Yeast, Fermentation and Raising Children

I absolutely love the smell of yeast! In my previous posting, I shared my passion for baking bread the artisan way.

One of the highlights of baking bread is the measuring of the fresh, crumbly yeast, then pouring the lukewarm water over it and watch how it dissolves in the water.  

I’m fascinated by yeast and it’s role in the bread baking process.  Yeast is unquestionably the key ingredient in making bread, through the fermentation process.

There are two distinctive phases during the fermentation of dough made with only flour, water, salt and yeast, with no added sugars:

During the first phase the yeast ferments the naturally present sugars in the flour, which can be directly and easily assimilated;

The second phase corresponds to the fermentation of a specific sugar in flour, called maltose, through the action of some enzymes, the amylases. 

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The amylase enzyme split starch into much simpler sugars, called maltose. With the help of another enzyme of yeast, maltase, the maltose is then split in the most simple sugar, glucose. 

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It is only then that the glucose can be transformed into carbon dioxide and alcohol. 

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The two main ingredients responsible for the characteristic light and airy texture in bread.

Interesting when sucrose or glucose (sugar) is added to the basic ingredients to bake bread, they are directly fermented before maltose (phase one), which means in such a dough mainly sucrose and/or glucose are consumed by the yeast. As a result maltose, naturally available in flour, is not consumed as effectively and the bread doesn’t have a distinct characteristic sweet taste, due to only partial consumption of the maltose.

I also noticed something else. Being over 40 I struggled big time with insulin resistance when consuming starch, and then specifically bread. Since I’m baking our bread with only flour, water, salt and yeast, with no added sugar, I started to loose the weight I struggled to do for two years, after three miscarriages. It just might be due to consumption of all the maltose in phase two of the fermentation process. Transforming the maltose into carbon dioxide and alcohol, which evaporate during the baking process.

When thinking of yeast as the driving force behind fermentation and how it allows a dense mass of flour and water to be transformed into a well-risen loaf of bread, which nourish and satisfy us humans, it is not surprising that there are more than 31 passages in the Bible on yeast, of which 7 are in the New Testament. These passages are either parables by Jesus or comparisons by Paul on yeast and it’s spiritual meaning.

Sadly, as much as I am fascinated by yeast, in the Word of God, yeast is symbolic of sin. When taking into account how only a small amount of yeast can have such a crucial effect on dough, it is no wonder Jesus warns us about the effect of only a little sin (leaven) in our lives. 

Some time ago we had an incident with one of our children. For years she was participating in an extra mural which she enjoyed tremendously. Unfortunately over the past year I noticed she became more and more unsettled each time when she got home. The group with whom she practiced was very much into the world with dating and immorality. It become extremely disturbing to her, especially since she boldly declare not being into dating. She knew only a little leaven will soon leaven a whole lump and evil company corrupts. After much prayer she made the decision to stop this specific extra mural. Though it was very difficult and she was sad to stop it, it was worth to throw out the old leaven.  And God was faithful. He gave her something amazing in return. I’ll share about that in another posting soon.

Over the past few months I not ONLY baked perfect, well developed bread. I had quite a bit of failures, too. Most of the time it was because the fermentation process wasn’t in a perfect controlled environment. The fermentation of the dough is very sensitive to temperature. 

Since it is winter and room temperatures are below 20degrees C, I often had to put the dough in warmer areas. My home doesn’t have sunny rooms, so the only place was in a slightly warm oven. But often, when I was distracted, I didn’t control the temperature of the oven as well and the yeast was exposed to too high temperatures, resulting in over fermented bread. 

This just confirmed to me the reason why we’re homeschooling our children. We want to let our children mature in a controlled environment. Children are very much sensitive and receptive to influence, positive as well as negative.  Very much the same as baking bread and controlling the fermentation process of bread. Once the bread goes into the oven, you cannot go back, change the ingredients, make corrections in the ratio or make adjustments to the resting times and temperatures. And as for the quality of the yeast you used, it is only after the bread comes from the oven that you realize the yeast wasn’t fresh.  We have only this one time to raise godly children. 

We have only this one life-time to raise them in a safe, loving, positive learning atmosphere. 

We have only a few years to teach them about God and His creation. 

The Bible is very clear about the influence of bad company. I traced over 50 verses here.

God reminds us in Deutoronomy 7 to teach our children diligently when we sit in our house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down and when we rise up. Sounds like a full time job.

Just as I have to plan my days for baking bread and cannot leave my home, but have to stay busy in and around the kitchen, I cannot raise Godly children as a part time job.

Obviously this will ask for commitment and time investment.  As there is quite a difference in buying shop bread, and the time investment in baking an artisan bread, there is tremendous amount of time, effort and sacrifice in homeschooling my children and raising them with the intention to become Godly men and women for God’s glory!  In a culture where everyone wants everything to happen instantaneously, we have to remember bearing and raising children is a long-term investment, we must think long term - for the future.  

Dear Mother do you dread the commitment and sacrifice of intentionally raising Godly Children?

As I’m writing the finishing lines of this posting, it is just about time to take a batch of bread out of the oven! Oh! I wish you can smell the aroma of freshly baked bread, which fermented for just the right timing in just the right environment. It took time and effort from my side. I intentionally direct my effort to create nice bread. 

I don’t need to remind myself that the reward on raising Godly children for God’s glory will be even bigger, if I intentionally turn my focus on God, His ways and His plans for our family.

With much love

Linnie 

In Store Talk and Webinar on Diets!

Do you find yourself lost in a minefield of dietary advice?

Have you tried everything to loose weight, but are struggling, or to keep your weight down seems impossible?

This Monday evening, the 23rd of April, my husband Christo Lues will give a life-changing In-store talk, combine with a Webinar, on Diets, to unravel the mysteries, myths, beliefs and facts about what diet is good for you.

Some of the topics include discussions on:

Belief Based Diets, Vegetarian and Raw Liets, Weight loss, Crash Diets, Medical Diets and (much) more.

Christo will share insights he discovered during more than a decade of clinical consultations. He will give practical advise on how to follow an eating style for life for you, that will keep you healthy, full of energy and help manage your weight.

If you would like to attend or tune in via live webinar then click here...

Talk Details:

Monday 23 April 2012

Starting time 19:00 Sharp

Talk is for 60-90 minutes, depending on the number of questions

Much love

Linnie Lues

Wheat Free, Crispy Apple Tart made with Homemade Wheat Free Puff Pastry Dough.

Yes, it is possible.

It is possible to make a successful, homemade wheat free puff pastry dough, with Spelt flour.  Classic puff pastry dough scares people because it sounds complicated.  Yes, to make it perfectly takes some practice, but if you follow a few do’s and don’ts, you should be able to make dramatic puff pastry the first time.

There is so much you can do with a classic puff pastry dough.  From croissants, to fruit tarts, to pies and snacks.

Over the weekend we made a Crispy Apple Tart with the puff pastry dough, and even managed to keep a part of the dough for breakfast croissants. 

This tart manages to taste intensely of butter and apples at the same time.  You will also feel a delightful delicate crunch when you bite into a piece.

Ingredients for Crispy Apple Tart

Makes one 11 by 14 inch or 28 by 35 cm tart

1 recipe puff pastry dough, 4 turns instead of the traditional six

4 large apples, such as Golden Delicious, Macintosh or local tart varieties for baking, but not Granny Smiths

3 tablespoons sugar

½ cup butter, melted

Classic Puff Pastry Dough
Tips on a classic Puff Pastry Dough (The same for spelt or all purpose flour):

• Remember, you’re basically enclosing a packet of butter in some pastry dough and then rolling it out and folding it over itself to create layers. 
• Keep the dough cold or the butter it contains will melt and the integrity of the layers will be lost. Before baking, trim off the edges.  
• The edges are likely to be crimped and can inhibit the pastry’s rise. 
• Once you’ve rolled out the pastry dough and cut it to the size and shape you want, stick the whole sheet pan in the freezer for 15 minutes just before baking. The colder the dough and the greater the difference in temperature between the dough and the oven, the more dramatic the rise will be.
• When baking puff pastry dough, always start with high heat, at least 425 degrees F or 220 degrees C, to get the most rise.  If the dough isn’t cooked through even though it’s puffed and golden brown, turn down the oven to 300 degrees F or 150 degrees C so the pastry continues to cook on the inside without browning any more. 

I’ve included a hand made puff pastry dough and a recipe made in the Panasonic Bread Machine - the one piece of equipment in my home I can’t raise a wheat sensitive family of ten, without! 

The hand made recipe is somewhat unorthodox because it calls for working the basic dough that you use to enclose the butter.  This is heresy to anyone trained in the classic method in which the dough is worked as little as possible, but the results are dramatically better.  The only downside is that the initial dough has to rest overnight before you can get to the next step.

Ingredients for Hand made Dough (without yeast)

Makes 1 ¾ pounds / 800g dough

2 cups all-purpose flour or 2 ⅔ cups white spelt flour

½ cup water

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 pound butter

Combine the flour, water, oil and salt by hand on a work surface or in a stand mixer or food processor.  Mix until they come together in a smooth, homogeneous mass. Don’t hesitate to knead the mixture to smooth it out.  Form the dough into a squarish disk and score the top deeply with a knife, to help the gluten relax.  Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and let rest overnight in the refrigerator.

Bread machine Dough (with yeast)

2 ½ t yeast

550g white spelt flour (400 g all purpose flour)

1 ½ t salt

1 ½ Tsp rice milk powder (normal milk powder will also work)

1 ½ Tsp rapandura sugar

1 egg

30g butter

215 ml water

Add ingredients in the bread machine in the same sequence as given in recipe.

Choice of “select” - basic

Choice of “option” - dough (2hours 20min)

Press “start.

When dough is finished, wrap in plastic wrap and allow to cool and rest in refrigerator for about an hour.

The butter should not be too cold, it will crack when you roll it; and not too warm, it will ooze out between the layers.  It should have the same consistency as the dough itself.  

Cut a ¼ pound / 125g butter into thin pieces and lay them next to each other between two layers of baking paper.

Roll the butter so the pieces become one. Don’t thin out the butter.

Put in freezer for 30 min to harden.

Flour the work surface and put the dough on it.  Roll out in a rectangle about 13 by 17 inches / 30 by 45cm. (I didn’t us all the dough for the tart and saved about 200g for the croissants.)  Place the butter on the one half of the rectangular dough.

Fold over the flap, tucking excess dough into the folds so the butter is completely enclosed.  

Fold the rectangle into thirds as though it was a letter, starting with the narrow end, fold the bottom third down,

and fold the opposite end up, to form a neat parcel of dough.  

Hammer gently on top of the packet of dough.

Turn the dough so that the large single fold, like the spine of a book, is on your left, and fold it in the same way.  If the dough is difficult to roll, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Wrap in plastic wrap and put in refrigerator for an hour to rest.

Continue in this way until you have given the pasty 4 turns in total.

Method for Crispy Apple Tart

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F or 220 degrees C.

Sprinkle cold water on a sheet pan to keep the bottom of the tart from burning.

Roll the dough into a 12 by 15 inch / 30 by 40 cm  rectangle and transfer it to the prepared sheet pan. Trim the edges of the rectangle so it measures 11 by 14 inches / 28 by 35 cm and dock it (poke it with holes) to keep it from puffing up in the oven.

Peel, halve and core the apples.  Cut the apple halves into thin slices.

Arrange the apple slices in rows along the length of the pastry, overlapping the slices so that each one cover about half of the one before it and changing direction with each row. 

Brush evenly with the melted butter.

Sprinkle the tart with the sugar.

Bake for about 50 minutes, or until the edges are a deep golden brown.  Start checking the tart after 20 minutes to make sure it isn’t puffing up and forcing off the apples.  If it is puffing, poke the puffed part with the tip of a paring knife to deflate it and use the tip of the knife to gently rearrange any slices that have moved.

Let cool on the sheet pan for a minute and then, with a long metal spatula, scrape under the tart to loosen it before you remove the tart from the sheet pan - it always sticks and usually burns a little on the bottom.

Cut into rectangles and serve.

I enter this delicious tea snack in Heidi-Mari's Fortnightly Baking Challenge. 

This fortnightly theme is Snazzy Snacks and you can be the proud winner of the Australian Women's Weekly Snazzy Snacks Recipe book!

Hop over to Heidi-Mari's blog and check out the mouth watering snacks.  Maybe you can enter you favourite snack too!

Bon appetite

Linnie

The Blood Group Diet and Recipes

As a family we eat according to our Blood group.  Christo analysis the live blood samples of clients in his health shop through a dark field microscope daily.  When he consults his clients, one of the most revolutionary pieces of information he is able to show his clients is the correlation between their diet and the appearance of there blood cells under the dark field microscope.  You can immediately see when a client follows his blood group diet and when not!  

The testimonies of people who start to follow their blood group diet is amazing! The improvements in people is vast, ranging from more energy, better sleep, weight loss, less mood swings, better cognitive clarity to common things like sinus and eczema that disappears. Christo has seen more serious conditions like arthritis, diabetes and even psoriasis disappear when people follow the Blood Type Diet by Dr. Peter D’Adamo.

When clients eat whatever they want, the blood often end up looking like the pictures below, unhealthy, clumping together and in the long term can lead to disease.

But when they start following the blood type diet, the picture improves to a healthy looking sample as below.

I know the majority of my blog readers are Christians, and Dr. Peter D'Adamo is an Evolutionist and he has a philosophy around the Blood group diet’s origin. Some Christians don’t want to follow the Blood group diet, because of this.

Let's think about this.  We human beings need love.  There isn’t one person I know or ever read about who don’t flourish on love, any kind of love. And Jesus also commanded us to love each other, as He loved us (John 15). We also know every person has a specific love language, a favorite way of communicating love and when they receive love in that specific way, they feel more loved. There are wonderful books written by well respective Christians about the Love Language concept.  But what if this concept was at first observed by a Non-Christian, would that make the concept unacceptable for Christians? Sadly it could... Would it change the truth that we communicate love in a certain, favourite way?  I don’t think so.

It my opinion it is the same with the Blood type diet.  We all need food, right?  And in the short run all food will prevent us from dying of hunger.  But every person has a preference for certain foods, that correlates with his/her blood type. The fact that an Evolutionist observed the correlation, does that make it false?  His philosophy of evolution is totally wrong.  But that doesn’t change the truth, especially since their is scientific proof of the health benefits of this type of diet, as shown above and in many other scientific studies.  

God decided in His wisdom to create people with certain characteristics.  Certain colour eyes, hair, skin type, why not with a specific blood group too and a preference for certain food to make the body work optimal and stay healthy, just as people have a preference for a certain kind of love. That is even more evidence for a Creationist that God created us, and we didn’t evolved out of a blob of goo!


Get more of your Questions about the Blood group diet, answered by Christo here, at his blog Natural Medicine Talk. 

Since the Lord graciously ordained our whole family of ten to be O blood group, we have meat three times a day!  We buy all our meat (organic), as well as our chicken (organic) from the Boesmanland, once a month.  To have a ready-to-dish-up Bolognese sauce in the fridge saved me numerous times.  I share with you my Bolognese sauce, from James Peterson’s Meat book. 

Over at Heidi-Mari’s blog the Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge is Italian Food. 

The prize with this Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge is: 

Food Lovers' 

Pasta Recipe Book!

I would like to use the Bolognese sauce and enter one of my children’s favourite pasta recipes, Lasagna.

Bolognese Sauce

This famous Sauce we make with organic mince we get from the Boesmanland, here in South Africa.  We use it for multiple kinds of meals, not only in our lasagna, but also on pasta, on our home made pizza, in Shepard’s pie, or just on a sandwich for lunch. It also freeze very well, and often help me out on crazy evenings.

The secret to this sauce is the first step of sweating the vegetables and caramelizing the natural ‘juices’ of the meat, before adding the tomatoes)

Ingredients:

1 kg organic mince

3 tablespoons butter or olive oil

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

1 large onion, chopped

2 tablespoons vegetable chutney

10ml non-irritating curry powder

¾ cup dry white wine (I often use a rosé too, when I don’t have a dry white)

½ tube organic tomato paste 

1 tin canned organic tomato

½ cup organic heavy cream

15ml salt (or to taste)

fresh ground pepper (to taste)

In a heavy pot, heat the butter or olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion and carrot and sweat the vegetables, stirring often, for about 10 minutes, or until they have softened.

Add the chutney and curry, and stir another 2 minutes.

Add the mince and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, or until the meat begins to brown. (The meat will release liquid, 

which must be boiled down until it caramelizes on the bottom of the pan)

Add the wine, tomato paste, canned tomatoes, cream, salt and pepper and stir well.

Simmer gently, uncovered, for about 1½ hours, or until the meat yields when pressed with the back of a fork.  

If the sauce begins to get too thick before the flavors have married and the meat is tender, add water, a little at a time as needed to thin to a good consistency.

Fresh Egg Pasta Noodles

You can make pasta dough by combining the ingredients together by hand, but it is easier to mix it in a food processor.  The number of eggs you will need can vary - the more gluten in the flour, the more eggs you will need - so you must learn to recognize when the dough has the right amount of egg.  It should feel just moist to the touch but not sticky!  If it is too wet, it will stick to the rolling pin or in the pasta machine when you begin to roll it out.  If this happens, you can flour it as you roll it and it will absorb some of the flour reducing the stickiness.

Makes about 2 ½ pounds dough, enough for 8 first course servings or 6 main course servings (I only made ½ the amount for our family of 10)

6 Free range extra large eggs

4 cups all-purpose flour or 5 cups organic spelt flour (spelt contains less gluten than all purpose flour)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

To make the dough in a food processor (I use my Kenwood), make it in two batches to avoid straining the processor. 

Process 3 eggs with 2 cups of flour and 1 tablespoon of oil and repeat with the remaining ingredients.

Process until the dough forms a ragged mass around the sides of the processor.  If the dough doesn’t come together in a loosely cohesive mass, add another egg yolk (save the white) and process a little longer.  If it still doesn’t come together, add the egg white.  

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead a few times with the heel of your hand until the dough comes together in a cohesive mass.

To make the dough by hand, mound the flour on a work surface, make a well in the center, and add the eggs and the oil to the well.  Lightly break up the eggs with your fingers, and then gradually pull the flour into the well.

Work the ingredients together with one hand until the dough comes together in a cohesive mass. 

Or, you can use this same method, but form the well of flour in a large bowl, rather than on a work surface.  If the dough remains crumbly, add an extra egg yolk, and then the white if necessary.  If the dough sticks to your hands, add a handful of flour.  

Knead the dough, one third at a time on the widest setting of your pasta maker, repeating until the dough is perfectly smooth and has the texture of suede.

When you are ready to roll out the dough, roll it once again through the widest setting, adjust the knob to the the next narrower setting, and roll the dough through again. 

Continue in this way, setting the machine to the next narrower setting each time, until you reach the narrowest or the second-to-narrowest setting.  

If the dough becomes long and unwieldy, cut it in half to make it easier to roll.

The dough should be thin enough for light to pass through it. 
Use the sheets for making ravioli, lasagna, or hand-cut ribbon width noodles or to run through the machine for machine-cut ribbon-width noodles.

Making the Lasagna!

Dough for fresh Egg Pasta Noodles

Mozzarella, sliced

Bolognese Sauce

Make the pasta and cut into lasagna-width noodles.

Butter a baking dish with high sides (a roasting pan also works well).

Put the first layer of lasagna noodles in the dish.

Layer the bolognese sauce and mozzarella on the first layer.

Repeat a second and third layer of lasagna noodles, bolognese sauce and mozzarella.

Finish the lasagna with a layer of sauce and a generous sprinkling of Parmigiano (I didn’t have and just put another layer of mozzarella on top)

Bake in a 180 degrees C oven, until you see the lasagna bubbling, about 1 hour.

Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving or better yet, let cool completely so the layers settle and become easier to portion out, and then reheat to serve.

Bon appetite!

Linnie