It’s That Time Of Year

It’s that time of year when the world falls in love… ❤
It’s that time of year when the world falls in love…with food too. And definitely with something like frosted fruit and chocolate baskets. This is a special dessert for a special moment. You choose the moment. Or me, it doesn’t matter. In fact, if I think of it, all the moments are special so yeah, have it this everyday if you want. I amuse myself now as I think you will tell to your special someone in your life, one hot summer day, ‘Let’s have frosted fruit…’ To cool yourself down or not. Is it hot here or it is just me… kidding.

Now, about the serious stuff. I got the recipe from a 2005 Somerfield Magazine and loved it all the way. Thank you for reading, now it is time to get back to work. See you soon.

Frosted Fruit and Chocolate Baskets

Serves 4

Preparation time: 35 minutes (plus chilling time to set)

Ingredients:

• 200 g (7 oz) Belgian plain chocolate
• 115 (4 oz) mascarpone cheese
• 115 (4 oz) Greek style yogurt
• 30 ml (2 tbsp) icing sugar
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) brandy
• 55 g (2 oz) cranberries (if you can’t find fresh fruits, try frozen ones)
• 55 g (2 oz) raspberries
• 55 g (2 oz) blueberries
• 1 clementine
• granulated sugar to sprinkle
• non-stick baking parchment

Method:

• Cut four 18 cm (7 in) squares of non-stick baking parchment and mould each firmly around a small dish or jar to make a flat base in the center. Place each in a small dish to support the sides.
• Break up the chocolate and heat gently until melted in a bowl over a pan of hot, not boiling, water. Spoon a large spoonful of chocolate into each paper mould and use a small paintbrush to spread the chocolate up the sides, making a jagged edge. It is best to spread the chocolate evenly and fairly thickly or it will break very easily when you remove the paper. Chill in the refrigerator to cool.
• Mix together the mascarpone, yogurt, brandy and 15 ml (1 tbsp) icing sugar. Carefully remove the paper from the chocolate baskets and spoon the mascarpone filling into the baskets.
• Moisten the fruit very lightly with a little water and sprinkle with granulated sugar to ‘frost’. Arrange the fruits on top of the baskets and sprinkle with the remaining icing sugar (sifted). Decorate with frosted rosemary or mint sprigs.

Bon appetite!

Biscuits With Love

Today I would love to eat some homemade biscuits. I will not cook them though as I am not in the mood. Would there anyone make them for me? Mum? Anyone? Lol. At least I can describe the way I make them. With love, of course. This is the main ingredient. I am afraid I didn’t write down on the printed recipe, the name of the book I took it from. If anyone knows it, please, write to me. I am concentrating in visualising the biscuits. I made them a few times and I loved them every time. I could eat them all and because the recipe here gives me just a few biscuits, I double the ingredients and I have to my heart’s desire. Yummy! Here they are:

Soft biscotti with chocolate

Biscotti morbidi con cioccolata

Serves 10

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

• 250 g plain flour
• 65 g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp (5 ml) baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 100 g chocolate chunks or roughly chopped plain chocolate (use a good one, of at least 70% cocoa)
• 150 g pistachio nuts
• 100 g butter, softened
• 225 g unrefined golden caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs, at room temperature

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180˚C/ 350˚F, gas mark 4.
• Grease a baking sheet with a little butter and dust lightly with a little of the flour.
• Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, chocolate chunks and pistachio nuts in a bowl.
• In another bowl, beat together the butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat until well combined.
• Stir in the flour mixture until it forms a stiff dough. Place the dough on the baking sheet and press onto shape until it is 30 cm long and 10 cm wide.
• Bake for 35 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean when you insert it into the biscotti. Remove and leave to cool for 5 minutes. Place on a wire rack and leave to cool to room temperature. Slice into thick fingers and serve with coffee or vin santo.

Bon appetite!

Raspberry Dessert

I will be quick today. I have to go somewhere and I don’t have much time for stories. I just want to tell you that this is a very easy and quick dessert, loved by everyone and the source of it is a card named ‘Delicious Meals Made Easy’ from London, in the time when London found out that it would host the Summmer Olympic Games.

Raspberry Dessert

Preparation: 15 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp orange juice
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 284 ml (10 fl oz) pot of double cream
• 275 g (10 oz) natural yogurt
• 450 g (1 lb) fresh raspberries (or frozen ones, defrosted, but I don’t recommend)
• 100 g (4 oz) plain chocolate mini flakes, lightly crushed
• 4 mint sprigs to decorate

Method:

• In a bowl, mix together orange juice, ground cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside. Whip cream in a bowl until stiff peaks form. Stir in yogurt and orange juice mixture.
• Put three-quarters of the raspberries in a food processor or blender. Process until smooth. Using a spoon, press the purée through a fine sieve into a bowl. Discard seeds.
• Divide half the cream mixture between 4 dessert dishes. Pour half raspberry purée over the mixture in the dishes. Gently swirl through the 2 mixtures to create a marbled effect. Sprinkle over half the chocolate flakes.
• Top with the remaining cream mixture, raspberry purée and chocolate flakes. Put remaining whole raspberries on top. Decorate with mint sprigs and serve at once.

Bon appetite!

 

Is There Ever Enough Chocolate?

Are you a chocolate addicted? Then you will love this. Petit pot au chocolat. I remember that this recipe was among the few that I had tried at home, in Romania. I had found it in “The Sunday Times” at the end of my staying in London and I had decided to make it at home. It was worth waiting that long. And last Wednesday I thought of making it again. For Thursday. Why? Because Thursday was my birthday. Wow, I made a rhyme!

When I think of birthdays, I always think of doing something special, as long as is not that traditional. Don’t get me wrong, I am quite old-fashion in some ways but not in other ways. So, these delicious pots seem just perfect to indulge on somebody’s birthdays. You have a perfect smooth chocolate cream and you will ask for more until you die. Of pleasure, of course. I am sorry to ruin your daydreaming but let’s get to work.

Petit Pot au Chocolat

Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 350 ml double cream
• 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways or 2 tbsp of vanilla sugar
• 250 g plain chocolate, broken into pieces (remember, remember: at leat 70 % cocoa)
• 150 ml milk (full fat please, please, if you make it for your birthday, spoil yourself)
• 4 small egg yolks
• 2 heaped tbsp icing sugar (or simply sugar, if you don’t have icing sugar)

Method:

• This is my favourite part. 😉
• Preheat the oven to 140 °C, 275 °F, Gas Mark 1.
• In a saucepan, warm the cream with a vanilla pod, whisk to disperse the vanilla seeds, the cover and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. With vanilla sugar just make sure it melts in the cream and leave to cool.
• In another pan, melt the chocolate in the milk. (I know you will taste a bit. )
• In a bowl, beat together the egg yolks and sugar, add the chocolate milk and vanilla cream, then blend thoroughly. (I bet that you will taste again, and I win. What I win? I won’t wash the dishes.) Pass through a fine sieve and pour into a little pots or ramekins. (I adore ramekins, there are never enough for me, that is why I have decided to buy some more the moment I am in London.)
• Bake in a bain-marie in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until slightly puffed-up and spongy. Don’t worry about the crust forming top. It may look as it is overcooked but it is not. Plus, this crust when cold, covers an intense chocolate cream. Cool in the fridge for at least 6 hours before serving.

Bon appetite!

PS: Some pictures with my “birthday cake”.

Yummy!

Blow the candles! 😉

Feeling Blue?

To be or not to be…

As we all know, a little chocolate now and then makes us happy. Very happy. Especially when we are heartbroken. But as they say, forget love, I’d rather fall into chocolate. :)) I wish!;) No, I’d rather fall into chocolate and Love. For the moment let’s talk about chocolate. Not any chocolate but something special. A chocolate cake full of this aphrodisiac.

I found this recipe a few years ago in a supermarket in Constanta in “BBC Good Food” magazine. In pictures it didn’t look extraordinary. But the look can be deceiving, as we all know. I read the ingredients and then it clicked. This cake had 7 chocolates in it! Imagine that! 7! I searched Google at home at that time to see if I could find something similar. But I couldn’t. There were only cakes with 3-5 chocolates mostly. That was different.

Because of this I decided to make the cake on a special day. It was almost 2 years ago, probably on Christmas, Easter, my name day or my birthday. Or mom’s. Who cares! I made it and it was an instant hit from the beginning. It was sooooo delicious, you can’t imagine. Feeling the chocolate melting in your mouth, the smell, sensations that can’t be described. I just felt happy. Thinking now of it, makes me happy again. 🙂

For a tastier and why not, funnier description of this simple cake with 7 chocolates try my choice. Because my choice of cake is made with plain chocolate only, of at least 70% cocoa. Yes, you already know that, but bear with me. I was more generous with the cream and chocolate. I would never put only 250 g of chocolate in something but go for 300 g. I know, you agree with me here.

Chocolate Cake

Serves 12

Ready in 1 hr 30 minutes, plus cooling

Ingredients:

• 250 g flour/ self raising flour
• 1 baking soda package (in case you don’t find self raising, mix flour with baking soda)
• 250 g unrefined soft brown sugar (if you don’t have it in your kitchen, choose the white one)
• 50 g cocoa
• 250-300 g plain chocolate
• 250 g butter (again, 80-82% fat if you don’t mind, because I do)
• 4 eggs

For the cream:

• 400 g plain or milk chocolate (please, please, please, plain)
• 300 ml pot single cream (my choice is full-fat)
• 25 g butter
• 100-200 icing sugar
• cocoa powder for dusting

Method:

• Heat the oven to 160°C/ fan 140 C/ gas 3. Line a 20cm x 20 square cake tin. I use at home my round 26 cm diameter cake tin.
• Mix the flour, sugar and cocoa together in a bowl. Melt the chocolate (don’t touch it!) and the butter together with 200 ml water in a pan and then beat this along with the eggs into the dry mixture. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean. It may crack a little on top but this will be covered by the icing. Cool.
• To make the icing, melt the chocolate (I said to keep your fingers out of this!) with the cream and butter until smooth and then cool to a spreadable consistency, beat in enough icing sugar to make the icing opaque and stiff.
• Slice the cake horizontally into 2 or 3 layers and spread some icing (yummy) between each layer. Ice the outside of the cake in a thick even layer and smooth the icing down as much as possible, don’t worry about the top too much. I worry, I want it to be smooth on top too.
• Dust with cocoa powder just before serving.

Bon appetite!

Blessed those who have tried this out!

PS: while searching this recipe on the net one day, years after, I discovered that it was no longer on the BBC Good Food site. So I turned myself into a detective. And guess what? I looked closely on the printed recipe I had since 2009 and there it was: “Recipe from olive magazine, September 2007.” While you find it here too, the original is from that site and I must add this. I am glad that everybody can access it too, from different sources.