Tag Archives: Almonds

December 12th, 2015

Cinnamon Mousse Cake with Apple Curd

Category Cake & Pastry, Dessert Tags: Almonds, Apple, Christmas, Cinnamon, Mituns 10 Responses

Christmas time can be a hectic time as well. To makes things easier, I like to have desserts that can be prepared in advance. Like this little mousse cakes, which can be prepared one week before time and then wait patiently in the fridge for their great day. You just have to remember the night before to take them from the freezer and defrost them in the fridge over night. The next day, they just have to get a little cocoa dusting and their dried apple star decoration and they are ready to be served.

With almond sponge, Cinnamon Mousse and a core of apple curd they are light and delicious end for any festive meal during Christmas time! And if you like to keep life even more simple, then skip the sponge and fill the mousse in little glases. This tealight holders have the perfect size!

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November 29th, 2015

Christstollen with sweet Starter

Category Christmas Cookies, hand kneaded Tags: Almonds, Candid lemon peel, Candid Orange peel, Cardamom, Christmas, Christstollen, Cinnamon, Hand kneaded, Macis, Raisins, Sweet starter, Vanilla 13 Responses

Last year I saw a Christstollen with Sourdough which “Ofenkante” published on his blog. This stirred my brain and I started to think about Stollen made with sweet starter. But as I was already done with Stollen baking at this time point, I stored the idea in the back of my mind. After one year of thinking about it I decided to bake directly two stollen for this Christmas: a traditional and a experimental one.

In the experimental stollen with sweet starter I kept the same ratio of ingredients then in my traditional one (never change a winning team) but build the the sweet starter over several steps to get a enough strength for rising. It is always amazing to see how strong the sweet starter gets when fed three times in a row! But as the feeding is time consuming, this recipe needs a day until it is done.

After four weeks of ripening I brought the stollen from the cold attic back to the warm kitchen and sliced it. The crumb was perfect, firm but moist and the different flavours had fused to a harmonic consonance. Compared to the traditional stollen there are subtle differences in flavour nuances, but it is hard to pin them down. After all, both of them taste terrific and I can not name a favourite.

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October 31st, 2015

Reformationsbrötchen

Category regional breads, Rolls, Special Occasions Tags: Almonds, Biga, Candid lemon peel, Candid Orange peel, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Macis, only with yeast, Raisins, Vanilla 8 Responses

I can not tell how I learn about the Reformationsbrötchen (reformation rolls). But the idea somehow stuck in mind and so I had to bake them just in time for the 31. October (Reformation day).

This rolls originate from the area around Leipzig and are baked in Saxony, Thüringen and Saxony-Anhalt. It is made from a buttery yeast dough enriched with a lot of raisins, candid orange and lemon peel and almonds. The square form with the red jam in the middle is said to symbolize either the Luther rose, the seal of Martin Luther, or a bishops hat.

My variant is made with a biga preferment for a complex flavour and is rich with raisins and almonds. The candid orange and lemon peel I added in a smaller amount. The crumb is soft and moist due to cream and butter and the tart cherry jam is a great counterpoint to the sweetness of the dough and fruits. A great pastry for the last day of October.

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September 19th, 2015

Cornucopia with Apple Nut Filling

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: Almonds, Apple, Cinnamon, Herbst, Nuss, Sweet starter, Walnuss 13 Responses

Cornucopia, the horn of plenty, is a symbol of abundance and nourishment in the classical myths and is often associated with autumn. And when I prepared my little pastries I look on the nuts and apples and that little cornucopia would be the right way to celebrate autumn plenty.

It is apple and no other fruit that means autumn to me. And I can’t stop praising the heirloom apples which are often much more aromatic then the new breeds. And for baking cake there is no better apple then my favourite Jakob Lebel. It is a tree which gives a plenty of fruits and which is often found in old gardens and orchards. In the beginning of last century the meeting of german pomiculture society named it as one of tree apple variety they advised to grow because it is so fruitful, aromatic and robust. Continue reading →

May 14th, 2015

Rosinenschnecken

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: Almonds, Frangipane, Raisins, Sweet starter 17 Responses

Since laminating the dough for the Tebirkes was so easy, I wanted to test this method and make some Danish raisin rolls (Rosinenschnecken in German) for a lazy sunday afternoon. The only problem was the fact, that raisin rolls contain R-A-I-S-I-N-S and my love don’t like them at all. And so I needed a filling which would be fine and moist even without raisins. After some musing I decided to go for a Creme Frangipane, which is a mixture of pastry creme and a almond mixture.

The dough for the danish contains some cream, which makes the crumb soft, and a big piece of sweet starter for a good flavour and a good rise. For laminating I used again the method of dividing the dough into pieces and rolling them into four rectangles. Then I placed thin cut butter pieces on them and stacked them. The dough stack was then rolled again and followed by two single folds and a half fold.

The Danish pastry turned out as well as I hoped for: A moist filling, lots of buttery layers and a aromatic crumb. And – at least for me – full of raisins 🙂

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April 15th, 2015

Bienenstich Muffin

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: Almonds, Honey, Muffins, Pudding, Sahne, Sweet starter, Vanilla 17 Responses

“Bienenstich” is a traditional german cake and its name literally means “bee sting”. For me it is a classical cake to serve on Sundays together with some coffee. When my parents visited us last sunday, I decided to make some muffin sized little Bienstich. Their dough is a “sibling” of my actual favourite braid, but in contrast to the original recipe it contains more cream and no butter. For a relaxed baking I let them proof overnight in a muffinpan in the fridge. And due to the fact that my kitchen machine kneads much better when using 500g flour, I doubled the amount of dough and made a little braid for breakfast with the second half.

The only little disadvantage is the height of the muffin which makes it challenging to eat it. The easiest way is to split it in two halves. Then it is very easy to enjoy this delicious cake!

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March 15th, 2015

Goldknödel with Sweet Starter

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: Almonds, Cake, Nuss, Sweet starter, Walnuss 20 Responses

I love the fact that my sweet Starter enables me to bake more or less spontaneously with a delicious preferment. And when my parents asked us this morning if we want to meet in the afternoon for a cup of coffee I decided to bake a family classic: Goldknödel (Golden Dumplings).

The recipe stems from the transsylvanian branch of the family and we all love it. My variant here contains less yeast, a preferment and cream instead of butter. This makes the crumb fluffy and enables me to proof the cake overnight if I want to. But today I choose the fast variant and proofed the cake at room temperature.

The cake is served uncut, and everyone can break a piece from it.

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February 6th, 2015

Wiener Patzerlgugelhupf

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: Almonds, Cake, Cinnamon, Curd, Gries, Gugelhupf, Poppy seeds, Sweet starter, Tonkabohne, Vanilla, Zwetschgen 6 Responses

The Patzerlgugelhupf is a speciality from vienna. “Patzerl” means “a little bit” and the cake is called like this because of his different fillings: a little bit nut, a little bit quark, a little bit plum butter, a little bit poppy seeds. A cake which is perfect for people who can not make up their mind and a cake which is perfect to use up left overs. I saw a picture of such a cake in the net some time ago and fell into love with it. And so I had to bake him. And because I always love to use the sweet starter as preferment for pastry, I used him here as well. But for those who do not call this kind of sourdough their own: You can replace him easily with a biga! Continue reading →

February 2nd, 2015

Baked Apple Cake

Category Cake & Pastry Tags: Almonds, Apple, Cinnamon 3 Responses

It was snowing in the morning when I got up and it kept snowing. That is more snow then precasted and we have a nice winter chaos out there. The main problem (like every year) are trucks without winter tyre. The traffic jam on our highway is at the moment about 20 km and I’m nearly happy that I’m on sick leave due to a fevery bronchitis and can stay home.

And so I use the time to show you the baked apple cake I made some weeks ago. The tiny little apples were part of my christmas decoration and slowly they have to be eaten. And because they where great as baked apple before I was inspired to bake a bake apple cake. It was a spontaneous idea. And just when I put the cake in the oven my parents called if we want to take a walk in the woods together in the afternoon. Maybe they smelled already the delicious cake?

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December 28th, 2014

Little Baked Apples with Marzipan Ice cream and caramelized Almonds

Category Dessert, Ice Tags: almond paste, Almonds, Apple, Invertsirup, Karamell, Tonkabohne, Vanilla No Responses

On the first christmas day we met with my family at my sisters place. To reduce the work for her (and because I like to do it) I offered to make dessert. For a long time I was lacking a good idea. But when I was decorating our flat with my Christmas apples I knew what to cook: Mini baked apples with ice cream. In our childhood my mum always bought marzipan ice cream (shaped as christmas tree) for us. And so I knew the flavour for the ice cream as well: Marzipan! Inspired by Michas cream cheese ice cream I created a new recipe and it is perfect for christmas time because you can make it in advance, freeze it and serve it directly from the fridge. Due to the high amount of invertsirup and cream cheese it will be soft and perfect to eat!

And the combination of cold ice cream, hot apples and crunchy almonds was the perfect end of a delicious Christmas meal!

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