Cake

After my plan for making a "Tarta de Santiago" didn't work out (it would be the most expensive cake ever, considering the price of the almonds here in Denmark), I decided to make this cake instead, which is one of my favourites.

Pistachio, cardamom and yogurt cake (with lime syrup)

150 g pistachio nuts
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
150 g unsalted butter, chopped
185 self-raising flour *
310 g caster sugar
3 eggs (at room temperature)
125 g plain yogurt
1 lime

Preheat the oven to 180C. Lightly grease a 20 cm round cake tin and line the base with baking paper.

Place the pistachios and the cardamom in a food processor and pulse until just chopped. Add the butter, flour and 185 g of the caster sugar and pulse for 20 seconds or until crumbly. Add the combined eggs and yogurt and pulse for 10 seconds, or until just combined. Spoon into the tin and smooth the surface.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

To make the syrup, peel the zest of the lime (try not to get any of the white stuff). Place the rest of the caster sugar and 100 ml of water in a saucepan and stir over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil, then add the lime zest and cook for 5 minutes. Strain and cool slightly. Pierce the cake with a few skewer holes and pour the hot syrup over the cake.

* Today I didn't have self-raising flour so I used 185 g of plain flour and 6 g of baking powder.

Quick seedy yogurt bread

I love this bread... It's really quick to make, no kneading, rising or proving, and it's perfect for breakfast. It's made with normal plain flour so no need for bread flour. It's easy to cut, freezes and toasts well - what else can you ask for?
You can make it with mixed chopped nuts or with a mixture of seeds and either way it tastes great.


Seedy yogurt bread

1 tbsp sunflower oil
375 g plain flour
125 g wholemeal flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp each of sesame and poppy seeds (or 90 g of mixed chopped nuts)
90 g sunflower seeds
1 tsp runny honey
170 g yogurt *
340 g milk *
2 tbsp sunflower seeds, for sprinkling

Grease a loaf tin with some sunflower oil.

Sift the flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cream of tartar in a large bowl. Add the seeds (sesame, poppy and 90g of sunflower) or the mixed nuts and stir.

Mix the honey, milk, yogurt and oil together and then stir into the dry ingredients. Mix to form a soft dough.

Pour the dough into the loaf tin and flatten the top with a spatula. Sprinkle the sunflower seeds.

Bake at 180C for 1 hour until golden and risen. Take out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.

* In total you need 500 ml between the milk and the yogurt. I buy 170 g pots of yogurt, so I need to use 340 g of milk to complete the 500 ml. If you have a different size of yogurt, adjust the milk to get to 500 ml.