yourself: - FoodNerdy Recipes Management System

Sprouts and seedlings are real nutrient bombs. They provide many times more vitamins than full-grown plants and ensure taste experiences in the kitchen. Growing your sprouts, such as cress, rocket, or lentil seedlings, and using them to refine dishes such as quinoa salad with dried tomatoes, feta cheese and sprouts is becoming more and more popular here too.

Daily consumption of sprouts prevents spring tiredness and they can also provide us with vitamins and minerals in winter.

Not only is it really easy to grow your own sprouts, but it’s also a lot of fun to watch them grow. We reveal how successful sprouts can be grown.

Sprouts can be easily grown at home all year round. All you need is a germinating seed, a suitable germinating container, and fresh water.

The Right Germinator for Sprouts and Seedlings

There are now countless variants of germination devices and jars to choose from. Sprouts can be grown in an original way with an inclined jar and a sieve or cloth, or you can use professional germinators that automatically supply the germinating seeds with water.

There are also relatively inexpensive plastic or glass vessels that make it possible to pull different legumes, nuts, and seeds at the same time. It doesn’t matter which variant you choose. The following always applies: The size of the opening should be tailored to the respective germinating seed (e.g. a fine-meshed sieve when cultivating small germinating seeds, such as cress).

Tips for Growing Sprouts & Seedlings

The only thing that can go wrong is that the seedlings dry up or start to ferment or go moldy. With our tips, however, nothing stands in the way of enjoying sprouts.

It is best to let the sprouts germinate at room temperature.
The germination container should not be filled too full, as the seed needs space to germinate.
The seedlings should be rinsed regularly (2-3 times a day) with fresh, cold water.
The seedlings should be moist, but not in the water, otherwise, they can ferment or become moldy.

Food

Pick Wild Fruit From Nature or Grow It Yourself: Here’s How It Works

Don’t buy fruit but pick it yourself? That is possible because there is a lot of wild fruit that grows in Europe. In this article, you will find out what it is and how you can process it further.

Wild fruit in Europe: what, where, and when you pick it best

There is a lot of wild fruit in Germany that you can pick yourself. These include, among others:

Blackberry (May-June)
Elder (May-June: flowers, August-October: berries)
Pear (June-July)
wild plum (July-August)
Raspberry (depending on species; July-October)
Sea Buckthorn (August-October)
Quince (September)
Sloe (November-December)
You have probably already seen or heard of most of the varieties mentioned, but of course there are also some other varieties that are not so common.

Once you have found out what sorts there are, you can go and pick them. However, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

While you are allowed to pick in public areas such as parks, forests and fields, it is forbidden in nature reserves and on designated private property. Also, try not to pick along roads or next to chemically treated fields, as the wild fruit you find there may be contaminated with pollutants
Harvest only fully ripe fruit, because once picked they will no longer ripen
Only take as much of the wild fruit with you as you really need to avoid unnecessary food waste.
So that you don’t go out completely without a plan and look for possibly edible wild fruit, there is a website called Mundraub. On the website you will find a directory of different places where you can find wild fruit. Herbs, nuts and groups of other “mouth predators” are also listed. You can also look out for trees or bushes that are marked with a yellow band. As a result, the private owners invite you to pick them, as they cannot eat the entire harvest themselves.

So you can plant wild fruit yourself

Instead of picking wild fruit from nature, you can also plant it yourself. Of course you need a (Schreber) garden for that. Then think about the following:

What wild fruit would you like to plant?
In what form would you like to do this, for example a hedge or a tree?
What are the requirements for the wild fruit you want to plant and how does it grow in the nest?
Once you’ve done that, you can start planting.

If you don’t have your own (allotment) garden, just a balcony, that’s no problem either. You can also plant wild fruit plants such as wild strawberries, blueberries or cranberries on the balcony. More on this here: Creating a balcony garden: Simple step-by-step instructions and growing fruit on the balcony and terrace.

Wild fruit recipes to try

When you harvest wild fruit fresh, you often end up with large amounts of fruit. You can process them in different ways.

The most common methods are in the form of jam, compote, cake, juice or jelly. You can also boil the fruit to make it last longer.

Some wild fruit varieties also help against certain ailments in processed form. For example you can:

Dry blueberries and then use them against diarrhea
Juice elderberry, which relieves feverish colds
Prepare sloe juice, which helps with loss of appetite

Food

Rosehip Tea: Effect, Application and How to Make It Yourself

A rosehip tea made from the peel of the fruit brings many health benefits. Here you can find out more about the effect, application and own production of rosehip tea.

Rosehip tea: These active ingredients make rosehips a medicinal plant

Rose hips have been used in natural medicine for a long time. They owe this to their many valuable active ingredients. These include, among other things:

1. Vitamin C

Depending on the variety, 100g of rose hips (ready-to-eat mass) bring up to 1,500 mg of vitamin C. The native rose hip even beats exotics such as the kiwi, which in comparison has just 45 mg of vitamin C per 100g. Vitamin C is important for health because it:

strengthens the immune system,
protects cells from free radicals,
helps to form hormones and messenger substances,
supports the regeneration of skin, hair, nails and connective tissue,
is important for cholesterol and fat metabolism,
helps absorb iron better.

2. Lycopene

Lycopene is a plant pigment that is also extremely valuable for the human body. Because it has an antioxidant effect and thus prevents cell damage.

3. Pectin

Rose hips are rich in pectins. These are dietary fibers that can have a slightly laxative and detoxifying effect in the human body and therefore help with digestive problems and kidney diseases.

Due to these and other valuable ingredients (including vitamins A, B, E and K, flavonoids, calcium, magnesium, iron), the rose hip is considered a local super fruit with great healing effects and health-promoting potential.

Application of rosehip tea

Rosehip tea made from dried peel has a long tradition and is still very popular today. However, the effect of rosehip tea has not been sufficiently scientifically proven, but is based on the experience of folk and naturopathy. Without a doubt, rosehip tea is a wholesome drink. Rosehip tea is often used to:

Relief from digestive problems: The contained pectins increase the volume of the intestinal contents and help to move them quickly through the digestive tract.
Convalescence: Thanks to the many vitamins and minerals in the fruit, rosehip tea can help the body regain strength after illness.
Immune boost: The high vitamin C content makes rosehip tea healthy and stimulates the immune system. In this way, rosehip tea helps the body to fight off disease-causing viruses, bacteria or fungi.

Relief of gastrointestinal complaints: You can also use rosehip tea if you have diarrhea. The pectins in the shell bind water, swell and thus solidify the intestinal contents. Irritated gastric mucosa walls can be soothed with rose hip tea, because the pectins, flavonoids and tannins it contains have a protective effect on the mucous membranes.
Relief of urinary tract problems: There are a lot of fruit acids in rose hips. These have a diuretic effect and thus promote the excretion of pollutants and viruses that cause urinary tract problems.

Recipe: How to make rosehip tea yourself

Rosehip tea is very easy to make yourself. You can either buy already dried rosehip peels in a health food store or organic shop or harvest the rosehips yourself and make a tea. Homemade tea has the advantage that it definitely does not contain any additives such as colorings and artificial flavors.

Make your own rosehip tea

Harvesting rose hips: Rose hips are ripe in late autumn when the fruit yields slightly when pressed with a finger.
Wash and core the rose hips: First wash the rose hips, then remove the stalks and buds. Then cut the hips in half and remove the seeds. There are hairs on the seeds that may cause skin reactions. Therefore, as a precaution, wear (reusable) household gloves. After scraping, wash the shells thoroughly again to remove any hairs.
Drying the rosehips: Now you can dry the rosehip shells. This should be done as gently as possible and without too much heat. It is best to leave the rose hips spread out in a warm place for a few days until they are completely dry. Check regularly that the skins are completely dry.
Storing rosehips: After drying, you can chop the shells up a bit and store them in an airtight container.

Prepare rosehip tea

Brewing: Pour 250ml of hot water on about 2 teaspoons of dried rosehip peel and let the tea steep for 10 minutes.
Consumption: In order to benefit from the greatest possible health effects of rosehip tea, you should drink the tea regularly over a longer period of time. In this way you can strengthen your immune system in the long term.

Food

Make Xylitol Candy Yourself: Sugar-free and Tooth-friendly

Xylitol candies are a great alternative to sugary lozenges: sugar-free, tooth-friendly, and pleasantly minty-sweet. We’ll show you how to make and vary your own xylitol candy.

Xylitol is a sugar substitute that has long been used as a sweetener in chewing gum and toothpaste. According to the AOK, it is particularly suitable for this because it does not cause tooth decay and even protects the teeth from acid-related decalcification. It also contains about half the calories of regular sugar.

So just the right thing for you if you want to snack on your teeth in a way that is gentle on your teeth and low in calories. We’ll show you how to make your own xylitol candies from just two ingredients and how you can vary them.

Tips on ingredients and tools

Xylitol is also often called xylitol or birch sugar. It’s always the same substance, but it’s not exclusively made from birch. For industrial use, xylitol now comes mainly from corn, other types of wood or even straw.
Buy high-quality xylitol: Best fair-grown organic xylitol, like the one from Avocadostore**. This is obtained from corn.
Birch sugar candies are perfect for sucking on after a meal for dessert as they can prevent plaque build-up.
You can vary the taste with essential oils. You can get a good selection of organic essential oils at Avocadostore**. Make sure the oils are edible.
Instead of pouring the candies into a “board” as in the recipe and then breaking them into crystal-like pieces, you can also pour the heated mass into a suitable silicone mold in step four. You can get sweets in all sorts of shapes, such as on Amazon**.
Reusable silicone mats, such as those from Waschbär**, are not only a good alternative to baking paper for xylitol candies. You can use them without fat or oil for baking. Tip: Before you buy such a mat, think about whether the purchase is worthwhile for you. If you’re only going to use them once or a few times, then better borrow one from a friend. You can also use recycled baking paper, for example at Avocadostore**.
Xylitol itself has a virtually unlimited shelf life, but loses its flavor over time. Depending on what you added, your candy should last for several months if you haven’t eaten it by then.

Tooth-friendly xylitol candies: A simple recipe

Ingredients:

100 g xylitol
20 drops of essential oil

Directions:

Melt the xylitol in a small saucepan over medium-high heat.
Add the essential oil you want your candies to taste like. Candies without added oils taste just as sweet and fresh as xylitol. Of course, you can also mix the oils according to your taste.

Spread the mixture on sustainable baking paper or an alternative. Make sure you don’t spread it too thinly, otherwise the candies will easily splinter later.

Allow the xylitol mixture to cool for several hours or overnight. Then you can pop them out of the mold or break the board into small bite-sized pieces.

Tips to vary color and taste

Color: When you mix the candy mass, you can add non-toxic and tasteless colorants. We recommend turmeric powder for yellow, currant or rosehip powder for red, or matcha for green. You can get them all at the Avocadostore**. Depending on the powder, they also influence the taste. So make sure these flavors match the oils you use.
Taste: In step three, start mixing with the essential oils and find out what you like. Classic combinations often consist of a citrus component, such as tangerine, and a spicier component, such as cinnamon.

What are the benefits of xylitol?

Xylitol is a so-called sugar alcohol – the body metabolizes it without releasing insulin, so that the birch sugar does not significantly increase blood sugar. This is why xylitol is also a good substitute for sugar for diabetics.

By the way: sugar alcohols have nothing to do with conventional drinking alcohol.

Two other popular benefits of birch sugar: It doesn’t promote tooth decay. Instead, it is even said that it promotes dental health. If you consume xylitol instead of sugar, less plaque should form, it probably slows down the growth of caries bacteria and, according to the AOK, protects the teeth from acid-induced decalcification. Additionally, xylitol has about half the calories of table sugar. The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment rates xylitol as an acceptable additive and only points out that excessive consumption can have a laxative effect.

Caution: Xylitol is highly toxic to dogs and other pets. By the way, cats are not included. Be careful not to drop anything that the animals could swallow.

Lifestyle

Coffee: 7 Beauty Tips to Do Yourself

Coffee is a popular drink for many people. For some, it means a caffeine kick in the morning that lets us start the day productively. For others, coffee is a ritual where family and friends come together, exchange ideas and discuss problems and concerns. Almost every household has a filter coffee machine, but more and more people want to buy a fully automatic coffee machine.

But coffee or coffee grounds and the caffeine they contain can do much more than just taste good. It is well known that coffee and coffee grounds are true miracle cures that can be used in a variety of ways in the home and garden. For our beauty tips, however, it doesn’t matter whether you own a professional coffee machine or brew your coffee with a hand filter.

We explain to you why a peeling with coffee grounds for the face, a peeling with coffee grounds for feet and hands, a full-body peeling with coffee and a coffee grounds hair treatment or coffee grounds as lip balm should not be missing in any self-care routine.

Face mask

Coffee or coffee grounds in face masks works wonders. Because the antioxidants counteract the skin aging process. The caffeine it contains stimulates blood circulation and makes the skin look fresher and younger. The coffee grounds from the professional coffee machine act like a scrub that removes dead skin cells.

Simply mix 2 tsp coffee grounds, 2 tbsp honey and 2 tbsp olive oil into a mask and apply evenly to face and neck. Avoid the eye area. Leave the mask on for 10 to 15 minutes before washing it off with lukewarm water.

Conditioner

The antioxidants contained in the coffee from the professional coffee machine protect against hair breakage. A coffee hair treatment restores strength and fullness to dull and fine hair. The caffeine promotes hair growth by stimulating the hair roots. But beware: coffee has a coloring effect, so this hair treatment should only be used on dark hair.

And this is how it works: Simply prepare a cup of coffee with the professional coffee machine as usual and let it cool down. Now massage this, including the coffee grounds, into the scalp and hair and wait 20 minutes. Then rinse your hair thoroughly with lukewarm water.

Eye mask

Anyone who has ever had a bad night’s sleep knows this: dark circles under the eyes. But if you use your coffee grounds wisely, you can quickly remedy the situation. Simply take the coffee grounds from the office coffee machine home with you, apply under your eyes and leave on for five minutes. The caffeine constricts the blood vessels and draws fluid from the swollen areas. Puffiness and dark circles are reduced. Finally, carefully remove the coffee grounds with lukewarm water.

Body scrub with coffee grounds

A body scrub with coffee can be mixed with different ingredients. For a coffee grounds scrub, simply mix a few teaspoons of coffee grounds with honey and/or oil (jojoba oil or olive oil). By applying it to the skin, dead skin cells are gently removed and at the same time cell renewal is stimulated. With regular use of a peeling with coffee grounds, the complexion is significantly improved. In addition, the peeling with coffee helps to prevent cellulite. After work, empty the office coffee machine and then do something good for yourself at home.

Hand soap

Who doesn’t know this: Even some time after cooking, your hands smell of onions, garlic and the like. Washing your hands with soap doesn’t really help. Very uncomfortable. That’s where a coffee grounds scrub comes into play. Brew yourself a coffee with the office coffee maker and enjoy while the coffee grounds cool down. Then simply rub your hands with coffee grounds and rinse off. The odors from cooking have already disappeared. People who rent a fully automatic coffee machine have the advantage of being able to quickly get a scrub made of coffee grounds at any time.

Coffee grounds scrub for feet

Our feet also need a little attention now and then. To give them a treat, make a quick coffee grounds scrub by mixing coffee with olive oil. Just like the body scrub mentioned above, the coffee grounds scrub removes dead skin cells. In addition, it reduces the annoying calluses and prevents them. Thanks to the caffeine, the blood circulation in the feet is stimulated. The olive oil ensures supple and soft skin.

Lip balm

Our lips suffer and become brittle not only in winter. Summer also takes its toll on our lips. The air is dry and salt water when bathing dry them out. That’s why they need a little maintenance every now and then. With a mixture of honey, oil and coffee grounds from the professional coffee machine, dry and chapped lips are made soft and supple.

As you can see, many beauty tips can be easily put into practice with coffee grounds and there are many possibilities for a peeling with coffee grounds. If you do not yet own a professional coffee machine and are considering renting a coffee machine, we will be happy to help you. Let our experts advise you!

Food

Date Sugar: This is How You Make the Healthy Sweetener Yourself

Date sugar is made from dried, finely ground dates. You can also easily make the sugar at home in the oven. You can find out exactly how this works and why we can only recommend date sugar to a limited extent here.

If you want to sweeten in a healthier way, you can use date sugar. This consists only of dried and finely ground dates. Date sugar has a more subtle sweetening power than conventional sugar, but also has a fine caramel note that goes particularly well with sweet baked goods. On the other hand, if you want to sweeten drinks, date sugar is not suitable. The fine date powder does not dissolve in liquid.

Since date sugar consists only of dried dates, it still has some healthy ingredients. For example, it is high in fiber. However, the crystalline date sweetener is still a sugar, so you should use it sparingly.

Also with regard to the ecological balance of dates, it is advisable to use date sugar consciously. Dates come from far away areas like Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia, so they have to travel long distances in transportation. Dates are also susceptible to pest infestation, which is why pesticides are often used.

If you make your own date sugar, you have the option of buying dates that are as environmentally friendly as possible. We recommend dried dates from organic farming that does not use chemical-synthetic pesticides.

Make date sugar yourself: Here’s how it works

Making date sugar yourself is very easy. In addition to the dried dates, you only need an oven and a powerful blender. First let the dates dry completely in the oven and then use the mixer to pulverize them.

You can do this step by step:

Halve the dates and remove the stone if necessary.
Place the dates on a wire rack lined with parchment paper or a more sustainable parchment paper alternative.
Allow the dates to dry through at 100 to 120 degrees Celsius.
Depending on the oven and the residual moisture content in the dates, the drying time can vary, from 60 minutes to two or even three hours. Place a wooden spoon between the oven and oven door to allow moisture to escape.
The dates should start to harden in the oven, but not burn. So check them regularly and reduce the heat if necessary.
Let the dates cool down completely overnight in the switched off oven with the oven slightly open. This makes them very hard.
Put the completely cooled dates in a blender and process them into a powder.
The resulting date sugar may start clumping from the humidity, but you can still use it.
The date sugar can be stored in an airtight container for up to eight weeks.

Make date sugar yourself: Healthier, but energy-intensive

Because the oven time can get long and the oven door is left open during this time, constantly escaping heat, the power consumption of making your own date sugar is quite high. Therefore, drying the dates in the oven can not only be expensive, but also increase the ecological footprint.

With a few tips, however, you can make the eco-balance of homemade date sugar a little more positive:

Do not use so-called soft dates, but dates that are as hard as possible, for example the Deglet Nour variety. The harder the dates are, the less time they need in the oven.
Don’t just halve the dates, cut them into quarters. They also dry faster this way. Be careful not to burn the dates.
If you have a dehydrator, you can use that. Note, however, that while most dehydrators use less electricity than the oven when drying, the power consumption is not necessarily low here either.
In order not to have to dry them at all, you can soak the dates overnight and then puree them with a little lemon juice. This is how you get a date puree that you can use for many things just like the solid date sugar.

Food

Make Ginger Tea Yourself: How to Make It

Ginger tea is easy to make yourself. Its positive effect on colds, travel sickness, migraines and digestive problems makes ginger a versatile home remedy. Learn how to make ginger tea from fresh ginger here.

Make ginger tea yourself from one ingredient

Making ginger tea yourself is not witchcraft. For a cup of ginger tea you need:

a piece of organic ginger root – the slightly shriveled ones are usually a little hotter and therefore better suited for tea.
boiling water
some (vegan) honey if needed

Making the ginger tea

Wash the ginger root.
Don’t peel the ginger. Many important ingredients that make up the healthy effect of ginger are hidden in the peel.
Cut off a piece of the root, about 3 to 5 centimeters in size.
Either cut the piece into thin slices or grate it finely with a mandolin (online e.g. at **Memolife).
Put the ginger in a cup and pour hot water over it.
Let it sit covered for about ten minutes.
Complete! Depending on your preference, you can sweeten it with honey or a vegan alternative.
Enjoy the tea as hot as possible and sip it before or with meals.

Ginger tea variants

Ginger tea is very tasty on its own. But if you make ginger tea yourself and like variety, you can also add some freshly squeezed lemon juice to your tea. This provides even more vitamin C and strengthens your immune system.

But various herbs can also give your homemade ginger tea a special flavor. Just try the following:

peppermint
thyme
lemon balm
curry herb
rosemary

Ginger Tea: Common Mistakes

Even if there is no art in making ginger tea yourself, you should avoid a few mistakes:

Cut the ginger too early: So that no valuable ingredients are lost, only cut the root just before it boils.
Wrong water temperature: You should prepare the ginger tea with boiling water – unlike green tea, for example, which only needs temperatures of 60 to 90 degrees.
Peel ginger: As already mentioned, the peel contains valuable ingredients that are lost when peeled.
The wrong ginger: It is important to use organic ginger, precisely because the peel is also cooked. With conventional ginger, pesticides would otherwise get into the tea.

The Effect of Ginger

Ginger has a long tradition as a spice – and the root has also played an important role as a remedy, especially in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for thousands of years. The reason for this are the ingredients, especially the gingerols and essential oils, which are among the pungent substances. Gingerol’s chemical structure is similar to that of aspirin and has been shown to have anti-inflammatory, expectorant and analgesic properties. The pungent substances stimulate the gastric juices and stimulate digestion.

The root is also very popular with us, especially as a home remedy for colds. However, ginger is also a real miracle bulb. Among other things, she helps with:

Nausea (also with travel sickness) and nausea
digestive problems
headaches and migraines
loss of appetite
menstrual cramps

Food

Make Chocolate Yourself: Snack with a Clear Conscience

You can easily make chocolate yourself instead of buying it. With just a few ingredients and a few simple steps, you can make the candy at home. You can vary them according to your taste.

Make chocolate yourself: recipe with 5 ingredients

You can buy all kinds of chocolate in the supermarket, but it tastes so much better when you make it yourself. You also know what ingredients are in it. For two bars of chocolate you need these ingredients:

100 grams of cocoa butter
100 g baking cocoa
1 packet of vanilla sugar
2 tbsp sugar
a pinch of salt

Alternative: Instead of industrial table sugar, you can also use cane sugar, honey or agave syrup. Sugar substitutes such as erythritol or xylitol are also suitable.

In addition to the ingredients, you will need these items:

a small pot,
a big pot
and a chocolate mold.

Tip: You can get cocoa butter in health food stores or health food stores, for example. Make sure that you buy both them and the cocoa in organic quality and from fair trade. When you buy organic food, you can be sure that important ecological standards are met. Cocoa is also one of the foods that you should rather buy fairly, since poor working conditions often prevail on conventional plantations.

Step-by-step instructions for making homemade chocolate

Follow the basic recipe below to make your own chocolate:

Fill the larger pot with water and place or hang the smaller one in it. Add the cocoa butter to the small saucepan and increase the heat. Melt the cocoa butter, stirring, until it is completely smooth and there are no lumps.
Stir in the cocoa, vanilla sugar and salt. Add the sugar or your chosen sugar substitute and stir until creamy.
Fill the chocolate into matching chocolate molds and let them cool in the fridge. Alternative: If you don’t have any chocolate molds or don’t want to get them, you can simply spread the warm chocolate mass on a piece of baking paper and let it dry.

Refine chocolate

If plain chocolate is too boring for you, you can refine it. You can find inspiration for it here:

dried fruits: cranberries, raspberries, raisins
Seeds: pumpkin, sunflower
Nuts: hazelnuts, walnuts, peanuts
cornflakes
crumbled biscuits
gummy bear
chocolate lentils
chili flakes
grated coconut
Cinammon
Mini marshmallows

Add the ingredients of your choice to the chocolate once it’s creamy. Then you can let them cool as described above. You can combine different toppings for a special taste experience.

Food

Lievito Madre: This is How You Make the Italian Mother Yeast Yourself

Have you ever heard of Lievito Madre? Here you can find out what makes this sourdough variant special, how you can make it yourself and what delicious things you can bake with it.

Lievito Madre means mother yeast in German. It is the Italian variant of the sourdough known in Germany. You can make it yourself relatively easily and use it to bake various foods such as bread, rolls or pizza. Similar to yeast or baking powder, Lievito Madre ensures that the pastries are nice and fluffy. It has a much milder taste than German sourdough, so you can even use Lievito Madre for sweet pastries.

The next section shows you an example recipe to grow your own Lievito Madre. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get it right on the first try. It takes time and experience to learn how the dough reacts and how best to handle it.

The sample recipe is designed so that you don’t have to throw anything away. Many recipes use relatively large amounts of ingredients and require regular disposal of appropriately sized leftovers, but this is food waste that you can easily avoid. You don’t need 100 grams or more flour for the first batch, you can also do it with less. However, dough residues always occur in the process. It is best to collect these in a separate container in the fridge and use them later when baking.

There are many different ways to schedule a Lievito Madre. Using dried Lievito Madre as a base, you can make a baking batch in just one day. Without it, the whole process takes up to 25 days at room temperature. But you can easily speed this up by placing the dough in a place that is around 28 to 30 degrees Celsius. In winter, for example, this can be with the heating, or you take a cooler and put the dough in it with a bottle of hot water, which you change regularly. In just five days at best, follow the steps below to create your own Lievito Madre.

How to make the Lievito Madre approach

Ingredients:

225 organic wheat flour
115ml water
0.5 tsp organic olive oil
0.5 tsp organic honey

Directions:

Day 1 Of the ingredients you need today: 30 g flour
15 ml lukewarm water
0.5 tsp honey
0.5 tsp olive oil Put the flour in a bowl and add the remaining ingredients. First mix the ingredients roughly with a spoon and then knead them thoroughly by hand until a smooth dough is formed. It is really important here that everything is mixed and there are no lumps. Form the dough into a ball and cut a cross in the top with a knife. Then place it in an easy-to-clean jar with a lid. Just put the lid on loosely. Place the dough in a warm place and let it rest for 24 hours.
Day 2Today you need: yesterday’s dough
25 ml lukewarm water
45 g flour Mix your dough with the water until it dissolves. Then add the flour and knead again very carefully. Place the dough in a loosely sealed jar and keep warm until tomorrow. Today, and every day that follows, it’s important to make sure the dough doesn’t spoil. If mold does form, you’ll have to get rid of it entirely and unfortunately start over. Good dough smells pleasantly of flour, yeast and slightly sour. Even a slightly alcoholic smell is not bad.
Day 3 to 5 On each of these days you will need: 50g of dough from the previous day (collect the rest in a separate container in the fridge)
25 ml lukewarm water
50 g flour Mix your dough with the water until it dissolves. Then add the flour and knead again very carefully. Place the dough in a loosely sealed jar and keep it warm on the third and fourth day until the next day. On the fifth day, the batch is placed in the refrigerator with the lid closed for further storage. The Lievito Madre should now, on the fifth day, have doubled in size compared to the previous day and be nicely bubbled. If this is not the case yet, then continue the procedure of the last few days a little longer, sometimes it just takes more time.
You can simply use the dough leftovers from the past few days for a pastry. They are very mild, so they fit in bread or roll dough as well as in sweet yeast dough.

How to properly care for your Lievito Madre

You did it and bred your first own Lievito Madre. So that you can enjoy it for a long time, it is important never to use it up completely when baking and to feed it regularly. The more dough you have, the less often you need to feed him, generally every eight to ten days is recommended. You can also use the intensity of the smell of alcohol as a guide: the more intense it is, the more urgently the dough needs more flour and water.

14 days without feeding are normally not a problem for the Lievito Madre. If you’re going to be away for a longer period of time, you’d better dry it off beforehand. To do this, only add a very small amount of water when refreshing, so that the dough is very tough.

Feeding is very easy. Take the dough out of the fridge well in advance so that it comes to room temperature. Over time, a harder layer has formed on the surface. You can remove these and simply mix them in when baking. Mix the soft part thoroughly with 50 g flour and 25 ml lukewarm water.

If you are already planning to bake a specific recipe, you can adjust the amount of flour and water to get the amount of Lievito Madre you need plus a small reserve for storage. The important thing is that you always use twice as much flour as water.

Then put the batter in a fresh jar. Wait for the dough to double in size, then place it back in the fridge with the lid on.

Lievito Madre and Sourdough – What’s the Difference?

The difference between Lievito Madre and sourdough lies in the ratio of flour to water. With classic sourdough it is 1:1, i.e. just as much flour as water. For Lievito Madre, on the other hand, you use twice as much flour as water, i.e. the ratio is 2:1 flour to water.

Another difference is that you add olive oil and honey to the base for Lievito Madre, sourdough is always just flour and water. The types of flour are also different. Rye flour is usually used for sourdough, while wheat flour is used for Lievito Madre.

As a result, Lievito Madre is less acidic and contains more natural yeasts than a classic sourdough, making it more versatile. If you already have a sourdough starter in the fridge, you can easily make a Lievito Madre out of it. The necessary steps are:

Weigh the sourdough starter and add the same amount of flour and half the amount of lukewarm water. With 20 grams of sourdough, for example, 20 grams of flour and 10 milliliters of water.
Knead everything thoroughly and place the dough in a clean, loosely sealed container.
Place the dough in a warm place for 12 hours.
Repeat steps 1 through 3, adjusting the amount of flour and water, two or three more times. The dough should double in volume within 6 hours.
In the further procedure, i.e. use, storage and feeding, you don’t have to pay attention to anything other than with the directly applied Lievito Madre.

If you’re really in the mood for baking now, you’ll find a recipe to try in the next section.

How to make focaccia with Lievito Madre

Ingredients:

70 gLievito Madre (fed the day before)
350 gorganic wheat flour
280 ml lukewarm water
1 tsp salt
1.5 tbsp organic olive oil
Herbs, olives, tomatoes or other favorite ingredients

Directions:

Knead the flour thoroughly with 230 milliliters of the water to form a dough and leave covered for 30 minutes.
Add the Lievito Madre and the salt and gradually add the remaining water while kneading for at least five minutes. You can do this by hand or with a food processor fitted with a dough hook.
Grease a flat baking pan with some olive oil.
Spread the dough out in the pan and let it rise, covered, in a warm place for at least two hours. If you have more time, you can also put it in the fridge overnight. This way the result gets even better.
Press small indentations into the dough from above with your fingers.
Brush the dough with the olive oil and spread the olives, tomatoes, or whatever you have chosen on the dough.
Bake the focaccia in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 to 30 minutes. It should be lightly browned. Actual baking time will vary by oven.

Food

Mince Pies: How to make English Christmas tarts yourself

Mince pies are a traditional Christmas pastry from England. They are filled with dried fruits and Christmas spices. We show you a recipe with a vegan version.

Mince Pies or Mincemeat Pies are small English Christmas tarts filled with chopped dried fruit. While the mini pies were originally filled with meat (hence the name), today the sweet version is almost exclusively found. The base is shortcrust pastry or puff pastry, which is filled with mincemeat – a mixture of dried fruit, nuts, sugar, brandy, apples and spices. You can also find mincemeat in supermarkets in Great Britain, but the filling tastes best if you make it yourself.

Tip: Buy the ingredients for your mince pies in organic quality if possible. In this way you support ecological agriculture and ensure that no chemical-synthetic pesticides get into the baked goods and the environment. Recommended organic seals are, for example, those of Demeter, Naturland and Bioland.

You can also easily prepare the pies vegan. Simply use vegan butter or coconut oil instead of butter and replace the egg with two to three tablespoons of cold water. You can use plant-based milk to spread the mince pies.

Make mince pies yourself: the recipe

Ingredients:

160 g cold organic butter (or vegan butter)
275 g flour
80 gicing sugar
0.5 tsp salt
1organic egg
100 g dried figs or dates
50 g dried apricots
50 g almonds
1 apple (sour)
100 g raisins
50 g lemon peel and orange peel mixture
1organic lemon
50 g (vegan) organic butter
75 g coconut blossom sugar (or brown sugar)
2 teaspoons gingerbread spice
3 tablespoons brandy
1 organic egg (for brushing)
1 tbsp (vegan) milk (for brushing)

Directions:

Cut the cold butter into small pieces and place in a large bowl with the flour, powdered sugar, salt and the organic egg. For the vegan version, you can replace the egg with two to three tablespoons of cold water. Knead the ingredients into a shortcrust pastry using your hands or a food processor. Place the dough, covered, in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
For the filling, finely chop the dried figs or dates and the dried apricots. Roughly chop the almonds and cut the apple into fine cubes. Place the ingredients in a large bowl along with the raisins, candied orange and lemon peel.
Wash the organic lemon in hot water and grate the zest into the dried fruit mixture. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and add that as well.
Melt the (vegan) butter and stir it into the filling together with the remaining ingredients – coconut blossom sugar, gingerbread spice and brandy. Tip: If you don’t want to use alcohol, you can add apple or orange juice to the filling instead of brandy.
Grease a small muffin tin and preheat the oven to 180°C top/bottom heat. Of course you can also use a classic muffin tin, the larger pies will take a little longer in the oven.
Knead the cold shortcrust pastry until smooth and roll it out on a floured work surface. Using a glass, cut out small circles that are slightly larger than the diameter of the muffin cases. You can use small cookie cutters for the top of the pies or cut out circles with a slightly smaller glass.
Place the circles that will form the bottom of the mince pies in the molds and lightly press the shortcrust pastry. Prick the bases with a fork to prevent the dough from puffing up as it bakes. Fill the molds with the dried fruit filling.
Whisk the egg with a little milk and brush the edges of the pies with it. Place the cookies or the smaller circles of dough on the tartlets and press them down lightly. Brush the pastry lids with the beaten egg as well. You can use plant-based milk for the vegan version.
Bake the pies for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let them cool down a bit and serve the mince pies warm or cold sprinkled with a little powdered sugar.

Mince pies: tips for cooking

Prepare mincemeat: The filling tastes even better if you prepare it a few days earlier or the day before and store it covered in the fridge. This allows the flavors to unfold better.
Swap out dried fruit: You can swap out the dried fruit for the filling as you wish. For example, if you don’t like raisins, you can use more figs or dates instead. Cranberries, cherries or dried mango also go very well with the mince pies.
Make gingerbread spice yourself: If you don’t have gingerbread spice for the mince pies at home, you can mix different Christmas spices. Cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg should not be missing.