Monthly Archives

July 2016

Cookies, Desserts, Sweet Snacks

Roasted Cashew Chocolate Heart Cookies

We interrupt this summer of fresh flavors do to a year-round recipe: Roasted Cashew Chocolate Heart Cookies. Based on a recipe for peanut butter cookies, I thought I’d swap out the type of nut butter. This does not always work well. Some nuts have greater protein or more or less oil than others, so it’s not exactly a precise science. In fact, I ended up having the add an additional half cup of flour to make this come together correctly, and even so, they spread more than I would have liked. That said, they *taste* even better to me than peanut butter cookies. Yum Yum!
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29. July 2016
Desserts, Sweet Snacks

Chocolate Red Currant Mousse Cake

Sunday was another neighbor’s birthday and you know me, that is just another excuse to bake something yummy. In all honestly, I actually hadn’t remembered that it was his birthday and was going to make this cake anyway, but now I had an excuse to give it to someone. Because of the currants, it’s got that whole sweet and tart thing going, but mostly it is an overload of whipped cream (not a bad thing!). Because I really suck at actually frosting cakes (much better at cupcakes), I decided to go with the rustic, exposed sides.
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25. July 2016
Desserts, Sweet Snacks

Raspberry Ricotta Cheese Cake

This cake should quite possibly be your go-to “I need to make a cake in a hurry” cake and “I don’t really have the time to deal!” cake. While it does take an hour to bake, the whole thing comes together in minutes. It is *not* a cheese cake: it uses ricotta cheese, hence the cheese in the title. It is, however, a lightly, fluffy, simple and flavorful cake. Serve with a bit of whipped cream and you know something, it’s also going to be my breakfast tomorrow morning.
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24. July 2016
Appetizers/Starters, Savory Snacks, Sides

Obatzda

In all the years of having this year website, I can’t believe that I haven’t posted my Obatzda recipe. What is Obatzda? It’s a very Bavarian cheese spread (similar to pub cheese), served with pretzels (brezn) or bread, and accompanied often by radishes (radi), red onions, and other things like gherkins and cherry tomatoes and so on. There is no *one* recipe for obatzda and certainly no right or wrong recipe. Some people add a bit of horseradish, some people a few tablespoons of beer. If you can’t find quark, some people use cream cheese mixed with a bit of sour cream. All work well.

It’s Summertime. Biergärten. Beer, obatzda and brezn. What I miss about Munich.
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23. July 2016