You can , with a can !

Welcome at my kitchen table , I'm your host this month.
And you know what ? I want you to eat out of a can ,this month . Not for the easy cooking but for this month Bread Baking Babes baking :
The Brioche mousseline.










Take a seat and let me explain :
This very luxury and delicious loaf will be baked in a cylindrial container , most likely used for tomatoes, coffee or what-ever, as long as there is no plastic coating inside.
Because we Babes bake all over the world , we immediately had problems with sorts and sizes for every country's cans .The book is talking about one pound cans, I used 1 liter cans .Please don't you worry. Any size will do, just fill it for 2/3 with the dough and keep an eye on your baking time. And the height of your stove !! Because a paper collar will be tied around the can , the dough can rise to a splendid height : Even twice as high as your can ,if you are lucky. The ovenshelf must be low enough to allow the dough to rise without bumping its head to the oventop.



So eat your tomatoes , clean out that can : it's time to create your own Brioche Mousseline" , the loave that has its roots in France, Normandie , at Honnefleur. The recipe , from pricewinning Baker André David , comes from The Breads of France , of Bernard Clayton jr.


To dress up the cans encircle them with paper(buttered if needed )as a collar.
To make it easier , dress up the outside after you put in the dough. I took parchingpaper , folded double AND I lined also the inside , because of some edges there that could make trouble trying to get the bread out. (In case of emergency you always can use your can-opener on the bottomside and push it out ).
If you don't use paper inside , don't forget to butter instead.
I hope these pictures( very bad but my own camera broke down and in eveninglight this one is trouble )will tell you the rest.


And here is the recipe :

Ingredients :For 2 tall loaves ( for 2 cans ).
Starter :
1 package of dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water ( 105-115 F.)
1 cup allpurpose flour

Dough
4 cups all purpose flour
6 eggs, room temp.
4 tablespoons warm water ( 100 F )
3 tab.sp. sugar
1 1/2 teasp.salt
12 ounces butter , unsalted , room temp.

Starter ( takes 10 minutes and 2 hours )
Dissolve yeast in water and put aside for a few minutes until creamy.Stir in flour and knead for about 3 minutes until shaggy loaf of dough. Cover with plastic and let rest for 2 hours.
In mean time prepare the rest of the dough :Start with 2 cups of flour , 4 eggs (stirr in one at the time), 2 table sp. water ,sugar , salt and blend it all.
Knead butter (on a lenght of wax paper) soft and pliable with a doughscraper or spatula.Blend in batter.Than add remaining 2 eggs and spoons of water.Stir in rest of flour , 1/2 cup at the time until the dough is a soft ball.It still is very sticky .Press into oval on your flowered worksurface , place starter in the center and fold over the edges and knead to incorporate the white starter dough with the yellow egg and butter dough. Knead for about 8 minutes. The dough stays a little sticky but will become firm after the cooling in the fridge later.

First rise , 3 hours
At room temp. covered with plastic wrap, until more than double.It becomes light and puffy.

Refrigeration 2 hours or overnight
Allow for at least 2 hours in the fridge so it can be worked better . Overnight is also possible but it will need a longer rise in the mold later on.

Shaping
Fill the (coffee)cans for 2/3 and allow to rise.Use an other well greased mold for any left over dough.


second rising
At room temp. 1 ,untill 2 hours.
This varies a little ,remember , overnight in fridge means at least a 2 hours rise.

Baking 375 F , for 1 hour

Pre-heat the oven 20 minutes before baking.
How high the rising will be depends on the strenght of flour thats been used. There will be a difference between french and american or dutch...Hope you have a hudge oven... ;-)
The Brioche is done when the crust is deep brown but I always let my insertthermometer tell me . Or use a cake testing pin, that has to come out clean .
Undress your mold and let stand for 10 minutes before removing the mold.Twist gently to remove ( take care , still hot ! )and allow to cool down on a rack .
It freezes well for 6 weeks,so you can tie it up then with a X-mas bow and enjoy it as your Santa-breakfast.


Don't forget to take a look at my sister BBB"s (you'll find them on the right sight of this blog ) and see how they managed with this french one.
And if you are able to bake with us (and let me know by mail or as a comment on this post with a link to your Brioche) , do it before november 23: You'll be honored with a Bread Baking Buddy Badge .
Hope to hear from you !

Babes baking Babes...

We , Bread baking Babes ,proudly present our BABES. Yes !
And our kitchen-of the-month Babe Gretchen of Canela y Comino let us make them.
They are called TANTA WAWA 's










TANTA WHAT"S ???
What are Tanta Wawa's? They are bread or cake figures in the form of babies or animals or whatever. The name Tanta Wawa comes from Quechua , the original language of ancient Peru . And thats where Gretchen found them. These breads can be decorated with candies, raisins or anise . In the Andes ,people give them as presents during all Saints day or the day of the deads at november 1th and 2nd and honour the ones who passed away . It is unknown when this Andean tradition began but it was a long time ago , thats for sure.
If you want to make your own babies , go visit Gretchen, she can tell you all about them.And look at her Tanta Wawa's, she's really great in making beautiful ones. Ever seen a Tanta Wawa elephant ? I fell in love with it ! And give Gretchen my love and thank her for bringing us a part of her so beloved Peruvian culture .
But don't ask me how to make the beautiful Tanta Wawa's , 'cause ..well see for yourselve.



Isn't this the ugliest baby you've ever seen ? It bursted all over.
But , as it should be , every mother loves her babies , ugly or beauty.
And I did. And it tasted great.
But that's not what a good mother is supposed to say...

Is it all chinese for us , Babes ?

Sorry I wasn't here on our Bread Baking Babes - posting day of this month , but it was a long travel before I could buy the Chinese flour Karen ( of Bake my Day , our host of the month ) was asking for in this months challenge.
And you know what ? It wasn't even for Baking !!!
Are we Babes getting weard or what ?










No , just kidding . I didn't have go all the way to China to get this special flour and this no-baking recipe is great. You did well , Karen ! I'll bring you some chinese steamingflour next time ! It really works well. No muscles needed for kneading.
The rolls are fun to do and it is even more fun to make different fillings. As usual it was hard for me to stick to the recipe.
I mixed the world , so to say.
I made Italian knots, with pesto and cheese , Japanese ones with Wasibi and ginger ( thanks again Karen ) , "Middle east"-sesame rolls with sesame oil and -seeds and seasalt and an american wreath with maple syrup .Looked fine but the syrup dripped out mostly . And okay , the red pepper and spring onion ones too . And honestly , the original ones became the most colorfull ones.And beeing pale as they are , they need that.



I used the same doughrecipe to bake real Indonesian BAPAO's , steamed rolls with filling inside.Great way to get ridd of your meat-left-overs
Are you steamed up allready ? Go and see the other babes and specially our kitchen of the month Karen to find out how Baking Babes Bake Breads without Baking !
'cause yes , we can !

Gone for Beirut , this month .

I know , posting too late again . And even no pictures.
Bad bad Babe !!! And a stupid one too , 'cause the recipe of these little breads from Beirut was on my bookshelve for a long long time . In the beautiful book Home baking , the artful mix of flour and tradition around the world( J . Alford, N Duguid) Karen of Bake my Day gave me as a birthday present once.Rich with pictures of people all over the world, stories and filled with delicious recipes of breads from all over the world you , unlike me , really have to make . All of them !! But somehow I 've missed these Sukkar bi Tahin as they call them in arabic. And thats too bad because they are great.
Thank you Natashya at living in the kitchen with puppies , as our host of the month ,for bringing these swirls up as this months Bread Baking Babe's bread.Otherwise I never , or at least for a long time would have made them and didn't know what I was been missing !!!
They turned out to be kind of flaky rounds , very nice to see . And eat !!! Flavoured by sugar , but not sweet at all and "filled" with Tahini . By the way , Tahini is a paste made out of sesame seeds , very much used in the middle east but avalable even here in Europe"s Holland. It reminds you to peanut butter and to be honest , I think I 'll make these Beirut swirls with that one day. I even could resist a jar of hazelnut-raisin paste as I reached out for the Tahini in the store. And believe me, it made those breads taste great too !!
The rolling out of these breads wasn't as easy as I thought , the paste was peeping out at a lot of places but Natashya told us not to worry because it was all in the game . Hurry to her kitchen table and see for yourselve . There you find the recipe and how you can bake it too and become a Buddy of us , baking Babes. And you can see her pictures or those from the other Babes ( list at the side bar ). Mine....????Sorry , my camera was in Russia with my hard working husband . I tried to keep some breads in the fridge for a pic but ..ah you know , temptation can be so hard to resist. As these swirls are . Try !!!

Amore from Italy

This was real fun to make :
Easy to make dough ,.
Soft as a baby's....you know .
Easy to handle.
Easy to form and you don't even need a high-school degree " knotting " for these little breads.
And then......beautiful to see , to smell but most of all to taste.













Isn't that breadbaking-fun ? Yes , it is !
They are called Italian Knot Breads or Pane di pasta tenera condita .
And they were tossed up by ILVA from Lucullian delights. She invited us all to her kitchen table this month. Please join us there and see for yourselve how easy to do ( but with such great looks ) these Italian knots are.And maybe you'll join us as a Bread Baking Babe's Buddie.
Only one advice :
Because I thought the amount of flour was enough to serve a whole Italian family having lunch under the sun ,somewhere in a Italian farm garden , I made only half of the recipe to get just 10 knotbreads.
That was a mistake !!!
Because they were gone in no-time.And my family asked for more....
So bake them all by using the whole amount . And in the strange case of any leftovers , just pop them in the deepfreezer . Or send them over to me . Because I completely fell in love with them.
Italian Amore !!
Thanks Ilva. You know what is good for us ,Babes !

They made me do this.

How could I think of sneaking away and not blogging my Pane Franchesa pictures ?
They fell over me , my BBBsisters . I hád to post .To let the world know even a BBBabe is not perfect!.... ;-)
So with shame I present : One goodtasting but very heavy Pane. With wholes on places you only dream of in bad nights.
Because I used a starter from spelt and soya.Why ? See my earlier post "it makes me smile ".Thats the bread we eat these days
But believe me, next time it will be Rye and water!!
By the way , I killed my Chef ! Ha !

It makes you smile !

To prove I really can bake bread , this picture.
'Cause I didn't bake anything out of this months Bread Baking Babes " Pane Franchese'.
Don't even dare to show you a pic. Not because the recipe was wrong , no , it is from King Arthur and it's good . Better look at Sara's. from I like to cook . She's this months kitchens host.There you can see how great it can be.
No , its just because I had troubles with my Chef. No , not at work , but with my first starter for this bread, called a Chef ,as in French. At least I blame him , don't we always blame the Chefs ? And I always hated chefs, in any job . Anyway , something didn't turn out right and my Pane became solid as clay.
But to prove I'm a real Baking Babe this picture of a bread I'm very proud of .
Made without wheat or diary products . And still tasty.
I have a child who has a wheat and milk intolerance , we discovered a few months ago .
A difficult combination , its in about everything .
But that boy has a bread and cookie-baking Mama and thats his luck . I now bake him , thanks to a recipe found in the "Laurels' Kitchen Bread Book" , a Soymilk Bread. And I use Spelt in stead of wheat. Spelt is often possible when wheat is not.And it bakes great.
I've never seen a bread having an ovenspring like this. The first one burned on top because it reached the top of my oven.
Every time I take a bread like this out of the stove , it makes me smile.
Because it always looks and tastes great, but most of all that enormous proud feeling I can make my child the best healthy-est bread there is for him . Hand- home- and heartmade !
It really makes me smile !!

Here it is :
2 1/2 cups unflavoured soymilk (cooked and cooled down)
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 cup handwarm water
6 cups of spelt flour ( mostly I do 2 cups whole- and 4 cups white spelt flour)
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons soy -"butter" or 6 tablespoons oil.( I mostly let the butter melt in the cooling down soymilk )

In your mixing bowl , solve the yeast in the warm water with the honey , mix in the soymilk with butter , and 2 cups of the flour . "Cover" it with the rest of the flour ( + the oil if you don't used the butter) and the salt.Let stand for a few hours (but no more than 12). The yeast will be cracking the topping flour in that time.
Knead it , but no longer than 4-5 minutes because the Speltgluten will loose their strenght if you knead too long.Easy , isn't it ?
Let rise for 1 hour , then flatten and shape , let rise for 45 minutes. In the mean while heaten up your oven at 350 F . Bake the bread in 45 minutesuntil done.
Of course you can roll in / or over some seeds like poppyseeds , sunflourseeds , pumpkin- or flackseeds.
That funny smiley...can't help you with that . But just look into your mirror while holding your bread !