Bastelesel

29 Jul 2015

Having a look at our kitchen calendar we can learn it’s summer. The sky over Rhineland and the actual temperatures just tell us something different. There’s only one little chance to feel a bit better – go and get a bit of summer feeling into the house. Then I usually take comfort in eating a large sundae. A lite but delicious version is a frozen yogurt. Enjoy it pure or decorated with fruit, nuts or any fruit coulis you like. Für vier kleinere Portionen benötigt man:

To get four little sundaes:

500ml low or full fat plain yoghurt
100ml sour cream
50-100g powdered sugar (just sweeten it as much as you like it)
different seasonal or frozen fruit
opt. some crushed amarettini, wafer rolls

Mix yoghurt, sour cream and sugar (you may take honey as well) in a large lid closed bowl. Put bowl in your freezer and remove it every 15-20 minutes to stir again. There shouldn’t come up any ice crystals. When the yoghurt is completely cooled you may take it out for serving. (It will take between one or two hours according to your freezer adjustment)
My sundae’s decorated with traditional summer berries. Current, strawberries and raspberries steeped in some honey to draw juice. Pour this mixture on your frozen yoghurt and spread some crushed amarettini on top. Add a wafer roll and here you are with a perfect sundae.

It’s lovely too with some chocolate, vanilla or strawberry sauce. And if you don’t look outside when eating it you really may believe in summer.

21 Jul 2015

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by Elke

Be prepared

Someone just coming up for teatime? Your best friend needs to be welcomed with a cup of tea and some cake? Well, then you’re better off with the base of these tartlets in your freezer. Specially at summer time when I want to prepare my cakes with fruit I often choose my sponge mixture to divide the cake into halves after cooking. The first half will be decorated immediately and the second one stored in the freezer.
Today I just prepared two different sorts of cakes with one half. First I cut 10 tartles with a dessert ring and decorated them with some raspberry whipped cream. In top I put the last raspberries from our garden and some thins slices of yohurt chocolate.

The cake remainders were taken to prepare cake pops. Therefore just put them in a large bowl, bruise them with a fork and add some cream cheese and powdered sugar. Simmply add the cheese teaspoon by teaspoon until the mixture is soft. For the remainders of a round cake I only add one tablespoon of sugar. Roll up balls of 2cm diameter, place them on a chopping board and leave in the fridge for 1-2 hours before inserting the lolli sticks.

In the meantime melt the chocolate and insert one end of your lolli sticks for about 1cm to cover it with chocolate. Insert this end into your cooled cake balls and put them back into the fridge for half an hour. That prevents the sticks from falling out.

Then dip your cake pops into the chocolate until the whole cake ball is covered with it. Roll them in sugar sprinkles, chopped nuts or coconut flakes. When the chocolate has dried you may freeze the cake pops in an airtight container.
My chocolate looks a bit dull because I forgot to take a picture when preparing them. So I just had to take them out of the freezer to show them today.
You’ll find special cake pop stands in almost every shop offering bakery products.

15 Jul 2015

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by Elke

Pancake rolls again

I really need to show these two sorts of pancake rolls because they’re really delicious and done in less then 20 minutes. Bake pancake as usual and then spread some garden herbs cream cheese on top. Cover densely with rocket leaves, season with salt and pepper and roll them up tightly.

For the second kind of rolls take the garden herbs cream cheese again but put a layer of salami on top. Season with pepper and spicy powdered paprika and roll up tightly too. Wrap it in foil and keep it in the fridge for at least one hour. Then they’re ready to serve with beer or wine. They look nice on a buffet too.

13 Jul 2015

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by Elke

Flower lollipop

Take it for a birthday party, baby shower or as in our case for saying good-bye to some primary-school pupils. A lollipop’s always welcome – and even more these ones with their nice decoration. The lolli sticks are pushed through the center of a colored card stock flower. You can mark them with names, greetings or anything else showing the reason your party.

Simply wind a small paper flag around your lolli stick and it will make a perfect place card. Plain-colored card stock can be decorated with printed parts like my cameo color card stock punch. Both, flower and punch are cut crosswise in their center.
Regarding the approaching first day at school you could easily write down numbers and letters on plain-colored flowers. Thus school’s start will be much happier.
Find a free template for flower and circle punch here.

11 Jul 2015

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by Elke

Strawberry panna cotta

A tradtional desser you can’t get enough of. For summertime it’s better with fresh fruit than with the usual caramelized sugar. It’s delicious even when it’s very hot because you can prepare it in advance and keep both panna cotta and fruit in your fridge.

To serve 4:
6 gelatine leaves (or corresponding quant. of other thickening agent)
1 vanilla bean
500ml double cream
85g caster sugar
appr. 300g fresh fruit like straw-, rasp or blueberries

Rinse silicone muffin or soufflé molds with cold water.
Put the gelatine leaves in small bowl of cold water to soften.
Split the vanilla bean, scrape out the seeds and give them into a pan with cream and sugar. Heat gently until hot and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the gelatine leaves from the water, squeeze out excess liquid and add them to the hot cream while stirring. Pour the mixture into molds, place them on a board and put them in the fridge. After 2-3 hours the panno cotta is ready to be set. If the cream doesn’t come out simply place the bottom of the molds in hot water and try again.

While cooling the cream wash your fruit, cut off peduncle or leaves and cut into bite-sized chunks. Put them in bowl and mix with 1 tbsp caster sugar. Chill them until they release juice. Top the set panna cottas with strawberries and juice.