Xmas Swiss roll (buche de Noel) with mascarpone

Merry Xmas with a swiss roll!

 

Not a classic one, with mascarpone cheese that is my favorite.
Actually, tiramisu is the most popular recipe in this blog thanks to this cheese, so why not to try one?
I would like to thank Raphael who inspired me with his traditional swiss roll that was a smash!
Thanks also to my daughter that made the final touch with her decoration *kiss*

Time is not money but rest in this festive period, so I will cut short and give you the details :)
 

All the best to you and your dear ones! May this period is restful and calm...

Ingredients (for a BIG roll! split in half otherwise)

Base (30x40cm):
4 eggs
100gr sugar
30gr flour
60gr corn flour
50gr cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
a grain of salt

Syrup:
Some syrup of canned fruits or make a light syrup to moisten the base cake

Cream:
500gr mascarpone cheese
4 spoonfuls of icy sugar
vanilla flavor
100ml of cream for chantilly
2-3 spoonfuls of milk

Decoration:
100gr of dark chocolate (grated)


Procedure

Base: Separate egg whites and yolks. Beat yolks with sugar to whiten. Beat whites until thicken. Mix all with the rest of the ingredients for the base smoothly. Pour eveny in a swallow oven dish of 30x40cm that you have cover with parchment paper. Bake at 220 degrees of Celsius and fan for 6 minutes. Take it out of the oven, bush it slightly with the syrup, cover it with a wet cloth and let it cool down.

Cream filling: Mix well the ingredients for the cream and when done, spread 2/3 of it, on the base cake. Sprinkle with the grated dark chocolate and roll slowly. 

Final touch: Cover the roll with the rest of the cream by spreading it on top and sprinkle again the chocolate on top. Let it stay overnight in the fridge and serve it cut in slices.
Enjoy!

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Happy St Nicholas day!

My dear son, all the best !

This blog exists thanks to you and the interesting discussions with you and your sister :)

Now, there is no problem on how you can share my small bloc-notes with recipes, when life will drive you away from me ... as I keep telling you, cooking is quality in life.

Enjoy the recipe that you asked as a cake for today
semolina pudding (halvas) and 
your favorite dish as a surprise chicken curry.
(Lots of spices that represent the warmth and generosity of your heart)

Made with lots, lots of love
    *kiss* Mum

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French pear tart (Tarte bourdaloue ou tarte aux poires et frangipane)

My husband's favorite dessert is a french tart with pears and almond paste that in french is called "tarte aux poires et frangipane" or "tarte bourdaloue" or "tarte aux poires normande" as it's origon is Normandy in north of France.
I just made a great version of it and all family got excited ! As always, I will note it down in my blog to never miss it again :) As one thing is sure: I am going to make it again soon !
Here it goes...



Ingredients
Base: (or just buy the french short pastry called "pate sablee")
100 gr butter cut in small cubes
1 spoonful of sugar
1 cup of flour
a bit of salt
1 egg

Frangipan cream (almond paste): 
80 gr of ground almonds
80 gr of sugar
80 gr soften butter
1 egg
1 spoonful of flour
vanilla or few drops of almond extract

a big can with pears in syrop

Procedure

Mix well the ingredients for the base to make a small ball and leave it in the fridge for about an hour.

Take it out of the fridge and roll the pastry in a round dish for tarts to cover all the base and a bit the surroundings.

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees of Celsius and fan.

Beat well the ingredients for the frangipan cream and empty it on the pastry.

Put evenly the half pears on top and press a bit to the frangipan. Decorate if you wish with some sliced almonds.


Bake for 30min and let it cool down before serving.
Optionally, you can warm a bit of honey and jam and brush the pears to make them look shiny.

To hubby with love !!!

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Halloween shortbread biscuits ("sablés" in french :)

 Halloween is approaching and I just found some really spooky biscuit stamps that I knew that would drive crazy my kids, especially my son, who is fond of Frankestein :)

I found it as a good excuse to test a recipe on shortbread biscuits that in french they call them "sablés". 

I cannot describe enough the excitement at home when they discovered the stamps! 

I can only tell you that we ended baking late at night, on top of a really busy day.... 
I was not in my best of mood, knowing that they will be tired for school the next day, but my... they had so much fun that eventually I thought, what the hell! I could make an exception :)))) 
Here it goes... and hope that you will have as fun as we had making them!



Ingredients
250gr flour
125gr sugar
125gr butter
1 egg
a grain of salt
some cocoa powder (optionally, if you want them darker; it's the case here)

Procedure

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan.
Mix well the flour and the cocoa powder if it's your case.
Whisk well the sugar with the egg and the vanilla, add the flour and the soften butter and make a nice moisture dough with smooth gestures.
Wrap it in a film and leave in the fridge, for an hour or so or even better overnight.
Flatten the dough and using your favorite cookie stamps form the biscuits.
Put them in an oven tray on a parchment paper quite close as they won't grow much.
Bake for 10 min.
Once cooled down, store them in a metallic box for biscuits/cookies or just share with your dear ones around you :)
Of course, if you have more time, you can always decorate them using your imagination...

 

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Chocolate cake with mascarpone & nutella filling

Recently, I went to an italian restaurant and tried a cake that had some kind of nutella filling and I just loved it! Who can resist to Nutella anyway? If I add that it had also mascarpone, the same cheese that we use for my favorite Tiramisu, then you can imagine the rest ;)
Useless to say, that I searched immediately to find such a recipe and reproduce it at home :)
You know me, I cannot resist to deserts...
I dedicate this recipe, that I chose from all the stuff that I have found on the web, to my son's class and their teacher who is fan of my blog (I am honored) as I imagine that they would like it a lot and it's easy to prepare. Here it goes:


Ingredients

For the chocolate cake:
3 eggs
150 gr sugar
150 gr flour
1 baking powder
3 spoon fulls of cocoa powder
100ml of warm milk
100ml of softened butter

For the filling
250gr mascarpone cheese
3-4 spoonfulls of Nutella


Procedure

Beat well all the ingredients for the cake for a few minutes and bake at 180 degrees of Celsius for about 30 min.

Let the cake cool, transfer to another dish and cut it horizontally in order to get 2 layers of cake.
Beat well the cheese with the Nutella to become fluffy and spread it in the bottom layer of the cake and cover with the second. Decorate with icing sugar and put it in the fridge.

Just try it and let me know what do you think about it! In any case, enjoy!

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Kmix cookies

My first chocolate cookies with my brand new Kmix are a pure success! Just try them... *yummy*

I have used first the "K" tool to beat the butter with sugar and eggs and then changed to the kneader tool as you can see in the photo to finish the final dough with flour and chocolate chunks.
I made about 30 delicious cookies.
Just play with baking time as depending on your flour it might vary slightly.
And if you want something exceptional in taste, just try my daughter's idea to make a cookie sandwich with ice-cream!!!

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I've got a Kenwood Kmix!

Amazing cooking news!

I've got a brand new stand mixer the KENWOOD Kmix98, the latest model in a fancy color (lemon yellow :) that is

• powerful, 
• solid, 
• of big capacity 
• and practical.

What more to ask from such a tool?

It replaced my old Moulinex Ovatio maxipress duo that had lots of tools but was not very solid, as most tools were in plastic in comparison with the Kmix that have them in metal.
(I've got the majority of the tools btw brand new, so please if they might be in need to someone just let me know to pass them for free... they might fit to the latest model, as they look similar btw)

What do you have?

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Brownies

Here's a classic recipe that was missing from my blog, so here it is the recipe for ...
... BROWNIES! or at least something similar to it :)
In France, that I live, they call it "pave au chocolat", btw.
Anyway, it is delicious and kids love it, so get ready for baking and let's start!



Ingredients
For the cake:
250gr sugar
3 eggs
some vanilla
3dl of milk
300g flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
200g of melted butter that has coolen down
2 spoons of cocoa powder

For the frosting:
50g melted butter
200g icy sugar (or less, even better)
2 spoons of cocoa powder
4-5 spoons of strong black coffee (or milk instead, that is my case)

Procedure

• Mix all the ingredients for about 5 minutes to end up with a nice soft dough.
• Empty it in a rectangular dish (20x30cm would do) that you have previously buttered and bake in air at 180 degrees of Celsius for 25min.
• Let it cool and them prepare the frosting by mixing once again all the ingredients well to end up with a nice thick paste. 
• Spread it on the top of the cake and let it harden once again. 
• You can decorate either with some coconut or whatever else.

Let me know what you think, once you have tried it or share your own version!

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Ribbon cake as Easter cake!

Happy greek Easter even with a delay!
All the best to you and your families...

Heres my inspiration for a cake that I came up with, as this year for several issues I did not want to make a more fancy cake, as this Easter coincided with a bad anniversary...
You want to know more about it?
Let's call it the Ribbon cake!

•  I made an almond cake, and covered it with a white frosting. 
• I have melted 200gr of black chocolate and spread it in a baking sheet and put it in the fridge for a while to harden. 
• Once done, I have cut using a knife, several wide bands of the chocolate and "stick" them around the cake. 
• Important finishing touch the big satin ribbon to hold the chocolate bars. 

Isn't it lovely? We have fallen in love with it :) You?
P.S: Btw, I managed to do easter cookies though.

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Zucchini muffins

Remember the delicious zucchini balls that I have presented a long time ago?
Discover today my personal touch to turn them to muffin-like starters in a xmas dinner that I have organized recently. They looked gorgeous and they tasted even better! Just try them...
Procedure

• Use the same recipe for the filling and simply pastry dough (cut in disks) and assemble them in a muffins tray. 
• Sprinkle on top with some yellow cheese. 
• Bake for about 30min at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan.

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Butternut squash soup

Comforting food today, one of my favorite soups, the butternut squash soup.
I did not have big pumpkin seeds to decorate at the end, as a friend does and it's so yummy, so enjoy our homemade funny faces using sour cream :)

Ingredients
1 big butternut squash - peeled, seeded and cut in small cubes
1 big potato and 1 big carrot - both cut in small cubes too
2 table spoons of olive oil
1 small onion chopped
salt, pepper, ginger

Procedure

In a pressure cooker, start by cooking the vegetables in the oil for a couple of minutes and then cover with water, add the spices, close the pressure cooker and cook for about 20min.

When done, smooth using a blender and serve adding some fresh pepper and some sour cream or use some pumkin seeds that you have previously fried in some oil. Serve with some good cheese. Enjoy! 

  

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