Buttermilk-Blueberry Bread

I really like baking muffins with buttermilk for a low-fat, low calorie snack, but muffins are small, and breads that I baked with buttermilk have never turned out very well. But I didn't want to give up, and decided to try this recipe. The original recipe uses apricots (see comments), but I love blueberry muffins and tried this recipe with fresh blueberries instead. I am sure one can use any type of fresh fruit with this cake.

Ingredients:

Bread baking pan

Some grease

2 eggs

100 ml buttermilk

75 g sugar

grated zest of one lemon

200 g flour

1 package vanilla pudding powder (cook and serve)

1 pinch of salt

1 tablespoon potato starch

2 leveled teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda (Natron)

200 g fresh fruit (blueberries)

50 g confectioner's sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preparation

1. Grease baking pan and preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350F).

2. Whisk eggs, buttermilk, lemon zest and sugar until foamy.

3. In a separate bowl combine flour, vanilla pudding powder, starch, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add liquid mixture to flour bowl and briefly mix until all dry components are moist.

4. Lastly, briefly stir in fresh fruit. Pour batter into greased pan and bake at 180 degrees Celsius (350F). After 10 min of baking cut cake in the middle about 1/2 inch or 1 cm deep. This will help the cake to rise properly and to form a nice crust. Bake cake for about another 40 min (total baking time should be around 50 min). Test if cake is done with a toothpick. If toothpick comes out clean, remove cake from oven, let stand for 5 min, then put baking pan upside down on a baking rack.

5. Mix powdered sugar with lemon juice and coat top of cake while still warm.

Comments:

1. Instead of pudding mix one can add a few drops of vanilla aroma and 30 g starch.

2. Buttermilk is quite sour. Thus, in addition of baking powder baking soda is added. The baking soda is important when baking with acidic ingredients such as buttermilk and lemon juice because baking powder is not working well with these agents.

3. The original recipe used 200 g fresh apricots and some leaves of lemon mint. The washed, padded dry and cut mint is added as the final ingredient to the egg mixture.

4. Cutting the cake after the initial 10 min of baking is important. Only then will the bread rise properly and form a nice crust.

Baileys-Coffee Bread

I really enjoy any type of sweet bread (Trockenkuchen), marble bread, lemon bread, hazelnut bread - you name it. Actually, my favorite birthday cake has always been marble bread, and I can recall the recipe from memory.

For most breads I use a basic recipe that gets just a little altered and adjusted for some of the additions. The core of the recipe is a 1:1:2 ratio of butter:sugar:flour, 3 eggs, 1 teaspoon baking powder and some milk. With this basic recipe you can make anything, the only limitation being your creativity.

When I was recently asked to bring a cake to a drink potluck I had the idea to use Baileys Irish Cream liquor in that cake as my "drink contribution". I had made Baileys muffins in the past, but never a bread, so I wasn't quite sure how it would turn out. However, it was so good I decided to make it again for this blog. In addition to Baileys I also added instant coffee, ground walnuts and chocolate chips. All these ingredients blend very well, the chocolate cuts a little of the coffee taste, and the walnuts and Baileys contribute to a well-rounded aroma.

Ingredients:

one Pyrex form (9x5 inches) (Kastenform 22x13 cm)

some grease

100 g butter or margarine

100 g sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoons instant coffee

50 g ground nuts (walnuts or hazelnuts)

200 g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons Baileys Irish liquor (or milk)

some chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

Topping

some confectioner's sugar

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 degrees Celsius). Grease baking pan.

2. Beat butter or margarine with an electric hand mixer until soft and creamy. In three portions add sugar, mixing until the sugar is well blended. Mix in eggs, one at a time, for about 1/2 minute per egg. Add instant coffee and ground nuts, and mix well.

3. In a separate bowl mix flour and baking powder. In four portions add flour-baking powder mixture to batter and mix well, add Baileys or milk. The dough has to fall heavily from a spoon. If the dough is too moist, it'll run off the spoon, if the dough is not moist enough, it won't fall down at all. Two tablespoons of liquid should be just right, but depending on the type of flour used more or less liquid might be needed.

4. Lastly, add chocolate chips, mix briefly, and pour batter into greased baking pan.

5. Bake at 350 F until toothpick comes out clean (about 50 min). Remove cake from oven, let cool for a few minutes, then remove cake from pan and let cool on a wire rack.

6. Sift some confectioner's sugar on top and serve.

Apricot-Cream-Merengue

So, this week is another merengue cake. The original recipe uses rhubarb, but because I very recently made a cake with the combination of rhubarb and merengue, I decided to try fresh apricots instead.

Ingredients:

28 cm or 11- inch springform

Some grease

Crust:

200 g wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

100 g butter (1 stick)

75 g sugar

1-2 tablespoons milk

Optional: 1 egg

Filling:

500 g - 1 kg fruit (1-2 pounds)

3 egg yolks

50 g sugar

40 g potato starch

200 g whipping cream

Topping:

3 egg whites

120 g confectioner's sugar

Preparation:

1. In a medium bowl mix flour and baking powder. Add remaining ingredients for crust and knead with the knead hooks of an electric mixer until a dough has formed. Using your hands quickly shape dough into a ball and refrigerate covered with plastic wrap for about 30 min.

2. Prepare fruit:

Canned fruits: Drain well

Fresh fruit: Wash and drain well, core and/or cut into smaller pieces

For this recipe I used fresh apricots. I poured boiling water over them, then skinned and halved them.

3. Grease bottom of springform, preheat oven to about 175 degrees Celsius (330 F). Take about one half of the dough and roll on bottom of springform. Take the second half of the crust dough and form a long roll. Line the edge of the springform with the roll of dough and using you fingers form an edge about 3 cm (1.5 inches) high.

4. Lay fruit on top of crust dough on springform bottom.

5. Prepare filling: Using an electric mixer briefly mix all ingredients, then pour over fruit.

6. Bake cake for about 45 min or until cream mixture has been properly baked.

7. In the meantime prepare the topping: Beat egg whites with an electric hand mixer until stiff. Slowly add confectioner's sugar and keep beating until the merengue is almost stiff. Add merengue on top of cake and bake until merengue has turned light golden in color.

Comments:

1. Again, I prepared the crust without an egg, but used two rather than 1 tablespoon milk. It works well without the egg, the dough doesn't crumble as easily, and can be used immediately, no chilling required.

2. The original recipe uses rhubarb, but because I very recently made a rhubarb merengue I used fresh apricots in this recipe. I am sure any type of fruit can be used, but for canned fruit make sure to drain them well. Because the merengue topping is rather sweet tart fruits like rhubarb, gooseberries, red currants and others will work well.