2013!

Dear friends, followers, and newcomers I wish you all a very happy and successful new year! Enjoy the last hours of 2012 and have a blast whatever you´ll do. 

I have a lot of new projects for the coming year that I will share with you, so wish me luck for their fulfilment. I am so excited!

See you all next year ; )

♥ Martina ♥

P.S.: these are "pandorini" (= pandori+mini) with berries. Pandoro is a traditional Italian desert (originally from Verona) eaten during the December festivities. It is nothing but sweet yeast bread which is served with vanilla scented icing sugar to resemble the snowy peaks of the Italian Alps during the winter time. Please forgive me for not sharing the recipe this time, but I can tell you which moulds I used: these ones from SiliKoMart!

My hungry stomach moans: crrrrrrrr...umble! With pears & chocolate

Did you know that:

• There are over 3000 varieties of pears grown around the world.
• Pears are native to Asia and Europe. The first pear tree was planted in North America in 1620.
• Pears are a member of the rose family.
• In the Odyssey, Homer called the pear a "gift from the Gods."
• The Chinese considered the pear, which they call "li," to be a symbol of immortality. The destruction of a pear tree symbolized tragic or untimely death.
• In Chinese, fen li means both "to share a pear" and "to separate." Therefore, it is considered bad luck in China to share a pear because it may lead to separation of friends or lovers.
• Before tobacco was introduced in Europe, pear leaves were smoked.
• The Bartlett is the most popular variety of pear in the United States. In Europe, the Bartlett is known as the Williams. It got its American name when a Bostonian named Enoch Bartlett bought a pear orchard and, not knowing the pears already had a name, began distributing them as Bartlett pears.
• You can use them as an alternative to apples to bake a delicious crumble!

Ingredients:

for the crumble topping

225 gr. plain or wholewheat flour

75 gr. butter at room temperature

75g - 110g brown sugar

for the filling

900g of pears

chocolate chips

What to do:

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Peel, chop, and place the pears into a casserole dish and spinkle over the chocolate chips then prepare the crumble topping. Put the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the butter. Rub the flour and butter together until it looks crumbly and the butter has been evenly dispersed through the flour. Add the sugar and mix together to ensure that everything is combined. Sprinkle the crumble topping evenly over the top of the pears using a fork to even out the distribution but don't press it down. Cook in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes until lightly golden brown. Let it cool for a while then sprinkle some powdered sugar and enjoy with a glass of chocolate milk.

♥ Martina ♥

Season´s greetings

Dear readers of the Home sweet Bakery I wish a very merry Xmas and jolly holidays!

♥Martina♥

Christmas is coming... - 4th advent Sunday

So here we are! It´s the last Sunday before Christmas: all the presents are under the tree, the family has reunited, all the decorations are done, the menu for our Christmas dinner is set, and the jolly atmosphere  is filling my apartment. 

Whilst I am blogging right now, I am watching Nigella´s Christmas Cooking on tv... WOW! I would love to be able to cook like she does. If you are still clueless for your Christmas feast, have a look at her blog.

Anyways, we are here now for the fourth and last recipe of my Xmas cookies: the gingerbread snow flakes. I must be honest with you. . . I´m not fond of gingerbread  ☺ so these cookies were for my neighbours, who really appreciated!

Ingredients: 

400 gr. plain flour

180 gr. butter

125 gr. brown sugar

1 egg

125 gr. honey

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

For the icing:

water

icing sugar

lemon juice

For the icing I don´t follow a particular quantities. I simply take a bowl, pour some icing sugar in it, a little little little bit of water and a couple of drops of lemon juice. Then I stir and according to the consistency of it I either add water or sugar. It doesn´t have too bee too thick nor too liquid.

Procedure:

1. Sift together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl and set aside. Put the butter and sugar in a freestanding electric mixer and cream on slow speed until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat in the egg and honey. 
2. Turn the mixer back down to slow speed and slowly add the flour mixture a couple of tablespoons at a time, stopping often to scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl. Once an even dough has formed, take it out of the mixer, divide into 3 and wrap each piece in cling film. Leave to rest for at least a couple of hours. 
3. When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 170°C. Take the dough out of the fridge and leave it to soften for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle a clean work surface with flour and roll out the dough to a thickness of about 4 mm. Cut out shapes with your cookie cutters. Arrange the cookies on the baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for about 10–15 minutes. 
4. Leave the cookies to cool slightly. If you want to use them simply as a decoration you can start decorating right away. If you also want to eat them I recommend you leave them overnight in a tupperware with two halves of an apple.

Enjoy ♥

Martina

P.S.: thank you dear followers!

Who is Santa?

You better watch out

You better not cry

Better not pout

I´m telling you why

Santa Claus is coming to town

He´s making a list

And checking it twice

He´s gonna find out who´s naughty and nice

Santa Claus is coming to town

Actually Santa is already at my house. I guess he just wanted to peek over my shoulder as I was baking this gingerbread house and probably he also wanted a bite of it. 

Guess who he is!

a) the real Santa!!! The one and only! WOW!

b) one of his elves trying to take advantage of his boss´s privileges

c) my silly brother with his silly xmas pyjamas 

If you want to try and make a gingerbread house all on your own from scratch I can recommend two recipes. I usually follow this recipe from Taste.com because it´s very simple and there are fewer ingredients compared to other recipes, but I also like the one of the Hummingbird Bakery in London (by the way I have both their cook books and they are full of amazing recipes! I really recommend them). If you only feel like having fun decorating you can also buy prepared gingerbread dough; it´s easy to find around this time of the year.

For the decorations I use royal icing and anything sweet and colourful I have in my kitchen, such as gumdrops, dragees, sprinkles, sugar pearls, jimmies, hearts, stars, and so on.

For the icing I don´t follow a particular recipe. I simply take a bowl, pour some icing sugar in it, a little little little bit of water and a couple of drops of lemon juice. Then I stir and according to the consistency of it I either add water or sugar. It doesn´t have too bee too thick nor too liquid otherwise the decorations won´t stick and your house will not glue together.

If you do everything right you will have so much fun and the result will surely be cool!

Enjoy ♥

Martina

P.S.: dear Anja, Sandra, and Kristi (giveaway winners) your personalised canvases are finished! Your parcels are also ready for shipping; I am going to the post office tomorrow morning. Congratulations again, have fun!

It looks even more like Christmas - 3rd advent Sunday

The third advent Sunday has come (-1 week to Christmas!!! Yuhuuuuu!) and with it the third recipe for my Christmas cookies: the whole wheat hearts dipped in chocolate. They are really easy to bake and taste sooo good.

 

Ingredients: 

250 gr. butter

100 gr. whole wheat flour

70 gr. brown sugar
a teaspoon of cinnamon
baking chocolate

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 180°C. With an electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Then add the flour, the sugar, and the cinnamon. Mix until combined and then chill the dough for 10 minutes in the refrigerator. Roll out the dough on a flat surface (with flour) about one centimetre thick and using a cookie cutter form your stars. Half of them must have a hole in the middle. Put them on an oven dish and bake for 7-10 minutes. Let the cookies cool down and in the meantime melt the chocolate. Then dip one side in it; when cool enjoy!

♥Martina♥

P.S.: do you remember the other two recipes? If not check out the post from the 1st advent and from the 2nd advent Sunday.

Winners!!!

Ladies & Gentlemen.... may I have your attention please.... drumroll......... 

Today I am proud to announce the 3 winners of the giveaway!

The winners will be contacted by email for further details :-)

1st place goes to: Apfelstudelkuchen!

2nd place goes to: Kristi Janku from Kiki´s Cooking Time!

3rd place goes to: Anja from Meine Torteria!

There were 45 contestants for three gifts, so each one of you had 6,6667% chance of winning. Unfortunately I cannot send a present to each one, but I thank you for entering and for the lovely feedback. It was so much fun!
Enjoy your presents,

♥Martina♥

Giveaway bonus prizes!

There are only five days left to enter the Home sweet Bakery´s GIVEAWAY and I have decided to enrich the winner´s boxes with some extra gadgets. Since I have a good reason to celebrate (my blog is now 1 year and 1 month old), I also have a good reason to give you more presents!!! So don´t wait any longer, the contest ends this Fridayyyyyy!

The bonus prizes which will be added to the three kitchen/baking kits are: decorating masking tape, dish towels, edible colored sugar, and a pocket warmer. There will be 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place and the winners will be drawn randomly (by random.org).

Here are the rules once again: 

This is a WORLDWIDE giveaway so it is open to followers all over the world. The contest ends December, Friday 14th at midnight and the winners will be announced on Saturday 15th.

   1. become a fan of the Home sweet Bakery on Facebook by clicking HERE;

  2. become public follower of this blog by clicking HERE;

  3. leave a comment either here or on the Facebook wall with your email address (so I can contact you).

And... If you want an extra entry share this post on your Facebook Wall or publish it on your blog (if you have it).

GOOD LUCK!!!

It does look a lot like Christmas - 2nd advent Sunday

Do you remember the post for the first advent Sunday?
The first Christmas cookies came out from my oven, yummy yummy!
Last week I shared with you the recipe for the chocolate short bread cookies, this week it´s the whole wheat short bread stars with jam.

Ingredients: 

250 gr. butter

100 gr. whole wheat flour

70 gr. brown sugar
a teaspoon of cinnamon
your favourite jam

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 180°C. With an electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Then add the flour, the sugar, and the cinnamon. Mix until combined and then chill the dough for 10 minutes in the refrigerator. Roll out the dough on a flat surface (with flour) about one centimetre thick and using a cookie cutter form your stars. Half of them must have a hole in the middle. Put them on an oven dish and bake for 7-10 minutes. Let the cookies cool down, then assemble them. The stars without the hole are the basis for the jam, the ones with the hole are the "lid". Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and enjoy!

♥ Martina ♥

P.S. don´t forget to enter the GIVEAWAY! 

Only 5 days left and more surprises are yet to come. . .

And pour toi a creamy mille-feuille

A couple of weeks ago was my bf´s birthday and I just did not want to bake an ordinary birthday cake, one of those I am specialized in. So I decided to experiment with the french pastry...

Also known as the napoleon the mille feuille, is traditionally made up of 3 layers of puff pastry and 2 layers of crème pâtissière. The variant name of napoleon appears to come from napolitain, the French adjective to describe things and people from the Italian city of Naples. Although is has been altered by association with the name of Emperor Napoleon I of France, there is no evidence to connect the pastry with the emperor himself.

Anyways i just felt like trying something new and it worked out quite well! If you are not an excellent baker or simply do not want to make a mess out of your kitchen, and do not have much time I recommend you buy prepared puff pastry. You can find it in all supermarkets! Making home made puff pastry from scratch is not too difficult (I tried) but extremely time consuming, so I admit it, I also buy the prepared one. Otherwise you can try making it yourself following this recipe from Homecooking.

What I still rather do myself is the crème pâtissière, because it always tastes way better then the prepared one (which you don´t find here in Austria anyways) and because it´s very easy and quick to make.

Ingredients:

4 eggs

100 gr. sugar

75 gr. flour

1/2 liter milk

the peel of a lemon

1 spoon on cinnamon

1 vanilla bean

What to do:

Put the milk in a pan with the lemon peel, the cinnamon, and the vanilla seeds (which you extract from the bean) and cook. Remove the pan from the stove and in the meantime whisk the sugar with the egg yolks (don´t ever throw the whites away!). Add the sugar-yolks-mixture to the milk and stir quickly to prevent the eggs from cooking. Finally add the flour and keep stirring to avoid lumps. When the mixture is homogeneous put the pan on the stove at low temperature and keep stirring until the cream is thick. Let it cool for a while then you can arrange your cake: one layer of puff pastry, one of cream, one of puff pastry, one of cream, one of puff pastry. If you like you can also put some fruit such as berries; I went for raspberries inside and strawberries on top. And don´t forget to sprinkle some confectioner´s sugar.

♥ Enjoy

Martina

P.S. don´t forget to enter the GIVEAWAY!

It´s beginning to look a lot like Christmas - 1st advent Sunday

Have you noticed the snow falling whilst you are reading this? And the lovely gingerbread man following you all over the blog? Yes, it´s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Today is the first Sunday of the Advent and I can finally feel the jolly atmosphere, which comes once a year. Just to get started I have made our Advent garland, decorated the Christmas tree, and baked cookies!!! Yes, lovely and tasty Christmas cookies; here´s the menu:

chocolate shortbread all shapes cookies

whole wheat shortbread stars with jam

whole wheat shortbread hearts dipped in chocolate

gingerbread snow flakes

Since there are 4 different types of cookies, I decided to post one recipe each Advent Sunday until Christmas. So here is the first one: chocolate shortbread all shapes cookies.

Ingredients: 

250 gr. butter

100 gr. flour

70 gr. sugar

3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 180°C. With an electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Then add the flour, the sugar, and the cocoa powder. Mix until combined and then chill the dough for 10 minutes in the refrigerator. Roll out the dough on a flat surface (with flour) about one centimetre thick and using a cookie cutter form your cookies. Put them on an oven dish and bake for 7-10 minutes. Let the cookies cool down, then sprinkle with powdered sugar, and enjoy!

♥ Martina ♥

P.S. don´t forget to enter the GIVEAWAY!

Giveaway!

The blog of the Home sweet Bakery is one year and one month old! Yey yey yey happy birthday! To celebrate this occasion, instead of receiving presents . . . I´ll give YOU presents!!! Cool isn´t it?

The prizes are three colourful kitchen/baking kits full of surprises: oven gloves, muffin and cupcake paper cases, cookie cutters, cookie packets, ice shapes, ribbons, and a special personalized gift. There will be 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place and the winners will be drawn randomly (by random.org).

This is a WORLDWIDE giveaway so it is open to followers all over the world. The contest starts today November, 29th and ends December, Friday 14th at midnight. The winners will be announced on Saturday 15th.

To participate:

   1. become a fan of the Home sweet Bakery on Facebook by clicking HERE;

  2. become public follower of this blog by clicking HERE;

  3. leave a comment either here or on the Facebook wall with your email address (so I can contact you).

And... If you want an extra entry share this post on your Facebook Wall or publish it on your blog (if you have it).

GOOD LUCK!!!