Germany on my mind today as I watch with grave concern the flooding and devastation. It’s not the region of Germany where I have a lot of family (though my father’s side is closer, mother’s side is from the south — and not to worry, all family and friends are accounted for and well). And, I had to feed the sourdough starter and was feeling particularly German, so I made this Mandel-Rosienenzopf. Roughly, it’s a Challah style bread, most commonly called a Hefezopf of Hefekranz, but seeing I wasn’t using Hefe (yeast), I couldn’t very well call it either of that, so I went with Raisin and Almond Challah. It’s light and got a bit of a chew on the inside and is very flavorful. It reminds me of my Oma, who used to dunk it in her milk coffee.
breads
Mandel-Rosinenzopf (Saurteig) /
I’ve been meaning to make sourdough baguette for a while, but it is a little more involved than some of the other loaves that I make, so I’ve been putting it off. Today is the day though and I am very pleased with the result. Crunchy on the outside, light and just a bit chewy on the inside. They are slightly misshapen, but not dramatically so. Also, my oven isn’t quite long enough to make a full meter long baguette. C’est la vie. 🙂
Originally, I was going to call this “Sprinkles and Twist” Focaccia, as I had found some mini mini cherry tomatoes that are marketed as “Sprinkles” and when I had decorated the top of the focaccia with them, it was sort of a twisty pattern. Once baked, however, the “twist” part wasn’t as evident, so I am just going with Sprinkles Tomato + Garlic Focaccia. Lots of garlic, lots of both sun dried and cherry tomatoes. Basil from the garden. Perfect snack and accompaniment to Italian Food. Yummy.
I know that I am going to step into the land of controversy with this week’s bread. There are camps on both sides, with strong, heartfelt opinions. Very few foods elicit such strong opinions (maybe Brussels Sprouts) as much as this: raisins in cinnamon swirl bread (well, raisins in anything, really). I love raisin, and as such, yes, this Cinnamon Raisin Squirrely Bread does indeed have raisins in it. Lots of them, in fact. Don’t like raisins, leave ’em out. No harm done. 🙂
PS: auto-spell check “corrected” swirl to squirrel so I went with Squirrely Bread instead of Swirly Bread. Seemed funny enough.