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Breads

Appetizers/Starters, Breads, Dinner, Lunch, Savory Snacks, Sides

Sourdough Pretzels (Brezn)

Today is National Pretzel Day (this should really fall on the same day as Beer day!) and these are a massive labor of love. Despite being German — and Southern German at that! — I am not a very good pretzel maker. My Opa, the Bäckermeister. wouldn’t be too terribly impressed with my shaping abilities. The dough is great — high protein flour from Kin Arthur is great — and these are sourdough, though if you search my site, you will also find the yeast version. The first batch, the “arms” kept on coming off the sides, so I started tucking them under and that worked better. The pretzel salt (also from KA) kept on falling off the bottom bit when I made the slits, so I put it on the side. Not traditional, but they’ll do.

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26. April 2022
Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Sweet Snacks

Makivnyk – Sourdough Poppy Seed Crescent (маківник)

Back to baking things that are “Ukrainian-inspired” although this could also be Polish, Hungarian, Slovak, Czech, or from the Baltics (did I cover everything?!?) …. this is Makivnyk (маківник): a sweet, poppy seed filled sweet bread, with a dough similar to a cinnamon roll, although not nearly as sweet and cinnamony. It’s often baked as a breakfast bread or something for afternoon tea, and often during celebratory seasons like Christmas or Easter. I’ve sprinkled it with raw sugar, but you can also add coarse pearl sugar or confectioners sugar. I love it because it isn’t overly sweet. The original recipe that I found was yeast-based but I converted to sourdough.

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12. April 2022
Breads

Black Rye Bread

I generally don’t make all rye sourdough breads. I like rye, but my tendency is to mix it with some wheat flour. But for once, I went with all rye. It didn’t rise much, but I should expect that, using different flour types. It’s dense and flavorful and very hearty, very filling. The recipe does call for caraway seeds, but I omitted them, because I really don’t like caraway, and seeing I am the only consumer of this bread, I do have to like it!

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16. March 2022
Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Sandwiches/Paninis, Sides

Whole Wheat Sunflower Seed Sourdough Artisan Bread

It’s Wednesday, so that must mean a new sourdough experiment for the week! Sticking to my “learn about Ukrainian food” theme, this bread is a Whole Wheat Sunflower Seed Sourdough Artisan Bread. The Ukraine produces some of the largest crops of sunflower seeds globally (although with Russian and other Eastern European countries). And the sunflower is also a symbol of peace in the Ukraine. So, this bread is meaningful and economically appropriate. The Ukrainians, I have read, also eat a lot of rye, so that will be next Wednesday’s experiment. In the meantime, this bread is moist, rounded (literally and figuratively), hearty and has good flavor with the sunflower seeds, whole wheat and honey.

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9. March 2022