spice – Cake to the people

Spicy Pear Muffins

February 20, 2019February 19, 2019Posted in chocolate, cinnamon, cream cheese frosting, fruit, muffins, pear, spiceTagged chocolate, muffins, pear, spiceLeave a comment

Time to bring back some fruits. These muffins are moist and filled with flavor, and they turned out to be a hit with my father.

Ingredients
Pear Sauce/Jam
10-12 pears (chopped)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cardamom

Batter
200 g (7 oz) butter (melted)
100 g (3,5 oz) sugar
3 eggs
300 g (10,5 oz) plain flour
2 tsp vanilla sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cardamom
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 tbsp of cocoa

Frosting/Decoration
Powdered sugar
Vanilla sugar
Cream Cheese
Water

Chopped Almonds

How to do it
Pear Sauce/Jam

Chop the pears, and put them in a saucepan.
Mix in cinnamon and cardamom.
Heat up the pears, and let it simmer until much of the fluids has evaporated.
Let the sauce/jam cool down a bit.

Batter

Preheat the oven to 200 ºC/ 395 ºF.
Melt the butter and let it cool down a bit.
In a large bowl, mix together eggs and sugar until you have a thick and fluffy mixture.
Stir in the melted butter.
In a separate bowl, mix together plain flour, baking powder vanilla sugar and the spices, then slowly add them to the mixture and stir until you have a smooth batter.
Carefully stir in the pear sauce/jam with a wooden spoon.
With a couple of spoons, transfer the batter to muffins liners in a cupcake/muffins form.
When you’ve transferred about 1/2 of the batter into muffins liners, stir in 2 tbsp of cocoa to the rest of the batter. Then transfer the rest of the batter to muffins liners in a cupcake/muffins form.

Bake the muffins in the middle of the oven until they have a golden surface, or until a skewer put in the center of the muffins comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes.
Take the muffins out of the oven, and let them cool down in the muffins/cupcake form for a few minutes. Then let them cool down on a cooling rack.

Frosting/Decoration

Mix together powdered sugar, vanilla sugar (1-2 tsp), cream cheese (about 2 tbsp) and water until you have a smooth, yet fluid, mix.
Cover the muffins with the frosting and decorate with chopped almonds.

Enjoy!

Banana Pancakes

January 14, 2019Posted in banana, fruit, pancake, spiceTagged banana, fruit, healthy, pancakeLeave a comment

Sunday breakfast, dessert or just in the mood for something sweet, yet good for you. Try out these banana pancakes!

Ingredients
1 banana
1 egg
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp cinnamon

How to do it

In a bowl, mash the banana.
Add the egg, and mix well.
Add cardamom and cinnamon to the batter.

Heat a non-stick frying pan on medium heat.
Transfer about 1/2 – 3/4 dl (1/4 cup) batter into the frying pan. (These pancakes are not as easy turn around as regular pancakes, so make small pancakes.)
When the surface is dry, turn the pancake and fry it on the other side until it has a golden surface.

Serve the pancakes with some fresh fruit, berries, ice cream or whatever you like!

Enjoy!

Holiday Leftovers – Apple and Pear Dessert

January 7, 2019January 6, 2019Posted in apple, dessert, fruit, nuts, pear, spiceTagged apple, crisp, dessert, fruit, healthy, leftovers, pear, yoghurtLeave a comment

January is here. With new year resolutions and leftovers from the Holidays. So, for my first recipe in 2019, I wanted to combine the two. A quite healthy dessert, but with lots of flavor. And you can even eat it for breakfast! Happy New Year, People!

Ingridients (about 4 portions)
Crisp
2,5 dl (1 cup) oatmeal
1-2 handfuls of almonds (chopped)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
1 tbsp honey
1 handful of raisins

Apple & Pear Sauce/Jam
3 apples (chopped)
3 pears (chopped)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom

Greek yoghurt with vanilla

How to do it
Crisp

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat.
Add oatmeal, chopped almonds, cinnamon and cardamom to the pan, and mix it together.
Add and stir in the honey, and keep stirring.
When the mix starts to golden, add the raisins, and stir until you have a golden crisp.
Let the crisp cool down.

Apple & Pear Sauce/Jam

Chop the apples and the pears, and put them in a saucepan.
Mix in cinnamon and cardamom.
Heat up the apples and pears, and let it simmer until you have the preferred texture (the longer you let it simmer, the smoother it gets).
Let the sauce/jam cool down.

Put it all together
In a dessert bowl, or a glass, add a tablespoon of yoghurt, then a tablespoon of apple and pear sauce and then a tablespoon of crisp. Repeat.

Enjoy!

Btw:
If you want to make a “party version” of this dessert, roast the crisp in some butter and add some sugar, and replace the yoghurt with whipped cream. You can also use leftover cookies or biscuits instead of making crisp.

Last Minute Christmas Cookies

December 24, 2018December 24, 2018Posted in chocolate, christmas, cinnamon, cookies, holidays, licorice, nuts, spiceTagged christmas, cookies, holidays, lastminute, spiceLeave a comment

I don´t know why, but somehow Christmas comes as a surprise every year. This year was no exception, so I needed to make some super fast, super easy Christmas cookies. With 3 main ingredients that can easily be mixed with additional/optional ingredients, these cookies are perfect for some last minute baking.

Ingredients
200 g (7 oz) softened butter
100 g (3,5 oz) powdered sugar
400 g (14 oz) plain flour

Additional/optional ingredients
Cinnamon, cardamom, ground ginger, allspice, chopped chocolate, chopped almonds or other nuts, powdered licorice, cocoa, pearl sugar…

How to do it

Mix together softened butter and powdered sugar. I use a stand mixer, but you can also use your hands.
Slowly add the plain flour, and mix until you have a smooth dough.
Divide the dough into separate pieces, and add any preferred optional ingredients. (I first divided the dough into 2 pieces, then mixed in the spices in one of them. Then I divided the 2 doughs into more pieces, and mixed in chopped chocolate, chopped almonds and powdered licorice to the different pieces.)
Roll out the different pieces until they are about 3-4 cm (1,5 inches) diameter, then place them on a cutting board and cover them with plastic foil.

Place the rolls in a cool place for 30-45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 250 ºC/ 480 ºF, and line a baking sheet.
Cut the rolls into cookie sized pieces (about 1 cm thick), and place them on the baking sheet.
Bake in the middle of the oven until the cookies start to get a golden surface, about 5 minutes.
Let the cookies cool down on a cooling rack.

Merry Christmas!

Roll with the Season – Saffron and Cinnamon Rolls

December 22, 2018December 22, 2018Posted in buns, cinnamon, rolls, saffron, spiceTagged buns, cinnamon, rolls, saffronLeave a comment

Roll with the season and make these spicy rolls!

Ingridients
200 g (7 oz) softened butter
150 g (5,5 oz) sugar
1 egg
13 g dry yeast (or 50 regular yeast)
1 kg (2,2 lb) plain flour
6 dl (2 1/4 cup) milk
3-4 tsp cardamom

Filling (cinnamon/saffron butter)
150-200 g (5,5-7 oz) softened butter
Sugar/ pearl sugar
2-3 tsp cinnamon
125 mg saffron
Chopped almonds

How to do it

In a large bowl, mix together butter and sugar.
Add the egg.
In a large bowl, mix together about 900 g (2 lb) of the flour and dry yeast. (If you use regular yeast, the yeast should be mixed with the warmed milk.) I use a stand mixer with a kneading hook.
Warm the milk to 40°C/ 104°F (or 37°C/ 100°F if you use regular yeast).
Slowly and alternately mix in the flour and yeast mix and the milk. You probably need the rest of the flour to get a smooth dough (not too wet, not too dry), but add it slowly so the dough doesn’t get too dry.
When the dough has the right texture mix for another 3-5 minutes.
Take out half of the dough and place it in a separate bowl.
To the other half of the dough, add the cardamom and mix for about 1 minute.
Let the two doughs rise in the bowls under towels or cling film (or use an unused shower cap) for about 30-45 minutes (until double size).
In a bowl mix about 100 g (3,5 oz) of softened butter with 2-3 tsp of cinnamon and 1-2 tbsp (pearl) sugar. In a separate bowl, mix about 100 g (3,5 oz) of softened butter with 125 mg saffron and 1-2 tbsp (pearl) sugar.
Take the dough out of the bowl, and knead the dough for a about a minute.
Divide each dough into 2 pieces.
Roll out each piece to a roll, about 5 cm (2 inches) diameter. Then flatten the dough with a rolling pin (about 15 cm (6 inches) wide).
Cover the 2 pieces of dough with cardamom with the cinnamon butter, and optionally some chopped almonds.
Cover the 2 pieces without cardamom with saffron butter, and optionally some chopped almonds.

Cut the dough into pieces, each piece about 5 x 15 cm (2 x 6 inches), then make 3 cuts in each piece, about 10 cm (4 inches). See pictures on how to make rolls out of each piece.

Line a baking sheet, and place the rolls on the baking sheet. Cover them with a towel, and let them rise for about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 250 ºC/ 480 ºF.
Bake the rolls in the middle of the oven until they have a golden surface, about 5-7 minutes.
Serve the rolls warm, or place them in plastic bags when they are still lukewarm and put them in the freezer to serve them later.

Happy Holidays!