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.

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.