Clafoutis

Bakewell Tarts - the short version...

Let's get to it:

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Once they were pruned a bit they looked quite presentable - and eatable for sure - not the last time I'm going to make these babies.

Cheesecake deconstructed...

This month the challenge from The Daring Bakers was to make a cheesecake and get creative about the presentation of it. Now here in Denmark cheesecake is 124known, of course, but it's not a big thing, where we have contests about the best recipe or where the magazines are filled with different styles of cheesecake fillings and such.

Personally I looove cheesecake and this recipe was simple and yet gave a really great outcome (applause). I tried to deconstruct the cheesecake. Turned it upside down and played with the idea of crust being a heavy dough bit of grahamcrackers and butter. I played it lowkey ith the usual top - my buttom - and made my own crust to put on top. I added a bit of lemon juice to the cheesecake filling but otherwise left it minimalistic.

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I made the filling according to the recipe given by Jenny. The crust cookies were made using this recipe:

70 g. sugar
70 g. brown sugar
100 g. butter, softened
70 g. flour
100 g. graham flour
50 g. rolled oats
1 egg
½ ts. baking powder
1 ts. vanilla extract
1/4 ts. salt
A handful of almonds, finely chopped

Turn on oven to 175 C.

Mix sugars and butter, then add the egg and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth. Add flours, oats, salt, almonds and baking powder. When well integrated make a bigg ball of the dough and leave it in your fridge for a couple of hours covered with plastic wrap. Roll out half the dough at a time and use small cookie cutters (choose your own favorites or use a small glass even) and cut cookies to put on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in oven for about 10 - 15 minutes depending on size.

This recipe yields about 100 small cookies but I assure you that no matter the size you choose, they'll be a great snack to go in your lunch box or with a good cup of coffee after a day's work.

This leaves us only to thinly slice a few strawberries and decorate the plate. Place the cheesecake on top and finish off with the crust cookies.

Orange sorbet with Flo Braker's Pain d'amande Cookies

To make the sorbet you’ll need

6 dl. fresh squished orange juice (I used 8 oranges, but it depends on the size of the fruit)
1 dl. lemon juice (I used two small lemons)
(orange and lemon zest, make sure you buy organic fruits)
200 g. sugar
250 ml. water
1 egg white
40 g. confectioner’s sugar

Heat sugar and water on medium high heat just to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat. Add zest and leave to cool. Stir in orange and lemon juice. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and churn for about 40 minutes.

In the meantime using your electric mixer make a small amount of meringue by mixing the egg white and confectioner’s sugar. Fold the meringue into the half frozen sorbet and transfer the sorbet into containers and put them in your freezer for at least 4 hours.

It shouldn’t be necessary but to make sure you get a smooth, fine-textured sorbet, you might remove the containers from the freezer to stir with a fork once or twice during freezing.

With the sorbet I served Flo Braker's Pain d'amande Cookies.

Bagels

As you can see from the picture below I might have been a little too generous with the coating - but boy, did these bagels taste gooood. They deserve an encore for sure.

Here's what I used:

500 g. flour
275 ml. tapid water
12½ g. fresh yeast
1 tbs. honey
10 g. salt
25 g. butter, softened

Caramel water:

300 g. sugar
3 l. water

Mix water, honey and salt and yeast until well integrated. Add butter and flour. Knead for 5 to10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Leave to proof – preferably in the fridge until the next day.

Divide the dough into 7 – 8 pieces and make a hole using both thumbs in each ball forming an O. Leave to proof another 20 minutes.

Prepare a plate of scatered sesame seeds.

Preheat oven at 200 celsius.

Melt sugar in a pot and when caramelized add water – be careful of the hot caramel. Now looking like simmering brown water! you add a bagel at a time; poach each side for about 1 minute.



Leave to dry a little on a baking sheet with parchment paper then depending on how much coating you want on each bagel you either sprinkle a small amount of seeds on top of the bagels or gently press each bagel onto the plate of seeds.

Put all 7 – 8 bagels back on the baking sheet with parchment paper and bake in oven for about 15 minutes.

...and in the morning I'm makin'...crumpets...

Do you remember when Donkey moves in with Shrek and he places himself in Shrek's favorite chair with the words "...and in the morning I'm making waffles" Much to Shrek's dismay? Well I haven't made waffles - this time anyway (and I haven't moved in with someone green and crumpy) What I did do was make crumpets, an English bread snack, sometimes eaten in the morning with a bit of butter or jam. For an English teacher this is almost like being there and if your oven's not working - well, this is what you could do.


English (as opposed to Scottish) crumpets (Idea's from Delia): 14 crumpets

250 g. flour
1½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
60 ml. water
300 ml. milk
12 g. freah yeast

Heat the milk and water until handwarm, pour in a bowl and add yeast, sugar. Leave to ferment for 15 - 20 minutes. Sift into the bowl flour and salt and beat well to make a smooth batter.

Grease a pan and some iron rings (egg rings) with butter. Place rings in the pan and turn on the heat to medium. Spoon 1 large tbs. batter in each ring and leave to cook for 6 - 7 minutes. Remove the rings - they're hot! and turn the crumpets over to cook for another 5 minutes.

Once done remove the crumpets; regrease and reheat the rings to cook the next batch.

Served warm with butter and jam. You can reheat them later by toasting them lightly on both sides before serving.

Crepe Cake - Happy Easter 2009

This year for Easter I wanted to have a go at The Crepe Cake. For some it must seem SOOO yesterday (Snap) but since I'm a selfproclaimed newbie at cooking and baking - there are no NO-NOs at my house. Here's the recipe. It takes some time to make this cake. You start out one day making a batch of crepe dough and the egg mixture for the custard and then wait till the next day to bake your crepes and assemble the cake - and then you wait another 2 - 3 hours before serving. Yes, it is a good kitchen exercise (and as such worth the 12 eggs...)




Need I add that the cake was a huge success?

Earth Hour

Last night was Earth Hour here in Denmark. All over the country there were concerts and get-togetherings to raise the awereness of Global Warming. We turned off the lights (and as much electrical equipment in the house possible; including the computer:-) and lit a candle - and well, a quite moment like that - it makes you think doesn't it - which is exactly the point. VOTE EARTH!

Operation Easter Joy

Today I recieved my Operation Easter Joy package. You may recall my previous mentioning of this event and now that someone else upheld the deal - I should get a move on myself. I have an idea of what to send to my mystery Easterbuddy but haven't quite decided yet. Until then I'll enjoy my new wonderful tea, sweets and Easter decorations. WOW how great is this:-)

Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna - Daring Bakers March 2009 Challenge

I made it! Erhhmm, no, dear, not quite. So I wrote in my calender; posting date the 29th and then last night I saw that my fellow Daring Bakers had their post up on the 27th. And just when you think you're ready and up to speed - WAM! But I'm a posten' anyway:-)

I’ve made homemade ravioli before but never lasagne - and the whole experience has been a real pleasure. This isn’t difficult. Sure it takes time, there are stages and decisions to make along the way but all in all even though I’m a first-time lasagne maker it won’t be the last.

Here's the deal:

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.



I made a vegetarian version of lasagne and used only half of everything (of the original recipe). I threw the rest of the lasagne noodles in the freezer for another time. I ended up with 9 layers of pasta sheets, which is okay, I think - I read somewhere that there should be al least 6 layers for it to be a real lasagne.

Spinach pasta - Pasta Verde - 1 pound - what I used

2 large eggs (65g)
190 g. frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
350 g. all purpose unbleached (plain) flour

I left it in the fridge for two days, it was fine and easier than you'd think to roll the sheets thin with a rolling pin - no, I don't have a pastamaker-thingy. And it worked out fine.

Since it’s still wintery here in Denmark and definitely not tomato season I bought plum tomatoes (more flavour) and made a tomato sauce with a lot of orange juice. This is perfect, if you haven’t reached tomato season yet. This is a chunky version - if you wanted you could pass it through a sieve.

Tomato sauce 500 g.

500 g. fresh plum tomatoes, skinned, seeds removed and diced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
Juice from two oranges
A big handful of fresh basil, chopped
A little sugar, a little salt, a little pepper

Let it simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Béchamel - (I didn’t use all of it)

40 g. unsalted butter
40 g. all purpose unbleached (plain) flour
400 ml. milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Using a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat. Sift over the flour, whisk until smooth, and then stir (without stopping) for about 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk a little at a time and keep the mixture smooth. Bring to a slow simmer, and stir 3 to 4 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper, and a hint of nutmeg.

Bring the salted water to a boil. Drop about four pieces of pasta in the water at a time. Cook about 1-2 minutes. The pasta will continue cooking during baking, so make sure it is only barely tender. Lift the lasagne from the water with a skimmer, drain, and then slip into the bowl of cold water with a little olive oil (so it doesn't stick) to stop cooking. When cool, lift out and dry on a towel or paper towel. Repeat until all the pasta is cooked.

Spread a thin layer of béchamel over the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange a layer of sheets of pasta over the béchamel. Spread a thin layer of béchamel (about 2 tablespoonful) over the pasta, and then an equally thin layer of the tomato sauce. Sprinkle with about 1&1/2 tablespoons of the béchamel. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with béchamel sauce and topping with a generous dusting of cheese.

Cover the baking dish lightly with foil, taking care not to let it touch the top of the lasagne. Bake 40 minutes, or until almost heated through. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, or until hot in the center. Take care not to brown the cheese topping. It should be melted, creamy looking and barely tinged with a little gold. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let the lasagne rest for about 10 minutes. Then serve. This is not a very solid lasagne, but a moist one that slips a bit when it is cut and served.

Moroccan fennel soup

50 g. onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbs olive oil
1 red pepper, diced
1 ts harissa, chill sauce
1 ts cinnamon
1 ts cumin
1 ts. paprika
250 g. fennel, diced
200 g. potatoes, diced
200 g. tomatoes, diced
100 g. garbanzo beans, cooked
Juice form ½ a lemon
2 tbs mint, chopped
1 l. vegetable broth (made from water, celery, carrots, leeks, salt and pepper)

Sautee the garlic and onion, add red pepper and spices. Pour in vegetable broth and add fennel, potatoes and tomatoes. Let soup simmer for about 30 minutes. Now add the garbanzo beans and lemon juice, salt and pepper to your taste. Sprinkle soup with chopped mint before serving.

Torta Pasqualina

Torta Pasqualina means "Easter cake" in Italian. It's a traditional Easter dish from Liguria in the north-western part of Italy. I cheated a little since I used from-a-package puff pastry and the original recipe calls for homemade dough layered 33 times! Phyllo dough could be another easy alternative.




Ingredients:

450 g. spinach, if fresh; steam and chop 400 g. ricotta cheese, homemadeJ
100 g. onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbs. olive oil
200 g. parmigiano, grated
5 eggs (two the the mixture and three for the small nests in the filling)
Nutmeg, salt and pepper

Steam and chop the spinach. Sautee garlic and onion in a little oil, add spinach, salt, ricotta, parmigiano, a pinch of pepper and nutmeg and two eggs, and mix well.Since I used a false-bottomed cake pan I rolled out the puff pastry so it covered the bottom and sides of the pan. I made a lid to put on top once the filling would be in place.

Now pour the filling on the dough. Make three nests in the filling, and break an egg in each of them. Try not to break the yolk, like I did:-) Put the puff pastry lid on top and try to assemble sides and lid so that it looks tolerable.

Preheat the oven at 200 C.

Place the pan on a baking sheet and place the sheet at the lower half of the oven. Bake for about 50 minutes.

Served cooled.

How to make your own ricotta cheese

This yields about 400 g. of ricotta

2½ l. whole milk
700 ml. buttermilk
Juice from ½ a lemon
Cheesecloth
Colander


Pour whole milk and buttermilk in a large saucepan (stainless steel) and turn your stove to high heat. Stir until the milk is warm and add lemon juice. You’ll soon see lumps of curd form on the surface. When you start to see more and more whey (watery) remove the saucepan from the stove and start to transfer the curds to the cheesecloth lined colander. Leave them to drain. And that’s how you make ricotta.

Hazelnut macaroons

Yields about 80 macaroons - depending on size

375 g. hazelnut flakes or finely chopped hazelnuts
500 g. confectioners sugar
1 ts cinnamon ( 6 g.)
150 g. egg whites (about 5)

Mix all ingredients together and put it in the fridge for 30-40 minutes. Preheat the oven at 180 C.

Use two teaspoons to place scoops of the mixture on a baking sheet with parcment paper. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes in the middle of the oven.

Leave to cool.

Make a butter cream using butter, confectioners sugar and melted chocolate.

When the macaroons have cooled use your butter cream to sandwich the macaroons.

Quinoa salad

Perfect to bring with you in a lunchbox, this quinoa salad with carrots, apples, mint and scallions contains a lot of vitamins, it’s got the light texture and mild nutty taste of the quinoa, the crunchiness of the carrots and apple and the freshness of the mint. Yum-yum.

Quinoa salad with carrots and mint: Serves 6 - 8.

250 g. quinoa (rinsed, use your hands to “wash” the grains, cooked with the double amount of water for 15-20 min)
80 g carrots, grated
80 g. scallions, chopped
1 apple, diced
A handful of fresh mint, chopped
Half a lemon, juice only
A dash of olive oil
Salt, pepper

Brioche à tête

You’ll need 18 small fluted tins for this - lucky you, if you have original brioche tins. As an alternative just put the brioche dough balls (and top) on a piece of baking sheet - it should work too. When cooled a little; you cut a brioche in half and butter it - what a way to start a (sun)day. You could also put the brioche dough in bread forms (again make balls, this time bigger though) - this gives you a great bread to make slices from.

You would probably be making the dough in the evening and leave it to proof in the fridge overnight or get up real early and make brioches for brunch. Personally I’d opt for the first suggestion.

If you have the possibility of buying eco eggs, do so - standard brioche should have a shade of yellow from the egg yolks.

Brioche à tête:

15 g. fresh yeast
1 dl. milk, heated
125 g. flour

Dissolve yeast in heated milk. Stir in flour and mix. Dough will be quite sticky and wet. Cover with a cloth or even better plastic wrap, and leave it to ferment at room temperature for one hour.

175 g. butter, leave a little to butter the forms
375 g. flour
1 ts salt
1 tbs sugar
4 eggs (leave a little for brushing before placed in the oven)

Rub the butter into the flour. Mix in salt, sugar, eggs and the fermented dough and knead until the dough is smooth. Butter should be fully incorporated. Leave to rise for 2 hours - or more.

Preheat oven to 225 C.

Butter your brioche tins and divide the dough into 18 - 20 pieces (reserve the amount of 4 pieces for tops). Shape each piece into a ball and place one ball in each buttered tin. Make a dimple in each ball and use reserved dough to form small spherical pieces of dough to place in the dimples.

Leave the brioche to rise for about 45 minutes. Brush each brioche with beaten egg and place your baking sheet with the brioche tins in the lower half of your oven for 20 minutes.

Mulligatawny - Vegetarian-style

Perfect antidote for running noses and sneak-up-on-ya flu. The peeling and dicing of the vegetables takes a bit of time - as does the simmering of the soup before it’s good and ready - but it’s all worth it. This is sure to be a big hit during the colder months of the year.

Since the challenge of "No Croutons required" for March is an Indian or Indian-style vegetarian soup or salad, I simply have to present my Mulligatawny soup. The trick is long hours of the soup simmering away on the stove - this is what makes the soup so absolutely delicious.

My Mulligatawny

3 potatoes, peeled and diced
4 small carrots, peeled and diced
2 big parsnip, peeled and diced
1 big onion, peeled and diced
2 leeks, outer layers removed, thinly sliced
2 apples, peeled and diced
150 g. yellow corn
300 g. eggplant, diced
1 red pepper, roasted, skin removed and diced
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of coconut milk
1 handful of fresh parsley, chopped
1 handful of pistachio nuts, chopped
1 lemon, juice only (use some of the peel as garniture)
1 lime, juice (use some of the peel as garniture)
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp nutmeg
1½ tbsp curry (depending on how strong your chosen curry is or how strong you want the soup, you can add more or less)
2 bay leaves
1,5 l. water
2 tbsp olive oil
15 g. butter

Prepare all the vegetables. Start by roasting the curry in the oil and butter. Then add the different vegetables and herbs (leave out the lemon, lime, parsley and nuts). Make sure that the vegetabels do not take colour. Then add the water and bring to a boil before you leave it to simmer for 3 - 4 hours. Stir every now and then. This thickens the soup and intensifies the taste. Add juice (lemon/lime), pistachio nuts, parsley and coconut milk, let it blend in with the rest of the soup and simmer for another 10 minutes. Serve with a bit of nut-parsley topping.

Operation Easter-Joy

I've put on my thinking cap. Uhhh, I do hope something good comes out of it:-). The reason is that I joined this really fun project here in Denmark titled Operation Easter-Joy(Operation Påskeglad). By joining you sign up to send a parcel around Easter to someone else who signed up (you're matched by the great operation-manager Pernille). Then all you have to do is wait for you own parcel to arive filled with exciting secret easter-joy. There's a $10 purchase-limit including postage, so participating definitely won't rock the financial boat. But what to make/buy? Hmm, good thing Easter's still days away. I'll keep you posted.

Baklava

This rich mediterranean pastry is great to serve with a good cup of tea or coffee. Sweet, sticky and crunchy - you really should try it.

Syrup:
225 g. sugar
300 ml. water
3 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. orange blossom water
140 g. almonds, blanched, coarsely chopped
160 g. walnuts, roasted, coarsely chopped
55 g. brown sugar
1 tsp. grounded cinnamon
1 package (about 20 sheets) phyllo pastry
80 g. butter, melted

Start with the syrup. Heat the sugar, water and lemon juice in a pot on low heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Boil for about 5 minutes until it thickens. Add orange blossom water and honey and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Cool ( the cooler the better).

Set your oven to 180 C.

Put the almonds and walnut in a bowl with the brown sugar and cinnamon and mix it well.

Butter a false-bottomed cake pan (or use any form you have). Take one sheet of phyllo at a time, brush the melted butter very thinly over the top of the pastry. Place 10 layers until you spread half the walnut/almond filling evenly over the top layer.Add four more sheets of phyllo, brushing each layer with melted butter before you use the remainder of the filling. Now place the rest of your phyllo sheets on top, well-buttered, and finish off by carefully cutting small diamond shapes with a sharp knife.

Place in the oven for about 35 - 40 minutes. When it’s finished and still very hot pour the cooled syrup over the baklava - it will make a sizzling sound. Leave to cool before you remove the sides of the cake pan.

Potato wedges with red aioli

Just ordinary wedges, if you know you're eating late, as a snack or an appetizer. These I made quite plain; with oil, rosemary and salt and pepper. I whisked together an aioli to go with the potatoes.

1-2 potatoes per serving, unpeeled, cut into wedges
1 tsp fresh rosemary (but you can add as much or as little as you like)
1 tsp. oil
salt and pepper

Cook the potato wedges semi-soft before you add rosemary, salt, pepper and oil. Turn your oven to 225 C and place your wedges on a baking sheet with parchment paper. After 30 - 35 minutes your wedges should be golden and delicious - ready to serve with...

Aioli (4 servings)

2 egg yolks
2 dl. oil (don't use too much (if any) olive oil; it's too strong in flavour)
2 cloves of garlic
a little mustard
a little salt
a little white wine vinegar
a little cayenne pepper

Mash the cloves of garlic with salt, add mustard, yolks and vinegar and use your mixer to blend it nicely. Slowly begin to drizzle the oil into the yolk-mixture. Make sure to whisk whisk whisk. As the emulsion starts to work, you can add more and more oil until you get the density you like. Then add pepper and cayenne to your taste and perhaps a little more vinegar.

A Daring Bakers Challenge - Flourless Valentino Cake with Raspberry Ice Cream

Another great challenge from the Daring Bakers Community, Thanks for the oppotunity! Who would have known a flourless chocolate cake could taste so wonderful? To go with the chocolate challenge, I added raspberries to David Lebovitz gorgeous Vanilla Ice Cream (I made a few other alternations as well) - (I hope he'll forgive me) making this a chocolate & raspberries experience.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The Chocolate Valentino recipe - by Chef Wan

454 grams of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped

146 grams of unsalted butter (use a few spoonsfuls to butter the form)

5 large eggs separated

Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.

While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.

Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).

With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.

Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C. Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.

Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Vanilla Raspberry Ice Cream - adapted from David Lebovitz

250 ml whole milk
A pinch of salt
150 g. sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

500ml heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
600 g. raspberries (half was strained, half was mashed - I added a couple of tbsp of sugar to the raspberries)

Heat milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk and add the pod to the milk. Let it cool.

Pour the cream into a bowl (David Lebivitz uses a larger bowl filled with ice and water to put the bowl with the cream into - I skipped that part)

In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks. Rewarm the milk then gradually pour some of the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens then strain the custard into the heavy cream. Stir until cool, and add the mashed and strained raspberries.

Use an ice cream maker to freeze or put the mixture in the freezer and stir occasionally to make the ice cream nice and creamy.

This makes about a liter of superb Vanilla Raspberry Ice Cream.

American Ladies' Cake

Madame Mangor was the author of "Cookbook for smaller households" from 1837. After her husband died she wrote several cookbooks to maintain certain standards for her and her three children. In Danish cuisine she is considered to be one of the founders of our food culture.

I was looking to make a traditional cake with rose water and in the abovementioned cookbook I found American Ladies' Cake - I have no idea why it's American...

Recipe:

65 g. melted cleared unsalted butter
3 tbsp. rosewater
225 g. sugar
6 egg whites, whipped
150 g. flour, sifted

100 g. confectioners' sugar
3 tsp. rose water
Red food colour

Turn on your oven at 175 C, bake for 1 hour

Melt and clear the butter. Stir in the rose water and sugar. Fold in the foamy egg whites. Add the sifted flour and be careful not to stir to much in the mixture.

Pour into a baking form and place the form on a baking sheet just below the middle of the oven.



When cooled drizzle the icing on the cake.

It filled the kitchen with a lovely aroma and was very delicate on the coffee table (smelled like summer and gardens filled with English roses:-) I don't think I will be making this cake again any time soon but it is the sort of cake where a little goes a long way and therefore serves quite a few people.

Macaroni-and-cheese

This weekend I decided to try out Martha's macaroni-and-cheese. I only made half a batch and today monday there's still left-overs. It's really easy to make, great for comfort food. When I was younger you could buy a package with ready-to-make mac and cheese - and while stirring the pot you would feel all-american:-) With this recipe there's no reason why you shouldn't make your own macaroni-and-cheese.

I used more cayenne pepper than the original recipe to give it a little more bite and I served a mixed salad with arucula to match the fullness of the bechamel sauce.

Sticks n Ice creme

I was ever so excited about my first challenge as a Daring Baker and was thrilled about the prospect of making tuiles. I wanted to make something that would stress the crispy sweetness of the tuiles while giving them something to lean against and as you can see below I ended up doing wriggly sticks to go with ice creme. An ordinary vanilla ice crème in which I added pear pure, enough to taste- too little to make the ice creme icy in texture.

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

The recipe I chose:

Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

65 grams softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams sifted all purpose flour

Oven: 180C

Use a hand whisk or a mixer and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Put some of the batter in an icing bag and make wriggly sticks on a baking sheet with parchment paper. The batter spreads easily so be sure not to make your sticks too thick.

Be sure to watch your oven while baking the stick tuiles, so they get just the right amount of time.

Quick rye bread with caraway fruits

Day 1 sourdough starter

2 dl. water
25 g. fresh yeast
4 dl. rye flour

Heat the water to 37 C. Dissolve the yeast in the water and add rye. Leave it at room temperature until the next day (3-4 days are even better, but this is the quick version, remember).

Day 2 Making the bread

5 dl. water
25 g. fresh yeast
Sourdough
1 tbsp salt
1½ tbsp caraway fruits
3 dl. rye flour
1 dl. wheat bran
7 dl. wheat flour

Put in your mixer in the abovementioned order. Pour the dough unto your kitchen table to kneed. Make 3 round loaves and leave to rise until double. Brush with coffee or just plain water.

Preheat oven to 200 C and place your baking sheet at the lower part of the oven for about 50 minutes.

Borscht

Borscht

2 l. vegetable broth (strong)
1 can of diced tomatoes
350 g. cabbage, shredded
200 g. carrots, grated
200 g. potatoes, grated
200 g. onions, finely chopped
300 g. parsnip, chopped
150 g. red bell peppers, finely chopped
350 g. beets, grated (use plastic gloves to avoid red fingers)
Oil, sugar, white wine vinegar, salt, pepper
Creme fraiche, parsley

While heating the vegetable broth in a large pot, prepare the rest of the ingredients. Heat 1 tbsp oil and add onion, parsnip, carrot, potato, red bell pepper and beet - in that order. Stir until the vegetables soften - not colour. Pour in your can of diced tomatoes and stir. Pour a little water in a pot and steam the cabbage until it wilts - will only take a minute. Now add all the vegetables to the broth and make sure it doesn’t boil - only simmer. Add sugar and vinegar to your liking and season with salt and pepper. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes until flavours are intertwined.

When served pour a tbsp of crème fraiche on top and add a little parsley. I guess dill is the more traditional herb to use, but I only had parsley.

Serve with a slice of homebaked rye bread with caraway fruits.