Category: Desserts

Poppy Seed Buns !

‘There you are! It only needed a little more energy,’ said Karlson. ‘Now just put on the coffee, and set a nice little tray and get out a few little buns…’

Astrid Lindgren, Karlson flies again
Poppy Seed Buns

Buns dough ingredients (for 9 large or 18 small buns):
– 250ml milk
– 450-500g wheat flour
– 21g fresh yeast
– 100g sugar
– 1 egg
– 80g butter
– 1 pinch salt

Buns poppy seeds filling ingredients:
– 150g poppy seeds
– 60g sugar
– 50-100ml milk for boiling poppy seeds
– 1 egg yolk for beautifying

Directions:
1 Prepare the dough:
1.1 Add crushed fresh yeast & 2 tablespoons sugar to warmed up milk to 30-35C: mix well until sugar and yeast are dissolved. Leave the mixture for 15 minutes
1.2 Melt butter, cool it down till 25-30C. Mix in the butter to the milk with yeast, then add 1 egg + 100g sugar + 1 pinch salt: whisk everything until smooth
1.3 Mix in flour in small amounts continuously stirring. Leave the dough rest for 30 minutes covered with a cloth
1.4 Knead the dough with a stretch and fold technique for 7 minutes. Add some more flour if the dough is too sticky. Put the dough under the cloth for another 30 minutes
2 Prepare poppy seeds filling:
2.1 Boil poppy seeds for 5 minutes in milk and let them cool down
2.2 Join poppy seeds with 60g sugar and crumble them with a blender
3 Prepare the buns
3.1 Roll out the dough to 35x30cm rectangular. The dough height should be ~0.5cm
3.2 Distribute the poppy seeds filling on the rectangular and … fold the rectangular to the half along the long side
3.3 Cut the halved rectangular into ~1-3cm strips (thin strips for thin rings). Convolve each strip 5-7 times and join the edges to make a ring or snail or whatever your imagination is saying to you. Repeat for all strips 🙂
3.4 Put the rings on the baking paper to rest for 15 minutes under the cloth (make sure there is at least 3cm distance between them) and pre-heat the oven to 180C meanwhile
3.5 Whisk an egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water and put a little bit on each bun avoiding poppy seeds parts
3.6 Bake the buns for 30 minutes at 180C
4 Serve with milk or Kefir 🙂

Summer Raspberry Cake and… The Beatles of course !

But when I get home to you
I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright

The Beatles
Raspberry cake

Batter Ingredients:
– 190g wheat flour
– 2 eggs
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 100g sugar
– 100g butter
– 50g sour cream (>=26% fat)
– 175g fresh raspberry
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda + 1/2 teaspoon vinegar

Cream ingredients
– 400g sour cream (>=26% fat)
– 100g sugar

Cream &decorating ingredients
– 125g fresh raspberry
– a few mint leaves

Directions:
1 Whisk butter with sugar and Vanilla sugar
2 Add eggs+sour cream to butter & sugar and whisk again
3 Mix in flour to butter+eggs+sour cream+sugar+baking soda&vinegar
4 Preheat the oven to 190C
5 Pour the batter into the buttered baking form and add fresh raspberries 🙂
6 Bake 20-25 minutes at 190C (depends on your oven, check with a wooden stick!!)
7 While the cake is being baked, make the cream: slightly whisk sour cream with sugar, then put the cream in the fridge for a while 🙂
8 Let the cake cool down, then pour the cream over the cake and put the baking form in the fridge overnight (best of all, for 14 hours)
9 Serve with fresh raspberries and mint 🙂

Fresh Apricot Ice-Cream !

.. the future was all happy holiday as I moved Southwards week by week, easily, lazily, lingering as long as I dared, but always heeding the call!

Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
Apricot Ice-Cream

Ingredients (4 servings):
– 250ml 33% cream
– 8 ripe apricots
– 2-3 tablespoons sugar (yes, it’s not much, but it preserves the delicate apricots taste!)
– 3g Vanilla sugar

Method:
1 Wash and de-seed apricots, bake them in the oven 15 minutes at 200C
2 Mash baked apricots with vanilla sugar after apricots have been cooled down
3 Whisk cream & sugar until mild peaks
4 Mix well mashed apricots & whisked cream: put in the freezer for at least 4 hours
5 Serve, serve, serve ! With fresh berries 🙂

Strawberry Panna Cotta !

“Honey or condensed milk with your bread” he was so excited that he said, “Both,” and then, so as not to seem greedy, he added, “but don’t bother about the bread, please.”

A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
Strawberry Panna Cotta

Panna Cotta Ingredients:
– 300ml 33% cream
– 150ml milk
– 90g sugar
– 1g vanilla
– 1/3 tsp agar agar powder
– 100g strawberry

Serving ingredients:
– 100g strawberry

Method:
1 Slice washed strawberries and put them in the glasses
2 Combine in a pan milk+33% cream+sugar+vanilla+agar agar powder
3 Warm up the mixture until boiling constantly stirring
4 Set the pan aside for 3 minutes
5 Pour the creamy mixture from the pan into the glasses over the strawberries
6 Put the glasses in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight and enjoy Panna Cotta with fresh strawberries and … wonderful mood !

Hints:
1 Some agar agar powders are different from others. One might need to make a first try to adjust agar agar amount 🙂
2 Before serving let Panna Cotta stay a little bit outside the fridge, it is tastier when it is not completely cold !

Raspberry Cocoa Mascarpone Mini-Cakes !

“Hallo, Rabbit,” he said, “is that you?”
“Let’s pretend it isn’t,” said Rabbit, “and see what happens.”

A. A. Milne
Raspberry Cocoa Mascarpone Cakes Recipe

Cocoa cake ingredients:
– 1 tablespoon cocoa
– 80 g sugar
– 75 g wheat flour
– 3 eggs
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/2 teaspoon vinegar

Cream ingredients:
– 250 g Mascarpone
– 3 tablespoons 33% cream
– 2 tablespoons sugar

Raspberry ingredients:
– 250g raspberries

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Whisk sugar with eggs for 3 minutes
3 Mix in flour and cocoa to whisked sugar&eggs, then add baking soda&vinegar
4 Pour the dough on the baking paper in a large baking form
5 Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes at 180C, remove it from the oven and let it cool down
6 Cut the cake with your favorite cookie cutters 😉
7 Make the Mascarpone cream: whisk 33% cream and sugar & Mascarpone
8 Put Mascarpone cream on the cakes and decorate with raspberries & mint leaves
9 Put the cakes in the fridge overnight
10 Enjoy it next morning with a cup of green tea and have a great day ! 🙂

Chocolate cookies for a perfect coffee-break !

Now, Watson, there is cocoa ready in the next room. I must beg you to hurry, for we have a great day before us.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Chocolate cookies

Ingredients (4 servings):
– 1 cup (1cup = 250ml) wholegrain flour
– 100g butter
– 1/4 cup sugar
– 1/4 cup cocoa
– 30g orange zest

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Dough: mix flour, butter, sugar and cocoa
3 Form cookies from the dough & put them on a baking parchment
4 Decorate the cookies with orange zest
5 Bake for 25 minutes at 180C and enjoy with a cup of strong black coffee 😉

Homemade Tiramisu !

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
In secret, between the shadow and the soul.

Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonets
Homemade Tiramisu

Ingredients (2-4 servings):
– 250g Mascarpone
– 100ml 33% cream
– 2 tablespoons sugar
– 10-14 Savoiardi biscuits
– 150ml strong black coffee
– 1 tablespoon cocoa for serving

Method:
1 Make Mascarpone cream: mix Mascarpone with sugar & 33% cream: don’t make it too liquid ! 🙂
2 Brew a really strong black coffee !
3 Pour brewed coffee in a plate and let it cool down
4 Now put in the glasses layer by layer (you might use less or more Savoiardi biscuits depending on how high Mascarpone layers you would like to have):
4.1 Savoiardi biscuits dipped each side for 1 second in a coffee-plate
4.2 Mascarpone cream, return to 4.1 if the glass is not full yet 😉
5 Decorate with cocoa on top
6 Put Tiramisu in a fridge overnight
7 Enjoy Tiramisu with a nice old-style black&white movie !

Light Bûche de Noël

One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it – it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Bûche de Noël

Ingredients:
– 140g eggs whites
– 140g sugar
– 10g cocoa
– 150ml cream 33%
– 10g powdered sugar

Method:
1 Separate egg whites from egg yolks
2 Beat the whites until strong peaks, gradually adding sugar
3 Add cocoa to the beaten whites and carefully mix with a spatula
4 Put the cocoa-eggs-sugar mixture on a baking (~30x20cm) form with a baking paper and flatten the dough a bit
5 Bake the cake 20 minutes at 165C, remove it from oven, wait 5 minutes and then carefully remove the baking paper 🙂
6 Beat cream with powdered sugar until strong peaks and put whipped cream on the cake and flatten.
7 Roll off the cake quickly but carefully
8 Put the rolled cake to the fridge for at least 1 hour
9 Cut the rolled cake into portions with a sharp knife. Serve with red berries !
10 Enjoy, it is really delicious 😉

Russian Napoleon cake

The fresh smell of coffee soon wafted through the apartment, the smell that separates night from day.

Haruki Murakami

Hmm… Why is it called “Napoleon”? Because it is complex, multilevel and exceptionally tasty !

Method:
1 to be served with coffee
2 details are to be added soon, besides

A picture is worth a thousand words.
– Napoléon Bonaparte