Chocotella Cake: Brownie and Hazelnut Mousse (Nutella)

This cake is dedicated to all the sweet tooths out there.

Like my boyfriend, who says he gained weight when he met me. So not true.

And for the No.1 sweet tooth in the family, I made this cake. He always asks me to make brownies, and as his birthday was coming I wanted to make something like a Brownie Cake, brownie with dulce de leche and Italian meringue on top.

But since I am not a lover of that kind of meringue I thought making dry meringue, with cocoa.

About the filling, I was not convinced with dulce de leche, too dry together with the brownie, hard to swallow. Another possibility was whipped cream.

But, again, not convinced.
Suddenly I remembered the famous hazelnut and chocolate spread. Nutella.So good! Totally addictive.

Three Seasons Dessert: Yogurt panna cotta, marmalade and cocoa meringue

If you read the post title, you might think I'm a cheesy person. Part of this modern cook group who wants to be modern and puts funny names to dishes. Am I?
And the truth is I don´t know, but I´m careless

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.

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. 

Cornmeal and orange cake

Let me say that I love polenta. In winter it is one of my favorite dishes. A bowl of creamy polenta with tomato sauce and grated cheese on a cold night, it´s really tempting.

But this blog is about sweets things, which is what I know, so I will not put the recipe for polenta.
But the cornmeal was turning round my head.

Malvon, for the modernized porteño

After having heard so much about this place, I went there last Friday, despite reading that attention could be regular. And I was surprised.

I sat in what was perhaps the winter garden of an old porteño house. I could imagine the housewife cleaning the patio on a hot afternoon, or  a family by the fireplace on a cold sunday.
 

It seems that Malvón (geranium) wishes to mantain the porteño feeling of the ´50s, with the furniture, tableware, photos, but adapting the food to a globalized cuisine, as we can find American, French or Italian dishes. This has nothing wrong, we are a mixture of cultures.

When going insede we can see the breads, pies, cookies and more, for us to choose. We can seat in one of the three rooms or outside in the front or at the patio, they all have comfortable sits, and outdoors we can enjoy the plants and the sun.

The menu is big enough for lunch, tea time, brunch or breakfast, and you can see it at the website.

In this hot summer, I asked a smoothie passion, a milkshake of ice cream, passion fruit, ginger and lemon, if I remember well. And also a banana, chocolate and walnut muffin. Very good both of them.
  

After that I had planned to have tea with my mother at his house, and thinking of that asked a lemon tart and a portion of carrot cake to take out. It was an exaggeration for an evening meal, but Iwa
s tempted.

And in my defense I have to say we did not eat everything in the same afternoon.

The tart, which I don´t keep photographic records was very good, acid as it should be, creamy and also crunchy for the brulee layer on top.  

The carrot cake, also delicious with raisins, and made in layers, with butter cream between the layers. I never saw it done that way, and I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of butter.

About the comments of the regular attention, it didn´t happen to me, in addition to that the two waiters were very cordially.

At Malvon, I felt at home.

Before leaving, I was thinking when could I return.

Malvón
Serrano 789, Villa Crespo,
Buenos Aires,
Argentina
tel. +54 11 4774 2563
http://malvonba.com.ar/

Chocotorta: chocolate cookies, dulce de leche and cream cheese cake

Scene: Saturday night, a couple in an appartment
Character 1: man in the kitchen preparing pizza
Character 2: female, resting on the couch, the TV is on
Idea: women, "Maybe I can do something for dessert"
Available ingredients: dulce de leche, cream cheese, chocolate cookies
Answer: "I can do it in 10´!"

That was more or less how this dessert started, because it´s fast, no messy, and I could prepare it at the living room table, the kitchen was busy with the pizza guy.

I grabbed two glasses, two bowls, milk, sweet cocoa and the three essential ingredients.

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.

Conversions & Equivalents: metric vs. non-metric

Here in Argentina we use the metric system, centimetres, kilograms, and Celsius degrees. And that´s a problem, because most of the recipes I read are in English units, inches, ounces, and Farenheit degrees.

To solve that, I´ve made a simple chart, although I write in english the recipes are in metrics.

To have a quick access to this chart I´ll add a button on the top of the blog.

Hope it helps you!