In the kitchen | Quark bread and coloured walls

 Kitchen work-in-progress

Bread-making work-in-progress.

Illustration by Heather Gatley in this book, which has nothing to do with the bread and which I feel ambivalent about.

One of the things I wanted to get back into this year was making my own bread. Ideally sourdough, but I haven't started the starter yet. I used to make wholemeal spelt bread all the time and have stocked up on spelt flour, but I wanted to try some new recipes as well.

The other day I had to use up some quark that was past its use-by date. I always pick up quark when I see it in the shop, as it is a German staple, but then I never know what to do with it apart from eating it like yogurt or the two ways our family used it - German cheesecake, and potatoes served with quark whipped up with sparkling water and chopped chives and seasoned with pepper and salt.

A quick search online yielded quark oil dough, which apparently is a well-known substitute for yeast dough. In Ireland you cannot buy fresh yeast in the shop, only from bakeries on request, if they are happy to give it to you, and I prefer not to eat too much food containing yeast and haven't bought any dry yeast in years, so I was interested in how the quark oil dough would turn out.

There are various recipes, all very similar, but I didn't follow any particular one - I used around 180g quark, 4 tablespoons milk, 8 tablespoons oil (rapeseed), 1 egg, 350g flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt to make a braided bread (updated to add: I bake it at around 160 degrees celcius for about 20 minutes, though it might take longer, depending on the oven; with our oven, if you followed the recommended time, you would burn everything). You can add some sugar and raisins to make it sweet. It was so quick to make - no waiting, unlike with yeast - and came out well, despite my half-a***d kneading and braiding (hence the rustic look). It took only a few minutes to put together, still tasted fresh the following day, and we loved it, so this is where any leftover quark will end up from now on, and it will be great for making pizza. It is fluffy and moist, and I can imagine substituting kefir for the milk (inspired by my sister).

In August it will be two years since we moved into this house, and we still have a lot of work to do. The kitchen is one of two rooms where we left the old floor, and we also kept the kitchen that was there, but painted it (as well as the airing cupboard, on the left in the photo) and took out all the hanging cupboards. It is the only room that has colour on two small areas of wall (everywhere else is some shade of white, pale grey or charcoal, or - half the house - still unpainted). A few weeks ago, with the help of John's brother-in-law, we finally connected a lamp to the cable that was awkwardly sticking out of the corner between the blue wall and ceiling. Usually there is a small armchair in that corner by the stove - currently in the sitting room, as we had visitors and not enough seats -, so it is now a reading corner.

Apple bread

Usually I wouldn't go near anything Christmassy until December 1st, but this week is the last week of the current term of my classes, so I wanted to bake something to go with our early Christmas coffee. One thing I made was Apfelbrot, a staple in our family in the lead-up to Christmas. It is a rustic cake/bread, moister than stollen, lighter than fruit cake and beautifully fragrant.

There are a lot of variations of this, and I have experimented with different nuts - chopped roasted hazelnuts instead of whole ones; almonds; mixed nuts minus the peanuts, as I felt they wouldn't work that well - but here is my aunt's recipe (which I just realised happens to be dairy- and eggfree):


   Apfelbrot 

• 750g apples (peeled and grated)

• 250g sugar [I use less, around 200g]

• 250g raisins

• 250g whole hazelnuts

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1 heaped teaspoon cocoa powder

• 1 dessert spoon dark rum

• 500g flour

• 5 teaspoons baking powder

1. Mix the grated apples and the sugar and let stand for at least six hours or overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 for fan-assisted ovens).
3. Put the raisins in a sieve or colander, rinse vigorously under a fully opened hot tap and drain. 
4. Add the raisins, nuts, spices, cocoa and rum to the apples and sugar and mix to combine.
5. Mix the flour and baking powder and sift onto the apple mixture. Mix to combine.
6. Pour into two medium-sized loaf tins. Bake for 45-60 minutes.

With the oven in our new house we have noticed that everything is cooked much sooner than expected. After years of having an oven where you had to add at least 20 minutes to the given time, this still surprises me every time. So I would advise checking after 45 minutes.

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Speaking of preparation, this year I even managed to buy a diary (Moleskine; the price seems to go up every year, but it is the best weekly planner I know of) before January. I am one of those sad people who get antsy and panic when they enter the new year without a diary (and yet I almost always end up leaving it until mid-January). So between the baking and planning ahead to such an extent that I have a planner for planning ahead I feel a bit more ready for the winter months.

Picking sloes

This morning we finally made it out to a quiet country cul-de-sac to pick sloes (not, as Matt suggested, on the side of a busy road - I had a panic attack at the thought of it). I wish we'd thought of it when my sister and her husband were visiting this week - it was fun.

It's November, and it was a chilly morning, but there is still heat in the sun.

It may look as if I was just taking pictures and Matt was doing all the work, but that's not true. I was faster! My hands have the scratches to prove it.

Since it was a spontaneous idea, I was not prepared. You have to lean into the thorny bushes, so tights, dress and cardigan are not the best items of clothing to wear... My sleeves kept getting caught in the branches.

This is what's left from last year's sloe gin. Matt was anxious to make more before it is gone completely, which is a real concern, as I am responsible for its dwindling (all those homeopathic quantities I have consumed add up).

It has the most beautiful colour, is velvety and sweet, but not sickly sweet. Here is Matt's recipe:

Sloe Gin 

Pick the sloes in October or November (two big handfuls to make a 700ml bottle). Remove the stalks and all the woody bits (and any leaves - I somehow picked lots of leaves...). Wash them (the sloes). Put them in the freezer overnight to mimic the effect of a frosty night (unless you pick them after the first frost). Defrost them the following day and prick each berry with a needle, so that the sloes can infuse the gin properly (although Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall says there is no need, as the cold bursts them anyway). Half fill a jar with the sloes, fill with gin, add about half the weight of sloes in sugar or honey, a few cloves, a bit of cinnamon (optional) and shake well. Shake every day for the first week, then every few days, and less often as time goes on. After a few months strain into a bottle. Any sediment will settle after a few weeks. Carefully decant into a clean bottle. Don't leave the sloes in the gin for more than six months.

Apparently sloe gin is also nice in berry compote - the place we went to for lunch today had a dessert including this combination, but I haven't tried it yet.

Painting and baking, two of my favourite grounding activities

On the easel:
It's the painting for my friend, who requested a version of a small painting I have in my house (this is the second time I am painting another version of it -might make a whole series). I started it this morning, and it still needs a lot of work. I'm not happy with the colours, had something else in mind. But I am glad I got started on it, as I thought it would be another unproductive lazy weekend this morning. That feeling dissipated as I began to paint.

Another thing that always lifts my mood is baking. It is so grounding, and it turns off all the chatter in my head. I made banana bread. This year I must have messed around with ten different recipes for banana bread. I make it so often because it's the best way to use up ripe bananas, in my opinion. This one isn't necessarily the best, but certainly one of the healthiest. I was off sugar for a few weeks recently and still try to consume as little of it as possible (she says after having devoured cake and cream in town today...), and I have noticed that the amount of sugar given in most recipes can easily be halved (or, of course replaced by honey).

This looks violent...

Spelt banana bread (heavily adapted from a recipe for banana cake by the Guardian's Dan Lepard):
-1 large egg
-55g brown sugar
-1-2 bananas, peeled, of course
-75ml grapeseed oil (or sunflower)
-75ml milk
-140g wholegrain spelt flour
-2 1/2 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp cinnamon
-dark chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Beat the egg, sugar and bananas until smooth and bubbly. Measure the oil and milk together in a jug, then beat into the batter mixture. Combine the flour, baking powder and cinnamon, then beat into the mix for two to three minutes, scraping down once. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into a 2 lb loaf tin (buttered and floured) and bake for 45 min. Let it cool, then dust with icing sugar. It tastes better the next day!

El cuadro es el que me encargó mi amigo, que quería una versión de un cuadro que tengo en mi casa. Es la segunda vez que hago una versión de ello, a lo mejor haré una serie. Empecé esta mañana, y todavía requiere mucho trabajo. No estoy contenta con los colores, había pensado en algo diferente. Pero estoy feliz que lo comencé, porque esta mañana pensaba que sería otro fin de semana sin lograr nada. Estos sentimientos se disiparon cuando pintaba.
Otra cosa que siempre me levanta el ánimo es hacer pasteles. Pone fin a todo el parloteo en mi cabeza. Hice pan de plátano. Creo que este año ya he hecho diez variaciones de ello. Esta no es la mejor, pero la más sana. No comía azúcar durante unas semanas, y todavía trato de no comer mucho azúcar. Noté que las recetas suelen dar una cantidad larga que se puede reducir a la mitad o más o sustituir por miel.
Pan de plátano (adaptado de una receta de Dan Lepard del periódico The Guardian)
-1 huevo
-55g de azúcar moreno
-1-2 plátanos, pelados, por supuesto
-75ml de aceite de pepita de la uva (o de girasol)
-75ml de leche
-140g de harina de espelta
-2 1/2 cucharitas de polvo de hornear
-1 cucharita de canela
-chispas de chocolate (opcional)
Precalentar el horno a 180°C. Batir el huevo, los plátanos y el azúcar hasta conseguir una masa suave. Añadir el aceite y la leche. Tamizar la harina con el polvo de hornear y la canela e incorporar a la mezcla, batiendo bien durante dos o tres minutos. Añadir las chispas de chocolate. Verter en un molde y hornear 45 minutos. Dejar enfríar y cubrir con azúcar glas. Este pan es mejor un día después de hacerlo!