A LATE NIGHT STORY ABOUT A CARROT CAKE WITH FROSTING

What do normal people with self-control do in the evening when they get a craving for something sweet whilst they have given themselves a promise that there will be no eating of sweets? Ignore and engage in something that would take the mind off. What do I do in the same situation? Go online, research and find the perfect way to  act like no promise had been made!  I had this crazy persons thought it had to be something similar to a cupcake even though  I don't actually like cupcakes in particular. I mean there's usually just dough and a bunch of carbohydrates, so..yes.. right, let's scratch that thought and better let me introduce to you one of my favourite sponge cakes that is deadly easy to make:

CARROT CAKE WITH FROSTING

original recipe in Estonian from Nami-nami can be found here.

2 eggs

125 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

100 g melted butter

150 g grated fresh carrots

110 g spelt flour (you subsitute with regular as well)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

a tiny bit of ground nutmeg

for the glazing:

100 g unflavoured (natural) cream cheese, e.g. Philadelphia

50 g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

Set oven to 200 C while you prepare the dough. Whisk the eggs with the sugar. Mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add carrots, egg and sugar mixture and butter. Pour the dough onto the cake form (I use silicone form, so I don't have to butter it, but if you have metallic one, better use some butter and maybe even flour so that it doesn't stick to the form) and off it goes into the over. Bake around 30 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the frosting by mixing the cream cheese with sugar and vanilla and apply one the ready-made cake when it has cooled. Best to keep it overnight in the fridge.

CHOCOLATE BABKA

I must admit that lately I have lacked desire for particular culinary exploration. Perhaps I've been caught in a certain routine where fun experiments are too much trouble not to mention a certain amount of writer's block that has taken over this culinary explorer's brain. Pfff....

Nevertheless here's a little treat for you. Really, I don't want to brag or anything, but it is seriously good!

What? CHOCOLATE BABKA

Who? Jewish cake introduced to me by Heidi Park via Estonian food magazine Oma Maitse December 2009 issue.

I added personal touch by changing some ingredients and hence making it more healthy? :)) I failed miserably at the part of twisting the babka, but it didn't not affect the flavour any bit.

the dough for 1 babka:

25 g yeast

100 ml milk

300 g spelt wheat

1 tsp salt

70 g unrefined sugar

1 tbs cardamom

1 tbs cognac

1 egg

100 g butter

 

filling:

100 g at least 70% dark chocolate

100 g butter

25 g unrefined sugar

20 g cinnamon (yes that much!)

Covering:

1 egg yolk

some milk

Warm the milk until about 40 degrees (should feel warm when you put your finger in it). Mix with yeast. Then add sugar, egg, cognac, wheat and salt. Mix everything.

Add slowly the melted butter and knead the dough until it is evenly doughy and smooth.Leave it in a warm place to rise (I left it in the over at 40 C covered for around 4 hours, after two hours i knead it again and let it rise again for the remaining time).

For the filling melt the cholote in water bed, add butter, sugar and cinnamon. Let it cool.

When the dough is ready for action, roll it as thin as you can and spread the filling on it. Roll it up, fold once and TWIST. Then set into a cake form and cover with mixed egg yolk and milk for extra glossiness. Bake at 175 C for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 150 C and continue baking for another 30 minutes.

Once it is baked, let it cool (if you have the patience) and indulge away the night with your closest buddies.

GONE NUTS WITH CHOCOLATE, RAISINS TOO!

Do you have lazy moments? I do, all the time. This recipe is an evident example of one of my lazy moments as a cook, because it is so easy to make it makes me cry from happiness. The outcome even to my own surprise was absolutely mind blowing, I could not stop eating, I did not want to share them with anyone and I had to confess of falling in love. With the nuts of course, and raisins no less! There was one low point during the making though, like when I was melting the chocolate and decided to add some cognac into the chocolate. To my surprise the chocolate that I had melted turned from nice liquid into chunks, so it made it difficult to mix with raisins and nuts as it was not so liquid. I still have no idea what chemical reaction took place  either because I never focused in chemistry class in high school and missed out on "don't mix chocolate with alcohol" lesson OR Russian dark 75% chocolate is not as pure as the producer claims. To my own defense I believe in the latter option.. But in the end this only affected the visual result not the flavour. Anyway, I will be making them again soon, and no I will not share them with you!

100 g nuts (whichever you like)

100 g raisins (you can do without raisins as well, then make double amount of nuts)

115 g dark chocolate

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 tablespoon of cognac

Roast nuts on a pan, but make sure you do not burn them. Let cool completely. Melt roughly chopped chocolate in a bowl over steaming pot of water on low heat. Stir on heat until melted and smooth, then add cognac. Toss nuts and raisins in the melted chocolate, and transfer onto a parchment paper to set.

Mix cinnamon and cocoa powder in a small freezer bag. Toss the set chocolate covered nuts and raisins in the powder until evenly coated.

Original recipe available at: http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/cinnamon-chocolate-covered-nuts/

ZESTY GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Christmas preparations are in full force! Mine started two weekends ago (according to some calculations already in summer when I made the red currant marmalade and pickled cucumbers) with making the gingerbread dough. It needs to be done well in advance so that all the spices have the time to come to life. My idea of the perfect gingerbread cookies come from my childhood when I had a tradition with my grandfather to make gingerbread cookies every year a few days before Christmas. It was our thing and noone was allowed to join in! Anyway, those cookies were always dark and on the spicier side and this is how I want them to be forever and ever.

Obviously at this time of the year there are plenty of different types of gingerbread cookie dough sold here, but I kind of enjoy controlling the process and knowing exactly I am eating, so I urge you as well to make your own dough, because it is really not so difficult!

This year i decided to bring the healthy factor into this time of mindless eating by using spelt flour instead of regular and unrefined sugar instead of regular white sugar. Obviously margarine is on permanent ban in my kitchen, so i use natural cream butter (not sure on the health factor here!). I also added some orange zest to the dough and to be honest I was really worried about the result, because I don't consider myself much of a baker and I spontaneity is not the best friend in pastry making, so it is quite easy to ruin everything. But to my own surprise the cookies came out very good - they are not too sweet, pleasantly spicy and with a small hint of orange which makes them very aromatic. Not to mention the simple sugar sprinkle on top is just genius! Is my praise talk working? :)

The original recipe is from Estonian recipe database Nami-Nami found here and my modified version can be found below:

INGREDIENTS

(this amount makes about 1,3 kg of dough)

200 ml syrup (I made my own from 200 g of unrefined demerara sugar with  about 100 ml of water, so I got a bit more than 200 ml of syrup)

250 g butter

2 eggs

600 g spelt flour (finely ground)

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

3 tsp ground cloves

3 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tsp ground cardamom

2 tsp ginger powder

you can exchange the spices above with a ready-made mix of gingerbread spice (I use the whole pack - 30 g)

zest of one orange'

for covering:

1 egg white

50 g almond slices (or other nuts that have been roughly ground)

raw cane sugar for sprinkling (or whatever other sugar you have, finely ground is the best)

PREPARATION

Make the syrup by heating up sugar with water until it dissolves and the add the spices and orange zest, bring to boil. Remove from heat and add butter, stir until the butter has melted. Let it cool.

Mix the flour with soda. When the syrup mix has cooled mix in the eggs and add flour. Carefully and thoroughly knead the dough. Shape it into a bar and cover with foil. Leave refridgerated for at least one day. I usually give it a week before cooking.

To make the cookies you have to take a piece of the dough (leave the rest in the fridge!) and roll it on a table covered with some flour. Roll it as thin as you can (Note to Merle: get a strong kitchen slave for next year!). Use moulding forms to cut out the cookies. I used heart shaped forms this year!

Lay them on the baking tray that has been covered with a baking sheet. Then I covered the cookies with egg white and sprinkled either with almonds or sugar (favourite was with sugar).

Bake in 200 C around 7-10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cookies.

Done!

These cookies are good to go for more than two weeks, so they can be made well in advance or prepared in bigger quantities as gifts etc.

P.S. Confession moment - I become obsessed with Christmas songs during this time of the year and one of my favourite songs by  Mariah Carey "All I Want for Christmas is You" (listen to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQViqx6GMY&feature=related) is already on continuous nonstop repeat. It just makes me jump up and down and laugh (without a reason) like there isn't a worry in the world. I will be back to normal by 27th.... :)

HEALTH FREAK'S CHOCOLATE COOKIES

This recipe was an accidental success. As I recall it was one of those late Friday evenings when a chocolate craze hit me and I started browsing through a book dedicated to chocolate "Suklaa" (I realised just now that it was published already in 1984!) to find a way to satisfy this insane but perfectly natural craving.  So on one page I came across a recipe titled pikkuleipämakeiset (in English small cookies) and I was sold right after I noticed that the list of ingredients was astoundingly short and NO BUTTER! In the end I modified the recipe in a way that it meets a better "healthy cookie" standard, whatever that is, since I like to believe there is such.

The cookies were judged by the most demanding panel - two middle aged women who are food addicted yet highly health cautious and they got an applaud, so do not hesitate to make them at home, even if you are not health cautious and prefer to live on the wilder side.

NB! Do not judge these cookies by the photo. That's purely the photographer's (read: my) failure.

Ingredients:

100 g almonds, roughly grounded (feel free to be creative and add any nuts you like)

100 g dark chocolate (85%), roughly grounded

1 tsp vanilla sugar

2 tbsp cocoa

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp spelt wheat

2 eggs

Mix together everything but eggs, which you need to beat up separately and only after that add them to the mixture. Set small portions with a spoon on the tray and bake at 175C around 10 minutes.

French Chocolate Macarons

This one was total beginners luck! They tasted so good, I literally had to pinch myself, because I could not believe it was the result of my own effort.

 

I used the David Lebowitz recipe that can be found here. Since it happened long long time ago, I do not remember any comments or remarks to add to that recipe. But when I tried to repeat my macaron triumph the second time (with a different recipe) I totally failed, because I did not follow the strict technique and that is the ultimate rule in making macarons + my eggs were not room temperature (a big no no!).

If you are into baking then this one is the ultimate challenge, do take it and let me know of your results!

But if you are lazy and live in a normal city then do yourself a favour and buy some macarons at Pierre Hermes or Laduree. If you are like me living in Tallinn  then make your way to Bonaparte Cafe for the ultimate local macaron indulgement.

Nigella Lawson's Banana Bread

Totally will make you go bananas! I literally swallowed the two thick slices, because the bread just melted in my mouth and not just because of that, it's mouthwateringly delicious. Also I made some special butter, the idea I stole from Cafe NOP which takes the whole experience to another level, really. Talking about some mad Saturday morning enjoyment here.. That's the highway to all sorts of funny and original addictions. How about I introduce myself to you: "Hello, I am Merle and I am addicted to Banana Bread." Simple as that!

 

I've copied the recipe from Nigella Lawson's website (my comments are in brackets)

100g sultanas

75ml bourbon or dark rum (I had light)

175g plain flour (I didn't have enough of plain flour, so I used spelt flour, which is the healthier version of flour)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

125g unsalted butter, melted

150g sugar

2 large eggs

4 small, very ripe bananas (about 300g weighed without skin), mashed

60g chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

PREPARATION

Wash the raisins and mix with the alcohol. Leave it there. I had them for about 20 minutes, but that was clearly not enough. What Nigella suggests is to put the sultanas and rum or bourbon in a smallish saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, cover and leave for an hour if you can, or until the sultanas have absorbed most of the liquid, then drain. Next time if I decide to include raisins and alcohol I will take her advice. But personally I think those two are not so vital in this recipe.

Preheat the oven to 170ºC and get started on the rest. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or
a wooden spoon, combine well.

In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the mashed bananas. Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in the walnuts, drained sultanas and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit. Scrape into the loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1–11/4 hours (60-75 minutes). When it’s ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out cleanish. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool.

http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=222

BUTTER

Butter should be at room temperature. Mix in some cardamon and cinnamon. No sugar nor salt. Easy and delish!

Music suggestion for today is something that just like this bread makes you lose sense of time, at least this is what this song does to me - Carl Kennedy "Ride the Storm" (Original Mix) (Club mix does not do the trick! ;))

"Tomorrow doesn't have to be just another yesterday.. Life goes on, ride the storm.."

P.S. Now with all that left-over rum who's up for some mojito tasting?

Life is Creme Brulee!

 

Like one of my friend always says when life's great - it's creme brulee! And it really is creme brulee when so little effort is needed for making it. I have done creme brulee several times and always felt afterwards it was so much effort and this week it came out so effortlessly. To be completely honest I only did it because I had some egg yolks left over after my grand macaroon making project (success!) and this seemed like the perfect solution.

makes 2 portions (if you have bigger ramekins)

2 egg yolks

2 dl heavy cream (35%)

2 tbsp sugar

1,5 tsp vanilla sugar

Topping: sugar (I used Muscovado)

Preheat the oven to 160 C. Whip egg yolks with sugar and vanilla. Heat up  the whipping cream until boiling, let cool for some minutes and then carefully mix with the egg yolk. You have to be careful while doing this, so that the eggs blend in and not turn into pieces (I am sure there's a perfect English word for it, but I cannot recall it at the moment). It will be a problem, if the cream is to hot. So pour slowly while mixing continuously.

Pour the mixture into the ramekins. Place the ramekins into a large cake pan or roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake just until the creme brulee is set, but still trembling in the center, approximately 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the roasting pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.

Prior to serving. If you do not have a torch (like me), then preheat the oven at grill mode to 250-300 C. Meanwhile, put some sugar on top of creme brulee and spread evenly. Allow it brown in oven for a few minutes, until sugar has caramelized. Let cool before serving.

If you are like me, then now is the time to put on those new hot platform pumps you recently shopped yourself, turn on some volume with Jazzanova "I Can See" and dance around the room with your creme brulee or be normal and invite some friends over for coffee. I did both actually! :)

Pears Poached in Red Wine with a little extra

In the beginning of the week I made a chocolate cake and ended up taking the whole thing to work next day to share with colleagues. By Friday the little light bulb above my head lit up and brought me to a realization that it was about time to try out something completely different than cakes!

And this thought exactly brings me to a recent unforgettable culinary experience. Namely, a few weeks ago  while on holiday in Phuket I had dinner in Patong at a restaurant called 9th Floor (totally recommend it!). The answer to my last weeks craving was right there on the menu of that establishment - a dessert from pears in red wine! Since I've always wanted to try something like this then I ordered this one without a shadow of a doubt  even though the dessert menu had some other extremely appetizing things on it. The experience was simply unearthly - I died and went to heaven right there and then. Some might even refer to it as orgasmic. Well, whichever explanation gives you a better idea.  All in all, it was definitely the best dessert I have tried in a very long time, excluding of course the sticky rice with mango.

 

Although I have no idea how they made this at the 9th Floor, I tried to copy it with the following recipe:

750-ml bottle dry red wine
2 cups sugar (you may want to add less, if you prefer less sweet)
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 cinnamon stick
4 firm but ripe pears, peeled, stems left intact

1 pint chocolate ice cream (I had one with chocolate and mint)

Combine first 6 ingredients in heavy large saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to simmer. Add pears and return mixture to simmer.

Reduce heat and simmer slowly until pears are tender when pierced with knife, about 25 minutes. Transfer pears to plate. Boil liquid in saucepan until reduced to 3 cups, about 20 minutes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill pears in poaching liquid.) You can rewarm it before serving or eat them cold. I prefer the cold version.

Arrange 1 pear and 1 scoop of ice cream on a plate. Drizzle some poaching liquid over. Garnish with orange peel strips, if desired, and serve.

Original unmodified recipe available at Epicurious, click here.

 

My overall comment is that I liked it a lot, although it did not reach the levels of my heavenly culinary experience at the 9th Floor. I think what I will do next time is marinade the pears and experiment more with different spices, since for a dessert this is a magnificent choice and well deserves trying out again! And I think it might go quite well with cheese.. as a starter with goat cheese, perhaps? There's definitely something to experiment with!

KAMA!

Kama is a very typical Estonian product that one cannot find anywhere else in the world (apart from some regions in Finland). I always have a huge problem with explaining my foreign friends what it is, since the word "kama" is not translatable. But fear not! There are Estonians who have got ahead of me and explained everything about our famous kama. Read about it  here. Personally I am a fan of this product and I am happy to introduce you a dessert made from it that will make you a happier person as well. ;)

Original recipe in Estonian available here. 

Kama Mousse

for 4 persons

500 gr natural unflavoured yoghurt

4 dl whipping cream

4 tbsp sugar (I used light muscovado sugar)

6 tbsp kama flour

strawberries fresh or frozen (depending on season)

Whip the cream with sugar, add yoghurt and kama. Crush the strawberries or chop up into very small pieces and mix in carefully. I did not mix it very thoroughly because I like the visual variation in colour. Put into serving glasses and leave in the fridge until serving to guests. Ideally you could also decorate with some strawberries and peppermint leaves for a more marketable look. 

I had this idea of doing this but substituting the whipping cream with ice cream, but I have not tried it, so I cannot comment whether this is a great idea. Perhaps some day I will revert on this matter.

Tiramisu and Strawberry Cake

This one was a no fuss and all joy type of cake. I have no humiliating stories to share this time :)

The biscuit:

4 eggs

1,5 dl sugar

1 dl flour

0,5 dl potato starch ( I didn't have it and I used corn starch instead, worked out great)

1 tsp baking powder

For moistening:

0,5 dl orange juice (I made fresh juice)

0,5 dl strong black coffee

0,5 dl cognac (didn't have any, so I used brandy instead)

Filling:

2 eggs

1 dl sugar

2 dl 35% cream (for making whipped cream)

200 gr mascarpone cream cheese

2 tsp orange zest

I added strawberries as well later under the filling to the biscuit.

For decoration:

cocoa powder

fresh strawberries

Making:

Beat the eggs with sugar into a foam like mixture. Mix flour, starch and baking powder and add to egg mixture. Stir the mixture into a baking form and bake at 225 C about 6-8 minutes. Remove from form  and let cool.

For the filling beat into a foam the eggs with sugar. Make whipped cream. Mix together mascarpone and orange zest and mix together with whipped cream. Lastly add carefully the egg mixture.

Cut the biscuit into two, moisten with the coffee-orange-brandy mixture. Add strawberries (if you wish) and half of the filling.

 

Put the second layer of biscuit on top. Repeat.  Let stay in the fridge for a few hours, best if overnight. A bit of time before serving add the cocoa powder.

Before serving decorate with strawberries. 

Source and Estonian recipe available at: http://nami-nami.ee/recipe.php?q=detail&pID=5720

OK.. I do have one shameful story to share after all.. the morning after I had about 1/4th of the cake. At once. Later in the evening I spent 2 hours in the gym. Go figure! :)

How I did not make the Budapest Swiss Roll

Sometimes things just do not work out by the plan. I have to admit I totally screwed it up! The biscuit came out perfect, but the whipped cream filling was a total loss (I created butter with mango...yaiks!). Since it was way past 10 PM and all the supermarkets were closed in this city I was not able to finish my swiss roll. So on Saturday in the morning I made a second attempt with the filling. First I wanted to do it like in the original Anne's recipe, but as I had 5 egg yolks with no life purpose in the fridge then I made a custard filling with tangerines instead. Since today it was impossible to roll it then I made a double layer cake. Not bad solution at all, but I am very disappointed that my fear for making swiss roll actually proved itself in life.

Apparently this cake is very popular in Sweden, read more about it at Anne's Food blog and see the original recipe:  http://annesfood.blogspot.com/2006/10/happy-blog-birthday.html  

Eesti keeles saad originaalretsepti siit: http://nami-nami.ee/print.php?q=detail&pID=9747 

And here's my accidental version of Budapest Swiss Roll:

The swiss roll biscuit

5 egg whites
3 dl sugar (about 1,3 cups)
150 g hazelnuts
2 tbsp cocoa powder
100 ml flour (about 0,4 cups)
3 tbsp flaked almonds

Filling

5 egg yolks

6 tbsp sugar

zest of 1 small lemon

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 dl whipping cream

3dl of fresh or defrosted berries (or you can use canned tangerines like I did, around 200 gr)

Start by preheating the oven to 150°C.
Blitz the hazelnuts in a food processor until finely chopped. Mix with cocoa powder and flour in a bowl.
Beat the eggwhites until they start to firm up. Gradually add the sugar, and beat until you have a thick, glossy meringue. Fold in the nut mixture, and spread on baking paper in a jelly roll pan. Sprinkle over the flaked almonds.

Bake for about 20 minutes - but after 15 minutes, turn the heat up to 175°C.

Remove, put the baking paper with the cake on a rack and let cool completely. Then invert on another piece of paper or onto a teflon sheet, and carefully remove the first sheet. (Brush with some cold water if it won't come off easily.)

In a very thick saucepan or by putting one saucepan onto another that is filled with water heat egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice and zest stirring continuously until the mixture is very thick. Remove from the stove let it cool down (you can put the saucepan into cold water so it cools down quicker). Meanwhile whip the cream and then mix it with the egg cream. Add fruit or berries and cover the biscuit with it.

If you would like to make a roll which I advise do the following:

Roll as you would a sushi roll, using the sheet the cake is on to help making it tight. Be very gentle, or the cake will crack. Roll all the way  to the end.
Slice off the ends and move the cake to a plate. Let it set in the fridge for a couple of hours - it can be frozen, too.

If you do not want to make a swiss roll then cut the biscuit half and put one half on top of the other. Add strawberries as I did for extra yumminess and voila! :)

The cake tastes really great on second day and nothing like what I had at Reval Cafe! So I have to go back there and investigate into that recipe... ;)

The whipped cream that did not turn out the way it should have the first time I did it looked like this:

Make sure you do not do this at home.. lol!