Schneckkennudeln with Orange, Almond & Raisin Filling

Hey there to all of you!
As I wrote on Monday the Anti-Gloom-Orange Jam had a "greater purpose" ;-)
...yesterday morning it found its final destination in some Schneckennudeln.

Schneckennudeln are the German version of cinnamon rolls and usually, if bought at a bakery, bigger and available with different fillings. Most common are probably poppy seed or nut fillings and often Schneckennudeln are coated with sugar icing. They could be filled with anything and still be a Schneckennudel, though, as the name means "Snail"-"Fried-Dumpling". Snail, because of the shape and "Nudel" is a special term for yeast-dough, that is formed into rolls, which are then either fried or baked, so that one side is crispy and all other sides are steamed.
I hope this doesn't sound too weird ;-) At some point I'll try making some Dampfnudel as well, but since you need a nonstick-pan with a well-closing lid (preferably glass so it's see-through) I cannot do that right now. In fact it was my special Christmas wish last year when I was at home and we had salty Dampfnudeln with pea-soup on Christmas day. And that was very, very nice!

So, back to the weird German cinnamon rolls!

These take a bit of effort to make, but they are totally worth it I think and you do not have to be a magician to make them. With a bit of practice you will get better and better at doing this!

Time: it will take about 45 minutes to make the dough the evening before and another 30 minutes to assemble the rolls in the morning plus 1 hour rising and baking.

dough (make ahead the night before)
500 g	flour (I used whole wheat)
5 g	dried yeast
OR 10 g	fresh yeast
65 g	honey
250 ml	cashew milk (blend 25 g cashews & 225 g water)
1 1/2	eggs (I used self-made egg replacer, see below)
½ tsp	salt
70 g	butter
filling
	orange jam
100 g	raisins
40 g	almonds, slivered or chopped

• Dissolve yeast with one tsp honey in half of the cashew milk. Put flour in a bowl and make a dent in the middle. Pour mixture into the dent and stir in a bit of flour from the edges until the mixture reaches a creamy consistency; cover by gently nudging a bit of flour from the edges over the mixture. Put a lid, cling film or a plate on top of the bowl so that any draught is kept out. Put the bowl in a warm (!) place and let rise for about 15-20 minutes until you see that the flour over the mixture has cracks.
• Put butter and the remaining milk in a casserole or small pot and melt very gently over as low heat as possible. Add honey, and egg to the bowl. Put salt around the rim of the bowl (not directly on the yeast mixture, since salt tends to kill the yeast). Pour the warm butter and milk mixture around the rim of the bowl as well (since it is warm it is better to avoid direct contact with the yeast, as too high heat can also kill yeast cells).
• Knead all ingredients (easier with some kind of food processor or anything that can knead heavy dough) until a smooth dough forms (about 5-7 minutes with a machine, so I guess about 10 minutes by hand). Then take the dough and fold edges to the middle, rotating the dough when doing so, until the bottom side of the dough is completely smooth. Then, that side facing up, place the dough back into the bowl and cover with a lid (as before). Place the bowl in a warm place and let rise over night.

• In the morning, line a baking tray with baking foil or baking paper (not greaseproof paper!). On a nonstick baking mat or on a very well floured surface roll out the dough into a rectangle of about 5 mm thickness. Make sure all the corners are well defined and not too rounded.
• Spread the orange jam evenly over the rectangle (up to all edges). Sprinkle raisins and almonds on top.
• Now, from the long side of the rectangle roll up the dough. If you have a mat, it might help to lift the mat up at times. If you use a mat roll the roll onto a cutting board for slicing. If you have it on your counter then also try to get it onto a board or use a knife that won't damage your counters.
• Slice the roll into rounds of about 2 cm width. Use a knife that you would use for cutting tomatoes (not with an even edge, but with lots of small ripples (does anyone know the name of that?) or a very sharp one).
• One by one, tucking the end of the roll under it, place each Schneckennudel on the baking tray. Let them rise on the tray in a warm, draught-free place for 20-25 minutes and then bake at 200 °C for 25-30 minutes until slightly browned.

• Let cool on a rack or freeze immediately (that way the moisture stays trapped in them and they'll be fresher when thawed). For thawing, thaw them in a plastic bag for 4-5 hours. If possible you can warm them up on a toaster or in the oven, but they are great either way!

Anti-Gloom Orange Jam

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend! For my part I am happy that for the past few days it has been relatively warm (even if it has been raining and is now).
I almost look like a normal person today and not like someone who just put on the warmest things she could find. But I don't want to jinx the weather so I'd better shut up ...

Last week my best friend told me she was going to try every single recipe I posted here at some point sooner or later so that really is a motivation to put on as many amazing things as possible =) Thank you so much for that!!! =)

For this Monday I've got something fast for you, which is not a main course, but a nice thing to make, which looks like sun and spring and that I hope will blow away any gloomy mood you might be in, because it's Monday and probably raining again or cold or whatever thing you don't like!

This is a kind of jam and even though it's orange jam I wouldn't consider it being traditional English marmalade, but it still has a slightly bitter taste. So maybe that's due to it being orange or maybe to the fact that I didn't segment the oranges and left the skins on the pieces.

If you know me then probably you know that I can never be bothered to peel anything that can also be eaten with the peel on - which, at least if it is organic, I think is healthier anyway.

The jam being slightly bitter, as I mentioned, is not a bad thing, though! Maybe I should have kept that quiet to not put you off from trying this, but I wouldn't want to give you a black box and then have someone complaining about it ;-)

It doesn't require a largely complex process, you I suggest you just give it a try!

You only need two ingredients:

2	oranges
4	dates

I think 4 tsp of raisins would work instead of the dates, in case you don't have those. I haven't tried that yet, though.

Peel the oranges. Wash them beforehand with hot water and also wash your hands if the oranges were not organic to get rid of the chemicals the peel is usually treated with.

Half them and take the white bits out of the middle (anything you wouldn't eat). Cut the oranges up and blend them until smooth. Pour the mixture in a small saucepan.

Cut up dates in small pieces and add them to the saucepan.

Then, heat gently until the mixture is simmering. Simmer with the lid off or half-on for 10-20 minutes, until the orange has thickened up slightly.

The consistency you'll want to go for depends on what you want to use the jam for. If you are planning to use it as a filling for something baked, like I am, then 10 minutes will be fine and if you want to eat it straight away on bread then I'd recommend up to 20 minutes. In any case, don't walk away and make sure to check the mixture isn't burning every few minutes.

When thickened up pour back into the blender and blend again. Even though dates on their own are usually quite hard to blend up this shouldn't be a problem now anymore for any blender, since the dates will have become soft by cooking.

If not sweet enough you can add some more honey.

Pour the jam into a jar and keep in the fridge, as, since there is no sugar in it, it doesn't have anything to preserve it in it. Therefore it will keep for only a week or so, which is why I always only make as much as I think I'll eat in a week.

And for all of those who are probably just reading this, I hope that the cheerful colour of the photograph gave you something positive!

Did you notice the fancy border around the recipe? ;-) I'm learning!

All-About-The-Sauce-Potato-Casserole

Over the past week I've collected some photographs of what I've made, but it's kind of hard to decide what to post next for you. Right now there was the choice between....hmm...should I tell you? No, I won't so it will still be a surprise in case I decide to write about the other things as well ;-)

Today you're seeing something that is a really great winter dish that doesn't require any fancy summer-ish ingredients.

This is it!

In this case it is a potato-broccoli casserole, but in fact it's all about the sauce. Over time my Mum and I have had several versions of this dish with potatoes plus several varying vegetables. Without the sauce, though the dish wouldn't be as good as it is. I had this with my housemate during the week and the thing she said to me was that the sauce was really nice (was this a British understatement for "great"? - I'd hope so), so this must be the key factor.

vegetables
350 g	potatoes
250 g	broccoli
sauce
1	onion
20 g	butter
about 4 tbsp = 35 g	millet flour (you can make that in any blender from millet grains)
125 g	cashew milk (grind 15 g cashew nuts and blend again with 110 g water)
250 g	vegetable stock
	salt
	pepper
1/4 tsp	paprika powder (sweet if possible)
	nutmeg

1. First of all, cut the potatoes (unpeeled) into halves if they're big or leave them whole if they are small. Make sure that all pieces are relatively evenly sized. Cut the broccoli roughly in smaller florets. You can use the stems as well. You don't need to make them as small as you want to eat them though, it's less fiddly if you do that after steaming,
2. Place all vegetables in a steaming basker or a metal sieve and steam over boiling water for about 15 minutes or until as soft as you like it. In the meantime prepare the sauce.
3. Prepare cashew milk, vegetable stock and millet flour.
4. Finely chop the onion. Gently heat butter in a small pot and fry the onion in the butter. When fried, add vegetable stock and cashew milk. Bring to a boil. With a fork whisk in millet flour. Over low heat cook for a bit and keep stirring. The mixture should thicken up and get creamy after a short while. If it doesn't add some more flour. Season with spices to your liking.
5. When potatoes and broccoli are tender, cut potatoes in slices and the broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Grease a small casserole dish with butter and first put in potato slices and then the broccoli pieces on top. Evenly distribute the sauce on top.
6. Bake at 250 °C (or as hot as your oven goes) for about 20 minutes until the top is slightly browned.

Instead of millet flour you could also use regular flour, but millet flour makes the sauce have a nicer looking yellow colour.

You could vary this by for example adding some fried mushroom (this adds a dirty pan, though) or by  cooking potato slices and zucchini in a bit of vegetable stock. I recommend you try it as written and then you'll be able to make up your mind as to what vegetables go well with the sauce until maybe I've made the other varieties of the dish as well ;-)

Ah, by the way I've added a print button to the blog! When you open a specific post (not the home-site, but by clicking on the title of the post) you can now find it under the post and can optimise each page to the way you'd like to print it! In case you ever want to print something which I sincerely hope :-)