I don’t know why, but our local grocery store stopped selling Baileys even before the Corona virus craziness. I was a little sad about that as I love drinking this liqueur. So I decided to do a little research. Much to my amazement, it is really easy to make. It takes less than ten minutes if you have all ingredients at hand, so from now on I will make my own Irish cream!
Today you will get chocolate hot-cross buns! Never heard of this? It is tradition, I believe originating in the UK. Lent is broken on Good Friday with these buns, hence the cross on them. I thought this was such a special ritual and since Easter is approaching, I felt like introducing the recipe here. You may not celebrate as big as you would normally, but hey, I will definitely make something special event even if it is only the two of us celebrating Easter this time.
Eclairs, it is about high time for eclairs again! These eclairs contain a creamy peanut butter filling and some chocolate. If you are a peanut butter fan, these eclairs are for you. If you like eclairs, but are not that fond of peanut butter, I also have black forest eclairs, cappuccino eclairs or eclairs with raspberry filling on my blog. I do recommend all of them.
Baci di dama are heavenly cookies, a touch like a feather. These Italian cookies literally translate as a kiss by a lady. If you look at the profile of these cookies, they look like a set of lips wishing to kiss you. I really like this picturesque name which does tell you a lot what these cookies are going to taste like. Roasted hazelnuts are combined with buttery shortbread, which is sandwiched together by delicious melted chocolate. Baci di dama are perfect as a giveaway, superb for a coffee break and simply to enjoy.
Yes, you read right, today I am serving maple syrup bacon cupcakes! This is definitely an unusual flavor combination. The first time caramelized bacon got my attention was when I saw the Irish blogger using bacon for scones. And once I was paying more attention to bacon in sweet goods, I suddenly saw it on Pinterest, used in and for cupcakes. If you think using bacon in sweet cupcakes is crazy, maybe I can convince you if I say that the bacon is caramelized. I have to say, I do love this crazy sweet and salty flavor combination.
This blog post is “posh” as I will be serving British Afternon Tea with shortbread cookies with edible flowers and some maple bacon cupcakes. This is due to the fact that it’s celebration time. I will always find a reason to whip something up. This can be anything, the classic cake needed on Sunday afternoon, or because I want to cheer up my colleagues on Monday, because a difficult case at work finally came to a close, you will soon realize that there is always reason to celebrate. This is something we tend to forget. In the mundane life of ours we hustle and bustle, but forget to just sit still and celebrate the special moments. And this time is an extra special moment. Zorra from the German blog Kochtopf is celebrating her 15th blog anniversary. Ha, I am such a baby blog compared to hers. My blog is about two and a half years old. But anyway, Zorra is inviting us virtually to a British afternoon tea asking us to whip up a recipe. Well, that’s something I can get behind!
You voted 100% that I post the recipe here when I showed you in an Insta story how we made spaghetti from scratch at home. So here we go, today you will get the recipe for homemade pasta. Obviously they taste so much better than store-bought. And this delicious summer sauce with tomatos, olives, capers, and anchovies, seriously, this is delicious. During my one month break when we moved from Hamburg to Munich I had the chance to eat a lot of homemade pasta. I did learn a thing or two during that time. For example that you really need to knead the dough for a while for the gluten to develop its powers. Or that you need to flour the dough all the time so that the spaghetti doesn’t stick. I mean, I didn’t use a pasta attachment back then, I did everything by hand, rolling it out and cutting the pasta.
Recipes that have a story to tell are my favorite recipes. That’s definitely the case for these black forest eclairs. The reason for me making eclairs after a while again was because a blogger colleague of mine named Julia (her German blog is called Julia bakes) was hospitalized and eager to eat some proper eclairs. Obviously the hospital didn’t provide such a treat so Julia asked if anyone was willing to bake her some. Since I live in the same city and had some time off before starting to work again, I volunteered. Baking eclairs for her reminded me of the fact that my husband is a huge lover of eclairs. For that reason I have been whipping up eclairs more regularly again. These black forest eclairs are definitely one of my favorite flavor combinations.
I do admit that eclairs take a while, but the good thing is you can prepare the cherry filling in advance. Since these eclairs are based on the famous black forest cake, I added chocolate shavings to the whipped cream. So imagine an eclair filled with lots of delicious cherry filling, topped off with whipped cream and chocolate shavings and then being dipped in chocolate ganache. Sounds like music to my ears.
Choux pastry, the dough the ecalirs are made with, is not difficult to make. I honestly don’t know why so many people are intimidated by it. If you ask me, I find it easier than working with than yeast. What you should keep in mind when preparing choux pastry? Do NOT open the oven door while they are baking. The eggs need a consistant environment, so don’t be tempted to check and open the door. Just like cheese cake, choux pastry likes a humid environment, so my little trick is to put a container with water on the bottom of the oven. And secondly, you need to be sure to bake them long enough. The outside should be crunchy and the elcairs easy to cut through. That way it will be easier also to hold up all the filling and for them to stay fresh longer.
The ony part that is a little tricky is knowing how many eggs you need to add to the dough. But if you have a glossy dough that is pipepable, you got the right consistency and boy, I can tell you that home-made and from scratch eclairs are simply the best. A light and fluffy dough which is filled with cherries and complemented by whipped cream with chocolate shavings and chocolate ganache, I don’t know what else to ask for. Are you going to give these beauties are try?
These Black Forest Eclairs have a regular houx pastry, are filled with a super fruity cherry filling and are then topped of with whipping cream with chocolate shavings and some extra chocolate glaze. For the eclairs heat water, salt and butter in a pot and let the butter melt completely. Change temperature to low and add all the flour at once while still stirring. Stir until a ball forms. Be sure to move the ball around for about one or two minutes, there should be a thin white layer on the bottom of the pot. Move dough ball to a bowl and let cool off. Add first egg. Beat in one egg at a time. First the dough will appear crumbly. Depending on the size of the eggs, you will have to beat in between 3-5 eggs. The right consistency is reached if the dough slowly drops off a spoon and looks glossy. Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius and place a large ovenproof container with water on the bottom of your oven. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper and pipe stripes of about 2 centimeters in width and 12 cm in length on the baking sheet. Leave space between each as they will puff considerably. You can wet your fingers with some water to smooth away any inconsistencies. Bake eclairs on medium rack for 10min, reduce temperature to 180 and bake for another 15-20min. The crust should be a little darker and crunchy. Do NOT open the oven door as otherwise the eclairs will shrink. Cut eclairs in half while still warm. For the cherry filling drain cherries while keeping the juice. Take about have the juice and bring to a boil with sugar and lemon juice. Stir tapioca starch with some water until you see no lumps. Once the juice is boiling, add the tapioca and stir for about one to two minutes, until it become thick. Add the cherries and set aside. For the whipping cream whip the cream with all ingredients except for the chocolate shavings for about four minutes or until stiff. Fold in chocolate shavings. For the chocolate ganache heat the heavy cream, once almost boiling, take off heat and add chocolate in chunks. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Spoon cherry filling on the bottom of each eclair and either dollop or pipe on the whipped cream. Dunk the top part of the eclair in the chocolate ganache and place on top. Eclairs taste best on the same day they were made. However, you can keep them chilled for a few days in an airtight container. Eclairs taste best on the day they were made. If kept chilled in an airtight container, they can be eaten for a few days.
Black Forest Eclairs
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Do you know Tarte Tatin, the French tart with apples and caramel? I have a recipe on my blog, you will find the classic tarte tatin recipe here. However, today I am going to introduce the summer variation with apricots. This apricot tart the French way only contains six ingredients: a lot of ripe and delicious apricots, flour, sugar, butter, an egg yolk to make the crust and rosemary. That’s it!
I recently moved from the north of Germany from Hamburg to the south to Munich and I am impatiently waiting for spring to finally start. It is the end of March almost and I found snowdrops and crocus flowering, not really spring yet if the heralds of spring are only blossoming. The daffodils still need more time. Just this fact made me realize that winters are definitely milder in Hamburg. The nights simply are not as cold and the change in temperature is not as drastic. I mean, I took the picture with the snowdrops you see below in mid-March. Don’t think that would be possible in Hamburg. But regardless if spring is here, we can invite spring to our plate, can’t we? At least I wanted to do that by preparing these simple and delicious strawberry shortcakes. I love the fact that it really doesn’t take a lot of time to make them. Served with whipped cream and some fresh strawberries, let’s have this beautiful dessert!
Shortcake originates from the UK and was already served in the Middle Ages. It is similar to shortbread as you also make crumbs from flour, sugar, and butter. But here you add buttermilk, not water or an egg, the buttermilk makes this shortcake nice and fluffy. Shortcake is a rather plain type of cake, not really sweet, but that’s when the fruit and the whipping cream come in, shortcake is the perfect companion to fresh strawberries and some sweetened whipping cream!
