Stollen

Sweets with dried fruits are not my favorite but a Stollen is an exception!
The Stollen is a heavy german traditional bread like cake containing lots of dried fruit, and covered with powder sugar. We can keep it for a long time and the taste becomes better day by day, so normally we cut a small slice and eat it everyday. However, our stollen is disappearing too quick to know the taste altering with time!

Thinking the butter and powder sugar used for it we are worried about the calorie, but we cannot stop cutting...
One day I brought a stollen from Vienna and I found out our family also loved it. So this year I made several and gave them to each family♪

We cannot see Stollen in Spain a lot, but I suppose if we go to Germany, tons of them go on sale in every bread shop. I have to visit one day!

＜Recipe＞

Butter  　       70g
Sugar　　       30g
Yolk　　          1
Milk 　　       60g
Dry yeast　     8g
Strong flour　80g
Flour         　80g
Salt    　　　　 4g

Nutmeg　 　1/3 tea spoon
Cinnamon　 1/2 tea spoon
Cardamom  1/2 tea spoon

Roasted almond      　30g
Roasted walnut 　      50g
Rum steeped fruits　100g

Melted butter＆Powder sugar

1.　Heat milk to 40℃, add yeast and leave it for a while so that yeast can be fermented.
2.　Place softened butter (room temperature) and sugar in a bowl, and beat them until become white.
3.　Add yolk into 2 and mix well.
4.　Add all flour into 3.
5.　Add 1 into 4 and knead them well until the dough becomes smooth.
6.　Add spices, almond, walnut and dried fruits into 5, knead them little bit more, roll it into a boll, and leave it to be fermented (around 2 hours).
7.　Remove the gas and shape the dough (roll into a oval and fold the left side over to right side but not to cover all, and once again fold the left side over to right side not to cover all.
8.　Second fermentation (around 1 hour).
9.　Bake it in a oven with 180℃ for 30 minutes.
10.　When it is done, spread the melted butter the whole surface (around 20-30g).
11.　When it is cooled, powder the powder sugar and wrap it in plastic wrap.
The taste becomes nicer as days go by, at least leave it for 2 days.
Before eating, powder the powder sugar once again.

Bon profit!!!

Cardinal Cake

The cake one day our friends brought us was so nice and we found out it was Cardinal cake (Tarta de Cardenal in Spanish), made by two merengue type sponges and white cream filling between them. It should be served with chocolate sauce poured on top.

To hear the others, everyone seems love it. We can find a small individual one and a big whole cake for several people, and also you can buy chocolate sauce separately.

As I wanted to make it at home, I was searching for a recipe but I couldn't find any...

There is a cake also called Cardinal in Austria, made by striped sponge with merengue, and filled with whipped cream, it seems closest to what I am looking for.

Then one day I was watching a documentary on Mallorca's bakery and casually what they were making was Cardinal! I couldn't see exactly how and from what they were making but they were mixing whipped cream and merengue for the filling. The volume of the cream was of merengue

According to the information I got, I made a recipe by myself, which my Cardinal Lover friends recognize better than those we can buy. So I hope you will try this popular sweet in Spain (maybe just in Barcelona?)♪

 

Side view：I shouldn't use alminum foil, it does't look nice...

＜Recipe＞
Egg white                     5
Sugar　                      85g
Powder sugar            55g
Almond powder        65g
Flour    　　               65g

1.　Whip egg white adding sugar, and make merengue.

2.　Sife powder sugar, almond powder and flour, and add them into 2 and cut them in until they are mixed. 

3.　Put this mixture into a piping bag and pipe it from center in order to make a 22cm diameter circle(x 2)
4.　Powder powder sugar on top, leave it for 10 minutes and do it once again, then bake in a oven for 25-30minutes (180℃)
5.　Once cooled, fill with whipped cream (if you like merengue, you can add merengue into the cream)

Just before eating, cut it into pieces and pour chocolate sauce on top.

As the sponge is sweet, I recommend you to use dark chocolate with more than 70% cacao for chocolate sauce.

Bon profit!!!

Macaron with Hazel nuts

I had leftover egg white from making custard cream the other day and kept in freezer, so I decided to make Macaron and unfroze it. But I found no almond powder anywhere! The egg white has almost been unfrozen! What shall I do???

Then I made them with Hazel nuts.

We can see Hazel nuts (avellana) everywhere in Spain, but not Hazel nuts powder. Why???

Anyway, I don't grind them but buy the powder (Noisettes en Poudre) in France. It is so curious for me that these 2 countries are so different even they are neighbors.

As the pound cake with Hazel nuts with espresso from my friend was so delicious, I made Cafe Macaron.

My husband said it tasted Nutella. Nutella is Chocolate Cream with Hazel nuts and so popular here like Chocolate Cream=Nutella. So Macaron with Hazel nuts with chocolate can taste Nutella, but I worked hard to make them and the result is Nutella??? Little bit sad, no? Anyway if you want to try Nutella taste macaron, here is the recipe♪

＜Recipe＞

－Macaron－
Egg white　                        40g
Powder sugar                    40g
Hazel nuts powder          　40g
Powder sugar　　　  　　　 40g
Instant coffee          　　　　 4g
Water 　　　　　　　　　　　 4g

－Filling－
Cream　  　　　　　　　　100g
Chocolate 　　　　　　　　60g
Instant coffee        　　　　 5g

1.  Sift Hazel nuts powder and powder sugar.
2.  Mix instant coffee and water.
3.  Beat egg white adding powder sugar and make stiff and glossy merengue.
4.  Add 1 into 3 and mix roughly.
5.  Once they are mixed, add 2 and mix them doing Macaronage.
(Macaronage is the process to crush foam of merengue, you have to mix the mixure passing flexible rubber spatula along the side of bowl, but if you do too much, the dough will be loosen, so you should be careful. Depending on the amount, but around 60 times is recommended).
6. The dough becomes glossy and if you spoon the dough, it should fall like ribbon, then put in a piping bag and pipe on a baking tray with baking sheet (for petit macaron, around 2cm diameter, for big macaron, around 4cm).
7. Leave them for around 1 hour so that the surface becomes dry.
8. Put them in the oven heated to 200℃ and around 5 minutes later lower the temperature to 160℃ and bake for 15minutes in total.
9.  Heat cream in a pan until just before starts boiling and add chocolate and instant coffee and mix them.
10. Once macaron become cool, fill them with the cream.

They are more delicious the following day. I used 70% dark chocolate for the cream so they were not too sweet.

Bon profit!!!

Choux&Eclair

If your friends invite us for lunch or dinner, we are supposed to bring some dessert or/and wine as a sign of politeness in Spain.
This time I decided to bring Eclair which I didn't get to eat in France.

I love Eclair, I don't know what is so special, but I cannot keep myself from buying. When I was child, we used to go Ginza Seigetsudo, which does not exist any more, for lunch, and I was asking my dad to buy all remaining eclairs in the shop. So when the restaurant was reopened as LINTARO, I and my dad were so disappointed and missed the old one.

In Spain I don't see them. Here there are petit choux, which they call Lionesa, normally filled with whipped cream or ganache, but leave something to be desired.
So, I made not only Eclairs but also Choux with Custard cream(Crème pâtissière) and with Whipped cream&strawberry, four each♪

＜Recipe＞

－Choux－

Water　　　　　　　80cc

Milk　　　　　　　100cc

Sugar　　　　　　　  5g

Salt　　　　　　　　　5g（If you use salty butter, do not add.)

Butter　　　　　　　70g

Flour　　　　　　  100g

Egg 　　　 　　　　 　3

1.　Put water, milk, sugar, salt and butter in a pan and heat until it comes to boil.
2.　Remove 1 from the heat, add sifted flour at once in it and mix them.
3.　Once mixed, place the pan over the heat again and keep mixing the dough.
4.　When the dough becomes like a ball and is taken off from the wall of the pan, remove it from the heat.
5.　Add egg one by one and mix them well, until becomes smooth. (When spoon the mixure, the dough should fall slowly)
6.　Put the dough in a piping bag and pipe small amount on a baking tray with baking sheet.
7.　Brush the top with beaten egg and bake them in a oven(200℃, for 20－25min)

8.　You should not take them out when they are done, but leave them in the oven for 10min to prevent choux from collapsing.
9.　Cut it into half and fill them with any cream you like.

－Custard cream(Crème pâtissière)－

Milk　　　　　　　　  350cc

Vanilla beans　　         1pod

Yolk　　　　　　　　 　 4

Sugar　　　　　　　　　70g

Cornstarch　　        　30g

Butter　　　　　　　　  30g

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.

*If you want to have chocolate custard cream, break down 200g of chocolate into a small pieces and add into the hot custard cream(5) and mix them.

This time we visited a French-American couple. The favourite of french husband was eclair(he gave me a passing score♪), the american wife's one was ring choux with ganache and banana(there is no photo of this...), my spanish husband's one was custard cream choux, everyone has own taste!

Anyway

Bon Profit!!!

Choco Bread

Whenever I go to Mitsukoshi Department, I cannot stop buying Choco Bread from Joahn.

It is so popular and always we see queues of people waiting for this bread coming out from the oven. And they are gone so quickly!

Therefore, if I find any, I must buy it! My family also loves it and it will disappear before we know it.

I missed this Choco Bread, so I looked some recipe on the internet and tried one.

The one I chose this time was the most popular Chocolat Bread resipe at COOKPAD by Minrin san.

Waiting for the dough to rise...

Better look than I expected♪

Cutaway.

 

 

It is nothing compared to Joahn's Choco Bread but enough to satisfy mi;-)

Thank you very much Minrin san to share this recipe!

(If you cannot read Japanese but want to try Minrin san's recipe, contact me)

Bon profit!!!

SHIRAKAMI KODAMA KOUBO(yeast)

When I returned to Japan, I bought 「SHIROKAMI KODAMA KOUBO」 which I had been interested in.

「SHIRAKAMI KODAMA KOUBO」is wild yeast found in Shirakami-Sanchi (white god mountain area), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, staddling between Akita and Aomori, in northern Honshū Japan. And due to its strong leavening power and high trehalose content, it is said to make bread more tasty.

So, in accordance with the enclosed recipe, I made Petit Pain.

*in Japanese, we call small bread "PUCHI PAN" as more less in french.

＜Recipe＞

Hard flour          　　       　250g

Sugar   　　　　　　 　　　     　6g

Salt　  　　　　　　　　　　     　3g

Yeast   　　　　　　　 　　     　5g

Lukewarm water(35℃)　     15g

Water 　　　　　　　   　130-145g

1.　Mix yeast and lukewarm water and leave it for 5min.
2.　Mix flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.

3.　Add 1. and water to 2. and mix them.

4.　Put the dough on the board and knead it for 5 min. (The dough is supposed not to be slammed)

5.　Cover the dough with the bowl and leave it for 5 min.

6.　Start kneading once again for 7-10min, and once the surface becomes moist, roll it into a ball.

    (Primary fermentation: depending on the temperature, around 1-2 hr. until the size becomes around 2.5 times). 

7.　Punch the dough down, cut it into 8 pieces and leave them for 15 min.

8.　Roll each pieces into a ball, and place the rolled dough with smooth side top in the baking pan with cooking sheet.

     (Secondary fermentation: depending on the temperature, around 1-2 hr. until doubled in size). 

9.　Bake them in the oven for 10-15 min. (200℃)

  The bread does not contain any butter but so tasty and elastic.

We can enjoy it as it is and also make nice sandwich!

Bon Profit!!!

Hot Chocolate&Melindro(finger biscuit)

I went to the Cafeteria of Cacao Sampaka last week.
As many shops have been opened around the world including Japan, you may know, Cacao Sampaka is Chocolate Shop which Mr. Albert Adrià, patissier of El Bulli, Ferran Adrià's brother, started.

I had been to the shop several times to buy tablet or bombones but never been to the Cafeteria to have cafe(actually I didn't have cafe though) so finally I went! 

It seemed popular to add spices to Chocolate in Spain, there were 2 types of Hot chocolate in Cacao Sampaka, one with cinnamon and another with spices.
This time I chose the standard one, with cinnamon. I could feel the cinnamon and nice strong cacao taste and it was delicious but thick(I should say RICH! instead of thick...)! I recommend that you should try it when you are a little bit hungry but not thirsty.
And I found Matcha Chocolate Tablet! I think they didn't have it before. It should be new. The tablet was made from Matcha and lemon, whose combination I think Japanese does't come up with. We can enjoy quite strong Matcha and fresh lemon taste, it was really nice!

Here you have the address of Cacao Sampaka's Cafeteria：C/ Consell de Cent, 292　08007 Barcelona

For this reason, our boom now is Hot Chocolate at home.
I make Melindro by myself and then Bon appetit!♪
Melindro is Spanish finger biscuit, here, in Spain, if we have Hot Chocolate, we should also have Churros or Melindro. As Churros is little bit oily, so I definately choose Melindro!
Even if you are Churros Lover and always have Hot Chocolate with Churros, please try Hot Chocolate and Melindro combination! It's also easier to make!

＜Recipe: Updated!＞

2 Eggs

40g Sugar

50g Flour

Icing sugar

1.　Whip yolks with 20g of sugar in a bowl until the mixture becomes white.
2.　Whip egg white adding 20g of sugar to make meringue.
3.　Add 1/3 of meringue into 1 and mix.
4.　Add sifted flour into 3 and mix them.

5.　Add 1/3 of meringue, mix them, add the rest and mix them.　
6.　Spoon the mixture in a pastry bag and squeeze it like a finger on a cooking paper.
7.　Put icing sugar through a sieve and sprinkle on the squeezed dough.(twice)
8.　Bake in the oven(180℃, 10-12minutes).

* We can make melindro(fingar biscuit) whipping whole eggs with sugar.
   But if we make merinque separately, melindro will be lighter and more like those in shops.

I normally buy Valor Hot Chocolate, but you can choose whichever you like.

This time we resisted the temptation to add whipped cream on the top...(I really love Suizo=Hot Chocolate with whipped cream)

Bon Profit!!!