Sourdough Sandwich Loaves - NO yeast

The one on the left has sunflower seeds in it and sesame seeds on the outside. The other one is just plain.

For people who do not want to eat yeast for whatever reason, here is a bread or two for you. Now, if you want me to bake a loaf for you, you would have to let me know three days ahead. Why? Let me explain....

This is how long it takes to make this bread. In order to have a strong sourdough culture I start out with only one tablespoon of sourdough culture per loaf. I double the volume by adding one tablespoon of flour and 1/2 tablespoon of water and let it sit for 12 hours at room temperature. I continue doubling the culture three more times in 12 hour intervals before it is ready to be mixed with the final ingredients. In other words, it takes 48 hours till I have enough culture to bake a loaf of bread. After mixing and kneading the dough it takes about four to six hours till the first rise is done and the bread dough is nicely risen. I then form a loaf and let it rise again which could take between 2 and 3 hours. It takes an hour to bake and ideally the bread should be cooled completely before slicing it.

I think it may not take as long in the summer when it is hot outside and usually also inside my house. I will also try to see if I can cut the culture fermenting time in half and still get the same result. I like to experiment but the down side is that I might end up with more bread to eat than my family can handle and my freezer is already full with "experimental" bread. Maybe I should open my front door and shout, "Anybody hungry?" like in Vedic times, you know....

Bohemian Sourdough Rye Bread (NO yeast)

This bread is about half wheat half rye flour and was made without yeast. By the time I found a minute to take this picture, the bread was already several days old, but still tasted great. The advantage of using sourdough over yeast is that sourdough bread is a good keeper. It does not dry out as fast as yeasted bread and the addition of rye flour helped in this regard as well. Actually, we had the last slice of this bread today for dinner with our soup and although the bread was already 10 days old, it still tasted good, just a little bit on the dry side. Even though I baked it as a free form loaf it did not flatten when I turned it out onto the baking sheet from the proofing basket. I am starting to like unyeasted sourdough bread so much that I might just not bake yeasted bread any more, at least not for my family...

When it comes to the people I bake for, they mostly prefer a square loaf of nicely risen yeast bread and I do not blame them. After all, this is what most of them grew up eating. And I am happy baking it for them. After all, the customer is king.... or queen....

Viennese Chocolate Sables

I never knew these "Viennese" cookies existed until I found the recipe for them on the Internet. I thought I give it a try but the result was rather disappointing. First, I am not good a piping and this was actually the first piped cookie for me. The real problem is not how they look but rather how flat they were when they came out of the oven, and crumbly when handled. They literally fell apart when I picked them up even after they had thoroughly cooled. This cookie is a good example to demonstrate the challenges of whole grain baking using recipes that call for white flour. I prefer recipes that list the ingredients by weight and not by cups. Generally Austrian recipes only list the ingredients by weight, in grams to be exact, except for teaspoons and tablespoons of ingredients. This makes it a lot easier for me, as I just replace the white flour with an equal amount of whole wheat flour. It usually works very well. I do have a problem with American measurements, not the ones in pounds and ounces, of course, but when a recipe calls for 1 3/4 cups of flour, for example. I guess when using white flour it probably is not an issue, but I grind my whole wheat flour fresh, which means it has not "settled" and compacted yet. Sometimes I end up using double the amount of freshly ground flour. I am mostly guessing what I think should be the right amount. Often I get clues from the recipe. If it says that the batter should be POURED into the cake pan I know that the batter has to be pouring consistency. Still kind of ambiguous though. Pouring consistency could mean very thin batter or rather thick, but still pouring consistency.

I like baking books written by professional bakers as they often give the weight of ingredients as well. I am told that this is how they do it - by weight - and I totally understand why.

Now I thought the smart thing to do is to figure out how much weight is listed under one cup of flour in those professional baking books. Well, turns out that those professional bakers do not seem to agree on a specific number. Some say it is 125 grams, others it is 135 grams and I even saw 150 grams for one cup of flour, usually all-purpose. It did help somewhat but I still have to guess ... somewhat...

Now back to the Viennese Chocolate Sables. I obviously did not use enough flour for these. And who knows what else I did wrong...

I do not think that I will make them again. I did not really like how they tasted. Instead I will get some ideas for my next Christmas baking from my sister in Austria who makes the most beautiful cookies I have been told. She uses white flour, food coloring, eggs and who knows what, of course, but at least her recipes will be in grams! Hallelujah!

Quarkstollenkonfekt (Quarkstollen Bites)

I made these today. They are similar to the Stollen Bites I made 2 weeks ago. The difference is the addition of quark, which is an Austrian fresh cheese similar to cottage cheese. Quark is hard to find here in the States. I make my own. Austrians like their quark. They use it a lot in baking and even make cheesecake out of it or quark strudel. The other difference between these quark stollen bites and the regular stollen bites is that these are risen with baking powder whereas the other ones have yeast in them. I used to make a big stollen every year, the size of a regular loaf of bread. It always turned out to be too crumbly. I was delighted when I found the recipe for these on the internet because they taste better. Each of the bites is rolled in butter or ghee and then covered with powdered sugar. Every bite is loaded with raisins, chopped almonds and candied orange and lemon peel. For spice I used cinnamon. This is the kind of "cookie" that tastes better with age, like the other cookie I baked today, Honeycake squares (Lebkuchen). I usually start my holiday baking them. Since I ran out of them and have some orders to fill I baked some more today.

My husband has the next 3 days off work and I will hand him the baby and bake as many cookies as I can till Sunday which is the last day I will be selling them at the temple. It will be your last chance to buy them. I won't bake them again until next Christmas. But maybe you do not mind waiting that long...

I guarentee you, they taste yummy!

Spitzbuben (Little Rascals)

I am still baking every day and hope someone will buy all the goodies. I made these yesterday. They have a funny name, don't they? I used a star cutter for variation. These sandwich cookies are filled with apricot or red currant jam. The dough is a rich cookie dough without nuts. Another cookie that is a labor of love. I do not mind it though. I could bake whole day and would never get tired of it...

Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread - no yeast!

Last Sunday a young couple came to my table at the temple and asked me if I also make sourdough bread, the kind that does not have any yeast in it. For some reason they do not like to eat anything with yeast in it. While I have made sourdough bread many times before, I only tried it a few times without any yeast in it. It turned out to be a brick, very dense and chewy. I did not like it, so I gave up on it. I did tell this lovely couple though that I would make them a loaf without adding yeast, but warned them that the bread would be on the dense "side." It was fine with them as they do not like the fluffy bread anyways. The next day I did some research on the Internet to find a method to make good sourdough bread that is not too dense. Then it dawned on me that I never tried to make whole wheat sourdough bread, I always make it with mostly rye flour. Since I like to experiment I converted my rye sourdough to a whole wheat one and got to work. It bubbled away happily and I had a feeling that the bread would come out great, and it did! Not dense at all and the taste was phenomenal. I could have eaten the bread all at once, if my stomach could have fit it all.

I was so happy with the result, I called the couple to let them know that I figured out how to make "fluffy" sourdough bread. They were less than enthusiastic. Apparently they really DID want the bread to be on the dense side. They dislike the fluffy American style bread. Oh well, I can make you a brick if you want, but as far as I am concerned, I prefer the "fluffy" version...

I think I will be selling my "fluffy" unyeasted sourdough bread this Sunday. Let's see who else likes it "fluffy" ...

Need a gift? Order a cookie tin filled with my cookies!

I will be selling my cookies in cookie tins and bags at the temple on Sundays till Christmas. These cookies make the perfect gift for your family, friends, co-workers, even your boss! I only bake these cookies at Christmas time and if you just want to try some, I will have them also available in smaller bags. I prefer to put them in cookie tins though, not because I make more money that way (which, by the way, is not at all the case), just because these cookies are so rich and delicate, they usually do not hold up well in a bag. If you do not handle your bag of cookies with care you might end up with cookie crumbs. Then you'll have to eat them yourself instead of giving them as a gift. Or maybe you will want to buy them in a bag so that you have an excuse for having to eat cookies even though you are on a diet. But who is on a diet at Christmas time anyways....

Actually, bags are okay if you are buying them for yourself or just want to see how they taste before you buy a whole tin. Just be sure to handle your bag of cookies with care...

Here is a list of ingredients for my cookies:

Varacita's Cookie Assortment

Ingredients: freshly ground organic whole wheat pastry flour or spelt flour, organic evaporated cane juice, butter, freshly ground or chopped almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts, dried fruits, pure extracts, spices, powdered sugar, dark and semi-sweet chocolate, candied unsulphured orange and lemon peel, apricot, strawberry and raspberry jam, whey protein powder, organic milk, cream cheese, pistachio nuts, cornstarch, baking powder, sea salt

Linzer Kekse (Linzer Cookies)

These cookies are one of my favorite. I made them with almonds but hazelnuts could also be used. It is a delicate cookie. I usually use either strawberry or apricot jam to sandwich them. Pictured are candy cane cut-outs and strawberry jam filling. These are really a labor of love because it is quite time consuming to make them. The dough is so buttery and sticky, it needs to be refrigerated for several hours in order to be able to roll it out and then one has to refrigerate the scraps again. Not to speak of rolling the dough out and making the cut-outs. But they sure look pretty and taste good too!

Christmas star cut-out and apricot jam filling.

It is hard to tell what this cut-out is supposed to be. Well, most of them are up side down. Can you guess?

A bell.

Kardamon Spritz Kekse (Cardamon Spritz Cookies)

This cookies are made using a cookie press. These one do not have any cream cheese in them. I did add some cardamon though. I like them plain and I think I will make a batch of plain ones. These are sandwiched with strawberry jam and glazed with chocolate.

Pfeffernuesse (Peppernuts)

Yes, these do have pepper in it! The first batch I made came out on the mild side. My husband challenged me to make them taste "spicier". So I quadrupled the amount of spices (ground ginger, cardamon, cloves and pepper). He liked the new version and maybe you will too. They also have cinnamon, ground almonds and candied lemon peel in them. No butter at all. This is a traditional Austrian Christmas cookie. They are usually on the hard side but I made the dough extra soft and they are not hard at all.

Nussecken (Nut Triangles)

Another cookie for hazelnut lovers! This triangles are made with a layer of tart dough which is brushed with apricot jam and topped with a filling of chopped and ground hazelnuts which were "cooked" in butter and sugar. Traditionally only the corners are glazed with chocolate. I find that this is unpractical because being a delicate cookie the corners always break off when I dip them in the chocolate. The chocolate glaze turned out to be a bit messy. If I had more time I'd make them look prettier. Maybe next year....

Hasselnusstaler (Hazelnut Cookie)

This is a cookie for hazelnut lovers! It is loaded with hazelnuts and has a whole hazelnut in the middle. Hazelnuts are very expensive. $10 a pound at Ward's, which makes this cookie an expensive one. I happen to like hazelnuts. They used to grow wild in the fields near the village I was growing up. As kids my friends and I liked to pick the hazelnuts but I do not remember eating the ones we picked. I guess we just played with them. My mom always got them at the store and they are expensive even in Austria.

Kitchen Gadgets

This is my grain mill. A $500 Wolfgang mill which produces stone-ground flour. In the old days they used granite or other stones for grain mills. This one has a ceramic-corundum millstone and was made in Germany. It is a small mill but does a great job. I have owned this mill for about six years now. It is supposed to be quiet for a grain mill, but I have missed several calls because the mill was running and I did not hear the phone ring.

Now I could tell you a lot about grain mills, but you can get the info somewhere else on the internet. Most grain mills (the cheaper ones) do not really "grind" the flour, they pulverize it. They are called impact grinders. And then there are burr grinders.....

I prefer stone-ground flour.



I have owned this stand mixer for about 6 years as well. I do not think it will last another six. I have worked it too much. These machines are not designed for whole wheat dough. I think the gears are all worn. When this one dies, I'd like to get a Kitchenaid Professional Stand Mixer. I better start saving up some money already...


I bought this machine a few months ago thanks to a small inheritance I got after my dad passed away. I use it mostly for making bread, but it will work for cookies as well. It came with a free blender attachment. It works best with larger batches of dough, like three or four loaves of bread or a double batch of cookies. If you are into making whole wheat bread and do not want to knead it by hand, than this is the machine to get. Made in Germany = quality product. One can purchase all kinds of attachments for this machine. I only own the blender and a small food processor attachment.



Now, this machine is the reason why I bought the Bosch machine. This one is called Electrolux Assistant and has caused me a lot of frustration in the past. I never could figure out how to get the machine to knead dough properly. Using this machine involves a BIG learning curve. After three years of frustration, I finally gave up and purchased the Bosch. Guess what? A few weeks ago I finally found the right tip on the internet and now know how to use this machine properly. It simulates the hand kneading action beautifully and the dough comes out very smooth and elastic. It also works on smaller batches. This machine comes with a whole line of attachments and the ones I own is the nut grinder and shredder attachment. A big plus is the big (and heavy!) stainless steel bowl. Still, I do not really recommend you buy this machine, unless you do not mind getting frustrated. Or you could come to my house and see a demonstration. Hey, that's not a bad idea. I wish I could have done that....

Mommy's Big Helper

Sometimes I do get some real help. Marisha wanted to have her picture posted on this blog, so I told her that she would have to help me bake. Actually, she is always very eager to help, but sometimes I'd rather be left alone baking. I can get more done that way. But then I do remember how much I enjoyed helping my mom bake. That's why I decided that Marisha is old enough now to help me bake and be my "business partner". Being a smart girl she sure is a great asset, don't you think? And I hope I won't hear, "Mom, I am bored." anymore. She always needs to be challenged and that's a challenge for me...

Marisha, rolling the Stollen Bites in powdered sugar. She did a very good job!
She wants to be a teacher though, not a baker...

Mommy's Little Helper

How come I have all this time to bake all these cookies?
Well, you see, I have a little helper. Here he is:

Nimai, a future scientist ... or maybe just a baker like mommy...

He is not any real help per se, he is helping me by keeping himself busy clanging pots and pans together or playing with the beaters of the mixer. When I turn on the mixer he always wants to be picked up to see the mixer arm turning, or the grinding of the nuts into nut meal, or the grain mill turning wheat into flour. He is so curious. I call him curious George.

And then there is the time he takes a nap, usually only a short one, but still a nap. As soon as he is asleep, I turn on my mixer and start baking. He usually wakes up well before I am done though. I guess he does not want to miss out on the action...