Purple Cookie

White Coffee Pound Cake

2011-04-18T13:04:00.000+03:00

This cake is a mix between a marble cake recipe and some improv.

I've been handed with a bag of coffee beans and told to "bake something with it". It took me a while but I had a pretty good idea, mix it in with a marbled cake and add some white chocolate aswell. I was really pleased with how it turned out!

Here is white chocolate mixed in with the dark batter

And here the crushed coffee beans mixed in with the light batter

Spoon both mixture randomly in a loaf pan

Yuuum.....crunchy top with fluffy cakey center.

White Coffee Pound Cake:

2 Cups Flour plus 2 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour

1 ¼ tsp Baking Powder

½ tsp Sea Salt

180 gr (1 ½ Sticks) Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

1 Cup Sugar

4 Large Eggs

½ tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

½ Cup Whole Milk

115 gr (4 oz) Bittersweet Chocolate, melted

100 gr white chocolate, chopped

¼ cup coffee beans, crushed

Preheat the oven to 165 C. Butter loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. Place the pan on an insulated baking sheet or 2 regular baking sheets stacked one on top of the other.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Working with a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or with hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the sugar and beat for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Don’t be concerned if the batter curdles and stay curdled-it will be fine. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and alternately add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin with the dry ingredients), mixing only until each addition is incorporated.

Divide the batter in half and stir the melted chocolate into one half and keep the other half plain.

Mix white chocolate into the dark batter and crushed coffee beans into the light batter. Drop spoonfuls of dark and light batter randomly into the pan, and then plunge a table knife deep into the batter and zigzag the knife through the batter, making only about 6 to 8 zigs and zags. Scrape the batter into the pan.

Bake the cake for 1 hour and 20 to 30 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean. If the cake looks as if it’s getting too brown during its bake, cover loosely with a foil tent. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it rest for about 15 minutes before unmolding, then cool the cake to room temperature right side up on the rack.

Marble cake recipe from: Seasaltwithfood.com

DB: Lime Crostata

2010-11-27T18:48:00.003+02:00

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

I made version 1 of the pasta frolla. This was extremely last minute, had some limes lying around so I decided for a Lime Crostata!

I didn't taste it (had some bad experience with lemon bars a few years back and refuse to eat anything lime or lemon ever since) but future hubby loved it so that's good.

Thanks again for letting me try something new, can't wait for next month!

For the full recipe please go to thedaringkitchen.com

DB: Doughnuts

2010-10-31T16:16:00.003+02:00

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Absolutely loved this challenge, never made doughnuts before and they came out pretty good.

The only thing I noticed was the dough being to soft and it was difficult to transfer them safely to the oil but aside from that all went well.

Fried golden brown.......

Yum, look at those airy doughnuts!

They were amazing! Thanks for a great challenge!

Banana Chocolate Cake

2010-09-20T17:15:00.005+02:00

This is my favorite banana cake recipe. It's dense but moist and is perfect with chocolate in it. Add any kind of nut or mix-in you like!

Banana Chocolate Loaf Cake:

150 gr soft butter

1 cup of light brown sugar

4 eggs

2 ½ cups of flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ cups mashed bananas

200 gr of dark chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a loaf pan and line it with parchment.

In a bowl stir together flour, baking powder and soda, set aside.

In another bowl beat the butter and sugar until fluffy, add eggs one at a time until smooth. Then mix in the flour mixture just until combined - don't over mix. Stir bananas and half of the chocolate into the cake batter, pour it into a loaf pan and scatter the rest of the chocolate on top.

Bake for about 35 minutes (or until skewer comes out clean)

DB: Browned Butter Petit Fours

2010-09-17T19:33:00.001+02:00

Yes I know. I've been a very lousy blogger lately.....sorry for that.

The fact that I'm posting the daring bakers challenge sooo late proves enough.

Better later than never.... right? ...right?

I'm made the original version with vanilla bean ice cream, they were amazing and I enjoyed making them. The only thing I changed was using extra salt and garnishing with cashews.

Vanilla (ice cream) custard

Ready to be covered in chocolate

Cut open!

Mango Chantilly Cake

2010-08-18T15:16:00.003+03:00

All failures aside, you can't go wrong with mangoes and whipped cream.

Considering a few minor disasters while making this cake I put in much more effort than needed for such a simple cake. It's super easy to make and a sure crowd pleaser, especially in these hot days we are experiencing in Tel Aviv.

Instead of getting two thick cakes which were then to be sliced in two (4 layers of cake in total)- came out to be two very thin cakes which wouldn't be enough to create 4. Turns out smart me didn't pay attention to the size of the cake pan (recipe says 22 cm, I used 26 cm...)

And after trying to whip 3 cartons of cream that failed to whip one after the other I had to improvise decorating with fruit.... I didn't like the final look of the cake but it tasted great.

I used home made mascarpone cheese I made the night before, but store bought is just as good.

Mango Chantilly Cake:

Cake:

115 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 2/3 cup sugar

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 180c. Grease and flour two 22 cm pans (if you want 4 layers), or two 26 cm pans (if you want two layers).

In a large bowl cream the butter until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the milk and vanilla and mix to combine.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix until integrated. Stir in sugar. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat for 30 seconds. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Add the egg whites to the rest of the mixture. Beat for 2 more minutes.

Fill 2 cake pans. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cakes for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Once cakes are cooled, freeze them for at least 1 hour (to make cutting them in half easier).

Filling:

500 gr mascarpone cheese

¼ cup heavy cream

5 Tablespoons powdered sugar

1 Teaspoon vanilla

2 ripe mangoes (medium sized) , thinly sliced (peel with sharp knife before slicing)

Beat cheese, cream, sugar, and vanilla with a mixer until smooth.

Cut the two cakes in half (to make a 4-layer cake).

Spread mascarpone filling on the first layer, then cover with sliced mangoes. Repeat with each layer.

* To decorate pipe whipped cream or use fresh fruit.

Based on: Summer peach chantilly cake

Aprikosen Kuchen

2010-08-03T17:09:00.006+03:00

Fresh apricot cake!

Delicious and simple. With whipped cream, ice cream or plain.

I changed the cake batter a little bit by replacing 1 cup of flour with 1 cup of almond meal.

Turned out slightly denser but real big in flavor. Do it however you like or with what you have on hand.

Apricot Cake:

150 gr butter, softened

2/3 c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract or 1 T. vanilla sugar

3 eggs

Zest from 1/2 lemon

1 cup flour

1 cup almond meal

2 tsp. double acting baking powder (or regular)

1/4 c. buttermilk

fresh apricots, cut in half, about 10

Use an 11 inch (26 cm) springform pan if you have one, otherwise you could try a 9x9 or 9 x 13 inch baking pan, but the baking times will be different. Butter and flour it. Set aside.

Cream the butter with the sugar and vanilla or vanilla sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in lemon zest.

Mix the flour and almond meal with the baking powder and salt. Beat into the egg mixture. Add the buttermilk and mix well.

Spread the batter into the baking pan. Place the apricots on top, cut side down.

Bake at 180°c for 30-40 minutes.

Original from: about.com

DB: I scream bombe!

2010-07-28T10:50:00.004+03:00

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.

I simply knew! I knew sometime around summer there would be an ice cream challenge!

Thank you so much Sunita for this very daring challenge.

The flavors I used were mint ice cream with chocolate bits and cookies n' cream....yum!

I actually wanted to try making fresh mint ice cream but fresh mint leaves were no where to be found so I used natural peppermint extract.

I absolutely loved the flavors, and it looks sooo impressive!

Though it takes quite some time making two ice creams in a row, definitely one of the more challenging challenges.

Over all great challenge, can't wait for next month!

Tiny side note:

As you may have noticed I've not been posting at all lately except for the DB challenges and I'm afraid that's going to stay the case for the next few month.

I'm still baking regularly I just can't find the time to sit down and write a post, so lots of recipes are in back up and hopefully I'll be able to share them with you soon!

DB: Chocolate pavlova

2010-06-27T11:22:00.003+03:00

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

Well this month went by so quick! I just remembered yesterday that there was something I had to do......OOOPS! I made the challenge for breakfast and it was great, I bought some organic blackberries which were amazing with the chocolate flavors.

It was a quick but delicious challenge. Hopefully next month I'll have some more time to enjoy the process of making the challenge!

DB: Piece Montée

2010-05-27T16:47:00.001+03:00

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake . Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

What a fun challenge. I made the classic version, vanilla creme pastissiere to fill and hard caramel to glue. The only thing non traditional was the shape I guess. At the end of the post you'll see my inspiration.

Making the dough. (totally felt like a work out)

Look how cute and tiny they are...!

Ta-Da! I was inspired by an art project I made in high school, It's a sculpture made entirely out of disposable plastic cups.

Hey!

2010-05-18T11:03:00.002+03:00

Well first of all I'd like to apologize for my absence. As you may know I moved back to Tel Aviv and I'm having a long distance relationship with my mixer since it stayed in Germany.

I will definitely continue participating in the Daring Bakers challenges and hopefully be reunited with my mixer soon.

On to some exciting news! This blog is now officially Purplecookie.com !

And if you want to stay updated anytime anywhere please check out the link below and download the Purplecookie application from Nokia's app store - Ovi.

http://store.ovi.com/content/37426

Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies

2010-05-02T14:58:00.002+03:00

I'll quote Martha on this one:

Velvety, delicately tart cream cheese blends well with the more cakey, sugary blondie batter. The resulting bars are remarkably rich and highly habit-forming.

Oh yes.

These are by far my favorite blondies!

Blondie batter, amazing on its own!

Before and after baking

Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies:

160 gr butter, room temp

1 ⅔ cups plus 2 tbsp flour

1 tsp baking powder

¾ tsp coarse salt

1 cup packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

170 gr (6 ounces) cream cheese, room temp

¼ cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 165°c.

Line a buttered 20 cm square (or round) baking pan.

Whisk together 1 ⅔ cups flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Beat 130 gr of the butter and the brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add two eggs and 1 tsp of vanilla, mix until combined. On low speed add the flour mixture until well combined.

Transfer to a large bowl.

Beat cream cheese, granulated sugar, remaining butter and flour, 1 egg and ½ tsp vanilla on medium speed until smooth.

Pour half the blondie batter into the pan, and spread evenly with an offset spatula. Spoon two-thirds of cream cheese mixture on top, and spread evenly. Drop dollops of remaining batter on top. Top with dollops of remaining cream cheese mixture.

Gently swirl cream cheese mixture into batter with a knife, running it through the layers.

Bake until golden brown and inserted toothpick comes out with crumbs but not wet, 45-50 minutes. Let cool slightly in pan , about 15 minutes.

Let cool completely before cutting in, if you want really clean cuts, place the whole pan in the fridge until cool.

Store at room temperature for about 2 days, they keep longer in the fridge.

Original from: Martha Stewart's Cookies.

DB: Traditional English Pudding

2010-04-27T11:22:00.004+03:00

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Well this challenge didn't work out that well. I actually managed to steam the pudding, but when it came to flipping it over....well lets just say it was one big mountain of steamed dough - tasty steamed dough! So after all I had something to work with. Filled it in glasses, topped it with whipped cream and fresh strawberries yummy!

I made a lemon steamed pudding with candied strawberry bits

Steamin'!

Some extra whipped cream anybody?

Lemon Steamed Pudding:

150g butter, softened

3/4 cup caster sugar
2 large lemons, rind finely grated, juiced
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
Grease a 6-cup capacity pudding basin. Line base with baking paper.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and lemon rind until light and creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour over mixture. Add 1/3 cup juice. Fold until just combined.
Spoon batter into basin. Smooth surface. Cover basin with baking paper and foil. Secure with string (see note). Place a trivet or inverted saucer in a large saucepan. Sit basin on trivet. Pour boiling water into saucepan so it comes halfway up side of basin. Cover saucepan. Cook pudding over medium heat for 1 1/2 hours, adding more boiling water as required.
Lift basin out of saucepan. Remove foil and paper. Turn pudding onto a warm plate. Top with lemon zest. Cut into wedges and serve with cream. (or whipped cream)
Original from: Taste.com

back and forth

2010-04-07T15:13:00.002+03:00

Hey there everybody,

Just wanted to let you know that I moved back to Tel Aviv (from Germany).

It will take a while until I'll be back on track and posting regularly, after all I'm without my pantry, mixer and any baking utensils - so I hope you understand.

Hope to be back posting ASAP !

Gala :)

Mocha fluff Cookies

2010-04-03T11:30:00.000+03:00

It takes a few tries to get exactly right, but it's totally worth it. Deep chocolate flavor in a chewy dense cookie.

I must admit I'm the owner of one of these, oddly enough these cookies are the only recipe I can imagine making from it (that isn't rice crispy treats). I appreciate the creativity but lets be honest; Fluff lemon mayonnaise? Fluff cheese and mustard sandwich? Noooooo thank you!

This recipe uses one whole jar of marshmallow creme, scooping out a whole jar definitely has something magical about it...

Midnight Mocha Madness:

1 ½ cups (250 gr) semi/bittersweet choc. chopped

90 gr (¾ stick) butter

⅓ cup cocoa

¼ cup sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp espresso powder (or instant coffee)

One 7 ½ ounce jar marshmallow fluff

1 cup flour

½ tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 200c.

In the top of a double boiler or in a microwave . melt together chocolate, butter, cocoa, sugar, salt and espresso powder. Stir occasionally until smooth. Remove from the heat and stir the marshmallow fluff into the warm chocolate mixture. Stir in the flour, baking powder, vanilla and egg. Mix until the batter comes together; it will seem dry at first, but within a minute minutes or so it will come together. Stir in the nuts.

Drop the cookie dough by the heaping tablespoonful onto baking sheet, to prevent the cookies from spreading too much, refrigerate the dough 15 minutes before baking. Bake cookies for about 10 minutesuntil their tops puff up and look set.

Allow them to cool 5 minutes before handling, they are fragile cookies.

Quick Easter Nests

2010-03-29T00:25:00.005+03:00

This not really a recipe, just a quick thing to mix up . You can make them in different sizes and use any colored candy eggs you'd like. Happy Easter!

Easter Treats:

Use equal parts of melted chocolate to coconut, stir them together.

With a teaspoon (or tablespoon, depending on what size you want) drop mounds of the mixture, while still warm place candy eggs on to the mounds and press slightly. Place in the fridge to firm up, wrap in single gift bags and give away!

DB: Orange Tian

2010-03-27T03:50:00.002+03:00

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

Could this be the most pictures I've published in one post? Yup. It just had so many steps and apparently I took pictures of every single one. So Here we go:

Blanching the orange slices

Chopped blanched oranges

Chopped oranges, sugar and pectin

Cookin' jam!

Making orange segments and soaking them in their juice and orange caramel sauce

Making caramel with added orange juice and making little sugar volcanoes, did it say 'add slowly'? Oops.

My little secret ingredient. Added it to the orange segment and the caramel sauce before serving.

Dry caramel. Dry caramel. Dry caramel. It took me two tries.

Cutting the Pate Sablee to fit the loaf pan. I cut it again right after baking while it's still soft to trim away the areas that spread during baking.

Spreading jam on the Pate Sablee

Placing it on top of the orange segments and cream, refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Carefully turn over and serve with caramel sauce!

The changes I've made where adding Grand Marnier to the finished caramel sauce and orange segments, adding one tea bag of lemon and mango tea to the Pate Sablee and making the Orange Tian in a loaf pan.

I must be honest and say that citrus desserts are not my favorite and was sure I wouldn't enjoy this, but... I did. I was pleasantly surprised by this light dessert and whoever tried it liked it quite a lot.

Thank you Jennifer for an interesting challenge to assemble, oh yeah and.... it was delicious!

Swirl bread

2010-03-23T12:56:00.007+02:00

This makes one fun sandwich! It's a nice twist on the usual loaf of bread, you could even do this method with you favorite bread recipe. If you've made bread before this is a piece of cake! (or was it bread?)

The bread is colored with cocoa powder or coffee but neither can be tasted in the baked bread. As for the topping you can use whatever you have on hand or even leave it plain.

Swirl Bread:

400 gr (3 ½ cups) flour

125 gr (2 ½) wheat bran

½ tbsp salt

2 tsp dry yeast

2 tsp sugar

400 ml (1 2/3 cups) water, warm

2 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp cocoa (or instant coffee powder)

egg wash

seeds to scatter

In the bowl of the electric mixer stir together the warm water, yeast and sugar. Place starting with the flour followed by all the other ingredients (except the cocoa/coffee) in the bowl. Attach dough hook and knead on low speed at first then on medium for about 5 minutes, until dough is tacky and elastic. Too sticky add more flour, too dry and crumbly add more water.

Now remove half of the dough and place it in another bowl, cover. To the remaining dough in the mixer bowl add the cocoa and knead until evenly colored, cover as well. Let both balls of dough rise until double in bulk, about an hour an a half.

On a well floured surface gently roll out both doughs. Place the dark dough on top of the white one and roll them into a loaf so that the brown dough is completely hidden by the white one, fold the open ends under the loaf. Now either place on baking sheet or in a loaf pan, brush with egg wash (1 egg mixed with a tbsp of water or milk) scatter with seeds and bran (I used wheat bran, flax seeds, sunflower seeds - a tbsp of each) and make a few cuts at the top. Let rise for another 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 190c. Bake bread for about 50 minutes. Let cool, slice and make yourself an hypnotic sandwich!

Original from here.

Macadamia Maple Chocolate Rolls

2010-03-18T20:26:00.003+02:00

I was in the mood for cinnamon rolls but at the same time feeling adventurous. I thought of making rolls with white chocolate first but found this filling and went for it! I used the same yeast dough I made for the cinnamon rolls I baked a while back. So just follow those instructions or use your own favorite soft dough and....

Place risen dough on floured surface and let rest for 10 minutes. Then roll out dough to about 50 cm in length and 40 cm in width, spread butter evenly on dough.

Mix nuts with maple syrup. Sprinkle brown sugar over the rolled out dough followed by the chopped chocolate, then spoon over the maple and nuts.

Roll tightly into a log and cut into 12* even slices

Place slices on baking tray not too close (remember they rise and double in size), let rise another 15 minutes in a warm environment (or 20-30 minutes in room temp.)

Preheat oven to 180c. Bake rolls 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Macadamia Maple Chocolate Rolls:

Dough:

go here

filling:

80 gr soft butter

½ cup brown sugar

175 gr dark cooking chocolate**

100 gr macadamia nuts***, coarsely chopped

⅓ genuine maple syrup

Notes:

*I tried to get as much rolls as possible because they where for a crowd. What I did was roll the log very tight and narrow so instead of getting twelve huge rolls I got 20 (!) smaller ones. Placed them snuggly on one single baking tray.

**Cooking chocolate may not sound very good, but all it does is withstand heat much better and doesn't scorch as quickly as regular chocolate. As for taste, you can't tell the difference.

***I used salted macadamia nuts.

Original from: Dough- here, filling - ehow.com

Honey White Chocolate Macarons

2010-03-15T12:47:00.005+02:00

These were a total success and if I may add: The best macarons I've ever tried. Now I don't want to brag but I've had quite a few macarons in the last years and these are awesome!

Are you allowed to call macarons awesome?

Before and after baking

Honey White Chocolate smbc

Filling the macs!

Honey White Chocolate Macarons:

shells:

90 gr egg whites (use eggs whites that have been preferably left 3-5 days in the fridge)
25 gr granulated sugar
200 gr powdered sugar
110 gr almond meal

filling:

1/2 cup (100gr) sugar
2 large egg whites
170 gr butter, at room temperature

1 tbsp honey

50 gr white chocolate, melted

Shells-

For the whites: the day before (24hrs), separate your eggs and store the whites at room temperature in a covered container. If you want to use 48hrs (or more) egg whites, you can store them in the fridge.
In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a foam, gradually add the sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue. Do not overbeat your meringue or it will be too dry. Combine the almonds and powdered sugar in a food processor and give them a good pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Add them to the meringue, give it a quick fold to break some of the air and then fold the mass carefully until you obtain a batter that flows like lava or a thick ribbon. Give quick strokes at first to break the mass and slow down. The whole process should not take more than 50 strokes. Test a small amount on a plate: if the tops flattens on its own you are good to go. If there is a small beak, give the batter a couple of turns.
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (Ateco #807 or #809) with the batter and pipe small rounds onto parchment paper or silicone mats lined baking sheets.Preheat the oven to 140C. Let the macarons sit out for 30 minutes to an hour to harden their shells a bit and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on their size. Let cool. If you have trouble removing the shells, pour a couple of drops of water under the parchment paper while the sheet is still a bit warm and the macarons will lift up more easily do to the moisture. Don't let them sit there in it too long or they will become soggy. Once baked and if you are not using them right away, store them in an airtight container out of the fridge for a couple of days or in the freezer. To fill: pipe or spoon about 1 big tablespoon of butterceam in the center of one shell and top with another one.

Filling-

Put the sugar and egg whites in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like marshmallow cream. Pour the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat the meringue on medium speed until it cools and forms a thick shiny meringue, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. Then add the honey and white chocolate (by the tbsp), make sure the chocolate has cooled down a little and is not very hot but just slightly warm. Blend just until smooth again.

Original from: Ratio from Tartlette, flavoring my own.

Guinness Milk Chocolate Ice Cream

2010-03-11T13:01:00.000+02:00

Well well people it's been a year. One Whole Year! Wooohooo!

So yeah basically my little blog is 1 year old. Before I started writing my own, I could've never imagined the size and impact of the food blog community on the web - It's HUGE!

And I probably wouldn't have known how it helped me 'meet' new people and improve my skills (baking and more...). I love reading your blogs and getting your comments, thank you all so very much!

To celebrate we need booze! So how about some beer ice cream? no?

Don't worry, I'm definitely not a beer drinker but I looooved this ice cream! It has the obvious sweetness of the milk chocolate with a slight bitter after taste. It is for sure one of my favorites so far!

Guinness Milk Chocolate Ice Cream:

7 ounces (205 gr) milk chocolate, finely chopped

1 cup (250 ml) whole milk

½ cup (100 gr) sugar

pinch of salt

4 large egg yolks

1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream

¾ cup (180 ml) Guinness stout

1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the chocolate in a large bowl and set a mesh strainer over the top. Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer over the milk chocolate, then stir until the chocolate is melted. Once the mixture is smooth, whisk in the cream, then the Guinness and vanilla. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream make according to manufacturer's instructions.

Fleur De Lait Ice Cream (with raspberry swirl)

2010-03-07T14:30:00.001+02:00

Fleur de Lait - Flower of milk.

I must say that it was a really nice surprise...I wasn't quite sure what to expect from an ice cream made without eggs but with cornstarch and milk. First I though it would go in the frozen yogurt category but it doesn't at all, it's not as tangy as frozen yogurt. The best way to describe this ice cream is simply sweet milk.

It's amazing how creamy it is just by the magic of cornstarch, the ice cream is simple and clean but definitely not plain. It's amazing on it's own but I had some frozen raspberries that I thought would go great with it, they did! If you add the swirl make sure you don't skip the vodka in the recipe, it is crucial for the swirl not to freeze too hard.

Fleur de Lait:

2 cups (500 ml) whole milk

¾ cup (150 gr) sugar

pinch of salt

3 tbsp (25 gr) cornstarch

1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream

Raspberry swirl:

1 ½ cups raspberry, fresh or frozen

3 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp vodka

Warm the milk with the sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Whisk together the cornstarch and cold heavy cream until dissolved, and stir it into the milk. Heat the mixture, stirring constantly, until it begins to boil and bubble up. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes, continuing to stir. Remove from heat and scrape it into a bowl. Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator, stirring the mixture occasionally as it cools.

An hour or so before churning the ice cream, make the raspberry swirl by mashing the raspberries together with the sugar and vodka with a fork(if using frozen raspberries, let them thaw a bit first) until they're juicy but but with nice-sized chunks of raspberries remaining. Chill until ready to use.

Once well-chilled, whisk to remove any lumps, freeze the ice cream custard in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. As you remove it from the machine , layer it in the container with spoonfuls of chilled raspberry swirl mixture.

Original from: The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Hamantaschen in a Costume!

2010-03-02T14:31:00.006+02:00

Well this has been my first Purim out of Israel in a long time. Actually thinking about it I've never made Hamantaschen before and don't even like to eat them- store bought that is. They are always dry and have way to much dough vs. filling (and we all know the filling is the best part)

So for this year I decided to make them, and not just any kind: Zebra Hamantaschen! Purim is equivalent to Carnival or Halloween in the sense that you dress up, so making Hamantaschen in a costume is sooo obvious! Ain't it?

Just like making cinnamon rolls, just....ahm, not.

Fill aaand pinch!

Hamantaschen:

200 gr soft butter

¾ cup confectioner's sugar*

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 heaped cups flour (300 gr)

¼ tsp salt

1 egg

¼ cup cocoa

filling:

2 egg whites

½ cup sugar

2 ¼ cups dried coconut

*I used regular sugar, and it turned out fine. Just make sure you beat it long enough with the butter.

Beat butter and sugar for two minutes until creamy. Add vanilla, egg and little of the flour mix until smooth. Add all the remaining flour and mix just until a dough forms. Remove half of the dough, wrap in plastic and place in fridge. To the left over dough in the bowl add ¼ cup cocoa and mix until dough is even in color, wrap as well and chill both doughs for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 180°C.

After chilling roll each dough out to about ½ cm thickness. Lightly brush one sheet of dough with water (this acts as glue) and lay the other sheet of dough on top, press down lightly. Brush off any excess dough and proceed as you would with cinnamon rolls. Then:

- cut dough roll into slices.

- roll out each slice so it fits under your cookie cutter or reaches the desired size.

- cut rolled out slice with a round cookie cutter for clean edges and a perfect round shape.

Then place rounds on baking sheet (they won't spread much, only puff up a little) and prepare filling:

Mix all the ingredients to an even mixture, place 1 tsp of filling on each round and pinch rounds to a Hamantaschen shape.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, until just slightly golden on the edges and filling.

DB: Tiramisu

2010-02-27T01:10:00.000+02:00

Let me just tell you that this has been my favorite challenge so far!

On one hand it's such a simple classic dish and on the other it is so complex. I really enjoyed making it because it is one of my favorite desserts and it was quite challenging as well. I wouldn't say it's hard to make it from scratch but definitely requires some planning.

I made mine the classic way topped with a Kahlua whipped cream and a double layer of dusted cocoa.

Making the Lady fingers

Before and after baking

I really couldn't believe that making mascarpone could be so simple and had my doubts it would firm up but it totally did. This is the Kahlua whipped cream before dusting it heavily with cocoa powder.

Mmm.....

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

Mascarpone Cheese – Vera’s Recipe (Baking Obsession) for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese.

Savoiardi/ Ladyfinger Biscuits – Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home

Tiramisu – Carminantonio's Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007

For full instructions and the complete recipe go to The Daring Kitchen (under recipe archive)

Nussecken

2010-02-20T01:15:00.003+02:00

Nut corners! Yup that is what Nussecken literally mean. It's a buttery base with a topping loaded with chopped nuts and nut meal. What is great about this is that you could basically use any kind of nuts, I bet this is killer with pecans or even added seeds like sesame or pine nut!

The way I made them is the classic combo for these corners: walnut, hazelnut and almond.

They are fun to nibble on and make quite a nice amount (around 40 pieces)

Nussecken:

(40 pieces, depending on size)

130 gr butter

130 gr sugar

1 tbsp vanilla sugar

2 eggs

300 gr flour

1 tsp baking powder

100 gr apricot jam

250 gr butter

150 gr sugar

2 tbsp vanilla sugar

250 gr chopped nuts (I used walnut, hazelnut and almond)

150 gr nut meal (I used hazelnut and almond)

Base-

Mix the first part of ingredients into a firm ball of dough. Don't knead. (I creamed the butter and sugar first, then added the rest until it came together) Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Line your oven tray with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 180C.

Place the dough onto the tray and roll it out (you could roll it on a floured surface first and then transfer it to the tray, whatever you prefer), I doesn't have to fill out the whole tray, but still cover most of it. Spread apricot jam thinly on dough sheet.

Nut topping-

Melt butter in a medium saucepan, add sugars and 4 tbsp of water. Let come once to a short boil. Put all the chopped nuts and nut meal into the butter, mix until combined and gently pour over rolled out dough, spread evenly and bake for 20 minutes until the sugar bubbles and seems to harden.

After baking let cool completely and cut into squares, then half each square to create triangles.

I let the whole sheet in the fridge over night and then cut into it, it makes much cleaner cuts.

Blueberry White Chocolate Cupcakes

2010-02-15T17:43:00.002+02:00

Well, I planned to make this a tear drenching post about numerous attempts of making a frosting for these cupcakes, they all were a complete fail! But, at the end of the day I was just glad I got them done so no tears today.

The winning frosting was a classic buttercream with white chocolate. It was truly delicious, but being a swiss meringue butter cream LOVER I felt it was a bit too heavy. If you like buttercream this is one awesome frosting.

Look at those beautiful blueberries...

Love the way these baked and they could easy be eaten just like that as a muffins

After the frosting disaster I treated myself with a little something

Blueberry White Chocolate Cupcakes:

(makes 12 frosted cupcakes)

Blueberry cakes:

1 ½ cups plain flour

½ tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¾ cup caster sugar

85 gr unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

2 tsps vanilla extract

½ cup buttermilk

1 cup (320g) frozen blueberries (I used fresh)

Preheat oven to 180C. Line 1 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake cases.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl.

Using an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the vanilla.

Beat in the dry ingredients in 3 additions alternately with the buttermilk in 2 additions.

Fold in the blueberries.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin trays and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes in trays for 10 minutes and then transfer to wire rack.

White chocolate buttercream:

150gr (5 ounces) good quality white chocolate, chopped into small chuncks

115 gr (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted!

Pinch salt

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup sour cream (I used buttermilk)

In a small heat proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, carefully and slowly melt the white chocolate. Remove from heat and let cool until just slightly warm. Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar until well combined. Add the salt, vanilla extract, and sour cream (or buttermilk) and mix until very smooth. Add the melted white chocolate and mix just until incorporated.

Frost the cupcakes and garnish with some more blueberries. Enjoy!

Original from: Cakes- the red deer, frosting- foodnetwork.

Cranberry Shortbread Hearts

2010-02-10T17:35:00.001+02:00

My mother has been begging me me to make some shortbread for her, I'v never baked shortbread before and couldn't get why she would not stop nagging me with it- so I ignored her. She was so sweet and bought me Martha Stewart's 'Cookies', though I wonder if it was only an innocent gift because the book had a fair amount of shortbread recipes in it- very suspicious. OK I got the hint. So there you go, shortbread hearts for Mama (or your Valentine).

Before and after baking

This part I questioned quite sometime, I was sure it would be impossible to cut out hearts from the baked dough without it breaking and falling apart. But I kept telling myself that it's a Martha recipe and just couldn't be so misleading. And it's true, it actually works.

The only con (for your hips that is) is that you get loads of buttery crumbs that are just a pity to throw away, so I ate them for breakfast on plain yogurt. It felt more like eating a whole cake for breakfast but it sure was delicious.

I mean how fattening can it be, not much more than my regular granola, right? Right?

Cranberry Shortbread Hearts:

230 gr (1 cup) butter

¾ cup sifted confectioner's sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups sifted flour

½ tsp coarse salt

½ cup finely chipped dries cranberries

Preheat oven to 160c.

Put the butter, sugar, vanilla, flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir together with a wooden spoon until combined but not too creamy. Stir in dried cranberries.

Press dough evenly into an 8 inch (20 cm) square baking pan (or just press the dough onto a baking tray lined with parchment like I did). Bake until firm and pale, about 30 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack, about 20 minutes.

If baked in a pan, run a knife around the edges; remove shortbread and transfer right side up, to a work surface. Cut out hearts with a heart shaped cookie cutter (whatever size you have or like). Trim any stray bits of cranberry from edges.

Cookies can be stored at room temp. up to 5 days.

Original from Martha Stewart's Cookies.

Easy bread

2010-02-07T13:09:00.006+02:00

This bread is so simple and easy to make! I've made bread a few times before and this is definitely a great recipe.

All you gotta do is:

Grab a very large mixing bowl, or a large container that you can cover. In it, mix the water, yeast, and salt. You don’t even have to heat up the water to a precise optimal temperature for the yeast. I’ve even used just regular tap water, and it’s worked well for me. Just let that sit together for a while (you don’t have to wait for the yeast to dissolve completely), then dump the flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon. You don’t need to knead this, and you’re not looking to make it come together into a dough ball. You just want everything mixed well, with no streaks of flour left, and you’re done.

Leave it in your container, covered (but not airtight, or it’ll pop), for a few hours. When it has risen and then deflated a bit, your dough is done. It’s ready to be used or stored in the refrigerator.

After twenty minutes of preheating, it’s time to bake. (You can put the bread in after 20 minutes, even if your oven hasn’t reached 225°C degrees yet.) Slide the loaf onto the baking stone, and then quickly (and CAREFULLY) pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler pan. Then quickly shut the oven door to keep the steam inside.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until you get a nice brown crust. The crust will crackle and pop and make all sorts of happy noises as it sits on a wire rack to cool. It tastes best when you let it cool completely. Don’t worry if your beautiful crust seems to soften a bit. It will harden again, I promise.

Twenty minutes before you are ready to bake, put a pizza stone in the middle rack of your oven (I didn't use a pizza stone), and put a broiler pan in the bottom rack. Preheat your oven to 225°C degrees. Dust some flour on the top of your loaf, and make your pretty slashes, about 1/4-inch deep. You can do a simple ‘x’ across it, a tic-tac-toe grid.

After twenty minutes of preheating it's time to bake. (You can put the bread in after 20 minutes, even if the oven hasn't reached 225°C yet.) Slide the loaf onto the baking stone (I didn't use one) and quickly pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler pan. Then quickly shut the oven door to keep the steam inside.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until you get a nice brown crust. It tastes best when you let it cool completely. Don't worry if the crust seems to soften a bit, it will harden again.

Easy Bread:

3 cups of lukewarm water

1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons coarse salt

6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

I used all my dough the same day but I bet it tastes even better if you age the dough a little in the fridge. I also used whole wheat flour for some of the amount of flour.

For more pictures and original source go to: The Ivory Hut

Marzipan Midnight Cake

2010-02-04T14:38:00.004+02:00

I called it Midnight cake because well...I finished it exactly at midnight for a birthday.

It was more of a random spontaneous idea, but it worked! I'm still smiling looking at this picture (what was I thinking...?!), don't ask me what the inspiration for this caterpillar like design was.

I was tired, I had marzipan, there you go. :)

Don't expect a light cake, it is loaded with marzipan and very rich. The batter is very thick and needs quite a long time in the oven.

Marzipan Pound Cake:

300 gr almond paste (marzipan)

150 gr butter, soft

1 tsp vanilla sugar (or extract)

3 eggs

300 gr flour

50 gr cornstarch

2 tsp baking powder

Topping:

100 gr marzipan

150 gr dark couverture chocolate*

Preheat oven to 200°c. Butter a loaf pan and line with a strip of parchment paper.

Cut 200 gr of the marzipan into chunks (leaving 100 gr aside) and place it in the bowl of your electric mixer, add butter, sugar and vanilla- beat fluffy. Add one egg at a time.

In a separate bowl mix flour, cornstarch and baking powder. While the mixer is on medium low add the flour mixture by the tablespoon.

Now take the leftover (100 gr) piece of marzipan and grate it on a box grater, add the grated marzipan to the batter. Pour the batter in the pan and bake golden for 50 minutes, turn off the oven and let the cake sit in it for another 10 minutes. Let the cake cool completely before covering with chocolate.

To top the cake, melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Meanwhile roll the marzipan into little balls or any other shape you like and stick it with some pressure onto the cake then cover with chocolate. ( After pouring the choc I put the whole cake in the freezer for a few minutes so the chocolate would firm up quickly)

*If you don't have couverture chocolate, just melt regular chocolate and after it is completely smooth add a tbsp of neutral flavored oil (like canola), this will thin out the chocolate and you'll be able to cover the cake with a very thin "crispy" layer of chocolate.

Cranberry Banana Muffins

2010-02-01T01:20:00.001+02:00

At times I don't really know what to expect from recipes, and this was one of those cases. Of course I knew what a banana muffin tastes like but I've never baked with fresh cranberries before so I was anxious to try them.

Before they were ready I thought I'd give one cranberry a try...... ZING! Oh man, sour is an understatement. There isn't a lot resemblance with the dried version I can tell you that! And then I started worrying the muffins would be too sour, but the sweet bananas saved the day, and these muffins were great for breakfast.

Topped and baked!

Cranberry Banana Muffins:

(makes 12)

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Dash of mixed spice/cinnamon

3 large very ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup sugar (white or brown both work)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup melted butter/oil

Dash of vanilla extract

1 cup fresh chopped cranberries

Topping:

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp oatmeal

¼ tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 190°c.

Sift together in a large bowl: Flour, baking powder/soda, salt, cinnamon.

In a separate bowl combine rest of ingredients (except cranberries), fold in flour mixture followed by chopped cranberries.

Line muffin pan with paper cases and spoon batter in until 2/3 full.

Mix topping ingredients and top unbaked muffins evenly.

Bake for 25-30 min.

With my own changes and additions adapted from: bake cook eat

DB: Graham Crackers

2010-01-27T00:20:00.000+02:00

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

I really wanted to make this as a gluten free version but I ran out of time and had to stick with the ingredients I had at home. I enjoyed the flavor although freezing every batch before baking was quite...well, annoying.

I don't even know how graham crackers are supposed to taste but I liked the ones I made.

I know for sure that graham crackers are a main component in smore's and so I served mine with toasted marshmallow creme and nutella. YUM.

Graham Crackers:

2 ½ cups flour (I used an equal mixture of whole wheat and regular)
1 cup (200 g) Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed
1 teaspoon Baking soda
3/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
100 g Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
2 tablespoons Pure Vanilla Extract

1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.

2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.

3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.

4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.

5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 180C.

6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.

7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.

8. Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster.

I want Caramel Cake with Caramel Sauce!

2010-01-21T13:35:00.004+02:00

Could this be my first time baking with a little person? Yes.

I'll make the story short and just say the kid is pretty genius when it comes to baking, I asked him what he would like to bake and he said: "Karamel Kuchen mit Karamel soße!!!" - Which is German for Caramel Cake with Caramel Sauce! And lucky me had a whole bowl of caramel sauce left over from the Snickers Cupcakes.

While I enjoyed baking, I think his favorite part was licking the spatula clean. Can't blame him.

Home made caramel sauce

There it is. The creation of a master. Thank you Myles for this great cake, would've never made it without you!

Caramel cake:

150 g unsalted butter at room temperature

200 gr granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

80 ml Caramel sauce

2 each eggs, at room temperature

splash vanilla extract

300 g all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

200 g milk, at room temperature

and:

1 amount of Caramel sauce

Preheat oven to 180 C. Butter 5 mini-cake pans or one regular loaf pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & beat until light and fluffy.

Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.

Sift flour and baking powder.

Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}

Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pans.

Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 10 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean.

Original from: Cake- The Daring Kitchen, Sauce- Simplyrecipes

Snickers Cupcakes

2010-01-18T22:00:00.005+02:00

Terrible terrible lighting! But as we all know, lighting does not affect the flavor (thank god!)

This great recipe I drooled over a while back and for new years (I know - I'm late) this was the perfect thing to make! The recipe is from one of my personal favorites The Red Deer.

Cakes filled with caramel sauce and peanuts. I made my own from this recipe, I doubled it. Why? I can't really answer that but I found some good use for it- coming soon.

Aaaahh..... Caramel swiss meringue buttercream.

Cute little soldiers ready to be studded with goodness

Sprinkled with chopped peanuts and chopped snickers, and to top it all off- drizzled with milk chocolate (see first picture)

For full instructions, more pictures and source go - Here.

Cookie Dough Ice Cream

2010-01-14T13:33:00.005+02:00

I got the KitchenAid ice cream attachment for Christmas and this is my first creation with it!

Well, more David Lebovitz's creation. I combined his vanilla ice cream recipe with the raw cookie dough mix in from his book- Delicious!

Freshly churned vanilla ice cream

Cookie Dough Ice Cream:

vanilla ice cream:

1 cup (250 ml) whole milk

¾ cup (150 gr) sugar

2 cups (500 ml) heavy cream

pinch of salt

1 vanilla bean, split in half

6 large egg whites

¾ tsp vanilla extract

cookie dough:

70 gr salted butter, melted

⅓ cup (70 gr) packed light brown sugar

¼ cup (35 gr) flour

½ tsp vanilla extract

¾ cup (120 gr) chocolate chips

Cookie dough-

In a bowl stir together butter and sugar until smooth. Stir in the flour, then the vanilla and chocolate chips.

Form the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. Once chilled, unwrap the disk and chop into bite-sized pieces, then store the pieces in the freezer until ready to mix in.

Ice cream-

Warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup (250 ml) of the cream, and salt in a medium saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the warm milk and add the bean as well. Cover, remove from heat, and let steep at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Pour the remaining 1 cup (250 ml) cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. In a seperate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream. Put the vanill bean into the custard, add the vanilla extract, and stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator. When ready to churn, remove the vanilla bean, rinsing and reserving it for another use, and then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Mix cookie dough pieces by hand into the ice cream and freeze.

Italian Almond Cake

2010-01-11T14:23:00.003+02:00

I made this for a coffee and tea gathering, It's an Italian currant cake - just that I didn't have any currants so I added chopped almonds instead. The pictures where taken by a dear friend of mine that visited me her in Germany. She uses a Nikon D80, and although the lighting was totally crappy the pictures turned out decent.

So after I could experiment with a dslr camera and took hundreds of pictures I fell in love and the decision was made: I am now the proud owner of my very own Nikon D90 !!!

Italian Almond Cake:

225 gr butter, diced

225 sugar

4 eggs

90 ml rum

1 tsp vanilla extract

200 gr almonds, chopped

225 gr flour, sifted

1 tsp baking powder

35 gr flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 180C and butter a 22cm loaf tin.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy add the eggs one at a time. Mix in the rum and vanilla. Slowly fold in the sifted flour and baking powder. Add chopped almonds. Pour mixture into tin and sprinkle with slivered/flaked almonds.

Bake the cake for 60-65 minutes.

Leave it to cool in tin for several minutes, then take out and let cool completely, dust with icing sugar and serve.

Original from: Gorgeous Cakes

Super PINK Birthday Breakfast !!!

2010-01-06T15:06:00.007+02:00

It's my moms birthday! And this year's theme was PINK !

I think everybody knows at least one person that is all about pink, in my case it's my mom.

Now, I'm not into pink at all so shopping for this breakfast was quite a challenge - I usually screen out anything pink. But I must say shopping by color is super fun!

Pink was all over and the list is endless:

Pink champagne

Pink napkins

Pink confetti

Pink frosting

Pink candles

Pink gummi

Pink marshmallows

Pink meringues

Pink flowers

Pink gift wrapping

Pink cups

PINK PINK PINK !!

I made my fav pancake recipe and cupcakes too. My mom loves raspberries although I believe she likes them 'cause they're pink....a ha!

I found a unique recipe on the Cupcake Bakeshop - Basil cream filled cupcakes with raspberry mousse frosting. At first I planned making them with mint but apparently it is impossible to get here in Germany so I went for basil. The basil flavor is very pleasant and not like you would expect it to be. The only thing I changed was placing an additional berry into the cupcake as to just on top.

I'll leave you with some very PINK images to finish:

Cappuccino Fudge Cheesecake

2010-01-04T12:05:00.007+02:00

Hope everybody got super awesome presents like I did!

Somehow they ALL were baking related...am I that obvious?

Aaaanyway this is what I made for Christmas eve. It is the fudgiest cake I've ever eaten, coffee flavor, rum, lots of chocolate and a cheesecake layer. The best advice I can give anyone who plans to make this is: make it ahead. I made it the day of serving simply because I had no other choice and it was super stressful and by the end of it my piping skills gave up on me.

But it was all worth it, this cake is amazing and serves way more than 12. It's temping to cut a regular or even large sized piece but after the first bite you'll realize you where wrong. So wrong.

Cappuccino Fudge Cheesecake:

Crust:

255 gr box chocolate wafer cookies (I used caramel lotus cookies)

170 gr bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (omitted this)

100 gr melted unsalted butter

Ganache:

1 ½ (240 ml) cups whipping cream

550 gr bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup Kahlúa or other coffee-flavored liqueur

Filling:

900 gr cream cheese, room temperature

1 1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 tablespoons dark rum

2 ½ tablespoons instant espresso powder or coffee crystals

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons mild-flavored (light) molasses

4 large eggs

Topping:

1 1/2 cups sour cream

1/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For crust-

Finely grind cookies, chopped chocolate, brown sugar, and nutmeg in processor. Add butter and process until crumbs begin to stick together, scraping down bowl occasionally, about 1 minute. Transfer crumbs to 26 cm springform pan with 7 cm high sides. Wrap plastic wrap around fingers and press crumb mixture firmly up sides to within 1/2 inch of top edge, then over bottom of pan.

For ganache-

Bring whipping cream to simmer in large saucepan. Remove from heat; add chocolate and Kahlúa. Whisk until chocolate is melted and ganache is smooth. Pour 2 cups ganache over bottom of crust. Freeze until ganache layer is firm, about 30 minutes. Reserve remaining ganache; cover and let stand at room temperature to use later for creating lattice pattern.

For filling-

Position rack in middle of oven and preheat to 180°c. Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until blended. Beat in flour. Stir rum, espresso powder, ground coffee, vanilla, and molasses in small bowl until instant coffee dissolves; beat into cream cheese mixture. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl.

Pour filling over cold ganache in crust. Place cheesecake on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until top is brown, puffed and cracked at edges, and center 2 inches moves only slightly when pan is gently shaken, about 1 hour 5 minutes. Transfer cheesecake to rack. Cool 15 minutes while preparing topping (top of cheesecake will fall slightly). Maintain oven temperature.

For topping-

Whisk sour cream, sugar, and vanilla in medium bowl to blend. Pour topping over hot cheesecake, spreading to cover filling completely. Bake until topping is set, about 10 minutes. Transfer cheesecake to rack. Refrigerate hot cheesecake on rack until cool, about 3 hours.

Run small sharp knife between crust and pan sides to loosen cake; release pan sides. Transfer cheesecake to platter. Spoon reserved ganache into pastry bag fitted with small star tip. Pipe 6 diagonal lines atop cheesecake, spacing 1 inch apart. Repeat in opposite direction, making lattice. Pipe rosettes of ganache around top edge of cake. Garnish with coffee beans, if desired. Chill until lattice is firm, at least 6 hours. (Can be made 4 days ahead. Wrap loosely in foil, forming dome over lattice; keep chilled.)

Original from: smittenskitchen via epicurious

DB: Gingerbread mini Houses

2009-12-26T11:34:00.007+02:00

I simply knew that this month challenge would be baking a gingerbread house! I used Y's recipe 'cause I didn't plan on eating the houses anyway and I had all the ingredients. My idea was making mini gingerbread houses as tree ornaments for our Christmas tree. Oh boy what have I let myself into. It was a serious pain measuring out the dough (I was literally measuring it with a yardstick and a spirit level!). Decorating on the other hand was sooo fun! I really enjoyed it and the finished houses were loved by everyone, they were a prefect fit to the best Christmas ever.

I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, Oh and my mom took some paparazzi pictures of me so my well covered identity is revealed! Ok not really, but at least you know now how the back of my head looks :P - Hope everybody had a super Christmas!

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

Chocolate Tree Deco!

2009-12-23T10:02:00.001+02:00

I'll make this a short one. I decided to make some cookie tree decorations, but not the ordinary gingerbread cookies- chocolate cookies. I can't help it, I just like chocolate much better than spiced gingerbread ones.

The recipe is super easy and the dough was surprisingly easy to use, it's soft and chocolaty and makes some awesome cut out cookies!

To decorate I used sprinkles in different sizes and mini Smarties.

*This is a butter cookie recipe, for chocolate cookie, substitute 20g of the flour with cocoa powder.

Chocolate cut out cookies:

(makes 60 small cookies, I got 40 in various sizes)

250 gr flour

75 gr sugar

pinch of salt

2 tbsp vanilla sugar

1 egg

125 gr butter

Beat the butter and sugars, add egg followed by flour and salt.

Wrap and refrigerate dough 1 hour (it was perfect for rolling out).

Roll out on floured surface and cut out cookies in desired shapes.

If you're planning on making these to hang, make little holes with a straw before baking.

Bake for 10-12 minutes in 180C preheated oven.

Royal icing:

2 tbsp meringue powder

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

6 tbsp water

food coloring

Place all ingredients in bowl of electric mixer with paddle attachment and mix on low speed for 7 minutes until thick and ready to use. Add color.

Thin with water if needed, or thicken with sugar.

For recipe source and detailed instructions on working with royal icing go here.

I'm away for Christmas but will be back on the 27th posting the daring baker's challenge.

I wish everybody a wonderful Christmas!

Fluffy Pancakes

2009-12-20T00:05:00.001+02:00

I will admit that I'm not a pancake recipe hunter, searching for the perfect batter. No. I'm more the throw in some flour, eggs and milk and pour'em in the pan kind of type - And somehow it works out. What I'm trying to get to here is that I never really made pancakes by recipe but more by... feeling. So I stumbled upon this recipe, it caught my eye, I tried it out and was hooked. I made this recipe three times last week. Oh yeah.

I got the recipe from evan's kitchen ramblings, gorgeous blog btw.

The secret to these amazingly fluffy pancakes is that the egg white is whipped separately and then folded in the batter.

Super fluffy!

The sauce above is frozen blackberries I cooked with 1 tbsp vanilla sugar until they burst and released their juices, so this was a very tangy topping. Oh and some maple on top!

Fluffy Pancakes:

(makes 7, can be easily doubled)

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup milk

1 egg, separated

2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp oil (or melted butter)

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and mix well.

In another bowl , whisk together egg yolk, sugar and milk followed by oil. Mix well and add it to the flour mixture. Whisk egg white until soft peaks, then fold into the batter.

Best is to refrigerate over night, but I found that even 30 minutes do the job. This step is basically meant to thicken the batter and prevent it from spreading to much when cooking.

Heat non stick pan on medium heat, then scoop batter onto the pan (I got about two at a time), cook until bubbles appear evenly on the surface, flip psncakes over and cook until golden.

No extra oil or butter needed for frying!

Original from: Evan's kitchen ramblings