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    Saturday, November 09, 2013

    Herman the German Friendship Cake - Also makes Good Bread

    I have been cooking Herman The German Friendship Cake for about 6 weeks now

    It is a starter mix that you stir and feed for 10 days
    To make the Starter Mix if you are having to start from scratch
    Go to the website click hereThen split in 4
    Cook with one
    Keep one for yourself and give away the others
    Originally, my daughter Katie gave a portion to Grandson Joseph
    He, then, gave one to me
    First we made the original cake,which has apples and raisins

    Tried one with Crunchie bars, not much success with that
    So No photographs of that

    Made a Raspberry and Chocolate one, This was very popular
    But this time,. I am using 2 portions
    I am making Bread AND a Banana and Coconut version that I found on The Website

    The Bread was posted by Cheryl
    Unfortunately, I left it in the oven too long and the rolls were overcooked
    I went back to bed as it was quite early and waited for the timer to go off
    Stupid!

    Anyway I had one for breakfast and it was very tasty.
    Smothered it with Avocado and topped with tomato.
    The bread is sweeter than I would normally make, not as sweet as Brioche but nevertheless
    I will be definitely be making this again.
    It is perfectly fine to have with Savoury

    Next time I will keep an eye on the Oven
    I think maybe 15 minutes would do it
    We will have some for lunch with soup
    The rest I will turn into breadcrumbs for the freezer

    Actually...They were fine at lunch, in fact excellent with Cauliflower Cheese Soup
    Pity I have to wait another 10 days before I cam make it again
    There recipes on the website click here to get all of the info
    Also you will get "The How To Grow Herman"
    Great for children to be involved
    And now for the Bread
    I decided to make Bread Rolls

    This is taken from the Website as I said, posted by Cheryl
    I also took Cheryl's advice and let it rise over night
    Right Cheryl, this is from you

    To prevent Herman Bread tasting too sweet, you need to make an adjustment on “Day 9”.
Normally you would add his last feed of 1 cup flour, 1 cup (8oz) sugar and 1 cup milk, and then divide into 4 portions.
    But for bread, you need to add the flour and milk only, then divide into 4 portions, then add the sugar individually.  For any cake and friend portions add 2oz sugar, but for the bread portions add just ½ oz.  Then on “Day 10” bake or pass to friends as normal.
    The Recipe
        •    500g (1 lb 2 oz) Strong Flour (White or Wholemeal)
        •    1 Teaspoon salt
        •    240ml (8 fl oz) Tepid Water
        •    1 Portion Herman

    Tip:-   To get the perfect temperature water use 160 ml (⅔) cold tap water and 80 ml (⅓) freshly boiled water.
    Method
        1.    Mix flour and salt together in a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
        2.    Mix the water with Herman and pour into the flour well.
        3.    Gradually work the ingredients together to make a soft dough.  Add a little more water if it seems too dry, or add a little more flour if it seems to sticky.
        4.    Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.
        5.    Put the dough in a large clean bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise for 3 to 8 hours until doubled in size

        6.    Knock back, then shape into a ball and place in a large loaf tin, or divide into 12 and shape into balls for rolls. 
    Cover and leave to rise for 2 to 6 hours.

        7.    Bake in a pre-heated oven at 220ÂșC / Gas Mark 7, for 35 minutes for a loaf or 20 minutes for rolls.  When cooked the bottom should sound hollow when tapped.
    A good idea:  Do steps 1 to 5 after lunch, Step 6 before you go to bed, step 7 first thing in the morning, and amaze the family with freshly baked bread for breakfast!
    Thank you Cheryl
    Unfortunately a little overdone
    But an excellent Crumb
    Reminiscent of Ciabatta

    So I will make this again
    This is a Rustic Bread, well worth it
    Now for the Cake

    This is mix all in together cake but I like to break it up a bit
    The recipe was posted by Rachel Norris

    Banana and Coconut Cake
    1 helping of Herman
    1 cup sugar   - 225 g
    2 cups SR flour -300 g
    ½ tsp salt
    ⅔ cup desiccated coconut
    2 mashed ripe bananas
    1 tsp baking soda
    2 tabs boiling milk
    ⅔ cup cooking oil 160ml
    2 eggs
    2 tsp vanilla extract
    2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg


    Pre-heat oven to 175C I use fan oven

    Put flour and salt through a sieve into a big bowl
    Add sugar, nutmeg and coconut


    Meanwhile in a small bowl
    Beat eggs, vanilla, add oil
    add Mashed bananas 
    Add to Herman
    Pour into dry ingredients

    Add baking soda to boiling milk
    and Add to the bowl

    Mix till combined
    Pour into prepared 23 cm tin
    Bake in oven for about 45 minutes
    You will probably find it needs another 10-15 minutes

    Test with a skewer if it comes out wet
    Put back in till skewer comes out clean
    It does take longer than you would expect

    Cool a little in the tin then turn out onto rack
    and cool

    I iced it with
    Orange and lemon icing
    160gms Icing sugar
    2 tablespoons butter
    Add zest of an orange
    And enough lemon juice to make a fairly stiff icing

    Very nice for Afternoon Tea
    It is Bread Baking Day #62
    I thought this would be a good post for this event

    4 comments:

    Stuart Roberts said...

    Love this; good photos and descriptions for Herman fans to follow...

    Stuart Roberts said...

    Love this; good photos and descriptions for Herman fans to follow...

    zorra said...

    Wow, Hermann traveled so far. ;-) Is this recipe from the World Bread Day roundup? Beaucause the theme of BBD #62 is to choose a bread from the roundup and bake it.

    So So Simple said...

    Hi Zorra
    No I didn't get that I thought you wanted new ones. But I will have a look at WBD round up and have a go
    Cheers
    Gillian