Gadgets that work! Is it a clock? Is it a frisbee?

Nooooo, but what is it? I know, do you?

You both are right and what David said in the comments is what had me grinning all the way from the back of the store to the register... Ah great minds...

This plate will help you divide a round whatever into odd parts. Or rather even parts. Odd numbers. Hmm. Picture a pizza on the plate and in this example 5 hungry family members. Your first cut will be starting at the "0" on the bottom of the picture and then slice starting at every "5" you see on the plate. Ofcourse we tried it immediately and it really works.

Not sure what the crèpe recipe is doing there in the center, can't imagine dividing a crèpe into so many parts but since we bought in Britttany I figured a crèpe recipe and this plate was the ideal souvenir.

Bread Baking Babes: Bake Brioche Mousseline

~~start classical music~~ Mellow Voice over:

As you all know we are foodies. We're all about quality, fine dining, perfect patisserie. We're torturing each other about methods, ingredients, fresh herbs, the best butter, heirloom everything and free roaming all. The Bread Baking Babes are no different.

~~end classical music~~

Let me pull you back to reality. That's not how things go all the time always. This month our hostess Monique in her Kitchen of the Month had us scrambling for the cheapest canned food! We shared our finds: apple sauce! tomato puree! White beans, brown beans! Coffee isn't sold in cans not in Europe anyway but dog food is....

All this to bake really great brioche, using the cans as our baking tins. Can we bake brioche?

Yes we can!

For the recipe I refer you to Monique, I need to say that I accidentally forgot to add two eggs and only used four in total. That never compromised the end product, we all loved it. We loved it fresh out of the oven but we adored it as much the next day toasted.

Think about it for a while: lovely soft yellow-crumbed slices of brioche, dipped in poached egg, or smeared with some more butter or home made preserves. (I won't tell on my son who had two thick slices toasted and made a burger out of it. I had a bite and it was great!).

The brioche dough is made -buttery! eggy! yellow! soft! pliable! perfect handcream!- and then after the first proofing it's carefully balled up and slid into the waiting cans prepared with a lining of parchment paper with a high collar. Definitely make the collars high because these babies grow to enormous lengths. *cough*

I filled my tins up until 2/3 of the way. You can use any size cans but make sure they're not lined with the poisonous-when-heated white plastic stuff. Hence the search for cans.... Difficult to find unlined ones.

Can we be a Buddy and bake this in regular size tins? Yes, but why would you miss out on the fun of these eh...peculiar shaped breads? Well? Let Monique know that you've baked, check her blog for the details and the recipe!

Don't forget to check with my Bread Baking Babes right there in the right hand column! Lovely challenge Monique, great fun and gorgeous breads.

Real Dutch? Liquorice ice cream / Echt Hollands: Drop ijs!

Dit is echt de hit: drop ijs! Hoe Hollands kun je het maken? Ik heb allemaal hele blije jongetjes in huis nu. Niet zelf verzonnen, was het maar waar, maar gelezen en schaamteloos rechtstreeks gekopieerd van Mangerie. Zij noemde het een succesrecept, ooit hier geproefd en ik kan het alleen maar beamen; gewoon maken dit ijs!

150 gr zachte drop (favoriete smaak, geen suikervrije) of van Melle droptoffees <- jaa!! doen!!

280 gr halfvolle melk

120 gr. slagroom

75 gr. suiker

Drop in kleine stukjes knippen met een schaar (of snijden met een mesje) en onder voortdurend roeren laten oplossen in de melk in een pannetje boven laag-middelhoog vuur.

Het ziet eruit alsof het een beetje schift maar de drop lost niet volledig op in de melk, komt allemaal goed straks! Laat het dropmengsel afkoelen in de koelkast.

Slagroom met de suiker stijfkloppen en door het dropmengsel spatelen.

In je ijsmachine doen en volgens de gebruiksaanwijzing ijs van draaien. Overdoen in een geschikte diepvriesbak en nog een nachtje laten opstijven in de vriezer. Dit ijs blijft tamelijk zacht en keurig schepbaar rechtstreeks vanuit de vriezer. Het smelt dus ook behoorlijk snel, scheppen en opeten dus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dutch Liquorice Ice cream (yes really!)

Never knew it could be done until I had my first taste of a similar flavour in Sweden! Vanilla ice cream popsicle coated by a greyish-black liquorice ice.... So good! Ice cream is not something I normally crave but I walked the boys happily to the store during that holiday, want some ice cream boys? Inge over at Mangerie hunted down a recipe for liquorice ice and I love it! Moreover the boys are crazy about it as well. And the best thing is: it's so easy to make at home.

Recipe couldn't be simpler:

150 gr soft sweet liquorice (your favorite or liqourice flavored toffee)

280 gr low fat milk

120 gr. double cream

75 gr. sugar

Cut the liquorice in small pieves (or snip with scissors) and combine them with the milk in a small saucepan. Heat on low-medium and stir while the liquorice melts and combines with the milk. (looks a bit curdly but all will be well in the end) Let cool in the fridge. Once cold, whisk cream with the sugar and mix with liquorice mixture.

Proceed and follow the directions of your ice cream maker. Transfer to a suitable container and freeze overnight. This ice cream will stay soft-ish but nevertheless very delicious! Scoop and enjoy right away!

Bread Baking Babes they're multiplying: Tanta Wawa's or baking babies!

I wonder how many creepy onlookers we'll get with these kind of headlines! Of course we're not making babies, nor are we baking babies... We joined Gretchen in her kitchen this month, she drafted from her sweet memories of Peru and provided us with a recipe and a beautiful story behind the Tanta Wawa's we're baking this month.

Referring you to her post for the story and the recipe, I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment (really should have posted yesterday, oops). I just wanted to show you the arts and crafts that made my dough into eeh... well... what can I say? The one baby I thought I had fabricated was christened a bug by my sons, the whale morphed into a shark when transferred from workbench to cookie sheet and I won't even show you the lovely lady-doll that became a Dancing Derwisj during baking... Luckily there's one nice lady left.

The dough itself was dry by account of my fellow Babes, I ended up with a very soft and smooth Play-doh, guess I used more liquid and my use of a liguid butter product helped it tip over to a very soft dough. It didn't rise much. Or... didn't rise at all! Hours later not an inch! Shaped, set to proof, again... nothing. Baked and yes we have movement.

All the figurines ended up with nice full bellies -and some cracks-. The smell however was wonderful!

Peeling

pumpkin peel, originally uploaded by BakingSoda.

For the color, the lines and note to self: remember the recipe that convinced the family to eat pumpkin soup and finish the post!

Yes we bake: Orange date-fig wreath for World Bread Baking Day!

It's on again; Zorra announced the annual celebration of Bread Bakers: World Bread Baking Day 2009.

I really needed such a kicker to start baking bread again, my kitchen hasn't seen much flour explosions lately and when this bread came out of the oven it showed.... high hopes, slack and tacky dough, cumbersome but nice braiding, miserable slashing!

So out came the powdered sugar... Disguise disguise thy name is powdered sugar! Hmmm now that I write this I suddenly remember that I planned an Irish Coffee Cream Icing to go with the bread. Guess my brain has been sugar powdered as well.

What I baked? A true fall flavoured bread packed with: orange juice and zest in the dough, chopped medjool dates, nice plump dried figs and small green apple chunks for a filling, adding enough sugar and butter to make the endresult more cakey than bready. Tango fresh and sweet!

Orangey-Date and Fig bread

2.1/2 ts instant yeast

1 cup milk

3/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup sugar

2 ts salt

60 gr butter, melted

1 egg

grated zest of 2 oranges

---

5-6 cups bread flour

1.1/2 cup chopped dates, dried figs, steeped in the orange juice or 2 tbs orange liquor

1 green apple in chunks

Make a sludge from all the upper ingredients plus 2 cups of the flour, using the paddle on your standmixer to beat until smooth.

Adding flour by 1/4 cups at the time to get a smooth and soft dough that just about clears the bowl. Switching from the paddle to the dough hook when the dough gets more substance. Leave to double in a greased covered container for about 1.1/2 - 2 hours.

Tip dough out on your counter and pat into a rectangle, sprinkle the combined fruits over the dough, fold it over itself and carefully knead dough to distribute the fruit. (This is where I went wrong, I used all of the liquid in the bowl as well, tipping the scale from a soft smooth dough to a sloppy tacky one...yikes! So ... caution here!).

Now that the fruit is evenly distributed in the dough you can proceed to either divide the dough in two portions making two smaller loafs or leave it whole to make one giant braided wreath. A simpler variation would be to make two ropes and twist them together.

(I braided which was rather difficult with the tackiness).

Place in a pan large enough to hold your choice of amount comfortably and cover. Leave to rise at room temp for about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375F/175C and bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean.

This amount of dough makes one huge wreath which we will enjoy for breakfast but I must say I'm very much looking forward to toast it (mmmm with some butter and/or jam!) or even make breadpudding....

Het is herfst: Kruidcake!

Ik vind de geur van speculaaskruiden heerlijk, maar eerlijk gezegd vind ik ook dat alles waar je het in gebruikt een beetje met hetzelfde "sop" overgoten wordt. Het gaat zo op elkaar lijken.... Maar toch... het ruikt zo lekker he, dus toen ik Dit recept vond bij Canadese Hélène van La Cuisine d'Hélène vond ik dat een goede om de herfst mee op te starten. Grappige is dat de jongens nooit zo weg zijn van zelfgebakken kruidkoek maar dit lijkt kennelijk voldoende om cake om ruimschoots door de ballotage te komen. Hij schijnt goed te bewaren te zijn, (tot vijf dagen in de koelkast, goed verpakt; eerst in plasticfolie dan in alufolie) wat in ons geval niet is gelukt ;D!

Ik heb het recept hier en daar wat aangepast.

Kruidkoek net even anders:

325 gr gezeefde patentbloem
1/2 tl zout
3/4 tl baking soda
2 tl gemberpoeder

1 tl kaneel
1/4 tl gemalen nootmuskaat
1/2 tl koek-en speculaas kruiden
2 tl cacoa poeder
100 gr boter, gesmolten en afgekoeld
4 el stroop
4 el appel-perenstroop
135 gr kristalsuiker
1 groot ei
125 ml karnemelk
125 ml melk

- Oven voorverhitten op 175C, tulbandvorm invetten en met bloem bestrooien, klop de overtollige bloem eruit.

- In een grote kom de droge ingredienten: (bloem, baking soda, zout, gemberpoeder, kaneel, nootmuskaat, cacao en koekkruiden) samenvoegen en met een garde mengen.

- Met een electrische mixer de boter, stroop en suiker mengen in een aparte kom. Voeg het ei toe en mix tot een homogene massa. Al mixend geleidelijk karnemelk en melk toevoegen.

- Voeg de droge ingredienten toe aan het stroop/botermengsel en mix totdat je net een glad mengsel hebt, ongeveer 1 minuut. Voorzichtig, niet te lang mengen. Giet het beslag in de tulbandvorm.

- Bak ong. 40 minuten in de voorverwarmde oven. De bovenkant moet veerkrachtig aanvoelen als je er met een vinger op drukt, de randen zijn iets teruggetrokken van de zijkanten van de vorm. Laat de cake in de vorm op een rooster afkoelen (ong. 10 minuten) voor je hem eruit haalt.

Dit wordt een luchtige kruising tussen kruidkoek en cake, minder zwaar, minder heftig speculaas-achtig en prachtige rulle binnenkant. De cacao geeft er net even een ander smaakje aan. Na een lichte maaltijd is het heerlijk als dessert, warm geserveerd met bijv een bolletje ijs. Koud ook niet te versmaden bij de ochtendkoffie! De kinderen vonden hem erg lekker!

Ander recept: classic Dutch spice cake/Stroopkoek

Nice pumpkin soup

Is there a need for nailing a pumpkin soup that gets the family thumbs-up when you live in Holland? Where pumpkins are on loan from the United States and only seen as decoration? Not the carved kind, not yet, we haven't fully embraced Halloween here but pumpkins are inching their way into windowsills, out at the front door or amiably dressing the deserted garden furniture.

Once or twice a season I buy pumpkin just to try. I made pumpkin pie (family: meh why bother?) soup (equally dismissed as too earthy, could be nice but it's just bland). Stubbornly I tried again, bought another one. Not sure if it was the variety, the fact that it was organic or the recipe but this pot of soup was emptied in no time. Everyone liked it! I was as surprised as you are. Now to remember what I did....

First of all the variety; a deep orange, smallish, organic one, found at Lidl €1,99. I saw it advertised as a Japanese kind a hokkaido?

Second: I peeled -using a vegetable peeler-, cubed, sprinkled with olive oil, cumin, flecks of dried ancho chillies, roasted in the oven. Lovely fragrant smells emanating from the oven! (Note to self:...use it as side dish?)

potatoes

lime juice!!

salt and pepper

1 hokkaido pumpkin, peeled, cubed

1 tbs cumin (less of the ground variety, 1 tbs of whole cumin seeds)

sprinkle of dried ancho chili flakes

Preheat oven to 400F/200C. Toss pumpkin cubes with olive oil, cumin and chili flakes in a roasting pan and roast for about 45 minutes or until nice and tender.

1 tbs olive oil

2 onions, chopped

1 large carrot, peeled, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1.1/2 - 2 liter vegetable broth

2 large potatoes, peeled, cubed

finish:

squeeze of lime juice

1 tbs toasted sesame seeds

pepper/salt

Heat olive oil in a large pot and softly saute/sweat garlic, onion and carrot, covered until soft and fragrant. Add the roasted pumpkin and the potatoes, toss and saute for a couple of minutes more. Add broth and bring to a soft boil to get the vegetables soft and tender approx. 15 minutes. Puree using a vegetable mill or a hand held blender and taste to add pepper and salt if needed, squeeze in some lime juice.

To serve with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and some nice artisan bread.

Happy Halloween!

Another pumpkin soup using mustard, cinnamon and creme fraiche