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.

Nursery Cafe in Dural

Oh so colourful.

Flower Power Lady with trendy ankle boots.

Eyeing off..

Aristocrats and ants - companions for a nursery rhyme?

Old crates to carry the pickles and jams...

Homemade Jam and honey from busy local bees.

Anzac day trip to Wisemans Ferry

Sunny but stormy.

German-style plum jam

It seems the raining season has arrived in Sydney now. After beautiful sunny autumn days which we spent mostly at the beach it's time for staying indoors and cooking jam. Plums are in abundance right now and there is a plum jam in Germany I always loved since it isn't too sweet with lots of spices and because it's cooked for so long it develops a very dense and velvety texture. There are many colloquial names for that plum jam in Germany but the most common names are Pfluemli, Powidl oder Zwetchgen- bzw Pflaumenmus. This particular plum jam is also used as a filling for the Austrian Germknoedel which you will definitely come across and love when skiing in Austria.

Recipe:

2kg sugar or blood plums, halved and pitted
1 kg sugar
6 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
3 sprigs thyme
juice of 1/2 lemon

1. Put plums and sugar in a large saucepan. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
2. Add spices and thyme to saucepan and simmer gently over medium-low heat for 4-5 hours or until thick and syrupy. You only want to see the occasional blub while simmering.
3. Scoop out spices and put aside. Blend plums to a thick puree, add spices and lemon juice and simmer on low, stirring occasionally, for another 2 hours until very thick and dark.
4. Discard spices and fill into sterilised jam jars.

The jam is beautiful on sourdough rolls, hot cross buns or as we enjoyed it at our Easter brunch on a yeast plait with poppy seed. The recipe for the plait is here.

Zwetschgendatschi mit Streuseln- German sugar plum cake

Did I mention how much I love plums? All sorts of plums. Sugar plums are my absolute favourite, they look so beautiful and somehow taste less sour but aren't as sweet either, if that makes sense? Sugar plums (Zwetschgen) in Germany are used to make Zwetschgendatschi which even for me as a German sounds funny and I started to research its old-fashioned name.

Unfortunately but also quite often with old terms there are different explanation about the orign
of the name. One of these is that the word is derived from the old dialect term “Datsche” –
the country house in which these cakes were mainly baked in earlier times. The other traces it
back to the South German dialect word “detschen, datschen” (to press flat).
Unfortunately, nowadays no one knows for certain what the actual origin of the word is.

The good thing is, it is still served and eaten every year by almost every German at the beginning of Autumn after their harvest. Every bakery will offer them baked on a tray on a yeast dough sprinkled with cinnamon streusel. It's a very basic cake - no "schnick-schnack", that is best eaten still slightly warm with a generous dollop of whipped cream - it's so good!
 
I still remember last time I was in Germany around that time in Cologne to visit my good friend Katha. We went to a very old-fashioned cafe, which is called Konditorei Wahlen where we had our afternoon tea or "Kaffee and Kuchen", as we say in German. I am usually not a big fan of whipped cream but it's a must with Zwetschgendatschi. I loved that afternoon and I am always thinking of it when I make my plum cake at home.

Recipe for Zwetschgendatchi (German sugar plum cake with streusel)

(This recipe makes enough for an oven tray or two round pizza trays)

500 g plain flour
a pinch salt
80 g sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1 (7 g) sachet dried yeast
125 ml lukewarm milk
100 g butter, softened
2 eggs

Topping:
1,2 kg sugar plums, halved lengthwise and pitted

Streusel:
150 g plain flour
80 g brown sugar
80 g melted butter
2 teaspoons cinnamon, ground

1. Sieve flour in a large bowl. Add salt, sugar and lemon zest and mix together. Make a well in the centre and add yeast and lukewarm milk and stir with a little of the flour. Cover with a clean tea towel and let sit in a warm place until bubbles appear.
2. Add butter and eggs and with the dough hook knead the dough until smooth and elastic.
3. Cover and rest in the bowl in a warm place for an hour or until doubled in size.
4. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Roll dough out with a rolling pin and place on baking or pizza tray. Top with sugar plums starting along the edges and moving inwards, plums slightly overlapping.
5. To make the streusel, combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix with your hands until it just comes together. Sprinkle over the plums.
6 Bake for 20-30 minutes.

Serve still slightly warm with dollops of whipped cream. 

Plum cake with streusel

To be honest I am still confused sometimes with what is in season when. Plums are already turning up at the grocery stores and I thought it's still summer.

Well, the weather has been more on the autumn side anyway so I guess it makes sense in a way to have plums now. I love plums and although there is a wide variety available here in Sydney I do miss what we call "Zwetschge" in Germany. It translates into damson plum and I have seen it at some farmers markets but only rarely. The damson (fruit) is identified by its dark blue skin, oval shape (though slightly pointed at one end) and smooth-textured yellow flesh.
In Germany we use it to make the very popular Zwetschgendatschi (plum cake with yeast dough)
and Pflaumenmus (very dark plum jam) which then gets used in Germknoedel (steamed sweet dumplings). I'll definetely be on the hunt for damsons plums next time I go to the market.

Never mind, I love them all and made my first plum cake for this season on the weekend.
To give it a bit of a twist I added thyme to it and that goes very well together. Streusel are
a must on a German-style cake and so good paired with sour plums.

From this...

to this!

Recipe for plum cake:

850 g plums
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon picked thyme leaves
100 g sugar

200 g butter, softened
200 g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150 g wholemeal flour
100 g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

Streusel:
100 g brown sugar
150 g plain flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
80 g butter, melted

1. Cut plums into small wedges. Place plums, lemon juice, thyme and sugar in a saucepan and let sit for 20 minutes. Over medium-low heat cook plums for 20 minutes until plums are soft and sauce has slightly thickened. Set aside to cool.
2. Meanwhile make cake batter. Whisk butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add vanilla and beat until combined. Mix together both flours and baking powder and add to butter-sugar mix. Whisk until thoroughly combined.
3.  For the streusel, combine sugar, flour and cinnamon. Add melted butter in a thin stream then use a fork to clump batter together.
4. Line a deep baking tray (32 x 25 cm) with baking paper and spread batter evenly. Pour plum sauce over and spread evenly.
5. Sprinkle with streusel and bake in preheated oven for 45 min or until cooked and the streusel are lightly golden.
Let cool a little before slicing into pieces. Serve with whipped cream or Greek-style yoghurt.