I stopped eating meat mainly because I was 14 and it seemed like a cool thing to do, but then found I didn’t miss it and haven’t really missed it  in the [redacted] years since. While I believe that it makes sense to reduce the number of animal products we use, I have never had much of a rationale for vegetarianism, and never felt much inclined towards being vegan. I’m way too lazy to monitor my diet that closely – living with three committed omnivores, I am okay with picking the sausage out of my favorite lentil soup. I’ll cook meat for everyone else, although they have to make their peace with the fact that I won’t taste it to check how it is. What about your family? Do you have a pescatarian in your midst? Or lurking lactose intolerance? How do you handle multiple dietary needs around the table?

So back to the subject of this post. Despite being happily ovo-lacto myself, my most beloved cake recipe is, by chance, vegan. It’s a Bundt cake and pretty much my stock answer to “what should your birthday cake be?” Although it’s extremely easy to make, it falls into the category of a special occasion cake so it’s not a one I make or eat too often, and that’s not right. When I started seeing cookies baked from cake mix around the internet, a little light  went off over my head. Could this be a way to get a dose of chocolate spice deliciousness whether it’s a birthday or not?

Indeed. Baked for ten minutes, these cookies are delightful puffy, pillowy little cakelets, gooey with chocolate chips and perked up with cinnamon and cloves. But try underbaking them by a minute or two, and you will get what I consider the ideal consistency, which is amazing, almost pudding-y. And  what with them being vegan and all, no worries about raw eggs – go ahead and eat a spoonful or two of the dough, you have my permission.

The canonical version of the cake does not include raisins, although they are in the recipe as written on an index card in my mother’s file. These are to be soaked in brandy or other liquid, and while I scornfully cast out the raisins, I do include that liquid; coffee (what else?) in our household. Feel free to booze it up if you have some handy.

Chocolate spice cookies

Since the original cake is by nature a bit heavy, I used some whole wheat flour in the cookies to give them some heft. You could use all all-purpose, but add the coffee/liquid gradually to see that the mixture doesn’t get too thin. It will thicken some if you refrigerate it for a few hours or overnight.

Ingredients

Makes about 3 dozen smallish cookies

• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¾ cup applesauce
• ⅓ cup canola oil
• ¼ cup brewed coffee, cooled (or brandy, or other liquid of your choice)
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a baking pan with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, spices, baking soda, salt and cornstarch. Add the sugars. Stir in the applesauce and oil, then add the coffee and mix until fully combined. The dough will be soft.
• Scoop the dough out in rounded teaspoons on the baking sheet.
• Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until just puffed – leave them to set for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before moving them to a plate to be gobbled immediately cool.

When I hear “banana bread”, what comes to mind is the bake-sale staple, a quick bread that is more like a cake, really. So when I was at the library a couple of weeks ago and thumbing through a Jamie Oliver cookbook while the kids selected their easy readers, I was intrigued by a recipe for a standard white bread made with banana puree.

Not, you understand, intrigued enough to actually check out the book (we were walking home and why are cookbooks always so HEAVY?) or even photocopy the page, but I did scribble down some notes. When I first made the dough, I was somewhat alarmed by the morbid purplish-gray color; maybe this is a recipe best enjoyed in low light. But you will enjoy it, because it’s wonderfully chewy, with a little extra sticky-sweet top from a brush with honey. The banana flavor asserts itself without being overpowering, and if you just happen to put a little pat of butter on one of the rolls that’s still warm from the oven? Well, no one would blame you for closing your eyes and just sighing happily.

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Banana bread rolls

Adapted from Jamie Oliver

Since I halved the original recipe, I had to tinker with the measurements a bit. Don’t worry if you have a bit more or less banana puree, just add the flour gradually when you get to that stage and stop adding when the dough firms up and is just a bit sticky.

Ingredients

Makes 14 rolls

• 3 bananas
• 1½ tsp instant yeast
• 2 tsp salt
•  3 Tbs honey
• 2½ cups flour
• about 1 Tbs honey for the glaze

Method

• Peel and puree the bananas in a blender or with an immersion mixer. You should have about 1½ cups of goo.
• In a large bowl, stir together the bananas, yeast and one cup of flour. Let it sit for about 15 minutes until the yeast starts to bubble a bit (it may be hard to tell since the mixture is quite thick).
• Stir in the salt and honey, then begin to add the flour half a cup at a time until the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Knead it for about 6-8 minutes on a lightly floured surface until it becomes smooth and just a bit sticky – you may need to knead in more flour as you go, depending on how large your bananas were.
• Form the dough into a ball and put it in a clean, oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set it aside in a warm spot to rise for two hours or until doubled. You can also put it in the fridge overnight at this stage.
• Grease a baking pan (I used a 9″ round cake pan which wasn’t quite big enough).
• Form the  dough into about 14 balls of equal size and place them in the pan with enough space between them to expand a bit. Cover and set aside for the second rise, about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the rolls look a little puffy.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and in a small bowl, mix about a tablespoon of honey with a splash of hot water to thin it out.
• Once they’ve risen, brush the rolls with the honey glaze and bake for ten minutes; brush the tops with the glaze again and continue to bake for ten more minutes. Bake a total of about 20-22 minutes or until the tops are nicely browned.

This isn’t my first waltz with gluten-free baking, but almost. I made some gluten-free cupcakes for a birthday party this summer, and let’s just say that even before I burned them they weren’t exactly winners. It’s a pretty different ball game, this gluten-free stuff. (What, how long do you expect me to sustain a single metaphor?)

We have friends who can’t have gluten, which has given me a bit of a push towards trying some of the rapidly-multiplying gluten-free recipes out there. And really, we have dinners that don’t include gluten fairly often without even trying. But baking, not so much. There are so many interesting flours available right now, though, that it’s fun to incorporate them even where health concerns aren’t an issue. They have interesting flavors and textures of their own that may not be exactly like the usual wheat flour-based ones, but are delicious in their own right.

I realize that if you are a Central European reader, you may not have access to as many of these ingredients, at least not easily. But even before we moved, I was amazed to see that bigger “bio” stores were stocking a much wider range of grains, flours and other staples than I’d seen before, not to mention the number of packaged gluten-free products. So take a look around, you may strike it rich – it’s a good time to be gluten free!

This particular recipe is adapted from an applesauce cake on the Healthy Seasonal Recipes blog. My ears pricked up at the words “snack cake”, because, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of all kinds of muffins, quick breads and their ilk. This one didn’t disappoint – it’s not too sweet, moist, and has an almost puddingy texture. What with autumn arriving, I thought the apple original might lend itself to a pumpkin version, so I set about tweaking the recipe for an October weekend, swapping pumpkin for apple, using maple syrup rather than honey, adding some cornmeal, and to reassure the kids that it really is cake, some mini chocolate chips. The result: excellent. Just what’s called for on an afternoon where the wind is picking up, the clouds are moving in, and you’re ready for a cozy and easy baking project. To return to my original metaphor, you’ll want to add it to your dance card.

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Gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cake
Adapted from Healthy Seasonal Recipes

The chocolate chips here are optional, but awfully nice. Mini ones work best, since the cake has a fine crumb that might not hold together so well with larger chunks of chocolate. Make sure you use a more fine-ground cornmeal, polenta for example is too gritty in this context.

Ingredients

Makes about 8-10 generous slices of cake

• 2 cups cooked pumpkin, canned or fresh
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup maple syrup
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1½ cups brown rice flour
• ½ cup fine-ground cornmeal
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• ¾ tsp pumpkin pie spice
• ¾ tsp salt
• generous ½ cup mini chocolate chips

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C and grease a Bundt pan.
• In a blender or tall measuring cup, combine pumpkin, eggs, oil, maple syrup, and brown sugar. Use an immersion blender or, you know, a blender to thoroughly combine.
• In a large bowl, whisk together rice flour, cornmeal, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt.
• Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until combined; stir in chocolate chips.
• Scrape into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched.
• Cool in the pan for five minutes before turning cake out onto a rack to cool. Allow it to cool completely (or as long as you can wait) before slicing.

 

How do you try out a new recipe? Do you follow it to the letter, or are you a tinkerer? For years, I didn’t cook often enough to feel confident deviating from the written word; the recipe was law unto the kitchen. But after being forced to improvise when I was living in a rented apartment in the Balkans without cookbooks or measuring cups, I got used to following my own instincts over the stovetop. It helps that I was mainly cooking for myself, and I kept the bar pretty low; Valerian or anyone else daring enough to join me generally wasn’t familiar with what I was trying to do, and didn’t know any better if something came out wrong.

And now? Now I can’t just follow a recipe – I have to tinker with it, either because I have to (lack of required ingredients/tools/skill) or because I want to (impulsive! Picky!).

I can’t remember how I came across this post about Isabelle’s braided hazelnut bread, but when I saw the photo, I immediately wanted to give it a try. So I did. Immediately. I barely looked at the actual recipe, because what really caught my eye was the beautiful effect with the layers of dough and filling. I threw together a slightly-sweet dough, easy-peasy, and we even had some leftover walnut and poppyseed fillings stashed in the freezer.

And then… problems. Getting the baking time right took a little experimentation – the first time I made it, the oven was too hot and the top got a lot browner than I wanted. Even baking at 350° seemed a little hot on the second time around. I got the best results with a cooler oven, then raising the temperature to get the top edges just nicely browned without drying out the center. I ran out of the frozen filling and had to make my own,even.  Oddly, no one complained about having a lot of not-quite-perfect pastry-ish bread to sample.

The technique for getting the fancy layers is simple, but you have to be careful as you twist the floppy, juicy strands. Once you’ve rolled up the dough into a nice compact log:

I recommend transferring it to the baking pan before cutting the center splice:

Then gently cross the two strands over each other to create the twist:

So, will you give this recipe a try? Or just improvise? Because you know, you’ve got to have a slice of this beauty.

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Brunch Twist
adapted from Our Kitchen

Any of the fillings we’ve posted earlier would be great in this bread, I think, but the walnut one I used here was luscious.

Ingredients

Makes one fairly large loaf

• ¾ cup milk
• 1½ tsp instant yeast
• ¾ tsp salt
• 3 tbs vegetable oil
• 2 tbs sugar
• 2¼ cups flour
• Filling of your choice: try one from here, or use jam, or cheese for a savory option. You’ll need about a cup of whatever you’re using.
• glaze: ¼ cup powdered sugar whisked together with the juice of one lemon

Method

• Make a sponge: warm the milk to just below boiling, then set aside to cool to lukewarm. In the meantime, in the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the yeast and half a cup of flour. Stir in the milk and leave until puffy, about 15 minutes.
• Stir in the salt, sugar, and oil, then begin adding the flour. You may not need the last quarter-cup; the dough should be rather soft, but not sticky. Using the bread hook attachment on your mixer, or with your hands, knead until silky and smooth.
• Place in a greased bowl, cover and allow to rise until doubled, about 2 hours. You can also leave it in the fridge overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 350° F/180° C, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Turn out the dough onto a lightly-floured surface. With your hands, gently pat it into a rectangle – this will help it keep its shape as you roll it out. Roll the dough out as thin as you can, turning several times to be sure it isn’t sticking to the work surface; you should end up with a rectangle about 18×24″ (30×45 cm). If you’re having trouble getting it to an even thinness, let it rest for a minute or two then roll some more.
• Spread the dough with your choice of filling, leaving about a 1″ lip along the edge.
• Roll up the dough along the short edge, finishing with the seam on top. Press gently to seal, then move the roll to the baking sheet. Using a sharp knife, cut all the way through the roll lengthwise, leaving about 2″ (5 cm) at one end uncut.
• Handling the dough very gently,  and keeping the cut edge up, lay one strand of the bread over the other, alternating so you have a twist shape. Tuck the end under for a neater appearance.
• Bake for 20 minutes; raise the oven temperature to 375° (180°C) and bake for an additional 7-10 minutes or until the top begins to brown.
• Allow to cool on a rack for 10-15 minutes before brushing the glaze over the top. If you can, wait another few minutes before you slice and serve.

 

Have we mentioned that Valerian is a coffee freak geek? That we have about five different coffee-making apparatuses in our kitchen, not to mention a microwave-size roaster in the garage? If you follow EC on Facebook, you’ve surely figured it out from Valerian’s profile pictures; coffee looms large around here.

Aside from, you know, drinking it, we work coffee into a lot of our cooking (check the sloppy joe recipe, for example). A trick I learned on the internet to give chocolate cakes a more intense flavor is to “bloom” cocoa powder in warm liquid before adding it to the other ingredients, and coffee is an ideal medium. It gives the chocolate an extra boost and complements it with its own rich notes. If you’re not a fan of the taste of coffee—and I know you people exist, I’m even friends with some of you—you can dilute the coffee with warm water and still get the same effect without any noticeable coffee flavor.

This dessert borrows from two delicious traditions. There’s the Hungarian Somlói galuska, something like a trifle that kind of knocks you out with its combination of cake, rum, chocolate sauce, custard sauce and whipped cream. The simpler Italian affogato is usually just ice cream with hot espresso poured over. This spring was so chilly and grim, ice cream season seemed distant for far too long; the combination of hot coffee, cold ice cream and crumbled cake just works. Whether it’s cold or hot outside, you can cozy up to this baby any time.

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Chocolate-Coffee Cupcake Parfait

Here’s a recipe for a scaled-down chocolate cake, six cupcakes’ worth to crumble over ice cream and douse with espresso. The coffee flavor is pretty assertive in this one, which is as much a quickbread recipe as it is cupcake. I like the cake a little dense, the better to hold its own against the melting ice cream and coffee. If for some obscure reason you have cake left over from something else, just use that – it will be fabulous, I promise.

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 1 cup flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ salt
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup freshly-brewed coffee
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 2 Tbs vegetable oil
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1 pint good-quality vanilla (or your preferred flavor) ice cream
• 3 cups freshly-brewed coffee or 6 shots espresso

Method

• To make the cupcakes, preheat the over to 350° F/190 C. Grease 6 cupcake cups.
• In cup, whisk together the ¼-cup coffee and cocoa powder. Set aside to cool.
• Meanwhile, stir together the flour, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, and the egg.
• Pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients, and add the cocoa/coffee mixture. Blend with a few swift strokes until combined; do not overmix.
• Fill muffin cups about ¾ of the way full; bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove cupcakes to a rack to cool completely.
• To serve, tear each cupcake into chunks. Layer the cake with scoops of ice cream in individual bowls, and give each lucky diner half a cup of coffee or an espresso shot to pour over the top of parfait once served.

 

Last weekend I came across a competition on Chow for the best original muffin recipe. Now, I love muffins, quickbreads, that whole kind of snack/brunch category is right up my alley. (Remember pancakes, anyone?) But I don’t have a favorite recipe, I usually just throw together what’s at hand along the lines of a basic muffin recipe and enjoy the results, so I don’t know why I was seized with the competitive spirit and determined to enter the contest.

We buy a loaf of Struan bread almost every week – it’s just a prepacked sliced loaf made by Brother Juniper’s Bakery, perfect for morning toast or lunchbox sandwiches. A couple of times I’ve made my own, following Peter Reinhardt’s version in Artisan Breads Every Day, and it’s delicious, but it’s hard to make the timing work to end up with a nice fresh loaf at breakfast, which is when I would like it most. But muffins, those can be whipped up in a few minutes and out of the oven in just a few more, and aha! I had my original muffin recipe.

Granted, dashing off a new combination the day before the contest closed doesn’t quite live up to the “favorite muffin recipe” challenge, so maybe it’s no surprise it didn’t make the finals. I have to say, though, this is a sleeper. On its own, it’s basic without being plain: the texture from the oats, cornmeal and rice give it a fabulous crumb, and there’s something almost savory about it, past the sweetness of the honey and brown sugar. With a jam center, though, you have a surprise finale, and I think you wouldn’t go wrong tossing in some fruit or nuts as well. I may not have gotten to the second round of the contest, but a new and delicious recipe is no loss!

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Struan Muffins

Yes, this recipe calls for cooked brown rice. White rice is fine! Next time you make rice (or even get some with your takeout), just put a couple of spoonfuls in a bag and freeze it, then you’re ready to bake any time.

Ingredients

Makes 12 muffins

• 1¼ cups flour
• cup rolled oats (not quick cooking)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon cornmeal
• 2 tablespoons cooked brown rice
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
• ¼ cup jam (optional)

Method

• Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.
• Whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cornmeal, cooked rice, and brown sugar in a medium bowl.
• In a large measuring cup, beat together the buttermilk, oil, eggs and honey until well mixed. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and allow to sit for about 1 minute for ingredients to hydrate.
• Spoon into prepared muffin pan. For jam centers, spoon about 1 tablespoon of the batter into each muffin cup and drop a teaspoon of jam on top, then cover with the remaining batter. Sprinkle the tops with poppy seeds.
• Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring the muffins to a rack to cool completely.

I have been reading about Kim Boyce’s cookbook Good to the Grain for a few months now, and lo and behold, I got my very own copy for my birthday this past week. The concept behind these recipes is baking with whole grain flours not (only) for health reasons, but to enjoy the specific flavors each grain brings. I’m sold!

The first recipe I aimed to try was the one for scones with a layer of jam in them — perfect Saturday breakfast fare. Alas, my stop at the grocery store yesterday didn’t yield barley flour, only flakes, but if there’s anything I learned from living outside the US, it’s not to let a pesky lack of ingredients stop me from making something delicious. I bought the flakes with the intention to process them to a flour at home.

I made a few other changes to the recipe as written, mainly because, well, frankly I am lazy. Boyce directs you to cut up cold butter into small cubes and work them into the dry ingredients with your fingers. I grated the butter straight from the fridge into the dry ingredients and then rubbed it into the flours. I didn’t feel like opening two sticks of butter, so I just used 6 tablespoons in the scone dough itself, and reserved two to melt for the topping. I was perfectly satisfied with the richness so I don’t think you’ll miss the tiny bit of extra butter.

However, the scones did spread rather more than would be ideal and ended up rather thin, and I suspect that the coarseness of the ground barley flakes was an issue. Pulsing the flakes in our little food processor didn’t make a uniform, fine flour, and probably I should have compensated by adding a little extra measure. The scones were light and tender in any case, and I really liked the little extra texture the uneven grind of the barley added. Boyce says the dough will be sticky, and it was; I struggled a bit to get the unbaked scones onto the baking sheet. However, with a sheet of baking parchment under them, after baking they lifted off without a crumb left behind, even where the jam oozed out and made some tempting caramelized puddles. With a cup of coffee, these really were the ideal weekend breakfast.

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Strawberry Barley Scones, adapted from Kim Boyce’s Good to the Grain

I used low-sugar strawberry jam from (where else) Trader Joe’s; Boyce includes a recipe for making your own jam, but that’s for another time.

Ingredients

Makes 8 scones

• 1 cup plus 2 Tbs/150 g barley flour (add an extra tablespoonful if you grind your own flour from barley flakes)
• 1 cup/100 g all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup/50 g brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1¼ tsp kosher salt
• 8 Tbs (113 grams) cold butter, divided
• ½ cup/235 ml buttermilk
• 1 egg
• ½ cup/8 Tbs strawberry jam
• 1 Tbs granulated sugar

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350°F/190° C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, brown sugar, baking powder and soda, and salt, breaking up any lumps.
• Grate about 6 tbs of butter into the dry ingredients; melt the remaining 2 tbs and set aside to cool.
• Working quickly with your fingers, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until you have a mixture of small to medium lumps of butter well-coated with the flour. Do not overwork the mixture, you don’t want the butter to get too warm.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and egg. Pour this mixture into the dry mixture and mix until just combined. The dough will be sticky.
• Turn out the dough onto a well-floured surface. Divide the dough in half, and pat one half into a circle about ¾” thick and 7″ across. Spread the jam across the top. Pat out the other half of the dough into a circle the same size (make sure there is plenty of flour on the work surface) and place it on top of the jam layer, pressing down slightly.
• Cut the dough into 8 wedges using a knife or bench scraper, and (very) carefully place them onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving a good inch or so of space between them.
• Brush each wedge with the melted butter, and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are starting to brown.

Here is the promised third Czech Christmas Cookie. You can find a similar recipe in the December issue of Sauveur magazine, although they call it an Austrian cookie, which raised my blood pressure. Luckily there are bloggers out there who will correct these mistakes.

Anyway, these cookies have a deep walnut flavor, buttery richness, and are amazingly tender. That is what makes them my favorite. Beware – you can  eat an awful lot of these before you know it. They’re that good.

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Vanilla Crescent Cookies – Vanilkové rohlíčky

Ingredients

Makes about 60 cookies.

• 1 cup walnuts
• 2 cups flour
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 stick of butter

Method

• In a food processor, grind the walnuts until they form a crumbly paste.
• In a large bowl (of a stand mixer if you have one), combine the ground walnuts and the other ingredients. With the paddle attachment, or with your fingers, blend until a smooth dough comes together.
• Form the dough into a ball, then shape it into a disc and put it into the fridge for 30 min to rest.
• Preheat the oven to 350° F/190° C.
• Cut the dough into ½” strips, roll them into a rough log shape and then cut those into ½” slices.
• Roll the small slices and then curl them to make a crescent shape.
• Place them on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper and bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until the edges are just beginning to brown.
• Let them cool and dust with powdered sugar to serve. Enjoy.

There are a few differences between the Christmas season in Central Europe and how most families celebrate in the USA. The major one would be that the presents are brought by the baby Jesus, and not by Santa.  During the dark Orwellian times, the fashion from the Soviet Union was to bring in “Ded Maroz” (Father Frost), which was the comrades’ version of Santa. It did not work for many reasons, one being that December 6 in Central Europe is Saint Nicholas day, when kids eat themselves sick on candies brought by Saint Nick. For kids it was very hard to understand why would a man in red suit and beard coma back at Christmas and bring toys. Why he wouldn’t he drop off the candies and toys all at once? We needed another character.  So the concept of baby Jesus survived.

One thing we did after St. Nicholas (Mikulas) day was to start baking Christmas cookies. My mum used to make 4 batches of 6-7 different types of cookies. Emperor’s Crumbs will bring you my top three, starting with “Bear Paws” today. It has always been the tradition that everyone pitches in to make the cookies; while filling the molds with bear paw dough,  my brothers and I had to sing. This way my mum was sure that we were not eating the dough (which is pretty good, maybe even better than the cookies!).

Here is our family recipe and a video tutorial as well. The video stars my mum, who has been making these cookies for more than 60 years now. Some of the molds we used have been in our family for almost 200 years.

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Bear Paws – Medvedie Tlapky

This is a rich, soft dough that can be handled quite a bit without getting tough – so it’s perfect for working with kids (also, no raw eggs to worry about if someone happens to nibble the dough). While we are lucky enough to have vintage molds, we got equally good results from a brand new cookie pan like this one. Traditionally, these cookies are allowed to sit and soften for a week or more before they’re considered ready to eat, but we’ve never had a problem gobbling them up as soon as they’re cool enough to touch.
Ingredients

Makes one good batch for a big family and more.

• 1 cup walnuts
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• pinch salt
• 1 cup +2 tbs softened butter, in small pieces

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350° F/190° C. If your cookie molds are unseasoned or not non-stick, lightly oil them.
• In a food processor, grind the walnuts until they form a crumbly paste.
• In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
• With the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, or with your fingers, blend the butter into the dry ingredients until a smooth dough comes together.
• Form the dough into a ball and gently knead it a few times.
• Pinch off a small quantity of dough and press a thin layer into your cookie mold. It should just cover the bottom and sides of the mold.
• If you are using individual molds, place  them on a baking sheet; bake for 8-10 minutes, watching carefully that the edges of the cookies don’t burn.
• Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes before gently sliding them out of the forms.

This is the kind of thing you throw together when your fruit trees are producing more than you can manage, or if you’ve gone a little crazy at the farmers’ market. Back in Slovakia we have an orchard of nearly 30 little fruit trees, but here in California we have just one rather bedraggled nectarine tree. It miraculously produced about 8 or 10 nectarines,

but then something took a single bite out of most of them, leaving only  a few untouched. Sigh. It’s  funny that here in the suburbs we have more trouble with wildlife than we did in the wide open spaces of Central Europe.

ANYWAY. Pair a not-too-sweet cake with your favorite fruit and you’ve got bublanina, a Czechoslovak summer classic (although I’ve been known to make it with canned fruit for a taste of sunshine any time). This is a very simple recipe, and infinitely flexible – try adding a little lemon zest, or a swirl of jam, or anything that takes your fancy.

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Bublanina – fruity snack cake

Almost any kind of soft fruit works here; we usually stick with stone fruit such as plums, peaches, or cherries; berries also work, although they will kind of melt into the cake. Apples and pears may not cook through in the short time it takes to bake the cake itself. I like to sprinkle a couple teaspoons of demerara or other coarse sugar over the top before baking for a little crunch.

Ingredients

Makes one 9×13″ rectangular cake, or two 8″ rounds

• 6 Tbs/85 g butter
• 1 rounded cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2½ C flour
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• About 1 cup fruit, cut into chunks

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/180 C. Grease and flour a 9×13″ pan and set it aside.
• Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, and beat until fluffly, about 2 minutes.
• Stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing gently until just combined. Don’t overmix or the cake will be tough – the batter will be quite stiff and doughy.
• Gently spread the batter into the prepared pan, and then press the fruit into the surface. Be generous, the batter expands quite a lot so you can use more fruit than you think.
• Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and the top springs back when touched. Slice and serve.

With our respective families 6000 miles apart, one thing Valerian and I have done together a lot is travel. And with two kids added to the mix now, we arm ourselves seriously when we head out to the airport: books, toys, changes of clothes, and of course, snacks. Lots and lots of snacks. When your kids start to get squirrely, sometimes a treat that would normally be off-limits is just what you need to get through the last hours of a 14-hour flight.

Some of the other things we’ve stashed in our carry-ons to amuse the small fry have included a small notebook and the cheapest set of coloring pens I could find; a set of trading cards; a box of band-aids for peeling and sticking at will, as well as other stickers; sets of little animals, preferably packaged in a plastic tube (often putting things in the tube is the best part of these toys); finger puppets; a magnadoodle.

As far as snacks go, I do nod towards healthy stuff like mini carrots, crackers, string cheese, etc. But really, when you’re looking for distraction as much as nutrition, this might be the time to bust out the Dora the Explorer shaped fruit snax, or whatever. The following recipe is a bit of both – I put in plenty of dried fruit and even chocolate chips, but by making it yourself you can avoid the high-fructose corn syrup and artificial colors.

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On the go Bars

This recipe is pretty flexible – you could swap in ingredients like whole wheat flour, or add some soy flour for protein, use different fruit, nuts, other seeds, use maple syrup instead of honey, add a little cinnamon or ginger powder, and so on. The mixture needs to hold together when you press it into the pan, so chop larger pieces of fruit or nuts, and add a little more liquid if mixture seems very crumbly. Even pretty small kids can help make it, too – mixing with fingers and patting it into the pan can be a fun activity between rushing around getting your bags packed.

Ingredients

Makes about 36 bars

• 1¾ C/200 g rolled oats
• 1 C/150 g flour
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 2/3 C/155 g brown sugar
• 1/3 c/50 g pumpkin seeds
• 1 C/135 g dried fuit (I use apricots, prunes, dried cherries)
• ½ C/100 g chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
• ½ C/118 ml vegetable oil
• 1 Tbs honey
• 2 Tbs water or juice

Method

• Line the bottom of a 9×13″ pan with baking paper or foil to make it easier to remove the bars. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (170 C).
• In a large bowl, mix together the first 7 ingredients (the dry ones) with your fingers until everything is evenly distributed. Stir in the oil, honey, and water.
• Dump the mixture into the prepared pan and press it together firmly to form a layer about ½” (1 cm) thick. Bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly browned, then allow to cool in the pan before slicing into bars.

Given the contents of this blog, it might surprise you to learn that in fact we try to eat sensibly during the week and reserve our most decadent dining for the weekends. This recipe definitely falls into the category of indulgence. When I was living in New York, I discovered chocolate babka at Zabar’s, which is pretty much the Platonic ideal of bread + chocolate. Or at least my ideal. While it most definitely originates in Central Europe, I haven’t seen babka in a bakery there (the fact that there aren’t many Jewish people left to bake it being the obvious reason). We have tried a variety of similar things with different names, all good but not quite babka.

Valerian got me Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day for my birthday this year and I just recently got around to trying to bake a loaf of my own babka from there. It turned out better than I could have hoped, and it certainly didn’t survive the weekend. Perfect with a cup of coffee, this is a treat that is worth the calories.

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Chocolate babka from “Artisan Breads Every Day”

If you want to have this for brunch, make the dough the day (morning) before you want to serve it, let it rise, then shape the loaf in the evening and put it in the refrigerator overnight to bake the next morning. Reinhart advises freezing the chocolate for the filling to make it easier to grind; I found the main thing was not to overload our mini food processor, but to grind the chocolate in batches.

Ingredients

Makes one loaf

• 2 Tbs instant yeast
• ¾ cup milk, warmed
• 6 Tbs/85 g melted butter
• 6 Tbs/85 g sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 egg yolks, plus one egg for the wash
• 3 1/3 cups/425 g flour (all-purpose or bread flour)
• 1½ tsp salt

For the filling:

• 1½ cups/255 g frozen semisweet chocolate (chips, chunks, or chopped)
• ¾ tsp cinnamon (more if you like)
• ¼ cup/57 g cold butter, cut into small pieces

For the streusel topping:

• ¼ cup/57 g cold butter, cut into small pieces
• ½ cup/65 g flour
• ½ cup/113 g brown sugar
• pinch salt

Method
• Make the dough: dissolve the yeast in the warm milk and set it aside for about 5 minutes.
• Cream the butter and sugar. Add the 4 egg yolks one at a time, mixing to incorporate each one. Add the vanilla. Continue mixing until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
• Add the flour and salt, then the milk mixture. Keep mixing until you have a soft dough, then turn out the dough and knead it for 2-3 minutes until the dough is smooth and satiny. Form the dough into a ball and put it in an oiled bowl to rise for about 2½ hours. (I accidentally left mine much longer and it grew enormously but was fine.)
• While the dough rises, make the filling.
• Grind the chocolate to a powder, pulsing in a food processor or by chopping it as finely as you can. Add the cinnamon, then cut in the butter until you have a crumbly texture.
• Once the dough has risen, roll it out into a square about 15″x15″ (38×38 cm) on a floured surface; be careful to keep lifting the dough to ensure it doesn’t stick. Sprinkly the filling mixture evenly over the dough.
• Oil a 5×9″ (large) loaf pan.
• Roll up the dough square like a jelly roll, pinch the long seam closed and roll it to the underside of the log. Gently rock the log back and forth to lengthen it out to about 18-24″ (45-60 cm). Coil the roll up like a snail, the turn in on its side so it really looks like a snail – then smoosh it down so that it more or less fits inside the loaf pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap.
• Let the dough rise at room temperature for 2-3 hours, until the babka fills the pan or has increased to about 1½ times its size. At this point you can either bake it or put it in the fridge overnight. Let it sit out at room temp for about 2 hours before baking if you do refrigerate.
• When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C).
• Make the streusel – in a food processor or with a pastry blender (or even a fork) cut together the cold butter, flour, sugar and salt until you have small crumbs. Make an egg wash by beating together the whole egg and a tablespoon of water, brush it over the top of the babka and sprinkle the streusel over that.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotate the pan and bake for another 25 minutes or until the top is a dark brown. If you have a thermometer, the internal temperature will be around 185 F (85 C) when it’s done.
• Let the loaf cool before you try to slice it so the chocolate has time to set somewhat. Yum!

Along with those of his great-aunts, Katicza and Agota Gyurkovics (pictured above),  he has a few recipes by a magnificent woman Countess Marica Ordody, whose godfather was Kossuth Ferencz (son of Kossuth Lajos) and some from his mother Valeria. We will post some of these recipes. The very first one I wanted to try my grandma’s recipe for Linzer bars. I love linzer and my dad always asked my mum to make linzer like his mum used to make. So I was curious about two things.

1. How does my grandmother’s  linzer taste, obviously.

2. Would my dad recognize the taste and would he mention that “this is like my mother used to make it” or is he just cruel to my mum and he wants to make her something that does not exist.

Grandma

The test won in the 1st case but lost in the 2nd. I loved this Hungarian linzer. It is very easy to make and tastes great! After feeding crumbs to my dad (it is a small recipe… not too much left) he did not instantly recognize it as a miracle from the past though. When I told him that it is my grandmother’s recipe he said… oh yeah that’s right…that’s how my mum used to make it. So, some success but I was expecting more. After this I had a third question: why did’t he show the recipe to my mum, because if she knew it is so easy she would have been delighted.

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Linzer Bars/Cake/Cookies

This is a small recipe so do not make it as your main dish.

Ingredients

Makes 4-5 portions.

• 1 stick/113 grams butter
• 1¼ cup/240 grams sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 2.2 ounces/60 grams crushed almonds
• 3/4 cup + 2tbs/100 grams flour
• small jar of you favorite jam (I used cherry)
• a few blanched almonds for decoration

Method

• Work the flour, butter, sugar, egg yolks, and crushed almonds into a dough.
• Roll them 1/2 inch/2 cm thick into your desired shape: it can be one big square, one big circle or small circles. This might be a bit tricky with the rolling pin because the dough is very fragile and may fall apart. I used my fingers and pressed it into shape. Reserve a little bit of dough to make shapes on the top of the linzer. I made a lattice. Or tried to  — as I mentioned, the dough was very fragile.
• Spread the jam over it, and add a dough design if you choose. Place blanched almonds on top for decoration.
• The recipe says you should bake them in a very hot oven. So I tried 350 F (180 C). I baked them for 25 minutes, but I think 30 minutes or a higher temperature might work better. The dough under the jam was slightly undercooked.
• When the sides and the lattice are getting golden, take out the linzer and let it cool.
• Do not touch! Let it cool completely. And enjoy.

Valerian got a funny Slovak cookbook a few years ago, Z Kuchyne starého Prešporka (from the kitchen of old Pressburg) by Peter Ševčovič. Pressburg is the German name for Bratislava, and the book is full of quirky cooking advice from the Bratislava of yesterday, collected from average and not-so-average people, since there are some recipes for living on the street, including how to cook pigeons and alley cats. I’ve skipped right over those to a recipe for a Slovak favorite, even today: vianočka, a kind of sweet braided bread.

The name vianočka means “Christmassy” but in fact this bread is an everyday item, something you pick up at the grocery store. Our kids are especially fond of an Austrian brand that we refer to as “squishy bread” because it’s packed full of artificial preservatives to keep it soft for for all eternity. When baking at home of course, we stick to natural ingredients!

The vianočka available these days is usually sweet and has a hint of lemon flavor. This old recipe from the book makes a rich, spicy loaf, delicious sliced and toasted or with jam.

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Vianočka- braided sweet bread, adapted from Z Kuchyne starého Prešporka

The dough had a strange texture after the first rise; if you leave it to rise overnight in the fridge, give it plenty of time to warm up the next day before you start to work with it for best results.

Ingredients

Makes one large loaf

• 1 star anise
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 vanilla bean
• zest of one lemon
• 5½ cups/550 grams flour
• 1 packet instant yeast
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 6 Tbs/80 grams sugar
• scant 1¼ cup/250 ml milk
• 4 oz/100 grams butter
• 2 egg yolks
• ½ cup/40 grams raisins

For topping

• One egg yolk beaten with about a teaspoon of water
• ¼ cup/20 grams slivered almonds (optional)

Method

• Using a mortar and pestle, pound the star anise, cloves, and vanilla pod to a fine powdery paste.
• In a small saucepan, heat the milk and butter together in a small pan, until just below boiling. Turn off the heat and add the spices. Set aside to cool.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, and lemon zest. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk mixture. Add the two egg yolks. Mix well until a soft dough forms; add the raisins and mix until incorporated.
• Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and knead until it is soft and shiny, about 5 minutes. Place the dough in a clean bowl, cover the bowl with plastic and allow the dough to rise until doubled, about 2 hours. You can also put it in the refrigerator overnight.
• Divide the dough in half. Divide one half into four equal-sized pieces. Divide the other half in half again, then divide one of those pieces into thirds, the other in two. You will have nine pieces of dough in three groups of descending size.
• Roll each piece of dough into a rope; all the ropes should be of equal length, but fatter or skinnier depending on the size of the piece.
• Make a four-strand braid with the four biggest pieces. Make a three-strand braid with the medium pieces, and place it on top of the first braid. Twist the two smallest ropes together, and stack them on top of the two other braids. You may want to stick a toothpick at each end to pin the braids all together (I didn’t and the top kind of slid over).
• Place the loaf on a greased baking sheet and cover with a cloth. Allow to rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/190 C.
• Brush the loaf with the egg wash. Sprinkle the almonds over the top, if desired.
• Bake for 50-55 minutes. If the top starts to get too dark, cover the browned parts with a piece of foil.
• Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Töki pompos is the Hungarian name for this specialty, and once I got my hands on a piece I understood why fair-goers waited in the icy wind for their own slice. Soft dough with an artery-busting topping of sour cream, onions, bacon and cheese is just what you need to fortify yourself for braving the crowds at the vásár. Even if you don’t make it to the fair, this is easy to make at home, although you might need to open a window and let in some fresh air to really recreate the atmosphere.

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Oven-baked lángos (Töki pompos)

Since I’m not a porkophile, I leave the bacon off my piece, and just go a little heavier on the smoked cheese. If you don’t feel like making dough yourself, prepared pizza dough will work in a pinch.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 8 oz/220 grams floury potatoes (about 1 large potato)
• 2½ cups/320 grams flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup/160 ml water, reserved from cooking the potatoes

For the topping

• 1 cup/200 grams sour cream
• 2 large cloves garlic
• 4 oz/110 grams thick-cut bacon, cubed (optional)
• 1 large purple onion, thinly sliced
• 4 oz/110 grams smoked cheese, grated

Method

• Peel and roughly chop the potato; cook in a pot of boiling water until pieces are easily pierced with a fork, about 10 minutes.
• Drain, reserving 2/3 cup of the cooking water. Set the water aside to cool, and mash the potatoes.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, yeast, and salt.
• Stir the mashed potatoes and water into the dry ingredients, and mix until the dough comes together. Knead the dough for 4-5 minutes until it is smooth and a bit sticky.
• Place the dough in a clean bowl, cover with plastic and leave it to rise for about 2 hours or until doubled.
• When the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, 200 C.
• On a well-oiled baking sheet, roll or pat out the dough to about ½ inch (2 cm) thick, then bake for 8-10 minutes or until it is just beginning to turn golden. Set aside to cool.
• While the dough is baking and cooling, prepare your toppings. Chop the bacon, slice the onions, grate the cheese. Put the garlic through a press or use a microplane, and mix it into the sour cream.
• When the dough is cool enough to touch, spread on the sour cream, then sprinkle the onions and bacon evenly over the top. Sprinkle the cheese over it all.
• Return to the oven to bake another 10-12 minutes until the cheese has browned and the bacon is cooked.
• Slice and serve.