Monthly Archives: December 2010

December 4th, 2010

Apfelpunsch

ApfelpunschI like Christmas markets – if they are not crowded – and when I visit one with friends or colleagues we normally end our tour at a Glühwein stand. I do not like Glühwein not so much so I drink one of the non alcoholic drinks their offer. The hot chocolate is often not so good and the qualitiy of the “Kinderpunsch” differs very much from market stand to market stand.

This year I tested one that was just made from white grape juice and spices which was not bad but for my taste it was to sweet. And then I discovered the Apfelpunsch stand at the Christmas market on the Altermarkt in cologne. This was very delicious, a not so sweet heated apple juice, seasoned with cinnamon and clove.

Coming home after a long walk in the snow we both liked something hot to get warm again. And so I recreated the Apfelpunsch at home. It is easy to prepare and delicous so I think I will serve the punsch more often this winter. Continue reading

December 4th, 2010

Starting a Sourdough Starter

It has been month since I bake with sourdough the last time. I was always very busy and neglected my sourdough completely. The little glass in which I store the sourdough vanished somewhere in the depth of the fridge. Now, as the time gets more quite, I planned to bake with sourdough again. But when I opend the glas the dough looked not good and its smell was strange. I tried to reactivate the dough but it was beyond hope. I think I starved it to death.

Lucky for me that I never had a close relationship to a batch of sourdough. I’m not the kind of girl who gives its sourdough a name and a personality, for me it is just a mixture of different bacteria and yeasts. So my dead sourdough did not left me heartbroken at all but a little bit exited because now I had the change to do what I really love: Starting a Starter. It is really the most enthralling part of baking with sourdough. Seeing how the first bubbles are formed and the dough starts to rise, to realize how the smell change that’s the right thing for a biologist.

I love projects in my kitchen which bubble and ferment. And I always planned to post about starting a Sourdough starter. And so we start: Please take out your flour, we start a starter today. Continue reading

December 3rd, 2010

Candied Orange peel

kandierte OrangenschaleWhile last year I need a lot of time to find a recipe for Zorras culinary Advent calendar this year it was very easy for me to decide what to prepare. In October when Zorra asked us to send her the title of our posts I spent some time to find the perfect method to candid orange peel. I needed some tries until the recipe worked for me. And the recipe that results from my tests is surprisingly easy and the candid orange peel are really delicious. And when you coat them with chocolate make them even better, a kind of orange praline.

My recipe is very similar to the recipe I found in the “Schrot und Korn” from December 2009, but I let the peels infuse longer in the sugar syrup and I heat the syrup up to 108°C so the sugar will crystallise while the peels dries. For me this method is better then coating the peels with extra sugar after the process of candy.

Continue reading