Here is a new recipe made in partnership with Visit Czech Republic. This time we made the Christmas braided bun. Deliciously flavored with lemon, almonds and raisins, it is composed of three…]]>
Czech Christmas Braided Brioche
Here is a new recipe made in partnership with Visit Czech Republic. This time we made the Christmas braided bun. Deliciously flavored with lemon, almonds and raisins, it is composed of three layers to be stacked. Don’t panic, everything is explained step by step as usual and even in video!
Ingredients
- 500 g flour
- salt a good pinch
- 90 g iced sugar
- 6 g dried yeast (or 20g fresh yeast)
- 225 ml milk
- organic lemon zest
- 5 egg yolks
- 150 g butter at room temperature
- 100 g white almonds
- 100 g dried raisins
For the gilding
- 1 egg (beaten)
- silvered almonds
Instructions
- Put the flour, salt, yeast (which should not touch the salt), powdered sugar and milk in the bowl of your food processor.
- Zest the organic lemon.
- Add the egg yolks, then knead the dough for about 7 minutes to get something homogeneous.
- Add the butter at room temperature.
- Knead again until perfectly incorporated.
- Add the raisins and almonds.
- Mix well.
- The dough is finished.
- Let it grow for 1h30 to 2h in a warm place. After this time, degas the dough by pressing on it, then place a piece of cling film on top. Let stand in a cool place overnight or at least 3-4 hours.
- The next day, take the dough out of the refrigerator 2-3 hours before working with it. Divide it into 8 balls of the same size (about 155g).
- Roll them into 30cm long balls. Flour as needed.
- Make a first 4-strand braid.
- For that, you have the video above in the recipe!
- Then make a 3-strand branch with three more strands.
- Lay the 3-strand braid over the 4-strand braid using egg white. Just brush on the 4-stranded one.
- Then make a 2 strand braid with the last ball that you will divide into two small strands. Put it on top of everything. Prick the bun with skewers to stabilize it.
- Allow to grow for 1 hour before brushing with beaten egg.
- Sprinkle with slivered almonds.
- Then bake for 10 minutes at 180°C on a convection oven, then lower to 155°C for another 45 minutes.
- Remove the peaks when the brioche has cooled and enjoy!
Nutrition
Serving: 6peopleCalories: 715kcalCarbohydrates: 75gProtein: 15gFat: 41gSaturated Fat: 18gPolyunsaturated Fat: 5gMonounsaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 220mgSodium: 805mgPotassium: 442mgFiber: 6gSugar: 21gVitamin A: 905IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 239mgIron: 4mg
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Gingerbread with Orange and Nuts
I still keep a few recipes secret (I have a notebook full of wonders) and this was almost one of them. I had told you about the Beillevaire cake (see the report HERE), but I am also a lover of Baramel gingerbread. I love their texture, their flavor and especially their super soft and caramelized crust (which is not a crust anymore). There is no egg in their gingerbread. Here I have composed my recipe with this spirit, namely a soft and firm texture and a tender crust. It is not strictly speaking gingerbread, because I put butter and eggs in it. If you wait until the next day to taste it, it will develop its full potential. Very different from the gingerbread I gave you(THERE), this little one quickly became my new favorite with its orange flavor and nuts.
Ingredients
- 50 g semi-salted butter
- 50 g caster sugar
- 170 g liquid honey
- 155 g orange marmelade
- 220 g flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 95 g egg (break 2 eggs into an omelette and weight 95g)
- 65 g nuts (you can leave them out)
Instructions
- Place the butter, sugar, orange marmalade and honey in a saucepan. Heat over low heat just to melt the butter.
- In a bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, 4-spice and baking soda.
- Pour the liquid over the flour and mix briskly with a whisk.
- Add the eggs (in the picture there is only one, don't take it into account!).
- Finish with the nuts.
- The dough is ready!
- Pour the batter into your pan. I used small cardboard molds, which are handy to take with me or to give as gifts. You can of course bake the gingerbread in a classic buttered and floured pan. The important thing is to have the dough three quarters of the way up.The quantity of dough is suitable for a small mold of 160X80mm. But you can make several small gingerbread.
- Bake at 145°C for 55 minutes. Check for doneness and adapt to your own oven and the size of the pan you choose. The dough should be cooked and the crust nicely browned.
- Let cool overnight in the pan. The crust will get all chewy. The next day you can wrap it in cling film to preserve it.
Nutrition
Serving: 4peopleCalories: 650kcalCarbohydrates: 107gProtein: 9gFat: 24gSaturated Fat: 10gPolyunsaturated Fat: 3gMonounsaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0.4gCholesterol: 41mgSodium: 596mgPotassium: 246mgFiber: 4gSugar: 75gVitamin A: 388IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 144mgIron: 3mg
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Capon with chestnuts
The end of year festivities are coming up, Christmas is almost here! I offer you a selection of festive recipes to delight your taste buds and your guests. Tarama, foie gras, logs, I give you all my secrets. There are in this selection, recent recipes and others that I have published for nearly 12 years, so the photos are not all equal! Just click on the recipes to access them!
Ingredients
- 1 Capon of 3 kg
- 1 small glass of Cognac
- 1 egg
- 1 veal cutlet (150 to 200g)
- 1 chicken breast
- 250 g poultry livers
- 3 slices of bread soaked in milk
- 80 g raisin
- 1 large tablespoon flour
- A good dozen chestnuts
- 50 g nuts
- salt & pepper
For cooking:
- 50 g butter (ir even a little more)
- 1 kg raw chestnuts (fresh or frozen from Picard, they are perfect!!)
- water
Instructions
- Here is the beautiful beast ! A beautiful capon of three kilos, with a meat much less dry than the turkey.
- And here are all the ingredients for the stuffing. We'll have to start sewing for this recipe... Soak the raisins in a little cognac and warm water.
- Preheat your oven to 200°C. Place the veal cutlet, chicken breast, egg, glass of cognac and the bread soaked in milk (slightly wrung out) in a blender.
- Mix to a paste.
- Pour the dough into a container, add salt and pepper, and add the drained raisins and chestnuts. You can of course cut the chestnuts a little. For my part, I like to find big pieces in the stuffing, so I leave them whole!
- Also add the flour.
- Mix well and add the walnuts (always in kernels or pieces).
- Make sure there is nothing left in the capon. There are often those big chunks of fat that need to be removed.
- Fill the inside of the capon with the stuffing.
- You should normally make it to the edge.
- Tie the capon tightly by folding the thighs towards the entrance of the stuffing. We can see here that the skin has torn. It is finally a good thing to show you this because you will see that it is quite catchable!
- All you have to do is take a thread and a needle and sew the skin like a garment.
- And here is a beautiful capon frankenstein !
- Once cleaned, you can hardly see anything.
- Place the capon on the drip pan of your oven or in a large rimmed dish. Season generously with salt and pepper and place the butter pieces on top. Then sprinkle with a little water, enough so that there is a small puddle of water that will prevent the bottom from burning.
- Put the capon in the oven at 200°C. You will now have to baste every 20 to 30 minutes with the cooking juices from the capon. If necessary, you can add a little water. After 40 minutes of cooking, lower the oven temperature to 170°C. After 1 hour and 15 minutes of cooking, turn the capon over and continue cooking for another 1 hour and 15 minutes, basting the meat regularly with the juices.
- At the end of this time, so 2h30 in all, add the fresh or frozen chestnuts. At home, we use chestnuts from Picard which are perfect. Return to the oven.
- Continue cooking for another 1 hour. The chestnuts cook in the fat of the capon... Turn them regularly in the sauce to keep them soft. A delight!
- At the same time, I invite you to cook potatoes in duck fat. It is sure that it is heavy, but after all, the Christmas meal is only once in the year !
- All that remains is to serve the cut meat with the well-cooked chestnuts and the cooking juice in a sauceboat.
- All this with crispy potatoes and chestnuts.
- And at home, it's the same story every year...!
Nutrition
Serving: 8peopleCalories: 521kcalCarbohydrates: 65gProtein: 19gFat: 13gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0.2gCholesterol: 156mgSodium: 118mgPotassium: 982mgFiber: 1gSugar: 0.04gVitamin A: 3662IUVitamin C: 57mgCalcium: 38mgIron: 5mg
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Bourdaloue Pie
Here is a simple recipe. If, like me, you choose to make your own poached pears in syrup, then it will take a little longer. But other than that little bit of extra time, the pie is really simple to make. A pie made of a crispy sweet pastry, a soft almond cream and a creamye and finally melting pears. All this with the scent of butter, vanilla and amber rum… I wonder how we can resist any longer and not rush to the kitchen to try it! This pie has nothing to do with the 17th century churchman Louis Bourdaloue, but with the Bourdaloue street in Paris where this pie was invented in the 19th century by a pastry chef…
Ingredients
Sweet dough:
- 210 g flour
- 125 g cold unsalted butter
- 35 g icing sugar
- 25 g almond powder
- 50 g beaten egg
- vanilla powder
Almond cream:
- 100 g almond powder
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 100 g melted butter
- 1 egg
- 10 g cornstarch
- vanilla powder
- 20 g amber rum
Pears in syrup:
- 4 large pears
- 750 ml water
- 350 g sugar
- 1 vanilla bean
- the juice of half a lemon
Instructions
- You can buy canned pears in syrup for this recipe. However, since I like to do things myself (whenever possible), I make my own pears in syrup.Peel the pears.
- Put the water, sugar and split vanilla bean in a saucepan on low.
- When the sugar is melted, even if the syrup is not yet boiling, add the pears (still whole!) and sprinkle with the juice of half a lemon.
- Put on moderate heat with a lid and let cook for 30-40 minutes (depending on the size of the pears!!). Turn off the heat and leave in the syrup.
- When the pears are soft, let them drain and set aside for the rest of the recipe.
- Prepare the sweet pastry. Put all the ingredients except the egg in a bowl or in the bowl of the food processor.
- Beat with the food processor (it’s the K) until the butter is incorporated.
- Add the beaten egg at this point.
- Switch on just to incorporate the beaten egg but no more!
- Put the dough on parchment paper.
- Put another sheet on the dough and roll out with a rolling pin to a thickness of about 2-3mm. This way, no extra flour is added and the work surface and rolling pin stay clean.
- Place a pastry circle (22X2,5cm) on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Take good care of make a right angle in the angle of the circle with the plate.
- Cut the excess dough with a knife, going from the inside of the circle to the outside with a short gesture.
- Repeat around the circle, pinching and lowering the dough to obtain a perfect angle of dough.
- This way the circle is perfectly dark (filled with dough).Prepare the almond cream. Put in a bowl, ground almonds, icing sugar, cornstarch and soft butter.
- Add the rum.
- Mix and add the egg.
- Mix well.
- Add vanilla powder. Mix and set aside in a cool place.
- Heat the oven to 180°C. We have two options here:-Cover the sweet dough with almond cream and pears and bake directly. This works but the following method is even better!-or for an even more extra-crisp dough, bake the dough in a flour sack (see recipe for Raspberry Tartlets) or use parchment paper lined with peas. In the latter case, cook the dough for 15 minutes using the chosen method (peas or flour sack).Remove the pastry circle and brush it with egg white to waterproof the bottom of the pie.
- Return to the oven for 5 minutes, then remove again. Pour in the almond cream.
- Add pears in syrup (2 or 3 pears depending on the size of the circle used).
- Then return to the oven to cook the surface of the pie. The cooking time depends on the oven. Mine is not powerful, so I have to let it cook longer.
- The only requirement is that the entire surface be golden brown. It takes about 30 minutes with monitoring and adjusting. Remove, unmold carefully and let cool on a wire rack.
Nutrition
Serving: 7peopleCalories: 533kcalCarbohydrates: 105gProtein: 4gFat: 18gSaturated Fat: 10gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 65mgSodium: 376mgPotassium: 206mgFiber: 5gSugar: 69gVitamin A: 518IUVitamin C: 6mgCalcium: 89mgIron: 1mg
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Kig Ha Farz
Here is the recipe for the famous “kig ha farz”, a monumental Breton dish, for about ten people. No more of five hours of cooking but a rather simple preparation. For this dish, you need a giant pot, some farz bags, a wheelbarrow of vegetables and a dozen guests… Nine was kind enough to give me her recipe and publish it here for our pleasure. Even if it is not a dish that you can make too often at home, it is really nice to prepare with several people and to discuss while peeling the vegetables. So I present you Nine who gives us her explanations for this gargantuan dish. Before starting the preparation, I ventured to ask him some questions!
Ingredients
- 1,8 kg beef shanks 900g each
- 1400 g semi-salted pork Palette
- 1400 g Morteaux sausage
- 6 leeks
- 12 carrots
- 1 white cabbage
- 10 turnips
- 1 onion pricked with 2 cloves
- 1 tablespoon coarse salt
Lipig (you can use less onions, but it's terribly delicious like this!)
- 12 onions
- 300 g semi-salted butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
Far white:
- 250 g wheat flour
- 50 g sugar
- 4 eggs
- 250 ml semi-skimmed milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Far black:
- 335 g buckwheat flour
- 20 g wheat flour
- 1 egg
- 100 g bacon
- 300 ml cooking broth
- 250 ml semi-skimmed milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Start by gathering the ingredients. This will probably require a wheelbarrow! More seriously, it is important to choose vegetable waters for this recipe. All those shown here come from a farm in the Finistère north. Sand carrots, beautiful onions, inimitable potatoes...
- For the meat, you must also choose the best. Here we see the Morteaux sausage, the beef shanks and the pork shoulder.
- First, remove as much fat as possible from the pork shoulder. It is indeed this fat that will give a lot of foam and therefore work afterwards.
- You have to get the biggest pot you can find.
- You can see how big this pot is, especially when you see Nine next to it!
- Pour water to a little more than half the capacity of this gigantic pot. Put on the degreased pallet and the shanks.
- Heat the pot over high heat (given the quantity, don't hesitate to heat well!). With a skimmer, remove the foam that forms on the surface.
- Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables. Cut and worm the leeks. Cut to separate the white from the leek tops. Tie the whites together and the tops together also.
- Peel carrots and turnips.
- After one hour, add the whole kale. There is no need to cut it.
- But also carrots...
- Turnips...
- And the leek tops, but not the whites!
- Prick an onion with two cloves.
- And add it to the broth.
- Close and let cook on the fire for two hours (before adding the bags of farz).
- During this time, prepare the lipig which takes about an hour. Peel and chop onions.
- Put the butter in a large frying pan (we cooked the lipig in a wok, which proved to be very convenient). Cook it on low heat to melt it perfectly.
- Add the onions.
- And let it cook gently, scraping the bottom regularly to prevent the onions from sticking.
- The onions will slowly but surely caramelize.
- To the point of giving the famous lipig. You can't necessarily see it, but it's fat as it should be!
- When the lipig is almost finished, remove the "eyes" of fat in the broth. It may seem surprising to remove the fat on one side and put a lot of butter on the other, but we must not forget that we are going to drink the broth! And it's more pleasant to drink a fat-free liquid anyway! However, it is true that we will make up for generously with butter on the farz!
- You can see that you can remove a lot of fat from the surface of the broth. Three glasses were removed.
- Now prepare the farz. On the one hand, the black flour.Put buckwheat flour and wheat flour in a bowl. Add the egg. and mix a little.
- Put the lard in a bowl and add the hot broth. Stir to melt the lard.
- Add the broth to the flour.
- Then beat with a hand whisk. Add salt and milk.
- Pour the dough into a stuffing bag.
- Tie the bag well and put it in the broth.
- Along with the bag, add the leek whites.
- Do the same thing with the white flour and proceed like a classic pancake batter.
- Add the Morteaux sausage.
- Let cook for two more hours... One hour before serving the "kig ha farz" add the peeled, uncut potatoes. The kig ha farz cooks for another hour with the potatoes (just to be clear!).
- To serve, pour the broth into a tureen. You can see that the broth has taken on a nice color and that it is almost not greasy!
- It is usually served with bread crumbs (just baked).
- And then you can start enjoying your meal! In starting with one or two bowls of broth...
- Then we return in the heart of the subject with the farz. Just remove the bags and take out the farz carefully.
- Then cut them into slices.
- Both are equally delicious.
- Reheat the lipig.
- And take out the meat that we will cut before serving (it is cut with a spoon!).
- Take the vegetables out of the pot, making sure not to burn yourself as it is very hot.
- All that's left is to take a little of everything on your plate...
- And don't forget to serve yourself a generous helping of hot lipig with caramelized onions.
Nutrition
Serving: 10peopleCalories: 1195kcalCarbohydrates: 97gProtein: 45gFat: 72gSaturated Fat: 32gPolyunsaturated Fat: 7gMonounsaturated Fat: 27gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 363mgSodium: 2386mgPotassium: 1583mgFiber: 17gSugar: 28gVitamin A: 52904IUVitamin C: 80mgCalcium: 321mgIron: 14mg
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Pão de queijo
The pão de queijo is traditionally made with ingredients that are hard to find in France, such as “polvilho doce”, which is a starch based on manioc and “meia cura” cheese (medium aged) but no problem to make them!I came back from Brazil with a “meia cura” cheese and I made my “pães de queijo” in the most authentic way! And in France you can replace with half grated fresh parmesan and half grated and chopped gruyere! The result will be almost identical!In Asian supermarkets you can find tapioca flour, which is actually tapioca starch, tapioca being cassava. So it’s a different name for what is in fact the same product! Tapioca flour = polvilho doce!The first ingredient is done. The second, the “meia cura” cheese, can be found in Brazilian grocery stores. But the price is quite high and you won’t notice the difference if you replace it with freshly grated Parmesan cheese . Sometimes I don’t have the courage to grate parmesan cheese, so I shamelessly use parmesan powder.In short, the cheese breads (“pães de queijo” in plural) are delicious and easy to make, you have to eat them 5 minutes after they come out of the oven, they have a slightly crunchy texture on the top and a heart extra soft (thanks to the tapioca flour!!). Everyone who has tried it at my house has become a fan! Well, yes the cäipirinha helps a lot!!!
Ingredients
- 500 g tapioca flour
- 200 g parmesan cheese
- 200 g Gruyere cheese grated and chopped
- 2 teaspoons salt (it seems like a lot but this is it!!)
- 200 ml milk
- 75 ml oil
- 220 g egg
Instructions
- Heat milk and oil in a saucepan until boiling, remove from heat.
- While the milk/oil is heating, put the tapioca flour and salt in a bowl and mix well. Pour the hot liquid mixture over it and mix vigorously.
- Add all the cheese. Mix well then add the eggs. Mix again, by hand it is easier than with a spoon. With a Kitchenaid, it’s even easier! The dough will be sticky, this is normal. If it sticks too much to form the balls, put half an hour in the fridge.
- This is the famous “meia cura” cheese I mentioned at the beginning of the recipe! You can either use this one or replace it with half grated parmesan and half grated and chopped gruyere!
- It can be grated and then put into the dough in the relevant step!
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place walnut-sized balls of dough on a baking sheet. You can put a lot on a baking sheet because the breads will not puff up much in the end.
- If you wish, you can leave the plate with the dumplings in the fridge overnight. This way, the dough will dry on the surface, and when you bake, you will have rolls with a thicker crust! I find them even better this way!
- Just put in the oven for 15-20 minutes, the Pão de queijo should be well rounded and slightly golden . To be eaten as soon as possible, without burning yourself!
- For the caipirinha, I prefer the one with maracujas (passion fruit). To do this I put the pulp (and seeds) of a dozen maracujas in a bowl, I pour cachaça (500ml) then I sugar while tasting to be sure not to put too much or not enough, good excuse to start They are delicious with a little touch of salted butter in the middle that will melt!
Nutrition
Serving: 15portionsCalories: 718kcalCarbohydrates: 81gProtein: 23gFat: 35gSaturated Fat: 14gPolyunsaturated Fat: 5gMonounsaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 0.05gCholesterol: 91mgSodium: 1491mgPotassium: 216mgSugar: 5gVitamin A: 734IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 720mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Flemish Waffles with Vanilla
Delicious little waffles from the North! They are thin and fluffy, filled with a generous vanilla filling. But they can be filled with other fillings like rum brown sugar for example!Before I start, I want to tell you that I have tried a number of recipes… You will see in my recipe the addition of glucose syrup. It keeps the vanilla filling soft (otherwise the filling tends to dry out…) and in the waffle batter. If you really want to do without it, replace the 80g of syrup in the dough with 50g of caster sugar… For the filling, you can leave it out, but having tried it with it, it’s a little wetter, so the fluffiness is preserved!
Ingredients
Waffle dough
- 270 g of flour
- 20 g of whole milk powder
- 75 g of soft butter
- 1 egg
- 1/2 package dry baker's yeast
- 40 ml of warm milk
- 80 g of glucose syrup
Vanilla filling:
- 200 g of powdered sugar
- 120 g of butter
- 20 g of glucose syrup
- 1 vanilla bean
- 1/2 teaspoon of liquid vanilla
- 1/4+1/8 teaspoon of vanilla powder
Instructions
- Put all the ingredients for the dough in a bowl (bowl of a mixer).
- Turn on the machine (or if you don't have one, knead by hand!) and knead the dough for 10 minutes.
- Let the ball of dough rest. Cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place for at least 2h30!
- Divide the risen dough into balls (which will inevitably fall back!). I made dumplings of exactly 16g each! This way we will have identical wafers!
- Turn on the waffle iron with the waffle plates. These plates are commercially available. They can be ordered through the internet.The best being a cast iron waffle iron from the grandmothers of the north! But I don't have gas or a fireplace... Put a ball of dough on each small wafer plate and press the plates together as tightly as possible for most of the baking time!
- Let cook for about one minute. The wafers should be removed as soon as they are golden brown. This way, they will keep their softness!
- As soon as the waffle iron is removed, cut the wafers in the thickness.
- Put the wafers immediately in a plastic bag and close it. The steam will also keep the wafers soft! Because if they dry on a wire rack, they will become crispy! With my method, we keep the moisture!
- Place all filling ingredients in a small bowl and mix with a spoon until creamy and smooth.
- Open the bag when the waffles have cooled and put a large knob of filling inside each wafer. Do not hesitate to put a real good layer, because if it is too thin, you will not feel much!
- Spread it evenly with a knife. Close the wafer like a sandwich.
- Using a pastry ring or cookie cutter, cut the edges of the wafers to make a perfectly even waffle. It is also possible not to go through this operation. This has only a visual purpose.
- Put the waffles back in a plastic bag to keep them soft!
- They keep well packaged for almost a week (or more, but they didn't survive longer!)!
Nutrition
Serving: 30wafflesCalories: 119kcalCarbohydrates: 15gProtein: 1gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.4gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.2gCholesterol: 15mgSodium: 118mgPotassium: 17mgFiber: 0.3gSugar: 9gVitamin A: 169IUVitamin C: 0.001mgCalcium: 20mgIron: 0.3mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!