Matcha and Lime Cookies

Next to the colored eggs and my Easter bunnies, I also made these green little cuties last weekend. I just didn't have time to post them here yet since I've been away on holiday for a few days last week. At a car racing training in Germany, can you believe it?! Co-driver only, of course, but guys, that was quite a ride. And now that Edi brought me home in one piece, I finally have time to share this recipe with you. I had bookmarked it in one of my cookbooks ages ago and ever since I've cleaned out my kitchen cupboard and found my tin of matcha powder again, I've been wanting to give this recipe a try. I thought that these cookies would make nice Easter goodies. They get their bright-green color from the matcha powder which, in Switzerland, you can get in Asia shops. Color-wise, matcha and lime are the perfect combination and their flavors go together wonderfully. Complex and bitter versus fresh and sweet - builds a perfect harmony.

Recipe

(from Delicious Days by Nicole Stich)

80g icing sugar

2 teaspoons matcha powder

3 limes

150g cold butter

1 pinch of salt

200g flour

25-50g corn starch

3 egg yolks

75g sugar

Sift icing sugar and matcha powder into a large bowl. Wash one of the limes with hot water and grate the zest. Cut butter into cubes and, together with the lime zest and salt, add to the sugar. With your electric hand mixer (I used the dough hook), mix until you have a bright-green smooth dough. Then, add flour and corn starch. Mix again. Then, add the eggs.

Form the dough into a flat disk and wrap into cling film. Put into the refrigerator for at least one hour. You can also leave this dough in the fridge for about 2 days.

Preheat the oven to 170°C (fan-assisted: 150°C) and line two baking trays with parchment paper. Wash the other two limes with hot water, grate the zest and grind in a mortar together with 1 tablespoon sugar. Mix with the rest of the sugar and put into a bowl.

Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out your dough (about 5-7 millimeters). Cut out your cookies with a cookie cutter of your choice. Toss the cookies into your sugar-lime mix until they are covered with lime sugar. Align the cookies in the tray and bake in the middle of the oven. Depending on how thick the cookies are, that takes 10-15 minutes. They should be baked thoroughly, but they should not be brown around the edges. Take out of the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Keep in an air- and light-tight container.

Happy Easter!

Friday afternoon at Sibylle's was a blast. I just loved spending time with her family in their cozy little house. She's a wonderful host and a big thank you goes out to her - we all had such a great time. And on the pictures below, you can see some of the beautiful eggs we colored. Sibylle had also made a delicious plaited loaf and it reminded me of how much I actually like to bake bread. Since it's Easter, I decided to make little bunnies instead of a plait. One of these is going to be a little Easter present for Edi, my one and only. Time to formally introduce the man to you guys since, for quite some time now, he's been such a precious part of my life. It all started with me bringing cake over to his office - which is why I usually jokingly tend to claim that I've enchanted him with cake. Cooking or baking for your loved one just is a wonderful thing. I truly believe that all the love and affection goes into the food. Well, Liebe geht durch den Magen, or how do you say in English?! The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Recipe

(from Betty Bossi - Knuspriges Brot und köstliche Brotgerichte)

Makes four bunnies:

500g flour

1/2 tablespoon salt

ca. 15g yeast, in crumbs

1/2 tablespoon sugar

125g soft butter

3 - 3.5dl milk

1 egg yolk

a splash of cream

In a large bowl, mix flour and salt. Add yeast, sugar, butter and milk and knead (with the kitchen aid or with your hands) until you have a soft and smooth dough (if you do it with your hands like I did, it takes about 10 minutes). Form a ball, put into your bowl and cover with a kitchen towel. Let the dough rise in a warm place until its size has doubled (about 2 - 3 hours).

Spread a little flour on your kitchen surface. Cut your dough into four equal pieces. Roll each piece into a long thick strand. Then, cut off about a fourth of the strand to form the bunny head. Form a ball and with a knife or with scissors, make a cut to make the bunny ears. To make the body of the bunny, make a knot into the longer strand. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Put the two "body parts" onto the tray. The head and the body will stick together better if you use a little water on the spot where they come together. Repeat for the other three bunnies and let them rise again for another half hour.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Use a raisin to make a bunny eye. In a small bowl, mix egg yolk and cream and brush onto your bunnies. Bake them in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes. If you take them out of the oven and knock onto the bottom with your finger, it should make a hollow sound. Let cool on a wire rack.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Is it Easter already again?! Time flies, doesn't it? But I've been having a slow start today and I'm looking forward to a few days off now. This afternoon, I'm going to go over to Evelyn's sister Sibylle. As usual, she has invited her family and a bunch of other people to her house for the annual Easter egg coloring session. Last year, it was big fun and I have no doubt that we are going to have a great time today as well. I just finished decorating these cupcakes which I'm going to bring along for the dessert buffet and I thought, I might just have time to share them with you before I have to leave. Happy Easter you guys!

Recipe

(from one of my absolute favourites: Cake Days by The Hummingbird Bakery)

For the dough:

80g soft butter
280g sugar
1/2 sachet of vanilla sugar
240g flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
240ml milk

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Line a 12-mould muffin pan with paper cases.

In a bowl, mix butter, sugar, vanilla sugar, flour, baking powder and salt with an electric hand mixer on low speed until you have a fine crumbly batter.

Mix milk and eggs and add to the cake batter in three additions while constantly mixing. Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula from time to time. Mix until you have a smooth batter.

Fill your batter into the prepared cases. Don't overfill them or they will spill while baking! Two thirds is fine. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes. Check with a wooden skewer whether they are done. Let cool completely after baking.

For the frosting:

500g icing sugar
1/2 sachet of vanilla sugar
160g very soft butter
50ml milk

In a bowl, mix butter, icing sugar and vanilla sugar with an electric mixer on low speed until you have a powdery batter. Slowly add the milk while constantly mixing. On high speed, mix until you have a fluffy batter.

Spread the frosting on your cupcakes with a palette knife and decorate with sugar flowers or sugar pearls… whatever you feel like or fits for the occasion.

Crème Fraiche Cake with Raspberries

I've been having doubts about my cake karma this weekend. The recipe sounded delicious. It's one of those that instantly attract my attention. I mean, crème fraiche cake. Also, it looked like total no-fuss recipe. And it was - until I released my cake from the baking tin. All the berries had gone to the bottom, they were oozing and the cake kind of sunk and lost its shape while I was decorating it with the icing. Well, it wasn't that bad, but I'm a perfectionist. And I've truly made better looking cakes... But in the end, it was still delicious and I even managed to get a few nice shots. So I decided to share it with you anyway. Since I still don't exactly know what went wrong, I can't give you any precise advise on this one. Just make sure your cake is baked thoroughly. I might have taken it out of the oven too early. And you might want to try and use frozen berries. Maybe the result will be better.

Recipe

(again from the wonderful Zucker, Zimt und Liebe by Virginia Horstmann)

for the dough:

175g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of baking soda

115g softened butter

150g sugar

2 eggs

(I added the scraped out seeds of a vanilla pod)

200g crème fraiche

200g raspberries (frozen work as well)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

for the glaze:

100g icing sugar

1-2 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 175°C and line a 25cm cake tin with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one after the other. Beat until well combined. Add vanilla seeds if you want to.

Add about a third of the flour to the creamy mixture, keep mixing. Then, add some of the crème fraiche and mix. Keep alternating between the two while constantly beating and until everything is well combined. Then, carefully, add the raspberries and fill the dough into your prepared tin. Sprinkle with the brown sugar.

Bake for about 60-70 minutes. Cover with aluminium foil if it browns too much during the last third of the baking time. Test with a wooden skewer whether your cake is done. The skewer should come out clean. Take out of the oven and let cool.

When your cake has cooled, release from the tin. For the icing, combine icing sugar and milk in a small bowl. With a spoon, spread over your cake.

Rhubarb Cake with Almonds

2014 has been treating me well so far. Sometimes, it's just wonderful how life surprises you if you just let it. In fact, I'm still so overwhelmed from all the good that has happened to me in the past few weeks that I don't know what to say. But I have a delicious recipe to share with you. Rhubarbs are in season. It's spring in my kitchen - and in my heart.

Recipe
(from the lovely Zucker, Zimt und Liebe by Virginia Horstmann)

100g flour
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
150g soft butter
150g sugar
2 eggs
200g ground almonds
400g rhubarb, washed, peeled, cut into pieces of about 5cm or so
2 tablespoons slivered almonds
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C, line a 20cm diameter springform pan with parchment paper and grease with butter.

In a bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder and set aside. In another bowl, mix butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer until pale and creamy. Then, add the eggs, one by one. After that, add the flour and the ground almonds. Mix until well combined.

Fill the dough into your prepared springform pan and spread the rhubarb on top of it in a fanlike kind of way. You could, of course, also cut the rhubarb stalks into dices and just scatter them on top of your cake. Then, scatter the slivered almonds on top and sprinkle with the brown sugar.

Bake for about 60 to 70 minutes. If the cake browns too much towards the end, cover with aluminium foil. Then, take out of the oven and let cool. Dust with icing sugar before serving if you like.

Chocolate Fondant Cake

For the past six months, I had the pleasure to share my office with Karma. Sadly, she will be leaving tomorrow. So, this week, I wanted to bake a cake especially for her. And this is what she had wished for - a devilish chocolate fondant cake (recipe by the one and only Trish Deseine). Beware my friends, this is serious stuff - I think we've all had ourselves a little chocolate overdose yesterday. Karma, we are going to miss you big time! But we'll make sure that, although you're leaving, the good karma will stay in our office.

Recipe

(from Trish Deseine's fabulous "I love Cake")

200g dark chocolate

200g butter

250g sugar

5 eggs

1 tablespoon flour

(I just saw a version of this recipe in the internet where Trish adds a tablespoon of strong espresso to the cake batter, I didn't do that, but it sure sounds good to me)

(for one 20cm diameter springform pan - I doubled the above recipe and used a 26cm diameter springform pan, baking time will be a bit longer)

Preheat the oven to 190°C and line your cake tin with parchment paper.

In a saucepan, melt chocolate and butter over low heat. Pour into a large bowl, slowly add the sugar while constantly stirring. Let this cool down a little.

Then, add the eggs, one by one. Stir well with a wooden ladle after adding each egg until it has combined with the batter. Then, add the flour, stir well.

Fill the batter into your prepared cake tin and bake for about 22 minutes until just firm at the edges but still soft in the middle. Take out of the oven, let cool.

It's best to bake this cake a day ahead.

Marble Cake with Cinnamon and Cardamom

Marble cake is a good old classic. To me, it always brings back childhood memories. It was my favorite cake when I was a little girl. Myriam Zumbühl (remember her from her lovely series Myriam und die Meisterbäcker?) spiced this simple recipe up by adding roasted and ground cardamom seeds and cinnamon buds ("Zimtblüte") to the cake batter. Cinnamon buds have a much more intense aroma than ground cinnamon, it's more diverse, fuller and almost flowery. Just heart-warming. And I swear, this cake and me… love at first bite. Pure comfort on a day you thought the sun was going to be shining and then the sky is all grey instead.

Recipe

(from the wonderful Myriams Kuchen Tartes & Co. by Myriam Zumbühl)

200g soft butter

200g sugar

1 vanilla pod, scraped out seeds

3 large eggs

250g flour

3 tablespoons baking powder

5 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

4 cardamom pods, roasted, seeds crushed

1 tablespoons ground cinnamon buds or simply ground cinnamon, works just as well

icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 25-30cm cake tin with parchment paper and grease with butter.

In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric hand mixer until soft. Add 180g of the sugar and the seeds of the vanilla pod. Beat until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one by one. Then, sift in the flour together with the baking powder. Add two tablespoons of milk and beat until all is well combined.

Fill 2/3 of your batter into the prepared cake tin. Add cocoa powder and spices to the rest of the batter together with the rest of the sugar (20g) and 3 tablespoons of milk. Beat until well combined. Then, fill the chocolate batter into your cake tin, too and run a fork through the dough so that you get a marble effect.

Bake the cake in the middle of the oven for about 50-60 minutes (mine took about 45 minutes only). Test with a wooden skewer, whether your cake is done. There should be no more batter sticking to your skewer. 

Let the cake cool. Dust with icing sugar before serving. If you bake the cake one day ahead, the aroma of the spices can develop and the cake smells even better!

Cinnamon Squares

Here we go again… I bought another baking book. Should've known that I was entering dangerous territory when I went into a bookshop yesterday together with Daniela. She was looking for a good read for her vacation when I stumbled over Jeanny's lovely baking book. And I simply couldn't resist. But seriously, this book is really worth it. It is beautifully designed and oh-so-cute and I think I want to test almost every single recipe in there! Let's start with these cinnamon squares. No-fuss recipe - delicious result. And the good thing about them is that, if you have your usual basic baking ingredients at home, you can always bake them spontaneously.

Recipe

(from the lovely Zucker, Zimt und Liebe by Virginia Horstmann)

200g softened butter

200g brown sugar

110g caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

a large pinch of cinnamon

a pinch of salt

2 eggs

275g flour

4-6 tablespoons cinnamon sugar

Preheat the oven to 175°C and grease a 20x30 cm baking tin with butter and line with parchment paper (I used my 23x18 brownie tin and another small baking tin).

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer until creamy. Add baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Then, add the eggs and after that, the flour. Beat until well combined. You will end up with a rather thick dough.

Spread the dough into your baking tin with a ladle and bake for about half an hour. Don't overbake, it's ok if it's a little soft in the middle still. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar immediately.

Let cool down, cut into squares.

Fennel and Orange Salad with Rocket, Dried Cranberries and Walnuts

As promised, here it comes: The recipe for the fabulous salad I served for brunch last weekend. Not only is it oh-so-delicious, it's also a pretty and colorful addition to any buffet. Deb from Smitten Kitchen originally made it with blood oranges and added some mint leaves and lime zest which, I imagine, is also very delicious. I didn't have all those ingredients at home so I adapted the recipe a little. I added some rocket and dried cranberries and was very pleased with the outcome. This salad goes really well with grilled or smoked salmon.

Recipe

(slightly adapted from: Smitten Kitchen)

a handful of walnuts (or hazelnuts)

2 medium-large fennel bulbs, leaves and stems trimmed off

salt 

black pepper

juice of one lemon

3 large oranges (or blood oranges)

(1 small shallot - I left that out)

rocket salad

dried cranberries

olive oil

Place the nuts in a dry skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring, to toast. Then, let cool. If you use hazelnuts, roll them around in a dishcloth, to discard any loose skins. Coarsely chop. Set aside.

Slice about half an inch from the bottom of the fennel and discard. Slice the fennel very thinly in a mandoline or with a knife, starting with flat bottom side. Toss in a serving bowl with salt, pepper and lemon juice. 

Trim all peel and pith from the oranges. Holding the peeled fruit over the bowl containing the fennel, use a sharp knife to cut sections from the membrane and let them drop into the bowl. Squeeze the remaining membrane over the bowl to sprinkle the salad with the remaining juice, discard the membrane.

Add rocket, cranberries, nuts and olive oil.  

Pear and Almond Muffins

Ever since the new year started, it's been kind of quiet around here, I know. And don't get me wrong when I'm saying this, but in the past few weeks, cooking and baking just hasn't been the most important thing to me. Except for cream cheese brownies. Cream cheese brownies are always important. I made a huge batch of them for my Qi Gong friends last weekend. But other than that, I'd say that, lately, there have been more different colors of nail polish in my fridge than food. But you know, a girl has to set her priorities. Like holiday plans for instance. So today, I had Evelyn and Andrea over for an important meeting (brunch) in order to discuss our holidays in Sardinia this fall. I made some muffins for this occasion - muffins always go with brunch. I also made a delicious salad - coming up soon. So don't worry you guys, this blog is still up and running!

Recipe
(slightly adapted from the lovely Löffelchen voll Zucker)

For about 16 muffins:

75g rolled oats
200g all-purpose flour
75g whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
a pinch of salt
85g soft butter
150g brown sugar
250ml milk
2 eggs
2-3 firm pears, peeled, cores removed, cut into small pieces
50g ground almonds
50g slivered almonds

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a muffin pan with paper cases.

In a large bowl, mix the rolled oats, the flours, the baking powder, the cinnamon and the salt. In another bowl, mix the soft butter and the sugar with an electric hand mixer. Then, add the milk and the eggs. Add this mixture to the dry mixture and beat with the mixer until well combined. Then, add the pears and the ground almonds.

Fill the dough into your muffin cases and top with the slivered almonds. Bake for about 25 minutes. Test whether they are done with a wooden skewer.

These muffins keep for a few days in an airtight container.