Rugelach [TWD]

This week of Tuesdays with Dorie/ Baking with Julia we made Rugelach. If you haven't heard of it before, rugelach is a jewish pastry usually crescent-shaped. It is made with a cream cheese dough and filled with different kinds of fruit preserves, dried fruit and nuts, sometimes also with chocolate.

I have eaten rugelach before at a jewish pastry store, but this recipe was even more delicious. I made the traditional crescent-shape and filled them with plum-butter, cinnamon-sugar, almonds, macadamia nuts and dried cranberries. I honestly just looked in my pantry and combined what I had and thought would be good together. They tasted best the first day, the dough was very flaky almost like puff pastry, but were still good two days later.

This week is hosted by Margaret of The Urban Hiker and Jessica of My Baking Heart. Please check out their pages, where you can also find the recipe of the rugelach.

Enjoy and Guten Appetit!

Pecan-Orange Kipferl

Vanilla Kipferl are one of the most liked Christmas cookies in Germany. They have a distinctive half moon shape and are dipped in vanilla sugar right after baking. My kipferl today have a little twist. Instead of the usually used almonds I used pecan nuts, which is my favorite nut. For the finishing they are dipped in homemade orange sugar.

The great discovery for me in this recipe was the orange sugar. It does not only work for this recipe, you can use it for all kinds of things. It has a great aroma and I already made another batch with lemons. Packed into a nice jar it makes a nice gift, either together with some cookies or just by itself.

Daring Bakers: Baklava & Phyllo Pastry

For this month the Daring Bakers challenged us to make Baklava with homemade Phyllo Pastry. I have never tasted baklava before, because I always thought it is overly sweet. The real challenge was making the phyllo pastry dough, and rolling it out paper thin. I am always up to making all kinds of challenging doughs, like puff pastry, fresh yeast dough or crossaint dough, but this one was really difficult.

I managed to roll out the dough really thin, but it took a lot of arm strength. Then I made the mistake of waiting a little to long to continue making the baklava and the dough got stuck together. I thought I had floured it enough, but I had to re-roll at least a third of it. I never got it as thin as before. It was great to learn how to make phyllo, but this is one dough I will prefer buying at the store in the future.

For the filling I made a mix out of almonds, pistachios and milk chocolate, flavored with lemon and cinnamon. Since I wanted it to taste fresh but not too sweet, I made a mint sirup with some lemon zest, and only a little bit of honey. It tasted quite good, and the sweetness was okay. I have to say this will never be one of my preferred desserts, but it was a good experience.

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

Daring Bakers: Chocolate Marquise on Torched Meringue with Spiced Almonds and Caramel Sauce

It's Daring Bakers time again, and this month's challenge was a "Chocolate Marquise on Torched Meringue with Spiced Almonds and Caramel Sauce". Quite a mouthful, and intimidating to make on the first look, but if you plan ahead and make each component early enough it comes together quite easy.

I really loved this month's challenge. Many delicious components, beautifully plated. But I think I could do without the torched meringue next time. The marquise was definitely the best chocolate mousse I have ever made. So silky and smooth, everybody loved it. I made them in little Half Sphere Molds instead of the suggested cubes.

The nuts were very tasty, but it was a lot of work to get them out of the coating. I also needed a much shorter baking time, since they were already getting very dark on the bottom after 20 minutes. I mixed almonds and walnuts. Next time I would only use almonds, since the walnuts were hard to identify in the sugar covering.

The caramel sauce was delicious, the added rum made the sauce really stand out. I think I will try this again with grand marnier one day.

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

Daring Bakers: Filled Meringue Coffee Cake

This month the Daring Baker's chose a yeasted coffee cake, formed into a wreath as their challenge. It's a little early, but this would make the perfect bread for your Easter brunch. The special thing about this recipe is the addition of a meringue layer in the filling. The dough was very easy to work with. I chose to use fresh yeast, instead of dry, and it was a really smooth dough.

For the filling I used a combination of dark chocolate, dried cherries and pecan nuts. The bread was moist and very yummy. A trick to get an even round shape in the middle is to bake the cake around an upside-down turned ramekin (or any round ovenproof bowl). Be sure to brush the bowl with a little oil, which makes it easier to remove it after baking.

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

Chocolate-Nut Brownies

It is always good to have a great brownies recipe. Everybody likes them. Brownies are fast and easy, which makes them a great dessert to bring to a party. These ones have different nuts added and are really nice and chewy on the inside. 

A common mistake when making brownies is overbaking. Don't be tempted to leave them in the oven too long. They will firm up after cooling. Use a good chocolate, you also enjoy eating. Your brownies will taste so much better with good quality chocolate.

Fig and Walnut Loaf

I really like to bake with fresh yeast. I think it's not only easier to work with than dried yeast, but I also like the taste of the baked goods better. In Germany every supermarket carries little cubes of fresh yeast, enough for one recipe. Unfortunately, as I have learned, it is really difficult to find fresh yeast in North America. 

One trick I have figured out is to ask your neighborhood bakery. If you ask nicely and don't ask too often they usually would sell it to you. You can also try the bakery department at your local gourmet supermarket. The problem is that you will usually get a whole pound, because that is how the fresh yeast is packaged here. That means you have to do a lot of baking for the next two weeks, because the yeast is perishable and also it cannot be frozen. But the good news is that a lot of yeast doughs can be frozen, so you can bake them later.

Just before I bought my block of fresh yeast I borrowed the wonderful book "Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins and More" by Carole Walter from the library. I already marked several recipes I wanted to try and couldn't wait to start. I can really recommend this book. All the recipes I made turned out wonderful, and I immediately bought a copy of the book for myself. In the first week I made Sticky Buns, Cherry Crumble Cake, Brioche and Fig and Walnut Loaf, which is pictured here. I also made some doughs to freeze for later use. The next thing I would like to try is croissants. Besides the yeast breads and cakes there are also a lot of nice recipes for quick breads, muffins, pound cakes, scones and more.

Poppy Seed - Marzipan Stollen

Stollen is the typical German "Christmas-Bread", actually it is more like a cake. It is made from a yeast dough and comes in many variations. Usual ingredients are dried fruit, nuts and marzipan. Most famous is the Dresdner Stollen. The stollen I made has a mixture of poppy seeds and marzipan in the middle and some nuts in the dough.

It is usually baked early in December and then let to rest for about two weeks, so all the flavors can infuse. It is perfect for an afternoon tea during Christmas time.

Hazelnut Butter Cookies

As I told you in my last post, we always bake lots and lots of cookies for Christmas in my family. These Hazelnut Cookies are in my Mom's repertoire as long as I can remember. Actually we are making these probably since I was five or six years old. The recipe came from a comic book which I was reading at that time, and since then we only call them Micky Mouse cookies. They are really easy to make and have a wonderful buttery taste.

Carrot Muffins

I wasn't really up for baking or eating anything sweet lately, since I had a bad flu. But I also didn't want to abandon my blog for too long, that's why I have an older recipe for you today. I made those carrot muffins this summer. They were featured on the faboulous blog Design Sponge, and are absolutely delicous.

I was in Germany at that time, and my Mom had never eaten carrot cakes before. I was looking for a recipe and remembered that I bookmarked this one earlier. We really liked them, they are perfectly moist and not too sweet.

I think I should make them again soon, since they are also perfect for the fall.