Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Coffee and caraway seeds bread / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Pane al caffé e semi di cumino

What makes a loaf special? Is it the crust, thick and evenly browned under proper blazing heat or is it a balanced crumb, pillowy soft and moist? Is there anything that can beat up a plain rustic loaf made with water, flour, salt and any leaven agent of choice, simply shaped? Probably not. But what would be of the art of baking if early bakers would have been content with just their first attempts at baking bread? We would be missing on gorgeous brioche doughs, on aromatic fougasses, on crispy yet chewy focaccia. We wouldn’t be eating beetroot flavoured bread, pain au chocolat, and caraway seed bread. Caraway seed breads are quite typical in northern countries such as Germany, Austria, the Trentino region in Italy… You can find fully leavened bread as thick yet crispy flatbreads, which very much resemble knäckebröd. I simply love spices and flavoursome seeds of all kind and use them in both savoury and sweet dishes. But I had never tried to bake my own caraway seed bread. I have some memories of eating a caraway flavoured bread in Toronto, at Forno Cultura, but I’m not sure whether it had some coffee in the dough too, it might have. It’s nothing new, but it’s something simply too good to miss on. So I am proud and glad to present my own caraway bread for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook. Try it with honey, you will be amazed at how the two flavours blend marvellously but make sure to savour it with a slice of good cured ham and a generous spread of mustard. Simply heavenly!

#Twelve Loaves: Rye and fennel seeds snails with blood oranges and red onion chutney / #Twelve Loaves: Girelle di segale e semi di finocchio al chutney di arance sanguinelle e cipolle

I’ve been thinking a lot about this recipe, most of all because the need to create a savoury bread was stronger than ever. What triggered this flavour combination was the poll that Lora-Cake Duchess launched in Twelve Loaves to choose April’s theme.

Easter Bread: Hot Cross Buns / Pane Pasquale: Hot cross buns

Yet another month and Panissimo is back again. March marked the beginning of the “Easter leavened season”, which is usually known for complex and rich in fat recipes. Usually the time required for testing and improving these recipes is significant.

Panissimo’s Ecole de boulangerie: La Coupe Saucisson / Panissimo e la sua Ecole de boulangerie: la coupe saucisson

Panissimo also has it’s little school of baking, and every month we are given homeworks in the guise of a new bread shape. Last month finally my friend Michela’s wishes were met, and the shape we had to bake is this very nice saucisson which she had been wanting to make from the start.

Habemus blog!

To open a blog, an operation far more complex than getting white smoke on the first day of the conclave! At least to me, unfamiliar with any interface that requires more effort than writing directly in a text box and dragging images from my desktop onto the page, a tecno-incompetent and surely a bit lazy.

This blog is sort of a notebook for my experiments in the kitchen, mainly regarding baking bread, my passion/obsession…why else would I have chosen to call myself the sourdough preacher? I am accustomed to my friends and relatives rolling their eyes every time I show my two beloved creatures, whilst repeating: “look at those air bubbles, smell the white wine scent!!!!”. They consider me beyond retrieval, except for eating with much pleasure my baked goods (I can preach them as long as I feed them!)

It’s time to turn the oven on!

Habemus blog!

Operazione quasi più ardua che concludere il primo giorno di conclave con la fumata bianca, aprire un blog! almeno per me, digiunissima di qualsiasi interfaccia che non richieda semplicemente di pigiare nelle caselline per scrivere e trascinare le immagini dalla mia scrivania su quella principale del blog, tecno-incapace e decisamente un po’ pigra.

Questo blog è un taccuino online di esperimenti in cucina, soprattutto legati alla panificazione, mia passione/ossessione, non per nulla mi son ribattezzata la predicatrice  della pasta madre! Ammetto di aver fatto volgere parecchi occhi al cielo per la mia passione, soprattutto nello sfoderare i vasetti delle mie due creature ripetendo come una matta: “guarda che alveoli, senti che profumo di vino bianco!!!!”. I miei amici mi considerano irrimediabilmente persa, salvo poi sbafarsi con piacere i prodotti che escono dal mio forno (della serie: predica pure finché ci sfami!).

È ora di accendere il forno!