Friday, December 31, 2010

Charred Failure

At this current moment our flat is totally engulfed in the smell of charred cookies. That's right...I said charred. Here's my realization at this point...which is nothing new to me...you win some and you lose some. Today is New Year's Eve and we are having some friends over for a small get together. As both my husband and I are pretty tired and he is not feeling 100% we decided not to kill ourselves by being major party animals this year. Our plans exist of dessert, games and fun with some friends. Dessert...that's what I am good at right! I mean I love thinking of new things to make, finding new recipes, trying new things...I get such a kick from it. So I ordered a new baking book, a classic Swedish book called 7 types of Christmas cookies. There are not only 7 recipes in this lovely, little red and white checkered book. It is filled with holiday cookies and most I have never done. So you can imagine..from a baker's heart...that getting a new recipe book and trying a new cookie would be "like the best thing ever!" Yesterday I flipped through the book and found a Danish cookie recipe that called for all the ingredients I currently had, so I thought this Danish cookie is a freaking winner. It's the easiest recipe I have ever done. It consists of three...yep...three ingredients. Marzipan, powdered sugar and one egg white. Please somebody tell me how you can go wrong with only these ingredients? As I mixed these things together, it looked relatively cookie-like and I was happy to have such a simple thing to make for a party. I stuck them in the oven and waited. After just a few minutes the smell of almost done cookies started to drift in the air. I ran to check on them, because the recipe said to bake them for 15 minutes. They were probably in there for around 5. When I went in, I immediately realized something went COMPLETELY wrong...and I was utterly shocked, since it was only...ahem...three ingredients. The content of this Danish cookie had all melted together to form a huge rectangular cookie-bar thing and it was bubbling. Well since it didn't look totally done, I thought I would leave it in there. My big freaking mistake. Not several minutes later, I smelled charred cookie smell...which we all know smells the same no matter what kind of cookie you are baking...charred sugar STINKS!!! I ran into the kitchen and found my...what were supposed to be nice Danish cookies for New Year's Eve...turned into a black bubbling mess. At least it wasn't for a customer...that would have been tragic. However, I am still a bit peeved that my first attempt at my new cookbook has ended in such a way. Next on my list for this evening are brownies...wish me luck!

Until my next post, have a Happy New Year and try not to burn the kitchen down.
Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen

Friday, December 17, 2010

Grand Raspberry Trifle part 2 The Completion!!

Greetings from my bean bag chair, where I am sitting in my living room. Right now my mind and my body are super tired and unfortunately what awaits me in the kitchen is a massive mess of sugar substance and cake bits. I have pushed it off long enough, choosing instead to watch an episode of The Biggest Loser. I really like that show, but seem to have trouble watching it online. It inspires me how people who are obese, can work so hard and lose their weight, as well as, their health problems. I enjoy watching the transformations!

Now onto my baking project today. Yesterday I posted about the Raspberry Trifle that I was beginning. I had to make two pound cakes, before I did any trifling. So today began the process of putting the 17 trifles together. It was a total mess of stickiness, but since I enjoy assembling these things, the sticky hands were worth it. The counter on the other hand, had no idea what hit it. I had cake bits strewn from left to right, up and down, raspberry jam and berry mix in droplets, which seemed to smear everywhere, cream that wanted to creep down the sides of the wine glasses, and lemon sugar juice dripped on everything. Needless to say, if you don't like getting messy or if you are able to perfect the technique, I might suggest an easier project. In the end, to my satisfaction, these 17 trifles looked gorgeous and ready to savor. The colors of creamy cake, deep red raspberry and white cream layered are really very pretty. Now I need to go and deliver these to the people who will be enjoying them for their evening's dessert!

Until my next post...go ahead and make a mess!
Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen









Thursday, December 16, 2010

Grand Raspberry Trifle part 1 (The pound cake!)


Greetings from my kitchen! As I look outside, I am no longer delighted by the glories of a white winter. As of last night, the lovely snow began to melt and it has been very rainy most of the morning. I personally think this is when winter becomes long and boring. However, baking never stops, even if the weather sucks. Today for my baking endeavor I have begun the first step of what I hope will eventually turn out to be a delicious Grand Raspberry Trifle. The recipe calls for your favorite pound cake, but since I don't usually want to buy those pre-made things, I decided to make a pound cake, which from the taste of the batter, seems to be a success.
This trifle will be for about 20 people who are finishing up their first term before Christmas holidays. I found this recipe on Martha Stewart.com, who is surprised?! The pound cake is also from that site,  I will include both recipes in this post. I will be serving this trifle in individual wine glasses, which I think makes it elegant and classy. I will not be able to finish the whole thing tonight, so this is a bit of a long process for me, but if you can do it in one shot, then it shouldn't take you that long. The pound cake, can be purchased pre-made if you choose for that, otherwise the recipe says it takes roughly an hour to bake them. Other preparation time is 20 minutes. This will look beautiful on a Christmas spread or for your holiday parties.

Until my next post tomorrow, where I will be sharing about Christmas candy...enjoy the sites around you!
Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen

Today's Pound Cake:


Mixing the butter and sugar for 5 minutes. The recipe
said 8, but I was afraid my mixer would overheat. This
part is supposed to be light and fluffy.













Adding the 9 eggs in 4 parts.

















Adding flour, mixture then begins to become
more stiff and heavier

















Batter will be heavier and very smooth













Ready to go in the oven. The recipe says to put in bread
forms, but I only have one, so I put it in this form as well.
Since you are going to cut the slices anyway and set them
into the wine glasses or glass container, it doesn't really
matter which baking form you use...in my opinion.
But don't tell Martha!














Recipe for Grand Raspberry Trifle:

English trifle can be made in one large dish or several small dishes. Ours combines fruit, jam, juice-drenched pound cake, and whipped cream. To make individual raspberry trifles, follow steps 1 through 3. In each of 10 glass serving dishes or wineglasses (1 1/2-cup capacity), follow procedure in step 4, making only two layers in each glass.


Ingredients

Serves 10
  • 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1 cup seedless raspberry jam
  • 4 cups raspberries
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 1/2 pounds favorite pound cake

Directions

  1. In a small saucepan, bring 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water, and lemon juice to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar, 1 to 2 minutes. Let cool.
  2. In a small bowl, combine jam with 3 cups raspberries, mashing slightly. In a large bowl, whip cream and 2 tablespoons sugar to stiff peaks.
  3. Slice pound cake 3/4 inch thick; brush both sides of slices with lemon syrup.
  4. Fit 1/3 of slices snugly in the bottom of a 4-quart trifle dish or other glass bowl, trimming edges if necessary. Gently spread top of layer with 1/3 of raspberry mixture, and then 1/3 of whipped cream. Repeat to make two more layers; garnish with remaining cup raspberries. Refrigerate until ready to serve, up to 24 hours.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Grand Raspberry Trifle - Martha Stewart Recipes
 
 
Recipe for the Pound Cake:
 

Ingredients
Makes 2 cakes
  • 1 pound (3 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon coarse salt
  • 4 sticks softened unsalted butter, plus more for pans
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 9 large, room-temperature eggs

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter two 5-by-9-inch loaf pans. Combine all-purpose flour and salt in a bowl.
  2. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy, for 8 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Reduce speed to medium, and add vanilla extract.
  3. Lightly beat eggs, and add to mixer bowl in 4 additions, mixing thoroughly after each and scraping down sides. Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture in 4 additions, mixing until just incorporated. Divide batter between pans. Tap on counter to distribute; smooth tops.
  4. Bake until a tester inserted into center of each cake comes out clean, about 65 minutes. Let cool in pans on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire rack.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Classic Pound Cake - Martha Stewart Recipes
 
 

Monday, December 13, 2010

What to do with all these plums?

plum-galette-4.jpg
Good evening and greetings from my busy kitchen. I am sitting here currently waiting on a Plum Galette to finish baking and my husband is reading the newspaper. The dishes are piled...to my utter annoyance...but I am taking a break to blog a little here. A few weeks back, I purchased a basket of purple plums at the local grocery store. I really like plums, so I was happy to get a good deal on them. When I brought them home we noticed that they were not quite ripe enough to eat, so we set them in our fruit bowl which sits in our kitchen window and waited for them to be ready. A few days later, I grabbed one during the day and thought...surely they are ready to eat now, but as I bit into it, I was sadly disappointed as they were completely tasteless. We waited some more days and this time my husband took one to enjoy and again to a sad ending, the plum had no flavor. We concluded that these plums (not from Sweden) were picked WAY too early and would never taste much. Since I don't believe in throwing out food if it's still edible (thanks mom for that!) I looked around for what I could do with 20 plums. I found a recipe for a plum sufflé, but unfortunately that called for dry plums. So I finally googled "What to do with all these plums?" and found a great recipe. I love google for the soul reason that you can ask your question just the way you are thinking and 9 out 10 times there is some site that will help you. I found a recipe for something called Plum Galette. With a crust that you would use for an apple pie you place the plum mixture in the middle of the crust and then fold up the sides to make it look like am open pie. I think the whole thing sounded pretty good and it was perfect timing, as I was asked to bring a dessert to a Christmas party tomorrow night. So now I have rid myself of these virtually tasteless plums, in hopes that in this pie they will taste delicious! Now the only question is "What to make for dinner?"...

Until my next post...turn your hopeless foods into a treat!

Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen

Dough is prepared



 

 

 

 

The plums are sliced and ready to be mixed

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slices of plums

 






Dough in the pan


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plum Mixture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plum Galette!

 

 

 

 

 


Time to bake!


 

 

 

 

 

Plum Galette Recipe

The amount of sugar needed depends on the tartness of the plums. If all you have are fairly ripe, and therefore fairly sweet, plums, use a little less sugar and add a little lemon juice.

Ingredients

1 recipe pate brisee pie crust
6-8 tart plums, pitted and sliced (about 1 1/4 pounds net)
1/4 cup raisins (preferably golden)
1/4 cup chopped pecans
Zest from one lemon
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup sugar

Method

plum-galette-1.jpg
1 In a medium sized bowl, gently toss the plum slices with the raisins, pecans, lemon zest, flour and sugar.
2 Preheat oven to 375°F. If you are using homemade chilled pie dough, remove it from the refrigerator to let stand for 10 minutes before rolling out.
3 Lightly flour a clean surface and roll out the pie dough to a 13-inch round of even thickness.
plum-galette-2.jpg
4 Place rolled-out pie dough in the center of a small-rimmed, lightly buttered baking sheet. Place plum mixture in the center of the pie dough round, leaving a border of 2 inches on all sides. Fold the edges of the pie crust up and over so that circle of the filling is visible.
5 Place in the middle rack of the oven. Bake at 375°F for 40-50 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned and the filling is bubbly. Cool on a rack for an hour before serving.
plum-galette-3.jpg
Makes six servings.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Distracted, dancing baker


Okay all you chocolate and coffee lovers, have I got a scrumptious recipe for you to try! I found this recipe in a small magazine that our local grocers carry. It's called Coffee Sticky Cake (Kaffekladdkaka) and it is melt in your mouth goodness. It's dark chocolate flavor, mixed in with strong coffee is simply divine. From the first step of melted butter to the final touch of adding strong made coffee, your senses are awakened to the pleasures this cake will bring to your taste buds. While baking, I had Christmas music playing in the background and at one point (thanks to Zumba) I did some salsa to Feliz Navidad. This of course, makes the whole ordeal of baking so much more worthwhile. Trust me...dancing a little in the kitchen with a wooden spoon in your hand and cocoa everywhere...is a complete blast. I often think this is where I am truly myself, when I can let down and just boogie, with NO care in the world and no thought of anything but having fun. Currently both cakes are plumping up in the oven, which for sticky cakes, they shouldn't get as high as normal cakes...because they lack one important ingredient which causes the rise and that is baking powder. The stickier and gooier the cake, the better. And as I am sitting here typing I realized that I totally forgot to add the flour...oh no!

I have just now checked them when they came out and they tasted fine and look great, but they are a little more loose then normal sticky cake and will have to be eaten in a bowl. But if you are gluten free then this could work for you. Luckily this accident (which may be attributed to the dancing...) didn't result in two destroyed cakes and a very unhappy baker!

Until my next post...try not to forget an essential ingredient while baking and let your taste buds jump for joy!
Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen

Here is the recipe for you to try. Again I only have them in Swedish measurements, but I think it's super easy to convert if you want to try.

Coffee Sticky Cake (Kaffekladdkaka)
150g butter
1dl kakao
2 eggs
3dl sugar
2 tbsp. crushed coffee beans (I just used coffee already ground)
1 tsp. vanilla
1dl strong coffee
2dl flour

Melt butter and mix with cocoa. Whisk in eggs and sugar. Add crushed coffee beans, vanilla, and coffee. Put in normal cake or brownie pan. Bake 25-30 minutes at 350F or 175C. Add chocolate bits while the cake is still warm. Let it cool and then serve with cream

Garnishing:
1/2dl chopped dark chocolate

Serve with:
2 1/2dl whipped cream

Melted butter

















Ingredients awaiting to be mixed














Cocoa added

















Once mixed it should look silky and creamy


















Time for the eggs


















And next is the sugar













Mixing it all together, mixture will be a little
grainy, especially from the coffee pieces

















Adding liquid coffee













French pressed coffee, often turns out stronger, but use
what you have













At this point after adding coffee, the mixture
gets really liquidy, so I suggest a spoon to mix

















Creamy, but remember that I forgot to add the flour,
so if you are using flour your mixture will be a little
thicker then mine, but it will still be more loose.














This is what happens if you use the mixer
in the really soupy mixture. It splattered
all over the place, including on the cupboards
and counter top.

















The cakes ready to go into the oven

















Finished cakes with chocolate bits on top


















Friday, December 3, 2010

Orange and Lingonberry Muffins

Greetings from a very cold and very snowy Sweden! I am sitting here on my couch, bundled up, listening to Christmas carols and waiting for some super tasty muffins to finish baking. My house currently smells of orange, vanilla and cinnamon. It's a lovely combination. For today's baking I decided on Orange Lingon Muffins. I love me a good muffin recipe, especially with a wonderful cup of coffee. The whole coffee shop feeling takes me away and I savor every bite. I have 2 large muffin forms, so the muffins are not small and will fill you up. I am not sure where I got the recipe from, but it's a good one and fairly simple to do. These muffins are perfect for any Christmas or holiday parties you have coming up. They carry the smell and flavors of this time of year and also look great, with the red berries and orange rind shavings. Since I need to get these delicious muffins out of the oven shortly I will end this post.

Until next time...enjoy your day!

Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen

Recipe and pictures below:

 
Grating the orange rind

















Added orange juice and rind shavings
This will make the batter really thin and
loose, but it will thicken with flour, etc.
















Cinnamon and vanilla














Flour and dry ingredients added
















Mixing all together
















Nice and silky look
















Added lingons













Mixing berries, batter might turn a little
pink
















Ready to go into the muffin forms













Ready to be baked













Fresh out of the oven and ready to serve













Six baked orange and lingonberry muffins













Time for a cup of coffee and a muffin to enjoy the day!













Orange and Lingonberry Muffins:
2C flour
1C sugar
1 1/2tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/4C butter(softened)
1 tbsp.  grated orange rind
3/4C orange juice
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 3/4C lingonberries (can substitute with cranberries)

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add egg and mix well. Add orange juice and rind shavings, vanilla and cinnamon.Mix well. Add flour and dry ingredients, mix until silky. Then add berries. Bake 25 minutes at 350F or 175C. Make 12 small or 6 large muffins. Enjoy!!!