Breakfast at Bäckerei Frank (2014)
travelhungry.co
travelhungry.co
At this point craft baking, at least here in Oregon, is miles ahead of Germany. Same goes for coffee and beer, times sure have changed.
One thing I still miss are the meat and cheese counters you can find everywhere in Germany and only in higher end stores here.
I think Americans tend to overdo things and make them too fancy. German bakery items often tend to be very simple and straightforward. Americans tend to tweak the recipes and add more and more stuff which makes them worse in my view. The same happened with pizza. In Italy they are pretty light with a little cheese and a little sauce whereas in the US they often load them up with way too much stuff.
As to pizza: American pizza is a totally different thing, good but not like Italian. However, you can find Italian style pizza like you describe in most US cities now, often made with imported mozzarella and tomatoes.
"Clean Label" is actually a massive trend now in food production because people are being told that fewer ingredients are better and if you can't pronounce it it's probably bad for you."
I'm quite curious because I started baking at home recently. Just for fun, I tried comparing perceptions and expectations about what people consider "good bread" in different cultures.
Just to be clear what I'm talking about - for me personally, factors that make up good bread would be:
* Long proofing times and use of very little yeast in order to allow flavor to develop (as well as reducing FODMAPs)
* Use of grain types other than wheat, especially dinkel and rye, but also rare types such as Khorasan or emmer wheat
* Ideally (and if appropriate), using sourdough as a leavening agent
However, when I had a look at some American artisanal baking content - both recipes and videos - my impression was that it was very focused on (rather boring) wheat bread. One particular recipe I found claimed to be a real rye bread, but it turned out that they meant only about 30% rye content [1], adding an excessive amount of molasses (in my opinion, sugar has no place in a bread) as well as an excessive amount of yeast with less than an hour of proofing time.
Chain bakeries and supermarket bread are on the rise in Germany as well, but I guess we all agree that their quality is limited in comparison to craft bakeries.
PS: I realize that my question above might come across as a little confrontational, but please let me assure you that it really is well-meant.
[1] I should mention that there's a very likely reason why they didn't go for 100% rye: Enzymes naturally occurring in rye cause problems during baking (resulting in soggy bread) if more than about 30% of the flour is rye, unless you are using sourdough. Judging from the recipe complexity, the author didn't want to burden their readers with that topic.
In the US the standards are ... flexible, the patrons can be sold all sorts of myths bc they don’t know much to begin with, and you wind up with things like $9 slices of toast and all ‘craft’ beer coming in a 16oz can with a wacky sticker on it and tasting like pine tar. Everyone’s happy though bc they had to wait in line for these pleasures and had ample time to post online about what they were doing!
If you speak German there are a handful of fantastic documentaries about village bakeries and breweries produced by BR, including some cool stories about the next generation of those trades finding new markets. It’s hard to compete with the allure of the new, even when you’re making the best beer in the world the same way it’s been made for hundreds of years.
I'm not sure about rye, I think 100% rye might be a flavor lots of people don't like, so it's usually mixed in with wheat. Sourdough is everywhere here, although I have to admit a lot of it tastes too sour for me.
The other thing I suspect is happening is that the German guild system keeps experimenters from trying out new and unusual things since it's hard to even open a bakery without going through all the proper training. Here in the US the quality is much more variable but any hipster with a new idea can try out if people will like their products.
Regarding sourdough sourness: Sourdough bread doesn't have to be very sour. Certain parameters influence the perceived sourness, and it is definitely possible to bake sourdough bread that is very mild and barely sour. Have a look at the classic Italian lievito madre (mother yeast) or French levain liquide - the former is used for panettone, a special sweet bread commonly eaten around christmas, the latter can be used for croissants.
I've baked a few sweet loaves that are only leavened using sourdough (with no added baker's yeast), yet they have essentially no discernable sourness.
I agree regarding the guild system.
in the US a craft bakery is something uncommon and will stand out. in germany the same craft bakery has to compete with chain bakeries and supermarkets, and it's much harder for such a bakery to be noticed.
even some chain bakeries bake their own bread in the store, and are operated more like a franchise. so you could have a good baker hidden under a chain brand.
the quality difference between supermarkets, chain bakeries and individually owned bakeries is much smaller too. and people expect all the bakeries to have the same popular items.
in the US people will go to a craft bakery because they want to have something different that they can't get in the supermarket. whereas in germany people going to a bakery still expect to get the same bread that they eat every day and are less likely to seek out a specialist shop because the supermarket has most of the same items anyways.
https://www.amazon.com/Tartine-Bread-Chad-Robertson/dp/08118...
https://www.amazon.com/Italian-Baker-Revised-Countryside-Its...
Or Joshua Weissman has you covered https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJpIzr2sCDE
My recommendations on what to look for:
1. This should be rather obvious, but nevertheless: Avoid bread baking machines. They are trading a lot of quality, customizability and enjoyment for a little convenience.
2. Avoid the temptation of recipes that promise fast results. As a rule of thumb: If the recipe calls for an entire or even multiple packages of yeast and proofing time is less than an hour, the recipe is trading all the flavor in exchange for fast results. Tiny amounts of yeast (seriously, 0.1g of fresh yeast is a common occurence) and proofing time measured in many hours or even days (in the fridge) are a requirement for good bread.
But don't worry if the proofing time is that long: You're not actually working during the proofing time - while proofing, the dough is working for you! With a little planning, most recipes can be integrated into the working day.
However, the recipes are not everything. The reason I personally like Geißler's approach to baking is that it embodies the rather scientific craft of baking: Essentially, you have a number of parameters (proofing time, dough temperature, flour composition) that all influence the final bread. Geißler explains the consequences of adjusting these parameters, which allows you to actually understand what's happening inside the dough. Ideally, you shouldn't blindly follow the recipe's instructions, but rather observe the actual progress of the dough and accordingly.
For example, imagine your recipe calls for 90 minutes of final rise time (after bulk fermentation and shaping) at 20-22 °C. However, your room temperature is significantly higher at the moment. Instead of waiting the full 90 minutes, you check on the dough after 60 minutes. Using the finger test (pressing a finger into the dough and checking how far it rebounds), you determine the dough is not yet ready and give it another ten minutes.
It is precisely this controllable, observable and empirical process that I like about bread baking.
Brezeln
They were the first thing I bought when I had to go to the south of Germany for projects. There are some good bakeries (for bread) in Berlin too but they’re expensive and sparse. Good Brezeln are hard to come by.
But, as someone from the Stuttgart area, I would argue that a good Brezel is also hard to find in Bavaria ;)
Bread from Zeit für Brot is available at Alnatura and Denns branches and the Gorillas delivery service.
- https://www.omas-schwarzbrot.de/media/image/9e/b2/d2/Veggie-...
- https://images.eatsmarter.de/sites/default/files/styles/face...
you can still find it in the south of germany and in austria, but there it is usually not freshly baked but sliced and packaged.
Sure, the assortment of wheat based breads is larger and very small shops might not have it at all, but overall it is pretty common (the two bakeries within a 100m radius of my place both have it). However, if you are looking for top quality black bread you might be out of luck with your closest bakery, but should find a shop within a few kilometers. Just to give one example:
'Bäckerei Junge' is one of the common bakeries: https://www.jb.de/geschaeftefinder/
And one of their high quality black breads is the 'Kerne & Saaten': https://www.jb.de/produktfinder/aus/hamburg/in/brot/produkt/...
Pumpernickel is more of a northern thing. Brezeln are mostly a southern thing. There are plenty more (and very different) things in-between too.
The common theme is bread in all forms and shapes you can think of.
It probably goes without saying but packaged preservative-laden German bread also exists, as does fresh-baked American bread from bakeries. The popularity of each is just very different which is what makes the difference. Somewhat ironically, some bakeries in Europe now claim to use sourdough cultures from SF, and especially in the options available it seems like both countries have moved a bit closer to each other though they're definitely still quite different in this respect.
Now, you have a idea of the time period the central bakery starts producing, and how old the stuff is when you buy it. If you enter the bakery at 9 o clock, some brezen are already up to 6 h old for some branch-bakeries.
They try to counter that with frozen pretzels that are baked up in hot-air behind the counter-ovens, but those dry the baked goods too much, so they can only be eaten properly for 1-2h.
Its a dying job though, due to the long hours, low pay and bad time to work ( Workday starts around 0 o Clock and ends at 10 o clock).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_sanfranciscensis
If you put sliced bread in the freezer it stays fresh for a long time. I often get bread sliced at the bakery for convenience, put it in the freezer, and take out a couple of slices every evening for the next day.
I miss travel and a good Bretzen.
This is the idea, but doesn't do justice:
https://i0.wp.com/inspiringkitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/20...
A Bretzel with Nutella, this is disgusting.
This even beats my nutella bread with salami and pickles. And yes. I know. This is disgusting. Really, really disgusting. I don't know how I could ever have eaten such a thing.