Artisan no-knead crusty loaf

Todays loaf is delicious as always, but I intend to make another one tomorrow. Todays loaf stuck to the bottom of the Dutch oven. I intend to put some semolina on the bottom tomorrow to see if that ensures an easy release. With a missing bottom todays loaf will go stale rapidly, so I'll just turn it into bread crumbs.

Edit:
Because I don't use flour to work my dough one potential problem could be sticking in the pot. Yesterdays loaf stuck so today the purpose of the loaf was to make it identically and see if I could get it to not stick. So after the Dutch oven was up to temp', and before the dough went in I generously sprinkled the bottom of the pot with semolina. So much semolina that the bottom of the pot couldn't be seen. You could also use corn meal, but semolina tolerates high heat better. The result was a loaf that was loose without any playing around with it. I intend to add that to the recipe in the area where I have the note about the water and silicone mat technique.

We were shopping today and the wife placed her hand on Thomas' English Muffins by way of asking if we wanted to buy them. I turned them down. Now that I have an oven again, I want my bread. Two loaves of English muffin bread are incredibly easy to make.

But next up is holiday bread; either stollen or potica.

:-) Yes, that's a thought Kevin.

FWIW, a previous years potica.
[Image: DSC04048_zpsc2973542.jpg]
It's a rich yeast dough with a sweet walnut filling. It's easy to makeas pictured above but not easy to make if done right. It's supposed to have many more "layers" in the swirl, but I can't roll it out that paper thin. That's the trick to an excellent potica and I simply have never been able to do it.

Brian, if that's you're idea of second best then I cannot even imagine your idea of the champ.

Getting ready to make the potica today. As I write the walnuts are roasting to heighten their flavor.

Freddy, while the flavor is the same, a babushka from the old country could roll her dough out paper thin to achieve the result below. It's the mark of a truly excellent potica and a master of dough.
[Image: walnut-potica-36865-ss_zpsfqdwvgan.jpg]

I come close, and the babushka would probably smile knowing that I was bested by her. FWIW, mine is better than my moms. I wish she was still here to partake.

This years will be a bit different and totally not traditional. I bought 2 cans of marzipan for 2 loaves of stollen. OK, so that would really be too much holiday bread as much as I would like to have stollen. So instead of using the marzipan for stollen I'll roll it up into a log and add it to the center of the potica for an added richness.

Brian, my wife and my mother-in-law both make multiple loaves of stollen each year at this time. We keep a couple - they freeze really well, and give some away to friends/family. They make their own almond paste/marzipan its pretty straightforward almonds, sugar egg white, orange rind and orange juice in the food processor. My mother-in-law is german so cakes of various kinds are her speciality that and heavy meat dishes its really great and my wife has inherited the german culinary skills. Sour cream pound cake, streusel kuchen (plum cake), roladen, konigsberger klopse, sauer braten. My father-in-law is quite heavy and I have to work hard to avoid the same fate, but the food is so good. My spelling of the dishes is likely incorrect but you get the idea.
Mark

Brian, I LOVE marzipan and what you're planning on doing with the potica sounds delicious.

Brian, I LOVE marzipan and what you're planning on doing with the potica sounds delicious.

Being half Danish, marzipan was a regular in our house growing up. Usually just a giant log wrapped in chocolate. I wasn't a huge fan of it as a kid, but absolutely love it now.

In fact, I just picked up a few HUGE bars at a local butcher shop who imports fancy bars and treats.

All evidence has been buried, all tapes have been erased.

Marko, I make a lot of those dishes today! I never made my own marzipan, but yes, I understand it's pretty simple. I can buy it fairly inexpensively, so I do that. It's just easier. I think I could make a better tasting marzipan though.

The potica recipe I use makes 2 loaves, but it's precious to us so we freeze a loaf for the new year. The stolen recipe I was considering making makes 4 loaves and I was going to cut it in half and freeze one. That's the only way we could do it; or we could give one away. But again, precious to me and the memories it evokes.

I love plum kuchen! I haven't made that in many years. But you left spaetzle off that list! I know they have to make speatzle! It's a must with sauerbraten. For those who don't know, it's German pasta. We recently had a friend over for a working dinner where we made probably a gallon of cheese filled perogies. Since we can only find the cheese when our supermarket deems that we can have it I learned to make my own. Now we can make perogies at any time of the year, but we always do it in the cold weather. I don't want to stand over a pot of boiling water in warm weather. Then they get fried and covered in a butter/onion sauce; heavy on the onions, not so much butter. Our friend took a mess home and we kept a bunch. So good and with three sets of hands not much work or difficult work, mostly visiting. When I think how grandmom could crank them out for a family of 12 or so and how slow we are... But they're delicious. Peasant food of course, as is most good food that made it through the ages. My grandparents were peasants and came here to have food. In Prussia they didn't always. I would imagine winter would be especially hard at the turn of the 19th century.

Konigsburger Klopse? What is that? Hang on, I'll goggle it. Ahh, my mom called them Frikadellis (sp?) . Yup, I make them.

BTW, they may not be spelled correctly, mine either, but the "sound" is right.

Freddy, I got the idea from Martha Stewart. She puts a log of marzipan into her stollen.

Does anyone not like marzipan? I never heard of anyone who doesn't. Maybe folks who are allergic.

BTW, the dough is rising as I write and the filling is made except for the last minute addition of an egg and some milk. I have no room in the 'fridge and I didn't want it to spoil. Gotta run.

Brian, for whatever reason they don't make spaetzle, I used to go to a German restaurant in Edmonton when I was at university up there Strathcona Gausthaus it was a mom and pop no table cloths the cook always had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and I'm sure the ashes falling into the food added flavour, they served lots of schnitzel and spaetzle, the two waitresses were mother and daughter both with gigantic bosoms (please don't ban me) and the mother used to scold you if you left anything on your plate. Good food. My mother in law's family may have known your family, she was born in East Prussia which is now part of Poland. I haven't tried making perogies yet but I do have a recipe that I want to test. I prefer them filled with meat and sauerkraut. I think that labour intensive food is best make with groups so it becomes part work and part social and you end up with enough for everybody. Cabbage rolls the same way. My mom was French Canadian and she was a pretty decent cook especially with the traditional french Canadian food. We have her recipes and frequently make her tourtiere and a few of the other dishes. Peasant food, good food. A lot of these traditional foods that require so much preparation are going to get lost in time what with every family having both husband and wife working. Its funny, you see these houses that take two incomes to pay for with these amazing kitchens and neither spouses cook. They warm stuff up or unwrap take-out. I frequently hear couples laughingly saying that neither of them cook. Whats up with that? We make sure that our kids learned to cook, if you can't feed yourself and your family economically and nutritionally preparing dishes from scratch then what good are you? Furthermore, cooking for family and friends is how you show your love for them, its the glue that binds you all to your ancestors and as a community. When you put convenience/take-out food on the table what does that say? I can't be bothered to provide you with healthy tasty food because I'm too busy chasing a buck. Ah but I rant,
Mark

Haha, I enjoyed your rant Mark. You made some good points there.

No argument with anything in your rant and I enjoyed reading it. You absolutely nailed it. Especially with the kids, they grow up not knowing their heritage and no mom and dad either. When that happens they emulate who? The baby sitter, or the government teacher? Let's have kids and let someone else raise them. Not a good idea IMO. But it explains a great deal about this country and the developed world today. When a garden is planted and not cultivated one winds up with weeds as a crop.

Mom taught me how to cook from an early age. Then when I got older I realized that what I really got from her tutelage was the knowledge of how to cook, what to me, was the best food on the planet. I didn't need to try to find anyone who could cook "moms food" because I knew. Except cabbage rolls. I hated her cabbage rolls. She simply couldn't cook them. I like cabbage rolls, just not hers. They were too bland.

They should try spaetzle. They're super easy and one can flavor them any way one wishes. I regularly put a little garlic in with the batter. After they're made I fry them and they can get more flavorings, herbs, cheese, and such. Or just the garlic flavored spaetzle fried in butter is fine. I never had anything other than cheese filled perogies. They are childhood comfort food for me. But one of these days I should try other fillings. Our friend who comes over to help tells us of someone she knew years ago who filled them with anything, even leftovers.

FWIW, the loaves are in the oven with the lights on for warmth. In a bit they'll have risen enough to bake. I know what I'm having a piece of with my breakfast tomorrow. :-)

BTW, for those reading about perogies and if you find them in the frozen food section of the supermarket... don't bother. They are horrid. Buy the biggest cheese filled ravioli you can find, boil them, then fry them and they're actually a better "perogie" than the potato ones that are frozen. Just top with some cooked onions in butter and you have a very passable substitute. Grandmom even served hers boiled with a tomato sauce; a sort of Prussian ravioli.