Ginger Cookies

Today I'm back with an other recipe with ginger, this flavored cookies is a perfect treat for Christmas afternoon teas. They are lightly crunchy outside and chewy inside.

Ginger Cookies

makes 24 cookies
125 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
150 g brown sugar
200 g all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of molasses
1 tsp fresh ginger, finely minced
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg

2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
a pinch of salt
more sugar for rolling

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Sift the flour, the baking powder, the spices and the salt in a bowl and set aside.
Cream the butter and the sugar in a large bowl with an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla , the fresh ginger and the egg, beat until smooth. Add the flour mixture and beat just until wel combined. Cover the bowl and chill for 1 hour.

Remove the dough from the fridge and gently form balls of 22 g. Gently roll the balls of dough in sugar, place them on a non-stick or parchment paper, make sure you leave space in between. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let them on the tray for 1 minute and  transfer on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container. 

It´s only 2 weeks to go for Christmas eve!

Have a nice week  ♥

Ginger Brownies

Finally I'm back two weeks after my last recipe, but I've been quite busy these days. But here I'm with a delicious brownies, this one has a special hint, ginger. I adapted this recipe from Albert Heijn magazine. The original is with stem ginger, I did it also with fresh ginger but  defenitely I rather use crystallized ginger.
What's about your Christmas preparation? We set up the Christmas tree last Sunday, even traditionally in the Netherlands you do it after the 5th.

Ginger Brownies

makes a tin 23x23 cm
250 g chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa, broken into chunks
150 g butter at room temperature
175 g sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or extract)
75 g crystallized ginger, finely chopped
a pinch of salt
75 g plain flour, sifted
75 g pecan nuts, roughly chopped
cocoa powder for serving

Preheat the oven to 180º.
Line a square cake tin with baking paper and butter it or better use spray.
Melt the chocolate with half of the butter in a bain marie or at very low power in the microwave. Set aside to let it cool.
In a large bowl cream the sugar with the remain butter. Add the vanilla and the eggs, one by one. Beat until well mixed.
Stir in the chocolate, the nuts and the ginger using a spatula. Carefully fold in the flour.
Pour the batter into the tin and smooth the surface with a spatula. Bake the for 35-40 minutes, insert a skewer and this should come out just with few crumbs. Do not over bake.
Remove from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack.

Serve warm or at room temperature with a scoop of icecream or whipped cream.
Dust with cocoa powder or icing sugar. 

I'm going to spend this weekend in Munich, I think it's going to be freezing but I'm looking foward to visit its xmas market, so if you have any suggestion let me know!

Enjoy!

Apple and Walnut Bundt Cake

Next 15t November is the National Bundt Cake Day and here is my suggestion for you, a delicious apple and walnut cake with covered with caramel frosting.

Apple and Walnut Bundt Cake

Makes 24 cm bundt cake tin
300 ml soft olive oil
320 g white sugar
3 large eggs
400 g self-rasing flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon salt
100 g walnuts, chopped
3 big apples, peeled and cubbed

Preheat the oven to 180º and grease the tin.
Sift the flour, the ground spices and the salt in a bowl and set aside.
Cream the oil and the sugar in the mixer large bowl, add the eggs one by one, beating well after each one.
Add the flour mixture and mix just until incorporated, do not overmix.
Finally add the walnuts and the apple and mix it with a spatula.
Pour the mixture into the tin, level with a spatula. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Place the tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes and remove the tin and leave it to cool down on the wire rack while you do the topping.

Caramel topping
100 g light brown sugar
75 g unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
80 ml heavy cream
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
150 g icing sugar

Melt the cubbed butter in a pan in a medium heat. Add the sugar and the salt, once disolved add the double cream. Bring it to boil, and simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove from the heating and allow to cool down for a while.
Sift the icing sugar and add to the caramel, beat well until smooth and distribute it all over the cake. 

If you like apple have a look at this french apple tart, the dutch one, this crumble or this loaf cake. Let me know if you try any of them! 

Pesto Sauce

Pesto is the tradicional northen Italy sauce usually made with basil, pesto Genovese. There are other variations with any other green such as rucula, sage or like my today's suggestion with swiss chard and rosemary. I also substitute the pine nuts by almonds and hazelnuts. I love to eat pasta with any type of pesto, but pesto combines also perfect with salads, with grilled fish or chicken, or even with baked potatoes. It is really easy to make, In  my case I used the traditional method in a mortar, but you can use a food processor and you will enjoy a lovely and fresh pesto sauce in less than two minutes. But I would suggest you to try it with the mortar and have a look to here if you really want to know the difference, I totally agree!

Swiss Chard and Rosemary Pesto

Makes enough for 6 servings
100 g swiss chard baby (or any other green)
rosmery, finely chopped
50 g  almonds and hazelnuts
60 g Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino cheese (or both)
1 garlic clove
extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt, to taste

Chop the garlic and the rosemery very small. Place some of the nuts in the mortar with the green leaves and grind all over in circles until all is crushed. Add the rest of the greens, the nuts, the garlic and the salt and keep it working. Once the paste is done mix in the cheese and finally slowly add olive oil and continue stiring, 

If you use the food processor, combine the swiss chard, the rosmery, the nuts and the salt, until coarsely chopped. Do not overmix otherwise it will oxidize. Add some oil and pulse until smooth. Place it in a bowl and mix in the grated cheese.

We can also keep it in an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top and store it in the freezer. I always remove the green germ of the garlic, but just keep it if you like it. 

I ate it with pasta, I top with some extra cheese and dried tomato. Try to do your own pesto at home, as you can see is really easy.

Have a nice week.

Sweet Potato Pie

Today I share with you an other fall recipe. Sweet potato pie is a traditional dish from the United States, usually served during the celebration of the Thanksgiving. It is extremely sweet but with a layer of the cream cheese gives a perfect balance of flavours. Actually it is a variety of the pumpkin pie, so you can perfectly substitute the sweet potato for pumpkin, that would be a nice idea for Halloween.

Cream Cheese Sweet Potato Pie

Makes 24 cm bundt cake tin
Crust
340 g flour
200 g cold butter
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Cream cheese filling

400 g cream cheese
90 g white sugar
1 large egg

Sweet potato filling

375 g sweet potato puree
125 g golden caster sugar
125 ml heavy cream
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
a pinch of ground cloves
2 eggs
a pinch of salt

Topping

50 g flour
25 g golden caster sugar
25 g unsalted cold butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of salt
40 g hazelnut, crushed

Clean and peal the sweet potato, cube it and place it in a pan covered with boiling water, heat until is soft. Remove the water and process in a food processor until smooth. Alow to cool down and place it in the fridge.

In the meanwhile make the crust. Combine all the ingredients for the crust, better if you use your hands. Shape the dough into a ball, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Roll out the pastry on a light floured surface and line a buttered tin. Trim and pierce bottoms with a fork. Put it back in the fridge.

Mix the cream cheese with the sugar and the beaten egg. Place this mixture in over the crust of the tin and place it in the fridge. Do not overmix otherwise the mixture will turn too liquid and the sweet potato mixture will go into the cream cheese. You can also put it in the freezer while you preapare the other mixture. It is very important that the cream cheese is very cold.

In a separate bowl make the sweet potato filling. Put the sweet potato puree, add all the spices, the sugar and the salt and mix well. Add the cream and the beaten eggs an combine.

Add the sweet potato mixture over the cream chesse, level with a spatula. Place it in the oven for 30 minutes.

For the crumble combine the flour, crushed hazelnuts, the sugar, the cinnamon and a pinch of salt in a large bowl and mix well. Add the butter and blend with your fingertips until the mixture turns to breadcrumbs.

After 30 minutes in the oven sprinkle the crumble and bake for 20 minutes more or until an inserted skewer comes out clean and the crust is golden brown. Let it cool and refrigerate for 4 hours to seto

You can top with some whipped cream and ground cinnamon before serving.

For more fall recipes check here.

Have a nice week.

Pumpkin Soup

This rich and tasty soup is perfect for the fall season and any cold day. It is extremly easy to make. There are a large of varieties to make this soup. Before I used to make pumpkin soup with heavy whipped cream, but a friend of mine suggested me to use coconut cream instead and she was right, it's delicious! 

This is perfect to serve for Halloween in an empty small pumpkin as a bowl. 

Pumpkin Soup

Serves 4-6
800 g pumpkin puree (I used a whole pumpkin about 1 kg)
200 ml coconut milk
vegetable stock
2 garlic cloves
1 medium onion
a pinch of grated ginger
a pinch of grated nutmeg
salt and white pepper, to taste
pumpkin seeds for garnish, optional

For the pumpkin puree you will need about 1 kg of pumpkin to get 800 g of puree. Put the peeled and cubed pumpkin in a medium saucepan covered with the stock and heat it until the pumpkin is slightly soft. 

In the meanwhile heat the chopped onion in a pan with some oil for few minutes on a low heat. After add the garlic and let it slowly simmer. 

Once the pumpkin is done remove some of the stock and keep aside, maybe we will need it later. Add the ginger, the nutmeg, some salt. pepper, the onion mixture and make the puree using a blender. 

Finally stir in the coconut milk and bring it to heat for a while without boiling. If it's think you can add some extra stock. Adjust the seasoning if necessary. 

Garnish with some pumpkin seeds 

The quantity of the stok it will depend of the thickness you like your cream.

If you like pumpkin check out this quiche, or this spiced jam or the loaf.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

He did it again! Jaime suprised us with a new book, just one year after he published his last one here we have a new book with 100 recipes more. Of course I didn't want to miss this one on my collection and I order it. So I totally recomend you if you are doubting to buy or not. I did already some of his recipes and today I wanted to share with you this sticky toffee version which appears in this new book I can just say it is absolutly amazing, I ate several versions, I have to say I'm a big fan of sticky toffee. But defently this turned my favorite. Sticky toffee pudding is one of the classics of the british cuisine, which it has a very moist cake made from dates and served with warm toffee sauce.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Makes 24 cm bundt cake tin
Cake
4 Earl Greay tea bags
450 g fresh dates
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 nutmeg for grating
170  unsalted butter at room temperature
340 g self-raising flour
170 g golden caster sugar
170 g dark muscovado sugar
4 large eggs
Maldon salt for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180º
Pit the dates and finley chop them. Place the tea bags in a jug and cover with 300 ml of boiling water for 3 ½ minutes. Remove the bags, add the copped dates and the cinnamon and leave it for 10 minutes. After blend this mixture and set aside.

Cream the butter and the sugars in a large bowl, add the eggs one by one. Add the flour and finally the date mixture. Pour this mixture into the tin, level with a spatula. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Toffee sauce

125 g unsalted butter
60 g dark muscovado sugar
60 g golden caster sugar
150 ml heavy cream
25 ml dark rum (optional) I didn't use it

When your cake is almost ready start doing the caramel sauce. Melt the cubbed butter in a pan in a medium heat. Add the sugars, once disolved add the double cream and if desired the rum. Bring it to boil, and simmer for 5 minutes.

As soon as de cake is done, allow to coold down in the tin on a wire rack and transfer to a plate and brush it with the caramel sauce. Sprinkle with the Maldon sea and serve with a jug of caramel sauce.

Serve it warm but also possible to keep up to 2 days covered at room temperarute. This cake is normally also served with ice cream or custrad, but you don't really anything else to enjoy this lovely and tasty cake.

Have a nice week.