Category Archives: Kuchen und Plätzchen

Kuchen und Plätzchen, pic, rec, sweet, vegetarians

tarte au citron et aux amandes

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this tarte has almonds in the crust and almonds sprinkled on top of it. i’m undecided if i like the crust better than the last one, since it was a tad dry. but it worked very well with the lemon filling (which was not as tart this time).

Ingredients:

crust

  • 75g flour
  • 25g ground almonds
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • a pinch of salt
  • 40g chilled butter, cut into pieces
  • 1 teaspoon cold water, more if needed

filling

  • 2 eggs
  • 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1 Tbsp freshly grated lemon zest
  • 80g sugar
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 20g sliced almonds
  • icing sugar

mix together flour, almonds, sugar and salt. using a pastry cutter, cut the chilled butter into the flour until only a few pea-sized pieces of butter remain visible. sprinkle water over the mixture and toss until it holds together. press dough over bottom and up sides of a 18cm-diameter baking pan. freeze for about 20 minutes until the crust is firm.

combine eggs and sugar in a heavy saucepan and whisk. mix in lemon juice and zest. whisk over medium-high heat until the mixture becomes thick and almost boils  (about 5-7 minutes). remove from heat and whisk in butter.

preheat oven to 200°C and bake crust for about 15 minutes, until golden. (you may want to do the complete blind-baking thing, but it worked for me also without the beans)

reduce oven temperature to 175°C. spread filling in the crust and sprinkle the almonds over. bake for about 20 minutes, until the almonds start turning golden brown and the filling is set.  sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

Monatlicher Blog-Event bei Low Budget Cooking: Kleine Kuchen

the tarte was made in a 18cm-diameter baking pan (to be more precise: in the 18cm-diameter lid of my glassware pot), and so i’m submitting it to the blog event kleine kuchen (small cakes) by low budget cooking.

Kuchen und Plätzchen, pic, rec, sweet, vegetarians

apple pie coffee cake

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“i don’t have any eggs, but i want to bake cake!” – in such cases it is a good idea to check for cakes at vegan yum yum. i ended up with the apple pie coffee cake, modified it a bit here and there (added almonds and actually de-veganized it by using dairy products instead of soy milk …) and here is my version:

Ingredients:

apple filling

  • 800g apples
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 100ml orange juice + 3 tbsp
  • 2 tsp corn starch

batter

  • 200g flour
  • 60g ground almonds
  • 130g sugar
  • 1.5 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 50ml plain yoghurt
  • 70ml heavy cream
  • 60ml milk
  • 100ml sun flower oil

for sprinkling

  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon

to prepare the  filling, peel, core and chop the apples. sprinkle with sugar and set aside for a few minutes. in a large pan melt butter and slowly cook the apples in it for about 10 minutes. lid should be covered. then add orange juice (i guess apple juice would be better, but i didn’t have any at hand) and boil for about 2 minutes. mix corn starch with 2-3 tbsp cold orange juice, stir in and boil again for 1-2 minutes. the filling should thicken now and can be set aside.

for the batter mix in a large bowl flour, ground almonds, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and sea salt. in another bowl mix plain yoghurt, heavy cream and milk (at whatever ratio of this ingredients your fridge allows, of course you may also want to switch to the vegan original by using soy milk) and sun flower oil. pour over the flour mix and stir a few times. spread a bit more than half of the batter in a greased sprinform tin (mine is 26cm in diameter), spread apple filling on top of it, then spoon remaining batter on top of the cake, the apple filling should still be visible though.

mix sugar and cinammon and sprinkle on the cake, bake at 175° for 30 minutes, reduce heat to 160° and bake for 10 minutes, then reduce to 150° and bake for another ten minutes.  (this was how it worked for me, but check for instructions on baking time also the original recipe.)

the cake just vanished during one afternoon coffee… and of course it is always a good idea to visit vegan yum yum, also without lacking any ingredients.

Kuchen und Plätzchen, pic, rec, sweet, vegetarians

yeast pastry with apple, almonds and pistachios

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these swirls/rolls are made like this: in a large bowl mix 300g flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 35g sugar. make a well in the middle. crumble 20g fresh yeast into the well, sprinkle a knife tip of sugar on it and disolve the yeast in 150ml lukewarm milk. let it stand for a few minutes, until the yeast-milk-mix becomes bubbly. add  70g cold butter, cut in smaller chunks. knead well until the dough comes together nicely. cover with a dish towel and let it rise on a warm place for at least 30 minutes.  meanwhile prepare the filling: chop 30g of pistachios, grate one large apple. mix together with 3tbsp ground almonds, 2tbsp sugar and 3tbsp creme fraiche. when the dough is risen, knead again for a few minutes and then roll it out to a rectangle (approximately 25 x 45 cm). brush with 3tbsp of melted butter. then spread the filling on it. roll it up and cut in slices (about 3cm wide). put the rolls on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, cover again with a towel and let them rise for another 30 minutes. brush with 1tbsp melted butter mixed with 1 tbsp milk (which i used) or 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tbsp milk. bake at 180° for 20 minutes or until golden brown. i like these rolls especially because they are very fluffy, and the filling is moist and not to sweet.

BreadBakingDay #28 - last day of submission April 1, 2010this is a sumbission to bread baking day, an event created by zorra and hosted this month at tangerine’s kitchen.

Kuchen und Plätzchen, pic, rec, sweet, vegetarians

mini scones

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i wanted to make rolls for breakfast, but did not manage to get up in time. so we had scones, which are really quick and easy to make. i followed this recipe with minor modifications – i replaced the 140ml 1.5%milk with a mixture of 2tbsp crème fraîche and 3.5% milk and baked them at a lower temerature (200°). and since my cookie cutter is only 4 cm in diameter we got not only 6 scones, but 16 mini-scones. they were delicious, and reminded me of holidays in Ireland back in … 1998.

Kuchen und Plätzchen, pic, rec, sweet, vegetarians

tarte au citron

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tonight we had guests and once again i made the incredible veggie soup, this time with carrots, potatoes, fennel, hamburg parsley and peas. tarte au citron was the desert.

to make a tarte au citron has been a plan for quite some time. i did some research on the internet and found an amazing number of possible variations, finally ending up at david lebovitz’ lemon tarte recipe. the interesting part here is the tarte dough, as it is done in a very uncommon way: first you boil the butter and some other ingredients in the oven for some time, and then add  the flour – which makes for quite a bubbling and sputtering experience. (i don’t want to repeat the full recipe here, go check out the french pastry dough).  i modified the filling of the tarte a bit, using 100ml lemon juice plus 50ml orange juice, 100g sugar, lemon zest, 3 eggs and 50g butter. after the custard was cooked i added also 2tbsp crème fraîche. the filling is still quite tart (i did not pay attention to this detail while reading the recipe), but with some raspberry sauce it was very nice. next i’ll give the almond version a try.

Kuchen und Plätzchen, pic, sweet, vegetarians

ensaïmada

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ensaimadas

having never been to mallorca so far i also did not know about Ensaïmadas de Mallorca , which are obviously something like a national treasure. i stumbled upon the recipe here and tried them this morning (started actually last evening, since they are supposed to rise overnight). i made only half the amount of the recipe. and i used butter instead of lard – i guess that’s the reason why i found them nice, but not as spectacular as i had expected. note to self: go check out the original on-site.

Kuchen und Plätzchen, pic, rec, sweet, vegetarians

chocolate cake

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this is an adaption of belgian chocolate cake, of which many recipes are floating around on the net. main differences: used crème fraîche instead of kefir, left out the cocos stuff and made only 2/3 to fit in a 20cm baking pan. here we go:

first some preparations – it’s better to arrange all this stuff beforehand. put 50g cocoa in a bowl, add 100ml hot (not boiling) water. melt the cocoa, let it cool down a bit. melt 75g butter. take two eggs, seperate egg yolk and egg white. sift 200g flour together with 1.5 tsp baking soda.

now beat egg yolks with 150g sugar until creamy. add melted cocoa. add butter. add flour/baking soda. (ha – great that we prepared this in advance!) add 100g crème fraîche. beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold it into the dough.

now pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 40 minutes at 175°C.

meanwhile prepare the frosting: chop 75g of your favourite dark chocolate (70% cocoa should be minimum!). heat 50g heavy cream and 1 tsp butter (microwaving is allowed here). pour it over the chocolate and stir until everything is evenly combined. let it chill. once the cake is cool enough cover with frosting. let it chill. sift cocoa powder over the cake before enjoying it.