All Seasons Archives - Jenny is baking

Sandwich-Cookies: Alfajores with Almonds

Have you every heard of “alfajores”? These are sandwich cookies that are usually filled with the caramel cream called dulce de leche. They originally stem from Andalucia in Spain, but have become extremely popular in Uruguay and Argentina. Supposedly about 10 million (!) alfajores are sold each day in Argentina in 2023. The “original” is usually made with flour and cornstarch and creates this nice crunchy texture, however, my version below contains flour and almonds instead. The classic alfajor is usually rolled in coconut flakes, however, I will used chopped almonds for this version.

06/11/2024

Updated Version: Chocolate Cookies with a Caramel Center

If it were for me, we could skip Halloween all together and dive right into Christmas season. Do you also feel that way? For me fall is perfect for a nice cookie, they are simply comfort food for me, cozy and simple. I remembered that I have a wonderful chocolate cookie on the blog with a caramel center. So I decided to revisit the recipe and tweak it a little bit. I mean, I originally published the recipe in 2017 and I do have a bit more baking experience under my belt. You won’t believe how many cookies I have baked in the last seven years as a pronounced cookie monster. The below recipe has a slightly lower amount of butter and chocolate chunks and I also decided to make them a bit smaller. Also, I decided to sprinkle the cookies with sea salt after baking. Seriously, it took nothing for the cookies to disappear and I need to make more again…

23/10/2024

Simple Sour Cream Cake

This is a German recipe from the south, this is a simple sour cream cake. It was passed down by a reader, I didn’t even know of its existence and had to do some research. I learned that this can be classified as a cheesecake. It is made with sour cream containing 10% fat and heavy cream. What I like about this cake is several things. Number 1 being, it does not need a waterbath. Number 2: despite the fact that it is baked at a relatively high temperature, it does not crack easily. Number 3: as it uses this mild sour cream, it is not a tangy as some other German cheesecakes, it is slightly milder in taste. So will these reasons mean that you give it a try?

13/09/2024

American Cinnamon Rolls

Finally I got to make one iconic dish from the US, cinnamon rolls or cinnamon buns. Yes, I have made them before, but not the classic and traditional version with cream cheese frosting. But finally I got round to it and made the full deal, no extras, but also no substitutions. These are very moist and fluffy cinnamon rolls, we will need to make a tangzhong, which means boiling flour, water and milk, so that the flour can gelatinize. This will help for the rolls to stay extra fresh. Yes, you will add five more minutes of work, but I believe it is so worth it.

01/02/2024

Queque de Platano or Banana Bread from Peru

During Covid and lockdown times, everybody seemed to have baked banana bread. I never published a recipe because I didn’t feel like following a trend. There are sooo many recipes out there, healthier ones, vegan, classic recipes, and some that sound like a decadent cake and have names such as “death by chocolate banana bread”. I finally caved and this has to do with the fact that this banana bread is prepared with plantains instead of bananas. Traditionally Peru and also Chile like to use plantains to make the bread, so I dared to declare this a Peruvian recipe. But I know that there are heated and emotional discussions as to which recipe belongs to which Latin American country. I will just keep out of it and call this queque de platano Peruvian. Please don’t kill me.

23/01/2024

14 Recipes with Citrus Fruits

Have I mentioned that my hubby is a huge fan of citrus fruits? I will admit, I don’t mind them either. It probably comes as no surprise then that I have tons of recipes on my blog with a citrus touch. I love any fresh and yellow, especially in winter. I also don’t mind the vitamins (yeah, I know, we are still talking about cake). I learned not that long ago that lemons, limes and the like are usually harvested in winter, sometimes in January or February. For that reason I thought it might be a good time to share 14 recipes with these fruits, I hope you find something you enjoy!

#1 Lemon Mousse or Lemon Posset

This dessert comes together in minutes and just looks great in the lemons!

16/01/2024

Lemonies or Lemon Brownies

We were fortunate enough to go on vacation in the north of Spain and in Portugal in spring 2023. During our trip I got to see tons of lemon trees. Many seemed to be completely abandoned. Some had half their lemons lying on the floor, which made me hurt. So I started to pick them up. Sometimes I asked whether this was OK if I saw anyone around, but nobody seemed to mind. This resulted in me having lots of lemons during our holidays, so I got to work to use them all properly. Zorra from the blog Kochtopf (in German) publishes a lot of lemon recipes. She lives in Spain and often talks about the abundance of lemons available. So I know I would find something interesting on her blog. The below recipe is from her, I love the fudgy texture of these lemonies. Don’t think of these as a lemon loaf, but rather than brownies with lemon flavor, you will enjoy them. Continue Reading…

12/01/2024

Torta Rogel from Uruguay

I am going to introduce torta rogel from Uruguay today. Why do you find many recipes from Uruguay on this blog? Because I was born in this beautiful country in Latin America. Even though I have a German passport, I lived in Uruguay for several years as a child. We happened to live in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. Back in the 80s you would occasionally find some horse carriages between the cars and we lived on one of the main streets. My sister and me often paid a visit to the nearby kiosk, we would either get “chicle”, which is chewing gum, or we got breakfast: bread and dulce de leche. Dulce de leche is the peanut butter of Latin America, the caramel made from sweetened milk is used as much in Latin American cuisine as is peanut butter in the U.S. I will never forget how my dad instructed my sister and me to get breakfast: “Go and get bread and dulce de leche from the vaca cow (vaca= Spanish for cow).” We may have spoken German among each other, but a Spanish word would slip in here and there. Sometimes funky creations such as saying the same word in two language would come out of it. But anyway, I love dulce de leche, so I wanted to show you this delicious cake, which contains a lot of it. In this reel you can see how I make it and how it looks.

01/12/2023

Cantuccini with Dried Cranberries

Today I am introducing a very simple cantuccini recipe. This November my blog is all about giving gifts from the kitchen. Cantuccini are a perfect gift in my opinion. This famous cookie from Italy keeps long, can easily be transported as it is very sturdy and freezes beautifully. My husband ate them so quickly, I barely managed to take some pictures. I decided to go with a rather classic recipe with one small addition: dried cranberries. Yes, you can omit them, but we both felt they taste extra special with them.

08/11/2023

Dulce de Leche Made in a Frying Pan

Dulce de leche is the Nutella of Latin America. I may sound like a broken record, but I don’t get tired of saying this. Dulce de leche is made from sweetened milk and becomes caramel. Just as here in Germany Nutella is spread on bread, you may just eat it by the spoonful or make a lot of baked goods with it, dulce de leche is used the same in Latin America. Yes, I do have fond memories of smearing dulce de leche onto bread. Jam could only be cut (and is called dulce de membrillo), so I spread dulce de leche on my bread and topped it off with some cheese. Yes, I know this sounds crezy, but I loved it. Yes, of course there is already a recipe on my blog for dulce de leche, check out how to make dulce de leche in this blog article. Essentially, we are going to boil sweetened condensed milk for long enough in unopened cans until they become caramel. This usually takes about 3 1/2 hours, so today I am going to introduce a quicker version, making it in a frying pan. This will take about 30-40 minutes. So if you are restrained timewise, this may be for you, but this dulce de leche is more liquid than the one from the can.

11/08/2023

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