January Daring Bakers Challenge - filled speculaas cake

Francijn of Koken in de Brouwerij was our January 2013 Daring Bakers’ Hostess and she challenged us to make the traditional Dutch pastry, Gevulde Speculaas from scratch! That includes making our own spice mix, almond. 

Let us start with a little history, about the Netherlands and spices, Francijn shared with us:

Until 1800 cloves, mace and nutmeg are exclusively found on the Maluku Islands, in the East Indian Archipelago. That's why these islands are called “the spice islands”.
To make one's fortune in Europe through the spice trade, one needed a monopoly on the European trade. Since 1500 the Portuguese owned that monopoly.
The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, too, wanted to get rich from the spice trade, and established the Dutch East India Company around 1600, to join forces. Since 1660 the monopoly on spice trade was firmly in Dutch hands. In the Dutch Golden Age, roughly the 17th century, the republic got rich through this trade, and flourished like never before, economically, artistically and scientifically. In many Dutch cities the heritage of this century is still visible. Sadly, this wealth must be considered in the light of war and repression. The Dutch used much violence and oppressed people to establish and defend their monopoly.
Only after World War II Dutch India became independent from the Netherlands. Until that moment the trade of spices, coffee, rubber, tobacco, opium, sugar, indigo and tea from Dutch India contributed significantly to the Dutch economy.

Speculaas spices
When spices had become commonly available in the 17th century, bakers' guilds began to make their secret spice mixtures. A mixture that gloriously survived the ages is “speculaaskruiden” (speculaas spices). Speculaaskruiden contain at least cinnamon, cloves, mace and ginger, and these spices to taste: pepper, cardamom, coriander, anise seeds and nutmeg.
The smell of speculaaskruiden is overwhelming, especially when you take the trouble to mix them yourself. The deliciously warm and woody aroma is a perfect fit for the chilly Dutch winter months.
From the golden age onward, this spice mixture was used to bake a crisp, buttery biscuit: speculaas. For centuries it remained a luxury item, baked only in the holiday season, and often given as a present. Sometimes bakers made the dough three months in advance so that the flavor would permeate the dough.
Ever since the 15th century, the 6th of December has been celebrated as the nameday of St. Nicholas, combined with an exchange of gifts on the evening before. But in the age of the Dutch East India Company St. Nicholas became associated with speculaas. And that is not so strange, as St. Nicholas was the patron saint of sailors as well as many bakers' guilds.

 

Recipe Speculaas Spices
Speculaas spices can be bought in a store. But it's more fun to make your own mixture, so that you can adjust the flavor. Here is a representative recipe from the extensive Dutch tradition.
Mandatory:
Cinnamon 40 to 60 % of the total amount
Ground cloves 1 or 2 parts
Mace ½ or 1 part
Ginger ½ or 1 part
Optional:
White pepper ½ or 1 part
Cardamom ½ or 1 part
Coriander ½ or 1 part
Star anise ½ or 1 part
Nutmeg 1 or 2 parts
A convenient way to mix the spices is as follows:
Take at least 1 or 2 teaspoons of ground cloves, ½ or 1 teaspoon of mace and ½ or 1 teaspoon of ginger.
Add to taste ½ or 1 teaspoon of white pepper, ½ or 1 teaspoon of cardamom, ½ or 1 teaspoon of coriander, ½ or 1 teaspoon of anise, and 1 or 2 teaspoons of nutmeg.
Measure or weigh the amount of spices you have now, and add an equal amount of cinnamon.
This method yields at least 4 and at most 18 teaspoons of spices, so if you plan to mix just a few spices, use bigger or more spoons to get a reasonable amount.
Take your time to smell the ingredients individually before you decide how much to add. And remember the proportions, that will make adjustments easier next time.
Store the spices airtight, dry and dark, they will not spoil for a long time.

Recipe Almond Paste
As we are going to make stuffed speculaas, we will need almond paste. You can buy it in a store, but homemade almond paste tastes better.
Ingredients:
125g raw almonds or ground almonds
125g granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Grind the almonds for one or two minutes in a food processor, until you see nothing but very small pieces. (Or skip this step if you use ground almonds.)
Add the sugar, and grind for another one or two minutes. It must be very fine after this step. Add the egg and let the food processor combine it - if it is powerful enough. Otherwise you will have to combine it with your fingers. Store the almond paste in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Although the flavor gets better as days pass by, it is not wise to store the paste for too long, as it contains a raw egg. For the same reason you should not eat the paste unbaked.

Recipe Speculaas Dough
Ingredients:
250g all purpose (plain) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
150g brown sugar
A pinch salt
2 tablespoons speculaas spices
175g unsalted butter
Method:
Put flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and spices in a bowl.
Cut the butter in dices and add.
Knead until smooth.
Feel free to add a little milk if the dough is too dry.
Wrap in clingfoil and put in the refrigerator for two hours.
You can choose to make the dough a few days in advance, just like the almond paste, that will benefit the flavor. Freezing is no problem.

Assembling and baking the Gevulde Speculaas
Ingredients:
speculaas dough
almond paste
whole almonds without skins for decoration
1 large egg
shallow baking pan, 8x10 inch (20x26 cm) or, round with of diameter 10 inch (26 cm)
Directions:
1. Grease the pan.
2. Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas 4
3. Divide the dough into two portions.
4. Roll out both portions on a lightly floured surface, until they are exactly as big as the baking pan.
5. Put one of the layers in the pan and press it lightly to fill the bottom.
6. Lightly beat the egg with a teaspoon cold water.
7. Smear 1/3 of the egg over the dough in the pan.
8. Roll out the almond paste between two sheets of clingfoil, until it is exactly as big as the pan, and put it on the dough in the pan. (If you chose to make the paste soft, you can smear the paste instead of rolling it.)
9. Press the paste lightly down to fit in the pan, and smear the next 1/3 of the egg over it.
10. Now put the second layer of dough on top of the paste, press it lightly, and make as smooth as possible.
11. Smear the last 1/3 of the egg over the dough.
12. Decorate the pastry with the almonds.
13. Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven.
14. Let cool completely in the pan, then cut it in portions as you like.
15. If you wrap the stuffed speculaas in clingfoil, after it has cooled completely, you can store it a few days at room temperature. Freezing is possible, but fresh speculaas tastes better.


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German Lebkuchen cookies - November Daring Bakers Challenge

Holiday season is the time for sharing and Peta of Peta Eats is sharing a dozen cookies, some classics and some of her own, from all over the world with us.

Oh, Peta gave us so many choices but I knew I had to make the German Lebkuchen (gingerbread) cookies. Lebkuchen is the ultimate Christmas memory to me and this recipe is beautiful soft and moist yet firm enough to cut out any shape you like. Perfect for Christmas baking with family and friends.

In Germany it's a beloved tradition to have friends over for some cookie baking (Plaetzchen) to devour them on the four Sundays leading up to Christmas Eve. Also important is the table decoration consisting of a wreath with four candles marking the four Advent Sundays. On the first Sunday you'll light only one candle and then the second on the second Advent and so fourth.

It's such a nice welcoming of Christmas that I miss very much here in Sydney. I still have candles on the table but since it's summer it doesn't quite feel the same to me.

Anyway, baking is still fun even in summer and these gingerbread cookies are very scrumptious. 

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Ingredients:
85ml honey
115g dark brown sugar
30g butter
225g plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 egg, beaten
50g ground almonds
Icing
25g icing sugar sifted
2 tsp water 


Method

In a large pan place the honey, sugar and butter. Put on a low heat until the butter and sugar have melted.  Remove from the heat. Sift together the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda. Beat the egg in a small dish. Add one half of the flour mixture and half of the egg to the pan and mix well. Repeat with the remaining flour and egg. Finally add in the ground almonds and mix till thoroughly combined. The dough now needs to be chilled, it is very sticky and will seem along way away from being a biscuit dough but don’t worry.

Place it in a plastic bag, an easy way of doing this is to fold a bag over the inside of a large jug and tip the dough in.
Chill overnight in the fridge, in fact you can leave this dough to develop it’s flavours in the fridge for up to three days.

Roll dough out between two sheets of greaseproof paper to approx 5mm thick. Preheat the oven to 160c Fan/180c/Gas Mark 4. Cut out shapes and lay them on a lined baking tray.

Bake in the oven for 7-9 minutes until golden brown.  Allow to cool for five minutes on the tray to firm up a little before carefully transferring to a cooling rack.

Mix up a runny icing glaze combining your sifted icing sugar with the water. Line up the lebkuchen on a wire rack. Using a pastry brush glaze the tops of the biscuits by brushing on a thin layer of icing.  Apply a second coat and leave to dry. The biscuits will keep for up to three weeks in an airtight container – that’s if you can resist eating them.

August Daring Bakers Challenge - Choux Pastry

Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged
to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity
to go wild!

Mmmhh, choux pastry! Is there anything more French than that? Somehow I couldn't get myself
to do swans even though I liked the idea (maybe for my daughter's next birthday party - however
might be too fancy) as I always had to think of eclairs. I love eclairs and they look so elegant.

I once had to develop recipes with coffee and remembered a coffee glaze I used for a cake. This time I spread it on the eclairs and also put some coffee flavour through the whipped cream. Okay, here I actually used a short cut, instead of making a custard cream I only whipped some cream
but it's just as nice, I promise!

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Pate a choux

Ingredients:
½ cup (120 ml) (115 gm) (4 oz) butter
1 cup (240 ml) water
¼ teaspoon (1½ gm) salt
1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm) (5 oz) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

Method:
Line at least two baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper, or grease pans well.
Preheat oven to moderately hot 375°F/190°C/gas mark 5 .
In a small saucepot, combine butter, water, and salt. Heat over until butter melts, then remove from stove.
Add flour all at once and beat, beat, beat the mixture until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pot.
Add one egg, and beat until well combined. Add remaining eggs individually, beating vigorously after each addition. Resulting mixture should be somewhat glossy, very smooth, and somewhat thick.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1.5cm-wide plain nozzle. Pipe mixture into 11cm logs onto prepared trays, allowing room for spreading. Lightly sprinkle the trays with water. Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 160°C. Bake for a further 30 minutes or until puffed and golden. Turn oven off and leave eclairs in oven, with the door slightly ajar, to dry out. Remove the pastries to a cooling rack, and let cool completely. Cut eclairs in half horizontally. Spread top of eclair with coffee glaze and fill with coffee cream. Assemble and decorate with melted chocolate and sugar flowers.

 

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Coffee cream

 1 cup thickened cream
2 tbs pure icing sugar
2 tsp instant coffee granules
2 tsp boiling water
1 tbs Baileys Coffee Irish Cream liqueur 

Beat the cream and icing sugar in a bowl until soft peaks form. Stir the coffee granules and boiling water in a bowl until the coffee dissolves. Fold the coffee mixture and Baileys into the cream mixture until combined. 

Coffee glaze

1 cup icing sugar
5 teaspoons strong brewed coffee
3/4 teaspoon instant espresso powder (optional)

Combine everything in a medium bowl and whisk until smooth. Spread over the eclairs. Let set.

Daring Bakers Challenge June

Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

When I saw this cake first I wasn't really sure what to make of it. It looks a tad too old school for my taste but then curiosity got the better of me, and I am glad I made it. I used marzipan to wrap around and it's delicious.
 
The Battenberg cake is based on German-style of cake making and traditionally includes marzipan (love marzipan)
and apricot jam. The cake was first made to celebrate the wedding of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter,
Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine and was named after her husband, Prince Louis of Battenberg.

The cake itself is like a pound cake with extra almond in it and that gives it its beautiful nutty flavour.
I blended almonds in their skin as that brings out more flavour but also means the cake will not
be as light as with blanched almonds.

Instead of pink/red food colouring I used 50g mashed raspberries to enhance flavour and texture.
The batter was quite dry and therefore I added a bit more milk which worked fine.
Since I had still vanilla buttercream left from the Bratz cake I made a day earlier I cheated and used this.
It was just enough and I was happy not to waste any leftovers.

I would also recommend to beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. I think that will give
a much better texture.

Such a cute little cake which is more like a petit fours than a cake really.

 

Traditional Battenberg:

Servings: +- 8

Ingredients
¾ cup (1½ sticks) 175gm / 6 oz Unsalted Butter, softened; cut in cubes
¾ cup / 175gm / 6 oz Caster Sugar
1¼ cups / 175gm / 6 oz Self-Raising Flour
3 Large Eggs, room temp
½ cup / 65gm/ 2 1/3 oz Ground Almonds (Can be substituted with ground rice) I used 75g of ground almonds
3/4 tsp / 3½ gm Baking Powder
½ tsp / 2½ ml Vanilla Extract
I also added 6 tablespoons milk
1/4 tsp (1¼ ml) Almond Extract - didn't use
Red Food Colouring, paste, liquid or gel - I used 50g mashed raspberries instead

To Finish
1/3 cup (80 ml) 100gm /3 ½ oz Apricot Jam - I used leftover vanilla buttercream
1 cup / 225gm / 8 oz Marzipan, natural or yellow

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/160°C Fan Assisted/Gas Mark 4
2. Grease an 8”/20cm square baking tin with butter
3. Line the tin with parchment paper, creating a divide in the middle with the parchment (or foil)
- Tip: See photos or watch video above for detailed instructions
4. OR Prepare Battenberg tin by brushing the tin with melted butter and flouring
5. Whisk together the dry ingredients then combine with the wet ingredients in a large bowl and beat together just until the ingredients are combined and the batter is smooth
6. Spoon half the mixture into the one side of the prepared baking tin
7. Add a few drops of red food liquid/gel/paste to the remaining batter, stir until the colour is thoroughly distributed, add more colour if needed
8. Spoon the pink batter into the other half of the prepared baking tin
9. Smooth the surface of the batter with a spatula, making sure batter is in each corner
10. Bake for 25-30mins until the cake is well risen, springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick comes out clean (it should shrink away from the sides of the pan)
11. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to cool thoroughly on a wire rack
12. Once completely cool, trim the edges of the cake with a long serrated knife
13. Cut each coloured sponge in half lengthways so that you are left with four long strips of sponge
14. Neaten the strips and trim as necessary so that your checkered pattern is as neat and even as possible
15. Gently heat the apricot jam and pass through a small sieve
16. Brush warmed jam onto the strips of cake to stick the cake together in a checkered pattern (one yellow next to one pink. On top of that, one pink next to one yellow)
- Tip: See photos for detailed instructions
17. Dust a large flat surface with icing sugar then roll the marzipan in an oblong shape that is wide enough to cover the length of the cake and long enough to completely wrap the cake
18. Brush the top of the cake with apricot jam
19. Place the cake on the marzipan, jam side down
- Tip: Either in the middle or to the one side of the marzipan
20. Brush the remaining three sides with jam
21. Press the marzipan around the cake, making sure the join is either neatly in the one corner, or will be underneath the cake once turned over
- Tip: If you put the sponge to the one side of the marzipan, I found it easiest to "roll" the sponge over and over onto the marzipan instead of lifting the marzipan up onto the sponge
22. Carefully flip the cake over so that the seam is under the cake and score the top of the cake with a knife, you can also crimp the top corners with your fingers to decorate
23. Neaten the ends of the cake and remove excess marzipan by trimming off a small bit of cake on both ends to reveal the pattern.

May Daring Bakers Challenge

May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

Oh I love yeast dough and therefore was very happy with this month's challenge. I added poppy seed to the mix and glazed it after baking while still warm with apricot jam - very yummy!

We call the plait or braid - Hefezopf - in Germany and  it's very typical around Easter. It's such a lovely bread spread with lightly salted butter or cream cheese and plum jam or marmalade.
It's beast eaten the day it's made but leftover slices are great for french toast or bread and butter pudding. If you can get fresh yeast try this as the flavour is so much better.  If you can't find fresh yeast in the supermarket try delis or bakeries. It's worth trying.

 

 

Easy Challah

(from templedavid.org)
Ingredients
4 cups (960 ml) (360 gm/20 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour
1 cup (240 ml) warm water
1 package (2¼ teaspoons) (11¼ ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) package rapid rise yeast
½ (120 ml) (115 gm/4 oz) cup sugar
2 large eggs
50 g poppy seeds
1 tsp. (5 ml) (6 gm) salt
1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. water
Directions:
1. Measure flour, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl.
2. In a separate bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer) combine water and yeast, allow to sit 5 minutes until foamy.
3. Add 1 ½ cups of the flour mixture to the water and yeast mixture, beat until well combined. Cover with a dish towel, let stand 30 min.
4. Add two eggs to the dough, beat again.
5. By hand or with your dough hook knead in the remaining flour mixture and the poppy seed. Knead approximately 10 minutes.
6. Transfer to oiled bowl, cover, let rise one hour.
7. Punch down dough, knead approximately 3 minutes.
8. Divide dough in two. Shape each half as desired (3, 4, or 6 strand braid).
9. Place loaves on parchment covered or greased cookie sheets, cover with a towel, allow to rise one hour.
10. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
11. Brush loaves with egg wash.
12. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees, bake until golden crust forms (about 25-30 minutes).
13. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Storage & Freezing Instructions/Tips:
Once cooled, challah loaves which will not be eaten right away (or in the next couple of days) should be bagged in heavy duty freezer bags. Remove excess air from the bag before securing it tightly (tying a knot or using tape). Put the bagged loaf/loaves into the freezer as soon as possible to ensure fresh taste; frozen challah will keep approximately three months.

Armenian nutmeg cake- April Daring Bakers Challenge

The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: Nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.

And fragrant they were. I made both and cannot decide which one I prefer, both recipes are so scrumptious. The Nazook reminded me a little of something we call "Franzbroetchen" in Hamburg, sweet but not too sweet and something you could have for breakfast or afternoon tea. Well, even though the recipe yields 40 pieces I never got around to photograph them - they just happened to disappear too quickly. We had them for breakfast (very Italian), with coffee as morning and afternoon tea and as a snack on the road. The yeast becomes so flaky using the sour cream it's quite amazing and tastes more like puff pastry without the fat (almost diet food ;-). The filling was extremely yummy, not too sweet but with the right amount of brown sugar for that caramel taste, mmmh! Okay I cheated a bit and also added a little of a spice mix I've got from Herbies called Spice Dust.  If you can't get hold of it, it contains cocoa, cassia, cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg among other things.

The tea cake also was a very delicious recipe. Easy to make and just very clever the way it uses half of the crumbly dough for the bottom and the rest for making the filling/topping. Lovely with walnuts but I am sure it will be nice with any other nut.

Because we were so busy munching the Nazooks and no one dared to cut the cake I was actually able to take photos of it. It's such a lovely cake and gorgeous with a nice cup of tea.

The perfect autumn tea cake.

Collecting autumn leaves for craft, then coming home for afternoon tea.

Armenian Nutmeg Cake

Makes one 9”/23cm cake which yields 12 servings
Ingredients

• 1 cup (240 ml) milk (I use whole, but nonfat or lowfat should be fine; non-dairy might work just fine, as well)
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) (5 gm) baking soda
• 2 cups (480 ml) (280 gm/10 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour (I suspect pastry flour or another low-gluten flour might even work better to achieve a light, fluffy crumb)
• 2 teaspoons (10 ml) (10 gm) (⅓ oz) baking powder (I used single-acting, because it's aluminum-free, and it turned out fantastic)
• 2 cups (480 ml) (400 gm/14 oz) brown sugar, firmly packed
• 3/4 cup (1½ sticks) (180 ml) (170 gm/6 oz) butter, preferably unsalted, cubed
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) (55 gm/2 oz) walnut pieces, may need a little more
• 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons (5 to 7 ½ ml) (5 to 8 gm) ground nutmeg (try to grate it fresh yourself; the aroma is enchanting)
• 1 egg

Directions:
Directions - the Traditional Way (The Fast, Easy Way further down)
1. Preheat your oven to moderate 350°F/175°C/gas mark 4.
2. Mix the baking soda (not baking powder; that's for the next step) into the milk. Set it aside.
3. Sift together the flour and the baking powder into a large bowl. One sift is fine
4. Add the brown sugar. Go ahead and mix the flour and brown sugar together. Or not.
5. Toss in the cubed butter.
6. Mash the butter with a fork into the dry ingredients (you can also use your fingers if you want). You'll want to achieve a more-or-less uniform, tan-colored crumbly mixture.
 7. Take HALF of this resulting crumbly mixture into your springform (9”/23cm) pan. Press a crust out of it using your fingers and knuckles. It will be easy.
8. Crack an egg into a mixer or bowl.
9. Toss the nutmeg in with the egg.
10. Start mixing slowly with a whisk attachment and then increase to medium speed, or mix with a hand whisk if you're doing it manually. Once it's mixed well and frothy (about 1 minute using a standing mixer, or about 2-3 minutes of vigorous beating with a whisk), pour in the milk and baking soda mixture. Continue to mix until uniform.
11. Pour in the rest of the crumbly mixture. Mix that well, with either a paddle attachment, or a spatula. Or continue to use the whisk; it won't make much of a difference, since the resulting batter is very liquid.
 12. Pour the batter over the base in the springform pan.
 13. Gently sprinkle the walnut pieces over the batter.
14. Bake in a preheated moderate oven for about 30-40 minutes. You'll know it's done when the top is a golden brown, and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
15. Allow to cool in the pan, and then release. Enjoy!

An Even Easier Way...if you have a Food Processor
1. Preheat your oven to moderate 350°F/175°C/gas mark 4 .
2. Mix the baking soda (not baking powder) into the milk. Set aside.
3. Put the flour, baking powder, and the brown sugar into your food processor. Pulse until uniformly mixed.
4. Toss in the cubed butter. Pulse until uniformly mixed into tan-colored crumbs.
5. Pour HALF of the crumbs into your springform (9”/23cm) pan. Press out a crust using your fingers and knuckles.
6. Crack the egg into the food processor with the rest of the crumbs still in it.
7. Grate 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg. Toss that into the food processor, too. Pulse until well-incorporated.
8. Pour in the milk and baking soda mixture. Continue to mix until a slightly lumpy tan batter is formed.
9. Pour the batter over the crust in the springform pan.
10. Gently sprinkle the walnut pieces over the batter.
11. Bake in a preheated moderate oven for 30-40 minutes. It's ready when the top is golden brown, and when it passes the toothpick test (comes out clean).
12. Cool the cake in the pan, and then dig in. Yum yum!

Freezing/Storage Instructions/Tips: Nazook will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple of weeks, and the Armenian nutmeg cake will keep (covered) at room temperature for 2-3 days. Both taste even better still warm from the oven.
Allow to cool completely before attempting to freeze. Nazook will freeze best if put in a freezer bag with all the air squeezed out. Armenian Nutmeg Cake will also freeze fairly well if completely sealed. Both can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Daring Bakers February challenge

 The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

I loved the challenge even though it wasn't really a challenge but it is such a versatile basic recipe that leaves room for your own additions. I added bananas and chocolate, yum, that was very scrumptious!

Since it's currently quiet warm and humid our bananas ripen as soon as I take them out of my shopping basket, duh. No one in the house really likes overripe bananas but they are great in cakes.
That makes them obviously less healthy but at least I don't have to throw them out- recycling!

Here is the basic recipe for:
Basic Quick Bread
Makes one 9” x 5” (23×13 cm) loaf
Recipe from Sara Schewe
2 cups (480 ml) (250 gm/9 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour
1 cup (240 ml) (225 gm/8 oz) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (5 gm) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon (2½ ml) (3 gm) fine sea salt or table salt
1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk or soured milk*
1 large egg
1/4 cup (60 ml) mild- or non-flavored oil, like canola
1 teaspoon (5 ml) flavored extract, such as vanilla or almond
for the glaze
1/3 cup (80 ml) (35 gm/1-1/3 oz) confectioners’ (icing) sugar
1-2 teaspoons (5-10 ml) milk
Directions:

1. Preheat oven to moderate 350ºF/180ºC/gas mark 4. Grease a 9×5 inch (23×13 centimeter) loaf pan with butter and line with parchment paper cut to fit the length and width of the pan, with enough overhang to allow easy removal after baking. Grease the top sheet of parchment.
2. In large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking soda and salt to combine. Make a well in the center and set aside.
3. Lightly whisk (butter)milk, egg, oil, and extract to combine. Pour into well and stir until just mixed into a batter. The batter will be lumpy and may still show a few streaks of flour.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely before slicing. Drizzle with glaze, if desired.
5. For the glaze: Slowly whisk confectioners’ (icing) sugar and half of the milk, adding more milk as needed to thin the glaze to the desired consistency.

Note: To make soured milk, combine 1 cup milk (240 ml) with 1 tablespoon (15 ml) vinegar or lemon juice and let sit for 10 minutes.


And that is my recipe for the banana and chocolate little cakes:
Makes 12 little cakes or muffins.


2 cups (480 ml) (250 gm/9 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour
1 cup (240 ml) (225 gm/8 oz) brown sugar
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (5 gm) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon (2½ ml) (3 gm) fine sea salt or table salt
50 g milk chocolate, chopped
1 cup (240 ml) milk
1 large egg
1/4 cup (60 ml) mild- or non-flavored oil, like canola
1 teaspoon (5 ml) flavored extract, such as vanilla or almond
2 very ripe bananas
icing sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven to moderate 350ºF/180ºC/gas mark 4. Spray a muffin tin or little bundt cake tin with oil.
2. In large bowl, stir flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and chopped chocolate to combine. Make a well in the center and set aside.
3. Lightly whisk milk, egg, oil, and extract to combine. Peel bananas and mash with a fork. Stir through the milk-egg mixture.
4. Pour wet mixture into well (dry mixture) and stir until just mixed into a batter. The batter will be lumpy and may still show a few streaks of flour.
5. Pour batter into prepared tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in tin on wire rack for 5 minutes, then tip over and cool little cakes on rack (or eat them still warm). 
6. Clean tin and spray with oil to bake the remaining batter.   
7. Dust with icing sugar before serving, if desired.

Beautiful Scones - Daring Baker January Challenge

This month's challenge came from Audax from Audax Artifex, a fellow daring baker and also from Sydney. We had to bake scones and they turned out beautifully (well, except the first batch). I love scones but don't make them very often. But, since this is such a nice and simple recipe I made four batches of it. The first batch came out okay but because the oven hadn't been hot enough and because I had pressed the dough out too thin the scones came out a bit too flat.

The second batch was much better and I couldn't stop making them. I only kneaded them until the dough came just together and then pressed and layered the dough into a rectangle. I like them to be round in shape so I used a cookie cutter but the downside is you have to re-roll the dough and if you overwork the dough they won't rise as much. I simply layered the dough thicker the second time so they would rise to almost the same height as the previous ones. If you can't be bothered, cut the rectangle in squares and that's it, no leftover dough. I like a crusty top on my scones and therefore cooled them on a wire rack. If you want softies, wrap them in a tea towel and the steam will keep the whole scone soft.

My daughter got lured into the kitchen by the smell wafting through our house and wanted to make them too. However, of course, she wanted them sweet. So we added dried sour cherries to the dough and that goes fantastic with the fluffy and buttery little scones, especially when they're still warm. It's so delicious.

I went up to the Blue Mountains that day to see friends and we had them for afternoon tea with eggplant relish and the bacon and onion jam I made - life was really good that day.

I will definitely make this recipe again and again and again as it is a very good basic scones recipe. Thank you Audax for the challenge and for sharing your recipe. I love it!

The basic scone.

This was the fourth batch with dried sour cherries added to the dough.

Scones with dried sour cherries.

Basic scone recipe by Audax from Audax Artifex:


Basic Scones (a.k.a. Basic Biscuits)
Servings: about eight 2-inch (5 cm) scones or five 3-inch (7½ cm) scones
Recipe can be doubled
Ingredients:
1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm/5 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
2 teaspoons (10 ml) (10 gm) (⅓ oz) fresh baking powder
¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) (1½ gm) salt
2 tablespoons (30 gm/1 oz) frozen grated butter (or a combination of lard and butter)
approximately ½ cup (120 ml) cold milk
optional 1 tablespoon milk, for glazing the tops of the scones
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to very hot 475°F/240°C/gas mark 9.
2. Triple sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. (If your room temperature is very hot refrigerate the sifted ingredients until cold.)
3. Rub the frozen grated butter (or combination of fats) into the dry ingredients until it resembles very coarse bread crumbs with some pea-sized pieces if you want flaky scones or until it resembles coarse beach sand if you want tender scones.
4. Add nearly all of the liquid at once into the rubbed-in flour/fat mixture and mix until it just forms a sticky dough (add the remaining liquid if needed). The wetter the dough the lighter the scones (biscuits) will be!
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, lightly flour the top of the dough. To achieve an even homogeneous crumb to your scones knead very gently about 4 or 5 times (do not press too firmly) the dough until it is smooth. To achieve a layered effect in your scones knead very gently once (do not press too firmly) then fold and turn the kneaded dough about 3 or 4 times until the dough has formed a smooth texture. (Use a floured plastic scraper to help you knead and/or fold and turn the dough if you wish.)
6. Pat or roll out the dough into a 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle by about ¾ inch thick (15¼ cm by 10 cm by 2 cm thick). Using a well-floured 2-inch (5 cm) scone cutter (biscuit cutter), stamp out without twisting six 2-inch (5 cm) rounds, gently reform the scraps into another ¾ inch (2 cm) layer and cut two more scones (these two scones will not raise as well as the others since the extra handling will slightly toughen the dough). Or use a well-floured sharp knife to form squares or wedges as you desire.
7. Place the rounds just touching on a baking dish if you wish to have soft-sided scones or place the rounds spaced widely apart on the baking dish if you wish to have crisp-sided scones. Glaze the tops with milk if you want a golden colour on your scones or lightly flour if you want a more traditional look to your scones.
8. Bake in the preheated very hot oven for about 10 minutes (check at 8 minutes since home ovens at these high temperatures are very unreliable) until the scones are well risen and are lightly coloured on the tops. The scones are ready when the sides are set.
9. Immediately place onto cooling rack to stop the cooking process, serve while still warm.

Daring bakers January challenge

The January challenge was a lemon merinque tarte and I was looking forward to this challenge as I am a big fan of lemon tarts. I am though not such a huge fan of merinque on top of the lemon filling but for a sweet tooth like me it went down well, nervertheless.

Daring bakers November challenge

Another challenge from the daring bakers: potato bread and some variations such as foccacia or rolls. Since it is summer and barbecue season in Sydney I couldn't resist in making foccacia as this goes so well with anything you put on the barbie. First of all, the dough had risen so high it was lifting up the tea towel I had placed on it. It was such a nice dough, I love yeast dough though this one was a bit hard to handle since it was very soft. But the result was such a bliss. I also made some muffin type rolls, I think they look really pretty.
The only thing, next time I will use kipfler potatoes, they will add more of the lovely potato flavour to the bread.

I am a proud "daring baker"!

When I was browsing other blogs I stumbled upon one with a very interesting logo on it. I investigated further and found out that there is a club for people like me who just love baking and like to share the joy and sometimes the frustrations that comes along with it. The "daring baker" club has now more than 100 members worldwide and each month we get a different challenge to bake. The September challenge was sticky buns out of a yeast dough with cinnamon, walnut and a golden syrup and brown sugar glaze. The yeast came out so marvelously, it was a real beauty! I made 12 of them, but very soon there were only these two left. Lucky me, otherwise I couldn't have taken a picture of them. Needless to say that those two are already eaten by now! Thank you daring bakers for this truly marvelous recipe. I love it!