Tag Archives: Cinnamon

October 2nd, 2012

Apple Cinnamon Rolls

Apfel-Zimt-Schnecken

In the morning the mist is already lingering in the valley I am living in, the air is getting colder and some windy and rainy days made it clear: Autumn is finally here. And so the first windfall from my parents garden is waiting in my kitchen to be used in some delicious recipes.

But what should I do with them? Appel strudel, Apple cake or Apfelküchle are all good recipes, but I was longing for something else. Something with yeast. Something like Cinnamon-rolls?

And so I started a yeast dough and bake some Apple-Cinnamon-Rolls. They are filled with a cream made of egg, butter, almonds and cookie crumbles, which I topped with finely chopped apples. Cinnamon is the main flavour in the seasoning, but a touch of allspice and cardamom add a little bit of deepness it.

A gorgeous treat, perfect for the early autumn!

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August 26th, 2012

Kanelfläta

Kanelfläta

Yeastspotting always inspires me always to bake something. And sometimes the recipes urge me to bake them directly. The Kanelfläta from My Italian Smörgåsbord was such a recipe.

Kanelfläta is a swedish cinnamon braid, which –as I learned from Barbara- is eaten together with the colleagues for fika (afternoon coffe break). My colleagues and me meet every morning for a “Frühstückspause” at 9 o’clock with a cup of coffee in our coffee room. And something sweet for the break is always loved. And so I decided to bake the Kanelfläta for them.

I reduced the amount of yeast in recipe and added a Lievito madre and some Cardamom to the dough. The combination of cardamom in the dough and cinnamon in the filling is a “must have” for me. I love this combination. I reduced the size of the braids a little bit and came up with four nice braids which had the perfect size for our “Frühstückspause” .

And what should I say? It’s as well a perfect treat for a morning break as for a afternoon break! A aromatic dough, the taste of cinnamon and cardamom – is there a better way to start a day?

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July 15th, 2012

Cinnamon waffles

Zimtwaffeln(2)Nearly three years ago I baked gaufres de ligé. Since then I baked them regularly and Chaosqueen and Steph from Kleinen Kuriositätenladen baked them, too.  And then Paule baked her Schuedi recipe in a new form: Cinnamon waffle schuedi. This are gaufres de ligé de luxe! Paule got the idea from another blog, where they baked  cinnamon rolls in a waffle maker. This Cinnamon waffles are the deluxe version of the the gaufres de ligé.

In my first try I followed her recipe but was a little bit disappointed of them, the dough was a little bit to firm and a high amount of butter leaking from the filling during baking. And so I tried them a second time,changing the recipe by reducing the yeast amount, adding a water roux and some more butter to the dough but reducing the butter amount in the filling.

And now I think they are perfect, caramel and cinnamon in perfect harmony, a sweet dream!

Who can not get belgian pearl sugar (Sucre grain perlé) can use sugar cubes, which are coarsely crushed. Or you should think about a trip to Belgic (Chocolate, good beer, pearl sugar). Zwinkerndes Smiley

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February 19th, 2012

Fried dough: Geknotetes and Berliner

Geknotetes I’m always relieved when the time of carnival lays behind us, as I told before. Sarah of Life ain’t no ponyfarm draws comics that perfectly shows how I feel during the “Fifth season”.

So only good thing in carnival for my opinion are the sweet pastry  which is baked during the “jecken Tage”. And baking some kind of fried pastry is the only thing related to carnival I do each year. This year I did Berliner and something which my family calls “Geknotetes”.

This year I used a new recipe which I developed using Water Roux and Poolish for a extra soft crumb and for a aromatic taste. I made the Berliner small and proofed them shorter then last, which created a strong ovenspring which results in Berliner with the typical white “Collar” I am try to get for years. The other important thing is that the frying temperature should not be higher then 160°C.

For filling the Berliner  I used the same  construction as two years ago: a syringe which I combined with a 10 cm long cut of a drinking straw. That works like a charm and I don’t have to buy an extra filling tip.

I am a little bit proud of my Berliner this time, I never get this beautiful collars  before and they tasted good, too.

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December 23rd, 2011

Christmassy almond cloud

MandelwolkeThe last Bread Baking  Day of the year 2012 has the theme “X-mas Edition” and is hosted at Cindystar. I get the idea for a bread fitting to this theme some days ago, when I was on my way back home from work. It was already very late, I had lunch about 7 hours ago and I was hungry. So I stopped at the bakery in railway station and bought a bun called “Little cinnamon almond cloud”. That sounds good, doesn’t it? But when I take the first bite I was disappointed. The bun was not stuffed with crunchy almond pieces but with very sweet marzipan in a very sweet dough overpowering completely the faint cinnamon taste. Not what I expected when I read the beautiful name!

When I was sitting in the train I started to think about how I would do such a kind of bread. And so I used the time to develop a recipe for a sweet bread seasoned with cardamom, Cassia buds and allspice and enriched crunchy almond pieces. Its a rich bread with a lot of egg and butter and its perfect for breakfast on Christmas mornings. I achieved a cloud like look with dusting the bread thickly with powdered sugar baking.

This bread with its delicate spices and almonds resembles much more my idea of an almond cloud

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December 11th, 2011

Little Plum Packets

Pflaumenpäckchen Its already the third advent and I still did not post a single Christmas cookie recipe! I have to change this immediately!

But until now I bake the traditional cookies in our family: Vanilla crescents, Liebesgrübchen, Black and white Kisses and Linzer Rings. But in the December Magazine of “Schrot and Korn” there were a cookie recipe that temped me very much. Little Plum Packets a butter cookie filled with plum butter and ground nuts.

They looked very complicated but when I read the recipe I realise that they are much easier to do the I thought. You just has to cut out stars, place a little bit of the filling in the middle and fold the pointed ends of the star over the filling and close everything with a hazelnut.

The cookies are great: a soft fruit and nut filling with hints of vanilla and cinnamon. I like them very much!

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April 2nd, 2011

Korvapuustit – Finnish cinnamon rolls

Finnische ZimtbrötchenMy colleagues are the best colleagues in the world and so I protested when they claim that I would NEVER bake cinnamon rolls for them. That is just partly true, but in the last month I bring nut triangles or cookies for our morning coffee break. And so its been a really long time since I bring cinnamon rolls.

So I promised to better myself Zwinkerndes Smiley and looked at the internet for a interesting recipe. A recipe that hooked me directly is the one for Korvapuustit – a Finnish cinnamon roll with a very nice shape. And I like cinnamon rolls with a nice shape! They remind me of Hamburger Franzbrötchen, who knows, maybe they are distant relatives?

Because two of my colleagues are lactose intolerant I create a recipe without dairy, similar to my lactose free challah, but with an additional Water roux to make the rolls more fluffy.  And I included a for me  essential spice for Scandinavian cinnamon rolls: cardamom.

When you serve them still oven warm with a cup of coffee then everyone will be happy! Smiley Continue reading

December 12th, 2010

Thüringer Spitzbuben

Thüringer SpitzbubenI tested already some new christmas cookie recipe this year but not one was as good as the ones I bake every year during my christmas baking. But this weekend I came across the recipe for “Thüringer Spitzbuben”. The name Spitzbube left me puzzled because I knew the term Spitzbube as an alias for Linzer Cookies, the delicous cookies filled with red currant jelly.

But the “Thüringer Spitzbuben” are not filled with some jelly, instead an almond is pressed in the middle of the cookie and glazed with some egg yolk. The dough is seasoned with cacao and cinnamon and smells irresistible during baking.

It has no similarity to his namesake but it taste delicious. I like the combination of almonds, cacao and cinnamon very much and so there is a good chance that this recipe will be added to the recipes I bake every year. Continue reading

December 4th, 2010

Apfelpunsch

ApfelpunschI like Christmas markets – if they are not crowded – and when I visit one with friends or colleagues we normally end our tour at a Glühwein stand. I do not like Glühwein not so much so I drink one of the non alcoholic drinks their offer. The hot chocolate is often not so good and the qualitiy of the “Kinderpunsch” differs very much from market stand to market stand.

This year I tested one that was just made from white grape juice and spices which was not bad but for my taste it was to sweet. And then I discovered the Apfelpunsch stand at the Christmas market on the Altermarkt in cologne. This was very delicious, a not so sweet heated apple juice, seasoned with cinnamon and clove.

Coming home after a long walk in the snow we both liked something hot to get warm again. And so I recreated the Apfelpunsch at home. It is easy to prepare and delicous so I think I will serve the punsch more often this winter. Continue reading