Brownies

After being absent for half a year, which I apologise for, now the dark time of the year comes and cooking and baking is coming back to me. Let me start with fabulous brownies with a decadent chocolate frosting on top.

So here are the ingredients:

• 175 g of brown sugar
• 100 g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 75 g of plain flour
• 50 g of cocoa powder
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 100 g of chocolate chips (I use a mixture of dark and white)
• for the frosting you'll need 120 g of milk or dark chocolate and 100 g of full-fat cream cheese

And how to prepare them:

• line a brownie tin with grease-proof paper
• cream the butter with the brown sugar and stir in one egg after the other
• sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix
• mix in the chocolate chips with a spatula and spread the mixture evenly in the baking tin
• use your hands (slightly wet) to push the sticky dough into the corners
• bake for 30 mins at 175 degC
• when finished let cool completely
• for the frosting melt the chocolate and let cool to luke warm before mixing with the cream cheese
• spread the mixture evenly over the cake and cut into 16 squares
• refrigerate for at least 1 h before serving

Enjoy! 

Flourless Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies

Yes, you read correctly, chocolate cookies again :-) You can't have enough of chocolate cookie recipes in my opinion! These fabulous little chocolate bombs are flour- and butterless, but they involve lots of sugar and chocolate.

I found the recipe over at Divine Baking. I can assure you, that you don't need a Kitchen Aid for this recipe, but I'd still like to have one... :-)



Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate, cut into rough chunks
• 3 large eggwhites at room temperature
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 3/4 cup of dark cocoa powder (not the sweetened one here!)
• 1 tbs corn starch
• pinch of salt

How to make it:

• mix 3/4 of a cup icing sugar with the cocoa and the corn starch, set aside
• melt 1 cup of the dark chocolate in a bowl and let cool to hand warm afterwards
• beat the egg whites with the salt until soft peaks appear, then, spoon by spoon add 1 cup of icing sugar until you have a proper meringue texture
• now slowly beat in the dry ingredients
• once the dark chocolate is cooled, fold it carefully under the egg mixture, followed by the rest of the chopped chocolate
• this is where I had problems following the original recipe: it says, that the dough stiffens upon addition of the chocolate
• this didn't happen in my case, however, I put the bowl into the fridge for 10 mins and voila, here we are, a proper dough you can roll into balls
• that is exactly what you do, take a tbs of dough and roll it into a ball shape
• now roll it in the remaining icing sugar and cover it thickly 
• place on a baking tray lined with grease-proof paper and bake until the surface is cracked (12-15 mins) at 175 °C
• now make sure the cookies cool completely before transfering them, they will remain soft and are easy to break
• Mine didn't last very long (I took them to work), so I have no idea, how long you can store them.. But that might not be an issue for you as well!

Enjoy :-)

Pear and Raspberry Crumble

Hello and a happy sunday!

I have bought some pears last week and they seemed to have ripened overnight. So what to do??? One of my favorite combinations is pears and raspberries, and since I always have some of those sitting in the freezer, I thought a crumble it is. It is also a good opportunity to use up some white chocolate I have had in my storing cupboard since I made these white chocolate cookies.
I can't give exact measurements on this crumble, as I kind of make it just with rough judging.

I still try my best and tell you what I used:

For the crumble mixture:

• 2 tbsp of ground almonds
• 2 tbsp of oats (I used my porridge oats)
• 2 heaped tbsp of flour
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• roughly 100 g cold cubed butter
• pinch of salt

For the fruits:

• 3 ripe but not over pears
• a large handful of frozen raspberries
• 20 g grated white chocolate
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• optional: 1 tbsp caster sugar

And how to make it:

• first heat the oven to 175 °C (no fan)
• then make the crumble mixture: mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl together
• then, with you hands, rub the diced cold butter in there until you get a crumbly texture
• if too dry, add more butter, if too wet, add more flour
• then onto the fruit: peel and core the pears and cut into small pieces
• in a bowl mix with the lemon juice and the flour
• if your pears are rather sour, you can add some sugar here, I prefer however not to do that
• fill your pear mixture into the bottom of an oven proof dish
• top with a layer of frozen raspberries, then sprinkle with white chocolate (any chocolate will do)
• now evenly distribute your crumble mix, make sure to cover the fruit to the rim of the dish
• put in the oven and bake for 45 mins or until the top is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling
• and now serve up straight from the oven
• add some cream, ice cream, or vanilla sauce

I have mine pure as it is and I have to hold back not to finish the whole dish at once :-)

Have a lovely week everybody!

White chocolate chip cookies

Hello there!

Weekend is approaching and I was again in need of chocolate (Don't ask me why...). Cookies are a yummy treat and I usually don't make them as they will just dissappear into thin air shortly after backing...

These ones are definitely among my favorites. For the cups I use a 200 mL coffee mug.



Ingredients:

• 125 g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
• 1 large egg or two small ones
• 1/3 cup unsweatened cocoa
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• as much roughly chopped white chocolate as you like, I use 1 bar of 150 g

And how it works:

• heat the oven to 175 °C (no fan)
• beat the butter until soft, add both sugars and the vanilla and beat until fluffy
• next add the egg and stir well
• add the cocoa and mix, then sift in the flour, baking powder and salt, mix well
• now carefully fold in the chopped chocolate
• spoon out roughly one tbsp of dough onto a baking tray lined with grease-proof paper
• make sure to leave some space between the heaps
• now, with damp hands, pat the dough slightly down
• bake for 15-18 mins, not more, the cookies will first look slightly underdone, but they are good, believe me
• let cool on the tray for a bit and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely
• as a tip, the cookies are really good when still a bit warm!

Enjoy with a cup of tea or a cup of coffee!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanutbutter Frosting

Yay, it's Oscar night. And since I still have free time, I can watch it without feeling guilty and be completely overtired the next day. I am not sure I manage the whole show, but I will try my very best. Also, it is time to celebrate one of my favourite flavour combinations, so I will have something to snack on tonight :-)
It is chocolate and peanut butter and it is about time I came along with a new cupcake recipe.




Ingredients for the cupcakes:

• 125 g butter
• 125 g sugar
• 125 g flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 medium free range eggs
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla sugar/vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp milk

And how to make them:

• beat the butter until creamy
• add sugar, flour, baking powder, vanilla, and cocoa and mix
• add the eggs, for extra fluffyness you can also separate the eggs and whip the eggwhites before carefully folding them in with the rest
• add the milk
• spoon into muffin tin (with muffin papers)
• bake in a preheated oven at 190 °C for 20-25 mins.

Now on to the frosting:

• I only give rough directions as I never measure it out...
• take 2 large tbsp of creamy peanut butter and equal amounts of butter and whip until soft and creamy
• add a pinch of salt
• now slowly add icing sugar while constant whipping until you have the consistency you are looking for
• then add a bit more icing sugar, so that it looks a bit too dry
• now add a little bit of milk and bring it back to a smooth paste
• that's it

Once the cupcakes are cooled, add the frosting in any style you like and top with some crushed peanuts. I use the roastes salted one to have a bit of contrast to the very sweet buttercream frosting. It's a bit like salted caramel. But you might as well use unsalted ones or leave them out completely.

And now, the winner is....

Finnish Oat Cookies

Me again, it seems to become a habit :-)
I was out of cookies! Seriously, this is an issue, it's almost as bad as being out od chocolate. Fortunately, I had all the ingredients at home to make some myself. Usually in this kind of occasions I either make yummy shortbread or american style cookies. This time I opted for something very different scandinavian style oat cookies. I have eaten them before and they were always good. So after some internet research I found a recipe easy enough to follow. But as usual (I don't know, what this is with me..) I just couldn't stick to the recipe... However, for those of you interested, this is the original post, note it is in German:

Finnische Haferkekse

Here is how I changed the ingredients list:

• 50 g butter
• 60 g oats ( I used the coarse ones I usually have in the morning for my porridge)
• 80 g brown sugar
• 30 g honey (or golden syrup)
• 1 heaped tbsp flour ( I "made" oat flour here, just blend 1 heaped tbsp of oats in the blender real fine, but regular wheat flour works well)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg

And how I made them:

• mix the oats with the brown sugar, the flour and the baking powder
• melt the butter with the honey on a low heat, let then cool to hand warm
• stir the butter mix in the oats mix and combine thoroughly
• when cooled, add the egg and mix until smooth
• here is now another change I made: let the dough sit for 20 mins to allow the oats to dwell, the result is a slightly thicker dough as before
• pre-heat the oven to 225 °C
• line a baking tray with greaseproof paper 
• and now another change to the original recipe: I poured the whole mixture out on the sheet and distributed it equally, the original post says set small amounts with a tsp on the sheet. The first one will give you one giant cookie that I have then cut into squares, the last one gives you round cookies
• now bake for 5-7 mins, don't leave the oven, they brown very quickly!
• then take out, let cool a bit
• if you have poured the whole lot out, then now cut the shapes you want before the cookies are cold and therefore crack easily OR wait until completely cool and break random bits of, so you get a random shaped selection of cookies
• if you made the round version, just let the cool on the sheet before stacking them

That's it. Very simple. Can be done in 15 mins total time. No electric mixer needed. I have mine with a cup of tea (how could it be any different...) or a coffee. Also, they keep quite long in a tin, if you manage to keep away from them long enough!

Cakes, Cakes, Cakes - Marmorkuchen/Marble Cake

After finishing my teaching job, I wanted to say thank you to my teaching colleagues. What could be better than a home-baked cake. For this occasion I wanted to get back to a standard cake here in Germany as I haven't baked one of those in ages: Marble cake!

I loved it as a child and it is so easy to do...

Ingredients:

• 3 medium eggs
• 150 g caster sugar
• 150 mL oil (rape seed is good here)
• 250 g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 150g full fat yoghurt
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder

And how to do it:

• beat the egg and slowly add sugar
• after you have obtained a light texture, slowly add the oil while stirring
• next combine the flour, backing powder and yoghurt and add to the egg mixture
• now line the baking tin with grease-proof paper or grease the tin thoroughly
• add half of the batter, then add the cocoa to the rest and mix
• layer the dark batter on top of the light one and marble both carefully with a knife
• now bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 °C for 40-45 mins.
• once cooled, either dust with icing sugar or cover with a chocolate coat

I hope you enjoy this, simple and so good :-)

Lebkuchen

In preparation for Christmas, my mum and I have started with some classic german recipes. This one will have to rest for 2-4 weeks, so made now, they will be ready for the Advent time. For the non-Germans that are not aware of what Lebkuchen is, I have undertaken a little research. Apparently, Lebkuchen has been developed in the monastries in the medival times and there are many local versions of it, some famous ones are Aachener Printen and Nürnberger Lebkuchen. The most important thing that they all have in common is that the basis is a honey cake that is spiced with at least cinnamon, cloves and anis. This recipe here is a family recipe that hasn't been made for a very long time, so this year, we wanted to try. I always thought, that Lebkuchen is very difficult to make, but once you have all the ingredients together, it is in fact rather simple.

Here we go, ingredients:

• 250 g honey
• 100 g sugar
• 100 g margarine or butter
• 500 g all-purpose flour (non-rising)
• 10 g potassium carbonate (Pottasche in German, makes the very sweet dough rise better), alternatively 1 heaped tbsp baking powder
• 10 g ground cinnamon
• 10 g ground cloves
• 5 g ground anis
• 5 g ground cardamom
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 2-3 tbsp Rum (not necessary, but gives the dough some depth)
• 1 egg

You see, it's rather a long and unusual list of ingredients, however, the making is that much simpler:

• mix honey, sugar and margarine in a small pan and heat until completely dissolved
• cool until lukewarm
• meanwhile mix all the dry ingredients
• add the honey mixture to the other ingredients, make a smooth dough
• add the Rum and the egg an knead until you have a firm dough
• let rest for half an hour, then roll out to a 1 cm thick layer
• bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 °C for 20 mins
• now be quick and cut in shape before the cake cools down
• once cooled, the now very hard cake can be covered in either chocolate or any other icing
• and the hard part is: put them away for 2-4 weeks, best way store in an airtight metal box, test from time to time if the cake has softened enough

That's it!

Sunday evening treat

Hi again,
this is a very quick post, I just thought I'd share my sunday treat with you. I watched an episode of my cooking hero's show (Nigel Slater, not Jamie O :-) today and he had this brilliant idea about combining left over coffee with shop bought custard and freeze it to make a yummy ice cream. As much as I fancy ice cream, there is simply no space left in my freezer at the moment due to a large amount of cinnamon rolls and scones... But still, I had left over coffee from the morning and some custard. The original plan was making an apple crumble, so I kind of combined the two. I mixed the left over relatively strong coffee (espresso really) with the custard and added some cinnamon and ground cardamom. That alone was already yummy. Then I cut up some apples and mixed the apple pieces and the custard together. I topped that off with some crumble mixture, where I replaced half of the flour with ground walnuts as they always go well with coffee.
Finally, a bake in a 175 °C oven for 40 mins and I could hardly wait that long, given the smell!
And voilà, it was even better than expected! A crumble with built-in coffee-custard. I have to keep away from that dish.... :-) Have a good sunday evening all!

Cinnamon rolls - Cinnabuns - Zimtschnecken

Hi all,

as promised, I have tried out my long existing recipe for cinnamon rolls this weekend and after making a batch, I really can't remember, why I ever hesitated to make them in the first place!
I finished them off with a cream cheese frosting, however, this is just a little more decadent and you could survive without. I haven't tried them with soy milk, but I would assume it would work equally well.


So, as usual, ingredients first:

• 3/4 cups of milk
• 1/4 cup softened margerine
• 3 1/4 cups flour (non-raising), maybe extra
• 1 pack of dried yeast or half a cube fresh yeast
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 medium sized egg
• and for the filling you will need 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon, 1/2 cup margarine or butter, 1 cup of brown sugar, if you can, choose muscavado

Ok and the making of it:

• heat milk in a small pan until it bubbles, then take of heat and stir margarine in until melted; let cool to lukewarm
• meanwhile, mix 2 1/4 cups of flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl and combine well
• add water, egg and milk-mixture and beat well, you should have a liquidy dough
• now add the remaining flour slowly until you have a smooth dough; you might have to add more than the recipe says, depending on the egg and how exact you keep to the measurements using a cup
• once in a smooth dough, take it out of the bowl and get your hands in, means, kneading time on a floured surface for at least 5 mins, better 10
• cover with a damp cloth and set aside
• now mix all the ingredients for the filling together, so it becomes a spreadable mixture; you might want to vary on the amount of cinnamon here, it really depends on your own taste
• now role the dough out into a rectangle shape, make sure to have enough height to be able to roll it a couple of times
• spread the filling evenly over the whole dough and begin rolling it up
• pinch the end to make sure they won't come apart 
• cut slices of roughly 2-3 cm; the amount of rolls will vary with the width of your previously shaped rectangle, I got something like 18 out
• now place the rolls carefully on a greased baking sheet, keeping then roughly 2 cms apart from each other
• cover with a damp cloth and set aside until risen so much, that they touch each other
• preheat the oven to 190 °C and bake for 30 mins until golden brown
• let cool and prepare the frosting by combining all the following ingredients:
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 cup softened margarine or butter
• 75 g cream cheese
• 1/2 pack vanilla sugar or half a tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• once finished, drizzle over the buns as you like
• and finally you are finished and can indulge :-)
• this should take roughly 90 mins alltogether and believe me, it is worth it!

Lime Cupcakes

Hello, hello :-)

Another thing I got in masses from the market is limes. So apart from adding limes to my water and adding lime juice to my fruit salad, I have been looking a long time for a good recipe for lime cupcakes. And this is what I found somewhere in the internet. As usual, I have made some changes.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 heaped tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 60 g unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 egg
• zest and juice of two limes (or more to taste)
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• for the frosting: 60 g unsalted butter, 1 cup powder sugar, juice of 1-2 limes

And how to make them:

• pre-heat the oven to 175 °C
• sift flour into a bowl and add baking powder and salt
• in another bowl whisk the butter until fluffy and slowly add the sugar
• when finished add the lime zest and small portions of the lime juice. At this stage, the mixture might look curdled, but don't worry, it will come back together
• next, add 1/3 of the flour mix, followed by half of the buttermilk, another 1/3 of the flour mix, buttermilk and last portion of the flour mix
• don't overwork the batter, rather mix with a rubber spatula after the last bit of flour is just incorporated
• divide the batter between 12 large or 24 micro muffin cups, place in muffin tray and bake for 25-30 mins (micro ones for 15-20 mins)
• while the cakes are baking, prepare the frosting
• whisk the butter until it becomes lighter in texture and colour
• add powder sugar in small portions until the buttercream looks just a bit dry (but not crumbly)
• next add lime juice little by little until you reach a smooth texture and the aciditiy you are looking for
• place in a piping bag and set aside until the cakes are ready and cooled
• once they are completely cool, pipe the frosting and add decoration (if wanted, candied lime peel works well)

Voila!