CAFE AU LAIT POTS DE CREME

Things are cool and calm here.We are doing fine and I am super duper lazy to get back into my old full swing blogging mode.Infact,I've been cooking a lot of new stuffs but never reaches out for my camera sitting in my closet to photograph that delicious thing I just made.Why you may ask? I am in that winter hibernation mode I think,all I feel like doing is...put our baby on his floor mat,just stretch my feet out over our black ottoman,grab the brand new phone of mine and What'sapp away to glory with my wonderful,wonderful hostel friends. There's no other better way to catch up with them,at the moment.

This soft set pudding was made over the weekend when Jobin's friend from college and wife came over to  for dinner. I made it a day in advance so that one thing is ticked off my To-Cook list before our friends came in.This is such an amazing make - ahead dessert and such a crowd pleaser,especially if they are big time coffee lovers like me. I have to tell you, I love my big cup of coffee everyday. A big cuppa in the morning and a small one in the evening.

I started watching food network shows while I was pregnant and found it really lousy except for certain shows.But this time around, I find another set of shows which are interesting.I found this recipe from one such show,Melissa's Ten Dollar Dinners. I watched her make this on her show and immediately made a note in my mind to try it out as soon as I could. We,as a couple,love entertaining so I didn't have to wait long for a chance for me to try it out.

CAFE AU LAIT POTS DE CREME
Ingredients:
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
1 egg plus 2 egg yolks

Method:Preheat the oven to 325 F and prepare a water bath.
In a medium saucepan,mix together milk,cream,sugars,coffee powder,vanilla and salt. Bring to a slow boil on low heat stirring ever so often.In a medium bowl,beat together the egg and egg yolks. Drizzle in some hot milk-cream mixture to temper the yolks and then add the remaining stirring all the way. Divide the batter into four 100ml /4 oz ramekins and bake for 22 mins or until the egdes are set and the centre is still wobbly. Remove them from the water bath immediately and cool completely.

When I took a bite of this wonderfully soft set pudding,it really melted in my mouth. While I was doing so, there were a pair of tiny eyes eyeing my action. Vaava's eyes are always eyeing our mouths . I am sure he will steal and eat if we don't give him food ;-) So after seeing the way he was looking at me, I gave him some to taste. Oh boy! I should have known what I was getting into! :-) His mouth was wide open for more ...gave him another bite and his mouth was open even wider,drooling big time this time!!

A big thanks to all who have been visiting this little corner of mine on the internet! It's been a pleasure having you here :-)

APPLE & VANILLA FRANGIPANE TART

I have no words to tell you how much I love this dessert! This is just beyond awesome! A few ingredients when mixed together and baked can create such a wonderful smelling delicious soft dessert. Plus, it includes fruits too! You can make it with apples, pears, peaches, apricots, nectrarines, plums etc. I am not sure whether the tropical fruits would go well with it but there's no harm in trying for sure :-)



We had a small get together at home on Friday.I made some appetizer and a dessert. As I was planning what to bake for dessert, I knew 2 things for sure. I will be making use of those apples sitting in the fridge and those apples will be made use in the form of a tart. Phew! You see, it's a big achievement for me to decide on what to do ahead of time because being a Gemini is not that easy ;-) Oh! That reminds me...there are birthdays coming up! :-)

So tart it is. Now what tart? Should I go for a shortcrust pastry base or should I go for a puff pastry base? The latter sounded very exciting because I already had a sheet of puff pastry in the fridge. Wait a minute! I have to blog about what I am making so no, I am not going to use that readymade puff pastry sheet now :-)
Alrite, I shall stick with the shortcrust pastry then. Hmm, now what kind of filling should it be? Custard? Frangipane? Fruit compote?



After raking my brains, for whatever reason it maybe, I decided to go with a Frangipane filling. I remember baking a Bakewell Tart not so long ago and I really loved it. I have a soft spot for things made with jam. Not too much but a hint is perfect. I've baked quite a lot of things with a jam filling in my life and they are all here, on the blog. Jam Tarts are my forever favourites! I think I'll take a of it box with me when I die, just in case I get bored out there!

VANILLA & APPLE FRANGIPANE TART
Serves 6

Ingredients
For the pastry:
175 g flour/maida
50 g oatmeal, powdered fine
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, very cold
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp ice cold water

Method: Preheat the oven to 350 F and get the tart tin ready. I used a rectangular shaped one. You can also use a circular shaped tin but you may have to double the filling recipe.

In a bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together. Using the biggest holes on your box grater, grate the cold butter into the flour and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the beaten yolks + vanilla and quickly mix it into the flour.Keep mixing while dribbling in the cold water, only adding enough just to bring the dough together. It will be slightly sticky. Form into a disc and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 30 mins. Roll it out on a lightly floured surface and line your tart tin. Freeze it for 20 mins while you get the filling ready.

For the Frangipane
70 g unsalted butter, softened
70g almond meal /almond powder
1 egg
2 tbsp flour
1 vanilla bean, scraped out / 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method: Cream butter and sugar for a minute. Add the egg and beat for another 30 seconds. Add the vanilla,almond flour and plain flour and beat well on high for a minute. Pour into the tart tin and spread it with an offset spatula.

Arrange apples, maybe 2-3 over it as shown or as desired and bake the tart for 25-30 mins or until the frangipane has puffed up and is golden brown in colour.

I urge you all to try this dessert right away and eat it warm. I had a tub of ice cream, Dulce De Leche & Vanilla and it was just too perfect along with this awesome apple dessert.If you have been around here for a while, you will know that I wasn't a fan of baked apple goodies until I baked that Apple & Cardamom Cake. This is better than that! Can you imagine?? No? Bake some and see for yourself ;-)

VANILLA SCENTED PLUM CLAFOUTIS

Now a days, I'm trying to incorporate more fruits into my diet and end up picking quite a lot of fruits thinking they all would go into my belly in their raw state. It doesn't happen like that most of the time.No matter how much I try, I end up pairing them with flour, butter & sugar. This one was no exception. Everytime I opened my fridge, I would see the ripe plums sitting pretty in a bowl and staring at me.

Enough of staring dear plums, come to me, let me put you into good use! So I searched a way of using them up, a way I haven't travelled before. Of course, the Google came into my rescue! Just type in those magical words you want to see and there you have it, in all forms right in front of you!

I've noticed that Jobin loves desserts with fruits in them. He scrapes his bowl clean whenever I've made Orange-Blackberry Cobbler, Cherry Crumble, Nectarine-Blueberry Galette,Lavender infused Stone Fruit Tartelettes, Pear & Chocolate Crumble etc in the past. This time, I decided to go with a soft filling like a custard with plenty of fruits in it and see how he would enjoy it. It was a winner all the way!

Clafoutis is a French dessert of  Black cherries arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a flan like batter. It is then dusted with powdered sugar and served warm. Source - Wikipedia.

Cherries are not in season here right now but a lot of other stone fruits are. Plums, peaches,nectarines etc are available in plenty. I think most of them are imported as it's still not the season here for the local fruits. The plums which I bought were from Chile. They were the size of an orange we get in India.



The original recipe didn't call for Vanilla but I love using them in everything.I still have a big bag of Organic Vanilla Beans that I carried with me all the way from India. So I pulled out a bean, split into half, scraped it out with the blunt side of my knife and added it to the custard mix. The empty bean was then cut into 4 and was dumped into my sugar container to infuse my regular sugar and convert them into the fragrant vanilla sugar.

The pale yellow custard fleckled with vanilla paired with plums sautéed in butter and sugar was a real delight to our senses. There were some pan juices left behind and I made sure it was all added to the pudding dish along with the plums so that they remain juicy and nice. This is a very quick dessert that you can assemble and bake in a few minutes notice provided you have some ripe fruits on hand.

VANILLA SCENTED PLUM CLAFOUTIS
Recipe source : La Tartine Gourmande

Ingredients:
450g plums
2 tbsp butter + 2 tbsp sugar
2 eggs plus 1 yolk
1/2 c sugar
100 ml cream
3/4 c milk
50g cornflour
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Method: Pre-heat the oven to 410 F . Butter your pudding dish and sprinkle some sugar in it.
Wash and stone the plums. Cut them into 2 inch pieces. Melt butter in a pan and add 2 tbsp sugar and fruits to it . Let it cook on med-high for 5 mins.
In a bowl, mix milk and cornflour.In another bowl, beat the eggs + yolk together. Add sugar and mix well. Add cream and mix. Next,add the milk and vanilla to it. Arrange the fruits in your pudding dish and pour the custard mix over it. Bake till golden and puffed,about 28-30 mins. Once they are out of the oven, sprinkle with sugar and eat lukewarm, preferably.

This dessert is good. It's like eating a soft warm pudding filled with fruits. Since the ingredients are pretty basic, I'm sure it will be loved by almost anyone. I cannot wait for the cherry season to begin here so that I can bake these as much as I want to!

BISCUIT JOCONDE IMPRIME/ENTREMET - MOCHA BAVARIAN CREAM GATEAU

This time I knew I had to do the DB challenge not because it was a cake, but it was something which I had been planning to do this month,otherwise. Then when the DB challenge was announced, I was so thrilled that I almost bounced off the walls. I love trying different techniques, different filling ...basically anything different,everytime! I had written down the recipe for a ribbon strip from the Le Cordon book of Baking and used to show it to Jobin saying this was something I always wanted to try.A Joconde Imprime is a decorative design baked into a light nut-sponge cake providing an elegant finish to desserts/tortes/entremets formed in ring molds.

The first time I ever saw that strip was on a Sweet Chariot's Chocolate Mousse Cake which was almost 8 years ago and my hunt for that 'strip' recipe started right then and it ended in December '10! I had asked many people on how to bake it and I got various answers which included 'spray painting' a sponge sheet cake! I thought, maybe that was it and I have no measures to spray paint a cake at home, so forget it! But I didn't forget it. I hunted our local library for books which could give me some hint to it and I finally found one...and I made up my mind that I am not letting that book go!

The January 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge was hsoted by Asteroshe of the blog Accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremet dessert.

BISCUIT JOCONDE IMPRIME /ENTREMET - MOCHA BAVARIAN CREAM GATEAU
Recipe for the Cigarette Batter & Joconde -Pastry & Sports
Recipe for the Chocolate Genoise - from here
Recipe for the Mocha Bavarian Cream -Le Cordon Book of Professional Baking by Wayne Gisslen, pg: 534

Ingredients:
For the Cigarette batter:
30g softened unsalted butter
30g powdered sugar
1 egg white
20g flour
6g cocoa powder

For the Joconde:
75g ground almonds
75g powdered sugar
20g flour
2 whole eggs
30g melted butter
2 egg whites
12g sugar

For the Chocolate Genoise:
Look here.

For the Mocha Bavarian Cream: (I made 1/2 portion)
22g powdered gelatin
150ml cold water

3-4 large egg yolks
125g granulated sugar
500ml milk
8ml vanilla extract
1 1/2 tbsp instant coffee powder

500 ml heavy cream/Amul cream


For Chocolate Ganache:
125g semisweet chocolate/dark chocolate
125 g heavy cream/ Amul cream

Method:
For the Cigarette batter:
Beat the sugar and softened butter together till fluffy.
Beat in the egg white and add flour and cocoa to it.Mix well.
Spread this batter on a parchement paper and make designs on it using your fingers/forks/pastry combs etc.
Freeze this for 15 mins. DO NOT skip this.

For Joconde:
Beat the egg whites stiff by adding the sugar (granulated) towards the end. Reserve.
Beat almonds,sugar,flour,whole eggs together till fluffy and add the melted butter.
Fold in the egg whites carefully and pour this batter over the frozen cigarette batter.
Spread it to an even 1/4" thickness.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 475F/250C for 7 minutes. The cake should spring back when touched lightly.
Let it cool for 5 mins and then carefully transfer it onto a chopping board and trim as needed to fit your moulds.

For Chocolate Genoise:
Look here 

For Mocha Bavarian Cream:
Soak the gelatin in cold water and let it bloom for 5-6 minutes.
Whip the yolks and sugar until light and thick.
Scald milk and slowly add it into the egg mixture,beating constantly.
Cook this mixture over a water bath until it thickens slightly.
Add vanilla extract and coffee powder and mix well to dissolve.
Melt the gelatin and add into the egg mixture.
Let it cool over ice or in the fridge till half set, making sure to stir in every now and then to keep the mixture smooth.
Whip cream to soft peaks,DO NOT over whip.
When the egg custard has thickened, and not yet set, fold in the cream.
Pour in between the cake layers (as mentioned in the 'assembly' below).

For Chocolate Ganache:
Chop the chocolate into small bits and reserve in a stainless steel /glass bowl.
Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate.
Let it sit for 5 mins. Stir till it is smooth. It will be loose now, you can leave it in the fridge for 10 mins to get it slightly thickened.
Pour over the cake and smoothen it with an offset spatula.

Assembly:
1.Make a soaking syrup: Make a soaking syrup by dissolving 1cup granulated sugar in 1cup warm water. Add 1 tbsp of rum to it, if you wish to. I added it because I like the combination of rum and coffee.

2.Split the Chocolate genoise into 3, horizontally.

3.Cut the joconde into the size of the springform pan (diameter) to fit snuggly. There should be no gaps.

4.Place a layer of genoise at the bottom and soak it generously with 1/4 c of soaking syrup. Top it with half of the bavarian cream. Repeat. The last layer should be the genoise.

5.Top it with chocolate ganache and level it using a spatula, preferably offset.

6.Wrap the whole assembly with a cling film and let it set in the refigerator for 2 hours.

7.Decorate the top of the cake as you need and serve chilled.

This cake lasts really long, we had it for over a week! :)

Verdict:
I made this cake in one go and it took me 4 hours. I wanted to finish it by the time Jobin got back home from work, so that I could surprise him and indeed he was surprised! ' Mmmm...no one would believe that it's made at home!' was his comment as soon as he took a bite of it.That was enough to keep me going for another week! :-D

It was a very very delicious cake! We couldn't help but dig into each other's plate for an extra bite. The filling was a breeze to make and it was very tasty! The Joconde Imprime gave the cake a very professional finish.

This is one of the best gateau's I have made till date! It is definately a lenghty recipe,but it's really easy to make.If you plan ahead,unlike me, you can make the cake on the previous day, wrap it well and leave it one the counter. Next day start with the joconde, cream and the ganache. If you happen to make this cake, trust me, you will be hooked to it! :)

TRADITIONAL MADELEINES...for 300,000 hits! Woo Hoo!

"The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it...." but "....as soon as I had recognized the taste of the piece of madeleine soaked in her decoction of lime-blossom which my aunt used to give me .... immediately the old grey house upon the street, where her room was, rose up like a stage set to attach itself to the little pavilion opening on to the garden which had been built out behind it for my parents."

Marcel Proust (1871-1922)

'Remembrance of Things Past'

Yes it's time for another celebration on RC. This time it's because we hit another 100,000 visitors here in less than 2.5 months! Thank you all SO SO much for making this happen! I am not sure if you guys have noticed the 'Contact Me' page, where you can contact me (DUH!) inorder to clear any recipe doubts or recipe requests :-) So make use of that page!

This time around, I thought I'd keep my celebrations simple as we are going to have a jam packed eating session for the coming week. So let's keep some extra calories at bay :)

Madeleins are from France. They are feather light in weight and they have a characteristic 'hump' ( which looks like a pot belly to me) and it that 'hump' which determines the quality of it.Luckily I did get that 'hump' for my madeleins :) If you are a fan of the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. series, you would have heard Ross talking to Monica about these goodies. He says ,'they were light as feather'.

The honour for naming this cake so, belongs to King Stanislas Leszczynski of Poland, who, in the eighteenth century , tasted a tea cake made by a local woman in Commercy , France. He was so delighted with the cookie that he named it after the baker, Madeleine. (Info. courtsey: Dorie Greenspan)

The batter can be made up to 2 days in advance and they need to be chilled for a minimum of 3 hours. Don't try to cheat on it...you won't get the 'hump'.To make these beauties, you will need the specialised pan which can be bought in speciality shops in US. In India, I have never seen it, maybe you can get it now.

TRADITIONAL MADELEINS
Recipe from: Baking from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan, pg:166
Makes 12 large madeleines

Ingredients:

All purpose flour-2/3 c

Baking powder- 3/4 tsp

Pinch of salt

Sugar-1/2 c

Grated zest of one lemon

Eggs- 2 large, at room temperature

Vanilla extract- 2 tsp

Unsalted butter-3/4 stick/6 tbsp, melted and cooled

Method:

For the batter:

• Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
• In a large bow, rub together the sugar and lemon zest till the sugar is moist and fragrant (less than a minute).
• Add the eggs to the bowl and beat together on medium-high speed until pale, thick and light, 2-3 mins.
• Beat in vanilla and with a rubber spatula,very gently fold in the dry ingredients, followed by melted butter.
• Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface(yes, you read it right) of the batter and refrigerate it for atleast 3 hours, or for up to 2 days.

Getting ready to bake:

• Centre a rack in the oven and pre heat the oven to 400 F.
• Butter the tin generously and dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess.
• Spoon the batter into the moulds, filling each one almost to the top. Don't worry about spreading the batter, the oven's heat will take care of that.
• Bake them for 11-13 mins or till they are golden brown and the tops spring when touched.
• Rap the pan on the counter and the madeleins will fall out.
• Cool to room temperature and serve. You can also serve them warm.
• Store in airtight containers.

Verdict:

These beauties are perfect as gifts. They are best eaten warm on the same day but can be served at room temperature, too. Jobin loves madeleins and whenever I plan to  bake a batch as gifts, I make an extra batch  for him to do the taste test...yeah we eat not just one, but an entire batch to taste test and tell ;)

So thank you all,once again, for letting my blog touch this milestone!

Much love,

NECTARINE & BLUEBERRY GALETTE

I love summer for 2 main reasons : Stone fruits & BBQ. I was amazed by the variety of stone fruits that are available here. Off late I have been hooked onto cherries and nectarines. I must have bought some 4-5 lbs of cherries thinking I shall bake with them. Unfortunately it all went into my stomach the non- baked way.

I made these the last weekend because we usually meet up with our friends for dinner. And it was my turn to play hostess. For me, I have to make dessert even before I start thinking about the main course and appetisers!I opened my fridge and I see the juicy nectarines and ripe blueberries sitting pretty next to each other. That's it, their fate was decided! So Galette it was!

I must not have done a very good job in stoning the fruits as they were so ripe that they got squished between my not-so-delicate hands ;-)

NECTARINE & BLUEBERRY GALETTE

Recipe source : Susan

Ingredients:

Dough:

All purpose flour- 1 3/4 c

Granulated sugar- 1/3 c

Coarse cornmeal-1/4 c

Salt-1/4 tsp

Cold butter- 1/2 cup, cut into small pieces

Butter milk- 1/3 cup

Fruit filling:

Fresh blueberries- 2 1/2 c

Nectarines - 3 , chopped

Granulated sugar-1/2 c

Light brown sugar-1/4 c

Ground Cinnamon-1 tsp

Vanilla extract- 1tsp

Fresh ginger- 1 tsp, minced

Cornflour-3 tbsp

Egg white-1

Milk- 2 tbsp

Sugar-1 tbsp

Method:

• To make the dough, combine flour, sugar, cornmeal, and salt in a large bowl and mix well with hands. Add butter and mix with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Slowly pour the buttermilk and mix with fingertips until the dough forms a ball. Take the dough ball and adhere any remaining pieces of dough to it, then wrap in plastic wrap or parchment paper. Refrigerate for 30-35 minutes.
• Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

• To make the fruit filling, combine all ingredients in a large bowl, and toss gently, making sure that the cornstarch is coating the fruit. (This will prevent too much juice from leaking out while the galette bakes.)
• Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place on a sheet of parchment paper. Starting at the center of the dough, roll out, forming a 14-15-inch wide circle. Place the dough with parchment paper on a baking sheet. Add the fruit mixture to the center of the dough, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold the border over the filling, overlapping where necessary and pressing gently to adhere the folds.
• Lightly whisk the egg white and milk in a small bowl. Brush dough with egg wash, and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake for 1 hour, or until crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbly. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool for at least 20 minutes. (Cutting it too quickly will cause the dough to crack). It's best served at room temperature or slightly warm. 

Verdict: Perfect summer dessert! I love the pastry, it was crisp even after I left it outside for 4-5 hours! You can use any fruits of your choice to make this dessert. 

Our friends loved it, infact one of them went home with 2 galettes! :)