Baking tool:

• a non-stick cake tin
• about 25x11x7,5 cm,
• greased with butter

 

Dough (makes one loaf):

• 250 g wholemeal rye flour
• 250 g strong white bread flour (protein about 13,3 %)
• 7 g easy-blend/easy-bake dried yeast
• 75 ml black treacle
• 350 ml warm water
• 6 g salt dissolved in 50 ml warm water

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Everything is beautiful in the wooden kitchen-diner of my Swedish friend Solvi Mettinger. I admire the rail from which fine China teacups are hanging, the waving lace curtains, the gorgeous wall decoration made of cords and wooden beads. All her own work. But the showpiece is the substantial pair of antique scales, which she uses for the preparation of the rich pastry collection we are enjoying. “This is a present from my father-in-law Allan. He became a baker in Helsinborg when his farm had burnt down. My mother-in-law was a baker’s daughter and she had always kept the traditional recipes carefully. These were just what they needed. I still have one of his bread recipes.” And she walks to the cookbook shelf, where she keeps more handwritten than printed recipes, for Solvi is a real queen of the kitchen, just for fun. Her explanation is a piece of luck. Recipes for daily bread are rarely written out. They are passed on from generation to generation through manual demonstration, accompanied by oral comments. So it is my good fortune that Solvi is willing  to share Allan’s written recipe with me. A stunning bread that  does not need kneading.

Baking tool:

• dark loaf tin 30x10x8m,
• carefully greased with butter

 

Dough (makes one loaf):

 

Starter:

• 50 g extra strong wholemeal flour
• 7 g easy-blend/easy bake dried yeast
• 75 ml luke warm water

 

Dough:

• 500 g extra strong wholemeal flour
• (plus extra for dusting)
• 1 tablespoon dark brown muscovado sugar
• about 350 ml luke warm water
• 1 teaspoon barley malt syrup (health shop)
• 8 g salt

 

Filling:

• 50 ml liquid honey
• 50 g soft unsalted butter
• 200 g dried Turkish apricots,
• ‘ready to eat’, minced
• 1 level tablespoon flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

On top:

• honey

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

From the Far West of the United States: 100 % wholewheat apricot bread. Michael Pollan, the modern advocate of  ‘Real Food’, is by no means the first American who is concerned with food-ethics. A famous predecessor was pastor Syvester Graham. He lived convinced that food treated with chemical products, particularly white flour, led to unbridled sexual behaviour. He thought the same of meat and alcohol. He was succesful.  So much that demonstrating bakers and butchers stopped him when he wanted to give a lecture about his food reformation in Boston in 1837. That reformation did not succeed totally, but in America the special graham flour is for sale until this day and breads such as the apricot bread are still baked. It has to be said: this is the real taste of wheat!

Baking material:

• baking tray
• covered with baking parchment

 

Dough (makes two pieces):

• 500 g strong white flour
• 1 sachet easy-blend/easy-bake dried yeast
• 250-300 ml lukewarm water
• 50 ml olive oil
• 1 tsp. salt (4 g)

 

To finish:

• 2 tbsp. melted butter
• 2 tbsp. sesame seeds

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

During the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadineyad (2005-2013) book censorship increased enormously in Iran: no foreign novels, but educational theological titles and oddly enough: ‘How do I cook healthy for my family’. Theological and cookery books can have a lot in common! The Iranian philosopher al-Ghazzali, for example, wrote the Revival of the Religious Sciences (11th century) in ‘the Language of the Angels’ (= Arabic). That work contains a still popular part about table manners ‘because’, he wrote, ‘food belongs to the religious matters’. No wonder cookery books passed the Iranian censorship: according to the folk tale of Mulla Nasrudin they love recipes. He was on his way home with a piece of liver in one hand and in the other a recipe a friend had given him. Suddenly a crow flew off with the liver. “Fathead”, he shouted, “You may have the liver, but I still have the recipe”!

Nan-e barbari (from ‘barbarian’Afghans on the Eastern border) is eaten for breakfast with fresh cheese, sweet omelette, jam. In cold regions with roasted lamb or veal livers (Jigarak) with oil, pepper and parsley: a barbecue. This includes pickles and shabzi-khordan: radishes, watercress, tarragon, mint, yogurt, plus roasted Halloumi cheese on skewers with pieces of spring onion.

The Iraqi sesame bread Sammoen looks exactly like this Nan-e-barbari, as does the Turkish pideh, an oval flat bread with sesame seeds on top. You can find it in Lebanon and Jordan under the name choebz frensi (French bread). In fact, it is a practical version of the ordinary daily bread for people who have an oven, but do not much time. The shaping is done in an instant. A tasty alternative for baguettes. Even if not baked in a wood-fired oven.

Baking material:

• baking tray lined with
• baking parchment

 

Almond paste :

• 100 g finely ground almonds
• 100 g fine granulated sugar
• pinch of grated lemon zest
• small drop of almond oil
• 1 beaten egg

 

Dough:

• 500 g wheat flour for bread
• 50 g white caster sugar
• 10 g instant yeast
• 50 g soft butter
• 1 egg yolk
• 275 ml lukewarm milk
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• pinch pulverized saffron
• 1 drop of bitter almond oil
• 2 teaspoons salt (8 g)

 

Filling:

• 100 g brown raisins
• 100 g currants
• 50 g coarsely ground, roasted almonds
• 25 g candied orange peel, chopped
• 25 g citron, chopped
• 1 tbsp flour
• 50 g red glazed cherries, cut in half
• 50 g green glazed cherries, cut in half

 

On top:

• butter, powdered sugar

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

They are of German origin, the loaves that you will see in every Dutch supermarket in December. Saxon Christmas stollen are already mentioned in 1329. Bishop Heinrich I von Grünberg bestowed the baker’s guild of his city all kinds of rights on condition that they would deliver him and his successors every year at Christmas Stollen. In Dresden in the seventeenth century, stollen was offered annually to the Elector of Saxony on Boxing Day. These stollen were 1½ meters long, weighed 36 pounds and were cut into 36 pieces for distribution. Hence the word Stolle, which means “clog, lump”. It was originally a piece of a what is called krintenwegge in the Nether Saxon Dutch dialect, a gift when a child was born. Wegge-  or Wiegebrood (cradle bread)  was the old Dutch name.

The Dresden Christmas stollen became so famous that they conquered the whole world. Soon the bakers in Dresden decided to bake them in a somewhat more convenient format so that they could be sent everywhere. It is thought that the surface of the Dresdner Weihnachtstolle covered with glaze is intended as a reminder of the Christ Child wound in cloth.

Here my own homely recipe that got better and better over the years.

Baking material:

• baking tray
• lined with baking parchment

 

Dough:

• 350 g strong wholemeal bread flour
• 150 g strong white bread flour
• 1 sachet easy-bake / easy-blend dried yeast
• about 350 ml lukewarm water
• 1 tbsp. muscovado sugar
• 50 g soft butter
• 2 tsp. salt (8 g)
• flour for the work surface
• butter for dough bowl
• 1 egg yolk, beaten with 2 tsp. milk
• sesame seeds or poppy seeds

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

A very simple bread. A happy solution when bread was sold out due the pandemic. My daughter in England who likes baking was glad to have the recipe: she took the accompanying picture. It is also to be seen on the picture of  Funfair soup.

Why is it called ‘farmhouse loaf’ (Boerenbol)? In most Dutch countryside villages there was no bakery. Therefore farmer’s wives had to bake their own bread. One of them was my grandmother in Guelderland. With this in view a special bakhuisje (little baking house) was built at most farmsteads.  Not very elaborate, just practical without much equipment: for a round loaf one did not need a tin.

I can still recall how granny sliced the bread holding it in the hook of her arm against her bosom. Formerly it was not sprinkled with sesame seeds, that was a luxury unknown in the Netherlands until the sixties of last century when the Dutch culinary art was awakening. Only poppy-seed was popular, due to the Jewish kitchen.

Baking tool:

• a (fluted) loose-based baking tin,
• top 28 cm /underside 26 cm /rim 2,5 cm,
• greased with butter

 

Batter (makes one round loaf):

• 175 g barley meal (health food shop)
• 150 g quick cooking pearl barley
• 500 ml buttermilk
• 1 ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 4 g salt

On top:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Our culture is still quite young, and Finland has not been affluent. In wintertime outdoor temperature can be  minus 40 degrees Celsius. So you can imagine that the first thing earlier generations were interested in was how to survive! How the food tasted was a secondary issue. Nowadays we Fins can afford a youthful enthusiasm for our own traditional dishes and local specialties. We got an eye for our clean and pure environment and are proud to present our landscape to foreign visitors.

 

This was what famous chef Sami Hiltunen wrote to me when I asked him to describe the cuisine of his country. That those traditional dishes are absolutely worth while is proven by this flat barley bread Ohrarieska. According to the Fins a meal without bread is no meal. ‘Better bread than gold’ as the phrase goes. And so they developed original loaves from cold-resitant grains such as rye and barley. When these were not available they baked for ‘a rosy complexion’ even bread from pine meal (white inner bark of pine trees). The extremely healthy rye bread – Sami called it the Finnish insurance against hard times – had a hole in the middle and was hanged on the ceiling  of the kitchen to dry, where it became pretty hard. His sisters and he lost their milk teeth while eating it. The barley bead Ohrarieska from a region near the polar circle is somewhat softer. Sometimes the batter is spread on cabbage leaves before baking or small pieces of smoked  bacon or ham are added. The warm brown clour is due to the reaction of bicarbonate of soda with buttermilk, an invention in itself.

Baking tool:

• 40×35 cm baking tray,
• lined with reusable black baking foil

 

Dough (makes four breads):

• 250 g strong white bread flour
• 2,5 g easy-blend/easy-bake dried yeast
• about 75 ml luke warm milk
• 100 g boiled potatoes
• 75 g soft unsalted butter
• 2 g salt

On top:

• crème fraîche
• molten butter
• salt
• caraway seeds

 

Asparagus:

• 2 kg white asparagus
• 20 g salt
• dots of butter

Garnish:

• 250 g smoked  goose breast
• (or chicken breast)
• bunch of radishes
• chervil

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Dätscher is the name of these flatbreads in the German wine and vegetable- region Franken (North Bavaria). These Bavarian Franks are widely known as enormous enthusiasts of food and particularly drink. So much that even those who are not fluent in Latin understand that the church bells always are ringing ‘Vinum bonum’ – good wine..

Dätscher are often served at a wine tasting party but go very wel with Spargel auf fränkische Art, which you can easily look upon as a tasting party when you serve them with a glass of Sylvaner.

Baking tool:

• 40×35 cm baking tray,
• lined with non stick baking paper

 

Tangzhong:

• 25 g strong white bread flour, protein 12,2 % – Tesco 12,6 % seems best
• plus some flour for dusting
• 125 ml water

 

Dough (makes twelve buns):

• 375 strong white bread flour
• 25 g caster sugar
• 7 g easy-blend/easy-bake dried yeast
• 125 ml luke warm milk
• 1 egg white
• 25 g soft unsalted butter
• 4 g salt 

On top:

• 1 egg yolk

 

Bean paste:

• 500 ml can azuki beans (health shop)
• 100-200 g caster sugar

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

They were in Tokyo, my son and an English collegue and they stayed in a traditional hotel: paper walls, go splishy splashy in a deep barrel together, fine dining at a low table.

The Englishman could stand everything but that breakfast of miso soup with tofu, kelp and pieces of fish .. no! Then better such a ‘hamburger bun’ An Pan from the baker’s shop.

Japan did not know an own bread until the end of the 19^th century. Portuguese and Dutch  merchants had their bread baked by fellow-countrymen, but this was not to the taste of a Japanese. Until an unemployed Sumo wrestler got the idea to use sake yeast for pan-dough as soft as butter (pão = Portuguese for bread) and to fill it with sweet azuki bean paste: an. These soft buns became very popular.

Soft bread is also made by adding a wheat porridge made at 65 ˚C. Another Japanese invention, in the whole of South East Asia known under the Chinese name Tangzhong since the nineties of last century.

Baking tool:

• baking tray
• lined with non-stick baking paper

 

Dough:

175 g bread flour

½ tbsp. granulated sugar

7 g easy-blend/easy-bake dried yeast

250 ml luke warm milk

2 tbsp dark brown muscovado sugar

25 ml liquid treacle

2 tsp ground anise seed

2 tsp ground fennel seed

2 tsp ground caraway seed

grated zest of ½ unwaxed orange

50 ml orange juice

375 g rye flour

butter for the dough bow

milk for brushing

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

We were on our way to the North of Europe and of course it rained and of course a splashing stone went through the windscreen of our car and of course it was 5 o’clock in the morning.

‘We should never have done it, this trip to Scandinavia’ is what you are thinking at that moment. ‘I wish I were sitting between palms on a sun-drenched white beach’ you think shivering. However, lo and behold, a gas station owner who just finished his service invites us at his home, because the garage where we stopped opens not before 9 o’clock. He turns his wife out of bed and goes himself to the baker, who is obviously at work that early. For us a splendid breakfast is set out that we will remember all our life. So many kinds of bread, from knäckebröd to coffee buns, from rye bread to milk bread. About nine we move on with a totally different idea of warmth in welcoming Sweden. We are not allowed to pay,  ‘No no, on no account …’

Here you find the Limpa, an adventurous loaf of rye bread seasoned with the same spices that are used for Aquavit.

Baking tools:

• 40×35 cm baking tray
• pizza peel

 

Dough, makes 10 ‘breads’:

• 200 g plain flour
• 100 very fine semolina,
• from durum wheat *
• 6 g salt
• about 175 ml cold water

 

For rolling out:

• ample flour mixed with semolina

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Pane carasau from Sardinia: ‘rustling bread’, or because it  makes such a paper-like sound when crunched: Carta di musica, ‘musical card’ . A traditional bread because ancient dwellings excavated on the Island have proved that it was baked as early as at least 1000 B.C.

According to the Istituto Nazionale di Sociologica Rurale the dough consists of semola di grano duro rimacinata *, plain flour, water, yeast and salt. Modern authors give a recipe without yeast. Understandable, as for making the traditional version no less than three people (women)  are required. Guliano Bugialli shows this in Foods of Sicily and Sardinia (1996). The dough is baked in a wood-fired oven into a kind of small balloons. Then split in two and baked again so crunchy that it can be kept for months. It was meant for shepherds when they had to move their herds to other higher grounds on the island. But our ‘paper’, sealed hermetically, will keep for a long time too.

You can even cook a shepherds’ lasagna with it: pane frassau (broken bread): immerse pieces of this ‘bread’ for a moment in boiling water. Transfer with a slotted spoon onto a plate. Spread it in layers with a thick tomato sauce. On top a poached or fried egg, chunks of pecorino (sheep’s cheese) and thyme, rosemary or basil. Wine: rosé.

Also ideal to soak briefly in a sauce: instant pasta.