25 Mar 2014
No comments
Tweet this
by

Pastry Flower

Teigblume5A crafting fair and removal activities detered me from showing how to make such lovely bread or pastry flowers. I’ll do that right now. It’s possible to make them with a yeast dough or a shortpastry. In both cases you have to make balls in the desired size (here 1″) and cut them with your kitchen scissors leaving a thin bottom. The first cut divides the ball in halves which then are themselves halved. These quarters are cut again so that finally your flower will have 8 petals. Pull them apart carefully and coat with some whisked egg yolk. The center can be decorated with pits, nuts, poppy or sesame seeds. If you’re preparing a sweet pastry it looks nice if you lift the flower, coat the petal edges with egg yolk and dip them into colored sugar.
If hearty or sweet, these flowers are a real eye catcher on every plate and they surely will be consumed first.

  • Show All
  • Teigblume/Pastry Flower/Fleur de Pâte
19 Mar 2014
No comments
Tweet this
by

Crispy Bread Rolls

Thanks to the early spring sunshine we’re havin already lots of herbs growing in the garden. That’s why for dinner I prepared some lovely bread rolls and sticks with them. They can be served with salted butter or a horseradish dip. If you remove some of the bread rolls from the oven a few minutes befor they’re finished you may freeze them. When defrosting them later they can be crisped up in the oven again.
Regarding the chosen herbs I just took what our garden offered. Herbs can as well be cultivated in pots on the window sill and then be used for cooking the whole year through.
It’s rather easy to make a “bread flower” (see gallery) and the how-to instructions will follow soon.

Crispy Bread Rolls
Write a review
Save Recipe
Print
Prep Time
30 min
Cook Time
25 min
Total Time
55 min
Prep Time
30 min
Cook Time
25 min
Total Time
55 min
Ingredients
  1. 18oz wheat flour
  2. 1/2 cube of yeast
  3. 2tsp salt
  4. 1 dash sugar
  5. various herbs: parsley, sage,rosemary, chives, bear's garlic
  6. 1tbsp olive oil
  7. 8.5-10fl.oz lukewarm water
  8. 1 whisked egg yolk
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven at 390°F
  2. Cover baking sheet with parchment paper
  3. Wash herbs and hash carefully. Give flour, yeast, sugar, salt, herbs, olive oil and water in a large bowl mix until you get a smooth yeast dough. Let rest for about 20 minutes.
  4. After resting knead dough well with your hands, form a roll, cut into 2,5" pieces and make little breads. Place them on the baking sheet.
  5. For the sticks take a part of the dough, roll out a rectangle and cut stripes 0.6" wide. Always twist two stripes and also place on a baking sheet. Bread rolls will need about 20-25 minutes and sticks about 15-20 minutes of baking. Then remove from oven and cool on a grid with parchment paper.
Notes
  1. They taste best when they're really fresh. Therefore remove some of the bread rolls from the oven already after 17-18 minutes and freeze them when they're still a bit warm. Later you can defrost and crisp them up again.
Bastelesel http://www.bastelesel.de/
  • Show All
  • Knusprige Brötchen/Crispy Bread Rolls/Petits pains croustillants

18 Mar 2014
No comments
Tweet this
by

Natural Center piece

Schwimmkerzen10
Spring’s approaching inexorably making flowers and bushes blossom out. Why not taking them inside to decorate house or table. Simply take some nice glasses, fill in some furled leaves (here I took those of a tiger lilly, reed works well too but can’t be found yet), pour in some water and place a floating candle in the middle. It looks very nice if the candle color matches with the one of your tablecloth. A further nice decoration can be made with ancient cups or a glass candle holder filled with water and a leave too. For a center piece place some early bloomers in a vase at their side or place flowers directly on the table cloth. Daisies and other grass can be gathered in the garden and will make a lovely garland twining around the glasses. Without water they will survive at least one or two days.

  • Show All
  • Natürlicher Tischschmuck/Natural Center Piece/Décoration de table naturelle
15 Mar 2014
No comments
Tweet this
by

Trunk reloaded

Herbststamm1aFor autumn I had placed this trunk with a glass light in front of our house. It was replaced by a snowman who by now went down to the cellar. Now for the first spring days I wanted to resurrect my trunk. I found lots of new moss in our garden and a leftover felt ribbon in bright yellow was lying around in my crafting room. I allowed the wooden heart to stay while the light and the cones were put in a box for next autumn.  A yellow viola in an orange pot completed the set.
The bright colours are a nice welcome to all our visitors and actually they’re competing with the sun.


FruehlingsstammIt’s really worthwhile to ask the forestry administration in your neighbourhood where and if you can get such a trunk. It offers a perfect base for a fancy and individual decoration.

13 Mar 2014
No comments
Tweet this
by

Pineapple and coconut cream

There’s still no cake in sight but the desire to putter around in the kitchen always present. Most popular in fasting periods are fruit and vegetable. So why not try some recipes with those? A recently bought fresh pineapple should be prepared following a recipe on lecker.de. Unfortunately not all ingredients were found in my supplies so that I had to change it a little bit. The result is a wonderful fresh snack which we served as a light dinner. It could however as well be served as dessert.

Pineapple with coconut cream
Serves 4
Light and refreshing.
Write a review
Save Recipe
Print
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
15 min
Total Time
30 min
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
15 min
Total Time
30 min
Ingredients
  1. 1 fresh pineapple or 2 slices of pineapple in a tin/portion
  2. 1tbsp butter
  3. 2.5-3 oz leafy almonds
  4. 8.8oz curd cheese
  5. 3.5oz crème fraîche or sour cream
  6. 2 tbsp coco flakes
  7. honey, milk
Instructions
  1. Mix curd cheese with crème fraîche or sour cream and coco flakes and stir well with milk until creamy. Sweeten with honey.
  2. Roast almonds in a pan without grease until golden brown. Put aside for cooling.
  3. Cut pineapple and take lightly fry two slices/portion in some butter. Scatter each side with a bit of sugar and let caramelize. Place pineapple slices on a plate, deglaze jus with some pineapple juice and scatter both over pineapple. Give some roasted almonds on plates and decorate with coconut cream.
Notes
  1. If you like you may add some raisins to your jus before deglazing it.
Bastelesel http://www.bastelesel.de/
«‹444546474849505152535455565758596061626364›»