4th of December

Not having been home for two days and having met a friend today to have a whole day of baking stopped me posting again, but I will try to keep up. So, here is the next one...

Today it is 'Winterapfel' tea. It consists of apple pieces, hibiscus blossoms, rose hips, currants, cinnamon, almonds, flavours, marigold blossoms and vanilla. 100°C (212°F), 5-10 minutes.

Its colour is a cinnamonish red and it tastes like... Can you say that 'Christmas' has a taste? Well, I think that this tea tastes like Christmas would tast, if it had a taste... Know what I mean?

3rd of December

Ok, to keep up with all the stuff I have not posted during the last one and a half months, there might be two posts on some days. Just so you know why that is :)

Ok. Next...

This tea is great. It consists of cinnamon, ginger, fennel, coriander, orange peel, lemon balm leaves and rose blossoms. 100°C (212°F), 5 minutes. It smells and tastes mainly of cinnamon, but it really feels like sitting at home, cuddled into a blanket while it is raining or snowing outside. So, it really suits its name  :)

Oh, and that is what it looks like:

Cardamom Cookies

Last year some friends of mine came for a visit three weeks before Christmas and we started our very own Christmas Cookie Bakery. Each of us chose two or three reciepes and so we had loads of different cookies to share with the others, instead of loads of one or two different sorts. We loved it so much, that we did it again, but in another constellation (K. and me as the 'core' because it was her idea and we do it in my kitchen, plus one or two other people).

One sort of cookies we tried out last year (for the first time for all of us) were these cardamom cookies. We loved them so much that we had to make them again. I have to admit that mine are miracuously gone already ;) So, I have to bake them before Christmas again, as gifts for friends.

All you need is:

200 g soft butter (at room temperature)
100 g sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
1 tbsp. rum
1 tsp. cardamom
1 pinch cinnamon
250 g flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 pinch salt
100 g chocolate (the recipe says milk chocolate, but we used dark chocolate)

Mix all ingredients, except for the chocolate, until they form a dough. Devide it in two and form one long cylindric shape each, about 3 cm in diametre. Wrap into cling foil and put into the fridge for about 6 hours, better over night.

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Meanwhile, discard the foil from the dough and cut each 'saussage' into 1.5 cm slices. When placing them onto a lined baking tray, leave some space between each slice because they will spread. Bake for about 10-15 minutes.

When the cookies are cooled down completely, melt the chocolate either in a double boiler or in the microwave on low temperature (be careful not to overheat it, or it will get unusable). Dip the cookies halfway into the chocolate and place them on baking paper and let dry completely.

 

 

 

Believe me, the whole kitchen will smell of cardamom. Did I already mention that I LOVE cardamom? The taste, the smell, everything... Well, I think, that is why thees goodies never last long :) 

 

 

Apple Streusel Cheesecake

Today comes one of the cakes I made for my choir. When it's one's birthday, most people bring something along to eat or drink after rehearsals. Usually, one choir member and I bring food on the same Friday, so we have got an arrangement that she brings something good and solid, while I bring something sweet. This is one of the cakes I made. As the title already indicates, it is a cheesecake with apples and streusel. It consists of a shell recipe used for the bottom only, apples, a layer of cheesecake and streusel on top.

For the shell you need:

200 g flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
75 g sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
1 pinch salt
1 egg
100 g butter (cold cut into pieces)

Mix all the dry ingredients until well combined and then add the butter. Knead until roughly combined and finally add the egg. Knead again until an even mass forms. Actually, you can roll the dough into a rectangle that fits into your baking tray, but I made small patches with my hands and put them onto the lined tray. That is why it looks so uneven.

Set your tray aside and peel and slice the apples. I used only three, but you are free to use more, of course :) Put them into a saucepan and add sugar and ground cinnamon to taste. Steam until done.

Now it is time to prepare the cheese mixture. What you need is:

1500 g curd cheese
150 g cream cheese
5 eggs
150 g sugar
2 sachets custard powder, vanilla flavour

First, mix both cheeses until they form an even mass. Then, add the eggs one by one, stirring well after each one. Add sugar and custard powder and mix until blended. 

Place the apple pieces onto the crust. They will not cover the whole crust, but spread them as evenly as possible. Then, cover them with the cream cheese mixture. 

Last, you do the streusel. All you need is:

150 g butter (cold, cut into pieces)
100 g sugar
200 g flour
1 tsp. caramel syrup
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and knead with your fingers to form streusel. Sprinkle them all onto the cake. It will look too much, but they do sink into the cheese cream a bit while baking.

Bake on 180°C for about 45 minutes.

And this is what it looked like in the end, cut into pieces.

Yummie :) But next time I will use some more apples to make it more fruity :)

2nd of December

The title says it all ;)

Oh, I love Rubik cubes and I have got quite a lot of them by now. So here's the new member to the family: the mini Rubik's :)

The tea is called Multi-Vitamin and is a fruit tea.100°C (212°F), 5 minutes. It contains hibiscus blossoms, apple bits, rose hips, elderberries, orangepeel, natural flavour and multi-vitamin powder. It smells really fruity and that's what the package says: extra fruity.
First, the colour was somewhat greenish, but then it turns a nice soft red.

The taste was great. It is fruity, but as strong as most fruit teas are, but rather light and fresh. Love it :)

1st of December

Isn't this cute?

'Marani' is a green tea with flavours, sunflower blossoms and cornflower blossoms. According to the package the water was to be at 90°C (194°F) and the brewing time 2 minutes.

Wondorously, I managed to get the exact temperature and I did not forget to get the tea bag out *yay*

The tea's colour is a very soft green, almost yellow (looks really yellow on the pictures) and is smells softly of flowers. 

Since I have no experience in describing a tea's taste, I can only say that tasted like a slightly flowery green tea and I loved it :)

What's next...

Ok, I haven't been posting for more than a month now. I will try not to make it so long a time again! It is not that I haven't been baking (nothing can stop me *gg*), but somehow forgot to take pictures or... Well, one always finds reasons...

So, I will try to keep up now. I have tried a lot of new recipes which I really want to share with you and what's best: This year I got an Advent calendar from my husband :) Usually, I filled small velvet bags with sweets and other small goodies, but this year he decided that he have the bags and filled them for me. So, I had to do it differently this year and bought small tins. In addition to that this year's Advent calendar was a bit of a challenge because my husband said he wanted to try not to eat too many sweets and other stuff that is not so good for your weight. Well, actually, it is because I somehow have lost weight a bit and now he wants to keep up, I think ;)

So, although it has nothing to do with sweets I will keep you posted on what I have in my Advent calendar, so it will hopefully make me keep posting more often :D

So, within the next days there will be lots of Christmas cookies, macarons, my first go on fudge and Magnolia bakery stuff and several other recipes :)