Spinach Flan

I've worked on this recipe for a while, a few miserable try and deception.. 

Couldn't unmold it, then there was too much flour, not enough flavour etc... 

I've finally found a good balance between ingredients :)

I tried with ham, less cheese more milk... Finally the dry-ripened tomatoes are perfect !

For 4 people

   You will need :   

for the spinach batter

1lb of fresh spinach

- around 1.1lb if possible -

7oz ricotta (200gr)

3 eggs

1oz flour (30gr)

- 2 small tbsp -

1/3 cup + 1tbsp of milk (3.4 fl oz.)

1tbsp olive oil

"herbes de provence"

- mix of thym, rosemary, oregano, basil, lavander, sage... -

1/2tsp of salt

pepper

If you have some agar agar, you can add some so it will be even more flan-texture

for the heart

#tbsp of dry-ripened tomatoes(1.4 oz/40gr)

1tbsp of flour

2,1 oz ricotta (60gr)

Prepare the spinach

Rinse them well and remove the biggest stams.

Put your spinach in a big sauce pan  full of salted water and bring to a boil. After 2 minutes at a gnetle boil, drain them well in a strainer. Use a spatula to press and remove as much water as you can.

Put them on your cutboard and coaersely chop. Reserve.

Turn the oven on at 360°F

Prepare the flan

Beat egss and salt, pepper ans ricotta for 2 minutes with an electric beater.

When the batter is homogeneous, stir in by hand the flour and the milk

Pour it little by little, starting with the flour, ending with the flour.

Finally, add the oil and the herbs. Mix well and stir in the spinach. Reserve.

Prepare the heart

Chop finely your dry tomatoes, remove the excess of oil with an absorbent paper and mix them with the flour. Stir in the ricotta. Reserve.

Cooking

Cover your mold with parchment paper and use some cooking spray on it.

If you have a silicone mold, oil it with an absorbent paper.

Pour 3/4 of the spinach-batter in the mold, and in the center, 

pour the tomato-mix as a long strip in the center of the cake. 

Use 2 teaspoons to help you shape that stripe.

Pour on the top the end of the spinach-batter.

Cook 40 to 45 minutes

Turn the oven off, slightly open the door and let it cook 20 more minutes in the oven.

You can enjoy it as a main course : still warm with rice, salad or a tomato sauce. 

But it's also good when cold, as an appetizer.

Well, and next, what should I do...

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 :)

Sweet and tender muffins with cranberries and nuts

I replaced nuts by praline :)

Awsome muffin recipe :3 It's the Cook's Illustrated recipe " Very good pecan cranberrie muffins recipe"

Yvonne Ruperti has worked on this recipe and did a great job ! I haven't done the streusel this time :) 

They are gorgeous, I strongly recommand them !

I wanted to get a subscription but they just accept credit cards... 

- Ami ? -

For twenty small muffins, or a dozen big ones

   You will need :    

For the muffin

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

1 cup of white sugar (7oz/200gr)

6 tbsp of melted and cooled softely butter (2.5oz/70gr)

1,5 tsp of baking powder

2 eggs

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

- whole milk is better -

1 1/4 cup of pecan halves toasted and cooled (3.5oz/100gr)

- 7 minutes in the oven at 350°F,  stir every 3 minutes -

1tsp of salt

For the cranberries

2 cups of fresh cranberries (7oz/200gr) or frozen, or dry...

- You can replace by other red fruits, or dry grapes... -

1tbsp of confectioner's sugar

- powdered -

For the streusel

3tbsp of flour

4tsp of white sugar

1tbsp of light brown sugar

2tbsp of unsalted sugar, softened (20gr)

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup of pecan halves (40gr) 

Making the streusel

Turn the oven on at 425°F

Put sugars, flour, salt and diced butter in the food processor until mixture resembles coarse sand 

OR

use your hands :-)

- 4 or 5 pulse -

Add the pecan halves in the food processor and pulse it 3 or 4 times until coarsely chopped.

Set aside in a bowl.

Prepare your fruits 

If you are using dry ones, pour boiled water on them, real warm water and let them soak in 5 minutes.

If they are frozen, use the microwave to unfreeze-them and dry them out.

Baking the muffins

Butter and flour your molds

Whisk flour, salt and baking powder, set aside.

Chop coarsely nuts and sugar until mixture resembles coarse sand

- 10 to 15 secondes in the food processor -

Put that sugar in a bowl, pour the eggs in and whisk it together. 

Then, add the butter mix with a whisk, and the milk.

Finally pour the flour mix little by little

- 1 : eggs and sugar-nuts // 2 : After adding butter and milk // 3 : After adding the flour mix -

Set it aside 30 minutes

Chop cranberries with confectioner's sugar and the salt in the food processor until coarsely chopped. Pour it in your muffin dough.

Use an ice scoop to fill equally your muffin-tin

Try to get the center of the muffin a bit higher.

Spray some streusel on it and press gently with your fingers so it wil stick on the dough.

Bake 17 to 18 minutes, until golden and just firm, don't overbake.

Rotate muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking.

Let them cool 10 minutes in their tins, and 10 more minutes on wire rack

before eating them all :)

! See all the muffins recipes !

All muffins recipes

#1 100% chocolate muffin

source : Figaro cookbook

#2 Cranberries and nut muffin

source :Cook's Illustrated

#2 Banana and chocolate muffin

source :Cook's Illustrated

#3 Lemon scented, Blueberry muffin

Marbled cake

I've done all the recipes from Vovoi's book, at least, those working :) I'm back in my cookbooks !

"Exquises pâtisseries pour les Fêtes" de Christophe Felder, 

Choice was rather hard, because all the recipes seem delicious... My first pick is the marbled cake chocolate & vanilla.

I've done this one for a few years now, it must figure on my blog.

To be sure I haven't changed anything in the recipe since I've been using it, I've checked everything one more time. I hadn't changed a thing !

As good as usual, I can eat humongous piece of it !

- Creamcheese and chocolate icing -

For 1 big cake, or 2 middle sized cake (8inch by 4)

  You will need :   

for the batter

2 eggs

2cup and 1tbsp of flour (9.7 oz / 275gr)

6.1 oz of unsalted, softened butter (16tbsp / 175gr)

- sout of the fridge 1hour in advance -

1 cup 1/2 granulated sugar (13.2 oz / 375gr )

8.5 fl.oz  half & half (25cL)

1tsp of baking powder (0.2 oz/5gr)

3/4tsp  salt

flavours

4tsp unsweetened cocoa (0.9oz/25gr) de cacao amer en poudre

1tbsp vanilla extract

Turn your oven on at 375°C

In his recipe, Christophe Felder says to mix everything in a robot with a tool for working dough...

I don't have any, so here is what I've done :

Stir by hand, with a wooden spoon doing fluid but quick moves, rising the dough. the butter with sugar and salt to have a creamy batter

Add the eggs and stir until homogeneous

Finally stir in the flour with the baking powder

You have a soft and homogeneous batter

Divide it in two equal halves, in the first one, whisk in the cocoa.

In the other one, whisk in the vanilla

Use a whisk or a spatula by doing quick moves : cut and rise the batterMélangez au fouet ou par mouvement rapide en coupant/soulevant avec une spatule

Butter and flour your cakepan

- Christophe Felder says to spread melted butter on it and cover them with a parchment paper -

Start by pouring a thin layer with the cocoa batter (1/2inch) Do the same with the vanilla one etc...

Don't go further than 2/3 of your cakepan, it will rise a lot during baking :)

Bake it 40 minutes, without opening the oven. Depending on your cakepan, it often goes to 50 minutes.

Check the cooking by inserting a pick or a clean smooth knife in the center, 

if it comes out clean, it's baked !

Let it cool down at room temperature before turning out.

Christophe Felder gives the recipe for a chocolate icing made of "vegetaline" since I don't have any and I don't even know where to buy it in California, I will explain a Chocolate & creamcheese icing.

Chocolate & creamcheese icing

   You will need :   

1oz unsweetened chocolate

0.75 oz unsweetened cocoa

2.8 oz creamcheese

3.5oz powdered sugar

2tsp vanilla extract

3tbsp half & half  or water

2 pinch of salt

Melt the chocolate in the microwave with 2tbsp of water

Soften the creamcheese with an electric beater for 2 minutes, mix in the cocoa, the vanilla and the melted chocolate at medium speed

Mix in the sugar and the salt little by little, go on medieum/high speed.

Add in some water or half and half to obtain the perfect consistancy 

to spread on the cake.

- so good -

Tarte Tatin - Turnover apple pie

I'm back at my parent's place for Christmas and when I got back, my mom wanted a Tarte Tatin really badly, she had already bought apples and looked through recipes !
We went through more recipes to compare and chose the best way to bake it. It was a nice teamwork.

~~ The result was a bit too good for our bodyline ~~

We looked in "Le Larousse de la cuisine" which is like an encyclopedia about cooking,
all the famous recipe... it's a dictionnary. Then we checked the recipe of Christophe Féron
in Christophe Felder's book : "Exquises Pâtisseries pour les fêtes".
We've also checked the recipe of Guy Savoy... etc.
To conclude, there is many way to proceed. 

Finally we did not pick the easy one,
but the most interesting one.

So we made a mix of those recipes.
Not too much butter, a home made shortcrust dough, vanilla flavoured (or cinnamon)
Baked on the stove and in the oven.

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

For 10 people (9inch pie)Pour une tarte tartin d'une dizaine de personne (22cm de diamètre) 

Use a high mold (3inch at least) 
If you have a big pan, that goes in the oven and on the stove, it's fine too.

   You will need :   

1 shortcrust dough flavoured
- vanilla or cinnamon -

5 to 6 apples, depending on their size

- golden, reinettes, boskop, braeburn... a firm one -

 1/3 cup of sugar, white or brown (2.8oz/80gr)

1/2 stick of butter (5tbsp/1.8oz/50gr)

1tbsp of water 

salt
vanilla extract 

cinammon :)

Prepare the shortcrust dough

Make your shortcrust dough with unsalted butter and a pinch of salt

Add 1/2tbsp of vanilla extract stirred in 1/2tbsp of sugar in the water

Allumer le four à 200°C

Prepare the apple

Rinse and peel the apples, cut them in half and remove the seeds

- you can remove the seeds after cutting them if you prefer -

Depending on their size, cut these halves in 3 or 4 slices

- 1 apple is cut in 6 pieces or 8 if it's a big apple 

Pick a mold that goes on the stove and in the oven.
Place it on your stove at low heat, and melt the butter in it. Add the apple in and stir delicately
so they get fully covered of butter.

Leave them 3 to 5 minutes to get buttery and a bit yellowish and remove them from the mold,
they must not cook too much, they are still firm

- some butter is left in the mold, that's good -

Faire un caramel

Pour sugar in the buttered mold, add 1tbsp of water and 1pinch of salt
Put it on high/medium heat to make a caramel (toffee)

Stir with a wooden spoon so it won't burn

It must have a really dark caramel shade and be liquid
Turn off the fire, take the mold in hands > with gloves
and do a circular move so the caramel gets everywhere in the mold
By getting cooler, it gets harder and will stay in place

Place apples

When the caramel is still soft but sticky enough to stop moving,
place the apples as flower petals, close from each other,
press on the mold when placing them to get the caramel going in between.
Start by the outter circle with the biggest slices, then the inner circle.
You have extra apple left, use them in smal pieces to fill in the holes.

- about a half apple is enough -

Spread some cinnamon on the apple if you like it :)

Making the Tatin

Flatten your dough on a floured table, fold it delicately in half, then in 4. Carry it carefully on your apples, folds in the center. Unfold it to cover the pie.
Make the dough stick on the edges toward the apples. Don't use a fork to stab it.

Bake 40 minutes or so.

The dough must be real golden.

Turn out when tepid :)

- afer 15 minutes out of the oven -

Serve tepid with a vanilla ice cream or table cream !

My brother works on his exams, I am working on my basics recipes ;)

Wine tasting near Carmel

During our Thanksgiving trip, we stopped at a few different places that I will talk about in another post.

Christmas is coming and we found that delicate Dessert wine that would go very well with Foie gras or with dessert :)

Let me tell you the story... We were in Carmel, had spent the day wandering in the town (really cute town) and we had found cheese in the cutest listtle shop, that did cheese tasting :-) As french people, we bought a few cheese and decided to have a dinner made of cheese, bread and wine. 

After a long walk, we finally found some bread in a bakery, but we were out of wine. It was already 7pm, dark, cold, and it had started raining. On our way back to the Inn, we passed by "The Bountiful Basket" it seemed cute, cosy and another couple was already in. It was a wine and olive oil shop. 

And they did wine tasting ! So we went in, sat, and did the wine tasting :)

The Bountiful Basket, is a shop/wine tasting place, with a cute wood counter, 

high stools and a really nice atmosphere.

- can't say the same of their website -

The owner was friendly, we didn't learn a lot on the wine itself but on the business. 

So we trusted our guts on the wines.

We had a few reds and whites from Joyce winery, not great ones... and rather expensive ! There was 3 dessert wines, the first one is our favorite, it reminded us of the Sauternes (the foie gras wine, really sweet) his name is Angelica. We were seduced by its frutty taste, but still pretty strong. We could almost drink it with appetizers. So we bought some :)

19% alcohol), they have 4 or 5 different flavors

Its name is PasoPort, they have worked on labels with a designer, I kinda like them... old school :)

We also bought 2 other bottles for gifts, and a bad red wine for our cheese of course.

If you go there, try to avoid the Joyce wines :) 

But if you really love Zinfandel wines, I guess they are ok.