Baklava

Super-sticky baklava... Probably not how they would serve it in Turkey, but I love it slightly warm with vanilla ice-cream :-P

Baklava

For the baklava:
200 g chopped hazelnuts
1 tbsp white sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
200 g filo pastry
75 g unsalted butter, melted

For the syrup:
200 g white sugar
200 ml water
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp clear honey

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Mix the hazelnuts, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

Butter a large oblong roasting tin (approx 30 x 18 cm). Cover it neatly with five sheets of pastry, buttering each layer before lifting it from the stack. Allow the excess pastry to hang over the edge of the tin.

Spread half of the hazelnut filling on evenly. Cover with three more layers of buttered pastry and spread over the rest of the filling.

Fold over the overhanging pastry, buttering each layer first.

Cut away the excess pastry at the edges if needed, so that it fits the dish neatly.

Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the baklava into triangular or square shapes without cutting all the way to the base. Otherwise it will be impossible to cut the filo pastry neatly once it's cooked.

Sprinkle a bit of cold water over the baklava with your fingers (to stop the edges curling) and bake for 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes turn the heat up to 190C and bake for another 15 minutes until light golden.

Take out the baklava and let it cool slightly.

For the syrup, boil all the ingredients apart from the honey. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the honey and simmer for 5 more minutes, stirring until lightly thickened.

Remove the cinnamon stick and pour the syrup slowly over the baklava.

Allow to stand for 10 minutes so it absorbs the syrup. Cut and carefully lift the pieces individually.

Lemon and Meringue Tart

I made this tart a few months ago, but hadn't had time to upload the recipe.

I think it looks quite impressive, but it wasn't one of my favourites, too lemony!

The tricky bit for me was to get the meringue toasted... You're supposed to use a torch for this, but I didn't have one, so I tried both with the grill and with a lighter - probably not the best idea!

Anyway, here it goes:

Lemon and meringue tart

For the base:
200 g plain flour
70 g ground almonds
40 g white sugar
1 large egg
85 g butter at room temperature (plus a bit for greasing the tin)
A pinch of salt

For the lemon mix:
200 ml lemon juice
160 g white sugar
140 g butter
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
20 g cornflour

For the meringue:
2 egg whites
100 g white sugar

Grease the bottom and sides of a 22 cm round oven tin and cover the base with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180C.

To make the base, mix the flour, almonds, sugar, egg, butter and salt in a bowl with your fingers.

Now, to extend the base, you're supposed to use a rolling pin over a floured surface. However, I find this quite difficult, so what I did was to take small bits of the dough and mash them with my fingers into the oven tin little by little until the whole base was covered.

Cover the pastry with another piece of baking paper and put some dry chickpeas over.

Bake the base in the oven, at 180C, for 15 minutes. Remove the chickpeas and the baking paper and bake for another 10 minutes.

To prepare the lemon mix, heat the lemon juice with half of the sugar and the butter in a sauce pan. In a bowl, beat the eggs, the yolks, the rest of the sugar and the cornflour.

Add the lemon juice, sugar and butter mix to this bowl (while it's still warm) and beat well. Pour back into the sauce pan and cook at a low heat, stirring continuously, until it thickens.

Remove from the fire, leave to cool down and then pour into the base.

To make the meringue, whip the egg whites and then add the sugar. Continue beating to get soft peaks.

Using a piping bag, form small meringue drops all over the cake. Then use the oven grill or a blow torch to toast the meringue so it gets a golden colour.

Croissants!

This is my second attempt at making croissants (from scratch, not buying the pastry!) and they are so gooooood!!!

I won't be writing the recipe for the moment, as it is long and a bit complicated, unless someone wants to try!

I think I deserve a prize for making this by following a recipe in Danish (without previous translation), forgetting to add egg and mis-translating fridge for kitchen top :-)

Another Danish goodie... Kanelsnurrer (Cinnamon buns)

This weekend I've gone for a sweet bread... These buns are really soft and fluffy!
It's another Meyers' recipe, but I've halved it so you get eight buns.

Cinnamon buns

250 ml cold milk
25 g fresh yeast
1 small egg
500 g plain flour
75 g white sugar
7 g salt
6 g ground cardamom
75 g butter

For the filling:
60 g melted butter
75 g white sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

For the topping:
1 egg
Some suggar

Mix the cold milk with the yeast in a bowl. Then add the egg, flour, sugar, salt and cardamom. This has to be mixed until the dough is smooth and shiny, approx 20 minutes on the mixing machine (or by hand if you have the energy!).

Then cut the butter in small dice, add to the dough and mix for another 20 minutes. Cover with a kitchen towel and leave to rest for 1 1/2 hours, until doubled in size.

Get the dough out onto a floured surface and roll into a rectangle, approx 25cm x 40cm.

Spread the melted butter on the rolled dough, then sprinkle the sugar and the cinnamon. Fold the dough twice so you get three layers (folding on the 40cm side).

Roll the folded dough again until it's 30 cm x 25 cm. Cut in 8 pieces (which will be 30 cm long).

Now the shaping bit which is a bit tricky... Take each stripe and twist it from the ends, so it looks like a twisted rope. Then holding the stripe with one hand, you need to fold it twice around your index and middle finger and "close" the shape with the hanging bit by pushing it between your fingers.

Put the shaped buns on a baking tray and leave uncovered to rise for approx 2 hours until doubled in size.

Brush the buns with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake in the oven at 200C for 13 minutes and then leave to cool down on a wire rack.