Propuesta dulce mes de marzo: Torrijas con sirope de azúcar y bacon.

Whole Kitchen en su Propuesta Dulce para el mes de marzo nos invita a preparar un clásico de la cocina española: Torrijas.

Torrijas are a Spanish sweet that it is similar to French toast, but you would never have it for breakfast and it is always served as a sweet. It is thought that it was a good substitute for meat during lent -to fill up after a meal with fish-, as Catholics feast on it, especially on Fridays before Easter. It is also a very good recipe to use up stale bread. There are lots of Spanish dishes that are based on the principle of using leftovers, and although this is the first time I do Torrijas, I think this will become very soon one of our favourite recipes- well,for my boyfriend it already is!!!


INGREDIENTS:
Bread - any type will do, but baguette might be better.
Warm milk -as much as you think you'll need for soaking the bread
Eggs
Sugar
Cinnamon
Bacon
Golden syrup
Oil (for frying)


HOW TO:
Put some sugar into the warm milk. 
Mix some sugar with cinnamon so you have it ready to sprinkle on the hot Torrijas when they come hot out of the pan.

Start cooking your bacon- we did it on the grill, but just do it the way you like it!

Slice the bread and put it in the milk for 10 minutes to soak- I did 5 minutes and turned the bread the other side as my milk didn't cover everything. You can do that in the same pot where you heat up the milk or in a bowl.

Get a pan and put some oil to heat up. I know some people deep fry their Torrijas, but I only shallow-fried it. 
After those 10 minutes, beat one egg. Cover the bread that has soaked the milk in it and put it in the pan to fry. When you think one side is done- should get a toasted colour- turn it and wait for the other side to be done. That shouldn't take more than 3 or 4 minutes. 
Once done, put the Torrijas on some kitchen paper to get rid of oil excess and sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mix on top. Put the golden syrup on top of them and serve them with the crispy bacon.

We had them for dinner,but would make a lovely breakfast, don't you think?


Didn't put any measures on the ingredients of this recipe, as one of the characteristics of this type of "baking" is that you use what you have for the quantity you need. So if you need more milk... heat up some more; if you need more egg... crack another one!!


Enjoy the sun!!!!! I'm enjoying my afternoon off :)

Propuesta dulce mes de febrero: Sabayón de coco y fruta de la pasión con fresas

Whole kitchen en su Propuesta Dulce para el mes de febrero nos invita a preparar un postre de la cocina italiana: Sabayón.

Zabaione, as the italians call it, is a very interesting option to have as a puding. It is similar to custard (it only uses yolks)but is very quick and doesn't seem to be very delicate to make. Just make sure your arm is strong or to have an electric whisk, and that's it! I asked my Italian friend Valentina if she knew about it, and that question was followed by not a very happy face: her mum used to make it for merenda (their afternoon snak)quite often and since then she doesn't really like to eat it. She said it was nice, but we all know what happens when parents keep feeding us the same things over and over: we don't go near them in adulthood (the food, not the parents).

Ecco, la ricetta!!!

INGREDIENTS (for two people)

3 egg yolks

75grs sugar

4 tbsp coconut milk 

the juice of one passion fruit

toasted shredded coconut, to decorate

strawberries

HOW TO:

Put a pan with water in the hob- the water should heat up but never boil. 


In a bowl, put egg yolks, sugar, coconut milk and the juice of the passion fruit (I did that by squeezing the passion fruit through a sieve, so the pips, which I hate to find in sweets, wouldn't get in the zabaione).

Put that bowl on the pan. Make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water. Get your whisk, and whisk, whisk, whisk!!!

You might have to do that for about 10 minutes. What you are after here is a change of texture, so you go from a liquid substance to a more dense one. 

Once you think it's done, put the zabaione into ramekins or any other recipient you want to use. I sprinkled toasted shredded coconut on top, and left the strawberries on the side of the plate, so we could choose to eat them on their own (they were sooo sweet!!!)or with the zabaione.

I loved the result, although the passion fruit was very dominant. If you prefer the taste of coconut, use only half a passion fruit. 

As you will see by the pictures there are hearts again. I want to say I don't like hearts, but it was half term for me so I had all the time in the world and decided to make something speacial for my boyfriend and I.

Hope you try it, because it is super easy and delicious!!! I have decided to put a video so you see how it works. You'll notice she uses sweet wine, which the original recipe has. Can't wait to learn Italian!!!!

Buon appetito!!!

Of birthdays and cupcakes...

I just wanted to share some of the things I got for my birthday. First of all, when I got home from work on Monday I found the best cupcakes I've ever had in my life!!! My boyfriend made them and I just assembled them, putting as many raspberries as I liked!!!

My parents sent me a couple of bars of turron Suchard!! In Spain, we eat turron for Christmas. It is a sweet that you buy in blocks, and the original ones are made with almonds and honey but Suchard has been a must at my house since I discovered it, thanks to my Grandma- I think she was the one who started buying it. The Suchard turron is made of chocolate and it also has rice crisps in it.Now the make it with dark chocolate. I stick to the original one. Well, back to my parents' present. We ate the first bar and half the second. What to do with the third? Go into one of the best cupcakes blog and steal a recipe!! It's called Objetivo: Cupcake Perfecto and, there are recipies, but also cupcake places to visit in different cities in Europe: Barcelona, London, Madrid, etc. One of my friends is giving me a cupcake afternoon as a birthday present- I have to wait until Easter- and I will be using the Barcelona guide for that. Can't wait!!!

And last but not least,I got these cute plasters from a friend. I already had to use some, and I really liked walking around with cupcakes on my finger! You can get them from here.

And that's it!! Have a good week!!!

In my tummy: Honey Nut Banana Muffins

My first cooking challenge: Pithiviers!!

Whole Kitchen en su Propuesta Dulce para el mes de enero nos invita a preparar un clásico de la cocina francesa: Pithiviers. 

Ok, now said that, I must write what it's all about. I don't think I have tons of free time, but I do spend/waste time looking at blogs- mainly cupcake recipes at the moment. Some of the Spanish blogs I visited had a thing about a sort of cooking challenge from a website called wholekitchen.info. Some weeks ago I decided to join their "circle", which is the name they give to their followers who register in their forum,and do the suggested idea for the month: Pithiviers. It's French  (perfect as I increased my French lesson ours this term), it is like the galette de rois -missed again the Spanish Three Wise Men day- and the filling, called Frangipane, reminds me of the filling of the almond croissants we buy in Chez Julien and The French Tarte- yes, it's almond time!!. And inspired by that, the twist in this case comes with adding some chocolate chips in the Frangipane mix. I say inspired, because both places are loved at home for their pan au chocolat aux amandes. 

As February is approaching, I made some hearts with a small heart cookie cutter on the pastry. The idea was to put some red colouring food in the Frangipane, so it would look all valentiny, but ended up being orange, so I wouldn't do that again. I also used the cookie cutter to do the shapes for the border of the Pithivier.

INGREDIENTS:

500grs of puff pastry

1 egg, beaten

icing sugar to decorate

For the filling --> FRANGIPANE

100grs sugar

100grs ground almonds

100grs soft butter

A bit of fruit licquor (I used smirnoff with cranberry alcopop)
2 eggs

HOW TO:

Cut two circles of approx. 24cm in the puff pastry. Put one of it at the bottom of the oven tray, and make the decorations on the other half that will be the top of the pithivier. 

For the FRANGIPANE, cream butter and sugar. Add one egg at a time and then the ground almonds, the licquer and the chocolate chips. Mix it well.

Once the Frangipane is done, spread it on top of the circle that you have previously put on the baking tray, leaving 2cm. at its border. Put the the other half of the pastry on top of it carefully, and give it an egg wash. Press the edges so it seals well, and make any sort of decorations you want there, so you make sure it looks pretty. Leave in the fridge for 10 minutes. After that, put it in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for 10 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 180. and let it bake for another 10 minutes.Et voila mes amis, nous avons un gateaux delicieux!!

Bailey's truffles

I owed this post to the baking world. Sorry baking world.

Going to my mouth...

You can offer them to your gests in
this way (see previous post)

I made this truffles a looooong time ago, to take to the school I was working in. They were a hit amongst the staff- well, just some of them, as they didn't last that long. The flavour was quite strong-I love chocolate, but I wouldn't eat five or ten of those in one go.


Now that I think about it, I don't feel that bad about posting this so late- it is a great idea to make them as a gift for friends and family.


I got the recipe from www.realepicurean.com, a really neat and full of fresh recipies website.  I followed it step by step. Some of the people who comment on the recipe say they didn't succeed in making them. My only advice is that you have to be patient, but once you realize the texture is the right one to start making the truffles, the rest is really straightforward. Then you can roll them on cocoa powder or icing sugar. Or on chopped hazelnuts. Or maybe even dip them in white chocolate...


So, click here to get the recipe. Enjoy!!!!

3 new things in my kitchen

Here are the three new things I have now in my kitchen: a fruit bowl that could have belonged to my grandmother, a square cake tin and some mini cupcake cases in lovely sumery colours.

Fruit bowl

Well, the label said "fruit basket" but at home is for fruit. I bought it from Clas Ohlsen for £1.99 and they also have it in fucsia and yellow. I like this retro/kitsch design, and also the fact that it looks like something my grandma would have had in her kitchen.

Cake tin and cupcake cases

The tin is from IKEA- just a square one. I hope to repeat the victoria sponge cake from the previous post in it, as I want to serve it in squares rather than cake slices. The "petit fours" cases are from Sainsbury's, and I think they are less than £1 for 100 cases. I got them to present some truffles I made, and which I´ll post the recipie soon.

Superspongy One-stage Victoria Sandwich

Yesterday I made a Victoria sponge cake, just to finish a jar of raspberry preserve we had. I made it with clotted cream, as a traditional English cake deserves to be made with the authentic products of the country. The recipe is from the book "Afternoon Teas...". It is a very good book to get into the sweet side of English gastronomy. All the recipies are very authentic and easy to do, so ideal for anyone who wants to replicate their Grandma's puddings or for us foreigners, to whip up a taste of Britain whenever we feel like it.


Ingredients:
175grs self-raising flour
175grs softened butter
175grs sugar
3 eggs
a pinch of salt
caster sugar to decorate

For the filling:
raspberry jam
clotted cream (or whipped double cream or buttercream)

Baking:
Pre-heat oven at 180 C.
The recipe calls for throwing all the ingredients together. However, I just did it the way I normally bake cakes: cream butter and sugar together, then mix the eggs in and after that incorporate the flour, and then the sugar. Beat very well at each stage, because that is what it makes the cake superspongy.

For a sandwich cake like this, there are always two options: you either make it in two "thin" tins, or in a highish tin. With option one, once the cake is made and cold, you just have to spread the clotted cream and raspberry on and put the other half on. With option two, you just have to cut the cake in half once it's cold as well, and spread the filling. Don't forget to use cooking parchment or to butter the tin before putting the batter in.

Bake for 20 minutes if using the sandwich tins, 30-35 for the high one I guess- I would check after the first 20 minutes, or go by the rule of "if smit smells, we might have to take a peek at it".
To decorate, just sprinkle some icing sugar- I used a strainer to do so.

What a loooooooooong post. Sorry!!:P Enjoy!!