Two Tone Macarons with lemon curd filling

 

I know I know you all will be saying she is back with her Macarons.
Truth to be said, I haven't made Macarons in 2013 , last time I made the were for the Christmas Eve party here we had at home in 2012 :-)
And then Ananda came for a weekend in August and she wanted to see how they are made and from that time onwards I am hooked back making them .
Now in the last week I made them twice.
So prepare to see more macarons here ofcourse with totally different filling. I am even planning to make savoury ones.
Ok this is the 14 th Macaron post in my blog. So if you want to try Macaron and if you haven't you can choose from a verity here there is Macaons with Cacao Butter , Macaron with Heering Cherry Ligueur, Macarons with White Chocolate rose filling , and it goes one and one.

This time I wanted to do something different, i wanted to have two colors, so what i did is.
As always I sticke to my tried and tested recipe from Ottelenghi which has been working for me all these time.
To get the two tone look, I take the second color I want with the tip of a small teaspoon and swrill to the macaron mix, just before I pour the miwture into my pipping bag.
I filled the baked macarons with Lemon Curd which was shop bought.
 

Cheesecake With Lime and Bluberry

 

Ok  it doesn't look lika a cake but it taste indeed like one , the difference is this one is served in a glass with different layers.
Last week we had friends for dinner and these friends we have been friends for ages, well Hans is friends with them for more that 30 yrs and me from the time i came here.
I think to be good friends with some one well with  friends they are husband and wife one has to like them plus one has to get on well with each other too.
And mostly I think when one is having guest and if i like them a lot I tend to go over board in preparing th emenu for the party especially the Dessert.
I made two Desserts and a bunch of Macarons and one of the desserts was this and it was really super yumm.

Ofcourse I spiked the dessert with Limoencello if you are serving this for young kids or if you don't like boosing up desserts you can use juice or sugar syrup etc...

Ingridients for 6 to 8 ppl depending on the size of your glass.

For the cake.
1 egg
40 gm sugar ( I added less as i don't like the dessert too sweet)
25 gm flour
10 g Cornflour
Butter for the muffin pan or cupcake wrappers

For the lime Mouss:
2 1/2 gelatine leaves
2 1/2 lim
2 egg yolks
40 gm sugar ( I used less sugar)
200 gm Ricotta Cheese
200 ml cream ( atleast 32 % fat)
2 tsp vanilla sugar

Make the cake first.

1. Preheat the oven for 160°c.
2. Add the egg yolk (keep the white in a another bowl) and 30 gm sugar to a bowl and whisk till the mix is pale and fluffy. Add the flour and the cornflour. Mix everything good with the whisk. Now add the rest of the 10 gm sugar to the egg white and whisk till they are in soft peaks. Fold the egg whites into the cake mix. Spoon the cake mix into buttered muffin pans or to the cupcake wrappers and bake for 20 minutes. ( In my oven it got baked in 14 minutes so check the cakes in time) Take the cakes when it is baked and leave it to cool.
   
   Make the Limemousse
3. Grate the skin from the lime and aside and squeeze the lime juice.
   Mix the juice of 2 lime and the grated skin and the egg yolks and sugar in a glass bowl.  Whisk this in a warmwater bed ( Au baine Marie) Till they are creamy in texture. In the mean time soften the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes. 
   When the egg mix is creamy in texture , take the softend gelatine leaves ,squeese off the excess water and add this to the creamy egg mix and mix well. Leave this creamy mix to come to room temperature.
   When the mix has come to room temperature add the ricotta cheese and the rest of the juice from half lime and fold through.
   Whisk the cream to a soft peak and fold this into the cheese mix.
4. This 4th step is for people who don't want to have a boosey cheesecake. Then you have to make this lime sugar syrup.
   Grate the skin of 2 lime and sgueeze the juice into a pan add 80 gm sugar and 100 ml water and bring this mix into boiling and boilf for few minutes and the leave it to cool.
5. Couple of big Tablepoon for Limoencello for guys who want to have boosey cheesecake :-)
6. Assembling the Cheesecake.
   Slice the cupcakes into thick slices ( I sliced one cupcake into three)
   Soak each slice with the cooled sugar syrum of Limoencello.
   Add the soakded slices into each glass. Now add the thick layer of the limemousse Crumble another piece od soaked cake onto top.
   Keep the glasses in the fridge for atleast 2 hours. When it is time for serving add couple of bluberries on top of the glass and serve.

Soft German Pretzels

Even though I love making bread and I do make my Spelt bread every few days for our daily bread, what I do'nt make during the summer holidays are bread, only because mostly one is busy going out or doing things which normaly one doens't do.
So I didn't think I will be able to make the Pretzel when I saw what Aparna had choosed for this months We Keand to Bake.
Actually it was Hard pretzel the Gang was making, but there was a choice for making the soft ones too, so I decided to go with the soft one.
And I am glad I took the effort to make them as we loved it.
Ofcourse the day when I made them I was in such a hurry and doing atleast 4 things at the same time, instead of adding the I cup of water to the flour I ended up adding 6 cups of water to the flour.
I know thinking while porung the water to the dough isn't it too much but doing other things at the same time I din't stop at my thought I just continued and then only realized what I was doing when it was too late. So had dump the whole lot and start over again. And I am glad I did them as they are so good.



Original Recipe Source

1 package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar $

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1 cup warm water (100° to 110°)

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided (about 14 1/2 ounces) $

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1 teaspoon salt

Cooking spray

6 cups water

2 tablespoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cornmeal

1 teaspoon water

1 large egg $

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2 teaspoons kosher salt

Preparation

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water in a large bowl, and let stand for 5 minutes.
2. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Add 3 cups flour and 1 teaspoon salt to yeast mixture; stir until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes). Add enough of remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will feel slightly sticky).
3. Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 40 minutes or until doubled in size. (Gently press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.) Punch dough down; cover and let rest 5 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 425°.
5. Divide dough into 12 equal portions. Working with one portion at a time (cover remaining dough to prevent drying), roll each portion into an 18-inch-long rope with tapered ends. Cross one end of rope over the other to form a circle, leaving about 4 inches at end of each rope. Twist the rope at the base of the circle. Fold the ends over the circle and into a traditional pretzel shape, pinching gently to seal. Place pretzels on a baking sheet lightly coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise 10 minutes (pretzels will rise only slightly).
6. Combine 6 cups water and baking soda in a nonaluminum Dutch oven. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer. Gently lower 1 pretzel into simmering water mixture; cook 15 seconds. Turn pretzel with a slotted spatula; cook an additional 15 seconds. Transfer pretzel to a wire rack coated with cooking spray. Repeat procedure with remaining pretzels.
7. Place pretzels on a baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Combine 1 teaspoon water and egg in a small bowl, stirring with a fork until smooth. Brush a thin layer of egg mixture over pretzels; sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake at 425° for 12 minutes or until pretzels are deep golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Raspberry Chocolate and Almond Cake

It has been a wonderful long weekend as Ananda some of you may know her from the blog A pinch of Love came to our place for weekend and it was so much fun to have her at home and cooking and also we made macarons, she wanted to learn how to make them so we maked them together but as we were so busy we didn't had time to fill them.
We drank cocktails, ate so much food that in that even one evening we were all so STUFFED that we just were like no moreeeeeeeeeee eating like this :-)
We went for shopping for baking stuff, then went for prop shopping in a second hand shop and then went to one of my favourite shop for buying new props, and Ananda went wild there as she found so many things she loved.

The day before she came I had made this cake as it was a religious holiday here and as usual we go to my FIL's place for afternoon coffee and recently I have restarted baking cakes to take that side as we were getting fed up by the cakes from the bakers.
Before I used to take the whole cake but now from 7 to 8 ppl for the coffee time it has reduced to just 4 so now a days I just take half the cake and keep the other half here .

In the recipe it is written serve with whipped cream but I din't had any cream so didn't do it thought Hans was going one saying that it would have been so good to have the cream as he loves whipped cream.

Recipe is from last months Delicious Magazine.

150 gm Unsalted butter, softend to room temperatur
150 gm sugar ( I used only 90 gm)
2 large eggs
150 gm Self rasising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder ( in the recipe they didn't use it but I added) add to the flour
50 ml whole milk
150 gm almond powder
135 gm dark chcolate chip ( used chocolate chunks)
150 gm fresh or frozen raspberries ( I used 170 gm and frozen one, take them our just before you want to fold into the cake)
25 gm flakes almonds
Icing sugar to duseµDouble cream to serve

1. Preaheat the oven to 180°c / fan 160°c. Grease and line a 20 cm cake tin.
   In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar untill pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time beating well adding a spoon of flour after each addition. Beat in the milk to combine.
2. Fold in the remaining flour, the ground almonds, chocolate chips and raspberries. Spoon into the cake tin, then sprinkle over the flaked almonds.
3. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes untill a skewer pushed into the center comes out clean ( although chocolate might stick to it), coool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completley. Dust with the icing sugar and serve with cream.

Tip: After 40 minutes if the cake is getting too brown I cover the top of the cake loosley with a foil and then bake for the rest of the time.

 

Strawberry & Rhubarb crumble

I love crumble and I must admit I love a good crumble in winter easpecially when it is so cold outside and then you are staying indoors and around coffee time you make a crumble ans enjoy and you have the feeling that your whole body just gets warmed up by eating the crumle.

So then you all must be saying why am I posting a recipe for a crumble when it is so hot outside.
Simply because if I have to wait for winter time to make this particular crumble I won't be able to as I won't have good strawberries and rhubarb so now you all know the reason why I make the crumble.

We loved the crumble, the day when I made the crumble Shyama had to go to her university library as she is doing her bachelor paper and most of the book she need they don't lend so you have to look up everything in the library itself. But when she came home that evening she asked me Mama I saw your crumble in FB which you posted today and they were looking so good, do you have something left and me why were you looking to fb while you were in the library and she is like ofcourse I check fb there too.
The recipe said if you like serve with ice cream, I think it is a must :-)



I took the recipe from BBC Good food Magazine

For the crumble

• 140g plain flour
• 50g ground almonds
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 100g butter, chopped
• 25g flaked almonds

For the fruit layer

1. 85g golden caster sugar
2. 1 heaped tbsp cornflour
3. 450g strawberries, hulled and halved if large
4. 450g rhubarb, cut into chunky lengths
5. v
6. Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. To make the crumble, mix the flour, ground almonds and sugar in a bowl, then rub in the butter as though you are making pastry. Tip the mixture onto a large baking tray and spread out evenly. Create little clumps in the mixture by pinching it together with your fingers, then bake for 10 mins.
7. Meanwhile, make the fruit layer. Mix the sugar and cornflour together in a large bowl, then toss in the berries and rhubarb until well coated. Tip the mixture into a pan and cook over a gentle heat, stirring until the fruit softens a little and any released juices thicken.
8. Tip the fruit mixture into an ovenproof dish, scraping in all the thickened juices. Add the flaked almonds to the crumble mixture, then scatter over the top. Bake for 20 mins until the fruit is tender and the crumble golden. Leave to cool slightly, then serve warm with vanilla ice cream, if you like.anilla ice cream, to serve (optional)