A Cook Someday

Chocolate Sables by Pierre Herme

2011-06-05T11:51:00.000-04:00

I tried these sables and they were a huge success. They're super easy to make and you can make really fun shapes! A definite must try.

Ingredients:

260g flour
30g cocoa powder
250g room temperature butter
100 g powdered sugar (sifted)
Pinch of Salt
3tsp egg whites

Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius
Whisk flour and cocoa. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, whisk the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and salt. Whisk.
Whisk in the egg whites. Mix well.
Add the flour and cocoa mix. Mix well.
Use a piping bag (star tip) to pipe out shapes on a silpat or parchment paper. Make a W shape.
Bake 10-12 minutes.
Set aside to cool.
Enjoy!

Birthday Cake: Fraisier

2011-06-05T11:45:00.000-04:00

I turned 23 a week ago and decided to make my own birthday cake! I made a fraisier. It was YUMMY! A real success! I used the recipe of the "Petit Larousse Patissier".

Ingredients for the Genoise:

140g Flour
4 eggs
140g sugar
40g butter

Sift the flour. Set aside.
In a bowl, put the eggs and add the sugar whilst mixing. Use the Bain-Marie method and keep on mixing well.
Continue mixing until the mix thickens and the temperature has to be around 55-60 degrees celsius. Remove from the water. Mix with an electric mixer until the batter has cooled down completely.
Melt the butter. In a small bowl, take 2 tbsp of the previous batter and mix it well to the butter. Set aside to cool.
Add the flour to the batter and mix gently with a wooden spoon. The batter needs to retain is air-y-ness. Add the butter mixture.
Put on a baking pan and bake at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes of until golden and until your knife comes out clean.

Ingredients for the Butter Cream:

125g soft butter
3cl water
70g sugar
1 egg
1 yolk
1 tbsp kirsch

Put the water in a pan and add the sugar. Bring to a boil. Let this simmer until it reaches a temperature of 120 degrees celsius.
In a bowl, add the egg and the yolk. Mix with an electric mixer. It has to whiten and make bubbles.
When the syrup is ready, add it to the egg mixture whilst mixing slowly. Continue until this cools down and add the kirsch.
Add the butter and mix well. You will have a nice butter cream. Cool in the fridge.

Ingredients for the Custard:

3 egg yolks
50g powdered sugar
20g flour
25cl milk

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar. Add the flour.
In a pan bring to a boil the milk and add it to the above batter. Mix well and bring back to the heat and keep on stirring until the mix becomes thicker. Take off the heat.
Once it has cooled down, mix the custard and the butter cream together and set aside.

Ingredients for the Kirsch Syrup:

30g sugar
10cl water
1tbsp kirsch

Mix the sugar, water and kirsch together.

Building the Fraisier:

Cut the genoise in half. You should have one layer for the bottom and one for the top. Both sides should be brushed with the Kirsch syrup.
Take 500g of strawberries and cut them in half.
Put one of your genoises in a dish and put a first layer of cream.
Add the strawberries on the sides and in the middle.
Fill the holes with cream.
Put the top of the genoise and press gently to fix it to the cream/strawberry mix.
Put a sheet of marzipan on top and a bit of powdered sugar.
Decorate as you wish.
Put in the fridge for at least 12 hours.
Enjoy!

Deep Pan Pizza

2011-04-24T14:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I got a new toy. It is all very exciting. I got a bubblegum pink Kitchen Aid. Its AWESOME. $50 go to research for breast cancer and the colour is just amazing and makes me happy in the kitchen. So of course, I decided to give it a try and made pizza dough with it. So easy! Mess-free and so so so YUMMY! This pizza definitely won my heart, and I will be making it again for sure! Definitely one of the best homemade pizzas I have had... I love that the crust is crusty on the outside and soft like bread in the inside. YUM YUM YUM!

Ingredients:

1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
3 cups flour

Dissolve the yeast in warm water in your mixer bowl.
Add the salt, olive oil and the flour.
Use your awesome pink kitchenaid dough hook and mix for about one minute.
The dough should cling to the hook and not attach the side.
Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour. Punch down dough.
Brush your pan with olive oil and press dough across bottom of the pan, forming a collar around the edges to hold toppings.
Add your toppings. I added tomatoes, olives, cheddar, mozzarella, swiss cheese and provence herbs.
Bake at 450F for 18 minutes.
Enjoy!

Challah

2011-04-03T23:08:00.001-04:00

I came across a great recipe for Challah and I just knew I had to try making it. I had not had Challah in a while! I made two loaves. One normal and the other with chocolate chips. They both turned out amazing and super moist and delicious!! We really enjoyed having some as snacks throughout the day. Plan to be home for a while, it takes AGES!

Recipe taken from Joan Nathan found here.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 packages of active dry yeast
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp of sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
5 large eggs
1 tbsp salt
7 to 8 cups of flour (depends on the stickiness of your dough)
1/2 cup of chocolate chips (if you want to add chocolate chips in your loaf)

In a large bowl (seriously), dissolve yeast and 1tbsp of sugar in 1 3/4 cups of lukewarm water. Use a fork to dissolve.
Whisk oil into yeast, then beat in 4 eggs, one at a time, with remaining sugar and salt. Gradually add flour. When dough holds together, it is ready for kneading. (You can use a mixer - to your own risk... my dough flew everywhere when I tried.)
Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Clean out bowl and grease it, then return dough to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen cloth, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. (I put mine near the window.. and let the sun work its magic!). Dough should double in size.
Punch down dough, cover and let rise again in a warm place for another half-hour.
Cut your dough in half. You'll have two loaves. You may knead in the chocolate chips in one of the two doughs.
To make the 6 braid challah, you take one ball of dough (you got two in part 5) and form it into six balls.
With your hands, roll each ball into a strand about 12 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Place the six in a row, parallel to one another.
Pinch the tops of the strands together.
Move the outside right strand over 2 strands. Then take the second strand from the left and move it to the far right. Take the outside left strand and move it over 2. Move second strand from the right over to the far left. Start over with the outside right strand. Continue this until all strands are braided.
For a straight loaf, tuck ends underneath. For a circular loaf, twist into a circle, pinching ends together.
Make the second loaf the same way.
Place braided loaves on a greased cookie sheet with at least 2 inches in between.
Beat the remaining egg and brush it on loaves. Let rise for another hour.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and brush loaves a second time with the egg wash.
Bake in the middle of oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden. (If you have an instant read thermometer you can take it out when it hits an internal temperature of 190 degrees.)
Cool loaves on a rack.
Enjoy!!

*You can add raisins or cranberries.

** You could put poppy seeds on top.

St Patrick's Spinach Soup

2011-03-20T23:29:00.000-04:00

Erin Go Bragh! In honour of St Patrick's Day, I made this green soup with plenty of spinach! It was delicious, very easy to make and a definite must try! YUM.

Ingredients:

5 cups of cooked spinach (I used frozen spinach) / This is basically half of a frozen spinach bag.
1/3 cup of half and half
1/4 cup of milk (I used 1%)
1 garlic clove
1tsp salt
2tsp cayenne pepper

Cook your spinach and drain the water.
Add the half and half, and milk.
In your blender, put the mix and add the pepper, salt, and the garlic clove. Blend until smooth.
Enjoy!

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

2011-03-16T17:23:00.001-04:00

Finally! I am all settled in in our beautiful apartment and have gotten reacquainted with a kitchen! Feels good to be baking and cooking again - should I add eating homemade food again too? YUM! Anyhow I made this last night and it was really fun to make. The concept of the pull-apart bread is pretty cool! Charles really liked the bread. Mom and Dad not so much. You win some you lose some. I thought it was good but tasted exactly like a cinnamon bun which is something I was not entirely expecting. So if you want a yummy cinnamon bun with a twist, this should work! I took the recipe from Joy The Baker. Her blog has plenty of cool recipes.

Ingredients for the dough:

2 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp of flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 envelope)
1/2 tsp salt
2 ounces unsalted butter
1/3 cup whole milk (I used 2% and it did the trick)
1/4 cup water
2 eggs at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl whisk together 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Set aside.
Whisk together the eggs and set aside.
In a saucepan, melt together milk and butter, until butter has just melted. Remove from the heat and add the water and vanilla extract. Let it cool down a bit - needs to be warm.
Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon. Ass in the eggs and stir the mixture until everything is well incorporated.
Add in the remaining 3/4 cup of flour and stir well. The recipe says you should get a sticky dough. I got a dry dough and it worked fine too.
Place the dough in a large greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Place in a warm space and allow to double for an hour.

Ingredients for the filling:

1 cup sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted until browned

Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg for the filling and set aside.
Melt the butter until browned and set aside.
Grease your pan. Set aside.
Once your dough has risen, deflate it and knead about 2tbsp of flour into the dough. Cover with with a kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes.
On a floured surface, roll out your dough as much as you can. Joy says the dough should be 12 inches tall and about 20 inches long.
Using a brush, spread the melted butter across all of the dough.
Sprinkle all of your sugar and cinnamon mixture. Be generous.
Slice the dough vertically, into six equal sized strips.
Stack the strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again. You will have six stacks of six squares.
Layer the dough squares in the loaf pan. Place a kitchen towel on top and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Place the loaf in the oven and bake 30 minutes or until the top is very golden brown.
Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20-30 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread and invert onto a clean plate.
You can invert it back to its right side up.
Enjoy!

* I served this with ice cream.

Will be back shortly

2011-03-02T23:05:00.000-05:00

I will upload new recipes in the next two weeks. Currently dealing with a move to NYC! In the mean time, I urge you to try the Ladurée macarons if you have not yet! YUM.

Pineapple Cake

2010-10-20T15:23:00.000-04:00

I have been super busy with grad school applications but I did have time to make this cake the other day. Super yummy! You can find the recipe here. Enjoy!

Mango Mousse Cake

2010-10-05T21:19:00.000-04:00

I made this cake this summer. It was very light and summer-y. The mango mousse is yuuummmy!! I would definitely do this cake again, and would try a raspberry mousse as well or a combination of both. The recipe is from the new Enfants du Mekong UK cookbook. If you have a chance check them out on google, they're doing extraordinary things and Enfants du Mekong is a GREAT NGO!! Website

Ingredients for the sponge cake:

2 eggs
60g sugar
60g flour

Make this cake the day before you intend on serving the mango mousse cake.
Preheat to 180 degrees C.
Separate your eggs.
Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks and then add the sugar. Mix well.
Add the egg yolks and mix well.
Fold in the flour.
Bake for 15 minutes in a non-stick baking pan.

Ingredients for the mango mousse:

3 large ripe mangoes
5 sheets of gelatin

Peel the mangoes
Puree the mangoes in a mixer.
Soak the gelatin sheets in water until soft.
Take your gelatin sheets and put them in boiling water. Mix until dissolved.
Add the puree. Mix well.
Pour on top of the sponge cake.
Refrigerate overnight
Flip the cake pan on a nice plate
Enjoy!

Homemade Croissants

2010-09-29T11:37:00.000-04:00

Lack of post attack. I will try and catch up and finish all the unfinished posts I have! Anyhow, I made these babies a while back and they were pretty good, although definitely not as good as the real thing. I had an issue with the dry yeast. I did not have what the recipe called for so I substituted with some active yeast. Anyhow, you should try them out if you have the right ingredients! The recipe is from the French Women Don't Get Fat book. The croissants are created in stages and it takes time to make them. Mireille recommends starting them on a Friday to enjoy these babies on the Sunday morning.

Ingredients:

260ml milk + 2 tbsp to brush over the croissants
2 tsp dry yeast
250g sifted plain or strong white flour + 3 tbsp
2tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
180g unsalted butter
1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tbsp milk for the glaze

On the friday evening, heat 65ml milk to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in the lukewarm milk, stir in about 6 tbsp flour from the 250g, and whisk until no lumps left.
Cover with cling-film and let stand at room temperature until doubled in volume (about 20 minutes).
Mix sugar and salt in the remaining flour.
Heat the remaining 195ml milk to lukewarm. Transfer the raised dough to the bowl of an electric mixer fitter with the dough hook, add lukewarm milk, and with mixer at high speed start adding the sugar, salt, and flour a little at a time, lowering the speed to low-medium until the dough is sticky soft.
Cover bowl with cling-film and refrigerate overnight.
On the saturday morning, bring butter to room temperature and work with the heel of your hand to incorporate the 3 tbsp of flour until smooth and shaped into a square.
Sprinkle the working surface with flour, shape the cold dough into a rectangle and spread the softened butter square on the upper 2/3 of the rectangle, leaving 1cm border around the sides and top. Fold the dough like a letter in thirds, folding the bottom third first. Turn the dough anticlockwise, then again roll out the dough in a rectangle and fold as before.
Transfer the dough into a baking pan, cover with cling-film and refrigerate for 6 hours.
Roll out the dough two more times, wrap and refrigerate overnight.
On the sunday morning, about 1 1/2 hours before baking time, remove dough from the fridge and sprinkle flour on working surface. Roll dough into a 40 cm circle, working as quickly as possible. Using a knife, cut into quarters and then each quarter into 3 triangles.
With both hands, roll the base of each triangle towards the remaining corner. Do not curl the ends in a croissant shape. Transfer to a silpat and brush with 2 tbsp milk. Let stand at room temperature for about 45 minutes or until the croissants have doubled in volume.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Brush the croissants with the glaze and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Let cool 20 minutes before serving.
Enjoy!

Brown Butter and Brown Sugar Blondies

2010-09-19T18:17:00.000-04:00

I found this recipe on Chocolate Suze who has amazing recipes and fun stories to tell. I always enjoy reading her blog so naturally, when she put up this recipe I had to try it out! It was gooooooooood! Very buttery and full of yummy deliciousness! The batter comes together super easily, and is so much fun to eat! A definite must try!

Ingredients:

200g salted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
11g of vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
A pinch of salt
1 cup flour
A pinch of cinnamon powder

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.
Cut the butter in small pieces and melt it in a saucepan. You want the butter to turn to a brown colour, it should smell a bit nutty. You should keep on swirling the butter in the pan with a wooden spoon.
In a bowl mix the brown butter and the brown sugar together. Mix well. Add the egg and the vanilla sugar. Mix well.
Add the baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon powder and the flour to the mix. Mix thoroughly. You should get a non sticky consistency.
Pour in your baking pan and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Enjoy!

*You can add choc chips in the batter.

Orange Cake with Chocolate Icing

2010-09-08T08:54:00.000-04:00

The other day I needed to bake. I had been studying for hours and just needed to relax a little. So I checked out my recipe book and found this orange cake recipe I had never tried. I switched the proportions a little and made it a bundt cake. I thought the cake was good albeit a bit dry. If you do decide to make it do not leave it too long in the oven (my mistake, I was busy not paying attention!).

Ingredients for the cake:

3 eggs
200g flour
300g sugar
15g of vanilla sugar
15g of baking powder
100g melted butter
1 glass of fresh orange juice
A pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 210 degrees C.
In a bowl mix all of the ingredients together. Mix well.
Grease your baking pan. Pour your batter.
Bake for 35 minutes.
Let cool

Ingredients for the icing:

100g dark chocolate
50g butter
2 tbsp of orange juice

Melt the ingredients together. Mix well.
Pour over the cake unevenly.
Enjoy!

Raspberry Scones

2010-09-03T11:24:00.000-04:00

I just made my way back to Montreal, finally moved into my new studio and sorted out paperwork etc! Its good to be back especially since this term is my last ever term so there is a lot to do and a lot to see! I would love to go visit Toronto and the Niagara falls in the next two weeks. In the mean time, here is a delicious recipe for raspberry scones. Everyone who knows me knows that I am not a big scones fan, but these were moist, and very yummy. They tasted a bit like brioche. A definite must try for a delicious simple snack.

Ingredients:

250g flour
25g sugar
1tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
55g butter (cut in small pieces)
15cl buttermilk (lait ribot)
75g raspberries
Egg wash

Preheat oven at 190 degrees Celsius.
In a bowl, mix the butter with the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. You should obtain a grainy consistency.
Add the milk. Mix.
Add the raspberries.
Make a ball shaped dough, don't hesitate to add a bit of flour if the dough is too sticky.
Spread the dough in between two baking sheets. It should be about 3cm thick.
Cut out scones shapes. I used a glass.
Put the scones on a silpat or parchment paper. Egg wash them.
Bake for 15 minutes until golden.
Enjoy!

*Alternatively you could put cranberries or strawberries.

* If you do not have any buttermilk, just put 1tbsp of vinegar in your milk and let sit for 5 minutes.

Summer Holidays

2010-07-05T10:02:00.000-04:00

Well as you know school is out, and I have decided to enjoy my last two months of freedom before heading back to North America therefore I will not be updating much, if not at all until September! Feel free to check out my older recipes!

Obviously this picture is by Anne-Claire, feel free to check her blog out!

Have a great summer!

Madeleines

2010-06-28T06:22:00.001-04:00

The other day, I found madeleine moulds in the kitchen and thought it would be a good idea to make some. I have never made madeleines prior to this try and found it extremely easy. They were yummy and beautiful. Arthur's girlfriend Clare told me they were the best madeleines she had ever had in her entire life! Dad also kept on eating them. They were a huge hit! I found the recipe here.

Ingredients:

5 eggs
160ml milk
350g sugar
390g flour
1 tbsp baking powder (17g)
320g melted cold butter
1 lemon zest
1tsp almond extract
1 vanilla bean

In a mixer, mix the eggs and the sugar together until the mix becomes whiter.
Add in the sifted flour and baking powder alternating with the milk. Mix well.
Add in the melted butter, lemon zest, the almond extract and the vanilla bean grains. Mix thoroughly.
Cover with cling film and let rest in the fridge for 4 to 10 hours.
Butter and flour your madeleine moulds.
Preheat oven to 215 degrees C.
With a piping bag, pipe the butter in the moulds.
Bake for 11 minutes.
Enjoy!

* You could include chocolate chips, green tea powder, fruits... etc.

Victoria Cake

2010-06-26T13:45:00.001-04:00

The other day, I saw a gorgeous and yummy looking victoria cake and thus decided to make one myself. It was relatively easy and did not require too many ingredients. It was light, sweet and just wonderful! You should definitely try it. :)

Ingredients for sponge cake:

4 eggs
125g sugar
1 pinch of salt
125g flour
60g butter +20g to grease the baking pan

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C.
In a pan, mix the eggs, salt and sugar. Put the pan over a bigger pan of hot water and never boiling (bain-marie method) and maintain at medium heat.
Mix well until the batter triples in volume and becomes light yellow. It takes roughly ten minutes and strong arms! The mix has to be kept warm but never hot.
Once you have reached the proper consistency, add the flour, little by little and mix very delicately with a wooden spoon. Once you have added half of the flour, add in the melted butter. Add the rest of the flour and continue mixing.
You do not want to over-mix. The batter should be light and airy.
Put the batter in a buttered and floured baking pan. It should fill 2/3 of the baking pan, not more.
Bake for 30 minutes, check regularly if the centre is cooked by inserting a toothpick. If it comes out clean, then your cake is done!
Remove from pan and put on a plate. Let cool and then cut the sponge cake in half horizontally.

Ingredients whipped cream:

250g cream
50g icing sugar
1 ice cube

In your electric mixer, put all the ingredients together and beat until you get soft peaks. You should start slowly and increase speed gradually.

On the bottom part of your cake, put strawberry jam, whipped cream and raspberries. Cover with the top part.
Decorate with icing sugar and raspberries.
Enjoy!

*You could make the strawberry jam yourself!

Marshmallows

2010-06-19T20:02:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, I decided to make marshmallows. I had tried making them previously, but had not used the proper gelatin. The recipe originally calls for powdered gelatin, and well let me tell you that is HARD to find in London town! So I used sheet gelatin but only used one so the result was disastrous. Anyhow, after googling, I found out that one envelope of powdered gelatin is roughly equal to 4 sheets of gelatin. So I tried again, using 5 sheets of gelatin just to be on the safe side and the result was a success! These are extremely easy to make and were delicious! Dad ate them all in under 24 hours! I used the recipe from the Better than Store-Bought: A Cookbook by Helen Witty and Elizabeth Colchie that Charles gave me for my birthday. I must say, this book truly is a gem. These ladies have all the recipes for all things you never would have thought yourself capable of making!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup icing sugar
5 sheets of gelatin or 1 envelope of gelatin
1/3 cup water
2/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of Salt

Sift the cornstarch and icing sugar together in a bowl. Set aside.
Grease an 8x8 inch square baking pan and sprinkle 1 tbsp of the cornstarch/icing sugar mixture onto it. Tilt the pan in all directions to coat the sides as well as the bottom. Leave any excess in the pan.
Put your gelatin sheets in a small saucepan with the water and let soak for about 5 minutes. They will feel jelly like and look a bit 'bloated'. Add the caster sugar and stir over moderately low heat until the gelatin and sugar dissolve. It should become slightly foamy/white.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, combine your gelatin mixture, corn syrup, salt and vanilla extract. Beat for 15 minutes on high speed, until peaks form.
Spread your mixture in your prepared baking pan and smooth the top. Set aside for 2 hours, or until set.
With a wet knife, cut the marshmallow mixture into squares and loosen it around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle the remaining cornstarch and sugar mixture on a baking sheet and invert the marshmallow blocks onto it. Coat your marshmallows with the mixture.
Place the marshmallows somewhere safe (away from any greedy hands) and cover with paper towels and let them stand overnight to dry the surface slightly.
Store airtight. The marshmallows can be kept for a month, though probably won't last that long!
Enjoy!

*Use food colouring to make your marshmallows pop!

*You could dip them in chocolate or coconut instead of the starch/icing sugar mix.

*Feel free to use mint extract or any other flavourings!

Reine de Saba Cake - Julia Child

2010-06-14T16:49:00.003-04:00

The other night, we had family movie night and decided to watch Julie and Julia. How fitting! During the movie, dad spotted one delicious looking cakes with almonds all around. He mentioned how much he would love a cake like that. Thus, after the movie, I embarked on a google search for all things Julia Child and chocolate cake with almonds around related... and finally stumbled upon the Reine de Saba cake recipes. All of the recipes were different, although some of them were quite similar apart from a few ingredient differences. I was quite mad, considering I own a copy of the book but left it in Montreal - what a shame. Anyhow I tried one recipe today after going all over London to find the ingredients! I even got carded when we went to get rum!!! How funny! Dad was astounded!(For those of you who don't know I turned 22 a few weeks ago, and the legal age in the UK is 18) The cake was delicious and fairly easy to do, everyone enjoyed it and we already ate half of it. It is a fairly small cake that serves about 6 to 8 people.

Ingredients for the cake:

3 ounces semisweet chocolate (I used Nestle Dessert 52%)
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate (I used Nestle Dessert 64%)
2 tbsp rum
1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar + 2 tbsp of sugar
3 eggs separated
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (Optional)
1 pinch of salt
1/3 cup blanched almonds (I used store-bought almond powder)
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup flour

Preheat oven at 350 degrees and place your oven rack on the lower middle level.
Use the bain-marie method (a saucepan in a big pot of boiling water) to melt the chocolate and the rum together.
Cut the butter into pieces (small ones preferably) and cream it with an electric mixer. Once it is fluffy, add the 1/2 cup of sugar and mix well.
Beat in the egg yolks until well blended.
In another bowl, beat your egg whites. When foamy, add in the cream of tartar and the salt. Once small peaks form, add in the 2 tbsp of sugar and continue beating until shiny and stiff.
In the yolk/butter/sugar mixture, blend in the melted chocolate. Add the almond powder and the almond extract. Mix well.
Stir in a third of the egg whites and mix well using a wooden spoon. Add in the flour and mix well.
Add the rest of the egg whites and delicately fold them into the batter.
Pour the batter into a round buttered and floured cake pan. Bake for 25 minutes.
Set aside to cool for ten minutes and then unmold onto a plate and let cool two hours before icing the cake.

Ingredients Icing:

2 ounces of semisweet chocolate
2 tbsp of rum
6 tbsp of unsalted butter
Flaked Almonds (can be roasted)

Again, using the bain-marie method, melt the chocolate and the rum together.
Remove from the heat and add in the butter, one tablespoon at a time and mix well until melted.
Over ice and water, beat the mix until you reach a nice icing consistency. It has to be a bit thick so as to be easy to spread onto the cake.
Ice your cake.
Decorate your cake with the flaked almonds.
Enjoy!

* I roasted my almonds but found the almond taste a bit too strong because of this. However, everyone else enjoyed. Maybe if you are not a fan of roasted almonds, you could do half-half.

Blackout Cake

2010-06-09T16:56:00.001-04:00

Livia made this cake for my birthday about a week ago so I decided to try it out for the family to try. She took the recipe from the Serendipity cookbook. Usually my family is not a fan of american cakes with the cream, frosting etc... but in this case they did enjoy it. They did however suggest for it to be left out overnight for it to be a bit better. I liked it a lot but would not undergo the whole process again! Stacking cakes is HARD and a tedious process. Also plan a lot of time to make this cake, it took me over 3 hours! Good luck!

Ingredients for the cake:

3 cups of flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 pound of butter
2 pounds brown sugar
7 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup of cold water
1 cup sour cream
1 pound unsweetened chocolate

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
In a mixer, beat the butter and sugar until the mix becomes creamy. Add the eggs and the vanilla extract. Mix.
Add the flour and baking soda in three parts, alternating with the cold water. Mix completely.
Add the sour cream and the melted chocolate.
Put the batter in the buttered pans (you will need 4 pans) and bake for 30-40 minutes. Cool the cakes for 15 minutes.

Ingredients for the frosting:

1 pound unsweetened chocolate
2 cups of cream
2 1/2 cups of sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups of sour cream
3/4 cups of chocolate chips to put between the layers

In a pan, heat the cream and the sugar together. Stir well.
Add in the chocolate in pieces and mix.
Add the vanilla and the sour cream and continue mixing.
Set aside to cool down.

Assemble the cake:

Stack the cakes on top of one another with some frosting in between each.
Sprinkle some chocolate chips between each layers.
On the top layer, cover the entire cake with the frosting.
Set aside to cool.
Enjoy!

* The cake is better the next day.

* For the real thing, do not hesitate to go to Serendipity in NYC. A definite must try!

Croquembouche - Pièce Montée

2010-06-06T08:16:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the lack of post, the month of may was crazy. I just got back to London and now have all the free time in the world to update this. This morning, I was so jetlagged that I woke up at 6am and decided to make this beautiful croquembouche. By the time everyone woke up I had made two!!! We just had both for lunch and they were a huge hit with the family. Even my brother who hates caramel ate his fair share of little choux'. It is not as hard as people would expect but definitely is a tedious process, and sometimes quite dangerous with the hot caramel (i now have blisters everywhere!).

Ingredients Puffs (Choux):

150g flour
250ml of water
100g butter
3 eggs
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp of sugar

In a pan, bring to a boil the water, salt and the butter in pieces.
Once you reach boiling point, take the mix off the heat and add the flour all at once. Mix quickly.
Once you get a nice dough, add the sugar and mix well.
Bring back to the heat until you get a ball of dough. The dough has to be a bit harder than previously.
Put in the bowl of a mixer add the eggs one by one. Mix thoroughly.
Preheat oven to 210 degrees Celsius.
With a piping bag, pipe out your puffs on a silpat or a buttered sheet.
Bake for 5 minutes at 210 degrees, then continue baking for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.
Once this done, leave in the oven with the door open for the next 5 minutes.
Take out and set aside to cool.

Ingredients Pastry Cream:

6 egg yolks
125g of sugar
40g flour
500ml milk
2 tbsp of rum

In a bowl, mix the eggs and a third of the sugar thoroughly. Add the flour and continue mixing.
In a pan, bring to a boil the rest of the sugar with the milk and the rum.
Add the milk mixture to the egg mix and combine thoroughly.
Bring back the mix to the heat and continue doing so until you get a thick cream.
Set aside the cream to cool down.
Once cooled, pipe the cream into the puffs by piping it through the bottom.
Set aside and cool.

Ingredients Caramel:

225g sugar
Half a lemon's juice

In a pan, mix the sugar and the lemon juice.
Continue mixing until the sugar melts and turns to an amber colour.
As soon as you get your caramel, take off heat and put the pan in cold water to stop the cooking process.

Assembling the Croquembouche:

Dip the top of your puffs (previously filled with the pastry cream) in caramel (watch out it is REALLY hot).
Assemble your croquembouche in a nice motif.
Use the caramel as the glue to hold all of the puffs together.
Once done, add any decorations (sugar ribbons, candy, fruits...etc).
Enjoy!

The Empty-Your-Cupboards Cookies

2010-05-19T21:02:00.001-04:00

I made these a while back and decided to change the recipe by adding everything and anything I could find in the cupboards. Obviously these aren't extremely healthy. They are however, delicious and very simple to make! A must try for those 'its-raining-outside-i-wanna-stay-in-and-snuggle-days'!!!!

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg + 1 yolk
1 tbsp of vanilla extract
1 cup white choc chips
1 cup choc chip (i used dark)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
2 tbsp peanut butter, melted

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.
Beat the butter, brown and white sugar, egg and egg yolk, and vanilla extract until you get a smooth texture.
Add in the flour, baking soda and salt to the mix. Incorporate well.
Add the choc chips, walnuts and peanut butter and mix well.
On your baking sheet, put tablespoons of the dough.
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.
Let cool and Enjoy!

* They can definitely hold more ingredients....!! Empty your cupboards!

* I thought they tasted best when warm since the chips were melting in the mouth!

Super Healthy Banana Ice-Cream

2010-05-18T21:40:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts... I am currently working full time right now and when I get home, I am just too lazy to even start typing a post! So today I will update with a very simple, barely no step recipe. Livia showed me how to do banana ice cream with no added sugar, milk or anything - just bananas! That's right folks it is super healthy and has the same exact consistence as ice cream and it is ten times more healthy since it is just like eating a banana ---- actually it is eating a banana! Anyhow thanks to the lovely Livia you will now know how to make this too!

Ingredients:

3 bananas
That's it!

Cut up the bananas in slices as shown in the picture.
Put in the freezer and let set for at least 2 hours.
Put the frozen bananas in the mixer and mix until you get an ice cream/mousse like texture. This can take about 5 minutes... persevere it will happen!
Enjoy!

* You could definitely add chocolate chips, peanut butter, honey, nuts - feel free to customize your healthy ice cream!

* Chopped frozen bananas are a great snack too!

Lemon-Artichoke Chicken

2010-05-10T17:58:00.002-04:00

This recipe is just AWESOME and AMAZING! Livia and I cooked this the other night and it was just a pleasure. It is such an amazing combination of flavors and the chicken comes out very tender. It was a big hit, Charles loved it too (minus the artichokes!)... I highly recommend this recipe. It is very straightforward and easy to do, and very healthy. Again, this recipe comes from the 'Clean Eating' magazine.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of whole-wheat flour
1/2 tsp dried oregano
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 tsp sea salt
1lb thin chicken cutlets
Cooking spray
1/2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, cut lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 14oz can of artichoke hearts, drained and cut in sixths
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped for garnish

On a plate, mix the flour, oregano, pepper and the salt together. Dredge the chicken cutlets in the mixture, shake off the excess and place on a plate.
Coat a large skillet with cooking spray, and cook the chickens until golden and cooked through.
Set aside on a plate.
Coat the skillet once more with the cooking spray, and add the onions. Cook whilst stirring frequently until soft and golden, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute.
Add the chicken broth, bringing it to a simmer.
Add the artichokes, lemon juice and zest and continue stirring for the next 5 minutes until thickened. Season to test with salt and pepper.
Add the chicken back into the pan and let cook for another 2 minutes.
Serve and enjoy!

* You can add some potatoes, tomatoes or other vegetables for a fuller dish.

* You can serve this along a rice dish.

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-05-10T17:48:00.002-04:00

Oops! I apologize for the lack of posts on my part but things have been crazy busy. In the past two weeks, I have been swamped with finals, moving out of the flat, mom's visit in Montreal for a week, and moving into Livia's. Finally, I am catching up on shows and relaxing lots! Anyhow, now that I have a baking/cooking partner (the amazing Livia) I will be posting more stuff on the blog. Sorry that the pictures are so bad, it is getting harder and harder to take nice pictures without a professional photographer around! Maybe I will start employing Amina! Anyhow, these cookies were delicious and VERY healthy. They are gluten free and only have 110 calories per cookie, and 8 grams of fat. Livia found the recipe in her magazine 'Clean Eating' - I highly recommend their magazines!

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted almond butter, stirred well.
3/4 cup sucanat (we used normal sugar)
1 large egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
3 oz dark chocolate broken into pieces (recipe calls for 70% or greater)

Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a bowl, mix the first five ingredients until well blended.
Add the chocolate pieces and blend well.
On a baking sheet, drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.
Let cool.
Enjoy!

* You could add some white chocolate chips

* You could substitute the almond butter with cashew butter

Yogurt Lemon and Orange Cakes

2010-04-25T10:04:00.001-04:00

For our study party last night, I decided to bring these little cakes. Sadly they did not turn out as good as I had hoped. Some of us liked them, others not so much. They're not bad but just not amazing. Anyhow they are easy to whip up and a good substitute to store bought anything!

Ingredients:

1 yogurt cup (the actual tin/recipient/cup which you will use in this recipe over and over again)
2 cups of sugar (use the yogurt cup)
3 cups of flour
1 cut of canola oil
1 zest of lemon and its juice
1 zest of orange and its juice
3 tsp of baking powder

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
With an electric mixer, beat all the ingredients together.
Put in little individual cupcake cups.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until slightly golden.
Enjoy!

* You could add chocolate chips... or jam.

Here is a picture you might enjoy, Anne-Claire and I were packing yesterday and with all our boxes we decided to build a fortress in the middle of our common area between the rooms! We have kept it as such since, it has been a laugh coming into our rooms. We have a 'secret' passage next to the tree!!

Feta and Prawn Penne

2010-04-24T09:38:00.001-04:00

This dish is one of my favourites. It is quite easy to make, albeit many steps and the end result is always so satisfying! I have changed the recipe a bit but the main idea is the same. Now, my pictures look nowhere as good as hers, simply because we were in a hurry to eat and only bothered taking 2 pictures after we have mixed the sauce in the pasta... but really its DELICIOUS. Please try it, it will make you happy!

Ingredients:

For the shrimp marinade:

25 small shrimps, or 15 large shrimps.
Lemon zest
1 tbsp of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic minced
seat salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a ziploc bag and set aside in the fridge for 30 mins to 2 hours depending on how marinated you want your shrimp.

For the pasta dish:

1 tbsp of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 can of diced tomatoes (14.5oz)
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 balsamic vinegar
Pinch of crushed red pepper
Sea salt and pepper
1/2 cup of breadcrumbs
3 tbsp of chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup feta cheese
A box of penne pasta (cook per instructions!)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a skillet (oven proof), heat 1/2 tbsp of olive oil and add the minced garlic. Saute the garlic until golden brown.
Add the tomatoes with their juices, the basil, vinegar, red pepper, salt and pepper. Mix well and simmer for 15 minutes or until the sauce has reduced a bit. Spread evenly in the skillet.
In a bowl mix the breadcrumbs, the parsley, feta, remaining olive oil, sea salt and pepper.
Put the shrimp in a single layer on top of the tomato sauce mix and then cover with the breadcrumb mixture.
Put in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until light golden brown.
Mix the sauce with the penne and Enjoy!

* The original recipe calls for chicken broth and fennel. I have never tried it with both ingredients. Let me know if you do!

Banana and Choc Chip Muffins

2010-04-24T09:26:00.001-04:00

SORRY for the lack of posts, but between exams, last minute cramming, packing up the place because we're moving and procrastinating, I have not had time to bake nor update this blog. However, today is your lucky day! In an attempt to empty the cupboards I decided to whip up these muffins. Boy were they amazing. I made 18 of them and they're all nearly gone 12 hours later. They're soft and full of flavour. They definitely were a big hit in this apartment and they allowed me to finish the flour, choc chip and butter! yay! A must-try!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick of butter
1 egg + 1 yolk
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup of yogurt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 bag of choc chips

Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.
With an electric mixer, beat the sugar and butter until fluffy.
Add the egg + yolk and continue beating.
Add smashed bananas, yogurt and vanilla extract. Mix well.
Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well.
Fold in the chocolate chips... you should get a really soft and light batter.
In cupcake/muffin paper cups put 2 tbsp of the batter. (this can change depending on the size of your cups)
Bake for 20 minutes.
Enjoy!

* You can have some sort of frosting. The original recipe calls for peanut butter frosting.

Easter BBQ Salad

2010-04-05T00:01:00.001-04:00

On Saturday, nine of us went up to Dana's chalet near St Sauveur in Quebec... it was a wonderful afternoon, filled with great food and great people. We had some great meat and also an amazing salad which i thought i should share with you. It was delicious and super simple to make, and also accompanied the meats well. A definite must try!

Ingredients:

Spinach leaves
Greens
4 tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 green pepper
1 yellow pepper
3 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp of olive oil
salt and pepper

Cut the tomatoes, cucumber, peppers in cubes.
Mix all the ingredients together.
Refrigerate.
Enjoy! ( Yes, it is THAT easy to make a salad!)

* You could add nuts, raisins... etc.

And now a few pics from the trip... just because I feel like sharing. Photos courtesy of Amina.

From left: Tania, Dana, Michel, Malek, Anthony, Anne-Claire, Julie, Charles. [Amina not in picture]

From left: Anne-Claire, Amina, Michel, Dana, Malek, Charles, Anthony. [Tania and I got lazy.]

HAVE A HAPPY EASTER!

Baguette

2010-04-04T10:35:00.001-04:00

Happy Easter Sunday! I hope you are all enjoying yourselves and getting plenty of chocolate - it is probably the only day you can indulge without feeling the extreme guilt afterwards... then again I never get that guilt. I will update you guys on our easter shenanigans soon! In the mean time, something to keep you salivating... I made Baguette! Being the french that I am... it is no wonder why I love baguette so much. It is simply delicious. This recipe is extremely easy, and sooo healthy considering there is no butter whatsoever. You should definitely try it. It was a breeze! It last two days without going hard or moldy! Amazing! I got it from the book by Mireille Guiliano - French Women Don't Get Fat.

1 tsp of active dry yeast
500 ml of warm water
550g of flour
3 tsp of salt (preferably sea salt)
1 egg wash (egg beaten and mixed with 1 tbsp of water)

In a bowl, dissolve the yeast with 100ml of the warm water. Mix using a fork and set aside for the next ten minutes.
In a big bowl, combine the flour and the salt. Add the yeast and about 400ml of water... mix thoroughly until you get a soft dough. Knead the dough for about ten minutes. Set aside for an hour.
Divide the dough into 4 different balls, and shape like a baguette. Put on your baking tray and let rise a bit more. (wait till it has nearly doubled).
Preheat oven at 230 degrees. Brush the bread dough with the egg wash and make diagonal cuts on your dough to make it look like a baguette.
Put in the oven with a bowl of 500ml of hot water in the oven so the bread can keep moisture.
Bake for about 15 minutes and lower the temperature to 200 degrees and bake for 7 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove and let cool.
Enjoy!

* You could use wheat flower for an even more healthy approach!

Nutella Pear Tart

2010-03-31T18:54:00.001-04:00

The other day, I made an apple tart... it was delicious but I had an extra pie crust to use.... After 20 minutes of arguing with Charles and Anne-Claire to see what they wanted, we decided on Pear and Nutella Tart. I ended up bringing it to Livia's brunch and tried it there. While it was not my favourite, others liked it a lot. It is quite light, and chocolatey.. with a bit of an almond flavour. I am not going to be doing this tart every week, but once in a while why not! Anyhow, you should try it as everyone has different tastes!

Ingredients:

1 pie crust
3 pears sliced
4 tbsp of nutella
1 egg
2 tbsp of liquid cream
30g soft butter
55g of icing sugar
55g of almond powder
1 tsp of flour
1 tbsp of rum

Preheat oven at 200 degrees Celsius.
On your pie crust, spread out 3 tbsp of nutella. Spread evenly.
Add the pear slices in a decorative patterns.
In a bowl, mix the icing sugar, the almond powder, the butter, the egg, the rum, the flour, the liquid cream and the last tbsp of nutella. Mix well.
Pour this almond-nutella cream over the pears in the pie crust. Do not overflow.
Put in the oven for 40 minutes.
Let cool. (it is imperative that you cool it down, otherwise the almond-nutella mix won't hold perfectly when you cut the tart).
Sprinkle some icing sugar on top for decoration if you wish.
Enjoy!

* Take nice photos.... We were rushed so we couldn't make it look nice! Oops!

Awesome McAwesome Brownies!

2010-03-23T22:07:00.002-04:00

I love brownies... but I find it is really hard to find a good brownie. I like them soft, and chewy.... [insert awkward joke Amina]. These brownies were delicious, so much in fact that my piglet of a flatmate Anne-Claire ate three in a row!! They're easy to whip up and so so yummy! Try them out!

Ingredients:

An 18x18 pan
135g chocolate
80g butter
165g sugar
2 eggs
130g flour
1/3 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
100g walnuts

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Break chocolate in pieces, add butter and put the bowl in the microwave for 1min 20sec.
In a bowl mix the eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and the melted choc/butter mix.
Add the chopped walnuts (you can definitely break them with your hands).
Butter your pan and put the brownie mix in the pan, smooth out evenly.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Enjoy!

* You could add pecans or choc chips!

Gluten and Dairy Free Chocolate Cookies

2010-03-22T09:41:00.001-04:00

Yesterday as it was snowing, I did a lot of snooping around on other blogs and found this recipe. I decided to try it since it seemed super easy! I was deliciously surprised by the result, I find these cookies really yummy, simple and quite 'cute'. Anne-Claire thought they were ugly, but I think they look like real cookies! They're soft in the inside, and crisp on the outside! Definitely a must try - super easy to make!

Ingredients:

1 cup of walnuts
1/2 cup of chocolate chips
1/3 cup of cocoa powder
2 cups of icing sugar
2 egg whites
1 tbsp of vanilla extract

Preheat oven at 160 degrees Celsius.
Combine all the ingredients together and mix.
Scoop a tbsp of mix on a baking sheet. Leave space between the cookies.
Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Enjoy!

I definitely couldn't get my hands on enough!

* You could substitute the nuts for only chocolate chips.

* You could use white, milk or dark chocolate chips.

Armenian Baklava

2010-03-21T19:05:00.001-04:00

Spring has sprung, have been spring cleaning big time... its very exciting! I can't wait for summer! The whole month of march has been extremely warm in Montreal, we've been having above average temperatures (16 degrees celsius) which has been truly amazing, we can see the grass and trees will be blooming anytime now hopefully... Today was very strange because I woke up to find -2 outside, and snow falling.... it has been like this all day long! It has been nice to stay in all day and cook whilst watching the snow fall... very romantic... except i'm sharing this moment with Anne-Claire...! Anyhow, I made these scrumptious baklavas and followed the recipe of my grandma Mady (yay she made it onto the blog!). They are very easy to make and just soooo yummy!

Ingredients:

500g walnuts (broken into pieces/powdered form)
Phyllo pastry
1 1/2 stick of butter
400g sugar
2 cups of water
lemon juice

Preheat oven at 200 degrees.
On a baking tray, set on sheet of phyllo pastry and cover with melted butter using a brush.
Put a second sheet, and cover with butter again.
Same with the third sheet.
On the fourth sheet, put the walnuts. Cover with a new sheet.
With the new sheet, repeat steps 1-4.
Finish your baklava with 6 phyllo sheets, buttered in between.
Butter the last sheet on the top for it to get this golden brown aspect.
Cut into triangles or squares before cooking.
Put in the oven for about 45 minutes.
In a pan, mix the water, sugar and a few drops of lemon to get sugar syrup.
Once you have removed the baklava from the oven, pour the syrup all over.
Let cool.
Enjoy!

* You could try putting in pistachios, raisins or cinnamon. I have even tried maple syrup baklava! Up to you!

Lemon Upside Down Cake

2010-03-20T18:52:00.001-04:00

OOOh boy was this a fun ride. I found this recipe as i was snooping around photograzing... I think the pictures are gorgeous and I want to ask the blogger how the hell did she managed to make it look so good? Mine turned out like a dead-diseased cake... albeit delicious it looks awful! It was fun to make, and I was happy to use lemon slices for once instead of using just the juice or zest! The girls definitely enjoyed it, hopefully you have better luck than me when you make it! In the pictures, my lemon slices look like tomatoes... weird.

Ingredients:

3 lemons
1 1/2 stick of butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
vanilla sugar (1 pack =10g)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius
Combine the flour, the salt and the baking powder and mix.
In another bowl, beat half of the butter with the white sugar until you get a fluffy mix. Add some lemon zest. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Add half of the powder mix to the egg mix and beat. Add the milk and the rest of the flour. Beat until well blended. Set aside.
Cut thin slices of lemon.
In a pan bring to a boil half of the butter and the brown sugar. Once it starts bubbling, add the lemon slices (check that seeds are removed).
Set the slices/sugar mixture at the bottom of a baking pan, in a decorative pattern and cover with the cake mix covering evenly.
Bake for about 35 minutes or until golden.
Remove from oven and invert the cake from the pan to a plate.
Serve and Enjoy!

*Would be interesting to try with blood oranges, or grapefruit!

The Pick Me Up Tiramisu

2010-03-19T12:33:00.001-04:00

I have not had a minute to myself to update this blog this week, and what a shame because all week I had the tiramisu recipe to show you! I made this scrumptious tiramisu last week for the Enfants du Mekong meeting, it was a huge success. It is very easy to make and totally worth it! Good luck!

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks
100g sugar
200g mascarpone
30cl cooking cream
50cl cold coffee
36 lady fingers
3 tbsp of cocoa powder

In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar to get a white-ish mixture.
Add the mascarpone and the cooking cream and mix further.
Prepare the coffee and put it in a bowl large enough so you can dip the lady fingers.
Soak the lady fingers in the coffee, watch out they may break.
In a pan, put one layer of lady fingers, one layer of the mascarpone mix then add another one layer of lady fingers + mascarpone and powder the top with cocoa powder.
Put in the fridge for about 4-5 hours.
Enjoy!

* You can make small and big bowl to impress your guests.

* You can add nutella to your mascarpone mix to have an all chocolate yummy tiramisu.

* Don't soak the biscuits too much!

Churros Si Senor!

2010-03-14T09:09:00.001-04:00

I made churros!! It feels like such an accomplishment, I never thought it would be possible to make churros! I mean its churros!! It's what you eat at the beach, so making it in my kitchen was quite ironic. They didn't turn out as easy to make as I had hoped! Making the dough was very straightforward but when came the actual frying... oh boy. I do not have a deep fryer so I used a pan and boiled the oil. To make the design on the churros I used a frosting kit and a piping bag - only problem was that the tip kept on falling off and i was so scared it would fall off in the boiling oil! Plastic and boiling oil together = my life is over. Anyhow you should definitely try them, they're yummy! They were gone so fast!! I used the recipe found here and changed it a bit.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of milk
110 g of butter
1 tbsp of sugar
pinch of salt
150g of flour
3 eggs
frying oil (the recipe calls for canola oil)
sugar for coating

In a pan, bring to a boil the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt. Mix. Once boiling, take off heat.
Add the flour in one go and mix thoroughly until you get a nice dough consistency.
Add the eggs one by one and mix.
Put the mix in a piping bag.
Boil your oil.
Pipe out some churros and let boil for about 2-3 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from oil and coat with sugar.
Enjoy!

* If you had some leftover dough, put it in the freezer for another time.

* This is the same dough as the pate a choux and you can thus make eclairs if you have leftover dough!

Late Epiphany Galette des Rois

2010-03-08T11:49:00.001-05:00

Yes... I know I am like 2 months late. Epiphany was in january but I didn't find the dough I needed anywhere else than the Patisserie Belge on Avenue du Parc and they were out of dough for such a long time. Thankfully, Charles bought me some the other day and thus I decided to follow his mother's recipe and make a galette for our Enfants du Mekong meeting. I didn't make the puff pastry myself, simply because it is such a long process and patisserie bought puff pastry is just delicious! My galette turned out really good, the frangipane could have been a bit more consistent but overall it was a great galette!! The design kind of went a bit crazy whilst cooking so my galette turned out a bit wonky! A definite must try! Don't wait until next january!

Creme Patissiere Ingredients:

2 egg yolks
60g of sugar
30g flour
25cl of milk
1/2 tsp of vanilla essence

In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar.
Add the flour until you get a nice texture.
Boil the milk and add the vanilla essence.
Remove from heat and pour on the other mix.
Mix thoroughly and put the entire thing back in a pan and boil. Never stop mixing!
Remove from heat.
Set aside to cool.

Almond Creme Ingredients:

150g of soft butter
120g of sugar
150g of almond powder
2 eggs
2 tbsp of rum
1/2 tsp of lemon juice
1/2 tsp of vanilla essence
1/2 tsp of almond essence

Mix the butter with the sugar.
Add the almond powder, the eggs, the rum, the lemon, the vanilla extract and the almond extract and mix thoroughly.
Now combine both the almond creme and the creme patissiere together and you get your frangipane which will fill the galette!

Galette Ingredients:

Frangipane mix as shown above
2 discs of puff pastry (same size)
1 egg

Put one disc on wax paper and fill with the frangipane. Do not fill too close to the sides (leave about 3cm space)
Wet the sides so the other disc can stick to the first one.
Cover the first disc with the other disc and press firmly on the sides so no frangipane comes out!
With a fork, lightly score the top of the galette in a decorative manner.
Cover with the egg wash (beat the egg).
Put a small hole in the middle so the 'steam' can come out during cooking.
Decorate your galette with a knife and make nice motifs.
Let rest for an hour.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
Bake for 25 minutes.
Enjoy!

* Can be eaten warm or cold

Biscuits Roses de Reims A.K.A Pink Biscuits

2010-03-04T17:48:00.001-05:00

I love these, so so so so much. It was such a treat at home getting these after school... my mom now even makes a cake with them. Delicious. So naturally, when i stumbled upon the recipe online I HAD to make them. Surprisingly, these were good too, obviously not as good as the real thing, but they were somewhat of a treat :) They are so easy and straightforward to make its unbelievable, moreover their colour just makes you want to eat more!

Ingredients:

2 eggs
100g of homemade vanilla sugar / 90g of caster sugar and 10g of store bought vanilla sugar
90g of flour
45g of cornstarch
10g of baking powder
red colouring
icing sugar for decoration

In a bowl, mix the egg yolks and the sugar and beat for 5 minutes.
Add one egg white and beat for another 2 minutes.
Add the red food colouring and the other egg white and beat for 3 minutes.
Sift the flour, cornstarch and the baking powder together and add to the mix.
Beat slowly.
Pipe the mix on wax paper and let crust for about 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven in the mean time at 180 degrees celsius.
Bake for 12 minutes.
Take out from the oven and decorate with icing sugar.
Enjoy!

* You can make many shapes with these biscuits!

* You could always substitute red colouring for blue one!

Cannelés

2010-02-28T21:35:00.001-05:00

Oh the joys of spring break... the travelling... the free time... all the fun and more specifically all the baking! I have spent my weekend baking, and in the upcoming days, I will share all of these wonderful little recipes with you! Cannelés are one of Charles' favorite delicacies... and they are especially hard and tedious to make. It took me about 3 weeks of constant baking last september to finally 'master' (it is a big word to use) the art of Cannelés making! It wouldn't for the boyfriend's stomach and pleasure, I may not have tried this hard. Thank god i finally managed to get the hand of it because they really are delicious! Every batch is different but always good!

Ingredients:

250ml of milk
25g of butter
50g of flour
100g of sugar
1 tbsp of rum
1 egg + 1 yolk
1/2 tsp of vanilla essence

In a pan, bring the milk and butter to a boil.
In a bowl, mix the flour and sugar.
In another bowl, beat the egg and the yolk together.
Add the egg mix to the flour and sugar and mix thoroughly.
Add the rum to the milk and butter and whisk.
Mix the milk mixture with the flour mixture and add the vanilla essence. You should get a liquid consistence.
Refrigerate for 36-48 hours.
Preheat oven at 200 degrees.
Grease the cannelés molds and pour the dough leaving a 2cm margin for the cannelés to rise.
Bake for about 55 to 65 minutes.
Let cool and enjoy!!

* For the moulds you can buy silicone or copper. I find the silicone moulds easier to bake with.

* You want to get a caramelized look on the outside and a very soft inside.

Heart of Chocolate Cake

2010-02-14T10:42:00.001-05:00

Sorry for my lack of updates but midterm season is here and trying to get everything done before spring break is a bit intense. Anyhow, I did manage to make this delicious cake this morning for breakfast. It is from Les 100 meilleurs desserts de Cyril Lignac and it is just divine. For all of you who enjoy a soft and light chocolate cake, you need to try this one!!!

Ingredients:

200g of dark chocolate
100g of butter
4 eggs
150g of brown sugar
50g of flour
1 pinch of salt

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Melt the chocolate in the microwave for about 1 minute. In another bowl, melt the butter in the microwave as well.
In a salad bowl, beat your eggs and brown sugar together and then add the melted butter. Mix thoroughly.
Add the flour and continue mixing.
Add the chocolate and mix.
Put the mixture in your greased baking pan and put in the oven for about 20mins.
Sprinkle with icing sugar.
Enjoy!

* Best served warm.

Muddy Bread

2010-02-01T10:17:00.002-05:00

I saw this recipe the other day whilst I was checking out Photograzing and the name of the bread led me to check it out... The description the blogger made about it was just simply so enticing that I HAD to try this recipe. It was a very good bread, and I did eat an entire loaf by myself... the rest was shared between Anne-Claire and Charles who thought the bread was good too. My only comment about this bread is that it tastes a bit like brioche and is a bit too sweet, so next time ill work on making it with more salt! You should try it - it definitely is worth it!

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups warm water
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 pakage dry yeast (2 packages may be used on a cold day)
½ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp salt
2 ½ Tablepoons of melted butter
5 ½ cups unsifted flour (the original recipe calls for 6 cups, I found that I needed less)

Stir into 2 ½ cups warm water, 2 Tablespoons sugar and yeast. Let mixture set 5 to 15 minutes.
Then, add the sugar, salt and butter. Mix well and add the flour, cup by cup until you reach a dough like mixture. Work by hand towards the end, it will be MUCH easier.
Put the bread on a floured table and start kneading the bread for about 10 minutes (tiring, but watch a movie or something!)
Place the dough in a ball into a large greased bowl and brush the top of the top with melted butter. Cover and let the dough rise for about an hour and half.
Once this done, divide the dough in two and put them in previously greased pans and butter the top again. Cover and let rise again for an hour and half.
Preheat the oven at 375 degrees F and bake the breads for 15 minutes at 375 and 20 minutes at 275 F.
Remove from the oven and lift off from the pans and brush the entire bread with melted butter ( i found that melted salted butter did the trick!).
Enjoy!

* Thank you to the runaway spoon for this wonderful recipe!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Squares

2010-01-29T15:52:00.001-05:00

Yesterday night was Livia's potluck, it was very fun and considering I had had a pretty bad day I was in no mood to make something complicated. Lucky for me, I stumbled on these delicious bars and decided to make them. They are fuss free and very easy to make and they do not involve any baking of some sort. It was great and it took me 10 minutes to do these including cleanup!! Yummy! They were pretty good, and I think they are a good snack/potluck snacks for whenever!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar (Cassonade)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 cups of oats ( I used quacker oats)
3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup of peanut butter
For the icing use 2 tablespoons of milk and 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a pan, bring the butter to a boil, add the vanilla, oats and the brown sugar and mix for about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and add the chocolate chips and peanut butter and continue mixing until all the oats are covered with the chocolate/peanut butter mix.
Press evenly in your square pan preferably.
In a pan, bring the chocolate chips and the milk to a boil and mix thoroughly. Cover the oats mixture evenly and put in the fridge for the next 2-3 hours.
Enjoy!

Brioche

2010-01-27T19:07:00.002-05:00

On sunday, I decided to try making brioche... little did I know the dough had to rest for AGES!! It was all worth it in the end. I found the brioche better the next day, and we really enjoyed eating it at breakfast - plain or with nutella. I took the recipe from Cyril Lignac's C'est moi qui cuisine... Oui Chef! Tome 4. I really like his recipes because they are fairly simple. I found the brioche maybe a bit too egg-y so reducing the number of eggs could be a solution - up to you! Nonetheless it was very good!!

Ingredients:

6 eggs
180g butter
3cl of milk
500g of flour
30g of sugar
20g of baking powder (use the same one you would use for bread)
10g of salt

In a mixer, mix the flour, eggs, milk, sugar, salt and baking powder for about 5mins at medium speed.
Add the butter cut in pieces and mix further.
Put the dough in the fridge to rest for the next 3 hours.
Remove from the fridge and put the dough in a buttered baking pan. Let the dough rise in the pan for about 2 hours.
Preheat oven at 180 degrees celsius.
Bake for about 25-30 minutes (more if you are making a bigger brioche) Wait till your knife goes through the brioche and comes back neat. Then take out of the oven.
Enjoy!

* You could make designs on your brioche.

* You can add various fruits for a fruity brioche.

Apricot and Cherry Crumble

2010-01-22T11:11:00.001-05:00

Last night, I was feeling extremely bored so I decided to bake! I didn't know what I was going to bake, so I looked at Cyril Lignac's Les 100 meilleurs desserts - a very good book! In it was a recipe for a cherry crumble... I was in luck I had cherries in the fridge!!! I decided to make this crumble with a twist by adding apricots to the mix, it was very good! Mine was a bit too sweet, so I lowered the sugar in the recipe I am giving you! Charles and Anne-Claire both enjoyed it, and it was finished this morning at breakfast. Because it is a crumble, the pictures aren't great. How do you make a crumble look good? If you have any tips, let me know!

Ingredients:

500 g of cherries (remove the pits)
A can of apricots (you can use fresh apricots, I just didn't have any!)
75g of butter
4 tbsp of honey
100g of sugar
100g of flour
60g of almond powder

Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius.
In your baking pan, set the cherries cut in half (without pits) at the bottom. They must cover the entire bottom of your pan.
In a little pan, heat the honey until it melts and bubbles appear. Remove from the stove and put it over the cherries and mix.
Cut the apricots in slices or cubes and put on top of the cherries.
In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, butter and almond powder to get a crumble-ey consistency and put on top of the cherry/apricot mix.
Put in the oven for about 30 minutes.
Enjoy!!

* You can add rosemary leaves to your honey while it melts, so it gets a nice flavour. Do not forget to remove the leaves before putting the honey on the cherries.

* Alternatively you can use lavender honey for a little extra taste.

Pain au chocolat and Croissants

2010-01-17T12:06:00.001-05:00

I made these a while back, I am sorry I didn't make the dough myself. They were a huge success at our Enfants du Mekong meeting (if you don't know this charity, you definitely should look into it!). They were easy and simple to make and I encourage anyone to make these!!

Ingredients:

2 sheets of frozen puff pastry
1 egg
Chocolate bars

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut your sheets in rectangles or triangles depending on whether you want to make croissants or pain au chocolat.
Put a bar of chocolate in the middle and roll them to shape them into pastries.
Put them on the parchment paper.
In a bowl mix the egg and with a brush, cover each pastry to get that golden look.
Put in the oven until golden/brown.
Enjoy!

* You could substitute the chocolate bars for anything else!!!

Best Chocolate Cake Ever

2010-01-17T11:59:00.001-05:00

I love all things chocolate, as you may have noticed on this blog. This morning, still jetlagged, I decided to make this delicious cake. Anne-Claire banned me from the kitchen this week because I was baking too often - but since she was sleeping, I decided to sneak in and make it!! When she woke up, she borderline went ballistic, but this cake was SO worth it!!! Sorry if the pictures aren't amazing, we're having issues!

Ingredients:

200g of dark chocolate (I use Nestle's chocolate)
200g of melted butter
150g of sugar
80g of flour
4 eggs
1/2 pack of baking powder
Icing sugar to put on top if desired

Preheat oven at 200 degrees.
Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave, and mix them together.
In a bowl, mix the eggs and the sugar first, and then add the baking powder and flour. Once this is properly mixed, add the chocolate + butter mix.
Butter your pan and sprinkle some flour on top. Put your cake mix in the baking pan and put in the oven for 25 minutes.
Enjoy!

* You can use any toppings you want on this cake.

* If you want a melted centre, leave the cake in the oven for about 20 minutes or a bit less.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

2010-01-11T17:40:00.002-05:00

When I was younger, and we lived in Paris, my dad used to make this cake fairly often. Sadly for my brother, he never got a chance to try it as when we moved to Singapore, dad stopped making this cake! Too bad for him! It is such a delicious cake, so moist and yummy! Yesterday I was feeling bored, so I called dad in London and hit him up for his recipe and gosh i wasn't disappointed! It was delicious! Brought back some wonderful memories of 4th, 5th birthdays! The cake sadly was not as pretty or as yummy as Dad's but with practice i'm sure Ill get there. Anyhow it was gone in a few hours!!

Ingredients:

3 eggs
250g of sugar
250g of softened butter
250g of flour
A pinch of salt
A can of sliced pineapple

Preheat oven at 200 degrees Celsius.
In a bowl mix the sugar and the butter, until you reach a white-ish mix.
Add the egg yolks and the flour and mix.
In another bowl, whip the egg whites up with the salt.
Once this done, add the egg whites to the other mix.
Butter your baking pan and sprinkle with sugar, then arrange the pineapple in some sort of pretty design!
Add the cake dough on top and put in the oven for about 30 minutes.
Enjoy!!!

Lemon and Coconut Squares

2010-01-09T13:23:00.002-05:00

I have the flu or a cold... I am not sure. But what I do know is that I am feeling awful and the only thing that managed to cheer me up early this morning was making these delicious Lemon and Coconut squares. Now, you may think it is totally unsanitary to bake whilst sick, but fear not I took my precautions and lysol-ed myself!! They were a huge hit! I too the recipe from here and adapted the proportions a little.

Ingredients for the Crust:

1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup of unsweetened coconut
A pinch of salt
1 stick of salted butter cut in small pieces
1/2 tsp of vanilla

Preheat your oven at 350 degrees F and coat your pan with butter or cooking spray.
In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt and add the butter pieces, vanilla and coconut. Mix until the mixture is crumbly (much like the apple crumble method)
Put in your pan, and press evenly into the bottom of the baking pan.
Bake until it is lightly golden for about 20 minutes.

Ingredients for the filling:

2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup of sugar
2 tbsp of flour
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup of lemon juice
sweetened shredded coconut for garnish.

Whisk the eggs together with the sugar, flour and salt. Add the lemon juice and continue mixing.
Pour the mix over the crust and put in the oven again for about 15 minutes or until the filling is set ( I usually wait until the filling looks like it is making bubbles!)
Cool and garnish with the coconut.
Enjoy!

* You could always garnish with a nice coconut meringue instead of having shredded coconut!

French Crêpes

2010-01-04T18:07:00.002-05:00

My days in London nearing to an end, I decided to treat the family to some delicious French Crêpes. We love crêpes, when we were kids, mom would make them for our birthday parties and sometimes even randomly, which always led to us being on sugar highs. French people even have a crêpe day - the Chandeleur. It is so much fun. Anyhow tonight wasn't a special occasion, it was fairly random, I was bored of all the stupidities that were showing on TV and thus decided to cook up a storm, or well crêpes. They were delicious and a huge success! I used Cyril Lignac's recipe and made a few changes. They turned out perfect, with the perfect cook circles.

Ingredients:

250g of flour
80g of caster sugar
50cl of milk
2 tablespoons of oil
A pinch of salt
3 eggs
Butter or oil for the pan
1 tablespoon of rum (it will make such a huge difference!)

In a bowl, whip up the eggs with a fork - just like when you do an omelette
In your mixer, put the flour and the salt and add half of the milk.
Once this is mixed, add your eggs, sugar, rum and oil.
You will obtain a liquid dough, if you find it is not liquid enough, add more milk.
In a hot pan, put a bit of butter or oil to grease the pan. Then, pour a 1/4cup of the batter in the pan and cook on one side until the sides can be removed and flip the crêpe to cook the rest.
Work through the entire batter and then put the crêpes on a plate. Either eat immediately or warm them up by putting them in the oven at 50 degrees until ready to be consumed.
Enjoy!

* You can put choc chips in the batter if you want.

* Eat with sugar on top - DELICIOUS

* Some put nutella and banana pieces on top... extra yummy!

Christmas Meringues

2009-12-27T16:02:00.001-05:00

I love meringues and my mother loves christmas so i thought i could whip up a batch of chocolate and orange covered meringues. Yum. This recipe is straight forward and simple. I am sure you'll love it!

Ingredients:

5 egg whites
350g of caster sugar
parchment paper
250g of milk chocolate
Candied oranges

Preheat oven at 120 degrees Celsius
In a mixer beat egg whites and half of the sugar. Once it becomes like a sticky mixture add the remaining of the sugar. You will know when to stop if your mixture forms peaks.
In a piping bag, pipe the meringue onto the parchment paper in small circles and put in the oven for 45 minutes.
Open the oven door and keep it slightly open with a wooden spoon and continue cooking for another two hours at 100 degrees Celsius.
Remove from the oven and let cool.
Melt the chocolate and cover each meringue with it and add the orange pieces on top!
Eat!

I didn't cover every meringue and kept a few without chocolate. Both batches are so delicious and christmas-y. Enjoy!!!

Christmas Black Cocoa Cookies

2009-12-19T18:03:00.001-05:00

Last night, Anne-Claire (who was hyper as ever) and I were hanging out and I decided to whip up these delicious cooking. Unfortunately half way through I realized we didn't have enough eggs (we had eggs about 5 hours prior so I just assumed they would still be there!). Anne-Claire decided to go knock on the neighbours door... but they didn't have any either. Luckily for us, Charles brought us some and saved the day! The cookies are delicious... I absolutely love love love love them!! I decided to ice them. Some with mint icing, others with vanilla icing. It was a very fun evening.

Ingredients:

1 cup of unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup of cocoa powder - preferably unsweetened
1/2 baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Have a cooking sheet prepared.
Place the butter and the sugar in a bowl and mix until smooth. Then add the eggs and the vanilla and mix until well combined.
Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and mix until everything is well incorporated.
Place teaspoonfuls on the cookie sheet and put in the oven.
Bake for about 12-13 minutes.
Ice the cookies with either homemade icing or Betty Crocker icing and decorate.
Enjoy!

Delicious!

Tomato Mozzarella Tart

2009-12-16T12:05:00.001-05:00

I absolutely love anything remotely similar to caprese salad - it goes without saying it is the best thing in the world! My mom makes the best tomato mozzarella tart - let me tell you it is just divine! I give her all the props to raising me with great food! Her tart is to die for, and thank god for me she gave me the recipe. Since then I have adapted it a little but right now i will share her recipe because it is a good starting point and starting base. Thanks mom for feeding me oh so well!

Ingredients:

3-4 big tomatoes
mozzarella cheese grated
salt
pepper
italian herbs if you want some
250g flour
80g warm water
80g oil
1 tsp of baking powder

Put your tomatoes in boiling water for 1 minute. Take them out and put them under fresh water and peel off the skin. Once the skin is peeled, slice the tomatoes and salt them. Put them in a dish so their water can drain.
In the mean time do your crust. Put the flour + baking powder + salt together. Add the oil and water and with a spoon mix it all together. Don't work your dough too much. Leave it out for about 10 minutes and then roll out in a thin crust.
Put the crust in a pie dish. Alternate between one tomato slice and one mozzarella slice.
Salt and pepper the tart. If you wish you may add some italian herbs.
Put in the oven at 220 degrees Celsius for about 40 minutes or until golden.
Enjoy!

* You should eat it hot its delicious.

* You can freeze slices and pop them in the microwave at a later date.

Fabulous Green Apple Crumble

2009-12-15T00:04:00.002-05:00

A bad day often calls for delicious comfort food. Let's just say that in my case, the delicious comfort food came before i realized i was having a bad day - needless to say it helped making this day slightly better. I love apple crumbles and I love green apples, yet more often than not, these two don't go together. Having lots of green apples in the fridge that I wanted to get rid off, I decided to give it a go. My god was it delicious, I got compliments from Anne-Claire and Charles who both said it was the best apple crumble I ever made - and i have to admit it truly was amazing. The texture was perfect, not too sour and not too sweet. I can't wait to make this crumble again.

You'll notice that once again, Anne-Claire was unavailable and I was left alone to do all the photographing... epic fail.

Ingredients:

6-7 green apples
130g of caster sugar
50g of almond powder
130g of flour
75g of butter
1tsp of vanilla essence

Use a shredder to shred the apples into thin thin bits (much like when you are making potatoe pancakes).
Put the shredded apples into a pan, add the vanilla and sprinkle some sugar.
To make the crust combine, sugar + butter + flour + almond powder until you reach a crumbly/ sand-like texture.
Sprinkle on top of the apples making sure you cover everything.
Put in the oven at 200 degrees celsius until the crust is golden brown (roughly 25-30 minutes).
Enjoy and EAT!

* Always plan for extra sugar, you do not want the crumble to be too sour.

* This crumble doesn't last long!

Chocolate Bowls and Vanilla Ice-Cream topped with Smarties

2009-12-12T21:20:00.003-05:00

These are very very simple to make - you only need chocolate and balloons. Sadly, I didn't have any normal balloons..... So I used the long thin ones that clown shape things with. It was very fun to make. And the night was a success.

Photos here

First blow up the balloon and fill it with a bit of water so it will hold down.
Dip it in chocolate a few times.
Put it on parchment paper.
Continue with other balloons until you do not have anymore chocolate.
Put in the fridge and let it set for about two hours.

Remove from fridge and blow up the balloons - you should do this over the sink so that the water doesn't go everywhere.
After this, fill your cups with whichever topping you may want.
We used vanilla ice cream and smarties.

* Very stuffing so make small bowls.

Salmon and Veggies

2009-12-12T21:12:00.002-05:00

Tonight was the last dinner with Clément. He is graduating this term, and going back to Europe. We won't have the opportunity to enjoy dinners with him for a while. As a goodbye dinner, I decided to make something a bit more refined than the old pasta/pizza combo we had in the past after our Enfants du Mekong meetings. For the main course I served Salmon on a bed of oven-grilled french beans accompanied by wheat, oven grilled potatoes and carrots. It was delicious as Anne-Claire put it.

Photos: Anne-Claire

Put chopped up tomatoes on raw salmon, chop up some carrots (french fries style), potatoes and french beans.
Put olive oil.
Put in oven at 220 degrees celsius for an hour.
Remove the salmon only and set aside.
Continue cooking the rest at 400 degrees celsius for about 15-30 minutes.
Serve hot.

Multi-Coloured Choc Chip Cupcakes

2009-12-12T13:59:00.003-05:00

Between two study sessions for my upcoming exam... I decided to make multi-coloured cupcakes! It was rather fun! Anne-Claire got to have fun with the photos... whilst she was oh so procrastinating. The cupcakes are tasty and very very very cute!! I used so much food colouring, that some of my fingers are 'stained'! I got the recipe from here and adapted it to turn the cupcakes into psycho-delic colourful cupcakes!!

Photo Credits: Anne-Claire

Ingredients:

150g of butter
150g of caster sugar
175g of flour
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g of chocolate chips
Liquid food colouring ( I used green, blue and red)
1tsp of baking powder

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
Put cases in a cupcake pan.
Crack the eggs in a large bowl and mix.
Add all the ingredients to the mix and beat with a mixer.
Divide the mixture in different bowls and add the food colorants.
Add the chocolate chips and mix.
Separate into each cupcake cases and put in the oven
Bake for 25 minutes.
Allow to cool and then ice as you wish.
EAT!

Salted Caramel and Apple Macarons

2009-12-12T10:05:00.002-05:00

A few weeks back i stumbled upon this recipe by Pierre Hermé and decided to try it out. Needless to say I didn't know what i was embarking myself on.... 5 hours in my kitchen. The morning of, I had gotten my H1N1 flu shot... by the end of the cooking day, my arm was ready to fall off!

Photo by Anne-Claire

Ingredients:

Same as the ones for the chocolate macarons minus the cocoa powder (+ yellow food colouring)
4 to 5 apples
330g of cooking cream
60g salted butter
300g unsalted butter
30g of lemon juice
100g caster sugar

Beging the caramel filling. Warm the cream and set it aside, be careful not to boil it.
Pour 50g of sugar into a pan and melt it. When melted add another 50g. Continue until all the sugar is melted. Allow it to caramelize to a very dark amber colour (this may take a while).
Add the salted butter and mix with a spatula. Then add the cream and cook until the caramel reached 108 degrees Celsius (very long process).
Pour in a baking dish and put a saran wrap over the surface and put in the fridge until it gets cold.
Beat the rest of the butter for about 8-10 minutes, and then add the caramel into two additions and beat until combined.
Assemble your macarons, put some caramel on one side and sprinkle with apple pieces and put a macaron top to finish off. Put in the fridge for 48 hours!

Serve with chocolate macarons if you wish to impress :)

* Do not eat them immediately, as they are quite heavy. 48 hours later they are much lighter and easier to eat!

* Be ready to spend hours in the kitchen!

Tarte Tatin

2009-12-11T18:54:00.003-05:00

The boyfriend loves tarte tatin soooo much. Whilst we were in Paris this summer, he kept on having some and then got me into it. So it is only normal that I try and make it!! I used Cyril Lignac's recipe for the classic tarte tatin and changed it a bit to have a bit more caramel.

The pictures don't do the tart much justice, but unfortunately Anne-Claire was unavailable so I had to do the pictures myself... and let's just say photography isn't my forte.

Ingredients:

1kg red apples
130g of butter
60g of caster sugar
100g lump sugar
250g flour
pinch of salt

Preheat oven at 210 degrees Celsius.
In a bowl, mix 200g of flour, 30g of sugar and salt. Add 100g of butter in pieces and mix with your hands (BEST PART!). Add 10cl of water and mix all this with a wooden spoon. Turn the dough into a ball. The dough shouldn't be too sticky. If it is the case, add more flour. Put the dough in saran wrap and stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
In the mean time, heat the lump sugar with 3 tbsp of water in a pan until the mix takes a caramel colour. Take it off immediately and put it in a non-stick pan. (i used a silicone one)
Gently roll the dough into a circle the size of your pan.
Cut apples in eight, remove their skin. put them on top of the caramel in circles. Add 30g of sugar and the rest of the butter. Cover with the dough and make sure it goes in on the borders so that the caramel doesn't come out.
Put in the oven for 30 minutes.
Take out of the oven and turn around the pan in a plate and you have your tart tatin!

* Serve it with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

* If you don't want to make your own dough, you can buy it in a supermarket. That's okay too!

Choc Chip and Mint Cupcakes!

2009-12-10T21:54:00.002-05:00

Soo... after a nice day of shopping, pampering myself (if you consider getting waxed - pampering yourself) I decided to bake these deliciously fluffy cupcakes. Now you need to know i'm not big on cupcakes, too much frosting, too sweet... blah blah blah. So it was a bit of a surprise when these babies came out a success. The flatmate and the boyfriend got to enjoy a few :) I found the recipe here but adapted it a little.

Ingredients:

225g flour
4 tbsp of cocoa
1 tsp of baking powder
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp mint essence
100g plain choc chips
300g of butter

Preheat oven at 160 degrees Celsius
Place cupcake cases in muffin tins (makes about 22 cupcakes)
In a bowl, sieve flour, baking powder and cocoa.
In another bowl, beat butter and sugar. Add the eggs one by one, and mix in between each egg.
Add the flour mixture gradually. Stir int he mint essence and choc chips.
Spoon in the mixture into cases and bake for about 15 minutes (if you want a melted center) or 25 minutes (for a completely baked cupcake).

For the Icing:

Buy betty crocker vanilla icing, or any other kind.
Have green food colouring.
1 tsp mint essence.

Mix all this together and ice the cooled cupcakes and decorate with choc chips.

Tips:

* You can decide to make your own frosting but I find that to be a hassle and usually end up having a too butter-ey mixture.

* Try and make these when no one is around you... or else they might just take bites here and there!!! (thanks Anne-Claire)

And eat them fast before everyone grabs them away from you! They're simply divine!

Chocolate Macarons

2009-12-10T00:10:00.001-05:00

So, I love MACARONS.
Being french and all that, how can I not ey? Ladurée is my sanctuary... and Pierre Hermé is my God. So it is only obvious as to why I decided to try and make them...!

After reading many blogs, and many recipes I finally got it down! Brace yourselves!

Pretty :)

Ingredients: (makes about 25-30 macarons)

2x 60g of egg whites (aged - leave them out 24 hours prior)
150g almond powder (get it really thin!)
150g caster sugar + 35g caster sugar for the meringue
150g icing sugar
lemon juice
pinch of salt
50g of water
food coloring (in this case, i used cocoa powder)

Recipe:

Heat oven at 145 degrees Celsius.
Whip up 60g of egg whites and add 35g of sugar in three times. You should get a meringue feel to the egg whites.
In the mean time, boil 150g caster sugar and 50g of water until thermometer reaches 110 degrees.
Once this done, add the sugar syrup to the eggwhite/meringue mixture on the sides of the bowl.
Mix until mixture cools down to 40 degrees Celsius.
In another bowl, add icing sugar, almond powder and the rest of the egg whites (the other 60g) and mix. (for chocolate macarons, add cocoa, if not add food coloring)
Add the meringue mixture of the powder mix and fold.
Fold carefully as you do not want to over fold. It should take you about 45 folds in total. Don't worry about breaking the egg whites apart!
You should have a sticky texture by now.
Put it in a piping bag, and make small circles on a baking sheet.
Put in the oven for about 12 minutes. Let cool.
In the mean time, you can do whichever filling you may want to do. For chocolate ganache, I boiled 100g of dark chocolate and 100ml of liquid cream and put it in a piping bag.
Pipe some ganache on one side of the macaron and add another shell to cover.
Refrigerate for 24-48 hours.
Enjoy!

* extra tip: before putting in the oven, i find that letting the baking sheet with the uncooked macaron circles out for 10 minutes helps.

Good luck!

Here we go!

2009-12-09T23:56:00.001-05:00

Okay! Its nearly the end of the year, this calls for a new and exciting blog. Sorry I have failed miserably in the past with previous cooking blogs - but it seems that I now am back on a roll. So bare with me... and you'll get to enjoy delicious recipes and see pictures.

The beautiful pictures are from my special and awesome photographer (yes, i have a personal photographer)... my flatmate Anne-Claire. 99% of the pictures you will see on this blog will be from her... so be sure to check her out and please don't steal any :).

Anne-Claire's Blog

That's it folks. I hope you enjoy this blog as much as I hope I will enjoy writing it.

<3