Lieblingspflaumenmus

Hallo, ihr Lieben! So als Schwangere ist man ja irgendwie ständig beschäftigt: die Wohnung vorbereiten und dabei alle Schränke und Regale neu sortieren, Babysachen waschen, spontane Näh- und Strickprojekte, den Schrank nach Kleidern durchsuchen, die noch passen und oh so viele Termine! Der Blog ist dabei in den Hintergrund getreten, und ich hoffe, ihr versteht das.

Heute melde ich mich dafür mit etwas ganz Besonderem zurück: Unserem absoluten Lieblingsmarmeladenrezept! Für den Herrn des Hauses gehört Pflaumenmus einfach zu einem guten Frühstück dazu, ich bin eigentlich kein großer Fan von (Supermarkt-)Pflaumenmus - aber wir beide lieben diese Variante! Seit drei Jahren ist dieses Pflaumenmus ein Dauerbrenner auf unserem Frühstückstisch. Wir lieben diese Marmelade so sehr, dass wir immer gleich so viel herstellen, dass wir das ganze Jahr über davon essen können. Man muss ein wenig Zeit einplanen, da das Mus für 3 Stunden in den Ofen muss. Stellt also sicher, dass ihr genug Zeit habt!

Lieblingspflaumenmus

(für ca. 4 Gläser à 250ml - 30 min Arbeitszeit - 3 h Backzeit)

Zutaten

2 kg Pflaumen oder Zwetschgen
500g Zucker
1 TL Zimt
1 Msp. Nelkenpulver
1 EL Zitronensaft


Und so geht's:

1. Den Ofen auf  175° C vorheizen.

2. Pflaumen waschen, halbieren und mit einem Pürierstab grob pürieren.

3. Zucker, Zimt, Nelken und Zitronensaft dazu geben und verrühren. Die Mischung in eine Auflaufform füllen und für 3 Stunden in den Ofen stellen. Nach ca. 1 Stunde ab und zu umrühren.

4. Während das Pflaumenmus im Ofen ist, die Einweckgläser und Deckel heiß ausspülen und bereit stellen. Sobald die 3 Stunden um sind, das fertige Pflaumenmus kurz abschmecken und evtl. nachzuckern/-würzen. Anschließend sofort in die Gläser füllen und diese fest verschließen.


Das Pflaumenmus ist mindestens 6 Monate haltbar. Wir stellen, wie gesagt, gleich einen Jahresvorrat her, und hatten bisher keine Probleme mit der Haltbarkeit.

Guten Appetit!

Super schnelle, selbstgebackene Brötchen - ein Favorit auf unserem Frühstückstisch.

Morgen ist Valentinstag! Bei uns beginnt dieser Tag mit einem Traumfrühstück mit allem, was wir am liebsten mögen und ganz viel Selbstgemachtem. Mit ganz viel Liebe eben. Ich habe nichts gegen teure Geschenke, aber nichts rührt mich mehr, als wenn der Liebste morgens vor mir aufsteht (Das allein ist ein echter Liebesbeweis), den Tisch deckt, Kerzen anzündet, Kaffee kocht und mir Pancakes macht. Oder Waffeln. Oder eben Brötchen. Ganz alleine und nur für mich. Hach!

Dieses Jahr habe ich mir zum Frühstück selbstgemachte Brötchen gewünscht. Der Liebste ist kein Meisterkoch, ganz und gar nicht. Als wir uns kennenlernten umfasste sein Rezepte-Repertoire Nudeln und Spiegelei. An den meisten Tagen kochen wir zusammen, aber es gibt einige Rezepte, die kann er ganz alleine - und besser als ich. Selbstgemachte Brötchen ist eins davon. Wenn ich versuche, Brötchen zu backen, werden sie meist klein und fest. Ich habe keine Ahnung, was er anders macht, aber bei ihm werden sie groß und fluffig und himmlisch. Vielleicht liegt es aber auch an dem Rezept, das er benutzt? Ich möchte euch dieses Rezept natürlich nicht vorenthalten. Und vielleicht überrascht ihr eure/n Liebste/n morgen früh ja auch mit ein paar frischen, selbstgebackenen Brötchen?

Ach, das Beste habe ich ja noch gar nicht verraten! Stundenlange Gehzeiten kann man sich bei diesen Brötchen sparen - nach 35 Minuten sind sie fertig! Na, wenn das kein Argument ist.

Schnelle Brötchen

(für ca. 6 Brötchen - 15 min Arbeitszeit - 20 min Backzeit)

Zutaten

375g Mehl (Weiß- oder Vollkornmehl, je nach Geschmack)
1/2 Würfel Hefe
250 ml Wasser
1 TL Salz


Und so geht's:

1. Den Ofen auf  250° C vorheizen.

2. Hefe im lauwarmen Wasser auflösen. Danach das Mehl mit dem Salz und dem Hefewasser mischen. Kurz durchrühren und anschließend kneten, bis der Teig eine Konsistenz wie Knete hat.

3. Den Teig auf einer bemehlten Arbeitsfläche rund rollen. Er sollte etwa die Form und Größe einer Zucchini haben. Danach den Teig in 6 gleichgroße Stücke teilen und diese auf ein mit Backpapier ausgelegtes Backblech legen. Die Teigstückchen können natürlich auch mit der Hand nachgeformt und mit einem Kreuz versehen werden - müssen sie aber nicht.

4. Teigstücke vor dem Backen mit etwas Wasser bestäuben. Das geht am besten mit einer Strühflasche, einem Wasserzerstäuber oder einem Pinsel.

5. Die Brötchen kommen jetzt ohne Gehen in den Ofen! Sie werden erst 10 min lang bei 250° C gebacken, dann erneut mit Wasser bestäubt. Anschließend wird der Ofen auf 200° C heruntergeregelt und die Brötchen weitere 10 min gebacken.


Guten Appetit!

Homemade green melon lemonade

A while ago the boyfriend and I found this burrito place, I can't remember the name but they had the most delicious homemade organic melon and mint lemonade. And since it's homemade and organic it must be possible to recreate it and have it every day, right?  So I locked myself in my kitchen laboratory for a while and came up with this! The look and taste comes very close to the original drink. It's super refreshing, low on sugar and sooo good! The perfect refreshment for the current weather. Cheers!

Green Melon Lemonade

Ingredients

1/2 futuro melon (or any other green melon)
1/2 lime
3 tablespoons brown sugar
4 stems mint
water

1. Put the brown sugar, mint leaves and lime juice in the container of an electric blender and blend until smooth.
2. Cut the green melon into cubes and add them to the mint-sugar-lime mixture. Blend until smooth again.
3. Since this is a recipe for lemonade and not a smoothie add water until the drink has a watery texture. I added between 500 and 1000 ml to mine. Taste and add sugar, lime or mint if you think the drink needs it.
4. Place in the fridge for at least an hour. You can skip this step by putting some ice cubes into the blender and storing the melon in the fridge before you start, but that's totally optional.

If stored, the pulp will float up to the top of the lemonade, so give it a good shake or stir before drinking it!

For a clear lemonade let the mixture sit for an hour at least (or best over night in a sealed container) and then pour it through a kitchen towel to catch all the melon and mint pieces.

The melon lemonade can be stored in sealed containers or bottles for at least a week. Probably longer but that's the longest I managed before it was all gone. Enjoy!

Star shaped cinnamon cookies aka Zimtsterne | nom nom nom

Cinnamon stars are my very favorite cookies at Christmas time but I think they are everyone's favorite cookie, really. Cinnamon stars are like a sweet, chewy and crisp piece of Christmas compressed into star shape. Short: They look great and taste amazing. I can't believe they're 'only' typical German!
Like many many times in my life I thought for 26 years that something that great has to be incredibly difficult to make and didn't even bother to look for a recipe. Stupid me. This year someone tossed me a recipe and I was like "Whaaat? Only 7 ingredients!?". True story. To be honest I still marvel about the simplicity of it all *happy sigh*.
Of course I can't possibly keep the recipe to myself. Enjoy!

Step 1: Gather the ingredients.

Step 2: Mix the hazelnuts, almonds, vanilla sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Sieve the confectioner's sugar onto a soup plate.

Step 3: Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff and then sloooowly add the previously sieved confectioner's sugar (a spoonful at a time). Fill 5 tablespoons of the meringue creme into an icing bag and place it into the fridge. Start adding the hazelnut-almond-cinnamon mixture to the remaining meringue (slowly again) until you get a thick and smooth dough.

Step 4: Roll the dough out 1 cm thick between two sheets of plastic wrap. Remove the upper layer and start punching out stars. Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Step 5: Preheat the oven (150° C). Remove the meringue creme from the fridge and place a hazelnut-sized blob on every cinnamon star. Use a paint brush (a new one!) to spread the meringue over the whole surface of the star. Bake the cinnamon stars in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove, let cool, enjoy!

Homemade chocolate nougat spread | nom nom nom

I'm no fan of Nutella. Boom. I said it. I don't like it. I'm aware that I must be one of very few people on the planet to say that. I think it's too sweet, too nougat-y (no fan of nougat either).
I also only tried this recipe for the boyfriend and never intended to eat one bite out of it. But as it turns out - I love it! It's sweet but not too sweet and it tastes really much more like chocolate than nougat. And the texture is just perfectly smooth and creamy. It's like the real thing, just tastes better!
I believe you could experiment with the amounts of sugar, chocolate and nougat to get the chocolate nougat spread to taste sweeter or more like nougat or more like chocolate. Or use dark or white chocolate! This was definitely not the last time I made this heavenly chocolate nougat spread.
Best thing: totally easy. Follow me.

Step 1: Gather all the ingredients.

Step 2: Pour the heavy cream into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Take it off the stove and start adding all the other ingredients one after another.

Step 3: Continue to stir until all ingredients are combined in a homogeneous, creamy paste. Fill into containers (2 x 250 g)and leave the chocolate nougat spread to cool for at least 1 hour.

Step 4: Enjoy right away or store in the fridge for up to 4 weeks!

Elderflower Syrup

Oh elderflower syrup. Summer just isn't the same without it. It's the perfect addition to every drink - even plain water - and makes it taste like summer: sweet, sunny and refreshing. We used to always have it in our fridge in summer when we were kids. It's one of those things you rarely have at home, which makes it extra special if you do. IKEA has it and I found it in organic grocery stores for a ridiculously high price. But for me, the real thing is the homemade version. And it's so easy it feels almost absurd to buy it! Seriously. You only need access to an elderflower bush, but nothing a short trip to the countryside can't solve - they grow everywhere!

So I told the boyfriend the other day how I had enjoyed making applesauce from the apples that fell off the tree in our inner yard last year (clearly no one wanted to pick them up, so we did eventually and made applesauce). I said I'd love to learn more how to use and live from what nature already provides, like fruit and wild herbs and berries. And then my mind wandered to elderflower syrup and I was hooked. I had to make my own elderflower syrup. Now.
We located an elderflower bush via Mundraub (check it out, it's a really great project), went for a walk, and came back with a bag full of elderflower heads. The method is totally easy, you'll see in a sec.

Elderflower Syrup

(easy peasy, makes 2,5-3l)

Ingredients
25 elderflower heads
2kg sugar
50g citric acid (Histamine-friendly version. Feel free to take fresh lemon juice instead or/and add some lemon slices to the mix.)

1- Carefully clean the elderflower heads in cold water. Place stems up on a kitchen towel to dry. In that position you can easily snip of any bigger stems (they taste bitter).

2- Mix the sugar and citric acid with 1,5l water and bring to a boil. Let the mixture simmer until the sugar is completely dissolved, then remove from the heat.

3- Place the elderflower heads in a large pot and cover them with the hot sugar syrup. Let the whole thing cool off, then cover with a lid and let it sit for 3 days.

4- After 3 days, sieve well (through a very fine sieve or a cotton cloth and pour into clean bottles.

Enjoy in drinks like sparkling wine, tea or water or as topping for pancakes, desserts or ice cream. You can keep the elderflower syrup in the fridge for at least 6 months.

Cheers!

News From My Kitchen: Please Welcome The Histamine

It’s been a bit quiet in our kitchen lately. I haven’t shared a single recipe for months. I’m not tired of cooking and baking and there’s no dust layer slowly building up in my kitchen or anything. The reason for the hiatus has been an unexpected diet change. After months and months of constant nausea, headaches, insomnia and a range of other mysterious symptoms, I’ve been diagnosed with histamine intolerance. Histamine intolerance. Well it means that I have a low level of the enzyme that usually breaks down any histamine that my body absorbs from food, resulting in histamine poisoning symptoms. Once diagnosed the cure is quite easy: avoid all histamine-rich foods. So far so good. I printed out a list of food you can and food you can’t eat. It has 20 pages and there's no pattern behind it. Learn the list by heart. Find out you can eat basically nothing that is preserved in one way or another, dried, matured, sulfured, canned, smoked. Then find out that flavor enhancers are forbidden, too. And don’t let me start on medications, spices, alcohol.

At some point it felt like there was not a thing in this world I was allowed to eat, except a few raw vegetables. I spent hours in the supermarket checking ingredients on simple things like cream and bread and juice and dismissing everything. I lived on the few things I knew where safe: non-carbonated water, baked potatoes, apples, and carrots. I was struggling to get enough calories in and even lost some weight in the beginning!

It took me a while to build up a repertoire of low-histamine foods and recipes that were easy enough to cook every day and tasted like something. To be honest: broccoli, rice cakes, potatoes, water, cucumbers, and carrots don’t taste like much when compared to pizza, salami, coffee, cake. Sometimes I stood in the kitchen looking for something to eat and everything I could see is flavorless, flavorless, flavorless.  But it gets better. I'm now in a stage where I bake everything in the oven for the roasting flavor. I discovered that I can tolerate half an espresso in the morning so the automatic coffee maker we got for Christmas is not totally useless for me.

The parents got a copy of the magic food list and they’re trying  to cook histamine friendly whenever I’m around and I do appreciate it, although I can’t stand them having extra work because of me.

With all the changes we made to our diet the boyfriend didn’t complain once. He’s more or less on a low-histamine diet too, of course and I’m grateful that he doesn’t order pizza for himself when I’m not looking.

There will be recipes on this blog again soon, but most of them will now be low on or free of gluten, eggs, alcohol, caffeine and many other ingredients. There’ll be more recipes made from scratch. I hope you won’t even notice the change. But if you do, now you know why. You have been warned.

Homemade mini apple pie with an almond crust

Is there anything better than the smell of cake, apples and cinnamon? Heavenly! Sometimes I need a dose of that smell and then I bake an apple pie (with cinnamon, duh!) There are many types of apple pies but this is one of my favorites. Also because it's really small, which means that I can make one for me and the boyfriend without having to invite all of my friends over because we would otherwise eat that pie for the whole week. Sometimes you just want to have cake and quiet, just the two of us. No problem, because this pie is only 18cm in diameter!

Mini apple pie with an almond crust

(for a round 18cm springform cake pan)

For the dough
60g flour
60g ground hazelnuts
60g sugar
50g butter
1 egg yolk

For the filling
500g apples
1 teapoon lemon juice
30g sugar
1 pinch cinnamon (if you like cinnamon, like me, take 1 teaspoon)
30g butter
90ml cream
1 teaspoon honey
50g sliced almonds


1- Knead together all ingredients for the dough. Lightly grease the cake pan. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and fit into the cake pan. Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least an hour.

2- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cut the apples to quarters and then slices. Mix immediately with the lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon. Get the cake pan out of the fridge and fill it with the apple slices. Press it down a bit and bake for 30 minutes.

3- Mix butter, cream and honey and bring to a boil. Add the sliced almonds. Spread the mixture onto the apple pie and bake again for 15 minutes until the almond crust is gold brown.

4- Take the cake out of the oven and remove the sides of the cake pan. Let cool (but not too much because warm apple cake is awesome!) and serve with whipped cream.

Recipe: Calzone with broccoli and cheese

Hello everybody, I hope you had a great week! I originally planned to use these past few days to whip up some new DIY projects for you, but as it happens my doctor confined me to bed for one whole week and so the crafting will have to wait and I'm giving you a very delicious and healthy recipe as compensation. Deal?

If you don't know what calzone is - well, it's like if you take a pizza and fold it over. And pizza is awesome and so calzone is, too!

Calzone with broccoli and cheese

(easy, makes 4 servings)

For the dough
21g fresh yeast
1 pinch sugar
450g flour
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

For the filling
1-2 onions
1 clove of garlic
3 tablespoon olive oil
600g broccoli, salt
200g grated mozzarella
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1-2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
freshly ground pepper
nutmeg


1- In a large bowl mix the yeast with 200ml water (lukewarm), then add all the other ingredients for the dough and knead (by hand or using dough hooks) until the dough is soft and smooth. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise for 45 minutes.
2- For the filling chop the onions and the garlic. Lightly sautée both in a pan with oil until translucent. Let cool.
3-Wash the broccoli and separate into florets. Parboil in salt water for 3 minutes, rinse with cold water and let drain.
4- Mix the tomato paste with oil, ketchup and dried herbs. Season with salt and pepper.
5- Mix broccoli, onions and cheese and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
6- On a floured surface knead the dough once more and cut into 4 even portions. Roll every portion into a round shape measuring about 22cm in diameter.
7-Spread the tomato mixture on the dough pieces, leave the outer 2cm free. Place some broccoli cheese mixture in the middle. Coat the edges of the dough with water and fold them in half (over the broccoli cheese mixture). Press down the edges.
8- Preheat the oven to 220°C and bake the calzone for 35 minutes.
9- Enjoy!

Life is crazy

Life is crazy, it is. It's the last week before the next semester at university starts and I am in the middle of a hundred projects at once, old and new. I'm working on my Dawanda shop to make it a place that feels like me, optimizing products and I'm even making a leaflet to add to every order. I've never made a leaflet before (And why whould I have?) but it's fun! I've even set up a mini photo studio on my desk. Yes, I used gift wrap from IKEA. Don't laugh, it worked just fine.
So I'm stitching a lot, because if you already checked out my shop you know it's about cross stitching and stuff.

I also digged out my old granny squares! I'm working on a blanket here, guys! I started crocheting granny squares about a year ago and it even was one of my first posts here on Curious and Catcat! It's the best thing to dim the light in the evening, light some (read: many many) candles, turn on some classical piano music and just sit there, crochet, relax... it's kind of meditative and I love it!

What else is in the pictures? Ah yes: homemade pizza! I recently happened to discover my love to bake things. Pizza, calzone, cake, and we haven't bought bread for a month! After our WWOOFing trip we found that we wanted to really eat healthy and with healthy I don't mean that we buy a lot of salad or vegetables because everyone knows vegetables are healthy. I mean that we are trying to cook fresh and from scratch without using canned stuff or all those powders and instant products. We're also experimenting with new and healthier because not overbred grains.
Maybe this is just a phase, but It feels right at the moment and there's just nothing better than eating a pizza or apple purree or bread you made from scratch. I think you can taste the love you put into it haha. No. Really.

Have a great week y'all!

Watermelon and Mint Popsicles

I love watermelons in summer! They're so refreshing! But the other day when we had a thousand degrees and super high humidity that I felt like living in a rain forest, only without the rain, a watermelon just wasn't enough. And that's how these melon and mint popsicles were born! It's super easy and the best refreshment you can have on hot summer days. And yummy too by the way... and without extra sugar!

Watermelon and Mint Popsicles

For 8-10 popsicles you'll need:
1/2 watermelon, preferably without seeds
3-5 mint leaves
1/2 lime

[1] Cut the watermelon into small pieces and put them in a bowl or similar. If the watermelon has seeds, like mine, get them out before that.
[2] Add some mint leaves and the lime juice.
[3] Use a blender and blend until everything is nice and smooth.
[4] Pour the mixture into the molds and freeze at least 3 hours.

Perfect for a sunny weekend! Enjoy!

The world's best donuts and how to make them yourself

Everyone knows I'm a HUGE fan of donuts. I could literally live on them. Now for our tea party last month, while looking for the best ideas for cookies and cake I thought: 'Yeah, why not try to make donuts yourself? Can't be too difficult, can it?' And that's where the adventure started. The Internet told me that the ingredients where... well... ordinary. How could something as yummy as a donut consist of only very normal stuff like flour, milk, eggs?
And then there was the hot oil thing. I didn't own a kitchen thermometer. I didn't see a big problem in that, but after my mother told me the most colorful horror stories about self-igniting oil and exploding pans (Really? Exploding pans!?) I was a little concerned and invested in a kitchen thermometer at last. A Google search told me that the self ignition temperature is pretty much out of reach for things like donut frying, but it really helped to get the right temperature and hold it constant. But now without further ado, here's the recipe I used for my donuts!

 

Donuts

(medium, makes about 20 plus holes)

1 1/8 cup warm milk
1 package dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
250g melted butter
4 cups flour
canola or vegetable oil

1- In a small bowl mix sugar and the warm milk and add the yeast to the mixture. Stir gently and let sit for 10 minutes.
2- Melt the butter and stir in the eggs.
3- Add the butter-egg mixture to a larger bowl. Get a hand mixer with dough hooks. Put it on medium speed and stir in the yeast mixture. Keep stirring for a couple of minutes until it's well combined.
4- Now with the mixer still going add the salt and start adding small portions of flour at a time (not more than 1 cup) until all flour is stirred in. Keep stirring for another 5-10 minutes.
5- Put the dough in a lightly greased bowl and put it in the fridge overnight.
6- Get the dough out of the fridge the next day and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll it out to about 1 cm thickness (0.5 inch) and cut out the donuts. you could use anything that has the right size. I used IKEA glasses and small mason jar lids (about 8 and 3 cm).
7- Place the donuts and holes on a baking sheet and allow the donuts to rise for 1 - 1.5 hours. Make sure you keep them in a place that's warm and not drafty.
8- Heat enough oil in a large pot or pan that the donuts can float. Keep the temperature between 180 - 190°C (370-380°F).
9- Stir two or three donuts at a time for 30-45 seconds each side and place it on a stack of paper towels to drip off afterwards.

If you want to try the glaze I used (it was so good!) mix milk and powdered sugar to a paste and add pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon lemon juice and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract. If it's now too liquidy add a little more powdered sugar. Pour into a bowl that's slightly wider than the donuts. Dip the donuts into the glaze (or just drop them onto the surface), remove and place on a baking sheet to dry.


Enjoy! The donuts are the very best (and really to die for) on the day they were made so I recommend you to eat as much as you can. Just like I did, I couldn't resist!