CHEZ CHLOE

One month today

Here's the first real recipe we made in Hamburg..........And the recipe was from Ollie's sister and this photo was actually the cake made by Ollie's niece. Yum!

Russischer Zupfkuchen

It’s called a Russian cake, but really it’s a traditional German recipe. It’s a rich cheesecake that has a crumbly, chocolate crust that is also dotted over the top of it.

Directly translated the name means: "Russian Plucking Cake". In this case you pluck the cocoa dough in little pieces and sprinkle it onto the top of the cake. 

See below for recipe.

Chloe also did a presentation of how to make this cake at school!

And so.....

We landed in Hamburg Jan 4, greeted by an enormous amount of snow that has ebbed and flowed but continued to linger with vigilance. It brings a quiet, graceful beauty that I can appreciate most of the time but after a solid month I am about ready to see it melt once and for all.

Although there is a lot of English spoken in here, I am anxious to be able to communicate with people in German. And trust me, not everybody speaks English. I've started classes and am up to hello, how are you, I'm from the USA. So it may be a while before I'm having a conversation but I have a lot of motivation and remind myself I learned French from scratch and can do it again. 

So far my work ideas are writing to Sur La Table and seeing if they would like to move into the European market and writing a German/English culinary dictionary.

RECIPE:

 For the dough:

300 g flour

180 g sugar

 200g butter at room temperature

 2 eggs

40 g cocoa powder (not the instant sweet schocolat for drinks etc.)

1 packet baking powder

 For the filling you need:

150 g sugar

70g butter at room temperature

3 eggs

500g Quark

200 g sweet cream (if unsweetened add 45g powdered sugar)

1 packet vanilla sugar

 a little pinch of salt

 First mix the flour with the baking powder then add sugar and cocoa. Make a well and add soft butter and eggs. Knead until you get a nice chocolat-dough.

  *Put 1/4 of it aside,

  *Put the rest in a round springformg pan and form a pretty high edge.

 For the filling :

Beat the sugar and butter till light. Add the eggs one at a time beating 1 min after each. Then add quark, cream and vanilla sugar and salt. Beat all ingredients till mixed and pour on the dough

 Finally pull the other piece of dough into small parts and spread it over the filling.

 Bake in the oven at about 180 C for an hour. Cover for 1st half of cooking with foil. Good luck!

New country new direction

Update from Chez Chloe …. The lady who loves France is living in Germany………and loving it! I have closed up the retail store and moved to Hamburg Germany. Why might you ask? Well I am not reinventing the wheel I just fell in love. And nare I say just….. An old friend from 15 years ago came for a spontaneous visit to Orcas and after 3 weeks we both had new directions that were about to collide.

And on this note these entries may not come with more frequency but they will most likely continue on a more personal note than previously. I decided not to start something entirely new as once you close a blog you lose your text and let's face it, it is a chronicled journey........and after this many years it's an investment!

Before I get started, we packed up the house again last August and left Orcas island for a four month stay in England- and I will say no more on that except it too was a lovely experience. Beautiful countryside in the southeast, time in London and a few shows and historic Bath. I found this area in the south showing a true respect for local, sustainable good food. 

 And this was our last local meal on Orcas with all the vegetables from the garden and meat from Lopez. All simply grilled and gorgeous. Once again our new digs didn't come with a big garden but fortunately local markets abound on a very regular basis. And there's green space for some bits.

And one last shot of my kitchen till further notice....