Sticks n Ice creme

I was ever so excited about my first challenge as a Daring Baker and was thrilled about the prospect of making tuiles. I wanted to make something that would stress the crispy sweetness of the tuiles while giving them something to lean against and as you can see below I ended up doing wriggly sticks to go with ice creme. An ordinary vanilla ice crème in which I added pear pure, enough to taste- too little to make the ice creme icy in texture.

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

The recipe I chose:

Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

65 grams softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams sifted all purpose flour

Oven: 180C

Use a hand whisk or a mixer and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Put some of the batter in an icing bag and make wriggly sticks on a baking sheet with parchment paper. The batter spreads easily so be sure not to make your sticks too thick.

Be sure to watch your oven while baking the stick tuiles, so they get just the right amount of time.

Quick rye bread with caraway fruits

Day 1 sourdough starter

2 dl. water
25 g. fresh yeast
4 dl. rye flour

Heat the water to 37 C. Dissolve the yeast in the water and add rye. Leave it at room temperature until the next day (3-4 days are even better, but this is the quick version, remember).

Day 2 Making the bread

5 dl. water
25 g. fresh yeast
Sourdough
1 tbsp salt
1½ tbsp caraway fruits
3 dl. rye flour
1 dl. wheat bran
7 dl. wheat flour

Put in your mixer in the abovementioned order. Pour the dough unto your kitchen table to kneed. Make 3 round loaves and leave to rise until double. Brush with coffee or just plain water.

Preheat oven to 200 C and place your baking sheet at the lower part of the oven for about 50 minutes.

Borscht

Borscht

2 l. vegetable broth (strong)
1 can of diced tomatoes
350 g. cabbage, shredded
200 g. carrots, grated
200 g. potatoes, grated
200 g. onions, finely chopped
300 g. parsnip, chopped
150 g. red bell peppers, finely chopped
350 g. beets, grated (use plastic gloves to avoid red fingers)
Oil, sugar, white wine vinegar, salt, pepper
Creme fraiche, parsley

While heating the vegetable broth in a large pot, prepare the rest of the ingredients. Heat 1 tbsp oil and add onion, parsnip, carrot, potato, red bell pepper and beet - in that order. Stir until the vegetables soften - not colour. Pour in your can of diced tomatoes and stir. Pour a little water in a pot and steam the cabbage until it wilts - will only take a minute. Now add all the vegetables to the broth and make sure it doesn’t boil - only simmer. Add sugar and vinegar to your liking and season with salt and pepper. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes until flavours are intertwined.

When served pour a tbsp of crème fraiche on top and add a little parsley. I guess dill is the more traditional herb to use, but I only had parsley.

Serve with a slice of homebaked rye bread with caraway fruits.

Millionaire's Shortbread muffin-style

I must admit this is my secord try in making Millionaires Shortbread. My first attempt was okay in flavour but looked like something more or less whipped together with a mixer:-) One of my problems was how to make nice pieces of the cake once finished. This time I simply took the easy way out by making portion-sized muffins to begin with. And I guess they turned out both pretty and delightful. I must say, I don't think, I've ever made a similar dessert with that amount of butter and sugar combined. But even though I told everybody how absolutely unhealthy they are, no one turned them down.

Four steps to make Millionaries shortbread - 12/24 pieces (cut them into halves when you serve them):

Step 1 Sweetened condensed milk

1 l. milk (3,5 % fat)
300 g. muscovado sugar
1 vanilla pod (separate pod and seeds and put both in the milk)

Put milk, sugar and vanilla in a pot and place it on medium heat on the stove. Simmer - not boil - until you have about 6 dl. of liquid. It turns light golden in colour. Takes about two hours.

Step 2 Shortbread (Nigella Lawson)

225 g. flour
75 g. sugar
175 g. unsalted butter

Rub flour, sugar and butter together real fast and refrigerated for about 30 minutes. If you make them like I have, put a ball of dough in each muffin case. Press down to fit the case. Prick the dough with a fork. Place the muffin tray in the oven (155 C) for about 25 minutes.

Step 3 Caramel

4 dl. of your sweetened condensed milk, now chilled
200 g. butter, melted
A pinch of salt
3 tbsp. dark syrup

Mix and stir occasionally while the caramel simmers, don't leave the stove! After about 15 minutes you should have a rich, thick golden caramel.

Step 4 Finish it!

Pour caramel into each muffin case and leave to set. I waited about an hour. Melt 150 g. of dark chocolate and 50 g. of white chocolate and mix and mingle to make some fancy designs on top of your caramel.

That's it.

Minipizzas

To bring with you for lunch, a dinner with the girls, or a snack in the afternoon - minipizzas are perfect. Here I've made them with a durum dough and caramelized fig/goat's cheese-mozzarella/onion and artichok hearts/red bell pepper/goat's cheese-mozzarella variations.

The dough is just your typical yeast, cold water, olive oil, salt, durum flour, and all-purpose flour - I'm sure I'll get back to you with a great pizza dough recipe, but time was short this time. I made 10 minipizzzas - five of each variation. I defrosted and reheated a tomatosauce I made during the summer, where we had tons of ripe tomatos in the greenhouse. If you have fresh figs you can caramelize the onions instead - it's not the same - but you get a certain sweetness anyway.

Variation 1

Tomatosauce
½ Sliced caramelized fig for each pizza
3-4 Onion rings
20 g. Mozzarella and goat's cheese - mixed with a fork

Variation 2

Tomatosauce
½ Sliced artichok heart for each pizza
20 g. Mozzarella and goat's cheese - mixed with a fork
Small bits of red bell pepper to sprinkle on top

Set you oven to about 225 celsius, and bake the pizzas for about 10-15 minutes - dependig on size. Serve with a mixed salad.

Listmania

I love lists. I make them when it seems I have too much to do or when I'm afraid I'll forget my newest great ideas. To make sure I don't forget - which is silly really for a 34 year old, but there you are. So here follows my list for food to prepare and to blog about - mind you there's no time limit and I guess I'll continue to add other kinds of dishes too.

Food for thought - for now:

Minestrone
Tiramisu
Martha’s creamy mac and cheese
Fried ice
Spring rolls
Fig cake
Nut roast
Baklava
Kringle - Danish sweet bread
Chana Chaat
Hummus
Falaffel
Amba
Fastelavnsboller - buns with custard
Lusseboller - Swedish tradition
Bortsch
Funkaso
Ful medames
Bunny chow
Qatayef
Spanish omelette
Runebergstårta
Øllebrød - bread and bear soup
Pesto
Arancini
Papas a la Huancaína

Rocket pesto with walnuts

Having just bought 1 kg. of Parmigiano-Reggiano (yum-yum) I'm wondering what to do with it. This excuisite and versitile cheese with all its flavours and history too. Well for starters anyway I've made a pesto. And since its winter and my pantry is full of walnuts (very funny; among other things, okay) I decided to make an alternative pesto recipe. Try it - it's very tasteful!

Rocket pesto with walnuts

100 g. rocket, rinsed and stems trimmed
1 -2 garlic cloves, halved
50 g. walnuts, roasted and cooled
50 g. parmesan
50 - 70 ml. extra virgin olive oil
Lemon juice, mustard, freshly grounded black pebber, salt.

Roast the walnuts, rinse the rocket. Put walnuts, garlic, rocket and parmesan in your blender, stir and now and then scrap down the side. When the mixture is smooth, pour in the olive oil bit by bit and add lemon, mustard, pebber and salt to your liking.

If refrigerated pour it in a jar and top it with a little olive oil. It can keep for about a month then. If you want to freeze the pesto (if you've made a larger batch), I suggest you leave out the parmesan for later. When you want to use the pesto mix in the parmesan.

Red Cabbage - salad

Red cabbage salad for lunch

Ingredients: (2 servings)

140 g. red cabbage, finely sliced

8 walnut halves, roasted

2 small handful rocket

1 apple, finely sliced

1/4 log goats' cheese, cut into 0,5 cm thick slices/pieces

Balsamic vinaigrette:

1 part white balsamic vinegar

2 part olive oil

1 part mable syrup

1 lime, juice

Half a chill, salt and freshly grounded black pebber.

Mix cabbage and rocket. Arrange on a plate and add slices of apple, walnut

halves and pieces of goats' cheese.

Drizzle the balsamic vinaigrette.

Blue meringue

This recipe belongs to my mom. For this batch I've added blue colouring and almonds (50 g.). Almonds in meringues add a little texture to the finished cookie and when you take a bite the small pieces of almond shine white surrounded with blue - creative, yes?


Meringue - (Recipe de Nelson) - Makes about 50 meringes

3 egg whites (90 g.)
225 g. sugar

Put whites and sugar in a pot. Mix it with a fork. Heat it until 40 C (use a baking themometer). Then put it in a bowl and whisk using an electrical mixer for 20 minutes. If you want to you can now add colour and almonds like I did.

Preheat oven to 175 C.

Use a pastry bag or two teaspoons to make small meringues on your baking sheet (with parchment paper).

Bake in mid-oven for 5 minutes, then turn the heat down to 100 C and bake for another 50 to 70 minutes (depending on the size of the meringues).

Enjoy!

Chili - vegetables only

A windy and rainy Sunday, makes you want to stay indoors and cozy up. And well I guess cooking a good chili makes the livin' easy - in spite of the weather. This is a veggie chili (hence the title). It's not too spicy and I've tried to choose the spices so that you can taste each and every one of them - and yet they all add to a great taste combined. I think letting a chili cool overnight in the fridge or even freeze it for later before eating (yep, you should then reheat it) makes the spices even better. Anyway it's just plain good, really healthy and quite cheap too (this cost me about one doller per serving).

For the chili (this yields 8 - 10 servings)I used:

3 tbsp. olive oil

2 yellow onions, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

2 tbsp. dried oregano

2 tbsp. dried cayenne pepper

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. fennel seeds

2 chili peppers, sliced (Add extra if you prefere it to be hotter)

3 peppers (red, yellow, green), diced

300 g. zucchini, diced

200 g. yellow corn

2 cans tomatoes, chopped

1 - 2 tbsp. tabasco sauce

400 g. tinned kidney beans

400 g. tinned white beans

400 g. cooked brown beans (soak for 24 hours, then cook)

1 lime, juice only

Add extra water, wine or vegetable broth if you want more "sauce"

Add sugar, ground black pebber, salt for your taste

Chopped fresh coriander and tortilla chips when served

Bon appetit!