Nürnberger Lebkuchen

Dear all,

We are gearing up for Christmas. I hope you look forward to the holidays with joyful expectations. If not, maybe you could take some time out to contemplate what is going wrong with your life. The end of a year and the start of a new one is a great time to take an inventory and check what makes us happy and what we can omit.

For me, the past year has been an exciting one with many ups and quite a few downs as well. I believe, the way we face problems shows the stuff we are made of. If we tend to be too fluffy, we can toughen up. If we are too brittle, we can mellow down.

Remember, happiness starts in your own mind. I dare say I am entitled to vent my opinion about this subject. A few weeks ago, I finished writing my new cookbook with the working title Cooking for Happiness and I am looking forward to see it in print in 2015. Unfortunately, writing is only part of the story, then comes editing and editing… But let’s not jump ahead, let’s enjoy the spirit of Christmas.

For the last newsletter of this year I have chosen a traditional German Christmas sweet, Nürnberger Lebkuchen. I have grown up in Ansbach, a small town close to Nürnberg, a city famous for its Christmas market (see the title picture). Christmas without Lebkuchen would have been unthinkable. I tried my hand this year at the queen of Lebkuchen, the Elisenlebkuchen, thanks to my dear mother who sent me her recipe.

Lebkuchen are largely made from nuts, sugar and candied orange and lemon rind, as described in my November newsletter. The common Lebkuchen also contains flour, but the Elisenlebkuchen does away with the wheat and is made only from almonds, hazelnuts, sugar, eggs, spices and citrus rinds.

Normally, the Lebkuchen dough is spread over a base called oblaten, round, paper like wavers. These wavers guarantee that the Lebkuchen does not stick to the cookie sheet. As you cannot get oblaten in India, I have used a thickly buttered silicon sheet and cut the Lebkuchen after baking in diamond shaped pieces.

Unfortunately, here in Goa, India, it is also very difficult to find hazelnuts. That’s why I substituted the hazelnuts with almonds. The Lebkuchen taste slightly different, but still delicious. For my chocoholic men I coated them with chocolate, but you can also leave them plain or cover them with icing sugar mixed with a tiny bit of water or rum.

Wishing you wonderful holidays and happy cooking, always!

Kornelia Santoro with family
 

Nürnberger Lebkuchen

Ingredients:
(for one cookie sheet, around 45 pieces)

• 250 grams almonds
• 2 eggs
• 200 grams sugar
• 75 grams candied orange and/or lemon rind
• 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• 1 tablespoon rum
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 100 grams chocolate for coating

Method:
Grind the almonds and the citrus rinds. Mix the almonds with the baking powder.

Because I don’t like to bite on pieces of citrus rinds, I chop them to a paste in my mini blender. If you don’t mind more texture in your Lebkuchen, just chop the citrus rinds roughly.

Prepare the cookie sheet. I have used my trusted silicone-baking sheet that I covered generously with butter. You can omit the silicone sheet; just make sure that you spread plenty of butter over your cookie sheet because the dough is extremely sticky. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl. Beat them and gradually add the sugar until you have a thick cream.

Add the rum, the vanilla essence, the cinnamon, the cloves, the citrus rinds and the ground almonds. You should have thick, sticky dough that you can spread out.

Pour the Lebkuchen dough onto your cookie sheet and spread it out evenly. It should be very thin, about three millimetres or so. I have flattened the dough first with a spatula and then evened it out with a knife dipped in water.

Bake the Lebkuchen for around 40 minutes, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less. They should turn a little bit brown around the edges and they should not feel sticky any more when you touch the surface. I gave them five extra minutes from the grill in my gas oven to ensure that the surface is well done.

When you remove them from the oven, you have to work fast. Slide the sheet of Lebkuchen onto a flat surface and cut them immediately. You only have a window of a few minutes before they toughen up while cooling down.

Let the diamonds cool down. If you want, melt the chocolate in a double boiler (a small pot stuck into a bigger one with some water) and cover the Lebkuchen with the chocolate.

I used a knife to spread the molten chocolate like a sandwich spread. Enjoy!

Chocolate-Easter-Eggs

In a few days we celebrate Easter. This year I am organized, hurray: Well in advance I decided to create homemade chocolate eggs for my men. When I announced this plan my husband and my son lit up. Rarely do I get such a gratifying response. I went to work in the kitchen with the help of my little monster who can be quite enthusiastic when it comes to chocolate. Although we had some failures along the way, I am happy to present to you three different recipes for chocolate Easter eggs. To be honest, they are not fit to win a beauty contest as you can see in the picture. But the taste hits the spot!

In recent years I had bought chocolate Easter eggs from various outlets in Goa but I was never happy. This year, I finally found affordable aluminum moulds for eggs in a shop in Panjim. You can buy silicone egg moulds on ebay.in too, but they cost a fortune.

Melting and moulding the chocolate I fondly remembered the Easter egg hunts which my parents organised on every Easter Sunday morning. They made a nest for each of us children with tons of chocolate and coloured eggs, and then they hid it in the garden. We had to find it and we were allowed to indulge in the sweets. Good, old times, nobody thought about a sugar rush back then.

Wishing you wonderful Easter holidays and happy cooking, always!

Kornelia Santoro with family

Truffle Easter Eggs – pure pleasure

 

I make three different truffle recipes for Easter eggs, based on the recipes for chocolate truffles on my website. For every recipe you need moulds for egg halves. I use aluminium moulds which are 7 centimetres long and 5.5 centimetres wide. Each chocolate egg consists of 2 halves, glued together by melted chocolate.

For melting chocolate you absolutely need a double boiler! This is simply done by inserting a smaller into a bigger pot which contains some water. Chocolate should never experience direct heat. When you overheat chocolate you get a crumbly mess which does neither taste nor look good. You can melt chocolate in the microwave too. Just chop the chocolate and place it into a plastic mixing bowl, add the cream and butter and nuke it in one-minute intervals until it is melted.

When you create these chocolate delights, make sure you have enough space available in your freezer and your fridge. Before you can finish one egg, the mixture has to set. The quickest way to achieve this is putting the moulds in the freezer. I use semi-sweet chocolate which is sold in blocks of one kilogram in supermarkets. If you prefer, you can also use milk chocolate or dark chocolate.

These truffles need to be kept in the fridge. Because they contain so much cream and butter they soften very quickly at room temperature. They make lovely gifts for your near and dear ones. Wrap them into cling film and then into gift paper and present them on Easter Sunday.

Mocha Truffle

Ingredients (for 5 eggs):

• 300 grams chocolate
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons cream
• ½ cup sifted cocoa powder
• 100 ml mocha coffee
• Oil or butter for greasing the moulds

Method:

I make the coffee used in this recipe with a simple mocha machine, available everywhere in India: You put water in the base, insert the filter filled with coffee and screw on the top. You put the machine on the fire and wait that the mocha bubbles. Some people call this espresso. My Italian husband however insists that this kind of coffee is called mocha. If you don’t have a mocha machine, any kind of strong coffee will do.

Place the chocolate, the butter, the cream and the cocoa powder into the smaller pot of a double boiler (description see above please). Put some water into the bigger pot, insert the smaller pot and put on the fire. When the water starts to bubble, switch off the fire and wait for some minutes. Stir and check if all the chocolate is melted. If not, switch on the fire again.

While the chocolate is melting, prepare your egg moulds. Spread oil or butter evenly over the surface. That helps popping out the egg halves when they are set. I use cold pressed coconut oil because it spreads easier than butter. I just pour a tiny amount into every egg mould and spread it with my finger.

When the chocolate has completely melted, stir the coffee into the mix. Don’t do this at the beginning of the melting process because the chocolate might curdle. Combine everything well. You should have a shiny pool of dark chocolate. Fill the egg halves with the truffle mix and put them into the freezer. Make sure you keep a bit of melted chocolate to glue the egg halves together.

After one or two hours, the chocolate should be set. Popping them out of the moulds can be a tad tricky. Insert a sharp knife on one side between the mould and the chocolate and apply some pressure. Ideally, the egg half should come loose smoothly.

In case you have some problems, don’t despair. Try to put the chocolate back into the freezer for some time to set a bit harder. If your egg half deforms during the exit from the mould, let it rest a bit at room temperature. The truffle softens very quickly and you can smooth out uneven bits with your fingers. Keep the eggs in a closed container in the fridge. You can also wrap each single egg into cling film.

Almond Crunch

Ingredients (for five eggs):

• 300 grams chocolate
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons cream
• ½ cup sifted cocoa powder
• 100 grams almonds
• Oil or butter for greasing the moulds

Method:

Roast the almonds by spreading them over a cookie sheet and placing them in the oven at lowest temperature. Toss them around once in a while. They are ready when you smell their roasted aroma and they show brown marks on their skin. Be careful, they burn quickly. You can roast the almonds also in a non-stick pan. Let the roasted almonds cool down and chop them roughly.

Melt the chocolate with the butter, the cream and the cocoa powder in a double boiler as described in the recipe for Mocha truffle. Stir everything well until you have a smooth cream, then add the roasted almonds and combine everything.

Oil or butter your moulds, fill them with the chocolate-almond-mix and put them in the freezer. Make sure you keep some chocolate mix. When the halves are set, pop them out of the moulds and glue them together with the kept chocolate mix. Keep the finished eggs in the fridge.

Coconut truffles

Ingredients (for five eggs):

• 200 grams desiccated coconut flakes
• 100 ml sweetened, condensed milk
• 5 tablespoons icing sugar
• 200 grams dark chocolate
• Oil or butter for greasing the moulds

Method:

Mix the desiccated coconut flakes with the condensed milk and the icing sugar in a bowl. Keep it in the fridge until firm. Prepare the moulds by greasing them with oil or butter.

Fill the egg halves with the coconut mix and place them into the freezer. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler like described in the recipe for mocha truffles. Pop the egg halves out of the moulds and glue them together with melted chocolate.

Then cover the eggs with chocolate. This is easier said then done. Prepare to have chocolate all over your fingers. I spread with a normal knife over one half of the egg. Then I put the egg in the fridge for a few minutes. When the chocolate is set, I cover the other half.  Keep the eggs in the fridge at all times.

Triple-Nut-Guglhupf

 

Guglhupf – a rotating sun for the emperor’s breakfast

A guglhupf was a common sight on our dining table: My grandfather could not get enough of his favorite cake. His guglhupf was made with yeast and a lot of eggs – light dough melting in the mouth, crowned by roasted almonds and dusted with icing sugar. My grandfather shared the habit of eating guglhupf with royal Europeans. According to legend around 1800 the Austrian Emperor discovered the guglhupf, making it his daily breakfast. Following Emperors like Franz Joseph and his wife Sissi could not imagine beginning the day without guglhupf.

The original guglhupf goes a long way back:  Archaeological excavations near Vienna show Romans used a mold for ring cake in the form of a rotating sun identical to the guglhupf.

Childhood memories came rushing back when I discovered a guglhupf mold recently in my favorite home appliance store. This one had nothing to do with the antique Italian copper molds decorating my kitchen here. It was made from high tech flexible silicon which can support high temperatures. It needs buttering only for the first use. Following the first use you just fill it with the batter, stuff it in the oven and wash it – very convenient. I had to have this fruit of modern technology which was made in Italy (an added bonus for me), although it carried a sizable price tag.

Back home I wondered which kind of guglhupf to make. I am not a big fan of yeast dough because it takes a long time for rising. Furthermore I like to use whole wheat flour. You cannot make a proper yeast cake with this flour. It just does not taste right. So I did some thinking and developed the recipe for a triple nut guglhupf. 

It combines three different kind of nuts (very healthy) with whole wheat flour, coconut oil, and eggs (very healthy, too). To balance this it also got some chocolate chips for my chocoholic men and of course sugar, but only a moderate amount. I have used a vanilla pod grown in Goa for this recipe. If you don’t want to spend the money for the vanilla pod, use vanilla extract. Experts say artificial vanilla leaves a bitter aftertaste, but I don’t share this opinion. I think real vanilla is only required for vanilla ice cream and custards. When vanilla only contributes to a lot of other ingredients, artificial vanilla extract is perfectly acceptable for me.

Ingredients:

• 150 grams desiccated coconut
• 100 grams roasted almonds
• 100 grams roasted cashew nuts
• 100 grams chocolate chips made from dark cooking chocolate
• 6 eggs
• 1 vanilla pod
• 2 ½ cups sugar
• 2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup cold pressed coconut oil
• 1 cup milk
• butter for greasing the mold
• icing sugar for dusting the guglhupf

 

Method:

Prepare your vessel: Spread butter carefully over the inside of your guglhupf mold. If you don’t have a guglhupf shape, you can take any round, big cake mold. A silicon mold needs greasing only the first time you use it.

Spread the almonds and the cashew nuts over a cookie sheet and roast them in the oven. Keep the flame low and pay attention: Nuts burn easily. They are done when the cashew nuts have turned golden brown and the almond skins show some dark brown spots. Let the nuts cool down and grind them finely. The easiest way to do this is using a blender. Take a piece of dark cooking chocolate, place it on a cutting board and shave off chocolate chips with the help of a big knife.

Place the eggs into a big whisking bowl. Slice open the vanilla pod and scrap out the insides. Add these aromatic bits and the sugar to the eggs. Beat everything with a hand mixer until you have a light colored, thick cream. Incorporate the coconut oil, the nuts and the coconut flakes into the mixture.

Combine the flour with the baking powder and stir it into the batter. Finally add the milk. Fill the batter immediately into the mold and bake it for 1 ¼ hour at lowest temperature in the oven. The guglhupf needs quite a lot of time for baking as it is a big cake. You can check if the cake is done with a toothpick. Stick it into the cake: If it comes out clean, the cake is done.