Banketletter or Banketstaaf (Puff Pastry filled with Almond Paste)

This recipe is the result of a freezer cleanup. You know when freezers get overstuffed with dough, fillings, buttercreams and in my particular case: veggies? You use half of a certain dough recipe and freeze the rest for a rainy day. Or you use half a bag of veggies and don't look at the remainder again until you dig into the back of your freezer drawer.. I really needed to make room in my freezer and I found some puff pastry leftover from my birthday and almond paste which I had made for my previous recipe for filled speculaas. 1+1=2 and puff pastry+almond paste=banketletter! Absolutely delicious and perfect to bake on that rainy day ;)

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GBBO Challenge Final Week: Chetna's Masala Chai Baklava

Well, I'm having a "crackin'" day today: I was featured with no less than three recipes/pictures on the ELLE Food Netherlands website!! I can tell you, when I saw traffic coming from that site, my heart skipped a beat. To me, this is a pretty big deal! I danced around the room a bit, hypered, highfived my mom and took a screenshot before it will eventually come down from the FRONTPAGE! Simply over the moon. The recipes featured are Gevulde Koeken, Southern Dutch Apple Pie and Broccoli and Gouda Cheese Tart. Alright, forgive this slight happy-rant, but I couldn't help but share this with you. Now on to what this post should actually be about: the crispy, sugary, sticky yumminess that is baklava.

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GBBO Challenge Week 7: Kouign Amann

This week on the GBBO: a technical challenge which no-one knew of - such fun! In fact, the same thing happened on the Dutch Bake Off this week, but everyone there failed miserably there. That strengthened my belief that British Bake Off contestants are just the best, as they did a whole lot better considering. 

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GBBO Challenge Week 5: Classic Vanilla Custard Tart

This is probably the first time that I have genuinely felt like a GBBO contestant. I set out to make a simple custard tart - the first time I had ever attempted one. Tart dough made - so far so good, I had done this many times. Rolling out the dough proved a little difficult, as the fat content of this dough was quite high. 

The first cracks started to appear in my confidence, as well as in the crust as I was lifting it into the tart tin. As I placed the tart shell in the oven, I told it to behave well, and not dare shrink on me. Of course, I had an disobedient tart shell and it decided to shrink on me anyway. As I saw the crust creeping down the sides of the tin, I felt this could never work out. 

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Linzer Cookies

My competition tart didn't leave me with any prizes, but fortunately I did have a great time and earned some money for charity which is always a fantastic bonus! I did have some ingredients leftover in the fridge and freezer and since I don't like wasting such fabulous homemade goodness I set out to make these linzer cookies!

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Nutty About Strawberries Tart

Finally, it is here! The recipe I'm using for an upcoming cake/tart/pie competition. This strawberry and pistachio tart is to die for! I couldn't get enough of the pistachio and white chocolate cream. I was testing this recipe and I made way too much of the cream, lesson learned! I think I gained a pound only looking at it. But ohmy was it yummy and SO worth it. Best YOLO-food ever - did I just say that? Oh yes I said it!

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Orange Napoleons (Oranje Tompoezen)

If you have been watching the football World Cup at all, you'll know that the Netherlands has been doing pretty well.  Everybody but the coach and the team itself was skeptical at first, but "Oranje" started off pretty amazingly by beating Spain 5-1 and since that moment, Orange Fever (Oranjekoorts) has kept our country in its unfashionably colored grip. I have been watching pretty much every and any match and I have yelled at the tv a couple of times (okay, maybe more than a couple of times..). I guess you could say I'm a fanatic supporter! But then again, most Dutchies are. We are famous for our crazy, orange supporter outfits:  guys in Dirndl dresses, girls in beer dresses. None of the regular fashion rules apply during national football games. And what we do in fashion, we do in food as well. Every orange occasion calls for an orange foodstuff. Orange pudding, orange potato chips, orange liqueur ánd the most popular and ultimate of orange foods: the Orange Napoleon. And so it came about that I baked these before today's match instead of buying the gelatine-laden "tompoezen" that can be found in the supermarkets. Let's be honest, who wouldn't prefer a homemade Napoleon over a supermarket one (soggy bottoms, anyone)? 

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Apple and Vanilla Tartes Fines

Inspired by my Paris trip, I set out to create a simple but very fine tart. A "tarte fine" has a flaky pastry base and can be topped with pretty much any firm fruit (although I wouldn't go for grapes, per se). Some pastry chefs partner the fruit with crême patissière for extra creaminess. Because I felt really eager to make these, I chose an apple topping - for some reason, supermarkets only sell nectarines, peaches and pears in their stone-hard, unripe form. That means that I would have to wait a week, if not longer, for them to ripen. No such patience here.. Apples it is! 

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Paris Adventures - Patisseries, Palaces and Parisians

© Nadine Bakes

 Finally I have the time to share my (pastry) adventures in Paris with you! As you know, I and Nadine went to Paris last week to sample some of its finest pastries and see its gorgeous sights (read Nadine's post on Paris here). In this post I will share our experiences, and pictures of all that buttery, sugary goodness which I ate ofcourse! If you want the short version: YUM! Nadine has kindly allowed me to use some of the pictures she took!


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Flamiche with Leeks and Brie + Easter Brunch

When you're reading this, I'll be packing for my patisserie trip to Paris! I'm so excited already. Of course I will document the trip carefully! Another French recipe today, to get in the mood. I've been so busy with uni lately that I haven't gotten around to posting about Easter Brunch yet! We had brunch on Easter Monday, as my mom had to work on Sunday. This was only more convenient for me because it meant I had plenty of time to plan ahead and make this bake-a-palooza a success. I made the currant buns ahead and froze them on friday, then on the sunday I made the fougasses, the brioche dough and the shortcrust pastry for the flamiche of which I will share the recipe in this post. I got up at 9 on monday and baked everything left on the list. After all that I sure was hungry! 

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Creamy Broccoli and Gouda Cheese Tart with a Walnut Crust

In my family, savoury tarts are a Christmas staple. I love making them outside of Christmas as well, because they are incredibly versatile. You can vary endlessly with fillings as well as (to a certain extent) with the crust, coming up with new, exciting and tasty flavour combinations. The nutty flavour of this tart's flaky crust compliments the creaminess of both the broccoli and the Gouda cheese and is a welcome change from your run off the mill tart crust.

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Mince Pies from a Muffin Tin

So I went Christmassy again. The closer we're getting to Christmas, the more excited I get. Actually, I start looking forward to Christmas the day after Christmas, that's how bad it is. While I was getting my daily Christmas-fix (scrolling through pictures of christmas trees and candy canes on Tumblr)I suddenly felt the urge to make mince pies. Now this is not exactly a Dutch tradition as you might have guessed. I hadn't even tasted these until last year! When I visited my friend in the Hague a couple of weeks back, I found some vegetarian mincemeat at the expat store and so my saturday was filled with the most delicious smell of orange peel and crunchy crust. I think we should introduce mince pies to Dutch Christmas tradition. Oh, I made these in a muffin tin, and used a fluted cutter. The fluted cutter does not yield the prettiest results so I suggest you use a "regular" round cutter for a smoother finish. For your dose of Christmas in October, see the recipe below!

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