Christmas Pastries in August

I love Marzipan. Peter loves Marzipan. And everyone (even my sister who insists she does not like Marzipan) likes the Dutch cookies  called "Amandel Koek", that contain a very marzipan-like filling. So when I found a Dutch recipe for a similar pastry I just had to try it. They turned out delicious, and even though they are supposed to be a enjoyed during the Christmas season, I don't feel very bad for making them in August:

The Dutch pastry "Banket", slightly modified with a home-made almond filling

The recipe I found was for something called "Banket", which traditionally consists of a flaky crust similar to puff pastry, and a filling made with almond paste. Since buying almond paste here is quite expensive I decided to use almond meal and make my own almond paste variation:

Crust:

• 1 cup butter (230g)
• 2 cups flour (480g)
• 1/2 cup cold water (115ml)

To make the crust, cut small pieces of butter in the flour and mix with a fork until you have many little crumbs. Then add the water and mix until everything forms a ball. It is perfectly fine if you can still see little flecks of butter in your dough, I read this makes the dough nice and flaky. Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge.

Filling:

• 3 eggs
• almond meal and powdered sugar: slightly more almond meal than powdered sugar (I am guessing I used around 1 3/4 cups almond meal and 1 1/4 cups sugar)
• 3/4 cup white sugar (150g)
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tablespoon almond extract
• a splash of lemon juice

I mixed 1 cup almond meal, 1 cup powdered sugar, and the 3/4 cup white sugar. I then added the eggs and mixed everything with a mixer until the eggs are beaten and combined with the almond-sugar mixture. After adding the lemon juice, almond extract and salt, I deemed the mixture too soft and added more almond flour and powdered sugar. After mixing again, the consistency seemed better, but not perfect for spreading on dough, but I resolved to put it in the fridge and it got considerably more solid.

I left both the filling and the dough in the fridge overnight and baked the pastries the next morning. To form the pastries, divide the dough in 4 pieces. Each piece is eventually formed into a long rectangle that is then filled and closed to a long, oval log. To form the rectangles I rolled the dough to logs using floured hands, and the flattened it length and width-wise with a rolling pin. The resulting rectangle was about as long as my baking sheet (~50 cm) and maybe 10-15 cm wide. Put the filling in the middle and flip the ends and sides over the filling. If you wet the edges with water, the dough sticks nicely and you can close the logs easily. Move all logs to the baking sheet covered with parchment paper and brush them with milk. The original recipe calls for sprinkling sugar on top which I left out. Cut small slits in the top of the logs since the filling will expand and the logs will burst if left closed. Then bake at 400F (205C) for 25 minutes.

The uncut, baked Banket

Bread Baking Made Simple

Buying bread that is not soft and squishy, has a decent crust, not only white flour, and does not need to be toasted to be edible is not as easy as one would assume, so I was delighted when I was pointed to the bread in 5 minutes video. It is an easy, no-knead bread recipe that only takes 5 minutes! The bread turned out great and I have been baking my own bread for the last few weeks.

Flaxseed & whole wheat bread

Whole wheat rye bread

The "master" recipe is super simple:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1.5 teaspoons dry yeast
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• 3 1/4 cups flour

Dump everything in a mixing bowl, stir with a large spoon until the ingredients are combined (no need to knead the dough), and let rise for 2 - 3 hours. After that, cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight or until read to use. The recipe says the dough can be in the fridge for several weeks, but I have never managed to keep mine longer than 5 days so far.

When ready to bake, take about half of the dough out with floured hands and stretch the dough from the top around the sides to the bottom to form a loaf shape. I usually do this approximately 5 times to get a nice loaf. Put the loaf on a dusted pizza peel and let rest for 40 minutes. I use cornmeal to dust the pizza peel, but I think regular flour or parchment paper will work as well. The pizza peel is used to later slide the bread onto the hot pizza stone. If you do not have a pizza stone and pizza peel, simply try baking the bread on parchment paper on a regular baking sheet. Place the pizza stone on the middle rack and an old baking form (I am using a pie pan) on the bottom rack of your oven and preheat it to 450F (232C). Once the 40 minute rest of the loaf is over and the oven is preheated, it is time to bake the bread. Dust the top of the bread with some flour and use a knife with a serrated edge to make one or several cuts in the top of your bread. The cuts should be rather deep (1-2 cm) to avoid the bread from braking when it rises in the oven. Put the bread in the oven and add 1 cup of cold water to the hot pan at the bottom of your oven. The humidity from the evaporating water will create a nicer crust. Be careful not to burn yourself when adding the water! Bake for 40 minutes and voilà - there is your bread!

For the rye bread I used 1 cup rye, 1 cup whole wheat, and 1 1/4 cups regular flour. 1 cup = 236 ml, so if you are baking in Germany use any measuring cup with 250 ml and fill it to the line with flour (or water) to get approximately one cup. Probably any larger coffee cup would also work.

The flaxseed bread contains about 1/2 cup flaxseeds and half whole wheat and half white flour. Sunflower seeds also taste really well in this, and I just picked up some quinoa and chia seeds to try some new variations.

Trader Joe's Has Cherries

Cherries from Germany!

After living in the US for several years, this is the first time I found proper and affordable cherries. It is not hard to find cocktail cherries, or overpriced ones ($7 per small can), but actual cherries in a jar are hard to find. So I was pleasantly surprised to see a large jar of cherries at Trader Joe's. Closer inspection showed why this was possible: The cherries are from Germany! To check out the label on the jar, click on the picture to the right to make it larger.

So, of course I had to make cake with cherries. The first one I made only survived 2 days and I forgot to take a picture of it. It was a cheesecake with greek yoghurt and a crumbly crust - very yummy.

Yesterday I made a second variation, that is a based largely on "Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte", but has no layers, does not contain any alcohol, and consists of a mix of greek yoghurt and cream instead of just cream. Here is the result:

It did take a bit of time to make the cake, but it was absolutely worth it. Here is the recipe:

Chocolate sponge cake:

• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp warm water
• 100 g sugar
• vanilla sugar
• pinch of salt Salz
• 75 g flour
• 40 g corn starch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 25 g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp espresso powder

Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Beat egg yolks with warm water, vanilla sugar and 2/3 of the sugar until light and creamy (several minutes). In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with the salt and the rest of the sugar. Carefully mix beaten egg whites under egg yolks. Combine flour, baking powder, cocoa and espresso powder, and mix with egg using a spoon. Bake at 355 degrees (180 C) for 25 minutes.

Cherry filling:

• 350g cherries from a jar
• 250ml cherry juice
• 4 tbsp corn starch
• 2 tbsp sugar

I used the cherries and juice from TraderJoes cherries in a jar. Mix starch with sugar and 4 tbsp of the liquid. Boil the rest of the liquid and remove from heat. Mix starch into hot liquid and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, mix in cherries and let cool.

Topping:

• 400g Greek yoghurt
• 200 ml whipping cream
• 40g powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp light colored juice (lemon / orange)
• 1 tbsp gelatin

Once the filling and the sponge cake are cool, you can assemble the cake. If you took your sponge cake out to cool, put the round cake ring from your baking pan back around the cake. Put the cherry filling on top of the sponge cake, but leave some space at the edges.

Combine greek yoghurt and sugar. Soak gelatin in 2 tbsp juice (I used 1 tbsp orange and 1 tbsp lemon juice) for 10 minutes. Then, heat gelatin over low heat until it melts. Beat whipping cream until almost stiff. Mix gelatin with a few tbsp of greek yoghurt, then mix this under the yoghurt mixture and add whipped cream. 

Put cream-yoghurt mixture on top of the cherry filling. Move the cake to the fridge for several hours until the gelatin mixture sets. Remove the cake ring and sprinkle shaved or finely chopped chocolate on top of the cake.

We Are Famous!

..well, almost. A picture of Peter and me made into our local newspaper, the Cape Cod Times:

The picture is from July 18, where we had more than 20 mph winds for 3 hours and scored one of our many windsurfing sessions so far this summer. And because the picture does not do my pretty new wetsuit justice, here is a picture from my mast mount camera on the same day:

50 Windsurfers

Kalmus Beach was the place to be on July 3rd with wind and sun the whole day. Approximately 50 windsurfers agreed with me and it was pretty cool to see that many people show up to sail. Peter and I sailed on 5.6 (Peter) and 4.7 (Nina) the whole day and went from just a bit underpowered to super lit at low tide in the afternoon. I spent about 4 hours on the water and took a nice long break in between where I took this picture:

Just a small part of the crowd out sailing in Kalmus on July 03

If you are wondering what I have been up to: Lots and lots of Flaka tries. Thanks to Peter, there are some videos of some of my attempts from July 3rd, overpowered on my 4.7 Idol and the 90l Skate:

Resolution for the next tries is a straighter front arm which will hopefully also get me more over the board. Any tips are welcome ;)

No-Wind Rhubarb Cake

A non windy Saturday and fresh rhubarb from Gerda = rhubarb cake:

The cake turned out great after some initial skepticism about the amount of rhubarb, if the meringue would turn out as expected, and finding small pieces of eggshell in the dough (it seems I dropped a piece and ground it to even smaller pieces with the mixer).

Baked in a 26 cm round cake form, here is the recipe:
dough:
130g sugar
130g butter
2 tsp vanilla sugar
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 tsp baking powder
1 or 2 tbsp orange juice
70 g corn starch
175 g flour

rhubarb topping:
~ 750g rhubarb

meringue:
3 egg whites
pinch of salt
150 g sugar
75 g ground almonds
1 tsp lemon juice


I peeled the rhubarb (which was unnecessary because it turned out super soft and would have looked even better with the red coloring) and cut it in ~2cm pieces. The orange juice is optional and approximate. I had an orange lying around and the only thing I could think of was squeezing it, drinking some, and adding some to the cake. The dough was spread int he pan, and the rhubarb is simply put on top. It looks like too much rhubarb, but it will turn out great.

I baked the cake in the preheated oven at 375F (190C) for 28 minutes.

During the last few minutes I made the meringue by beating the egg whites with the salt until fluffy, then slowly adding the sugar while continuing to beat. I read somewhere that the acid in the lemon juice is supposed to make the meringue stiffer, so in it went. The almond meal was folded in last with a spoon.

The meringue is spread on top of the cake and then returned to the oven. For baking the meringue I reduced the temperature to 350F (175C) and baked the cake for an additional 23 minutes.

Lucky me it looks like it will be windy on Monday and Tuesday, so I have an excuse for eating lots of cake now since I can work it off again on the water soon...