Eisenbahnschienen (Railroad Tracks)

I used mixed berry jam for these. They do not have nuts in it but still taste good according to my kids.

Husarenkrapfen (Hussars)

I have no idea why these cookies have a military name but they sure taste good. Another cookie with nuts in it, this time it is walnuts. I think it is very similar to the American Thumbprint cookie.

Ischler Toertchen (Ischler Tartlets)

This is a very delicate cookie, rich with butter and ground almonds, and sandwiched with raspberry jam and topped with a chocolate glaze and chopped pistachio nuts. Needless to say that they are a lot of work...

Don't they look yummy?

Schokoladen-Orangen-Kipferl (Chocolate-Orange-Crescents)

These crescents also have some chocolate and orange oil added and have a chocolate glaze.

Vanillekipfer mit Schokolade (Vanilla Crescents with Chocolate)

Another crescent, similar to vanilla crescents, just has some chocolate added and is less buttery.

Vanillekipferl (Vanilla Crescents)

These rich crescents are made with ground almonds and lots of butter and dusted with powdered sugar. They are very delicate and easily break apart. Probably every baker in Austria bakes these for Christmas.

Lebkuchen (Honey Cake Squares)

Another traditional Austrian Christmas "cookie". This is an unusual version of Lebkuchen: An iced sheet cake cut into bite-sized squares made with two layers of Lebkuchen sandwiched with a fruity apricot/raisin/almond filling which keeps it moist. It keeps for months if stored cool. This is my husband's favorite.

Heavenly Stollen Bites

Stollen is a traditional sweet Christmas bread in Germany and Austria. These "Mini-Stollen" are even better than the big bread. These bite size pieces are loaded with raisins, candied orange and lemon peel, and almonds. The yeast dough does not rise very much because it is so heavy. All my taste testers, which are usually family members, liked them. It is probably my favorite.

Hausfreunde (Friends of the Family)

These cookies have a funny name but taste really good. They are loaded with raisins, hazelnuts, and dark chocolate. Yum, yum.

Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies

These cookies are made using a cookie press. The dough has cream cheese added to it and they are quite rich. It is actually two cookies sandwiched with jam (either strawberry or raspberry) and they have a chocolate glaze. Janardan loves these! Well, anything with chocolate will do for him.

Two Kinds of Sourdough Rye Breads

This one is called Swedish Limpa Rye Bread. It was made with a rye sourdough starter, but also contains yeast. Molasses gives it a nice dark color and it has some interesting spices in it as well - cardamon, fennel and anise seeds plus orange oil. One cannot really taste it that much in the bread. I baked this bread directly on a pizza stone with steam which gives it a rustic look and a thick and chewy crust. If you have good teeth and love rye bread, then this one or the next one would be perfect for you. I grew up on rye bread and love it, unfortunately I do not have good teeth....


This is another take on the 50% rye bread made with rye sourdough starter. Again, thick and chewy crust with a moist interior. This one only has caraway and anise seeds in it. The good thing about rye bread is that it keeps a long time.


Speaking of rye sourdough - here it is, bubbling away. This one is ready to be used in bread baking.

German-style Many Seed Bread

This is my second favorite bread. It has pumpkin, sesame, sunflower and flax seeds in it, hence the name "Many Seed Bread". It is more on the dense and chewy side, but it tastes great. If you love seeds, you would definitely love this bread!


All the ingredients in my Bosch mixer, ready to be kneaded. When the mixer is done kneading, I usually always knead my bread dough by hand for about five minutes to make sure it has proper gluten development - and to get a little bit of a workout since I do not have time for that otherwise.

Sprouted Wheat Bread Again

This one was made with half the vital wheat gluten of the original recipe. Taste was the same but it was a little bit too sticky and moist for me. I think I will go back to the original recipe. I am getting addicted to this bread. Yeah, it is that good!


As you can probably tell from this bread - I love sesame seeds....

No Gluten = Brick

Here is my newest experiment: 100% Sprouted Wheat Bread without the addition of gluten.

As you can see from the picture it turned out to look like a brick and was rather dense.

It did taste very good though, just like the one made with the gluten, just less gummy. Not that gummy is necessarily a bad thing, it is a matter of preference. My husband said that he likes them both. The sprouting process brings out the natural sweetness of the grain. One loaf only has 1 Tbs. of organic agave nectar in it, yet it tastes subtly sweet. I ate it with cheese but one could eat it with butter and jam as well. In my opinion it tastes a lot better than the sprouted grain breads you can buy at Ward's. Those do not taste fresh to me. My loaf tastes just as good two days old. It is naturally moist and does not dry out much.

The bread sliced up.

Now that I have two versions of this bread, guess what? I will try a third one! This time it will be an in-between bread, meaning, I will add some gluten but not as much as the recipe calls for. I will experiment till I get it right. I am stubborn....

100% Sprouted Grain Bread

Yes, you can make it too. It is easy but quite messy and it takes time...
Here are the sprouts, ready to be mashed. I used my Green Power twin gear juicer which mashed the sprouts really nicely. A food processor will do the job too, but you will not end up with the same dough consistency.

Then you add some salt, yeast and sweetener (I used organic agave nectar) and probably some water and vital wheat gluten (optional) and start kneading. This is were the fun starts.

I added the gluten and put it through the juicer together with the sprouts and ended up with a glue paste. I will never make this mistake again. I had to put the dough in the food processor to cut it up to be able to work with it.

Knead. Let it rise in a pan. Bake. That's it. Simple, isn't it? Well, actually not quite. Try it and you will find out. ;-)


Here is the finished loaf. The loaf was light and airy. I will omit the gluten next time and hope it will not come out too dense. I am already sprouting some more grain for my next batch...

100% Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Two days ago I made this bread. It tasted sooooo good that I ate just about half of it right away. My kids loved it as well. I spread it with butter and jam and it tasted better than cake. I am not a fan of rich baked goods and I would choose this bread over cakes or cookies any time. It had the perfect combination of cinnamon, raisins and walnuts, not too much, not too little.


The night before I made a biga. This picture is very poor, sorry. A biga is a pre-ferment which I put in the fridge over night to develop flavor. In this case it is made of flour, milk, safflower oil and a tiny bit of yeast.
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about biga:
Biga is a type of pre-ferment used in Italian baking. Many popular Italian breads, including ciabatta, are made using a biga. Using a biga adds complexity to the bread's flavor and is often used in breads which need a light, open texture with holes. Apart from adding to flavor and texture, a biga also helps to preserve bread by making it less perishable.


Guess what this is? Another biga? No. It is called a soaker; does not have any yeast in it and does not go in the fridge over night. I kept it at room temp. over night. It is made of flour, salt, milk and raisins.


Bread in the pan for the rise.... And rise it did beautifully.

What is a Konditorei?

I suppose you might ask this question.

This is what Wikipedia says about Konditorei:
Konditorei is the German word for a confectionery shop. A Konditorei is like a little café and it normally has a wide variety of pastries on offer. In Germany and Austria it is a very popular custom to go to a Konditorei to have a cake and some tea or coffee mid-afternoon. Cakes vary from creamy cakes to apple strudel.

I would call it a pastry shop which usually also is a small cafe. They do sell confections at a Konditorei, but the focus is more on pastries and cakes.

I think I do not have to explain what a bakery is. But maybe I should show you what an Austrian bakery sells. If it is just a bakery, only bread, rolls, and similar items are sold.

This pictures shows what is typically sold in an Austrian bakery. Most breads are rustic and Austrians actually do not eat much of the fluffy kind of bread that comes in a bag from the supermarket, if at all. Austrians also like Sourdough Rye Bread. I guess it is because they grow a lot of rye since it is easier to grow in Austria's colder climate.

Back when I was still living in Austria (about 13 years ago) there were still some small bakeries selling just what you see in the picture. These bakeries were usually handed down from one generation to the next. Since only bread and alike is sold there, they are fast disappearing. Most bakeries are a combination of a bakery and a pastry shop (Konditorei) and also a small cafe. You can sit down at small tables, sip your coffee or tea, have a piece of pastry to eat and read the newspaper, or meet a friend for Kaffeeklatsch, which is an informal social gathering for coffee and conversation, or gossip....


This pictures show what is typically sold at a Konditorei. Here you can see all kinds of Danish on the top and fruit slices in the middle and on the bottom of the picture.


Oh yes, and cookies, of course. Austrians bake cookies that are more fancy than the American drop cookie and usually more labor intensive. Nuts are a main ingredient in a lot of cookies, especially almonds and hazelnuts.


And cakes, of course. Most Americans are familiar with the famous Austrian Sacher Torte. But as you can see in this picture, there are a lot of other cakes sold as well.



This is a typical shop that is a bakery (Baeckerei) and pastry shop (Konditorei) all in one store.

Since I bake bread and pastries as well as cakes, I call my kitchen a Bakery & Konditorei with hopes that I will actually be able to open a real one some day....

Whole Grain Sourdough Rye Bread

I made two kinds of Sourdough Rye Bread to find out which one would taste better. This one is a 50% Rye Hearth Bread which I baked on a pizza stone to give it a rustic look. Though it tasted excellent, I still would like to improve the texture of the bread. It is, like pretty much everything else I bake, 100% whole grain and that makes it a little dense. It is a big improvement over other rye breads I made before though.



This is my second version of rye bread and is called Three-Stage 70 Percent Sourdough Rye. Here you see the loaves rising on a cookies sheet. I used the Detmolder Method of Rye Bread Production which builds the sourdough slowly over 2 days to make the culture strong and healthy. This method is supposedly used by professional bakers in Austria and Germany and I must say that when I tasted the bread it immediately reminded me of my childhood. It tasted exactly like the rye bread I used to eat as a child in Austria.



The two breads in comparison. On top the "Austrian" Rye Bread and on the bottom the 50% Rye Hearth Bread. I am still not totally satisfied with the results, so back in the kitchen I will go and try to improve the recipe.

Cupcake

I made this cupcake for Prabhupada's Appearance Day. It is a basic Vanilla Cupcake with professional Buttercream Icing and toasted sliced almonds. This is the first time I made this particular icing. I had to make a sugar syrup first, whip it into my egg substitute and then add the butter. I must say that this icing was way too rich for me. It tasted too much like eating a stick of butter. Maybe when using a real egg it would come out different. Since I do not have that option, I'll probably never find out....

OREO Birthday Cake

Since the local cake lady is out of town I was asked to bake a birthday cake. The birthday girl wanted an Oreo cake with vanilla and chocolate layers and fillings plus the Oreo cookies on top, so I made her a four layer cake. I got the inspiration for this cake from the internet. I used buttercream icing and the sides of the cake were decorated with chocolate cake crumbs on top of the icing. I do not know how it tasted and have not gotten any feedback yet. I think it looks pretty good though.

Here you can see the top of the cake.

All packed up and ready to go.

This was my test batch. This one does have chocolate ganache icing. It tasted very good.