My life in two words

The End

2009-05-29T07:27:00.002-04:00

Sorry, but I don't have the time anymore to translate my cooking. It was fun.

Maybe some other time.

Farewell

Chocolate and rolled oats bars

2009-05-21T07:35:00.000-04:00

I'm still exploring my microwave oven possibilities. This huge thing that's eating up one third of my kitchen working space is trully useful. It's funny: flats, rooms and kitchens tend to get smaller. Nevertheless, there are abundant numbers of "decorative" accessoires on the market which take our space away. If I think about it, my microwave oven isn't decorative at all...

I should get to the point. After one of my kids, these bars taste like brownies. They remind me of chocolate fudge with porridge. And you?

Chocolate and rolled oats bars
Adaptaded from Técnicas Avançadas, Curso práctico de Microondas

Ingredients:

100 gr. brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
175 gr. flour
175 gr. butter
175 gr. rolled oats
400 gr. sweet condensed milk
150 gr. dark chocolate
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
100 gr. walnuts, coarsely chopped (optional)

Method:

In a bowl, put sugar, salt and flour. Add butter cut in pieces and oats. Mix lightly until you have a dough like breadcrumbs.
Put 2/3 of this dough in a 20x30 cm microwave safe form, pressing well.
Cook in the microwave at 50% power for 6 min. The form will probably be to big and the plate won't be able to rotate, turn after 3 min. Set aside.
Put sweet condensed milk in another bowl, add chocolate in chunks and cocoa powder. Cook it at the highest power (mine is 850) for 3 min., stirring each minute.
Spread chocolate cream over cooked oats layer.
If you're going to add nuts, this is the moment: sprinkle them over chocolate cream.
Cover everything with the 1/3 remaining oats dough. I mashed it with my fingers to make it very thin so I was able to cover the whole surface.
Cook it in microwave at highest power for 6 min or until chocolate cream begins to bubble. Remember to rotate form after half the time.
Let it cool down completely. Cut it in bars.

White chocolate and lemon pie

2009-05-19T07:33:00.001-04:00

Trying not to pay attention to the fact that the first May half is already gone and it's still very cold, I've decided to make this refreshing white chocolate and lemon pie. No oven is required and you make it in no time. The downside is you have to cool it for at least four hours, so yes, you have to plan ahead. I skept this last step. I had to take a short cut: I simply put it in the freezer. Bless technology.

White chocolate and lemon pie
Adaptaded from my recipes.com

Ingredients:

Para la crust:

100 gr. butter
200 gr. digestive or digestive like cookies

Filling:

310 gr. white chocolate
250 gr. whipping cream
1 tablespoon souer cream (add some lemos drops to whipping cream)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
80 ml. feshly squeezed lemon juice

Decoration:

one medium lemon, in thin slices

Method:

Chop cookies very fine. Melt butter. Mix butter and cookies. Set aside.
Grease and line (bottom and wall) a round cake form with 23 cm diameter. Press cookie dough in the bottom, trying to get an even layer.
Let's make the filling: in a pan put the whipping cream and the chocolate in chunks. PUt it over medium fire and stir constantly until chocolate has disolved completely. Pull away from heat.
Add zest, juice and souer cream. Stir. That's it.
Pour filling over the crust and let it cool in the fridge for at least four hours.
Once the filling is set, slice lemon, make a cut in each slice. Arrange them on the pie artistically (not like me).
Serve cold.

Suspiros (Sighs)

2009-05-15T12:27:00.002-04:00

Sighs is what one has to do when eating these cookies. Something like mmmmmmmm! For instance, kid #3 gobbled three of them still warm. Golden youth! Where does she put them?

Those of you afraid of getting dirty in the kitchen: refrain from doing this recipe. Already as a little child it was me the one greasing the pans with butter and these tiny hands...

Anyway, here they are.

Suspiros

Ingredients:

500 gr. flour
140 gr. sugar
1 egg
25 gr. butter, room temperature
125 gr. margarine, room temperature
100 gr. lard, room temperature

Method:

Put the flour in a bowl, close at hand.
In a separated bowl, put egg, sugar, fats and mix with one bare hand, until you have a smooth batter.
Slowly, add flour and keep kneading. You have to have a soft dough but it shouldn't stick to your fingers.
Flour your kitchen counter. Roll the dough. Cut out circles with a cookie cutter or a cup.
Bake at 200ºC in a preheated oven about 20 min., 'till they turn pale golden.
Rub them in sugar when they're still warm, because if they get cold, sugar won't stick.
Try one. Sigh.

Apple and pear Crumble

2009-05-10T22:00:00.005-04:00

This recipe isn't suitable for high cholesterol people. It has a very high butter , that's why it's so tasty. Butter quantity is no wonder. It comes from a breadcrumbs box I bought when I was living in France. French people don't understand life without butter, lots and looooooooots of butter. I've made some variations, for example, the original recipe used only apples.

Apple and pear Crumble

Ingredients:

5 medium apples
4 medium pears, green
150 gr. breadcrumbs
300 gr. butter, romm temperature
225 gr. sugar
120 gr. raw almond meal
juice from one orange
45 gr. flour

Method:

Peel and slice apples and pears. Put them in a big oven proof baking dish. Sprinkle them with the orange juice, so they don't turn black. Set aside.
Beat 200 gr. butter with 150 gr. sugar, until it turns white and fluffy.
Spread this mixture over fruit, pressing well.
In a separated bowl, mix 100 gr. butter with the 75 gr. remaining sugar. Add flour, breadcrumbs, almond meal until you obtain a crumbled dough.
Pour this mixture over butter-sugar mixture, pressing again.
Bake at 180º C in a preheated oven for 50 min or until fruit is cooked and the top has a nice golden color.
Serve hot. If you don't have health problems, add a scoop vanille ice.

Sobaos, spanish butter cake

2009-05-06T22:00:00.000-04:00

I had to nearly execute an scientific research to find this sobaos* recipe. I've got one but, frankly, they came out like bricks. My kids allow me almost everything in the kitchen and they ate them with enthusiasm, but I wasn't satisfied.

First, I went to the supermarket and read the ingredients' percentages of our favorite sobaos brand. Then, I did several easy mathematical operations to adapt the recipe to these percentages. After a few attempts, two to be completley honest, the third time was the good one.

I'd like to share this recipe, so you all can enjoy them. I hope you like them as much as my kids do.

*This cakes come from Santander, north of Spain. We eat them at breakfast and as a snack.

Sobaos pasiegos

Ingredients:

400 gr. butter, room temperature
350 gr. sugar
300 flour
5 eggs
8 gr. baking powder

Method:

Beat butter and sugar until it turns whitish.
Add eggs one at a time: first one, beat until fully incorporated, then another and so on till you've mixed them all.
Mix flour and baking powder and add it to the butter mixture with a wooden spoon. Stir just enough, if you overstir, cake will harden.
Turn oven on at 180º C.
Line an oven sheet with parment paper. Pour dough in, even out and bake for 20 minutes.
Let cool on the sheet. Cut the cake in bars. I find they are even better after resting the night.

You can enjoy them for breakfast, coffee break, afterschool snack or during the day.

Strawberries and whipped cream cake

2009-04-30T12:57:00.002-04:00

The other day we finished the birthday's marathon in my family, they all seem to have been born between March and April. My girk picked a strawberry cake. Here is the recipe:

Strawberries and whipped cream cake

Ingredients:
Genoise cake:

3 eggs, separated eggwhites and eggyolks
3 tablespoons very hot water
100 gr. sugar
100 gr. flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
25 gr. corn starch

Filling:

400 ml. cream to whipp, very cold
80 gr. powdered sugar
600 gr. strawberries

Decoration:

powdered sugar
whole strawberries

Method:

Let's star by making the genoise. Grease a round 26 cm diameter cake tin and line the bottom with parchment paper.
Sieve flour, baking powder and corn starch. Set aside.
Beat eggyolks with hot water until they have double their volume and their color turns pale yellow.
Add sugar and keep beating.
Carefully fold in the flour.
Whisk eggwhites until stift and fold them in with the rest of the batter.
Pour the batter in the cake tin and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180º C for 30 min.
Let it cool down upside down on a kitchen rack.
When it's cold, cut it horizontally in two discs.
Whisk cream, when it begins to get thick, add powdered sugar. Whisk until very stift.
Rise and cut lengthwise the strawberries.
Put the upper cake disc on a serving plate. Put a round ring the size of the cake around it.
Arrage the cut strawberries against the ring wall, the rest on the center of the cake.
Spread whipped cream on the strawberries, pressing to fill the gaps.
Cover with the bottom cake disc. Let cool in the fridge a couple of hours. Take ring away.
Dust with powdered sugar and arrage some whole strawberries on top to decorate.

Coffee chocolate chip cookies

2009-04-29T20:10:00.003-04:00

One of the best american inventions are the famous chocolate chip cookies. I love them. I can make myself sick eating a dozen at once.

Thinking about it, I came to the idea to give a special touch to my favorite chocolate chip cookies recipe, I added some instant coffee. If you want to try them, here is the recipe:

Coffee chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, soft
3/8 cup packed brown sugar
3/8 cup packed sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla essence
1 egg
1 1/4 cups dark chocolate, in chunks
3 tablespoons instant coffee
a handful walnuts, chopped (optional)

Method:

In a bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder and instant coffee. Set aside.
In another bowl, beat butter with sugar. When it turns white-ish, add egg until it's well incorporated. Add vanilla essence.
Add flour mixture and stir just enough to have a batter.
Add chocolate chunks and nuts.
Make a log with the dough and wrap it with kitchen foil. Let it rest in the fridge for at least half an hour (I normally let it for a couple of days, until I have time to bake them).
Cut the log in slices, put them on a lined baking pan and bake them in a pre-heated oven at 180º C for about 10 min. Let them cool on the baking pan, outside of the oven.
Try to eat just one.

Caramel Crunchy Bars

2009-04-23T19:00:00.003-04:00

Following the sugestion of a nice anonimous comentarist I've made this caramel cruncy bars, in the microwave oven. Yes, microwave oven is something more than a huge box to warm milk up. So, why not benefit from it?

This recipe, adapted by me, comes out from a book that I was forced to buy in Brazil. I was the product of a scam. One day I received a call communicating me that I was the lucky winner of a book batch, if I "only" paid I-don't-remember-how-much in respect of I-don't-know-what. When they got home, knowing it was a trick and while I was having a look at them I decided I was going to keep them. This book from the batch is called Curso prático de Microondas Técnicas avançadas and I've two of them. I guess they were the surplus of some lost collection. I'll give you from now on some little recipe out of them.

Caramel Crunchy Bars

Ingredients:

Crunchy layer:

200 gr. butterscotch candies
4 tablespoons water
100 gr. peanut butter
100 gr. rice krispies
100 gr. salty peanuts

Glaze:

170 gr. black chocolate, in chunks
100 gr. peanut butter
50 gr. butter

Method:

Mix rice krispies and peanuts.
Grease a 30 x 20 cm pan and pour rice krispies-peanut, levening it.
In a microwave-proof bowl, combine candies, water and peanut butter. Microwave at maximum potence for 4 min (the maximum potence of my microwave oven is 850 wats). Stir until you have a smoth cream.
Mix this cream with rice krispies-peanuts, levening it. You have to work fast, once the cream is cold, it hardens.
Let's make the glaze. Put all ingredients in a bowl and microwave at maximum potence for 3 min. Stir to obtain a smooth cream. Spread it over the crunchy layer. Let it cool to set.
Cut it in bars. We like them cold, out of the fridge.

Next time I'm going to use milk chocolate, I think to mix with peanut butter is even better.

Dacquoise with chocolate mousse and strawberries

2009-04-15T20:30:00.000-04:00

Again, a recipe from one of my french magazines, concretly Maxi Cuisine, which turned out to be the one which offered the most inviting dishes.

It's a dessert that I had never heard of until now. Better late than never. In short, hazelnut meingue layers, filled with chocolate mousse with strawberries. It's all about contrast: Se trata de contrastes: light and sweet meringue with rich and dense chocolate mousse, cut by the freshness of the strawberries. Heavenly.

Dacquoise with chocolate mousse and strawberries
12 servings

Ingredients:

Dacquoise:

125 gr. coarsely chopped hazelnuts
180 gr. hazelnut meal
6 egg whites
70 gr. sugar
200 gr. powdered sugar

Filling:

300 gr. dark chocolate
200 gr. strawberries, chopped
6 eggs, separated yolks from whites

Decoration:

strawberries
powdered sugar

Method:

We start by making the mousse. Melt chocolate (I use the microwave, other use water bath). Add egg yolks. ñade las yemas. Monta las claras a punto de nieve con una pizca de sal e incorpóralas con movimientos envolventes. Refigera por unas horas.
Vamos con la dacquoise. Whisk egg whites, when you are half way, add sugar and keep whisking until they're firm.
Mix powdered sugar wiht hazelnut meal. Fold in the egg whites.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread the meringue over baking sheet. Sprinkle with coarsely chopped hazelnuts and press gently.
Bake at 180º C in a preheated oven for 20 min.
Turn over a rack and remove paper. Let cool.
Let's assemble the dessert. Line a rectangular baking pan with kitchen film.
Cut dacquoise in three layers the size of the baking pan.
Put a dacquoise layer upside down in the pan (this will be the top layer when you take it out). Spread half the mousse. Sprinkle with half the chopped strawberries. Put another layer and repite the operation. Finish with a dacquoise layer. Cover the pan with kitchen film and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
Carefully, turn the pan upside down on a serving plate. Remove film, put some whole strawberries on top and dust with some powdered sugar.
Take it out of the fridge at least one hour before serving.

Lamb tatin with aubergines

2009-04-11T07:21:00.006-04:00

Spring has come, time to eat lamb. One of my new cook magazines, which I bought in France, has innovative lamb recipes, at least for me. This one is time consuming but it's delicious. Luckily you can make it in advance and warm it for 15 min. in the oven before serving it.

Lamb Tatin with aubergines
Adaptado de Maxi Cuisine
4 to 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 pie crust recipe bought or homemade
300 gr. minced lamb meat from the shoulder
2 aubergines (about 600 gr.)
1 big can tomatoes
1/2 big onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons pine nuts
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Rinse and dry aubergines. Cut them in 1/2 cm slices. Sprinkle some salt on them and let them rest about 20 min.
Chop 7 to 8 aubergine slices from the smallest. Brown for 5 min. together with onion and garlic with a little bit of olive oil over medium heat. Add mince meat. Stir constantly. When meat hes lost its red color, add strained tomatoes and one tablespoon pine nuts. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover and let shimer for about 30 min., until almost all liquid has disappeared.
Brown rest of the aubergine slices in batches on a skillet. Put a tablespoon olive oil each time and let slices about 2 min. on each side. This action takes quite some time. Set golden slice aside.
Brown the other tablespoon pine nuts in a skillet without any oil, watch that they don't burn. Set aside.
Grease a round (26 cm diameter). Lay aubergine slices covering the bottom. Spread the met sauce, reserving one tablespoon to decorate. Put pie crust over closing up the tart, push dough well in in the sides.
Bake in a preheated oven at 200º C for 30 to 35 min.
Turn tart over on a serving plate. Put the meat sauce tablespoon in the center and spread the brown pine nuts.
Serve hot.

Apple Strudel

2009-04-10T05:35:00.000-04:00

I learned to make strudel with Caroline, an Austrian that I met when I was living in Brazil. We (children #1 and #2 and me) had a great time learning. You have to smash the dough against the kitchen counter and the children had a blast when we did and by doing it themselves.
Strudel dough has to be very fine, so much that you have to be able to read the paper through it. There lays this dessert's difficulty. Caroline certainly mastered it, you could see she had practice. To obtain a very streching dough, you add some vinegar. The acid makes the wheat gluten develop better.

Apple Strudel
10 servings

Ingredients:
Dough:

250 gr. flour
1 generous pinch of salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted butter
125 ml. water, tepid
1 teaspoon vinegar

Filling:

120 gr. butter
100 gr. breadcrumbs
100 gr. raisins
a handful walnuts, chopped
1.250 gr. apples
1/2 juice of a lemon
125 gr. sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon

Method:

To make the dough, put flour in a bowl, add salt, tepid water, grease (oil or butter) and vinegar. Form a ball with it all and knead energically for at least half an hour. Afterwards, smash the dough ball against the kitchen counter a couple of times. Dough is ready when cutting through it you don't see any air bubbles or wheat traces. When it reaches this state, make a dough ball again. Boil some water in a saucepan, discard it, dry the saucepan and put it upside down over the dough, so it becomes elastic. Let it rest about half an hour.
While dough is resting, let's make the filling. Pill and chop the apples. Sprinkle the lemon juice over them and set aside.
Melt 30 gr. butter in a skillet and brown breadcrumbs in it stirring constantly. Remove from stove and let it cool down.
In a bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
Let's roll out the dough. Take a big kitchen cloth or better still a small table cloth and put it on the kitchen counter. Sprinkle with flour and your hands too.
Roll out the dough on the table cloth with the roller, as much as you can. Then, with the palm of your hands upside down strech dough out carefully until it becomes very fine and you can see the tablecloth beneath. Don't strech with your fingers, but with the upper side of your hand, because the dough could break.
Brush dough with 30 gr. melted butter leaving about 4 cm. rim all around.
Sprinkle breadcrumbs on the brushed area.
Mix chopped apples with raisins and nuts and sprinkle them over the breadcrumbs.
Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over everything.
To form the strudel, first fould to the inside the short sides dough and press. Then, fould the long side dough over the filling and roll to close the strudel.
Raise strudel with the tablecloth, seizing the tablecloth by the short sides and puting it carefully on a greased baking pan. Brush again with half the rest of the melted butter.
Bake at 250ºC in a preheated oven for about 40 to 45 min. when half the cooking time has passed, brush again with the rest of the butter, so it'll get crunchy.
Serve hot with creme anglaise or vanille ice-cream.

Leek Mousse

2009-04-09T05:34:00.002-04:00

This cold cream can be made with plenty of other vegetables, like asparagus, carrots, spinach, cauliflower... I found the recipe in a book from my mother, I think it's called ¡Dame la receta! or something like that. It was wrote by a woman with whom she plays bridge, Mª Dolores Grande. It's a compilation dishes they eat at her home, some of them very inviting.

Leek Mousse
10 servings

Ingredients:

6 big leeks, with green side
1 cup cream
4 eggs
2 bread slices dipped in milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
butter and breadcrumbs for the pan
Lettuce and tomatos to decorate

Method:

Clean throroughly, cut each one in four pieces and cook them in some salty water for 5 minutes in the pressure cooker. Drain them well.
In the mixer, make a cream with eggs, bread, cream and leeks. Con la batidora, haz una crema con los huevos, el pan, la nata y los puerros. Strain it.
Grease a rectangular pan and spread it with breadcrumbs. Pour the stained cream in it.
Turn oven on at 200ºC. Cook the mousse in a water bath for 45 min. or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
When is cool, take it out on a seving plate covered with lettuce leaves and surrounded by tomatoes wedges.
Serve at room temperature. I accompanied it with a hot blue cheese sauce.

Chicken croquettes

2009-04-04T18:32:00.002-04:00

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I bought a notebook to write down my mother's recipes. I was leaving home and I didn't want to live without her cooking. This is one of those recipes, homemade croquettes. It has took me several trial and error years to reach my mother's level. I've finally did it. What I'm never achieving is not to get dirty by doing them, like my grandmother Antonia. I only saw her making them once, but she was able to form them all alike ( same size and shape) without getting her fingers dirty. She was an artist.

My mother's chicken croquettes
About 26 medium pieces

Ingredients:

Half a roasted chicken, and its sauce
4 tablespoon flour
2 big garlic cloves
1 heaping teaspool kosher salt
1/2 liter milk
3 tablespoons olive oil
breadcrumbs and egg to coat
olive oil to deep fry

Method:

Bone and skin the chicken. Shred chicken meet with your fingers.
Peel and crush garlic cloves in a mortar with salt. Reserve.
In a big skillet, put the 3 tablespoon olive oil. When it's warm, add shreded chicken meet and its sauce.
After a couple of minutes, add flour. Stir and let golden.
Add all at once the milk, always stirring.
Add crush garlic and salt.
Let shimer over low heat. The dough should be rather solid, so that when it's cold we can form the croquettes. When it's like that, pull away from heat and let cool down.
Put plenty breadcrumbs in a bowl and beat two eggs in another. Shape croquettes with two spoons or with your bare hands. I always star with the spoons, then loose my patience and end up with my hands. Roll each croquette first in the egg and the in the breadcrumbs. Reserve on a plate.
Heat the olive oil in a deep skillet or frying pan if you have one over medium-high heat.
When the oil starts to smoke, fry the croquettes.
Serve hot.

These are chicken croquettes, but you can also make them with soup meat, fish leftovers, canned tuna, cured ham cubes... wahtever you feel like!

Pizza dog

2009-04-04T17:30:00.003-04:00

This a mixture between hot dog and pizza. Sometimes we order them instead of pizza and we love them. I thought I'd give it a try and bake some for D's birthday dinner.

They are easy and relatively quick to make and they're really tasty!

Pizza dog
For 8 people

Ingredients:

Dough:

1/2 sachet instant yeast
1/2 cup tepid water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/4 cups flour

Stuffing:

8 big weenie-sausages
8 bacon slices
8 cheese slices (I used gouda)

Method:

Disolve instant yeast in tepid water.
Add salt, oil and flour.
Knead until you have a smooth dough, for about 5 min.
Grease a bowl and put the dough in it. Let rise for about an hour or until it doubles its volume.
Knead dough some more. Divide it in eight pieces.
Turn oven on at 250ºC.
Roll one bacon slice around a sausage, then a cheese slice. Roll out a dough piece and roll it around the weenie. Put the pizza-dog on a baking sheet. Repeat with the other sausages.
Bake the for 20-25 min. or until dough starts to turn golden.
Serve them hot with ketchup and mustard.

Chocolate Temptation

2009-04-04T17:00:00.004-04:00

My dwarf #2 loves chocolate. Black chocolate.

I found this recipe in the book my mother gave me, dedicated entirely to chocolate. Dark chocolate cake, dark chocolate glaze, filled with whipped cream.

Chocolate Temptation
Adapted from Chocolatissimo, Rosalba Gioffré

Ingredients:
Cake:

120 gr. dark chocolate, in chunks
125 ml. sour cream
150 gr. light brown sugar
300 gr. flour
1 pinch salt
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
120 gr. butter, soft
200 gr. sugar
2 eggs, egg white and egg yolk separated
175 ml water

Filling:

25o gr. cream for whipping, cold
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanille esence

Glaze:

140 gr. dark chocolate
100 ml. cream

Method:

We make the cake.
In a small pan, melt chocolate, sour cream and brown sugar stirring constantly.
In a bowl, sift cocoa powder and flour with salt and baking powder.
Cream butter and sugar until you have a smooth batter. Add egg yolks one at a time until they are well incorporated.
Add flour and water alternating between both.
Beat egg whites until stift and add them to the batter with enfolding movements.
Grease and flour a 22 cm diameter cake tin, pour batter in and bake at 180ºC in a preheated oven for 40 min.
For the filling: whip cold cream, add vanille esence and powdered sugar. Reserve cold.
When the cake is cold, cut it horizontaly in two discs. Put the bottom disc on a serving plate. Fill it with the whipped cream. Put the other disc on top. Put the cake in the fridge.
Let's make the glaze. Melt chocolate and cream.
Pour it over the cake. Let it set. Serve tart at room temperature.

Petit Chef

2009-04-02T05:57:00.004-04:00

We came back from Salamanca, and I found an invitation from Petit Chef, to join them.

I feel very flattered, like everytime a complete stranger, on the other side of the world stumbles upon my blog and lets my a comment. I love it.

Of course, I said yes. I've been checking their site. It's a very nice looking page, with interesting recipes; which you can search by ingredients or category and menus suggestions, which they can send you via e-mail if you choose to. I'm sure I'll be trying some of them. Also, they have recipes in english, french, spanish and other languages, so there's cooking opportunities for everyone.

Thank you so much, Petit Chef!

Sandtorte

2009-03-31T20:00:00.003-04:00

I love this german cake, because it goes well either with a cold glass of milk as or with a warm cup of tea or coffee, because is tremendously light, because its consistency is plesantly sandy. fFom there its name, which translated would be something like Sand Cake. It doesn't sound very tempting, that's why I rather keep calling it Sandtorte.

Sandtorte
Adapted from Deutsche Küche, Rotraud Degner

Ingredients:

200 gr. butter, soft
250 gr. sugar
4 eggs
140 gr. wheat flour
120 gr. cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Powdered sugar for dusting

Method:

Beat butter and sugar until you have a smooth batter.
Add eggs one by one, until each one is well incorporated.
In a separated bowl, sift flour and baking powder.
Combine flour and butter-sugar-egg mixtures with a spoon.
Grease and flour a rectangular cake tin.
Pour batter in the cake tin and bake it at 180º C in a preheated oven for 70 min.
When it's cold, put it in a serving plate and dust with powdered sugar.

Milk Chocolate and Vanilla cream Tart

2009-03-25T08:16:00.002-04:00

On our way to La Mongie, my mommy, who spoils me very much, bought me a book dedicated wholy to chocolate: Chocolatissimo. It contains pictures you feel like eating the pages. Seizing the opportunity of my daddy's birthday, who also spoils me a lot, I tried one of its recipes. It's so good you wanna lick-your-fin-gers. ItE's a crunchy base with dark chocolate and hazelnuts, créme anglaise and milk chocolate mousse. Need I say more?

Milk Chocolate and Vanilla cream Tart
4 to 6 servings

Ingredients:
For the base

50 gr. dark chocolate
70 gr. butter, soft
2 egg yolks
60 gr. sugar
40 gr. flour
60 gr. hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

For the créme anglaise

125 ml. milk
1 vanilla bean
125 ml. whipping cream
3 egg yolks
40 gr. sugar

For the mousse

200 gr. milk chocolate
3 egg yolks
40 gr. sugar
4 gr. gelatine (sheets)
150 gr. whipping cream

Garnish

100 gr. milk chocolate

Method:

We start making the base. Melt chocolate and butter (I use the microwave, purist may use a water bath). Remove from heat.
Add egg yolks, sugar and shifted flour. Add hazelnuts. Pour over a greased and floured round cake form, about 20 cm diameter.
Bake for 180º C (preheated) for 10 minutes. Take it out of the form and let cool.
Now the créme. In a pot, boil milk with vanilla bean. When it reaches the boiling point, remove from heat and take vanilla bean out. Add whipping cream.
Mix egg yolks and sugar without stirring much. Add to vanille milk mixture. Pour in a round baking tin and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes at 100 ºC. Let cool for several hours. Creme must be firm to enable working with it.
Lastly, we make the mousse. Melt chocolate, this time in a water bath, and let it cool down a bit.
Beat sugar and egg yolks, add chocolate. Put it for a moment over the water bath.
Soak gelatine sheets in cold water. Add them to the chocolate mixture.
Whip cream.
Add it to the chocolate carefully so it doesn't collapse. Let it cool down just a little.
We assembly the tart. Put the base on a serving plate. Spread a third of the mousse. Put it in the fridge for half an hour. So it keeps its shape, put the cake tin ring around. Spread the crème anglaise on the mousse. Let it cool again. Lastly, spread rest of the mousse. Let it refrigerate for several hours.
Coarsely chop the milk chocolate and put it on top of tart. Serve and enjoy.

Festive Cous-cous

2009-03-21T17:00:00.004-04:00

My friend Douja, who comes from Marocco, came today to cook for us a cous-cous. This dish is typical for celebrations and holidays and not having its original name, I've decided to call it Festive cous-cous. Of course it's cous-cous, accompanied by chicken and a wonderful sauce with onion and raisins with sugar and cinnamon. The bomb.

We had great fun cooking together and quite some laughs. I was the kitchen assistant, in between pictures, chopping up onions, searching necesary pots, crushing pepper... Whatever was needed.
Douja is an extraordinary cook. If she decides sometime to open a restaurant, she's already some clients. We didn't have much time, some we cheated: we used pessure cookers. Douja tells me it's best to plan ahead and have several hours, so everything cooks slowly. So it was delicious, I'd said unbeatable, we'll see next time...
Douja's husband accompanied us. We call him affectionately Juan, because his name is unpronounceable for us.
For those of you who want to try this divine delicacy, here is the recipe.

Festive Cous-cous
Serves 8 people

Ingredients:

One big chicken
1 500 gr. cous-cous box
1.600 gr. onions
375 gr. raisins
2 saffron threads papers**
8 tablespoons sugar
5 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons powdered cinnamon
4 teaspoons freshly crushed black pepper
paella coloring*
olive oil

Method:

Rise chicken well and pull out any feather it may still have.
Finely chopp up two onions. Put about 6 tablespoons oil in a pressure cooker and sautée it. Add 3 tablespoon kosher salt.
When they are a little bit transparent, add the first saffron paper and some paella coloring.
Crush 2 teaspoon black pepper, I do it in my mortar and add it.
Put chicken in the pressure cooker, add oil generously, about 200 ml. water and some more coloring, close pressure cooker and let it cook for about 20 minutes. We opened it passed half the cooking time, to turn the chicken so it got golden all around.
Let's make the sauce. Peel rest of the onions. Cut them in half and slice them thinly.
In another pressure cooker (yes, I've two), put a generous amount oil. Sautée sliced onions. Add two teaspoons kosher salt.
Crush another two teaspoons black pepper and add them.
Put the other saffron paper and some coloring on the onions. Close pressure cooker and let it cook for five minutes.
Open cooker, add 4 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons cinnamon and the raisins. Stir over medium heat until it caramelizes. Add some water (about 50 ml). All it rests is to add last 4 tablespoons sugar. Let shimmer some more, stirring constantly, until it's golden and it smells like caramel and cinnamon.
Prepare cous-cous following the instructions on the box.
Take chicken out of the pressure cooker. Cut it in pieces and put in on a serving plate.
Strain chicken sause. Put it in a sauce boat.
Put onion - raisin sauce on another serving plate.
Serve hot.

* We use a mixture of coloring and sipices for paella and some other dishes. It's not necessary, it adds some color and a little bit of taste.

**We buy saffron threads in little papers. I think each has two grams.

Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies

2009-03-20T07:08:00.000-04:00

It looks like chocolate, doesn't it? It's not. The main ingredient in these cookies is brown sugar. Dark brown sugar. The sticky one with a strong (and delicious) aroma. I'd said like caramel. The contrast of brown sugar with walnuts (crunchy), works wonderfully. Make sure you try them.

Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies
25 pieces

Ingredients:

1/4 cup sunflower oil
60 gr. butter, soft
225 gr. dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups flour
a pinch salt
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Method:

In a bowl, mix oil and butter. Add sugar and egg.
In another bowl, sift flour, baking soda and salt. Combine with butter mixture. Add chopped walnuts.
Put it in the fridge for an hour.
Line your oven sheets: with paper or silicon.
Make little balls and put them on the baking sheet, well apart, they spread quite a lot.
Bake at 180º C, in preheated oven, for 10 to 12 min. Let them set on the baking sheet.

1-2-3 Cupcakes

2009-03-17T22:00:00.003-04:00

My friend M., whom I met through this blog, has given me this recipe. I wanted to try it long ago.

Everything you bake as cupcakes can be baked as cake, you just have to adjust the cooking time, I'd double it, but without sticking my neck out for it...

The recipe's basic dough is that of the famous yoghurt cake. Its originality lais in mixing wheat flour and cornmeal. I woundn't have thought of it in a hundred years! They are awesome. My friend adds chopped walnuts and raisins (I didn't have raisins) to the dough and she finishings the work with some extra fine apple slices. Chapeau! To recommend.

1-2-3 Cupcakes
About 15 pieces

Ingredients:

1 greek yoghurt
zest of a lemon
1 yoghurt can sunflower oil
2 yoghurt cans sugar
2 yoghurt cans wheat flour
1 yoghurt can cornmeal
3 eggs
1 sachet (8 gr.) baking powder
apples (I used small golden delicious, one and a half)
a handful walnuts, chopped
a handful raisins
powdered sugar for dusting

Method:

In a bowl, sift flours and baking powder. Reserve.
In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar.
Add oil and yoghurt stiring constantly.
Add lemon zest.
Add flour mixture little by little, carefully upside down.
Add chopped walnuts and raisins, if you feel like it.
Distribute dough evenly in cupcake paper forms.
Peel and slice apple very thinly. Put about three slices on each cupcake form.
Bake at 180ºC for 20 min in a preheated oven.
When they have cooled down, dust with powdered sugar.

See you soon!

2009-03-06T06:37:00.003-05:00

The moment has arrived. Almost everything is ready. We are leaving to go skiing. A week away from the daily worries. Wonderful.

I' ll seize the opportunity to put my world into prospective. On top of the mountains, of the world, one realizes how small we are and what we call our problems.

See you soon!

Warm winter fruit salad

2009-03-05T22:30:00.003-05:00

Winter is back. It rains, it hails, it's tremendously windy. To counteract this very unplesant weather, I've made this warm fruit salad. This are the fruits you need to prepare it. It's a version of one of Madame's Cugnac recipes. I hope you like it.

Warm winter fruit salad
8 servings

Ingredients:

2 bananas
2 golden delicious apples
1 kiwi
1/2 pineapple
2 pears
1 little bunch white grapes
1 handful walnuts, chopped
juice of a lemon
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons brown sugar
20 gr. butter
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanille extract
100 ml. milk
250 ml. double cream, cold
1 teaspoon cinnamon, powdered
powdered sugar to taste

Method:

Peel and chop pineapple and kiwi. Cut grapes in half and take pips out. Put these fruits in a bowl, sprinkle with one tablespoon brown sugar and lemon juice. Cover and let rest for half an hour.
Meanwhile peel apples, pears and bananas. Cut them in slices. Put butter in a skillet. When it's hot, add fruits, sprinkle with another tablespoon brown sugar and brown. Reserve.
Drain pineapple, kiwi and grapes and keep about 50 ml. from the juice. Reserve.
Let's make a creme anglaise. Beat egg yolks with caster sugar and vanille extract in a bowl. Put milk and fruit juice in a pot to heat. When it boils, pour it over egg yolks and stir constantly. Put everything back in the pot and cook over medium heat until it thickens. Reserve.
Turn oven on at 210ºC. Put the fruits and walnuts in a baking pan. Pour creme anglaise over them. Mix last brown sugar tablespoon with cinnamon. Sprinkle this mixture over fruits.
Bake for 20 min.
While they are in the oven, we make the whipping cream. Beat it very cold for a couple of minutes with your kitchen aid. Add powdered sugar to taste. I guessed the quantity, I supose about a tablespoon should be enough.
Serve hot with whipping cream on top.

White beans with sobrasada* and cured cheese

2009-03-05T22:00:00.002-05:00

This week we've changed our family reunion day. Little brother was in charge of the cooking. He's exploring his Julius book. He's offered us a savory and categorical dish, inspired by one of his recipes. It's ideal for these dog, I mean, winter days.... With his permission I give it to you.

You already know (if you follow my cooking adventures) that Julius cooks for two, so if you are a larger party, you only have to multiply (ingredients and time)

White beans with sobrasada* and machego cheese
2 servings
From Julius sigue cocinando en 22 minutos

Ingredients:

1 can of white cooked beans
1/2 onion, minced
1 gouse garlic, minced
150 gr. sobrasada*
3 tablespoons pureed tomato (from the can)
3 manchego cheese slices
Fresh chopped parsley
Olive oil

Method:

In a little skillet, sautée onions with a little bit of olive oil. After two minutes more or less, add garlic. Add pureed tomato when onion and garlic are golden. Strain beans and add . Stir and let cook some minutes.
Put beans in a baking pan. Spread sobrasada over them and fin.
Grill in the oven for some minutes, until cheese is golden.
Sprinkle with parsley and serve very hot.

*Sobrasada: kind of chorizo but soft, you can spread it. It comes from the Balearic Islands. It can be sweet or spicy.

Blondies

2009-03-02T09:47:00.000-05:00

I had some almonds in the fridge. Because next week we are leaving to go skiing (finally, I need a vacation RIGHT NOW), I'd like to finish everything that can go bad before.

This recipe came into my mind. To be honest, I don't have the slightest idea wher it came from. But here it is. From me to you.

Blondies

Ingredients:

2/3 cups sunflower oil
2 cups brown sugar
2 Tablespoons hot water
2 eggs
2 cups flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
a pinch of salt
1 cup toasted and chopped (big chunks) almonds
175 gr. dark chocolate, in chunks

Method:

Turn oven on at 180ºC. Get a rectangular baking pan ready: line it with parchment paper or grease and flour it. If it is a silicone pan, you don't have to do anything.
Combine oil, sugar, water and eggs in a bowl.
Sift together flour, baking powder and soda and salt in a separated bowl.
Gradually add flour to egg mixture, blending well.
Add almonds and chocolate. Pour in the baking pan.
Bake for 30 - 40 min. Be careful not to overbake them as they turn hard.
Allow to cool in then pan.

Leek Gratin

2009-02-28T14:38:00.003-05:00

My boss is a farmer on his free time. With the beautiful leeks he almost gave me as a present (they were so cheap!) I've made this gratin. You can serve it as a starter with rice other cous-cous or as a main dish, since it also has ham and cheese. I invite to try it.

Leek Gratin
6 servings
Adaptaded from Menie Familia und Ich

Ingredients

1.800 gr. leeks
So many ham slices as leeks you have
1 green pepper and 1 red pepper, cut up into pieces
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic clove, chopped
1 big can tomatoes
1 tablespoon herbes de Provence
200 gr. gouda cheese, grated
olive oil
salt and pepper

Method

Wash your leeks well. I like to slices them along to really wash all the dirt away. Cook them in boiling water for 5 min. in batchs. So that the leeks woudn't loose their form, I tied them. Let them drain.
Lets make the sauec. Put about 5 tablespoons oil in a deep skillet. Sautée your onions. Onces transparent, add chopped peppers. After about five min, add canned tomatoes. Let cook over medium heat for 10 min. Add garlic, herbes and salt and pepper to taste. Let shimmer still about 10 min on the stove. Put the sauce on an oven form you want to use.
Turn your oven on at 200ºC.
Cut each ham slice in half. Roll each leek with a ham slice. Put your leeks lightly on the sauce.
Sprinkel with grated cheese.
Bake for 20 to 25 min. You can grill it for a moment at the end, if you like.
Serve with rice or cous-cous.

Brown Sugar Stars

2009-02-25T12:08:00.002-05:00

These little stars are to die for. They are crunchy but they melt in your mouth. They just sweet enough. After eating one you want another one, and then another, and then another...

Brown sugar Stars
La Cuisine de Madame Cugnac

Ingredients:

300 gr. flour
200 gr. butter, soft
100 gr. raw ground almonds
150 gr. light brown sugar
14 gr. vanille sugar (two sachets)
1 egg for brushing (optional)

Method:

In a bowl, cream sugar and butter.
Add flour and almond meal to the butter cream. Form a ball with the dough.
Divide your dough in two.
Flour generously the kitchen counter and roll one half of the dough. Let rest in the fridge for 20 min.
Line some baking sheets with vegetable paper.
Take the dough out of the fridge and cut out stars in different sizes. Put them on the baking sheet. Repeat withe the other half of the dough.
Brush them with the beaten egg. (This is optional, I didn't do it).
Bake in a preheated oven at 150º C for 25 - 30 min.
Let cool on a kitchen rack.

Mardi Gras Crêpes

2009-02-24T10:58:00.003-05:00

This year we didn't desguise ourselves but we went to the cinema: A chihuahua in Beverlly Hills. a terrible film. Do not watch it.

When we were back, we celebrated carnaval eating some crepes for dinner.

You can simply eat them with some powdered sugar, with nutella, with sweetened condensed milk, with chocolate balls topping, with everything mixed, with confiture... even savory. Very important, they must be warm.
Our recipe, as usual, adapted from Simone Ortega.

Crêpes
About 20 small ones

Ingredients:

250 gr. flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon cognac
1 pinch of salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup milk (maybe you'll need more)
powdered sugar for dusting

Method:

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.
Add rest of the ingredients and stir until you have a smoth batter. The consistency of the batter should be like custard. If it is thicker, add more milk.
Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and let rest for at least one hour. (I didn't).
Spread the bottom of a small skillet (14 cm diameter) with a little bit of oil. Put on the stove and let get hot. Add then a small quantity of batter and spread it very quickly to cover the whole skillet bottom. When the batter begins to dry, flip it over. Let brown some seconds and take it out on a plate.
If you want to serve them sweet, dust with some powdered sugar.

Carrot cupcakes

2009-02-20T07:08:00.002-05:00

When I was living in Brazil, an australian friend of mine F., brought this cake to our drawing class. Those were the days! I had so much free time that I had to fill it up with courses and coffee reunions. First I had to overcome my fear of trying new things. Also I suspect of all toppings. Luckily I won and I tried the cake. It was an awesome expirience: I loved it. This time I decided to make cupcakes, for a change, you simply has to reduce the baking time.

Carrot Cake
De F.

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 full cup grated carrots
200 gr. crushed pineapple (about three slices from a big can)
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
5 tablespoons sunflower oil
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cream cheese topping:

3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
3 tablespoons cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanille extract

Method:

In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar.
Add eggs and oil. Stir to combine.
Add crushed pineapple and grated carrots. Now the chopped walnuts.Stir.
Turn your oven on at 180ºC.
Line a rectangular cake pan or muffin pan (16).
Pour the batter in your pan and bake for 35 - 40 min. (25-30 if you're making cupcakes).
While the cake is in the oven, we make the topping: mix all ingredients until you have a smooth batter. Set aside.
When the cake is cold, spread the topping on it.

Lemon Cookies

2009-02-18T07:11:00.003-05:00

I'm a tiny bit fed up with chocolate. I'm feeling like lemon: cookies, pie, mousse, cream, whatever.

So, after some investigation work over my cook books, I chose these cookies. Of course, they are lemon cookies.

Lemon Cookies
Adapted from 1.080 recetas de cocina, Simone Ortega

Ingredients:

1 cup sauer cream (put a splash vinegar or lemon juice and leave for 5 min.)
1 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups flour
1 egg, beaten
zest of a lemon
1 heapin teaspoon baking powder

Glaze:

100 gr. powderer sugar
juice of a lemon

Method:

In a bowl, mix sauer cream with sugar, lemon zest and egg.
Mix flour and baking powder in another bowl.
Add flour to first mixture.
Preheat your oven at 180º C
Put teaspoons on the lined oven sheets, leave enough espace in between, they spread quite a bit.
Bake them for 15 min.
Make the glaze: mix lemon juice with powdered sugar.
Brush cookies with the glaze once they are cold. Let them get dry.

Pancakes for breakfast

2009-02-15T16:49:00.003-05:00

Last weekend children # 1 and #3 made freakfast for us. It took them awhile because apart from the dayly delights they offered us freshly pressed orange juice and, surprise!: pancakes. One of our favorite breakfasts. Here, in Spain, we eat them for coffee time, but in the USA they eat them for breakfast. I like them so much, I could eat them at all times... I made it just in time to take some snapshots of "the making of the pancakes".

Flipping pancakes in the air is not as easy as you might think. Here we have punk #3 in his first attempt:

¡Oops! Almost nobody has seen that. We'll keep on trying.

Let's take a look at the older sister. We want to learn from her. Vamos a observar a la hermana mayor. Aprender de su arte. What a skill! You could almost think she can do it with her eyes shut.

A weekend later it seems this is turning into a habit. Could it be true? I don't have to ever make freakfast again during the weekends? Wonderful! Again pancakes for breakfast this Sunday. This time arround punk #2 and #3 were the cooks. It's true that experience makes the master. You can see they have improved themselves. What's more, they planned it better. They made the batter the night before. Everything went faster. Of course I still have to lend a hand, but I think we are going in the right direction.

Punk #2 makes an effort to make everything right the first time. This animation is rather small, but I think you can still see the concentration on his face.

Pancakes
4 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups flour + 2 heaping tablespoons
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs, large
300 ml. milk

Method:

In a big bolw, melt butter in the microwave.
Add eggs and combine.
Add rest of ingredients and mix until you have a dick, smooth batter.
Put a skillet on the stove over medium heat.
Grease your skillet only for your first pancake. I deep a papernapkin in a little bit of oil and bush the bottom of the skillet with it.
Pour some batter on the skillet, when it's hot. When the surface of the pancake begins to dry and make bubbles, flip it. Let cook still some seconds and take it out onto a plate. Repeat until you have no dough left.

Serve hot. Spread generously butter on your pancake and pour pure maple syrum. There's not better way to start your day.

White Chocolate and Sour Cream Cake

2009-02-09T05:32:00.006-05:00

Many, many years ago, when a had regular contact with people that shared a love for cooking with me, I was able to copy quite a number of interesting recipes from different cooking magazines that would fall into my hands. I put them aside and only now I'm trying them. Better late than never!

I don't usually like white chocolate. I find it much too sweet. Sauer cream neutralizes this and makes the cake very spongy. Um! How quick it was gone!

White Chocolate and Sour Cream cake

Ingredients

170 gr. white chocolate
2 cups flour
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 cup sour cream (mix whipping cream with a tablespoon vinegar)
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
2 teaspoons baking powder

Method

Grease generously and flour your cake pan.
Melt white chocolate (2 min. at 850 in the microwaveoven). Set aside.
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, sugars, eggs, sour cream and oil. Stir just enough to make a smooth batter.
Preheat your oven at 180ºC.
Pour the batter in the cake pan and bake it for about 45 min.
Let rest about 15 min. before you take it out of the pan.
Dust with confectioners sugar.

Pasta with lentils and smoke salmon

2009-02-07T06:48:00.002-05:00

As I said, it's snowing. I rise to the occasion making one of my childrens' favorite. It's a different way to eat lentils: with nuddles and fish...The recipe comes out one of my dearests german magazines, Meine Familie und Ich, which my mother-in-law gives me every time we meet.

Nuddles with lentils and smoked salmon

Serves four

Ingredients:

1 onion, medium, minced
75 gr. lentils
500 ml. vegetable stock (instant)
150 gr. smoked salmon
400 gr. pasta, for example farfallel
300 gr. whipping cream
2 egg yolks
juice of a half lemon
olive oil
salt, freshly ground pepper, dill and nutmeg

Method:

Soak in water the lentils a couple of hours before you cook them.
In a deep pan, satée half the onions with some olive oil. When it's glassy, add the drained lentils and the vegetable stock. Cook over low heat for about half an hour. When lentils are tender, strain them.
Meanwhile, cut the smoked salmon in fine stripes and cook your pasta following the package's directions.Set aside.
In a small pan, sauté rest of onions with two olive oil tablespoons. When they are glassy, add whipping cream and cook over low heat for about ten minutes. Season with lemon juice, pepper, salt and nutmeg.
In a bowl, mix egg yolks with some cream. Stir. Add to the whipping cream sauce. Remove from heat.
Add lentils to the sauce and season with dill.
Serve pasta with cream sauce and sprinkle with salmon stripes.

Tomato and avocado Salad

2009-02-07T05:30:00.003-05:00

It's snowing outside, big time...Tennis lessons have been canceled. I do love tennis, but boy, am I glad... I get to stay the whole morning at home!

I make the most of it staying in my kitchen and cooking a whole meal. As starter a tomato - avocado salad. Simple, quick, delicious. To succeed, you simply need first quality ingredients: raff tomatos, ripe avocado, extra virgin olive oil and vinegar. We have vinegar scented with walnuts, excellent! Soon it will be gone. Fortunately we are going for skiing in France this year and we will be able to restock our pantry.

Tart Tatin

2009-02-06T05:34:00.002-05:00

A couple of years ago I tried to make this cake and it was a disaster. I don't understand what possible went wrong, since the process is pretty easy, but it was like that. This time around I didn't have much time so I chose frozen puff pastry, but you can also use pie dough.

Anyway, here I present you this tart. I is a light, fruity and nice dessert for a family reunion.

Tart Tatin
For a 22 cm cake pan
8 servings

Ingredients:

1 kg. apples
150 gr. butter
125 gr. caster sugar
1 frozen sheet puff pastry or a pie crust recipe

Method:

Defrost puff pastry in the fridge. Roll it and put it on a parchment paper, cover and reserve in the fridge.
Combine butter and sugar in the cake pan you are going to use and put it directly on the stove until you have a golden caramel.
Meanwhile, peel and core the apples. Cut each apple in four pieces.
When you have your caramel, arrange apple pieces tightly in the pan over the caramel with the convex side face-down and let simer over low heat for 30 minutes more or less.
Put the puff pastry sheet on the apples. Tuck well the sides in the pan, as though you wanted to make your bed. Pinch it several times with a fork.
Pre - heat oven at 200ºC . Bake for 35 - 40 min., until the dough is nice and golden.
Let it rest in the pan for a couple of minutes. Reverse it on a cake plate and serve warm.

Gluten Free Cookies

2009-02-02T06:40:00.002-05:00

I was going to bake some oatmeal cookies, which are my best half favorites (I think). Thanks to Cookie Madness I've found this recipe and they are to die for. Its main ingredients are oat flour, chocolate, hazelnut and almond flour. With these, nothing could go wrong. They are crunchy due to the nuts, moist because of the chocolate that melts in your mouth. The original version can be found here.

Gluten Free Cookies
Found at Cookie Madness

Ingredients

115 gr. butter, room temperature
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar*
1 egg, large
1 teaspoon vanille extract
1 1/2 cups oat flour
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted
1/2 cup almonds, blanched, toasted and salted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup chocolate chips (we don't have them here, so I put chocolate chunks)

Method:

Ground hazelnuts and almonds with a tablespoon sugar. I do this with my blender.
Ground rolled oats, I use an electric coffee grinder.
Cream sugars and butter. Add egg and vanille extract. Stir until well combined.
Add oat and nut flour and baking powder. Now the chocolate chunks. Stir to combine everything.
Line two baking sheets. Distribute teaspoons of dough on them. Bake them at 180º C for 10 min. or until golden in a preheated oven.
Let them cool on a rack.

* Now that I come to think about it, I think I didn't add the caster sugar. I've been kind of distracted lately.... Well, the cookies are delicious and I have now another excuse to repeat them.

Apart from my attention, I've mislaid my appetite. I believe for the first time in my life I'm not hungry at all times. Have I finally grown up?

Jamie Oliver's Lemon Pudding

2009-02-01T11:00:00.000-05:00

I love Jamie Oliver's cooking. He is super dynamic and has a fantastic technique. You can always learn something from him.

A while ago, I watch him make this recipe on TV and it looked delicious. Unfortunately, I catched him too late to get the ingredients, I had no time to copy them. The thing is I found it in one of the books I gave my little bro for his birthday so, here it is:

Lovely Lemon Curdy Pud
Adapted from Jamie Oliver
Four servings

Ingredients:

55 gr butter
115 gr. sugar
juice and zest of one lemon
2 large eggs, separated whites and yolks
55 gr. flour
1 tespoon baking powder
285 ml. whole milk

Method:

Cream butter, sugar and lemon zest ina bowl.
Add egg yolks, flour with baking powder and beat in, then add milk and three tablespoons lemon juice. Mix well.
Whisk egg whites until stiff in another bowl, then add the rest of the mixture.
Don't over-mix it, you don't want the air to come out ot the egg whites.
Grease a deep baking pan. Pour the mixture in.
Bake in a water bath at 200ºC for 40 min. (next time I will cut back on time to make it even jucier).

Nougat Liquor Cake

2009-01-30T16:13:00.003-05:00

Christmas fieber is over. It has left us with some pounds that we will have to sweat, but it's gone. To celebrate, I was going over Backen macht Freude from Dr. Oetker, a book my mother-in-law gave me for my birthday.

I stumbled upon this recipe (well, yet another one) a very tempting one, Egg Liquor Cake. As it turns out, I haven't been able to find this liquor, yet another inconvinient in the provinces life, but I have replaced it with this other Nougat liquor (talking about Christmas time) and here it is. Irresistible. It hasn't disappointed us.

Nougat Liquor Cake
Adapted from Backen macht Freude

Ingredients:

125 gr. flour
125 gr. cornstarch
4 tablespoons baking powder
250 gr. sugar
2 valline sugar envelopes
250 gr. sunflower oil
250 ml. nougat liquor
5 eggs (medium size)
powdered sugar to dust

Method:

Grease and flour a cake form.
Sift flour, cornstarch and baking powder in a bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir vigorously until you have a smooth batter.
Pour into your cake form and cook in a preheated oven (180º C) for one hour aproximately.
Dust with powdered sugar.

Rosquillas with Anisette

2009-01-29T10:24:00.003-05:00

My grandma Antonia was an artist. She cooked like a chef, knited from the scratch, sewed and embroidered fastastically well. Unfortunately I grew up in a different city so I couldn't learn a lot from her. However, she always had these at home. As it comes out, my little girl really loves to eat them, so here they are. They are quick and easy to make, with ingredients that everybody usually has at home.

Rosquillas with Anisette
31 rosquillas

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons olive oil
6 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoon sweet anisette (liquor)
26 tablespoons flour aprox.
oil to deep fry
Powdered sugar to dust

Method:

Beat eggs with sugar, baking powder and water.
Add the cold oil. Keep beating. Put the anisette in.
Add the flour until you have a soft mixture.
With well floured hands, form the rosquillas.
Dreep fry them in hot oil.
Dust with powdered sugar.

Little Bro Birthday Cake

2009-01-26T16:24:00.004-05:00

This cake is irresistible, yes, I know it's not right for me to say it, but it is the truth. I don't remember where the recipe came from, I apologize. I have it written down in my cook notebook. Surely I got it out of some cook magazine from a friend ...

This bomb is a chocolate cake filled with two layers: dark chocolate mousse and white chocolate mousse. Can you possible desire more?

To fully enjoy it, it's mandatory to forget about calories. Say what? Calories? What's that! Don't know. Let your inhibitions go, and then you'll get the full taste of it.

Besides, it allows variations. Next time we bake it, I will be using an sponge cake, very moist.Yummi! I'm already salivating, just like Pavlov's dog...

Little Bro Birthday Cake
For lots of people and a 26 cm cake pan

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cake

225 gr. dark chocolate
4 eggs
2 tablespoon sugar
100 gr. butter
100 gr. flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
250 ml. water
50 gr. sugar
95 ml rum

Dark Mousse

350 gr. dark chocolate
50 gr. butter
300 gr. whipping cream
2 tablespoons rum (optional, I didn't use it)

White Mousse

350 gr. white chocolate
50 gr. butter
300 gr. whipping cream

To Garnish

100 gr. dark chocolate, o half white, half dark chocolate
podwered sugar to dust

Method

Cake

Melt chocolate (I do it in the microwave) and let it cool.
Beat egg whites, when they star to become firm, add one tablespoon sugar. Keep beating, you have to have kind of a meringue.
Cream butter with the other tablespoon sugar.
Add the egg yolks, one at a time.
It's time for the chocolate to blend in.
Finally add the meringue, this is always the final step. Do it with round movements, so the air doesn't come out.
Cook at 180ºC in a pre-heated oven for 30 min. Let cool.
Cut it in three slices (good luck).
Brush each slice with the syrup (that you've previously cooked: water and sugar for 5 min.)

Dark Mousse

Melt butter and chocolate together.
Whipp the cream, not to hard. Stir in 1/3 of the chocolate.
Mix rest of the chocolate with the brandy. This is optional and you can take the liquor that you best like, as well. Join both creams and put it in the fridge.

White Mousse

Same as the dark mousse, without the liquor.

Assembly
Put the top slice of the cake facing down in the cake pan you used to bake it.
Spread the dark mousse
Put the central slice on the dark mousse.
Now spread the white mousse.
Put the last cake slice, the bottom slice, on top of everything.
Let it cool in the fidge a couple of hours. Before serving, let the cake rest at room temperature at least two hours.
Spread it and let it set. It doesn't have to become completely hard.
With a knife, scrape the chocolate to make curls.Arrange them on the cake and dust with some powedered sugar, if you feel like it. Enjoy!

Limes and Lemons

2009-01-22T18:00:00.011-05:00

Perhaps someone out there can help me? It turns out that my mother and I have a discussion from the years I spent in Brazil: are limes and lemons the same fruit? Here are our diverging opinions:

Me: They have different names, sizes, colors and flavors (my better half declares that a caipirinha made with lemons isn't the same, it has another aroma) therefore they're different fruits.

My mother: limes are green lemons.Period.

I've researched the net. I have reached no conclusion. I still have to look it up in my Espasa (encyclopedia), wanting to end this intelectual suffering I found myself in... Meanwhile, does anyone have the answer? I'd be eternally grateful ...

So we gather again tonight for dinner. I was the cook and this was the menu:

- Russian potato and leeks soup(recipe)

- Stuffed Onions (recipe)

- Lime meringue pie (recipe)

Lime and Meringue Pie

2009-01-22T06:45:00.005-05:00

This is one of my favorite pies. I just can't resist it. If allowed I could gobble it, afterwards I'd surely have to have my stomach pumped out...Not even the shadow of this pie was left...

I normally fill this pie with lemon curd, but this time I had to prove that limes and lemons are not the same... I don't like my meringue with lots of sugar. It's a nice contrast to the sweet curd. So, this was like a little sunshine in this unpleasant winter that we are having.

Lime Curd
For a 26 cm. pie shell

Ingredients

* one pie crust
* zest of 4 limes
* 125 ml. freshly pressed lime juice (5 to 6 limes)
* 285 gr. sugar
* 250 gr. soft butter
* 5 big eggs
* a pinch of salt
* 3 egg whites
* 3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Method

1.- Mix zest with sugar.
2.- Beat butter and sugar until you have a cream.
3.- Add eggs, one at a time.
4.- Pour in the juice and salt.
5.- Cook it in a water bath for 15 min aprox., removing constantly with a wodden spoon. The curd is done when it covers the back of the spoon. If you run your finger on the back of the spoon you have to see like a "road". Let it cool completely.
6.- Fill in the pie shell or eat it with the spoon, if you can't help it...

Meringue

1.- Beat the egg whites until firm. Add the powdered sugar and beat again.
2.- Put it gracefully over the filled pie. Grill it, be careful, I almost burned it!

Pie Crust

2009-01-22T06:30:00.002-05:00

This is a basic pie crust for all kind of pies. the problem with this type of crust is that it tends to shrink with heat (in the oven). I've read all kinds of tricks and secrets to prevent this from happening, from letting it rest several hours in the fridge to replace water for vodka... I have my own secret: I put the rolled dough on the pie shell and let it rest the whole night in the fridge. I cook it the next day and it's perfect! So here it goes:

Pie Crust
For a 26 cm pie shell

Ingredients

* 200 gr. flour
* 80 gr. buter, cold in 4 big chunks
* 1 egg yolk
* 1 tablespoon oil
* a pinch of salt
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 3 tablespoons cold water

Method

1.- Mix flour, salt and sugar in a bowl or on the kitchen counter. Add butter and egg yolk. Mix quickly cutting it with two knives until it looks like crumbles.
2.- Add in the water, a tablespoon at a time. Maybe you don't need it all, it depends on the humidity of the flour. The dough won't be very smooth, just enough to make a ball with it. Wrap it up in foil.
3.- Let it rest some hours (or the night) in the fridge.
4.- Sprinkle the kitchen counter with flour and roll the dough. You have to think ahead and take it out of the fridge at least one hour before you roll it. Mine always break so I end up putting the pieces on the pie dish. Nobody's perfect...
5.- Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork so it doesn't loose its shape when cooked and cover it with foil again. Put some uncooked beans on it. Leave it in the fridge during the night. Cook the crust at 180º C in a preheated oven about 30 min. It shouldn't turn golden.
6.- Let it cool a bit and brush the bottom of the crush with half a beaten egg white. Shove in the oven for 5 min.
7.- Fill it with whatever you fancy.

Stuffed onions

2009-01-22T06:15:00.003-05:00

It has been a long time since I made these. Probably due to the lack of time. Now I just have to organize myself better and begin to prepare part of the dish the day before...

This recipe comes from one of my basic cook books: Simone Ortega's 1080 recetas de cocina. Mine is a simplified version, not less tasteful nonetheless. Judge yourselves...

Stuffed Onions
8 servings

Ingredients

* 8 big and round onions
* 400 gr. ground beef
* 200 gr. minced pork meat
* 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon chopped parsley
* 2 big garlic cloves, minced
* 2 medium eggs, beaten
* 2 toast bread slices, whitout rind
* 1/2 wine glass of warm milk
* 250 ml. meat stock
* 80 ml. cream
* A string of olive oil

Method

1.- Put the toast bread in the milk. Prepare the stuffing: in a bowl mix meat, salt, parsley, garlic, eggs and drained bread. Reserve it.
2.- Peel the onions. Cut a thin slice underneath so they don't roll, and another bigger on the top so you can stuff them. Cook them in salty water about 15 min. Drain them carefully and set the water aside, you can use it to make the stock (with maggi cubes...)
3.- Carefully empty the onions. You can use what comes out to make a pasta sauce, for example.
4.- Stuff the hollow onions and put the lid on that we cut out earlier. Put the stuffed onions in an oven dish (or maybe two). Sprinkle them with meat stock, just up to the middle of the onions. You can cover them if you want to with a little bit of chopped parsley. Drizzel them now with olive oil. Cook them at 190º C in a preheated oven for 50 min, give or take.
5.- You can grill them after they are done, for instance with a mixture of butter, garlic and breadcrumbs. I didn't have any so I used some grated parmesan cheese...
6.- Arrange the onions carefully on a serving plate.
7.- To make the sauce, take the cooking liquid and reduce it with the cream. Mix everything with the electrical mixer right before you serve it.

Russian Soup

2009-01-22T06:05:00.005-05:00

I love eating soup. All Kinds of soups. I could eat it everyday. I found this recipe here. It is fantastic. It has now officially a place in my recipe collection.

In Spain we cook the soup eather in meat, chicken or fish stock. We put some vegetables and noodles, bread, fish... and done.In Central and Eastern Europe, then enrich them with cream. Um! Yummi! Sure, with such low temperatures, cream is wonderful.

RussianSoup
12 servings

Ingredients:

* 70 gr. butter
* 2 leeks, sliced
* 2 big carrots, aprox. 350 gr., diced
* 1.420 ml chicken stock
* 1 teaspoon dried dill
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly grounded black pepper
* 1 bay leaf
* 910 gr. potatos, diced
* 455 gr. fresh mushrooms, sliced
* 120 ml. cream
* 120 ml. whole milk
* 1 tablespoon flour

Method:

1.- Melt half the butter in a big casserole. Sauté leeks and carrots about five min. Add the stock. If someone makes their own stock, congratulations, she has my complete admiration. I buy it, I'm too lazy...Now add pepper, dill, bay leaf and salt.
2.- Mix in potatos, put the lid on the casserole and cook everything on low heat about 20 min.When the vegetables are ready, discard the bay leaf.
3.- Meanwhile, melt the rest of the butter in a skillet and sauté the mushrooms until they are slightly golden. Pour them into the soup.
4.- In a small bowl, mix the flour with the milk and cream. Mix it in the soup and cook until it becomes thicker.

Pumpkin Cake with Orange and Walnuts

2009-01-16T08:30:00.004-05:00

This is a delicious cake (excuse my modesty...) It is moist and refresing, not at all heavy. It can perhaps be improved adding some cinnamon and/or nutmeg, next time maybe...

Pumpkin Cake with Orange and Walnuts
Adapted from Madame Cugnac
For a 26 cm can

Ingredients:

800 gr. pumpkin puree
2 oranges
200 gr. sugar
80 gr. grated walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100 gr. butter, melted
120 gr. flour
150 gr. shelled walnuts (130 gr. chopped and 20 gr. in halves to decorate)
3 eggs, yolks and whites divided
1/2 envelope baking powder (about 2 teaspoons)
Powdered sugar for dusting

Method:

To make the pumpkin puree: cut the pumpkin in four big chuncks, use a serrated knife and sawing motions, otherwise the knife can slip and you can hurt yourself. With a spoon, take out the seeds. Place it in a microwaveable bowl with lid and cook it on high for 20 min. or until the flesh is tender. Scoop out the pulp and mix it with a hand blender.
We need the zest of the other orange. Squize both orange to get the juice. Mix pumpkin puree, orange zest and juice. Add the vanilla extract.
Beat egg yolks and sugar until pale.
Now add flour, baking powder, grated and chopped walnuts and pumpkin puree.
It's time for the melted butter to come in.
Perare your pan (grease it and coat it with flour). Pour in the cake mixture.
Cook in a pre-heated oven at 210 ºC for aproximately one hour.
Take it out of the pan when completely cooled. Arrage nicely your walnut halves on top of it. Roll the orange peel like flowers and dust with powdered sugar.

Crepes with Gorgonzola Cheese, Arugula and Walnuts

2009-01-16T06:13:00.007-05:00

Crepes with Gorgonzola Cheese, Arugula and Walnuts
From Julius sigue cocinando en 22 minutos
2 Servings

Ingredients

Your favorite recipe for crepes
100 gr. gorgonzola cheese
1 handful arugula
4 serrano ham slices
4 walnuts, chopped
A bit of butter (to make the crepes)
Ground pepper

Method:

Make the crepes and reserve in a warm place.
Cut in pieces gorgonzola cheese and chop arugula leaves.
Cut the cured ham slices, in squares (in the book says stripes but the little brother did it in squares)
Fill each crepe with half the ham, arugula, chopped walnuts and, if you feel like it, ground pepper to taste.
Roll the crepes carefully. Heat them a little bit in the skillet.
Serve with some ham pieces and arugula on them. Enjoy.

Pine nut - marzipan cookies

2009-01-12T05:23:00.008-05:00

These delicious bites (we call them empiñonadas in Spain) are eaten the whole year round, but they are even more typical during Christmas. Yes, I know, we still have a complete year til next Christmas, but it's now when I have the time to post this recipe. Preparing the dough both easy and quick. They just little marzipan balls covered with pine nuts. Thus the problem: getting the pine nuts to stick. Those of you with no patience, don't even try it, you'll become an urgent drive to throw everything out the window.... There goes the dare:

Empiñonadas
38 cookies

Ingredients:

250 gr. sweet raw almond meal
250 gr. powdered sugar
38 cl. (aprox) water
zest of half a lemon
1 eggwhite, small
255 gr. pine nuts
1 egg

Method:

Put almond meal and sugar on the kitchen counter. Add water little by little and knead well. We have our marzipan. Let it rest a day in the fridge.
Next day, add lemon zest and eggwhite to the marzipan. Knead well. Form it into a long tube about 4 cm diameter and wrap it with foil. Let it rest in the fridge.
Beat egg. Put pine nuts in a deep bowl.
Cut the tube in little pieces and form them into balls.
Deep each ball in egg and, immediately after, deep it in the pine nut bowl. Press so pine nuts stick.
Put empiñonadas in a lined baking sheet and bake them at 210º until they star turning golden.

You have to keep them in a can or tupperware, otherwise the dry up and become hard.

Clementine and Walnut Cake

2008-12-16T16:25:00.005-05:00

Clementine and Walnut Cake

From Simone Ortega's 1.080 recetas de cocina

Ingredients:

Sponge Cake:

3 eggs, whites and yolks separated
Their weight in sugar
The weight of two eggs in flour
100 gr. butter, melted

Method:

Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt, until firm.
Add the egg yolks one at a time and then the sugar. Keep stiring.
Add the flour by tablespoons. Don't overstir, the cake would become hard. Now put in the melted, cold butter. Stir.
Grease your cake tin and sprinkle it with some flour.
Cook at 180ºC in a pre-heated oven during 45 min. to one hour.
Let the cake rest some minutes in the pan, take it out and put it on a rack to cool down. Slice it horizontally, you have now two halves.

Cream:

3 egg yolks
150 gr. powdered sugar
150 gr. melted butter
juice of two clementines

Method:

In a bowl,mix the egg yolks with sugar and juice. Add carefully the butter. Stir until it all comes together.
Spread half this cream onto the bottom half of the cake. Put the other half on the cake and spread it with the rest of the cream.

Garnish:

4 to 5 clementines
100 gr. sugar
115 ml. water
100 gr. walnuts, in halves

Method:

Make a syrup with the water and sugar, you have to cook it on the stove for 5 min. give or take. Put clementine's segments in the syrup and cook them together 10 min. Drain and let them cool down a little.
Arrange the segments on the cake gracefuly.
Garnish with the walnut halves.
Serve cold.

Walnut and chocolate Cake

2008-12-15T04:02:00.001-05:00

I felt like baking a creamy tart. Just like that. But as it turns out it's my best half birthday, and in spite of the fact that his favorite cake is the hazelnut cake, he has authorized me to choose the cake I liked most to bake. I guess he let me because he knew I was going to make it anyway...

The choise was a tough one, there are so many mouthwatering recipes out there... Finally I chose this one, it was delicious!. This is a flour free cake which gave the cake a totally different consistency. The filling was not stickly sweet at all, but refreshing thanks to the lemon juice and the result was frankly moist. I found the recipe here. Exceptfor the decoration, it was late and I didn't feel like grating walnuts, I didn't change a thing in the recipe.

Peanut Wafers

2008-12-10T05:17:00.003-05:00

I love nuts. All kinds of nuts. Some of them I just can't resist. Like with pistachios and honey roasted peanuts. If there's an opened can, I can't stop until there's not one left. I must work on my selfcontrol...

The other day I stumbled on this recipe here. I visit this page on a daily basis, because her author has an spectacular output concerning cookies, sometimes more than one recipe a day. It's admirable...

To the point, it was clear I couldn't live one more day without making these cookies. To be honest, mine look rather different from hers. Maybe it's because I put a lot less sugar in them, after trying the dough (raw) I thought I didn't need the extra 3/4 cup sugar... I have no doubt that both versions are to dye for...

Cupcakes with Pears, Cashews, Coffee and Caramel

2008-12-09T05:36:00.002-05:00

I found this recipe here. They struck me as mouthwatering and original. Nevertheless, they hit me in a creative moment and I introduced some variations, so I'm going to write my version. I suspect that in the original recipe, caramel was just meant to caramelize pears and nuts. I ended up with quite some sauce so I added it to the dough. That made these cupcakes very toffee-like, huuummm, delicious...

Cupcakes with pears and cashews
About 18 cupcakes

Ingredients:
Dough:

1 1/3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 sachet baking powder (about 8 grs.)
1 pinch salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
65 ml sunflower oil
2 pears, cut into little pieces
1/2 cups cashews, chopped

Caramel sauce:

1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter

Coffee glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon strong coffee

Method:

In a skillet, melt sugar until it becomes golden. Add butter and when it's melted, add brown cashews and pears.
In a bowl, mix flour, sugar and baking powder. Reserve.
Combine eggs, milk and oil in another bowl. Add this mixture to the flour. Stir just enough to combine, if you stir too much, cupcakes will harden.
Add caramelize pears and cashews carefully.
Prepare some cupcakes papers or tins. Fill them up to 3/4 partes and bake them in preheated oven at 180º C for 20 minutes proximately.
For the glaze, mix powdered sugar with coffee. Poke some holes in the still hot cupcakes and brush them with the glaze.

These cupcakes are very spongy and juicy. This taste mixture, pears, toffee, coffee and cashews is a good combination. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Apple Cake

2008-11-26T05:35:00.002-05:00

I copied this recipe out of the book of a dearest friend of mine: Sue. Sue is in Heaven, but I remember her daily. She's alive in my heart. Ten years ago, a lapse of concentration at the wheel deprived us of her company. Some mistakes you pay with your life...

The other day I was having a look at my recipes, I found this one. This cake has the season's taste: apples, walnuts and cinnamon. Its appearance is a little bit terrible, that happens when you don't grease enough your bake form: it sticks. Fortunately this doesn't affect the flavor and my family loves me so much they don't shove it in my face...The original recipe culminates the cake with a glaze, either brown sugar or coffee. I've tried it already with the coffee glaze. It suits the cake perfectly, but when I finished it, it was late and Ugly Betty (one of my favorite series) was just about to start...

Apple Cake

Ingredients:

Cake:

2 beaten eggs
2 cups sugar
4 apples, grated (I only cut them in pieces but greated is better)
1 cup sunflower oil
2 teaspoons vanille extract
1 cup walnuts, chopped
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon

Brown sugar Glaze:

1 cup brown sugar
60 gr. butter
1/4 cup milk

Mocha Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons strong coffee (espresso)

Method:

Generously grease your cake form (if you don't want to end up like me).
Beat eggs, oil, sugar, walnuts and vanille. Add apples.
Sift flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon in a bowl.
Combine everything and let rest for tirty minutes.
Turn oven on at 180º C.
Bake for one hour in preheated oven or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool down about 10 minutes before you take it out of the tin.
If you're glazing it, poke some holes in the cake so that gazes can well seep through it.

Brown sugar glaze:

Cut the ingredients in a pot until the thicken. Pour over hot cake.

Mocha glaze:

Mix powdered sugar and coffee until you have a smooth batter. Pour it over hot cake.

Oatmeal Cookies

2008-11-25T05:15:00.002-05:00

Mi middle child (dwarf #2 from now on) is studying the reproduction. Not for the first time. In ground school they insist on several themes: pollution, reproduction, ecosystems, etc. The difference this year is that he's enthusiastic about it. They've seen a movie about how fetilization takes place and he's deeply impressed. The hard journey spermatozoids preform fascinates him. He's told me everything about it, from beginning to end. The other day we were coming back from the gym and this was our conversation:

Dwarf #2: - I came in first once, if not I woundn't be here.
me: - So did I
Dwarf : - but I'm Y and you are X
me: -yes, but I won also, If not I woudn't be here. We've all been champions, at least once.

In other words, he identifies himself totally with an spermatozoid. He's still just a child but you can already see the man he's wearing inside. This idea woudn't have crossed my mind in a million years. In his small head, he's an spermatozoid since he is XY, while me (woman and XX) I'm the ovule. I mean if it was carneval I know what his desguise was going to be... I have to explain to him that we're all an ovule plus an spermatozoid and that these are X or Y.

The object of this entry isn't the reproductive disgressions of an 11 years old child but these wonderful cookies. Now it's so cold (thanks to global warming...) and it's so dark outside, these littles bites come very handy. They warm the stomach and the heart. The original recipe is here to be found. I did them exactly like explained.

Cashew and Yogurt Cake

2008-11-19T05:34:00.002-05:00

Since the moment she tried it, this came to be my mom's favorite cake. It's delicious. It consist of two parts, different and complementary: an incredible spongy and light cake on its right point of moisture (thanks to yoghurt) that melts in your mounth and a crunchy layer of cashew, cookies, coffee and brown sugar which makes the perfect constrast and gives it the special and original touch. This two texture combination is unbeatable. It leaves you wanting more.

I found the original recipe here . I've increased the crunchy layer quantities, because I just can't get enough of it and I've also adjusted the baking time, sure that depends on each oven... I felt it was better to use a rectangular cake tin instead of a round one, it's the cook's choice really...
Delicious Cake
From Happy Home Baking

Ingredients:

Crunchy layer

115 gr. digestive cookies (smashed)
65 gr. cashews toasted and salted (crushed)
50 gr. brown sugar
1 teaspoon instant coffee
50 gr. butter, cold in pieces

Cake

150 gr. butter, soft
100 gr. caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanille extract
1 pinch salt
200 gr. flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
150 gr. yoghurt

Method:

To make crunchy layer, mix all ingredients with your fingers until they resemble bread crumbs. Reserve.
Lets make the cake now. Mix flour and baking powder.
Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add salt and vanille extract.
Add eggs, one at a time. If it curdles it doesn't matter. Once you've added the flour the dough would turn normal.
Add flour and yoghurt, alternating between both.
Grease and flour a rectangular cake tin.
Pour 1/3 of crocanty on the bottom. Then, pour half the cake batter. Another third of crunchy layer and the remaning batter half. Lastly, spread another third of crocanty on top on the cake.
Bake in a preheated oven at 170º C for 35-40 min. (It took me 45 min.)
Let cake cool completely before taking out of the tin, if not you'll take the risk of braking it in half.

Christmas Decoration

2008-11-17T05:12:00.002-05:00

I believe I've already mentioned it. Christmas atmosphere is taking over me, deeper and deeper. I'm not alone. My kids are contaminated as well. It all started when toys catalogs began to arrive. They've been carefully revised every night. Good-bye to "this year I'm only asking for a digital watch". Dwarf #2, who is almost 1,60 m. tall, wants not one but two costumes. One of them should be Dark Vader. I don't think they make them in his size. We've dug up forgotten toys. We are in a good mood. It's wonderful.

These cookies can be hang on the Christmas tree. I don't think this batch is going to make it, but I just couldn't resist. You can cut them out in different shapes, circles, diamonds, squares or christmas motives with special cutters.... it depends on your patience. I lost it right away and ended up making beautiful circles... As for decoration, the only limit is your creativity: you can play with colors, adding food coloring to the glaze, you can use pearls in different sizes, colors and shapes. Your choice.

Christmas cookies
Adapted from Comer Bien

Ingredients

Dough:

225 gr. flour
75 gr. almonds toasted and ground
120 gr. cold butter
130 gr. sugar
1 egg

Glaze:

1 egg white
150 gr. powdered sugar
food coloring
decoration pearls

Method

Mix ground almonds, flour and sugar. Add butter in pieces and mix quickly with your fingers. Add egg and shape the dough into a ball.
Wrap dough in kitchen foil and refrigerate for half an hour.
Flour the kitchen counter and roll out the dough until it's 1/2 cm thick. Cut out cookies with your favorite shape.
If you want to hang them on the tree, make a hole in each cookie with a wooden toothpick. Dough expands while baking, so the hole should be big. You can also leave a piece of the toothpick inside to ensure the hole doesn't disapear.
Bake them for 10 min. at 180ºC. Let them cool on a rack.
For the glaze, beat eggwhite with powdered sugar. If you want your cookies to be colorful, divide your glaze in little bowls and add some coloring food drops in each one. Add your decoration pearls while the glaze is still wet. Once is dry, it doesn't stick anymore.

Chestnut Flan

2008-11-13T04:09:00.002-05:00

I love chestnuts. Seved in all forms: roasted, as stuffing, in jelly, marron glacée... even raw! I have a magazine with a whole section dedicated to this fruit. I coudn't resist the tentation to try this dessert. It was worth it.
Chestnut Flan
From Comer Bien

Ingredients:

1/2 can chesnut cream
2 tablespoons cream
1 tablespoon rhum
1 teaspoon vanille extract
1/4 milk
3 eggs
100 gr. sugar
3 tablespoons water

Method:

Make a caramel sauce with sugar and water and spread on a flan pan. Let cool down.
Mix chestnut cream with milk. Add cream, rhum and vanille.
Beat the eggs and add them to the cream.
Pour this mixture in the flan pan and cook at 180º C in a water bath for 40-45 min.
Let cool in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.

Stuffed chickens with pears and apples

2008-11-13T03:58:00.009-05:00

To be honest, this recipe was ment to be for a capon, but I couldn't find no three kilos bird, so I took two nice free range chickens. They turned out very nice. The sweet, fruity stuffing equilibrates the greasy birds, a good combination. On top of everything, the stuffing was very easy to make and the roasting was no sweat.

Stuffed chickens
From Vie Practique, for 6 to 8 people

Ingredients:

2 big chickens (or a medium capon, about 3 kilos)
8 apples (I used small golden delicious)
2 pears (conference, also small)
1/2 half a bunch fresh sage (I didn't have fresh so I took a tablespoon dried sage)
20 cl. chicken stock
150 gr. butter
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Peel pears and two apples and cut them in pieces, discgarging the cores. Sautée them in a skillet with 30 gr. butter. Salt and pepper to taste. At the end of the cooking, add sage.
Stuff the chickens with these fruits and close them.
Put the chickens in an oven casserole and spread 50 gr. butter over them. Pour the chicken stock in the casserole over the chickens.
Cook them in a preheated oven at 210º C for two hours. Sprinkel chickens with the cooking juices from time to time.
Meanwhile, peel and cut in quarts the rest of the apples. Sautée them in a skillet with the rest of the butter. Reserve warm.
Serve chickens surrounded with buttered golden apples and the cooking sauce.

Red cabbage and smashed potatoes

2008-11-13T03:51:00.009-05:00

This is the way I usually cook my vegetables on a daily basis. It's rather simple, nothing extravagant. As it turns out, I like perceiving the real taste of the vegetables. If we start throwing all kinds of spices and finish up the work with some spicy stuff, we anesthetize our taste buds and it doesn't matter anymore what we eat...

It goes very well with for example this.

Red Cabbage my way

Ingredients:

1 Cabbage(red, chinese, coliflower, brussel sprouts...)
2 garlic cloves
5 tablespoons olive oil
salt to taste

Method:

Rise the cabbage well and cut it in squares or stripes, whatever you like best.
Cover the bottom of your prssure cooker with water. Put the cabbage in and close.
Cook it. When it reaches the pressure point, turn the stove off and let the pressure cooker cool down.
Open it and strain the cabagge. Put the oil in the cooker (without water and dry) over medium heat.
Add two teaspoons salt (and if you like other herbes, now is the moment).
Chop the garlic and cook it in the oil over low heat. Garlic has to be cooked over low heat, if not it burns and becomes bitter. When it's nice and golden, and the strained cabbage Cuando esté doradito, añade la col escurrida nad stir gently.
Serve hot with mashed potatoes.

Mashed Potatoes

Making one's own mashed potatoes it's a little bit more work than buying it precooked and following the instructions on the packet. It's worth it. Homemade mashed potatoes is much, much better and tastier. When I don't have time, I serve the industrial one but the whole family notices. They complain.

Ingredients:

1.000 gr. potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons salt
1 glass semismilked milk
Spices to taste (I sometimes use nutmeg)

Method:

Peel the potatoes and cook them in water until they are tender (about 20 min. Cut very big ones in pieces).
In a big bowl, put milk, butter, salt and spices.
Mash potatoes with the potato masher or pass them through the food mill, over the bowl with milk mixture.
Mix everything well until butter is melted.
Serve hot.

Saint Martin

2008-11-11T04:10:00.002-05:00

In Germany Christmas time begins today, Saint Martin's day. But, who was he? He was born in 316 and died in 398. Since he was a child, his biggest dream was to be a soldier. During a cold winter day, when he was a young man and streets were empty and covered with snow, he went out for a ride on his horse. Suddenly, he saw a poor man on the floor, freezing. Without a doubt, he cut his cape in half with his sword and gave it to the poor man. That night he dreamed about Jesus. The following day he left the army and dedicated the rest of his life to serve the poor and church.

On this day german children make paper lantern and march out on the streets with them singing songs. Then they eat this sweet breads shaped like little men or like gooses.

My girl had to present a topic for her english class last week. She chose "Celebrating Christmas in Germany". Of course, we had to make some little Saint Martin's men to ilustrate the topic. So that everybody can enjoy them, here is the recipe. They are made with dry yeast, so they don't keep fresh for very long, you have to eat them right away.

Kloskerle
From Backen macht Freude

Ingredients:

200 ml milk plus 2 tablesoons separated
100 gr. butter
500 gr. flour
1 sachet dry yeast
3 tablespoon sugar
1 sachet vanille sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 egg, separated
raisins

Method:

Warm the milk and melt the butter in it. Reserve at 36º C.
In a bowl, sieve flour and mix it well with the dry yeast. Add sugars, milk, salt, egg and the egg white. Beat vigorously until you have an smooth dough. Let rest covered in a warm place until it has doubled in size.
Knead dough and divede in six pieces.
Make your little men and put them on a lined baking sheet.
Beat egg yolk with the reserved two milk tablespoons and bush the men with it.
Use the raisin to make the eyes and buttons.
Let rest for about 20 min. more in a warm place.
Turn oven on at 200º C .
Bake them for about 15 to 20 min. until they are golden.

Vanillekipferl

2008-11-10T05:10:00.051-05:00

Shops are beginning to decorate their windows with christmas motifs, supermarkets have cleared their shelves to fill them with turrón and polvorones (spanish christmas sweets), toy stores have published their catalogs... Christmas is in the air.

Last week, child #3 had to make a speech in english class. Her topic: Christmas in Germany. This gave me cause to bake some traditional german christmas cookies to ilustrate her presentation.

As usual, they are quick to make and to consume. I strongly recommend them.

Vanillekipferl
Backen macht Freude

Ingredients:

250 gr. flour
A pinch of salt
125 gr. caster sugar
8 gr. vanille sugar
3 egg yolks
200 gr. cold butter
125 gr. almonds, raw
50 gr. powdered sugar and some vanille sugar mixed for dusting

Method:

In a bowl, sift flour and baking powder..
Ground your almonds. You can also buy almond meal, but they quickly turn rancy, because of the high grease content, so I find it better to buy the almonds and ground them at home. Put a tablespoon sugar so it becomes a loose almond meal. Mix all the ingredients to make a dough.
Line a baking sheet.
Cut the dough in little pieces and roll each one like a 3/4 cm diameter snake.Cut each snake in 5 cm long pieces and bend them a little bit and put them on the baking sheet.
Bake the at 180ºC in a normal oven or at 160º C if it has hot air, about 10 minutes.They shouldn't brown.
Dust generously with the powdered sugar mixture when they're still hot.

Our Favorite Cake

2008-11-05T05:34:00.087-05:00

We've got something to celebrate: after countless requests to different professionals, a plumber has agreeded to visit our humble home and has proceeded to fixing the bathroom that's been useless quite a long time now. Halleluja! I have to thank our piano teacher, P. Thank you, P., I don't know if we'll ever be able to pay you back someday...

Astonishing how difficult it is that a handyman should come to your home to fix something. If ever a plug should go bad, a blind brake down or the cistern would stop working (all these I have experience with) you're lost...It's so difficult to have it fixed as to find a good dentist: no hope without a recomendation. I don't really know why, if there're too much demand or too few handymen, but it's a fact: pumblers, electricians, they are endangered species.

To celebrate, I've made the family's favorite cake. I don't usually bake it because they only need a couple of days to finish it off (so enthusiastic are they) and because I like to vary (although children always want the same). Many years ago my mother visited french conversation classes somewhat peculiar, they were given by Madame Cugnac, director of the Aliance Française, while she cooked. At the end of the "lesson", there was a tasting. I used to assit when I came to visit, since I lived abroad then, and my mother kept all recipes to give them to me. I have them all compiled in a book that I've named La Cuisine de Madame Cugnac and I will be sharing some of these wonders with the world.

This cake suits the moment perfectly since one of the ingredients is ground hazelnuts. It's very moist if you consider it has no glaze and it's doesn't feel heavy at all while you're eating it...but be ware of the dosis, it's a bomb.

Hazelnut Cake
De Madame Cugnac

Ingredients:

Eggs (It depends how big you want your cake to be, I took three large)
Its weight in flour
Its weight in butter (room temperature)
Its weight in sugar
Its weight in roasted hazelnuts
Baking powder (for three large eggs, one teaspoon, add more or less in proportion)
A pinch of salt

Method:

Cream butter and sugar.
Add eggs, one after the other, until they are well blended.
In a bowl, mix flour with salt and baking powder.
Ground hazelnuts.You can also buy them already grounded, but nuts contain a lot of oil and turn rancid very quickly, so it's better to buy them whole and ground then when you need them. To do this, put a tablespoon sugar, so the grease don't glue the hazelnut flour.
Add flour and hazelnut meal.
Add butter cream to flours. Stir just enough to make a smooth batter.
Grease a ectangular cake pan, pour the batter and bake in a preheated oven at 180º for about an hour . If it browns to quickly, cover the cake with some aluminium foil in the oven.

For a dear friend: Peanut Butter Cookies

2008-11-04T05:58:00.002-05:00

It was P.'s birhday and I know for sure she loves these cookies. So I baked them to gave them to her as a birthday present.

I don't remember where I got the recipe from, if here , or out of he clasic cookbook The Joy of Cooking my parents bought in the USA, or maybe from another of my favorite websites like this one. Anyhow, one ingredient you can't skip on is peanut butter. We have two options: buy it or make it. I didn't feel like going to the place where you can almost find anything, that is, Corte Inglés, I made it myself. It's very easy. You just take the amount of peanuts you need, toasted and salted, and you ground them with a couple of tablespoons peanut oil in your blender et voilà: peanut butter, without any preservatives or coloring...

Without any more ado, that was certainly enough, there it goes:

Peanut Butter Cookies
You'll get plenty of cookies

Ingredients:

225 gr. butter, room temperature
260 gr. peanut butter, room temperature
200 gr. caster sugar
220 gr. brown sugar (I forgot to add it, this time, they turned all right though...)
2 eggs, large
310 gr. flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda (also forgot this one, oops)
1/2 teaspoon salt (since my peanuts were very salty I deriberately omit this step)

Method:

Cream butters and sugars.
Add eggs, one at a time. Stir to combine.
In a separeted bowl, mix flour, baking powder and baking soda (salt if you want to).
Combine with butter cream.
Cover bowl with clingfilm and refrigerate at least one hour.
Preheat your oven at 190º C.
Distribute little balls of dough on your baking sheets. You can frize them at this point, if you wish.
Squash them with a fork to make the pattern.
Bake them for 10 minutes if you like them light or 3 more minutes if you like them golden and crunchy.

Breakfast with Magdalenas (spanish cupcakes)

2008-10-30T05:32:00.006-04:00

This week we're really having winterly weather. I've been driving to work three days in a row because of the rain. How can I fix this? With some homemade magdalenas. I think magdalenas are exactly perfect to fight rain and cold back. I soak these bites in warm milk and the wheather doesn't matter anymore. Magdalenas throw me back directly into my childhood; we had them always at home either way for breakfast or after scholl snack.

Since always you can buy them from different brands and also "homemade" from the bakery, now you find them even filled with chocolate and other delights. For me, nothing beats a good real homemade magdalena. Even children can bake them, there's no secret to it. Besides, you can put your personal touch with different aromas like lemon, orange, blueberries... the possibilities are endless.

I don't wanna go on and on. Just in case some absent-minded doesn't know this essential clasic recipe, there it goes.

Homemade Magdalenas
About 18

Ingredients:

1 yoghurt (125 ml)
3 eggs
3 yoghurt containers flour
2 yoghurt containers caster sugar
1 yoghurt container sunflower oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
salt
aroma of your taste, zest an juice of a lemon or orange, a hand full blueberries, chocolate chips, vanille...

Method

Combine yoghurt with egg yolks and sugar.
In a separated bowl, sift flour, salt and baking powder.
Whisk egg whites until you have soft picks.
Mix flour and yoghurt mixture just enough to combine. Add now sunflower oil. It's time for your personal touch: add aroma of your taste.
Fold in the egg whites.
Fill your greased muffin tins up to 3/4 of the capacity.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180º C for 20-25 minutes.

It's hard to come out of bed in the mornings. It's so warm and cosy there! Here we have child #2, half asleep, eating a magdalena for breakfast (among other things).

My favorite Cookie

2008-10-27T05:09:00.003-04:00

Once again, I've survived the weekend. Why so melodramatic? Saturday we went out with the gang. I had fun, the food was tasty, the drink afterwards amusing. I missed dancing, we are getting older... We came home rather late, fortunately it was changeover times night so we could "sleep" an extra hour. I was a little bit asleep during tennis class, Sunday morning; but moving did wonders to me and I became alive. I even did some first class points (beginner's luck) until my arm got really tired and I couldn't control the ball any more.

There are plenty of chocolate chip cookies recipes. I guess it's like spanish omelette or paella, there's one in each home, everyone having their special secret. I've tried quite a number of different recipes. This is my favorite, in my opinion, the best. They turn out thick, with plenty chocolate, niether sweet nor bland, not very crunchy but niether soft, just how I like them.

I need cookies to survive this week, chocolate chip, oatmeal, peanut butter... We've just set back the time one hour, the winterly feeling is total. A cold front has come in loaded with water and wind. This is an emergency act. S.O.S.!

I hope you like them as much as we do.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
About 72 cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
200 gr. butter, soft
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanille extract
1 egg, large
1 egg yolk
2 1/2 cups dark chocolate chuncks (about 400 gr. grams)
1 cupo chopped walnuts (optional)

Method:

In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.
Cream sugars and butter. Add vanille extract.
Add in egg and egg yolk. Stir to combine.
Add flour. Stir.
Now chocolate chunks and walnuts, if you want to.
Make a tube, wrap it up in cligfilm and refrigerate until firm (at least one hour).
Cut the tube in 3/4 cm wide slices, or as thick as you wish.
Bake them in a preheated oven at 190º C for 10 - 12 minutes.
Enjoy in moderation (or not).

Krumiri

2008-10-22T05:08:00.002-04:00

There were some cooking books in the house were I stayed over in Lisbon. We spent quite some time inside the house, so I looked them up. Yes, I found some interesting recipes. This is one of them.

These are italian cookies. They were invented by an italian chef: Domenico Rossi. Their name comes from a liquor that was fashionable at the moment in the Piemonte region arround 1800, the Krumiro. They were baked for the first time in 1878 and in 1884 received the bronze medal in the Torino Universal Exhibition. A little lesson in culinary history...

I liked them, they have a different texture and a very nice one for that matter. They're in the cookie category "super easy and quick to make". They're not too sweet or rich at all. I can't find any faults in them...

Krumiri
From Sabores Irresistíveis

Ingredients:

125 gr. cornmeal
100 gr. flour
75 gr. sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
75 gr. butter, room temperature
2 eggs

Method:

In a bowl, mix both flours, sugar, vanille extract and cinnamon.
Cream butter and egg yolks. Combine with flour mixture.
Put the dough in a pastry bag or in some similar device.
Bake at 220º C in a preheated oven for 10 min. or until they're dry and golden.

We'll see what the rest of the family has to say tomorrow.

Zwiebel Kuchen

2008-10-20T03:56:00.032-04:00

Before I pour out the recipe, I have to make some necessary basic considerations about working with yeast. The ingredients must be at body temperature, so that yeast can work its magic. Yeast doughs don't like drafts or impatiece. We have to cool down and start preparation with enough time ahead.

Zwiebelkuchen
My mother in law's recipe

Ingredients:

For the dough:

500 gr.flour
20 gr. fresh yeast or 15 gr. instant yeast
80 gr oil or malted butter (I use oil olive)
250 ml. tied milk, body temperature
1 pinch of sugar
1 pinch of salt

For the filling:

1000 grams onions, sliced
200 gr. bacon, cut in small squares
4 eggs, beaten
500 ml. sour cream
Salt, pepper, cumin (optional)

Method:

Make the filling: sautée onions with bacon and reserve for later. One this side of the planet, you don't find sour cream in the supermarkets, so you can make it adding a tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice and letting it rest for a couple of minutes. Our sour cream it's ready. Mix then beaten eggs with cream and the species you'd like. I just add salt and a little bit of pepper; cumin we don't like. When the onion - bacon mixture is cold, mix it with eggs - cream batter. Set aside.
Let's make the dough. Mix tepid milk with yeast. In a big bowl put the flour and then push the center down, to make place for the other ingredients. Pour milk mixture in the hole little by little. Mix it with enough flour to obtain a sticky dough.
Make a groove between the bowl's wall and the flour and pour oil in it. Add salt. Now add the sugar over the sticky batter.
Preheat your oven at 50º C , put the bowl in it and let the dough rise for about 15 min. Next, you have to mix everything vigorously, until you have a smooth dough, which doesn't stick to your fingers. Maybe you have to add some more flour or milk, it depends on your flour and the humidity.
Grease a baking sheet. Roll your dough rather fine, it thickets quite a bit. Put it on the baking sheet. Leave a high rim.
Pour the cream - egg- onion - bacon mixture onto the rolled dough. Leave it in the oven at 50º C for at least 20 minutes.
Bake at 200º C for half an hour, until the dough is cooked and the filling golden.

Serve hot, with a nice salad and some white wine, Federweisser (german young wine), if you can find it.

Impossible Cake

2008-10-15T04:08:00.006-04:00

This cake captivates me, it's like magic. It consists of a chocolate cake and a flan, baked at the same time. As the cake bakes the crust separates to the bottom and the custard sets at the top, which makes the cake super-moist. I think it comes originally from Mexico. They haven't only given us chocolate, peppers, corn, tomatoes... but wonderful recipes like this one. I had to research the web, really in-depth to find it. Most of them used a cake box from the supermarket, which is fine, if they sell them. Not yet in Spain. Plus, I don't like pre-cooked meals or mixtures.

The cake turned out all right, however some changes have to be made to improve it, in my opinion. The recipe calls for an egg custard and then it adds a little bit sweetened condensed milk. I'm going to replace it (next time) for sweetened condensed milk flan which is much tastier. Each to his own taste, cooking is like that. The original recipe will be in black while my planned variations will be in blue.

Impossible Cake (8 servings)

Ingredients:

For the cake:

100 gr. flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
A pinch of salt
150 gr. butter
3 beaten eggs, large
200 gr. dark chocolate
150 gr. sugar

For the flan:

4 large eggs, beaten
100 gr. sweetened condensed milk/ 225 ml. sweetened condensed milk
600 ml leche/ 450 ml. whole milk
1 teaspoon vanille extract

Method:

Melt chocolate and butter (I do this in the microwave, but you can do it as well over a water bath).
Add sugar and eggs.
Shift flour with baking soda and salt. Combine with chocolate mixture and set aside.
In a separate bowl mix eggs, vanille, sugar and milk. In my versioon you mix eggs and vanille with both milks and no more sugar.
Generously grease a cake pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk in the bottom of the pan. (this step disappears in blue version).
Now spread the chocolate- cake mixture in the pan and then, carefully, the flan mixture.
Cover the pan with foil. Your oven should be already hot at 200º C. Bake the cake for 20 min. Lower the temperature to 180º C, take the foil off and bake for other 30 minutes.
Let rest the cake in the pan some moments. Unmold it to a serving plate. Serve at room temperature.

Bon apetite!

Rugelach

2008-10-09T05:08:00.002-04:00

My oven broke down. I was devastated, I simply don't understand life without an oven. Thankfully, it's been fixed, it works again... I was beginning to show withdrawal symptoms! I'm crossing my fingers not to expirience this nightmare ever again.

I had no idea these bites existed. Now I have to regret living all these past years without knowing - enjoying them. As I have read, you can fill them with grounded hazelnuts, walnuts, confiture, raisings... whatever you have in your pantry. So I found the recipe here , I had to try them right away. They're perfect for the big celebrations surrounding my birthday. When I try a new recipe, I rather make half the batch just in case something goes wrong, if we don't like it is less of a traumatic expirience, we finish them off in no time and I can quickly bake other kind of cookie... This time around it would had been better to make the whole batch, they are to die for!

Se pueden comer un poco templados o fríos. Lo que no se puede es no comerlos...

For my bithday: Saint Mark's Tart

2008-10-09T04:01:00.003-04:00

This is a layer genoise cake with whipped cream and egg yolk glaze. It's called Saint Mark's tart, I don't know. It taste very delicate, is very light and moist. Fantastic.

Making this tart has been a challege for me. It has cost me time, but it wasn't as difficult as I imagined. I encourage you to try it. The bakery version is delicious. This is even better.

I had lots of fun using my new torch for the first time. I still need to improve though... I'll keep rehearsing. I can't let the boys see it. The danger is too big.

Saint Mark's Tart
Serves 8

Ingredients:

Genoise cake:

3 eggs
Its weight in sugar
Weight of two eggs in flour
100 gr. melted butter

Syrup:

125 gr. sugar
125 ml. water

Filling:

500 gr. de whipping cream, very cold
16 gr. vanille sugar
powdered sugar to taste (I guessed)

Egg yolk glaze:

4 egg yolks
100 gr. sugar
4 tablespoons water

Method:

Cake:

Whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt until firm.
Add egg yolks, one at a time and the sugar, stirring constantly. Carefully add flour with folding movements so the air doesn't come out of the batter.
Pour melted and cold butter little by little. Grease and flour a round cake pan. Pour in the batter.
Bake it at 170º in a preheated oven for 45 min.
When it is still hot, slice it horizontally in two halves and brush each one with the syrup.

Syrup:

Boil water and sugar for five minutes while the cake is in the oven. Reserve.

Filling:

Whipp the cream. When it starts to thicken, add vanille sugar and powdered sugar to taste. Whipp until very firm. Put it in the fridge.
Put the bottom layer of the cake on a serving plate. Put the cake ring around. Pour the cold whipping cream on the layer and return it to the fridge to set, a couple of hours. Then put the top cake slice on the cream and put the tart in the fridge again.

Egg yolk Glaze:

Boil sugar and water. It has reach the point whe you get fine threads out of a little bit of the mixture. I don't like putting my fingers in the hot syrup: when the bubbles star to turn white, you've reachede the point.
Beat yolks in a saucepan, it can't be aluminium, that would turn the yolks green.
Slowly pour your syrup over the egg yolks stirring constantly.
bring the pan close to the heat and whisk until it starts to thicken.
Spread the glaze over the cake and smooth it with the spatula.
Caramelize it with the torch (or a couple of minutes under your oven grill)

Et... voilà:
Serve very cold.

Spritzgebäck

2008-10-03T05:06:00.001-04:00

These are tipical christmas german cookies. This time of year is around the corner, snow is in the air, I'm beginning to think what should I get for whom. These are my better half's favorite cookies , when my mother-in-law was full of energy, she used to send us in December a whole batch baked by her. I have to take over now...

The boys and I had a great time make them with the cookie "gun". Most of them wouldn't come out right so we had to keep on trying...It's not as easy as it may look! We also had to try each and every possible form...

We have turrón (nougat) in Spain, so we eat these kind of cookies all year round. So lucky are we...

This time I only wanted to try the cookie "gun", so I divided the quantities, my ratio is in brakets.

Spritzgebäck with egg yolk
Adapted from : Backen macht Freude. Das Original vom Dr. Oetker

Ingredients:

250 (85) gr. butter room temperature
250 (85) gr. sugar
16 gr. (12) valline sugar
3 (1) egg yolks
a pinch of salt
zest of a lemon
500 (170) gr. flour
2 (3/4) teaspoons baking powder
1 (1/2) tablespoon milk

Method:

Beat butter until pale.
Add sugar by littles, and then vanille sugar, egg yolk, salt and zest. Keep stirring until sugar disolves (I don't have that kind of patience...)
Sift flour and baking powder toguether.
Combine this and butter toguether with milk.
Put the dough in a cookie gun and pipe the cookies onto a lined baking sheet.
Bake them at 170ºC for 12 minutos give or take. Ideally they should remain pale. I was, as usual, multitasking... that's why they have a little bit of color.

Spanish Omelette (Tortilla española)

2008-10-01T03:55:00.003-04:00

Surely there are so many spanish omelette recipes as homes in Spain. We won't be less and have our way to make it. When it comes to "tortilla" there are variations to suit everyman's taste, for me the important issues are to use olive oil and onion, lots of onions. Also what's important is not to overcook it, it should be moist, almost liquid inside.

Tortilla Española
6 servings

Ingredients:

6 eggs
6 to 7 medium potatoes
1 medium onion
olive oil
salt

Method:

Peel potatoes and wash them. Slice them irregulary, the slices shouldn't be too thin. Salt them and reserve.
Beat eggs in a big bowl and salt to taste. Reserve.
Chop onion.
Put a deep skillet filled with olive oil on the stove. When oil is hot, fry over low heat half the potatoes. We don't want potatoes turning golden, we want them to shimmer in oil.
After five minutes aprox. add half the chopped onions. Put the lid on.
When potatoes are tender, take them out trying to strain as much oil as possible and add them to the beaten egg. Repeat operation until all potatoes are done. Let egg-potato batter rest for five minutes.
Pour almost all the oil out of the skillet. Let just enough to cover the bottom. Heat it up.
Pour the batter over hot oil and make the omelette: when the outersides begin to set, put a big lid or plate over the skillet and turn it. Let the omelette slip back in the skillet and cook for a little while. Turn the heat out and serve.

Zucchini and cheese cream

2008-10-01T03:50:00.004-04:00

This recipe comes from the book: Julius 22 minutos, recetas rápidas y fáciles para jóvenes, solteros y gente con prisa (Julius 22 minutes, quick and easy recipes for young people, singles and hurried people) . My little brother is beginning to test his ability in the kitchen helped by this chef. It is to be understood that you can carry out the recipes in such a sort time whenever it is for two people. It isn't our case. The poor man has to multiply everything by four, the minutes too...

The recipe's originality lays in not peeling the zucchini, which gives the cream kind of a bitter touch. It's different but tasty.

Zucchini and cheese cream
For two people

Ingredients:

1 Zucchini
75 gr. butter
a bit olive oil
100 gr. cream cheese
1 medium onion
250 ml. vegetable stock
a bit whipping cream
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Wash zucchini and slice it. Cut onion in fine rings.
Sautée onions with butter and a little olive oil in the pressure cooker. When it's golden,
add zucchini, cream cheese. Season to taste.
Pour in vegetable stock. Close the pressure cooker.
Let cook for eight minutes. Let cool. When you can open it, ground with a blender.
Strain it.
Add whipping cream, salt and pepper again if necessary and leave on the heat a couple of minutes before serving.

Shortbread

2008-09-26T05:05:00.003-04:00

I've been quite busy this week, the new school year beginning and the town's fiesta in between, I've choosen these cookies, they are easily made and quickly eaten: they melt in your mouth. It's easy to describe them with two words: pure butter. Some recipes allow to use margarine. I hate margarine, its color, its taste, its texture. It gives me the creeps.

Shortbread

Ingredients:

115 gr. butter, room temperature
55 gr. sugar
115 gr flour
Sugar for dusting

Method:

Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
Add flour.
Grease a 22 cm round cake pan and line it with parchment paper. Pour the batter and press with your fingers to level up the dough.
Bake at 170º C in a preheated oven for 30 min., or until golden.
Let rest 5 minutes and dust with sugar. Cut them in wedges with still warm.
Let cool on a rack before you take them out of the pan.

I guess you can scent the dough with lemon or orange zeste, vanille or coffe. This one time though "only" butter it is, they are excellent!

Black Cake

2008-09-19T05:31:00.001-04:00

This week I felt like cake.

This recipe was given to me by the godmother of my second child. When we both lived in Brazil. Last time I baked it was... puf! I rather don't think about it. I thought this week was the right time to offer it to my little angels to see what they think. We didn't regret it. It's a very tasteful cake, with a special touch because of the cinnamon, with a light texture inspite of all the chocolate it has. Well, it's easy to eat...

My friend finish this cake with even more chocolate, but I find it too heavy... only suitable for chocoholics. I don't want to bore you more so, here is the recipe:

Black Cake

Ingredients:

250 gr. semi sweet chocolate, melted
250 gr. sugar
250 gr. butter, melted
6 eggs, separete whites from egg yolks
125 gr potapo starch( I don't have it, so I took corn starch)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

Beat sugar and egg yolks. Add melted butter and the chocolate. Lastly, vanilla extract.
In a bowl, mix starch with baking powder and cinnamon. Combine with chocolate mixture.
Whisk egg whites until firm. Add them carefully to the mixture we already have.
Grease and flour a cake pan rather big. Pour the batter in.
Bake at 180ºC in a preheated oven for one hour.

Like I said before, you can glaze the cake with chocolate. You will need dark chocolate and whipping cream. Melt it toguether (in the microwave) and pour it over the cooled cake.

Consume with moderation (or not).

Hazelnut Flan

2008-09-17T04:06:00.004-04:00

I found this dessert recipe in the local newspaper instalment. They are doing a collection from differents restaurants in the region. This one is a creation from Catalín restaurant. It's super easy to make and so good it's almost a sin... I guess you can replace hazelnuts for any other nut, sure we'll try it!

Hazelnut Flan:
Nueva España (local paper) instalment

Ingredients:

200 gr. whole milk
4 eggs (big)
225 ml. sweetened condensed milk
150 gr. grounded rosted hazelnut
3 Tablespoons sugar and water to caramelize the baking pan

Method:

Beat the eggs and add as you stir, milk, condensed milk and grounded hazelnuts. Set aside.
Make caramel. Put water and sugar in the baking pan over the stove, about 5 min. Don't stir. When the caramel is golden, shake the pan so the walls are covered with caramel. Let set.
Pour carefully your milk-halzelnut in the pan. Bake in a water bath at 130º C for one hour.
Serve room temperature.

Lasagna my Way

2008-09-17T03:54:00.005-04:00

Lasaña my Way (six servings):

Ingredients:

500 gr ground beef
1/2 big onion, minced
1 big can tomatos (about 480 gr. drained tomatoes)
2 big garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, cubed
salt and herbes to taste (I use oregan and basil)
400 gr. frozen spinach
500 ml.bechamel sauce (I use semi-skimmed)
250 gr grated cheese (I like gouda)
Lasagna sheets (don't cook them)
Olive oil
Three tablespoons flour

Method:

To make bolognese sauce: saute onion with a couple of tablespoons olive oil. When they are glassy add carrots. Stir a bit and pour in tomatoes, and then minced garlic. Salt and season to taste. Let simmer until almost all liquid is gone (about two hours).
Make bechamel sauce: put three tablespoons olive oil in a deep skillet. When hot, add three tablespoons flour and cook for one minute over low heat. Add the milk, stir and let cook until it gets thick. Salt to taste and set aside.
Defrost spinach (I do it in the microwave). Mix spinach and bechamel sauce with the blender.
Butter a casserole. Coat the bottom with bolognese sauce. Arrage enough lasagna sheets to cover it up. Pour now a layer spinach sauce, and again the lasagna sheets. Repeat once again until the casserole is full and you don't have any sauce left. I don't cook the lasagna sheets, they cook in the oven and become soft from the moisture in the sauces*. Try to end with spinach sauce. You can also reserve some bechamel sauce without spinach to put it on top of everything.
Sust with grated gouda cheese.
Bake at 180º C for 40 min. and grill some minutes at the end till golden.

* It's best to let the uncooked lasagna rest for half an hour before baking it. This way, the sheets will become soft earlier. This lasagna is even better the day after, the opposite of other pasta dishes.

"Carajitos" Hazelnut Cookies

2008-09-11T05:01:00.001-04:00

The "Carajitos de Profesor" are tipical from Salas, a small village in Asturias. They are delicious. How only three ingredients: hazelnuts, sugar and egg whites, can be combined to become these is almost a miracle. The original recipe is a secret, but they are easy to copy. There are different brands that sell them here and quite a number of variations: with anisette liquor, with honey... but the best still are the originals. I don't believe in accuracy in the kitchen, some grams up or down don't make the difference (is my modest opinion) and it depends on your taste also...

Nowadays we are a little bit obsessed with health and diet. Well, these cookie don't have one gram cholesterol... but they are not suitable for diabetics either!

Anyway, here is my version:

Hazelnut Carajitos

Ingredients:

250 gr. rosted hazelnuts
180 gr. sugar
2 egg whites
A pinch of salt

Method:

Grind hazelnuts with a tablespoon sugar.
In a bowl, combine sugar and grated hazelnuts with a pinch of salt.
Add egg whites, one at a time. You should have a moist dough.
Make balls and put them on a lined baking sheet. Put them not to close to one another, they will spand.
Let cool in the fridge about 10 minutes.
Bake at 200ºC for 15 minutes. Be careful. If you overbake them, they will be hard. They should still be moist inside and golden outside.

Bon apetite!

Angel's Eyes

2008-09-05T05:00:00.004-04:00

My mother-in-law bakes delicious cakes. Desserts too. She doesn't need books. Recipes neither. She's been cooking all her life and does it from the scratch. It comes out her head. She doesn't need to mesaure or weight.

she knows baking is one of my passion. She sends me some cooking magazine or book for my birthday or Christmas. She recently gave me a baking book from Dr. Oetker. It's fantastic. I feel like eating the pages, so good look the pictures!

The cookie of the week comes out this book. These are not very sweet, inspite of its looks, that's why you can eat lots of them. A danger. I've used raspberry and apricot confiture, I think you can use whatever taste you like best. Thanks to the almond's little bits they last quite a while in your mouth. A plesaure. They are also easy to make. What else possibly can you ask of a recipe?

Angel's Eyes
Adapted from Backen macht Freude. Das Original vom Dr. Oetker

Ingredients:

250 gr flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
100 gr sugar
1 teaspoon vanille extract
a pich salt
3 egg yolks
150 gr butter, room temperature
2 egg whites
150 gr almonds, chopped
6 tablespoons confiture of your choice

Method:

Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Set aside.
beat butter with eggyolks. Add vanille extract. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time. Keep stirring.
Add flour mixture gradually and knead the dough until thoroughly blended. Let the dough rest in the fridge at least 30 minutes.
Roll your dough to form long snakes that you can then cut to roll 2 cm diameter balls.
Beat slightly eggwhites with a fork. Brush each ball with it (leaving the top dry) and sprinkle some chopped almonds on each one. Put them on a lined baking sheet. Press your thumb on each ball.
Cook in preheated oven (180º C) for 15 minutes.
When they are done, let them cool on a rack.
Fill the cookies with the confiture.
It makes about 36 cookies.

Blueberry and Yoghurt Cake

2008-08-27T05:29:00.002-04:00

What! no cookie this week? Exactly. You'll find here all kinds of delights apt to be enjoyed both at breakfast and afternoon tea: cakes, breads, bars, muffins... we'll see.
I love this cake pan. My grandma gave it to my mother and she gave it to me, toguether with other kitchen tools and Simone Ortega's cooking book, a true classic: 1.080 recetas de cocina, when I left home. From the same series there is another pie form with a detachable bottom that I love. You catch my drift, mom? This is an old tin, you have to dry it up really fasta and good after washing it, otherwise it rusts. I like its shape, longer and narrower and its mustered walls.

We are quite a bunch of people at home now, with Jörg's visit, so I thoght I could bake this cake for breakfast. It's just a variations from the well known yoghurt cake. Everybody knows it, but I made some changes so here I write it:

Blueberry and Yoghurt Cake

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 plain yoghurt (125 ml.)
3 yoghurt messures flour
2 yoghurt messures sugar
1 yoghurt messure sunflower oil (or olive oil)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 lemon: zest and juice
300 gr. frozen blueberries (or fresh)

Method:

Grease and flour your cake tin. Preheat your oven at 180º.
Mix ingredients except blueberries, until you have a smooth batter.
Add blueberries and don't stir much (the batter would turn blue)
Bake for 45 min. to one hour.

Macaroni with Green Asparragus and Mushrooms

2008-08-22T03:49:00.003-04:00

So yesterday we came back hungry from our tennis class. No wonder, after class we still had energy to run 20 minutes.

Anyway, I opened our fridge and I saw green asparragus and mushrooms. Very well, they had to be eaten and we were hungry, so I took out my wok and made this sauce, to eat them with pasta. I don't think I'm being very original, but I can proudly say I didn't need a recipe to come up with this. The recipe:

A macaroni pack (or whichever pasta you like best)
400 gr fresh green asparragus
300 gr fresh mushrooms
200gr whipping cream
2 big garlic cloves, minced
olive oil
gratted parmesan cheese
pinch of salt

Method:
Wash asparragus and mushrooms. Cut asparragus in four pieces each and slice the mushrooms. Cook with some olive oil over medium heat in your wok or skillet.
When mushrooms star to leave water, add garlic and salt. When they are done, add the whipping cream. Let boil for some seconds and set aside.
Cook the pasta of your choice following the pack's instructiosn.
Mix with sauce.
Add so much cheese as you fancy, or as you have.
Serve hot and inmediatly.

I guess you can add pepper and all kinds of spices and herbes like oregano, basil and Lord knows what. I like the pure taste from the vegetables and prefer not to use to many herbes. Besides, they make my digestion a lot harder, my stomach is never been the same after my children's birthdays...

Chocolate and Raspberries Pie

2008-07-30T06:19:00.000-04:00

What I'm about to confess is a little bit embarrassing. I know I shoudn't do it anymore and I'm really tryng to stop it: I teared off this recipe from a magazine in the doctor's waiting room. Sorry! (but I can't say I truly repent, this pie is delicious!). The richness of the chocolate marries incredible well with the acidity and freshness of the raspberries...

Chocolate and Raspberries Pie
For a 24 cm cake pan

Ingredients:

100 gr. butter
200 gr. crushed digestive biscuits
400 gr. dark chocolate
30 gr. sugar
50 gr. de almond powder
300 gr. raspberries (frozen)
500 ml. whipping cream
2 egg yolks

Method:

Line with baking paper bottom and walls of your cake pan. Turn your oven on, 180ºC.
Melt butter (I do it in the microwave). Pour it over the crushed biscuits, mix toroughly and dump the mixture in the pan. Level it out. Cook it in the oven for 12 minutes aproximately and let cool.
Let's make the filling. In a microwaveble (does this word exist?) bowl, melt chocolate with 150 ml whipping cream.
Beat egg yolks with sugar and add it to the rest of the whipping cream, gently stirring.
Now pour this mixture on the chocolate mixture (cooled), and then almong powder. Last but not least, add defrosted raspberries.
Pour the filling on the biscuit crust and let it cool in the fridge for at least four hours.
Enjoy in moderate doses (or you'll be sorry).

Chocolate and peanut chunks Cookies

2008-07-30T04:57:00.001-04:00

I give you todays cookie. Well, I really baked them yesterday...

The recipe comes out a book my dear friend Sue gave me. She loved chocolate and I love using it in the kitchen.

I didn't like chocolate when I was a child. I would choose any other flavor for dessert. Then, I discovered dark chocolate. This discovery happened simultaneously with the birth of my children. Funny coincidence! Chocolate has been my faithful companion ever since, during hard times. One once dark chocolate after lunch and everythings looks better. Now you can find high quality chocolate with 70% cacao, it's fantastic...
Chocolate and peanut chunks Cookies
Adapted from: Chocolate de Kitchen Library St. Michael from Marks & Spencer

Ingredients:

125 gr. room temperature butter
125 gr. light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
150 gr. flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
5 gr. oatmeal
200 gr. dark chocolate, chopped
50 gr. peanuts

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180º C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Beat butter and sugar until creamy.
Add the egg, flour, baking powder and oatmeal. Mix well.
Add chopped chocolate and peanuts to the mixture.
Let cool in the fridge at least one hour.
Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets.
Cook for 15 minutes, more or less.
Let set on the baking sheet before you transfer them on to the rack.

Salen unas 25 galletas.

Rote Grütze

2008-07-25T04:04:00.001-04:00

This is one of the most german desserts I know. I love it. It's acid and sweet and refreshing. Perfect for warm summer nights and days, of course...I hope you like it.

Rote Grütze
Adapted from: Deutsche Küche de Rotraud Degnet, Mosaik Verlag

Ingredients:
- 375 gr. redcurrant
- 250 gr. raspberries
- 750 ml. water
- 250 gr. pitted cherries
- 1/4 vanilla bean
- 250 gr. sugar
- 60- 80 gr. cornstarch

Method:

Wash redcurrant and berries, if they are fresh, defrost them if frozen. It's difficult to find them fresh here, so I used frozen.
Cook them in 500 ml. water for 5 minutes, with the lid on.
Strain everything to make a fruit purée.
Boil this berry compot with sugar and vanilla bean. Put cherries in.
Dissolve cornstarch in the rest of the water and add to the compot removing constantly. bring to the boiling point again for some seconds.
Set aside and pour into a serving plate. Dust with sugar to prevent the forming of a skin.
Serve slightly warm with vanilla pudding or vanilla ice cream.

Chocoholic's Cookies

2008-07-22T03:32:00.001-04:00

Baking is one of my passions.
I love desserts (eating them as well as making them) and cookies. All kinds. Also I like the american measurement system, with cups and spoons. I find the recipe strangely exact.

You can find this recipe here . This is one of my favorite blogs, which I look up almost everyday. They have an excellent tutorial system, with pictures, and their recipes are very mouthwatering. I have a large list of bread recipes on my to-do list.

Anyway, yesterday I baked these cookies. My pantry needed urgently a brush up, so I did that while I was in the kitchen. It's funny, I don't seem to be able to concentrate if I don't do at least two task at a time. As a resutl I forgot to add an ingredient, coffee. These cookies are delicious, they literally melt in your mouth. I still have some dough to bake today, so I'll be adding the coffee and we'll decide which version we like best.

Update, Thursday 24 July. I added the coffe. The cookies' consistency has changed, they have a firmer body and don't brake when you lift them (to put one in your mouth...) They smell a little bit like coffee. What about the taste? Coffee emphasizes the chocolate's creamy texture and cuts back on the sweetness. Definitely, it is better not to forget this ingredient. I like them better like this.