kefir / buttermilk biscuits

If you culture kefir, you know the struggle: mountains of extra kefir. It takes up valuable refrigerator real estate! This recipe is a great way to use that extra kefir.

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2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
9 tbsp chilled butter, divided (see notes below)
1 cup unflavored kefir (or buttermilk, or sour milk)
(optional: spices or herbs or citrus zest)

Preheat the oven to 450°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. (note: I did not use parchment.)
Sift together the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
Cube the butter, mix it into the dry ingredients using the pulse mode in a food processor or slowly mix with mixer. Mix until it becomes crumbly. (note: I did this by hand.)
Mix in 1 cup cold kefir, just until the mixture is moistened. The dough shouldn’t be overly wet but, slightly sticky.
Roll or pat out on a lightly floured surface about 1 inch thick. Cut into rounds using a 2-inch cookie cutter dipped in flour. (note: I used a floured upside-down jelly jar.)
Place biscuits 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Brush the tops with melted butter. (note: I did not brush them in anything.) Bake at 450°F for 13-15 minutes until lightly golden and puffed.

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recipe from lifeway kefir and notes by friedsig

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I wrote down the recipe, and misread the recipe as “4T butter” instead of 9. (You were right, second grade teacher: my handwriting is messy.) Know what? They were still great. Maybe not as fluffy as the biscuits in the photo, but definitely still delicious. Even though I have never once in my life successfully made “perfect, fluffy biscuits” – this is probably the closest I have ever come. They were so pretty that I wanted to take a photo, but I ate them all before I had the chance. A nice small batch for two, so double or triple the recipe if making for a crowd! These are a bit sweet, so top with butter, jelly, peanut butter, nutella, or whatever you like! I may try biscuits and gravy with eggs next time; not sure if these would be too sweet for that. I’ll keep you posted!

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sourdough quickbread

How do you use the extra starter from rye bread? For dessert?

Strangely, this comes from r/Sourdough, but I read the recipe on Bakers and Best.

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⅓ C butter, room temperature
½ C sugar
1 egg
1 C unfed sourdough starter
1 tsp vanilla
2 C AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a small bowl use a fork to cream together the butter and sugar. Once combined add in the egg, starter, and vanilla. Mix until combined.
In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.
Add the flour mixture to the starter mixture, stirring just until blended. If the batter is too thick add water 1 tsp at a time until it can be easily stirred.
Pour batter into greased loaf pan; let rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
Bake at 350F until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

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Like most quickbreads from zucchini bread to Irish soda bread, the texture is a bit crumbly and dense. It looks just like a beer bread made with a light beer (which I’d recommend). Unlike beer bread, though it has enough sugar in it that it tasted weird with artichoke hearts and poached eggs. So this is a good dessert, but not a dinner bread.

Using a non-onion sourdough might make this a really interesting sweet and sour dessert. I really would not recommend using onion caraway rye starter for this recipe. It’s not as terrible as I feared it could be – the rye actually gives a really interesting flavor to the quickbread, enough that I’d consider using a rye and apf blend for dessert again. But not ideal with raw onions.

If you like a dessert, give this a try! If you want a quickbread with a savory taste, this rosemary and brown butter soda bread has been my go-to recipe this year. If you want something a little more neutral, this Irish oatmeal soda bread recipe is a great not-quite sweet-or-savory oatmeal bread. And if you love dessert-y quickbreads, this molasses brown bread I just discovered is pretty awesome, and this sweet mini lemon bread was a huge hit with my poetry class!

corn relish (fermented!)

I CAN’T WAIT to try this recipe from Sandy Katz!

4 ears fresh sweet corn, kernels cut off of the cobs (or about 2 cups canned or frozen)
4 hot and/or sweet red peppers, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 pear, cored and chopped, or other seasonal fruit
2 teaspoons salt

1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Use your hands to squeeze them with some force for a few minutes. This will bruise vegetables and release juices. Do this until the mix is moist enough that when you squeeze a handful liquid drips down, as with a saturated sponge. Taste and add salt as necessary.

2. Stuff vegetables into a wide-mouth quart jar or other vessel. Seal the jar loosely so carbon dioxide pressure that will build during fermentation can escape. Ferment about two days in a warm environment, three or four days in a cooler spot. Once fermented flavors have developed, move to refrigerator until ready to serve; if you let it continue fermenting, sweet flavors will disappear altogether and the relish will become extremely sour. If surface growth develops (unlikely in a mostly full jar), skim off, discard, and enjoy the relish beneath it, protected from the mold.

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recipe by Sandy Katz, published in the New York Times

cortido (latin american sauerkraut)

i know the basics on kefir, yogurt, and fermenting veggies, so i don’t tend to read beginner’s guides. i should, though – they are full of fun recipes i’ve never tried….
like this one!

it’s become one of my favorite ferments!

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cortido

1 large cabbage, cored and shredded
1 cup grated carrots
2 medium onions, quartered lengthwise and very finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced (optional)
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 tablespoons sea salt
1 tablespoon whey (optional, to kick-start fermentation)

pound (optional) and combine ingredients.

from cultures for health

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ferment in a fido jar, a mason jar with weights, a crock, a pickler, or anything non-reactive. you can even use a casserole dish with a plate on top!

for more information about how to ferment, check out:

– sandor katz’s Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods

– sandor katz’s The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from around the World,

– cultures for health’s lacto-fermentation e-book

– or my quick run-down

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! amazing! delicious! sweet, savory, full of flavor – BETTER THAN SAUERKRAUT! try this today!

lacto-fermented… musical instrument?

This is too amazing not to share.

A microbial instrument, made with the off-gassing from fermented foods like kim chi. It’s haunting!

Fermentophone from Joshua Pablo Rosenstock.

sobaos – sourdough cakes from spain

This recipe is for sobaos – buttery, rich cakes, with an unusual tang.

Sobaos are from the Northern part of Spain, from a small green, lush, mountainous place called Cantabria.

Sounds perfect to me.

Cake isn’t my favorite dessert (I’m a cookie person,) but I bet these would be pretty good for cakes. They’re SOURDOUGH!

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sourdough starter

300g bread flour
200g water
5g dry baker’s yeast
1 pinch salt

(or wild starter)

500g, 65% baker’s percentage

If you’re using your wild sourdough starter, switch a day or two before cooking to 65% hydration.

After feeding for a few days, mix up:

500g bread dough from the previous step
280g sugar
250g softened butter
2 eggs
8g baking powder (1½ tsp)
1 dash of anise liquor or rhum
Zest of 1 lemon

Mix the rest of the ingredients: sugar with lemon zest and baking powder, egg, liquour and butter, in that order, until everything is well blended. The batter should be quite runny, so that it can be poured into molds.
Pour the batter into the paper cups or muffin tins halfway (do not overdo it or it will spill over) and place the paper cups on a tray close together to keep their shape, as they tend to spill.
Cook the sobaos about 20-25 minutes at 170ºC (fan), always in the bottom section of the oven. In my oven the last 5 minutes you can also turn the overhead heat, to brown them properly (you know that if your oven is not fan-assisted you must increase the temperature by 15-20°C).

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from invitado invierno (the winter guest)

herbs de provence kefir cheese

1. drain homemade kefir in cheesecloth for 8 hours (caution – pets will go crazy for this).
4-24 hours will produce a range of consistency from sour cream to cream cheese or farmers cheese.

2. mix with a pinch of salt and a good amount of herbs de provence (savory, fennel, basil, thyme, and lavender,) or your favorite herb blend.

refrigerate, and let flavors mingle for 2+ hours before eating.

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from cultures for health

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it’s wonderful! if you culture kefir, i highly recommend doing this with your leftovers (if you have any!)

Apfelwein

in case you were wondering what i’m doing today:
detoxing from last night by drinking tea and eating locally grown fruit, picking up the prize for the writing contest i won, and spending the money on a carboy, airlock, and gallons of juice.

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EdWort’s Award Winning Apfelwein Recipe (German Hard Cider) Apple Wine Recipe

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Placed 1st in the Cider & Apple Wine category at the BJCP sanctioned Alamo Cerveza fest (out of 11 entries) and took 2nd place for Best of Show for the main category of Meads & Ciders (out of 50 entries).

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5 Gallons 100% Apple Juice (no preservatives or additives)
2 pounds of dextrose (corn sugar)
1 five gram packet of Montrachet Wine Yeast

5 Gallon Carboy (I use a Better Bottle)
Carboy Cap or Stopper with Airlock
Funnel
Sanitizer

First sanitize the carboy, airlock, funnel, stopper or carboy cap.
Open one gallon bottle of apple juice and pour half of it into the carboy using the funnel.
Open one bag of Dextrose and carefully add it to the now half full bottle of apple juice. Shake well.
Repeat Steps 2 and 3, then go to step 5.
Pour in the mixture of Apple Juice and Dextrose from both bottles into the carboy.
Add all but 1 quart of remaining 3 gallons of apple juice to the carboy.
Open the packet of Montrachet Yeast and pour it into the neck of the funnel.
Use the remaining quart of juice to wash down any yeast that sticks. I am able to fit all but 3 ounces of apple juice into a 5 gallon Better Bottle. You may need to be patient to let the foam die down from all shaking and pouring.
Put your stopper or carboy cap on with an airlock and fill the airlock with cheap vodka. No bacteria will live in vodka and if you get suckback, you just boosted the abv.

There’s no need to worry about filling up a carboy so full when you use Montrachet wine yeast. There is no Kreuzen, just a thin layer of bubbles. I’m able to fit all but 4 oz. of my five gallons in the bottle. Ferment at room temperature.

It will become cloudy in a couple of days and remain so for a few weeks. In the 4th week, the yeast will begin to drop out and it will become clear. After at least 4 weeks, you can keg or bottle, but it is ok to leave it in the carboy for another month or so. Racking to a secondary is not necessary. It ferments out very dry (less than 0.999, see here)

Apfelwein really improves with age, so if you can please let it sit in a carboy for up to 3 months before bottling or kegging, then let it sit even longer.

Six months and it hits its stride. Eight months and it’ll blow your mind.

If you want to bottle and carbonate, ¾ cup of corn sugar will work fine. Use as you would carbonate a batch of beer.

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND START ANOTHER BATCH 2 WEEKS AFTER YOU START THIS ONE.
YOU WILL THANK ME LATER!

GENERAL QUESTIONS

How does it taste?
It ferments quite dry. Some people have tried different yeasts in order to achieve a sweeter taste. It may take you a few glasses to get a feel for the flavor. It is very reminiscent of a sort of apfelwein produced locally in Germany. There really is no comparable product in the United States. It’s drier and less sweet than commercial hard ciders. It gets better with age and at 6+ months, the apple flavor really comes out.

How do you sweeten it?
Many folks back sweeten it with Wine Conditioner. Wine Conditioner is a blend of sucrose and sorbic acid. The addition of 2-4 oz. per gallon adds sweetness and prevents renewed fermentation. It can be purchased as any LHBS that caters to wine makers. Others will use Splenda or lactose (other non-fermentable sugars). Germans who prefer it sweet (or Suß as they say) will add a splash of Sprite or 7up to a glass. This is the easiest method as you don’t have to make a whole “sweet” batch that way.

What is the difference between Apfelwein and hard cider?
EdWort says, “Most ciders are a bit sweeter. Ciders and Apfelwein are about 6% abv, but I like the little boost I give it with 2 pounds of Dextrose. It adds no body or flavor and still tastes like Possmann’s Apfelwein, only it will kick your butt much quicker.”

Is this like Apfelmost / Apfel Korn?
No. Apfel Korn is a german liqeur made from wheat spirits. Apfelmost is spontaneously fermented with fresh-pressed apples or apple juice. It is probably similar, but the results may vary as a result of the spontaneous fermentation. Either way, Apfelmost is most certainly has a lower alcohol content since the initial gravity is not increased by the use of concentrate or corn sugar.

What’s the difference between apple juice and cider?
Cider is made by pressing apples. Juice is then filtered to remove all of the stuff that makes it cloudy.

Can I use apple cider instead?
Sure! You can use whatever you want. However, there is not enough information in this thread to give you any better details as to how it will turn out. I recommend starting a new thread or ask more experienced cider-makers.

What kind of Apple Juice should I use?
Ideally, you want to use 100% natural apple juice with no preservatives. The only acceptable preservative is ascorbic acid, which is a source of vitamin C and does not affect fermentation. Pasteurized juice is preferred, since it will have less bacteria.

How much will this recipe cost me?
5 gallons of Apfelwein can be made for between 20 and 25 dollars.

What else can you do with this recipe?
Makes a great Grog in the winter time. Take a quart in a sauce pan, add some rum, turbinado sugar, and float a cinnamon stick in it and simmer for a while. Serve hot in mugs. It’ll warm you right up.

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brew diary:

8/21

answers to your questions about lacto-fermentation!

if you used google to get here, i can see your search queries.
creepy, right?
but i don’t want to rant.
i’ll just say that one benefit to a total and complete end to all privacy is…

i can help total strangers with their fermentation issues!

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Q:
someone found my page by googling:
“can you ferment mint”

A:
yes!
fresh mint – whole sprigs of any herb, actually – do ferment. use the open-crock method and they can last all through the winter. find a plate or rock that fits well in your vessel to eliminate problems with floating.

prepared lacto-fermented mint condiments are also delicious. here’s a lacto-fermented mint chutney recipe.

dried mint is a good flavor in lacto-ferments, but i’ve found that adding dried herbs can make them spoil more quickly because they tend to leave floaty bits at the surface. not recommended. but it’s your call!

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Q:
someone found my page by googling:
“fermented lime juice”

A:
ferment juice the way you would other juices – as a wine. make sure to use or make an airlock to prevent making fermented lime vinegar – unless that’s your goal. if so, just squeeze limes into a jar and leave it out for a day (covered in cheesecloth or a tshirt to prevent bugs) in the summer heat! don’t use bottled lime juice; it has preservatives that prevent what you’re trying to encourage. i’ve never done this. i have used fresh lime juice as a brine in lacto-ferments a TON, and it’s incredible with indian lime pickle or hot pepper pickle.

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Q:
someone found my page by googling:
“lacto-fermented ravioli”

A:
what?

haha.

i guess you could ferment some flour for a few days and make a sourdough pasta. then you could fill it with lacto-fermented ingredients.

also, whoever googled “lacto-fermented ravioli” please be my friend.

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Q:
“lacto-fermented pancakes”

A:
definitely!
dosai are ground rice and lentils fermented for a day. the flavor is unique and really delicious.

if finely textured pancakes are more your thing, you can’t go wrong with crepes or american-style sourdough pancakes.

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Q:
“lactoferment tomatos sweet pepper botulism”

A:
if you’re worried about botulism, use sandy’s open-crock fermentation method. guides exist – like the master sandy katz‘s elegant write-up, and my quick version.

he outlines an “open-crock” method of fermentation that eliminates the problem of anarobic bacteria (the kind that live in closed containers – ie. botulism). basically, that means you can’t get botulism with the open-crock method. and it’s easy!

as for tomatoes and peppers, i think any jarred food from minced garlic to pre-packaged tomato sauce is at risk for botulism. but think of how often you eat jarred food without a problem!

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Q:
“why lime juice pickle fermented”

A:
because it tastes delicious, it’s good for you, and it preserves.

why NOT lime juice pickle fermented?

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Q:
“is lime juice good for a slow fermentation”

A:
the refrigerator – or a root cellar – is your best bet for a slow fermentation.

but yes, in my experience lime-juice fermented lime pickles are very slow to ferment. my year-old pickles are intoxicating.

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Q:
“if ferment is too close to top”

A:
eat a few bites off the top!

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Q:
“nasty fermented german potatoes”

A:
it’s only appropriate that someone would find me by googling this. believe it or not, i have a recipe for fermented potatoes. i have never tried it, so if you do, please comment and let me know.

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got a question i didn’t answer?

leave a comment, or try the trusty folks at the wild fermentation forum! (edit 2014: the wild fermentation fb group is surprisingly active and supportive these days.)

or just continue using google!

(there are alternative search engines out there that don’t track your search terms!)

sweet fermented rice pancakes

i’m making pak thong kuih – a lacto-fermented rice dessert.

for the first two parts of the recipe, some of the “starter” is removed. what to do with all that extra yeasty sweet rice?

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super fast and easy sweet and sour fermented rice pancakes

from goop to plate in less than ten minutes.

ingredients

+ a fistful of yeasty sweet rice leftover from fermenting pak thong kuih (or substitute leftover cooked plain rice – maybe with a little lime juice? i’ll have to try that.)
+ a fistful of mashed sweet potato
+ two pinches of coconut powder
+ one pinch of corn starch
+ one egg (increase corn starch for a vegan version)
+ a pinch each of fennel, cayenne, seasoned salt, coriander, and two pinches of ginger and black pepper
+ a tablespoon or so of date syrup

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fry on medium heat like any pancake or burger.

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serve with applesauce

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i invented this recipe tonight, and i couldn’t be happier with it! hopefully the honeycomb dessert is good so i have a reason to ferment more rice, because this was a quick, easy, awesome snack!