Kitty's Corner

It feels as if it's been ages since I baked cookies. It's simply because the days only have so many hours and it can be quite a challenge to prioritise between chores.

But anyway! It's Christmas soon, and I really wanted to bake. Zaphira's Recipe Service (ZRS) is proud to present:

Zaph's Blueberry and White chocolate Cookies
(makes 20)

Ingredients:
115 grams of butter (4.1 Oz.)
115 grams of light cane sugar (4.1 Oz.)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
70 grams of oatmeal (2.6 Oz.)
150 grams white chocolate (5.3 Oz.)
70 grams dried blueberries (2.6 Oz.)
150 grams wheat flour (5.3 Oz.)
2 teaspoons baking powder

How to do:
Whip the butter and the sugar until it's light and creamy. Add the eggs, one by one, and whip thoroughly between each.

Add the oatmeal and the vanilla and stir with a spoon until well mixed.

Chop the chocolate into large chunks and pour them into the batter along with the dried blueberries. Stir.

Now add the flour and the baking powder and stir until all is well mixed.

Put teaspoons of batter on a baking paper covered baking plate. Make a bit of space between each. There can be about 10 cookies on one baking plate.



Put them into a pre-heated oven and bake for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (392 F).



Enjoy!

Hi everybody.

It's been forever since I last posted a recipe. It's been so long that I may have readers that don't even know that I offer such a service. Well, I do. If you want to see what recipes I've invented and posted so far, this link will take you to them.

I got myself a new cookery book recently, with cakes and desserts in it. Problem is that most of the recipes are so high on fat that I will gain a couple of kilos just considering making some of them. But the book is good for inspiration. up

I've taken one of the recipes and made it my own, reduced fat & sugar, changed a bit here and there, and please allow me to show you the result.

Zaphira's Recipe Service (ZRS) proudly presents:

Zaph's Winter Cake
(serves at least 8)

Ingredients:
3 eggs
200 grams sugar
100 grams marzipan
Zest of 1 lemon
1 large teaspoon vanilla
100 ml yoghurt
3 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cardamom
Half a teaspoon tablesalt
200 grams flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

3 large ripe apples
100 grams sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Topping:
100 grams almonds
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Method :

Whip the eggs and sugar up thoroughly, until it's very light yellow.

Grate the marzipan. It's easy if you store it in the fridge so it's cold when you grate it. Zest the lemon.

Mix marzipan, lemon zest and vanilla into the batter.

Add oil and yoghurt, and stir.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom together and flip it all into the batter. Stir carefully.

Peel & core the apples and cut them into little bits. Turn them into the cinnamon/sugar mix.

Pour half of the batter into a greased baking form (or use baking paper). Pour half of the apple bits over the batter. Cover the apples with the rest of the batter and spread the remaining apples over the batter.



Peel the almonds and chop them up. Sprinkle them over the cake along with the two teaspoons of cinnamon.



Bake it for an hour at 175 degrees Celsius.

Cool before serving.

And here's the result:



Mmmm... it's yummy! chef

It's Shrovetide today. Or as we call it in Danish: Fastelavn.

Fastelavn evolved from the Roman Catholic tradition of celebrating in the days before Lent, but after Denmark became a Protestant nation, the holiday became less specifically religious. This holiday occurs seven weeks before Easter Sunday and is sometimes described as a Nordic Halloween, with children dressing up in costumes and gathering treats for the Fastelavn feast.

There's another thing that's special about fastelavn. And that's the fastelavnsboller - the Shrovetide buns. You can buy them at every baker here, but hey - I love to bake, so I thought I'd try and make some myself.

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, Zaphira's Recipe Service (ZRS) proudly presents:

Pistachio Shrovetide buns

(makes 8-10)

Ingredients:
150 ml low fat milk (5 fl. Oz.)
2 tablespoons yoghurt
30 grams yeast (1 Oz.)
1 egg
50 grams white sugar (1.8 Oz)
300 grams wheat flour (10.6 Oz.)

50 grams grated marzipan (1.8 Oz.)
150 gram marzipan with pistachios

What to do:

Warm the milk up to luke warm and pour the yoghurt in. Stir well.

Dissolve the yeast in the milk/yoghurt. Make sure there's no lumps.

Put in the egg and the sugar and stir again.

Now it's time to add the flour. Put in about half of it and stir with a spoon until the dough seems smooth.

Then add the rest of the flour, little by little and knead the dough until it smooth and soft.

Stuff it back into the bowl and let it rise for half an hour in a place that's not too cold.

After the dough has risen, pour it out on the kitchen table and knead it again.

Divide the dough into 10 pieces and shape them into round buns.

Place them onto a baking paper covered baking plate and grate the marzipan over them.
Press the marzipan slightly onto the buns so you're sure it sticks to the buns, also when baked.

Cover them with a tea towel and let them rise for another half hour.


Remove the tea towel, and stick three or four fingers into the middle of the bun to make a "hole" - check the picture to see what that looks like now.



Then squeeze the green pistachio marzipan into the holes. Don't be tight fisted with it, it tastes really good.


Let them rest and rise again, for another half hour. (Yes, these buns take a lot of patience to make, but believe me, they're worth the effort! )

Turn on the oven, so it's nice and warm when the buns have risen.

Now stick the buns in the oven and bake them for approximately 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celcius (392 degrees Fahrenheit).

Take them out of the oven and let them cool.

You can decorate them with icing if you like, but I think they're just as good without.

As you can see, I laid my hands on the model before I even took the picture of it.



Happy shrovetide - and enjoy the buns!

Once upon a time, years ago, a kitten posted a recipe on her blog. For some reasons, the recipe suddenly turned invisible, so no one could actually bake the delicious cookies the Kitty had blogged about.

The Kitty has now decided that the recipe has been held secret long enough.

Therefore, dudes and dudettes, Zaphira's recipe service (ZRS) proudly re-present:

Christmas Biscotti ~ Or: Almond cookies

(If you've seen this recipe before, you've known me for more that two years. We should celebrate that! )

The ingredients
3 eggs
300 g icing sugar (0.661 lbs)
200 g almonds (0.441 lbs)
300 g wheat flour (0.661 lbs)
1.5 teaspoon of baking powder
1.5 teaspoon of cinnamon (can be left out when it's not Christmas)




How to do:

Whip the eggs thoroughly with the sugar.

The longer time you whip it, the more delicious cookies you'll get.
So don't feel tempted to rush it!




And now for the almonds! You don't have to blanch them, just use them as they are.



Chop the almonds. Not into too little pieces, just in halves.

If you're lazy, skip the chopping and just pour them whole into the eggs and sugar. I think it tastes better if you chop them a little bit, though. Stir.



Pour in the baking powder, the cinnamon and the wheat flour.
Mix it into the batter with a spoon.
If it gets too dry, you may want to add a spoonful of milk.



Place the batter onto two baking plates with a spoon.
This quantity of batter will make 5 of these "rolls".

Bake them for 25 minutes by 175°C (347°F)

Take them out of the oven and let them cool off for 5 minutes.




Cut the "rolls" into pieces, about 1½ cm wide (0.6 inches)

Put them back into the oven, and let them dry. If you have a hot air oven, you can turn off the heating, and if you don't, then turn the temperature down to 100°C (212°F).

Dry them for about 20 minutes, until they are golden.




Let them cool of, and it is time to enjoy the newly baked home made Christmas Biscotti!

There's a Danish cake called "Citronmåne" - or lemon half moon - or Kopenhagener Torte. It looks like this:



If you cut off half the bottom layer, and eat the rest, then the cake matches the amount of icing. It's full of fat and artificial flavours, so when I really feel like eating a cake like this, I bake my own version.

ZRS (Zaphira's Recipe Service) presents:

Zaph's Lemon Cake

You'll need:

2 eggs
225 gram white sugar
150 ml low fat milk
25 gram oil
1 lemon, the juice and the grated peel of it
180 gram wheat flour
2 teaspoon baking powder


Icing:
100 gram icing sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice


Whip the eggs with the sugar till it's fluffy and almost white.

Grate the peel of the lemon, and squeeze the juice out of it. Add both peel and juice to the egg mix. Stir.

Add milk and oil, and whip again.

Mix the flour and the baking powder and add it into the dough. Mix it with a spoon.

Pour it into a baking paper foiled baking tin and bake for 40 minutes at 175 degrees Celcius.

When it's done, take it out of the oven and let it cool.

Make the icing: Mix sugar and lemon juice. Pour it over the cake.



Enjoy. :yum: