London Fog Caramel Sauce

If you follow my blog, you know that I have somewhat of a healthy obsession with caramel sauces. You would think that with the few basic ingredients you need to make a good caramel sauce, you would be limited with how much you can play with the classic sauce. However, like with everything in the kitchen, the only limit is your imagination. I love to play around with the basic caramel recipe and tweak it to add an extra flavor note or a different texture or both. Today's caramel sauce features the simple ingredients you need to make a London Fog Tea, sounds interesting, no?

For other caramel recipes, you can try my salted caramel sauce, or how about my spicy and sweet caramel recipe?

The London fog caramel sauce stands out with its floral and citrusy notes, thanks to the Earl Grey tea and the dried lavender flowers. The result is a caramel sauce with a balanced sweet flavor and complex flavor notes.

Let´s make the sauce
For the tea you need:

• 1 earl grey tea bag (use 2 bags for a more intense flavor)
• 50 ml boiling water
• 1 tsp dried lavender petals (adjust to you liking)

In a cup, put the tea bag and the lavender then add the boiling water and let it steep and then cool.

For the caramel sauce:

• 50 ml of the prepared tea
• 120 g sugar
• 50 g cold butter cut into cubes
• 200 ml heavy cream
• pinch of salt (needed to bring out the flavors)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or paste 

Put the sugar in a saucepan and melt over a gentle heat. Once the sugar is golden brown add the steeped tea  and let it boil for few seconds. Always be careful when adding liquid to a hot caramel as it will splatter. Add the cold butter and let it melt. Add the salt and the cream.
Cook for a few minutes until it thickens. Finally add the vanilla and whisk well

Lift the saucepan off the stove and allow the caramel sauce to cool down.

Pour the sauce in a clean jar and refrigerate, if you will not use it within the day of its making.

Like all caramel sauces, you can use it in so many ways. It is such a useful ingredient to keep in your fridge. It complements pancakes, crepes and sponge cakes perfectly. You can add it to cheesecakes to add a new flavor dimension, or you can use it as a sweet dipping sauce with fruits, biscuits and much more.

You can find here, here, here, here and here many recipes I've shared before with caramel sauces.

Make your own caramel sauce and use it the way you want, it will only enhance your baking and make it more scrumptious.

Lime Tartelettes

Before the summer is officially over, here is another refreshing and delicious lemon/lime recipe!
By now, I think you are all quite familiar with my passion for lemons and all things citrus.

Though I quite like pies, I don´t make them often. I thought it's time to use more of the delicious organic limes I had at home.

The crust I made was inspired from a Marry Berry recipe but with slight modifications. with some modifications to make it even more crumbly and delicious. For the curd, I used the recipe of the famous French pastry chef Pierre Herme. I don't think you will ever use any other recipe; the lemon cream is beyond delicious.

For the crust you need (enough for 6 tartelettes, 8 cm diameter):

• 175 g pastry flour
• 100 g cold butter cut into cubes
• 25 g powdered sugar and 20 g vanilla sugar
• 45 ml of cold vodka (or water)
• Dash of salt

In the food processor, mix flour, sugar and salt, pulse for few seconds to combine, add the butter and pulse again to get a sandy mixture. Slowly add the vodka, first one tbsp then teaspoon by teaspoon. Each flour has a different absorption capacity, so be careful not to get a soggy dough.

Once the dough forms a ball, drop the mixture on the working surface and just gather it. Do not over work it. Wrap it in plastic and leave it in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight.

With a rolling pin, roll the dough to about 6 mm thick and place it in the pie mold. Prick it with a fork, cover it with baking paper, add some beans or ceramic beads, and bake in a preheated oven (180C) for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the baking paper and the weight and bake for extra 10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. 

For the lemon curd

• 2 eggs
• 100 g sugar
• the zest of 2 limes or lemons
• 90 ml lime or lemon juice
• 150 g soft butter

In a big bowl combine the zest and the sugar and mix well (I did that the night before to allow the sugar to absorb the lemon flavor). ِِِِِِAdd the eggs and whisk until well combined. Add the lime or lemon juice, and whisk again. Put the bowl on a pot with simmering water (or double boiler) and keep mixing for about 10 minutes or until the mixture reaches 82 C and thickens.
Take off the heat and let it cool for at least 10 minutes until the temperature drops to under 60 C. Add the butter and whisk until well combined. Leave the cream to cool completely. You can keep it in the fridge in a well sealed jar for up to 5 days! 

For the meringue you need:

• 60 g egg white
• 100 g sugar
• pinch of salt
• lemon zest or few drops of vodka

In a clean bowl placed over a pot with simmering water, add the whites, salt, sugar and zest or vodka. Start whipping on slow speed until the mixtures reaches 45-50 C. Once it reaches this temperature remove it from the heat and gradually increase the speed until you reach the top speed. Keep whipping until the meringue forms stiff peaks. 

Assembly:
Fill each tart shell with lemon curd and be generous to fill it up to the top.

Pipe some meringue on the top. You can skip the meringue if you want, but it does add a nice touch and it balances the tartness of the lime cream.Blow torch the meringue for a brief time to give it a beautiful color.

Decorate to your liking and you're ready to serve.

Keep in mind that once you burn the meringue you have to eat it immediately. If you place the tarts in the fridge, you risk getting a soggy meringue and wet tarts.

I hope you try these little cute tartelettes, as the French call them. They do require some time to make with several steps but the final result is so worth it: crumbly and buttery base, a lemony and creamy curd and a soft and sweet meringue! Just the perfect combination! Seriously I doubt you will stop at one, I know I couldn't!

Semlor, Indulgent Swedish Cream Buns

The best thing about traveling, at least for me, is how it exposes you to all the different culinary traditions the world has to offer. You can spend a lifetime of traveling and you will still come across a new ingredient, a new dish, and a new cooking method. For a sweet tooth, my visit to a new country would not be complete if I didn't sample a traditional sweet or two popular among locals.

Years ago, I went to Sweden and spent a few days strolling through the charming streets of Stokholm, its capital city. When I got tired or needed a break I would go into cute coffee shops and enjoy a warm cup of coffee and people watch! The Swedes  have a beautiful tradition called "Fika", and though I don't know uf  there's an exact word-to-word translation to it, it basically means to have coffee. This coffee-break, often had in the afternoon, gathers friends and families around coffee, tea and juice, served along cakes and pies. As it turned out, one fika per day was not enough for me. Actually two were not enough for my I-want-to-try-it-all attitude. Luckily, the Swedes had enough to keep me coming back for more.

As I went to Sweden in summer, I did not get to sample one of its most popular treats: Semlor. This sweet bread, served before the lent season, is quite popular in the country and can be found seasonally throughout the month of February. I had known about it from Swedish friends. Though I would have liked to try it in Sweden, the Arctic Northern European winters of this land are a bit too cold for a Mediterranean girl like me!

My solution for this dilemma was to make my own semlor. I tried several recipes and was not satisfied with the results. The dough just got too dry in less than 24 hours. In my recent attempts, I adjusted the dough recipe and was rewarded with delectable semlor that will stay perfect for at least 48 hours!

For the dough you need: (makes 6 buns)

• 250 g bread flour
• 1 egg (the one I used weighed 65 g)
• 90 ml of warm milk (28C)
• 8 g fresh yeast
• 40 g sugar
• 3 g salt
• 60 g soft butter
• 1/2 tsp groung cardamon (I used a bit more as I love the cardamom aroma)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla paste

First start by making  a pre-ferment. Mix the milk with the yeast until it dissolves, then add 90 g of the flour, mix well then  add the rest of the flour over the mixture. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes. Once it rests, the flour on top of the mixture will rise and crack a bit pushed by the dough beneath.

Now add the rest of the ingredients except the butter and start mixing. A first mix with a wooden spoon then flip the dough over a clean working surface and knead for few minutes.  You can use your mixer of course, but I like doing that by hands.

After few minutes add the butter and keep kneading, the dough will be very sticky and all over the counter, don´t worry after minutes of mixing the dough will come together and won´t stick at all. It took about 25 min to reach that point. With a mixer, using the hook accessory, it will take you about 15 minutes.

Transfer the dough into a clean and greased bowl, cover and let it proof between an hour or 2 or until it doubles in volume. After that, tuck the edges to the middle of the dough, cover it again and leave it in the fridge over night.

In the morning, take about 75 g of the dough, flat it down a bit, tuck the edges into the middle of the dough then roll it into a nicely shaped ball.

Place all the buns on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, and let them rise again for about 2 hours or until they double in volume.

Heat your oven to 200 C, prepare an egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 tbsp milk and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract) and gently brush the buns. I brushed the buns twice then bake them for about 10 to 12 min or until golden brown.

For the almond paste you need:

• 100 g almond flour
• 20 g whole almonds (peeled)
• simple syrup infused with cardmamom (100 g sugar, 100 g water and 5 cardamom pods)

First start by toasting the whole almonds in a hot oven (100 C) for few minutes, then add the almond flour. By heating the almonds you will intensify the flavor and once you smell the almonds you know they are ready.

Mix the almond flour with enough syrup to make a paste, (if it´s too thick you can add some milk once you´re about to fill the buns). Crush the whole almonds and add them to the paste. You can skip the step, but I like the crunchy texture. 

For the whipped cream:

• 200 ml 35% cream
• 25 g sugar
• the seeds of one vanilla pod (or extract or paste)

Start with a cold cream and whisk; it helps the cream to whip quickly and to get a strong texture. Add the sugar and vanilla to the cream and whip until stiff peaks are formed. Pay attention to the cream all the time, if you whip too much you will get butter!

Assembly:

Once then buns are cold, snip off the top, fill with almond paste, then swirl the whipped cream, put back the top as a lid, sprinkle some powdered sugar and enjoy a delicious and amazing treat from the beautiful Sweden.

You can enjoy semlor with warm vanilla or cinnamon infused milk. The Swedes call this way of enjoying semlor "Hetvägg", which means "hot wall". I don´t know why they call it as such, but it´s really delicious and comforting.

Now rush to your kitchens and make some semlor before February ends and the lent season starts! 

Tropical Panna cotta!

Spanish summer is not for the faint of heart, especially in the Spanish heartland away from the coast. Temperatures sometimes exceed 40 C in Madrid. With such hot weather, I avoid traditional baking and I satisfy my sweet cravings with fresher desserts that are quick and easy to make.

An Italian classic, panna cota, which means cooked cream, is one of these easy desserts that are made ahead of time and served chilled: just what you need on a hot day!

The basic recipes calls for three main ingredients. To this base you can add whatever flavor you want. I went for tropical flavors in the form of mango and passion fruit. Mangoes add a mellow and sweet flavor to the panna cota, whereas the passion fruit gives the dessert fresh and tangy notes.

These 2 amazing fruits work perfectly with the creaminess of the panna cotta and this will give you a refreshing and delicious dessert that you can even make several days ahead!

For 4 servings you need:

• 400 ml 35% cream
• 40 g sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or paste
• 4 sheets of geltaine (about 7g)
• 50 g mango purée
• 2 passion fruits pulp

First, break the gelatin sheets and soak them with cold water for about 5 minutes.

In a sauce pan combine sugar, vanilla and cream and let them simmer on a gentle heat for few minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside. Drain the water from the gelatin sheets, add them to the cream, and whisk to make sure that the gelatin melted completely. Divide the mixture in 2, add the mango purée to one half and the passion fruit pulp to the other. Pour the mixtures to the serving pots and let them chill for at least 4 hours.

When you´re ready to serve decorate the pots as you wish. I decorated the passion fruit pots with mango flowers and the mango ones with passion fruit pulp!

And now you are ready to serve a cold, refreshing, fruity and gluten free dessert! Enjoy!

Aich al Saraya: A Feast for the Serail, Available for You Too!

On May the 22nd Christians celebrate Saint Rita´s Day, a very beloved and venerated Saint among the Christians and specially the catholics of the middle east.

My mom named me after her, and so many others moms in that region!! During my school days I recall having at least 3 or 4 Ritas in class. The teacher had to call the attention for one and the class would be quiet in a snap!

Before moving to Spain, my family always celebrated this day. Nowadays, they do it in my absence, although they make sure to call me and wish me a "Happy Saint Rita's day".

My aunt whose name is Marguerite, though we call her Margot, celebrates the feast and her birthday on that day. During that day, she would always make her specialty, the dessert that I will share with you in a while. As she would chill the dessert, it was always a welcome since during May hot weather makes its appearance on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean quite clearly. My aunt is not only a great person with the sweetest heart ever but also is a great cook. Ever since I moved here I stopped enjoying this childhood dessert, so this year I decided to ask for her recipe and make some for me!

This dessert has been around for centuries. The name in Arabic is "Aish el Saraya" (عيش السرايا); roughly translated it means"the Serail's Bread". Though it was made with few key, nowadays widely available, ingredients, the dessert must have been back in time mostly out of the reach of the masses.

Like many desserts, it calls for the use of stale bread. The bread is then flavored with caramelized sugar, enriched with a layer of fresh clotted cream and finally adorned with the widest assortment of nuts possible. The result must have surely enchanted the governors and the elite that inhabited the serails of the Eastern Mediterranean back then. Luckily for us, the dessert is no longer exclusive and is widely available at shops but can be easily made at home.
Just note that there are so many ways to make this dessert, and this is just one of them!

For  20x25 cm pan or 26 cm round pan you need (I used 2 round pans: 15 and 12 cm and 1 small cup)

For the bread layer:

• 120  toasted bread
• 1 cup of sugar (about 225 g)
• 1 cup of water
• few drops of lemon juice

In a sauce pan, pour the sugar and on a low heat let it caramelize, it will take about 10 min. Once it´s golden brown, pour the water, be careful as it will splatter. then add the lemon juice and let the caramel dissolve completly in the water.  Leave it to cool.

Meanwhile you need to crumb the bread (you can use your food processor or just put the toasts in a plastic bag and bash it with a rolling pin) once you have tiny little crumbs pour over the cooled caramel, mix well until you get a soft and spreadable mixture. If it´s too liquid add more crumbs and if too thick a bit of water!

Cover the bottom of the pan with the bread mixture and set aside.

For the cream layer you need:

• 4 cups of milk
• 4 tbsp sugar (add a bit more if you desire a sweeter cream)
• 75 g corn flower
• 1 1/2  tbsp orange blossom water
• 1 1/2 tbsp rose water

In a saucepan, combine sugar and milk, and let it simmer for few minutes, Meanwhile dissolve the corn flower in 3 tbsp of water and slowly add it to the milk while you´re stirring.
Keep stirring, until the mixture thickens and covers the back of a spoon. This will take few minutes, don´t stop stirring to prevent any lumbs from forming.
Add the orange and rose water mix and turn off the heat. Pour the mixture over the bread, leave it to cool then place it in the fridge for at least 4 hours!
You will end up with 1 cm layer of bread and about 3 to 4 cm cream layer!

To achieve this presentation, I covered the  bottom of a spring form pan with parchment paper, and the borders with acetate paper which makes removing the cold cake a lot easier.
Decorate as you wish, traditionally it is covered with grated pistachios but feel free to  use any other nut or edible rose leaves. I decorated it with pistachios  and added a rose on the biggest cake, as it is the symbol of Saint Rita!

Once it´s cold you just need to cut and serve, you can also prepare it in individual cups.
Hope you give the dessert a try and Happy Saint Rita to all the Ritas out there!

Salted Caramel Candies, a Great Gift this Christmas!

With this post we will continue the series of festive recipes. However, this is a special recipe since it requires only 4 main ingredients to end up with something really impressive!

If you follow my blog you would know that I do love a good caramel. Added in the right amounts, caramel transforms ordinary sweets into spectacular ones. What if caramel is not one of the elements of a recipe but is the actual hero of it? Well that's what this caramel candies recipe is all about.

Following the recipe specified in this post you will get around 21 pieces of candy. I should specify that I used an 8 x 16 cm cake pan. I trimmed the edges of the caramel and cut it into 2 x 3 cm candies.
The only difficulty in this recipe is to get to the right temperature as to have a set caramel but that is not rock solid and to attain this temperature you do need a thermometer. It sounds a bit technical and it kind of is, but these cooking thermometers are widely available nowadays at fairly reasonable prices.

Now, let´s caramel:

• 200 g sugar
• 150 g cream (35%)
• 40 g cold butter
• 1/2 tsp sea salt or fleur de sel

In a heavy bottom pan add the sugar and let it melt over a gentle heat. Cook the sugar until you get an amber color and you can smell the distinctive caramel aroma. Slowly pour the cream taking extra care not to splatter any of the hot sugar on you.
Continue cooking the caramel for at least 10 minutes and over a gentle heat. The mixture needs to get to 125C (257 F) and when it does, turn off the heat and add the butter whisking well until it  is well combined. Finally add the salt and whisk again for a bit.

Pour the caramel in the parchment covered pan and leave it to cool. Place the pan in the fridge for an hour or two. 

Remove the pan from the fridge. Take the caramel out of the pan and cut it into 2 x 3 cm rectangles. For an extra hit of salt, you can sprinkle a touch of sea salt on the caramel pieces or over the caramel slab before you cut it.

Wrap the candies in wax paper or candy plastic wraps and share them with your loved ones as a special and homemade gift for Christmas. 

Puff Pastry Braid with Cream Cheese and Cherry Compote

In a previous post I shared with you a recipe of cherry compote and I promised to share another one featuring this delicious treat. It took me a while to share, but you know how summer is! So after a long break, it´s time to start baking and sharing again.

This recipe is really easy to make; with just a few ingredients and a little time you can have a wonderful dessert or a warm breakfast!

To make the braid you need:

• 1 sheet of puff pastry (mine was about 230 g)
• 75 g cream cheese
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla and 1/2 tsp of kirsh
• cherry compote (I used from 2 to 3 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp of milk with a tsp of sugar for the coating
• powdered sugar for dusting

First mix the cheese with the sugar, kirsh and vanilla and set aside.

On your baking sheet covered with parchment paper, line your puff pastry and visually divide it in 3 equal parts, the middle one part will form the base on top of which you will layer the cheese and cherry compote and the the sides so with a sharp knofe you need to cut equal strips (if possible) about  1,5 cm.
Put the cheese mixture in the middle add the compote and swirl a bit to slightly mix the 2 ingredients and start bringing the strips to the middle part overlapping between each one! Eventually, you will end up with a nice braided shape.

Once your braid is ready brush it with the milk and sugar mixture and bake in a preheated oven (200 C) for about 15 minutes or until the braid is golden brown.

Dust with some powdered sugar and enjoy for breakfast, for a coffee break or on your next picnic!

Super Easy Sweet Canapés!

Each month the Google plus community foodiesplus selects a special theme and for August canapés were featured. Canapés are ideal if you are entertaining a small group of friends or a large crowd during special occasions.
In addition to being elegant, they are extremely versatile and can be either savory or sweet. Canapés are fun to make and can be miniaturized versions of main dishes.
Personally, I decided to make sweet canapés featuring delicious summer fruits in addition to being a snap to make.

The ingredients I used are pretty common and easy to find. Additionally, the combinations you can make are quite flexible and you can alter ingredients according to your liking.

So to make these little beauties you need:

• mini toasts
• cream cheese
• strawberries, blackberries and flat peach
• honey and maple syrup
• rosemary, lavender and pecans for garnish
• chocolate spread

Prepare the fruits by cutting the peaches and the strawberries into thin slices; of course the blackberries are left whole.
The cream cheese should be removed a bit ahead of time from the fridge to make it more spreadable. You can mix the cheese with the maple syrup or honey or you can drizzle them later on the canapés. 

To assemble, spread the cream cheese or chocolate spread in reasonable amounts and layer the fruits on top. Drizzle the maple syrup or honey on top, if you haven't mixed them into the cream cheese.

I used the following combinations:

• Chocolate spread, strawberries and garnished with rosemary leaves
• Cream cheese, blackberries, maple syrup and garnished with a bit of crushed pecans.
• Cream cheese, peaches, honey and garnished with a bit of lavender flowers.

You can play with these combinations as you want, but I do feel these flavors work best together. 

Next time you have friends coming over and you're short on time, these canapés will be a life saver. Enjoy!

Cherry Clafoutis, a summer classic.

Summer is an amazing season and although I´m not a fan of hot weather, however there are so many beautiful things to do and to enjoy during this season that make up for this annoying detail.

Any visit to the market during summer-time will greet you with a bounty of wonderful fresh fruits; a feast for the senses! As the season progresses different fruits and fruit varieties start to make their way to the market. By late spring and well into summer, fresh cherries can be easily found in Madrid markets. Cherries not only look good and taste great but they are also highly nutritious. With so many cherry varieties from sweet to sour, there's a cherry variety to just about any taste. 

I love all fruits, well almost, but cherries are one of my favorites and hold a special place in my heart. When I was still a kid, I used to pick them fresh from my uncle's orchard which was teeming with cherries, apricots and apples. Anyone who tasted super fresh fruits picked from trees knows that it is quite unrivaled, and until this day I don´t think I have tasted something as delicious as those cherries.

Nevertheless, the Jerte Valley of Spain is very popular for its cherries that are well appreciated and can be found in almost all markets. To make good use of this super fruit in its season and peak of freshness I decided to use it in several recipes starting with a classic: the cherry clafoutis.

Like many great classics, cherry clafoutis is a French dessert that is surprisingly easy to make and can be simply tweaked to meet your taste. The recipe has two main parts, the base and the fruit. The base is very simple and pretty similar to the crêpe batter. Once prepared it is poured over the fruits and the whole thing baked in the oven.

I should note that traditionally the recipe keeps the cherries whole, but I like them pitted. It's really up to you to pit the cherries or not. In case you don't want to pit them, do warn your guests!

For a 22 cm tart pan you need:

• 2 large eggs
• 70 g sugar
• 30 g melted butter
• 30 g ground almonds
• 75 g flour
• 125 ml milk plus 125 ml of cream
• 350 g  pitted cherries
• 1 tsp of kirch (optional) and a 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract or 1 tsp vanilla sugar
• dash of salt

First whisk the eggs with the sugar, the kirsh and the vanilla then add the melted butter and whisk again. Fold in the almonds, the flour and the salt. Slowly add the milk and cream while mixing to avoid having  any lumps.
Once you have a smooth batter you just need to pour it over the cherries that you have arranged in the generously buttered tart pan.

Bake for about 10 min at 200C then lower the temperature to 180C and bake for an additional 15 to 20 min.
You need to watch the clafoutis and take it out of the oven when it´s golden brown and still a bit soft in the middle. 

Serve it warm with some vanilla ice cream and a light dusting of powdered sugar. It´s also delicious when it´s cold, but I like to heat for 10 sec in the microwave before enjoying the leftovers!

Enjoy this wonderful classic dessert with its authentic and refreshing taste of summer!