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Archive for the ‘Bread’ Category

Berliner – German Carnival cakes (Doughnut without a hole)

16 Mar

Ha ha!. One of my long awaited recipes in my list and finally, its time to be out during this Carnival Season. During February and March Carnival is celebrated in Europe. Berliner is the most popular theme food during Carnival Season. Neverthless, it has its unique place in every bakery and it is a common selling thing. Like Bretzel, Berliner is a favorite of  many children.  Berliner is a soft , puffy fried doughnut, filled with Jam or Jelly. It is also called Krapfen or Pfannkuchen (pancakes) and has different names in other parts of Germany.

 Until few months before, I was not aware that this is a fried bread because, it is so soft and spongy and one can not find any traces of oil in it . The most interesting part of the bread is the stuffed jam. Every time I tasted the Berliner, I liked the soft jelly jam in it. I was wondering what was the jam inside as it always reminded me of the “Kissan mixed fruit jam” from India. One fine day, I asked the baker near by, it was revealed to me that it is Himbeere Johannisbeer Gelee(Raspberry and Redcurrant Jelly). The next 5th minute, I got that from supermarket . The procedure is to make bread dough into small balls and allow them to rest till it gets double the size. Once it got that consistency, its fried in the oil on both sides. An important note is that the oil in pan should be just enough to fry only one half of the doughnut. This leaves an yellow ring in the middle, which looks nice. The doughnut floats on top of oil when it is being cooked. Also it doesnt need that much oil like poori or so.  Heat should be kept low as it turns dark when overheated.  After which small amount of jam or jelly is squirted inside the bread using a filler. Finally some powdered sugar is sifted on top of it. Though it is special in carnival season, it is available throughout the year in Bakery.

Ingredients:

  1. All purpose flour – 4 cups
  2. Egg – 2
  3. Butter – 50gms at room temparature
  4. Sugar – 1/2 cup
  5. Milk - 1 /2 cup , lukewarm
  6. Yeast – 25 gms (dry yeast)
  7. Powdered sugar for sifting on top of bread
  8. Jelly or jam to stuff the bread
  9. flour for dusting
  10. Oil – 1/2 ltr

Method:

1.  Mix flour, eggs, butter, sugar, yeast and add the milk slowly and combine this mixture with the spatula in to smooth dough consistency and knead it.

2. Allow it to sit in a warm place until it raises its volume .

3. Now again knead the dough and make in to small balls of 12 to 15 numbers. Place the balls on well flour dusted kitchen towel or baking sheet or non stick plate.

4. Cover it with a kitchen towel and allow it to raise to double its size.

5. Bring the oil to heat and the oil should not go to high heat at any point.

6.Carefully lift the berliner balls using a flat spatulla and place it in oil. Allow it to cook for 3-4 minutes on both sides.

7. Remove from oil and place it in paper towel. Now carefully squirt about 2 tbs of  jelly on the side of the bread.

8. Finally sift the powdered sugar and enjoy.

 
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Posted in Bread, others

 

Poori & Potato Masala ( Deep fried Indian Bread & Potato Masala)

23 May

Poori is a common breakfast item available in all south Indian Restaurants. The apt side dish that goes very well with this is potato masala. However poori can be had with other sides dishes such a tomato kurma, chicken gravies and so on.  This is one of our favorite saturday’s breakfast. I usually make it little more quantity, as we have it as evening time snack with Jam.

Poori can be made with All purpose flour or Whole wheat flour. Both of the them tastes good. If you are a poori lover and try to make some enjoyable experiments, try with both of these flours. I sometimes combine both these flours and make it. It also tastes good. The following recipe is made with all purpose flour.

Ingredients for Poori:

  1. All purpose flour – 2 cups
  2. Semolina – 2 Tbs
  3. Water – 3/4 to 1 cup
  4. Oil – 250 ml
  5. Salt for taste.

Method for Poori:

1. Mix the flour, semolina, salt and water to make a soft dough.

2. Make the dough in to small balls and roll it with a rolling pin.

3. Heat the oil in deep pan and then slowly slide the rolled dough in to oil.  Deep fry for 3- 4 minutes by turning both the sides gently.

Ingredients for Potato Masala:

  1. Potato – 200 gms, boiled peeled and cut in to small pieces
  2. Onion – 1, finely chopped
  3. Green chilli – 3, slit in middle
  4. Ginger – 1 Tsp , finely chopped
  5. Oil – 1 Tsp
  6. Mustard – 1/2 tsp
  7. Aniseed – 1 tsp
  8. Chenna dhal – 2 tsp
  9. Urad dhal – 2 tsp
  10. Curry leaves – 1 strand
  11. Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
  12. Salt for taste

Method for Potato Masala:

1. Add oil in a pan and add Mustard and wait to crackle and then add urad dhal, chennal dhal and fry for 2 minutes in medium flame.

2. Add aniseed, ginger, green chilli, turmeric and then Onion and fry till onion is translucent.

3. Add the boiled potatoes, salt and a cup of water and let it cook for 1o minutes in a slow heat.

4. Finally add the curry leaves and serve it with poori.

Tip : To get a puffy poori’s  roll them in such a way that the thickness of the rolled dough should be same in all over the rolled area. Adding semolina will help in getting the crispness .

More tips welcome!!!

 
17 Comments

Posted in Bread, Breakfast

 

HefeZopf / Challah / Braided Sweet Bread

20 May


When my daughter is back from her Kindergarten we used to share the happenings of the day. I used to ask her  about the day and how she did enjoy and what activities she did?. This is usual mothers bothering about child. The conversation starts with morning breakfast. She takes her breakfast most of the days in Kindergarten, as she enjoys having it with her friends. The Kindergarten provides a little Buffet Breakfast with fresh fruits, Müsili, Corn flakes, Fruits and some Breads. She says that she likes Sußen Bread mit Frisch Käse ( Sweet Bread with fresh cream cheese). Being Curious just peeped inside the Breakfast table and the teacher showed this HefeZopf (direct translation- yeast plait). After that bought several times from German bakeries.

Googled and came to know that it is also called Challah. Wiki has a long story about this in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challah

I tried to get more sections in the bread. So went for 6 strands, but used my own way of braiding. Nevertheless the texture and taste was mostly equal to the store bought one. Got a word from my daughter, she said it tastes and smells like shop one.

Ingredients:

  1. All purpose flour – 500 gm
  2. Butter – 50 gm in room temperature
  3. Egg – 2
  4. Sugar – 100 gms
  5. Salt – 1 tbs
  6. Milk – 150ml , warm
  7. Water – 50 ml , warm
  8. Yeast – 25 gms
  9. Raisins – 50 gms
  10. Almonds – 50 gms , chopped
  11. Egg – 1 for final touching

Method:

1. Mix yeast, warm water , 1 tbs of sugar, 1/2 tsp salt to a bowl and keep it a warm place for 15 minutes.

2. Mix the flour, eggs, sugar, milk, raisins and yeast mix together in a vessel to make a smooth dough.

3. Cover the vessel and dough with the kitchen towel and keep warm place. Let it sit for 2 hours or until it becomes more than double the size. ( I used the dough after 5 hours, as I had other work to do when the dough was ready)

4. Knead the dough and divide in to 6 equal parts. ( The divisions in the bread depend upon how many strands and a good braiding)

5.  Take each part and make it like strands using both your hands in the work place. Do it for all 6 parts.

6. Start braiding. This is what I did to get this shape .(Join all the strands together in one corner. Take the rightmost bring it to 3rd position from left. Take the leftmost and bring to 3rd position from right. Continue till end.)

7. Rest the braided dough for 1 hour in a warm place to raise for the second time.

8. Now beat the 1 egg in a small bowl and using pastry brush, do the egg wash for the braid and sprinkle the almonds on top. It will stick on egg coat.

9. Preheat the oven to 180 C and bake it for 25 minutes. After that take it out of oven and cool it.

TIP: 1. Tastes awesome with  spreaded cream cheese.

2. As far as I know, 2 types of all purpose flour is available in Germany, type 405 and 550 . I used flour type 550, the other did not give me better results. But for other bread recipes 405 suits good.

 
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Posted in Bread