Flour Sack Apron

If you are a serious home bread baker, I heartily suggest that you visit “Heartland Mill” for some quality baking ingredients. I have had wonderful results with all the varieties of flours they offer from finely milled durum wheat to whole rye, and a product they call “golden buffalo” bread flour. All these are organic certified flours.

Heartland Mill ships their flour in traditional muslin flour sacks. On the back of the bag they suggest to reuse the bags for something else. I literally took them to heart and saved all my bags with the idea of doing a crazy shirt. But, as it ended up, we were a few bags short of a shirt. All bakers need aprons, and with the aide of my multi-talented mother, we came up with a dandy of an apron design. “Now a days” this is called repurposing, in my mother's era, it was a necessity.

Beef Villa

I think hot dogs make some of the best character translations. Villas sound like nice places to stay while on vacation. Q. Where is “Beef Villa”? A. On the“Beef Riviera” of course. Beef seems less vulgar than meeting at the “Meat Riviera”. Thank you to Chris for sending this one to us.

Fruit Face

Our neighbors have a garage sale on a regular basis. It is always fun to go looking because "Jo" combs sales throughout the year and collects the best finds for her own garage sale. Here are a couple of chalk ware fruits for the anthropomorphic food and kitchen gallery. The gum parker and poodle plate were not to be missed

Springlerles are Not Just For Christmas anymore

The years end has bought with it a bit more steam to our blog. Could this be an indication that we will post more often in 2008? Just before Christmas, Dieter remembered the Springerle cookie mold his mother had. It is a mold dating back to the 1800's and came from Germany with the German side of his family. Dieter's mom Elsie, told us her mother made the cookies and laid them out on a sheet covered ironing board to dry overnight before baking. We pulled out the antique ironing board and set out to duplicate the family tradition that until now had been set aside for more than half a century.

According to Wikipedia, Springerle is a type of cookie from Baden-Württemberg, Germany with an embossed design made by pressing a mold onto rolled dough and allowing the impression to dry before cooking. The cookies are traditionally white and anise-flavored. Molds are traditionally carved from wood, although plastic molds are also available. The name springerle means "little knights," and their origin can be traced back to the 14th century.

Above is a close up of the antique metal mold and the resulting cookie. We baked two versions of the cookie, one with anise oil and seed the other with only the seed. We sprinkled the mold with powdered sugar before pressing it into the dough as you can see in the image. The first recipe came from "Modern Baking" a trade magazine. Klaus Tenbergen, a master baker in Germany, South African and the United states gives this recipe:

Springerle
2 Lbs baking flour
0.125 crushed aniseed (about two rounded tea spoons, up to one tablespoon if you want
a stronger aniseed flavor)
14 whole eggs
2 Lbs granulated sugar

We halved the recipe above. The combination of the two recipes yielded over 100 cookies.

Method: Sift flour three times, add the aniseed. Beat the eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the flour to the egg mixture, a small amount at a time, blending after each addition. Mix until smooth after the lst addition. Roll the dough on a lightly floured board, press into the moulds, remove, and place the cookies on pans to dry overnight. Bake in a slow oven at 250 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

The second recipe came from a blog called "A Geezer's Corner". It sounds like Springerles are a passion for this man. He adds butter, baking powder and lemon oil extract. We didn't have the lemon extract, but added i heaping tablespoon lemon zest instead. He has very strict directions "add the flavoring oils, and cream together for 10 to 15 minutes. yeah, that's what i said. if you don't, the cookies won't have the right consistency." We being law abiding citizens did just what he said.

In the end both cookies are delicious. You must be an anise lover or these cookies will be too strong for you.

According to ” Mr. Geezer"
House on the Hill is the best source for springerle moulds.

The High Art of Toasting/New Years Greetings

We like to wish all food enthusiasts a very happy new year and may your plate be filled with flavor. This painting came to my from my cousin Paul and his wife Else who live in Amsterdam. We thank them for adding a great year end image for our anthropomorphic gallery.

Rosemary Rising

Pictured above is an amazing "Orange + Chocolate" bread and a Pumpkin Seed Bread. Dieter baked these along with ”French Country White“, ”Caraway Molasses Rye”, “Caraway Anise Cumin Rye”, “Course Grain Mustard Rye” and “Chocolate Chip Cherry” loaves for the annual Rosemary Rising event in Sarasota. If you were one of the people who picked up a loaf of bread from the little salon, please let us know how you liked it.

Latest Additions to the Anthropormorphic Library

My darling cousin Carolien, from Holland, sent me this quintessentially Dutch image from the municipality of Tiel, known for it metal and fruit industry. Flipje is the mascot of Tiel, I quote from the information sent to me, “When you think of Tiel you immediately think of the yearly fruit festival and the cartoon character Flipje which has been an advertising icon for young and old for over 65 years.” As an anthropomorphic character, Flipje appears to me as a person dressed in a grape costume, a parade outfit perhaps. I am not sure if it is a true anthropomorphic character. I have included it as a marginal example in the same category as the green giant.

This iconic candy was invented in 1962, a movie theatre standard that was sold in a little box. Take a virtual tour of the Lemon head factory.

A hand painted sitting hamburger character. I believe this sign was the marque for a motel that occupied the location where the bar now stands. Highway 301 in Oneco Florida