Archive for November, 2008

How do cravings work? Do you crave for ugly food? Is a food aesthetics that makes us want to eat it more and more?
I always try to find new shapes, new looks for my cakes. One of the examples are these white bites. Practically, they can be filled with any mousse and cake and syrup that you feel like.
This time I chose a cocoa almond genoise (the leftover from here) soaked in kahlua (chocolate and coffee liqueur), topped with a blueberry mousse.

For the cake, visit the link above.
For the mousse
100 g blueberry puree
20 g brown sugar (less or more depending on taste and on how tart your fruits are)
1 gelatin sheet
100 ml heavy cream whipped to medium peaks

Bring the puree and sugar to a boil. Strain it if not already so. While it is still warm mix in the bloomed gelatin sheet. When it has cooled to room temperature, slowly incorporate the whipped cream.
Use it right away.

For the white chocolate cover
200 g white chocolate

Melt the chocolate on bain mare. With a small knife spread a layer of chocolate inside the molds you plan to use (I used a silicone muffin pan). Put it in the freezer to harden. After a while, apply a second coating to make sure no whole or too thin spots remain. Put it in the freezer for another 10-20 minutes.
Soak the genoise circles in Kahlua, put them inside the chocolate coat and pipe mousse over up to the base of the coating. Put it back in the freezer to allow the mousse to set.
Remove it from the freezer and use the left chocolate to enclose the bites. Let it in the freezer overnight and then carefully remove the bites from the molds.

Yesterday I felt like I needed something new, a new challenge, so there I went to the drawing board and after a few hours I knew what I wanted to try.
I wanted bananas and so there came the banana mousse. And I wanted caramel, lots of caramel with a coffee twist, so there came the caramel coffee mousse and I wanted it crunchy, but not crunchy so I made a graham giant cookie for the middle layer.
I used a cocoa almond base, inside lots of caramel coffee mousse, topped with the crunchy cookie and banana mousse and encased in the same caramel coffee mousse.
Ok, so we have the layers, we have the drawing, but C had a point:”Mom, how do we call it”. No name came to me. So, any suggestions will be highly appreciated and rewarded with a virtual piece of cake.

For the cocoa-almond base (for a 24 cm pan – used just the bottom half and saved the other half for a new idea this week)
80 g almond flour
2 eggs
55 g powdered sugar
20 g flour
7-8 g cocoa powder
2 egg whites
28 g granulated white sugar
vanilla
15 g melted and cooled butter
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line the bottom of a 24 cm pan with buttered parchment paper and butter its sides.
Mix the powdered sugar and the almond flour. Then add them to the eggs, sifted flour and cocoa and beat on high for a few minutes until the batter is ribbony.
Separately beat the whites to soft peaks and slowly add the sugar until it forms stiff peaks. Slowly mix the 2 batters, add the melted butter and pour in the prepared baking pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly touched in the middle.

For the caramel/coffee mousse
200 g sugar (white, granulated)
60 ml water
56 g salted butter
480 g heavy cream divided in 1/4 and 3/4
100 g bittersweet chocolate
1 tsp espresso powder
30 ml Kahlua (or other coffee liqueur)
4 g gelatin
3 tbsp cold water
Put the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Turn the heat to medium high and WITHOUT STTIRING let it turn a deep caramel color. Take off the heat and add 120 ml heavy cream previously slightly warmed to avoid heavy bubbling. Add the butter and stir until cooled to room temperature.
On a double boiler melt the chocolate with the espresso and Kahlua. When cooled incorporate 1/3 of the whipped heavy cream.
In a small bowl let the gelatin spring. When ready, add some of the caramel sauce and heat it to completely dissolve the gelatin. At this point, slowly mix everything together.

For the banana mousse
55 g mascarpone
25 g powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
4 g gelatin+3-4 tbsp water
vanilla extract
75 ml heavy cream
150g mashed bananas

Beat the mascarpone with the sugar. Add the yolk and beat until incorporated. Add the mashed bananas and mix a little bit – 2-3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract.
Let the gelatin spring. Pour some cream over it and heat it to get dissolved. Whip the cream and incorporate everything slowly.

For the graham cookie
225 g butter, at room temperature
100 g powdered sugar
140 g flour
140 g whole-grain graham flour
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 175 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cream butter and sugar together, about 3 minutes until fluffy. Add the flours, salt, baking powder and vanilla. Mix them until incorporated.
Roll dough on a lightly floured flat surface to 6 mm. Cut out a circle of 18-20 cm.
Transfer to the prepared baking sheet and bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
You will have quite a lot of dough left, so either half the recipe or use the remaining dough to make cookies.

Assembling the cake
Cut the base in half.
In a 24 cm pan with removable bottom, place half of the base. Pour half of the caramel coffee over it, making sure it covers it completely and also coats it on the side.
Previously, place the biscuit in a fitted pan and pour the banana mousse over. Put in the fridge to have it set.
Take the biscuit out of the fridge and place it on top of the base and caramel mousse. Pour the rest of the caramel mousse over the cake, making sure it coats the sides.
Put the cake in the fridge for a few hours until set.
Remove it from the pan and cut it using a wet sharp knife.

We all need some snacking from time to time. When you have kids around that is even more obvious. The salty snack we often have around are breadsticks. This is a recipe I worked on quite a lot. When I first made it, we were so very happy with it….. for a few hours. Then they started to loose crispiness. They tasted good, but they were not what they were initially intended to be.
After, lots of tries and twists, I now have the ultimate bread stick formula. They are crispy for many days (at least in our house they did not get to the day they lost it).
They can be snacked on just as they are, or they can be dipped in all kinds of sauces or soups.
You can use any spice you like. One that is next on my list is cumin. I think they will be to die for.

For the dough
500 g flour
3-4 active dry yeast
10-20 g honey
salt
oregano/ rosemary/ basil/ cumin
30-40 ml extra virgin olive oil
180 ml warm water
80 ml dry white wine (do not by any means skip this as this is the key ingredient)

Mix everything in a bowl and then on a clean surface knead it for 10 minutes until you get a really smooth, elastic dough.
Oil a bowl and place the dough (coating it also with oil) and allow it to rise until double. You can do this in your kitchen and will take about 1.5 hours, or as I do, let it rise in the refrigerator overnight (the bread flavor improves this way).
When completely risen, tear pieces of dough (I use 15 g pieces), roll them thinly (thinner than your little finger) and place them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Brush the sticks with olive oil and bake them at 200 degrees for 15-20 minutes, rotating the sheet half time to ensure even baking.

This is the most present snack in our house but never got to blog about it or take pictures of it.
Last week my sis asked for the recipe and since then I am trying to find time to post it.
So, this one is for you sis!

4-5 bananas (overripe with black spots – around 450-500 g)
2 eggs
150 g sugar (I use brown)
vanilla extract
cinnamon
210 g flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
bittersweet chocolate chips/ raisins/ cranberries

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.
Mash the bananas and mix them on high speed for 2-3 minutes.
Add the eggs, sugar and vanilla and mix on high speed for about 5-6 minutes untill double in volume and fluffy.
Separately sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Add this to the bananas and mix just until blended with an offset spatula, taking care not to deflate the batter.
You can bake it at this point or you can add chocolate chips (previously refrigerated) or raisins (previously soaked in rum) or cranberries or whatever mix of dried fruits/ nuts you feel like.
Bake the cake for about 40 minutes or until a tester inserted inside comes out clean.
The cake can be baked in 2 loaf pans (5/ 22 cm) or in a bigger cake pan or in muffin cups (decrease baking time in this case).
It is great with a cup of milk on the side, drizzled with some chocolate sauce or just plain.

I have done lasagna a couple of times so far, trying different recipes and combinations which promised to the lasagna, the perfect one. This one is the first one without meat. It is good, cheesy and garlicky.
Ruxandra: I hope you will enjoy it as much as we did.

For a baking dish of 15/ 30 cm
160-200 g lasagna sheets (about 3-4 per layer)
For the tomato sauce:
400 g peeled whole tomatoes
350-400 g tomato puree
3-4 garlic cloves
oregano, salt, pepper
a pinch of sugar
1 medium onion
15-20 g of butter

Melt the butter in a pan and add the chopped onion and garlic and cook for a few minutes, until tender. Add the tomatoes and puree and the seasonings and let it simmer on low for a few minutes.

For the spinach fillling
500 g mushrooms
700-800 g spinach (cooked)
250 g cream cheese (I used a mix of skim and full fat)
200-300 g mozarella
50 g Parmesan
3-4 cloves of garlic
salt and peper

Cook the mushrooms with a little butter. When done, add the already cooked spinach and the chopped garlic. Season with salt and pepper.
When it cools a bit, add the cream cheese and Parmesan.

To asemble
Butter the baking dish. Spread a few spoons of filling and some sauce and top them with the first layer of lasagna sheets. Spread some more filling and sauce and generously sprinkle mozzarella above. Continue with the rest of the sheets, filling and sauce. For the top reserve a few spoons of filling and sauce which you top with mozarella. Bake covered at first for 30 minutes at 180 degrees. Uncover the dish and let it cook until you can easily insert a knife down to the bottom.
After removing it from the oven sprinkle some more parmesan on top. Serve warm. It is also good reheated on the next day.