All Seasons Archives - Jenny is baking

Donuts from Argentina, bolas de fraile

Today is national Donut Day or Doughnut Day and I am going to celebrate it with donuts from Argentina or Uruguay. They are called bolas de fraile or berlinesas. In Germany donuts are called Berliner, Berliner Pfannkuchen, Kreppl, or Krapfen as this probably already explains where “berlinesas” are from. Apparently, German immigrants took this delicious donut to Argentina. However, one main difference is the filling. Whereas German Berliner are filled with strawberry jam or jelly traditionally, Argentinians will rely on their beloved dulce de leche, which is a caramel made from sweetened milk. A small difference is also how these are dusted with sugar, in Germany you will traditionall dust only the top part with icing sugar whereas in Argentinia regular sugar is used to roll the entire ball in it. Be it as it may, I hope you will enjoy these sweet little yeast treats, which are fried, filled with dulce de leche and rolled in sugar. Regardless of whether Germans brought them or not (another name is bolas de fraile, which literally translates as “balls from Monchs”), these little donuts will for sure sweeten your day.

02/06/2023

The Big Empanada School

I am going to teach you about empanadas today, these are the famous turnovers from Latin America. Empanadas are, I dare say, THE snack of Latin America. Empanadas do require quite a bit of work, first you have to prepare the dough and then the filling, then you need to fill and seal each empanada before it is baked or fried. As many dishes, empanadas are originally from Spain. However, Spanish empanadas have little resemblance with the empanadas from Latin America. Spanish empanadas are similar to a pie. The empanada from Galicia for example is big and round, like a pie, usually filled with chicken and champignons. Often the pie topping has some braided elements and is decorated in some kind of way. This is very different from the empanadas from Latin America. In this article we will have a look at how empanadas are made in Latin America. Of course I will give a lot of recipes at the end of this article.

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28/04/2023

Let’s Celebrate: Making Original Sachertorte

Let’s celebrate! It has been five years ago that I had a horrible bike accident including brain bleeding. You can check the details here. As I didn’t have any permanent damage thankfully, I want to celebrate with chocolate and invite you guys, we will attempt original Sachertorte! In 2014 I was fortunate enough to eat real Sachertorte in the Café Sacher in Salzburg. The below picture is one of the first pictures I took with my Sony camera and I am still proud of the shot. I mean, considering that I knew very little of photography, I would say it is a great shot! Sachertorte is a chocolate sponge cake that contains butter. Traditionally you will glue together the two cake layers with apricot jam and cover everything with a chocolate glaze. The cake is served with unsweetened whipping cream on the side. Of course I already have a recipe for Sachertorte on the blog. However, recently I got inspired to try again and make a version as close as possible to the original. Once I watched the movie “Sachertorte” on Amazon (a nice little romantic comedy in my opinion), I was hooked. In said movie the main character eats Sachertorte every day in the Sacher Café in Vienna in the hopes of meeting his sweetheart that mentioned she would celebrate her birthday in the cafe at 4pm. So I did some research. Obviously the recipe from the Sacher hotel was a big help. But, and I quote, I have to say that even the hotel Sacher mentions that “This is only an approximation of the original recipe, which of course must remain a tightly-kept secret.”

23/04/2023

Marble Cake with Cherries

Today I am finally going to introduce another bundt cake, it has been way too long. This is a traditional German cake, marble cake, with a little twist as it has chrries in it. Currently the cherry trees are blossoming in Munich. I simply had to take advantage of this beauty and take pictures of this marble cake with cherries with some cherry blossoms. It does not mean, however, that you can only serve this coffee cake in spring. Actually, this cake is delicious all year around as the cherries are from a jar. With a little imagination you may even see the cherry tree imitated in the marbled cake. I tried to create swirls that way, but I guess I didn’t succeed fully. Anyway, I promise you, it tastes great!

31/03/2023

Brazo de Reina from Chile

Today I am taking part in the German blogger event called kulinarische Weltreise (culinary travels troughout the world). Today’s stop: Chile. I knew immediately what I wanted to make. Brazo de reina! This literally translates as a “queen’s arm”. More commonly known as a Swiss roll or sponge roll. What distinguishes the Chilean roll from others is the filling. Manjar, or often known as dulce de leche, is a caramel made from sweetened milk. I do understand why you would think of a queen when you prepare this, this caramel definitely has some royal characteristics. So be pepared for a light and fluffy roll filled with sweet and delicious caramel spread.

24/03/2023

Torrejas: French Toast from Uruguay

We were served torrijas at a Spanish wedding. I was quite surprised that this rather simple dessert aka French toast was actually served at a wedding. Just like for French toast, you will dunk old bread in milk first and then dip it in eggs before you fry it with some olive oil in a frying pan. However, wehn we were served these torrijas at the wedding, my hubby got so excited, he managed to eat two servings despite the fact that we had been served an endless amount of courses beforehand. I am sure the simple French toast was made extra special, the milk was replaced with heavy cream and homemade bread used. Spanish torrijas are normally served during lent, you try to offer something filling even if it may be plain and simple.

25/02/2023

Brazilian Brigadeiro Chocolate Cake

Brazilians love a proper and decadent dessert. This chocolate cake with Brigadeiro filling (this is a confect), is definitely a calorie bomb. A small woman would probably devour two days of calories or so if eating one piece. I don’t know, but I know that this ain’t healthy or low in calories. I made this cake originally for a birthday of a Brazilian. I used the smallest cake pan I had. Because you won’t be able to eat much more than a tiny piece. This is a cake for all chocolate lovers. Sweetened condensed milk is a staple in Brazilian cuisine, especially in any cake. Brigadeiro is a small ball, made of sweetened condensed milk, butter and other dairy products and cocoa or chocolate. The balls are rolled in chocolate shavings (see pictured below). This chocolate cake has a Brigadeiro filling and frosting. The only difference is that it is slightly looser so that you can use it as a filling or frosting. The whole cake had to be covered in chocolate shavings as well, of course.

30/10/2022

Classic Belgian Waffles with Yeast

Guys, since I finally managed to visit Belgium, obviously I had to make waffles when we returned home. Belgian waffles to be precise. I did mention in my last coffee date that we finally managed to see Bruges. And in Bruges I learned that there is no such thing as the one and only Belgian waffle. In fact, they have many different types. The one we usually think to be Belgian is the one from Brusseles, it is rectangular, it is thick, with a crunchy outside and a nice soft interior. Usually these waffles are made with yeast. So I decided to give them a try and make some which chill in the fridge overnight. So that you can eat them for breakfast. You are welcome!

21/10/2022

Facturas Argentinas for World Bread Day

It is World Bread Day again and this time I brought you some sweet pastry from Argentina, facturas argentinas! Facturas argentinas can be described as the typical sweet pastry you may have for breakfast or as a snack. All bakeries offer an abudance of different options, they are typically either filled with quince paste (dulce de membrillo), the caramel dulce de leche, or a custard cream. They come in different shapes and sizes, but what they all have in common is the same dough, rough puff pastry. Actually, it seems to be impossible to find the proper English translation. In German we say “Plunderteig”, which means it is a yeast dough, which usually has butter layers in between. The rough part in this version, however, comes from the fact that the butter is not worked into the dough as a single layer, but instead mixed into the yeast dough directly and later layered. It probably is described best as rough plunder.

16/10/2022

Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

Finally some cookies on the blog again. I haven’t posted a recipe for 9 (!) months, can you believe that? This is extra crazy because of course there were cookies in our house during those nine months, believe me. I find it sad that Germans tend to bake cookies only for the season, there even is a special word for these cookies, instead of Kekse you will say Plätzchen. But I ignore that, for me cookies can be eaten all year long. We had brownie cookies, my favorite chocolate chip cookies and Nutella chocolate chip cookies, recently we have had vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cookies or pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting.

07/10/2022

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