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

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

Citrus and Maple cake

Vegan, Sugar free

Last time we were in the cake kitchen we promised you a sugar free delight. Well here we are, hopefully the first of many gut-happy cakes!

Ingredients:

1 large carrot

5 tablespoons maple syrup

2/3 cup unsweetened soya milk (or coconut milk)

2 ½ cup flour

7g yeast

1 lemon (or orange) finely zest

4 tablespoon sunflower oil

Cook carrot until soft. When still warm put in to blender add maple syrup, soya milk, lemon zest and blend.

Combine the flour with dried yeast, then add still warm carrot mixture. Mix with the spatula until it comes together. Slowly pour the oil and keep mixing until it is all incorporated. Mix for a several minutes until dough is completely smooth and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If it doesn’t, you can add 1 tablespoon extra flour to help this along. Oil a very large bowl and put dough in bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk.

Knock it down and transfer into buttered and floured a 2-litre capacity Bundt pan. Let rise a second time until almost doubled.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack and take off the pan. Let it to cool completely.

If you would like use sugar for icing you can do mix 5 tablespoons icing sugar with ½ blood orange.

recipe inspired by:
http://www.kwestiasmaku.com/