Thursday, October 30, 2008

scones addiction

yea i did it again. i made scones randomly just to have a good breakfast :D
it's two days weather really sucks.. this rainy windy thing is not my cup of tea. i have to say though that here it's still a bit warm, not really cold outside, and this makes things a bit better. i also got a cold and i despise that.. in this season it just calls for sinusitis with me, bla :P

i like nutmeg a lot. i guess it's one of my fav spices ever, its flavor kinda intrigues me.. i'm used to have an awesome sugar to sprinkle on sweet food, made mixing caster sugar, sugar in a bit bigger crystals, nutmef, cinnamon and allspice. so i chose a recipe including yogurt because i had wish of soft soft scones and added a bit of spices to it. to me the match nutmeg flavor - fresh cheese just makes a delicious breakfast plan eheh

yogurt scones
with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg
50g softened butter
200g plain flour
1tbsp sugar
1tbsp baking powder
280g plain yogurt
1pinch of salt
1pinch of ground nutmeg and cinnamon, mixed

rub together flour, salt, baking powder, spices and butter with fingertips to make fine crumbs. stir in sugar and yogurt, mixing roughly. i like to keep the dough very soft for these scones, even if it may be way softer than normal scone dough. it keeps then very soft once baked. spread the dough on a baking sheet, cut it in 9 or so parts without separating them.
bake for about 10min in preheated oven at 220°C. divide the scones and eat them when still warm.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

mosquitos make scones

when i woke up today i was so mad.. i couldnt sleep last night because of some mosquitos in my room (and for some other reason i dont really know) weather got a little chillier and there they are, trying to survive enjoying my heating and sucking my blood!
well when i got up, my left arm was covered with bites.. i'm quite sensitive (i dont say allergic but who the hell knows) to insect bites so you can imagine its conditions. i rubbed some tons cortisone lotion and decided to make the brunch of a queen, just to cheer myself up.

well it worked :D
i made some quick scones.. whatever scone you make, they always turn out awesome. i chose to give them the perfume of cardamom, i met this spice in finland for the first time and loved it.
blueberry jam and white fresh cheese on warm scones.. how can one stay upset after that?
sipping my caffelatte, reading mail and news with a sort of pleasant snobbish aloofness.. it's nice sometimes not to care of the outer world at all.
the man just sent me a sort of good morning email.. together with a good breakfast, small things that make my day :)


cardamom scones
(makes about 8)
250g plain flour
180ml milk
50g butter, softened
1tbsp sugar
1tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of cardamom
1tsp olive oil

rub flour, salt, baking powder, cardamom, sugar and butter with fingertips to make fine crumbs. stir in the milk and knead lightly till the mixture is smooth.
flatten the dough to 2,5 cm in thickness and cut rounds in it. place on a baking tray and brush the top of the scones with a little olive oil.
bake for about 10min in preheated oven at 220°C.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

one good merenda

i recall pretty well this merenda.. it was on suomenlinna island, finland :)
the place was a very nice small cafè, my mom and sister went there in the winter too and told me it moved to a bit bigger place.. i like old finnish wooden buildings, with so weird pastel colors and nice claddings.

that was probably the best cappuccino i've ever had in finland, a real cappuccino eheh but i really loved that sort of big fried soft and yummy thing, filled with blackberry jam.. mmh so good. i must find a good recipe of it, though i'm really a culinary disaster about fried food :P

i enjoy very much merenda time, that nice break around mid afternoon to have some treat and a cup of tea or coffee.. that's the italian name of it but i guess you can call it teatime if you will :)
it's a nice interval during the day, something that can cheer you up or just accompany your activities.. i prefer some real break like these above, but even nibbling at some cookies with a glass of milk will do perfectly.
every year when everything starts off i tend to skip merenda and, in the rush between the gym and the school or the bus, i just eat some cereals bar quickly and just because my body screams for food ehehe
so now that i'm settled and i begin to really organize my time, i'll think of some way to have a good merenda even in the middle of such activities. a few years ago i used to make pain au chocolat on sundays so my sis and i would have a nice homemade snack.
last year instead i started to make some awesome puff pastry stuff.. and that's where i mean to go back to :D

Friday, October 24, 2008

a swirl of peanuts

i love peanut butter.. it's one of those things i should never buy because i'll start using it insanely till the jar is completely empty eheh
i make brownies and cookies, but also an awesome sauce for pasta and chicken.. i like the salty-sweet taste of it very much.

when i was in finland i tried many different kinds and i really liked the bio peanut cream made by some swedish company or something.. (un)fortunately in italy it's not very common to find, so i had to content myself with a small jar of skippy the smooth. they tell me there's 772peanuts in a jar.. i see. well not that i trust them so much after the diatribe about their "natural" version which does contain trans fat even if the label screams it doesnt LOL

but i like peanut butter so much that i'm gonna try to make it myself soon.. i found some good recipe, it's pretty easy but i didnt have the right doses :)
so first thing i made with my jar is this peanut butter and chocolate heaven.. it's a brownie recipe but i make it also in small single serving tins, they just need to bake a little less.
chocolate and peanut butter brownies
150g dark chocolate
150g butter

3eggs

200g brown sugar
120g flour
2tbsp cocoa powder

1tsp vanilla flavor
1pinch of salt


150g peanut butter

6tbsp milk

1tbsp flour

some peanuts, chopped


melt chocolate and butter, set aside. beat eggs with sugar and vanilla flavor till fluffy. stir in the chocolate, then the flour sifted with salt and cocoa. mix well and pour into the baking tin.
mix the remaining ingredients to make a soft peanut butter mixture, then drop it over the chocolate batter. stir slightly to swirl the mixtures together. sprinkle some peanuts to top.
bake for 25min in preheated oven at 180°C.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

smoked, please

today i was at the supermarket, undecided about salmon.. i love salmon but what was i inspired about, smoked or fresh? i ended up with some nice scottish smoked salmon.. pinkish slices so tender they melt in your mouth.. so nice.
it counted 4 slices and i thought maybe tomorrow i can make a nice smoked salmon and caviar sandwich instead of the overdone ham and fresh cheese (which i like but that's just the quickest toast one can make eheh) and use a half to make pasta this evening.
and that's what i did.

angel hair pasta with smoked salmon and red caviar
while pasta is getting done, sautee some shallot in butter. add smoked salmon roughly cut and freshly ground black pepper.
when the pasta is al dente, throw it in the pan with the salmon sauce, stir in a few spoons of milk and sautee quickly. taking the pan from the heat, add a spoon red caviar, mix well and serve.

as "side dish" i made roasted carrots.. i really like that, it's so easy to make and the result is so good. i dont like boiled carrots at all and rosting them this way is the best to me to eat carrots if not raw :)

roasted carrots
put carrots on the oven rack (i put an aluminium sheet but you can use a baking tin as well) and drizzle some olive oil all over them. ground some black pepper and spread a pinch of salt onto them. you can use whatever spices you prefer, i like it so simple with pepper only.
bake in preheated oven at 200°C for about 20min.

wondrous pear cake

though pear and chocolate is a classic and a very good match, i found it hard to get a good recipe for a cake. this is my version of a recipe i tried once and i must admit the result is awesome :D

chocolate and pear soft cake
3big firm pears (williams)
200g dark chocolate
150ml milk
200g wheat flour
baking powder
170g butter
2egg yolks
3egg whites
100g sugar

melt 100g butter and the chocolate in a bain marie. whip sugar with egg yolks and mix with sifted flour and baking powder. add milk and melted chocolate, mix well. Blend with beaten egg whites.
peel and slice pears. Pour half of the dough in a baking tin and spread pear slices on it, then cover them pouring the remaining dough. bake in preheated oven at 200°C for 40minutes.

you can spread a simple icing on the cooled cake, made of milk and icing sugar, or a chocolate icing.

les orangettes!

i don't like too much orangettes myself, i use to make them for my family (they're definitely fond of those :)
it's not easy to find good candied orange peels, that's why i've stored some tons when i found some awesome ones in a confectionery wholesale.. they drip with their own sugary juice, splendid :D
sometimes i tried to make candied peels by myself but i disliked the process and then they were too thin.. all things considered i look for them already candied whenever i can and i try to use peels cut in quarters.

i like to make both orangettes and nuts covered with chocolate (which i really like to eat myself eheh)


orangettes and choconuts
dark chocolate (at least 50%cocoa)
candied orange peels
minced nuts: peanuts, almonds, walnuts, pine seeds

melt the chocolate in a bain marie, mixing well. in the meantime cut the candied orange peels in a half and mince the nuts.
dip the peels in the chocolate, one by one. place them gently on a rack till the chocolate is solified.
place some spoons of minced nuts in small baking tins (like tartellette tins wrapped with baking paper) and pour on them melted chocolate. i usually mix more or less the same amount of chocolate and nuts.
when the chocolate is solified completely, keep orangette and choconuts in the fridge till serving.


Sunday, October 12, 2008

super delicious

so long i havent updated.. but september was very busy with moving and starting off in a new city.. so well, now i'm (almost) settled, still i'll move to a new flat as i find a better one.. but now i'll have a bit more time to update, i swear :D
i cooked though and i have a lot of food pics and recipes to write down and put here!


this cake was inspired supposedly to joanne harris' chocolat novel.. or better to its main character, vianne. i loved the movie and also the book, harris' one of my fav authors even if this is not my fav novel of hers ^^
so the cake is awesome.. slightly perfumed with orange (do i love cointreau
), very soft, rich and chocolateous.. a super treat.. i like to make this cake specially for birthdays of the few people i love, because to me a gorgeous cake is the best present ever :)

i love specially the ganache.. i've tried many different recipes of it, changing doses, ingredients, process.. but in this one, i love the contrast between the dark rich cream and the crunchy crystals of sugar. i have to say i kinda "stole" the idea from some chocolate i like a lot, it's a very dark tablet with big sugar crystals in it (a bit too big sometimes though, but it's not industrial made so it depends on the confectioner ^^)
i like to use marine salt crystals too, but that's a bit more particular match that not everybody appreciates, so i try not to do
that when the cake's gonna be eaten by many people eheh
(unfortunately i didnt have my own camera with me so the pic is not that good)



vianne cake
125g butter, softened
150g caster sugar

2eggs

230g dark chocolate, melted

1tsp cointreau
230g wheat flour

2tsp dark cocoa powder
baking powder qs
200ml milk
topping

(chocolate ganache):

230g dark chocolate
230ml fresh cream

1tsp cane sugar in crystals


whip butter and sugar till fluffy, beat in eggs one by one, the melted chocolate cooled and the cointreau. sift flour, baking powder and cocoa together, add stirring to the chocolate mixture alternating to milk.
pour in a baking tin (24cm diameter) and bake in preheated oven at 180°C for about 45 min. let cool.

in the meanwhile prepare the ganache: bring cream to boil slightly, then pour it on the chocolate. when the chocolate is melted, stir well the mixure till it's creamy. let cool in the fridge for 15 to 45 min, stir in the sugar crystals then spread onto the cake.