French Fridays with Dorie - Sardine Rillettes

"Sardine Rillettes" or "les rillettes de sardine" is a popular appetizer in France. Dorie Greenspan's recipe calls for canned sardines (packed in olive oil), cream cheese, herbs, lemon/lime juice and "piment d'espelette" (ground peppers from the town of Esplette in the French Basque region). French recipes often call for soft goat cheese (chèvre) and tarragon vinegar. The French also serve this appetizer or spread with soft-boiled eggs or tomatoes, crackers or baguette...there seem to be endless variations on this recipe.

My first task was to get good quality sardines packed in olive oil. My favorite Italian store carries only one kind, namely, "Aurora Sardines". They come in large and beautifully designed cans. Although I decided to double the recipe, I still have lots of sardines left. Since the rillettes were such a success at our house, maybe I will prepare some more on the weekend.


In her notes to her recipe, Dorie Greenspan mentiones that in Paris, the sardine rillettes sometimes are served with a scoop of cornichon sorbet and that capers would also be a good addition. Well, I searched the internet high and low for a cornichon sorbet recipe but to no avail. Might have been interesting to try to make some. So while shopping for the sardines, I decided to pick up some cornichons. And a jar of pickled caper berries and some salt packed capers. I use them a lot in my cooking.






Once you assemble all the ingredients,  it takes only a few minutes to prepare the rillettes. They can easily be prepared in advance and even improve in taste after a few hours in the fridge. After a first taste test, I decided to add a few chopped capers to the rillettes. Great taste.



As herbs, I chose chives and parsley. They grow in abundance in my garden and they go very nicely with the rillettes.














So when I served them to my family as an appetizer (entrée) to our lunch, I served cornichons and caper berries alongside. I also toasted baguette rounds. Baguette always makes for a nice presentation and my family does not really like crackers all that much.








Everyone enjoyed the sardine rillettes and they liked the toasted baguette slices, cornichons and caper berries on the side.

To see what the other Doristas are up to, please click here.

Hazelnut Baby Cakes

On Dorie Greenspan's blog "In the Kitchen and on the Road with Dorie", she posted a French recipe for Almond Baby Cakes. She writes "If you play around with the recipe, let me know what you do ...please".

So there I was standing in my kitchen on Easter Monday morning, early morning, and it was quiet in the house. Ahhh...not a sound to be heard...more ahhh...And I was reading Dorie's post about Snickerdoodles and Almond Baby Cakes.
(By the  way, I do not believe that the word "Snickerdoodles" stems from the German "Schneckennudeln", a popular pastry that is very similar to Sticky Buns. I think I will do a post on "Schneckennudeln" soon. But I am straying from my actual theme here...)







But back to the business of baking Baby Cakes. Within minutes of reading Dorie's blog, my resolution NOT to do any more baking in the week after Easter, went out the kitchen window. In the week before Easter, I had baked Easter Bunny Cakes, Easter Bundts, muffins with bunny ears, marzipan Easter Lambs (tradition in this country) and cookies, I had dyed hundred of eggs, packed countless Easter baskets and prepared a big Easter brunch. So in order to recover from my Easter baking and cooking frenzy, I decided that I should bake some more. Go figure.

But the recipe and the picture looked just too wonderful to resist. And after all, tweaking the recipe was tempting. Since I had exhausted my almond inventory when baking all these Easter Lamb Cakes and my Kirsch inventory when baking my European-style Carrot Cake, I decided to go with hazelnuts (skins on), raspberry Brandy and some pure vanilla sugar.

Since I seem to own and uncountable number of tart pans in all sorts of differents shapes and sizes, I decided to use little tart pans with removeable bottoms (4 inches/10 centimeters) as opposed to muffin tins.


This is my version of Dorie Greenspan's recipe for Baby Cakes
(Hazelnut Baby Cakes)

3 eggs, L ( use organic or free range whenever possible), at room temperature
2/3 cup superfine sugar
1 package pure vanilla sugar (contains ground vanilla bean)
1 pinch of fine sea salt
5 ounces (150 g) ground hazelnuts, not too finely ground
5 tbsp (70 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tbsp raspberry Brandy (Himbeergeist)

12 tart pans with removeable bottoms (4 inches/10 centimeters), buttered and lined with unbleached parchment paper rounds, then buttered again and floured ( better safe here than sorry later)


Preparation:
(preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit/175 degrees Celsius)

1. In your mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugar until the mixture is thick and pale yellow.

2. Add the vanilla sugar and the salt and whisk again briefly.

3. To the egg mixture, add the ground hazelnuts and whisk some more, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

4. Switch to a spatula and knead  the butter until it gets to be very soft.

5.  Then add the butter to the batter, a small piece at a time until all the butter is used up and beat until blended.

6. Turn the mixer speed to low, add the raspberry Brandy and beat some more.

7. Using an ice cream scoop, spoon the batter into the twelve tart pans.

8. Place the tart pans on a baking sheet and transfer to the preheated oven.

9. Bake the Baby Cakes for about 25 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

10. Cool for a few minutes, turn the cakes out and cool completely.


Serving:

Serve plain or with raspberries ( harmonizing with the raspberry Brandy) and/ or some softly whipped cream.

I should mention that while baking, the smell of these Baby Cakes was absolutely terrific. And I had no trouble turning them out of the tart pans, that parchment paper sure helped. And the taste was wonderful, everyone loved them plain as well as with berries and cream. Wonderful recipe!

French Fridays with Dorie - Asparagus with Bits of Bacon

The recipe chosen for todays FFwD group is wonderful.

I adore asparagus wether ist is white or green or violet. My favorite method of preparation is somewhat similar to this recipe but with a bit more of an Italian touch, like olive oil, basil, tomatoes etc. But todays asparagus dish looks far more elegant and is probably better suited to a more formal dinner. The taste of this dish is not overpowered by the onion and the bacon. The walnut oil is also a nice compliment to the dish. All in all this is a dish that is simple to prepare, can be presented in a nice and elegant way and has a taste that is just right for springtime.

The reason why I used white and not green asparagus is simple. White asparagus is the traditional type of asparagus grown in Germany and other parts of Europe. It is an early spring crop and harvest season lasts only for a few weeks.

Since German locally-grown asparagus has not hit the market around here, I bought Greek asparagus for this recipe.

The main difference to the green variety is that the white asparagus must be peeled. The outside of the asparagus is fibrous and woody. But using an asparagus peeler or a sharp paring knife makes an easy task of this job.

You start peeling the asparagus just below the head and keep it wrapped in damp kitchen towels until ready to use.














In order to grow white asparagus, the plants are not exposed to any sunlight whatsoever. The production of chlorophyll is prevented by mounding sand and compost (about 40 centimeters/16 inches) over the root stock.

That is called the "hilling method" and on the picture that I just took of my local asparagus farmer's field, you can see that the mounds of earth look like endless rows in a field, covered with black plastic sheets in order to attract some heat from the sun.

To see what the other Doristas are up to, please click here.

Lindt Gold Bunny 60. Anniversary Bundt

The Lindt Gold Bunny has been part of my family's Easter celebration for as long as I can remember. At Easter, there was always one or two Lindt milk chocolate bunnies in my Easter nest or hiding in the backyard. The chocolate tastes wonderfully smooth and caramelly. And the golden foil and little bell around its neck were an added fun feature. Everybody I know used to collect the tiny red necklaces.

And this year marks the 60. Anniversary of the Lindt Gold Bunny.  In order to celebrate this Anniversary, I decided to bake a Gugelhupf/Bundt.

The recipe that I chose  is a Lindt recipe that I baked numerous times over the years and it always turns out moist and chocolaty. But I should add that since the cake contains egg liquor and dark chocolate, it is decidedly a cake that you should place in the grown-up section of the Easter brunch table.

Recipe for the Lindt Gold Bunny 60. Anniversary Bundt
(Egg Liquor and Dark Chocolate Gugelhupf)
As translated and adapted from a Lindt recipe

Ingredients

For the Cake

300 g  (10.5 ounces) Lindt Excellence 70%
225 g (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
150 g confectioner' s sugar (1 1/4 cups)
1 package pure vanilla sugar (can be substituted with 2 tsp pure vanilla extract)
225 g (1 1/2 cups and 2 tsp)  AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1//8 tsp fine sea salt
225 ml egg liquor (I used Verpoorten)

For the Glaze

100 ml cream
30 g (3 tbsp) unsalted butter
75 g (6 tbsp) sugar

Preparation

For the Cake

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).

2. Butter and flour a  Bundt pan (6 cup capacity plus a mini Bundt) or other cake pan.

3. With a serrated knife, break up/ cut the chocolate, the chunks should be rather small. Then divide the chocolate and put half aside. One half will be used for the cake, the other half will be used for the glaze.

4.  Using your electric mixer, beat butter, confectioner's sugar and vanilla sugar (if using) in bowl until light and fluffy (that will take about 5 minutes).

5.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Add vanilla extract (if using).

6. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Take 2 Tbsp of this mixture.

7. In another bowl, toss the chopped chocolate  with the two Tbsp of the flour mixture (to avoid that the chocolate pieces will sink to the bottom of the cake while baking).

8. Add the flour mixture in two additions alternately with the egg liquor in one addition, beating just until blended  after each addition.

8. Switch to a spatula and gently fold in the chopped chocolate.

9. Transfer the batter to the prepared Bundt pans and smooth the top.

10.  Place the Bundt pan on the rack in the oven and bake for about 60 minutes and/or until a tester inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack.

11. Cool in pan on rack for about 10 minutes, transfer to a rack to cool completely.

For the Glaze

1. In a small saucepan heat the cream with the butter until the mixture comes to a boil. Take the pan off the heat.

2. Add the second half of the chopped chocolate and stir gently. Let cool for a few minutes.

3. In another small saucepan boil 50 ml water with the sugar and when the sugar is dissolved, add the sugar mixture to the chocolate mixture and stir until shiny and smooth.

4. Let the glaze cool for a while until it is thickens and then pour it evenly over the completely cooled cake.

5. Place the glazed cake in the fridge for about 30 minutes if  you prefer a crunchier glaze.

Easter Egg Bundt

There are so many different kinds of wonderful Easter eggs to choose from. There is cream-filled ones, there are eggs with nuts or caramel or gianduja, with coffee or vanilla. There are dark chocolate, white and milk chocolate eggs. And there are boozy ones, last week, I even tried one with Barolo.

But the eggs that I have always been faithful to are the "Lindt Cresta" Easter eggs. These are milk chocolate eggs fiiled with nougat cream and caramel brittle. All wrapped up in shiny red foil. Not only delicious but also very pretty to look at!

This year I was looking for an excuse to enjoy these wonderful chocolate eggs in more ways than one...and decided to bake a simple vanilla Bundt cake that would be filled with chopped up "Lindt Cresta" Easter eggs.
As far as the recipe is concerned, which better source to turn to than "the Bundt Lady" herself (I sincerly hope that she doesn't mind that expression, it is meant as a big compliment).

In 2009 Mary "the foodlibrarian" started to organize the "I Love Big Bundts" event in order to celebrate National Bundt Day on November 15th and decided to bake a Bundt a day for the 30 days leading up to that day. Last year, I baked a Bundt for that event too and so did many others. The wonderful pictures of all the Bundts that the participants sent in can be found on Mary's blog.


Recipe for Easter Egg Bundt Cake
(adapted from the Halloween Candy Bundt from Mary at thefoodlibrarian)

Ingredients

1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (200 g) superfine sugar
1 package pure vanilla sugar (can be substituted with 2 tsp pure vanilla extract)
1 egg (large)
2 egg whites (from large eggs, all 3 eggs at room temperature)
2 cups (250'g) AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
3/4 whole milk, room temperature
2 bags Easter eggs chopped (I used Lindt "Cresta" chocolate eggs, each bag weighs 100 g/3.5 ounces)

Glaze (optional)

confectioner' s sugar
or
chocolate glaze


Preparation

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees  Celsius).

2. Butter and flour a  Bundt pan (10 or 12 cup capacity).

3. Using your electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, and vanilla sugar (if using) in bowl until light and fluffy.

4. Add egg and egg whites, one at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Add vanilla extract (if using).

5. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Take 2 Tbsp of this mixture.

6. In another bowl, toss the chopped Easter eggs with the two Tbsp of the flour mixture (to avoid that the chopped Easter eggs will sink to the bottom of the cake while baking).

7. Add the flour mixture in two additions alternately with the milk in one addition, beating just until blended  after each addition.

8. Switch to a spatula and gently fold in the chopped chocolate.

9. Transfer the batter to the prepared Bundt pan and smooth the top.

10.  Place the Bundt pan on the rack in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes and/or until a tester inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack.

11. Cool in pan on rack for about 10 minutes, transfer to a rack to cool completely and dust with confectioner' s sugar.

European-Style Carrot Cake

There are countless recipes for carrot cakes.

There are the North-American carrot cake recipes, of course, often times layered cakes with a cream cheese frosting. Then there are Swedish, Austrian, British, Swiss and German carrot cakes, to name but a few.

Over the years, I have baked my way through numerous recipes and have developed an undeniable liking for the North-American carrot cake with a nice thick cream cheese frosting. A lot of my friends have followed my lead and one day I was asked to bake one for a dessert buffet. Well, I agreed and in the end it was a hit but it was also quite a task to transport the finished cake 500 kilometers across the country, warm weather an all and all those cold packs strapped to the cake carrier.

But today, I am writing about a, lets call it european-style carrot cake that I have known since my early childhood. No oil, no butter, no cream cheese in my recipe, simply delicious. The Swiss have a saying "A carrot cake only tastes really good three days after it was baked". I do not know about those three days but I do know that it does keep well for a few days and that flavors do improve with time.

Recipe for Eurpean-Style Carrot Cake
(this cake can be baked in a 9 inch (23 centimeter) springform pan or other round cake pan

Ingredients

300 g (2 1/2 cups) hazelnuts (almonds can be substituted)
4 large eggs, separated
1 pinch of fine sea salt
200 g (1 1/2 cups) confectioner's sugar, divided in two parts and sifted
2 tbsp Kirsch
25 g (3 tbsp) starch
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, from Ceylon if possible
1/8 tsp ground cloves
zest from an orange ( organic if possible)
 1 package pure vanilla sugar (2 tsp pure vanilla extract can be substituted)
8 medium carrots, finely grated  (about 2 cups when lightly packed)

Glaze (optional)

Some apricot jam, confectioner' s sugar, Kirsch and milk.

Decoration (optional)

Small marzipan carrots, ground unsalted pistachio, slivered almonds

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (355 degrees Fahrenheit).

2. Butter and flour your baking pan. If you line the pan with parchment paper, butter and flour that as well or substitute finely ground bread crumbs for the flour.

3. Grind the hazelnuts in a food processor until finely ground.

4. In the bowl of your mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites with the salt until soft peaks form. Then add half the sifted confectioner's sugar and continue to beat for a few seconds.

5. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with the other half of the confectioner's sugar, the orange zest and the  Kirsch until the mixture is thick and pale yellow ( if you are using vanilla extract, add it now).

6. To the ground hazelnuts add the starch, cinnamon, cloves and vanilla sugar.

7. Switch to a spatula and add the nut mixture, alternating with the grated carrots, to the egg mixture.

8. Fold in the egg white mixture.

9. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.

10. Bake in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes.

11. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove the sides of the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.


For the glaze
(optional, you can serve the cake also with a dusting of confectioner's sugar)

1. In a small bowl, heat a few tablespoons of apricot jam, put it through a strainer and glaze the cake. Let the apricot glaze set for a few minutes.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk some confectioner's sugar with one teaspoon of Kirsch and a bit of milk.

3. Pour the glaze over the cake. Let the second glaze set for a few minutes and decorate with little marzipan carrots, ground unsalted pistachios, or slivered almonds.

Easter Bunny Marble Cake

Yesterday we dyed our first Easter eggs, today I baked  Easter Bunny Marble Cakes using a straightforward Marble Cake recipe.

I was given this recipe in 1989 and have been using it ever since. It is a very versatile recipe, it can be used to bake Marble Cakes in a variety of different baking pans.

Recipe for Marble Cake
(this recipe can be baked in a 10 cup Bundt pan, springform or loaf pan)

Ingredients

200 g (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
170 g (3/4 cup) superfine sugar
1 package pure vanilla sugar (or 2 tsp pure vanilla extract)
4 eggs, use organic or free range whenever possible finely grated zest of a lemon, use organic if possible
200 g (1 1/2 cups) AP flour, sifted
1/8 tsp fine salt (I use fine sea salt)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

For the chocolate dough add:
2 tbsp dutch process cocoa powder
2 tbsp superfine sugar
3 tbsp milk, room temperature


Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius).

2. Butter and flour your baking pan.

3. In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy.

4. Add the sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

5. Beat in the vanilla sugar or extract.

6. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

7. Beat in the lemon zest.

8. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, the salt and the baking powder.

9. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix only until combined.

10. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan. To the other half add the cocoa powder, sugar and milk and mix only until combined. Do not overmix.

11. Add the chocolate batter to the vanilla batter in the pan and carefully draw swirls through the batter to marbleize it.

12. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes.

13. Place on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes before removing the cake from the pan to cool completely.

14. Decorate as desired.

Dying the First Easter Eggs

" So the little brown hen made her way sadly home again. It was then she heard a tiny cheeping sound. There in the long grass she saw an egg. It was just the right size, the right shape and the right colour. TAP! TAP! the egg cracked! And inside was her own fluffy, yellow chick."
(Excerpt from "Is that my Egg?", Keith Faulkner, 1999, Brainwaives Ltd.)



Today, we dyed our first Easter eggs of the season.

Around this time of year, there are many different types of Easter egg dyes in German stores.

Of course, you can make your own natural Easter egg dyes by using onion skins, different kinds of tea leaves, coffee grinds, spinach, red cabbage etc. but this year, we decided to go for the ready made dyes.

There is a whole range of wonderful colors available.

There is the "cold egg dye", the "warm egg dye", the "pastel dye", the "marble/glitter dye", etc. For today, we chose bold colors and when the eggs where done, we even had a visit from a curious little bunny called "Kasimir".

For the "warm egg dye", you simply dissolve a color tablet in hot water and vinegar, add the still warm, hard-boiled eggs to the dye, leave the eggs in the dye for a few minutes and let them dry by placing them in egg cartons.

If you want to add some shine to the eggs, simply rub them with a bit of regular salad oil or, as my Grandmother used to do it, with a bit of pork rind...well, in addition to the shine, it certainely added a nice smell to the eggs.

French Fridays with Dorie - Crab and Grapefruit Salad

This was my first go at a recipe chosen by the FFwD group.

Well, I joined the group a little late. But while preparing the Crab and Grapefruit Salad today, I was glad that I did. Not only was it a lot of fun preparing a dish on the same day as many others of you did/do but the final result was a very nice and fresh tasting salad.

Even my kids enjoyed it quite a bit...after an all around taste test, there was no salad left. I liked the combination of shellfish with grapefruit, very refreshing and a nice colorful presentation.

Would certainely be a nice addition to my Easter brunch next week.

I must add that the salad had quite an "international flair". Although the shopping list was rather short, I did find myself scurrying around town to get shellfish from the North Sea, grapefruit from Israel, a cucumber and red pepper from Spain, scallions from Germany and mâche (lambs lettuce) from Belgium. The lettuce served as the final touch on top of the salad. And I bought the baguette that I served alongside the salad at my favorite French bakery.

The whole experience was a lot of fun and I am very much looking forward to next Friday.

To see what the other Doristas are up to, please click here.

It's a Janosch Theme Birthday Party!

Another Birthday, another cake! 

Well, it's time to bake another birthday cake. For this birthday, I decided to go with the "Janosch" theme again. Janosch (his real name is Horst Eckert) was born in 1931 and is one of the best-known living children"s book authors and artists. 

He has created numerous characters for his illustrated books, such as the "Little Tiger" ("der kleine Tiger"), the "Little Bear" ("der kleine Bär"), the "Frog" ("Günter Kastenfrosch"), and the famous "Tiger Duck" ("Tigerente"), to name but a few. His books include "The Trip to Panama" ("Oh, wie schön ist Panama"), "A Letter for Tiger" ("Post für den Tiger"), "Little Tiger, get well soon" ("Ich mach dich gesund, sagte der Bär") and "The Bremen Town Musicians" ("Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten").

Janosch has published too many books to list them all (some of them can be found in English on www.amazon.com and in German on www.amazon.de).

You can even find some Janosch Apps in your "iTunes App Store". One of the Apps, for example, allows the user to practise his or her English or German alphabet while enjoying all the cute Janosch illustrations.

Especially the design of the "Tiger Duck", a black and yellow striped, wooden pull-along duck, is reproduced on countless items such as clothing, shoes, china and cutlery.

Then there are CDs, DVDs, and many many other things that make my childrens' hearts leap for joy (www.janosch.de).

I bought a baking pan in the shape of the "Tiger Duck" (www.birkmann.de).

Then I decided to bake a chocolate and vanilla marble cake. Actually, since the baking pan is rather small, I always  bake a few  "Tiger Ducks" to feed the crowd.

And then there was a bit of store-bought Janosch chocolate decoration.

Janosch is always a big hit with kids great and small...