German Cake: Granatsplitter or Chocolate Mountain

This is a very traditional German Cake Variation. It is a very old recipe and often is made from left over pieces of cakes. On rare occasions you can find it in bakeries- outside cities more often. Left over cake now is made into Cake Pops, something to eat on a stick and not so overly sweet and heavy.

Granatsplitter means Shrapnel - it kicks you off your legs!

Granatsplitter or Chocolate Mountain

It is usually made with rum, so it is an adult cake :-) , but to be honest, I loved it as a kid, when ever on rare times I could persuade my Mom to buy one. These things are not cheap.

I don`t know how I could eaten a whole chocolate mountain as a kid. Today, I needed a Schnaps after 1/3 of it and will finish it the next days.

recipe for the base:
75 g flour
1/2 tsp baling powder
25 g sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
25 g butter
1 1/2 tbsp milk

recipe for the filling:
100 g chocolate
40 g butter
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tbsp rum
50 g coarse almonds
glaze:
40 g dark chocolate ganache

Mix flour and baking powder and add all the other ingredients, make a smooth dough with a kitchen machine with dough hook.
On a floured surface roll it with a rolling pin and use a 5 cm cutter to make discs.
Bake them on a baking paper 180 C for 10 minutes.  Bake all the leftover dough cut offs with it on the baking sheet, you will need them for the filling later. 
Or use leftover sponge cake!

Melt the chocolate, add the the other ingredients and crumble the leftover cake and mix it in.
With a palette knife make a mountain of cream on top of each cake base, store it in the fridge for 30 minutes. The should be very dense and compact.

Make the ganache and coat the chocolate mountain  or Granatsplitter. It should be kept in the fridge until you serve it.
 

Carrot Almond Ginger Bread - Rüblibrot

There are so many wonderful recipes for making an awesome bread on the market, that it takes a lifetime to bake all of them. To decide what to bake the next time is not getting any easier.
It was a holiday here in Germany today, Ascension of Christ and Father`s Day, so a plate like that is nice as a treat on the road.

This bread has grated carrots in, so shaping it as a carrot makes it fun. The more you bake, less trouble you`ll have.


recipe:
100 g carrots grated
75 g chopped almonds
10 g grated ginger
700 g bread flour
300 g spelt flour type 630
19 g salt
14 g fresh yeast
560 g cold water

get the ingredients except the salt and the upper 3 into a kitchen machine and slowly combine them for 5 minutes, add the rest and speed up until all the dough has loosened from the sides of the bowl.
Let it rest for 30 min - you can keep them in the fridge over night to prove.

Make 4 dough balls at 250 g each and let them rest. Form carrots like breads and let them rise under a towel for 30 minutes, then make some "Carrot Greens" with a knife and get the bread into the oven, with a bowl of water underneath. Bake 230 C 10 min, get the water out and bake 210 C for 20 min, use a brush with some oil while you opened up to let the steam escape and oil the breads.

A tuna cream goes great with it, so as a starter to a meal with a glas of wine, that is a perfect dish.

Tuna cream
recipe:
1 small can of tuna, drained
1/2 small onion sweated off in some oil
50 g cream cheese
50 g creme fraiche
chives
piment d´espelette
smoked paprika
salt and pepper

Asparagus Strawberry Salad

On my way home I find this time of year many shacks selling regional asparagus and strawberries.
The next day is a holiday and beeing able to spent some more time in the kitchen, I decided to make a stop and get lucky with some fresh produce.

I found some high end white small asparagus tops, the ones that don´t need to be peeled and very red and wonderful smelling strawberries.
The saying: "things that grow together - go together "  is not always true, but uncooked asparagus and fresh strawberries are great for a salad.

I used some spring onions, I cut them into fine rings and put them in a sieve in a small bowl and pour some boiling water over them, let them sit for 1 minute and then drain them. So you loose the intense onion smell and the aftertaste. But they are still raw.

A sweet and salty dressing is the best for a salad like that. Not much work to do.

recipe:
250 g fine white asparagus tops
200 g strawberries
3 spring onions
1 tbsp lemon balm
3 tbsp olive oil with lemon
2 tbsp quince vinegar
1 tsp lemon sugar
1/2 tsp fleur de sel
1/2 tsp mixed pepper

May Wine flavoured with Woodruff

May wine flavoured with woodruff.

Sweet Potato Poppy Seed Bread and Liptauer Cheese

This is a tradition here in Germany and the last couple of years you can buy a bundle of fresh woodruff on markets.
I kept picking it in the forest nearby myself, but this year I found a potted one at a garden center and have it now on by balcony. When the woodruff goes back into the ground in June, I will plant it outside in the small garden and hopefully will have some the next couple of years.

I use french Cidre as a base, but here most people use a medium dry white wine. You pick the green stems and let them sit for about an hour on the table, just clap them once, them put them in the wine to flavour it for a couple of hours.
The plant contains Cumarin- that is poisonous in huge amounts.

People often warn you not to drink to much May wine, because of the heavy headache the next morning, but that is usually the copious amount of tasty wine consumed and not the little bit of Cumarin in the drink!  

I love to have the taste of woodruff in combination with strawberries and some lemon.

Maritozzi - Italian Raisin, Lemon and Pine Nut Buns

This is a speciality from Rome. The people love this lemony raisin buns with their cup of espresso and or a Glass of sweet wine.

a whole tray of buns

recipe:
500 g flour
40 g yeast
250 ml milk
4 tbsp sugar
50 g raisins soaked in Marsala
30 g pine nuts
50 g homemade candied lemon peel- check the blog about a Pope's favourite lemon dessert
2 tbsp olive oil
1 pinch of salt

In a little bit of  hand warm mit with a pinch of sugar dissolve the yeast and make a well in the middle of the flour and stir the milk in. Let it rise at a warm place for 30 min, then transfer it into a kitchen machine and get the rest of the milk, olive oil and the sugar and salt in. Make a smooth dough and let it rest 30 min again.
Lightly toast the pine nuts and soak the raisins. Cut up the candied lemon peel. When the dough has rested make a flat disc and get all the other ingredients in. Start kneading them on a floured surface until everything is combined. Cut it into 12 pieces and shape dough balls, rest them under a cover for 30 min more. You can cut a cross into them or use an apple corer/dicer thing and press down on the balls, that makes a nice look.

Use some milk and brush the buns with it.
Bake them at 200 C for 20 min.

Salted Caramel Mousse au Chocolat

I needed a dessert for 1. of May Sunday lunch with friends. The main problem is the transport of 25km. All things sloshi are a problem. I solved it with a Mousse au Chocolat. It stays in the jar without making a mess in the car.

Caramel Sauce and choc nips on top

I haven`t made Mousse in a long time. It was a favourite for many years, but went into onto the shelf.

I saw a video on YT, I am a subscriber of Cupcake Jemma and I love her baking videos. I will never be able to bake in the way she does, but I love to see the videos. When I saw the Mousse, I though why not. I love salted Caramell since I was in the Bretagne in France and drove along the whole coastline. They are famous for their salted caramell and I bought a couple of jars. But they were gone at some point and I checked my French Gourmand magazine issue and found a recipe. Since then, I make the salted caramell my self.

recipe for the salted caramell for 6 jars:
100 g sugar
60g cold diced butter
200 g double cream
1 good pinch of fleur de sel
Melt the sugar until it gets caramell coloured, add the butter cubes and melt them. Pour the cream in and add the salt.
Pour 120 g of the caramell in a seperate pot.
Pour 2 tbsp  of caramell in each jar and place it in the fridge to set.

recipe for the Mousse:
120 g 52 % chocolate
3 egg yolks L
100 g soft beaten double cream   ( this is my take on the recipe, it makes the mousse a bit lighter)
3 egg whites super stiff peaks ( use some lemon juice to clean the bowl and the machine)
Use the 120 g caramell and heat it up a bit, melt the chocolate in it.
When the choc is melted, get it off the heat and beat 3 egg yolks. Pour them into the choc.
Add the beaten cream and then the stiff egg white in 3 phases.

You can add a bit of fruit and a splash of caramell before serving.

Sweet Potato Poppy Seed Bread

It is Sunday and we are baking again. Bread of the week or of the month.

This is a light yellow coloured bread and looks nice with all the poppy seed flecks in. It goes great with any kind of cheese cream or just to nibble at with a Glass of wine.
We served it with some Liptauer Cheese and May Wine flavoured with woodruff.

The best way to get a great texture is to make the dough the night before and let the yeast work in the cold of the fridge.

recipe:
700 g wheat flour Type 550
300 g spelt flour Type 630
150 peeled, cooked and mashed sweet potato
16 g fresh yeast
21 g salt
550 g cold water
20 ml poppy seed oil   - more to brush
20 g blue poppy seeds  - more on top

Mix all the ingredients except the salt and the  oil for 15 minutes slowly, then add the salt and the oil and mix quicker until the dough gets off the sides of the bowl and you have a smooth surface. Let it rest in the fridge covered over night.
Get it out of the fridge and make 3 dough balls and let them rest 30 minutes. Make them into flat rounds and  smear some poppy seed oil on top and sprinkle some seeds too. Roll them into Baguette shapes and let them rest 30 min. under a kitchen towel.
Make some cuts into the top and brush with oil again.

Bake at 230 C for 10 min, with some water underneath, then open the door and let the steam escape and take the temp down to 210 and bake for 20 more min.
When they sound hollow on the bottom, they are done.