Katrin's Kitchen Diaries

Zucchini Cake with Macademias and Chocolate

2012-02-12T04:29:00.000-08:00

This zucchini cake from Miriam's fabulous blog Once Upon A Cakestand is just great! The smell of the spices is pretty strong, but I like that a lot. If you don't want the spices to come through so strongly, slightly reduce the amount of cinnamon and nutmeg. You can also substitute the macademias with other nuts, or use raisins or dried cranberries instead of the chocolate chunks. Miriam suggests that "if you want to be really kinky, pour over some chocolate glaze". Well, talk to me about kinky! Since the recipe yields two loaves, I decided to cover one with cream cheese frosting and the other with my favourite chocolate glaze! One for this weekend's afternoon tea and the other for my office mates tomorrow.

Recipe
(slightly adapted from Once Upon A Cakestand)

3 eggs
250ml olive or vegetable oil
160g sugar
about 280g grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
330g flour
4 teaspoons cinnamon
a generous pinch nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt
100g chopped macademia nuts

100g chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line two 25cm loaf pans with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat eggs with a whisk. Add oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and salt, as well as macademias and chocolate chips. Add this to the egg mixture. Divide the batter into prepared pans. Bake the loaves for about 60 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, with my cakes, it took about 50 minutes.

Chocolate glaze: Get the recipe here.

Cream Cheese Icing: With an electric mixer, combine 200g cream cheese (room temperature), 250g icing sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Or, instead of the vanilla extract, you could also use 1 tablespoon lemon juice and grated zest of one lemon. Mix until smooth and spread over your cake.

Carrot Peanut Butter Soup

2012-02-09T06:03:00.000-08:00

Need something to get you through the cold winter days? I've got just the right thing for you! The warming flavour of carrots with a hint of spicy cayenne pepper combined with peanut butter... I haven't ever thought about using peanut butter for soups, but I was totally intrigued when Andrea told me about this recipe. Let me just say that I liked it very much! A soup with substance :-)

Recipe
(adapted from an unknown source)

600g carrots, peeled and chopped into about 1.5cm pieces
1 onion, chopped
7dl vegetable stock
olive oil
3-5 tablespoons creamy peanut butter (I used 4)
about 0.5dl cream (25% fat), the original recipe calls for coconut milk
a piece of ginger (2cm), I had none at home so I used powdered ginger
1 chilli, chopped, had none at home so I used cayenne pepper
salt
I added: runny honey

Pour olive oil into a mid-size saucepan. Put the heat on and put in the chopped onion first, sauté for a minute or so, add the carrot pieces and sauté for about 4 minutes. (If you got ginger and chilli, add at this point). Pour in the vegetable stock and let cook for about 20 minutes until carrots are soft. Add peanut butter and purée with an immersion blender. The soup will get pretty thick. I used about 0.5dl cream and some water to get the consistency I wished for, that's up to you. Add some honey (I used runny acacia honey) and spices. This is also something which depends on personal taste, try and see how much ginger, chilli and salt you like. I think the soup gets better after a day or so.

Banana, Cherry and White-Chocolate Muffins

2012-02-06T06:35:00.000-08:00

The banana coconut cake unexpectedly turned into a big hit last week! It's funny that, most of the time, the simplest cakes are people's favourites. So here comes another easy recipe with bananas, since everyone seemed to like this flavour so much. Again, it is a recipe where you can change some of the ingredients according to your taste... how about milk or dark chocolate? Or, for those who liked the combination of bananas and coconut, why don't you try and substitute the sour cream with coconut milk?! I guess that should work. You could add chopped nuts... just go with your intuition!

Recipe:
(slightly adapted from Nigella Lawson - How to be a Domestic Goddess)

125g butter
200g brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ripe mid-sized bananas (I had 2 more bananas and decided to use them for decoration)
60ml sour cream (had none at home so I used about 6 tablespoons of heavy cream)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
300g plain flour
40g dried cherries, chopped
50g white chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare your muffin tin with paper cases.

Melt butter in a small saucepan. Mash the bananas with a fork. In a bowl, mix melted butter with sugar, vanilla extract and bananas. Stir in sour cream and eggs and beat with a ladle. Add baking soda and baking powder. Then, add flour, cherries and chocolate.

Fill the mixture into the muffin cases. Cut the remaining bananas into thin slices and place three of them onto each muffin. Bake for about 20 minutes until the muffins are golden brown and springy on top. Then, take out of the oven, leave in the tin for about 10 minutes, then, cool on a wire rack.

I got 17 muffins.

Lemon Cake with Sugar Crust

2012-02-04T07:15:00.000-08:00

Many people I know have caught a cold over the last few days. Sarah, on our weekly "dinner date", told me that she thought she was about to get sick – which for her was a reason to buy lemon cake for dessert. “We need some vitamin C right?!”, she said. Good excuse to have cake ;-) “Bring the vitamin C on!”, I thought and made a lemon cake myself yesterday. This cake here is soaked with lemon juice. I love the sugar crust… it looks about as icy as our streets at the moment...

Recipe

(from Trish Deseine - I love Cake)

100g soft, salted butter

175g sugar

175g flour

1.5 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

4 tablespoons milk

1 lemon, grated zest

for the glaze:

125g sugar

2 lemons, juice

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 20cm diameter springform pan with parchment paper and grease the rim with butter.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl with the electric hand mixer for about 2 minutes until you got a creamy dough. Pour into your prepared srpingform pan and bake for about 35 minutes. That's almost it... now how easy is that?!

Take the cake out of the oven. Mix the lemon juice with the sugar and pour over the cake immediately, it is important that the cake is still very hot. Then, let cool and take out of the springform pan.

Ricotta stuffed Conchiglioni

2012-02-01T11:15:00.000-08:00

It's awfully cold outside... Time for some warming comfort food. I love these baked pasta dishes! This one here is simple and still, it's something else than the usual lasagna because of the conchiglioni. I think they look cute. The tomato sauce is super - easy-peasy to make and absolutely delicious! I don't have to say anything about the ricotta filling - you guys know that I love ricotta ;-) I like to make this dish for guests because you can prepare most of it a bit in advance. Later on, you only have to put it in the oven which leaves you time to talk to your guests and enjoy an appetizer. You can also variate the ricotta filling just the way you like it. I, for instance, used dried tomatoes instead of the porcinis.

Recipe
(from the lovely Once Upon A Cakestand)

about 16 conchiglioni (large pasta shells) - I usually make a bit more, of course then you need a bit more filling as well.

Filling:
200g ricotta
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
2 rashers of streaky bacon, cut in small strips
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
a good hand full dried porcinis, soaked in hot water and chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper

Tomato sauce:
1 medium red onion, diced finely
1 carrot, diced finely
1 tablespoon of tomato purée
2 cans diced tomatoes
some flat leaf parsley, finely chopped finely
salt and freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated parmesan cheese

For the tomato sauce heat some olive oil in a deep sided pan, add onion, carrot and tomato purée - mix and let sauté for a bit until it softens and caramelises. Then, add the canned tomatoes and increase heat. Season with salt and pepper and let it cook until the sauce has thickened. Add chopped parsley and remove from heat.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cook the pasta shells in salted water for about 8 minutes until they are soft but still have a bite and are firm enough to be filled. Drain and allow to cool.

For the filling, place ricotta, grated parmigiano, thyme, chopped porcinis, bacon, a little salt and freshly ground pepper into a bowl and mix. Fill the pasta shells with the ricotta mixture and place in an ovenproof dish.

Spoon a little of the tomato sauce over the stuffed shells (if you don't use all of your sauce you can safe it for another pasta dish). Generously sprinkle with grated parmigiano cheese.

(I usually make the tomato sauce well in advance. I cook the pasta shells and prepare the filling. Then, I fill the cooled pasta shells with it, place them in my ovenproof dish and put that in the refridgerator. Just before baking, I spoon the tomato sauce over it.)

Bake for about 20 minutes in the middle of the oven. Add some freshly grated parmigiano cheese before serving. I usually serve this together with a salad. It serves 3-4 people.

Banana Coconut Cake

2012-01-29T10:45:00.000-08:00

Does it happen every so often that you have a few overripe bananas lying around in your fruit bowl? These are perfect for cakes! First, I wanted to bake a classic banana bread, but then, I came across this recipe which I liked a lot because of the addition of coconut flakes. Banana and coconut - good combination! Besides, it's a really easy one... and while I am writing this, it occurs to me that this is my 100st post! But why not have a simple recipe for this "occasion"?! For the next 100 posts, I have some things in stock for you guys ;-) There is a huge "to-bake-list"!

Recipe
(from: Nicole Stich - Delicious Days)

150g butter, at room temperature
250g flour
1/8l milk
1 teaspoon baking soda
100g brown sugar
3 large eggs
3-4 ripe bananas, about 300g
100g coconut flakes
3 teaspoons baking powder

Line a 30cm cake tin (or 26cm diameter springform pan) with parchment paper and grease the rim with butter. Preheat the oven to 180°C (air circulation: 160°C).

Pour the milk into a little bowl and dissolve the baking soda in it. In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar and eggs with the electric hand mixer until foamy. Peel the bananas and mash them with a fork. Add together with the coconut flakes. Sieve in flour and baking powder and mix well. Add the milk. Mix well with a big wooden ladle.

Fill the dough into your prepared cake tin and bake for about 45-50 minutes. A wooden stick inserted into the cake should come out clean. Take out of the oven and let cool. This cake keeps for a few days if wrapped in foil and kept in a cool place.

If you also want to cover with chocolate glaze, bring 125ml cream almost to a boil in a small sauce pan, take away from the heat and add 125g grated dark chocolate. Stir and wait until the chocolate has dissolved, then pour over the cake... yum!

Old-fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies

2012-01-25T20:20:00.000-08:00

Ok, I said, I forgot about peanut butter... for a moment. It lasted exactly until just now! Here's one for all the addicts!

Recipe
(slightly adapted from: Trish Deseine - I love Cake)

320g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
225g butter, soft
225g peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (if you don't have vanilla extract, substitute with a teaspoon of vanilla sugar or so)
340g brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Sieve the flour into a bowl together with the baking powder and the salt. In another bowl, combine butter, peanut butter and vanilla extract with the electric hand mixer. While beating, add the sugar. Add half of the flour, then the eggs and then the rest of the flour.

Form scoops of about 3cm diameter out of your dough and place them onto baking trays line with parchment paper. Leave about 7-8cm distance between the cookies. Press the tines of a fork into the scoops crosswise so that you get a grid pattern.

Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes (I baked them for about 12 minutes or so) until the surface is dry and the downside golden-brown. Take them out of the oven, let cool for about 5 minutes on the tray, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

I got 26 cookies.

Sticky, gooey, crumbly, chewy...

2012-01-22T16:30:00.000-08:00

This weekend, the weather was so ugly... time for a treat! And guys, seriously... these caramel and oat slices are so good, they made me forget about chocolate and peanut butter for just a moment... highly - I mean it - HIGHLY addictive!

Caramel and Oat Slices
(Trish Deseine - I love Cake)

180g flour
125g rolled oats
150g brown sugar
150g salted butter, cold, cut into pieces
150ml milk
200g caramel candy, soft (e.g. "MICAMU Rahmcaramels weich" from Migros)

Grease a square cake tin (about 20x30 cm, mine was a bit smaller) with butter. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

In a bowl, mix flour, rolled oats and sugar. Add the cold butter and beat with the electric hand mixer on high speed until you got a crumbly dough. Press half of the dough into your prepared tin. In a saucepan, bring the milk and the caramel candy to a boil while constantly stirring. When the candy has melted, pour the caramel mixture over the dough in the tin. Spread the rest of the dough over that.

Bake for about twenty minutes, until the edges start to get golden-brown. Take out of the oven, let cool. Cut into pieces and take out of the cake tin.

Couscous with Pumpkin and Dried Apricots

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

Dishes such as this one here are perfect for parties and picnics, they're good warm or cold and you can variate the ingredients according to taste and mood... Plus, doesn't it look great?! I love the warm orange color. This is why it caught my attention in the first place when I found it here.

Recipe
(From: Ottolenghi - The Cookbook)

1 red onion, thinly sliced
6 tablespoons olive oil
50g dried apricots
1 small pumpkin (about 450g), cut into about 2cm dices
250g couscous
400ml chicken or vegetable stock
a pinch of saffron strands
3 tablespoons chopped tarragon
3 tablespoons chopped mint
3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
grated zest of 1 lemon
coarse sea salt
black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

In a large frying pan, with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt, sauté the onion over high heat for about 10 minutes while constantly stirring until golden brown, then set aside.

Pour enough hot water over the dried apricots to cover them. Soak for about 5 minutes, then drain and cut into 5mm dices.

Mix the diced pumpkin with 1 tablespoon olive oil and a little salt and pepper. Spread onto a baking tray and bake for about 25 minutes until lightly colored and quite soft.

While the pumpkin is in the oven, cook the couscous. Bring the stock to boil together with the saffron. Place the couscous in a large, heat-proof bowl and pour the boiling stock over it. Add the remaining olive oil. Cover with cling film and leave for about ten minutes. All the liquid should be absorbed.

With a fork, whisk to fluff up the couscous. Then, add onions, pumpkin, apricots, herbs, cinnamon and lemon zest. Mix well with your hands and try not to mash the pumpkin. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve warmish or cold.

(The book states that "you can keep on piling in the herbs (chervil, coriander, chives - they all work), the more the merrier" and I totally agree with that! I also imagine chopped pistachios to go well with that one. I added some cranberries for the color-effect.)

Hazelnut, Vanilla and Olive Oil Cake

2012-01-15T14:00:00.000-08:00

There are these cakes that are quite extraordinary. They surprise you. You kind of knew they would be good when you saw the recipe, but you did not expect them to be this good. This one here looks unspectacular, but it will surely belong to my favourites-list from now on! The warm nutty and vanilla flavour... the texture... it just comforted me. It fit perfectly for this icy and sunny winter-weekend.

Recipe
(from here)

200g ground hazelnuts
50g fine polenta
50g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
125ml olive oil
100g of unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs
200g brown sugar
the seeds of 2 vanilla pods
icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line a 23cm (I used a 24cm) round springform pan with parchment paper and butter the rim.

Whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale. Add the melted butter and olive oil. Then add the ground hazelnuts, polenta, plain flour and baking powder. Now incorporate the vanilla seeds.

Transfer the cake mixture to you springform pan and bake for about 25 minutes (I baked it for 30 minutes). Remove the cake from the oven and allow to continue cooking and cool in the tin.When cool, remove the cake from the tin and dust with icing sugar.

Serve this with a helping of whipped cream! Heaven on earth...

Carrot Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling

2012-01-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

When someone asked me last week, whether I could bake a carrot cake, I thought, why not bake muffins?! How about adding a cream cheese filling?!... If you want to bake these, you should probably not fill more than two thirds of your batter into the paper cups! Otherwise, it will spill while baking like mine did. Without a muffin pan, these would have been a disaster. This is what happens sometimes when I get all creative on Sunday morning :-) I think I have baked nicer looking muffins... But they were so tasty, I had to post them. I especially like the addition of walnuts and the different spices.

Recipe
(adapted from: Leila Lindholm - Piece of Cake, the cream cheese filling is my addition)

3 eggs
240g sugar
180g flour
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ginger powder
150ml sunflower oil
270g grated carrots
100g walnuts, coarsly chopped

200g cream cheese
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
50g sugar

Preheat the oven to 175°C and prepare a muffin pan with 12 paper cups (I ended up with 17 muffins although the recipe says 12 - and if I wouldn't have filled too much batter into each of the paper cups, I would have ended up with even more.)

Combine cream cheese, the egg yolk and the sugars and mix well. Set aside.

In a bowl, combine eggs and sugar and mix well until you have a pale and foamy batter. Combine the dry ingredients and add to the batter. Add sunflower oil, grated carrots and walnuts. Fill your batter into the prepared muffin pan. With a teaspoon, drop a dollop of the cream cheese batter onto each muffin.

Put the pan into the oven. The recipe says that the muffins should bake for about 15 minutes. I baked them for 25 minutes.

Torta di Cioccolata

2012-01-01T23:00:00.000-08:00

Chocolate cake!...was the only answer to the question I asked myself this morning: Which cake to bake first in 2012? And off to the kitchen I went. I chose an Italian recipe from one of Ursula Ferrigno's books. I like this cake very much. It is extremely rich, but worth every bite. And the glaze is divine.

Recipe
(Source: Ursula Ferrigno - Italiens leichte Küche) ...not sure how the title of the book and this recipe go together, though :-)

400g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
250g butter
5 large eggs
4 tablespoons brown sugar
130g ground almonds
130g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract/1 sachet vanilla sugar

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Prepare a 23-24cm round springform pan.

Slowly melt butter and chocolate in a saucepan while constantly stirring. Set aside and let cool slightly. Beat eggs and sugar in a bowl for about 5 minutes until foamy (whisk by hand or with a hand mixer). Add ground almonds, flour, baking powder and vanilla extract and mix well. Then add the chocolate-butter-mixture and mix well.

Pour the batter into your prepared springform pan and bake for about 45 minutes. Check whether the cake is done with a wooden skewer. It should come out clean.

For the glaze heat 125ml cream in a small saucepan and almost bring to the boil. Take away from the stove and stir in 125g grated dark chocolate. Let melt and mix until you have a smooth mixture and then pour over your cake.

This cake is wonderfully moist and keeps for a few days.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

And suddenly it's Christmas again... what a year this has been!! A year full of cakes, cookies and brownies... And let's not forget about peanut butter ;-) All the things I'm baking - they come from the heart. And from the heart, I wish you all a merry Christmas and all the best for 2012. I'm looking forward to it.

Chai Cookies
(Source: Zimt & Sterne, 24 süsse Rezeptideen)

200g butter, soft
100g brown sugar
1 egg
6 bags of indian spice tea (I took vanilla roiboosh chai)
300g flour

Beat butter, sugar and the egg until you have a creamy batter. Cut up the tea bags and add the content to the batter. Fold in the flour and form the dough into a ball. Wrap in cling film and put in the refridgerator for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface (about 0.5cm thin). Cut out cookies in the shape you like and place them on the tray. Bake for about 8-10 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

I decorated them with store-bought chocolate glaze.

Chocolate Pepper Cookies

2011-12-22T18:00:00.000-08:00

That's what I call hot chocolate! These cookies are my favourite this year. I love the rich taste of chocolate. The addition of two kinds of pepper gives them a spicy twist.

Recipe
(Source: Trish Deseine - I love Cake)

350g icing sugar
350g butter, soft
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teapsoon vanilla extract
380g flour
190g cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2/3 teaspoon black pepper

Beat icing sugar and butter with an electric hand mixer until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla extract while constantly beating. Beat until the batter is creamy. Sift in flour and cocoa powder and add the spices.

Form the dough into a flat cake, wrap in cling film and put in the refridgerator for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Take the dough out of the refridgerator and let it take on room temperature. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface (about 0.5cm thin). Cut out cookies and put onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Bake for about 6-8 minutes. The cookies look pretty raw still, but this has to be like that. Let cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container. The cookies keep for about 6 days.

Peanut Butter-Chocolate-Slices

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

Renate, a good friend of mine from the office, gave me a little advent calender as a present which contains a recipe for each day. When I flipped the page lately and saw this recipe , I could not resist. Of course there had to be something with peanut butter for this Christmas ;-)

Recipe
(Source: Zimt & Sterne, 24 süsse Rezeptideen)

75g dark chocolate
75g milk chocolate
200g butter
6 eggs
300g brown sugar
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
150g peanut butter
150g crème fraiche
200g flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
150g peeled almonds, coarsely chopped

Chop the chocolate and, together with the butter, put in a small saucepan and melt. Let cool. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar until foamy. Add chocolate and peanut butter. Add crème fraiche and then, add flour, cocoa powder and almonds. Pour the dough onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper and spread out. Bake for about 25 minutes. Let cool.

For the glaze, melt 100g dark chocolate and 100g milk chocolate in a small saucepan. Mix with 100g peanut butter. Spread over your cooled peanut butter-chocolate-slices. Let cool and then cut into slices.

Keep the slices in an airtight container.

STOP - Cookietime!

2011-12-18T16:30:00.000-08:00

This weekend was all about cookies! And it even began to snow! It was perfect... My kitchen filled with all kinds of spicy smells, snowflakes outside and some good music.

Because of Matthias, though, I ended up baking with MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This as a soundtrack, but that's another story... Thanks Matthias, I can't get the tune out of my head anymore :-) Not even Wham's Last Christmas helps :-)

I have some fabulous cookie recipes for you... so stay tuned next week!

Chocolate and Almond Cookies with Maple Syrup
(Adapted from: Trish Deseine - I love Cake)

150g brown sugar
170g butter, soft
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 egg, lightly beaten
280g flour
40g almonds, coarsly chopped
60g milk chocolate, chopped

In a bowl, combine sugar, butter and maple syrup with an electric hand mixer and beat until foamy. Keep beating and add the egg. Then, add flour, almonds and the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon. Form the dough into a roll and wrap in clingfilm. Put in the refridgerator for about 5-6 hours.

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Take the dough out of the refridgerator and cut the roll into slices of about 0.5cm thick. But them onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown. Let cool an a rack.

Vanilla and Apricot Minicakes

2011-12-14T19:30:00.000-08:00

This cake has been on my to-bake-list forever :-) I've looked at this recipe every Christmas ever since I have the book it's in. Time to give it a try this year. I'd say: Worth it. I like the slightly sour apricots together with the taste of vanilla and the smooth consistency of the cake. Like many cakes, it even tastes better after a day or so.

Recipe
(From: Betty Bossi - Backen in der Weihnachtszeit)

200g dried apricots, cut into little pieces
3 tablespoons orange liquor (I used orange juice)
150g butter, soft
a pinch of salt
3 eggs
250g curd cheese
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out
300g flour
2.5 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Mix the apricot pieces and the liquor/orange juice in a small bowl and let soak for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile beat butter in a bowl. Then add sugar an salt. Add one egg after the other until you got a pale and smooth batter. Add curd cheese and vanilla seeds. Then add the apricot pieces with the juice and mix well.

If you decide to bake one big cake, fill the batter into your prepared 30cm cake tin and bake for about an hour. If you use the small minicake papermoulds, fill the batter into 12 of these and bake for about 30 minutes.

Gingerbread Cantucci

2011-12-10T23:30:00.000-08:00

It's time to let the Christmas-baking begin! Here comes the Christmas-version of an Italian cookie-classic.

Recipe
(adapted from Betty Bossi Magazin 10/11)

3 eggs
250g brown sugar
2 pinches of salt
1 tablespoon of gingerbread spice mixture (got mine from Migros)
350g flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
150g hazelnuts (lightly roasted, cooled)
100g unsalted, peeled pistachios (since I spontaneously decided to make these cookies and had no pistachios at home, I used cashews, I guess you can use all sorts of nuts)

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Beat eggs, sugar, salt and gingerbread spice with the electric hand mixer for about 3 minutes. Mix flour and baking powder and add to the mixture. Add the nuts and knead until you got a moist and firm dough. Form two half-round loafs out of the dough which are about 2.5cm thick. Put them onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 20 minutes. Take them out of the oven and let cool slightly. Turn the heat of the oven to 150°C. Then, cut the loafs lengthwise into about 3mm thick slices and put onto the tray again. Put the tray back into the oven for about 20 minutes. Let the cantucci cool on a rack.

These cookies should keep, if stored in an airtight container, for about a month.

Pumpkin Cake with Cranberries and Walnuts

2011-12-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

I bought a big piece of pumpkin this weekend which I originally wanted to use to make risotto. On Sunday morning, I spontaneously changed my mind and made a cake instead!

Recipe:

(adapted from here)

120g soft butter

150g sugar

2 pinches of salt

4 eggs

200g flour

100g ground almonds

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

600g grated pumpkin

I spontaneously added:

about 50g walnuts, chopped

about 50g dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 180°C. The recipe calls for a 28cm cake tin. I used a 24cm diameter springform pan.

Put butter in a bowl and beat until it's smooth. Add sugar and salt. Beat well. Add the eggs one by one and beat well. Beat for about 5 minutes until you have a pale batter. Mix flour, almonds, baking powder and cinnamon. Add to the batter and mix well. Then add the grated pumpkin and mix well. At this point, I added the walnuts and the cranberries. Pour your batter into the prepared tin and bake for about 50-60 minutes.

I decorated the cake with store-bought chocolate-glaze.

I love...

2011-11-27T19:00:00.000-08:00

...cake. Well, nothing new. But there is a new book in my collection called "I love cake" and I intend to try every single recipe in that book! I thought, I'd start with brownies. Trish Deseine calls them "the best brownies"... they are so wonderfully sticky... and the roasted hazelnuts... I still can't get the smile off my face!

Recipe:
(Trish Deseine - I love Cake)

90g butter
120g dark chocolate
2 eggs, beaten
225g sugar
90g flour
50g hazelnuts, roasted, in coarse pieces

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a brownie tin of about 18x23cm with parchment paper.

Slowly melt the chocolate together with the butter. Let cool slightly. Then, add the eggs and then the sugar and the flour. Beat fast but carefully. Then, add the hazelnuts. Fill the batter into your prepared tin and bake for about 25 minutes. The top should be crunchy but inside the brownies should be soft and gooey. Let cool (you can also serve them warm together with ice cream for instance) and cut into squares. Enjoy!

Sunday = Cakeday

2011-11-20T13:44:00.000-08:00

I had some leftover apples and that's what I used them for today... The combination of apples, nuts and cinnamon just always works. This cake goes wonderfully with an extra helping of whipped cream... heart-warming... Perfect for such a lazy day in late autumn.

Apple Slices:

(Source: LE MENU 10/2010)

100g soft butter

125g mascarpone (I had none at hand so I used creme fraiche)

150g sugar

1 pinch of salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

50g ground hazelnuts

125g flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 apples, peeled, cut into slices

2 tbsp cream

2 tbsp sugar crystals

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Beat butter until smooth. Add mascarpone, sugar, salt and cinnoman. Blend well. Add eggs and beat until you have a light batter. Mix hazelnuts, flour and baking powder and add to the other batter. Mix well. Pour the batter into a prepared caketin of 32cm length.

Stick the apple slices into the cake batter, brush with cream and sprinkle the sugar crystals over the cake. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 30 minutes. Serve warm or cold, with extra cream or vanilla icecream.

Leek and Gorgonzola Tartelettes

2011-11-13T14:00:00.000-08:00

Gorgonzola cheese is my newest discovery! I somehow always thought I didn't like it, but since I tried it again some weeks ago, it belongs to the must-haves in my fridge. I used it lately for these cute and yummy tartelettes.

Recipe
(Original recipe in German: here)

butter
1 stalk of leek
salt
black pepper
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
80g gorgonzola cheese
0.75dl cream
1 egg
1 roll of store bought puff pastry

Butter a muffin pan with 12 moulds and line them with parchment paper stripes, this way you get the tartelettes out of the moulds very easily after baking. Put the pan in the fridge. Preheat oven to 200°C.

Wash the leek and cut into thin pieces. Braise lightly with the butter in a frying pan for about 3-4 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Set aside.

Mix gorgonzola cheese, cream and the egg with a blender and season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.

Roll out the puff pastry and cut out 12 round pieces that fit into your muffin moulds (I did that with a small glass bowl). Line your muffin moulds with the puff pastry. Fill in the leek and then the cheese-mixture. If possible, put in the fridge for another 20 minutes.

Bake the tartelettes on the lowest slot for about 20-25 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Comforting Brownies

2011-11-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

I won't say much more about brownies for now... they speak for themselves.

Recipe
(slightly adapted from here)

200g dark chocolate
125g butter
2 eggs
125g light soft brown sugar
100g caster sugar
75ml milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
175g plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa
125g pecan nuts, roughly chopped

Preheeat the oven to 170°C. Line a 20cm square cake tin with parchment paper.

In a saucepan, melt the chocolate with the butter, then set aside somewhere warm on the stove-top. Beat the eggs with the sugars until the sugar has almost dissolved and the mixture turned creamy and a light beige colour. Next, beat in the chocolate and butter until evenly combined, then add the milk and vanilla. Sift the flour and cocoa twice, then beat this into the chocolate mixture. Finally, beat in the chopped pecans.

Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick poked through the sugary crust comes out barely clean - the hot chocolate will carry on cooking for at least five minutes after you've taken it out of the oven.

Apple and Caramel Cake

2011-10-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

I brought this cake along to the English Seminar for some friends of mine. Cyril, who usually is also already there in the early morning, always gets a piece of cake for breakfast :-) The others had it as a dessert after lunch. I liked the idea of putting caramel candy into a cake. The recipe is easy and the cake stays moist for up to 3 days. A winner if you ask me.

Recipe:
(Original version in German here)

150g soft butter
200g sugar
1 pinch of salt
4 eggs
250g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 red apples, cut into slices
150g soft caramel candy, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C:

Beat butter, sugar and salt until foamy. Add one egg after the other and beat for about 5 more minutes until you have a pale batter. Mix flour and baking powder and add to the batter, mix well. Fold in apples and caramels and mix well. Fill the dough into a prepared 28cm cake tin. Bake for about 70 minutes (in my oven, it took about an hour).

Fig and Apple Tart

2011-10-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

This tart is perfect for autumn. It's got a really thick pastry base with a nutty taste that goes well with the fruit. Plus I liked the addition of the honey to the filling. This is delicious while it is still a bit warm - and with some extra cream of course ;-)

Recipe
(Original recipe in German: www.wildeisen.ch)

for the dough:
125g soft butter
125g sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 eggs
80g ground hazelnuts
175g flour
1 teaspoon baing powder

for the filling:
4 big figs
3 apples
150g crème fraiche
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon runny honey
2 egg yolks

For the dough beat the butter until it is smooth. Add sugar and salt. Add one egg after the other and beat until you have a smooth and pale batter. Mix hazelnuts, flour and baking powder. Add to the batter. Smoothen out the dough on a 24cm diameter tart tin. Put in the refridgerator.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Wash the figs and the apples. Cut the figs into sixths and the apples into slices. Arrange the fruits on your dough. Combine crème fraiche, brown sugar, honey and egg yolks and pour onto the fruit.

Bake the tart for about 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

2011-10-19T15:30:00.000-07:00

This post is for my good friend Sarah who had her last exam today. I made this cake especially for her. Congratulations Sarah! We did it, can you believe it?!

Recipe:
(Original recipe in German: www.saison.ch)

4 eggs
200g brown sugar
1 pinch of salt
0.5 lemon
100g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon cinnamon
125g ground almonds
100g spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
300g pumpkin

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 22cm (I took a 24cm) diameter springform pan with parchment paper.

Beat eggs, sugar and salt for about 5 minutes until you got a pale batter. Grate lemon zest and add lemon juice. Mix cinnamon, almonds, flour, baking powder and add. Combine well. Add the chocolate and mix well. Grate pumpkin and fold into the batter. Fill your batter into the prepared springform pan and bake in the middle of the oven for about 50 minutes. Let cool, sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

Lic. phil. and baking again...

2011-10-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

The exams are over! It's time to celebrate... with cake of course ;-) Today, my kitchen smelled of chocolate and vanilla... How I missed that! There's a pile of recipes lying around that I would like to try... A huge THANK YOU goes out to all my friends for their support. You're the best... I'm going to bake a lot of cakes for you guys! This one is for my mum, though.

Pear Cake with Chocolate Crumbles:

(Original recipe in German: www.wildeisen.ch )

For the crumble:

20g flour

40g cocoa powder

50g icing sugar

50g butter

For the cake:

1 vanilla pod

150g butter

2 eggs

80g sugar

100g flour

50g corn flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

6 ripe pears or 12 canned pear halves (I used less)

Mix all the ingredients for the crumble and knead with your fingers until you got a smooth dough. Wrap in cling film and put into the refrigerator.

Line a 26cm diameter springform pan with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 170°C.

Scrape out the vanilla pod and put the seeds and the pod into a pan together with the butter. Melt the butter and then set aside for about 15 minutes.

Beat eggs and sugar with the hand mixer for about 10 minutes until you got a smooth, thick and pale batter. Mix flour, corn flour and baking powder. Combine flour and egg-batter (don't just add all the flour at once, add spoonfuls and combine well). Remove the vanilla pod from the melted butter and mix butter with the dough. Pour the dough into your prepared springform pan. Arrange the pear halves on the dough with the round side up.

Rub the prepared chocolate dough in your fingers and the spread the crumbles on the cake.

Bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool in the springform pan.

Peanut Butter and Honey Granola

2011-09-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

The heat is on! My exams started. The written ones are over already. Oral exams start next week... four more to go! It is an intense time. I keep telling people that there are four things I couldn't live without at the moment: coffee, ovomaltine, chocolate and, of course, peanut butter ;-) Still having my daily peanut butter sandwich for breakfast and lately, I discovered something truly great: Peanut Butter Granola! Fellow addicts, here comes one for you! Enjoy!

Recipe:
(from: The Kitchn)

This is the original recipe. I changed the composition slightly since I did not have everything at home when I decided to try the recipe. Of course, you can also leave out certain seeds and substitute them with others. Just create your granola as you like it.

3 cups rolled oats
2 cups shelled roasted peanuts
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup wheat germ
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter, smooth or chunky
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup vegetable or olive oil
3/4 cup chopped dried dates

Heat the oven to 160°C. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine oats, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, wheat germ, salt, cinnamon, and ginger.

In a small saucepan, mix the honey and brown sugar. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly. Turn off the heat and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Pour over the oat mixture. Pour in the oil, and stir thoroughly. The mixture will be chunky and rough.

Spread the oat mixture evenly on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes, stirring twice while baking. Transfer the granola to a large bowl and add the dates, tossing to combine.

Blueberry Muffins

2011-08-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

I've had a craving for muffins lately. So I decided to make some. I went for the good old classic: Blueberry Muffins. I couldn't get enought of the crumbles... Had to stop myself from picking them off the muffin tops :-)

Recipe:
(from: Leila Lindholm - Piece of Cake)

100g butter
200ml milk
grated zest of 1 lemon
2 eggs
120g sugar
1tsp vanilla sugar
240g flour
2tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
350g fresh or frozen blueberries

crumbles:
75g cold butter
60g rolled oats
60g flour
80g sugar

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a muffin tray with paper cases.

Melt butter, add milk and lemon zest. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar until foamy. Mix egg batter with milk batter. Mix flour, baking powder and salt and mix with the liquid batter. Add blueberries. Fill your mixture into thepaper cases.

For the crumbles: Cut butter into pieces and combine with the rolled oats, flour and sugar. Spread the crumble onto the muffins.

Bake for about 20 minutes.

Pasta alla Norma

2011-08-10T18:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted a savoury recipe for some time now. It's not that I don't cook, it's just that most of the time I don't have the patience to photograph my freshly cooked meals when I'm hungry :-) This is one of my all-time favourite pasta recipes! The sauce goes perfectly with a big helping of ricotta... and I love to serve it with grated pecorino cheese instead of parmesan.

Recipe:
(from: Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Italy, a German version for instance here)

2 big aubergines
1tblsp dried oregano
1tsp chili flakes
2 garlic cloves
1 big bunch of basil (stalks chopped for the sauce)
1tblsp white wine vinegar
400g tinned tomatoes
olive oil
salt
pepper
150g ricotta
spaghetti or other pasta

Divide aubergines lengthwise into 4 quarters and cut into slices (about 1cm thick, like fingers). Heat olive oil in a heavy frying pan and put about half the eggplant slices into it together with the oregano. Roast until golden brown, then let drain on kitchen paper. Do the same with the other half.
Roast the eggplant slices together with the garlic, chili and the chopped basil stalks. Pour in the white wine vinegar, then the tomatoes. Season your sauce with salt and pepper and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.
Cook the pasta in salt water.
Before serving, add the basil leaves to the sauce. Mix the sauce with the pasta. Spoon some ricotta onto each serving.

Poppy Seed and Cherry Cake

2011-08-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

Finals are approaching and I'm spending most of my time in the library at my desk surrounded by piles of books - not cookbooks unfortunately ;-) I might not post as regularly as usual over the next two months, but keep checking my blog from time to time. There's got to be a little time for cake or cookies :-) Here comes an easy one... for all of you who like poppy seeds as much as I do.

Recipe:
(in German www.wildeisen.ch)

Butter and flour for the springform pan
500g fresh cherries or 350g drained canned cherries
100g soft butter
120g icing sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
4 eggs
50g ground almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder
150g flour
150g poppy seeds
2dl milk

Butter and flour a 26cm diameter springform pan and put in the refridgerator. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Wash and pit the cherries (I used cherries from the glass). Beat butter, icing sugar and vanilla sugar. Add one egg after the other. Mix almonds, baking powder, flour and poppy seeds. Add tho the butter-egg mixture alternating with the milk. Fill your batter into the prepared springform pan. Scatter the cherries over your batter und put in the oven. Bake for about 35-40 minutes. Let cool and serve dusted with icing sugar.

(I halved the recipe above and baked the cake in a 18cm diameter springform pan, baking time remained the same, check with a wooden skewer if the cake is done)

Saffron Biscotti

2011-07-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

I'm still in a "cookie-mood". Be cautious! These saffron biscotti seem so harmless, but they are highly addictive!

Recipe:
(From: Leila Lindholm - Piece of Cake)

100g butter
1 sachet of saffron (0.1g)
2 eggs
120g sugar
300g flour
1.5tsp baking powder
100g peeled whole almonds

Preheat the oven to 175°C.

Melt butter in a pan together with the saffron. Then, in a bowl, beat together with the eggs. Mix the dry ingredients together with the almonds in another bowl. Combine the dry ingredients with the egg-butter-mixture. Form three half-round thin loafs and put on a tray lined with parchment paper. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes. Then, take them out of the oven and reduce the temperature to 125°C. Cut each loaf into about 1cm thick slices and put those back onto the tray. Bake for another 15 minutes.

White Chocolate Chip and Lavender Cookies

2011-07-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

I was in the mood for cookies last week. Those were a present for someone who's having a pretty stressful time at the moment. Lavender is supposed to have a relaxing effect. A glass of milk and some cookies always help, I thought...

Recipe:
(adapted from: Leila Lindholm - Piece of Cake)

125g soft butter
80g brown sugar
1 egg
90g flour
15g rolled oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
100g white chocolate
about 1 tbsp fresh or dried lavender buds

Beat butter and sugar. Then add the egg and beat until creamy. Mix flour, rolled oats, baking powder and salt and add to your batter. Roughly chop chocolate and, together with the lavender buds, add to the batter. Form a roll of about 5cm diameter out of your dough and put in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Take the dough out of the freezer, cut into about 1cm thick slices and put onto the tray. Bake in the middle of the oven for about ten minutes.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Lime

2011-07-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

I got another cookie recipe for you. No peanut butter included this time :-) But there is something about the combination of chocolate and lime. This cookie recipe can be variated in many ways. You could try orange or lemon zest, coconut flakes, white or milk chocolate... whatever you feel like! Also, the dough might be prepared well in advance. Just leave it in the freezer until you want to use it.

Recipe:
(from: Leila Lindholm - Piece of Cake)

125g soft butter
80g brown sugar
1 egg
90g flour
15g rolled oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
100g dark chocolate
grated zest of one lime

Beat butter and sugar. Then add the egg and beat until creamy. Mix flour, rolled oats, baking powder and salt and add to your batter. Roughly chop chocolate and, together with the lime zest, add to the batter. Form a roll of about 5cm diameter out of your dough and put in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Take the dough out of the freezer, cut into about 1cm thick slices and put onto the tray. Bake in the middle of the oven for about ten minutes.

Peanut Butter Brownies

2011-06-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Brownies are just great... I love the smile on people's faces when I tell them that I brought along brownies. I made a batch this weekend for some friends from the English Seminar - it's a good thing most of the people there share my fondness for peanut butter... ;-) and since they have to listen to me raving about it all the time (because, as you know from this post, that's just what peanut butter addicts do), I thought I might as well bake them something with peanut butter in it.

Recipe:

100g dark chocolate
125g soft butter
250g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract/1 sachet vanilla sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
80g flour
2 tblsp cocoa powder
100g roasted and salted peanuts
50g chopped dark chocolate/chocolate chips
about 10 tsp peanut butter

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a brownie tin (about 18x23 cm) with parchment paper.

Break the chocolate into pieces and melt in a bowl over a hot water bath. Let cool slightly. Put butter in a large bowl and beat with the hand mixer until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Slowly add eggs and chocolate and beat well. Sift flour and cocoa powder into this batter, mix well. Then add the peanuts and the chocolate chips. Fill the batter into your prepared tin. Spread the peanut butter onto the batter with a teaspoon and run a fork through this batter so that you get a bit of a marble effect.

Bake the brownies in the middle of the oven for about 25-30 minutes. Check whether they are done with a wooden skewer. Let the brownies cool down in the tin, then cut into pieces.

Ginger Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

2011-06-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

I have a thing for ginger, also for glacé ginger, which I think adds the extra something to this cake. When I saw this recipe, I knew this must be my kind of cake. And it even exceeded my expectations it was so good! This cake immediately made it to my favourites-list. It's also delicious when it is still slightly warm... best eaten with some extra cream cheese... perfection...

Recipe:
(from here)

100g unsalted butter, melted
200g caster sugar
125g full-fat cream cheese
3 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract/or vanilla sugar
50g ground almonds
1 tsp ground ginger
75g chopped glacé ginger
125g dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line the base and sides of a small, 17cm-long loaf tin or similar with nonstick baking paper, allowing the paper to pop up a few centimetres above the top of the tin.

Mix together the butter and caster sugar until smooth. While the butter mixture is still warm, beat in the cream cheese until any lumps vanish, then beat in the eggs one at a time, until light.

One by one, add the vanilla, almonds, ground and glacé ginger, beating well after each addition, then stir in the chocolate chips. Sift the flour and baking powder, then stir evenly though the cake mixture. Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre pulls out with only a few crumbs stuck to it.

Leave to cool for a few minutes, remove from the tin but leave in the paper, and place on a wire rack to cool.

Light Cheesecake with Redcurrants

2011-06-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

As promised - as a contrast to the last post ;-) - here comes the cake I made two weeks ago as a dessert for two good friends of mine. It is fairly light and makes a really nice summer dessert - you don't even have to turn on the oven. I was very pleased with this cake. It looks so pretty with the redcurrants on top.

Recipe:
(from Saisonküche, Juni 2011)

100g petits beurres
50g butter
6 sheets gelatine
2 eggs
1 lemon
350g low fat curd cheese
60g sugar
0.5dl water
125g redcurrants

Line a 18cm springform pan with parchment paper. Put the petits beurres in a plastic bag and beat them with a rolling pin until they are crumbled. Melt the butter. Mix butter and crumbles and press this onto the bottom of the springform pan. Put in the refridgerator. Soak gelatine in cold water.

Separate the eggs. Grate the lemon zest. Mix the zest and the lemon juice with curd, sugar and egg yolks. Take the gelatine out of the water and squeeze it well. Then, in a small saucepan, heat the gelatine in the water until it dissolves. Mix a little of the curd batter with the gelatine. Then, mix this well with the whole curd batter. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the curd batter. Pour your batter into the springform pan and spread the redcurrants onto this. Put in the refridgerator for at least 3 hours for the cake to get firm.

How to improve Cream Cheese Brownies...

2011-06-04T15:00:00.000-07:00

Ok guys, here's the thing: today, I wanted to post the light and fruity cheesecake I made last weekend... (coming up next week, promise). However, what I'm going to present you now is a bit more decadent ;-) Such things happen spontaneously and before ten in the morning at my place - when I'm alone and no one can stop me from combining three of my favourite things: chocolate, cream cheese and peanut butter. Imagine the lovely smell of peanut butter and chocolate combined in my kitchen...

So, picture first and then comes the recipe...

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Brownies
(adapted from: Myriam Zumbühl - Kochen mit Myriam)

125g dark chocolate
125g butter
2 eggs
200g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or one sachet of vanilla sugar
75g flour
1 pinch of salt

200g cream cheese (e.g. Philadelphia)
1 egg yolk
1 sachet vanilla sugar
3 heaped teaspoons of crunchy peanut butter

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Line a brownie tin (18x23cm) with parchment paper.

In a bowl, mix cream cheese, egg yolk, vanilla sugar and peanut butter.

Over low heat, melt butter and chocolate in a little pan and let cool a bit. Beat sugar and the eggs until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla sugar. Add the molten chocolate and mix well. Sieve in flour and salt and mix. Once the batter is smooth, pour into your prepared brownie tin.

Scatter cream cheese batter onto that with a spoon. With a fork, spread the batter a little and create swirls so that you get a marble effect.

Put into the oven and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes until the top is crispy and shiny but the inside is still moist. Let cool and then, cut into slices.

Mini Cheesecakes with Lime and Rosemary

2011-05-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

I love special flavour combinations. Who would have thought that rosemary and lime are such a good match?! These little cheesecakes are quite something. They are light and not too sweet and although I am such a sweet tooth, I liked that. I think these mini cheesecakes would be a perfect addition for the buffet of a summer party.

Recipe:
(from Tanja Grandits - Aroma pur: Meine fröhliche Weltküche)

for the bottom:
75g butter
100g biscuits (for example petits beurres), crumbled
1 lime, grated zest

for the filling:
225g ricotta
30g icing sugar
1 lime, grated zest
1 tablespoon rosemary, finely chopped
1 egg
1 egg yolk
150ml cream

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Prepare a muffin tin with paper cases.

Melt the butter and mix with the crumbled biscuits and the lime zest. Press these into your prepared muffin forms and chill in the refridgerator.

For the filling mix ricotta with icing sugar, lime zest and rosemary until you got a smooth batter. Then, add the egg and the egg yolk. Beat the cream until stiff and fold into your batter.

Fill the batter into your prepared muffin forms and bake for about 30 minutes. Don't open the oven. When they are done, turn off the oven and let them cool in the oven.

Makes 12.

Lemon and Poppyseed Madeleines

2011-05-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend, out of the blue, I got a present. Just like that. It is something I have been looking for again and again over a very long time, yet I have never been able to find one. Even greater was my joy when I got it as a surprise: a madeleine pan! I'm still over the moon!

I have, of course, already put it to good use. Initially, I wanted to bake muffins this Sunday, but I'd forgotten all about them... Here is my very first batch of madeleines. Look how cute they are!!!

Recipe:
(adapted from: Donna Hay - Modern Classics: Sweet)

4 eggs
170g sugar
170g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
180g butter, melted and cooled
grated zest of half a lemon
2 teaspoons poppyseeds

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Beat the eggs and the sugar in a bowl with the hand mixer for abou 8 - 10 minutes until it is very fluffy. Add lemon zest and poppyseeds. Sift in flour and baking powder and beat with the mixer on low speed. Fold in butter.

Grease a madeleine pan with butter. Mine has moulds with the capacity of about one heaped teaspoon of dough. I baked each batch for about 10 minutes until they were risen and golden brown. I got 40 small madeleines.

Confessions of two Peanut Butter Addicts

2011-05-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

You know you're a peanut butter addict if...

...you can't go without your daily peanut butter sandwich for breakfast.
...you seriously consider taking your peanut butter jar with you on holiday to have your daily peanut butter sandwich for breakfast.
...you think that it would be a great idea if peanut butter came in a tube - would be much easier to transport.
...you always have a further peanut butter jar in stock to avoid waking up one morning finding your actual peanut butter jar empty.
...you wish there was a 24 hour peanut butter delivery service - just in case the above horror scenario occured nonetheless.
...you lengthily discuss the advantages of peanut butter with fellow peanut butter addicts every day - that's how Melissa and I developed this list, by the way :-)
...you keep looking for new delicious recipes that include peanut butter on the ingredients list.
...you start doing crazy things such as mixing peanut butter with your vanilla ice cream or with noodles and vegetables.
...you try to find ways to make all your friends - even those who think peanut butter is disgusting - eat peanut butter. Melissa has had great success with these cookies.
...you think that having a boy/girlfriend who does not like peanut butter is absolutely not an option.
...if you start preferring peanut butter over chocolate.

Of course, I will not deprive you of another peanut butter recipe. Have fun fellow peanut butter addicts! ;-)

Flourless Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies
(once again from the lovely Technicolor Kitchen)

1 cup (280g) crunchy peanut butter
175g light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda (or the double amount of baking powder should do as well)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract (or half a sachet of vanilla sugar or so)
160g chocolate chips (I think that next time, I would probably use a little less.)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Add chocolate chips. Using moistened hands, form one generous tablespoon dough for each cookie into a ball. Place onto prepared sheets, 5cm apart.

Bake cookies until puffed, golden on bottom and still soft to touch in center, about 12 minutes. Again: Don't overbake them - would be a pity.

Cool on sheets over a wire rack for 5 minutes. Transfer to racks and let cool completely.

I got 18 cookies.

Apple and Courgette Cake

2011-05-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

I'm in love. His name is Nigel Slater. He's a writer... of cookbooks. But seriously, I think his recipe instructions sound like poetry. Even the title of the book: Tender. I read aloud from Tender: Volume II to my friends this weekend because I'm so fond of it. But of course, most of all, I'm a fan of the cakes. I want to bake almost every cake from this book! I've tried 3 already and they were all unbelievably good! Here comes the latest... sounds unspectacular, but it actually is fantastic! The courgette keeps the cake moist for days... it even tastes better after about 2 days.

Recipe:
(Source: Tender: Volume II by Nigel Slater, I copied it from HERE)

200g butter
200g caster sugar
2 eggs
150g courgettes (about 2 small ones)
1 small apple
200g plain flour
a large pinch salt
½ tsp baking powder
pinch cinnamon
60g pecans
80g sultanas

Preheat oven at 180C. Butter and line the base of a loaf tin measuring 20cm x 12cm x 9cm deep. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs and mix them in, one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Coarsely grate the courgettes and the apple. Squeeze them with your hands to remove any excess moisture, then add to the mixture. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon, and gently fold into the mixture. Stir in the nuts and fruit. Transfer to the lined loaf tin and bake for about an hour, or until golden and firm to the touch. Allow to cool in the tin before turning out.

Rice Crispy Treats

2011-05-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

I realized that it is exactly a year ago since I started this blog. This means that today is my first blogversary! A good occasion to post something on gifts from the kitchen. Most of the time, I make gifts for my family and friends myself instead of buying them something. Homemade jam or cookies are always a hit. These rice crispy treats will make you the star of any children's party, but they will also do for adults, believe me ;-)

Recipe:
(Source: Nicole Stich & Coco Lang - Geschenke aus der Küche)

5-6 drops of sunflower oil
25g butter
200g white marshmallows (the smaller, the better)
a pinch of sea salt
200g Rice Krispies
2-3 colored sugar pearls (or chocolate sprinkles)

Line a 20x20 cm baking tin with parchment paper. Or just use a big baking tray, you will have to press this chewy batter in form anyway.

Melt butter in a big sauce pan. Add marshmallows and melt them on medium heat while constantly stirring, don't let them burn. Add salt, then the Rice Krispies and the sugar pearls.

Fill the batter into the baking tin or pour onto the baking tray and flatten with a spatula. You can also use another parchment paper to flatten this sticky batter. Let this get firm in the fridge for about half an hour. Then, cut into about 5x5 cm cubes and store in an airtight container until you give them away. They keep in a cool place for about 2 weeks.

Time to say thanks to all my followers! I get such nice comments on this blog from my friends and some of them have even tried out some of the recipes I posted. Lately, my friend Melissa came to me and wanted me to test the peanut butter cookies she had baked - they were better than mine :-) Yesterday, I got a batch of brownies from Luzia (I recently gave her a brownie tin as a present), they were scrumptious! It makes me really happy that I can inspire you guys to spend more time in the kitchen. Baking and cooking is still one of my greatest passions and I will surely keep going ;-)

Yogurt Flan with Strawberry Sauce

2011-04-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a great weekend! I allowed myself to do absolutely nothing university or work-related for four days and mostly relaxed at my Mum's. However, I could not stop myself from taking over her kitchen - at least when it came to dessert, but I think she appreciated that :-) I came up with this flan on Saturday because I spotted yogurt and leftover strawberries in her fridge. We liked this dessert because it's easily and quickly prepared and light, almost refreshing even - perfect for summer.

Recipe:
(In German: www.saison.ch)

4 sheets of gelatine (I think, you could maybe also only use 3 sheets of Gelatine since it gets relatively firm with 4 already... but I will have to try that out first.)
200g strawberries
60g sugar
1 vanilla pod
1/2dl milk
400g plain yoghurt

Soak gelatine in cold water. Puree the strawberries with one third of the sugar and set aside. Slice the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds. Put milk, vanille pod and seeds and the remaining sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Take away from the heat, remove the vanilla pod. Squeeze the gelatine and dissolve in the milk. Mix well with the yoghurt. Fill into 4 glasses and put them in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Pour the strawberry sauce over the flans before serving. I also made some brittle for decoration. For that, I roasted about two handfuls of mixed nuts and seeds a frying pan and then caramelized them in honey. I left it to cool on a parchment paper and then just broke it apart.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time to bake during the last two weeks, but I wanted to post something for Easter so I searched my photo archive and found this cake. I made it for Easter last year shortly before I started my blog. My family loved it. It will cost you some time to make it, but it's definitely worth the effort! I think this cake is very suitable for easter, but it will surely also make a nice dessert at any other time of the year :-)

I think I will bake another cake this weekend at Mum's and I hope that I can take some good pictures, so stay tuned. Happy Easter to all of you!

Rice Pudding Cake with Apricots:
(Original recipe in German: www.wildeisen.ch)

For the rice pudding:
5dl milk
20g butter
50g sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt
200g rice (use rice which is suitable for rice pudding, Arborio for instance)

For the shortcrust pastry:
300g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
100g sugar
200g butter, cold
1 egg
3 tbsp water, cold

For the filling:
1 can of compot apricots (about 250g, drained)
1 lemon
1 small orange
250g curd
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
40g sugar
icing sugar, for decorating

At some point while preparing the cake, preheat your oven to 200°C.

In a middle size pan, boil up milk, butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and salt while constantly stirring. Add the rice. Cover with a lid and cook for about 40 minutes until the rice is very soft, stir from time to time. Let cool.

In the mean time, mix flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the cold butter in small pieces (you can also grate it with your Rösti grater) and rub everything together with your fingers until you got a crumbly mass.Whisk together egg and water, add to this crumbly mass and quickly form a smooth dough. Wrap in wrapping film and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

For the filling drain the compote apricots and dice them, put aside. Grate orange and lemon zest and put in a bowl. Squeeze the orange and the lemon and add the juice. Add curd and egg yolks and mik well. Then add the slightly cooled rice pudding.

Line the bottom of a 26 diameter springform pan with parchment paper and butter the bottom and the edge. Roll out 2/3 of the dough so that it is bigger than the bottom of your springform pan. Line the springform pan with the dough and form an edge which is about 5cm high. Put in the fridge again for some time.

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Little by little, add the sugar and beat until you have a firm and gleamy mass. Add this and the apricot dices to the rice pudding mass and mix. Fill into your perpared springform pan.

The original recipe suggests that you form some sort of strings out of the rest of the dough which are laid out on the rice pudding mass for decoration. I left that out.

Bake on the lowest level of your oven for about 50 minutes. Let cool. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Sour Cream and Honey Ice Cream with Walnuts

2011-04-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

The sun is shining! It's time for ice cream! Instead of buying it, why don't you make it yourself?! This one even works without an ice cream machine!

Recipe:
(Original recipe in German on www.saison.ch)

60g walnuts, coarsly chopped
120g runny honey
400g sour cream ("saurer Halbrahm")
1dl cream

Put the walnuts into a frying pan with about 1/4 of the honey and heat it up until they are caramelized. Pour onto a baking sheet and let cool. Put some of the nuts aside for decoration.

Mix sour cream with the honey and the walnuts. Beat cream until stiff and fold into the batter. Freeze for about 4 hours. If you don't have an ice cream machine, you should stir the ice cream well with a fork about every 30 minutes or so (about 4 or 5 times).

Take out of the freezer about 15 minutes before serving.

Peanut Butter Cookies

2011-04-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make... I cheated on chocolate... with peanut butter :-) Ever since my friend Melissa introduced me to peanut butter, I can't resist it anymore. Seriously, I don't think I would have managed to finish my thesis without my daily peanut butter sandwich!

Of course, I was looking out for yummie peanut butter recipes - and I found one! These cookies are scrumptious, let me tell you!! If you are a peanut butter addict as well, these cookies are heaven on earth! And (I know I say this very often, but it's true) veeery easy to make! So get your peanut butter jar out of your cupboard and put it to good use :-)

Recipe:
(I nicked the recipe from Technicolor Kitchen. Check out Patricia's blog! It is fabulous, one of my absolute favourite foodblogs!)

100g butter, softened
140g crunchy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
218g light brown sugar
1 egg
185g all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
100g brown sugar, for rolling

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line two large baking trays with parchment paper.

Put the butter, peanut butter, vanilla and brown sugar into a bowl. Mix with an electric mixer for 8-10 minutes or until well combined. Add the egg and beat for 2-3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and baking soda over the mixture and beat in low speed until you got a smooth dough. Roll one leveled tablespoon of dough into a ball at a time and roll in brown sugar. Place on prepared trays, leave enough room between the cookies (5cm). Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden. Let cool on wire racks.

Be careful not to overbake the cookies! I always worry when I bake cookies because I don't kow whether they are still too soft, but they continue to bake even when taken out of the oven and they will get firmer when cooling down.

I got about 26 cookies in the end.

Birthday Cupcakes

2011-03-31T18:30:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... I am all about chocolate lately. But I just can't get away from it :-) So, for my friend Luzia's birthday party, it had to be something with chocolate. What I liked most about these cupcakes is the decadent frosting... I think I ate about half of it while decorating the cupcakes... highly addictive...

Recipe:
(from: Leila Lindholm - Piece of Cake)

3 eggs
200g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
50g butter
100ml cream
2 tablespoons cold coffee
200g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 pinch of salt
100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Prepare a muffin tray and fill it with 12 paper cases.

Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar until light and fluffy. Melt butter, mix with cream and coffee and add to you egg-mixture. Mix flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt and fold into the egg-mixture. Melt chocolate over a hot water bath and fold into your dough.

Fill dough into the muffin forms and bake for about 15 minutes. (I had to bake them for about 25 minutes...) Let cool.

For the frosting:

60g soft butter
300g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
20g cocoa powder
100g cream cheese
1 tablespoon hot coffee

Mix butter, icing sugar, vanilla sugar, cocoa and cream cheese, then add the coffee. Do this with a hand mixer and don't worry if your batter is crumbly at first, it will blend in and get creamy as soon as you add the hot coffee. To make sure the ingredients blend well, take the butter and the cream cheese out of the fridge well in advance.

Spread the icing over the cupcakes and decorate with sugar sprinkles, marzipan flowers, chopped nuts or whatever you like... enjoy...

Deluxe Chocolate Cake with Cranberries

2011-03-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

When I recently spent another evening browsing through my beloved cookbooks, I noticed that I have never tried a single recipe from one of my absolute favourite cookbooks - Warm Bread and Honey Cake... time to change that! I was invited for dinner last week and my task, as ususal, dessert :-) This recipe caught my attention because of the addidtion of walnuts and cranberries. I really like this cake! It's something inbetween cake and brownie... and cranberries in a chocolate cake are something else for a change.

Recipe:
(Source: Warm Bread and Honey Cake by Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra)

150g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
125g butter, softened
125g caster sugar
2 eggs, lighly beaten with
1 tsp vanilla extract
35g cocoa powder, dissolved in
100ml boiling water
50g dried cranberries, finely chopped
50g walnuts, finely chopped
50g dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line a cake tin with parchment paper.

Sift flour with baking powder and salt and set aside. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until smooth. Then, add the beaten eggs in two steps, beating well after each addition. Add the flour in two batches as well. Then, add the cocoa paste and mix well. Add cranberries, walnuts and chocolate and mix only until all is just combined.

Pour the mixture into your baking tin. The recipe actually calls for a 20cm square tin and says to bake the cake for 25-30 minutes. I used a cake tin and baked it for about 45 minutes.

Salmon Lasagne with Saffron

2011-03-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

I have a great savoury recipe for you! With this lasagne you can impress guests and guess what, it is extremely easy to make. It can be prepared in advance so that you will only have to put it in your oven when your guests arrive.

The combination of salmon and saffron works perfectly... and I like the yellow color.

Recipe:
(Source: Betty Bossi Magazin 10/2009)

300g cream curd ("Rahmquark")
180g sour cream ("saurer Halbrahm")
120g grated Sbrinz cheese (1/3 kept aside)
1 sachet of saffron
1 tsp salt
a pinch of pepper

250g fresh lasagne sheets (NOTE: Take fresh pasta sheets, not the firm ones. There are also firm pasta sheets which do not require per-cooking, but according to a friend of mine, the lasagne was too dry in the end. For my friends from Switzerland: There is also rolled out pasta dough available at MIGROS for instance.)
400g salmon filet without skin, grey fat layer removed

Preheat oven to 200°C. Chop the salmon into pieces and set aside. Mix curd, sour cream, Sbrinz, saffron, salt and pepper.

Butter an oven-safe pan of about 2.5l capacity. Layer lasagne sheets, salmon and curd batter. End with the curd batter and cover with the rest of the grated Sbrinz.

Bake for about 25 minutes (you can prepare this lasagne up to a day in advance, in that case, you'll probably have to leave it in the oven for about 5 more minutes).

I usually serve it with a salad. Serves 3 - 4 people.

Brownies... what else?!

2011-03-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and cakelovers! I'm back for good ;-) or so I hope, but my wrist is holding up well and although I will be busy studying for my finals in fall, I definitely have more time to bake and cook for now!

So... let's get serious... these really are decadent... and delicious...

Recipe:
(from Tartine... a lovely book by the way!)

170g butter
455g bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
130g all-purpose flour
5 large eggs
395g brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter a 23x33cm baking tin or line with parchment paper (I used two brownie pans each 18x23cm)

Melt butter in a small pan over low heat. Then, take away from the heat and add the chocolate. (I had to put the pan back over low heat to fully melt it.) Set aside to cool.

Sift flour into a small mixing bowl and set aside. Combine eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract in another bowl. With a mixer, beat on high speed until you got a thick mixture which is pale in color (4 - 5 minutes). With a rubber spatula, fold in the cooled chocolate. Then, add the flour and fold it in quickly but gently with the rubber spatula.

Pour your batter into the prepared pan and smooth it a bit with the spatula. Bake until the top looks slightly cracked and it feels soft to the touch. This takes about 25 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Cut them into squares. They will keep for up to one week in an airtight container in a cool place.

I'm still here...

2011-02-20T08:43:00.000-08:00

My dear followers… it’s February already and I feel bad for leaving you alone for such a long time… I haven’t had much time to cook and bake recently because I was extremely busy with my final paper for university. I’m almost done now… a few days are left and after that, I will celebrate with a huuuuge cake or something :-D

Come spring, I definitely want to feed you with new, delicious recipes and photos… bear with me for a little longer…

Cardamom Cookies and Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T19:00:00.000-08:00

I got up just now and realized, it's the 24th already... I haven't really had time to get into a christmas mood yet. It's definitely time to relax for a few days now. I'm going home to mum's and I'm really looking forward to seeing my family!

I leave you with my favourite photo of my cookie session and a recipe for cardamom cookies. Merry christmas to all of you!

Cardamom Cookies
(Original recipe in German: www.saison.ch)

100g butter, soft
50g brown sugar
1 big egg yolk
1 tablespoon cardamom powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon powder
180g flour

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line your baking trays with parchment paper.

With a hand mixer, beat butter, sugar, egg yolk, cardamom and cinnamon until you got a smooth batter. Add flour and quickly combine to a dough (my dough was so dry that I had to save it from falling apart with a little egg white).Put your dough into the refridgerator or out on your balcony for about half an hour.

Roll the dough out (about 5mm thick) and cut out cookies. Place them on your baking trays and bake for about 20 minutes (Watch them carefully during the last 5 minutes! I think I gave them a little less than 20 minutes). Then, take out of the oven and let cool on a rack.

Orange Crescents

2010-12-22T19:00:00.000-08:00

There are certain aromas that are automatically connected with christmas... For me, next to the smell of my mum's gingerbread, it's the taste of oranges.

Here comes my favourite this year: Orangenkipferl. They are the fruity variant of the Vanillekipferl.

Recipe:
(Source: al dente, 13.12.2010)

250g flour
100g finely ground almonds
75g icing sugar
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
2 pinches of salt
1 orange, only grated zest
200g butter, in pieces, cold

Preheat oven to 200°C and line your baking trays with parchment paper.

Mix all the ingredients until and including orange zest in a bowl. Add butter and, with your hands, rub until you get a crumbly mixture. Then, quickly put together to a dough (in case your dough is too dry, add an egg white - I had to do that). Flatten the dough little and, covered with cling film, put in the refridgerator for about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, take the dough out, cut into equal pieces and form equal rolls from it. Cut these into smaller or bigger pieces, depending on how big you want the cookies to be. Bend the rolls into crescents and place on your baking tray and put them in your refridgerator or out on your balcony again for about 15 minutes.

Bake for about 10 minutes (they should not turn brown!). When you take them out of the oven, dredge in icing sugar while still hot, but do that carefully, otherwise the crescents will fall apart! Let cool on a rack.

Chocolate and Hazelnut Sablé Rolls

2010-12-21T19:00:00.000-08:00

I did it! There actually are three filled cookie jars on my balcony. What joy an afternoon of baking can bring :-)

Here comes a cookie recipe that would also be suitable for any other occasion than christmas, I think. These cookies are actually not that difficult to make and they look cute, an eye-catcher in your cookie box :-)

Recipe:
(Source: Betty Bossi - Backen in der Weihnachtszeit)

175g butter
75g sugar
1 teapoon vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 tablespoon milk
250g flour

for the filling:
100g ground hazelnuts
2 tablespoons chocolate powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1dl cream

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Beat butter in a bowl until smooth. Add sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and milk and beat until well combined. Add flour and form a dough. Cover with cling film and put in your refridgerator or outside in the cold for about 30 minutes.

For the filling just combine ground hazelnuts, chocolate powder, sugar and cream in a little bowl and set aside.

After 30 minutes, roll out your dough so you get a rectangle that is about 4mm thick (The recipe says that you should half your dough and roll out two rectangles of about 18x25 cm... I managed one with this amount of dough... anyway... :-) not a master with cookie doughs...). With a spoon, disperse the filling on the dough, leave an edge of about 1cm on one long side. From the other side, form a roll with your dough, wrap in cling film and put in the refridgerator for 30 minutes (or in the freezer for about 15 mins).

With a sharp knife, cut the roll into cookies (about 4mm thick) and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Bake for about 10 minutes. Place on a cooling rack and let cool completely.

These cookies keep in an airtight container for about 3 weeks.

Cookie Time... finally!

2010-12-18T19:00:00.000-08:00

I have to make a confession... I haven't baked any christmas cookies yet... I know it's shameful but I really didn't find time to do it and I decided that baking is no fun when I have to do it under stress. Besides, my wrist still tends to hurt when I overdo it and my final paper really has to have priority at the moment...

But this weekend, with my final Russian exam behind me, I actually feel like I might turn on my oven again :-) I spent some time with my beloved cookbooks yesterday evening and I saw some tempting recipes... I mean, Christmas without baking... come on!

Meanwhile, I decided that I am going to provide you with a fabulous recipe for cookies that I have baked in a past year... I like the addition of the lime zest, it gives these cookies an extra something. And I was very pleased with the decoration, don't they look gorgeous?!

White Chocolate-Nougat-Cookies:
(Source: Betty Bossi - Backen in der Weihnachtszeit)

150g butter
100g sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 egg
100g white chocolate with nougat (z.B. Toblerone), in pieces
boiling water
zest of 1 lime
325g flour

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line your baking trays with parchment paper.

Beat butter in a bowl until soft and smooth. Fold in sugar, salt and the egg.

Put chocolate in another bowl and pour boiling water over it (the recipe doesn't actually say, how much water. Just cover the chocolate completely). Let stand for a minute or so, then pour the water and beat the chocolate until smooth. Add to your butter-sugar-mix.

Add lime zest and then the flour. Flatten the dough a little, then cover with cling film and put in the refridgerator or outside on the balcony in the cold for about 30 minutes.

Sprinkle a working surface with flour and roll the dough out in portions (about 4 mm thick). Cut out shapes of your choice and place on your baking trays. Put out in the cold again for about 10 minutes, then bake for about 8 minutes. Take out of the oven, slide the parchment paper with the cookies off the tray and let cool completely.

For the decoration, I used a packet of white chocolate-glazing which I heated in a hot water bath until really smooth and then poured over the cookies. Then, I sprinkled them with silver sugar pearls.

These cookies keep in an airtight container for about 3 weeks.

Chocolate Cake

2010-11-30T20:00:00.000-08:00

When I asked my friend Daniela what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday party she said: "You know, what I like most of all is just a simple chocolate cake!" So I scanned my cookbooks for a good recipe and I stumbled upon one that I had marked with a post-it a long time ago. My friend over at Mainly Cake even declared this cake as "the best chocolate cake ever" so I finally had to give this one a try.

A word about the decoration: Daniela likes it kitschy and the duckies have something to do with her nickname so I thought this cake looked perfect for her birthday ;-)

And here comes the recipe (which is really easy by the way. A good one for baking beginners!)
(Original recipe in German at Annemarie Wildeisen's Kochen)

200g butter
200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
200g ground almonds
200g brown sugar
1 packet of vanilla sugar / 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
4 eggs
3 tablespoons flour
0.5 packet baking powder

Line a springform pan (about 26cm diameter) with parchment paper and butter the side. Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Put chocolate and butter in a bowl and melt slowly over a hot water bath.

Take away from the water bath and add sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and almonds. Mix well, then scramble the eggs together and add to the chocolate-mix as well. Finally, add flour and baking powder. Quickly mix everything and immediately pour into your springform pan and bake for about 45 - 50 minutes.

Check whether the cake is done with a skewer. It should come out clean, otherwise, bake for a few more minutes. The cake should be a little creamy on the inside even when cooled completely.

When the cake is cool, either sprinkle with icing sugar or glaze with chocolate and decorate as you wish.

This cake keeps in the fridge for a few days.

Winter Wonderland

2010-11-28T20:00:00.000-08:00

First snow came down last week... I'm not a particular fan of winter but still, as a cake and cookie lover, you got to love this time of the year... I have already made a list of cookies I want to bake and I can't wait to bake "Grittibänz" and gingerbread!

Yesterday morning, while the sun was still shining, I went for a walk in the Irchelpark. Look how beautiful it was...

I know, I know, these photos don't have much to do with cake but I liked them so much that I wanted to share them with you!

And no worries guys, I baked an amazing chocolate cake this weekend and of course, I will not deprive you of the recipe! Soon to come...

Chocolate Chip Scones

2010-11-13T14:00:00.000-08:00

I'm back!

This morning, after a night of muuuch too little sleep I got up and decided I had to do something to get my mind off my final paper for university... and then suddenly, I knew exactly what I was craving: Scones! It's not only that I just LOVE scones, but also they are so easy and quick to make. Perfect for me right now since I still have to take good care of my poor wrist.

Lucky me, the weather today is so stunning that I was able to take some nice pictures in the sunlight out on my balcony.

Chocolate Chip Scones
(from: Leila Lindholm - Piece of Cake)

450g plain flour
0.5 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
40g brown sugar
125g cold butter
100g dark chocolate, chopped
1 egg
200ml milk

plus
one more egg (lightly beaten) and a little brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 250°C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Combine flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Cut butter into pieces and rub into the flour mixture with your fingers. Mix the egg and the milk and add this to the flour mixture. Also add chocolate chips and combine to a dough.

Place the dough onto a surface sprinkled with a little flour and flatten it until it's about 3cm thick. Cut it into triangle pieces (or you can also use a big round cookie cutter).

Place the scones onto your baking tray. Brush with the egg and sprinkle some brown sugar onto them. Bake for about 10 minutes (I usually have to give them a little more time).

World turned upside-down

2010-11-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

What is going on?! Lately it seems that everyone is baking but me...

Yesterday, I was at a birthday party and our birthday girl and style expert Giorgia handed out homemade muffins as a give-away... (they were delicious by the way...)

Today, my friend Daniela happily announced that tonight, she's going to bake a cheesecake... Up until recently, all Daniela baked - if she baked at all - was convenience blend brownies from Migros...

Don't get me wrong, I am glad that my pals finally discovered the joy of baking but still... I am a little jealous :-)

Happy to report though that my wrist is getting better day by day. I hardly ever have to wear the brace anymore... and I am already thinking about what I could bake next weekend...

What if...

2010-10-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

...your doctor forbids you to bake...?!?! Really, he asked me "Your boyfriend, can't he cook and bake?" ... "Excuse me??!!!"

Ok, from the beginning: First of all, I apologize for being quiet over such a long time. But there were some things that had to be sorted out first and sometimes, you have to prioritize. We settled down in Zurich almost three weeks ago and guys, I liked Zurich before, but now, I am truly in love with this city! Each day I leave the house I see something new. I've already walked from our place all to the central station instead of taking the tram (Mauro's comment: "What?! Are you crazy?!" But you know, Mauro will not walk a step too much if he doesn't have to...).

Our new flat is so cute, I really feel at home. The only problem is that it is not as well lit as our old one which means I still try to figure out the best way to fotograph my food in order to get nice pictures... This turned out to be a tricky task because I don't have a professional camera... Most of the photos are too blurred because of the bad lighting and the flash light is also not a good idea most of the time... But I'm working on it.

The other rather big problem is the nasty strain injury on my right wrist. I guess the moving, yoga, baking, cooking and a lot of typing on the computer turned out to be a bit too much. I will have to give it time to really heal up in order to avoid a repetitive strain injury. But let me tell you, it's not easy... You know how much I love to cook and bake. Last weekend, Mauro and I made Flammkuchen, or rather, Mauro followed my instructions... It was annoying! Mauro actually did a great job but still, I wanted to do it myself! This must be what cold turkey feels like :-) No, seriously, I hope I'm back in the game as soon as christmas cookie season starts!

I hope I can still provide you with a few recipes and photos until then! So, keep in touch.

Katrin

Zurich, Baby!

2010-10-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!

I know I haven't been that chatty lately... But I have news to share with you! We're moving to Zurich! Actually, it's been quite a spur-of-the-moment thing. I know, I know, how can moving to Zurich be a spur-of-the-moment thing?! Well, Mauro and I have been discussing this option for quite some time and about a month or two ago, we decided to try and look for an affordable appartment in the city. Who would have thought that we get the first one we applied for?! We still can't believe it!

And there we go... the kitchen is almost packed. From next Saturday on, I will be a city-girl ;-)

Give me some time to get used to my new oven... I'll be back in a bit...

Katrin

Plum Streusel Cake

2010-09-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

A streusel cake is always a winner. Streusel cake makes people happy. Serve a streusel cake for dessert and people will reward you with big smiles... And since plums are in season right now, why don't you bake one with plums...?! Add a large pinch of cinnamon and there goes a perfect combination!

Recipe:
(slightly adapted from Coopzeitung 35/2010, original recipe in German here)

for the cake dough / streusel:
200g plain flour
75g sugar
a pinch of salt
0.5 teaspoon of baking powder
1 lemon, grated zest
100g butter, liquid, cooled
1 egg

for the filling:
50g sugar
2 egg yolks
1 lemon, grated zest and 1 tablespoon of juice
50g grated almonds
25g plain flour
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 egg whites
1 pinch of salt
2 tablespoons sugar
400g plums, cores removed

Preheat the oven to 140°C. Line a 25cm cake tin with parchment paper.

Cake dough: Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and lemon zest in a bowl. Mix butter and egg together and then add to the other ingredients and mix well with your hand mixer until the batter is crumbly. Fill half of this batter into your prepared cake tin.

Filling: Mix sugar and egg yolks with the hand mixer. In another bowl, add lemon zest and juice. Mix almonds, flour and cinnamon. Beat the egg whites and the salt until firm. Add sugar and beat until gleamy. Mix about a third of the egg white-batter with your sugar-egg yolk-batter. Then alternately fold in almond-flour-mix and egg white-batter and mix carefully. Pour the batter into your cake tin. Add the rest of the streusel and bake for about 40 minutes.

Baked Figs with Parma Ham

2010-09-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

I actually can't remember the last time I've made dessert! Wait, I think it was for my Italy-inspired dinner and unfortunately, I don't even have good pictures of my first ever ricotta tart... I really haven't made a cake since then. That's definitely too long! But I plan to bake a cake this weekend so stay tuned ;-)

For now, I have another antipasto for you.

Recipe:
(adapted from: Annemarie Wildeisen's Kochen)

6 figs
0.5 tablespoon liquid honey
1.5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
6 thin slices of parma ham
salt
pepper
parmesan cheese (optional)

Preheat the oven to about 150°C.

Wash the figs carefully and then cut in crosswise. Mix honey and balsamic vinegar. Wrap each fig with a slice of parma ham and place onto a baking tray. Drizzle the honey-vinegar mix over the figs and season with salt and pepper. Bake the figs in the oven for about 10 minutes. Place onto a plate and decorate with slices of parmesan cheese if you like.

Zucca all'agrodolce

2010-09-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

The Sicilian kitchen has many influences from different cultures. There are a lot of dishes with ingredients and flavours that are remains of the Byzantine and Arabic past of the island. As for instance this sweet and sour pumpkin.

This dish was part of my antipasti variations of last Sunday's menu. I was a bit anxious about it at first because it has such a special taste. I don't consider myself an expert when it comes to seasoning dishes, especially with dishes that have unusual flavours. I prepared it around noon and I kept trying bites from it during the whole afternoon in order to decide whether it was ok and whether I should really serve it or not. I think I ate about half of it beforehand :-)

My guests really liked it and I too, was happy with the outcome in the end. This dish is something else for a change. And I just looove the colour of the pumpkin. Look at that...

Recipe:
(from: Ursula Ferrigno - VegItalia)

1kg pumpkin, peeled and pitted
5 tablespoons of olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon sugar
1 handful of mint leaves, chopped
1 pinch of cinnamon
8 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
black pepper

Cut the pumpkin into dices of about 1cm. Roast in a frying pan in olive oil together with the garlic clove for about 3 minutes. Take the garlic clove out of the pan as soon as it begins to change colour.

Take the pumpkin dices out of the pan and pour onto paper towels so that the oil might drain. Pour the pumpkin dices into the pan again and reduce the heat.

Add sugar, mint and cinnamon. Mix well, pour white wine vinegar over it and season with pepper (I also added a little salt). Cover the pan and let the vinegar vaporize.

Serve warm or cold. I served it cold because in Italy, many dishes of this kind are served cold. However, I warmed the leftovers up for dinner the next day and I think it's better if served warm.

Focaccia with Parmesan and Rosemary

2010-09-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Mauro and I invited our dear friend Stephanie and her mum Diana for dinner. Diana herself is famous for her fabulous dinner partys and she really is one of the best cooks I know. So I have to admit, I was a little nervous. But I had a lot of fun putting together a menu for our two friends. Inspired from our holidays in Sicily, I decided to have an Italian evening. Mauro and I spent practically the whole sunday in the kitchen preparing our antipasti.

The focaccia was one of my favourites in the end. I have never made focaccia before and I was very happy with the outcome. You don't need many ingredients and baking utensils, it doesn't take long to make and it is really easy. The addition of parmesan and rosemary gives it an aromatic taste.

Recipe:
(from: Betty Bossi - Wähen Pizzas Flammkuchen)

500g flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon of rosemary, coarsely chopped
20g fresh yeast
4.5dl water, lukewarm
2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Add parmesan and rosemary. Dissolve yeast in the lukewarm water. Mix water and olive oil with the flour and stir with a ladle until you got a viscous dough. Pour the dough onto a baking tray lined with a baking sheet and spread until you got a rectangle of about 30x40 cm. Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes (I gave it about 60 minutes). Press your fingers into the dough to make dimples. Put the baking tray into the cold oven and then heat the oven to 220°C. Bake the focaccia for about 30 minutes.

When you take the focaccia out of the oven, brush it with a little olive oil and pour some sea salt onto it. Serve warm or cold.

Cheesecake, my Love...

2010-09-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

I probably told you already that I am a fan of cheesecakes - well, who isn't?! I figured, it was time to try a new recipe. This one probably caught my eye because it said ricotta somewhere on the ingredients list :-)

I personally love this cake and I will definitely bake it again. It is not as heavy as other cheesecakes. The berries where my idea, it originally comes with a coating of raspberry jam but I like it better this way. This decoration is simple, yet an eye-catcher.

Recipe:
(from: www.wildeisen.ch)

150g petits beurres (graham crackers or digestive biscuits)
75g sugar
100g butter

400g ricotta
150g mascarpone
2 sachets vanilla sugar (40g)
75g sugar
2 tablespoon lemon juice
4 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 24cm diameter springform pan with parchment paper.

Crumble the biscuits in a cutter or put them into a plastic bag and beat them with a rolling pin. Put the crumbs in a bowl and add sugar. Melt butter in a little pan and add to the crumbs. Mix this well and spread it onto the base of the springform pan. Put the springform into the refrigerator.

In a bowl, mix ricotta, mascarpone, vanilla sugar, sugar and lemon juice. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and then add them to the cheesecake mixture. Pour the batter onto the biscuit base.

Bake the cake for about 50 minutes. Then, take out of the oven and let cool. Decorate with mixed fresh berries.

By the way: The recipe says that, if you want to bake a smaller cake, you can half the ingredients and bake it in a 16cm diameter springform pan. That would be a nice cake for two. On the other hand, the cake keeps in the fridge for a few days so why not bake a big one ;-)

Bella Sicilia!

2010-09-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

Let me tell about my holidays in Sicily!

I usually like to come home again after being away for a while, but with Sicily it was different. I would have loved to stay a little longer. I have never been there before and now I am totally in love! I had at least one gelato every day, ate the best pasta ever and met the nicest people! The beach was beautiful and I even felt comfortable with the hot temperature. I think the sun and the sea water really did me good.

We stayed in a little village near Palermo where a part of Mauro's family lives. Our holidays where a nice mix of excursions (Palermo, Cefalù, Catania and Taormina), days at the beach and family dinners and let me tell you, these dinners where a real delight! I was really overwhelmed with the warm-heartedness of these people and of course, with the way they cook. Everything is really simple but just delicious. I think it has something to do with the joy and devotion they make their food with. And of course with the fact that they grow practically everything they cook in their own garden. Really, the vegetables and the herbs taste more intense... I got a glass of oregano as a farewell present and everytime I open it, the scent reminds me of Sicily... I can't wait to go there again...

I want share some photos with you just to show you what I am talking about. I got a lot of inspiration for cooking of course and I want to try so many things!!!

Mmmmh... that lovely crostata di ricotta... I still dream about that one! The best thing is, I got the recipe for it :-) I celebrated my birthday in Sicily and I wished for the recipe as a present and of course, they were happy to share it with me. I think, this is one of the best presents I've ever gotten ;-)

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Ice Cream Petit Fours

2010-08-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I'm back from Sicily and I can't wait to show you some pictures and tell you all about the best food I've ever eaten! But first, I'm happy to share my second Daring Bakers' Challenge which I prepared shortly before I went on holiday.

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

I decided to go for the Ice Cream Petit Fours. First, I made the ice cream. I chose a recipe for a coconut saffron ice cream from Nicole Stich's book "delicious days". That went all well, whereas the brown butter cake was a little more complicated. I have never browned butter before and I burned it the first time. The second time, I watched the pan like a hawk and I probably took it away from the hot plate a little too early but I figured that was better than burning it again. When browning the butter, it gets a nutty smell which I really like. It gives the cake a very special and delicious flavour.

I made both, a white and dark chocolate icing for the petit fours. The decoration was a spontaneous idea. I found some red sugar flowers in my cupboard and I thought that would look nice together with the gladiolus blossoms. The gladiolus was a present from my friend Danny and I thought that I might as well put it to good use before it began to wither.

I decorated some of the dark chocolate petit fours with meringue crumbles and cut them in halves so that one could see the inside. After the first few shots, I arranged them together with the gladiolus blossoms again because I thought it looked too bland without some colour.

After the photo session, I ate one of the petit fours right away :-) they make a very nice little dessert together with a coffee. I really liked this challenge! Thanks to Elissa for the ideas and the instructions! (Get them here by the way!)

Vermicelli with Ham and Creamy Saffron Sauce

2010-08-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

I'm flying to Sicily tomorrow to visit Mauro's family and I am so exited! I wanted to inform you that I won't post anything on my blog for about a week and a half. But I'm not leaving you without another recipe.

What would fit better now than pasta!? I have a simple recipe for you that is basically a carbonara sauce with the addition of saffron. Trust me, it is extremely good!

This is what I call comfort food... not only is it nourishing, it is also heart-warming. You get happier with every bite you eat. I love the vermicelli pasta with this dish because you can really shovel big bites onto your fork and it looks very nice with the ham streaks. If you don't have vermicelli, you could use thin spaghetti or linguine.

Recipe:
(from Ursula Ferrigno - Pasta Passion)

serves 4

350g vermicelli (or other) pasta (if you are hearty eaters, I would say a little more, maybe then also a bit more ham and cream)
a large pinch of saffron strands
150g cooked ham, cut into strips (I roasted the ham strips in a frying pan before adding them to the sauce)
200ml cream (I used 25% fat, the original calls for double cream)
50g grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve
2 egg yolks
sea salt
pepper

Heat up a saucepan of water. Put the saffron strands into a smaller saucepan and add two tablespoons of water. Bring this to a boil. Then, remove from the hot plate and leave it to sit for a bit.

When the water is boiling, add salt and then the pasta. While the pasta cooks, add ham to the pan containing the saffron. Also pour in cream and parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper. Stir well. When the cream bubbles, remove the pan from the hot plate, add the egg yolks and beat well. Taste and season again according to your taste.

Drain the pasta and add to the sauce. Mix well and serve.

Chicken Salad with Peperoni and Basil Curd Dressing

2010-08-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

This salad made a simple dinner for Mauro and me this week. I served it with toast and a green salad. I could imagine this salad to be a good addition for a summer buffet or a picnic.

Recipe:
(Adapted from "Saisonküche" August 2010)

little meal for 4 persons

2 red peperonis
400g chicken breast
salt, pepper, mild paprika
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 peperoncino
a handful of basil leaves (the original recipe calls for parsley)
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon coarse-grained mustard
3 tablespoons curd (I used 3/4 fat)

Cut the peperoni into little pieces and set aside.

You can either cut the chicken breast into slices before roasting them or after. I cut them into slices before roasting and seasoned them with salt, pepper and paprika. Then, put some of the oil into a large frying pan and roast the chicken for about 10 minutes over medium heat. Cut the garlic into little pieces or use a garlic press, and roast with the chicken.

After 10 minutes, take the chicken out of the pan, set aside and let cool. Roast the peperoni pieces in the same pan for about 3 minutes (or longer, depending on how soft you want them to be).

For the sauce: Pit the peperoncino and chop together with the basil (or parsley). Mix with curd, mustard, lemon juice and the rest of the oil. Season with salt, pepper and paprika. Mix with the chicken and peperoni.

Brainfood for two hungry girls...

2010-08-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

My friend Daniela came over today to study together. We do this very often and yes, we actually really work efficiently! We always have an extended lunch break which we use to relax and talk about this and that... ;-)

Today was kind of a spontaneous study-day and since my fridge was rather empty, we decided to have pasta with a simple tomato sauce for lunch. I came up with this little dessert spontaneously because I thought we needed something to motivate us for the afternoon session.

Honeyed Yogurt with Grapes and Almonds

(Of course, you can modify this simple dessert in various ways. This is just how I made it today...)

For two:

about 180g plain yogurt
1 tablespoon of liquid honey (I used orange blossom honey)
(a pinch of sugar, optional, depending on how sweet you like it)
200g white grapes, halved, cores removed
2 twigs of red currants
2 tablespoons of slivered almonds, roasted

Mix honey with yogurt and stir well. Fill some grapes into two little glasses, add some of the almonds. Then, pour the yoghurt over that. Top with the rest of the grapes and the almonds. Decorate the glasses with the red currant twigs. And there you go...

Yogurt Semolina Cake with Peaches

2010-08-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

I made this cake for a friend of mine who, believe it or not, doesn't like chocolate... I still have problems understanding that :-) But, although I am a serious chocaholic I'd say that cakes like this one are among my favourites.

Recipe:
(adapted from: www.wildeisen.ch)

2 egg yolks
50g soft butter
100g sugar
2 sachets vanilla sugar (40g)
250g plain yogurt
125g flour
125g semolina
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 egg whites
a pinch of salt
200g peach, diced (the original recipe calls for frozen raspberries. I guess you can also use other fruit)

(I doubled these ingredients and made two cakes. I used a little less sugar and vanilla sugar and added about three tablespoons of liquid honey.)

Line a 25cm cake tin with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Beat egg yolks, butter, sugar, vanilla sugar with a hand mixer for about 8 minutes until the batter is very light-colored (almost white). Add yogurt (and honey).

Mix flour, semoline and baking powder and add this mixture to the yogurt-batter.

Whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Carefully mix this with your cake batter. Fill half of the batter into your cake tin. Pour about half your peach dices (or raspberries or other fruit) onto this. Then fill the rest of the cake batter into the tin. Top with the rest of the fruit. Press them into the batter a little with a spatula.

Bake the cake for about 70 - 80 minutes. If necessary, cover the cake with aluminium foil after about 50 minutes to prevent it from getting dark. Then, take out of the oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes. Then take out of the cake tin and let cool completely. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Say (Cream) Cheese!

2010-08-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

This post is for my friend Kerstin who wouldn't believe me that cream cheese brownies are really easy to make! This is one of the reasons I make cream cheese brownies so often. Everyone loves them, they are made in a jiffy and you can also prepare them in advance and keep them in the fridge for some days. I still can't decide whether I like them better fresh from the oven or cold from the fridge... they are divine anyway...

Here comes the recipe:
(Adapted from: Nigella Lawson - How to be a Domestic Goddess)

125g dark chocolate
125g unsalted butter
2 eggs
200g sugar
1 sachet (20g) vanilla sugar (Nigella uses vanilla extract)
75g plain flour
a pinch of salt
200g cold cream cheese (Philadelphia)

You need a brownie tin (about 23x23 cm, mine is 18x23 and it works fine, if you don't have a brownie tin, you could probably use a square gratin dish that has about that size). Line the brownie tin with parchment paper.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Melt the chocolate together with the butter in a small pan over low heat. Whilst this melts, beat the eggs with the sugar and the vanilla sugar in a bowl. In another bowl, mix flour and salt. When the chocolate has melted, take away from the heat and give it some time to cool a little. Then, add it to the egg and sugar-mixture. Finally, sift in the flour and mix until the batter is smooth.

Pour half the mixture into your tin and then slice the cream cheese into very thin slices and top the brownie mixture with these slices. Then pour the rest of your brownie batter over this. Use a spatula and make sure, every piece of cream cheese is covered with the mixture.

Put into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes. The top gets a little pale and crunchy but the inside is still sticky. When you take it out of the oven, let cool at least 10 minutes before cutting it into squares. Kept in an airtight container in the fridge, they stay moist for a few days. I ususally let the baked batter cool in the tin and cut it when it's completely cooled right before I serve the brownies. It's much easier to slice this way.

Chocolate Orange Marble Cake

2010-08-01T18:30:00.000-07:00

Marble cake used to be my favourite cake when I was a little girl. To me, my grandmother made the best marble bundt cake in the world! She always told me that grandpa helped to make it, too. His task was to whisk through the cake batter with the fork to create the marble pattern.

I still love marble cake although I hardly ever bake it myself. If I bake it, I look for a recipe that is a little different in order to make the good old marble cake a bit fancier. I really liked this one because the orange gives it a fresh touch.

Recipe:
(from Betty Bossi: "Kuchen, Cakes und Torten")

150g butter, soft
225g sugar
5 egg yolks
350g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
180g sour cream

1 orange, grated zest
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier (I used orange juice)
100g dark chocolate, melted

5 egg whites
a pinch of salt
a pinch of baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 30cm baking tin with parchment paper.

Beat butter with a hand mixer until creamy. Add sugar and egg yolks and beat until the batter gets a brighter color. Sift flour and baking powder and add. Add sour cream. Divide the batter into two halves.

Mix orange zest and Grand Marnier with one half. Mix molten chocolate with the other.

Beat egg whites, salt and baking powder. Then add sugar and beat a little longer. Divide into two halves and mix with the two cake batters.

Fill chocolate batter into the tin first and then add orange batter. Whisk through it with a fork to create a marble pattern.

Bake for about 70 minutes. (With my oven, 60 minutes were enough.)

Glaze:
1.5dl orange juice
3 tablespoons Grand Marnier (I left that out.)
50g icing sugar

Mix and pour over the slightly cooled cake. Leave the cake in the baking tin until it's cooled. This way, it can soak up the orange-sugar-juice. It will keep it moist and fresh.

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake

2010-07-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to show you all my very first Daring Bakers' Challenge:

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

When I first saw this month's challenge, I was a bit frightened and basically already sure that I was going to have some difficulties with that one. I hate making sponge rolls and I have destroyed many of them when trying to roll them up... plus, I have never made ice cream before. I've been wanting to make my own ice cream for a long time and I was never entirely sure whether it was a good idea without an ice cream machine.

I put the challenge off until last weekend and when I finally got started, it went so well from the beginning, that it got more and more fun! The instructions can be found here by the way. I changed some minor things however. My rolls are without cocoa, but I added that to the cream filling instead. The chocolate ice cream and the fudge sauce are made according to the instructions. I jazzed up my vanilla ice cream with a dash of cinnamon and some peach (cut into very little pieces).

To my big surprise, I had no problems with the rolls at all! I'm still totally happy about this and thanks to Sunita and her challenge, I am definitely going to make sponge rolls again because actually, I like them very much, only I thought I was too clumsy to make them :-)

I like the fudge sauce too, very easy to make and yummie! I'm thinking about making that again to decorate other dessers. The ice creams turned out fine as well. I have some leftovers of the vanilla-cinnamon and peach ice cream. This is going to make a nice dessert on its own one of the next days!

I invited my mum and her boyfriend over for cake and coffee on Sunday and we ate almost the whole cake then and there. Everybody really liked it and I am proud of my first challenge that turned out to be quite successful.

I'm still so thrilled about these rolls!!! Check them out:

Thank you Sunita for a super fun challenge!

Buttermilk Bread with Walnuts

2010-07-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

Baking your own bread just is such a wonderful thing... You should see my happy face when I make bread dough... I looove the smell of fresh yeast and the feel in my hands when I knead the dough... And the smell that comes out of the oven when there's bread in it...

I made this bread some time ago for my brunch with the ladies. Very often, when I bake bread, I make two loafs in order to freeze one of them. This weekend, I remembered that I still have this one in the freezer and I decided to eat some of it for breakfast. I like this bread very much. Its structure is kind of dense. Due to the buttermilk, it's rather moist and it's got an aromatic taste. I ate it with butter and Gruyère cheese this morning. Yum!

Recipe:
(Source: www.saison.ch)

500g "Ruchmehl" (See comment below.)
250g whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
20g fresh yeast
1dl milk, lukewarm
3dl buttermilk
100g walnuts

(I'm not sure what the appropriate English translation of "Ruchmehl" is... According to my online "research" I guess you could substitute it with wheat flour type 1050. You could probably also use 750g of whole wheat flour and leave the "Ruchmehl" out.)

In a big bowl, mix flour and salt. Form a hollow in the middle, add the sugar. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk and pour that into the hollow. Add buttermilk. Slowly mix the flour with the liquid ingredients (if necessary, add a little milk).

Spread a little flour on a clean surface area and knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic (it will be rather firm though, but that's ok). Chop walnuts and knead into the dough. Form a ball, put back into your bowl, cover with a wet kitchen towel and let rise for about 2 hours (put the bowl somewhere, where it is rather warm).

After the dough has risen, knead again shortly and divide into two halves. Form two balls and put onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Cut in the dough crosswise (1cm deep). Again, let rise for about 40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Bake the breads in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes. To have a good humidity in the oven, put a little ofen-safe cup of water next to the breads. Reduce heat to 200°C. Bake breads for another 40 minutes.

Check whether the bread is baked thoroughly by knocking on the bottom of the loafs. It should sound hollow*.

(If you plan to freeze one of the loafs, take it out of the oven about 10 minutes earlier than the other one. Let cool a little. Then pack into a plastic bag and let cool completely. Then put in the freezer.)

*Honestly, although I love baking bread, I haven't actually done it sooo many times and I am not as experienced as I'd like to be. What always freaks me out is checking whether it's baked thoroughly at the end. How exactly is this "hollow noise" supposed to sound?! I just guess, I interpret it right but I am never entirely sure. I think, baking good bread is something that needs a lot of experience.

I hope, I can present you more bread recipes in the future because I really want to advance my bread-baking skills :-)

Chocolate Sour Cream Cake

2010-07-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

You know by now that I have a craving for all sorts of cream. When I discovered that there are chocolate cakes with sour cream in them, I did not hesitate too long and tried to bake one myself.

Moist, yet tender... this is how the texture of this cake is probably best described. I mean, I like these dense and chewy chocolate cakes as well but this way, it's still got a chocolaty taste without the heavyness. This cake immediately made it to the hitlist of my favourite chocolate cakes ever.

Recipe (adapted from Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess"):

200g flour
200g sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
200g soft butter
40g cocoa powder
150ml sour cream
2 large eggs
1 sachet of vanilla sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 30cm cake tin with parchment paper.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add the butter and mix with an electric mixer. In a big jug, mix sour cream, cocoa, vanilla sugar and eggs and slowly add this mixture to the ingredients in the bowl.

Pour the batter into your prepared tin and bake for about 40-45 minutes. Check if it is done with a wooden skewer. If it comes out clean, it's ok.

Originally, this cake comes with a sour cream chocolate icing. I didn't have time for that so I left it out. Next time however, I definitely want to make that too!

Brownies gone nuts...

2010-07-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

Those who have tried one know it: there's comfort in a brownie. Cream cheese brownies could save the world. They are a secret weapon. That's why the recipe must be shared so that everyone can make their own.

Creamy M&Ms Brownies:

For the basics, I used a recipe by Nigella Lawson and then adapted it. I had a ton of M&Ms at home that I wanted to make use of. How about sticking them into a brownie, I thought. It turned out to be a good idea :-)

125g dark chocolate
125g butter
200g sugar
2 eggs
1 sachet vanilla sugar (20g)
75g flour
a pinch of salt

200g cream cheese (Philadelphia)
1 egg yolk
about 20g sugar and a pinch of vanilla sugar (depending on how sweet you want the batter to be...)
about 140g M&Ms, chopped (I did that with this.)

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a brownie tin (18x23cm) with parchment paper.

In a bowl, mix cream cheese, egg yolk, sugar and chopped M&Ms and set aside.

Over low heat, melt butter and chocolate in a little pan and let cool a bit. Beat sugar and the eggs until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla sugar. Add the molten chocolate and mix well. Sieve in flour and salt and mix. Once the batter is smooth, pour into your prepared brownie tin.

Scatter cream cheese batter onto that with a spoon. With a fork, spread the batter a little and create swirls so that you get a marble effect.

Put into the oven and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes until the top is crispy and shiny but the inside is still moist. Let cool and then, cut into slices.

You can enjoy them fresh from the oven, or cooled... both ways, they are heavenly. The good thing about cream cheese brownies is that they can be kept in the fridge for about a week or so. I personally like them even better after one or two days.

Spaghetti with creamy Zucchini and Lemon Sauce

2010-07-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

I have another simple pasta recipe for you. I cooked this pasta for dinner on Tuesday. While I photographed the dish, Mauro actually complained and asked whether I make food only for photography purposes or whether he might eat it eventually. But I got my shot in the end - and Mauro got his helping of spaghetti ;-)

for 4 persons:

1 - 2 zucchini (250 - 300g)
1dl vegetable stock (bouillon)
1.5dl cream (25% fat)
2 bio lemons, grated zest
salt and pepper
400 - 500g spaghetti

Cut zucchini into dices and cook in the vegetable stock for about 5 minutes until it is soft. Add cream and puree with a hand mixer. Add lemon zest and season with salt and pepper.

Cook spaghetti al dente, drain the water and then mix with the sauce.

Recipe source: www.saison.ch

Notes: This sauce has a really lemony taste. I liked it, but if you don't, just use one lemon. Also, I added some chopped pistachios for decoration, they go well with this sauce.

Apricot Vanilla Jam

2010-07-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

I didn't turn on the oven this weekend. It gets unbearably hot in our flat these days and - it's really true - I don't feel like baking a cake. I didn't cook much either.

Last week, I made a new batch of jam. Apricot jam is my favourite and therefore, I bought a bag full of apricots as soon I spotted the first ones at our local grocery store. I combined them with one of my favourite flavours: vanilla. It turned out quite yummie. Check out the recipe below.

I used:

about 1.3kg apricots
about 1kg sugar
3 vanilla pods, scraped out seeds
1.5 - 2 dl white wine
juice from 1 lemon

Divide the apricots into halves and remove the core. Put the apricots into a large pan and add the white wine and lemon juice. Cook them until they are really soft. Then, puree (I did that with a hand mixer) and weigh the mash. For 1kg fruit puree, you need about 750g of sugar (the fruit-sugar ratio should be 4:3). Add sugar and scraped out vanilla seeds, put back onto the plate and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about ten minutes.

Test whether the jam has reached the desired consistency by putting a little drop of it onto a plate. If it's not flowing anymore it's fine. Otherwise cook a little longer.

Fill the boiling jam into preheated glasses and seal them. Then turn them upside down for about a minute (kills the fungus spores) and then turn around again and let cool.

Easy Chocolate Coconut Cake

2010-07-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, my friend Giorgia from GVN Fashion Style Blog hosted a flea market at her place and she asked me if I would bring some cake. Of course, I said yes :-)

I stumbled over this recipe while browsing through Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2. The thing I like about this cake, besides that it is really easy to make, is that the coconut flakes are the surprising twist that make all the difference. It looks like a simple chocolate cake but taste and texture are a little different because of the coconut flakes.

Here comes the recipe:

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Mix 250g molten butter, 90g sifted cocoa powder, 300g sugar, 3 eggs, 140g dessicated coconut flakes, 200g flour, 1.5 teaspoons baking powder and 190ml milk in a bowl until you end up with a smooth batter. Pour this into a 24cm diameter springform pan (lined with parchment paper or greased with a little butter) and bake for about 50 minutes. Dust with cocoa powder and serve warm or cold.

Figs from Sicily!

2010-07-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

Some of Mauro's Sicilian family members are visiting and they brought a ton of food! When Mauro brought me these figs yesterday, I immediately started thinking about how to create a dessert with them. Funny story: Mauro told me that when he packed the figs up for me, his sister said to him: "You can tell Katrin that she can just eat these as they are, there's no need to put them into the oven." :-)

Of course, I know that. It didn't keep me from baking them anyway! And what came out is one of the most delicious desserts I've eaten in a long time! Of course, these Sicilian figs made all the difference, they tasted heavenly.

The original recipe can be found here. I changed certain things however.

Preheat oven to 220°C.

for 3 figs I used:

a few almonds, a few pistachios, finely minced
1.5 tablespoons of brown sugar
a dash of vanilla sugar
2 tablespoons of cream
1 tablespoon of water

Just mix this together. Grease an oven-safe pan with a little butter, cut the figs up crosswise so that they still hold together at the bottom and place them into the pan. Spread the nut-mixture over them with a spoon and bake for about 15 minutes. Serve warm.

I think, this is a simple and light, yet noble dessert. A scoop of vanilla ice cream would go nicely with that... I can't stop thinking about it anymore... I want a fig tree!!!

Marbled Cheesecake with Strawberry Jam

2010-07-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

Cheesecake is one of my favourites. I made this one for my family on Saturday.

Recipe:

75g butter
1 lemon, grated zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
200g petits beurres (graham crackers or digestive biscuits)
400g cream cheese (Philadelphia)
450g curd cheese
2 sachets of vanilla sugar (20 g)
100g sugar
50g flour, sifted
100g strawberry jam (I used my own)

Line a 26cm diameter springform pan with parchment paper.

Melt butter in a little pan and add lemon zest and juice.

Crumble petits beurres (I always do this by putting them into a plastic bag and beating them with my rolling pin.) Put the crumbs in a bowl and mix with the butter. Then press the mixture onto the base of the springform pan and put in the refrigerator fot about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Mix cream cheese, curd cheese, sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl. Add flour and mix well. Pour the batter into the springform pan and smooth the surface.

Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes. Let cool completely in the springform pan and then refridgerate for at least 4 hours before serving.

(Source: Annemarie Wildeisen's Kochen)

Triple Chocolate Brownies

2010-06-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

I made these brownies for a birthday party on Tuesday. They are really chocolate-chocolate-chocolaty... just the way they should be, because chocolate makes you happy (words to live by!).

Recipe:

140g dark chocolate
100g milk chocolate
150g white chocolate
125g butter
3 eggs
150g sugar
150g flour
70 cocoa powder
1.5dl cream

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Line a brownie tin (18x23cm) with parchment paper.

Melt dark chocolate and butter in a little pan.

Chop milk and white chocolate into pieces and set aside. Mix flour and cocoa powder in a bowl. In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar until foamy. Fold in flour mix, cream and molten chocolate and mix it well. Add the chopped chocolate and mix well.

Pour the batter into your prepared brownie tin and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Let cool and then cut into pieces.

Lavender and Peach Streusel Cake

2010-06-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I "invented" my own cake. I used a basic cake recipe and modified it. I love to try and combine flavours and I suddenly had the thought that peach and lavender might make a nice combination. The brown sugar streusel gave this cake a certain extra and what came out of the oven was a chunky yet moinst and fruity cake with a hint of lavender taste and a crunchy covering.

Recipe:

150g butter, in pieces, soft
200g sugar
a dash of salt
4 eggs
250g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 lavender twigs, plucked flowers
(I used fresh lavender from my "herb garden", otherwise I would use dried lavender.)
2 peaches, cut into slices

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Mix butter, sugar and salt until foamy. Add one egg after the other and add the lavender flowers. Beat for another 5 minutes or so. Fold in flour and baking powder and mix until the batter is smooth. Fill into a 24 cm diameter springform pan and place the peach slices onto the batter.

For the streusel mix 35g cold butter, 40g flour and 1.5 tablespoons brown sugar and crumble it with your hands. Disperse on top of the cake.

Bake for about 45 - 50 minutes.

Cravattine with Ricotta and Peas

2010-06-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

I realized yesterday that I hadn't cooked a decent pasta in a long time! So yesterday's lunch was a pasta dish with one of my favourite light summer sauces. I can cook this pasta spontaneously almost anytime because I always have the ingredients at home. See, this is one of the reasons I love ricotta, you can make a simple but most delicious pasta sauce with it in no time! And frozen peas also always belong in my freezer. I use them very often for spontaneous "creations".

Recipe (for 2):
I always cook this dish "freestyle" so I'm not absolutely sure about the exact measures but I think these should be about right. The original recipe comes from Donna Hay's "Instant Entertaining".

ca. 350g cravattine (or other pasta)
about 120g of frozen peas
about 125g ricotta
olive oil
lemon juice
salt
pepper

Cook the pasta in saltwater for about 10 minutes. While the pasta is boiling, cook the frozen peas in a little water also for about 10 minutes. When the pasta is al dente, drain it together with the peas and put it all back into the pan you cooked the pasta in. Add a few splashes of olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Add ricotta and mix it all well. Then, put onto two plates and grate some parmesan cheese onto it if you like. Decorate with herbs, such as basil. Donna Hay seasons this pasta with mint leaves which I haven't tried but I'm sure tastes also good.

Eggs and Smoked Salmon in Herb Sauce

2010-06-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

I made that for my brunch two weeks ago. I wanted to include some savory dishes also. Since I had a lot to do with everything, I was looking for something simple and I found this recipe on Annemarie Wildeisen's homepage. I think, this dish would also make a good starter at a dinner.

Recipe:
(from Annemarie Wildeisen, slightly adapted since I spontaneously decided to make it and had no chervil at hand)

3 eggs (cooked, halfed)
a handful of parsley
a handful of chive
180g sour milk (I used m-dessert from Migros) or sour cream
0.5 lemon (grated zest)
salt
pepper
6 tranches of smoked salmon

Chop the herbs (keep some on the side for decoration) and mix with the sour milk. Add lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside (you can prepare this and keep in the fridge).

Right before serving, spread sauce onto a big plate. Put salmon tranches onto the sauce (form some sort of nest). Put the halfed eggs into the salmon nests and if you want to, you can spread some more sauce onto that and then decorate with remaining herbs. Serve right away.

Nutella Bread Twirls

2010-06-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

Here comes an easy one! And a winner for sure, let me tell you.

You need:

about 120g Nutella
1 store-bought pizza-dough (ca. 25 x 38 cm)

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Roll out the pizza dough and spread Nutella lengthwise on one half. Cover with the other half of the dough and roll over it with the rolling pin once or twice.

Crosswise, cut into about 20 pieces and twist each of them. Bake them for about 12 minutes.

The recipe says, you can prepare the twirls a little in advance and keep them in the fridge until you want to bake them.

(recipe from: Betty Bossi Magazine 3/2010)

Semolina Pudding

2010-06-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I hosted my first brunch. I spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning in the kitchen trying out new recipes.

I got this recipe for semolina pudding from Nicky's famous blog Delicious Days.

Semolina pudding has been on my to do-list for a very long time and now that I tried out Nicky's recipe, I can't believe I waited so long. It's really simple and sooo yum! I love semolina pudding and now I can make it myself whenever I feel like it. It's just as Nicky says, it makes you smile.

You need:

1l milk (I used 2.5% fat)
200g heavy cream
a pinch of salt
100g sugar
1 vanilla pod, scratched out seeds
100g semolina

Pour milk, heavy cream, salt, sugar and vanilla seeds and pod into a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Then, take away from the plate and remove vanilla pod. Add semolina slowly. Keep stirring constantly and return to the plate. Bring to a boil again and let simmer until it gets a little thicker. This takes about 2 or 3 minutes. Fill into little glasses (I ended up with 7 filled little jam glasses, 200 ml capacity). The good thing is that you can prepare them a day or two in advance and keep them in the fridge (covered). But you can also serve them warm... yum!

For my brunch, I chopped a few strawberries, mixed them with a little icing sugar and put that onto the puddings.

Courgette, Mint and Buffalo Mozzarella Salad

2010-06-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

Ok... no baking this weekend. I stuck to that. My wrist is alright again. But hey, Mauro and I had to eat something, right?!

I have a great salad recipe for you! It is simple, yet special.

The idea comes from Julia's blog A Slice Of Cherry Pie.

I used

1 ball of buffalo mozzarella
2 little courgettes, washed, diced
a packet of baby leaf salad, washed
a few peppermint leaves, minced
fresh lemon juice
olive oil
a hint of balsamico
salt
pepper

serves 2

Roast courgette dices and peppermint leaves in a frying pan with a little olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and roast over medium heat until they start to soften but are still a little firm in the middle (about 10 minutes or so).

Put the salad leaves onto 2 plates, then tear the mozzarella ball into pieces and put onto the salad together with the warm courgettes. Drizzle with olive oil, balsamico and lemon juice. As you can see in the picture, we also added cooked eggs. This way, together with a piece of baguette, this salad makes a perfect and light summer dinner!

Nutella Banana Muffins

2010-06-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

It is June, right?! I'm sitting at my desk right now and I'm looking out of the window... this weather gets me down. And my right wrist is totally overstrained, so I guess I should try and rest a little for a few days... no extensive cooking and baking sessions...

But I can still visually feed you (and myself) with something nice, can't I?!

I know, it's muffins again, but who doesn't like muffins! These are very easy. I nicked the recipe here.

I have baked them several times already and they sure are a winner at any dinner or party! You just tell people that there's Nutella in them and they will be gone in no time ;-) Their texture is heavenly... and the combination of Nutella and banana... delicious...

Talking about those muffins already makes me happy :-) You should try them out, they won't forsake you!

Homemade Magenbrot

2010-05-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

My boyfriend's dad loves Magenbrot and I wanted him to have some for his birthday. Unfortunatly, I have no idea what Magenbrot is called in English. I would describe it as some sort of gingerbread with a chocolate-sugar-coating. I've been looking for a good recipe for a long time and last autumn, I found one.

Magenbrot:

500g wholemeal flour
250g brown sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 tablespoons chocolate powder
1 tablespoon spice mixture for Birnbrot (still looking for an appropriate English translation of that, a spice mixture for gingerbread would probably work too)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
a pinch of salt
3dl milk-water (half milk, half water)
100g liquid honey

for the glaze:
80g dark chocolate
10g butter
5-6 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon chocolate powder
250g icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.

For the dough, mix flour, sugar, baking and chocolate powder, spice mixture, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Warm up milk-water (don't bring to boil), stir in the honey and mix this with the dry ingredients until the dough is smooth. Pour the batter onto the tray and smooth it out until it is about 1.5 cm thick. Bake in the middle of the oven für 15 - 20 minutes. Let cool, then cut into pieces of 2x4 cm.

For the glaze, slowly melt chocolate with the butter. Then add chocolate powder and icing sugar. Do this carefully, otherwise your batter will lump! First, add only a little icing sugar and mix it well with the chocolate. Then add a little more icing sugar, whisk again, and so on. Add water, if the batter gets too thick. If your glaze has the right consistency, put about a forth of your Magenbrot pieces into a bowl and pour about a fourth of the glaze over it. Mix until the pieces are fully covered with the glaze. Then put on a wire rack and let dry. Do the same with the remaining Magenbrot pieces. If your glaze gets too thick, heat it up a little again and whisk well.

(from: Le Menu, 10/2009)

Of course, this does not taste exactly like Magenbrot you buy from the market but it sure was worth the try!

My Herb Garden...

2010-05-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Look what a wonderful job my mum did!

Berry Berry Brownie

2010-05-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't spent much time in the kitchen in the past few days. I've caught a cold or something and I've been too tired to stand in the kitchen. I thought I'd provide you with something from my "archive" in the meantime.

I made these about a month ago and they sure are a treat!

Chocolate Brownies with Raspberries

200g dark chocolate, chopped
250g butter
350g brown sugar
4 eggs
170g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
40g cocoa, sifted
250g raspberries, fresh or frozen

If you use frozen raspberries, you don't need to defrost them first. You can also use fresh or frozen blueberries.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Over low heat, melt chocolate and butter in a little pan. Let cool a little, then mix in a bowl with sugar and eggs until you have a smooth batter. Sift in flour, baking powder and cocoa and mix well.

Pour the batter into a square tin (ca. 22x22cm, I used my brownie tin which is about 18x23cm) lined with baking parchment. Bake for about 35 minutes.

Serve warm or cold with crème double or vanilla ice cream.

(from: Donna Hay - Instant Entertaining)

I think next time, I will try to spread the raspberries more evenly (or maybe use a little less berries) because the brownies turned out to be like chocolate mousse in the middle, which is actually heavenly but I wanted to cut them into pieces and bring them to a party a few hours after baking them and I couldn't use the pieces in the middle. I think it's a good idea to cool the brownies in the fridge over night, they will get firmer - but they're still moist and chewy... yum... :-)

Muffin Parade

2010-05-19T20:00:00.000-07:00

These muffins were a "goodbye gift" for a very good friend of mine who threw a farewell party this weekend. She will be travelling through the north of Europe for the next five months and I wanted to make sure she misses me at least a little ;-)

I couldn't decide whether to bake chocolate or vanilla muffins, so I made both sorts ;-)

Chocolate Chip Muffins:

I took the recipe from the one and only Nigella Lawson. She sure knows who to bake the decadent stuff ;-)

Find the recipe here!

Vanilla Muffins:

1 lemon, zest and juice
180g crème fraiche
100g sugar
2 sachets of vanilla sugar
2 eggs
1 vanilla bean
80g butter, soft
1 pinch of salt
250g flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder

(makes 12 muffins)

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare a muffin tray and fill it with paper cases.

Mix lemon zest and juice, creme fraiche, sugar, vanilla sugar and the eggs.

Scratch the seeds out of the vanilla bean with a knife. Add to the mixture. Also add the butter and mix well. Then, add salt, flour and baking powder and mix until you have a smooth batter.

Fill the batter into the muffin cases. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. First, let them cool in the muffin tray for about 10 minutes or so. Then, let cool on a wire rack.

(Source: Annemarie Wildeisen's Kochen)

Let's jam!

2010-05-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Homemade jam is something special! And the great thing is, it is not that difficult at all! The time-consuming part about it is the preparation of the huge amount of fruit you need, but the rest is done in a jiffy. Well... cleaning up the sticky kitchen afterwards is the other thing (I always make a huge mess in my kitchen when I cook marmelade). But still, it's totally worth it!

Strawberry Jam:

500g strawberries, chopped into pieces
250g preserving sugar

Put the berries into a pan, add half of the sugar and bring to boil. Let boil for about 2 minutes, then add the rest of the sugar. Let boil for another 2 minutes.

Test whether the jam has reached the desired consistency by putting a little drop of it onto a plate. If it's not flowing anymore it's fine. Otherwise cook a little longer.

Fill the boiling jam into preheated glasses and seal them. Then turn them upside down for about a minute (kills the fungus spores) and then turn around again and let cool.

You can also add herbs or spices to the jam shortly before you fill it into the jars. Peppermint or vanilla for instance go well with the strawberries.

Spaghetti with Ricotta, Spinach and Parmesan

2010-05-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

There are not many dishes that I love more than dessert :-) but with pasta it's different... Pasta is always a good choice: if you have guests, if you feel bad and need something to cheer you up, if you've had an exhausting day, if you're ill, or - like today - just as a simple lunch for two.

I found this recipe on Jamie Oliver's homepage. Go get it here!

I've changed some things however: I used - as you might have guessed - ricotta instead of mascarpone :-) and I used cream with 25% fat. It turned out quite nourishing still.

I suggest you try this one out! Trust me, it makes you happy! It's really easy and somewhat tasty! I'm going to cook this again very soon!

Homemade Peppermint Tea

2010-05-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

I like my little "herb garden" on my balcony. At the moment, the two flower boxes with my herbs - or rather what's left of them after a cold winter - are at my mum's for a "makeover" :-) I can transport my whole "garden" in my car, cool or what?! ;-)

I may have a sweet tooth but I definitely don't have a green thumb so my mum (garden expert and plant lover) is going to take care of my herbs for a bit and she's going to plant some new ones so I can spice up my food with them.

I especially like peppermint which I also use to make tea. I think homemade tea is so much tastier than the one you buy at the general store.

Here's how you do it:

Boil some water and put in the washed peppermint leaves (you can throw in the whole sprigs). Take away from the hot plate and let steep for a few minutes. You can sweeten it with sugar or honey if you like or put in lemonjuice. On hot summer days, I cool it down in order to drink it as ice tea. Very refreshing!

A Cake for Mother's Day...

2010-05-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went to get some fresh rhubarb from my mum's garden. Originally, I planned to bake a crumble cake but - as usual :-) - I changed my mind in the very last minute...

I found this recipe... for a rhubarb bundt cake filled with vanilla pudding... I definitely had to try this one out and Mother's Day sure is an occasion to bake something a little more advanced.

I have to be honest with you though, I almost destroyed the thing when trying to get it out of the baking tin too early... The pudding filling in the middle of the cake makes it a bit tricky. But in the end, it turned out just fine. It didn't look all that nice, but the cake was just how I really like it: moist and fruity. And the pudding in the middle is so yum! My mum loved it ;-)