Scrumptious

The Table

I grew up in a teeny tiny house with a huge oak table in the center of it.

Pretty much every memory of home revolves around that table. Playing under it as a kid, doing my homework on it as a teenager and then of course the meals shared around it.

I was raised by a single working mom, I don't know how she did it, but every single meal was homemade. The meals were simple and almost always really good. But the important part is they were always shared together with respect and love.
Mom has a super power, a creator of community, she brings people together like no other. My sister and I were raised to understand the meaning of connection. Though her power extends far beyond, I bet you can guess, it was often around that table that it was really tangible! I remember so many meals shared with new and old friends but also, and no less meaningfull, those just between the three of us.

My mom, the meals, the table:  Magic.

It was not until I left home that I actually started to cook, before then I always enjoyed good food but the kitchen was my mom and sister's domain. I was doing some pretty heavy duty demanding studies at the time, so one could have assumed that quick and easy food would, should or could have been my choice. But no not at all, even if I didn't have the faintest idea of how to cook I knew what a meal was, the soothing reasurance and satisfaction it brings at the end of the day. So before starting to write essaies and study huge volumes I would throw down my bag and start chopping. I had no idea what I was doing but through trial and error I've become a woman that cooks.

I know now that it's the warmth shared around our oak table that made me who I am today.

The Table is a Calling.

Nazooks

Jason from  Daily Candor has challenged us to make armenian desserts for this month's edition of Daring Bakers.

Nazooks are filled and rolled cookies, I made two different versions:

The traditionnal vanilla filling and an almond variant

This is the recipe we were given:

"Yields 40 pieces

Ingredients
Pastry dough

• 3 cups (720 ml) (420 gm/15 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour, sifted
• 2½ teaspoons (12½ ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) (1 packet) active dry yeast
• 1 cup (240 ml) (225 gm/8 oz) sour cream
• 1 cup (2 sticks) (240 ml) (225 gm/8 oz) softened butter (room temperature)

Filling

• 1 1/2 cups (360 ml) (210 gm) (7½ oz) all-purpose (plain) flour, sifted
• 1 1/2 cups (360 ml) (340 gm/12 oz) sugar
• 3/4 cup (1½ sticks) (180 ml) (170 gm/6 oz) softened butter (room temperature)
• 2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract

Wash

• 1-2 egg yolks (for the wash; alternatively, some yogurt, egg whites, or a whole egg)

Directions:

Make the Pastry Dough
1. Place the sifted flour into a large bowl.
2. Add the dry yeast, and mix it in.
3. Add the sour cream, and the softened butter.
4. Use your hands, or a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, to work it into a dough.
5. If using a standing mixer, switch to a dough hook. If making manually, continue to knead for about 10 minutes, or until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl or your hands. If it remains very sticky, add some flour, a little at a time.
6. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 3-5 hours, or overnight if you like.

Make the filling
7. Mix the flour, sugar, and the softened butter in a medium bowl.
8. Add the vanilla extract.
9. Mix the filling until it looks like clumpy, damp sand. It should not take long. Set aside.

Make the nazook
10. Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F/175°C/gas mark 4.
11. Cut the refrigerated dough into quarters.
12. Form one of the quarters into a ball. Dust your working surface with a little flour.
13. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle or oval. The dough should be thin, but not
transparent.
14. Spread 1/4 of the filling mixture across the rolled-out dough in an even layer. Try to spread the filling as close as possible to the edges on the short sides, but keep some of pastry dough uncovered (1 inch/2.5 cm) along the long edges.
15. From one of the long sides, start slowly rolling the dough across. Be careful to make sure the filling stays evenly distributed. Roll all the way across until you have a long, thin loaf.
16. Pat down the loaf with your palm and fingers so that it flattens out a bit (just a bit).
17. Apply your egg yolk wash with a pastry brush.
18. Use your crinkle cutter (or knife) to cut the loaf into 10 equally-sized pieces. Put onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
19. Place in a preheated moderate oven for about 30 minutes, until the tops are a rich, golden brown.
20. Allow to cool and enjoy!"

I followed the directions exactly for the vanilla ones and for the almond ones I added 1 tea of almond extract and 1/2 cup of toasted silvered almonds...yum! I only did a half recipe and it turned out fine.

En Français...

Nazook, Un biscuit arménien

 

Jason de  Daily Candor nous a lancé le défi ce mois-ci de faire des Nazooks pour l'édition d'avril des  Daring Bakers.

 

Les Nazooks sont des buiscuits secs, garnis et roulés. J'en ai fait deux versions :

 

La garniture traditionnelle à la vanille et une variation à l'amande.

 

Voici la rectte qu'on nous a donnée:

 

"Pour 40 buiscuits

Ingredients

La pâte:

• 3 tasses (720 ml) (420 gm/15 oz) de farine tamisée
• 2½ cc (12½ ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) (1 packet) de levure boulangère
• 1 tasse (240 ml) (225 gm/8 oz) crème fraiche
• 1 tasse (240 ml) (225 gm/8 oz) de beurre à température ambiante

La garniture

• 1 1/2 tasse (360 ml) (210 gm) (7½ oz) de farine
• 1 1/2 tasse (360 ml) (340 gm/12 oz)  de sucre
• 3/4 de tasse (180 ml) (170 gm/6 oz) de beurre à température ambiante
• 2 cc (10 ml) d'extrait de vanille

La dorrure

• 1-2 jaunes d'oeufs (sinon: du yaourt, des blancs d'oeuf ou un oeuf entier)

 

Directions:

Pour la pâte
1. Mattre la faine dans un bol.
2. Ajoutez la levure.
3. Ajoutez la crème fraiche et le beurre.
4.Tout mélanger à la main.
5. Pétrir au moins 10min ou jusqu'à ce que la pâte ne colle plus aux doights et au bol. Si jamais cela reste collant ajoutez un peu de farine.
6. Couvrir et mettre au réfrigérateur pour 3-5h ou toute une nuit.

   

Faire la garniture
7. Mélanger la farine, le sucre et le beurre dans un bol.
8. Ajoutez l'extrait de vanille.
9. Mélangez jusqu'à ce que cela ressemble à du sable mouillé. Cela ne devrait pas prendre très longtemps. Réservez.

L'assemblage des Nazook
10. Préchauffez le four à 175°C
11. Découpez la pâte en quatre.
12. Roulez un des quarts en boule. Fariné votre table de travail.
13. Abaissez en une rectagle assez large. La pâte doit tere fine mais pas transparante.

14. Etalez 1/4 de la garniture sur la pâte. Laissez une petite marge uniquement sur les bords longs ( pas comme sur la photo...). 

15. Roulez tout doucement en essayant de garder une même tension. A la fin vous aurez une bûche toute fine.

16. Aplatir un tout petit peu  
17. Appliquez votre dorrure au pinceau, j'ai utilisé du fromage blanc.

18. Coupez votre bûche en 10 potions égaux. Placez sur une plaque de cuison non graissé...j'ai utilisé du papier sulfurisé.

  
19. Cuire environ 30min, jusqu'à ce qu'ils sont dorés.
20. Laissez refroidir et dégustez!!"

 

J'ai suivi ces inscrutions à la lettre pour ceux à la vanille et pour ceux à l'amande j'ai ajouté 1cc d'extrait d'amande et une 1/2 tasse d'amandes éffilées grillées...délicieux!

Je n'avais fait qu'une demi recette et cela a donné de très bons résultats.

Easy and Delicious Quick Breads

Rasberry, Almond and Yogurt Loaf:

This recipe was adapted from the Joy of Cooking, it stays very close to the original recipe I just added a few personnal touches.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl:

- 2 cups flour (T65)

- 1 tbs baking powder

- 1/2 tea salt

 

In another bowl beat:

- 2 eggs

- 1 cup milk/ yogurt

- 2/3 cup sugar

- 100g melted butter

- 1/2 tea vanilla

- 1/4 tea almond essence

 

Swiftly mix the dry and wet ingrediants, don't over mix!

 

Pour into a loaf pan, then top with:

-1 cup berries

- slivered amonds

- cassonade

 

Bake for about 30 min at 205°C.

It's done when you knife comes out clean.

 

 

Cranberry, Oatmeal and Fig Loaf: 

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl:

-1 1/2 cup flour (T80)

-1/2 cup instant oatmeal

1/2 tea salt

1/4 tea baking soda

1 package of baking powder

 

In another bowl beat:

2 egg+ 1 white

1/2 cup jaggery

2 tbs golden syrup

1 cup of milk

5 tbs of vegtable oil

 

Swiftly mix the dry and wet ingrediants, don't over mix!

With a few quick stroks add in:

-1/2 cup chopped re-hyradrated cranberries

-1 cup of chopped figs

 

Pour into a loaf pan and bake for about 30 min at 205°C.

It's done when you knife comes out clean.

Pour this glaze on top while it's still hot:

Mix:

1/2 cup Powdered sugar

2-5 tbs of lemon and orange juice

 

Corn Bread, Northern style, well almost...

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl:

- 1 cup polenta

- 1 cup flour ( T65)

- 3 tea baking powder

- 3/4 tea salt

- 1/4 tea baking soda

 

Then whisk in:

- 1 cup whole milk

- 50g melted butter

- 25 g  melted lard

 

Normally there is also an egg but I forgot it,  it turned out just scrumptious, so why waste an egg?

Pop in the oven at 200°C until golden brown.

Immediately cut a slice and slather it with butter, keep the rest for dinner...if you can!

Beef Blanquette and Biscuits

Beef Blanquette :

Place the following ingrediants in a slow cooker :

-hunks of stewing beef

-1 chopped onion

-1/2 cup of muscat sec (white wine)

-1/2 cup of vegtable broth

-salt, pepper and 4 cloves

Cook on high for 8h.

Make a roux:

-20g of butter

-1 tbs of potato starch

Add the broth from the stew plus 1/2 cup of vegtable broth.

Now add 2 tbs of powdered milk and a big handfull of frozen mushrooms. (I only used powdered milk because I did not have any more normal milk)

Put the meat in and let the sauce cook down and thicken up a bit.

Enjoy with some scones freashly popped out of the oven!!

This is the recipe given to us by Autifax for the january Daring Bakers challenge of making scones:

Ingredients:
1 cup (140 g) plain (all-purpose) flour
2 teaspoons (10 g) fresh baking powder
¼ teaspoon (1½ g) salt
2 tablespoons (30 g) frozen grated butter (or a combination of lard and butter)
approximately ½ cup (120 ml) cold milk
optional 1 tablespoon milk, for glazing the tops of the scones

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to very hot 475°F/240°C/gas mark 9.
2. Triple sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. (If your room temperature is very hot refrigerate the sifted ingredients until cold.)
3. Rub the frozen grated butter (or combination of fats) into the dry ingredients until it resembles very coarse bread crumbs with some pea-sized pieces if you want flaky scones or until it resembles coarse beach sand if you want tender scones.
4. Add nearly all of the liquid at once into the rubbed-in flour/fat mixture and mix until it just forms a sticky dough (add the remaining liquid if needed). The wetter the dough the lighter the scones (biscuits) will be!
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, lightly flour the top of the dough. To achieve an even homogeneous crumb to your scones knead very gently about 4 or 5 times (do not press too firmly) the dough until it is smooth. To achieve a layered effect in your scones knead very gently once (do not press too firmly) then fold and turn the kneaded dough about 3 or 4 times until the dough has formed a smooth texture. (Use a floured plastic scraper to help you knead and/or fold and turn the dough if you wish.)
6. Pat or roll out the dough into a 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle by about ¾ inch thick (15¼ cm by 10 cm by 2 cm thick). Using a well-floured 2-inch (5 cm) scone cutter (biscuit cutter), stamp out without twisting six 2-inch (5 cm) rounds, gently reform the scraps into another ¾ inch (2 cm) layer and cut two more scones (these two scones will not raise as well as the others since the extra handling will slightly toughen the dough). Or use a well-floured sharp knife to form squares or wedges as you desire.
7. Place the rounds just touching on a baking dish if you wish to have soft-sided scones or place the rounds spaced widely apart on the baking dish if you wish to have crisp-sided scones. Glaze the tops with milk if you want a golden colour on your scones or lightly flour if you want a more traditional look to your scones.
8. Bake in the preheated very hot oven for about 10 minutes (check at 8 minutes since home ovens at these high temperatures are very unreliable) until the scones are well risen and are lightly coloured on the tops. The scones are ready when the sides are set.
9. Immediately place onto cooling rack to stop the cooking process, serve while still warm.

 

En Français...

Blanquette de Boeuf:

Placez les ingrédiants suivant dans une mijoteuse:

-boeuf à daube

-1 onignon émincé

-1/2 cup de muscat sec

-1/2 cup de bouillon de légumes

-sel, poivre et 4 clous de girofles

Mijotez pendant 8h.

Faîtes un roux:

-20g de beurre

-1 CS de fécule de pomme de terre

Incorporez le jus de cuison et 1/2 tasse de bouillon de légumes.

Ajoutez 2 CS de lait en poudre et une grosse poignet de champignons émincés surgelés

Remettre la viande et reduire la sauce

Dégustez acompagné de scones fraichement sortis du four!!

 Scones:

140g de farine

10g de levure chimique

1,5g de sel

30g de beurre congelé rapé

120ml de lait froid+ un peu pour la dorure

 

Préchauffer le four à 240°C.

Tamisez trois fois les ingrédiants secs.

Sablez du bout des doigts le beurre et la farine. Si vous souhaitez des scones qui s'éffritent laissez des morceaux de beurre de la taille d'un petit pois sinon pour un scone plus tendre sablez jusqu'à obtention d'une consistance sableuse!

Ajoutez tout le liquide d'un coup, la pâte sera collante mais plus elle est humide plus les scones seront légères!

Déposez la pâte sur une surface farinée, parsemez un peu de farine dessus et pétrissez très délicatement 4-5 fois. Aplatissez la pâte à la main pour obtenir une couche de 2cm d'épaisseur.

Découpez les scones en prenant garde de ne pas poivoter la main sinon les scones ne se léveront pas bien. Que des mouvement verticaux!

Placez les dans une plat beurré très près les uns des autres. Dorez avec un peu de lait et enfournez pour 8 à10 min.

Servez encore chauds!

Sourdough Bread

I'm very happy about this experiment!

I've been wanting to make my own sourdough starter fro quite some time now but I never had the nerve to go through with it.

Thanks to Jessica from My Recipe Projet I've dived off the deep end into sourdough world.

Let's see if I can get anybody else to join the club?

So first of all let be say that this may be long but it's not hard.

Basically all you have to do is mix water and flour and let magic do the rest.

I was very pleased to see that even if it's very cold in our house I still got my starter started!!!

These are the instructions I recieved:

"French Country Bread
Servings: 1 large loaf plus extra wheat starter for further baking

- Day 1:
Ingredients
4 1/2 tablespoons (40 g) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour
3 tablespoons (45 ml) water
Total scant ½ cup (85 g)
Directions:
1. In a Tupperware or plastic container, mix the flour and water into a paste.
2. Set the lid on top gently, cover with a plastic bag, to prevent messes in case it grows more than expected!
3. Set somewhere warm (around 86 F if possible). I sometimes put mine on a windowsill near a radiator, but even if it’s not that warm,

 you’ll still get a starter going – it might just take longer.

- Day 2:
Ingredients
4 1/2 tablespoons (40 g) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour
3 tablespoons (45 ml) water
scant 1/2 cup (85 g) starter from Day 1
Total scant cup (170 g)
Directions:
1. Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 1, cover, and return to its warm place.

- Day 3:
Ingredients
4 1/2 tablespoons (40 g) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour
4 teaspoons (60 ml) water
scant 1 cup (170 g) starter from Day 2
Total 1⅓ cup (230 g)
Directions:
1. Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 2, cover, and return to its warm place.

- Day 4:
Ingredients
3/4 cup plus 1½ tablespoons (120 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup less 4 teaspoons (100 ml) water
1⅓ cup (230 g) starter from Day 3
Total scant 2⅔ cup (440 g)
Directions:
1. Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 3, cover, and return to its warm place. At this point it should be bubbling and 

smell yeasty. If not, repeat this process for a further day or so until it is!

Stage 1: Refreshing the leaven
Ingredients
1 cup less 1 tablespoon (160 g) wheat Leaven Starter
6 tablespoons less 1 teaspoon (50 g) stoneground bread making whole-wheat or graham flour
1 cup plus 2 teaspoons (150 g) unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup (120 ml) water
Production Leaven Total 2¾ cups plus 4 teaspoons (480 g)
Directions:
1. Mix everything into a sloppy dough. It may be fairly stiff at this stage. Cover and set aside for 4 hours, until bubbling and 

expanded slightly.

Stage 2: Making the final dough
Ingredients
3/4 cup less 1 teaspoon (100 g) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour, plus more for dusting
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (300g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1¼ teaspoons (7 g) sea salt or ⅔ teaspoon (3 g) table salt
1 ¼ cups (300 ml) water
1 ¾ cups (300 g) production leaven – this should leave some (1 cup) for your next loaf.
Total 6 cups less 2 tablespoons (1007 g)

Directions:
1. Mix the dough with all the ingredients except the production leaven. It will be a soft dough.
2. Knead on an UNFLOURED surface for about 8-10 minutes, getting the tips of your fingers wet if you need to. You can use dough 

scrapers to stretch and fold the dough at this stage, or air

knead if you prefer. Basically, you want to stretch the dough and fold it over itself repeatedly until you have a smoother, more elastic 

dough.
See my demonstration here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqS3raEGdwk
3. Smooth your dough into a circle, then scoop your production leaven into the centre. You want to fold the edges of the dough up 

to incorporate the leaven, but this might be a messy process. Knead for a couple minutes until the leaven is fully incorporated in 

the dough. See my demonstration here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPO97R4iO4U
4. Spread some water on a clean bit of your work surface and lay the dough on top. Cover with an upturned bowl, lining the rim 

of the bowl with a bit of water. Leave for an hour, so that the gluten can develop and the yeasts can begin to aerate the dough.
5. Once your dough has rested, you can begin to stretch and fold it. Using wet hands and a dough scraper, stretch the dough away 

from you as far as you can without breaking it and fold it back in on itself. Repeat this in each direction, to the right, towards you, 

and to the left. This will help create a more ‘vertical’ dough, ready for proofing. See my demonstration here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDoJRCMfclE
6. Heavily flour a banneton/proofing basket with whole wheat flour and rest your dough, seam side up, in the basket. 

Put the basket in a large plastic bag, inflate it, and seal it. Set aside somewhere warm for 3-5 hours, or until it has expanded a 

fair bit. It is ready to bake when the dough responds to a gently poke by slowly pressing back to shape.
7. Preheat the oven to hot 425°F/220°C/gas mark 7. Line a baking sheet with parchment, then carefully invert the dough onto 

the sheet. I like to put the baking sheet on top of the basket, then gently flip it over so as to disturb the dough as little as possible. 

Make 2-3 cuts on top of the loaf and bake for 40-50 minutes, reducing the temperature to moderately hot 400°F/200°C/gas mark 6 

after 10 minutes.
8. Cool on a cooling rack."

I must admit I found these instructing more then intimidating, all those numbers and mesurments! 

I like to improvize when I'm cooking but this method didn't leave any room for that.

I grudgingly followed the instructions...well almost.

I didn't read properly and used whole wheat flour again on the 4th day instead of all-purpose

Things kind of went sour when it was time to refreashen the leaven before making the final dough.

My refreshed dough did not bubble and definetly did not expand: flat thick mass for two days

I was very disapointed so I made crumpets with the extra leaven... 

Since they were delicious (Thank you Artifax) I decided not to give up and took my "refreashed" starter on vacation with me.

From then on I did things my way... no mesuring!!! 

I fed my starter back to life, a little bit of water and a little bit more of flour.

It worked!!! Soon "Survivor" was bubbling nicely again and stinking up the shelve I had stored him on.

When I was sure he was very much alive againI started following the instructions again...well almost. ; )

I refreashed Survivor... 

This was scary but after 20 odd hours I noted some bubbles through the transparent 

bowl I had put him in and the surface was slightly cracked which I decided to interpertate as "expanded slightly".

Since everybody was saying how gooey this dough was I made the choice of working it in a big bowl with a spoon 

instead of on the counter with my hands. Considering how liquid this was I think I made a smart choice. 

As I was working the dough by spoon instead of by hand I did" knead it for a little bit longer around 15min...

After that I covered the bowl with some plastic wrap and let the dough rest for about an hour. 

When I uncovered it, it's texture was smother but still very liquid:

But I was ready to give it a go. So I dumped it on to a very floured surface and stared working it with my dough scraper.

I did add a bit of flour from time to time but it wasn't as bad as i expected.

Then I transfered the dough to my bran-new-homemade-banneton ( basket with a tea-towel stuffed in it...)

Then I watched nothing happen for quite some time...

The next day, after tring to store the dough in several different "warm" places, covering it, talking to it, 

comming back from vacation with it, sticking it in a warm oven... decided I had done what I could and it was time to bake!

I fliped it over into a greased pan, slashed the top twice and stuck it into a preheated oven.

I'm pleased to say that Survivor's first loaf turned out pretty nicely all things considered!

It expanded just a little bit more in the oven, to make a actually pretty good looking "boule"!

The tea towel left it's imprint on the crust which I found interesting...(ideas for the future)

The crust was nice and crusty!

The sourdough taste was very pronounced.

 The only off point is that it was not quite as airy as I would have liked it. The bubbles were numerous but small.

Also this loaf might of needed a little but more time in the oven because it was a bit gummy...

To showcase this baby I made an attempt at Welsh Rarebit (yum):

Boy, do I like being part of the Daring Bakers!!!

Sans Rival, a filipino dessert

November's Daring Baker's challenge has brought me to the other side of the world and back again!

Indeed, we were dared by Catherine from Munchie Musings to make filipino desserts, namely a Sans Rival.

Well for something as exotic sounding as a filipino dessert I was somewhat surprised to find the challenge not only having a french name but also having some very french charistics, so living in France I was not nearly as "dépaisée" as I thought I'd be to begin with.

BUT  this cake is pretty cool and definetly challenging!

Since this recipe seemed extremly rich and sweet I decided to half the recipe we were given.

After all ther's only two of us and a 12 portion buttercream and meringue layered cake did sound a bit like over doing it!!!

So here's how to make my version of a Sans Rival:

The Dacquoise:

5 egg whites

1/2 cup (112 g) white sugar

1/2 tea (1,5g) cream of tartar

1 cup (120g) toasted nuts (I used hazelnuts)

"1. Preheat oven to moderate 325°F/160°C/gas mark 3.

2. Line cake pan bottoms with parchment paper and butter and flour the sides really well."

Now I just dren thew circles on parchment paper and then put it on cookie sheets, no butter nor flour for me...

3. In a large clean, dry glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites on medium until foamy (2 mins.). Sprinkle with cream of tartar. Gradually add sugar, a couple of tablespoons at a time, continuing to beat now at high speed until stiff shiny peaks form. (about 7-10 mins.)

4. Fold in nuts, reserving enough to use for decoration.

(Note the more finely ground for folding into meringue. The coarsely ground for is decoration of finished cake.)

Since I used slivered almonds for the decoration I did not pay attention to this...

5. Divide meringue into four equal parts. Spread in pans, evenly to edges. If doing batches, use fresh parchment paper and cooled pans for each batch

6. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the meringue from the baking pans while still hot; allow to cool slightly. Peel off the parchment paper while it is still warm, it is difficult to remove sometimes when they have completely cooled.

7. When cool, trim edges so that all 4 meringue layers are uniformly shaped. Set aside."

The Buttercream:

2,5 egg yolks

1/2 cup (112 g) white sugar

1/8 cup (30ml) water

5/8 cup (142g) unsalted butter

Flavoring: vanilla, almond extract, cocoa...(I used hazelnut syrup)

"1. Put the egg yolks in a mixing bowl. Beat at high speed until the yolks have doubled in volume and are a lemon yellow.

2. Put the sugar and water in a heavy pan and cook over medium heat, stirring the sides down only until all the sugar is dissolved and the syrup reaches 235°F/112°C (or thread stage)."

OK, so my syrup was more of a carmel of sorts but it still turned out good once I fished out the hard lumps of rock candy that formed when I poured the carmel  syrup into the butter mixture...

"3. With the mixer on high, very slowly pour the syrup down the sides of the bowl, until all has been added. Be careful as the very hot syrup could burn you if it splashes from the beaters. Continue beating on high until the mixture is ROOM TEMPERATURE (about 15 mins).

Still on high, beat in the soft, room temperature butter a tablespoon at a time. Add flavoring after you beat in the butter. Refrigerate the buttercream for at least an hour, and whip it smooth just before you use it"

The Stacking : 

I didn't think there would be enough cream but there was so don't worry.

I toasted some slivered almonds...yummy!

En Français...

Le Sans Rival et Autres Desserts Philipins

Pour quelque chose qui sonne aussi exotique qu'un dessert philipin, le sans rival est un dessert vraiment très français! Couche sur couche de dacquoise intercallées de crème au beurre.

Ceci dit c'est très bon et...très riche, du coup j'ai fait une demi recette et cela a bien fonctionné.

On commence par la Dacquoise:

5 blancs d'oeufs

1/2 tasse (112 g) de sucre blanc

1/2 cc (1,5g) de poudre de tartar

1 tasse (120g) de poudre d'arachides grillés (J'ai opté pour de la noisette)

1. Préchauffez le four à 160°C

2. Dessinez quatres cercles d'une vingtaines de centimètres de diamètre sur du papier cuisson. Placer ces feuilles sur des plaques du four.

3. Dans un grand bol bien propre, battre doucement les blancs d'oeufs jusqu'à ce qu'ils soient mousseux (environ 2 min). Saupoudrez de crème de tartar. Progressivement incorporez le sucre quelques CS à la fois. Continuez à battre, maintenant à grande vitesse jusqu'à obtenir des piques bien fermes et luisantes (environ 7-10 min). 

4.  Incorporer la poudre d'arachide avec de délicats mouvement circulaire avec une spatule.

 5. Diviser la meringue en quatre. Etalez sur les disques tracés sur le papier cuisson. Si jamais vous le cuisez en plusieurs fournées pensez à l'aissez votre plaque refroidir entre chaque fournée.

6. Cuisez dans le four préchauffé pendant 30 min ou jusqu'elles soient dorées. Enlèvez les dacquoise des plaques pendants qu'elles sont encore chaudes, laissez tièdir et retirez le papier cuisson. Si vous le laissez  dessus ce sera encore plus pénible à retirer quand cela sera tout à fait froid.

7. Une fois refroidies, taillez toutes les meringues pour qu'elles soient exactement de la même taille. Réservez.

Puis on prépare la Crème au Beurre:

2,5 jaunes d'oeufs

1/2 tasse (112 g) de sucre blanc

1/8 tasse (30ml) d'eau

5/8 tasse (142g) de beurre doux

Arômes: vanille, extrait d'amande, cacao...(J'ai utilisé du sirop de noisette)

1. Battre les jaunes d'oeufs à grande vitesse jusqu'àce qu'ils aient doublés en volume et soient un jaune citron.

 

2. Mettre le sucre et l'eau dans une casserole et chauffez sur un feu moyen. Mélangez bien jusqu'à le sucre soit dissout. Il faut que le sirop atteigne 112°C ou l'état filandreux.

3. Avec des batteurs à pleine vitesse, très lentement et très précosieusement versez le sirop contre le parois du bol dans lequel se trouve les jaunes.

Bon d'accord mon sirop ressemblait plus à du caramel, c'était quant même bon une fois que j'avais repêché les gros bouts de caramel dur qui se sont formés quand j'ai tenté d'incorporer mon "sirop" à mes jaunes...

Battez jusqu'à ce que le mélange soit à température ambiante, prés de 15 minutes!!B

4.Encore à pleine régime, incorporez maintenant le beurre une CS à la fois. Ajoutez votre parfum après le beurre. Réfrigérez la crème au beurre au moins une heure et battez de nouveau pour l'assouplir avant d'assembler le gâteau.

 

L'Assemblage:

 

Mettez une petite touche de crème dur votre assiette pour "coller" le gâteau en place.

Placez une disque de dacquoise au centre et tartinez la de crème.

Pardessus mettez une autre disque et proceder de même pour toutes les couches.

Je pensais qu'il n'y aurait pas assez de crème mais il y avait juste ce qu'il fallait.

J'ai fait griller des amandes éffilées et j'en ai parsemé tout le gâteau pour le décorer mais faites ce qui vous inspire.

Miam!

Conservez le gâteau au frais mais sortez le au moins une demi heure avant de le manger.

Smoked Black Tea Baked Beans

This recipe is easy.

And good.

Put all the ingrediants in a a big dish with a lid and that can go in the oven.

Cook for many hours at low heat, until the beans are tender.

Just add a little water from time to time if the mix seems dry to you.

I ate them strait out of the dish for breakfast and then on homemade toastadas for dinner.

   

 

Ingrediants:

2.5 cups of rose coco beans, pre-soaked

         1 tbs of smoked black tea, crushed

  a sweet onion, sliced

  1 tbs of jaggery

   

  1-2 tbs of lamb fat, lovingly saved from grilling lamb chops...(use olive oil if you don't want use animal fat)

 2-3 healthy pinches of oregeno    

   3 cloves of garlic, diced

    

2 vegetarian chilis, diced

salt to taste (You can always ajust later, I go more often for less then more...)

  2.5 cups of tomato sauce, homemade

chili powder  to taste  

 

This is my try at cooking with tea, a challenge given to us by Sarah from Simply Cooked for the Daring Cooks's november challenge.

Oh! And then I had them for breakfast again...

 

 

En Français...

Haricots au Thé Fumé

Cette recette est très bonne et très simple. 

Il suffit de mettre tous les ingrédiants dans un grand fait-tout qui passe au four.

Faire cuire à basse température pendant...beaucoup d'heures. Rajoutez juste un peu d'eau de temps en temps si le mélange vous semble sec.

Je les ai mangé directment du plat pour le petit déj' et sur des tostadas maison pour le dinner.

Ingrédiants:

2,5 tasses d'haricots rose-coco (réhydratés)

1 CS de thé noir fumé

1 onion doux

1 bonne CS de jaggery (sucre brun non raffiné)

1-2 CS de graisse d'agneau (récupérée avec amour de notre grillade précédante). Ici vous pouvez utiliser le corps gras de votre choix.

Quelques bonnes pincée d'origan

3 gousses d'ail

2 piments "végétarien"

Du sel

De la poudre de chili

2,5 tasses de sauce tomate maison

 

Swirls!

Now this was fun!

This month's Daring Baker's dare was to make Povitica, a eastern european coffee cake. I found this to be really interesting because it's a very versatil recipe.  The base is a yeast dough that is rolled very thin then smothered with filling before being rolled up to form some really cool swirly patterns. Traditionnaly the filling is made with walnuts but this month walnuts were too spendy for me so I made two filling with stuff I already had in my pantry.

So here's the recipe as given to us by Jenni of  The Gingered Whsk

"To activate the Yeast:
1 Teaspoon (5 ml/4 ½ gm) Sugar
½ Teaspoon (2½ ml/1½ gm) All-Purpose (Plain) Flour
¼ Cup (60 ml) Warm Water
1 Tablespoon (15 ml/7 gm/¼ oz/1 sachet) Dry Yeast
Dough:
1 Cup (240 ml) Whole Milk
6 Tablespoons (90 ml/85 gm/3 oz) Sugar
1½ Teaspoons (7½ ml/9 gm/1/3 oz) Table Salt
2 Large Eggs
¼ Cup (60 ml/60 gm/½ stick/2 oz) Unsalted Butter, melted
4 cups (960 ml/560 gm/19¾ oz/1¼ lb) All-Purpose Flour, measure first then sift, divided"

 Here are the recipes for the two fillings I made:

N#1:

3 small apples chopped up really small

almond butter

1/2 cup homemade cardamon syrup

sugar

salt 

 

N#2:

Crème de marron: This is long and tedious to make but I did. It's delicious, worth it, but you need to have time.

Before anything else sort out the chesnuts that have worms...yuck!

First you need to peel off the exterior shells.

Then you need to boil the chesnuts for 20min.

Now you need to peel off the interior skin.

Once this very tedious job is done it's time to make the crème de marron

It's actually pretty simple from this point on. 

Cook the chesnuts down with water and lots of sugar and some vanilla until it's mush.

I use my hand blender to purée it smooth.

I spread the crème de marron all over the dough then sprinkled some jaggery over the top.

 

Moo shu Pork

Shelly from C Mom Cook has dared us to make Moo Shu Pork for this month's edition of Daring cooks.

Well here comes my version of Moo Shu for You!

Tonight I'm alone, getting over the flu, not really hungry but knowing that tomarrow is my deadline I've pulled up my sleaves and gotten to work.

Plum sauce:

Pit some plums.

Cook them down with some water, sugar, ginger, chili and anise star.

When tha flavors have nicely come together and the consitancy is jam like it's ready!

Let it cool down before serving.

Moo Shu Pancakes:

Pour 1 cup of boiling water into 2 cups of flour with a tiny bit of oil.

Stir with chop sticks. Knead quickly to bring the dough together. Now let the dough rest for 30min. The boiling water is important to break down the gluten.

Once rested you'll find that the dough is incredibley smooth!

"Lightly dust the surface of a worktop with dry flour. Knead the dough for 6-8 minutes or until smooth, then divide into 3 equal portions. Roll out each portion into a long sausage and cut each sausage into 8-10 pieces. Keep the dough that you are not actively working with covered with a lightly damp dish cloth to keep it from drying out..."

Each ball should be about the size of a walnut:

Roll each piece into a ball, then, using the palm of your hand, press each piece into a flat pancake. Dust the worktop with more dry flour...

Working with two balls of dough at a time, roll each piece into a three inch pancake. Using a pastry brush, brush sesame oil onto the top of one of the pancakes, and top it with the other pancake. Further roll the doubled pancake into a 6 to 8 inch circle...

 

Place an un-greased frying pan over high heat. Once the pan is hot, lower the heat to low and place the pancakes in the pan. Remove when little light-brown spots appear on the underside...

Separate pancakes after cooking.

Cover with a damp cloth until ready to serve."

For the Stir Fry:

Slice up some pork, lets say a handfull. Place in a bowl. Sprinkle with some sechwan pepper, soy sauce and red wine. Mix well then add a bit of potato flour. Set aside.

Slice out a wedge of the nappa cabbage, I only used about 1/4. Once they are chopped up they yield quite alot! Finely chop it up and set aside.

Slice 1 onion and set aside.

Pour some boiling water on 5-7 black mushrooms. Let them soak for about 10min, rince and drain. Slice them up as well and set aside as well.

Beat 2 eggs. Pour into a hot fring pan, spread thinly. As the omlette cooks roll it up. Once done slice up the rolled omlette. Set aside as the rest of the ingrediants.

With a pealer, peal a carrot into thin coils. Add them to the other vegtables.

In a wok, heat up some oil, I used a mix of sunflower and sesame. I stared by fring the onion. When it was translucent I added the cabbage, cooked it down by setting a lid on the wok. Once the cabbage had well reduced the mushrooms got tosed in. I cooked them for a couple minutes then I too the pan off the burner while I cooked the meat.

Either transfer the veggies to a bowl or use another pan to fry the meat. Cook until slightly browned.

Now mix everything together, the meat, the cooked veggies and the carrot and omelette.

Sautay for a few minutes then it's time to serve!

Place a couple spoonfulls of stir fry in a pancake, roll up dip in the plum sauce and bite in! ;p

 

 

 

Freash, Fluffy, French: Croissants

15H56

No matter how exited I'm for a Daring Bakers Challenge I'm always late!

I mean really... croissants!! I love them, I should have tried making them as soon as the dare was up.

But excuse after excuse has lead me to today, the day my post should be up, swearing with my hands covered with flour...and the rest of me too.

As if one last minute dare was not enough I decided to do two:

Sarah' recipe and one from the blog Foodbeam written by Fanny, a  recipe I've been wanting to try for quite some time now.

Now you're thinking that's a lot of croissants, so did I so I proceded in halfing one recipe and quartering the other

I messed up in the math...hense the swearing.

I'm going to have a lot of croisaants on my hands, I hope they're good!

I won't be providing the recipes this time since the math I did was...iffy to say the least but you can find the recipes above by clicking on "Sarah's recipe "  and "Foodbeam".

17h10

Ok, the first rise is done. I've punched down batch 1 folded it and left it to rize a second time. Batch 2 got rolled out and smothered with butter. Then the folding began!

19h36

As batch 2 was geting a second fold, this time double, batch 1 got stuck in the refrigerator while I started to pound on the butter. Once the butter was ready and the dough chilled, batch 1 got it's coating of butter and it's 2nd fold.

21h12

Batch1 gets it's second fold while batch2 receives it's second double fold.

22h46

Both batches get one more fold before being rolled out and shapped in to....Croissants!

They are set aside to rise to room temperature while the oven is heating

00h07

In they go! Juste for a short time.

Done, beautifull.

Now I can go to bed

9h38

Breakfast!!