Linzer Tartlets for Valentine's Day

Are you in search for something cute to bake for Valentines Day. Then maybe these little Linzer tartlets are for you. The dough is really flavorful with lots of hazelnuts and a good amount of Kirsch. They are filled with raspberry preserves, but fell free to use any jam your sweetheart favors.

The tartlets can be baked a few days before, as they store well. So, how about slipping some of them in a pretty package in your sweethearts work-bag. I am sure that makes a nice surprise.

Pear Almond Tart with Black Currant Jam

If you have ever been to Vancouver and are into sweets chances are you have heard of Thomas Haas. He is quite a famous pâtissier in the city and makes the most wonderful chocolates. He also creates my favorite cakes and pastries in Vancouver. There are two store locations, but you can also find his chocolates at several food stores. I am also proud to say that he is a fellow German. One recipe which was all over the internet were his chocolate sparkle cookies, named as one of the best chocolate cookies from the LA Times. They are wonderfully moist and very chocolatey.

For today I made his pear and almond tart with black currant jam. It is a wonderful tart for the fall season. The almond cream is so rich and buttery that it melts in your mouth. The tart has a few steps involved, but is totally worth the effort. The recipe was for one 9-inch tart, but I had enough to fill three more little tartlet forms. And on a side note, I wish all my American readers a very Happy Thanksgiving today.

Greengage-Jam Cake

Spring and summer bring us all kinds of delicious fruits in our garden. I love turning them into jams. I wanted to make some space for new jams on my shelves, so I needed to find a recipe to use up my old ones. I had made a blueberry-jam cake last year, and it is a great way to give a regular bundt-cake a fruity taste and moist texture.

This time I used a Greengage-Vanilla jam. Greengage is a kind of plum, they are smaller than regular plums and their color is green. It is a very tart fruit, so they make really good jam. I have used the same jam to make a crostata before.

I decided to make a sheet cake this time. The recipe is adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman. In the book she used apricot-jam. In addition to the jam, the cake contains toasted hazelnuts, which give the cake a good crunch. You can keep the cake for a couple of days under a cake dome at room temperature.

Daring Bakers: Crostata

It's time for Daring Baker's again, and looking back, my last post was also for the Daring Baker's. I have been absent from my blog, because I have a lot to do right now., exciting things. The big news I want to share with you today is: I am getting married, and this will be already in less than two weeks!

We didn't take a lot of time for planning, only about three month, so with a lot of DIY projects, there was not much time for anything else. As it looks right now we are gonna have a romantic Winter Wonderland.

I still managed to make the Crostata though. I really like this type of cake. I made lots of jam over the summer, so this was perfect. I went with a Greengage jam for the filling, which is a kind of plum. It is a little on the sour side, so it made a perfect filling for the Crostata.

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

Apricot Jam and an Apricot-Almond Sheet Cake

Apricots are now the peak of their season in Europe. I especially like the apricots from France, because they are firm, and yet sweet and juicy, so they are perfect to put on a cake. They are also good for making jams, and I made a batch of apricot-vanilla jam last week. It's one of the most versatile jams for baking. It tastes great as a glaze on fruit tarts, danish pastries and as filling in cakes like a Sacher torte. I will be using my apricot-vanilla jam for glazing for my recipe today, and I recommend you to make some for yourself whenever you find some nice apricots.

Apricots also goes very well with almonds, since they have similar taste profiles. Sometimes apricot kernels are used to make persipan, which is a cheaper alternative to marzipan, which is made from almonds. This cake has both ground almonds in the dough, and slivered almonds on top. There is no need to put it in the fridge; it will keep well for a couple of days in a cool place.

Blueberry-Jam Cake

I am in the process of cleaning up my pantry, since we will soon be moving again. I discovered the joy of jam making last summer and have still several jars stored in my pantry. So, what should I do with all of them? We can certainly not finish them up by spreading them on our morning toast, so I was searching for other ideas. I  have decided to make a jam cake, something I never tried before or even heard of. I found several recipes that sounded delicious. And the best thing is that a whole glass of jam is used in one cake.

I chose a recipe from the lovely blog "honey and jam" for a blackberry jam cake. I didn't label most of my jams, because I was sure I would still know later which one is which. Well, it wasn't the case, I opened one of my blueberry lavender jams instead. But as it turned out it was a very good choice for the cake. I also used brown sugar instead of regular and reduced the amount. Then I added a cup of chopped walnuts, which fit very well.

I really liked the cake, it was moist and tasted very fruity. I will definitely make it again with some of my other jams.

Daring Bakers: Orange Tian with Blood Orange-Kumquat Marmalade

It's time for another Daring Bakers challenge. This month the challenge took advantage of the citrus fruits widely available right now. We were asked to make a Orange Tian, a dessert I have never heard of before. You start with a pate sablee topped with orange marmalade, whipped cream and segmented oranges, and served with an orange caramel sauce.

I decided to make a blood orange - kumquat marmalade, as I have just discovered to use kumquats recently. I also added a layer of génoise, because my cake rings are pretty tall, and I thought the whipped cream alone would be just too much compared to the other levels. The original recipe added gelatin to the whipped cream, which I don't find necessary. If your heavy cream has a high percentage (about 33%), it will be stable enough on its own.

The orange tian was a pretty little dessert and also quite tasty. Trough the citrus taste it was not too sweet and very refreshing. After 10 minutes in the freezer it was easy to unmold and kept its form very well. All in all it was a very good challenge.

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.