Thats the beauty of christmas cakes they never go off and keep for ages. We usually are still eating ours several months later or I am as OH not that keen!
June thats the downside of baking the clearing up I hate it! Made a real mess this time as forgot eggs and had to tip it back into the mixer and also first put it in a tin that was too small!
Willow I think Kroger is more equivalent to your Tesco (?) which I first heard of when Odin was caught in fishline and in an emergency fish were supplied from a bag which clearly said the name. My "corner" one is just the nearest.
We also have smaller quick in-and-out stores, Seven/Eleven and United Dairy Farmers but no friendly family owned "mom and pop" shops here.
Willow, sounds like you are my kind of cook As Sunshine said "My kind of people" :)
Like Julia Child I send ingredients flying in every direction, I pat the bird on the rump and I pat huge blocks of cheese on the grocer counter and (to my surprise) come away with greasy hands. All that is the fun of cooking and I love it. But like you I hate the clean-up.
Hi, Ann, Welcome back. Congratulations on being away for a week. I trust it was fun even if you had a bit of frustration at not being able to access the Gabfest.
Yes we weren't able to get together for a formal Cake Presentation and/or Music Night, but some of us have had fun here doing our own thing in our own time. Glad you enjoyed and thanks for letting us know that you did.
Still more pictures to come, I think.
If you are not familiar with Julia Child and her French Cook cooking show you have missed a real treat. She was always serious, but always hilarious and She was the one who taught all the others how and most of the so called cook shows today need to go back and take lessons from her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXDc2G1hnhs
Hello Gabbers!
I wish you all a very Happy New Year! Hopefully weather is fine. Here we've had snow for a couple of days, and today we have sunshine for the first time in some weeks.
Unknown said:Bente, Please could you list the names of the biscuits you photographed for us?
Yes, Ann, of course I can! Lets start with the top and go around the plate clockwise:
The light cone-shaped ones with almonds are called "Bethmännchen". They are a made after a recipe of an old jewish family (Bethmann-Family) situated in Frankfurt. They used to do financial business (bank). Bethmännchen are made with finely-ground almonds, icing-sugar, rose-water and just a little flour. Dry it carefully in a saucepan on small flame, then make small marbles with it, add three almond-halves to every marble, that should look cone-shaped now. Let them dry over night. Next day put them into the oven and afterwards, when they are still hot, put a mixture of egg-yolk and milk on top and let dry again. Careful, this can be quite sticky work at times!
To the right we have "Schokocrossies", made of dark chocolate, milk chocolate, a little butter and lots of cornflakes. Form little pieces and put them onto a baking tin to cool-off.
The next are "Florentiner": Thin almond-slices are heated with sugar in a saucepan (careful, they burn easily), then you add cream, glace fruit in little pieces and a little flour. Set little pieces on a baking-tin and bake. When finished, cover the bottom side with chocolate.
Next: Spritzgebäck. Almonds, flour, butter and sugar. Put it through a "machine" that you normally use to make minced meat, but use an additional tool that you screw in front to make the batter come out flat.
Next: Mandelsplitter. Heat pieces of almonds with sugar and mix it with melted dark chocolate. Let cool down a bit. Put little pieces on a baking tin and let it cool off completely.
Then: Vanillekipferl: Almonds, a little flour, butter, vanilla. make little half-moons with it and bake. Afterwards cover them completely with a mixture of Vanilla-sugar and icing-sugar (careful! the Kipferl break easily)
Rumkugeln: melt dark chocolate, add butter, let cool-down a bit and add creamy-beaten egg-yolk. Let cool dow a little more and add rhum as much as you like. But be careful that the mixture doesn't get too smooth. Form little marbles with it. Careful! It is a quite sticky matter.
In the middle: Marzipankartoffeln (Marzipan-potatos): Marzipan, icing-sugar and a little Kirschwasser (Cherry-Schnaps). Form little marbles and cover them with cocoa-powder.
If you would like to know the details of some recipe, please tell me so.
Kind regards, Bente
Thanks, Bente! They all sound very yummy, especially the one with the Cherry Schnaps! I will get back to you on a few of those recipes in due course--sometime before next Christmas!
Kind regards, Ann
You are very welcome, Ann! I will be glad to tell you any recipe you like. My favourites are "Bethmännchen" and "Schokocrossies". I couldn't do without them, although "Bethmännchen" really are a lot of work. There are other recipes for "Bethmännchen" where you use ready-made Marzipan from the shop and add just a bit of icing-sugar and rose-water, but it is not as good as if you use freshly-peeled almonds and ground them by yourself. We've tried several recipies, so we know the difference. My Mum always makes loud protest when I say I would like to have them again, but she stands alone: I, my brother and my Dad love them. And after all: I always help. My job is peeling the almonds, grounding them and putting the almond-halves on top (and before that: cutting almonds in halves for that, a really boring and frustrating job).
I have to go on and do some housework now (tidying up and vacuum-cleaning (or hoovering ???) a bit.See you soon,
Bente
Final Chapter on My Christmas Cake
I was definitely disappointed in my Christmas Cake. When cut the texture resembled a dry sponge, course, dry and porous. The taste was blah, not my mother's delicious Boiled Spice Cake that I have baked successfully so many times.
I decided the time had come for some serious experimentation. Not knowing proper procedure, I obtained a small piece of a lean, sterilized white cloth kept in a ziplock bag for first aid purposes (an old Tshirt actually). Why I didn't think of cheesecloth, which I always have on hand, I don't know, but I didn't.
Remember that after the raisins had soaked in brandy overnight, I drained the excess back into the bottle for future use. I put the cloth over what was left of the cake, then drenched the cloth with the raisin infused brandy. Then wrapped the whole thing securely in plastic wrap and put it in the frig. I repeated this procedure over several days.
After about a week, I opened the cake. The aroma was wonderful. The texture was no longer course and porous, but looked solid and moist. And the taste - UMMM! Definitely not my Mom's Boiled Spice Cake, but moist and delicious with a taste I wont try to describe. This is the way to go and I will do the soaking again next year.
Pleased to hear you managed to revive your cake into something tasty JS & just a pity you are too far away to pass it around for second, third, & more opinions!!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr