Apple, vanilla and cinnamon cookies

I love to eat freshly baked and still warm bread, pancakes, brioche or whatever for breakfast, but it is unfortunately not possible every morning. So sometimes I bake in the evening so that we have something ready in the morning. And for that tarts, cakes and cookies are the best. I love the classic mix apple-vanilla-cinnamon, so i made some kind of thick cookies with fresh apples on top for our breakfast. The trick is to have them not too sweet for breakfast, so I mixed the flour with oat bran and just a little of sugar and a little of butter, I added one egg and a little of baking powder, plenty of cinnamon powder and vanilla beans. I then roll the dough to 3mm thick and cut the shapes of the cookies. I peeled the apples and cut the shape too a little smaller and topped the cookies with it. Baked them at 170deg for 20min. And added a little of vanilla on top. Simple and perfect anytime of the day actually!

March 23, 2016

Brioches

With the temperature increasing slightly it’s becoming much easier for me to make breads. Normal people living in normal houses don’t have this kind of problem of course, but if your house is a Japanese traditional old house made roughthly of paper, that matters! Now I can knead and I know the result is gonna be nice, so it was high time for a brioche. Usually I cook them in a rectangular pie dish, but this time I wanted them round and golden all over, so I made them smaller and round.

kneading brioche requires a bit more time than bread and your hands get really nasty, but it’s too delicious!!! So for 6 of these beauties, you need, 250g of hard white flour; 40g of brown caster sugar; 6g of salt; 10g of sourdough; 7g of yeast; 3eggs; 120g of butter at room temperature; vanilla. Mix all the dry ingredients, add the eggs and finish with the butter. Knead until smooth and soft. It can take more than 30min. Then keep in a warm place until it has taken a bit of volume (it does not double or whatsoever). Then keep refrigirated for about an hour. On cooking paper, cut in 6, and shape the brioches the way you want; wait an extra 2h; you can then use an egg yolk for a golden finish, and bake at 170 for 25min.

March 8, 2016

Little breads for breakfast

There is nothing as such as a good breakfast, prepared just in time and served just when it’s done. In particular, I can’t help but love bread that is just out from the oven, with a good cup of a hot drink and a fresh fruit (from the garden any time it’s possible). It makes the perfect start. Of course baking requires a bit of organization and time but in the end it’s not so difficult and incomparable with anything else you can buy the day before!

As you may have noticed I bske pretty much anything. Even if I am not master in making croissants yet and naad to work on that, I start to be pretty confident on making rye and whole wheat breads. So here is an other variation of the basic recipe, where I mixed 250g of flour: half rye and half whole wheat flours, 120g of water, 14g of sourdough, 3g of yeast, 6g of salt, knead until soft and smooth, then added dry raisins and chocolate chips in part of the dough only. Waited until it has almost doubled, then shaped it and leave all night in a cool place. Before going to bed I scedule a delayed start of the oven so that In the morning I just have to bake them for 10-12min and breakfast is ready!!! Have a nice weekend!

March 5, 2016

Cinnamon buns

Last weekend, to change a bit from French bread and pastries I decided to try a recipe from my new Nordic cookbook and tried some cinnamon buns. As a first try, I didn’t know exactly what it would look like but I found the quantities quite unbalanced and in particular too much yeast, so I deliberately changed them. That plus the poor temperature control in the house in winters led to delicious but rather dense buns. So this time I decided to make it differently and to put a little less butter and more yeast and got a pretty decent result saying that for the second rise I let the dough out in the kitchen all night, where the temperature is anout 17deg when we’re up and it drops to 7deg by the time we wake up.

The process is actually simple. The ingredients for about 8 buns are the following: 250g of flour (hard flour for bread); 80ml of milk (I used soya milk because that’s what I had); 40g of butter + 40g at room temperature; 40g of sugar + 20g (I personally use only brown suger); 1 egg; 5g of salt; 6g of natural dry yeast; a few cardamom pods (I love the taste it gives to the buns, but it’s optional); cinnamon powder.

In a small pan heat the milk, the cardamom and the first 40g of butter, until the butter as melted. Add the 40g of sugar. Stir well. In a bowl add the flour, the yeast, the salt , the egg. Stir well. Add the mix from the pan and knead until smooth, and shiny. Let rise under a wet clothe until the dough is about twice bigger. If, like me the room temperature is low it takes quite some time. Once it has risen, move the dough on a sheet of cooking paper and roll the dought softly into a flat rectangle of a little less than 1cm high. With a spatula spread the butter at room temperature in a thin layer over the dough (on the long side of the dough leave a few cm without butter to close the rolls, then sprinkle cinnamon and the rest of the sugar on top of the butter. Roll the dough along the long edge starting from where the butter is, finishing where there is none, to for a long log. Then cut the buns and wait for the second rise (probably 1h). Heat the oven at 200deg. Move the buns in paper cases (I didn’t the first time and all the good filling went away instead of soaking into the bun, a pity!), add a egg wash if you fancy (I don’t) and bake for 12 to 15min. Just out from the oven is for me the best way to enjoy them!!

January 24, 2016

First bread of the year

When we left Japan in December it was still the end of autumn, in our garden the Japanese mapple trees were all red, the gingko had just lost all its leaves, the camelias were starting to bloom. 15 days later, the mapple leaves have all fallen, at first sight only the camelias haven’t changed, but with a closer look, the daffodils are blooming, the magnolias and the plum trees are full of buds already big, and the garden is metamorphosing slowly towards spring. From now on it’s going to be the coldest days, but the garden needs a lot of attention to get ready for spring: tree treaming, weed removing, cutting, grooming, planting… So we spend a lot of time outside in the cold, and there’s nothing better to start such days with a warm energizing rustic bread for breakfast. My recipe is simple: 50g of rye flour, 200g of white flour, 170g of water, 14g of sordough, 4g of natural dry yeast, 6g of salt. 20min cooking at 230deg, plus 5min in the oven cooling down. Perfect with jam, honey, butter or whatever pleases you!!!

January 2, 2016

Baking bread again!

I’ve the impression that I haven’t baked bread too often recently, and I was happy to kneal again this weekend. Because I wanted both a bread for breakfast and to accompany our lunch I decided to prepare a half-half rye-white flour. I ise now a pretty simple and standard procedure for my bread: 250g of flour (whatever you like or mix), 14g of dry sourdough, 3g of natural yeast, 6g of salt, 150g of water. Though my bread don’t have giant bubbles forming, probably of a too low temperature, I love them for the delicious taste, the crunchy and soft combination, and the smell in the house!

December 13, 2015

Sesame fougasse

Oil base breads are probably what I am best at and what I enjoy the most to knead. After I’ve through the classis foccacia, fougasses etc, I wanted to invent my own recipes. My first one is a sesame fougasse. I used 250g of flour, 120g of water, 14g of sordough, 3g of dry natural yeast, 50g of sesame (grilled and soaked in water), 5g of salt, 10g of sesame oil, 10g of olive oil. I proceed exctly as for regular fougasse. And once baked I applied sesame oil instead of olive oil. Delicious with pretty much anything, sesame suits well cheese like brie, and salads.

November 23, 2015

Wholewheat and seeds bread

As I told you, I back on baking breads and I am verry happy with the results I am obtaining, so I just don’t follow any tecipe anymore and use my experience from all the bread I baked to create my own recipes, and I have plenty in mind!!! This time it’s more a classic since it is a wholewheat bread with a mix of seeds: sunflower, pumpkin, barley… And this time I did it properly with grilled the seeds and then rehydrate them in water. A simple and delicious bread, easy to use anytime.

November 19, 2015

Orange and chocolate sweet bread

For a rainy morning there is nothing better than a hot sweet bread just out of the oven. It’s been some time since I haven’t baked, but this rainy weekend was just the perfect moment to start again and go with some new originsl recipes. I also bought some new sourdough and natural yeast and I’m really happy with the result.

So for this first bread I wanted something sweet and fruity for breakfast so I used candied orange peels (recipe tomorrow!) and dark chocolate chips. For one bread I used 170g of whole wheat flour, 110g of water, 3g of natural yeast, 8g of dry sordough, 4g of salt, 40g of brown caster sugar, half a cup of candied orange peel and one table spoon of dark chocolate chips. I kneaded well until soft and smooth, then let it prove for 5hours (temperature is not really high in the house now). I then made two long sticks that I rolled together, I wanted to make breeds with it but reslized that 3 sticks wouldn’t be good. Then it prove the rest of the night and I baked it jn the morning, 10min at 230deg, then 20min at 210deg. I like to eat bread right out from the oven, so we had our breakfast right away.

And you know what?! The Parisian sister is back on tracks! Yeah!

November 16, 2015