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White Chocolate and Gingerbread Cheesecake – White Christmas Theme

December 26, 2011 by Minna 10 Comments

I have been looking for ideas for festive cake with the twist. I flipped through some Finnish magazines, made internet search and find out that after leaving Finland six years ago there’s been hype in Finnish food magazines of glögg cheese cake with gingerbread crust. Yes I know, most of you might think, what in the earth glögg is. It’s a popular and very traditional Finnish (Scandinavian) spiced winter drink. We enjoy it steaming hot when winter weather gives its best; cool and snow. Read about glögg in my other post via link here.

Traditionally glögg is ruby red, so my cake should be red, but I wanted to make a white cake specially to take White Christmas Challenge from Very Good Recipes, hence the white theme here. ……Look at the cake!
It’s in fact yellow, in celebration of golden sandy dunes in Dubai desert.

Let me tell about gelatin. It took me a good hour or more to read and understand the beauty of converting gelatin sheets to equal quantity of gelatin powder. After all, I don’t want yello cake. And what about secret or discovery of Davis Gelatin. Why it reads edible gelatin on package, is there also other kind of gelatin on sale in grocery shops?! It reads also clear and unflavored, what about that weird smell of this gelatin. It says halal, but honestly, I almost quit making the cake because this odor. I am use to gelatin sheets which are odorless.

After several double checks, I came up with gelatin measures like this 1 tablespoon gelatin powder = 3 sheets. In case you might want to do your own research, here’s the link.

If someone knows pure vegetarian gelatin sold in supermarket in Dubai, leave me a comment please. Above mentioned is from Spinney’s.

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White Chocolate and Gingerbread Cheesecake recipe

Base:
200 g Gingerbread cookies
75 g butter or margarine

Filling:
6 sheets of gelatin (= 2 table spoon of Davis Gelatin, New Zealand)
400 ml whipping cream
200 g white chocolate
400 g cream cheese like Philadelphia
50 ml water
200 g lingonberries or cranberries (optional)

Glaze:
3 sheets of gelatin (1 table spoon of Davis Gelatin)
350 ml of white glögg (Finnish spicy winter drink)

Cover 24 cm spring form pan with baking paper and wipe insides with oil or cover with fling foil, cake will come out smoothly after it’s settled.
Crush gingerbread cookies with spin roll or mixer. Smelt the butter and add to crushed cookies, pulse couple of times until mixed well. Press the cookie butter mixture on the bottom of cake pan
Whip the cream until soft peaks forms add some powder sugar.
Smelt the white chocolate over a hot-water bath
Mix white chocolate smelt with cream cheese and add to whipped cream and vanilla.
Boil the 50 ml water and add/sprinkle gelatin, mix well, make sure gelatin is all dissolved and add gelatin liquid to cream-cheese mixture. (I added it through fine strainer)
If you use berries, fold them into cream and cheese mixture last. Note berries have to be soft and juicy.
Pour over the cookie mix and let settle in fridge (abt. 3 hours)
Make the glaze: heat half of the juice/ glögg and add 1 table spoon of gelatin mix well and add rest of the juice/ glögg. Pour over the cheesecake which is already settled in fridge. Let stand in fridge until glaze is settled, about 1 hour.
Remove cake from spring form cake pan gently on to a serving plate and decorate with white chocolate chips

Note from baker: I have used cranberries, since the best option, lingon berry is not available here in Dubai. Cranberries need to get some frost to get soft. Let them stand overnight in freezer and use them when thawed thoroughly. If you use cranberries you might really need to use that optional sugar.

Wishing you a white white winter or sandy winter like we have here in Dubai!

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White Glögg – Spiced Finnish Christmas Drink

December 26, 2011 by Minna 3 Comments

The amazing smell of cinnamon and spices is surrounding my house inside out. It’s time to warm up with nice cup of glögg, a traditional Finnish winter drink called glögi in Finnish.

When weather starts to get cooler, on November in Finland, this spicy drink is just so lovely warmer. The most popular glögg is traditionally made by heating up blackcurrant juice with spices like cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, mace, cardamom, orange peel, ginger.

I am making it to get the wonderful smell of festive spices into my house. I miss the snow and coldness of Finnish winter, this drink brings me back to my homeland whenever where ever I smell or drink it.

Glögg is available everywhere in Finland from November to January. You can get the readymade mixture and tune it for your liking with some almonds and raisins, which you have to spoon after or during drinking of it.

Modern winter drink glögg has its roots in the ancient Swedish mulled wine punch called glödgat vin, which literally means “glow wine”. My version is non-alcoholic, but in mainstream Finnish families, part of the juice is replaced with red wine, and a dash of stronger spirit, like vodka, punsch, brandy, calvados or gin may be added to it. I have made white glögg from apple juice. Nowadays this white version has become popular, made with white wine or cider, or fruit juices like apple, pear or white grape juice.

On Christmas dinner, glögg can be served first as a welcome drink or last with the dessert, or instead of coffee and tea.

White glögg recipe

1 liter apple juice (I used cloudy apple juice, any kind of goes)

1-2 teaspoons cloves (whole)

1-2 teaspoons cardamom seeds roughly grounded

2 sticks of cinnamon

Pinch of ginger powder

Sugar (optional)

Cook half of the juice with spices about ½ hour with low heat. Strain and add rest of the juice and heat until hot again. Add sugar for your liking.

Glögg is served from tea glasses or mugs, mixed with a few blanched almonds and raisins.

Season Greetings!

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Cranberry Upside Down Cake with Toffee – Cranberry madness continue

December 4, 2011 by Minna 9 Comments

What’s with the cranberries! I have fell in love with them on this season. I promise this is the last cake or bake with cranberries, well ….almost, I had something in my mind, I’d love to share later. This is the season after all.

Everyone knows Pineapple upside down cake, but have you ever tried to make cake upside down with cranberries.
I like the flavor of brown sugar with cranberries, they match together so well with hint of cinnamon, which I left out this time, because my dear cake-taster doesn’t like cinnamon. I left out butter from topping and drizzled the cake with toffee sauce and few flakes of coconut.

Cranberry Upside Down Cake recipe

Ingredients

Cake:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
120 g butter, softened
1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

Topping:
4 cups cranberries, rinsed, get rid of bad cranberries, and at room temperature (just a bit less than a 350 g bag of cranberries).
50 g butter
1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Preparation method

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugars on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, about 1 minute.
a. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
b. On low speed add half the flour mixture then mix to combine.
c. Add sour cream and vanilla. Mix to combine.
d. Add remaining flour mixture and mix until smooth.

3. Butter a 18 cm (9″) cake pan and sprinkle evenly ½ cups sugar mixed
with one teaspoon cinnamon on bottom, add cranberries and bits of butter here and there.

4. Spread batter evenly over the cranberries in the cake pan.

5. Bake at 180 – 200°C until golden brown, edges begin to pull away from the side of the pan, and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 to 50 minutes.

Cool on rack for 10 minutes. Run knife around edge to loosen cake. Invert onto plate.

Note: When you pull out cake of the oven to test, it might appear liquid. The cake is like moving on top of the layer of cranberries. The large amount of butter and shifting cranberries made an almost liquid layer on the bottom of the cake. It will come together when cake cools, the cake is at best on next day when it’s settled.

Toffee sauce

Ingredients

120g light brown sugar
120g butter
100ml cream or full cream milk

Preparation method

1. Melt the butter and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat until the sugar is dissolved but not burned.
2. Stir in the cream or milk and heat gently until bubbling, stirring continually until thickened (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat and serve warm.

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Surprise your loved ones, friends and neigbors with lovely home made gift. I did two cakes with this recipe and used two 15 cm cake tins. Wishing you very happy festive season!

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Cottage Cheese pancake – Russian Syrniki

November 8, 2011 by Minna 7 Comments

In Finland Thursday is “pancake and pea soup” -day. While my friend remind me last week about pancake day, I got inspiration to try something called syrniki, from my neighbor country Russia, after Salme said that Russian pancakes beat the normal ones. The recipe asks for quark, but I have not found it in supermarkets here in Dubai. Instead I am using cottage cheese, the creamier the better.

In Russian cuisine syrnikis (сы́рник[и]) are fried quark cheese pancakes eaten with sour cream, jam, honey, or apple sauce. They are also known as tvorozhniki (творо́жники) in Russia. It is a traditional Russian dessert or breakfast food and there are so many variations of it. I like this simple recipe for my perfect protein filled breakfast, it is healthy too. Use low fat cottage cheese and garnish with fresh berries.

Russian Syrniki recipe

Ingredients

1 cup cottage cheese
2 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons semolina flour (optional)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1/3 cup canola oil for frying

Directions

1. Mix together the cottage cheese, beaten eggs and sugar. Stir in semolina and all-purpose flour, and work into soft dough. If you do not have semolina, use 2 tbs of flour instead.

2. Heat the oil over medium heat until hot. Spoon pancake dough on to the pan and fry the syrniki in hot oil until golden brown on each side, 3 to 4 minutes per side.

Serve with dollop of cream, sour cream or crème fraiche and fruit jam or preserve or fresh fruits.

* * *

I could not resist of having them with my mom’s homemade raspberry preserve and spoonful of organic crème fraiche. What more to ask, oh a nice cup of tea of course. Delish!

‘How to’ link

Blueberry Upside Down Cake

August 4, 2011 by Minna 6 Comments

Blueberry season is here!

When I was a kid we spend every summer holidays in my grandma’s farmhouse in the middle of Finland. Every year we followed my parents with my sister and brother to the forest beside the farm. It was not just another picnic day. We were picking up blueberries, cloudberries, raspberries and mushrooms. Best part of the harvest trip was my mom’s homemade snacks we got to eat on the trip. We had hardly arrived to those blueberry tussocks when we started to ask if we are already there and can we eat already.

Best bake made of blueberries is traditional Finnish blueberry pie made on mildly-sweet dessert bread dough called pulla in Finnish. Making pulla is challenge for me I have not yet succeeded.
Instead I have another easy recipe for blueberries Blueberry Upside down cake. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Now let’s get blue lips….

Recipe
Blueberry Upside down Cake

Topping:
3 cups fresh blueberries (or frozen, thawed & drained)
1 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch
2-3 tablespoons butter

Spread berries evenly in bottom of greased springform or cake pan. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Combine sugar and corn starch and pour over berries. Dot with butter.

Cake:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream or yoghurt
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugars on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. On low speed add half the flour mixture then mix to combine. Add sour cream or yoghurt and vanilla. Mix to combine. Add remaining flour mixture and mix until smooth. Spread batter evenly over the blueberries in the springform or cake pan.

3. Bake at 180-200°C (350°F) until golden brown, edges begin to pull away from the side of the pan, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 to 50 minutes. Cool on rack for 10 minutes. Run knife around edge to loosen cake. Invert onto plate. Invert again onto serving plate. If any blueberries remain in the pan just put them back on top of the cake. Cut into wedges and serve.

Note: At first when you pull the cake out of the oven to test, it looks that the cake is still very liquid. On second time you test and it still appears to be just as liquid, it’s because the cake is moving on top of the layer of blueberries. The large amount of butter and shifting blueberries makes an almost liquid layer on the bottom of the cake. It’s normal and it will set after cooling.

Ma’amoul – Dates and Semolina Cookies

July 8, 2011 by Minna 3 Comments

Ramadan is around the corner, families in Dubai are getting ready for Ramadan. There are lots of special foods and ingredients coming to stores soon. I love Ramadan, its quiet and peaceful time, chance to spend time with friends and family. During the Ramadan fasting between sun rise and sun set, from not only eating and drinking, but also from all sorts of pleasures of this life, is mandatory for all Muslims.

On Ramadan Dubai kind of wakes up after seven o’clock at evening when sun disappears to horizon. Restaurants open their doors and spread their Breakfast, Iftar buffet’s, for all folks to enjoy. Shops are open later than normally, until 1 AM and last meal before sunrise, called Sohour is available at homes and restaurants around 1 to 3 AM.

I want to share Ma’amoul (عمول‎) recipe with you. This shortbread pastry cookie is one of my favorite. It’s easy to make, tasty and crisp. Normally these cookies are filled with dates or nuts. It can be filled with a variety of nuts, but is best made with walnuts, pistachios, or almonds. We love date filled Ma’amoul. I clipped this Syrian recipe from newspaper four years ago.

In Dubai there is date cookies available from supermarkets all year along; during Ramadan it’s so nice to enjoy homemade cookies. Here we go, why don’t you give it a try, any time of year, when you need tasty cookie with your glass of milk.

Ma’amoul Recipe

Ingredients
1 cup (185g) semolina (see note)
1 cup (150g) all purpose flour
2 tbs caster sugar
(2 tbs milk powder, optional)
1/4 tsp baking powder
125g butter
Filling
1 cup (160g) pitted dates, chopped
2 tbs water
2 tbs butter
Icing sugar to dust

Method
1. Combine semolina, flour, sugar, (milk powder) and baking powder in a bowl and mix with 125g of soft butter to make smooth dough. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight to rest.

2. Combine dates, water and 2 tablespoon of butter in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until dates soften. Set aside to cool.

3. Preheat oven to 180°C. Spoon 1 1/2-tbs of dough into moulds (see note). Use your fingers to press pastry firmly around bases and sides of moulds, leaving a small hollow in the centers. Spoon date mixture into it, seal well with dough.

4. Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until golden. Set aside to cool and dust with icing sugar.

Notes
Semolina is durum wheat flour that is more coarsely ground than regular flour.

Special Ma’amoul cookie moulds can be substitute with baking trays for mini-muffin; those are available from kitchenware shops. Or you could just form balls or any shapes from dough and press hollow with your thumb, fill with date mixture and bring edges together to seal well.

Ramadan Karim!

Black Forest Cherry Cake – Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

June 24, 2011 by Minna 2 Comments

I had first time in my life Black Forest Cake in Dubai couple of years ago when we moved here. I never knew about this cake before. Even in my family we like to make all kind of cakes, somehow I missed this German delicatessen. We hardly ever bought cakes from markets or bakery in Finland, because it was too expensive and not that delicious.

In Dubai you cannot bother yourself of baking, if you get fairly reasonable simple fruit or black forest cake from supermarket with 20 dirhams (4 €) only. I used to buy these cakes and garnish them with fresh fruits and berries. My husband loves Black Forest cake, but I was always thinking that cake is not really having cherries enough and not tasting chocolate enough for my liking. I promised to make one to die for, I needed to challenge myself.

Ever since I saw Australian Master Chef program episode in which they made Black Forest Cake, I have been waiting to get affordable cherries from Dubai’s supermarkets. It seems that somewhere in the world it’s cherry time right now. I found reasonable looking and priced cherries from Carrefour yesterday. Looking back at recipe from Master Chef Australia I decided to combine something from that and something from recipe by European Cuisines blog which claims that their recipe is more authentic.

The cake is named not directly after the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) mountain range in southwestern Germany but rather from the specialty liquor of that region, known as Schwarzwälder Kirsch(wasser) and distilled from tart cherries. I left alcoholic out from my recipe and cake ended up delicious like no other, njam.

At first it looked too much complicated to make, however I managed to simplify the making. I know if you take a look at the recipe I wrote, you will think no way, it’s too many things going on there. But it is easy and simple.

Simply you need chocolate cake, whipped cream, cherry compote and some fresh or candied cherries and shaved chocolate. That’s all. If you don’t want to follow the recipe, just whip the cream, cut readymade cake to layers and fill with cream and cherry compote and decorate with whipped cream, cherries and chocolate.

Black Forest Cherry Cake – Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

Chocolate cake
6 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or essence
80 grams chocolate, melted
1 cup (self rising) flour, sifted
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional)
Beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla together until thick and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Alternately fold melted chocolate and flour with cream of tartar and cocoa powder into the egg mixture, ending with flour. Pour the batter into 24 cm cake pan that have been well greased and floured. Bake in a preheated 180-200 degree C oven for 30-45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Baking time depends on your oven; it might be less or more. Cool the cake completely and cut in 3 layers.

Filling:
Butter-cream
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar / icing sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1 large egg yolk
(2 tablespoons strong Cherry juice or ½ teaspoon of Cherry food flavor)
To make the butter-cream filling, beat together sugar and butter until well blended. Add egg yolk; beat until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. (Fold in Cherry juice).

Cherry Compote
1/2 cup caster sugar
900 g pitted fresh cherries, halved
Add the sugar to a non-stick saucepan and place over medium heat. Once the sugar begins to dissolve add the cherries and cook until their juices is reduced

Or use 1 or 2 cans of cherry filling from supermarket

For decorating
2 cups of whipping cream
2 heaped table spoon of icing sugar
1 tsp Vanilla (optional)
chocolate (semi bitter)
Fresh or candied cherries
Whip the cream until heaps starts forming add icing sugar and vanilla and whip until nice and smooth. To make chocolate curls from chocolate bar, shave (at room temperature) with a vegetable peeler.

CAKE ASSEMBLY: To assemble cake, cut in 3 layers, place 1 layer on a cake plate. Brush with cherry juice, spread with butter cream filling and lay ½ of the cherry compote evenly over the butter cream, spread some of the whipped cream. Place second layer on cake. Repeat. Place third layer on top. Brush with cherry juice. Cover the sides and top of the cake with whipped cream and decorate with candied or fresh cherries and shave over lots of chocolate.

Layers rising

Cherry cake ready for decor

Gimme PieceOfCake

Egyptian Doughnut – bread of the judge

May 4, 2011 by Minna 3 Comments

No more store bought donuts for me. I have just lately discovered one very simple and delicious Egyptian-Arabian sweet which is easy to prepare and ready in no time, namely Zalabya.

There is a dough mixtures available in every supermarket here in Middle-East, but that is not as good as the one made from scratch. I want to share this recipe because it’s a basic and anyone can do it.

Zalabya is a mix of flour (دقيق), water (ماء) , yogurt (الزّباديّ) and instant yeast (خميرة). There is another name for it, in Egypt it is called “Lokmet el Ady” or Lokmet El Kady (لقمه القاضى) which means the bread of the judge!
Of course it is a metaphorical meaning to denote that judges were rich people who didn’t eat the commoners’ bread!
In the Arabian Gulf they call it Awamat (عوامات).

Zalabya

3/4 cup of plain yogurt
1 egg
2 cups flours
1/2 cup water
tip of teaspoon salt and sugar
(1 teaspoon vanilla, optional)
tip of teaspoon yeast

Sugar syrup (maple or date), caster sugar or powder sugar for decorating

Oil for frying

Mix yogurt and egg well together. Add rest of the ingredients. Make sure that yoghurt and water are lukewarm so that yeast will work. Let rest covered about 1 hour. Dough is very smooth and soft. It does not rise much or come double. Heat the oil in pan or thick bottom pot. Dip your working hand into cold water and take some dough into your fist and squeeze small plum size balls into hot oil. Let boil about minute, turn and boils another minute or until golden brown.

Lift from oil onto kitchen paper towel to absorb excess oil, roll in sugar of your liking or but zalabyas in bowl and pour couple of table spoons of date syrup and swirl until all covered.

Sahtain! Ready to enjoy, now did you manage to save some for later…..I bet not, in our household, plates are naked in no time, we cannot stop eating.