Orange Foaming Cookies and Cappuccino Cookies with Chocolate

 

 

        Holiday season is the time for sharing and Peta of Peta Eats is sharing a dozen cookies, some classics and some of her own, from all over the world with us.

          I decided to wait for December to try all the recipes while making sweet gifts for my family and friends. Meanwhile, I chose a chose a recipe of Peta’s mother-in law – foaming cookies, and a recipe of Pierre Herme – cappuccino cookies – for completing this month’s challenge. So, I ended up having gift packs with two types of cookies (“black” and “white”)– similar in shape, but so different in taste!

          I loved the recipe of foaming cookies as it leaves a lot of space for creativity! Peta claims that one can make them with milk, water or juice, and use any kind of flour like rice or almond one. Besides, any spices, nuts, dried fruits and chocolate chips can be used for developing a flavor. I guess I will be experimenting a lot with this recipe from this moment on!

         Pierre Herme’s cookies turned to be softer and richer – probably, because of chocolate chunks and a good shot of espresso in them. I added crushed macadamia as the recipe called for but I guess any other nuts will work brilliant as well. The cookies are good in their own and sinfully awesome after being put for a quick while in a cup of morning coffee and eaten – almost at the edge of falling apart!

         A great challenge and a great way to feel the atmosphere of the upcoming holiday season!

Blueberry and Lime Millefuille

   Our October 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full. Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it step further and create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it! I was happy to learn that this month’s challenge is Mille-fuille because I’ve never actually made a real puff pastry myself – I only had an experience of making the soc called “quick puff pastry” which does not require laminating the dough a lot. My huscband was also very happy to learn that this month I’m gonna cook a mille-fuille – “napoleon” slice was his favourite dessert from the childhood! We even argued a bit because of it: I wanted to go creative with this challenge and he wanted to have a classic version of the cake!

   
   We reached a compromise: I made a classic French mille-fuilee instead of making traditional Russian Napoleon. For those who do not know the difference, let me explain: in Russia the slice is made with lots of thin layers of puff pastry and cream (which is usually not cream patisserie but more like a buttercream – a combination of butter and condensed milk) and is covered with crushed pieces of puff pastry (no icing – never!); the cake is left overnight in the fridge so that it becomes soft. Well, you see, that is what my husband always loved – and I wanted him to taste an original mille-fuille, French-style! So Ive made a custard-based cream and three layers of puff pastry and even an icing with strips of chocolate!

   One week later, however, I felt like doing something more. I remembered “Milena” – a beautiful slice by Pierre Herme consisting of raspberry jelly, dacquiouse biscuit, mint mousse and two layers of puff pastry. Taking it as an inspiration I decided to cook something similar – an idea of blueberry and lime ice cream mille-fuille came up! 

    Was it better than French millefuille or Russian napoleon? It was - just because it was different and it had more complicated textures and flavours: crispiness of puff pastry and softness of a sponge, sweetness of ice cream and sourness of jelly, zing of lime and freshness of blueberries. 

    Don't you like a fresh touch on a traditional dish?

Empanada Gallega

     

     Patri of the blog, Asi Son Los Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished!

     Empanada traces its origin to Galicia and Portugal. Traditionally they are made in a form of a pie which is afterwards cut in pieces. Nowadays, however, other variations exist – like “calzone-style” big pies or individual “turn-over style” small pies (which – when made in on oval shape, looks similar to Russian “pirozhki”!). 

       The fillings of empanada usually include tuna, chorizo or sardines but it can also contain cod and pork loin. Since my husband is not fond of tuna and pork and since we had brandada with salted cod the same day, I decided to choose ground beef for my pie. I wanted the filling to have “a Spanish hint” so I added bell pepper, tomatoes, black olives, paprika and lots of parsley. I wish I had some anchovies in my cupboard – they would have made the whole thing “undoubtedly Spanish”!

     Anyway, the pie was very good: a juicy, hearty filling wrapped in bread-like paprika-scented dough.  What a great way to create Galician atmosphere at home!

Choux Puffs with Orange Chantilly Cream

     Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!

     To say true, I really wanted to make swans…or  at least some sort of Paris-Breast gateau with an unusual filling. But – oh, yes! There’s always “a but” – I was so-o-o-o-o-o busy in August (with some baking, by the way!) that I had to leave the idea of making something massive.  I just had to go for an easier option (which does not always mean “worse”!) – and I simply made some prifitroles filled with orange-flavoured Chantilly.

     Oh yes, I had such a hectic time that I couldn’t even complete the challenge on time! Feeling a bit guilty, however, I managed to find another half an hour to make sugar decorations for assembling my dessert!

     The result was elegant and seductive, with a comforting sweetness of sugar strands and a refreshing zing of orange zest.

     It was not a Swan lake but it was a “Choux ballet” of mine – much simpler, yet pleasant and charming as well.

Seedy Crisps and Cheese Hazelnut Tarragon Crackers

      Our July 2012 Daring Bakers’ Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers! Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.

      This month I was so busy with my work that I had almost forgotten about DB challenge. At the beginning of this week, however, one of my colleagues mentioned it in a conversation that recently she had stopped buying crackers since their quality nowadays leaves much to be desired. It suddenly occurred to me that I am actually provided with some good recipes for making crackers at home!

       Since Dana asked us to make two different types of crackers, I’ve decided to make seedy crisps (a more healthy variation) and cheesy hazelnut and tarragon icebox crackers (more of a comfort food type). Which one did I like more? Well, shame on me, but whole-wheat crisps didn’t seem so appealing to me as herby Gouda crackers were. My colleagues (who were lucky to taste both types today) shared this opinion with me. 

      Ironically, my co-worker whose remark on the crackers stimulated me for completing this month’s challenge was on a leave today. She always is when I bring some homemade pastry items to the office.  That’s her bad “confectionary” luck! I’m sure she will be upset on Monday when she finds out that once again she has missed the opportunity to try some of my dishes which – let me tell you – were definitely “cracker ones”!

Strawberry and Orange Battenberg Cake – Daring Bakers June 2012

        Mandy of What the Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

        This cake – especially its traditional yellow and pink checkered pattern – looks very girlish and (as Mandy has noted) makes one think of Alice in Wonderland. Despite its “cartoonish” appearance the cake was actually created in 1884 as a wedding cake for Princess Victoria and Prince Louis of Battenberg; the yellow and pink squares representing the four princes of Battenberg.

         I was impressed by the look of the cake and decided not to change it. I only played a little bit with the flavours – added some orange zest to the batter and “glued” the stripes of sponge with the strawberry ganache. The outer part of the cake is covered with orange jam and wrapped in home-made edible “cover”. A few pieces of decoration – and here’s a cake from the Wonderland. Welcome to tea at Madhatters’!

Armenian Nazook and Nutmeg Cake

           

          The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.

           When I studied at the university in Moscow, my parents who lived in the south of Russia used to send me parcels every month. I always looked forward to getting them: I knew that among other goodies I would definitely find a sweet treat from my mom: home-made gata. She spent her childhood in a house in the centre of the city where they had Armenians as their neighbours. No wonder, she learnt a lot about their national cuisine and gata was one of the things that she cooked quite often for my brother and me.

            When I saw a foto of this month challenge, I was astonished: it seemed we are gonna be making gata! On reading the instructions, however, I realized that it was another Armenian dessert which looked exactly the same: nazook. There is a small difference between them: nazook has yeast in yet, while gata is made simply with buttermilk; the filling for nazook is just mixed, in case of gata sugar, butter and flour are cooked over low heat before being spread over the rolled-out dough. Anyway, both types of Armenian “cookies” are very flavourful and serve as a great tea-time snack.

            Armenian nutmeg cake was also a good accomplishment for our tea (and coffee) break! Actually I’ve never heard of this dessert before (neither did my mom despite the fact that she had a profound Armenian culinary background!) and was eager to try it. The walnuts that I sprinkled on top sank during the baking time and I had to add a handful of some more before serving the cake. Nevertheless, the cake was very moist, with a good hint of nutmeg and although I found the crust too sweet for me, it had a good texture and caramel flavor provided by the brown sugar.

            All in all, it was a great challenge since it brought back my childhood memories and gave me an impetus to broaden my (as well as my mum’s) gastronomic outlook on Armenian cuisine!