Category: Dessert | Cake

Around Halloween, I was surprised of all the Pecan Pie recipes popping up in all the food blogs. I really love pecans – they were unknown in my childhood in Germany, and even nowadays they’re not available in every supermarket. But most of the recipes also called for corn syrup which rules out for tow reasons – also basically not available in Germany and also potentially containing too much fructose. So I searched around the internet and found that there are recipes for pecan pie with maple syrup. Now that was right up my alley, as there is basically no fructose in it and the taste is just marvelous. And this pie is really tasty, a crunchy buttery crust, maple syrup and pecans that taste like the candied ones from the fair.

PECAN PIE

DOUGH (for 2 open 9-inch pies)
250 g / 8 oz / 2 sticks butter
350 g / 12,5 oz flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
8-12 tablespoons vodka (or any other spirit with 40% alcohol)

FILLING
200 g / 2 cups pecans
250 ml / 1 cup maple syrup
200 g / 1 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
75 g / 5 tablespoons butter
3 large eggs

When making pie dough, there is one key rule to remember: CHILL. That includes the ingredients and yourself. First of all, where’s the fun if you throw a fit over a non-crusty, non-flaky pie shell? And secondly, this shouldn’t happen if you keep the ingredients and the dough on the cool side. And you want a flaky, buttery crust and that only will happen when the butter does not melt in any way (before getting into the oven, of course).

So cut the butter into nice 1/2-inch cubes (I always say about the size of a regular playing dice) and stick them in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Measure the flour, salt and sugar into your largest bowl and give them a couple of quick stirs with a whisk. That way, everything gets mixed well and you don’t have to sift it. I like those little workarounds. While the butter is still in the freezer, why not freeze the flour, too? This may seem a little wacky at first, but once you think about it, it makes sense.

OK, everything chilled? Then take a pastry blender and cut the butter into the flour until it looks coarse and crumbly. Some people say until it looks like coarse cornmeal, but I’ve no idea what that looks like. Anyway, you shouldn’t have any big lumps of butter left, but pea-sized is absolutely OK.

As there are no “chemical” leavening agents like baking powder or yeast in this dough, it’s more about physics. When the butter flakes melt in the oven, they keep layers of dough apart from each other – hence the flaky texture. In a more extreme way, flaky pastry works the same way. So the only leavening agent here is steam that comes from the water/alcohol in the dough and in the butter (ca. 20% water in butter). While the oven and the dough get hotter, the steam expands the “butter pockets” until the starch in the dough part sets.

No comes the genius part: adding the vodka. Or cachaça, as I didn’t have enough vodka. I thought it would be OK as this Brazilian spirit doesn’t have much of a distinctive taste either. Drizzle in a tablespoon at a time, then mix the dough with a spatula (hands are too warm, remember?). Repeat until you see a dough forming, then very quickly knead it with your fingertips a few times to incorporate the last crumbs in the bowl.

What’s this thing about the vodka? Well, you need some kind of liquid to bring the dough together. Water is fine, but if you start kneading the dough, gluten will form out of wheat proteins and the water. And that will result in a tough and chewy dough. Think of a loaf of bread – there you want all the gluten you can get for a chewy, stable structure.

Alcohol on the other hand, moistens the starch but does not react with the wheat proteins to build gluten and so you have a very tender, flaky and crunchy pie shell. And my suspicion is that the lower boiling point of alcohol helps as well.

Then half it, pack each dough ball tightly into plastic wrap and – of course – chill for an hour. As this batch is enough for 2 pies, you can also go ahead and directly freeze the second half for another time.

By the way, if you’re a raw dough eater like me – this one tastes terrible.

I like making double batches – that means going through the trouble once but having twice the fun eating it.

For rolling out the dough, you’ll need lots – and I mean lots – of flour. I like to roll out on a silicone mat, that makes transferring the dough to the pie pan a lot easier. If you don’t have a plastic mat, sacrifice a 1-quart ZipLoc bag and cut it open. I guess regular plastic wrap will be too thin and tear.

See that miniature rolling pin? I have it since I was 6 – it was in a gift set from my uncle, containing other utensil miniatures. The rest of the set was lost in time and several moves, but the rolling pin somehow survived. It works amazingly well and I don’t have really the room for a big one in my kitchen.

OK, roll out the dough until it is a bit bigger than your pie pan. I like those Tefal silicone pans as they have metal incorporated in the rim and are not so terribly wobbly compared to other products.

Now carefully slide your hand under the mat, hold the pie pan with the other hand against and flip it over (do this over the sink because of all the loose flour flying around).

Trim the edges, crimp it any way you like, repair with some patches. Then – surprise! – freeze it for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 180°C / 350°F.

Lay a big piece of baking paper on the dough and put in some kind of heat-resistant weight. I used rice, but you can also use beans, special pie weights or some (cleaned) nuts and bolts from the hardware store. Bake 180°C / 350°F, 10-12 min. with weights, then take the paper with the weight out and bake for another 15-18 min.

While the crust bakes, mix together brown sugar, maple syrup, the eggs and the melted butter. You’ll need three eggs, I just forgot to shoot a photo with the third egg in.

If you want to, you can roast the pecans in a pan or in the oven while the crust is baking. Either chop them or leave them whole, mix with the syrup. Fill this mixture into the pie crust and bake at 160°C / 325°F for 1 hour. Let it cool and enjoy!

This is my husband’s traditional birthday cake. His mother got the recipe out of a magazine a long time ago and since then he HAS to have this cake – otherwise it’s not a proper birthday.

CHOCOLATE BANANA SHEET CAKE

DOUGH
6 large eggs
6 tablespoons water
300 g / 10.5 oz sugar
120 g / 4.2 oz flour
80 g / 2.8 oz starch
50 g / 1.8 oz cocoa powder

VANILLA CREAM
1 package vanilla pudding powder
1 package vanilla sugar or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 l / 2 cups milk
150 g / 5.3 oz butter
3 tablespoons sugar

TOPPING
1 cup strawberry jam
4 tablespoons dark rum
5-7 bananas
200 g / 7 oz dark chocolate

Before you do anything else, preheat your oven to 200°C / 400°F and prepare your baking sheet. I like to use the “deep pan” and some parchment paper that I make stick to the pan with a little bit of butter. Those dark globs are butter.

Weigh out the flour, the starch and the cocoa powder. Then sift it.

If you don’t like sifting (or your sift is in the dishwasher), either mix it with a wire whisk or give it a couple of spins in the food processor. You just don’t want any lumps in your delicate dough.

Separate the 6 eggs. Kinda pretty, isn’t it? Set the yolks aside, we’ll need them later.

Add the water to the egg whites and beat it on medium (with the whisk attachment of course) until it is white and fluffy, then gradually add the sugar and go on beating until you have stiff peaks and some of the sugar is dissolved. It’s a bit like making a meringue.

See? Stiff peaks. That’s what you want.

Legend says that beaten egg whites are just right when the foam can support a whole egg. I’d rather not try this out, but you get the point.

Anyway, slowly stir the yolks into the meringue batter.

Fold in the sifted flour mixture, this must be done very gently. It’s best to do this by hand. And I like adding the flour in 2 to 3 installments.

Once you have a smooth batter, pour it onto your baking sheet and smooth it out.

Then bake it for ca. 20 min. until it feels like a dry sponge.

Turn it over on a cooling rack and get the paper off while the cake is still hot. That side looks much better than the top, right?

That day, I decided to make just half a cake and freeze the rest of the chocolate sponge. Just wrap it in plastic wrap, then in aluminum foil and label it.

I’m just showing you this so you won’t get confused when I write things that don’t 100 percent correspond to the pictures.

Making the vanilla cream is just like cooking pudding, with the difference that you melt the butter with the milk. So basically follow the instructions of your pudding package plus the butter.

This is my half sheet cake and I put it back onto the baking sheet with parchment paper. Then drizzle on the rum so that the cake gets a little bit moist. And tasty. You can’t beat rum in baking.

Stir the strawberry jam until it is spreadable, maybe get some big chunks of strawberry out and cover the whole cake with the jam.
Cut the bananas into 5 mm thick slices and lay them in a single layer on top of the strawberry jam.

Now spread the vanilla cream on top of the bananas and LET. IT. COOL. And it takes quite a while to cool down. I’m always too impatient and try to cover the cake with chocolate too early and all I get is a big mess of pudding and chocolate.

Melt the chocolate over steam or in the microwave and pour it onto the vanilla cream. I guess I was too impatient there as well – something went wrong and the chocolate got white streaks.

Anyway, this cake is terribly tasty and even better the next day.

I must say, I really like cooking and baking, but cookies (especially those for Christmas, named in German “Weihnachtsplätzchen”) never seemed to be right. Either they’re bland and boring. Or burned.
So when I first made this recipe, it was for Cookie Dough Ice Cream, not cookies. But after making a whole batch I realized I only needed half of it for the ice cream. Then I decided to give it a try and bake the rest of it – and to my surprise, it was a full success! Since then, I like baking cookies, at least based on the recipe below.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
adapted from Ben & Jerry

100 g / 1 stick / 1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract OR 1 package vanilla sugar
1 cup / 125 g flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Measure and put aside all your ingredients. The cool thing about this recipe is that you need each measuring cup once. So no messing up other bowls.

Get the butter out of the fridge and let it get to room temperature. If the butter is very cold and you’re in a hurry, here’s a little trick: cut the butter in to cubes (approx. the size of the dice in a regular board game). Let some water boil and put it into your mixing bowl. When the bowl feels hot on the outside, toss the water out, dry the bowl quickly and put in the butter cubes. They will soften in minutes, but will not melt.

Put the paddle attachment on your mixer, and beat the butter with both sugars on medium speed until it looks light and fluffy, and until some sugar crystals have dissolved. Slow down a bit, add the egg and vanilla, speed up again and beat it until you have an emulsion, that is no streaks of egg left.

In my opinion, you should take out the egg out of the fridge with the butter to get to room temperature. This first step of the creaming method is about getting an emulsion between the fat in the butter and the water in the egg. And that simply works best if both ingredients have the same temperature (see mayo post for more insights into emulsions).

Continue with medium speed and add the flour in 2 to 3 installments (slow down for adding, then speed up to mix it all in). With the last installment, add the salt and the baking powder. You want a dough that is soft but keeps its shape.

Go to low speed and add the pecan and chocolate bits. Grab a spoon and taste it. Yum!

In my opinion, this makes a tremendous amount of cookies, especially if there’s just two eaters and the half of the dough is perfect for making a liter/quart of Cookie Dough Ice Cream. Just freeze it in a flat shape between sheets of plastic wrap, cut into pieces and add in the last minute of the ice cream process.

As I like rather smaller cookies, I used my measuring tablespoon to get out equally sized heaps of cookie dough on a parchment paper. As you can see in the photo, those are way to close to each other for baking – that would result in one big rectangular cookie. No, I froze the batter this way and when those little balls were rock-hard I filled them into a Ziploc bag with the baking instruction written on it.

So every time I need cookies, I preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F, take out the amount of cookie dough I think will be enough (of course it never is) and bake them for 12-14 minutes. Yes, with a stopwatch.