Off late I have been busy with too many things. Sadly, baking and blogging weren’t the top priorities.It was Valentine’s Day celebration all over the blogging world,I saw so many wonderful recipes, posts, photographs and I just couldn’t resist myself in joining the bandwagon. I know I am late, but then what the heck

I was reading on the net that -In the second half of the twentieth century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manner of gifts in the United States, usually from a man to a woman. Such gifts typically include roses and chocolates.In the 1980s, the diamond industry began to promote Valentine’s Day as an occasion for giving jewelry. The day has come to be associated with a generic platonic greeting of “Happy Valentine’s Day”. Imagine if we women got jewelry instead of flowers and chocolates. Wow…honey I hope you are reading this one:)

I baked my all-time favorite Black Forest Cake again. This is one cake that has made multiple entries in my kitchen. You’ll find this one in my blog too – here. I had baked one for my daughter’s first birthday. It was actually the first time I had baked such a huge cake (12”x18”). By the way, I have never found Black Forest Cake at any restaurants/ coffee shops in the US. I wonder why??

This time I wanted to use whole wheat. So I baked a Chocolate Whole Wheat Genoise Cake adapted from King Arthur Flour’s – Whole Grain Baking book . Though this cake uses whole wheat pastry flour, it DOES use a lot of eggs. The cake tasted very chocolaty and was slightly dense. I have baked this earlier too but had frosted it with chocolate ganache. You really have to pay attention while baking. Unlike any other cake, this one doesn’t rise much. I over baked my cake when I had made this the first time ( I was hoping it would rise up well, so increased the baking time which resulted in a little hard cake). So watch out.

BLACK FOREST CAKE ( MADE WITH CHOCOLATE WHOLE WHEAT GENOISE )

Makes one 8 ” cake(4 layers)

CHOCOLATE WHOLE WHEAT GENOISE
Ingredients:

½ cup( 1 stick) unsalted butter
1 ½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa, natural or dutch processed
2 tablespoon unbleached all –purpose flour
7 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¼ cup granulated sugar

SYRUP

6 – 8 oz Maraschino cherries with the syrup
2 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon corn flour( optional )

FROSTING

1 ½ cup heavy whipping cream
1 ½ tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

DECORATION
Chocolate shavings, MAraschino Cherries, Chocolate chips/bars for Filigree

Directions: Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and slightly flour the pans lightly with nonstick spray and line with parchment paper. Melt the butter over low heat and set aside to cool at room temperature. Whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour,cocoa and all purpose flour in a medium bowl;set aside.
Combine the eggs, egg yolks, salt,vanilla and sugar in a large bowl. Place the mixing bowl over a larger bowl half filled with hot tap water.Whisk the mixture until it feels just slightly warm to the touch when you touch it in the center with your finger( 3 to 5 minutes). If you want to be precise, use a thermometer – the egg mixture should be at 100F. Warming the eggs and dissolving the sugar this way will ensure they reach the highest possible volume when beaten.
Place the mixing bowl on your stand mixer and beat with a wire whip until the mixture is tripled in volume and a very pale yellow color. This will take 5 to 8 minutes on high speed, depending on the power of your mixer. When done the egg mixture should fall off the whisk and mound for a moment before disappearing back into the bowl.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a whisk to gently fold in the reserved flour cocoa mixture by hand, until no streaks of flour remain. Gently fold in the melted cooled butter, a little at a time, taking care not to mix more than necessary to get the butter to disappear. If you pour in too much at once, the butter will collapse the egg foam, then pool on the bottom of the mixing bowl, making it harder to distribute. The volume of the batter will decrease a bit during this process, but a light touch and quick, confident strokes from the bottom of the bowl up through the batter will see you through.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the chocolate is fragrant and the top springs back when lightly touched in the center, 25-27 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and place on a rack to completely cool before assembling. . Also, slice each cake horizontally into two.

SYRUP: Drain the maraschino cherries from the bottle, reserve the liquid. Crush or chop the cherries. Bring the liquid, cherries and sugar to a boil – stirring until the sugar dissolves. Using a spoon, remove half of the liquid in a cup. Allow the cherry mixture to thicken a little. You may use ½ teaspoon of cornflour,if needed. Set aside and allow it to cool.

WHIPPED CREAM lace cream in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add sugar and vanilla extract and whip until it thickens and the whip starts to leave tracks as it moves through the cream. Beat until the cream forms medium peaks.

ASSEMBLING THE CAKE – Place one cake layer on a cake board or a plate. Drizzle the syrup all over and put a generous dollop of cream and spread uniformly; and finally spread the cherry mixture. Place the next layer on top, repeat the same for the second and third layer too. After placing the last one, spread the whipped cream on top and sides and frost the cake. Decorate as per your liking-you may use some chocolate shavings/chips/sprinklers and maraschino cherries. For the Filigree – Melt some chocolate (I used 4 Ghirardelli squares) in the microwave. Pour it on a pastry bag or zip lock bag. Make a small hole on the bag and make designs on a parchment paper (measure the height and circumference of the cake and cut the parchment based on this measurement before you start). Allow it too set in the refrigerator for ten minutes or so. Wrap it around the cake and press it gently so that it sticks to the frosting on the sides. Gently peel the parchment.

Usually Kirsch syrup is used which I didn’t have, so chose an easier option for the simple syrup. Also since I was planning to do the filigree, I didn’t want to frost much on the sides as it wouldn’t be seen. Hope you enjoy baking this:)

Bon Appétit

Nina

January is usually a month of New Year resolutions and staying healthy is one of the most common one. Gyms record the highest number of new memberships. True to the spirit of this season I have made an attempt(yet another!)to be health conscious. Apart from completely switching to olive oil, I have tried to minimize the use of butter/shortening in anything I bake. But there is no way you can completely do without it, can we? Can you even imagine Croissant/Puff Pastry without butter?

Shortbread is one such recipe which uses up a lot of BUTTER. A while back I baked the – TRADITIONAL SHORTBREAD with three main ingredients – Butter, flour and sugar. I came across the non buttery one in the book “Olive Oil Desserts by Micki Sannar” and decided to bake it immediately.

To cut down little more calories I replaced ½ cup of all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour and didn’t use up ½ cup granulated sugar required to roll the baked shortbreads. I really didn’t miss anything in this new version. It was crumbly,soft and very addictive. If you really love shortbreads and are looking for a healthier option, this is a perfect recipe. Its truly a guilt free indulgence:)

OLIVE OIL SHORT BREAD

Ingredients:

3/4 cup pure olive oil
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar(powdered Sugar)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon butter extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg powder

Direction:

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly coat a 9×9 inch pan with olive oil cooking spray. In mixer bowl, combine all ingredients and blend on medium high speed until dough is smooth. Press mixture into bottom of prepared pan. SLice into rectangular shapes and score with a fork before baking. Bake for 35-40 minutes( mine took about 32 minutes). When cool and while in pan, slice again and roll in granulated sugar if you like.

After baking,you may choose to roll them over granulated sugar. I felt it wasn’t necessary.

Bon Appétit

Nina

I am sure each of us has one or the other food craving? Isn’t it? There are times when I have the most irresistible urge to try out something and would probably go mad if I can’t have it! I still recall vividly during my initial stages of pregnancy when I had a sudden craving for Arby’s curly fries and I had to send my husband late in the night to get it for me! Similarly I had this sudden craving for Dipping dots Ice Cream in the middle of a night! I had them at Wisconsin Dells for some for the first time which is like 3 hours drive from the place where I live and I couldn’t possible send my husband to get it this time:). Hence I googled up and got a nearby address where these ice-creams where were sold. Along with a few friends we went in the middle of the night, only to land at a local theater’s vending machine. I couldn’t stop laughing!!! Ahh such is my craving.

On the same note, Pull – Apart Bread has been on my mind for some time now. I was longing for some savory bread and I HAD TO – HAD TO bake something and this was the first thing that struck me. So I baked a Whole Wheat Pull-Apart Bread with some garlic butter spread. My husband said it was too garlicky and didn’t like it much( he hates garlic!!!).Though I loved it, it was a little hard. So I started browsing to find a good recipe.

To my surprise, every other blog I stumbled upon had posted about this bread. All the blogs lead to Aparna’s “We need to Bake “ group. That’s when I hoped onto Aparna’s beautiful blog and read the details and was keen to participate. I immediately wrote to her and she was kind enough to add me and asked me to bake the bread and post it by end of this month. In addition to her recipe I added some sun dried tomatoes. So here is my bread for your eyes.

HERB AND CHEESE PULL- APART BREAD WITH SUN DRIED TOMATOES
Makes one loaf ( 9 x 4 or 5)
Ingredients:

For the Dough:
1/2 cup warm milk
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspon active dry yeast
2 3/4 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon butter,room temperature
3/4 teaspoon garlic paste
3/4 cup milk (+ a couple of tablespoon to brush over the bread)

For the Filling:
1 tablespoon butter,melted
2 teaspoon dried italian herbs
1 teaspoon cumin seeds,crushed
Crushed pepper and red chilli flakes, to taste
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 tablespoon chopped sundried tomatoes

Directions:

In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar and the yeast in the 1/2 cup of warm milk. Keep aside for about 5 minutes till the yeast mixture bubbles up. In the bowl of a stand mixer( Kitchenaid) Put 2 ¾ cup of flour, salt, softened butter, and garlic paste and stir a couple of times to mix. Then add the yeast mixture and the ¾ cup of milk and knead till you have a soft, smooth and elastic/ pliable dough which is not sticky. Add a little extra flour if your dough is sticking, but only just as much as is necessary. I didn’t use up the entire milk, also didn’t have the need to add more flour.

Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, turning the dough to coat it completely with oil. Cover and let it rise for about 1 to 1 ½ hours or until almost double in volume. Dust your work surface lightly with flour. Deflate the dough, shape it into a square and roll the dough out into a larger square that is about 12’ by 12”. Brush the surface of the square with the melted butter. Evenly sprinkle the herbs, pepper/ chili flakes and the cumin seeds and then the grated cheese. Use a rolling pin to very lightly press the topping into the dough to ensure the topping doesn’t fall off when you are stacking the strips. Using a pizza cutter, slice the dough from top to bottom into 6 long and even strips – they do not have to be perfect. Lay each strip on top of the next, with the topping facing upwards, until you have a stack of the strips
You can put the 2 strips cut from the sides in the middle of the stack so it looks neater. Using a pastry scraper or a sharp knife, cut straight down through the stack dividing it into 6 equal pieces (6 square stacks). Grease and lightly flour a 9” by 4” (or 5”) loaf tin. {I used a (7.75x 4.75)}. Butter and lightly flour the loaf pan. Layer the square slices, cut sides down into the loaf tin. Cover the loaf tin dough with a towel and allow the dough to rise for an hour. Lightly brush some milk over the top of the loaf. Bake the dough 350F for about 30 to 40 minutes until it is done and the top is golden brown.

The bread was fantastic, both in terms of look and taste. It was very flavorful. As the name suggest you have to PULL the Bread apart: you don’t need a knife. I am so glad that I joined this group, this will keep me going.

Thanks Aparna for the lovely recipe:)

Roxana of Roxana’s Home Baking asked me to send this to her “Bake your own Bread” event and I was happy to do so:). Thanks a bunch Roxana:)

Bon Apetit!

Nina

I must confess that if it was not for Daring Baker’s Challenge I wouldn’t have “dared” to bake so many things. Even in my wildest of dreams I wouldn’t have thought about making-Armenian Nazook,Batternberg Cake,Dutch Crunch Bread,Povitica….and so on. DBC is such a wonderful platform to give folks an opportunity to pursue and hone their baking skills! What makes this even special is the exposure it gives to baking delicacies of different countries and ethnicities.

It is entirely my privilege to be a part of this forum. This month’s challenge reminded me of the Nanaimo Bars that we baked few years back on DBC. Very soon it going to be four years with Daring Baker’s and I have loved every bit of this exciting and enriching journey. Lets go ahead with yet another fascinating challenge – A traditional Dutch Pastry called GEVULDE SPECULAAS ( Stuffed Speculaas).

Francijn of Koken in de Brouwerij was our January 2013 Daring Bakers’ Hostess and she challenged us to make the traditional Dutch pastry, Gevulde Speculaas from scratch! That includes making our own spice mix, almond paste and dough! Delicious!

To start with we had to make the speculaas spice;the almond paste and then the speculaas dough.The entire recipe can be made in one day but to enjoy the full flavor it was recommended to refrigerate the almond paste and dough for a few days before assembling it.

Francijn mentioned about the history of Netherlands and spices – Until 1800 cloves, mace and nutmeg are exclusively found on the Maluku Islands, in the East Indian Archipelago. That’s why these islands are called “the spice islands”. To make one’s fortune in Europe through the spice trade, one needed a monopoly on the European trade. Since 1500 the Portuguese owned that monopoly.
The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, too, wanted to get rich from the spice trade, and established the Dutch East India Company around 1600, to join forces. Since 1660 the monopoly on spice trade was firmly in Dutch hands. In the Dutch Golden Age, roughly the 17th century, the republic got rich through this trade, and flourished like never before, economically, artistically and scientifically. In many Dutch cities the heritage of this century is still visible. Sadly, this wealth must be considered in the light of war and repression. The Dutch used much violence and oppressed people to establish and defend their monopoly.

Only after World War II Dutch India became independent from the Netherlands. Until that moment the trade of spices, coffee, rubber, tobacco, opium, sugar, indigo and tea from Dutch India contributed significantly to the Dutch economy.
In light of this historical involvement of the Netherlands in the spice trade, the contents of my kitchen cupboard are not surprising. Anise seeds, cayenne pepper, chili pepper, lemon grass, mace, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, curry powder, cumin, coriander seeds, cloves, galangal, mustard seed, nutmeg, paprika, allspice, saffron, vanilla, fennel, white pepper, black pepper. And that’s without the long list of herbs.

SPECULAAS SPICES

When spices had become commonly available in the 17th century, bakers’ guilds began to make their secret spice mixtures. A mixture that gloriously survived the ages is “speculaaskruiden” (speculaas spices). Speculaaskruiden contain at least cinnamon, cloves, mace and ginger, and these spices to taste: pepper, cardamom, coriander, anise seeds and nutmeg.The smell of speculaaskruiden is overwhelming, especially when you take the trouble to mix them yourself. The deliciously warm and woody aroma is a perfect fit for the chilly Dutch winter months.
From the golden age onward, this spice mixture was used to bake a crisp, buttery biscuit: speculaas. For centuries it remained a luxury item, baked only in the holiday season, and often given as a present. Sometimes bakers made the dough three months in advance so that the flavor would permeate the dough.Ever since the 15th century, the 6th of December has been celebrated as the nameday of St. Nicholas, combined with an exchange of gifts on the evening before. But in the age of the Dutch East India Company St. Nicholas became associated with speculaas. And that is not so strange, as St. Nicholas was the patron saint of sailors as well as many bakers’ guilds.

In the course of time many recipes using speculaas spices have been created. Speculaasjes (“speculaas cookies / windmill cookies”) which are shaped using a wooden mold, speculaasbrokken (“speculaas chunks”), kruidnoten (“spiced nuts / miniature spiced cookies”), gevulde speculaas (“speculaas stuffed with almond paste”). And that is not the end of it: speculaas spices can be used in custards, cakes, muffins, bread toppings, cheesecake crusts and so on.
Recipe Speculaas SpicesSpeculaas spices can be bought in a store. But it’s more fun to make your own mixture, so that you can adjust the flavor. Here is a representative recipe from the extensive Dutch tradition.

Mandatory:
cinnamon 40 to 60 % of the total amount
ground cloves 1 or 2 parts
mace ½ or 1 part
ginger ½ or 1 part
Optional:
white pepper ½ or 1 part
cardamom ½ or 1 part
coriander ½ or 1 part
anise ½ or 1 part
nutmeg 1 or 2 parts
A convenient way to mix the spices is as below:

GEVULDE SPECULAAS – TRADITIONAL DUTCH PASTRY

SPECULAS SPICE
Take at least 1 or 2 teaspoons of ground cloves, ½ or 1 teaspoon of mace and ½ or 1 teaspoon of ginger.
Add to taste ½ or 1 teaspoon of white pepper, ½ or 1 teaspoon of cardamom, ½ or 1 teaspoon of coriander, ½ or 1 teaspoon of anise, and 1 or 2 teaspoons of nutmeg.Measure or weigh the amount of spices you have now, and add an equal amount of cinnamon.This method yields at least 4 and at most 18 teaspoons of spices, so if you plan to mix just a few spices, use bigger or more spoons to get a reasonable amount.

Take your time to smell the ingredients individually before you decide how much to add. And remember the proportions,that will make adjustments easier next time. Store the spices airtight, dry and dark, they will not spoil for a long time.

ALMOND PASTE
Ingredients:

1-1/3 cups ground almonds
5/8 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest

Add Almonds and sugar, grind for one or two minutes. Add the egg and let the food processor combine it. You’ll end up with a sticky mass of almonds paste. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Although the flavor gets better as days pass by, it is not wise to store the paste for too long, as it contains a raw egg. For the same reason you should not eat the paste unbaked.

SPECULAAS DOUGH

Ingredients:
1¾ cups all purpose (plain) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
a pinch salt
2 tablespoons speculaas spices
3/4 cup unsalted butter

Directions:Put flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and spices in a bowl.Cut the butter in dices and add.Knead until smooth.Feel free to add a little milk if the dough is too dry.Wrap in clingfoil and put in the refrigerator for two hours.You can choose to make the dough a few days in advance, just like the almond paste, that will benefit the flavor. Freezing is no problem.

ASSEMBLING

Ingredients:
speculaas dough
almond paste
whole almonds without skins for decoration
1 large egg
shallow baking pan, 8×10 inch (20×26 cm) or, round with of diameter 10 inch (26 cm)

Directions:
Grease the pan. Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F. Divide the dough into two portions.Roll out both portions on a lightly floured surface, until they are exactly as big as the baking pan. Put one of the layers in the pan and press it lightly to fill the bottom. Lightly beat the egg with a teaspoon cold water. Smear 1/3 of the egg over the dough in the pan. Roll out the almond paste between two sheets of clingfoil, until it is exactly as big as the pan, and put it on the dough in the pan. (If you chose to make the paste soft, you can smear the paste instead of rolling it.) Press the paste lightly down to fit in the pan, and smear the next 1/3 of the egg over it. Now put the second layer of dough on top of the paste, press it lightly, and make as smooth as possible. Smear the last 1/3 of the egg over the dough. Decorate the pastry with the almonds. Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven. Let cool completely in the pan, then cut it in portions as you like. If you wrap the stuffed speculaas in clingfoil, after it has cooled completely, you can store it a few days at room temperature. Freezing is possible, but fresh speculaas tastes better.

While mixing the spices – I smelt each and every one of them. I could feel it’s wonderful aroma fill up the entire house while baking. The nutty almond filling sandwiched between two layers of crunchy Speculaas dough was yum. The sweet level was perfect, just like the way I like – not too sweet.

While I was planning to decorate the pastry with almonds,I came across Hannah’s comment in the DBC forum. She had decorated her pastry so beautifully and I was totally inspired by her creativity. I decorated mine in a similar way!

Thanks Francijn for such a lovely challenge!

Bon Apetite!

Nina