Pebernodder (Danish Peppernuts)

Our team members, present and past, went out for Christmas dinner to Red Spice Road last night.  It was great to catch up with our recently past team member and hear his news.

For the occasion, I made Pebernodder, or Danish Peppernuts.  They effectively are little spiced shortbreads.  Mine were only flavoured with cardamom as per this recipe.   I decided that the less spices there were, the less divisive the final product would be.

I had some leftover Pebernodder that I took into work, and people seemed to like them.  Someone even identified the cardamom, which was pretty impressive.

If you are looking for an easy Christmas gift that you can simply bake and put into a pretty jar or box, this Pebbernodder recipe is for you.

EwE - Spinach Salad with Mushrooms and Onion

For Eating with Ellie this week, Chaya selected Spinach Salad with Mushrooms and Red Onion.

I skipped the red onion and used brown onion instead.

I wasn't initially excited to be making this, but it was a pleasant side to go with last week's meatballs:

To see what the others thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

German Christmas Market Treats at Gewurzhaus

On Sunday, I attended a German Christmas Market Treats class led by Ina Low at Gewurzhaus with 13 other ladies.  My great grandparents were German, so I was particularly interested in this baking class.

Ina, our class leader, came to Australia from Germany more than 30 years ago:

She is a lovely lady and this class was lots of fun. 

To quench our thirst, we drank Gluhwein Sangria, made with Gluhwein that Ina brewed in class:

We also made two kinds of Weihnachtsplätzchen (Christmas cookies), as shown at the top of this post - cinnamon Kipferln (the crescent shaped shortbread biscuits) and Elisen Lebkuchen (chocolate covered gingerbread biscuits).

In addition, we made apfelstrudel which contained Speculaas crumbs, and served to us hot with vanilla custard on the side:

 
and a mini stollen (note the "swaddling" bump):

We all got to take home a box full of the goodies that we had made.

I enjoyed this class - Ina was friendly and informative, and there was a low stress level.  Because it was mostly demonstration with limited hands-on (shaping Kipferln, kneading stollen, scooping Lebkuchen), there was no fierce competition for equipment like there is at many baking classes. This was a relief.  I was happy to go with the flow and listen to Ina's stories as she showed us how to make these gorgeous German Christmas treats.

Gewurzhaus

543 Malvern Road
Toorak Victoria 3142
Australia
Ph: +61 3 9827 5736

Maple Spice Pound Cake

Today is Lucy Maud (LM) Montgomery's birthday.   You may know her better as the author of the Anne of Green Gables books.  LM Montgomery was Canadian, so to celebrate her birthday, I present you with a cake made with that very Canadian ingredient, maple syrup.

The recipe for this cake comes from Tutti Dolci, and is online here.

I made the cake in accordance with the recipe, but for the icing, which I made just using icing sugar, maple syrup and water (because it has better keeping qualities out of the fridge).

This cake was delicious - not too fancy, not too sweet.

TWD - Pear Raspberry Roll Up Tart

It is a sign of how distracted I have been by things going on that I forgot to post Tuesdays with Dorie this week.  I had made the dish, Pear Cranberry Roll Up Tart, a couple of weeks ago, but the posting day passed me by without it even twigging with me.

Accordingly, I now present my pear and raspberry roll up tart (fresh and frozen cranberries being unicorns in Australia) for your delectation:

It was really delicious - lovely pastry, fruity filling made with real fruit, not jam, sugar on top - what's not to love.  Pear and raspberry roll up tart, I am sorry that I forgot about you, honestly - you were delicious.

To see what the others thought of of this tart, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Adam Liaw's Bondi Meringue Pie

Recently, Adiam Liaw published a recipe in The Age for Bondi Meringue Pie.  I was immediately intrigued by the name of the pie  - what made it a Bondi pie?  Adam explains by saying that it is red and yellow like a lifesaver's cap, and the meringue on top resembles waves in the surf.  Perfect!

Effectively, this is a lemon meringue pie with an additional raspberry puree layer.  You can find the recipe online here.

It is as delicious as it looks.  

I don't have a blow torch, so knowing that I would need to crisp the meringue in the oven, I didn't chill the filling before adding the meringue on top.  This caused the still runny raspberry layer to spill over a bit when the meringue was placed on top, but this was neither here nor there for me.  And as foreshadowed, I browned the meringue in the oven for around 10 minutes rather than using a blowtorch.  (Also note that my meringue did not behave and fluff up as it should have - normally not a problem for me, but this time it was.) 

This pie is delicious - it got plenty of oohs and ahhs at work, and he taste matched the appearance.

Tips:

• Grease your pie tin before lining it with the dough.  (The recipe doesn't mention it, and not everyone might know!)

• To cut down on time, I rolled out the crust between two sheets of baking paper and put it in the pie plate without chilling the dough first.  I then put the crust in the freezer for 30 minutes before baking.

• Next time, I might try thickening the raspberry layer with a cornflour paste instead of gelatine - the gelatine was tricky to dissolve, and the raspberry layer didn't thicken well until after it had some time in the refrigerator.  This is especially important if you are going to brown your meringue in the oven.

EwE - Meatballs with Simple Marinara

This week's Eating with Ellie dish is Meatballs with Simple Marinara, chosen by Margaret.  I always thought that marinara implied seafood (there is none in this dish), and that a tomato sauce was Napoli, but hey, a rose by any other name ...

This was another surprise hit.  The meatballs/rissoles of my childhood or in a can were rather dry, nuggety things, but these meatballs were moist and delicious - presumably because of the addition of grated carrot and cooking them in the sauce.   They were flavourful and filling and I'd make them again.

I served my meatballs with the salad from next week:

To see what the others thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the Eating with Ellie website.