Category Archives: Cakes, pies, tarts

Easter Party Ideas

Zsuzsa, my blogging friend from Zsuzsa is in the Kitchen, has recently invited me to join her and other bloggers (Eva from Takarékos Konyha, Elisabeth from Food and Thrift and Eva from Kitchen Inspirations) and, just like them, post my Easter menu suggestions. I was honoured, but at first I panicked because apart from a Chicken Terrine (see below) I don’t really have traditional Easter dishes on my blog. Both Zsuzsa and Elisabeth have convinced me to present whatever I might serve for such an occasion, even if it is not traditional in any country or region of the world. Thank you, ladies, for your advice! Thus, I have chosen some festive dishes I love, regardless their origins or relation to Easter celebrations. Thank you so much, Zsuzsa, for your kind invitation. I hope my eclectic choice, far from Easter traditions will not disappoint you.

Here is a list of dishes I would take into consideration if I had guests for Easter (of course I wouldn’t serve all of them!). All of them can be served at a buffet-style party, my recent favourite way to entertain. Such a concept usually means more work beforehand because, contrary to traditional meals, one cannot serve just three dishes, but this way I offer a bigger choice to the guests, who are not forced to eat all they are served, but most of all such a party has a more relaxed atmosphere. Apart from one exception, I have chosen easy recipes, which either can be prepared very quickly or made in advance. They have both Western and Asian origins, so I hope you will find here some useful ideas, not necessarily for Easter.

First of all, I would never skip the obligatory Wonton Cups, or Edible Snack Containers (see the photo above). Versatile, cute and easy, these edible containers are nowadays a staple not only when I have guests (thank you, Juliana!).

Last-minute Crackers can be prepared really just before the guests arrive as long as you have some puff pastry in the fridge. These star-shaped crackers were prepared for Christmas, but you can give them any shape you wish, such as bunnies…

These olives are so easy to prepare you will never consider buying them seasoned by someone else again.

This Smoked Mackerel and Egg Spread can be prepared with any smoked fish of your choice, of course.

Recently discovered Taramosalata (Fish Roe Spread) is one more thing I will never ever even think of buying. Home-made version is incomparably better.

Light Chicken Terrine with Nutmeg is actually the only dish I used to have as a child for Easter and other festive occasions.

Savoury Cake with Goat Cheese and Dried Tomatoes (aka Goat Cheese and Dried Tomatoes Bread) is a wonderful alternative to canapés.

Cake with Ham and Olives, another canapés substitution, is a real crowd-pleaser.

If you feel like serving Japanese food (why not?), try preparing Maki Sushi with Shrimp, Avocado and Cucumber. They will not necessarily look as perfect as in your sushi shop, but they are really easy to prepare.

Spring Rolls with Leftover Roast and Carrots, an Asian sandwich alternative, can also be prepared with the remains of your roast, after the Easter holidays.

Sesame-Coated Chicken Nuggets (Tori no goma age) can be made in advance and will please all the sesame fans.

Japanese Chicken and Leek Skewers (Negima) are brushed with teriyaki glaze and usually please every guest.

Asparagus Teriyaki Pork Rolls are incredibly easy to prepare and are one of my favourite ways to serve asparagus.

Unbaked chocolate Cake with Biscuits (Chocolate Terrine with Speculoos) is a rich creamy dessert which doesn’t require baking and is incredibly simple to prepare.

Coconut, Chocolate and Rum Truffles (Bounty Truffles). Who doesn’t like chocolate truffles?

Matcha and White Chocolate Truffles are the only ones which might be tricky to prepare, but they are green, fresh, festive and have this amazing slightly bitter matcha flavour…

Chocolate and prunes are all you need to prepare these luscious Prunes in Chocolate, a quicker and easier alternative to chocolate truffles.

This Kiwi and Rum Cocktail seemed perfect for a spring party.

I strongly encourage you to check the wonderful Easter menu suggestions proposed by my blogging friends and would like to wish you all a very happy Easter and wonderful holidays to those who don’t celebrate it!

Light Unbaked Cheesecake with Passion fruit

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Bored with lemons, oranges, apples and pears, I decided to experiment with something more exotic and discovered a new passion for the… passion fruit. Passion fruit macarons are one of my beloved Pierre Hermé’s creations, passion fruit chocolates are made by many chocolatiers in my city, passion fruit daiquiri is one of my favourite cocktails… and yet, I have never tried making a passion fruit dessert on my own. This first attempt felt like uncovering a whole new world of exciting culinary adventures. Topping a simple unbaked cheesecake with passion fruit pulp cannot really be called elaborate work in the kitchen, but it proved one of the most astonishing experiments I have ever made. The powerful, irresistible fragrance, the tangy flavour and crunchy seeds paired with the creamy, silky cheesecake created a complex and unusual combination. Since it was also one of the easiest and quickest sweet treats I know, I predict a bright future for this wonderful match, at least until strawberries appear.

I have already shared with you my enthusiasm about the unbaked cheesecake (see below). It becomes a staple in my house, especially when the weather gets warm and light, refreshing desserts are more welcome. I haven’t written about it for quite a long time, so here is a quick explanation of the unbaked cheesecakes I prepare. My unbaked – and also baked – cheesecakes have both Polish origins, i.e. they are not made with North American cream cheese, but with natural fresh cheese (called curd cheese, quark or fromage frais). In the unbaked version this cheese is very smooth and can easily be substituted with Greek yogurt, similar in both taste and texture.

Apart from the taste, the main reason why I prepare unbaked cheesecakes so often is their healthy side: contrary to the North American-style cheesecakes, these are low-fat, low-calorie and, I think, can be proposed to people on a slimming diet. I also love them for their instantly recognisable, slightly tangy taste and a light texture, close to a very dense mousse. In my opinion the basic unbaked cheesecake preparation (cheese, gelatin and sugar) is an excellent basis to play with different fruits, aromatic alcohols, spices and other seasonings (some cover them with a thick layer of fruit jelly, the item I have never liked). Many people prepare also a crust, but since I don’t like it in either baked or unbaked cheesecakes, I always omit it. Thanks to this my cheesecakes are even lighter and quicker to prepare. This slightly acid passion fruit version was excellent, but if you don’t like tangy sweets (or passion fruit), you might want to try other versions instead:

Unbaked Strawberry Cheesecake in a Glass

Unbaked Blueberry Cheesecake in a Glass

Unbaked Vanilla Cheesecake

If you are a fan of passion fruit (or passionfruit), you might like this delicious cocktail:

Passion fruit daiquiri

TIPS: This cheesecake can be made in one big mould lined with plastic film, and then sliced into portions like a baked cheesecake, but I find individual portions easier to handle and much cuter when served.

You can of course prepare any baked or unbaked crust of your choice.

Preparation: 15 minutes + 2 hours in the fridge

Ingredients (serves 4-5):

500 g (about 17 oz) very smooth (mixed) fresh cheese/curd cheese/quark/fromage frais or Greek yogurt

2 tablespoons gelatin (or 6 – 8 sheets, depending on the brand, so take the amount necessary to set 500 ml/17 fl oz of liquid))

4 tablespoons warm water (I prefer to use hot water with powdered gelatin)

4 flat tablespoons confectioner’s sugar or sweetener of your choice

(2 tablespoons rum)

(white chocolate)

Dissolve the gelatin in 4 tablespoons warm or hot (not boiling) water. (If using leaves, proceed as indicated on the package).

Mix the cheese, the rum and the sugar in a food processor.

Add the dissolved gelatin and mix once more.

Pour the cheese mixture into individual bowls or glasses and put into the fridge for at least two hours.

Just before serving cut the passion fruits in two and pour the flesh over the cheesecakes (1 small or 1/2 big passion fruit per glass).

You can sprinkle them with grated white chocolate.

Unbaked Layered Chocolate Cake (Stefanka)

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stefankapj

My blogging friends’ impressive layered cakes (check Zsuzsa’s Chocolate and Caramel Apple cakes and Mr. Three Cookies’s multi-layered Russian Honey Cake) brought back one of my sweetest childhood memories: a frugal layered cake called Stefanka, one of my favourite chocolate treats in those days. Contrary to Poppy Seed and Chocolate Cake, my eternal number one, but reserved for special occasions, Stefanka was a very simple and quick staple weekend chocolate treat.

The original cake calls for several layers of “real” baked pastry, usually made with honey (a common point with the Russian Honey Cake made by Mr. Three-Cookies) and two different filling versions exist: cocoa butter cream or custardy, white cream thickened with semolina. In the simplified, quick homely interpretation my mum preferred (very popular in households at the time) baked layers are replaced with Petit Beurre biscuits. The white cream option was of course out of question in a house full of chocoholics. My only modification in this cake is using my beloved chocolate ganache instead of the traditional cocoa butter cream, which I find too heavy and fatty (and also not very rich in chocolate flavours). “Stefanka” is in a way a diminutive of “Stefania” and I still remember how surprised I was by its obvious similarity in both name and composition to the Hungarian Stefània Cake I saw at Zsuzsa’s blog. I haven’t made any research yet, but I would love to discover the mysterious travels of this recipe until it became so popular in two different countries.

As I have already mentioned, this is a very easy cake (for me the only tricky part is distributing the cream evenly, as you can see at the photo above…. but this doesn’t influence the taste). In short, if you have square/rectangular biscuits, good chocolate, some cream in the fridge, then you have everything you need to prepare a delicious chocolate dessert. The soaking mixture for biscuits is not obligatory, but it makes the biscuits softer and adds a rummy flavour.

Other layered cakes you might also like:

the above mentioned Poppy Cake with Chocolate Ganache

and the ridiculously easy Apple Cake.

UPDATE! I would have forgotten the most challenging layered cake I have ever made:

the unusual, surprising Hungarian Zserbo (Gerbaud) of which I am particularly proud (I cannot say this alas about the photo…)

TIPS: If you have never seen Petit Beurre, it’s a rectangular butter biscuit; here is the link to some photos:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petit_beurre

Any similar, neutral-tasting butter biscuit can be used instead of course as long as it’s rectangular or square.

If you don’t have any nuts to sprinkle on top (or if you don’t like nuts), crush one or two leftover biscuits and use them instead.

Addition of instant coffee to chocolate desserts is my regular habit, but it is not obligatory of course.

Preparation: 1 hour+ at least 5 hours in the fridge

Ingredients (serves 8):

1x 200 g/about 7 oz package of Petit Beurre biscuits (or similar, rectangular or square thin sweet biscuits)

Cream (chocolate ganache):

200 g/ about 7 oz good quality chocolate (dark, at least 70% cocoa)

170 ml/about 2/3 cup liquid cream (I have used 25% fat)

(1 teaspoon instant coffee)

Soaking mixture for biscuits (not obligatory):

1 small coffee cup of very strong black tea

3-4 tablespoons ml rum or other aromatic alcohol (or 1 teaspoon artificial rum flavouring)

1 tablespoon sugar

(walnuts to sprinkle on top)

Prepare the ganache.

Bring the cream to a boil. Put the pan aside and quickly stirring, incorporate the broken chocolate until it melts.

(Add the coffee, if using).

Put into the fridge for about one hour (it should thicken a bit, but be still a bit runny).

Place 5 biscuits in a row on a cutting board (or other hard rectangular surface) lined with baking paper.

Sprinkle them with 1 tablespoon of soaking mixture.

Spoon over the biscuits about 1/4 of the ganache (don’t worry if it leaks at the sides a bit).

Place another layer of 5 biscuits, but starting with half a biscuit and finishing with half a biscuit too (this way the spaces between biscuits are not in the same place and the cake will not desintegrate).

Sprinkle with soaking mixture, spoon over the ganache.

Cover with another layer of biscuits (this time starting with a whole biscuit) and repeat until you finish the fourth layer.

Sprinkle with soaking mixture and soon over it the remaining ganache.

Gather the ganache that leaked at the sides, smoothing it at the sides of the cake.

Sprinkle with walnuts or crushed biscuits.

Refrigerate for at least several hours (the best results are after a night in the fridge).

Chocolate Terrine with Speculoos (Unbaked Chocolate Cake with Biscuits)

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Chocoholics: beware! This chocolate terrine is one of the most dangerous home desserts I know. Once you taste it, you will constantly be tempted to prepare it once more and once more and once more… When you realise that the recipe is ridiculously easy and the result guarantees admiring looks from your guests, you will understand why I praise it so highly. Katerina from Culinary Flavours is the person I hold entirely responsible for turning me into an addict to this rich, creamy, decadent chocolate delicacy. Her seducing photos wouldn’t simply get out of my mind and when I took a first bite, I found it hard to believe that such a quick and simple preparation can lead to something so sublime.

Katerina’s recipe was called “marquise”, but it could also be named “terrine” because similar desserts bear both names in French cookery books. She has used American chocolate cookies; I have used Speculoos, the famous Belgian spice biscuits, which go so well with the winter season we are approaching. Whether you call it terrine or marquise, whatever biscuits and aromatic alcohol you add, you will certainly receive sincere compliments from your guests and family. Thank you, Katerina, for making me discover one of the easiest and most impressive chocolate treats. I will certainly serve it for Christmas.

I have slightly modified Katerina’s recipe and cut down the amounts by half. Since it’s very filling and rich, this mini-terrine/marquise will suffice for six people. For a bigger group or for second servings, double the amounts. Click here to see Katerina’s original recipe and to have a stroll through her wonderful blog with recipes from Greece (her home country) and all around the world.

TIPS: If you don’t melt chocolate often, this might be the only tricky part of this otherwise easy cake. There are different ways to do it, but my favourite is to melt it, broken into pieces, in a small pan, on very low heat, constantly stirring. The important thing is not to let the chocolate boil. Take the pan off the heat before the chocolate melts completely (I usually wait until 90% of chocolate melts) and keep on stirring. It will melt in the already warm melted remaining chocolate and this way you will avoid bringing chocolate to a boiling point, which makes it impossible to use. I usually melt butter this way together with chocolate.

Preparation: 20 minutes+ a night in the fridge

Ingredients (serves six, fills a 4 x 20 cm/about 1,5 x 8 in baking dish or 8-10 x 10 cm/about 3-4 x 4 in square dish):

125 g/4,4 oz good quality dark chocolate (do not use the “baking” chocolate, but good quality one, without vegetable grease and with min. 70% cocoa)

75 ml/2,5 fl oz liquid cream (at least 25% fat)

50 g/1,8 oz butter

60 g/2 oz Speculoos or other biscuits of your choice

(1/2 flat teaspoon instant coffee)

4 flat tablespoons confectioner’s sugar

1 tablespoon rum (or any aromatic alcohol that would go well with your biscuits and chocolate)

(crumbled biscuits, cocoa or confectioner’s sugar to sprinkle over the marquise before serving)

Melt the chocolate and the butter (in a pan (see TIPS), in a microwave or in a hot water bath).

Add the sugar, the cream, the alcohol and stir well.

Break the biscuits to small pieces (but not to powder!) and incorporate into the chocolate mixture.

Line a baking dish with plastic film (I advise to fold it in two so that it doesn’t break when you take out the cold marquise).

Pour the chocolate mixture into the dish, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Serve very cold, straight from the fridge, sprinkled with crumbled biscuits, cocoa or confectioner’s sugar or the way it is.

Moist Carrot Cake

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carrotcakepj

We are in the middle of the carrot cake season. Many bloggers have already written about this cold-weather dessert and, as it often happens with such popular sweets, there are myriads of versions. I have been faithful to exactly the same recipe for the last fifteen years, so you will be surprised if I say this is the best one I know. Obviously, this is a matter of personal preferences, but if I tell you that the moisture is what I appreciate the most in a carrot cake and that mine is, undeniably the moistest of all the carrot cakes I have ever tasted, you will understand why I dare calling it superior.

Nowadays, with internet and the world seeming smaller and smaller, the carrot cake is no longer a novelty. When I baked it for the first time it was a big adventure because using a vegetable in a dessert seemed highly exotic, if not extravagant. I quickly learnt I should never reveal the carrot’s presence before people tasted it because some were so disgusted by this unusual ingredient, they refused to taste it, inventing different false reasons, such as diets or a copious main meal. Since then I tell the truth (especially to picky eaters) only after they have finished their first slice. I have read somewhere that in Europe carrots have been used in sweets since Middle Ages, so it’s surprising this use has been abandoned in so many countries.

With the dozens of times I served it, I can affirm that this is a totally foolproof, particularly easy cake and, apart from the batter ingredients which guarantee the moisture and stickiness I am fond of, such items as nuts, raisins or spices can easily be exchanged with other ingredients. Unfortunately, at the time I wrote this recipe down I didn’t care much for the sources, so unfortunately I cannot thank the person who has invented it. I also don’t remember if I had modified the original amounts.

TIPS: Exceptionally, I have always measured most of the ingredients of this cake in cups. My cup = 250 ml

This cake is moderately sweet, but if you prefer “standard” sweetness in desserts, double the sugar amount.

I prefer this cake served very cold, straight from the fridge (this is the way I prefer most moist or/and sticky cakes).

Preparation: 1 hour 20 min

Ingredients (fills a 10 cm x 30 cm baking tin):

1 cup (250 ml) flour

1/2 cup (125 ml) sugar (unrefined cane sugar tastes better here, but is not obligatory)

1 1/2 cup (375 ml) finely grated carrots (5-6 medium carrots)

60 g (about 2 oz) melted butter

3 eggs

a handful of raisins (I prefer sultanas)

a handful of chopped nuts

50 ml (1,7 oz) milk

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (if not freshly grated, put the double amount)

1 teaspoon (flat) dried ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Combine everything in a big bowl stirring with a spoon.

Grease the baking tin or (like I do) line it with baking paper.
Pour the batter into the baking tin and bake for 45 minutes to one hour depending on the oven (a skewer put into the cake should come out moist and sticky but without traces of raw batter).

Since this cake is very moist, I prefer it served cold, straight from the fridge.

Moist Chocolate and Coconut Cake

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cocochococakepj

Ping (Ping’s Pickings) has recently had some difficult moments and since chocolate is a well known infallible mood improver, I thought I would try to cheer her up a bit showing how I have transformed her extraordinary coconut cake recipe into an irresistible coco-choco delight. First of all, those of you who have never seen (or forgotten) Ping’s Coconut Cake, must absolutely try it. This effortless cake is one of the most unusual sweet treats I have ever tasted. The first time I baked it, I did it two days in a row, so you can imagine how good it was… Since then I have prepared it (my version is slightly modified) at least dozen times and never got tired of it. Here is a quick reminder of what my modified version looks like:

I must emphasize here that this chocolate recipe is not an improvement because the original cake is perfect unchanged. It is simply a slightly different version, specially designed for chocolate addicts. As one of them, I have a habit of adding chocolate to various desserts, guided by the thought that one cannot have too many chocolate recipes. This cake could be considered as an alternative to the cooling Light Chocolate and Coconut Cream but maybe more suited for cold seasons that we are approaching, when richer desserts are welcome.

Here once more the mixture of chocolate and coconut hasn’t let me down. Just like its pure coconut version, this cake was moist and closer to a custard or pudding than to a floury cake. Thanks to the dark chocolate it was obviously richer and slightly heavier. I think that this richer version of Ping’s cake will keep me company throughout the hated cold autumn and winter evenings. Thank you so much, Ping, for one more inspiration. I will have a big slice of this cake as a toast to your health, wishing you a prompt recovery and a quick solution of the recent problem!

Click here to see Ping’s original Coconut Cake or here to see her banana version.

TIPS: Like Ping, I like moderately sweet desserts, but if you have a very sweet tooth, add 50% more sugar.

This cake improves after a night spent in the fridge and tastes definitely better when served very cold.

Preparation: 1 hour (+ not obligatory, but strongly advised one night in the fridge)

Ingredients (10 x 20 cm baking tin):

3 heaped tablespoons (about 1/4 cup) flour

100 g (1/2 cup) sugar

70 g (1 cup) desiccated coconut (+ some more to sprinkle over the cake)

2 eggs

60 g melted butter

100 g (about 3,4 oz) bitter, dark chocolate (min. 70% cocoa)

pinch of salt

125 ml (1/2 cup) coconut milk

125 ml (1/2 cup) cow cream (liquid, not crème fraîche)

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave (in several short stages to control the melting process and avoid overcooking) or in a hot water bath (putting a metal bowl over a pan with hot water and stirring the chocolate constantly) or simply in a pan at very low heat (this is my favourite method, but quite risky: if the chocolate is overheated it can no longer be used.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl.

Grease a baking tin or line it with baking paper.

Pour the batter into the tin and bake for about 40-50 minutes.

The cake can be sprinkled with desiccated coconut before serving.

It can be served as soon as it cools down, but is definitely best refrigerated overnight.

Clafoutis with Apricots and Almonds

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Clafoutis (a cooked custard with fruit, pronounced “kla-foo-tee”) is one of the French cuisine classics from the Limousin region, but widely known in the whole country. Since it’s very easy to prepare, it’s a typical home cake. If not specified in the name, clafoutis contains cherries, but in more than ten years of baking it I have tried it with many different other fruits too. Last weekend was apricot’s turn. Of course, as a big apricot fan, who particularly appreciates its tanginess, I didn’t take much risk, but I must warn all those who hate tangy desserts: this version of clafoutis might not be for you. In this cake the fruit plays the main role, so no matter how much sugar is added, the apricot tartness will stay distinct.

Another novelty in this clafoutis was the use of almond milk. I have recently talked with Charles (Five Euro Food) about almond butter and promised myself to experiment with it. In the meantime I stumbled upon almond milk and was very impatient to use it. This first experiment was highly successful, so thank you, Charles, for this excellent idea. The custard consistency was as good as ever, while the taste was subtler than when cow’s milk is used. I highly recommend this milk to all the lactose intolerant or simply curious cooks. Almond milk is surprisingly low-calorie, lactose-free of course and smells divinely, so I will keep on experimenting with it in the near future.

TIPS: Some clafoutis recipes contain cream and/or butter. This one doesn’t and I’m glad this is the first recipe I accidentally found many years ago, because since then a clafoutis means for me a light and guiltless dessert.

Clafoutis can be served tepid or cold, but I prefer it very cold straight from the fridge.

Preparation: 1 hour 15 min

Ingredients (6 portions, I used a 20 cm/almost 8 inches diameter tart dish):

3 eggs

5 tablespoons sugar (or a smaller amount of sweetener)

5 tablespoons flour

100 ml/3,5 fl oz milk (I used almond milk, but cow’s milk is the traditional ingredient)

about 20 medium apricots

3 tablespoons cane sugar

sliced almonds

Preheat the oven at 180°C.

Mix the eggs and sugar with a spoon. Add the flour gradually. Pour the milk and mix well.

Grease a baking dish or line it with baking paper.

Cover the bottom with stoned halved apricots (skin side down) and pour the custard over them.

Sprinkle with sliced almonds and cane sugar.

Bake around 45 minutes – 1 hour until the custard is light golden.

Serve it tepid or put into the fridge and serve it very cold.

Damson Plum Jam and Chocolate Tart

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I crave chocolate all year long, so even though it’s springtime and I start dreaming about light fruit desserts, I still make sure I have some dark chocolate in case I feel an urgent need bake something with it. I also adore tart desserts, so when I saw Stevie Parle’s damson and chocolate tart on the Telegraph website, I thought it was a perfect combination of both. Moreover, this tart reminded me of one of Prunes in Chocolate, my favourite quick chocolate snack.

I decided to make this tart several days ago when I realised that even though I offer jars regularly to my friends and family, I have almost no free space for this year’s preserves. My favourite jam is thick damson plum jam (damsons are oval violet plums with a tangy skin and yellow flesh) called “butter” and slowly cooked without sugar addition. (I have posted the Damson Plum Butter recipe here). Thanks to its tanginess and deep, slightly smoky flavour, damson plum jam is excellent with both savoury and sweet dishes and, as I have recently realised, also with dark chocolate.

Instead of following S. Parle’s complicated recipe, I have made my foolproof shortcrust pastry and filled the tart with a modified version of Joël Robuchon’s chocolate tart filling (found in Le Meilleur et le plus simple de Robuchon). For me this easy, rich, tangy and intensely chocolatey tart was an amazing discovery, but I would advise it only for those who are big fans of bitter chocolate and who prefer moderately sweet desserts.

TIPS: This tart is an excellent way to use up an opened jam jar (or last year’s preserves). Any thick jam will be good in this recipe, but in my opinion sour cherry, strawberry, raspberry or apricot jam would be the best.

I strongly advise home-made shortcrust. Its thin, buttery, crunchy layer cannot be substituted with any ready-to-use crust. However if you use a bought one (about 230-240 g), make sure it’s rolled out very thinly and that it’s made only with butter.

Special equipment:

beans for blind baking (I have been using the same real dried cheap beans for several years now)

Preparation: 2 hours

Ingredients (makes a 28 cm diameter tart):

Shortcrust (or 230-240 g of ready-to-use thin, 100% butter shortcrust pastry sheet):

125g flour

90 g softened butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons caster sugar

Filling:

300 ml tart thick jam

200 g dark good quality chocolate (more than 72% cocoa)

250 ml liquid cream

1 big egg

Prepare the shortcrust.

Mix the butter, the salt and the caster sugar in a food processor. When these ingredients are mixed thoroughly, add the flour and mix again.

Stop when you see a big ball is being formed.

(You may also knead the pastry without the food processor, but then you have to do this very quickly, maximum 5 minutes, pushing with the heel of your hand and minimising the use of your fingers, otherwise the tart will be too crumbly.)

Wrap the dough in a cling film and put into the fridge for at least 30 minutes (you can leave it there up to 48 hours).

Take it out of the fridge and let it soften a bit before using it.

Roll it thinly with a rolling pin (I would advise 3 mm) and line a greased tart dish or spread it with your fingers without rolling if you find the rolling process difficult.

Put back into the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Take out the tart dish from the fridge.

Cover the flat surface with a baking sheet and put some dried beans on it. This way the pastry will not rise.

Precook the tart shell until it’s no longer raw, but still white (it will take 10-15 minutes).

In the meantime prepare the chocolate filling.

Break the chocolate into small pieces.

Bring the cream to boil and pour over the chocolate, stirring quickly until the chocolate melts and forms a homogenous ganache.

When it cools down and is no longer hot, add the egg.

Take the blind-baked shortcrust out of the oven, put the beans back into their jar and let the tart shell cool a bit.

Cover the tart shell with a generous layer of thick jam and then pour the chocolate filling on top.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes until the chocolate filling is set.

Moist Coconut Cake

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This innocent-looking cake is one of the most unusual things I have ever baked. All the ingredients seem ordinary (actually I have almost all of them constantly in my kitchen) and yet the result is amazing. When I saw it on Ping’s blog (Ping’s Pickings) and read her description I knew I would love it. In fact, it was so good, I had to bake it two days in a row because the first one disappeared too quickly to take any photos. (I cannot say me or my husband suffered from this obligatory second batch…)

If just like me, you like coconut and rich, moist cakes, you might also find this one irresistible. It contains a very small amount of flour and the dessicated coconut together with eggs keep the shape together, creating something close to a pudding, but still firm and possible to cut into slices. It is also addictive because, frankly, a child could prepare it. In fact, the pre-baking stage takes maybe five minutes and there is no need to use any kitchen appliance. In my opinion the recipe is foolproof and allows certain modifications. Actually, since I didn’t have coconut cream, but lots of coconut milk, I used cow cream and coconut milk instead. I doubled the dessicated coconut amount, skipped vanilla and changed the pie shape to a rectangular form. In spite of these changes and in spite of a slightly different final texture (see Ping’s result), the cake was extraordinary. It tasted at least ten times better served very cold, after a night spent in the fridge, so I strongly advise you to make it late at night and wait until the following day.

Thank you so much, Ping, for this sensational recipe! (Click here to see Ping’s original pie, her variation with bananas and many other fantastic sweet and savoury recipes.)

TIPS: Ping and I are members of the moderately sweet desserts fan club, but if you have a very sweet tooth, add 50% more sugar.

Preparation: 1 hour (+ not obligatory, but strongly advised one night in the fridge)

Ingredients (10 x 20 cm baking tin):

3 heaped tablespoons (about 1/4 cup) flour

100 g (1/2 cup) sugar

70 g (1 cup) dessicated coconut

2 eggs

60 g melted butter

pinch of salt

125 ml (1/2 cup) coconut milk

125 ml (1/2 cup) cow cream (liquid, not crème fraîche)

(vanilla extract)

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl.

Grease a baking tin or line it with baking paper.

Pour the batter into the tin and bake for about 40-50 minutes until golden.

It can be served as soon as it cools down, but is definitely best refrigerated overnight.

Caramel Tart with Walnuts (Tarte au caramel et noix)

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I know I have been repeating how much I hate excessively sweet desserts and this is true with everything apart from caramel. Hereby I admit I have a weakness for the soft, sticky, chewy, horribly sweet caramel and its close cousin called “dulce de leche”. Maybe it works as an exception proving the rule or maybe the sweetness goes so far, it no longer counts as a very sweet dessert… Whatever the reason, I cannot resist a chocolate filled with caramel and desserts such as millionaire’s shortbread can disappear in no time at all (by the way, Charles from Five Euro Food has a very seductive recipe here). This Caramel Tart with Walnuts is one of the best examples of highly addictive, sickeningly sweet treats I adore.

Caramel Tart is one of these French desserts I have never seen in a bakery or pastry shop, in a restaurant and I have never found it in any cookery book. Before posting the recipe I even had to check if it wasn’t only my family’s recipe, but I admit some French blog feature similar tarts. This extremely simple, basic, two-ingredient tart, sometimes enriched by walnuts can be prepared with the ingredients I suppose most French families (and not only) have constantly at home. It is a crunchy, buttery, very sweet, sticky and irresistible dessert.

“Simple” doesn’t always mean “easy” and I have experienced several huge failures before I asked advice from a kind family member, was instructed on how to avoid them (and will always be extremely grateful for this!), the main difficulty consisting in stopping the pastry case from raising and not letting the caramel mixture flow under the case (see below). Luckily, even if anything of the above happens, the tart might not look presentable, but still is a pure delight.

Preparation: about 1 hour

Ingredients (for one 28 cm diameter tart):

1 butter-based shortcrust or puff pastry sheet (thinly rolled out)

180 g (about 1 3/4 cup) caster sugar

300 ml (about 10 oz) liquid cream (at least 25 % fat content)

(10 – 20 chopped walnut kernels)

Preheat the oven to 170°C.

In a bowl combine the sugar with the cream.

Grease a tart baking dish or line it with baking paper.

Lay the pastry sheet on a flat surface and prick it thoroughly but delicately with a fork trying not to pierce it (otherwise the cream and sugar mixture will go under the crust).

Line the tart dish with the pastry sheet, the pricked side downwards.

Pour the mixture of cream and sugar.

Sprinkle with walnuts.

Bake for about 1 hour until the filling becomes light brown. (Cover the tart’s sides with aluminium foil if it is too dark and the filling too light).

Let it cool down and serve.

French Lemon Tart or Tartlets

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As much as I dislike pairing sweet and sour flavours in savoury dishes, I have always found it irresistible in desserts and the French Lemon Tart represents for me the apotheosis of this combination. I have written about it a long time ago, but the photo was far from appetising and the recipe passed almost unnoticed. I am very grateful to Arudhi from The Box of Kitchen, who has recently dug out my old post, baked the tart and, most of all, enjoyed the results. Her experience and kind compliments made me decide to change the photo, to add some important explanations and to re-post this extraordinary recipe, sharing it with all those who have a passion for tangy desserts.

Even though lemon tart (or pie) is popular in many countries, the thin crust and the absence of cream, flour or condensed milk in the filling make the French version the most subtle and particularly light (by “light” I mean taste, since the tart is far from being low-fat or low-calorie). I don’t know if it’s the thin, crumbly, buttery, almond crust, the delicate, falsely light filling, the perfect balance between the sweet and the tangy or simply the combination of all the flavours, but this is the only tart I can easily finish on my own in two sessions. Served after a nourishing and heavy meal it is a refreshing relief for the palate. For me it is the ideal ending of a spicy meal, such as Beef Rendang, Indian or Thai curry.

The recipe comes from “Le Grand Livre de Cuisine d’Alain Ducasse: Bistrots, Brasseries et Restaurants de Tradition”, a highly reliable source of French recipes I recommend to everyone. This one is as foolproof as other Ducasse’s recipes I have made (madeleines, crème brûlée or my transformation into Matcha Crème Brûlée), but has to be followed attentively without skipping or simplifying any stages.

TIPS: If you wish – and have a blowtorch – you can sprinkle the tart with brown sugar and burn it before serving, like crème brûlée. (Personally I prefer it simple or with some grated lemon zest.)

You can make either one big tart or, as you see on the above photo, individual tartlets (with the amounts below you will obtain about 12 standard tartlets). The tartlets are in my opinion easier to make. If you decide to make individual tartlets, cut down the baking time as advised below.

Special equipment:

beans for blind baking (I have been using the same real dried cheap beans for several years now)

Preparation: 1 hour + 2 hours in the fridge

Ingredients (one 28 cm diameter tart or about 12 standard tartlets):

Crust:

100 g flour

30 g ground or powdered almonds

90g softened butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons caster sugar

Filling:

200 ml lemon juice

100 g butter

4 eggs

120 g confectioner’s sugar

(grated lemon zest)

(brown sugar)

Prepare the pastry case.

Mix the butter, the almonds, the salt and the sugar in a food processor. When these ingredients are mixed thoroughly, add the flour and mix again.

Stop when you see a big ball is being formed.

Wrap the dough in a cling film and put into the fridge for at least 30 minutes (you can leave it there up to 48 hours).

Take it out of the fridge and let it soften a bit before using it.

Roll it thinly with a rolling pin (I would advise 1/2 cm) and line the tart pan or individual tartlets forms. (If you don’t manage to roll it out, you can wait until it softens more and spread it with your fingers).

Pick the surface with a fork and place it into the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Take out the tart dish from the fridge.

Cover the flat surface with a baking sheet and put some dried beans on it. This way the pastry will not rise.

Precook the tart shell (or tartlets shells) until it’s no longer raw, but still white. Take it out, put the beans back into their jar and let the tart shell cool.

Lower the oven temperature to 130°C.

Melt the butter in a pan. Put aside.

Break the eggs in a bowl, add the sugar, the lemon juice and the warm butter. Stir well.

Pour the lemon filling on the warm (not hot) tart shell (or individual shells) and bake it at 130°C for about 30 minutes (or 15-20 minutes if making individual tartlets), depending on the oven (when the tart is moved the surface should be only slightly trembling in the centre).

Let it cool down and put into the fridge for at least two hours.

Take it out of the fridge no more than 30 minutes before serving (it must be cold, but the pastry should soften a bit). At the last moment either sprinkle it with fresh lemon zest or gently pat it dry with paper towels, sprinkle with brown sugar and burn it, or simply serve it as it is.

Far breton, or Brittany Prune Pudding

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Far breton is one of my favourite and most frequently baked sweet dishes. It is light and low-fat, but filling, slightly sweet, but tangy, it is best served cold, but perfect even in cold seasons too. I wouldn’t only call it irresistible, but also undownputable, just like a fascinating book. Far breton is as easy to prepare as it is impossible to translate. It’s not exactly a cake, nor a custard, nor a flan… Since nothing I have ever tasted has a similar consistency, maybe “a baked, dense, slightly elastic pudding” (in the German sense of the word) would be a good definition.

As its name suggests, far breton is a Brittany region specialty and a small Breton village bakery shop is the first place where I discovered it . Apparently, many centuries ago the dish called far was a kind of gruel with dried fruit, and far is a Latin word meaning “wheat” or “spelt” . Afterwards the dish evolved into the today’s dense pudding-like cake. The oldest written trace of the present form of far breton dates back to the XVIIIth century, when both savoury (made from buckwheat and served with meat) and sweet fars (usually without any fruit) were popular. Nowadays only the sweet one is very popular not only in Brittany, but all around France.

Most people prepare it, like me, with prunes, some add only raisins, some both, and some purists refuse any kind of fruit. I find the most popular, slightly tangy version the absolute winner. I think it is best served cold, preferably left overnight in the fridge. Having prepared far breton for many years, I no longer remember where I found this recipe, but I appreciate it for the absence of butter or any fats and for its low sugar content. Its colour varies and depends on eggs. My organic Winter egg yolks were particularly small, hence the light colour.

TIP: Many people worry about the fact that prunes fall to the bottom. I don’t mind, but I have heard that coating prunes in flour prevent them from falling. (I have never tested it though).

Preparation: 1 h (+ at least 2 hours in the fridge)

Ingredients (fills a 10 x 30 cm or 20 x 20 cm baking dishes):

250 g flour

70 g sugar

4 eggs

750 ml milk

1 pinch salt

a bit of salted butter to grease the dish

25 big prunes (stoned)

a bowl of hot strong black tea

50-100 ml rum

Soak the prunes in tea until they become soft. Drain them.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Grease the pan with butter (or line with baking paper).

Warm the milk until it is hot (don’t boil it!).

Combine the eggs, the flour, the salt and the sugar.

Slowly add the warm milk and the rum, stirring.

Pour the batter (it will be very liquid) into the baking dish. (If it is not smooth, mix it in a blender or pass it through a sieve).

Place the prunes inside, more or less regularly.

Bake for about 1 hour until golden brown.

Let the far cool down before putting it into the fridge for several hours.

Serve very cold, sliced.

Lemon Pound Cake, or Quatre quarts au citron

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“Take any number of eggs and weigh them. Then weigh the same amounts of butter, sugar and flour. Beat the egg whites, combine with the rest and bake”. Could there be a shorter, easier and more foolproof cake recipe? I don’t think so and every quatre quarts I make confirms this observation. Contrary to what my post title might suggest, “quatre quarts” is not the translation of the English Pound cake, nor the other way round. Both are very old cakes and both have four ingredients with exactly the same weight.

The English pound cake takes its name from the weight of each of the four ingredients. At the time it was invented families were bigger and lighting an oven wasn’t as quick as nowadays, so everything was baked in big batches. Even though nowadays few people put a pound of each ingredient, this cake has kept its original name.

The French traditional “quatre quarts” comes from Brittany region and is based on the identical principle, but its name doesn’t precise the weight of each ingredient. “Quatre quarts” means “four quarters” and the cake is composed of four ingredients, each of them weighing exactly fourth of the total weight (initially based on the eggs’ weight). This is one of the simplest French cakes I know and definitely the easiest recipe to remember, thanks to the “four quarters” principle. If high quality ingredients are used, it has a beautiful butter and sugar aroma and doesn’t require any additional seasonings. On the other hand, Quatre quarts is a perfect support for aromatic modifications, such as this lemon version.

This recipe comes from Petit Larousse de cuisine, an excellent French cookery book I strongly recommend. My only modification was adding lemon zest and juice instead of the advised rum or cognac. The cake’s texture is soft, slightly moist, slightly crumbly, with a crunchy crust. Simple, irresistible, old-fashioned cake.

TIPS: Some pound cake recipes call for baking powder, but if you beat the egg whites (like the below, French recipe indicates), the cake rises very well without any additional help.

Quatre quarts is usually rectangle-shaped, but a couple of days ago I saw it in a beautiful bundt cake (kugelhopf) shape version, baked by Liz (That Skinny Chick Can Bake), so choose any baking tin shape as long as it’s high.

Preparation: 1 hour

Ingredients (for a 20 x 10 cm/about 8 x 4 inches baking tin):

3 eggs

flour (weight=eggs’ weight)

caster sugar (weight=eggs’ weight)

soft or melted butter (weight=eggs’ weight)

pinch of salt

zest from 1/2 lemon

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Separate the egg whites from the yolks.

Beat the egg whites until stiff.

Combine all the ingredients apart from egg whites. (The butter can be melted, but if it’s only soft, mix everything in a food processor).

Stir the egg whites delicately into the cake mixture.

Pour into a greased baking tin (or lined with baking paper) and bake until golden brown (about 45 minutes).

This cake keeps fresh for two-three days if wrapped tightly in cling film.

Kings’ Pie, or Galette des rois

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Today is Epihany, the Christian celebration of the day when three kings came to bring gifts to baby Jesus. Kings’ Pie (Galette des rois) is a lidded pie with almond-based soft filling, traditionally served in France before, during and after Epiphany (celebrated in France on the second Sunday following Christmas, in spite of the official date being 6th January). Even though I don’t celebrate Epiphany, I find it an excellent excuse to make this pie. Kings’ Pie dates back to the XVIIth century and shouldn’t be mixed up with Kings’ Cake (Gâteau des Rois), one of the more ancient French cakes, dating back to the XIIIth century. It is a sweet bun filled with crystallized fruit and has a huge doughnut form with a hole inside. It is now mainly eaten in the South of France and less famous in other regions.

When served on Epiphany day Kings’ Pie is linked with a particularly dangerous custom, involving a paper crown and a bean. Traditionally a dry bean – nowadays usually replaced by a figurine – is placed somewhere in the pie and the one who finds it in his part of the pie is announced as the king of the evening and has the right to wear the crown. This tradition is especially perpetuated in the company of children, but from what I have noticed all the bakers put one (or even two) figurines (still called “fève”, meaning “broad bean”) in the pie. I am only wondering if they have ever done statistics concerning the teeth loss during the Epiphany period… I haven’t put anything in mine of course. Dentist’s services is not the most exciting idea of spending one’s savings.

The most frequently made and bought version of Kings’ Pie has only heavy and thick almond cream inside, but the one I prefer is filled with “frangipane” (a mixture of almond cream and pastry cream), giving a lighter and moister result. The latter version is the most delightful, lightest almond cake I know and I prepare it much more often than once a year. My slightly modified recipe was found on the French website 750g.com. The pie is delicious, generously filled with “frangipane” and surprisingly not heavy at all. It is also not very sweet, so if you prefer very sweet cakes, add 30% more sugar.

TIP: If you have leftover puff pastry cuts, you can quickly use them making Last-Minute Crackers

Before I pass to the recipe I would like to draw your attention to this beautiful German Potato Salad posted by Mr. Three-Cookies (from the Three Cookies blog) and inspired by a recipe from my blog. Thank you, Mr. Three-Cookies, for having tried my recipe!

Preparation: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Almond cream:

150 g powdered or ground almonds (there will be a difference in texture, but the taste is equally good in both cases)

10 heaped tablespoons sugar

50 g softened butter

2 eggs

Pastry cream:

200 ml milk
3 heaped tablespoons sugar
1 egg yolk
2 slightly heaped tablespoons flour

1 egg yolk (to brush the pie before baking)

2 puff pastry packages (about 230 g each)

Prepare the almond cream mixing the butter with the eggs, adding the almonds and 10 heaped tablespoons sugar and mixing again.

Put aside.

Prepare the pastry cream.

In a small pan bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, in a bowl, mix the yolk with the flour and sugar.

Add the hot milk gradually to the yolk mixture (tablespoon by tablespoon, otherwise the yolk might “cook”). Finally transfer everything back to the pan and constantly stirring, let it thicken (it will take about 3 minutes).

Put it in a cool place (e.g. balcony) to cool down a bit.

In the meantime preheat the oven to 180°C.

Butter a pie dish and line it with one of the pastry sheets.

With a spoon combine the almond cream and the pastry cream in a bowl.

Put the creams’ mixture over the pastry and cover it with the second sheet.

Seal well the edges, pinching with your fingers.

Brush the surface with the egg yolk and pick it with a fork (otherwise the surface will rise too much).

(You may also attempt making a traditional crisscross pattern with a knifepoint).

Bake for around 40 minutes until golden brown.

Serve it alone or with red fruit jam.

Guinness Gingerbread

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Yesterday I started to feel there was something important missing in all my pre-Christmas baking and cooking frenzy. Gingerbread, of course! When I say “gingerbread” I instantly think “Guinness Gingerbread”. It is soft, fluffy, slightly moist and has a subtle taste, far from the typical overwhelming gingerbread flavours. In short, this is the ultimate gingerbread. The Guinness’ presence is of course undetectable, but adds a certain je-ne-sais-quoi. I don’t know if I ought to mention it, but since the beer is boiled, then baked and all the alcohol evaporates, this cake is suitable for children and for the non-drinkers. This cake is partifularly simple and quick to prepare. If you are not a Guinness fan, the only difficult part is finding someone to finish the can or the bottle content. It would be such a pity to waste the leftovers of this extraordinary beer.

This delightful cake can be made the day you intend to serve it, but it greatly improves in the fridge, so as soon as it cools down, refrigerate it for at least several hours. (If you manage to leave it overnight, it will be ten times better). The chocolate frosting should be put as soon as the cake has cooled down. If you prefer a thinner layer, use only 50 g chocolate and 25 g butter. My recipe comes from this blog (some recipes, like this one, have also English versions) and has been slightly modified.

TIP: Of course any dark beer similar to Guinness can be used, but do not use a light one.

Preparation: 1 hour

Ingredients (20 cm x 20 cm baking tin):

160 ml Guinness stout

160 ml treacle (the recipe calls for black treacle, but this time I used 1/2 light treacle and 1/2 agave syrup; the result was as delicious as always)

260g flour

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

2 flat teaspoons baking soda

2 1/2 teaspoons dried ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 eggs

130 g sugar (if you use white sugar, the cake will be lighter than mine)

180 ml oil

a pinch of salt

Chocolate frosting (it is very thin, about 2 mm, but can be easily doubled if you prefer a thicker layer):

50-100 g dark chocolate

25-60 g butter

Heat the oven to 175°C.

Bring Guinness to a boil in a small pan. Put aside.

Mix the flour, the cocoa, the salt, the baking soda and the spices in a bowl.

In a second bowl mix (with a spoon) the eggs with the sugar, add the treacle, the oil and stir until the mixture is homogenous.

Add gradually the dry ingredients and at the end pour the beer, stirring quickly until the cake mixture is smooth.

Line a baking dish with baking paper.

Pour the cake mixture.

Bake 40 – 50 minutes until a wooden pick put inside comes out almost dry.

Let it cool down.

Melt the chocolate with the butter in a pan. When it cools down to the room temperature, spread it over the cake.

Put the cake into the fridge. (I kept it in the fridge for three days and its taste improved every day).

Easiest Apple Cake

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If you know how to peel and grate apples, you know how to make this easiest apple cake in the world. By “easy” I not only mean the baking and preparation process, but also the recipe which stays instantly engraved in your memory. Since it doesn’t require any eggs, it is very convenient too. Accidentally, this is also one of the most palatable fruit cakes I know and quite an original one, since it contains semolina and is divided into layers. The upper flaky, crunchy and buttery layer creates a very interesting contrast with the other layers softened by the apple juice produced during the baking process.

This recipe has been “sleeping” for many years in my old notebook until I finally dug it out when, seeing Mr. Three-Cookies baking the hundredth semolina cake or cookie (Three-Cookies blog), I remembered a semolina apple cake I used to make many years ago. Thus, thanks to Mr. Three-Cookies, a very exceptional recipe was brought back to life.

If you have bland apples, you can combine them with cinnamon, vanilla or whatever spice you prefer. I had very good King of the Pippins, so I decided to leave them as they are. You might also add some sugar to the grated apples if you like very sweet cakes or if your apples are sour.

(This is the first recipe with several ingredients measured in cups. Somehow, for once it proved much easier, even for me. My measuring cup has 250 ml.)

Preparation: 1 h 30

Ingredients:

1,5 kg apples (or even 2 kg if you want the fruit to dominate your cake)

1 cup semolina

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1,5 heaped teaspoon baking powder

70- 100 g butter

pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Peel the apples and grate them on a vegetable grater (I do this in a food processor).

Combine the flour, the semolina, the salt, the baking powder and the sugar, stirring well with a spoon.

Grease a baking dish (the smaller it is the higher the cake will be, the minimum diameter is 20 cm).

Put 1/3 of the dough mixture into the dish.

Cover with half of the grated apples (or less, if you want to create a thinner and a thicker layer, like I did).

Put another 1/3 of the dough.

Cover with the remaining apples.

Sprinkle the rest of the dough mixture.

Cover the top of the cake with thin butter slices, so that it covers the whole surface.

Bake until golden.

Serve warm or cold.

Light and Moist Baked Cheesecake

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Several months ago, while discussing my Unbaked Cheesecake with Vanilla with Charles (5 Euro Food), I promised that one day I would write about my baked version too. First, I must confess I grew up hating baked cheesecakes. I found them heavy, dry and so filling that they almost felt as a second main course. To make matters worse, they often contained raisins (which for me spoil most soft cakes). I also hated the ubiquitous crust, which made the whole thing even heavier. I don’t even mention chocolate glazing or other awful additions such as candied orange zest.

My grandmother made the only cheesecake I loved. It was simple, light, extremely moist, without any crust or raisins and there was something I couldn’t identify, which made it simply addictive. One day, I realised the cake was slightly worse than usually. When asked what was the modification, my grandmother answered in a very natural way: “My doctor told me to stop using pork lard, so I greased the pan with butter instead”. Can you imagine my shock? I love pork, but I would never imagine it could improve a cheesecake’s flavours. In fact, she had been using generous amount of pork fat to grease the pan for years and no one suspected it. Even though I haven’t tested this method yet (but one day I certainly will), I have been trying to copy my grandmother’s recipe for many years and this cheesecake is as close as I have ever got to hers. I shouldn’t boast, but since my grandmother died, this is the only baked cheesecake I like. It is soft, moist, light and perfect for an afternoon tea on a rainy, Autumn day.

The preparation is very easy, but the particular consistency and taste are impossible to obtain without the crucial ingredient, namely curd cheese. Sometimes called cottage cheese (meaning the non-industrial natural version, not the one with huge artificial grains) or farmer’s/farm cheese, it has a grainy texture, somewhere between ricotta and feta and is very easily obtained by souring milk and discarding the whey. Curd cheese is widely used for example in Poland (biały ser, twaróg), Russia (творог) or Hungary (turó) and used in both sweet and savoury dishes. It has a slightly tart, vibrant taste, which has nothing to do with the rather bland, heavy and cream cheese (also very fat in comparison). When crushed with a fork, curd cheese looks like this:

I am conscious many of you might have problems with getting this important ingredient. I buy it in a Russian shop here, but Polish grocers always carry it (luckily the world is full of Polish immigrants). If you cannot get it, write to me and I’ll explain how you can make (very easily) your own curd cheese. /Update: if you find only quark (very smooth, mixed fresh cheese), you can use it instead, but add 1 tablespoon semolina and 1 tablespoon starch/ If you hate heavy, high-calorie, bland cheesecakes, trying this light, fluffy and moist version will completely change your view of this international dessert.

Other recipes I have posted which call for curd cheese:

-Potato and Curd Cheese Dumplings

-Pear and Curd/Cottage Cheese Pie

-Curd or Cottage Cheese with Chives

Preparation: 1h

Ingredients (for a 20 x 20 cm baking dish):

400 g curd cheese (do not use the light one; it should have at least 15% fat)

4 big eggs

4 flat tablespoons semolina

2 tablespoons potato starch or cornstarch

8 flat tablespoons white sugar (add 5 tablespoons if you like very sweet cakes)

50 g butter

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Melt the butter.

Put the cheese in a food processor and mix until smooth.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix once more.

Line a pan with baking paper and bake until it’s golden.

Let the cake cool down and then put into the fridge (wrapped in cling film) for a couple of hours.

It taste improves after it’s chilled.

Apple and Apple Sauce Tart

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A couple of days ago, when I started to get bored with the umpteenth jar of Apple Sauce, I decided to look for a new light apple dessert recipe. I decided to make an apple tart from the famous Joël Robuchon’s cookery book (Le meilleur et le plus simple de Joël Robuchon). Imagine my surprise (and pride!) when I noticed that his idea was very similar to what I thought I had invented a couple of weeks ago when making a plum tart! For those who don’t remember, I was very proud of the result obtained with with a combination of plum butter and raw plums. Here, in Robuchon’s recipe, a layer of apple sauce is covered with thin raw apple slices.

This tart is what the French call “Tarte Fine”, i.e. very thin (mine was maybe 1,5 cm thick), with a very thin layer of fruit and usually without a border (I didn’t have a bigger baking dish, so my border was simply lower than usually). Thanks to the combination of apple sauce and raw apples, the flavours are surprisingly complex and the difference in three textures particularly enjoyable. (I also particularly liked this tart because it forced me to buy an apple core remover, one of the kitchen gadgets I didn’t own.)

The only arduous parts here might be cutting very thin apple slices and removing cores. Both can be very quick and simple if you have a mandolin and an apple core remover. If, like me, you have very good apple variety (I used here King of the Pippins, or “reine de reinettes” in French), you don’t need to add any spices. If your apples are slightly bland and lack aroma, add some vanilla. (The below recipe is slightly modified).

Special equipment:

apple core remover

mandolin

Preparation: 1 hour 30 or 2 hours if you make the apple sauce from the scratch

Ingredients:

1 puff pastry sheet (rolled out very thinly, e.i. about 3 mm)

7 apples (for the best aesthetic result they should have more or less the same size) + 3 tablespoons sugar , or 200 ml sweetened applesauce + 4-5 apples

2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar

2 tablespoons caster sugar

a couple of tablespoons melted butter

(2 vanilla pods)

If you are making apple sauce, peel and core 4 apples, cut them into small pieces, add the grated vanilla grains, the sugar, 3 tablespoons water and let them simmer on a low heat until they fall into pieces and form a sauce.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a greased (or lined with baking paper) baking dish with puffed pastry.

Pick the surface with a fork, cover with aluminium foil or baking paper covered with dry beans (so that the pastry doesn’t rise too much) and blind bake it (until the pastry is firm but still white).

Spread the apple sauce on the tart crust.

Peel the remaining apples, core them and slice very thinly with a mandolin or with a knife, but the slices shouldn’t be thicker than 2 mm.

Arrange the slices on the apple sauce, overlapping each other, so that both the apple sauce and the central hole are covered.

Brush the tart with melted butter, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons caster sugar and bake until the apple slices start browning.

Take out of the oven and just before serving sprinkle once more with confectioner’s sugar and put under the grill/broiler (watch it constantly since it’s very easy to burn!).

Serve hot or warm (it tastes great with vanilla ice-cream).

Moist Poppy Cake with Chocolate Ganache

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As a child I hated layered, butter-cream, traditional birthday cakes. I suffered whenever I went to other children’s parties and were given a huge slice of an extremely sweet and nauseous cake. My mum’s cake was the only exception and a complete outsider in this category. Everything about it was different. First of all, it wasn’t overly sweet. Secondly, the cake basis was not spongy, but very moist and made not with flour, but with soaked and ground poppy seeds and a bit of bread crumbs. You have probably seen or tasted many sweets with tasteless and dry poppy seeds, but soaked and ground they acquire an unusual nutty flavour enhanced by walnuts pieces. As for the cream, even though it was the traditional butter type, it was loaded with bitter cocoa and was never nauseous thanks to the lemon juice my mum always added. I remember I loved this cake so much, I would practically live on the rests of it for the two days following my birthday party (it was very big, so there was always at least a half left).

Dexterity, patience or love of details, necessary to make such elaborate pastry, are not really my qualities, so even though I have been missing its extraordinary taste and have been planning to prepare this cake for years, I was simply too scared to try it. This year, as my birthday was approaching, I felt a bit nostalgic about the years passing by and desperately needed something to cheer me up. This is how I decided to give it a try.

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Just in case I would be able to devour as much as I did as a child, I took two important decisions. First, I reduced the cake’s size by half and, secondly, I substituted the butter cream with chocolate ganache (e.i. a mixture of chocolate and cream), slightly less disastrous in consequences (I hope). Of course – as you can see above – I have totally messed up the aesthetic and technical side. My cake resembled a big, unequally shaped ball, the layers were not very neat and the decoration clumsy, but the taste and the texture were extraordinary. I was very proud to see I had managed to make the poppy soft basis exactly like my mum’s: moist and deliciously original. As for the chocolate ganache, it was a perfect substitute for the butter cocoa cream. It was still very rich, heavenly good, but made me feel a little less guilty when, traditionally, I was finishing the cake the following day. It was simply the adult version of my beloved birthday cake.

If you want a traditionally-sized, big cake, double the amounts of both the cake and the cream. This cake keeps perfect and delicious for at least three days.

Before I pass to the recipe I would like to express my gratitude to Kelly from Inspired Edibles for doing something every food blogger dreams about, e.i. testing one of my recipes, namely my Eggless Applesauce Cake. Those who haven’t seen her Thursday post, should click here and admire the complex and elaborate, fabulous Apple Streusel Cake she has made, adapting my simple and humble Applesauce Cake.

I would also like to thank Stefanie from A Dash of Sugar and Spice for the Liebster Blog Award, she has given to the blogs which have less than 200 subscribers and which, according to her should have more of them. Thank you, Stefanie, I feel honoured and very proud you appreciate my blog so much!

I would like to pass this award to the bloggers who, I think, deserve much much more followers, subscribers or visitors. I am not sure if the bloggers I have chosen have less than 200 subscribers, but I certainly wish them more popularity:

Arudhi from A Box of Kitchen

I know that Charles from Five Euro Food has already received this award and also from Stefanie, but I thought I would say I totally agree with her

Jeno from Weeknite Meals

Jessica from Green Skies and Sugar Trips

Mr. Three-Cookies, whose Easily Good Eats merit at least as much followers as his other blog, Three Cookies

Ping from Ping’s Pickings

Shannon from As A Delish

Shu Han from Mummy, I can cook!

Now back to the recipe.

Preparation: about 5 hours, but count a whole day (both the cake and the ganache can be prepared the night before, kept in the fridge overnight and assembled the following day)

Ingredients (for a 20 cm diameter baking dish):

4 eggs

100 g confectioner’s sugar

125 g poppy seeds

1 tablespoon honey (I used agave syrup)

6 high heaped tablespoons dry bread crumbs

8 walnut kernels, roughly chopped

Cream (chocolate ganache):

250 g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)

250 ml liquid cream (25% fat or more)

5 heaped tablespoons confectioner’s sugar

Cake soaking mixture:

1 small coffee cup of very strong black tea

50 – 100 ml rum (or artificial rum flavouring)

1 tablespoon sugar

50 g ground walnuts + 10 kernels for decoration

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Prepare the chocolate ganache.

Break the chocolate into pieces, put into a pan with cream and, constantly stirring, dissolve it on a very low heat (do not boil!).

Put aside and when it has cooled down, refrigerate for a couple of hours, until the ganache thickens.

(Add the sugar only when the ganache is cold, just before you put it into the cake.)

Prepare the cake.

Put the poppy seeds into a pan with cold water. Bring to boil and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

Drain the poppy seeds and grind them in a meat grinder (with the smallest holes) or mix well in a blender (they will become moist and mushy).

Separate the yolks from the whites.

Mix the yolks with the sugar, add the mixed/ground poppy seeds, the bread crumbs, the honey and the walnuts.

Beat the egg whites and incorporate them delicately into the poppy mixture.

Line a round baking dish (20 cm diameter) with baking paper or grease it with butter and sprinkle with bread crumbs (the cake will be very sticky).

Pour the poppy cake and bake for about 40-50 minutes. (Make a wooden skewer test: if it comes out dry, the cake is ready).

Let the cake chill out and put it into the fridge for at least one hour (it’s easier to cut when very cold).

When the cake is completely cold, cut it horizontally into 3 slices.

When deciding in which order you should put the slices, bear in mind the bottom of the cake is always smooth and perfect for the top.

Divide the chocolate ganache into three equal parts.

Place the first part of the cake, sprinkle with a bit of the soaking mixture and spread 1/3 of the ganache over it.

Cover with the second cake layer, sprinkle with a bit of the soaking mixture and spread 1/3 ganache over it.

Cover with the last part of the cake and spread the remaining part all around the sides and on the top of the cake.

Sprinkle with some ground walnuts and decorate with kernels.

Refrigerate for at least three hours. Serve cold.

Eggless Applesauce Cake

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As soon as I saw a Low-Fat Banana Bread on Jeno’s blog (Weeknite Meals) I thought it looked and sounded very similar to the Applesauce Cake I make. I promised Jeno I would post my recipe and I hope she will forgive me for being so terribly late!

I have found this recipe in Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Marritt Farmer, an excellent book I have bought at second hand book sales, unconscious of the treasures I would find there. It might not be the most appealing source of recipes (especially my old edition), but everything I have tested proved fully successful. (If you don’t cook often from books, believe me, foolproof cookery books are rare jewels…). Another recipe from this book I posted some time ago are the fabulous and easy Deep-Fried Scallops.

Apart from being sticky, moist and flavoursome, this cake has several big advantages. It is very simple and quick to prepare. It doesn’t requite any eggs or fresh fruit, so it can be made with your pantry’s permanent stock all year round. You will also be surprised to see it keeps fresh for ages, especially if refrigerated. Since it’s best very soft and moist, I prefer it served straight away from the fridge, anyway.

Preparation: 1 hour

Ingredients:

120 g butter (about 1/2 cup); I often reduce this amount to 50 g butter

250 ml (1 cup) unsweetened applesauce + 200 g (1 cup) sugar, or sweetened applesauce + 100 g sugar (1/2 cup)

220 g (2 cups) flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

(cinnamon or vanilla or nothing if you applesauce is already seasoned)

a big handful chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).

Mix the sugar with butter, add the applesauce and the remaining ingredients. Stir well.

Bake in a buttered and floured pan (or lined with baking paper because the cake is very sticky) for 40 minutes – 1 hour.

It can be served after it has cooled down, but I like to wrap it tightly in cling film and put into the fridge for several hours.

Then it becomes really moist and irresistible.

Double Damson Plum and Almond Tart

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One of the magical sides of cooking is that a slight modification can unexpectedly transform an ordinary, popular dish into an unforgettable delight. I have made dozens of French-style plum tarts in my life, but always kept them simple: short crust or puff pastry, fruits, sugar and sometimes almonds. Last week, while preparing one of those, I realised I had some leftover Damson Plum Butter in the fridge and decided to spread it on the pastry before placing the plums. Very glad to find a new way of using leftovers, I haven’t suspected this thin layer would change my humble tart so much. With crunchy pastry, fruit butter, softened damsons and flaked almonds, the texture had very pleasant four different levels, while the flavours’ intensity and complexity raised my tart to a higher level of taste bud impressions. If you haven’t tested a similar tart yet, I encourage you to try it until plums are still in season. If you cannot find damsons or/and fruit butter, I am sure any other plum variety and a thick jam made from the same variety will produce a similar effect.

Before I pass to the recipe details, I would like to say I was very happy to learn that Zsuzsa (from Zsuzsa is in the Kitchen) has trusted my recipe and made my Light Unbaked Cheesecake with Vanilla. Click here to see her version.

Preparation: 1 hour

Ingredients (for 24- 28 cm diameter tart dish):

1 shortcrust or puff pastry sheet (mine weighed 230 g)

about 40 damsons or other plums

6-10 heaped tablespoons sugar (depends on the fruit’s sweetness)

10 flat tablespoons flaked almonds

about 150 g plum butter or very thick jam

Roll tout the pastry sheet and line the greased tart pan (or covered with baking paper).

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Stone the plums and halve them.

Spread the Damson Butter on the tart bottom and cover with plum halves, skin side down, overlaying parts of the fruit. Otherwise, since the fruit will shrink, you’ll end up with big empty spaces on your tart.

Sprinkle the almonds over the plums and then the sugar.

Bake for around 45 – 60 minutes until the pastry is golden.

Light Unbaked Cheesecake with Vanilla

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Unbaked cheesecake is the oldest of all the light desserts I know. The one I make is refreshing, has a mousse-like texture and a very pleasant slight tanginess. When two weeks ago Charles from 5 Euro Food posted a luscious Prickly Pear Cheesecake recipe, I decided that since most bloggers I know prepare no-bake cheesecakes with high-calorie cream cheese, I should write about my way of making this popular dessert.

First, I never use cream cheese in sweet dishes. My unbaked cheesecakes are always made with smooth fresh cheese, often called quark or fromage blanc (not only in French-speaking countries; thank you, Ping!), which looks like a very thick yogurt and is available almost all around the world. (It can also be made with well mixed curd cheese, but this one is much more difficult to get in many countries). Quark exists in several fat content versions, but I usually choose that one or the semi-fat (the 0% fat is a bit too tangy for sweet dishes). However, I have recently realised that even the fattest version has approximately twice less calories than regular Philadephia cream cheese. Do not think I choose fresh cheese because it is low-calorie! I simply love its taste and would never exchange it for cream cheese in my desserts. Apart from that, I am not very fond of crust in cheesecakes, so I never make it (even though I love crusts in tarts).

Sugar, gelatin and fresh cheese are the basic ingredients. This time I have also added vanilla and, just before serving, I grated some dark chocolate over the cheesecake. It reminded me vaguely of stracciatella ice-cream, but in a much lighter version.

TIP & UPDATE: This cheesecake can be prepared with Greek yogurt instead of quark.

Special equipment:

individual ramekins if you want to serve individual portions

Preparation: 40 minutes + several hours in the fridge

Calories: about 150-250 kcal per serving depending on the cheese fat content

Ingredients (serves 5):

500 g fat or low-fat smooth fresh cheese (quark) or Greek yogurt

3 tablespoons hot water or hot milk/cream

10 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar (you can make it even lighter using a sweetener or powdered stevia)

2 heaped tablespoons gelatin (sometimes the amount depends on the brand; take the amount necessary to set 500 ml of liquid)

1 vanilla pod

(dark chocolate)

Split the vanilla pod in two lengthwise. Put into the hot water or milk or cream and leave for about 30 minutes.

Take the pod out, grate the vanilla seeds into the liquid and put the split pod aside.

Mix the cheese with the sugar and the vanilla-infused liquid.

Dissolve the gelatin in warm water, add to the cheese mixture.

Mix for a couple of minutes.

Fill individual ramekins (or one big dish) with the cheesecake mixture.

Put into the fridge (covered) for a couple of hours. Usually 3 hours are enough.

Unmoulding the cheesecakes is the only tricky part.

Run a knife around the edge and then, quickly, invert the ramekin onto a serving plate.

Tap at the bottom very hard: the cheesecake should fall out.

Mirlitons de Rouen, or Almond Tartlets Filled with Jam

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“Elle à table” is the only food magazine I regularly buy. It is modern, creative, interesting, doesn’t feature only recipes, but also food-related articles and, most of all, is not aimed only at housewives, but at foodies in general, regardless their profession, time spent in the kitchen or cooking skills. The other day, leafing through the Summer edition, I saw very tempting mini-tarts called “mirlitons”, checked if I had all the necessary ingredients and made them on the spot.

Mirlitons originate from Rouen, in the North of France and there are slim chances to find them in a “standard” pastry shop in a different region of France. The basic recipe calls for an almond and eggs filling with vanilla and orange flower water. The “Elle” recipe included some jam filling and it was the main reason why I have decided to try it. As a notorious food preserver I am in a constant search of other jam use ideas than a simple buttered toast, so they instantly caught my eye.

Mirlitons are quick, easy, have a very pleasant mixture of flavours and textures and are luscious even without vanilla or orange flower water. Thumbprint Hazelnut Cookies and Thumbrint Almond Cookies are other options to use leftover or surplus jam.

Note: These mirlitons shouldn’ t be mixed up with Mirlitons de Pont-Audemer. Shaped like cigars, they are another regional sweet specialty, but completely different and much more complicated to prepare. I hope I will manage to make these one day too…

Special equipment:

pastry cutter (mine had a 11 cm diameter)

tartlet moulds

Preparation: 1 hour

Ingredients (makes 12-14 mirlitons):

1 puff pastry sheet (230 g – 240 g)

100 g ground almonds

100 g caster sugar

2 eggs

(vanilla, orange flower water)

about 200 g thick jam or fruit butter

5 tablespoons thick cream

flaked almonds

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

With a pastry cutter cut out circles and place in the tartlet moulds.

Put a heaped teaspoon of jam in the centre of each tartlet case.

In a bowl combine the eggs, the sugar and the ground almonds. Add the cream and stir well.

Cover the tartlet cases with the almond mixture up to 3/4 of the height.

Sprinkle with flaked almonds and bake for about 20 minutes until golden.

Serve warm or cold.

Upside-Down Apricot Tartlets with Muscovado

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Apart from the very practical home-cooking books I also buy those written by famous – usually French – chefs or confectioners with breathtaking, state-of-the-art photos and incredibly long and scary recipes. I buy them not only to leaf through the glossy pages, dreaming of sophisticated dishes and admiring the masters’ skills, but also to find some ideas, tips or bits of recipes I could introduce into my cooking. This is the case of “Plaisirs sucrés” by Pierre Hermé, my absolute idol in the world of macarons and confectionery.

Frankly speaking, if the cover of my “Plaisirs sucrés” starts being used up, it’s not because I use Pierre Hermé’s recipes often in my kitchen. Nonetheless, since I found there the best pastry cream (crème pâtissière) in the world, (I used it in Strawberry Tartlets), I decided to look there for a new apricot dessert idea. This is how I came across the thing which makes this upside-down tart unique, namely the extravagant use of moist, sticky, brown sugar, called muscovado. By “extravagant” I mean putting a 1 cm layer of sugar I would have never dared in my previous upside-down tarts. Having tried both a thick and a thin layer of muscovado (opting for individual tartlets made this experiment easier), I can affirm the 1 cm layer is obligatory (actually I have put about 1 cm, but Pierre Hermé advised 1,5 cm!). One of the tartlets was made with normal brown sugar; it wasn’t even half as good. The apricots are darkened by the muscovado, but the aroma and the taste are simply divine.

A tip: I couldn’t find this sugar in “normal” shops and have finally seen it in both a Vietnamese and a British grocery…

Special equipment:

individual tart dishes

pastry cutters (slightly bigger than the tart dishes)

Preparation: 1h30

Ingredients (makes 6x 10 cm diameter tartlets):

1,5 kg apricots

1 thin puff pastry sheet (about 230g)

muscovado sugar

50 g butter

juice from 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Grease small tart dishes generously with butter (also on the sides).

Put a 1 c, thick layer of muscovado sugar on the bottom of each dish.

Cut the apricots in two, remove the kernels.

Arrange the apricots very tightly (they will shrink) in a nice pattern, laying them on the side. (Not the kernel side or the skin side!).

Sprinkle the lemon juice over the apricots.

Cut out circles from the pastry sheet? They should be a bit bigger than the dish bottom diameter.

Cover the apricots with the pastry tucking well the sides downwards.

Prick the surface several times with a fork.

Put the tartlets into the oven for 30 – 40 minutes.

Take them out when the tart is dark golden.

When the tartlets cool down a bit, make sure, with a knife, that the pastry doesn’t stick to the sides of the dishes.

Put a small serving plate over each tart dish (bottom side up) and carefully turn the tartlets upside down. (Do it over a kitchen sink and wear dark clothes.)

If some fruit pieces haven’t fallen into the plate, simply arrange them in the tartlets and if there is any juice left in the dishes, simply pour it over the turned-upside tarts.

Put them into the fridge and serve cold.

Strawberry Tartlets

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The French are unquestionably the fruit pastry masters and the very popular Strawberry Tart with Pastry Cream is an excellent example of this typical, fruit quality enhancing dessert. Delicate, simple and light, it is found in most cookery books and in season it is available in many pastry shops. This tart has no equals when it comes to enjoy aromatic, perfectly ripe strawberries that one would regret transforming for example into a mousse (ideal with slightly acid or simply not perfect fruit).

The recipe is not complicated, and the secret of the best result lies in the perfect pastry cream (with a real vanilla pod), the butter-based thinly rolled out pastry sheet and, of course, in the highest fruit quality. The pastry cream is inspired by the recipe I have found in “Plaisirs sucrés” by Pierre Hermé, a famous confectioner whose macarons’ discovery was one of the most unforgettable moments in my life. Even though this is the best pastry cream I have ever tasted, I have slightly modified it after the first test (mostly the sugar amount). The same recipe can be adapted of course to a big tart, but I usually prefer individual portions.

Click here to see two other examples of even simpler typical French fruit tarts: the Mini Pear Tarts and the Mirabelle Tart

And see here a few ideas of what to do with leftover egg whites.

Special equipment :

a round pastry cutter and 6 small round ramekins of the same diameter

Preparation: less than 2 hours

Calories: about 300-320 kcal per tartlet (counted without butter in the cream and depending on the pastry)

Ingredients (makes 6 x 10 cm diameter tartlets):

about 200 grams thinly rolled out puff pastry (or home-made sweet pastry)

500 g strawberries (preferably equally sized)

Pastry cream:

500 ml milk (I used skimmed)

50 g corn starch

4 heaped tablespoons caster sugar (or more if you like very sweet desserts)

1 vanilla pod

4 egg yolks

50 g butter (can be omitted, but the taste will be slightly worse)

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cut out the circles. Put them on the baking paper. Cover with another layer of baking paper and block from rising with round ramekins with a similar diameter.

Bake until golden.

Put aside.

In the meantime prepare the pastry cream.

Bring to boil 400 ml milk with the vanilla pod cut in two lengthwise.

Put aside and let it cool down.

Scrape off the two vanilla pieces so that the small vanilla grains stay in the milk.

Combine the yolks, the sugar, the corn starch and the remaining cold milk.

Strain the warm vanilla milk, constantly stirring, into the yolks mixture.

Discard the vanilla pods (wash them, dry them and put into a confectioner’s sugar jar: you’ll have vanilla scented sugar).

Put back the obtained mixture into the pan and constantly stirring bring to boil.

Put aside when it thickens to the cream consistency.

If the cream is not smooth and you see many lumps, mix it in a blender or rub through a sieve.

When the cream is no longer hot, but still very warm, combine it with butter.

Put a couple of tablespoons of the cream on each tart circle.

Cover with the strawberries (cut in halves, in four pieces, sliced or whole).

Serve slightly chilled.

Chocolate and Tofu Cake

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The name of my cake has probably already put off all those who hate tofu and made sceptical even some tofu fans. I must admit if you look for a rich, flour-less, sticky, fudge-like chocolate cake, click here to see my favourite one and don’t even bother trying today’s recipe. However, if you look for a light, refreshing chocolate dessert you can indulge in without feeling guilty, you should absolutely try it. As a big tofu fan I may be biased, but I think the tofu taste is absolutely imperceptible here.

I risked making this cake the day I wanted to have something in theory impossible, namely a healthy, low-fat, low-calorie and delicious chocolate cake. I think I have met the challenge, of course apart from the chocolate itself, which even though healthy when dark and rich in cocoa, will never be low-fat or low-calorie. The cake is barely sweet (put more sugar if you like very sweet cakes) and its smooth, light texture, somehow reminds one of a lighter cheesecake.

The butter can be omitted, but it adds a certain smoothness. Instant coffee is what I always put in my rich chocolate cake (recipe here) and in this one too. In fact, a small amount of coffee brings out the chocolate taste in a marvellous way without altering the taste. This cake is best when served very cold.

Before passing to the recipe part I would like to thank CG from the Cooking Gallery, who has honoured me with not one, not two, but three blog awards! I am very flattered and proud! Thank you CG!

Special equipment:
food processor or blender (necessary to mix the tofu)

Preparation: 1 hour+ at least 3 hours in the fridge

Ingredients (for a 10×15 cm baking tin for a 4 cm high cake or a smaller one if you want the cake to be thicker):

100 g dark chocolate (the best is 70% cocoa)
250 g silken (soft) tofu, drained
3 eggs
(3 tablespoon butter)
5 tablespoons agave syrup, sugar or any other syrup
(a handful of chopped walnuts)
1 flat tablespoon instant coffee

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Melt the chocolate and the butter.
Put everything in a food processor and mix thoroughly (it’s important to mix the tofu very well).
Combine with the walnuts.
Line the baking tin with baking paper and pour the cake mixture.
Bake about 40 minutes.
Take the cake out the oven, let it cool down and afterwards keep in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
Serve very cold, straight from the fridge.

Jam Cake with Okara

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In my previous post I explained how I made (quickly and easily) okara (おから) at home. (As a reminder, okara is a very healthy by-product of the soy milk or tofu production.) This cake recipe is my first experience with okara use, but certainly not the last. The addition of okara made is taste lighter and softer, not to mention all the nutritious and healthy elements brought by okara. Last, but not least, a very important information: even those who hate soy milk, tofu etc. appreciate this cake and do not notice anything unusual.

Since the Spring is my “emptying last year’s jars” season, I made this cake with King of the Pippins sauce I had put into jars last year (King of the Pippins is an exceptional apple variety, read more about it + the sauce recipe here). However, this cake can be made with any fruit sauce, jam, marmalade or freshly made fruit purée. Excellent way to use up the leftover fruit (puréed and then sweetened) or the remains of a big jam jar. This cake was prepared with half of the okara I have recently made.

Preparation: 2 hours – 2 h 1/2

Ingredients (one small cake, serves 4):

125 g slightly moist okara

10 heaped tablesoons flour

pinch of salt

7 tablespoons sugar

50 g softened butter

(cinnamon)

a 200 ml jar of fruit jam, sauce of purée

Combine all the ingredients (except for the jam) mixing with your hands in a bowl or in a food processor.

You may add some cinnamon, but it’s not obligatory.

Divide the mixture in three parts and put one of those in a plastic bag in the freezer.

Leave it there to chill for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Line up a greased dish (mine was 10x20cm big) with the remaining 2/3 of the dough.

Spread the sauce or the jam over the top.

Take out the chilled 1/3 of the dough and grate it over the jam (on a grater with big holes).

Bake until slightly golden (about 1hour – 1h15min).

Gerbeaud (Zserbó), or Walnut and Apricot Layered Cake

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I would like to proudly announce my accomplishment of gerbeaud, the very first layered cake in my life and one of the monuments of the Hungarian cuisine. Even though at first sight it doesn’t look unusual, gerbeaud (pronounced “jer-bo”, “j” sounding softer, like in “je ne sais quoi”) clearly stands off in the layered cakes family. In fact, instead of being cut after baking or being baked int batches, the layers are assembled with the filling beforehand. This difficult and meticulous method creates a very surprising and complex flavour, which, after the black chocolate topping is added and the cake cooled, gets to a mysterious point where one would swear there is a subtle coffee taste… Gerbeaud is very filling and rich, but doesn’t have the usual sickening sweetness or greasiness of birthday or wedding layered cakes, while apricot jam, as usually, gives it a tangy kick.

Emile Gerbeaud, the creator of this cake, was a Swiss confectioner, who arrived in 1889 to work as a partner in a famous Budapest café, which he overtook and which is nowadays called “Gerbeaud”. Zserbó szelet (literally “gerbeaud slice”) is now firmly established as one of the Hungarian classics. Sold in local cafés, pastry shops and also quite popular among the brave home cooks. It requires long experience to look as neat as on the Gerbeaud café’s website…

This recipe comes from Zsuzsa is in the kitchen blog, where I have previously found (and successfully tested) several delicious Hungarian recipes. Her version, as well as many others I have seen on the web, calls for three pastry layers and this is the version I stuck to for the first time (yes, actually I did it twice!), obtaining a rather surprisingly neat result. Then, I felt particularly bold and attempted a four-layered version (on the photo above). Both cakes were delicious, the latter being much more difficult. It looked messier, but was very moist.

Since this is a “monument cake”, no ingredient substitutions are allowed. Otherwise, it doesn’t have the right to be called “zserbó”. I have increased a bit the filling ingredients amount and prepared the dough in the food processor (instead of hand kneading).

(By the way, here maybe I’ll break the historic aura surrounding gerbeaud, but it is an excellent way to use up previous year’s surplus or an open jar of apricot jam…)

Preparation: 2 hours + cooling + one night in the fridge

Ingredients (for a 20 x 20 cm baking dish, at least 4 cm high):

Pastry:

320g flour

180g butter

40g sugar + 1 teaspoon

pinch of salt

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast

3 tablespoons warm water (not hot!)

Filling:

1 jar of apricot jam (normally it should be sieved or mixed, but personally I appreciated whole bits of fruit…)

150 g ground walnuts (freshly ground and moist taste better)

Topping:

70-100g bitter chocolate

40 g butter

Combine the yeast, the warm water and 1 teaspoon sugar.

In the meantime mix the flour with the butter until fine crumbs are created (or do this with your hands).

Add the yeast mixture, the egg, a pinch of salt, 40g sugar and mix or knead until you obtain a smooth dough.

Divide it into three or four equal parts. Form them into balls, place in a big bowl and cover.

Leave them for 15 minutes.

Line the baking dish with baking paper, leaving it hanging a bit on at least two sides (it will be easier to remove the baked cake).

Sprinkle a rolling pin and the rolling surface with flour. Roll out the first ball into the baking dish’s dimensions. (Here my friend A. gave me a very simple trick consisting of placing the baking dish next to the rolled out pastry, first in height and afterwards in width. Then you simply cut out the square with a knife).

Transfer the rolled out and measured layer delicately and put on the bottom of the dish.

Spread it with some apricot jam and sprinkle with walnuts.

Repeat the operations, finishing with a layer of pastry. (If you have four pastry layers, there should be three filling layers).

Cover the cake and put aside for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Bake the gerbeaud for 30-40 minutes until golden.

Remove it from the oven and let it cool down completely.

Melt the chocolate and the butter.

Turn the cake upside down (the bottom is neater so the top surface will be neater too, I found this idea on the Hungarian desszert.eu website) and put back into the baking dish with the baking paper.

Spread the chocolate – butter mixture on the cake and put it into the fridge.

Serve cut into rectangles.

Pear and Fresh Cheese Tart

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Even though the ingredients are not unusual, nor exotic and their combination is not really surprising, this tart’s flavour is extraordinarily different. Sweet pears and slightly tart, grainy, fresh curd cheese filling create a unique combination. Since I hardly add any sugar and the pastry case doesn’t have it either, the tart is not overly sweet and be can easily served as a snack, for afternoon tea or for breakfast. I have been preparing it for so many years, unfortunately I can’t even remember the source of my recipe… I can only say it’s not a typically French fruit tart, since they are usually thinner, have less filling and curd cheese is definitely not a very French ingredient.

I know the unique taste and texture of this tart is largely due to the curd cheese, not available everywhere (in the countries where it is not widely used, Russian and Polish grocers sell it). Luckily, the curd cheese can be substituted with the almost universal cottage cheese. If you have to use the cottage cheese, drain it well, squash the big grains with a fork and add 100 ml sour cream or kefir (to add the slight tartness the curd cheese has). If using very dry curd cheese (such as the Hungarian one), add 200 ml liquid cream. The good news is this pie can be done with leftover yolks instead of whole eggs!

Preparation: 1 hour

Ingredients (for a standard 28 cm diameter pie dish):

1 puff pastry sheet (around 230 g)

500g curd cheese (or well drained cottage cheese, squashed with a fork and combined with 100 ml sour cream or kefir or “quark”, i.e. mixed, smooth fresh cheese)

4 tablespoons sugar

4 eggs or 5 yolks, or a combination of both

5 big or 7 smaller pears (not too ripe, they should stay firm after the baking stage)

2 tablespoons cinnamon or a mixture of cinnamon and ground clove

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Line a greased tart dish with the puff pastry and prick its bottom with a fork.

Cover the pastry case with a sheet of baking paper, cover with dry beans (to stop the pastry from raising) and blind – bake it (before it browns). Remove the baking paper and the beans and put the pastry case aside.

Peel the pears and discard the cores. Cut them into 8 pieces and put into a bowl of cold water mixed with some lemon juice (otherwise they might darken very quickly).

Combine the cheese with the eggs and the sugar.

Pour it over the baked pastry case.

Arrange the pear pieces on the top of the cheese mixture, the rounded part up.

Sprinkle with the cinnamon.

Bake in the oven until the tart’s top is slightly golden.

This tart should definitely be served warm. (If preparing in advance simply reheat it in the oven or a microwave before serving).

Lemon and Hazelnut Bars

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Until very recently the lemon tart was the only lemon cake I prepared (for me all the sweets containing only lemon zest don’t fall into the “lemon” category). Then, a couple of weeks ago I saw Lemon and Hazelnut Bars at The Kitchen Sink blog and, having saved the recipe, I promised myself to give it a try next time I would have a lemon craving.

This is the first time I taste hazelnut and lemon combination and must admit the hazelnut crust and the lemon filling make a very flavoursome couple, not to mention their contrasting textures. Even though the lemon bars are not as delicate and sophisticated as a good lemon tart may be, their preparation is incredibly easy and, to my surprise, tastes even better when the crust is made with wholemeal flour (I have tried both versions). And, last but not least, even those who usually are scared of tangy lemon sweets, adore these bars. I have slightly modified the original recipe.

Preparation: 1 hour + at least 2 hours in the fridge

Ingredients:

the crust:

80g ground hazelnuts

30g flour (I used wholemeal flour, but the original recipe calls for white one)

25g sugar

1/4 teasponn salt

8 tablespoons butter, diced

the filling:

4 eggs

150g sugar

100ml lemon juice

40g white flour

(dusting sugar)

Preheat the oven to 175°C.

Mix the crust’s ingredients in a food processor or knead them to a homogenous sticky dough.

Line a baking dish with baking paper (my dish had 20x20cm) and cover the bottom with the crust.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until the crust becomes slightly brown.

In the meantime prepare the filling.

Combine the eggs, the sugar, the flour add the lemon juice and mix well with a fork or a whisk.

Take the baked crust out of the oven. Lower the temperature to 150°C.

Pour the filling over the hot crust and put it back into the oven and bake for about 30 minutes.

Let the cake cool and put it for about 2 hours in the fridge. Cut into bars and serve cold. (You can sprinkle it with dusting sugar. I didn’t because I hate sugar-dusted cakes).

French Lemon Tart (or Tartlets)

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My recent cravings for lemon cakes, creams and tarts probably reveal a lack of vitamin C (which probably isn’t there after baking anyway) or, simply, a typical cold days’ need for sunny and vivid colours on the table. Or, maybe, together with sour cherry obsession, they are the obvious signs of my growing preference for acidity… This beautiful tart, served after a nourishing and heavy meal, is not only a refreshing relief for the palate, but also an act of protest against the seasonal gloominess. It is the ideal ending of a spicy meal, such as Beef Rendang, Indian or Thai curry.

Lemon tart is not a newcomer to my kitchen. I have been making the French lemon tart for several years, whenever I had lemon-loving company or when I simply couldn’t stop dreaming about it and finally would end up making a small portion only for myself… Of course, the French are not the only ones to consider the lemon tart as one of their national desserts. However, the thin crust and the absence of cream, flour or condensed milk in the filling make the French version of this worldwide known dish the most subtle and light (by “light”I mean taste, since the tart is far from being low-fat or low-calorie).

My slightly modified recipe can be found in “Le Grand Livre de Cuisine d’Alain Ducasse: Bistrots, Brasseries et Restaurants de Tradition”, a highly reliable source of French recipes. As other Ducasse recipes (crème brûlée, madeleines) I have been making, this one always works perfectly well.

TIPS: If you wish – and have a blowtorch – you can sprinkle the tart with brown sugar and burn it before serving, like a burnt cream. (Personally I prefer it simple or with some grated lemon zest.)

You can make either one big tart or, as you see on the above photo, individual tartlets (with the amounts below you will obtain about 12 standard tartlets). If you decide to make individual tartlets, cut down the baking time as advised below.

Special equipment:

beans for blind baking (I have been using the same real dried cheap beans for several years now)

Preparation: 1 hour + 2 hours in the fridge

Ingredients (one 28 cm diameter tart or about 12 standard tartlets):

Crust:

100 g flour

30 g ground or powdered almonds

90g softened butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons caster sugar

Filling:

200 ml lemon juice

100 g butter

4 eggs

120 g confectioner’s sugar

(grated lemon zest)

(brown sugar)

Prepare the pastry case.

Mix the butter, the almonds, the salt and the sugar in a food processor. When these ingredients are mixed thoroughly, add the flour and mix again.

Stop when you see a big ball is being formed.

Wrap the dough in a cling film and put into the fridge for at least 30 minutes (you can leave it there up to 48 hours).

Take it out of the fridge and let it soften a bit before using it.

Pick the surface with a fork and place it into the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Take out the tart dish from the fridge.

Cover the flat surface with a baking sheet and put some dried beans on it. This way the pastry will not rise.

Precook the tart shell (or tartlets shells) until it’s no longer raw, but still white. Take it out, put the beans back into their jar and let the tart shell cool.

Lower the oven temperature to 130°C.

Melt the butter in a pan. Put aside.

Break the eggs in a bowl, add the sugar, the lemon juice and the warm butter. Stir well.

Let it cool down and put into the fridge for at least two hours.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

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This is a chocolate cake with two big Cs. This is by far the best chocolate cake I have ever tasted and I don’t say it to boast of my baking skills, but simply because it brings out the marvelous chocolate taste better than any home-made cake I have ever had. When I say “the best”, I mean both the texture and the taste. This cake is very soft, sticky in a fudge-like way, with a very deep dark chocolate flavour. In my opinion, the perfect result is obtained when adding salt or using salted butter. This is also the most frequent of all the cakes I prepare.

Here I must emphasize this cake should be taken seriously. It does not accept any compromise in terms of two main ingredients, namely chocolate and butter. Any kind of chocolate with less than 70% cocoa is not satisfactory, not to mention those containing hydrogenated fats (only cocoa butter should be listed). As for the butter (unsalted or salted), it should absolutely be not substituted with margarine. The result depends so much on the buttery taste and texture (as you’ll see below, there is no flour), that any other intruder will simply make the cake smell and taste of… margarine. I can’t even imagine the texture it would have, since I have never made it with margarine (frankly speaking I have never prepared any cake with margarine, I simply see no point in stuffing oneself with hydrogenated and much worse tasting fats, which are nonetheless still fats…). If you are one of those who don’t or can’t eat even small amounts of butter, simply make another cake (for example the Guinness Gingerbread, made with oil). A precious advice for those living in Switzerland: cross the border and buy either German or French butter (it freezes very well, in case you buy big amounts). Beware, once you substitute the Swiss butter, you’ll never want to use it in this cake, so either stick to it or simply stock on French or German one.

The best moment to prepare this cake is at night, after dinner. It has to be refrigerated for at least ten hours in order develop the sticky, fudgy, firm texture and to improve the taste. If you try cutting it and serving after, say, one or two hours, the cake will fall into pieces and will not be as flavoursome as after a night’s sleep in the fridge.

Preparation: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

200g/about 7 oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa minimum)

150-200g/about 5-7 oz butter (unsalted or salted, I prefer the latter; if you don’t have the salted butter, the slightly salty result may also be obtained by adding 1/4 flat teaspoon salt)

a pinch of salt (or nothing, if you use the salted butter or add 1/4 teaspoon salt)

150-200g sugar/about 3/4 – 1 cup (depends how sweet you like cakes in general)

1 tablespoon instant coffee diluted in a small amount of water (it can be dry if not granulated, but powdered) or a small strong espresso

1 heaped tablespoon bitter cocoa

(20 crushed walnut kernels)

4 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Melt the butter and the chocolate in a small pan (do not let it boil!).

In the meantime mix the eggs, the sugar, the coffee, the cocoa, the walnuts and a pinch of salt (it can be done with a fork, not necessarily a food processor).

Add slowly the melted butter-chocolate mixture, stirring continuously.

Line a baking dish with baking paper. Pour the cake mixture and bake for about 30 minutes.

The cake will rise first time just a bit, and then it will rise a lot (it will fall down when cooling). Stop the baking process when you see it has risen a lot. The cake should be very soft, almost liquid inside and solid outside.

Let it cool and then put into the fridge for at least a whole night. Serve cold.

Upside-Down Vineyard Peach Tart