Le Far Breton : Pitted prunes batter cake

The "Far breton" is a famous cake from Brittany, France. Some versions have Rhum or Kirsch.

Vanilla flavoured, it looks ands tastes like a French Flan (Custard Tart) 

though a bit heavier and dense, BUT it's so easy and quick to make, that we don't really care :)

This recipe has been perfected along the years by a family from brittany :

my step-brother's mother kindly shared it with me, thank you Yvonne !

  Preparation    Hard to do easier than that ;) Cooking time can change depending on your oven. 

I used a glass-pan (Pyrex) and it was longer than expected. 

I have added more prunes than I was supposed to, for a perfect dose of fruits :)

  Tasting    It has to be eaten fresh and cool, so you'll have to wait a bit before tasting it ;) 

According to me, proportions seem perfect. I've seen others on websites with more sugar or flour. 

This one was delicious. It was not as heavy as I remembered some bought in stores !

  To conclude    It took us a few days to finish the pan, there is only 2 of us :) But we both liked it.

Serves 8

   You will need :   

1cup 3/4 flour (7oz/200gr)

1cup white sugar (7oz/200gr)

4 eggs

4 cups hot milk (34 fl.oz/1L)

12 to 15 pitted prunes

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven at 350°F (180°C) with the buttered pan inside.

Hot milk

Heat the milk with the vanilla in a medium saucepan. (it must not boil)

Main batter

In a large bowl, mix sugar with flour. Add in the eggs one by one until homogeneous.

Pour the milk

When the milk is steaming but not boiling, pour it slowly on the previous mix, 

stir by hand with a wooden spoon. 

\\ Take your time, don't pour it at once or you will completely miss the recipe //

Pouring

Take the warm pan out of the oven, place the pitted prunes in it 2 inches apart.

Add more or remove some depending on the size of your mold.

Pour slowly the batter on them, really slowly or the prunes will move.

Baking

Bake 1h or so, turn off the oven and let it bake 15 more minutes.

Mine took 1h15 to bake completely. (+15minutes in the oven)

- If you use a stone-pan it can be quicker -

The top must be golden

Mine had a strange shape when out of the oven :D

I should have turned it front to back at halftime-baking... do so !

Let it cool down at room temperature, then cover with a plastic film and reserve in the fridge.

Eat after at least 4 hours in the fridge !

Double Chocolate Muffins

100% Dark chocolate Muffins

To celebrate our return to ths USA, I tried a 100% chocolate muffin recipe.

This recipe is from the Figaro's cookbook "Tendances gourmandes #02 "Intense chocolate"... My mum was probably in the need of some chocolate when she bought it :)

It's Syvie Girard-Lagorce's recipe. The picture were really bad but I wanted to try a chocolate muffin recipe :)

  Preparation    Easy, well explained, for a beginners

  Tasting    Good but nothing exceptionnal, they lack of tenderness, even if they are really soft.

Maybe it's the baking powder, or the cocoa instead of melted chocolate. They were better on the morrow.

  Ton conclude    I'm opened to other recipes.

For 2 dozen muffins

   Il vous faut :   

1 3/4c flour (200gr)

1 14 cup light brown sugar (250gr)

17 tbsp softened butter (190gr) 

3 eggs at room temperature

1 cup unsweetened cocoa (125gr)

2tsp baking powder (10gr)

1/2 tsp salt

1cup mik (25cL) 

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chip (175gr)

Preheat the oven at 370°F

Prepare your muffin tins with cooking spray or with butter

Soften the butter with the electric beater, beat in the sugar in 3 times.

Add eggs 1 by 1, beating each time until homogeneous.

In a bowl, stir flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in that dry mix to the previous batter.

Mix until homogeneous.

 Little by little, stir in the milk 

 

When your batter is homogeneous, add in the chocoate chip.

Fill 2/3 of your tins,  slighty higher in the center.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes depending on the size of your tins.

At halftime baking, turn the tray front to back.

Mine were done after 15 minutes.

Use a toothpick to check moist.

Cool down on a wire rack before turning out.

Keep under a plastic film :)

! See all the muffins recipes !

Best Creamy Chocolate Pudding

Do you like chocolate, really do ? 

This is a recipe you have to try... 

It's the best chocolate cream I've ever tasted ! 

This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated, they really do have great recipes.

  Preparation    15 minutes top, so quick and easy !

  Tasting    So onctuous and creamy and... perfect, but if you prefer milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate, this recipe is not for you !

  To conclude    I did it 3 times in a row... loved it too much !

Serves 6 to 8

   You will need :   

1/2 cup white sugar

2tbsp cornstarch

- Maizena -

3tbsp unsweetened cocoa

- Van Houten or Hershey's unsweetened -

2 pinch of salt

- environ 2gr -

3 egg yolks

2 1/2 cup  milk (21fl.oz/62,5cL)

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (2fl.oz/6cL) 

4tbsp unsalted butter (1.8oz/50gr)

1cup bittersweet chocolate ~80% cocoa (3.9oz/110gr)

2tsp vanilla extract

1/2tsp strong ground coffee

- I used Nespresso coffee -

In a small bowl, mix vanilla and coffee. Set aside.

Prepare together butter and chocolate in morsels. Set aside.

In a saucepan, stir in sugar, cocoa salt and cornstarch, mix.

Whisk in the yolks and the cream until homogeneous

Whisk in the milk until fully integrated.

Bring slowly to a boil at low heat, whisking slowly. It takes 7 to 8 minutes.

When all the surface is simmering/boiling. Count down 30 secondes while whisking.

Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate and butter in morsels. Whisk until homogeneous !

Whisk in the vanilla/coffee mix.

When you have an homogeneous cream, pour in a bowl and cover with buttered parchment paper.

Refrigerate 2 hours.

Whisk and serve !

 - I love so much chocolate ! -

Sweet and tender muffins with chocolate, banana and honey !

I loved the Cranberrie's recipe so much this time muffins are banana and chocolate !

Turn your oven on, these are really really good !

 For a dozen big muffins

   Il vous faut :    

For the main batter

1 3/4 cup flour (6.3oz/180gr)

3/4 cup whitesugar (6.3oz /180gr)

1/4 cup brown sugar (0.7oz/20gr)

7tbsp of slowly melted and cooled butter (2.8oz/80gr)

2 tsp baking powder

2 large eggs

1/2 cup of milk (4.2 fl oz/12,5 cL)

- whole milk -

3/4 cup of dark chocolate, chopped (2.5 oz/70 gr) 

- 70% -

3/4 tsp salt

For the bananas

2 cups bananas (10.6oz/300gr)

- 2 grandes bananes ou 6 petites -

2tbsp honey

For the Streusel

3tbsp flour 

1 tbsp + 1tsp white sugar

1tbsp light brown sugar

4tbsp softened butter

2 pinch of salt

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

Turn the oven on at 425°F

Make the streusel

Mix sugar, cocoa, salt, flour and butter in a food processor until mixture resembles coarse sand 

- 4 to 5 pressures -

Pour in a bowl, set aside

Prepare bananas 

Cut the bananas in small dices and stir honey by hand in them,

Cover and set aside.

Preparing the main batter

Butter and flour the mold if needed.

In a saucepan, slowly melt the butter and let it cool down a few minutes

\\ or use a microwave, 2 x 12secondes, stirring in between //

-------

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, set aside.

In another bowl, use an electric beater to beat egs and sugar until white and fluffy

- 1 minute -

Pour in the butter, whisking, then the milk.

Add the flour little by little by whisking.

Cover and set aside 30 minutes

Stir in the bananas, the chocolate and fill your muffin tins.

Have the center a bit higher and spread streusel on the top, press lightly on it.

Bake 17 to 18 minutes

- Rotate muffin tray from front to bacj hafway through baking -

Let them cool down 10 minutes in their tins

 and 10 more minutes on a wire rack before eating them all !

 

 - Only one left... -

! See all the muffins recipes !

Chocolate and lemon cake... Soft and buttery cake !

It doesn't look that great...

But in fact *glups*

I don't know anymore, my favorite chocolate cake recipe may have become this one....

This is a recipe from Sébastien Gaudard's book with Françoise Bernard

"Le Meilleur des desserts"  It's a bible of the most famous classic french family recipe.

 Each of them gives its recipe of a classic cake, his advice and his knowledge of the cake.

It's a really nice book, though the pictures are really bad...

Françoise Bernard gives the classic recipe of the "Quatre-Quart", but Sébastien Gaudard 

proposes a "Cinq-cinquième" with a fifth ingredient in it : CHOCOLATE !

1/5 sugar, 1/5 eggs, 1/5 butter, 1/5 flour, 1/5 chocolate... oh my god.

Try it, it's awsome and really easy :)

Lemon and chocolate are a perfect match...

For 6 to 9 people

   You will need :   

Each ingredient at room temperature

2 eggs, weighted

- mine were 4,4 oz -

Same weight of sugar

- 4,4 oz -

Same weight of salted butter

- 4,4 oz -

Same weight of flour

- 4,4 oz -

Same weight of dark chocolate : 70%

- 4,4 oz -

2 tsp of baking powder

Finely shredded lemon zest (1/3 of a meyer lemon)

Turn the oven on at 350°F

All the ingredients at room temperature

Prepare the zest

Peel the thin skin of the lemon, without grating the white part. Cut it in small pieces. 

- You can use a cheese-grate to peel it -

To avoid having a dry lemon after that, put some plastic film all around it.

Make the cake

Beat the eggs with the sugar and the zests until white

- about 3 minutes at high speed -

Melt the chocolate in the microwave in a bowl stirring it each time

- 4x30 secondes - 

When it's melted, stir in the softened butter

Stir in the chocolate-mix to the previous batter. 

Stir by hand to have a soft and souple batter.

Mix flour and baking powder together and stir that mix little by little in the previous batter.

Butter and flour your mold (or use a cooking spray)

Fill the mold to the 2/3

- it raises pretty well -

Put in the oven at least 30 minutes

- mine took 35 minutes -

Insert a toothpick in the center of the cake to check moist.

I hope you will like it as much as I did :)

Pain de Gêne, Almond Bread !

Think almond cream, frangipane... oh my god this cake is sooo good :)

evrybody agreed :

" This cake si soooo good ! "

For 8 to 10 people

   Il vous faut :   

0,5lb of almond powder/ground almond

0,5 lb of white sugar

1.2 oz of butter (120gr)

4 eggs

3.5 oz of flour (100gr) de farine

3 tsp of kirsch

- more almonds ! -

Turn on the oven at 450°F

Melt the butter in a casserole on low heat, it must be tepid, not hot

Stir the grounded almonds with the sugar,

do a well in it and add the beaten eggs, 

stir it with a wooden spoon from the center of the bowl

stir in the melted butter

Add the flour, stir it by hand

At the end, stir in the kirsch

Pour in a buttered pan or with parchment paper

Put in the oven and change the settings to 370°F

Vovoi says 40 minutes cooking, but it took me 1h20 in a silicone mold...

It was a pretty thick mold

Take a regulat meat loaf pan :)

By using so much almond powder, I'll have to bring back some more from France ! :)

It's kinda hard to find here, but I saw an "almond meal" that looked like it at Trader's Joe, it might be interesting to check it out.