wholegrain

Easter, bread and sunshine

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First really warm spring sunny days made me think of summer. It’s approaching so quickly. Two, three months. I’m counting my days by the pages I’ve written. By the books waiting to be read. A morning. An afternoon. A night. Whole day. Day by day. And one month has past. One month after another. Where have they gone?

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After today’s four hour Easter breakfast at my grans I’ve been wondering why can’t we just have a normal coffee & cereals breakfast… Too much of everything. Except for bread…
The base. The life. Nothing more. Just people to share it. Braids, easter buns and potica. It’s a part of our tradition. And this year I let the real masters in our family do the thing.
I went for something else. Simple. Savory. The best to be shared with the people you love. Bread.

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dough*:

  • 40 g fresh yeast
  • 350 g plain flour T500
  • 150 g wholegrain spelt flour
  • 10 g salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 120 g butter at room temperature
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 150 -170 ml milk
  • 1 egg for egg wash

preparation:

  1. Prepare yeast: crumble the yeast, mix with 50 ml of warm milk and 1 tsp of honey. Let double in size.
  2. Mix both flours and salt. Add the yeat mixture, beaten eggs, butter and the rest of the milk (depending on the flour you will need more or less of it, so add some 100 ml at first and then you’ll see if it needs more). Mix and work the dough. It takes some 8 – 10 mins. It should be very soft, but not sticky. Form a ball and transfer to a bowl sprinkled with flour. Let rise.
  3. Divide the dough in three parts if making three different fillings* (check below). Roll out to about 0,5 cm thick into a rectangle. Spread one of the fillings, leaving aprox 2 cm blank on one side of the dough. Roll. Use sharp knife to cut lenghtwise. Open each side facing up and make a braid. Transfer to a baking tray and let rise.
  4. Meanwhile preheat oven at 220ºC. Before putting the braids into the oven, brush with egg wash. Bake for 10 mins, then turn the tin and bake for another 10 mins. Reduce the heat to 190ºC and bake for aprox another 10 mins.

* this was enough for 3 braids

 

filling*:

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1. Brie & pecans

  • 200 g of brie cut into pieces
  • 3 handfuls of roughly crushed pecans

Sprinkle equally over the dough.

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2. Black olive pesto

  • 250 g pitted black olives
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil

Mix everything into a smooth paste using a food processor.

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3. Sundried tomatoes & mediterranean herbs

  • 200 g sundried tomatoes (from oil, drained)
  • 5 small capers
  • 2 tbsp dried mediterranean herbs
  • 1 big garlic clove

Mix everything into a smooth paste using a food processor.

 

Falling leaves and comfort food…

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falling leaves

In the morning I took a bike ride down to the city centre. Just like every other day. It was a beautiful day. As I was driving my face was bathing in the sun. But suddenly I could smell winter…  I passed exactly one year off, doing the things I like, focusing on myself, going to parties, meeting new extraordinary interesting people. And then, just before summer, the bubble I was living in, popped and I had to switch all that for a library lamp and a pile of books. I’ve passed them, my first two finals, but the saga continues… I have no idea what happened to this summer, it just went by too quickly. I woke up this sunday and realized that the leaves started falling off. Yellow leaves.

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Big granny’s sweater, warm socks, a cup of tea, more books and this asocial life I was forced into… I was desperately in need of something sweet, warm and comforting. Pies can’t really save the world, but this one did save me and my sunday. And luckily, I managed to save some of the last plums from my parent’s garden.

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Plum pie with walnut rye crust*

* this also works well with apples or pears

Crust:

  • 200 g rye flour
  • 100 g cold butter
  • 80 g ground walnuts or pecans
  • 2 eggs
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 Tbsp agave syrup or honey (or similar)

filling:

  • 750 g very ripe plums
  • cinnamon
  • ½ vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs
  • 50 ml liquid cream
  • 2 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 2 big Tbsp 100% apricot jam

Preparation:

  1. Dough: mix flour, ground walnuts or pecans and salt. Add cold butter cut in cubes and mix evenly with fingers. Mix 2 eggs and agave syrup or honey, then add to the flour mixture. Mix evenly and form a ball. Warp in plastic foil and let sit in the fridge for an hour.
  2. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll out between two sheets of baking paper. Place the dough in the greesed baking tin.
  3. Mix two eggs, add liquid cream, cornstarch and apricot jam.
  4. Pour the egg mixture on the dough, then add plums. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
  5. Bake in vent oven 30 – 35 min at 190°C.

 

Strawberry galette

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It’s been three years since I’ve started my balcony garden. It had its ups and downs. Tomatoes, cucumbers, paprikas, herbs and spinach all worked well, but there were some serious fails with pumpkins and artichokes. And strawberries weren’t any success either so far. I wasn’t even planing to plant them this year but something was telling me I should…

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And it turned out to be a good decision, because this year I indeed have strawberries growing at my balcony! They are absolutely delicious, and to be honest, they went straight to my yoghurt in the morning. I would not dare to cook them. But they did inspire me to make this strawberry galette.

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Ingredients

crust:

  • 60 g rolled oats
  • 50 g wholegrain spelt flour
  • 80 g shredded coconut
  • 45 g cold butter
  • 1 Tbsp agave syrup or honey
  • 1 egg yolk
  • pinch of salt
  • 30 ml cold water (or more if needed)

filling:

  • 300 – 350 g strawberries
  • 3 Tbsp chia
  • 1 big Tbsp strawberry jam (I used 100% fruit content jam)
  • 1/2 of vanilla pod
  • 1 – 2 Tbsp stevia or sucralose

Preparation:

  1. Grind rolled oats and coconut in coffee grinder to obtain flour consistency.
  2. Mix all the flours and salt, than add cold butter and mix evenly. Add agave syrup or honey and egg yolk. Mix and add water as needed. Form a ball, wrap it in plastic foil and let sit in the fridge for 30 mins.
  3. Cut strawberries in half. Mix all the ingredients for filling.
  4. Take the dough out of the fridge. Roll it out in between two sheets of baking paper. Put all the filling in the middle and fold the ends inwards.
  5. Bake for 25 – 35 mins at 180ºc.
  6. Sprinkle with mint leaves. And yes… vanilla ice cream is always a good idea!

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Oven baked orange pistachio donuts

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Since I remember, working with materials, transforming the mass and creating new shapes was my thing. Probably that’s why I was so hooked by ceramics. I was doing it for quite some time and enjoyed it a lot. I always liked that magic feeling when you get to transform your idea into something concrete, real, into a form that has a new meaning… But at a certain moment I actually stopped doing that. That was a mistake, but I haven’t yet said the final word! That’s for sure.

Maybe that is why I like working with dough so much. I actually didn’t realize this until I got myself a new oven. Yes, I’ve had it for two weeks or so now 🙂 Dough is an absolutely amazing thing! It all begins with a messy sticky shapeless something, but then you fight it, you stretch it, you knead and eventually you get a nice and soft shiny ball. Not to mention the final result… 🙂

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Mardi gras and carnival time in Slovenia are somehow special. Actually, the only time I did not celebrate it was when I was in France. We always do masks and there is a huge party. Oh yes, and donuts.

So this is how I got myself into this business. I haven’t really eaten donuts for quite some time now. My gran, who makes like the best ones ever (!!!), lives a bit too far away to have them fresh, and a day old, well, they’re not quite the same anymore.

I wanted to make a healthier version of her recipe which goes like this:

500 g flour
5 egg yolks
50 g sugar
50 g butter
40 g fresh yeast
1,5 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 Tbsp spiced rum
peel of 1 organic lemon
1 vanilla sugar
250 – 300 ml milk
oil for frying
apricot jam for filling
icing sugar for garnish

After preparing the dough, which is pretty much the same as described in my recipe, make 60 g balls and let rise. Heat the oil at 60ºc – 70ºc. Fry 3 mins on one side with the lid on, than turn the donuts and fry another 3 mins with the lid off. Warm up the apricot jam and fill the donuts using a confectionery bag or a syringe with a long nozzle.

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I did not want to fry them, so I tried the oven option. The donuts turned out just great, but had more of a brioche texture. But as far as the taste goes, I got it right. And filling them with clementine jam was like heaven!

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Ingredients:

dough

  • 200 g white flour T400
  • 125 g wholegrain spelt flour
  • 110 g pumpkin puree (from hokkaido)
  • 20 g fresh yeast
  • 25 g agave syrup
  • 50 g soft butter
  • 30 – 50 ml milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1,5 Tbsp spiced rum
  • 3 egg yolks
  • peel of ½ organic lemon
  • 1/3 tsp salt

garnish

  • 100 g dark chocolate (70%)
  • 1 tsp butter
  • unsalted pistachios
  • peel of 2 organic oranges
  • clementine or orange jam

Preparation:

  1. Cut pumpkin in half, drizzle with some neutral oil and bake at 200°C 30-40 min or until softened. Let cool and puree using a hand blender.
  2. Prepare the yeast: mix 20 ml warm milk, 1 tsp of agave syrup and yeast.
  3. In a large bowl mix the two flours and salt.
  4. Using a hand mixer, mix softened butter at the highest speed, than gradually add agave syrup and egg yolks. In the end, add lemon peel, vanilla extract and rum.
  5. Pour the egg mixture, pumpkin puree and yeast into the flours. Mix with a wooden spatula until combined. Add more milk if needed.
  6. When ingredients well combined, start kneading. The dough should be firm, but flexible. Add more flour or milk if needed. The starch needs some time to get activated, so in this first phase the dough will be pretty sticky. It should start getting the right texture after 8 mins of kneading. If it still is too sticky and too soft, add little flour. Flour your work surface and now knead as you would any other dough. In the end you should get a firm and silky ball of dough.
  7. Let rise and when it doubles in size knead once more. Form small balls of 40 g each and let rise. Turn once while rising.
  8. Preheat oven at 180°c (classic heating up+down) and bake 20 – 30 min.
  9. Using a confectionary bag or a syringe with a long nozzle fill the donuts with a warm jam as soon as you get them out of the oven.
  10. Melt the chocolate and the butter over a double boiler. Pour over the donuts and sprinkle with some crushed pistachios and orange peel.