Estonian Kringel with coconut

Shelley of C Mom Cook is the lovely host of Bread Baking Day #53. She would like us all to bake Swirly Breads. I had a beautiful swirl on my list of ‘breads to bake’. And I love to bake from this list because it’s growing and growing. There are so many delicious looking breads out there. 

12^th of August is the birthday of the Queen of Thailand, everybody is celebrating. And  this day is also mothers day in Thailand. On this day all National Parks in Thailand are free. Mothers day is a nice day for a picnic and we invited some Thai-Canadian friends. On the way we stopped at the market to buy food for our picnic. 
Because of the rainy season the river in the park flowed hard. The 11 year old son of our friends was jumping to get in the water. In Thailand most of the people go swimming in their shirts and trousers’. It was funny to see how the flowing water almost took his pants. He enjoyed it so much we couldn’t talk him out of the water, not even for food. So, his mother brought him his food while he kept playing in the water.

Our picnic started with the Estonian Kringel and then we had lots of good Thai food; whole fried fish, sticky rice, spicy salad, Chiang Mai sausage and spicy chicken. After a few hours in the Park we left to see a beautiful waterfall. We had a short walk through the jungle. 

Waterfalls are so powerful you can feel the energy standing near it. It was a nice mother’s day.

The Estonian Kringel is delicious and nice to look at. It’s a great gift and nice to share with friends. The original kringel has only cinnamon in it, but since I bought 1 kilo of fresh grated coconut you can imagine where I wanted to put it. First I had to dry the coconut and I placed it in the oven on 100°C until I smelled it. Luckily I was in time before it started to burn. It took me two times to dry 1 kilo of grated coconut. And instead of water I used coconut milk. 

Shaping Estonian Kringel takes some skill because of the smooth butter/sugar/cinnamon filling. It helps to work quickly, especially when your kitchen is hot like mine. Maybe I should cool the dough next time before shaping it? Anyway, I managed and let it proof even though the recipe didn’t call for it. 

I’m very happy with the result and the coconut added something extra. It gives the Estonian Kringel a nice texture and tropical flavor.

French Bread for Julia Child’s 100th Anniversary

Today it’s 15th of August and Julia Child’s 100^th birthday!

When I grew up in the Netherlands I learned to cook from my mother as she had learned to cook from her mother. As I grew older and got more interested in International food I started to look for recipes in cookbooks and talk with my friends. As a young girl I had Indonesian friends and I loved Indonesian food. Growing older there were more immigrants coming to the Netherlands and this meant a lot of good International food. There was European food, African food, Asian food, American food, Australian food. You name it and it's probably available in the Netherlands. 

Food unites people. Even if you can’t understand what the other is saying or you don’t understand the culture; you can share, taste and enjoy food together.

The first time I heard the name of Julia Child was in the movie; “Julie and Julia”. A lovely  movie with the great Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci and Amy Adams, as you all know. When I saw a recording of Julia Child on You Tube I saw how lifelike Meryl had played the role of Julia.

When I was growing up we heard about some American people who couldn’t or didn’t cook at home. We were so surprised. In the Netherlands everybody ate home cooked meals. Only for very special occasions you went out for dinner. We heard about American people who ate out every day and even for their breakfast. This was unthinkable in the Netherlands. Although people in the Netherlands went out for dinner sometimes, but never for breakfast. As you understand by now, this was many many years ago and things have changed a lot. Many people in America discovered the cookbook of Julia Child. They eat their home cooked meals and there’s delicious American food in all States. And nowadays some people in the Netherlands go out for breakfast.

Susan of Wild Yeast is the talented host for the Bread Baking Babes. She asked us, Buddies, to bake Julia Child’s French Bread as a tribute to her 100^th Birthday. Of course I bake for Julia. Reading trough her book I saw what an amazing accomplishment she has made by writing this book. The instructions are detailed and clear. Probably because of the movie, I could hear Julia talking trough the recipes. She made it look very easy and that’s what you need when you want to make something for the first time. This is not my first French Bread, but the first one for Julia.

I checked the recipe and was surprised to see 82% hydration. I decided to hold back 0.25 cup of water (60 grams) and see what happens with the flour. I was happy I did, this worked great. It was wet dough and because I wanted to follow Julia's instructions I wanted to knead the dough by hand. But, Julia's method didn't work for me and I used Richard Bertinet's method for sweet dough. I love the pull and trow-method. It works great and gives me one big arm muscle. 

It was hard to choose between all the options; batard, baguette, boule, ficelle or petit pain. I went for 1 rustic loaf, 1 baguette and 2 petit pains. 

Julia's instructions on shaping baguette are so clear. I try to show you with photos. 

Thank you Julia Child for your legacy of baking this delicious authentic French bread!

Flaxseed Triangles

I’m happy BYOB choose Stefanie’s Hefe und Mehr for our Featured Blog. I’m a regular visitor of Stefanie’s blog. She has a long list of bread and treats to choose from. And her explanations are clear and helpful. Even though I haven’t seen everything she has baked, I know what I will bake today: Flaxseed triangles. 

Tomorrow we have to go to Chiang Mai, a 3 hours drive and we need to be in the car very early. Peter loves to eat jog; a soft rice soup with coriander, pepper, ginger and crunchy noodles. Normally they add a raw egg and some restaurants have a selection of pork balls, fish, shrimp or pork intestines. Peter loves it with a raw egg and intestines. I normally stick with the fish. On the way to Chiang Mai we pass his favorite jog restaurant, but because it’s closed at this early hour I will bake the Flaxseed Triangles for our car breakfast.

The original recipe of Stefanie’s Flaxseed Triangles is for 3 Breads of 600g each. Even though the big loaves look delicious, I thought small triangles were more convenient for the car ride. I divided the amounts by half and I changed the recipe a bit. I try to replace yeast for sourdough starter because of my gout. And I grinded some of the flaxseeds coarse and added some multi grain to boiling water because I didn’t have enough flaxseed. I was very happy with the result of these mixed seeds and grains. The last thing I did was adding some roasted malt; it gives the bread a nice dark brown color without the sweet taste of molasses.

Thanks Stefanie for these delicious triangles. We had them with Dutch cheese, a real treat.

I hope you will visit Stefanie’s blog and bake from her long list of recipes. Send your post  to BYOB and help us to fill the breadbasket of August and the basket of the featured blog.