St. Nik Breads ... Weckemaennchen. The perfect simple holiday gift of love!

St. Nikolaus Day is officially December 6th, but it's never too late to have fun making these, er, ummm, renegade versions of German holiday breads also known as Weckemaenwchen in honor of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra. My friend, Renate, grew up in the Rhineland region of Germany, and she taught me to make the official version of these traditional breads, which are supposed to look like St. Nik. Somehow, they get away from us every year, and they have taken on a life of their own.
They make a nice breakfast treat or you can dry them for festive decorations. Or, if you're like me, take pictures of them and make that your holiday greeting card ... from our quirky family to yours!

Anyway, in early December, you'll find the ones that look like St. Nik lining the display windows of bakeries throughout Germany, where doting grownups buy them to give to the little ones in their lives. My friends, Jen, Cece, and Renate will take you through the steps of making them and then you'll find a recipe below. These make fabulous gifts! Have fun!!!!

First roll your dough into an oval.

Then cut the arms.

Then the legs.

 

 And then spread arms. Remember, he will puff up considerably.

 

 Snip with sisissors like Jen if you want Santa to look like a fish ....

 

 A floury Cece adds the finishing touches to her gal/guy.

This is Renate. She already loves her Weckmann.

To get raisin eyes to stick, snip a slit with sissors and scooch them in.

Risen and ready to go into the oven.

This is Renate's recipe for the St. Nik breads. Someday, I'll have to do a post about her unbelieveably wonderful recipe book she made for her family.

To make the breads:

You can use any bread recipe you like that is a firm kneadable dough without little pieces of raisins or nuts. Renate uses the traditional sweet recipe above. Jen added an egg to her batter for a Challah type dough. I use this variation:

The night before I bake, I mix up the dough and let it sit out on the counter for an hour or two before refrigerating. In the morning, you'll take it out of the fridge, take it out of the bowl, warm up the bowl by washing with hot water, and put it back in the re-buttered warm bowl to rise.

 

1 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar (you can use less, but a little helps them color nicely)

Zest of an organic lemon makes them extra fragrant

2 Tbs. soft butter

4 cups all purpose unbleached flour (and more to knead)

1 1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. yeast (I use instant, use more yeast if you want a faster rise)

And that's it. Combine milk, water, sugar, lemon zest and butter. Then add 4 cups flour that's been mixed with the salt and the yeast. Let the dough rest, covered with a towel 30 minutes. Knead in a Kitchen Aid about 5 minutes or on a board about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic, adding enough flour so that it holds its shape and doesn't stick. If using a mixer, add enough flour so that the dough just clears the sides and bottom of the bowl but is still soft. If you use  bread flour, you will have to knead longer to develop the gluten. Put the dough in a buttered bowl and cover with a plate or put it in a big zip lock bag, or cover it with plastic. Let it rise until doubled or refriegerate overnight. Then shape as instructed above. Best to put a piece of parchment on your baking sheet and form your St. Nik on the pan. Let the breads rise about an hour or so until puffy. Right before baking, brush with an evenly applied egg wash (an egg well beaten with a spoon of water). Bake at 350º until golden.

Holiday Open House and Winter Cooking Classes

Grab an Apron and Let's get cookin!

To Register for Classes: 

Contact Barbara at logcabincooking@gmail.com

Class size limited to 8, so don't delay!

We are located 5 miles east of Asheville in Haw Creek

Hide N' Bake: Special  Holiday Refrigerator Cookies and Savory Crackers        Wednesday, December 7th, 6:00-9:00pm $45 

"Spumoni" Chocolate, cherry, pistachio cookie dough

Still 2 spaces left!  We're making:

Brown butter pecan shortbreads (think pecan sandies)
Crunchy thin ginger snaps (my favorite)
Chocolate pistachio which can be made into spumoni cookies
Lemon cornmeal jam thumbprints with my blackberry jam
Hazelnut Linzer cookies filled with my raspberry jam
Peanut butter pillows (peanut butter cookies stuffed with peanut butter or chocolate filling)
Pinwheels and checkerboards ... chocolate, vanilla, date/walnut, cranberry, etc.
and then crackers:
  Oat crisps
  Sesame
  Aunt Mary's cheese things

Open House Holiday Party at Log Cabin Cooking & Music

December 10^th from 1:00-5:00

 Shop local for the holidays in Haw Creek! I'll have my 10 cookbooks for sale and hubby, Wayne Erbsen has a bazillion old-time and bluegrass music instruction, civil war, railroad, etc. books all at a 10 % discount. You can also pick up local honey and hand-blown glass ornaments made by our friends. Most everything is priced below $10!! There will be a live bluegrass music jam, half-hourly raffle door-prizes,and  hearth-side old-time food and beverages from my cookbooks. Bring the whole family! For directions, email me. logcabincooking@gmail.com

Rustic Farmhouse Artisan Breads 

Wednesday, January 11th 6:00-9:00 $45

Bake fabulous and easy whole grain artisan breads just like great-great-great grandma used to do. We'll use cast iron pots to bake two types of breads in your home oven that will change your life (!) The first will be an unkneaded bread that makes a dandy pizza as well as an exciting exploding cheese volcano bread. The second type of bread will be a kneaded bread that serves as an example of how to bake any bread in an iron pot. Dinner will be roasted winter veggie topped pizza, salad and wine.
You'll need a cast iron dutch oven size 3 1/2 or 5 quart or a ceramic cloche to make these breads. Enameled cast iron will do as well.
A copy of my new book, Aunt Barb's Bread Book is included.

PS Here's a cinnamon roll pan bread you can make out of the kneaded dough in case you don't have a dutch oven.

Blackout! Hearth/Campfire Cooking for Fun or Snow-storm

Saturday, January 14 10:00am-1:00pm $45

 

Campfire "forgotten" pork

Oh, you'll wish the power would go out so you can have an excuse to prepare this meal in your fireplace or campfire! A variety of live-fire techniques will be used to prepare our fireside lunch. (You can make all these dishes in your conventional range as well.) We'll roast carrots, beets, potatoes, and red onions separately in foil packets in embers to be tossed together on the plate along with a fresh arugula salad; english muffins will be cooked over coals in an iron gem pan; forgotten local pork roast glazed with cider and calvados will be slow-baked at fire's edge until crispy, and dessert will be gingerbread/apple upside-down cake baked in a dutch oven. 

Little Homey Breads and Healthy Winter Stew

Wednesday, January 25th, 6:00-9:00pm $45
 

Whole-grain graham gem recipes were in most every cookbook up until the 1930's. Yet, I'll bet you have never heard of them. They are a completely lost type of wholesome tasty American quick breads and I am bringing them back! They can be baked in 19th-century antique pans like these, if you can find them.

Or, you can bake them in your regular old muffin pans, and Lodge makes this pan which works great:

English muffins in the Lodge Drop-biscuit pan

Cheesy herbed popover

In this class, we'll be making cornbread gems (local heirloom cornmeal), thirded graham gems (local rye, wheat and corn blended with dried fruit and local sorghum syrup), and everybody's favorite, cheesy herbed popovers. To go with, we'll have a flavorful chicken pumpkin soup which is at once, hearty and light. A perky salad, glass of wine, and pear sorbet complete the feast. You'll take the leftover gems home to enjoy for breakfast! The class includes a copy of Aunt Barb's Bread Book.