Bauernbrot (Farmer's Bread) - Gini Youngkrantz:
This German Farmer's Bread (Bauernbrot) was made from a recipe in Gini Youngkrantz's Authentic German Home Style Recipes - Fourth Edition (pg. 21). This bread is made from approximately half rye flour (48.8%) and equal amounts of whole wheat flour (25.6%) and AP flour (25.6%), excluding starter. The recipe calls for a cup of active sourdough starter along with yeast in the final dough. Ms. Youngkrantz's recipe produces an excellent German sourdough rye bread very much like the Bauernbrot I remember from Germany.
The recipe calls for "free form" loaves but I used German unlined willow brotforms for the final proofing and placed them on a parchment lined peal and docked them about a dozen times with small 8 inch bamboo skewer slighly larger in diameter than a tooth pick (they held their form nicely) then slid the parchment and loaves onto a baking stone, then a cup of boiling hot water to produce a blast of steam at the onset of the baking cycle. This recipe calls for a slow-bake on low temp. (350 deg. F. for 70 minutes) with steam. Instead, I baked them at 450 deg. F. for the first 10 minutes (to get max. oven spring) then lowered the oven temp. to 350 deg. F. for the remaining time. I checked them at the end of the 70 min. baking cycle and they read 210 deg. internal temp.
Howard - St. Augustine, FL
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I spent the yesterday making a batch of Rouladen. We had it for dinner tonight with some of this bread...it was a great meal.
Howard - St. Augustine, FL
David
Appreciate your kind words. No, the whole wheat taste isn't discernable. It's the rye and carraway that comes through...but the flavor is really nice, not overpowering. With nearly half rye flour and a fourth whole wheat flour it is a fairly substantial bread but really tastes great. Ms. Youngkrantz didn't specify which type starter to use so I used 100% whole wheat sourdough starter and the sourdough starter in this bread is definitely the background music, it's there, but not intrusive.
Howard
My Dad was stationed in Germany for a time..he used to make great rouladen. I've never seen a brotform with a pattern in the bottom? Is that what I'm seeing? I like it!
Betty
Yes, the relief pattern cut into the inside bottom of the brotform is a wheat stalk that transfers to the crust of the loaf when the loaf is turned out of the brotform and onto the stone and baked. Nice touch by the artisan who made the form. I have 2 brotforms, which came from Germany that I have had for years. I had been looking for a Bavarian bread recipe to use them and was thumbing through the German cookbook and came on Bauernbrot and decided to give it try.
The rouladen turned out great. I used the Time-Life cookbook recipe. It's a real winner. My landlady in Bamberg made the absolute best potato dumplings (kartoffelklosse), large, plump and fluffy with a cube of dried dark rye in the center to absorb the moisture of the dumplings as they cooked. She told me it kept them from becoming gummy. I have been trying for years to make good dumplings and am still at it. It's sort of like the baguette challenge. She showed me how to make them once, but she didn't use a recipe she made them from memory and she just mixed a handful of this and a pinch of that until they looked and felt right. Anyway, I copied Mini Oven's recipe and I'll try her recipe next time I make sauerbraten.
Where did you live when your father was stationed there? I was stationed in Bamberg and Kitzingen, Germany when I was in the army. Then ended up back in Dusseldorf for a few years when I managed the an American software company. They had great bakers in Germany, especially Bavaria, in those days. I presume they still bake great breads there.
How did the raspberry and grape harvest go? Do you freeze the raspberries? You are very fortunate to be able to have fresh figs, raspberries and grapes. Thanks again for the fig jam recipe. We're really enjoying it.
Howard - St. Augustine, FL
Sorry it took so long for me to respond. I went home to Connecticut for a short visit. Took my west coast husband on a whirlwind tour, NYC, The Big E, Mark Twain's house and finally, finally some great pizza, grinders and Chinese food! It's been too long, boy do I miss it!
My Dad was stationed in Augsburg, Germany for 4 years. I was back in the states though.
As for the raspberries and grapes, well mmmmm they tasted good! We ate'em all! I have frozen lots of blueberries and marionberries. We'll be picking more grapes this weekend, although the concords are quite ready yet.
Well, I have baking withdrawal, not having baked in 2 weeks. I did make a brioche, which was awesome. Way too good to eat with any frequency! I may take on Hamelmans 40% Rye..so many choices on my to bake list!
No question about it, there's a major difference between the West and East Coasts. Sounds like you and your husband had a great trip...and some terrific fun food.
I was stationed in Bamberg and Kitzingen. I've been to Augsburg. It's between Nurnberg and the Austrian border, in southern Germany---such beautiful country.
Glad all went well with the berries and grape harvest. Just got back this afternoon, from a week away. As soon as we got unpacked I started refreshing and building the whole wheat sourdough starter in hope of baking in a couple of days. My wife and I took a few days and went of the Silver River State Park. I started reading Reinhart's Whole Grain Bread book while I was there and found it very interesting, his personal story, as well as the recipes for whole grain breads. Anyway, I'm hopeful that I'll be able to give one of his recipes from the whole grain book a try sometime around mid-week.
Howard
I'm afraid they are not big juice absorbers, but you can try and see. I prefer bread dumplings with braten or flour/potato dumplings (f to p is 5 to 1 no egg).
Mini O
In your post you ref. (f to p is 5 to 1 no egg), did you mean 5 parts potato to 1 part flour or vice versa? Incidentally, I've had problems with the dumplings breaking up during simmering without egg in the mixture to bind them. I've never been able to make what I consider a really good, fluffy potato dumpling. I looked at Gini Youngkrantz's book and she has a recipe that that calls for 2 1/2 lbs. pototoes, 1/3 cup flour and an egg. Any thoughts?
Howard
First tell me what you want in a dumpling? There are many kinds...
Yes, that was about 5 parts flour to 1 part potato but that is for a flour dumpling. There are also recipes for half cooked and half raw potatoes. How does she handle the potato in her recipe? The kind of potato also makes a difference.
Right off, I'd say too little flour and too many potatoes. There is also a way of handling dumpling recipes, and the method for mixing. I had the bennefit of seeing it done first. The principle is that the potato is not mashed into the recipe but potato crumbs are coated with a mixture to hold them together. They should not be aggressively stirred but fluffed up bringing the bottom ingredients to the top...if that makes any sense.
The crumbs are then grouped together and hands press the crumbs into a ball shape to boil. Sometimes letting the dumplings stand to develop a "skin" can help. Boil one first, if it falls apart, break up the formed dumplings and add more flour or take a long lenth of micro wave plastic foil and lay your dumplings all down the center with a few inches between, roll up the foil and twist tight between each to seal in and boil the whole chain of dumplings in water until done (that usually means foaming and dumplings all swimming on top.)
And old rule of thumb for dumplings is, if it breaks up in boiling, add more flour.
Mini
OK, here's what I think I'm looking for in the way of a dumpling. The one's my landlady, Marie, made were large (about 2 1/2'' to 2 3/4" in diameter, fairly light and soft with a 1/2 inch square of dried, dark bread in the center to absorb the moisture as it cooked. I watched her make them and she didn't really measure anything but I think she used cooked potatoes that had been put thorough a ricer and mixed with flour and she added egg to the mixture. I'm looking for dumplings I can serve with sauerbraten that stay in one piece through the 20-25 minutes of simmering in the hot water.
In Ms. Youngkrantz's recipe she uses 1 1/2 lbs boiled potatoes, peeled, mashed and cooled overnight. Next day she peels and finely grates an additional 1 lb of potatoes into a bowl of cold water. Ms. Youngkrantz doesn't mention any particular type potato, but I do remember the potatoes in Germany had a different texture than the red new potatos or the ordinary white potatoes we get here. Then she drains the water off the grated potatoes through a sieve/strainer, presses the excess liquid out and mixes the grated potatoes with the cooled, cooked mashed potatoes along with 1 beaten egg and 1/3 cup flour and 1 tsp. salt. She says to add a little milk if the mixture is too dry (whatever that means). She then shapes them into dumpling balls "the size of your fist", I'm thinking 2 1/2' to 2 3/4". Then she simmers them for 20-25 minutes. Any thoughts on her method, or one you could suggest, would be greatly appreciated.
Howard
Use Baking potatoes. Boil in the skins. Peel and press thru a ricer when they are still warm, then let them cool. The grated raw potatoes in water should be gently soaked and lifted out of the water, pressed (using your hands or twisted in a very clean cloth) to remove any water and the starch in the water should be saved. Allow it to settle and slowly pour off water until only starch remains, this should be added back to the dumpling mixture and rest of ingredients added. I like the addition a just a touch of nutmeg.
For boiling, I find a wide shallow pot to work the best, like a dutch oven so that they boil in one layer. There should be enough salted water to cover the dumplings and enough headway so that when they start to foam, the pot doesn't boil over. I leave the lid half open or propped up on a wooden spoon across the pot. A closed pot always boils over. Like I have said before, put one test dumpling in the water and see what it does. You can easily bury a dark cube of bread in this mixture. If you have a covered caserole with a platform in the bottom, this works very well for keeping the cooked dumplings hot but not soggy.
Left over dumplings can be served and sliced like bread with cold cuts (mini format) or thin sliced and pan roasted with onions and/or additional parsley, celery, ham or cheese and eggs makes a good hardy meal served up with green salad.
Mini O
Mini,
This is a random notion, triggered by your mention of a way to keep the dumplings warm: could one cook the dumplings in a steamer, rather than boiling them?
My only experience with dumplings is with chicken and dumplings, where balls of dough similar to biscuit dough are floated on top of the boiling stock until cooked. Consequently, I don't know if steaming would work for the potato dumplings that Howard wants to replicate, or for the ones with which I am familiar. If it worked (as it does with Chinese-style dumplings), it might avoid some of the problems with the dumplings falling apart when they are immersed in the boiling liquid.
Your thoughts?
Paul
Good thinking Paul! I think it would work equally, maybe even better. With some other types of dumplings, their own weight might make them flat or flat sided whereas boiling keeps them round. It might depend on the dumpling itself. There are also some made like fritters, boiled in hot oil and then plunged into cold water...they are made chiefly with bread crumbs, tend to be smaller and served in soup. The larger dumplings are served with juices from the roast. A very large dumpling made from bread cubes can be the size of a loaf of bread, boiled in a cloth, and then sliced like bread and covered with sauce.
Personally I think of all of them as "left over" recipes...ways to used left over bread, cooked potatoes, crumbs, cubes, or "stretch" recipes to freshen the ingredients and feed more than were originally planned. One can easily turn 3 potatoes into hardy flour dumplings for 8.
Mini O
Great Instructions! Really appreciate you taking the time to explain the process, especially saving the starch and introducing it back into the dumpling mixture. I'll copy these instructions and put them in the file with the previous intructions you posted for the apricot filled dumplings.
Again, thanks so much.
Howard