A way to use left-over egg whites: egg white cake

I'm sure everyone knows this situation: you just made ice cream or zabaglione and are left with quite a few egg whites... what do you do? Make another pavlova or meringues again? Or do you want to try something new and different?

If you want to try something different I have a great recipe! I had a whole bunch of egg whites left over after making Strawberry Ice Cream and was not in the mood for meringues. So I searched for an alternative. I found an egg white cake recipe over on Nami-Nami and the idea appealed to me.

When reading the recipe however I noticed there was nothing in there to give it flavour, so I adapted it by adding vanilla and lemon zest. And boy, was I glad I did. The vanilla and lemon elevated this cake from just a cake into a wonderful, flavourful cake. It was absolutely delicious.

I had planned to pour ganache over the cake but in the end decided not to, because it was unnecessary. I'll definitely be making this cake more often when I'm stuck with left-over egg whites! It is a very versatile cake. Instead of adding vanilla and lemon you could add about anything you like. So if your in the mood for something else, just do it!

Recipe

Egg White Cake

6 large egg whites
250 gram caster sugar
160 gram flour
1 heaped tablespoon potatostarch or cornflour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla-extract
Zest of 1 lemon
100 gram melted butter, slightly cooled

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F).

Whisk the egg whites with 2 tablespoons of sugar until thick and pale and very foamy.

Mix the rest of the sugar with the flour, potato starch and baking powder, then sift into the egg mixture and fold in gently.

Fold in the cool melted butter, the vanilla and the lemon zest.

Pour the batter into a buttered bundt-form and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Test with a wooden toothpick to see if it is done.

Cool slightly before turning out of the cake tin.

Buttermilk Chive Biscuits

In my quest for finding a great bun/roll/anything I stumbled upon a recipe for Buttermilk Chive Biscuits. Now I know that it is not very bready, but it sounded great, so I thought I'd give it a try! I had al the ingredients on hand and set to work.

Now one thing you should now is that where I come from, there are no such things as biscuits.... well we have biscuits, but those are sweet cookies, something completely different. So I had no idea what the dough should look like, how it's consistency should feel, no prior experience, etc. etc., you get the picture.

I started making the dough and it al went fine, but when I turned it out an a floured surface I discovered that it was actually more a batter than a dough. So I was unable to cut rounds out of it. I have no idea what went wrong and as I have no idea how the dough is supposed to be I can't fix it. I decided to just use really big spoons and sort of shape the biscuits on the baking sheet. This worked fine for me, because once they were baked, they were amazing! The taste and structure were great. The buttermilk really adds a depth to these things.

I'm not saying that my quest is already over, but I am saying that I'll definitely be making these more often. Even if they didn't turn out perfectly!

Recipe

Buttermilk Chive Biscuits

Yield: about 12

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
110 gram (8 tablespoons) cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg
1 egg yolk (optional)
1 scant cup buttermilk
¼ cup snipped fresh chives

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 200˚C (400˚ F).

Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Whisk together to blend.

Add the cold butter to the dry ingredients and cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal and the largest butter pieces are the size of peas.  I used my stand mixer, but this can also be done in a food processor.

Place the egg and egg yolk in a liquid measuring cup.  Add enough buttermilk to measure a full cup.  Whisk in the chives.

Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and mix together gently just until the dough comes together and all the dry ingredients are absorbed.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and pat into a disc that is ½-inch thick.  Use a well-floured 3-inch round biscuit cutter and cut out dough rounds.  Place finished rounds on the prepared baking sheets.  Gently re-roll the excess dough and cut out additional biscuits.  Or just scoop the dough onto the baking sheets if your dough is more a batter.

Bake until golden brown and fluffy, about 12-15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and serve warm.

Strawberry Ice Cream

My ice cream machine broke down! It left me heartbroken and crying in the kitchen. But then I realised I  had an excuse to buy a new one! I always love it when I have a valid reason to spend some money! So I started doing some research on ice cream machines. I would have loved to buy a self-freezing machine, but with prices starting at € 400,- I decided that was a bit too much. After a while I remembered that you can buy an ice cream maker attachment for a Kitchenaid standmixer. I was sold. It's perfect because you just put the bowl in the freezer and don't have to store an extra machine!

So I went out and bought it, put the bowl in the freezer and the next day I made this strawberry ice cream. It is another recipe from joy of baking. After the huge success of the chocolate ice cream I wanted to try out this recipe, to see if it would turn out just as great.

It was another custard-based ice cream, so it was indeed very creamy and smooth. But I did found it slightly lacking in the strawberry-department. I was looking for an ice cream which was bursting with strawberry-flavour. However, this is a very nice ice cream, but maybe more for a fancy dinner or a cold day.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Ingredients:

2 cups half-and-half

5 large egg yolks

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 vanilla bean

2/3 cup strawberry puree (strawberries pureed with a little sugar and a squize of lemon juice)

Instructions:

In a saucepan bring the half-and-half and the vanilla bean to the scalding point where the milk begins to foam up.

Remove from heat and take out the vanilla bean. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise in half and scrape out the seeds with the back of a knife. Mix the seeds back into the half-and-half.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a stainless steel bowl until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).

Very slowly pour the scalding half-and-half into the egg yolk mixture. Whisk constantly so the eggs don't curdle.

Place the stainless steel bowl over a pan with simmering water and cook until the custard thickens. It needs to coats the back of a wooden spoon (77˚C or 170˚F).

Remove the custard from the heat and stir for a couple of minutes, making sure the custard doesn't overcook.

Stir in the strawberry puree.

Cover and let cool to room temperature. Then refrigerate until the custard is completely cold.

Pour the custard into your ice cream machine and follow the manufacturer's instructions.

Enjoy!

Sugar Cookies

My baby girls' intern-teacher left last week and instead of buying a present I thought I'd give decorated sugar cookies a go. Over the last few months I've seen several gorgeous decorated cookies and was extremely impressed with them. I've never worked with royal icing before so it was quite an adventure for me. I haven't made pictures of the end results, but I did get a lot of compliments.

I myself wasn't 100% satisfied. I made hearts with small sweet words written on top of them. I only used two colours, a very pale pink and a darker purple. The outlining went great, the flooding also went great, but the detailing was a bit tricky, I think it is definitely worth the time to practice, so I'll be looking for a new occasion to make these again.

But this is not a recipe for royal icing, this is about the cookies. Or should I say The Cookies. I found another great recipe over on Annie's Eats. I know, I know, I know.... I've been on a bit of an Annie-bender.... I can totally explain this. I recently went through her archives and marked a lot of recipes for my "to make" list, which I am now making. But back to The Cookies. They are very easy to make, hold their shape, have a nice texture and amazing flavour! Which is why I say The Cookies. The addition of lemon zest, vanilla extract and vanilla bean elevates these cookies from... well, cookies to Cookies. I had a hard time trying not to eat them.

So if you're looking for a great sugar cookie recipe: use this one. You will not regret it!

Recipe

Sugar Cookies

Yield: depends on size cookie cutter, I made about 60 small hearts

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 large egg
2 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
Zest of half a lemon
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

Cream together the butter and confectioners' sugar until smooth, about 1-2 minutes on medium-high speed.

Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean with the back of a knife.

Add to the butter-mixture, the egg, vanilla extract, vanilla bean seeds and lemon zest and beat until blended.

Mix in the flour and salt on low speed just until incorporated.

Form the dough into a disc and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Put in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours, until chilled and firm.

Preheat the oven to 190˚C (375˚F). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roll out the dough on a floured work surface, about 1/4-inch thick.

Cut the dough with cookie cutters. Transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheets.

Bake 8-10 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until fully baked but not at all browned.

Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheets and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

When the cookies are completely cooled you can decorate them as you want to.

Pull-apart Dinner Rolls

 

I have set myself on a quest for finding something great to accompany dinners, albeit rolls, buns or biscuits I want to find that one great recipe you can always turn to. So to start things of I made Pull-apart dinner rolls, for which I found a recipe on The Pioneer Woman. Now, the pioneer woman says that these rolls are no-knead, but I couldn't make the dough without kneading, so I'm not gonna say they are no-knead.

The dough, however was quite easy to make, I had to knead quite a bit in the end, so if you have a stand mixer, you might as well make it with that, makes life a little easier. I only encountered some problems when rolling little balls out of the dough... it was a little sticky, so I kept washing my hands to be able to actually roll balls.

These rolls taste great when they are just out of the oven and warm. When they started to cool, I became less enthusiastic... They became very tough and chewy very quickly. It might be a side-effect from using only all-purpose flour, but it could just be my "fantastic" baking skills... I don't know.

So, all in all I was slightly positive but for me this recipe was not a winner. You might like it though, so I'm still going to give you the recipe. Oh, and the amount is massive, so I used half the recipe and it was still to much for just the four of us!

Recipe

Pull-apart Dinner Rolls

Yield: 24 Rolls

Ingredients:

4 cups milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
9 cups flour
2 packages active dry yeast
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1 scant teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons salt

Instructions:

Pour 4 cups of milk into a stock pot or Dutch oven. Add the sugar and vegetable oil. Stir to combine. Let the mixture become scalding hot.

Turn of the heat and let the mixture cool to warm/lukewarm, between 90ºF and 110ºF.

When the mixture is the right temperature add in 4 cups of flour and the yeast.

After the yeast and flour are mixed well, add another 4 cups of flour and stir together.

Cover the mixture with a teatowel and let rise for 1 hour or until almost doubled in size.

When it has risen sufficiently add the last cup of flour, the baking powder, the baking soda and the salt. Stir (or knead) until combined.

Butter 1 or 2 muffin pans. Form the rolls by pinching off a walnut sized piece of dough and rolling it into a little ball. Repeat and tuck three balls of dough into each buttered muffin cup. Continue until pan is full.

Cover and allow to rise for 1 to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 200ºC (400ºF) and bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Serve warm with lots of butter!

Oatmeal Buttermilk Wheat Bread

 

This weekend I decided to give making a bread another try. I found a recipe on Annie's Eats which sounded great and easy. The only times I made an actual bread were with my dad's bread making machine, so while that worked great I didn't think it really counts, because all you have to do is throw in some ingredients and set the timer.

I gathered all the ingredients and set to work and you know what? It's not much more complicated or different from making a bread in a bread baking machine. Okay, I had to soak the oats in some boiling water... big deal. It really was extremely simple. Only down side is... you can't set a timer and wake up with the smell of freshly baked bread, but other than that it worked like a charm! I'm definitely gonna make more bread!

My bread was very slightly undercooked. A minute or two more and it would have been perfect. It probably happened because I opened the oven a few times to gawk at my gorgeous loaf of bread! It is a big bread. Luckily the girls loved this bread also, so we finished it in two days, but if you want to enjoy it longer, you should probably put it in the freezer.

Recipe

Oatmeal Buttermilk Wheat Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup rolled oats + 1/4 cup rolled oats separately
1 cup boiling hot water
1/4 cup room temperature water
2 tablespoons honey + 1 teaspoon honey separately
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1/2 cup olive oil
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt

Instructions:

Place the 1 1/4 cup oats in a bowl. Cover with the boiling hot water and stir well. Let sit uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the bowl of your stand mixer combine with the paddle attachment the soaked oats, the room temperature water, 2 tablespoons honey, yeast, buttermilk, olive oil, salt and 2 cups of each flour. Mix briefly until combined.

Mix in the remaining 1/2 cup of each flour.

Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed for about 10 minutes. The dough will be wet and sticky and have a satiny finish.

Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turn once to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

Put the dough on a lightly floured surface. With your hands gently push out the air bubbles.

Make a 12 x 6-inch rectangle with the dough and position it so the long side is facing you.

Fold the two shorter ends on the top of the dough, making sure they meet in the middle.

Starting with the end facing you, roll the dough away from you tightly into a log. Pinch the seams closed.

Transfer the loaf into an oiled loaf pan, making sure the dough has reached all the corners.

Mix a teaspoon of honey with 1/2 teaspoon of very hot water. Brush this over the top of the loaf and sprinkle on the 1/4 cup oats you set aside.

Let rise for 20-30 minutes until the loaf rises over the top of the pan.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 190ºC (375ºF). I put the tray one notch lower than the middle. Bake the loaf for 1 hour.

Remove from the oven, take the bread out of the loaf pan and put on a wire rack to cool completely. If you can!

Self-frosting Nutella cupcakes

I'm gonna be really honest with you.... I'm not particularly taken by these cupcakes. Why do I post the recipe  you ask? Because from the moment I baked these all I've heard is: "Mommy, can I have a Nutella-cupcake? Mommy, when are you gonna make those Nutella-cupcakes again? Those were reeeeaaally yummy." Yep, that's right... these cupcakes were an instant hit with my girls and that is why I'm posting the recipe.

It's basically a vanilla cupcake with a swirl of Nutella on top. I have to admit that I had a lot of trouble with swirling in the Nutella. The Nutella was much thicker than the batter. It was a bit too cold. So instead of self-frosting it became self-filling... Some of the Nutella stayed on top, but most of it just sunk into the batter and stayed there... hence: self-filling. But I guess that's what made this cupcake so popular with my girls. You start eating a cupcake and then suddenly there is a lovely filling of Nutella, what kid can resist that?

The next time I'm making sure the Nutella is softer so I can actually swirl the Nutella in!

I found this recipe over on Baking Bites, it is an adaptation of a recipe from Donna Hay.
Oh, in the comments over on Baking Bites, some people found the cupcakes to dry. There was some discussion over the amount of flour. In order to make sure I had the right amount I sifted the flour above a scale until I had the right amount. Works great! If you want to use cups, there is a big difference between 1 3/4 cup flour before it is sifted and 1 3/4 cup of sifted flour, so it works better to sift and then measure.

Recipe

Self-frosting Nutella Cupcakes

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

140 gram (10 tablespoons) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
200 gram (1 3/4 cup) sifted flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
About 1/3 cup Nutella

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 170ºC (325ºF).

Fill a tray for 12 muffins with paper liners.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).

Add the eggs one at a time, beating until fully incorporated.

Add the vanilla and stir.

Add the flour, salt and baking powder and stir until well combined.

Fill the muffin tins 3/4 full. Spoon 1 1/2 teaspoon on top of each muffin. With a toothpick swirl in the Nutella, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the Nutella.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. But if you can't wait that long....remember that the Nutella will be very hot! So try to keep it away from your kids.