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!

Mushroom Risotto with Parsley and Lemon

I've got a friend who's an excellent cook, but he confessed he never makes risotto because it's so difficult to make it perfect. It's either under- or overcooked, too dry, too wet - or, worst of all, tasteless! But that's not the case with this garlicky mushroom risotto with lemon-parsley sauce: it's an explosion of tastes.

And it's 100% vegan as well.

Serve this risotto on pretty plates, pour some of your favourite Chianti in your glass, put some Irene Grandi music on - and you couldn't have it better off in any Italian restaurant :)

For 3 people you need:

• 1 medium-sized onion


• 4 Tbsp olive oil (divided)


• 250ml risotto rice


• 600ml vegetable broth


• 350g fresh mushrooms


• 2-3 garlic cloves


• salt and pepper to taste

For the parsley dressing:

• 1 tsp grated lemon zest


• 1 Tbsp lemon juice


• 5 Tbsp olive oil


• a generous handful of fresh parsley

 

Heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan. Chop the onion and sauté over a medium heat for about 3-4 minutes. Add the rice and stir another 1-2 minutes. Gradually add the broth (previously heated, preferably) and let simmer over a low heat, partially covered. Let cook until the rice is al dente, or about 18 minutes. Once in a while, check that there's enough liquid - if not, add more!

While the rice is cooking, it's time to prepare the mushrooms and the lemon-parsley sauce.

Chop the mushrooms and sauté them in a large (iron) pan with no oil on it, stirring constantly, until the mushrooms have lost most of their liquid. Then add 1-2 Tbsp olive oil and the crushed garlic cloves and stir and fry 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and sprinkle with some salt and pepper.

For the sauce, just combine all ingredients in a jar and mix with a hand mixer until smooth. If you don't have one, chop the parsley with a pair of scissors as fine as you can, the add the rest and stir.

Now you should have all the three elements ready. Check once more that the rice is not too dry - if it is, you can still add more hot broth or water! Divide the rice on three plates, then sprinkle with those garlicky mushrooms and drizzle 1-2 tsp of the sauce on top. Serve immediately! And wipe any rests with a piece of baguette ;)

 

 

 

 

 

Börek with Spinach and Chanterelles

I got acquainted with börek at a Turkish friend's place - she served me an unbelievably delicious dish called börek. Then I ate another, very different kind of Turkish dish made by another friend - and surprisingly enough, it was also called börek. So I suppose there are very different varieties of this iconic Turkish dish!

This is my first attempt to make börek. Most of the vegetarian recipes I found combine spinach and feta, but I wanted to try out a 100% vegan version. I initially thought of using tofu, but somehow it would have been too obvious - and then I found frozen chanterelles at the supermarket. Chanterelles are my favourite mushrooms by far. They are just incredibly tasty, and combine perfectly with spinach (oh well, is there anything spinach would not combine with?!).

To me, this is a perfect kind of vegan dish. It's extremely rich and tasty, and really doesn't feel like substitute to anything - it stands on its own. It's proudly vegan!

For four people you need:

• 4 large sheets of filo dough (about the size of a A3-sheet)

For the filling:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil


• 1/2 of a large onion or 1 small onion


• 2-3 garlic cloves


• 700g frozen spinach


• 200g frozen chanterelles


• 2 tsp grated lemon zest


• 3 Tbsp almond cream


• a pinch of grated nutmeg (or a bit more if you like!)


• salt and pepper to taste


• lots of chopped fresh parsley (or other herbs of your liking)

For the brushing:

• 50g vegan margarine


• 125ml olive oil


• 4 Tbsp almond cream


• 1-2 crushed garlic cloves


• salt and pepper to taste

Begin with the filling: heat the oil in a heavy pan and sauté the onion 3-4 minutes. Then add the garlic, stir 1-2 minutes, and then add the frozen spinach and mushrooms. Let melt and then simmer over a low heat for a couple of minutes. Add lemon zest, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and stir. Sprinkle with the chopped herbs and set aside.

Then make the liquid for the brushing: combine all ingredients in a saucepan and heat until the margarine has melted. Set aside.

Now, place one sheet (I used double sheets...) of the filo dough on the bottom of a lasagne form. Brush it evenly with the brushing liquid. Spread 1/3 of the filling over the filo dough. Repeat twice. Place the 4th sheet on top of the last filling layer and brush it with the remaining brushing liquid. If there's not enough left, make quickly some more.

Bake your börek in the preheated oven (200C) until it's crispy and golden brown, or about 30 minutes. Serve either hot or at room temperature with a green salad, for example!

 

 

 

 

Day 16: Zedernbrot, or a Happy Marriage Between Lemon and Almond

The first time I tasted these very lemony, very almond-y Christmas cookies was at a friend's place. They were made by her mother-in-law, and the recipe was top-secret. I managed to convince my friend to convince her mother-in-law to give me the recipe, and the plan worked!

But here's the thing - I lost the paper on which the recipe was written.

The other recipes I've found give a good result as well - like this one I posted last year. This year, I used 100g roasted ground almonds and 100g plain ground almonds (last year only roasted almonds because that was the only organic variety I could find). I also reduced the amount of lemon juice, because last year the dough was a bit too liquid.

And I decorated my Zedernbrot cookies with some finely chopped candied lemon peel!

 

Pastéis de 4114 km de Belém

All my friends know how good I am at keeping secrets. Not very good, I’m afraid. In fact, I suck at it! So no way I’d be able to keep the recipe of almost perfect pastéis as a secret for two centuries… even two days would have been tough!

So here you have it, the not-so-secret recipe of mine. It's quite complex, though, so please ask if you've got any problems at any point!

It is mandatory that the puff pastry be homemade. But don’t worry, I suck at making puff pastry almost as badly as at keeping secrets. And yet I managed to do it – for this purpose, the dough just doesn’t have to be perfect (like, say, for croissants, which I’ve failed miserably every time I’ve tried to make them so far). Any attempt you make will be good enough for pastéis!

I used 1/3 whole-grain wheat and 2/3 all-purpose flour, but for a more traditional result, use only all-purpose. Not everyone is a fan of whole-grain like myself! And not everyone has as good flour as I have, and even I am tragically running out of it. (Time to visit Germany to get some more?!)

For about 30 pastéis you need:

For the dough:

• 400g flour


• 225ml warm water


• 200g butter


• (1/4 tsp salt but only if using unsalted butter)

For the filling:

• 12-14 egg yolks (reserve the whites to use for some other purpose)


• 200g sugar


• 4 Tbps cornstarch


• 1,2 liters heavy cream


• zest of one organic lemon, cut in long stripes


• one vanilla pod

First, make the filling. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring constantly. This tends to burn really easily, so don’t even think of leaving the custard, even for two seconds! Let cool completely and make the dough in the meantime.

To make the dough, place the flour in a baking bowl. Make a hole in the middle, pour in the warm water, and work the dough with your hands until it’s smooth. Always start with a bit less water and add more if needed. It should be firm and smooth at the same time.

Now roll the dough out to a rectangle a bit smaller than an A4 paper. Smear half of the dough with softened butter. Fold the unbuttered half over the buttered one. Now, turn the dough 90 degrees and roll it into a long rectangle. Fold in three parts and let rest in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Repeat this rolling-out-and-folding-in-three still twice. Don’t worry if some butter comes out – just make sure to use enough flour so that the dough doesn’t glue to the baking surface!

After the last fold, let the dough rest in the fridge some 10 minutes and roll it out into a rectangle as thin as you can. Then, roll the dough in just as when you’re making cinnamon rolls.

Now comes the hard part: cut the rolled-in dough into pieces of about 1,5cm thick and place each in a buttered pastéis form or a muffin form. Take the form into your hands and with your thumbs, work the dough gently so that it in the end covers the sides of the form as well. (This might sound complicated, still hanging there?) It’s important to find the right amount of dough: it should be very thin but not break. Once you’ve done a couple of them, you’ll find the ideal amount of dough!

Then return to your filling. Remove lemon zests and vanilla pod (which you can use 2-3 times) from the custard. Fill the dough-covered forms with the custard. Bake in a pre-heated oven (250C) for about 10 minutes or until your pastéis get brown spots but don’t burn (which happens very easily, so don’t leave them unattended in the oven!). I’ve been told that the real pastéis get baked in 400C, but even 300C was way too much for my oven and my pastéis. Remember to place an extra tray on the bottom of your oven to catch any extra butter that might drip during the baking.

Serve your pastéis warm or cold, with or without some cinnamon on top!

P.S. Of course,  you can use ready-made puff pastry – but it just won’t be the same…

P.P.S. Needless to say, the distance between my new home and  Rua de Belém, 84-92 is 4114 km!

 

Apfelstrudel, or Apples the Austrian Way

During the past few weeks, I’ve been drowning in apples. And I’m not the only one – it’s been (and still is) an incredibly good apple season in Finland!

But what to do with these huge amounts of malus domestica? I’ve already pureed several kilos of them, I’ve made Tarte Tatins and other apple pies, and there’s still a lot left!

Then it struck me that I’ve actually never tried to make the iconic Austrian apple dessert, Apfelstrudel, at home. So I did some research and started working! After one not-so-well-succeeded attempt, I found the perfect recipe. My starting point was this one from chefkoch.de.

Note that it’s important NOT to peel the apples. If you do, you end up losing a lot of the taste. You'll need a bit less than 1kg of apples to get 800g of sliced apples.

This recipe yields two strudels, each one enough to feed about 6 people. If you want to make only one strudel, I suggest you make one portion of dough anyway: keep half of it in the fridge, because you the most certainly will want to make another one SOON!

Dough:

• 50g whole-grain spelt or wheat flour


• 200g all-purpose flour


• 2g salt


• 1 egg


• 20g neutral-tasting oil (sunflower, for example)


• 100ml warm water

Filling:

• 800g apples, unpeeled but cores removed, sliced very thin


• 100g butter, divided


• 100g breadcrumbs


• 140g sugar


• 170g raisins


• zest of one organic lemon


• 8g cinnamon

Plus about 300ml neutral-tasting oil for the oil bath (see the recipe)

This is how to do it:

First, prepare the dough. Combine flour and salt in a baking bowl and make a hole in the middle. In another bowl, combine warm water, oil, and the egg. Stir, then pour in the hole. With your hands, work the dough until it’s smooth and elastic. Now follows the weirdest part: fill a small bowl with oil. Work the dough into a ball and place it in the oil. Yes, you read right! Let the dough rest in the oil bath for about 30 minutes and you’ll get the most elastic dough ever!



In the meantime, prepare the filling. Melt 50g butter in a pan. Stir in the breadcrumbs and continue stirring for about 2 minutes, or until the crumbs start gaining some colour. Remove from heat.

Place the apple slices in a bowl. Add the sugar, raisins, cinnamon, grated lemon zest, and the breadcrumb-butter-mixture. Stir until everything is well combined.

Now, take the dough from the oil bath. Remove excess oil and divide the dough into two equal-sized parts. Pat each in a bit of flour. Now follows the second weirdest part: roll the dough out on a kitchen towel into a square, as thin as you can, about 35cm*25cm. Oddly enough, the dough doesn’t stick to the fabric – especially if you sprinkle it with a bit of flour.

Melt the rest of the butter. Brush the rolled dough with about 2/3 of the melted butter. Place the filling on the dough, leaving about 3cm on the sides uncovered and about 5cm at the bottom side. Fold the sides (see the picture). Gently roll your strudel like a Swiss roll – it goes surprisingly easy with the towel!



Transfer your strudel carefully onto a baking tray so that the seam-side faces down (and proceed to make the second strudel). Bake your strudel(s) in a preheated oven (190C) for about 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Be careful not to let them burn, though; burned raisins taste horribly bitter ;)

Brush the strudel(s) with melted butter once they’re out of the oven. Let cool a bit and sprinkle with (vanilla-flavoured) confectioner’s sugar.

To me, strudel tastes the best when cooled down to room temperature, but I totally understand if you can’t wait that long! Vanilla sauce or ice-cream is a must with Apfelstrudel, of course.

Frozen Yoghurt with Lemon and Honey

This morning I walked past our local frozen yoghurt bar, and it struck me how perfectly frozen yoghurt would fit in my current dessert series! You know, the desserts that make themselves while you’re eating your main dish.

The convenience of frozen yoghurt over other types of ice cream is not just that it contains less fat and mostly sugar as well. It also helps you avoid one crucial and very time-consuming step: yoghurt is already cold enough for your ice-cream maker (as long as you keep your yoghurt in the fridge, that is ;) ), so no need to cool it before feeding it to your ice cream maker…

I decided to flavour my frozen yoghurt with lemon and honey – but feel free to try other flavours as well!

For a vegan version, use non-dairy yoghurt and sweeten it with sugar or agave syrup, for example.

This is what you need for three smallish portions:

• 500ml plain yoghurt


• 2 Tbsp liquid honey


• 1 tsp grated lemon zest

To make this is ridiculously easy. Just combine yoghurt, honey, and lemon zest, and make the frozen yoghurt according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. With mine, this amount of frozen yoghurt took 15 minutes to make – exactly the time it took us to eat our pizzas! Decorate and serve.

Mushroom Bruschette with Lemon and Parsley

Making a bruschetta is a perfect way to use up bread that otherwise would not be eaten – and as I’ve told, we quite often have to deal with that problem due to our “broken” oven ;)

Everyone loves tomato basil bruschetta, but this mushroom version is at least as tasty! Besides, it’s very quick to make. For this portion for two, I only needed 8 minutes.

 

 

For 2 as a light meal or 4 as a starter:

• 4 large slices of bread


• 1 garlic clove


• 200g mushrooms


• 2 Tbps lemon juice


• olive oil


• a handful of flat leaf parsley


• salt and black pepper to taste

This is how to do it:

1. Heat olive oil in a pan. Quarter the mushrooms (or cut them even smaller if the mushrooms are big) and fry over a high heat about 5 minutes, stirring once in a while.

2. In the meantime, toast the breads and rub them with garlic clove.

3. Now,  add lemon juice, salt, pepper, chopped parsley in the pan, stir, and then remove from heat.

4. Place the bread slices on a plate, divide mushrooms on top of them, and decorate with some more parsley. Serve immediately!

Avocado Soup with Lemon and Coriander

I love guacamole. Whenever there’s good guacamole around, I wish I could just take the whole bowl and spoon it all up! Well, with this soup, I can finally do that without looking like I’m lacking all manners ;) This rich and smooth soup is like guacamole gone to heaven... And best of all, it only takes 5 minutes or so to make it. Amazing!

This soup can be served either cold or warm. I prefer it warm. Not hot, though: when warmed up too much, the avocados get a horribly bitter taste. Been there, done that..! So, any leftovers should be eaten cold rather than be warmed up again.

Remember to only use ripe avocados!

For 4 small or 2 very big portions you need:

• 500ml vegetable broth


• 200ml heavy cream (non-dairy cream for a vegan option)


• 500g peeled avocado, the seed removed (about 2 big or 3 smaller ones)


• 3 Tbsp lemon juice, or to taste


• salt and black pepper to taste


• fresh coriander to serve

This is how to do it:

1. Bring the broth to the boil. Remove from heat.

2. Pulse the avocados and lemon juice with a hand mixer into a smooth puree.

3. Now, add cream and avocado puree into the hot broth. Stir, check the taste, and add salt and pepper according to taste.

4. Divide into soup bowls, sprinkle with some fresh coriander and serve with a slice or two of good bread.

Could cooking get any easier than this?!

Creamy Risotto with Asparagus and Lemon

For a couple of years, I used to make asparagus risotto with shrimps at least once every spring. Then we decided to reduce our meat and fish consumption to a minimum, so I needed to come up with a new version of that great dish. Suddenly I remembered a creamy lemon risotto a friend of mine used to make, and a new dish was born: creamy risotto that combines the flavours of lemon, basil, asparagus, and the best Parmesan cheese you can find. I guarantee – this just can’t go wrong! For a vegan version, either leave out the cream or substitute it with a vegan alternative, and use vegan cheese instead. My favourite is No-Moo Piquant.

For 4 hungry people you need:

• 1 bunch of green asparagus


• 1 medium-sized onion, chopped


• 3 Tbsp olive oil


• 400 ml Arborio rice


• 800 ml vegetable broth


• salt and pepper to taste


• the grated zest of 1 organic lemon


• 150ml double cream (or a non-dairy cream)


• basil leaves


• freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or No-Moo Piquant)

Wash the asparagus and cut off the hard ends, if necessary. Bring enough water to boil in an asparagus cooker, or, if you don’t have one, in a large kettle. When the water is boiling, add a bit of salt and the asparagus. Let cook for 8 minutes, then remove and cool quickly either in ice bath or cold water. (This will stop the cooking.) Once the asparagus has cooled, cut it into about 3cm long pieces, but keep a couple of spears for decoration.

Now, prepare the risotto: sauté chopped onion in a large pan with olive oil. Then add the rice and stir for 1-2 minutes. Add hot broth, salt, pepper, and the lemon zest. Let boil over a low heat until most of the liquid has absorbed, or about 15 minutes. The rice should now be al dente - if not, cook a bit more! Add more broth if needed. Now, whip the cream until soft peaks form and pour onto the risotto. Stir gently. Then add the cut asparagus and stir again.

Remove from heat and decorate with grated Parmesan, basil leaves, asparagus spears, and lemon. Sprinkle some more salt and pepper – and enjoy with a glass of chilled white wine!

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!

Hummus, or When the Chickpea Died and Went to Heaven

I had cooked too much chickpeas for my tagine (see my previous post) and was wondering what to do with them when I saw this recipe for hummus, a delicious spread made of cooked chickpeas, tahini paste, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. The recipe comes from my newest cookbook, called Jerusalem and written by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. A very recommendable book with interesting stories, great pictures - and foolproof recipes, at least so far!

I wanted to make a smaller portion, so the quantities are not exactly the same in the “Jerusalem” version of the recipe.

You need:

• 300g cooked chickpeas


• 150g tahini paste


• 1 big garlic clove or 2 smaller ones


• 2 Tbsp lemon juice


• salt to taste


• about 50ml water (I used the cooking water from the chickpeas)

Place all ingredients apart from water in a food processor bowl. Pulse until smooth, and then add enough water to form a creamy paste. Place your hummus in a serving bowl and cover. Let stand in room temperature about 30 minutes before serving. If anything is left over, store in the fridge.

I decorated my hummus with black olives, slices of red pepper, lemon, and some parsley, and served it with fresh white bread as a starter. Yum!

P.S. In my opinion, hummus is at its best the day you make it!

Zedernbrot - Almond Cookies with Lemon Icing

These cookies with a very misleading name might just have reached my top 3 of best Christmas cookies ever! The name is deceiving, since Zeder is actually German for cedar, yet (luckily!) the cookies have no cedar in them. Instead, Zeder refers to Italian, where cedro stands for citron (citrus medica) - and yes, there’s a lot of lemon in Zedernbrot!

Zedernbrot cookies are very easy to do, they are not too sweet, and they combine two of my favourite flavours - almond and lemon. Besides, the consistency is very pleasant - like chewy marshmallow. (If you do it right, that is. I forgot to check on my second batch and it stayed too long in the oven - and they got too dry..)

For about 30 small rectangular cookies you need:

• 1 egg white


• 125g powder sugar


• a pinch of salt


• 200g ground almonds


• zest of 1 lemon


• 3 tsp lemon juice


• a bit of flour for rolling the dough out

For the icing:

• 100g powder sugar


• lemon juice

Beat the egg white with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Add sugar and continue beating until glossy and firm. Add lemon zest, lemon juice, and almonds, and stir with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are well combined.  Place the dough in the fridge for one hour or so.

Roll the dough out about 1cm thick. Originally, these cookies are cut out with a moon-shaped cookie cutter, but I couldn’t find mine, so for my first batch I used a rectangular cutter. The dough is sticky and quite tricky to cut, so for the second batch I rolled the dough out into a square and used a sharp knife to cut out small rectangles.

Dry your Zedernbrot in a preheated oven (150 C) for about 20 minutes, or until their surface isn’t sticky to touch anymore. While the cookies are in the oven, you can prepare the icing: add as much lemon juice in the powder sugar as you need in order to get a mixture that is easy to stir with a spoon. Let the cookies cool a bit, then spread some icing on top of each, using a small spoon. I wanted mine extra lemony, so I squeezed a couple of lemon juice drops on each cookie before spreading the icing. Let the cookies dry, then store them.

P.S. So, two more days to go! If I don’t change my mind in the last minute, there’s going to be still something fruity and something chocolatey on the list ;)

Kathrinchen - the Gingerbread That Opens the Christmas Season

So a Roman emperor asks you to marry him, and your answer is “No, thanks.” Better think twice! Catherine of Alexandria turned down a marriage proposal coming from the emperor Maxentius in year 305, and guess what happened? Maxentius tried to kill Catherine using a breaking wheel (hence the wheel in this picture) - but didn’t succeed and had her beheaded instead.

In memory of that event the Germans traditionally start their Plätzchen season on the 24th of November, on the eve of St. Catherine’s day, and bake a special form of Lebkuchen, or gingerbread, called Kathrinchen. I only found about this tradition today, but next year I’m definitely going to serve these lemon-scented gingerbread cookies on that day. And bake them a couple of days in advance: these cookies need 4-5 days to get softer and to better reveal their nice lemony taste.

This recipe is again from Feinste Weinachtsbäckerei. I don’t have a proper Kathrinchen cookie cutter, so I used another rectangular cookie cutter, about 4cm wide and 6cm long.

For about 40 of  cookies that size you need:

• 100g honey


• 50g sugar


• 25g butter


• 1 egg yolk


• 30g sugar


• 2 tsp gingerbread spice mixture


• zest of one lemon


• 1 Tbsp rose water


• 1 tsp potash


• 250g all-purpose flour (I baked mine with spelt 1050)


• 1 pinch of salt

Plus for the icing:

• 4 Tbsp sugar


• 2 Tbsp hot water


• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Place honey, 50g sugar, and butter in a pan and heat until sugar has melted. Mix egg yolk, 30g sugar, spices, and lemon zest together in a baking bowl. Mix potash with rose water and add to the egg-sugar mixture. Now add honey mixture and flour (I added a pinch of salt in the flour, although it wasn’t in the original recipe) and stir with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are well combined. Place the dough in the fridge for one hour or so.

Roll out the dough 0,5cm thick and cut it into rectangular cookies either with a knife or with a cookie cutter. Bake about 15 minutes in a preheated oven (180 C).

Once the cookies have cooled a bit, brush them with lemon-sugar icing (just mix all ingredients together). This makes the cookies sprinkle like they had a bit frost on them!

Lemon Madeleines

Now that I took my Madeleine form out to bake Bärentatzen, it’s also time to bake lemon Madeleines! They might not be a traditional Christmas thing, but they mix well into an assortment of Plätzchen. Ever since I read the famous passage of Proust’s "In Search of Lost Time" (and successfully faked in an exam having read the rest of it, too) I wanted to taste these small lemon-scented delicacies - and was rewarded when I finally got to taste them. Maybe it’s because these were the first I tasted, maybe not, but these particular ones taste to me better than any other ones! The recipe is from Professional Baking, and I’ve just adjusted the amount of lemon in them - up.

For about 28 small madeleines you’ll need

• 60 g egg yolks


• 10g demerera sugar


• 15g honey


• 8g grated lemon zest


• 60g egg whites


• 75g sugar


• 1g salt


• 3g baking powder


• 90g all-purpose flour


• 90g melted butter

In a bowl, mix together yolks, demerera sugar, honey, and lemon zest. In another bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder). In a third bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then add sugar while continuing to beat, and then beat until a firm meringue. In the yolk mixture, fold alternately the meringue and flour mixture. Finish by folding the melted butter. Chill the batter for at least 20 minutes in the fridge (or on a cold balcony). This is very important - if you bake the madeleines right away, they don’t gain the desired consistency (been there, done that ;) ).

Preheat your oven to 180 C. Butter your Madeleine pan(s) and using two teaspoons, place about 1 - 1,5 tsp batter into each hole. Bake 6-7 minutes or until golden brown. Now it gets exciting - will your Madeleines develop the famous “bosse” or not? One tip I heard is that the batter should be really cold and the oven set to 240 degrees in the beginning for an optimal “bosse” result. I tried that, and for one batch it did work! For the other ones it didn’t, though.

Remove Madeleines from the pan and bake the next batch as soon as the pan has cooled so much you can butter it.

Store Madeleines in an airtight container.

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 ;)

Braided Loaf with Vanilla, Lemon, and Cardamom

My grandmother taught me how to braid loaves. She used to make a big loaf and give me a bit of the dough so I could make my own miniature loaf. I knew how to braid three, four, and five-strain braids. I had totally forgotten just how delicious these braided loaves were until we moved to Germany and tasted Zopfbrot (as the Germans call a sweet braided loaf) at a friend’s place.

Zopfbrot you can buy at the baker’s normally has milk in it, so it’s a no-go for anyone with lactose issues. But I’ve come up with my own braided loaf recipe that I find even better than anything you can buy! The secret ingredient of my loaf is - of course - sourdough starter (see my previous post about creating your own starter). It makes the loaf very moist and tastier than the ones baked with commercial yeast. It also makes it keep longer. Using sourdough also makes baking more easy-going - you don't need to worry about the right temperature of the liquid or about the right order to add the ingredients.

And no, it does not taste sour at all! Just remember to refresh your starter about 3-4 hours before making the dough. But make sure your starter has doubled in volume - if not, wait until it has. Mine doubles in 3-4 hours, but that depends on many factors, such as the temperature in your kitchen!

Another secret are the spices I use in my loaf: a mixture of vanilla, lemon, and cardamom. I find it a winning combination - but feel free to use any other spices of your liking. You can also add sultanas in the dough (a handful or two).

Unfortunately I had also forgotten how to braid.. But I quickly learned it again -  there are excellent instructions on this subject in books like Professional Baking or on the Internet.

For one loaf you need:

• 350g flour


• 65g sugar


• 1 egg


• 150 water or milk


• 120g sourdough (refreshed 3-4 hours before)


• 1 tsp cardamom


• 3 tsp vanilla sugar


• grated zest of 1 small lemon (organic)


• 5g salt


• 75g melted butter

Combine all ingredients in a baking bowl, except for the butter. Knead until the dough has gained a bubblegum-like consistency, or about 10 minutes. Add the butter and knead about two more minutes, or until it has been absorbed in the dough.

Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and let ferment 8-12 hours.

On a baking surface covered with flour, knead the dough until bubbles have disappeared. Divide the dough in 3 (or 4, or 5) equal-sized parts and braid. (In the loaf featuring in the picture, I added a smaller braid on top of the main one.)

Transfer on a baking pan, cover with a kitchen towel, and let ferment 1-2 hours. Wash with egg yolk, decorate with almond flakes or pearl sugar, and bake in a preheated oven (200 C) until well-baked, or about 45 minutes.

Cool on a rack and serve sliced, either plain or with butter and/or jam.

This loaf keeps very well, at least one week. Or in theory it does :)

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I’ve been a fan and a regular baker of muffins ever since a cousin of mine served Bright Day Banana Muffins for breakfast once I was visiting her back in the 90’s. I’ve tried many, many different kinds of muffins after that, but nothing seemed to be of any serious challenge to these legendary Bright Day Banana Muffins, until... Recently, I discovered this recipe for Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins in a cookbook called “New York - les recettes culte” (yes, do buy the book, it's worth every cent! and no, I don't get paid to say so!). There’s something almost otherworldly in the ingenious combination of tastes and structures here.

For 12 muffins you’ll need (and don’t even consider making just half of the dough to make 6 muffins, you sooooo will regret it!):

Dry ingredients:

• 320g wheat flour


• 3 Tbsp poppy seeds


• ½ tsp salt (if you use salted butter, a bit less is needed)


• 3 tsp baking powder

Liquid ingredients:

• zest of 1 lemon


• 150g sugar


• 125g melted butter (or margarine for dairy-free)


• 2 eggs


• 3 Tbsp lemon juice


• 20cl natural yoghurt (or soy yoghurt for dairy-free)

Fruit:

• 100g peeled and grated apple


• 100g peeled pear, cut into small cubes

Icing:

• 125g confectioners’ sugar


• 2 Tbsp lemon juice

Oh, how I love to bake muffins! The procedure is always the same: combine dry ingredients in a baking bowl. In another one, mix together the liquid ones. Then pour the liquid ones onto the dry ones, and stir until well combined. Then add fruit and stir again. Pour the batter into a muffin pan and bake in a preheated (190 Celsius) oven for some 25 minutes. Take the muffins out of the pan, let them cool a little bit and then brush with the icing (another technique is to dip them upside down in the icing - for me it didn’t work, it was just a mess..). Oh, and for the icing you just need to combine sugar & juice - if it’s too stiff, and a bit more juice, and if it’s too liquid, add a bit more sugar! Decorate with poppy seeds and serve with your favourite coffee or tea!

PS. I've started to replace the apple by pear, so I use 200g pear instead. And when buying poppy seeds, do make sure that the expiry date is a long time ahead; otherwise the seeds might have an unpleasant rancid taste!

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!