One Fine Day » Sweet

Berry Pancakes

Sarah — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:07:29 +0000

Yes, yes, yes – Pancakes again. I put myself in for a challenge: find the best pancakes in the world. You can imagine how much Stefan loves me for that.

So I try as many recipes as possible and I will share all the good ones with you. So be prepared…

I like this one a lot, because it uses frozen berries. I love all kind of berries and have suffered a lot lately with being stucked in a cold and berry-less winter. So using frozen ones is a nice way of answering my craving for blueberries and more.

Berry Pancakes.

Serves: 6 x 10 cm pancakes

Source: ‘Every Day’ by Bill Granger

Ingredients:

90 g mixed berries, frozen
2 tbsp caster sugar
45 g standard flour
45 g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
2 eggs
125 ml milk
60 g ricotta

Directions:

Defrost and lightly mash berries, mix with 1 tablespoon sugar and set aside.
Sift flours, baking powder, salt and remaining sugar in a large bowl.
In a small bowl whisk egg yolks and milk together and add to dry ingredients. Stir until just combined and gently stir in ricotta.
Whisk egg whites until stiff and carefully fold into batter.
Fold in berries in a few strokes.

Preheat pan to medium heat. Using a pastry brush, brush some butter into pan. Wipe off excess with a folded paper towel.

Using a tablespoon pour batter in pan. When pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around the edges, about 2 1/2 minutes, flip over. Cook until golden on bottom, about 1 minute.

Repeat with remaining batter. You can keep finished pancakes on a heat-proof plate in the oven at 80°C.

Pasteis de Nata

Sarah — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 08:02:45 +0000

Back in Germany we had a nice tradition for Saturday mornings. We would get up early to go grocery shopping and on our way to the supermarket, we would stop at our favourite Portuguese cafe. We would grab a Galao, which is a Latte the Portuguese way, and a Pasteis de Nata.

They are yummy littley pastries with vanilla custard. I didn’t think of them in a long time, but when I saw them on Deichrunner’s Kitchen, I had a flashback and an immediate craving.

So I made them the next day and they were so delicious. I think it’s amazing how flavours remind you of situations, places, people…

You have to try them. Really.

Pasteis de Nata.

Serves: 12

Source: Based on delicious days

Ingredients:

200 g puff pastry, frozen
250 ml milk
125 g caster sugar
15 g cornflour
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp butter
1 egg
2 egg yolk
1/2 vanilla pod
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Defrost puff pastry and roll out to a 25 x 35 cm rectangle. Starting with the shorter side, roll up the pastry. Chill it in freezer until it becomes firm, but not frozen (about 20 minutes).
Cut dough roll in 12 equally thick slices. Form them into little cups with your hand and make them fit in a lightly greased muffin tray.
Preheat oven to 225°C.
In a small bowl combine sugar, salt and cornflour.
Split vanilla pod lenghtways and scrape out seeds.
Heat up milk, vanilla pod and seeds and butter in a pot. Remove vanilla pod when boiling, add sugar mixture and stir well. Bring to a boil again for a short moment until it thickens and set aside to cool for at least 10 minutes.
Add egg and egg yolks and whisk well.
Fill the mixture into the pastry shells – half-full is enough.
Bake for 10 – 12 minutes. The pastries should become quite dark on top with ‘black dots’, which is typical for Pasteis de Nata.
Dust pastries with cinnamon for serving.

Cinnamon Espresso Cake

Sarah — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:01:37 +0000

On Saturday night we drove around the bay to have dinner with our dear friends. As usual the answer to ‘can I bring something’ was ‘No, not at all. Relax, don’t worry’… Mmh, but arriving with nothing is not very kind and nobody would dismiss some home made dessert I assumed.

The first thing that came into my mind was tiramisu. I haven’t had any for ages and my mouth was watering. But I didn’t have much time for grocery shopping and preparing… With the idea of coffee, chocolate and sweet in my mind, I browsed TasteSpotting and came across this Cinnamon Espresso Cake. It looked delicious, didn’t sound too complicated and so I found what I was looking for and gave it a try. I am not a big fan of icing, so I just dusted it with icing sugar and it worked just fine.

Cinnamon Espresso Cake.

Serves: 1 cake

Source: Based on vanilla sugar

Ingredients:

280 g caster sugar + 2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon + 2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp espresso powder
220 g high-grade flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
180 ml cream
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
125 g butter
90 g mini chocolate chips
30 g icing sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 23 cm cake tin with baking paper.
Melt butter on a low heat and allow to cool.
In a small bowl mix 2 tbsp caster sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon and 2 tsp espresso powder. Set aside.
Sift flour, remaining caster sugar and cinnamonm, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
In a medium bowl whisk cream, eggs and vanilla extract.
Pour the wet mixture over the flour mixture and gently whisk until almost combined.
Add the melted butter and mix just until the butter is absorbed.
Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.
Sprinkle the mini chocolate chips over the batter and then top with the cinnamon espresso sugar mixture.
Top with the remaining batter, spreading it evenly and slowly.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 – 45 minutes. Stand in tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool.
Dust with icing sugar.

Cinnamon Buns

Sarah — Sat, 16 May 2009 07:37:07 +0000

I am very much into baking these days, so I am happy to present you this delicious recipe. It’s another one I made straight after moving into our house in New Zealand because I missed them so much. These buns are actually a speciality from the northern part of Germany, so it might be even new to a few Germans. Franzbrötchen – in English Cinnamon Buns. They are so easy and so yummy for afternoon tea or breakfast.

Cinnamon Buns.

Serves: 15 small cinnamon buns

Source: Based on Chefkoch recipe from labell

Ingredients:

250 g high-grade flour

50 g caster sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 tbsp canola oil
100 ml milk, lukewarm
1 tsp dry yeast
25 g butter, soft
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg yolk

Directions:

Dissolve yeast in lukewarm milk.
Sift flour, 25 g of sugar and salt into a large bowl.
Add egg, oil and yeast milk to flour and knead for about 4 minutes until dough is very smooth. It will still be a bit sticky.
Cover the bowl with cloth and let the dough rise for 30 minutes.
On a floured surface, roll dough to the dimensions of 40 x 60 cm.
Mix remaining sugar and cinnamon.
Brush the dough with soft butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mix.
Roll up the dough lenghtways and cut into small trapezium-shaped pieces. The narrow site is about 1.5 cm, the wide site about 3 cm.
Place the pieces wide site down on a baking sheet and press the stick of a wooden spoon in the middle of the narrow site.
Brush them with egg yolk and sprinkle with cinnamon to taste.
Preheat the oven to 175°C and bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

Clafoutis with Blueberries

Sarah — Sun, 03 May 2009 07:43:22 +0000

This is my first entry for a german Food Blog event. I am not sure if that kind of event exists in the english speaking Food Blog community as well, but I think it is great. It is arranged by the wonderful blog “1 x umrühren bitte” which means something on the lines of “Please stir once”.

This month’s theme is desserts. Nothing easier than that and finally a reason to make one of the recipes on my long, long list of sweet treats. I could eat cake, muffins and everything else sugary for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Unfortunately, my hips don’t like it and Stefan doesn’t either. So I need a good reason for baking…

And that’s where the Food Blog Event comes in. It was really hard to choose only one recipe. But in the end I went for a Clafoutis with Blueberries. It is based on a recipe from Tim Mälzer – a wonderful chef from Hamburg, Germany.

Clafoutis with Blueberries.

Serves: 2 – 3

Source: Tim Mälzer – Born to Cook

Ingredients:

4 eggs
1 pinch of salt
50 g caster sugar
100 g marizpan
150 ml milk
25 g standard flour
25 g cornflour
150 g blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 160°C.
Wash and carefully dry the blueberries.
Separate the eggs and whisk egg whites with one pinch of salt and 20 g sugar stiff.
Mix egg yolks with 30 g sugar.
Puree marizpan and milk with a blender.
Sift flour and cornflour to egg yolks and sugar, add marzipan milk and mix well.
Carefully fold in the beaten egg whites.
Lightly grease an ovenproof dish and dust with flour.
Pour batter in dish and put blueberries on top.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Pancakes 101

Sarah — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 07:53:10 +0000

Saturday morning. The sun is rising over Lyall Bay, the sky is blue, the air clear. We go out for a run and to catch some good waves. Back at home, hot shower and then breakfast. But not the usual. Come on – live a little. It’s weekend. And there is one thing for breakfast that makes Stefan smile. Pancakes.

Since we’ve arrived in New Zealand, Pancakes seem to be Stefans favourite breakfast. He orders it wherever we go. Usually I am more into savoury things. But I would always try some of the sweet, delicious, fruity pancakes. And I have to say: I like it more and more. Not every day. But every now and then, pancakes are breakfast heaven. Even for me. So let’s make some… It took me a while to find the right recipe. They were always ok, but not quite right. Not fluffy enough, too tight, too brown. Smitten kitchen put an end to my search with her delicious Pancake 101 recipe.

Pancakes 101.

Serves: 6 x 12 cm pancakes

Source: smitten kitchen

Ingredients:

250 g high-grade flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 egg
350 ml milk
1 tsp butter
1 tsp icing sugar

Directions:

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the eggs and milk and whisk to combine.
Preheat pan to medium heat. Using a pastry brush, brush some butter into pan. Wipe off excess with a folded paper towel.
Using a tablespoon pour batter in pan. When pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around the edges, about 2 1/2 minutes, flip over. Cook until golden on bottom, about 1 minute.
Repeat with remaining batter. You can keep finished pancakes on a heat-proof plate in the oven at 80°C. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm with some yoghurt and fruit. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm with some yoghurt and fruit.