meet in your kitchen| A Greek dessert creation by the Grand Hyatt's Pastry Chef
This young man is a sweet genius in the kitchen! His creations open the door to new culinary experiences, but with such respect and care for the single ingredients that besides its spectacular visual effect, the result tastes as comforting as your favourite cake. Benjamin Donath is the Grand Hyatt Berlin's executive pastry chef and furthermore, he's responsible for the dessert creations for German chancellor Angela Merkel and her guests. If that weren't enough, he managed to make me fall in love with a dessert made with Retsina. The Greek resinated wine is rather difficult to appreciate, at least for my taste, but when we met in the Hyatt's kitchen Ben turned it into a fantastic composition called Griechischer Wein. Apart from being a quote from a famous German pop song in the 70s, this means Greek Wine and describes a complex composition which Ben created for eat in my kitchen: fluffy retsina honey sorbet, buttery almond financier, sour apple terrine, light yoghurt espuma, crunchy yoghurt meringue and caramelised amaranth pops. It tasted as impressive as it sounds!
I first met Ben at a Christmas event in December, he helped me to decorate a gingerbread house. The result was so satisfying that it even got a place of honour under my Christmas tree. The chef's patience combined with a determined sense for perfection fascinated me, and I must admit, being the pastry chef of an internationally renowned hotel dedicated to savouring on the highest level made me curious. Ben is the kind of person who follows a goal with a passion once it's in his head. Although he seems too down-to-earth to be obsessed, he is extremely focussed. He won an award as the pastry chef of the German Culinary Team and gathered experiences abroad before he was asked to become Hyatt's executive pastry chef back in 2010. Ben is honest, he admits that he had to learn a lot in the beginning, creatively but also logistically. The responsibility given to him was quite a challenge but he grew into this new position with time and through the trust he received from his team. If you cater to 1500 people and present a selection of dessert creations to the chancellor for her official dinners, you simply have to believe in yourself and that's what Ben does. When he talks about his sweet creations, about contrasting flavours, combining dishes of different textures and temperatures, you can easily hear his dedication, and when you look into his eyes you can see the artist's passion and love for the ingredients he uses to bring his visions to life.
Ben says that he found his own style over the years, his signature, but that's an ongoing journey for him, one that leads him to work ever more minimally. He wants to work with less ingredients and concentrate on maybe four nuances, simple and pure. His creations speak for his creativity and he has many ideas for the future. He would love to involve more herbs in his desserts, so maybe one day he'll take over part of the hotel's roof garden in the name of sweet savouring and turn it into Ben's herbal oasis, we'll see!
Greek Wine by Benjamin Donath
For 4-6 people you need
For the Retsina honey sorbet
water 190 g / 7 ounces
Retsina wine 320g / 11 ounces
glucose syrup 40g / 1 1/2 ounces
granulated sugar 50g / 1 3/4 ounces
pectin (pectagel rose) 3 1/2g / 1/10 ounce
chestnut honey 50g / 1 3/4 ounces
lemon zest
a pinch of salt
Combine the sugar and pectin.
In a large pot, bring all the ingredients with 125g / 4.5 ounces of the Retsina wine to the boil, cook for 2 minutes. Take off the heat and mix in the remaining Retsina wine. Purée in a blender, filter through a cloth strainer and freeze in an ice cream machine.
For the almond financier
granulated sugar 80g / 2 3/4 ounces
egg white 75g / 2 1/2 ounces
ground almonds, roasted, 30g /1 ounce
plain flour 300g / 10.5 ounces
beurre noisette (brown butter), melted and cool, 80g / 2 3/4 ounces
honey 1/4 teaspoon
lemon zest
a pinch of salt
Set the oven to 160°C / 320°F (fan-assisted oven).
Combine the flour and almonds.
Beat the egg white and salt until stiff, adding the sugar gradually. Gently stir in the honey and lemon zest and fold in the flour-almond mixture. Let the beurre noisette drop slowly into the dough and mix carefully. Pour the dough into a baking dish lined with parchment paper, it should come up to 1 1/2 cm / 1/2". Bake the financier until golden on top and baked through, it should stay juicy inside.
For the yoghurt espuma
You will need a cream whipper for the espuma.
milk 25g / 1 ounce
Greek yoghurt 50g / 2 ounces
granulated sugar 2 teaspoons
chestnut honey 1 teaspoon
a pinch of salt
lemon juice 1 teaspoon
egg white, beaten, of 1/2 egg
gelatine 1/3 sheet
Soak the gelatin in cold water and dissolve in a little yoghurt. Mix with the other ingredients and fill 2/3 of a cream whipper with the mixture. Screw on the cream charger and let the espuma soak overnight.
For the yoghurt meringue
egg white 1
granulated sugar 25g / 1 ounce
icing sugar, sieved, 25g / 1 ounce
Greek yoghurt 20g / 1 ounce
salt
lemon juice 1 teaspoon
Beat the egg white and salt until stiff, adding the sugar gradually. Fold in the icing sugar, yoghurt and lemon juice and stir gently until combined. Spread on parchment paper (about 4mm / 1/4" thick) and let it dry in the 40-50°C / 105-120°F warm oven.
For the Retsina syrup
apple juice 25g / 1 ounce
water 25g / 1 ounce
Retsina wine 75g / 2 1/2 ounces
lemon juice 1 teaspoon
lemon zest
granulated sugar 3 teaspoons
chestnut honey 2 teaspoons
In a sauce pan, bring the apple juice, water, half the Retsina wine, lemon juice and zest, sugar and honey to the boil and cook on low temperature (simmering) for 5 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool to 70°C / 160°F, stir in the remaining Retsina wine and filter through a cloth strainer.
For the apple terrine
granulated sugar 40g / 1.5 ounces
water 2 teaspoons
baking apples, peeled, cored, quartered and cut into 1/2cm / 1/4" slices, 250g / 9 ounces
a pinch of salt
lemon zest
calvados 1 teaspoon
cinnamon stick 1/4
In a wide sauce pan, bring the sugar and water to the boil. When it turns into a golden caramel add the apple slices, salt, lemon zest and cinnamon. Close with a lid and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat, turn the apples once every minute. Take the apples out with a slotted ladle and set aside. Keep the juices in the pan, add the calvados and bring to the boil. Cook down to a thick sauce and gently mix with the apple slices. Line a baking sheet with cling film, pile the apples on the cling film (a few centimetres / inches high), cover with cling film and a second baking sheet. Press together with weights for 10 minutes. Put the compressed apples wrapped in cling film in the freezer. When they are frozen, cut out circles with a round 5 cm / 2" cookie cutter (or cut into 5 x 5cm / 2 x 2" squares). They should be at room temperature when served.
For the yoghurt sauce
Greek yoghurt 25g / 1 ounce
salt
granulated sugar
lemon juice
Whisk the yoghurt and season with salt, sugar and lemon juice to taste.
For the caramelised amaranth
popped amaranth 50g / 2 ounces
icing sugar 30g / 1 ounce
butter 1 teaspoon
salt
In a saucepan, warm up the amaranth with 1/3 of the icing sugar on medium heat. When it starts to caramelise, slowly add the remaining sugar (the amaranth will turn glossy). Add the salt and butter and spread on parchment paper. Crumble into small pieces.
The Greek Wine
Spread the yoghurt sauce on a large plate, place the apple terrine in the middle and top with a scoop of Retsina honey sorbet. Spray the yoghurt espuma on top of the sorbet and sprinkle with amaranth pops. Arrange the broken meringue and financier around it and pour some of the Retsina syrup on the plate.
You have been the Head Pastry Chef at the Grand Hyatt in Berlin since 2010. What are the differences between working in the kitchen of a hotel, a restaurant or a confectionery and why did you choose to work at a hotel?
The difference is clearly the size of the operation as well as the versatility of the daily business. Here you need a mix of skills like being creative, being organized and being focused on leading a team and controlling costs. All this is on a bigger scale than it is in an à la carte kitchen. Even though my heart still beats for restaurants, I rather see myself in a company like Hyatt.
Before you settled in Berlin, you also worked in Australia, Mexico and Malta. How important is traveling for your culinary inspiration and what did you learn from the experiences abroad?
To me, this is where a lot of inspiration comes from. You know when you are away from home or your comfort zone that you want to open your eyes to get along and soak up all the different cultures and influences of a certain place. Even though I often don’t realize it right away, ideas for new dishes evolve from places I´ve been to, may it be a weekend in Vienna or a few months in Asia.
What are your memories of the time you worked at the Intercontinental hotel in Malta? Did you learn something about the island's traditional cuisine?
I have to admit that a competition brought me there. I went there to support my former colleague, who was a member of the Turkish national culinary team and after the competition, we supported the Intercontinental Malta for its pre-opening phase. Unfortunately, my stay did not last for too long, but for me, it was a great experience diving into new and unknown international cuisine.
Who or what inspired you to become a pastry chef? Do you have a kitchen idol?
Thats easy to answer. At the age of sixteen, I didn't have a clue what to do or even where I could see myself in the future. I just knew that I wanted to learn a craft. In the end I decided between two apprenticeships, so it was carpenter vs. pastry chef. You can make an easy guess which decision I made. And what can I say, I am still very happy with my choice and haven’t regretted it since. The idol thing is something that I can't really support, there are people by my side for a certain period of time, who I might look up to, but then our ways separate and there will be other people. To be creative in a good team is far better than having idols, in my opinion.
What was the first dish you cooked or baked on your own, what is your first cooking memory?
The first thing I baked was Christmas cookies with my mom. We peeled almonds for it, kneaded the dough and cut it into stars, Christmas trees and all that. I think my first dish was a classic one: spaghetti with tomato-basil sauce. Not my brightest moment, I must admit, but very tasty and simple indeed.
Do you have a sweet tooth or do you prefer to create but not to savour your creations?
I can't really bring this to a point. I love to create and try afterwards, but I am not a "I always have a bar of chocolate at home" type of guy. Although I would rather go for a good sausage, I still have my sweet moments and when I eat in a restaurant, I often have dessert to try, especially when eating at good places.
How do you develop new recipes? What inspires you?
My recipes are always made to complement each other on the plate. You will always find light sweetness with an acid touch to it, there will be something baked as well as something creamy, something iced and something warm. So all in all it is about textures, temperatures and the main thing: the original taste of a product. My inspiration comes from people who surround me in my daily life, be it colleagues or friends. It can be from travels or eating at different places. Sometimes it happens when I just stroll through a market but there are times when there is just nothing in my head. That is when it is time for a day off.
What are your three favourite baking ingredients?
Herbs, Spirits and Chocolate.
When you bake in your own kitchen, what's your favourite recipe and why?
I actually don't bring work home but the last thing I did was gingerbread with the kids. Sometimes we make some ice creams at home, more in summer than at this time of the year. I usually spend more time cooking savoury things.
What advice would you give someone who wants to become a pastry chef?
Go ahead and work in many places such as classic pastry shops, restaurants or hotels with different multicultural teams. Be open for anything and don’t be afraid to fail… if you do, try again. Develop your own style after a while.
What are your favourite places to buy and enjoy food in Berlin?
This would be any good weekend market. I love to be outside, taking my time, sip a cup of coffee and decide on what to cook while looking around, so relaxing.
What did you choose to share on eat in my kitchen?
The recipe is called Greek Wine and is made of Retsina wine, honey, Greek yoghurt, apple and almonds.
If you could choose one person to cook a meal for you, who and what would it be?
It would be Luke Burgess from the Garagistes, Hobart and it would be any of his tasting menues. What I really like about his dishes is the simplicity while they still seem to be so well combined.
You're going to have ten friends over for a spontaneous dinner, what will be on the table?
Mixed starters (olives, dips, veggies, sausage, pita), the main course would contain plain mashed potatoes, red wine shallots, and a big piece of meat, and for dessert I imagine chocolate cake, nuts, toffee and vanilla ice cream.
What was your childhood's culinary favourite and what is it now?
My mom’s tomato sauce. Today I love any good piece of fish like sea bream, sea bass or cod, combined with risotto, greens and good olive oil. All I need to be happy.
Do you prefer to cook on your own or together with others?
Definitely for others or even better with others.
Thank you Ben!
Gozitan Pizza with Ricotta, Goat Cheese and Potatoes
This is one of my favourite summer treats whenever we visit the island Gozo in the Mediterranean: the fabulous local pizza! It's shaped like an open galette, the rim fold up to hold the richest filling a pizza has ever seen: ricotta mixed with goat cheese and eggs, topped with potatoes and crushed black pepper. I love it!
Every year, when I pick up my first Gozitan pizza of the summer from my beloved Maxokk Bakery in Nadur I open the box with hungry impatience to start the feast. We always drive to a near-by park above San Blas beach to savour our pizzas, it's tiny but full of pine trees and oleander. The few wooden benches allow the most amazing view of the bay! While they others wait to get there, I'm often the only one nibbling on the first piece. No matter how hot is, it can be noon, the sun at its peak turning the inside of the jeep into a sauna, but nothing can stop me from enjoying this moment that I always long for like a child. The bakery calls this pizza a Ftira, not to be confused with the popular Maltese Ftira sandwich that I wrote about in July while we stayed on the islands. The bread for this sandwich and the pizza are made of the same dough, hence the same name.
Back to the pizza, I decided that the time had come to give this recipe a try, here at my home, to have some sunshine on our plates at least - and it worked! I used my normal pizza dough and baking technique, I just folded up the sides for the authentic look and to hold it all together. The filling is rich, there is no way around it, it needs lots of ricotta and it doesn't make sense to spare on calories in the wrong situation (and here, it would be wrong!). Luckily, my Maltese sister Emma had just given us a package of Gozitan cheese while she was here to visit us, the strong peppered Gbejna made from local goat milk. As long as you don't live on the Islands of Malta, you will have to miss out on this treat but you can use any other strong, firm substitute.
If you get in the mood for pizza, here are some more recipes:
Gozitan Pizza with Ricotta, Goat Cheese and Potatoes
I start to prepare the dough 2 hours before I bake the pizza to give it enough time to rise and I bake it on a hot baking sheet which has a similar effect to a pizza stone.
For 2 round pizzas you need
For the dough
plain flour 350g / 12.5 ounces
dry yeast 1 sachet (7g / 1/4 ounce)
water, lukewarm, 190ml / 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon
olive oil 5 tablespoons
salt 1 teaspoon
Combine the flour with the yeast and salt, add the lukewarm water (you might not need all of it) and olive oil and mix with the dough hooks of the mixer for a few minutes. The dough shouldn’t be moist and sticky at all, more on the dry side. Continue kneading and punching with your hands until you have an elastic dough ball. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with a tea towel and let it rise in the warm oven (35°C / 95°F) for 45 minutes (top/ bottom heat and not fan-assisted!).
When the dough is well risen, divide in two parts, and roll them out in two circles on a very well floured working surface. Each should fit on a baking sheet. Cover with a tea towel and let it rise for another 10-15 minutes.
For the topping
ricotta, 500g / 1 pound
firm, aromatic goat milk cheese (peppered Gbejna is best), finely chopped or grated, 150g / 5.5 ounces
Parmesan, grated, 70g / 2.5 ounces
organic eggs 2
black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar, to taste (if you don't use peppered cheese)
medium potatoes, boiled, peeled and thinly sliced, 6
olive oil
Whisk the ricotta, goat cheese and Parmesan and season with pepper to taste before you mix in the eggs. Add a little salt if necessary.
The pizza
Set your oven to 260°C / 500°F. My oven has a pizza setting but you can also use top / bottom heat. Put the baking sheet on the bottom of your oven to heat it (for about 10 minutes).
Take the hot baking sheet out of the oven, turn it around and place it carefully on two stable wooden boards or mats as it will be very hot. Quickly put one of the risen dough discs on the baking sheet, spread with half the ricotta filling leaving a rim around it. Arrange the potato slices on top and fold up the rim, gently pushing it onto the outer potatoes. Sprinkle with a little pepper and olive oil and bake for about 8 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the ricotta filling is set. Repeat with the second pizza.
Madeira Cake with Caramelised Tangerines
Weekend baking is my meditation, my time to relax and reflect, to slow down my pace and review the past few days. I enjoy the peaceful silence in the kitchen when I place bowls and butter, eggs and flour on my marble kitchen tops before I get started. My mother prepares her pastries in heavy ceramic bowls in black, green and blue and when I moved into my first flat she passed one of them on to me. Her old black bowl is my baking companion, this is where my sweet mixing and tasting begins, traced with scratches and cracks.
In the winter months I'm quite a coach potato on my lazy Sundays, I love my cosy afternoons on the sofa, with piles of books, magazines, pillows and blankets to defy the uncomfortable cold outside. Just give me a cup of tea and a warm cake freshly out of the oven and I'm happy. At the moment I love simple tea time treats that you can eat with your fingers, nothing too complicated. A spongy Madeira cake is perfect, the dough refined with the zest of tiny tangerines and their sweet juices. I could have stopped at that point but I went a bit further and topped it with caramelised slices of the citrus fruit which is easily done in five minutes. They were soft and sticky and brought even more fruitiness to this wonderful English treat which is, despite its name, not made with Madeira. Traditionally, it used to be savoured with the sweet Portuguese wine which led to its name, I skip that tradition and stick to my tea.
Madeira Cake with Caramelised Tangerines
I recommend using small, firm organic tangerines for this recipe as they are easier to grate and sweet in taste.
For an 18cm / 7" springform pan or a 1l / 2 pint loaf tin you need
plain flour 250g / 9 ounces
baking powder 1 teaspoon
a pinch of salt
a pinch of ground cinnamon
tangerine zest 2 tablespoons
freshly squeezed tangerine juice 3 tablespoons
butter, at room temperature, 200g / 7 ounces
granulated sugar 200g / 7 ounces
organic eggs 3
For the topping
small organic tangerines, rinsed and very thinly sliced, 4-5
granulated sugar 100g / 3.5 ounces
water 4 tablespoons
Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F (fan-assisted oven) and butter the springform pan.
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and rub the zest into the mixture with your fingers.
In a large bowl, mix the butter until fluffy, add the sugar and continue mixing for a few minutes until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, mix well in between. Quickly mix in the dry flour mixture and the tangerine juice, it should be well combined. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 60 minutes or until golden and firm on top. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. If you bake the cake in a loaf tin, check after 45 minutes. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes before you take it out of the pan.
I caramelised the tangerines in 2 batches. In a sauce pan, bring half the tangerine slices, half the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water to the boil and cook on high temperature for 3-5 minutes. The water should bubble and evaporate. Take the pan off the heat immediately when the sugar starts to turn golden and caramelises. Quickly arrange the citrus slices on top of the cake as the caramel will become hard after a minute. Cook the remaining fruit slices to finish the cake. Use a very sharp kitchen knife to cut the caramelised top of the cake.
Banana Muffins with White and Dark Chocolate Chunks
We had a muffin feast in my kitchen this week, it started off with my marmalade muffins which I made with my tangerine jam instead of the blood orange spread that I normally use. They were fantastic, sweet and christmassy! The golden citrus muffins filled the air with a wonderful smell that only muffins can create after only a few minutes in the oven. It's so good I could have it in the kitchen all the time! Inspired by this sweet aroma, I had an idea for another recipe, banana muffins with lots of chunky white and dark chocolate. Luckily I bought too many bananas (again), they started to get darker and darker and seemed to say "you had better decide what you're going to do with us". When they are deep yellow with some brown patches they have just the right texture to be turned into a fruity purée for juices or muffins, honey sweet and velvety. I added milky white chocolate and its bittersweet counterpart to the dough and while I stirred the chunks in I could already smell that this would lead to a satisfying result. The two kinds of chocolate are a great match to the ripe fruit!
When I took pictures of these muffins, Emma from Malta was still here with us. She joined me in the kitchen which was freezing cold at that point as I had to leave the window wide open to have better light for my photos. Emma watched me impatiently like a hungry little squirrel, asking me once in a while how it was going. It looked quite funny, both of us in winter jackets, taking pictures of the most tempting sweets right in front of our noses as red as Rudolph's!
White and Dark Chocolate Banana Muffins
For a muffin tray with 12 molds you need
ripe bananas, 2 (about 200g/ 7 ounces)
plain flour 200g / 7 ounces
baking powder 2 1/2 teaspoons
baking soda 1/2 teaspoon
salt 1/4 teaspoon
butter, melted, 80g / 3 ounces
organic egg 1
maple syrup 2 tablespoons
vanilla bean, scraped, 1/4
white chocolate, roughly chopped, 70g / 2.5 ounces
bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped, 70g / 2.5 ounces
Set your oven to 190°C / 375°F (fan-assisted oven) and put paper baking cups into the 12 molds of the muffin tray.
Purée the bananas in a food processor.
Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Whisk the melted butter, the egg, maple syrup and vanilla in another bowl and pour into the dry mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until you have a lumpy dough (with a bit of flour left here and there). Gently fold in the chopped chocolate, and keep in mind, the more you mix it the more it will lose its light texture.
Fill the muffin tray with the dough and bake for 15 minutes or until golden.
Leftover Boxing Day Pie
There are two options for the 26th December in my kitchen: pasta with leftover meat (= pappardelle al ragù) or a pie filled with leftovers (= Boxing Day Pie). This year, I'll go for pie, a cozy Boxing Day Pie, to use all that delicious meat, gravy, vegetables and stuffing that’s left from the past couple days. A buttery golden short crust holds the rich filling together - all those deeply satisfying flavors wrapped in a pretty pastry shell.
It's that easy: you just have to chop up whatever is left of your Christmas goose, duck or stew, mix it with carrots, peas and boiled potatoes and stir in some leftover gravy. The mixture should be thick and not too liquid as this would make the pastry soggy. A thick stew is what you’re after.
If there's nothing left of your Christmas lunches and dinners, you can make the pie I baked last week (which you can see in the photos). It was filled with a wonderfully tender and aromatic wild boar stew that cooked for hours. I prepared the stew the night before I baked the pie to let it sit and cool (a warm filling would soak the pastry before it even sees the oven).
Wild Boar Pie
For a 20cm / 8″ springform pan you need
For the filling
wild boar goulash, cut into 3 x 3 cm / 1 x 1" cubes, 1kg / 2 1/4 pounds
medium sized onion, chopped, 1
medium tomato, chopped, 1
carrots, cut in half and sliced, 2
celery stalk, cut into cubes, 1
brandy or port 75ml / 1/3 cup
red wine 350ml / 1 1/2 cups
garlic, quartered, 2 cloves
tomato paste 1 tablespoon
mustard 1 teaspoon
juniper berries, cracked, 4
fresh sage leaves 4
a small bunch of thyme
bay leaf 1
salt and pepper
olive oil
potatoes, peeled and boiled, cut into cubes, 280g / 10 ounces, to mix into the filling
peas (fresh or frozen), uncooked, 100g / 3.5 ounces, to mix into the filling
In a casserole dish, heat a splash of olive oil and sear the meat in batches on all sides for 1-2 minutes, season with salt and pepper. Set the meat aside, add a little more olive oil and sauté the vegetables for 2 minutes, add the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Deglaze with the brandy, put the meat back into the pot and add the red wine, spices, herbs and mustard. Season with salt and pepper, close with a lid and cook on medium-low heat (slightly simmering) for 2 hours or until the meat is tender. Take out the meat and vegetables and cook down the sauce on high temperature for about 1o minutes or until thick and not too liquid. Put the meat and vegetables back into the casserole dish, season to taste and let it cool completely. Stir in the peas and potatoes.
For the pastry
plain flour 250g / 9 ounces
salt 1/2 teaspoon
butter, cold, 75g / 2 3/4 ounces
vegetable shortening, cold, 75g / 2 3/4 ounces
organic egg yolk 1
cold water 1 tablespoon
For the glaze
organic egg yolk 1
milk 1 tablespoon
a pinch of salt
Combine the flour with the salt. Cut the butter and vegetable shortening into the flour with a knife until there are just little pieces left. Continue with your fingers and work the butter into the flour. Add the egg and water and continue mixing with the hooks of your mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form 2 discs, dividing them roughly 2:1, wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 10 minutes.
The pie
Set the oven to 200°C / 390°F (top/ bottom heat).
Whisk the egg yolk, milk and salt for the glaze.
Take the dough out of the freezer, put the smaller disc in the fridge and roll out the bigger one between cling film. It should be roughly 34cm / 13.5", big enough to line the bottom and the sides of the springform pan, overlapping the rim about 1 cm / 1/2“. Gently line the pan with the pastry (leave the cling film on the top side to put it in place) and put the springform pan in the fridge.
Roll out the remaining disc, a bit bigger than the springform pan.
Take the pastry-lined springform pan out of the fridge and fill it with the thick stew. Put the smaller disc on top and gently push the sides onto the bottom layer of pastry, sealing it by rolling it inwards. Brush the top with the glaze and bake the pie for 15 minutes before you turn it down to 175°C / 350°F and bake for another 55 minutes or until golden and baked through. Let the pie cool for at least 20 minutes before you open the springform pan and cut it into pieces.
Ginger Orange Christmas Cookies
There is a very popular Christmas cookie in Germany called Zimtstern, meaning cinnamon star. They are a tiny bit chewy inside, soft and juicy. The dough is made without flour and butter but with lots of ground almonds or hazelnuts and egg whites which gives it its typical texture. This sweet is a classic which you can find on every German Christmas cookie platter and I have faithfully baked them for years. It has always been one of the recipes that I look forward to with excitement, these cookies bring out the best of my beloved cinnamon!
As so often when I follow a tradition with such consistency, at one point I need a little change or at least a variation, which is the substitution of spices in this case. I took out the cinnamon and replaced it with lots of freshly grated ginger, orange zest and cloves. The result is an extremely aromatic cookie with the same texture as the Zimtstern, they are equally soft and chewy inside. I covered them in a thin layer of orange glaze to give them a glowing festive look. As I had already broken with the tradition I thought I might as well give them different shapes. When I took out my cookie cutters I went straight for the sausage dog, reindeer and squirrel apart from the classic trees and stars!
I wish you a happy Advent!
Meike xx
If you're looking for some more baking inspiration for the next days, here are my
Ginger Orange Christmas Cookies
For about 60 cookies you need
ground hazelnuts and/ or almonds 320g / 11.5 ounces (I used 100g / 3.5 ounces hazelnuts and 220g / 8 ounces almonds)
organic egg whites 2
a pinch of salt
sieved icing sugar 250g / 9 ounces plus 100g / 3.5 ounces for the glaze
freshly grated ginger 20g / 3/4 ounce (about 3 teaspoons)
zest of 1 orange (about 2 tablespoons)
cloves, crushed in a mortar, 20 (about 1 teaspoon)
freshly squeezed orange juice, about 6 teaspoons, for the glaze
granulated sugar, to roll out the dough
Set the oven to 160°C / 320°F (fan-assisted oven) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine the ground nuts with the ginger, zest and cloves. Spread and rub the ginger with your fingers into the nuts until well combined.
Whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff and mix in the icing sugar (gradually). Mix in the nuts and spice mixture with a wooden spoon until well combined. Scrape the dough onto cling film, form a ball and keep in the fridge for about 2 hours.
Roll out the dough between sugared cling film, it should be about 1/2cm / 1/4" thick. Dip the cookie cutters in sugar and cut out cookies, spread them on a baking sheet with a little space in between them and bake for 11-12 minutes or until golden. They should still feel a bit soft. Let them cool for a few minutes before you put them on a wire rack.
For the glaze, mix 100g / 3.5 ounces of icing sugar with 5 teaspoons of orange juice, the mixture should be very thick and slightly runny. Add a few more drops of the juice if necessary, mix until smooth and brush the cookies with the glaze.
meet in your kitchen | Designer Imke Laux bakes her Aunt Herta's German Apple Pie
When I met Imke in her kitchen on a cold and dark Berlin morning, it started snowing. It was the first snow of the winter (and the last so far) and I couldn't have found myself at a warmer and more comfortable place than her stunning roof top apartment. The interior designer created a beautiful world for her family of four in shades of white and light grey, with lots of light, cushions, candles and cosy corners. Her open kitchen, living and dining room is the place where you want to sit with a cup of tea and chat for hours. I can imagine that the long table, the centrepiece of the room, has already seen many special nights of feasting. Imke created the perfect place to gather and savor, to feel at home as a guest and enjoy.
My kitchen host is a fascinating woman who I met not too long ago but there was something in her eyes that made me want to find out more about her. Imke is a renowned interior designer, her clients appreciate her sensitivity, confidence and style. She understands and respects their needs and creates spaces that make you feel good. Not a single chair, sofa, table or lamp is pretentious, it all makes sense and is a functioning part of her daily life. But it also pleases the eye, it just seems very effortless.
Imke found her present profession over the past few years. She studied law and worked as a lawyer for a photo agency in Hamburg but then moved to California together with her husband just after their first child was born. In the new country she decided to make another change in her life, she studied design at the New York Institute of Art and Design. She successfully finished her correspondence course and her first projects began. After the family moved back to Berlin a few years later, it wasn't long before she established herself in a new situation again. From the start, the demand for her stylistic advice, help and guidance was just as high on this side of the world.
This summer the family bought a little weekend house at a river outside Berlin which they are renovating themselves. A new project for Imke, her husband and their two 13 and 7 year old daughters, lots of building and painting but also picnics and looking for mushrooms in the countryside. When the four need a break, they love to travel without planning much to see where life takes them, a 3 week trip to India is next on their list! Imke's eyes sparkled when we talked about this adventure and when I asked her about the difficulties of traveling with two young girls, she didn't seem too worried. The effortlessness which fascinated me from the start is built on trust and a positive attitude. That's also what Imke prooved when we started our kitchen session. She couldn't find the apples which she hid from her family for the pie she wanted to bake with me. Her aunt Herta's Apple Pie (gedeckter Apfelkuchen in German) is an old family recipe which needs lots of sour fruits so she bought a big bag full but couldn't find them. I offered to run to the grocery story but Imke stayed calm and was sure that they must be somewhere. She was right and we could start. As if life wanted to test her patience, a second obstacle came into our way. The oven broke and refused to keep the right temperature. Imke kept her cool, sat right next to the oven, put it on the highest temperature and kept an eye on our pie. It all worked fine in the end, the pie was fantastic, packed with lots of juicy apples and a crisp thin pastry. On my way home I noticed that this lady, her pie and her gorgeous apartment left me with a really good feeling, life is good when you trust!
You can see Imke's work her on Laux Interiors and follow the progress of her country house on her new blog Laux Haus.
Aunt Herta's Apple Pie
For a 26cm /10″ springform pan you need
large sour baking apples, peeled, cored, quartered and sliced, 5
vanilla sugar 1 package (or 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar mixed with 1/4 vanilla bean, scraped)
plain flour 300g / 10.5 ounces
a pinch of baking powder
granulated sugar 65g / 2.5 ounces plus 1 tablespoon for the topping
a pinch of salt
eggs 2
butter 150g / 5.5 ounces plus 1 tablespoon for the topping
Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, eggs and butter with an electric mixer until well combined. Form the dough into a ball and keep in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Set the oven to 210°C / 410°F (fan-assisted oven) or 225°C / 440°F (top / bottom heat).
In a large pan, cook the apples and vanilla sugar for a few minutes until soft and let them cool for a few minutes.
Roll out 1/3 of the dough between cling film until it's roughly the size of the springform pan. Roll out the remaining dough between cling film and line the bottom and the sides of the springform pan. Fill the apples into the dough-lined springform pan, even them out and put the remaining pastry on top. Close the pie and spread around 1 tablespoon of butter (in small pieces) and 1 tablespoon of sugar over the top. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and crisp on top.
You lived in California for seven years with your husband and two daughters before you decided to make Berlin your new home. How did your lifestyle change through this move?
We moved from a big house with a garden in the suburbs in California to an apartment on the 5th floor in downtown Berlin. What changed drastically is the convenience of our daily life. Grocery shopping for example is a whole different story when you don’t have parking on the same level as your kitchen. I go grocery shopping more often now and buy smaller amounts of food because I have to carry it up the stairs to the 5th floor.We also spent much more time outside in California. We used to go to the beach almost every weekend or went hiking in one of the great State parks. Now in Berlin we are far away from the coast or the mountains but we love to bike around the city or go swimming in a lake in the summer.
How did the new city influence your cooking and eating habits?
In Berlin we have a ton of great restaurants in walking distance. So we definitely go out to eat way more here than in the States. My cooking hasn’t changed much I believe.
What did you miss about German food when you lived in the US? Did you adapt to any American kitchen habits that you miss since you've been back in Germany?
I missed the German bread! The American bread is way too soft and sweet. So I baked our own bread in the USA. Here in Germany you find a bakery at every street corner with a big selection of whole grain breads and rolls – so we eat more bread here.In Germany I miss being able to buy freshly baked cupcakes in the supermarket. That was so convenient. The table ready (pre-washed and pre-cut) vegetable and salad selection in the States is amazing. Also there are some really good ready made organic dressings. I loved grocery shopping at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. I really miss that. Everything looked so nice and you could always sample things.
You told me that you enjoy baking more than cooking, who or what sparked your love for sweet creations?
I enjoy baking more but I still cook more than I bake, because I have to cook dinner almost every night. I bake just occasionally. I think baking is more fun for me because I really like to eat cakes, pies and cookies. I am a big fan of sweets. I love the smell of freshly baked goods in the house. My mother and my aunt are to blame. They bake amazing things!
What was the first dish you cooked on your own, what is your first cooking memory?
I baked a pie for my mother as a surprise. I think I was 8 or 9 years old and I forgot to add the butter to the dough. So what came out of the oven was solid as a rock. But we still ate it and my mother pretended that she loved it.
What are your favourite places to buy and enjoy food in Berlin?
I love to go grocery shopping at the farmers markets – the organic food market at Kollwitzplatz on Thursday afternoon and the weekly farmers market on Saturdays. I buy fresh pesto, cold cuts and cheese at the Italian Deli Giannis Pasta-Bar on Schönhauser Allee. I love the bread selection at Zeit für Brot on Alte Schönhauser Strasse. I am a also member of the organic supermarket LPG Biomarkt at Senefelder Platz. My favorite supermarket is Kaiser’s at Winsstrasse. They have everything.My favorite café is the Meierei on Kollwitzstrasse, they serve great coffee and have a small selection of sweet or savory dishes.Restaurants that we like to go to are Aromi e Sapori on Straßburger Strasse, Leibhaftig on Metzer Strasse, Due Forni and Fleischerei on Schönhauser Allee, Lemon Grass Scent, Donath and Pappa e Ciccia on Schwedter Strasse.
You worked as a lawyer for a photo agency in Hamburg and couldn't follow your profession when you moved to California. How did you come up with the idea to start something completely new, your own design company Laux Interiors?
I always had an interest in interior design. I was the one friends would turn to for advice when rearranging their home. I had the constant urge to move furniture around in our home. When we moved to the States I was surprised to learn that interior design was/ is such a big thing over there. There are entire TV channels dedicated to it. So I decided to turn my passion into a profession and went back to school – this time for interior design.
Your father is a goldsmith and your mother was a home economics teacher and is now a full time artist. How did your parents influence your aesthetic perception and your creative work?
My parents always took me to museums, exhibitions and galleries. Growing up my father had his own gallery where he would exhibit his own jewellery along with paintings and sculptures of other artists. His aesthetics in jewellery design are very clean, elegant with flawless craftmanship.My mother is very expressive, caring and has a big heart. Her art is colourful and earthy. Sometimes I feel that I am torn between these two aesthetics.
This summer you bought a little weekend house built in 1974 at the picturesque Oder-Havel canal and you write about the progress of the renovations on your new blog LauxHaus. What is the biggest challenge and what is the great gift of renovating something old rather than buying new?
The biggest challenge for me is to be patient. I would love to do it all at once. But we are only there on the weekends, so it takes time to finish something. The huge garden also is something that scares me a little. Actually I would have loved to built a brand new house – something energy efficient with green materials and tons of glass - but the house is located in a protected nature reserve so we can only preserve the status quo but not build anything new there. We bought it mainly because we love the location at the riverside so much.In really old buildings that I often have to renovate here in Berlin for clients I adore the craftmanship that you find in elements like stucco, panelling, doors, windows, floors, glass and hardware. You don’t see this anymore in homes that were built after World War II.
What did you choose to share on eat in my kitchen and why?
I chose to share an old family recipe with you – Apple Pie Aunt Herta. It’s a classic for decades. This pie is a staple at every birthday or special occasion in my family. The recipe was given to us from my great aunt Herta, my grandfather 's sister. I thought I’d share it with you because I always get positive feedback for this pie. I love that the crust is so crispy and the apples are so juicy and still a bit sour.
If you could choose one person to cook a meal for you, who and what would it be?
It would be a tie between my grandmothers Wilma and Resi. Wilma would have to show me how to preserve apples and pears from the garden by cooking them in jars with cinnamon sticks. Resi would have to show me how to cook East Frisian Sniertjebraa, a slow cooked pork roast.
You're going to have ten friends over for a spontaneous dinner, what will be on the table?
Roasted pork loin with oven roasted vegetables and rosemary potatoes. If it’s really short notice - pasta with pesto Genovese and salad.
What was your childhood's culinary favourite and what is it now?
My favorite as a child was Paprikagemüse – a dish in a pan with ground meat, red and green bell peppers and tomatoes served with rice. Now I could eat tagliatelle with truffles and parmesan cheese every day. Or Sushi.
Do you prefer to cook on your own or together with others?
Together with others. It’s more fun when you can chat and have a glass of wine while cooking. Although I am more focused and quicker when I cook alone.
Which meals do you prefer, improvised or planned?
I mostly improvise a little – probably I would be calmer and less stressed if I planned ahead.
Which meal would you never cook again?
Can’t think of one.
Thank you Imke!
Spinach and Gorgonzola Quiche
Here's my perfect starter for the soon to come Christmas lunch (or dinner): a golden spinach and gorgonzola quiche! It tastes fantastic, looks beautiful and I can prepare it in advance which means I can spend more time nibbling cookies with friends and family in front of the tree. The wonderful buttery pastry and the aromatic topping of hearty greens and cheese add a rustic touch to the festive table with linen, candles and ornaments. Just garnish it with some sprouts and nuts on the side and it's done!
Although there will be lots of activity, excitement and people at the table next week, I refuse to put myself under pressure. I want to enjoy these days in peace with my full attention on the people and food around me. Last year, I made a silly decision, I took pictures of our Christmas dinner for the blog before we ate and that didn't really help the festive mood. This time I don't want a camera, my computer, a phone or any other technical device around me, this Christmas will be analog!
When it comes to festive cooking, the right organization can make life so much easier. I always try to finish my grocery shopping 1-2 days before there's the big run on the supermarkets, butchers and delicatessen stores. It makes me nervous to wait in long queues for half an hour to buy a few pieces of cheese and paté. As soon as everything is gathered in my kitchen, I can relax. I always choose dishes that I can prepare in advance as much as possible, especially the starter and dessert. When the main course is an oven dish, a roast or a slow cooked stew which does the job on its own without my help, there are just the side dishes left to prepare, which is fun to do together with the guests (and a glass of wine or champagne)!
If you go for the quiche, you can eat it warm or cold, we like both, especially if you serve it with a salad, but you could also warm it up quickly if your oven is on anyway.
Here are more quiche / tart variations:
Spinach and Gorgonzola Quiche
For a 30cm / 12" quiche in 1 baking dish or tart pan you need
For the short crust base
plain flour 250g / 9 ounces
butter, cold 125g / 4.5 ounces
organic egg 1
salt 1 teaspoon
Combine the flour with the salt. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are just little pieces of butter left. Continue with your fingers and work the butter into the flour until combined (there shouldn’t be any lumps of butter left). Add the egg and continue mixing with the hooks of your mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form a disc, wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Set the oven to 200°C / 390°F top/ bottom heat.
Roll out the dough between cling film and line your baking dish with the flat pastry. Prick it with a fork and blind-bake in the hot oven for 12 minutes or until golden. Take your baking dish out of the oven and set the temperature down to 175°C / 350°F.
The quiche
spinach leaves, rinsed, 500g / 1 pound
Gorgonzola, torn into pieces, 80g / 3 ounces
organic eggs 5
heavy cream 100ml / 3.5 ounces
crème fraîche or sour cream 200g / 7 ounces
salt 1 teaspoon
pepper
nutmeg, freshly grated, a generous amount
Blanche the spinach in salted water for 1 minute, drain and rinse with cold water, drain again. When the spinach is cool enough to touch with your hands (mind that it's hotter in the centre), squeeze it well and chop it roughly.
Mix the eggs with the heavy cream, crème fraîche, salt, pepper and nutmeg.Spread the spinach on top of the pre-baked pastry base and pour the egg and cream mixture over it.
Spread the gorgonzola on top and bake the quiche for about 40 minutes or until golden brown, the top should be firm. Let it cool for a few minutes before serving.
A Christmas Chocolate Panettone
We always had at least one huge panettone under our Christmas tree and I used to be more fascinated by the packaging than the actual bread. I love the Italian way of dramatically packing everything in glossy boxes with bright bows in candy colours. My style is usually so minimal that at Christmas time, I enjoy indulging in a little kitsch and opulence - too much is just right at this time of year. Although I used to enjoy the wrapping so much, the content of the boxes couldn't always keep up with my expectations. The panettone was often too sweet, too dry or so light and airy that it felt (and tasted) artificial.
When I decided to bake my own panettone this week, for the first time in my life, I got more and more intimidated the more I read about it. Often it's described as a moody and difficult bread and some bakers had to bake hundreds of loaves before they found the right formula. I didn't have that much time, I'm too impatient, so I thought that a good panettone resembles a French brioche in some ways, the richness and colour, the flowery taste, the subtle sweetness. The Italian bread is just not as soft on the outside and a bit more airy and fluffy inside. So what makes a good brioche? Lots of egg yolks and butter! That was my starting point. Although the most popular panettone feature raisins and candied peel, I went for lots of bittersweet chocolate chunks and orange zest and that was a good choice. When the bread was in the oven, a friend came over spontaneously and said "It smells like Italy, like real panettone!" That relaxed me a bit, at least I had the right smell in the house.
The preparation of the panettone dough takes some time, it has to rise twice, 90 minutes for the first time and 60 minutes when it's already in the form. I made it with dry yeast and let it rise in the warm oven at 35°C / 95°F. I follow this technique with all of my yeast based doughs and it works wonders. It just rises much quicker. You could also use your heater but I find that the oven works best. I didn't buy a special panettone form, I just used a normal cooking pot lined with buttered parchment paper which I let come up high enough for the bread to bake in the shape of a tall cylinder. The baking paper went up 20cm ( 8") which was a bit too high, I could have cut it shorter for the dough to rise above the rim like a mushroom, next time... A panettone is quite dark on the outside but it's important that it doesn't burn. At one point the top has to be covered with aluminum foil and the temperature changes, from 200°C (390°F) to 180°C (355°F) and then to 160°C (320°F) for the last 10 minutes. I took the bread out of the oven after 40 minutes to check if it was done and gently knocked on the bottom (it's quite fiddly to do as it's very hot and fragile), but it needed some more time on a lower temperature setting for the centre to bake through.
When you bake bread for the first time you can just follow and trust your nose, your ears and fingers. When you knock on the bottom it's always exciting, you don't know if it worked out, and in the case of this bread, it made me quite nervous. I had to wait until the next day to cut and taste it as I didn't want the chocolate to still be liquid. So the next morning, I solemnly cut the first slices of my first Christmas panettone, the centre was baked through but soft, so baking time and temperature were right - I felt relieved. The bread was fluffy but rich and it tasted like Mediterranean Christmas, this was all I had hoped for. The flowery aroma of the orange merges beautifully with the bittersweet chocolate. I spread a bit of butter on top and enjoyed my work in peace. Happy Advent!
Chocolate Panettone
For 1 panettone (18cm / 7") you need
plain flour 500g / 1 pound (I used white spelt flour type 630)
dry yeast 2 sachets (each 7g / 1/4 ounce)
granulated sugar 100g / 3.5 ounces
salt 1/2 teaspoon
a pinch of nutmeg
zest of 1 orange (about 1 1/2 tablespoons)
organic egg yolks 5
butter, melted, 170g / 6 ounces
milk 220ml / 1 cup
bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped, 100g / 3.5 ounces
almonds 4, for the topping
heavy cream 4 teaspoons, to brush the top
icing sugar, for the topping
Mix the melted butter with the milk and egg yolks, the mixture should be lukewarm.
In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, yeast, sugar, salt and nutmeg) and orange zest. Add the milk/ butter/ egg mixture and mix with the dough hooks for about 5 minutes or until well combined. Knead with your hands for about 1 minute, it should be soft and glossy. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with a tea towel and let it rise in a 35°C / 95°F warm oven ( top / bottom heat, no fan!) for about 90 minutes or until doubled in size. While the dough is rising, put the chocolate in a plastic container and keep it in the freezer.
Butter the inside of an 18cm / 7" cooking pot (about 10cm / 4" high). Cut a 15cm / 6" wide strip of parchment paper, long enough to be wrapped around the inside of the pot with both ends overlapping generously. Butter the parchment paper on one side. Line the sides of the pot with the parchment paper (the butter side should be facing inwards). Push the overlapping ends of parchment paper together.
Punch the dough down and take it out of the bowl, give it a quick knead and mix in the cold chocolate with your hands. Form a ball and put it into the prepared pot. Carefully cover it with a light tea towel (on top of the parchment paper) and let the dough rise in the warm oven for another 60 minutes or until doubled in size.
Take the pot out and set the oven to 200°C / 390°F, fan-assisted oven (210°C / 410°F top/ bottom heat).
Brush the top of the dough with the cream and cut a cross into the surface with a sharp kitchen knife. Decorate with the almonds. Bake the panettone for 10 minutes and turn the temperature down to 180°C / 355°F (190°C / 375°F top/ bottom heat). Bake for 20 minutes, cover the top with a piece of aluminum foil if the top gets too dark, and bake for another 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to 160°C / 320°F (170°C / 340°F top/ bottom heat) and bake for another 10 minutes. If you use top / bottom heat bake for another 5-10 minutes. Carefully take the pot out of the oven (it will be very hot!) and let the panettone cool in the pot for at least 30 minutes or until it's stabile enough to cool on a wire rack. When it's completely cool, dust with icing sugar.
Espresso Meringue Cookies with Spiced Chocolate Ganache
The peace and silence of a Sunday morning is just perfect for an Advent baking session. I take my time to choose a recipe that fits my mood, lay out the ingredients and I'm filled with a kind of excitement that isn't too far away of what I felt as a child when I used to prepare this same ritual with my mother. Years have past and now it's my own kitchen filled with the most beautiful smell of cookies and Christmas cakes but the magic of this moment touches me just as much.
Although my oven doesn't see meringue too often, I have to make my luscious meringue sandwich beauties at least once during the Christmas season. Two delicate drops of espresso meringue cookies stuck together with the most aromatic bittersweet chocolate ganache refined with cardamom and cinnamon are such a sumptuous treat! The whipped egg whites turn into crisp bites which are a perfect contrast to the creamy lusciousness of the dense filling.
This is an adult cookie, it needs a bit of care and gentle handling but it's worth it. There are so many festive treats which don't ask for much, a quick short crust dough, some fancy or nostalgic cookie cutters and the kitchen turns into a christmassy bakery. My meringue cookie is a little diva, it demands special treatment, care and attention, but the result is so amazing that the attitude is forgiven. The great thing about the Advent season is that there are four weeks of festive baking, four weekends to choose from traditional family recipes, experimental new discoveries and delicious finds from various culture's culinary cookie collections. Every week, there are new spices to use, new pastries to work with to bring the sweet classics from our childhoods back to the table. Nuts and seeds, flour, chocolate, spices and icing sugar spread all over the kitchen tops, this is a picture full of memories which makes this time of the year so special to me.
I had an unexpected little visitor this weekend who joined my baking. Our godchild visited me to take a look at our Christmas tree and also helped me prepare a batch of Gianduja cookies. The two of us listened to some music, rolled out the dark Kipferl between our hands and had a chat. Now I'm the one who can pass on my cookie knowledge to the next generation and maybe he will remember this moment when he's in his own kitchen one day, as a man, rolling Kipferl. We were both really sad when his father came to pick him up but we already have a date for another baking session!
Have a wonderful 2nd Advent!
And here's some inspiration for more christmassy cookie recipes:
Espresso Meringue Cookies with Spiced Chocolate Ganache
The ganache has to cool in the fridge for a few hours or in the freezer, or you can let it harden overnight, like I did.
For about 20 sandwich cookies you need
For the ganache
good quality bittersweet chocolate 150g / 5.5 ounces
heavy cream 150 ml / 5 ounces
instant espresso powder 1/2 teaspoon
ground cardamom 1/8 teaspoon
ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon
In a sauce pan, heat the cream and add the chocolate, espresso and spices. When the chocolate is melted whisk the mixture until well combined, let it cool and keep in the fridge for a few hours until stiff.
For the meringue cookies
organic egg whites 4
granulated sugar 180g / 6.5 ounces
a pinch of salt
white wine vinegar 1/2 teaspoon
instant espresso powder 2 teaspoons
Set the oven to 140°C / 275°F (top / bottom heat) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff. Slowly add the sugar and vinegar and continue mixing until stiff and glossy. Mix in the espresso powder and fill the meringue mixture in a piping bag (with a wide opening). Pipe walnut sized mounds on the lined baking sheet, leaving some space in between them. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until they are golden and firm on top, place a wooden spoon in the door to keep it open a bit while the meringues are baking. They should easily peel off the parchment paper when they are done. Let them cool completely on a wire rack before you stick them together with the ganache.
Assembling the cookies
Whisk the hard ganache until light and creamy (like a frosting). Spread the ganache on one cookie and gently (!) stick another one on top.
Elisenlebkuchen - Juicy Spice Cookies with Bittersweet Chocolate
Elisenlebkuchen are essential German Christmas treats! A bite of these juicy spice and chocolate cookies, a sip of my mulled wine and some John Fahey tunes in the background and I'm right in the mood for the 1st Advent!
These dark sweets are a special kind of Lebkuchen, made without any flour or butter but lots of ground hazelnuts, almonds, spices and citrus fruits. They are often compared to gingerbread (which I find difficult as there's no ginger involved in the recipe), with a similar aromatic juiciness which is no surprise as they combine all the wonderful flavours associated with festive baking, like cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, all spice and citrus. A simple Lebkuchen officially becomes the queen of all Lebkuchen, the fine Elisenlebkuchen, when the dough contains more than 25% of nuts and less than 10% flour. It's kind of a royal upgrade to keep the quality and protect its tradition. Originally from Nuremberg (Nürnberg in German), the city gained fame all over the world for this sweet delicacy. I remember emptying one package of them after the other as a child at Christmas, preferably the ones covered in bittersweet chocolate. The Nuremberg Lebkuchen are either 'naked' or glazed with sugar or chocolate, which were the most popular ones in my family so I had to eat them quick.
After years of stuffing my belly with them under the Christmas tree, the time has come to start the Lebkuchen production at my home. Elisenlebkuchen are often quite big but I wanted a smaller size, just a small bite to enjoy them more often. The preparation is surprisingly easy. The dough can be used as soon as it's mixed although some bakers recommend keeping it in the fridge overnight. It's a bit sticky but manageable. You just have to drop a dollop of it on a thin edible wafer paper for cookies (also known asoblate) and put them in the oven until they are golden but still soft inside. The result is almost spongy and so fragrant that it wasn't easy for me to watch them cool before I could brush them with bittersweet chocolate. When you have a treat like this in front of you, the last thing you want to do is wait!
In the past, certain bakeries were specialised in the production of Lebkuchen all over the country to create their own christmassy signature sweet for their region. The textures and shapes vary, some are cut into squares like in Aachen in the west of Germany, or baked in the shape of hearts like in Bavaria. Elisenlebkuchen are still my favourite, with chocolate of course and preferably in large amounts!
Have a jolly 1st Advent!
Elisenlebkuchen
For 40 cookies you need
organic eggs (at room temperature) 3
granulated sugar 210g / 7.5 ounces
hazelnuts, roughly chopped, 40g / 1.5 ounces
ground hazelnuts 200g / 7 ounces
ground almonds 80g / 3 ounces
candied lemon peel 50g / 2 ounces
candied orange peel 50g / 2 ounces
lemon zest 2 teaspoons
orange zest 2 teaspoons
ground cinnamon 1 1/2 teaspoons
ground cardamom 1/4 teaspoon
ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon
ground coriander 1/2 teaspoon
ground allspice 1/4 teaspoon
ground mace 1/4 teaspoon
a pinch of salt
edible round wafer papers for cookies (50mm / 1/4" diameter), 40 (if you use a bigger size, add a little more dough on each of them and bake the cookies a bit longer)
bittersweet chocolate 300g / 10.5 ounces, for the topping
butter 1 1/2 tablespoons, for the topping
almonds 40, for the topping
Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter for the topping.
Mix the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for about 7 minutes until light and creamy, there shouldn't be any sugar crystals left.
Combine the ground nuts, almonds, candied peel, zest, spices and salt and gently stir into the egg sugar mixture with a wooden spoon until combined. Stir in the chopped nuts and put a heaped teaspoon of the dough on each round wafer paper. Put the cookies on the baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 13 minutes or until golden, they should stay soft inside.
Let them cool on a rack before you brush them with the melted chocolate and garnish each of them with an almond.
Reflections on 1 Year of eat in my kitchen, 365 Recipes and an Apple Strudel
When I decided to start a food blog in October last year, at the breakfast table on a cold and misty morning in Berlin, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I felt recklessly excited, so much so that I made a big decision which changed my life drastically in the past twelve months. My goal was to share a recipe a day, for at least 1 year. I was so inspired by this idea, my head was full of recipes and stories that I wanted to write down on the as yet empty pages of eat in my kitchen. I knew I would have enough of a repertoire to cook, to bake and to talk about for a few years so I thought I might as well share all this with the world once a day.
It has been intense if not tense at times, I completely underestimated how much time it would take to capture a dish in mouthwatering photos, to describe what I do in my kitchen, what your taste buds can expect, but also to inspire you to go to your own kitchen, to pull out the pots and pans and trust me. When I shared the first recipes, I didn't think about the fact that you would have to believe me that my recipes would work out for you as much as they do for me. You would have to buy the ingredients, take some time out and cook with the same excitement that I felt. At one point, after I had been writing for a few days, it clicked, I understood what it meant and it overwhelmed me. Until today, every time I get an email from someone who felt enticed by one of my posts and cooked or baked my recipes and tells me about the result, I'm as happy as a child at Christmas. It's a wonderful experience and there are no words to describe how thankful I am for this journey which put so many amazing moments into my life, and a written collection of more than 365 recipes!
In the past few months, I've written a lot about enjoyment, culinary pleasures and the fun of cooking in your own kitchen and treating the ones you love with the fruit of your work, that's not a cliché, this fills me with true happiness. No matter if the final result on the table is mind-blowing or if a recipe still needs some work, the time spent creating this meal is precious. No one forces us to put our money into good quality and natural ingredients, no one tells us to turn them into a delicious meal, it's our decision, one that we make every day to treat our body well but also to let our minds rest. Beyond all the satisfaction which my taste buds get from a great home cooked meal, I call my daily dinner a feast because I feel complete bliss as soon as I go into my kitchen to get out the vegetables and knifes, to chop and stir, to taste and experiment. I take this time out for myself, sometimes I get the record player started, open a bottle of wine, and I slow down my pace, always. There are a million other things I could do instead but I decided that this would be a part of my life, this is what I would do every evening for a couple hours. This choice has always been a gift and it still is, as it has given me some of my best memories, all saved in food.
For about three days, I thought about a recipe which I would like to share with you today. I was looking for something which tastes exceptionally good to celebrate this special day, but I also wanted to write about an experience which I felt quite a few times in the past year, to struggle, to doubt, to feel like giving up but in the end, to trust and follow your inner voice which guides you into the right direction.
One of the earlier dishes I made for eat in my kitchen, was a rabbit stew. It tasted fantastic but it didn't look pretty and I had no experience whatsoever capturing every kind of food deliciously in a picture. I was used to taking photos of our dinners or lunches once in a while to freeze the moment but not to make it look good and appealing on a plate. So I sat on the floor of our kitchen, crying, it was late in the evening, my boyfriend was my light man standing on a chair and holding a fluorescent tube from the hardware store, trying to make it work. The scene was ridiculous and so funny at the same time, at least now when I look back! It didn't work out, the rabbit never made it onto the blog and that night I thought I would give up, but instead I made a few changes and moved on. No more artificial light and no more stews until I felt experienced enough to capture their rustic beauty in a photo.
I'm not going to share a rabbit recipe with you today but another advanced kitchen task, Tyrolean apple strudel. This isn't a quick and easy cake but it teaches you to trust. It's a bit of a challenge but it will reward you with one of the greatest enjoyments of the sweet world, pure buttery fruitiness. The strudel is filled with lots of apples, raisins and spices all wrapped in a cinnamony short crust. The pastry isn't crisp like a pie, it's a bit soft, almost juicy which makes it quite delicate to handle. There is another strudel variation made with a very thin and flaky dough called Ziehteig in German but I prefer my strudel with short crust. It's my favorite of all strudels, buttery, soft and slightly crisp on the outside.
The final result is fantastic but you will have to work for it and trust yourself and maybe improvise at times. There may be moments you want to give up, when you feel that you can't get it right and for a second, you believe that it's over, you're done with it (although it's just a cake, it can feel quite dramatic). But then, out of the deepest corner of the mind comes a spark, a pull, like a defiant little child that doesn't want to accept a "no", and this feeling that seems like a mood at first, doesn't want to fade, it grows instead until it becomes a force. It fills you up with energy again, confidence, the exact power you need to overcome this low, because that's what it is in the end, nothing more and nothing less than a low that will pass. Maybe these words fit more to my last year than to a strudel but anyhow, it can feel similar in the kitchen at times. So back to my strudel, the first 10 minutes in the oven are the critical phase, it can be tricky. The dough can crack, it happens sometimes but it's not a problem, you just have to close it again. And here's when the trust comes in. I've been making this recipe for almost 15 years but today's strudel opened more than any other before as I took my time taking pictures so the pastry got warm. I was used to a few cracks on the top which you can easily close with two spoons, but this time, one side opened completely. So I had to react quickly, I pulled the pastry up again with the help of the parchment paper and stabilized it with small baking dishes on each side. I got a bit nervous but it worked, as always.
And maybe that's one of the biggest lessons I've learned in the past year, not for the first time in my life, but with a kind of intensity I never felt before. As long as you don't give up and trust everything will work out. The peace discovered through this experience is a treasure.
I want to thank you so much for joining me while I fill these pages of eat in my kitchen. I hope you enjoy the time in the kitchen and at the table with these recipes as much as I do. There will be many more to come, not every day but about four times a week. I need a little break once in a while to feed my inspiration.
Thank you to my mother and my whole family in Germany, Malta and in the US for being such an amazing inspiration to my kitchen and a big thank you to my boyfriend for his patience!
Lots of love from Berlin,
Meike xx
Tyrolean Apple Strudel
For 1 large apple strudel you need
For the dough
plain flour 300g / 10.5 ounces
granulated sugar 150g / 5.5 ounces
ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon
baking powder 2 leveled teaspoons
a pinch of salt
butter, cold, 150g / 5.5 ounces
organic egg, beaten, 1
Combine the flour with the sugar, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are just little pieces of butter left. Continue with your fingers and rub the butter into the flour until combined. Add the egg and continue mixing with the hooks of your mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form a thick disc, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for 1 hour.
For the filling
sour apples (like boskoop), peeled, cored, cut into 8 pieces each and sliced thinly, 800g / 1 3/4 pounds (weight of the apples before peeling and coring)
raisins 100g / 3.5 ounces
dry breadcrumbs 60g / 2 ounces
butter 1 teaspoon
vanilla, the seeds of 1/2 pod
ground cinnamon 2 1/2 teaspoons
zest of 1/2 lemon
zest of 1 orange
freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 tablespoon
freshly squeezed orange juice 1 tablespoon
Kirsch schnaps 2 tablespoons
granulated sugar 80g / 3 ounces
Roast the breadcrumbs in the butter, stirring constantly until golden brown. Let them cool.
In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients for the filling apart from the sugar; you add the sugar when the filling is spread out on the pastry.
The strudel
organic egg, beaten, 1 for the egg wash
icing sugar for the topping
Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F (fan assisted oven).
Roll out the dough between cling film, about 35 x 30 cm / 14 x 12". Take the top layer of cling film off the pastry and put a large piece of parchment paper on instead. Flip the dough around so that the parchment paper is at the bottom and take off the cling film on top. Gently spread the filling evenly on the pastry but leave a 2cm / 1" rim around it, sprinkle the filling with the sugar. Carefully roll up the dough from the long side, it should be quite tight, if possible, push the apples back in that fall out. When the strudel is rolled up put the fold at the bottom and close the sides by pushing the dough together. Quickly move the strudel on the parchment paper onto the baking sheet, brush with the egg wash and bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown. Watch the strudel in the first 10 minutes, if it opens, quickly close it with the back of a spoon. If it opens on the side, pull up the parchment paper to put the pastry back into place and hold it in place with a small ovenproof dish put right next to the strudel. When it's done, take it out of the oven and let it cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before you sprinkle it with icing sugar.
Enjoy pure, with whipped cream or custard sauce.
For the custard sauce
organic egg yolks 4
cornstarch 3 tablespoons
granulated sugar 100g / 3.5 ounces
milk 700ml / 3 cups
a pinch of salt
vanilla pod, slit slightly, 1
Whisk the egg yolks with the cornstarch, sugar, salt and 50ml / 2 ounces of the milk until well combined.
In a sauce pan, bring the remaining milk with the vanilla pod to the boil. Take the vanilla pod out and scrape the seeds out of the bean into the milk. Add the egg mixture to the hot milk, whisking well. Take the sauce pan off the heat after 1 minute and continue whisking for 2 minutes, serve hot.
Ottijiet - Maltese Tea Time Cookies with Sesame Seeds, Cloves and Aniseed
Almost ten years ago, I found my favourite tea time cookie on a little island in the Mediterranean. The Maltese Ottijiet are crumbly short crust based cookies, shaped in a figure of 8, hence the name ottijiet (the plural of otta) derived from the Italian word for eight, otto. The composition is not very sweet but packed with wonderful flavours ripened under the Mediterranean sun: orange, lemon, aniseed, cloves and sesame. It's one of the most aromatic sweets I know. Imagine the smell of the air in my kitchen while they're baking in the oven, it's beautiful!
When we're on the island, I always go to my trusted confectionary Busy Bee in Msida on the first or the second day of our stay to stock up on ottijiet for our traditional 5 o'clock tea breaks in Jenny's kitchen. As I'm not the only one in the house who is obsessed with them, I buy a few bags right away to avoid cookie shortages. This sweet became an important part of our daily ceremony, we all come together and meet around my Maltese mother's big wooden table in the afternoon to chat and savour our caramel coloured teas. Many Maltese like to dip the crunchy rings into their warm beverage and our family has often tried to convince me of this ritual - without success, it's not for me!
Whenever friends and family visit us in Berlin, they know how to make me happy and bring a few packages of ottijiet to our kitchen. But after so many years and cookies, I felt ready to bake my own. I was a bit nervous but luckily we still had a package from Jenny's last visit so I didn't have to depend on my taste memory. Ottijiet are kind of a national dish and I have learned a lot about the various traditional recipes and the obligatory spice mixtures from the cooks I met over the years. I knew roughly what I had to do but it took two batches of dough until my Maltese partner approved the result and I was happy too. But then, they were as good as Busy Bee's!
Ottijiet - Maltese Tea Time Cookies with Sesame Seeds, Cloves and Aniseed
Before you bake the cookies, the dough should rest in the fridge for about 1 hour.
For 22 ottijiet you need
plain flour 300g / 10.5 ounces
granulated sugar 100g / 3.5 ounces
baking powder 2 teaspoons
a pinch of salt
aniseed, ground in a mortar, 3 leveled teaspoons
cloves, ground in a mortar, 20 (about 1 1/2 teaspoons)
vanilla, the seeds of 1/2 pod
orange zest 1 teaspoon
lemon zest 1 teaspoon
butter, cold, 100g / 3.5 ounces
organic egg, beaten, 1
freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 tablespoon
freshly squeezed orange juice 1 tablespoon
water, cold, 1 tablespoon
sesame seeds about 50g / 2 ounces, for the topping
Combine the flour with the sugar, salt, baking powder, spices and citrus zest. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are just little pieces of butter left. Continue with your fingers and rub the butter into the flour until combined. Add the egg, juices and water and continue mixing with the hooks of your mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form a thick disc, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for about 1 hour.
Set the oven to 200°C / 390°F (fan assisted oven) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Put the sesame seeds on a plate.
Break large walnut sized pieces off the dough and roll them between your hands for about 5 seconds. On the kitchen top, roll them into thin, 25cm / 10" long sausage shapes and close them well to form a ring. Twist the ring to an 8 shape, dip it into the sesame seeds and spread the cookies on the baking sheet with some space in between them as they will rise. Bake the ottijiet for 11 minutes or until golden brown and let them cool on a rack. Store them in your cookie jars and enjoy with a cup of tea!
My Granny's Donauwelle - a Marble Cake with Cherries and Buttercream
In my young years, I built up a remarkable reputation in my family regarding the amount of cake I could eat at one go. Our regular gatherings at my granny Lisa's house used to start with a huge cake buffet which equaled paradise in my childish eyes. Most of my aunts and uncles are passionate cooks and bakers, they always lined up a scrumptious selection of our sweet family classics, like black forest cake, cheese and fruit cakes, spongy lemon cake, crumbles and my granny's masterpiece, her fabulous Donauwelle (meaning Danube wave). This traditional cake is also known as Snow-White-Cake due to its colour combination. It combines a layer of juicy black and white marble cake with sour cherries, German buttercream and melted bittersweet chocolate on top. The original name refers to the wavy pattern which you see when you cut the pieces. The cherries sink into the dough while it's baking and create waves like the Danube river - Donau in German.
As a child, I used to have quite a healthy appetite, but sometimes I pushed my borders. I could easily eat five or six pieces of cake, especially when I tried to keep up with my well built male cousins. Of course, there were many days I had to suffer afterwards but it was all forgotten by the next family feast.
It's been more than twenty years since my granny passed away and I never baked this cake myself. I kept the recipe safe and waited. But then, when my Maltese mother Jenny visited us last week, I thought about a special German sweet to treat her to. My granny Lisa's Donauwelle was the first one that came into my mind and it felt like the right time to finally give it a try. I was a bit nervous so I called my sister to get some more detailed instructions. After a few adjustments and improvisations on the recipe (we forgot to use the fifth egg as it rolled behind the toaster but we didn't miss it in the final result), we had this luscious family classic on our table. It tasted like my granny's and brought back sweet memories of her in the kitchen, of her cherry tree in her garden and the perfect times I used to spend at her house.
The cake is traditionally completely covered in chocolate decorated with a wavy pattern, my granny made it this way too. I find the bittersweet taste too overpowering so I went for a lighter chocolate sprinkle. I also only used half of the butter for the buttercream, it made it less dense and heavy.
We were all quite impressed with the result and savoured it for days. On the second and third day, we thought it was best but the chocolate wasn't as pretty any more, but who cares! What can I say, food is like music, it saves memories for the rest of our life so that we can recall them at any time, I love that!
Donauwelle
For a 24 x 30cm / 10 x 12" baking dish you need
sour cherries (preserved) 300g / 10.5 ounces
bittersweet chocolate 100g / 3.5 ounces, for the topping
butter 1 tablespoon, for the topping
For the marble cake
butter, at room temperature, 275g / 10 ounces
granulated sugar 275g / 10 ounces
seeds of 1/2 vanilla pod
organic eggs 4
milk 175ml / 6 ounces
plain flour 400g / 14 ounces
baking powder 1 package (4 teaspoons)
a pinch of salt
dark unsweetened cocoa powder 2 heaped tablespoons
Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F (fan-assisted oven) and line the baking dish with parchment paper.
Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and continue beating for a few minutes until thick, creamy and light yellow. Combine the flour, salt and baking powder. Fold the dry ingredients and the milk with a wooden spoon gently into the butter egg mixture, alternating, about 1/3 at a time. Divide the dough in half between two bowls and stir the cocoa powder into one of them.
Scrape the light dough into the baking dish, even it out and put the dark one on top. Spread the cherries on top, one by one, and push them lightly into the dough. Bake for 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the cake is done. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Let the cake cool completely.
For the German buttercream
All ingredients for the buttercream must be at the same temperature (room temperature) to combine well!
butter 125g / 4.5 ounces
organic egg yolks 4
cornstarch 60g / 2 ounces
granulated sugar 120g / 4.5 ounces
milk 500ml / 17 ounces
a pinch of salt
vanilla pod, slit slightly, 1
Beat the soft butter for 5 minutes until white and fluffy.
Whisk the egg yolks with the cornstarch, sugar, salt and 50ml / 2 ounces of the milk until well combined.
In a sauce pan, bring the remaining milk with the vanilla pod to the boil. Take the vanilla pod out and scrape the seeds out of the bean into the milk. Add the egg mixture to the hot milk, whisking well. Take the sauce pan off the heat after 1 minute and continue whisking for 2 minutes until stiff. Fill into a bowl and cover the pudding’s surface with cling film.
When the vanilla pudding has cooled off completely, press it through a sieve and mix it in batches with the beaten butter, first with a spoon and then with your mixer for a few seconds until nice and creamy.
The Donauwelle
For the topping, melt the chocolate and butter and let it cool a little.
Spread the buttercream on top of the cake and decorate with the melted chocolate.
Pancarré - a perfect Italian loaf of white spelt bread
The Italian pancarré, or pane in cassetta, is the perfect white loaf of bread. It's soft and spongy inside wrapped in a thin but crunchy crust. It's the kind of bread that tastes even better, if not heavenly, when you put slices in the toaster the next morning. In Germany, we also call this kind of bread Toast or Toastbrot and I had a rather funny discussion about this topic with Phia and Josh when we met in their kitchen. They found this name quite confusing as for them, and the rest of the English speaking world, toast only becomes toast when it's put in a toaster. So we came to the conclusion that a toasted slice of bread, to be correct, would be the equivalent to a toasted Toast in Germany.
No matter what you call it, first you have to bake it. I like to use organic white spelt flour (type 630) for this recipe which I often prefer for my cakes, cookies and pies as well. Spelt grain has better nutrition values than wheat and I find it much easier on the body. My Italian bread's dough is made with butter and milk which makes it rich and slightly sweet in taste. To allow it to rise to its fullest, I learned to divide the dough into three parts which I braid into a plait. I once made the bread without this technique and it wasn't as airy as I was used to. After this experience, I never messed with it again!
Although I've praised this breads toasting qualities, I can just recommend that you start with a warm, thick slice and some salted butter melted on top. The smell and taste is seductive! Then you can continue as you wish, with marmelade - great for tea time - cheese or Italian mortadella. After I had this pancarrè on my table, I always find it hard to go back to the various loaves of bread I buy from the bakeries. Nothing beats home baked bread!
Pancarré
For 1 loaf of bread in a 20 x 10 cm / 8 x 4" loaf tin you need
plain flour (white spelt or wheat) 400g / 14 ounces
dry yeast 1 package (for 500g / 1 pound of flour)
granulated sugar 1 tablespoon
salt 1 teaspoon
milk, lukewarm, 150ml / 5 ounces
water, lukewarm, 100ml / 3.5 ounces
unsalted butter, melted, 60g / 2 ounces
Mix the melted butter with the milk and water, the mixture should be lukewarm.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Add the milk / butter mixture and mix with your dough hooks for about 5 minutes until you have an elastic dough ball. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let the dough rise in a 35°C / 95°F warm oven ( top / bottom heat, no fan!) for about 45 minutes.
Butter your loaf tin and dust it lightly with flour.
Take the bowl out of the oven. Punch the dough down, divide it into three parts and form thick sausage shaped rolls. Braid them into a thick plait a bit longer than your tin. Fold down the ends and put the plait into the tin. Cover with a tea towel and let it rise for another 30 minutes in a warm place.
Set the oven to 200°C / 390°F (top / bottom heat).
Bake the bread for about 40 minutes or until golden on top. If you’re not sure if it’s done, turn the bread around and knock on its underside, it should sound hollow. Let it cool for a couple minutes before you enjoy the first slice.
The darkest Gâteau au Chocolat
99% dark chocolate - I went for the darkest Swiss chocolate I could find for my petit gâteau! For months I've had this cake on my mind, dark, moist and rich, an adult cake that combines the best of a luscious mousse au chocolat and a tender cake. So often I've enjoyed this bitter sweet at French patisseries or as a dessert with whipped cream melting on top in one of Paris' pretty bistros in the hidden side roads.
This treat doesn't need many ingredients but the few should be of exquisite quality, especially the chocolate. Sometimes this gâteau is dusted with icing sugar but I don't like to hide its honest dark beauty under a layer of blank white. I also don't see the sense of using one of the best chocolates to blur down its complex taste by using cheap sugar. So my gâteau stays naked! Spiced with a little cinnamon and cardamom, its a rich composition perfect for desserts or for Sunday afternoon tea time, my favourite! I had a few slices with a cup of Darjeeling and it was heavenly!
Gâteau au Chocolat
For a 20cm / 8" springform pan you need
dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa, preferably 99%) 150g / 5.5 ounces
butter 150g / 5.5 ounces
organic eggs 4
granulated sugar 180g / 6.5 ounces plus 1-2 tablespoons for the whipped cream
plain flour 120g / 4.5 ounces
ground cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon plus a pinch for the whipped cream
ground cardamom 1/8 teaspoon plus a pinch for the whipped cream
a pinch of salt
heavy cream 200g / 7 ounces, for the topping
Set the oven to 180°C / 360°F (fan assisted oven) and line the springform pan with parchment paper.
In a saucepan (or a bain-marie), melt the chocolate and butter and let it cool off for a few minutes.
Whisk the egg whites with the salt until stiff.
Combine the flour with the cinnamon and cardamom.
Mix the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy and stir in the chocolate/ butter mixture. Stir in the flour/ spice mixture with a spoon before you gently fold in the stiff egg whites. Put the dough into the lined springform pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until the cake is done. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Let the cake cool for a few minutes before you take it out of the springform pan and serve with with the spiced whipped cream.
Whip the cream with sugar, cinnamon and cardamom and season to taste.
Pumpkin Pie with Coriander Caramel
It's only been a few years since I tried my first pumpkin pie. My boyfriend's American side of the family brought this delicious autumn treat into my life and I liked it from the first bite. I think I started with a recipe that was given to me by his mother Jenny who is Maltese but who once got as strongly influenced by American baking traditions as I did over the past few years. She lived in Canada and LA before she went back to her island home in the Mediterranean and took many recipes for sweet temptations with her!
After all the years of baking pies in my kitchen, several Halloweens and quite a few attempts at pumpkin pie I came up with this recipe with a little extravagance in the topping. I make a thick caramel sauce with crushed coriander seeds to drip over the golden pie. The sweet and bitter caramel refined with the aromatic seeds tickles the taste buds just right, it's an amazing combination! I always use homemade pumpkin purée preferably made of the orange Hokkaido as I like the little bits of skin shining through the surface that you can only leave on this kind of squash. The pumpkin takes just half an hour in the oven until it's done and it tastes so much better than the store bought purée. My pie mixture is refined with a good amount of spices, the obligatory mace, fresh ginger, cloves and cinnamon have to be quite present for my taste. The short crust I use is crumbly and buttery - crisp as it should be.
I baked the pie in one big round tart tin and a few smaller tartlets which I almost prefer as the pumpkin mixture was a bit more flat and therefore not too overpowering. It can easily cover up the flavours of the delicate pastry which is a pity, it has to be well balanced as always in life!
This recipe has been featured on Food52 Halfway To Dinner!
Pumpkin Pie with Coriander Caramel
For 1 big 22cm / 9" tart tin (preferably loose-bottomed) and 4 small tartlets (or 2 big pies) you need
For the short crust
plain flour 250g / 9 ounces
granulated sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons
salt 1/4 teaspoon
butter (cold) 140g / 5 ounces
water 2 tablespoons
Combine the flour with the sugar and salt. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are just little pieces of butter left. Continue with your fingers and rub the butter into the flour until combined. Add the water and continue mixing with the hooks of your mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form a disc, wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 10 minutes.
For the pumpkin filling
pumpkin purée 400g / 14 ounces or pumpkin (squash), without the fibres and seeds, cut into cubes, 500g / 17.5 ounces (Hokkaido with skin or peeled butternut or Musquée de Provence pumpkin)
milk (warm) 250ml / 1 cup
organic eggs 2
Demerara sugar 80g / 3 ounces
ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon
ground mace or nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon
ground cloves 1/8 teaspoon
salt 1/4 teaspoon
freshly grated ginger 1 heaping teaspoon
For the pumpkin purée
Set the oven to 200°C / 390°F (fan assisted oven).
Put the pumpkin into a baking dish. Cover the bottom of the dish with around 100ml / 3.5 ounces of water. Wet a piece of parchment paper under water, scrunch it up a little and cover the pumpkin in the baking dish, tucking the sides in. Cook for 30 minutes in the oven or until the pumpkin is soft. Purée the pumpkin in a blender or with a stick mixer and set aside (you could keep it in the fridge for a day).
For the pumpkin mixture
Mix the pumpkin purée with the milk and eggs until well combined. Stir in the sugar mixed with the spices, ginger and salt.
Set the oven to 200°C / 390°F (top/ bottom heat).
Roll out the dough between cling film and line your tart tins with the pastry. Prick with a fork and blind bake for 10 minutes or until golden.
Take out the tart tin and turn the oven up to 220°C / 430°F (top/ bottom heat).
Fill the pumpkin mixture on top of the pastry, even it out and bake for 10 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 180°C / 355°F and bake for another 5 minutes (small tartlet tins) or for 10 minutes (in the bigger tart tin) or until the pie is golden and just set. Take the pie out and let it cool before you pour over the caramel.
For the coriander caramel
granulated sugar 100g / 3.5 ounces
water 50ml / 2 ounces
heavy cream 100ml / 3.5 ounces
coriander seeds, lightly crushed in a mortar, 1 teaspoon
In a large pan, bring the sugar and water to the boil, don't mix it. When it turns into a caramel-brown colour (neither too light nor too dark), take the pan off the heat, add the coriander seeds and slowly pour in the cream, whisk gently but well, the caramel should be thick and smooth.
Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Cake
This is my new breakfast love! After French toast, muffins and pancakes I have a new addiction, I fell for the lightest and most perfect fruity cake you can imagine. I mixed the flour with cornstarch which makes the texture more fine, it's soft, fluffy and tender. That's all I could ask for on a morning table which doesn't mean that it wouldn't work for tea time either. The problem is that the cake didn't last that long!
I went for an apple topping but I already have a few variations in mind, with blueberries, plums, pears, even some sour gooseberries when their time has come again. The apples were just right for now, I cut them in half and scored their surface. That's how I prepare them for my crumble cake and it keeps them juicy. Before I put the cake in the oven I sprinkled it with a bit more cinnamon sugar than I would normally use and it made a nice thin crust, aromatic and crisp. I recommend making this cake in a springform pan not bigger than 20cm (8"). If you work with a bigger form the cake will turn out flat and possibly dry. It needs the height and here's were the quality of this cake lies, its lightness and sweet juiciness!
Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Cake
For a 20cm / 8" springform pan you need
sour baking apples (like boscoop), cored, peeled, cut in half and scored on the surface, 2-3
butter (at room temperature) 160g / 5.5 ounces
granulated sugar 90g / 3 ounces plus 2 tablespoons for the topping
organic eggs 3
plain flour 130g / 4.5 ounces
cornstarch 30g / 1 ounce
baking powder 1 heaping teaspoon
a pinch of salt
ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon, for the topping
Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F (fan assisted oven) and butter the springform pan.
Mix the sugar and cinnamon for the topping.
Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and continue mixing for a few minutes until the mixture is thick and creamy. Mix in the dry mixture until well combined. Fill the dough into the buttered form and arrange the apples on top. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden on top. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Let the cake cool for a few minutes before you take it out of the springform.
Tarte Flambée - Alsatian Flammkuchen with Taleggio, Apples and Bacon
When I lived close to the French border a few years ago I loved to drive over to France on a Sunday morning for a short day trip to the Alsace region, especially at this time of the year! The vineyards were all red and golden and the first young wines were ready to be enjoyed. I mentioned these trips about a month ago when I wrote about my Zwiebelkuchen which I used to eat at the traditional restaurants in the small villages. Another Alsatian classic to accompany the new harvest is the Flammkuchen (Flammkueche in the Alsatian dialect), the famous Tarte Flambée! It's similar to pizza but the dough is made with milk instead of water, it's spread with a thin layer of sour cream mixed with an egg yolk and the result is crunchy and light. The basic version is made with onions and bacon but after years of visiting this region I started experimenting with the toppings in my own kitchen and here's one of my favourites.
The combination of cheese and fruit works just as well as on a sandwich. I like to mix thin slices of sour apples like boscoop with a creamy Italian taleggio cheese from the Val Taleggio in the Lombardy region. I baked some thin slices of bacon on top of the Flammkuchen to bring in some smoky saltiness. It's important to put them on top so that they become crispy and release their juices into the fruity cheese mixture.
Flammkuchen with Taleggio, Apples and Bacon
I bake my Flammkuchen and my pizza on a hot baking sheet which has a similar effect to a pizza stone. I preheat it on the bottom of the hot oven and turn it around to bake on the hot surface.
For 1 big Flammkuchen you need
plain flour 250g / 9 ounces
dry yeast 1 package (for 500g / 1 pound of flour)
salt 1/4 teaspoons
sugar 1/2 teaspoon
milk, lukewarm, 120ml / 4 ounces
olive oil 2 tablespoons
For the topping
sour cream 120g / 4.5 ounces
organic egg yolk 1
a pinch of salt
taleggio, cut into cubes, 80g / 3 ounces
sour apple (like boscoop), cored, quartered and cut into thin slices, 1/2 -1
thin bacon slices 6
pepper
In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, salt and sugar. Add the lukewarm milk and the olive oil and mix with your dough hooks for 5 minutes until well combined. Continue kneading with your hands for a few minutes until you have an elastic dough ball. Put the dough back into the bowl and cover with a tea towel. Let the dough rise in a 35°C / 95°F warm oven ( top / bottom heat, no fan!) for about 1 hour.
Take the dough out, punch it down and roll it out into a flat circle on a well floured surface. It should be a bit smaller than the size of your baking sheet. Cover with a tea towel and let it rise for another 10-15 minutes.
Set your oven to 260°C / 500°F. My oven has a special pizza setting but you can use top / bottom heat as well. Put the baking sheet on the bottom of your oven to heat it (for around 10 minutes).
Whisk the sour cream, egg yolk and a pinch of salt.
Take the hot baking sheet out of the oven, turn it around and place it carefully on two stable wooden boards or mats as it will be very hot. Quickly place your risen dough onto the baking sheet.
Spread a thin layer of the sour cream egg yolk mixture on top of the dough, you might not need all of it. Spread the apples and taleggio on top and season with pepper. Top with the bacon and bake in the hot oven for a few minutes until the Flammkuchen is golden brown and crisp.
meet in your kitchen | Dutch Baby for a late Breakfast with Marta Greber
This smile! This woman has the most beautiful and infectious smile! I met Marta Greber from the blog What Should I Eat For Beakfast Today in her kitchen and her charm and positivity impressed me as much as the dish she pulled out of the oven, her delicious Dutch Baby!
Marta came to Berlin three years ago after traveling the continents, she lived in Australia, in Asia and in various countries in South America. She grew up in Poland and started studying law before she spent some time in Barcelona, San Francisco and Amsterdam. This lady is restless and blessed, she always comes back home with the most exciting stories, food experiences and memories. In her husband Tomasz, she found a great travel partner but also a handsome hand model for her blog. Many of the delicious morning goodies that she shares on What Should I Eat For Beakfast Today are presented (and enjoyed!) by Tomasz. Both of them have a weak spot for traditions, especially the ones in the morning. The two get up early to start every day with a little walk through their neighborhood, a good coffee from one of their favourite cafes in hand followed by Marta's amazing breakfast creations that she writes about. Her love for the culinary celebration of the new day and her passion for photography led to the beautiful blog that she started in 2011. What started as a passion became her profession, she's now a full time photographer. Her artistic work is just stunning and everybody wants to see what Marta and Tomasz have for breakfast! When I asked Marta why this time of the day is so important to her to devote a blog to it, she said that it's the only time of the day she can plan and control as you never know what the day will bring. That's not a surprise for someone who is as restless as she is!
The two of us almost chatted the afternoon away but when Marta pulled her Dutch Baby out of the oven topped with melted chocolate, fruit and nuts, I was speechless! It looked scrumptious but unfortunately both of us wanted to take pictures of her work so we had to wait, including Tomasz who came into the kitchen twice to see if we were finally done so that we could eat!
Marta's Dutch Baby with melted Chocolate, roasted Nuts and Plums
For 1 Dutch Baby in a small heavy ovenproof pan or baking dish you need
butter 90g / 3 ounces
milk 110ml / 4 ounces
plain flour 120g / 4.5 ounces
eggs 2
a pinch of salt
For the topping
milk chocolate, melted, 100g / 3.5 ounces
mix of nuts, roasted, a handful
plums, sliced, 3
fresh mint 6 leaves
coconut flakes 1-2 tablespoons
Set the oven to 220°C / 430°F.
Put the butter in an iron pan or baking dish and place in the hot oven.
Melt the chocolate in a small saucepan or in a bain marie if you prefer. Take the pan off the heat as soon as the chocolate is melted. Roast the nuts in a pan (you can add a little coconut oil if you like). In a small bowl, mix the flour, eggs, milk and salt until combined.
When the butter is melted in the hot pan, gently pour the dough into the middle of the pan and bake in the oven for about 12 minutes or until golden.
When your Dutch Baby pancake is done, carefully remove the butter on top (with a spoon or pour it out) and cover with the toppings.
Your blog is called 'What Should I Eat For Breakfast Today', why does this specific meal play such an important role in your life? How did that start?
Morning is the only time during my day that I can control. If I get up earlier (and I usually do) I can prepare a great meal for me and my partner Tomasz, sit together over a nice cup of coffee, talk or simply enjoy food, morning light and silence. Later during the day it’s more complicated as we never know if we’ll be having other meals at home or not. I can also see how a good meal influences our frame of mind and day, so why not start in the morning.
You grew up in Poland, what are your food memories?
I was and still am addicted to polish racuchy - pancakes with apples. My grandma used to make them for me whenever I asked and I asked a lot. I could eat it for every meal. I can remember my grandma making great simple flavours that I loved like kogiel-mogiel (egg yolk bitten with sugar) or homemade pasta with milk and sugar. It was simple but delicious and I still prefer basic flavours.
How did your travels influence your cooking and eating habits?
It doesn’t help with finding my new small obsessions for sure. I try a lot of food but it doesn’t mean that I like everything. My fascination with breakfasts started in Sydney actually, where I had an amazing one in Bill’s Restaurant - ricotta pancakes with banana and it couldn’t be better. In Sydney I had a chance to try international cuisine and to figure out what I like. Then I traveled in Asia for almost a year and I understood that I could eat sticky rice with mango on an everyday basis and that Thai flavours are truly loved by my taste buds. There were some victims as well as after a long time of traveling on budget and eating mostly rice and asian soups, I still have a problem with eating them now. Ups.I travel quite a lot with Tomasz, we try to go to different countries for longer, like a few months and stay there, so we can truly experience the food culture and local flavours. I am lucky that my partner Tomasz is really interested in food, he likes to taste and try things and he’s much braver than I am. If he had a food blog, you’d love it. But for now he’s my hand model (laughs).It would take much too long to describe what made me happy in different cuisines, but I’ll mention that a cinnamon toast I had in San Francisco blew my mind, sobrassada served with a young Champagne in Barcelona is something I enjoy, cheese in Holland is amazing, chipa in Paraguay can make a perfect breakfast, coffee in Sydney tastes like it should.
What does traveling mean to you? What do you miss when you stay in one place for a long time?
I never thought of what it means to me, it’s a part of my life which I don’t want to change. I made a few sacrifices in my life to have this kind of lifestyle (which don’t feel like sacrifices anymore) and this is what I truly like. It goes with my nature. For instance I always had a problem with sitting on a beach - I walk around, run, swim, go to look for something, but can’t just sit there. Whenever we go I push Tomasz to walk a lot. We go hundreds of kilometres on foot and I love it. When I stay in one place I have the feeling that I’m missing something and sometimes I stop to appreciate a city I’m in. Nowadays I really like to go back to Berlin, because traveling helps me to remember how awesome this city is.
What effect did the move to Berlin have on your cooking?
I eat healthier, I use organic products, I learned a lot about grains, good flours, spices. I have this feeling that everyone over here is fascinated with food. I attend many events related to food and it influences my choices and stimulates curiosity.
What was the first dish you cooked on your own, what is your first cooking memory?
I don’t really remember but most probably racuchy.
What are your favourite places to buy and enjoy food in Berlin?
Local farmers markets, I like to walk around with my basket and collect veggies. I truly enjoy small shops with imported goods where I buy things without knowing how I can use them. But also Frischeparadies - I can walk around and look at beautiful sea food and veggies from all over the planet for long minutes and KADEWE, as they have an awesome stuff!
You are an internationally acclaimed photographer, your work has been featured in the media around the world, when did you first pick up the camera and why?
I don’t remember why, I always liked it. I was the annoying kid taking pictures at camps and trying to stage cool frames (usually it wasn’t as cool as I attempted it to be). But it really kicked in when I moved to Sydney and finally had time to improve it. Australia is crazy awesome and beautiful. For a Polish gal everything was very exciting and I am an emotional beast so for me it was double great. I took hundreds of pictures every day, always had a camera on me, bothering friends, people, animals and nature. But also I’m lucky as my partner Tomasz agrees with my ideas and he’s always happy to be my object, however I dress him up or even when he has to move around for an hour so I get a proper shot.
What are your upcoming projects?
The biggest one will be my baby. And for now this is the only project I’m concentrating on. You should ask me in a few months when I’m a mother already and know what it means to me.
Why did you choose Berlin as a place to live and work?
By accident really. We could choose any city in Europe thanks to Tomasz’ work. I voted for Barcelona as I learned some Spanish in South America and Tomasz chose Berlin (he says his German is poor, but believe me it’s really good). Then we decided to spend a year in Berlin and another one in Barcelona. Well, it didn’t work out as Berlin is most probably the best city in Europe to be in, so we stayed.
What did you choose to share on eat in my kitchen and why?
I chose Dutch Baby with melted chocolate, roasted nuts and plums. And the reason - it’s easy, fast, delicious and can’t go wrong (laughing).
If you could choose one person to cook a meal for you, who and what would it be?
Someone from The Growlers and obviously the rest of the band would be invited as well. I’ve been to their concert and I think it would be nice to hang out.
You're going to have ten friends over for a spontaneous dinner, what will be on the table?
Mushroom risotto prepared by Tomasz!
What was your childhood's culinary favourite and what is it now?
It used to be racuchy made by my grandma, nowadays racuchy made by myself.
Do you prefer to cook on your own or together with others?
Both, no preferences really.
Which meals do you prefer, improvised or planned?
Both, as both are a totally different experience.
Which meal would you never cook again?
Pumpkin gnocchi - I tried it three times and totally failed, never again!
Thank you Marta!
