It's been ages! Variations on cookies.

So, I'm back. The summer was just too hot and busy and amazing for me to actually cook something I'd like to write about. Or cook anything at all.
Now, the winter is creeping closer and the nights are colder and it's time to spend more time behind the stove, where it's warm.
Since I've gone lazy over the summer, cookies seemed like the easiest choice. I've made them a couple of times now and they've turned out really well.

Basic cookie dough:

150g butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla sugar (heaped)
280g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
150g sugar
1/4 tsp salt

"Optional" additions - add one or two of these to the basic cookie mix to make it more interesting.

* 2 tbsp cocoa powder
* 100g nuts (I prefer hazelnuts, but whatever floats your boat)
* 100g raisins or other dried fruit
*~1tsp? cinnamon (I'm not a big fan of cinnamon so you're going to have to figure out the exact dosage)
* chocolate chunks, why not try mixing bits of white and dark chocolate?
* lemon zest or lemon juice
* a pinch or two of nutmeg (don't overdo it!)
* seeds, generously (I'm sure sesame seeds would do wonders even though I've never tried)
* crunched caramel candy (crunched mint flavoured candies and cocoa powder for fans of that particular combination!)
*...

Whisk together butter, egg and vanilla sugar, then add all the other ingredients. Mix well, using hands if necessary. Bake in a preheated oven at 175C, making sure they don't burn. Let cool (the ones with chocolate bits may need to cool for quite a while for the chocolate to harden), and enjoy.

Rhubarb and coconut tart with curd

It's rhubarb season! Yesterday I went to the market and bought 2.5 kilograms of rhubarb. This will definitely not be the last rhubarb based thing I make this year. No sir.

Rhubarb and coconut tart with curd:

Crust:
1/2 of the crust recipe from here. Line a 26cm baking tin and set aside.

Filling:
500g rhubarb, chopped
400g curd paste (or cream cheese, I suppose)
grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1 egg
~100g sugar
100g coconut flakes
1 tbsp potato starch (second thought: skip it)

Mix everything together and pour into the prepared crust. Bake at 175C for about an hour or until it looks done. Cover with a towel and let it cool.
Serves 8-10 people.

Strawberry - rhubarb tart

Springtime! What does it mean? Rhubarb. Lots and lots of rhubarb to be made into delicious tarts.

Strawberry - rhubarb tart

1 yeast dough recipe
500g rhubarb, chopped
200g strawberry jam (I used frozen wild strawberry jam)
2.5 tbsp potato starch
~120g sugar

Line a medium sized baking tin with rolled out yeast dough and let it stand for about 10 minutes. In a large pot, mix the sugar, 1.5 tbsp starch and rhubarb and shake it up until the rhubarb pieces are covered in sugar. Mix the remaining 1 tbsp of the potato starch into the strawberry jam.
Spread the strawberry jam over the dough and cover it with the rhubarb-sugar mix. Bake at about 180C for about an hour or until the crust is nice and golden.
Cover it with a towel and let it cool for about an hour. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Makes about 16 servings.

Even my mum liked this one.

Cherry bakewell tart

Writing a masters thesis is hard work and one has to reward themselves for a job well done. The cherry bakewell tart is one of my favourites, but making it is quite a hassle, so I only make it on special occasions. Finishing a thesis is a good enough reason, I think.

Cherry bakewell tart

Crust: 1/2 of the crust recipe from here.
Use it to thinly line a medium size baking tin. Preheat the oven to 170C. Cover the dough with baking paper and fill it with rice for weight. Bake the crust for about 15 minutes, then remove the rice and bake it for 5 more minutes. Set aside to cool.

Filling I: The cherry jam
300g cherries
 1tbsp potato starch
70g sugar (or to taste, I never measured that)

Boil the cherries and sugar with a little bit of water until cooked. Homogenise(sciency!) it with a blender. Mix the potato starch with 2 tbsp cold water or cooled(!!) cherry juice from the pot and quickly stir it into the cherry mush. Cook the jam for a little longer until it thickens and set aside.

Filling II: Almondy goodness
150g ground almonds
3 eggs
100g butter, softened
100g sugar
almond extract (1/2 tsp)

Whisk together the butter and sugar, followed by eggs, one at a time. Add the almond extract and fold in the ground almonds.

Assembly:
Cover the bottom of the crust with the cherry jam. Carefully pour Filling II over the jam. Bake at 175C for about 30 minutes until it's golden brown.

Glaze:
100g caster sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon

Once the tart is ready, let it cool a little, then pour the glaze over the tart and let it set for about an hour.
In theory, it should make about 12 servings. In practice...well, it's an amazing tart.

The tart can also be made in muffin tins. These tiny cherry bakewell tarts were made for Aapos birthday in November.

Recipe stolen and modified from here

Peach and poppy seed tart

Another experiment, this time for my mums birthday.

Crust:
350-400ml flour
1 tsp baking soda
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 egg
65 g butter, melted
pinch of salt

grated zest of 1/2 lemon
60g sugar
35ml cooking oil

Mix together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together butter, oil, egg, lemon juice and lemon  zest. Add the dry ingredients, mix well. Line a pie mold with the dough and set aside. Prepare the filling.

Filling:
2 packs sweetened vanilla curd (or cream cheese, I suppose)

1 tbsp sugar
1.5 eggs
2 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp sour cream
0.5 tbsp flour
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

300g canned peaches, drained and sliced
dodgy polish poppy seed pie filling (I suppose you could use poppy seeds mixed with honey and raisins instead)

Spread the poppy seed mix over the bottom of the unbaked crust, cover with sliced peaches. Carefully pour the curd mix over the peaches, making sure you don't displace any of them.

Bake at 180C for about an hour or until it looks done.

I like the way this tart turned out.

Special: Rob's chocolate poundcake!

 By Rob:

I want to have my cake and eat it too. And by that I mean, I want my girlfriend to make me some cake and then I eat it. The only problem with this is that Rita, who is a cake-baker par excellence, is around about 1,200 miles away, and even with airmail, that cake is going to go stale.

So she made the radical suggestion that I bake a cake myself. Having used an oven before, and achieved a C in Food Technology at school, I was not one to back down from this challenge.

That’s not to say it went well.

First, I carefully (skim) read the instructions that had been laid out for me:

“100g chocolate
3 big tablespoons of cocoa powder (afterthought: maybe not so big)
170g sugar
170g butter
170g flour
4 eggs
no salt if using salted butter  (if not, add a pinch)
1 level tsp baking powder

Chop the chocolate bar into nice chunks. Preheat your fan-oven to 160ish degrees (170C if using a normal oven). Grease a loaf tin or a glass bowl and set it aside. In a bowl, blend butter and sugar until fluffy. With a whisk (or a blender, I suppose), add eggs, one at a time (wait until it's incorporated until you add the next one). Mix flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder, add to the butter and egg goo and mix. Mix in the chocolate chunks. Spoon batter into the prepared loaf tin/glass bowl, bake for about an hour.
If the top looks like it's getting too dark, cover with a lid for a bit. Test with a narrow knife or a toothpick for doneness. If you stick it in and it comes out clean it's done. Let the cake cool for about 15 minutes, flip it out of the bowl, let it cool some more. Nom.”

I then set to the mission with all the zeal of a hero from romance literature, which would have been appropriate had the task not required specific measurements and precise processes to complete.

Clouds of flower in the eyes later, I establish that 170g of butter is an obscene amount and pile the sugar on top.

I have a Tesco Value blender which, in its instructions, advises use for periods no longer than 45 seconds, upon which time it is prone to spontaneous combustion or failure. The thought of its shuriken-like appendage melting off its moorings and shattering the glass mixing bowl in my hands would not deter me however, nor would the very real and offensively acrid smell of burning plastic. I pureed that butter and sugar to a consistency akin to ectoplasm and forged on.

I remember at this time to turn on the oven and grease the bowl, requiring more butter, which makes my arteries forcibly retract from my hands in an attempt to prevent me from subjecting them to the torture I was under orders to design.

I then set about lobbing eggs like hand grenades against the side of the glass bowl and then practicing my field surgery skills by picking out bits of shattered eggshell. By the fourth egg there is a long slew of egg-white goo stretching from the mixing bowl to the empty, broken shells a foot away in a bowl of their own.

This mess is compounded by the adding of flour and baking powder, making it seem like my kitchen was inhabited by a troll with a cold and a coke addiction.  Gratuitous paper towelling later, and it was time to spoon in the cocoa.

“Heaped” apparently does not equate to mountainous, but that’s hindsight talking. I dump my glorious brown spoonfuls into the mix and immediately add the solid, milk chocolate chunks. Before mixing.

With my temperamental blender a loose cannon at the best of times, it’s banshee-like wails at the interference of these chunks meant the mixing process had to be done with a fork. The result was lumpy and of pitch-like consistency, until I once again braved the blender and obliterated the last of the stubborn pockets of cocoa.

Splatter-shot now once again required cleaning and I foolishly left the blender stood upright in the mix. It’s see-saw descent onto the kitchen side made sure to include maximum black-brown discharge across the shiny white surface, doubling the task of cleanup.

With the bowl now full of the chunky brown mixture and several pieces of cutlery smothered in floury, bitter crème, I put the cake into the oven and spent 20 of the 50 minutes cooking time in repairing the damage this foul invention had wrought on my kitchen.

When it finally emerged from its slow roasting, the cake had risen and hardened like a bakery product. I was stunned.

Taking it out of the oven to cool, and later popping it crisply from the bowl, I was even more surprised to find the mayhem that had ensued was now so orderly and cake-looking. And cake smelling. The chocolate aroma was so strong I could smell it upstairs, and now taking a small piece at point blank range and taste-testing it, I found it so overpowering I could still taste the fragment 40 minutes later at the gym (which I felt the need to visit, having seen what goes into such a creation).

Finally, after two hours of cooling and marvellous Sunday dinner, the cake was cut and had with tea. Thankfully, it’s immense density of flavour had mellowed somewhat and the slice was eminently edible. My dad told me to pass on the message that it’s “fantastic” and argued that when Rita had given the recipe, one couldn’t say anything else.

He took two pieces with him as we went off to London for the week, and I have half of it still in my fridge awaiting consumption. Were it not for the milk chocolate chunks however, I would be sure my overzealous cocoa portions would have made it unbearably strong. Nevertheless, I count it as a success for my girlfriend, and write this as a formal endorsement of her food-blogging capacity. If a busy and culinarily incapable man such as myself can enjoy the recipes found herein, so can you .

Kringel time!

Yesterday was Rojus birthday party. The theme was Glam. The party was amazing. The party games were lots of fun and we never ran out of wine.

As a part of my birthday present to Roju I offered to bake her a pastry for her party. Since I've never baked a kringel before, it was an adventure for both me and my mum, who graciously agreed to help me with it.

Here's what you will need:

60g bakers yeast
450ml warm milk
4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
225g softened butter
1200g flour
4 large eggs

I used the biggest pot we had and it was barely big enough to contain the rising dough. Crumble yeast into a bowl/pot, pour in the milk and mix until the yeast has dissolved. Add sugar, salt and eggs, mix a little, add the flour, mix a little bit more and finally, add the butter. Knead well, until the dough comes loose from the sides of the pot. If it's still too sticky, add more flour. Let the dough rise for about an hour, preferably in a warm place.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling.

1.5 jars chocolate spread
300-400g raisins, soaked in hot water
150g white chocolate, chopped
300g dried cherries, chopped
300g hazelnuts, roasted and chopped

Since I ended up doing two pastries, I divided everything in two.
Roll the dough into a rectangle, it has to be quite thin. cover the dough in chocolate spread, leaving about 2cm from one side empty (it's going to be rolled up and the naked dough sticks better). Evenly distribute other fillings over the dough and roll it up.

Should you want to make it a little longer, this is the time to stretch the roll. With scissors, split the roll lengthways. Don't worry, the filling won't fall out. Much.

 Twist the two halves around each other (like this), transfer carefully to a baking tray. Give it a shape, brush it with egg and bake at 170C for about 40 minutes or until the top is nice and golden.
Let the kringel cool under a towel for about an hour.

Chocolate glaze:

Heat 100ml whipping cream until it's almost boiling (but don't boil!), mix with 200g dark chocolate and pour over the cooled kringel. Give it an hour to set and enjoy your delicious pastry.
It really was delicious, by the way.

Happy 25th, Roju!

Birthday vanilla-raisin stritzel

Once again it's time to get all the family together and celebrate me getting one year closer to my death. Or, I guess, celebrate my birthday. Ignore the cynicism, I'm actually quite happy they're coming. I get to spend time with my family and bake interesting things.

I usually make a cake, but this time I decided to take the easy way out and make this ...stritzel...twist...pastry...thing?

Vanilla-raisin stritzel
Modified. Makes one long pastry.

Dough:
12g yeast or 1/2 pack of dry yeast
1.5 dl milk
1/4 egg
0.5dl sugar
0.5tl salt
3.5-4 dl flour
50g butter, melted

Filling:
200g curd paste
150g butter, melted
0.5dl sugar
2 small packs of vanilla custard mix (dodgy, I know)
1.5 tbsp vanilla sugar
a couple handfuls of raisins

a little egg for glazing
caster sugar for dusting

First, prepare the dough.  Break the egg into a glass and whisk slightly with a fork. Dissolve the yeast in warm(not hot!) milk, or if using dry yeast, mix it with the flour first. Add 1/4 of the egg mix, butter, sugar and salt, then mix in the flour. Knead well. Leave it to rise for about 30 minutes.

For the filling, mix the curd, butter, sugars, custard mix and raisins. There's no egg here, but don't worry, the starch in the custard mix will thicken it.

Roll the dough into a rectangle, add the filling and braid as shown here. Carefully transfer to a baking tray, or make it easier for yourself and roll the dough out on a tray to begin with. Let the whole thing rise for 15 more minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to about 180C(-190C). Brush the stritzel with some leftover egg mix to make it shiny and stick it in the oven for about 30 minutes.

When it's golden brown it's done! Let it cool a little, then dust with caster sugar. Enjoy.

In the beginning there was... pound cake.

I've had the idea to keep a blog for quite some time now. So far, lazyness has kept me from doing it, but there's only so much procrastinating a person can tolerate... and eventually you run out of stuff to do instead of what you should be doing.

So here it is. First post.
Shiny.

At around 2am in the morning, as I was stumbling around foodgawker I got an IDEA. You know how it goes. The idea becomes an obsession. The obsession becomes a need...
So, first thing after I woke up at around midday was to drag myself to the shop and buy a can of condensed milk and two packs of butter. And kiwis, but I will talk about those later.

And I made... Condensed milk pound cake (recipe below)! As it baked, it filled our entire flat with the most fantastic smell. When it was done, I took it out of the oven, told my brother to keep his hands off until I get back... and left for the gym. Leaving my dear brother sitting next to the cake.
I am so evil.

When I got home a couple of hours later, I discovered my cake unmolested, so I sliced it up and stuck 2/3 of it in the freezer. Pound cake freezes perfectly.
If I had known about starting a blog, I would have taken a picture.

I had a slice of it later with a bowl of fruit salad (that's where the kiwi comes in) and it was definitely the best pound cake I have ever made. It was moist and aromatic and light(!!!) and just sweet enough.
I will definitely make that again. And you should too.

Recipe, with slight modifications:
226g unsalted butter at room temperature
200g flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
100g sugar
half a small bottle of butter vanilla flavouring
1 tsp salt (I used a little less because I'm afraid of using too much)
240g sweetened condensed milk
3 large eggs (I lost some of the egg white because I dropped an egg in the sink...)

Preheat the oven at 160C. Forcefully mix the butter with the sugar. Add the condensed milk, mix some more. Add the vanilla flavouring. In another bowl, mix dry ingredients, then pour them on top of the wet ingredients. Mix some more (getting tired now?). At last, add the eggs and mix some more. Transfer the batter into a loaf pan. Bake for about an hour and a bit until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool under a towel. Prepare to have more reasons to visit the gym.

I refuse to butter my loaf tin for cakes that are mostly made of butter. They don't slide out, but they are very easy to remove once they've cooled. Lazy.