Rheinische Mutzen or Rhenish Doughnut

Rheinische Mutzen or Rhenish Mutzen (type of Doughnut) 

Mutzen, (Muuzen, Muzen), is a rhenish type of doughnut, which is traditionally made mainly at Carneval time or New Years Eve. They are best when eaten fresh, but even a day later, once stored in an airtight container, they are still delicious. There are a few varieties regarding flavour, with the Almond Mutzen being the most popular. There is a variety with rum as well as rosewater. My kids prefer the Almond one, so here's the recipe for it. Hope you like it.

Ingredents:

375 g Flour
2 TL Baking powder
100 g cold Butter in little pieces
100 g Caster Sugar
100 g Ground Almonds
3 Eggs (medium)
2 Tbsp Sour Cream
Zest of a lemon

For Cooking/decoration:
750 g Vegetable fat/Oil 
Icing Sugar for sprinkling

Method: 

1. Sieve the Flour and Baking powder onto the worktop.
2. Add butter pieces, Sugar & almond and mix lightly with your fingers.
3. add all other ingredients quickly and knead to form a smooth dough.
4. Cover in clingfilm and leave in fridge for about an hour.
5. Lightly flour your worktop and roll out dough with a rolling pin, so it's about 1cm thick.
6. With a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut dough into rhombus shapes.
7. Heat up the fat/oil in a deep pan. You can test if the oil is hot enough by sticking the end of a wooden spoon into the oil. If there are bubbles forming around the stick, the oil is hot enough...try and keep the heat,if necessary remove the pan from heat briefly.
8. Bake the Mutzen in batches in the oil until golden. They'll puff up in the oil and you might need to turn them around once.
9. Remove Mutzen from pan with a slotted spoon.
10. Put them on kitchen paper to drain excess oil.
11. Dust one side with icing sugar and enjoy!

Happy New Year

Hi Everyone, wishing you all a happy & healthy new Year and may all your wishes and aims for 2014 come true. December is always my most favourite baking month, with all the lovely Pre-Christmas bakes. And as every year, I was looking forward to bake my favourite things as well as try new recipes. Unfortunately we all got struck down by this annoying flu bug and I didn't get the chance in making half the things I planned. Well I am sure my husband and extended Family and Friends were secretly relieved they didn't have to face the temptation ;)
Anyhow, I still managed to make a 50th Birthday Cake for my friends husband - who's a Leeds Utd Supporter, for the 21st December. I must admit, I really enjoyed making the Shield and to figure out how to write LUFC onto it without a pen (it was already 9pm at night)! Icing Sugar, Blue food colouring and a good old fashioned tooth pick worked very well!
I made a 10'' Square Madeira sponge and filled the layers with Mascarpone & White Chocolate Icing, topped the cake with a bit of Apricot glaze to hold the Roll Out Icing. I cut the snowflakes out of light blue coloured icing and sprayed them then with some Silver Shimmer Spray. Overall I was quite happy with the result.

and for the kids I made a few chocolate cupcakes, which my girls helped me decorate.

Hope you all had a few lovely Festive Days. Wishing you all Happy Baking in 2014 - and remember 'Life's what you bake it' :)

Lovely Birthday Present

I got this lovely Birthday Present from a very dear friend of mine today...it's going to be my new Motto:

Life Is What You Bake It ! 

Baumkuchen (Treecake) or Schichttorte (Layered Torte)

 

Baumkuchen (Treecake)

Baumkuchen is a kind of layered cake which is grilled instead of baked. It is a traditional dessert in many countries throughout Europe. The characteristic rings that appear when sliced resemble tree rings, and give the cake its German name,Baumkuchen, which literally translates to "tree cake".
Baumkuchenspitzen, German for "tree cake points", are miniature versions of Baumkuchen that are created from the cake when it is cut in slices and then into pieces that are referred to as "Spitzen". These pieces are typically coated in chocolate.
It is sometimes used as a base for Wedding Cakes and can be flavoured to your own liking.

Ingredients

Cake:

• 9 Eggs (medium)
• 375 g soft unsalted Butter
• 375 g Caster Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilia Sugar
• 3-4 tbsp Rum 
• 225 g Flour 
• 150 g Cornflour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder

To Cover cake:

• 200 g Orange Marmalade 
• 300 g Dark Chocolate
• 20 g unsalted Butter 

Method:

1. Separate 6 Eggs, add yolk into one bowl and egg whites into another. Whisk egg whites for 4-5 minutes until they peak.
2. In a separate bowl add butter and mix until smooth, then add the sugar mixing for another minute.
3. Add 3 full eggs one by one while you continue mixing, then add the 6 egg yolks.
4. Add 3-4 Tbsp Rum and Vanilla Sugar and mix for max of 1 1/2 minutes.
5. Sieve the flour, cornflour and baking powder into a bowl and add to the mixture, mixing just so it is all combined.
6. Fold the peaked egg whites into the mixture.
7. Use a round 9'' baking tin and cover the base with baking paper.
8. Add 2-3 tbsp of mixture into the tin and spread evenly
9. Put the tin under the pre-heated grill and bake for 2-3 Minutes until golden brown.
10. Take the tin out and add another 2-3 tbsp of cake mix, spreading evenly.
11. Return tin under the grill, again for 2-3 min until golden brown. Make sure to keep your eye on it.
12. repeat until all cake mix is used.
13. Leave the cake to cool in the tin and then remove the ring of the tin.
14. Turn onto a cooling rack and leave until completely cooled.
15. In the meantime, gently heat the marmalade  and pass through a sieve to remove any lumps.
16. Cover the sides of the cake with the marmalade. If you like, you can cover the whole cake with it.
17. Leave to cool and dry for about 30 min.
18. Chop the Chocolate and with the Butter add into a bowl and melt in a bain-marie. Make sure no water gets into the chocolate!
19. Cover the cake with the melted chocolate and smooth over with a palette knife.
20. Leave to cool and set.

Enjoy! 

Stollen - German Christmas Cake

This is my all-time favourite recipe. I don't use yeast, which makes the Stollen lighter. The recipe is usually for one bigger Stollen, but I prefer to make two smaller ones. One for me and one as a present :)

And the great thing about this Christmas Cake is, that you can eat it as soon as it's cooled down!

Ingredients:

• 500g Raisins
• 100ml Rum
• 250g Cream Flour
• 250g Self-raising Flour
• 14 g  Baking powder
• 150g Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla essence
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp Almond essence
• 1 tsp Mixed spice
• or a tip of a knife each of
• ground cloves
• ground cardamon
• ground ginger
• ground nutmeg
• ground cinnamon
• rind of 1/2 untreated orange
• 2 Eggs
• 175g soft Butter
• 250g Quark (Fromage Frais) 
• 200g ground Almonds
• 200g candied peel
• 200g Marzipan (or make your own almond paste)

For decoration:

• 100g melted butter
• 100g icing sugar (or more if needed)

Method:

1. Cover the raisins with the rum and leave for a couple of hours, preferably over night.
2. Pre-heat fan-oven at 200 degrees, bake at lower heat of 160 - 180 degrees.
3. Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla essence, salt, almond essence, spices, orange rind, eggs and butter together in a bowl.
4. Add the Quark (fromage frais)
5. Mix all ingredients together to a dough.
6. Pour ground almonds onto worktop.
7. Add the dough to the almonds and start kneading.
8. Add the raisins and candied peel, by kneading it into the dough.
9. Keep kneading until there's no more almonds on the worktop and the dough is nice and smooth. You might need to add extra flour to keep the dough from sticking.
10. Divide the dough into two half's.
11. Roll them out into a sausage and flatten them to an oval shape (I usually just flatten it with my hand) about 1 cm thick
12. Use half of the Marzipan and knead it to soften it. Then roll it into a sausage, nearly to the same length as the dough and flatten it with your hand.
13. Put the marzipan in the middle of the dough, length-ways.
14. Fold the dough from both long sides over the marzipan,towards the middle, so the dough overlaps on top.
15. Repeat for the second dough.
16. Cover baking tray with tinfoil and baking paper.
17. Put both doughs onto baking tray.
18. Bake in the middle of the pre-heated oven at 160 - 180 degrees for 50-60 Minutes.
19. Remove Stollen from oven and straight away pour over the melted butter and dust with icing sugar. 
20. Can be eaten once it's cooled.

Bretzel or Pretzl

Always a favourite with my Family :)

Halloween Barmbrack (or Tealoaf)

My Favourite, not just for Halloween

But ...Who will get the ring? :)

This is a very rich bread, it’s traditionally served sliced and buttered for Halloween.

If you want to add in some charms, like a ring or coins, just be sure to wrap them well in parchment paper first before adding them to the batter!

If I don't have all the dried fruit, I just use raisins and sultanas. For kids, I'll leave the Whiskey out and replace it with cold tea.

Ingredients

100g  raisins
100g  sultanas
100g  currants
50g glacé cherries, halved or quartered (or stoned, chopped dates) I used roughly chopped walnuts

50g candied peel or the zest of 1 lemon
250ml hot, strong black tea (2 teabags)
50ml whiskey or Cointreau
1 egg, lightly beaten
225g self-raising flour
200g light brown sugar
1 level teaspoon mixed spice

Method 1. Put the raisins, sultanas, currants, cherries and candied peel in a large bowl, one that’s big enough to accommodate all the ingredients later on. 2. Pour over the tea and whiskey or Cointreau and allow the fruit to soak for at least 30 minutes or even overnigh. 3. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).  4. Line a 450 g (1 lb) loaf tin with parchment paper or a loaf tin liner. 5. Add in the beaten egg, flour, sugar and mixed spice to the fruit and tea mixture.  6. Stir well until everything is just combined.  7. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin.  8. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours or until a skewer comes out clean.  9. Leave to cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Tip: This keeps very well in an airtight tin.