Braided Loaf with Vanilla, Lemon, and Cardamom

My grandmother taught me how to braid loaves. She used to make a big loaf and give me a bit of the dough so I could make my own miniature loaf. I knew how to braid three, four, and five-strain braids. I had totally forgotten just how delicious these braided loaves were until we moved to Germany and tasted Zopfbrot (as the Germans call a sweet braided loaf) at a friend’s place.

Zopfbrot you can buy at the baker’s normally has milk in it, so it’s a no-go for anyone with lactose issues. But I’ve come up with my own braided loaf recipe that I find even better than anything you can buy! The secret ingredient of my loaf is - of course - sourdough starter (see my previous post about creating your own starter). It makes the loaf very moist and tastier than the ones baked with commercial yeast. It also makes it keep longer. Using sourdough also makes baking more easy-going - you don't need to worry about the right temperature of the liquid or about the right order to add the ingredients.

And no, it does not taste sour at all! Just remember to refresh your starter about 3-4 hours before making the dough. But make sure your starter has doubled in volume - if not, wait until it has. Mine doubles in 3-4 hours, but that depends on many factors, such as the temperature in your kitchen!

Another secret are the spices I use in my loaf: a mixture of vanilla, lemon, and cardamom. I find it a winning combination - but feel free to use any other spices of your liking. You can also add sultanas in the dough (a handful or two).

Unfortunately I had also forgotten how to braid.. But I quickly learned it again -  there are excellent instructions on this subject in books like Professional Baking or on the Internet.

For one loaf you need:

• 350g flour


• 65g sugar


• 1 egg


• 150 water or milk


• 120g sourdough (refreshed 3-4 hours before)


• 1 tsp cardamom


• 3 tsp vanilla sugar


• grated zest of 1 small lemon (organic)


• 5g salt


• 75g melted butter

Combine all ingredients in a baking bowl, except for the butter. Knead until the dough has gained a bubblegum-like consistency, or about 10 minutes. Add the butter and knead about two more minutes, or until it has been absorbed in the dough.

Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and let ferment 8-12 hours.

On a baking surface covered with flour, knead the dough until bubbles have disappeared. Divide the dough in 3 (or 4, or 5) equal-sized parts and braid. (In the loaf featuring in the picture, I added a smaller braid on top of the main one.)

Transfer on a baking pan, cover with a kitchen towel, and let ferment 1-2 hours. Wash with egg yolk, decorate with almond flakes or pearl sugar, and bake in a preheated oven (200 C) until well-baked, or about 45 minutes.

Cool on a rack and serve sliced, either plain or with butter and/or jam.

This loaf keeps very well, at least one week. Or in theory it does :)

How to Create a Sourdough Starter in Four Easy Steps

What does this sweet braided loaf have to do with sourdough? Well, in my kitchen - everything! Instead of yeast, I use exclusively a sourdough starter in salty and sweet baking. And no, although it’s called sourdough in English, it doesn’t have to taste sour at all.

In a week or so, I’ll be posting more of my favourite sourdough recipes. But in order for you to try them out, you’ll need a sourdough starter of your own! Maybe you have a friend who can give you some of their starter (like I did before I dared trying to create my own starter), but if you don’t, this post is exactly for you! So, today I’ll explain how to create your own sourdough starter.

Creating a sourdough starter (or a levain, like the French call it) is ridiculously easy. You need flour, water, a glass jar and about one week of time - but this is only passive time, because actually you only need to watch it grow - seriously!

Ready? Here’s how to start your own sourdough starter in 4 easy steps:

Step 1. In a glass jar, mix together 100g whole-grain rye or spelt flour and 100g water. Partially cover with the lid but make sure some air gets in. Another technique is to cover the jar with a damp kitchen towel. Let the jar stand in room temperature until it starts to bubble. This will take about 48 hours or more. Make sure that the starter only fills the jar less than halfway - once your starter is well-established, it will double in volume in 6-8 hours after refreshing!

Step 2. Now it’s time for the first feeding or refreshing of your best-friend-to-be. Discard half of the starter, then add again 100g water and 100g whole-grain rye or spelt flour. Mix using a fork. Cover as before, and wait until it starts to bubble. This time it should take a bit less time.

Step 3. In the second refreshing, discard about two thirds of the starter, and add again 100g water and 100g whole-grain flour. Mix with a fork. Now your starter is almost ready to use! Wait once again until it starts to bubble - it should take 12-24 hours this time, or something might have gone wrong.

Step 4. When it bubbles, refresh as in step 3, but instead of whole-grain flour, use either type 550 or 1050 flour. A whole-grain starter is much more difficult to maintain - it should be possible, but all my experiences have resulted in a rotten starter after a couple of weeks. So, take it easy and go for the 550 or 1050 flour.

If everything went well, your starter should have a sour but not unpleasant smell - anything like yoghurt, slightly alcoholic, cider or apples is fine. If the smell is unpleasant, start all over. You might have done everything right, but it could have been the weather - sourdough started doesn’t like when it’s too hot or too humid.

Or you might have committed the biggest mistake ever and covered the starter! DO NOT COVER THE STARTER COMPLETELY, OR IT WILL DIE. This is why my first attempts resulted in a stinky, dead starter. Before I got the hang of it, I thought it was impossible or the result of some higher-level magic to create a starter. But trust me, it isn’t. Just let the starter breathe.

The French usually give their sourdough starter a name. What will yours be called? :)

Chocolate Muffins with Beetroot

Now this is what I’d call a perfect scam. Delicious chocolate muffins - that hide a considerable amount of beetroot in them! So far, I've been unable to motivate my kids to eat beetroot in any form. "It tastes good, just give it a try!" "It's healthy!" "See, it's pink, you love pink, don't you?" None of this would work. But today, they were begging for more!

Thanks to the beetroot, the muffins are very moist. Yet you don’t taste the presence of anything unusual. You have to try it out yourself to believe.. For a vegan version, change butter to vegan margarine, cream to a vegan cream, and leave the egg out.

For six muffins, you need:

• 90g butter


• 90g dark chocolate


• 150g cooked beetroot, pureed


• 80g sugar


• 20g cocoa powder


• 100g whole-grain spelt flour


• 1 egg


• 1,5 tsp baking powder


• 1 tsp vanilla sugar

Plus for the topping:

• 50ml heavy cream


• 50g sugar


• 10g dark chocolate

Set your oven to 200C. Melt butter with chocolate in a pan and set aside. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, and baking powder in a bowl. Add sugar and vanilla sugar, then chocolate-butter mixture, egg, and beetroot. Mix until smooth. Bake in a muffin pan for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the muffins cool on a rack.

In the meantime, prepare the topping:

Measure all ingredients in a pan. Heat until sugar and chocolate have melted in the cream, then let cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the mixture slightly thickens. Set aside, let cool a minute or two (so that you won't burn your fingers when spreading the topping) and using a spoon, spread over the muffins.

Serve with your favourite warm drink!

Pancakes with Carrot and Spinach

Pancakes are an excellent place to hide any veggies that the kids don’t want to eat. As a kid, I used to eat pancakes with carrot, spinach, and even blood in them (yes, you read right - just Google to find out that it’s a traditional Finnish dish and that I’m not kidding). A friend told me her kids sure would protest because of the green colour in spinach pancakes - mine don’t, but you still could consider eating in candle light to avoid this..!

Here’s the basic recipe, feel free to use any other veggies of your liking (and/or of your kids’ disliking):

• 400ml milk


• 130g flour


• 2 eggs


• 1 medium-sized carrot, peeled and grated


• 100g frozen spinach


• ½ tsp salt


• oil or butter for baking

Unfreeze the spinach. Measure flour and salt in a baking bowl, add milk and mix. Then add the eggs and vegetables and  mix again until smooth. Let the batter rest about 15-30 minutes. Then bake the pancakes on both sides in a frying pan (or two, to make the process quicker) with either oil or butter and set aside on an oven-proof plate - this is handy if you’re making a lot of them and need to warm them up before serving. Serve with sliced cucumber and tomatoes. Or with strawberry jam :)

Green Käsespätzle

When you go to a restaurant in Germany, there’s normally only one vegetarian dish on the menu: Käsespätzle.  Vegans have it even worse off (or better, depends on how you see it), the only vegan thing you usually get in restaurants being beer.

Spätzle is an amazingly tasty, easy and quick dish to prepare at home as well, as long as your kitchen is equipped with a special device for making Spätzle. I got one of these myself as a birthday present this year, and I’ve been using it quite a lot! Kids also love Spätzle - even my new specialty, Green Spätzle, which funnily enough tastes exactly the same as the normal one but is green! Now how could that be..? ;)

Count with 100g flour, 1 egg, 50ml water, and about 70g grated cheese (I use a mixture of Parmesan and local Bergkäse), per person, plus some 20g frozen spinach (melted first) if you want green Spätzle, and salt to taste. Spätzle is normally served with fried onions, so you’ll need one medium-sized onion per person, plus some butter and olive oil for frying.

Start with the onions: peel them and cut into thin slices. Melt butter in a pan with olive oil, then add onions and fry over a low heat until golden brown - this takes about 20-30 minutes. Stir once in a while.

Now it’s time to boil some 3 liters of water in a large pan and preheat your oven to 150 C. While you’re waiting for the water to boil, measure the flour and salt (I use 1 tsp for 500g flour, and that’s quite little, feel free to use more) into a baking bowl, make a hole in the middle, pour the eggs and water (and spinach) into it, and mix well - I use a spiral whisk to do this. If your water is boiling already, just add 2 tsp salt in it and you’re set to go!

Set your Spätzle maker on top of the pan and fill it with batter, then scrape the batter with a spatula into the boiling water. Repeat twice, stir, and wait until the Spätzle comes on top - it doesn’t take long, 1-2 minutes or so. Move the cooked ones into an oven dish and cover with a layer of grated cheese. Repeat until all your Spätzle is cooked and topped with the rest of the cheese. You can put your Spätzle in the oven for a couple of minutes to make sure all the cheese has melted and that your Spätzle is piping hot.

Decorate with fried onions and some parsley, and serve with a green salad.

Ratatouille that even picky kids will love!

Can you guess what evil powers hide in this innocent-looking tomato sauce? I served it a few days ago to my kids - while we adults were eating ratatouille. Well, at least our kids couldn’t guess it was actually their official number one least favourite dish. Pureeing ratatouille was a great tip I learned from a friend, and it really works. I don’t know how long it will take for my little ones to figure out my little secret, but hopefully by then they are as addicted to ratatouille as I am!

For about 4 portions you need

• one medium-sized onion, chopped


• 1 courgette and eggplant each, cut into smallish cubes


• 2-3 peppers (I prefer using 1 green and 2 red ones), cut into squares


• 500g tomatoes, peeled and chopped


• 2-3 garlic cloves


• juice of half of a lemon


• 2 tsp agave syrup


• salt and pepper to taste


• olive oil

Sauté the onions in olive oil, then add peppers, fry a couple of minutes, then add eggplants and courgettes and fry and additional 5-7 minutes. Now, add tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice and agave syrup, and salt and pepper. Let simmer over medium to low heat at least 45 minutes. Serve with pasta, rice, couscous, or a good bread! For kids (or any picky adults ;) ) puree it and serve with pasta - I love fusilli because the sauce penetrates the pasta in a way even my littlest one can’t possibly get the sauce out..!

If you’re making ratatouille in winter, use canned tomatoes instead. It might not be exactly as good as with fresh ones, but it is still very tasty!

Oven-baked Zucchini and Potatoes

Has it ever happened to you that you spend time and effort to prepare a dish you love, but when you proudly bring it to the table, the little ones suddenly lose their appetite - or worse, start crying in despair? Well, this happens to me a lot. Especially when it comes to vegetarian food. But it used to be worse - I came up with a couple of strategies to fool them into eating at least some of the things they officially hate. Four strategies, to be precise (well, five, if you count bribing): Hide it. Puree it. Decorate it. Or make the kids cook it themselves. (The two first ones work for adults as well ;) )

Today, I’ll share with you a recipe containing zucchini, the number one enemy of my kids. But surprisingly enough, when they get to slice the vegetables for this dish themselves, they somehow forget to complain about it. A small miracle..

For four portions, you need

• 600g potatoes


• 2 medium-sized zucchini


• ½ red pepper


• 500g fresh tomatoes, peeled


• 1 onion


• 3 garlic cloves


• 50ml hot water


• 1 tsp salt


• black pepper to taste


• 50ml olive oil


• fresh parsley


• dried oregano

Set your oven to 225 degrees Celsius. Slice (unpeeled) potatoes and zucchini into thin slices. Set them in an oven-proof baking dish. Chop onion, red pepper, and garlic and sprinkle over the potatoes and zucchini. Cut tomatoes into cubes and place on top, and add pepper and herbs (if using). Combine salt with hot water so that it dissolves, then add oil, and pour evenly on the vegetables. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, then reduce heat to 175 degrees, and bake 30 minutes more, or until the vegetables are tender. You may have to add some water in the meantime - check every once in a while!

Even small kids can do most of the slicing and chopping, and it’s fun! Except for the onion - that might be a bit trickier.

P.S. This blog already proved its usefulness: while I was having fun in Zurich, my hubby and 8-year-old son had done sushi themselves - they had looked up the recipe in my blog!