Desert or Dessert

Turkish Flatbread…Now if only I had some Doener Meat!

2010-08-19T20:59:00.002+02:00

not really, I must say I don’t miss it and if I feel like such a meal I can hop in the car and head on over to the west side to my favorite Arabic food joint called “The Jerusalem Grill” for a Shawarma which is even better than a Doener Kebab. The one hour drive though will cure me of any “Instant gratification” moments.
The second bread I baked is also from Nick Malgieri’s book “The modern Baker”. This one takes a little longer to make about 2 1/2 hours or a little less.
I loved working with this dough. It felt amazing and was so easy to work with and I did not need any extra flour.
Again I did not use the kitchen machine for this one (mine is 220V and I am waiting for the step down transformer to arrive).
The shape of this flatbread was the typical round and the dimpled look brought me right back to the Middle East. To hold on to that fleeing moment I topped mine with nigella seeds.
Nice bread but not quite what I am used too for Turkish bread.
Since returning to the states I have not baked with spelt because I have yet to locate a source for it. Does anyone know where I can purchase a sack of whole grains (I will grind it myself) for a reasonable shipping rate?

I am back!….. in the kitchen that is

2010-08-18T18:16:00.002+02:00

Finally moved in. Well sort of anyhow. I think it will be a while before we are really settled and things are the way I would like them to be.

This is day 17 of our move here and my husband is already on his 2nd weeklong trip.

The first one started on day 3! It took the moving company two whole days to unload our belongings and on day 3 the day we start to unpack for real because our furniture is finally standing he has to leave.

Thursday he received a call that he is needed in Alaska of all places (sure will be a cool down from the 100+ here) the very next day.

That guy is such a trooper and knowing how much the lock situation of the house bothered me (we had gazillion locks and each using another key, one lock even used a key inside! The main exit often refused to open.) he changed 2 sets of doors (that is a dead bold and handle on the rod iron door and a lock which needed a new drilling on the inside door) so now I don’t have to be afraid of being locked out or experience nightmares of being locked inside during an emergency.

This is one reason we did not take the house we originally wanted. It was a fixer upper with so much potential but it would have been a nightmare with him gone all the time (we found out after arriving here that he will be gone a lot). This one too will need some changes and even his assist to hang up pictures on the wall (the whole house is paneled with wood that is so hard it’s pretty much impossible for me to put a nail into).

We live in a small town outside of El Paso which is about a 30 minute drive away and therefore I am not going shopping every day like I was used to in Germany. I have to think ahead of what I will be needing and get the shopping done when I am in town.

We are pretty much spoiled and prefer organically grown food which is a whole other problem here in El Paso and that is not just price wise. I have not found an egg source here and was in for a sticker shock for organic eggs (over $ 4). I already knew the crazy price of milk here and it baffles me. In Germany organic or not is very close in price. I paid between 20-23 cents an egg depending on the Euro (I got mine from a neighboring farm), here it’s 35 cents! For half a gallon of milk I paid between $ 2-2.05 in the store here it’s more than double that. Can someone explain to me why?

Being back in the USA also means I will be doing all my daily bread baking because well… I am German and like my bread with crust.

The first bread I baked in the oven here (a gas oven which will need getting used too, can’t wait until the step down transformer gets here so I can use my trusted old/ fairly new friend again) is from “The Modern Baker” and happens to be also the very last bread I baked in Germany. What a neat way to start my baking here having ended on the same note.

This bread is baked rectangular on a sheet rather than in a round. The first time I made this I read the instructions over and over thinking I must be missing something. I have never made a bread before that I had to roll or push onto a baking sheet.

I have to bring up that I don’t use active dry yeast since I always have instant dry yeast on hand. The price on this was a nice surprise.

I found it in a small Mexican grocery store in Fabens, TX for just $ 2.89 a pound! That is about half of what I used to pay ordering it from King Arthur. After I open the bag I put it in a big jar and keep it in the fridge.

Nick Malgieri uses “active dry” for his breads. He does not even mention the option of Instant dry that makes me believe that it was not yet on the market when he wrote this book. To convert one yeast type to another gaaarp wrote up this conversion chart. Thank you Gaaarp!

The first time I used the kitchen machine as per instructions and the second time I used my new Viking (this was my Christmas present from my husband, am I lucky or what!). New because he had it sent to Nebraska and we just brought it back with us.

I did not notice any difference in the dough. I however did notice a difference in how it baked from one oven to the next. I prefer the first version though the second was just as good.

And there you have it “Instant Sandwich Bread”! I cut those into squares for sandwiches or morning toast (this bread tastes delicious toasted). If you have not baked this bread yet go ahead and give it a try. It’s very easy to make (great news for beginners) and takes less than two hours from start to finish.

NOTE: This bread tastes best the day it’s baked or the next morning toasted. So only bake enough to eat right away or freeze the rest like mentioned in the book.

Still in Limbo

2010-07-11T19:29:00.002+02:00

A quick shout out to all of you. It seems like forever since I updated last and since I did we have made the jump across the ocean and are situated now in El Paso Texas. Well not exactly at this present moment because at this time we are in Nebraska to be exact.
Nevertheless, we are back and we have also settle on a house. That is why we are on vacation in Nebraska at this time.
Our future home is still occupied and the present owners are taking the time we are gone to move out so we can close on this home 7/22 and move in 7/23. Wow, I can't believe it, we are indeed back and will soon call a home our own again.

If you are familiar with El Paso you will know that it is located in the midst of a desert (If you are not check the link above). One thing I missed the most living here the two times prior (yup, this is our third time in the sun city) is GREEN!
What do you think we found on the outskirts of the city in a suburb? A little half acre oasis with flowers, roses, grass and lots of fruit trees . We are buying this home and it's the first time we are buying a home not for it's house but for the yard (don't laugh to hard).
It is able to stay that green in the middle of a desert because of it's close location to the Rio Grande and the irrigation canal that leads to the lot. We will have irrigation rights to flood the yard every two weeks which will be something completely new to us as well.

We are very much looking forward to be settled again. Now you know how I am spending my summer, would love to hear about your summer and what you have been up too.
Until we ~~meet~~ "bake" again!
Petra

I survived!

2010-06-03T14:43:00.001+02:00

the packing that is. What should have been a rather simple three day “pack out” turned into a 6 day night mare. That nightmare started last Wednesday and ended with us turning over the house on Tuesday afternoon.

Thankfully it’s all done now until our goods are delivered ones we get to the states and have actually purchased a home.

That search might be coming to an end. If so it would be the first time for us to purchase a home online sort of speak. Had a friend in El Paso checking out some of the houses we earmarked (thank you so much Daniel D.) and one I fell in love with (well if you can do that sort of thing with a house) after seeing the pictures our friend made at the visit.

It will need some cosmetic work (has a lot of old time charm and so much character, that character would translate into WORK). We have a realtor get in touch with the seller to get it inspected by a professional to see what else might be lurking under those “cosmetic” faults.

Much of our search was done via zillow.com which has a great tool to see the property from all sites. That way you have some sort of understanding what is on the property. Trulia and realestateyahoo.com are some other sites we used to cross reference those properties. That’s pretty much all we could do being so far away.

So now that I am situated in a Hotel for the next two plus weeks I thought I would bake a little. Thought that is because our move into the hotel held another glitch. The room with kitchen was not available until Sunday. So we ended up moving into a suit which worked out quite well. It has two rooms so our 15 year old has a place to kick back and sleep without his parents. Which of course raises all of our moods despite the rainy cold weather we have been getting. It’s barely 12C today. Way to cold I say. Double that expected for this weekend so we will be enjoying the high 70’s for a few days (keeping my fingers crossed that the weather frogs got that one right).

So no baking yet but my husband has a toaster oven thingy in his office so I am actually going to see what I can produce with that one after he brings it over here. Wish me luck because I so need something to do.

Until then I wish you all Happy baking!

PS: HBin5 – sorry no bread braid this time around

Whole Wheat Currant Bread

2010-05-19T20:33:00.002+02:00

and we have a winner…..Nick Malgieri has done it again. Whole Wheat Currant Bread will get you to that finish line.

The book I am baking from is The Modern Baker and one quick bread after another is a jewel on it’s own. Each and everyone I have baked so far has been enjoyed and devoured. Just the quick bread section was worth the price of the book to me.

This bread has great ingredients and one that caught my attention right away was the use of whole wheat. I love whole wheat and use it a lot but I would have thought that in a quick bread the baked good would turn out rather dense. Not in this case. Not one bit dense. This is great bread.

I used only half of the currants since that’s all I had but it was plenty enough. Great bread, great taste, a winner in my book.

Now get that apron, get out those measuring cups and lets bake some Whole wheat currant bread!

You got the book right? This is one recipe I could not find online so I don’t have a recipe to direct you too. This is so good that if you have been waiting for the right time to get that book now is that time.

Until we bake again….see ‘ya!

If you have a moment why not check out what the other bakers are doing over at The Modern Baker Challenge.

PS: I think the whey leftover from making the Lemon-bag-cheese would be a great addition in these quick breads instead of the buttermilk. I will give that a try after we are settled into our new home

Lemon Bag cheese stuffed Ravioli

2010-05-19T11:02:00.003+02:00

In case you where waiting at the edge of your seat about the hint I gave you yesterday (more like a fence post I say), know that the wait is over (you can exhale now).

I must say I am so very pleased with how they turned out and my husband proclaimed them the best cheese Ravioli he has ever had. Success!
This was my first time making Ravioli with this little tool (Big Snack Combo from Tupperware). Actually my first time making Ravioli ever. I have made Maultaschen (a “Schwabian” type of Ravioli) before especially when we live away from Germany but not Ravioli with a cheese filling.
It’s rather easy I found especially with the aid of a Pasta machine. I make the dough than let the dough rest for a while (20-30 min.). To roll out the dough I start with Setting one on the pasta machine and work my way up to 4. I stopped at 4 for these Ravioli and it turned out perfect.
Next I floured my mold and covered it with pasta dough. My machine is not wide enough to cover the whole mold (12 Ravioli) so I made them in batches of 8 each.
I used the same filling from the dumplings I had yesterday. Still had enough left over to make 24 Raviolis and 8 not so pretty ones (forgot to cover the mold with flour). Just enough for dinner for the 3 of us and some lunch with the not so pretty ones.
I added some bit’s of “Katenschinken” (smoked cottage ham), covered this with another sheet of pasta dough.
The ravioli form I use has a wavy line around the “to be” ravioli that is raised. So all you have to do now is roll over the form with a rolling pin, turn the form around and the finished ravioli will drop into the container you place underneath.
Voila, that’s it. What I do when making pasta is this. I cover the pasta with flour to prevent from sticking. I then place them on a tea towel and cover them with another. Now I let them dry for a little. I found that homemade noodles cook up better (better bite) if they have the chance to dry for a while. You certainly can cook them right away though.
For lunch I used some homemade chicken broth (this one was from a half cooked chicken which will be dinner today in some enchiladas) with some of my homemade vegetable seasoning, diced carrots and celeriac and some of the first batch of Ravioli that did not turn out quite so pretty (did not flour the mold and that was a mistake) but tasty nevertheless. That was all I needed. It was that good.

Recipe:

Pasta Dough
makes 32 Raviolis (3-4 people depending on what else you serve)
200g Flour (AP)
50g Semolina (Durum) flour
2 eggs
a little salt
enough cold water (1-2T) to make a stiff pasta dough
Mix flour, semolina, salt and eggs and add only enough water (depending on the size of your eggs and the flour you use you might need none or very little) to create a stiff dough. Let rest for 20-30 minutes.

Filling
Ricotta or Lemon cheese bag filling from yesterday
Some smoked cottage ham or cooked bacon bit’s

Sauce
(makes enough for 24 Ravioli)
200 ml cream
cornstarch or flour to thicken
chicken broth
seasoning
More smoked cottage ham or cooked bacon bits
Ramsons (bear leek)

Heat cream add some chicken broth (1/2c or more depending on how much sauce you need, the broth with also aid in the flavor of the sauce so don’t skip this), season with homemade vegetable seasoning or your own seasonings (cubes, salt, pepper etc.). Thicken with cornstarch or flour. Add some Ramsons to your sauce just before serving.

I served these Ravioli with a Chicken vegetable broth and a salad w/feta. 4 Ravioli where enough for me. My husband and son ate 8 each.

PS: If you live in Germany and really don’t want to make your own Pasta dough you can find dough in some Bakeries or your local grocery store. This might be the case in other countries too.

Lemon Bag cheese Dumplings in Broth

2010-05-18T12:54:00.005+02:00

Remember that cheese from yesterday? Of course you do, that’s why you are here.
I turned them into dumplings and had them for lunch in a broth.
Let’s get to the broth first.
When you roast or cook chicken don’t ever throw away the carcass, bones, neck or insides of that chicken. You can make some fantastic broth out of it. You don’t have to do it right away either. You can freeze all those bit's and pieces and cook one when it’s convenient for you.
I have been telling you that I am cleaning out my freezer so today I got out the remaining bags of those chicken bit's and pieces and made some broth. Here is how I do it.
In this picture you see three different bags. One has a chicken carcass (leftover from a roasted chicken), one has different chicken bones from former meals and the other had the neck and innards from another chicken in it. I dump it all into a big pot and fill it with water. Bring it to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for hours and hours (Great project for a crock pot over night). Depending on what I want to use the broth for I often add all sorts of veggies to it right away too (leeks, celeriac, carrots, leeks etc.). That’s it, see how easy it is to make a great chicken stock?

Now we have the broth for our soup, it needs some flavoring. What I like to use is homemade vegetable seasoning. Here is how I do it.

In the fall when root vegetables are dirt cheap I get tons of celeriac, leeks, parsley root (sort of like parsnips) and carrots. I usually have parsley and other herbs like lovage in my garden. Sometimes I add tomato powder or dried tomatoes. I wash and dry all those veggies than put them in my kitchen machine to make them real small. The smaller the pieces the better.
Now I mix salt under (this will help preserve it) in a ration of 4:1 (4 parts vegetables to 1 part salt/ 1000g vegetable to 250g salt). Fill it into glasses and store one jar in the fridge and the others in the freezer. This will last a long time if you don’t use it up even faster.
I make other mixes in powder form where I weigh out my veggies (so I know how much salt to add later), clean, dry and dehydrate them. After they are dehydrated I mix them with salt and pulse them in kitchen machine for a courser powder and in the Vitamix for a very fine powder. Those are the only seasonings I use in my stocks. No need to buy beef/chicken/vegetable cubes or there like. You can combine the vegetables in a way you like them.
Not to long ago I had a recipe from “The Kitch’n” on my feed for homemade bouillon. From there I took the tip to add cilantro and fennel to my fridge mix. Wow, I got to tell you, I was hesitant about the fennel in this but boy is this good. I make it with fennel and cilantro all the time now (only the fridge version). Why not give it a try yourself.

The broth is all done now. How about the cheese you ask? We are getting there.
A few days ago I saw this recipe at “Proud Italian Cook”. Perfect for Michelle’s cheese I thought.
And perfect it was. Very light dumplings and very tasty.

I used the last of the Pecorino cheese I had leftover from this recipe. I had exactly 3.5 oz left over and with the 1/2 lb of cheese I had made that was just what I needed.
Very good and a very satisfying lunch. Life is good!

I have another idea in my head on what to do with this cheese and I will get to you with that tomorrow.

Hint: How does Ravioli sound?

Lemon Bag Cheese ala “Big Black Dog”

2010-05-16T14:19:00.002+02:00

Last week Michelle from “Big Black Dogs” featured this recipe for “Lemon Bag Cheese”. I have been trying to motivate myself to start some cheese making of my own but I have not gotten further than making Yogurt on a regular basis.
Michelle’s post was the motivator I needed. I present to you …..

Homemade cheese!
I made half a recipe (3c milk and 1c heavy cream) and it produced just a little over 1/2 lb of cheese.
A couple things you want to keep in mind. Never, ever leave a lemon “un-zested”.
How often do you wished you had some lemon zest? I always zest my lemons and what I don’t use right away I freeze in the small snack bags which I put into a freezer bag. All I have to do when I need zest and don’t have lemons is take out one of those snack bags with zest.
I always use “Bio” (organic) lemons. You want to make sure they are organic especially if you are planning on using the zest (and why would you not?).
The Zest in this picture ended up in today’s plum jam. That freezer is getting empty, yippee, I might pull this off. Two more bags of plums remain and they will be turned into cake for the movers.
Making this type of cheese is simple to make. All you do is heat up the milk to 100F than you add your lemon juice, stir and let it sit for a while. After that you strain it in a tea towel or something like that. After a while you have cheese and whey.
This whey I ended up tossing (It nearly broke my heart, all that nutritious whey down the drain). Only because I still have to much buttermilk in the house and less than 2 week before the movers come.
In the future if I make this cheese I will use the whey like I would buttermilk. I think that should work, don’t you?
to see what I turned this cheese into come back tomorrow

…Hint, Ricotta dumplings soup with homemade chicken broth anyone?

Pecorino & Pepper Biscuits

2010-05-15T15:43:00.002+02:00

Oh yes, I love ‘me some biscuits and that any time of the day.

Pecorino Romano is a major player in this biscuit so I had to read up on it a little bit.
Apparently Pecorino Romano is one of four hard cheeses made in Italy from of ewe’s milk. This explains why it’s called Pecorino. The word pecora means sheep in Italian.
The Romano variety this recipe asks for is not appreciated in it’s place of origin. It’s considered to salty.
Ahm, I guess that is why they are exporting it to all of us.
No matter salty or not in these biscuits that cheese works just fine though I think I will add some more next time around.
Cracked pepper is another major player. I always have it in the house because it’s my pepper of choice. Just love cracked black pepper.
This is another The Modern Baker recipe and like all the other quick breads comes together just that, quickly.
I used my kitchen machine to shred up that cheese. That too was quick and easy.

This dough was much wetter than the cornbread. I needed some flour on my hands and on the board to get it together.
The trick here was to avoid the temptation to twist the cutter. You will need a straight down cut. No twisting or turning.
Be careful not to over bake the biscuits. Mine where in there a few minutes to long. Still good but a tad dry. I will reduce my baking time to about 15 minutes next time and see from there.
Since I will bake through the entire book eventually with “The Modern Baker” group it’s a given that I will not post the recipe on my blog unless I see it on the net in which case I will link to that post.
See you next time.

Whole Grain Garlic knots – HBin5

2010-05-14T23:15:00.002+02:00

The second bread made of the master dough have a nice twist to them….literally.

HBin5 Whole Grain Garlic knots
May 15th Bread Braid
1 full Master Recipe

you can find the recipe here

This part reminds me of my childhood more to the point the good old ‘play dough” times. In other words this is the time you get to play with the dough that will become your food. This is what gives the knot it’s name, garlic.
A quick trick to easily peel garlic is to press down onto the knife with your fist/palm. The garlic will split and you can easily remove it’s skin.
Next time I make this bread I will go a bit of a different route.
This bread was great but I did not like the coloring or look after the baking. The Parsley did not stand up to the intense heat. Next time I would make an infusion of the oil and parsley than add the garlic.

This post will be linked to Michelle’s blog Big black dogs. Head on over there to see what the other bakers in this group did with this dough.

Finally a master recipe bread again…9 HBin5 – Hearty Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf

2010-05-14T22:23:00.002+02:00

I have been yearning for some good bread this last 10 days. Don’t get me wrong, I have been eating bread and not bad one either but there is something about the master recipe of the HBin5 I enjoy. It’s quick and easy and mighty tasty. How can you go wrong with that.

Time is of an essence as we close up shop here in Germany so this was just perfect.
You can find the recipe for the master recipe here in this Mother Earth News article.
All really great bread starts with fresh ingredients. What could be fresher than grinding your own flour. That is how I usually start any baked goods with whole wheat.

May 15th Bread Braid
1 full Master Recipe
Page 62-63 1 loaf of hearty Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf

Quick and easy! One little problem arose and that is the fact that I need a new lame (bread scoring tool). Mine was not sharp enough and tore my bread. Did not matter in the end because it’s tasty and that’s what counts!

This post will be linked to Michelle’s blog Big Black Dogs where you can read up on the results of my fellow bakers who attempt to bake through the Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes book.

Ginger Scones with Almond Toppings

2010-05-13T16:46:00.002+02:00

went to bed dreaming not of sugar plums but of candied ginger. Oh boy, I am still over the moon about how well they turned out. If you missed it you can read all about it here.

With the candied ginger taken care off I skipped to the kitchen to get bakin’ on another The Modern Baker quick bread recipe.
This recipe too did not fail my expectations. Not as gingery or sweet as one might think but very good.
I used 5 oz. of candied ginger and though they where quite spicy when eaten on their own they where not so in those scones. It’s a pleasure to bite into the scones and hit a piece of very soft ginger and have that aroma fill your mouth. Yum, is what sums it up.

Like with all of Malgieri’s quick bread recipes these came together quickly. I really enjoy using my food processor for those types of recipes. All you do is mix your dry ingredients. Add your cold butter and pulse until it’s coarse (sandy like). Than you add your liquid and pulse until the dough combines and no more. That’s it, really simple and easy. All you have to do now is dump it all onto your baking surface (I have a big wooden board) and shape the scones. It takes no more than 15 minutes if at all. The danger is that you are done before your oven is preheated ;).

RECIPE:
I was able to find the recipe online here.

If you don’t have the book head on over to "Baking for neighbors" and make those scones today. Right after taking your first bite order your copy at Amazon or wherever you like to get your books from because you will be wanting more.
I can not see how you would be disappointed with this book.

See you in the Kitch’n soon!

Candied Ginger

2010-05-13T00:11:00.002+02:00

My quest to bake Ginger Scones from the Modern Baker had me looking for candied Ginger. Had my husband looking to be exact. That was a week ago. He came up empty handed because neither the commissary nor the local grocery store he went to carried it.

Today I thought about what I would bake this week and those scones made the list. Having made candied orange peel years back I knew it could not be all that hard to make candied ginger myself.

I Googled it and came up with David Lebovitz's take on making candied ginger. It’s basically a simple syrup.

Off I went to the store to get some ginger. Though candied ginger might be a problem to get in some stores fresh ginger is hardly ever not available. I love how my local “Edeka” Grocery store displays their veggies especially things like ginger. Not just are they in pretty wicker baskets but they are stored out of moistures way.

I have seen ginger under the mister to many times in the USA and often found them moldy right there in the store.

Not here in Germany. No mister = no mold! I never keep ginger in the fridge either. I keep it in a hanging wire basket in my dark pantry it will keep for weeks.

Come to find out that Edeka does carry candied ginger but I was on a mission to make my own and the price only helped to bring that mission home.

1000grams (1kilo) cost Euro 4,90 fresh where 100grams of candied ginger cost a whopping Euro 2,29. That means I can make 5 times my own for the cost of 1 box of that candied ginger. That is hefty I would say.

Turns out making candied ginger is not just very easy to make it is so much better than any candied ginger I have ever eaten purchased from a store. It’s spicy and sweet and oh so good. I will make my own from now on, that’s for sure.

I bought a piece of root just a little over 300grams. I reduced the recipe to that amount and went to work.

David suggests to use the back of a spoon to peel the ginger. I find that using my veggie peeler (the one that peels very thinly) works just fine. It took me less than 5 minutes to peel and cut up that ginger.

I followed the steps of simmering the ginger twice in just plain water but instead of throwing the water away I kept it. It’s allergy season and ginger is great for scratchy throats. I have been drinking ginger tea during winter for years whenever my throat hurts. It’s just as great in the spring. Simply sweeten it to your liking or add some of the leftover ginger syrup.

Next time I will reduce the cooking to one time but I will cook it for about 30 minutes. The cooking helps to soften the fiber. David explains that sugar has the tendency to harden the fiber and since ginger is pretty fibrous we don’t want that to happen.

The final procedure included cooking the drained ginger in a sugar solution. To reduce that solution to a thin honey like consistency it took about an hour. By that time the ginger was just right. I left it in the syrup for a while longer after turning of the stove. Drained it and a little while later sugared them. OMG, this is sooo good, I can’t stop eating it.

If you have never made candied ginger before I suggest you put ginger on your next shopping list and give it a try especially if you are planning on making the Ginger Scones from “The Modern Baker” book. You will hear about those tomorrow.

PS: don’t throw the syrup solution away. This can be used in all sorts of ways. For instance as a sort of ginger ale (use 1/3 of syrup for every 3 parts of fizzy water).

A little trip to India…

2010-04-30T22:56:00.002+02:00

When I saw the last video on Show me the curry I knew what I would produce next. See I have an open Gram flour bag in the pantry that needs usin’ up.
So this recipe came at a perfect time.
I have never had it before so I watched the video to see what the finished product should look like. First problem was that I do not own a Sev-Maker. Where there is a will there is a way I thought and voila I simply used my potato ricer.
The “namkeens” (savory snack) did not turn out in nice long strands and nest like they did for Anuja and Hetal at “show me the Curry” but they did turn out and tasted mighty fine.
I am quite happy with the outcome and now have another way to use up my Gram flour.

Recipe (for details and to watch the video head on over to “show me the curry”)
Ingredients:
Cinnamon Powder – 1/4 tsp
Cloves Powder – 1/4 tsp
Coarse Black Pepper Powder – 1/2 tsp
Red Chili Powder – 1/2 tsp or to taste
Salt – 1/2 tsp
Water – 1/4 cup
Oil – 1 tbsp
Baking Soda – a pinch
Lemon /Lime Juice – 1 tsp
Chickpea Flour (Besan) – 1 cup
Oil for deep frying
Method:
1. In a bowl mix everything except the Chickpea Flour.
2. Mix well and then add the Chickpea Flour little at a time, mixing constantly, making sure lumps don’t form.
3. Heat the Oil for frying.
4. Grease the inside of the Sev-Maker.
5. Wipe the outside of the Sev-Maker and wash hands and make sure they are not slippery.
6. Pour some of the mixture into the Sev-Maker and close it.
7. Once the oil is hot, rotate the sev-maker and in a circular motion pour carefully into the oil.
8. Once you have completed one circle, rotate the sev-maker backwards to stop the flow.
9. Cook the sev on medium heat for about 3-4 minutes and flip using the help of another spoon or fork (to avoid splashing)
10. Cook on the other side for a couple of minutes till there are no more bubbles forming.
11. Take out the sev and place on a paper towel.
12. Allow it to cool down to room temperature.
13. Break into pieces and store in an air-tight container and store.
14. Does not need to be refrigerated.

Milk and Honey Raisin Bread…8 Hbin5

2010-04-30T22:18:00.002+02:00

HBin 5, Milk and Honey Raisin Bread
1/2 recipe
page 270
changes: I used coconut milk instead of the water

The second loaf for this month HBin5 bread braid is the Milk and Honey Raisin Bread.
The dough was very stiff when I whipped it up considering this bread only has 4 cups of fluids to over 9 cups of flour I am not surprised.
I was tempted to add quite a bit of milk to this one but did not just to see how this would turn out. I let it sit for 2 hours and put it in the fridge for about 4 hours than got ready make a loaf.
After shaping the loaf I still had a little dough left over so I made some cinnamon rolls (Schneckennudel) from the rest.
Simply whipped up some cinnamon, sugar and butter, spread it on the dough, rolled it up and cut them.

The cinnamon rolls turned out great however I will add more milk to it next time to give it more moisture and a lighter interior.
The loaf was not cut yet so can’t say how the crumb turned out. Will do a shot when I cut into it.

To see what the rest of HBin5 Group made with these dough’s head on over to Michelle's blog “Big Black dogs”

Recipe – found on the net here

4 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
4 1/2 cups unbleached AP flour
1 1/2 tbsp granulated yeast (or two packets)
1 tbsp kosher salt (I increase the salt by a bit in all the recipes in this book, as they purposely decreased it for the sodium-conscious)
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
2 cups milk
2 cups lukewarm water
1/3 cup honey or agave
3/4 cup raisins (I used more - at least a cup)
egg wash for brushing top
raw sugar for sprinkling on top
1. Whisk together flours, yeast salt and vital wheat gluten
2. Combine remaining ingredients and mix them with a spoon or food processor
3. Cover (not airtight_and allow to rise at room temp for 2 hours until dough rises and collapses)
4. Easier to work with cold dough - refrigerate and use up to 10 days
5. On baking day, grease 8.5 x 4.5 inch nonstick loaf pan. Flour the top and cut off 2-lb piece of dough. Shape into a ball as you normally would.
6. Shape into oval and place in pan. Allow to rest covered in plastic wrap for 90 minutes.
7. Thirty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 375 with rack in center of oven. No stone required.
8. Just before baking, brush top with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar (don't go too crazy or the top gets too dark).
9. Bake 45 minutes until brown and firm.
10. Immediately remove from pan and allow to cool before slicing.

Pumpkin Pie Brioche Cinnamon Crescent Rolls….8 HBin5

2010-04-30T00:12:00.002+02:00

I feel like Mother’s day arrived already. My oldest is coming home this weekend and we have not seen him since September.
That means he was not home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Poor me, poor me and him too of course.
See we have a little Ocean separating us for a few more month therefore It was not possible for him to come in the 4 days or so he got off during the holidays.
Now A-school is over and he has about ten days off which means he will be home on Mothers day. Now all we have to do is keep our fingers crossed that this little volcano in Iceland keeps it’s peace.
Of course my son loves backed goods, which 19 year old does not so I am baking up a storm. Gotta keep that oven primed and ready.
I found a large can of pumpkin puree in the cupboard and I took Michelle’s (Big Black Dogs) offer to do the pumpkin pie brioche for May 1st HBin5 bread braid since we had made the chocolate espresso brioche for Valentines day.

OMG, I have missed out big time and so have you! The guys in the house (my dear husband and younger son) where over the moon especially my husband.
That cream cheese Frosting is the dot on the i, just perfect. I made half a recipe and of that half recipe half went into the crescents and the other half was turned into a pumpkin cinnamon bread. Delicious!

So if you want to surprise Mom on Mother’s day and if you are not a great baker but can follow instructions why not make this pumpkin cinnamon bread for her breakfast. start it Friday before Mother’s day. Get the dough out Saturday late afternoon and bake it up in the evening. Wishing you great success!

To see what the rest of HBin5 Group made with these dough’s head on over to Michelle's blog “Big Black dogs”

Recipe
Pumpkin Pie brioche Cinnamon Crescent Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing
page 294 HBin5
Makes enough dough for at least two 2-pound loaves.
3 cups white whole wheat flour
4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast, or 2 packets
1 tablespoon kosher salt (increase or decrease to taste)
2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
4 large eggs
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup neutral-flavored oil, or unsalted butter, melted, or zero trans fat, zero hydrogenated oil margarine, melted
1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree

The authors have the recipe on their webpage so just follow this link for the instructions.

Honey Cream cheese Icing:
this Icing comes very close to the HBin5 version. Use 4 oz of cream cheese though. More honey is always good.

Real Welsh Scones one never stops learning

2010-04-29T08:01:00.002+02:00

Scones that word sounds mystic doesn’t it?
I have never eaten or baked a scone before so this is reason for a celebration. I achieved to do both in one day.
I tried to find out a little about scones since they are so new to me. I found out that scones where mentioned in a publication for the first time in 1513 by a Scottish poet.
There are different views out on where the word scone itself came from. I like this version the best because I think it makes a valid point. (The Oxford dictionary believes that it comes from a word "sgonn" meaning mouthful or shapeless mass). They are a mouthful and they are rather shapeless aren’t they?
Scones are done in the Welsh tradition of cooking yeast breads on bake stones. Had I researched this prior to baking I think I might have done them on the stovetop. Just to keep the mystic going.
My research has me think that traditional scones might have been made with no leavener at all. “The American style of scone is made with the baking powder and are a quick bread. The English version usually involves a lemon curd”. That would make sense since baking powder was not discovered until 1843 yet it was mentioned over 300 years prior for the first time publicly and had been around even longer.
No matter who baked them for the first time and who made them popular in our times they are indeed something that you can put on the table when you get a last minute visitor for tea or coffee. Quick and easy, a quick bread, what can I say.
This is another recipe from Nick Malgieri and I am jumping up and down from joy because he commented on my last “The Modern Baker” post, yup he did, he did…

Real Welsh Scones (recipe found on the web @ “Intrigue of…”)
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. sugar
1 T baking powder
1 tsp. cream of tartar( I did not have any so I used 1 tsp. lemon juice)
1/2 tsp. salt
8 T cold unsalted butter, diced into cubes
1 large egg
1/2 c. milk

Preheat oven to 450
Whisk milk and egg in a bowl and set aside
In a food processor, combine, flour, sugar, salt and cream of tartar.
Add the butter a few knobs at a time and pulse. Once all of the butter is incorporated it should have mealy dry consistency.
Pour the flour mix. into a large bowl and gradually pour in the milk and egg mix. Stir with a fork ( I don’t know why a fork specifically) until you have a doughy mass. Everything should incorporate completely and will have a semi-sticky consistency.
On a lightly floured surface knead the dough over about 3-4 times until it is relatively smooth.
Cut the dough in half, and form each half into disc shapes about 6 inches in diameter.
With a scraper knife, regular knife, or whatever you want to use, gently indent the surface of the disc so that you make wedges, but don’t cut all the way through. (I’m sure this technique has a name but I don’t know what it is or what it’s purpose is. But if it’s traditional then I’m doing it)
Slide each disc onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake 10-15 min. until it is a dark golden color.

Rustic Bread ala Hamelman –Mellow Bakers-

2010-04-28T12:32:00.002+02:00

My book has finally arrived I am over the moon.
I have been waiting for "Bread"a bread baking book by Hamelman to arrive when the Iceland volcano started to cause trouble. The ashes caused European airspace to be pretty much empty for almost a week which meant that my book was who-knows-where waiting for the long haul here.
Last Thursday our local APO finally received a big shipment and with it my book. Yippee, can you tell I am excited?
Friday I pulled out the book, checked the Mellow Bakers online page to see which bread to start with first.
Mellow Bakers: What is it?
Mellow Bakers is a group of bread baking enthusiasts who look to bake a particular bread or breads together each month. Specific breads will be announced on the site every month and members can choose to make these breads as a group then post and share their results.
(for more information on Mellow Bakers, to read, to join etc. check here)
The group decided on a pace of 3 breads a month. Great because that way I will try new recipes and at the same time still have time to make old time favorites or other recipes without getting sick and tired of bread (yeah, like that is going to happen, NOT). Here is the first recipe I chose from the options provided.

Rustic Bread
“Bread” by Jeffrey Hamelman
Page 115
This recipe starts out with a pre-ferment that will ferment for 12-16 hours. This will help create some great flavor and also will aid in a longer shelf life.

When a recipe asks for rye or whole wheat (spelt) I grind my own flour. This way it’s really fresh, I have control over how course or fine I make it and it’s a satisfying experience.

This bread takes some time to complete though not much work. The Bulk Fermentation is 2 1/2 hrs. During that time you fold the dough twice after each 50 min. For the final rise I placed my loafs into some baskets but you can also use a bowl lined with a thin kitchen towel (don’t forget to flour it and the bread or it will stick) or even bakers linen that you fold between the loafs to create some stability. You will need something to hold it in shape for the final rise or it will spread and you’ll end up with a hockey puck.

My slashes turned out not to be deep enough so I will have to work on that. The crumb could be a little lighter this is the fault of my inexperience and not the recipes.

Overall this bread was great and we liked it a lot. One loaf is gone. The other is sitting in the freezer. Here is to great bread!

Recipe linked from "The Fresh Loaf"

Rustic Bread

Makes 2 large loaves
Preferment:
1 lb. bread flour (3 1/2 cups)
9.5 oz. water (1 1/4 cups)
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/8 teaspoon instant yeast
Final dough:
10 oz. bread flour (2 1/2 cups)
6 oz. whole wheat or rye flour or a mixture of them (around 1 1/2 cups)
12.5 oz. water (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
all of the preferment

For the instructions on how to bake this bread please head on over to the “Fresh Loaf” link above.

This Bread has been Yeast spotted

Strawberry Shortcakes a perfect ending to a delicious meal

2010-04-27T15:50:00.002+02:00

When I went shopping yesterday and browsing the produce isle what caught my eyes where these strawberries.
All winter long I have been watching to buy seasonal and regional and with the arrival of Spring we are so ready for some fresh fruits and vegetables.
I checked to see where these strawberries came from since our strawberries here are nowhere ready to be harvested. Asparagus is in full harvest mode but not strawberries.
The label told me they came from Spain (not regional for sure). I hesitated since that would mean a long haul to get here. Than I started to think about our upcoming move to El Paso.
There most things will have to be trucked in from surrounding more hospitable areas.
I went to check on Google Map to see how far it would be from my place in Bavaria near the Czech border to Barcelona, Spain and found out it’s 1493 km (about 933 miles) from our house. According to Google maps that comes out to 13.22 hours of driving time.
Next I checked how far it would be across Texas from El Paso to Texarkana and that turned out to be 811 miles or 13.32 hours driving time.
As you can see from the picture above I caved in and bought the Strawberries and turned them into this seasons first Strawberry shortcakes.
This is a dessert that’s so quick, easy and well loved in our home.
Here is the Recipe I use. It originates from the Joy of cooking which I adapted.

Shortcake Recipe

makes 6 shortcakes
2c Flour (all purpose)
2.5 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp salt
1T sugar
1.25c heavy cream
Filling:
Strawberries (as little or as much as you like)
Sugar
Assembly
Whipped cream

Mix dry ingredients. Add the heavy cream and with a fork mix just until it all comes together (moistened).
With your hands bring it all together. Divide into 6 and shape into shortcakes (I take the cut piece and just go with my hands around it cradling it in my hands until its round).
You can brush some milk or heavy cream on top and sprinkle with some more sugar or just sprinkle with sugar like I did here.
Bake @ 450F for about 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Strawberries
Wash, dry and slice your strawberries. Add some sugar (depending on how sweet you like it), mix and let sit for a while. I let mine sit for at least one hour or longer. Great to make ahead. Just put in the fridge and get them out when you need them.
The sugar will bring the juices out softening the strawberries and creating a delicious “sauce” at the same time.

Assembly:
Cut open one shortcake. Top the bottom half with strawberries and whipped cream. Add the top half of the shortcake. Voila, all done!

Cilantro, Jalapeno, green onions … it’s Cornbread time! The Modern Baker

2010-04-26T20:45:00.002+02:00

The spicy Jalapeno Cornbread one of the quick breads in “The Modern Baker” book inspired a Mexican dinner and it’s not even Cinco de Mayo yet.

Over dinner you could hear a lot of mhm, mhm, mhm’s especially from me. This stuff was good not just the cornbread but the entire meal.

I will be dreaming of Mexico tonight.

Spicy Jalapeno Cornbread
The Modern Baker
page 50

I really can get used to quick bread. I wonder why I have not made that many prior. They are so easy to put together and there is not much clean up afterwards.

As I read (yup, I actually read the recipe….ALL of it) I stumbled over the baking powder. Not literary but in the pages.

I don’t think I have ever read a recipe with 3.5 cups cornmeal/flour mixture that asks for 2 Tablespoons of baking powder. You read that right, 2T not 2 tsp.

I hesitated a little with actually putting that much baking powder into this recipe. I checked online to see if there was a printing mistake in the book. There are no updates on Nick Malgieri’s site and the Bakers from “The Modern Baker” challenge who made this bread already did not mention anything wrong with that much baking powder so I went ahead and did it. I added 2 T of baking powder, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

My biggest fear was that I would end up with a huge mess in my oven. Thankfully that did not happen and no new phobia was created. Good thing too, just imagine having to come up with a super cool name for that phobia.

I could not find any Jalapeno peppers so I went with Thai peppers. Very hot but curiously not so in this bread. It turned out rather mild. Next time, and there will be a next time, I will add more.

See the disposable clove in the picture with the onions and peppers? See that membrane with the seeds right next to it? Those are hot and the oil in them will stay on your hands even after washing them.

Do yourself a favor and always wear disposable cloves when handling spicy peppers.

This recipe uses the white and some of the green parts of the onions. I Did cut part of the top parts off though and put them in the fridge. Don’t throw those away they make a nice ingredient for a veggie or chicken stock.

I keep them and freeze them if I don’t use them right away and get them out when I make stock.

The bread is baked at 375F for 30 minutes according to the recipe. Mine was done after 23 minutes. So please always use the time in a recipe as a “Guide”. Get to know your oven and adjust timing according to how your oven bakes.

This bread was fantastic. Moist, airy and delicious. I think this is the best cornbread I have ever eaten.

The 2T baking powder created a nice airy loaf. So much better then the dense ones I have usually eaten and created myself. YUM!

The Posole and Sope recipe came from the current Better Homes and Gardens Special Publications “Ultimate Mexican”. Both recipes are winners.

The Shortcakes where turned into Strawberry shortcakes. Recipe and pictures will follow.

The recipe for the Cornbread is in “The Modern Baker” book.

more more more…..

2010-04-24T20:33:00.002+02:00

got a stomach ache from all those sweet breads I have been posting about? If so don’t fear, I have a cure.

Fennel seeds help to eliminate stomach aches and stimulate digestion and figs are full of fiber, we just leave it at that.

So to cure your stomach ache just eat some of both in….sweet bread. Yup, I have another sweet bread for you. I am now convinced that you can not go wrong about getting “The Modern Baker” book.

This sweet bread is another recipe from there and it’s another winner. Awesome in fact, the combination of figs and fennel seeds is just brilliant. I would never have thought of it. Yet the moment you bite into it and taste the combination you know they are a match that was meant to be.

This is the 4th of the quick breads in this book. There are some savory kind to follow so don’t worry.

So far each and every recipe was just great. No doubt about it those 4 alone are well worth the price.

In fact I would even go as far as saying this fig and fennel bread is worth the price of the book.

If you are still not convinced head on over to your local library and see if they have a copy or can get you one.

The Modern Baker

Fennel Fig & Almond Bread

page 42

Like the other quick breads this recipe came together really quick and in my case all in one bowl. See, I really have to learn to read recipes before I make them and with that I mean the instructions not just the Ingredients list.

I became aware of my shortcomings when I read the Three clever Sisters blog about this bread. The blog talked about creaming the butter and bringing eggs to room temperature which I always do when I bake a Bundt cake or there like. However I did not read the instructions and simply melted the butter mixed it under the batter, added the eggs and than the rest.

Luckily the bread turned out fabulous and I will stick with this method from here on out.

So scratching my head as I read this blog and going ….what? I head over to the cookbook and read the instructions AFTER I baked the bread.

Sure enough …Never mind though because it did turn out great and no matter how much lighter it might have turned out had I beaten the ‘wahoozy’ out of that butter I am very happy with the outcome and maybe just maybe I have finally learned my lesson to read the instructions prior to baking.

One thing to point out is that mine only took 35 minutes to bake not 60 like stated in the book.

Chocolate Spice Bread – The Modern Baker

2010-04-23T21:59:00.008+02:00

Chocolate, Schokolade, cokolada…or however you say it in your part of the world it all means the same….a little bit of Heaven.

I have been working through the “quick bread” section of “The Modern Baker” book and when I saw this I had to make it right away. I love ‘me’ some chocolate and in a bread (or cake as we German like to call those sweet breads) it’s just as good as any other way.

This is the third recipe and this too did not leave me wanting.

It’s another great recipe. Even if it’s baked a tad to long. I checked every 5 minutes after the initial 30 and took it out at 45. That was 5 minutes to long however the bread was still very good. I will make this again for sure.

Love the spices (cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger) in this bread. The ginger is a real nice addition and you can really taste it.

If you don’t own a nutmeg grinder do yourself a favor and get yourself one. They are only a few dollars (mine was about 5 Euros) and so worth it.

If you look at my egg pictures to the right you see that the yolk is quite different in size.

I get my eggs from a local farm in my small town and of course the hens don’t all lay the same size of eggs.

To get uniformed results in my baking I weigh my eggs to make sure I have the right “weight” for the large eggs required in a recipe. A large eggs weighs anywhere from 64-72g.

I also make my own brown sugar by simply adding some molasses to regular sugar. Here I did 1 tsp. I had no sour cream in the house and used quark (farmers cheese but a strained yogurt would do too) instead.

I had my doubt that this bread would rise enough to fill the pan. My pan was barely 2/3 full yet it did rise above the pan. Great tasting bread that would taste especially good with your afternoon coffee.

I will be serving this during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season.

Recipe
The Modern Baker
page 45

This quick bread is packed with chocolate flavor. Avoid overbaking, which could dry it out. To serve, cut the bread into thin slices and accompany with preserves or marmalade. Raspberry preserves and ginger marmalade are especially good with it.
Keep the bread under a cake dome or loosely wrapped in plastic wrap if you are serving it the same day it is made. Wrap in plastic wrap and aluminum foil to keep at room temperature for up to 4 days; wrap well and freeze for longer storage.
Makes one 8 1/2-inch loaf (12 to 16 slices)

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the pan
1 1/2 cups flour (spoon flour into a dry-measure cup and level off)
1/3 cup cocoa powder (Dutch-process or alkalized), sifted after measuring
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
2/3 cup low-fat or regular sour cream

Directions:

Lightly grease an 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-by-2 3/4-inch loaf pan with a little unsalted butter, then line the bottom of the pan with parchment or wax paper cut to fit; butter the paper as well.
Position a rack in the middle level of the oven; preheat to 350 degrees.
Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and spices in a bowl or on a large piece of parchment or wax paper.
Whisk the eggs in a large bowl to break them up, then whisk in both sugars. Whisk for a minute, or until the mixture lightens, then whisk in the 5 tablespoons of butter and the sour cream.
Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture all at once; gently whisk until smooth.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the top, pushing the batter evenly into the corners. Bake on the middle oven rack for 35 to 40 minutes, until the bread has risen and a toothpick or a narrow-bladed knife inserted into the center of the bread emerges clean.
Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes, then unmold the bread and let it cool completely on the rack. When ready to serve, transfer to a cutting board.

Preserving last Falls harvest

2010-04-22T18:05:00.002+02:00

When we moved to Germany in the Summer of 2006 what excited me the most was the yard full of apple, “Zwetschgen” and cherry trees we would have on our rented property.
I especially missed Zwetschgen (similar to a plum, small, oval and the pit releases easily) while living overseas. You don’t know how much something means to you until it’s gone and gone it was for many years while I lived away from Germany.
Now we are to move overseas again but this time I will take part of what’s near and dear to me with me and that’s “Zwetschgenmus” (plum jam).
I got thinking since it’s Earth Day today I will do some canning. See using your own fruits and preserving them is something you can do to help Mother Earth.
How come you ask? I see it first of all as using what you have instead of buying more. You don’t have to go out every time you need a jar of jam and considering where those jams often come from (half around the world or across the huge USA) preventing fossil fuels to be wasted in that process.
Another reason to me is that I know how that fruit grew. There where no pesticides or chemical fertilizers used which protects the environment especially our pollinators. My last reason is that I don’t end up with jars and jars of those store bought jams that will either go into a landfill or in a recycling center to do “who knows what” with them. I use reusable twist off glasses that are sold here for just that reason, Jam making.
Two nights ago I got out a couple gallon size bags full of Zwetschgen from the freezer and while I was at it the rest of the rhubarb as well.
I defrosted them overnight in the fridge. The next day I weight them and added half that weight in 2x1 Jam Sugar.
Zwetschgen have enough pectin so they would do fine on their own with just the same amount of sugar and maybe a little lemon juice and a slow cook to thicken it. So if you want to try Jam’n, can’t get Jam sugar and have no access to pectin go that route.
After mixing the fruit with the sugar I let it stand for at least one hour (this time I put them in the fridge overnight) three is better before I make Jam. This will give the sugar time to pull out the juice from the fruit.
When I am ready to “Jam” I make sure that I have everything I need on hand and ready to go. That means clean Jars (a cycle in the dishwasher would be perfect) and lids. For Jam making I use Twist off Jars and the open Kettle method.
I know that the USDA is against this method even for fruits (maybe for fear of lawsuits) but this method has been used forever here in Germany and other parts of the world especially for fruit. If you use this method you do it at your own risk and make sure you have enough acid in the fruits or veggies that you can. To be save just add a little lemon juice. I use this method only for Jams and relishes/chutneys. For all other veggies, fruits, meat (chicken broth, cooked/browned hamburger or cooked sausage only nothing raw) I use the hot water bath method.
In case you are a Food preserver and use a pressure canner (I know this is the only method the USDA approves) great. I just want to add that pressure canners are unknown here in Germany. We do use pressure cookers for cooking but pressure canners are not available here.

I keep my jars and lids in very hot water until I need them. To avoid that the jars burst when I fill them with the boiling jam I place the jar on a wet hot rag.
For the Zwetschgen Jam I used cinnamon and real vanilla (scrape out the pods) to spice it up. The left over pods I place in a jar and fill it with sugar. Just shake it a few times and a few days later you have homemade vanilla sugar. Much better than artificial vanilla flavor or even real vanilla flavor.
Vanilla works very well with Zwetschgen/Plum. After I fill the jar I close the lid and place it upside down on a hot wet towel. Before closing the jar I wipe off the top of the jar to make sure no jam is stuck there.
I leave the jars on the wet towel until they are cooled off. The vacuum that is created will keep these jars for a long time (at least three years in our house).
The rhubarb jam I made is just rhubarb and Jam sugar and nothing else added. If you have never “Jam’d” before why not give it a try with some strawberries or other fruits in season depending where you live. In our area that would be rhubarb. I heard California is already knee deep into strawberries. Yum!

Happy Yam’n and Happy Earth Day!

Are you ready for some Dates? –The Modern Baker-

2010-04-21T16:29:00.006+02:00

If you are looking for me to hook you up, that’s not happening. I just say it as it is.

Though the types of Dates I’m talking about are a love connection made in Heaven too.

I first fell in love with Dates when we where living in Jeddah, KSA. My favorite time to eat Dates are when they are still green, tangy and leave a numb feeling in your mouth (see picture in the link above). Unripe not ripe that’s the way I like them.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like them ripe and sweet too and while living in the Kingdom often thought of Eve who is rumored to rest in Jeddah and the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.

Could it be that a simple Date is what did us all in? So sweet, so melt in the mouth like and yet so simple?

I was reminded of how much I like Dates when I picked up an Iranian box of fresh Dates at the “Slow food” Messe (Exhibition) in Stuttgart last Friday.

There is no comparison to what you might get in a Grocery store. None what so ever. These where so fresh and ripe and sweet and ….(I could just go on and on) that it was a little bit of Heaven right here on Earth.

When I found this little treasure at the Exhibition I was so excited. I had just received my copy of The Modern Baker Thursday night and while flipping through the book The Date Walnut Bread on page 47 caught my eye. I knew that this was one of the first recipes out of this book that I wanted to make.

Now I had the main star in my hands and not even the missing Walnuts could stand between this woman and her Date ~~Walnut~~ Hazelnut Bread.

This is the second recipe that I baked from the Quick Bread section of “The Modern Baker” book.

To find out how others like this bread and others from “The Modern Baker” book you can read all about it here.

I will not post the recipe here since I will be blogging about all the recipes in the book over the next year or so and it would not be fair to the author to have all the recipes online in one place. However this recipe is very close to the one in the book.

This is the second recipe I baked from this book and I must say I am very much looking forward to the next recipe. Both this and the Cocoa Banana Muffins (Cupcake) are excellent and well worth alone getting the book.

Date Hazelnut Bread
The Modern Baker
Page 47

This bread came together very quick. That is if you forget about the hour long wait to soak the Dates in some Water and a bit of Butter.

By the time the hour was over my Dates had nearly disappeared. I was left with pretty much a thick syrup.

What surprised me with this recipe is how “friendly” this recipe actually is.

Only 1T of Butter (that’s all the fat that’s added), no milk just water, 2 eggs and 1.5 c sugar in addition to the dates (a lot), nuts and the dry ingredients. Not bad at all for a sweet treat.

The little snag I talked about earlier is that I had no Walnuts in the house but I always have Hazelnut here. Therefore I used Hazelnut and about 1/4 c of Almonds instead of the Walnut.

I am not a big fan of Vanilla flavor so I used real Vanilla and 1 tsp. of Rum instead.

As for the taste? Can you say Y.U.M?

“Bread baking Day…

2010-04-20T13:47:00.003+02:00

the monthly event for passionate and to-be bread bakers” is what I read on Zorra's "1x umrühren bitte" (stir it 1x please) blog.

Hmh, is she talking to me? I am passionate (just ask my family) and I am a “getting there” bread baker.

Now that we got that out of the way I think she is indeed talking to me.

A quick read into the rules “Make sure you got the monthly bbd theme, post your recipe by the specified deadline and email the host with a link to your entry.” has me looking for this month theme.

This month theme is hosted by Cathy from The Bread Experience.

Cathy is also baking in the HBin5 challenge where I first read about Bread baking Day. On Cathy’s webpage I found what I was looking for.

Bread in Pots is the theme.

How perfect is that? I can’t garden this spring. We will be moving back to the states in June and we have to return the garden back to it’s original state (Grass).
With Spring finally here I miss that part of Year when the Garden comes to live and I get down and dirty.

I so enjoy the sound of this challenge.

Another thing I will miss in just a couple of month is canning my strawberries, rhubarb and cherries. Canning is another one of those things I enjoy doing.

The rules for this month challenge stated that any type of pot could be used.“Any kind of pot will do: flower pots, ceramic pots/bakers, clay pots, baking tins, casserole dishes, Dutch ovens, etc. If you have a pot or tin and can bake bread in it, then go for it!”

I got thinking, why not combine two of my passions (canning and baking) for this challenge.

My pot will be a .5l Weck canning jar and yes, I preserved the bread I baked in it!I found the original recipe here and changed it just a little.

It turned out great. I will be making this bread again many times in the future.

If you are a camper or live in an area where power outages are normal during cold weather or simply enjoy a filled pantry you might want to preserve some of this bread yourself to have on hand.

BBD # 29
Schwarzbrot im Glas (Pumpernickel style bread in a jar)

Ingredients:

.5l Buttermilk (about 2 cups)
4.5 tsp instant yeast (2 packets)
100g Molasses (dark syrup)

250g Coarse Rye Meal - coarsest granulation
250g Coarse Whole Wheat Meal
125g Medium coarse Whole Wheat Meal
125g All purpose or spelt flour
100g Quark (farmers cheese, strained yogurt, sour cream)
150g Sunflower seeds (I leave those out, soak them prior to using to plump them up)
50g Sesame seeds
50g crushed flax seed
2 tsp salt

For this recipe I used some rye and red wheat and ground it using a mill to my liking.

For the coarse meals I set it to the coarsest setting and for the medium (see picture) i set it half way in between fine and coarse.

If you don’t have a mill use a kitchen machine and just pulse it a few time until the kernels have broken up some. This bread would be great with even some of the kernels left whole and just soaked prior to making the dough.

I warmed up the buttermilk a little and added the molasses to solve it.
Mix all the dry ingredients together and mix with the buttermilk/molasses mixture.

Knead it for about 5 minutes. Use more buttermilk if needed or if you grind your own meal. You will end up with a stiff but tacky dough.

                                Cover and let the dough rest for 60 minutes

Butter your jars and fill them half (up to 2/3) with batter.
I divided the dough into 5 pieces, and formed each into a round, placed it into the jar and pressed just a little.

The recipe talked about baking them with closed lids but at 150C I feel this would create some gooey rubber after the bake (If you are using metal lids with rubber gaskets you might want to give it a try and close them right away, fixing them with a metal band). I baked my jars at 150C (300F) for 90 minutes. I will reduce that to 70 minutes next time. Depending on the size of your jar this might be longer or shorter. The original recipe mentioned 2.5 hours but they did have the lids closed.

As soon as you remove the jars from the oven top them with your lids and close them (I left my rubber caskets in a pot of hot water). If you are using American style jars place your metal lid on the jar now and fix with a metal band.
As the jars cool down a vacuum is created sealing the jars. I made some cakes last fall using this method and they are still good to eat and sealed perfectly.

Jars
I used 5x half liter Weck jars. The recipe talked about 2x 1.5 liter jars so if you have some you could use those too. For US bakers that would be 3x quart jars.

The Modern Baker: another challenge begins…

2010-04-19T16:53:00.006+02:00

Hello, my name is Petra and I am an addict, a cookbook addict to be exact.
Especially baking books are dear to my heart and I enjoy adding them to my growing collection.

I might need an intervention in the future but until then I will happily find new reasons to expand my collection.

I would say the new baking challenge: “The modern Baker” hosted by Phil would count as a good enough reason.

Yup, I thought you might agree so I went ahead and ordered the book from Big Dog Trading company. It was under ten dollars and even with shipping still $10 less than with Amazon direct. I sure love a bargain as much as I love cook books.

The only downside on ordering with affiliates of Amazon is the fact that most of them ship surface which means it takes weeks for it to get to me here in Germany (APO address). Amazon on the other side only takes about a week.

My book did not arrive in time for the challenge to start the beginning of April. That does not really matter though since the first part of the challenge (Quick Breads) will be stretched over 3 month so there is time to make all 15 by the end of June.

Since we will be leaving Germany this summer I will attempt to get the “Quick Breads” done by the end of May when our Household goods will be shipped out.
The First bread I choose actually chose itself.

A glance to my banana bowl showed the need for quick action.

Since I will be baking through the entire book during this challenge I will not post any recipes out of this book as a courtesy to the author unless I find them on the internet. With this one you are in luck. The author himself posted it here.

Looking through the book I found many recipes I am excited about trying so I feel the $10 are well worth the price.

If you are unsure or if money is tight see if your local library has a copy, can order a copy from another branch or even purchase a copy for your branch. Happy Baking!

Cocoa Banana Muffins
page 60 The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri

http://food.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977502905
Makes 16 standard muffins
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)
2/3 cup alkalized (Dutch process) cocoa powder, sifted after measuring
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 medium bananas, peeled and mashed with a fork to make 1 1/2 cups
1/2 cup sour cream
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3 large eggs
Two 12-cavity muffin pans with 8 paper liners in each

Set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees
Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl and stir well to mix.
In a separate bowl, stir together the mashed bananas and sour cream; set aside.
Combine the butter, sugar, and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and place on mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed for about a minute, or until well mixed and a little lightened in color.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating smooth after each addition.
Decrease the mixer speed to low and beat in half the flour mixture. Stop the mixer and use a large rubber spatula to scrape down the bowl and beater.
On low speed, beat in the banana mixture. After the batter has absorbed the banana mixture, beat in the remaining flour mixture.
Stop and scrape down the bowl and beater again.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a large rubber spatula to give a final mixing to the batter.
Divide the batter equally among the paper-lined cavities in the muffin pans.
Bake the muffins for about 30 minutes, or until they are well risen and feel firm to the touch. Because this is such a liquid batter, test a muffin with a toothpick or the point if a thin-bladed knife – it should emerge with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it.
Cool the muffins in the pan on a rack.

With 3 Bananas and 2/3c Dutch processed cocoa powder in this recipe I knew I would be in for a great treat. My worries that this might be to sweet (1 1/2 c sugar) where swept away with the first bite. Yum, is what I was thinking as I devoured it.

Another reason to be thankful for your daily bread!…7 HBin5 –Gluten-Free Olive Oil Bread

2010-04-15T10:24:00.003+02:00

This part of the HBin5 challenge makes me so thankful for gluten tolerance. I never put much thought into it until I was confronted with the Gluten free Olive Oil bread dough. I still have the remnants of it sitting in my fridge. I had high hopes for it with pictures of dumplings and pizza floating in my head.
In my head they will remain since I can’t bring myself to actually pull the dough out again and as time passes I am more and more reluctant to give it a go. Usually time has a healing propriety but sadly that was not the case with this dough.
When I first made it I was repelled by the smell of the dough which was unpleasant. It did not rise that much during it’s resting period and was very heavy for it’s size after it was baked.
It came out looking beautiful and was “ok” to eat. Most of it however did end up in the trashcan and I am afraid the rest of the dough will follow that is if I can force myself to pull it out of the fridge.
Maybe it will become a “fuzzy” new pet. In that case I would have to name it. Can’t have any pet remain nameless now can we?
I need some help with that process though since I am really bad with naming things. Any ideas?

April 15th Bread Braid
1 full recipe of Gluten-Free Olive Oil Bread
Page 238-239 – 1 loaf of Gluten-free Olive Oil Brad
Changes:
I did grind brown rice to make my own flour using the vitamix
For the tapioca I ground some minute tapioca
Used chickpea (Gram) flour instead of soy flour
Instead of cornstarch I used potato starch (had that in the house but not enough cornstarch)
I used carob (locust bean, Johannisbrot) instead of xanthan gum

Now head on over to Michelle’s blog Big black dog and see how the rest of the group used up this dough and what they thought of it.
Not everyone’s taste buds are the same and what I like you might despise and what I don’t like you might love so give it a try and judge for yourself.
If you are in fact Gluten intolerant this might even be the bread for you.

Easter breads…

2010-04-02T12:40:00.003+02:00

Easter Sunday marks the end of lent and time of fasting. Many regions in Europe had the tradition of baking Easter bread and taking those breads to church to be blessed on Easter Sunday.
After the return from Mess they would be eaten to break the Fast and to start the celebration of “Christ risen”.
Now many of these old Traditions have been forgotten though the Easter bread lives on.
I have seen so many different forms of sweet Easter bread though they all start with a basic rich yeast dough. Some have nuts and dried fruits and many are filled with hard boiled colorful eggs either prior or after baking.
A picture of a rabbit to either the eggs or the bread was sometimes added which some say explains the story or the egg laying Easter bunny. So many stories are weaved around the history of the Easter bunny but it was the first time I heard that one.
Wishing you All a blessed Good Friday.

Easter bread

Dough
500g Flour
2.25 tsp yeast or 40g cake yeast
250ml milk
100g butter
50g sugar
1 egg
pinch of salt
(egg yolk, butter, almonds and sugar depending on how you want to top it)

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl (if you are using fresh yeast follow your usual method).
Melt the butter, add the milk to the butter to cool down. Add the luke warm butter mixture to the dry ingredients.
Scramble an egg and add this to the bowl. Now you knead this until you have a smooth yeast dough just slightly tacky.

Let the dough rise until doubled about 40 minutes

After the rise divide the dough into three strings. Braid it and form it into a wreath. It’s best to form it on a buttered or silicon mat lined cookie sheet. Mix one egg yolk with a little milk (or without milk) and brush the top of the wreath.

Sprinkle with coarse sugar (hail, pearl or decorator sugar) and almonds. Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes. This really depends on your oven. Start checking more frequently after about 35 minutes.

Instead of one big Nest you could also make two smaller or individual ones that hold just one egg.

If you like you can also soak some raisins (150g soaked) in a little rum and/or add some candied orange or lemon peel (100g) and knead that under the dough and form this dough into this bread.

Give this bread an additional 20 minute rise before baking. After the rise cut a cross and brush some melted butter over the top. Sprinkle with Sugar and bake like the other bread.

This Easter bread is has been linked to Mommy's kitchen Potluck Sunday. Perfect for a Easter brunch. Happy Easter!
For more Easter ideas check baking at 350 I linked the Easter bread to it as well.

Other uses for a dehydrator and how bread plays a role in it… 6 HBin5 – Carrot bread -

2010-04-01T13:39:00.005+02:00

I purchased my Excalibur dehydrator a while back and it has been in use quite a bit. I like to create my own vegetable powders and seasonings instead of purchasing vegetable cubes/granulates etc. A major advantage here is that I know what’s in it and the herbs and veggies my garden produces find an awesome use. What I don’t produce myself I am able to purchase “in season” which saves money.
I use these powders/granulates on a daily basis and it puts me right back to a time when the sun was shinning, the bees where humming (they sure love my herb garden) which is a picture I cherish when the outside is cold and dark.
This time however my dehydrator was used not in drying vegetable and such but to make some yogurt which was an ingredient in the second bread dough for this month (please read my last post for more detail) HBin5 challenge and the first time I used the dehydrator in this manner.
I wanted to make my own yogurt for a while. I have done so years ago but that memory has fated and it did include a second hand yogurt maker which I no longer own.
I have been thinking about several methods I could go about it this time around. Recently the food blogging world has been buzzing with making yogurt in the Crockpot. I was a bit unsure about this method since one method was having to fill the finished yogurt into jars afterwards and there was talk about it not setting right if filled into jars prior. I have one big jar (over 500ml) that I wanted to make the yogurt in not fill it in later.
I researched it a little and finally thought about my dehydrator and the book that came with it sure enough on page 92 it gave directions to make yogurt.
A few hours later I had yogurt ready to go into the fridge. I made the dough the next day.
Here is how you make yogurt in your Excalibur dehydrator (I purchased mine refurbished).
If you don’t have a dehydrator you can use the same method except instead of putting it into the dehydrator place your warm jars into something insulated (maybe your cooler) with wool blankets and a couple of warm bottles.

Update: check here to see how to make it in your cooler

Yogurt –Ingredients-
4c milk (I use whole milk)
1/2c powdered milk (this helps to make the yogurt creamier)
2T plain yogurt (make sure it’s just natural yogurt, no additives. This is where the yogurt cultures come from)

Mix the milk and powdered milk and bring to a boil for a few seconds. Cool this mixture to 120F.

Take 1/4c of this mixture and mix it with 2T of the plain yogurt (I like Greek yogurt for it’s thick, mild and creamy texture) and mix it up. Add this mixture back to the milk mixture and fill the yogurt mixture into your prepared jars or containers.

Cover your containers and place on the bottom of the dehydrator. Set the temperature to 115F and heat for 3 hours. Mine was done at this time. If yours is not check every 15 min. after the initial 3 hours. Let it cool down and place in the fridge to cool further.

This yogurt is awesome. Just the way I like it. Thick, creamy and mild. I already made my second batch since this one was gone quickly.

Now to the second bread of this month HBin5 challenge using this yogurt.

April 1st Olive Spelt Bread

1/2 recipe
Hbin5 page 96-97
-No olives- / 630 spelt flour (not the whole kernel) / added 1/2c wheat bran

This dough was very wet. I needed a bit flour to shape into a loaf. It also spread quite (my rise time was 45 min.) a bit. Next time I would place the loaf into a bread form for the rise.

Spelt flour was nothing new for me, I always use spelt flour. It’s such a great flour and I am glad it’s getting more exposure. This bread has sourdough characteristics. The taste screams sourdough big time.
I like this bread very much though it turned out flatter than I like.
I have a new oven that keeps all the moisture inside creating a nice thick crust if one chooses too. However I am still working on the right coloring.
This one tastes just like if it was baked in a wood burning stove. Great crust with just a little charred area (not really charred but very dark) around the cuts.
Great bread, I would bake this one again.

French toast breakfast……6 HBin5 – Carrot bread -

2010-04-01T11:53:00.003+02:00

Do you like carrots? I sure do and nibbling on a whole carrots morphs me back to a time when Bugs bunny on TV was still something special back in the days.
Having bunnies on my mind while nibbling on my carrot I realize what a fitting picture that is with Easter so near and because carrots play a part in one of this month breads.
Carrots are a great vegetable full of Vitamin A, dietary fiber, antioxidants and other minerals. They are however also one of the 12 worst offenders in the “pesticide residue” category. If you have the option of purchasing those organically grown why not go for it?
You can find this recipe like all the others that fall into the HBin5 category in the HBin5 book.
This post is part of a bakers challenge (to bake through the HBin5 book) at Michelle’s blog Big black dog so hop on over and check out how the other bakers interpreted this bread dough and other dough's during this challenge. You will find links there to direct you to the other bloggers.

Apr.1st Bread Braid
HBin5 Page 157-159 -1/2 recipe Carrot Bread

My favorite breakfast that I talked about in my last post never materialized with this bread but we did enjoy a French toast breakfast this morning made by soaking the slices overnight in an egg custard.
A side of bacon and some real maple syrup was all that was needed to turn this into a nice breakfast.

What do you do when sleep will not find you?…6 HBin5 - Carrot Bread -

2010-04-01T10:55:00.003+02:00

You think about Aprils Bread braid for the HBin5 assignment, that’s what you do and might I add this sleepless night was quite worth it.
Yesterday afternoon I mixed up the batch for Aprils carrot bread dough. I knew I was going to make a loaf for sure but had no idea what to do with this loaf or the dough that might be left over.
Sometimes a loaf is just all you really need but as I was laying in bed last night waiting for sleep to find me I started to picture breakfast. One of my favorites being a slice of bread, rolled flat and filled into a muffin pan, brushed with a maple syrup mixture, cooked bacon, an egg cracked into the middle and all baked in the oven until the egg is cooked. I wanted to make some slices of this bread into just that breakfast after the loaf was baked. As I was thinking of just that breakfast and the muffin pan I started to think about the mini muffin pan I had recently acquired (I told you I was waiting for sleep to find me) and as I started to picture that pan a plan for the next mornings baking came together.
I am quite excited with the outcome so let me show you the result.

1/2 recipe of Carrot Bread dough HBin5 book page 157-159

Changes:
I had no wheat germ so I used shredded flax seed and wheat bran instead.
Instead of chopped nuts I used ground almonds that needed to be used up.
No dried fruit inside the dough.

Apricot filled mini carrot bread

Fill an apricot with nougat (nutella would work too). Place a hazelnut in the middle and close the apricot.

Press dough into circle and place into the buttered mini muffin pan. I needed some extra flour since this dough was pretty wet. Place filled apricot in the middle.
Bake at 350 for about 20-25 min. I turned them over after 20 min. and baked another 5 minutes for a crispier bottom.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar or glaze them.

These turned out very nice. Makes a nice snack with a fresh glass of milk.
Don’t let the look “fool” you into thinking you have a light, cake like muffin. This is a bread dough and having said that I wish you a Happy April’s fools day!

Heaven, I’m in Heaven… jelly pepper cheese cookies

2010-03-30T17:16:00.002+02:00

March seems to be my month because this is the second cheese cookie/cracker recipe I ran across this month and when Michelle from BigBlackDog posted about a jelly pepper cheese cookie I knew I had to give it a try.
See not only can’t I resist a good cheese but I still have several jars of jelly pepper in my pantry that I made two seasons ago when we had a lot of peppers in our garden. I never had jelly pepper before and thought it would be a good time to make some and try it.
Try I did and we found that we are just not really sweet savory type of people. I do love my zucchini relish and zucchini chutney though despite the sweetness they do have.
Coming across this recipe was like a little gift. I mentioned before that we will be leaving Germany this summer so I have 2 month left to clear out my freezer and pantry. So much food, such little time.
May I present to you…..(drum roll)…..the lovely and versatile Jelly pepper cheese cookie!..(Applause)

Ingredients

8 oz (2 cups) Sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded (I used a mixture of Havarti and Monterey Jack with Jalapeno peppers, I told you I am using up all I have)
6T (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened (next time I would reduce this to 4T)
1 cup flour
1/3 cup hot pepper jelly

Cut cheese into some pieces and use a kitchen machine to cut mix the cheese with the flour until you have very small pieces. Add the butter and pulse or mix until the dough comes together.
Place the dough into a covered bowl and cool in the fridge for at least 40 min.

Form balls (1tsp each) and places them on a covered cookie sheet (parchment etc.).
Heat your oven to 400F and bake cookies for 5 minutes.

Use the back of your rolling pin or wooden spoon and press the dough down. Fill with hot pepper jelly and return to the oven.

Bake for 8 minutes more. You will have to check for color. They will have a nice golden glow when they are done. Each oven is different so check at around 8 minutes and judge from there.
Michelle mentioned that this makes about 20 cookies so her balls must have been much bigger than mine because I got double that. I found the size I made though perfect for a bite.

These cookies are quite delicious especially when they are still warm. The recipe is very close to the other one I made so I would reduce the butter next time to match the other and possibly add a little water if need be.
They were just a little to buttery for my taste but I really did enjoy them right out of the oven after just cooling for a tad.
It was a little piece of Heaven right there.

Wednesday Cake “Blob cake”

2010-03-24T13:03:00.002+01:00

I have been baking plenty of sheet cakes lately to take to all sort of events or just because ;).
Tonight is my sons JROTC pie social that means another chance to fire up my oven and give it a workout.
Sheet cakes are usually the way I go when more than 8 slices are needed. A sheet cake can make between 24-30 slices depending on how rich your cake is. Hurrah, for the sheet cake!
I ran across the term Wednesday cake (Mittwochs-Kuchen) when I looked through a German baking book for a recipe to make for today (Backvergnuegen wie noch nie). I had no idea where this term came from so I looked into the history of it. Unfortunately I was unable to come up with much.
There are two ways to go on this term but neither has a solid reference.

a) the term describes a cake that tastes better a few days after baking (bake it Wednesday and eat it Saturday like in the olden days). Often these types of cakes have streusel on them.
b) describes a cake that was baked after the weekend cake was polished of by Tuesday

Both sound plausible so take your pick. I will dig deeper into this “mystery” in the future. Until than I don’t mind a cake in the middle of the week or any other day of the week.

Blob cake

Ingredients:

Dough	Poppy seed filling	Cheese Cake filling	Streusel
500g flour	250ml milk	250g quark (farmers cheese, cream cheese)	175g flour
2 1/4 tsp yeast	20g butter	4T milk	100g sugar
80g sugar	30g Griess (semolina, grit, cream of wheat)	1 egg (separated)	100g melted butter
250ml milk	100g crushed poppy seed	80g sugar	Jam
80g butter	50g sugar	2tsp vanilla sugar	250g cherry jam or any other
1 egg	1 egg
pinch of salt	1T rum		melted butter for baking sheet
	1/4 tsp cinnamon

Dough:
Mix flour, yeast, sugar, salt and add scrambled egg.
Melt butter and add milk. Add lukewarm butter/milk mixture to flour mixture and knead until you have a nice soft slightly tacky dough.
Cover (rise until double) = the recipe mentions no rise but to place the dough onto the sheet right away. I always let my dough rise first. How about try it both ways.

Poppy seed filling:
Melt butter in the milk, add Griess (semolina etc.) and let soak for 5 minutes. Add poppy seeds, sugar, egg, rum and cinnamon and mix it well. Set aside.
PS: I only had non crushed poppy seeds. It’s more gritty this way though.

cheese cake filling:
Mix the quark (cream cheese etc.) with the milk, sugar, vanilla sugar and egg yolk.
Beat the egg white until it forms stiff peaks. Lift stiff egg white under the quark filling. Set aside.

Streusel:
Melt the butter. Mix flour and sugar and with a fork mix melted butter under the flour mixture

Assembly:
Butter your baking sheet and roll out dough, add globs of the fillings (poppy seed, cheese cake and jam) onto the dough. I used Elderberry/Plum jam.

Top with the Streusel and let rest for 15 minutes.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes (golden color)

Nothing fishy about that… (Gold fish crackers)

2010-03-19T18:30:00.002+01:00

When I checked my “Feed” yesterday one particular recipe jumped out at me like a fish in the pond.
Crispy, Crunchy, Cheesy: Homemade Cheese Crackers it screamed from "The Kitchn". How could I resist this siren’s call? I don’t know about you but I can’t resist anything that is crispy, crunchy or cheesy and all together it had me in it’s fangs right there.
From “The Kitchn” you can follow the trail of this recipe to it’s origin in cyber space. Off to my own ‘Kitchn’ I go.

Flour: got it
Salt: what kind of baker would I be….
ground pepper: Yup, but I am planning on going a different route
Cold, unsalted butter: Is there any other kind?
grated cheddar cheese: Yup but I also have plenty of Havarti and Monterey Jack with Jalapeno peppers so that is what I will use
cold water: My faucet runneth over

Five Ingredients is all that stands between me and those crispy, crunchy, cheesy homemade cheese crackers. That and some time.

I skipped the cheese grating part and the part where the butter is being cut into small pieces. Big junks will do it what are Kitchen machines for otherwise?
This is what my flour, salt, cheese and butter looked like when the kitchen machine was done with it. See, no grating needed.
The recipe said 3-4T water. I added 2 and found that this was all I needed so add one T after another.

This dough is ready for it’s chill in the fridge. Yum, I could not resist the smell of this dough. I have to get a grip of myself or there will not be any left to bake!

Chill for at least 20 minutes. Heat oven to 350F.

Roll out to about 1/8 inch thickness. I found that I like them a little thicker.

Cut out small shapes (fish if you like, I used a small shamrock)

Bake for about 15 minutes. Mine only took 12 minutes so watch after the 10 minute mark.
These are seriously good, so addictive. How in the world have I lived without them so long? These would be great at any party.
You can cut them in any shape and make them any size. Just adjust the baking time if you make them bigger.
My son just came home from school, they had just come out of the oven and his response was “they remind me of those fish crackers”. Ha, that’s exactly what they were to remind him off.

Update: I linked these crackers to Mommy's Kitchen Potluck Sunday 21. March 2010

Nutty squirrels…(Buttermilk cake with walnut)

2010-03-19T16:56:00.003+01:00

All throughout summer and fall squirrels are busy hoarding and hiding nuts and other items that are bound to help them survive the harsh winter onsets.
It’s amazing how they can locate them throughout winter most of the times. Some of those stashes though are not to be found and will eventually start to sprout when spring sets in.
Thinking of spring and much warmer weather I cleaned out my pantry and what do I find? An assortment of forgotten nuts (walnut, almonds and pecans) some still in their shell. Saving them from demise was immediately on my agenda. A quick look in the fridge and seeing an open buttermilk I knew just what was to become of these nuts.

Recipe
Dough:
500g Flour
300g Sugar
4tsp/16g Baking powder
2 Eggs
1 pinch of Salt
440g Buttermilk
Butter for the Baking sheet

Topping:
250g Walnuts (or assortment of nuts, whatever you have, Pecans and hazelnut make the cake darker, Walnuts give it a golden color)
200g Sugar
400g Heavy cream

Crush the nuts (I used Walnuts and Pecans with a couple of Almonds in between) and mix them with the sugar. Set aside. Heat your oven to 350F.
Mix flour, sugar, salt and sugar and add the eggs and buttermilk.                           Butter your Baking sheet (mine is 16x13 inch)

                                                     Fill with batter

                                      Sprinkle with sugar/nut mixture
Bake for about 20 minutes (if you are using pecans be careful not to burn them) until golden or almost done.
Evenly cover entire cake with the heavy cream (NOT whipped) and bake for about 5 more minutes or until cake is done. The cake will soak in all the cream.

                    Another quick and easy sheet cake German style

With the luck of the Irish….(5 HBin5 –Pesto/Pine nut dough-)

2010-03-17T18:53:00.003+01:00

I might never get to the end of the Rainbow but who needs that Pot of Gold anyhow when one has Havarti cheese with Jalapenos sitting in the fridge.
Even King Midas found out the hard way that you can’t eat gold.
Now cheese on the other hand, cheese you can eat in all sorts of ways and you are only restricted by your own imagination. The French love their cheese so much they even enjoy it for dessert.
What would go better with Pesto and pine nuts than some cheese? I first thought of Parmesan but that would have been to dry, Mozzarella would have been great because it melts into such a nice gooey mess. My choice however fell on the Havarti cheese with Jalapeno that I had sitting in my fridge waiting for it’s final destiny.
This is again a recipe from the HBin5 book and one of the recipes for this month challenge at Michelle’s blog Big black dog
This dough was sort of a pain to work with but it smells so good.
It’s very wet and I was thanking my bench knife for having found it’s way into my kitchen. I sure needed it’s help, that and a good helping of flour.

Roll out the dough and place some cheese in the middle. Roll it up from the long side and coil it into a snail. Half of the dough went into this “snail” loaf
The other half was turned into three rolls with a junk of cheese in the middle
this dough is so wet that you can’t move the rolls after they have been placed on the baking sheet. Make sure you place them where you want them or use a piece of parchment paper under the rolls.
I let them rest about 20 minutes before baking them. Big mistake they spread quite a bit. Next time I would bake them right away. If I where to bake a loaf I would put it into a loaf pan to bake to avoid the spread.
Bake at 400F for 25-30 minutes.
This is the coiled roll. The dough is so soft it did not keep it’s shape but it does taste amazing.

I liked this bread a lot. The jalapeno in the cheese gave it a kick which works perfect with the pesto.
This dough would be also great with some red pepper flakes and no cheese.
You have not baked this bread yet? All I can say is “you are missing out”!
Next HBin5 breads will be revealed on Aprils fool day.
Since I am no fool I will not be waiting for that day to heat up my oven to crank out some more delicious baked goods.
It’s getting closer to Easter and I have some great recipes I want to share with you. So come back often and check what’s new! Happy baking…

Bagels anyone? (5 HBin5 –Avocado/Guacamole dough)

2010-03-16T17:07:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I posted about my take on the Avocado/Guacamole dough making some awesome croissant that you should really try out for yourself. Those are long gone and only one of the buns remain. Time for drastic measures (well, not really but it sounds good, doesn’t it) “Nachschub” as we Germans like to say must be baked. This dough really is my favorite so far.
Just for clarification I did alter the recipe a little. I bake with spelt flour only (any of my baked goods, no wheat), I did not add garlic or tomatoes but I added roasted onions.
I made two bagels because we only have a small force eating here at this time (me).
The bagels where shaped into a roll first, rested for 20 minutes, shaped into a bagel (simply poke a hole in the middle with your fingers and shape it into a bagel), rested 20 minutes more and went into the fridge overnight to proof.
This morning I got the bagels out of the fridge and set them in the kitchen to warm up about an hour. While you bring your water to a boil heat up the oven to 450F. I add a metal dish to the oven to heat up at the same time to hold the water to create the steam.
This picture shows some boiling water with 1T baking soda. I left the bagel on the proofing paper because i found out in my earlier bagel baking adventures that the dough is so soft that it loses it’s form real easy. Cook it for 1 minute on each side or 2 if you like a more chewy bagel.
simply turn it over after 1 minute and remove the paper (I flip it over holding the paper as I go)
Gotta love well used silicon mats! Place the bagels on a baking sheet, add a cup of water to your metal dish to make steam and bake for five minutes, turn the sheet 180C if your oven bakes uneven and bake about 5 minutes more. They should have a nice color.
Bagels anyone?

It really worked! What I hold in my hand and eat at this exact time is a Bagel! This so is my favorite dough so far, have I mentioned that before?

Come back tomorrow or Thursday to find out what I did with the Pesto Pine Nut dough

These bagels will be Yeast spotted
Yeast spotters: If you don’t have the book and are not sure if you would like to get it try out this master recipe for the ABin5 which uses all white flour. You can find a link to the whole wheat recipe version here. From there add what you like. I added roasted onions and avocado.

It’s that time of month again… (5 HBin5 –Avocado-Guacamole dough)

2010-03-15T16:23:00.003+01:00

I am talking about the time when all will be revealed.
With all I mean the breads that the baking enthusiasts over at Michelle’s blog “Big black dog” have created from the HBin5 (Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day) baking schedule.
With Saint Patrick’s day practically at our door steps what goes better with it than some bread.
I read up a little on Saint Patrick and found out that he was taken prisoner when he was just 16 years old by Irish Raiders and that for 6 long years.
Now when I think of Prison in those times I think of a cold hole in a tower somewhere with a diet of water and bread. I was glad to read that he was not in a hole but nevertheless had no easy time because he was in solitude far away from people herding sheep.
While I have no clue what his diet consisted off I can imagine that bread was the main part of his daily diet other than maybe porridge and that he might have been ~~day~~ dreaming while herding those sheep of Avocado-Guacamole Bread. That’s the bread that was on the baking schedule for me today.
I joined Michelle’s group because I need a challenge to follow through with anything long term (my husband can attest to that, he is my biggest challenge yet lasting some 20 years….I am kidding….a little) and I wanted to make sure that this is not one of the books in my bookshelf collecting dust.
I love cookbooks of any category but have never made every single recipe out of either one of them.
So this is a first and I am determent to follow through with baking each and every one of the dough’s in this book. As a reminder to myself and to keep a log of my progress I started this blog.
It’s an undertaking that will last about a year and a half so there is plenty of time to still jump on the band wagon. All you need to do is get the book and jump over to "Big black dog" and get all the info there.
Sorry due to the fact that I will be making every single one of the bread dough’s in this book I can not post recipes. If I do find them from time to time on other blogs I will link to them but I will not post them myself. Enough about that i will not mention it again.
Let’s start baking!

1/2 recipe Avocado-Guacamole Bread pg. 160-161 in
changes:
I did not use garlic instead I added roasted onions.
I also did not add the fresh tomato because Winter still has Germany in it’s fangs. I could have used some canned but was unsure about the moisture it would add. I was tempted to add some of the tomato powder I made last summer but opted against it. So no Guacamole, sorry!
I did however use some of the tomatoes I dried last summer in another way on this bread (you will find out in a moment).
I whipped up this batch last night and despite the avocado being in my fridge for a while it was not soft.
Oh, oh I just outed myself as a total avocado novice. Yup, you heard that right. I have no idea what to do with an avocado. I blame it on having grown up in Germany where I have yet to see an avocado tree and I was an adult long before I ever tried an avocado in form of Guacamole.
I guess I should have taken it out of the fridge a few days prior. If I really wanted to know I could search the internet for an answer….nah…My defense here is that I had no idea when I was going to bake that bread.
Last night it was do or die because the bread is due today. Ok, the group is not that strict and I have yet to make the pesto bread but I do have a good excuse for that one too. More about that later.
There is usually three to feed at our house but at this time my husband is working long, long hours and receiving all his meals at work so he is out. My son is in school all day and prefers to take a hot meal with him rather than what used to be sandwiches. This was the case for the longest time but last fall when I started to go back to school fulltime (that has stopped again since we received sudden notice after I started that we will be moving back to the states in June) and started to take warm meals with me that he found out he too preferred a warm meal at lunch. So no sandwiches for lunch and none for dinner that leaves the weekend or breakfast. Breakfast is not a time he would eat a savory sandwich so he is out too for the most part. In other word it’s pretty much me eating savory kind of bread right now.
So here is my take on this part of the challenge.
Of the four rolls below two will become dinner (for my son and me) tomorrow night with a bowl of goulash soup and the other two will be turned into bagels.

                     For the bagels this was the first proof before forming.
                                For the rolls it was the one and only

After the rolls proofed I placed a slice of dried tomato in the middle, brushed them with water and baked on a hot stone for 20 minutes.
                               Here are the results of the rolls

Now back to the bagels, after 20 min. proofing I formed the bagel and placed them in a covered dish to proof another 20 min. They are now in the fridge for an overnight chill and to proof some more. They will be baked up tomorrow morning and I will than update this post.

I made half a recipe of this dough so after 2 rolls and 2 bagels I still have plenty of dough left over. What to do with it, that’s the question.
              I felt like croissants. I just wanted to form them. So I did.
I rolled out the dough and to create a little flakiness put some butter on it.
Next I quartered it and rolled them up into croissants and let them proof for about a hour.

I could hardly wait for them to cool down. When they finally did there was nothing holding me back. I sliced one open, buttered it and …OMG… these are amazing!
These Croissants are my favorite thing from the book so far. They are crunchy like a Croissant but of course not as flaky (maybe some layering with butter and folding the dough a few times would do it). They are however so very good.
Two of these with some butter was all I needed for a good lunch!
                                           I am in Croissant heave!
I still have a little bit of dough from that half batch left over. Not quite sure what to do with them yet. maybe some more Croissants?
Tomorrow night I will mix up the Pesto Pine Nut dough and bake it up for Saint Patrick’s day on Wednesday. That is the excuse why I have not made it yet. I want to serve it on St. Patties day.
                           Stay tuned and come back Wednesday or Thursday.

These croissants will be Yeast spotted
Yeast spotters: If you don’t have the book and are not sure if you would like to get it try out this master recipe for the ABin5 which uses all white flour. You can find a link to the whole wheat recipe version here. From there add what you like. I added roasted onions and avocado.

That is how you eat your math….(Cherry Pie)

2010-03-14T18:51:00.002+01:00

It’s March 14 so it’s officially “Pi” day! In honor of this I defrosted the last sour cherries in my freezer and made a cherry pie.
Now that is how I like my math!
Make the crust I used for the apple pie. You can simply half the recipe because this one makes three crusts but you only need one and lattice for this one.

Cherry filling
I used a full quart Ziploc bag of sour cherries. Or use 6 c fresh or some canned ones.
1/4c cornstarch
1 – 1.5 c sugar
1-2T Tapioca (if you used frozen, you don’t need it if you used fresh)
just a hint of almond extract or amaretto
some egg lightly beaten (less than one)

Mix sugar, cornstarch and extract (you can also add a pinch of salt if that is how you roll) with the drained cherries. If your cherries are not so sour start with one cup of sugar. Add more if your cherries are sour.
Roll out your crust and fill your buttered pie dish with the crust. Add the filling and from the remaining dough make some lattice strips and lay the lattice on top. I don’t weave them because it creates a mess. It looks just fine without.

                                        Heat your oven to 425F
I leave my dough hanging over and than roll it up to the top to seal it like this

           Beat one egg and brush the lattice with it. Sprinkle with a little sugar.

Bake at 425F for 25 minutes. Reduce heat to 375F and cover your pie with a pie guard or some aluminum foil with a hole in the middle. Bake for about 25 more minutes.

                                                     Happy “Pi” day!

Carrot cake

2010-03-13T01:50:00.002+01:00

Chef John from food wishes asked a few days ago for some readers to test a cake for him.
Since I have never made a carrot cake and come to think of it can’t remember ever eating one I did a little research on how carrot cake became so popular and where it originated.
On this site I found lots of information and I was surprised to find out that carrots have been used in sweets since the middle ages when sweeteners where hard to come by and very expensive. In Europe a dish called carrot pudding was quite popular during that time.
In England it was revived when rationing during WW2 forced the home cook to think outside the box. Carrots where chosen because they contain (other than the sugar beet) more sugar than other vegetable and where easier to come by.
In the early 60’s it made it’s entrance into the US. First as a novelty and later as a regular visitor not just at church potlucks.
Having found out more about this cake I jumped into the kitchen and got to work
Recipe

The recipe asked for Walnuts and Pecans. I only had a bag of mixed nuts (mainly walnuts, a few hazelnuts and almonds) in the house and that is what I used and I bake with spelt flour.
This is a cake that comes together very quickly and the only step that takes a moment is grating the carrots.

The cake was done at 35 minutes baking time

Verdict:

Out of 10 it got a 7.2 in our family.
My son gave it a 10, my husband a 7 and I gave it a 5 which is great because I don’t care for American style cakes with frosting.
It’s the frosting usually that gets me running (to sweet). This frosting was sweet but it was also good. I ate a very small piece just to try.
The cake went with my husband to feed some soldiers. They enjoyed it and not one piece came back.
Overall I am glad I tried it. It was very moist due to the pineapple (I think). It had just the right amount of nuts in it. The carrots gave it a beautiful color and the frosting was smooth and did not dry out.
Now to Chef John’s claim of this being the best carrot cake in the world I will have to take his word for it because this is the first I ever made or tried.
How about you give it a try and let us know what you thought of it! Is it the best in the world?

PS: Oops, just realized that there should have been some baking soda in this cake. I missed it and it was not in my cake. Not sure if that would have made any difference since my cake did get plenty of rise, was moist and light. Not sure what it’s purpose was in here.

A cupboard full of preserves…..(Jam-packed Streusel Cake)

2010-03-11T09:28:00.002+01:00

A look in one of the “preserved last summer” cupboard reveals that we still have plenty of jam jars that need to be used up before we move across the ocean this summer.

My husband promised his class some cake if they would not let the other group sing the cadence. I was happy to heat the oven up and give it a little workout. This is a very good last minute cake. Last minutes especially when you forgot to take out some butter to come to room temperature because in this case you don’t have to.

“Jam"-packed” Streusel cake
Takes max. 15 min. to make (plus baking time)
Ingredients:
300g Butter
6oog Flour + 3T
300g Sugar
Zest of 2 lemons
1/2 tsp. Baking powder
pinch of Salt
2 Eggs (M)
400g Jams/Preserves/Marmalade (or whatever you want to call it)

Melt the 300g Butter in a small pot or microwave.
In a mixing bowl mix together flour (except 3T), sugar, lemon zest, baking powder and eggs. After the butter has cooled down to add the butter and mix everything. Butter a half baking sheet (mine is 15x 10 1/4 inch / 38.5x26 cm) and place 2/3 of the dough into the pan. Now either pat it into the pan or do it like me and use a roller, like this.

Now it’s “Jam” time. Pick some of your favorite or not so favorite (this is a great way to use up those that you don’t like to much, they will taste great in this cake) Preserve and put them on by the spoon full like this.

           Mix the rest of dough with 3T flour. the pieces will be sort of pea size.
                   Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the top of the cake                            Bake the cake at 350F/180C for about 35 min.
                     You want a golden top and the bottom baked through.

                                                       Enjoy!

Update: I linked this cake to Mommy's Kitchen Potluck Sunday on March 14th (Pi-day)

Toastbrot mit Weizensauerteig /Sandwich bread with sourdough

2010-03-10T14:53:00.003+01:00

with the leftover 200g sourdough I made a sandwich bread

Ingredients:

500g Spelt flour (or unbleached AP flour)
200g Sourdough
10g Honey
10g Salt
250g lukewarm milk
50g soft butter (I melted it in the milk and cooled it to lukewarm)

Dissolve the sourdough and sugar in the lukewarm milk (not to warm, you don’t want to harm the sourdough). Add the rest of the ingredients to it and knead about 10 minutes until all is well mixed. Cover the dough and let it rest 30-45 minutes.
Knead the dough again, then either form a loaf or roll the dough out, roll it into a log and cut that log into 4 pieces. Place the loaf or the 4 pieces into a buttered loaf pan, cover and let it proof 1-2 hours (mine was about 3 hours). You can slice the loaf prior to proofing if you choose to.
Bake the loaf at 200C/400F for about 45 minutes. Remove the pan and place on a cooling rack.

Very good Sandwich bread. The tangy taste (Sourdough) just keeps asking you for more.

Oh, oh! necessity makes inventive

2010-03-09T13:01:00.002+01:00

We have a saying in Germany “necessity makes inventive” (die Not macht Erfinderisch). Inventive I became when I found this yogurt in our basement

refrigerator way past it’s expiration date. My first instinct was to toss it. But the lid seemed fine, there was no swelling so curiosity won. I opened the lid took a taste and guess what, it’s still fine. I guess whatever they are doing to the fat molecules and who knows what is keeping this yogurt still eatable almost 2 month after it’s prime. Makes me think that I need to move on to real fresh milk and make my own.

So here I am with half a liter of still usable yogurt and there is only one thing between the yogurt and the oven. A good recipe, I started searching the German net and I came across the cup method which has somewhat become popular here. It’s basically what the US has been doing forever, using a cup to measure.
Also called the 1-2-3 method (well I guess I just made that up). This batter came together very fast, there is really nothing to it and it would be a great first cake for a young future baker.
A quick lick from the bowl (oh, come on I know you do that too when no one is looking!) and I think we have a winner in the quick and easy category.

Yogurt-Lemon-Poppy seed cake
Ingredients:

1 c yogurt
2 c sugar (2T of which are vanilla sugar)
3 c flour
3 eggs
3/4c canola oil
2 tsp. baking powder
2 T poppy seeds
Zest from one lemon
1/2 tsp lemon extract (I used extract to give it lemon flavor. I did not wanted to add more acid since the yogurt was sour itself)

Mix the flour with the baking powder and sugars. Add all other ingredients and mix until smooth.
Prepare a baking form and fill it.
Bake at 180F for about 40 min or until toothpick comes out clean.

This cake is not bad but not one of my favorite either. It is very moist and heavy the first day. I think it’s much better the next day and who knows maybe it’s one of those that taste best on the third day? Only tomorrow will tell.
I could not taste the lemon extract at all so I would up it to 1 tsp. next time.
I like my normal lemon poppy seed much better so if there is a next time I would simply not add the poppy seeds to not give me the illusion of it being what it’s not.
Overall it is a cake that is quick, easy and maybe just right for a breakfast with fruits. Come to think of it, it might be a great one to toast.
What surprised me is that it does not taste very sweet at all. With 2 cups of sugar I would have expected it to be much sweeter and it was not. Maybe it was due to the very tart yogurt.
Out of ten I give it a five.

UPDATE:
Yup, it’s real good on day 3. This would be a good cake to make a few days in advance of when you need it. Made a good breakfast with some fresh pear and a glass of milk for my son this morning. It’s been upgraded to a 6. Not a piece was left over.

Sourdough, it does not get much better than this

2010-03-09T12:39:00.002+01:00

Finally had some real success with sourdough bread baking. Turns out I was not feeding my starter right and used way to little to give it enough lift.
Look at those loafs. Are they not gorgeous?

I am somewhat surprised my sourdough produces anything since it has lead a life of neglect in the fridge for most of his life so far.
This time however it has gone the longest without feeding. I can’t even remember the last time I did. It still looked ok despite it being a watery mess. I simply stirred it all up, weighed out 100g and filled it into a big bowl and gave it it’s first feeding of 100g flour and 100g lukewarm water. Mixed that all up and put the bowl into the heater room in the basement. It’s the warmest place in the house (26-28C). The next day I fed it again with 100g each of flour and water and moved it into the kitchen (22-26C). Since my sourdough was really malnourished I waited another day before I gave it the last feeding before baking. This too was 100g each of flour and water and kept it in the hallway (18-22C). One day later I was ready to start baking. The different temperature gave the Lactobacillus (both homofermentative and heterofermentative) and the Sourdough yeasts the right climate to do it’s work.
I have been doing some research and came across this German site which is all about sourdough. If you read German be sure to visit this site.
My first bread was a rye mixture bread.

Holsteiner Landbrot
Makes about a 3 lb loaf
600g Sourdough
(usually for rye you would use a rye sourdough, I used mine which is not rye sourdough but spelt)
400g Rye flour
300g Spelt refined
250ml Buttermilk
50 ml Canola oil
1 full T salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 tsp Bread seasoning

Bread seasoning:
makes 3 tsp
1 tsp Coriander
1/2 tsp fennel
1/2 tsp anis
1 tsp Caraway

Use a coffee mill to grind it somewhat coarse

Mix all ingredients in a big bowl and knead until you have a smooth and solid dough (about 10 min). Add more water or flour if needed.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes and knead it again, about 5 minutes. Form an oblong loaf and rest in a proofing basket (I did not use a basket and it did not spread). Slash your loaf, cover and let proof for about 2 hours (mine proofed longer) in a warm place. I slashed this loaf a bit to deep.

If you are baking with a baking stone preheat your oven about 40 min prior with the stone in place. When it’s time to bake put your loaf in the oven and add some water to a hot dish in the oven to create some steam.
Bake at 250C/500F for 10 min than reduce the heat by 20C/50F every 10 min. and finish baking the bread at 180C/350F for a total of 60 min.
Remove your loaf from the oven and let cool on a roast.

This bread turned out wonderful and 5 days later was still moist. This bread really tastes best on the second or third day when all the spices have mingled.

Gotta get that Vitamin C somehow! Lemon sheet cake

2010-03-08T10:02:00.002+01:00

I admit, it’s not the best way to get your Vitamin C but it sure is one of the most delicious.
A few days ago I saw a recipe for a lemon sheet cake in this German Blog (Koch Banausen) and knew right away that it was time to bake a cake.
I make it a point to keep lemons in the house at all times so there was not need to worry about the stores being closed on a Sunday. Yup you read that right, stores are not open on Sundays in Germany. Sure the Commissary carries lemons too but I have yet to find any organic fruits or vegetables there (packaged ready to eat salad bags don’t count).
I had a few hours all to myself though it really did not take that long to whip up this sheet cake. Since I prepared the night before by leaving some eggs and butter out to come to room temperature I was all set to get started and within 15 min. had that cake in the oven and 20 min. later it was baked. I waited for the cake to cool down than glazed it. I waited with the glaze until after the cool down because I wanted to keep the glaze on top and not for it to soak into the cake. This is a great quick and easy lemon sheet cake. You should give it a try.

Lemon Sheet cake
Ingredients:
350g butter (room temperature)
250g sugar
2 vanilla beans (I used one) ***
6 eggs
2 organic lemons
350g flour
2 tsp baking powder (8g)
250g powdered sugar

Heat your oven to 350F / 180C
Beat sugar and butter until creamy, slowly add one egg after the other until very creamy. Scrape out the inside of the vanilla bean and add to the butter mixture.
Mix flour with the baking powder and add to the butter mixture. Zest the lemons and add to batter.
Butter a cake pan (mine is 16x13 inch) and fill it with the batter evenly. Bake for about 20 min. or until toothpick comes out clean.
After your cake has cooled sift your powdered sugar and mix with the lemon juice from the zested lemons. Glaze your cake with this mixture. Done! Now enjoy the fruits of your labor. Quick and easy lemon sheet cake. I told you so!
For step by step pictures check the “Koch Banause” link above.

*** You can also use vanilla sugar (exchange 2T of sugar for vanilla sugar). I think vanilla extract would overpower therefore I would not use it. You can easily make your own vanilla sugar by using the empty vanilla beans and simply placing them with some sugar in a jar. Shake from time to time. Add new beans as you use them. They will flavor your sugar for a long time.

This cake went almost all with my husband to work and my son will have found a slice of it in his lunchbox today.

Where India and the Middle East meet…. (4 HBin5 –WW/with olive oil dough-)

2010-03-03T12:26:00.003+01:00

for this month challenge I whipped up only half a batch of the dough because generally I like the dough best if used within 2 days.
The spices of the Msemmen where still on my mind and I felt like eating something along that line but since this was to be lunch it had to be filled with a vegetable meet filling.
I completely free styled this one and started with some cooked chicken and spinach from the freezer. Cooked some potatoes (whipped up a batch of potato rolls with the potato water. We will eat those tonight), sautéed some onions, added spices and simmered all for just a little. Yum!

One last thing, I mentioned I usually like the HBin5 dough within two days of making the batch. This one was an exception. This dough set in the fridge for 6 days and was still great though very wet. I did add a little flour to firm it up.

Mediterranean flair and the roaring of a lion… (4 HBin5 –WW/with olive oil dough)

2010-03-03T11:37:00.003+01:00

March came in roaring like a lion in my part of the world. Strong winds and icy cold.

I am ready to wish winter a “good riddance” and so I ~~day~~dream while listening to the wind outside of Mediterranean nights under olive trees.
While I can’t visit those olive trees I can get the second best thing, extra virgin olive oil right out of my pantry. With this I’ll whip up some 100% whole wheat bread dough with olive oil right out of the HBin5 book. You can find the recipe here.
I have been following Michelle from big black dog since the beginning of this year together with a group of fellow bakers. The purpose is to “bake” through the HBin5 book. I joined this group to challenge myself to try many of the recipes inside this book that I might otherwise not have tried. So why not join in on the fun and bake some wholesome bread at the same time.
I was very excited about this bread. I like Indian and Arabic style breads very much and my take on the suggestions for this dough where right along that line.
Focaccia with Roasted corn and Goat cheese was on the menu. I was very much looking forward to that one but when I mixed up my dough I changed my mind. I like focaccia’s and knew that this dough would not give me what I wanted, a real focaccia. So I will use that topping on a real focaccia dough sometimes this month with toppings and dimples and all.
My first take was Msemmen (Algerian Flatbread) on page 229. We had a chickpea/spinach/beef curry for lunch and this would complement it well.

I liked this bread quite a bit but I would not roll it out after the rise and leave it coiled like a snail and bake it that way in the oven. I will try that out soon and post an update then.

Michelle asked in the HBin5 forum about our favorite kitchen gadgets.
Here are two of the gadgets I would not want to bake without.
A French rolling pin and a bench knife.
The bread above was rolled with this pin and the mess was cleaned up with that bench knife.

Chocolate bread pudding, what can I say….(3 HBin5 –Chocolate/espresso dough)

2010-03-03T10:15:00.003+01:00

Is it just me or does the word “chocolate” alone make the world seem brighter.
This chocolate pudding surely did that job for me despite the cold February we had. No sun, no problem, just give me some of that chocolate bread pudding!
Remember those chocolate-espresso-orange-bars from valentines day?
They played a major roll in this dessert.
Close to a week after valentines day we still had 3/4 pan of these bars leftover. They where not that big of a hit here though they where not bad by any means. I also still had one heart leftover and I started thinking that I really would like to use them up before they spoil.
I cut up the bread and made a simple custard like this.
Heat 2c milk (I used some cream for milk as well) and melt 1/4c butter in it.
In a separate dish lightly beat 2 eggs and 1/2c sugar. Slowly add some of the milk mixture to the egg mixture. When all is incorporated fill bread and custard into a buttered baking dish and bake at 350F.
About 40 min. later we had one delicious dessert. Unfortunately the picture does not give credit to that statement. We ate it with vanilla sauce.
After eating this bread pudding I called myself a “knuckle head” because I had actually dumped that apple strudel bread from earlier that month and I bet it would have redeemed itself in a similar bread pudding fashion.
So I will file this under “lesson learned” and think hard about how to give a bread we might not enjoy another chance in another form. I urge you to do the same.
Into March i march…….

Frosted Wonderland, greetings from Jack Frost

2010-02-17T19:01:00.002+01:00

What a sight! This is what awaited us this morning as we opened the door

Jack Frost nipping at the door!

Ah, a nice cup of Latte…. (3. HBin5 -Chocolate Espresso dough-)

2010-02-14T18:13:00.003+01:00

It’s Valentines day and what better way to start it than with a nice cup of latte.
Happy Valentines day to all of you!

This latte started out with the determination to finish this month bread braid which was to use Chocolate Espresso WW Bread dough to make some chocolate tangerine bars.
So I got ready and filled my espresso maker with espresso coffee and water and set it up on the glass top oven.

A good Latte, made with some fresh espresso and some milk foam on top is one of my all time favorite drink and I was shattered when I discovered after moving to Germany that the type of stove (glass top) in the place we rented would make this a thing of the past for a while. See how the element heats up?
So the reasons why I rarely make Espresso now are the possibility of burning the handle of the pot or causing damage to the heating element.
Today however I threw all those fears out the window and went ahead and had myself a nice hot cup of latte.
Well, that and of course the need to make one of the main ingredients for the Chocolate Espresso WW bread dough.
This dough has 1/2c of cocoa powder to 3c of flour. Quite a bit I thought. The first bit of dough I made into the bars by adding some chocolate chips, dried cranberries and the zest of an orange (no tangerine) to the dough and filling it into a square pan.
It’s Fasching season (Mardi Grass) and Rose Monday is tomorrow so I added some colorful sprinkles to those bars.
Now the word bars are very deceiving here because when I think of bars I think of something sweet. These are good but more for breakfast, after all they are made using bread dough.

What do you do when you still have some marzipan leftover from your Christmas bakery and are in dire need to use it up?
You put it in some chocolate dough, that’s what you do.
I simply rolled some marzipan and put it in the middle of some flattened dough, rolled it up length wise and twisted it into a bagel type form. It came out round after baking.

I Also wanted to do something more Valentine’s day’isch so I spread some of the dough in these cute heart shaped spring forms.
topped it with some Nutella and some more dough and voila.

I wish you all a Happy Valentines Day.

Red beets anyone? (3 HBin5 –Red Beet dough-)

2010-02-12T17:37:00.003+01:00

February is flying by and Valentines day is right around the corner.
When I think of Valentines day I think red and Michelle from big black dogs who is hosting the HBin5 challenge seems to think red too.
Our assignment for this part of the challenge has us using red beets and onions in some bread. When I read through the ingredients I knew right away that I would

be using this package of red beets and some roasted onions.
The fiasco with the wet apple filling from earlier this month was still fresh on my mind and the beets where nearing the expiration date and needed to be used.
I love the taste of roasted onions in bread and knew this would make a great compliment.
I was still wondering though how this bread would fare taste wise with the beets in it.
The dough came together nice and was just right in it’s consistency.

The question of “what now” came up the next day and with lunch time right there I thought some pan fried “Naan” style bread would be nice with that bowl of chili I was going to have.

No sooner than this thought had finished some of that dough was frying away.

I liked the taste a lot. It was pretty dense though.

The rest of the dough was formed into a loaf and turned into some sandwich style bread.

We had some of that sandwich loaf for breakfast the next day. Topped with some butter, cheese, ham and eggs it was a perfect start into a new day.
I am very happy with the results of this bread. Nice crumb, moist and not dense at all.
The loaf is still as moist and fresh almost a week later. That is a winner in my book any day of the week.
If you want to make this bread (I am urging you to make it) open page 180 in the HBin5 book.
You will find this recipe and all the other breads we are yet to bake there. Now off to see how my dough is coming along for the next part of this challenge.

Next up is some bread using chocolate and espresso.
Yum, I am so looking forward to this one. I already have some things in mind of what to do with this dough. I have a heart shaped small springform and I will be using that for this part of the challenge.
Until tomorrow, happy baking!

Pizza, that’s what’s for dinner!

2010-02-02T15:02:00.001+01:00

We had Pizza the other night and I thought I post about it. There is just something about Pizza, it reminds me of Family and good times. I am still searching for the perfect crust recipe but until I find it I am using Barbara Kingsolver's.
It uses a bit to much yeast so if you plan ahead you can get away with less.
Since our oldest son moved to the states in the Fall there is currently only three of us living here.
My husband and 15 year old son eat b.i.g pizza’s so this recipe makes three pizza’s for us. Two big ones and one small one for me.
If your family is big on sauce and likes lots and lots of toppings put your crust on some parchment paper or you will end up with a big spill trying to get the pizza in the oven.
I have a superpeel and love it, it avoids that spill. I tried with the regular peel and flour or cornmeal but with as much topping as my guys place on it, it was hopeless until the superpeel.
Top your pizza with your favorite pizza sauce.
I make a sauce using crushed tomatoes, Italian herbs, garlic powder, salt and pepper. You can cook this ahead, freeze it and always have some on hand when the call for Pizza gets loud.
Than have each family member top their pizza the way they like it.
I can make two pizza’s at a time in my oven. I bake one on a pizza stone and the other on a hot cookie sheet.

Here is my pizza (ham, spinach and olives)

Easy Potato Rolls as seen on “The kitchn”

2010-02-02T13:57:00.002+01:00

I finally have found my go to Potato rolls recipe. These rolls are so good that I am on my third batch since discovering the recipe less than two weeks ago. They are so nice and flaky just like a potato roll ought to be.

You can find the recipe here at Thekitchn.com

When I make my dough I mix all of the ingredients together at the same time. One less step and it works just fine.
If you are unsure about how your yeast performs you might want to go ahead with that extra step and get it activated first.
To get the potato water I simply keep some of it in freezer bags after cooking potatoes and I keep those bags in the freezer until needed.
I like to use as little processed food as I can and would not recommend using the potato flakes. The potato water is free since most of us dump it out after the potatoes are cooked. All you have to do is think ahead and save some in your freezer.
The dough is very wet so the time in the fridge is a must because that is what makes this dough workable with very little extra flour and I think that is also what creates the nice texture. Might be all the bubbles it creates during that fermentation period.
I shape 12-15 rolls and place them 3 in a row in a 9x13 pan. Like this than cover it to proof. My pan came with a cover so that is what I use.
During the winter (it’s so cold here) I place it on a radiator in my dining room otherwise it could take hours for it to double.
After they about double I brush them with milk or some milk/cream mixture and bake them.Mommy's Kitchen
These are seriously addictive. So do yourself a favor, cook some potatoes for dinner and whip yourself a batch up tonight and serve them tomorrow.

Update: I linked these rolls to Mommy's Kitchen on March 7

Soft whole wheat Sandwich Bread, Hamburger Buns and Apple Strudel Bread (2. HBin5)

2010-01-31T20:25:00.003+01:00

I am still on cloud nine with last month bread breads.
The Epi was just so pretty. Almost as pretty as all that snow we finally received.
I just love to look out my office window because this is what I see. To the left you see a “Zwetschgen” tree with a compost bin right underneath. The pole to the right was hosting “black beans” last summer.

As I was whipping up this batch of the soft whole wheat dough for the first challenge of this month bread braid I was wondering if my search for a quick and tasty hamburger roll was over. The eggs and honey should make for a nice and soft texture.

After an overnight chill I pulled up my sleeves and got to work.
I formed the loaf and placed it in an 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf pan and covered it. I don’t cover mine with plastic foil but with a square clear pan like this.
The sandwich bread is to the left and the apple strudel bread is to the right

The picture above points to the fact that the apple strudel bread was next. I had a feeling that this was not going to be one of my favorites. I just love real Apple strudel to much. I will give it a try anyhow.

The loafs came out looking beautiful and the cut ones are not bad either. However the taste was not to our liking. I admit that the apple loaf ended up in the trash.

If you look close you can see my very small German kitchen. The stove is also my workbench. I simply place my wooden baking board over the glass top and voila i have more space to work on.

This is how we enjoyed the sandwich loaf. Toasted, with butter and homemade jam. In this case grape-mint made in the fall of 2008.

So on my list I had.

~~Pgs.. 92-93 Soft whole wheat sandwich bread~~

Pgs.. 94-95 Hamburger buns

~~Pgs. 233-234 Apple strudel bread~~

Aha, the buns are still open. Yup, i made them too. I had enough dough leftover to make four buns.

As beautiful as those buns look the taste did not convince me and so my search for a quick and easy bun goes on….
So was it worth baking these recipes?
You bet it was. Though the taste was not really to my personal liking I am still glad I tried and I know that these recipes will be loved by many.
So get yourself a book and try them yourself. Next report on HBin5 will be on the 15th but until then I will post some other goodies. So don’t forget to mark my page and come back often.

All in a days work! Epi, Wreath, Crackers and Apple Pie (1 HBin5 –Master dough-)

2010-01-17T19:31:00.002+01:00

I was very excited today to get into my kitchen and to shape some breads I had never done before.

On my list to do where the Epi and wreath shape as well as some crackers from this book.

I mixed up the Master recipe last night and was all ready to go.

First on my list was the Epi on page 71-72.

The shaping was quite easy but I think I need some more practice with the cutting of the ears.

The look was not the best but they tasted great. I will definitely make these again in the future. This would be a great bread to take to a potluck or party.

Next on the list was the wreath shape on page 73.

It’s very similar to the Epi with the cutting so that gave me some more practice

I like this look a lot and can imagine serving this with a

bowl of some sort of a spread in the middle.

This loaf will go in our freezer for future use.

The last bread on my “to do” list was not a bread but some crackers from page 233-34.

I have never made crackers before.

I used Lawry’s seasoning with some chili powder and baked them for 7 minutes.

They came out crispy and only a few puffed up. Oops, I forgot to prick them prior to baking.

The taste was alright but not that good that I would want to make them again.
We ate the crackers and some of the Epi tonight with a bowl of kohlrabi-potato soup.

It was a great combination.

Since the oven was hot and I still had dough for one pie in the fridge I made a quick

apple pie for dessert.

I rolled it out

Grabbed a jar of pie filling from the pantry

Topped it with some crumbs and baked it (350F/45 min.).

Here are the fruits of today's "labor of Love"

Here is my ~~go to~~ pie crust recipe. This recipe is so easy to make, easy to roll and it comes out nice flaky with a great taste. It has never failed me.

Makes enough for three single pies.

3 1/4c flour
1 tsp salt
1c (226g) cold, unsalted butter cut into small pieces
About 1/2c cold milk (possibly a little more)

Place flour, salt and butter in a bowl and mix it with a dough hook until its all combined

(looks like coarse sand). Add enough milk so that the dough will come together.
You can use it right away or put it in the fridge until needed.

Crumb:
75g butter (unsalted) (2 5/8 oz.)
150g flour (5 3/8 oz)
75g sugar (2 5/8 oz.)
Cinnamon to taste

I melted the butter today because I had no room temperature one at hand.

This works just fine but makes a crunchier crumb.

Mix with a fork and top pie.

Bake at 350F / 180C (cover top) for about 45 min.

This was a fun day!

I look forward to making the Epi and wreath again in the near future.

Why not give it a try yourself?

If you do let me know how it turned out for you.

Wishing you all a blessed week!

Update: You can also simply top with another crust like this

Walnut Wedges of Decadence as seen on "Food Vagabond"

2010-01-16T21:25:00.012+01:00

Two days ago I linked from this blog to this recipe and the nut bowl below no longer had to fear to become squirrel food in the future

I was a bit hesitant to try because of the caraway seeds used in this recipe.

I mean, what do seeds that I usually use in cabbage dishes and bread would taste like in a dessert?

A day after seeing the recipe I decided to bake it.

Results: The dough was quick and easy to assemble.

I thought that the crust would bubble up quite a bit since it was not blind baked
but this did not happen and it came out just right.

I added an oven guard underneath because I thought my Springform
might leak but that did not happen either.

I followed the recipe pretty much except I only used 1/2 tsp. caraway seeds (I was to chicken to use the whole tsp) and I used chocolate sprinkles rather than chopped chocolate and I forgot the orange peel.

I was expecting the caramel to thicken up more but even after a few extra minutes that did not happen. So don't be surprised if it does not thicken up it will still be just right when it's done. The chocolate sprinkles did not really melt but added a nice look and a chocolaty taste to it.

Verdict: I was really surprised how well it turned out. After the initial taste I was not quite sure what to think of it but it grew on me. I served this today at a church fellowship and everyone who tried it liked it.

The biggest surprise was that the kids seemed to like it the most. I really did not expect that. The second surprise was my 15 year old son who was disappointed that I did not keep a slice for him for later on.

I will make this again and it will be on our Thanksgiving table.

Changes: I will follow the recipe to a “T” next time

Springform: I used a 28 cm / 11 inch form and cut the pie into 16 slices

When your freezer calls your name (Zwetschgenkuchen)

2010-01-16T19:36:00.015+01:00

Since I am not quite ready to post the first bread of the HBin5 challenge I thought I would share the goods I baked yesterday with you.

I still have quite a few bags of frozen "Zwetschgen" in my freezer and I need to use them up so I thought I would bake what the Bavarians call a "Zwetschgendatschi" and we Schwabians call a "Zwetschgenkuchen".

This recipe is easily changed to take any type of fruit as topping.

If you don't have Zwetschgen or plums in your freezer why not try some seasonal fruits. Apples would be a great choice or even some Jam you want to use up. I have canned homemade apple pie filling in my pantry and I often use it on top of that yeast dough instead of making a more traditional apple pie. You could also just top it with some crumbs to make it a crumb cake or some butter, cinnamon and sugar. You see if you can think of it you can top this dough with it.

Dough: • 375 g flour (13 1/4 oz.)
• 8 g yeast (2 1/4 tsp, or 1/4 oz.)
• 50 g sugar (1 3/4 oz.)
• 75 g melted butter (2 5/8 oz.)
• 250 ml milk (8 oz, or 1 cup)

(I melt the butter and add the milk, you want this luke warm) • pinch of salt

Mix all of it to form a soft tacky but not sticky dough

Cover and let rise until doubled (about 45 min.)

butter a baking sheet (mine is 33cm x 41 cm / 13 inches x 16 inches)

Take your dough and roll it onto your baking sheet

Now for the Plums. I use frozen ones. To use them I get them out the day prior and defrost them. I put them in a salad spinner and let the juices drip off over night (fridge). When I am ready to use them I pour off the juices and give them a quick spin. Now you are ready to use them.

Layer the Plums on the dough

Our last step is to make some "Streusel" for our topping. You certainly can use your favorite here or you can use mine.

Streusel

                                    300g flour (10 5/8 oz)
                                    200g sugar (7 1/8 oz)
                                    165 - 200g butter, room temperature (5 3/4 - 7 1/8 oz.)

Depending if you want bigger pieces and a denser streusel. I use about 165g and it makes a drier streusel. Mix it up in your kitchen machine (dough hook) or by hand.

Cover your Plums and bake for about 30 min at 180C or 350F. Keep in mind that every oven is different. I have to set mine to about 160C to get it to 180C. You want it golden not dark.

Enjoy! This makes a great cake to take to a potluck

If you decide to make it please let me know how it turned out for you

Update: My new pan is 14x17 inches (36x43 cm). Just to show you don’t have to be exact. It’s a guide so you know what size the dough approx. covers.

Welcome to 2010!

2010-01-16T17:39:00.006+01:00

Hello cyber-world, a new year, a new adventure and my very first post on this new blog.
I am quite excited to finally getting this blog out there.

About a year ago I was introduced to Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois book ABin5 when I ran across an article in this Mother Earth News edition.

I was hooked right away because the crust and crumb reminded me so much of the bread I grew up with.
Right away I started to alter the recipe to add more fiber by simply exchanging at least half of the flour for whole wheat as well as adding wheat bran or flaxseed to the mixture.
It worked out well.

The end of last year the new HBin5 came out and Michelle who hosts this Blog announced the start of a new baking group.

I ordered the book and signed up and with that committed to report on a regular basis as we bake through this book. So here I am the official owner of a spanking new Blog and I would love to share the ups and downs of my baking adventures with all of you.

Starting next week I will post January’s breads not just the successes but the failures as well. Since we bake about 6 breads a month and my oven asks to be used more often I will also post and share some other goods with you. I hope you will visit me often.