Wiener Hazelnut Cake.

Another January birthday came up and we celebrated with hazelnut cake, covered in icing resembling the freshly fallen thin snow layer on rough grassland and Berlin streets. We lit several candles, snuggled into our seats and had loads of cups of tea.
This recipe is adapted from Sarah Wiener’s “La Dolce Wiener”.

WIENER HAZELNUT CAKE.

hazelnuts, grounded – 250 grams
hazelnuts, halfed – 200 grams (keep the most beautiful once for decorating)
eggs – 4
butter, soft – 250 grams
sugar – 200 grams
salt, a pinch of
vanilla sugar – 2 teasp of
flour – 250 grams
baking powder – 2 teasp of

ICING
icing sugar – 200 grams
water, a little bit

Heat oven at 175 °C. Seperate eggs and beat eggyolks, butter, sugar and vanilla sugar until foamy. Afterwards beat egg whites with a pinch of salt to stiff peaks. Lay on eggyolk mixture and sift flour, baking powder and grounded nuts above. Blend thouroughly but not too intensely.
Put half of the dough in a well buttered spring form. Place all of the halfed nuts on the first layer, then add the second half of the dough. Let cook for about one hour.
Once ready, take out of the oven and let cool. When cooled, gently take the cake out of the spring form. Stir powder sugar and as much water as needed to get a viscous icing. Pour over cake and even at the edges so everything is completely covered. Start decorating with the left over hazelnuts.

Hazelnut Milk.

Sunday Morning. Soft cold light. The flavours of coffee, of tea and porridge. Sneaking into the kitchen, placing a pan on the oven, adding milk and oats. Looking through the window. Sitting on the edge with a hot pot of coffee in one hand and a porridge with oats, hazelnut milk and maple syrup on the table.

HAZELNUT MILK.

hazelnuts – 100 g
water, hot – 450 ml
linseed, kibbled – 1 tablespoon
honey, raw sugar or maple syrup – 1 or 2 tablespoons

Soak hazelnuts in water for about 8 hours. Discard the skin and blend with 450 ml hot water till smooth. Add kibbled linseed and blend again. Pour the milk through 2 layers of muslin tissue. Add some natural sweeteners to taste. The variations are endless, try some hazelnuts with cinnamon and pitted dates or almonds with maple syrup and vanilla. If you’d like to use the milk for shakes or muesli

Meringue with Raspberries and Cream.

A match made in heaven: soft raspberries and crispy, at the same time chewy meringue. Whenever we have this as dessert, both guests and hosts solemnly, silently sometimes sighing finish their portions, from time to time pleasantly gazing at each other and feeling at one with the world. At least Philine does!

MERINGUE WITH RASPBERRIES AND CREAM.

for two

egg whites – 2
caster sugar – 90 g
a pinch of salt
juice of a lemon
hazelnuts, grounded and toasted – 1 heaped tablespoon

cream – 150 g
raspberries – a handful

Preheat the oven to 200° C. Line a baking dish with parchment paper and brush with butter.
Whip egg whites with salt to stiff peaks. Gradually add the sugar and continue until shiny. Add the lemon juice and fold in the grounded hazelnuts.
Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake for 10 – 15 minutes until golden brown.
Sprinkle a tea towel with sugar, turn over the meringue and let cool.
Spread with whipped, unsweetened cream, top with raspberries and roll it up.
Serve cooled and sliced.

Pumpkin Tart.

Both Anne and Philine are enthusiastic fans of all sorts of pumpkin. Finally, supermarkets are offering those at a reasonable price again and we must indulge in this hearty vegetable as long as seasons allow us to. We could have presented endless lists of recipes containing squash, but here we go with simple, mild and delicious pumpkin tart.

PUMPKIN TART.

flour – 300 g
sugar – 100 g
butter – 150 g
egg – 1

pumpkin, butternut – 1 kg
eggs – 3
caster sugar – 100 g
hazelnuts, grounded and toasted – 80 g
a pinch of salt
grated zest of one lemon
crème fraîche – 180 g

For the dough: Put the flour and sugar in a bowl. Cut the butter into small cubes and add them to the bowl. Make sure your hands are as cold as they can get and start crumbling the butter into the flour.  The more contact the dough has with the warmth of your hands, the more the butter will melt and your pastry will turn out the less flakier than aimed.

Add the egg and knead until the mixture just forms a dough. Turn pastry onto a floured surface and lightly knead with the heel of your hand until the pastry comes together. Cover the pastry with a plastic wrap and chill.

Roll pastry, using a rolling pin, on a lightly floured surface to 3mm thick. Line your baking dish. You won’t need to brush them with butter, for the pastry is quiet buttery enough. Put the baking tin back into the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 180° C.
Line the tart tin with the pastry. Line the pastry case with a greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans or uncooked rice and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the content. Meanwhile, core and cut the pumpkin into cubes and gently steam the flesh. Purée the cooked pumpkin until very smooth. In a bowl beat the eggs, sugar and hazelnuts. Add about 500 g pumpkin purée. Add the salt, lemon zest and crème fraîche. Pour this filling into the pasty case and bake for 40 minutes.

Picnic: Hazelnut and Raspberry Sponge Cake.

This sponge cake represents the sweet highlight of the picnic we had a few weeks ago.
Finally we managed to write down those recipes.
We end these series with a sweet treat.
But be aware, you might want more after the first slice of this delicious cake. With all the mascarpone it is very rich indeed. Philine had three slices all in all and knew it was going to hurt soon after the second one.
Very happy weekend!

Ingredients

Sponge:

6 eggs
6 teaspoons of cold water
240 g caster sugar
180 g sifted white flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder
a pinch of salt

300 g of fresh raspberries

Icing:

225 g cream cheese
115 g mascarpone
85 g icing sugar
zest and juice of two lemons (organic)

150 g almonds

For the sponge: Preheat oven to 180° C. Line a 26 cm cake tin with baking paper.
Whisk eggs whites with water in an electric mixer until thick, pale and tripled in volume (7-8 minutes).
Add egg yolks, whisk until all comes together
Sift over flour in three batches, folding each batch in with a large spoon.
Pour gently into baking tin and bake until light golden and centre springs back when pressed lightly with your fingertip (20-25 minutes). Carefully loosen with a knife. Turn onto a wire rack, remove baking paper, turn back over, then cool completely.

Icing:

Plainly put mascarpone, cream cheese and icing sugar together in a bowl and mix well until you have a creamy and smooth frosting.

Make sure the cake has completely cooled down before you spread half of the mascarpone mixture on the lower cake layer. Cover completely with raspberries. Put the second layer on top and cover the whole cake completely with the remaining frosting. Garnishing with sliced almonds or/and left over raspberries is optional.

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couture
dinner
interior
and one melon

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