Sweet potato bread with gorgonzola and bacon

I almost completly forgot about the sweet potatoes that were hiding in the fridge for about 3 weeks. Luckily, they looked still good so I started to seek for other ingredients to combine with. I found a leftover piece of gorgonzola and all of a sudden it was everything clear about what I am going to make. Be careful with adding salt to the batter, because you never know how salty the bacon is and also the gorgonzola is intense. If you have some fresh rosemary, then add some to it to make the bread sing! It is lovely as a starter on a salad, but it goes also well with a bottle of beer or wine.

Ingredients:
for a 30 cm long baking form
300 g sweet potato (weighed baked and peeled)
250 g white spelt flour
100 g butter
100 g yoghurt
4 eggs
15 g baking powder
50 g gorgonzola
100 g bacon
butter and flour for the form
salt
pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Wrap sweet potatoes into foil and bake for 40 minutes or until soft and let them cool down. Set oven temperature to 180°C. Peel and puree sweet potatoes. Sfit flour and baking powder into a bowl. Melt butter over low heat. Whisk together eggs with yoghurt and the melted butter. Stir in sweet potato puree and finally fold in the flour-baking powder mixture. Season with salt, pepper, stir in gorgonzola and bacon. Butter and flour a baking form and pour batter into it. Bake for 40-50 minutes.

Pumpkin curry and homemade papadums

Some years ago I've managed to make spring roll wraps from scratch for the first time, so I thought why shouldn't I give papadums a go?  Papadum is a thin and crispy flat bread or cracker and is usually served as a side with curry, but also as a snack. I bet there are at least as many different versions as regions and of course it sure differes from family to family. The  dough is either made of lentil flour, chickpea flour or black gram, but may also contain rice or potato flour. The raw dough is dried under the sun and then it is either deep fried in oil, roasted over open flame or baked in a tandoori oven. It is seasoned with various spices such as cumin, black pepper, chili or even sesame seeds. The most popular recipes use urad dal, but I just couldn't find it so I decided to try it with chickpea flour.

Well, I had more than one attempt and the third one worked out pretty good, I think. The first batch (see the photo above) I prepared using chickpea flour and black cumin seeds. I simply rolled it out on an oily surface with a rolling pin and dried in the oven, then deep fried it. They were much too thick! So a complete fail! My second attempt would have worked, but because of the seeds it was impossible to roll it out thin enough with the pasta machine. In the third batch I've added ground spices and used a mixture of chickpea and rice flour. Well, you need a lot of patience, but it works! It is possible to roll out the dough as thin as a baking paper, the drying time is also shorter and the result is crisp and pale, just as it supposed to be! However, it is not quite possible to make big round ones, mine were 6 cm diameter. Besides it is not worth to spend hours with shaping, unless you wanna show off. So just roll it out, chop it up, dry and fry. I served the papadums among a hot pumpkin curry with loads of black mustard seeds. On the photo of the curry, you see the first papadums which were too dark and too thick.

 

Ingredients:
500 g pumpkin
1 tablespoon ghee
1 onion
1 cm ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon black cumin
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
4-5 dried curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried chili or as desired
1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder
400 ml coconut milk
250 ml passata
salt

Peel and cut pumpkin in more or less equal pieces. Chop onion and garlic, finely grate ginger. Melt ghee in a pot and sautee onion for a few minutes, add ginger, garlic and spices and sautee for a few more minutes. Then add pumpkin, passata and coconut milk. Cook over medium heat for 35-40 minutes. Season with salt and chili flakes.

100 g chickpea flour
100 g rice flour
50-70 ml water
salt
ground cumin
pinch of cayenne pepper
vegetable oil for frying

Mix flours with spices, add enough water so that you get a pretty hard dough. Slice it in equal portions and with a help of a pasta machine roll it out very thin. Now you have two options: either you play around and cut out circles or you just cut it in more or less equal pieces. Preheat the oven to 70°C and dry the raw papadums for 20-40 minutes. That way you can keep these for quite a long time in an air tight container. Heat oil in a pot and fry dried papadums, but do not let them get brown. Season additionally with some cayenne pepper or anything you desire.

Pumpkin Monkey Bread

After a pretty long time, that I spent sick in bed and couldn't even think of food, finally I am back in the kitchen. Though only slowly yet, but I am cooking again! The pumpkin season is blooming! So many different kinds of winter squashes are available that probably I won't be able to try them all. Besides I already have my favourite type, the so called Bleu de Hongrie, which if you ask me, has the best consistency and taste. I usually just bake medium chunks in the oven and it as it is. It is unbeatable! However for this monkey bread I used some butternut squash pimped with loads of spices. A lovely autumn treat that makes a nice afternoon snack with a glass of cold milk.

Ingredients:

for a 20 cm round cake form
for the dough:
350 g flour
150 g baked pumpkin puree
1 egg yolk
100 ml milk
10 g fresh yeast
30 g butter
30 g sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground anise
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
for sprinkling:
100 g cane sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger

for the glaze:
100 g butter
100 g cane sugar

Sift flour and make a mould into the middle. Crumble yeast and sprinkle with sugar and pour the lukewarm milk over it. As soon as the yeast swims on top, add pumpkin puree, spices adn the egg yolk and start to knead together. When the dough has almost came together add the cold, molten butter and knead a smooth dough. Let it rise for an hour or until double its size. Butter a 20 cm round cake form. Mix together cane sugar with ground ginger and pour it into a plastic bag. Take the dough and snip more or less equal sized bites from it and pop them into the plastic bag and shake it until it is covered with sugar. Place a row of the sugared bread chunks into the form and either sprinkle each layer with the glaze or pour it on top. For the glaze melt butter, add sugar and cook it over medium heat until it turns brown. Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake for 25-30 minutes. Let it cool in the form for 10-15 minutes then turn it over onto a plate.

Potato-Buckwheat Buns

After the success of the dried tomato bread from last week, I felt like experimenting with something new. As I still remember the taste of those spicy buckwheat buns from the holiday season, I thought why shouldn't I bake some buns! So I grabbed the bag of buckwheat flour and started to think about the rest. I decided to use the leftover boiled potatoes from yesterday, so I grated those quickly. I managed to get together the rest of the ingredients and I was inpatiently waiting for the dough to rise. I must say that these buns turned out great and were perfect with butter, 15 months old cheddar and homemade mandarin jam.

Ingredients:
130 g all purpose flour
170 g buckwheat flour
200 g boiled potatoes (peeled)
25 g fresh yeast
180 ml kefir or yoghurt
1 pinch of sugar
5 g salt
milk for brushing
polenta

Cook potatoes the day before and press it through a potato ricer or grate finely. Sieve flour and make a mold into the middle. Crumble fresh yeast into the mold, sprinkle sugar over it. Add salt, grated potato, kefir and knead a dough. Let it rest for an hour or until it has doubled its size. The dough will be pretty soft so flour a surface rather well and form a roll. Cut roll in equal pieces and put them into paper baking forms. Brush top of the buns with milk and sprinkle polenta on top. Pour water into the preheated oven and bake buns for 25-30 minutes over 200°C.

Minestrone and Oregano-Dried Tomato Bread

Today, I was in some kind of rustic mood, if I may say that, so the timing couldn't have been better to cook a big pot of minestrone. The other reason for the soup is that I have collected a couple of parmesan rind, that actually is the heart of every minestrone. Without it is just not the same, and nothing can replace that savoury cheese. Minetrone is a soup that you can enjoy in every season, but to me winter is the best time of the year for a bowl of heart warming soup. This season I always add dried beans and curly kale or savoy cabbage to the vegetable mixture. Just feel free to use any vegetable you have at home and are in season. I think dried beans are essential, but if it should be rice or pasta, is really up to you. Freshly baked bread is just perfect with it, however those who follow my blog know, that I am not very good in bread baking. However today it must be my lucky day, because I managed to bake a soft bread with a crispy crust. Finally, I made it!

Ingredients:
for the soup:
50-70 g dried beans
1000-1500 ml vegetable or chicken stock
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion
3-4 carrots
1 piece of celeriac
2 parsley root
1 leek
1 garlic clove
2-3 potatoes
1 can plum tomatoes
5-6 leaves curly kale
1 piece of parmesan rind
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
40-50 g pasta
salt, pepper

Drain dried beans the evening before and cook it the next day until soft. Peel and dice the vegetables and sautee in olive oil for a few minutes. Add about a 1/4 teaspoon salt and dried oregano, the parmesan rind and the garlic clove. Pour stock over it, add canned tomatoes and cook over low heat for 40-50 minutes. Then stir in cooked beans and pasta and cook until the pasta is done. Season with salt and pepper.

for the bread:
250 g strong flour
7 g salt
25 ml olive oil
10 g yeast
230 ml water
30 g sun dried tomatoes
2 twigs fresh oregano
1 teaspoon durum wheat

Sift flour into a bowl, sprinkle salt somewhere on the side and make a mold in the middle of the flour. Crumble yeast into the mold and pour lukewarm water over it and start to work the ingredients together. Then add olive oil and knead a smooth dough. Let it rise for an hour. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Cut dried tomatoes in small cubes and mix it with the fresh oregano leaves and knead it into the dough. Form a long bread, brush with water and sprinkle the top with durum wheat. Pour about 250 ml water into the hot oven and bake the bread for about 30 minutes.

Kalács

Kalács is a Hungarian sweet bread similar to brioche baked in a braided form and it is typical for Easter, but in our family it may not be missed during Xmas time. Similar braided breads are popular in other Eastern European countries as well. However you do not need any kind of holiday to enjoy this light bread!

Ingredients:
1 kg flour
80 g sugar
100 g butter
800 ml milk
30 g fresh yeast
1 teaspoon salt

Heat milk until lukewarm. Crumble yeast and sprinkle about a teaspoon of sugar over it, then pour 100 ml lukewarm milk over it. Mix flour with salt and the rest of the sugar. Pour yeasty milk into a mold in the flour and start kneading, while adding the rest of the milk. As soon as the dough seems to come together and it is almost smooth add lukewarm, molten butter and knead until smooth. Let it rest in a warm place for an hour. Cut in three pieces and form one 26 cm kalács and two small ones. Put each in baking paper covered cake molds and let it rise for another half an hour. Bake for about an hour (the smaller ones might need 10-15 minutes less) over 160°C.

Spicy Buns with Dried Cranberries

Slowly, it is about time to start thinking and planning for the coming holiday season, after all this weekend it is already the first Sunday of Advent. I must confess that my kitchen has already been scented by Christmas flavours for weeks, because I had the opportunity to create some recipes for a French gastronomy site. Yesterday, they have already published the interview with me among with some of the recipes. Well, this one is not yet online there, however I could not wait any longer and just had to share these buns with you. A few days ago, I had the idea of baking buns with buckwheat flour and I have already seen them in front of my eyes even before I had the slight idea of the recipe. I must say the cranberries harmonise perfect with clove. I am completly fond of the combination, almost obsessed, but you will see that early enough in the recipes that are on the way to the blog. These buns are amazingly spicy and are just perfect with butter and cup of hot chocolate for breakfast during the holiday time.

Ingredients: 
100 g buckwheat flour
150 g all-purpose flour
10 g fresh yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
30 g butter
125 ml milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon dried cranberries
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 pinches of ground anise
1 pinch ground star anise

Sift buchwheat and all-purpose flour and crumble yeast into a mold. Sprinkle sugar over the yeast and pour melted butter and lukewarm milk over it. Add the egg and the spices and start kneading. As soon as the dough comes together knead in dried cranberries. Let the dough rise over room temperature until it has dubled its size. Cut the dough in 6 equal portions and form buns, flour the top and press any shape onto its surface with a help of a fondant cutter. Bake in the 200°C preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

1. Auguscht Brötli

As you might know, I am pretty bad in bread baking, but I keep on working on it. The Hungarian National Day celebrated on the 20th of August, is also the day when the new bread is blessed. Therefore, I decided to bake a bread for this day, and until then I wanted to practice. The 1st of August is the Swiss National Day, that has its traditional bun roll, the so called 1. Auguscht Brötli. This year I baked some myself, so I had the first great opportunity for practicing. In fact, these buns do not have a long tradition, the first ones were baked in 1959, nowdays you even find some with chocolate. According to a bakery in Zürich, there is absolutely no difference between a regular bun roll and the National Day buns, except the shape. Two other bakeries in Canton Glarus and Obwalden say, that actually these buns are the replacement for the traditional Butterzopf, but it has less yeast in it, and a lot more butter than a usual bun roll. By the way, butter is the most important ingreident. In the original recipe there is also malt and dried leaven in it, but I did not have these at home, so I baked my buns without.

Ingredients:
300 g unbleached pastry flour (Typ 405)

200 g unbleached all-purpose flour (Typ 550)

21 g fresh yeast

65 g melted butter

250 ml milk + for brushing

1 egg

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Dissolve yeast in lukewarm milk. Mix together the sifted flour with salt, then prepare a mold into the middle, add melted butter, yeast-milk and the egg. Knead a smooth dough and knead it for about 10 minute. Let it stand for 30 minutes on room temperature, then put it to the fridge for 15 minutes. Cut it in 6-8 equal portions and roll buns. Brush the top with milk and cut the top in a cross shape. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

Aubergine cream

It is not a secret that I absolutely have no talent for baking bread, unless it is a sweet bread, that is fine. And I even manage to bake a ciabatta or a fougasse, but that's it. The rest may be used as a weight or as a weapon, but they are not edible for sure. So all the disapointments stopped me even from baking that popular no-knead bread. If you think about it, baking the no-knead bread is not more complicated than preparing a ready made soup, however still it is something different. Last week, finally I felt like trying at least that.


Thanks to the success since then I have already baked it a few more times and soon I might feel confident enough to give a new chance for baking a more challenging bread. Anyway, I could not imagine anything better to be served with a fresh and crispy slice of bread then a lukewarm aubergine cream. At least in summer.


Probably, there are thousands of aubergine cream recipes out there, and everyone has a favourite. Mine will always remain this simple version, the way my mom and her grandmother used to prepare. It is only authentic if it has that smoky taste that you achieve when grilling it over open fire or a gas stove, even I have no gas stove, but I bake them on the stove. It just never tastes the same if it is baked in the oven. No way. As far as the other ingreidents are concerned, well you need only a red onion, salt, pepper and vegetable oil. That's it, nothing else.


So once the aubergines are baked on the stove, I remove the skin as long as it is still hot. Then with the help of a wooden spoon I remove the flesh and chop it. My mom told me, that if one uses steel it get bitter. True or not, I stick to that. Already before combining I add some salt to the chopped onion, then stir it together with the flesh and enough oil so that it gets brighter in the colour while stirring. If there should be some leftover the next day, which usually doesn't happen, then I add a little bit of mayonnaise to the cream. So that's my simple aubergine cream.