Blueberries and Thyme: Breakfast & Brunch

Posts labeled Breakfast & Brunch

This is my favourite granola recipe. Freeze dried raspberry adds a fruity flavour and freshness, setting it apart from your regular store bought option. The subtle sweetness of honey and orange juice make it the perfect sweet, yet healthy breakfast option.

I have made a fair bit of granola during the last lockdown (and before) and experimented with quite a few flavour combinations. This particular one, however, is my favourite. I prefer granola that is crispy and light, not clumpy or so sweet it makes your teeth stick together.

Many granolas contain either too much nuts and seeds, which makes them tasty, I agree, but also calorie dense or contain large amounts of sugar. Not this granola. The sweetness comes from a little honey, freshly squeezed orange juice and freeze dried berries. The addition of various types of seeds gives it more flavour and the crunchy texture we all love in a good granola.

Oats - the base: I used rolled jumbo oats which I buy from our local bulk food shop. I prefer these to regular rolled oats, which don't have enough body to make this granola the crispy delight it should be.

Rice flakes - the extra crunch: Rice flakes are pretty sturdy flakes. They give the extra crunch in this granola. Do not use rice puffs!

Almonds: Packed with vitamins, minerals, healthy fat and protein, they are the perfect addition to your morning meal. Not to mention how very tasty they are. I used already dry roasted almonds. The double roasting results in an ever so slightly burned flavour. If you don't like that, raw almonds are the way to go.

Seeds: I chose pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and hemp seeds. I recently discovered hemp seeds, also called hemp hearts, as a fantastic alternative to flax seed. Hemp seeds are rich in fibre and apparently a natural appetite suppressant, which can help keep you full for longer.

Coconut flakes: Coconut instantly transports you to a tropical island and adds to the fruity flavour. Don't substitute the coconut flakes for shredded coconut. Shredded coconut is too fine and might burn faster than the granola can crisp up. If you want to add shredded coconut, I suggest toasting it separately in a pan on the stovetop and adding it to the cooked granola at the end.

Chia seeds: Apart from being considered a 'super food', chia seeds add even more crunch. You can also substitute chia seeds for sesame seeds, if you prefer. However, this will alter the taste quite significantly and give the granola a slightly middle eastern vibe.

It doesn't need much more than fresh fruit and a large dollop of smooth greek yoghurt or coconut yoghurt.

Variations

Hazelnut: Try chopped hazelnuts instead of almonds or a mix of nuts
Choc and Coco: Add 2-3 tablespoons of dark chocolate chips along with the freeze dried berries
Protein Powder: add max one scoop of chocolate protein powder into the mix to give it some extra nutritional benefit
Other spices/spice mix such as cardamom, chai or gingerbread spice mix

Fruity granola with nuts and seeds

1.5 cups rolled jumbo oats

0.5 cup rice flakes

0.5 cup almonds, roughly chopped

0.5 cup mixed seeds (I used pumpkin, sunflower, hemp seeds)

0.5 cup coconut flakes

2-3 tbsp black chia seeds

0.5-1 tsp cinnamon

0.25 tsp sea salt

0.25 cup coconut oil, melted

0.25 cup runny honey

freshly squeezed juice of 1 orange

0.5-1 tsp vanilla essence

a handful of crumbled freeze dried raspberries (or other freeze dried berries)

Preheat the oven to 150ºC. You will need a deep baking tray lined with baking paper or a large baking pan. Alternatively, use one of those aluminium grill pans from the DIY store like I do.

Melt the coconut oil over a low heat until runny.

In the meantime, combine all dry ingredients except the freeze dried berries in a large bowl. Mix wet ingredients including oil and orange juice in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients and mix everything with a spatula until well combined.

Pour the mix onto your baking tray or pan and distribute evenly. The layer shouldn't be too thick, or the granola won't turn crispy.

Total baking time is about 30-45 minutes. Bake for 10 minutes. Stir the granola with a spatula and distribute evenly again. Bake for another 10 minutes, stir again. Repeat this process until it has the desired crispness, but is not burnt.

Test after 30 minutes, don't bake for more than 50 minutes. It might become too dark and turn bitter.

Once it has the desired crispness, take it out of the oven and let it cool to room temperature. Once cool, add the freeze dried berry crumbs and mix well.

Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Fruity granola with nuts and seeds

This is my favourite granola recipe. Freeze dried raspberry adds a fruity flavour and freshness, setting it apart from your regular store bo...

Banana Bread is a fantastic healthy treat that I make on a regular basis. It's the perfect snack with an afternoon coffee as well a good breakfast option when I have only little time in the morning.

Usually, I would make Banana Bread to use discard starter that I collect in a jar in the fridge. I have adapted the recipe for sourdough spelt banana bread from foodbod to create this banana bread recipe. The addition of apple makes it moist and even more delicious.

I have made various additions to this recipe over the last few months, for example added a tablespoon of Tahini or 1/2 cup of roughly chopped walnuts so feel free to experiment.

This recipe can be made with or without sourdough starter. Just replace 50g of flour and 50g of water with 100g of discard or active sourdough starter at 100% hydration.

Banana Bread with Apple

makes 1 small loaf

1 egg
90 ml milk (or 45 ml water, 45 ml milk)
40 g coconut oil
70 g runny honey
2 medium ripe bananas
1 small apple
20 g whole rye flour
200 g all purpose flour
35 g almond meal
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180ºC top and bottom heat (160ºC fan).

Coarsely grate the apple, mash the bananas with a fork.

Mix all wet ingredients (milk, egg, honey, coconut oil) and add the apple and banana to it. If using sourdough starter, add it to the wet ingredients mix as well.
Mix dry ingredients (flours, almond meal, salt, spices, baking soda and powder) in a large bowl.
Combine dry with wet ingredients to form a relatively lose batter. (If experimenting, add in any additions like roughly chopped nuts or swirl through two tablespoons of tahini.)

Line a 20 x 10 cm loaf tin with baking paper. Pour in the batter and use a spatula to even it out.
Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave it in the tin for 10 minutes before taking it out. Leave to cool before cutting it.

Enjoy!

Pro tip: Cut into slices and freeze for up to 3 months. Directly toast the frozen slices for a quick breakfast.

Banana Bread with Apple

Banana Bread is a fantastic healthy treat that I make on a regular basis. It's the perfect snack with an afternoon coffee as well a good...

These teacakes are easy and fast to make and super delicious with afternoon tea or coffee.

I re-watched old episodes of The Great British Bake Off the other day (don't judge! ;)) and came across something that I didn't know before: teacakes. They are brioche like buns, but less rich and sweet. Spiced and filled with dried fruit - sounded delicious! So here is my take on them.

I really like two very uncommon spices used in Greek baking. Mahlepi, which is ground cherry stones, and Mastic gum, a resin obtained from the mastic tree. These spices are used in sweet bread like Tsoureki which is traditionally baked for Easter in Greece. You can find them in greek shops.

Teacakes and these spices to me seemed like the perfect combination. I'd say however, that it's an accomplished taste, so start off with a quarter of a teaspoon and taste the dough so that you can find out how much of the spice mix is enough for you.

Enjoy them fresh out of the oven or toasted with your favourite toppings.

Recipe adapted from this recipe on BBC goodfood.

Teacakes with greek flavours

makes 4 small teacakes

50 ml milk
50 ml luke warm water
175 g high grad flour (strong bread flour)
3 g dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 - 1/2 tsp spice mix (1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground mahlepi, 1 small rock mastic gum crushed, seeds of 1 cardamom pod, crushed)
35 g dried fruit (e.g. raisins, chopped apricots)
1 egg for the eggwash

Prepare the spice mix by combining cinnamon, mahlepi and the crushed mastic rock and cardamom.

Mix water with the yeast and sugar and let stand for about 10 minutes to activate the yeast.

In the meantime mix flour, salt and spice mix in the bowl of a stand mixer and combine well.

In a small saucepan, combine milk and butter and slowly warm up until the butter has melted. Let the milk and butter mixture cool a little bit before combining it with the yeast water.

Make a well in the flour mix and pour in the liquid ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon until a dough starts to form. Knead the dough on medium speed (setting 6 on my KitchenAid) until the dough is smooth and passes the window pane test, about 5 -7 minutes.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp towl and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1 - 1.5 hours.

Once it's risen, divide the dough in 4 equal pieces. On a lightly floured surface, flatten each piece and fill with a quarter of the dried fruit. Roll it up and knead so that the fruit is distributed equally. Shape into a semi-tight ball by cupping your hand over the dough and moving it in a circular motion with the fingers of that hand slightly tucked in and slight pressure.
Leave the shaped buns in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes - 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan (200°C top/bottom heat).
When the buns have risen and the dough springs back slightly but leaves a dent when you poke it with your finger, they are ready to bake. Whisk the egg to make an eggwash and brush each bun with the eggwash. This gives them their characteristic shine. Bake in the top third of your oven for about 16-18 minutes until they have a deep golden brown colour.

I enjoy them warm with (peanut) butter and jam or ricotta, honey and fresh fruit.

Depending on you preference, you can add more spices or a different spice mix. Next time, I plan on flavouring them with Earl Grey tea leaves.

Teacakes with greek flavours

These teacakes are easy and fast to make and super delicious with afternoon tea or coffee. I re-watched old episodes of The Great British ...

I really like the flavour combination of nuts, dried fig and fennel seeds. The last loaf I made was 100% whole spelt flour and it was accordingly dense-ish. This time, I added some bread flour and used the technique described in Ken Forkish's book 'Flour Water Salt Yeast' to create a lighter crumb. The bread turned out fantastically. It didn't even last 24h!

I didn't have any walnuts at home, so I replaced them with hazelnuts. To give the bread even more flavour, I toasted the hazelnuts as well as the fennel seeds. Toasting the nuts makes it easy to get rid of the skin as well which gives them a somewhat sweeter flavour in the end. Just pour the toasted nuts on a kitchen towel and gently rub them until almost all of the skin has come off. Let them cool before folding them into the dough during the first fold.

As for the dried figs, I cut them up in reasonably big junks and let them soak in hot water for 15 minutes before adding them to the dough, together with the nuts and seeds. Doing this ensures that they don't pull out any water from the dough to rehydrate.

I followed the schedule suggested by Ken Forkish in his book: Mix levain at 8am, start autolyse at 3:30pm, mix final dough around 4pm and bake the next morning at 8am straight from the fridge. As the lucky owner of a home proofing box, I can keep the dough at a constant temperature. If you don't own one, you might have to adjust times e.g. longer times in colder environments, shorter in warmer temperatures.

In the past I had problems with the loaf not holding it's shape when I moved it from the proofing basket onto a surface and then to the dutch oven for baking. I have since started to pour the shaped loaf directly from the proofing basket into the dutch oven. This technique works well for me, but feel free to transfer it to a floured countertop first, score it the way you want and move it from the countertop to the dutch oven.

Whole spelt fig, hazelnut and fennel seed sourdough loaf

makes one small loaf

for the levain
10g active sourdough starter, 100% hydration
10g whole grain flour (I used wholewheat)
45g bread flour
45g warm water, 29-32°C

for the final dough
108g of the levain

200g whole spelt flour
40g strong white flour (sometimes called bread flour or high grade flour)
198g warm water, ca. 32-35°C
7g sea salt
1g active dry yeast (a generous dash)

filling
7g fennel seeds
30g hazelnuts
50g dried figs

Day 1

Prepare levain (around 8am): Mix flour, starter and water in a large jar or bowl until no dry spots remain. Cover and leave to mature at room temperature. Depending on the temperature in your house, this will take around 6-8 hours. To test if your levain is ready, drop a pea sized piece in a glass of water. It's ready if the piece floats.

Prepare the filling: While the levain is maturing, prepare the ingredients for the filling. Roughly chop the dried figs and soak in boiling water for about 15 minutes. Then drain the liquid and set aside to cool. Lightly toast the hazelnuts in a pan over low heat until the brown skin starts falling off. Pour onto a kitchen towel and gently rub the nuts to remove any leftover skin. Leave to cool before chopping them up, just a little bit. You want chunky pieces of hazelnut in your bread. Clean the pan and toast the fennel seeds for a few minutes until fragrant. Pour into a small bowl and let cool.

Autolyse (around 3:30pm for me): When the levain is ready, mix the flour and water for the final dough by hand or with a spatula until no dry spots remain. Cover and let sit for 20 to 30 minutes.

Mix the final dough: Sprinkle the salt and dry yeast evenly on top of the dough. Incorporate by pinching the dough. Transfer 108g of the levain to the dough bowl. With a wet hand distribute the levain evenly over the top of the dough. Drizzle the honey evenly over the levain and incorporate levain and honey again by pinching and folding the dough. When everything has come together cover the bowl again and leave at room temperature.

Bulk fermentation and folds: During bulk fermentation, I folded the dough three times. I performed the first fold after 10 minutes and incorporated the filling with the first fold. Sprinkle about a third of the filling ingredients over the dough. With a wet hand, reach under the dough and pull it out to the point of resistance and fold it over itself. Turn the bowl by 90°, sprinkle another third of the filling on top and perform another fold. Turn then bowl again and repeat the fold twice more. The filling should ideally not be sticking out too much. Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
Perform another set of four folds after 30 minutes. Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes. Repeat folding one more time after the rest. (check out this explanatory video about folding here)
After the last fold, cover the bowl and let the dough rest at room temperature until it has more than doubled in size, about 5 hours after mixing the final dough.

Shaping: When the dough has risen enough, gently pour it out it onto a lightly floured countertop. Because of the high whole grain percentage, it is a rather sticky dough. Generously flour a proofing basket. With floured hands shape the dough into a medium tight ball (see here on how shape the dough). Put the shaped dough into the proofing baket, seam side up (you have to turn it upside down). Put the basket in an unperforated plastic bag and put it in the fridge overnight (about 12 hours).

Day 2

I use a cast iron dutch oven for bread baking. Preheat the oven and dutch oven to 250°C about an hour before baking (around 7am).

Baking (around 8am): Take proofing basket out of the fridge. Take the dutch oven out of the oven, open the lid and carefully ease the dough straight into the dutch oven. If you have a lame or sharp knife, score the dough. Be really careful not to burn yourself on the super hot dutch oven!
Close the lid and put the pot back in the oven. After 27 minutes, remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes until the top is a deep brown and has a lovely strong crust.

Remove the dutch oven from the oven and take out the bread. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack before cutting. Enjoy with your favourite topping.

Whole spelt fig, hazelnut and fennel seed sourdough loaf, take 2

I really like the flavour combination of nuts, dried fig and fennel seeds. The last loaf I made was 100% whole spelt flour and it was acco...

This is a recipe to use up excess sourdough starter you would normally discard.

When I started to bake with sourdough, I invariably ran into the dilemma of having to through away excess starter every week. I keep my starter in the fridge and feed it only once a week as I don't bake all the time. Still, if you are using good quality organic flour like I do, throwing away excess starter away is like throwing money in the bin. Plus, I don't want to throw away food. Not even sourdough starter. That's why am constantly on the lookout for recipes that use discard sourdough starter.

I have a routine of making these sourdough starter crumpets after I have collected enough excess starter. It usually takes about three feedings. I have three different kinds of sourdough starter in my fridge (white, rye and 50/50 white and whole wheat flour) and I generally mix all the excess starter together and keep it until I have about a cups (270g) worth. However, I became adventurous and wanted to try out a new way of using up the starter and crêpes seemed just the right thing.

When you mix the batter, make sure that it is quite runny. It will thicken while resting. I did a trial crêpe and it came out more like a pancake. I adjusted the amount of milk accordingly so that I could make nice thin crêpes. Keeping this recipe healthy was important to me so I didn't use any additional fat other than what is in the egg and milk - in fact, I even used low fat milk, but if you want more luscious but less healthy crêpes, add a quarter of a cup melted and cooled butter or coconut oil (reduce the amount of milk accordingly).

Also, since I filled the crepes with savoury stuff as well as sweet, I didn't add any sugar in the batter. If you would like them to be sweet, add 1-2 teaspoons of sugar or honey and vanilla essence to the batter.

Whole spelt sourdough starter crêpes

makes about 8 small crêpes

100g sourdough starter 100% hydration
(discard sourdough starter or active sourdough starter is fine)
1 cup milk (or 3/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup melted butter)
100g whole spelt flour
4g sea salt
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
1-2 tsp sugar or honey (optional)
coconut oil or butter to grease the pan

Mix the sourdough starter with the milk and the egg. Add salt and sift in flour. Mix well and let rest for 30-60 minutes.
Heat up a non stick skillet over low-medium heat. Lightly coat the skillet with a little bit of coconut oil or butter.
Add about a 1/4 cup of the batter to the skillet and swirl to create a thin crêpe. Cook until the top of the crêpe has dried out, about 1-2 minutes. Loosen edge of crepe with a rubber spatula, then quickly flip it over. Cook one more minute on this side. Slide crepe out of skillet onto a plate.
Repeat with the remaining batter. Don't forget to coat the skillet with oil or butter as needed.

I found ricotta, honey, strawberries and toasted hazelnuts to be the perfect filling.

Whole spelt sourdough starter crêpes

This is a recipe to use up excess sourdough starter you would normally discard. When I started to bake with sourdough, I invariably ra...

This recipe is for a 100% whole spelt sourdough loaf.

I wrote in another post that a few weeks back I ordered way too much whole spelt flour. Hence I keep my eyes open for whole spelt flour recipes all the time. In fact, I pretty much make everything with spelt flour these days. Pizza crust, for example, or bread rolls.

I found this recipe for whole spelt rolls and the rolls came out fantastic. I've added pumpkin seeds, fennel seeds and ground cumin to my first batch. It inspired me to try the same dough but as a loaf and with a different flavour combination.

Spelt flour has an earthy and nutty flavour which, in my opinion, pairs particularly well with dried fruit and nuts. The addition of fennel seeds just gives this little bit of extra depth to the flavour. In Austria we traditionally spice bread with a mixture of anise, coriander, caraway and fennel seeds.
Blue cheese and thyme-blueberry jam are perfect with a slice of this bread.

When folding in the nuts and figs, make sure they are well distributed but be careful as not to squash the figs too much. You want large-ish bits of fig and nut in the finished bread. As with every bread containing dried fruit it is important to make sure that non of the fruit stick out before baking. Otherwise they will burn and are not very nice to eat. I baked the loaf in a cast iron pan, but a dutch oven works as well. If you want a harder crust, remove the lid a little earlier.

After a friend mentioned to me that he was keeping a baking journal, I recently started to do the same and keep track of kitchen temperature, humidity, rising times and such things for each bake. It's especially useful when working with sourdough as all of these parameters have an influence on the outcome. My notes on how the whole spelt rolls came out greatly helped me to work out rising times and how much spices to add. I can highly recommend this practice.

Whole spelt fig, walnut and fennel seed sourdough loaf

makes one small loaf

Ingredients
for the dough

500g whole spelt flour
388g warm water, ca. 29-33°C
140g active sourdough starter, 75% hydration*
12g sea salt
2 tbsp olive oil
for the filling
15-20g fennel seeds
65-80g walnuts (coarsely chopped)
65-80g dried figs (coarsely chopped)

Directions

Day 1

Autolyse: In the bowl of a stand mixer mit water and flour. Cover the bowl with a plate (or plastic wrap, but I don't want to use plastic) and let rest for 40 minutes.
Knead: Add salt, starter and olive oil and knead on low with the dough hook for about 5 minutes. Cover and let ferment for 30 minutes.
First fold and filling: Add a third of the chopped nuts and fennel seeds. Grab the bottom of the dough and fold it over the top. Turn the bowl by 90°, add another third of the filling and fold the next side. Turn the bowl again by 90°, add the rest of the filling and fold the third side. Turn again and perform the last fold. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
Second fold: Perform another set of four folds. Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
Third fold: Perform the last set of folds.
Slow rise: Cover the bowl with a plate (or plastic wrap) and put in the fridge or fresh drawer for 12-24 hours until doubled in size.**

Day 2

Preshape: When the dough has roughly doubled in size and has large air bubbles on the top, take it out of the container. Shape into a ball and let rest for 20 minutes.
Shape and proof: Shape the dough into a boule. It is not as easy because of the filling. Make sure none of the fruit stick out as they would burn. Move the dough to a floured banneton, seam side up. Let proof at room temperature for about 2 hours.
Preheat the oven and the cast iron pan, lid on, to 230°C (top and bottom heat) about an hour before baking.
Bake: Take the pan out of the oven, Drop the dough from the banneton into the hot pan. Slash the bread with a lame or very sharp knife. Bake with the lid on for about 25-30 minutes. Remove the lid and turn down the heat to 200°C. Bake for another 10-15 minutes. Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before moving the finished loaf to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes
* I used 50/50 whole wheat and bread flour starter, but if you want to go wheat free, use a spelt flour starter.
** My fridge has a fresh produce drawer and that's where I usually put the dough for a slow rise during the night. If I want to bake during the day, I take the bowl out in the morning and let it finish rising at warm room temperature which speeds up the rise.

Whole spelt fig, walnut and fennel seed sourdough loaf

This recipe is for a 100% whole spelt sourdough loaf. I wrote in another post that a few weeks back I ordered way too much whole spelt fl...

This is just too good to not post it. Today (well, starting yesterday actually) I had a go at Sicilian brioche. My husbands family is from southern Italy and one of his fondest childhood memories is having true Italian gelato. And in southern Italy, gelato comes in a brioche bun with a 'tuppo' on top.

This recipe is translated and adapted from a recipe on Il Giallo Zafferano. The original recipe calls for Manitoba flour, a kind of high protein flour made from a soft wheat that is grown in the Manitoba province in Canada. I couldn't find Manitoba flour here, so I used high grade flour which has a high protein content and works well for baking bread.

Ever since I obtained sourdough starter from a friend, I like to use this instead of commercial yeast for my bakes. However, the original recipe does include options to make the brioche with commercial yeast. I also replaced the barley malt, which the original recipe calls for, with a tablespoon of runny honey and it worked perfectly.

About rising times: The original recipes calls 26-28°C "room temperature". This is probably Sicilian summer room temperature but definitely not Auckland room temperature. I tried to shorten the rising times by preheating my oven to 30°C and letting the dough rise in the oven. For the second rise I put the baking tray with the buns on top of my turned on coffee machine. They rose very quickly, more like 2.5h instead of 3-4h which is recommended in the original recipe.

I need to practice putting on the tuppi, because - as you can see - my brioches are rather lopsided. They taste amazing though. Brioche and gelato are a spectacular combination and I highly recommend you give it a try. We filled them with hazelnut and blueberry-mascarpone gelato.

Update: Since posting this for the first time, I have invested in a Brød & Taylor home proofing box. It's amazing and I get much more consistent results. I can definitely recommend it.

Sicilian Sourdough Brioche

makes 4 large brioche buns

for the dough

210 g high grade flour*
50 g white sourdough starter (100% hydration)
55 g egg (1 whole medium egg)
70 g low fat milk
35 g butter at room temperature
40 g sugar**
1 tbsp honey
zest of half an untreated lemon
zest of half an untreated orange
0.5 tbsp of vanilla extract
0.5 g sea salt (a good dash)

for the glaze
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

Day 1, in the evening (around 7 pm)

1. Starter mix: Add sourdough starter, milk and honey to your food processor bowl and whisk together until it foams.

2. Add flour: Equip your food processor with a dough hook. Mix salt with the flour. Turn the food processor on low (2 on the KitchenAid) and add the flour/salt to the sourdough starter mix. Leave the food processor on low for the next steps.

3. Add sugar: Slowly add the sugar e.g. one tablespoon at at time.

4. Add flavourings: After the sugar is incorporated, add the citrus zest and vanilla extract.

5. Add egg: Whisk the egg. Add it very slowly to the mix while the food processor is still running on low. The egg should be well incorporated before you move to the next step.

6. Add butter: Add the soft butter to the mix.

7. Knead until smooth: When the butter is well incorporated, turn the food processor up to medium low (5 on the Kitchen Aid) and knead until the dough is very smooth and the window pane test is successful (meaning the gluten has developed enough). It took about 13 minutes of kneading, so be patient. You might need to stop the food processor and scrape down the sides a few times.

8. Rest on the bench: Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and leave to rest for about 30 minutes.

9. Perform two sets of fold and stretches and rest: Press the dough into a rectangle. Fold a the left third of the rectangle over to the center. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center on top of the part you folded over just before). Turn the rectangle by 90 degrees and perform another set of folds as described above. Finally shape the dough into a boule and put it back in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a large plate. Leave the dough to rest at room temperature (we're talking Sicilian room temperature, about 26-28°C ) for about an hour. Our house is very cold, so I heated up the oven to about 25°-30°C and left it in there.

10. around 10pm - Let mature in the fridge overnight: After an hour rest put it in the fridge overnight (8-10 hours).

Day 2, in the morning (around 7 am)

1. First rise at room temperature: Take the bowl with the dough out of the fridge. Because this recipe uses sourdough, the rising times are quite long. Again, because my house is cold and I am impatient, I heated up the oven to about 25°-30°C and let it rise in the oven. The dough will start rising only after it has warmed up again. Warming up takes considerable time, 1-2h. Let it rise until it has doubled in size (6h in total for me).

2. Shape the brioche buns: Cut the dough into 4 pieces. Cut a small portion off each piece. Now fold the bigger part as you did with the entire dough the day before. Shape into a ball by cupping your hand over the dough and moving it in a circular motion with the fingers of that hand slightly tucked in. Do the same with the smaller part. With your thumb, push a hole in the middle of the large ball. Put the small ball on top and, at the base of the small ball, push it down into the hole with your thumb.

3. Second rise at room temperature: Transfer the brioche buns to a baking tray lined with parchment paper and cover with a tea towel. Let rise at room temperature until doubled in size. Depending on how warm your house is, somewhere between 2-4h. Mine took 2.5h, but I left the tray on top of the turned on coffee machine, which is a very warm place.

4. Glaze and bake: Preheat your oven to 170°C fan (180°C top and bottom heat). Whisk together the ingredients for the glaze and brush it on the brioche buns. Make sure you don't miss a spot. This will give them the characteristic shine. Bake on the middle shelf for about 16-18 minutes until golden and shiny.

Notes
* Manitoba flour is the best to use, if you can find it. Bread flour or strong flour are good alternatives.
** It's better to use white sugar than e.g. palm sugar because dark sugar would give the dough a dark colour

Nutritional information per serving
Energy:	362 kcal
Protein:	10% \| 36 kcal
Fat:	23% \| 85 kcal
Carbohydrates:	67% \| 241 kcal

analysed with happyforks analyzer

Sicilian Sourdough Brioche

This is just too good to not post it. Today (well, starting yesterday actually) I had a go at Sicilian brioche. My husbands family is from s...

For those of you who, like me, are not into overly sweet granola.

This weekend my husband and I went away on a short trip to the east coast beaches near Tauranga. We had breakfast at one of the lovely cafés. My husband ordered the homemade granola from the breakfast menu. It tasted amazing! The best thing about this particular granola was, that it wasn't overly sweet. I'm used to very sugary, sticky granola which I really don't like. Me being me, I immediately thought that I could make something similar myself so that we can enjoy granola all the time.

This recipe is adapted from The Kitchn. They put together a bunch of very useful tips on how to make good and healthy granola e.g. to stir in dried fruit after baking.

I had the idea of using juice instead of honey as sweetener, so I boiled down some pear and feijoa juice that was sitting in our fridge. It is a lot less sweet than honey and has a lovely fruity, slightly acidic flavour. As a result, the granola doesn't make clumps. It's rather like crispy toasted oatmeal.

Homemade healthy pear juice granola

for the juice sweetener

1 cup pear juice*
1 tsp lemon juice

for the granola
2 cup old fashioned whole grain oats
1/4 cup mixed raw nuts (coarsely chopped)
1/4 cup pepita seeds**
1/4 desiccated coconut (optional)
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)****
1/4 tsp sea salt
1-2 tbsp coconut oil (melted and cooled)
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1/2 - 3/4 cup dried fruit (e.g. apricot and raisins, coarsely chopped)

Preheat the oven to 150°C (fan). Line a deep baking tray with non stick parchment paper.
Add juice to a medium size pot, bring to a rolling boil and add lemon juice. Boil down over medium high heat to half a cup, about 30 minutes. Let cool.
In a large bowl whisk together the wet ingredients (reduced juice, coconut oil and vanilla extract). Add oats, salt and pepita seeds. Coarsely chop the nuts and add to the oat mix. Stir until the dry ingredients are well coated.
Transfer mixture to the baking tray and spread out in a thin layer.

Bake for about 20-30 minutes. You want it to dry out and toast rather than bake. Keep a close eye on it so that it doesn't burn.
If using desiccated coconut, add it halfway through the bake to get perfectly toasted coconut.

Let the mixture cool completely before stirring in the chopped dried fruit. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

Notes
* Apple or any apple or pear mixed juice will work as well

** You can use any seeds you like, e.g. sunflower
*** I will experiment with different spice combinations in the future e.g. chai spice mix for the winter months

Homemade healthy pear juice granola

For those of you who, like me, are not into overly sweet granola. This weekend my husband and I went away on a short trip to the east coa...

Breakfast has always been my favourite meal of the day. I went through a period of eating only muesli in all variations. When I joined a new gym late last year I also wanted to have a close look at my diet to maximise results from the training. That's when my trainer brought to my attention that in order to get the best results, I should really seek more variety in my breakfast (and eat a whole lot more veggies, but that's for another blog post ;)).

Ever since then I am looking for new and interesting recipes to start the day well. A few weeks ago I discovered buckwheat groats as breakfast food. Quinoa has been on my list of favourite breakfast bowl foods for quite some time, but I find quinoa porridge to be quite bitter. I tend to mix it with oats to get a lighter texture ... which basically brings me back to standard muesli. Buckwheat on the other hand has this lovely more earthy nutty flavour and is really filling and has in addition a lot of health benefits. You can soak the buckwheat groats in water overnight to make them even more digestible.

I've had to try out this recipe several times until I got it right. The first and second time I tried the recipe I added the milk and the buckwheat groats to the pan and turned up the heat. I ended up burning the milk on the bottom of the pan. This is why I started to bring the groats to a boil with half a cup of water first and then slowly add the milk while constantly stirring. No burnt milk and a few calories saved.

Buckwheat porridge with cherries and coconut yoghurt

serves 2

1 cup buckwheat groats (soaked overnight)

1/2 cup water

1 1/2 cup milk*

1 dash of sea salt

2 tbsp honey**

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1 dash of nutmeg

1 cup frozen or fresh cherries

1 handful of coarsely chopped roasted almonds

2 heaped tbsp coconut yoghurt to serve

Cook the cherries in a small saucepan over a low heat with half a tablespoon of honey until they have released the juice and are nice and soft (about 5-7 minutes).

Meanwhile add the buckwheat groats and half a cup of water to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and slowly add the milk, constantly stirring. Add a dash of sea salt and cook for about 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes add the spices and honey and stir well. Cook for further 10 minutes or until the buckwheat groats are tender.

Divide the porridge between two bowls and pour the cherries including juices on top. Top each bowl with a tablespoon of coconut yoghurt and almonds and serve.

Notes

* I used NZ light milk which has a fat content of 1.5%. I also prepared the porridge successfully with trim milk. I imagine the porridge is even more creamy with full fat milk. I will try preparing it with almond milk some time soon.
** I imagine it would work well with any other type of liquid sweetener or 2-3 dried dates soaked in hot water and chopped finely.

Buckwheat porridge with cherries and coconut yoghurt

Breakfast has always been my favourite meal of the day. I went through a period of eating only muesli in all variations. When I joined a new...