Panna Cotta Cake

Pannacotta, that famous italian dessert is incredibly to make. Normally served in individual portion but that time I decided to make it with a bottom lose cake pan.  

Panna Cotta Cake

makes a 15 cm cake

for the crust:

150 g cookie

80 g melted butter

for the filling:
500 ml heavy cream
50 g sugar
1 vanilla pod
100 g fresh raspberries plus some more for topping

Crush the cookies in a food processor or in a plastic bag, seal the bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Mix together with the melted butter with a fork until well incorporated. Place this mixture in the greased tin and press with the bag of a spoon. Keep it in the fridge to set while we do the filling.

Heat 300 ml of the heavy cream and the sugar in a saucepan with the seeds of the vanilla pod. Bring it to simmer for about 5 minutes on low heat. In the meanwhile put the gelatin sheets into a bowl with cold water, or just follow the directions of manufacturer depending on the kind of gelatin you will use.

Remove from the heat. Drain the gelatin and add it to the mixture let the mxture cool down for about 20 minutes and place this mixture for 30 minutes in the fridge.

Blend the fruit and set aside.

In a spearate bowl whip the the remaining 200 ml of cream and using a spatula mix it with the cold mixture from the fridge. Pour this mixture over the cookie base and with the fork spread the mixture of the fruit all over making spirals with the fork.

Place it in the fridge to set for at least 6 hours or preferably overnight. Top with some fruit and fresh mint before serving.

I you want other panna cotta ideas check out this one or this other one.

Have a nice week ♥

Fig Chutney

I love to make my own perserves, but what I really like the most is to enjoy them with cheese, patés or foie, as an appetizer spread. I use to make fig jam, is actually one of my favorites, also for salty dishes, but the chutney fig is even better for grilled meats, I love its sweet and sour taste. Did you ever try the chutney? Is a traditionally perserve from the indian cousine, probably the most known is the mango one, but there are many varieties of chutney.

Jam and preserves is a nice homemade present, last year I give away some jams to my relatives and friends for Christmas, and this year I'm thinking to delight them again with any other handmade jar such as this chuteny. 

Fig Chutney 

1 small red onion chopped

1 lemon zest and juice
50 ml white wine vinegar

50 g sugar

fresh ginger grated, about 1 cm
1/2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 small cinnamon stick
3 cloves
a pinch of salt
50 g raisins
250 g fresh figs
soft olive oil

Cook the onion in a medium sauce pan with some oil. Add the rest of the ingredients except the figs. Let cook over a medium low heat until the onion is completely softened., about 20 minutes. Add the fig quarters, cover the pan and cook on low for 5-10 mins. Remove the lid and cook 10 to 15 minutes over low heat, stirring, until the mixture thickens and becomes like jam. Pour into a hot sterilized jar, seal and allow to cool. up side down, for 2 hour and refrigerate.

With these amount of ingriedients I filled 2 jars of 150 ml.

This recipe is adapted from here. 

If you enjoy making your own perserves you can have a look to this pumpkin jam or this chestnut cream.

Enjoy your week ♥

Chocolate Marmalade Tartlets

Here I suggest you an easy way to fill tartlets, with chocolate and jam, just a perfect combination. You can fill them with your favorite jam, in my case I used the pumpkin jam I did, which is spiced and very tasty and mixed with the chocolate ganache is absolutly delicious. I love the touch that  caramelized pine nuts gives to this dish, but you can also easily substitute for an other nut. But make sure you put those three ingredients, jam, chocolate and crunchy nuts for ultimate in flavour and texture.

Tartlets are so easy to make. You will just need to make the crust, it is also posible to buy it on a store ready to use. Of course I rather do one by myself, much healthy and with ingredients that for sure everybody has at home. 

INGREDIENTS 6 serves

Pâte Sablée {based on Martha's Stewart}

140 g butter cubed and room temperature

100 g white sugar (I used vanilla sugar I made)

190 g all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

With an electric mixer beat the butter and the sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add flour and salt, beat until just combined, do not overmix. Shape the dough into a ball, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate 1 hour or up to 2 days, or freeze up to 3 months.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough 3/4 mm thick and make a disk a little bit bigger than your tartlet shells with removeable bottoms. Press each portion into the bottoms and sides and pierce the bottoms of the shells all over with a fork. Refrigerate them for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180º. Cover tartlet shells with baking paper and fill them with dried beans. 

Bake in preheated oven until edges are golden. Remove paper and weights and continue baking until crust is golden-brown all over, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Chocolate Ganache

150 ml heavy cream

190 g chocolate, finely chopped

Pumpkin jam (or your favourite jam)

caramelized pine nuts for garnish (optional)

Put the chocolate chopped into a bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a boil on a medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove just when starts boiling and pour into chocolate bowl and stir with a rubber spatula until smooth. Let it cool for 5 mintues.

Once tartlet shells are completly cold, remove tins, spread the bottom with the jam and cover with the chocolate ganache. Tap tartlets to flatten. Top with some caramelized pine nuts.

Serve cold.

I think this pumpkin jam is amazing but I would also recommend you any other homemade jam.

♥

Chestnut Cream

I am keeping doing perserves during last weeks, these cold days makes me stay more at home and enjoying cooking moments.

It's chestnuts season and I decided to make a this cream which has a consistent texture, perfect to accompany tarts, pannacotas, and other sweet tenders. I am thinking to fill some macaroons with it. But as well as other perserves and jams, this cream is also suitable to use in savory dishes such as grilled meats.

Preserves is also a nice option to give away, and for Christmas I am already planning to delight my relatives with perserve jars.

I do not like to make so much jars, with the quantities I detail you below you will get a jar of 250 ml, if you want to make some more just increase the ingredient quantity and you will enjoy longer this lovely cream.

To give an stronger taste of vanilla I used homemade vanilla flavored sugar. You can also add cinnamon, clove, ginger, any other spice or just any extra flavor.


INGREDIENTS

150 g chestnuts (roasted and peel) 300 g whole chestnuts
125 ml heavy cream
120 ml milk (full or half fat)
80 g white sugar (I used homemade vanilla flavour sugar)
a pinch of salt

half vanilla bean

Preheat the oven to 180º.

Make a cut to each chestnut and put them ont the tray in the middle position of the oven, over a baking paper.  Roast them about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and peel them when they are still hot.

Put the chestnuts in a saucepan with the milk, heeavy cream, sugar, salt and the half vanilla bean until it boils and let it cook on a low heat for 15-20 minutes, or when it gets the right consistensy for a cream. The chestnuts will get softer and the mixture thickens. Remove the vanilla bean,

If the mixture is too thick just add cold milk, you can add as much milk as you want until you get the desire texture.

Liquify the mixtute with a blender and pour the hot cream into sterilised jars, let it cool and place in the fridge. 

To sterelize the jars put them into boiling water.

Try to add some congac or other liqueur to the cream to give an special taste. Mixed with chocolate ganache is perfect to fill cakes, cupcakes or any other dessert dish.

Happy All Saints Day ♥

Spiced Pumpkin Jam

Pumpkin is often associated with halloween and closely related with this celebration. There are a large amount of recipes with pumpkin and other alternatives such as this jam. What is better than to make your own homemade jam? 

I really love anything with pumpkin, sweet or savory. Here I did my own spiced pumpkin jam which is absolutely amazing, very tasty and with a special flavour. It is not extremly sweet. You can eat it with pancakes, just spread it on a slice of bread but what I really like to use it is as a condiment with some grilled meat, and to spread on toast with foie or cheese.

As all jams it is very easy to make, you will just have to add the wished species. Here you have my recipe but you can add other species such as nutmeg, black peper or cumin. The smell during the cooking is really nice.

INGREDIENTS makes about 3 jars of 200 ml

500 g pumking (peeled and cubed)

200 g gelatin sugar (regular sugar also avaliable)

1/2 lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

2 cloves

Put all the ingredients in a big sauce pan and cook covered on a low heat, until the pumpkin gets soft, and the mixture thinkens and you have got the right consistency. Aproximately 40 minutes. Stir from time to time with a wooden spoon during the cooking process. 

If during the process it gets too thick you just must add some water in.

Liquify the mixture with a blender, if you wish do not do it competly and leave it a little bit chunky. 

Pour the hot jam into sterilised jars, close immediatlely and place the jars upside down, during 12 hours or overnight.

To sterelize the jars put them into boiling water.

I love this pumpkin color! ♥

Strawberry and Cream Tartlets

I love tartlets, they look so cute, even with the required time they need I think is easy to make them. The advantage is you can make enough dough and put it the freezer up to 3 months, so it will be easier when you decide to make them.

My lovely little garden delights with juicy and fresh strawberries, unfortunatly not enough to make these tartlets but to enjoy as a nice snack or use some of them to make this tempting dessert. So I have no other choice then to go to a fruit shop, but anyway they look goergous and taste delicious.

These tartalets are filled with pastry cream on a crust of paté sablee. With the following ingredients you can make 4 tartlets of 8cm or a 24cm one.

Patê Sablée {recipe of Martha Stewart}
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on a medium about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low. Add flour and salt, beat until just combined and crumbly. Shape dough into a disk, and warp in plastic. Refigerate 1 hour up to 2 days. Can also be freezed up to 3 months.

Vanilla Pastry Cream {recipe of Martha Stewart}
1 cup milk

1/2 tbs vanilla extract or vanilla bean

2 large egg yolks

50 g sugar

15 g cornstarch

Put the milk and vanilla in a saucepan until starts boiling. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 20 minutes.

Whisk egg yolks until smooth and reserve.

Put sugar and cronstarch in a saucepan and add gradually the milk mixture and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thikens and begins to bubble, about 5 minutes.

Whisking constantly, slowly pour one-third of milk mixture into egg yolks. Pour mixture into remaining milk in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a full boil and is thick enough.

Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a heatproof bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing directly on surface. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 2 days. Before using whisk to soften slightly.

Preparation of Tartlets:

Preheat the oven to 180º. On a floured surface, roll out dough and fill the tart pans. Trim and pierce bottoms with a fork. Refrigerate or freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.

Bake until edge are golden, about 15 minutes. Remove parchment and weights and continue baking until crusts are golden brown over, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Fill tart shells halway with pastry cream and top with sliced strawberries. Serve immediatley or refrigerate up to 2 hours.


Before serving you can also sprinkle them with icing sugar, honey or syrup.

You would need about 250 grams of strawberries.

Enjoy!

XXX

Raquel

Caramel Sauce

The caramel sauce goes perfectly with any dessert like an ice cream, yogurts, cakes, cupcakes or just eating it with a spoon!

The process is very easy and just takes about 15 minutes and we will have our homemade caramel sauce done.

Adapted form this blog.

INGREDIENTS

120 g butter

4 tablespoons water

100 g light brown sugar

100 g white sugar

200 ml heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel (optional)

Place sugar, the butter and water into a saucepan over medium low heat and stir the until sugar has dissolved, swirling the pan occasionally, for 3 minutes. The sauce will turn to amber, at this point add slowly the cream. You will see it will make a lot of bubbles, but this is normal. If you want to make your sauce salty add the salt after the cream.

Stir with a wooden spoon and remove from heat.

Placed in sterilized glass jars, let it cool on room temperature and store in refrigerator.

Once you make your own caramel sauce it will be quite hard to eat one form a store.

♥♥♥

Lemon Curd

Esta exquisita crema es tradicional de Inglaterra y tiene infinidad de usos: para acompañar pan o tostadas, tartaletas, waffles, cupcakes, pasteles, o simplemente a cucharadas! su textura es perfecta para rellenos.

Hasta hace poco yo solía comprar los tarros en el supermercado, pero poco después descubrí que hacerla era muy fácil y le puedes potenciar el sabor del limón a tu gusto.

Ingredientes

2 limones grandes

3 huevos L

120g de azúcar caster o azúcar normal

55g de mantequilla sin sal a temperatura ambiente

Utensilios

varillas manuales

bol resistente al calor (metálico)

un cazo

colador

tarros de cristal

Pasos:

1. Lavamos los limones y rallamos la piel,  necesitaremos aproximadamente 1 tbs.

2. Exprimimos los limones para obtener su zumo, 80 ml aproximadamente.
3. Ponemos en un bol los huevos y los batimos ligeramente, añadimos el azúcar y seguimos batiendo. Finalmente añadimos el zumo del limón y la ralladura, batimos y ponemos al baño maría.

4. Es muy importante no dejar de remover con las varillas, veremos que se irá espesando. Seguir removiendo hasta que se convierta en una crema. (si tenemos termómetro hasta llegar a 70º, sinó serán aproximadamente 10 minutos).

5. Retiramos del fuego y añadimos la mantequilla y seguimos removiendo.

6. Podemos pasar por un colador si lo queremos completamente libre de grumos y ralladura.

7. Tapamos el bol con un film transparente hasta que toque la crema, así evitamos que se forme una capa, y dejamos reposar hasta que se enfríe completamente.

8. Una vez enfriada ponemos en los tarros y cerramos bien, conservamos en nevera. Consumimos antes de 10/15 días. 

Con estas cantidades he rellenado un tarro de 0.25l.

Evidentemente podéis variar las cantidades de limón, esto va a gusto del consumidor!

Espero que lo probéis ♥