berry coconut tarte

it’s amazing how much it already feels like summer. just a bit ago it was still pretty cold and now practically summer is here. awesome 🙂 the terrace is already all set up and thanks to my nice neighbors i now also have a jacuzzi, life at its best (especially since there are so many public holidays in may, i have vacation feeling right at my doorstep). yesterday i put my tomatoes and paprikas in pots outside. they were growing so fast and urgently needed more space to spread their roots. so cross your fingers that it won’t be freezing during the night anymore so they flourish and bear lots of fruits.

a perfect fit for this weather are fruity cakes. everywhere you see recipes with berries these days. also on my blog you find some like blueberry chocolate dessert, strawberry chocolate oreo tarte, strawberry mascarpone ice cream, strawberry pralines, strawberry panna cotta or blueberry ice cream to name just a few. i saw the recipe for this berry coconut tarte in the “frisch gekocht”. without baking you don’t have to sweat in the kitchen and the combination of coconut and almonds with berries and lime give you this fruity, fresh, zesty and light flavor. originally the cream is a mixture of blueberries and blackberries, but since the latter weren’t available i substituted them with raspberries. what a delight!

chocolate nut knots

it’s been quite her for a while – sorry! every once in a while i am not in the mood to write and have to wait until inspiration strikes again. that doesn’t mean though that i haven’t been thinking about what i could share with you. i think about the same time last year there’s also been a short break, seems to be a spring thing. i did make a lot of things (especially bread, more on that in the coming weeks) in the kitchen of course and also got my vegetable plants for the terrace. i can practically watch the tomatoes grow, one of them doubled its size in one week – mother nature is just fascinating! after the frost saints mid of may, before it could still be freezing during the night, i will be planting them in their pots outside.

as you know i love kanelbuller, swedish cinnamon knots. so far i hadn’t found the perfect recipe for me. my tries so far of cinnamon rolls, nutella bun and raspberry mascarpone knots have been good, but especially with the last ones they usually turned out quite flat. the other day i finally was rewarded for my efforts (inspired by dinner with julie) and i got these perfect knots. also the taste was heavenly (based on the chocolate hazelnut brioche from starbucks) 🙂 if you want you can also choose different fillings of course eg a mixture of butter, cinnamon and sugar or also savory with pesto (but then don’t add sugar to the dough, just 1 teaspoon for the yeast). there are plenty of varieties.

tiramisu

todays post is a classic italian dessert – tiramius. probably everyone knows it and has eaten it in differing qualities. on the blog you can already find some versions – the fruity passion fruit tiramisu or a cherry tiramisu and a more winterly gingerbread tiramisu. however i also have to give you the classic.

when i was still a child there was this huge discussion about salmonella and thereupon this classic dessert was frowned upno. the eggs were substituted by eg heavy cream, to still get a fluffy texture. for me eggs have to be a part of the cream, not only for the color but also for the taste, which is distinguishly different. besides the fat content of mascarpone alone is already high enough without adding heavy cream. as long as you’re using really fresh eggs, nothing should happen. i’ve eaten so much raw dough in my life without taking any damage from it.

orange chocolate muffins

on the last weekends i always was in the mood for baking, but it had to be something quick, ideally without the use of machinery. and what is more suitable than american sweets? it fits the stereotype: little effort, loads of calories, but really yummy. just thinking about how many ready-mixes there are in an american supermarket – crazy! however at least mostly you don’t have to use a kitchen machine or handmixer, just stir everything together with a wooden spoon. austrian recipes usually can’t do without, just thinking about whipping egg whites into stiff peaks i couldn’t forgo my kitchen machine. also for a fluffy light sponge it is invaluble to use a machine for whisking the eggs until light yellow and creamy.

ginger lemon cake

winter in vienna mostly means drab, wet weather and you’ve got snow for about a half day before it turns into mush. so not the best time of year. that’s way i have to at least get something sunny, fresh on my plate. this ginger lemon cake is perfect for that – strong yellow colour, sweet sour due to the lemon and ginger for the prevention of colds and the flue (and also fires up your digestion so basically you immediately burn through the calories of the cake 😉 ). the lemon cake is being soaked with a lemon ginger syrup, so you have these pockets with very intense flavor. since i found the cake, despite the syrup, too dry, i changed the dough to the one of my grandma’s marble cake. nothing can go wrong with that.

brownie cherry cheesecake bites

i think there mustn’t be said much – the combination of my favorites brownies, cheesecake while also fruit due to the cherries. what more do you want? you can either cut the cake into small bites or in mid-sized pieces (believe me you don’t need more 😉 ). especially with the bite version it looks nice to drizzle the chocolate finish separately on top of every piece. however you can also pour the chocolate cream on top of the whole cake and cut after it firmed up. i use philadelphia as my choice of cream cheese. although i normally buy organic, the organic ones usually are a bit salted and thus don’t give the right flavor. philadelphia seems to be the most neutral one.

since i made those brownies for a birthday party and transporting them bite sized wouldn’t have been such a good idea, i don’t have great pictures. but rest assured, you really should try this recipe!!

gingerbread tiramisu

i hope you had a good start into the new year and a few relaxing days. thankfully i had 2 weeks off – a much needed vacation to restore. it was a truly heavenly time, but now it’s time to start anew.

for christmas we had this gingerbread tiramisu as dessert. as usual my grandma and my uncle and his family come over for christmas lunch on the 25th and it is on me to make dessert. the last years we had eg strawberry panna cotta with chocolate or a raspberry chocolate tarte. this year i actually decided on something without chocolate – shocker 😀 i know most of you probably have had enough of christmas already, however if you’ve still got some gingerbread spice, than you should try this tiramisu version. of course you can do with out the spice and maybe just season with cinnamon and cardamom, just something that gives that special touch. instead of the orange cookies you can also use any leftover gingerbread cookies, so you’re rid of them as well 😉 i prepared the tiramisu the day before and used a piping bag (that way you have nice clean glasses) to fill it into separate glasses. that way you don’t have to bother with the dessert on the special day. of course you can also make one huge bowl with the dessert as well.

brownie bites

before christmas season starts in earnest, you get one more brownie recipe. for my usual brownies i rely on my standard recipe, because it is just so moist and just how i like it. but for variations some other ideas are allowed and you can find a few on the blog already. usually i don’t bake with sweets (why not?), but it as a grandiose idea. i’ve like toffifee every since i was little and although i don’t eat giotto that often, they are still pretty good. topping off one of these small brownies they just make my day. the mini muffins disappear in one bite in your mouth – it could be that one has to devour more than one. since they are so small and handy, they are perfect for bringing them to a (pre) xmas party or just to the office, much to the delight of your co-workers. rightly anticipating, i made a double batch. astoundingly they didn’t eat all of them, but the colleagues in our main office couldn’t resist the next day 🙂

nutella bun

since i still had most of last week of, i had plenty of time to ease in again after my short new york trip. i also had time to work on my every growing pile of cooking magazines and cook books. that’s when i kind of tripped over the recipe for a nutella bun. if it’s about chocolate and more so nutella, it is really hard for me to say no. since i wanted to bake bread the next day anyways, i decided to make use of the heat of the oven 😉 besides in austria we had a public holiday – all souls. traditionally an all souls bun is baked then. as i heard on the ready this custom stems from ages ago when widows have been burnt with the dead bodies of their husbands. at some point, thankfully!, they changed that to only burning the cut off pleated bun of the women. which then later was substituted by a baked bun out of a yeast dough. an since all souls is all about thinking of the departed, we bake this bun in austria. it alone is already pretty good, but filled with nutella (or any other chocolate nut spread) it is simply irresistible. you can also fill it with cinnamon sugar, a cream of cream cheese mixed with pureed raspberries or whatever else you feel like.

refrigerator oaties

as promised last week, today you get the secon cookie recipe from my baking session (after the amazing brownie cookies). also these are from the book cookies by cynthy barcomi. as stated many times i love her books. they are right up my alley and i could make every recipe from it. most of them are quick and easy (although not helping you with your weight goals 😉 ), as is this one. the name obviously stems from the fact that the dough needs to rest in the fridge over night. so plan ahead. since these are oat cookies, one might be able to convince oneself that you’re eating something healthy 😉 the muscovado sugar adds an amazing aromain combination with lemon. if you haven’t baked with muscovado sugar before, you have to! the taste is something else entirely, slightly malty, not so sweet, with depth. besides it helps the cookies to get nicely gooey.