Mahlzeit - Food without Borders

This is a very simple recipe.    1 roll of puff pastry 8 oz of fresh raspberries raspberry jam Glaze Juice of half a lemon powder sugar Unroll the puff pasty and cut it into 6 equal size squares. Put raspberry jam down and then some fresh raspberries Fold over the empty corner and seal the seams. Take a fork and put a bit of pressure on the outside border, and then make little waves with the tip of the fork all around the seam. Preheat the oven to 375F. Line  a baking sheet with parchement paper and add all finished wedges on the sheet. Bake for 25 min or until golden brown. While in the oven, mix the lemon juice with the powder sugar to a thick paste.  Once baking is complete, pull the sheet out of the oven and put the lemon sugar glaze on the still hot wedges. Eat while they are still warm, but they are tasty when cold as well. -Mahlzeit-

I still had puff pastry in the fridge, that needed to get a purpose. The original plan was to do  Beef Wellington. Then I didn't have the patience to work through all the steps. Back-up recipe: Pigs Ears. This time without the chocolate covering. The ingredients are very simple: 1 sheet puff pastry (store bought), sugar and cinnamon.  I mix the sugar with the cinnamon and then put it in a sugar shaker. It makes it for an easy distribution. Unroll the sheet of puff pasty. I do that on a silicon matt, that has measurements on the side. This comes up really handy when folding. The bottom left corner lines up with the 0 marker on the matt. The sheet is 15" high. The first fold of  both ends needs to meet roughly at 7.5". Add some of the sugar and cinnamon mixture on the entire sheet and then fold. Add more sugar and cinnamon on the folded puff pastry. Then fold both sides again, so they meet at the existing 7.5" line again. I did run out of the sugar cinnamon mixture.  I...

This is really easy to make and there is actually not a lot of room for screwing things up. The recipe consists of puff pastry sheets, sugar and cinnamon. And that is it. The trick is the folding. This is very nicely explained here .  Also it helps to put the folded pastry into the freezer for 30 minutes. It makes cutting a lot more easy. So far so good.  This looks promising: What I ended up with: The cookies did not expand as much as I have hoped. They were supposed to be at least double in size. Looking at the package: ok expiration date was about 6 months go. That explains that they didn't no expand as much. However taste wise, they were great.  I also got to have a few more tries on the chocolate covering. Well one lives and learns. -Mahlzeit-

The recipe was posted from Sascha Inden on Facebook. She references  Axel Schmitt as the author of the recipe. It sounds all pretty easy. When I read the recipe, I was not sure it will all work out as such. 300g flower (all purpose) 4g yeast 6g salt 200g water It states to all just mix in a bowl, so the flower is all wet. Not more then 20 seconds.... I would think one would dissolve the in the water and one uses warm water. But ok. Cover the bowl air tight and put it in the fridge for 14-20 hours. This morning, when I check, the dough still had the size from yesterday.  The instructions say, to leave it on the counter top for 15 min, while the oven pre-heats to 250C. Add some water into a separate bowl, to generate steam.. Sprinkle some flower on the counter top. Cut the dough in half and fold it over a couple of times. Then bake for 15 minutes.  That is where I left he instructions. I did flower a surface and did fold it over for a couple of times. And then I decided to ...

I wanted to get some real rolls. Crunchy and still having a decent consistency the next day. Not like the soft things one can get here at groceries store, that one can press down to the size of a table tennis ball and when it is released, one does not see anything of the shape it was just in. The original recipe is from  this website  . This way to much food for me. OK, I cut everything in half. 500g all purpose flower 200 ml warm water (the finger should still be comfy to stick in) 100 ml milk 1 tsp of dry active yeast 10g salt 1 tsp sugar Sounds easy. For what ever reason I used the 400ml water from the original recipe. I made up for it by using 3/4 of  a cup of additional flower. In the bowl of my stand mixer I mix the flower and the salt. In a pot I heat the water and milk. I use a glas measuring cup for a lot of things. Glas does not react with things. Add the yeast and sugar with 1/4th of the warm liquid, stir to dissolve the sugar and yeast. Let it stand for 5 minu...

The original recipe is coming from here: Amerikaner mit Hirschhornsalz . Sorry, this is all in German. Here is the translation and I note, where I changed things. For the dough we need: 75g butter at room temperature (2.65oz) 175g sugar (6.17 oz) 1 egg at room temperature 3g salt (0.1oz) 15g bakers amonia = salt of hartshorn (0.53oz) 250ml milk  (more then the orginal) (8.45 oz) (keep the milk on the countertop for about 1hour before starting to bake with it) 3 tsbp cold milk 500g sifted all purpose flower (17.64 oz) 1/4 tsp good vanilla extract (my addition) 1/2 tsp lemon extract (my addition) I recommend to get a good kitchen scale that knows metric and imperial. It should show at least 1 digit after the comma. I bought mine at Williams Sonoma for about 65$ a few years go. Note this is not a recommendation. There are other places where one can get decent scales. Baker's Ammonia can be bought off Amazon. Note, it has a very strong smell. Follow the storage recommendations of the s...

This is a recipe from my favorite food blogger Ree Drummond. I really followed the instructions as outlined in the order outlined. And???   It looked so promising during the baking process.  After 50 min, the cake actually did raise past the spring form.  After I took it out of the oven, it started to disintegrate. The consistency was like  mush. So back in the oven for 20 minutes on 350F. The height did recover some. The consistency has not improved. Ok, same thing again another 20 min into the oven at 350F.... Again, some height was recovered. The mush did not improve. I called  it quits after that. This recipe needs some help. I don't think, that only 3 tbsp of flower can stand up to that much cheese, eggs, and heavy creme. I have to look at a German cheese cake recipe and see what is used there to  get a less mushy consistency. Taste wise, there is nothing that needs improvements. Together with the  blueberries, lemon juice and some sugar it was gr...

When I grew up I loved going to the bakery and get myself a chocolate Americaner. Here in America they are known as half and half cookies. They taste different then what I grew up with. I couldn't find the recipe I used a few years ago, that is asking for Ammonium carbonate . I didn't have much time to look around either, so I opted to use: Mini Americaner . The translation: 100g soft butter at room temperature 100g sugar 1 pack vanilla sugar 1 knife tip of salt 2 eggs 250g all purpose flower 45g corn starch 1 pack of baking powder ( or 1 tsp ) 1-2 tbsp milk. 1 tsp of baking powder Mix the vanilla sugar with the white sugar and salt in a bowl. In a different bowl mix the corn starch with the flower. In a stand mixer add the butter 1 egg and half of the sugar and mix on medium. After 3 minutes start to add 4 tbsp of flower (1 at the time) and mix for another 3-4 minutes. Clean the beater every now and then, so what gets stuck on the beater falls back into the dough. Stop the mix...

This is what I set out to make : Burned Cheese Cake When shopping for the ingredients I ended up getting half'n half and not heavy cream. And I didn't even notice. After having everything mixed together, this still looked like water. In a spring form, this if going to run away. Ok, I need to fix it. 1.5 cups of flower and 1.5 tsp of backing power mixed up and into the mixture it went. After tasting the dough I added 1.5 tsp of lemon extract to it. Now taste wise it works for me. Now that thing just needs to bake correctly. For the baking form I decided to switch horses as well and went with a bunt cake form. My biggest mistake was, I did not grease it. Big mistake, very big mistake. Into the preheated oven of 400F it went and the timer is on 50 min. Earlier this morning I removed a bag of frosted raspberries from the freezer, added 2 tbsp of white sugar to it and let it sit on the counter to defrost. This does not need any lemon, it is tarty enough. After 50 minutes, the cake r...

 I call it apple pound cake. It is not really a pound cake.  250g butter (8.8 oz) 250g sugar (8.8 oz) 1 pack vanilla sugar 4 eggs 500g all purpose flower (17.63 oz) (not shown in picture) 2 tsp backing powder 1/8l milk (0.52 cups) 1 oz rum (optional, not shown in picture) 1Apple Mix sugar with the vanilla sugar. In mixing bowl add the butter and mix on low speed. Add 1 egg and 1/4 of the sugar, when it is good mixed add the next egg and another 1/4 part of the sugar. Repeat and till it is a smooth  Then add flower , mix, a bit of milk and mix until half of the  flower is taken. Add the baking powder to the flower and stir. Then keep adding flower and milk, at last add that rum. Griese a sping form, add the dough and distribute evenly in the form. Cut the apple in slices and put then on top of the cake. Bake for 1h at 350F. When done, garnish with powder sugar -Mahlzeit-

 This cake is a really heavy cake We need  125g dark chocolate (100% cocoa Ghirardelli) 25g dark chocolate (80% cocoa Ghirardelli) 100g milk chocolate( something good like Milka or Lindt) 80ml heavy cream 60ml coconut oil (use good quality and tasteless) Butter Biscuits slices (best are Leibnitz) 10 drops of good vanilla extract Optional: 2oz rum This is good for 2 of the forms below. Line any form with strong aluminum foil. Make sure to have some foil left over on the side. we will need it to cover. I found 2 small ones, that are perfect. Cut the chocolate into small pieces. Except the biscuits put all the ingredients into a frying pan and melt them. Keep steering with a spatula. Heat must be the lowest level. Even then remove the pan often and keep steering, so nothing burns. Cover the bottom of the form with the melted chocolate, add a layer of biscuits. Repeat the process until the form is full.  Fold over the sides to cover it and then put it into the fridge for a fe...

 This one is pictures only. I have to work on the recipe to get it to a 3 layer cake.

Amerikaner   (cookies) were my favorite thing to eat as a kid. They are hard to come by these days even in Germany. Time to try myself in backing. The recipe is from here: https://www.erichserbe.de/199?fbclid=IwAR0Cj0hQ8TnTWs2EvYXcF9Z5eXzzKpi5UABGByfNlq5-qXhPVQr7whhko5Q I really did follow the instructions. They turned out not bad, but I think I have to tinker a bit with the recipe. -Mahlzeit-

This weekend I didn't make any bread. I tried bread rolls this time. 2 cups of bread flower 1 tsp of salt 2 tsp active dry yeast 1 cup of warm milk 1 tsp of sugar 1 tsp of veggie oil Heat up the milk and make sure it is hand warm. Add the sugar and the yeast. Stir to dissolve the yeast. Set it in a warm place for 15 minutes so it starts foaming. I usually preheat the oved early and use the heat that comes from the back of the stove. In the bowl of a kitchen machine, mix the flower and the salt using the dough hook. When the yeast milk mixture is all foamed up add it with the oil to the mixing bowl and turn on the kitchen machine on 1. After 4 minutes, remove the dough from the hook and then turn the machine on for another 4 minutes.  Grease a bowl with oil and add some to your hands as well, so the dough will not stick to them. Form a ball out of it, put it into the bowl, cover it with a damp kitchen towel and  set the bowl in a warm spot for 1 hour. The dough w...

This is not the first attempt at a savory bread, but this one is a home run. 1.5 cups of unbleached all purpose flower 1 cup of sour dough starter 3/4 cup of warm water 2 tsb of dry active yeast 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp of salt 1 tsb of baking soda 1/5 of a bunch of chinese chives Cut the chinese chives into small pieces. If they have flowers, don't worry, cut them to. In the bowl of a stand mixer add the flower, salt, the baking soda and the chopped chives and mix it up on low for about 2 minutes. To the warm water in  separate bowl add the sugar and the active dry yeast, mix it up and get rid of any lumps. Let it sit for about 10-15 min. Then add the sour dough starter and the yeast mixture , that should be frothy at the top to the bowl by now. Mix all of it on low for about 5 minutes, then take a spatular and remove anything from the side and from the bottom, so that there are no dry flower pockets are left. Mix on low for another 2 minutes. Remove the dough hook, cover...