Taste of Christmas. Stollen from Ryes and Shine

Taste of Christmas

Stollen from Ryes and Shine

Cutting the Christmas cake. By the way, that is a brilliant
bread knife and you can buy it at the Ryes 'n Shine stall!

Stollen is a traditional German Christmas bread. More like a cake, really, and it is quite sweet. We just bought ours from Angela Nöthlings of the local Ryes 'n Shine bakery.

Angela gives her breads (sourdough) all the time they need, and that is also true of her delicious Stollen. Almonds are a key ingredient. They are first simmered, then snapped out of their skins, then shaved with a beautiful piece of equipment (a small manual nut grinder) that belonged to her mother.

Angela explains: "Shaved almonds - rather than ground - will create a marzipan texture within the stollen. There is no extra marzipan put into these. Using ground almonds would be a lot easier and faster, but at Ryes & Shine we (ie I) prefer to do things the old-fashioned slow-paced way, which tends to result in better tastes and textures too."

When we picked ours up last week, there was a note attached telling us not to cut it until the 17th. However, we did go a day earlier, and it worked out very well indeed. It is indeed something different, quite sweet. I have a bottle of Joe’s Amaretto here (from Elbow Lane) and was thinking of pairing them but they might not work together as the Amaretto is also loaded with almonds. I'm thinking a sweet German wine would be better!

In any event, the Stollen is one of our Tastes of Christmas. More on Ryes and Shine here.

Before the slicing!

Taste of the Week. McCabe's India Monsoon Malabar Single Origin Coffee

Taste of the Week

McCabe's India Monsoon Malabar Single Origin Coffee

Wicklow's McCabe's has been roasting speciality coffees in NewtwonMountKennedy (almost next door to Wicklow Wolf!) for over 27 years. Our local German baker Angela has been singing its praises to me for more than 27 weeks, and I finally took the

Nuns Farts by Ryes and Shine is Taste of the Week

Taste of the Week

Have You Tried Ryes and Shine's Nuns Farts?

Don't let the name fool you! Angela at Ryes and Shine is serving up heavenly little treats at the Coal Quay Market and St. Luke's. These wickedly delicious morsels, also known as Nuns Puffs (the more diplomatic term!), are the perfect accompaniment to your morning or afternoon coffee.

Made with free-range egg whites, sugar, hazelnuts, organic dark chocolate, and a touch of vanilla and sea salt (both organic), these delights will surely put a smile on your face. Get to the Coal Quay (Saturdays) or St Lukes (Wednesdays) and grab a bag (or two!).

* Nuns Farts are a sweet pastry originally from France, where they are also known as pets de nonne.

Taste of the Week: Apple Cider Rye by Ryes and Shine

Taste of the Week

Apple Cider Rye by Ryes and Shine

Local baker Angela Nöthlings (Ryes and Shine) always comes up with the good things. The latest, and our Taste of the Week, is this delicious Apple Cider Rye, available at her stall in St Lukes and in the Coal Quay Market on Saturdays. "It is one of my favourite loaves at the moment.  Beautiful light and tangy, yes! Love it, especially the crust!", she enthuses. Ingredients include rye (36%), WildFarmed T65 flour 72% hydration and of course Irish Cider.

I'll always have interesting bread while Angela operates here. Virtually everything on the stall is worthy of the Taste of the Week designation. Take a look at the pic above. The Cider Rye is on the left with, on top of it, one of her gorgeous From St Luke’s with Love Rolls which are studded with dark organic chocolate (she also makes it in loaves and calls them St Luke’s with Love Mums); then you have her popular Cinnamon Roll and finally (on the right) the ever-evolving, ever satisfying Mayfield Bloomer!

All the news on the micro-bakery on her Instagram 

 #realbreadireland #sourdough #cork #handmixing #mucrobakery #constantlearning #crumb

Tastes and Producers of the Season. Christmas & New Year Treats

Tastes and Producers of the Season

Christmas & New Year Treats

Okay, let us start with bread. Make that cake! The arrival of Angela Nöthlings

German micro-bakery in Cork, specialising in organic artisan sourdough breads, especially rye, was a highlight of the year 2022. 

Her Stollen, the traditional German Christmas Cake, was a highlight of our festival days. And we can't forget her sweet "little" stuff: the decadent Berliner Brot, her shortbread fingers and her Salted Rye cookies, and more.

Stollen

The Germans have no shortage of sweet wines to pair with their Stollen. They also use Schnapps (which often has apples in its ingredients) and that put me thinking of something far closer to home.  

Pom’O is an apple aperitif made from rare apple varieties by Killahora Orchards in Glounthaune. The fruit is grown "in our 200 year old orchards on the south facing slopes of Ireland’s County Cork. We mix the juice from our bittersweet apples with the finest apple brandy, then age it in Irish whiskey barrels for at least a year."

They recommend serving it lightly chilled as an aperitif, with cheese or in a cocktail, with strong, nutty cheddar, fruit desserts. No mention of Stollen but I carried on regardless and the pairing was just perfect.

No bother in finding highlights. Another mega one was the Heritage Ham by James Whelan Butcher. And since we weren't entertaining on the big day, we had most of this beautiful piece of cooked meat all to ourselves (not all on the one day!). This award-winning Heritage Ham has already been lovingly cooked low and slow for over five hours. All we had to do was slice, serve and savour.  Our favourite accompaniment came via the Bord Bia recipe pages and was/is a Redcurrant sauce or glaze. You'll find a few variations here.

The perennial favourite Cashel Blue Cheese was again enjoyed, Wicklow Blue also and some Knockanore Cheddar. These were enhanced by our own Autumn Tomato Chutney made with some excess tomatoes from the back-garden, the recipe from BBC Good Food. 

Lomo

We've still got a few jars of that but will have no shortage of opportunities to use it. Another great match is the cold cured sliced Pork Fillet (lomo) from the Heart of Spain at Fota Retail Park where I had gone to get some of their Spanish wines and also to get Serrano (which was sold out). Here too I bought their Smoked Sliced Duck "Ham", another meaty gem. You could also have a mixed platter of cheese and charcuterie and the chutney will also do the business here! 

Also in the Fota Retail Park, I got myself a jar of the award winning Wild About Sloe Jelly from The Pantry at Bakestone. Very versatile indeed and it too goes very well with the cured pork, if used sparingly, and they also say it is great with duck or pate, so I'll be trying it with the duck. If you warm it, just drizzle it over desserts and ice cream and you have another winning combination thanks to this Wexford producer.

While I think of it, The Pantry was also my source for the Killahora Pom'O. That too was put through its paces with various bits and pieces and proved quite a match with the Stollen and also with our the cake and even more so with the pudding (from Barnabrow). 

Barrel aged beers tend to go well with Christmas pudding and we tried a few. Perhaps the best were the Brehon Oak & Mirrors BA Imperial Porter (7.5%) and the 9 White Deer Stag BA Export Stout (7.4%). Whiskey is almost always a winner with pudding - there was already some whiskey in the Barnabrow one - and the new 7-year old Single Malt from West Cork Distillers was a treat with it.

Barnabrow House Christmas Cake

We regularly get our hands on the Christmas double by Barnabrow House and got the cake and pudding in early this year when we bought them from the hard-working owner Geraldine Kidd who was selling them at the Ballymaloe Craft Fair. They are as good as ever!

Of course we had some other sweet bits and pieces around for the Christmas including regulars Mella's Fudge, Miena's Nougat and Turkish Delight, all bought on that visit to The Pantry at Bakehouse.

I'm thinking that this blog post may well be my shopping list for Christmas 2023. In the meantime, Happy New Year to you one and all.

Taste of the Week. On the double: Raw honeycomb and Berliner Brot

Taste of the Week

On the double: Raw honeycomb and Berliner Brot

Just one little slice of Berliner Brot will bring you to sweet heaven.

Raw honeycomb is a real delicacy of nature and our joint Taste of the Week. It is also one of the most efficient ways of storing the honey and I picked up my current honeycomb from Galtee Honey at the recent Ballymaloe Craft Fair. It is delicious plus any superlative you’d like to add.

Aoife runs the Galtee Honey Farm, just off the R639 north east of Mitchelstown. The honey is 100% fresh floral honey from the Galtees. It is seasonal and you won't find too many more this year but no harm in trying!

The short "season" for Berliner Brot lasts from the first day of advent until these beautiful sweet snacks run out probably, unless you hide them away, before Christmas. Addicts (and that is what will happen to you!) have waited patiently the past 11 months for the comeback of the most delicious Christmas German biscuit. 

I got a little bagful from Ryes and Shine at the regular Saturday morning stall (10.00am to 12.00pm) at St Lukes Cross . Baker Angela says: This is my German family’s secret recipe. .. These biscuits are so heavenly delicious - they are a little soft, gooey on the inside, and are packed with cocoa and walnuts. 

Ryes and Shine (086/3565036) is a German microbakery in Cork, a member of  #realbreadireland, specialising in organic artisan sourdough breads, especially rye.

These "biscuits" are amazing. As Angela says: A perfect little gift - if not to someone else, then to yourself!

* By the way, in honour of the location and of the help she has received from Henchy's, Angela has produced a superb St Luke's loaf. Watch out for that also!

Taste of the Week. Salted Rye Cookies by Ryes and Shine

Taste of the Week. 

Salted Rye Cookies by Ryes and Shine

"Salty. Sweet. Buttery. Crunchy. Wholemeal. Rye. Heaven."

Circles of Contentment at St Luke's Cross

Our Taste of the Week comes from a modest stall just outside Henchy's in St Luke's, Cork City, alongside the old toll booth. Here, every Saturday morning between 10.00am and 12 noon approximately, Mayfield based Angela Nöthlings of Ryes and Shine, sells her range of sourdough breads and treats.

It took us a while to get around to her cookies. They are salted rye cookies made with organic wholemeal rye, sugar, organic sea salt, egg, butter (milk) and vanilla essence. They are absolutely out of this world, probably taste of the year. 

The texture is super, almost like the very best shortbread you've ever enjoyed in the centre with a little more crunch at the rim where you also notice the salt more. Flavours range from the sweetness of the sugar and butter to the tang of the salt. That pack of ten doesn't last that long - better get two packs while you're at it!

Angela tells us: All my bread is real bread, meaning it contains the ingredients flour-water-salt (and a fair amount of time and passion). No additives, conservatives or improvers. All loaves are naturally fermented and don’t contain commercial yeast. I use the best flours only, either organic and/or Irish grown and milled. Everything I sell is handmade by me in my HSE registered microbakery at home.

Check her out on Instagram at ryes.and.shine.cork

Latest from Angela:

Angela Nöthlings is in Cork, Republic of Ireland.

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Hello Cork cafe and restaurant owners and Cork chefs: Borodinsky is a 100% rye sourdough loaf made with organic rye, it contains molasses and coriander. Its flavour is strong, its crumb soft and light (for a 100% rye loaf). This bread goes really well with cheeses, meats like salami, smoked fish. It can carry off strong flavours effortlessly. The keeping quality of these loaves is amazing, they stay fresh about 3-5 days and actually improve in flavour over time - perfect for a food business! You cannot get a loaf like this from a supermarket or wholesale supplier. This is artisan sourdough at its best. It could help bring a very special touch to your menu. If you are interested in trying this bread or some of my other loaves, please get in touch 086-3565036