Day 21: Sweet Christmas Bread, Finnish Style

You remember I wrote in my previous post about one almost never coming to think of recipes that wouldn't already exist? The following is the exception justifying the use of almost; at least I couldn't find anything similar with a quick Google research.

The first bread I ever baked from scratch was a Finnish Christmas loaf, and, if my memory is to be trusted, it turned out perfect. It was the classical recipe from the best-known traditional Finnish cookbook, Kotiruoka, or Home Cooking. It's baked with molasses, fennel, bitter orange peel, and caraway seeds - and lots of yeast. Which is the reason why I wanted to modify the recipe, to be baked with sourdough starter instead of yeast.

The result was the most delicious and moist loaf ever! (If you happen to like sweet bread and anise taste, that is. I'm the only one in my family who does! More bread for me......!)

This is what you need for two loaves:

• 200g sourdough starter (on the stiffer side)


• 400g buttermilk


• 200g rye flour


• 200g spelt flour


• 200g all-purpose flour


• 12g salt


• 100ml molasses, divided


• 1tsp aniseed or fennel seeds (I couldn't FIND my fennel seeds, so I used aniseed instead)


• 1tsp bitter orange peel


• 1tsp caraway seeds


• plus some more fennel and caraway seeds for the topping

Combine starter, all three flours, and buttermilk in a baking bowl. Stir so that the flour gets moist and let stand about 20 minutes. In the meantime, combine 60ml of the molasses, the orange peel and slightly crushed fennel (or aniseed) and caraway seeds in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil and remove from heat.

Now, add salt and the molasses mixture into the baking bowl. Knead about 10 minutes or until you have an elastic, smooth dough. I had to add some water because my flour was very thirsty (whole-grain rye and spelt flour tend to be...).

Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel and let ferment overnight, or about 8 hours.

After the fermentation, beat the dough about 2 minutes and divide it into two parts. Proof each loaf in a proofing basket about 1 hour.

Transfer the loaves on a baking tray and brush with the rest of the molasses (add about 1 Tbsp water to make it liquid enough for brushing) and sprinkle with some seeds.

Bake in 225C for about 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to about 180C and bake until thoroughly cooked, about 45 more minutes. This bread burns easily, so check every once in a while. If necessary, cover the loaves with a wet parchment paper.

Let cool and enjoy with lots of butter!

P.S. I baked this bread now twice with sourdough starter, and the oven spring with the first batch was incredible: first, the loaves didn't seem to rise at all, but suddenly they had turned into small "volcanoes"! The second batch didn't turn out that pretty - but just as delicious ;)

P.P.S. I baked these loaves yesterday but didn't have time to write the post. Today, I'm going to bake Linzer Schnitten - among my favourite Plätzchen! And then - two more days to go!!

 

 

Day 10: Anisplätzchen, after all!

I had planned to bake something completely different today, but in the morning, I found myself looking for Anisplätzchen recipes - remember those famous German aniseed cookies that even the professional bakers might not get right?

The recipes didn't look too complicated, just that they advised to beat the batter 45 minutes with a kitchen machine, which I don't have, so I had some doubts whether I could manage to make the batter just with a spiral whisk.

Maybe I had beginner's luck or maybe these cookies are not that hard to make after all, because they turned perfect the first time! Or maybe I have to thank the Finnish weather conditions - dark, cold, extremely windy ;)

This is what you need to make 17-20 small cookies:

• 1 egg


• 75g confectioner's sugar


• 1 tsp ground aniseed, plus some entire seeds to decorate


• a few drops vanilla extract


• 75g all-purpose flour


• a pinch of baking powder

This is how to do it:

Combine sugar, egg, vanilla extract, and ground aniseed in a baking bowl. Turn your TV on, sit comfortably on your sofa, take a deep breath - and start beating. I did this for about 30 minutes. The mixture should be fluffy, creamy, and honey-like. (Honestly speaking - I think mine was all that even after 10 minutes, but I continued beating, just to be sure!) Now add the flour in which you've added the baking powder and stir until well combined.

With two teaspoons, place small drops of batter (about 1 teaspoon) on a baking tray covered with parchment paper. My initial batter was too liquid - the eggs I use are rather large - so I had to add more flour at this point. The batter should be firm enough so that the cookies don't go totally flat! Sprinkle the cookies with some entire anise seeds.

Let the cookies dry 6-12 hours in room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 175C and bake the cookies until they are hard but not yet getting any colour. If you've done everything right, a miracle will take place: those initially quite flat cookies will rise and get what the Germans call Füßchen, or "small feet".

You can't imagine how happy I was when I took a look at my cookies after 10 minutes or so and saw that the miracle had indeed happened...

Now I'm sipping some coffee with two different aniseed cookies and can't decide which ones taste better :)

 

Day 9: Aniseed Cookies

Last year a friend of mine told me that if I wanted some real challenge in my Plätzchen baking, I should try Anisplätzchen - they are almost impossible to bake right, even if you're a professional baker; whether they succeed or not depends namely on the humidity of air, among other things.

The seed of this challenge got planted in my brain, but I don't feel up to it just now. Maybe next year...!

But I wanted to try something with aniseed, and luckily there is a variety of other Christmas cookies that feature this little liquorice-tasting seed!

This seemed an easy recipe, and it was. The only tricky part is when you take the cookies out of the oven: you have to be really quick to stretch them over a spoon to get the right shape. They are elastic only about 1-2 minutes once they're out, after that they harden and can't be shaped any more.

For about 35 cookies you need:

• 2 eggs


• 120g sugar


• 1 tsp ground aniseed


• 60g all-purpose flour


• a pinch of salt


• entire aniseed seeds to decorate

Preheat the oven to 200C. Combine eggs, sugar and ground aniseed in a baking bowl. Beat until the mixture is creamy and fluffy. Then add sifted flour (in which you've added the salt) and stir until well combined. Place small drops of about one teaspoon on a baking tray, covered with parchment paper, and bake in the oven about 7 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown in the middle and a bit darker from the sides.

While the cookies are baking, take out as many tablespoons as you have cookies in the oven. Once you take the cookies out, you need to be fast: with each spoon, take one cookie from the baking tray (be careful, don't burn your fingers!) and stretch in on the outside of the spoon. Place on another tray and let cool completely. Repeat with the rest of the cookies.

Enjoy with a glass of mulled wine, for example!



P.S. As you can see in this picture, I also baked some rum raisin cookies today.... They are my son's all-time favourite cookies!