29 April, 2012

Pogácsa with pumpkin seeds, which is not a scone

Let me elaborate on this. Maybe the shape of the scone looks alike the Hungarian pogácsa, but oh my, it is really not the same thing. Therefore, no translation please since, it is not the same thing. It is like when you compare a ratatouille to a good vegetarian curry. You see what I mean? The two might look the same, but OMG a Frenchman would kill me for this statement, likewise a true-born Indian.
After this intro let me tell you that Pogácsa, with a capital P, is a real deal in my family. You can really bribe certain family members with a pogácsa or two...so having good experience in making pogácsas, let me share with you my latest creation, which comes from mixing two recipes.
No, I did not mix the recipes, as Rachel did in Friends. You know when she was making the English trifle for Thanksgiving, and added one layer of minced beef to the trifle as she was following the recipe. Then, it turns out that the pages of the recipe book of the trifle and the cottage pie stuck together...
Anyway, my pogácsa is edible, good snack -even for the under-aged family member as well (sometimes)- and easy to make (and btw, 100% success is guaranteed!)

Pogácsa:
175g good quality butter on room temperature
400g (bread) flour
100g wholegrain rye flour
50g pumpkin seed
1 whole egg (plus one for brushing)
110g blue cheese
150g natural yoghurt
20g fresh yeast (or 7g dried)
1/2 Tbs sugar
cca. 100 ml warm milk
1-2 tsp salt

Warm the milk, dissolve the sugar and crumble in the yeast. Let it rest for 5 mins, until it gets frothy on the top. If you use dried, fast action yeast then you can miss out this step.
Sieve the flours in a big bowl, and rub in the flour with your fingers. Make a well in the middle, add the yeast(y) milk and incorporate. Add the crumbled blue cheese, the egg, the seed and enough yoghurt that makes a good dough. Kneed it for 5 minutes, or use your bread machine or whichever kitchen gadget you prefer. Let it rest for an hour in a warm corner of your kitchen until it doubles in size.Pour the dough on a lightly floured surface and need a bit. Roll out to 1,5 cm thick, cut out to your favourite shape and let the pogácsa rest on a baking sheet for an other half an hour. In the meantime pre-heat the oven to 180-200°C.
Once the pogácsa rested, and has risen enough, brush with lightly whipped eggs and put in the oven for 25 minutes. You will not regret trying it straight out of the oven...

ps.:this dough makes around 40 pogácsa. If you do not want to make all of them at once, then you can freeze half of the dough after the first resting, before rolling out. Once frozen, can be kept in the freezer for 2-3 month. If you want to use it, then thaw in the fridge overnight. Then let it rest on room temperature for 3-4 hours, then roll our, cut out, let it double in size (I usually use my oven for this on 40-50°C for 15-20 mins) then egg wash, finally bake in the oven as described above.

21 April, 2012

shortbread deluxe

This Eric boy surprised me again. His shortbread is so nice, that it's going to be part of the usual Mrs Moore repertoire at home!
This is my second attempt for making shortbread, the first one was catastrophic (now I know). I mean for me it was fine, nice, edible buut that was the first time that I ate shortbread ever, and I did not have anything to compare with. So, the first attempt was nice if you have never eaten shortbread before. Husband did not even touch that portion, so from this you can see that it was no good at all...
All in all, today I had to try at least something from my goodie package, and I decided to make Eric's shortbread so that I can try my mega-fantastic cookie stamp
who told you that my cookies are not home made? 




Well, I must say that 1) the recipe is simply perfect as it is 2) and the cookie stamp functions perfectly (repetition it is but true).

Shortbread with blackberry coulis:
200g chilled butter
250g flour
100g icing sugar (I used 60g and it is perfectly enough. Eric has a very sweet tooth...)
2 egg yokes
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Rub the butter (only v. good quality butter to be used in this recipe) into the flour. Once it resembles to sea sand, sieve in the icing sugar (you need to get rid of the lumps in the icing sugar). Add the egg yokes and the vanilla and make a dough. You don't have to work it long, just two seconds and it gets its shape easily. Chill in the fridge for 1 h minimum. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and make the coulis while the biscuit is in the fridge. For that you will need:

300g blackberries (frozen is good)
100g raspberries
1 lemon juice and zest
3 Tbs of brown sugar

Put the berries, the lemon juice, the zest and the sugar in a dish and cook on the stove for 2-3 minutes. Then blend (if you have a blender) or mush with a fork, pass it through a sieve to get rid of the pips and cool until usage.

Remove the dough from the fridge, roll out between two layers of clingfilm to 0,5 cm thick, and cut out your favourite shapes. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes (and not more) and let it cool on the cooling rack before touching it (it is very fragile when it's piping hot). Serve the cookies with the blackberry coulis, and you will hear the angels singing Hallelujah!
no, it is not a tadpole on the right -  it is the blackberry coulis


01 April, 2012

paid my dues

The girls came, and helped me a lot. They were nice, asking a lot of questions but still they were heroines, no complaints, no talking back, no drama just did their job. So...in return I promised them that I will pay my dues in cake.
And I did and actually they were very happy with it.
They were promise a chocolate ganache cake with blackberries and they were not complaining... I think everyone was green with envy but never mind, the girls did the job, they earned the cake.

The original recipe idea came from Lila Füge, a very much liked Hungarian celebrity blogger wannabe (ok, ok I take it back), whose style I don't really like but whose blog I still read sometimes ;).


Chocolate ganache cake with blackberries
180 g flour
1 pinch of salt
40g cocoa powder
20g corn starch
250 g sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp bicarb
175g natural yoghurt (or a bit less)
1,5 dl water
1,5 dl oil
2 eggs

for the ganache:
300 g dark chocolate
a pinch of cayenne pepper (you can omit)
300 ml thick double cream
3-4 tbs blackberry jam (or whatever you like)
fresh (or frozen but I don't want to know about it) blackberry to decorate

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Butter and line your cake tin(s). If you have two tins, then you are lucky. I was working with one so it took more time to get ready with the sponge cakes.

Sieve the dry ingredients into a big bowl and add the wet ingredients one by one. Stir with a spatula, you don't need a hand mixer or any voodoo kitchen gadget for this cake. Pour the cake mixture into the tin(s) and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. If you find it undone in the middle (you know cake test with a needle) but actually the top is turning dark brown, then put it back in the oven for an extra 5-10 minutes but cover with tinfoil to prevent burning.
While the cakes are being made in the oven, heat up the double cream on your stove, add some fresh vanilla (or extract) and/or some cayenne and pour the hot cream over the chocolate (you can use good quality dark chocolate drops/pastilles as well) and let it rest/melt for 2 minutes. Once molten, stir carefully, and put aside 200 ml from the ganache. Put the ganache in the fridge for an hour, and in the meantime your cake can cool enough to handle. If the cake is not in level, then trim the excess to get two nice thick disks. Put a layer of blackberry jam on the top of one of the cakes, spread carefully and pour that 200 ml, cooled ganache on the top. Spread the ganache but make sure that you leave 0,5 mm at the edges. Put the second sponge on the top, and press down carefully so that you even out the filling.
Pour rest of the ganache over the cake, and decorate to your preference. Put the blackberries on the top of the ganache to remind yourself that it is actually it is a chocolate AND blackberry cake!