How to make classic, creamy German Knoephla Soup

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Knoepha Soup

Is there anything more cozy to have on a cold day than soup? What about a soup from your childhood that brings back great memories?

Even though I only ever had this soup at school or a restaurant in North Dakota, Knoephla (or Knepfla) soup is one of my favorites from the German culture.

Knoephla is roughly translated into “little buttons” and are, in fact, little dumplings. The knoephla can be used in a number of ways, like a casserole, but the most popular way is in soup.

The soup is a chicken stock based, creamy soup with the dumplings, carrots, onions and potatoes. It is warming and comforting. It also is great to have when you’re sick. If you’re lactose intolerant like me, you can add coconut milk or just take about multple lactaid pills.

Knoephla Soup

Ingredients for soup:

  • Water
  • 3 tblspn. butter
  • 1 4-cup container of chicken broth (low sodium)
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 chicken bouillon cubes
  • 4-5 medium red potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 2 large carrots, chopped
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, diced
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 cups Milk, half & half, cream or 1 can of coconut milk (your choice)
  • salt and pepper

Ingredients for Knoephla dumplings:

  • 1 and 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
  • Between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup Milk

Instructions:

Knoephla – In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. In a separate dish, combine the egg with about 1/4 cup milk. Slowly add in the milk and egg mixture to the flour and mix with your hands. Continue to add more milk until it becomes a shaggy dough. Place dough onto a clean working surface sprinkled with flour until the dough comes together. Roll into long, 1-inch thin logs and cut into 1-inch pieces.

Soup – In a large soup pot, melt butter and sauté onion, celery, carrots and potatoes until softened, about 8 minutes. Add in diced garlic, cook for 2 minutes. Add in stock and water to just cover the vegetables and add the bay leaf and two bouillon cubes. Bring to a boil and lower heat to simmer 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, add in the pieces of knoephla and simmer about 10 minutes.

Then, add in the milk/cream/half & half or coconut milk and stir well. Taste and add more salt/pepper if needed. Heat thoroughly, but don’t bring to a boil.

Serve with a side of bread, if you like.

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Like Kombucha, but want to try something new? Here’s how to make Jun with green tea and honey

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Have you ever heard of Jun?

It is similar to Kombucha, but instead of being made with black tea and sugar, Jun is made with green tea and honey!

I’ve been making Jun since 2018 and have even shared the “scoby” with friends so they can start to make their own, too.

Scoby stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast and it houses the cultures that make kombucha, jun and there’s even one that makes apple cider vinegar.

The Jun is a deliciously, sweet and tart beverage. You can drink it plain or you can add fruit for an extra pop of flavor. The process takes about a week for each batch, but after the first time you make it, you’ll want to have it available all the time.

Here’s what you need first:

Get a Jun scoby and starter tea either from a friend or from a reputable seller. We got ours from Fermentaholics.com.

For your brand new scoby, you’ll want to follow the instructions on the back of the packaging to start your tea.

You’ll also need to get some start up supplies including a 1-gallon jug, cheese cloth, PH strips, green tea teabags, unfiltered honey, glass bottles with caps, 1 cup measure, a temperature strip for the outside of your jug and a rubber bands.

Here are some links for items I recommend these bottles for the finished product; this jug for making the tea. This is great cheesecloth (it has lasted me since 2018) and these temperature strips come in handy for sure.

For an established batch you can follow my steps below:

  • Bring 2 cups of filtered water to a boil.
  • Once boiling, take off the heat and add four unflavored, caffeinated green tea teabags and let steep for 10 minutes.
  • After the tea has steeped for 10 minutes, discard the tea bags, stir in 1 cup of honey and let cool.
  • Grab your 1 gallon jug of Jun, take off the cheesecloth and give it a good stir. Then, take out the scoby and place in a clean bowl. Reserve 1 cup of the Jun liquid and place in the bowl with the scoby.
    • This is now your new starter tea – you need this every time.
  • Pour your Jun into clean bottles either with fruit or fruit juice for a second ferment or plain. Our batch makes 6.5 bottles if we don’t add fruit.
    • If you add fruit, you can leave the closed bottles on the table for a day to add some extra carbonation – but remember to “burp” them by lifting the lid once or twice before putting them in the fridge.
    • If you don’t add fruit, you can just put them in the fridge right away. No need to burp them as they aren’t undergoing a second fermentation phase.
  • Now that you have an empty jug, give it a good rinse and fill halfway with filtered cold water.
  • Add the cooled honey tea mix to the water in your jug.
  • If the temperature of the mix is below 75 degrees after you’ve added the honey tea mix, then you’re free to add the scoby and reserved starter tea back in.
  • Then top off with more filtered cold water and stir.
  • Cover with cheesecloth to keep the fruit flies out and set aside in a cooler spot in your house.
    • Side note: keep it away from your sourdough starter.
  • Then, let the new mix sit for 7 days. If you have a new scoby, you can stir it every few days to get things working.
  • In the meantime, enjoy the drink you just bottled. It is delicious.

Let me know if you have any questions!

How to make Jun tea

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A little known Southern dish that’s delish … How to make Chicken Bog

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Do you know what Chicken Bog is? Have you heard of it?

I’d imagine that unless you know someone from Horry (pronounced or-ee) County in South Carolina, you might not.

Chicken bog is THE dish of that corner of the state, so some would say. It’s a rice dish with chicken and smoked sausage, but unlike one you’ve ever had before. The name “bog” probably comes from the wetness of the dish, although some speculate that it may come from the bogginess of Horry County, according to discoversouthcarolina.com.

It is best eaten with a spoon and can be made any time of the year – even though it is very delicious and comforting in the colder months. There are recipes for it online now, but many who live here in Horry County learn how to make it from someone else.

A small part of this post is an ode to my former boss, Mr. Steve Robertson, who recently passed away. He was the publisher of the weekly newspaper I worked at for a number of years.

Mr. Steve was also the Loris Bog-off Champion one year and was generous enough to tell me how to make this iconic dish.

Here’s what you need.

Ingredients:

  • 3-4 large chicken thighs or breast
  • 3 cups of water
  • 1 tsp. dried Rosemary
  • 1 tsp. dried thyme
  • 1 tsp. dried parsley
  • 1 tsp. garlic powder
  • 1 tsp. onion powder
  • 1-2 stalk of celery, chopped
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 mounded cup of white rice
  • 1 smoke sausage
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Let’s start with the stock for the chicken bog.

Place the chicken thighs or breast into a large sauce pan and cover with three cups of water. Add in all of the spices listed above and simmer until the chicken is cooked. Cool for 15 minutes and then take chicken out of the stock, dice and put back into the stock water.

In a separate large stock pot, sauté the onion and celery in olive oil for about 7-8 minutes and then add the garlic. Sauté together for another 2 minutes.

While the onion & celery are cooking, dice the smoked sausage into bite sized pieces.

Once the onion, celery and garlic have cooked for about 10 minutes, add in the diced sausage. Then, add in the mounded cup of rice and cook for 1 minute.

Then, pour in the stock and diced chicken, all at once.

Stir, bring the mixture to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20-25 minutes. You can check on the rice and stir during this time. It will not ruin the rice.

Taste for seasoning and rice done-ness. Serve in a bowl. Enjoy!

Other posts from Baking Through History:

How to make a delicious, hearty winter dinner of Pastie (meat pie)

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Pastie with gravy

Everyone has the dishes they love from their childhood. The one or two meals that just bring back great memories and makes you feel good when you eat it. For me, one dish is called “Pastie,” pronounced [pass-tee].

The dish, which originated in England, can be made two ways: a smaller, filled hand pie or a standard pie, like the one my mom made. It’s filled with any spiced meat, onion and potatoes. It can be fried or baked. The hand pie version is apparently very popular in Michigan and Cornwall, England.

I’ve made some changes to my mom’s recipe by adding in some extra spices and pouring over gravy when it is served, but the essence of the original dish I grew up with is there.

Here’s what you need.

Ingredients:

  • 2 pie crusts (store bought or homemade)
  • 1 pound ground beef, cooked and drained
  • 3-4 larger red potatoes, diced into 1 inch chunks
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, diced
  • 1 tbsp. garlic powder
  • 1 tbsp. onion powder
  • 1 tbsp. dried parsley
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Worcestershire sauce – add to taste (optional)
  • Soy sauce – add to taste (optional)
  • 1 packet of brown gravy, prepared separately

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a sauté pan, pour in olive oil and add onion. Cook onion until softened, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Remove onion and garlic from the pan into a separate bowl. Add in ground beef and cook until browned. Drain excess fat from ground beef and add back in the onions and garlic. Add in the potatoes, salt, pepper and spices. Cook until the potatoes start to become translucent.

While the mixture is cooking in the sauté pan, prepare the pie pan by placing one of the unbaked pie crusts in the bottom of the pie dish.

Once the potatoes are just starting to cook, place all the filling into the crust and top with second pie crust. Crimp edges, slice a vent into top of pie to allow steam to escape and place in oven to bake for 30-35 minutes.

If the pie crust starts to brown too quickly, you can place aluminum foil over the top to stop the browning.

Once baked, let cool for 10 minutes while you prepare the brown gravy. Slice into pie pieces and serve with gravy on top.

Enjoy!

Other posts from Baking Through History:

Easy twice-baked croissant recipe

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I love croissants. I’ve made them myself twice now and, if it weren’t for the time you have to dedicate to them, I’d make them more often.

But, whether you’re making your own croissants or buying them from a great bakery, twice-baked croissants are my absolute favorite. The slight almond flavor of the filling with the flaky, buttery pastry is absolutely amazing.

You may think twice-baked croissants require a lot of work, but you’d be wrong. They’re super easy and super delicious.

Here’s what you need.

Ingredients

  • 4 large croissants or 6 medium sized ones
  • 4 tablespoons of softened butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup almond flour
  • Sliced almonds (for topping)
  • Powdered sugar (for top)
  • Simple syrup (to brush on the croissants)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix together the butter and sugar until they are not too clumpy. Add eggs, vanilla and almond extract and mix. Add in almond flour and mix until incorporated.

Cut the croissants in half lengthwise and brush on the simple syrup tOn the inside of the croissant. Then scoop the filling inside saving some for the top of the croissants. Spread remainder of filling on top (about a tablespoon each). Sprinkle tops with sliced almonds that will stick onto the filling.

Bake for 15 minutes uncovered on a lined baking sheet. Then, cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake for another 12 minutes.

Let them cool for 10 minutes and then sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Then, enjoy!!

Other posts from Baking Through History:

Baking Through History: Fry Bread Tacos

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Hard shell tacos, soft shell tacos, walking tacos, puffy tacos, birria tacos – there are a multitude of styles of tacos out there.

But, have you heard of fry bread tacos??

I grew up eating these in North Dakota and they’re still a favorite today.

Instead of a standard shell, the meat, cheese and other delicious toppings are piled on a crispy, fried bowl of dough with a soft and fluffy inside. Fry bread is so popular in North Dakota and South Dakota that in 2005 South Dakota lawmakers even declared it to be the state’s official bread, according to travelsouthdakota.com.

The standard is to use regular frozen bread dough, thawed and cut into one inch pieces, but if you’re ambitious, you could make your own dough or even use sourdough starter in your dough. That could be quite tasty.

The recipe is super easy.

Here’s all you need:

  • Cooked ground beef prepared with taco seasoning
  • 1 or 2 loaves of frozen bread dough (each loaf makes about 8 smaller fry breads or 4-6 larger ones)
  • Cooking oil
  • A high sided frying pan
  • Taco toppings (lettuce, salsa, sour cream, cheese, pickled jalapenos, etc.)
  • Refried beans (optional)

Thaw the bread dough. Cut into 1 to 2 inch pieces. Stretch out the dough to make a flatter round disc. Set aside.

In your high sided frying pan, heat about 1 to 2 inches of oil until ready to fry. Fry each piece of the dough until golden brown. The center will still look doughy, but that’s ok as long as it isn’t raw.

Cook up the ground beef as noted on your taco seasoning package.

Scoop ground beef onto fry bread and place your favorite toppings on the beef.

Enjoy!

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Baking Through History: Chocolate Potato Candy (ew.)

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Chocolate Potato Candy

Potato. Candy. With chocolate. How do these ideas make it onto a page? I have no idea, but really, this one shouldn’t have.

In the “Hershey’s 1934 Cookbook,” is all about chocolate. Chocolate bread, chocolate ice cream, hot chocolate, and potato chocolate. There’s not just one recipe that uses potato, there are two!

The second is a Cocoa Potato Cake. But let’s start with Chocolate Potato Candy.

The recipe sounds like one you could use to make potato gnocchi, but instead of flour to bind the potato together, it uses powdered sugar.

I expected these to be quite delicious – but boy, was I wrong. What was the point of the potato? You couldn’t even taste it. They were way too sweet and used way too much powdered sugar to make them worth it.

If you want to try and make these, good luck. Let me know how it goes.

Chocolate Potato Candy
By Hershey’s

  • 1 medium baked potato, mashed (¾ cup)
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/3 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
  • 4.5 cups powdered sugar
  • Chocolate glaze 

Combine the mashed potatoes, salt and vanilla. Gradually beat in the cocoa and sugar until mixture is stiff enough to be rolled into balls.

Chill the balls. The recipe called for a Chocolate glaze, but they were so bad, I didn’t want to waste the ingredients.

Baking Through History: Chocolate Potato Candy

Makes 4 dozen candies

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Vintage Recipes … but how exactly do I make it?

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The Daily Independent Cook Book

Welcome back! It’s been a moment since I’ve had the time to work on my Vintage Recipes series, a whole year to be exact. 2022 was crazy, but it’s time to reset and get back to sharing recipes with you.

As I was researching what to bake next, I ran into a strange issue in one of my books titled, “The Daily Independent Cook Book” from 1948. It was published by Kannapolis Publishing Company. They called it “A collection of favorite recipes tested and proved in Kannapolis area kitchens by some of North Carolina’s best cooks.”

Well, bless their hearts. Some of those “best cooks” didn’t leave instructions!

In any vintage cookbook, I always look at the cookies, cakes and desserts first. But, it’s hard to bake a new recipe with no information.

When this book was published, there was no internet. I found similar recipes for two of the three below online, but, in 1948, unless you know the baker or had it before, sorry friend, you’re missing key information to make it on your own.

Here are just a few of the interesting ones in the book.

The Irish Potato Coffee Cake. The author thankfully gives all of the ingredients, but as for the filling and what exactly you’re boiling, or at what temperature and for how long you’re baking the cake … you’re out of luck.

I am interested in how this would taste with potatos, coffee, spices, raisins and that filling. Maybe I’ll just have to wing it. I’ll let ya know how that goes.

—

The Easter Bunny Cake … takes the cake, in my opinion.

Bake it however you want. Just figure it out. Hopefully you don’t curdle the milk with the lemon juice. Also, what makes it an Easter Bunny cake anyway?

You can try to google this one by the name, but you’ll only find cakes shaped like Easter Bunnies. Not exactly helpful.

—

And finally, the Jam Cake. Unless you’ve had this kind of cake before, I’m not sure you’d know how you’re supposed to bake this! Do you put the jam *in the cake batter?

I imagine the filling is for between the cakes, but that’s not clear either. I did some research on this one since it was the most vague and, turns out, there are a lot of other Jam Cake recipes. Southern Living and even Paula Dean had recipes for this cake. But again, no internet in 1948 to find out more.

The jam seems to be the star, so next time I make or buy some great strawberry jam, I may just give this a try!

If you’ve made any of these recipes or have had them before, let me know! I’d love to hear how they came out and how exactly you bake them. Comment below or email me at heather@pigdogfarms.com.

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Baking Through History: Great Grandma’s Kuchen

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Nearly every holiday season, I go back to my roots and make my great-grandma’s kuchen!

Kuchen (ko͞okən), as defined by dictionary.com, is a cake, especially one eaten with coffee.

Every family of German heritage has their own version of kuchen – including mine. It is a very popular holiday treat in North Dakota and South Dakota. It has gotten so popular, there are now a few companies that make it in large quantities and sell/ship them all over the country.

Kuchen – to my family – is like a pie and cake combined. It has a very tasty yeast dough that is baked in a pie pan with a cream and egg custard on top. The most common way to top the custard before baking it is with cinnamon and sugar, but you can add fruit like strawberries, blueberries, plums, peaches, figs, cherries, etc.

My family’s recipe has been passed down for generations. My great grandma, Laura Berreth, who lived to be 95 years old, used to make it every Christmas. Our large, extended family, who always gathered at her home in Herreid, S.D., ate every bite of her kuchen.

When I was around 7 or 8, my grandma, Carol, and my aunt, Laurie, started to teach me how to make this delicious dish – and I’ve made it almost every year since.

I’ve tweaked the recipe, modernized a few of her methods and added my own twists, but it is still the same family recipe that’s been used for decades. This dish takes about one day to make – and I haven’t yet figured out how to cut down on that time.

I enjoy giving them as Christmas gifts, so right now they’re not on my menu. Perhaps one day, they’ll be added – but for now, they transport me to Christmas Day at my great grandma’s house… Including to that one year when there was a blizzard, everyone had to sleep on the floor because there weren’t enough beds – and the next day we had a family snowball fight and my cousins made the largest snowman I’d ever seen.

Kuchen
By Laura Berreth
Makes 10-12 kuchen

Kuchen Filling: (can be made the night before baking)

  • 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar

Mix all three ingredients into a sauce pan and heat over medium heat, stirring consistently, until thickened.
Let the filling cool on the stove top. If making the night before, put filling into container and refrigerate overnight.
*The filling can be doubled or tripled

Kuchen Dough:

  • 1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
  • 2 packets active dry yeast
  • 1 cup milk, scalded and then cooled to 105 degrees
  • 2/3 cup cooking oil
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
  • 7-8 cups of flour

Scald milk in sauce pan on stove top. Cool to 105 degrees so it doesn’t kill the yeast.
Dissolve yeast in warm water (110 degrees) until blooming (about 5 minutes).
Add milk, yeast water, oil, sugar, salt, eggs and nutmeg into a bowl or into a stand mixer with dough hook.
Slowly add in flour until the dough mixed and the dough is not sticky and feels elastic.
Place dough into lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise 60-90 minutes until double in size. Punch down and let rise again 60-90 minutes.
Slice off pieces of dough to fit the bottom of a pie plate, roll out and place in pie plate. (The dough does not go up the sides like a pie)
Top with filling to cover bottom of dough, sprinkle with topping (recipe below).
Bake at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes until sides of dough are browned slightly.

Topping:

  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 stick butter
  • Optional fruit like strawberries, apples, plums, peaches or blueberries can be added, if desired

Mix together non-fruit items together with fingers until crumbly. If adding fruit, spread fruit onto filling first and then add topping.

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Baking Through History: Potato Chip Cookies

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Potato Chip Cookies

I found the cookbook “Pass the Plate: The Collection from Christ Church” is a massive antique shop outside of Charlotte.

The shop, called The Depot at Gibson Mill, has aisle and aisle of antiques, some junk, and books. Lots and lots of books – including old cookbooks.

If you’re ever in the Concord area – I definitely recommend stopping there. But, make sure you have at least two hours to go. Even then, however, you won’t see it all. It is big.

In one of the aisles, I found this old church cookbook, which was published in 1981.

The book was published by the Episcopal Churchwomen and Friends of Christ Episcopal Church in New Bern, North Carolina. In the foreword of the book, there is a short history of the town and the church parish.

According to the book, New Bern was settled in 1710 by a colony of Swiss and German Palatines. It was named in honor of Baron Christopher deGraffenried’s native Bern, Switzerland. In 1715, in the Province of North Carolina, the “Act for Establishing the Church and Appointing Select Vestrys” was created and that marks the start of Christ Church in New Bern. The site where the church is currently located in the town has been used for more than 300 years.

New Bern has a special place in my heart because it was where I met my husband when we both attended the annual U.S. Marine’s Ball in 2005. He was there with his mom and I was there with a friend. We danced the night away. I called him a stud muffin. And, we’ve been together ever since.

So this recipe, Potato Chip Cookies, are cookies with crushed potato chips in them. Salty. Sweet. How could this recipe be bad? The recipe doesn’t say what type of potato chips to use but I would assume it is plain chips with salt – nothing too crazy like jalapeño. 🙂

So, here is the recipe:

Potato Chip Cookies
Submitted by Patricia Byrum McCotter and by Carol Coleman Pursell 

  • 1 cup butter or margarine
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 ½ to 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • ½ cup potato chips, crushed
  • 4x powdered sugar
  • ½ cup pecans, finely chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, flour and vanilla well. Add nuts. Add potato chips. Pinch into marvel-sized pieces and place on cookie sheet. Press flat with fork. Bake 13 minutes and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Yield: 5 dozen

I cut this recipe in half because even though I share with my coworkers – I don’t need 5 dozen cookies.

This recipe is just OK. It is not my favorite, but I definitely don’t hate it. I could tweak it a bit to maybe add more salt or more sugar, but I’m not sure that would help. I could also make the bigger, but, that could alter the way it bakes. If you try these and love them, let me know! I’d love to hear from you.

There are so many more recipes in this book that I can’t wait to tackle including Applesauce Cupcakes and what’s called the “Totally Amazing Tomato-Spice Cake.” That one even has a note that says, “A delicious way to use up your garden’s bumper crop! Children refuse to believe there are tomatoes in this cake.”

…We’ll see about that one… stay tuned!

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