Angie's Recipes . Taste Of Home

Browse » Home » Posts filed under Holiday Specials

6-Week Long Maturing Spelt Gingerbread Loaf

Friday, November 19, 2021

Nothing spreads the holiday spirit like a good homemade gingerbread loaf. This particular gingerbread is well-flavoured and incredibly delicious due to the 6-week long maturing process and the generous use of homemade spice blend. For a loaf with a soft crust and tender crumb, cover the gingerbread with a few slices of bread or fruit (I used clementines) for a couple of days before slicing. Glaze the gingerbread loaf with a simple lemon icing or chocolate ganache with some chopped nuts or just serve it with some whipped cream and some stewed plums for a festive brunch or try as a teatime snack slathered with butter.

Gingerbread Spice Blend	Gingerbread
2 tbsp Allspice, ground 2 tbsp Cinnamon, ground 2 tbsp Ginger, ground 1 tbsp Clove, ground 1 tbsp Nutmeg, ground A large pinch of black pepper	125 ml of Honey (or molasses) 100 g Coconut sugar (or raw brown sugar) 60 g Butter 3/4 tsp Baking soda 60 ml Milk 250 g White spelt flour 20 g Gingerbread spice blend 1 Medium egg

Combine all the ingredients for the spice blend in a jar. You don't need all the spices for the recipe. So half the recipe if you prefer.
6 weeks before Christmas: Gently melt the honey, coconut sugar and butter in a saucepan. Do not allow the mixture to boil. Set aside to cool for a bit. Add soda to the milk and mix. Whisk together the spelt flour and gingerbread spice, soda with milk, egg and cooled honey mixture. Mix well. Scrape the thick batter into a 20cm loaf pan. Cover the pan with a piece of plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge, undisturbed, for 5 weeks.
After 5 weeks: Preheat the oven to 170C/340F. Bake the loaf for about 50-60 minutes until nicely browned. Leave to cool in the pan, then turn out. Wrap the loaf with a large piece of tin foil. Set aside at room-temperature for a couple of days or up to a week before serving.
If the gingerbread is hard, place a few slices of bread/apples/clementines on the loaf, then wrap with tin foil. They will help make the loaf tender and soft (change the bread/fruit each day with fresh ones). When the loaf is tender, glaze the gingerbread with chocolate ganache and sprinkle with some chopped nuts over, or simply dust the loaf with some powdered sugar and enjoy!

Read On 48 comments

Hot Cross Bread

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Easter is almost upon us, and nothing says Easter better than the taste of hot cross buns with the traditional flavours of dried fruit and mixed spices fresh from the oven. Plus the scent of freshly baked bread wafting from the oven is just heavenly. Sweetened with coconut sugar and a maple syrup glaze, this giant spiced holiday bun studded with fruit won't last long, but any leftover bread can be served toasted the next day.

Bread	Cross Paste & Glaze
200 ml Milk, lukewarm 1 tsp Coconut sugar 7g Dry active yeast 400 g Organic bread flour 1 tsp Cinnamon powder 1 tsp Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp Nutmeg powder 1/2 tsp Sea salt 50 g Coconut sugar 200 g Mixed dried fruit (I use a mix of pineapple, raisin and apricot) 50 g Unsalted butter, melted, cooled 1 Small egg, lightly beaten	20 g Organic bread flour 20 ml Cold water 1 tbsp Maple syrup

Heat the milk in a saucepan over medium heat until lukewarm. Combine1 teaspoon of coconut sugar, yeast and 100 g flour with the warm milk in a bowl, stirring until smooth. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place for 25 minutes or until bubbles form on the surface.
In a large bowl, sift together the spices, remaining 300 g flour and salt. Stir in the coconut sugar and dried fruit, then add the yeast mixture, cooled melted butter and egg. Mix to form a soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead dough for about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Or transfer to the mixing bowl of your stand mixer with a hook attached and knead until you have a smoth dough.
Grease a 18cm springform cake pan. Shape the dough into a round and place in the prepared springform pan. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour 30 minutes. The dough should rise to just above the rim of the pan.
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. For the cross decoration, combine the bread flour with cold water in a bowl, mixing until you have a smooth paste. Transfer the mixture to a small plastic bag, pushing into a corner, then snip off corner and pipe a cross on top of the bun.
Place the pan in the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden and cooked through. Brush the top with maple syrup. Cool slightly in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack. Serve warm with butter.

Read On 35 comments

Eggs with Herb Sour Cream Sauce

Sunday, March 21, 2021

This is a very quick and easy vegetarian dish, originated in Frankfurt Germany, that you’ll enjoy with your friends and family. The sauce is usually made of seven different kinds of herbs: borage, chervil, cress, parsley, salad burnet, sorrel and chives. I couldn't find some of them, so I just use a mixture of parsley, chervil and chives. You can also include dill, lemon balm, and tarragon.
Traditionally it's served with cold hard-boiled eggs and boiled (or baked) potatoes during the spring and summer seasons when the many herbs required by the recipe are found in abundance.

Eggs with Herb Sauce - Eier mit grüner Kräutersauce

adapted from Küchen Götter

1 bunch / 25 g Parsley
1 bunch / 20 g Chervil
1 bunch / 15 g Chives
150 g Plain whole milk yoghurt
200 g Schmand (German sour cream)
2/3 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp Lemon juice
Sea salt
Freshly milled black pepper
4-6 Medium eggs, hard-boiled

Wash and clean all the herbs. Spread them out on a dry towel or kitchen paper. Gently pat off water. Finely chop all the herbs.
In a large bowl, add in yoghurt, sour cream, and mustard. Stir until combined and smooth. Stir in chopped herbs and season with salt and black pepper. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 more minutes.
Meanwhile bring a saucepan of water to a boil over medium-high heat. Using a slotted spoon, carefully lower eggs into water one at a time. Cook 6 minues, maintaining a gentle boil. Immediately transfer eggs with a slotted spoon to a bowl of ice water and stir until cool enough to handle. Drain, pat dry, and peel eggs.
Spoon the sauce onto plates. Slice the eggs in half lengthwise and arrange them on the sauce. Garnish with fresh herbs.

Read On 35 comments

Arugula Spiced Spelt Soda Bread

Saturday, March 06, 2021

Soda bread is so easy because it requires no yeast, extensive kneading or proving. It’s best eaten within a couple of days, or you can slice and freeze it to toast later. Instead of kefir, you can use buttermilk or yoghurt. It is delicious dunked into a bowl of homemade soup, or served with cheese or simply with butter and a hot cuppa.

Why did bread turn red?

Turmeric has two pigments known as xanthophylls, which lends the yellow colour to it and carotene, which is reddish orange in colour. When it's exposed to alkaline materials (baking soda, and kefir) and heated, it reacts and the yellow pigment is neutralised. As a result, the yellow xanthophyll is suppressed and the orange-red carotene pigment becomes more prominent, so the baked goods turn red.

2 tsp Cumin seeds
225 g White spelt flour, plus extra for dusting
225 g Wholegrain spelt flour
2 tsp Ground turmeric
1/4 tsp Black pepper powder
10 g Baking soda
1 tsp Black salt (or regular fine sea salt)
25 g Butter, diced and chilled
75g Rolled oats
40 g Arugula, chopped
375 ml Kefir

Heat the oven to 200C/400F. Toast the cumin seeds in a small pan for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant, then lightly crush using a pestle and mortar. Set aside to cool slightly.
Mix together the flours, turmeric, black pepper, baking soda and black salt in a large mixing bowl. Use your fingers to rub in the diced butter until only small crumbs remain.
Stir in the oats, arugula, and crushed cumin seeds. Pour the kefir over and use a wooden spoon to quickly mix in. Tip everything out onto a lightly floured worksurface and use your hands to gently knead into a smooth-ish dough.
Shape into a 20cm round loaf with a flat top, and transfer to baking tray lined with a parchment paper. Dust some flour over the dough. Use a small, sharp knife to score a deep cross into the top.
Bake for 40 minutes or until crusty and the base of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack slightly. Serve with salted butter.

Read On 31 comments

Nut Free Pumpkin Fruitcake

Friday, December 18, 2020

Studded generously with dried mixed fruits, this nut-free, deliciously dense and rich pumpkin fruitcake is easily made well in advance, which saves you valuable time when entertaining, and perfect with your morning or afternoon cuppa too. For extra depth and flavour, soak dried fruits in the alcohol of your choice (Port, rum, brandy or whisky-based liqueur) a week prior to making the cake. If you don't want to bake this in a cake pan, try to divide the batter in 6 jumbo muffin cups and bake for 40-50 minutes. Test for doneness by placing a wooden skewer in center of muffin. If it comes out clean, it is done. Be careful not to over bake. The cake will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week and much longer if you use alcohol.

250 g White spelt flour
12 g Baking powder
1/3 tsp Salt
250g Butter, softened
200 g Coconut sugar
2 Large eggs, room-temperature
1 tsp Vanilla paste
220 g Hokkaido pumpkin puree (butternut squash would work great too)
500 g Dried mixed fruit (I used a mix of ginger, apricot and cranberry)
60 ml 3.5% Milk, room-temperature

Grease a 22cm heart shaped or round spring-form pan thoroughly. Preheat the oven to 160C/320F.
Whisk together the spelt flour, baking powder and salt together.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter and coconut sugar until pale and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until well combined.
Add in vanilla paste, pumpkin puree and mixed fruits and stir until combined. Alternately fold in spelt flour mixture and milk until combined. The batter is rather thick.
Spoon the batter into prepared pan and smooth surface. Bake for 1½ hours or until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Read On 34 comments

Spekuloos Cookie Butter

Monday, December 14, 2020

Cookie butter is typically made from powdered spekuloos (spiced holiday cookies), butter (or oil, but nothing tastes as good as butter), condensed milk and/or sugar until it’s spreadable like nut butter. But to make it even richer, I am using dulce de leche instead of condensed milk and sugar. (Place a tin of sweetened condensed milk in your Instant Pot covered with water and pressure cooked for 15 minutes. That's it. ) To speed the things up, I am using the store-bought butter spekuloos for the recipe, but you can bake your own spice cookies.
Enjoy the cookie butter spread on toast, pancakes or waffles, or to bake a Cookie Butter Raisin Loaf and of course, it also tastes great enjoyed straight from the jar on a spoon!

200 g Butter spekuloos cookies, store bought or homemade
50 g Butter
200 g Dulce de leche
50 ml Whipping cream
1 tsp Cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp Cloves

Place the speculoos cookies in a plastic zip-top bag. Remove the air and seal the bag. Lightly crush the cookies into coarse granules using a rolling pin. Transfer the crushed cookies in a food processor, then pulse to a fine powder.
In a small saucepan, add in butter, dulce de leche, and cream and cook over low heat until well combined.
Add butter mixture to the cookie powder with cinnamon and cloves. Mix until everything is combined and smooth. You can crush a couple of cookies and mix into the cookie butter for extra crunchiness.
Transfer the cookie butter to a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Cookie butter should be good for up to 2 weeks.