Tag: yeast

food

Making Cinnamon Buns with Dry Yeast

Forestwood
kanelsnegle at last

I have always been reluctant to use yeast in the kitchen. I have had bad experiences with dry yeast sachets.

Either I heat the yeast granules far too much in my anxiety to make the dough rise, or the resulting dish tastes of something that I really can’t describe. It’s not an awful flavour but a slight kind of aftertaste. It is not sweet. I am not sure if this is yeast or something else.

Photo Credit: by PurplePumpernickel

However, when Ju-Lyn posted a Recipe for Cinnamon Rolls, I desperately wanted to make them.

Cinnamon Pastries in Scandinavia

The taste of cinnamon scrolls takes me back to Denmark and Finland, but generally all of Scandinavia. In Denmark, you see these rolls and pastries everywhere, from 7/11 stores (which surprisingly are some of the best), to small cafes and even gas stations kiosks. They are both ubiquitous and synonymous with Scandinavian traditions. Whether they be soft sweet bread or the flaky Danish style pastry, cinnamon is the main theme.

The first thing my daughter wanted to do on our return to Denmark was to eat a Cinnamon ‘snail’ or ‘Kanelsnegle.’ This is the kind of flaky pastry that is thin and wound round and round similar to the shape of a snail’s shell.

A cinnamon bun in Finland

Eating various kinds of cinnamon pastries is some kind of birthright in Denmark, and I have it. No question. I enjoyed a huge cinnamon bun in Helsinki one year. I didn’t eat anything else until dinner that day.

Cooking with Yeast

It is not that I have not cooked with yeast before. I have. I used to make my own bread but that was using baker’s fresh compressed yeast and it was brilliant. A never-fail kind of yeast that was guaranteed to make bread products rise beautifully. Not so the sad results of my experiences with the dried variety of yeast.

Nevertheless after 38 years, I decided it was too time to try again or hang up the dried yeast forever. And Cinnamon buns was the perfect tester. Ju-Lyn’s Cinnamon bun photographs looked perfect and the texture was soft and bouncy.

Furthermore, Cinnamon is so good for you. Packed with Antioxidants, cinnamon may lower blood sugar as well as assist in managing heart disease and inflammation in the body.

The Result of Cooking Cinnamon Buns with Dry Yeast

This was the moment of truth. Would they be hard as rocks or soft and bouncy?

I can reveal that I was over the moon with the result.

No aftertaste and a nice even texture on the rolls. They rose as the recipe suggested and Ju-Lyn’s clear recipe tips helped enormously. One minor adjustment would be to substitute water instead of milk but that is only personal preference.

Here they are:

If I can convince you to make them or at least experiment and you would like the recipe, you can find it at the blog: purplepumpernickel.

You can make cakes with cinnamon too.

#onecakeaweek at the Home by the Sea.

Sunrise

Also linking to the Virtual Tea Party, hosted by Su at zimmerbitch.

kitchen design
food, health

Starting a Sourdough

Forestwood

At the moment, fresh food is in short supply and it looks like we will have to find alternate methods of ensuring we have access to the wonderful array and choices of food that we have all grown accustomed to having in our pantry. Such as basics like bread, pasta and toilet paper…

D.i.Y is on the rise! Hopefully not with toilet paper but D.I.Y bread is very popular.

I have an idea to make my own bread, but I never had much luck with using dried Yeast.

Many years ago, I use to cook my own bread -it was a blend of whole wheat and white bread, something that you could not obtain in the shops in the 1980’s. It was delicious, albeit with large airholes in the bread but the taste was fantastic when it was just out of the oven!

I made this bread using compressed yeast. This method worked really well and I often made whole wheat fruit buns and fruit loaves and they all turned out fine. They looked a bit like this.

I don’t have any photos of mine to show. Clearly I wasn’t the shutterbug that I am now!

It seems you can no longer get compressed yeast – trust me I have asked around. Even the Bakers themselves, do not seem to use it any longer, so a sourdough starter maybe an alternative bread raising agent.

Plus sourdough is good for your gut biome as the information below indicates. (I know M-R will totally disagree if she reads this!)

Vitamin and Mineral-Rich

Sourdough is a great source of several minerals such as iron and selenium. Iron and selenium helps protect our immune system, cells, and tissue. Sourdough is also a great source of many B vitamins, which assist in proper nervous system function and help regulate our metabolisms.

https://www.cookinglight.com/eating-smart/nutrition-101/is-sourdough-bread-healthy

Prebiotics & Probiotic-like Benefits

Prebiotics are a type of indigestible fibre that keep your gut healthy by feeding the good bacteria, called probiotics, that live there. The presence of prebiotics in sourdough is thought to make it easier to digest than many other breads and the presence of probiotic cultures have shown to increase vitamin and mineral absorption. The probiotics themselves don’t survive the baking process, but the lactic acid bacteria produced during fermentation remains and provides the benefits. The presence of lactic acid bacteria in sourdough has shown to also contain antioxidant benefits, safeguarding your body against illness.

https://www.cookinglight.com/eating-smart/nutrition-101/is-sourdough-bread-healthy

I have researched the YouTube videos and I’m ready to begin making a starter.

It may be a complete failure but let’s see how we go.

This is day one – April 19

Sour Dough Starter

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup White Plain Flour
  • 1/4 cup whole wheat Plain Flour
  • 1/3 cup water – leave tap water to sit for an hour to remove any chlorine

That is it.

Now it is left to sit for two days in a warm place in a container with a loose lid.

I simply have to stir it tomorrow.