Danni3ll3's blog

 My daughter noticed a local bakery use this mix of spice in their bread and asked me to make something similar. When I researched this particular mix, I discovered that it was called German Bread spice. So I tweaked the grains in one of my favourite porridge bread recipes (I’m all about porridge bread these days... Thank you to Ian for convincing me!) and tossed in these spices. 

Recipe 

Makes 3 loaves

German Spice Mixture

(Procedure in recipe)

1/2 tsp anise seed

1/2 tsp fennel seed

I don’t remember how I stumbled on this combo but I must give Kristen Dennis, from Full Proof Baking, the credit for inspiring this version. 

Recipe 

Makes 3 loaves

Porridge 

100 g large rolled oats

200 g water

35 g Maple Syrup

30 g butter

Add-ins

200 g 50%  dark chocolate chips 

Dough

800 g strong bakers unbleached flour

200 g freshly milled wholegrain Durum flour 

50 g freshly ground flax seeds

I haven’t posted very much lately because we went into lockdown/stay at home, came out of it for two weeks and we are back into lockdown/grey zone on Monday. People here just can’t seem to get the idea you should stay home and away from each other! Our Covid numbers have just exploded in the last week or so. We have had more cases in February than we did all of 2020! Ok rant over and back to bread!

I ran out of bread (taking a break over the holidays) and needed a loaf to go with soup so I was looking for something simple. I love Spelt with porridge so this was it. 

Recipe 

Makes 3 loaves

Porridge 

100 g large rolled oats

200 g water

45 g honey

40 g butter

Dough

700 g strong bakers unbleached flour

300 g freshly milled wholegrain Spelt flour 

50 g freshly ground flax seeds

700 g water

23 g salt

30 g yogurt

I’ve made these before based on Bourke Street Bakery’s Spiced Fruit loaf but this time, I soaked the dried fruit in Grand Marnier. Yum! 

Makes 3 loaves

 INGREDIENTS

Snockered Fruit

150 dried cranberries

60 golden raisins (sultanas)

60 g Thompson Raisins

50 g Grand Marnier

Main dough 

770 g strong baker’s unbleached flour

110 g freshly milled Durum flour

50 g freshly ground flax

620 g filtered water

40 g plain yogurt

I was looking for inspiration and came acrossAnthony Power’s Irish Stout, Oats and Cheddar Sourdough. Here is my version.

Soaker

175 g rolled oats

185 g Sleeping Giant Brewery Skull Rock Stout

Dough

800 g Strong Baker’s Unbleached flour

150 g freshly milled Selkirk flour

50 g freshly milled rye flour

540 g filtered water + 25 g

110 g Sleeping Giant Brewery Skull Rock Stout

I’ve been making quite a few porridge breads lately so for a change, I used a soaker. This made for a much wetter dough. I’m happy that I decided to hold back 50 g of water and see how the dough was before adding it in. It wasn’t needed so I left it out of the recipe. If you include the soaker ingredients as part of the flour, the hydration is close to 85%. My dough would have been soup with that extra 50 grams! 

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves 

Soaker 

60 g Spelt flakes

60 g Kamut flakes

For this one, I figured using just the Einkorn and the Barley were boring so I tossed on some locally made beer. I don’t know if it was the beer, the lower hydration, the sticking to under 12 hours for the refrigerated proof or removing the loaves from the fridge 20 minutes before popping them in the oven, but wow! Did I ever get fantastic oven spring! Probably the best oven spring I’ve had for a long time!

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

Porridge

75 g barley flakes

150 g water

Main dough

This smells like deep fried onion rings when you are making it! I decided to try my old method of levain builds to see if I got more activity that way, but I found that although it rose the same height, it seemed less active during the builds. Bulk was about the same. 

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

Dough:

700 g strong bakers unbleached flour

200 g fresh milled Kamut 

100 g fresh milled Einkorn

85 g dry Lundberg Wild Blend Rice (~240 g cooked)

20 g dehydrated onions flakes

Time to put cranberries in bread. They actually taste awesome with Feta and toasted sunflower seeds. I got the inspiration from a little French lunch place in my home town. They use this combo in their house salad. Soooo good!

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

Add ins:

150 g dried cranberries

75 g crumbled feta

60 toasted sunflower seeds (I buy raw and toast them in a dry frying pan)

Main dough:

700 g Strong Bakers Unbleached Flour

200 g freshly milled Spelt flour