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Linzer Torte and Goodbye 2016

12/27/2016

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​With this Linzer torte, I wish you all a happy and peaceful 2017, filled with love, happiness, sweetness and renewed hope. May you all find fulfillment and joy in this crazy world. I am so happy to share some of my life with you through my blog. Thank you all for visiting and encouraging me with your comments and friendship. It is greatly appreciated.
My love to all of you.
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It seems that I am crazy about nuts these days. It has become my go-to snack during the day. But most of all, I use them in baking as I often substitute nuts for flour. For weeks, I have been trying different recipes for Linzer torte, a cake that gets its name from the town of Linz in northern Austria. This lattice-topped torte, filled with jam and a crunchy nutty crust, is a delight for the taste buds. It’s a crumbly, nutty affair that can be eaten any time of the day. I finally chose an Austrian version from a baker who inherited the recipe from her mother. I also tried a recipe from a well-known American chef who used roasted almonds and powdered sugar. I am much happier with the recipe I am sharing with you. According to Wikipedia, Linzer torte is said to be the oldest cake in the world (a fact much debated around the dinner table). Although interesting, it is not necessarily a reason to bake it. I was drawn to this cookie-like torte because of its taste and texture. It does improve with age and you can make it three days ahead of time. In my humble opinion, it needs to be served with whipped cream. I made this torte for my girlfriend’s birthday party. I served small pieces with a good amount of whipped cream (someone whipped the cream by hand and it was so good). Every last crumb was eaten, and several people went back for seconds.
The only difficult part is making the lattice crust. I put the strips on (without putting them into a lattice pattern) because my crust was crumbly. Traditionally, this torte is made with red currant marmalade. I used seedless raspberry jam mixed with red currant jam in one of my tortes. In my final version, I used one cup of seedless raspberry fruit spread mixed with ¼ a cup of  my strawberry jam to give it some extra flavor. I used Kerrygold butter.  You need an 11-inch tart form with removable bottom. This is best served in smaller slices with a big slug of whipped cream. It will serve 12-14 people.
Print Recipe
Ingredients:​

1 3/4 cup (8 3/4oz, 250g) almonds (will yield 2 cups of ground almonds)

1 cup (7oz, 200g) sugar

2 cups (8 5/8 oz, 250g) all-purpose flour

14 TBS (8oz, 200g) chilled European butter (a bit less than 2 sticks)

3 egg yolks

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon
 

1/8 tsp nutmeg

a pinch of salt

1 tsp grated lemon peel

2 TBS lemon juice

1 TBS mineral water
 

1¼ cup seedless raspberry jam (or a mixture of raspberry and red currant jam)

sweetened, whipped cream
Directions:
​

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Finely grind the almonds in a food processor with 3 TBS flour. The nuts should have the texture of coarse cornmeal. Be careful not to turn them into nut butter.

Add the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder into the food processor, pulsing until well combined.

Cut the chilled  butter into 1-inch chunks and add to the food processor with 2 of the egg yolks. Pulse until the dough comes together. My food processor was filled to the rim. 

If you don't have a food processor or would like to do it by hand, sieve the flour with the the cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and baking powder onto a clean surface with a hole in the middle. Buy pre-ground almonds and add to the flour. Put the chilled and cut butter on top of the flour. Add the egg yolks in the hole. Starting from the outside, mix the ingredients into a ball using the palm of your hands to mix the butter and egg yolk. This will make a crumbly crust. 

Divide the dough into two equal parts and put each piece onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Cover both parts with additional plastic wrap and roll one into a disc shape and the other into a rectangular piece. Chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour or overnight.
In the meantime, mix the jam (or jams) with the lemon juice to make it smooth and spreadable. 
Mix the leftover egg yolk with the mineral water.
 
Roll out the round piece between two pieces of plastic wrap into a 12-inch circle. Remove the top layer of plastic wrap and invert the dough into the buttered or oil-sprayed tart form. Remove the other piece of plastic wrap and press the dough with your hands into the tart shell making it nice and smooth. 


Roll out the other half of the dough between two pieces of plastic wrap into a rectangular piece (about 12-inches). Cut intro strips about 3/4-inch x 12-inch. If the dough becomes soft, put in into the freezer to firm up. 


Spread the jam evenly into the shell. Lay strips across the the top in a lattice pattern. My dough  didn't cooperate, so I did the best I could. By the time I baked the torte, you could barely see the imperfection. Brush the lattice dough (not the jam part) with the egg yolk and mineral water mixture and bake in a preheated  350-degree oven for about 45 minutes. Or until the jam starts to bubble. 

Guten Appetit
recipe from a German-speaking website
adapted by ©sunnycovechef
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A happy and healthy New Year from Sunny Cove Beach
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Christmas cookies - BASLER BRÜNSLI

12/7/2016

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For the last couple of weeks I have been baking up a storm. Those who follow me on Instagram and Facebook have seen my photos. Baking cookies has given me some peace in these turbulent times. ​
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Because I like to reduce or replace sugar in recipes, some of my cookies were rejected by my tasters. One of them was my German chocolate cookies, the ones that look like paws. I liked them but nobody else did, so I won’t post that recipe. ​
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My husband’s favorite cookies are the biscuits de Noël (French sable cookies), they are sugary and remind him a little bit of his mother’s sugar cookies minus the frosting. The recipe comes from Clotlide, who lives in Paris and has a lovely blog called Chocolate and Zucchini.
Click here for the recipe.
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My girlfriend, Marie, likes my hazelnut meringue cookies. Click here for the recipe.
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My favorite cookies this year are Basler Brunsli, a specialty of Basel, a city in German-speaking northern Switzerland. These cookies are chocolatey and chewy with the flavors of Christmas. The main ingredients are chocolate and raw almonds (no flour), just some confectioner’s sugar, egg whites, cinnamon and cloves. Both, the hazelnut meringue cookies and the   Basler Brunsli are gluten-free.
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I started my blog because my girlfriend, Diane, took me to our local bookstore over three years ago to listen to an author who was promoting her new book, My Berlin Kitchen. “Oh no,” as I thought she was one of those plump German women dressed in a dirndl with braids in her hair promoting sauerkraut and dumplings. I didn't want to disappoint my girlfriend, so I agreed to go. Off we went and I almost fell from my stool when I saw a beautiful, shy young American woman introduce herself as Luisa Weiss. This was definitely not the person I had expected. She opened my heart and allowed me to be German again. You see, I was never proud to be German, as I was mostly ashamed of Germany’s ghastly past. That evening, when I listened to Luisa read an insert from her book, my heart finally opened and I allowed myself to be German for the first time ever. It was okay, I would and could never forget what happened in Germany during the Nazi times, but I could be German and learn to love my native country.
In her first book,My Berlin Kitchen,Luisa describes her life in Berlin. Born to an Italian mother and an American father, her childhood takes place in the divided Berlin of Soviet Times. She describes many situations that are very familiar to me, such as her search to belong somewhere and her experience of different cultures. In food, she finds a common denominator. After living a successful life in New York, she leaves for love in Berlin. You can also follow her on her blog, “The Wednesday Chef.” This year, she has published a beautiful, new cookbook called Classic German Baking. This impressive volume opens up the world of Germanic baking to all of us. The Washington Post included it in the round-up of the year’s best cookbooks. According to them, Classic German Baking is “a happy marriage of European craft and American sensibilities.” When I showed it to my 16-year-old friend from Berlin, who is living with her American father here in Santa Cruz for a year, her eyes lit up and she was transported back to Berlin through all the recipes she loves.
Click here for her website The Wednesdaychef
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Fruit and Nut Chocolate Chunks. No  cooking required. Click here for the recipe.
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These Blueberry Mini Muffins are my son's favorite. Click here for the recipe
Since this is a new recipe for me, I followed Luisa’s recipe and made no changes. The recipe is thrown together in no time but rolling out the dough was a little bit of a challenge. I used a small wine glass  that I dipped in sugar as a cookie cutter. For chocolate, I used Trader Joe’s Pound Plus chocolate. Luisa recommends 60-70% cacao in the chocolate.  According to Luisa, the cookies will last for a month if kept in a tin.
Print Recipe
Ingredients:

(makes about 35 cookies)


1 2/3 cups /250g raw almonds
​9 ounces /250g bittersweet chocolate
1 ½ cup /180g confectioners’ sugar.
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
3 egg whites
2 TBS kirsch or dark rum
granulated sugar, for rolling out the dough
Instructions:

Grind the almonds in a food processor until very fine, but do not let them turn into a paste. Transfer to a bowl. Break or cut the chocolate into pieces and grind them in the food processor until finely ground. Add the ground chocolate to the almonds and mix together.
Add the confectioners’ sugar, salt, cinnamon and cloves to the bowl and mix until combined. Stir in the egg whites, one at a time, and then add the kirsch or rum. The alcohol will burn off in the oven. Stir until well combined, cover with plastic and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 300˚ F.  Prepare two cookie sheets by covering them with parchment paper. I sprinkled some sugar on plastic wrap and rolled out the dough between two pieces of plastic wrap. Be careful, the dough is very sticky. I used a small 1½ -inch wide wineglass for a cookie cutter. I dipped the rim in sugar before I cut the dough. I had to roll out the leftover dough several times. Putting the dough in the freezer for several minutes helps. I baked each cookie sheet for 18 minutes in the center of my oven. The cookies will be dry but soft to the touch when they are done. Cool the cookies completely before putting them into a tin. They will last for a month if they’re not gone by then.


Guten Appetit
recipe by Luisa Weiss from her book Classic German Baking
©sunnycovechef.com
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    WELCOME TO SUNNY COVE CHEF

    Thank you for visiting my blog.  My two passions are cooking and traveling. Traveling exposes me to a wide variety of food and experiences. I walk around cities looking for markets, restaurants, bakeries, shops, you name it, and if it is related to food you will find me there, tasting, smelling, talking to vendors, and having a great time.

    ​
    If you  have tried any of my recipes, snap a photo and tag me @sunnycovechef I'd love to see your creations!​


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