My first Macrobiotic Cake

One morning, I heard the doorbell, so I answered. It was Post office staff and she informed me of the arrival of a packet from Japan.
It was a gift from my friend and I was asked to pay around 30 euros to recieve it! What??? It was a GIFT! But she explained that the regulation had changed some years ago and now we had to pay the tax even it was a gift. Moreover, I had to pay the exact amount, fortunately my neighbors could change money and I could. (If we do not have the exact amount, we have to go back to the post office!)

As I was so unhappy, I started checking on the internet and then I found the info with NEW!!! mark in Correos(Post office) HP. According this, even gifts are subjected to a custom duty, if they are from outside EU and have value of more than 45 euros. Shock...
Is there any other countries where we should pay to receive a gift???
Spain is suffering from budget deficit and the goverment want to exploit our small salary, but maybe they don't need to do something small like a gift???
If your family or your friends are planning to send something to you in Spain, please be carefull in order to avoid any surprise!

Well, sorry for lengthy preamble, today I tried to make Macrobiotic Cake, which I had been interested in. As you may know, we can use only vegetable material for Macrobiotic food, and I was wondering if cakes without eggs would be nice or not and some materials were difficult to get. But finally I got a recipe book and all ingredients, including TOFU from Tofu-ya in Barcelona, so now only what I should do was to move into action!

As Spring had arrived, thinking about detox, I decided to make Matcha Strawberry Cake, filled with lots of Vitamin C ♪

Sponge.

Decorated with TOFU cream and strawberries.

Finish!

Inside.

I felt that TOFU cream had quite TOFU taste, but the cake was recieved well by my friends who agreed to be guinea pig (conejillo de Indias in Spanish).

This time I made them accorging to the recipe book, so I just explaine the ingredients I used.

Sponge： Wheat flour, whole-wheat, baking powder, salt, sesami oil, maple syrop, soy milk, vanilla essence, matcha
TOFU cream： Momen tofu, soy milk, apple juice, rice syrop, maple syrop, kanten, kuzu powder, vanilla essence

In the future, I will create my own recipe and introduce.

Bon profit!!!

The Best Croissant in Spain - 2011-

I wondered which shop had been chosen for the Spanish Best Croissant in 2011? So I checked it...
Then wow, in 「Concurso Mejor Croissant Artesano de Mantequilla de España 2011」, Turull in Terrassa was chosen as the best! Surprised!!!

Terrassa is located in Barcelona (not in Barcelona city, but Barcelona prefecture(?)) and it takes around 40 minutes from Plaça Catalunya by Ferrocarril. We can find Turull in Plaça Vella, centre of Terrassa and this bakery shop is quite popular in Terrassa. I had bought croissants there a few times but I didn't get impression that this was the best croissant! Moreover, I couldn't find Butter Croissant (Croissant con Mantequilla) during weekdays before... (Here in Spain, we should ask if this croissant is made with butter or not, because some croissants are not!)

So, I tried once again.

I went there the weekdays, but this time I could get one with butter.

I forgot to take the cutaway...

Indeed, the crust was crunchy, when I bit, it was crispy, and I felt the butter taste and it was quite nice, but still had doubt to say this was the best... I thought that I had had better croissants in Spain.

And another doubt was why the best croissant was found in Barcelona again (not Barcelona city but still in Barcelona)? Then it turned out that this contest was organized by la Escuela de Pastelería del Gremio de Barcelona and those who were interested in applied.
Condition is: Croissant made with butter, should be 45-65g once baked, no filling inside, etc.
Then the judges check the croissants baked and brought on the day, and decide the best after evaluating various factors, like aspect of the top, down, cutaway, the colour, texture, the rayers, taste etc.

If you are interested, you can see how they are chosing ↓
  
http://www.lavanguardia.com/ocio/20111005/54226844634/como-se-elige-el-mejor-croissant-de-espana.html

Here you can find the shop:

Forn Turull
Font Vella, 1 - Tel. 93 780 41 14
Carrer de Gutemberg, 2, 08224 Terrassa - Tel. 93 788 45 96
(↑ This shop is located in front of Terrassa Station and there is Cafe space)
Ctra. de Rellinars, 82 - 08225 Terrassa - Tel. 93 788 49 88
"Centre Comercial Terrassa" - Av. Abat Marcet, 43 - Tel. 93 735 03 00
Passeig de Les Lletres, 12 - Tel. 93 733 41 68

Bon profit!!!

Strawberry Tart

Strawberry's season has arrived while I neglect to write! As I love strawberry, this season makes me so happy and I feel to make sweets with them.

So, I decided to bring Strawberry Tart to my friend's house, they had invited us to have barbecue.

The other day I was asked to make a Birthday Cake for our friend's kid and some blueberries were left over, so I also added them.

 

 

Due to vitamin C from Strawberry + anthocyanin from Blueberries, the cake is good for body and also eyes;-)

＜Recipe＞

－Tart－

Butter　　　　　　75ｇ

Sugar　　 　　　　50ｇ

Egg　　　　 　　　20g

Flour　     　　　120g

1.　Mix butter and sugar in a bowl until becoming white

2.　Add egg and mix, then also add flour and keep mixing until the dough comes together
3.　Wrap the dough with the film and put in the fridge and leave it for 2 hours-1 night

4.　Take the dough out from the fridge and rolling it out and put it in the mold
5.　Puncturing the base of the dough with a fork and put it in the fridge for 30minutes

－Almond Cream－

Butter　　　　　　　　　60g

Sugar　　　　　　　　　60g

Egg　　　　　 　　　　　　1

Almond Powder       60g

1.　Mix butter and sugar in a bowl until becoming white

2.　Add egg and mix, then also add flour and keep mixing until the dough comes together

3.  Add sifterd Almond Powder into 2 and mix them

---＞Fill this cream into the tart chilled in the fridge, and bake this in the oven for 30 minutes(170℃).

－Custard cream(Crème pâtissière)－

Milk　　　　　　　 　 180cc

Vanilla pod　    　    1/2

Yolk　　　　　　 　　 　 2

Sugar　　　　　　　　　35g

Corn starch      　　　10g

Butter　　　　　　　　15g

1.　Put yolk, sugar and the seeds taken from vanilla pod, and whisk them until becomes white.
2.　Add cornstarch and mix them roughly.

3.　Put milk and vanilla pod in a pan and heat it until just before starts boiling.
4.　Add the half of 3 into 2 and mix them. Once mixed, put the mixture back into 3, place it over the heat and stir.
5.　Once it comes to boil and the mixture becomes creamy, remove the pan from the heat, remove the pod from the cream and put the cream in a bowl.
6.　Put ice in another bowl and place the bowl with the cream in this with ice.
7.　When the cream becomes lukewarm, add the butter and mix them.

---＞Once the tart is cold, cover the surface with the custard cream and decorate with strawberries♪

Since I was so in a hurry to finish and deliver, no photo of the final Birthday's cake was taken... But I was told that the cake was so delicious and they were happy, so anyway I was relieved...

Bon profit!!!