French Fridays with Dorie - Goat-Cheese Mini Gougères

Today the recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group are Goat-Cheese Mini Puffs or Gougères. An elegant, delicious and uncomplicated savory pastry.

These Gougères or “Windbeutel” (which can be loosely translated as “wind bags”) are very popular around here. I have prepared many different versions, my favorite savory version has grated Parmigiano Reggiano in the batter itself. But we also love them for dessert, filled with a bit of softly whipped cream. For us, Profiteroles are the ultimate impressive dessert. When I made Dorie´s recipe and tasted the Gougères that were light as air, I was delighted because this recipe is definitely versatile enough that it can be adapted to a somewhat sweeter version as well as to a savory version with various fillings.

For these Gougères you start out by preparing a basic Pâte à Choux, a Cream Puff Dough. A very light, twice-cooked pastry usually used for sweets and buns. It is made with flour, salt, butter, eggs, milk and a little sugar (if it is being used for a sweet version). As mentioned, choux pastry can be used to make profiteroles, éclairs and choux puffs and is also the basis of the dramatic dessert Gâteau St Honoré.

Choux pastry has a reputation for being somewhat difficult to master, but in fact it is no bother once you know the proper technique. A pre-heated hot oven is essential to raise and set the choux and if you take it out of the oven before it is cooked thoroughly, which means “firm to the touch”,  it will most certainly collapse. Any filling, sweet or savory,  should not be added until the last possible moment because it will make the choux pastry sag. I did choose to serve most of my goat-cheese filling “on the side”, so everyone could fill or not fill his/her Gougères as much or as little as they wanted.

I filled a pastry bag fitted with a large star nozzle to pipe the choux pastry onto parchment lined baking sheets to give the Gougères a bit of a fancy look. I baked them for about twenty minutes, let them rest and cool on the baking sheet while preparing the filling made of goat cheese (I used Picandou from France), cream cheese (I used Philadelphia cream cheese) and herbs (I used finely chopped Italian parsley), some freshly ground black pepper and some fine sea salt.

In conclusion, these delicious Goat-Cheese Mini Gougères make a great appetizer or savory alternative to your afternoon tea or coffee cake. They are an elegant treat that the whole family can enjoy.

To see how the other members of the French Fridays with Dorie group prepared these delicious little morsels, please click here.

"Rehrücken" (Austrian/German traditional Chocolate Almond Cake)

The recipe that I am featuring today is for a so-called “Rehrücken” (“Saddle of Venison Cake”), a chocolate almond cake with chocolate icing. “Rehrücken", a word that in German means "saddle of venison," is used to designate this cake with a long tradition behind it. The cake is like a saddle of venison only in its shape, and for many generations, molds made in the shape of a stylized saddle of venison have been manufactured especially for making this fanciful cake. These special molds are fluted and have deep indentations down the middle but if you do not own a "Rehrücken" baking pan, you should note that this cake can also be made in a deep loaf pan.

The almonds that are used to decorate the chocolate icing of the cake are meant to suggest the strips of bacon or salt pork inserted into genuine saddles of venison to lard them.

Recipe for Saddle of Venison Cake (“Rehrücken”)

Ingredients for the Cake

• 6 eggs (L),  separated (use free range or organic if possible)
• 100 grams (1 stick minus 1 tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus some more for buttering the pan
• 180 grams (1 cup minus 1 tbsp) superfine white sugar
• 2 tbsp Kirsch (you can substitute dark rum)
• zest of  ½ organic orange (about ½ tsp)
• 50 grams (1/3 cup) dark chocolate cocoa powder (I always use a good qualty German or Dutch brand)
• 1/8 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 100 grams (3/4 cup) plain/AP flour, plus some more for flouring the pan (a lot of Europeans use fine breadcrumbs or finely groung nuts to "dust" their baking pans)
• 50 grams (1/3 cup) potato starch 
• 100 grams (1 cup) finely ground almonds (skin on is fine - you could also use almond meal)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch of fine salt (I always use sea salt)

Ingredients for Glaze and Chocolate Icing

• 100 grams (1/3 cup) apricot jam or preserves (homemade if possible)
• 200 ml (2/3 cup) heavy cream (I always use 35% cream)
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 pinch of fine salt
• 150 grams (1 cup) dark chocolate cocoa powder 
• 200 grams (1 cup) superfine white sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preparation of the Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
2. With a pastry brush, liberally butter a saddle of venison baking pan or loaf pan and dust with flour, breadcrumbs or finely ground almonds. Shake out the excess.
3. In the bowl of your mixer, using your whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry, transfer to a medium bowl and place in the fridge while continuing to prepare the rest of the batter.
4. In another bowl of your mixer, beat the butter, sugar and egg yolks for about 3 to 5 minutes or until they fluffy, pale yellow and thick. 
5. Then add the Kirsch and the orange zest and mix briefly just until combined.
6. In a large bowl whisk together the cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, flour, starch, almonds, baking powder and salt.
7. To the butter mixture add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
8. Take the beaten egg whites out of the fridge.Using a rubber spatula, carefully fold the egg whites into the batter, trying not to deflate them too much but until no trace of the egg whites remains.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25 to 35 minutes until the cake shrinks slightly away from the sides of the pan and is springy to the touch, being carefully not to overbake. The cake tends to dry out easily if baked for too long.
10. Cool the cake for about 5 minutes in the pan. Using a serrated knife, level-off the bottom of the cake and carefully turn the cake out onto a cooling rack.
11. Let the cake cool completely.

Preparation of the Glaze and Chocolate Icing

1. Heat the apricot jam or preserves and then strain through a fine sieve.
2. Using a pastry brush, brush the glaze evenly over the cooled cake on the wire rack. Let the jam cool and wait until it has “set”.
3. To a small heavy saucepan add the cream, butter, salt, cocoa and sugar.
4. Cook the mixture for about 5 minutes over very low heat, stirring constantly, until the icing is smooth and thick.
5. Take it off the heat and whisk in the pure vanilla extract.
6. Allow the icing to cool for about 5 minutes.
7. Pour the icing over the cake as evenly as possible.
8. While the glaze is still soft,  in a regular pattern, stick the slivered almonds upright into the glaze.
9. Allow the galze to set completely for about 45 minutes before serving.
10. Cut the “Rehrücken” in such a way that one of the shorter rows of almond decorates each serving.
11. The cake is at its best if served the same day with some slightly sweetened whipped cream and a big bowl of Café au lait (“Milchkaffee”).

While this is a cake that I always bake in one of my a special baking pans that look like a long loaf pan curved in a half-moon shape with evenly spaced grooves across the width, and a flat section down the center, known as a “Rehrücken Backform”, I mentioned that this cake can easily be made in a regular loaf pan as well or you could try to find this baking pan in German or Austrian specialty stores or online. It does look fancy when baked in the traditional mold and it makes for a nice and different kind of cake presentation!

The baking pans are made from different materials such as stoneware, aluminium or non-stick and below is a picture of the three pans from my collection.

Sankt Martin - St. Martin´s Day

On November 11th each year, Germans celebrate St. Martin's Day (“Martinstag”) also known as the Feast of St. Martin of Tours. It is a day to honor St. Martin. Historically, the St. Martin´s Day was a time for feasting celebrations (signaling the end of the harvest season). St. Martin was born in 316 or 317 and started out as a Roman soldier, he was baptized as an adult, became a monk and was named Bishop of Tours on July 4th, 372. It is understood that he was a kind man who led a quiet and simple life. The most famous legend of his life is that one cold winter day, during a snowstorm, he was riding through the country when a shivering beggar came his way. Since he had neither food nor money, St. Martin cut his wollen cloak in half with his sword to share it with the freezing beggar. It is said that he thus saved the beggar from dying of the cold.

Every year, St. Martin´s Day is celebrated to commemorate the day of his burial on  November 11th, 397. In some parts of the Netherlands, in a small part of Belgium, and in some areas of Germany and Austria, children walk in processions through the villages and cities. They carry colorful paper lanterns and sing Martin songs. Usually, the walk starts at a church and ends at a public square. A man on horseback dressed like St. Martin accompanies the children. When they reach the square, a Martin’s bonfire is lit and Martin’s "sweet dough men" are distributed.

The tradition of the lanterns goes back to former times, when people lit candles to honor a saint and when lanterns were put up everywhere in town when a bishop came for a visit.

The custom of lighting a Martin´s bonfire after the lantern procession represents the beginning of festivities. In former times, most of the work on the fields had been completed and now it was time to celebrate, drink and eat. Traditionally, a fat goose and sweet bread treats were served.

Today, in the days and weeks leading up to the feast of St. Martin, children craft their own paper lanterns (“Martinslaternen”) in school or in kindergarten. On the day of the celebrations, the children go door to door after participating in one of the numerous lantern procession (“Martinszug”) singing St. Martin songs (“Martinslieder”) in exchange for sweets.

Some of the colorful lanterns that our kids crafted in school look like owls and elephants…

…and like little green monsters.

Some of the children also crafted colorful villages…

….and a haunted ghost´s castle….

…and another haunted ghost´s castle.

One more terrific elephant looking like big-eared ELMAR….

…and one more delightful big-eyed owl.

To conclude the celebrations of St. Martin´s Day, the traditional treat that is given to the children after the St. Martin´s Day procession, are pastries called “Weckmänner”, baked goods in the shape of a man holding a clay pipe.

Every year, I bake these so-called “Weckmänner” (“sweet dough men”) for family and friends.

The yeast-based dough is just a bit sweet and to this day, the clay pipe that each sweet dough man carries, symbolizes an episcopal crozier (turned upside-down), in memory of St. Martin the Bishop.

The clay pipes that I always use were handcrafted in Germany and have become somewhat of a collector´s item.

Today, on St. Martin´s Day,  we will be watching the St. Martin´s procession along our street, right in front of our house. We will decorate the front yard with lots of colorful lanterns. And after the procession, the children will carry their candle-lit hand-crafted paper lanterns from house to house in our neighbourhood singing St. Martin´s songs, getting mostly sweets as a reward for their singing.

We will be waiting for all the children with baskets full of candies (and some apples and clementines). The festivities in memory of St. Martin bear some resemblance to Halloween that was celebrated in many parts of the world just eleven days ago.

French Fridays with Dorie - Top-Secret Chocolate Mousse

Today the recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group is a Top-Secret Chocolate Mousse. The mousse derives its catchy name from the fact the original recipe comes from the back of a Nestlé Dessert Chocolate bar – as pointed out to Dorie by one of her close French friends.

Mousse au chocolat is truly a classic French bistro dessert. It is quick and easy to make and best served the day that it is made. There are countless recipes for chocolate mousse and the classic version usually calls for melting chocolate and butter together before proceeding with the rest of recipe. Dorie´s recipe, however, does not contain butter and counts all but four ingredients, namely chocolate, eggs, salt and sugar.

Since the mousse contains so few ingredients, you have to choose the best ingredients that you can find. The simple secret behind a fantastic chocolate mousse is to use really good quality chocolate. Look for something 60% or above cocoa solids, anything under just will not do. Since the flavor of the mousse entirely depends on good chocolate, do buy a really good brand, you will not regret it.

Because the recipe is classic French, it uses raw eggs. Whenever I prepare anything that uses uncooked eggs, I use the freshest eggs I can get my hands on either from a farmer´s store or, as today, from my trusted “Organic Food Store”.

Once you have assembled all your high quality ingredients, you can go ahead and prepare the recipe. Gently melt the chocolate, cool slightly, combine with the egg yolks, beat the egg whites with the sugar and gently fold the sweetened egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Chill until set. Voilà! The biggest difficulty when preparing a chocolate mousse, is melting the chocolate properly. When melting chocolate over simmering water, you have to be careful that the water is not too hot or the chocolate will melt too quickly and may go grainy, then you will not get a smooth mousse. You should not stir it too much either, it is better to take it off the heat once softened, then let it melt naturally. If you use a microwave to melt it, take care to use a defrost or low-wattage setting.

In France, they often serve chocolate mousse from a big bowl, scooped onto a plate with some cookies. I decided to spoon the mousse into individual tea cups and serve “Eiserkuchen” alongside. I baked these waffels in my special well-worn waffle maker. For the waffle batter you have to dissolve rock candy in boiling water and only when that has cooled down do you add the remaining ingredients which include my favorite spice of all, cinnamon, but you can also add cardamom or anise. After you bake each waffle separately, you roll them up while still piping hot and thanks to the waffle maker and the rock candy, once they have cooled down, they are delectably crunchy. We usually eat them either on their own or with some whipped cream, so they were the perfect partners to the chocolate mousse with whipped cream! Could not ask for more!

Chocolate mousse is always a crowd pleaser. You can make it for a deliciously rich finale to a dinner party but it is equally wonderful with an afternoon cup of coffee or tea. And while I liked serving the chocolate mousse today with a dollop of whipped cream, in my opinion, it really is also wonderful on its own. A very nice and easy recipe which everyone enjoyed!

To see how the mousse au chocolate turned out for the other members of the French Fridays with Dorie group, please do click here.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Tintin & Buttermilk Crumb Muffins

Today´s recipe for the Tuesdays with Julia group are Buttermilk Crumb Muffins.

With so many Birthdays parties during the last two weeks, I was quite happy to have a simple baking task for today. The Buttermilk Crumb Muffins by contributing baker Marion Cunningham were delightfully easy to prepare and I did stick to the recipe except for one ingredient, I used butter instead of vegetable shortening which I do not really use for baking much, except in the occasional pie crust.

The recipe required no more than a few ingredients. Except for the shortening (or as I already mentioned, butter in my case), flour, cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg (which I love to use at this time of the year), some salt, baking powder and baking soda, light brown sugar (which I always get at the “British Shop” in large quantities), eggs and buttermilk are the only other ingredients required.

Whenever I want to use buttermilk in my baking, we take the kids to our favorite farm and while I shop for farm fresh eggs and the really thick buttermilk in the adjacent shop, the kids get to admire the chickens, cows, pigs, turkeys and ducks. After the drive home on Sunday, the muffins were quickly put together.

We all enjoyed them while still warm, fresh from the oven and it was a good opportunity to read and look at the delightful comics called “The Adventures of Tintin”. “Les Aventures de Tintin” as the original is called or “Tim und Struppi” as it is called around here is a series of comic albums created by Belgian artist Georges Remi who wrote under the pen name of Hergé. The series is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, with translations published in more than fifty languages.

We visited the amazing City of  Brugge, Belgium a few times and during our last trip there, I discovered an adorable store that carries dinner ware as well as all kinds of merchandise with the “Tintin design”, I bought a Café au Lait bowl there, some comics and figurines.

So in the afternoon when we all sat down for some muffin eating and comic reading, I decided to take some picture with the “Tintin” comics as the main theme. The kids and I had a really fun time, got to love "Tintin".

Since the Tintin comics are very colorful with lots of bright reds and yellows and blues, I decided to bake the Buttermilk Crumb Muffins in equally colorful liners.

Overall, these muffins were quick and easy and tasted like a light coffee cake. They were well received by the young taste testers.

To see all the other Buttermilk Crumb Muffins by the other talented members of the Tuesday with Dorie group, please do click here.

The recipe can be found at Alisa´s delightful blog Easier Than Pie - thank you so much for hosting, Alisa!

French Fridays with Dorie - Mushroom and Shallot Quiche

Today we are preparing Dorie Greenspan´s Mushroom and Shallot Quiche for the French Fridays with Dorie group.

There are probably not a lot of savory recipes that I enjoy preparing more than quiches. My favorite is a leek and goat cheese quiche but I also love quiche lorraine, cheese quiches and quiches loaded with seasonable vegetables such as butternut squash or fruits such as pears with gorgonzola. When I prepare a quiche, I always use my trusted 30 centimeters (12 inches) large quiche pan with removable bottom that I bought while vacationing in France a few years ago – making smaller quiches just does not make sense for us. Therefore, I usually double the recipe – as I did this time as well – if there is some crust and filling left over, I always make a few mini quiches and freeze them.

Dorie´s recipe calls for the preparation of a basic pâte brisée and the filling consists of shallots (we always get French ones around here) and mushrooms (I used baby portabella) and fresh thyme (from the garden) – hence the name of the dish. The “royale” (that is how we call it) consists of the ususal cream and eggs plus the wonderfully fragrant Swiss Gruyère cheese and spring onions (I used chives and Italian parsley), pepper and salt. Could not be easier. Or more delicious.

A quiche always seems like a bistro-style type of dish and I always make sure to serve a salad alongside, makes for a nice and pretty presentation on the plates. Today, I chose our very favorite salad, lamb´s lettuce. This is a fall/winter salad that is available for several months around here starting in September until the month of May. It has a wonderful nutty flavor and really does not need much of a dressing. Therefore, just before serving the Mushroom and Shallot Quiche, I decided to drizzle a few drops of a white truffle olive oil over the sliced quiche and the salad, the smell was intoxicating!

One of my best friends vacationed in Italy this summer and brought me back a small bottle of this precious oil that was produced right in the region where she was vacationing. I have been wanting to use this oil ever since I received it so today was a wonderful occasion to do so – a few drops were quite enough to complement this dish and the accompanying salad but Dorie´s recipe is a keeper all by itself and the quiche was very well received at our house! Quiche is always great! We love the taste, the smell while it bakes in the oven and the convenience of quiche baking which allows you to prepare the different elements like pâte brisée and filling separately. We all really enjoyed this recipe!

To see how the other wonderful members of the French Fridays with Dorie group prepared this dish, please click here.