I haven’t published recipes in a while, it is not because I am not cooking but rather because every move to a new country involves a lot of trial and error with the local products.
The first 6 months I spent in the US I was very upset with the food: first of all the (damn) measuring cups don’t make any sense! How can you measure in volume instead of weight?!? The second big issue was with flour. The types and flavor of flours varies greatly from country to country. It was easy to understand the types of flour, in the US the names are quite significative ;) here is how it works for white flours:
Italian 00 flour = US pastry flour
Italian 0 flour = US all purpose flour
Italian Manitoba flour = US bread flour -more or less, they both have high gluten content and are strong (hard) flours-
The flavor was a big issue though, I tried many brands before I found the one I liked, that is King Arthur Flour.
In Germany flour is good, but there are soooo many types I am completely lost!
Look at this pic, the flour in each row is from the same brand but can you see how many different types are available?!
This is what I discovered so far:
White flour is called Weizen Mehl
Italian 00 flour = German 450 flour
Italian 0 flour = German 550 flour
The number indicates how thinly the flour is milled… so now compare what I know about German flour with all the flours in the picture… right, I am not ready to bake!!!
Even so, the trial and error process brought some exciting discoveries: salty crepes, filled with ham, cheese and mushrooms for example, are great with a mix of white and wheat flour. Incredibly tasty! I will post the recipe soon :) In Germany I didn’t have to mix flours, this slightly wheaty flour was called Weizen Mehl type 1050.
By the way, any suggestion on German flours is more than welcome :)
