kváskový chléb

Konečně má moje existence trochu smysl, začala jsem péct kváskový chleba. Už před  delším časem jsem se o to pokoušela - před několika lety jsme od přátel dostali žitný kvásek a rady, jak na to. Ale nedařilo se, chléb nevykynul, byl uvnitř mokrý... Pak nám kvásek v lednici nějak překypěl a vytekl,  a ztratila jsem s celou věcí trpělivost.
Teď jsem po několika letech dostala od kamarádky kvásek znova. A ochutnala její moc dobrý chleba. Neměl vůbec tvrdou kůrku (která mě odrazovala na chlebu, který jsem jedla u přátel), a taky návod vypadal dost jednoduše. Odpovídá zhruba tomuhle receptu. A tak jsem to zkusila znova. Jako jediný problém vypadalo dlouhé kynutí - kyne se dvakrát a poprvé 12-16 hodin. Co s tím? U nás doma je totiž skoro pořád zima. Vyřešili jsme to svíčkou a je to úplně geniální. Chci kynout těsto, zapálím svíčku v lampě a tradá. Díky za lampu, Jani :).

Jo, a taky budou mít na jaře výstavu! 18. května. Bližší info bude časem. Už se moc těším. Obrazů bude asi jen pár a malých, ale nějaké nové se tam najdou :).

roztahovací chleba

Pekla jsem teď takovouhle zvláštnost: pull-apart bread (ale je to ve skutečnosti sladká buchta). Našla jsem to na neskutečném blogu The Pioneer woman. Kupodivu i s "malými pomocníčky" se mi podařilo tohle dílo nějak dokončit a upéct. Celkem se po tom zaprášilo. Trochu jsem si to celé upravila, abych na to našla čas i ingredience. Cukroví mám už asi všechno upečené (moc ho teda není), dárky víceméně nakoupené.
Začala jsem ilustrovat novou rubriku v dalším časopise, tak s tím mám teď trochu stresy, ale jinak si užívám předvánoční těšení.

at home, baking

How quickly time flies! I can´t believe we´re in the middle of September.
We bought few beautiful things: vintage record player and a replica of 50s coffee table. I love our living room.
I made my first plum cake and it´s delicious. Also, brownies, but I´ve made plenty of those before :). Always perfect.

tiramisú

I made the real Italian tiramisú today. Mascarpone, amaretto, raw eggs... just the real thing :). I´m usually afraid to eat raw eggs, but this time I went ahead with it. So good. I love Italian cuisine, we eat it all the time at home.

baking, baking and cooking

Did you see the movie Julie and Julia? I saw it recently and I loved it! Ever since, I enjoy cooking and baking a lot. Well, in fact, I´m slowing down with the baking, because most times I just eat everything I bake... and let´s just say it´s not the best for my health and figure :).

We also made a chocolate cake, not pictured. Delicious.

baking

We were baking today. I had intentions to eat only one, but you know how that goes :). Very tasty cinnamon rolls.

end of November

 I made these "drop scones" (???) today, not sure how to call them in English. It´s the type of dough with yeast in it, and when it rises up, it´s fried in oil in round shapes with a hole in one side. I hope this description makes sense a bit :). The result being these lovely yummy drop scones, that we ate with plum jam and sweetened sour cream. Delicious! The only negative thing is that you have to use huge amount of oil to make these.
Some of you maybe wondered if I bought the painting I talked about in previous post: I didn´t and don´t intend to. I was told something I don´t want to write about on this blog, but it prevents me from wanting the painting... and truth is, we have tons of original paintings at home (though mostly small ones, graphics and such). My husband studied history/theory of art, knows many artists, and they were always giving him (or us) their works, so we really have enough. Plus I can always paint one myself, right? :)

apples, apples

Apples are everywhere! We are flooded by apples and therefore I´m baking apple desserts all the time. Good apple is baked apple :).

another christmas baking

We´re doing well. I´m tidying up the house, baking and looking forward to christmas :).

baking

And we made some gingerbread christmas cookies today. I don´t plan to bake a lot of cookies, but making these felt good.

gingerbread house: never more

So, I made a gingerbread house. Don´t ask me anything. This is definitely a defeat (lol). Let´s pretend this is some kind of modern progressive architecture gingerbread house.

chocolate cake!

Well, I´m usually not a fan of reading recipes on the net or making the food I read about. I like to look at the pictures sometimes, but mostly I turn to my own recipe books or google something I need at the moment. But the reason I´m posting this is because this is the perfect cake I´ve ever eaten. Making it was a big fun too - I felt like some Harry Potter mixing potions :). It was just magical. This cake is full of chocolate. I LOVE chocolate. Maybe, love isn´t the right word, I lurve it, I guess (Woody Allen, anyone? :). But, I have some issues with chocolate. Sometimes I get this feeling that I shouldn´t eat so much of it. That it´s just sugar and fat, and that you simply can´t eat a bar a day. Not too long ago, I tried my best to stop eating chocolate. For four long days, I really didn´t. Than I realized that life is too short for stupid experiments like this :).
To make this, you need to make the batter and the filling. Both are delicious, but the filling - oh my! So good. I could make only the filling without the actual cake and eat a whole bowl with my spoon :). I´ll guide czech readers here, for the rest I´ll try to write the simplified instructions here.

for the batter you´ll need:
260g butter of some kind
260g chocolate (I used cheap "cooking" chocolate)
40ml strong coffee
280g suggar
4 eggs
260g flour
a bit of baking powder and soda (I told you it´s simplified!)
230g sour cream (the kind you put into sauces)

In a bowl on the stove, over a bowl with hot water (I guess this technique has a name in English...) mix the butter with chocolate until combined. Add coffee. In another bowl, whip suggar with eggs. Mix everything together. In another bowl, mix flour with the baking powder and soda. Add the flour to the rest and than the sour cream. Put it in the oven as you are used to when making cakes! (Ha!)

for the filling you´ll need:
90ml cream (the kind you make whipped cream with)
180g butter
200g "powder" suggar
120g chocolate

Again, in a bowl over a bowl etc, heat the butter with cream and add the suggar and stir for a while. Than add the chocolate and mix it until it´s combined. It´s "watery"when hot, but as it cools down it gets thicker. Let it cool down completely (you can put it in the fridge in the end).
When the cake from the oven is baked, let it cool down, than cut it up twice and fill it like you are used to. I used only half of the amount of everything and made a small cake, which was ok. However, I´m dying to make it again, haha :). When you look at the instructions you can see that it´s just a fat and sugar, plus some chocolate, but don´t let it discourage you! It´s really good.