During the last weeks I started – again – with creating Mousse au Chocolat. I think it’s one of the best desserts during cold autumn and even colder winter. There are lots of versions out there in cookbooks, on food blogs … especially concerning flavoring the chocolate mess. My approach is a pure one – almost a pure one – concentrating on chocolate, overwhelming chocolate. So my main ingredients are: It doesn’t take much time…
Shortbread time: we are approaching sweet & savory shortbread today – both linked by the flavours of lemon & thyme. Twice we’ll get these wonderful crumbly texture of shortbread almost melting in our mouths … once together w/ coffee (or espresso!), once w/ wine or long drinks … The procedure doesn’t change: shortbread is shortbread is shortbread …
There are 6 small Bundt cakes coming out of my new toy – isn’t it great! Have a look at the gleaming new baking tin … Of course I had to test it asap! I stuck to the recipe attached to the packaging concerning the amounts of butter, flour, eggs … only reducing the amount of sugar by about 20%. So don’t let’s waste precious time: let’s take off!
We are back in Germany – a cold Germany compared to our weeks in Southern France. After having settled down again in our home I thought about what to cook and to bake – and I decided to do an apple cake. Also because there are beautiful fresh and juicy apples around now – crispy and sour which is fine for an apple cake. (Of course three of these Boskoop beauties were too much for…
I made lots of apricot jam during summer. Of course it’s absolutely delicious to have some homemade apricot jam on your fresh roll or croissant or crispy toast or soft French bread or … nevertheless what else can you do w/ the jam? So I started surfing … I thought about something like a cake or a tart or … whatever. It’s end of summer now, but there are still wonderful fresh apricots around us…
End of August I stumbled across plums in my trusted food store – the first plums of the season. At once I got some ideas about plum cake, plum sheet cake, plum cake w/ crumble … Finally I decided to create a clafoutis w/ plums. To be honest I’m not a fan of any plums like plums uncooked … plums always tend to be rather sourish. However, if cooked or baked plums are great w/…
Some time ago a cheesecake appeared on the food blog Life is full of Goodies. I noticed the mouth-watering cake at 1st in Instagram … & of course I followed the recipe on the blog. I admit: the cheesecake looked so delicious and irresistible – I had to try it! It looked so sleek & perfect, so simple & absolutely fabulous at the same time. There was no fussing around w/ elaborate decorations or icing or…
I stumbled across the idea for this recipe in Mimi Thorissons’s cookbook A Kitchen in France. It sounded nice & delicious & I thought it would be fine w/ my espressos (you know that I’m addicted to espresso!). So for my next shopping I made a mental note to buy an organic lemon as well as dry yeast … & some almond flakes. The rest would be waiting in my fridge resp. pantry. Originally the…
… I decided to create some cookies for my better half & me when taking a break in the afternoon (or whenever!) & having a coffee or espresso – summer with high temperatures doesn’t stop us from enjoying our coffee mania. … & I imagined some cookies w/ chocolate on top. I’m sure … we deserve some treats like these shortbread cookies I enriched w/ rosemary & orange zest – not to mention the dark…
It’s summer & it’s hot: it’s the season for preparing another alternative to the classic cocoa powdered tiramisu – a fresh one, a light one, one w/ overpowering lemon flavour! It’s summer & it’s hot: it should be a fast & easy preparation the results marching straight to the fridge for chilling. … & because of the high temperature I skipped cracking raw eggs for using the raw egg yolks for the mascarpone cream: I…
This cake is so simple and easy. You can use it again and again. It’ll go fine always … & anytime of the year. Depending on the seasons you can add some fresh fruit or some mixed-berry-sauce or some chocolate sauce or whatever to create your own special cake event. One approach is flavoring the cake with lemon or orange flavour & adding fresh fruit e. g. fresh berries. Okay – you won’t have fresh…
Do you know affogato al caffé? It’s an Italian dessert: you put a small scoop of vanilla ice cream in a bowl & add freshly brewed hot espresso … Just enjoy – the mingling of espresso & vanilla ice cream is just great. So when thinking of the combination of summer/sun/heat & espresso/vanilla ice cream I decided to make home-made ice cream … An espresso ice cream … I started dreaming of espresso flavor combined…
Once I happened to get a present: a small Bundt cake pan (∅ 18 cm). So I started baking little cakes. Little cakes are fine for 2 – 4 people for coffee, for dessert … I’m not talking about a real big Bundt cake that may lead up to 16 big slices! After having managed to define the proper amounts of the usual suspects (like butter, flour, sugar, eggs …) in order to achieve a…
I remember my very 1st true carrot cake: it was during a USA holiday trip many years ago somewhere in Northern California in a small diner – rather late in the evening – when it turned out that only carrot cake was left for dessert. It wasn’t a simple cake it was a 3-layer structure w/ lots of frosting & minced walnuts … it was just delicious! To set the record straight from the beginning:This…
It’s summer & it’s jam season … (There are years … I missed this somehow!) So for jam season I tried a mix of strawberries w/ raspberries & lemon (zest & juice!). It turned out to be a very, very red jam w/ a sharp edge of lemon flavour! I started like: … & afterwards I tried a slightly other mix which led to a more orange-red jam: So let’s prepare some summer jam …