Easter preparations

It's busy in the kitchen; I'm test baking. With my but pressed against the (still warm) oven I made some quick snapshots of my first try at eiër-koeken / egg-cookies, probable candidates for the coming Easter brunch I am planning.

 I bought a butter lamb because I've wanted one all my life and now I have the perfect excuse: Miss E. needs one of course! ;-) She directly recognized the form as a: " schaap" / sheep. Which I found pretty smart for someone who is just under two years old, as it is a negative form and somewhat rough. So that recognition was the proof that a butter lamb was needed and would become, without a doubt, part of the household.

Somehow Balance seems to be a point of growing interest in my life. The perfect breakfast is all about balance: the right amount and the right ingredients, so is baking the perfect bread. Balance is not just about making mobiles, `though they do bring balance and harmony to the room and certainly inspire you to think and work things out regarding balance in your life.

Last Christmas I had it perfect for one dinner occasion, enough dishes and a perfect harmony. I tend to go in the direction of abundance when preparing a holiday brunch or dinner, but I want to refine it in to balance this year.
So here I am, slowly planning my Easter brunch. Of course one can't do without eggs for Easter now can you? But we'll see where this will lead. I am already enjoying it so much, this planning bit.

Are you already planning for Easter?

In my kitchen

It is spring and that means that the flea and antiques market season is upon us! I love antique and flea markets. One of my most cherished items I once found on an antiques market is my antique herb-cabinet.

 I filled the cabinet with glass pesto jars. This is a pesto-lovers collection of many years mind you... Now a day I make fresh pesto, in the same tradition of 101cookbooks. Which brings me to this amazing film of kinfolk have you seen it yet? It instantly brings me in the perfect kitchen mood. I learnt to make pesto like this many years ago on a French campsite, from our Italian neighbors, (how small can this world be...) but it's the same method.

But back to the herb cabinet...
My love who has these divine hands with which he can make about anything I can dream of, made a construction underneath the cabinet so I can easily hang my collection of cookie cutters and measuring spoons in hand-reach. I am so happy with how it has turned out and will keep this cabinet for the rest of my life.

And no there is nothing wrong with your eyesight, my kitchen walls are crooked and this cabinet is oblique as well. So the house and cabinet match perfectly. That's the advantage of living in a 1920 old house like ours ;-)

Have a nice weekend; you can find me on the next flea market!

Tea for three

The problem with baking and blogging about it, for me is that I mostly bake in the evenings, when miss E. is asleep. The baking is good, but the light for making pictures is terrible. So most times my bakes don't make it to the blog.

Today was different; I slipped in a perfect baking session during miss E.'s naptime. And here is the result: a perfect tea for three after naptime.
There was a simple black tea and lemonade accompanied by some ginger bread and "fig and blue cheese savouries".

I'll show you my labour with love, and you can find the recipe for the gingerbread in my previous post, and the recipe for the fig and blue cheese savouries over here.

There are only a few ingredients: flour, butter, blue cheese, pepper, salt and fig preserves.

I cut the cookies with my favourite antique cookie cutter and I put in the dimples with the back of my honey spoon which provided to be the perfect tool. Sometimes things come together like they have always belonged that way. I love it when that happens.

I think these little little flowers are perfect for this early spring. The taste is a little salt and sweet, I'll definitely make them again. 

Pain d'Anise or Springerle

My newest addiction:

I should have made them way sooner, but it was the idea of waiting a whole 12-24 hours that kept me procrastinating on making these delicious morsels of absolute divine anise taste. I'm the kind of person who likes to put her teeth into what she is making as soon as possible.
So without any further delay I present you this recipe so you can decide for your self if they are worth the waiting.

You need:
4-5 eggs (220 gr without the eggshell)
500 gr powdered sugar
1tbl  spoon cleared and lightly roasted anise
500 gr flour (fine white flour)
A mould

You beat the eggs and the sugar together until you get a nice airy cream. Kneed the anise and flour in and let it rest for approximately 10 minutes.

The dough will be sticky, roll it in a slate, 1 cm thick. The dough should be soft as silk. Don't forget to powder it with flour so it won't stick on your background.
Now you take your mould and flour it very lightly, I use a brush to do this. Then press the mould with an even pressure onto the dough. Cut your cookies in the right shape and put them on a piece of backing paper on a backing tray.
Make sure that when you go to work on the rest of your cookies, your hands are slightly moist, so the dough won't get too dry. It is also a good idea to se a piece of cling film or foil to cover the dough until you're shaping it into cookies.

When you have all your cookies cut out, let them rest for 12-24 hours. Best in an even temperature room without draught (This is needed to make sure that your image will stay intact when the dough rises while baking.)

Then it is time to bake them at 150 ̊C - 160 ̊C for 12 to 15 minutes.

Now don't use the wrong sugar, or keep them too long in the oven, 'cause then you'll break your teeth on them, as I almost did the first time I made them.
But OOooooooh they are soooooo good, so I ate the entire batch, taking the risk anyway  ;-)

Have fun and enjoy!