Please meet Mr. Brendel

Küchengerüchte is a German blog that I got to know through Bread Exchange. Markus Brendel’s blog is a Diplom work where he analyzes the possibility to connect design and food. He presents the Supper club as an ideal Plattform.

Somehow he found Bread Exchange (and wrote about it HERE and HERE) out there on the web and we ended up meeting for a Bread talk during July fashionweek in Düsseldorf. We also traded Bread for Wine (one of my fav German Rieslings actually:)

Mr Brendel is really into good bread and has made a lot of thought into it. I left our very short meeting full of inspiration. I told him that I had  problems achieving the perfect crust in the Estate I was staying at outside Düsseldorf. I got to borrow his iron pan to try a new little bread project. His suggestion is great and simple (it old fashion German tradition to bake the bread in a pan instead of directly in the oven) and I have actually ended up using this back up plan when I have to bake at places where the oven is simply not good enough. To bake your bread in an iron pan (don’t forget to put oil/butter and flour on the walls) with some sprinkled water on to will guarantee you a good crust when nothing seem to work as it should.

At my parents place for example. My parents has this high tech equipped kitchen, but their modern oven will never achieve the crust that my East German Gas (Yes, it is really 20+ years old and I will cry the day it breaks) oven is able to. It is simply not about money when it comes to making the perfect bread folks.

But don’t worry, if you are stuck with a shit expensive oven investment that never seem to work you can make a 2nd, somewhat less expensive, investment: a traditional le Creuset iron pan. Phu, a relief, right!?

Anyhow, in Düsseldorf I was staying at a farm , Bornerhof, that had everything: except a great oven. Luckily Markus saved me and let me borrow his Iron pan. And ones again, Bread Exchange was saved and Bread was made.

Sweet.

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Markus taught me that you have to bake with the lid on the bread the first 20 min and then you can take it off. I would probably take it of a bit earlier (aber like 5-10 min) to make sure to reduce the pressure on the bread and give it space to rise. But please test for yourself what you prefer.

ElmlidPlease meet Mr. Brendel

One Comment on ““Please meet Mr. Brendel”

  1. multikulinaria

    That’s what I love about blogging and networking. One gets to meet all sorts of interesting people, gets equipped with or can share ideas and sometimes make new friends.

    Thanks for the bread baking advice. The days of the east german oven I grew up with are long gone, but I’m doing my best to bake novice breads at my basic oven. A baking stone helps somewhat… Nothing to carry around, though ;-)

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