krantz cake

Currently my absolute favourite cookbook is Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi.  It's a beautiful book full of splendid recipes and fascinating pictures.  Everything savoury I've tried so far has been truely delicious so I was keen to try the chocolate krantz cake which is a yeasted cake. 

The only real problem I had was my dough wasn't rising fast enough in fridge and I needed to get some sleep so left it out in the warm for a little while to speed things along.  This meant that the dough was very soft and more difficult to work with.  Also, it meant I didn't get the twists quite as defined and even.

However, it worked. Quite a lot of faffing about a challenge, great fun making it, and really seriously tasty.

Recipe is quite long so here it is:

(click on recipe if you actually want to be able to read it)

chocolate krantz cake

I decided to make one chocolate krantz and one cinnamon so made half the chocolate filling and then the cinnamon filling as described.  Not really keen on walnuts -I always think they are a bit disappointing.  All that work trying to crack them open, most of them end up in tiny pieces (on the floor, on the dog, down your top) and when you do eventually get one of the little bastards out whole, they taste a bit musty.  I know, buy them really shelled but I still find those plump little nutty brains don't taste a nice as they say they're going to!  So I used almonds instead which I do like.  I think the combination of the almonds, cinnamon and syrup gives the loaf a taste and texture rather reminiscent of baklava.  Everyone who tried both actually said the cinnamon was the best.  One comment was 'seriously delicious'.

Thanks Mr Ottolenghi!

cinnamon krantz cake

geraniums are looking good too!

chocolate ginger brownies

Got some eggs that needed using up pronto so decided to give brownies a go.  I only put 50g of the ginger in but next time I think I would increase this as it wasn't gingery enough for my taste.



185g unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate
85g plain flour
60g cocoa powder
50g stem ginger
3 large eggs
275g dark muscovado sugar



Pre-heat the oven to 170c. Grease and line a 20cm square deep baking tray.

Melt the chocolate and butter over a low heat in a bain marie.  Leave to cool

Beat the eggs up until thick, creamy and light then beat in the sugar.  Gently stir in the cooled butter and chocolate mixture.  Sift in the flour and cocoa powder taking care not to knock the air out.

Turn into the baking tray and cook for 35-40 minutes

Leave to cool and cut into 16 pieces.  Don't worry that the pieces are small as you really don't need to eat too much of this in one go.  Even I, a hardened cake-eater, couldn't manage more than a couple of chunks at a time!

Feed to hungry office people with tea

Someone did suggest that it might be nice with walnuts or almonds and cherries in.  Not so sure about the walnuts as they are always a bit of a disappointment.  They look so nice but always taste a bit musty.  Might try the almonds and cherries next time though.

choc-o-nut cookies

A cold, snowy day requires tea and biscuits after a dog walk, especially when the oven is still hot from baking bread.

makes about 18
90g margarine
110g caster sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp golden syrup
175g self raising flour
75g chocolate
50g whole almonds
1 tsp cocoa powder

Cream together the margarine and sugar.  Beat in the egg and golden syrup.  In a food processor roughly chop up the almonds and chocolate and add to the mixture then beat in the flour and cocoa powder until everything is blended.

Divide and roll into balls around about the size of a greengage or walnut.  Put on a lined baking tray and squish down slightly with a fork.  Bake in a pre-heated oven about 190c for about 15 minutes.  They should be browned but they will still be a bit soft when you take them out.  Try and leave to cool on a wire rack....try anyway.

Enjoy with a nice cup of tea and tired dog