Summer is over, work is on, Christmas is still far away...how do we survive? As always, you can find the answer in the warmth of the kitchen. It cannot be so cold and grey that the stove does not heat you up...
There is nothing better than that very short time, between seeing your home and entering it. Those couple of steps can give you one of the best feelings, especially in November when we are still not used to the early dark hours. So you better like the feeling of being home, especially in Scandinavia. That is why the "hygge"with all of its socks, knit sweater, warmth, candles, and the smell of Christmas-spices for 4-5 months. While I am getting closer to the door, I can see the kitchen through the window, with the fairy lights and someone inside (hopefully doing dishes) and suddenly a recipe crosses my mind...actually two. So here they are. The first cakes to welcome the real autumn.
Not only joy, but also responsibility
As we get further and further away from the summer, there is more and more ingredients on our table which are not from this country, or not even from Europe. That is why it is even more important to be aware where the ingredients are coming from. We also bake more in the autumn-winter time, and we use a lot of spices, chocolate, coffee, vanilla which travel a lot from all over the world. Consider them as luxury products, because they are.
I try to buy fairtrade and/or organic from what it is possible to buy. Do not buy cheap ingredients, because they are either fake, or support child labor and poverty. Whatever you can, buy locally and support the farmers around you.
Marble bundt cake
ingredients
150 g flour (stone ground)
170 g local sugar
170 g local butter
3 free-range eggs
20 g cacao powder (alternative carob)
6 tbsp orange juice
zest of one orange
1.5 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
Luxury version: add 40 g chopped, fairtrade chocolate to the cacao powder
Preparation
Grease a 25 cm diameter angel cake mold. Beat the butter and and the sugar until it is white and creamy. Add the already beaten eggs. Sieve the flour, the baking powder and a pinch of salt to the batter, and divide into two bowls. One of them gets the cacao powder (and the chopped chocolate) and half of the orange juice, the other one the rest of the orange juice and the orange zest. Scoop the batter, alternating between brown and yellow. Use a kitchen spoon (I used toothpick) to swirl the cake batters together, creating a marble pattern. On 180 degrees bake for 30-35 minutes, test it! When it is baked, leave in the mold for 10 minutes, then let it cool on a cooling rack. Frosting? Well, frosting is great, but you do not need it for every cake. It has enough sugar anyway.
Pumpkin swiss roll
ingredients
5 free-range eggs
140+60 g local sugar
250 g baked pumpkin/sweet potato
150 flour (or half almond flour, half wheat flour)
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking soda
filling: 6 tbsp orange marmalade, candied orange peels
You can use jam and peels from the shop, but -as everything else- they are better if you make them. You can find one of them here, the jam recipe is coming soon!
Preparation
Bake the chopped pumpkin/sweet potatoes in the oven on 180 degrees for 40 minutes. Beat the egg whites with 140 grams of sugar. Do the same with the yolks and the 60 grams of sugar. Carefully add the egg white to the creamy yolks. Blend the pumpkin, mix it with flour, salt and baking soda, add a little bit of egg white, then mix everything carefully. Glue the baking parchment to the baking tray and even out the dough with a butter spatula. Bake on 190 degrees for about 20 minutes or so. When you take out the cake, cover with a baking paper, and after 10 minutes turn it upside down, cover with an other baking paper and a slightly wet kitchen towel for an other 10 minutes. When it cooled down a bit, spread the jam over, and sprinkle with the candied orange pieces and roll it up!
candied orange peel
If you have 250 gram of orange peel, use 500 gram of sugar and 1 liter water for the syrup. You cannot make to much of these, but if you do not use them all for this cake, keep them in airtight container (basically forever).
It is very important that you use organic, especially when it comes to oranges, because you use the peel of it, which is exposed to chemical treatments. Wash it well, and eat the orange, or make orange juice…then you have the peel. Remove the white part, and cut them into a shape which you prefer. Soak them in cold water for at least one day (you can also soak them for more, but then change the water. In a couple of days you can collect more orange peels). Place them into a pot with boiling water for a couple of minutes, wash them with cold water. Repeat this for 2 more times. Make a sugar syrup. Simmer the peels in the syrup until they turn transparent. When they are, remove from the syrup, let them dry on baking paper. When they are dry you can dip them into melted chocolate. Best candy- ever.
No comments.