Lemon Vanilla Cheesecake with Blueberry Cassis Coulis

Cheesecake is a divine invention: tasty crust, yummy creamy filling, and berries to boost the whole thing into a blissful combination of textures and flavors!

Too bad it always contains so much lactose that even a tiny little bit gets my stomach upset.

Oops, did I just write always?

Then I made a mistake! Namely, if you use vegan cream cheese instead of a dairy one, even people like me can enjoy cheesecake without a tummy ache.

This is what you need for about 8 servings:

For the crust:

• 120g vegan margarine


• 80g gingerbread cookies


• 80g ground almonds


• 5 Tbsp rolled oats

For the filling:

• 675g vegan cream cheese (I used Tofutti, the only brand available in Finland)


• 100ml vegan natural yoghurt


• 100g confectioner’s sugar


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• grated zest of 1 organic lemon

For the coulis:

• 200g frozen blueberries


• 50g sugar


• 50ml crème de cassis liquor

Start with the blueberries: combine the berries and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil. Let simmer uncovered over a medium heat until most of the liquid is gone. (Don’t worry, I didn’t forget the crème de cassis liquor. It will come later in the picture!)

In the meantime, prepare the crust. Using a bread knife, crush the gingerbread cookies into fine crumbs. Combine the crumbs, almond meal, and rolled oats in a baking bowl, then add the softened margarine and work with your fingers until the mixture is homogenous. Take a round form (mine has a diameter of 26cm) and press the dough evenly on its bottom. Chill while you prepare the filling.

To make the filling, combine all ingredients in a bowl and beat with a hand mixer until the mixture is creamy and smooth. Pour the filling on the crust and chill for about one hour in the freezer. The cheesecake should be really cold but not frozen!

Now back to the coulis. When the blueberry jam is thick enough, remove it from heat and let cool a bit. At the time of the serving, it should be still warm to create a perfect contrast with the chilled cake. Just before serving, combine crème de cassis liquor and the blueberry jam in a cup and spoon over the cheesecake.

Enjoy with a good coffee!

Day 18: Stars, Moons, and One More Log

Today, I baked two of the most beloved Plätzchen: Vanillekipferl and Zimtsterne. Vanilla crescents and cinnamon stars, that is! For the stars I used the recipe from last year, but for the vanilla crescents I tried a traditional German recipe that I couldn't make work last year. Only this time, I was equipped with a special form for this kind of cookies, and that made all the difference; the cookies turned out impeccable!

So here's the recipe to try if you've got that Kipferl form at your disposal:

In a bowl, combine 100g ground almonds, 50g sugar, 150g all-purpose flour, 8g vanilla sugar, and a pinch of salt (if the butter you're using is unsalted). Add 150g butter cut in small cubes, and rub the flour in the dry ingredients until you can form a ball with the dough! Take small amounts of the dough (about 12g) and form long sticks. Bend them to fit in the Kipferl form. Bake in a preheated oven (150C) about 20 minutes or until well cooked but not brown yet. Let the cookies cool a bit and very, very carefully transfer them on a serving plate. They break very easily at this point! Sprinkle some confectioner's sugar on top and enjoy one of the best things ever invented in Germany ;)



In addition, I felt confident enough to make one more Christmas log; the feedback this morning was overwhelmingly positive! This time, I added 1 Tbsp extra strong instant coffee in the butter icing - sublime! I also used potato starch in the batter instead of all-purpose flour (a bit less than half the amount) and the Swiss roll came out just the way it should. I was planning to freeze the log, but my kids convinced me to serve it tomorrow for their dad's birthday. Oh well, maybe I'll have to make a third one this year..

 

Day 15: Linzer Cookies

Ten days to go, and I still hadn't baked almost any of the iconic German Christmas cookies - Zimtsterne, Spitzbuben, Zedernbrot, Linzerschnitte...

So now it was time to get back to the track. I decided to bake Linzer cookies, the recipe of which I was almost sure I already shared last year - but I didn't... So now it's time to share it!

These sandwich cookies taste a bit like gingerbread but they are much softer! Fill them with any red jam that you like - my favourite is a mixture of raspberry and redcurrant jam.

This is what you need:

• 150g softened butter


• 50g sugar


• 1 egg


• 150g all-purpose flour


• 75 ground almonds


• 75g ground hazelnuts


• 1/3 tsp baking powder


• 1/2 tsp cinnamon


• 1/4 tsp cloves


• 1/4 tsp cardamom


• a pinch of ground nutmeg


• a pinch of salt (if using unsalted butter)


• red jam (raspberry, redcurrant...) for the filling


• some confectioner's sugar to decorate

This is how to proceed:

Beat butter and sugar until the mixture is creamy. Add the egg and stir until well combined. In another bowl, combine all the other dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar-egg-mixture and stir until you get a smooth batter. It is a bit liquid at this point, but don't add any flour!

Let the dough rest in the fridge about 2 hours.

Now, preheat the oven to 180C. Roll the dough out and cut hearts (or other forms of your liking) with a cookie cutter. Bake the cookies until the start to get some colour.

Once out of the oven, let the cookies cool down. Then spread jam evenly on the flat side of half of the cookies. Sandwich with the rest of the cookies. Sprinkle with some powder sugar and serve!

If you're planning to keep the cookies longer, do the sandwiching part only just before serving them.

Day 1: Stollen

When baking for a day still quite far away in the future, it’s important to make sure that what you’re baking will still be good on the D-day.

So what could be a better candidate than a Christmas cake that was traditionally baked in Germany around the Christmas time - and eaten until Easter? This Christmas wonder is called Stollen - and that's what I decided to start with.

Most Stollen recipes involve a lot of yeast. I’m not a big fan of yeast, and I prefer baking with sourdough starter instead. So I tried to bake my Stollen with sourdough starter, with only a tiny bit of yeast as a guarantee it would ferment properly (maybe it’s the low temperature in my house, but my starter hasn’t worked perfectly lately).

It’s impossible to say whether the recipe I’ll share withyou is a good one. I will only be able to tell in about two week's time - that's how long it takes for this cake to develop its taste fully. But judging by the taste of the dough and the smell of the Stollen, I’m very optimistic!

For two smallish Stollen (a bit less than 450g each) you need:

• 120g sourdough starter, refreshed about 6-8 hours before with milk


• about 2g fresh yeast


• 100ml milk


• 2 Tbsp rum


• 1 egg


• 80g butter, melted


• grated zest of 1 organic lemon


• 50g sugar


• a pinch of salt


• a pinch of cardamom


• a pinch of cinnamon


• 140g sultanas


• 3 Tbsp candied lemon peel


• 40g ground almond


• 250g all-purpose flour

• plus about 70g melted butter and 4 tsp confectioner’s sugar on top

This is how you make it:

Combine lukewarm milk and yeast in a baking bowl. Add starter, egg, melted butter, sugar, salt (if using non-salted butter, consider using two pinches), lemon peel, and rum. Then add almond, sultanas, candied lemon peel, cinnamon, cardamom, and lastly, the flour. Knead until the dough is smooth, about 5 minutes, and add more flour if needed. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let ferment in a draft-free place overnight.

In the morning, punch the dough on a baking surface and divide in two. Take one part and using your hands, form a rectangle. Fold the rectangle in the middle to form a Stollen, and place it on a baking tray covered with a parchment paper. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Make sure that no sultanas are on the surface - if there are, push them gently inside the Stollen; sultanas tend to burn very easily! Proof about one hour. Preheat the oven to 180 C and bake the cakes until they are golden brown on top and also well baked inside.

Once out of the oven, brush each Stollen with about 35g melted butter and sprinkle 2 tsp confectioner’s sugar on each. Let cool completely. Then wrap the cakes into a tin foil, place in a plastic bag and store in a cool place (not the fridge, though, it’s too cold and humid) for at least two weeks.

I’ll try to wait two weeks before tasting my first Stollen. I’ll keep you posted about the results!

P.S. Obviously, this recipe was no consolation for the kids - so we had some mousse au chocolat as a dessert instead! But hope they'll have better luck tomorrow.

Sweet Pesto with Mint and Almonds

The other night I was lying in my bed and couldn’t sleep. Then suddenly I had a vision: sweet pesto! With mint instead of basil and almonds instead of pine nuts. I just couldn’t wait until next day to try it out!

I also wanted to check if I was the first person ever to have thought about making a sweet pesto out of mint, honey, and almonds. I hoped I was. I was already picturing every supermarket in Finland selling a kit including all that it takes to make THE Mint Pesto, just like what happened with the (now) famous avocado pasta.

A quick google search revealed the bitter truth: mint pesto had already been invented. But still, mint pesto is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted! It’s easy to do and fits perfectly with many fruit desserts. So far, I’ve had it with fresh pineapple, mango, and fruit salad, but it must be great with strawberries, ice cream, and even chocolate cake! In fact, I can’t think of anything that wouldn’t be even better with a bit of mint pesto on top!

This is what you need:

• 15g fresh mint (NOT peppermint!)


• 20g honey or agave syrup


• 25g bleached almonds


• 25g almond/hazelnut/sunflower oil

Place mint leaves, honey, almonds, and oil in your food processor and mix until smooth. Add a bit water if needed. That’s it!

Enjoy!

Lemon Clementine Cake with Chocolate Icing

This recipe comes from Ottolenghi’s and Tamimi’s book Jerusalem, and I tried it for the first time during my No Cost Food Week. Now it has become one of my favourite cakes: it’s chocolaty and fruity at the same time, and it keeps very well at least four or five days in the fridge.

The problem is to find organic clementines from which it’s safe to use the zest. If you can’t find any, you can use orange as well, but the result is (at least in my opinion) a little bit less delicious. Oh, and I obviously reduced the amount of sugar compared to the original recipe. I’m not a fan of overly sweet stuff – in case you are, feel free to use more sugar!

For one cake you need:

• 200g butter


• 200g sugar


• grated zest of 4 clementines and 1 lemon


• 250g ground almonds


• 5 organic eggs


• 120 g whole-grain (spelt) flour


• pinch of salt

For the syrup:

• 80g sugar


• juice of 4 clementines and one lemon

For the chocolate icing:

• 90g butter


• 150g dark chocolate


• 1 Tbsp honey


• 1 Tbsp cognac

Set your oven to 180 C. Mix together butter (cut in small cubes) and sugar until fluffy. Add the grated clementine and lemon zest. Then add the eggs, one by one, and keep mixing. Combine together flour, salt, ground almonds, and add into the butter-sugar-egg-mixture. Oil a round cake form (mine has a diameter of 24cm) and pour the batter in it. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick comes out clean, or about 25-30 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the syrup: combine sugar and juices in a pan and bring to a boil. When the cake comes out of the oven, sprinkle the syrup evenly on it. Let cool down in the form about 15 minutes, then remove and place on a serving plate.

Now it’s time to make the icing: place butter, chocolate, honey, and cognac in a pan and heat slowly until all ingredients melt. Stir carefully with a wooden spoon. You can also do the icing in the microwave oven or in bain-marie – less risk of burning it!

Spread the icing evenly on your cake. Decorate with long strips of (organic!) orange zest. Mine looked more like carrot peels, but it looked kind of cool anyway!

If you have time, cool the cake well before eating it – our unanimous opinion was that it tasted clearly better when cold!

Easter Bunny's Favourite Cookies

I’m back, folks! With a lot of new energy and loads of new recipes and ideas.

Every year we’re asked to bake something to the Easter Market that my kids’ kindergarten organizes. This year I volunteered to bake Easter Bunny Cookies, among other things. Unfortunately, the recipe I got from another Mom last year somehow got lost in the meanwhile (what a surprise!), so I had to come up with a new recipe. I decided to combine all of my favourite cookie flavours in one, and here’s the result: almond-lemon-vanilla-butter cookies!

I baked the cookies with whole-grain wheat flour. Not just because of the health benefits, but because I’ve found the perfect whole-grain flour! It’s organic; it’s ground with a special lava-stone mill that grinds it really very fine, so that the texture is just like all-purpose flour; and it tastes WONDERFUL. Not “I-know-this-is-healthy-so-I-decide-it-tastes-good-although-it-actually-tastes-like-hay” kind of wonderful, but really delicious! Now if you don’t find that kind of whole-grain flour, I suggest you either use all-purpose or a mixture of whole-grain and all-purpose.

For about 60 small bunnies you need:

• 250g butter


• 300g flour


• 80g ground almonds


• 90g sugar


• 8g vanilla sugar


• 1 tsp baking powder


• a generous pinch of salt (less if using salted butter)


• grated zest of an organic lemon


• 2 egg yolks (keep the whites to make a Pavlova, for example! Recipe will follow…)


• 3 Tbsp cream

First, cut the butter in small cubes and place the cubes in a baking bowl. Add lemon zest. Combine together flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, almonds, and baking powder. Pour the flour mixture in the bowl. Work butter and the flour mixture with your fingertips until the texture resembles fine crumbles. Then add egg yolks and cream and work with your hands to form a ball. Add more cream (or water) if needed. Place the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Set your oven to 200 C. Roll the dough out about 4mm thin and cut out cookies using a bunny-shaped cookie cutter. Place the cookies on a oven tray covered with a baking sheet. Bake about 8 minutes or until golden brown.

For an even prettier result, decorate your cookies with sugar cookie icing!

Zimtsterne or Cinnamon Stars

At this time of the year, thousands of Germans are attending baking lessons to find about the best method for baking better Zimtsterne as their neighbours do. Newspaper articles are written about what is the safe daily amount for kids to eat of these cinnamon stars. To put it short: Zimtsterne are THE German Christmas cookies. And luckily, if you have a good recipe, they are actually not that hard to make!

I was lucky to find the perfect recipe right in the beginning. It’s from a small book called Lieblings-Winachtsplätzchen. Making Zimtsterne takes some time - for my 40 stars or so I spent 90 minutes in the kitchen - and you need to be practically glued to your oven to make sure your precious little stars don’t overcook. But like I said, it’s not difficult.

For about 40 little stars you need:

• 400g ground almonds


• 3 tsp cinnamon (I use only Ceylon cinnamon these days, not the Cassia variety)


• 1 pinch of salt


• 16g vanilla sugar


• 2 egg whites


• 100g powder sugar

And for the meringue topping:

• 1 egg white


• 100g powder sugar


• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

In a bowl, combine almond, cinnamon, vanilla sugar, and salt. In a baking bowl, beat egg whites until they form soft peaks, then gradually add powder sugar and continue beating until firm again. Add almond mixture to the egg white mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until all ingredients all well combined.

Take this wet dough in your hands, form it into a ball, and place between two layers of cling film. Roll it out (still between the cling film) about 1cm thick. Remove the upper layer of cling film and cut out small stars using a cookie cutter. (The dough is sticky, so you might need to dip the cutter in some powder sugar.)

Now comes the hardest part: on each star, you should spread an even layer of meringue topping (beat the egg white until soft peaks form, add gradually sugar and lemon juice and beat until very firm again) - with a brush, it said in my recipe. My baking brush is quite big and it just didn’t work with these small stars, so I used an espresso spoon. I took one star at a time in my left hand and used my right hand to place a half of an espresso spoon of the topping in the middle, then spread it to each point.

Bake your stars in a preheated oven (150 C) for about 10-15 minutes. Don’t let them get any colour! If they are still a bit wet but you fear they’ll gain colour, reduce the temperature and let them dry just a bit longer.

After they have cooled, place your cinnamon stars in an airtight container.

And what is the amount of Zimtsterne that kids can safely eat per day? Well, if you’re using Ceylon cinnamon, you don’t have to worry. But if you prefer Cassia cinnamon, kids should not eat more than three of your stars a day - the coumarin it contains causes liver damage (!) in bigger amounts.

Bärentatzen, "bear paws"

A German friend of mine specifically asked me to bake Bärentatzen, or bear paws, since her mother doesn't normally bake them. Well, I don't blame her. If you follow the traditional recipe and buy the equipment needed, it's very time-consuming and expensive. But if you take some shortcuts, I do recommend you try baking these marshmallow-like chocolate cookies. They are irresistible!

Martin's Rolls

Here in Germany, Martin’s Day is a big thing! All schools and kindergartens have their own Martin’s celebrations, with kids walking outside in the dark with lanterns, singing special songs for the occasion. I find it so sweet! Furthermore, the procession is followed by a gathering around a bonfire, with warm drinks and either pretzels or sweet rolls shared with everyone.

This year, I’m baking sweet rolls to bring to my girls’ kindergarten. The idea is to share, so I shaped my rolls in a way that they’re easy to break in two. I baked them with two different fillings: one with pecan nuts, sugar, and cinnamon, the other with vanilla sugar, lemon zest, and ground almond.

And, needless to say, I made the dough using exclusively my sourdough starter. Fermenting of rich sweet dough with only a starter takes quite a long time, though; so if you’re in a hurry, add about ½ tsp of instant dry yeast to the dough to speed up the process. Mine fermented 11 hours and I felt it wasn’t quite ready to be baked yet. I should have left it in a warmer place… (Sour)dough doesn’t like cold!

For a vegan version, use vegan margarine instead of butter, and a non-dairy milk for the dough and washing.

For about 30 rolls you need:

• 800 g flour (I used spelt, a mixture of types 630 and 1050)


• 350 ml milk or water


• 300g sourdough starter, refreshed 3-4 hours before (but make sure the starter has doubled in volume, if not, wait until it is)


• 160g sugar


• 10g salt


• 2 tsp cardamom


• 200g butter (or margarine), melted

And for the filling:

• 50g melted butter


• sugar, cinnamon, crushed pecan nuts, pearl sugar


• OR vanilla sugar, grated lemon zest, ground almond, almond flakes

In a baking bowl, combine all dry ingredients together. (If you’re using instant dry yeast, throw it in as well). Then add sourdough starter and milk and knead until a firm dough has formed, or some 7-10 minutes. Then add butter and knead until it’s absorbed in the dough. Cover with a damp baking towel and let ferment overnight, about 12 hours. (If you’re using yeast as well, the ferment time is shorter.)

On a baking surface covered with flour, work the dough until all bubbles are gone. Divide in two. Roll half of the dough out, cover first with melted butter, then add rest of the topping. Now roll the dough from both sides back in until both rolls meet in the middle. Cut into 3cm wide pieces, place on an oven pan covered with a baking sheet, cover with a baking towel, and let ferment 45-60 minutes. Bake the other half of the dough in a same way. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 225 C. Before baking, wash the rolls with either a mixture of egg yolk and a tiny bit of water, or milk (or soy milk), and decorate with pearl sugar or almond flakes.

Bake the rolls until they are well baked, or about 15-18 minutes. Let cool a bit - and share with someone! Happy Martin’s Day everyone ;)

Almond Cake with Lemon and Honey

The other day I had a sudden craving for something with almonds and honey, so I did a quick Google search and found a great recipe in "A Sweet Spoonful". I tried the recipe, and it was great, but then I got an even better idea: I merged that recipe with one of my all-time favourites, Luscious Lemon Cake, and a new winning recipe was born! What I love about this cake is how easy and fast you can make it, how great it tastes, and how well it keeps - well, three days is my maximum, but only because there just hasn't been anything left any more...!

Ingredients:

• 250g butter (or margarine - I nowadays use a mixture a butter and margarine)
• 80 grams (brown) sugar
• 4 eggs (I urge you to use only organic eggs, preferably from a farm you know yourself!)
• 130g flour - I used whole-grain wheat and spelt
• 150g ground almonds
• 2 tsp baking powder
• grated zest and juice of ½ lemon, organic, non-treated
• 1 heaped Tbsp honey

First, set your oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Beat soft butter with sugar until it's pale and smooth. Then add eggs, one by one, and then the lemon zest. Mix together dry ingredients and mix together with the butter-egg-sugar mixture. Pour into a buttered round form (24cm) and bake about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Turn onto a big plate and while the cake is still warm, sprinkle generously with honey-lemon-juice mixture. Let cool and serve with a dollop of ice-cream or chantilly. If you want, you can decorate the cake with some confectioners' sugar - especially if the surface doesn't look perfect, like often happens to me, at least!