make life sweeter!

Even though I started making the dough for the Danish braid on Friday, I ony had time to actually shape and bake the braid today. Time flies when you have two pre-schoolers ;)
I liked the prospect of making laminated dough a lot. It's something I've never done and also something that is way down at the bottom of my to do list. But since Kelly of Sass & Veracity, and Ben of What’s Cookin’? choose Danish braid to be this month's Daring Bakers challenge it suddenly went to the top of my list.
It is pretty straightforward to make but it is time consuming. This said it doesn't mean that everything went the way it should though (as is usually the case). The butter couldn't handle the pressure of the rolling pin and seeped out of holes at the folded side of the dough. I just kept on trying to make the best of it every turn. The end result was workable but some of the edges of the dough were messy and I decided to cut some dough off.
I used half the dough but the 15x20 inch rectangle was a bit too big to fit on my baking sheet so I halved the rectangle and made a smaller braid. I filled the braid with home-made red gooseberry preserves. From the other half of the dough rectangle I made rolls (but that didn't go that well that the end result is photogenic enough to post ;)



My braid browned a bit too much on the bottom so this influenced the taste. My home-made preserve was rather tart (I made it with a 2:1 ratio fruit:sugar) and proved to be too tart for the braid :( Both the 'brown' taste and the tartness of the filling overpowered the taste of the dough so I didn't taste much of the cardamom and orange zest that was is the dough. The braid was a bit tough, maybe due to the fact that it had to be kneaded for 5 minutes?
I really enjoyed making the dough but I will have to dive into making laminated dough some more before I do a new attempt. I still have half the dough in the fridge, if I have time I'll make something tomorrow....



If you want to see how the hosts did, check them out here and here. You'll find the recipe there too.
For the rest of the 1000+ Daring Bakers follow this link.

My parents were visiting yesterday morning, usually I make something a little more elaborate than muffins but we had a busy weekend so I had to make something quick. Nectarine muffins seemed like the perfect thing to make, there were a few very ripe nectarines sitting in the fruit bowl begging to be used. Didn't really have time to make streusel so I just sprinkled them with storebought hazelnut crunch (which btw is very good). While I was getting the ingredients ready to start baking I remembered that AFAM was featuring coconut as it's monthly fruit. So I changed milk into coconut milk and I even strayed from my butter obsession/addiction and decided to use coconut butter (coconut oil) instead of butter. So behold one of the few dairy-free recipes on my blog ;)
The muffins rose beautifully in the oven and I was very curious how they would taste. I'm such a big fan of butter that I very very rarely use another type of fat. Not because that other type is not good, but just because it would have been even better with butter :) I was a bit afraid the coconut taste would be a bit too much, I mean, I added a cup of coconut milk and 6 tablespoons of coconut butter. The crazy thing was, I didn't taste coconut...AT ALL! And I'm a very good taster! I was really disappointed because I didn't add any other flavour because I was afraid it would be too many flavours. Ok, there was the nectarine but that wasn't enough. Cinnamon, ginger or cardamom would have been a delicious addition I think, or hazelnuts added to the batter.
As for the texture of the muffin, that was very, very good. Airy, fluffy, moist, everything you would want in a muffin. Will try this recipe again but with butter :) and some spice.
This is my entry to AFAM hosted by Suganya of Tasty Palettes.

Nectarine muffins with hazelnut topping (adapted from Essentials of baking by Williams-Sonoma)

makes 10-12 depending on how big your cups are (I filled 11 1 dl (3 ½ fl oz) cups)

280 g (1 ¾ cup / 9 oz) flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
155 g (⅔ cup / 4 oz) firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
250 ml (1 cup / 8 fl oz) coconut milk
90 g (6 tbs / 3 oz) coconut butter (coconut oil), melted
150 g (1 ¼ cup / 5 oz) chopped nectarine
hazelnut crunch or chopped hazelnuts
12 muffin cups (I used 1 dl cups)

Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda and brown sugar in a bowl.
Whisk the eggs until blended in another bowl. Add the coconut milk and coconut butter and stir until smooth. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Add the nectarine and fold in on making sure not to overmix.
Divide the batter between the muffin cups, filling it about ¾ full. Sprinkle generously with hazelnuts. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Best eaten warm.

I made this cake for friends of ours who just had a baby son. Instead of using 'blauw met witte muisjes' (blue and white anise seed sprinkles) I wanted to make something with a pea in the pod theme even though this was not a baby shower cake. I mean, a pod filled with peas is like a family, right? Seemed like a fun enough idea. The original idea was to just make a marzipan pod with four white chocolate truffle peas (they already have a little girl) in a pod. I was very happy with the cuteness of the pod when I finished it. Instead of presenting it on a little plate I made a simple mini cake glazed with orange coloured (and orange flavoured) white chocolate ganache. I wouldn't normally opt for this colour combination but the birth announcement had these colours so the parents were bound to like the combination.
The pod looked a bit lost on the cake, even though it was a small cake. To fill up some of the vacant space I cut out the first letters of the first names of the family. Problem solved ;) In retrospect I think more peas (not pods) would have been a prettier but I was running out of time (as usual ;)

Peas in a pod

35 g (1 ¼ oz) heavy cream
100 g (3 ½ oz) white chocolate, chopped
green food colouring
caster sugar
about 100 g (3 ½ oz) marzipan

Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate. Allow to stand for a few minutes. Stir until smooth and combined. Add a little green food colouring. Allow to cool to room temperature. Chill for a few hours before rolling. Roll the ganache into 2 smaller and 2 bigger balls. Roll the truffles in some caster sugar to cover. Cover and chill until ready to assemble the pod.

Colour the marzipan green with some green food colouring. Roll it out until about 5 mm (¼ in) thickness. Put a piece of baking paper up till the middle and fold the marzipan over. Cut out a pea pod shape free hand but it should be big enough to contain the 4. Fold the top layer of marzipan back and remove the baking paper. If you're lucky you should see an imprint of the cut layer that was on top. If not, cut it free hand.
Place the 2 bigger truffles in the middle towards the edge of the marzipan. Place one small truffle on the left and one on the right of the bigger truffles. Fold the marzipan over the truffles, creating a pod shape. Adjust the marzipan were needed.
Cover and chill until ready to assemble the cake.

Cake

makes a 15 cm (6 in) cake

60 g (2 oz) butter, softened
60 g (2 oz) caster sugar
1 large egg
60 g (2 oz) flour, sifted
¼ ts almond extract

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F). Grease a 15 cm (6 in) springform or cake pan. Mix the butter with the sugar until pale and white. Add the egg and continue to mix for a few minutes. Fold in the flour.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Orange white chocolate glaze

50 g (1 ¾ oz) heavy cream
100 g (3 ½ oz) white chocolate, chopped
a few drops of orange essentail oil
orange food colouring

Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate. Allow to stand for a few minutes. Stir until smooth and combined. Add the orange essentail oil and a little orange food colouring. Pour the glaze over the cake and help it along with a spatula when necessary.

Wanted to use the little purple lavender sugar lumps that are on top of the éclairs ever since I bought them whilst on vacation in Denmark. But I just couldn't think of anything suitable until I thought about the choux edition of Hay Hay it's Donna Day: éclairs with a lavender filling and with a lavender sugar lump for decoration on top. I had a hard time deciding what to use to fill the éclairs: lavender flavoured whipped cream, white chocolate mousse (last month's Daring Bakers recipe) or pastry cream. Whipped cream seemed too simple, pastry cream would yield a lot of egg whites and what to do with those? Even though pastry cream would have been my preferred filling I decided on making white chocolate mousse because there wouldn't be anything left-over and also because I didn't use the white chocolate mousse in last month's Daring Baker challenge.
Instead of infusing the cream with lavender flowers I used lavender essential oil that I've had for ages but never really used. I knew the stuff is very potent so I only wanted to use about two drops, but sometimes the thing you want is not the thing you get. Before I know it, four drops were out. I kept my fingers crossed but that didn't help a bit, the lavender taste was too heavy. Not too heavy to eat but too heavy to call delicious ;) A really disliked it, thought it tasted like soap. Usually his taste isn't very good but if it starts tasting like soap he becomes a super taster ;) My nearly 3 year old also disliked it even though he doesn't have associations with lavender soap. My parents liked it though and I thought it was good too but too heavy on the lavender. So my advice is to start with 1 drop. Let it fall on a spoon first just to be save. My guess is that 2 drops would be the right amount.
After mixing the whipped cream and chocolate the mixture was pretty liquidy but in the fridge it set beautifully. So this very simple recipe worked very well, it was even pipeable. Also it stayed mousse even after 3 days in the fridge. Will have to try it with bitter sweet chocolate instead one day :)
The green coloured white chocolate glaze doesn't look the way it should. The reason for this is because I used some left over ganache that I used for making truffles for my sister in law a few days ago. For the glaze I needed something with more cream so I thought to just add some hot cream to the left over ganache. But I was being impatient and didn't wait until the ganache was room temperature before I did this so it curdled. Added some more hot cream, it started to look better but it was definitely not the smooth ganache I needed. I didn't have the patience to make a new glaze so I just used it anyway (I know, I know, it's a shame ;) Also I felt bad to waste the old glaze. To give you a peak at how the glaze should have looked here's a sneak preview of a cake I will post about soon. I used the glaze I was supposed to use for the éclairs. So if you make the recipe below you'll get the looks of the orange glaze instead of the green one in the picture.



This is my entry to Hay Hay it's Donna Day, hosted by Suzana from Home Gourmets.


Choux (from Essentials of Baking by Williams-Sonoma)

I used half of this recipe for the éclairs, makes about 24 small ones

125 ml (½ cup / 4 fl oz) milk
125 ml (½ cup / 4 fl oz) water
90 g (3 oz / 6 tbs) butter, chopped
¼ ts salt
155 g (1 cup / 5 oz) flour
4 large eggs

Combine milk, water, butter and salt in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat until all the butter is melted. Remove from heat and add all the flour at once and stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Return the pan to the (medium) heat. Continue stirring until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Remove from the heat and let it cool until it's 60°C (140°F).
Whisk one egg at a time before adding it to the dough. Stir well until combined before adding each next egg. Let the dough cool for 10 minutes until before piping.
Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Line two baking sheets with baking parchment, using some dough to glue the paper to the baking sheet (easier to pipe if the paper doesn't move around).
Pipe small logs using a 2 cm plain tip (¾ in), space them well apart.
Bake the logs for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 190°C (375°F) and continue baking until golden brown (5-10 minutes). Allow to cool on the baking sheets.

Lavender white chocolate mousse (from May's Daring Bakers challenge, recipe either from Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan or Chocolate Passion by Tish Boyle and Timothy Moriarty’s)

100 g (3 ½ oz) white chocolate
½ cup plus 1 ½ tbs heavy cream (35% cream)
½ tbsp. liquer (I used left-over lemon grass syrup instead)
a few drops of lavender essential oil (4 drops is too much, my guess 1 or 2 would be good)

Melt the white chocolate with the 1 ½ tbs of cream over hot water. Stir until smooth. Add the liquer and stir until combined. Set aside to cool completely.
Whip the remaining ½ cup of cream until soft peak.
Fold the whipped cream into the cooled chocolate. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before using.

Green white chocolate glaze

75 ml (⅓ cup) whipping cream (35% fat)
150 g (5 oz) white chocolate, chopped
green gel paste colouring

Heat the whipping cream until it boils. Pour over the white chocolate. Allow to stand for a few minutes. Stir until combined and smooth. Add a little green colouring. Mix until combined. Either use the glaze immediately or wait till it has cooled a bit if it seems to thin to use.

To assemble:
Cut each log in half. Dip the upper halfs into the chocolate glaze. Allow to set on a wire rack.
Pipe some lavender white chocolate mousse on the bottom halfs. Put the glazed tops onto to the chocolate mousse and serve.

In the Netherlands we have a tradition to serve something called 'beschuit met muisjes' when a child is born. 'Beschuit' is similar to rusks and 'muisjes' are sugar coated anise seed sprinkles. The sprinkles are called 'muisjes' (little mice), the reason for this name is that sometimes the anise seeds have little stalks attached making the sprinkles look like they have a tail, and therefor making them look like mice :) There are two different kinds, for girls there's pink and white mice and for boys there's blue and white mice (and when the crown princess has a baby there's a special edition in orange and white). Besides eating them on rusks to celebrate the birth of a new baby we also eat them on regular days, either on buttered bread or on buttered 'beschuit'. Just like we eat all kinds of sprinkles on our bread, chocolate being the most popular. (I know...crazy Dutch people eating sprinkles on their bread instead of cake ;)
I bought the tin you see in the picture below a while back, it's actually a tin for tea bags but I thought it would make a wonderful cookie container too. And since it looked very girly girl with the pink roses it was perfect to give to my good friend C who gave birth to a little girl a few weeks ago. Coincidentally the baby's name is Rosa so the tin was particularly appropriate :)
These cookies are really easy to make and are a nice twist on a Dutch tradition.



If you're interested in buying some Dutch sprinkles yourself, there a link here and a link here. If you google muisjes and sprinkles you'll get more...

Cookies with pink and white anise seed sprinkles

250 g (8 ¾ oz) flour
150 g (5 ¼ oz) butter, cold and cut into cubes
125 g (4 ½ oz) caster sugar
1 egg

for decoration:
white chocolate, melted
rose en witte muisjes

Rub the flour and butter between your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and stir it in. Stir in the egg. Knead briefly to combine and to let it come together. Chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Roll out the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper to a thickness of about 4 mm (1/6 in). Chill the dough between the baking paper for 30 minutes.
Cut the dough into squares. Place the squares onto baking sheets. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until they begin turning golden brown at the edges.
Allow to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Spread some white chocolate on each cookie and sprinkle with the rose en witte muisjes.