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French orangettes

Orangettes is a traditional french food gift during Xmas. It is actually candied orange peel stripes dipped in dark chocolate that if you like the combination of orange and chocolate you will get addicted to it!
I would like to thank the teacher of a school that I am a volunteer that proposed me to help with doing them this year in order to finance the school trip of their class by selling them to a Christmas market.
I have never done them before, so it was a challenge for me but also a heavy responsibility. So I had to make them first at home to be sure that I am well trained.
End of year period is very busy so I did not have enough time to get nice photos but I did my best given the circumstances. 
The result though was delicious !!!  but be prepared... it takes time too !!!
I can share the recipe with you and here it is the original recipe that we were based on.


Ingredients: (for about 500g of orangettes)
3 big oranges (organic, untreated)
250g white sugar
50cl of water
200g of good quality dark chocolate (around 60-70%)

Procedure

  1. Wash well the oranges and peel them carefully cutting the skin in quarters.
  2. Put them in a casserole covering them with cold water and boil them for 5 min. 
  3. Drain and redo the last step once more.
  4. Drain and let them cool.
  5. Cut in thin strips of about 0.5cm getting the maximum of length possible.
  6. Prepare the syrup with water and sugar. When start boiling add the strips and boil for 5 min. Allow to cool completely and repeat once more the whole step.
  7. When completely cool, arrange them in a cooling rack and allow overnight to dry.
  8. The next day, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (bain-marie).
  9. Drop a handful of the orange peel strips and turn them with a fork to coat. 
  10. "Fish" them one by one with the fork, allowing the excess to drip off. Arrange them in a tray lined with parchment paper. Allow them to dry completely in a cool place.
  11. Once done (best the next day), make small decorated bags and offer them to your dear ones! 
Enjoy!!!   

  


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Happy 2018 !


Happy New Year to all !
Cook more, less war in this world ...

How about starting the year by making this delicious french Epiphany cake (Galette des rois)?
I think that my 2018 version is the best that I have ever done :)
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My french baby!

And suddenly, I felt an urge to make a new blog.
It's been a year that I am thinking about it. I was working it in my mind and here it is: 
Discover my brand new french baby-blog

"Instants (extra)ordinaires" 

= (Extra)ordinary moments in english.

Enjoy!
 
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Happy Halloween!

What best to have fun ending of October than celebrating Halloween ?
Cooking, activities, decoration, colors... lots of ideas in the web! Just to keep track of what is in my blog let's recapitulate...


Have fun cooking butternut soups, halloween cookies, mini apple pies or just apple pie like this one, this one or this one.

Decorate your house entrance with jack-o-lanterns, following my son's short tutorial in the numbered photos (no1 is missing as it is about choosing your pumkin's face :)


Make fake injuries with makeup and scare your friends (not my favorite though!) like this homemade one from my kids...

Whatever you prefer, just try to get with friends and/or family and have fun and enjoy life!

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Jam roll

Old time classic recipe coming straight from our youth... jam rolls!
Here's a fast & easy recipe to keep track in my blog. Thanks Vilma for reminding it to me!
I use strawberry jam here, but my dear friend Vilma brought one in our place for a bbq, a tasty one filled with Nutella ... hmmmm just gorgeous!!!
The result here is a fast prototyping, as I am busy and do not have the luxury for better photos or decoration... the essential is here though :)


Ingredients
4 eggs
1 cup of sugar
vanilla
1 cup of self-raising flour
1 cup of strawberry jam
some powder sugar to decorate (missing today :)

Procedure  
Mix for several minutes the eggs with the sugar and the vanilla to thicken.

Then add little by little the flour and mix it carefully by hand and a spatula in order to keep the air inside the mixture.

Empty to the biggest and swallow oven dish after covering it with a baking sheet.

Layer it with your spatula. 

Bake at 175 degrees of Celsius and fan for about 20min or until golden.


When done, cover it for a few minutes with a humid towel and then cover the top with the jam or the nutella (warm for a few seconds in the microwave oven to soften a bit).
Roll carefully as in photos, decorate with some powder sugar or melted chocolate
and serve by cutting it in about 1cm slices.  Enjoy!
 
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Milopitakia, greek mini apple pies or cookies

October, the month of apples!

That's why I decided to present you today a recipe that was missing from my blog and that I like a lot: milopitakia!

Milopitakia, in greek, means mini apple pies but they are actually more kind of apple-filled cookies to be more precise.

Whatever you call them, I am sure that you will like them once you taste them, so here it goes in order to have them for real at your place :)

They look gorgeous too, no?



Ingredients (for about 30 pieces):
Dough:
500 gr self-raising flour
1 cup of butter (cut in pieces) or softened margarine or oil (whatever you prefer or have)
1/2 cup of plain strained yogurt or white dry wine
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Filling:
4 baking/cooking apples (peeled & coarsely grated)
1 cup of walnuts (coarsely chopped)
2 spoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon (as you like)
1/4 teaspoon of clove powder (optional)

Top:
Powdered sugar and cinnamon

Procedure:
Prepare the dough by kneading by hand softly the ingredients (flour, butter, salt, yogurt or wine).

Mix the filling ingredients in another bowl with a spoon.

Make 30 dough balls in the size of ping-pong balls and with your finger press in the middle to make a hole and add with a spoon some filling. Close the dough to cover the filling.

Finish in the same way all the dough.

Bake at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan for about 35 min.  Your apple pies/cookies are ready... Enjoy!



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Autumn is here!

I am not very active lately in this blog, but that doesn't mean that I am not cooking, though.
Autumn is a busy period for me, so please be patient for more dynamic posts :)
For the time being, just enjoy some photos of backstage while cooking...
The moto of the month, that can be adjusted to cooking, as basics are important, but so does creativity :

First, LEARN the RULES... 

then break them !

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