Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Cappuccino Muffins

It seems that half of the food blogosphere is moving, and I am, too. Soon I'm going to leave this little apartment I lived in for two and a half years.

After thinking and talking about it for some time, I decided to move in with my boyfriend. It's exciting, I'm a bit nervous, but so looking forward to it. The new apartment will be less dark, with beautiful hardwood floor in the two bedrooms, a bigger kitchen, an even smaller fridge.

To celebrate, I brought you these Cappuccino Muffins. They could also be called Irish Coffee Muffins, if you decide to pour some whisky over the tops of the muffins. Then they would be totally appropriate to eat today, St. Patrick's Day. But really, make them any day of the year, not just today, and celebrate love with me. Because I am really happy today. (And so close to crying right now, I don't know what happens with me, I'm becoming more and more sentimental it seems)


Monday, March 12, 2012

Hummus Feta Soufflé

All I could think of the last days was soufflé. I never made one before, and I think I only had one once, and can't remember how it was. But I just love the idea of a soufflé, what it stands for in my imagination. I imagine that only really fancy people make soufflés, the ones who also have tea parties and wear hats. Or something like that. And while I thought it was a bit over the top to make a soufflé out of humble hummus, I just could not stop thinking about it.

I was a bit afraid to make a soufflé, though. I was afraid of failure, having heard that they are a bit difficult to get right. It felt a bit uncomfortable, moving into new territory. I'd love to think of myself as being a fearless cook, but I'm not. I have many insecurities in the kitchen. I don't know how many times in the past weeks I have said that I would love to try this or that, but don't because I am afraid of it. Afraid of failure. As if the cooking gods would come down to punish me if I end up making an imperfect soufflé.

I think the result was worth the risk, the nervousness, the sweaty hands I had as I stood in front of the oven, waiting for the magic to happen. And it happened, the soufflé rose nicely, but I guess I took it out a minute or two too early. It lost some of it's height. No cooking god came down to punish me, and the soufflé really tasted great. I think I can safely say that it was one of the best things I cooked so far. But perhaps that is just the feeling everyone has after conquering a fear. The hummus flavour did not come through much, but all the flavours combined with the lemon zest, and the light texture made me want to sing. I have that urge when I'm excited about something.
A picture of the not perfectly risen soufflé. I think it is pretty, anyway.


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Black Sesame and Pear Muffins

They are delicious, what is in them? - my boyfriend asked?
I always make him guess - I love this little game, it almost makes me feel like a child, at the same time hoping that he finds out and that he doesn't.
Poppy seeds, he said. I knew he would say that and that made me even happier. No poppy seeds in these muffins.
Apples, his second guess. Wrong again. I have a big smile on my face. I want to tell him, but at the same time I want him to find out. But he doesn't. I tell him, happy to have made something unusual, excited about all the possibilities in baking and cooking.


The Surprise Ingredients were Black Sesame and Pear, mixed in with some butter, brown sugar and the other suspects. They are really good, but what I love even more about them is that they make people pause and ask questions.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Coconut Pineapple Swirl Crumbcake


Can we talk kitchen failures?
Just last week I wanted to bring a cake to a get together with friends. I was a bit short on time, but everything went well and I baked the cake, removed it from the oven, let it cool down for a few minutes and then put it in a bag and took it with me. And somehow, the cake liquified on the way to my friend. The tester that I inserted came out clean, but when I tried to cut it into slices, the center pour out like in a molten chocolate cake. Exept, it wasnt. We ate some of the crust and had to throw the rest away. And I still don't know why and how on earth this happend. Any ideas?

What is the last thing that went wrong in your kitchen? Please share your stories with me.


But this weeks cake turned out like I imagined it to be. I adapted a recipe I found on the Post Punk Kitchen, Raspberry Jam Swirl Crumbcake. I brought pineapple jam home from my holidays in Spain, and wanted to used it in this cake. I added some coconut to it, made it non-vegan (oops, always happens to me) with the addition of butter in the crumbs, and oh they are good. They are not too sweet, the top is crumbly and crunchy and the tropical flavour just make me feel relaxed, like during a holiday. And they were really easy to make, too. No failures here.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Roasted Winter Vegetable Tart


More and more I come to respect the course of the seasons, the long absence of summer fruit and vegetables. I had the desire to eat seasonally for a long time, but I still bought tomatoes in winter, unripe peaches or watery strawberries. I never bought said strawberries in fall or winter, but still, strawberries picked unripe and shipped and packaged never taste good. I always knew, but I still wanted that taste, bought the strawberries and was so disappointed. No more. Now I get most of my veggies in a weekly csa box, no eggplant or tomatoes from them right now. That's completely fine with me, their carrots and beets are beautiful. I get a lot of salad, and I'm really inspired to find more ways to eat them, and not let them eat me or me fridge (If you would like to hear about what to do with all the salad, let me know. I'd love to share what I did until now)

It feels like spring here, at the moment. I have no doubts that winter will soon return for a few more weeks, but right now the air smells of spring. The earth seems to awake, everything is just that bit greener. I really would love to eat asparagus right now. Or fresh peas, with just a little bit salt and butter.

I know that it is too early. My excitement will only grow more, and on the first day that I see asparagus here I'll be really happy. For now, I'm sticking, faithfully, to my root vegetables. They are not the only vegetables I eat right now (think cauliflower, cabbage, kale), but I just have a special place in my heart for them.
When I saw the January cover from bon appetit, I thought the tart it showed would feature many different winter vegetables. I was a bit disappointed, in the recipe and Ottolenghi, who I thougt was more of a seasonal cook. Peppers, tomatoes and eggplant right now?
Picture from last night. This is how the tart looked whole.

Hell no, and I dare to say that I think my version is better. I really loved the lemon zest, it added a much needed kick of freshness to the roasted vegetables.

And the homemade crust with buckwheat is just wonderful. I think I'll never go back to buying ready-to-use crust again, it just doesn't taste good and it contains strange things that I think have no business in a pie crust. You could use just your regular recipe for a pie crust, but adding buckwheat flour was a great idea. It makes play the crust a bigger role, not just the backdrop for what you put in there.
Before I forget to say it. It takes some time to prepare this tart. However, most of the time is spent chilling the dough, letting the vegetables roast, cool down etc. I'm currently writing some papers for college, and I just took some breaks from writing to prepare the different parts, but I really got something done too.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Apple Muffins


These are really healthy muffins. But I thought I couldn't say this in the title, or else you would run off.
But, please, give me a few seconds (or minutes, rather) to tell you about these muffins, and how lovely the are.
This all started with the recipe for Orchard Pear Muffins I found on Tea & Cookies. I was really eager to bake, but did not want to end up with half a pound of butter and sugar in muffin or cake form. Don't get me wrong, I do love these things, but sometimes I just want to bake, but not eat something that sweet. (Am I alone in this?) I found these muffins at the perfect time, and just had to make them. And since I was already baking healthy muffins, why not just leave out the eggs and most of the honey? I ended up with a rather dense muffin, but I loved the flavor, the amount of sweetness was quite right and they were great in the morning with a bit of Salted and Honeyed Brown Butter Spread (is it wrong to share a recipe for a healthy muffin and then link to this heavenly spread? Make that too, just give it away after you tried it. Only keep a little for yourself)

But I knew they could get better. I tried again today, and I think the ratio between the wet and the dry ingredients is better now. (The picture above is a muffin from the first batch, btw) I also swapped the pears for apples, since I found the flavor of the pear got lost somehow, in my opinion the apples work better here. But feel free to resubstitute pears here.
Back to these muffins. They taste like oatmeal to me. Oatmeal in muffin form. They have a crackly crust, are still rather dense (because I used flour low in gluten), have great layers of texture with the chewy oats, the soft apples and the quite crunchy millet. I really enjoyed them for breakfast or as a snack.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I make the "applesauce" for these muffins from scratch. Exept, it isn't really difficult or time consuming, and I dont even know if you can call these coarsely mashed apples applesauce. I don't care, I'm crazy like that, and I guess you could use storebought applesauche instead of the whole apples I instruct you to use in the recipe. But really, if you let the apples simmer while you prepare dinner, you can totally make the muffins right after you had said dinner.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Jasmine Tea Muffins


It feels rather strange to be posting a recipe for something sweet after telling you how I needed a break from all the eating. But it's all about balance in life, and baking just felt so right today. I spent the day in the Alps. It was so beautiful I forgot to take pictures. (I just want to share one I took on Sunday, the mountain in the back is close to where I grew up. I never noticed it when I grew up, but now I'm always so impressed when I'm back home)

But the air is so fresh, it somehow makes me feel a bit more alive. And tomorrow I'll be up again, my boyfriend and I are going to try snowshoeing again, it was great fun last year. Snowshoeing is really tiring, so a light soup just would not do. I'll be bringing these little muffins. I originally found a recipe for Earl Grey Tea Muffins on Just Bento. I just like Jasmine Tea a lot better than Earl Grey, and when I tried the recipe as it was I found it to be quite dense, and eggy (is that a word? The texture is just a bit wrong when you use too many eggs, in my opinion) I decided to use another recipe as the base for these little muffins. Jasmine tea just makes me happy, when I worked in a café after school one of my bosses said that Jasmine tea was her "happy tea", whenever she needed something to lift her up, she drank a cup of Jasmine tea. I loved that, and it somehow translated to me, it just makes me happy, too. So make these muffins, have them with a cup of Jasmine tea, be happy, and make the world a better place!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Red Wine and Brown Butter Chocolate Cake

This happens when you take a great recipe and make it even better:
Red wine in a cake already sounded fantastic. However, I made this cake for my flatmates birthday, and she really loves chocolatey chocolate cakes. And the red wine chocolate cake I found over at smittenkitchen struck my fancy, but really did not contain enough chocolate.
There are not many things I consider to be true without exception, but more chocolate is always better. So I added chocolate chips to the batter. Then I made a chocolate ganache to top the cake. More chocolate. After that, I really did not know how to add more chocolate.
I cant help but make easy recipe more complicated. Where the original recipe used regular butter, I decided to brown mine. I couldn't really taste the brown butter after the cake was baked, but I want to believe that it added another layer of flavour to the already amazing cake.

Well, the birthday cake was eaten way too quickly, and I was looking through my facebook friends to find someone who lives close I could bake this cake for. We're invited to a party tomorrow, and since I could not find someone to bake for, I decided to make the cake again to bring with me. Only this time I changed it up again and made cupcakes out of the cake. I also changed a few things up again, since the batter for the cake was rather liquid and I thought that this might make it difficult to fill the cupcake liners. I think this recipe should also work in cake form, since I did not change that much.



Sunday, October 16, 2011

Using What You Have or: What To Do With Old Bread


I really hate wasting food. I feel bad when I have to throw something away because I did not come around to using it. Not because of the money. I usually have to throw away food that my flatmate bought and did not eat. I still feel bad about it. I don't know what it is, it is probably a mix between "there are people who don't have enough food to feed their children" and "this food had the potential to be something good". (is it strange to think that food has potential? I think I'm weird...)

So usually when I go out to buy food, I don't have a list of what I need to buy, but a mental list of what it is that I already have in my fridge. This wasn't reflected in my posts up till now. I thought I could only post "real" recipes.
This is not "me". I feel restricted by real recipes, I waste food if I have to buy all the ingredients in the recipe and then end up not using what is waiting for me in the fridge.

I often have old bread lying around. I eat bread for breakfast, but often I'm at my boyfriend's place and the bread does not get eaten quick enough. There are several things you can do with stale bread, but today I proudly present:


Monday, August 22, 2011

No-Knead Bread with Leek

I made this bread last winter, last year in fact. I haven't made a no-knead bread since, I don't know why exactly. It was mouthwateringly delicious. It crackled while it cooled down. It is beautiful.
Since then I missed out on this. I bought supermarket bread, which is bland in comparison. It is not freshly baked. It is not that crispy yet moist. And most important, I did not make it myself.
I'm still on vacation, but once I'm back I want to start a bread baking routine. And I have to take up my cookbook challenge again.

P.S.: I used the regular recipe for no-knead bread on the homepage of the Sullivan Street Bakery and just added leek, the white part, cut in rings. It made the bread even moister and added lots of flavor, but less suited to breakfast.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Baking Bread


I love the idea of making my own bread. I love the smell in the house and the satisfaction that lies in cutting off the first slice of bread of a new loaf. But until now, I never consistently made my own bread. Or anything close to consistently. Usually I bake a bread every few months, think that I should do this often, and then go weeks without. I want this to change. I want to be the person who bakes bread. For the flavor. For the relaxation. And for the smell in the apartment.

I'm away on vacation again. Three weeks of cycling through France with my boyfriend. I'm looking forward to the croissants now, and when you read this, I might just be eating one right this minute (sorry!).

But before I left I made the Easy Little Bread Heidi posted just a few days ago. It really is an easy recipe, you basically just throw everything together, let it sit for 30 minutes and then bake it. No long waiting, no kneading. On some days I prefer a lighter, airier (is that a word?) bread, like the No-Knead Bread. But I just ate the first piece now, with a glass of beer, and it is just wonderful. I somehow taste bananas in there, don't ask me why. The bread is dense but moist and has a deep flavor.

Easy Little Bread
adapted from the recipe on 101cookbooks.com, from the book Gran's Kitchen: Recipes from the Notebooks of Dulcie May Booker
3dl warm water
1 package of dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
265g whole wheat flour
100g rolled oats
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon butter


Sprinkle the yeast on to the warm (not hot) water and stir until the yeast is dissolved. Add the honey and let it sit for about 10 minutes (until the yeast blooms).

Melt the butter in a pan, and brush a loaf pan with it. (we have adjustable cake pans in Switzerland, they range from 20-35 cm in length,  I used it at 25 cm length. Heidi suggests using a 8 cup loaf-pan)


In a bowl, mix flour, oats and salt. Add the liquid ingredients. Pour the dough in to the pan, cover it with a damp cloth and let it rise for about 30 minutes in a warm place.


Preheat the oven to 180°C (or 350F), put in the pan on a rack (in the middle of the oven) and let it bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn the bread out right away. Let it cool on a rack. 
Don't cut off a slice when still hot, wait until it is room temperature. I don't know right now why this is, but I believe the masters and wait, impatiently, but I wait.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Potato Pizza



Before I went on holidays I spent a short weekend at Lake Brienz in Switzerland. I love to be there, it is really quiet and the environment is beautiful. Sometimes we spend a long time in the kitchen there, and sometimes, like this weekend, we made something quicker, so that we could spend more time outside, lying in the sun and reading.
This weekend we made a potato pizza. There is a recipe for a potato pizza in my cookbook by Nigel Slater, but since I did not have it with me, we just improvised.
It feels really decadent to put potatoes on a pizza dough, with not a whole lot more.
The pizza turned out just as I hoped it would. The crust was really thin and crispy, and the potatoes were a bit sweet. The goats cheese added some creaminess to the otherwise crispy pizza.



Monday, June 27, 2011

Peach Tartelette with Ricotta and Rosemary

Peach Tartelette with Ricotta and Rosemary


I had quite a lot going on this week. I met some friends, attended my sister's graduation party, met some other friends,  and while I love going out and meeting people, I was getting frustrated, because I did not have time to cook.
Yesterday, while working, I dreamt of the White Peach Tartelettes With Rosemary Sugar I saw on Helene Dujardins blog. They kept taking over my mind, I could not stop thinking of peaches paired with rosemary. After work I made a note into my journal: Peaches, ricotta and lemon, rosemary. I bought a pie crust and went on and visited a friend.
But when I got home yesterday, at 10 p.m. and after a few glasses of wine, I started to assemble these two little tartelettes. Preparing something so simple is quite therapeutic for me. After half an hour I felt relaxed and pampered. I don't go to spas or get massages or anything, cooking and baking does the job for me.

What do you do to calm down and relax? 


Sunday, May 29, 2011

Beets and Tomato Tarte Flambee

 My boyfriend and I went on a short trip with our bikes over easter. We started in Basel (Switzerland) and followed the Rhine on the French side to Colmar and Strassbourg. Both towns were built around the river, loved that. In the first picture you can see Strassbourg, in the next: me in front of a smaller canal we followed for some time.
 Typical for this region (the Alsace) ist, among other things, the Tarte Flambee. The original version consists of a thin crust, topped with Creme Fraiche, onions and bacon. We actually had one in Colmar (the black and white picture) but the vegetarian option (for my boyfriend) was onion and cheese, nothing else.
After I came home I had a rather Italian inspired Tarte Flambee at a friends house, and this is what I came up with today.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever



Last week A long time ago I made the Brown Butter Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies Joy the Baker posted a few weeks months ago. I just couldn't resist the name of it. It promised a lot, and I can happily report that the recipe lived up to the expectations. The different flavors complement each other nicely. I never browned butter before, but it was really easy, and it smelled delicious. You really have to try these! They are really easy to make, however, it takes some time to brown the butter and toast the coconut.
I didn't change the recipe, so I just post the link. The only thing I did differently is that I toasted the coconut in a pan, not in the oven. I prefer the control I have over the food. (I usually burn stuff in the oven).
Additional Note: If you, like me, have never browned butter before, just follow her instructions. It really takes some time, just wait patiently. And it really only starts to brown after the butter stops to sizzle.
I forgot to take a picture until only three cookies were left. 

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Spinach Tart



So I just finished my last presentation for quite some time, the next few weeks should be a lot calmer now. So I hope to post more often now, especially since the weather is great and taking pictures is a lot easier now.


Even though I didn't post much here, I actually have been cooking. I ordered Heidi Swansons cookbook Super Natural Cooking a few weeks ago, and since it arrived last week I already used some of the recipes in there. The risotto-style "Quinoa with Crescenza" was great!



Sunday, March 13, 2011

Quinoa and Spinach Gratin





I decided to use more whole grains and just "whole" food in general. My first attempt at incorporating quinoa into my diet resulted in this Quinoa and Spinach Gratin. I saw a recipe for baked spinach on smitten kitchen just last week and new I had to try it. But as always I changed things up quite a bit.

Quinoa and Spinach Gratin

Ingredients:
200g spinach, washed and destemmed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic, pressed
salt and pepper
italian herbs, optional
60g quinoa
~35g mozzarella
1 tbsp bread crumbs
1 tbsp ground hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 180°C (or 350°F). Prepare the quinoa according to the instructions on the package. While it cooks, heat the oil in a skillet, add the garlic and the spinach and let the spinach wilt. Add salt and pepper to taste. I also added a teaspoon dried italian herbs. Mix the cooked quinoa and spinach together and pour the mixture into a small baking dish. Sprinkle with mozzarella, the bread crumbs and the hazelnuts. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Serves 1.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Lavender Cookies

 
 These cookies must be about the easiest cookies I ever made. But their taste is pretty special, I would have never thought of using lavender in food. But the simpleness of the cookies and the lavender flavor go really well together.
Try them, even if you have to go and buy lavender just for these. I love them and think you will too!