strawberries and birthdays

i was back home during the past weekend and since my sis is gonna have her birthday soon and i wont be there, i made an early birthday cake for her :)
i love strawberries, i like to eaat them just by themselves, or with a bit of lemon juice, cane sugar and whipped cream.. even dipped in dark chocolate they're rather good to me eheh

this cake is very soft and delicious.. the cake itself melts in your mouth, matching the cream and strawberry filling perfectly.
i usually use a little bit more chili pepper for this recipe, but not everybody is mad about that so just try it with a little at first.

strawberry chocolate cake

85g softened butter
100g icing sugar
1egg
150g dark chocolate
1tbsp cointreau
170g flour
1tbsp cocoa powder
180ml milk
baking powder
1tsp ground chili pepper

filling:
250ml fresh cream
strawberries

icing:
200g dark chocolate
200ml milk
1tbsp butter
potato starch qs
strawberries

melt the chocolate in a bain marie and set aside. sift together flour, cocoa powder, chili pepper and baking powder. beat butter, sugar and egg till soft and creamy. stir in the melted chocolate and the cointreau.
mix the butter cream with the flour, alternating with milk. pour the batter in a baking tin and bake for about 30min in preheated oven at 180°C.

let cool the cake, then cut it in 2layers. spread the whipped cream (you can beat in a little sugar if the strawberries arent too sweet) and sprinkle with chopped strawberries.

mix the icing ingredients in a sauce pan and let it cook (low heat, bain marie) till creamy. spread onto the cake and spread a few straberries on top.

gnam!

update and more recipes coming soon! i'm making cookies almost every day so i have many new recipes to upload.. btw i really love these ones.
i used to eat some awesome cookies made by a well-known pastry maker in brescia, and i remember looking for the recipe in vain. then i bumped into the recipe of assabesi cookies which are quite alike.
tried it, personalized it a little bit, and this is the result.. i swear they're just delicious dipped in coffee or warm milk :D

gnam cookies

200g softened butter
135g icing sugar
2 egg yolks
280g wheat flour
8-10g honey
40g dark cocoa powder
flavors vanilla, orange blossom
milk qs

Whip carefully softened butter, sugar and honey. Add yolks one by one, keep whipping. Sift flour and cocoa together, add the butter cream and mix well.
Knead carefully all the ingredients. If the dough would be too stiff or dry, add some milk.
Make little balls of dough (a walnut size) and press them in the center with a finger. Bake in preheat oven (200°C) for about 15minutes.

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.

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.

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.

tiramisù

i just love this dessert :) usually i make it in a big tin, but sometimes when i have just wish of a bit, i make it in small amount and in glasses.

wherever i go, if there's tiramisù i will taste it.. sometimes that's a huge mistake though, if it's not well done this dessert can be just awful eheheh i still recall with pleasure a tiramisù i ate in apulia (south of italy) some years ago.. it was just 3 savoiardi, slightly soaked in a citrus flavored syrup and topped with a liquid mascarpone sauce.. totally different from usual tiramisù, yet it was amazing.
though the recipe is always more or less the same, every cook has one's own recipe.. this is mine, i tried and tried till i've found the best mix to make a thick and delicious tiramisù ^^
i use orange blossom flavor for its fine subtle perfume that suits well this cream, but a good vanilla flavor works good too :) i'm a big fan of orange blossom flavor, so delicate and particular, just beautiful with chocolate or ricotta.. it's surely one of my fav scents to smell and i've always liked the italian words for orange blossoms (fiori d'arancio or zagare)

tiramisù

350g savoiardi (kind of biscuits)
85g sugar
200g ricotta (kind of cottage cheese)
200g mascarpone
dark chocolate drops
dark cocoa powder
5egg whites
4egg yolks
orange blossom flavor
dark coffee (6 to 9 espresso cups)

Beat egg whites till thicken. Whip together sugar and egg yolks, then blend mascarpone and ricotta. Add egg whites and mix carefully.
Pour some coffee in a dish and soak savoiardi in it. In a rectangular tin make a thin layer of cream, spread chocolate drops on it and place a layer of savoiardi.
Make layers till ingredients finish topping with a layer of cream (i use to make 3layers of savoiardi). Pour sifted cocoa powder and then some grated chocolate on the top layer. Serve tiramisù well cooled.

died and went to heaven cake

This cake is simply wonderful.. soft, chocolatous, luscious ^^ i love the match coffee-chocolate and this is a good recipe for that

died and went to heaven cake

410ml wheat flour
230ml sugar
180ml cocoa powder
baking powder
a pinch of salt
350ml milk
230ml brown sugar
2beaten eggs
60ml olive oil
vanilla extract
230ml hot and strong coffee

Icing:
230ml icing sugar
orange blossom flavor
50ml milk

Whip together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Add milk, brown sugar, eggs, olive oil and vanilla extract, mix very well. ncorporate hot coffee and whisk. Pour the batter in a baking tin.
Bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 35minutes.

Prepare the icing: whisk together icing ingredients carefully. Spread on the cake when it's cooled.

chèvre passion

goat cheese has always been for me one of those flavors i dont dig completely, but for some reason i find myself eating with pleasure.. i know it sounds weird but that's it :D
it's not like milk taste or chocolate or strawberry, which i like very much and anyway.. goat cheese is a strange taste, sometimes it feels like i dislike it so much i cant help eating it ehehehe

anyway one of my fav matchings is fresh goat cheese and dark chocolate.. simply awesome :) there's something salty, something fresh, something sweet and something bitter.. i really love it, i have some sweet recipes including these two ingredients but quite often i just spread the chèvre onto a piece of choco and snap at it!

chèvre-choco brownies

300g dark chocolate
125g cane sugar
4eggs
75g wheat flour
75g white sugar
100g butter
300g fresh goat cheese
10g baking powder
75g almond flour
vanilla flavor

Melt chocolate and butter together in a bain marie. Whip 3eggs with cane sugar, add wheat and almond flour, baking powder, then add chocolate and mix well.
Whip goat cheese with white sugar, 1egg and vanilla flavor.
Pour chocolate dough in a baking tin (around 20x30cm) and pour onto it the cheese cream. With a knife blend slightly the two creams creating a pattern. Bake for 25-35minutes in preheated oven at 190°C.

cappuccino foam

sometimes my cappuccino maker honors me producing a real cappuccino with a huge amount of milk foam on it :D i had some toasted bread slices, spread with butter and some kind of berries jam i love coffee+milk and i really like cappuccino..

it's hard to find a good one outside italy though. when i enter some coffee shops abroad i get dizzy just reading all those odd names of coffee drinks.. i despise them. i never recall what's the difference between a big latte, a caffè mocha and double cafè au lait.. all these words in italian and french, languages that i do speak properly but it seems not enough to get the point in front of a drinks menu O_o i'm awfully curious to find out how orange mocha frappuccino tastes like.. or maybe not. dont get me wrong, i like to mix coffee with something else.. as i said milk and sometimes i put a piece of dark chocolate on the bottom of the cup before pouring hot coffee.. but i need a sound limit to this absurd coffee drinks deviation, call me a coffee snob if you want ^^

carpets and cookies

well today i threw my 2 ikea carpets in the washing machine, same exact way i did the last 4 times.. i wonder why the bright yellow one this time came like this O_o
i suppose now i prefer to have green bubbly carpets in my bathroom LOL

i'd like to thank all those who sent me some valentine.. i'm way too bad at festivities but i appreciate when friends spend a thought and some nice words for me :)

this evening headache finally left me! in the last days i was out a lot and this very windy and moist weather slaps my sinuses and make me feel like i've been hit in the skull with a shovel :P

i made these wondrous cookies today.. it was an experiment but it turned out definitely good! so here is the recipe :D they're quite quick to make and the result has been appreciated by those who ate them today.. i guess it's the magic of coffee + chocolate ^^

coffee and almond cookies (makes 20)

1/2cup softened butter
1/4cup powdered sugar
2tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1tsp vanilla or hazelnut flavor
1cupflour
1/2cup ground almonds
1tbsp ground coffee
1tbsp ground dark chocolate

preheat oven at 165°C

beat butter, powdered sugar and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl with a mixer until combined. beat in vanilla flavor and ground coffee. stir in flour, ground almonds and chocolate.
shape dough into small balls and slightly flatten them. place the cookies on ungreased cookie sheets and bake in preheated oven for about 15min. let cookies cool on wire racks.