And the two winners of the Lemon and Olive Oil Madeleines are... Rachelle of Mommy I'm Hungry! and Eileen of Living Tastefully.
Thank you everyone for taking the time to leave comments and share your thoughts. Even the international bloggers that knew I couldn't ship any overseas. I loved reading every single one!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
PS: I just wanted to clarify that the winners were picked by Random Number Generator. Someone asked me to clarify that. Thank you!
I cannot wait until next month!
So next week, I will be giving away two boxes of freshly baked lemon and olive oil madeleines. All you have to do is leave a comment briefly explaining what was going through your mind when you started your blog. What inspired you? What were you doing the day you sat down in front of the computer and created an account? I'm always curious about what drives people. And if you don't have a blog but like to read food blogs, don't worry, please let us know what interests you; what makes you read a blog over another one. Is it the photographs, the challenging recipes or easier recipes, articles, personal stories..
You have until Sunday March 30th at 3pm EST and I will announce the lucky winners' names that following Monday. Due to the delicate nature of the goodies and to preserve their freshness, I can only ship in the US (sorry rest of the world...).
During one of my last trips back home, I stopped in Barcelona to visit my friend Ainara. Barcelona has a special charm, the light, the ocean, the mystic, quirky culture. Beautiful and colorful. And if you are obsessed with pastry as I am, it's full of beautiful small pastry shops. Chocolate is a big part of their gastronomy. The windows are always full of chocolate sculptures and during Easter, the entire town goes chocolate crazy. It's a pleasure to watch.
One of my favorite stops in Bubo. It's a modern pastry shop owned by famous pastry chef Carles Mampel. The shop is only about 3 or 4 years old and it's full of the most exquisite yet fun pastries I have seen in a long time. His tarts are divine. Some simple, some complex. He also has a catering business and displays some of his mini creations in the window. Savory tapas in a stick. I seem to find food on a stick a lot lately. I think it brings us back to our childhoods and makes food playful, easily and uncomplicated.
Another great Spanish patissier is Paco Torreblanca. He has published three amazing pastry books, two of them are professional level and one of them is for the home cook. More on him on future posts because his books really inspire me.
The tart is built with three different components. Sable breton base which is the same recipe I used for the strawberry and rhubarb tarts, diplomats cream which is pastry cream lightened with whipped cream and caramelized apples. I finished it with apricot glaze and pistachios. The glaze gives it shine and it also protects it from oxidizing.
I used Fuji apples because although they are not used a lot in baking, I feel their crisp texture and tartness makes them perfect for tarts or desserts in which you want to keep some of its consistency.
Caramelized Roasted Apples
Makes 4 tarts
3 medium size Fuji apples or you can even use Granny Smiths
2 Tbs granulated sugar
Peel and core the apples. Cut them into 8 wedges. Place these wedges on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and sprinkle the sugar on top of each one of them. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until they start to soften and the sugar starts to caramelize. Remove them from the oven and let them cool on the sheet pan until they are cool enough to handle.
Diplomats Cream
Makes more than you will need but you can use the rest as a filling for another pastry or eat it all by itself
2 cup organic whole milk
4 oz sugar
1.5 oz cornstarch
2 organic eggs
1 organic egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs unsalted organic butter
1 cup organic heavy cream, whipped to soft peak
Whip the cream to soft peak and refrigerate until ready to use.
Make a pastry cream with the rest of the ingredients. Place the milk in a saucepan and bring it to a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch until there are no lumps. Temper the hot milk into the egg mixture and whisk. Return this custard to the saucepan and cook until it starts to boil and it thickens. Remove from heat and immediately, transfer the cream to a clean bowl. Whisk in the vanilla and the butter. Continue whisking until the cream cools down. Place plastic wrap on top, touching the cream so no skin forms on the custard. Refrigerate.
When the pastry cream is cold, we will combine it with the heavy cream. Add a little bit of the pastry cream to the whipped cream and fold gently with a spatula until well incorporated. Add another small amount and continue the same until all has been added.
Assemble the Tart
Pipe a small amount of the cream on top of the baked and cooled sable rounds. Place 5 or 6 baked apple wedges on top of the cream creating a pattern that looks like a fan. Glaze the tart with some hot apricot glaze. Most of the time I use apricot jam that I warm up in the microwave and strain through a fine sieve to get rid of any chunks. Finish with chopped pistachios.
The apples melt in your mouth. They almost taste like if they had been baked with lots of butter but no, they haven't. There's something about Fuji apples!
These truffles will be my entry for this month's Sugar High Friday which is hosted by Habeas Brulee and the theme is sweet gifts. Perfect, isn't it? Most of us bake and cook to give and to share with our loved ones so I thought this was a fantastic theme for a blogging event.
The truffles are really, really soft, just like a perfect ganache should be. However, the recipe suggests finishing them by rolling them in powdered sugar which didn't work very well for me. I found that this ganache would be better if it were dipped in tempered chocolate or as a filling for a molded candy. This ganache needs to be refrigerated, which makes it "sweat" so when it's rolled in the powdered sugar, the sugar starts to melt and in a few minutes, turns into a crust almost like a glazed doughnut. So I ended up rolling them in really good quality Valrhona cocoa powder.
Overall, it is a lovely ganache, very smooth and balanced. The sweetness of the milk chocolate goes great with the tartness of the passion fruit puree. The dried apricots are a great texture and sweetness too. Unexpected but excellent.
Next time, I will temper some chocolate and dip the truffles in it. Tempering is not complicated but it does require some practice and a cool room, which I don't have as the temperatures in Florida are starting to reach the 80's now.
Milk Chocolate and Passion Fruit Truffles
adapted from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme
210 grams milk chocolate
25 grams dried apricots, small dice
1 Tbs water
80 grams passion fruit puree
45 grams organic heavy cream
1/2 Tbs wild raw honey
30 grams organic unsalted butter, room temperature
Mix the chopped apricots with the water and let them plump up. When you are ready to add them to the ganache, drain them and pat them dry with a paper towel.
Place chopped milk chocolate in a bowl big enough to hold all ingredients. In a saucepan, bring cream, passion fruit puree and honey to a boil. Pour over the chopped chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts. Let this mixture cool a little bit. Add the softened butter and mix until all incorporated. Add the chopped and plumped apricots.
Let the ganache set in the refrigerator and when hard, make small balls and roll them in good quality cocoa powder.
Happy Easter everyone... eta Aberri Egun on bat pasa!
Organic Florida Zucchini BreadSpring is an exciting time to be a food lover. My brain starts spinning every time I go to Whole Foods and I see that new fruits and vegetables have arrived. Nowadays, zucchini is available all year round but when I was growing up, zucchini was only a summer vegetable. My grandparents grew it in the farm and so did my uncle. Our zucchini was a little different though. The skin was thin and the color was a very pale green, almost transparent. The seeds were also larger so often times, we had to discard them. We never made zucchini bread. I learned this when I came to the US. Our favorite dish was pisto which is a Basque version of ratatouille, with sauteed onions, bell peppers of different colors, zucchini, potatoes and eggs... All summer vegetables.
Line clay pots with parchment and the cake comes out perfectly
Over the weekend, my mom and I took our last grocery shopping trip together before she and my father went back home (which has left me very sad). I think our favorite past time is to go food shopping and I'm not exaggerating. If you have ever been to the Basque Country you will know that our lives revolve around food. Always thinking about what to make for lunch, then for dinner, for the upcoming Sunday lunch... Non-stop. So my mom wanted to make sure my refrigerator was well stocked with fruits and vegetables before she left. She knows how hard it is for me to go shopping with my little boy.
We walked into Whole Foods and they had a large display of organic, dark green, Florida zucchinis. It was so beautiful and inspiring. I used some for pisto, some for pasta, some for rice, but I had to save some for dessert!
This recipe is adapted from a recipe that I found in Tartine by Elisabeth Prueitt, one of my favorite pastry books. I changed some things around though. I used peach jam instead of orange marmalade. Then I added some orange zest and also used pecans instead of walnuts.
I wanted to do something fun with it so I found these little clay flower pots at the craft store, lined them with parchment paper and baked some of the batter inside. They turned out wonderful and if the pot is well greased and with enough parchment, the cakes slide right out.
Zucchini and Pecan Bread
adapted from Tartine
makes 3 small loaves
270 grams unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp aluminum free baking soda
1/2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 organic eggs
1/2 cup + 2 Tbs sunflower oil
150 grams sugar
115 grams peach jam
zest of half an orange
285 grams organic zucchini, grated
115 grams pecans, chopped
Demerara sugar for topping
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, oil, orange zest, peach jam and grated zucchini. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix until combined. Add the chopped pecans and fold.
Bake in a 350 degree oven. Check for doneness with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, they are done.
Gluten, Dairy and Soy Free Chocolate Molten Cake
Who doesn't love a good, warm, gooey chocolate molten cake served with vanilla ice cream? Tell me, is there anything more comforting than melting chocolate cake with melting vanilla ice cream? Hot and cold. That's how it should always be.
Well, by looking at these photos, you would never guess that these cakes are actually gluten, dairy and soy free. Yes, you heard it! My "three frees" once again!
Linda at Make Life Sweeter! is hosting this month's Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free! The theme is Birthday Baking for Kids. This is an event from Naomi of Straight into bed Cakefree and Dried and as the name suggest it's all about the gluten-free side of life. When I read about this, I instantly thought about this chocolate molten cake. It's based on a full wheat and full dairy recipe but since the main ingredients are eggs and chocolate, I thought it could easily be transformed into a "three free" one. I used rice flour instead of all purpose flour, butter-flavored non-hydrogenated shortening and gluten free, dairy free and soy free chocolate chips. All this ingredients are readily available at most health food stores and they really work well in this recipe.
I topped the molten cake with vanilla rice milk ice cream (Rice Dream) which is also gluten and soy free. Some of the Rice Dream flavors contain some gluten and some soy so make sure to check labels if you are concerned about any of these allergens.
Decorated Cakes
I didn't throw a kids birthday party per se, but I invited my 4-year old next door neighbor over for some cake and ice cream. I decorated it with all natural pink and yellow sprinkles and she loved it! That's the true test!
Gluten, Dairy and Soy Free Chocolate Molten Cakes
4 oz butter-flavored, non-hydrogenated shortening
6 oz gluten, dairy and soy free chocolate chips
2 organic eggs
2 organic egg yolks
2 oz sugar
3/4 oz organic white rice flour
pinch of sea salt
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar and whip until very thick and pale. In the meantime, melt the shortening and the chocolate chips together over a double boiler.
Add the shortening and chocolate mixture to the whipped eggs while the mixer is on low speed. Once all the chocolate is added, turn mixer back to high for about 10 seconds so it's all well mixed.
Fold in the rice flour and the sea salt. Pour batter into 4-oz greased molds and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. The outside of the cake will be baked but the center will stay slightly soft and gooey.
Let the cakes rest in the molds for a few minutes until they cool down enough to handle and then flip them onto a plate. These are best served warm with ice cream.
Milk Chocolate Cream with Milk Cloud
If you remember my gianduja macaroons post from earlier this month, I mentioned that I placed an order for two dozen assorted macaroons from Petites Bouchees. Well they arrived on Wednesday. The transaction went smoothly and the macaroons arrived in really good condition considering how UPS usually handles their merchandise. The ice packs were still cold and the insulated packaging was neatly packed inside the cardboard box.
Look at that face... Worth every penny!
Happy, happy, happy!!!
Arroz Con Leche Ice Cream Quenelle
Quenelle melting in the afternoon sunArroz Con Leche Ice Cream
500 grams organic whole milk
25 grams arborio or valencia rice
25 grams sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp sea salt
500 grams organic heavy cream
100 grams organic egg yolks
75 grams sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
25 grams all natural cinnamon graham crackers, crumbled
In a small saucepan, cook the milk, 25 grams of sugar, rice, cinnamon stick and salt. Simmer in medium-low heat for about 20 minutes. Strain the milk through a sieve and discard the cooked rice and the cinnamon stick. We want to have 350 grams of the cooked milk. If you have reduced it too much, add enough fresh milk to get those 350 grams we need but try to be as close to it as possible to avoid diluting the milk too much and to obtain the most flavor.
In a medium saucepan, boil the heavy cream with the cooked milk. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar. Temper the cream into the yolks. Whisk until well combined. Return this custard back to saucepan and cook for another minute (if you want to be completely sure, you can use a thermometer and cook to 84 degrees Celsius).
Strain the ice cream base through a fine sieve, add the ground cinnamon and cool down over an ice bath. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Churn it in the ice cream machine. Right before the ice cream is done, add the crumbled graham crackers and stir. Freeze until hardens.
Chocolate, arbequina olive oil, fleur de sel and crusty baguette
Do you ever feel like you wake up one day and life is telling you something? Signs, signs, signs... everywhere. This is what happened to me a few days ago.
I haven't had a chocolate sandwich or "bocadillo de chocolate" as we like to call it, since I was 18 or so. It used to be our afternoon snack when we were kids. We got out of school at 5pm and our mothers (because all kids had this) had chocolate bocadillos waiting for us. Dark chocolate inside a piece of crusty baguette wrapped with aluminum foil. That was our afternoon snack and everyone loved it.
I think I remember the last time I ate a "bocadillo de chocolate". I say, I think, because my memory has been failing lately but my last recollection of eating one of these is when my friends Amaia, Jill and I were travelling through Europe in the summer of 1992. We had just graduated from high school and we went on a two week backpacking trip across Western Europe. We were young and broke so we slept in youth hostels, on the train and on park benches. We ate bread (lots of it), yogurt, fruit... anything we would find at the local markets and lots and lots of chocolate. I mean, we were in France and Belgium and Switzerland... what else would we eat but chocolate, right? So bread and chocolate was an everyday staple. That's my last memory of eating chocolate bocadillos.
A few days ago, I stumbled upon a food blog out of the Basque Country called Sukaldean. Fun food blog by accomplished cookbook authors Hasier Etxeberria and David de Jorge. And what was the first thing I saw? You guessed it! Chocolate bocadillo but this time with olive oil and sea salt. "Wow!" I thought to myself... "I have to make that soon!". But life got busy and I didn't. A few days later, I went to Tartelette's blog and what did I see? A baguette she made for the Daring Baker's February challenge stuffed with a bar of chocolate! It seems like Helen and I have been sharing the same brain lately. I couldn't control myself so today, I ran to Paul, got some good crusty bread and made myself this bocadillo.
Green & Blacks 70% organic chocolateI used Arbequina olive oil from Hacienda Queiles which is mild and fruity. The first time I ever tried this olive oil, it was at Akelarre in San Sebastian. It was so fragant and unusual. It tasted just like bananas, I thought! I got the name of the producer from the maitre d' and a couple of days later, I bought myself a small bottle. It goes perfectly with the chocolate.
As for the salt, I used fleur de sel from Ile de Re that my friend and former pastry chef Sebastien brought back from France for me a couple of years ago. I know, I know... it's been a while but I've been saving it for special occasions like this one.
Chocolate, Olive Oil and Fleur de Sel Bocadillo
1 crusty baguette
2 70% cacao chocolate bars
2 tsp organic arbequina olive oil or any good quality extra virgin olive oil you like
Couple of pinches of fleur de sel
Cut the baguette in half and toast it under the broiler. Remove it from the broiler, drizzle some olive oil and place the chocolate on top of the bread. Place it back in the broiler for 5 seconds so the chocolate warms up a bit but remember that we don't want to melt the chocolate! Remove from the oven and finish it with the salt.
Open your mouth big and eat right away!
I want to thank Sukaldean and Helen for bringing back these wonderful memories!
Gluten Free Grapefruit Financiers
A couple of days ago, I started thinking about what to make next. I wanted to make something gluten free. My friend Jill gave me a recipe for gluten free croissants that she found in a magazine last summer. I started reading through it but I had a lot of questions about the method, the ingredients. So I kept thinking... "Financiers! That's it!". The main ingredients are almond flour and egg whites and only a little bit of wheat flour which can be easily substituted by rice flour. Besides, any excuse to impregnate the kitchen with the smell of brown butter is good, right?
We are in the middle of citrus season here in Florida so the store is full of organic grapefruits which are hard to find all year around. Grapefruit and nuts, can't beat that. I think pistachio flour would also work perfectly here and it's available through Pastry Chef Central .
Financiers are simple to make, stay moist for a few days and are the perfect snack. They won't sit long on my kitchen counter, that's for sure!
We ate these in one afternoon with good coffee and great conversation
Hazelnut Macarons
181 grams hazelnut flour
243 grams powdered sugar, sifted
138 grams organic egg whites
3 grams egg white powder
2 grams fine sea salt
81 grams sugar
In a large bowl, sift together the hazelnut flour, powdered sugar and sea salt. In an electric mixer, combine egg whites with the egg white powder and whip to soft peak. Slowly start adding the granulated sugar. Continue whipping until a stiff meringue forms.
Add meringue to the hazelnut flour mixture. Fold the meringue into the dry ingredients with a spatula until all incorporated and we get a shiny mass.
Pipe the macarons onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or silicon mat. Sprinkle some hazelnut flour on top of the macaroons. Let them dry for 30 minutes at room temperature.
Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes, then rotate the sheet pan for even baking. bake another 5-7 minutes.
For detailed instructions click here and see my previous macaron recipe.
Macarons before going in the oven
Macarons after they came out of the oven
Boxed macarons
When I thought of making something inside the eggshell, I thought of baking milk chocolate custard, like a pot de crème. However, after thinking about it, I thought that once refrigerated, it might be too stiff to eat and it might crack the eggshell in the process. I'm not sure. I should just try it just for the sake of it. This time, I made a cream and filled the empty eggshells with it. I was going to buy an egg topper but when I went to Sur La Table, I found that a good one costs almost $60!! Not today... So I just did it with a paring knife and lots of patience. It was ok topping 4 but I'm not sure if I'd do it if I had to top a dozen or more. Too much work!
Heat some whole milk in a saucepan. Submerge a hand-held mixer in the milk and mix it until foam starts to form on top. Take small spoonfuls of the foam and place on top of the eggshell. Serve right away.
