Plum Spelt Crumble Cake
Wednesday, August 01, 2012In this delicious summer coffee cake, juicy, sweet and tangy plum halves are embedded in a buttery spelt crust and covered with a crunchy crumble topping. If you can’t get spelt, use wheat flour instead.
Plum Spelt Crumble Cake
adapted from essen und trinken
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- Place spelt flours, baking powder, cinnamon powder, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Add in diced butter and egg yolk. With a hand-held mixer, stir until well combined.
- Press 2/3 of the dough onto a 8 to 10-inch springform pan lined with parchment paper. Wrap the pan and the rest of dough separately with plastic film. Chill for 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, wash and dry the plums. Cut them into halves and remove the stones. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
- Prick dough thoroughly with a fork. Sprinkle the ground almonds over, then place the plum halves, cut side up, onto the pan. Crumble the rest of dough on the top of the plums. Bake in the center of the hot oven for about 40 minutes until golden brown. Serve, dust with powdered sugar or with ice cream.
Wholegrain Spelt Apple and Marzipan Cake
Wednesday, January 11, 2012A classic German apple cake with marzipan. The marzipan paste, made of sugar and almond, is used in the cake batter to enrich the flavour and texture. If you are an almond lover, feel free to use more marzipan instead of sugar, and adjust accordingly flour quantity. The batter should look like a smooth and thick paste.
I do still use my favourite wholegrain spelt flour, but you can use wheat flour (wholegrain or not) instead if you want. Allergic reaction to eggs? No problem, use 1 cup of applesauce instead of 3 eggs.
After baking, a glaze could be created to brush the apples by warming 2 tablespoons of water and 3 tablespoons of apricot jam together. I chose to leave it. It’s rich and sweet enough for me.
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- Peel apples, cut into quarters lengthwise, and remove cores. Slice deep lines along the length of the apple quarters and sprinkle with the lemon juice. Line a 30x12x9-cm loaf pan with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F.
- Roughly grate the marzipan. Place them in a mixing bowl together with butter, sugar, almond extract and salt. Beat until creamy. Add in eggs, one at time, beat until well combined.
- Whisk together the wholegrain spelt flour and baking powder. Sift the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Stir until just incorporated. Spread the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
- Arrange the apple quarters over the top, cut side up, pressing lightly into the batter. Bake for about 30 minutes. Cool the cake on a wire rack to room temperature. Dust the surface with powdered sugar if desired.
Rye Rolls with Poppy
Monday, November 14, 2011Those dinner rolls, made from egg white enriched rye dough, have a really shiny and beautiful crust, partly because of overnight proofing in the fridge, partly due to the egg white wash applied prior to baking at high temperature with steam.
| Starter | Starter | Others |
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- Dissolve the fresh yeast in the water. Stir in bread and rye flours until well combined. Cover and leave it at room temperature for 2 hours, then transfer to the fridge for 12 hours.
- Place all the dough ingredients together with starter in the mixing bowl of your stand mixer. Stir at low speed until all ingredients have been incorporated, then increase the speed and mix until the dough gathers into a ball. Add more water, a tablespoon at a time, if too stiff.
- Cover with a plastic and set aside until it doubles in size, 1-2 hours. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Lightly press down the dough and shape into a round. Divide the dough into 10-15 pieces. Shape each piece of dough into a round or an oval. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover and proof until double in bulk. This will take about 90 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 230C/450F and place an old baking pan on the bottom rack. Combine egg white and water in a bowl. Brush the top of bread rolls with egg wash and sprinkle with the poppy seeds. Slash a 1/4-inch/5-mm deep cut across the top of each roll. Place rolls in the oven on the next shelf up, pour 1 cup of water into the old baking pan and close the door quickly. Bake for about 20 minutes until richly brown.
Crusty Hard Rolls
Monday, November 07, 2011Those bread rolls, known in Germany as Brötchen, are crunchy, richly golden brown rolls with a soft interior, and flavourful thanks to an overnight sponge. Serve them warm with jam or/and butter for the breakfast or with a bowl of piping hot soup as dinner. You can always freeze them and re-crisp in the 150C/300F oven.
| Starter | Dough |
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- Combine together the flour, water and yeast in a mixing bowl. Cover and leave the starter at room temperature for 16-20 hours.
- Whisk together the water and fresh yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer. Add in the rest of ingredients together with the sponge. Mix until a soft, smooth dough forms.
- Shape the dough into a ball and return it to the mixing bowl. Sprinkle a bit of flour over the top of dough. This will keep the dough from sticking. Cover with a plastic and set aside for 90 minutes to rise.
- When the dough has doubled in bulk, turn it out on a lightly floured work surface. Lightly press down the dough and shape into a long roll. Cut the roll into 12 - 15 pieces. Take each piece of dough and form into a round or oval shaped roll.
- Place rolls on the baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Cover and let rise until double, about an hour. Preheat oven to 230C/450F and place an old baking pan on the bottom rack. Slash a 1/4-inch/5-mm deep cut across the top of each roll.
- Place rolls in the oven on the next shelf up, pour 1 cup of water into the old baking pan and close the door quickly. Turn oven down to 220C/425F and bake for 20-25 minutes until they're richly brown. Remove them from the oven, and cool on a wire rack.
Vanillekipferl Vanilla Crescent Cookies
Friday, November 04, 2011Vanillekipferl are simply sugar cookies in the shape of crescents that are traditionally as a part of the typical Christmas baking in Austria, Hungary and Germany, but can be enjoyed all year round.They usually contain ground nuts, mostly almonds and hazelnuts, flavoured with vanilla, and often served dusted with confectioners’ sugar.
Recipe adapted from Ulrike Kraus -"Kekse und Gebäck rund ums Jahr"
- 300 g All purpose flour
- 250 g Butter, cut into small pieces
- 125 g Sugar
- 3 Egg yolks
- 125 g Ground almonds
- 1 tbsp Vanilla sugar
- 2-3 tbsp Powdered sugar
- Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add in butter, sugar, egg yolks, and ground almonds. Mix until the dough has become smooth. Form the dough into a ball and wrap well with a cling film. Chill for one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line two baking trays with parchment paper. Divide the dough into 80 pieces. Shape each one into a rope, approximately 7mm thick, and bend into a crescent.
- Place the kipferl on a baking trays, and bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden. Mix the powdered sugar together with the vanilla sugar. Roll the crescents in this mixture while they are still hot.
Streusel Damson Plum Cake / Zwetschgendatschi
Monday, August 29, 2011Zwetschgenkuchen, a delectable German Plum Cake, also called Sommerkuchen-summer cake, or Zwetschgendatschi is available during the late summer during the damson plum harvest. Datschi, presumably come from a southern German dialect datschen or detschen, means to press in, is a sheet cake (could be prepared in a springform pan too) made with a yeast dough or short pastry, and very often has a streusel topping, which is similar to a crumble. Streusel comes from the German word streusen, to scatter, which is how the topping is applied to the cake. The recipe is adapted from daheim und unterwegs - wdr.
| Cake | Streusel |
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- Place all the ingredients for the crust in a bowl, mix them well to form a dough. Chill the dough, wrapped well with a plastic film, for 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, wash and dry the damson plums. Cut them open and remove the stones. Grease a 28cm springform pan. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Remove the dough from the fridge and press it onto the bottom of prepared pan. Lightly press the damson plums into the crust.
- Use a fork or spoon to combine all the topping ingredients until mixture is like coarse cornmeal. Taste and adjust cinnamon to your liking. Sprinkle streusel topping over the damsons.
- Bake the cake in the center of hot oven for about 45-55 minutes until done and beautiful golden brown. Cool in the pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Unmould and serve at room temperature.
Rhubarb Streusel Cake
Saturday, April 23, 2011A delicious tea time cake/tart with a tangy rhubarb filling topped with nutty and buttery streusel. Serve it warm, if desired, with ice cream or vanilla sauce.
| Cake | Streusel Topping |
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- To prepare the base. Place flour, sugar, salt, egg yolk, butter and cold water in a mixing bowl. Stir with a hand mixer attached with dough hooks until the mixture comes together. Form it into a ball and chill, wrapped with a cling film, for 30 minutes.
- Clean and trim rhubarb, removing any leaves. Cut the rhubarb stalks into 1cm pieces. Crush the ladyfingers until fine crumbs form. In a mixing bowl, mix together 100 grams sugar, flour, ground almond, nutmeg and cinnamon. Cut in butter to form crumbs. Chill, covered, until ready to use.
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Butter a 26cm tart dish or line with parchment paper. Roll the dough into a 32cm round between two sheets of parchment paper and place it into the tart dish. Sprinkle the crumbled ladyfingers at the bottom of the tart, scatter over the rhubarb pieces, and then sprinkle on brown sugar evenly. Now cover it with streusel topping. Bake in the middle of hot oven for 45 minutes until nicely golden brown.
Zwiebelkuchen German Onion Tart
Wednesday, February 09, 2011Zwiebelkuchen, which literally means "onion cake" in the German language, is actually a savoury tart (a quiche?) prepared with onions and sour cream on a leavened or yeast dough, that is very popular in the German wine-growing regions. Serve them warm with a glass of chilled half dry German Risling or fruity Corbières if you prefer red.
Quark Dough adapted from Grundrezept Quark-Öl-Teig
Topping Recipe adapted from Tobiaskocht
| Topping | Quark Dough |
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- Cut the ends off the onions and slice them into thick rings. Slice the spring onions into rings too. Heat a skillet with olive oil over medium flame. Add in onions and stir-fry until lightly golden. Stir in chopped spring onions. Season the mixture with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat and set aside.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add in egg, Quark, olive oil and milk. Stir until the dough forms a ball. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line a baking tray, about 30x40 cm, with parchment paper. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle and fit into prepared baking tray.
- Top the dough with the herb cream evenly. Spread the caramelized onion all over the cream. Sprinkle the top with salt, pepper and cumin. Bake for 25-30 minutes until beautifully browned.
Mulled Wine Linzer Cookies / Spitzbuben mit Gluehweingelee
Wednesday, December 08, 2010Linzer cookies based on traditional Austrian Linzertorte, are one of the common Christmas cookies in Germany. They are nutty, rich and SWEET. Traditionally they are filled with black currant jam, but any other fruit preserves can be used to fill the cookies. Rather than almonds, nuts such as hazelnuts, pecan, can be substituted to make Linzer dough.
Created in Linz, Austria in the 17th century, the Linzer torte is the world's oldest torte recipe. Tortes use nuts rather than flour as the main dough ingredient. The Linzer torte features an almond-based crust filled with black current preserves and topped with a lattice crust. In the 19th century, the Linzer torte was adapted into the present-day Linzer cookie.Recipe adapted from Spitzbuben mit Gluehweingelee
| Mulled Wine Jelly | Cookie Dough |
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- Cut the orange into halves, put the half of the orange face down on the juicer and rotate it to get the juice. Place orange juice, red wine, canning sugar, star anises, cinnamon stick, and cloves in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for about 4 minutes. Strain the jelly through a sieve. Set aside.
- Beat butter, sugar, pinch of salt and egg yolk until combined. Add in ground almond, spekulatius spice and flour. Mix all the ingredients together with your hands until you have smooth dough. Flatten the dough into a 5-inch disk. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 1 hour.
- Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Roll out the dough into a 4mm thick round between 2 sheets of wax paper. Cut 2-inch rounds with a plain or fluted cutter and place them on the prepared trays. With half of the rounds, cut a hole from the middle of each round with a heart or flower shaped cutter.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature. Spread mulled wine jelly thinly on the flat side of each solid cookie. Dust the top of the cut-out cookies with confectioners' sugar and press the flat sides together. Fill the holes with little more jelly. Store them in your cookie box, separating the layers with waxed paper, and store for up to 2 weeks.
Kohlrabi Slaw / 凉拌甘蓝
Wednesday, July 28, 2010Kohlrabi, also called "German turnip", is a member of the cabbage family but has a turnip like appearance. It tastes more like broccoli stem and is wonderfully crisp. The name comes from the German "Kohl" (meaning cabbage) and "Rabi" (meaning turnip). Smaller kohlrabi are sweet, tender, juicy and really delicious eaten raw.
This crunchy slaw is really quick and easy to make, it's a really nice and refreshing side dish to enjoy in these hot summer days.
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- Place white wine vinegar, mustard, cumin, salt and pepper in a bowl. Gradually whisk in oil until well-blended.
- Rinse kohlrabi with cold water. Cut top and root end from kohlrabi. Peel kohlrabi to remove the fibrous skin. Use a mandoline to grate the bulb finely. Peel and grate the carrot. Half the red onion, remove the skin and slice it thinly. Toss grated vegetables, chopped parsley with prepared dressing and chill for several hours before serving.



