Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

This is my first take on this classic American cake, but it definitely won't be my last time making it. I now understand why this moist cake has been a favorite here in the US for years. I like that is not overly sweet and still have the caramelized topping.

Ingredients 

• 115 g (1 stick) salted butter 
• 75 g sugar 
• 75 g brown sugar 
• 2 eggs 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
• 225 g all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 120 ml milk
• 50 ml plain yogurt

Topping:

• 60 g butter 
• 100 g Brown sugar 
• 7 pineapple slices 
• 7 cherries, pitted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃).

Melt the butter for the topping in a saucepan, and pour it into a 9 inch baking pan. Sprinkle with the brown sugar . Lay the pineapples and cherries on top. Set aside.

Batter:

Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside. Melt the butter in saucepan and whisk in both sugars, making sure there are no lumps. Whisk in yogurt, milk, vanilla and pineapple juice. Start mixing the dry ingredients and mix until it's just incorporated. 

Pour the batter over the pineapples in the pan and bake the cake for about 20 minutes, then cover the cake with some aluminum foil and bake for another 25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. 

Let the cake cool for a few minutes before inverting it onto cake stand.

You can serve the cake warm or wait until it cools down. 

Enjoy.

Passionfruit Petit Four

Passionfruit petit four

Passion fruit is the best fruit in the world. The tiny fruit has a big, bold tropical flavor. It is the taste of vacation.

I just found passionfruits in my local store I had to make these small dessert cakes (petit four) from chocolat.dk, that I have been wanting to make for the longest time.

It's a no-bake dessert with chocolate, with flavors that burst in your mouth.

4 small cakes.

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 30 g hazelnuts

• 70 g good milk chokolate

• 30 g pop rock candy (without flavor)

Filling:

• 40 g good white chocolate

• 25 g cream

• 2-3 passionfruits

Directions:

Crust:

Roast the nuts in the oven at 400°F (200°C) and grind them to a flour.

Melt the chocolate over a water bath, let the chocolate cool to 90°F (32℃), then mix in the pop rock candy and hazelnut flour.

Put the "dough" in the mini tart mold, don't make the crust to thick. Let the crust cool in the refrigerator.

Filling:

Chop the chocolate finely, and put it in a bowl, and set aside.

Cut open the passion fruits and scoop out the flesh/juice and strain out the seeds, set aside.

Bring the cream and passionfruit juice to a boil and pour it over the chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate is melted. Let the filling cool before pouring into the crusts. 

Keep the cakes in the refrigerator until you serve them. Decorate with freeze-dried passionfriut or shaved chocolate.

Serve the cakes with berries and a good vanilla ice cream.

Smørkage - Danish Butter Cake

Smørkage - Danish Butter Cake

Smørkage, or butter cake is another traditional Danish pastry. We have this cake in two versions, one made with real pastry dough and this one made with a sweet yeast dough, resembling the American cinnamon rolls.

This recipe is by far easier than making real pastry, and the taste is still really good. My cake turned out a bit darker than I expected.

Makes one 9 to 11 inch cake.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 40 g yeast
• 100 ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 stick (114 g) butter, salted & room temperature
• 350 g all-purpose flour

Remonce:

• 100 g sugar
• 100 g butter, salted & room temperature
• 50 g marzipan (almond paste), grated
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Custard:

• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoons vanilla paste
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1½ tablespoons cornstarch 
• 300 ml (≃1⅓ cups) milk

Directions:

Custard:

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale in color. Whisk in the cornstarch and vanilla paste.

Heat the milk to a slow boil, set aside. 

While whisking vigorously drizzle the warm milk into the egg yolk mixture, just a tiny bit at a time at first. Once you’ve added about ¼ of the milk, you can add the rest in a thin stream, whisking constantly.

Pour the mixture back in the saucepan and reheat it over medium heat. Whisk constantly until it thickens, and let it get to a boil. Remove from heat and chill the custard in a bowl in the refrigerator. Sprinkle with sugar or press a film of plastic wrap against custard so it doesn’t form a pudding skin.

Remonce:

Mix the ingredients to a brown paste, set aside.

Dough:

Dissolve the yeast in the finger-warm milk, add the sugar and let it sit for a few minutes. Add the eggs. Mix flour salt, cardamom and pour into the yeast-mixture with the butter. Knead the dough until it's elastic and shinny. Let the dough rest in a bowl covered with a tea towel for about 30 minutes.

Butter a 9 or 11 inch springform and set aside.

Take about ⅓ of the dough and roll it out in a circle 9 or 11 inch in diameter. Lay it in the bottom of the springform, and spread remonce and custard on top.

Roll the rest of the dough into a rectangle 8x12 inch (20x30 cm). Spread the rest of the remonce and custard on top. Roll up the dough spread like a roulade. Cut the roulade in 8 pieces and place them on top of the dough in the springform, cut side up.  

Let the cake rise for about 30 minutes. Preheat oven for 400℉ (210℃).

Brush with egg-wash and sprinkle with slivered almonds. Bake for about 15-18 minutes, cover cake with a piece of aluminum foil, and bake for another 18-20 minutes.

Take the cake out of the springform, and let the cake cool completely, before you decorate with white icing (hot water and confectionary sugar).

Enjoy.

Apple Cake with Hazelnuts and Apple Syrup

Apple Cake with Hazelnuts and Apple Syrup

Normally you would make apple pie or apple cake in the autumn, when the apples are in season. But frankly I can eat this cake anytime of the year. The crunch from the hazelnuts with the sweet apples is a perfect match.

Makes a 9" cake feeding 8-10 people.

Ingredients:

• 3-5 apples, I used jonagold, peeled, cored, halved, and sliced
• 1⅓ cup (3 dl) apple juice
• ⅔ cup (1½ dl) apple cider 
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

The dough:

• 375 g sugar
• 225 g (2 sticks) butter, salted and room temperatur
• 375 g hazelnuts
• 3 eggs
• 1 egg white
• 75 g all-purpose flour

Directions:

Mix cider, juice, honey and vanilla, and set aside.

Peel, core and slice the apples. Put the apple slices in the cider mixture to marinate for about 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350℉ (175℃).

In the meantime, make the dough, cream the butter with the sugar and add the eggs (and egg white) one at a time.

Grind the hazelnuts to a flour, mix it with the all-purpose flour and add it to the butter. 

Spray the springform with vegetable oil and spread the dough in it.

Drain the apple slices, save the marinade, and put the slices on top of the dough. Press the apple slices into the dough. 

Bake cake for 60-90 minutes, and let cool completely before removing from the pan. 

Pour the cider mixture into a saucepan, and reduce it, until you have a sirup. Brush the sirup on the cake.

Serve the cake room temperature with some light whipped cream, creme fraiche or a good vanilla ice cream.

The cake will be very soft in the middle, the day you bake it, but the pectin in the apples will make the cake more firm as it sits. I usual bake it a day in advance.

Enjoy.

Source: Claus Meyer.

Kanelstænger - Cinnamon Danish

Kanelstænger - Cinnamon Danish

Kanelstænger, or Cinnamon danish, is one of the more common pastries in Denmark. They are kinda like a large cinnamon roll cut up. Compared with real pastry, where you roll layers of butter into a dough, this recipe is really easy to make. The worst part is the custard, and when you have made that a few times, its easy too.

Ingredients:

Custard:

• 3 Egg Yolks
• 3 tablespoons Sugar
• 2 tablespoon Cornstarch
• 5 dl (2 cups) Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Paste

Dough:

• 40 g live yeast or 3½ teaspoons dry yeast
• 1¾ dl (¾ cup) water
• 35 g sugar
• 4 g salt
• 4 g cardamom
• 1 egg
• 35 g butter, salted & room temperature 
• 400 g all-purpose flour

Remonce:

• 200 g butter, salted & room temperature 
• 200 g sugar
• 35 g cinnamon

Directions:

Custard:

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale in color. Whisk in the cornstarch and vanilla paste.

Heat the milk to a slow boil, set aside. 

While whisking vigorously drizzle the warm milk into the egg yolk mixture, just a tiny bit at a time at first. Once you’ve added about ¼ of the milk, you can add the rest in a thin stream, whisking constantly.

Pour the mixture back in the saucepan and reheat it over medium heat. Whisk constantly until it thickens. Remove from heat an chill the custard in a bowl in the refrigerator. Sprinkle with sugar or press a film of plastic wrap against custard so it doesn’t form a pudding skin.

Remonce:

Mix the ingredients to a brown paste, set aside.

Dough:

Dissolve the yeast in the finger-warm water, add the sugar and let it sit for a few minutes. Add the egg. Mix flour salt, cardamom and pour it into the yeast-mixture with the butter. Knead the dough until it's elastic and shinny. Let the dough rest in a bowl covered with a tea towel for about 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 3 pieces, and roll them to 15x25 cm (6x8 inch) rectangles.

Spread ⅓ of the remonce on the dough, leave a little piece along the long side clear.  Put ⅓ of the custard in a line on top of the remonce covered long side. Fold the dough over the custard and roll the rest like you would a cinnamon roll. Place the roll on a parchment lined baking sheet. 

Using a scissor cut slits at an angle almost all the way through with 2 cm (¾ inch) apart. Flip the dough pieces to the side. The first right the other left, alternating all the way to the end.

Repeat with the last two pieces of dough.

Let the pastry sit to rise for about 45 minutes. Brush with egg-wash and sprinkle with chopped almonds and raw sugar. Bake for about 15-18 minutes at 400℉ (210℃).

If you want to freeze some of the kanelstænger, do that after making the slits in the dough, and freeze them on a baking sheet and wrap them in when frozen.

Source: Lagkagehuset.