Other Countries Archives - Jenny is baking

Sticky Toffee Pudding from the UK – We need to celebrate

It is the seventh anniversary of my bike accident today. I had brain bleeding, a concussion, and lost a tooth. Despite all of these symptoms, I did not get any permanent damage, which I am extremely grateful for. If you want to read about the details of my accident, check the details here. Obviously I have to celebrate this special day with a decadent cake, obviously. Today I decided for British sticky toffee pudding. I have mentioned it before, we were in Scotland last fall for the first time and at some point I ate sticky toffee pudding. This is a sticky date cake that is served with a toffee sauce. It is a dream come true if you ask me. You can do single servings, but I decided for the more traditional route and went with a cake you can cut into slices. The warmth and cozyness of this cake is to die for, can I interest you in making it?

23/04/2025

Classic Shepherd’s Pie

Have you heard of shepherd’s pie? This dish originates from Great Britain. It contains two layers, originally lamb (hence the reference to the shepherd) mixed with a few veggies and a layer of mashed potatoes. This is then baked in the oven and some cheddar melted and browned on the top. This is definitely comfort food and not only delicious in winter. We ate this pie for Easter, I did use minced lamb and mixed it with a bit of minced beef. However, if you make the pie entirely with beef, this would be considered a cottage pie. This pie can easily be made in advance and also freezes nicely. If you freeze it, it will need much longer when baked. I truely enjoy making this in advance all stress-free.

18/04/2025

British Scones for an Afternoon Tea with Step-by-Step Instructions

In fall last year I was fortunate enough to visit Scotland for the first time. Guess what, of course I had to book an afternoon tea in Edingburgh. I am not sure if you are familiar with an afternoon tea in Britain. You usually start with some savory sandwiches, which is followed by scones served with clotted cream and jam, and the final “course” is something sweet, usually a slice of cake, cookies or similar. I was not paid to say this, but I can highly recommend the Willow Teamrooms in Edinbourgh. They have a stunning view of the castle, but also delicious afternoon tea. I was immensely impressed with their scones. They were made fresh, you could tell, they were tall, and they were flaky. All things I look for in a proper scone. Of course they were served with clotted cream and jam. So obviously I went back to Germany and wanted to reproduce this at home.

31/01/2025

Tyrolean Leftovers

Tyrolean fried leftovers or in German “Tiroler Geröstl” is something we came across by accident. He had ordered something on one of these alpine huts, he was served, it didn’t look like the dish he had ordered, he ate anyway and then he ate and ate and stated it was so much better than what he had ordered. So we inquired what it actually was and learned about this dish. The hut we were at definitely saw this as an opportunity for leftovers, the version of my hubby also had some cut dumplings included. My husband wouldn’t stop talking about this dish, so I knew what I wanted to make for him soon: Tiroler Gröstl.

24/01/2025

Taiwanese Pineapple Cookies: Fengli Su

Guys, I will do a cookie week starting as of today. I decided to do this early so that you can research recipes and plan ahead. You may even ship cookies and for that it is always better to start in advance, I at least freeze mine before I send them out. You can read about how to ship cookies in this blog post. However, let’s get back to these Taiwanese pineapple cookies. I found the recipe on the German blog Life is full of goodies, Mara self-published a cookie cookbook, it is called “Internationales Plätzchenbuch“. She glazed hers, I decided to leave mine plain and just dust them with some icing sugar. Continue Reading…

04/11/2024

Scottish Cheese Scones

I was in Scotland for the first time in my life. Went on a holiday with my hubby. We managed to go during the most magical time, which was end of September, beginning of October. Conclusion: Scotland is so extremly beautiful, I want to go back immediately! Of course we tried lots of Scottish classics such as haggis. It took very little time to realize that every tiny (“wee” in Scottish) café would offer a soup of the day. I mean, it probably comes as no surprise, it was windy, it was chilly, and I can imagine the winter months to be long in Scotland. A nice soup is perfect to warm up. Usually this soup was served with thick (!) slices of sourdough bread or cheese scones made with cheddar. I believe in the US and Canada these would be considered “biscuits” as they were also cut round and also had a lot of layers. The best cheese scones I tried in Scotland were the ones from Bad Girl Bakery in Inverness (I was not paid to say this). Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture, I was so busy enjoying this super delicious cheese scone, I completely forgot. You can get a peek on the Insta of Bad Girl Bakery if you want. Regardless, I was determined to reproduce this delicious cheese scone.

30/10/2024

Tomato Pesto with Fresh Tomatoes

I am introducing an unusual recipe today, homemade tomato pesto, red pesto or pesto rosso made with fresh tomatoes. Reason for this being that I was gifted a lot of self grown tomatoes. Quite a variety, some big, some small, many yellow and one even purple. The many yellow tomatoes are the reason that the pesto has a slightly lighter color. But regardless of the color, man, my hubby and me devoured this pesto. First we used it as a dip for crackers, then I made a tomato tart and of course we had to have pasta with it. It was gone so quickly, I had to made fresh one. Thank God we got a large batch of tomatoes.

26/08/2024

Classic Spanish Tortilla

This classic Spanish tortilla or tortilla de patatas should not be confused with tortillas from Mexico. Whereas Spanish tortillas contain mainly eggs and potatoes, Mexican consist of cornflour. You will find Spanish tortilla everywhere, each café or pub offers some, I believe it is something like the secret national dish. There are many variations out there, some are made with onions, others prefer without and you can fill them and include add-ons. I am going to introduce the classic version here including onions. This means five ingredients: potatoes, eggs, onions, olive oil, and salt. If you don’t count the salt, it is just four ingredients.

16/08/2024

Crema Catalana – Spanish Custard

This was the first year I finally was in Catalonia in Spain. Of course I had to try the famous “crema catalana”. This is a custard seasoned with orange and lemon zest and cinnamon. Just like the French crème brûlée it has a layer of caramelized sugar on top. The advantage of this custard? It is made on the stove-top and does not need a waterbath so it is easy to make and requires little time.

12/07/2024

Vareniki with Tvorog or Cottage Cheese – Recipe from my Grandma

This is another nostalgic recipe for me: vareniki. Think dumplings filled with cottage cheese from the Ukraine. You may serve these as a savory main dish, but you may also serve them sweet, traditionally filled with sour cherries. I was used to a rather hybrid version, we would eat them with tvorog or cottage cheese and served it with a sour cream sauce we knew as “shmargus”. Since everything was seasoned with salt and pepper, you may think of this as a savory dish. But it is also possible to serve with sugar sprinkled on top and some additional sour cream. As you can see on the last picture, my grandma actually passed on a recipe. This comes as a huge surprise as she normally did not write down any recipes she would make regularly. She knew them off by heart and thus did not see the need to document. So I am beyond grateful that she took the time to write down ingredients and amounts. Mind you, no instructions other than a list of ingredients, but at least this is a starting point. Since it is only the two of us, I halved the recipe, I have learned the hard way that my grandma always wrote down large amounts to feed a crowd. But at least there is something documented.

12/04/2024

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