Clafoutis

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?

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.

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.

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.

Millionaire's Shortbread muffin-style

I must admit this is my secord try in making Millionaires Shortbread. My first attempt was okay in flavour but looked like something more or less whipped together with a mixer:-) One of my problems was how to make nice pieces of the cake once finished. This time I simply took the easy way out by making portion-sized muffins to begin with. And I guess they turned out both pretty and delightful. I must say, I don't think, I've ever made a similar dessert with that amount of butter and sugar combined. But even though I told everybody how absolutely unhealthy they are, no one turned them down.

Four steps to make Millionaries shortbread - 12/24 pieces (cut them into halves when you serve them):

Step 1 Sweetened condensed milk

1 l. milk (3,5 % fat)
300 g. muscovado sugar
1 vanilla pod (separate pod and seeds and put both in the milk)

Put milk, sugar and vanilla in a pot and place it on medium heat on the stove. Simmer - not boil - until you have about 6 dl. of liquid. It turns light golden in colour. Takes about two hours.

Step 2 Shortbread (Nigella Lawson)

225 g. flour
75 g. sugar
175 g. unsalted butter

Rub flour, sugar and butter together real fast and refrigerated for about 30 minutes. If you make them like I have, put a ball of dough in each muffin case. Press down to fit the case. Prick the dough with a fork. Place the muffin tray in the oven (155 C) for about 25 minutes.

Step 3 Caramel

4 dl. of your sweetened condensed milk, now chilled
200 g. butter, melted
A pinch of salt
3 tbsp. dark syrup

Mix and stir occasionally while the caramel simmers, don't leave the stove! After about 15 minutes you should have a rich, thick golden caramel.

Step 4 Finish it!

Pour caramel into each muffin case and leave to set. I waited about an hour. Melt 150 g. of dark chocolate and 50 g. of white chocolate and mix and mingle to make some fancy designs on top of your caramel.

That's it.