Saints, Feast, Family
- Traditions passed down with Cooking, Crafting, & Caring -
October 13
Saint of the day:
Saint Coloman of Stockerau
Patron Saint of Austria; Melk; patron of hanged men, horned cattle, and horses;
invoked against plague and for husbands by marriageable girls; invoked against hanging; invoked against gout
Saint Coloman of Stockerau's Story
Coloman of Stockerau (Irish: Colmán; Latin: Colomannus; died 18 October 1012) was an Irish saint. Originally known as Colmán (variously rendered Koloman, Kálmán, Colman, and Colomannus), he was an Irish pilgrim en route to the Holy Land and was mistaken for a spy because of his strange appearance. He was tortured and hanged at Stockerau, near Vienna, Austria, on 16 July 1012. Later tradition has it that he was "a son of Máel-Sechnaill (d. 1022), high king of Ireland." (Breen, 2009) At the time of his death, there were continual skirmishes among Austria, Moravia, and Bohemia. Coloman spoke no German, so he could not give an understandable account of himself. He was hanged alongside several robbers. According to Aidan Breen, "He was made a saint by the local people, possibly out of remorse for the deed and because of his endurance under torture and the many miracles reported from where his body was buried."
Prayer:
Visit
Melk Abbey
Abt-Berthold-Dietmayr-Straße 1 Melk 3390 AT
Recipe:
Germknödel recipe
A delicious recipe for Germknödel, a favorite Austrian winter treat. Use an Austrian-made Stroh rum in this recipe to give it its authentic flavor.
Germknödel is a plum stuffed and then steamed bread roll that sits in a pool of crème anglaise topped with poppy seeds. A great fall twist could be a roll stuffed with a sweet pumpkin filling topped with cinnamon sugar!
Ingredients
For the steamed yeast dumplings
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500 g strong white flour
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7 g dried yeast
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1 tsp salt
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65 g sugar
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70 g butter melted
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250 g whole milk warmed
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1 egg yolk
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1 egg
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1 lemon zest
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Vanilla seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
For the filling
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300 g Powidl (plum jam)
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1 tbsp rum
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Powidl
To serve
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150 g poppy seeds ground
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Icing sugar
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Homemade vanilla sauce
Directions
How to make Germknödel
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Combine all dumpling ingredients and knead for about 10 minutes. You should have a soft, smooth, workable dough – not too sticky and not too dry.
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Place the dough in a plastic bowl, cover and leave to rise somewhere warm for an hour or two until it has doubled in size. How quickly the rise happens depends on the temperature in the room, so be patient in case it takes a little longer.
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In a small bowl, mix Powidl and rum.
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Lightly flour a clean work surface and turn out the dough.
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Punch down the dough, form the dough into a sausage shape and divide into 10 pieces with your dough scraper.
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Flatten each piece with your hand.
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Place a teaspoon of Powidl mixture into the centre of the flat round dough piece.
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Bring up the sides of the dough around the plum jam and seal well by pinching the edges.
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Place each dumpling onto the floured work surface or baking sheet, cover with a dish towel and leave to prove for about 30 minutes to 1 hour. The Germknödel should have visibly risen before you continue.
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Prepare the vanilla sauce while you wait.
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Bring a large pan of water to the boil and use a steamer (I use a bamboo steamer) lined with baking paper to steam the dumplings for 15 minutes. I can fit four dumplings into my steamer at a time. Make sure you cover the steamer with a lid.
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If you don’t have a steamer, you can use a cotton dish towel which you put over the pan. Secure it with twine and make sure the cloth isn’t exposed to the heat source. Place the dumplings onto the cloth and cover with a second pot.
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Serve and enjoy straight away. Pour over hot vanilla sauce and sprinkle with a mix of ground poppy seeds and icing sugar.
