The Lemon cake : one of my favourite classics

Each one has its own recipe, its own version of that cake. More or less buttery, acid etc...

I hadn't done it in a few months and suddenly I realized it shoud be on my bog since it's a recipe I've kept in my cookbook for a while now :)

I hope you'll like it as much as I do. Its advantage is that it can be baked in different kind of mold, 

it's really easy to make and it suits all seasons.

Why don't I have an lemon or an orange tree in my garden ?

  Preparation    Easy, it takes 15 minutes to put in the oven

  Tasting    I really do love that cake :) So fresh but amost like a pound cake, delicious !

  To conclude    It's definitly a recipe that I'll keep all my life

Serves 10 to 12

   You will need :   

1 stick softened unsalted butter (4oz)

- vous pouvez arrondir à 100gr en France -

2/3 cup white sugar (4.6oz/130gr)

1 cup 1/3 +1tbsp flour (6oz/175gr)

4tbsp milk :)

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 organic meyer lemon

2tsp baking powder

For the icing

2/3 cup powdered sugar (100gr)

lemon juice

Making the cake

Grate the lemon zests. Reserve

Preheat the oven at 360°F

Butter your mold with a cooking spray

Using a food processor

Mix butter and sugar, then add in eggs. Add in the milk, the vanilla. 

Add in the flour and the zests. Mix everything at least 2 minutes.

By hand

Work butter and sugar until creamy,

stir in the eggs until homogeneous.

Stir in milk, vanilla.

Stir in the flour with the baking powder and the zests.

Pour it in your mold unil 2/3 full

Bake 30 to 45 minutes

Check cooking at 30 minutes by inserting a toothpick in the cake to check the moist.

Let cool down 20 minutes before turning out.

Making the lemon icing

Mix the sugar with the lemon juice. Add the emon juice spoon by spoon. 

Stirring after each spoon. And keep adding spoons until you have the right consistency.

It must be a cream, liquid enough to be spread, but not too liquid !

Pour it on your cake when it's out of the oven

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 !

Coconut Macaron, Christophe Felder's recipe

I was looking for macaron recipes... my first try was the Pierre Hermé's macarons, delicious but their shape was not perfect ! I still have to work on them :)

In Christophe Felder's "Exquises pâtisseries pour les fêtes"

He proposes these coconut macarons.

  Preparation    Really quick and easy, in 20 minutes top they are out of the oven, already cooling down to be eaten !

  Tasting    So good ! You can fill them like usual macarons with a custard, but they are also delicious by themselves. Moisty, and chewy and coconutty :)

  To conclude    My mum and I loved them, they were all eaten in on evening !

For 3 dozen of macarons

  You will need :   

7.8 oz (220gr) shredded sweetened coconut

1/2 cup white sugar (3.5oz/100gr)

1/2tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil (3.4fl.oz./10cL)

5tbsp powdered sugar

 + cooking spray

Preheat the oven at 360°F

In a bowl, stirr all ingredients but powdered sugar,

Mix 1 or 2 minute until a bit foamy

Use a cooking spray on your cooking tray or use a parchment paper to cover it

Pour powdered sugar in a bowl and drop a small golfball-size of dough in it, 

roll it in sugar until covered. 

\\ Use a spoon to drop it in it, the batter is too moisty to handle by hand //

 Make a ball by hand, reroll in the powdered sugar and place it on your cooking tray.

Place each macaron 2 inch apart

Bake 12 minutes to 15 minutes until golden and cracked.

Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before tasting

These macarons are better when fresh, the day they are made

If you're less than 5 to eat them, divide all proportions by 2 !

Vanilla rice pudding - Creamy rice

Another classic recipe !

I followed Françoise Bernard's advice but I made my own mix of ingredients !

As a result, it's really creamy, sweet and tasty rice pudding, 

especially with a spoon of quince jam on the top :)

Serves 6

   You will need :   

7oz. / 200gr pearl rice, arborio rice

- I used the same rice as for sushis -

3 2/3 cups fresh milk (30.4 fl.oz/90cL)

3tsp vanilla extract or a vanilla bean grated

1/3 cup + 2tbsp white sugar (2.5 oz/70gr)

1tbsp of butter

To serve

Jam from a citrus fruit :)

Precook the rice

Rinse the rice until water is clear

Bring to a boil in a saucepan full of water with 1 pinch of salt.

Let it boil 5 minutes, turn the stove off and drain the rice.

Preparing the rice pudding

Pour in a wet saucepan the milk, the vanilla, the sugar and the drained rice.

Cover and let it cook at low heat until almost totally absorbed by the rice.

It takes 40 minutes or so. Stirr a few times while cooking.

After 40 minutes, turn the stove off, stirr in the sugar and the butter.

Pour in ramequins or any dish you prefer, cover with a plastic film.

Refrigerate 2 hours before serving

- well, try to refrigerate :) -

Serve when cooled, nature or wih a jam, a syrup... etc.

Lemon Tart with lemon french custard

Lemon tart with mandarines, it's a season dessert by the French Pastry Chef Christophe Felder.

I love citrus fruits and his recipe sounded great ! Who doesn't have a few lemons and mandarines ?

This recipe comes from the book "Exquises pâtisseries pour les fêtes" of Christophe Felder. 

 There is a lot of amazing recipes in it, even some muffins :)

I did my own cookie dough and I flavored it, but I followed all his steps for the lemon cream.

My cookie dough is mandarine flavoured, with the zests and a bit of juice.

I divided all the proportions by half and did 2 medium tarts instead of a big one.

  Preparation   I tried to follow his instructions, but it got harder than it is supposed to be... I felt like I lost a lot of time. But there is no difficulty in the recipe. It lacked of details, but I'll explain it clearly on this post. Still, it took me about 1 hour to prepare... mainly because of the mandarines.

  Tasting   I've never been disappointed by Christophe's recipes ! That cream is absolutely delicious, though too buttery for some people. It's a fresh, rich and buttery cream... it's an all-season dessert actually. A lot of flavor with a hint of sugar... I really don't think I could find better, unless there is less butter in it ahah. For the mandarines, I'm not convinced, it seemed like a nice touch but it's not worth it !

  Conclusion   I keep the recipe, without the mandarines :)

For a 9 inch pie : serves 6 to 8

Christophe Felder gives a recipe for the cookie dough :

Same as mine but +2tbsp of butter and no zests. Softened butter mix everything with a wooden spoon.

Keep 1 hour in the fridge, then cook at 350°F for 15minutes. Turn out when cooled.

   You will need :   

For the cookie dough

1lb of cookie dough with :

2 mandarine's rinds, shredded finely

3tbsp of grounded almond
1/2 cup white sugar

- instead of 2/3 cup -

For the lemon custard

5 meyer lemon's rind, finely shredded

1 1/4 cup sugar (270gr)

3 sticks of butter (350gr)

- it hurts ! -

5 eggs

2 mandarines
1/3 powdered gelatin bag (0.07oz/2gr)

Turn the oven on at 325°F

Making the dough

Finely peel the mandarine's zests with a cheese grate. Chop them.
Add it to the flour with grounded almonds and sugar. Then follow the recipe of cookie dough.

Flatten it on 0.2 inch (5mm) and place it in your buttered mold. Press gently on the sides so it won't fall.
Put 20 minutes in the oven.

Turn out when cooled.

Prepare the custard

Prepare the gelatin by following the instructions on the package.

While your dough is cooking, peel coarsely your lemons to get the rinds.
They may be thick, it doesn't matter... do as peeling an apple.

Cut the butter in dices, set aside.
Press lemon juice in a saucepan, with zests, gelatin, sugar and eggs beaten, whisk.

Turn the stove on at low/medium heat while stirring.

- ingrédients non battus - après battage - après cuisson -

After a "while" (15 to 20 minutes) the cream will thicken and start simmering.
Turn the stove off, add the diced butter and stir until homogeneous.
Use a strainer to pour in a bowl and remove the zests.
Once filtered, beat with an electric beater at medium speed for 1 minute.

Making the tart

Remove all the thin white skins from your mandarines.

- it takes a while ! -

Cut them in dices if too big. 

On your pre-cooked dough, Pour half of the custard, then the mandarines.

Keep the center of the tart without mandarines (circle of 2inches) so it will be beautiful when served. 

Pour the end of the custard, flatten it.

Decorate with a vanilla bean and a few mandarines... a rasperrie or whatever you have :)

Refrigerate 2 hours before serving !

Breakfast of the world Challenge !

Breakfasts of the World Challenge on Very Good Recipes

The results of the Breakfast of the World Whallenge have been published !

My French citrus crêpes got the 1st place !

Thank you so much to all the judges and the generous sponsor for this challenge !

You can see the all the challengers here !

That was my first contest :)

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 ! -