Chocolate-Juniper Cake with Milk Jam Crème Fraîche

I made this a while ago because I thought spicing chocolate cake with juniper would make quite an interesting combination.
I found the recipe on "Bon Appetit"-blog, and yes, their photos are much nicer than mine, I know.

However, as predicted it tasted very unique (lots of gin/juniper flavor going on) and/but really good.

Original recipe found here!

Aside from the fact that I learned that chocolate and juniper are indeed a good match, this recipe also taught me something else, which is:

WHAT TO DO WHEN CAKE TURNS OUT DRY INSTEAD OF MOIST AND JUICY!

Just cut it up, throw it in the freezer. Then pull it out, roll it in sugar, place it in a hot frying pan and sear it from each side until the sugar has caramelized. 

Et voilá: dry cake turns into moist cake with a little bit of a crunch from the caramelized sugar.
It's fantastic!

I will definitely do this from now on!

Anyway, here is the recipe:

For the cake

Ingredients

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 2 teaspoons (heaping) juniper berries
• 225g or 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 335 or 1 2/3 cups sugar plus more for coating
• 75g or 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon natural unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 175ml or 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 165ml or 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs

Special equipment:

A spice mill - I just used mortar and pestel and crushed the juniper berries with some sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Coat a 33x23x6cm/13x9x2" glass baking dish with nonstick spray. Line bottom with parchment paper; spray parchment and set aside. Toast juniper berries in a small skillet over medium heat until aromatic, 2–3 minutes. Let cool. Finely grind in spice mill (or mortar and pestel)

Sift flour, 1 2/3 cups sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and ground juniper berries into a large bowl. Whisk buttermilk, oil, eggs, and 1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. water in a medium bowl. 

Whisk wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Pour batter into prepared baking dish; smooth top.

Bake cake until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 35–40 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack. Cover and chill in freezer until frozen, about 2 hours. 

DO AHEAD: Can be made 3 weeks ahead. Wrap in 2 layers of plastic; keep frozen.

Unwrap cake and invert onto a work surface; discard parchment. Using a long serrated knife, trim cake to form clean edges. Cut cake in half lengthwise, then cut each half crosswise into 3-3,5cm/1 1/4-inch–wide bars.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Pour a layer of sugar onto a plate. Roll each bar in sugar, coating completely. Working in batches, caramelize cake in skillet, turning with tongs to brown evenly, about 30 seconds per side per batch (be careful; the sugar burns quickly). Serve warm, with Milk Jam Crème Fraîche.

For the Milk Jam Crème Fraîche

Ingredients

• 475ml or 2 cups whole milk
• 130g or 1 cup sugar
• 240g or 1 cup crème fraîche or sour cream

Preparation

Bring milk and sugar to a boil in a medium pot over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar (take care that milk doesn’t boil over). Reduce heat to low. Simmer gently, whisking occasionally, until milk is thick, turns light reddish-brown, and measures scant 1 cup, 40–45 minutes. Transfer jam to a heatproof jar; let cool. 

DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 week ahead. Cover; chill. 

Or you could also simply use sweetened condensed milk.

Whisk together 1 Tbsp. milk jam and crème fraiche in a small bowl. Add more milk jam to taste to sweeten, if desired.

Note

As mentioned earlier, the cake turned out a little dry. Don't know if it was my fault and I baked it too long, or that's just the way this one is supposed to be...maybe in order o not fall apart when searing (?). 

But, yeah, freezing it, rolling it in sugar and searing it certainly did the trick.

This can probably be done with any other cake that's too dry, and it even gives it a little bit of a wow-factor.

I mean...fried and caramelized cake...could be worse.

On an unrelated side-note:

Wil and I spent our Sunday in the garden today and prepared it for the upcoming growing season.
Our onions, garlic and chive bed is going to be quite impressive, and the rhubarb is on it's way, as well.

And we found our first violet. Looks a little rough...but hey.

Artichoke with sour cream-mustard-balsamico dip

For everyone who thought my diet only consists of meat and chocolate, here is the proof that every so often even I consume green stuff with vitamins in it...

One of my favorite vegetables are artichokes.

They are a good side dish and perfect finger food.

I usually buy the big ones. I remove the stem and cut off the tips of the petals with a scissor. 

After that I throw them into a big pot of boiling water with a dash of lemon juice.

It depends on how big they are but usually artichokes need to cook for around 30-45 minutes.

You know the artichoke is ready to eat when you can easily pull off the outermost petals.

Unfortunately you usually cannot eat all parts of an artichoke. 

Especially the big ones are often hard and spiky.

Here are some instructions on how to eat them properly:

1. Start at the base of the artichoke, pull off one of the outermost petals. 
2. Dip the base of the petal into your sauce/vinaigrette. 
3. Pull the petal through your slightly clenched teeth to remove the soft, tender flesh at the bottom of the petal. As you progress upward from the base, the leaves become more tender, with larger edible portions until you reach the choke (the undeveloped flower).
4. Remove and discard the "hairy" choke using a teaspoon.
5. Cut the remaining Artichoke Heart into bite-sized pieces, dip and enjoy!

PS: For the dip mix sour cream, mustard, honey and balsamico vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

German Sweet&Sour Eggs

Sweet&Sour Eggs ("Süß-Saure Eier") or "Mustard Eggs" ("Senfeier") is a typical East German dish. 

I remember mentioning it to people from the West who just cringed because the name suggests something rather gross than tasty.

But it is delicious!

The description "sweet&sour" refers to the sauce with which the eggs are served.

It's a roux-based sauce containing vinegar and mustard for a sour note and sugar that adds the 

sweetness to it.

What you need:
6-8 large eggs
60-80g butter 
approx. 3-4 Tbsp all-purpose flour
¾-1 ltr. cold water and milk (e.g. ¼ milk, ¾water)
white wine vinegar
white sugar
1-2 tsp mustard
150-200g smoked bacon cubes
salt, pepper
chopped chive or parsley for decoration

Directions:

Fry smoked bacon cubes in a pan until brown.
Prepare a roux; melt butter in a saucepan. Whisk in flour until crumbly.
Now slowly pour in the water-milk mix and continue to whisk.
If the sauce gets too thick add a bit more water or milk.
If it is too thin just mix some flour with water in a small bowl and pour this mixture into the sauce.
Now season with whit wine vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar and mustard.
Start with 1tbsp vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, one tsp salt and one tsp mustard.
You will probably have to add more.
But you rather start with small amounts and try in between before adding more.
Your goal is to have a sauce that is sweet and sour at the same time.
You can taste the mustard such as the vinegar, the salt and the sugar without having one ingredient covering up the others.
Now add the bacon cubes and chive or parsley.
In the meantime boil the eggs for 6½-7 minutes (depends on the size of each egg).
The egg yolk should still be soft inside.
Chill them in cold water for a moment.
Then peel off the eggshell and add the eggs to the sauce.

Serve with potatoes.

Ayayaaaay....Big Nacho Time!

Ok. So my boyfriend Wil who is Canadian kept complaining about not being able to buy proper Mexican food supplies...for Nachos, Tortillas etc.
The salsa comes from Belgium, tiny bags of Nachos for 3 euros and no canned jalapeños or refried black beans...
Germany is a bad country for that.
And I thought he would die.

Until we both discovered MITTE MEER!
A big supermarket with all kinds of mediterranean food for relatively cheap, mainly Spanish and Italian.
It just opened a few days ago near Bornholmer Strasse.
Not only do they carry Rosemary Manchego (pure or marinated in olive oil) prociutto di parma, lardo and DeCecco pasta.
No, they also sell some Mexican products.
A giant bag of Nachos for 1,50 or 2,- euros, refried black beans, canned jalapeños AND Salsa from actual Mexico!
To round up the perfect Mexican-North American bar snack we also bought black olives, onions, tomatos, sour cream and a big chunk of cheddar cheese.







At home Wil put the chips in a casserole, sprinkled tomatos, olives, sliced jalapeños and chopped onions over it, topped everything with grated cheddar cheese and baked it until the cheese was melted and brown on the edges...
He served it with sliced avocado and sour cream, refried black beans and the salsa as dips.

That was pretty awesome!
The perfect food while watching a movie or hanging out with your friends.

Leek,cheese & ground beef soup

Usually I try to avoid cooking with things such as processed cheese.
But it's too good!
Next time I'll try to use proper cheese, though.
Such as Gruyere, camembert or gorgonzola...hmmm!
As long as it melts, it should be fine.
And maybe add some white wine or cidre to spice it up a little...

Until then, here is the classic recipe.

What you need:

500g ground beef
1 ltr beef broth
2 big leeks, washed and cut into rings
200g sour cream
200g cream
200g Velveeta, soft processed cheese (not the light version!)
pepper nutmeg, salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil








Heat up the vegetable oil in a big pot.
Then fry the ground beef in it until crumbly.
Pour in beef broth and let it boil.
Add leek and let everything boil for approx. 10 minutes.
Remove pot from heat.
Pour in sour cream, cream and Velveeta and stir until all is mixed well.
Season to taste with pepper, nutmeg and salt.
Slowly heat up the soup again.
Be careful not to have it boil again in order to prevent the cheese from clotting.

Serve hot on a cold winter night!