Archive for December 2013



How to end the year on BakingWithMarianne? I asked myself this question in the last few days more than once.
Shall I post a gugelhupf recipe? Because the gugelhupf pan is one of my favorite cake pans and I shared quite a few recipes this year. But maybe a gugelhupf is not an appropriate New Year’s Eve cake? Then I thought "I need a more glamorous cake for my blog". Perhaps a chocolate tartlet for the blog? It is a bit more glamorous than a gugelhupf but I wasn’t entirely convinced by this idea, too. Then all at once I knew it: A Raspberry Mascarpone Tartlet!

I have never made so many different kinds of tartlets with fancy creams as I did this year. I spent hours and hours in the kitchen and I loved every single moment making tartlets. I made several times tartlets with a mascarpone cream and raspberries. It turned out to be a big hit. Making these tartlets are not too complicated but they look very fancy - you can impress your family and friends – and are scrumptious.
Making tartlets takes longer than making, for instance, a gugelhupf but you can plan ahead the tartlet preparation. You can make the tartlet shells a day or two days in advance (just keep the baked tartlets in an air-tight container), the mascarpone cream can be prepared a day ahead, the raspberry sauce can be made ahead of time as well. Assembling the tartlets is a stress-free activity and the most rewarding step of making the tartlets. It is a moment full of happiness. Thank you for being my reader. I wish you a wonderful 2014! See you next year.



Makes 10 to 12 tartlets (ø 7-8 cm)

Shortcrust

  • 100 g granulated sugar
  • 100 g unsalted butter
  • ½ egg yolk
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 250 g pastry flour
  • 1 pinch of baking powder
  • 25 ml whole milk
  • Dry beans or nuts for blind baking
  • Mix butter and sugar until well combined. Add egg yolk and salt. Then add flour, baking powder and milk to the dough. Knead the dough quickly. If the dough is too dry add more milk.
  • Wrap the shortcrust in clingwrap and let the dough rest for at least one hour in the fridge.
  • Butter and flour tartlet moulds.
  • On a well-floured surface or on parchment paper (I prefer using parchment paper) roll out the dough until 3 to 5 mm thick, depends on how you like your shortcrust. Cut out circles; the circles should be a little bit bigger than your tartlet moulds. Gently press the circle into the mould. Trim away any excess dough with a sharp knife. Prick the bottom of each tartlet with a folk.
  • Freeze the tartlets for 30 minutes. Maybe this sounds crazy to you but this is an amazing trick that I learned along the way. It prevents shrinking while baking. Ever since I use this method my tartlets turn out perfectly.
  • Preheat the oven to 160°C.
  • Line each tartlet with a piece of parchment paper and place dry beans or nuts on top of the parchment paper.
  • Bake tartlets for 20 to 25 minutes, until they are slightly golden in color.
  • Let the tartlets cool, remove dry beans or nuts and moulds. I always use almonds for blind baking because then I have delicious roasted almonds which are my favorite snack.

Mascarpone Cream

  • 2 egg yolks
  • 10 g corn starch
  • 25 g granulated sugar
  • 150 ml whole milk
  • 200 g mascarpone
  • Mix egg yolks with corn starch. Then add the sugar to the mixture and mix well.
  • Put the milk in a saucepan and heat the milk up. Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture and stir until all ingredients are well combined.
  • Pour mixture back into the pot. Stir mixture over medium heat. When the mixture starts to boil (you will notice that the mixture thickens) cook the mixture for two minutes and continue to stir while cooking. Remove the pan from the stove and put the mixture into a bowl. Cover the surface of the mixture with clingwrap which helps prevent skin forming. In case there are lumps in your mixture you can press the mixture through a sieve. Put the mixture aside and let it cool for one hour.
  • Stir the mixture smooth again. Add half of the mascarpone and stir until the cream is smooth, then add the rest of the mascarpone and stir again. Keep the mascarpone cream in the fridge (cover the cream with clingwrap) until you assemble the tartlets. You can also prepare the mascarpone cream a day ahead which I often do.

Raspberry Sauce

  • 200 g frozen raspberries
  • 150 g jam sugar 1:1
  • Place raspberries and jam sugar in a pot. Over medium heat cook the mixture. Stir occasionally. When the raspberry sauce starts to boil, remove from the stove. 
  • Purée the raspberries and pour the sauce through a sieve. Cover the raspberry sauce with clingwrap and let it cool. You can prepare the sauce a day ahead as well.

Assembling

  • About 400 g fresh raspberries
  • Place a teaspoon of raspberry sauce in the middle of each tartlet.
  • Fill the tartlets with mascarpone cream.
  • Decorate tartlets with fresh raspberries and garnish with the remaining raspberry sauce.
The recipe is adapted from the book "Törtchen & Tartlettes" by Matthias Ludwigs. 
2


A mathematics cake is a cake, recipe, that you can find in your elementary school math workbook. At least this is my formula of a math cake.
Long time ago – when I was in elementary school – there was a cake recipe next to a math exercise in my workbook. Unfortunately, I cannot remember what kind of exercise it was, maybe calculating how many squares fit in a cake pan? MayI was not very excited about my math homework but as a diligent student I did my homework and then went downstairs to the kitchen and asked my mom if the recipe that was pictured in my workbook was a real recipe - a cake recipe that adults make – and I asked my mom if I could try out the recipe. My mom agreed and an hour later [I am not sure if it took me an hour, I just made this up] I took a delicious smelling hazelnut cake out of the oven. I was very, very excited that the recipe in my workbook was a real recipe. This math recipe is one of the best math memories that I have in my elementary school career. I did not like my math teacher and he did not like me, too. My teacher was very German. I was the total opposite: an extremly shy and introverted girl with a Scandinavian background which is very different from the German mentality. It was a clush of cultures. 

Back to the math cake. 
The next day I went to school and brought the math cake to my class and shared the cake with my classmates. I remember how flabbergasted my classmates were because no one had the idea that the recipe in our workbook was a recipe that you could make. Everyone loved this math cake. I was really proud of myself. 
My math teacher was not really impressed that I tried out the recipe or he did not care about it. Until today I am puzzled about the reaction and behavior of my math teacher. Is this how a teacher encourage students? Maybe it is the German way of teaching and education, also known as black pedagogy.
Ever since I started to write this blog I wished that I copied the recipe from my math workbook. Little did I know that I did wrote down the recipe. About a month ago my mom called me and told me that she found my math cake recipe. I was over the moon because I could not remember that I wrote down this recipe. Holding my math recipe in my own hands was a very special moment. Almost two decades later I made my math cake again: a delicious, moist hazelnut cake. I had tears in my eyes when I took my first bite from my math cake. The cake was as good as I remembered.



Makes one square pan (20 cm×24 cm / 8 inch×9 inch)

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 eggs
  • 250 g granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
  • 2 to 3 drops of bitter almond oil (if you don’t have it on hand omit it)
  • 250 g all-purpose flour
  • 3 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 250 g ground hazelnuts
  • 150 ml whole milk
  • Powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS

  • Line the cake pan with parchment paper.
  • Preheat the oven to 175 °C.
  • Cream eggs and sugar (with an electric mixer or standing mixer) in a big bowl.
  • Add vanilla sugar and bitter almond oil to the mixture.
  • Mix flour and baking powder.
  • Add the flour mixture, hazelnuts and milk to the egg sugar mixture. Stir until all ingredients are all well combined.
  • Pour the cake batter (the batter has a thick texture) into the cake pan.
  • Bake the cake for 25 minutes. If you insert a toothpick and it comes out clear the cake is done.
  • Let the cake cool for a few minutes. Dust the cake with powdered sugar.
  • Let the cake cool completely; cut into squares (about 18 squares).
  • Enjoy and don’t forget to do your math homework. 

2
Running a marathon is still on my to-do list. While dreaming to achieve this goal in 2014 I run a cookie Christmas marathon last week. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I made 24 different kinds of Christmas cookies, three Christmas cakes, two baguette parisienne and two batches of sweet buns. Altogether I made 1298 cookies. I know, know I am crazy and I counted every single cookie that I made.
This blog is also a baking diary for me and maybe one day when I am an old grandma I can look back and ask myself “how many cookies did I made for Christmas in 2013 and what kind of Christmas cookies did I made in 2013”. You never know what kind of important questions you will ask as a grandma. So I am better be prepared for it.:-)
In the photos you can see the different kinds of Christmas cookies that I made. My favorite Christmas cookies are Vanillekipferl, Lebkuchen, Pepparkakor (my recipe is here) and Spekulatius. I hope I can find the time to post the recipes of my favorite cookies in the next few days. This year I tried out a new recipe of Vanillekipferl and it was the best recipe I ever tried out. 
This year I also bought a handmade Spekulatius mold at a Christmas market and I love the mold. Because I am so in love with the Spekulatius mold I bought a second mold and I will give it away to you, my dear readers, in the next few days. Stay tuned.

1 Havreflarn (Crispy Oat Cookies, Swedish)
2 Elisen Lebkuchen (Soft Gingerbread Cookies, German)
3 Spanisches Brot (Spanish Bread, German)
4 Kokoskakor (Coconut Macaroon, German/Swedish)
5 Linzer Auge (Cookies sandwiched with jam, Austrian/German)
6 Hästkor (Horse Shoe Cookies, Swedish)
7 Formkakor (Shell Cookies, served with freshly whipped cream and jam, Swedish)
8 Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars, German)
9 Bärentatzen (Bear Paw, German)
10 Schokoladenmakronen (Chocolate Macaroon, Austrian/German)
11 Geminzte Ecken (Mint Corners, German)
12 Gewürzkugel (Spice Ball, German)
13 Pepparkaka (Gingerbread Cookies, my recipe is here, Swedish)
14 Spekulatius (Almond Spice Cookies, German)
15 Weiße Wölkchen (White and Dark Chocolate Clouds, German)
16 Syltkaka (Jam Cookies, Swedish)
17 Überraschungsiglus (Surprise Igloo, German)
18 Spritskransar (Spritz Cookies, German/Swedish)
19 Florentiner (Florentine Cookies, Italian)
20 Weihnachtssterne (Christmas Stars filled with jam and covered with dark chocolate, German)
21 Vanillekipferl (Vanilla Crescent, Austrian/German)
22 Russinkaka (Raisin Oat Cookies, Swedish)
23 Chokladsnittar (Chocolate Bites, Swedish)
24 Grenobler Nussplätzchen (Grenoble Nut Cookies, Swiss/German)
4

Saffron equals Christmas season. I blame lussekatter for it - a sweet yeast bun which is traditionally eaten on December 13 in Sweden.
I make lussekatter every year but this year I became a little bit adventurous. Or maybe I was seduced by the heavenly smell of saffron which might be a little bit dangerous because it is the most expensive spice in the world. Every time I use up a little sachet of saffron I sniff on the empty sachet and I can never get enough of this smell.
Oh and the shining yellow color of saffron! Nature has so many beautiful colors to offer. Sometimes I look star at a beautiful apple or a pomegranate I am unable to bring myself to eat the fruit because it looks too pretty to eat. 
Wait a second, I think I got sidetracked again: lets talk about saffron and baking. The last couple of days I was in the kitchen and making saffron bread buns, Swedish snurror with an orange vanilla filling and this morning I made saffron brioches and I want to share my recipe with you. I love brioches (I make them often on weekend mornings) and this morning I decided to make the brioche with a touch of Christmas and added saffron and raisins. Fresh out of the oven with a little bit of butter, this was today's Sunday breakfast. So scrumptious!
Maybe I should not mention that I have yet to make lussekatter for Santa Lucia which is next Friday. You will find me in the kitchen at 5 am and baking countless of fresh lussekatter which I will give away. I know, I know I am crazy but I am really looking forward to it: getting up early in the morning while it is still dark, quiet in the house, sneaking off to the kitchen and surrounded by the smell of saffron. This is what makes me smile.
PS: Have a look at the last picture of this post. This is a birthday card that my very sweet friend Shangching made for me. It is such a special card and I think she knows me too well that I like brioche. Shangching also has a blog about ink, stationary and you can admire her beautiful handwriting. Read her blog here.


Makes 8 to 10 Brioches

INGREDIENTS

  • 375 g all-purpose flour
  • 20 g fresh yeast
  • 50 g powdered sugar
  • 50 ml whole milk, lukewarm
  • 85 g unsalted butter
  • 0.5 g saffron, ground
  • 2 eggs, medium size
  • 2 pinch of salt
  • 75 g raisins
  • 1 egg yolk

DIRECTIONS

  • Sift the flour into a bowl and make a well in the middle.
  • Crumble the yeast into the well. Add 1 teaspoon of the powdered sugar and two tablespoons of lukewarm milk. Stir until the yeast is dissolved. Dust the sponge with flour and cover the bowl with a kitchen towel. Let the sponge rest for 15 minutes.
  • Melt the butter and let it cool down. Add the rest of the milk and saffron and stir until the saffron is dissolved.
  • Add the saffron mixture, the rest of the powdered sugar, eggs, salt and raisins to the sponge. Mix all ingredients well; then knead the dough on a well-floured surface until the dough is smooth. If the dough is very sticky, add more flour to it.
  • Place the dough back to the bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and let the dough rise in a warm and draft-free place for 45 minutes or until the dough is doubled in size.
  • Grease and flour brioche moulds or a muffin pan.
  • Knead the dough again and divide the dough into 8 to 10 pieces.
  • Divide each piece again into a big and a small piece (1/4 of the piece). Form each piece into a ball. Place the bigger ball into the brioche mould or muffin pan. Make a little well into the ball and place the smaller ball into the well.
  • Place the brioche mould on a baking sheet.
  • Mix the egg yolk with 1 tablespoon lukewarm water. Brush the brioches with the egg yolk mixture. Cover the brioches with a kitchen towel and let them rise for 20 to 25 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 220 °C.
  • Bake the brioches for 8 to 9 minutes. After 3 to 4 minutes in the oven, cover the brioches with aluminium foil (because the brioches color quickly).
1



Mjuk pepparkaka is another Swedish Christmas recipe that I like to share with you. The literal translation of mjuk pepparkaka is soft gingerbread cake and this cake is eaten during Christmas season. In my family we eat this cake with freshly whipped cream and pickled cherries (this is not a Swedish tradition). 
This gingerbread cake is one of my favorite Christmas cakes. The cake is incredibly moist and when the cake is in the oven your entire house is beginning to smell like Christmas. On top of that the cake very easy and quick to prepare. My mom calls this efficient Swedish baking. 
Oh and there is no mistake in the ingredients list: you need only one egg and two tablespoons of butter. There are many mjuk pepparkaka recipes which call for more eggs  (three to four) and much more butter which I tried out in the past but in the end  I returned to my mom's recipe and it is the very best.
Makes one Bundt Cake (20 cm diameter / 9 cm height / or 1 liter volume)

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 egg
  • 225 g granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon of ground cloves
  • ½ teaspoon of ground cardamom
  • 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, softened
  • 100 ml whole milk
  • 100 g yoghurt, full fat
  • 240 g all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon of lingonberry jam* or substitute with orange marmalade
  • Confectioners' sugar
* Lingonberry is a staple food in Sweden. You eat lingonberry jam in all different kinds of combination such as a relish to meatballs, black pudding or on pancakes. Maybe you can find lingonberry jam at IKEA. :-) 

DIRECTIONS

  • Preheat the oven to 175°C.
  • Grease and flour a bundt cake pan.
  • Place egg, sugar, species and butter in a bowl. Whisk all ingredients until creamy with a mixer. 
  • Mix flour with baking soda.
  • Add flour mixture, milk, yogurt and lingonberry jam to the egg-butter mixture. Mix all ingredients until well combined.
  • Pour batter into the cake pan.
  • Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. If you insert a toothpick and it comes out clear the cake is done.
  • Let the cake cool completely. Remove the cake pan and dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar. 
  • If you want to be fancy serve the cake with freshly whipped cream and pickled cherries. 
  • You can also make the pepparkaka cake in advance and freeze the cake. Just take the cake out of the freezer the night before or a couple of hours before serving. 
2

I grew up with Swedish Christmas traditions and I cannot remember that there was a Christmas (Jul in Swedish) without pepparkakor. Pepparkakor are eaten all year round in Sweden but you make pepparkakor only once a year and that is during Christmas time. When I was little my brothers and me used to help my mom to cut out the cookies and it was naturally that we made pepparkakor every single Christmas. Making pepparkakor was not my mom’s favorite activity because she always thought and still thinks that this is an endless affair because one rolls out the dough over and over again and cut out cookies over and over again. To my mom it is a never ending dough story.
This year I decided to make the entire process of making pepparkakor myself [in previous years my mom made the dough and I cut out hundreds of pepparkakor cookies]. When my mom gave me the recipe the other day she told me all about this particular pepparkakor recipe that she used every single Christmas.
My grandfather's handwritten recipe
It is a handwritten recipe by my grandfather Trygve and he had writen down this recipe (which you can see in the picture below) about 50 years ago. My grandfather died before I was born and for this reason it feels very special to have this handwritten recipe in my hands. I am also fascinated by his handwriting because it looks so much alike my mom’s handwriting [in fact I cannot see any differences. The pepparkaka recipe is from a friend of my grandparents. Her name was Gunhild and this is why I also call these cookies Gunhild’s pepparkakor. According to my mom Gunhild was an incredible good cook and my mom was raving about all these delicious dishes that she had at Gunhild’s home. And my mom told me so many stories about Gunhild and her own childhood in Southern Sweden and she digged out her photo album and showing me photos of Gunhild.
In the left photo below you can see on the left my grandparents' friend Gunhild. On the right is Gunhild's sister. Next to Gunhild is my grandfather and in the middle that is my grandmother. My grandfather was very tall, maybe that is why I am so tall[or maybe it is because my dad is very tall, who knows ...
In the picture on the right: can you guess who it is on the very left? It is my beautiful mamma.   


 Ever since my grandparents got the recipe from Gunhild they always used her pepparkakor recipe because it is not only very delicious and of course the very best but is also the easiest way to prepare the pepparkakor dough. Oftentimes the pepparkakor dough requires that you let the dough rest in the refrigerator overnight and sometimes it is difficult to roll out the dough but with Gunhild’s recipe it is quite easy to roll out the dough.
My mom also gave this pepparkakor recipe several people and everyone told her that this was the best recipe for pepparkakor that they ever tried out. I cannot tell if this is true because this is the only pepparkakor recipe that I ever tried out but I can tell you that it was really easy to prepare the dough and the pepparkakor taste heavenly. They are crispy and the spicies are not too strong and overpowering. 



 Making pepparkakor was truly a very special moment this year. Unlike my mom I think it is my favorite Christmas activity and I do not mind at all rolling out the dough over and over again and cutting out countless of hearts, pigs, horses, reindeers which are all traditional Swedish Christmas cookie shapes (my favorite shape is the horse).
Munching on pepparkakor and the smell of pepparkakor, listening to Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio and light a candle: this is Christmas for me.
Oh, and maybe singing the pepparkakor song "Vi komma, vi komma från Pepparkakeland" to myself, a song that I learned when I was a little girl. 
I am very happy to share this recipe with you, my dear reader. It is a recipe which became to one of my most precious recipes that I own.

Makes a lot of cookies (I made 224 cookies, small, medium and big sizes) 

INGREDIENTS

  • 200 g light syrup/light molasses *
  • 150 g granulated sugar
  • 1 heaped teaspoon of ground ginger (or 3 gramm)
  • 1 heaped teaspoon of ground cloves (or 3 gramm)
  • 1 heaped teaspoon of cinnamon (or 3 gramm)
  • 1 heaped teaspoon of baking soda (or 3 gramm)
  • 150 g unsalted butter (cut in cubes)
  • 1 egg
  • 500 g all-purpose flour
* In Sweden syrup is often used in baking (it is made out of sugar beets). You can replace it with lights molasses but I must admit that I always use Swedish syrup and do not have any experience with molasses. Read about Scandinavian syrup and how to replace it here. 

DIRECTIONS

  • Preheat the oven to 175°C. 
  • Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Be prepared: you need a lot of baking sheets. I used three baking sheets at a time. When I took out the pepparkakor from the oven, I let the baking sheets cool for a few minutes and then placed the next batch of cookies. 
  • Place syrup, sugar and spices in a big saucepan and mix the ingredients.
  • Let the mixture boil up, then remove from heat.
  • Add baking soda and stir. Add butter cubes and the egg; mix until the butter is dissolved.
  • Add flour and mix with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are well combinded. If the dough is too sticky add more flour.
  • On a well-floured surface place the dough (the dough is still warm).  
  • Roll out dough very thinly (2 mm thin) on a well-floured surface (or between two parchment papers). Use a quarter of the dough at a time and do not forget to flour your rolling pin occasionally and your surface as well. 
  • Cut out cookies with shaped cookie cutters. Place cookies on baking sheets.
  • Roll out the scraps and repeat until you cut out the entire dough. The second time you roll out the dough it is getting a little bit harder rolling out the dough but then again the dough is firmer and it is easier to cut out the cookies. 
  • Bake the pepparkakor for 4 to 5 minutes. 
  • Let the cookies cool on a wire rack. 
  • Store the pepparkakor in air-tight cookie tins.