Tag Archives: anise

October 6th, 2019

Kneppkuchen

Category regional breads, Rolls  Tags: , , , , , ,   15 Responses

Kneppkuchen-13Is there still someone who is surprised about another traditional sweet bread recipe with rye? The longer I collect the regional recipes, the more sweet recipes with rye flour, raisins and sometimes spices I found. Personally I am only wondering about the fact that these kind of breads somehow did not appear in modern baking.

Todays rolls fit in perfectly in the row of Krintstuut, Onjeschwedde, Berchtesgardener Stuck, Kleenroggen and Westerwälder Neujährchen. The Kneppkuchen is a recipe somewhere between a lean cake and a very rich roll. It is made with rye (of course), raisins, anise seeds and cardamom. Originally the dough is prepared with lard, but for vegetarians and vegans it can be baked with coconut oil instead, too.

In my version, you can find a sourdough for a deeper flavour as well as the fact, that the high amount of fat is mixed to short crust dough before being added to to the dough. This little trick makes kneading in the fat much easier.

When serving you do not need anything but a bit of butter, as their flavour is so deep and rich!

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December 30th, 2018

Westerwälder Neujährchen

Category regional breads, Rolls  Tags: , , , , , ,   5 Responses

Westerwälder Neujährchen (2)[6]The name “Neujährchen” is used in different regions of Germany for a wide variety of bread and pastry baked for new years eve or new years mornig.  This variant stems from the Westerwald. I stumbled about it when I researched recipes for Neujährchen from the rhineland. I was fascinated by the dark crust which is archived by glazing them with cold coffee. And I was thrilled by the interesting mixture of spices and the fact that it is baked with a good amount of rye flour. The  dough is mixed with a generous amount of butter, too, which is rather seldom for rye bread. The mixture of spices seems to vary from village to village. Adding Pepper and cinnamon seems to be common everywhere, but if anise or clove or both is used is different from recipe to recipe. As I do not like anise very much, the decision for my recipe variant was an easy one.

The hearty mixture of spice makes the rolls special, but very delicious. They taste great with honey, but would go as well with a mild goat cheese and some cranberry jam, too.

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