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Showing posts from August, 2014

Blueberry Mousse Parfait

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This extraordinary biscuit and blueberry mousse cake is a nice way to celebrate the blueberries for one more time this season. The almonds presence gives a tiny bit sense of the upcoming autumn and matches perfectly the taste of the mousse.  You will need one sixth of the recipe for meringue butter cream for the rosettes that will hold the triangle biscuits on top of the cake (that means - one egg white for preparing the cream). for the biscuit: 150 g flour 150 g almonds, ground 175 g butter 50 g confectioners' sugar 25 g almonds, chopped Preheat the oven to 180C.  Sift the flour in a bowl. Add the almonds. Add the butter, cubed and sugar. Work with the tip of your fingers, incorporating the butter. Form a hard dough. Divide the dough in two pieces.  For each piece: Place it onto a cling foil, flatten a bit with your palm, cover with another sheet of foil, roll it out roughly and place in the fridge for one hour. Take the doug...

Blueberry and Raisins Scones

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Berries, and blueberries and more blue and more berries .... It is crazy how inspiring the berries are! Scones are traditionally baked in Great Britain, mostly - Scotland. Usually, they are made round, but nowadays, could be served in triangle, square, rectangle shape.  These scones are so easy to prepare and very suitable for breakfast. Just few ingredients are needed, a wooden spoon and hungry kids around... 80 g fresh blueberries 80 g raisins 400 g flour 25 g baking powder 80 g sugar 55 g butter softened 1 large egg 150 ml milk 1 egg beaten for glazing Have the fruits mixed together in a bowl.  Sift the flour and baking powder. Add the sugar, then - butter, cubed. With hands, work all the ingredients until the butter is well incorporated and crumbs are formed. Add the egg and milk. Work with wooden spoon stirring, adding the fruits at the end. Stir until the dough is formed. Shape the dough into a rectangle onto light...

Cherry-Blueberry Rustic Rye Galette

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I was testing a recipe for the Food52 testing kitchen for the competition "Your best berry recipe". I chose the Cherry-Blueberry Rustic Rye Galette . Blueberries and cherries go so well together - both type of fruit are so fragrant and stimulate the senses in a fantastic way. Feeling the summer in every bite. It looks like a fun test. for the galette: (this recipe calls for one galette of 4 servings. I made four individual ones ) 50 g rye flour 70 g all-purpose flour 20 g sugar pinch of salt 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar - ( I used organic balsamic vinegar of Modena) 85 g unsalted butter 4 Tbsp cold water - as per recipe. I skipped the water, because the dough came together only with the vinegar. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Have the butter cubed and very cold. Add the butter to the dry ingredients and work only with the tips of your fingers to incorporate. You could use the tip of a knife to avoid warming up the butter. Work it with as less mo...

Chocolate Macaroon Raspberry Fiesta

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I was feeling the level of estrogen rising in my body from the success with the chocolate macaroons . My dream was to create the elegantly and appealing French Macaroon Cake. I somehow think of this piece of art as of Pierre Hermé signature macaroon cake. He has so many varieties of macaroon cakes that could take you to the world of daydreaming, inspire a sleeping soul and charge with encouragement to try once in a while to make one.  I wasn't hopeful. This cake are so delicate. So many slippery steps - you remember my experiments with macaroons. I did not share my unfortunate experience but covered quite a lot in my  chocolate macaroon  post.  Christophe Felder has a few beautiful combinations in his book. I have not made neither of them for this occasion, but probably because of superstitious fright to fail again with the macaroons, I followed precisely his recipe for the chocolate macaroons.  Chocolate Macaroon Cake w...

Melt-in-the-Mouth Pistachio Cakes

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Easy to make and undeniably mouth melting mini cakes. My pink pastry bible "Patisserie" by Monsieur Christophe Felder again brightened the day. I share that experience with you today with hope, that you will have some time to surprise your family and friends. These "petits fours" are a real French desert.   I used whole pitted cherries, instead of raspberries, but other than that haven't changed anything else in the recipe.   165 g finely ground almonds 125 g confectioners' sugar 125 g butter 20 g pistachio paste 4 eggs 100 g unsalted pistachios whole cherries, pitted  Coarsely chop the pistachios. Set aside. Process the ground almonds and the sugar in a food processor. Melt the butter over a medium heat. Before it melts completely, remove from the heat and lean to melt completely. It should feel lukewarm. Add the pistachio paste to the food processor and the eggs one by one. Puls...

Fraisier

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"PATISSERIE - mastering the fundamentals of French Pastry" caught me again in its genuinely professional way and served with inspiration for this lovely, gentle cake. The gentlemen Christophe Felder made sure that his recipes are well explained and I had a feeling of/* success even while I was reading it. I decided to use Angel Food Cake for the base, instead of Ladyfinger Sponge Cake.  I made this cake for Father's Day. I was looking for a strong connection between the cake and the cream - Angel Food Cake has no fat at all and it corresponds well with the Mousseline Cream. Angel Food seems to me as a perfect present for a loving, gentle and devoted father. It turned out great! for the Angel Food Cake: (the recipe is enough for one cake 30 cm (12") in diameter) I used it in whole, baked it in two sheet-pans and made two 15 cm (6") cakes. If you use the whole recipe and you only need one small cake, you could cut the second sheet into rectangles ...