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bread, vegan

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Shredded Wheat Bread

The Easter Holidays are coming and with that recipes for the big celebration pop up everywhere like the spring flowers on the meadows. Instructions how to prepare the perfect lamb roast, the best sauce, the most perfect side dishes, the most astonishing decorations.

To me it is a little bit overwhelming. The inner pressure rises with every year – because, don’t we all want to delight our family with simply the best? Last year it was amazing, so it should be even better this time, shouldn’t it? A new superlative with every year? And so we end up spending so much time on thinking about the greater stuff, worrying about the big picture, that we tend to forget the foundation. The things that really, truly make us feel good, loved, and comforted. Cherished.

Sometimes it takes merely time to give someone that feeling. After all time is a very precious thing these days. But mostly it also is simplicity what we need, so basic that it can be overseen quickly, and regrettably underestimated.

Shredded Wheat Bread

Shredded Wheat Bread

Bread is such a thing.

Simple, candid bread, baked with time and devotion can be is a feast. It can make you more proud of what you eat and serve your loved ones than a perfectly orchestrated course menu. It is pristine, pleasant, and perfect in its plainness, chummy even. It brings people together in its quiet, elementary way and pampers us with everything good.

Like new favourite of ours. Exclusively baked with sourdough and no additional yeast it is easy to digest and with its whole grain shredded wheat and rye flour it also is saturating and a perfect companion for a hearty meal or spicy cheese.

Shredded Wheat Bread

Shredded Wheat Sourdough Bread

For the sourdough:

  • 100 g rye flour
  • 100 ml water
  • 10 g sourdough starter (self-made*)

For the main dough:

  • 200 g shredded wheat (I used whole-grain shredded wheat)
  • 200 ml water
  • 500 g wheat flour
  • 150 ml water
  • 15 g salt
  • the sourdough from above

Additionally:

  • 2 tbsp whole-grain flour (wheat or rye, whatever you can find)

Mix the rye flour with the water and the sourdough starter in a bowl. Cover it and let it rest for 16-20 hours.

On the next day mix the shredded wheat with the 200 ml of water and let it soak for 30 minutes. Put together all the ingredients and knead for 10 minutes. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 1 hour, while shortly kneading the dough from the rim of the bowl to the middle every fifteen minutes. After that let the dough rest for 1 additional hour.

Now fetch a longish baking basket and get the dough out of the bowl to knead shortly but thoroughly. Sprinkle the whole wheat flour on your working surface and roll the dough between your hands and the working surface to form a long loaf that fits into the baking basket and that’s dusted with the whole-grain flour. But the loaf into the baking basket and cover with a clean and dry kitchen towel. Let the dough rest for 3-6 hours, until it has almost doubled its size.

Preheat the oven to 250°C and place the loaf onto a heated baking tray with a sheet of baking paper. Put the tray into the oven, switch the temperate down to 220°C. Spray a little bit of water into the oven before closing the door and bake the bread for 30-40 minutes. It should give a hollow sounds when you knock on the bottom of the bread.

Let it cool down on a baking tray. Enjoy with savoury cheese, sausage or simply with good butter. Even better when roasted.

Shredded Wheat Bread

Time bar

Day 1, evening: 1 day before baking
Preparing the sourdough and letting it rest for 1 day.

Day 2, afternoon and evening: baking day
Making the main dough and baking.

– – –

*Making your own sourdough starter

To make yourself your own sourdough starter you only need water, rye flour and a few days in a row in which you will be at the same place at the same time of the day. And an airtight jar, alongside a small place in your fridge for that exact jar. Maybe even a name for your new baby, but that is not too necessary.

Day 1: Mix 10 g rye flour with 20 ml water, cover it airtight and let it rest for roughly 1 day.
Day 2: Add 10 g rye flour and 20 ml water, mix it, cover it airtight and let it rest for roughly 1 day.
Day 3: Add 10 g rye flour and 20 ml water, mix it, cover it airtight and let it rest for roughly 1 day.
Day 4: Add 10 g rye flour and 20 ml water, mix it, cover it airtight and let it rest for roughly 1 day.
Day 5: Add 10 g rye flour, cover it airtight and let it rest for roughly 1 day.
Day 6: Congratulations! You just made your first sourdough starter! Put it into the fridge and use it for baking. For example as in the recipe above.

Kartoffelbrot aus dem Topf

bread, how-to, vegan

The Essence of Things

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Kartoffelbrot aus dem Topf

There are only a few things that are as essential as a loaf of bread. For me the last home baked bread, made with my own sourdough, is already too long ago. Fate seemed to be against me, killing first not only my first rye sourdough, but also its successors, and soon after that the wheat starter followed as well. So yes. I needed fresh dough. Because self-made bread is a delight that can hardly be explained.

And so one beautiful day my new sourdough starter was finished, and ready to be to a good use. His name is Eren… let’s see how this one will turn out. My fingers are crossed!

The bread that we are baking for Lena today is a mild one with mainly wheat. The adding of potatoes gives the bread a wonderful juiciness that helps making it stay fresh longer. The crust is not too thick and not to thin and the crumb is amazingly soft and fine pored. A perfect companion for cheese and a new favourite.

Kartoffelbrot aus dem Topf

Sourdough bread with potatoes, baked in a pot

Ingredient for 1 loaf

For the sourdough:

  • 10 g sourdough starter*
  • 100 ml water
  • 100 g rye flour

For the main dough:

  • 2 fist-sized potatoes, cooked on the previous day and completely cooled (about 200-250 g without skin)
  • 400 g wheat flour 1050
  • 100 g spelt flour 630
  • 8 g fresh yeast
  • 275 ml water
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 14 g salt

Mix the ingredients for the sourdough in a bowl, cover it with a lid or cling foil and let it rest for 20-24 hours at room temperature.

On the next day peel the potatoes and mash them thoroughly. Add the remaining flour, the water, the yeast and the honey and mix it with the kitchen machine for 5 minutes on the lowest setting. Add the salt and mix another 5 minutes. The dough is very soft and will be steadied by the pot during baking anyway. But if it seems to be too runny add 1-2 tablespoons of additional flour with the salt.

Cover the bowl again and let the dough rest for 90 minutes, whilst folding or rather kneading it once to the middle of the bowl after 30, 60 and again 90 minutes. Now get the dough out of the bowl and roll it around in 1-2 additional tablespoons of wheat flour so it it covered generously and put the flour dusted dough back into the bowl. Cover it again and let it rest for 60 to 90 minutes once more.

30 minutes before the resting time is up put an iron cast pot including the lid into the oven and preheat it to 250°C.

Get the pot (caution: very hot!) out of the oven and cautiously let the dough drop into it. Cover the pot again with the lid and bake the bread for 30 minutes at 250°C. After that time switch down the temperature to 200°C and bake the bread for another 30 minutes. For a nicer crust remove the lid during the last 15 minutes of baking. Turn the bread out of the pot and let it cool down on a cooling rack.

Kartoffelbrot aus dem Topf

Time bar

Day 1, evening: 1 day before baking
Preparing the sourdough and letting it rest for 1 day.

Day 2, afternoon and evening: baking day!
Making the main dough and baking.

– – –

*Making your own sourdough starter

To make yourself your own sourdough starter you only need water, rye flour and a few days in a row in which you will be at the same place at the same time of the day. And an airtight jar, alongside a small place in your fridge for that exact jar. Maybe even a name for your new baby, but that is not too necessary.

Day 1: Mix 10 g rye flour with 20 ml water, cover it airtight and let it rest for roughly 1 day.
Day 2: Add 10 g rye flour and 20 ml water, mix it, cover it airtight and let it rest for roughly 1 day.
Day 3: Add 10 g rye flour and 20 ml water, mix it, cover it airtight and let it rest for roughly 1 day.
Day 4: Add 10 g rye flour and 20 ml water, mix it, cover it airtight and let it rest for roughly 1 day.
Day 5: Add 10 g rye flour, cover it airtight and let it rest for roughly 1 day.
Day 6: Congratulations! You just made your first sourdough starter! Put it into the fridge and use it for baking. For example as followed.

Kartoffelbrot aus dem Topf

drinks, vegan

The Power of Yellow

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Orange Mango Kurkuma Smoothie

My Grandmother always used to call me her little witch. I must have been an amiable child. Always full of crazy ideas. Always full of silliness. And mostly laughing. Since then nothing much has changed. Once a joker, always a joker. And after all the awkward puberty was gone… some day I actually could embrace my kind of crazy side.

But every once in a while you need a small push into the right direction to let the slightly crazy trait of yours come out to play again. The wintery world outside is grey and bare-branched after all. Cold. And a little bit uncomfortable. It weighs on the spirit and sometimes even on the circulation.

So we need colours! Bright and lively ones that shine and bring some sort of beautiful light back into our lives. And if they also manage to refresh, reanimate and make our senses work again it is even better.

Maybe this smoothie helps. It is yellow like the sun – or like the stars… you see much more of them these days anyway. And it delightens by merely looking at it. Additionally you get a nice and strong vitamin boost from delicious mango, oranges, apple, turmeric and ginger that help you to shield against a cold. And it also provides you with a wonderful refreshment.

Der Muntermacher

Smoothie with Orange, Mango, Apple, Ginger & Turmeric

Ingredients for about 4 glasses

  • 1/2 mango
  • 2 oranges, filleted
  • 1 sweet apple
  • 1/4 banana
  • 1 peanut-sized piece of ginger
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • a hand full of ice cubes

Peel the ginger and chop it into small pieces.

Put all the ingredients into the container of an an electric blender and mix until the drink is smooth.

anime, Asian food, geek corner, sweet tooth, vegan

Dango Daikazoku

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Dango Daikazoku

How does one change their fate? And does something like that even exist in the first place? How do you break out of your daily routine? Resign and keep on going, hoping that one day eventually something will change? Or gather all your courage, every tiny piece of it, to step out of the trott and into the scary unknown? Don’t those moments, filled with nervous heart-throbs, guide us most and get us to exactly where we have to go in life? Sometimes all it takes is one single step ahead, no matter how small. And some morning we’ll wake up and will be happy about that one moment when we decided to be brave for a second. 

Dango Daikazoku

For more courage it helps to hum the Dango Song from time to time and to make some of these traditional Japanese sweets out of rice flour, water and sugar for yourself, too. If you have never had some before their consistency and taste might be a little strange at first. But I’ve become to like them a lot. And not just because they remind me of my favourite anime series: Clannad.

Dango Daikazoku

Dangos are easy to make and go very well to a green Japanese tea. And if you’ve ever watched Clannad you might smile happily and at the same time feel a little bit sad while eating them. 

Dango Daikazoku (だんご大家族) – Dango Family 

inspired by Clannad and Clannad After Story

Ingredients for 3-4 dessert portions

  • 100 g mochiko or shiratamako (or some other glutinous rice flour)
  • 2-3 tbsp sugar
  • about 75 ml water
  • food colouring

Additionally

  • a small piece nori
  • red food colouring

Mix rice flour and sugar and slowly add the water while kneading until you have a smooth, firm and formable dough. If you use liquid food colouring you might want to make the dough a little too dry at first so it won’t become runny after dying it. Divide the dough into a few portions and add a little bit of food colouring to each. Devide into smaller portions and use your hand to roll them into balls. 

Pour water in a pot, bring it to a boil and carefully add the dango. Make sure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot and let them cook until they start to float on the water surface. Fish them out and put them in ice water to stop the cooking process.

Cut the nori into small pieces for the dango eyes and decorate the rice balls with them. Add blushing cheeks with red food colouring if you like, arrange them on a plate and serve with some matcha.

Dango Daikazoku

Asian food, pantry, vegan

Catching the Summer: Sweet Sour Chili Sauce

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A storm is coming. The first storm during this autumn. It rips through the grass and over the land and roars mightily, like a lion, while it cleans up the remaining parts of summer. All the heat dust flies away, burning in the eyes one last time like sand, and is finally gone. I cannot await to face up to the wild nature, wrap myself up in warm clothes and go outside, right under the free sky. I confront the storm, throw my arms into the air and let the wind embrace me. Now we both are trying to outdo each other in roaring out of joy for the wuthering life.

Soon the storm will calm down and leave the world in a chaotic but natural order. A world, that has finally said its goodbye to this year’s summer and has devoted itself to autumn instead. And to start into the cooler part of the year I will cook myself a jar of chili sauce. Because with its refreshing acidity, comforting-mild sweetness and warming hotness it is exactly what we will need in the next months. Uncomplicated. Red like the last days of summer. Delicious!

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Chili Sauce

Sweet hot chili sauce

Ingredients for about 500 ml

  • 400-500 g chilis*
  • 500 ml white wine vinegar or rice vinegar
  • 500 g sugar
  • 1 pinch of salt

Wash the chilis, cut off the green part and halfen them lengthwise. Scrape off the seeds and keep them for later. Roughly chop the chills, put them in a blender and add about the half of the vinegar. Blend it finely, then pour the mixture in a pot. Add the rest of the vinegar, the sugar, the salt and the seeds from before (as much of them as you like) and bring everything to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium and let it bubble gently for about 30-45 minutes until the sauce has thickened (almost like ketchup).

While still hot fill it in sterilized jars or bottles, close them tightly and use the sauce up in the next 6 months.

*How hot the sauce will actually become depends on the chilis you use. For a prettier look I removed the seeds before blending the chills and added them later to the sauce. You can just add parts of the seeds and reduce the pungency with that as well or leave the seeds out all together. But keep in mind that already the types of chilis vary in how hot they are.

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Burning hands?

If your skin had too much contact with hot chilis during preparation and your hands start to feel like they are on fire it really helps to use curd cheese packings: Wet a clean kitchen towel and generously apply a layer of curd cheese – the more fat it contents the better. Wrap the cloth (with the curd-cheese side on your skin) around your hands. It cools, calms and pulls away the hot acidity.

sweet tooth, vegan

Don’t let go! And treat yourself to a sorbet!

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red currant sorbet

Don’t let go of your happiness! Don’t let it go! Smile at it, whenever you can. Be glad about the little and still so precious things! Take your happiness by the hand and never let it go! Because together you are less alone. Look upon the vespertine starry sky, that twinkles down on us every day and delight in life. Don’t let go of your happiness, cling to it… 

… and treat yourself to a sorbet from time to time! You deserve it.

red currant sorbet

Red Currant Sorbet with Bitter Lemon

Ingredients for about 6 balls of sorbet

  • 500 g red currants (fresh or frozen – you can leave the stems on if you like)
  • 100 g sugar
  • 2-3 tbsp elderflower syrup
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 50 ml water
  • 250 ml bitter lemon of your choice

Put the red currants with the sugar, the syrup, the salt and the water in a pot. Bring it to a boil and let it gently cook under medium heat until all the berries broke open and the liquid is bright red.

Pour it through a sieve and use a spoon to press all of the liquid out. Let it cool down to room temperature and if you are patient enough put it into the fridge for an additional hour or more.

Give the mixture into an ice cream maker and churn according to the producer’s advice or put it into a freezer for a few hours. Divide the sorbet into 1-6 bowls, pour a little bit of bitter lemon over it and enjoy it in the cooling evening heat under a pale blue sky.

red currant sorbet

drinks, vegan

Pineapple mango passion fruit smoothie

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Summer incompatibility is an earnest topic. Outside the sun is shining and burns the world already in May… too hot to even lift a single finger. So you start your day holing up in the shadows and hide from the world. And the heat. Stay inside where it is cool and nice. Or at least cooler than outside. You barricade yourself in your living room and peek through the closed curtains to catch a glimpse of the beautiful, sunny, colorful world outside. How lovely it would be to play with the other big children outside! To meet with them at the beer garden or the open air pool, bathing in the sun and enjoying life under a perfect blue sky. Frightened you could miss something you take a few cautious steps outside in the late afternoon. Right under the parasol of course and not without a thick layer of sun screen. Continue reading Pineapple mango passion fruit smoothie →