I am a little late for meat free monday but therefore today's recipe is a must. If you try this cake you would never guess it's vegan. It is dark, rich, chocolatey - everything you're dreaming of in a chocolate cake. And maybe the best thing? You can lick the bowl with no concerns whatever about catching salmonella from raw eggs or similar things.
The recipe is from Nigella Lawson's latest book "Simply Nigella", but she posted it to her website as well so all of you can take a look at it and bake it along with me. Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/dark-and-sumptuous-chocolate-cake
Here's the recipe:
Icing:
60ml (1/4 cup) cold water
75g (5 tablespoons) coconut butter (not the same as oil, made from the flesh of a coconut)
50g (1/4 cup) dark brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder, unsweetened
150g (6 oz) dark chocolate, broken into pieces
Cake:
225g (1 1/2 cups) plain all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
75g (3/4 cup) cocoa powder, unsweetened
300g (1 1/2 cups) dark brown sugar
375ml (1 1/2 cups) hot water
75g (90ml) coconut oil
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
edible rose petals and chopped pistachios, to decorate
1) First things first: I had no time searching for a shop in Berne where I could buy coconut butter, so I made it myself. I am an avid user of my food processor and it is soon easy. Put 200g shredded coconut in a food processor and process for about 10 minutes until a paste forms. That's your coconut butter. You just do the same as with any other homemade nut butter.
2) Preheat the oven to 180°C (350° F).
3) Place all ingredient for the icing in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring continuously until the coconut butter has melted and everything is smooth. Turn the stove off, but let the saucepan sit on the hot hob. Add the chocolate in pieces, then - still stirring - let the chocolate melt form the heat until all the chocolate has melted and everything's combined. Set aside to cool.
4) Line the bottom of a springform tin (I used a 24cm round tin) with baking paper. Grease the sides with butter.
5) Add the flour, bicarb, salt, cocoa and instant espresso powder to a bowl and mix with a fork.
6) Mix the hot water, sugar, coconut oil and vinegar and stir until the oil has melted. Then, stir into the dry ingredients and pour the dough into the prepared tin. Bake the cake for 35 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.
7) Let the cake cool in the tin. Meanwhile, beat the icing with an electric mixer until it's starting to become a little fluffy. This will help you when spreading it on the cake.
8) Ice the cake with the icing, then decorate with the rose petals and chopped pistachios, if you wish to.
Active preparation time: about 20 minutes
Total preparation time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Yield: 1 24cm round cake (12-16 slices)
Here's how mine looks:
I really love this recipe. It is fast and really easy. It's basically as simple as melt and mix for the dough and the icing is super easily made as well. I found that my icing was too hard as that I could've poured it over the cake, but whisking it with an electric mixer makes it soft enough so it is easy to spread.
I didn't have any pistachios at home and the only rose petals I could have used were fresh ones from our garden which I didn't want to pick since the purpose of baking was to make my dad happy on a sunday afternoon not winning an award for best decorated cake.
This cake is wonderfully fudgy, moist and incredibly chocolatey. If you don't like chocolate a lot, you're probably not going to love this recipe as much but for every chocolate lover, this is going to be heaven.
Have fun trying and enjoy!
Meat Free Monday. Three words, yet they can make such a difference. I know I've told you this before and I certainly don't want to judge you for making a different choice, but let's face it: meat is certainly healthy, but not if consumed daily in a huge amount. We've become a world full of meat eaters and we tend to forget about vegetables and fruit, grains and beans. If you're trying to put something vegetarian on the table just once a week, you're not only going to help reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, but you're giving yourself the opportunity to discover new recipes and new ingredients.
I have made it a habit eating soup for dinner. It's easy, it's fast and there are endless combination possibilities. Do you want your soup sweeter? Try carrot or sweet potato? Something heartier? Maybe broccoli and rocket sounds good that day. I know Halloween has passed, but that's not an excuse for me to forget about pumpkin. It is one of my absolute favorite winter vegetables. Whether it's in a salad, in a stew, in a soup, baked and puréed. Again, the possibilities are infinite.
I was browsing websites lately and ended up on Yotam Ottolenghi's site. Normally, his recipes seem to be too much work with the tons of spices, so I was pleasantly surprised when I came across the following recipe for a pumpkin, saffron and orange soup. It is fast, yet offers a variety of flavours and is wonderfully creamy and satisfying - without the cream.
Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/soups/pumpkin-saffron-orange-soup-with-caramelised-pumpkin-seeds-shop
Here's my way:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion
550g pumpkin flesh
2 medium carrots
1 teaspoon saffron fronds
1 litre vegetable stock
2 teaspoons grated zest from 1 organic orange
(6 tablespoons crème fraîche)
salt and white pepper
Optional:
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
60g pumpkin seeds
1 tablespoon golden syrup or maple syrup
1/2 tablespoon soft brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 big pinch cayenne pepper
1) Prepare the seeds first. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line an oven tray with baking paper and brush with sunflower oil. Put the pumpkin seeds and all the other ingredients in a bowl. Mix, then spread over the tray and bake for 12-15 minutes, until a nice, golden color.
2) For the soup, cut the onion into cubes. Cut the pumpkin into 1-inch cubes. I used a Hokkaido pumpkin and used the skin, because it's the only pumpkin with edible skin. Peel the carrots, then cut them into medium slices. Grate the zest from the orange.
3) Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add the onion, season and sauté for a minute, then reduce the heat to low and cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally until soft and slightly golden.
4) Add the pumpkin and carrot and roast for 2 minutes, turning the heat to medium. Then add the saffron and the water or stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, until the pumpkin and carrots are almost tender. Add the orange zest and simmer for five minutes longer.
5) When the vegetables are cooked completely, purée the soup with a hand held blender. Add water or vegetable stock if the soup is too thick. Season to taste.
6) Serve with the roasted pumpkin seeds and crème fraîche.
Serves: 6
Active preparation time: 10 minutes
Total preparation time: 40 minutes
Here's how my soup looks:
I only had very few seeds, because I forgot buying pumpkin seeds, but they were delicious in the soup and added a little crunch. But they didn't last until I took the picture. I didn't use the crème fraîche, because the pumpkin lends the soup more than enough creaminess.
I particularly loved the depth the saffron adds. Pumpkin and carrots are slightly sweet, and the saffron balances the sweetness with its distinct, earthy flavor. The orange zest lends this soup a hint of fruitiness.
Have fun trying and have a great week!
I'm back with a little weekend baking project for you. I don't know about you but I love to carve some time out of the weekend to bake. It always brings me in a good mood - and usually everybody else who's getting to eat the finished project as well.
I have a couple of die-hard Nutella fans at home. My boyfriend loves it, my sister's boyfriend as well and I myself have very fond memories of spooning Nutella directly out of the glass whenever nobody else was at home. I know I know healthy is different but sometimes I just needed that.
I discovered the following recipe for a Halvah and Nutella Babka on the food52.com website a while ago while browsing through new recipes. I fell in love with it at first sight. The babka looked absolutely beautiful and seemed to have the perfect amount of chocolate. And it's practical! You can enjoy your bread and you don't even have to spread Nutella on it anymore, because it comes with it. I changed the recipe a little bit, by added roasted chopped hazelnuts instead of the halvah. Mostly, because I don't know where I'd have to start searching to get ahold of halvah in Switzerland. So I decided to take the safe step and add hazelnuts which are already in the Nutella.
Here's the link to the recipe: http://food52.com/recipes/37134-halvah-and-nutella-babka
And here's the recipe:
600g (4 cups; 21 oz) all-purpose flour
110g (1/2 cup) superfine sugar (I only had granulated on hand, which is a fine substitute)
2 teaspoons instant yeast (about 1 sachet with 7g in it)
3 large eggs
125ml (1/2 cup) water, at room temperature or hand-hot
1 teaspoon salt
140g (2/3 cup) unsalted butter, cubed
2/3 cup Nutella (I used probably double, but forgot to keep track with the measuring)
100g (3.5 oz) hazelnuts
80ml (1/3 cup) water
90g (6 tablespoons) granulated sugar
1) Preheat the oven to 200°C (395°F). Place the hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
2) For the dough add the flour, sugar, salt and yeast to a stand mixer with a dough hook or use a hand-held mixer with dough hooks.
3) Add the eggs and water and mix on low speed for a few seconds. Increase the speed to medium and mix for 3 minutes, until the dough comes together. Add the butter, a few cubes at a time, mixing until incorporated into the dough.
4) Continue mixing for about 10 minutes on medium speed until the dough is completely smooth, elastic and shiny. Don't worry, the butter will smudge all over the bowl at first, but it slowly will ease into the dough. If the dough keeps sticking to the sides, add a little bit of flour until the dough comes off the sides of your bowl.
5) Cover your bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 2 hours or overnight.
6) Divide the dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into two rectangles of 40 x 30 cm (15 x 11 inches). Trim the sides to make your rectangle even. Using a spatula, spread the rectangles evenly with the Nutella, until everything is thinly or thickly (depends on what you like) covered. Chop the your roasted hazelnuts and sprinkle them over the top.
7) Using both hands roll the dough into a long log. Brush a little water along the long side to seal.
8) Transfer the dough to a cutting board or sheet pan and freeze the dough for 15 minutes to make the next step easier.
9) Working with one roll at a time, use a serrated knife to trim 1/2 inch off both ends of the roll. Use the knife to gently saw the roll into half lengthwise. With the cut sides facing up, gently pinch one end of each half together, then lift the right half over the left half. Repeat this process, so you end up twisting both half. Try keeping the cut sides facing up. When you get to the end, gently squeeze the tow halves together. Repeat with the remaining roll. Grease two loaf pans, lift the cakes into the prepared tins and cover with a damp tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place for 1 to 1,5 hours. The dough will rise slowly, because the dough is cool and it has butter in it and grease slows the yeast down.
10) Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Remove the tea towels, place the cakes on the middle rack of the oven and bake for about 30 to 40 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. When the cakes are turning a little dark, cover them with a paper towel.
11) While the cakes are in the oven, make the syrup. Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. As soon as the cakes come out of the oven, brush them liberally with the syrup. Use all of it.
12) Let the loaves cool for about 30 minutes before removing from the pans to cool completely.
Yield: 2 loaves
Active preparation time: about 40 minutes
Total preparation time: at least 5 hours
Here's how my babkas look:
I love how beautiful these twists look. The butter in the dough lends these babkas an almost brioche-like taste and the Nutella perfectly complements this. Freezing the dough before sawing it is just genius! Had I been anywhere near Yossi Arefi - this recipe's author - I would have given her the biggest hug. It makes the job soooooo much easier! I promise everyone can do this. All you have to do roll the dough, spread some chocolatey goodness on it, roll it up, freeze and cut. It's that easy.
This recipe takes time which is why I'm introducing you to it before the weekend. It's not your "It a weeknight and I am really craving brioche with Nutella" recipe. Give the dough the time it needs to develop its flavor and let it rise. Your patience will be rewarded. I promise!
I took one loaf to the office on Monday. It was gone in no time.
Have fun trying and have a sunny weekend!
It's monday and time for a new meat-free recipe coming your way. We've had rather chilly weather and I have been craving more comfort food. Anything rustic, hearty and cheese sounds good to me at the moment. I am in full fall mode, I guess.
I have had mac'n'cheese while visiting the U.S. after high school graduation and have started to love it back then. I know the dish doesn't have the healthiest reputation, but this recipe from Jamie Oliver uses skim milk for the béchamel sauce base and not as much cheese as other recipes so the recipe clocks in at less calories than most of the sandwiches you're buying for lunch every day. I also like the addition of tomatoes. They add sweetness, a slight fruitiness and lighten the cheese base.
The recipe is originally from Jamie Oliver's book "Jamie's America" but has been published online as well. Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/a-killer-mac-n-cheese/#XIoU7V3gjtAHFZhI.97
Here's how I do it:
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
45g (1/3 stick) unsalted butter
3 heaped tablespoons all-purpose flour
10 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced (optional)
6 bay leaves
1 litre (4 cups; 32 fl.oz) skimmed milk
600g (21 oz) dried macaroni
8 tomatoes
150g (5.3 oz) grated cheddar
100g (3.5 oz; 1 1/4 cups) grated parmesan
leaves from a few sprigs of thyme
2 splashes worcestershire sauce (optional)
1 grating nutmeg (optional)
3 handfuls fresh breadcrumbs
1) Bring a large pan of water to the boil.
2) Melt the butter in a large pan on low heat, then add the flour and turn the heat of to medium, stirring the whole time, until you get a paste. If you use the garlic, add it to the paste and cook until golden and the garlic is nice and sticky. Add the bay leaves and slowly whisk in the milk little at a time to ensure a smooth sauce. Bring the sauce to the boil, then leave it on low heat to simmer away and thicken for about 5 minutes.
3) Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook according to packet directions.
4) While your pasta is cooking, roughly chop the tomatoes and season them generously with salt and pepper. Grate the cheeses.
5) When your pasta is ready, drain it. Add the cheeses to the sauce and stir until melted. Immediately mix the pasta with the sauce and add the tomatoes and thyme leaves. Season again with salt, pepper and a little nutmeg or Worcestershire sauce, until it has reached your liking.
6) Pour the whole paste and sauce into a large oven-proof baking dish. Bake it for 30 minutes in the oven until golden, bubbling and crispy.
7) While the pasta is cooking, make the breadcrumbs. Put the breadcrumbs with a drizzle of olive oil and a few thyme leaves in a pan and roast until golden and crunchy all over. Serve with the macaroni.
Serves: 8
Active preparation time: 30 minutes
Total preparation time: 1 hour
Here's how mine turned out:
I love the warm cheesy sauce, the fruitiness from the tomatoes. A deep, creamy pasta dish hits the spot on any given fall day and helps end the day perfectly.
The recipe worked really nicely. It is super easy and doesn't take hours to prepare. You'll do half of the work, the oven will do the rest of it for you. Is there anything else you need?
Have fun trying and keep cosy during the longer, darker fall nights!
And here goes the weekend baking. I love nothing more than a good baking project for the weekend, because usually it makes everybody happy.
My god mother's birthday was last week and because it was a big one I wanted to surprise her by sending her a package. I have learned from my experience with boyfriends and best friends in military service that biscotti or cantuccini as they're called in Italy work great for sending, because they keep well for a long time and won't break easily. Perfect to send them on a long trip.
This recipe is from Cynthia Barcomi's latest book "Cookies". She introduces four new recipes for cantuccini all of which are delicious and super easy.
Here's the recipe:
100g (3.5 oz) hazelnuts
270g (2 3/4 cups + 1 tablespoon; 9.5 oz) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
150g (5.3 oz) dried figs
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, for the figs
100g (a little more than 3/4 stick; 3.5 oz) unsalted butter
40g (2 slightly heaping tablespoons) granulated sugar
40g (2 slightly heaping tablespoons) dark brown sugar
zest of 1 organic orange, grated
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1) Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Line a baking tray with baking paper. Roast the hazelnuts for 6 minutes in the oven, then let them cool. Chop them roughly.
2) Mix the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Sprinkle the figs with the extra tablespoon of flour, then chop them roughly. Mix with the nuts.
3) Grate the zest from the orange. In a kitchen machine or a hand held blender, whisk the butter and both sugars along with the orange zest for 6 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla extract and mix everything.
4) Mix with the flour-mixture, then add the figs and nuts until everything is just coming together. The dough is a little sticky, but that is just right.
5) Divide the dough in half. Roll each half into a loaf of 22cm (9 inches) length.
6) Bake for 22-25 minutes until golden. Let cool slightly on the baking tray, then take a large serrated knife and cut the loafs into 1cm thick slices. Place cut-side up on the baking tray. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle the biscotti with the cinnamon sugar.
7) Reduce the oven temperature to 170° (340°F). Bake the biscotti for 8 minutes, then take the tray out of the oven, turn the biscotti and sprinkle the other side with cinnamon sugar as well. Bake for another 8 minutes.
8) Let the biscotti cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes.
© Cynthia Barcomi "Cookies", p. 134.
Yield: about 24 pieces
Active preparation time: 25 minutes
Total preparation time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Here's how mine turned out:
I love how you can stack them in a glass and keep them on the countertop - they'll be gone like the wind.
These cantuccini come with a wide range of flavors. There's zesty orange flavor, slightly tangy, the hazelnuts add warmth and earthiness, the figs crackle beautifully in your mouth when you take a bite and the cinnamon sugar sprinkle adds warmth and brings the different flavors together.
Don't be taken aback by the number of steps. The steps in itself are simple and easy and you will be rewarded with beautiful homemade biscotti in no time.
Have fun trying and have a great weekend!
It's monday and this is the first meat-free monday post I've written in a while. Fall is in a full swing here in Switzerland and the sun has worked up the force to beat the fog, so I decided to make something easy and fast that didn't need a lot of work and soak up the nice weather as much as possible. I still wanted some comfort food though, which is why I turned to a risotto recipe from Donna Hay. Her oven-baked risottos are fool-proof and absolutely delicious. It's like magic - throw all ingredients into a oven-proof tin, give them a quick stir and let your oven cook the rice for 30 minutes until it's perfectly creamy and cooked. And you're free to do whatever you like in the meantime.
This recipe is from Donna Hay's latest book "the new easy" which features a ton of new, fast recipes that need little prep, but nevertheless offer a ton of flavor. The recipe happens to be vegetarian and can be tweaked into being vegan, so it's a perfect meat-free alternative.
Here's the recipe:
30g (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
1 onion
2 tablespoon lemon thyme
2 cloves of garlic (optional, as always)
250g (8.8 oz; 1 1/4 cups) arborio rice (or any risotto rice you have on hand)
1l (32 fl.oz; 4 cups) chicken or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon lemon zest (from 1 medium organic lemon)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
80g (2.8 oz; 1 cup) grated parmesan (or a vegan cheese substitute)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 handfuls fresh basil (1 package of 20g)
1) Preheat the oven to 200°C (395°F). Dice the onion finely. Press the garlic cloves. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and cook the onion and thyme for 5 minutes until the onions has softened. Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds.
2) Add the onion-garlic mixture to your oven-proof baking dish. Add the rice and stock, give it a stir and cover with aluminium foil. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
3) If you didn't buy grated parmesan, grate the parmesan while the risotto is baking. Grate the lemon zest as well. Cut the basil leaves into thin strips.
4) When the risotto has cooked, stir through the parmesan, lemon juice and lemon zest and basil and season with salt and pepper.
© Donna Hay "the new easy", p. 133.
Yield: 4 portions
Active preparation time: 10 minutes
Total preparation time: 40 minutes
Here's how mine turned out:
I love how quick and easy you can assemble this risotto. I also adore the flavors. If you're looking for a risotto that's suitable for fall, try Donna's version with sweet potato and bacon.
This risotto has just the right amount of freshness from the lemon while the basil and parmesan round the flavor and take you straight to a sun-filled day in Italy - in your mind at least. You can perfectly eat this on its own or serve it along some saltimbocca (if you're not on meat-free monday).
Have fun trying and have a lovely, sunny, golden fall week!
I know what you want to say. There's soo many pancake recipes out there, every family has its own favorite recipe or recipes they've been making for a long long time. I have had my own fair share of searching for the perfect recipe. I finally found my favorite recipe about two years ago, by accident. I had tried countless recipes by that time but had never been completely satisfied. Either the pancakes weren't fluffy enough or they wouldn't hold their shape well, but the dough would be so runny, you'd end up with a thin, large pancake and I like smaller pancakes that hold their shape well and end up fluffy and perfect.
The recipe is from Cynthia Barcomi's "Backbuch", her first book. I didn't buy the book for its pancake recipe - which I have done in the past, buying a book for a certain recipe. I have a slight cookbook addiction, I admit. But even though I discovered this recipe by accident, I have been making it ever since and never even tried a different pancake recipe.
Here's the recipe:
180g (1 cup + 1 heaping tablespoon) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
30g (2 tablespoons) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
200ml (3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon) milk
30g (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
unsalted butter, for baking
1) Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix.
2) Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Whisk the milk and eggs in.
3) Combine the wet with the dry ingredients and beat until the dough is smooth.
4) Preheat a large pan over medium-high heat and grease with a little butter. Add 1/8 cup of dough to the pan. Bake up to two pancakes at the same time. You know it's time to flip the pancakes when they are starting to form bubbles on the top.
Yield: about 12 pancakes
Serves: 2 as a main breakfast, 4 as a "starter" breakfast
Active preparation time: 15 minutes
Total preparation time: 15 minutes
Here's how mine look:
I apologize for the quality of the picture. It was such a grey day outside, I had to switch on a lamp to get enough light.
I served the pancakes with maple syrup and a quick plum compote (that's 6 plums, cut into pieces, 125ml (1/2 cup water), 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, seeds from one vanilla pod and 1 cinnamon stick, brought to a boil and cooked for 6 minutes until the plums start breaking down). In summer, we usually go for a mix of blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. But feel free to use whatever you love. You could easily sprinkle chocolate chips on the unbaked side before flipping for chocolate pancakes, for example. Let your creativity loose!
And here's the pancakes with a quick blueberry sauce (1 package frozen blueberries brought to a light boil and 1 tablespoon maple syrup added for a hint of sweetness).
Have fun trying and have a great start to the weekend spoiling your loved ones!
