Leftover pancakes

We usually have oatmeal porridge here for breakfast, but today I had to be a little bit creative since somehow, we seemed to lack just about everything (no drinking water, no teeth-brushing water, no Internet for the first morning hours, and of course, not enough oatmeal to have porridge for two). A lonely banana had been lying in the fridge forever and I hoped I could somehow combine it with the oatmeal and…this is how today’s breakfast came about. Pancakes instead of porridge – not bad at all. Now, I don’t have any measuring cups here in China, so can only give the estimates of the quantities that I used. But I guess pancakes are all about experimenting anyway.

• 3/4 cup oatmeal
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1.5 cup lukewarm milk
• 1 egg
• 3 tbs sugar
• 1 ripe banana
• pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp oil

# Mix oatmeal, salt and flour with lukewarm milk and leave at room temperature for 15-20 min.

# In the mean time, mash the banana and in a separate bowl, whisk the egg with sugar.

# Stir all the components together, also add oil. And then…fry some pancakes! I managed to get around two dozens of small cakes out of these quantities, more than enough to have breakfast for two and still have leftovers to enjoy after dinner. Yum!

Those moist pancakes are definitely mouthwatering treats, even without any jam or cream or the like. I tried squeezing our last drops of honey for the ‘kodak moment’ but did not quite get the look I was aiming for… Oh well. Worth a try anyway.

Daring bakers: cheesecake

The April 2009 Daring Bakers challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I made little cheesecakes instead, around Easter time, so that I could give them to my friends rather than having to eat the whole cake by myself. Those yellow things on top of the cheesecakes are peaches – not marzipan – and I think they gave the cakes a nice Eastery look. In case you go for small cakes instead of a large one, remember that the baking time shortens quite remarkably…I forgot about it when the first batch was in the oven…

Daring bakers: chocolate we love!

The compulsory introduction:

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

When I looked at the recipe, I was stunned. Only a couple of lines for the cake and only 3 ingredients! I thought it was a mistake…and I was right: I also needed to make ice cream myself. That was the tricky part…But the cake was very easy to make:

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time:  20 minutes

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

 

# Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.

# While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

# Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry). With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

# Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

# Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.

# Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C (mine was done already in 20 minutes). If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.

# Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold. Serve with ice cream. I baked it in a round tin and for serving, cut out rounds with the help of a glass, to make a nicer presentation. 

The cake was really yummy! It was like a big chunk of moist chocolate, an extremely pleasant thing for eat for a sweet-tooth like me. 

For ice cream, I tried to make this ginger ice cream just because I don’t have an ice cream maker. It turned out…edible, to say the least. The taste was nothing near to regular ice cream, it was too eggy. And the texture was all wrong, it was difficult to scoop it (because it was totally frozen). When I waited for it to soften into scoopable consistency, it just melted into a sauce. A disaster so to say. At least I had some nice vanilla ice cream supplies at the freezer for such a case…

Lenten buns

Today, when many nationalities are celebrating Pancake Day, we Estonians together with the Nordic countries do something else. We celebrate Shrove Tuesday (or “Vastlapäev”, as we call it). We do not eat pancakes on that day, nor do we held pancake races. Instead, we eat lenten buns and pea soup and go sledding. 

I have had lenten buns on every Shrove Tuesday since I can remember. I have never baked them myself though, because the Estonian bakeries usually are very skillful in making these. Unfortunately, nobody sells lenten buns in London. So this year I decided to bake my own. Pille’s blog gives you the recipe. I had a slightly altered version (e.g. I added marzipan in addition to the whipping cream), but as far as I know, Pille’s recipe is the most foolproof and the best to try if you haven’t ever made those buns.

I don’t have anything against the traditions of other countries, but personally, I think that having buns for Shrove Tuesday is more exciting than having pancakes. I urge you all to give them a try next year. You could start practicing already as of today

Swiss roll with egg whites

As I recently made custard, I had 4 leftover egg whites which I needed to use up. Fortunately I found a recipe from one of my little recipe book: a Swiss roll with egg whites. Something I had never heard of before.

• 4 egg whites
• 85 g sugar
• juice of a half a lemon
• 1 tbsp cornstarch or corn flour
• jam of your liking (I used apricot jam)
• 200 ml whipping cream
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar
• mix of cinnamon and sugar and slices of roasted almonds or nuts to decorate

# Whip egg whites and sugar until soft peaks form. Add lemon juice and carefully fold in corn starch or corn flour.

# Spread the batter thinly to baking parchment (note that the batter will rise a bit) and bake at 175 C for 15 minutes.

# In the mean time, place another piece of baking parchment on table and sprinkle some mix of cinnamon and sugar and almonds or nuts over it.

# Place the baked sponge carefully over the paper covered with cinnamon-sugar-almonds-or-nuts mix and let cool until you whip the whipping cream into soft peaks with sugar.

# Spread jam over the sponge. Then do the same with whipping cream. Roll into a tight spiral and place into a fridge for a couple of hours (the roll will be perfectly set in 6 hours, but I ate it already after 3 hours and it was still delicious).

It is a very delicate and moist roll, every bite literally melts in your mouth and leaves you wanting some more. The texture was perfect – I couldn’t have asked for a better one. I think the cinnamon is an important thing to add – do use it, otherwise the end result might lack the necessary kick.

Unfortunately, the pictures are crap and tell little about the beauty of the roll, but I can assure you that it is a pretty dessert which will definitely wow your guests.