Tag: Baking

4. Dolci (dessert)16 Comments

Chocolate Pomegranate Tart

StefanGourmet

When I saw the chocolate pomegranate tart on REMCooks, I knew I was going to bake it as dessert for Christmas dinner. The pomegranate aryls are so photogenic and Christmaslike. I thought the combination of chocolate and pomegranate would work well, and it did! The pomegranate really helps to lighten the chocolate and it was delicious. So thanks to Richard McGary, I was whacking pomegranates to get those pesky seeds out on Christmas morning 😉 Continue reading “Chocolate Pomegranate Tart”

Basics24 Comments

Home made Puff Pastry From Scratch

StefanGourmet

Puff pastry has a reputation of being difficult and a lot of work to make from scratch. I had never attempted it before, but now that I have I thought it wasn’t so hard at all. The main point is temperature control, which is easier right now because it is winter and thus not warm in the house. Puff pastry puffs up because it has a lot of layers of flour and butter. In this recipe, there will be 256 layers! Temperature control is so important because the butter should be soft enough to be able to handle the dough, but not melted to keep the layers intact. This means that a cool room temperature of 18ºC/65ºF is ideal in your kitchen when you make this.

There are several reasons for making your own puff pastry rather than running to the store:

  1. Your own puff pastry will only contain flour, butter, water, and salt. Nothing else.
  2. You will have bragging rights.
  3. It will probably taste better (depending on the quality of the store-bought pastry).
  4. It is cheaper than store-bought.

Running to the store is faster (depending on where the store is), as making your own puff pastry does take about 4 hours. However, most of that time is inactive time with the dough resting in the fridge. Continue reading “Home made Puff Pastry From Scratch”

4. Dolci (dessert)12 Comments

Homemade Amaretti

StefanGourmet

Amaretti are those crispy Italian almond cookies that are crumbled and used for cakes, and in fact are not made of almonds but of apricot kernels. The word “amaretti” means “little bitter ones”. The home made variety is in fact made of almonds and it is initially more chewy than brittle. The recipe is easy: almond meal, egg whites, caster sugar, almond extract, and a pinch of salt. I’ve created my own recipe for cookies that was based upon this, adding lemon zest and coconut to the mix. I’ve been making them for so long that I wanted to make simple amaretti again just to see how I’d like them. The verdict is that I like them, but I like my enhanced variety better 🙂 Continue reading “Homemade Amaretti”

4. Dolci (dessert)27 Comments

Walnut Chocolate Cake

StefanGourmet

I wanted to end my Piemonte-themed wine and food evenings with a nice dessert. The first thing I thought of was bounet, but I had already made that before for a similar evening so I asked my friend Resi (who is from Piemonte and helps me with my blog in Italian) for suggestions. She suggested a walnut cake with chocolate pastry cream as typical dessert from Piemonte. That sounded great and like a good combination for the barolo chinato I had made.

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The resulting cake was absolutely delicious. It has a very full walnut flavor and it’s not surprise that the chocolate pastry cream was nice as well. If you like dark chocolate, you can add cocoa powder to the chocolate cream to give it a more hefty chocolate flavor. The resulting cake will pair better with the barolo chinato.  Continue reading “Walnut Chocolate Cake”

4. Dolci (dessert)32 Comments

Tarte Tatin

StefanGourmet

One of the most famous French tarts is the upside-down apple tart that according to legend was created by mistake by the Tatin sisters in the 1880s. Baking the cake upside-down helps to keep the crust crispy. The other success factor is the combination of apples with caramel. It sure is delicious and not that hard to make — the tricky part is turning it at the end.

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A few weeks ago I made a very simple Tatin cheat using store-bought puff pastry but without turning the tart. Many recipes for Tarte Tatin use store-bought puff pastry, but I’m quite sure that the Tatin sisters used more simple pastry so instead I made pastry dough from scratch. Here’s my version. You will need an oven-proof flat pan with a diameter of 28 cm (11″). Continue reading “Tarte Tatin”

4. Dolci (dessert)25 Comments

Apple Tatin Cheat

StefanGourmet

We’re back home from our trip to Australia. After cooking for 4 weeks in a very small primitive kitchen inside a camper van I was really looking forward to cooking in my own kitchen again. During our absence, the wooden floor in our living room and ground floor has been sanded and varnished to make it look as good as new again. It was convenient to have this done during our absence, as all the furniture needed to be removed and the varnish needs to harden for a few days before you can walk on it again.

Unfortunately, when we came home we saw that they had not done a good job and so now an additional layer of varnish will be applied. This means that I won’t be able to use my kitchen for another week 😦 But luckily I have friends who don’t mind having me come over to use their kitchen 🙂

Since a lot of my supplies and equipment are stored in the garage and cannot be reached easily and it’s always difficult to cook in a strange kitchen, for dessert I resorted to this ‘cheat’ to make something that is like tarte tatin, but a lot simpler to make.

Continue reading “Apple Tatin Cheat”

4. Dolci (dessert)16 Comments

Hazelnut Meringue Cake

StefanGourmet

This cake is relatively easy to make and can be presented as a neat layer cake or, as I chose to do in this case, in a more ‘artistic’ way. Kees hates regular meringue, but he loves hazelnut meringue. Traditionally, hazelnut meringue cake is made with a complicated butter cream. The butter cream in this recipe may be slightly less creamy, but it is a lot easier to make and very good all the same. Hazelnut meringe cakes are often coffee-flavored as well, but I decided to use hazelnut liqueur to flavor the butter cream instead. Continue reading “Hazelnut Meringue Cake”

4. Dolci (dessert), Dutch cuisine22 Comments

Apricot Tart (Limburgse Abrikozenvlaai)

StefanGourmet

The dinner I cooked for Clayton when he visited had to contain something Dutch. After some thinking, I came up with Limburgse abrikozenvlaai, a tart from the province of Limburg that is made with a yeasted dough. I already wrote about kersenvlaai (with cherries) a while ago. Since it’s summer, fresh apricots are available. The apricots are cooked before they are used in the vlaai.

DSC08710 Continue reading “Apricot Tart (Limburgse Abrikozenvlaai)”

4. Dolci (dessert)25 Comments

Cassata Siciliana

StefanGourmet

In April we travelled through Sicily and I came back with a lot of ideas for Sicilian dishes to cook. Last night my parents came over for dinner, and for the first time since I can’t remember I prepared five all new dishes in a single day. All of them inspired by meals we had in the best restaurants of Sicily. My parents don’t mind being guinea pigs, and although I have thought of some improvements for the next time I make these dishes, all of them came out very tasty if I do say so myself. Since it’s been so long that I’ve blogged about dessert, I’m starting at the end.

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Cassatina in a trattoria in Erice

Cassata is a traditional cake from Italy made with sweetened ricotta, marzipan, candied fruit, and sponge cake (pan di spagna). Cassata can be decorated very elaborately with different kinds of candied fruit and icing, but when we had it for dessert in restaurants in Sicily, we got a single-portion cassatina that was decorated quite simply with a few pieces of candied fruit and icing. Since I had five different dishes to prepare in a single day, I decided to go for the simple option. Perhaps I’ll do a more baroque version in winter with homemade candied fruit and homemade marzipan. Continue reading “Cassata Siciliana”

4. Dolci (dessert)31 Comments

Flamusse aux Pommes (Burgundian Apple Flan)

StefanGourmet

For the Burgundian evening there also had to be a traditional dessert from Burgundy. I decided to prepare flamusse, an apple flan that is similar to clafoutis (made with cherries). This is a very an quick simple cake/dessert to make, but really tasty. The important thing is to use only a bit of batter and not to beat too much air into it, otherwise the flan will rise too much and although it will still taste good, it will look quite messy. Continue reading “Flamusse aux Pommes (Burgundian Apple Flan)”

Bread22 Comments

Homemade Ciabatta

StefanGourmet

The types of flour available in Italy are different, or at least labeled differently, from flour available elsewhere. Two types, farina di grano tenero 00 and semola di grano duro rimacinata are available more and more outside of Italy because we like to use them to make pizza and pasta. Grano tenero means soft wheat and is used for pastries. Even though it is referred to as tenero in Italy, farina 00 can be high-gluten to use for pizza or fresh egg-based pasta as well as low-gluten to be used for cakes. Grano duro means hard wheat (durum wheat) and is used for dry pasta as well as water-based fresh pasta in Southern Italy. If you buy flour that is labelled as ‘all purpose flour’, you don’t really know what kind of flour it is. It probably has low gluten and then will be unsuitable for making pizza or pasta. For making bread with a long rising time such as ciabatta, flour with a very high amount of gluten is used in Italy. This flour is called farina Manitoba, and is named after the province in Canada where this wheat is being produced. The high amount of gluten makes it ‘strong flour’, which means that the dough can rise better.

I haven’t found a source for Manitoba flour in the Netherlands, but I was curious about the difference with bread flour as it is available here and so brought a bag of farina Manitoba from Italy. I used to farina Manitoba to bake ciabatta bread for the first time, and I was very pleased with the result. For ciabatta the long rise is crucial to give it the characteristic airy texture and crispy crust. I’ve based the recipe on that of GialloZafferano.it. It is interesting to note that three different types of flour are required to make ciabatta: 00, manitoba, and semolina. The latter is used as a ‘gluten coat’ for the rising and for the crust. Continue reading “Homemade Ciabatta”

4. Dolci (dessert)23 Comments

Macarons

StefanGourmet

French macarons are almond and meringue-based airy cookies that are commonly filled with ganache or buttercream. The image of two macarons with filling in between has always reminded me of a hamburger, but perhaps that’s only me. I’ve had lots of macarons at the end of fancy dinners in restaurant, but until now I had never made them myself. A great post by the Cooking Chook inspired me to try making them for myself. Lo and behold: my first attempt was successful and they were outstanding stuffed with orange curd. My first attempt looked a bit rustic because I hadn’t piped the meringue very neatly, but that didn’t take away anything from the great flavor. The brittle crispiness of the shells combined very nicely with the creamy curd, and the sweetness of the almond shells went nicely with the tangy orange. Paired with a passito di pantelleria dessert wine, it was sublime. Continue reading “Macarons”

4. Dolci (dessert)18 Comments

Torta Mimosa

StefanGourmet
Mimosa (source: Wikipedia)

This post is a bit overdue. On March 8, four weeks ago, Italian friends of mine came over for dinner. I had never heard of International Women’s Day (La Festa della Donna in Italy) before, but my Italian friends had enlightened me when we set that particular date for this cena. Mimosa has become the symbol of la Festa della Donna in Italy since the mimosa trees in Italy blossom in the first days of March, and so I decided to surprise my friends by baking a Torta Mimosa for dessert. As you can see, there is a clear resemblance between the cake and the mimosa blossoms. Continue reading “Torta Mimosa”

4. Dolci (dessert)18 Comments

Colomba Muffins for Easter

StefanGourmet

In Italy, Colomba Pasquale is for Easter what Panettone is for Christmas. Colomba is a sweet bread in the shape of a cross with candied citrus and an almond glaze. It is actually not supposed to be a cross but a dove, since that is what “colomba” means. It takes a bit of good will to recognize the shape of a flying dove. The traditional way of making colomba takes about 24 hours and 5 different rising steps. This recipe requires ‘only’ three, and with a stand mixer it is not a lot of work and just takes time. Continue reading “Colomba Muffins for Easter”

Bread26 Comments

Homemade Italian Bread

StefanGourmet

When I have guests over for dinner, chances are I will cook a 4-course Italian dinner for them (antipasto, primo, secondo, dolce). With such a dinner I always bake this bread. Freshly baked bread is a treat that will impress your guests. It is not a lot of work if you have a stand mixer. Allow about 4 hours from start to ready to slice, but most of that is inactive time. Bread is also great for fare la scarpetta, cleaning every last drop of sauce from your plate with bread. This bread has a great crust and neutral flavor that doesn’t overpower the food. This is the reason why I do not generally bake bread stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes, olives, or the like, because then the bread would play the lead rather than a supporting role. Continue reading “Homemade Italian Bread”

4. Dolci (dessert)14 Comments

Baby Lady’s Easy Lemon Chess Pie

StefanGourmet

One of my favorite pies is a Key Lime Pie. It takes a bit of work as you have to make a pastry crust that has to be baked ‘blindly’ before baking it with the filling, but it is worth it. A pie that is almost as good is this very easy Lemon Chess Pie, from RemCooks.com. The texture is like velvet and it has a very nice sweet lemony flavor. I had never heard of a Lemon Chess Pie before. The difference with my Key Lime Pie is that it does not have a separate crust. The crust and the filling are one. This also makes it a very easy pie to make: just blend all the ingredients together, pour them into a buttered pie dish, and bake. It is that easy. Thanks to Baby Lady for this great recipe! When I first saw this recipe, I was surprised at how easy it looked. I tried it, and it turned out great! Of course it is very easy to substitute lemon with lime and turn this into a faux Key Lime Pie as well. Continue reading “Baby Lady’s Easy Lemon Chess Pie”

Dutch cuisine27 Comments

Limburger Cherry Pie (Limburgse Kersenvlaai)

StefanGourmet

The province of Limburg in the South of the Netherlands is famous for its pies, called “Limburgse Vlaai” in Dutch or simply “Vla” in the local dialect. Vlaai is especially baked or bought for a birthday party.

You may think this looks like an Italian crostata di ciliegie (cherry tart), but the main difference is that a crostata or tart is made using flaky shortcrust pastry (pasta frolla) with 50 grams of butter for each 100 grams of flour, whereas vlaai is made with a yeast dough with only a small amount of butter. This gives the pastry a very different consistency.

There is a big difference between a ‘real’ freshly baked vlaai from Limburg and the industrially produced ones that are available all over the country. Kersenvlaai (vlaai with cherries) is one of the best known kinds. The pastry of the kersenvlaai I remember from my childhood tasted of cardboard. I can still remember the first time I had real kersenvlaai from Limburg, about 20 years ago. A friend of mine from Limburg was visiting, and since Limburg is so far away (3 hours is considered far in this small country of ours), my friend would be sleeping over. His mother had given him a kersenvlaai, bought from the local bakery in Nuth, as a gift for my family. That kersenvlaai was freshly baked and changed my opinion of vlaai completely. It was delicious! It is this kind of kersenvlaai that I tried to bake, and I think I came pretty close for my first attempt. It is fairly easy to do and very tasty, so I urge you to give this a try. You will be glad you did! Continue reading “Limburger Cherry Pie (Limburgse Kersenvlaai)”

4. Dolci (dessert)7 Comments

Certosino Revisited

StefanGourmet

Certosino is a traditional fruitcake from Bologna that I made around Christmas time. It is not hard to make and has a very nice flavor. It tasted great but I wasn’t completely happy with how it looked: I used a rectangular pan because I didn’t have a round pan of the proper size, and I wasn’t sure that the baking soda had done its job properly. I decided to make it again, using baking powder rather than baking soda (even though Italian recipes all call for bicarbonato, which is baking soda) and using a newly bought 20 cm (8″) round springform … Continue reading Certosino Revisited

4. Dolci (dessert)19 Comments

Chocolate-packed Brownies

StefanGourmet

Many recipes on the internet claim to be “the best”. After trying PutneyFarm’s recipe for the “Best Brownies Ever”, I have to say that in this case I agree. The recipe is the result of Carolyn’s experiments to pack as much chocolate into brownies as possible, and although I haven’t challenged the recipe by trying to pack more chocolate into them, these brownies certainly taste that way. They are no more difficult to make than other brownie recipes, but they are a hell of a lot more delicious! I also like that these brownies fool you a little. Did you … Continue reading Chocolate-packed Brownies

4. Dolci (dessert)3 Comments

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

StefanGourmet

The final of five batches of a dozen muffins baked to celebrate my birthday at work: apple cinnamon muffins. I used a recipe from Putney Farm, thanks guys!  My original plan was to do only 4 batches, but I wondered if that would be enough and since I still had two apples lying around that were about to become wrinkly, I decided to make these as well. I’m glad that I did: I liked them a lot and so did my coworkers! The recipe is not very sweet, so this is also an excellent muffin to make for breakfast. Like Putney … Continue reading Apple Cinnamon Muffins

4. Dolci (dessert)9 Comments

Chocolate Muffins

StefanGourmet

I wasn’t sure if I would post about how to rescue wilted basil, but I’m glad that I did because that post received the highest number of views and likes on the first day of all of my posts so far! Today it’s back to muffins, with the fourth batch of the five that I baked to celebrate my birthday at the office. The recipe I used from Joy of Baking  is a keeper because it was a big hit at the office, especially with my female coworkers. I made a few minor changes: I used 70% dark chocolate chips and … Continue reading Chocolate Muffins

4. Dolci (dessert)7 Comments

Blueberry Muffins

StefanGourmet

The next installment in my series of muffins is blueberry. They turned out great, even though “to die for” (as they are called in the recipe I used) may be slightly exaggerated. Perhaps that’s because I left out the streusel. I also replaced the milk with buttermilk as per the comments. The method is very simple: mix dry ingredients, mix wet ingredients, combine, fold in blueberries, and bake. The recipe asks for fresh blueberries — I used frozen and that turned out fine. I think you’d better use good frozen blueberries rather than sour fresh blueberries if no good blueberries … Continue reading Blueberry Muffins

4. Dolci (dessert)13 Comments

Banana Nut Muffins

StefanGourmet

The second dozen of muffins I baked to celebrate my birthday at work was banana nut. I found this recipe on JoyofBaking.com and it turned out great. The only thing I’ll change next time is to increase the amount of walnuts and put some on top for more crunch. The amounts in grams mentioned in the recipe did not match the amount in cups. Since it is an American recipe I used the amounts as prescribed in cups and provide the correct conversion into grams below (as per my digital scales). The basic recipe for muffins is very easy. Mix … Continue reading Banana Nut Muffins

4. Dolci (dessert)9 Comments

Almond Poppy Seed Muffins

StefanGourmet

Just like last year, I’ve been on a baking spree to celebrate my birthday at the office. Only this time instead of cakes, I decided to make five different types of muffins as they are easy to eat and transport. While we were travelling through the US in September in an RV, we had muffins for breakfast almost every day as they are tasty, easy, and keep quite well (the store-bought ones anyway). I liked them all: banana nut, chocolate chocolate chip, apple cinnamon, blueberry, and almond poppy seed. You guessed it: this will be the first post in a … Continue reading Almond Poppy Seed Muffins

1. Antipasti (appetizers)6 Comments

Crispy! Spicy Shrimp Crackers

StefanGourmet

A few weeks ago I made Spicy Shrimp Crackers with Tuna Tartare for the first time. I was very happy with the combination of the flavors, but the crackers were not as crispy as I had hoped for. I looked up what Harold McGee has to say about crackers. He says to roll out the dough very thin and to bake in a moderate oven until dry and crisp (which is longer than I did). I asked my readers for suggestions and it was Vinny Grette who made the excellent suggestion to use a pasta machine to make them thinner (thank you!). I checked … Continue reading Crispy! Spicy Shrimp Crackers

Cooking23 Comments

Stephane’s Cheese Puffs

StefanGourmet

Cheese puffs (gougères) are really good, filled or just by themselves. They are a bit of work to make, but definitely worth it. It’s really nice how ‘light’ they are. I’ve made a double batch twice now for parties, and in both cases they were devoured in a few minutes by my friends. I got this recipe from Stéphane Gabart’s blog My French Heaven. From his blog it seems that Stéphane is as crazy about food as I am, and I really like that his blog is bilingual as it allows me to practice my French. Stéphane uses French Comté, but … Continue reading Stephane’s Cheese Puffs

4. Dolci (dessert)41 Comments

Certosino di Bologna (Fruitcake from Bologna)

StefanGourmet

Another traditional Christmas dish from Bologna with an ‘official’ recipe is Certosino or Pan Speziale (“spicy bread”). I had never made it before, but I really liked it and will certainly make it again. Originally it was named after the pharmacists (called “speziali”) that made this in medieval times, but later it was made by the monks of Certosa and named after that. The official recipe has been deposited only in 2003 and is now a “Specialità tradizionale garantita”. Italian recipes are often imprecise and this is no exception, although the quantities are specified. It reads “Amalgamare spezie, lievito, miele, zucchero, … Continue reading Certosino di Bologna (Fruitcake from Bologna)

4. Dolci (dessert)19 Comments

Mince Pie à la Conor

StefanGourmet

Mince pie is a traditional Christmas dessert on the British isles. I had never had mincemeat pie before, and always thought it was a savory pie containing meat. I had not decided on a dessert for Christmas this year, and when I read about Conor’s Mince Pie I decided that would be my Christmas dessert this year. We all loved the very full flavor of the mincemeat, so it was a big success. This is another great example of a blog-inspired new dish that I probably never would have made without Conor’s post. So thanks Conor! I’ve never had mince pie before so … Continue reading Mince Pie à la Conor