Quick Gingerbread

This is a recipe I started doing on Christmas, and I did a lot. In fact, I have some slices in the freezer that I like to eat a bit warm with my tea.

It´s more like a coffee cake than a bread, and it´s very easy to do. It does not take more than 10 minutes if you have all the ingredients on hand.

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.

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.

Caribbean Eclairs: Homemade Vanilla Mascarpone, Passion Fruit Curd and Mango

In the fruit salad I have at work occasionally appears a bit of mango. And it's like a party in a boring salad.
Thinking about it, I bought a mango. I always liked it, but resent the fibers.

Inspired by Paris (I´ll be visiting for the first time in October!!!), Pierre Hermé dessert and homemade mascarpone, I saw the opportunity to show how to prepare it .

The homemade mascarpone was on my pending list for the blog, and I wanted to show how easy it is to prepare, but did not want to incorporate it into the typical tiramisu, of which there are many recipes around. You can do many things, is like a basic cream.

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. 

Super (Extra) Moist 2 Apple Pound Cake, almost like a Fruitcake

This recipe has a story, a small, about how it was done, and is as follows.

There were two apples, only two. And there was a girl, who liked to cook, That´s me. That didn´t know what to do with the apples. Thinking, thinking, thinking, an apple pound cake came up. But what about the other apple? Eating as it comes wasn´t an option. And as I checking the recipe, butter was out and the apple was in.

This is the brief summary of how I replaced butter, (110 g), for a red apple. The apple gives the same characteristics of butter without the fat content.

Summer Dessert: Rice Pudding, Jasmine Sauce and Speculoos Cookie

Rice pudding, sweet rice, arroz con leche, arroz doce, including dam niao Khao from Thailand: this all refers to the same preparation: cooking rice + milk = creamy rice that can be flavored with spices, egg and/or sweeteners.
It can be very simple, but the variations are many, here´s one.

I transformed a simple dessert in a flavourful one. It has the soft creaminest of the rice , plus a cardamom fragance, with a silky jasmine tea sauce, and the crunchiness of the multi spiced cookie.

Spicy Jam Cookies

The opportunity to make these cookies can be none, or that I just want to eat some cookies with something else, something moist and tasteful.

Or perhaps, to celebrate an occasion, that can be no occasion for you, but valuable to me, which is my 4 years* in the same company. Of course, these weren´t  years of relaxation, I changed area and position with bigger responsibilities, in an excellent team and I didn´t loose the desire to improve. That's something, right?

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).

Tonka Bean Cream Pie

Years ago I heard about the famous cream pie that the Welsh settlers still, because they arrived in 1865!, make at the tea-houses in Gaiman, in a Chubut valley, a place is in my list of places to go (among others!).
And the cream pie waited a years in my mind to be made.

Recently, I do not know where I read about the Sugar cream pie, presumably originating in the U.S. southern colonies, the Amish or Quakers, in 1850s (or before they, it is uncertain), and seemed familiar with the Welsh one. And there was no other choice but to do it.

The Best Homemade Chocolate Ice cream

 The summer has just finished in Argentina and I don´t have happy face, a sad smiley :(


But seeing the glass half full, there are still some warm days to come and can be sized.
Such as preparing an ice cream, the best homemade ice cream, chocolate. What can beat that? That is very creamy and intense chocolate flavor.
Is there more to improve? Yes, it is easy to prepare, does not need much cooking. 

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!

Chai concentrate for a spiced tea

If you are reading this blog regularly may have noticed that I like spices. I confess, I love them. All the majority. I learned that all serve in their measure to improve a dish, give it as an added value. 
Some I didn´t like them before, like cloves, but if used sparingly gives a refreshing taste.

Ginger, raisin and oat cookies

The problem I have with the cookie dough is that I'm lazy to make tem with a spoon. Really lazy. 
So, normally, I don´t make it.
I had seen on other blogs that they use an ice cream scoop to make cookies.

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?

Holidays in Villa General Belgrano and La Cumbrecita, in Cordoba province

A years ago we spent a week in Villa General Belgrano, a quiet village at the foot of the Cordoba´s sierrras, ground roads and asphalt, German-style homes, friendly people, with a view to the mountains and the sound of birds.

There are many stories about the villagers that I don´t want to explore, but the only one I know is about the people I´ve met, that they´re very friendly, warm and they work with the tourists, by that I mean that many of them love what they do and some doesn´t seem to show it.

We met a brewer, that produces very good artisanal beer, and I can tell you that he loves to make it only using traditional methods. He explained many things to us, part of the process, the ingredients of each beer and we returned with a box full of the varieties he performs.Waffe Bier it is


We stayed at Posada Shemak´s, an inn runned by the owners, that were warm people and very helpful. I would recommend this place to anyone who wants to spend a few days there.


The photos are from La cumbrecita, a beautiful place, surrounded by mountains, forests, waterfalls and pools of natural water, with many hiking paths.

The last day I discovered THE BAKERY, in capital letters, with lots of smelling loaves of bread, home-style cakes and simple but goood cookies. The bakery is Risen Rein (as Aline told me) and is in the center of town. They are bakers from the beginning of the past century, that came from Germany during 2nd World War and the bread is made old style way, in a wood-fired oven, with grains and wheat .

 

What we tried there was the black cake, what we know as Welsh cake, dried fruit, moist and very aromatic cake.
And, also, the best cookies I had in a long time, the Pfeffer Kuchen, with flavored honey, spices, almonds, very soft and sweet. Amazing cookies, that I decided to do when we return home. 

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.

Concorde Dessert: is not a bird, or a plane!

It´s the"Concorde, the cake"


It is one of the most delicious and memorable chocolate cakes. It was created by the renowned pastry chef Gaston Lenôtre in honor of the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Mr. Lenôtre, who passed away in 2009, has changed the pastry as it was known, for a lighter and less sweeter one. 


He´s also the creator of the famous Opera cake, meringue succes, and the school that is known worldwide.

Limequat pound cake, a potion for cold days

The last ingredient that was missing! exclaimed to myself in a supermarket. 
I was in the process of creating something different (the chicken or the egg ...), and encountered some strange fruits for my eyes. And took prey (after paying a small fee).Upon reaching the cave, small golden jewels were immersed in a bath of sugar and water in equal parts, and they were swimming around under low fire until they were tender. 


And waited, and waited, until one day, in times of snow and cold, gnashed his bowels, and there was only one answer for that in his great book (the big web with millions of recipes). This witch put them with others who were arrested from immemorial times in a big pot. And with little magical spells achieved a potion that deserves to be registered.

Gingy: Ginger and honey cookies

(Angry Gingy says: Don´t eat me!)


When the holidays arrive and we realize the year is coming to an end, we start to think about what happend during this year and put things in a scale.
My year was very good, I can´t complain. It had its sad side, by the departure of a beloved, had its joys, challenges, hopes and celebrations. The scale leaned to a positive side.


Next year, I expect surprises, as always, generally the´ll be good, so I'm waiting. 
And so in a feeling of celebration, to get into the warmth of the holidays, I made spiced cookies  with a child motif, shaped Gingy the gingerbread man from the movie Shrek.