Raspberry and fruits of the forest frozen yogurt

Some time ago I bought an ice cream maker. It is a very basic, simple and cheap model. But the results you can have at home are absolutely brilliant!

The ice cream maker base has a capacity of 1.6 liters, and the amounts I used in this recipe filled almost the entire recipient. Like all ice cream makers in which the base should previously be frozen, it must be at least 12 hours in the freezer. But once the base is frozen, you'll love this recipe because in 30 minutes you can enjoy a creamy frozen yogurt with a perfect result. This recipe is so quick because I use frozen fruit, which allows the mix to go directly into the machine instead of having to wait for it to get cold. Besides, this recipe has very little fat, and although we can not say it's a light recipe you can take every day, it is much lighter than conventional ice cream with much less fat but with a very similar texture and full of flavor with the yogurt and the fruits.

With this result you can imagine how I liked to try it. I still have a few ideas in mind that I really want to try, so there will be more coming.

Raspberry and fruits of the forest frozen yogurt
Ingredients (for about 1.5 liters of frozen yogurt)

400 grams of condensed milk (I used it skimmed)
500 grams fat-free plain yogurt 
300 grams of frozen raspberries

100 grams of frozen fruits of the forest

Note: I used this combination of raspberries and wild berries as it was what I had at home, but you can use your choice to your liking. Even if you use the same fruit, it is interesting to keep a quarter of the amount apart from the mix to keep bits in the ice cream.

Preparation

Beat in the bowl of an electric mixer raspberries with yogurt and condensed milk and mix well. Add the berries, put in the ice cream maker and let the ice cream machine works for 30 minutes. Once it is ready, it can be served directly, or reserved in a plastic container (like the one I used, with lid) and freeze. Take the frozen yogurt out from the freezer 10-15 minutes before serving.

Chocolate and choco chips ice-cream

Today's ice cream has not got any egg on its base, but it gets an intense chocolate flavor, and crunchy chocolate chips, which against the creamy base are a delicious contrast. Besides, you can prepare it in a moment.

Chocolate and chocolate chips ice-cream

Ingredients (for about 700 ml of ice cream)

200 ml whipping cream (at least 35% m.g.)
125 grams of  plain yogurt
250 ml milk
40 grams icing sugar
40 grams cocoa powder
25 grams of chocolate chips

Whip the cream with half the sugar, beating at low speed first and then up, until it hardens, being careful not to overdo it or it will become butter. Add remaining ingredients, except chocolate chips, whisking until integrate, and test. Correct sugar or cocoa to taste.
If using ice cream machine, put in refrigerator several hours or twenty minutes in the freezer before putting the ice cream, in the machine. Halfway through the process, add the chocolate chips. When the ice cream has curdled, place in a suitable containers for freezing, put into the freezer and finish cooling.

Cinnamon chocolate walnuts

Smells have an evocative capacity much more powerful than any other form of memory. A song, a phrase, a picture, can bring back memories, but a scent transports you to the moment itselft. It fills your brain, forcing you to close your eyes. You breath deeply and you think you are living back those memories. It happens to me specially with cinnamon. Smelling a bit of cinnamon instantly transports me to endless afternoons of games that ended with a rice pudding or homemade custard, and a huge smile appears in my mouth, exactly the same kind of smile that appears now.  I had not tried to combine cinnamon with chocolate and nuts before but for sure it is a winning combination. I wanted to try this recipe since I saw it in  Green Kitchen Stories, a   wonderful vegetarian blog. I  only added cardamom, and I think it just improves the combination. 

Cinnamon chocolate nuts 
 
200grams walnuts
100 grams dark chocolate
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1 tablespoon cinnamon (powder)
1 tablespoon  unsweetened cocoa powder

Preparation
Melt roughly chopped chocolate in a bowl over steaming pot of water on medium heat Add cardamom, stir on heat until melted and smooth. Toss the walnuts a few at a time in the melted chocolate, and transfer onto a parchment paper or a silicon sheet  to cool.
Mix cinnamon and cocoa powder in a small freezer bag. Toss the set chocolate covered nuts in the powder until evenly coated.

Light peach curd

Yes, you can eat light, delicious and very, very nice desserts. Fruits are the best dessert, there's no doubt, but eating them always raw gets a bit boring. So, a few days ago I decided to do something different. This dessert could not be easier, and the result was spectacular.

Light Peach Curd

Ingredients (for 2)

3-4 large and very ripe peaches (alternatively, 1 can of peaches in syrup suitable for diabetics)
Sweetener, stevia, fructose, to taste
3 egg whites
Pinch of salt

Preparation

Peel peaches, remove the stones and put into large pieces in the bowl of a blender, reserving 1 to decorate. Beat well, add the sweetener to taste, and divide into serving bowls. (if using canned peaches, you will not need to add sweetener). Put in the fridge.
Just before serving, cut the peach into eight wedges and mark it on the grill.

Raise egg whites with a pinch of salt.
Divide the grilled peach slices over the cream and egg whites. Serve immediately.

Redberries little pies

Recent days have been a bit chaotic. Sometimes plans change at full speed and you have to react and try to keep up. Above all, sometimes you just have to be there.
There are times when every day makes us forget some important things. But it is enough just a phone call again, and all that matters gets back in place, and time stops for a moment, and you react and you stand for a few days, and recover some things by the way.

Now we just need to give us time to be there much longer.

Fortunately, before having to run away I had prepared these little pies, ready to be published.

I always loved these pies that housewives in cartoons used to put to chill in the window. I had never done these little pies (classics for an american, but shomehow exotic to me) and now I have tried a version with red berries. Personally, I love its acidity as opposed to the pastry base, and its butter content, but you can prepare the pies with the fruit filling of your choice, provided they produce enough juice.

Redberries little pies

Ingredients (for 3  to 4 little pies)

325 grams  all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

125 grams of butter chilled and cut into small pieces

2 to 4 tablespoons ice water 

For the filling

200 grams red berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc., fresh or frozen) 

3  or 4 tablespoons of sugar (45 to 60 grams aprox)

1 teaspoon cornstarch

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds. With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream through feed tube. Pulse until dough holds together without being wet or sticky; be careful not to process more than 30 seconds. To test, squeeze a small amount together: If it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Divide dough into two equal balls. Flatten each ball into a disc and wrap in plastic. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 1 hour. 

For the filling, put the berries and the sugar in a pan at medium heat and keep until sugar is disolved and berries are soft and translucid.
Cover the mold with the dough, put the berries (without the syrup they have created). Add a teaspoon at the berries syrup once cooleed, and then put a little into the pie. Cover the pie with the dough and close carefully. Brush with egg, put in the oven preheated at 200 for 10 minutes. Then low to 180º for another 10 to 15 minutes until the fruit filling starts to bubble.
 

Mocca mousse (without chocolate)

Believe it or not, you can actually have a mocca (aka coffee and chocolate) mousse WITHOUT using chocolate.

This is a rather light treat, as we do not use butter, or cream, or eggs... well, not even chocolate. That's why it is great when you want to indulge, but not ruin your diet.

I love coffee, black, strong and tasty. Espresso-like.  I need my shoot a couple times a day. I love chocolate. Dark, strong and deeply, rich cacao flavored. 

Strong coffee and chocolate together in a recipe sound more than good to me. But, to make a mocca mousse, as Italian call this mix of coffee and chocolate, you usually need butter or cream. Not so good to have it a couple of times a day- sigh-.

When a few days ago I had an urgent need of a mocca custard, I remembered that there are other ways to make it without eggs, cream, or butter. Even without chocolate. Yes, it sounds really weird, but the magic ingredient in this recipe is avocado. That buttery fruit loses its flavor when mixed with cocoa and coffee, and in return, gives this dessert the perfect consistency. It doesn’t seem to, but this mousse is full of fruit. 

Cofee and non-chocolate mocca mousse
Ingredients (for 4 servings)

     2 avocados (150 grams clean)
     50 g of non fat cocoa powder
     250 grams of plain yogurt (whole or skim, to taste)
     Sugar to taste (about 3-4 tablespoons)
     1 short espresso (can be decaffeinated, but must have full espresso flavor)

Preparation

Put all ingredients in the bowl of the mixer and mix. Try, rectify sweet until the desired taste. Serve in individual cups and bring to the refrigerator until ready to serve. Take the same day.

Strawberry cream cake

For a long time, I’ve had a love and hate relationship with strawberries, although it’s getting better lately. My issue with strawberries began when I was a child. My dad came up with the idea of putting in the backyard a few (well, more than a few) of strawberry plants. Strawberry season is short, but some plants can be very productive, I mean it. 

And that bright dark pink, aromatic, nice, small and delicious fruit can eventually develop into a nightmare when you are a ten year old girl and you eat strawberries everyday for several weeks because of the season peak.

I guess at that tender age I began to understand that nothing, absolutely nothing in excess can be good (even this statement).

As a grown up, I have learn to have them again. This time, I had them with cream, but in a cake. The original recipe is Martha Stewart’s, but any Genovese or sponge cake type will do it. Just enjoy this cake that tastes likes springtime.

Strawberry cream cake
Ingredients (for a 20 cm mold)

120 grams unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
350 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
240 grams sugar
3 medium eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
120 ml  whole milk
500 grams strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced
3 grams of agar-agar (or 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin if you use it)
350 grams heavy cream (at least 35% fat)

 Directions

Preheat oven to 180ºCdegrees. Butter bottom of an 8-inch round cake pan. Butter and flour base and sides. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat butter and 1/2 cup sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. With mixer on low, alternately add flour mixture in 3 parts and milk in 2, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined. Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes; invert onto a wire rack to cool completely. Using a serrated knife, split cake in half horizontally; place bottom half, cut side up, on a serving plate.
Make topping: In a large bowl, combine strawberries and 60 grams cup sugar; set aside.  Using an electric mixer, beat cream (better if chilled, so put it into freezer 10 minutes befores use) and remaining 60 grams of sugar in a large bowl until very soft peaks form. Continue to beat, and add agar- agar; beat until soft peaks form. Arrange half of strawberries over bottom cake layer; top with half of whipped cream, leaving half centimeter border. Cover with top half of cake, cut side down. Top cake with remaining whipped cream, leaving half a centimeter border. Refrigerate cake and remaining strawberries separately, at least 1 hour (or up to 1 day). Just before serving, spoon strawberries over cake.
 

Brioche

“Back to normal” after summer has been anything but normal. I knew that September was going to be a tough month at work. Maybe tough is not exactly the word, maybe, just overloaded would be enough. Right now I am in the middle of one of those periods when it seems that everyone agrees to ask you everything for yesterday. One of those times in which working over the weekend, and working in the evenings simply becomes normal. Even I expected this beforehand, the feeling of being just overwhelmed with it all is a bit too much at the minute. I am not complaining at all. I am loving the job itself. I enjoy it so much that I do not mind these crazy spikes occasionally. The worst part of it is the lack of time to cook and plan a little more, especially during the weekend. I'm accumulating so much desire to bake that all I want is just to have a little time to bake, and bake and bake a bit more -just to enjoy calmly proving doughs, the smell of vanilla, cinnamon, seeing how the dough rests and grows and grows back in the oven and the house gests filled with a delicious scent.

Since I started cooking, baking and particularly proving doughs have been the kind of things which have given me more satisfaction. I love it, love it, love it every time. It still magical to me the process by which, from a few simple ingredients you can get a truly wonderful brioche like this today. As I am having so little time lately I shortcut by leaving the dough to rise overnight in the fridge, so that in the morning I just have to form the final bun and let them raise another bit to get to the final result.

I guess there is a bit of an influence from the "Great British Bake Off" in this late baking fever of mine.  Every Wednesday from the last 7 weeks we (because my husband has also got fond of it) follow the adventures of a group of amateur bakers. I really do not need that much push to be willing to switch on the oven and try new things. To be honest, watching every Wednesday that bunch of obsessive bakers locked in a tent in the middle of nowhere, making three recipes per program, well, it has its charms, and it makes my Saturdays arrive loaded with an imperious necessity to try one or two things, at least.

I have never been a fan of making great cakes. I’d better think of cookies, muffins, individual versions of any baking treat. Those have all the advantages of a good session of baking, and (almost) none of the disadvantages. First, they bake much faster than the larger versions. The simple idea of ​​having in your hands a brioche fresh from the oven as soon as the whole house begins to get fill with an unmistakable smell is totally irresistible. But also, these individual versions make it much easier to avoid eating more than necessary; they can be frozen on their own, you will always have the right size portions and no one argues for having the largest piece. So as far as during working weekdays I have to go full speed and I can hardly do anything exciting in the kitchen, as soon as  the weekend comes I am happy doing these small beauties. The downside is that I have already had a couple of weekends in which I left the dough resting at night to get up and start baking.  

I say downside because these legendary Saturday breakfast will for sure stay in the memory of the whole family, but there is no way of keeping one single bun to take a photo of them for the blog. Well, sometimes my kids will let me use the phone and maybe I am able to share a bit of what is going on via twitter (). But right now life is finding its own way over blogging and other hobbies. Now I will allow myself plenty of time to enjoy my gigantic weekend sweet breakfast as all we -as a family- want to do is just sharing a lazy laugh and tell all that nonsense that during weekdays we simply cannot tell. We love those mornings around the kitchen table, with the happy perspective of two full days ahead, whole brand new to enjoy being together. I do not know about you, but I guess I am getting too old, and I am increasingly aware that time goes by so quickly that I do not want to miss these moments. I am very conscious that before I realize I will have two teenagers in front of me, worried about other things, anxious about other things. Sooner than later it all will be completely different. Now my girls are old enough not to need me every minute, but young enough so that our home is still their little kingdom. And I find myself in a very sweet moment. I am  happy enough to see every morning in their faces those confident smiles with which they face the world. I am lucky enough to realize that the rush, the work, the obligations, all of that make sense when the whole house is illuminated with their laughing voices. So allow me to keep a little of that just for me, as I cannot afford to miss it;  and apologies if I cannot share those recipes as often over the weekends.

Meanwhile, I am posting today a recipe for one of the best brioches I've ever tasted. I prepared it in the evening, left the dough in the refrigerator and then shaped and baked it in the morning. If you have the time, you can do everything at once, just let the dough double in volume on the first leavening, which will depend on the temperature and humidity of the place where you leave it to rest, and then you can follow the rest of the recipe as it appears here.

Bon Appetite!

Brioche

Ingredients

100 ml of warm milk 
1 sachet of bread dried yeast (7 grams)
2 medium eggs
70 grams of sugar
60 grams of butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5 ml)
3 grams of salt
175 grams of strong bread flour
175 grams of plain flour  
1 egg beaten to paint the brioche prior to put it in the oven

Preparation

If you use the bread maker, put the ingredients into it in the order they appear in the list. Use the 15 minutes kneading program, and put the dough in a bowl, painted with a few drops of oil. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge overnight. Alternatively, you can knead the ingredients, better with a food processor or electric mixer, until the mixture acquires consistency. Put the dough into the fridge, or leave it at room temperature until the dough has doubled in volume (which depends on the temperature and humidity of the room where you are, so it could be anything from 45 minutes to 2 hours).

Once the dough has doubled in size, knead it slightly on a lightly floured surface. Do not overwork the dough; you only need to remove the excess of air. Divide it into six large portions and six more small ones. Make a long cylinder with one of the large pieces, and close, like a donut. Put it inside a brioche mold or in an individual ramekin fluted, slightly painted with oil or butter. Top with one of the small balls and press lightly so the dough does not fall during baking. Repeat until you have finish all the molds. Leave them rest between one and two hours, until doubled in volume again. Preheat oven to 180 degrees, and paint with the beaten egg without exerting pressure on the dough. Put in the oven for about 16 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm.