Fermentation - so far... and an almost Birthday boy

The yogurt turned out well, a little thin as I thought but I think that the temperature dropped too much over the time on the counter, so I need to find a way to keep it warmer next time.
We've been using it in smoothies and one day mixed some with a berry blend jam and we all like it! And it doesn't seem to bother my tummy - which is great as I am lactose intolerant.

A couple of days ago a local business owner, posted on Facebook that she had extra water kefir grains to give away! I quickly replied asking for some and tagged others in town who I thought might enjoy them. I made lemonade with the fermented liquid and was SO surprised and impressed!
I followed the method from Cultures for Health - who I linked to in the last post as well.

Here are the basic steps :
1. Strain out the kefir grains from the water you receive them in, or if you are starting with new, dry grains, skip to next step.
2. In a clean 1qt glass jar, add 1/4 cup sugar (organic cane sugar, rapidura, white sugar, etc. but NOT honey as it is antibacterial in nature and will not allow the grains to ferment properly) into hot water that has been boiled and cooled (I used what was left in my kettle from the morning). Swirl around until sugar dissolves
3. Fill to about 2" from the top with cold filtered water, check the temperature with a clean finger and ensure it is room temperature or a bit cooler.
4. Add your kefir grains back into the jar, cover with a coffee filter or kleenex and place on your counter. Let sit 24-48 hours.
5. With the water that is left after you filter out the grains, there will be a sweetness to it, but most of the sugar is converted to lactic acid as the culture works. You are left with a wonderful probiotic drink that you can flavour with any kind of juice you like! I had a big bottle of lemon juice on hand, so that's what I did with my first batch, and made lemonade, it was delicious!!
I think I'll do lemonade again and maybe try cranberry juice too!
Store in fridge and consume within a couple of days (if it lasts that long!)

I have to do more research on what to do when you want to take a break or are going away... more on that when I learn!

My almost 4 year old

PART 2 of post :)

I already added the pics, so one long post it is....

I asked Caleb what he wanted to have for his birthday breakfast tomorrow and he said cinnamon buns (he was looking at the picture from his birthday last year, and that's what he was eating, so I think it was a bit provoked), SO we made cinnamon buns - refined sugar-free!

2 1/2 cups warm water
1 TB yeast
generous 1/3 c raw honey

Add to Stand mixer bowl and let foam a few minutes.

Add a cup of flour and turn on the mixer, then add another and another, and another. Continue to add flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and takes on a dough-like texture. I was letting Caleb do the flour, so we didn't count, nor were each of his "cups" exact.... but I would guess it was about 5-6 cups. We did 1 c WW flour and the rest unbleached all-purpose.

Also add 1/3c oil.

Once dough has come together, remove to floured surface and knead by hand a few times, filling in sticky spots with a bit more flour and make a nice loose ball. Oil a bowl and place dough in, cover, and let rise until doubled, about 1.5-2 hrs.

Roll out dough on Parchment paper until thin, about 1/4" I would guess.

Brush with 1/4-1/2c melted butter (I melted 1/2 and had extra left over)
Sprinkle with Cinammon & Sugar mixture, we used about 1/2c Sucanat and 2 TB cinnamon, but there's no hard fast measurements here.

Now I decided to roll it to halfway, then cut the dough down the centre, then roll the other half up as the dough was so long!
I then cut each roll into half, and half again, etc until I had 12 buns from each roll.

Place 12 buns in greased/parchment lined 9x13 pans and cover to rise for another 30min

Bake at 350 for 15-17 mins or until just golden on top. I overbaked mine as the recipe I adapted the above from called for 30 min of baking - and I checked them after 18 mins and one pan was burnt on the bottom - sad :( Burnt cinnamon is not good!

Otherwise they look delicious and we'll enjoy them with some fruit in the morning!

Cute helper :) He loves rolling pins, haha

Sucanat and Cinnamon mixture, we added raisins to half and walnuts to the other half

Allow to rise 30 min once in pan.... Anticipation is growing!

Finished product! One is missing... we had to share one and make sure they were ok of course ;)

New Year = more fermented foods

Although I wouldn't call it a 'resolution' necessarily, one of my goals this year is to incorporate more fermented foods in mine and my family's diet. The probiotics and beneficial bacteria that exist are abundant and good for our guts!
So far, I made yogurt yesterday with heated milk and a starter culture. Keep warm for 4-5 hours to incubate, then transfer to refrigerator. I haven't tried it yet - but it looked a little thin when I put it into a container last night. I plan to make a smoothie this afternoon and start there. Some other ideas I have for it are:
- Sweeten with honey or maple syrup and pure vanilla extract
- Mix with berries and use as topping for waffles that are our tradition on Saturday mornings
- Smoothies - to which I now add spinach every time (and the kids know it - and still drink them down!)
- Baking/cooking
- Straining to get whey....

Now that leads to me to some of the other Lacto-fermenting I intend to do and have recently jotted down some recipes from Cultures for Health for Applesauce and Ketchup which I am excited to try!

Sourdough bread is another new thing I would like to try making from scratch this year. Though I will admit it seems daunting to even begin! It needs to sit on your counter for several days and you keep adding to it, and if it didn't work I know I would get discouraged!

One step at a time! A friend has just shared a soaked flour loaf recipe which you leave for 8-18 hours on the counter, so I am determined to start there (tonight) and work with it in the morning and see how it goes. I just bought some fresh ground rye flour so I plan to use that half and half with unbleached white. I'll let you know how it turns out - and how the yogurt is too!

Since the last post...

** Written December 19th :)

Wow, in the mere hours it's been since I wrote the last post, my hands have been quite busy. My oldest was sick twice this afternoon and unfortunately didn't make it to the toilet either time.... so my hallway (and walls) and bathroom have been disinfected not once, but twice today, and seeing how I had just cleaned the toilet yesterday, it's been now cleaned three times in two days, that may be too much information - but is pretty much unheard of for me, unless out of necessity of course. He perked up this afternoon and ate a full supper and bedtime snack but was tucked in and asleep before 8pm. Praying his little body recharges well tonight.

 My little lady has developed a cough that started yesterday and worsened this morning. Thanks to this Homemade cough syrup recipe that I made first thing this morning (cutting onions before I've eaten anything was not a good idea!) anyhow, she is still coughing, but she likes the syrup and it did settle down into the evening - though I have already been in twice to settle her, so it may be a long night!

My hands have also...
- Felt a babe kick within my womb and attempted to give it just a few minutes of attention amidst a busy day
- been busy in the kitchen prepping ganache for truffles, making a batch of these to die for (healthy) chocolate macaroons, and prepping loaves to be cut and baked again tomorrow for crisps that tast like those really expensive crackers from the grocery store. I'll share the recipe depending how they turn out!
 - done the many dishes and cleanup that follows baking! And now I have tucked in at 9:30, hubby on call tonight, and the final thing these hands will do before resting will be to knit.....