Waiter There’s Something In My… Bread

This 4th Wtsim's is about bread. Andrew from SpittoonExtra will host the event: Waiter There's Something in my ... bread. I make some bread and rolls from time to time. And I still have some dried sourdough starters in my refrigerator waiting for me to bring them to live.
But for the bread recipe coming to my head for this event I don't need a sourdough. But I need some leavy salad for it. The way this bread will be eaten reminds me a bit of cracking an egg. And since we have Easter time right now (yes, Eastern lasts 5 weeks), this will be the perfect bread.
You all may know puff pastry - of course. You know popcorn -puffed corn and puffed rice. Maybe the power puff girls as well. And those who still know something from their biology-courses at school may even know a puff in a DNA. For sure there are some more puffs [in Germany we call some redlight district etablisments ... ;-)] in this universum. If you're asking yourself why is Brigitte writing about puffs, here's the answer:

Bread puff balls

Andrew mentioned them in his invitation (I'm pretty sure he meant them). And I have not even read this I'd decided to take part with this "surprising" bread. Since quite a couple of month I wanted to try this recipe. Now it's time to check it out.


The recipe for this puff balls is from the book Brot für Genießer from Richard Bertinet in English it is called bread. The author and baker prefers to knead his bread dough without flour in a special folding method. So you won't add additional flour and the bread and rolls were fluffier. I made already several of his recipes and I can totally agree with him. So if you don't intend to bake that no-knead-bread try this method with any bread dough. This bread I made a bit different, I can only use my left hand, having some cuts in my right one from yesterday.


For about 20 puff balls you need:

500 gflour (as almost always I used unbeached, stone ground, organic all-purpose)
10 gfresh yeast
350 gwater
10 gsalt


Preheat the oven to 250°C, if possible place a baking stone on the oven rack. The highest temperature "my" oven provides is 225 °C, but I placed a bowl with ice cubes on the bottom of the oven for the right moisture.

Crumble the yeast into the flour and with your fingers rub them into the flour. Add water and salt and stir around until well combined. Then start kneading. It is a bit difficult to describe Bertinets method even he explained it with many pictures. I'll try to explain my method instead.
I kneaded the dough in the bowl, lifted it up, turned it, let it slip back into the bowl and squeezed it. Then again lifted it, and so on. Until I ended up with a smooth dough.
I turned it out onto a slightly floured surface. Folded it several times from each side towards the middle. And shaped a round loaf, placed it seem side down on the floured surface. Covered it with a bowl and let risen for 20 minutes in my warm kitchen.


Devided the dough in 3 equal sized pieces. Flatened them to an oval shape. Folded one long side through the middle, then the opposite one. And folded it once again along the seam. Then I cut 18 pieces from the dough-strings. I didn't cut equal sized since it is my first time I baked this kind of bread and I wanted to try it out with different shapes.
Now you have to shape small firm balls with the dough portions either by rolling them on the slightly floured working surface under your hand or by folding them, like I did with the loaf, or pinching them together several times on the same point. Let the balls rise, covered with a teatowel, for 5 minutes. I have to add I think 10 minutes will be better. The first breads I made turned out as flatbreads, yummi but no puff balls.
Clean your hands and your working utensils thoroughly. If there'll be any dried out dough pieces on them the bread will not rise (evenly). Roll the balls out using a lot of flour until they're 1 to 2 mm thick. Carefully place them on the baking stone and let them bake for around 4 minutes or untill puffed and slightly browned. Let them cool on a wired rack.


Now there's the surprising part of that bread, I'm sure it will be something you'll be applauded for on a party. Wet about 3 cm in diameter one side of the puffs and remove that piece carefully with a knife. Then fill the puff through this hole with washed and thoroughly spin-dried leavy salad.

... Knock, knock knock...

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