Here’s another little bread recipe: I realized that I had no bread in the house last night, and I am a “toast for breakfast kind of person”, though I am not an early breakfast eater. That means that this loaf making was perfect as I started my day baking and ended up having a few slices near mid-day. Great all-purpose bread, from breakfast to sandwiches.
Browsing Category
Breads
Appetizers/Starters, Breads, Lunch, Sandwiches/Paninis, Sweet Snacks
Rosemary Olive and Honey Sourdough Focaccia
The issue with baking artisan sourdough bread is that it is delicious. And addictive. And frankly, I could eat this entire loaf of focaccia, if I didn’t have any self-control. It is *that* good. Salty and briny from the olives, sweet from the honey. Hearty. Stop me, before I just gobble this all up. Great as a bread side to dinner, with garlic olive oil as a started or a snack. Sneak a piece when no one is looking. It’s seriously delicious.
Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Sweet Snacks
Sweet Cream + Lemon Brioche-style Danishes
Sweet Cream + Lemon Brioche-style Danishes
(Süße Quarkbrötchen) aka Heidi’s Cheese Buns
This post has a story, and the story is about my mum. You see, we as a family (translation: my mum) have been making these “Cheese Buns” for forever. In fact, back in the day, we has a stand at the Orono (Maine) Town Festival and boy, were these danishes popular. So what are “Cheese Buns”? They are actually what would be called Süße Quarkbrötchen in German: brioche-style sweet, soft buns, with a creamy, lemony filling. In Germany, there is a type of fresh cheese called Quark. Quark is like yogurt, but not, like cream cheese but not. You can find Quark in the U.S. but it is pretty hard to find (check the deli case), so the closest thing you might find in the US, that I have found at least, is “farmer’s cheese” (also available in the deli case, by the artisan cheeses). My mum used to actually make it herself. In this recipe, I use cream cheese mixed with quark, but you can also use a bit of sour cream. Any which way, they are a “family recipe” and one of my favorite childhood things. There are raisins — I know, I know, highly controversial in baked goods — but they are optional so omit them if you are anti-raisin. 🙂
Continuing my sourdough adventures…. I had to give Alice some refreshment, and I really hate to through away perfectly good starter, I decided to make another style of breakfast bread (I already make a terrific Cranberry Walnut Bread!): Müsli Sourdough Breakfast Bread. Toasted Granola and the ever-controversial raisins are the mix-ins this time with some sweet, dark avocado blossom honey. It’s still a little dense, but incredibly moist and phenomenal flavor. I can definitely see this one going into the rotation of breakfast breads.
Some of you may have heard of the slightly strange tradition of naming one’s Sourdough Starter (aka Mother). I have named mine Alice. Alice in Wondoughland, in fact. I’ll just put that in as a teaser as there will be more on Alice as time goes on. Yes, I named a jar of goo after a fictional character. Trust me, I am still sane, even through the pandemic. Or at least mostly as bonkers as I was at the beginning.
Anyway, Alice and her Adventures in Wondoughland produced this lovely Seeded Multigrain Sourdough Loaf. It is very similar to my yeasted multigrain loaf. It turned out positively delicious. I still need to work on the texture a bit, but the flavor was spot on.
PS: Alice has her own FB Page (@AliceInWondoughland) and Instagram (@aliceinwondoughland). I just started them so there isn’t anything up there yet, but feel free to like/follow.