Home made grisini

Home made Grisini

 

500gr flour

2 teaspoons dried yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoon olive oil

 Around 250 mls warm water

 

I use a machine, so I just dump everything in and start the machine, my lovely little darling will do all the work. In the meantime, I preheat my oven to about 45 degrees Celsius.

 

After about 10 minutes in the machine, I check the dough, if it’s too hard (dry)I add some water and start the little baby up again, if the dough is nice and soft, it’s ready. Too wet, add some more flour.

 

Now I get my stainless steel bowl and add around 2 tablespoon olive oil into it, take the dough from the machine, form into a ball and use that ball, to wipe the interior of the bowl with the oil. Clingfilm on top and off into the oven until the dough has more than doubled.

 

Now it’s elbow grease time. Turn out the dough on a floured surface, punch down and start kneading, until the dough has a semi soft/hard feeling. It just should not be sticky anymore. Now I knead in some grated cheese (sharp cheddar or Parmesan is nice), 3 tablespoons of sesame seeds. Divide the dough into half and into one of the halves, knead in about 2 tablespoons of freshly chopped Rosemary. Pinch off small lumps of the dough, roll into a ball and then into long ropes. Once the rope has the thickness and length you want, sprinkle some semi coarse salt along the top of the rope and roll gently back and forth,  that is enough to get the salt to adhere.

Lay the ropes onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and once full, off into the oven (170 Degrees Celsius) until golden brown.

 

My daughter just came home from school with a friend and both just started munching. I swear these are so easy to make and once you have tried them, you will NEVER, EVEEEERRRRRR buy them from a store again. I wanted them for my husband’s birthday tomorrow, but I think I will have to make some more.

Home made Grisini is no rocket science, just very nice to have a machine to help you knead. I have found that especially with yeast based breads, the amount of water depends also on the brand of flour and also the warmth and humidity of the day. As I can never know, which brand I will be getting here, and the weather being so unpredictable, I sorta wing it most of the time, I rely more on the feel and look of the dough, if it looks and feels right, it usually is.

 

Experiment with what you put into the dough, I think, tomorrow I will omit the cheese and just add garlic and rosemary

Mavis and Hotel Transylvania

Today's cake is for Natascha, who loves Mavis and Hotel Transylvania. I had to google the film, as I had never heard of it before. I think I might have to buy it, sounds interesting. Anyway, here is the cake, had real fun making it.
Happy birthday Natascha, hard to believe, that the little girl I met years ago shortly after we arrived in Shanghai, is turning 10 already

Mango/Banana Smoothie for a healthy breakfast

Mango/Banana Smoothie for a healthy breakfast

1 mango

2 bananas

2 tablespoons plain joghurt, I make my own

2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla sugar

1 cup freshly pressed orange juice

1 ½ cups milk

Cut open mango and scoop out all the flesh. Peel bananas and put into blender together with all other ingredients. Turn on blender and let run for around 1 minute, till mixture is nice and frothy.

Pour into glasses and serve

And did you guys notice the etched leaves on the glass? Here it is again

Well these glasses were etched by lil ole me

 

Blueberry muffins with a cinnamon streusel topping

Last night, I suddenly felt like making something else for breakfast this morning. Having had bought so many blueberries at the wetmarket on sunday, I thought, why not make some fresh blueberry muffins for breakfast. To cut down on the time I would need this morning, I went into the kitchen and weighed everything out. I premade the streusel and mixed all dry ingredients together. All I had to do this morning, was melt the butter, pour the cold milk in and add the egg. Mixing the dough went quickly, as everything was ready and waiting. I switched on the oven, as soon as I came down and BEFORE making my coffee, so that by the time I had filled the muffin liners, the oven was ready.

Seeing my daughter's face, when she came down for breakfast made the half hour worth while, that I had to get up earlier

Blueberry muffins with a cinnamon streusel  topping

Ingredients:  

160 gr all-purpose flour

140 gr sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

60 gr butter, melted and cooled

1 egg

90 ml milk

120 gr fresh blueberries

Topping:

120 gr sugar

50 gr all-purpose flour

60 gr butter, cubed

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Line muffin tin with liners. (Done last night)

Combine all dry ingredients. 

Then mix egg with cooled butter and milk and stir well to break up the egg. Pour into the dry ingredients and incorporate. Fold in the blueberries. Fill liners ¾ way up.

To Make Crumb Topping: 

Mix together  sugar,  flour,  butter, and  cinnamon. Get your hands in there and mix well, rub the flour and sugar into the butter, until you have fine streusels, you don’t want them too large, as the muffin tops do not have that much space. Sprinkle the Streusel onto the filled liner and gently press them, so that they adhere to the dough.

Bake for about 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

I made 13 muffins with this recipe

Pecanbrownies with a twist

Pecanbrownies with a twist

 

 Served with chocolate sauce, strawberries and blueberries, photo thanks to my beautiful daughter

My nifty brownie pan

 see how rich and dark my home made vanilla extract is?

 

Into my pan, which has been brushed with pan release

 

But now for the recipe

 

Ingredients:

 



200 gr dark chocolate

120 gr butter

50 mls red wine

2 large eggs

100 gr brown sugar

60 gr white granulated sugar

2 teaspoons home made vanilla sugar

2 teaspoon natural vanilla extract (I make my own)

80 gr flour

30 gr cocoa powder

200 gr chopped pecans

 

The how to:

 

Melt the chocolate in the butter (microwave) and make sure it’s melted completely, stir smooth and let it cool down.

Mix flour and cocoa powder and set aside

In a clean bowl, whip the eggs with the sugars until thick and creamy, add vanilla extract. When nice and thick, mix in the cooled chocolate/ butter mixture and then the red wine.

Sieve the flour mixture on top and beat in. Add in the pecans at the end and fold in

 

Pour into brownie pan and bake at 160 degrees Celsius for around 15 to 20 minutes. The cake is done, when moist crumbs stick to your toothpick, but the top looks dry, I think 15 minutes is enough

Amarettini - Kirsch Nachspeise

Das letzte Mal, als ich in der Metro war, sah ich diverse Packungen mit kleinen Foermchen. Da kam es mir, .... es gibt zu Heilig Abend individuelle Nachtische auf der Cupcake Etagiere aufgebaut. Schnell noch in den Schrank zu Hause geguckt, da lag noch eine Packung Amarettini, die mich so anlachte, als ob sie mir sagen wuerden, nimm uns dazu. Ein Glas Sauerkirschen war auch noch da und ich dachte mir, das koennte passen.           200 ml Sahne 250 gr Mascarpone 1 Tuete Mini Amarettini guter Schuss Amaretto 1 frisch gebruehter Espresso 1 Teel. Vanillezucker 1 teel. guter Kakao 1 Glas Sauerkirschen

Alle Amaretti - bis auf 8 Stück - in Amaretto/Espresso,Kakao, Vanillezucker Gemisch einweichen bis sie leicht matschig sind. Kirschen gut abtropfen lassen, 6-8 Stueck zurueckbehalten. Sahne fast steif schlagen, Mascarpone verrühren, bis es cremig ist, die Sahne unterheben. Kirschen und Amarettinimatsch unterheben. In kleine Foermchen fuellen. Obenauf eine einfache, leicht mit Vanillezucker gewuerzte, Sahneschicht aufspritzen, Mit den zurückbehaltenen Amaretti und evtl Sauerkirschen dekorieren Gut kalt stellen.

Dieser Nachtisch hat es in sich, Suchtfaktor hoch!

Zimtige Chocolate chip cookies

 

Zimtige Chocolate Chip Cookies/ Cinnamon Chocolate Chip cookies

 

 

 

 

 

350 gr weiche Butter/soft butter

280 gr weisser Zucker/granulated sugar

200 gr brauner Zucker/brown sugar

1 Essloeffel Vanilleextrakt/ 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 Eier/eggs

440 gr Mehl/flour

2 Teeloeffel Natron/2 teaspoons baking soda

½ Teel. Salz/1/2 teaspoon salt

3 Teeloeffel Zimt/ 3 teaspoons cinnamon

1 Paeckchen chocolate chip cookies/ 1 pack choc chips

Weigh out all ingredients

my home made vanilla extract, much better than the bought ones

yum, extra dark chocolate chips

hmmh, one thing still missing

ahhh, there they are, all mixed in

now to get the cookies onto the tray

ready for the oven

 

 

Butter mit Zuckern schaumig ruehren, Eier und bis auf die Chocolate Chips alles mit reinkneten. Zum Schluss die Chips rein

 

beat butter and sugars until creamy, add in everything else except cho chips till soft dough forms, then mix in the chocolate chips.

 

Mit 2 Teeloeffel kleine Haeufchen auf Backblech setzen oder kleinen Oblatenportionierer nehmen

 using 2 teaspoons or a cookie scoop, drop them onto a baking tray and leave enough space, as they spread.

 

Vorgeheizter Ofen 150 Umluft 12-14 Minuten backen,

 

 put into preheated oven 150 degrees Celsius and bake for about 12-14 minutes

 

 

Now go and make a cup of coffee and enjoy