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Pear, Port and stardust

“We are all stardust”

Carl Sagan

Stardust pears

Serves 4:
20 g stardust tea
500 ml water
4 pears
120 g sugar
100 ml Port wine
Laminated almonds and milk chocolate to serve.

Peel de pears.
Bring water and sugar to boil.
Remove from heat when boiling and add the tea.
Let it rest for 10 minutes.
Sieve.
Add the Port wine and bring to boil again.
Add the pears and cover.
Keep it in low heat for 30-40 minutes.
Serve with laminated almonds and milk chocolate, an ice cream scoop or a biscuit.

Stardust tea: mix of black tea, cocoa, red pepper, rose leaves and coconut.
Taste: chocolate and toffee.

January 18, 2009 | Filed under fruit desserts and jams | 18 Comments 

Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone?!

I love bread!… I can eat bread anytime, I can eat it everyday…
Unfortunately here in Palma almost all bread are pre-frozen baguettes. And when I want to buy some real bread I have to go to some pueblo out of town.
Yesterday I’ve prepared these almond breads to bake early today:
There’s nothing like a buttered hot scent…

Almond breads
Makes 20:
500 g all-purpose flour
25 g yeast
60 g butter
50 g light brown sugar
5 g salt
250 ml de leite morno
50 ml warm water
50 g almonds, finely chopped
Cinnamon

In the mixer, combine all the ingredients together with the dough hook attachment and the yeast dissolved in the milk.
Mix for 10 minutes at medium speed.

Place the dough into a bowl covered with a cloth or wrap film, in a tempered place (24ºC) for 1 hour or until it doubles its size.

Fold gently.
Place the dough into a greased loaf pan.
Cover the loaf pan with wrap film and let it rest again, in a tempered place, for 50 minutes or until it doubles its size.

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC.
Bake for 35 minutes.

January 15, 2009 | Filed under bread | 7 Comments 

With Oporto and nostalgia…

“O Porto é o lugar onde para mim começam as maravilhas e todas as angústias.”
[To me Oporto is the place where wonders and all the anguishes start.]

Sophia de Mello Breyner

Tarteletas de pêra com Porto

112.5 g açúcar
125 g manteiga amolecida
250 g de farinha de trigo peneirada
2 ovos

Pré-aquecer o forno a 180ºC.
Amassar todos os ingredientes juntos até que fique uma massa homogénea.
Formar uma bola com a massa, envolver com film e refrigerar por 1 hora.
Estender a massa sobre uma superfície ligeiramente enfarinhada.
Forrar as forminhas de tarte e cobrir com papel de alumínio ou vegetal.
Espalhar por cima algumas contas de cerâmica para assados ou alguma leguminosa que faça peso e não deixe que a massa infle ao cozer.
Cozer por 20 minutos.
Reservar.

Recheio:
2 pêras cortadas aos quadradinhos
Sumo de limão q.b.
Canela a gosto
2 colheres de sobremesa de mel
50 ml de vinho do Porto

Regar as pêras com o limão.
Juntar a canela, o mel e o vinho e cozer em lume brando.

Encher a massa com a pêra e cobrir com chocolate branco.

January 13, 2009 | Filed under petit-fours, pies, tarts, tartelettes | 3 Comments 

Clementine cakes

Sweet, light, juicy…

Clementine cakes

Serves 8:
4 eggs
250 g sugar
150 g de cake flour
140 ml clementine juice (70ml+70ml)

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC.
Grease and line with parchment paper 8 small cake moulds.
Whisk egg yols with sugar.
Add the firmly whisked egg whites, the flour and 70ml of juice.
Pour the dough into the moulds and bake for 10-15 minutes.
Pour the remaining juice (sweetened as desired) over the warm cakes.
Unmould when cold.

Decorate with clementine segments, chantilly or citric zests.

January 11, 2009 | Filed under cakes, muffins and madeleines | 6 Comments 

Mini Sacher

It’s cold… a moisty cold forced into the soul through the skin.
Streets wear woollen hats and scarves and fill themselves with an icy rush…
I remain here, in the inviting shelter of my kitchen’s warmth.

Small, inviting, provocative… my Sachertorte!

Sachertorte

Flourless chocolate cake:
175 g egg whites
60 g sugar
2 egg yolks
35 g butter, softened
140 g chocolate, finely chopped

Pre-heat the oven at 210ºC.
Grease and line with parchment paper a rectangular baking pan.
Melt the chocolate in a double-boiler (or in the microwave at medium power stirring each 20 seconds).
Combine butter with chocolate. Set aside.
Whisk the egg yolks. Set aside.
Whisk the egg whites and add sugar until firm peaks form (meringue).
Gently fold in, with a spatula, the egg yolks into the meringue.
Combine well with the chocolate and butter mixture.
Bake for 7 minutes.

Apricot jelly

Chocolate glaze:

175 ml water
125 g sugar
100 ml cream
25 g corn syrup
62.5 g cocoa
4 gelatin sheets

Bring the water, sugar, cream and corn syrup to boil until 105ºC.
Remove from heat.
Add the gelatin sheets (previously hydrated and drained) and mix to dissolve.
Let it cool down for a while and add the cocoa.

Use while warm.

Cut the cake horizontally in four layers.
Spread the jelly between layers.
Transfer the cake to a wire rack.
Pour all of the warm chocolate glaze on top of the cake.
Cool until the glaze is barely set, then transfer the cake to a serving plate.
To serve, slice with a sharp knife dipped into hot water.
Decorate with apricot and chocolate.

Flourless chocolate cake based on an original recipe by Paco Torreblanca

January 8, 2009 | Filed under cakes, muffins and madeleines, chocolate, custards, fillings, sauces, and glazes | 9 Comments 

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