HefeKranz (Yeast Wreath)

Hefekranz is one of traditional German’s bread. It is a sweet yeast bread braided into the shape of a ring or left straight (oblong).
There are many versions of this recipe but the main ingredients are usually butter, yeast, sugar, flour and eggs.
My Kranz was made for easter, so I put an egg in the middle but you can shape it as you want.

Ingredients:
500 g flour (I use high protein flour)
80 g butter
25 g fresh yeast or 8,5 gr dry yeast
50-80 g sugar (depends how sweet you want it)
1/4 tsp salt
125-150 ml milk
2 medium eggs
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp butter or oil
1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp water

Sliced almonds for topping

Directions:
In a bowl, combine 100 ml of the milk, 1 tbps of the sugar and 50 gr of the flour. Mix until smooth; the mixture should resemble pancake batter. Add the yeast. Cover and allow to sit in a warm place to proof for 10 to 15 minutes. Mixture will foam and resemble a dough.

While the yeast is proofing, put in the rest of the flour into a large bowl. Add butter. Using the paddle beater, mix on low to medium spead until butter is combined. The butter will coat the flour, delaying gluten formation, and making a richer and softer bread.

Combine remaining sugar, remaining milk, eggs, salt and lemon zest; stir until sugar dissolves.

After the yeast has proofed, make a well in the flour. Pour milk-egg mixture and proofed yeast into the well in the flour. Stir together until a ball of dough forms.

Dust your kneading surface with some flour. Drop the dough ball onto the kneading surface, and dust again if necessary. Keep additional flour on hand for dusting while you knead. Knead dough until a springy ball. The dough should still be somewhat soft, and not very sticky.

Use 1 tbsp butter or oil to grease a bowl. Drop dough in bowl and turn to coat with the fat. Cover with a clean dishcloth, place somewhere warm, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about an hour.

When the dough has doubled in size, punch down.

To shape the wreath:
Divide into three even pieces. Roll each piece into a rope. Lay the ropes side by side; beginning from the middle, braid loosely first to one end of the ropes, then to the other. When the second half of the loaf is braided, you will have to braid backwards. Move braid to a buttered cookie sheet and form into a circle. If the circle has little room in the center, place an inverted, buttered, oven-save tea cup or small ramekin in the center. If the braid is tight, it will pull apart while rising and baking, and not look as nice.

Alternately:
Form dough into two straight braids. Divide dough in half; divide each half into thirds. Roll each third into 25 to 30 cm ropes, and loosely braid three ropes together, starting in the center. Place braids onto a buttered cookie sheet, with about 4 to 5 inches of space between them.

Cover the shaped dough, place in a warm, draft-free spot, and allow to rise until nearly doubled, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

In a small bowl or ramekin, combine egg yolk with 1 tbsp or less of water; beat until smooth. Brush dough with egg wash, being sure to cover sides of the braid. Press sliced almonds onto each loaf.

Place cookie sheet onto the middle rack, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown (the baking time will vary, depends on your wreath size and your oven).

Cinnamon Rolls

I think everyone love the smell of cinnamon and this rolls are one of the best selling rolls

It is easy to make, the key is to knead it long enough until it is smooth and elastic.

 To make this, you need:

For the bread:

550 g  bread flour (high protein flour)
Bread Improver (optional but recommended, use it as the direction of the package)
1 pckg or 8.5 g  dry yeast
70 g  melted butter
210 ml milk
75 g castor sugar
2 medium eggs
1/2 tsp salt

For the filling:

2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
135 g brown sugar
2-3 tbsps butter kept at room temperature
2 tbsps sesame seeds
50 gr raisins

 For the glaze:
1 medium egg
2 Tbsps milk

Directions:
Add the flour, the yeast, the sugar, the salt, the eggs, the milk, and the butter into the mixer. Mix the ingredients on low for 5 minutes until it becomes shiny in appearance. Add about 2 Tbsp more of flour to the bowl and turn off mixer. Now scrape the dough from the hook.

Sprinkle some flour on your working table. Knead the dough until elastic, cover  with plastic or cloth and let it rise until double in amount (about 30-60 minutes depends on your temperature).
While the dough is rising you can place into a bowl all the filling ingredients except the butter and mix with a spoon until combined. Set it aside.

Preheat oven to 200°C

Punch the air out of the dough. Sprinkle the work space with flour and place the dough on it. Sprinkle the dough with some flour. Now roll out the dough to a 1/2 cm thickness, making sure there is enough flour to prevent it from sticking to the table.

Spread the butter onto the dough surface evenly and then spread the filling. Carefully roll the dough into a log and cut it into slices of about 3 cm thick. Place them on a lined baking tray, leaving enough space for the rolls to rise. Allow them to rise for 15-20 minutes.

Brush each roll individually with the glaze then  bake for 12-15 minutes or until done.
Remove the tray from the oven and let the rolls cool a bit. Your Cinnamon Rolls are now ready to serve. They can be eaten cold but they taste especially good warm.

Onion & Garlic Sticks

 

This is one of my favorite, the more you put onion and/or garlic in it the yummier the result (at least for me)

There are my versions of this kind of sticks and they are extremely popular among Indonesians .. you can also make another version by using cheese instead of onions/garlic.. also yummy

The original recipe comes from http://kedaihamburg.blogspot.com

Perfect companion for afternoon tea or TV-night (warning, this is addicting)

To make this sticks, you’d need:

1000 gr all purpose flour

200 ml water (originally, it calls for coconut milk)

1 tbsp cooking oil

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 egg (medium size)

3 tbsps finely chopped celery OR 1 tbsp dried ones

1,5-2 tbsp salt or bullion powder

1/2 tsp ground pepper

2  XXL sweet onions

5 cloves garlics

How to make it:

Finely grind the onions and garlic until paste like.

Mix in all spices and liquid ingredients until well incorporated.

Add in flour a little by a little, knead it until becomes a smooth dough.

Adjust the flour amount, maybe you’ll need more or less than the recipe because different flour has different moisture, the key is that the dough is not sticky anymore.

If you have pasta maschine, you can use it to make thin strips about 5 cm long (you may need some flour to prevent them getting sticky to each other) then fry them until golden brown (use medium heat).

If you don’t have the maschine, you can manually roll the dough using rolling pin then cut it as you like.

Banana Yeast Bread

 Ingredients:

4 3/4 cup flour 
Bread Dough Enhancer (Optional but recommended. Use per manufacturer’ s instructions, I need about 1 tsp)
3/4 cup sugar (adjust the amount to your liking)
1 tsp Salt
2 pkgs instant yeast
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup mashed banana
1/2 cup chopped haselnuts (or any other nuts you want)
2 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tbsp butter, melted

Method:

Mix together 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, salt and  yeast.

Heat evaporated milk, water, and butter to lukewarm.

Add to dry ingredients; beat 2 minutes at medium speed of mixer.

Add eggs, banana, and 1 cup flour; beat at high speed for about 2 minutes.

Stir in haselnuts and enough remaining flour to make stiff dough.

Knead 8 to 10 minutes. Set in greased bowl; grease top.

Cover; let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down.

Divide in half; shape into loaves. Place in 2 greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch loaf pans or you can use bundt form then it will look like mine

 Cover; let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Mix remaining sugar and cinnamon.

Brush loaves with melted butter; top with sugar mixture.

Bake at 375F 25 to 35 minutes.

1811 House Brownies

These are really something for the sweet tooth and they are rich.  Not suitable for diet people

For: 9×13-inch baking pan

1    cup butter
4    ounces unsweetened chocolate
2    cups granulated sugar
4    eggs
1    tablespoon strong coffee, optional
1    cup flour
1    teaspoon baking powder
6    ounces chocolate chips
1    cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°.  Melt together the butter and chocolate, set aside.
Beat together the sugar and eggs until ribbons form. 

Stir the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and add 1 tablespoon strong coffee if desired.
Mix together the flour and baking powder and add to the chocolate mixture.
Spread in a greased 9×13-inch pan and sprinkle with the chips and nuts.
Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.

Source: www.allrecipes.com

Corn Cheese Tart

 

I like the crust of this tart, unlike “normal” crust usually used for pie/tart/quiche.. this one is typical German style (afaik). It is made out of quark but you can use any other curd cheese available, the texture is cake-like instead of crunchy solid one. And the most thing I love is because it is lower in fat amount

You can substitute the corn with any fillings you like, maybe fruits, fresh or dried one .. or make the savory version with smoke beef

For the crust:

1 egg yolk

100 gr quark (or any other curd cheese)

4 tbsps vegetable oil

5 tbsps sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

125 gr AP.flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp lemon rind

For the filling:

125 gr quark (or any curd cheese available)

1 egg white

60 gr sweet corn (i used canned one)

3 tbsps sugar

1 tbsp custard powder (or cornstarch if you don’t have custard powder + 1 egg yolk)

1 tsp lemond rind

Method:

Mix together: quark, sugar, egg yolk, oil, sugar, vanilla and salt.

Shift together the baking powder and flour, then mix them well to the quark mixture.

Let it rest for about 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, you can prepare the filling.

Mix together the quark (or any other curd cheese you’re using), corn, sugar and custard powder until well blended.

Whip the egg whites until stiff then fold it into the quark mixture, mix well.

Roll the crust dough then put it in a greased muffin form (you can use other form as you like).

Fill it with the filling mixture until almost full.

Bake in 200°C for about 25 minutes.

The tart will shrink after you take it out of the oven, don’t worry, it is supposed to be like that

Serve: 6 tarts.

Strawberry Custard Cheese Torte

Easy to make, looks good and yummy

This is my entry for  Mike’s Strawberry Seduction

Can you imagine it? It is a mixture of a light sponge cake combined with a rich custard cheese filling then topped with a fresh bits of strawberries… uhhmmm YUM!!

I was surprised to find out how nice the cake base turn out, kind of like chiffon but not really.. seems like the method is something I will use again to make other cake. The recipe was on the back of a cornstarch.

 For the filling, if you use custard powder then you can omit the egg yolks.

Note: This is for a 26cm springform.

 For the cake base:

40 gr cornstarch /maizena

80 gr AP flour

100 gr sugar

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 tbsps hot water

3 tbsps simple syrup (boiled 1 cup of sugar with 1/2 cup of water until sugar dissolved)

For the cheese filling:

40 gr cornstarch

500 gr cream cheese (or any other curd cheese like quark, marscarpone, ricotta, etc)

250 ml milk

150 gr sugar (adjust it to your taste)

400 ml fresh cream

4 egg yolks

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp lemon rind

1 tbsp gelatine powder

For the topping:

500 gr strawberries (or any other fruits of your choice)

1 pkg Jell-O (or any other jelly)

Method:

For the cake:

Heat up oven to 200°C, line the baking form with baking paper.

Separate egg yolks from the whites, put aside.

Whip egg whites until stiff, add 3 tbsps hot water, mix well.

Add the sugar and vanilla, mix well.

Add in the egg yolks, mix well.

Shift together: cornstarch, flour, baking powder then fold them into the egg whites mixture.

Put in the baking form, bake for about 20 min.

For the filling:

Whip the cream until stiff, put aside.

Mix the gelatine powder with 2 tbsps of water, let it sit for 10 min. then heat it up until melt.

Mix together: milk, sugar, salt, lemon rind, egg yolks and corn starch. Cook on medium heat until thick and becomes custard.

Add in the gelatine mixture, mix well.

Mix the cream cheese with the custard.

Fold in whipped cream into the custard mixture, mix well.

Final step:

Put a cake ring around the cake, brush the cake with simple syrup.

Pour in the cheese filling, use spoon to make the surface even.

Arrange the strawberries on top of it then carefully pour the Jell-O.

Let it stand over night before you remove the ring.