Interesting facts - Schnitzer.eu

Amaranth belongs to the gluten free pseudo-grains of South America and it is easy to grow and undemanding like most plants of the Amaranth family.

Amaranth seeds are very small and round, but they are full of vital substances and nutrients. Amaranth contains more proteins and fewer carbohydrates compared to national grains. Due to the high content of protein Amaranth is very popular with vegetarians and vegans.

The fat content of Amaranth is mostly essential fatty acids like linoleic acid and alpha linoleic acid

The seeds have got a slightly earthy taste. Amaranth got its name from the Greek word „amàranthos“ which means not withering or immortal.

Canihua are the dark seeds of a south American plant, wich grows in the worlds largest mountain chain at 4000 m height-in the Andes. The plants defy the extreme climate conditions at this location with icy temperatures.

Canihua is also known as pseudo-grain and can be processed to flour but it´s also very popular as a supplement. As a raw material it is free of gluten and in it´s home country Peru the small seeds are an essential basic food.

In the Peruvian cuisine the seeds are roasted, ground and eaten as porridge or stirred into drinks. Canihua flour or flakes can be added to several baking goods which results in a chocolate brown colour and a nice nutty flavour. The seeds are served roasted and puffed as a healthy snack and upgrade salads or mueslis with their special taste.

Chia is a one year old sage plant, which originally is from Mexico. Today it is grown in several countries of South America and Australia. The plant grows to a height of 1,75 m and impresses with its beautiful purple coloured blossoms. The seeds with an oval shape are grey / black, sometimes also white. They can be used as oily seeds (like linseeds). If Chia is mixed with water it forms a kind of gel. This is the most commonly used way how chia is processed, depending on what the consistency should be like the 3- until 10 times amount of water is added.

The digestive gel can be drunk – adding it to smoothies is very popular. But also for thickening soups and sauces the Chia gel is suitable. In exchange for an egg the mixture of 10 g Chia seeds and 50 g water has proved successful.

Welled Chia seeds influence the quality of baked goods in a positive way. The products stay longer fresh and juicy.

Millet is very popular due to its high content of minerals and trace elements, especially silicon. Iron and magnesium. Millet has a positive influence on bones, joints, skin, hair and nails. Therefore millet is called the food of beauty. Millet can be prepared as a Supplement, as a gratin, ground into baked goods or as a sweet porridge. In a lot of developing countries millet is a basic food.

Schnitzer creates a special product out of millet: the gluten free brew. The basic ingredient millet gives the Schnitzer brew its aromatic flavour.

Quinoa is originally from South America and is modest in growing. Therefore it is a basic food in many regions of the Andes. Growing the pseudo-grain is not possible in Europe.

In 2013 the raw material was specially honoured because UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon declared 2013 as the Quinoa-year. The decisive reason was the remarkable benefits of the plant: on the one hand the growth of the cereal and on the other its many special nutritional features. Quinoa is the new hope for fighting worldwide hunger as well as malnutrition.

Since this honour Quinoa has been much-discussed. Whether as a cooked supplement, flaked or ground to flour in baked goods Quinoa is very popular. There are different types of Quinoa- for instance there is light and dark Quinoa.

Rice is a basic food with large parts of the world’s population and is thus one of the most important crop plants.

Today there are about 8.000 different types of rice existing, which were cultivated to adapt to different climate conditions. A warm subtropical climate is essential for growing rice. The growth is at an advantage in swampy soil. By contrast, the so called “dry-rice” also grows with less water.

Asia is responsible for 90 % of the world´s rice production. In a lot of countries rice is still grown by hand on rice terraces.

Yacon is a herbaceous plant which forms 20 cm long tubers. Originally from the South American Andes it belongs to the aster plant family. With its strong, green leaves Yacon looks like sunflowers. The plants can reach a height of 3,5 m with enough heat and water.

In South America the longish tubers are a very popular food with their sweet taste and a gentle bite. Gourmets call it the “underground fruit”. About 2 kg eatable tubers can be harvested per plant. Yacon is gladly eaten as a fruit, cooked or raw as a vegetable or prepared as a salad in its hometown. It is also very popular to process it to flour, syrup or crisps. In baked goods the dried and ground roots of Yacon are commonly used. A pleasant sweet pastry is made out of the flour. Yacon is also grown in Germany and you can find it on some markets, but the amounts are very small yet. Really remarkable are the carbohydrates.

The Carbohydrates of the Yacon plant are saved as inulin which influences the intestinal flora in a positive way.

Spelt is the original form of wheat. Spelt is a grain with a hull layer. Therefore an additional step to get rid of the hull layer is needed to process spelt. A lot of allergy sufferers have made positive experience with this grain concerning the digestibility.

Due to the positive feedback spelt is growing in demand and cultivation. During the war spelt was cut off while still green, caused by the fear of destruction. The green grain is edible but baking properties are not very good.

The unripe spelt grain is mostly processed to soups or patties. Spelt became famous very early due to its advocate Hildegard von Bingen. Hildegard von Bingen praised the digestibility of spelt and the impact on the gastrointestinal tract.

Numerous affected people of wheat sensitivity tolerate spelt very well and can consume it without problems. Spelt is rich in proteins (approx 15%) and minerals, especially magnesium and iron

The cereal barley is in relation with wheat and is one of the oldest cereal types. Barley is mostly used to brew beer and as food for animals. To bake bread barley is rarely used.
There are two different types of barley, a summer-barley and a winter-barley. The winter-barley is mostly food for animals and the summer-barley mostly used to brew beer. As foodstuff barley has less importance. Barley flour has lower baking properties, the flakes are added to mueslis, patties and gratins.

Barley contains 10 % protein and 57 % starch, a little fat but a lot of nutrients and trace elements in exchange like zinc, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, phosphorus. Barley is very adaptable and profitable. Germany is one of the biggest suppliers of barley.

Green spelt is a half-ripened spelt which is harvested in the so called early harvest.

For extraction a special roasting-procedure is applied. The cereals are characterized by a nutty and strong taste. The unripe spelt grain is very popular with vegans or vegetarians, because it supplies the body with essential minerals.

The development of green spelt began with misery. Caused by poor harvests of spelt due to the weather and the threat of famine, the people harvested the unripe cereals and dried them afterwards to ensure their durability. The drying process is responsible for the green colour.

Green spelt is versatile and can be easily processed to flour. The flour of green spelt is excellent for baking bread and pastries and is popular in a healthy wholemeal cuisine.

Oats are a cereal of the sweet grass family. Oat plants are characterized by the loose panicles, they don´t form ears. The freely hanging single grains are already on the field easy visible. The single grains are covered by an indigestible hull. These protect the grain, but they have to be removed before eating.

Oat grains are narrow and slim and taper off at both ends. They have a bright colour and they are comparatively soft and good to flake due to the fat content. The most popular way to use oats is oat flakes for breakfast. Freshly flaked or in different muesli-varieties. Oats are known as mash- and flatbread cereal because It is impossible to bake bread by itself. But it can be processed together with a wheat- rye- or spelt dough. 40 % of oats in a rye bread is possible. But also smaller amounts are tasty and have proved successful in a spelt or wheat bread. An old house recipe in case of gastrointestinal complaints is porridge made from oats.

Therefore oat flakes or flour are cooked with milk and/ or water. Oats are special due to a high fat content compared to other cereals. But no worries, it´s not the fat which makes you fatter!

The linoleic acid is a main component of oat fat, an unsaturated fatty acid which is essential for our skin.

The old adage “oats make you lively” has its justification due to the mobilizing and stimulating substances. The aminos of oats which have a waking effect and take care of a good start into the day. The glucans are soluble fibres, which affect the cholesterol level positively.

They also ensure that the blood glucose level increases slowly, which has a positive effect on prevention and treatment of diabetes,

Oats are also very special with regard to the protein. There are eight protein elements (amino acids) which the body cannot produce itself, which we have to get from the food. With only three table spoons half of the needs from six of the eight amino acids can be covered.

Rye is next to wheat one of Germany’s oldest cereals to be cultivated. Due to the protein composition of the cereal, rye´s baking properties are moderate.

The baking properties of rye flour are very different compared to those of wheat flour.

There´s also gluten protein contained, but these cannot build a structure to keep the gas caused by present pentosans (mucilage). The pentosans are substantial to bind and keep water in the flower during the dough and baking process. The dough yield of rye is higher than wheat caused by the containing pentosans and the breads keep fresh longer . That’s the reason they are popular as “long-life” bread.

Traditional rye can be used for all kinds of breads (Mixed rye and wheat breads, etc.) less for bread rolls and pretty much non existing in the yeast dough field. Rye is predominant typically processed in the North and East of Germany, where you can find the characteristic types of rye breads.

Ancient Cereals are original types of cereals like wild emmer, einkorn wheat and forest perennial rye which were cultivated thousand of years ago. But they were displaced by high-yield varieties and cereals which are easier to process.

Gradually ancient cereals are being rediscovered and cultivated. These undemanding and robust cereals are predestined for organic farming. Wild emmer and einkorn wheat are so called hull-cereals.

The grains are covered by a solid hull. These protect the grain from harmful environmental influences and simultaneously ensure a longer durability of the cereals. Due to the hull, processing is more complex, because the hull has to be removed from the grain. Einkorn wheat has one grain in each ear spindle, whereby wild Emmer has two grains.

There is also beer brewed from wild emmer and einkorn wheat. The forest perennial rye is a perennial old type of rye. In the first year it is cut down twice and harvested in the second year.

In our latitudes forest perennial rye is known as Johannis-rhy because it is traditionally sown on the 24. June which is the feast day of Johannis. Biologically wild emmer and einkorn wheat belong like spelt to the wheat species, but they are older than the conventional wheat. Only the popularity of old types and organic varieties made it possible to cultivate wild emmer and einkorn wheat again. For many years numerous people have made the experience that spelt is more tolerable than wheat. Also wild emmer and einkorn wheat are highly compatible. Einkorn wheat contains a high proportion of carotenoid lutein, “the eye-protection substance”. This substance is important for a sharp vision. It also gives the four the yellow colour. Einkorn wheat is very popular for sweet baked goods such as cakes, cookies and pan cakes.

Wheat is the most cultivated cereal in Germany. As well as for us humans it´s also very popular as animal food.

Wheat has forfeited its popularity in the last years. More and more people get the diagnosis: wheat sensitivity, which leads to a diet free from wheat. Breads, baked goods, pasta products and a lot more are made of Wheat. Vitamin B1, which strengthens the nerves, is nutritionally especially notable. If wheat is eaten as wholegrain, like all cereals the fibres give their optimal effect. Fibres support the digestion. The seedling as part of the wholegrain flower is rich in B Vitamins and unsaturated fatty acids.

The Symptoms of the affected can be similar to those of celiac disease such as diarrhea and bloating.
With a “complaint-diary” it becomes clear that the affected only respond to wheat, whereby small amounts of wheat are tolerated. The complaints depend on the dosage, this is the main difference to wheat allergy.

Responsible are also proteins, which are called ATIs: amylase-trypsin-inhibitors which lead to an incompatibility. These are natural antibodies of the plant. “Modern” wheat varieties contain 2-3 times as much ATIs than “old” varieties.

We offer innovative, tasty and healthy organic and gluten free products to all those who pay special attention to their nutrition.

Our products are made in a 100% organic production, which are produced in two bakeries. We can guarantee absolute safety with regard to contamination due to separation of gluten free and gluten containing bakeries, confirmed by IFS certification.

We add no enzymes ,isolated minerals or vitamins to the products.

Due to ideal combinations of raw materials our products show nutritional physiology benefits such as all nutritional values.

We are committed to “sensitive eating” and offer a range of vegan and vegetarian products and also products free of palm oil.

Additionally we aim to avoid allergenics.

A lactose intolerance, also called milk sugar intolerance occurs if the carbohydrate of milk – the lactose – colloquially known as the milk sugar is not tolerated. The affected have a lack of lactase enzymes which are responsible for the digestion of milk sugar. Consequences are flatulence, cramps and diarrhoea.

A lactose intolerance is not a „real“ allergy and depends on the dose. It may happen that milk is not tolerated, but some milk products (cheese, yoghurt, quark, butter) are tolerated.
This can be individually very different.