Cinnamon Nut and Raisin Roll Bread

Cinnamon!!! Nuts!!! And Raisins!!! This is probably THE perfect bread recipe everrr. All of you who love cinnamon, nuts and raisins should definitely try out this recipe! Look how pretty the bread turned out~




Ingredients


(makes two loaf pans full)

Sweet yeast dough

• 2 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
• 3/4 cube (35g) fresh yeast
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon bourbon vanilla
• 1/3 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling and eggwash 

• 2 tablespoons melted and browned butter
• 250g sugar (add more or less, depending on how sweet you want the bread to be)
• 1,5 tablespoons cinnamon
• 5 tablespoons raisins, soaked in 2 tablespoons cognac and 2 tablespoons water
• 6 tablespoons ground Almonds or Hazlenuts
• 1 egg yolk
• 1dl milk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 170°C.

In a large mixing bowl whisk together 2 cups flour, sugar, and salt.  Set aside.

Whisk the egg  and set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt together milk and butter until butter has just melted.  Remove from the heat and add water and vanilla extract.  Break in the fresh yeast and stir well until the yeast has dissolved completely.

Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula.  Add the egg and stir the mixture until the eggs are incorporated into the batter. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of flour and stir with the spatula for about 2 minutes.  The mixture will be sticky.  That’s just how you want it!

Place the dough in a large,  slightly greased bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel.  Place in a warm place and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

While waiting for the dough to rise, soak the raisins as listed above. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl. In a small frying pan brown the sugar and set aside. In a small bowl combine the egg yolk and 1dl milk for the eggwash.

Once the dough is ready to be deflated, sprinkle some flour onto a clean surface and roll the dough out into a rectangle. (50x30cm) Using a kitchen brush, spread the butter onto the dough. Sprinkle the nut powder onto the butter, evenly spread the cinnamon sugar onto the nut powder and finally top with the soaked (squeeze out the liquid with your hands before adding to the dough) raisins.

Divide the dough into half (you'll have 2 pieces of 25x30cm rectangles). Leave the dough to rest for 5 minutes. Then start rolling up the dough to make a 25cm roll. Place the roll into a greased loaf pan and let it rest again for 10 minutes in a warm place. Brush some eggwash over the top and sides of your loaf and bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. The top will be a beautifully shiny, golden brown. Serve warm! You'll love it!!!

I'm currently suffering from a plum overdose... I guess it's one of the side effects from having a huge plum tree in the garden which stubbornly continues to bear tonns of plums, despite all the trimming we're doing. Luckily (for the tree) the whole family loves plums and we love them even more knowing that they are completely pesticide-free and come from only a few metres from our porch! We literally watch the plums grow throughout the summer. Starting from tiny white blossoms which gradually turn into beautifully firm, juicy and dark purple fruits.






Ingredients


(makes one 35cm tart)

• 15-20 plums, depending on their size
• 1 ready made tart dough (Kuchenteig)
• 30gr ground almonds + 30gr ground almonds for filling
• 2 large eggs
• 200ml milk
• 200ml cream
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons corn starch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation

Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a round cake pan with baking paper. Place the ready made round dough into the pan and flatten out with your hands. Poke holes into the bottom of the dough with a fork. Bake the dough on it's own in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes. Take out and sprinkle 30gr of almond powder onto the bottom evenly.

Cut plums into halves. Divide the halves into half again. (you'll have 4 pieces out of 1 plum, correct?)

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with milk, cream, lemon juice, zest, sugar, starch, salt, almond powder and cinnamon.

Place the plums in a spiral-like shape onto the dough. Fit in as many plums as you possibly can! The more the better... Then pour the custard over the plums and bake in the oven for up to 45 minutes. Check to see if the bottom of the dough is browned. If not, bake on bottom heat for 10 more minutes.

Serve this yummy tart with freshly whipped cream!

Giant Pancake with Plums

Good morning world! I hope you all had a good sleep and started the day as yummly as I did... Because guess what? I had pancakes today! Well... actually not "pancakeS", I had one... giant...pancake filled with oh-so-sweet, warm and soft plums. Couldn't be a better start to a day, agreed? Agreed.




Ingredients


(makes one large pancake or several small ones)

• 2 heaped tablespoons of all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons of oats
• 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon bourbon
• 1 small egg
• 1dl buttermilk or normal milk
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• butter for the pan

Filling

• 6-8 plums cut into halves
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preparation

Cut your plums in halves als place them into a small saucepan. Add all the other ingredients for the filling and simmer over low heat until the pancakes are done.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, bourbon and oats. Mix well. In another smaller bowl, whisk the egg and milk until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir with a spoon. Heat 1 teaspoon of butter in a medium frying pan over medium-high heat. Pour in the pancake mixture and wait until the surface begins to bubble like crazy. This is when you want to turn the pancake over. Voilà! Beautifully browned, right? Now all you do is wait 2 more minutes for the other side to brown too (the second side will not brown the same way the first side did! But that's normal, don't panic).

Place the pancake onto a flat plate, fill the plums into half of the pancake, then fold the other half over the plums! Sprinkle some powdered sugar onto the top and dig in!!!

Thank god for Banana Bread. Seriously... What better way to use up old, ripe, black bananas than mashing them into bread batter, right? The best part though is that you can combine almost anything with banana! This morning I decided to throw in some almonds, mix in some melted chocolate, sprinkle in some bourbon and cinnamon... Do whatever you want and you'll always land yourself an amazing breakfast treat called Banana Bread!




Ingredients


(makes one loafpan)

adapted and changed from joy the baker who thanks Smitten Kitchen who also thanks SimplyRecipes

• 3 to 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon bourbon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cup of flour
• 4 tablespoons ground almonds
• 4 tablespoons almond splits
• 1/2 cup melted chocolate (about 100g), I used dark chocolate
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 180°C. In a small saucepan bring water to a boil. Once the water boils take the saucepan away from the heat. Place a small bowl over the saucepan, not touching the water and chop in the chocolate. Allow to melt.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla and bourbon, then the cinnamon. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour, mix. Add the almonds, and stir until just incorporated. Last but not least, add the melted chocolate, cooled down to room temp. and the buttermilk. Mix for one last time. Pour mixture into a buttered loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and you're done!

Slice some pieces, wrap them in clingwrap and freeze them for those mornings when you just don't have time to make something from scratch! I always freeze some individual portions in my freezer... Perfect for when I'm in a rush!

Austrian Pancakes

This morning I had a sudden flashback to a few years ago when my dad and I walked over to Austria. Yeah, I know, sounds like I'm talking about the movie "The Sound of Music". I remembered having lunch with him in a little mountain cottage and this is what I had. I recreated the Austrian Pancake aka Kaiserschmarrn. It was so easy, I don't even know if I should be posting this or not...




Ingredients
(serves 2)

• 80g all purpose flour
• 2-3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 200ml buttermilk
• 1-2 tablespoons raisins
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• butter for the pan

Preparation

In a medium sized frying pan, melt 2 teaspoons of butter. Mix all the ingredients above with a whisk until combined. Pour into the medium high heated pan and tilt to cover the bottom thoroughly. The batter should be at least 1/2 cm thick.

After 3-4 minutes, the edges of the pancake should golden. Turn over the pancake and leave for another 2-3 minutes. Using a turner, cut the pancake in the frying pan into bite sized pieces. The pieces should be about 2cm wide and 3cm long. Put onto a plate, sprinkle lot's of powdered sugar over the pancake pieces and serve with applesauce, vanilla sauce, whipping cream or fresh fruit!

Korean bean paste buns

Oh my god. I can't believe I actually made my favorite korean bread all by myself over here in Switzerland! This is going to go down in history... I'm so proud of myself! The bread turned out just as I had expected and the flavour and taste were just... so... so.... goooood!!!! I couldn't stop myself from eating 2 whole breads before dinner. This baking session sure made my day! Yaay!
In Korea, you find these breads filled with sweet red bean paste in almost every bakery! The bun is usually just made out of plain white sweet yeast dough... I decided to give mine a subtle green tea flavour by adding some matcha powder to the flour! Plus, I didn't use red beans because I didn't have any. Instead, I made mung bean paste which tasted almost exactly like red bean paste. This is my new "special bread" which I created out of pure craving~ They look so pretty!!!!!




Ingredients


Sweet yeast dough

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup bread flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 fresh yeast (8g)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons matcha powder
• 1 large egg , beaten, at room temperature
• sesame seeds
• egg yolk mixed with 2 tablespoons of milk for eggwash

Filling

• 250g dried green mung beans
• 120g sugar
• 700ml water + 300ml water
• pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Preparation

Soak mung beans in water for 2-3 hours.

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar and matcha powder and mix with a spatula. In a small bowl pour in milk and add the butter. Microwave for 1 minute until the butter has melted. Take out and add 1/4 cup of water. Let it rest for 1-2 minutes until the milk mixture is no longer hot, but still warm. 40-45°C. Break in the fresh yeast and mix with a fork until the yeast has dissolved completely. Pour the milk mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix well with a rubber spatula until combined. Add the egg and mix well again. Add the remaining 3/4 cups of flour and knead with your hands. The dough will be sticky and that's just how we want it! Knead for 2-3 minutes and place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a damp towel and leave it  to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

2. Boil the soaked mung beans in a medium sized pot with 700ml water and a pinch of salt until the beans are soft. This will take about 30-40 minutes. Stir occasionally. Once the beans are soft, take away from heat and let it cool down for 10-15 minutes. Then put the beans in a blender, add 300ml of water and blend until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add some more water. Pour the blended beans into a frying pan, add the 120g of sugar and simmer over medium heat. This is the hardest part... You have to keep stiring the mixture so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan... Keep stiring until the mixture is no longer runny and is able to "hold it's shape" for a few seconds. Let it cool down to room temperature.

Notice: Once the mixture has cooled down, it will become more firm than when it's hot! 

3. Your dough should have risen to double it's size by now. Add 2 tablespoons of flour and deflate your dough by kneading it. Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces and roll them into bun shaped balls. Place them onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and cover slightly with wrap. Leave to rest for 15 minutes.

4. Once the beans are no longer hot, scoop one heaped tablespoon at a time into your hands, gently make a ball out of the beans and place on a large greased platter. You should be able to make around 10 balls! Preheat your oven to 170°C now.

5. Now, to make the buns, flatten your dough balls into approx. 0,8cm thick, palm sized,  round batches. (use some flour if too sticky!) Place the batch in the palm of your hand and place a bean ball into the centre. Close the dough around the bean ball firmly by pressing together with two fingers. Be sure that there are no holes in the dough... This is not an easy thing to do, but I succeeded on my first try, so, you will too!

6. Place 5 filled buns (ugly side down) onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and using the palm of your hands, gently flatten them out to 1,5cm thick patches. Using a kitchen scissor, cut the edges of the buns 5 times as shown in the picture below. Eggwash the tops of the flower buns and sprinkle some sesame seeds over them. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy the flower bread with a cup of coffee in the morning or eat them as a snack!

Tip 1: Freeze them and eat them some other time after defrosting and quickly microwaving them!

Tip 2: The day after the baking day, the breads tend to become a little bit hard. Simply pop them into the microwave for 1 minute and your flower breads will be soft again!

Lemony Snicket Pull-Apart Breads

My god… What a weekend! Friday: Farewell party with my girlies. Saturday: Farewell party with the boys from highschool. Sunday: Farewell Brunch with uncles, aunts, cats and bees… How I’m doing right now? I feel great! I got to eat delicious food all weekend, with lot’s and lot’s of dessert and unhealthy snacks! I couldn’t feel any better…

I made a pull-apart bread once with Cinnamon sugar. Although I baked the bread for a long time, the centre still felt kind of doughy and wet… So this time, on my second attempt, I decided to try something different! This was just THE best bread I had ever baked in my life! I swear… It was so good and cute!!! And I’m really trying hard not to sound cocky here… Just look at this beautiful piece of bread! Don’t you just want to take a bite out of your computer screen??

Ingredients

Adapted from: www.thekitchn.com

Sweet yeast dough

• 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 fresh yeast (8g)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs at room temp.

Lemon sugar filling

• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 3 tablespoons grated lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and browned

Cream cheese frosting (optional)

• 3 tablespoons cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon whole milk
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Preparation

In a large mixing bowl whisk together 2 cups flour, sugar, and salt.  Set aside.

Whisk together eggs and set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt together milk and butter until butter has just melted.  Remove from the heat and add water and vanilla extract.  Break in the fresh yeast and stir well until the yeast has dissolved completely.

Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula.  Add the eggs and stir the mixture until the eggs are incorporated into the batter. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of flour and stir with the spatula for about 2 minutes.  The mixture will be sticky.  That’s just how you want it!

Place the dough is a large,  slightly greased bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel.  Place in a warm place and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

While the dough rises, whisk together the sugar, lemon zest and juice.  Set aside.  Melt two tablespoons of butter until browned.  Set aside.  Grease a regular muffin pan.

Deflate the risen dough and knead about 2 tablespoons of flour into the dough.  Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes.  On a lightly floured work surface, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out.  The dough should be of rectangular shape and be around 1/2 cm thick.  Use a pastry brush to spread melted butter across all of the dough.  Sprinkle with all of the sugar and lemon mixture.

Slice the dough vertically, into eight equal-sized strips.  Stack four strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again.  Do the same with the other four stripes.  You’ll have 12 stacks all together. Place the stacks into the 12 muffin forms so that the bread can puff up like a book! Place a kitchen towel over the muffin pan and leave in a warm place for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 170°C. Place muffin pan into the oven and bake the mini breads for 20-25 minutes. Cover the top for the last 5 minutes with aluminium foil, to prevent the outside from becoming too brown!

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 to 30 minutes.  Serve them with coffee at breakfast or at a tea party! Mix the icing ingredients together and either brush over the top of the breads or serve on the side.

Cinnamon-Apple Rice Pudding

Every night when my head hits the pillow, I think of what I should make for breakfast the next morning. It's almost like a ritual... I do it every night. Sometimes I have crazy ideas and can't get to sleep for hours... This was not the case last night (thank goodness). Last night I had a vision of warm, creamy Rice Pudding which I could not get out of my head. No matter how hard I tried to think of some other, more challenging and ingredient-rich recipes, the rice pudding was stuck in my head. So this is what I cooked this morning. Cinnamon Rice Pudding with some slightly baked apples. Simple, easy, not much bling-bling, just tasety!

Ingredients
(serves 2)

• 120g risotto rice (or Arborio)
• 400-450ml low fat milk mixed with 4 tablespoons water
• 3-4 teaspoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bourbon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 apple

Preparation

Put the rice, milk and water into a pot and boil over medium heat. Keep stiring to prevent the milk from overflowing! after about 15 minutes, the milk will have reduced. Now is the time to add the sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Stir again over medium heat until the milk becomes thicker.

Preheat your oven to 200°C, cut an apple into thin slices and bake them for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, try some rice to see if it has softened enough for your taste. I like my rice pudding to bee soft and runny. If it needs more milk, simply add little by little and wait until it has reduced again. When the rice is ready, take the pot from the heat, add in the butter and stir one last time. Serve in little bowls and garnish with some apple slices and a sprinkle of cinnamon. You can always add more sugar if you have to. I prefer to eat mine not too sweet!

Baked Granola With Yogurt

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I climb up the stairs in my pijamas, walk into the kitchen, still sleepy in the head, a little shaky around the knees and take a lot of time to sit, eat, read and... eat. I tend to feel really hungry in the mornings so I  usually eat huge portions, without actually realizing it. But since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, I don't care. I also prefer sweet breakfasts to savory ones... Here in Switzerland, people often eat cheese and meat with their morning bread, but that's just not me. I'm the sort that prefers the sweet and fruity things. Then there's another (weird) type of people who do not eat breakfast at all! No matter how much I think over this issue, I just don't get it. How can you NOT eat breakfast? It's the most peaceful time of the day and you just have to sit down and enjoy it, don't you agree? Plus, a simple breakfast like Muesly can be so pretty and made with love! I think it's the perfect start to another beautiful sunny summers day!

Ingredients
(2 servings)

• 100g Granola/Müsli
• 1 tablespoon raisins or dried cranberrys
• 6 whole hazlenuts
• 150g fresh raspberrys
• juice from 1/4 lemon
• 200g nature yogurt (fat free or normal)
• 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon chopped almonds

Preparation

Preheat oven to 200°C. Place your granola with the hazelnuts and raisin onto a baking tray and bake for 3-5 minutes, or until granola turns golden brown (the raisins should puff up too. In one corner of the tray bake the chopped almonds too. Blend the raspberrys with the sugar and lemon juice in a mixer until smooth. Take the granola/müsli out of the oven and place them equally into 2 glasses and let it cool down. Spoon the yogurt onto the granola mixture and top it with the raspberry sauce. For extra nuttyness sprinkle some chopped almonds onto the raspberry sauce.

Tasty, light and healthy breakfast with all the important minerals (calcium, fibre, vitamins) your body needs!

Healthy Breakfast Pancakes

I'm a healthy eater. I don't always go for the chocolate-chocolate-rice pudding in the morning... Sometimes I like to keep it light and simple, just like today when I had pancakes on my mind. I think I even dreamt of pancakes at night. Not sure though... This pancake recipe is reeeeal easy and you probably have all the ingredients you need somewhere in the cupboard in your kitchen! If you don't, well I guess you'll have to run to the store! If you haven't tried making mini pancakes, this is the time to do it! They don't taste better or anything but they just look so much cuter!!! And since I'm a fan of cute things like cup cakes, soufflés etc. it would have been wrong to make big pancakes, right?




Ingredients
(serves 1 girl living alone, makes 7 mini pancakes)

• 30g all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1-2 teaspoons sugar, depending on taste
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon oatmeal/müsli
• 1/2 egg, beaten with a fork
• 50ml buttermilk or low fat milk
• 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup

Preparation

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, then add in the egg and milk and mix with a spoon until combined. Heat a pan to medium high heat and grease with oil or butter lightly. One tablespoon full of pancake mixture will make one mini pancake. Scoop 4 spoonfulls into the pan and let it heat up for 2 minutes. The surface will start to bubble slightly and the sides will become a little darker. Flip the pancakes over and wait for 2 minutes. You will notice that the first side heated will be prettier than the second. Serve on a plate and drizzle a tablespoon of honey over the top and sprinkle some more cinnamon onto the pancakes. Eat them warm!

Lowfat Banana-Oats-Cranberry Bread

During the hot summer days, bananas tend to ripen very quickly. Even hough I love banans, I couldn't eat a whole bunch in 2 days... impossible! A really nice way to use up your ripe bananas is to  bake a moist, healthy banana bread which you can store in the freezer in single portions! Whereas the normal bananabread tends to look dull and not very interesting, this cranberry-oatmeal banana bread has some really exciting bites to it! I used dried cranberries but you can use the fresh ones if you have any in store. This is a perfect afternoon teatime snack or even better, a healthy way to start your mornings!

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar + 1 teaspoon
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 2 medium egg whites, beaten
• 3 large bananas, ripe
• 1 cup uncooked oats soaked in 4 tablespoons buttermilk

Preparation

Heat a large frying pan with 1 teaspoon sugar and 2 teaspoons of water on medium high. Cut your bananas lengthwise into long halves and place them in the hot sugar. This will caramelize your bananas and bring out even more banana aroma.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients including the oats and cinnamon.

In a smaller bowl, mash the warm bananas with a fork. Add oil and whole egg and mix thoroughly with a spatula. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Batter will be fairly thick.

In a medium sized bowl, with an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites until medium stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter in three additions.  Pour batter into pan and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Flip out and cool on a wire rack for another 10 minutes. Slice loaf into 10 equally sized slices.

Tip: You can wrap the warm slices into glad wrap and freeze the individual portions for future breakfasts!

Baked Pancake Baskets

Having pancakes very often can make you get tired of the always same shape and consistency. If you feel like pimping your pancakes a little, this is what you could do! I love them this way... They become slightly crispy around the edges, but stay soft and fluffy in the middle. Perfection right there. But that's not all people! You can fill your little baskets with any cream, yogurt or custard you want! For breakfast, I chose blueberry yogurt. BUt if you want to serve these pretty baskets for dessert, feel free to fill them with vanilla cream or flavoured whiped cream!

Ingredients
(makes around 20 mini pancakes or 10-12 normal sized ones)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or cinammon

NOTE: If you make mini pancakes, you will need a mini muffin pan. If you make normal sized pancakes, you can use the normal sized muffin pan!

Preparation

Heat a large flat frying pan to medium heat. Preheat oven to 200°C. Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, microwave the buttermilk and milk to room temperature, about 20 seconds. Whisk in egg, butter, and vanilla. Add wet mixture to dry and whisk just until combined. (If batter becomes too thick, stir in a tablespoon or two of milk)

For the mini pancakes, scoop the batter with a tablespoon and carefully place onto the frying pan, holding the spoon close to the pan to make small circles. Cook 2 minutes, until bottoms are golden and tops begin bubbling. Flip pancakes and cook for about one more minute, until golden. Now,press your pancakes into the muffin tray. One pancake into each individual form. No linings or muffin paper needed! Bake them in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the edges have darkened in colour! Take them out, let them rest in the muffin pan for 2 minutes. Take the baskets out of the forms and let them cool completely before filling with yogurt.

Banana-Apple-Cranberry Muffins

As I mentioned earlier in my Banana Cheesecake Post, I has some very ripe bananas which I had to use up immediately. I checked our cupboard for some leftover nuts and dried fruit and found exactly what I needed! Cranberries, walnuts, oats, 1 apple and of course, the bananas. This mini-bread-muffin is absolutely delicious and also quite healthy, given that the banana already brings alot of natural sweetness with it, which means you don't have to add alot of sugar to this recipe! Eat them for breakfast or as a healthy snack throughout the day...~

Ingredients


(makes 42 mini muffins, or 12-14 normal sized muffins)
adapted from: www.fitsugar.com

• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 apple
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all purpose or wheat flour
• 1/2 cup oats (muesli)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• oil for the muffin pan

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Peel all three bananas and mash them in a bowl with a fork. Now peel and dice the apple into 1cm cubes and add that to the bowl with the mashed up bananas. Add the egg, cranberries, cinnamon, and salt, and mix well with a fork. Add the flour, oats, chopped walnuts and sugar, and stir it all up until it's all moist. Now use the oil to grease two mini muffin pans. Spoon batter and fill up each hole all the way. Bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Linzer Torte

I was actually planning on losing some weight before I depart to Seoul... No success... 10 guesses why I can't lose weight? Check out this recipe and you'll know why~



Ingredients
(makes one 39x26cm pan)

• 300g all purpose flour
• 250g granulated sugar
• 200g melted butter
• 250g ground nut powder (hazlenut and almond)
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (optional)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 pots of jam (raspberrie jam, strawberry jam...)
• zest of 1 lemon + juice of half

Preparation

Preheat oven to 180°C. In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, nuts...)and mix with a whisk. Add in the melted butter, eggs, lemon zest, juice and vanilla and mix well with a spatula until everything is moist. Prepare a baking pan and lay out a sheet of baking paper. Now, working with your hands, press the dough into the pan equally, leaving 1 heaped handfull of dough aside (wrap and put in fridge)! The dough should be about 1/2 cm-1cm thick when placed in pan. With a spoon, spread an equal amount of jam onto the dough. The thickness depends on the sweetness you want to achieve. Sprinkle some flour onto the remaining dough you've kept aside. Working with your hands, roll some dough into stripes and place them diagonally onto the jam. Working from one corner to the other. Build a grid-like structure. (See picture below for help) Place the tray in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes. Take out and cut into individual sized squares. You can freeze the individual pieces in freezing bags and keep them for several months!

Cinnamon-Plum Jam

The plum tree in our garden has once more produced a heck of alot of plums this year... I must have picked about 10kg and the tree still looks purple from a distance! So, what to do with all that plum you ask? The first thing I did was cut them in half, pit the stone and put into freezing bags. This way you can keep your plums for... however long you want to actually and always have a bag ready for when you feel like baking a Plum tarte or making Plum compote to go with vanilla ice cream. Since my freezer was packed full I made some home made Plum jam and spiced it with some cinnamon and lemon zest! Perfect breakfast treat with a slice of buttered bread!

Ingredients


(makes 4 jars of jam)

• 1kg ripe plum, washed and pitted
• 500g granulated white sugar
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest

Preparation

Wash out the jam jars with hot water and dry completely with a clean kitchen cloth! Cut your plums into 6-8 pieces and place them into a large pot. Heat up to medium high heat, until the plums start to loose some water. Add the sugar all at once and give the plums a stir. Heat everything on high-heat for 5 minutes or until the plums start to bubble like crazy. Keep stiring and adjust the heat so that the plum-mixture doesn't overflow... You'll have a sticky mess if it does! Keep stiring the bottom and add in the cinnamon sticks. Keep simmering for another 5-10 minutes until the juice has reduced and thickened.

Take away from heat and fill up the jars immediately up to the top, leaving only 1cm space between the lid and jam. Close the jars tightly and leave them to cool down to room temperature. Store in a cool place (basement). Once you open a jar, make sure you store it in the fridge. Unopened jam can be stored for... several years, I was told!