leftover

Peppered Potato Bread

April 28, 2015

Potato BreadThis bread is my way to use up leftover potatoes and make something delicious out of them. Dill and black pepper give a nice twist to the bread, but you can make the dough without them if you wish to do so. On the other hand, the bread is not overpowered with the taste of dill and pepper. You might want to season the dough even more.

 1 big loaf

 2 boiled floury potatoes

5 dl (500 g) water
50 g fresh yeast
1,5 tsp salt
2 tsp dried dill
0,5 tsp black pepper
11 dl (700 g) wheat flour

Grate the potatoes into the lukewarm water. Stir the yeast and salt into the water. Add dill and black pepper. Gradually mix in the flour. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, adding more flour as necessary, until the dough is smooth and bouncy.

Cover with a tea towel and let the dough rise at room temperature about 30 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and bouncy again. Form the dough into a large loaf. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and place the bread on it. Cover and leave to rise for about 30 minutes. Sprinkle a little flour on top of the loaf and slash the dough with a sharp knife.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Bake for 30–40 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack. 



leftover

Molasses Rolls

April 21, 2015


Egg cheese and home-brewed beer with juniper berries are part of our Christmas as well as Easter. So, it's no wonder that I always have some whey and mash in my freezer in spring. This means lots of baking with these leftover ingredients. 

This recipe was inspired by dark molasses, which I had been looking for many years, but it wasn't an easy task here in Finland. I was overjoyed, when I finally found a can in my local grocery store.

 24 pcs.

 5 dl whey
4 dl mash (leftover from brewing beer)
50 g fresh yeast
3 tsp salt
1,5 tbsp caraway seeds
3 tbsp oil
1 dl dark molasses
3 dl dark syrup (or light molasses)
1 dl talkkuna flour * (It's not the same, but you can replace this with wheat flour.)
1 dl oat bran
3 dl coarse ground rye flour
about 15 dl wheat flour

 * Talkkuna flour is a mixture of half-cooked, dried and usually roasted grains milled into flour. It's a traditional Finnish, agrarian food, which is making a comeback lately. It's most often eaten with yogurt, buttermilk or other milk products. Nowadays it's also a trendy ingredient in cakes, pies, muffins and smoothies. 

 Stir the yeast and salt into lukewarm whey/mash mix. Mix in the caraway seeds, oil, molasses, syrup, talkkuna flour, oat bran and rye flour. Keep kneading and adding wheat flour until the dough is bouncy and elastic. It's impossible to tell the exact amount of wheat flour  to use, it depends on the moisture of the mash. 

 Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.

 Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it gently. Divide it in half. Roll each half into a rope. Cut each rope into 12 pieces. Put the rolls, cut side up, on parchment papers. Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for 20–30 minutes.

 Preheat the oven to 225°C. Bake for 13–15 minutes.

 Transfer to a wire rack, cover and let cool.

rye

Helena's Rye Bread

April 15, 2015


Do you already have a sourdough starter? If not, it's easy to make by yourself.  Here's a no-fuss sourdough starter recipe for you.

N.B. Scandinavian dark syrup, unlike American dark corn syrup, is processed from sugar beets. Thus, a good U.S. equivalent is American light molasses. The syrup is a bit sweeter than the molasses, but it's close enough that the substitution works well.

 First day

 2 dl (200 g) sourdough starter
4 dl (400 g) lukewarm water
4 dl (220 g) organic rye flour

 Mix together the sourdough starter, water and the rye flour. Cover with a tea towel and leave at room temperature (24 °C) for 24 hours. 

 Second day

the starter dough from the day before
2,5 tsp salt
3 dl (300 g) lukewarm water
10 g fresh yeast
1 dl (140 g) dark syrup (or light molasses)
3 dl (200 g) seed mix*
5 dl (300 g) rye flour
4 dl (250 g) wheat flour
2 dl (100 g) fine, light rye flour (bolted rye flour, sieved rye flour)

 *I use various seed mixes for this bread, but there should be seeds, nuts as well as dried fruits or vegetables in it. This time I used sunflower and pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, walnuts, raisins and dried tomato. 

The following day, blend the salt, lukewarm water, yeast, syrup, seed mix and rye flour with the the starter dough. Mix the wheat and light rye flour into the dough and knead for about 5 minutes. Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for 2 hours.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and cut it into two equal pieces. Shape the pieces into loaves and place in the oiled tins. Cover and leave to rise for 90 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 250°C. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 200°C and cook for a further 50 minutes.

crispbread

Deli Crispbread

April 09, 2015


Losing weight is not easy if you have a craving for chips and crisps. Many of my friends sprinkle some salt flakes on Deli Crispbread before baking and eat it instead. Toddlers love this bread because the thin crispbread crackles easily in the mouth with only one or two teeth, or with no teeth at all. Moreover, the gluten-free bread is safe for people with coeliac disease.

The rest of us, we don't have an excuse. We could eat this crispbread bite after bite, and then some, just because it's so incredibly good. We just can't help ourselves.

 2 baking trays

 4 dl (220 g) corn flour
1 tsp salt
1 dl (100 g) sunflower seeds
1 dl (60 g) sesame seeds
1 dl (60 g) pumpkin seeds
3 tbsp poppy seeds
3 tbsp rice flakes
0,5 dl (50 g) oil
5 dl (500 g) water

Mix dry ingredients together. Add oil and water and stir until combined. Put the mix in the microwave and cook for 5 minutes (500 watts). Let the dough cool down a bit.

Line two baking trays with parchment papers and turn the dough out onto them. Flatten the dough with your hands until it is 2 millimeter thin. Pat some extra sesame and sunflower seeds on the top. Cut the sheets into squares with a knife or a roller cutter.

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Bake for 90 minutes. Cut into blocks while it's still warm. Place on a rack and allow to cool.