Scones

As you might have read earlier I love scones. They are the perfect company for the Sunday afternoon tea. Scones need only few ingredients and are very fast to make.

I looked for Irish baking books on our round trip two years ago and I found the Avoca Tea Time book in the shop at Powerscourt Gardens and fell for it. Lots of those recipes made it to my personal favourites list. I’ve done the same recipe over and over again but this time it ruled, they turned out sooo good. Even the next day they were super light and delicious, so I’d like to share this with you.

Mai 5

Cinnamon Marzipan Roll

Last weekend I found a cube of fresh yeast in my fridge that was almost expired so I decided to surprise my boyfriend with a twisted roll, the first I ever made. It looked nicer in the Lecker magazine but it was very delicious. I know a lot of people that are afraid of yeast doughs because they heard it is difficult – it’s not! A yeast dough is pretty easy and most of the work is done by the yeast itself while you can put your attention on other important stuff 🙂 No aluminium, no draft, heavy kneading, no machines, pre-dough … there are tons of things that are common sense about yeast doughs and that may have scared you off. You can forget almost all of this (except for the draft), I swear, no lie 🙂

Apr 26

Carrot Cake or Bunnies Favourite

I remember the first time I went to Dublin as if it was yesterday. I loved the city, the people and the special spirit there. But most of all, I liked the Queen of Tarts and their carrot cake. Back then you couldn’t find it in a tourist guide, it was a secret shared with my by a colleague and we stumbed into the new place that they just opened in Cows Lane. The carrot cake was juicy and fresh, full of flavours and melt-in-the-mouth. Since that time I’ve been looking for a good recipe that meets the taste of my menory. The flavour may have faded away over time but I find the recipe is totally awesome. Continue reading »

Apr 7

Brownie Tryouts

We traveled to India last Christmas for our friends’ wedding and stayed there some more days as you might know already. We hired a driver to show us around in Goa for one day. He showed us temples, cities and beaches, but the most amazing thing on that day was the best desert ever! We stopped for lunch at Hotel Fidalgo in Panjim and randomly picked one of the many restaurants there. It had Indian and International food on the menu and looked nice. And after burger and chicken we wanted some desert. I wanted to order cheesecake but there was none left, so the waiter recommended to definitely take the sizzling hot brownie. Looking back, I can’t tell how thankful I am for this…

Two waiters came up to our table, one carrying a very hot, sizzling pan and the other one with a small mug. Then they placed the pan in the middle of the table and poured the content of the mug over the Brownie that was topped with a scoop of ice cream. But see yourself what this looks like. When hot chocolate sauce combines with a fudgy brownie and vanilla ice cream – that is a dream come true.

When we returned from our vacation and went for dinner at our favourite Mexican place the waitress served Fajitas in one of those hot pans at the table next to us. And then this idea came to my mind… When the owner came up to our table and asked us about our holiday, I had to tell him about the brownie experience. And so I suggested he could adopt the recipe with a Mexican twist: Chocolate-Chili-Brownies and Tequila-Chocolate Sauce. He got hooked with the idea instantly. We agreed to give it a try after the Easter holidays. I had troubles with making brownies before, they were never fudgy enough, they were either too moist or too dry, something was always wrong with them… And that is why I couldn’t wait and I tried to invent a chocolate-chili brownie.

How do you get flavour into brownies? There are two possibilities: Add the flavour directly to the dough or cook the flavour out. I decided to do the latter, as I learned in the Patisserie course. So I was looking for a recipe that includes milk or cream. I found one and tried to adjust it to my needs. I was told that in order to bring flavour into a mass, use the best ingredients and cook the flavour in. So I bought very nice habanero chilies, dark chocolate and the best cocoa powder. The first attempt to flavour the cream was with a quarter of a red habanero chili, but that was not enough. I retried with a full habanero and passed the mixture through a sieve to squeeze out all the flavour and no parts in my brownies. I tasted the batter before I baked the brownie and it had a subtle hot chili taste *cough*. Well the batter was pretty hot but after it was baked, the chili got subtle. I am still not sure if I can taste the chili because I know it is there or not, but I will find out tomorrow after my colleagues did some blind-tasting. I am dropping off a piece of cake at the Mexican place tomorrow, let’s see what that might bring.

Apr 1

Tarte au Citron

As you might have read before I took a Patisserie class a month ago and I’ve been dying to do the recipes on my own. I was just curious to find out if I am capable of making a competitive Tarte au Citron all by myself. And yes, I CAN!
Now I know why these little things are so expensive and I also have to admit that I will keep buying them instead of making them myself… I was also a little confused with the quantities in the given recipes. But after preparing the cream for what felt like ages and what was only enough for 3 little tartelettes, I recalled that we multiplied and divided some of the recipe parts… I try to give you quantities that should match but I haven’t tried yet. Continue reading »

Mrz 25

Patisserie Course recap

For my birthday last summer I got a giftcard for a Patisserie course with L’Art Sucré and was very excited. Too bad I had to wait until now but it was totally worth it.

We made a wonderful desert, Tarte au citron and I learned that my grandmas pie crust recipe sucks. Florian Köller said something that made me think: Baking is just Chemistry and anyone is capable of making a cake that tastes good when you stick to the recipe, but to make perfect fantastic cakes you need to pay attention to all the details.

only the best ingredients guarantee the perfect taste (e.g. piemontese hazelnuts, Ceylon cinnamon, real vanilla)
only use french butter (because it is the best in the world… I have my doubts there…)
I need a digital thermometer
it is essential to use butter and eggs at room temperature
patience is a very valuable and necessary asset for patissiers and bakers
creaming is better than sablage for perfect results (and that’s why my pie crust recipe stinks) and strictly no hands!
when beating with an electric mixer don’t overspeed to blend all ingredients (I was told exactly the opposite at Das Cupcakes cupcake course where Ewa Feix stated that you should use a little 5 sec highspeed blending in the end)
to make a silky smooth meringue only beat at low speed (Kitchen Aid maximum 4)
the professional Version of the Kitchen Aid is so much better
bringing taste into ice cream is VERY easy if you cook the milk-cream-mixture with the flavour and let it brew for 10 minutes
Patisserie is all about planning and there is no witchcraft involved
making a Patisserie worthy tarte au citron takes a lot of a) time b) expert knowledge and c) patience (and I mean a whole lot)
I now know why a tiny tartelet costs 6 bugs…
And if you do take notes be sure to note down every little bit

Mrz 17

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

I found this wonderful recipe on one of my favourite blogs last year just before St Patricks Day: The Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes! And I made them for my friends housewarming party that was around Paddys day and everyone loved them. I wasn’t completely confident with the recipe because the cupcakes were too sweet, too chocolatey and could have tasted more like Guinness in my opinion. So I decided to give them another try this year and give them a schabakery twist if you know what I mean 🙂

I have adjusted the borwneyed bakers recipe a little to my gusto. And it is a mix of metric US measures so keep your scale and your cup measurements at hand. Continue reading »

Feb 24

Schabake-aton

My boyfriend asked me, if I can cater his farewell party with sweet and salty baked goods – the perks of a hobby baker as girlfriend 😉

So I took a day off and so did my best friend who deserves a million Thank Yous for being such a great friend, investing her freetime and being such a good help in the kitchen. To bake for over 40 people is very challenging in many ways. Not only the number of guests should guide your thoughts but also day and time play an important role. You never know if the people like more sweet or more salty stuff, whatever you do it’s going to be wrong any way… So don’t panic and make wise choices. Everyone has all-time favourites and standard recipes, stick to those and don’t experiment on such days.

We deciced to go for this:

Donauwelle (Donau waves, a German cake classic with cherries, cream and chocoalte)
Muffins (with chocolate splits and double chocolate)
Amerikaner (Americans, a German coffee time classic)
Brownie Bites
Mini Quiches
and we improvised some Cheese-Amaranth-sticks

We baked more than half a day in order to finish up everything but it was totally worth it and we had a blast. In the end, the Quiches were gone in almost no time, the Donau waves were a fast seller and half of the brownies and muffins were left over. Luckily I have some colleagues that had to work late anyway and were very happy about the left overs.

Feb 24

Donauwelle

Donau waves are a German cake classic and my Mum’s recipe earns a lot of compliments every time, because it is simply the best! The base is a vanilla cream cake, topped with chocolate cake, poked with cherries. On top comes a whipped vanilla buttercream and a dark chocolate glace with a wave-like pattern. The buttercream gives this classic tray bake a decadent touch, but a cake table without Donau-waves is simply unthinkable.

For the dough:

200 g butter (at room temperature)
200 g sugar
15 g vanilla sugar
5 eggs (size M)
2 pinches salt
300 g flour
1/2 pack baking powder
350 g cherries (drained)
2 tbsp cocoa
eventually 1 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 160° C (with fan). Drain the cherries and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Soften the butter, then add the sugar and vanilla sugar and mix until creamy. Mix flour, salt and baking powder and sift it in. Stir it by hand and don’t overmix. Spread half of the dough onto the baking tray. Sift the cocoa powder into the rest of the dough and mix it, add the tbsp milk if neccessary. Spread the dark dough over the blond dough evenly. Scatter the cherries over and press them in lightly. Transfer to the hot oven and bake for 35 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Let it cool completely.

For the buttercream: (this is the easy Version of buttercream with a packet mix, you can also use my secret recipe)

1 pack Vanilla cake cream (Dr Oetker Tortencreme Vanille)
300 ml milk
200g butter at room temperature

~~Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix due to instructions on the packaging.~~ Edit: Don’t follow stupid Dr. Oetker, I did last night and it ended bad – small butter pieces in my butter cream that wouldn’t go away! And then I realized that I always do it like that: Soften the butter, then add the milk slowly while mixing and the cake cream powder afterwards. When everything is blended, mix on high speed for 2 minutes. Then spread over the cooled cake.

For the icing:

200 g dark chocolate
50 g coconut fat (Palmin)

Melt the chocolate with the coconut oil and mix unitl smooth. Let it cool until lukewarm and spread over the butter cream. Some take a fork and make a wavelike pattern on top.

When cutting the cake use a hot knive, otherwise the top will crackle and fall into pieces.

Feb 17

Peanutbutter Fudge – Valentine Hearts

I’ve been inspired for this Valentines Treat by Man of Aran Fugde who recently posted heart shaped fudge on their facebook page. I’ve been dying to make some Fudge on my own but been put off by all the hassle with tempering the sugar, complicated recipes and the confectioner in a TV show who talked about the million things that can go wrong. Once again The Bakery Edition of Lecker Magazine had the answer. I found this very easy recipe from a blogger that was featured in the magazine: Peanutbutter Fudge by Zucker Zimt und Liebe.

The recipe is in German this time and super easy to make. After the Fudge was set, I used a heart shaped cookie cutter et voilá…

Schabakery

I love baking