Showing posts with label snack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snack. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Blackberry German Butter Cake - Brombeere-Butterkuchen #FoodieExtravaganza

Butterkuchen or German butter cake is baked with a butter enrich yeast dough, that is topped with sugar and yet more butter. In this version I've named Brombeere-Butterkuchen or Blackberry German Butter Cake, I’ve also added some wild blackberries to the topping.

Food Lust People Love: Butterkuchen or German butter cake is baked with a butter enrich yeast dough, that is topped with sugar and yet more butter. In this version, I've named Brombeere-Butterkuchen or Blackberry German Butter Cake, I’ve also added some wild blackberries to the topping.

If you’ve never had butterkuchen or German butter cake, let me assure you that the name is well-deserved. This rich cake swims in the butter topping when it comes out of the oven. As the cake cools, the butter sinks in, making it super moist and delectable.

This month my Foodie Extravaganza friends are sharing German recipes to celebrate the Oktoberfest which, despite its name, starts on Saturday, 16 September in Munich, extending only slightly into October with an end date of October 3rd this year.  Make sure to scroll down to see the dishes we’ve made in anticipation.

Meanwhile, you might want to check out my cheese-filled pretzels, homemade spicy German beer mustard and the obatza cheese spread I recreated for Sunday Supper, all three perfect for your Oktoberfest party.

This time around, I chose a sweet dish since every good and hearty meal should end with dessert, don’t you think? I'm pretty sure all German meals are good and hearty.

Blackberry German Butter Cake (Brombeere-Butterkuchen) 

This recipe is adapted from several I found on the internet. Here are three: ChefKoch.de, Lecker.de and GermanFood.org. Don't let the yeast scare you! This cake is really quite simple to make.

Ingredients
For the sponge:
1/4 cup or 31.25g flour
1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
1/2 cup or 120ml lukewarm milk (110°F or 43°C.)
1/2 teaspoon sugar

For the cake dough:
2 cups or 250g flour
1 large egg, at room temperature
7 tablespoons or 100g butter, softened, plus a little for buttering your baking pan
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the topping:
1/2 cup or 75g fresh berries, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
9 tablespoons or 127g butter, softened

Method
To proof the yeast, we first make a sponge. Place flour in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. Sprinkle in the dry yeast and add the teaspoon of sugar. Mix in the lukewarm milk.


Let the sponge sit in a warm place for 15 minutes. It should get foamy and increase in size. If it doesn’t, toss it out and start again with new yeast.

Assuming you have good, active yeast, add in the flour, egg, the softened butter, sugar and salt to the yeast mixture.

That's the foamy "sponge" on the bottom right. Good yeast! 


Mix until the dough is smooth and forms a ball.

One of the recipes I consulted online says to add up to 1/2 cup additional flour if necessary but I decided to leave my dough slack to make it more cake like, and less bready. So it didn’t really form a stiff ball. This probably makes it unauthentic, but, hey, I’m not even a little bit German plus I’ve added wild Jersey blackberries, so that makes it unauthentic already.


Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and leave to rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.

Press the dough out into a lightly buttered 8x8in or 20x20cm pan. Let it rest again for 15 minutes while heating oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Wet your hands slightly (so they don’t stick to the dough) and use your fingers to create dimples in the top of the dough.


Mix the sugar and cinnamon together with the berries and sprinkle evenly over dough.



Cut topping butter into small pieces and dot them evenly all around the cake. Mine was pretty soft so it was more a matter of spooning small bits on.

Food Lust People Love: Butterkuchen or German butter cake is baked with a butter enrich yeast dough, that is topped with sugar and yet more butter. In this version, I've named Brombeere-Butterkuchen or Blackberry German Butter Cake, I’ve also added some wild blackberries to the topping.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and the sugar on top has caramelized. There is still going to be quite a bit of butter bubbling on top but don’t worry, it will sink in as the cake cools.

Food Lust People Love: Butterkuchen or German butter cake is baked with a butter enrich yeast dough, that is topped with sugar and yet more butter. In this version, I've named Brombeere-Butterkuchen or Blackberry German Butter Cake, I’ve also added some wild blackberries to the topping.

Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Butterkuchen or German butter cake is baked with a butter enrich yeast dough, that is topped with sugar and yet more butter. In this version, I've named Brombeere-Butterkuchen or Blackberry German Butter Cake, I’ve also added some wild blackberries to the topping.


Many thanks to this month’s host, Sue of Palatable Pastime for choosing our theme and her behind the scenes work. It’s almost time for Oktoberfest! How will you celebrate?




Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board!


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Food Lust People Love: Butterkuchen or German butter cake is baked with a butter enrich yeast dough, that is topped with sugar and yet more butter. In this version, I've named Brombeere-Butterkuchen or Blackberry German Butter Cake, I’ve also added some wild blackberries to the topping.
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Monday, July 31, 2017

Country Applesauce Pecan Muffins #MuffinMonday

Made with thick homemade applesauce, these country applesauce pecan muffins are rich with the flavors of brown sugar and cinnamon. They are a great breakfast muffin or afternoon snack.

Food Lust People Love: Made with thick homemade applesauce, these country applesauce pecan muffins are rich with the flavors of brown sugar and cinnamon. They are a great breakfast muffin or afternoon snack.

Weekend before last, ahead of a routine test on Monday, my husband was instructed to start on a soft food diet. We headed to our big hypermarket for a shopping trip, picking up clear soups and other tasty morsels he could eat. “How about applesauce?” he said. “Sure,’ I replied. I turned back towards the fresh produce, as he turned toward the cans and jars. We both stopped.

“We are not going to buy applesauce!” I exclaimed. “You know how easy it is to make applesauce!” Plus, I pointed out, we were having pork chops for dinner – his last solid meal for a couple of days - so we’d need applesauce for those as well.

Sure, it takes a while to peel and core the apples (and toss them in a little fresh lemon juice), but you know exactly what you get when you are done. Pure applesauce, with a hint of lemon. If you choose your apples wisely, you don’t need to add sugar.

How to make applesauce:
Put the juice of one small lemon in a large mixing bowl. Peel, core and chop 3 Granny Smith apples and four Red Delicious, tossing the chunks in the lemon juice to stop them turning brown.

Place the lot in a heavy saucepan with 1/4 cup or 60ml water. Keep the fire on medium low and cover the pot with a tightfitting lid. Check it often, stirring the apples when you do. Cook until the apples are very soft and can be mashed easily with the back of a spoon. Taste the applesauce and add a little sugar, if necessary. Store in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Country Applesauce Pecan Muffins

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup or 125g pecans
2/3 cup or 132g brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup or 80ml canola oil, plus a little extra for greasing muffin pan
1 large egg
1 rounded cup or 250g applesauce (see instructions above or use store-bought sauce)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180C°. Toast the pecans on a dry baking pan as the oven preheats. Watch them closely and shake the pan occasionally so the pecans don’t scorch.  This won’t take long. Remove from the oven and chop coarsely.

Grease 12 standard muffin cups with a little canola or line the pan with paper liners.

Divide the chopped pecans, setting aside a generous handful to sprinkle on the muffins before baking.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, the larger pile of chopped pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Food Lust People Love: Made with thick homemade applesauce, these country applesauce pecan muffins are rich with the flavors of brown sugar and cinnamon. They are a great breakfast muffin or afternoon snack.

In another smaller mixing bowl, thoroughly whisk the oil, egg, applesauce and vanilla extract together.

Food Lust People Love: Made with thick homemade applesauce, these country applesauce pecan muffins are rich with the flavors of brown sugar and cinnamon. They are a great breakfast muffin or afternoon snack.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry until just mixed.

Food Lust People Love: Made with thick homemade applesauce, these country applesauce pecan muffins are rich with the flavors of brown sugar and cinnamon. They are a great breakfast muffin or afternoon snack.

Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups. Top with the reserved chopped pecans.

Food Lust People Love: Made with thick homemade applesauce, these country applesauce pecan muffins are rich with the flavors of brown sugar and cinnamon. They are a great breakfast muffin or afternoon snack.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Food Lust People Love: Made with thick homemade applesauce, these country applesauce pecan muffins are rich with the flavors of brown sugar and cinnamon. They are a great breakfast muffin or afternoon snack.


Enjoy!

Many thanks to Karen from Karen’s Kitchen Stories for hosting this edition of Muffin Monday while I am on the road from the east coast to the west with my daughter. We are in New York state right now and are headed to Cleveland, Ohio this morning. As I mentioned in my last post, my Instagram feed is always kind of a weird mix of images, but for the next eight days, it's going to be filled with sights from our cross country trip. Do follow along!

Meanwhile, make sure to check out all the other goodies my Muffin Monday friends are sharing today!



#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

Pin it! 

Food Lust People Love: Made with thick homemade applesauce, these country applesauce pecan muffins are rich with the flavors of brown sugar and cinnamon. They are a great breakfast muffin or afternoon snack. #MuffinMonday
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Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Chili Maple Bacon Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange


Soft on the inside and chewy on the outside, these chili maple bacon cookies are also the perfect combination of sweet, salty and spicy.


This is the cookie for your bacon-loving friend who doesn’t usually eat cookies. (Like me.) The subtle maple flavor and the fresh kick of chili from the spiked syrup balance the smokiness and salt of the bacon. But make no mistake, these are still plenty sweet enough to be called cookies.

I’m not much of a cookie eater but these guys with bacon and chili have me hooked! If you like cookies with bacon, you might also want to try my Brown Sugar Bacon Cookies or my Bacon Dark Chocolate Bourbon Cookies.

Ingredients - for 2 dozen cookies
1 lb or 450g smoked bacon, divided (11-13 thin slices)
1/4 cup or 60ml maple syrup
1 small hot red chili pepper
2/3 cup or 156ml canola or other light oil
1 cup or 200g sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups or 250g flour +62g

1/4 cup or 60g turbinado or demerara sugar for rolling

Method
Mince the chili pepper finely and put it in a microwavable measuring cup or bowl with the maple syrup. Warm the syrup (about 30 seconds should do) and then leave to cool so the chili pepper flavor and heat will infuse the syrup.

Fry the bacon until crispy then drain on paper towels. Once cool, mince it finely. Divide the bacon bits into piles of about two-thirds and one-third. We’ll mix the bigger pile into the cookie dough and use the smaller one for rolling the dough balls.



Note: Once the maple syrup is cool, you can strain out the chili pepper if you’d like. I like to leave mine in.

In a mixing bowl, stir together oil, sugar, egg, maple syrup, baking soda, salt and vanilla.


Add in the bigger pile of minced bacon.


Mix well, then stir in the flour, stirring just until it is mixed in.



Refrigerate until stiff.

Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C and line two or three cookie sheets with baking parchment or silicone liners. These cookies do spread out so I baked them only six at a time.

Mix the turbinado or demarara sugar with the reserved minced bacon in a bowl.


Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop to divide the dough into 24 pieces. Roll the dough pieces into balls and then roll in the sugar and bacon.


Place the balls on the prepared cookie sheets and bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes.


Cool on the cookie sheets then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.


Enjoy!



This month my Creative Cookie Exchange friends are sharing cookies with chili. Check out the great list of recipes:



Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life. We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

Pin it! 

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Monday, March 27, 2017

Apple Oatmeal Muffins #MuffinMonday

Apple Oatmeal Muffins have a bit of sugar, to be sure, but I like to think those are counterbalanced by the oats and apple to create a reasonably healthy muffin, perfect for breakfast on the go, or snacking.

Food Lust People Love: Apple Oatmeal Muffins


Happy Muffin Monday! This month we've got a short list of great muffins to share and a host to thank. I'm in Atlanta for our nephew's wedding and my good friend Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm volunteered to help with the behind the scenes work.

It's been an amazing weekend, reconnecting with family and sharing the joy of the happy couple as they begin their married life, made even more enjoyable for me, knowing that Wendy was in charge and taking care of business.

I baked these muffins before I left Dubai and left them behind for my lovely house guest, Daphne. She's in Dubai for her own event, Fully Booked, an art book exhibition with vendors, that was running concurrently with Art Dubai. It was a huge success and I am so proud of her!

I hope you like these muffins as much as she did!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups or 190g all purpose flour
1/2 cup or 42g quick oats
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup or 240ml milk
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
1 large apple

Method
Preheat oven to 375°F or 190°C. Generously grease cups and top of 12-cup muffin tin.

Whisk together flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together.



In another bowl, whisk together milk, oil and egg. Peel, core and chop the apple into small pieces and put them immediately into the wet ingredient bowl. Stir.



Add all the milk mixture to flour mixture. Gently fold just until dry ingredients are moistened.



Divide your batter relatively evenly between the 12 muffin cups.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden.

Food Lust People Love: Apple Oatmeal Muffins


Remove from oven and let cool 10-15 before removing muffins from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack. These apple oatmeal muffins are tender and fluffy on the inside with a nice crust on the tops.

Food Lust People Love: Apple Oatmeal Muffins
Aren't these trivets fun? I received them as a gift from Daphne. They come from Good Thing


Enjoy!

Who wants a muffin? We've got some lovely ones for you today!


#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.


Pin it!  

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Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Lazy Cow Rich Tea Biscuits #CreativeCookieExchange

Rich tea biscuits are a British classic, baked up crispy so they are perfect for dunking in a cup of hot tea. Use my "lazy cow" method to avoid rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters.


In the many years I’ve been watching the Great British Bake Off or GBBO as it’s known for short, I’ve learned a lot about British classics as well as traditional baked goods from other countries. Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry are both a wealth of baking knowledge.

There’s just one thing I have to disagree with. Paul maintained throughout the series (and I’ve heard him say it elsewhere also) that the difference between biscuits and cookies is that biscuits are crisp, while cookies are softer.

But if we are talking American English, biscuits are fluffy baked quick bread akin to British scones and cookies can be both crisp and soft. In all my many years of visiting the British Isles and hanging out with British friends, I have never heard them use the term “cookie” for anything traditional that they bake.

I tell you all this as a preamble to today’s bake. They are indeed crispy, so even Paul Hollywood would call these rich tea biscuits. That said, traditional rich tea biscuits are rolled out and cut into circles. Which is my least favorite way of making cookies or biscuits. Blessedly, the circle is the classic shape for these guys, so I rolled the dough into a log, partially froze it, and then sliced it into circles. So these are my “lazy cow” rich tea biscuits. To everyone else who hates to roll dough, but loves rich tea biscuits, you are welcome.

Adapted from this recipe on The Baking Bar, where David does it the old-fashioned way. Because he's not a lazy cow. Apparently.

Ingredients – for about 14-15 large biscuits
2 cups or 250g plain flour
1/3 cup or 75g caster sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch fine salt
3/4 cup or 170g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method 
Line your baking sheets with baking parchment or silicone liners and set aside.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.

Add the butter, cut into cubes.

Use your fingers or a pastry blender to mix in the butter till the mixture looks like crumbs. My kitchen is always too warm and my hands are too hot, so I use the pastry blender.



Add in the milk and the vanilla and use a fork to combine.

Use your hands to bring it all together into a firm dough.



Roll the dough into a thick log about 2 3/4 in or 7cm in circumference, shaping the ends flat.



Wrap it in cling film and pop it in your freezer, standing it on one end so that the log retains a nice cylindrical shape. Set a timer for about 40 minutes.



When the timer is nearly up, preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Use a sharp knife to cut the log into slices about 1/4 in or 1/2cm thick. I find a sharp serrated knife works best because you can "saw" the slices off without pressing the log out of shape, which gives more circular circles, if you know what I mean.



Put your dough circles on the prepared baking pans, leaving room for some expansion as they bake. I used a toothpick to make little holes all of the circles, just like the store-bought rich tea biscuits but I could have saved myself some time because they weren't really visible after baking. Feel free to skip this step.



Bake for about 8-9 minutes in your preheated oven. Ideally, you want them baked through but not brown. Mine are a little darker around the edges than a classic rich tea biscuit should be.

Leave to cool for a few minutes on the pan and then transfer to a metal rack to cool completely. They will crisp up as they cool.



Enjoy with a cup of tea!



If you like cookies or biscuits with your tea, you are going to love this month's Creative Cookie Exchange link list. Check out all the great teatime treats we have for you today!





Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life. We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

Pin it!



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