Merry Christmas!!!
I hope everyone had a wonderful day, surrounded by loved ones. I believe you enjoyed good food (probably too much as usual), great wine, and even better dessert! As you can see, I made a very special Christmas dessert. Since my parents brought wonderful unsweetened chocolate with truffle aroma (I mean truffles as mushrooms) from Venice, I decided to do something with it. With advice from a very special Chef, I made this simple, but super rich mousse. It is one of my favorite type of mousses and I included just a few pieces of this aromatic chocolate.



This is a chocolate mousse with Creme Anglaise base, which is why it is so rich. You can add any flavorings you like and make sure you serve it in smaller portions.
This recipe makes enough for 7 portions.

144g whole milk
72g heavy/whipping cream
6 egg yolks
20g honey (you don't really need any , but I had some unsweetened chocolate)
390g 72% chocolate (Use any kind you like. For me the darker the better!)
500ml heavy/whipping cream

Chop the chocolate as fine as possible!
Whip the 500ml cream until soft peaks form and place it the fridge.
Heat the cream, milk, and honey (optional) until it boils.
Whisk the yolks, just to break them up.
Temper the yolks with the cream and bring back to heat. Be careful now, it cannot come to the boil unless you want scrambled eggs for dessert. Keep it on medium heat and stir with a wooden spoon until it coats the back of the spoon - you will notice how it thickens.
Strain immediately, and if you get some bits of curdled egg, just blend it.
Add the Creme Anglaise to the chocolate, cover with plastic wrap and leave for 5 minutes.
Now stir the mixture until uniformed and smooth. If you see that it got separated, just blend it.
Now fold in the whipped cream, and place into glasses, jars, cups, mold, whatever you wish! Chill for an hour or so and voila!



Since I felt so creative and privileged to have that kind of chocolate in my power, I made truffles with the same flavor profile. I don't even know what to say, truffles are good in general, and with the addition of actual truffles, it was a fantastic experience, as my friend Stacey would say - Party in your mouth!





I promise to post a cookie recipe, I have a newly discovered one, it's superb!!

Yes, I am home at last, enjoying every bit of it. Weather is beautiful, food is fantastic and I am among my loved ones. What more can you ask for?

This time I am not posting anything, but asking you what should I write about? What would you like me to bake?! It is my Christmas present to you! ;)

Today's task were gluten-free desserts. Let me prove you how amazing flourless desserts can be!

This is probably one of my favorites, but this time I had to convert it into a plated dessert, which was fun to do. The cake itself is super moist and not that sweet like most of my desserts (that's what my American classmates tell me), because I believe too much sugar comepletly overpowers all other flavors.
The components of this little cake are eggs, sugar, almond flour, whole cooked and pureed oranges, and cocoa powder.
I finished it with 60-70 % chocolate ganache and served with a dollop of whipped cream and candied orange peel. Since we had to have a sauce, I just made a freshly squeezed orange juice reduction, which complemented it perfectly.

I figured, since I have been giving you quite a bit of sugar over the past two years, it's time for something savory! And not just anything, but pasta!! This week the kitchen of the Mediterranean has been serving cuisines of Italy and you don't want to miss that. Handmade pasta? Oh yes. It is my absolute favorite; fresh tortellini filled with ricotta cheese, topped with walnuts and brown butter and sage, m m m. Che gustoso!! We don't joke around here, this is some serious business.

This is also a chance to present my new Canon 50mm lense! I am sure you can see the difference + it was a bit cloudy today, which created perfect lighting.

This Monday, in my Advanced Pastry class, we had to do breakfast items and one of the pastries I made were my mum's vanilla roses. You have no idea how much I love them - I don't think they will ever get out of style, at least not for me! They are so moist, creamy, vanilla-y, use all the adjectives you want! :))
It is fairly simple to do and I decided to share the recipe with you. Ready?
Here we go!

For the dough (makes 4lbs 2oz or 1870g) - I think 1/2 of this recipe will be more than enough. The recipe is from the CIA, with my adjustments.
0.375oz/11g dry yeast
14oz/400g milk (60F or 16C)
6oz/170g eggs (1 egg is about 50g or close to 2 oz)
grated zest of one lemon (very important!)
6oz/170g pastry flour
1lb 11oz/765g bread flour
0.5oz/15g salt
6oz/170g sugar
6oz/170g butter, room temp.

Since it's a straight dough mixing method, mix until full gluten development. In simple terms, mix all the ingredients together and let your mixer do the rest until the dough is very elastic and smooth. It will take some time.

Let it rest for about 45 minutes or until double in size.

In the meantime, make your vanilla pastry cream (the is from Fanny from Foodbeam, because I really like her recipe) or you can make the instant vanilla pudding if you REALLY don't have time, but if you do decide on going through this much work, just make it! I command you!
2 cups/500g milk
1/2 of a vanilla bean
4 egg yolks
3 tbsp cornstarch
2.8oz/80g sugar
1.4oz/40g butter, diced

Bring the milk with vanilla to the boil, then temper the egg yolks, sugar and starch.

Put back on moderate heat and cook while stirring until it comes to a boil.

Keep stirring for another minute or so (to break down the starch). Remove from heat and pour in another bowl or sheetpan to cool. Discard the vanilla bean (wash it, let it dry, and put it in a jar with sugar!) and add the butter. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent skin from forming. Preheat your oven to 360F/180C.

Prepare your baking tin, I usually use a round one (10inces or 26cm), but you can do it in a square one too. Grease it and flour it or line it with parchment paper.

Then, roll out the dough to 5mm or 1/4 of an inch in width. Make sure you flour the working surface! Take the cooled pastry cream and spread it evenly.

Roll it and start cutting 1.5inch/4cm pieces. Put them cut side up in the tin and let rise for about 45 minutes.

Place it in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes, or until they start getting color.

Heat about 250ml/1cup of milk with 3Tbsp of sugar and pour over the roses.

Put back in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or so.

Try to let them cool down at least a bit (I don't even know why I'm saying this, because it's impossible), enjoy with a glass of milk and I promise you will be in heaven.

On the photo below, I had to do 2 items out of the same dough, so I made ''Buchteln '' and filled them with apricot jam. Another childhood favorite!
I made everything in individual portions for them to look nicer since I had to present them, but I like it better in a larg tin when I can pull them apart! That's the best part!



Enjoy!!