Bonn Marathon - April 22, 2012

On Sunday, the Bonn Marathon took place. Every year this is the largest sports event held in the City of Bonn. It was called the "Deutsche Post Marathon Bonn" since it was sponsered by the German postal service. The Bonn marathon event got started in 2001 and, over the years, has gained much in popularity, so much so that it has made it into the top ten of German marathons.

The 42.195 km route always leads along the right and left banks of the Rhine river. The finish line was located at the beautiful Bonn market place.

On Sunday, in addition to the main marathon, there was a half-marathon, a relay competition for schools, a competition for company teams and wheelchair users. Inline skaters and power walkers were also admitted. The focus of this event is always to attract as many participants as possible from all walks of life - to have top athletes and amateurs participate together in the same race.

The organizers counted a total of 12,128 participants from 53 different nations. And about 200,000 spectators lined the streets of the City of Bonn to cheer them on.

So, in order to cheer on the "marathon runners" in my life, I decided to bake some "Banana-Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies" (by the way, the organizers distributed about 27,000 bananas to the participants - that is a lot of bananas).











Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies
(as adapted from Martha Stewart "Cookies",  published in 2008 by Clarkson Potter)


Ingredients:

1 cup (140g) AP flour
• 1/2 cup (70 g) whole-wheat flour
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup (170 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (120 g) superfine sugar
• 1/2 cup (100 g) light-brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg (L), use free range or organic whenever possible

• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or 2 tsp. pure vanilla sugar
• 1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large)
• 1 cup (110 g) old-fashioned rolled oats
• 8 ounces (230 g) semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Lindt Excellence 70 %)
• 1/2 cup (60 g) coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted (optional)


Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper (unbleached if possible) or silicone mats.

1. In a small bowl, whisk together flours, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.

2. Place butter and both sugars into the bowl of your electric mixer, mix on medium until pale and fluffy.

3. With the mixer running on low, add egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

4. Mix in the mashed banana.

5. Add the flour mixture, mix until just combined.

6. Then stir in the oats, chocolate chunks and walnuts.

7. Using an ice cream scoop, drop dough onto prepared baking sheets.

8. Bake cookies for 12 to 13 minutes and let cool on sheets on wire racks for 5 minutes.

9. Transfer cookies to wire racks and let cool completely.

Enjoy!

See you there next year on April 14, 2013

French Fridays with Dorie - Coconut Friands

Today's recipe schedule for the French Fridays with Dorie group calls for Coconut Friands.

As Dorie Greenspan mentiones in her introduction to the recipe, Friands and Financiers are both very popular small French tea cakes. The difference between the two kinds of "Petits Gâteaux" is not always easy to make out. Financiers usually contain almond meal, browned butter and confectioner`s sugar.




The Friands, on the other hand, often contain desiccated coconut, small pieces of fresh or dried fruit or even a bit of jam.

The Friands have become very popular in Australian and New Zealand baking and are widely available treats at the coffee shops there.

They are often baked in small rectangular or oval shaped baking pans or mini muffin trays.

As mentioned above, bakers often add a bit of fruit such as raspberries, strawberries, blueberries or even apples to the batter before baking.

Since both the almond meal/fruit version as well as the coconut/Dorie version of the Friand recipe looked delicious, I decided to bake two batches. First, I baked Almond Raspberry Friands, following an Australian recipe.

The recipe that I chose contains almond meal as well as some shredded coconut. It yields only six little tea cakes and seemed perfect for the half dozen mini loaf pans that I bought the other day. The addition of ground almonds made these pretty little cakes very moist and the raspberries were a nice compliment to the nuts. We liked them a lot.

Then I pulled out twelve little tartelette molds.These molds are from my very favorite Dutch/Belgian kitchen supply store but I had never gotten around to using them before. I guess they were just waiting to be used for Dorie's recipe. I buttered (and lightly floured) them. Prepared the batter, baked them for 17 minutes and turned them out while still hot because I was scared that they would never release from these mini molds.

But they did not stick to the molds and I ended up with 24 Coconut Friands, one dozen with blueberries, the other dozen plain, as per the original recipe.

These dainty little cakes turned out to be crisp on the outside with a soft and chewy macaroon centre.

Looking at them, I believe that they can be served dusted with some confectioner`s sugar, with a bit of vanilla ice cream or softly whipped cream on the side or, simply, just on their own.

They certainly are delicious, no matter how you serve them and whether you add fruit to the batter or not.

All in all, the Friands are quite easy to prepare and the whole family enjoyed them, no real preference there as to the addition of fruit or almond meal. I will certainly make them again soon.

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

Tuesdays with Dorie - Lemon Loaf Cake

If life hands you strawberries and lemons, bake a lemon loaf cake but use a large brioche pan instead of a loaf pan and top the cake with fresh strawberries. Do not forget to serve some whipped cream, on the side.

This is my first post for the Tuesdays with Dorie group. When I read that the recipe chosen for today was a lemon cake, I was thrilled because lemon desserts are my favorite desserts. I love lemon pudding, lemon cupcakes, lemon just about everything...

So to change my usual routine of grabbing a loaf pan when baking a lemon pound/loaf cake, I decided to use a large brioche pan, drizzle the cooled cake with a bit of a confectioners' sugar glaze with lemon juice and top the cake with fresh strawberries.

There are a lot of strawberries available at different farmers' markets around here and  I just love the combination of strawberries and lemons. Sometimes I serve a little bit of softly whipped cream on the side.

Todays recipe yields a nice and dense cake - my family liked this cake quite a bit.

Ode To The Lemon by Pablo Neruda


"From blossom
released
by the moonlight,
from an
aroma of exasperated
love,
steeped in fragrance,
yellowness
drifted from the lemon tree,
and from its plantarium
lemons descended to the earth.
(...)"






This weeks´ recipe is hosted by Truc of Treats and Michelle of The Beauty Of Life and if you would like to see what the other members of Tuesdays With Dorie were up to this week, please click here.

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.