Krautsalat (German cabbage salad)

Krautsalat is one of the things S always buys and eats loads of when he visits Germany. I’d never tried to make it for him before but we had an excess of cabbage and it seemed like a good idea. He’d been into caraway recently so I though it should be the kind with caraway in it. This recipe seemed like just the thing.

We had a hyper German dinner, with this and some boil in the bag knoedel from Aldi - surprisingly good boiled, cooked, then fried in slices with onion and mushrooms. S was v enthusiastic about both, I should make krautsalat again... maybe I should even try making knoedel from scratch?!

1 kg white cabbage 

1 tbsp salt 

2 tbsp sugar 

3 onions 

1 tbsp caraway seeds 

140 ml sunflower oil 

150 ml white wine vinegar 

1 tbsp mustard (I used whole grain)

Clean the cabbage and remove the stem. Slice thinly and place in a large bowl. Add the salt and sugar and mix with hands for 5-10 min, until the cabbage goes a bit floppy. Cover with cling film and put in the fridge for approx. 24 hours.

The next day, peel and thinly slice the onions. Heat a medium saucepan over high heat and toast the caraway seeds briefly. Add oil, vinegar and onions to the pan and let cook gently until onions are soft. Add the mustard and mix to combine. Remove from the heat and let cool a bit.

Take the cabbage out of the fridge, add the onion mixture, and it is ready to eat. Keeps in the fridge well for a few days.

This is totally perfect, an excellent use of cabbage. It's quite quick and easy even though you have to remember to start it the day before you want to eat it. I did try making knoedel at some point, they were ok, need practice!

Tinned-peach and custard cake

We went to Aldi, checking for the good tofu. I spontaneously purchased a huge tin of peach halves while we were there, off of some kind of thought process like: it's winter, there aren't many good fresh fruits now... how about tinned fruit? I used to love tinned peaches as a kid, maybe sage would like them... now I realize how sweet they are, I guess that's why I liked them really, but they do have a specific, nostalgic taste. I won a tin in a tombola once.

They'd been sitting in the pantry for some time when I realized I was never really going to eat 800+ g of tinned peaches... and I felt like I'd seen a German cake recipe with tinned fruit. I came across this one and it sounded good and I had pretty much all the ingredients sooooo here we are.

For the base:
1 1/2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup (55 g) cold butter, diced
1/2 cup milk (used oat milk)
1 egg
1 large (c. 825 g) tin peach halves, drained and sliced 1/2 in thick

For the custard:
1 cup heavy cream (used oat milk)
2 tsp flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
pinch of salt

Heat the oven to 400F / 204C. Grease and line a springform cake tin. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together with a fork in a large bowl. Add the cold butter and rub it in until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. In a separate, small bowl, whisk together the milk and egg. Pour the milk mix over the flour mix and mix with the fork until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared tin. Arrange the peach slices on top (I had a few left over). Bake for 15 min.

Meanwhile make the custard. Combine 1/4 cup milk with the flour, and whisk to get rid of lumps. Add the rest of the milk, sugar, egg, vanilla and salt, and whisk well to mix. Take the cake out of the oven and pour the cream mix over the top. Put the cake back in and reduce the heat to 350F / 177C. Bake 35-40 min more (nb mine took longer, and I had to add a foil hat as the peaches were catching). When the cake top is puffed, and the edges are deep gold and separating from the sides of the tin, the cake is done. Remove from the oven and let cool at least 15 min before removing from the tin and letting cool completely.

Vanillekipferl

Christmas is approaching, and so is the birth of our own baby boy. Every day that he doesn't make a move to appear, is another day for projects like making Christmas biscuits. So yesterday/today I decided to make zimtsterne, as has become traditional... And this time I decided to try vanillekipferl (vanilla crescents) as well. This was initiated by thinking it might be a good way to use up the egg yolks left from the zimtsterne - I read that somewhere... but then I also read that traditionally vanillekipferl shouldn't have any egg in them to maximise their crumbliness. So anyway, once the seed was sown I wanted to make them, and having reviewed a few recipes decided to follow this one - with one egg yolk.

Makes c. 48 biscuits

For the dough:

120 g butter, at room temperature
50 g icing sugar
175 g flour 
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
100 g ground almonds
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt

For dredging after baking:
125 g icing sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar

Beat together butter and 50 g icing sugar. Add the flour, 1 tbsp vanilla sugar, ground almonds, egg yolk and salt and mix until it comes together as a smooth dough. Split the dough into three equal parts and roll each into a cylinder with a diameter of 1 in. Wrap each cylinder in clingfilm and put in the fridge for at least one hour, and up to 2 days.

When ready to bake, heat the oven to 163C and line two baking sheets with paper. Take one roll from the fridge and cut it into slices 1/2 in long. Roll each slice between fingers until about 2 in long, with slightly tapered ends. Curve to make a crescent, and place on the baking sheet. Leave approx. 1 in space between biscuits on the sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough, taking one roll out of the fridge at a time, until the sheets are full. Bake for 10-15 min, or until just lightly browned.

After removing from the oven, allow to sit on the baking sheet for c. 5 min. Mix 125 g icing sugar with 1 tbsp vanilla sugar in a shallow bowl. Carefully dredge each cookie in the icing sugar and place on a baking rack to cool.

Poppy Bee Sting (Bienenstichkuchen mit Mohn)

For S's birthday this year, he requested a bienenstichkuchen (bee sting cake). We talked about it a bit, and he said it was the topping that he really likes, with honey and toasted almonds - the creamy filling not so much. I reflected, and browsed the internet a bit, and then spotted this and realized I'd found our cake - it has bienenstich topping and a mohn filling, thus combining two of S's fave cakes (the other being mohnkuchen). And we get to use honey from my bee club for the topping! I've not made many yeasted cakes before, so wasn't sure how it would turn out - also because I was translating a recipe from German, referring to another in English for tips, and buying ingredients in Danish...

Cake:
150 g whipping cream
50 g butter
400 g flour
1 pack fresh yeast (42 g) (= approx. 2 tbsp dried yeast)
50 g sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla sugar
pinch of salt
2 eggs (size M)

Topping:
150 g butter
100 g sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla sugar
50 g honey
50 g whipping cream
200 g flaked almonds

Filling:
74 g custard powder
40 g sugar
600 ml milk
50 g butter
250 g poppy seeds (partially ground)

Make the dough:
Heat the cream and butter for the dough together until butter is all melted. Put the flour in a mixing bowl and crumble the yeast over the top. Add the sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, eggs, and warm cream-butter mixture and mix until well combined. Knead for about 5 min, until the dough is smooth. Leave the dough covered in a warm place until it has doubled in size (about 45 min).

Make the topping (do this while the dough is rising):
Heat the butter with the sugar, vanilla sugar, honey and cream, slowly with stirring. Then boil for about 4 min with stirring, until the mixture becomes a little thick and caramel (it should become a little darker, and go from yellowish to light beige). Mix in the almonds. Allow to cool, stirring occasionally.

Assemble and bake the cake:
Heat the oven to 200C / 180C fan. Lightly grease a large rectangular baking tray (30 x 40 cm).

Sprinkle the dough with a little flour, remove it from the bowl, briefly knead on a slightly floured surface and roll/press out on the baking sheet. Spread the topping out evenly on the dough and let it rise again somewhere warm, until visibly enlarged (about 30 min). When ready, put in the oven for approx. 15 min, until golden brown on top. When ready, take out and leave to cool in the baking tray on a cooling rack, until completely cold.

Make the filling (do this while the cake is rising / baking):
Mix the custard powder with the sugar in a medium bowl. Gradually stir in approx. 12 tbsp of the milk. Bring the rest of the milk to the boil in a medium saucepan, remove from the heat and add the powder-sugar mixture, stirring well. Put the pan back on the heat and bring to the boil, and simmer for about 1 min until thickened. Add the butter and poppy seeds and stir; then leave to cool.

Fill and finish the cake:
When the cake and filling are completely cool, you can assemble the cake. Loosen the cake from the baking tray and halve it vertically. Take out one half and carefully cut in half horizontally. Spread half of the poppy seed mixture evenly over the lower part, then put the top back on. Repeat for the other half of the cake and the other half of the poppy seed mixture. Best eaten within 24 hours.


I was really pleasantly surprised by this recipe - the busy work takes a couple of hours, but the rising steps don't feel like a drag because there is always something else to do - making the caramel topping; making the custard-poppyseed filling; going to the shop again because you forgot to buy milk the first time... And it was actually really simple - apart from not managing to mix in the yeast very thoroughly and getting a slightly uneven rise, it came together incredibly well. Did I mention it is delicious? Another great example of German cakey brilliance: really sweet parts (topping) are so well balanced with not so sweet parts (filling and cake); and there's loads of texture going on (light bread-cake; crunchy caramel almonds; toothsome poppyseed custard...). It was best within about 24 hours, but perfectly edible after that - it took us 5 days, but S and I ate it all.

Real Seelen

I first made something like Seelen for S (from this recipe) a few years ago, and he loved them! He didn't stop talking about them, and I made my approximation a few times since he liked them so much. They are regional bread from where he grew up in Germany, and apparently they are hard to get even elsewhere in Germany.
But I could never track down white spelt flour in the USA, not even in the fanciest grocery shops (or Eastern European ones). Not long after coming here, we went to Lidl (another German thing S loves), and found white spelt flour there! And pretty cheap too. So we decided that real Seelen were in order.

They don't take too many ingredients or special equipment, so it seemed do-able, even without my own kitchen. Finding the other ingredients was actually kind of a challenge. We had salt, that was fine and easy. I thought caraway might be easy too as it seems quite popular - there is a caraway seed cheese I see everywhere and want to try, but it only comes in gigantic blocks so haven't yet. But we didn't find caraway in any of the grocery shops we checked. The Turkish market had a bewildering selection of spices though, leading to a fairly lengthy debate between S+I over whether cumin (spidskommen) and caraway (kommen) seeds were the same or not (they're not! but he wouldn't believe it!). Anyway, we got the caraway there, and the next challenge was yeast, Again, I checked near the flour on the shelves of various grocery shops, until S found some in the fridge in a wholefoods shop - of course! Fresh yeast is the way here, dried yeast seems to be hard to find.

So, real seelen - not only with white spelt flour, but also with fresh yeast!

(makes 12 - I doubled the recipe as I had 1000g flour, 42g yeast, and no scales... and S loves seelen)

1000g white spelt flour
42g fresh yeast
600 ml warm water
4 tsp salt

For sprinkling: caraway seeds and coarse sea salt

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and knead all ingredients for about 10 minutes to get soft and fairly sticky dough.  Leave to rise in a warm place for about 60 minutes, kneading briefly after 20 min and after 40 min.

When the dough has risen turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and split in two.  With wet hands shape one piece into a square of about 20 cm.  Use a wet knife to cut the dough into six strips. Transfer the strips onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper.  Repeat with the other half of the dough (you'll need two baking sheets). Irregular shapes are fine, even good.  Cover with a clean dish towel and leave to rise for another 20 minutes.  Heat the oven to about 240C / 460F and place a bowl of water on the bottom shelf.

When the Seelen are ready to go into the oven wet them again with your hands and sprinkle with caraway seeds and coarse sea salt.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.


They definitely look different -lighter, more golden, with a very slight sheen. Perhaps a little more dense. But the taste is dominated by the caraway and salt so I find it hard to make out a difference in taste from the spelt. No complaints though, and it took us only two days to demolish the whole lot!

Grated Petersilienwurzel (parsley root), carrot and apple

I discovered Petersilienwurzel the first time I went to Germany with S, and was instantly intrigued: it's like parsley (+S loves parsley), but it's a root not a leaf. I didn't get to try it that time, but I bought some seeds and tried to grow them back in Norwich. No success.

While M was here we took her to Wegmans to stock up on Thanksgiving in a tin (based on a conversation with our Bostonian friend N, most traditional Thanksgiving dishes involve combinations of things out of tins). She ended up with a good selection - some things Thanksgiving-y (tin-shaped cranberry jelly, tinned pumpkin); also other American / local specialities (Boston brown bread in a tin). While there, S+I accidentally ended up in the produce section, where we came upon chestnuts (kurigohan happened, and it was fiiiinnne), elephant garlic, celeriac, and, resplendent beside said celeriac, petersilienwurzel! Wegmans truly does have EVERYTHING!

We roasted some in chunks with a mixture of other roots (carrots, celeriac, beetroot) and tofu, and it was really delicious - incredibly sweet (reminiscent of parsnip; they are quite closely related), with a delicate, slightly parsley-y / perhaps more parsnip-y taste.

After chatting with S's Austrian friend L, and eating her excellent vegetable strudel and beetroot, horseradish and caraway salad (from her grandmother's recipes), I decided to also follow her / her grandmother's suggestion for petersilienwurzel and grate it with carrot and apple. I threw in a few other things too, and it ended up a really yummy Winter salad - juicy and fresh and sweet.

5 small petersilienwurzel (parsley root), peeled and grated (celeriac is a good alternative / addition)
3 medium carrots, peeled and grated
1 medium apple, cored and grated
1-2 tbsp cider vinegar
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
~1 tsp chopped chives
handful of raisins (preferably golden)
handful of pecan pieces

Grate the petersilienwurzel (and/or celeriac), carrots and apple into a medium bowl. Add the cider vinegar, olive oil and seasoning (quickly, to avoid browning) and toss. Add the chives, raisins and pecans and toss. Ideally eat straight away, but it keeps OK in the fridge for a few days (consider just adding the pecans last minute if you want to serve it later).

Zwetschgendatschi (Bavarian yeasted plum cake)

As soon as S saw the plums I harvested the other day, he said 'Zwetschgendatschi'. And I said '?' - the word is quite a tongue twister, and I knew plums as Pflaume and quetsch as squeeze... But then he sent me this recipe, and it seemed like a perfect use for the plums. Apparently these plums are the type of plum you most often see in Germany, and in the South they are called Zwetschgen. Some friends are having a nostalgia-themed equinox party tonight, and this seemed an appropriate thing to take along: my family had plum trees in the garden when I was growing up, so the process of harvesting, preparing and eating plums is nostalgic for me, while this particular yeast-doughed plum cake is quite nostalgic for S as he hasn't eaten it since he was living in Germany more than ten years ago.

I did a little research and found that Zwetschgendatschi comes with a few variables - the dough can be yeasted or can be more like a pastry or tart dough; the base can be flavoured with lemon rind or the topping with cinnamon; a streusel or crumble topping can be added on top of the plum layer. I consulted S and he favoured keeping things yeasted and simple: the only flavours in this version besides the mildly bready base are plum, toasted almond and brown sugar. I pretty much followed the recipe he sent me.

Classic version
(makes one baking tray's worth: mine was 34 cm x 23 cm and technically a roasting tin)

300 g plain flour (plus a bit more for dusting)
2 tsp active dry yeast
50 g sugar
100 ml lukewarm almond milk
50 g fake butter (at room temperature)
1 medium egg (at room temperature) - or 1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 2.5 tbsp boiling water
a pinch of salt
~700 g Zwetschgen (damson or prune plums)
~2 tbsp demerara sugar
50-75 g flaked almonds

Put the flour in a mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. Put the yeast in the well, sprinkle some sugar over it and pour enough lukewarm milk in to cover the yeast. Stir briefly, then cover the bowl with a tea towel and put in a warm place for 15-20 min, until the yeast starts to bubble.

Add the rest of the milk and sugar, butter, egg and salt. Knead until the dough forms a smooth ball, then continue to knead for ~5 min (?). If it is too sticky sprinkle with flour, but try not to add too much flour. Cover the bowl again and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour, until doubled in size.

Meanwhile prepare the plums: Cut in half lengthwise, remove the stone and then cut each half lengthwise again to make quarters. Set aside.

Heat the oven to 355F (180C). Line the baking tray with paper (or brush with oil). Roll the dough out on a clean, floured work surface until it is about the size or the baking tray, then carefully transfer it to the baking tray and pull into shape.

Arrange the plum quarters in overlapping rows, cut side up. Sprinkle evenly with demerara sugar and flaked almonds (use as much or as little as you like, to your taste). Put in the oven and bake for 25-30 min, checking after 20 min to make sure it is not too dark underneath. Remove and let cool in the tray before cutting into squares.


Gluten-free vegan experimental version
(makes 4 mini tart-sized ones in a muffin tin)

50 g TJ's gluten-free flour mix
25 g ground almonds
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp baking powder
tiny pinch salt
12.5 g sugar
12.5 g fake butter
25 ml almond milk
1/4 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 3/4 tbsp boiling water
3 plums, quartered as above
~ 2 tsp demerara sugar
1-2 tbsp flaked almonds

Heat oven to 355F. Mix flour, ground almonds, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Make a well and add butter, milk and linseed mixture. Mix with a fork and then with your hands until it comes together into a pliable dough. Line muffin cups and press the dough into the bases / up the sides. Arrange the plum quarters on each (I found three quarters per cup fitted), sprinkle with demerara sugar and flaked almonds, and bake for 20-25 min.


Both were great. The classic one was awesome in its lack of intense sweetness (I could perhaps have been a bit more generous with the sugar but I liked it like this). S said it was authentic! And we both liked it - the bready part was slightly sweet and nicely risen, and the juices from the plum soaked in slightly to the bread base and to the almonds, making for a delicious thing somewhere inbetween a sweet bread and a cake - think typically German in the not-too-sweetness, the extensive use of fruit / nuts and simple flavours. The plum flavour really sung out because of that - the almonds and bread just served to complement their gorgeousness. The GF base was not as fluffy but stuck together well and the taste effect was similar. And they were cute in their little paper cases.

Note: this reminds me of Mum's apple cake that I attempted to make here. Perhaps another go at that is in order: I have some apples...

Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars)

There is a wonderful array of German Christmas biscuits out there: we've been eating our way through lebkuchen and chocolate covered lebkuchen herzen from Lidl and from Trader Joe's already. Then there's Pfeffernusse, Vanillekipferle... so many beautiful things. They really know that they are doing when it comes to Christmas, those Germans. S's favourite are Zimtsterne, so I wanted to make some. I've never made these before, but I've been feeling like doing some Christmas baking, especially since visiting the Christmas market in Edinburgh.

I got this recipe from my colleague Nik, who is German and a consummate baking pro. It appears deceptively simple: just almonds, cinnamon, egg whites and sugar - they're delicious and it's quite fiddly to make and ice all the little stars.

3 egg whites
250 g icing sugar
400 g ground almonds (plus more flour or ground almonds for dusting)
2 tsp cinnamon

Beat the egg whites to shiny peaks, then fold in the icing sugar a tablespoon or so at a time. Set aside ~80g to use as icing.

Mix the cinnamon and almonds, then fold into the remaining sugar mixture.

Dust your surface with flour or ground almonds, then roll out the mass until ~1 cm thick. Cut out star shapes and transfer them to baking trays.

Thinly (1-2 mm) spread the icing set aside earlier onto the biscuits. You should not be able to see through the icing.

Allow cookies to dry over night uncovered at room temperature.

Bake at 325F / 160C for 8 minutes on medium rack. Allow to cool. They should keep for several weeks in a container.

I thought these were lovely.  I was too chicken to take some in to Nik for testing, but S liked them. I took advantage of their long keeping time and sent some to each of my stepsisters back in the UK.


Now I am trying to think of something to do with the three egg yolks - custard is one option; egg yolk ravioli is another, more exciting option...

Chicken of the Woods (+spätzle)

We went mushroom hunting a month or so ago at Breakheart Reservation, with our friends Carly and Jason.  We found lots of mushrooms on that trip - including black spiky boletes and one large frilly mushroom we got particularly excited about, thinking it might be Hen of the Woods (Maitake). When we got home and looked more carefully at the identification guides we decided that it was actually probably a Berkeley's Polypore and supposed to be way less tasty, so we didn't end up eating it. Even so, we were all very enthused about more mushroom hunts soon...

Black spiky bolete aka Old Man of the Woods
aka Strobilomyces floccopus (photos by Carly)

Berkeley's Polypore (Bondarzewia berkeleyi)

S+I were thinking of going to a party in a cabin in the woods with C+J on Friday night, but Seb's mum is in town right now and we ended up doing some more Boston-y tourist-suitable stuff.  But while we were down in Rhode Island on Saturday I got a text from Carly saying they'd found masses of Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus: this is different from Hen of the Woods, and is supposed to have the taste and texture of chicken) on a night hike near the cabin and did we want to come help them eat it?  Ohhhhhh yes!

The mushroom was indeed huge, and beautiful: red-orange on top and creamy coloured underneath, and quite thick and substantial. They cleaned it and chopped it into chunky pieces, then fried it in olive oil / butter, with onions and salt and pepper. We ate it with spätzle: Seb was able to show off his authentic Swabian spätzle-making skills (while teasing his mother about her never having made it before despite being a 'Schwäbische Hausfrau', sort of).

The spätzle came out really well, so I thought I'd make a note of the dough recipe we used - since I have some eggs at the moment perhaps a repeat effort could be a good idea?!

(quantities below make enough for two people)

1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 pinch freshly ground white pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together flour, salt, white pepper and nutmeg. Beat eggs well, and add alternately with the milk to the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth. Rest in the fridge for an hour or so (not essential).

When ready to cook, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Spread about a ladleful of spätzle dough thinly on a smooth chopping board, then hold it over the water and use a large knife with a flat, smooth blade to scrape off the dough, making small, slim worms of spätzle fall into the water. Watch each batch rise to the water's surface then cook for a minute or two while floating, then fish them out with a slotted spoon and put them in a colander. Keep the cooked spätzle warm and repeat with the remaining dough until it is all done.

Finally, either toss or saute the spätzle in olive oil or butter, and optionally garnish with parsley.

                                  (Video of spätzle forming technique: Seb on spätzle in front, Jason on chicken of the woods behind)

Spätzle is really simple, but these worked very well so I thought it was worth hanging onto the recipe. I think the egg is relatively important, but it would be easy to make them without dairy (and likely possible to make them without egg, probably using a little raising agent for lightness and some gram flour for eggy taste and colour).

The mushroom was wonderful - really substantial, with a dense, almost dry texture, and a mild taste. It really was a bit like chicken, taste and texture wise - funny for S to try it as he has never knowingly eaten chicken.

Now I am just wishing I knew where to find more equally awesome, edible mushrooms...

Note: Alvin says that Chicken of the Woods is really best eaten raw.  Not entirely convinced, but now we know that we don't have any adverse reactions to it perhaps next time we can try it (if there is a next time)...

Kartoffelbrot

Still on the German baking thing.  We were looking for some crap to watch the other night and ended up watching the Hairy Bikers (/Bakers) in Germany on the BBC.  I'd been thinking of making a Kartoffelbrot anyway, they reminded me, and I used their recipe.

375g/13oz potatoes, peeled and cut into even chunks (300g/10½oz peeled weight; 2 large potatoes)
1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp salt
300g/10½oz strong white flour, plus extra for kneading (or 100g/3½oz strong wholemeal flour and 200g/7oz strong white flour)
1 tsp onion seeds – or use a mixture of caraway (2/3 tsp), anise (1/3 tsp) and fennel (1/3 tsp) seed

You need exactly 300g/10½oz potatoes to make the bread so check the weight once they are peeled.  Place the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with cold water, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat slightly and cook for 15–20 minutes until they are tender but not falling apart.

Drain the potatoes in a colander over a bowl and reserve the cooking liquid. Return the potatoes to the pan and toss over a very low heat for 2-3 minutes until any excess liquid has evaporated.

Pour 75ml/5 tbsp (90ml / 6 tbsp if using a wholemeal / white flour mix) of the warm cooking liquid into a large bowl and leave to cool for a few minutes. When it’s lukewarm, sprinkle in the yeast. Stir in the sugar and leave in a warm place for about 10 minutes until a light foam appears on the surface.

Mash the potatoes with the oil in the saucepan until they’re as smooth as possible, then stir in the yeast mixture and salt.

Mix well with a wooden spoon and gradually add the flour, a few tablespoons at a time, stirring well before adding more. When the dough becomes too stiff to stir in the flour, turn it out on to the work surface and knead the remaining flour into the dough. Don’t be tempted to add more water or the dough will become too sticky to work with.

Knead the dough for 10 minutes until soft and pliable. Place it in a bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 45–60 minutes, or until well-risen and spongy to touch.

Knock back the dough with your knuckles and shape it into a rough ball. Flatten the ball on a floured surface until it is about 2cm thick, then split into three and braid. Sprinkle on some wholemeal flour, for additional texture, on the outside of the loaf. Place it on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, and leave to prove in a warm place for a further 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 220C/428F. Sprinkle the top with your choice of seeds. Bake the loaf in the centre of the oven for 35 minutes until well risen and crusty on top. Cool on a wire rack.


This is really good - came out as a big, rustic, golden-brown braid, and we disappeared almost all of it as soon as it was cool enough.  Nice, soft texture and hearty, comforting taste.

Edit: I've re-made this a few times since and we still love it. It is wonderfully soft and moist, and keeps well - still easy to slice after a week.

Seelen (Swabian bread rolls with caraway and salt)

Another German baking effort, following a recipe from the same website as the last couple.  I mentioned to S that I was thinking of making Seelen, and he was super enthusiastic.  Apparently they are a forgotten favourite of his, and you only really get them in the Schwäbische Alb region, where he grew up.

500g white spelt flour (didn't have - used ~400g plain flour and ~100g wholemeal flour)
20g fresh yeast (or one sachet dry)
300 ml warm water
2 tsp salt

For sprinkling: caraway seeds and coarse sea salt

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and knead all ingredients for about 10 minutes to get soft and fairly sticky dough.  Leave to rise in a warm place for about 60 minutes, kneading briefly after 20 min and after 40 min.

When the dough has risen turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.  With wet hands shape it into a square of about 20 cm.  Use a wet knife to cut the dough into six strips.  Transfer the strips onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper.  Irregular shapes are fine, even good.  Cover with a clean dish towel and leave to rise for another 20 minutes.  Heat the oven to about 240C / 460F and place a bowl of water on the bottom shelf.

When the Seelen are ready to go into the oven wet them again with your hands and sprinkle with caraway seeds and coarse sea salt.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.


These came out pretty good.  S said they taste almost like the real Seelen - the only obvious difference was the top is usually more golden and shiny.  Probably the lack of spelt flour didn't help (my best guess was the Russian store, they only had wheat and rye flour) - perhaps Amazon.

Apfelbrot

Got excited about German baking and decided to try another recipe from the blog I found: apfelbrot.

Makes one very large tin loaf or two smaller ones.
(I halved quantities to make a smaller loaf - I only have one loaf tin)

750 g apples, peeled and chopped (for 375g used 2 large apples)
250 g demerara sugar  (125g white sugar)
250g raisins or chopped, mixed fruit (125g raisins mixed with candied peel)
100 g ground almonds (50g)
100g roughly chopped hazelnuts (50g)
1 large tbsp dark rum (1 tbsp Pimms)
1 tbsp cocoa powder (1/2 tbsp)
1 tsp cinnamon (1/2 tsp)
1 pinch of ground cloves (small pinch)
500 g plain flour (250g)
20 g baking powder (10g = 2/3 tbsp)

Mix the chopped apples with the sugar and dried fruit.  Cover and leave to stand overnight or for at least 8 hours, so that the apples release juice.

Add the nuts, rum, cocoa and spices to the apple mixture and stir.  Finally add the flour and baking powder and mix until all the flour has been absorbed.  Add some extra liquid (water, rum, apple juice or tea) if the batter is too thick - it should be quite firm though.  Spoon the batter into the tin(s).  Bake at 180C / 350F for about one hour or until a skewer comes out clean.

The apple bread keeps fresh for a couple of weeks, but it should not be stored in plastic (tin foil or a tin is best).


Good stuff, as it should be with all those good things in it: a sum of its parts?  I liked the minimalism of the method: just using the juice from the apples instead of fat and/or liquid. I wondered how the cocoa powder would be, if anything it's imperceptible: certainly not negative.  The sum of its parts, but that's no bad thing.  The half quantity made a good-sized loaf that took us a few days to get through with pretty intensive snacking from both of us: think the double quantity would be massive.

Mohnkuchen (German poppyseed streusel cake)

As a pre-emptive reward for S coming in to my German class tomorrow (show and tell the germans in your life), I asked him what his favourite German cake was and then baked it.  I actually really can't understand why I haven't done much German baking before - there's such a beautiful range of German cakes...

He said Mohnkuchen.  I'm not sure if I've ever eaten proper Mohnkuchen - I've had some nice German cakey things made with lots of poppyseeds, but I don't think I've ever had the full streuselly whammy.  So there was an inherent challenge in this - how to make something when you don't know what it should be like, but the person you're making it for most definitely does?

Ein Stück Mohnkuchen

First challenge, actually, was trying to find a large quantity of poppyseeds.  Happily I managed to find them in the first place I looked: the Indian store in Coolidge Corner.  The package had a very basic label, but with some interesting facts:  the Latin name (Papaver somniferum) and the country of origin (Australia).  The somniferum made me wonder if poppyseeds come from the same poppy plants as opium / morphine / heroin.  And I wondered why they came from Australia, of all places.  Consultation with Wikipedia indicates that yes, these are from the exact same type of poppy as opium (that I also remember growing in the garden in East Linton), and that although there is little opium in the seeds (the latex is the big hitter), there is still some.  Are we going to get high?  There's a lot of poppyseeds in this cake.  Is this why it's S's favourite?  And apparently the USA has a special trade deal with Australia (plus 2 other countries, neither of which is Afghanistan) for supply of poppyseeds, so I guess that's why they came so far.

Next challenge was finding a recipe I could understand sufficiently well to follow.  Obviously most of the authentic ones are in German and are not vegan.  My German is improving, but I can't skim a page like I can in English yet.  The solution to that challenge was the happy discovery of this recipe on a wonderful blog by a German woman living in the UK - there are lots of other lovely-looking things on there I look forward to trying out...


This recipe gives quantities for a round spring form of 23 – 26 cm diameter.  I only have a ~20 cm diameter one so used that, but perhaps a wider one would have given better results.

For the pastry base:

250 g plain flour
80 g sugar
120 g fake butter
1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 3 tbsp hot water (egg substitute)
½ tsp baking powder

For the poppyseed filling:

40 g cornflour (used custard powder)
4 tbsp sugar
1 vanilla pod (used 1 tsp vanilla essence)
500 ml fake milk
250 g ground poppy seed (used a ~ 50 : 50 mixture of ground and whole - S said he preferred whole, I thought some ground might give better texture)
swig of dark rum (or a handful of raisins soaked in rum) (used Pimms as didn't have rum)

For the streusel (crumble) topping:
100 g flour
70 g fake butter
70 g sugar

Combine the base ingredients and knead until you have a smooth ball of dough.  Leave to rest in the fridge.

For the filling, mix the corn flour / custard and sugar.  Add a bit of cold milk and whisk until there are no lumps left.  Boil the rest of the milk with the vanilla (seeds scraped into the milk if using a pod).  When it is boiling remove the vanilla pod and whisk it into the cornflour mixture.  Pour the mixture back into the pan and boil for a minute or so, whisking constantly until the mixture resembles thick custard.  Add the poppy seeds and booze.  Leave to cool slightly.

In the meantime make the topping by rubbing the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, then mix in the sugar.

Roll out the pastry (between two layers of cling film) and use it to line the prepared baking tin.  The edge parts should be about 3 cm high.  Fill the pastry case with the poppyseed mixture and smooth the surface. Top with the crumble and bake at about 180C / 350F for 60 minutes or until the crumbly top is golden brown.  Leave to cool thoroughly before removing from the tin.


I was quite happy with this.  S was too.  He said it could be a little sweeter, but I think we both quite enjoyed that it was not too sweet - the seediness stands out more, and it's a good anytime-even-breakfast-without-sugar-headrush cake because of it.  The best bit is where the mohn meets the streusel.  The worst bit is the pastry base.  The pastry was a bit wet so I wasn't sure about it from the start, but persevered and it came out OK - successfully lined the tin.  But it was a bit thick, especially around the edges where it was difficult to get it to stay in position.  So another time I might use less pastry, and either use less egg substitute, make it less watery, or miss it out entirely.  The relative smallness of the tin probably didn't help.  I also might make the custard a wee bit thicker and sweeter.  All that said, it came out really good - veganising was definitely successful, and I really like the mohniness.

S's Brezeln / Pretzels

S missed real German pretzels so much he decided to make his own. He's gotten really good at it now - he rolls them out all identical like a pro. He translated his recipe for the gardeners at JIC a while back, and I took note too.  We (he mostly) just made some for our friends' baby's first birthday party - her initials are LP so I tried to make Ls and Ps and 1s as well as regular pretzel shapes...

Dough
500 g white bread flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
250 ml lukewarm water
~ I use 2 tsp of dried yeast
20 g butter

salt crystals + seeds (sunflower/sesame/pumpkin) to sprinkle on top

For the basic dipping-solution:
3% NaOH solution (in water)

What you need to do:

Mix dough ingredients together until it is a smooth dough, then cover and let stand at a moderately warm place for ~ 20 min or so. The dough amount should increase up to twofold.

Then use a bit of dough (this recipe can give up to 15 Brezeln - sometimes 10) roll it out to a string that is a bit thicker in the middle. Form it to a Brezel like shape. In fact any other shape also works of course.

Put the formed Brezeln in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

Dip them into the 3% NaOH solution (or bicarbonate of soda solution), wear gloves for that or avoid touching the NaOH covered dough by using metal tools.

Transfer the dipped Brezeln on a greased baking tray. Slice the thick brezel part open a little bit and widen it so that the underlying level gets exposed.

Sprinkle the Brezeln with salt, seed ...

Pre-heat oven to 200C and bake Brezeln for 15-25 minutes until nice and brown.

The NaOH solution can be re-used.