Glühmost

So, I thought I had this posted somewhere on here, but I guess I was wrong. Anyways, this recipe was requested by one of my co-workers. She’s pretty awesome.  This recipe is for Glühmost. Since it is getting cold this seems like a good time to want this recipe. For those who don’t know what  Glühmost is, it’s a form of apple cider. This recipe calls for wine, if you don’t like wine you can substitute it for more apple cider. However, for the sake of being the good Prussian that I am, I will include the wine in the recipe.

Ingredients

·         4 cups of a dry white wine

·         4 cups of apple cider

·         1/8 of a teaspoon of  ground cinnamon, or three sticks broke in half

·         1 pinch of ground cloves

·         1 pinch of cardamom, this can be substituted for nutmeg

·         Honey

Directions

·         In a saucepan, combine the wine, apple cider, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom

·         Bring to a simmer over medium heat, do not allow it to boil

·         Add the honey and stir until well mixed

·         Serve hot

There you have it. It’s that simple. Hope you enjoy!

Scones

So, I've been rereading the first book in my series of novels and the thought of cute boys eating scones makes me giggle. You probably don't get that reference since my novel hasn't come out yet, but when it does you should read it and you will understand. Anyways, scones. They are fairly simple to make and easy to customize. I present to you an easy recipe for scones. Feel free to customize it in whatever way you wish and have fun doing so!

Ingredients

• 3 cups of whole grain flour

• 1/4 cup of sugar

• 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar

• 5 teaspoons of baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
• 3/4 cup of butter

• 1 egg beaten

• 1 cup of milk
• Handful of berries, nuts, or whatever you want to put in it

Directions

• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F
• Grease a baking sheet lightly, Baker's Joy works great for this
• In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt

• Add in the butter in parts

• In a separate bowl, mix the egg and milk
• Slowly add egg and milk mixture to the flour mixture and mix until blended

• Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for a few minutes

• Roll dough so that it is 1/2 inch thick

• Cut into wedges and place on baking sheet

• Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown

There you have it. Enjoy!

Kesäkeitto

Wow, it seems that this blog is full of Finnish recipes. You can really tell what country's food I really love. Well, I love Finland in general, but their food is some of my favorite ever. :D So, today I am going to give you this early summer, late spring recipe. Kesäkeitto is a vegetable soup that you can add shrimp to for special occasions or if you just like shrimp in your soup. It is pretty tasty. So, here you go.


Ingredients

• 6 small potatoes
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 6 small onions cut in thin rounds
• 3 carrots cut into thin rounds
• 3/4 cup of peas
• 4 small radishes chunked
• 3/4 cup of green beans
• 1 small head of cauliflower 
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup of milk
• 1/4 cup of heavy cream
• Optional 1/2 pound of medium sized cooked shrimp

Directions

• Place all the vegetables into a large pot and fill with water and the salt. Boil uncovered until the vegetables tender
• Remove from the pan from heat and strain water into a bowl and set aside  with vegetables in a separate bowl 
• In the pan, melt the butter
• Remove from heat and stir in the flour, slowly pouring in the vegetable stock beating vigorously with a whisk
• Beat in the milk
• In a small bowl, combine the egg yolk and cream
• Whisk in 1 cup of the hot soup, a couple tablespoons at a time
• Slowly whisk the warm egg yolk mixture into the soup
• Add the vegetables back and bring to a simmer
• Add shrimp if you want to and simmer uncovered until shrimp and vegetables are heated through
• Add pepper

There you have it. It is pretty tasty even though it takes a bit of effort to make. It is definitely not something you can just whip up in a few minutes. Personally, I think it tastes better if it has been simmering on supper low heat all day when it is really cold outside. Of course then it sort of defeats the purpose of it being made with fresh vegetables. Hope you all enjoy this recipe! I will try to add more non-Finnish food recipes in.  

Raspberry Torte

Well, it has been a super busy month since I posted last. I got publish, which is why I have not put anything new up for a bit. Huzzah! If you are all interested in knowing more about the book, please hop on over to my German language blog and translate the post about it there. 

Anyways, this is a recipe for a Raspberry Torte that I was given a few years ago. It's pretty tasty. One of my friends made it on St. Valentine's Day and it turned out well for her. So, here is the recipe for you all! Hope you all enjoy it as much as everyone else has! Fair warning though, this cake takes a great deal of work to make and it is very touchy to humidity. If it is too humid the cake will have a greater chance of falling and if it is too dry it will crack and not go together right.

Ingredients for Cake

• 5 eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup of shortening
• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 2 cups of cake flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 cup of buttermilk
• 1 cup of toasted pecans, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup of flaked coconut
• 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar

Ingredients for Filling/Frosting

• 1 cup of raspberry preserves, warmed
• 11 ounces of cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup of butter, softened
• 6 1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of chopped pecans

Directions

• Let eggs stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening, butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Stir in pecans and coconut.
• In another mixing bowl and with clean beaters, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold a fourth of egg whites into the batter, then fold in remaining whites.
• Pour into three greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 28-30 minutes or top springs back lightly when touched. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
• Spread raspberry preserves over the top of two cake layers. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and confectioners' sugar until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Place one raspberry topped cake layer on a serving plate. Spread with some of the frosting. Repeat with second raspberry topped cake layer. Top with plain cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over the top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with nuts.

Well, there you have it! Hope you enjoy! It is definitely worth the trouble. Also, if you replace the plain sugar in the cake with vanilla sugar it give the cake a bit more flavour. Also, you can put some frosting between the layers in additions to the preserves. If you choose to do that though keep in mind that you will need to frost the cake before putting the preserves on.

Vanilla Sugar

Since a great deal of European sweets use Vanilla Sugar it is probably a good idea to let you all know what exactly it is as it is not found in American stores. Vanilla Sugar is sugar that has a slight vanillay taste to it. It isn't very expensive in Europe and can be found at almost every food store. However, it is incredibly hard to get outside of Europe and is very expensive in America. Thankfully it can be made at home if one has the need for it. Since Germanic and Scandinavian foods are an important part of my diet, a good number of my recipes do call for it. So, in order to save those of you who are not in Europe some money I am going to give you one of the simplest recipes ever; Vanilla Sugar!


Ingredients

• 4 cups of sugar
• 2 vanilla beans

Directions

• Split the bean pods open and pour the beans them into a bowl with the sugar
• Mix the beans with the sugar and then pour into an airtight container
• Seal the container and let it set for at least two weeks

You can double or half this recipe quite easily. Also, if you want a stronger vanilla flavour you can leave it sealed for a longer period of time. Vanilla Sugar can be used just like regular sugar and gives your recipes a bit of an extra something. Enjoy!