bauernbrot (healthy buckwheat rye bread)

It’s…. healthy. Really interesting recipe:

bauernbrot – Austrian buckwheat and rye loaf – @ friedsig

RYE STARTER (sauerteig):

2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
4 cups rye flour
3.5 c warm water
2 packages dry yeast
1 T caraway

wrap onion pieces in cheesecloth. combine other ingredients and push the onion-bag into the goo like some kind of weird onion tea.

leave overnight at room temperature, no more than 24 hours. scrape the sour off the cheesecloth. discard onions. good luck getting the onion smell out of your cheesecloth. refrigerate the rest and use for future breads. make sure to feed it like any starter, by removing some, and replacing it with flour and water.

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BAUERNBROT RECIPE:

1 cup rye sour starter (recipe above)
4 cups buckwheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 package dry yeast
1.5 c warm water
2 t salt
1 T caraway seed (or less, to taste)
1/4 molasses, dark preferred

1 T salt mixed with 1/4 c water (to brush)

in a large bowl, blend buckwheat and all-purpose flours and set aside.

in another large bowl, dissolve yeast in 1.5 c warm water and add 2 cups of the buckwheat-apf mix. beat with a wooden spoon or mixer until smooth and porridge-like.

cover bowl and let stand 1.5 hours at room temperature.

stir down dough and add starter, 2 t salt, caraway, and molasses. add remaining flour til dough pulls away from the bowl. don’t add too much flour. this bread is dense enough!

knead 8 mins.

divide into two loaves. set them on a cookie sheet. brush tops with water and let sit 40 mins.

preheat oven to 350.

brush loaves with saltwater, put in oven. brush loaves every 10 mins with saltwater.

bake about 40 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the loaves comes out clean.

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from Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads by Bernard Clayton

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wow! what a healthy tasting bread! dense and dark! the salt crust is like a pretzel party on the outside! this is not a loaf for the faint of heart. give this a shot if you like hearty, healthy, winter-y, peasant-loaf-type breads. it reminds me a bit of those wildly dense “fitness breads” in the german and polish markets. it’s a little much for me. if you love sweet, soft white breads, you might find yourself trying to give away the second loaf. but if you love heavy, hearty breads, trying to get more whole grains into your diet, wanting to stay fuller longer (seriously! one slice and i’m full,) or looking for something really different, this is the bread for you!

best of all, buckwheat is gluten-free (although the bread calls for all-purpose flour too and therefore the bread itself contains gluten). buckwheat is high in fiber and low to medium on the glycemic index, which makes it suitable for some people who cannot eat white bread. it’s also high in magnesium, manganese, thiamin, B6, and many other vitamins and minerals.

good with a strong sandwich spread, like a creamy balsamic, with tomatoes.
good with strong cheese.
good for teatime sandwiches with butter and radish, or ham and cheese.
and strangely good for dessert with a simple homemade compound butter of sweetened sorghum molasses and a pinch of cinnamon mixed into unsalted butter.

black forest sweet and sour red cabbage

My mom and Oma were born in the southwestern part of Germany, near the Black Forest. You can find other Schwäbische Rezepte if you click here. Just realized I never put this recipe on here – wild, because it’s one of the only cabbage recipes I love. Cabbage is not my favorite vegetable, but the acidity in this recipe cooks out the farty taste.

Heat oil or fat in a pot or Dutch oven. If you’re vegan, try coconut oil. I like using leftover chicken fat or lard.

Dice an onion and a sour apple, like a Granny Smith. Finely chop a small head of red cabbage.

Caramelize the onion in a pot or Dutch oven. When almost done, add the cabbage. Saute together for a few minutes.

Add stock (I like vegetable or chicken stock,) the diced apple, a few juniper berries if you have them, a bay leaf, maybe a whole clove or two, and a healthy amount of red wine. (If you can’t have wine, try apple cider vinegar mixed with vegetable stock.) I like a pinch of brown sugar in this, but it’s optional.

You want to braise it in the liquid, so you may have to add liquid as it evaporates. Simmer, stirring regularly, until the cabbage looks cooked and has lost its crunch.

You can also do this in a crock-pot or instant pot. Just caramelize the onions on the stove top for flavor.

It’s great in its vegan form. You can also start with bacon, and caramelize the onions in the bacon grease. Just add the cooked bacon back in at the end.

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recipe by my oma and mom

making of spaetzle

<3 <3 <3 this is amazing – i just showed my mom and she told me this is exactly how my oma made them. my mom was delighted by this woman’s ultra-thick schwabisch accent.

maultaschen – black forest ravioli

this recipe is from black forest cuisine by walter staib.

he says this, accompanied by a gorgeous photo of them:
“whenever i think about maultaschen, i am home again. to me, this is the ultimate comfort food. this is my soul food. my mother would make piles of these ravioli in a single disciplined session, taking time and care with the dough and cutting it in various sizes to stuff with the meat filling. maultaschen can be large or small, sauteed as i suggest here, simmered in soup, or cut into strips and prepared like hash browns. sometimes my mother would float them in beef bouillon or chicken stock to make a delicious soup. personally, i will eat them anywhere at any time of day. in fact, when i used to travel home, my mother would prepare maultaschen especially for me and send my father to the airport, plate in hand. as soon as my feet hit the ground, i would begin to inhale them, at the same time thanking heaven that i was in the black forest.”

MAULTASCHEN

+dough
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs, lightly beaten
4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 T + 1 t veg oil
1 T + 1 t salt

+filling
1 T unsalted butter
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 c soft bread crumbs
6 oz ground pork
6 oz ground beef
3 egg yolks
1 scallion, trimmed and finely chopped
1 T chopped fresh parsley
salt
pepper

+assembly
1 egg
2 T water
4 T unsalted butter

+process

1. MAKE THE DOUGH: pour flour into medium bowl and mix in egg yolks, eggs, oil, and salt. knead dough with hands until it comes together and can form stiff ball. rest dough in plastic wrap for 1 hour at room temperature.

2. MAKE THE FILLING: melt butter in frying pan, fry onions until translucent, set aside.

3. combine onion, bread crumbs, meat, egg yolks, scallion, and parsley, and season with salt and pepper.

4. ASSEMBLE MAULTASCHEN: bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. whisk together egg and water to make an egg wash. roll noodle dough on a lightly floured surface VERY thin (1/16 in) and cut into 12 6-in squares. divide filling among squares, brush edges with egg wash, and fold the four corners of each square into the center, pressing the seams firmly to seal.

5. drop the maultaschen, one at a time, into boiling water and cook for approximately five minutes. remove with a slotted spoon to an ice bath to cool. drain and set aside momentarily.

6. melt butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat. fry maultaschen until golden brown.

serve with potato salad

if you like his recipe, check out the book.

rote riebesalat (german sweet and sour beet salad)

oh, try this!

Rote Riebesalat

Ingredients:

2 ea red beets; bunches

Marinade:

2 tb water

1/4 c vinegar

1/2 tb caraway seeds

pinch of sugar (do beets need sugar? not really! this is optional!)

2 tb onion; minced

1 ts horseradish

1/4 ts cloves; ground

1/2 ts salt

1/4 ts pepper

4 tb salad oil, like walnut or olive

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original instructions:

Wash beets, trim off greens, place in medium saucepan, and cook, without peeling, in salted water to cover, until beets are tender. Peel and slice. Prepare marinade dressing by combining remaining ingredients. Pour over beets and let stand for several hours before serving. Stir beets occasionally.

my instructions:
combine all marinade ingredients in a jar. shake the jar. add a can of beets. (for one can, cut ingredients in half.) add beets to jar, leave on counter, shake several times an hour for a few hours.

adapted by friedsig from Harald Pleiner.

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edit 2018:

seriously delicious. one of my new favorite schwabisch / swabian recipes!

first zweibelkuchen!

what i wanted:

this is the basic recipe for my mom’s interpretation of my oma’s authentic schwarzwald zweibelkuchen.

what i did:

made this crust in the morning, rolled it into a ball, stuffed it in a plastic grocery bag, and stuck it in the fridge.

fried half a package of bacon; half “well done” and half “rare,” and reserved the grease and a few extra pieces for munching

cut two giant vidalias and a little yellow onion into skinny pieces and drench in veg stock, honey, and bacon grease on a cookie sheet with tall sides

roasted about 40 mins on 375, turning often

added caraway, salt, pepper, and nutmeg

rolled out the pie crust and shaped it to a bacon-greased cast-iron

layered a generous amount of homemade thick, sour whole-milk yogurt inside the crust (but it still wasn’t enough, so add more than seems sensible!) and topped it with the seasoned onions, another layer of yogurt, and on top of it all, whole strips of partially cooked bacon, and crumbled bits of cooked bacon.

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IT WAS AMAZING. this is definitely just as easy as pizza. believe it or not, this was the first pie crust i’ve ever done by myself, my first high-altitude pie, and my first zweibelkuchen. it was all easy. this is definitely happening again.

spinach-sauerkraut soup

soup in under a half-hour with no prep? i’m down.

spinach-sauerkraut soup

250 g fresh or frozen spinach
300 g mild Sauerkraut
500ml stock
1 bunch parsley
300 ml heavy cream
salt, pepper
1 pinch sugar
100 g creme fraiche (ed: we used homemade yogurt)
(ed: a handful of beans, peas, or lentils)

1. Wash and remove stems and roots of fresh spinach – defrost frozen spinach and let it drain in a sieve so all water is gone.
2. Chop Sauerkraut; wash parsley and chop it.
3. Puree Sauerkraut, spinach and parsley with a hand mixer or in a blender; add it into a large pot and fill in the beef broth; let it simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Add heavy cream, salt, pepper and sugar; let it steep for 5 minutes.
5. Serve the soup with a dab of creme fraiche.

Variation: Instead of using the whole amount of heavy cream, mix in about 100g grated gouda cheese.

edit 11/11: WOW. j made some quick-kraut (no prepared lacto-fermented stuff) with apple cider vinegar and salt and let it sit a few hours. not having a functional food processor, most of the prep time was just in chopping and washing greens. the sour kraut lent such an interesting element to the thing; it made the soup taste like it had been cooking all day. j and i both loved this! threw some urad dal (black lentils) in to make it a little heavier. i definitely recommend doing that. we topped it with yogurt. YUM!

lentil stew with spaetzle

lentil stew with spaetzle

250 g lentils (dry)
1 bundle soup greenery (carrot, celery, parsley root, celery root, leek)
50 g German Speck or Smoked Bacon
1 tbsp cooking oil (neutral oil)
broth or stock
200 g spaetzle
150 g sausage

1. Soak the lentils for at least 6 hours or overnight in cold water; drain and wash.
2. Fry soup greenery and speck in oil.
3. Add 1 l water and bring it to a boil; add stock and lentils and let it simmer for 30 minutes.
4. 7-8 minutes before the lentils are done, add the dried Spaetzle, and let them cook until they are soft. If spaetzle are homemade, they only need 2-3 minutes with the lentils.
4. Cut Kassler or sausages in slices or cubes and add them before the stew is done. Sprinkle parsley before serving hot with fresh bread.

I think it’s neat that there are so many Schwabisch recipes that call for lentils (although I don’t remember my grandmother ever making them.) I’ll be interested in experimenting with vegetarian Schwabisch recipes this fall.

zwiebelkuchen

my mother has been on a quest to copy her mother’s sweet and savory zwiebelkuchen (say “swivel-koo-[ch]a”) recipe for years. she says she’s finally found something that makes the onions as soft and sweet as she remembers.

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zwiebelkuchen, if you’ve never had one before, is your new favorite comfort food. picture a buttery, flaky crust, filled with a rich, creamy mixture of sweet onions, bacon, and happiness. it is easy to make this vegetarian – just make sure to use a flavorful veggie broth to make up for the missing bacon.

make your own partially-baked pie crust, or use packaged puff pastry.

fry 3 slices bacon cut into 1/2 in pieces til crisp, set aside

mix two T bacon fat with 2 large sweet onions, about 2 lbs, thinly sliced
mix in 1/4c honey and 1/4 c stock or dry white wine with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
bake at 375 for 30 minutes to caramelize, stirring often towards the end
(my mother insisted it was essential to bake them)
then add a few pinches nutmeg, some salt, and 1 t caraway

spread 3/4c creme fraiche on the bottom of the pastry… any mixture of sour cream, thick yogurt, or anything similar in texture and creaminess should be fine. (i use homemade whole-milk yogurt.)

throw everything else in

bake at 375 for 30 minutes

ENJOY YOUR ONION PIE!

knäckerbrot

this “swabian” (schwabisch) recipe is from black forest cuisine by walter staib, a relative of some kind whom i’ve never met.

i guess this recipe is also called crisp bread, Näkkileipä, knäckebröd, hårt bröd, hårdbröd, spisbröd, knækbrød, knekkebrød, näkkileipä, hapankorppu, hrökkbrauð, Knäckebrot (knackebrot) or Knäcke (knacke,) and can be rye, airy, dense, or any number of ways. (thanks, wiki! haha)

i don’t understand why this flat cracker bread (which does look simple and amazing) calls for yeast. i’d imagine it has to be stretched really thinly so it doesn’t get chewy. i haven’t tried this yet, but wonder about using my sourdough starter instead of yeast…

1 1/4c water
1 1/2T dry active yeast
2T honey
6T olive oil
3c bread flour
1 1/2t salt
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2 eggs 1 egg
1T water
1T caraway seed
1T poppy seed
1T kosher salt

preheat over to 375. grease the backs of two 11×17 baking sheets.

combine water, yeast, and honey. add olive oil, flour, and salt. mix until a stiff ball. add more flour if dough is too wet.

divide in half and stretch over baking sheets.

beat eggs with water and glaze breads. sprinkle with seeds and salt.

bake 25 mins; cool on baking sheets. break into pieces.

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EDIT 6/16/11.

just made it last night for the first time! WHOA! so easy! no rise; the yeast was definitely for flavor only, but tasted great. i’m not typically into a super-yeasty taste, but it definitely worked with the honey-and-seeds taste. one got stretched over a smallish cookie sheet, and became flatbread (which was delicious) and the other, stretched over a giant cookie sheet, became crisp and delicious! so if you want crackers, make sure to stretch it super thin.

let me know if anyone tries this, how it turns out, and also let me know if you try it with a sourdough starter. i think that’d be amazing!