Tag Archives: Cacao

December 3rd, 2017

Chocolate Panettone

Schokoladen-Panettone-43My plans for the first of advent were somehow different, but as I caught a mean cold I have to spent the day on the sofa instead of baking something delicious for Christmas. The only good thing is that I had enough time to browse through the unpublished recipes. I rediscovered the chocolate panettone I bake last Christmas but never published the recipe.

And so I used the time to publish it now, nearly a year later. It is a delicious twist on the classic recipe which combines the flavours of chocolate and citrus fruits. And just like the “normal” panettone this chocolate version is baked with sweet starter only which adds a delicious deepness to its flavour.

And with this last year’s delicious treat in my mind I begin to dream about what to bake for Christmas this year….

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December 11th, 2014

Chocolate Cardamom Sablés

Schokoladen-Kardamom-SablesThis Month I published another recipe in the staff journal of the university of cologne. And this time it is a chocolate cardamom sablé recipe, perfect for Christmas.

Sablé is French and means “Sand” and as tender and friable is this cookie inspired by the French original. With cacao, cardamom and cinnamon the cookies are very aromatic and the little salt crystals of the fleur de sel are the perfect contrast to the sweet cookie.

When making the dough you have to take care of two things: Butter and egg white should both have room temperature, to ensure a soft dough perfect for piping and you should just fold the flour under to ensure a tender cookie. But then they are easily made and a perfect treat for Christmas time!

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July 25th, 2013

Kalter Hund

Kalter Hund

I take birthday cake wishes very serious. Especially when the birthday child already mentioned month ago that he always got this one special birthday cake in his child hood. And that this cake is his most favourite cake ever. And so I knew directly which cake I would bake. Ok, “Baking” is maybe the wrong term here. The cake is called “Kalter Hund” which means literally cold dog. It consists of consist of Leibniz-Keks and mixture made of cacao, sugar, eggs and coconut oil. The cake was invented in 1920 as promotion for the Leibniz-Keks and was very popular in the 1950s and 60s.

I made the cake with some additional chocolate and with less sugar, which resulted in a very pleasing birthday cake!

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November 9th, 2012

Cardamom Hazelnut Braid

Haselnusszopf

Where have the past days gone?How could this happen? I missed the fourth Blog-Birthday of “Hefe und mehr”!

And I had already a half ready “Happy birthday” post with the delicious cardamom hazelnut braid! A festive bread, perfect for a birthday breakfast!

The idea to put grounded hazelnuts in a bread was lingering in my head now for quite a while and at some point I decided that using homemade nut butter was an even better idea. Using one of my challah recipes combination with some hazelnut butter and dark cacao created a dark braid with an incredible soft crumb and a well balanced taste of nuts and chocolate. The idea to add some cardamom to the dough was rather spontaneously but the taste of it harmonize perfectly with the cacao and the nuts.

I was very pleased with the braid, and to prevent myself of forgetting the blog-birthday again, I have now a reminder in my calendar on my laptop and mobile Smiley

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December 18th, 2011

Orange flavoured Hot Chocolate Mix

Orangentrinkschokolade A homemade Hot Chocolate Mix is a simple but delicious little Christmas gift. In the cookbook “Süße Geschenke aus der Küche: Leckereien backen und verpacken” I found not only nice recipes like a Hot Chocolate Mix flavoured with cinnamon and cardamom but also great Ideas for beautiful decorated glasses, bags and boxes. After I prepared the “normal” Hot Chocolate Mix, which I liked very much, too, I started to experiment with the recipe to create a orange flavoured mix.

I had this idea because some of my colleagues like an orange flavoured cacao from Quai Sud very much to flavour their coffee with it. But this cacao is expensive and hard to get. So I thought a homemade hot chocolate mix would be a great Christmas gift for them.

The best way to get the orange flavour into the chocolate mix is to grated a lot of orange peel, dry it in the oven and ground it together with sugar in a food processor.

I like the taste of the orange flavoured hot chocolate mix very much – I hope that my colleagues like them, too.

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October 6th, 2011

Hazelnut Cacao Rolls

Haselnuss-Kakao-Schnecken (2)

About one and a half year ago every german food blogger seemed to bake cacao rolls. Anikó blogged the tempting recipe and everyone had to test it, myself included.

When I saw the chocolate hazelnut rolls on The Patterned Plate I had to think about these rolls once again. But this rolls are also filled with hazelnuts (as the name suggested Zwinkerndes Smiley ). The description of a nutella-ish taste was so mouthwatering that I had to bake such rolls at the same weekend.

I decided to use another recipe for the dough because I was dreaming of heavenly soft and fluffy rolls. The dough is not so easy to handle but its worth the work because the rolls rise to be as light as a feather. I let them rise overnight in the fridge, it is a convenient method to get sweet rolls for breakfast without a lot of fusing in the morning and the slow rise contributes to the good taste, too.

I added some Cardamom and Cinnamon to the filling – just a tiny little bit to the spices in the background without overpowering the hazelnuts and the cacao. And I pour some boiling milk over the rolls after one third of the baking time, a trick I borrowed from the cacao roll recipe to make the rolls extra soft.

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December 12th, 2010

Thüringer Spitzbuben

Thüringer SpitzbubenI tested already some new christmas cookie recipe this year but not one was as good as the ones I bake every year during my christmas baking. But this weekend I came across the recipe for “Thüringer Spitzbuben”. The name Spitzbube left me puzzled because I knew the term Spitzbube as an alias for Linzer Cookies, the delicous cookies filled with red currant jelly.

But the “Thüringer Spitzbuben” are not filled with some jelly, instead an almond is pressed in the middle of the cookie and glazed with some egg yolk. The dough is seasoned with cacao and cinnamon and smells irresistible during baking.

It has no similarity to his namesake but it taste delicious. I like the combination of almonds, cacao and cinnamon very much and so there is a good chance that this recipe will be added to the recipes I bake every year. Continue reading

July 8th, 2010

Chocolate swirl bread

Schokowirbel Brot

At Happy Home Baker, the source for the in german blogs so famous hokkaido milk bread, I found this beautiful bread with a zebra pattern.

I baked it already two weeks ago but having a busy time in lab (again) I had no time to post it. I hope I post it now in time for yeastspotting.

The bread has the same wonderful soft crumb as his famous cousin hokkaido milkbread. To achive a cotton soft structure I used water roux. Water roux is a mixture that contains of 1 part flour and 5 parts water and which is heated to 65°C. It cause the starch to gelatinization, so it binds more water, which make the bread softer and fluffier and enhanced the shelf life.

The bread is very delicious with a bittersweet chocolate taste. It tastes delicious on his own but with a slightly sour marmalade like red currant it tastes even better.

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