Third Birthday Cake

Little S turned three on Tuesday. He is crazy about cars / vehicles at the moment, so this year he clearly had to have a car for his birthday cake. I thought about a fire engine, but it seemed like you'd have to have the colour, shape, writing etc bang on for it to look recognizable, and I wanted to allow myself a bit more leeway.

So I went for a dumper truck. Still a favourite, still easily recognizable, still a truck - but could be any colour I want, no writing needed, and somehow felt like it would still look ok even if the shape went a bit wrong.

The cake was this one, baked in a loaf tin. I cut it into three pieces: about a third from one end to make the front part (standing on the cut side), all the rest except a couple of inches to make the back part, and then the last piece to cut into six wheel shapes. Then I shaped the front, cut out the hopper, shaped the wheel beds and evened out the wheels.

The icing was this one. Instead of cinnamon, I added a few different powders to colour it: the icing on the back part of the truck is with freeze-dried raspberry powder, the icing on the front part is with acai powder, and the icing on the wheels is with cocoa. I considered a few other powder (spirulina or matcha for green; turmeric for yellow), but then realized it took quite a lot of powder for a get much colour and I more wanted it to taste nice...

The decorations are: mango-coconut balls for the load and lights, dried kiwi slices for the wheels, and raspberry-apple fruit 'spaghetti' for the writing, window shapes and stripes on the back part. It would have been best presented straight after decorating, but it looked ok the next morning.

It tasted good but yet again I made a sage birthday cake that failed to rise properly (it rose beautifully, and then dropped a lot). This time I had even decided to follow a proper cake recipe to the word to prevent this... Oh well, the icing works!

And, most importantly, S liked it and recognized it as a dumper truck. He got a yellow dumper truck from the 1950s from my dad so it all fit together perfectly.

Birthday cake 2020: poppyseed, lemon, yoghurt, apple cheese

I was thinking about S's birthday cake for a while, as usual. We had a good crop of walnuts this year so Plan A was to do a classic coffee and walnut cake. But then I stumbled on this cake (during my Anna Jones trawl), and it seemed to tick a load of boxes: we had a load of homemade apple cheese in the fridge; and the whole poppyseed-almond-lemon-yoghurt situation sounded divine. So this became the new Plan A. And I am glad it did - it was everything I hoped for (despite not being the prettiest cake ever - rustic charm though right?). I'd love to try it with other fruit cheeses - membrillo, that guava paste you get from Latin American shops, damson cheese... mmmm... Or the marzipan option!

70 ml rapeseed oil or melted butter plus a little extra (used sunflower oil)
250 g white spelt flour, plus a little extra for the tin (used plain flour)
1 tbsp baking powder
70 g golden caster sugar (used a mixture of caster and brown)
½ tsp fine sea salt
60 g poppy seeds
Zest of 2 unwaxed lemons
2 medium eggs
350 ml yogurt or buttermilk (used yogurt - actually it was a mix of skyr and oat yoghurt)
250 g membrillo (quince paste), cut into tiny cubes (used apple cheese)
2 tbsp demerara sugar
20 g almonds, skin on, lightly toasted and chopped

Heat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. Grease a springform baking tin, line the base and flour the sides.

Combine the flour, baking powder, caster sugar, salt, poppy seeds and lemon zest in a large bowl. In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs and the yogurt, then whisk in the oil. Add to the flour mixture and stir briefly, until just combined. Gently fold in two-thirds of the membrillo cubes until they are evenly distributed. Transfer the cake mixture to the prepared tin.

Arrange the remaining membrillo across the top in a pleasing pattern. Sprinkle with the demerara sugar, then the almonds. Bake for 20-25 min or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.


Decorated with a little water icing made with icing sugar and lemon juice, and a sprinkling of poppyseeds.

One note: I don't think it's worth toasting the almonds before putting on top - they'd get nicely toasted enough just sitting on top of the cake while it's baking.

Previous S cakes: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011
Previous s cakes: 2019, 2018

Apple muffins

Our apple tree started dropping apples already, so I wanted to make a start on some apple recipes to use them up. I fancied making muffins, even though they are not the most efficient way to use up apples. I liked the sound of this recipe, with grated, diced and sauced apple in it, and decided to give it a go even before I realized it's also a great baking-with-honey recipe - I especially like that it takes into account honey's tendency to dry out / burn.

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup oats
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup grated apple
1 cup diced (1 cm) apple
1/3 cup olive oil (or veg oil)
1/2 cup honey (or maple syrup)
2 eggs (ideally at room temp)
1/2 cup Greek yoghurt
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)
1 tbsp demerara sugar to go on top

Heat the oven to 163C / 325F (218C / 425F for maple syrup). Prepare a 12-cup muffin tin.

In a large bowl, mix flours, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, bicarb and salt with a fork. Add grated and chopped apple and stir.

In a medium bowl, beat oil, honey (or maple syrup) together, then add eggs and beat, then add yoghurt and apple sauce and mix.

Add wet to dry and mix until just combined, adding raisins and pecans in the final few strokes. Spoon into muffin cups and sprinkle with demerara sugar. Bake for c 25 min (13-15 min for maple syrup), until skewer comes out clean.

Chard, herb and feta pide-pie

Recently, when I've gotten something in my head I want to eat, I want to eat that thing and only that thing. Yesterday, it was pie - something like the multitude of greens+cheese pies we ate in Greece. We had a big bunch of chard in the fridge, and with some feta and a selection of herbs from the yard, this seemed like it (I used this recipe and this one as guides for the filling). But then, pastry - I never really make pastry, I definitely don't have a go-to recipe. I also have a distinct aversion to going to the shops for a single ingredient - I'd always rather improvise with the contents of the fridge. And I don't currently own a pie dish, so I had to find something that could be free-shaped and plonked on a baking sheet. It turns out that thing can be called a galette, and I liked the idea of a dough with yoghurt in it (I'd like it even more if it had olive oil instead of butter, will have to investigate), so I thought I'd try this recipe. When S got home, he thought the idea came from the tasty pide I have sometimes been buying from a Middle Eastern bakery on the way home, and it's true - they were pretty much pide-shaped and filled, and pide are also a freeform shape like what I was looking for - next time, I'll have to look up pide dough recipes.

(Make sure to start the dough an hour before you want to shape and bake the pies - it needs to rest in the fridge. I made two medium sized pies that fitted comfortably on my baking trays, but the recipe could easily make one big pie or four smaller pies)

For the dough:
160 g (1 1/4 cups) plain flour (definitely needs more - at least 200g)
1/4 tsp salt (don't use if using salted butter)
115 g (8 tbsp) cold unsalted butter (don't add extra salt if using salted)
60 g (1/4 cup) yoghurt
2 tsp lemon juice
60 ml (1/4 cup) ice water


For the filling:
big bunch of chard (c. 250 g - or beet greens)
olive oil
3 large spring onions, chopped
2 tbsp chopped parsley, chopped
1 tbsp chopped oregano, chopped
2 tsp chopped mint, chopped
2 tsp chopped sage, chopped
2 tbsp grated parmesan
1/3 of a 200g pack of feta
1 egg, and the white of another left from making the pastry glaze, beaten
salt+pepper

For the pastry glaze:
1 egg yolk (put the rest in the filling), beaten with
1 tsp water

First, prepare the dough: put the flour (and salt, if using) into a large bowl, then chop the butter into small dice and add to the bowl. Rub the butter into the flour as if making crumble. Mix the yoghurt, lemon juice and water in a small bowl, then add to the flour-butter crumbs and mix until the dough comes together into a ball. Add a little more flour if it doesn't stick together in a ball. Wrap the ball in clingfilm and put in the fridge for at least an hour (up to two days).

While resting the dough, prepare the filling. Wash chard and separate stems from leafy parts. Chop the stems, and tear the leafy parts into pieces. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and add the spring onions and chard stems. Fry reasonably high for a few minutes. Add chard leaves and herbs and saute for a few minutes, until the chard collapses. Let cool a bit in the pan, then transfer to a colander. When cool enough to handle, squeeze out as much liquid as you can and discard the liquid. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, crumble over the feta, then add the parmesan and egg, mix up, and season with salt and pepper. This should be about the right time to start the oven - heat to 200C / 400F.

To assemble, split the dough in half. Roll out one half into an approximate circle on a well-floured work surface. It should be about the size of a large plate, about 3 mm thick. Fold lightly in half, then in quarters, and transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Unfold. Spread half the filling in the middle, out to about 1 1/2 inches from the edge. Then fold in the edges to overlap the outer part of the filling, pleating and crumpling to make it fit. Brush the exposed pastry with egg glaze, then put the pie in the oven. Repeat with the other half of the dough and filling.

Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, until the pie is golden. Take out and eat pretty much immediately with a simple salad, or let cool and take for lunches (it's fairly robust and travels well).


Notes:
Shaping the dough was super straightforward, and nothing annoying happened whatsoever. And the pies came out great - prettily crumpled and golden, crisp tasty pastry (no soggy bottom), stored well in the fridge for a few days and nice cold (although I have actually been reheating in the microwave at work for c. 15 sec). Could maybe have done with a little more filling, but it was sufficient - never underestimate how much greens collapse when cooked! So many other filling ideas now! And, I would like to try with an olive oil pastry.

* I used the gram measurements from the original recipe, but it came out a little wet and I had to add a bit more flour - my guess is it should be approx. 200 g flour instead of 160 g

Tzatzkiki

We ate this a lot in the summer, when cucumbers arrived in our veg bag often, and the walk to the grocery shop past the greek restaurant often reminded me to buy skyr or greek yoghurt. That's the only trick - to use thick yoghurt so it doesn't get too runny from cucumber juice.

1/2 cucumber, grated
1/2 clove garlic, crushed to a paste
approx. 1 1/2 cups greek yoghurt or skyr
squeeze of lemon juice (about 1 tsp)
pinch of salt

Coarsely grate the cucumber into a bowl, then squeeze out / drain off some of the liquid. Add garlic, yoghurt/skyr, lemon juice and salt. Mix up and taste for flavour balance and seasoning.


Great with some bread and a greek salad.

Crunchy rice carpet with lentils, onions and pomegranate

I went to Cambridge to see Dad, S and B a couple weeks ago. I hadn't realised when I planned it, but it was so close to Christmas that it made a lovely Christmas warm-up. I got to have my first (probably only) mince pie of the year, and we ate well, played games and exchanged presents (still wrapped though!). I also got to buy a Saturday Guardian for the first time in years. This has been frustrating - it is available in Europe but they don't put the supplements in, so irritating. So anyway, I am still reading it on and off. And I came across a recipe for stuck-pot rice and thought why not just spend the afternoon making that because I can? I didn't really follow the recipe, but I liked my version.

rice:
180 g brown basmati rice, soaked for 1 hour
60 g butter
A few pinches saffron threads, soaked in 1 tbsp boiling water

lentils:
1 1/2 cups brown or green lentils
1 tsp allspice
1 bay leaf
2 1/2 cups water

onions:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
salt+pepper
1 tsp pomegranate molasses

to serve:
pomegranate seeds (optional but lovely)
yoghurt
chopped coriander (optional)

Bring a deep pan of salted water to a boil and cook the rice for about 15 min until al dente. Drain, then briefly rinse in water. Wipe out the pan, then melt the butter in it, and pour into a cup. Return the drained rice to the pan, stir in half the melted butter, then smooth the top of the rice. Pour over the remaining butter and saffron, cover with a clean tea towel, put on the lid and cook on the lowest heat for 30-40 min, until the rice is cooked, with a golden crust on the bottom.

While the rice is cooking, cook the lentils and onions. For the lentils, put them in a pan with allspice and bay, cover with water and bring to the boil, then simmer low until water is gone and they are done. For the onions, heat oil in a large frying pan, then add onions and cook medium-low for about 30 min, until they are brown and soft/crispy in places. Add pomegranate molasses and seasoning to taste.

To serve, put crunchy rice in a bowl and add lentils, onions, pomegranate seeds, yoghurt and coriander. Yum.

Blackberry, oat and yoghurt muffins

S made grand plans to go on a foraging mission on Saturday. We biked through Nokken and around the Amagerfælled, with our eyes out for tempting stands of sanddorn (aka sea buckthorn aka havtorn ahhhh living in three languages is a little crazy sometimes, I just hope I get so I can really use the other two for stuff other than berries before too long!) or blackberries (aka brambles aka brombær aka brombeere)... We were also looking out for mushrooms but not so much luck this time - although we did find our first Danish edibles (oysters and chanterelles) a couple of weeks ago in the Danish Switzerland. We gathered some sanddorn near Nokken - more on that here. We hit up a couple of blackberry patches in the Amagerfælled (and they hit back...). We filled all our containers... then biked on to Amagerstrand for a swim and a Lidl picnic (really good gazpacho and S's fave pretzels).

Quite a few of the blackberries have gotten mixed into yoghurt, with or without muesli, and eaten just like that. I decided to freeze the remainder before they got too soggy, to keep them for future muesli (spread them on baking paper / baking tray in a single layer to freeze before putting in a bag or container so they don't stick together). But first, 5 oz got made into these muffins.

I used to make these muffins a lot. They were from a muffin recipe book my uni flatmate S had when we lived together, and I made them loads and wrote the recipes down when we moved out. This is a particular favourite - they work well with blueberries or raisins, but I reckon the blackberry-yoghurt-cinnamon-oat combination is a real winner.

(makes 12 medium sized muffins)

3 oz / 75 g oats
8 fl oz plain yoghurt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
7 oz / 175 g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4-5 oz / 100-125 g brown sugar
1 egg
3-4 fl oz milk
3 fl oz vegetable oil
5 oz / 125 g blackberries (or other berries, or 3 oz / 75 g raisins)

Heat oven to 200C / 170C fan / 400F. Grease and/or line a muffin tin. Mix oats, yoghurt and bicarb and let stand for a minute. Mix the remaining dry ingredients in a large bowl with a fork. Add the remaining wet ingredients to the yoghurt mixture, whisk and then tip into the dry stuff. Mix until just combined, adding berries in the final few strokes. Then dollop into prepared muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 min, until well risen and golden. Let cool ten min before moving to a cooling rack.

Roasted carrots, chickpeas and cauliflower with yoghurt-tahini sauce

More cauliflower. I fancied roasting some chickpeas, and roasting carrots with coriander and spices. They all got roasted together and it was very very good.

Roast:
5 large carrots, scrubbed and top-and-tailed
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 tbsp paprika
1-2 tsp sumac
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
1-2 tsp nigella seeds
1 tbsp sesame seeds
salt+pepper
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cauliflower, broken into florets
about 1 cup cooked chickpeas

Sauce:
4 tbsp yoghurt
1 tbsp tahini
1 tsp lemon juice

Heat the oven to 230C. Put the carrots in a large baking tin along with all of the spices and seeds, salt and pepper and the olive oil (be generous with these - remember the cauliflower and chickpeas will be added partway through and they want to be coated with goodness too). Mix well and put in the oven for 10-15 min. Take out and mix in the cauliflower and the chickpeas. Put back in the oven and roast for another 20-30 min, until everything is tender and starting to crisp. While it's roasting make the sauce just by mixing together the yoghurt, tahini and lemon. Serve together.


Both roast and sauce are definite make-agains. S particularly loved the roasted chickpeas.

Oat buns

We have eaten so much good Danish bread. There is endless variety: traditional rye made with sourdough; versions with chia, carrot, potato for moistness. Various focaccia and baguette type things. And everything in between (lots of nuts and seeds!). Last weekend we went to Relæ with Y+M, and fell in love hard with the sourdough bread they serve there - it's from Manfred's, their other place over the road (also had the best beer I have ever had). S especially became a little obsessed. So yesterday we returned to Jægersborggade to try and track down that bread (after a very successful mission to a secret secondhand store). It turned out to be pretty easy: they were selling the bread as wholes and halves for quite a reasonable price, right from the restaurant. So we went home happy, with a bag full of tasty, stretchy, crunchy, wonderful sourdough (not to mention the radio, DVD/CD player, three jackets, one shirt and waterproof trousers we'd picked up earlier...).

So anyway, yesterday for some reason I was looking at the side of a packet of oats and became intrigued by the recipe there. Thought it was about time I tried to follow a recipe written in Danish. With the help of Google translate I figured it out. And realised we had pretty much all the ingredients. Including grahamsmel, which I hadn't been able to identify previously. So I made these oat buns, using up some slightly out of date fresh yeast, testing the grahamsmel, and with freshly made yoghurt. I think I could understand the recipe! One thing I noticed, that I remembered from some Swedish hagebutten soup stuff Anna had given me once upon a time, is that Scandinavians seem to measure volume in decilitres (1 dl = 100 ml) rather than millilitres.

(makes 10 rolls)

25 g yeast (gær)
200 ml (2 dl) lukewarm water (vand)
250 g plain flour (hvedemel) (used white spelt instead)
75 g graham flour (grahamsmel)
250 g oats (havregryn)
100 ml yoghurt
1 tbsp (spsk) sugar (sukker)
2 tbsp oil (olie)
1 tsp (tsk) salt
more yoghurt and some sesame seeds to finish

Dissolve (opløs) the yeast in lukewarm (lunkent) water, and add (tilsæt) the flours, oats, yogurt, sugar, oil and salt.

Knead (ælt) to a smooth (glat) and supple (smidig) dough (dej). The dough should be soft (blød). Form (form) the dough into a ball (kugle).

Let (lad) the dough rise (hæve), covered (tildækket), for about 45 min. Knock (slå) dough down (ned) and shape 10 buns (boller).

Set (sæt) buns (bollerne) on a baking sheet (bageplade) with baking paper (bagepapir) and let them prove (efterhæve) for about 30 min.

Brush with yogurt or water, then sprinkle (drys) with sesame seeds.

Bake at 200C / fan (varmluft) 180C for 12-15 min.


Came out tasty enough but not very well risen - perhaps the yeast was past it? Perhaps spelt flour was a bad substitution?

Ultimate gingery red lentil dal

They've had a red lentil dal on the menu at Grød all the time we've been here, and I keep ordering it even though I know it's really something I can make at home. Because it is pretty much the ultimate comfort food on a chilly day (it's starting to feel like Spring and sunny but it's still a bit chilly if we're honest).

I have been making versions of the Grød dal ever since we first went there. This time I think I nailed it. And I made crispy garlic butter flatbreads to go with it, which really took it over the edge.

(takes about half an hour from beginning to end)

Dal:
1-2 tbsp coconut oil
3 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
1 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed in a pestle and mortar
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups red lentils
4 cups hot water
3 tbsp tomato puree
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped into half moons
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
juice of 1/3 lime
1 tsp honey
1-2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper

To serve:
yoghurt (or skyr, or ricotta)
more chopped fresh coriander
salty almonds (about 5 per bowl)

Cheat's garlic flatbreads:
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-2 cm slice of butter
flatbread (7 chapati size pieces)

Heat the oil in a large lidded frying pan. Add the fresh ginger and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the dried spices and saute until fragrant. Add red lentils and mix around, then pour in hot water, add tomato puree, stir, cover and simmer for about 20 min. Peel and chop the carrots and add to the pan (they should need 10-15 min to become tender). Add about 1 tbsp of chopped coriander. Simmer until the lentils and carrots are tender.

Meanwhile, make the flatbreads. We had some thin Turkish flatbread that needed eating; I chopped it into 7 chapati size squares. Put the chopped garlic and cold butter into a small bowl and heat in the microwave for 15-20 sec, or however long it takes for the butter to become soft and scoopable but not liquid. Mix garlic and butter together. Heat a large heavy frying pan to a high heat, then put the first flatbread piece in it. Warm for a few min, until hot, then turn over. Put about a teaspoon of garlic-butter mixture on it and spread out. Transfer to a plate to keep warm. Repeat for the remaining flatbreads.

To finish off the dal, add the remaining 1 tbsp of coriander (remember to keep some for serving), lime juice, honey, salt and pepper. Taste and add more if necessary.

To serve, fill a bowl with dal, put some yoghurt on top and scatter with chopped fresh coriander and salty almonds. If necessary reheat the flatbreads in the microwave. Scoop dal up with flatbread or eat with a spoon.


Notes: the flatbreads were quite crispy - to make softer, perhaps it would be good to sprinkle them with water while warming the first side; I microwaved the garlic with the butter in the hope it would take the edge off the raw garlic taste and I don't know if it was that that did it but something worked and they were just garlicky enough.

S's birthday: chocolate hazelnut (nutella) cake

With all the moving and then the moving again, S's birthday kind of crept up on me this year. I remembered about making a cake middle of this last week and cast around for inspiration... He likes nuts... Decided on chocolate hazelnut, partly inspired by seeing this recipe - she has the same squirrel biscuit cutter as we do! Partly, I just realised, by a nutella-filled croissant I ate (and loved, when usually I can take or leave croissants) at brunch the other day.

I followed that same recipe for the cake part - we had milk and eggs left over from making pancakes so it seemed like an excellent use of them (especially wanted to use up the milk, we never get through milk, even when it is in European size cartons).

Then I spotted nutella in the supermarket (another thing I've always had a soft spot for but couldn't have when being vegan^, and decided to go rogue and nutella-based for the icing. Goodness knows I've had sooo many icing disasters, but still always seem to think I can just chuck stuff in a bowl and make it up as I go along...
DR
Our current apartment has all these mod cons, like microwave and food processor - so I could grind nuts in processor, melt choc in microwave etc. Got to admit it felt quite labour saving!

(makes a rather massive 2 layer, ~8 in round cake)

For the cake:
3/4 cup hazelnuts
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
good pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup veg oil
1 heaping tsp coffee granules dissolves in 3/4 cup boiling water

For the icing / decoration:
1/4 cup hazelnuts, plus 3
~25 g butter, softened
~1/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 jar nutella
75 g 70% chocolate, melted
1/2 tsp coffee granules
~2 tbsp plain yoghurt

Heat the oven to 175C / 350F. Grease and line a high-sided 8 in cake tin with removable base*. Grind 3/4 cup hazelnuts in a food processor until quite fine, then transfer into a large mixing bowl. Put the 1/4 cup hazelnuts for the decoration on a baking sheet and toast for about 10 min in the oven as it warms up, then set aside to cool. Add sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb and salt to the ground hazelnuts and whisk together. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, beat together the eggs, milk and oil. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Add the hot coffee and mix again. It is a pretty runny cake mixture. Pour into the prepared tin and transfer to the oven. Bake for about 60 min (start checking at 45 min)*. It is done when a skewer comes out clean. Take out of the oven and let sit for 10-15 min before turning out onto a cooling rack and leaving until completely cool.

While the cake is baking prepare the icing and decoration. Beat the butter and icing sugar together until smooth, then add the nutella. Add the melted chocolate and coffee, beat some more, add the yoghurt and beat until well combined. At room temperature it is quite soft but it goes hard in the fridge, so you can try and optimise the consistency for when you assemble the cake. Keep it in the fridge while the cake cools. Rub most of the skins off the toasted hazelnuts, then transfer them to the food processor and process just a little, until roughly chopped. Transfer to a bowl and keep until ready to assemble.

To assemble the cake, first trim and even out the top (mine was pretty craggy and high)*. Then cut through the middle parallel to the base to make two layers. Put the bottom layer on a plate, then spread half of the icing onto it (if the icing is too solid you can heat it a little in the microwave but be careful not to overheat). Put the other half of the cake on top and spread the rest of the icing over that. This is enough icing for the middle and top but not to go down the sides - I don't like too much icing and quite like to see the layers. Place the squirrel cutter gently in the middle of the cake and carefully sprinkle the chopped toasted hazelnuts all around it, so that the top of the cake is covered in chopped nuts except for the silhouette of the squirrel. Pack the nuts down around the edges of the cutter then carefully remove the cutter. You should be left with a neat squirrel silhouette. I put an appropriately sized and shaped piece of nut to be his eye, and then arranged three whole hazelnuts as if he might be holding / chasing them.

^Actually, I just noticed the Fotex brand nutella (which tastes just like the real thing to me) is actually vegan. Go Denmark! So it would be dead easy to make this icing vegan. In fact, I think it would be just fine to use straight nutella as the icing...
*Original recipe called for two tins, but I had one so that's what I used. Using two would be preferable as it would significantly reduce baking time (to more like 30 min) and give more even rising.


Actually, the icing worked really well. I wanted the yoghurt and coffee to lighten the nutella and add some sour / bitter. And the chocolate to deepen and richen, and also add some bitterness and thickness. Think it worked. And mmm nutella. It was kind of a conscious decision to cover the top with nuts as I always think chocolate icing can look a bit like poo. But also I just ended up with quite a lot of chopped nuts and felt the need to use them all. I'd kind of intended to just use them to fill in the squirrel shape originally. Or without a squirrel cutter could have made a paper template or just covered the whole top with chopped nuts. S said it's like Ferrero Rocher. This is true, although it hadn't occurred to me until he said it. Perhaps unwrapped Ferrero Rochers would make good decorations if you didn't want to go the squirrel route.

Note: I wanted to make a proper cakey cake this time, but for a flourless style nutella cake this Nigella one looks delicious.

Easter eggs: Rhubarb clafoutis

I'd always fancied making a clafoutis, indeed was just looking at this recipe the other day and thinking it sounded nice and do-able. But definitely something to be filed away until I have good eggs and dairy (rare) - it really needs the eggs for consistency, and with such a simple recipe much of the flavour is coming from them so they ought to be good.

This weekend is Easter, and all of a sudden I had half a dozen beautiful Brattleboro eggs. Four became shakshuka for lunch, the remaining two I earmarked to try a clafoutis. As luck would have it our visitors last weekend had left behind some milk (which I turned into yoghurt) - so I was all set, ingredients-wise, for clafoutis to happen...

Again, I felt that clafoutis was something that would really show off the eggs - couldn't make it without them. I'd bought some rhubarb in Brattleboro as well - first time I'd seen it this season. So rather than the traditional cherries I thought I'd make a rhubarb clafoutis, spiking it with a little vanilla and using yoghurt in place of some of the milk, in the hope of ending up with kind of a fancy rhubarb and custard in cakier form. I tweaked this recipe (second recipe down).

(makes about 10 slices, I used 21 x 21 cm square Pyrex dish)

133 g flour
80 g sugar
little pinch of salt
2 eggs
53 g (fake) butter, melted
266 g milk (used a mixture of almond milk and yoghurt)
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
333 g rhubarb, washed, trimmed and chopped into ~2 cm chunks
1 tbsp demerara sugar

Heat the oven to 400F/200C and generously butter a tart dish (see above). Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl with a fork. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. When the batter is smooth, mix in the melted butter. Then gradually add the milk (followed by the vanilla), mixing well so no lumps form. If there are lumps, strain through a sieve. Toss the rhubarb with the demerara sugar, then scatter rhubarb and demerara mixture into the buttered dish and gently pour the batter over (the rhubarb floats!). Bake until golden and quite firm (FZ said this would take 30 min, in my hands it took more like 75 - perhaps the Pyrex, perhaps my oven is on the cool side, perhaps I could have taken it out sooner...). It can be slightly wobbly but a skewer inserted in the middle of the clafoutis should come out clean. Allow to cool (best eaten slightly warm or at room temp), and serve in thick wedges (with more yoghurt, if you like).


I don't know why it took so long to cook, but anyway, the finished article is not pretty (well, maybe in a rustic sort of way it is...), but it is delicious. The batter puffed up in the oven and then sank right down to make a really smooth base for the fruit, almost like a super thick custard. The rhubarb floated so it sits pinkly on top, beckoning you in among the golden custard. It sliced well once cooled, and pieces stayed together nicely. Lovely, and not too sweet. S ate three pieces in rapid succession so that's a good sign! 

Note: Apparently a true clafoutis is only with cherries so this is more like a flaugnarde. But such an ugly word!

Making yoghurt

I've tried a few kinds of ferments or cultures, but none have been as successful for me as yoghurt making. When we first moved into this apartment the pilot light in the oven confused me, but I soon realised it creates a perfect incubator for stuff like yoghurt. So I started making yoghurt, using a plain old supermarket yoghurt as a starter culture and any whole milk. I kept it going for about six months before deciding to quit eggs and dairy.

Yoghurt is definitely the thing I miss most (followed by eggs). We had visitors last weekend from Germany (T+C), along with their 18 month old (she shares my name!) who needs milk to sleep at night and loves yoghurt. They left some of both behind in the fridge and I had a field day - the yoghurt didn't last long, but before it was all eaten I used some to make the milk into yoghurt (I've never cared much for milk).

 (do this in the evening and the yoghurt will be made by morning and ready to eat (although I prefer it chilled))

1 quart (~1 litre) whole milk
2 tbsp yoghurt (this time it was Greek; any live, plain yoghurt seems to work; this is the starter culture)

Put the milk in a large saucepan and heat. Bring it almost to the boil, so it just starts to froth (aiming for 85C). Then switch off the heat. Fill the sink with cold water (iced ideally) and bathe the base of the pan in it to speed cooling. Bring it down to 37C (body temperature - test with inside of wrist). Take out of the sink and whisk the yoghurt thoroughly through the milk. Pour the milk mixture into clean plastic tubs with lids (I use old yoghurt tubs), then put the lids on and put the tubs in the switched-off oven*. Leave for about 8 hours or overnight.

In the morning, open and check - it should have thickened and soured so it is recognisably yoghurt. Stir and then put the lid back on and keep in the fridge. I found it keeps well for up to two weeks. When it starts getting low you can use the homemade yoghurt as starter culture for a new batch with fresh milk - you will never have to buy yoghurt again!

*Must be an oven with pilot light so always warm. If you don't have this you need another way of maintaining 37C - airing cupboard, hot water bottles and towels wrapped around the tub... If you use the oven leave yourself a note so you don't forget it's in there.


This works really well. In those six months it worked every time (texture and taste varied a bit but it was always unequivocably yoghurt, and always tasty). It does tend to come out a little thinner than commercial yoghurt but that doesn't really bother me - you can strain it or try adding powdered milk if you'd like it thicker. I wondered if using Greek yoghurt culture might help with thickness, but I suspect this wouldn't last beyond the first few goes around as the proportions of bacteria probably shift. I have tried this yoghurt making protocol with non-dairy milks but never had any success.

Egg yolk ravioli (and oriecchette)

I spent much of the weekend getting in the mood for Christmas: I cooked brussels sprouts, we bought a tiny tree, I caught up with family and their Christmas plans, I made zimtsterne, put up Christmas decorations, we bought and initiated an advent calendar, stayed in playing games and eating Lebkuchen... And overnight last night it snowed and capped off my indoor decorations with a beautiful (if rapidly melting) outdoor sprinkling of white. I do feel a bit more festive now.

With the three egg yolks remaining after making zimtsterne (I decided Christmas / zimtsterne was enough of a special occasion to warrant buying eggs... fancy, multicoloured ones) I decided to try out making egg yolk ravioli. We'd seen an egg yolk raviolo on Professional Masterchef a few years ago and it looked awesome (think we are usually inordinately excited whenever they make something vegetarian, but in this case it seemed justified). I used the eggless pasta dough recipe I have used before, and decided to try turnip as an additional filling (the traditional version seems to involve ricotta; I was intrigued by the idea of turnip though and had some in the fridge).

For the pasta dough:
(note: this makes way too much for 3 ravioli, hence the oriecchette - estimate enough for ~15 ravioli)
1/2 cup pasta flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 tbsp gram flour
1/2 tsp salt
water

For the filling:
(note: the mashed turnip is probably enough for about 10-12 ravioli, depending on size of turnip)
1 large turnip (the white kind)
salt
~ 1/2 tbsp thyme leaves
1 tbsp soy yoghurt (or fake milk, or nothing)
1/2 tbsp olive oil
pepper
3 egg yolks, carefully separated from the whites so as not to break the membrane
a little bit more egg for closing

First prepare the pasta dough: mix the flours and salt in a pile on a clean worktop, then made a pit in the middle and add the water a little at a time, mixing with your fingers (while being careful not to break the ramparts), until it comes together into a kneadable dough. Knead for a few minutes then wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge for at least 30 min / up to a few days.

While the dough is chilling, peel the turnip, chop into large chunks and then put into a pan of salted water to boil. Boil for ~10-15 min, until tender, then drain thoroughly and transfer back to the pan. Add the thyme, yoghurt (if using), olive oil and some salt and pepper and mash with a fork until fairly smooth. If it seems liquidy at all heat a little while to evaporate off the extra liquid. Set aside and let cool until handlable.

Take out the dough and make six small balls (each about the size of a large marble). Flour a clean worktop and rolling pin, then roll out each ball until it is super thin and you can see through it (try and keep the shape roughly circular). Choose three base pieces and space them out flat on a board. In the centre of each make a little nest of ~ 1 1/2 tbsp turnip mash, with a dent in the middle for the egg to go in. Wet your hands (and anything else you plan to touch the egg yolks with), and carefully transfer one egg yolk into each nest. Gently place the top pieces of rolled-out pasta dough over the egg yolks and press into place carefully, trying to exclude large air bubbles from getting in with the filling. Make a ring around the filling using any remaining egg yolk and/or white and press down firmly all around the circle to close the ravioli. Use the back of a fork to press some more if you want to be really sure of a firm closure. Trim the edges to remove excess pasta (keep the offcuts - you can cook them as random pasta shapes).

Bring a large pan of slightly salted water to the boil. Add the ravioli. Boil for ~3-4 minutes. Remove carefully with a slotted spoon, drain, transfer to plates and eat.


I cooked the offcuts as irregular fettucine. I also made oriecchette (wanted to try making a shape that didn't involve rolling!) with some of the remaining dough to make this into more of a meal: pinch of pieces about the size of a small marble and flatten into discs about 7 mm thick. Put on a clean surface, then roll your thumb across the disc, pressing firmly all the way across. It should roll up into an oriecchette (little ear) shape. These will take a little longer to cook than the ravioli as the pasta is quite thick - perhaps 5-6 min. They can be dried and stored if desired.


The egg yolk ravioli were amazing. The turnip and thyme went beautifully, and I felt like it was nice / important to have something extra to complement the egg yolk taste and also for structure when building the ravioli. Really fun to cut into the ravioli and have the orange yolk gush out. S was excited, and that was my main aim, so I'd call this a success. The mashed turnip was also pretty tasty on its own, and what's more reminded me of S's favourite celeriac pasta sauce, so I mushed it in with the oriecchette and that worked quite well too.

Amazing miso: oat "yoghurt"

The South River Miso chickpea-miso dip seemed like a surefire hit, on the other hand the idea of making a pseudo yoghurt using miso and oats seemed like a pretty wacky one. Yoghurt is the only dairy product I really miss, and a lot of that is to do with the texture - something slightly sweet / slightly sour that is smooth and gloopy and you can eat out of the fridge with a spoon or mix with fruit or jam to make dessert or breakfast. I had come across the idea of oat "yoghurt" once before, but never got around to trying it - partly because I forgot, partly because that recipe required several days before you got anything yoghurt-like. I think I will try it soon though, to see how it compares with this one.

So, pseudo yoghurt from oats and miso, here we go...

1 cup rolled oats
2 cups water (or up to 3)
2 tsp light unpasteurised miso (used chickpea miso)

In the evening, make porridge by mixing oats and water and boiling for 5-10 min, or until water is absorbed (do not use salt). Let the porridge cool to body temperature then stir the miso thoroughly into the warm porridge (it's OK if it's a bit cooler but not hotter). Cover and let sit overnight at room temperature. In the morning, transfer the mixture to a blender and blend until smooth.


This is brilliant. The miso almost immediately changed the texture of the porridge - from the familiar thick, starchy mass to something much more liquidy. When I tasted right after blending it was kind of sweet and fairly thick and gloopy in texture, but still tasted a bit like miso. I figured I could deal with that, and transferred it to a tub to chill in the fridge. After an hour or so, when it was chilled, I tasted again and it just tasted like oats and yoghurt - the miso taste was gone! My blender isn't good enough to make it completely smooth so it isn't perfectly yoghurt-like (still some tiny oat bits), but I really like it.

More experiments with the miso-free version and using regular miso to follow...

With regular white miso, it kind of worked: it definitely became liquidy immediately, and in the morning. However, I think the miso taste has hung around more, making it less yoghurty in flavour and not as versatile.

My version of Cranachan for Burns Night

It was Burns Night yesterday. I didn't get my act together to have people round this time, but S and I went out and bought some whisky today and I made haggis (following last year's recipe as I liked it surprisingly much) and this: my version of cranachan. Cranachan has long been a highlight of Scottish cuisine for me - toasted oats, raspberries, honey and whisky are lovely together. I have never really liked cream though. It dawned on me that I really didn't have to use cream - so long as there was something bland and creamy - why not yoghurt? I've always loved yoghurt. With this substitution, I think cranachan becomes truly delicious. Although if you like cream you may as well stick with whipped cream where I've used yoghurt.

(makes two)

~300ml of the best plain non-dairy yoghurt around (coconut is my fave, soy an easier to find substitute... note if you can't find a plain version then vanilla, raspberry or peach would all be OK but reduce the amount of honey you add as they will be sweeter... nb oat yoghurt would be great for this)
3-4 tbsp of rolled oats
1/2 tbsp honey mixed with 1-2 tbsp (to taste) good whisky (not too peaty)
3-4 tbsp fresh or frozen raspberries - if frozen defrost in advance

Spread the oats on a baking sheet and put in a 350F oven to toast until they smell nutty and start to brown (prob 5-10 min) - alternatively you can toast them in a dry frying pan. Take out and allow to cool. Mix the yoghurt with the whisky-honey mixture. Once everything is cooled and ready, take two clear glasses and layer the yoghurt mixture followed by oats followed by raspberries until you've used everything up - finish with a layer of yoghurt and a sprinkling of oats. Eat straight away so the oats don't soften.


Predictably, I love this even more than the real thing. I made one last night before we got the whisky using ginger wine instead of whisky (and no honey since it's already really sweet) and that was good too.