Strawberry-Blueberry-Tarte

This is the first recipe for a tarte that I ever used. I baked the tarte at a friend's apartment that I took care of while she was gone on holiday. I ate it with some vanilla ice cream and it was so good! 

I found the recipe on JamieOliver.com. It was posted by lovely Allora Andiamo years ago and now I can't find it anymore on the website, but I saved it back then, fortunately. 

I just love this tarte. It looks so beautiful with the almond slivers like fallen petals on it, plus it's very delicious and full of summer! Give it a try - you won't regret it! ♡

Ingredients

For the pastry:

• 300g plain flour 
• 140g cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 1 egg yolk 
• Pinch of salt 
• 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste
• Some ice cold water, approx. 5-6 tbsps (see instructions)

For the Filling:

• 350g fresh blueberries
• 200g fresh strawberries, sliced into 1/4's
• approx. 1 heaped tsp of finely grated orange zest
• seeds of 1 small vanilla pod 

To finish:

• 1 small egg
• approx. 2 tbsps of almond slivers for sprinkling 

Method

Pastry:

Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the cold butter and salt.Rub the mixture between your fingers till it resembles breadcrumbs then add the vanilla sugar and the egg yolk. Start adding the water, a little bit at a time, and knead the mixture very gently till the pastry binds together and the edges of the bowl are clean. Don't overmix the pastry otherwise it willll turn out tough once baked. Wrap in some clingfilm and place in the fridge for approx. 30 mins before rolling.

Preheat oven to 180C and grease a 20cm tart tin with a little bit of butter. 

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface, approx. 4-5mm thick. Lay the pastry in your tart tin and trim to size, reserving the left over pastry. Prick it with a fork, line with parchment paper and pour your baking beans over it. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, remove from the oven and remove baking beans and parchment paper. Allow to cool.

Filling:

In a medium sized bowl, combine the fruits, sugar, orange zest and vanilla then pour into the case.Re-roll leftover pastry and cut into 1.5cm strips. To make a simple lattice topping, place some strips running in one direction (vertically) and top them with the rest of the strips (horizontally). Whisk the egg and brush the pastry with the mixture. Sprinkle with the almond slivers.Bake at 180 degrees for approx. 35-40 mins, until golden. Leave to cool.

Serve with some vanilla ice cream! :D

Lemon Tarte with Meringue

Lemon tarte with meringue is my no. 1! But it was not love at first sight. I mean, come on.. lemons! They are tasty, of course, but sour. And I’ve got a sweet tooth, definitely! I was sure we would never make a good match.
But then fate took its course. My relationship with lemon tartes started some years ago, when I entered a coffee house in Vienna and desperately wanted to eat cake. I did not have much money with me, so I had to take what I could afford and that was one cup of coffee and a piece of lemon tarte. You can imagine the rest.
Lemon tarte is not cheap when shop-bought, so I thought why not making my own. I was pretty nervous because of the grilled meringue, but it turned out so well and I could eat so much of it without spending much money. Besides, baking the tarte fills the whole flat with a sweet lemon aroma. Nice side-effect!

Here’s my recipe for a home-made version. I never add too much sugar to my sweets, so if you want it sweeter, then feel free to alter the recipe the way you like it. You just need to add more sugar to the pastry and the lemon filling.

Sweet shortcrust pastry

• 125 grams of butter at room temperature 
• 70 grams caster sugar, sieved 
• 50 grams ground almonds 
• 250 grams flour, sieved 
• 1 egg (50 grams) at room temperature

Beat butter, sugar and ground almonds and gradually add the sieved flour until well combined. Add the egg and knead until well combined (if the dough is too firm, add some splashes of water). Form the dough into a ball and refrigerate for about 1 hour (or until needed).

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out. Lay your tarte tin with it, prick it with a fork, line with parchment paper and pour your baking beans over it. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, remove from the oven and remove baking beans and parchment paper.

Lemon filling

• 3 lemons
• 100 grams of butter at room temperature 
• 1-2 tbsp honey
• 15 grams of corn starch
• 3 eggs at room temperature

Zest one of your lemons and squeeze the juice of all 3 lemons. Melt butter and honey in a saucepan on a low heat, then add the lemon zest and juice to it and let it cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat.

Whisk the 3 eggs with the corn starch and add to the butter-lemon-mixture. Mix well until smooth.

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees. Spread the lemon-mixture over the baked tarte and bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Meringue

• 25 grams of caster sugar (or icing sugar), sieved
• 3 egg whites

Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then start to add the sugar gradually. Whisk until stiff.
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees (grill option).
Fill a piping bag with the meringue and pipe big dots on the surface of the tarte, so that they cover the surface of the tarte completely. Grill in the oven for about 1-2 minutes (or longer) until slightly coloured.

Germknödel (austrian sweet yeast dumplings filled with plum stew)

I love Austrian sweets - I grew up with them, so how could I not love them? - and once in a while I really crave „Germknödel“. They’re so delicious!
I guess, because they are served warm, they are meant to be for the cold times of the year, but however, I can even eat them in the burning heat of summer.
I love their soft dough with all those flavours and the warm Powidl inside. When I was little, I had holidays during the plum-harvest and I remember my nana cooking Powidl the whole day. So, if you make these, then try to get real Powidl because Powidl is NOT plum jam! Powidl is made of plums, but unlike jam it’s a stew without additional sugar or gelling agents. Of course, you can substitute Powidl with plum jam, but then you won’t get the authentic flavour.

The dumplings are not difficult to make, so here is my recipe! :D

Ingredients (makes approx. 8 dumplings)

• 200 ml milk
• 1 tbsp sugar
• half a sachet of active dry yeast (about 3,5 grams)
• 200 grams flour
• 1 egg yolk
• 25 grams butter, melted and slightly cooled
• pinch of salt
• 100 grams plum stew (Powidl)
• 20 grams melted butter
• 50 grams of ground poppy seeds
• icing sugar
• rum, sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of salt for the cooking water

method 

Heat the milk with the sugar on a low heat until it’s warm, but not hot. Remove from heat and stir in the yeast with a fork. Let it sit for a few minutes.
Sieve the flour in a bowl and pour the milk-yeast-mixture into it. Start to beat with either a hand mixer or in the food processor with a paddle attachment on a low speed, then add the egg yolk, butter and a pinch of salt. Beat until it forms a dough - the dough should be firm. Let it rest in a warm place for about half an hour.

Divide the dough into 8 portions. With your hand, shape the dough into tight balls and roll them out palm-sized with a rolling pin. Put one tsp of plum jam in the middle of each dough. Pull and fold the sides over the filling and pinch the edges together to seal.  

Place the dumplings upside-down on a floured surface, cover them with a kitchen towel and leave to rest in a warm surrounding until doubled in size – for about half an hour.

Fill a large pot with water. Add a strong dash of rum, approx. 2 tbsp of sugar, a pinch of salt and cinnamon to it and bring to boil. Reduce the heat so that the water doesn’t bubble away and add the dumplings. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, then turn them over and prick each dumpling 4-5 times with a needle. Cover again and let them cook further 4 to 5 minutes.

Remove the dumplings from the water, place them immediately on a plate and pour melted butter over them. Sprinkle with poppy seeds and icing sugar according to taste and serve.

Enjoy!

Death by Chocolate

I spent the weekend watching Lord of the Rings. After I had watched the second Hobbit-movie “The Desolation of Smaug”, I really wanted to know the whole story of LOTR. I became a big fan of Legolas, although I do not like Orlando Bloom. Aragorn is pretty cool. But if I had to be one character, it would be Gimli due to height and character.
 

The story of “middle earth” is pretty complex, like the cake that we made this weekend. Recipe is inspired by by French pastry chef Pierre Hermé. We call the cake “death by chocolate” – a must for you if you’re a chocoholic, in a depressive or sad mood or just feel hoggish. :D
 

I prepared some of the “layers” one day ahead to save time, which I recommend.

Recipe is for a 13 cm cake tin
 

Prepare one day ahead
 

brittle

• 30 grams butter at room temperature
• 25 grams sugar
• 15 grams flour
• ¼ egg white

Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Sieve the flour into the mixture and add a pinch of salt. Stir well until smooth. Finally add the egg white and mix well. Spread it on parchment paper as thin as possible and bake in the oven at 200°C for about 5 minutes. Cool completely, then break it to crumbs.

chocolate disk

• 20 grams couverture with 40% cocoa solids + 5 grams couverture with 60% cocoa solids

Melt the couverture over a bain-marie. Line your cake tin with cling film and pour in the melted chocolate evenly. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until you need it. 

chocolate cream

• 140 ml cream
• 80 grams couverture with 40% cocoa solids + 15 grams couverture with 60% cocoa solids

Heat the cream until it starts to steam (do not bring to boil!) and pour gradually into the couverture. Mix well until the couverture melts completely. Cool at room temperature and refrigerate overnight.

On the next day

Recommendation: Roast 135 grams of hazelnuts in a pan and rub off the skin with a towel. That’s the whole amount of hazelnuts that you will need for the following steps. So you save time.

 
2 hazelnut bases

• 75 grams icing sugar, sieved
• 70 grams ground hazelnuts
• 75 grams egg white
• 15 grams whole hazelnuts

Roast 40 grams of hazelnuts in a pan and rub off the skin with a towel. Blend them in a food processor with a pinch of salt until finely ground (pulse 2 to 3 times, that’s enough I think).
Preheat the oven to 170° degrees. On parchment paper, draw two circles with the same diameter like your cake tin has.
Mix icing sugar and ground hazelnuts. Beat the egg white up (not too stiff!) and fold it gradually into the sugar-hazelnuts-mixture. Fill a piping bag with the batter and pipe a spiral of batter onto your drawn circle, following the circle and pipe spiraling inward to fill the circle.
Ground the 15g of hazelnuts and sprinkle them over the batter. Bake in the oven with the oven door slightly opened for about 25 minutes. Let them cool completely!
 

ganache

• 25 grams cream
• 20 grams couverture 40% + 10 grams couverture 60%

Heat the cream and gradually mix into the couverture, until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

nougat filling

• 8 grams butter
• 20 grams couverture 40%
• 30 grams hazelnut nougat (for example, Nutella)
• 40 grams hazelnut paste*
• 40 grams brittle (keep the rest for decoration!)
• 10 grams roasted hazelnuts, grounded

*hazelnut paste:
Roast 40grams of hazelnuts in a pan and rub off the skin. Put them in the food processor and ground it with 1 tsp vanilla sugar until you get a fine paste.
 

Melt butter, couverture and hazelnut nougat over a bain-marie. Add the hazelnut paste, the brittle and the roasted hazelnuts and let it cool to room temperature.
 

cake’s composition
Use your cake tin (or alternatively a cake ring) and line it with parchment paper. Assemble the single layers of the cake in this order:

1. put one hazelnut-layer in the form
2. on the hazelnut-layer, spread the nougat filling evenly
3. take your chocolate disk and brush it with the chocolate ganache on both sides, then put the disk into the tin
4. beat the chocolate cream and pour half of it over the chocolate disk, spread it evenly
5. put the second hazelnut-layer over it (with the top looking down)
6. spread the second half fo the chocolate cream over it evenly

Refrigerate the assembled cake for 5 hours, before glazing and decorating it sideways with the rest of the brittle.

For my glaze, I just melted couverture (60 % cocoa solids) and butter over a bain-marie, let it cool and then spread it over the cake. You can also use a bought cake glaze, like one from Dr. Oetker. 

You’ll find the recipe on the blog of cook-poet Eva. My version is a bit different.

Chocolate Amaretto Cookies

Hello my dear readers,

A Happy New Year // Ein frohes neues Jahr! //明けましておめでとう！

I hope it will be a good year for you all, but I’ve got a good feeling about it. <3

I got some pretty cool and lovely presents for Christmas, which is: Three recipe books that I longed to call mine!!!

I want to show you the first recipe that I chose to bake among so many not less tempting others in my new books. It’s a recipe for little cookies with a subtle amaretto-taste. They are so easy to make and even faster gone! ;3

ingredients (makes approx. 25- 30 cookies)

• 80 grams flour, sieved
• 25 grams cocoa
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 40 grams sugar
• 25 grams cold butter, cubed
• 10 ml Amaretto
• 1 egg
• some icing sugar to coat

method
 

Mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder and sugar in a mixing bowl until well combined. Then sieve it. Add the cubed butter and using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour-mixture until its consistency reminds you of fine sand.
 

Mix the egg and amaretto together and add to the sandy mixture. Mix it with your hands then switch to a greater. The dough will be very sticky! Wrap the dough in clingfilm and refridgerate for about 30 to 40 minutes.
 

Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare the icing sugar. Line your baking tray with parchment paper.
 

Wet your hands a little bit with cold water. With a teaspoon scoop out some dough and form it to little balls. Toss in the icing sugar and coat them completely and put them on the baking tray. 
Bake for 10-12 minutes in the oven. Allow to cool completely.

Source "The Hummingbird Bakery: Home Sweet Home", Harper Collins Publ. UK (2013)

Blueberry Tarte

Last weekend was not good. It simply wasn’t a real weekend. I had classes on Saturday and had to wake up at 7 am. After classes I had to finish a presentation. Then, on Sunday, I revised the presentation. Weekend over.
 

I got in the mood to watch the movie My Blueberry Nights in the evening on Saturday, that we had bought some time before. It’s a quiet movie, starring Norah Jones (Elizabeth) and Jude Law (Jeremy). Further two of my most favourite actresses: Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman. I enjoyed the movie. 

Inspired by Elizabeth eating blueberry pie, I wanted to bake one myself. I love blueberry pie so much and couldn’t understand why only a few people ordered it at Jeremy’s shop. Jeremy explains it this way:

"From my observations, sometimes it's better off not knowing, and other times there's no reason to be found. […] Hmm. It's like these pies and cakes. At the end of every night, the cheese cake and the apple pie are always completely gone. The peach cobbler and the chocolate mousse cake are nearly finished... but there's always a whole blueberry pie left untouched. […] There's nothing wrong with the blueberry pie. Just... people make other choices. You can't blame the blueberry pie, just... no one wants it." (© My Blueberry Nights)

I wanted blueberry pie! Desperately.
But eating it with vanilla ice cream at this time of the year, well… not good, I thought. So I did an alternative.
And my pie turned into a tarte. Why do tartes always look so beautiful?
 

For a 18cm tarte tin
 

base

• 300 grams flour
• Pinch of salt
• 140 grams cold butter
• 1 TL Vanilla Bean Paste (or seeds of a half vanilla pod)
• 1 egg yolk
• 6-7 tbsp cold water 

Divide egg yolk and egg white (you can freeze egg whites for later).
Put a bowl on a scale so that you can measure everything right away. Sieve the flour into the bowl, add a pinch of salt and cut your cold butter in cubes into the flour-salt-mixture. Add I tsp vanilla bean paste and start to knead (you can put your hands under running cold water before you start, if you want). When the mixture resembles bread crumbs, add the egg yolk and knead ahead. Gradually add the cold water, until all the flour is incorporated into the dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out. Lay your tarte tin with it, prick it with a fork, line with parchment paper and pour your baking beans over it. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, then remove baking beans and parchment paper and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
You can roll your pastry as thick/thin as you wish. I like the base not too thin, but others don’t, so work it they way you like it.
 

pudding or custard cream カスタードクリーム

• 125 ml whole milk (or soy milk)
• 1 ½ egg yolk
• 13 grams flour
• 1 tbsp sugar (if you use soy milk, then skip it!)
• ½ vanilla pod 

Pour milk into a pot, deseed your vanilla pod and add them with the vanilla pod to the milk. Heat the vanilla-milk until it almost reaches the fever pitch, then remove from heat. Mix egg yolks, sugar and flour (sieved!) together until smooth. Using a whisk, pour the milk gradually into the egg-mixture, stirring all the time.
Pass the mixture through a sieve back into the pot. Heat the pot again, stirring all the time until it thickens. Remove from heat and leave to cool slightly.
Spread your pudding over your tarte base.
 

blueberry top

• approx. 380 grams blueberries (save a small handful for decoration!)
• approx. 1/8 l water
• zest and juice of a small lemon
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp cornflour (I always use the japanese katakuriko 片栗粉)

Put half of the blueberries with the water in a pod and bring to boil. Leave to boil for about 4 minutes. Add sugar, lemon zest and juice and reduce the heat. Dissolve the cornflour with a little water and mix it into the blueberries. Cook until it thickens stirring regularly.
Spread the blueberry-marmalade over your pudding and the uncooked blueberries over it, pushing them slightly into the marmalade.
Leave to cool overnight. I decorated my tart with some further lemon zest.

Jeremy: "When I was little me mum used to take me to the park on weekends... 

She said if I ever got lost I had to stay in one place so that she'd find me."
Elizabeth: "Does that work?"
Jeremy: "Not really, She got lost once looking for me." (© My Blueberry Nights)

"A few years ago, I had a dream. It began in the summer and was over by the following spring. In between, there were as many unhappy nights as there were happy days. Most of them took place in this cafe. And then one night, a door slammed and the dream was over." (© My Blueberry Nights)

Have you ever been inspired by a movie to cook or bake something? If yes, what was it and by what movie? I’d like to hear some experiences. (^^)

Cranberry Bakewell

This cake tastes heavenly! It smells and tastes like Christmas.

When cooking the cake’s single layers you get into this christmassy mood, no matter if you are a Christmas-freak (like I am) or not. It’s not that sort of feeling that appears to be imposed on you when walking through the supermarkets around THE time of the year, no. It’s a different one, one that is more honest.

The cake is a little time-consuming. But I promise, you’ll forget all the work after the first bite!

The cake has 3 layers:

1. sweet shortcrust
2. cranberry jam (best if made one day in advance!)
3. frangipane

I found the recipe in a Jamie Oliver magazine and did some changes.

cranberry-jam

• 280 grams fresh cranberries
• 5 heaped tbsp sugar
• z est and juice of one orange
• ½ star anise
• ¼ tsp cinnamon

Put all the ingredients above in a pot and bring them to boil (if you put a lid on it, it needs less time until boiling and you save energy!). When the mixture boils, reduce the heat. Stir frequently with a wooden spoon. When it starts to thicken, reduce the heat again and let it simmer, until it reaches the right consistence. Refrigerate for one day or at least overnight. Remove the star anise.

For a 18cm tarte tin:

• 1 pack of shortcrust pastry

Line your tarte tin with the pastry and let it chill in the fridge for one hour.

Frangipane

• 225 grams ground almonds
• 187g butter at room-temperature
• 1 ½ heaped tbsp flour, sieved
• 3 tbsp sugar (you can use more or less)
• 1 ½ egg (or a large egg), at room-temperature
• Seeds of one vanilla pod
• drops of orange extract (or a lug of Cointreau)
• a small hand full cranberries & 1-2 tbsp flaked almonds for decoration

Mix the butter and sugar until creamy, add gradually vanilla seeds, orange extract and egg. Finally fold in the ground almonds and the flour. Wrap it in clingfilm and leave to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
 

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
 

Remove the shortcrust pastry from the fridge, prick it with a fork, cover with parchment paper, fill with baking beans and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Take it out, remove baking beans and parchment paper and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
 

After the base has cooled completely, spread the jam evenly on it.
 

Take your frangipane out of the fridge. It should be pretty firm now, so you can proceed this way: Cut the pastry in evenly thick slices and spread them over your marmalade close to each other. Fill the gaps between the slices with the rest of the frangipane (it should be softened now – if not, rub it between your fingers).
 

In the end, flatten a regular surface with the palm of your hand. This step is exhausting, but worth it!

Spread a small handfull of cranberries over your cake and slightly push them into the surface. Spread the flaked almonds afterwards and make sure that all your flakes touch the frangipane-surface, so that they can stick to it.

Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for approx. 40 minutes. Remove and set to cool.

glaze (optional)

• zest and juice of half an orange
• 80g icing sugar

Mix zest, juice and sugar until well combined. Add some more sugar if necessary. Drizzle it over the cake.

So delicious!