Chocolate Chip Cookies

Two weeks ago a friend of mine posted on Facebook that he tried to bake cookies. The unfortunate verdict from his daughter was.... They taste like cheese! 

I really felt sorry for him as I know he put all his heart into making these cookies.

That was when I decided to put up this recipe. It is one of my most trusted ones and the cookies come out perfect every single time. The original recipe is from a twenty year old Betty Crooker cookbook which I bought during my first visit to the US.

I modified it slightly to my taste. This recipe is for 5-6 dozen cookies.

I pre-heat the oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with a sheet of parchment.

Now I am all set to start.

A lot of people use ready made chocolate chips for their cookies but I prefer to cut up a good dark chocolate bar into pieces. It gives a more intense flavour. So, to begin with I cut 300g of chilled good dark chocolate with 70% cocoa in it into 1cm pieces.

In a big bowl I mix 100g each unsalted and salted soft butter, 250 brown sugar and 60g egg into a smooth paste. In another bowl I mix 350g flour and 1 teaspoon baking soda. I sieve the flour into the butter mixture and knead it into a stiff dough.

I coarsely chop 100g nuts. I use either walnuts, almonds or unsalted pistachios. But you can use any kind of nuts you like. I add the nuts with the chocolate to the dough and mix it well.

I drop rounded teaspoons full of dough onto the baking tray. Make sure you leave about 5cm space between them as the dough will flatten into nice yummy cookies while baking.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes. They will be light brown and soft in the centre. Let them cool down a bit before you remove them from the baking tray. This is where the parchment comes in handy as you can remove the entire sheet from the baking tray and just line it with a fresh one for the next round of cookies.

The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for about a week. They also freeze well. Id you don't want to make that many cookies you can freeze part of the dough. Just ensure that it is wrapped well into cling foil to avoid that it ii drying out while defrosting.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen.

Love

Carola

Curried Chicken Spread

Being a confessed Nutella lover it is still one of the few spreads I buy ready made. I prefer to make them myself. May it be jam, liver pâté, vegetable spread or in this case a curried spread with chicken. For the simple reason that I know what is in it.

You can make a spread or pâté in a lot of ways. The goal is to get a spreadable paste. To achieve this spreads are often combined with cream, cheese, butter, egg or mustard. Sometimes there is an emulsifier or gelling agent added.

A lot of the ready made spreads contain high amounts of oil or other fats as they give volume and are cheep. I prefer my spreads to low on fat and high on flavour. That is why I hardly use mayonnaise in them. I also find that making a spread is an easy way to use up small amounts of vegetables or meat you have in your fridge. As I result often I end up making them as fillings for sandwiches to take along on one of my road trips.

I find them also very practical as they are quick to make for a snack on a busy day. It takes hardly 10 minutes. Spread it on your favourite bread, top it with some crunchy lettuce and tomatoes and enjoy.

This recipe is inspired by the classic Coronation Chicken which is a curry flavoured chicken salad.

In a small pan I melt 40g butter over low heat, add 3 heaped teaspoons Madras Curry powder to it and temper the curry for a few minutes. Be careful that the heat is low otherwise the curry gets burned and looses all its flavour.

I take a blender or food processor and add the following ingredients into it. 2 hard boiled egg (peeled), 4-5 gherkins, 1 teaspoon mustard, 150-200g boiled chicken meat cut into pieces, pepper, chilli powder, 20g onion, 20g leek, 1 glove garlic, 30g yellow bell pepper, salt and the curry butter. Mix it all until you have a smooth paste. Check the taste and add up salt and pepper if required.

If you like it a bit sweeter you can add some pineapple or mango to it. If you like it softer add a spoon of yoghurt to it.

Some fresh baguette and a nice glass of white wine with it. Dinner was never cooked faster.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Sour Dough Bread with Mixed Seeds

I often hear people saying you should only cook or bake when you are happy or in a good mood as otherwise the food doesn't taste nice. I say... If you are angry at the world go and bake bread!

There is no better therapy to work off anger than kneading a good bread dough. 

Bread is the one food that is stable in all cultures in the world. It might not be always as a loaf neither is is always made out of wheat but you find it in one or the other variety everywhere.

I personally love bread which is no surprise as I grew up in Germany where bread is a stable food. But for me bread must have a crust and a substance. I don't like these soft crusted sandwich breads which you can push together to half their size and an hour later they are back to their old self. I find them tasteless, too sweet and they have the tendency to stick to your teeth.

I said in an earlier blog that I have a bread making machine. I like it because it is very convenient but unless I need fresh bread early in the morning I don't bake the bread in it. I use it for making the dough. But nothing beats getting your fingers dirty and getting rid of anger and frustration by kneading a good sour dough with your hands. The satisfaction you get when you feel the gluten reacting with the other ingredients and that stiff greyish mass develops into a beautiful elastic dough is amazing.

Sour dough breads are easy to make and the sourness enriches it's flavours. Sour dough goes especially well with whole wheat, rye and spelt or a mixture of all. You might need a few trials to get the starter dough right as it is very sensitive to the surrounding temperatures. While it takes in north European countries 2-3 days at each stage to ferment it hardly takes several hours in south India. So you need to experiment a bit or take dry sour dough mix instead.

For the starter dough I knead a smooth dough out of 115g whole wheat flour and 75ml warm water in a big bowl. This takes about 4-5 minutes. I always use whole wheat flour for my starter as I find it gives better results and taste. But you can also use a plain wheat flour or a rye flour or a mixture of them for it. I cover the bowl with cling foil and let it stand at room temperature (that is 23-27°C) for 2-3 days until the mixture turned greyish with bubbles and the volume has at roughly doubled. Make sure you removed all crust that might have formed on top of the starter before you 'feed' it.

Now I stir 120ml warm water into the mixture until I have a smooth paste. To it I add 175g flour and make a smooth dough out of it. Form a ball out of the dough and place it in a big bowl. Cover it again with cling foil and let it stand for 1-2 days at room temperature (23-27°C) until it is well risen. Remove all crust that might have formed on top of it before you use your starter.

In general it is advisable to check on the sour dough starter regularly. But do not remove the cling foil while the fermentation process is going on.

This starter can be kept in the fridge for about 10 days. If you want to keep it longer store it in the deep freezer. Just make sure it is completely defrosted and has reached room temperature before you use it for making a dough.

To keep your sour dough going you need to 'feed' it. This means if you use 200g of sour dough starter for your bread you need to replace it with 100g flour and 100ml warm water and knead the starter until it is a smooth dough again. If you maintain your starter well it can last you month and years.

For the bread in this recipe I used different flours and seeds. I like experimenting with different mixtures to see how the different flours influence the taste and structure of the bread.

In a big bowl I mix 250g whole wheat flour, 250g hard wheat semolina, 150g white wheat flour and 2 teaspoons of salt. In another bowl I soak 100g quick dissolving oats in 250ml warm milk. I further dissolve 20g fresh yeast or about 25-35g active dry yeast (the amount of dry active yeast might vary depending on product. Please check on the package how much you actually need) in 150ml warm water and let it stand for approximately 10 minutes until it starts forming bubbles.

Now there are 2 different methods of making this bread.

If you use a fresh sour dough starter like described above you need 235g of starter. Mix the starter with the dissolved yeast and 120ml warm water until you have a smooth paste. Add the oats mixture to it and mix well. Now pour the liquid mixture into the flour and knead the mixture for at least 10 minutes to get a smooth elastic dough. If the dough is too stiff add small amounts of warm water to it until you get a nice smooth dough. If it is too sticky add small amounts of flours. But please keep in mind that the gluten needs a few minutes to develop so have some patience before you start adding any additional water or flour to the dough.

If you use a dry sour dough starter mix 100g dry starter with the flour. Mix the yeast with the oats mixture and 120ml warm water and pour it all into the flour. Now you proceed kneading your dough.

Cover the bowl with a wet towel and leave it to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until the volume has doubled. Take the dough out of the bowl. On a slightly floured surface knock the dough back and knead gently for about 5 minutes. Put it back in a clean bowl and leave it to rise for another 30-45 minutes.

In the meantime pre-heat the oven to 220-240°C.

On small plates keep 2 tablespoons of each white and black sesame seeds, barley, pumpkin, melon and flax seeds. This is what I used but the seeds you use are purely up to your taste.

I carefully knock down the dough again. Now I take small portions of the dough and make balls with3-4cm diameter out of it. I dip each ball into one of the seeds and place them in a rectangular loaf form (approx. 24x12cm). This I repeat until the dough is used up. You will have 3 layers of seed covered dough balls in your form. I cover it again with a wet towel and let it rise for another 30 minutes. Than I bake it for 45 minutes in the oven.

Let it cool down for 5 minutes. Than remove it form the baking form and let it cool down on a wired rack.

Knowing me I wonder around that loaf for the next hour anxiously waiting for it to cool down enough to slice it. I simply love the corner slice of fresh bread combined with slightly salted butter.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Vegetable Tart

Vegetable cakes, tarts, pies and quiches have a long tradition in Europe. In the south of Germany we have onion cake and salt cake, in France varieties of tarts the most famous one being the Quiche Lorraine, in Alsace it is the Tarte Flambée. The UK has an endless variety of them. And there will be no end if I start with the Balkan and south European countries.

The French are very strict about the definition of a quiche. A quiche has a yeast dough or short crust base. The filling is a mix of egg, milk, cheese, sour cream, smoked bacon and onions. The moment you add any additional vegetables, meat or fish it becomes a tart. Even though the rest of the world happily calls it all quiche or pie.

They are quick and easy to make and a wonderful way to use up small left over quantities of vegetables and meat. You can get really creative on your filling. The base for most of these tarts is a yeast dough but during the course of time short crust and puff pastry varieties became also very popular.

In most countries they were made during fall or harvest time. The onion cake for example is usually made and served during the time of the wine harvest and enjoyed with a glass of young wine.

A lot of these cakes and quiches can be baked in wood fired ovens which were traditionally used for baking bread or for example in Italy for pizza. Once all the bread is baked and you stop heating the oven you put in the cake or quiche. This works especially well with yeast based doughs.

I love to make them when I get guests as I can prepare them in advance and then just put them in the oven when the guests arrive. I often make them in individual size using a muffin form. Makes great finger food. And as I said you can easily make them in different flavours so there is the perfect one for every guest. If you add up some fresh salad you have a complete meal.

If I make tarts for parties I always use a short crust base as I don't have to worry about the dough rising any further. I know it can be prevented by putting it into the fridge but unfortunately my fridge is not that big.

For the dough (for 18 individual or two 22cm tarts) I take each 150g plain flour and whole wheat flour, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 levelled teaspoon baking powder, 175g cold butter and 80g egg. I mix all ingredients into a smooth dough. If it is too sticky add a bit of flour, if it is too hard or crumbly add a little bit of ice water to it. Let the dough rest for a minimum of 30 minutes in the fridge.

In the meantime I separate 3 eggs, 60g each. I beat the egg yolks with ½ teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons water until I have a pale and foamy mass. In a separate bowl I beat the egg whites until they form nice peaks.

I add 50 ml milk, 150 sour cream, 100g grated cheese, like Gruyere or any cheese with a strong flavour, to the egg yolks and mix it well. Than I carefully pour the milk-egg mixture over the egg whites and carefully mix it with a spoon.

I pre-heat the oven to 175°C and grease 18 muffin forms. After taking the dough out of the fridge I roll it on a flour coated surface til it is about 3-4mm thick. With a round cookie cutter I cut the base of the tarts and put them in the muffin forms. For the side of the crust I roll the dough into a 1cm thick roll. This I put along the side of the muffin form and than press it flat with my fingers.

Just before filling the tarts carefully mix 100-150 g each tomatoes, onion, capsicum, zucchini (all cut into small dices) into the the egg mixture and than divide it evenly into the muffin forms. Alternatively you can put the vegetables directly onto the dough and top it up with the egg-milk mixture. In this case give your muffin form a careful shake to make sure the egg mixture goes into all gaps.

Halt of the tarts I sprinkle with some bacon the other half gets a thin tomato slice on top. The tarts need 15-20 minutes in the oven. Remove them from the oven and let them cool down a bit. Than remove carefully from the muffin forms and serve warm.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Plum Tart with Cinnamon Cream

This is the recipe for the plum tart I mentioned in my last blog. It is an old traditional recipe from the area I grew up in. Not much has changed in this recipe for the past few generations. My grandma used to make it. It is one of the 1^st food memories I have.

It is a tart that is usually baked in the late summer when the plums are getting ripe. Ideal is to use dark ripe plums fresh from the tree. I actually called up my mother to double check with her if I got the recipe right. She was very amused when I did this but happily reconfirmed her recipe to me.

Unfortunately plums here in India are not as sweet as the ones that grow in my parents garden. This is why I added up a bit of sugar and cinnamon to the cream.

Traditionally this tart is served when it is still a bit warm with a big spoon of fresh unsweetened whipped cream on the side. It reminds me of my childhood when my Mom made it on Sunday afternoons. We would sit on the terrace or in the garden and indulge in a cake feast. This tart never lasted long and to be honest not much has changed since than. We still fight over the last piece of cake or the last spoon of cream whenever this is served.

For the short crust I take 250g flour, 2 leveled teaspoons baking powder, 50g custard sugar, 150 g very cold butter cut in dices and 60g egg. I put it all in a bowl and quickly mix it with my hands until I have a smooth dough. This dough I chill for about 1 hour in the fridge.

In the meantime I take 1-1,2kg ripe plums, cut them in halves and remove the seed.

I pre-heat the oven to 180°C and grease a 26cm tart form.

To roll out the dough I sprinkle some flour on the kitchen counter surface. I take the dough out of the fridge and pat it flat with my hands. With a rolling pin I roll the dough until it is round in shape and about 4mm thick. With the help of 2 spatulas I move the dough into the tart form. I cut off ans dough that is overlapping from the form. This will later go on top of the plums, similar to a crumble topping. The plums are put in circles into the tart form. On top of it I sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of sugar-cinnamon mix and add the left over dough in small pieces. The tart needs about 25-30 minutes in the oven.

For the cinnamon cream I take 200g fresh cream and whip it until it just starts to set. Now I add 1 tablespoon of sugar-cinnamon mix and whip it just to mix. The cream should not yet form peaks.

Cut the tart in generous pieces and serve it with the cinnamon cream on top or on the side.

You can make this tart also with apples or pears. You can also sprinkle some slivered almonds over it.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Mango-Cointreau Cake

I admire the cake artists who have the talent to turn every piece of cake into a piece of art by decorating it with colourful frosting, marzipan and fondant. It is a talent I don't have. And I love looking at these cakes.

But on the other hand I must confess that I prefer my cakes more natural. I don't like using food colour or artificial flavours. I also don't like it if cakes are coated with enormous amounts of sugar or butter cream. For me that ruins the taste of the cake. All I taste is sugar.

If I decorate a cake I either give it a rather thin layer of plain chocolate or ganache or just a simple frosting or glaze. For me the less coating there is the better. And when it comes to cream fillings I also like them to be packed with flavour rather than sugar. That doesn't mean that I don't like pastries, gateau or cream tarts. I just don't like the artificial sugary stuff.

There needs to be a balance between the flavours in a cake. One of the worst things for me are these death by chocolate cakes which have a sweet chocolate cake filled with chocolate butter cream and than drowned in chocolate sauce. Truly death by chocolate as the overdose of it kills it all.

I rather have a strong chocolate flavour balanced with some fruit or spice. And as much as I love desserts, cakes and sweets I don't like them too sweet.

Take for example a Sachertorte. It is a classic and the apricot jam used as a filling gives it the perfect balance with the chocolate cake and coating.

The same goes for fruity cakes and pastries. For me the filling of a key lime pie or lemon meringue must be nice lemony sour to balance the sweetness of the meringue that covers it.

But than this is purely my personal taste. The other day for example I made a fresh plum tart (recipe will follow). As the plums were a bit sour I simply served it with a slightly sweetened cinnamon cream on the side to balance it out.

Just before the mango season ends I have another recipe that has that sweet-sour balance. It is a Mango-Cointreau cake. There is a lot of fresh orange juice in the dough so it is not very sweet but than you also have lots of chunks of fresh sweet mango baked into it.

                          Fresh out of the oven... not even put on a serving plate

To start with I pre-heat my oven to 180°C.

For the 24cm rose flower baking dish shown in the picture I take 180g egg and beat it with 120g sugar until I have a fluffy whitish coloured mass. In a bowl I mix 150ml freshly squeezed orange juice with 110ml vegetable oil and 40g yoghurt. If you have a problem with lactose you can replace the yoghurt with vegetable oil. In another bowl I mix 225g flour with 10g baking powder. I slowly add the liquid mixture to the egg mixture and mix it until it is well blend. Now I add the flour to it and mix it just enough to get a smooth dough. Make sure you are not over mixing it.

After pouring the dough into the greased baking dish I put about 300g of fresh diced mango on top of it.

I bake it at 180°C for about 60 minutes. While the dough is rising the mango chunk will sink into the cake.

After I removed the cake from the oven I pour 4 tablespoons of Cointreau over the cake while it is still on the baking dish. Now I let it cool for about an hour. Than I take it out of the baking mould and pour another 4 tablespoons of Cointreau over the other side of the cake. Let it cool down completely.

I like the cake just like this as the different shades intensify the flower effect. If you like to decorate it further I suggest a simple sugar icing with 250g icing sugar and 2-3 tablespoons orange juice. If you like a stronger Cointreau flavour replace 1 tablespoon of the orange juice with Cointreau.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Chilli Con Carne

Recently a friend of mine was invited to a wedding. The bride and groom asked all their friends to send them a recipe which reminds them of a special moment with the particular friend. In the end they put it together into a nice personal cookbook. I think this is a wonderful idea.

My friends dilemma was that the recipe she wanted to send was not something she cooked, it was something I cooked for her on her birthday last year. Chilli Con Carne. So she called me up to get the recipe. I was more than happy to give it to her as it also reminds me of great times we spent together.

I got this recipe from my Mexican neighbour almost 20 years ago when I was living near Pittsburgh. At this time I also learned that the secret to a good Chilli con carne is to cook it with beer. The beer takes away the burning from the chillies. As a result you have a nice spicy Chilli without the burning sensation in your mouth. It really works even though I never found any scientific proof for it.

This makes it a truly international recipe as it is from a Mexican living in the US, given by a German living in India to my friend living in Turkey who sent it to the happy couple in Germany.

This is a dish that takes time because the longer it is cooked the better it tastes. And the more often it is reheated the better it takes.

For 6 portions I take 250g red beans and soak them overnight in water. If you have less time you can take 2 cans of canned red beans, drained and rinsed.

The next morning I cut a large onion, about 100g, into diced. In a large pot I heat 3-4 tablespoons vegetable oil. I add the onions along with 5 gloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped and 500g beef tenderloin cut into 2cm cubes. Fry it until the meat is brown on all sides. Now I add a teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 2 teaspoons chilli powder, I like to use kashmiri chilli powder but you can use what ever chilli powder you like, and either 4 fresh red chillies or 5-6 dried red chillies cut in halves. I stir this well to temper the chilli. But be careful that it does not get burned.

To this mixture I add 400ml tomato paste, 500g fresh tomatoes, peeled and diced and the soaked beans. After stirring it well I add 500ml of beer. Any regular beer is fine. Do not use strong or dark beer. At this point if you like to you can add some sweet corn kennels to the Chilli.

I cover the pot with a lit, reduce the heat to a minimum and let the Chilli cook for a minimum of 2 hours. I check on it in regular intervals to give it a stir and add up more beer if necessary. If you use canned beans add them after 1 ½ hours of cooking as they otherwise will be overcooked.

After 2 hours I check the taste of the Chilli. If necessary I add up some more spice. This is also the time to add up salt to the Chilli. I let it cook for another 15-30 minutes.

While the Chilli is still on the stove I pre-heat my grill. I take about half a baguette and cut it in thin slices. In a small pot I melt 50g butter. With a bakers brush I brush both sides of the baguette slices with the melted butter and roast it under the grill until both sides are golden brown and crisp.

Most of the times I cook chilli con carne for a buffet at a party. It is so easy to serve. Just put the pot on the buffet, some roasted baguette or tortilla chips in a basket and a bowl of sour cream on the side and everyone helps them selves.

To serve it in a more formal way I pour the chilli into individual bowls. These I place on a big plate along with a small bowl of sour cream and some roasted baguette or tortilla chips on the side.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola