Time to get ready for Queen’s Day.

Well it’s Queens Day eve here in Scotland and I’m getting everything ready for making Orange Tompoezen tomorrow!

Tompoezen are a Dutch sweet, similar to the French Mille-feuille. They consist of two layers of puff pastry filled with custard and topped with a pink icing, but on Queen’s Day (30th April) they have an orange icing.

I’ve prepared a batch of puff pastry that is sitting in my fridge and hopefully I’ve made it correctly… Puff pastry is notoriously difficult to make. So far, I’ve found it very time consuming but I think that the ‘trick’ to it is to follow the instructions very, very carefully. Tomorrow I’ll see if it turns out ok and if I’ve made it wrong, well there are plenty of frozen packets of puff pastry waiting in my local supermarket – so never fear, there will definitely be Orange Tompoezen tomorrow!!

I’m a little bit lost for words….

This cake is incredible!!! So simple yet very, very delicious!! It’s fairly light – probably because there’s no flour in it. Although it is mainly made with Almonds and Sugar, it’s not too sweet and the almonds are not overpowering.

It’s so easy to make and I’d really recommend giving this one a go!!

Having researched several Spanish websites and blogs, I translated the recipe from this popular blog: http://www.javirecetas.com/tarta-de-santiago/

And here’s a picture of St. James’ Cross to cut out a stencil:
http://i33.tinypic.com/2v921hs.png

You will need a cake pan which is about 22cm in Diameter.

Here’s how I made it:
• 250g Ground Almonds
• 250g Caster Sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon
• About 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• 5 large eggs
• Icing sugar for dusting

- Preheat the oven to 175C.
- Grease cake pan with unsalted butter or vegetable oil.
- Mix Almonds, Sugar, Zest and Cinnamon together in a bowl.
- Make a well.
- Put the eggs in the centre of the well and stir the mixture together.
- It should fairly wet so don’t be tempted to put some flour or more almonds in.
- Pour the mixture into the greased cake pan.
- Bring the temperature of the oven down to 170C.
- Bake in the oven for 50 minutes.
- Whilst it’s baking in the oven, cut out a stencil of Saint James’ Cross.
- The cake should look golden brown and be a bit crunchy on the outside – don’t worry; it will be fantastic and moist on the inside!!
- Remove cake from oven.
- Place the stencil on top of the cake and dust with Icing Sugar.
- Remove the cake from the pan and let it cool on a wire rack.
- Enjoy!!!

6 down, 21 to go…..

¡Viva España!

Today I’m baking Tarta de Santiago or St. James’ Cake! This is an almond, lemon, and cinnamon cake from Galicia in the Northwest of Spain.

Like most of the sweets on this list, there seems to be dispute as to how to make a ‘true’ Tarta de Santiago. It would appear that there are two ways to make this cake; one way is to make a pastry and top it with a filling, the second is to make one homogenous cake mixture and bake that. Putting my Spanish to good use, I researched this cake on various Spanish blogs and websites. Most of these websites used the latter method of making it, but I also discovered another dispute about this sweet. The cake is made with ground almonds, sugar, eggs, cinnamon and lemon zest however some recipes include a small amount of flour. There’s an argument out there that a true Tarta de Santiago contains no flour, so the cake presently in the oven is flour-free!

The cake is dusted with icing sugar with an imprint left on the cake from a cut-out of St. James’ cross, so I guess I’d better start making one!

What a pretty cake!

Well it wasn’t the easiest cake to make, mostly because finding a recipe in English was rather difficult. Again I had to improvise from the recipe pamphlet I have from the European Union. It didn’t give oven temperatures, or times but I think I figured it out.

This cake is very, very sweet! I think a small piece with coffee in the morning is perfect.

The result is almost like a sweet pizza, and so similarly to savoury pizza, the toppings you choose really make or break this cake. You could even omit the fudge topping I used here and substitute with chocolate sauce, caramel or jam!

Here’s how I made it:

Pastry:
• 250g Flour
• 100g Caster Sugar
• 100g Icing Sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 180g Butter
• 2 Egg Yolks

Topping
• 1 Litre of Milk
• 400g Icing Sugar
• 100g Butter
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 Tablespoon Caramel

Decoration
• Flaked Almonds (Toasted)
• Dried Apricot
• You can decorate this cake with whatever you like; Walnuts, Sweets/Candy, Chocolate Syrup, Dried Fruits etc.

- Sift the flour and 100g of Icing Sugar into a bowl.
- Add the Caster Sugar and salt.
- Rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- Make a well.
- Put the two egg yolks in the centre and mix it with your hands.
- If it needs it you can add a little milk or some egg white. (I had to use roughly a tablespoon of each as the pastry was too dry.)
- When it becomes a dough similar to a biscuit or shortbread dough, cover it and leave in the fridge for about 1 ½ - 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 200C.
- Take pastry from fridge and roll it out a little to fit a small baking tray – the pastry should be about 1cm thick.
- Place in oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown
- In the meantime, place the milk and 400g of icing sugar in a large saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly.
- When it starts to boil, take it off the heat and stir in butter, vanilla and caramel.
- Bring back to the boil, constantly stirring, for about 10 minutes.
- Allow to cool.
- It should be quite thick and spreadable when it’s cool. If it is too runny, boil it again for another few minutes.
- Spread the topping all over the base.
- Decorate as you like.
 
5 down, 22 to go.

Polish Easter Bread

Mazurek is a traditional Easter sweet cake or bread from Poland. Strictly speaking tomorrow morning I’ll be making a Mazurek kajmakowy which is topped with a fudge icing and then various fruits, nuts and sweets but Mazurek may be topped with numerous different combinations of toppings such as the Royal Mazurek, which is covered with different jams and conserves.

As the Mazurek entered into the Sweet Europe initiative was the Mazurek kajmakowy, I will be making that, although the Royal Mazurek does sound tempting!

It’s too late to start baking this cake now so I’ll be getting up fairly early to bake it fresh for breakfast.

Another one bites the dust!

Finally, after the disastrous Baklava, I can strike another recipe off the list!

The Mliako S Oriz was a great success, and a perfect midnight snack. I adapted the recipe from the pamphlet I have of recipes from the Sweet Europe initiative. This is a very sweet pudding, sweeter than the rice pudding my Mum used to make for me when I was a kid, so I would probable use about 50g less sugar next time. That said, this quick, simple recipe is very delicious and the cinnamon makes a lovely contrast. I used long grain rice but I think short grain rice would give an even nicer texture. To use Basmati rice would be a big mistake. Please don’t be tempted to substitute with this, it’ll taste funny.

Here’s how I made it;

• 300g Rice
• Water to boil it in
• 1 Litre Milk
• 200g Sugar
• Powdered Cinnamon

- Boil the rice in water until just tender and strain.
- Bring the milk to the boil and then add the cooked rice
- Stir in the sugar
- Bring the mixture back up to the boil and then let it simmer
- Continue stirring the rice on a medium to low heat, until a lot of the milk has absorbed
- Serve in bowls with a sprinkling of cinnamon

It’s really very easy to make and you will usually have the ingredients lying about the kitchen. Remember to keep stirring the pudding so it doesn’t stick, and don’t let it boil.

4 (finally) down, 23 to go!

Midnight Munchies!!!

Time for an impromptu cooking expedition to Bulgaria!!

So it’s 1:30 in the morning here in Edinburgh and the boyfriend and I have hankering for something sweet. Having raided our bare cupboards, I’ve found all the ingredients to make the Bulgarian Mliako S Oriz. It’s a relatively simple rice pudding topped with cinnamon. It should be quite easy to prepare but I'm very bad at cooking rice. Hopefully we won’t have another Baklava disaster...

Wish me luck!

Baklava: 1, Miss EU: 0

The results are in. It may somewhat look the part but this is hands down the worst Baklava I’ve ever tasted. Now where did it all go wrong?

We’ll start with the recipe I used and go from there.

WARNING: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ATTEMPT THIS RECIPE – IT’S NASTY!!!

• 1 packet of phyllo pastry
• 175g Unsalted Butter
• 400g Pistachio nuts finely chopped
• 100g Walnuts finely chopped
• 300g Caster Sugar
• 300ml Water
• Juice of 1 lemon

- Preheat oven to 150C
- Defrost pastry and cut to shape of baking tin
- Melt butter
- Lightly grease baking tin
- Place a sheet of pastry on the bottom of tin and baste with butter
- Continue this for roughly 5 layers
- Cover the top layer with about ½ the chopped nuts
- Place another layer on top of the nuts
- Baste with butter and continue for another few layers
- Cover the next top layer with almost all the remaining chopped nuts (keeping a few for decorating at the end)
- Place another 4 or 5 basted layers of pastry above this and don’t forget to baste the top layer.
- Bake in oven for ¾ - 1 hour until slightly golden
- In the mean time make the syrup by combining the sugar water and lemon juice in a pan on a medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the syrup looks clear
- Allow the syrup to cool
- When the baklava is ready, remove from oven and chop in to whatever shapes you wish
- Pour the syrup over the hot baklava
- Allow to cool and soak up the syrup for about 2 hours before serving
- When cooled, sprinkle with remaining chopped nuts

Well the final result tasted really, really bad. This isn’t just a case of me trying to recreate some of the fantastic Baklava I had in Melbourne, oh no, this is unfortunately quite inedible. The Syrup was a huge downfall of this sweet, it tasted very artificial and the juice of a whole lemon was far too much. I think I used too much syrup as it was quite soggy also. But the syrup was not the only problem with this recipe; something just didn’t taste right about the whole thing. Perhaps it needed more butter and I think the layering of 4-5 sheets of pastry and only 2 layers of nuts was all wrong. Some recipes include cinnamon and sugar with the nuts so I think I may try this next time. Also many recipes use honey in the syrup which is definitely going to be included in my next attempt.

It’ll be a while before I try to make it again. I don’t think I can even look at a piece of baklava without my stomach turning.

So for the time being, it’s game on baklava!

Pastry or Politics?

Today I’m cooking Cyprus’ Baklava, in fact it’s already in the oven!

In trying to find an authentic recipe for Cypriot Baklava, I came across too many debates as to the origin of this sweet and not enough cooking of it. I’ve decided to make a fairly basic recipe, mostly consisting of pistachio nuts and omitting the ever tempting rosewater or orange blossom which some chefs add as it doesn’t seem to be absolutely authentic. It would appear that sprinkling the Baklava with more chopped pistachios after it is made is custom in Cyprus so I’ve reserved enough pistachios to do just that.

Baklava as it turns out is not so difficult to assemble (I shouldn’t speak too soon as it’s still in the oven), but I believe there is a fine art to getting a perfect consistency which is not too oily or syrupy…

The first time I remember trying good Baklava was in the Prahran Market in Melbourne. The deli owner assured me that it would be the best Baklava I had ever tasted and boy was he right! It was so light and dreamy, unlike some of the sticky, greasy muck that I had tried before. How will my attempt turn out?!? We’ll just have to wait and see. Watch this space.

Sweet, simple and dangerously easy!

A little taken aback by how easy these little pieces of delight were to make!

From the few websites that I could find in English that described these biscuits, I found that they were supposed to be soft and chewy and that’s exactly how they turned out.

Now for a few words about the ingredients….

I spent a bit of time in a local food store deciding which type of Scottish oats to go with. They need to be rolled oats but this shop had ‘Jumbo Rolled Oats’ as well as Porridge oats (which are also rolled but a little finer). I bought the Jumbo Oats as I thought they would add a bit more texture to biscuits and it proved right. I have no idea which oats would be more traditional in Estonia but I’m sure that any type of rolled oat will do just fine.

In Irish and UK recipes, unless stated, butter is usually implied to be salted. Again, I was not sure what was typical in Estonia so I made them with slightly salted butter. I reckon unsalted or slightly salted is the best butter for these biscuits.

The eggs I used were medium, organic, and free range. I ended up using all 300 grams of the oats, so perhaps if you use large eggs, you may need more oats. I do always buy free range eggs and when possible organic because I have found that free range/organic eggs produce better results.

The sugar I used was Caster Sugar. I did this to avoid a grainy sugary biscuit. It mixed perfectly with the eggs with a slightly fluffy result.

In total the recipe yielded exactly 20 delicious biscuits (several were eaten before I managed to take a photo). 8-10 minutes was just right for my oven, they should look slightly golden brown when they’re done.

The whole batch took less than an hour to make from start to finish including washing up, so will definitely be making these again next time I want to whip up a quick batch of bakery goods!

3 down, 24 to go!

Let’s all go to Estonia!!

Alright, I took a bit of a break there over the weekend. This baking thing is a lot of fun but it is taking its toll on our bodies - Cavities, Kilos and Sugar rushes!!!

I’m ready to get back on track and today we’re going to Estonia!

Estonia’s Kaerahelbeküpsised are essentially an Oatmeal Biscuit. Scotland is famed for its Oats so let’s see if they make a tasty treat…

Finding a recipe for these biscuits has been rather difficult. I have a leaflet given out by the EU with a recipe for each sweet so I’m going to use the recipe from there. Without that document, this project probably wouldn’t be possible as some of these recipes are very difficult to find. However, it only gives a very basic description on how to construct these sweets, so it will play a very small role in attempting the dreaded Sakotis!!!

It seems that there are numerous types of Kaerahelbeküpsised - Chocolate, Fruit etc. I’m going to make a plain Oatmeal and Sugar as per the recipe on my leaflet…

The recipe is as follows:

· 2 Eggs

· 100g Sugar

· 100g Butter

· 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

· 250-300g Oatmeal

- Preheat oven to 200 C.

- Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

- Melt butter.

- Beat the Eggs and Sugar together in a bowl.

- Add slightly cooled melted butter to the eggs and sugar.

- Add Vanilla and Oatmeal to the mixture, stir well.

- I’m assuming here, that the mixture should resemble a sticky flapjack-type mixture. Add 250 g of oats, and if it needs more keep going but don’t go past 300g.

- With a teaspoon, take a heaped spoonful of the mixture and shape small, round, flat biscuits with it on the baking tray.

- Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes.

- Let cool on a wire rack.

Let’s go!!

Fantastic Result!!

So I'm really, really happy with this one.

I've been looking forward to learning how to make shortbread in Scotland and the result from this recipe is pretty good.

Flatmates and Boyfriend approve!

I took some advice from three sources; BBC Food Website, Delia Smith online, and the Home Baking Cookbook, published by Parragon, and here's the recipe I came up with.

• 125g / 4oz Slightly Salted Butter
• 55g / 2oz Caster Sugar
• 180g/ 6oz Flour
• A little extra Caster Sugar

- Preheat oven to 190C.
- Soften the butter with a wooden spoon in a bowl.
- Add the 2oz of Caster Sugar and cream the two together.
- Sieve the flour in to the mix and start to bring it all together into a light paste.
- It will start out looking like breadcrumbs but don't worry, it will all come together eventually.
- Place the dough on to a slightly floured work surface.
- Make in to a long rectangular shape, about 1cm high and 5cm wide.
- Cut the dough in to 10 to 12 rectangular slices.
- Prick with the tines of a fork for decoration.
- Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
- Remove from oven and dredge with Caster Sugar.
- Cool on a wire rack.

2 down, 25 to go....the countdown continues.

Number two

So after much careful consideration, I’ve decided what will be the next recipe – Shortbread!

This may seem like I’m going in order of difficulty or in order of what I’ve made before, but let me assure you, I’m pretty nervous about this one! For two weeks now I’ve been living in Scotland – the land of Shortbread and this makes me a little bit anxious about getting it right…

When I was a kid I remember making something quite similar to Shortbread – essentially a butter cookie, but there seems to be a lot of conflicting arguments out there as to what makes authentic shortbread.

I’m going to try and recreate what has always been shortbread to me. A very buttery and crisp biscuit mass produced by Walkers.

Unlike most of the other recipes on the list, I know what this one should taste like, so I’m going to have to keep making it until it tastes just right.

I think I’ll make it with a recipe from the BBC website. They give it as 3 parts Flour, 2 parts Butter and 1 part Caster Sugar – that sounds pretty buttery to me! And then dredge it with Caster Sugar when it comes out of the oven which is what a lot of other recipes are recommending.

Here.....we.......Go!!!

Success!

Neither the recipe nor the oven let me down!!!

Flatmates and Boyfriend approve.

Here’s my Mother’s recipe. It yielded 17 scones this time but usually makes about 15…

The measurements are in imperial – sorry about this, usually everything I cook is in metric, but my Mum learnt this recipe from her mother and, well, it was all imperial back then so I guess that makes them more authentic!!

· 1 Lb. Self-Raising Flour

· Pinch of salt

· 1 oz. Caster Sugar

· 3 oz. Butter

· 2 Eggs

· 7-8 Fl. Oz. Milk

· 1 or 2 Handful of Sultanas

- Preheat oven to 250 C.

- Sieve Flour and Salt in to a bowl.

- Add sugar

- Rub in Butter. Do this with a light hand and try to get as much air in to the mix as possible.

- Add Sultanas

- Make a well in the centre

- Break the eggs in to a measuring jug and whisk.

- Fill with milk up to the 300 ml. mark.

- Pour in to the centre of the well, bit by bit and mix by hand.

- Keep the jug and don’t wash it yet.

- Turn mixture out on to a lightly floured work surface.

- Gently roll out – you can just flatten it lightly by hand.

- Cut out scones with a glass or cutter.

- Put a little bit more milk into the jug.

- Use this milk to brush the scones to give them a glaze.

- Place scones onto a lightly floured baking tray.

- Bake in oven at 250 C. for 5 minutes.

- Turn down heat to 230 C. and bake for about another 10 minutes.

- Do not cook for any more than 15 minutes. Every oven is different so keep an eye on them for the last 10 minutes. If they look and smell done, then they probably are.

- Cool on a wire rack.

- Serve warm with butter, jam, cream….

1 down, 26 to go…

27 Recipes

So the sweets are as follows:

• Austria – Gugelhupf
• Finland – Laskiaispulla
• Ireland – Scones
• Portugal – Pasteis de Nata
• Slovakia – Orecovy Zavin
• Estonia – Kaerahelbeküpsised
• Italy – Tiramisu
• Malta – Imqaret
• Greece – Vasilopita
• France – Madeleines
• Slovenia - Prekmurska gibanica
• Spain - Tarta de Santiago
• Luxembourg – Apfeltorte
• Hungary – Dobos Torta
• Denmark – Wienerbrød
• Sweden – Kanelbulle
• Netherlands – Tompoezen
• Cyprus – Baklava
• United Kingdom – Shortbread
• Latvia - Rupjmaizes kartojums
• Czech Republic – Kolach
• Poland – Mazurek
• Romania – Cozonac
• Germany – Streuselkuchen
• Belgium – Waffles
• Lithuania – Sakotis
• Bulgaria – Mliako S Oriz

Some of the sweets I have been made before; Tiramisu, Scones, Cozonac, Shortbread. Others I have eaten and always wanted to know how to make; Waffles, Gugelhupf, Madelines, Pasteis de Nata.

Seeing as I'm Irish and I've baked them a million times before, I'm going to start with Scones. I have my Mother's recipe which is pretty good and definitely traditional. Hopefully they'll turn out o.k., although I haven't baked them in a few years and I have to guess the temperature of the oven in this flat as the numbers seem to have worn off.... Fingers crossed, they'll be Fantastic!!!

Welcome to The European Union Kitchen!

Just over ten days ago this Dublin girl moved to Edinburgh to find work and start a new life. I’m living in a flat in old town with a Bulgarian, a Dutchwoman, and Irishman and a Norwegian. Since I arrived I’ve been doing a lot of baking, what with it being Easter and all. Last Monday was Hot Cross Buns, Wednesday was Cinnamon Buns, Friday was Biscotti di Prato (I had intended to make more Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday but felt like something different), and Saturday was learning to make Cozonac with my Bulgarian flat mate’s Bulgarian girlfriend.

Cozonac is a delicious Bulgarian and Romanian cake which is eaten at Easter. Having eaten my fair share of this scrumptious treat, I decided to do a bit of research about this famous Bulgarian cake that I had never heard about.

On Europe day 2006, Austria (then president of the EU) held a party in 27 cafes across the 25 member states and the two countries that would join in six months time. Each country was represented by a typical sweet or cake in a presentation called 'Sweet Europe' and Romania was represented with Cozonac. Flicking through all the desserts, I saw some old favourites. Ireland was represented by scones – a childhood classic, The U.K. with Shortbread and Italy with one of my favourite desserts; Tiramisu.

There are however plenty of sweets that I’ve never even heard of before. Dobos Torte from Hungary; a five layer chocolate and butter cream extravaganza topped with caramel slices and sometimes coated with hazelnuts or chestnuts –YUM!! Lithuania certainly impressed with its spiky Šakotis, which looks like it would be frighteningly difficult to cook in my oven….

The plan is to attempt to bake every single treat on that list, thus improving my culinary skills and learning a thing or two about the other nation-states that I am so proud to be unified with. This is all obviously influenced by the Julie/Julia Project and Film, a fantastically funny and successful attempt at cooking every recipe from ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ in one year. I have absolutely no intention on setting myself a time limit to cook these sweets. My waist couldn’t handle it and I wouldn’t like to feel under pressure to find a spit-roast oven to cook my Šakotis, it’s not worth compromising the quality of the puddings with inferior equipment or ingredients. Also I’m cooking the sweets in no particular order. The European Union’s motto is ‘Unity in Diversity’; so I’m going to incorporate that in to this project by cooking the dishes in a completely random order
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I’ll keep you posted with how I get on, where I get the recipes from and whatever disasters that may arise...