Domestic Diva versus Vegan World Takeover

After today's baking class (subject: light sourdough bread) I needed something sweet to calm down my adrenaline hyped nerves. The oven was still warm; and we had lots of peanutbutter in the fridge - leftovers from daughters and tenants.
Looking for a very peanutbuttery recipe I chose the Chocolate Peanutbutter Swirl Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's "Cupcakes" book. They were quite a bit of work (two batters) and looked delicious - we couldn't wait to try them. While I thought they tasted pretty good, my dear loving husband made a long face: "Too dry, too brittle, not enough fudgy-gooey!" was his verdict.
What do you expect when there are three eggs in the batter? Next time I'll go back to "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World", the little book that could almost turn you into a Vegan with its wonderfully moist cupcakes. Only the Vegan buttercream is not everybody's cup of tea, unless it's strongly flavored, but Non-Vegans can easily substitute butter for the margerine.

Nach dem Backkurs (Thema: helles Sauerteigbrot) brauchte ich heute etwas Suesses, um meine Adrenalin-geputschten Nerven wieder zu beruhigen. Der Ofen war noch warm, und wir hatten eine Menge Peanutbutter im Kuehlschrank - Ueberbleibsel von Toechtern und Mietern.
Auf der Suche nach einem besonders peanutbutterigen Rezept suchte ich mir die Chocolate Peanutbutter Swirl Cupcakes aus Martha Stewart's "Cupcakes"-Buch heraus. Sie machten eine Menge Arbeit (zwei Teige) und sahen lecker aus - wir konnten es kaum abwarten, sie zu probieren. Waehrend ich fand, dass sie ziemlich gut schmeckten, machte mein liebender Ehemann ein langes Gesicht: "Zu trocken, zu kruemelig, nicht klebrig-klietschig genug!" war sein Urteil.
Was kann man erwarten, wenn drei Eier im Teig sind? Naechstes Mal kehre ich wieder zu den "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" zurueck, dem kleinen Buch, dass einen beinahe zum Veganer machen kann mit seinen wunderbar saftigen Cupcakes. Nur die veganische Buttercreme ist nicht jedermanns Sache, es sei denn, sie ist stark gewuerzt, aber Nicht-Veganer koennen ja einfach Butter statt der Margarine benutzen.

Burnt Bread, Shin and Loving Husband - Verbranntes Brot, Bein und liebender Ehemann

This morning, opening the oven to rotate my baguettes my glasses fell from my nose onto the oven door. In order to retrieve them before they turned into a lump of melted plastic I tilted the pan with the baguettes, they dropped and one broke, of course. Picking up the breads in a haste, my shin hit the 500 degree hot oven door - the door won. Since the oven door was open so long, I thought I'd better give the breads an extra minute- they took it amiss and turned to charcoal.
That moment my dear loving husband came in and, being told what happened to me, only remarked : "You always have a tendency to bake stuff too brown"... David Sedaris was right when he pointed out where you can find sympathy - in the dictionary between "shit" and "syphilis"!
Als ich heute morgen den Ofen aufmachte, um meine Baguettes umzudrehen, fiel mir die Brille von der Nase auf die Ofentuer. Ich wollte sie aufheben, bevor sie sich in einen Klumpen geschmolzenes Plastik verwandelten, und hielt dabei das Blech mit den Baguettes so schief, dass sie herunterrutschten, wobei eins natuerlich zerbrach. Als ich die Brote in aller Eile aufsammelte, haute ich mit dem Schienbein gegen die 260 Grad heisse Ofentuer - die Tuer blieb Sieger. Weil die Ofentuer so lange aufstand, dachte ich, ich sollte den Broten lieber eine Extraminute Zeit geben - sie nahmen es uebel und verkohlten.
In diesem Augenblick kam mein liebender Ehemann dazu und meinte nur, als er erfuhr, was mir passiert war: "Du hast sowieso eine Neigung, immer alles zu braun zu backen"... David Sedaris hatte recht, als er darauf hinwies, wo man Sympathie finden kann - im Lexikon zwischen "Scheisse" und "Syphilis"!

GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE - SCHOKOLADEN-KOKOS-PECAN-TORTE

Photo: Big 4-layer cake


Filling (2-layer cake)
2 egg yolks
170 g/6 oz evaporated milk (Kondensmilch)
50 g/2 oz sugar
25 g/1 oz light brown sugar
40 g/3 tbsp. butter, cut into pieces
1 pinch salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
75 g/3.5 oz sweetened shredded coconut
90 g/3/4 cup pecans

Cake (2-layer-cake)
60 g/2 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
20 g/1/8 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
60 ml/1/4 cup boiling water
285 g/5 oz all-purpose flour (Weizenmehl Typ 405), or 250 g all-purpose and 35 g whole wheat flour
85 g (3/4 stick) butter, softened
100 g/ 3.5 oz sugar
65 g/ 1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
90 ml/3/8 cup sour cream (saure Sahne oder Creme fraiche)

For the filling:
Whisk yolks in medium sauce pan, gradually adding evaporated milk. Add sugars, butter, and salt and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until mixture is boiling, frothy, and slightly thickened (ca. 6 min). Remove from heat, whisk in vanilla, then stir in coconut. Cool, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. (Pecans are stirred in just before cake assembly.)

For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350 F/175 C. During preheating time toast pecans in oven until fragrant.

Combine chocolate and cocoa in small bowl, pour boiling water over and let stand to melt chocolate (ca. 2 min). Whisk until smooth, and let cool to room temperature.
Lightly grease 24 cm/9-inch springform or round baking pan. Line bottom with parchment paper. Grease paper, then dust pan with flour, and knock out excess. Sift flour and baking soda into medium bowl.

In bowl of stand mixer, beat butter, sugars, and salt at medium-low speed until sugar is moistened. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture is light and fluffy (ca. 4 min), scraping down bowl with rubber spatula halfway through. With mixer running at medium speed, add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down bowl halfway through. Beat in vanilla, increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy (45 sec).

With mixer running at low speed, add chocolate, then increase speed to medium and beat until combined (30 sec), scraping down bowl once (batter may appear broken). With mixer running at low speed, add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream (in 2 additions), and beating in each addition until barely combined. Add final flour addition, beat on low until just combined, then stir batter by hand with a rubber spatula, scraping bottom sides of bowl, to ensure that ingredients are evenly distributed. Transfer batter to prepared pan, spreading it evenly with rubber spatula.

Bake cake in lower-middle position in the oven until needle comes out clean (ca. 30 min). Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert cake onto greased wire rack, peel off and discard paper from bottom. Cool cake down before filling, at least 1 hour.

To assemble:
Chop toasted pecans and stir them into chilled filling. Cut cake horizontally in halves, and, with an icing spatula, distribute 1 cup filling evenly over each half, spreading filling to very edge of cake. Carefully place upper half on top of lower layer. Serve.

Comment:
This recipe is half of the original one. If you like a really, really big cake, double the recipe and divide batter in 2 springform or baking pans, so that you can make a 4-layer-cake (see photo).
I found the original "Cooks Illustrated" filling too sweet, so I reduced the amounts of sugar. (The original amounts were 100 g sugar and 50 g brown sugar for 1/2 recipe).

German Chocolate Cake or How to Feed an Army

German Chocolate Cake is about as German as Hamburgers are from Hamburg. This (very American) cake is fabulous, but could easily feed an army! The original (recipe from my beloved "Cooks Illustrated") is at least 5 inch high and very sweet. If you eat a 1/2 inch slice you are full for the day. So I modified it for normal everyday consumption, when you are not surrounded by a huge, ravenous family, but just want to enjoy a scrumptous desert with your significant other or some friends.

German Chocolate Cake ist ungefaehr so deutsch wie Hamburger aus Hamburg stammen. Diese (sehr amerikanische) Torte ist fabelhaft, aber davon wird eine Armee ohne weiteres satt! Das Original (Rezept aus meinem ueberaus geschaetzten "Cooks Illustrated") ist mindestens 12 cm hoch und sehr suess. Isst man davon ein 1 cm dickes Stueck, ist man den ganzen Tag ueber voll. Daher habe ich das Rezept fuer den Alltagsgebrauch modifiziert, wenn man nicht von einer vielkoepfigen, ausgehungerten Familie umgeben ist, sondern einfach nur ein leckeres Dessert mit seinem Liebsten oder ein paar Freunden geniessen will.