The recipe for a bakingfreak

Speculaas-almondpaste Cookiehearts

2006-11-20T13:37:00.000-08:00

These wonderfull Speculaas-almondpaste cookies made the whole house smell like Winter.
The lovely spicyness of the Speculaasspices, and the sweetness of the almond paste are sure a winner. Recipe will follow soon.

Pumpkin goodness

2006-11-11T15:21:00.000-08:00

Fresh pumpkin gets transformed in pumpkin goodness: rich pumpkin spice muffins filled with chocolate chips. Yummy.

I started off with a fresh pumpkin. To prepare:
1. Cut in half
2. Place cut side down on an oiled bakingsheet, cover with aluminiumfoil.
3. Place in 175 degrees oven
4. Bake for 1,5 hour
5. Take out of oven, leave to cool for a bit, scoop out pumpkin flesh with spoon
6. Mash pumpkinflesh with pureemaker
7. Ready to use.

Pumpkinspice muffins
(www.allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.
3. Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water.
4. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.. 5. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.
6. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

BANANANANANACAKE

2006-11-10T10:16:00.000-08:00

BANANACAKE.
This is a really easy recipe, adapted from the Allrecipes website. I really love it.
I added some chopped up dutch semi-sweet chocolate, and it was absolutely delicious. I love it warm when the chocolate is oozing out (see picture), and the top is still dry, but it has a stronger bananaflavour the next day. This cake freezes beautifully, and i like to slice it, wrap it and take pieces with me in my brownbag lunches or long flights.

BANANA-CHOCOLATE CAKE
(adapted from: a number 1 banana cake, allrecipes)
INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup buttermilk (i use vinegar/milk)
1/2 cup chopped up chocolate bars
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 - 8 inch round pans or a 13 by 19 inch rectangle baking pan. I like to put some parchmentpaper on the buttered pan, and let it hang over the edges, so i can lift the finished cake out of the pan using the parchment paper. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, soda and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter, white sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in the bananas. Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk to the creamed mixture. Stir in chopped chocolate. Pour batter into the prepared pans/pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, and place on a damp tea towel to cool.

To make buttermilk: Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and enough milk to equal one cup. Stir. Leave to stand for a bit till thickened. Use as buttermilk replacement.

Oatmeal Blueberry Orange bread

2006-10-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

Recipe adapted from the booklet that belongs to the Kitchen Aid mixer. I got it from the KitchenAid website, as i don't own a kitchenAid yet. It is a lovely smelling bread with a hint of citrus and bursting with blueberries, and with a crunch from the oatmeal. I love it.

Ingredients:
2 c flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp allspice
3/4 cup low fat milk
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 Tbsp grated orange peel
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir well.
Add milk butter, orange peel, and eggs. Stir like a muffin batter, don't overmix. With spoon, gently fold in blueberries.
Spoon batter in 9x5x3 inch baking pan that has been greased on the bottom only. Bake at 350 F for 55 minutes or untill toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.

Really good with some good butter spread on.

I cut it into 10 slices, the original recipe cuts 16 slices out of it, but i quess they would be very small.

Market day

2006-10-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

Oh wonderfull saturday market....how you surprised me with small punnets of blueberries for only 80 cent a punnet...instead of the usual 2,50 euro's.
And oh the sheer joy of thinking about what to do with my found treasure....

German Chocolate cake

2006-10-12T11:23:00.000-07:00

This is an amazing cake. Moist, chocolaty, nice frosting.
The original recipe came from allrecipes.com, but it needed some modifications.
So, i doubled the amount of chocolate in the cake, used good quality dutch chocolate, i toasted the coconut before using it, and, toasted some more coconut to decorate with. Yummy.
Every one raved about this cake. I made it twice now, and you really only need to frost the middle and the top, as it is a really 'heavy'cake. Really filling. So. Top and middle is enough.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup water
8 (1 ounce) squares German sweet chocolate
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 egg whites
1 cup white sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
3 egg yolks, beaten
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut+ extra for decorating
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon shortening
1 (1 ounce) square semisweet chocolate

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 3 - 9 inch round pans. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a small saucepan, heat water and 8 ounces chocolate until melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
In a large bowl, cream 1 cup butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in 4 egg yolks one at a time. Blend in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing just until incorporated.
In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter, then quickly fold in remaining whites until no streaks remain.
Pour into 3 - 9 inch pans Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto wire rack.
To make the Filling: In a saucepan combine 1 cup sugar, evaporated milk, 1/2 cup butter, and 3 egg yolks. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla. Cool until thick enough to spread.
Spread filling between layers and on top of cake. In a small saucepan, melt shortening and 1 ounce of chocolate. Stir until smooth and drizzle down the sides of the cake.

Korean Food

2006-10-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

Wonderfull South Korean food cooked by my sister in law YiHye.
It was Korean thanksgiving today, so she and my brother came over with a storm of food. It was yummy, don't ask me what it was, besides rice and kim Chi.

Picture above: Tuna cakes, Zucchini-pancakes, and Crab-egg-onion eggs

Under: Kim-Chi, Stir fried sour spinach with sesameseeds, sweet and sour beansprouts, tuna close up

When life hands you apples

2006-09-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

you make 'APPELTAART!!!'
haha.

Photo: Applepie close-up

Loesje is a famous dutch organisation that puts copies of these sayings all over holland, they post them, stick them on everything, whatever. This one was out a couple of years ago, and still makes me smile. It kind of says: Memo: Don't touch the applepie... Hurrah, applepie!!!

Anyways.
Apples say autumn and since the first leaves have already fallen and a couple of days ago a large oakthingy fell out of a tree unto my car i realised it really was the end of summer. So applepie it is.

Recipe:

300 gr. Selfraising flour
150 gr. caster sugar
pinch of salt
teaspoon vanilla
1 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
about 6 apples
tablespoon or so sugar
handfull of raisins
heaped teaspoon of cinnamon, or more if you prefer
Tbsp breadcrumbs

Oven: 175 Celcius

Peel apples, slice them 1/2 inch thick, and put them in a bowl with the sugar, raisins and cinnamon. Stir to combine, set aside. In a large bowl, sift selfraising flour, sugar, salt. Add Butter, and, using two knifes, cut the butter in small cubes through the flour mixture. Add vanilla and 2/3 of the egg. Run your hands under cold water so they are really cold, don't dry them, and work the butter in the flour till you have a smooth dough ball. Cover bowl with clingfilm and leave to rest in fridge for like half an hour. Meanwhile, prepare your bakingtin. I use one called 'springvorm', the kind of thing that has that removable bottom. Butter it generously, you don't want your pie to get stuck. You can, if you like, line the bottom of the tin with bakingparchment.
Get the dough out. Now is also a good time to heat up your oven.
Devide the dough in 3. Use 2/3 rd of the dough to make a bottom and a side for the pie. Make it pretty thin, but firm enough to hold the appels. You don't want any holes in the bottom or sides. Pour over the breadcrumbs, to sort of coat the bottom and sides from the inside so that the apples won't make it soggy.
Pour in apple mixture. Kind of flatten it, so it all fits cosy.
With leftover 1/3 rd of the dough, roll 10 streched rolls of dough, which you will use to make the top of the pie. You assemble 5 lines horizontally, and crosswise, the other 5.
Use leftover egg to brush top with.
Bake for like 1 hour and 15 minutes or so, or untill nicely browned on top.
In Holland it is served with coffee and whipped cream.

I am back

2006-09-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

to the world of food blogging. After dealing with some food related illness i did not really have the desire to make things i couldnt eat anyways, but now that i am sort of healed, i am BACK!

First recipe is from allrecipes.com and i scaled it down to make two perfect portions of PANCAKES. Yum. This recipe makes really nice fluffly pancakes and are perfect to be generously combined with butter and maple syrup.

Pancake innards.

Recipe: (enough for 4 pancakes)

3/4 c flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 3/4 tsp bakingpowder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 egg
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp Milk
1 1/3 Tbsp butter, melted

1. Sift dry ingredients in a bowl. Make well in centre. Pour in wet ingredients. Stir like crazy. Leave to set for about 5 minutes. Scoup with 1/3 cup on hot griddle, lightly oiled (i use a frying pan). Cook till bubbles appear, flip, cook for 1 minute more and serve hot with butter and maple syrup. Yum.

Zucchinimuffins

2006-03-16T06:44:00.000-08:00

My new housemate declared that she would eat anything besides zucchini. Ha, this evening i served her zucchinimuffins, and while she was still suspicious, she ate one and told me: hmmm, this is DELICIOUS!!! Haha. Okay, i know they don't really TASTE like zucchini's a lot, but still.. she ate them :)

This recipe makes 24 muffins, or two small loaves. I found out that the loaf has a nice crust, while the muffins are still kind of dense... don't know what that causes to happen.
Anyways, they are still delicious. I substituted 3/4 of the oil for applesauce, to create a low-fat muffin, and used less sugar to make it a little bit more healthy. They still have a lot of sugar though, but i like them sweet and cinnamon flavoured:)

The original recipe comes from allrecipes, this is the adapted version:

Makes 24 muffins, or two 8x4 inch loaves.

3 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup applesauce
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional, i did not use them)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans, or line 2 muffintins with paper cases. I used 1 loaf pan and one muffinpan, that works well too.
In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt (and nuts, if you use them) , stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done. I baked the muffins for 20 minutes.

Kedgeree

2006-03-11T12:33:00.000-08:00

The flavours of this dish are really well balanced. The saltiness of the salmon accomplishes the egg really nicely, and the spring onions give this dish a l ight 'bite'.

The recipe is adapted from 'Good Food Magazine, March 2003'.
I adapted the recipe so it would serve 2.
Ingredients:
200 grams basmati rice
350 ml. vegetable stock
3 spring onions, the white bits roughly chopped, the green parts finely chopped
Bit of butter
1/2 tablespoon curry powder
2 softboiled eggs
100 grams smoked salmon, in flakes.
Pepper to taste

Heat a saucepan, and add the butter. When the butter has melted, add the white parts of the springonion and cook them for about 2 minutes. Add the currypowder, and stir.
Now add the rice, and stir it around to coat it with butter.
Add the stock, and let it boil for 5 minutes, no lid on the pan. Now add the lid, and let the rice get done in 15 minutes.
When done, stir in rest of onions, and the salmon.
Meanwhile, boil in simmering water the egg, till softboiled, about 8 minutes.
Peal the egg under running cold water, and scatter in pieces over the finished dish. Stir through with a fork and indulge....

Espresso Bars

2005-12-27T11:43:00.000-08:00

picture from the williams-sonoma website.
I love the website of Williams-sonoma. Their recipes are soo easy and the results look soo impressive.

I've been making these espressobars twice, and like them. The first time i thought they were a bit dry, so i added another egg. Still not moist enough for me, as i like my brownies fudgy, and so my cake. I want more chocolate in it too, so i'll add just as much chocolate as butter next time. So next time i'll make them i'll wisk the egg-sugar mixture till it is really fluffy, and than put in the butter/chocolate, and than i'll put in the flour cocoa, and only gently stir them in, not wisk or whatever, because that might make them more cakey/dry, which i don't like. Anyways. The recipe is really easy to make, and they are soo impressive.

So this is the changed recipe

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process
cocoa powder
3 Tbs. instant espresso powder
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped into pieces
3 eggs
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the glaze:
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. instant espresso powder
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
Pinch of salt

18 chocolate-covered espresso beans (optional)

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Generously grease an 8-inch square baking pan. I like to line my pan with parchmentpaper and let the paper hang over the sides so you can easy lift the cake out of the pan.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder and salt into a bowl; set aside.

In a small, heavy saucepan over low heat, combine the butter and chocolate and heat, stirring occasionally, until melted, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and brown sugar until very fluffy, milkshake consistancy. Very carefully stir in the chocolate mixture until blended. Stir in the vanilla, then add the flour mixture and stir until blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the edges pull away from the sides of the pan and the center is springy to the touch, about 25 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool. You can keep the cake easely for about three days without the icing, make sure to wrap well.

Meanwhile, make the glaze: In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream and espresso powder and heat, stirring, just until the powder is dissolved and bubbles start to appear around the pan edges. Add the chocolate and salt, remove from the heat and stir just until the chocolate is melted. Let cool to room temperature.

Spread the glaze over the cake. This goes really easy with a spatula. Refrigerate until the glaze is set, about 30 minutes. Cut through the middle of the cake, cut each side in 3 long strips, and slice each long strip in 3 pieces.
I normally put each bar in a muffinliner, for a pretty presentation, and it makes it easier to eat because the chocolate/espresso layer tempts to melt to your fingers while eating...

Dutch Applepie

2005-10-04T13:29:00.000-07:00

This is a great recipe for Applepie. My friends absulutely raved about it.
It is adapted from the BLUEBANDcookbook.

10 servings

300 gr. Flour
100 gr. fine sugar
pinch of salt
200 g cold butter, cubed
1 egg
5 apples
100 gram sultanas
1,5 tbsp. breadcrumbs
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix in a large bowl the flour, sugar and salt. Cut butter through this with two knifes, and mix with the flour. Beat the egg in a seperate bowl, and add 3/4 of the egg to the flour/butter mixture. Knead with cold hands quickly to form a ball. Leave dough to rest in a cold place.

Peel apples, core them and cut in small slices, and put them in a large bowl. Add sugar and cinnamon and stir well. Add raisins/sultanas and mix through.

Preheat oven. 375 degrees

take dough out of the fridge and set 1/3 th of the dough aside. Use rest of dough to make the bottom and sides of the pie in a springform.

gently cover bottom with breadcrumbs.

Spoon the apple mixture upon the breadcrumbs.

Make small rolls of the leftover dough, and use it to lay it cross whise over the apples. Brush the pie with leftover beaten egg.

Bake for at least 60 minutes, till golden brown.

Serve cold, with whipped cream.

Oliebollen

2005-08-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

Someone asked me for a recipe for dutch Oliebollen, so here it is:

Ingredients:
1 egg
2 cups milk
1 lemon
1 apple
500 g flour
1 sachet dried yeast (7 gram)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
100 gram raisins
50 gram currants
confectioners sugar to decorate with
oil for deepfrying

Make sure egg and milk are on roomtemperature. Rinse lemon with water, rasp the yellow peel and squeeze out juice. Peel apples and cut in small chunks. Pour some lemonjuice over them to prevent them from getting brown.

Batter: Put the flour ( minus 1 tbsp) in a large bowl, add yeast, sugar, cinnamon and salt, stir.
In a cup beat the egg a little. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, and add egg. Start adding the milk to it, while you stir with a beater or electric mixer. Keep on stirring and adding the milk till you have a smooth batter. This might take a while :)
Filling (optional): Toss in a bowl lemonpeel, applecubes, raisins and currants together with one tablespoon of flour. Stir filling through batter.
Cover bowl with clingfilm and let the batter stand on a warm place till doubled in size.

How to make them:

Heat oil till 175 Celcius. with an icescoop put a little bit of batter gently in the oil . You have to drop it a little bit above the oil, so that it will form perfect balls as soon as they fall in the oil. Add about 4 more, and fry them for about 5 minutes , till brown. You might have to turn them over after a few minutes to get both sides evenly brown.
Take out of the oil and let stand for a few minutes in a colander which you have lined with papertowel.
Let the oil get to the right temperature before adding the new oliebollen.

Serve warm or cold, dusted with confectioners sugar.

In Holland we traditionally eat them on New-Years eve.

Perfect Muffins

2005-02-25T10:45:00.000-08:00

Why am I so foolish to give you my muffinrecipe? I don't know. Just enjoy it!

Perfect muffins!

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup selfraising flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
1 cup filling

Filling:
-1 cup raisins and teaspoon cinnamon
-1 cup apple and teaspoon cinnamon
-vanillasugar and strawberryjelly
-chocolate+ two tablespoons of espressopowder

This is how you make them:
1. Preheat oven at 190 degrees C
2. Line 9 muffinholes in a tin with papercases
3. combine all dry ingredients in a bowl
4. Stir all wet ingredients through it
5. Scoop in muffincases
6. Bake for 15 minutes, or untill golden brown.

Brownies

2005-02-25T10:25:00.000-08:00

What recipe can be better to start with than these brownies... Famous oversea...sticky... chocolaty...fudgy...

Best Triple chocolate brownies

Ingredients:
185 gram Butter
185 gram Dark chocolate
275 gram light brown caster sugar
3 eggs
100 gram white chocolate, chopped in small pieces
85 gram flour
40 gram cacao

Brownie pan 20x20 cm, lined with bakingpaper which you let hang over the edges so you can lift the brownies out with the paper.

And this is how to make them:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. Set all the ingredients ready
3. Combine the butter and chocolate in small pieces in a small bowl. Melt in the microwave in two minutes, till the butter has completely melted. Stir till chocolate and butter are completely melted and the texture is smooth.
4. In a large bowl mix sugar and eggs till the mixture is doubled in size and looks like a thick milkshake.
5. Now do all the following steps gently.
6. Carefully fold in chocolate/butter mixture, till well mixed
7. Carefully fold in cacao/ flour in the mixture, till well mixed
8. Carefully add whitechocolatepieces, stir.
9. Pour in the prepared tin, bake for 25-30 min, or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs on it, or untill the middlepart doesn't wobble anymore when you carefully shake the tin.
10. Take out of the oven, let cool completely before cutting.