Archives for the month of: January, 2015
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Buckwheat pancakes

January 18, 2015 //
0

push push buckwheat

Push Push couldn’t believe that Mouse and Devil published a pancake recipe yesterday. A while ago she promised Monkey she would give her recipe to Mouse as soon as eggs were added to the ingredient list. Naturally, when she found out she was overlooked she came flying into the kitchen, hands on hips, ready for a fight. But Mouse calmed her down and said “you can never have enough pancake recipes. There are so many different ways of making them and pancakes are such a favourite.” She pointed out that the recipe yesterday was an absolute basic one. Push Push agreed and said “pancakes are really brilliant when you first have a go in the kitchen. Absolutely nothing can go wrong. It makes me so cross when I see these expensive pancake mixes on the shelves in the supermarket. They contain dried milk and dried egg, dried everything, all processed. But the hardest work is baking them and you still have to do that yourself.”

Mouse agreed and said “All you need is flour and egg and milk or water. You mix everything together and bake it in the pan on the stove top. You can add sweet or savory toppings and it’s all done in 5 Minutes.”

“Ah well, my ones aren’t quite as quick. I use sparkling water and buckwheat flour to make them healthy” said Push Push, who is really worried about her blood pressure. She poured some buckwheat flour onto a plate. “That is a very fine flour” said Mouse after inspecting it. “Where do you get that?”

“You can buy it at the supermarket nowadays. It has a lovely nutty flavour. It actually isn’t wheat at all, but is related to rhubarb. And it has no gluten. Therefore you can’t use it on its own in pancakes. To make the batter stick together you need another flour. I usually use spelt, but you can use normal flour. “

Push Push also doesn’t use milk, but sparkling water. The end result is a more spongy, slightly brittle pancake rather than a thin elastic one.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour (eg spelt) 1 cup buckwheat flour, 1 egg, 1 ½ cup of sparkling soda water. (you can also use water with lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of baking soda). Oil or butter for the pan.

Method:

Mix the flour and water to make a smooth batter. Add the egg and let it rest for 30 Minutes. (While waiting you can prepare the topping to go with the pancakes.)

Heat oil or butter in a pan over medium heat and add a ladle full of batter. Spread the batter around the pan so it coats the bottom nicely. Wait until it has dried from the underside, flip over and bake for another couple of minutes until it’s brown on this side as well. Put on a plate and cover with a clean teatowel to keep warm while you continue with the rest of the batter in the same way.

Push Push likes savoury toppings and she just tossed a few chopped garden vegetables like beans and zucchini and silverbeet stems in a pan heated with butter. Then she added the silverbeet leaves to wilt and finished it off with a dollop of sour cream.  This concoction went into the buckwheat pancakes. Before she served them she sprinkled grated cheese on top. But the pancakes can also be served with sugar and cinnamon.

buckwheat pancakes

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Categories Art, Books, Comedy, Hand Puppets, recipes

Monkey’s pancake business

January 17, 2015 //
0

monkey pancake

“Can I have pancakes now?” whined Monkey.

“No you can’t!” said Devil quickly, before Mouse could say yes. Obviously Devil had a bone to pick with Monkey. “Why not?” asked Monkey bewildered.

“Did Judy really say she can’t make pancakes?” Devil asked and looked directly into Monkey’s eyes. Monkey looked at Mouse and then to the floor. It seemed as if he was shrinking a little.

“No, she didn’t, did she?” Devil answered instead and Monkey knew he had been found out. “Did you actually talk to her? Or did you just use her name to put more weight behind your demand?”

Monkey continued looking at the floor and quietly said “maybe.”

The whole story didn’t sit right with Devil and he had figured out, when you are 350 years old, of course you must know how to make pancakes, particularly if you have such a fine pan.

“And worse,” Devil continued “you then called her racist!” Monkey looked up, eyes wide open. “I did not!” he cried defensively.

“You know” Devil said emphatically and wagged his finger right in Monkey’s face “we cannot condone this.”

“But I didn’t, honestly!” Monkey whimpered.

“Shush! It is such an old trick, when you don’t get your way: Just blame it on obvious differences and then call the other one a racist. That kills any discussion.”

“But I didn’t!” Monkey repeated. Mouse, who had listened to the conversation nodded, put her mitten on Devil’s arm and corroborated. “No, he didn’t! He said, as long as it is not motivated by racism, he can live with it.”

“But he still told us a fib to get his way” Devil said adamantly. “I can’t tolerate this either!”

“So, what shall we do?” Mouse asked.

Devil looked in the air for a while thinking about a punishment, then he said “Okay, Monkey has to apologise to Judy for using her well-known name to gain an advantage!”

“I apologise!” Monkey called out instantly. “And I didn’t call her racist. At least I didn’t mean to!”

Devil relaxed a little, but wasn’t entirely convinced it was good enough.

“Can I have a pancake now?” Monkey asked timidly. Devil didn’t answer but Mouse came round. “It’s good enough for me.  Fun, Peace and Pancakes, what else do you need?”

Ingredients

2 cups of flour, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of water or milk or a mixture of both, salt (optional). Butter for the pan

Method

Pour flour in a bowl, add salt, mix in half the liquid with a wooden spoon. Do this little by little, thoroughly stirring to avoid lumps. Add the egg. Stir continuously until the egg is well integrated and then mix in the rest of the water. It should be a thin and runny batter. Add more water if need be.

In a pan heat up the butter with a medium heat until it melts and just starts to brown, then scoop a ladle full of batter into the pan. Tilt the pan around so that the bottom is well covered with the batter. Then wait until it dries from the underside. Flip the pancake over and bake for a further two minutes or so until it is golden brown.

Even though Monkey got his wish, he wasn’t happy eating the pancakes. We are not sure whether the recipe was too basic or because he was told off.

 

 

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, recipes, Social Network

Scones

January 16, 2015 //
0

Professor scones

Professor was cross with Pig. He had to cringe at the ignorance of his mate. “Potato.” he said and shook his head. “If you only wouldn’t pig out on everything edible that was offered.”

As you may know the two of them are an item. Professor is the one who usually does all the talking in their relationship and Pig does all the nodding. Now Pig nodded again, but everybody could see he only wanted to be helpful. It is well-known that Pig is socially awkward and gets very stressed when he has to listen for too long. That is why he usually just nods. Of course he wants to be a valued member of the group (nodding again) and when, for a change, he believes he knows what’s going on he  often jumps in, boots and all. Often it turns out he only listened to half the story. To his defense here, he honestly thought the Dedes were working on a normal cookbook, not one limited to flour-and-water recipes.

He hung his head and admitted sadly: “I don’t know a recipe with potato flour.”

“It doesn’t need to be potato flour, dumb head” Professor scolded. “None of the recipes require potato flour. Just normal flour, nothing special.” But when he saw his mate becoming distraught again he added “how about your scones?”

“Oh yes, scones,” said Pig, eyes lighting up. “Let’s do scones.” Pig ran to the kitchen drawer and leafed through the contents to find his recipe to hand to Mouse.

Scones are basically soda buns. Like the soda bread, they are very easy to make and ready in no time flat. 5 Minutes prep time and 20 Minutes baking.

Mouse looked at the recipe. “I see you have baking soda and baking powder in your recipe. Can you explain the difference?” she asked interested.

“Please don’t ask Pig” Professor said “He wouldn’t know!” Then he gave the explanation himself. Baking soda is natriumbicarbonate. It is a leavening agent that makes the goods rise when an acid liquid is added, e.g. butter milk or lemon. The acid reacts with the baking soda and in the process carbon dixoid bubbles – like in soda water – are generated. Without some sort of acid, baking soda will simply not be able to do its job. Baking powder on the other hand contains not only natriumbicarbonate (baking soda), but also cream of tartar, which is an acid component   to make sure the reaction takes place. (Often it also contains starch as drying a agent.) If you want to mix it yourself use 1 part baking soda  and 2 parts cream of tartar.

Any dough made with baking soda requires speedy handling, as the described reaction will start as soon as the acid liquid is added. If the dough is mixed for too long or is allowed to stand for a while, the baking soda will fizzle prematurely and as a result the baked goods will be hard.

Ingredients

2 cups of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, 30g butter cut in small pieces, half a cup of water, half a cup of milk (water and milk together should make one scant cup. I usually add a dollop of plain yoghurt as well for extra acid)

Method

Preheat oven to 200 °C

Place the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl and mix well with a fork. Cut pieces of butter into the bowl and rub into the flour with your finger tips. The flour will become moist and grainy. Make sure the butter is well distributed throughout the flour.

Combine the water and the milk (and yoghurt) in a cup. Make a well in the middle of the bowl of flour. Pour all the liquid in at once (keeping just a little bit for glacing), then quickly work the flour with your hands. The dough should be quite moist and sticky, but firm, and keep it’s shape when placed on the baking tray.

With your hands scoop six evenly sized helpings onto the baking tray dusted with flour. Brush the scones with the remaining milk/water mix.

Bake for 20 mins.

 

 

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Categories Art, Books, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, recipes

Give me a break

January 14, 2015 //
0

pig potaoe

They all stuffed their tummies with the delicious pizza and couldn’t move for a day. Mouse, being extremely conscientious about the project, tried to get them back on track and when Pig came in the kitchen dragging a big sack behind him, she asked for the next recipe.

“I want to have poatoes now!” he exclaimed and unpacked his bag on the bench. “If I have to eat one more thing made from water and flour…”

“Potato flour I would accept” said Mouse strictly. “But actual potatos? No!” she continued and pointed to the door.

“Bossy boots” he mumbled, and left.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, recipes

Pizza

January 13, 2015 //
0

L'artiste pizza2

While they all loved L’Artiste’s pizza bread, it is not the same as a pizza. They begged him to come back the next day and run a pizza making workshop.

The first thing they learned is that people have different preferences when it comes to their pizza base. There is no right or wrong, just different likes. L’Artiste favours a thin and crunchy crust, as do most of the Dedes. If you like it more spongy, simply allow the dough to rise longer between kneading.

It takes L’Artiste exactly one hour from entering the kitchen to having the pizza on the table. So it’s not really a quick dinner, but time flies as the process is broken up into different tasks. He also considers pizza making a social event and loves having other people help chop up toppings while they chat away.

The dough is exactly the same as for the pizza bread yesterday, but because it is covered with juicy sauce and toppings it will need 20 minutes to bake. Once the pizza is in the oven there is plenty of time to clean the kitchen, throw together a nice side salad or simply have a glass of wine in anticipation. And when the kitchen is nice and tidy, the evening can begin!

Ingredients for one tray of pizza (two large or 4 small slices)

2 cups of flour, a scant teaspoon of dry yeast, 3/4 cup of warm water. Various toppings and grated cheese.

Method

Put the flour in the bowl and add half of the water and the yeast. Now you can do other chores for 15 minutes while the yeast becomes active. When the yeast is foamy, mix it with the flour, add the rest of the water and knead to an elastic dough. Let it rest to rise.

Switch the oven on to 2000C and attend to the sauce that goes on top of the base. L’Artiste usually fries some diced onions in olive oil and adds a can of diced tomatoes (yes, a can! He read somewhere that canned tomatoes have more lycopene than fresh tomatoes, but watch out for the salt content of the canned ones!). Then he adds the mediterranean selection of herbs… rosmary, sage, oregano, thyme..

While the sauce reduces, he chops the toppings everyone wants, or else whatever he can find in the fridge (at least a red pepper, onions and garlic). If he has helpers he just supervises this task and someone has to grate the cheese. He prefers a combination of edam cheese and goat cheese. But either or will do, though the correct cheese topping for a pizza is mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella is hard to come by where the Dedes live. The wonderful thing about pizza is that anything goes. If you like it, put it on!

After the chopping and grating is done, knead the dough again, roll it out to its final size and place it on the baking tray dusted with flour. Pour the sauce on, spreading it around. Then distribute the various toppings. Lastly, put the cheese on top. If the pizza is shared, and it mostly is, L’Artiste adds what everyone wants to different sections (There is always someone who doesn’t like olives, while the next one doesn’t like salami). He then cuts the pizza before it goes in the oven, which makes it easier to divide up once it is baked.

Bake for 20 minutes at 2000C.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, recipes, Social Network, workshop

Pizza bread

January 12, 2015 //
0

sunny pizza

“Can we have pancakes now?” Monkey asked after he had just devoured three pita pockets filled with cheese and carrots.

“No, you have to wait” said Sunny who just happend to be passing by carrying a big flat box. “We haven’t even mentioned the most important food in the whole wide world.”

“What could this be?” Mouse wondered and looked at the list of recipes covered so far. There were crackers and pasta and buns and bread. All the basic foods you need.

“C’mon, what does everybody love?” asked Sunny expectantly.

“Chocolate?” answered Mouse a little unsure.

“I give up.” Sunny dropped the box on the table and threw his hands in the air. “What do you think is in my box? Pizza of course! ”

“Pizza!”, “Pizza!”, “Pizza!” the Dedes shouted excitedly and Monkey knew immediately he wouldn’t have a chance in hell of getting a pancake recipe today. “But then we can have some pancakes, right?” Mouse ignored his comment and turned to Sunny. “You’re right, that should be next so give me your recipe.”

“What recipe?” Sunny looked surprised. “I don’t make pizza, I eat it.” Mouse wondered how Sunny could afford to buy pizza all the time as he doesn’t have a job. He wants to be an artist and is waiting for his break. In the meantime he still lives at home and his mum does all the cooking when he doesn’t have pizza.

“Oh, dear.” Mouse felt like screaming, but then L’Artiste stepped forward and saved her from just doing that. “I know how to make pizza. I make it quite often in my studio. It’s perfect to eat between brush strokes.”

And then he told us what he puts on his pizza: salami and ham and olives and garlic and onions and red peppers and chilly and capers and anchovies and pineapple and artichokes and chicken and mussles and scampi and all covered with a thick layer of grated cheese. Everybody knew he was just dreaming as most of the time he is poor. Then he makes a pizza base, drizzles a little olive oil on top, sprinkles it with italian herbs and chops up a clove of garlic or two to finish it off. “That is delicious too, you know” he said, and we knew exactly that is what he has most of the time.

Even though it is a yeast dough, you don’t have to wait too long for the dough to rise, unless you want to have a really spongy pizza bread. The Dedes prefer the crunchy ones.

Ingredients

2 cups of flour, 1 scant teaspoon of dry yeast, 3/4 cup of warm water, garlic, herbs and oil to flavour

Method

Preheat the oven to 2000C.

Pour flour into a bowl, make a well in the middle. Add half the warm water and add the yeast. Let sit for at least 10 minutes so the yeast becomes active, which you can see when it becomes frothy. You don’t want to let it sit for too long.

While the yeast is doing its thing, chop garlic, place in a cup and pour oil over it. Add herbs to your liking. There is absolutely no precise measure for that, anything goes.

Mix the slushy yeast with the flour and add as much of the remaining water needed to make a dough that is not sticky. Knead well. Let sit for five to ten minutes and knead again.

Divide the dough into two balls and roll out with a rolling pin.

In a pizza shop the pizzas are always nice and round. Not at L’Artiste’s place. He rolls them out to a shape that lets him fit two side by side on a standard size baking tray. It might be a heart, or the map of Australia, whatever his creative mind comes up with. Then he places them on lightly floured tray and pours the oil/garlic/herb mixture on and spreads it around with a brush.

Bake for 12 mins.

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Categories Art, Books, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, recipes, Social Network

Pita bread

January 11, 2015 //
6

bobby pitay

“Guys, guys, guys. Don’t you realise we’re doing the same thing over and over again with just a few minor changes?” asked Monkey.

“That’s so not true.” defended Mouse. “While there are plenty of similarities there are also heaps of differences.”

“What about a good pancake recipe? I love pancakes! And Judy – you know the wife of Punch – would like to make pancakes too.” The other day Monkey was talking to Tony’s puppets in Australia. To his surprise he discovered that Judy had a pan, but thought it was only good for whacking Punch. When Monkey asked her to make some pancakes, she didn’t know how.

“Maybe she should try Devil’s flat bread first. We will have pancakes soon, but you need eggs… and milk and sugar.”

“Egg yes, but not necessarily milk” answered Monkey “I am really dying for some pancakes with thick slices of banana on top. Doesn’t Push Push the elephant have good recipe?”

A heated discussion ensued. In the end the consensus was that pita bread should be made first, as this bread is made from flour, water and yeast only, with an optional dash of oil and salt. Bobby the policeman was happy to share his trusted recipe.

“I like to make my pita in the oven” he said, “but you also can make it on the stove top if you don’t have an oven. That’s what I did when I still was at police school. I was boarding then and only had a cooker with one element.”

“See, Monkey” said Mouse.”Judy could try this recipe too. If she’d used the pan properly maybe Punch wouldn’t be quite so obnoxious.”

Ingredients

2.5 cups flour, 1 cup warm water, 1.5 teaspoons dry yeast, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon olive oil (optional)

Method

Put the flour in a bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in half the water and add the dry yeast. Let sit for 10 mins until the yeast is sloshy. Then mix the flour and water to make a dough and add the remaining water in the process. Move to a clean work surface and knead. Resist adding more water. It needs to be a dry and heavy dough. Knead for at least 5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. When making pita bread, this is the only time you knead throroughly so you might as well do it properly.

Clean the bowl and place the dough in it. Put a little olive oil in the bowl and swipe with the dough, so that the entire surface is covered in a thin oily film (this is not absolutely necessary, but it keeps the dough from drying out). Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and let rest for at least 1 hour in a warm place.

Heat the oven to 2200C

When you are ready, deflate the dough gently and put it on a lighly floured work surface. Divide into 8 balls and flatten them out into a thick disk by rolling them out with a rolling pin to the size you want. Sprinkle with more flour if necessary. Place them on a floured baking tray and let rise for another 5 minutes or so (while the oven is heating up). It is important that the oven is properly heated as the instant heat will help the bread to puff.

Just before you put the tray in the oven, flip the pieces over. Once they are in the oven, it should take around 3 minutes for them to puff up. They are ready when they have finished ballooning. But you might keep them in the oven a little longer to brown them a little. I bake my ones between 5 and 8 minutes. When they come out of the oven they are hard, but they soften when they cool down.

If yo don’t have an oven, you can puff your pita in a pan. Lightly grease a skillet and heat it up high. Place one of the pieces of dough in it and wait until it is puffed. Flip over and brown the other side. Press the edges down with a spatula if neccessary.

Left over pitas keep in an airtight bag for several days and can be heated up in the toaster. You also can freeze baked pitas for up to 3 months. Place some waxed paper between the individual pieces when freezing.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Books, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, recipes

More buns

January 10, 2015 //
3

techno man and milk bun

“With your buns you just add water to the flour” remarked Techno Man. “I wonder if my recipe is different. It has been in my family for generations.”

“Let me guess,” said Mouse, “ you are using butter and milk, right?”

“That’s it!” said Techno Man. “We use butter and milk. I think the recipe is really good and it comforts me that it is so old. It’s tried and trusted, it can’t be wrong! So, why are you using only water?”

Mouse explained that the original idea of this recipe collection was to demonstrate that you can easily make these staples at home, quickly and cheaply. The collection will become the Artist’s Survival Cookbook. The Dedes are annoyed to see a loaf of bread  in the supermarket costs $7 or a tiny packet of Grissini is $5. For the same price Mouse can buy a 5kg bag of flour and feed the troops for a couple of weeks. Of course, everybody knows that white flour is not the healthiest option. It basically has no nutritional value at all. It’s lack of nutritients is second only to sugar. Unfortunately the majority of baked goods you get in the supermarket and in most bakeries are made from white flour with a good measure of salt, sugar, hydrogenated fat, preservatives and other additives. The Dedes’ reasoning is that making it yourself doesn’t take long and you know exactly what’s in it. Once you realise how easy it is you might become more adventurous with different flours and flavours.

If you live on a tight budget, and you haven’t done much cooking before, it doesn’t make sense to start with a complicated meal. You don’t want to buy unusual ingredients, use a small amount and leave what’s left in the packets to rot in the pantry when you are not even sure if your meal will turn out okay or not.  Why not start with the simplest of recipes. If the no-egg pasta recipe doesn’t work, you might have to throw away 30c of flour (but what can go wrong with this recipe anyway?) If it works, you saved yourself $1.50 or so. If it is not to your taste, try egg pasta. (I have yet to find a person who doesn’t like my egg pasta, apart from a vegan or a gluten-intolerant person, of course! But I wouldn’t cook it for them).

You can only win. Involve your kids in making the food. Flat bread, for example, is so easy and they will love it. Next time you are in the shop, have a look at how much a packet of flat bread will set you back. I’ll bet if you make it according to our recipe it will cost you a fraction of that and it’s healthier. And not only will it feed you, it will also give you quality time with the kids.

“Are you actually answering my question, Mouse?” asked Techno Man impatiently.

“Ah, sorry” she said. “Was I raving on again? I am really passionate about the subject, you know. Of course there are other recipes, but using milk and butter makes the buns just a little bit more expensive.”

“But also better”

“Let the cooks be the judge of that. You never know what people like. Milk and butter make the dough heavier and not everyone favours that. I personally like the water ones. Other people prefer them because they are lactose intolerant or choose not to eat animal products.”

“I really like them as a condiment with a hearty soup. It makes a complete meal” Techno man insisted. “You are definitely right there.” Mouse agreed.

Ingredients

3 cups of flour, 50g butter, 250ml milk, 1 teaspoon of dry yeast, salt (optional)

Method

Warm up milk and butter in a pot. Make sure the milk is lukewarm only and the butter melted (If it is too hot you have to cool it down, as heat kills the yeast.) Pour the flour on to a flat surface. Make a well in the middle and pour in the milk/butter mix, add the yeast and let sit for 15 minutes. It will dissolve but won’t get quite as sloshy as with water and no butter. Knead to an elastic dough. Place the dough in a bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and let it rise for one or two hours.

Preheat oven to 200 0C. Knead again and form oblong buns. Place on a baking tray dusted with flour and let it rise again while the oven is heating up. Brush with milk and cut the surface lengthwise before you place them in the oven.

Bake for 20 minutes.

“I have to ask you” said Mouse after she had read the recipe. “Why does it say oblong buns? And you slit them lengthwise. Is there a reason?”

“None at all. It is just that it is such an old recipe and that is the classical look of a milk bun.” answered Techno Man.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Books, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, recipes

Pretzels

January 9, 2015 //
0

deutsch pretzel

Granddad Max and Mouse were about to put a new batch of buns in the oven when Deutsch Fraulein came running along. “Stop, stop” she shouted waving frantically with her arms. “I want to show you something! This is my favourite recipe…”

Mouse and Granddad Max nearly dropped the tray. “Wait your turn.”

“No, really!” Deutsch Fraulein was short of breath and puffing. “You can turn these into pretzel buns and they will taste so much better.”

“Pretzel buns? What’s that?” Granddad Max obviously thought it was a new thing.

“You know, like the nibbles, the little pretzel bows you can buy in a packet. Where I come from they are much bigger, just like normal buns.” And then Deutsch Fraulein admitted that she missed them a lot. She had to learn how to make them as you couldn’t buy them here. Now you can, though, in a few places, but they’re so expensive Deutsch Fraulein can’t afford them.

“Are you sure it is the same recipe?” asked Mouse.

“Yes, absolutely” said Deutsch Fraulein. “The difference is, before you place them in the oven, you boil them for 1 minute in a solution of baking soda and water. Sounds strange, I know. Just trust me.”

Granddad Max and Mouse looked at each other and weren’t quite sure what to make of it.

“Just run the whole recipe past me again” asked Mouse. She wanted to check if it really was the same dough.

Ingredients

2.5 cups of flour, 1 cup of warm water (or half water and half milk) and 1 teaspoon of dry yeast. For the pretzel solution: 1.5 liters of water and 2 generously heaped table spoons of baking soda and rock salt to sprinkle on top

Method

Pour flour into a bowl, make a well in the middle and add half the water and the yeast. Let sit for 15 minutes until the yeast is sloshy.

Knead to a dough on a flat surface, adding the rest of the water. Then put it back into the bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and put in a warm place until it has doubled in size.

Knead again, divide into 8 balls and let rise once more.

Preheat the oven to 200 0C. At the same time prepare the pretzel solution: in a large pot pot bring water to the boil. Be very careful when you add the baking soda to the boiling water as it will foam.

After the buns have risen again, boil them in the baking soda solution for 1 minute. Then place on baking paper on a tray. Sprinkle with rock salt. You will need the salt to get the flavour. If you don’t want to eat so much salt you will have to scrape it off after baking.

With a sharp knife, cut an x on top of each one and then bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

“But why do you make pretzel buns not pretzels?” asked Mouse.

“It’s just a different shape” admitted Deutsch Fraulein “Keeping the shape of a pretzel when you are moving the risen pieces to the pot and back is a little trickier, but not a problem with a skimmer” She took one of the pieces of dough and turned it into a real pretzel.

“The boiling in the brine makes it a pretzel. You can make any shape, of course, but nothing beats the real pretzels with the thin crunchy bit on one side and the softer part on the other where you can put your spreads.”

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Categories Art, Books, Comedy, Hand Puppets, Life, recipes

Best Buns

January 8, 2015 //
4

 grand dad buns

“I can’t eat anything wholemeal” remarked Granddad Max and pointed to his dentures. Everybody looked at him. He has this most amazing smile. They didn’t quite understand why wholemeal should interfere with his false teeth. Witch stood behind him, shook her head, and mouthed so only the others could see, “excuses, excuses” then added quietly, “he is just not used to it.”

“I can understand Granddad,” said Mouse. “The Soda bread is a bit tough on the teeth.” She put her arm around him and asked interested, “so what is your favourite recipe then?”

“I quite liked the buns Witch made last year. Would you mind if I re-published her recipe? ” he asked. “I’ve never cooked a thing in my life, you know, the kitchen was Grandma’s domain. God bless her” he added.

“Go ahead then old man,” encouraged Mouse, “but make it a bit shorter than Witch did. She waffled on a bit then.” You should have seen the look Witch gave Mouse after that comment. “Only trying to be helpful” she mumbled. “Right” said Mouse in an attempt to soften her earlier words “and you were of course explaining so someone who had never baked before could understand. But now that we have tried so many recipes I think our readers get the picture.”  Witches Buns

Granddad Max produced a print-out of the recipe from his pocket, smoothed it out, and started to edit what Witch had said.

“Good editing job”, said Mouse when he was done and she had read it. “That’s easy, I will make them for you and we’ll see if you got it right. Watch me, and maybe you can do them yourself next time.”

And then she made it. But something wasn’t quite right. The dough was too dry and Mouse had to add a little bit more water. “What happened here? Did you ever try your recipe?” she asked Witch.

“Of course I did” said Witch. “But I just add water until it feels right.”

“You have to be a bit more careful with your descriptions, Witch.” Mouse scolded her. “The readers don’t know yet what feels right! I have changed it to 2.5 cups of flour now instead of 3. There is not a lot of difference, but I think that is better. ”

“But with a yeast dough, it is easier to add water if necessary than to add flour” Witch defended herself.

“If the dough is too moist, just knead it longer. The flour will take up the excess water”

Ingredients

2.5 cups of flour, 1 cup of warm water and 1 teaspoon of dry yeast.

(makes approx 8 buns)

Method

Pour flour into a bowl, make a well in the middle and add half the water (make sure the water isn’t hot, as hot water kills the yeast) and add the yeast. Let sit for at least 15 minutes so the yeast becomes active, which you can see when it foams.

Add the rest of the water and knead to a dough, first in the bowl, then on the bench. Knead very thoroughly for five minutes. Put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and put in a warm place to let it rise until it has doubled in size. In a cooler place this process will take longer, but it will happen.

After an hour or so knead again. It doesn’t need to be as long as the first time, it’s just to get the air out. Then let rest until it has noticeably risen again.

Preheat oven to 200 0C.

While the oven is heating up, knead the dough one more time and divide into 8 balls. Place the balls on baking paper on a tray (I use a silicon mat as it can be reused again and again) and let it rise again. 10 minutes should be enough or until the oven is properly preheated.

Brush the buns with water and cut an x with a sharp knife on top of each one. Sprinkle with poppy seeds or sesame seeds. (Not for Granddad Max though, he added with a smile)

Bake for 20 minutes.

 

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Categories Art, Books, Fun, Hand Puppets, recipes
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