My (Easter) cooking

Dear friends I know this post isn´t about baking only and that more than one week has passed, but I had to proudly share with you my Easter cooking: I made my very first successful Austrian Tafelspitz with savoury carrot-zucchini-muffins, salted crackers, and goose fois gras. Hope this looks tempting to you...

Tafelspitz is nothing but boiled beef and is considered to be one of the national dishes of Austria and is equally popular and appreciated in the neighbouring german region of Bavaria. Tafelspitz was the favourite dish of the Emperor Franz Joseph and I like it too!

Tafelspitz recipe:

1 round of beef with a little fat (weight according to number of people)

3 carrots

3 turnips/parsnips

1 small celery 

1 onion (optional - I don´t use it)

10 pepper grains

2 juniper berries

a bunch of parsley leaves

salt

Put all the vegetables, grains, and berries in a pot with 3 to 5 litres of water (according to the weight of the meat) and bring to a boil. Then add the meat and let it cook for at least 3 hours. Then It´s ready! Serve with carrots or other boiled vegetables and Austrian apple-horseradish-sauce.

Savoury carrot-zucchini-muffins are really easy to do, they are quickly cooked, and taste delicious. What you need is shortcrust pastry, 2 eggs, salt, 2 boiled zucchini, and 2 boiled carrots (of course you can boil them with the Tafelspitz to be faster). For the dough I follow this recipe, then I mince the zucchini and carrots, and beat the eggs and salt in the vegetable mix. I cover the inside of some aluminium moulds with the shortcrust pastry and pour the vegetable filling in the middle. I always like to make a little decoration on top with the dough; this time it was a braid. Then I bake them at 180°C for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Last but not least the salted crackers with French fois gras. To make the crackers I use the same shortcrust pastry of the muffins, some cute cookie cutters (this time it was a most appropriate goose), some salt grains, and rosmary or oregano. I cut the dough, sprinkle over the raw crackers the salt and herbs, and bake at 180°C for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. They taste lovely with this French specialty - for those who like it - or else with fresh cheese, salami, or spreads.They are also a nice idea for a prezzie if you are invited over from a friend. 

Enjoy ✿

Martina

Banachoc muffins

Hey all! Did you have a nice weekend? A nice, intense, and sunny weekend? I did!

And to fill my belly... banana and chocolate muffins! For the dough simply follow this recipe with half the ingredients. Well of course you can use the same amounts if you plan on making many many many muffins, but remember that bananas have to be eaten within a couple of days. For the icing I smashed one banana and mixed it with icing sugar, a spoon of butter, and cocoa powder. And there you are: a very easy recipe which doesn´t look to pretentious but tastes delightful. By the way the way the cases I used are from the Spanish brand Lekue, they are made of silicon, can go in the oven, can be washed in the dishwasher, plus they are really cute, and useful. 

Enjoy ♥

Martina

Aperitivo muffins

The weekend is over . . . but it was a good one!

The weather was nice, I went riding, walking the dog, I saw friends, had hot punch, ate chestnuts in front of the fire, played monopoly, took pictures, and baked!

I want to share with you a very simple savoury muffin recipe you can do to have a little something to bite during your happy hour (or as we say in Italy: aperitivo). 

Ingredients:

250 gr. flour

250 gr. of cheese (I prefer parmesan, but you can also use cheddar, gouda or emmental)

2 eggs

250 ml. water

200 ml. milk (or water again if you want to make a lighter version)

50 ml. olive oil

basil or sage if you like

Procedure:

Beat the eggs with the water, milk and oil. In a separate bowl mix the flour, the cheese and the basil/sage. Then stir both mixtures together until smooth. 

Bake in the preheated oven at 190°C for 20 minutes; when well risen and golden brown they are ready.

Eat while still warm so the cheese will go stringy.

Don´t forget your aperitivo: I love to combine them with a spritz Aperol and Pimm´s!

Enjoy lovin´ from the oven ♥

Martina

Double trouble caldron bubble

Trick or treat? Treats, treats, treats! Lemon curd muffins, apple crumbles, chocolate brownies, cake-pops, and sweet bread. No tricks, only delicious treats this Halloween.

And by the way I want to wish a happy and spooky birthday to my brother, my little monster, and shrieking creature Egon!

Enjoy the sweets and this spell

from Macbeth

of William Shakespeare

In a dark cave. In the middle a caldron boiling. Thunder. Three witches.

Thrice the brinded cat hath mew´d.

Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin´d.

Harpier cries: ´tis time! ´tis time!

Round about the caldron go;

In the poison´d entrails throw.

Toad, that under cold stone,

Days and nights has thirty-one;

Sweletr´d venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i´ the charmed pot!

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron coil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder´s fork, and blind-worm´s sting,

Lizard´s leg, and owlet´s wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;

Witches´ mummy; maw and gulf

Of the ravin´d salt-sea shark;

Root of hemlock digg´d i the dark;

Liver of blaspheming Jew;

Gall of goat, and slips of yew

Silver´d in the moon´s eclipse;

Nose of Turk, and Tartar´s lips;

Finger of birth-strangled babe

Ditch-deliver´d by a drab,

Make the gruel thick and slab:

Add thereto a tiger´s chaudron,

For the ingredients of our caldron.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

Cool it with a baboon´s blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.

Cu♥re italiano: pizza muffins

I came up with this new and cool idea: pizza muffins! It's nothing else than pizza dough filled with whole cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, and basilico, baked in a muffin mould. They are great for parties or simply when you feel like having a special snack.

Since I gave you the pizza recipe on one of my previous posts (this one) you can try them out yourself! When they are ready just a bit of olive oil and some fresh basilico leaves will give the real Italian touch to the English-born muffins.

Enjoy ♥

Martina

La vie en rose

Hi all! I'm back, back to my roots, back to baking! I know, I know I haven't been an assiduous blogger lately, but I'm full of ideas for this upcoming spring, so I promise I'll post much more often.

Since the weather still isn't exactly spring-like and I'm longing for the sun sooooo badly, I decided to anticipate the smell of flowers and the taste of them... Yes, the TASTE of roses! 

So I baked pink muffins with rose flavour.

What you need for about 12 muffin:

110 gr. butter

110 gr. sugar

110 gr. flour

1 spoon of baking powder

2 eggs

1 spoon of milk

1 pinch of salt

rose extract

pink or red food colouring

How to proceed:

Preheat the oven at 180° C and prepare the paper cases in the muffin tray.

Mix the butter with the sugar, the eggs, and the rose axtract (as much as you like - I put one spoon). When you get a fluffy consistency add the flour, the baking powder, the food colouring, and the milk. If the dough is too sandy add more milk.

Put the batter in the cases and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Before you eat them wait untill they cool down, otherwise you won't taste the intensity of the rose.

And when you'll savour them you'll see la vie en rose...

Enjoy ♥

Martina

Rocking around the Xmas goodies

Yesterday evening I had the most delightful Xmas get together with my friends: Romina, Nils, Anna, Karina, Johannes, and my brother Egon. I spent such a nice and cozy time... a pity that some other friends couldn't make it.

I made pizza with real Italian mozzarella di bufala and basilico, muffins with pears and cinnamon, and chocolate chip cookies. My dear friend Anna also baked, she made the most beautiful (AND DELICIOUS) Christmas Sachertorte ever!!! A bottle of Prosecco and we were set.

I received chocolate, amarillis, home-made cookies, and some beautiful cupcake earings. I like presents! Then Nils took the guitar and played and sang for us all "Last Christmas" and "Rudolph the red nosed raindeer", the Jack Johnson version which I love. I like that song because my mom calls me Rudolph in the winter time since my nose is always red from the cold :)

Thankyou for the special evening. Love you all!

Enjoy ♥

Martina

 

 ready to bite the feast!

 the boys!

 smile it's Christmas time!

 Karina & Egon, so sweet...

 MUFFINS!

 

the masterpiece... it was such a shame having to cut it, but no regrets while eating it!

my new earings, thanks to Romi & Nils!

Anna the baker: ally or competitor ;) 

 my favourite couple!



Autumn leaves

If I were to say that this weekend has been intense I would say too little about the past days. It would be like saying that the autumn leaves are orange and red although all together they create a blaze of colours.

Surprising, hectic, dynamic, crazy, funny, sweet, flowery, sunny, warm, friendly, weird, unexpected, so it was been. Ending up in a weird cave club, sightseeing and showing my friend around Salzburg, eating Sacher Torte by the river, enjyoing the autumn sun in the Allee, feeding horses whilst fighting allergies, and of course baking; nothing more, nothing less than a lovely couple of days. 

Furthermore over the weekend the HsB has been very much appreciated and I really hope to get more positive feedback about my baking activity. So I'm sharing with you these tasty autumn muffins with lemon peel, ginger, and cinnamon, glazed with maple syrup.

Enjoy ♥
Martina

 

P.S. Thankyou for the flowers...

P.P.S. here's the recipe!

Ingredients:
150 gr. butter
125 gr. brown sugar
175 gr. flour
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of milk
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
the peel of 1-2 lemons
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
&
maple syrup or honey for the glaze

Procedure:
Put all the ingerdients in your mixer to obtain a smooth mixture. Put the batter in the paper cases and bake in the preheated oven at 160°C for about 20 minutes.
Glaze your muffins with the syrup/honey and enjoy with a cup of apple and cinnamon tea.