Mandarin Orange and Cinnamon Marmalade

When a new season arrives the fruit should be sized, don´t you think? With fruit, jam jars and enthusiasm. 

And to make a jam or a marmalade you need this three. Without fruit, nothing happens. If you are reluctantly, all goes wrong. Without jars, it won´t preserve well.

This jam can be done at any time of year, we always have mandarins, at least here, in Argentina. But also it can be done with oranges.

Passion Fruit Cookies

I had plenty passion fruit pulp, or maracuya as we say in Argentina, in my freezer. And I wanted to use it for something never seen.
I checked for cookies with this, and nothing satisfied me. So I made the recipe.

Mango and Ginger Cake

The story of this recipe begun with a comment from a reader. He commented about a mango cake he usually makes when the mangos are still green.

And like the phrase, curiosity killed the cat, I had to make my mango cake.

Passion Fruit and Orange Muffins... with surprise

Have a little of something and don´t know where to use it?
I had a small size cup of passion fruit pulp, and wanted to use it but it needed to be a good thing, not just something.

This muffins are great, fast and full of flavour. But if you don´t have passion fruit, never mind, use any other pulp or juice from the pantry or fridge. It needs to be something with a lot of flavour. I wouldn´t use pear juice for example.

Chocolate and Prune Cookie Sandwich, a great alfajor

An alfajor, in Argentina, is a cookie sandwich with dulce de leche inside. Is the most common snack for children and adults. You can find them at any kiosk, or vending machine. We are the largest consummer, and the one that wins is the chocolate cookie, with dulce de leche and covered in chocolate.

I made another version, a grown up. I don´t think that there are many kids that enjoy eating dried fruit. Not in my country, unless we cheat them and hid some inside a preparation.

I accept that this wasn´t my choice a few years ago. I din´t eat any dried fruit. I don´t know when I started or why.

Prune Bittersweet Chocolate Brownie

There are many recipes for brownies, but this is excellent, moist, chocolaty, it melts in the mouth.
And I added prunes. The plum adds a touch of sugar and acidity so perfectly for the chocolate, and some texture to the soft brownie.

Pear, Rooibos Tea and Chocolate Cake

Some weeks ago I returned to have tea at Chez Pauline. Its a beautiful, very french, place. Then, after leaving the place, bought a super spiced tea. Actually it´s an infusion, it don´t contain tea leaves, but rooibos, an African bush, and lots of spices, like cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, cardamom, and others I don´t remember. I love rooibos, because of it´s lack in caffeine and the other beneficial characteristics. 

Mixed Berries and Nibs Crumble Cake

Memory is something that sometimes does not help me, I realize that the 30´s are starting to show details of factory.

I don´t know how it started but, somehow I felt like eating mixed berries in a cake for breakfast or maybe as snack.And I guess one thing led to another and here we are.
With a cake to honor a friend or yourself, to enjoy, and feel like you need another portion. It's a cake you won´t forget by the tasty mixed berries, the aromatic spices, the moistness and crunchiness (yes, both at the same time).

Pink Grapefruit and Chocolate Tart

I don`t know if you know it, but I can repeat it anyway: I like desserts that are made in 2'
Well, you can not do all within 2 minutes, but half an hour works great for me.

Went to bed at night thinking about a dessert to take to a lunch, a fast, with whatever is in the fridge/pantry, not gourmet flavors, and good, of course.

Chai tea and pear tea cake

A few post ago I made the chai tea concentrate with spices to flavor the tea, and as I said at that time, I like spices. And to be redundant, now come with chai tea cake.

The idea came thanks to the pears leftover from the cinnamon Baba. Ideas go, ideas come, the tea is added to the pears and then came the spices ... Ready! Have a chai tea cake with pears in syrup.

I´m not going to lie, was delicious! As tea cake was spectacular, and for dessert, with ice cream on top? Chocolate ice cream? Awesome!

Cinnamon baba with spiced pears (or Le Savarin)

Can you imagine a dessert when eaten it magically explodes in the mouth with cinnamon flavor, the sweetness and freshness of the cool syrup?

The Citric: lemongrass pannacotta, cornmeal and orange cake

How did this dessert came up? Thinking of citrus. I bought the lemongrass and yuzu powder, at China town, without knowing what I was going to do with them, but in my head was the idea of some citrus dessert.

Chinatown in Buenos Aires

Taking advantage of the summer schedule we have at work, I went to Chinatown. It´s in the neighborhood of Belgrano, in Buenos Aires City, where Taiwanese immigrants settled a years ago.Today there are several Eastern communities present.

From some years to now this place became a must in the tours in B.A. As far as I know it´s not a big Chinatown, I knew the San Pablo´s not as colorful, but bigger as this. This are only 2 or 3 blocks on the street Arribeños, from Juramento St. and Blanco Encalada St. There are at least 4 supermarkets, bazaar shops, food stalls and restaurants of the different communities.

The chinese restaurants some are better than others and not very pricy. Of course, the japanese are pricier and less crowded.

Pear, ginger & cardamom jam

One thing that I brought for me from Villa General Belgrano was a jar of pear marmalade, and when it was out, I went for my own.


As I'm always looking for new ideas, new flavors and combinations of them, I like to use spices to change a bit the flavors, or, sometimes, herbs and dried fruits to give a new dimension to sweet tastes. I admit that sometimes I get bored quickly, but seeing the positive side, I have a curious and adventurous spirit. But enough about me.


The pears are still good looking at grocery stores and the truth that I did not exploit them much this year.

So, enough said, I made this pear and spices jam, from scratch, no recipe (incredible for my chemistry brain) that was incredibly delicious.

The Best Cocoa Nibs Brownie with Orange Ganache

This time I´ll introduce a great recipe from an excellent book, Real Chocolate by Chantal Coady, dedicated to chocolate, savory dishes, sweets, drinks, truffles, all made with chocolatem, obviously.
Chantal has a chocolate house in London, Rococo Chocolate, with a variety of amazing chocolate forms and aromas. The book has basic and advanced recipes.

One recipe that caught my attention was ganache with water...Water? Yes! The cream ganache, which we use for cakes, pie fillings, truffles, generally prepared with equal parts of chocolate and cream. But this, as she explains, uses the fat and lecithin present in the chocolate, to make an emulsion, such as when mixing oil and vinegar to make a vinaigrette.

And yo know what? It worked really well, a creamy and is not so "heavy" cream as the original. In addition, water can be flavoured with coffee, tea or juice.

Just try it!

Remake of an apple, or berries, crumble

 


What is a remake? Doing it again? Or it´s more like to do the cumble in a new, easier and lighter way?
Do we need to change what is already good? Maybe not, but why not try and decide which we prefer.

I really like this because it´s really quick to make, and with a good crunch.
And the fruit? Anyone you like and is in season!
Here yo have two options: cinnamon-apple and berries

Chocolate Bavarois Cake & Rustic Cake with Season Fruit

When Christmas is on the way I always think desserts my family will like to eat, and I always arrive at any dessert with chocolate, but I have a restless spirit and usually feel bored doing the same desserts. 

So I decided to make something classic and something different: two desserts. We are going to have a cake that combines the crisp and silky with good chocolate flavor, and a more rustic cake with season fruit (summer in Argentina), a more spicy one

Plum tart, not Hermé´s way

This time I´ve decided to try a recipe from the Great Monsieur Hermé. This recipe is from his book, Larousse of Desserts, a really big book, with basic and more elaborate recipes. I chose this recipe because it seemed light, simple, and I wanted to eat plums.

This recipe I chose to try, looked really good and not so difficult, but it didn´t happen. The original recipe calls to put to plums halves on the dough and bake for 30 minutes. But after that half hour it seemed that the plums would not have passed through the oven, so I decided to change everything, remove the plums from dough and beke them on the stove top. 
It might have worked with some plums less firm. Maybe, who knows.Of course, the recipe is not like the one on the book, but the fixed version. I hope you like it!

Berry cake, it´s tea time!

Here in the southern hemisphere spring has just begun and with that, seasonal fruits. But not everything is happy. In our beloved Buenos Aires it´s not easy to get berries, perhaps in a grocery store some fresh cranberries. Actually, raspberries and blackberries are not easy to be found, but Argentina is a producer of these fruits, but we are also exporters.

Ricotta and pear muffins

I will present you the best muffins you can eat: very tasty, very moist, very rich and aromatic.

Sold? Hope yes! Because it is one of the best recipes I made recently.

And if you don´t have everything the recipe says, no problem. Below you can see the replacements.