Juni 2007 – Anne in the Kitchen

Bread Therapy

Germans are crazy about bread. A typical German bakery will have lots of different breads, made with regular flour, rye flour, whole wheat flour, you name it. There will be very dense, moist types of breads, with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, bread made with potato flour, various kinds of rolls, pastry with or without fruit, cakes and more.

While we don’t have any arguments about it, Peter and I have different tastes when it comes to bread. I prefer a very plain Graubrot („grey bread“), one with a dark and crunchy crust and a very soft inside. It’s a very humble bread, one that doesn’t stand out in taste from the line of breads on the counter, but which will be incredibly good with just a bit of butter. On the downside this type of bread does lose is greatness after a very short time, so it’s best bought fresh and immediately devoured, though unfortunately this will never happen in a two-person household. He prefers breads with a high percentage of rye flour. Those are usually a lot darker and quite moist and their taste is not that subtle, but still not overwhelming. I usually let Peter decide what to get, because he is home more often than me and therefore more responsible for eating all the bread we buy.

Maybe the focus on supposedly healthy grains and dark breads is what makes us Germans so suspicious when it comes to the varieties of very white bread that are so popular in a lot of other countries. Take the French baguette, the Italian ciabatta or any English toast. They are so white, so soft and full of air. Surely there must be something wrong with it.

But of course there’s not. Okay, I still have problems getting used to the concept of not using any salt when making bread like we experienced in Tuscany. But apart from that, I love a French baguette or a soft white American toast just as much as the next (French and/or American) girl. Both the baguette and the toast have a special place in my little food-loving heart. The toast because it is the very essential ingredient for making wonderful sandwiches. The baguette because of how it feels, tastes and smells when you buy it still warm and break the crunchy crust for the first time and just inhale.

Today it might have been just one ordinary (German-made) baguette that saved me from going insane or at least from getting very whiny and annoying the hell out of Peter. After an exhausting shopping trip to Cologne we went to a computer store in the outer suburbs to get Peter’s computer back from a trip to the computer doctor. When we got there we tried to go grocery shopping as well, but the supermarket was so big and scary that I just couldn’t bring myself to buy a single peach, let alone do all my weekend shopping there. So, exhausted and cranky as I was, I just bought a baguette and the moment I held it to my nose and sniffed the very comforting smell of fresh white bread, I immediately got better. I didn’t complain a moment when the supposed short trip to the computer store turned into a much longer stay. Whenever I got bored or mildly impatient I just held the bread up to my nose once again and sniffed. That did the trick.

Sure, it wasn’t as fantastic as the smell of a real French baguette coming right from the oven, still warm, but it was good enough. And now I believe very much that, yes, bread cannot only still your hunger, it can also save you from insanity.

My American Pancakes

I might have been obsessed with American style pancakes ever since my first trip to California back when I was thirteen. It was then and there I had my first original pancakes, all soft and tasty, drenched in maple syrup, most likely with a side of crisp bacon.

For years now I’ve been trying to make the perfect pancakes. I admit that I haven’t been trying the whole time, there’s been phases. I also admit that I have used pancake mixes, partly because there have been enough lazy mornings and partly because some of those mixes are actually really good. I have also had my fair share of disappointments, mornings when the pancakes didn’t turn out even close to perfect, quite the opposite actually. And then there were mornings when they turned out pretty fine, sometimes even exactly how they’re supposed to be. Light, fluffy, amber colored, ready to soak up the syrup I was going to pour over them. Even better with a bit of butter and a large spoonful of sour cream on top of it.

Recently those perfect pancake mornings were pretty common around here. It could be a lucky streak, but I’m optmistic and would rather say that I have finally found the right way to make American pancakes and so I wouldn’t want to keep it from fellow pancake lovers anymore. I’m not sure what exactly the secret is, the long whisking of the eggs, the right amount of baking powder or maybe just the bit of patience you need to let the mixture stand a while before actually making the pancakes. Whatever it is… I can only hope I finally found it.

American Pancakes

1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
A pinch of salt
250 ml buttermilk
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
120 g flour
1 tablespoon butter

Melt the butter in a pan, preferably the pan you want to make the pancakes with, for no other reason than having less dishes to wash afterwards.
Mix the egg, sugar and salt in a bowl and whisk until nearly white and very creamy.
Add the buttermilk and mix in quickly, then add the baking powder and flour and mix in really quickly as well. If the dough is too runny, add a bit more flour, if it is too firm add some more buttermilk or just regular milk.
At last mix in the melted butter.
Let the dough stand for about 15 to 30 minutes. I actually don’t know how long it should rest to get the best results since I usually get to impatient, so the dough hardly ever gets to rest longer than 15 minutes in our kitchen.
Reheat the pan and fry the pancakes one at a time. Usually a small ladle of dough will be enough for one pancake. Wait until bubbles start to form on the top and the turn the pancake over, bake until golden and then keep warm until all the pancakes are done. I just heat the oven to a very small temperature (about 50Â°C) and transfer them there right from the pan.
Serve warm with maple or pancake syrup, butter and/or sour cream. Personally I love the way how the sweet and slightly sour tastes of the syrup and cream melt together, but Peter prefers his just with butter and syrup. And of course we nearly always have a few strips of bacon as a side, making this glorious Sunday morning breakfast complete.

Serves 2 good pancake eaters.