arigatou! na-go-mi!

after so many years back in Belgium, i have finally, finally found the courage to drive around in Brussels and look for that Japanese store i always knew was there (believe me, for driving around in, Brussels is a crazy city, sorry if i m offending anyone, but secretly, you agree with me).

to be fair, the past few years have seen a remarkable rise in Japanese and Korean produce being sold here in the Chinese supermarkets, but it s not quite the same.

i mean, where was i going to find kinako? i had never ever seen it here. sure, soy sauce, nori, gari, sushi-vinegar... what with the upcoming trend for making sushi at home now, but something so typical and mostly used in a Japanese dessert? nah...

so imagine my delight when i found that, and so many other flavors of my childhood at Nagomi Superstore...

and they had kinako!

and loads more, among which another of my favorite flavorings; yuzu!

guess which is the odd one out...*

and OMG, yuuuumm! (oh, to be 10 again!)(this Peko-chan box contains little balls of milky sweetness for those not in the know)

now, once home, i just had to make some warabimochi (mochi rolled in sweetened kinako), but since i had a birthday coming up and it s traditional to treat friends and colleagues to something, i thought i might make some kinako-cookies.

here s how i did it:

KINAKO-COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:

170 gr all-purpose flour
40 gr kinako
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
115 gr butter, softened
60 gr fine white sugar
55 gr soft brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
drop of vanilla extract

METHOD:

1. sieve the flour, the kinako, baking powder, salt together into a bowl
2. beat the softened butter and the sugars together until light and fluffy
3. mix the egg, milk and vanilla into the butter/sugar mixture
4. slowly add the dry ingredients until quite a soft dough
5. wrap in cling-film and leave in the fridge to set (about an hour)
6. meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 190°C and line some cookie trays with baking paper
7. roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 3 mm thick and cut out shapes with your favorite cookie cutter
8. bake for about 8-10 minutes until just browned, be careful not to crowd the baking sheet, as they do spread a little
9. leave to cool completely before tucking in...

unless you can t wait ofcourse

*odd one out is a jar of umeboshi (which i just love with some white rice)

masala chai cake my way

yesterday there was that little disaster with the oven temperature while baking that buttermilk apple cake with cardamom...

today i was determined to make good that dumb mistake.

and here it is, my masala chai cake (also with a hint of cardamom ofcourse)

already looks so much better, doesn t it?

and even though that apple cake tasted quite alright, it was a bit on the stodgy side to be honest.

so i adapted and tweaked and here s my own recipe:

MASALA CHAI CAKE WITH CARDAMOM

INGREDIENTS:

180 gr unsalted butter
200 gr fine white caster sugar
3 whole eggs
220 gr plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom seeds
3 teabags masala chai
60 ml boiling water
100 ml buttermilk
drop of vanilla extract

METHOD:

1. preheat the oven to 175°C and prepare a cake tin
2. pour the boiling water on the teabags and leave to infuse for 30 minutes or until cold
3. heat the butter in the microwave for about 20 seconds until slightly melted and then beat in the sugar (to my surprise this actually makes it so much easier to get that light pale fluffy creaminess they always talk about in recipe books)
4. add the eggs one by one and beat in well
5. sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda and ground cardamom in stages into the butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix in well
6. add the buttermilk, masala chai concentrate (the infused tea), and a drop of vanilla extract, beat in well
7. pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for about 50 minutes until golden and springy to the touch or until a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean
8. leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before taking it out to cool completely

now that s what i call a perfect cake; light, not too sweet, and just moist enough. good on it s own, but probably even better with a little bit of whipped cream, and definitely best with a cup of steaming hot masala chai on a winter afternoon.

well... at least i got it right this time... phew!

there s chocolate, and then there s cardamom

for Christmas, i received the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days cookery, well baking actually, book from my son. as you can imagine, i was over the moon and decided to make their malted chocolate cupcakes as a dessert for New Year s Eve dinner.

they so worked a treat, and although i sometimes find that instructions in cookery books can be faulty, this one delivered!

see?

and then i caught a cold... and have been sniffling for the past week. and Sam caught it too. so we ve been sniffling together.

the stormy weather didn t help either.

yesterday though, we were so tired of being cooped up inside, that we went on a day-trip to Zeeland, hoping to get our colds driven out by the stiff breeze of the Oosterschelde.

it worked... well, a little.

this morning i woke up determined to make a cake from the first Hummingbird Bakery book (because of course i couldn t wait for my next birthday to come along so i could get that as a gift again... and i d went and bought this one, he he he...)

thinking i might as well use up the buttermilk i d used in the cupcakes, i wanted to make a simple buttermilk cake.

nothing easier than a simple cake, right?

wrong!

there was nothing wrong with the recipe. nothing at all. it made for a lighter batter, and even said that i could add fruits or nuts and it would work. i had some apples left so i thought i might add those, and i have something with cardamom these days.

however, i guess my cold was still influencing my judgment, and it was still pretty early this morning (as if that s an excuse) but i pre-heated the oven to 130°C instead of 170°C!?!

stupid, stupid, stupid...

it was only after 50 minutes, way over the time suggested in the book, that i realized the cake was not rising properly, and then i noticed the temperature knob of the oven was turned too low!

aaargh!

could i rescue this one?

not quite, as you can see here

sunk quite a bit, huh?

but it tastes great, and i m thinking it s the cardamom. there s something about cardamom that saves the day anytime. that little bit of the exotic, that little hint of something elusive, i love it.

and it works in this cake, even though it doesn t quite look the part (it actually really looks like a cake i would ve baked way back when, ha ha)

BUTTERMILK CAKE with APPLES, CINNAMON AND CARDAMOM
(adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)

INGREDIENTS:

120 gr butter, softened
330 gr fine white caster sugar
3 whole eggs
200 gr plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
120 ml buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large apple, cut into smallish pieces
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

METHOD:

1. preheat the oven to 170°C (NOT 130°C!!!) and prepare a loaf tin of 13x23cm by either lining with baking parchment or buttering and flouring
2. beat the butter and sugar together until light and pale
3. add the eggs one by one and beat in well
4. sieve the flour together with the baking soda, salt, cardamom and cinnamon
5. add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture alternating with the buttermilk
6. mix in well
7. flour the apple pieces and fold into the batter
8. pour the cake mixture into your tin and bake for about 35-40 minutes or until the center is springy to the touch. for extra certainty you might want to insert a wooden skewer in the middle and if that comes out clean, your cake is done
9. leave to cool in the tin for about ten minutes and then turn out to cool completely on a rack

next time, i promise, this one will come out PURR-fect!