Baking and Blogging in Berlin

The reason I haven’t been blogging for a while is two-fold. Firstly, and more legitimately, I’ve been in Berlin celebrating the marriage of two of my favourite people in zee world, Amy and Felix Mchugh. That’s one week accounted for. The rest of the time I’ve been watching Orange is the New Black. If you haven’t seen it yet then probably don’t start, unless you’ve got time on your hands. It’s as addictive as its smuggled subject matter. Plus Regina Spektor sings the theme tune, which makes it even better.

Fortunately, in between episodes, I did manage to do some Berlin inspired baking. Berlin is my favourite city in the world – partly because its full of amazing bars, markets, cafés and parks, but mainly because of the bread. It’s incredible, and it’s everywhere – from underground stations to abandoned airports. It’s so good that there’s no need to bother with sandwich fillings, it’s delicious just covered in salt and twisted up into a pretzel.

Here’s a picture of some I made to ease my Berlin withdrawal symptoms (recipe below). Berliners are pretty liberal with their salt (as they are with everything else) – apparently its anti-diuretic qualities come in handy at Oktoberfest. I was a little more sparing with mine.

In other news I have an interview with Hummingbird this week AND have secured myself a stall next weekend at Broadway Market (school yard). Exciting times ahead.

Berlin Inspired Pretzels – makes 10 

Ingredients
500g strong white bread flour
140 ml water
130 ml milk
40 g butter (melted and left to cool a little)
2 tsp dark brown sugar (you can also use liquid malt)
2 tsp dried yeast (1tsp if you’re using fast-action)
1 tbsp salt
1.5 litres boiling water
3 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Rock salt for sprinkling

Add the flour to a large bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour the water and yeast into the well and let it sit for 15 mins – until a brownish sludge appears on top. Add the milk, salt, sugar and butter, form into a ball and knead for 10 minutes, until you have a smooth, elastic dough. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover in clingfilm and leave in a warm place to double in size (about 1.5 hours)

Knock the dough back and split into 10 equal sized pieces. Roll out each piece into long sausages (approximately 40cm in length) and shape into pretzels. This is tricky to describe, but luckily good ol’ M-Stew (bit like K-Stew, who incidentally I’m sure I spotted in Berlin, but waaay cooler) has a handy picture to help. Place on a flour dusted baking sheet and sit somewhere warm for 30 mins  to puff back up a little. Then move them to a breezy spot by the window (stay with me – they are worth it) to develop a slight skin (another 30 mins).

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Heat 1.5 litres of water in a large pan and, once boiling, add the bicarb. Using a metal spatula (or similar), add the pretzels one at a time to the boiling water, remove after 5 seconds (once they float to the top), allowing any water to drain off, and place onto a tray lined with parchment and dusted with flour. Sprinkle the pretzels with rock salt and use a sharp knife to make some deep slashes in the dough. Bake for 16 minutes until dark brown and leave to cool before devouring. If you’re that way inclined, you can also add some cheese to the top of the pretzels half way through the baking process.

Adapted from this BBC recipe.

and so the blogging begins…

A few years ago, my sister Ellie bought me the Ladurée Sucré cookbook, and my life hasn’t been the same since. I’m pretty sure that discovering Ladurée has an epiphany-type effect on a lot of people, but for me, it was a call to baking arms.

There were more than a few tears and tantrums over cracked shells and uneven feet, and my boyfriend definitely gained a few pounds, but eventually something clicked and I have been (*mostly) merrily piping away since.

I’ve tried out dozens of flavour and colour combinations, but here’s a picture of some of my faves – salted caramel topped with flaked almonds. Deelish.

Recipe below – enjoy:

Equipment:
Baking trays
Baking parchment
Small and medium saucepans
Piping bags and 8mm nozzles
Pallet knife

Macaron Shells:
275g ground almonds
250g icing sugar
6 medium free range egg whites
210g caster sugar
A handful of toasted flaked almonds

Salted Caramel Filling
125g double cream
175g caster sugar
5g sea salt (fine)
175g unsalted butter

Macaron Shells:
Add your egg whites to a clean, dry bowl and begin whisking with an electric hand-held whisk (you could also use a free-standing electric mixer with a whisk attachment for this). Once they’ve frothed up (20 seconds or so) add one third of the caster sugar and continue whisking until dissolved (another 20 seconds or so).

At this point, add another third of the caster sugar and whisk for a minute, before adding the last third of caster sugar and whisking for final minute – your whites should now be stiff and beautifully glossy!

Whizz the almonds and icing sugar in a food processor to obtain a smooth powder, sieve this into the egg white mixture and gently fold in with a spatula until you have a smooth and even consistency.

Transfer the mixture into a piping bag and pipe small rounds onto a baking tray covered in parchment (drawing around a small circular stencil can help guide you to perfection!)

Sprinkle over the toasted flaked almonds and set the macaron shells aside for 30mins to form a slight crust.

Bake at fan oven 100 °C for 25-30mins (checking regularly). The finished product should have tiny “feet” at the bottom and a smooth shell. Set aside to cool completely.

Once cool, gently peel the shells away from the parchment paper and match up evenly sized pairs.

Salted Caramel Filling:
Heat the double cream in a small saucepan until it comes to the boil. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Weigh your sugar into a larger pan and heat over a medium flame. Stir occasionally to ensure an even caramelisation.

Once the sugar becomes a coppery coloured liquid, remove it from the heat and pour in the warm cream, continuing to mix as you do so.

Let the caramel cool to around 45°C and add the salt and butter, a few pieces at a time.

You’ll soon be able to tell if your caramel is either too hot or too cold to incorporate the butter – but don’t despair – a little extra time to cool or a quick re-heat will help!

Transfer the caramel into a shallow container and allow to cool completely before storing in the fridge.

Once you’re ready to assemble your macarons, remove the caramel from the fridge and whisk using a hand held electric whisk to form a light and fluffy frosting.

Pipe a small blob onto one half of your macaron shell pair and sandwich together.

They’ll taste even more delicious after 12-24 hours in the fridge, once the shells have absorbed all that caramel goodness.