.

The nettle version got a bit wetter - I must have added about 20g water to much by accident ()possibly hitting the "tare" button in the wrong moment ...), therefore the crumb of the nettle bread is more open.

The combination of this Nettle bread with Kidderton Ash goats cheese won me the Annual Culinary Awards of my family (jury is my 8 year old)!

Here a picture of the loaves (Nettle on the right hand side):

And this is the crumb:

Best Wishes,

Juergen

PS: I also made Green Spelt Balls/Burgers

1 cup of coarse Green Spelt Meal

2.5 cups of stock

1 slice white bread or small roll, cubed, soaked in milk and drained well

1 egg

1 small onion, finely diced

Parsley

Pepper

Oil

Cook the green spelt in stock until it forms a stiff ball; let cool.

Sautee onions, add chopped parsley and take off fire.

Mix onions/parsley, egg, drained bread, green spelt and spices. be careful with salt, there should be enough from the stock.

If too wet add some green spelt flour.

Form small balls/burgers and fry. Be careful, they might be sticky or come apart easily.

Enjoy.

Karin (hanseata) invited me to her Götz-Brot challenge, an interesting one that leaves lots of room for imagination.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/38938/challenge-fellow-bakers-bread-knight-iron-hand

Here is my take:

My idea for this Götz bread was to create something that
- could easily be made in a hotel kitchen
- uses a straightforward and flexible process
- uses ingredients that grow locally

I came up with a bread using white flour, light spelt flour,wholemeal rye and wholemeal wheat.

The crumb looks like this:

Spelt is quite abundant in the region east of Heilbronn (Badisches Frankenland).

Usually it gets harvested while the kernels are still green, and then roasted. This is called "Grünkern", is used as grains, flaked etc, and sadly it is impossible to get in England.

The taste of it is remarkable. It goes very well as meat substitute in meatballs (Grünkern-Frikadellen)! And it is also great in soups, as risotto etc.

But I don't have Grünkern, hence the spelt.

To make this bread more interesting and unique (among Germany's hundreds of breads) I added crushed fennel and dried,pulverised nettle leaves.

Here is the formula:

The process is the same as for any white yeasted direct bread. NoKnead techniques can be used, or the dough can be worked until Gluten is moderately well developed, and then proofed with one fold halfway through.
It is really a matter of taste, scheduling, and skills of the baker.

First proof will take about 2 to 3 hours at 22C. Shape in any way you wish, the dough is not sticky and suitable for all sorts of things.
Second proof will take about 1 hour.

Bake in hot oven, like any white bread. In my simple fan oven I start at 240C with steam and turn down to 210 after 15min, then baking for another 15 min (500g loaves). Please adjust as necessary.

The bread is on the rustic side and the herbs come clearly through, but the blend of Fennel and Nettle (which is also used in teabags by a big British tea company) lends itself to honey and stronger jams as well as savoury toppings.

This bread also has very good ageing characteristics.

Enjoy,

Juergen

/* UPDATE: Der deutsche Text ist am Ende dieses Beitrags */

Karin (Hanseata) pointed us to a blog event that is currently on, closing on April 17:

The challenge is an interesting one.

My idea for a bread with the prescribed ingredients of this challenge
(450g bread flour, 50g wholemeal rye flour, 10g salt, any amount of water, any leavening agent, any process)was inspired by Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough and Carol Field's Pane Nero di Bolzano - a rather unlikely match.

The bread looks like your typical German "Weizen-Mischbrot", but it has deeper flavour notes ranging from a pronounced tang to the unique sweetness of a yeast-rye-poolish. And the mouthfeel is quite smooth.

Here the formula (the preferments have 10% added to account for loss):

Process:

Mix the preferments and let stand for about 12 hours at 23C

Mix the preferments with the remaining ingredients to some degree of gluten development - the dough is notably slack due to the high enzyme activity from the rye poolish. Remember, there are no acids to slow down the enzymes.

Bulk proof ca. 2 hours folding once after 1 hour, shape, final proof c. 1hour.

Bake in falling oven with steam (230C down to 200C) for 30 minutes (500g loaves)

Here some crumb pictures:

The fresh crumb (yes, I am impatient)

and the crumb after two days (and in different light):

I sold this bread at the pop-up market at my boy's school (the ones behind the flowers with the cross slash)
The kids loved it (I provided tasters of all products), and I think it's a very good carrier for all sorts of sweet and savoury goodies, and quite nice just with butter.

 Happy Baking,

Juergen

 ======================================================

Jürgens Brighton Sauerteig

Die inspiration zu dieser Formel lieferten zwei Rezepte

1. Vermont Sourdough von Hamelman’s Bread
2. Pane Nero di Bolzano von Carol Field’s Italian Baker

Als Triebmittel werden ein flüssiger Weizen-Sauerteig und ein Roggen-Poolish verwendet.

Der Weizen-Sauerteig gibt dem Brot eine saure Note, waehrend der Roggen-Poolish eher etwas susses beitraegt. Der Poolish last auch die Roggen-Enzyme frei walten, wodurch der Teig eher weich wird,  die Krume fühlt sich “glatter” an als bei vergleichbaren Broten mit Hefe oder Roggen-Sauerteig.

Ich habe dieses Brot auf einem Schul-Markt verkauft, zusammen mit Hotcrossbuns, Challah, Vollkornbrot (Hamelman) und meinem Reis-Sauerteig Brot, und es kam bei den Kids am besten an!

Jetzt zur Formel:

Prozess:

1. Bereite den Poolish und Weizen-Sauer zu und lasse sie bei ca. 23C für 12 Stunden stehen.
2. Verknete die Vorteige und die anderen Zutaten bis sich eine maessige Gluten-Struktur zeigt.
3. Standzeit für den Teig ca. 2 Stunden, mit einer Faltung nach einer Stunde
4. Abwiegen und formen
5. Stückgare etwa 1 Stunde
6. Backen im Fallenden Ofen mit Dampf, 230C -> 200C für 30 minuten (500g Brote)

Years ago I came across these buns when I went to Basel a lot.

They are sold only during lent, and only in Basel area.

The taste and texture were very memorable - unlike anything I had tasted before.
Next Saturday I will participate in a pop-up market and thought these Faschtewaije might be an interesting candidate.

I found a few recipes and saw what made them special. Lard.

I wouldn't be able to sell a lot of goods containing lard on this occasion (I am going with Hot-Cross Buns)
But my fingers itched and I tried out the recipe.

They came out very nicely, a bit denser than what I remember, but nevertheless a great taste and texture.
I am very happy with this first try.

The recipe is from
http://www.baselinsider.ch/enzyklopaedie/basler-rezepte/basler-rezepte/faschtewaije-fastenwaehe.html

Some more background info is here:

http://www.foodnews.ch/x-plainmefood/30_produkte/Fastenwaehe.html

Here it is in Bakers % and with English ingredient names:

Flour (AP / strong white) 100% (200g)

Salt 1.5%% (3g)

Malt Extract 1% (2g)

Instant Dry Yeast 2% (4g)

Milk  (lukewarm) 62.5% (125g)

Lard (or Butter) 37.5% (75g)

Yield 204.5% (409g)

This amount makes 4 buns 

I used lard - I think that butter turns it into something closer to Brioche.

With lard this tasted just as I remember.

Mix the dry ingredients and milk, and work to develop some gluten.
Add the melted fat and work until you have a very smooth, supple dough. This is the more challenging step.

Proof for about 1 hour at 23C
Divide into 50g - pieces. Preshape and roll them out (with a rolling pin) into oblong pieces.
(This is the step I yet need to figure out - the pieces should have pronounced tips so that the finished bun has roughly a circular shape with two knobbly bits, not unlike the shadow of a lemon.)

Let rise for another hour (while the oven preheats to 190C), cut them in this specific pattern, like -=- (have a look at the pictures of the cutting tool in the links), glaze,sprinkle with caraway seeds, and bake for about 25 minutes,until golden brown. Don't let them go too dark.
The recipe uses an egg yolk and water mix for the glaze, I used plain water.

Happy Baking,
Juergen

A distant relative asked me if I would provide the Challah for the blessing at her Son's wedding.
I would have complete freedom of choice for all the parameters, e.g. amount, shape, formula.
The 200 guests were to be seated at 18 tables.

After some deliberation I decided to bake 1 Challah for each table, and a special one for the head table.
I thought I'd get 4 X 500g into the oven, which would require 5 batches.

Then ...
I flicked through Hamelman's "Bread" while my dearest wife was watching. She spotted the Hungarian Wedding Braid. That was it! Had to do it now.

The recipe is calculated for a bread diameter of 40cm, too big for my domestic oven. I can accommodate just above 30 cm.
So I did some experiments with the Eggless Water Challah dough from "Inside The Jewish Bakery (ITJB)", an excellent dough to shape and very tasty, too.

I decided that for a 30cm Wedding Bread the best weight for a short strand was 50g, and the long strand would be 250g.

My oven can accommodate 2 of these: now I was looking at producing 9 batches for the Hungarian Breads, plus one for the top-table challah.

On Friday evening I scaled all ingredients for the 12 Kg of ITJB Bakery Challah - flour, water, salt, yeast, sugar, oil and packed them for each batch individually - with exception of the 70 egg yolks...

The next step was creating a spreadsheet that told me what I had to do in 10-minute increments.

For a considerable amount of time I would have 5 batches going simultaneously.

It turned out that the first top-table challah (12 strand double decker) didn't rise well (handling, I suppose), so I had to add another batch.

I started at 5am on Saturday, at my home in Brighton, and was ready to deliver in London by 6.30pm. Phew.

Now some pictures:

Shaping started with scaling the dough and shaping the strands: 7 for each bread, 2 breads in each batch:

To get the star-in wheel shape I had made a template, 30cm in diameter:

The first crossover

The second crossover -the star shape becomes apparent:

And the ring to complete the bread:

Proofing several batches at different stages:

Glazing with egg - I used 4 eggs for the glaze alone

Luckily I had Spock and Kirk with me ...

The pile of finished breads is growing

And boxed, ready for shipping

Not all breads fitted in this giant box ...

Then off to London with public transport

I have no pictures from the wedding (on Sunday) - but there was not much time to take pictures, the challahs were very well received.

Happy Baking,

Juergen 

... lots of things.

First of all, 

Happy Chanukkah, Happy Thanksgiving!

Now about my baking - I didn't have so much time for blogging recently, but I am still baking on!

My wife gave me a copy of Yotam Ottolenghi's book "Jerusalem", a great book if you like mediterrean food. Not so much about baking.

But having got over those impressive ingredients lists I realized that the recipes in there are quite easy to make, and very precise. I made the potato latkes (containing some parsnip) for the first day of Chanukkah, no photo because they disappeared too quickly. If you get a chance to look at this book - highly recommended.

Recently I had huge fun exploring the no-knead method - something I wanted to do for a while, and I made several doughs using this technique - withamazing results.

The ficelles in the title picture are my best baguette-style breads so far (flour 300g, water 200g, salt 6g, instant yeast 2g) 

Another very simple delicious bread is a pain-de-campagne style loaf (bread flour 900g, wholegrain rye 100g, water 680g, instant yeast 3g). After 3 hours proof with 5 folds the dough showed a lot of strength and bubbles, and was a charm to work with.

Here a picture just before putting it into the oven:

And here the finished product:

with a beautiful crumb:

Making a lot of "Bakery Challah" from "Inside The Jewish Bakery" left me with loads of eggwhite, so I made again a variation of Christophe Felder's Financiers (see e.g. http://www.petitebouffeentreamis.com/article-financiers-a-la-fraise-selon-christophe-felder-118536461.html)

using just almonds, a bit of coconut and honey:

They went down a treat at work and at home.

Then,it's time to make Dresdner Stollen.

I used nellapowers recipe

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/25407/dresden-christmas-stollen

Unfortunately many of the images have disappeared. Here some impressions from my baking session:

Lots of fruit ...

This is the stollen after being baked and brushed with butter. The caster sugar soaks up excess butter during cooling.

And this is the stollen, sugar brushed off and ready to be coated with icing sugar and packed for the big sleep.

It will emerge again at Christmas eve ...

Happy Baking,

Juergen