Kostbrote

A funny, not-so-funny Carneval Story - Act II: I would not be my unwavering, baking/cooking, unsatisfied Me, if I did not try to fix my carneval treat. The ponchikis were kinda raw inside, so successfully fixing them seemed unlikely. Also, I was out of neutral oil.
However, one can always swap traditions! So I simply gave up on the 'kinda Krapfen' idea and decided to do pancake tuesday instead. Who ever said I had to indulge in a specific culture's carneval treat? Nobody. Nobody said I had to make traditional European pancakes either and since I had some eggwhites leftover from making my ponchiki dough, I made some nice, thick American style pancakes, stacked them, filled them with apricot jam (ha! Austrians will know why) and chocolate spread and basically had made a shrove tuesday pancake stack, dressed up as a Faschingskrapfen.
And balance in the universe has been restored.
Happy Fasching, Carneval, Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Grad or whatever you want to call it! 🥳🥞🍩

A not-so-funny, kinda funny carneval story. In two acts.
Act I: Just Like every year since 2019 (I believe), this carneval tuesday, aka today, aka february 13th 2024, I decided yet again to prepare the delicious, fatty, fried doughball known as 'Krapfen' in Austria. Now, since I am a multi-faceted person that keeps om travelling, keeps on learning and definitely gets bored when she does the same thing 5 times in a row, I decided to give my Krapfen a twist. Lucky me, I had only just (in october) been to Georgia (the country). And there, I learned of ponchiki! Basically a Krapfen, just with a pudding filling that is fried within the doughball! Now. What could go wrong?
Here's what went wrong: my yeast had been in the fridge for a while already and apparently, had died. The dough did not rise enough during proofing, the doughballs stayed too heavy with too little air inside to stay afloat and that heavy pudding inside as well! When put into the frying oil, they sunk to the bottom of the pot and while nicely browning on the outside, they did not cook all the way to the middle. Yet another proof that even a failed experiment can look kinda nice.
And so happy I found the third picture, a mural in Tbilisi! I knew i had not taken a photo of the ponchiki I had in Tbilisi, but at least a surreal representation of a ponchik in a pocket. 👌

The evolution of probably last year's most successful wheat sourdough. It still had some more dense bits in the centre, but it had generally risen quite well and was nice and chewy. saves the day, as usual.
The crust was not as crunchy as the previous one, but the soft crumb makes up for that by far. I believe my wheat sourdough that I bred from my rye one was a bit oversour from the start though. The taste was incredibly sour too!

The second attempt in last year was a big fail. As you might see, I did not only underproof it (in German we say 'it stayed seated', as in, it did not rise properly), I also trusted my boy to turn off the oven for mw in time, cause I had to leave the house before it was ready. Two mistakes in one batch. It all boils down to a critical first mistake: not taking enough time to bake.
Well, the good side: it made for an incredibly crunchy crust and produced quite nice bread crumbs that I could then use for 'Panier' (the breadcrumbed batter for Schnitzeling).
Ways to use failed and non-failed breads in meals will follow in later posts.
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I'm off from work for a couple of days, so here comes a little Jahresrückschau/review of the last months in baking anno 2023.
In October/November, I tried to find my go-to recipe for white sourdough. I have baked white sourdoughs before, but they somehow never come as easily to me as dark sourdough (even though that one is not 'easy' either). I simply have not found a good recipe for myself or somebody else's recipe that suited me.
The first one I attempted was actually quite decent. In October, I made this 'Erdäpfelbrot', inspired by a local farmer of , Waltraud (who I believe is not on Instagram). It contains both and , two ingredients you would not typically expect in bread. It was soft and chewy, I liked it! Turned out a bit of a flat loaf though.

Samichlaus, Saint Nick, Hl. Nikolaus, Nikolo. Whatever you may call him, he's usually a jolly little fella and today - Dec. 6th - is his day!
In Austria, St.Nikolaus is accompanied by his counterpart 'Krampus'. Krampus, Knecht Ruprecht or Schmützli (if I remember the Swiss name correctly) is depicted as a little devil, usually sticking out his ridiculously long, red tongue. There are demonstrations of 'Perchten' (another word for Krampusse) parading the streets on the days leading up to December 5th, 'Krampus Tag'. In reality they are young guys (maybe women too?) sporting amazing, hand-crafted wooden masks, intricately worked and painted, heavy, furry costumes, chains, whips and cow bells. They.are.terrifying! And that is exactly what they are supposed to be.
Saint Nick represents the wise, old man, telling you about your past good-doings and treating you to nuts, tangerines and chocolates, if you really were good enough. In my family home, he used to actually hold a sermon - he is supposed to be a bishop after all. If you weren't all those things, there was still Krampus to take up the job. With his whips, chains and a big jute bag presumably there to abduct you 🫣😳 that's what we we're told at least. Honestly, I am not surprised how shaken some of us turned out these days..
The nice traditions, however, lie in the baking. These are neither complicated to make nor all too breathtaking to eat. But I Always enjoyed getting one of the brioche krampuses as a child. Way to face your nemesis 🙃😝👹

As an exception, I will for once post a non-bread related post. It still concerns something and it is about a second (broader) passion of mine: traditional foods with simple ingredients.
Most of you will not have noticed, but I have skipped November's tradition posts this year. There was no Halloween or All Saints' baking, because I was on holiday around that time. Yesterday, however, was another holiday, even if a less widely known one: it was St. Andrews' day, the national holiday of Scotland.
Now, don't be mistaken, I did not actually plan this, but it just so happened that I heard (holidays are easily missed if you are not in the place they are celebrated in) about St. Andrews when listening to Scottish radio. And while everybody was talking about the traditional Scottish foods they were going to have that night, I realized I had ALL the ingredients for a vegan haggis', neeps and tatties meal at home ☺️ so I made , which are, as a friend pointed out, really just an oat-lentil-veggie bake. I don't care what you call it, it was a lovely meal and festive for me!
The best part is that the vegan haggis' recipe I used needs all the things that are staples in my household (also due to bread baking): rolled oats, lentils, soup stock veggies, mushrooms, some spices, marmite (I used barley malt syrup, basically the same), molasses and time.

the final curtain.
Act 3: The knot, shaped and baked.

weekend Act 2.
The twist & turn.

weekend in three acts.
The dough & filling.

or 2023 has been postponed (in this baking community). Since life sometimes gets in the way and none of my friends or I are Swedish anyway, we decided to celebrate our love for all traditions foody and goody on the coming weekend instead of midweek.
Luckily, I remembered just in time that I had made kardamom bullar with my own pistachio twist (pistachio cream inside) earlier this year for my Mum's birthday. As to not leave this October 4th completely uninspired in terms of ye**ty goodness. Happy Kanelbullar Dag to anyone celebrating! 🥳
Please note how I made a real effort to twist and knot them all equally and when you take a closer look... none of them look the same. It must be a metaphor for something. No matter how hard you knot, you cannot knot a knot to knoticable knotoriety.

Heute ausnahmsweise auf Deutsch: unser Herr BK hat geniale Spartipps für die gemeine Bevölkerung. Ich bin ihm nach ein paar Tagen fast schon dankbar, denn Kinderarmut in Ö hat nicht mit den Aussagen des BK begonnen, aber durch seine qualifizierten Einschätzungen sehr viel mehr Aufmerksamkeit bekommen.
Ich hab diese Seite vor 5 Jahren gestartet um kostenfrei/durch Tauschhandel mein Brot zu 'bewerben', das ich sowieso jede Woche backe. Das hat während des Studiums gut geklappt und ich habe damals für einen Laib Schwarzbrot oder ein paar Semmerl selbstgemachte Marmeladen, Chutneys und sogar Fußmassagen und v.a. gute Freunde gewonnen ☺️ Seit ich vor 3 Jahren mehr zu arbeiten begonnen habe (übrigens nur Teilzeit, 30-35 Stunden, je nachdem. Nicht freiwillig, sondern weil das die Jobs sind, die ich bekommen habe), habe ich kaum mehr Zeit mein Brot zu teilen.
Dank meiner Teilzeit-Arbeit habe ich aber einen Tag in der Woche (Montag), den ich zwar meist für Arztbesuche, Behördengänge o.ä. brauche, in Zukunft aber auch wieder nutzen möchte, um mein Brot an Frau/Mann und Kind zu bringen. Ich bin in Linz. Gibt es in Linz einen Bauernmarkt oder anderen Standplatz ( Urfahr, .sgartenlinz ) wo ich kostenfrei 1x/Woche mein Brot anbieten kann? Kennt wer wen/was, der/die da helfen könnte? Es ist 'nur' Brot, aber zumindest frisch gebacken, mit gutem Mehl, kein Zucker und gutem Sauerteig, definitv nahrhafter als ein Hamburger bei McD. Das kostet im Kilo dzt. 5-6€ beim Bäcker. Ich würde es gerne verteilen an jede/n der/die vorbeikommt und den/die es entlastet. Natürlich gerne Kinder, Eltern, aber ich mach da keinen Unterschied. Wer es nicht braucht und trotzdem vorbeikommen mag: ich würde freiwillige Spenden für Materialkosten annehmen. Hat wer Lust mich dabei zu unterstützen? Danke.