Cinnamon crunch muesli and an important question for the readers

I have finished reading "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest", therefore finishing the Millennium Trilogy – the books are fantastic and it’s a pity that Lisbeth Salander’s adventures have come to an end. My idea now is to go for one of the classics, maybe "Moby Dick", but I’m not sure yet. That is why I ask you for suggestions: would you help me out choosing the next book I’m reading? I’m all ears. :D

Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s rather early and I haven’t had breakfast yet – this delicious muesli with some yogurt will be perfect.

Cinnamon crunch muesli
from the gorgeous Feed Me Now

½ cup + 1 tablespoon (127g) unsalted butter
1/3 cup (58g) light brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 ¾ cups (316g) rolled oats
1 cup (150g) almonds (with skin), roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
Place the butter, sugar and cinnamon in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the butter has melted and sugar dissolved. Remove from the heat, add the oats and almonds and stir to coat evenly.
Spread the mixture evenly on the prepared sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Serve with milk, yogurt or/and fruit.

Makes 16 portions

Strawberry and rose hazelnut tart, music and a baking bonus

When I was 10 years old I got the Arena album as a gift from a cousin I deeply love. I used to listen to it nonstop, 24/7. I still have the album but since I no longer have a record player I bought the CD a while ago – I love listening to it while I drive to/from work. So good.
The CD version has two bonus tracks, but unfortunately “Girls on Film” and “Rio” are songs I never cared about (and still don’t).

Like one of my all time favorite albums, this recipe has a bonus, too, but in this case it’s a really good one: you get a delicious, fresh tart for dessert and also yummy slice and bake cookies with the leftover pastry. The cookies are so good you might consider postpone making the tart and stick to the pastry alone. :)

Strawberry and rose hazelnut tart
slightly adapted from the always stunning and delicious Australian Gourmet Traveller

Spiced hazelnut pastry:
¾ cup + ½ tablespoon (176g) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (148g) icing sugar, sifted
finely grated zest of 1 orange
3 egg yolks
1 ¾ cups + ½ tablespoons (250g) all purpose flour
¾ cup (75g) hazelnut meal (finely ground hazelnuts)
¾ cup (75g) almond meal (finely ground almonds)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder

Filling:
700g strawberries, hulled and coarsely chopped
1/3 cup + ½ tablespoon (72g) superfine sugar*
¼ cup (30g) corn starch
finely grated zest and juice of ½ orange
3 teaspoons rosewater
seeds of 1 vanilla bean
heavy cream, for brushing
icing sugar, for dusting
crème fraîche, to serve

Start by making the spiced hazelnut pastry: beat butter, icing sugar and orange zest in an electric mixer until creamy, add yolks and beat to combine. Add remaining ingredients and mix until just combined. Form into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (2-3 hours).
Roll two-thirds of hazelnut pastry to 3mm-thick between two large pieces of lightly floured baking paper and line a lightly buttered 24cm (9in) diameter tart pan with a removable bottom. Trim edges, prick pastry all over with a fork and freeze until firm (15 minutes). Roll out remaining dough on a lightly floured piece of baking paper to a rough 24cm-long rectangle, place on an oven tray and refrigerate between the paper pieces until firm (15-20 minutes).
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Combine strawberries, sugar, corn starch, zest, juice and vanilla seeds in a bowl and fill pastry case.
Remove the pastry rectangle from the fridge, remove the paper piece on the top and cut the pastry into your favorite shapes using a cookie cutter (mine was a drop shaped cutter about 3cm long). Place them randomly over strawberry mixture, leaving some of the filling uncovered**. Brush pastry with heavy cream, place tart pan onto a baking sheet and bake until crisp and golden (35-40 minutes), cool completely in the pan over a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar and serve with crème fraîche.

* after tasting the tart I though the filling needed a bit more sugar – have a taste of your strawberries and adjust the sugar amount accordingly to their sweetness

** I gathered up the pastry leftover pieces and made slice and bake cookies with the remaining pastry – they tasted delicious!

Serves 10

Pear, apple, brown sugar and maple syrup cake

People who like to cook and bake – myself included – get mad at recipes that do not work – I think it’s only natural to feel that way about something that involves time, ingredients ($$) and expectations. I get really angry sometimes, to the point of cursing like a character in a mafia movie. :D

But if the recipe works and the food tastes good, I’m OK with a couple of details that might be different from the recipe – the fruit on top of this cake, for instance, should have sunk into the batter while it baked in the oven, according to Nigel Slater; that did not happen, but it doesn’t matter – I actually think the cake looks nicer this way.

Pear, apple, brown sugar and maple syrup cake
slightly adapted from the absolutely beautiful Tender Volume II

Fruit mixture:
2 ripe pears
1 Granny Smith apple
1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons maple syrup

Cake:
100g unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup (50g) superfine sugar
1/3 cup (58g) light brown sugar, packed
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (150g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup (50g) almond flour (ground almonds)
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons whole milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Butter a 20cm (8in) round baking pan, line the base with baking paper and butter the paper as well.
Peel, core and dice the pears and the apples – the pieces should be around 1cm each. Transfer the fruit to a large frying pan, add the butter and cinnamon and cook over a moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until tender, 5-8 minutes. Pour in the maple syrup, let the mixture bubble up briefly, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until pale and thick. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, then add the almond flour. In a small bowl, whisk lightly with a fork the eggs, milk and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the eggs mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Spoon the fruit mixture over the batter and bake for 40 minutes or until golden, risen and lightly firm and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan over a wire rack.

Serves 8-10

Baked lemon ricotta doughnuts - all the deliciousness of doughnuts without frying

I love doughnuts – as do many of you, I believe – but the idea of frying them... Not so much. I’m not a fried food kind of cook – I love eating it, not making it. That is why I was quite taken by this recipe: the doughnuts are baked instead of fried and they turned out beautiful, very tender, absolutely delicious.
The filling is oh, so good – I ate several spoonfuls of it before actually assembling the doughnuts. And I’m not ashamed of that. :D

Baked lemon ricotta doughnuts
slightly adapted from the always beautiful and delicious Australian Gourmet Traveller

Dough:
5 1/3 cups (746g) all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
½ cup + 3 ½ tablespoons (142g) superfine sugar
2 ¼ teaspoons (7g /1 sachet) dried yeast
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
1 cup (240ml) lukewarm whole milk, plus extra for brushing
1/3 cup (80ml) buttermilk*
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Lemon ricotta filling:
250g ricotta
¼ cup (50g) superfine sugar
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
juice of 1 lemon
1 large egg

To serve:
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup (200g) superfine sugar
finely grated zest of 1½ lemons

Start by making the dough: combine flour, sugar, yeast and lemon zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix to combine. Whisk together milk, buttermilk, eggs and the melted butter and, with motor running, add to flour mixture, then mix on medium speed until dough is smooth and elastic (4-5 minutes). Shape into a ball, place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and stand in a warm place until doubled in size (1-1½ hours).
Meanwhile, for lemon ricotta filling, process ingredients in a food processor until smooth (1-2 minutes), transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (otherwise it will be too fluid).
Knock back dough, turn onto a lightly floured surface and roll to 5mm thick. Cut 48 rounds with a 7.5cm-diameter cutter (reroll scraps if necessary**). Place a heaped teaspoon of lemon ricotta filling in centre of 24 rounds. Brush edges with milk, cover with the remaining rounds, press to seal edges well. Trim with a 7cm-diameter cutter. Transfer to a large baking sheet, lined with baking paper, cover and stand in a warm place until risen (1-1½ hours), then bake until lightly golden (10-12 minutes).

Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F.
Meanwhile, melt the butter and set aside. Combine sugar and lemon zest in a bowl. Dip hot doughnuts immediately in the melted butter, toss in lemon sugar and serve hot.

* homemade buttermilk: place 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a 240ml-capacity measuring cup and complete with whole milk. Wait 10 minutes for it to thicken, then use the whole mixture in your recipe

** I tried rerolling scraps, but dough became tough, it did not work; so I braided the scraps into several little breads

Makes about 24 doughnuts

Passion fruit poppy seed pound cake

I bought a bag of beautiful, fragrant passion fruit to make Tessa Kiros’s passion fruit ice cream, but since there still was some strawberry cheesecake ice cream in the freezer I had to think of another use for the fruit. I thought of my good friend Ana Elisa, who I’d discussed Tessa’s book with once: I’d told her that I’d bought the book but hadn’t cooked from it yet, and how disappointing that was. “You have to give the book another try, it’s great!” she said. I remembered our conversation, then I remembered an amazing passion fruit cake she’d baked a while ago. Bingo!

I love it when one good thing leads to another – a perfect train of thought. :)

Passion fruit poppy seed pound cake
adapted from Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe, inspired by Ana Elisa’s cake

Cake:
2 cups (240g) cake flour*
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup + 3 tablespoons (156g) unsalted butter, melted and still warm
¼ cup (60ml) heavy cream, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 ½ tablespoons passion fruit pulp, strained
3 tablespoons poppy seeds
4 large eggs
1 ¼ cups (250g) superfine sugar

Passion fruit glaze:
½ cup (70g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1-2 tablespoons passion fruit pulp, strained

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a 22.5x12.5cm (9x5in) loaf pan**, line it with baking paper and butter the paper as well.
In medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, cream, vanilla extract, passion fruit pulp and poppy seeds. The mixture should have the consistency of thick liquid – if too thick, reheat gently until the butter melts again.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar in medium speed for 4-5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture until just combined. Fold ¼ of the egg-flour mixture into the butter mixture to lighten it. Then fold in the remaining mixture until thoroughly combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour or until the cake is risen and golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan over a wire rack for at least 30 minutes then carefully unmold onto another wire rack. Cool completely.
Make the glaze: in a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and passion fruit pulp until smooth. Pour over the cake and let it set for 20 minutes before slicing it.
Cake can be stored tightly wrapped in plastic wrap in room temperature for up to 3 days.

* homemade cake flour: 1 cup (140g) all purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons corn starch

** I made the exact recipe above using a 20x9cm loaf pan

Serves 8