Category: Christmas desserts

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Apple pie

My mother recently found this recipe that a friend had written for me a few years ago. So nice to see her recipe again! at the time I thought it would be a good Christmas recipe, here goes just as she taught  me:

Ingredients:

For the dough:

250 gr of flour

150 gr of butter

125 gr of sugar

1 beaten egg

lemon zest

pinch of salt

For the filling:

500 gr of reinetas apples

50 gr of sugar

1 envelope of custard

ground cinnamon

raisins

Instructions:

In a bowl put the flour, the butter, sugar, salt, grated lemon and half of the egg together. With two knives cut the butter into small pieces, then knead with your fingers until you get a good dough.

Grease the mold (20 cm) and line it with 2/3 of the dough, put it in the fridge for 30 minutes, like the rest of the dough.

Peel and cut the apples into thin slices, sprinkle with the sugar, cinnamon, the envelope of custard and mix everything well, also add the raisins.

Pour the filling into the mold and distribute well until it covers the entire surface, with the rest of the dough make the decoration. You can make strips in the form of grid, like the classic apple pie, in this case, to give a more festive touch I have chosen to shape the dough with cookie cutters and place it beautifully on top.

To finish, paint with the leftover egg. Take to the oven at 180ºC for about 45 minutes. Served with vanilla ice cream takes it to another level.

Bon Appetite!

Happy Holidays!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Spiced Cookies

A bite of one of these cookies and a lot of spicy flavors start to take over.

IMG_20171102_125906

Ingredients:

200 gr of flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

100 gr of brown sugar

100 g of butter (at room temperature)

1 egg

3 teaspoons of milk

orange  zest

IMG_20171102_125919

Spices:

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 or 4 ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground ginger

a pinch of ground white pepper

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 teaspoon ground anise

1 teaspoon nutmeg

In a bowl, mix the butter with the sugar until it is well integrated, then add the beaten egg, continue mixing and add the rest of the ingredients, at the end add the flour and mix until there is a compact mass. If you have time, let the dough rest for an hour, so the dough will be well impregnated with all the flavor of the spices.

Then start to mold the cookies, take small pieces of dough and make small balls with your hands. Place the dough balls in a tray lined with baking paper, lightly squeeze them on top with a spoon. Take to the oven, previously heated to 180ºC, for 10 minutes or until they look golden brown.

Let them cool a bit before eating, if you can wait ..;) The smell that they leave at home is really nice and gets us ready to start baking for the upcoming Christmas holidays; they are SO good! Enjoy!

IMG_20171102_125647

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Kringle: cinnamon bread

Hi all!,
I hope you are enjoying the holidays and I hope this recipe a good help to keep on enjoying even more.
Today a simple but very special recipe to celebrate ‘The three kings day’ (or the Three Wise Men) that every 6th of january everybody celebrates in Spain. A nice twist to the tradicional sweet bread (rosco); it fits perfectly as an accompaniment as we open our gifts (or just enjoy during any cold winter evening to share with friends or family).
The kringle bread (kringle means ring or crown) is a popular sweet bread from Scandinavia, normally filled with cinnamon and raisins, but you can also add nuts, chocolate chips…
If you like to follow the Spanish tradition, you could hide a bean inside the bread while you are making it, and the person that finds the bean will have to pay the treat; and secondly, you could hide a small surprise (figurine) and the person who finds it will be crowned as a king or queen of the house.
This time I really like to mix this tradition with a Scandinavian recipe 🙂
Here I present you my version of the kringle, I hope you like it.
Here we go:
Ingredients for the dough:
30 g of butter at room temperature
15 g of yeast
300 g of flour
1 egg yolk
30 g of sugar
120 ml of warm milk
1 pinch of salt
Zest of one lemon
Ingredients for the filling:
2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon
60 g of sugar
50 g of butter
A handful of chopped walnuts (optional)
A handful of raisins
1 pinch of ground ginger
1º) Put the flour in a bowl and add the sugar, milk, yeast, butter, lemon zest, pinch of salt and the egg yolk.
Slowly mix all the ingredients until you get a smooth and elastic dough. Then we make a ball with the dough, put it in a bowl and cover it with a clean cloth; place it in a warm place until you see that it has doubled in size.
2º) Once our dough has grown, stretch the dough on the working table with a rolling pin and form a rectangle.
To make the filling, heat the sugar in a pan at low temperature until it melts, then add the butter, take it off the fire and add the rest of the ingredients: cinnamon,ginger, nuts and raisins.
So when we eat the bread, the sugar is melted and the bite will not have a gritty filling; but if you prefer, you can mix all the ingredients and the melted butter without melting the sugar; it will be just as good.
Extend the filling over the dough with a brush or spatula.
3º) Now start rolling the dough on the longer side, so you will get a tube. Cut open one side but leave one end intact like you see in the next pictures.

Take the two ends and start to make the braid; make a circle and paste the ends well to make it pretty. Cover again with a clean cloth and let it rest (already in the oven tray) for about 1 hour.

4º) Preheat the oven at 180º C and bake for 30-35 minutes. If you like you can decorate with icing sugar, almonds or candied fruit; although I think it´s very nice just without decorating.
Now, eat and enjoy!!!
You can decorate with icing sugar

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Chocolate cake for New Year´s Eve

Hi everyone!

I would like to continue with the ‘Christmas time dessert´s series’. A good chocolate cake, simple, elegant and perfect to finish the New Year´s Eve dinner and start de New Year´s celebration.

Hmmm…hmmm… hmmm! careful! you will want more than one piece!! 😉

Let´s start!
Ingredients for the cake:

175 g of butter (room temp.)
175 g of sugar
175 g of flour
3 tablespoons of liquid caramel
40 g of ground almonds
2 teaspoons and half of baking powder
40 g of cocoa
1 pinch of salt



Ingredients for the filling:

225 g pure chocolate
225 g of butter
55 g of brown sugar
5 tablespoons of condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla sugar
 
1º) First we mix all the ingredients for the filling in a pan; low heat until everything is well melted.

Then, pour the mixture into another bowl and let cool down, cover and place in the refrigerator during 1 hour.

2º) Preheat the oven at 180 ºC and cover the mold with baking paper.
3º) For the cake mixture, first we mix the butter and sugar, once they are well integrated, gradually add the beaten eggs, then the liquid caramel and the ground almonds.
4º) In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa and pinch of salt and add to the previous mixture.
5º) Put the mixture into the mold and leave in the oven at 180º C for about 35 minutes. Then, take the cake out from the oven and let cool down for 5 minutes. Then, remove the mold and let cool down completely.

In this case I´ve made two cakes, you can divide the dough in two or make another separate cake with same ingredients and measures, so the cake will be taller (that is what I wanted).

6º) Finally we fill the cake with the chocolate (which you will cut thorugh the middle if you have made just one cake. If you have made two cakes, put one on top of the other after filled).
We also use the filling to cover the rest of the cake.

For the decoration, I used almond cubes, I think it looks pretty elegant, just ready to enjoy during New Years´s Eve.
We need something to drink with the cake!! I made mulled wine or Gluhwein, a traditional drink from Germany and northern countries of Europe, especially around Christmas.

Mulled wine it´s a nice option to drink while enjoying the cake
That´s it! I think it is a simple recipe and you can also use your imagination when you are decorating it.
I hope you try it at home; and really really hope you have a veeery nice week ahead and enjoy every day 🙂
Cheers!
Bea.











		

		
		

		






			

		
			Posted on  by  — Leave a comment
Frangipane Cake
		

				

		


Hi everyone!

Less than two weeks until Christmas… I´m sure many of you have already thought about the dinner menu; but in case you are wondering about what dessert to make, here´s an idea for a simple cake, perfect to start the Christmas celebrations: frangipane cake. This cake is filled with almond cream, which is commonly used in Belgium, especially this time of year.






















Here is the recipe step by step: 



Ingredients for the base dough:

150 g flour

85 g butter (room temp.)

35 g icing sugar

2 tablespoons of milk

1 egg yolk














Ingredients for frangipane cream:

150 g sugar

180 g butter (room temp.)

200 g ground almonds

4 eggs

1 teaspoon of almond essence

150 gr strawberry jam

Sliced almonds for decoration














Preparation base dough:



1º) Sift the flour into a bowl, then, with the help of your fingers, knead the butter into the flour until you get a crumbly dough. After that you can add the icing sugar, egg yolk and the milk.

2º) Knead the dough with your hands (you can add more milk if it´s too dry) and make a ball, wrap the dough in film paper and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.






3º) Preheat the oven at 180º C. Stretch the dough on the working table and then place in the greased mold.

Before placing it in the oven make holes in the dough with a fork, then, place a baking paper on top of the mold and fill it with dry chickpeas or small balls, so the dough does not rise.

Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes.






Preparation frangipane cream:



1º) Preheat the oven at 170ºC.

2º) In a food processor we put the sugar, butter, flour, ground almonds, eggs and almond essence together; mix until you get a smooth cream.

3º) First extend a thin layer of strawberry jam on the bottom of the cake. On top of the jam extend the almond paste and cover the entire surface of the cake (smoothen the surface with a spoon).














4º) Place the cake in the oven for about 30 minutes. After that let it cool down and decorate with icing sugar and almonds. I also used some pasta from the base dough to bake some cookies with star shape and use it as decoration.














Delicious! Perfect to give the sweet touch to a good family dinner. I hope you enjoy it! 😉

Have a great weekend, 



Bea.