Our favorite recipes

Tiramisu

Makes 6-8 portions

Ingredients:

Approx. 375ml strong espresso

1 organic lemon

450-500g mascarpone (recipe below or you can buy it)

Approx. 100ml milk

80g sugar

2 sachets vanilla sugar (I would guess that equals approx. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)

150-200g lady fingers (recipe below or you can buy them)

3 Tbsp grappa (optional)

1 Tbsp cocoa

1 pinch of cinnamon

How to make:

1. Brew the espresso and let sit to cool

2. Grate the lemon zest of the entire lemon and squeeze out half the juice

3. Put the mascarpone in a bowl and add milk, sugar and vanilla

4. Mix with the hand mixer until nice and smooth

5. Mix in the lemon zest and juice

6. For making the tiramisu use a dish that is approx. 5cm tall (you will have 2 or 3 layers of cookies and mascarpone cream each, depending on your dish size)

7. Layer the bottom of the dish with lady fingers

8. Pour some of the espresso (mixed with the optional grappa) onto the lady fingers (use enough to give all lady fingers a light brown coating)

9. Spread half or a third (depending on your dish) of the mascarpone cream on to the lady fingers

10. Repeat 7.-9. until all mascarpone cream is used

11. Mix the cocoa with the cinnamon and sprinkle on top

Let rest for 8hrs in the fridge

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Mascarpone 

Ingredients:

2 cups pasteurized heavy cream without thickener

1/3 cup powdered skim milk (or full fat, which we used)

1 lemon

Makes 420-450g of mascarpone

1. Clean and sterilize all your equipment (measuring cups, whisk, saucepan, lid, large metal spoon, kitchen thermometer, plastic container, spoon, little bowl, strainer). To sterilize you can put everything in boiling water for 10 minutes or you can buy a no-rinse sterilizer. Apparently bleach is not good for stainless steel, so we would not recommend that.

2. In a stainless steel, heavy 2-litre saucepan with a lid, whisk together the cream and powdered milk. Place over low heat and slowly bring to 180°F (82°C), stirring constantly to prevent scorching. It should take about 30-40min to come to temperature. Turn off the heat.

3. Slowly squeeze the juice from half of the lemon into a little bowl and strain into the cream. Switch to a metal spoon and keep stirring; do not use a whisk, as that will inhibit the curd formation. Watch carefully to see when the cream starts to coagulate. You will not see a clean break between curds and whey. Rather, the cream will coat the spoon and you will start to see some flecks of solids in the cream.

4. Add the juice from the remaining lemon half and stir with the spoon to incorporate. Cover the pan and cool the mascarpone in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours.

5. Once the mascarpone is firm to the touch, transfer it to a bowl or colander lined with clean, damp muslin. Draw the ends together and twist into a ball to squeeze out the excess liquid. This will make the mascarpone thick (Note: We did not need to squeeze the mascarpone as it already was the right consistency – that might be because we used full fat milk powder, instead of the suggested skim milk)

6. Mascarpone needs to be refrigerated immediately and used within 2-3 days.

Mascarpone is not just great for Tiramisu, but also to make a walnut mascarpone sauce for pasta (Recipe above).

Recipe Source:

Mary Karlin - Artisan Cheese Making At Home

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Ladyfingers

Ingredients:

4 eggs, separated
2/3 cup white sugar
7/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder


Makes about 30-40, depending on size

How to make:

1. Place egg whites in bowl and beat on high until soft peaks start to form. Slowly add 2 tablespoons of the sugar and continue beating until stiff and glossy. In another bowl beat egg yolks and remaining sugar. Whip until thick and very pale in colour. 

2. Sift flour and baking powder together on a sheet of wax paper. Fold half the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Fold in flour, and then add the remaining egg whites. Transfer mixture to pastry bag and pipe out onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Recipe Source:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ladyfingers/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=lady%20fingers&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&soid=sr_results_p1i4

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Brezeln

What you need

500 g	Flour (Type 550)
300 ml	Milk
1 TL	Salt
42g	Fresh yeast or 21g Active dry yeast or 15g Instant yeast
1 tsp	Sugar
40 g	Butter
some	Course salt
1 litre	Water
3 Tbsp	Baking soda
some	Flour to roll the dough
	Butter or oil for the baking tray

How to make it

Preparation Time: approx. 45 min.  Time to let it rest: 2 hrs

1. Mix the yeast with the sugar and a little bit of the milk (with the dry yeast you will need more milk) and let it rest for 15min at room temperature.

2. Mix the yeast mix with the salt, flour, the rest of the milk and the butter and knead until the dough is nice and elastic. Let it rest for 30 min in a warm spot. The dough should double in size.

3. On a slightly floured surface knead the dough thoroughly and form one long roll. Cut the roll into 16-18 equal parts (or less if you want bigger Brezeln) and form each into a 30cm long roll (or sausage as we would call it in German :)) The middle part of each roll should be slightly thicker than the ends. Then form Brezeln by folding the ends inwards and across each other. Now let the Brezeln rest for 15min.

4. Next put the Brezeln in the fridge for 1 hour (they need to be uncovered!)

5. Shortly before the 1 hour is up, boil 1 litre of water, then add the 3 Tbsp of baking soda (make sure to add the soda slowly, it bubbles like crazy).

6. After the hour is up, take the Brezeln out of the fridge and boil them, one at a time, in the soda water for 30 seconds. Scoop them out with a large mesh spoon and set them on a tray to let the water drip off.  (If you don't want to bake all the Brezeln, just freeze them after the soda bath. On the day you want to eat them, just take them out of the freezer a few minutes before baking and sprinkle them with course salt)

7. The Brezeln you want to make right away now need to be sprinkled with course salt and put on a greased baking tray (do not use baking paper, apparently the soda destroys it)

8. Once all the Brezeln are on the tray, put them in the COLD oven (do NOT preheat oven!) and bake for approx. 18min at 200-220°C (~428F). They're done when all of the surface is an even dark brown.

Eat them immediately or let them cool first, your choice :)

Things to eat with Brezeln:

- Lots of cold butter

- Brie or any other cheese

- Obatzda (Camembert mixed with cream cheese, salt, pepper, paprika powder, onion and a splash of beer)
         Obatzda is our choice when it comes to a traditional German addition to Brezeln. Just mix the
          ingredients together and put them in a bowl. Use the Brezeln to dip into it. We use equal amounts of
          camembert and cream cheese, salt and pepper to taste, finely chop half an onion, you'll have to
          experiment with the paprika since it's different everywhere and a spash of any beer. Mix it all up
          leaving small chunks of brie and you are all set. Enjoy!

- Sausages such as Frankfurter or Wiener

- Nutella (I know it sounds gross, but believe me it is YUMMY)

Source (and the recipe in German): http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/881431193653493/Brezen.html

Unser Tipp: Wenn man nicht gleich alle backen will, kann man die Brezen auch super nach dem Laugenbad einfrieren. Dann 5 Minuten vor dem Backen aus dem Gefrierschrank holen, mit Salzkörnern bestreuen und im KALTEN Ofen backen.

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Here as promised, something sweet to spoil your loved ones with! Enjoy!

My t-shirt is a little plug for the Still Winter Hills

You can follow this link to the All Recipe website for these great cinnamon buns!

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