Swedish Almond tarte

Hello my sweet ladys and gentlemen,


it's sunday! Sunday is the best day of the week right? Sunday is the day of staying in bed until lunchtime, it is the day of sunday roasts and cake in the afternoon. And it makes me especially happy when it is autumn and sunday at the same thíme. Its slightly  and rainy outside, the house is all warm and friendly inside, decorated with scented candles, wild rose hip and the smell of warm cake and hot tea... How can anyone just not love it? The rush of the week is gone, it is all calm and quiet outside, only the sound of the rain knocking on the door and the wind between coulured trees and crunchy leaves. A cat lying by your side on the sofa, purring while she leeps. On sundays the whole world is a better place.

 This sunday, there was a pumpkin fair in my town. Every year I am really looking forward to this event. Everybody meets there to have hot soups and jummy roast for lunch and some homemade cake afterwards. There's some old fashioned music playing in the background and some older ladys are selling hand crafted goods like scarfs, mugs, honey and flowers. And of course you can buy lots of different colourful pumpkins. It's a very happy place and I absolutey love the atmosphere there.
On friday I made a really nice cake for the weekend. I was inpired by the "Swedish visiting cake" that I found on my favourite blog called "Pastry affair". It is a really quick and simple cake but it also tastes amazing. It is quite dense, a bit chewy and relly rich and buttery. I put a lot of butter and almonds in it and at the end I sprinkled sliced amonds and cinnamon on top. I also braught some cake to my neighbor and she said that it was delicate. You simply throw 5 ingredients together, mix it all up and bake it for about 20 minutes This cake is ready in only 30 minutes. It's perfect for the weekends as it suits every sunday coffee table and it gets better every day so you can also make it a few days in advance and enjoy it one or two days later.

 Ingredients:

2 eggs

                    200g unsalted butter (softened)

       170g sugar

   200g all purpose flour

        100g grated almonds

          2 pinchs of seasalt

 Toppig:

2 tbs milk

50g sliced almonds

2 tbs sugar

some cinnamon

Preparation:

First of all, preheat the oven to 180 °C. In a large mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients together until they become a smooth, thick batter. Fill the batter in a buttered baking tin and brush the top with milk. Then, sprinkle the sliced almonds, sugar and cinnamon on top. Now, the cake is ready to be baked for about 20 minutes.

-Cake-

 "Let's just say you might regret that second piece of cake,

  Oh  my God! Regret cake? Whatever was about to happen must be truly evil."

(Rachel Hawkins)

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I did. It tastes best when it is a little bit warm and you can also add some melted bitter chocolate or clotted cream to it, although I like mine plain as it is with a nice cup of black tea or coffee.

See you next sunday Xx

Walnut-Cinnamon rolls

Hello my sweet ladys and gentlemen,

autumn is coming! It is not here yet but I can already feel it. It is getting cold outside, it is windy and a bit foggy. This is my favourite time of the year. I mean the whole word is better when it's fall right? It's the time of cozy sewaters, hot cups of tea, hot chocolate or Starbuck's pumpkin spiced latte. It's the time of colored trees, beautiful strolls through the woods and the smell of cinnamon, apples and walnuts. Yesterday it rained all day log and the leaves were already a bit colored.     

 

I planted some wonderful autumn plants like heather and chrysanthemum in my little balcony garden and the doorstep is decorated with little yellow pumpkins. For the weekend I treated myself to some tea, scented candles and a countryside magazine to get in the vibe of autumn. And I did some baking. And what would be autumn without cinnmon rolls?




 So I made some cinnmon rolls topped with butter, walnuts and a drizzle of frosting. You can also top them off with almonds, raisins, chocolate chips or anything you like. When you bake these cinnamon rolls, the whole house smells like a quiant bakery. Literally, it is so so good. These fluffy deliciousnesses will take you a bit of time to make but the outcome is defeniteley worth it. And as always it is not really difficould to make them.

 

  -Autumn-

The morns are meeker then they were,

The nuts are getting brown,

The berry's cheek is plumper,

The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scraf,

The field a scarlet gown.

Lest I should be old-fashioned,

i'll put a trinket on.

(Emily Dickinson)

 

     -A bed in the leaves-

I'll just lie there so nice and warm
  And look up in the sky
  And watch more leaves float down for me
  to rake up bye and bye

  

(Marian Kennedy)

  
 

 -Autumn Woods-

 I like the woods
 In autumn
When dry leaves hide the ground,
When the trees are bare
And the wind sweeps by
With a lonesome rushing sound

(James S. Tippett) 

 

Ingredients for the dough: 

               500g    all purpose flour
 1          egg

100g    sugar

100ml   milk

42g       freh yeast

50g       butter

 

               



 For the filling:

                 100g butter

                 150g sugar

              2-3 tsp cinnamon

              1/2 tsp  nutmeg

              as much walnuts as you like

 





Preparation:

Grab yourself a large mixing bowl and whisk your butter, milk and sugar together. Then, in a small bowl mix a little bit of  warm water with one teaspoon of sugar and crumble your fresh yeast in it and let that sit for two minutes. Now, stir it a litte bit and then pour it in your butter-milk mixture. After that, add all your flour and give it all agood stir until it is a smooth batter. If the dough is too stick, sprinkle some more flour on top and work it in with your hands. Then, take another large bowl, grese it with some vegetable oil and put your dough in it. Cover it with a kitchen towel and put it somewhere warm. I either place it near the heater or under my bedcover. Leave it there for a good two hours to rise.
After your dogh is really doubled in volume, you can roll it out until it is about 1 cm thick. Spread the softened butter evenly on top and then sprinkle the sugar-cinnamon-nutmeg mixture on top.
Now comes the only difficoud part: roll it as evenly and as thight as you can and stick the ends together with a little bit of water. Then, cut away the ends and then cut the roll in half and then cut it in half again and again until you get about 12 equal pieces. Grease a large baking pan with butter, sprinkle crushed walnuts over it and then place your cinnamon rolls on top of them and leave a little space inbetween. (If you want, you can also sprinkle more walnuts on top) Set them aside and let them rise for another good two hours so they double in volume again. And be patient, because the more time you give them to rise, the fluffyer they get.  When the two hours are over you are ready to brush the top with some melted butter and then bake them in the preheated oven by 170 °C for about 3o minutes until they are golden brown on top.

Now, I love to sit on the balkony wrapped in a cozy blanket and eat a warm cinnamon roll while reading a book or watching the birds in the trees. So grab your favourite book or a magazine, sit whereever you desire most and enjoy one of these fluffy cinnmon rolls. And after that you could go outside for a nice autumn walk and breathe in that cold, fresh air and as you are strolling around you can collekt some coloured leaves and chestnuts and use them as a decoration for your house or garden... Defeniteley enjoy autumn and the beautifuly environment it gives you.

Banana Oat bites with Cinnamon

Hello my sweet ladys and gentlemen,

having a full time job isn't always easy. The last weeks I had hardly any time to bake or post something. I have to admit...I really missed blogging! So here I am back. Since it is very difficould to find spare time to think about new recipes or even try them, I have been looking for something easy and quick.

So it happened, that two weeks ago I stumbled over a recipe for Banana Oat Bites. These little things are amazing. You only need four ingredients and you simply just mix them together and that's it. I made them several times already and I love to take them with me as a healthy snack at the office. It is fantastic how easy and delicious they are. With a sprinkle of cinnamon they are perfect for any autumn coffee table and they are an excellent alternative for any kind of sweet and unhealthy treat. You can also use them as a quick breakfast on the go while you are in the car or on the train to uni or work. I like mine very simple with a bit of my favourite ingredient cinnamon but you can also add walnuts, cocoa powder or raisins. Take yourself 10 minutes time to make these little energy bombs and pop them in the oven. You'll see, that these won't cost you any efford to make. They are so simple and they taste so good. Perfect, for everyone who's in a rush and doesn't have much time to bake. And if you are lucky anough to not being in  rush, treat yourself, sit on the couch with a nice blanket and your favourite cup of tea, read a good book and enjoy these guilt free little trats.




Ingredients:

4 mashed or pureed ripe bananas                 
3 tbs apple sauce
250g oatmeal
1 tsp cinnamon


Preparation:

First of all, preheat your oven to 160 °C. Now, mash or puree your bananas. Make sure that they are very ripe. Then, grab yourself a lage mixing bowl and mix all the ingredinets together. Put parchment paper on a large baking tray and place little balls of the mixture on it and flatten them out a bit. Now, just pop them in the oven for about 20-30 minutes until they are golden brown, take them out, let them cool and you're done! I told you it was easy. ;)