Boiled Orange (Valencia) & Almond Cake

Oranges brighten up a cold winter.  Not only do they brighten up a home, you can have them after each meal, squeeze them for juice, grated zest for cakes and cookies. The tangy flavour is unmistakeable.
  
It is so special when food brings back memories and when I read through this recipe with 'boiled oranges', I started reminiscing of childhood times when I was coughing out my lungs. Medications didn't seem to work. Finally, oranges were used.  I can't remember who gave or recommended this cure but it worked.  Simply boil 1 or 2 oranges in some water till soft, squeeze out the juice, mix the warm juice with honey and drink.       

This a dense and moist cake which can keep for a week.  Not very sweet, buttery, orangey......awesome !! 
The colour would have been better if blood orange is used.  I highly recommend organic orange for this recipe because you are eating the entire orange.  If you have no other choice, wash the orange with hot water before you boil it.

Beauty Cakes

It is May and I'm writing this from the depths of work and annual spring cleaning, stuck in things which are swirling around me.  Or am I swirling around them?  It's rough but sometimes one got to let some things go, shelve them 'till later'.  I haven't figured out which to chase down - Jeeees! it's chaotic here.

Applecake 11.11.11

November 11, 2011 (11.11.11)
Many people worldwide find this configuration set of numbers facinating. Some people had to get married. Some people had to have their baby or babies.  Auspicious ?
What will they do on 12-12-12 ?
Hmmm.... wait and see.    Naaaah ! No babies for me cos I've closed shop :-)  
For me, it's the first day or start of winter because icy wind was blowing and when I went into the garden to get some fresh mint for tea, they were all wilted from the cold.
And I had to have applecake!!  

Swiss Roll Mania !!

Think I caught the swiss roll virus that's been circulating around.

Made 2 versions - a classic sponge and a chiffon method.
I personally prefer the roll from classic sponge method.

Cherry Joghurt Cake

Mum  :  Well son, what else do you miss now that you've had your cheese cake

Son  :  You know that cherry ding with yoghurt.

Mum  :  Ah !    Got it !

This is one cake which gives you a smug feeling even after you've indulged away more than 2 pieces in one sitting.

Instead of cherries, you may use pineapples, pears, apricots; whatever to your own liking.

Swabian Cheese Cake

After living 'abroad' for 2 years, the first thing my son wanted when he came home was a real typical swabian cheese cake.  Guess he has not lost the perspective for the swabian culture. 

Typical German Cakes (2) (FEINE KUCHEN/SONNTAGSKUCHEN)

FEINE SONNTAGSKUCHEN



There was a course being conducted by a
swabian confectionery SIFU (master)
and I couldn't resist gatecrashing.

With his full permission, he allowed 
me to make these photos .....

The Master

Typical German Cakes (1) (FEINE KUCHEN/SONNTAGSKUCHEN)

FEINE SONNTAGSKUCHEN







Träubeleskuchen

Swabia is a part of southern Germany.  It's people has a long history but I'm not going into that now.
Today, they are famous for their cars Mercedes and Porsche and their dialect which is always being teased.
One of their beer tent sing-a-long/chant goes like this............

ZICKE  ZACKE  ZICKE  ZACKE,
   HOI  HOI  HOI  !!

Black Currant and Cranberry Cake (Glutenfree)

Yummie, yummie...

Found this receipe in an 'Organic' magazine. What caught my attention was this cake was using YEAST instead of baking powder.

I have some dried cranberries, fresh black currants and a bag of glutenfree flour. And of course, other basic baking ingredients like eggs and butter which I always have.

Ingredients

• 150 gm butter
• 150 gm brown sugar
• 4 eggs (small)
• 180 gm glutenfree flour
• 1 pack yeast
• 1 pinch of salt
• 200 gm fresh black currants
• 50 gm dried cranberries

Method

1. Cream butter with sugar and salt.
2. Whisk eggs and slowly add into butter cream.
3. Sieve yeast and flour together and fold into batter.
_{At this stage, I let the batter 'rest' for 20 minutes to give the yeast a chance to proof. Meanwhile, preheat oven at 220°C.}
4. Line a loaf pan with baking paper to prevent cake from sticking.
5. Dust black currants and cranberries with 2 tbsp flour.

6. Carefully fold the berries into the batter.
7. Fill batter into pan and 'proof' another 5-10 minutes. Bake 15 minutes at 220°C. Reduce temperature down to 180°C and bake further 20 minutes or until brown.
8. Remove cake from loaf pan but do not remove baking paper and let cool.
9. Once cooled, remove baking paper and dust over with icing sugar.

Conclusion

The cake did not raise as high as a yeast dough should. No taste of yeast is detected in the cake.

That means, an alternative raising agent like baking powder or cream of tartar (Weinsteinpulver) is acceptable.

As there was no vanilla essence added, the aroma of black currants and cranberries were quite prominent - tangy and fruity. Perfect for people with gluten allergy or celiac disease.

Portuguese Tarts ala Lina

Portuguese Tarts a la Lina

Ingredients

• 1 roll flaky pastry
• 400 ml whipping cream (2 tubs Schlagsahne)
• 5 eggyolks
• 1 heap tsp cornflour
• 180 gm sugar
• grated lemon peel
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence (see this post)

Method

Roll out pastry and sprinkle generously with flour.

Roll it up firmly with like a swissroll/log and divide into 12 pieces.

Flatten each roll (not sideways) with the swirl on top, roll out to about 10-12cm diameter.

Dust muffin pan generously with flour and gently press pastry to fit.

Place in fridge while proceeding with the filling.

Preheat oven to 250°C.

Place all ingredients in a saucepan. I used a plunger (Stabmixer) to whisk till well combined.

Cook over medium low heat, uncovered, stirring constantly with wooden spoon till custard starts to thicken.

Remove from heat immediately but continue to stir to make sure the custard is smooth.

Spoon custard into pastry cases and bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until pastry is golden and custard is firm.

Winter Food Series: Today, Delicious Rhubarb CrumbCake!

Preparing the Rhubarb Filling

Pre-baked Base Crumbs

Spreading Rhubarb on Crumbs

Readied Whipped Egg-White

Luvly Layers

A Piece for You!

Winter. Not only nature, even homosapiens go into hibernation....active hibernation. Foggy days. Icy evenings. Freezing nights. Icy roads. No, No !! Nothing will make me go out.

Germans love to eat Rhubarb .....in various ways. Their favorite is named "Rhabarberkuchen". It's a crumb cake or tart made with rhubarb (though that's neither fruit nor vegetable). Rhubarb flourish very well in my garden. Probably because it is growing right beside my compost. I harvested lots last spring and froze them. Snipe away the huge leafs (they're fairly hairly). What's left are the stalks, thick as a thumb (or a big toe, at least) and arm long. Wait till next spring, then I'll post you some nice-nice rhubarb pictures!

Sour stuff, I tell ya! Don't try to eat them raw. In the past I've used rhubarb to pep up my Tom-Yum Soups when I ran out of lemons.

To cut a long story short: you peel the skin off the stalks, cut it into 1-2 inch long pieces, and then portion them into 500 gram bags for the freezer.

Last Saturday there was no more fresh fruits nor veggies in my fridge. Been hibernating since New Year, remember ? Opened up the freezer; out fell a bag with rhubarb. Been itching to bake something anyway, so rhubarb cake it will be!

One delicious rhubarb cake

Prepare the cake filling

• 1 kg frozen rhubarb
• 100 gm sugar
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp water
• ....cook! But how?

First defrost (can do over night).

Pour the juice (there will be enough after defrosting), and only the juice into a small sauce pan.

Add sugar.

Cook juice with sugar.

Once it's boiling, mix cornstarch with 2 tbsp of water.

Remove pan from heat. Add the cornstarch-water-mix to thicken juice.

Gently add in defrosted rhubarb pieces.

Do not cook again, and do not "over-mix". We want to keep the pieces, and don't want to turn it into mush.

Set aside and let it cool down.

Why the cornstarch? It prevents the later cake filling turning out too soggy.

Make the base

• 150 gm butter (don't use margarine)
• 100 gm flour
• 200 gm almond meal
• a pinch of salt
• 4 egg-yolks

Simply mix-mix until you get crumb-crumbs.

Butter a cake-pan. Spread-spread the crumbs evenly over the pan and bake at 180° C for about 20 minutes. (Temperature adjustments may be needed with different ovens).

While base is baking, whip 4 egg-whites with 4 tbsp of sugar plus 1 tsp of vanilla essence (Germans will use 1 pack of "Vanillezucker").

Whip until very stiff.

Bring out dish from oven. Spread out rhubarb filling on top of baked crumbs. Spread or pipe the whipped egg-whites on top of rhubarb filling.

Place dish back to oven. Bake again. Use 120° C for another 20 minutes. Bake till the top of egg-white start to take colour light brown and become "Baiser".

Eat it whenever you can't curb your lust any longer. If you like, even if cake is still warm.

Winter Food Series: Today, Savoury Healthy Muffins!

The ingredients

The batter

The baked result

The meal

It's icy cold outside... Artic temperature, wind blowing, wild horses can't drag me out today. So it's 'hibernating food' for lunch/dinner again. What do I find this time ?

A pack of frozen ham, some frozen broccoli. What else do I find in the fridge and around? Carrots, milk, eggs, a pack grated cheese... And of course, onions (always have them). Found half pack of semolina as well. And this will be my lunch.

Savoury semolina muffins

Ingredients

• 250 ml milk
• 50 gm Semolina
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 small stick carrot (cut into fine cubes)
• 2 small (or 1 large) onions (chop/cut very fine)
• 100 gm flour (sieved with ½ tsp of baking powder and ½ tsp natron)
• 3 eggs
• ....bake! But how?

Method

Heat up the milk. As soon as it starts to boil, turn off flame and add semolina.

Add salt and sugar, mix thoroughly and set aside to cool.

Heat up 2 tbsp cooking oil in a pan, add onions and slowly let them 'sweat' till they start to brown.

Add carrots, cook a further minute and set aside to cool as well.

Whip up the eggs till foamy.

Put the cooled ingredients (semolina and onions with carrots), ham and the grated cheese into a large bowl. Mix well.

Add in flour. If the mixture is too dry, just add milk: the batter should be like a thick pancake consistency.

Do not over mix otherwise the muffins will become chewy.

At this stage, I found the batter too pale. So I add in broccoli. Found a few bits of dried cranberries so I put them in as well. Then I decided to add 'substance' to make it real healthy -– a handful of dried Goji berries went in too.

A friend gave me a silicon muffin tray cos she didn't know what to do with it. It is not stable. Very soft and 'spineless'.

Hmmm.... what to do ?

Easy: place the silicon in a tray to bake. After baking, just remove the tray and let it cool for 10 minutes before flipping over the silicon. The muffins just fell out.

It is not too bad. It is non-stick, easy to clean. The muffins are crispy on the outside and soft and juicy inside.