Father Christmas Cookies….

Vanilla & Butter Cookies (Father Christmas Cookies)

Christmas to me has become all about the so many things I can do with my children (and should be doing more of)…because I am often rushing around and not taking as much time as I could do at other times. 

I have a singular point of view when it comes to my kids as well – I want them to grow up knowing things….how to do things, make things, create the life, food, home and work they would most like to do.

How to follow their dreams and listen to their hearts as they walk through a better world we have worked so hard to create on their behalf. Because, well, I have long felt as if I was misinformed (or uninformed) and certainly ill prepared with life as I have come to know it.

With this in mind (nothing small around here!!! LOL), I wanted to bake some treats together with them this week for our Solstice and Christmas celebrations (I know, it’s a big cookie to bite off!).

We decided on some sort of butter cookie….well, it had butter in it (lol) and flour, almonds and then the greatest flavour of the season – homemade vanilla extract. I make mine in a large bottle of bourbon – using 8 or 10 vanilla bean pods as well as some scraped out vanilla beans.

These sit for several weeks and then months until you can’t walk by the bottle without smelling wafts of vanilla perfuming the air (available in the market stall on occasion)….lovely!

So, these are butter and vanilla cookies, right? 

Back to the story or recipe….which is really a tale of how to create something magical from ingredients that seem rather ordinary on their own.

To make these cookies we used:

500 g flour (whole wheat/strong white ½ and ½)

250 g raw cane sugar

380 g butter (soft)

125 g ground almonds

 2 – 3 tablespoons  Bourbon vanilla

¼ teaspoon sea salt

dark chocolate (melted in double boiler)

imagination!

Blend the butter and then slowly add the sugar, almonds, flour, salt and finally vanilla – keep mixing until soft and crumbly. Add extra vanilla if this seems too dry. You should be able to squeeze the mixture together into a soft dough.

Onto a floured board or baking paper, knead some of the dough  and then roll it flat…let the children take over with cookie cutters, shapes and fingers to make the cookies into whatever shape they need to create.

At this time of the year we all like stars, ginger bread men, hearts and trees. Once you have enough shapes to cover a large baking sheet – place them onto parchment paper and into an oven set at 180C or so for 10 to 12 minutes.

Watch them closely because they will brown quickly. 

Once done and out of the oven, cool slightly then remove with a palette knife onto a cooking rack. When completely cool, dip in the melted chocolate and decorate with some coloured bits from the organic shop….

They taste as good as they look! We like to make different sized star shapes and stick them together using dark chocolate in the centre….we refer to these as Father Christmas cookies here, because these are the ones we leave out for him on Christmas Eve.

Happy Holidays!

April

Father Christmas Cookies

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls - Winter Treat

Cinnamon Rolls with a twist….Sourdough 

A couple of weeks ago I was off my fast and really wanted something nice – sweet and winterish - to have with my morning dandelion coffee. The only thing I could come up with on the day was some sort of a Cinnamon bun or roll. 

It had to be sweet, gooey, spicy, soft and sticky…..are you with me so far? You know the type of rolls that are melted inside yet the bread dough is nice and soft. Oh, and the fragrance, it had to smell sweet, like cinnamon and a little bit like baked bread.

Fasting does that to you! Your tastebuds are clean and alive - only a very specific taste would do (or in this case a food memory). 

Off, I went to find my recipes, however when I looked through each of my books I could only find mention of cinnamon buns made with fast acting yeast or a packet of this or that kind of yeast. 

And this is absolutely out of the question for me. 

It has to be wild fermented sourdough in this house. I work with so many wild fermentation projects – my Rebel Juices fermented drinks, my Apple Cider Vinegar, my sourdough starter, my yogurt and my various fermented vegetables and I won’t risk contamination or compromise on the taste.

So, taking what I thought might be a rough idea of a basic recipe – it can’t be that difficult, right? I put some flour into a bowl (yes, for those who know me, I just throw things together and hope for the best!) some sourdough starter, a little soft butter, an egg, some yogurt and milk, then sugar and water.

I left this to rise for a few hours, like you would a sponge for any other sourdough bread. Once it was risen enough – it did look a little different from a regular sponge starter – I took it out and kneaded it with more flour, into a soft dough. 

Next, I rolled it out flat onto a floured surface and then buttered it (the entire large piece of dough) with my Cinnamon Honey Butter. So far, so good. It smelled like cinnamon and was starting to take shape.

Then, leaving the edges free of the cinnamon butter, I rolled the dough up as tightly as I could all the while pinching any loose ends together. Once I had a cinnamon log, I gently cut sections off for the rolls.

These were placed into an oiled pan and arranged tightly in a circle – just for effect! I happen to like swirls…..LOL

And that was it – the pan of cinnamon dough was let rise again for another hour or so, then popped into a hot oven….it was lovely! Sweet, warm and spicy – just what winter should be all about.

April

Cinnamon Rolls - made with sourdough

Memories of Sticky Date & Fig Pudding….

Yule or Christmas Pudding

There are so many recipes out there for Christmas puddings – I won’t even try reinventing the wheel however, I will say….I have made sugar free versions of absolutely everything and these are just as good as something with sugar.

Especially when it comes to puddings such as this. There are a lot of sweet ingredients that go into such a dessert but that is just the point isn’t it? A Christmas feast is not the time or place to be counting the calories!

My favourite Christmas pudding last year was one I made with pecans….or was it the one I made with sticky dates and toffee! Can’t remember, they were all so good and when served later, long after the heaviness of the meal has been digested, a pudding is quite a nice way to end any festive day.

But, the single most important thing to say about any Yule or Christmas pudding – is this – you have to be making it now! LOL

Now is the perfect time to set aside an afternoon and assemble your pudding. Get each of your ingredients ready (soaking the dried fruit is often a good idea too) and then follow your favourite recipe to your hearts delight.

Making the pudding is easy. I always find steaming it for 6 to 8 hours the more difficult part because I am always watching little ones around the stove and making sure the pot doesn’t run out of water. 

But, eventually the pudding is steamed enough to cool down and store or freeze until Christmas. I do believe that some of those made with rum or whiskey as well as all that sugar and fruit, will continue to age and develop in texture and flavour no matter where they are! LOL

This week – start getting ready for your special day. Choose a pudding recipe, make a ritual of gathering the ingredients, spend an afternoon making it and then store it in a special place to age. 

One of the most wonderful traditions of this time of year is the opening of all these little packages when the time comes. An aromatic Christmas pudding in one of them is a lovely gift indeed.

April

Sticky date & fig pudding ready to freeze

Chocolate Fudge Brownies.....With Homemade Semi-Sweet Chocolate

These are an easy recipe to make - I like anything that is versatile - especially when you want to use other flours such as spelt. If using all whole grain spelt, remember to adjust the liquid content (use less) but this is also nice to mix and match. Use some spelt to give them more of a dense nutty texture familiar in a brownie...

I also make my own semi-sweet chocolate....for inclusion in a recipe it's often better then the factory made variety - besides you can control the ingredients completely with no preservatives etc. And, there is that continued satisfaction of making your own whenever possible. 

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Cake

1 ¾ cups flour (I use 1/3 spelt)

¼ cup cocoa powder

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cup chopped nuts (almonds, cashews)

125g butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

½ cup sour cream or yogurt

Semi Sweet Chocolate

6 tablespoons cocoa powder

6 tablespoons powdered sugar 

1 ½ to 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening (start with less)

Topping

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

¾ cup powdered sugar 

1 cup cream cheese

Preheat oven to 170C. Butter and flour a square baking tin or a shallow brownie pan. You can also line the sides with parchment paper to ensure ease of removal.

In a mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients (except sugar) add ½ chopped or coarsely ground nuts. In the meantime, in a saucepan, over hot water, make the semi sweet chocolate in a heat-proof bowl.  Add all ingredients starting with the vegetable shortening first. Stir constantly to remove any lumps making sure all the sugar is blended in.

Allow chocolate to cool a little then add in sugar (from the cake section), lightly beaten eggs and sour cream or yogurt – beating until mixture is well combined – it will be thick and smooth. 

Add chocolate mixture to dry flour ingredients – using a wooden spoon stir gently until combined but do not over stir. Spoon evenly over the bottom of buttered baking tin – bake in oven 32-37 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in tin.

For the topping, place all ingredients into a bowl, using a fork, mash until well combined. It will soften and become spreadable after a few minutes. Using a knife, spread thickly and evenly over top of cooled cake then sprinkle topping with remaining chopped nuts. Cut into squares and serve….Lovely! 

April

A very chocolaty treat! 

April Danann's Mung Bean Burger Recipe

As promised.....here is my recipe for Mung Bean burgers....I posted this sometime last year, but have updated it and here it is again. These are the absolute best bean burgers ever (yes, I know it's my own recipe! LOL) and is something I have made for my family for years....now available at my market stall in Skibbereen on Saturday's. 

Oh, and these are best served with homemade mayo or honey mustard for dipping....

Mung Bean Burgers

1-2 cups of dried mung beans (or more if you want more burgers!)

3 cloves garlic

2 cups or more of chopped vegetables (onions, broccoli, scallions, leeks, etc.)

1 cup of cooked or raw chopped  fresh herbs or spinach

½ cup of grated carrot

Spices and Sea Salt

Olive oil

Sunflower oil for frying or baking

o Soak the mung beans for 48 hours (or until sprouted) in lots of water. Drain, rinse the beans and discard the soaking liquid. Put all the mung beans, raw or cooked herbs or spinach, spices (coriander, cumin, black pepper) and raw garlic in a blender or food processor with a little olive oil. Blend or process until you have a smooth and light batter. Transfer the batter into a deep bowl.

o Stir in chopped vegetables - scallions, onions, leeks, grated carrot, chopped cooked spinach, herbs to taste and cilantro if desired. Use the vegetables you have on hand- sometimes I use grated pumpkin or squash, and cooked green lentils.

o Using a frying pan, cook as you would a pancake- spoon some of the mixture onto the pan and flatten with the spatula, fry until crispy on each side then place onto newspaper to soak up oil – sprinkle with salt.

o   Or the mixture can be placed into an oiled pan and placed in the oven for about 30-40 minutes. I spread artichoke pate over the top when I bake it, to give it an added taste.

o   These burgers change as the vegetables you have on hand change and also you can vary the amount of vegetables you add in- we like it chunky with lots of onions and the spinach makes it moist. These are great served with a rice stir-fry and onion rings made with spelt/gram flour batter on a Saturday night in with the movies!

These can be frozen and will keep for a couple of days in the fridge....they taste great re-heated under the grill for a few minutes to crisp them up. We also make cheese bean burgers with lovely local smoked cheese.....(sigh).

Enjoy (and come visit me at my market stall)

April

Best Probiotic Ever - Homemade Goat's Yogurt

So you think you are in control? Have you always felt like this or is this something new? Perhaps….just maybe – this control can be taken back (in your life, in your gut, in your mind) and it’s easier then you might think.

I happen to know – we are far less in control of our lives then we previously thought (ask me how I know). There are bacteria, viruses, yeasts, fungi and whatever, deep within our guts – some of which wield great power.

It’s a bit like a continuous battle in there. Everyone is fighting for the top spot, so there are winners and there are losers. However, much of the time, for most of us – this is a complete waste of energy, because those who are doing the fighting are not worth keeping around.

When our guts are full of non-beneficial bacteria (those who feed themselves, but really don’t care for you), we are on the losing end and the bottom of the food chain. I mean, all it takes is a small number of ‘bullies’ to set up a factory farm for themselves….

What we need to do is tip that balance back in our favour…fill our digestive tract with the good guys (bacteria, yeasts and organisms who work with you) in order to create a state of health.

Personally I don’t believe supplements or probiotics help the situation. They are not a food group for me (I only want real food) so, I leave them out of my diet. The best way to bring back the gut is to clean it out, detox and then re-populate….

For the vast majority of us, our internal gut flora was never set up from birth. Our guts were not populated with sufficient numbers of healthy and beneficial organisms. But, even if they were – one round of antibiotics and you might be back at square one.

Fasting changed all of that for me (yep! Reset, repopulated and rebuilt the lining of my gut) and now for the first time ever, I am aware of the inner workings of my gut and ‘who’ is in charge.

Central command has completely shifted to the good guys (how do I know? Things have started moving ahead again in my life, I am ‘living’ again) – one thing I am eating lots of to help this process along is my own special (well, I think it’s special) goat’s yogurt.

Over these past few weeks I have been growing and developing my own bacterial culture for my goat’s yogurt and have been enjoying it in nearly everything from a sweet dessert to my latest warm weather treat of tzatziki.

To make this dish, I strain the yogurt for a couple of hours to take some of the whey off. Then with the thicker yogurt, I add in 1 full grated and strained cucumber (the key here is to strain some of the liquid off).

Next I crush 3 cloves of garlic into the yogurt mixture and add salt and pepper to taste. If this gets a chance to sit for an hour or two (I like it cold) it tastes even better.

Tzatziki is nice with served with roasted lamb (or BBQ), on fresh herbed bread or as a dip for your crisp summer vegetables. And any yogurt based dish tastes so much better when you make it yourself!

April

Homemade tzatziki

Nature - An Endless Buffet is Summer

These last couple of days were spent fasting….after all the rich food on the weekend, I needed the break and a little breather from eating! Not to say that food has been far from my mind however.

I have carried on with my yogurt making (after so many years of not eating it!) I now have a jar in the house each week. And I am loving it. Perhaps I am just very late getting into the many health benefits of eating yogurt but…

Some of which are - it's easier to digest, it is know to promote energy production, is a natural anti-inflammatory, contains selenium, helps in the absorption of minerals....and it tastes good. 

The one thing I do know is that nothing compares to making your own yogurt and especially the stuff made from raw goat’s milk. This is seriously good food. I can sense it ‘changing’ my internal workings (gut health) after I eat it.

And, I must say, I love experimenting with it even more. In a way it’s a bit like the cheese making – only with yogurt there is less to do. However, today I did let some of my yogurt thicken into curds and whey and then I strained out the whey…

Of course I ended up with the nicest creamed goat’s cheese I have ever eaten, which was even nicer after I stirred in some fresh thyme from the garden and a little sea salt. It was a nice way to break my fast.

Besides my new adventures into making yogurt, I have also been playing around with my Butterfly Juice – adding in different flavours to see what we like and to create some new and different tastes.

Over the weekend I made my juices using the same basic ingredients of nettles and dandelions but also leftover juice from cooked mixed berries, some juice from carmelised apples and cinnamon and banana.

It was the most delicious juice weekend we have had so far – everyone loved it and there was still the same energy buzz from the concentrated nettles that we get with my regular Butterfly Juice.

Ah…nature – an endless buffet is summer! 

April

Goats in the field

Down a New Road....Still Wild Foraging Food

I haven’t really been cooking much of anything (new that is) these days…I’ve been very busy with the garden and farm work….all of these animals need tending as well as planting and weeding to be done.

Most evenings I have been exhausted and kept thinking I am too tired to write…but here I am, today making some more cheese for the weekend, with a pot of goat stew in the slow cooker and have made 6 jars of jam with all the dried berries left over from the winter.

That’s on top of the farm work LOL! And I think I am not doing much of anything….

One update I wanted to make is how after nearly 3 weeks we still haven’t bought any vegetables other then 2 bags of onions and a few carrots. Not so long ago this would have been unheard of for me….I would never have thought I could get by with just the greens growing around me.

But, I am and we are! I have made soups, stews, pesto, stir-fries, casseroles and what ever I can think of using just the wild greens in the fields and things that are growing in my own garden.

And we have more then enough to eat. Of course I combine these with fish, meat, beans, lentils, couscous and rice to create a different dish for every meal. They are all quite versatile and I know we are getting an abundance of vitamins and minerals like nothing else.

I actually think it has taken me this long to notice how I am feeling on this diet of mainly greens from the fields and our own milk, eggs, meat, cheese, garden greens, herbs and so forth. To say I am more in tune would be an understatement….

Its as if I am in charge. I can feel my gut changing, my outlook and thinking is less clouded. I actually feel more like myself right now then ever before in my entire life on this planet.

I know it’s because my food is nearly fully ‘mine’ – produced or made or grown or harvested by me. When I started this experiment over a year ago (make every effort to no longer buy finished products of ANYTHING) I knew I would feel better.

But right now, I guess I had no idea how much better and what other changes this line of thinking would bring…I can look back now and see how my new lifestyle in terms of eating has taken me down quite different paths then what I had been expecting.

Stay tuned, this is only going to get more interesting!

April

Duck and Guinea Fowl Eggs

Lessons in Cheese Making....Let Nature Get Involved

Sometimes we don’t plan on creating a masterpiece…it just appears out of nowhere, as if the conditions are ripe for it. This word (masterpiece) is not used lightly either….I am seriously pleased with myself!

During the past week I had saved up my 3 liters of milk from our goats with the grand plan to make some cheese for the weekend. One morning I proceeded to take it out of the fridge and then forgot all about it until late that night….

Because I was going to make cheese with it, I just left it out and thought I would get it sorted the next morning. It’s been busy this past week or so with the garden, goats and market - and you know how time just slips by.

So, the next morning, I got the milk into a pot and inoculated it with the bacteria (once it was at the right temperature) and then waited and waited and waited…until another 24 hours had passed and nothing.

The milk did not curdle into curds and whey. But by this time it was starting to thicken and go a bit sour….so I thought, oh well….just throw some rennet in there and hope for the best?

That is exactly what I did. Only I added such a tiny amount of rennet (because less is always more for me!) it might or might not work to separate the milk into curds and whey…..

After about 5 or 6 hours I checked the pot and I had a nicely formed thickish yogurt like curd. I had read somewhere that this might make a nice cheese…so I scooped it out and let the whey drain off for a few more hours.

Even as I was scooping it out – I was thinking how I liked the texture of this and it smelled wonderful! I let the liquid whey drain out for the next few hours or so and then placed the cheese into a dish, salted it and as an after thought, added some cranberries….

24 hours later, we tasted it – the best cheese I have made so far! It has a lovely texture, wonderful flavour and is better then anything I have ever bought from a shop.

Lesson for me here….let nature get involved….don’t push things because we are running short on time or want to hurry things along. The milk had already grown it’s own bacterial culture, adding the few grains of rennet just gave it a little boost and voila –

Beautiful cheese!!

April

Homemade Chevre on wholegrain toast....Yumm!

Wild Yeast Bread...Yumm!!

Oh. My. God! This is my masterpiece!!! LOL

Well, let me tell you a story….as part of a homeschool experiment, my son and I decided we would try our hand at growing some wild yeast. Apparently you have to capture the little wee beasties….

So here is what we did.

I took a jar of warmish water – to this I added a couple of tablespoons of my own raw honey. Then to create a bit of acid for the yeast to feed off of, I also added some of my own homemade Apple Cider Vinegar (it tastes so good!).

This was all stirred together until the honey was completely diffused throughout the entire water. Lastly I got a piece of rhubarb from the garden, chopped it up and this was also placed into the water (it’s supposed to have some fruit).

The jar was covered with a piece of cheese cloth so it could breathe...

Every day for a week or two – we gently stirred this concoction and watched it carefully. I was checking for any mold growth or something unusual as well. If mold had started to grow, it would kill any wild yeasts….

Finally – there started to form some frothy substance on the top of the jar. I tasted it, and it was wild yeast! This week I was trying to decide what to do with this (it’s not very much) so I poured it into a bowl and made bread with it.

It is quite possibly the best bread I have ever made in my entire life. Seriously. And for the first time in over 2 months, my bread rose as it baked – all from wild yeast I had grown myself in my own kitchen.

Blooming marvelous!

April

Wild Yeast Bread 

Homemade Chèvre Cheese....Yumm!

It has been an interesting few months experimenting with cheese making – and I am learning/discovering so much about this lovely wonder of nature. Hopefully I will soon get it right every time.

What I am finding is how it is temperature sensitive, environment sensitive, cannot be rushed and responds even to the most subtle changes. Perhaps it’s me as well – the milk even seems different from day to day too.

Of course I am using our own raw goats milk – so depending on what the goats are eating over the course of a few days their milk might be a little more or less thick with fat.

And, most of all I am being shown so much about nature, how the environment interacts with the animals and then how they respond to us and us to them. Their care is so important for our daily food…

I have been doing this (involved with meat, food, farming etc.) a long time and yet I am learning or perhaps broadening my understanding of food production each and every day. But all that aside….

Learning how to make these new foods is the most fun I’ve had in a while. My cheese making is not the success I hope for each and every time I go to make it, but the end result is always edible.

So far my best cheeses have been the feta and this week I made a chevre that is gorgeous (if I do say so myself!). The feta cheese I salted and then brined for about 1 week before it was placed in olive oil.

This time with the chevre I wanted something a little different so I formed it into a mould with my favourite fig and orange jam. It is so lovely! The chevre cheese is slightly sharp, so when paired together with the sweet jam is such a nice combination.

Who knows what I will be doing next….

April

Chevre goat's cheese with Fg and Orange Jam