Daring Bakers: Opera

Opera is a dessert I always wanted to try, but never found the courage! It is one of those dessert so complicate dan with so many different passages and layers, that, honestly, if it wasn't for the Daring Bakers, I would probably be still here wondering about it!
Funny thing is that before to make it, I wanted to compare the given recipes, a mix of Dorie Greenspan and Tish Boyle and Timothy Moriarty's recipes, with the French recipes, but I couldn't find it!
Among my cook book collection, I have to French desserts bibles: Ph10, by Pierre Hermè and Larousse de desserts. None has the recipe for Opera. And that looked strange, given the fact that both books are filled with monstrous recipes, so difficult that sometimes I read them, I think about them I dream them, but I do not dare making them (and I'm not revealing which one is the most dreaded, because it will be my choice for the Daring bakers challenge I'm going to host in 2009!)! I wanted to have a look at the French recipe not because I wanted to change the recipe of the challenge, but just for comparison. Has it never occurred to you to have in front of you a recipes, especially desserts, and want a "second opinion", just to be sure, just to have a different view? To me it happens all the time!!! :)
So my only reference for this traditional French dessert were American recipes! Perfect! I mean, my French husband wasn't so sure about it, but I mean, is HE the daring baker??? No, he's not, he's just French! :P
And as the recipe turn out PERFECT, he could say nothing!!!!

The only problem I had was the fault of the white chocolate: I like the taste (even if sometimes it tastes too much of vanilla!) but I hate working it! It spoils in a matter of seconds!

I did a big rounded cake (jelly rolls are rare and difficult to find in Italy), and bakes the joconde in 3 different pan: 2 of the same size and one tinier, as I had only 2 pan of the same size.
But I solved the discrepancy among the 2 different size with blueberries!
My layers, from bottom to up:
- joconde, big size (wet with syrup)
- buttercream
- joconde, little one (wet with syrup), with a round of blueberries on the side
- buttercream, covered with blueberries
- joconde, big size (wet with syrup)
- chocolate mousse
- chocolate glaze

As it was made of different joconde size, I had to restrain the cake in a ring, so I could fill it in a easier way.
Of course, as usually, I unmoulded to fast, and the chocolate glaze went on the side... After this challenge I can say with no doubt that I'm not cut for good and perfect looking desserts: I just cannot! I'm a pasticciona!!! (that in italian means kind of goofy but that makes mess all the time!)

Canned peaches from Monate's Lake

I was born in the Lake region of Italy: only around Varese there are 7 lakes (famous for a hard bike tour): Varese, Maggiore, Comabbio, Biandronno, Monate, Ghirla, Ganna ! Well, do not imagine lakes of the size of an American lake: no, nothing like that! They small lakes, but very very picturesque... Those lakes are very lucky with the climate, and always blessed with mild weather.
Once, many years ago, I was wandering around the Lake District, in England, and I suddenly felt like I was home: the two landscape are very similar!
The Lago Maggiore, being the biggest of the 7 (Maggiore means bigger), is well known and very beautiful... But all the other lakes are a popular destination during the summer, especially Lago di Monate, being one of the few where you can bath, and being very clean too! :)
Around Lago di Monate, there are several orchards, and the most famous are peaches, especially canned peaches.
Forget all about the normal, chewy and tasteless canned peaches you find in supermarkets: those are something else!
First of all, they are still firm! And they are not all the same: each halve is different from the other, because that's nature: nothing is exactly similar to the rest!
And then the flavour: awesome! Fresh, almost as if just picked from the tree!

For the picture above, I just drained them, blended them and then use them as a sauce for madeilenes! :)

Kheer, Indian rice pudding

I have recently became accustomed to Bollywood movies! They rock!!! I love them!!!
So, when my friend Sara (my Bollywood movies pusher) proposed a Bollywood night, well, I jumped in with great pleasure!!! :)
And I proposed to bring an old favourite of my husband: the Indian rice pudding.
It's a really soothing dessert, fairly simple, but worthy to the best tables, as my friend Sara is! :)
I will never stop to thank her for her Thanksgiving turkey!!!
And as she always scold me that I should write recipes, because, at the end "you have a food blog and that's what you should do!" (and she's right, I know, but it's SO boring writing recipes!!!), here's the recipe! :)

1,2 l milk
75 g basmati rice, rinsed
100 g sugar
150 g raisins, golden and Corinth
1 piece of cinnamon
6 cardamom
2 teaspoon rosewater
Flaked almond and rose bud to adorn

Bring the milk to boil. Add the rinsed rice and stir with a wooden spoon for 10 minutes, then leave it to cook for at least one hour, stirring occasionally, on a very low fire.
Add sugar, raisins, cinnamon and cardamom and cook for another hour, stirring frequently.
At the end of the cooking time, it should look like a cream.
Far from the fire add rose water, stir and transfer everything in a serving bowl. Cover with the flaked almond, adorn with the rose buds and let it cool.
Enjoy it in front a nice bollywood movie!

You are my Catcher Block I’m your Barbara Novak

You are my Christian I’m your Satine.
You are my Norman Warne I’m your Beatrix Potter.
You are my Lincoln 6 Echo I’m your Jordan 2 Delta.
You are my Frank Churchill I’m your Jane Fairfax.
You are my Jerome I’m your Nagiko.
You are my Renton I’m your Diane.

I was never, and never will be, one of those beautiful women people turn to watch in the streets, but you turned for me.
I was never, and never will be, one of those girls all smiles and “yes darling”, but that’s what you love about me.
I was never, and never will be, one of those women that will celebrate Valentine’s day, but you don’t care either. And you don’t mind if I have a meeting (to organize this) for tonight.
I was never, and never will be low maintenance, but that’s why you love me.
I always was and will always be a major pain in the @#§*, but that’s WHY you love me!
And, “It doesn't take a Nazi rocket scientist to figure *that* out”!
And I will always be the girl that makes you laugh, that makes you smile and that makes you a chocolate cake!!!

And this year, a chocolate, ricotta, yoghurt and ginger spoon cake, all for you, with all my love!

P.S. This post is part of the series "Only 10 people in the word understand my quotations, one of whom is me, one my husband and the other the subject of them, but he doesn't read my blog, better, he doesn't know I exists". For the rest... Well, I won't tell you my "secret": guess it! ;)

Daring Bakers: Lemon Meringue Pie

Ah, the American classic, the one you see in every diner in American movies! The sumptuous, meringue pie with a bright yellow cream filling!!!
When I read what the new challenge would be I was really excited!!! Jen, the Canadian Baker made a wonderful choice!
I began to read the recipe and I was a bit struck: water and not milk in the cream?
But, as usually with our daring bakers recipes, everything worked! Water in the cream, yes, as it's lighter, and with so much lemon you do not even notice it!
The lemon scent and flavour was perfect! I do not know if it was because I used organic lemons from Sorrento, the best lemon you can find in Europe, but it was the right balance of tangy and sweet!

The friends that ate it were very pleased! And me too, even if I would preferred a harder meringue, but that's all my fault: I'm always afraid of burning meringue!!!

Mango Verrines

I found astonishing mango: they were perfectly ripe, big, juicy and chosen by a very cute and gentle guy! ;-)
And I had them there, altogether with some FRENCH petit suisse (I would like to stress on the French origin of my petit suisse, because they are creamier then the horrible one you find in Italy...), so, what can do more justice to this two ingredients if not a verrine?
I know that my last sentence is not really logic... But, have I ever said to be a logic or non the less coherent person??? Never! So...
What I did was just to mix petit suisse with some cream and very little sugar and spoon it in the little glasses. It everything go with your own taste: I measured nothing! I just kept trying it until it had the right creamy consistence and the right sugary taste for my own palate. You do whatever with your own! :-)
Then I topped it with the blended mango mixed with some melted gelatine (for a big mango, 2 sheets (aka 4 g) of gelatine).
In the fridge for 3 hours.
Serve at room temperature.

Enjoy!

I’m high on Cannelés!

Oh yeah, they are really addictive those little treasures!!!
When I was seeing them in bakeries or shop around France I never had the urge for them, but that was because I’ve never tried them!!!
Then, some time ago, I saw them again here…
So last time I’ve been in France I finally bought Cannelés mold (because you need special mold to make them like that, of course!): the last step toward a endless love affair that will bring me to the grave, ahead of time, with high cholesterol and diabetes…
But then they could write on my tombstone: “Here lies Piperita, beloved wife, daughter, and blogger. She lived wildly, experiencing all the patisserie in the world (with a special preference for Pierre Hermè creations)…”
And there will be a marble macaron on top of it… Preferably a caramel au buerre salé macaron… But I let the choice up to the tomb maker…
Ok, sorry, I’m getting creepy! ;-)
Back to Cannelés addiction! So, as I was saying, cannelés kept showing up in my life, here and there, from time to time…
And then, one night, watching our new addiction (Brothers&Sisters), Kitty Walker tried to feed her nephew Cooper with them, but what do you think a three years old kid can understand about high French patisserie??? Nothing, that’s it, as even grown ups cannot!
So, Sunday night my parents came to dine to our home. I though it was time: I had to make Cannelés!

Here they are… And you know what? They are simple: you mix everything, chill and then cook it for 1 hour in the oven… I mean: that’s dummies proof, no???
For the recipe, I used the only one I could find among my cookbook library, from Les Classiques de Camille, by Camille Le Foll, Marabout, 2004. (Do you want the recipe? Get the book! Or try hers!)

Following up the rest of Sunday night menu! I started from the dessert because I’m a fond maverick ("What can I say Taylor? I'm a maverick!") and I do not follow rules! Unless it is Pierre Hermè dictating them: then I’ll even jump from a bridge if he thinks it’s what you need to do to get a dessert right…

Apologies: I do not know where this creepy mood is coming from … I’m crazy, may be…

Strawberry jam mini brioches

Sometimes ago I became obsessed by owning a copy of Larousse des desserts (the French equivalent of a gastronomical (dessert in this case) encyclopaedia), written under the supervision of the god of all pastry men, women, child, and passionate in the world, Pierre Hermé.
Stated this, I trusted the book like a bible, like the ultimate dessert recipe collection, along with the basic recipe.
I have to say I’ve made brioche (in the French meaning of the word), but never with this recipe. And I don’t know… The taste was the one of the brioche, but the texture wasn’t. In fact my husband (who is not very keen on pastry making, but it’s a scientist, so on some matters I certainly trust him!) said that the problem could be the flour. As I used normal white flour, may be the recipe was for stronger flour… The fact is that I haven’t trust my feelings (adding more flour), but I followed the book… Something I shouldn’t have done… Anyway, I think that if you add enough flour to the recipe I’m giving you, just to obtain a consistent, elastic and smooth dough, you should arrive to the right consistency… BUT if you are yeast/flour/patisserie challenged, do not attempt even to think about it!

This recipe was made among a series of Jam recipes I'm realizing for work, "to help" the tasting panel to get rid of all the jams they are tasting! As if they need it!


5 g of fresh yeast
190 g of flour
20 g of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
3 eggs
150 g of butter, room temperature

Strawberry jam

Crumble the yeast and mix it with flour and sugar. Add the eggs one by one, kneading each entirely in the dough before to add the next. Add the diced butter little by little and keep on kneading (if at this point your dough is too wet, add flour).
Let the dough rest for 2 hours, then punch it, knead it a little, and let it rise more.
Scoop a little of the dough into a muffin mould, add over it a little spoon of jam. Cover with more dough and let it rise again.
Preheat the oven at 150° C and bake the mini brioche until risen and golden.

Daring Bakers: Cinnamon rolls

I have to say I love Cinnamon rolls. In general. Always. They are good, that’s it!
And then I saw this month challenge of the Daring Bakers I was happy, really!
You have to know that every daring baker take turn to host the monthly event. So every month we have a different host (this month is Marce!). The fact is that most of the hosts are Americans, so the recipe they give us are with American ingredients. And as we cannot all be Julia Child, and adapt the whole French cuisine to the American public, I sometimes have problems with the ingredients. Basic ingredients are simple to find, but for example you have to bear in mind that the average plain American flour has more gluten than the average Italian one. Or that yeasts are different.
This month the recipe was featuring a instant yeast, that, in fact, it must be different from the one sell in Italy. Because that’s the only reason I can give to the facts that my rolls were good, but not really puffy… Maybe with fresh yeast would have more soft…

But I loved them anyway! And I had fun, that’s for sure, and even all the people that ate them had fun!!!

The best scone I've ever baked

Seriously!Those are the simplest, tastier and better looking scones I've ever baked, and you all know my addiction to this wonderful English treats!
Sunday morning I woke up early and already annoyed and so what could I do better if not baking? And baking scones, what there is better in life then that??? Apart the obvious, ok... ;-)

This recipe, with the due changes and personalizations, is from this month BBC Good Food.

125 g of wholewheat flour
100 g of flour
10 g f chemical yeast for cakes
1 and 1/2 tablespoons of brown sugar
40 g of softened butter
150 ml of milk
100 g of minced dried apricot
1 egg yolk, beaten, to glaze

Preheat the oven at 180°C.
In a food processor, mix all the ingredients, in the given order, except the apricot and the egg yolk.
You'll obtain a wet mix, bot do not worry. Add the apricots by hand, then, on a floured surface, lay down the dough 2 centimetres thick. This is the whole trick: the dough must be thick! I made some scones with a thinner dough and they came out quite ugly!

Cut it out with a glass or a cookie cutter.
Brush them with the beaten egg yolk, then cook them for 10 minutes in the hot oven.

Eat them warm, but they are still good even cold!

Enjoy them with some clotted cream and some jam!

Monthly mingle 10: Happy birthday Meeta!

Sorry Meeta, I'm two days late, but Happy birthday!!!
To my excuse, I can assure I made this cake on the 2nd of June!
And I don't know if you would like it, but it was a very quick and very simple non baked cheesecake that everybody enjoyed!
And here's the recipe!

For the base
250 gr of digestive biscuits (I used petits beurre, but it turned out very crumbly, so not the best choice...)
75 g of butter

For the filling
400 g of marmalade (I've used the orange one I've made in January)
250 g of ricotta
175 g of low fat yoghurt
6 g of gelatine (3 sheets)
Mixed berries, as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and redcurrants

Crumble the digestive, mix them with melted butter. Cover a cake mould with the mix. Refrigerate.
Soak the gelatine in cold water.
Heat the marmalade in a little pan and when is boiling add, far from the fire, the gelatine.
In a mixer, process ricotta and yoghurt, add the marmalade, then mix, in bowl, with the fruits.
Fill the cake and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Daring Bakers: Saint Honorè

When last month I've seen all around the internet a wonderful tower of chocolate crepes (something I'm dreaming/dreading to make since ages), I knew I wanted to be part of this exclusively club!!! So I've pulled some strings of well known V.I.P. food bloggers ;-) and the next day I was part of it... And just in time to discover the May challenge: Saint Honorè!!!!!!!!!
I run to the kitchen, looked at my husband and said: "I'm afraid! I have to make Saint Honorè!!!" He looked at me in disbelief while I was telling him the whole story, and he began to refer to us, Daring Bakers, as "the crazy people on the net that bake"... And at the end is what we are: find me somewhere else so many people that are all exited to bake, all together, from the same recipe, a Saint Honorè, and publishing it on the same day... Find me a "secret" place where all this people (and this month we are almost 50!), from all over the world, meet and chat about the making of one of the most known cake in the world, and put in the open if they made a mistake, if they had a bad time or a good time, and seek for help, advices, support... And they get all that!!!
I've made my Saint Honorè (the first and probably the last) the weekend after the under covering of the May challenge: I had some friends coming over to dinner, so I thought it was the best time to try something so scary!
I was honestly scared by the task, especially the decoration part of it, as I'm not much of a decorator...
Anyway, let's go back to the beginning...
I've decided, as the rules permit me to, to use ready made puff pastry: sorry, but puff pastry is one of the biggest fears I have in baking and I need more than that to get over it!
So, having already set the problem puff pastry, I could concentrate on the rest. I've already made cream puffs in the past, and that gave me to much confidence, and I screw the first batch, making the dough too liquid, so I made it again, and this time it turned out nicely...
The cream was ok, as I have my own way to make cooked cream (and sauces in general): I use a hand mixer directly in the cooking cream, so you can cook it for shorter time at high temperature, it doesn't stick to the bottom, and you don't have to keep stirring all the time...
The assembly was ok... Until I arrived to the caramel part...
I admit it: I'm a caramel challenge person... I'm afraid of it, I don't have a caramel thermometer, it just never caramelized in my hand...
Ok, I'm a bad daring baker: I've used my husband! He made caramel for me, and it was a wonderful caramel!!! All this while the pan I've used to make it in the first place was doomed in the limbo of caramel sticky pans...
The overall product was a success! They all loved it, they all eat it twice!
The cream was very very good, and while at the beginning I was a bit sceptic for the jelly, it was absolutely necessary, and I thing I will put jelly in other creams too from now on...
I'm so so happy to be part of the Daring Bakers: if it wasn't for you I would never made a Saint Honorè!
And now I can't wait to see what the June challenge will be!!!!!!!!!!!

Daring bakers rule and rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

B&B

With my friends sometimes I joke about the bed&breakfast treatment they get when they sleep over: I have to be forgiven for the crazy cat in some way! But at the end it's not so much of a joke! With the due advise, if someone is coming to sleep over I prepare something for breakfast: pancakes are a rare treatment (only best friends get them! ;-P), but yeasty floury stuff or puddings are normal.
Friday night I attended with Deirdré (among others) to the Pandemia dinner in Milan, and as she leaves outside the city, she slept over. So I prepared those little plum cakes for Saturday morning (after the cat woke everybody up at 6 am sharp!)!

2 eggs
90 g cane sugar
120 g flour
2 pinches chemical yeast
100 g melted butter
1 grated apple
50 g of pistachio nuts

Preheat the oven at 180° C.
Whisk sugar and egg until foamy. Add flour, yeast, melted butter, grated apple and pistachio nuts and mix everything.
I cooked them in four little pans, 10x5 cm, for 30 minutes. To be sure they are cooked, pierce the centre with a toothpick: if it comes out clean and dry, they are cooked.

Torta al cioccolato e pistacchi

About once a month we dine with a couple friends of ours. We host alternately and each time we try our best and most extravagant recipes to please each other: we always try something new, from a different country, a challenge for the palate and the cook's skills (me and the hubby of the other couple)! When we go to dine at their home we usually bring wine and dessert. Last time my friend looked at me and told me: "Mmmhh, you have a chocolate tooth, eh Sara?" I realized only then that I brought them something like 5 or 6 different chocolate cakes in a row!!!
Yeah, ok, I'm keen on chocolate... So??????? ;-D
As usually my favourite chocolate cakes come from few sources, one of which is Nigella Lawson's How to be a domestic goddess...

For the cake
150 g chocolate
150 g sugar
150 g pistachios
150 g soft butter
6 eggs, separated
Pinch of salt

For the icing
150 g chocolate
150 ml of cream
few drops of orange-flower water

Preheat the oven at 190° C.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave and let it cool. In a food processor, dust pistachios with 50 g of sugar. add the soft butter and another 50 g of sugar. Add the egg yolks one a the time, pulsing after each add. Add then the melted chocolate.
In a bowl, whisk the egg white with the salt until they produce soft peaks. Slowly add the rest of the sugar and keep whisking until it's shiny and thick.
Add 1/3 of the whites to the chocolate mixture and pulse. Add then the chocolate mixture to the whites and mix carefully but firmly. Add the batter in a 24 cm cake pan, lined with greaseproof paper and cook for 20 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180° C and keep cooking for another 20-25 minutes, until the cake comes away from the sides.
Allow to cool.

Prepare the icing, melting the chocolate with the cream in the microwave. Add the drops of orange-flower water, let it cool in the fridge for 30 minutes. When it's cooled, begin to whisk it until you obtain a slightly thick glaze. Ice the cake and let it rest in the fridge until 30 minute before serving.

Raisins and cinnamon swirl

Give me something light and not too sweet for breakfast. Give me something yeasty too. Give me a simple, quick, plain recipe, that can be made by everyone. Give me something I can made over the weekend and that will last at least few days. Give me something with LOADS of raisins in it.
Can you vaguely imagine how difficult is to find a recipe that satisfy all those components???
Very...
At the end I found something by Martha Stewart: I've changed a bit, but it's basically it... Lighting a candle under her shrine, just next to Nigella's...
And as I'm a bit neglecting this blog lately (sorry, too much going on...), especially from a photograph point of view, this time I've tried to recreate the picture published on Martha's website. You know, most of the time the right inspiration makes your best shot, said the humble Piperita...

250 ml warm water
10 g fresh yeast
150 g all-purpose flour
200 g of strong flour
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter
150 g raisins
70 g cane sugar + 1 teaspoon
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 egg beaten

Crumble the yeast in the kneader bowl (normal large bowl, if kneading by hand), add a pinch of sugar, then dissolve everything with the warm water. let it rest for 10-15 minute, until it foams.
Add flours, sugar, and half the butter. Knead for 10 minutes on medium speed. Add raisins and knead for another 5 minutes. Form a ball and place it in an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic and let it rest until it doubles, for 1-2 hours.
Roll out the dough in a 30x25 centimetres square. Mix cane sugar with cinnamon, nutmeg and the remaining melted butter. Brush the rolled dough with some of the beaten egg, sprinkle with the sugar-cinnamon- butter mixture and rub everything together with the back of a spoon. Roll up the dough tightly, beginning from the short side. Close the ends and lay the sausage in a buttered plum-cake pan, 22x12 centimetres. Let it rise for 30 minutes in a warm enviroment.
Preheat the oven at 220° C.
When the dough is well risen, brush it with the remaining beaten egg and a teaspoon of cane sugar. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature at 180° C and bake for another 15 minutes.
Let it coll before to slice it.
Warning: gives addiction...

Budino!

Watching a video of Jacques Pépin, found through The Amateur Gourmet, I was fascinated by his allure and his elegance... His recipe for Hasty Pudding reminded me my old love for budino (the Italian equivalent of pudding). Budino is the simplest dessert of all, if made with the powder selled in supermarkets, and it's even the most disgusting one, but as a toddler it was a much appreciated dessert or afternoon break!
When I was little there was a designated budino day during the week at the canteen where my father was working, and he was always able to sneak a little plastic glass with a chocolate or a vanilla budino for me! Glorious days!
During the years the range of budino available in supermarket widened to the ultimate possible peak: Lindt chocolate budino, the Everest of budino! Just heaven!
But of course, becoming older is not only a meaning of ageing, but of acquiring wisdom too (well for most people, I do not know how much for my little self...), so I began experimentation on the matter of budino. Many years back in my teens, I was still using the industrial powders but I was adding some liquors or a stratification of cookies...
The recipe by Pépin just reminded me the simplest way of all to make a budino and the perfect way to get rid of semolina before the summer (old semolina=worms, butterflies etc. ...).

1 lt of goat milk (the last one!!!)
160 g of semolina flour
130 g of sugar
3 tablespoons of yoghurt

Bring to the boil the milk with 2 tablespoons of sugar (that you took away from the overall amount).
Add semolina flour and give a good whisk. Cover the pan and let it cook for 2-3 minutes, on a very low heat, until it thicken.
Give it a good whisk, add sugar and yoghurt, give it another whisk, then spoon it in the mould/s you prefer.

Note: if you really want to spoil the perfect simplicity of this pudding, add any flavour, spice, nut or raisinof your choice. But only if you really feel the urge to spoil something... ;-)

Panna cotta

Panna cotta is an Italian classic, so simple, straight and quick that it's worth it making it!
It's even one of my favourite dessert and as it is so difficult to find it well made in restaurants, I always prefer making it myself, at home.
It's normally accompanied with red berries or chocolate, but this time I've tried a suggestion from Donna Hay: caramelized grapefruit.

For the panna cotta
600 ml of double cream
2,5 sheets of gelatin
20 g of vergeoise brune
50 g of sugar
5 cardamom pods
2 thin slices of lemon zest

Soak in cold water the gelatin sheets.
Bring to the boil the rest of the ingredients. take away from the fire, cover and let it infuse for 10 minutes.
Throw away cardamom pods and lemon zest, add the drained gelatin, stir.
Divide in 5 glasses or ramequines. Chill for four hours.

For the grapefruit
1 grapefruit
2 tablespoons of brown sugar


Cut all peel and pith from each grapefruit. Cut between membranes, releasing segments.
Add them to a pan with he sugar. Let it caramelize over high heat. Spoon it over the panna cotta and chill for another two hours.

Come as you are muffins...

That is what could happen in a normal household on a (sunny) Sunday morning, when you say to your (normally clever and wit) husband: "Dear, I'm going to take a shower. Can you watch the muffins in the oven in the mean while? I put the timer, when it rings take them out".
I came out of the bathroom and the house was filled with a nice smell, but getting toward the kitchen, the smell was more towards burn than nice... And there they were: my muffins, half burned, still in the oven!!!
And all this because, as all of you understood since the cradle, cookbooks give ALWAYS the wrong timing, and because my dear French man was peacefully reading his wine notes...
So here they are: "Come as you are" muffins.

225 g of flour
1 package of chemical yeast
75 g of rolled oats
185 g of raisins
80 g f butter
4 table spoons of honey
2 egg
280 g of yoghurt

Preheat the oven at 180° C.
Melt butter and honey. Set aside and let it cool a little.
Mix all the dry ingredients. Make a wheel in the centre. Mix together eggs and yoghurt, add it to the dry ingredients altogether with butter and honey. Mix but do not over do, as you need lumps.
Spoon the mixture in a 12 muffins tin, covered with paper cups, and bake for 20 minutes.
Serve hot.

Recipe adapted from Muffins, Le cordon Bleu, Konemann, 1998.

P.S. Those muffins are dedicated to a dear expat friend: she loves muffins, she collected more than 80 muffin recipes through a meme and now she's going to open her own muffin factory, aka no more time for blogging! ;-)

Stewed apples and pears

Sometimes I feel like an old maid (and I'm happily married!) or an old grandma: I like cooked apples...
I had a period in my file when I was cooking whole apples in the oven, and eat them warm, even two a day...
I know, it's a bit decadent, but they are so good, so comfort, so sure, so soothing...
Peace to the world with cooked apples!

This time I peeled, cored and segmented apples and pears, add the juice of two lemons and the zest of one lemon, some rosemary springs, a piece of cinnamon and 3 table spoons of brown sugar. I let them cook until puréed...
Eat warm and feel decadent!

Carrot cakes

Carrots in the fridge (and not much else)...
Sun and a wonderful blue sky outside (glorious today in Milan, looks like spring!)...
What possibly can I do if not baking little carrot cakes from a Donna Hay book (always the same one...)???
I halved the recipe, as we couldn't possibly eat for 5 day a big cake, and I made those little one, in little plum cake moulds. They turn out quite brown, like her cake, but I think is the combination between brown sugar and carrots that do the trick...
I think some chocolate chips won't do any arm to the general idea of this cake, if you really need to add them (sure you'll need to had them: what is life without chocolate???)...

125 g of brown sugar
9 cl of vegetable oil
2 eggs
100 g of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of chemical yeast
1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of sodium
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon of powdered ginger
150 g of grated carrots
30 g of chopped hazelnuts
60 g of Corinth raisins

Pre-heat the oven at 180° C.
I used the mixer with the whisk to do the batter, but you can do as well by hand, using whisk and muscles.
Place in your mixer sugar and oil and begin to beat. Add eggs one by one, the add the rest of the ingredients and beat until you obtain a smooth batter.
Oil some moulds (I used 5 a bit bigger than muffin moulds) and distribute the batter. cook for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and dry.
Let them cool.

Donna suggest to glazed then with cream cheese, but that's tooooo way Anglo-Saxon for a Mediterranean girl like me! But fell free to do it!