Winter Archives - Page 6 of 8

Uruguayan Flan and Merry Christmas!

While you are reading these lines, I will be busy packing my suitcase for Christmas. We are going to visit my parents in law in Spain and I will probably be debating which baking utensils to take along for the trip. I am really looking forward to celebrating Christmas with my Colombian family. Colombian Christmas is very different from German Christmas. There is going to be a lot of dancing, a lot of joy, sparkle and food, so much food. I can’t tell you for how long my mother-in-law has been talking about what she is going to make as a special treat for us and what her ideas are for the Christmas menu. In Colombian culture food is extremely important. I am going to suggest to her that we make Uruguayan flan as the Christmas dessert. Why? Because flan needs to be prepared the night before as it has to be chilled. Perfect in my opinion, one thing less to worry about on Christmas. Flan only requires only a few basic ingredients and is prepared in a jiffy, if this is not enough reason, I don’t know what is.

20/12/2019

Pumpkin Layer Cake with Brown Butter Buttercream for Thanksgiving

Moist and delicious pumpkin layer cake with a buttercream that actually contains brown butter and cream cheese, that’s what I am introducing today. Reason for introducing this cake here ist two-fold. Reason #1 has to do with a German blog event I hosted. It had all to do with pumpkin recipes. For that reason I made these delicious pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting and also this vegan pumpkin pasta with only two ingredients.

15/11/2019

Baci di Dama or Lady’s Kisses from Italy

Baci di Dama oder Damenküsse aus Italien

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.

12/11/2019

Moist Apple Almond Cake

I often take cake to work. My colleagues are some of my regular test eaters. And since I bring cake to work often, I usually can tell if a recipe stands out. That was definitely the case with this apple almond cake. Suddenly I found post-its saying “Thank you to our baking queen” or “Thanks for making my Thursday morning much sweeter.” My conclusion? This apple almond cake is a keeper, it is a keeper because no other cake has received as many post-it notes. It definitely needs to be posted on the blog. If you want apples in your coffee cake, this is the cake to choose. You have some apple in the cake dough, a lot of apple compote on the top with some nicely browned almonds plus one full apple as pretty decoration on the top. I mean, you got APPLE cake for sure with this one.

08/11/2019

Apple Pie with Cream Cheese Pie Crust

I can’t believe I had forgotten about this apple pie with cream cheese pie crust! Sometimes you need to be reminded, in this instance it was my mom who actually baked the pie when I came for a visit for me to remember. I had sent her this recipe more than 15 years ago when I was fortunate enough to spent a year in Canada. This is an apple pie prepared with a cream cheese pie crust, so you will not need any egg or water. It basically has the cream cheese as the binder. Ironically, I had totally forgotten about this method of making pie crust, so I was very happy when she actually made this apple pie for my visit the other day.

18/10/2019

German Nut Triangles

These German nut triangles are one of my favorite desserts from Germany. I just learned recently that you supposedly only serve them during Christmas season in some regions of Germany. However, I remember seeing them everywhere all year round, every bakery had them at least where we lived. Even the school kiosk offered them all the time and I happily ate them day in and day out.

04/10/2019

The Tiniest Gingerbread Houses for your Mug

Die allersüßesten Mini-Lebkuchenhäuschen

I honestly can’t imagine Christmas without gingerbread. Every year at the end of November I am faithfully going to make gingerbread of some kind. Be it to decorate the Christmas tree, traditional gingerbread men, or be it gingerbread cut into stars, angels, and stockings. Today I am going to present the cutest mini gingerbread houses you can decorate your mugs with. Prefect for a dinner invitation or as a gift. You can print out the mini houses here.

I do agree that anything made from gingerbread requires a lot of work, but I feel nothing says Christmas more. I really do enjoy starting the season this way. Gingerbread may require a lot of work, but there is one advantage to it, you can take a break after every stage and you can make gingerbread in advance. You can easily store the gingerbread dough for a week in your fridge. Undecorated gingerbread will also keep for weeks if stored in an airtight container, and even fully decoarted gingerbread is safe for consumption. Mind you, I at least happily munch away my Christmas tree decoration every year after Christmas. So I invite you to decorate some gingerbread with some friends. Have them come over, prepare some hot cocoa and just give it a go!

23/11/2018

Classic French Tarte Tatin

Tart Tatin, simple, plain, classic. This is what you will get on my blog today. Reason for it was a colleague of mine you gifted me with some home-grown apples. So then I thought, finally I have the chance to actually introduce this classic recipe here, even though I have been making it for a while already. This time I wanted to do it the really old-fashioned way, you know, with an oven-proof skillet, with apples, caramel and a pastry dough. Can you believe that classic tarte tartin actually only contains four ingredients: apples, sugar, butter, and flour? You can add some spices such as cinnamon or ginger. But the one made with four ingredients will be amazing. I like both versions. You can see how I make the tart in this video.

12/10/2018

Heidesand Cookies

Recipes with a story behind are the best in my opinion. This definitely holds true for these Heidesand cookies. For that reason I feel especially honored to introduce them here. The recipe was passed down from the lovely lady Mrs. P. Mrs. P was busy baking these cookies for her granddaugther when the handyman who was working at her place asked why it was smelling so nice in her kitchen. Mrs. P. replied that she was preparing Heidesand cookies as these were the favorite of her granddaugther and immediately handed a cookie to the handyman. He was so excited about the cookies after he tried them that he continued praising them as soon as he returned home. The girlfriend of the handyman listened to his story and immediately requested that he ask for the recipe the next day when he was about to return to Mrs. P’s house. He glady returned the favor and asked Mrs. P. for the recipe. She got very excited, immediately sat down and wrote down the recipe for him, which he then faithfully passed on to his girldfriend. And this is the point where the story takes a tragic turn. Because Mrs. P. passed away shortly after. But had passed on the recipe to the girlfriend, who has baked this recipe many times and now passed on the recipe to me. I will definitely hold it very dear in my recipe collection.

05/10/2018

The best Cheesecake with Caramel and Apples

Käsekuchen mit Apfelkompott und Karamell

Are you a cheesecake fan? Even if you aren’t, you will love this one, I promise. I promise, because I am not a big cheesecake fan myself (yeah, I know), but I devoured this one. Actually, we had this beauty for Christmas because it was THAT good. And if I make a cheesecake for Christmas even though I am not a big fan of cheesecakes, it does tell you something about this cake. Seriously, it is awesome! I bake a lot, but I have never had so many people react to a cake that strongly in a long time.

26/01/2018

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