Easy Peasy Pane Tramvai….

If you are like me and LOVE fruit breads, you will love love love love and LOVE this bread!!

Plus it’s not an all day or week bread and it’s not time-consuming……..

And there are so many variations you could do with this recipe which i WILL rattle on about at the end of the post.

I must say, thinking about what we could do with this lovely base recipe is divine..

Of course we would need to rename the bread though…

Soaked Raisins

Heavenly Apricot Spice Brioche!! plus…..

Hubby’s Pavlova:

Not a yeasty beasty but deserves a mention as it’s a NZ dish, divine and Hubby makes it soooooo well. Not sure about the decoration below but you know what they say about ugly things!! They are usually the best.

A favourite NZ dessert…

You will need

• 8 egg whites at RT ( see Poppy seed cake recipe to use up egg yolks).
• 2 cups of castor sugar.
• 1 tsp vanilla essence.
• 1 tsp vinegar.
• 2 tsp cornflour.
• 450 mls cream for whipping later.
• Sprinkles and/ or fresh fruit for decoration.

Whip those whites!!

• Preheat oven to about 140 Celsius.
• Prepare baking tray with baking paper on it.
• DON’T NOT ALLOW A DROP OF YOLK IN THE WHITES.
• Whip the egg whites until soft and peaky.
• Add one tsp on sugar at a time.
• This process takes about 10-15 minutes but you need the sugar to be dissolved and worked in as well as possible.
• Beat in vanilla, cornflour and vinegar.
• Don’t beat the whisk or the beaters on the bowl.
• Spoon Pavlova mix onto the prepared baking tray, forming a round or oval shape.
• Pile it up!!
• Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes at 140 Celsius and then reduce heat to 110 and bake for a further 60-90 minutes until the Pavlova is dry and crisp and lifts of the baking paper easily.

Ready to ice!!

• When cool, transfer to a plate and whip cream and place on top of the Pavlova.
• Decorate to your taste!

Tastes divine too!!

Below is how we usually decorate the Pavlova but i think the boys told hubby that chocolate drinking chocolate would be nice, which it would taste wise but a brown Pavlova?? But as I said, it tasted divine!! 

A bit more colour …

Back to the Brioche……..

I don’t know why I do this to myself.

Talk about glutton for punishment.

I know these Brioche’s are buggers to make by hand BUT still i insist on making them….Luckily this time, not too long kneading, 20 mins to put in 300+ grams of butter. I need a new mixer with a dough hook. I have on the odd lazy occasion used the breadmakers kneading facility BUT I don’t like to use that with buttery goods as i like it to be worked in well, so by hand it is. I am looking for an old mixer, the old Kenwood’s ,you know they last for ever and I have my eye on a few so will keep you all informed!! HUGE dough hooks, good for at least 1-2 kg of dough…….and i have my beady eyes on some bannettons too:) Sigh….All the makings of yeasty heaven…

What are we aiming for?

Divine intervention from the Yeasty Gods!!

Now the recipe I used was https://greedybread.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/are-you-feeling-beasty-today/ from here so I won’t repeat it .

BUT i will add, that i used 320g of butter not 220g, so an increase in butter and take a little longer to work it in.

You also need half a cup of Raisins and half a cup of chopped apricots and 2 tsp cinnamon.

When you take the brioche out from its night in the fridge, still work as quickly as you can with it. Put it back in the fridge if need be.

Work the apricots etc into the dough and work through, don’t handle it too much though, so work as quickly as you can.

You could add the fruit just after you finish the kneading the day before, just before you place the dough in the fridge. I don’t like to add fruit etc during the kneading process unless its right at the end.

Leave to prove until doubled in size, just as in the above recipe. You may need 5 minutes more cooking time with the added fruit. From the recipe above, I got 1 brioche and one braided plait so you will get a larger plait if you are making only one or you could make 2 smaller ones , the size I did.

Leave to cool and then enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!

Lets look at the photos.

1st starter for Brioche

Ingredients and 1st starter already to go !

Eggy mix into 1st starter

Yeasty eggy mix into Dry

Form that dough!

Work that dough!

Work that butter in!!

Almost done!!

Into the fridge in an oiled bag overnight

Apricots, Raisins and Cinnamon

Grease the tins!

Ready for proving

Add in the Fruit and Spice

Ready to roll and braid

Ready for egg wash

Bit of a prove

Mmmmm ready to eat!!

Sooooooo Nice!!

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Kuchen Anyone?? Ja danke!!

Today in case you haven’t guessed we are off to Germany. Not a country I have been to apart from a short stay at Munich airport and Frankfurt Airport in the dead of night and early early morning!!

So without further ado….  What are we aiming for today?Yeast spotting and baking!!

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting/

I was a DUH and forgot that Kuchen means cake in German so I have used my kuchen ring piccies as no other piccies gave a good indication of what I wanted to portray prior to showing what I baked.

Apricot, Raisin and Apple Kuchen

This recipe was adapted from the stunning recipe by Ruth Joseph in her Delightful and beautiful book “Warm Bagels & Apple Strudel” . I will be working on and testing a few more of these wonderful recipes. I understand the Hairy Bikers tested this and gave it the thumbs up!!

Shabbat Apricot, Apple and Raisin Kuchen.

Dough:

• 200 mls of warmed milk
• 3 tsp dried yeast
• 4 cups of strong bread flour
• dash of salt
• 100g butter (or dairy free margarine)
• 100g castor sugar
• 2 beaten eggs
• 4 tbsp orange/ lemon zest
• Extra egg and 2 tsp milk for egg wash

Fruit all ready to go

• Filling :
• 1 can (440g) of Apple slices or pieces (not cubes though)
• 1 can of drained apricot pieces
• 1 cup raisins
• lemon/orange zest to taste
• 1/2 cup walnut pieces

Icing:

• 1 cup of icing sugar
• lemon juice to mix

METHOD:

I used quite a bit of zest as i love it, you may like to use less .

• Add 3 tsp of the sugar to the milk , mix well until slightly dissolved 
• Add yeast and leave in a warm place until creamy and frothy. Usually 10-20 minutes.

While yeast is feeding:

• Put all dry ingredients into a bowl , Flour and salt.
• Rub in the butter to the Flour mix
• Stir in sugar and zest
• Remove yeast from warm place. 
• Add beaten eggs to the yeasty mix and beat well
• Pour into the dry butter mix and combine until a smooth dough
• Turn out on floured area and knead well for 6 minutes.
• Place in lightly oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place for 1-2 hours or doubled in size. 
  

  Rolling up the Kuchen

When Dough is almost ready:

• Mix apple, walnuts, apricots, raisins and zest together
• Tip dough out on floured area and roll out into a rectangle.
• I think mine was 40cm by 20cm.
• Spread the apple filling over the dough and fold the edges all around the dough in slightly  and then roll up like you would cinnamon buns,Chelsea buns or a Chocolate log.
• Place on Baking tray
• Slash a few slits along the top of the Kuchen.
• Cover and leave in a warm place for 45-60 minutes.
• Pre heat oven to 200 Celsius.

Rolled up and ready for egg wash and baking!!
oops and slashing:)

• Brush beaten egg wash over the kuchen and place in the oven.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes (dependant on your oven)

ready to ice

• Remove from oven and cool on the tray.

Very delicious

• When cool, make up Icing by combining 1 cup of icing sugar and enough lemon juice to make a paste
• Drizzle over the kuchen when cold.
• As soon as icing is set, cut a HUGE slice, pour a large cuppa and enjoy!!

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