BROWNiES

I am sorry. I really am. It's just that I can't help myslef. It's almost beyond my control. I keep posting recipes who are really good for your mouth but not so good for your thighs. I promess, the next post will be healthy (Fortunatly, I also wrote "and my love for baking" to the healthy, organic pitch in the blog presentation. This makes me feel a bit less guilty)
Plus, as you may all know,  I have wayyyyy more clicks when I post decadent food. Please, leave me some comments. This will help the mood to keep blogging (Is that even a word? If it is I say the world is way out of control)

Oh BROWNiES BROWNiES, BROWNiES !!!!!!!!!! On their own (frozen, cold, hot from the pan) brownies are already amazing but add vanilla icream and caramel sauce and your favorite dessert will no longer be cheescake or tarte tatin. I feel like eating the picture up here. Ok. Stop. Calm down. Take a deep breath.  Everything is going to be ok.
You can make this brownie recipe just the way it is, no ice cream or caramel and they will already be amazing. You will only need one bowl and it's such a simple recipe. The best if you ask me. Lightly crunchy on the outside and a bit chewy gooey yummy inside.

iNGREDiENTS:

• 85 gr unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped

• 85 gr all-purpose flour
• 115 gr butter

• 250 gr sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• a pinch of flaky sea salt


RECiPE:

• Preheat your oven to 175°C (350°F).
• In a pan over medium low eat, gently melt chocolate and butter. (microwave or bain-marie works as well)
• Transfer chocolate and butter mixture to a bowl or make the batter in the pan (less dishes!!)
• Stir sugar + vanilla extract.
• Add egg, one at a time.
• Finally stir in flour.  
• Butter a square baking pan or put parchement paper on the bottom of the pan (my favorite option) so the cake won't stick. Don't skip this or you will have a hard time unmolding the brownie.
• With a spoon, scrape batter into bakingpan. 
• Sprinkle with sea salt.
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out batter-free.
• Let cool and cut into desired size. If you’re like me, you will prefer these and all brownies, cold or even frozen. But I bet you’re normal and will just eat them hot from the pan. 
• ET VOiLA !

FLORENTiNES

This recipe is based on Ottolenghi's florentine recipe. It is incredibly easy and goes perfecly with chocolate mousse or any ice cream or sorbet. It's perfect if you don't have the time to make a complicated dessert but still want to bake something. You can prepare them a few days in advance and store them in a airtight container. Plus, it's very light, the orange zest gives a great flavor and you can even try to convince yourself it's pretty healthy!

iNGREDiENTS:

• 2 egg whites
• 100 gr icing sugar
• 250 gr flaked almonds
• grated zest of 1 orange

RECiPE:

• Preheat your oven at 150°C (300°F).
• Stir all your ingredients in a bowl: egg whites + icing sugar + almonds + zest.
• Dip you hand in a bowl of water and pick up portions of the mix to make little mounds on a pre-oil parchment paper. Be sure to spaced them apart (like for cookies).
• Dip a fork in water and flatten each biscuit very thinly. Make them as thin as possible without creating too many gaps. (about 8cm in diameter)
• Bake for 12 minutes or until the biscuit are golden brown.
• Allow to cool and remove biscuits gently with a palette knife. 
• ET VOiLA !

MACARONS the old fashion way

The old fashion way is always the best. This recipe is so simple, tender on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Trust me, once you try it you will never stop making it. Plus, the only fat comes from the nuts and it's gluten free. This recipe has become one of my trade mark recipes. Go for it!

iNGREDiENTS :

• 200 gr icing sugar
• 150 gr ground almonds
• 100 gr ground azelnuts
• 3 egg whites
• zest of one orange
• a few drops of almond extract

RECiPE :

• Preheat your oven at 175°C (350°F)
• Stir all your ingredients together: ground almonds & azelnuts + icing sugar + egg whites + orange zest + almond extract.
• On a prepared parchment paper, form little balls, using two spoons; a piping bag, fitted with a 12mm nozzle or a homemade piping bag (cf video recipe).
• Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes or until the macarons are lithely brown on the edges. The center should stay quite tender and the edges a bit crunchy.
• ET VOiLA ! (easy, eh? ;) )

APPLE AND ORANGE TEA CAKE

This cake is a variation of a cake I make all the time. It's a butter/oil free tea cake with apple and orange zest. So no butter, no oil but a lovely and creamy mascarpone cheese, mostly used to make the famous Italian Tiramisu. Mascarpone gives a light and moist texture to the cake, and the orange zest a nice perfumed flavour. This recipe is really simple to make and you will only need one bowl. So if you are tired of doing the dishes, this is for you!

iNGREDiENTS:

• 250 gr mascarpone
• 220 gr organic cane sugar (preferable but not essential)
• 250 gr all purpose flour
• 3 eggs
• zest of half a lemon
• 1 small orange (zest + juice of half of the orange)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 big apple
• 1 pear (the pear will bring more moistness to the cake)

RECiPE:

• Preheat your oven at 180°C (350°F)
• In a bowl, stir together: mascarpone + sugar + eggs, until creamy.
• Add: flour + baking powder and stir again.
• Add the lemon and orange zest + juice of half the orange. Stir again.
• Peel and core the apple and the pear and cut them in pieces. This time I cut them in thin small slices but depending on how you like it, you can also make big pieces.
• Add them to the batter and stir one last time.
• Put the batter into a prepared baking pan (greased with butter). 

• Bake from 40 to 60 minutes, when a skewer will come out clean, it's done. The baking time will really depend on your oven and cake pan size. Start checking after 30 minutes. You might have to cover the cake with foil after about 30min to stop the top from over-browning.
• ET VOiLÀ!

CANTUCCi - BiSCOTTi

iNGREDiENTS:
-makes 40 biscuits-

• 450 gr flour
• 350 gr sugar (organic cane sugar)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 eggs + 3 yolks (keep the remaining whites to brush over the doughs later on) 
• 50 gr of butter
• zest of one small orange
• 250 gr hole raw almonds
• a pinch of salt

RECiPE:

• Preheat your oven at 180°C (350°F)
• In a bowl, stir together : sugar + melted butter + eggs + orange zest + salt.
• Add flour and baking powder and stir again.
• Add almonds.
• Divide dough in half. Using floured hands, shape each dough half into 30cm long - 6cm wide long. Transfer both logs to a prepared baking sheet, spacing them apart.
• Brush each dough log with the remaining egg whites on top and on the sides.
• Bake for 30 minutes.
• Once baked, leave to cool for about 20 minutes and lower your oven at 100°C (200°F)
• Transfer the dough logs to a work surface and cut logs on small slices using a serrated knife.
• Arrange slices, cut side down, on the same baking sheet and bake 10 minutes on each side.
• ET VOiLÀ !

You can keep them for at least one week in a airtight container at room temperature.

APPLE TARTE TATiN

The best dessert in the world is not that complicated!

iNGREDiENTS:

• A pie dough (recipe here. It's really not complicated to make your own and much better then a bought one.)
• 200 gr cane organic sugar (preferable but not essential)
• 80 gr of butter
• 6 big apples (If you like the contrast of sweet and sour the "canada" variety is great. If not "pink lady" is nice too)
• 3 tbsp of orange-flower water.

RECiPE:

• Start by making the dough (recipe here)
• Preheat your oven at 180°C (350°F)
• Peel the apples, and halve and core them as well. This is how i make it in the video but if you prefer a thinner TATiN (like in the photographies, cut them in 4 pieces.)
• Put them in a bowl with a tablespoon of sugar and the orange-flower water. Leave it to infuse while you make the caramel.
• Over medium eat, melt the sugar and butter in a pan. Don't be scared to let the caramel get to a nice dark color but be really careful not to burn it. The timeliest between this two moments is thin.
• Add the apples to the caramel and leave them to cook for 10min on low eat.
• Put the apples inside a 20cm mold. Cover with the caramel.
• Cover the mold with the pie dough, folding the edges of the dough inside the mold.
• Bake for about 40min at 180°C (350°F)
• Don't wait for the Tatin to get cold to take it out of the mold. Put a plate on top of the mold and turn it around. The Tatin should fall easily from the mold.
• Serve with a dollop of crème fraîche or with vanilla ice-cream and eat immediately.
• Apple Tarte Tatin can be frozen but it's tastier to eat it just out of the oven. ET VOiLÀ !

GRANOLA

This recipe is based on Gwyneth Paltrow's Granola recipe. I arranged it according to my taste. I love Gwyneth's cookbook. She likes to focus on healthy yet delicious recipes. I find it totally in consistency with this blog.

iNGREDiENTS:

• 150 gr oats (not instant and not steel-cut)
• 70 gr raw, whole almonds
• 4 Tabespoons pumpkin seeds
• 4 Tabespoons sunflower seeds
• a pinch of cinnamon
• a pinch of salt
• 100ml of maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil (any vegetable oil is fine)
• 60 gr of cranberries (you can use any dry fruit that you like: raisins, apricot, figues)

RECiPE:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
• Roughly cut the almonds (do not skip this step or your almonds won't be as caramelized)
• In a bowl stir together all the ingredients except for the cranberries: oats + pumpkin and sunflower seeds + chopped almonds + cinnamon + salt +  oil + maple syrup + agave nectar.
• Spread the granola out on parchment paper.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Once baked, let it cool for a while and then add the cranberries.
• ET VOiLA !

The Granola will keep well for 2-3 months in an airtight container.

LEMON TART

This lemon tart is quite easy to make and has always the must terrific effect on guests!
Check out the video recipe:

You can also find the video recipe of the pie dough. 

iNGREDiENTS:

• A pie dough (recipe here)
• 130 gr cane organic Sugar (preferable but not essential)
• 4 eggs
• 60g creme fraîche (heavy cream)
• 3 lemons (grated zest + juice) I also like to add the zest of half a tangerine.

RECiPE:

• Preheat your oven at 200°C (390°F)
• Stir the sugar and lemon zest (and tangerine if you are using some) together so it will infuse and get a nice flavor.
• Flour your counter and roll out the dough. Here, I use a rectangle mold but it works just as fine with a round classic one.
• Put your dough in your mold on top of a parchment paper (so it won't stick and it'll be easier to take out once it's baked)
• Make some holes in the dough with a fork or a knife. Cover with another parchment paper and spread some beans or rice on top. Bake the dough for 10minutes.
• Take the beans and parchment paper out and bake for another 5 minutes.
• In a mixing ball, stir together: the sugar and zest mixture and the eggs.
• Beat until it's foamy. About 5 minutes.
• Add the creme fraîche and lemon juice and mix again.
• Pour this preparation on the pie shell and bake for 15 minutes.
• The top must get darker. Let cool and take out of the mold.
• ET VOiLÀ!

PiE DOUGH

You can use this recipe for any kind of sweet tart but you can also use it for a vegetable tart. Just substitute the sugar by any herb that you like.

iNGREDiENTS:

• 100 gr of butter
• 175 gr all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of sugar (organic cane sugar if possible)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 60 ml of buttermilk (or 2 tablespoon of heavy cream)

RECiPE:

• Cut the butter into small pieces and leave it to cool in the fridge.
• Sift together in a mixing ball: flour + sugar + salt. (if you don't have a mixing ball you can just use your little hands. Just be sure to have all your ingredients at room temperature)
• Add butter and keep mixing for a minute or two.
• By hand pinch flat any large pieces of butter that remain.
• Add buttermilk and keep mixing until the dough comes together, about 30 seconds.
• The dough should be tacky but not sticky.
• Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for a least one hour before rolling out.
• ET VOiLÀ!

I like to double the recipe and froze the dough so i can have some whenever I need.