Stages of Scones

Here are the various stages of the cranberry-almond scones Gropius and I enjoyed yesterday for breakfast:

Stage One: crumbly dry ingredients (cut with butter)


Stage Two: "kneading" the dough until it barely sticks together with some help from Saran-Wrap



Stage Three: gently brushing some half-n-half (or cream) on top and sprinkling with a little demerara sugar


Stage Four: resting out of the oven



Stage Five: Breakfast!

breakfast

cherry-almond scones, guatemalan coffee, mango-acai fruit smoothie

close-ups of scones


afternoon snack!

Borscht

Hellen loves beets, but she had never had borscht, so Gropius and I made some for her on Tuesday night for dinner after our running group was over. It was a vegetarian borscht, so it's not like my babushka used to make, but it was very tasty (if you love beets).

And, yes, those colors have been corrected, that's the actual color of the beets!


(I'm drinking a combo of cranberry juice and orange juice)

Happy Hellen

Schwarzwalder Landbrot

So, Gropius and I made Schwarzwalder Landbrot for the first time since moving to California this past weekend. I had meant to share photos before now, but I've been busy catching up from unforeseen events.

Anyway, we don't have German flour type 1050, so I've had to approximate with what few references I've been able to find on the internet. So, we have a mix of white whole wheat, all purpose, and rye flour in the bread. I usually mix it heavier on the whole wheat side, but this time I split it 50-50 between the whole wheat and all purpose flours.

We also did things a little differently from the recipe this time, too. Normally, you make a paste out of the yeast and some water and allow it to sit in a well in the middle of the flour for 4 hours before adding more water/salt. You are also supposed to knead the dough 3 separate times before its final rise.

Instead, since the weather this weekend was cool-ish, we let it sit in our oven overnight rather than out on the counter for 4 hours. Also, once we added the additional water/salt, we didn't do the knead/rise/knead/rise process and instead just did one rise and kneaded it down pretty well before its final rise. The end result was still tasty though. It's perfect, warm from the oven with a schmear of butter on top. Mmmmmmmm!



Here is the recipe (originally from Marion's Kochbuch website):

850 g Mehl, Typ 1050 (mix of white whole wheat and all purpose)
150 g Roggenmehl (rye flour)
20 g Hefe (yeast, as any good beer-drinker would know)
3 EL Wasser, lauwarm (EL ~ Tablespoon)
25 g Salz
0,6 Liter Wasser

Durch die langen Ruhezeiten braucht das Brot ca. 6-7 Stunden.

Der Aufwand lohnt sich aber, da das Brot bis zu einer Woche frisch bleibt, wenn man es in ein sauberes Geschirrtuch wickelt.

Mehl und Roggenmehl mischen.

In eine Schüssel geben und eine Mulde in die Mitte drücken. Hefe in 3 EL lauwarmen Wasser lösen.

In die Mulde gießen und mit wenig Mehl vom Rand her einen Vorteig rühren.

Mit Mehl bedecken, damit der Vorteig nicht verbrennt. 3-4 Stunden abgedeckt ruhen lassen. Salz und 600 ml lauwarmes Wasser zufügen und verkneten. 60-90 Minuten ruhen lassen.

Dabei alle 30 Minuten einmal kneten. Zu einem runden Brotlaib formen. Auf ein mit Backpapier belegtes Blech legen. 10 Minuten ruhen lassen.

Mit einem Messer ringsum am Rand leicht einschneiden. Ofen auf 250° (500° F) vorheizen. Auf der mittleren Schiene ca. 30 Minuten backen. Auf 180° (350° F) zurückschalten.

In ca. 30 Minuten fertig backen. Das Brot ist fertig, wenn man mit dem Knöchel auf den Boden klopft und das Brot hohl klingt.