IB Kitchen Club

Plum Sheet Cake



For this recipe, you need 1.5 kg of purple Italian prune plums, called Zwetschgen in German.

1. Make the streusel first

This takes about 30 minutes.

250 g all-purpose flour, equivalent to German Type 405

150 g cold butter, diced

150 g brown sugar

1 heaped teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

⅛ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon salt

Combine the ingredients in a bowl. Use a fork to break the butter into small pieces and incorporate it into the dry ingredients. Then finish mixing it with a hand mixer, taking care not to let the mixture become warm.

Place the streusel in the refrigerator while you prepare the dough.

2. Make the dough

This takes about 30 minutes.

500 g all-purpose flour, equivalent to German Type 405

125 g sugar

1 teaspoon salt

8 g vanilla sugar

75 g ground almonds

250 g cold butter, diced

3 eggs

First, combine the flour, sugar, salt, vanilla sugar, and ground almonds. Mix briefly on low speed. I use a KitchenAid K5-series mixer on Speed 1 with the paddle attachment.

Add the diced butter and mix until incorporated. Then add the eggs and continue mixing. You may increase the speed to Speed 2 if necessary.

Finally, switch to the dough hook and knead briefly on Speed 2–4, just until the dough comes together. Avoid overmixing.

Place the dough in the refrigerator while you prepare the plums.

3. Prepare the plums

This takes about an hour.

Remove the pits from the plums and cut each plum into quarters.

The plums have a noticeable seam along one side, but it is easier to cut them open along the opposite side. The pit then comes out standing on its edge instead of sticking to one half of the plum. Cutting the plums into quarters also makes removing the pits quicker.

Place the prepared plums in the refrigerator until needed.

4. Roll out the dough

This takes about 30 minutes.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper. My pan measures 40 × 33 cm on the inside, so I roll the dough directly onto the parchment paper until it reaches those dimensions.

Trim away any excess dough along the edges. Roll the excess into thin strips and use them to form a raised edge around the pastry. This is important because it helps contain the plum juice while the cake bakes.

5. Add the plums and streusel

This takes about 20 minutes.

Arrange the plum pieces evenly over the dough. Then distribute the streusel evenly over the top using a spoon or fork. It may remind you of assembling a pizza.

One small culinary note:
If your Zwetschgen are especially juicy, sprinkling 1–2 tablespoons of ground almonds, breadcrumbs, or semolina over the dough before adding the plums can help absorb excess juice.

6. Preheat the oven

Preheat the oven to 180°C. If using a fan oven, use approximately 160–170°C.

7. Bake

Bake the cake for approximately 45 minutes at 180°C on the middle rack.

If the streusel becomes too brown before the pastry is fully baked, cover the cake loosely with aluminum foil during the last 15 minutes.

8. Cool and serve

Allow the cake to cool for about an hour before cutting it into squares.

Once it is cool enough to handle, slide the cake—still on its parchment paper—off the baking pan and onto a clean sheet of cardboard or a large cutting board. This allows it to cool further and makes slicing
easier. It also protects your pan, table, or countertop from scratches.

Bon appétit!
Charles

My Fool-Proof Bread Recipe,
good for many things

600 gram Bread Flour, or 'All Purpose'
1 Tablespoon Sugar
2 teaspoons Salt

225 ml Warm Water, about 40° C.
75 grams of Cooking Oil
40 grams (one cube) of Fresh Yeast, or 2 packages of Dry Yeast.

Optional:
2 eggs, saving the white from one egg to later bush onto the bread to hold Sesame or Black Cummin seed before baking.

Mixing the Egg-White with a teaspoon of Milk, and a teaspoon of Honey, holds the seed better.

Some of this 600 grams of flour may also contain whole grained flours.
For example:
400 gram Bread Flour
100 gram Rye Flour
100 gram Whole Wheat of Spelt (Dinkel) Flour

Procedure:
1.) Put the warm water into the mixing bowel with the yeast and get it started with the sugar plus a handful out of the 600 grams of flour. Mix it at medium speed until it looks bubbly.

2.) After 10 or 15 minutes add the salt, oil, or eggs and mix it again good.

3.) Now add half of the flour and mix it for a while until it looks like a cake or pancake batter.

4.) Then add the rest of the flour and then knead it with a dough hook or my hand until it looks elastic. Not too wet but not too dry either. Knead it at least 10 - 15 minutes.

5.) Now cover the bowel and let the dough rise about 30 - 45 minutes, until it doubles volume.

6.) Punch it down, cover it and let it rise again, but not as much as last time.

Now form the dough into what you want to make: Bread, Pizza, Buns, Pasties (Piroschki), and so forth.

Notes:
1.) Standard hamburger buns need 125 grams of dough each.

2.) Pasties (Piroschki) need 120 grams of dough and 90 - 100 grams of filling and bake in only 20 minutes at 225° C.

3.) The braided bread I show here, will take 30 - 40 minutes at 225°, and may need to be covered lightly with aluminum foil towards the end if it gets dark on top, but still light underneath

4.) Sugar feeds the yeast and helps it expand, but salt regulates how fast it expands and holds it back a little. Sugar also gives baked goods a nice golden colour, they would bake pale without it.



As-Salaamu Alaykum!
Wood Pigeon

The Four Braid Challah — Part 1






Wood Pigeon

The Four Braid Challah — Part 2

Sorry, no more photos were allowed here.

But step 3 is to take the ends which were not moved last time, then braid them left, but go underneath the other ones this time.

Step 4 is to back to the right, and over with the other ends.

Step 5 is to twist the loose ends together.

Step 6 is to set the bread into a round, buttered pan, and let it rise, covered, to the desired size.

Step 7 is to brush it well with the mixture of egg-white, milk, and honey, then sprinkle it with sesame seed and black cummin seed.

Once you make a few it is very easy each time.

As-Salaamu Alaykum!
Wood Pigeon