Pumpkin Muffin

"the must have" for autumn! We love the smell of this wonderful spices and the taste of pumpkin in this muffin. 

Ingredients: 

300 g steamed pumpkin (Hokkaido or butternuts)
150 g brown sugar
2 egg
200 g flour
150 g butter (room temperature)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanille sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsb ground ginger
1/4 tsb ground cloves
2 tsb baking powder

Method:

1. Beat egg yolk, sugar and vanille sugar, butter until soft and fluffy.
2. Sift flour and baking powder. Mix with the all spices.
3. Mash steamed cooled down pumpkin.
4. Beat white egg until stiff.
5. Add flour mixture, mashed pumpkin and white egg to egg yolk mixture one after the other.
6. Put the dough in the muffin mould. Bake in pre heated oven.

Dinkel-Schoko-Sternchen

Juhuuu... I'm in baking mood on this holiday seasons. Maybe because I miss the smells of cinnamon, ginger etc.. or I just had a lot of energy since my return from Rehabilitation centre in Goldegg a few weeks ago. I don't know. And it isn't important to find the reasons, I think.

I always wanted to use "dinkel wheat" (spelt) for baking cause I've heard that it is healty. I was searching on net and found some recipes. But the recipe below is my own variation and I hope you will like the cookies as much as I do.

You need:

250 g dinkel-wheat

50 g ground almond

125 g butter (room temperature)

100 g cane sugar

1 whole egg

1 yolk

1 tbs cocoa powder

a pinch of cinnamon powder, salt and baking powder

orange marmalade

for garnish: icing sugar or white chocolate

Method:

Beat the butter and sugar until pfluffy, add eggs, continue beating. Mix dinkel-wheat, cocoa, almond and all other ingredients except marmalade. Put this mixture into egg-butter. Knead the dough, round it and wrap with plastic foil, resting it for about 30 minutes.

Roll the dough and form it using cookies cutter (for example a star or other form). Bake for about 15 minutes (160°C). Cool them down. Take one cookie, put a little bit orange marmalade and take another cookie, stick them together. Make with the rest of the cookies. If finish you can garnish them with icing sugar or white chocolate. Store them in air-tight container.

And I wish u all the happines of this wonderful time of the year. And stay healthy, guys! :-)

An "adventurous" year 2012

I've been absent for a while in blogging, the last post was in February this year and now is already December.. wow.. time flies.

At the end of february I got the diagnose breast cancer! Very unexpected, anyway who expect an illness?? Nobody..So, this year was a struggle against this disease, a very long fight!! Beginning with chemotherapies (6x), after that, the surgery and the last therapy was radiotherapy (25x) ended in october. Everything worked well.

Thanks God!!

Now I'm enjoying the recovery process from all the therapies and their side effects in very lovely beautiful village named Goldegg, around 70 km from Salzburg. I'm doing a lot of walk, being spoiled with very good and healthy cuisine, of course :-) and have some new friends..   This is the 3rd week, my last week in Goldegg and since Goldegg is located more than 800 m above the sea level, falling a lot of snow here.. After the last two weeks we had beautiful autumn days, I'm so happy to see snow falling before my departure on saturday..

"my home for 3 weeks"

my fav acitivity during the stay:
walking and enjoying the scenery with friends

the view of Goldegg and its surrounding in November

"one late afternoon; Goldegg and its lake"

"Dec 3rd 2012: the view during my walk, alone"

I hope u can enjoy the pictures and I can write often in the future..

Choco Chip Cookies

To be honest I'm not a cookies eater, but probably you are wondering why I posted quite a lot of cookies recipes. The answers are just simple, I love baking and trying new recipes but most of all is just a Love to my hubby who is cookies lover..:-) And I bet he is not alone..

I tried this recipe and I think I turned to be a little bit cookies lover..:-) These cookies are so crispy and the taste is so good (not too sweet). I recommend you to try it out.

source: The Chocolate Lovers' Cookbook

Ingredients:

1/4 lb (110 g) butter
1/4 cup (60 ml) sugar1/2 cup (125 ml) brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup (250 ml) all-purpose flour
1 cup (250 ml) self-raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
grated rind of 1 orange ( I didn't use it)
3/4 (185 ml) choco chips or chocolate drops
1/2 cup (125 ml) chopped walnuts
 

Method:

1. Preheat oven 190°C.
2. Cream butter, sugar and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat thoroughly.
3. Sift flour, salt and baking soda into mixture and beat. Stir orange rind, choco chips/drops and nuts.
4. Grease baking sheet.
5. Roll teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls, place on baking sheet and press with a fork. Bake for about 10 minutes until golden brown. Cool and serve.

Hafermark Rumkugel

Rumkugel is one of traditional christmas cookies in Austria. This is my first try to make it. Very easy and very "lecker" :-)

Ingredients:

250 g ground oatmeal
140 g powder sugar
100 g butter (melted)
6 tbs cocoa powder
6 cl rhum
mini muffin backpaper

dried grated coconut or pearl sugar for garnish

Method:

Mix sugar and cocoa powder. Put the mixture to the warm melted butter. Stir well, add rhum and oatmeal. Knead with your hand, until you can form the mixture. Make small balls from the mixture and roll them in pearl sugar or dried grated coconut. Put each rumkugel in a mini muffin backpaper.

Christmas is here!

I don't have a passion of decorating cookies or tart. Honestly I don't think that I'm talented for that, although people say, it's just a matter of practice. I decided to make a little practice of cookies decoration at this christmas baking season..:-), although I'm a muslim, but baking christmas cookies is a kind of joy. These pictures are the result of my first practice, what do you thing?

This cookie is a "must" at chritsmas time in austria/german called "LEBKUCHEN", a very spice cookie with a flavour of cinnamon, clove, ginger and nutmeg.

LEBKUCHEN

Ingredients:
50 g maple syrup
75 g honey
100 g brown sugar
150 g butter
375 g flour
1/2 tsp natron (baking soda)
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, ground gloves and cayenne

for garnish (optional): icing sugar, sugar pearl or your favorite cookies decoration

Method:

1. Place maple syrup, honig, sugar and 50ml water in a pan and bring to boil until the sugar melted. Then add butter and let it also melted. Cool the mixture a little bit.

2. Mix flour with baking soda and all spices. Knead the flour mixture with the above mentioned mixture. Wrap the doug with plastic wrap. Put in the refrigerator for a night.

3. Preheat the oven 180°C (use above and bottom heat). Roll the dough in about 4mm thick and form with different x-mas moulds.

4. Place formed Lebkuchen into a covered with parchment baking sheed and bake for about 15min. Cool on wire rack.

5. Decorate it with icing sugar and pearl sugar.

I wish you a merry x-mas

&

 happy new year 2012

Walnuts Cookies

Ingredients:
100 g chopped walnuts
150 g butter
1 egg
100 g powder sugar
1 tbs vanilla sugar
50 g ground almonds
200 g flour
75 g maizena (corn starch)
a pinch of baking powder
salt
some of a half of walnuts for garnish

Method:
1. Beat butter until tender, add egg, powder sugar, vanille sugar and ground almonds. Mix them well.
2. Mix flour, corn starch, baking powder and salt. Sift this mixture to the above dough. Knead the mixture well. Add chopped walnuts. Use your hand to knead the mixture.
3. Make from this dough rounded form cookies (as big as a walnuts), press in the middle and put a halve walnuts.
4. Bake in the preheated oven (160-180°C) about 20 min.