Gingerbread House - Daring Bakers

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.


Well, I was totally relieved when I found out what this month's challenge is. Know why? Because I already planned to bake a gingerbread house for the very first time this year, and I was happy to do it together with the Daring Bakers.


I didn't want to make anything fancy or colourful, and not only because decorating with icing is not my cup of tea, but I wanted to stay so to speak "natural". I just wanted a snowy, old cottage in the forest.

Christmas Parfait

Do you remember those spicy stars? I must confess I loved to cut out the cookies of the baked dough, though the leftover wasn't very attractive, but they were perfect with a morning cup of milk or tea. Anyway, I decided to prepare a parfait using those cookie leftovers.


I thought it is light -unless you count the calories- "welcome dessert" for my parents who has arrived today. Before I jump to the recipe, I would like to wish...


Ingredients:
1 egg yolk
1 egg
60 g sugar
350 ml cream
75 g cookie
1/2 teaspoon Christmas cookie spice


Beat egg yolk and egg until foamy. Dilute sugar in 25 ml water and beat into the foamy egg mix. Beat the mixture over steam until it has a thick and foamy consistency. Beat cream and fold it into the cooled egg mixture. Stir in the chopped cookies and freeze it for at least 4 hours.

Pear, almonds and veal liver

Well, I was craving for veal liver again and actually, I wanted to prepare it the same way like the last time. Being alone at home, and being the only who likes liver, except my dog, it was the perfect opportunity to cook that dish. But then I felt like improvising so instead I coated the thin liver slices in a mixture of ground almond and breadcrumbs and fried in butter oil. I also added some fresh sage to the eggwash.


Fruit and liver is a nice combination so I decided to poach some cubed pear in red wine among some thyme and honey.

I served it with a light salad, flavoured with pear vinegar, lemon juice and walnut oil, fried oyster mushrooms and some mashed potatoes.

Zimtpittli

Probably, this cookie speciality of canton Graubünden is much less known than the famous Nusstorte. As its name says it contains cinnamon. It is also an ideal last minute cookie as it is done very fast and if you love cinnamon, well then it is a must.


Ingredients:
150 g butter
170 g sugar
2 eggs
1 pinch of salt
170 g almond, ground
1 tablespoon cinnamon
140 g flour
milk
80 g sugar and 80 g sliced almond for topping


Preheat oven to 180°C. Whisk butter and sugar until foamy and then whisk in the eggs one by one. Add salt, cinnamon and ground almond. Stir in the flour. Smear batter on the back of a baking form (35*38 cm) and smear the top with milk. Sprinkle sugar and sliced almond on it and bake for 20-30 minutes. Cut in rhomb forms as long as it is still hot.

No-Bake Christmas Trees

It is not yet over! There are still some cookies that I would like to bake, probably a bunch tomorrow and the honey cookies for my dad on Tuesday. Yesterday, I baked Lebkuchen and prepared these no-bake cookies.


Ingredients:
250 g grated almond
150 g sugar
120 g chocolate
2-3 tablespoons Kirsch
2-3 tablespoons water

Grate chocolate and mix it with the almond and sugar. Add Kirsch and chocolate and knead it together. This needs a medium portion of patience. Roll out dough between two sheets of baking paper sprinkled with sugar and cut out any kind of form you like. Let the cookies dry over night.

Spicy Sweet Corn Soup

It seems that I am turning into a soup fan! I haven't ever prepared so many soups like this autumn-winter season and I even have many "must cook" soups on my list. Some days ago I prepared a sweet corn soup flavoured with lemongrass, ginger and curry. Frankly, I couldn't imagine that a corn soup can be so delicious!


Ingredients:
300 g sweet corn
1 onion
500 ml vegetable or chicken broth
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
2-3 lemongrass
1 small piece of ginger
70 ml cream

Heat butter and saute chopped onion. Add curry powder, crushed lemongrass and sliced ginger and fry until you start to smell the spices. Add sweet corn and broth and cook for about 10-15 minutes. Remove lemongrass and ginger and puree the soup. Then press it through a strainer. Beat cream and stir it into the soup. Season and serve.

Mailänderli

At the begining of the month I mentioned, that this year I am going to bake mainly Swiss cookies for Christmas. Before I decided for one I checked a smaller bunch of recipes, but at the end I chose again Robert's recipe. Mailänderli are traditional Swiss butter cookies with a light lemon flavour. When I baked them I wasn't sure how dark the glaze should be and as you can see they turned out quite light, but nevertheless they are very delicious!

Ingredients:
250 g butter
250 g sugar
450-500 g flour
zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 pinch of salt
1 egg yolk and some cream for the glaze

Whisk butter and sugar in a warm bowl unil fluffy. Stir in egg, egg yolk and lemon peel and whisk for 10 minutes. Sift flour and knead a dough, but be fast. Leave it in the fridge for 2-3 hours. Roll out dough about 1 cm thick and cut out cookies. Leave them again for 2-3 hours in the fridge. Preheat oven to 180°C. Glaze cookies with the egg yolk-cream mixture and bake them for 13-15 minutes.