German peach streusel cake

by Eva on August 15, 2012

There are things that would force me to get up early on a weekend day like tornado siren, earthquake or fire alarm. But there are also some enjoyable circumstances like the scent of freshly brewed coffee waving into my bedroom and tinkling my nose (hint!) or the anticipated trip to a peach orchard.

Since our visit to an apple orchard in Wisconsin last October, I am in love with orchards and pick-your-own fruits. Due to the summery heat we decided to rise and shine very early, get a bucket full of peaches and have a decent late breakfast at the cafe owned by the farmers wife. I love it than a plan comes together. We were the first peach pickers that morning, but not for long. Our bucket filled up fast, the trees were loaded with branches full of fragrant and juicy peaches. Afterwards the breakfast was sweet and filling and we enjoyed the Southern hospitality.

I spent most of this weekend in my kitchen, there are three peach pies sitting in my freezer and waiting for my family to arrive in a couple of days. I made American peach pie for my German family and this German peach streusel cake to share with you and my American friends. Food is connecting people, countries and continents.

German peach streusel cake

All ingredients should be at room temperature! This cake is best the day it’s freshly baked but still delicious for two more days if wrapped and stored in the refrigerator.

ingredients:

for the yeast dough:

130 g / 1 cup all-purpose flour (more if needed)
70 g / 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
2 tsp active dry yeast
3-4 Tbsp granulated sugar
pinch of salt
30 g / 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, soft
60 ml / 1/4 cup milk (2%)
1 egg

1.1 kg / 2 1/2 pounds peaches (about 8 medium and 5 large peaches)

for the streusel dough:

180 g / 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
100 g / 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
110 g / 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, soft
butter and flour for the pan

instructions:

Add all ingredients for the yeast dough in a big bowl. Knead by hand or with stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment for 2 minutes. Add more flour or milk if needed. You should end up with a easy to handle dough not too sticky and not too dry. Sprinkle dough with more flour to keep it moist. Place the bowl at a warm (not hot) place, cover with a clean kitchen towel, let rise until doubled in size, approx. 40-50 minutes.

Grease and flour dust a baking pan 20 x 30 cm / 8 x 12 inch. Knead the dough shortly with your hands. Roll out dough and place into your baking pan. Let rise a second time while you prepare peaches and streusel.

Preheat your oven to 180 C / 360 F.

Meanwhile peel peaches with vegetable peeler (works best for me), cut in half, remove stone and cut the halves into thin slices (about 4-6 slices depending to the size of your peaches).

In a medium bowl add all ingredients for streusel. Knead with your hands until well combined. Rub with fingers until crumbs form.

Place peaches on dough, top with streusel and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool before serving.

{ 10 comments }

onion pie

by Eva on July 5, 2012

Yes I am aware of that onion pie is a fall staple and this is neither the right month nor the right season for it. But this is the time for sitting on the porch with friends with a cold beer and wine (works with both) and I presume onion pie is perfect for putting on the table as a snack or taking to a picnic as an alternative for bread or to accompany a salad and make a real meal out of it. I got the strong feeling we miss out a lot if we limit onion pie to the colder months.

This is a very old and traditional German recipe where I added bacon and use the flavorful bacon fat for frying onions. I am not even sure about the name, it’s a in-between a yeast bread or cake but comes with a pie or pizza-like topping: “onion and bacon pizza kind of pie or cake” sounds not just a little weird?! The bread part is soft with a slightly crunchy crust and the onion and bacon topping bring a lot of flavor to the party with a little sweetness from the onions. Although this is a traditionally recipe it’s not stiff at all, quite contrary! Add paprika powder, cayenne pepper, herbs like parsley and thyme to change or adjust the flavors to the rest on your table.

If you want to go for a vegetarian version, you can use vegetarian bacon or skip it altogether and add two tablespoons of butter and one tablespoon of vegetable oil to the onions.

onion pie

Use a baking pan 20 x 30 cm / 8 x 12 inch. or make a free form pie on a baking sheet.

for the yeast dough

ingredients:

250 ml lukewarm water

1/2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

360 g all purpose flour (more if needed)

1 tsp salt

a slug of olive oil + more for the baking sheet

instructions:

Measure water and dissolve sugar and yeast, wait 15-20 minutes until you see some bubbles at the surface (if there are non your yeast might be too old).

Add the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Pour in the yeast water and knead by hand or with your stand mixer for at least 3 to 4 minutes. This don’t have to be sticky at all, add more water or flour if necessary. Form a ball and sprinkle with some flour, cover the bowl with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Keep at a warm (not hot) place for 45 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the topping (instructions below).

Grease your baking pan with olive oil and preheat your oven to 200 C / 400 F.

Roll out dough, I usually press and push the dough with my fingers, place on your baking pan and create a rim and spread the topping evenly over the yeast dough. Bake for 30 minutes and enjoy hot or cold.

Cover leftovers and keep them in your refrigerator for up to 3 days (maybe more but without guarantee) and you can heat them up in the oven for a couple minutes.

for the onion topping

You can use prosciutto or other lean bacon like turkey or vegetarian bacon if you like. Add some vegetable oil (and some butter for taste) for frying.

ingredients:

3 large Vidalia onions or other sweet variety

approx. 300 g / 10.5 oz thick cut bacon, sliced

250 g / 1 cup + 2 Tbsp sour cream

2 large eggs

1 Tbsp all purpose flour

salt and pepper to taste

thyme or caraway seeds (both optional)

instructions:

Peel the onions, half lengthwise, cut the each half into three wedges and slice these wedges roughly, so you will get nice bite size pieces.

In a large frying pan over medium high heat, add the sliced bacon and fry until slightly crisp, then remove from pan with a slotted spoon to keep the bacon fat in the pan and put aside. Add the onion to the same frying pan with the bacon fat (caution with might splatter!), reduce the heat to medium and fry for 8 to 10 minutes. The onions should be golden brown and softer but not brown and crisp. Stir from time to time.

In a medium bowl add all ingredients and stir until well combined.

{ 1 comment }

carrot bread with poppy seeds

by Eva on March 3, 2012

This is me adapting my own recipe. Actually that’s what I do all the time, there is not one recipe that I would call completed. Not one that stays as it is. There is always something I like to change or swap, apples for pears, raisins for dried cranberries just to start easy. But I also changed recipes form savory to sweet or from meat lover to vegetarian. There are many reasons for that, at first I think it’s boring to eat the same over and over again. Then it depends what I am up to, sometimes it has to be a chocolate filling and not fruits. I think the main reason is quiet simple, I ran out of the asked ingredients and I am too lazy to hit the road for grocery shopping.

Well I don’t end up with something enjoyable all the time, that’s the risk if you manipulate recipes. But that’s fine, it might have also been the invention of the best oven soup ever although it should become casserole dish when grown up. Putting cheese on it is always a life saver…

This bread recipe caught my notice as I was working on my blog moving (copy and paste, copy and paste, that’s how the non web designer do it). I stopped at this post and I was embarrassed of the bad pictures. That’s maybe the reason why it didn’t get the attention and love I had hopped for, I truly understand. So here you get a second chance, I simplified the recipe and added more poppy seeds (I wrote poopy seeds for the fifth time now with no hidden thought, thank you spellchecker).

carrot bread with poppy seeds

If you don’t have rye flour on hand, substitute with all purpose flour or whole wheat flour. If you want to skip the healthy flours and just use all purpose flour that’s fine, but start with less milk and add more only if necessary because whole grains are more “thirsty” than regular flours.

1 1/2 tablespoons / 20 g / 0.7 oz. butter
1 1/4 cup / 300 ml milk

2 cups / 200 g (about 4) carrots finely grated
2 cups / 270 g / 9.6 oz. whole wheat flour
1 cup / 120 g / 4.3 oz. all-purpose flour or bread flour
3/4 cup / 80 g / 2.9 oz. rye flour (I used stone ground)
1/3 cup / 50 g / 1.8 oz. poppy seeds
4 teaspoons dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt

Heat the milk and then add the butter, the butter will melt in the milk and cools it at the same time. Make sure the butter and milk mix cools down until lukewarm before you add it to the remaining ingredients.
Add everything into a large mixing bowl. Use a dough hook and a stand mixer or knead by hand for at least 3 minutes. Add more milk or flour if necessary and just a little bit at the time, you should end up with a slightly sticky but well manageable dough.
Cover the mixing bowl and let rise for 45 minutes.

Grease your loaf pan or line with parchment paper. Carefully punch down the dough and put it into the prepared loaf pan. Let rise for a further 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 190 C / 375 F. Make some cuts on the top of your bread and bake 40-45 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack before you slice it.

For a even more crunchy crust: start baking at 220 C / 430 F for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 190 C / 375 F and continue baking for 20-25 minutes.

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