pepparkakor

swedish gingerbread men and other ornaments! Other pregnant women apparently get the nesting instinct, cleaning their houses... i've clearly gone mad making and icing gingerbread... i really should be in bed, not tying red cotton string to biscuits. i've hung some of the ornaments into the tree, in the top layers, i better wait with the lower branches until christmas morning, I have a suspicion they won't last long!

Ginger cake

After the birthday and halloween shenanigans Emm came down with a temperature last night, which got up to 39.3 today, she's not herself at all! I've been up since five, as I drove my sister and her husband to the airport this morning. I thought I'd have a nap while Emm has hers but because she's been poorly she had a sleep this morning, which was too early for a lie down for myself. I did make a ginger cake though, which turned out more like a gingery treacle cake, but very nice none the less.

I also made two lasagne, and froze two one-pound-bags of bolognese (We cooked a big batch yesterday, I'd say we had a little more than 4 portions of it last night, gave 4 to P's mum to bring home (they couldn't stay for dinner), have now 4 in the freezer and the two lasagne probably count as 2 portions each, too. 16 generous portions, I like when the work that goes into cooking yields a substantial amount!)

I must get my hands on some rye flour and try this http://mydutchbakingblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/ontbijtkoek-dutch-spice-bread.html, I'm suspecting it might be as close as I'll get to the kandiskuchen i've been craving lately.

In a week and a half we have the next eye appointment, hopefully they'll have good news for us then, as in, they might have found a cause that is not linked to any further degeneration of her eyesight! We couldn't find any further information on babies being born with 2 identical looking retinal folds through the makula (of course not having any official medical terms to search for doesn't help) but I got a reply from the parent I contacted in Germany. He was surprised to hear about another case, they got their daughter's eyes tested about a year ago, and their specialist said he didn't know of another case like it in all of Germany (population of over 80 million!) but then their specialist mightn't have access to all the data... They were never given a cause for the findings, just that it most likely happened before birth.

I'm officially in the 3rd trimester now and feel very big, I have another appointment on the 5th I should get my iron results then. I do feel quite tired, but I think it's probably down to not sleeping. I'm just lying awake all night, either worrying about Emm or the baby, or having nightmares or other strange dreams with convoluted plots and no conclusions...

By the way, do you ever feel like you should be able to function on four hours of sleep a night, like some highly efficient people seem to do? I was very happy and sad to read that there's a gene mutation responsible for the ability to survive on so little sleep, nothing to do with the rest of us being lazy bast*&%s! In fact, I also read this article suggesting it might be bad for us to sleep less than 7 and a half hours per night! Now, there goes my hope that once I get over my lazy sleeping habits of at least 6 hours per night I will finally have that clean tidy house with lots of home cooked healthy food on the table, while also having time to play with my daughter, keep up with current affairs, read literature, knit, sew, help others or charities more, and keep up with fashion and some kind of beauty regime, in addition to earning extra money to afford said beauty regime and fashionable clothes... did i mention regular exercise? and socialising? and blogging? and yoga and writing and photography? ...or that there's a baby on the way....

I had 5 hours of sleep last night and can't you tell, rambling... I better get the little one to bed now, she's done with her puzzles and looking for some attention! I wonder will I stay up until P comes home from swimming (he goes straight after work) or should I give in and go to sleep as soon as Emm does...

plum cake, blackberry jam and crumpets!

i had a bit of a cooking day! no photos unfortunately, but i made crumpets and blackberry&apple jam from darina allen's 'forgotten skills of cooking' book. The crumpets turned out beautifully, I made the whole recipe, thinking i'd wrap the leftovers in clingfilm and toast them tomorrow... alas, i am a pregnant lady, and over the course of the afternoon they were all gone!! and Emm had no more than one! i had to throw out the first three though, in my defence, but still, i must have eaten about 10!!!
For the jam I made the mistake of listening to too many cooks, using Darina's recipe but adding my mum's advice that I definitely should use jam sugar rather than ordinary sugar, so the consistency was on the verge of wine gums!! very very set. i added the juice of half a lemon because i knew the berries were quite sweet, from my friend's husband's jam experiment, which worked a treat, my jam turned out just the right balance of sweet and sour.
I used the last of the plums from our tree to make a small 'Pflaumenkuchen', using a pastry base instead of the favourable yeast dough base. (I made that one last week and I think out of the two versions it's definitely the better one) The bready base makes you think of bread and plum jam, only it's less sweet, much tarter and with only just cooked plums, rather than mushy sugary jam.
In the evening I still managed to cook a yellow thai curry, inspired by Jo's post! Emm was tucking in, except for the peppers and mushrooms. I had to make sure she drank lots of water afterwards, because I suppose the paste is quite salty, much more so than other dishes I cook. I forgot to put in the broccoli, my concentration was definitely waning by then!

I had bought Bill Grangers new book (can't find it on the amazon associates search engine), but returned it when I realised it was 12.50£ on amazon (13.25£ at the moment), after I'd paid 33€ for it in the shop! I know there's exchange rates and shop overheads, but I don't think that kind of price difference is justified!! They took it back, no problem. I haven't ordered it yet and am thinking almost everyday of a dish i saw in it and then remember, oh yeah, must buy the book! I had half decided to return it when I realised what most of the ingredients were going to cost!! If I was able to source them, that is... But now I keep thinking back and I think I will get the book again. Or maybe I should just get his first book? Are chef's first books usually their best?

bread

After lots of cookie baking i made some easter bread to bring down to the inlaws last weekend, it's a lightly sweetened white yeast bread dough, with sultanas and raisins mixed through, glazed with a mix of honey and butter. The eggs in the centre are died with red onion skins (not really the colour i was expecting) and the chocolate bugs and bunnies are from germany. 

I'd love to be the type to bake my own bread every other day, but unfortunately I'm not... Luckily our local shop recently started to sell Aisling Bakery Breads, they do a great 'Turnover', it's only a euro and has all of four ingredients: Flour, water, yeast and salt. It's really delicious! And only on Tuesday I discovered they also started to sell Soul Bakery Breads, the fancy, fruity ones! I got a Raisin and Apricot loaf, no added sugar, no crap, but it's so sweet and lovely, especially toasted, spread with a bit of salted butter! I hope it's not a once off and they'll continue to offer them! 

I've just put Emm to sleep and better start thinking about what we'll have for dinner tonight and make a shopping list...

mmmmmh Buchweizentorte (buckwheat cake)

I had 7 toddlers, 2 babies and several mums in my house this morning, pandemonium! My little one learned to climb onto the armchair and the coffee table and to open the patio door! (probably from the other kiddies!) . She had to run off her sugar rush (loads of raisins, carrot&pineapple muffins, cowboy cookies and mini rice cakes) before her sleep, but she went down eventually!

I used the time to peel raisins off the floor, sweep and mop the whole place, wipe down the furniture, do the dishes and put on a wash (I know, my life isn't very exciting...), and now am deservedly sitting down with a coffee and a slice of buckwheat cake, marveling at what a perfect combination of flavours it is!! So good I had to post about it immediately! The recipe is from the back of the flour bag, with some improvements my mum came up with over time.

Buckwheat cake (Buchweizentorte)

Beat

5 egg whites until stiff, set aside. Beat

5 egg yolks with

150g caster sugar until creamy.

Sift

45g self raising flour,

45g buckwheat flour and

1/2 level teaspoon baking powder, add to egg and sugar mix, and stir until just combined.

Carefully fold in the egg whites and pour the mix into a lined spring form (about 9in diameter)

Bake at 175C for about 30 min in a fan oven, or about 40 min in a normal oven, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool under a clean tea towel.

For the filling you will need

about 200g (half a jar) cranberry sauce (LIDL do a good one, it's called either cranberry sauce or Preiselbeeren),

about 300ml (single/whipping) cream and

25-50g good dark chocolate (60% cocoa is perfect).

Whip the cream and chop or shave the chocolate. Cut your cake into two slices (three if you are able to, I'm no good at it! You'll need more filling if you do three)

Spread the bottom half with cranberry sauce and a layer of cream. Put the other half on top, spread with cream (you can cover the sides as well if you like) and sprinkle with chocolate. Go mad and do fancy little cream puffs with your piping bag if you like, and/or decorate with more of the cranberry sauce!

Keep chilled until serving, ideally for a few hours. Still very tasty on the second day, but don't count on any being left!

cowboy cookies

I made the cowboy cookies from 'vegan cookies invade your cookie jar'! They are so good!

The first batch I made with almonds, 60% chocolate from LIDL, and desiccated coconut, I didn't have ground flax seeds so i liquidised some golden linseeds with the soy milk, and it did turn to a gel like liquid as described in the book. The cookies turned out delicious, if a little dense.

                                                       

The second batch was made as the 'cowgirl cookie' variation, and i replaced 1/4 cup milk and 1tblsp ground flax seeds with 1 egg. The cookies are even more delicious, a little crunchier and lighter.

I've given loads of them away, to friends, and P brought some into work, and the rest are in my cake tin. I hadn't heard of cowboy cookies before, they are my new favourites. Next time I'm going to try freeze some of the dough, so i can make them fresh really quickly, when I have guests.

Other news, Emm is standing up on her own! And teething worse than ever, the poor mite!

I baked bread!

This is the second batch of white bread I made this week! I'm delighted, two in a row that worked out! After a very bad attempt last week (the bread was stale as soon as it was out of the oven! too dry!) it's nice to see it work out. I don't have an exact recipe, but it goes like this

1 sachet of dry yeast
mix 250ml milk - and 250ml warm water
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of oil
enough white flour to make a good dough

I have a foodmixer, so I start with the yeast, half the milky water and a little flour, stirring it with the dough hook attachment to a yoghurty consistence. I then leave it until it starts to bubble up, maybe 20 minutes? Then I add the rest of the water, the salt and oil, and on the lowest setting, slowly add flour until the dough is nearly, but not quite, dry enough to handle. Turning it out onto a floured surface, I knead it some more, adding more flour if needed, then return it to the mixing bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and put into a quiet, warm place. There I leave it for about an hour and a half or until doubled in size. I knock it back, shape two loaves and put them into two loave tins, leaving them to rise for at least an hour, after that I check on them and if they look well risen I preheat the oven and as soon as it's hot they go in, 200 C in a fan oven for 45 minutes (although I think I might have done 220 for 35-40 minutes the last time... I really should write these things down...)

The loaves are nice and airy, with a hard crust on top, but squishable on the sides. There is some satisfaction in pulling good bread out of the oven! I already passed half a loaf on to my neighbour who's forever giving me thick slices of her cakes to sample! And today she brought two scones from Avoca, yummie!

Other news... we have realised Emm doesn't really need the night feeds any more, she's just waking up for a little drink and cuddle! So for the last week and a half I have more or less weaned her off the night feeds, with P's help. He's been looking after her when she wakes up, which is usually around 4. Some nights it just takes a soother to get her back to sleep, others she needed a little cuddle. Last night I tried to take over, but no luck, she could smell my milk and just wouldn't go back to sleep! When she also started to cry I had to wake P, and within a few minutes she was asleep. I'm a little sad to hand over that ability to soothe her back to sleep with a little milk, that connection we have at night, but on the other hand, I have so much more energy! I didn't just dream of going back to bed while making breakfast, I actually bounced out of bed in the morning, and getting lots done during the day! She's nine and a half months now, and becoming very aware of what she wants and doesn't want, so maybe it's a good time...

Strawberry Buns

last week's, with a butter-cream cheese icing (the butter/strawberry/icing sugar mix didn't combine, so i added philadelphia, yum!

today's, this time i didn't give in and kept beating the icing with the liquidiser until it turned into perfectly pink butter icing (thanks jo!). then i added some more strawberry pieces, blitzed it briefly, done!

lemon cup cakes for stitch'n'bitch

yumm...
we sat outside until half eight or so, then it got too cold! it's such a pity, the minute the sun has disappeared behind the house it got chilly. It's something I've noticed in Ireland, even in the middle of a hot day, it's always cold in the shade, it's not like that in Germany, as far as I remember. I wonder is it latitude, or the fact that it's an island, or is it like that at any coast?

stitch and bitch birthday

chocolate and peach cake
my friend c made these! how cute! see the letter 'p' that's a hank of embroidery thread? there were balloons at the door, too! nice to get a little attention for a birthday, even though i've pretty much stopped counting!

as you can see, c, who's hosting, is a big emma bridgewater fan!

breadsticks for the baby!

i made these with

1 cup water (250ml)
1 tblsp oil
1 tsp dry yeast
1 tsp date syrup (instead of sugar)
1/4 tsp salt
and enough white spelt flour to make dough.

the breadsticks and mini flat breads i baked for 15 min at 200C, but the flat breads could have done with less, they are more like teething biscuits now. the rusks (zwieback) i baked for 20 min at 200C, then cut into slices, then baked again at 100C for about half an hour. (i think i'll have the rusks myself, with milky coffee in the morning!

i know we're not supposed to use salt for babies, but with the amount of salt i put in she could eat the whole lot over a day and a half and just about reach her salt limit. even i couldn't eat that many breadsticks! next time i might actually put 1/2 tsp salt in, they could do with a little more... (she'd never eat that much in 3 days either!!)
the rusks i might make again, with a milkier and sweeter dough.

guinness and chocolate cupcakes

i baked guinness and chocolate buns today, they turned out lovely! i made some vanilla creme frosting to go with them, german style, which involves custard powder, milk, sugar, butter and icing sugar and makes for a lovely light but buttery topping. i'm not a hundred percent sure if it's ideal for the very rich chocolate buns, maybe a dark chocolate glaze would be better? maybe i plain buns would be better suited to the buttercreme?

either way, tomorrow morning i'm planning to ice the buns and bring them along to the mammies and babies coffee morning. the girls and babas are a lovely bunch and we have great chats, but the surroundings are grim (the local pub, smelling of shake'n'vac, selling instant coffee and tea) so i think some little cakes with sweet icing and sprinkles will lighten things up a little! if i have time i'll take a picture!

i interpreted several chocolate and guinness cake recipes (nigella has one, delia too) and made up my own version. recipes are such a mine field, all the different measurements, and the fact that to my german palate a lot of american and english baking tastes too sweet, so i often mess with sugar amounts. i think the difference is that in germany we eat cakes in the afternoon, several hours after lunch as a seperate meal, you'd have a big piece of cake, or two, with some coffee, whereas in a lot of other countries cakes are dessert, a small sweet treat directly after the meal.

don't get me wrong, germans have desserts, too, but they tend to be served in little glass bowls: custard and fruit, pudding and cream, yoghurt, ice cream... mmmh, i must write a post about all my favourite desserts from home, we had dessert with every dinner (lunch)!