Hands up if you have finished Christmas shopping?
The best part of a celebration is ________________
Gifting homemade with love edibles never goes out of style.
Why not give the gift of fermentation to our loved ones? A tasty treat + the gift of healing all rolled into one. What better Christmas gift could we ask for? The power of Giving!!
Happy gut-loving gifting and munching!
Memories are priceless! Chilling with good company, food, beverages, old tunes, and reminiscing. What more would you ask for?
Memories of my grandparents, cutting of the tunnel after the Christmas dinner (roast turkey with apple and nut stuffing, brined potatoes, and red sauerkraut). What a wonderful ritual!!!
The traditional meal was served on Christmas Eve. It was based on the stories not the turkey (came on the first day of Christmas), but herring salad … made from herring filets, beetroot, pickles, onions, apples, potatoes, and eggs. Served with fresh bread or toast.
In the ritual of Christmas Eve, the gate of the tunnel after the herring salad was the great event of the evening. Unfortunately, we do not have grandma’s tunnel recipe to share. Hence why it is so important to store and share family festive traditions. The tunnel was made over a couple of days with the sourdough process and fruit was macerated in rum and had bone marrow added in place of butter. The following sourdough Stollen makes two loaves … one to keep and one for gifting.
Traditions … Those little rituals passed down from generation to generation that help shape family by creating a sense of unity, warmth, and closeness.
They create memories of peace, love, happiness, and security
800 g raisins
100 g dried citrus peel
250 g slivered almonds
250 ml rum
1 kg flour … we use a mixture of banana flour
500 g refreshed sourdough
150 g unrefined sugar
250 g full fat milk (we are blessed with raw) (warmed and then cooled again to blood temperature)
150 g butter (at room temperature)
75 g lard (or use butter if you are lard phobic)
1 teaspoon salt
grated peel of one lemon / lime
dash of vanilla sugar
125 g melted butter
icing sugar to dust
The morning before making stollen you need to do two things:
1. Soak the fruit and nuts in alcohol / water kefir / kombucha. Cover and leave until the next day.
2. Refresh sourdough starter so you have 500 grams to use for the stollen. You may adjust the amount of flour in your final dough so that the final dough is soft but manageable.
Like a typical bun dough.
The evening before you want to make the stollen you need to do one thing:
1. Take 500 g of your refreshed sourdough and add 250 ml of warm milk (see above),
500 g flour and 1 tablespoon of sugar. You really need to work this with your hands to get it together.
It will be dry and hard to incorporate the flour. Try hard and do not worry.
Cover and leave at least 12 hours if not 16.
The morning you want to bake the stollen:
To the (now extremely bubbly pre dough) add 500 g flour, 150 g sugar, 150 g butter, 75 g lard, 1 teaspoon salt, grated lemon zest.
Knead for a good 10-15 minutes.
You may adjust the flour or the fat content.
If the dough is too slack adding a bit more flour. If it is too stiff add more butter/lard.
The dough must be soft almost like a brioche dough.
Let the kneaded dough rest in the bowl for 1 hour and then gently fold in the soaked fruit.
Put the dough back in a bowl, cover, and rest for 2 hours.
Take the dough out and divide into two pieces. Press each piece into a rectangle and then fold one side into the middle and the other side over the top.
Place the loaves on a baking tray on baking parchment and cover this and let rest for two hours.
Preheat the oven to 250 C. Place the stollen in and turn the heat down to 180 C.
Bake for 50 minutes.
When done, remove from the oven and brush with 75 g melted butter.
Sprinkle with vanilla sugar and dust with icing sugar.
Let cool completely and then dribble 75 g more melted butter and dust with more icing sugar.
Wrap well in baking parchment/greaseproof paper and let mature for 4-6 weeks.
Slice, butter, and have with a good herbal brew! And do not forget to deliver one as a special gift made with love.
It is always impressive to bring a loaf of homemade sourdough bread to dinner.
Why not mix it up by bringing a fig and walnut loaf? Recipes in Motherhood Bread book.
Festive BBQ Damper
Leave 6 cups flour mixed with 3 cups milk kefir overnight.
In the morning mix 1 teaspoon ground wattle seeds, add 1/2 cup coconut oil/ butter and work into flour mixture gently.
Mix in 1 cup cooked pumpkin and a little water if required.
Knead briefly and pat out into soft buns.
Bake for 1 hour 180-degree oven or, better still, place in cast iron bush oven and bake in a hole with hot coals for one hour.
BAKED VEGGIE OPTIONS … Grilled tempeh with pickled green mango and lacto-fermented relish – emu apples (native cranberry).
Baked pumpkin with foraged date water kefir and topped with 2 old salty fruits – olives and preserved bush lemons.
Quinoa sauerkraut salad + spicy kimchi and bush greens.
Stuffed Papaya / baked pawpaw bomb!! Stuffed with wild greens dahl, rice, and spice.
Study links fermented vegetable consumption to low COVID-19 mortality
Jean Bousquet (Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin) and colleagues investigated whether diet may contribute to the significant variation in COVID-19 death rates that have been observed between countries.
The study found that in some countries with low mortality rates, the consumption of traditional fermented foods was high.
So, eat your fermented veggies!! And happy Festive Season to you and yours!!
Love and bacteria, Xxoo Lynnie
May peace, love and joy be yours this season and all year long!
Lynnie Stein • Gut Goddess
The Lynnie Stein Show Podcast https://anchor.fm/lynnie-stein/