Herman Recipe Ideas – Herman The German Friendship Cake (2024)

Do you want to do something a bit different with your Herman? If you don’t want to stick with the generic recipe on the Herman instructionsthat you were given, take a look at some of these suggestions from other readers.

If you have used a different recipe, please tell us about it, so that your idea can be added below. Get started by clicking here…A big thanks to Jeni for this first collection:

Here are the recipes I’ve tried so far. Each one is based on a starter amount of approximately 1.5 cups of sourdough starter batter.

Basic Recipe

by Jeni

• 2 scant cups batter
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3rds cup melted butter (about 150g)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 heaped tsp baking powder

Mix it all up and pour into a non-stick 1lb loaf tin. If you grease the tin very lightly, and put a piece of greaseproof paper at the bottom it should come out of the tin fine after cooking. A good tip to stop the top burning is a piece of greaseproof paper laid on top of the batter.

Bake for 35-45 minutes at 170C, testing to see if it’s cooked after 35 minutes. (A knife stuck into the centre should come out without any sticky batter on it.)

Muffins will take less time depending on size – a rough guide is cupcakes (the small ones) will take around 15 minutes, and larger muffins may take around 25 minutes.

For some different flavour ideas, replace the apple, raisins and cinnamon with the following:

Apple, Walnut and Raisin

by Jeni

• 2 cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped into chunks
• 1 cup raisins
• 2 tsps cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Apple and Blackcurrant

by Jeni

• 2 large tbsps blackcurrant conserve
• 2 cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped into chunks

Banana Chocolate

by Jeni

• 1 very ripe banana, mashed
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 100g plain chocolate chips or well-chopped chocolate

Banana and White Chocolate

by Jeni

• 1 very ripe banana, mashed
• 100g white chocolate chips or finely chopped cooking chocolate

Plum, Pear and Nutmeg

by Jeni

• 2 peeled and finely sliced conference pears
• 4 de-stoned and chopped plums
• about 1/6th of a grated nutmeg (freshly grated nutmeg is a lot stronger in flavour than ready-ground nutmeg)

Lemon Drizzle

by Jeni

• the grated rind of two lemons
• use some of the juice to dissolve sugar in to make a syrup
• once the cake is cooked, poke holes in it with a skewer and pour the syrup over
• use the remaining juice to make a glace icing with using icing sugar to drizzle over the top

Chocolate and Raspberry

by Jeni

• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 cups of S/R flour
• 2/3 of a cup melted butter
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2tsp vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 2 or 3 Crunchie bars, bashed about.
• 1/2 tsp of salt.
• 1 and 1/2 cups of Herman

Method

1. Mix everything well
2. Add the Crunchie just before adding Herman
3. Pour into a lined cake pan
4. Sprinkle the top with brown sugar
5. Cook for about an hour at 175°C
6. Check after about 45 that top isn’t browning too much
7. Cover with foil if it is
8. Cool on a rack

Lemon & Almond Herman

by Rachel Wilson

Ingredients

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of S/R flour
• 1 cup ground almonds
• 2/3 cups melted butter
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• rind of 3 lemons
• juice of 1 lemon.
• 1 and 1/2 of Herman

Method

1. Mix everything well
2. Add lemon rind and juice after you add the Herman mix
3. Pour into a lined baking pan and cook for 45 minutes to an hour at 175°C
4. When cooked take out and pierce all over with a skewer
5. Make a syrup with the juice of 1 lemon and 2 heaped tbsp of sugar; warm in a microwave until it melts. It should be the consistency of single cream (add more sugar/juice until you get it right)
6. Pour syrup over your hot Herman and spread it out on the top. When it cools it hardens and gives a lovely crunch

Pineapple and Walnut

by Belinda

I have just made a pineapple & walnut Herman, which my husband tells me was the tastiest one! (I also made the apple & cinnamon and a banana & chocolate Herman)

Simply substitute the apple, raisins and cinnamon for:

• 1 can of tinned pineapple pieces
• packet of walnuts, broken into pieces

Delicious!

Strawberry Blueberry & White Chocolate

by Sarah Hanco*ck

Replace the raisins and apple with:

• One cup quartered strawberries (coat with a little extra flour)
• Half cup whole blueberries
• One cup of white chocolate chunks (Approx. 125g – kept quite large so they don’t totally melt on cooking)

Add strawberries to mix last to avoid them turning your mix into a pink gooey mess.

I don’t use the butter & sugar topping on any of my cakes, just a sprinkle of granulated sugar.

Chocolate Orange Herman

by Sarah Hanco*ck

Omit raisins, apples and vanilla essence, replace with:

• 3 tsp of orange flavouring
• 1 generous cup of milk chocolate chunks (about 125g)

Sprinkle with citrus peel (candied) and granulated sugar prior to cooking.

Diamond Jubilee – A Herman Fit For A Queen!

by Lysanne

Here’s my herman recipe for the Queens Diamond Jubilee here in the UK this weekend.

• about 150g of white chocolate (chopped into chunks, about a quarter of an ordinary cube)
• 200g of blueberries (just over a cup)
• 100g of fresh raspberries
• about 150g of sugar

I use 150g of sugar (just over half a cup) instead of the usual 225g because the white chocolate will sweeten it enough.

Use the ordinary Herman recipe but instead of the apples and raisins add the alternative ingredients above.

Looks gorgeous, smells lovely, and tastes fit for a Queen!

Herman Bread

by Gina

Today I wanted to try and make soda bread for the first time. It looked very simple, but all the recipes said to use buttermilk or live yogurt in the mix, so clearly something ‘alive’. I had neither, but I did have two bowls of Herman on the side – one to grow and feed for my own next cake and one to give away to a friend tomorrow.

So I mixed a good dollop of Herman with some whole milk and used it to make the bread – and it turned out beautifully! Now I’m going to have to keep two batches of herman on the go so I can use one to dip into for bread!

Here’s the recipe I used to make a small, 2 person loaf:

• 85g plain wholemeal flour
• 85g self raising flour
• 1tsp bicarb of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Mix together in a bowl.
2. Put a good tablespoon or so of Herman into a measuring jug and add whole milk up to 1/4 pint.
3. Mix in well with the dry ingredients.
4. Knead quickly and lightly into a loaf shape.
5. Place on a floured tray and pop it straight into a preheated oven at 180°C for about half an hour.

It’s scrummy! And so easy! I’ve already got my second one on the go but this time I’ve added some dried herbs and chopped olives. It just came out the oven and it smells divine! Mmmm…

Another Herman Bread

by Alison Berry

If you’d liketo make bread using just the power of Herman (and no other raising agent), the recipe on this page works a treat.

Follow the instructions from step 3, using a cup of Herman in place of their starter. You can leave it to rise overnight if you’re not in a hurry. I divided the dough into 2 parts at step 5, skipped the slash with knife and baked for 10 minutes.

The Herman bread has a honey taste and goes particularly well with soft cheese.

A Herman Bread Recipe For Bread Making Machines

by Paddy Pierce

I tried the recipe for Herman Bread, then took it a stage further and adapted a bread maker recipe for Herman and it worked a treat.

Ingredients

• 10 fl oz (1 portion) Herman
• 4 fl oz natural yoghurt
• 2 fl oz water (careful with this, the flour varies, it may take more when at the mixing stage, check it)
• 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 4oz strong wholemeal flour
• 13oz strong white flour
• half teaspoon salt

Method

1. Pour starter, yoghurt, oil and water into the bread maker bucket.
2. Cover with the flours adding the salt last (well away from Herman!)
3. Set the machine for French programme (6 hours).

If possible check the dough for elasticity when the paddle is working after about an hour, add a little more water if needed.

Hey presto! A beautiful crusty sweetish loaf, but, the original recipe added honey, so it is quite similar. Herman had his sugar cut down on the last feed as an experiment!

Herman Fruit Cake

by Sarah Brassey

After a little experimenting I’ve found this recipe makes a lovely, moist fruitcake:

• 1 cup Herman
• 1 cup soft brown sugar
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup ground almonds
• 2 eggs
• a little less than 2/3 cup oil
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup sultanas
• 2 tsps vanilla extract

Especially yummy baked as a loaf and served with butter! Substitute the raisins and sultanas for your favourite dried fruits.

Cherry & Almond

by Feriel

This and the next two recipes all start with the usual Herman base:

• 1 portion of Herman
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 heaped tsp baking powder
• 1 cup chopped glacé cherries
• 1 cup chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
• 2 grated apples

Chocolate & Hazelnut

byFeriel

• 1 portion of Herman
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 heaped tsp baking powder
• 2 bars chocolate and hazelnut (100g each) – roughly chopped into gravel sized pieces (the Lidl bars work well as the hazelnuts in the chocolate are already chopped up small)
• 1 cup roasted hazelnuts – beaten with a rolling pin until they break up
• 2 grated apples

Date & Walnut

byFeriel

• 1 portion of Herman
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 heaped tsp baking powder
• 1 cup chopped dates
• 1 cup strong black tea
• 2 cups chopped walnuts
• 2 cored and chopped apples
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Let the dates soak in the tea for a couple of hours until they swell and soften

Each of these go into a greased and lined roasting tray and bake for about an hour at 170 (with a paper cover to stop them going too brown on top) and make wonderful tray bakes for sharing with friends

This is the only cake I have found where I can play around with the ingredients and still get something edible and attractive out of the oven.

Chocolate & Apple Herman Muffins

by Jane Cooper

I deviated from the standard recipe today by substituting a third of a cup of flour for an equal quantity of cocoa and replacing the raisins with 100g of chopped chocolate. I used brown sugar and left out the cinnamon as well as the melted butter on top.

I used most of the mixture to make a large cake, but because I was so anxious to taste my new Herman, I made three muffins too. Here they are. The muffins were baked to perfection in 25 minutes while my big cake took an hour. This Herman variation tastes nothing short of heavenly!

Enjoy!

Coffee Herman

by Petra Nesbit

The Herman, my husband likes most:

1. Replace the raisins with stone-out dates.
2. Mix 2 table spoons of coffee granulates (decaf or normal) with 1 table spoon boiling water
3. Add 2/3 of a cup double cream.
4. Use this mixture instead of the oil of the normal recipe.

Also replace the butter with double cream.

I hope you enjoy this Coffee Herman as much as we do. He tastes even better with some clotted cream.

Some Herman Variations

by Hilary Bennison

Having made a few traditional recipes following the recipe that came with the starter, I have bravely started experimenting and now made yummy cakes with:

Chocolate Cranberry &Pear

(using drinking chocolate and missing out the sugar, cranberries instead of raisins and two conference pears chopped with skinslefton)

Chocolate & Banana

As above for chocolatebut with 2 ripe mashed bananas

Apricot, Raisin & Cranberry

I used a tin of apricots, drained and chopped, a bag of mixed raisin and cranberry mix

All yummy- and myeverlasting friendHerman seems very forgiving with measurements and timings.I used loaf tins making two cakes with each lot of mixture, and covered the top with foil for the last 15

-20 mins or so.

All good fun and something I had never done before!

Double Choc Chip Muffins

by Tina Knowles

I used the Basic Recipe, but replaced half a cup of flour with cocoa.

Then added:

• 1 packet of white choc chips
• 1 packet of milk choc chips
• 1 packet of milk choc chunks

This made around 20 very large muffins!

Ginger & Lemon Drizzle Herman

by Beth

I’ve just made a ginger and lemon drizzle Herman, delicious!

Ingredients

• 3/4 of a cup of oil
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1 cup of ground almonds
• 1/2 cup of glacé ginger
• zest of 2 lemons, juice of 1
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 and 1/2 cups of Herman

Method

1. Mix eggs,with vanilla and add to rest of ingredients, adding Herman last.
2. Pour into a lined backing pan and cook at about 175°C, for about 45 minutes.
3. Check and cover loosely with foil; this cake can take almost an hour and a half, due to being really dense.

While the cake is still warm, mix the juice of the 2nd lemon with more sugar then it can dissolve and pour over the top. Leave to set as the cake cools for a crunchy lemon top.

Pear & Apricot Herman

by Birgit Wefers

Use the basic Herman recipechange the following:

• instead of adding 2 teaspoons cinnamon, add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• a sprinkle of nutmeg (ideally freshly grated)
• 1 teaspoonalmondessence
• add vanilla essence as per original recipe
• replace chopped apples with chopped pears (sprinkled with 1-2 teaspoons lemon juice if you prefer the cake fruity rather than just sweet)
• replace raisins with chopped dried apricots
• use white sugar rather thandemerarafor sprinkling on top of batter
• fora crunchier topping – addchopped almonds to topping

Baking – follow the original instructions, extending baking time if required until knife or wooden skewer remain clean when poked into middle of cake.

For fanasssistedovens use lowertemeperatureof 160°Cand bake for 1 hour before checking with knife/wooden skewer.

The Perfect Herman Bread

by Cheryl

I’ve tried some of the bread recipes shown, and they seem to taste a bit “sweet”, no good for a ham sandwich. So I’ve been playing around with Herman and I think I’ve cracked it.

To prevent Herman Bread tasting too sweet, you need to make an adjustment on “Day 9”.
Normally you would add his last feed of 1 cup flour, 1 cup (8oz) sugar and 1 cup milk, and then divide into 4 portions.

But for bread, you need to add the flour and milk only, then divide into 4 portions, then add the sugar individually. For any cake and friend portions add 2oz sugar, but for the bread portions add just ½ oz. Then on “Day 10” bake or pass to friends as normal.

The Recipe

• 500g (1 lb 2 oz) Strong Flour (White or Wholemeal)
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• 240ml (8 fl oz) Tepid Water
• 1 Portion Herman

Tip:-To get the perfect temperature water use 160 ml (⅔) cold tap water and 80 ml (⅓) freshly boiled water.

Method

1. Mix flour and salt together in a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
2. Mix the water with Herman and pour into the flour well.
3. Gradually work the ingredients together to make a soft dough. Add a little more water if it seems too dry, or add a little more flour if it seems to sticky.
4. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.
5. Put the dough in a large clean bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise for 3 to 8 hours until doubled in size
6. Knock back, then shape into a ball and place in a large loaf tin, or divide into 12 and shape into balls for rolls. Cover and leave to rise for 2 to 6 hours.
7. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 220ºC / Gas Mark 7, for 35 minutes for a loaf or 20 minutes for rolls. When cooked the bottom should sound hollow when tapped.

A good idea: Do steps 1 to 5 after lunch, Step 6 before you go to bed, step 7 first thing in the morning, and amaze the family with freshly baked bread for breakfast!

Pear & Ginger Herman

by Toby Rothwell

• Use 3 (or 4 if small) pears instead of the apple
• Replace the cinnamon with 2 tsp of ground ginger
• add 1/2 tsp of mixed spice

Continue with the basic recipe.

Plum Herman

by Toby Rothwell

• Replace the Apples with an equal amount of fresh (preferably hard, not too ripe) plums
• I slice them in half, remove the stone and then cut into about 12 segments per plum and keep the skin on

Continue with the rest of the basic recipe –The red skins give a lovely colour to the sections of the cake they bake into.

Lemon, Poppy Seed & White Chocolate Herman

byElspeth Barraclough

The poppy seeds give an interesting taste and texture to this Herman cake. It vanished very quickly when left exposed to a crowd of hungry railway volunteers!

Ingredients

• 3/4 of a cup of oil
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1 cup of ground almonds
• 1/2 cup of poppy seeds
• 3/4 cup of white chocolate drops
• zest of 2 lemons, juice of 1
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 and 1/2 cups of Herman

Method

1. Mix eggs with vanilla and add to rest of ingredients, adding Herman last.
2. Pour into a lined baking pan and cook at about 175°C, for about 45 minutes.
3. If not done after 45 minutes turn off the oven and allow it cook on in the residual heat. This technique will finish off most cakes unless it is still really liquid in the middle!

Carrot, Orange & Lemon Herman

byElspeth Barraclough

Another experiment, replacing ground almonds with semolina for a different texture and to soak up a slightly soggier mix due to the citrus juice.

Ingredients

• 3/4 of a cup of oil
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1 cup of semolina
• 300g grated carrot
• zest of 1 lemon
• zest of 1 orange
• ½ the juice from both fruits
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp of mixed spice
• 1 and 1/2 cups of Herman

Method

1. Mix eggs with vanilla and add to rest of ingredients, adding Herman last.
2. Pour into a lined baking pan and cook at about 175°C, for about 45 minutes.
3. If not done after 45 minutes turn off the oven and allow it cook on in the residual heat. This technique will finish off most cakes unless it is still really liquid in the middle!

I mixed the last of the citrus juice with a melted bar of white chocolate and used this as icing, but it would also work well with a cream cheese icing.

Ginger & Maple Herman

by Jackie Grebbey

This made a very successful cake…

Ingredients

• 150g self-raising flour
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• Pinch of salt
• 125ml maple syrup
• 200g crystallised ginger
• 2 handfuls sultanas
• 75 g dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 150 ml milk
• 75g softened butter

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together and pour into 2 lined loaf tins.
2. Bake at 175°Cfor about 1 hour 15 mins.

Lemon, Poppy & Dark Chocolate with Chopped Roasted Hazelnuts Herman

ByGene Dumoitier

Ingredients:

• Cup size typical coffee mug
• Cooking time 105 to 120 minutes at 175c
• ¾ of a cup of oil
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of self raising flour
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1 cup of ground almonds
• ½ cup of Chopped Roasted Hazelnuts
• ¼ cup of poppy seeds
• ¾ cup of dark or plain chocolate chips
• Zest of 2 lemons and the juice of one
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 and ½ cups of Herman

Method:

1. 1. Mix together the eggs with the vanilla then add the oil followed by the rest of the ingredients adding Herman last.
   2. Pour into a lined baking tin 8 inch and cook at 175c for 105 to 120 minutes.
   3. Half way in to the cooking cover Herman with tinfoil to prevent it from burning.

1. If not done after 105 minutes leave in for another 15 minutes and then turn off the oven and allow to cook in the residual heat.

Orange and Carrot Herman The German Muffins

by Natalie Warren

This created probably the best Herman I’ve made so far plus it was my first make-it-up-as-i-go-along cake making experience!!

Orange and Carrot Herman The German Muffins. This recipe makes 18 light cupcakes or one yummy cake.

Cake Ingredients:

• 350g Self raising flour
• 300g grated carrot
• zest of one orange
• Juice of half the orange
• 200ml Herman
• 2 medium eggs
• 300g caster sugar
• 150g butter

Cream Cheese Filling/ Topping Ingredients:

• 90g Full fat cream cheese
• 230g Icing Sugar
• 65g Butter
• Juice from half the orange

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C for fan assisted ovens

2. Cream together butter and caster sugar with an electric whisk

3. Beat together Herman with the eggs and juice from half the orange

4. Add a little Herman mixture to the creamed butter/sugar and whisk together again.

5. Next sieve in a small amount of flour and whisk together until combined. Repeat these two steps until the Herman mixture and the flour have all gone – this should happen within about 5 steps finishing with flour

6. Fold the final flour portion in with the grated carrot and orange zest until a batter has formed

7. Fill 18 cupcake cases or 2 buttered and floured 20″ round cake tins and cook for 20 minutes or until a knife can be passed through the centre of one and come out clean and the tops have turned a light brown colour.

8. Combine together all the topping ingredients in a bowl with a whisk until the icing is smooth, stiff and pale. Use half the ingredients for cupcakes.

9. Allow the cupcakes/cakes to cool then for cupcakes add a little topping to each creating an attractive swirl and add a sugar orange or lemon slice to each.

10. Alternatively for a cake mix together in the same way but reserve one third of the cream cheese icing for the top of the cake and cover the top one of the two cakes with two thirds of the icing.

11. Place the other cake on top and cover with a thin layer to ice the top.

12. Top attractively with your choice of decoration!

Passion Fruit Herman

byRobyn Altus

Have recently been introduced to Herman, and first cake I made with the batter was to use up some of our large quantity of passion fruit. Instead of the apples & raisins, I replaced with approx 1 cup of passion fruit pulp (and omitted the cinnamon). Absolutely yummy.

Chilli & Chocolate Herman

byPaula Fowler

Not sure if anyone else has tried this flavouring, but thought I would just try an experiment (as you do!) and I would to share with others.

On day 10 of my Herman Care plan, I halved the mixture to make two cakes, 2/3 for one and 1/3 for the one in the picture. One was an Apple and Raspberry, which is now in the freezer, the other was as per the photo – Chilli & Choc.

I was not sure how much choc to use so in a bowl I had 1x tablespoon of Cocoa powder and 1 tablespoon of Options Drinking Chocolate mixed into a paste with hot water. Then ½ teaspoon of Lazy Chilli. Mixed into Herman mix. Cooked in a loaf tin for 40 minutes.

It is, if I say so myself, a great success.

Happy cooking…

Banana & Coconut Herman the German

by Rachel Norris

Follow the normal recipe but omit apple, sultanas, cinnamon and butter-sugar topping.

Instead add:

• 2large ripe bananas (mashed)
• 2/3 cup desiccated coconut
• 2 teaspoons of nutmeg

Sprinklelightly with brown sugar just before baking.Cook in a loaf tin and make sure you keep aneye onit as it bakes because the top tends to catch.If it does start to burn before the inside of the cake is done just coverin foil and keep cooking.

“This recipe makes a moist, delicious cake that by far beats any other banana cake I’ve ever had.” 🙂

Banana & Choc Chip Mini Hermans

by Tiffany C

After trawling the website, I’ve combined a few of the recipes to make Banana & Choc Chip Mini Hermans – they’re delicious and my toddler loves them!

• 1 portion Herman*
• 1 cup sugar**
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup olive oil (& an extra dash – about a tablespoon. My last Herman was a bit dry)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla essence (with about 2 tbs milk to get it all out of the bottom of the jar – I use vanilla bean paste)
• 2 heaped tsp baking powder
• 2 bananas – cut up finely
• 100g dark choc chips

* About 360g at Day 12. I measured the batter on scales when separating into 4, so no idea how many cups of it was. Does cooking Herman on a later day make any difference???

** Aussie 250ml cups were used.

I used my new mixer to slowly mix everything, except the choc chips. The benefit of using a mixer is that it really gets the banana all through the batter. Then I stirred in the choc chips.

I filled 24 patty tins to 2/3 full of batter and cooked for 20 mins at 150-160C – fan forced oven (170-180C for normal oven). Cakes came out perfect size, moist and delicious!

Cheers, Tiffany

A Twist on Dough Boys

by Dana Gabolinscy

Ive been experimenting with herman, my kids loved this little twist on dough boys so thought I’d share it. We were making boil up (a Maori recipe) but could be used in any stew or casserol

• 1 cup Herman
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp mixed herbs
• salt and pepper to taste
• a little milk to make bread a dough consistency

Mix to combine, make into balls and drop into boil up, stew, etc. Cook about 30 mins.

Yum!

Herman The German Cinnamon Rolls

by Margaret Porter

Here is my recipe and picture of the finished product. I adapted it from your first one listed on the website. These are very nice with any type of cooked breakfast.

• 2cups of Herman the German Starter
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Melt & Cool 2/3 cup of butter
2. add the 1/4 cup milk
3. add the 1 cup of sugar
4. mix together and add to the starter
5. mix well with a wooden spoon
6. add 2 eggs
7. add 2 tsp vanilla
8. mix well

Mix together:

3 cups of flour (plain is fine),

2 heaped tsps Baking Powder,

1/2 tsp salt, and add to the dough

Mix well with a wooden spoon, or you can use a mixer with a dough hook.

Add 1 more cup of flour and mix slightly.

Turn out dough on a floured surface.

Knead until flour is mixed in, all the while adding 1 more cup of flour as you knead the dough. Flours are all different, and you may find you need less than 5 cups of flour.

Roll out in a very big rectangle, or split dough in half and do two lots of rolling and shaping.

Brush dough rectangle with melted butter, to your liking. We like lots of gooey brown sugar goodness in our cinnamon rolls so I am liberal with the melted butter!

Sprinkle dough with Cinnamon and spread brown OR white sugar liberally on the dough. Pat down the brown sugar and roll doughinto a pinwheel log. Push both ends in a bit and using both hands, lenghten, if you want small rollsor shorten, if you want big rolls fromyour dough log.

Butter glass dishes, I like pie and cake pans.

Bake 325F – times vary per oven so watch them carefully after the first 45 minutes

I take them out when tops are good and brown and turn then overusing wire racks or plates, and put them back in the pans upside down and bake for another 15 mins or so to brown the bottom.

Take out of the pans after a few minutes, scrape out the sugar in the bottom of the pan and spread on top.

Cool and ice if desired.

With my next batch of Herman the German I plan to make savoury rolls, fresh garlic, rosemary, and rock salt for starters.

Christmas Herman

by Gillian Wrightson

That time is with us yet again and Gillian promised to send in a Christmas recipe that is adapted for Herman.

Gillian says,

“Anyone can make this… it is so so simple, moist, delicious, and we have nearly finished it already. A great success!“Sigh” that means I will have to make another one…

I was asked to devise a Christmas Cake, the recipe for which is below.It has been tested on real people and given the thumbs up.It is not a dark cake but so full of flavour.It’s a throw everything, all in together, cake, just like Herman.So Why not blend the two?

1. Preheat oven to 160C/325F
2. Line a 23 cm tin with baking paper

• 900 gms/2lbs ready mixed fruit
• 60gms/2 oz blanched almonds optional
• 950 mls/2 pints boiling water
• 225 gms/8 oz butter cut into small pieces
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cupsugar
• 1/2cup brown sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp BP
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• Pinch nutmeg
• Pinch cinnamon
• 1 tsp almond essence
• ¼ cup Brandy or Rum

1. In a large bowl place the fruit and almonds.
2. Pour over boiling water, cover witha large plate and leave to stand for 15 mins.
3. Strain off the water and cut butter into fruit.

Next…

1. Place portion of Herman into a big bowl
2. In another bowl beat eggs, white and brown sugar together. until soft and creamy.
3. Add to your portion of Herman
4. Sift flour, baking powder and spices together.
5. Stir butter and fruit mixture until well mixed.
6. Stir in almond essence.
7. Add the Herman, eggs and sugar blend
8. Lastly fold in sifted dry ingredients.

Place mixture into prepared tin (well lined.) and bake at 160C/325F for 1hr 45 mins.

After one hour if you feel you need to, cover cake with sheet of brown paper.

When it is finished check with a skewer or toothpick – hopefully after the 1 ¾ hours the skewer will come out clean.

When cold, prick with a skewer an inch apart all over the cake.

Sprinkle brandy/ rum over and wrap tightly in plastic

I wanted to have a taste test after only 5 days

It was lovely but if you can…give it at least a week before decorating.

I’m not fond of the Almond Icing, Royal Icing Combo

I went for the Apricot Jam Glaze and Glace Fruit and Nut Decor:

• ½ cup apricot jam melted
• Your choice of glace fruits

I went for red and green cherries, slivered almonds and mixed peel; Go mad it’s Christmas after all!!

You can read more about Gillian’s recipe here – So So Simple Food