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.
Alice's Bakery 