16th of December

Next...

Today's tea is called 'Kaminfeuer'. It is a fruit tea consisting of hibiscus blossoms, apple, rose hip blossoms, roitea, almonds, cinnamon and flavours. To me most of these cinnamon apple etc. teas taste quite similar. I like them, but I cannot tast too much difference.

White Chocolate Cardamom Cake

So, here is the first cake from the party buffet. White chocolate and cardamom. Need I say more? Well, I have to admit that next time I will change the recipe a bit. The changes will be mentioned in the according part of the recipe.

But now back to the recipe itself.

All you need is: 

A shell:

75 g cold butter

150 g flour

1 pinch of salt

Mix all the ingredients and add cool water until a dough forms. Roll out on a floured surface. Line a baking tin (I used a heart shaped tin, but round does work as well). Cut out the form of the tin, using the tin and use the remaining dough to line the brim of the tin. Line with baking parchment and fill with baking peas.
 

 



Preheat the oven to 190°C and bake for 10 minutes. Remove peas and parchment and bake for another 5 minutes.

Let cool completely.

 

For the filling you need:

6 g gelatin (none next time)
cold water
cardamom seeds (from 8 capsules)
350 g white chocolate (more next time)
425 g cream

Soak the gelatin. Meanwhile, crush the cardamom seeds in a mortar, chop the chocolate and put both into a bowl. Melt the gelatin, then heat the cream. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until all the chocolate is melted. Then, add the gelatin and stir again until combined. Let cool down a bit and pour into the shell.

 

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, better over night.

 

 

When the mass is firm, sieve cocoa powder over the whole cake and decorate with chopped white chocolate.

Unfortunately, the texture of the chocolate mass was really bouncy, which I did not like. I do like it with fruits, but not with chocolate. I would completely leave out the gelatin and add more chocolate instead. With white chocolate you need about twice as much chocolate as cream to get a texture firm enough to be cut. 

Ham Pâté

You should know this one from the party buffet pictures. Since this was the very first pâté I made, I strictly followed the recipe. It felt really, really odd to puree ham. So, be warned ;)

Next time, I will add more spices, or even vegetable stock powder (I prefer the polish version of it called vegeta. The blue one. http://www.podravka-vegeta.de/products/vegeta) because with all the cream it tasted rather sweet, which was a very odd mixture with the ham. Furthermore, I would replace some of the cream by crème fraîche.

 

 

Here is the original recipe, so feel free to add and replace as you like :)

 

What you need is:

3 eggs
200 g broccoli
salt
12 leaves gelatin
12 slices ham
250 g cream
150 g crème fraîche
pepper
2 egg whites



Boil the eggs for abut 9 minutes (hard). Then, place in cold water until you can touch them without burning your fingers and peel them. Let cool completely. Meanwhile, cut the broccoli into small florets and cook for about 8 minutes. It should be done, but not too soft. Drain the florets.

 

Place the gelatin in some water to soak. Cut 8 slices of the ham into pieces. Add cream to it and puree until all the ham pieces are blended with the cream. Add crème fraîche, salt and pepper and stir until combined. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Heat the gelatin until completely melted and mix into the ham mixture. Finally, fold under the egg whites.

 

Line a 20 cm loaf pan with cling foil, then line with the remaining ham. Fill in about 1/3 of the ham mousse. Place the eggs into the middle, so that they form a line from left to right. Then, place the broccoli florets around the eggs and cover all with the remaining ham mousse.  

Refrigerate over night. The next day, turn it out onto a plate. Decorate with some salad leaves and vegetables. 

 

15th of December

And next again...

Today's tea is called 'Desire' and is a Ayurveda Kapha tea. I cannot really identify what is inside. The package only says that it is a mixture of different spices and herbs, tasting 'peppery-spicy'. It sure does, but it is not too strong. Another 'must drink', I think :)

14th of December

And next :)

Yummie black tea. Sit back and enjoy while watching movies :) I think I should make a list of all the Disney (and similar) movies we have because I'm beginning to lose track *g*

Gingerbread Cookies

This year's Christmas cookies included lots of 'first time'-cookies. For example these Peggy Porschen Gingerbread Cookies. They really burst with flavour and thus are worth every bite.

What you need is:

200 g butter, diced
1 tsp. baking soda
450 g flour

180 g molasses sugar
6 tbsp. clear honey
2 tbsp. orange juice
2 tbsp. ground cinnamon
2 tbsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground allspice
seeds from 1 vanilla pod
a pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients from the second block (all except for butter, baking soda and flour) in a saucepan and bring to the boil, while stirring constantly. Then, remove from the heat and slowly stir in the butter until well combined. Mix in the baking soda and pour the mixture into a kitchen machine and leave there to cool. 

Once the mixture is lukewarm, sieve in the flour and mix until a dough forms. Wrap the dough tightly in cling foil and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. 

Afterwards, roll out the dough on a floured surface to a thickness of 5 mm. Cut out cookies and place them on a lined baking tray. Chill for half an hour. 

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200°C. Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes.

Easy? Yes! Yummie? Oh, yes! Another 'must bake' for next year's Christmas :)

13th of December

Christmas gone, next posts to do :)

Today's tea is a chai. I love chai. Remember the chai cookies I made? This tea tastes exactly like the cookies! Definitely on my 'to drink'-list.

Salmon Pâté

No cake today... Well, you might remember this thing from the party buffet post. It is salmon pâté. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of what it looks like on the inside. But I think you can imagine, when reading the recipe.

This amount is suficciant for a bowl about 18cm in diameter. First, line the whole bowl with cling foil. 

The ingredients you need:
1 tin carotts and peas, 280 g (drained)
1 small onion
300 g smoked salmon, slices
150 g crème fraîche
150 g yoghurt
a pinch salt
1/2 tsp. ground pepper
2 sachets ground gelatin (instant, no heating)

 

Let the vegetables drain. Meanwhile, chop the onion and line the lined bowl with some salmon slices, until covered. Cut the remaining salmon into pieces.

 

In another bowl, mix crème fraîche with gelatin, salt and pepper. Fold under the onion, vegetables and pieces of salmon. Fill the mass into the salmon lined bowl and cover with cling foil. Refrigerate for at least three hours.

 

When the mass is firm, remove the foil on top, place a plate onto the bowl and turn the pâté onto the plate. Remove the foil around the salmon. Decorate with dill and whatever else you like :) I used fresh and ground dill, red bellpepper and salad leaves.

A new item...

Before I forget... My husband bought me something :) You've seen it already in one recipe last week. But I think it is worth an extra post.

I am already looking forward to use those to present some cupcakes :)

12th of December

Next...

This tea is a fruity one. It consists of apple pieces, rose hips, hibiscus blossoms, rooitea, lemongrass, orange peel, elderberry, rose blossoms, flavours, sallow thorn berry, hollyhock blossoms, orange blossoms, cornflower blossoms and pieces of raspberry. Quite a lot, huh? Nevertheless, I think, the lemongrass dominates the flavour. So, I would rather call it a summer tea :)

Fruitcake

For this year's Christmas I wanted to make my first fruitcake. Actually, my mother in law wanted one, so of course I wanted to have a go at it :) You need quite a lot of ingredients, so I made more. The recipe was supposed to be for one 24cm round baking tin, so I thought it would be enough for a 18cm tin and a 16cm tin. Well, I made those two and still had enough dough for two 12cm tins and four cupcakes.

The different fruits and nuts are only suggestions. If you do not like one of them, just replace it by another one. You can also use less or more different fruits. Actually, I did not want to include the plum preserve, but instead of sweet orange jam I grabbed the bitter one and so the whole dough was a bit bitter. So some plum preserve I had did make the job to sweeten the cake again :)

What you need:

1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped dried dates
1/2 cup chopped dried figs
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup chopped dried plums
3/4 cup apricot brandy
3 cups flour
1/2 cup ground walnuts
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/2 stick softened butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
4 large eggs
zest and juice of one lemon
zest and juice of one orange
1/4 cup apricot preserve
1/4 cup orange preserve
3 tbsp. plum preserve
1/2 cup chopped almonds
more apricot brandy

First, place raisins, dates, figs, apricots and plums into a bowl and pour the brandy onto them. Place a lid on the bowl and let stand for several hours, better over night.

Then, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add the eggs one by one and mix after each addition. Now, drain the dried fruits, but do not discard the brandy! Pour the brandy into the butter-sugar-egg mixture, along with the zests and juices of the lemon and orange and the preserves. Mix until all is combined.



 

Add flour, ground walnuts, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves and slowly mix until combined. Finally, fold in the chopped almonds and dried fruits. Fill the mixture into a (or several) lined baking pan and bake on 150°C for one and a half to two and a half hour, depending on the size of the pans. The muffins were done after 40 minutes, while the 18cm cake took 1 3/4 hour.

 

When the cake is done and cold enough to touch, take it out of the pan and turn it upside down. With a skewer poke holes into the bottom and spoon a bit brandy over it. Wrap tightly into cling foil and store. This cake is delicious fresh, but if you want to be traditional and store it, just unwrap it every 2-4 weeks to poke holes into the bottom and spoon brandy over it again. The recipe (from the Harry Potter Cookbook) says it can even be stored for years that way. One was given away a week after being baked, another one will be given away two weeks after. So, after Christmas there will be still two plus one muffin left. I am really curious how well it will keep and for how long I can stand it, having a cake around and not eating it :)

As you can see, I only roughly chopped the dried fruits. You can, of course, chop them into finer pieces if you like :)

When you are ready to eat it, or give it away, you can leave it plain simple, or - as usual - decorate it. For my first give-away, I brushed the top with melted honey (heat some teaspoons of honey in a small pot, to make it more liquid and thus easier to handle) and stuck nuts and dried fruits onto it. Then, brush some more liquid honey over it and hope that it will hold your decoration in place :) 

Of course, you can ice your fruitcake, or cover it with marzipan. I will let you know what I did to the other cakes :)

Pecan Praline Cookies

I tried to get pecans around here, which proved to be a rather hard task. No single shop had them. Even the ones that usually have everything you need. But I really wanted to have a go at those cookies, as well as lots of Magnolia Bakery recipes, which often contain pecans as well, so I asked a friend, whether she knew where to get pecans. Two weeks later she presented me about 1 kg of pecans, which her mother had bought for me. She's soo sweet! They both are!

So, here is my very first go at 'something with pecans' :)

 

What you need is: 

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Beat the butter until creamy. Then, add sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until well incorporated. Add flour, baking soda and salt and mix until blended. Finally, stir in the chopped pecans. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Then, form the dough into little balls (about 3 cm in diameter) and place them on a lined baking tray. Bake at 180°C for 10 - 12 minutes. 

When the cookies are completely cooled down, prepare the brown sugar frosting.

What you need is:

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup half & half (half cream, half milk)
1 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

Put sugar and half & half into a saucepan and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Add the powdered sugar and beat until a smooth mass forms. I advice to use less powdered sugar to achieve a better spreading consistency because with the original recipe the cream sets very quickly, so that I had to add a teaspoon full of single cream after each 4 cookies, so that the cream remained spreadable. Maybe about one cup powdered sugar is sufficient. 

While the icing is not yet set, place a pecan half onto it.

11th of December

And next again :)

The little star shaped thingy is a pressed mini towel. You have to pour water over it to make it said towel. Today's tea is a black tea containing Assam tea. It is really dark and strong. Like :)

Eggnog-frosted Nutmeg Cookies

Today, I am presenting you another cookie I made for Christmas. It is a more or less a sugar cookie, flavoured with nutmeg, vanilla and eggnog, frosted with eggnog icing. 

For the cookie you need:

1/2 vanilla bean
1 1/4 cups softened butter
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 tbsp. eggnog
3 1/4 cups flour

Scrape the inside of the vanilla bean into a tiny bowl. Do not discard the vanilla bean, but fill a small glass (with a lid) with sugar and add the bean, to make your own vanilla sugar. That is what I did :)

Beat butter until fluffy. Then, add sugar, nutmeg and salt. Beat until well incorporated. Add egg, eggnog and vanilla and stir until combined. Finally, add flour and baking powder and proceed likewise. Divide in two and wrap in foil. Refrigerate for one hour. 

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Roll out the dough to 5 mm thick and cut out cookies with a cookie cutter. Place the cookies about 3 cm apart on a lined baking tray. Bake for 8-10 minutes. 

When all cookies are completely cooled down, prepare the eggnog icing.

What you need is: 

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3-4 tbsp. eggnog

Stir all ingredients together. Add either powdered sugar or eggnog to achieve spreading consistency.

Spread cookies with the icing and let dry.

Baking Stuff

Do I need to comment on that? I mean... Look at the pictures... This is my kitchen table. A friend of mine and I wanted to make some Christmas cookies. On the table you see some stuff she bought for baking and some other might-be-put-into-cookies stuff that I had in my kitchen :)

10th of December

Yay, 10 already ;)

Today's tea is called 'Gwendalinas Backäpfelchen' and contains black and green tea from India and China, pieces of apples and cinnamon and flavours. It really smells like apples with cinnamon and tastes likewise. I will definitely buy it next autumn. 

Of course, it was so obvious this would happen... I forgot to take pictures while the tea was still fresh, so I had to take them when the teapot was half empty...