Homemade Marzipan

If peanut butter comes in two levels of chunky, why shouldn't marzipan? Unfortunately, the chunky kind of marzipan only exists in my household for now (for which thing I must thank my unprofessional food processor). The sophisticated, bittersweet taste of this dessert shouldn't lead you into thinking only the finest french chefs can delight their friends, relatives and customers with this all-season delight (although serving it as a Christmas snack is more than welcome, alongside a letter to Santy)

-Interlude: it is now time. The Santa reference really got me in the mood for Christmas. Yes, I start early, as early as the first wind of autumn. So hang on while I pop a blissful CD of carols in and start building up my enthusiasm for the winter holidays -

I never use an exact amount of ingredients for this recipe because it is so versatile you can easily mend your mistakes, if there should be any. So try playing around wih the consistency, taste it every once in a while, and see if you prefer it moist or crunchy. Personally, I like the crunchier version, because it allows you to shape it into a flat, filo pastry like shape, and use christmassy cookie cutters to give your whole dessert a way more edible look. You can even use kinky cookie cutters, I won't mind, but more about refining the marzipan after the paragraphs depicting the actual recipe. For that,


You will need:


a fistful of raw almonds
about the same quantity of confectioner's sugar
a few drops of vanilla essence
one egg white (or less)
optional, food colouring
also optional, jam or ganache for filling


Like me, you will probably have to make your own almond meal, as there is no such thing available on the market. Same thing applies to half&half and other ingredients I need in order to make some bloody cookies :D. Good thing I'm moving to England next month; with a little luck I will never have to produce my own dairy products ever again! But panic not, it only takes a little extra time and effort to obtain some chunkily ground almonds. Simply buy uncooked almonds, blanch them quickly (for a minute or two), and then gently *squeeze* the seeds, one by one, so that you have a nice bunch of skinless, button-nosed almonds (butt-naked, as the ones found in coconut candies). When done, use a food processor to grind them as finely as possible (although I hear from friends, family and potential future customers using perfectly powdered almond meal isn't mandatory. So this way I accidentally added a nice twist to the recipe.)

Now that you possess the most important ingredient, combine it with roughly the same amount of powdered sugar. You will notice a slight change of colour. And by that I mean a pleasant discoloration. Add a few drops of vanilla extract. You can substitute it with almond extract in order to enhance the flavour. Leave the mixture aside in a bowl so you can crack and separate a fresh egg. You don't need to bring it to room temperature, refrigerated eggs will do just as fine. Now.. if you just happen to add a little too much egg white to the mixture (like I did.. quite a few times), don't panic. Wrap everything up in a little cling film or aluminum foil and let it sit in the fridge for half an hour. You'll see that when the time has elapsed, the consistency will be close to perfection. All it needs is a little pat on the back and it will be all gud. Flatten it with a rolling pin, cut out cute shapes, dust with a little powdered sugar and set on a plate. Now pig out. (om nom nom)

As an alternative way of serving, you can assemble two such marzipan cookies as you would a spritz cookie. Say you have two flowed-shaped marzipan servings. Cut out the centre of either of them, eat it, and sprinkle sugar on the remaining petals. Spread some jam or ganache on the other flower, and set the sugared one on top of the jammied one. I used rose jam for my stacked goodies and the flavours matched perfectly. You can also cover cakes with the resulting marzipan, and mix a part of it with some powdered cocoa for a lovely change of colour and taste. It won't be as easy as it looks on the telly, but when you're short of cake topping inspiration, this is sure to come in handy. Enjoy responsibly XD

Cheerio,

Andi

P.S.: Did anyone notice the motto change?

Pomelo! Sorbet

The dessert (3rd in a row) I am showing off to you today isn't even ready yet. No, no.. it's in the freezer, waiting for me to go stir it every once in a while.. so it can still show its creamy side when I serve it along caramel sauce and bird chirping tomorrow to the guests I haven't even invited yet. Hidden within the cooking instructions, I will set loose my dearest tip for achieving perfection as a chef.. but of course you'll have to hold on through my usual love-at-first-sight encounter with the recipe! tee-hee

Forget the misleading name. This late-springy ice-creamy is nothing I'd have expected when thinking/whispering/ shouting "sorbet". Where I come from, a sorbet is a very sweet cream you're not allowed to eat very much of because it's so vintage your parents only buy it after encountering long-lost friends. Also, it is so sweet even cavities fear it. Or do they?
Either way, no, sorbet-sorbet is just a luscious way of saying ice-cream. In a way it is entitled to be the bearer of a fancier name. After all, among its flavours we will never find labels such as "crazy mango" or "pear-twisted-with-almond-chunky-goodness" or stuff that Ben&Jerry's are supposed to come up with. Au contraire, the elegance of names involving "sorbet" is best suited for 30 year-olds rather than kiddies. Not only the names, but the flavours themselves go by unexpected combinations, such as today's recommendation (ignore the name I've given it, I am still a kiddie) : pomelo & banana.

Here comes the funniest part of the (still) introduction, according to me. How in God's name did I get to prepare this? Home alone, hyper music, bad food, worse weather (Mary Fucking Poppins, ...Bucharest?), generous amount of pomelo. Quick question: Didn't you ever find yourself singing about stuff you were doing out of boredom while being home alone? Quick answer: hell yeah? Well, I sometimes do, but.. I come from a strange family. The deal is, I was about to crack open my size decency-challenged grapefruit when lyrics of songs were connecting in my head. And I listened. What seemed to be Ameno! turned into Pomelo! ..aand that's how this whole religious song translated into names of fruit and nuts.



Pomelo! Visine dulci si amare, Pomelo! Alune! Alune! POMELO! Cirese si.. Pomelo! A rhyming english alternative would perhaps be.. Pomelo! Fresh berries and summer grape seeds, Pomelo! Muesli grains! Muesli grains! POMELO! Honeycomb and.. Pomelo! (Translation not respected.)


You may be wondering why I'm going for ice-cream this time of year. I thought it was outrageous too, but you know what? Those crazy americans know what they're on to when they treat a sore throat with ice-cream. Forget about drinking hot teas and agglutinating tons of lemon slices! Munching on some good quality ice-cream is sure to soothe your pain (and yes, I've tried that a while ago, works like a charm).

One of the difficulties I've encountered while procuring ingredients was obtaining pomelo juice. Especially since I had already peeled it. Save yourself an afternoon and juice it halved, like you would a regular orange. Cause I'm warning you.. pomelo cells are indestructible. Except by human teeth of course. You could juice it with your teeth, but make sure your guests don't know about that. Actually.. scratch that list thing. Emphasize on it. More for you. (I beseech my imaginary readers to pick up that faint pinch of sarcasm. Ooh this is change our mind day (is it not?), so forget I ever mentioned sarcasm on this serious matter. Should create one hell of a comical situation.) To be continued..

For the long awaited Pomelo! Sorbet,

You will need:

1 cup pomelo juice
1/3 cup orange juice
2 perfectly ripened bananas (not the over ripened kind that you use for cakes, but the kind that is uber appealing to the human tooth)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Since this has not sprung from cookie realm, you are absolved from preheating the oven this time. Just make sure your freezer is plugged. Use your food processor or hand mixer to mash up the bananas nicely, incorporating the orange juice. Add the sugar in increments and pour in a bowl. Switch to using a spoon or a spatula and blend in the water and pomelo juice. Continuation of the pomelo tale from the first half of this entry: I could only manage to squeeze out about 1/2 cup of pure pomelo juice(why does this recipe only ask for ingredients that are just right to eat?), so I made up to 1 cup with fresh pieces of fruit, and smoothed it out with my mixer. Now, it is high time you knew my most cherished secret.. (spring roll, er, drum roll please): If it tastes gud even before it's done, you know you've bonded with your dish and turned it into a masterpiece. It was that moment when I licked the spoon today that I said to myself.. this was meant to be.

Cheerio,
Andi

P.S.: I dare you to sing the Pomelo! song when you're tipsy.

P.P.S.: Notice how the the "imagine this paragraph is invisible" tags appear although they stand inside angle quotes? I laugh in the face of HTML!

An Apple Crumble a Day..

I've got no time to become all apologetic about not posting for such a long while. Instead, I prefer cutting straight to the point and letting you know a little bit about what determined me to share this overly simple recipe with you. I have something to confess, though. It is the first time I've tried it, although drooling over pictures of such desserts for months. I've been a fool to ignore it all this time. I have always loved baked apples, but could never get along with pie crusts (or tart ones for that matter) as they fail to complement the luscious texture of the cooked fruit. This is where the "crumble" part of the dessert comes in to save the day. Don't think about it as pieces of crust, this bare thought will transform the dish into baby food whilst giving it a left-over feeling. Its composition brings forth the magic: the fine mélange of oats, nuts and sugar creates the perfect crispy texture to go with your notorious baked apples.

Although my hailing of the dish makes is sound as a revolutionary, miracle food, it is no wonder that it is in fact a life-old dessert many of you have already experienced. All I'm trying to do here is set an example to all of you who find yourselves "endowed" with apples you find no use but to dispose of.

Quick story to add as a back-up argument in case you're not yet convinced to try out my latest dessert recommendation: I decided to take the long road home today. It was slightly warmer and sunnier than any of the past 100 days or so, and even though this has been the most beautiful winter Bucharest has seen in years (notice how there's no global warming here?), I am pretty sure I speak in everyone's name when I say I am thrilled spring is starting to drop hints. Looking out the bus window I could see merchants installing their carts to sell wittul jewelry adorned with red and white thread. Martisorul is perhaps the only Romanian tradition I don't completely despise. And it couldn't have picked a better date. It was this exact feeling that I experienced while tasting my brit recipe. All in all, it will brighten up your day. So if you ever need some cheering up, this is the thing to try. I know I'm taking some to school tomorrow to surprise a friend or two. Comfort fud always helps.

The amount of apple crumble you make is entirely up to you, so feel free to make changes, recipes in general are only guidelines anyway. I had two apples left so if you want to stick to my proportions, then..

You will need:

2 apples
juice of half a lemon
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup rolled oats (I kinda just.. sorted a muesli pack through :"> )
a dash of salt
cinnamon to taste

Almost all dessert recipes start the same. Preheating the oven is.. somewhat essential in baking. After you're done, take out the following necessary utensils and recipients: two medium bowls, a baking pan/individual ramekins (makes about 3-4 I reckon), a knife, and a spoon. Core and cut the apples into medium sized chunks (or whatever bite-size means to you) and mix them with the lemon juice and half of the sugar in one of the bowls. Now take your remaining bowl and pour in the oats, flour,butter, cinnamon, salt and the rest of the sugar. Give them a quick whip (you want it to look crumbly, not doughy, so don't try kneading it or anything) and you're ready to assemble everything. Transfer the apples into the baking pan, or divide equally among the ramekins, and top with the oats mix. It might sound surprising, but you don't need to flour the pan. Simply follow the steps as instructed, place in the preheated oven and keep a watchful eye over the goods. The amount if time it needs to bake is mainly dictated by both the quantity and chunkiness of the apples, so there is no exact time for taking it out. But, for further reference, I baked mine for about half an hour.

As an extra tip, feel free to add all sorts of nuts, such as walnuts or ground hazelnuts. I even paired apples with almonds once, and although they lost a bit of their crispness, the flavours were a match made in heaven.


Cheerio,
Andi

P.S.: Yes, I really, really like taking macro pics. XD

P.P.S.: My friend Dede asked me to provide the cake for her birthday this year. I am really grateful she trusts my (mad) skills! hehe

Le Far Breton (aka PUDDIIING!)

The story of this cake begins like this: my grandmother is paying us an indefinite visit *waving flags*, and she eats whatever elderly people eat (not very appealing stuff), therefore asked my mom to prepare her favourite dish: rice and prunes! Err.. come again? I assure you, the name alone isn't the (only) distasteful part. I immediately sprung into action, in a desperate attempt to free the innocent prunes from such a weary fate. In any event.. I only managed to get a hold of half the dried fruit (no worries though, I even ended up with leftovers, which I will turn into (part of my) breakfast tomorrow by pouring some sweetened yogurt on top).
As for the rest of the pile, it made a much appreciated entrance as a guest star for my french cuisine inspired cake.

Unfortunately, this being only the beginning of my journey to becoming a better chef, I am by no means in possession of a renowned cookbook (except of course for the occasional recipes i whip up by sneak peeking into a friend's Jamie Oliver collection (she just needs to get a hold of Jamie and the Naked Pikachu and she'll have them all..). As of this, I get most of my recipes off the interwebs. Sure, along the way I have encountered innumerable fail-proof, amazing recipes. However, this isn't the most reliable source for cooking inspiration. This occurrence is slowly turning into a fact, as proof for it is precisely what happened today: looking for a decent far breton recipe, i could not find two alike. I finally decided upon one (but I will not give out the source as it is sure to confuse my imaginary readers - I'll promote you to "imaginary friends" soon, no worries) which, although seemed a bit strange, had a very interesting introduction on Brittany. I tend to fall for stories. As prior mentioned, the process was.. odd to say the least, as one was supposed to mix the flour with eggs sugar and what not, leaving milk last. I could hardly even stir it, so i had to go for adding the milk before other dry ingredients. Regardless, it turned out great. Aye this intro is already a tad bit too long and i don't want to be a bore so brace yourselves cause here comes the pudding avalanche: (kinda looks like one, doesn't it?)


You will need:

1 3/4 cups flour (+ some extra for flouring the pan)
4 eggs (no need to separate them)
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups milk
300 g prunes
a little butter for.. buttering the pan

Go for a medium-sized bowl and sift your flour into it. Just like for the bread recipe, make a tiny well in the centre and add the eggs (I added them two by two). When you feel it's getting too tiring to continue stirring or cannot incorporate any more of the flour, start pouring in the milk, little by little, whisking vigorously. You can now proceed to adding your vanilla extract and sugar, and I recommend using a hand mixer to perform this task to make sure your incorporate the sugar properly. It will look extremely liquid, and this startled me at first. Upon further pondering, I figured this is pretty much the right consistency for a pudding before baking. During my research for the perfect far breton recipe, I encountered several ones which insisted on leaving the batter "rest" for half an hour before baking it. I was unsure of this, it reminded me too much of making crepes, so I feared ending up with a giant prune pancake. Not even the fluffy type, but the taco type. So should i have allowed it to rest or not? This dilemma solved itself. The recipe asked for juicy, seedless prunes. I had the rly rly seedy.. dessicated type. It took approximately half an hour to revive my dried plums, as I had to blanch them several times and take care of the kernels. When I was finally done, I buttered and floured a round pan, appropriate in size, and poured in the batter. It had magically thickened, giving so much more support to my fruit, as they have not sinked to the bottom of my pan. All you have to do is place your prunes in the desired places, one by one, giving the cake a marbled looking top.
Place your concoction in the preheated oven for 30-45 minutes or until it turns golden blown and sets completely (by checking periodically, you will notice the wobbly mid-section. This is a sign it needs to stay in for 10 more minutes or so). When done, don't immediately take it out of the oven. Let it rest for a few more minutes, otherwise the sudden temperature change will rend it uberdeflated.

Extra pics: one serving and a chomp.



I have to say.. it looks pretty authentic. Not sure about the taste as I've never had this type of cake before (but tastes gud!). I know this is an auto-appreciation, but for a first timer things went swimmingly. The last time I received this one word compliment was when I baked a cottage pudding and served some to my former foreign English teacher. It so happens that his mother made that cake for his birthday every year. In other words, I aced it. Can't beat that.

Cheerio,
Andi

P.S.: Cottage pudding recipe coming soon. So is the caramel cake and other promised ones.