But I like to dine and wine with friends. So I try my best. And I enjoy it more and more. However, I am still better with deserts. That's why I need to write down all what I managed to cook well. And as paper gets messy over time and in the kitchen, I decided to file my favorite recipes here. Along with my favorite recipe websites. Always available online, even when travelling.

December 17, 2014

QUICHE

December 17, 2014/ - Susan -

Quiche Lorraine

A quiche has a pastry crust and a filling of eggs, cheese and cream which becomes a custard after baking. Instead of the classical “Lorraine” version from Alsace with bacon and ham, you can do a vegetarian version and add vegetables (cauliflower, spinach, peas, mushrooms, or else). Instead of a frozen short crust / pastry (Mürbeteig) DIY, it’s easy and fast. The following recipe is for an average quiche or tart form (up to 28 cm diameter) and up to 12 servings. It's a fast and ideal vegetarian dish for any Christmas buffet style lunch or dinner.

Quiche Lorraine (photo via pinterest)

Ingredients:

DIY short crust:

200 gr flour (250 gr, if you need more mass for a higher border)

100 gr butter (120 gr)

1 egg (add 2 spoons of cold water)

Baking soda and salt

For custard:

300 gr sour cream (or replace sour cream with liquid whipped cream or mix, see photo)

125 ml milk (equals empty sour cream cup of 150 gr filled with milk)

3 eggs

200-250 gr grated Gruyere (or Emmental) cheese

100-150 gr of bacon and ham for classic quiche (or vegetables of your choice)

1 small red onion (optional)

Seasoning: nutmeg, salt, pepper

2/3 sour cream, 1/3 milk
OR 1/3 sour cream, 1/3 cream, 1/3 milk
OR 300 gr cream (liquid whipped cream)

How to:

1) Make your own crust pastry: Sieve flour and baking soda, add salt, cut cold butter into deices, add the cold egg, work with hands. Make a pastry ball and let it sit for 20min in the fridge.

2) In the meantime cut the onion and fry it with a bit of butter in a hot pan until golden brown.

3) Use a bit of butter for the form, and lay out the pastry flat (I press it in by hand, or you can roll it out first and place the thin layer of pastry), pre-bake blind (with weight of beans on baking paper or aluminium foil) at 180 degree Celsius for 15 min.

blind baking with weight of beans

4) In the meantime: If you use ham or bacon, fry it in the pan. If you use vegetables, clean, cut and blanch or pre-cook them a bit.

5) Take out the quiche form from the oven and remove the weight, let the crust cool.

6) Mix eggs, add nutmeg, pepper and salt. Add sour cream / cream and milk, whisk more. Add onions.

top short crust with grated cheese

7) Lay on the crust the bacon and ham (for classic version) or vegetables (tip: spread first some mustard on the crust), then top it with the cheese and pour liquid mix of egg and cream over it carefully.

quiche baking: 180 degree Celsius 30-40 min

8) Bake at 180 degree for 30-40 min (check after 30 min.) If it is getting to dark, cover with baking paper or aluminum foil.

Serve at room temperature or re-heat. A quiche can last several days in the fridge.

find more recipes on this blog

December 01, 2014

Hoaba Datschi - Bavarian Blueberry Cake

December 01, 2014/ - Susan -

Hoaba Datschi (here with blueberries and raspberries)

The Hoaba Datschi is a Bavarian desert. You could translate it into German as "Heidelbeer-Auflauf" which doesn't sounds even half as original (urig), and don't think of it as a "Blueberry Casserole". Its' a Hoaba Datschi.

I was invited to a girls evening at my friends house. She planned on serving Bavarian food and asked me if I could bring a desert. So I googled "bayrische Suessspeisen" and decided on that yummy looking desert which I found via the blog Die Landfrau.

"Hoaba" is Bavarian and translates blueberries (which is Blaubeeren or Heidelbeeren in high German language). But what is a "Datschi"? It's a Southern German word, and stands for the cake (although there are many different recipes for a "Datschi", most famous is the "Zwetschgendatschi", a plum sheet cake). The original meaning might come from the verb "tatschen" (English = to touch) or "hineindatschen" as the fruits are pressed into the dough (in some recipes). In the "Hoaba Datschi" the fruits however sink into a very liquid dough, comparable to a pancake dough.

ingredients:
5 eggs (separated)
200 gr sugar
300 gr flour
350 ml milk
1 pinch of salt
some butter for the mold
500 gr blueberries

how to:
1) pre-heat the oven, add some butter into the mold(s)
2) beat the egg white until stiff
3) mix egg yolk, sugar, flour, salt and milk like a pancake mixture
4) gently fold in the stiff egg white
5) pour the liquid into mold(s) and top it with the blueberries
6) bake it in the oven at 180 degree for 20-25 minutes

tips:
You can use fresh or frozen berries, and you could add raspberries to the blueberries. For serving you could sprinkle a bit of icing sugar. It goes also nicely (when fresh from the oven or warmed up) with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Blueberries added on top
- you can use excess dough to make muffins -

before baking - the berries before sinking

make the wooden stick test after 20 minutes in the oven

Hoaba Datschi with blueberries (Hoaba) and raspberries

to sprinkle with sugar or icing sugar (with or without whipped cream)

November 28, 2014

Tiroler Nusskuchen - Tirolian Nutcake - and a simple pound cake recipe

November 28, 2014/ - Susan -

Tirolian Nutcake

When I was a kid, I helped my mum in the kitchen. My special fields were salad dressings and cakes. Despite being around when she was cooking, I never really developed cooking skills. Beside some dishes I am quiet successful with, I prefer very much baking over cooking. For good reasons: the entire home smells better, the kitchen is less messy, and you enjoy a cake usually over a longer period of time meaning baking is a much more efficient process.

One of my usual cakes for the weekend was among others a plain "pound cake" (Sandkuchen) with lemon icing. That easy and quick cake can be varied and become a "marble cake" (Marmorkuchen) when adding chocolate powder (and icing sugar on top). Or it can become a "birthday cake" when adding chopped nuts and chocolate (and rum raisins for those who like it, together with a chocolate coat). But recently, I found a more elegant variation of the pound cake, a recipe that tops it all: it's the Tirolian Nutcake (Tiroler Nusskuchen).

ingredients:
200 gr butter
200 gr sugar
6 eggs (separate white and yolk)
250 gr almonds (1/2 roughly cut, 1/2 finely ground)
200 gr dark chocolate grated (rasped or finely cut)
125 gr flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
lemon skin grated

how to:
1) mix well butter, sugar and egg yolk
2) add flour, baking soda and cinnamon
3) add all almonds (fold in with wooden spoon)and lemon skin
4) mix well egg white until stiff (in separate bowl)
5) fold into dough with wooden spoon
6) at the end add the chocolate and fold in slowly
7) bake 1h at 180 degree (don't forget to preheat the oven)

Tips:
Bake the cake a day earlier as it will taste even better the next day(s).
You can also freeze the cake or part which makes it also yummy moistly later.
Instead of making a cake, you can make muffins.
Top the cake or muffins with icing sugar.
If you don't have icing sugar, make some by adding normal sugar in a mixer.

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My basic Pound Cake recipe, easy to remember, easy to vary:

ingredients:
250 gr butter
250 gr sugar
250 gr flour
4 eggs
1 pack of vanilla sugar (teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 spoon of rum

how to:
1) mix butter, entire eggs and sugar well
2) add flour ad baking soda
3) add vanilla sugar and rum
4) bake 1h at 180 degree

Tips:
You can double the ingredients to use the heated oven more efficiently with two cakes, or one cake and muffins. You can freeze part of your bake.
Topping can be simple icing sugar, or lemon icing (lemon zest with icing sugar), or melted chocolate.
For the "marble cake" variation, take 1/3 of the dough in another bowl and add (sieved) dark chocolate powder (up to your taste). Into the cake pan add first one layer white dough, then a layer chocolate dough and the last layer again white dough. Dip with a fork gently up and down through the layers to achieve the marble effect.

November 25, 2014

Cantuccini - The Recipe

November 25, 2014/ - Susan -

This is THE Cantuccini Recipe many friends have asked me about.

Even a famous Italian ristoratore had asked details - which made me already consider to start a new business ... Maybe a new carrier is waiting ahead? Cantuccini Supplier for Italian restaurants?

Since it does not seem to happen, I thought to finally reveal the "secret". - But will my home made cantuccini still be appreciated, when everyone can easily (yes, easily, that was my "secret") bake them at home themselves? - Well, I decided to file and share the recipe here on my blog as filing and sharing was always a main purpose of blogging after all. And it helps me to find the recipe easily in case I need to double check.

The recipe is of course from Tuscany (Toscana), but the signora who had thought me how to make them lives in Calabria - in Pizzo to be precise, and that's where I made them the first time, together with her (see photos below).

ingredients:

2 eggs

200 g almonds (with skin, natural, not roasted, not salted)

200 gr flour (00 or 405 type, or same for bread making)

180 gr of sugar (90 gr per egg)

1 pack of vanilla sugar (teaspoon)

1 pinch of salt

The ingredients are for an oven tray of 60cm. The output is about 1/2 kg of cantuccini. If you have a larger oven, of 90 cm, you could just double the ingredients.

how to:

1) preheat the oven to 180 degree (C)

2) mix sugar and egg (long)

3) add (sieved) flour slowly and mix well

4) add almonds and fold in with a wooden spoon

5) cover baking tray with paper, make two strings of dough (see photo below)

6) bake 15 min in oven

7) take the tray out, chop (not cut) the "bread" in finger thick slices

8) lay chopped cantuccini flat on the tray and bake for another 15 min.

FAQ:

Q: do you need yeast or baking soda? A: No, no need.

Q: do you use egg white on top for the meringue-effect? A: No.

Q: how about butter or oil? A: Nope!

Photos of our "baking class" at Palazzo Pizzo's kitchen in August 2012, with double ingredients for a 90 cm tray:

After 15 min of baking take the tray out from the oven and chop cantuccini

Lay them on the tray and bake again for 15 min

Enjoy home made cantuccini!

Serving tip: Cantuccini can be served for breakfast with cappuccino o espresso café; they can be dipped in the coffee or even be dipped in sweet vino santo after a meal. Your home made bake will make nice little presents when packed in clear bags and wrapped with a ribbon. - Just don't bring them when we are invited to the same party ;-)

Recipe credit: Yolanda Pezzo