Tag Archives: baking

German Cheesecake – Käsekuchen

 Last weekend I went shopping to the local supermarket and found a dairy product which was new to me – fromage fraise (quark). So, I bought the quark in the hope of finding a recipe and use it somehow. I was browsing the net, when stumble upon the info that Germans making their cheesecake version and using quark; even though I use Jamie Oliver’ cheesecake recipe most of the time, I decided to try new recipe without hesitation. And what do you think! The cheesecake turned out golden and very fluffy, but after setting in the fridge it fell down.. The texture was creamy and tender, and it reminded me the bake with cottage cheese from my childhood. So, if you are not fun of heavy and over-sugary cheesecakes, it’s your option! I will make it again for sure.German Cheesecake

German Cheesecake - Käsekuchen

Ingredients for 22cm baking pan

Crust
170g all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla sugar
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
70g butter
1 egg
Filling
600g quark
3 eggs, separated yolks and whites
150g granulated sugar
80g butter, at room temperature
1/2 lemon, grated zest, optional
180ml heavy cream
vanilla bean, seeds
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp lemon juice
a pinch of salt
Method
  • Crust. Sift the flour in a big mixing bowl, add baking powder, salt, vanilla, sugar and mix. Add butter and egg, knead until smooth. Cover the dough and keep in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  • Filling. Beat egg yolks with sugar and vanilla until pale. Add butter, lemon zest and beat again. Add heavy cream and quark and stir to combine. Beat egg whites with salt and lemon juice until stiff; then gently fold into the quark batter along with cornstarch, adding a little at a time.
  • Line the baking pan with paper. Roll out the dough into 30cm circle, or simply place it in the baking pan and press it, pushing it up the sides to make a rim.
  • Pour the filling over crust and smooth with spatula.
  • Bake in preheated 160C oven for 45-55 minutes until the top is golden and the filling set. If the top browning too much, cover with a piece of foil.
  • Cool the cheesecake at the room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for 3-6 hours or overnight.

Enjoy!

Cheesecake/Quarkcake

Prune Cookies

It’s autumn somewhere.. and time to harvest or buy beautiful apples, plums and pumpkins, make tasty preserves, and bake! Perhaps you will be surprised but I wish tomorrow (or even a whole month) would be grey and cheerless here!  We  I mean myself and some of my friends got a bit tired from burning sun this summer, and few days back a little miracle happened here – it was raining! Yay! But only for an hour or so. 😀 To be honest, when I lived in my hometown I didn’t like the beginning of autumn; rains were too often, boots and trousers caked with mud was a normal thing!
 Autumn here is a totally different season! October is the beginning of a large influx of tourists amazing weather in Dubai, temperature goes down and days become cooler, people become happier; it’s a season of barbecue in parks, outdoor cafes and long walks. Not to mention the fact that I’m going to bake more cakes and pies, and fill my home and blog with quintessential autumn flavours. 🙂
This cookies recipe is super easy, tasty and suits autumn mood! The main secret ingredient is prunes (dried plums) soaked in a cognac, and I can easily say that these cookies become my favourite!
Prune cookies with chocolate

Prune Cookies

You can use dark chocolate with hazelnuts or plain milk chocolate, or even omit it.
Ingredients
8-9 prunes
50ml cognac
50-60ml water
1 Tbsp brown or muscovado sugar
50g butter, room temperature
2 Tbsp brown or dark muscovado sugar
1 egg
100g flour
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
40g dark chocolate (70-80% cacao), roughly chopped
40g roasted walnuts, finely chopped, optional
Method
  • Into small pan add prunes, sugar and water. Bring to boil, add cognac and boil for 5-7 minutes more. Remove from the hob and let cool. Roughly chop prunes.
  • In a mixing bowl, beat butter with sugar, then mix in egg. Add 2 tsp syrup from prunes.
  • Combine flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the mixture into batter and combine.
  • Carefully fold into batter dark chocolate, nuts and chopped prunes (without syrup).
  • Bake in preheated 180C oven for 15 minutes.
Enjoy!
The recipe adapted from Russina tv-show “Edim doma”
Prune_cookies

Sweet Galette

 From time to time everyone of us have come across special moments, which we enjoy. What about baking or probably preparing a hearty stew or a pie, which recipe was received from mother or grandmother, or trying something new. It’s hard to explain, but there is something magical, sense of happiness and satisfaction, when I’m making dough for a pie, baking. I adore making pastry, especially when much time is not required to make it. Like short pastry, you need only four ingredients to get smooth, buttery pastry.Cherry-Peach Galette

Simple, but beautiful, always delicious, with apples or apricots, it’s all about Galette. I’m so excited that this crusty cake one day came into my life! I still remember my very first galette, it was sweet galette filled with mix of wild berries, and it’s turned out so tasty and delightful, that I couldn’t expect more. Since then I’ve experimented with various fillings, tried savory galettes too; and I’m sure now that it’s almost impossible to choose the favorite one, I love them all! My fellow-bloggers don’t drop back, just look at aromatic galette from Seana @cottagegrovehouse, I almost can feel sweet-smelling scent of apricots! Or another delicate grape galette from Suzanne @apuginthekitchen, it can be a great weekend brunch with a glass of crispy rosé!

A couple of weeks back I bought sweet cherries from Iran and was nearly to eat them all at once. 😀 I had in a fridge few cherries and peaches. So, all those goodies I put in galette on a bed of cottage cheese, and folded in rich nutty pastry! Yummilicious!

Sweet Galette

You can divide the pastry into 2 partss to make 2 small galettes with different filling
Walnut Short Pastry
170g/6oz all-purpose flour
120g/4.2oz butter
50g/2Tbsp walnuts, roasted and finely chopped
1/2 Tbsp caster sugar
a pinch of salt
50ml cold water
Put flour, sugar, salt, walnuts,  and butter in a big bowl. Rub ingredients together until breadcrumbs. Add water and mix until the dough is formed. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. You can keep the pastry in a fridge up to 3 days.
Filling
2 peaches, cut into wedges
few cherries
100-200g soft cottage cheese/farm cheese/ricotta
50-70g brown/raw or white sugar
1 egg, yolk and white separated
1 Tbsp brown or demerara sugar
Method
For the filling, beat sugar with cottage cheese with a spoon or hand whisker, then add egg white and beat.
On a lightly floured table, roll out the pastry into 30cm/12inch circle.
Place cottage mixture in the middle of the pastry and spread evenly. Arrange peaches and cherries as desired. Sprinkle with some brown/demerara sugar. Brush pastry all over with egg yolk.
Bake in preheated 190C/370F oven for 45-50 minutes or until the pastry is golden.
Enjoy!

If you like peaches, have a look here to get the recipe of amazing cake!
Sweet Galette

Perfectly Simple Cabbage Pie

 I have made a puff pastry! Can you believe?! 😀 And it was a classic recipe, not a cheat one. Though it has turned out not really good as I expected, I think I put a bit much of butter, or it wasn’t very cold.. But I’m still proud of myself, and the pastry is hundred times better then the store-bought. Moreover, puff pastry in stores is usually made from margarine or palm oil, which are trans-fats, the worst type of fat you can consume.

Cabbage Pie

 The below recipe is a classic recipe of Russian cabbage pie. This time I used puff pastry, the pie turned out crispy, buttery, comforting and so tasty! When I lived in Russia, usually we made a good quantity of this dough (which I used in koulebyaka-pie), and made one huge pie with savory filling; if we’d had some remaining dough we made small pirogki (small pies) with jam or sweet tvorog (cottage cheese).
 There is no filling recipe, because it’s hard to count grams of cabbage if you don’t know how big or small will be the pie. One loves when the dough is thick, another when the filling is falling out from the pie. You can have a look ‘the guide how to’ below, but the quantity of ingredients adjust to your own taste.
For the cabbage filling, shred some fresh cabbage, and slightly braise it along with chopped onion and spices. Then add coarsely chopped hard-boiled eggs, and season with salt, that’s it! The lovely cabbage filling is ready!
 I know, the pie is very simple, but it’s so comforting, that after first bite you begin to feel like you are at home.. Sweet home! ❤ I’m bringing the pie to all party-people over there; I truly hope you will enjoy it!

Russian Cabbage Pie

The pie is equally good reheated for lunch or dinner next day! 
Ingredients
Cabbage filling
Fresh cabbage, shreded
1 small or medioum onion, finely chopped
1-2 tsp cumin
2-4 Tbsp chopped fresh dill, optional
sea salt, to taste
2-3 Tbsp sunflower oil
2-3 eggs, hard-boiled
Puff pastry
300g flour
50g chilled butter
a pinch of salt
150ml very cold water
220g chilled butter for layering
Glazing
1 egg  yolk + 1 Tbsp milk or only milk
sesame seeds for decoration, optional
 
Method
 In a big frying pan, add onion, cumin, cabbage and fry on a moderate heat for 5-10 minutes. Reduce the heat, add salt, some water (if the cabbage begins to burn), cover and braise for 15-20 minutes or until tender. Season with salt, add chopped dill, if desired. Mix with chopped eggs.
 Brush the pie with egg wash, sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake in preheated 180C/360F oven for 25-35 minutes (the mentioned time is enough even for a big pie).
 Let it cool for 10 minutes. Enjoy with a glass of milk! 
Russina Cabbage Pie

Red currants ‘n’ cardamom Muffins

 Some time ago in Russia, small cakes-muffins-were called keksi, but since muffins’ popularization many people call them muffins! I think, almost all people like muffins, and may be some of you have a special recipe or ingredient. I do like experiment with flours and spices; I’ve bought soy flour recently and trying to use, I don’t see much difference with it so far.. If you know any good ways or recipes to use it, I would appreciate if you share it with me. 
Muffins
 So, about other additions to muffins batter, berries are one of my favorite. Raspberry is best-loved, but what about currants? I’ve seen in a blogosphere couple posts with it, and surprised, that it is not widely-grown and not quite  popular. Poor berries, if only they knew how underrated they are. When I lived in Russia, I ate lots of black, red and white currants. There were too many of blackcurrant bushes in parents garden, so I even dislike to pick them up.. Twigs of sour and bright redcurrants were easier to pick – straight away to my mouth! 😀 Blackcurrant in Russia is like blueberry in USA, has similar shape and taste, interchangeable berries.
 
 Today recipe combines Russian and Eastern flavours – red currants and cardamom. Enjoy!
Red currant

Red currants ‘n’ cardamom Muffins

  • Servings: 6-7 medium muffins
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients

70g plain flour/all-purpose
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cardamom, finely crushed seeds
30g soy flour
25g wholemeal flour
30g ground flaxseed
1 egg
2 Tbsp sunflower oil
70g kefir (or sub with yogurt)
80-90g liquid honey (I used dark one)
120-140g red currants, or mix of red and black (or sub with blueberries)
 
Method
  • In a large bowl, beat egg and honey, add kefir, oil, and stir. Sift the flours, baking powder and soda, salt, add flaxseed and cardamom into egg mixture. Combine.
  • Lightly cover berries in a flour, then carefully fold them into the batter. If using frozen currants, don’t defreeze them, add to the batter straight from the freezer.
  • Fill muffin tins or one cake tin and bake in preheated 180C/350F oven for 20-25 minutes.
Red currant & cardamom Muffins
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