I had a lot of fun this weekend, playing in my kitchen. I love to spend time trying out new recipes and exploring new ideas. Unfortunately it does not happen as often as I’d like due to lack of time, and trying to accommodate everyone in the house.

Here is one way to prepare quinoa as a dessert, a little change from the savory preparations. You could eat this for breakfast as well, or anytime, you have a little sweet craving, but do not want to add up the calories. It’s a light dessert with lots of flavors, and the combination of the coconut and rum gives it an exotic flair, it brings me back to the island vacations, with the sun and the beach.

You don’t need to use a lot of quinoa in each mold, since it expands and absorbs liquid, a few tbs are enough. I found in my kitchen cabinet a baking emulsion I had bought a while ago at Chef Warehouse. It’s basically some strong coconut extract bakers use in their pastries, I thought to add some additional coconut flavor, and it enhanced the flavor to 60%, so if you can find this type of emulsion, it’s worth buying it, you could use it in any sweet preparation you use coconut.

Ingredients for 4 flans

For the flans

• 110 g cooked quinoa
• 3 eggs
• coconut sugar to your taste
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp coconut emulsion

For the mango salad

• 1 mango not too ripe, diced finely
• 1 tbs brown rum
• 1 tbs mint
• coconut sugar or stevia (or any sugar of your choice) to taste

Preparation

For the flans

Beat eggs and coconut sugar with an egg beater, beat for 5-10 minutes until obtained a smooth texture. Add the rest of the ingredients, and keep beating.

Pre heat oven at 365F. Divide quinoa in the four molds and pour coconut-egg mixture. Sprinkle with shredded coconut and bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes. When the flans are cooked, remove from molds and let them cool. You can eat them lukewarm or cold. Serve with mango salad on the side.

For the mango salad

Mix all ingredients together and serve with flans

I have been playing around with this recipe for a while, changing quantities and I finally managed to like this version which is moist and soft.

I am not necessarily pro or against gluten. I think if people have problems with it, then it should be removed from one’s diet. I removed it from my diet and ate sans gluten for a couple of months to see how my body felt. I thought since everyone talked about it, I should try it too, to get my own opinion, so I did.

Well to be real honest, I did not feel better nor worse. I had less and less carbs cravings and was less bloated but that’s basically it. So I won’t start preaching a gluten free diet or a not gluten-free one, I think that’s a personal choice. If you feel better when you don’t eat gluten, then don’t. That is my philosophy.

If you want to try a gluten free cake that is moist and light, then this is the one.

Ingredients for 6-8 people

• 6 eggs
• 190 g (6.7 oz) brown sugar
• 250 g (8.8 oz) almond flour
• 50 g (1.7 oz) gluten free flour
• 160 g (5.6 oz) melted butter
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bitter almond extract

 Preparation

In two different containers, separate the yolks from the whites. Beat the whites to a thick consistency. Mix yolks with sugar and beat until the mixture whitens and double volume. Add butter. Add flours and mix well to obtain a smooth batter. Incorporate egg whites. Add baking powder and almond extract.

Butter a round baking mold, sprinkle flour and spread the flour evenly into mold.

Pour batter in mold and cook in a pre heated oven at 350F for about 45 min or until completely cooked. Check the cake once in a while so that it doesn’t brown too fast. If it’s the case, lower the temperature.

I reconciled with cinnamon thanks to Rui, my lovely Japanese neighbor. I decided I didn’t like cinnamon after moving to the US, where cinnamon is used in almost every dessert. I think I had a cinnamon overdose and refused to eat anything where I could taste it. Rui, gave me half a loaf of bread she made even though she said it didn’t turn out very well and was embarrassed to give it to me. I gave her fresh yeast a few days earlier, and she used it making this bread. One thing I never told her is that I don’t eat cinnamon and that I have been on a cinnamon rebellion for years. Jamais de cannelle !!! So I politely took the bread and what else to do? since I am polite, I tasted it, even though you could smell cinnamon one kilometer away…I thought well, if I don’t like it, will I be lying and tell her, I love it, or be honest and say, I hate it? Tough call, what would you do? Polite or brutally honest?

I was lucky, it was love at first bite! What a delicious, moist, and soft bread, a pure delight for breakfast with butter and jam. Then I thought “well, for someone who doesn’t like cinnamon, I did a pretty good job finishing it”.

After that happy encounter with cinnamon, I decided to make my own bread…yes with cinnamon…actually, this bread is closer to a brioche than to what we French call bread. It has the ingredients and texture of a brioche. Now thinking about it, we do have a bread that is called “pain brioché” which is something in between a bread and a brioche, so talking about nuances and making people confused, yes the French are the masters of it.

It’s faster to make than a bread or a brioche, you don’t have to prepare it the night before, so it’s a great recipe to have in hands. Essayer c’est l’adopter! To try it is to adopt it.

Ingredients for one loaf

• 8.81 oz (or 250 g) flour
• 0.52 oz (or 15 g) yeast
• 3.7 fl oz (or 11 cl) milk
• 0.35 oz (or 10 g sugar) + 1 tbs
• 1 small egg
• 5 g salt
• 0.88 oz (or 25 g) butter
• 4 tbs raisins
• cinnamon to taste

Preparation

Dissolve yeast in 1/3 of milk. In a recipient mix milk/yeast mixture, sugar and 1/5 of the flour, mix well and let it rest for about 1 hour. Add the rest of the ingredients (except raisins, cinnamon, 1 tbs sugar) and mix well, to form an elastic dough, knead the dough for about 15 minutes.

Form a ball, and let rise for about 2 hours. Flatten the ball to form a rectangle, spread 1 tbs sugar raisins and cinnamon. Roll the dough and let it rise for another hour. Using a brush, spread some yolk on top. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 45 minutes.

This brioche is simple, quite unpretentious and low-key, light, fluffy but nonetheless very tasty, just like we enjoy to have on some mornings with butter, jam and strong coffee. There are many versions and kinds of brioches, you just have to play around with quantities of eggs, flour, sugar butter and yeast, but the technique is always the same: a “pâte levée“, a “rised dough” . Pâte levée technique consists of preparing the dough the night before with a yeast, then refrigerate it overnight. The cold will enable the dough to ferment slowly in a cold environment, therfore acidity developed by the cells of the yeast will give more flavor to the ingredients and a better aspect to the dough due to the reinforcement of the tenacity of gluten.

Anyone who has been to France knows what brioche is, it’s probably as famous as Eiffel Tower, baguette and croissant. After brioche tressée that tastes more like Pain au lait (milk bread?) that I have been making for a while and the extra rich Farro brioche with goose egg, I went back to a more simple and traditional version of brioche. Retour à la simplicité.

Basically its origin goes back to Middle Ages in Normandy where similar “rised dough” have been retraced. Brioche is not considered a bread in France but a viennoiserie, which is slightly different. Techniques of making viennoiseries are similar to those of making bread but since they have more fat and sugar content, they’re considered more like pastries.

On Friday evenings when I realize I have nothing left for the Saturday morning breakfast, I start making one of those brioches, yes it needs to be prepared the night before and needs to rise in the refrigerator overnight for a light and fluffy dough. I am afraid you cannot cut any corners if you don’t have a bread-machine and will have to wait for the day after to enjoy it.

Breakfast is sacred in my little world and getting up in the morning with nothing to eat is not an option! Even though I have been living in the US for many years, I am not used to the brunch concept, I guess it’s hard to change habits. Brunch is a little confusing, it makes sense if you get up at 11 am but not if you’re up at 7 am like me and have breakfast as early as 7:30 am, call me boring but I like to stick to my traditional coffee, bread, jam and butter in the mornings. Et non, on ne se débarasse pas de ses habitudes comme ca! (no, you don’t get rid of your habits so easily!).

I have been playing around with ingredients quantities, putting less sugar than required because I love jam on my brioche slice so it’s sweet enough for me but you can certainly add more sugar in the dough if your tooth is sweeter.

Ingredients for 6 people

• 10.58 oz (300 g) flour
• 1.5 cup lukewarm milk
• 1.41 oz (40 g) sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3.17 oz (90 g) butter
• 1 dose dry yeast or fresh yeast
• 2 pinches salt

Preparation

Place flour in a mixing bowl, add dry yeast (if using fresh yeast, needs to be dissolved in milk), sugar. Mix well all ingredients.

Add one egg, milk and salt and gradually mix all ingredients. When the dough has thickened, add the extra egg. Knead the dough to incorporate the egg. It might be sticky at the beginning, but keep kneading.

Add butter at the end and mix until the dough becomes elastic but not too sticky. Let it rise for 3 hours. Then, knead a little to remove the “air”.

Place in the refrigerator overnight with a plastic warp, and preventing air from getting into the container.

In the morning, remove dough from the refrigerator, knead slightly and cut in 4 equal parts and form little balls. Place each ball in a greased rectangular baking pan loaf.

Let it rise for an additional hour and cook in a pre-heated oven at 365-370F for about 40 minutes.

Let it cool and enjoy plain or with your favorite jam. I don’t usually add extra butter, since the dough has already some, but you can!

I have been completely away from my computer and the internet world since I arrived in Nancy. The weird thing is that when I come home, I just disconnect completely from my computer and phone. I like the slow pace, relaxed energy and long walks in the nature with my mom and barely feel like turning on the computer. It’s been cold and freezing lately, the cold bites my skin and is quite invigorating but as long as the sky is blue I am happy. Yesterday, January 2nd the crazy country wide sales have started and the shops will remain exceptionally open on Sunday (in France on Sundays usually all stores are closed), the streets are packed with shoppers looking for the best deals.

My mom has been going crazy cooking for the holidays and to be honest, I have barely touched anything. The January 1st lunch was comprised of 12 course meal lunch going from traditional Escargots (snails) using her own recipe, to Foie gras roulé au pain d’Épices et figues (Foie gas rolled in spicy bread with figs), to Cannelloni with spinach and ricotta, and tons of other dishes. I am just wondering how much weight I’ll gain when I’ll get back to the US since my jeans are already starting to get a little tight. So the next week will be posts that she made, from her own recipes or old recipes she took from books here and there.

This is one of my favorite jams, to me quince preserve smells like a flower and is so addictive. My parents have many quince trees in their garden, and my moms makes a delicious quince preserve and paste. This region of France is quie famous for its quince trees. Every morning I spread it on brioche or pains au lait and I just feel like eating the most delicately perfumed flower. It’s deep orange-red color and perfume makes this preserve the sexiest of all. The literal translation of “Gélee” is “Jelly” and the juice of the fruit is used instead of the fruit itself. When making quince preserve, the leftover cooked fruit flesh is used to make a quince paste which is a delicious sweet treat.

For jams and preserves, the quantities of fruits is the same as quantity of sugar. In this case, quantity of sugar used is the same as quince juice. So I did not put exact quantities. For example, here the juice obtained after cooking the fruits is equal to quantities of sugar you will use. For this recipe my mom used less sugar so, for 2 lbs of juice obtained, she used 6 oz (170 gr) of sugar.

Ingredients for 2-3 jars

• Quinces, washed, cut in quarters and unpeeled (just the stem needs to be removed)
• Sugar
• Water

Preparation

First wash quinces well to remove the little “hair” from its skin. Dry them. Remove the stem and cut them in quarters. Do not remove seeds since it’s the seed that make the jelly texture.

Place in a large pot and cover with water. You need enough water to just cover the fruits not more. Cook at high heat until it boils, then decrease heat and cook slowly.

When the fruits are cooked. Filter the mixture and keep the juice. Add sugar to the juice and bring back to boil slowly for about 15 minutes or until the preserve thickens. When the preserve has thicken, remove from heat and place in jars.

Let it cool and close jar with cover tightly.

Again, one of those days where I made a trip to la Boulange to get some Brioche, among many other things…I keep forgetting that Whole Foods distribute it. We are so used to savory sandwiches that I wanted to use the best brioche in town for some sweet morning treat. If you have a little time in the morning for breakfast it’s delicious with a nice cup of coffee. I thought half of it would be enough and I have to admit that both pieces were not.

Usually brioche can be greasy, especially the one you buy at the store, it is indeed filled with butter. So you cannot eat it every day, or you might have to get a membership at the local gym and work your calories out! Sorry, I am indeed a fitness freak and seems like I am built with a calories counting machine inside my head. BUT that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy eating and that I eat fat-free stuff. You can really love wholesome and fabulous food that is still healthy and good for the mind and body. Anyway, la Boulange brioche is not that greasy, at least you don’t have shiny fingers after you finished eating it!

It is quince season, and using seasonal ingredients is really the best. So obviously, running into those quinces, I had no other option than buy them. In France, where I grew up, during fall we have tons of those and make jams with them. That quince jam is so delicious, it smells like a perfume and seriously, you just want to spread some on your neck.

You cannot eat quince raw like you would eat a pear. It needs to be cooked, so you can use them for making chutneys, or jams or just caramelize them in a pan.

For 2 people

• 4 slices of brioche (about 1.5 cm thick)
• 4 tbs ricotta
• 2 quinces, peeled and sliced
• vanilla powder
• 2 tbs honey
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbs butter

Preparation

Cut brioche in four slices. Melt butter in a non-stick pan, add quince slices, sprinkle with a little sugar and brown both sides.

Grill brioche in a grill pan on both sides. Top one slice with 2 tbs ricotta, sprinkle with vanilla powder. Add honey and quince slices. Top with the other brioche slice.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/11/its-quince-time-grilled-brioche-sandwich-with-ricotta-honey-and-caramelized-quince/feed/ 14 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/10/apple-games-apple-ricotta-raisins-and-almond-butter-pancakes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=apple-games-apple-ricotta-raisins-and-almond-butter-pancakes http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/10/apple-games-apple-ricotta-raisins-and-almond-butter-pancakes/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:00:05 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=4713 Jeux de pommes – Galettes de pommes, ricotta et beurre d’amande

I started this little post a while ago and never managed to finish it, since I have a 30 minutes break in between this craziness move, I just wanted to finish it and move on.

Originally I wanted to make savory frittelle with the ricotta I had bought, something with capers and parsley, then I woke up one morning and had nothing to eat for breakfast (like this morning), and that is bad news. It rarely happens, I always make sure I have food for breakfast. No coffee for my Brikka, and no bread for my toaster. (so I had to use the Nespresso that I really don’t like, I have to admit that I am a coffee snob). As much as I have very light dinners, my breakfasts are quite substantial and I really need to eat in the morning. Usually, I don’t get grumpy if I am hungry, I just chew a gum and I can last a couple of hours….except in the morning. Les petit-dejeûners sont sacrés!! Breakfast are sacred!

When you have nothing to eat, then pancake is the solution…I think those are similar to pancakes in terms of texture and consistency even if technically they might not be pancakes (I don’t know I am not a pancake expert). They tend to be tender and soft…

The almond butter adds a little natural sweetness and nutty taste to it. As much as don’t care for peanut butter, I love almond butter.

Those pancakes are completely made with wholewheat flour and a quite healthy little morning treat, if you have nothing else to eat and don’t feel like going out for breakfast.

Ingredients for 10 pancakes

• 2 medium size fuji apples
• 4 tbs light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 5 tbs ricotta
• 7 tbs wholewheat flour
• 1 tbs almond butter
• zest of one lemon
• 2 tbs golden raisins
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
• 1 tsp baking powder

Preparation

In a mixing container, grate peeled apples, squeeze them in your hand to somehow remove extra juice, then add lemon juice to prevent them from browning. In another container, mix ricotta, eggs and sugar and beat until the mixture becomes smooth. Add lemon zest, almond butter and flour, vanilla extract and powder, raisins and baking powder.

In a non stick pan, place one large tbs of mixture and let it cook on one side, then turn on the other side when they turn golden brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve hot with a apple sauce on the side.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/10/apple-games-apple-ricotta-raisins-and-almond-butter-pancakes/feed/ 15 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/10/my-finger-got-stuck-in-the-jar-ebelskivers-stuffed-with-nutella/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=my-finger-got-stuck-in-the-jar-ebelskivers-stuffed-with-nutella http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/10/my-finger-got-stuck-in-the-jar-ebelskivers-stuffed-with-nutella/#comments Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:07:38 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=4635 Mon doigt s’est coincé dans le pot- Ebelskivers à la nutella

Well, I would have never thought to make something with Nutella…Usually, I don’t cook with Nutella, I just eat it from the jar, and when the jar is half empty, I use my fingers. No worries, I do not stick my finger in any jar that I serve guests, in case you are wondering, that would be quite un-hygienic.

I had this conversation with Mary from Keep Learning Keep Smiling not that long ago. She admitted she loves condensed milk so much probably as much as I love Nutella that she likes to lick it from her fingers which I thought was funny. She gave me the idea to write a post about it. I don’t eat Nutella that often, I buy a similar organic Hazlenut-coconut spread that seems to be healthier, but still Nutella is an institution, so sometimes I buy it to serve it with crêpes because I have a friend who would not eat crêpes without it. I am not sure Nutella is made to be cooked, it’s a pâte a tartiner, and usually those spreads don’t do well at high temperatures. So I figured I had to use it in a recipe where it does not cook that much.

So looking at my pile of pans, I saw this ebelskiver pan I bought a while ago when I worked for that family with two kids…they loved those little balls (all kids do) with raspberry stuffed in the middle. If you have kids, they will go crazy for those ones. Ebelskivers are Danish (Dutch too have their own version), they look like round donuts but are not fried, they’re filled with all kinds of things, raspberries, jam, cheese, etc… I filled half of those with Nutella and half with blackberry jam, so if you are a Nutella fan, you will love those. I don’t think I need to give you a description on how  delicious they are when Nutella melts in the heart of those cute little balls. It’s easy to imagine.

Usually I stick to French and Italian cuisines since I grew up with those and I don’t adventure myself in Dutch or Scandinavian cuisine or other ones I have not been exposed to. I think to understand a cuisine, it’s important to understand its culture, its country, its traditions. Those ebelskivers are an exception to the rule, because they are something in between donuts and pancakes and that I grew up eating bignè. The batter is close to a pancake batter with some slight changes.

The little trick is that you need a specific pan…but that pan is available in many US stores, so no this is not a fancy pan I brought back from Europe, I bought mine at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Ingredients for 12 ebelskivers

• 4.23 oz (or 120 g) flour
• 1 tsp palm sugar (or other raw sugar)
• 1 egg
• 5.74 fl oz (or 170 ml) milk
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 0.50 oz (or 15 ml) oil
• vanilla powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, mix flour and baking powder together. In another bowl, beat egg yolk and sugar vigorously, then add milk and beat until the mixture gets smooth. Add vanilla beans and powder. Add oil. Mix well. Add gradually the egg/milk mixture to the flour, stirring constantly until you get a smooth batter. Beat egg white until it get stiff, then incorporate to the mixture.

Heat the ebelskiver pan, greasing each hole with very little oil. Pour some batter in each hole. Do not fill the whole to the top since the ebelskivers tend to rise. When the batter has risen up to the top of the hole, check the bottom to see if the ebelskiver has turned golden brown. At this point, add whatever you want in the middle. You can add a piece of fruit (I love them with a raspberry), some jam, nutella, etc…Then using two bamboo sticks, turn each ebelskiver on the other side. To make sure they’re cooked, stick a stick inside and remove to see if the batter adheres to the side of the stick. If so, decrease heat and continue cooking and checking color and making sure they don’t burn.

Remove from pan, sprinkle with powder sugar and serve hot.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/10/my-finger-got-stuck-in-the-jar-ebelskivers-stuffed-with-nutella/feed/ 18 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/10/something-for-breakfast-or-not-mini-manque-pear-cakes-with-blackberry-jam/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=something-for-breakfast-or-not-mini-manque-pear-cakes-with-blackberry-jam http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/10/something-for-breakfast-or-not-mini-manque-pear-cakes-with-blackberry-jam/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:41:05 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=4492 Une petite douceur pour le déjeûner… ou pas – Mini manqués aux poires et la confiture de mûres

Not that I particularly love to celebrate my birthday as a great or special day at all, but it’s the nostalgic side of me that talking. I like to do something different every year because I want to remember it the following years. I don’t like to see time go by, so every year for 12 October, I do something I remember…Year after year, I look back and I think about that particular time. I think it’s a family disease, we are all so nostalgic in my family, probably because when you leave your country, you tend to get attached to what reminds you of your past where you grew up. I don’t know.

Those cakes do not remind me of my childhood but they’re so good that I used them as my birthday cakes. I am not crazy about traditional birthday cakes, nor their overly sweet icing. We call those manqués, basically a manqué is a cake with butter, a topping but needs to have a certain thickness.  I had some ripe pears that were left out after the chocolate crêpes, and wanted to use them in something sweet.

Those little cakes are great for breakfast, they have a particularly soft and velvety texture that melts in your mouth and they’re filled with a mixture of healthy wholegrain flours. I had some chestnut flour that I absolutely love in desserts, it gives a sweet nutty taste that would give any cake a very unique touch.

Usually for breakfast I don’t have anything too sweet, just some toasts with jam and coffee, not really cakes. When I am in France I get croissants and pains au chocolat for the first couple of days, then after the croissants orgy, I go back to toasts since they’re less heavy in butter.

I figured those manqués would better be served for dessert with some whipped cream but this morning I had no more bread left, so one of those cakes did the job, and honestly it’s a wonderful breakfast treat. From now on, I will make them for breakfast, beside you can keep them for a few days in a plastic container, they do not dry up at all.

Ingredients for 4 individual cakes

• 2 pears, peeled and sliced
• 70 g butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 80 g wholewheat flour
• 50 g chestnut flour
• 50 g white flour
• 100g light brown sugar
• 2 tbs heavy cream
• 3 tbs blackberry jam
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation

In a mixing container, beat eggs and butter for a couple of minutes until the mixture becomes smooth. Add cream, then add eggs, flours, vanilla extract, cream and baking powder progressively.

Butter individual deep molds (like ramequin type) or if you have silicon molds, even better. If you don’t have any individual molds, you can also use a larger deep dish one. Place nicely pear slices at the bottom of each ramequin, then divide batter equally between each of them.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 376F for about 30 minutes. Let it cool for about 10 minutes, and unmold. Warm jam in a small pan until it gets a little more liquid, then add jam on top of each manqué and serve.