little fava biscuits

yess, they are lovely

One of my childhood favourite was the ischler. I do not think that I have to introduce this to any Hungarian reader of mine but maybe for those who live abroad and have never heard of this phenomenon then I can say that this is one of the best thing that can happen to your sweet shortcrust pastry...I know, I know. I am providing you sth that needs shortcrust pastry again but I promise that this is the very last one (or not :)
Making these little biscuits at home is a bit time consuming but I think it worth the dedicated time and effort.
As you will see I used low-carb flour again, but please feel free to use "normal" flour if you want to. Also the sugar was sweetener for me but for you it can be made with brown sugar, demerara, icing or plain caster sugar.
The main ingredients are give in 3:2:1 as with any usual linzer torte (or shortcrust pastry) but let's see the recipe.

Ischler
150 g plain flour (for me it was gluten free flour but BL55 is fine)
150g low-carb flour
200 g butter (noooo, please don't use margarine)
100 g icing sugar (or the equivalent of that in sweetener) 
1 whole egg
pods of a vanilla bean (or if you don't have that then vanilla essence/extract/paste to your taste--depends on your budget)
1 lemon's zest
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of baking powder


Use the food processor (or your hands) and rub the butter in the flour(s), salt, baking powder mixture. Add the sugar or the sweetener, the lemon zest and the vanilla. As you already know we are making sand at this stage. Then add the egg (some recipes write only the yoke but for me it was too dry and I added the white as well for additional moisture). If the dough does not come together, then add a splash of milk as well. Put the dough in clingfilm and leave it in the fridge for 20 minutes and in the meantime turn on the oven to 200°C.

Roll out the dough between two sheets of clingfilm (this is the easiest way of handling, and rolling shortcrust) to approximately 0,5 cm thick and cut out any shape of your preference with a biscuit cutter. Make sure that you make even number of biscuits, since we are going to sandwich them with jam when ready.

Put the biscuits in the oven and bake them for 10 minutes. In the meantime you can use up the excess pastry and roll them out again, cut out etc. Just make sure that you always pop the left-over dough in the fridge for a couple of minutes before rolling it out again, since the butter melts easily and you can ruin the biscuits.

Once the biscuits are out of the oven and cool enough to handle you can start sandwiching them one by one. I think that the retro(traditional) ischlers are filled with forest fruit jam (I would not swear to this but a red coloured jam comes to my mind from my childhood when I recollect) but this time I made ours with sugar free peach jam.

Last but not least the forsting. Very easy. Melt 50-60g dark chocolate (again I used sugar free) with one tablespoon of sunflower oil either over boiling water bath, or in the microwave (be careful, try not to burn down the chocolate) then dip the filled biscuits in the chocolate frosting, making sure that you cover only one side. You can decorate the top with crushed walnut or pistachios.

auntie Vanessa loved them as well

One more thing. You can use grated walnut, hazelnut, pistachio etc in the pastry but then decrease the amount of flour by the weight of the nut.

savoury biscuits for Easter (late post)

I do not like making much fuss about Easter. Don't know why. Maybe because I do not like the feast itself? Or just I am getting lazier? Who knows. But as long as the Queen of England does not send me a note that she would like to celebrate the Easter feast with us I will not make any efforts about this family holiday at all in the future either.
Of course, I was trying to make my Easter breakfast with ham, horseradish and eggs but otherwise the menu was quite simple.
This little biscuit that I will show you was on the menu as well (just to have something to nibble on, you know:) but since it is so easy to make it will be part of our everyday top 50 favourite and I will not wait till next Easter to make it.
The recipe was found here
My version is almost the same with a slight change in the recipe and in the ingredients.

the "Easter" biscuits, maybe the Queen would like them as well

Cheddar and Parmesan biscuits with rosemary

120g yoghurt butter
80g plain flour
80g low-carb flour
50g grated light cheddar (I used Cathedral light but you can pick your favourite)
50g grated Parmesan
one teaspoon of salt, grated black pepper
one egg
a splash of milk
2 tsp of dried rosemary (not the powdered one please)
pinch of baking powder

The method is almost the same as making shortcrust pastry that I have already written about in my previous post. Just to sum: you take your food processor, make "beach sand" out of the cold cubed butter, the flours and the baking powder. Add salt, pepper, rosemary and the cheese. One or two blitz and then add the egg and the splash of milk. Once it starts forming a dough you are ready.
Put the dough on  clingfilm and shape a big sausage out of the pastry then chill in the fridge for 20 minutes or in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Heat the oven 180° Celsius and cut biscuits out of your sausage. Bake in the over for about 15-20 minutes, depending on the strength of your oven and the size of the portion that you put in once.
Consume with wine, cider or beer (or just on its own) but be careful, since it is addictive :)

some naughty boy wanted to taste it before shooting...

Blackberry bakewell tart

As promised, I will post the recipe of the luxurious Blackberry Bakewell Tart, which I showed and told you  about. It caused a lot of confusion in people of FaceBook since I was trying to convince all of them that this version is not fattening, let alone unhealthy. Well, what can I say?
I still believe that what I said is true but you, my beloved reader, please decide it for yourself.

Blackberry Bakewell Tart
Sweet shortcrust pastry from Jamie Oliver (my version makes about 0,4kg)

125 g wholemeal flour
125 g low-carb flour
50g sugar worth sweetener (depends on your preference. I like using liquid but you can use granulated)
125 g yoghurt butter (contains 20% less fat than normal butter)
zest of half a lemon
1 large egg (organic if possible)
a splash of milk

5 heaped tablespoon of sugar free blackberry jam for brushing and frozen blackberries (fresh would make the pastry too soggy)

almond paste (from Jamie's monster bake sale booklet)

200 g yoghurt butter
200g sugar worth sweetener (I recommend granulated here)
3 eggs
vanilla essence or fresh vanilla seed (scrape out the seeds of one pod)
200g ground almond
almond essence

to decorate:
25g flaked almond

I made the shortcrust pastry the previous evening. It can sit nicely in the fridge a night and get ready for the baking next morning.

If you don't have time to make the pastry in advance, then preheat the over to 180° and definitely use your food processor for making the pastry.If you don't have a food processor, then you can use your hands, but make sure that you don't work the pastry too long because from the warmth of your hands the pastry can become too soft. Therefore, I recommend all of you using the food processor because you can avoid any failure with the tricky shortcrust.

In the food processor blitz the butter, the flours, the sweetener together with the zest of the lemon. The pastry should be like sand at this stage. Then add the egg and the milk and work for one more minute till the pastry shapes a dough. Quickly turn the pastry out of the machine onto some clingfilm, wrap it and put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes or into the deep freeze for  10 minutes (be careful with the deep freezer, cause it can turn your pastry into stone and then the consistency of the baked pastry will be very crumbly and too dry).

Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll it out quickly on a flour dusted surface or between two sheets of clingfilm (I prefer this method because it makes the process quicker, less messy and easier). With the help of the rolling pin put the pastry into the tart tin, that you have slightly brushed with butter and dusted with wholemeal flour beforehand (or if you are in a lazy mood then baking parchment will work as well) and trim off the excess pastry from the edge.


Blind bake the pastry. It means that it is baked in the oven for 10-12 minutes on 180° without any filling, just with some parchment on the top and beans or lentil is used to weigh down the pastry, preventing it from bubbling up. Remove the beans and the parchment and give it an extra 7-10 minutes in the oven.

I, myself not a big fan of blind baking this way so I put down my method here: pastry in the tin, back to the fridge for 10 more minutes. Take it out of the fridge and prick it with a fork everywhere but make sure that you don't go through the pastry to the bottom of the tin and then bake us usual. If any bubbles appear (for me it never has happened so far) then put on your oven gloves and slightly press down the air bubbles while it is still hot (I read this method actually in Delia's book and this is her recommendation).

Let the pastry cool down and in the meantime make the almond filling.
Start by whisking up the egg whites with a pinch of salt. Put it aside or in the fridge. 
Slightly melt the butter and whisk it with the egg yokes and the sweetener. Add the vanilla and the almond essence and stir in the ground almond carefully. Here is my trick of the day, I added a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to the ground almond, to make the filling lighter and fluffier. It is not necessary of course but you can give a try. Now, very carefully fold in the egg whites, make sure that it is evenly but gently stirred in.

Brush the bakes shortcrust pastry with the jam and scatter with frozen blackberries. I do not like using fresh here as it would make the pastry too wet and the crust would be lost from the pastry.

Now really carefully smear the almond paste on the top of the berries and decorate the top with flaked almond.

In the oven bake the tart for 30 minutes until the top gets golden. Remove from the oven and let it cool.

and serve with light chocolate ice-cream....

a nagy visszateres / the big return of mine

First, I would like to apologize for the disappearance. Hope you might be able to forgive this 5 months break. In advance let me please show you a photo of one of our latest beauties...recipe will follow soon, I promise.

pre-christmas sales at Libri

Sziasztok!

Sajnos mostanában nincs túl sok időm a bloggal foglalkozni. Igyekszem majd a téli szabadságom alatt felrakni néhány receptet :) Nem szeretnék senki sem cserben hagyni, főleg azokat nem akik eddig szorgalmasan olvasták, látogatták a blogomat!
Most is csak azért írok egyébként, hogy felhívjam mindenki figylmét, (nem, nem vagyok a Libri marketingese és még csak nem is fizetnek nekem ezért) hogy december 15 és 17 között 20-50% kedvezménnyel lehet szakácskönyveket kapni. Ha lenne időm én is mennék egy-két könyvet venni...mivel nincs, ezért csak hírdetem az igét. Menjetek és vegyetek, mert jó árba vannak a könyvek. 
Itt: http://www.libri.hu/fozni_jo/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium&utm_campaign=index tudjátok megnézni az aktuális akciót!

Köszi, szép napot!
Aliz :)

Lúdláb torta or in Hunglish "Goose leg cake" :)

lúdláb torta in my version

We have the tradition in Hungary of celebrating St Martin's day on the 11th of November (Márton nap). Of course, it comes from a christian heritage but I don't want to go into details. You can check this on wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin%27s_Day
All in all, this day is the celebration of the new wine (called "újbor") in Hungary and traditionally roast of goose and steamed red cabbage is served to accompany the wine. The goose is strictly connected to the biblical story of St Martin (the goose is a symbol for St. Martin himself) but no no, we are not cannibals, and we are not eating anyone named after this saint...this is all symbolic.
So, you may ask what does this cake has to do with the goose? Do we put goose meat in the cake? Nooo, of course not. According to the explanation that I am aware is that the shape of the cake slice resembles to the goose leg and not the taste :) :) If you have any better explanation, then I am more than happy to welcome that so that I can expand my tiny knowledge of gastronomy.

Lúdláb Torta (Goose leg cake)
List of ingredients for a 23 cm diameter cake tin

Sponge cake: 
4 eggs (white and yolk separated)
60g sugar
1 pinch of salt
40 g flour and 40 g potatoe-starch
1 tbs of cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 tsp of baking powder

chocolate filling:
250 g butter
90g cocoa powder (unsweetened)
180 g sugar
1.7 dl of double cream

chocolate frosting:
170g dark chocolate
1 or 2 tbs double cream
a knob of butter

to decorate:
7-8 pitted sour cherry (preserve, not fresh)

1. Turn on the oven to 180 degrees and separate the eggs (white from the yolk). Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt to a stiff stage. Basically, when you turn the bowl upside down then it should not fall out of that. That's the stiff stage. Put the whites aside. Whip the egg yoke with the sugar until it gets pale yellow (takes around 7-10 minutes, use a machine). Sieve the flour, the starch and the cocoa powder along with the baking powder into the egg yolk mixture and carefully mix them with a spatula. Finally add the whipped egg whites and as careful as you can be mix them together. Butter and flour the cake tin and put baking parchment in the bottom of the tin. Pour the raw mixture in the tin, bake it in the over for 12 minutes (don't use the fan). When ready, let it cool on a rack, or on your balcony.

2. For the filling: boil the cream with 2/3 of the sugar and 1/4 of the butter (all in all boil it with some sugar and a tine knob of room temperature butter). Let it boil for 2-3 minutes then add the cocoa powder. Mix them together well, but take off the hob from time to time as it might burn down and then you can start all again. As long as you get a smooth chocolaty mixture you have to stir it manually. When ready, let it cool a bit. Beat the butter with the rest of the sugar (you can add vanilla sugar as well if you may wish) until "fluffy". Mix the butter and the chocolaty cream together as long as it has smooth consistency. Pour the cream on the top of your sponge cake, let it cool in the fridge for 2-3 hours before proceeding. (for me the chocolaty cream was a bit too runny so I put in the deep freeze for 5 minutes before pouring on the sponge cake). For shaping the cake it can help that you put the cake tin around the sponge again (if you have a tine that can easily be dismantled)

3. After 3 hrs of freezing/cooling make the frosting. Melt the butter, the chocolate and the cream  over boiling water (I mean put your bowl on the top of boiling water but make sure that the bowl does not reach the water level because it is going to burn down). Stir as long as it is a smooth chocolate frosting and you can add some rum essence to flavour to taste.

4. Take the cake out of the fridge and pour the frosting over the top. Smear it with a palette knife or spatula until coats the cake evenly. Decorate with pitted sour cherry and cool in the fridge for 1-2 hs till you eat it. (if you can wait...)

cake and cow

 

Sacher-torta egyszerűen

Sacher-torta

Rég nem írtam. Lehet, hogy nincs is olvasóm már?! Nem tudom. Titkon azért remélem hogy még a "hard-core" supporter-ek azért kitartanak mellettem, és ezzel a recepttel sikerül majd a kárpótolni őket a hallgatásomért.
Ezt a kis leegyszerűsített Sacher-torta receptet ajánlom figyelmébe mindenkinek. Azoknak főleg, akik szeretnének benevezni -vagy már megtették- az éves cookie competition-re (aki tudja, hogy miről beszélek az tegye fel a kezét :) Aki nem, az meg hívjon fel és megmondom!) és azoknak is akik nem. Igen egyszerű recept ez és higyjétek el, hogy akik enni fognak belőle azok majd hallani vélik a halleluját és utána esti imájukba fogják elrebegni a nevünket, hálát adva ezért a tortáért. Igen, igen  a torta azt a benyomást kelti az egyszeri fogasztóban, hogy áldozatos, sok óra,  konyhai álldogálás és kemény munka eredménye...pedig neeem. Elárulom, hogy nagyon egyszerű és bárki nyugodtan hozzáláthat, mert se nem időigényes, se nem bonyolúlt. Csak aztán majd győzzétek begyűjteni a dicséretet utána. Én szóltam :)

Sacher-torta (23 cm-es tortaformában sütve)

50g darált dió
50 g graham liszt
50g (sima) fehér liszt
150g vaj
6 tojás (fehérje és sárgája külön választva)
200g cukor
150g csokoládé (olvasztva)
1 zacskó bourbon vaníliás cukor
1 narancs lereszelt héja
1/2 narancs leve
1kk. sütőpor

tölteléknek:
házi vagy bolti: baracklekvár

bevonat:
150g csokoládé
1 ek olaj

1. Kapcsoljuk be a sütőt 180 fokra.Verjük fel a tojásfehérjét egy csipet sóval. Tegyük félre. A tojás sárgákat keverjük ki jól a cukorral és a vaníliával (kb. 10-15 perc). Adjuk hozzá a szobahőmérsékletű vajat (ne margarint lécci) a narancs héját és levét. Keverjük tovább, amíg nem kapunk egy selymes halványsárga krémet.

2. Az előzőleg gőz fölött felolvaszott, majd lehűtött csokoládét hozzáadjuk a tojássárgához, elkeverjük egy spatulával. Beleszitáljuk a liszteket, majd hozzáadjuk a darált diót és a sütőport is, jól elkeverjük. A tojásfehérjét óvatosan a lisztes keverékhez adjuk, majd előzőleg kivajazott, lisztezett és sütőpapírral bélelt formába öntjük és a 180 fokos sütőben megsütjük (nem írok időt, mert ez midnenkinek egyénileg a sütője teljesítményétől függ). Akkor jó a torta, ha az oldala egy kicsit elválik a formától, és kiállja a tűpróbát is.

3. Kihűtjük a tortát. Kettévágjuk a tortát és vastagon megkenjük a lekvárral majd a csokoládébevonattal egyenletesen bevonjuk a tetején és az oldalán is.

a slice of heaven