Denmark on my mind...

Denmark has been the focus of its fair share of attention recently and if you live in Europe, you can't really escape it. This year, Denmark has the honour of hosting the the European Union Presidency for the first six months of the year. In recent times however, this also means hosting the Presidency of a Union that is in a bit of a crisis. I find it distasteful that all of the great cultural and political aspects of working together in a Union seem to be put on hold as soon as money gets involved...

On a more upbeat note however, Denmark has been heavily on my mind as I have been addicted to the Danish T.V. series 'Forbrydelsen' or 'The Killing'. The show is set in Copenhagen where we follow detective Sara Lund as she trails through the streets of Copenhagen trying to find Nanna Birk Larsen's killer. It has really taken off here in the UK and Ireland, with everybody at the edge of their seats wondering Who killed Nanna Birk Larsen!?!?! Do you know?? I do, I do!! ;-)

Europe and the European Union is a changing place and Denmark is a bit of a hot spot for cultural and political activity. This year they are hosting the E.U. Presidency, in 2009 they hosted the UN Climate Summit, and in 2014 they are hosting Europe's largest multi-disciplinary science conference. I'm all clued in to this at the moment as since moving back to Dublin, I've found that Dublin has been declared 'City of Science' for 2012 and is hosting this European Science Conference later this summer - not too bad for Dublin!!

So my conclusion is that it can't all be doom and gloom in Europe - let's celebrate the Danish Presidency in style and bake some of their traditional pastries or 'Wienerbrød'. The name translates as 'Viennese bread' and is a pastry that is made in to all sorts of shapes and filled with everything from jam to marzipan to custard – delicious!! It takes a little bit of time (and love) to make them, so check back soon and I'll let you know how I got along...

Did anyone order a Gugelhupf?!

What better way to celebrate the halfway point than to create what is perhaps the most important cake on this journey; the Austrian gugelhupf!!! and what a cake it is too!

Seeing as Austria held the party which inspired this mission, it makes it a rather important cake so the pressure was on to get this one just right!

It took two goes to make this delicious panettone-like cake perfect which is not too bad considering the disasters with the baklava and the tompouzen! I think that the error was more to do with my fairly poor oven than the recipe which I dare say is really lovely.

There are many, many types of gugelhupf out there and finding out what was the most authentic Austrian version of the cake proved rather difficult. Much like the situation with baklava, the gugelhupf is a disputed cake with several countries claiming it as their own!

In trying to find the perfect recipe I came across all sorts of gugelhupf; plain, strawberry, chocolate, fruit, but luckily my very kind German classmate was able to help me find an authentic Austrian version of the cake from here http://gugelhupf.twoday.net/stories/2608594/ and translated the recipe for me. He also found out some interesting legends about the cake from the German Wikipedia site. For instance, the story goes that the three wise men, on their way back from Bethlehem visited Alsace. They were warmly greeted and the local people decided to fashion a cake on their turbans and so the gugelhupf was born! Another goes that Austrian born Marie Antoinette introduced the cake to France. And in the early 19th Century ("Biedermeier"-time (1815-1848)), the gugelhupf was a cake of the Bourgeoisie and a status-symbol!

This traditional recipe is a light and springy bread-like cake made with dried fruit and lemon. Of course there are many variations that could be made with this such as green tea, chocolate, coffee, pistachio, or could even be made in to a light Christmas cake with the right spices and some more fruit…

Whilst I reckon this recipe could be made in most cake tins, the traditional gugelhupf tin is really splendid and can be used to enhance a madeira sponge cake or could even be used to make a variation on the cake such as a bundt cake (USA), a Reindling from Kärnten (Austria), Baba au rhum (Poland and France), or Savarin (France).

Gugelhupf works as a fantastic tea cake and goes brilliantly with a cup of coffee or a semisweet wine such as a Riesling or a Gewürztraminer – delicious!

Happy baking to all of you and a big thank you to German friend!!

Here’s how I made it:

- 400gm plain white flour
- 50gm plain white flour for the final steps
- Pinch salt
- 250ml milk (warmed)
- 80gm white sugar
- 40gm unsalted butter melted
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 whole egg
- Juice of one lemon
- 20gm yeast or three sachets
- 100gm raisins
- Some icing sugar for decoration

• In a large mixing bowl mix yeast with one spoon of sugar.
• Add four spoons of flour and lukewarm milk.
• Cover with a towel and wait for the yeast to activate and for the mixture to rise slightly.
• After this sift in the remaining flour and add the salt, milk, sugar, lemon juice, melted butter, egg yolk and egg.
• Mix it!
• Sift in the remaining flour and mix it well. It should look like a very even consistency.
• Stir in the raisins.
• Butter and flour the gugelhupf tin.
• Spoon in the mixture into the gugelhupf and cover with a towel.
• Leave in a warm place until it has risen in the tin, at least doubled in size.
• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Bake for about 1 hour.
• Remove from tin and sprinkle with icing sugar.
• Enjoy!

14 down, 13 to go....

My Grandmother has this great recipe….

Willkommen in Deutschland!

OK, it’s not my Grandmother’s recipe, however, this is an authentic German Grandmother’s recipe from my lovely German friend’s Grandmother! Apparently she makes this cake quite often and knows the recipe by heart so was able to recite it to her over the phone when I asked her for it for my blog.

This recipe is fantastic, and although I have not tried Streuselkuchen before, I got much praise from my German friend who said that I had done her Grandmother proud!

Streuselkuchen is a traybake cake. The base is a bready, semi-sweet, yeast dough, this is covered with pureed apples, and these apples are covered with ‘Streusel’. Streusel is probably better described to you and me as being the crumble on top of an apple or rhubarb crumble. Essentially butter, flour, and sugar rubbed together to make crumbs, these are sprinkled on top of the apple puree and give a lovely, crispy, buttery sensation in the mouth.

This cake would be fantastic for afternoon tea, a casual dessert, and a great way to feed lots of kids.
The only thing that I did that made it not 100% authentic was that I made it in a roasting tin as opposed to a Swiss roll tin. The result was a base that was slightly thicker than it traditionally would be. Nonetheless, it was all gobbled up and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.

Here’s how I made it:

Yeast Dough:
500g flour
300ml milk
1 package of dry yeast
2 soup spoons of sugar
1 pinch of salt
50g butter

Apple Puree:
1.5 Kilo’s Sour Apples (Granny Smiths, Brambles etc.)

Streusel:
100g Cold unsalted Butter
200g sugar
200g flour

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Start by making the yeast dough.
• Melt the 50g butter in a pan and allow to cool.
• Gently heat the milk in a pan and dissolve the sugar, followed by the yeast.
• Sift the flour into a bowl, and sprinkle in the salt.
• Stir in the milk and yeast mixture, followed by the melted butter.
• Leave in a warm place until double in size.
• Now to make the apple puree.
• Peel and chop the apples into smallish pieces.
• Put them in to a large saucepan with a few drops of water or lemon juice.
• Allow to stew on a low heat, with the lid on, until soft and pureed.
• In the meantime, make the Streusel.
• Sift the flour into a bowl.
• Stir in the sugar.
• Chop the butter into 1 cm cubes and rub into the sugar and flour mixture.
• It should resemble breadcrumbs.
• When the dough has doubled in size, spread it out over a Swiss roll tin.
• Cover this dough with the apple puree.
• Sprinkle the Streusel on top.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes.
• When it’s ready, the base should look like it is cooked though and the streusel should be lightly browned.
• Chop in to squares and serve cream on the side.

Guten Appetit!
 
13 down, 14 to go….