Madeleines

I love madeleines but not as much as my husband. He loooves them! He could eat the whole batch I make and not give us one! but he is a good guy, he shares. I love to have them with tea or coffee in the afternoon but my favorite thing to do is to have them with lemon curd spread on top, ahhh so good! Then I could eat the whole thing and not share. They make great gifts too. The truth is, I stopped buying pastries to take to parties long ago, I'd only buy one if I have no time to bake. I sometimes like to add finely ground almonds to the madeleines and of course, chocolate.   

Ingredients

1/2 Cup sugar

3 Eggs

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 Tsp baking powder

1 stick of butter, melted

Grated zest of 1 orange

pinch of salt

Pre-heat the oven to 400 F. 

Spray madeleines mold with non-stick spray and set aside. Wisk together the eggs and sugar until the mixture is pale and thick. Add in the flour, baking powder, salt and zest, mix until well combined and add the melted butter. Mix until smooth. Spoon batter into the molds and bake for 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

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Banana Bread

I had a crazy week between cooking, Lucas, appointments, Laundry, lots of it, a light ganache recipe gone wrong. Phew! But despite all, I had a lot of fun with my family there was a lot of baking, cooking and eating involved which makes it more fun. I love weekends like that, specially when you live in a city like New York

where you, unfortunately, don't get to see your family as often as you would want to. 

One of the things we had was banana bread. I have been making this bread a lot lately because I always end up with leftover bananas that Lucas didn't finish and I won't eat because they are way to ripe for my taste. I like my bananas on the greener side, yes, it's one of those crazy things. I love this recipe, it's a cake-like recipe, a bit spongy and very moist. 

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 ripe bananas, mashed

2 tbsp sour cream

1 tsp Vanilla

1 pinch of salt

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.

Spray a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the sugar and eggs until light and fluffy, about 5 to 8 minutes. Slowly add the oil. Once the oil is well mixed, add the sour cream, vanilla  and the mashed bananas. With the mixer on low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients, mix until well combined. Bake for one hour and fifteen minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

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Aebleskiver

I love to start a Sunday with a good stack of pancakes or waffles but today I decided to give it a twist and make aebleskiver. To be quite honest, I still don't know how to pronounce the name of this dish but who cares, they are so good the name is the last thing on your mind. Aebleskiver are Danish style pancakes with a moist and fluffy center. It's funny how I came across them, I discover the aebleskiver pan first and I tought it was so pretty but had no idea what it was for. I started to do my research and went to a couple of Danish places to try them and I just loved them so I bought the pan and started to experiment and that's how this recipe was born.

They are fairly easy to make but tricky to turn. I messed up a couple of batches before I could make decent looking ones but it's worth the effort. One of the things that I love about them is that you can fill them with just about anything and of course being the chocoholic I am, I didn't think twice and went for chocolate. I have made aebleskiver filled with dulce de leche as well. They are sensational. Just make sure the dulce de leche is cold to avoid a big mess.

Ingredients

2 cups Milk

2 Cups flour

2 Eggs

1 tsp baking powder 

3 tbsp melted butter, plus more for the pan

1/4 Cup sugar

pinch of salt

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Chocolate chips

Sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Separate the egg yolks from the whites, beat the whites until they form stiff peaks. Whisk together egg yolks, milk and melted butter until just mixed. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and whisk until well combined. Gently fold in the egg whites. Using an aebleskiver pan, brush each cup lightly with melted butter and fill then 3/4 of the way, place chocolate chips in the center of each one and turn them when they start to get bubbly around the edge.

Serve warm.  

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Lucas Birthday Cake

It has been a year since my son Lucas was born. It hasn't been an easy year for me, so much to learn, long sleepless nights, playing, crying, feeding, diapers, laundry, a few extra pounds. The list is endless. But I won't change a thing, my son means the world to me and I would do it all over again.

Let me tell you a little bit about him.  He has a nice personality, is always happy and makes lots of facial expressions. It's so funny to see him. He likes to eat about everything I give him except eggplants, he is not to crazy about them! He doesn't walk yet but I think it's a matter of days now. He loves water,  music and enjoys car rides. He says a few words: mama, papa, agua (water) ek (Milk) and he rubs his belly when he is hungry. 

I have been thinking about this day and I want it to do something small but special with the family. I decided to do a layer cake with light ganache topped with mushroom merengue and it came out very well. It was a fun cake to make specially when I put together the mushrooms merengues.

Lucas, I want to tell you how much I love you and I am very proud of you. Happy Birthday Love,

from Mommy.

For the cake:

2 1/4 cup cake flour

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

pinch salt

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla 

2 Lg eggs

Preheat the oven 350 F.

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix the dry ingredients just to blend. Add the vegetable shortening to the dry ingredients and blend on low speed for 2 to 3 minutes. In a mixing bowl, whisk to blend the milk, vanilla and eggs. On medium speed, add slowly half of the liquid to the dry ingredients and blend well, slowly add the other half and mix until well combined. Turn the speed up and mix for 30 seconds or until batter is smooth. Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack and cool completely.

For the Light ganache:

16oz Bittersweet chocolate, chopped

3 1/2 cup heavy cream

In a saucepan, heat the heavy cream until it just begins to simmer, be careful not to allow cream to boil over.

Pour the cream over the chocolate and let stand for 2 minutes. Stir melted chocolate into cream until mixture 

is combined and smooth. Allow the chocolate to come to room temperature stirring occasionally, once cool, cover with plastic film and refrigerated over night. Next day, place in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on high for 2 to 3 minutes. Do not over-mix or ganache will be to hard to spread. 

For the mushroom meringue:

3 large egg whites

1/2 tsp lemon juice 

9 tbsp granulated sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

chocolate frosting

Preheat the oven 200 F. 

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside. Beat the egg whites with lemon juice until stiff peaks form. Add the sugar one tablespoon at the time mixing well after each addition. mix until whites are stiff and glossy. Beat in vanilla. Transfer mixture to large pastry bag fitted with 1/2-inch plain pastry tip. For the mushroom caps: Pipe domes, 1 to 2 inches in diameter, onto prepared baking sheets, and flatten the tips with your fingers. Pipe stems onto baking sheets. Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven or until dry. To assemble, spread bottoms of caps with a thin layer of chocolate frosting, carefully insert stem. With your fingers, rub some chocolate frosting on top of each mushroom cap.

To assemble the cake:

Carefully cut cake in two layers and spread one third of the light ganache onto the cake and place the second layer on top. Spread the top and the sides with the remaining light ganache. Place the mushroom meringue on top. I put cinnamon stick on the side of the cake to resemble wood. 

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Churros con Chocolate

Churros are the perfect treat for anybody. They are best enjoyed warm and of course with hot chocolate. Churros use to intimidate me. I just thought they were one of those things you buy but when you make it yourself, the outcome is a mystery until you try and believe me, there's nothing to be intimidated about. Some say you really need a churro maker to achieve the perfect consistency but then I say, "Well, back in the day, there were no churro makers." 

Everything was handmade, even though I use my electric mixer, you can perfectly well make them by hand.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup water
4 tbsp butter
pinch salt
1 tbsp sugar
3 eggs
oil for frying

for coating
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


In a saucepan, mix together water, butter, sugar and salt over medium-high heat and bring it to boil. Add the flour all at once and mix with wooden spoon until well mixed and no lumps of flour remain. Remove from heat and let cool for a minute. Transfer to a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment and mix adding the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Mix until the dough comes together, it should be smooth. Scrape the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Heat the oil into a deep heavy skillet (I used cast iron)
When Oil is hot, pipe the dough into the oil and cut with scissors. Don't overcrowd the pan. Fry until golden brown. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon and coat the churros with the mixture. Serve with your favorite hot chocolate.

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Lemon Curd

I have done several trips to the farmers market in hopes to find berries but nothing yet. I guess I am being a little impatient but how can I not be? It's still winter in New York even though we are officially in Spring. I guess I can't complain because I still find great vegetables and other goodies. Last Saturday, while at the farmers market, I decided that it was time to start planting my own herbs so I went ahead and got mint, rosemary and basil. This time I didn't get any parsley, I just can't get it to grow. For me, It's such a difficult herb to take care of so, at least for this season, I give up.    

I also found lemons, they were very juicy this time. Actually, they might be the juiciest lemons I've ever gotten which is cool. Back in Honduras, we use to grow our own veggies. I miss that. I wish I had the backyard to do it here but in New York, having a big terrace is more than the average "backyard" people have. I am not complaining, I am very lucky to have that. 

I was thinking to make lemon bars with this lemons but then I changed my mind to lemon curd and I don't really know why but I am glad I did. It came out really good! I love lemon curd with croissant, that's got to be my favorite combination. I will soon make those lemon bars I promise but for now I hope 

you enjoy the curd. 

Ingredients:

5 large eggs

3/4 cup freshly squeezed 

lemon juice

The zest of 4 lemons

1 cup sugar

12 tbs butter 

cut into 1 tbs pieces

In a saucepan (off the heat) combine the lemon juice, sugar, zest and eggs and whisk until well combined.

Turn on the heat to medium and Cook whisking constantly until the mixture has thickened, about 13 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter, I do this in 2 parts at a time until it's well incorporated and

reaches a silky and smooth consistency. Cool completely and refrigerate for two hours. 

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