Maple Caramel Pecan Sticky Babka

 

Ingredients

Makes two babka cakes if you use 2lb bread tins. 

For the dough

• 1 cup (240ml) warm whole milk
• 2 1/4 tsp (7g) instant dry yeast
• 1 tbsp (12g) brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 tbsp (60g) unsalted butter, melted
• 3 3/4 cups (450g) plain flour
• 1/2 tsp (2.5g) salt

For the maple caramel sauce

• 1/2 cup (120ml) double cream
• 2/3 cup (107ml) maple syrup
• 1/4 cup (50g) brown sugar
• 12 tbsp (170g) salted butter
• 2 tsp (10ml) vanilla extract

For the filling

• 2 cups (200g) roughly chopped pecans

Preparation

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the milk, yeast, brown sugar, eggs, butter, flour, and salt. Using the dough hook, mix until the flour is completely incorporated, about 4-5 minutes. The dough should be a little bit sticky, but not wet.

Cover the bowl with cling film and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

To make the maple caramel sauce, combine the milk, maple syrup, brown sugar and salted butter in a medium sauce pot. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until thickened, stirring regularly to keep it from burning. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

Grease two 2lb bread tins and line the bottom with parchment baking paper.

Lightly dust a surface with flour. Divide the dough into two parts. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough onto the surface, then trim the edges with a knife to obtain a rectangle of about 40cm x 30cm.

Spread half of the maple caramel sauce over the dough, leaving a 2 cm border all around. Sprinkle half of the pecan nuts.

Brush a little of water over the long edge of the dough on your left. Using both hands, roll up the rectangle like a roulade, starting from the long side on your right, rolling towards the left side. Roll the dough completely into a perfect, thick log, sitting on its seam.

With a knife, trim off 2 cm of both ends. Gently, cut the roll into two, length-way, from the top to the bottom. Position the cut sides facing up, gently press the ends together.

Lift the right half over the left half. Repeat with the left half over the right half and press the ends together to seal it.

Carefully lift the loaf and place into the tin.

Repeat the process with the remaining dough. Cover the two bread tins with cling film or a tea towel. Let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C Fan. (Important: don’t forget to rest the babka cakes in the baking tins for about 30 minutes before baking. Transfer the tins to the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, until the loaves are golden brown on top. If they are browning too quickly on top, cover with foil halfway through cooking.

Leave the loaves in their tins until completely cool before moving onto a serving plate. Store in airtight containers.

www.mondomulia.com

What is your legacy?

 About a hundred years ago, a man looked at the morning newspaper and to his surprise and horror, he read his name in the obituary column.

The news papers had reported the death of the wrong person by mistake.

His first response was shock.

Am I here or there?

When he regained his composure, his second thought was to find out what people had said about him.

The obituary read, “Dynamite King Dies.”

And also “He was the merchant of death.”

This man was the inventor of dynamite and when he read the words “merchant of death,” he asked himself a question, “Is this how I am going to be remembered?”

He got in touch with his feelings and decided that this was not the way he wanted to be remembered.

From that day on, he started working toward peace.

His name was Alfred Nobel and he is remembered today by the great Nobel Prize.

——————–

Just as Alfred Nobel got in touch with his feelings and redefined his values, we should step back and do the same.

1. What is your legacy?
2. How would you like to be remembered?
3. Will you be spoken well of?
4. Will you be remembered with love and respect?
5. Will you be missed?

www.asocialox.com

Foi Deus - Por Raquel Maria (Amália Rodrigues)

A LOVE STORY

 

He met her at a party. She was so outstanding, many guys chasing after her, while he was average looking, shy and awkward.

At the end of the party, he finally summoned some courage to invite the girl to have coffee with him. She was surprised, but out of politeness, she accepted his invitation to go on a date. They both sat in a nice coffee shop, he was too nervous to say anything, she felt uncomfortable, waiting for coffee. With him being so shy and awkward around her, It seemed like the conversation between them would never start.

The coffee was brought and suddenly, he asked the waiter. “Would you please get me some salt? I’d like to put it in my coffee!” Everyone at the café stared at him with a strange look! His face turned red, but still, he put the salt in his coffee and drank it. She asked him curiously, “Why this unusual habit?” He took a couple of sips and replied, “When I was a little boy, I lived near the sea, I liked playing in the sea, I could feel the taste of the sea, just like the taste of the salty coffee. Now every time I have the salty coffee, I always think of my childhood, think of my hometown, I miss my hometown so much, I miss my parents who are still living there.” While saying that tears filled his eyes.
She was deeply touched. That’s his true feeling, from the bottom of his heart. A man who can tell out his homesickness, he must be a man who loves home, cares about home, has realized his responsibility for his family … She then started talking about her childhood, her faraway hometown, and her family.

That was a really nice talk, also a beautiful beginning of their love story. They continued to date. She found that actually, he was a man who meets all her demands; he had tolerance, was kind hearted, warm, careful. He was such a good man and had it not been for the salt in the coffee, she’d never have really known him!

The rest of the story was just like any other beautiful love story: they finally got married, and they lived a very happy married life. And sure! every time she made coffee for him, she put some salt in the coffee, just the way he liked it! After 40 years of marital bliss, he died after a short illness.

One day, she found a letter he had left for her which said,
“My dearest, please forgive me, forgive my whole life’s lie. This was the only lie I said to you—the salty coffee. Remember the first time we dated? I was so nervous at that time, actually, I wanted some sugar, but I said salt. It was hard for me to change so I just went ahead. I never thought that could be the start of our communication! I tried to tell you the truth many times in my life, but I was too afraid to do that, as I have promised not to lie to you for anything… Now I’m dying, so I tell you the truth, I don’t like the salty coffee, what a strange bad taste… But I have had the salty coffee for my whole life! Since I knew you, I never feel sorry for anything I do for you. Having you with me is my biggest happiness for my whole life. If I can live for the second time, still want to know you and have you for my whole life, even though I have to drink the salty coffee again.

Please forgive me, darling.. for lying to you first in that Coffee Shop and then not telling you the truth every time you made coffee for me! I am not lying now when I say, I couldn’t have that coffee any other way! – still madly in love with you”

Tears fell down her cheek as she finished reading the letter.

If anybody asks her: “How did that salted coffee taste?” “It’s sweet.” She always replied.

alltimeshortstories.com

 

Words of wisdom - “Love the people who love you back.”― Laura Ruby

 

“I don’t agree that when you love, you are blind or fool. You just get wiser and see clearer what is best and of worth.”― Hark Herald Sarmiento

“Like a missing tooth, sometimes an absence is more noticeable than a presence.”

― Jodi Picoult

“It’s the questions we can’t answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he’ll look for his own answers.”― Patrick Rothfuss

“Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.”― Roy T. Bennett

 “Dieting is the only game where you win when you lose!”― Karl Lagerfeld

“No matter how tiny you look, you can lead huge men if you have what the huge men don’t have.”― Michael Bassey Johnson

The Best Hummingbird Cake

Hummingbird Cake is a fantastic combination of banana bread and carrot cake

Ingredients for the Hummingbird Cake:

• 3 cups flour

• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 cup packed light brown sugar

• 3 large eggs, room temperature

• 1 cup vegetable oil

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 cup fresh pineapple, crushed (see below)

• 2 cups roasted bananas*, mashed (approximately 4 large or 6 medium-small bananas with peel left on; instructions below)

• 1 cup chopped pecans

• Parchment paper to line bottom of the cake pan

Ingredients for Cream Cheese Frosting:

• ¾ cups unsalted butter, chilled

• 3-250gr packages of cream cheese, chilled

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted

• 1 ½ cups finely chopped pecans

Instructions

Instructions to make Hummingbird Cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. *Place bananas on a cookie sheet with peels left on. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes until the skins are black (the bananas may leak which is fine). Remove and let cool until they can be handled. Peel bananas, place in a small mixing bowl and mash. Set aside. Leave the oven heated to 180 degrees.
3. Butter and flour 3-9 inch round baking pans. Trace the bottom of the pan (for all three pans) onto parchment paper, cut out circle and place in the bottom of each pan.
4. In a sifter over a large mixing bowl combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Sift into the bowl. Set aside.
5. In a second large mixing bowl combine the granulated and brown sugar; stir to combine. Add the eggs and stir briskly by hand to combine all ingredients into a smooth mixture.
6. Whisk the oil and vanilla into the sugar/egg mixture until combined and smooth.
7. Add the flour mixture all at once and hand stir (do not beat) to combine the mixture fully.
8. To crush the pineapple: Place 1 cup of finely diced fresh pineapple in a medium mixing bowl and using a potato masher, crush the pineapple. Add the fruit and juice to the batter. Also add the mashed banana and the pecans. Stir just until combined; do not over stir.
9. Divide the batter evenly between the three pans. Tap the pans on the countertop to release any air bubbles and place in the 180 degree oven for 25-30 minutes until cake bounces back to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
10. Allow to cool in pans on racks for 5 minutes then turn out onto cooling racks to fully cool before frosting. Be sure to peel off and discard the parchment paper.
Instructions for Cream Cheese Frosting:
11. Cut chilled butter into 2cm pieces and place in the bowl of a standing mixer (can use a hand held mixer if needed). Beat on low speed, gradually increasing speed to medium until the butter is still cool but has softened together (about 3 minutes).
12. Cut the cream cheese into 2cm strips and add to the butter. Mix at medium speed until fully combined, and smooth.
13. Add the vanilla and slowly add the sifted powdered sugar. Beat until well blended, increasing speed to beat on medium-high for 3 minutes or until the frosting becomes light and fluffy.
14. Fold in pecans by hand.
Instructions for Cake Assembly:
15. Place the first layer of cake upside down (the bottom of the cake will be frosted) on the serving plate. Cover with 2/3 cup of frosting. This will be a thin covering.
16. Place the second layer of cake right side up (flat cake bottom onto the frosting) and frost the top of this layer with 2/3 cup again (note: I found I needed just a bit more to cover this layer).
17. Place the last cake layer with cake right side up and use the remaining frosting to cover top of cake and the sides.
18. 4. Allow cake to stand at room temperature 30 minutes before serving and store any uneaten cake in the refrigerator. Cake best when made the day prior to serving! 

http://lekkerreseptevirdiejongergeslag.blogspot.com

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