Carrot Cupcakes with Vanilla bean Frosting

Decorated with little Marzipan carrots, this is perfect for the upcoming holiday.

Carrot Cupcakes with Vanilla bean Frosting:

1/2 cup sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cardamon
1 cup shredded carrot ( about 1 large one )
1 cup crushed pineapple drained
1 cup coconut flakes
about 1 cup currants or raisins
1/2 cup nuts, chopped
1/4 cup coconut oil ( I used canola oil )
1/4 cup unsalted butter ( room temperature )
2 eggs
1 cup flour

In a large bowl combine everything except, flour, eggs, oil, and butter.
Add the oil and the butter and stir.
Now add the eggs, one at a time.
Add the flour in two batches and stir.
Divide evenly between 12 Muffin cups.
Heat oven to 350 F and bake for about for 25 minutes.

While they are cooling, you can prepare the frosting.

Vanilla bean Frosting:

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter ( room temperature )
1 tbs. milk
1 vanilla bean, scraped out ( save the rest of the bean for homemade vanilla sugar )

Beat all the ingredients together to a creamy consistency and pipe on the cooled cupcakes.
Decorate with little Marzipan carrots or whatever your heart desires.

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes with Butter - cream

Everyone deserves a treat!

 

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes with Butter - cream:

1 1/2 cup milk
1 pkg. pudding to cook
If you use a German Pudding package, you use:
300 ml Milch
1 päckchen Vanille Pudding
75g Zucker

Cook the pudding according to the directions on the back and let it cool.


1cup sour cherries plus 12 to decorate the cupcakes ( 150 g Sauerkirschen + 12 für die deco)
1/3  plus 2/3 cup butter, room temperature ( 250 g weiche Butter )
1/2 cup sugar (100 g Zucker )
2 tsp. vanilla sugar or about 1 tsp vanilla aroma ( 1 pk. Vanilla Zucker )
1 pinch of salt ( 1 prise Salz )
3 eggs ( 3 Eier )
1 cup flour (150 g Mehl )
2 tsp. baking powder (1 teel. Backpulver )
1 tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder ( 1 Eß. Kakaupulver )
muffin liners ( Papierförmchen )

Preheat the oven to 350 F ( 175 C )
Line Muffin tins and set aside.
Beat together 2/3 cup butter, sugar, vanilla sugar ( vanilla aroma ) and salt, until creamy. Add the eggs one by one and mix well. Mix together flour and baking powder and add slowly to the butter mix, beat continuously until the batter is creamy.
Fill half of the batter into the muffin cups and divide the cherries evenly over the light batter.
Take the other half of the batter and stir in the cocoa powder. Now, divide the chocolate batter evenly between the muffin cups on top of the cherries and light batter.
Bake for about 20 minutes. Let them cool on a wire rack.

While the cupcake are cooling, take the rest of the butter ( 1/3 cup) and beat it to a creamy consistency adding the cool, thick pudding.
With a large star tip, pipe on the cooled cupcake and decorate with a cherry. Makes 12 Cupcakes.

What a treat!

summer pasta salad

We had great weather all last week and it's just the beginning of April, so I had to get the BBQ ready.
I love to BBQ, however since I am doing all the cooking I like to choose sides I can prepare ahead of time, when it's time to get to the grill, everything is ready and only small things here and there distract me from the actual grilling, that means I can sit down and enjoy, flip the items on the grill and not frantically run in and out to get the sides ready and at the same time making sure my meat does not burn.

I marinated some chicken breast in olive oil and spices for about 3-4 hours.
I also made some herb butter, by just letting my favorite butter get to room temperature and mixing fresh herbs and garlic and salt and pepper into it. Then we had fresh baguette bread with it.
And of course the pasta salad.You can use really any shape you like, I prefer Penne, Rotini or Fettuccini.

summer past salad:

Pasta, cooked ( I usually use 1 pound)
fresh tomatoes, chopped  ( 2-4, depending on the size or even roughly a hand full of cherry tomatoes, quartered)
fresh basil, chopped ( 1/4 cup chopped)
glove of garlic, chopped (1-2 gloves)
olive oil ( drizzled over the top, don't over do it, you don't want your noodles greasy )
salt and pepper to taste


The amount of tomatoes, basil and garlic really depends on how much you like on the salad. I use whats in the brackets for 4 people.
Toss all ingredient together making sure that the tomatoes are evenly distributed.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Quesadillas

Got to have those quick fix recipes on hand, for all those times when you get home late from work or time is short. Quesadilla's is one of them.

Quesadilla's

flour tortillas
salsa
corn
beans ( kidney, black beans or even chick peas will do), drained
tomatoes cut in small pieces
shredded cheese
if you like meat, cooked chicken, beef or ground beef can be added
oil for the pan

Heat the oil in a pan over low to medium heat and place one tortilla in. Sprinkle with corn, salsa, kidney beans, tomatoes, meat and cheese. Cover with another tortilla and fry until browned, turn over ( which can be tricky, you got to be fast with flipping it over or you can let it glide on a plate and flip the whole pan over to get it on the other side..) and let the other side brown and the cheese melt. Cut them in quarters and serve with Guacamole, sour cream and more salsa.

Gnocchi with sage butter

 I apologize for not posting anything. I have been renovating and that has taken all of my time and energy. Needless to say, you got to eat something and it feels like I have not been cooking in ages.
 
This is perfect for times when it need to be quick and easy. I used the Gnocchi from the refrigerated section, they take only two minutes once the water is boiling and the sage butter is absolutely great.

Prepare the Gnocchi according to package directions. (easy, right!)

For the sage butter, all you need is butter and fresh sage leaves.

Melt the butter in a pan and add the sage leaves. Let that simmer on medium heat until the leaves become crispy and the butter is slightly browned.
Serve the butter with the sage leaves over the Gnocchi and sprinkle with a bit of salt, if desired.

The amounts of everything depends on the people you want to feed. I used two packs ( 800g) of Gnocchi for 3 people ( keep in mind, Gnocchi are filling) and about 1/3 cup of butter with about 15 sage leaves.

Serve with fresh, crunchy french bread.
Perfect, fast, great!
Sorry, no pictures ( could not find my camera in my renovating mess).


 

Panini's

I really like Panera bread. Here in Germany I definitely miss it.
So, I have to recreate one of my favorite sandwiches. Tomato - Mozzarella Panini.

I like to use Ciabatta bread but you can use any bread you like.
You can either use one of those panini grills or you can just use a heavy pan to press down on the bread. Either way it works.

 Tomato - Mozzarella Panini

1 Ciabatta bread
Pesto
Tomatoes
fresh Mozzarella
sun dried tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Cut the bread in half and spread pesto on the bottom half. Slice up the tomatoes and cover the entire bread. Season with salt and pepper. Drain and cut the Mozzarella in slices and lay on top of the tomatoes. Chop the sun dried tomatoes ans sprinkle on the Mozzarella. Place the top of the ciabatta bread on the sandwich and heat some butter in a frying pan and start frying the bread on medium heat, pressing down on it, as it's frying. You want the cheese to melt and the outside to be just golden brown and crunchy. 

I like to serve it with chips, pickles and olives. In winter it goes good with a cup of soup and in the summer I like to pair it with a Greek salad.

Rouladen

Love those Rouladen. This is a bit more time consuming but it is well worth it.
I like to make Rouladen with sweet and sour apple cabbage and Semmelknödel.


For the Rouladen, have your butcher cut top round beef in about 1/4 inch thick slices.
You want a good size thin piece of beef, so you can roll it up with a filling. 1 Roulade is one portion.

Rouladen:

4 ( for 4 people ) slices of beef about 1/4 inch thick
1 onion, in slices
1 good size pickle, cut in quarters
8 strips bacon (raw)
mustard, salt, pepper, paprika

Wash and dry the beef and lay it out flat. Season it with salt, pepper and paprika on one side, flip and do the same on the other side. Now spread the mustard on the meat and lay the bacon pieces on top, making sure they don't lap over the sides. Take 1/4 of the onions and one quarter of the pickle and place it on one side of the meat.Now roll it up jelly roll style, securing it with a toothpick.
Brown them in a pan and add water to cook through. About 1-1 1/2 hours.
Season the gravy with more salt and pepper and thicken it with flour. ( see Sauerbraten for thickening gravy )