whole lemon bar from david lebovitz

I like David Lebovitz. He is funny, always has one or two good recipes and a good adventure as an Americano living in Paris.His recipes are sometimes incredibly easy, not stunning but tasty and quick business. I recommend his blog for reading anyway.

Since, there is a lot of sunshine here I thought that David's (like we are on you term w/ each other...) sunny lemon bar would do here. It is very yellow, light and refreshing. If you are like myself, and always have some lemons hanging around in the fridge, then beside that you will only need to grab some store board ingredients to make this lovely bar. Very quick, very easy and disappears in minutes :)

whole lemon bar:
for the crusty bottom

140g flour (70g graham flour and 70g low carb flour)
50g sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
115g melted unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
cca. 100 ml milk if necessary

for the filling
1 whole lemon (cca. 150g)
100g caster sugar (or 200g as per original recipe of David if you are not on diet)
sweetener to taste to substitute an other 100g of caster sugar
3-4 tbs lemon juice
3 large eggs, room temperature
4 teaspoons corn starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
45g melted unsalted butter

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C. 

For the crust melt the butter and then mix the ingredients together. If too dry only then add some milk, but originally it was not in the recipe. Put the mixture  in your squared tin, and flatten with your hand or with a spatula. Put in the oven for 20-25 mins. until golden brown.

In the meantime you can make the filling, which cannot be simpler than the crust was. Wash your lemon thoroughly, if necessary put soap on that and wash with hot water (unless you have unwaxed lemon), cut that into 8 wedges and put in the food processor (get rid of the pips beforehand). Add the sugar and whiz to paste. Once done, and you have some liquid sunshine then add the eggs, one by one I prefer to do, and the starch, the salt and the gently molten butter, whiz and then last but not least add some more freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice. (don't worry about the pulp, it's fine)

Once the crust is done and cooled a bit pour the lemon mixture on the top, put back into the oven for 25 minutes (or less, depending on your oven). Let it cool before slicing up. Maybe serve in the company of some limoncello?:)

let's talk about Eric

Here is Eric. He is not a "oh-just-like-my-neighbour" type of boy at all. He is a master pâtissier and he lives up to the expectations as such :)
Probably, he was the boy in the public school whose English was not understood by anyone, since he is French, and his arrogance made him the perfect target for school bullies. But Eric is not the type of guy who would allow himself to be bullied, he would say 'ow dare they' and would walk off to the nearest patisserie to get the sweetest, coolest, most fashionable cake for himself  and then a haircut.
So, let me introduce you Eric Lanlard, with his latest series on television. He is very bad with the cameras, not able to make any convenient small-talk with his guest, but still...I am watching him every day!
Reason being, that he is over-confident with his cakes and dessert (must be since he was trained at the Roux brothers), he is making fancy cake decorations that even the chockywockydoodah would be envious with and last but not least his English is funny. Oh, and he is showing some quick bakes, which I tested and proved to be really quick, really! :)
So, here it is a cupcake from Eric's kitchen, which a bite. Lovely light sponge, and creamy yummy frosting. You will see what I mean!

Mexican chocolate Cupcakes: 

175g flour (85g low-carb, 90g graham for me - sieved)
1 tsp bicarb
1tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 pinch of cayenne pepper powder
1 pinch of salt
225g caster sugar (175g I dared...not more)
4 tbs cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 splash of white wine vinegar
5 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsb vanilla extract
250 ml water (I needed to add 100 ml milk too)

Combine the dry ingredients with the wet (the raw pastry must be runny, don't worry it is normal). Portion out to the papered cupcake tin, and bake in the 180°C pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes.

While it is baking in the oven prepare the frosting.
 150g sieved icing sugar
150g butter (on room temp)
100g melted dark chocolate
1 pinch of cayenne pepper powder

Combine the sugar and the butter with a spatula at first, then use your electric mixer to cream. Once light and fluffy add the cooled but still runny dark chocolate and the cayenne. Combine then put in the fridge for 20 mins, or at least till the sponge cools down.
Decorate to your liking!

a very health conscious muffin

Do you get the feeling that you are eating something very healthy when they eat carrot cake? I am pretty sure that all of us do so...:) But if we put the recipe under a magnifier glass, then we will find that it is far from being healthy. Butter, sugar, eggs and all of our good intentions of healthy eating is thrown out of the window.
So, being a health conscious mum I took a deep breath and reviewed the recipe I had in hand. All in all, I vamped up a healthier version of my all time favourite carrot cake.

Here is the result:
125 g butter
125g natural yoghurt (so instead of 250 g butter, we start having healthiness here)
150 g xylitol (the fad still holds)
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 large eggs (if you know any alternatives for this, then be my guest and use that)
100 g graham flour (which is slightly better than white flour but only slightly. Don't have illusions)
100 g low-carb flour (Still has the same calorie content as normal flour, thought less carbs)
50 g desiccated coconut
200g grated carrots (equivalent of 2 medium size of grated one)
2 tsp. all-spice
zest of one lemon
2 cm piece of ginger grated
1 pinch of salt, bicarb and baking powder each

Turn on your over to 180°C and put paper in the muffin tin's holes.
Mix the melted butter, with the yoghurt, the sweetener and the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one. Grate in the ginger and the lemon zest then put the mixture aside.
Measure out the flour, coconut and grate the carrot. Add the all-spice, the salt, bicarb and baking powder into the flour, add the carrot, then pour in the liquid (or wet) ingredients. Measure out the mixture equally in the muffin holes and bake in the pre-heated oven for 25 mins.

If you follow my recipe, and bake 12 muffins, then one muffin will contain 198 kcal, which is not that bad. 

p.s.: my little one just chomped away one and he was not complaining. That's all I can say.  

lemon drizzle cake

So easy, and quick that it takes longer to write down the recipe than to make the cake.
Since I am pursuing the xylitol fad recently, it is made with that. Otherwise, there is nothing special in it. 

lemon drizzle sunshine

Lemon drizzle cake: 
200g natural Greek yoghurt
150g xylitol
2 eggs
juice and zest of one lemon
grated ginger up to your own taste (optional)
1 tsp vanilla escence
225 g sifted flour
1 pinch of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder
100ml oil (rapeseed, or sunflower)

50g xylitol
juice of one lemon

Mix the wet ingredients in one bowl, add the oil gradually. Sift in the flour and the baking power.
Use a rectangular, or a plain loaf tin (which was buttered and floured beforehand) and bake the mixture in the oven (preheated to 180°C) for 45-50 mins (might take a hour). If burns quickly, then put tinfoil on the top to prevent burning.
While it's in the oven warm up the xylitol with the lemon juice in a pan until the sweetener dissolves, then a pour over the hot cake when taken out of the oven. Wait till it cools to room temperature and take out of the tin. Consume! :)

croissants

The Roux brothers are absolute favourites of mine. No doubt that they know something about gastronomy...consider the Le Gavroche, which was the first restaurant in the UK earning three (!) Michelin Stars (their first restaurant in the UK). Or the Waterside Inn in Bray, which has three Michelin starts as well, and managed to get hold of that in the last 26 years - now that's what I call perfection. (hm, people living in Bray are very lucky ones if you consider that Heston's Fat Duck is in Bray too...:) )

Now, how does it come to the fact that I made croissants last nite? Well, the thing is that I took my Michel Roux [Senior's] Pastry book and took a deep breath and embarked upon a journey of making croissants.
I must confess it has been haunting me, not the book, the croissant pastry that is. I have not managed to prepare good ones so far but this book gave me confidence. It helped me to understand flan pastry, shortcrust and the difference between puff pastry and croissant pastry.
Thanks to this book I prepared the first time acceptable croissants that were easy to make, involved minimum effort from my side, and gave me enough success and confidence to consider keeping it as a part of my repertoire. Lovely!

Chocolate and Hazelnut Cream Croissants:
(for 0,5 kg pastry)
7g dried yeast
125ml milk
250g flour
6g salt
30g sugar
cca. 135 g butter
egg yoke plus a dash of milk for the egg wash


1. step: warm up the milk in the microwave if taken out of the fridge, and add the sugar and the yeast. Let it bubble on room temperature for 5 minutes.
Mix the flour and the salt, add the milk/yeast and start to work the dough. Work only till it does not stick to the side of the dish. Don't overwork the base dough otherwise the pastry is not going to be light and fluffy.
Let the pastry rest on room temperature for an hour or as long as it doubles in size.


2.step: Knock the air out of the dough and work it on a lightly floured surface and form a ball shape out of it. Make a 3 cm deep cross on the top and roll out the pastry to 0,5 cm thick, and try to keep the shamrock shape.


3. step: take the butter out of the fridge, bash it into a flat rectangular shape with the rolling pin and put that in the middle of the dough. Fold the edges of the dough over the butter so it embraces perfectly and overlaps a bit.


4.step: Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a 30X15 cm rectangle and fold into three. One side from the left, one from the right so they overlap on each other. Let the pastry rest in (wrapped in clingfilm) the fridge for 30 mins.


5. step: Take the pastry out of the fridge, turn with 90° and roll it out. Fold into three like previously described, wrap into clingfilm and put in the fridge for an other 30 mins.


6. step: Roll out eh pastry again but in an opposite direction as previously, fold into three again, put into the fridge for 30 more mins (but not more than an hour).


7.step: Take out the pastry from the fridge roll out to 3 mm and cut into 3-4 big rectangles. Half the rectangles at the diagonal line (use a sharp knife!) and you have 6 big (or 8 smaller) triangles. Take the triangle and make a 1 cm incision in the middle of the base, put a spoon of choc. hazelnut cream above the incision and roll it up carefully and tightly.

8. step: Put the croissants on a baking sheet, form quickly into a crescent and brush them with the egg wash. Let them double in size for 1 or 2 hs, brush with the egg before putting in the 170°C pre-heated oven and bake for 14 or 15 mins.  
Eat it fresh or if next day consumed then warm it up in the microwave. 

cocoa swirls aka. kakaós csiga

Colleagues of mine started joking around on the social networking site regarding the concept of the kakaós csiga (husband calls them cocoa swirls). If you are Hungarian, then I am sure that you know what a kakaós csiga is and you don't think of something odd, or don't start frowning when I mention it. If you are a non-Hungarian, then you might find it funny that we named a nice chocolatey swirl after a sloppy animal. Anyway, the inspiration came, action followed and I made one of my best kakaós csiga of this year (easy, it's only January:))  (-let me please mention that the inspiration came from Maci )
The swirls were so successful at work and at home that 1. I could not take any photo of them since they were gone by the time I was about to do that 2. I am making the second portion today to satisfy family demand...

first he was approaching it

Ingredients:
for the dough:
500g plain flour
250 ml double cream
50 ml milk
4 tbs caster sugar
10-15g of fresh yeast (or 7g if dried)
2 egg yokes
75g melted butter
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

for the filling:
40-50g butter (on room temperature)
150-200g brown sugar
3-4 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1-2 tbs of hot chocolate powder (optional)

For the dough gently warm the milk and the cream with the sugar till it reaches room temperature (Use the defrosting function on the microwave). It should not be warmer otherwise, you will kill the yeast. If you use fresh yeast, then add to the milk/cream mixture and set it aside for 5 mins till the yeast starts working on room temperature.
Mix the flour and the salt, make a well in the middle. Add the yeast/milk/cream mixture and use your hands like claws to mix that in. Add the melted butter and the egg yokes and mix as long as your dough resembles to an elastic balls. Then kneed for 10-15 mins and let it rest for an hour in a warm place in your kitchen where there is no cold draught, since that would kill the yeast consequently the whole dough.
If you have a bread making machine then you can skip all of the above, and trust your machine to do the business for you.
After an hour rest, knock the air out of the dough and give it a good kneed again, but gentle now. Let it rest again for 10 more minutes.
Turn on the oven to 180 Celsius and roll out the dough into a rectangular shape, which is not thinner than 0,5 cm. Spread the butter evenly on the dough, and sprinkle with the brown sugar/ cocoa powder mixture (or hot choc. powder if you use).
Roll up the dough tightly, and using a 20-30 cm long thread cut the filled though into half, and then half again and half it as long as you reach 1,5-2 cm thick swirls. I don't like using a knife for cutting, as it squashes the "snail" and they would look rather like they have been run over by a car...
Place them on a baking sheet on their sides and if you want, you can sprinkle the top with some brown sugar and pour some hot milk/butter mixture (0,5 dl) on every swirl. Let it rest for an other half an hour before putting in the hot oven.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes and pour the left-over milk/butter mixture (other 0,5dl), and bake till golden brown (an other 15 minutes). Eat it till piping hot! (no don't do that, I am joking...) Enjoy!

then he put his hands on it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

then he ate it

Kitchen Recycling 2012/January

Since it is a new year (and btw Happy New Year to all my readers!) we have the choice of making some new years resolutions.Something like I will learn, I will give-up, I will do this, I won't do that, I will enroll and finish you name it and then we all forget about these within a week or so...or sometimes life gives you no choice but you have to change your habits without any consideration and stick to that for a while (or a lifetime:)). Either way it is, I think that for 2012 a lot of people will make the resolution of saving, or not wasting (money, food, time, attention etc.) so why not starting that in your kitchen?

This is not a new invention, as women, having practice in cooking, know the tricks of "recycling" of food for hundreds of years. For example, we have the Italian Panzanella, the Hungarian Hortobágyi Palacsinta, the Cesar Salad,Spanish croquettes, the lovely Bread and Butty Pud that all British housewives know the best, and we could continue the list with a loads of other dishes that is created by creative chefs, wives, students in order to save the leftover.

A couple of years ago the BBC went as far as creating an entire series around the topic and filmed the TV program, the Economy Gastronomy, which was a successful attempt to make viewers realize how much food (and consequently money) goes into waste and what you can do with your leftover Sunday Roast besides chucking that into the bin.

I could also mention the great initiative of lovefoodhatewaste.com, which is trying to encourage us to get the most from every ingredient and giving us colourful ideas of serving up the leftover that would go into waste.

In the light of these said above I would like to give you some recipes this month that uses up some leftover from your fridge and helps you to clean out your cupboard, giving everyday food a bit of a twist but on a low budget.

The first recipe this month is a DIY chocolate rocky road, for which I got the inspiration from Nigella. She showed how to use up the remains of the Christmas Cake, turning it into posh (no offense but what else?) chocolate truffles and serving them like they have always meant to be posh chocolate truffles:)!
Since, I was not in the mood of faffing around with the truffles, I turned this recipe into (not a classical) Rocky Road, adding whatever I found in the kitchen.
If you want to have some fun in the kitchen, then be my guest and start making the little truffle balls. If you are lazy like myself, then follow me :)
The rules and the ingredients are really not strict here. I was trying to give you some idea where to start and the variation of the ingredients is up to your taste and (of course) purse.


DIY Chocolate Rocky Road:
Ingredients:
1/3 of a traditional fruit and nut Christmas Cake (or the third of a 23 cm sponge cake or cca. 200g biscuits)
200g of Dark chocolate (any type)
200ml double cream
cca. 50g butter (if I say a knob of butter would you know what I am talking about)
cca. 2-3 tbs hazelnut cream and the same amount of peanut butter
a handful of raisin, chopped walnut and coconut (or almond, pecan, Brazil nut etc)
a dash of vanilla extract
cca. 1 dl sweet champagne (port,sherry or any sweet wine or any liqueur from the bottom of the bottle)*

Melt the chocolate over water bath, add the butter and the cream and take off the heat when molten. Let it cool.
Crumb the cake (the drier, the better) into a big bowl and pour in some champagne and add some vanilla extract. Stir in the nuts, any dried fruit of your choice, the melted chocolate and add the hazelnut cream and the peanut butter.
Turn the mixture into a cake tin, let it rest in the fridge for 2-3 hours or overnight and serve it sliced.

*FYI: Nigella used Pedro Ximénez :) but if you are serving this to children use some fruit juice or squash

it was difficult to take a good shot of this