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Cardamom, Mahleb and Saffron Stollen with Apricots, Figs and Pistachios – Version 2
10 recipes for delicious Christmas cookies and edible gifts
Doritos Financiers – corny but good ;-)
Apricots – some ideas for what is possibly my favourite fruit to bake with
Fresh Turmeric and Lemon Curd

Top Posts & Pages

Dark Chocolate Brownies with Medjool Dates and Almond Butter
Melomakarona - Greek Honey and Walnut Cookies
Cardamom, Mahleb and Saffron Stollen with Apricots, Figs and Pistachios - Version 2
Seedy Buckwheat Bread (gf)

INSTANT FOOD

Thanks to a crazy travel schedule this past year it was only a matter of time until the first proper cold struckt me. So here we are. Stuck on the sofa alternating paracetamol and throat lozenges and drinking litres and litres of tea. Would much prefer to be baking some Christmas cookies like these Greek melomakarona. These honey syrup-drenched cookies are as close as you can get to eating baklava without actually eating baklava. So instead I will just stare longingly at photos of them I took last year. If you want the recipe, just search for melomakarona on the blog.

[New blog post] The recipe for this Stollen which is as non-traditional as it is delicious is now up on the blog. No candied fruit in sight (hence its mass appeal) and instead dried figs and apricots galore. Plus chopped pistachios and fragrant cardamom, mahleb and saffron.

Do you know what this is? These tiny almond-shaped seeds are the seeds of a type of cherry (Prunus mahaleb) that grows in the Mediterranean. Like the seeds of other stone fruits, these seeds, called mahleb, have a bitter almond like flavour (not unlike marzipan). Ground, mahleb is used to flavour different kinds of cakes and breads, e.g. Greek Tsoureki. I adore its flavour and have added it to brioches and other baked goods made with enriched dough, but also used it to flavour things like rice pudding or whipped cream (e.g. the recipes on my blog for a sumac drizzle cake with a mahleb whipped cream or the mahleb flavoured rice flour pudding with a cherry compote). Later this week I will share another recipe that uses this wonderful spice. If you are wondering where to buy mahleb, Turkish or Greek grocers might be your best bet. Otherwise you can order it online. @souschefuk sells both ground mahleb and whole seeds.

Shaping Stollen. When I first started baking stollen, it took me a few tries to get the hang of shaping stollen to give it its characteristic shape.* *In case you don’t know, stollen is supposed to look like little baby Jesus swaddled in a blanket. 1. There are at least a couple of different ways of shaping stollen. On the next few photos I will show you mine. 2. After the first proof, you add the dried and/or candied fruit and ground nuts to the dough and knead the dough until all of this is evenly distributed. 3. You then roll out the dough into a fat oval of about 3-4cm thickness. 4. You then use a rolling pin to continue flattening the centre of the oval, leaving a 2-3cm border intact on either side. Next you fold one of the sides towards the centre. 5. You then fold the second side on top of the first one. 6. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, press firmly down on the dough as shown. This helps ensure that the stollen will not come undone while baking in the oven.

Sneak peek at next week’s blog post: a recipe for homemade Stollen made with Turkish pistachios, drieg figs and apricots and plenty of cardamom, mahleb and saffron. By far one of my favourite creations over the last 12 months or so and I am so excited to share this with you next week. Since I first developed and tested this recipe last year I have made it a few more times so will update the recipe and notes with a few more tips and tricks. There will also be some nice new photos to go with the recipe!

Freshly ground Turkish pistachios from Antep. Love the vivid green colour and the almost savoury flavour. These were used to bake something really special this week which I will show you shortly.

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Top Posts & Pages

Dark Chocolate Brownies with Medjool Dates and Almond Butter
Melomakarona - Greek Honey and Walnut Cookies
Cardamom, Mahleb and Saffron Stollen with Apricots, Figs and Pistachios - Version 2
Seedy Buckwheat Bread (gf)

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Jasmine

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Brussels, Recipes 1 Comment

July 17, 2017

Jasmine tea scented fruit salad

When I started my blog, I had no clear picture as to the types of recipes I would share in

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