Monday 19 December 2016

Speculoos

vegetarian

Speculoos (speculaas) is traditionally baked cookies in Belgium and the Netherlands on the eve of St. Nicholas (respectively in these countries, 6 and 5 December), though now sold year round. Cookies are brittle, brown, slightly spicy, not deform during baking. Are characteristic wooden forms for their baking - show pictures or figures extruded cookies before baking. In addition to the Christmas season, always taste dipped in coffee or tea, you can also successfully be used as the bottom of the cheesecake, instead of the popular digestive. The recipe comes from the blog mojewypieki.com . I recommend :)

Ingredients:
250 g flour

140 g muscovado sugar
150 g cold butter
1 teaspoon seasoning speculoos, which can be prepared by mixing 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
4 tablespoons milk (60 ml)


Method:
Mix flour with sugar and spices. Add the butter, milk and knead (you can knead in the food processor). The dough wrap in foil and put in the fridge preferably overnight.

Once removed from the refrigerator roll dough to a thickness of 4 - 5 mm. The form of the speculoos sprinkle with flour. Pieces of rolled-out dough to press the mold, excess cutting and leveling with a knife. Lining (tapping) on ​​a mold lined with baking paper.

Bake at 170 º C for 15 - 20 minutes. After baking, cool on a wire rack.

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Friday 16 December 2016

Polish Carpathian Mountain cream cake

vegan, sugar free
NO SORRY CHRISTMAS IS COMING💗🎄

This Polish Carpathian Mountain cream cake recipe is known as karpatka. It's a peasant version of the more refined kremówka, which is made with puff pastry. 


Karpatka is made with the same type of dough used to make cream puffs and éclairs, known as pâte à choux in French. When dusted with confectioners' sugar, the dessert takes on the look of the craggy, snow-capped Carpathian Mountains, hence its name. In addition to the filling below, karpatka can be filled with easy pastry cream.



Ingredients:

1 cup water
125g unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
5 large eggs 
1 teaspoon baking powder

Filling: 

1 cup whiping cream
icing sugar

Garnish:
confectioners' sugar





Method:

Heat oven to 200 C.
Grease two baking trays (20cm x 30cm) with butter and flour.

In a medium saucepan, bring water and butter to a boil. When butter has completely melted, remove from heat and, using a wooden spoon, add flour all at once. Return to stove and stir over low heat for 2 or 3 minutes or until dough cleans sides of pan and forms a ball.

Remove from heat and stir in baking powder and eggs one at a time, beating well, either by hand or with an electric mixer, after each addition. The batter should be smooth and glossy and cling to the spoon. Divide the dough into two exact portions.

Pour dough into prepared baking trays, but don't smooth it out. You want the finished top to look like a rugged mountain. Bake 25 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack before filling.

Filling:
Pour the cream into the chilled bowl. A good rule of thumb is 2 tablespoons of sugar for every cup of cream, though feel free to adjust the sweetness to your own taste. 

Tip: If you’re in a hurry, powdery confectioners’ sugar dissolves faster than the granulated variety.

Beat the cream until it begins to thicken. You can whip until the cream makes stiffer peaks if desired, but be careful: You don’t want to turn the mixture to butter.

Spread filling over one sheet of pastry and cover with the other sheet. Sprinkle with icing sugar and chill.


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Monday 12 December 2016

vegan chesse

vegan, gluten free

You want pizza with “cheese,” but the pizza chain you hit doesn’t offer vegan options. You eat a sandwich and want to add an additional savoury flavour to the stack, but don’t have vegan cheese. You are at a party and see incredibly delicious looking cheese slices enticing you to take a bite. You cringe at not being able to have the savoury, creamy taste of cheese again. Until…
 


…vegan cheese comes to the rescue! Learn how to make fantastic, savoury cheese. These vegan cheese recipes will not only satisfy your craving for cheese, without the animal cruelty, but might also fool guests at your next get-together. These vegan cheeses are pure and easy to prep and put together. This cheese will melt just like real cheese! 
Ok, so I had to give it a try. It turns out this cheese is amazing for everything. 


Ingredients:
 
two large potatoes
one large carrot
100ml water
50ml olive oil
2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
dash of cayenne or any pepper




Method:

Boil the potatoes and carrots until soft. Blend potatoes and carrots together along with the rest of the ingredients on high in blender until the cheese is extremely smooth.
Store in refrigerator for up to a week.

Recipe taken from:
www.veggieonapenny.com

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Saturday 10 December 2016

Chestnuts cookies

vegetarian

Ingredients:

130g butter(softened)
150g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
200g self raising flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
250g chestnuts butter

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170C

Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and cream together until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well, then stir in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Gently stir in the chestnuts butter then squidge the dough into a ball.

Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and, using your hands, roll each one into a ball. Place on a large baking tray, spaced at least 10cm.

Flatten each one slightly witch a fork. Bake in the oven for 12 – 15 minutes, or until the cookies start to go golden brown. The cookies will still be soft when they come out of the oven but will firm up as they cool.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the baking tray.



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Monday 5 December 2016

Poppy Seed Twist

vegetarian


Ingredients:

500g all-purpose white flour 

30g fresh yeast or 1 package active dry yeast 
50g unsalted butter 
50g sugar 
180ml milk 
2 large egg

For filling 

250g poppy seeds



Method:

Warm the milk. Mix together yeast, two tablespoon flour and 50ml milk. Let it sit until it begins to get foamy. About 5 minutes.

In the bowl stir together the butter, sugar and egg. Pour in the milk/yeast mixture and the flour and remaining milk. Knead for at least 5 minutes until it forms a soft sticky dough. The mixture will seem quite wet at first, but will form a smooth soft dough.

Cover bowl and let dough rise for about one hour until it has doubled in volume.

In the meantime, ground poppy seeds in a kitchen blender.

Preheat oven to 180° C. Divide the dough into four equal parts and roll each piece of dough into a disc of 25 cm diameter on a flour dusted working surface. Transfer first disk to the greased bottom of a cake pan (alternatively on a baking tray lined with baking paper), spread third of the filling. Place the second disc on top. Spread another part of filling. Place the third disc on top and spread romancing filling and cover with the last disk.
With a knife divide the dough into four equal parts, each quarter into another four equal parts – so that you end up with 16 segments.
Now hold the tip of two segments (one with each hand) and twist them three times outwards. Continue with all segments.
Let rest it for another 10 minutes. Place poppy seed bread flower on a baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven, optionally brush with sugar glaze and let cool. Eat lukewarm or fully cooled.

Recipe taken from:
www.kwestiasmaku.com



Tuesday 29 November 2016

Healthy cake – is it possible?

vegetarian, sugar free



Makes one 22cm layer cake

For the cake:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (we use gluten free mix flour from Shipton Mill)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cup grated carrots
1 cup grated curgette
1 cup finely grated beets
1/2 cup raisins
1 1/3 cup pure maple syrup or you can use 100g unrafined sugar and 1/2 cup maple syrup
2/3 cup sunflower or other mild-tasting oil
4 eggs

For the frosting:

ripe avocados flesh of 2, chopped  

200g good quality cocoa powder
1-2 tablespoons liquid honey or pure maple syrup





Arrange oven racks to divide oven into thirds. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease two 22cm cake pans, dust with a spoonful of flour and tap out. Line each with a round of parchment paper.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, stir together carrots, curgettes, beets and raisins.

In a large mixing bowl, beat maple syrup and oil together until emulsified. Add eggs one at a time, beating until batter is smooth. Add flour mixture in three or four batches, mixing gently until mixture is even. Gently mix in the vegetable mixture. Divide between baking pans.

Place one baking pan in center of each of the racks. Bake 25-35 minutes, until a skewer or paring knife inserted into centers comes out clear and cakes are pulling away from the sides of pans. Cool on a rack about 5 minutes, then gently remove from pans. Cool to room temperature before frosting.

To make frosting:

Place avocado and cocoa powder in a food processor and blend together until smooth. Keep blending until the mousse is very smooth and creamy. Taste, and if you would like it a little sweeter, you can add a bit of honey or maple syrup.

inspiration from
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-harvest-birthday-cake-64416