Poppy, poppy, oh how I love thee! Autumn and wintertime is poppyseed dessert time. Popular not just in my house, Austrian Germknödel (a type of yeast dumpling filled with poppyseed cream), poppyseed pastries, cakes, strudels, even ice cream, are everywhere. One of my latest discoveries: poppyseed yoghurt by Ja!Natürlich. I can’t believe it and have to have it! I like to indulge in my baking obsession on weekends, so I didn’t have to think long about what my recipe pick for Freizeit-Kurier was going to be: poppyseed and apple cake – perfect for a cozy Sunday afternoon! This cake also turned out to be the ideal “model” for my recent food photography session and was eaten whole immediately after having its picture taken, beautifully arranged and decorated.

„A Türggo Meahl für Ribel“. If you have no idea what that’s supposed to mean, don’t worry. Unless you speak German in general and the Austrian Vorarlberg dialect in particular, you have no shot. Türggo Meahl means maize flour, in the westernmost of the Austrian dialects. The term allegedly stems from the 17th century, when farmers started to grow maize in the Rheintal valley of western Austria. It was believed that maize originally came from the Balkans and Turkey, so the grain was called the Turkish corn or Türggenkorn and the name survives to this day.

I’ll tell you a little secret today. About 2 months ago, I received a lovely email from Andrea, the owner of the excellent Suppito. She found my blog and loved it, and could we maybe meet up. I immediately said yes, seeing that I was a huge Suppito fan and had spent an entire summer buying their delicious stews for lunch several times a week. Andrea told me that her third cookbook was due to be published in the autumn and that she wanted me to contribute the pictures.

Guilt-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, vegan and still tasty? Yep, it apparently exists. Before I tell you all about my wonderful trip to the Italian wine region where I attended a food photography and styling seminar, here’s a most delicious brownie recipe. The brownies have an intensive cocoa flavour and sweet potatoes (- sweet potatoes, you say?? Yes, you read that right) render them extra juicy. These delicacies taste best the next day as opposed to fresh from the oven, weirdly.

Have you baked with buckwheat before? Despite its name, buckwheat has absolutely no relation to common wheat, quite the contrary: it’s gluten-free and therefore a frequent ingredient in my own cooking. But that’s not the only advantage. Buckwheat contains a ton of iron, potassium and B-vitamins. Its high silicea content does wonders for our skin, hair and nails.