*blows away cobwebs* *looks around*

Those of you who used to read here regularly (I am sure there are not many of you left and whose to blame you for that?!) know that when this blog goes silent for a while something has happened in my life that drives me away from blogging or communicating online. Please do not expect answers from me what this might have been ’cause I really do not have one right now.

I could tell you that I have been buried under work related stuff like moving offices, demanding new job, my company still struggling with post merger syndromes, and what not else… Each of these reasons are true and justify my hiatus but to be honest there has been something else going on with me I cannot even clearly put into words.

It’s not that I lost my blogging mojo because I still felt the urge to blog but whenever I “stole” a little time from busy schedule and was not too tired I just starred at the empty “new post” page on this honest little blog and – remained silent… all the words that had been in my head for you during the day, all those little thoughts “I want to blog this” were just gone, leaving me with an empty mind and no words to write down. My lovely camera has put on cobwebs too waiting in the far corner of my living room to hugged again but there was nothing I felt was worth being photographed.

I backed out from my daily twitter friends and even from my BBBabes ridiculously enough I did miss all those social interactions but could not keep up with it on the other hand. It made *klick* to me when my friend and doctor told me that she fears I might be on the edge of a burn out and need to be careful. Healthwise I am still dealing with some problems so that is another dimension that makes my mood go down quickly. It simply does not feel funny to cough your lungs out while no one really knows the reason why this damn infection blew up my immune system so badly that every little sneezing makes my lungs go bonkers.  So there was I backed out from every social interaction I could working long hours and even after I put away all work related stuff I wasn’t able to rest and find something to occupy my mind. I slept badly and barley through the night, felt exhausted when I woke up. I was on the edge and while typing this to you I have to be honest and say I am not sure if I am on the way to get better again or if I am still on my way down… I guess I will find that out sooner or later.

For the  moment I feel ok and am trying to slowly push this blog back to life because if it is alive – I am for sure. Don’t expect a blog post ever other day but every once in a while for the time being.

I am thankful – more than words could ever express that I have friends like my Babes who drop me an email every once in a while to check if I am ok and bribe me out of my non-communicating state of mind and Mrs Q. who never gets tired to “stay and clean up after the party has ended” without forcing anything at me.  There are good days and bad days  - at the moment it seems that the good days are winning over the bad ones. :)

Now thank you for your patience while reading through all this, that is all I can say for now. I guess you are still waiting for the Buddy round up aren’t ya?

Let’s see:

Kelly of A Messy Kitchen
	Sandie of Crumbs of love
Dewi of elra’s baking
	Judi of Judi’s Gross Eats
Ágnes of szeretetrehangoltan
	Connie of my discovery of bread
Cathy of Bread Experience

Thank you all for taking the time to bake this lovely bread with us, I loved all of your resulting breads! Each and every loaf looked so tempting and lovely that I want to bake it yet again :)

Dear Buddies, please feel free to grab the Buddy Badge below:

Wow, now this month went by in a second it seems!

Thanks a lot for all that lovely breads you sent to me it’s amazing and my ever growing list of “want to bake” has grown even longer while reading through all your gorgeous recipes!

Before we go on to the list of entries let me tell you that there is already a new theme announced. Manuela of  Carvo & Canela – Cooking in Brasil is the hostess of bbd #49 and she wants you to make pizzas!!  She says:

Set your imagination free and combine the Italian tradition whith thebest you can find in your own country and / or region for baking a delicious bread or  pizza.

But for now we are focussed on bread with eggs, right?

Are you ready? For lots of breads and eggs?

Here we go:

	Connie – My Discovery of Bread Challa with Ginger Syrup from Thailand via The Netherlands
	Aparna – My Diverse Kitchen Spotted Dog – An Almost Irish Soda Bread   4from Goa, India
	Elle – Feeding My Enthusiasms Egg Nests from Northern California, USA
	Home Mantra – Om Shanti Home Banana Walnut Bread from The United States
	Dewi - elra’s baking Corona Dulce from California – USA
	Heather - girlichef Meyer Lemon Curd Brioche Crescents from South Bend, IN.
	Roxanna - A little bit of everything Chocolate Swirl Bread from Virginia, US
	Sandie - Crumbs Of Love Pizza Civitavecchia from Calgary
	Sandra – From Snuggs Kitchen Spelled Easter Wreath from  Seeheim, Germany
	Judy - Judy’s Gross Eats Golden Egg Bread with Dried Fruit from Ventura, California
	Manuela - Cravo e Canela – Uma Cozinha no Brasil Folar an Easter Sweet Bread from São Paulo Brasil
	Margaret - Tea and Scones Italian Easter Cheese Bread from Central Louisiana, USA
	Lien - Notitie van Lien Sweet Challah from Netherlands
	Cinzia - cindystar  cheese buns with surprise from garda lake, italy
	Zorra – 1x umrühren bitte aka kochtopf  Easter Swirl Buns with Egg Liqueur from Andalucia, Spain

 Thank you once again for all those lovely bread recipes! 

If you sent in your bread and do not see it listed here please let me know in the comments your email might have gotten lost – I will contact you for your details and add your entry as soon as possible!

To all those who are celebrating:

Happy Easter!

I am your Kitchen of the Month and hope you will like my choice of bread. As far as I heard from my fellow Bread Baking Babes they are quite pleased with how their breads tasted.

This month’s bread is taking us far north (well those of us who are not north already) to Sweden: Swedish Rye Bread.

I love baking with rye and rye infused breads are one of my favorites. Tho they can be a little bit tricky to work with if you do not want to end up with a gummy bread.

NO need to fear, I promise you this bread we are baking this month is nearly a no fuss bread at all and comes with some real nice flavors too: a slight hint of orange, anise and caraway will tickle your tastebuds when you bite into your sandwich made out of a Swedish Rye…

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Honestly, I fell in love this bread and made it three times this past few weeks. The first time it was slightly underproofed so it kinda exploded in the oven (making a wonderful crust by the way, which I love in breads) as you can see in the pictures in this post. Second time it was perfect, came out nicely shaped and all. The third time is still in the making as I write this, this time I am trying to make little rolls too and am curious how they will turn out…

I took this recipe from the Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown  which resides in my bookshelf for quite a long time now, but I never baked out of it until now. What I like about this book is that it has clearly written instructions, I miss pictures of most of the breads tho, I always like to see how the bread should look like according to the author… Nevertheless: the book is good and I’d buy it again – it was not a waste of money ;o) I am planning to bake more from it soon.

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Swedish Rye Bread

Note: I baked my bread free form, not like stated in a pan. I would not recommend to you doing it, you’ll get a way better result baking it in a pan. If you prefer to bake it without I’d recommend you to give it a little more time rising before you put it in the oven. Worked better for me!

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Swedish Rye Bread

adapted from Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown

1. step
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons dry yeast
1/3 cups honey
1 cup dry milk
grated peel of 2 oranges
2 teaspoons anise seeds
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
4 cups unbleached white flour

2. step
4 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup oil
4 cups rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (for kneading)

Method:

1. Dissolve the yeast in water. Add the honey and dry milk plus the oranges and seeds
2. Add the flour to get a thick batter.
   Add one cup of flour at a time, stirring good after each addition. The more flour you add the more you knead to go into a beating mode with your spoon. Best way is to stir up and down in a circular mode from the bottom of the bowl to the surface of the dough. Don’t forget to scrape the sides of the bowl from time to time. After the 4 cups of flour you should have a thick mud-like dough.
3. Beat well with a spoon (100 strokes).
   Continue to beat until you have a smooth dough. Again pull your spoon under the dough and bring it up to the surface again in a circular mode. The batter will be more elastic while you are doing this as more and more air gets incorporated.
4. Let rise for 45 minutes.
   Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place.

1. Fold in the remaining ingredients.
   Do not stir! Do not cut through the dough, this will improve the elasticity and strength of the dough.
2. Sprinkle on the salt and pour on the oil.
   Stir around the side of the bowl working carefully your way towards the center. Rotate your bowl a little with every stroke you do. Repeat until all of the salt and oil is incorporated.
3. Sprinkle the flour 1/2 a cup at a time onto the dough. Again fold it in while rotating your bowl.
4. Continue until the dough comes away from the sides of your bowl.
   Now the dough is ready to give it a good knead!
5. Plop your dough on your kneading board and scrap all remainings from the bowl onto the dough.  Keep in mind that your surface should be floured enough to prevent the dough from sticking to much on the board.

1. Flour your hands and the top of the dough. From the middle of your down stretch it away from you and then fold it back onto the remaining part of the dough. Continue to push down and forward.
2. Turn the dough a quarter turn. Again continue with the pushing and folding.
3. Turn, fold, push. Rock forward. Twist and fold as you rock back. Be careful not to stretch the dough too much and tear it. Add flour to the boards as needed.
4. While you continue with the kneading the dough will become more and more elastic, smooth and shiny.

1. When you are finished, place the dough in your lightly oiled bowl smooth side down, then turn it over so the dough ball is covered lightly with oil. This will prevent the dough from forming a crust on the top while rising.
2. Cover the bowl with a damp towel again and set aside to rise in a warm place. (50.60 minutes until doubled in size)

1. Punch down your dough with your fists steadily and firmly about 15-20 times.

1. Let rise again 40-50 minutes until doubled in size again.
2. Preheat your oven at 350°F.
3. Turn your dough onto the board again.
4. Form the dough into a ball. Cut the dough into two even pieces and form smaller balls again. Let rest for 5 minutes.
5. Knead the dough and fold it about 5 times, this gives the dough added spring. After the final push turn the dough a quarter turn.
6. Roll up the dough into a log shape. Seam at the bottom, flatten the top of the dough. Square the sides and ends. Turn the dough over and pinch the seams all the way.

1. Put the dough seam side down into your pan. Press it down into the pan with your fingers.
2. Cover and let rise again. This will take 20-25 minutes.
3. Cut the top with 1/2 inch deep slits to allow the steam to escape.
4. Brush with eggwash and sprinkle with poppy seeds or sesame if you want!
5. Bake for about 50-60 minutes.
6. Remove from pan to cool down completely.

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Nice crumb and crust!

The crumb, was surprisingly light and not crumbly or dry at all like you would think looking at the picture above. (this is only my bad photographing skill and bad bad lightning in my kitchen). Oh and did I mention that it smelled and tasted heavenly? I loved it toasted!

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Yeastspotted!

I send this over to Susan’s Yeastspotting.
YeastSpotting is a weekly showcase of yeasted baked goods and dishes with bread as a main ingredient. If you are not familiar with YeastSpotting just scroll the archive and you’ll know what I am talking about. To submit your post simply klick here!

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You sure want to bake this bread as well, don’t you?

Please do so, you will not regret it. If you snap some pics and share your thoughts about this month’s bread on your blog Tanna will be more than happy to add you to the BBB Buddy round up on November 29th.  If you do not own a blog, no worries, you can also post your picture to Flickr or any other photo sharing site and share your thoughts there.

One word about that whole Buddy thing: 
The Bread Baking Babes are a closed group but we thought it would be fun to reward people who take the effort of baking our breads with us and give them a nice Buddy Badge and mention in a round up post every month. Just to say thank you for baking along and sharing your thoughts with us.

Since we are Babes and do no obey to rules, there are nearly no rules for Buddies, except these two:

1. Bake the featured bread, snap a pic & share your thoughts about how you liked it (or not liked it)
2. Send me an email through the form below  to notify us and make it easier to write the round up.

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Don’t forget to visit my fellow Babes and see what they did with this lovely Bread this month.

Oh and don’t forget to visit Katie our BBBBB (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire) who writes up such lovely round ups of all the BBB Breads every month!

Bake My Day – Karen | blog from OUR kitchen – Elizabeth  | Feeding my enthusiasms – Pat  | Living in the Kitchen with Puppies – Natashya | Lucullian Delights – Ilva | Notitie Van Lien – Lien | Wild Yeast – Susan | My Kitchen In Half Cups – Tanna

Busy, Busy Babes on Hiatus: Canela and Comino – Gretchen | Grain Doe – Görel | Living on bread and water – Monique  | The Sour Dough – Breadchick Mary | Thyme For Cooking – Katie | Cookie Baker Lynn – Lynn | I Like To Cook – Sara

Thinking of you with Love: Glenna (Alumni Babe) | Sher (Angel Babe)

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I am happy to announce that Zorra – the Queen of bread baking day, who founded this great event, asked me to host a bbd again.

Long time ago when this very successful event was still in it’s baby shoes I already hosted a bbd - the round up resulted in lots of lovely breads with oat. Back then I was more faithful to this lovely event and participated regularly. Nowadays I always seem to miss deadlines and round ups are often posted earlier than I had time to decide which bread to submit…

Enough about me and my misbehaviour!

Speaking of round ups: Please do not forget to visit the lovely round up Lisa wrote for bbd #47  – so many yummy breads! I am sure you will find something that pleases you and that you really really need to bake as well! ;o)

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What did I choose as theme for this month?

Just think of bread and eggs – what comes to your mind first? This time of the year to me there are a lot of lovely Easter breads with cooked eggs in/on braided loaves on my mind. But also a big all time, all year round favorite: challa!

Let your imagination fly and create a bread using eggs. You decide if the egg is in the dough or on the bread or even IN the bread is up to you!

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To take part in this event, you are required to do all of the following:

• Create and bake your bread
• Post about it on your blog, then link that post back to this post
• If you’re blog is in another language, just make sure you post an English version of the recipe
• When you’re done, please use the submission form below – Thank you!

[contact-form-7]

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Please keep in mind these few rules for Bread Baking Day:

• The deadline for your submission will be April 1st 2012, at midnight UTC.
• The round-up of all the submissions will appear here on April 5th, 2012.
• Your bread must be made in the month of March, 2012.

If you want, use the logo in the upper left hand corner at the top of this post, in your post, to promote the event. Just go to the bbd home and get the code.

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Duck Breast with Caramelized Onions & Orange Sauce

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Alessio was my assigned target this month and his blog “Recipe Taster” is one of my favorites ever since we met in person last year! Although I really admire his ideas and recipes it was quite hard for me to find something I wanted to cook/bake AND my picky eaters at home would want to eat as well. It is very amazing to me how he comes up with the most creative combinations of ingredients for a dish – things I’d never think of combining… but then his presented results look so tempting and delicious!

I didn’t want to bake one of his rather rare sweet recipes so, I ended up with doing it this weekend where I was cooking for one and no one would complain “I can’t eat that”…

This was a perfect decision in my book and I loved my chosen recipe:  Duck breast with caramelized onions & orange sauce - wow! This was a winner and made my weekend! I loved the flavors and different textures. Plus one of the best things was that it was done in like half an hour!! Can it possibly get any better?

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Duck Breast with Caramelized Onions & Orange Sauce

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I tweaked the recipe you can find here a little bit to my liking since I really really do not like olives. Other than that I made no real changes to what Alessio says on his page, so please go and find everything you need there. :)

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Duck Breast with Caramelized Onions & Orange Sauce

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I still have some recipes on my to do list and will do very soon, like: 
Orange Cake – which I think would also be perfect as little bite-sized muffins of cupcakes
This spectacular Lazy chocolate mousse Tarte - I almost made it for the SRC reveal day but feared I’d eat it all by myself on Sunday…
Oh and honestly I fell in love with this cake: Ruffle my Feathers cake
Another must do: Crispelle di riso di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph’s sticky rice fritters)

I already made these Crispy Pork-Belly Gyros with fried eggplants in a potato-onion flatbread  a while ago and loved it!!

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