Marble joghurt cake

The other day I really felt like a lot of things actually.. Something with chocolate, something without chocolate, something creamy, but not too sinful. And something that would last a few days as was having a few single-days and di not want to a.) or eat the whole thing by myself, b.) throw half (or more?) of it out.
I decided on a marble cake, but did not find any recipes that won me over, so decided to modify one of my favourite recipes, the classic lemon joghurt loaf. It turned out great, and after my days of 'singleness' were over, the loaf was still moist and a perfect companion to coffee, not too sweet, but sweet enough.

marble joghurt cake recipe:

ingredients:
3 eggs, preferably organic
1 pot of natural joghurt (I use organic strained usually, 125ml)
using the joghurt pot as measurement:
1 pot of sugar
1/2 pot of light oil
2 pots minus 2 tablespoons of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder, best quality you can get
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
zest of one lemon
butter an a bit of flour to prepare your loaf tin

preparation:
Heat the oven to 180C or 4, then butter and flour your tin.
Combine the eggs, sugar and the aroma with a mixer.
With a wooden spoon, add the joghurt and the oil.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour minus 2 heaped tablespoons with the baking powder.
Mix this together with the wet mixture.
Divide the mixture in 2 bowls and add the rest of the flour and lemon zest to one of them and the cocoa powder to the other.
Pour the mixtures into the loaf tin, one on top of the other, then with a butter knife, run through it in zig-zags so they combine a bit.
Put in the oven, for 40 minutes, baking it for 15 minutes and then loosely covering it with a foil for the rest of the time.
Cool a bit, take out of the tin and wait until its room temperature, than make a coffee, sit down and enjoy :)

The Daring Bakers: Ice cream petit fours

This is my third month with the Daring Bakers and I am getting familiar with the different brands and types of double cream through the challenges. This month we made Petit Fours: an amazing little dessert, a wonderful combination of cake, ice cream and chocolate.

I found them a tiny bit too sweet for my taste (as usual) so served them with a fresh raspberry puree, using a handful of raspberries mixed with a teaspoon of confectioners sugar. They were a real hit :)

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

preparation time:
Ice cream – 45 min active time, ice cream rests/chills for 1 hour then overnight. Without an ice cream maker, the ice cream chills 2-3 hours and must be stirred every 30 minutes.
Brown Butter Pound Cake – 2 hours (includes cooling time)
Chocolate Glaze – 15 minutes
Meringue – 10 minutes
Assembly of Ice Cream Petit Fours – Ice cream must be frozen ahead of time several hours, then the cake and ice cream freeze overnight. After dipping, the petit fours freeze for one hours.
Assembly of Baked Alaska – Ice cream must be frozen head of time several hours, then the Baked Alaska is frozen 1 hour or up to one day.

Equipment required:
• Small and medium saucepans
• Paring knife
• 2 quart (2 litres) bowl
• Electric mixer
• Whisk
• Spatula
• Sieve
• 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square baking pan
• 10” (25 cm) skillet
• Cake leveler/serrated knife
• Cooling racks
• Rimmed half sheets
• Teacups
• Plastic wrap
• Piping bags (optional)
• Ice cream maker (optional)
• Cooking blow torch (optional)

Directions:
Vanilla Ice Cream
1 cup (250ml) whole milk
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup (165g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise OR 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
2 cups (500ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract
1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean with a paring knife and add to the milk, along with the bean pod. Cover, remove from heat, and let infuse for an hour. (If you do not have a vanilla bean, simply heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.)
2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2 litre) bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.
3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour ¼ cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.
4. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract (1 teaspoon [5ml] if you are using a vanilla bean; 3 teaspoons [15ml] if you are not using a vanilla bean) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.
5. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze in an ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make it without a machine. See instructions from David Lebovitz: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/07/making_ice_crea_1.html

Brown Butter Pound Cake
19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.
2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.
3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.
5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.
6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Glaze (For the Ice Cream Petit Fours)
9 ounces (250g) dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (250 ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
1 1/2 tablespoons (32g) light corn syrup, Golden syrup, or agave nectar
2 teaspoons (10ml) vanilla extract
Stir the heavy cream and light corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add the dark chocolate. Let sit 30 seconds, then stir to completely melt the chocolate. Stir in the vanilla and let cool until tepid before glazing the petit fours.

Assembly Instructions – Ice Cream Petit Fours
1. Line a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) pan with plastic wrap, so that no sides of the pan are exposed and so there is some extra plastic wrap hanging off the sides. Spread 1 ¾ to 2 cups (450ml to 500ml) ice cream into the pan. Cover with more plastic wrap and freeze several hours.
2. Once the brown butter pound cake has completely cooled, level the top with a cake leveler or a serrated knife. Then split the cake in half horizontally to form two thin layers.
3. Unwrap the frozen ice cream. Flip out onto one of the layers of cake and top with the second layer of cake. Wrap well in plastic wrap and return to the freezer overnight.
4. Make the chocolate glaze (see above.)
5. While the glaze cools, trim ¾” (2cm) off each side of the ice cream cake to leave a perfectly square 7.5” (19cm) ice cream cake. Cut the cake into twenty five petit fours, each 1.5”x1.5” (4cmx4cm).
6. Glaze the petit fours one at a time: place a petit four on a fork and spoon chocolate glaze over it.
7. Place the petit fours on a parchment-lined baking sheet and return to the freezer for one hour.

Quick weekend lunch: mushrooms on toast

I had a nice box of chestnut mushrooms at home last weekend but was not sure what to do with them. I wanted to make sure that whatever we eat them in, they take absolute center-stage. All I was sure of, was that it has to have fresh parsley, so I went hunting in the kitchen, and ended up with the following recipe, which will become a regular from now on:

- half a baguette, sliced in 2 horizontally
- a garlic clove, halved
- a bit of butter
- a teaspoon of olive oil
- 5-6 chestnut mushrooms, depending on size, sliced
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- half a fresh chilli, thinly sliced (optional)
- a small bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
- a small piece of cheese of your preference, I used cheshire as although it does not melt well, the flavours go perfectly

Heat the oven to 200C. Put the baguette slices on a baking tray and put in the oven for 5-6 minutes.
Meanwhile heat the oil, add the mushrooms and chilli, season and fry until mushrooms are soft and a bit coloured, about 6-10 minutes. Mix with the parsley and fry for another minute.
Take the breads out, rub the flat side with the garlic and butter them.
Pile the mushrooms on the bread slices and then crumble the cheese on top.
Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes until cheese starts to melt and bread becomes crispy.

Herb and cheese omlette

Saturday mornings are all about a nice leasurely breakfast for me, with eggs et all. For a while I was all about putting everything into an omlette but now, maybe that I am older :) I usually feel like something fresh and streamlined. Through weeks of practice, now I think I have perfected my best omlette. It was all about the oil quantity, the cheese: which one and how much, the herbs: which ones and when to add them, and so on.
Here is my recipe, give it a try, the next weekend you get a chance:

- 6 organic eggs
- salt, freshly ground black pepper
- olive oil, about 1 tablespoon
- 3 spring onions sliced with greens
- half a fresh red chilli, finely chopped
- a small piece of medium cheddar shredded
- a small bunch of parsley and chives, chopped

Heat oil in a frying pan. You should add enough oil to very thinly cover the whole pan, it gives a great taste and helps prevent sticking.
Add the onions and the chilli and fry on medium heat until soft and fragrant.
Meanwhile mix the eggs and season. Use just a fork and don't overbeat them.
Add the eggs to the pan and count to 5, push carefully around and repeat the process a few times. The idea is not to break the omlette, but to cook it everywhere.
When close to cooked, add the herbs and the cheese on one side and carefully, with a wide spatula fold the omlette.
Fry until cheese is melting, turn off the heat and leave for half a minute to rest.

Eat while still hot.