Happy New Year, 2020!

We start a new year, a new page in our life that I wish it would be better than any year before for everyone.
A new fresh year can only start with a remarkable cake. The Black Forest remembers me of the mountains from where the beautiful Danube springs. Danube remembers me of childhood, the big river that I used to cross over with a boat every summer to go to the seaside.
This is by far the tallest cake I ever made. Seven layers of sponge cake, cream and sour cherries. Chocolate decorations, topping with drops... it is also the most complex cake I made so far. Also very time consuming, I made it in stages in 3 days. But I do not regret any minute I spent for it. I learnt a lot. I did mistakes, sometimes I had to restart but finally I succeeded. The result was very satisfying but the road to it was much more accomplishing.
To start, the sponge cake was a success from the start. I wanted a small cake but tall. I had a 15cm pan and I filled it full. It raised higher in the oven and I managed to cut 7 layers from it. The recipe and instructions I used for it (see bellow) were very good with no surprise. While baking it I was nervous if it was not too small or not too high enough. Later, after putting the filling I was afraid to not be too high.
The first filling step was simple. Just whipping cream. No extra sugar. With sour cherries inside.
I made the sponge cake the evening before and the layered cake the next one. After constructing the cake, I left it in the fridge for the night. Whipping cream is very tricky as its structure is not that stable. For a tall cake, to insure that the next day I won't see a Pisa tower in my fridge I put a stainless steel straw just in the middle of the cake, that I removed before the final topping decoration.
The most challenging part was to make the decoration. I had in mind a splash. I tried as others with a balloon and it popped from the warm chocolate. The chocolate was all over the place, including my pull and trousers. Balloon was not an option then. I looked for a normal ball in my children toys. The size of a stress ball or a bit bigger. But how I was to remove the chocolate after? I used some film that I stretched very well over the ball. First try was a failure, too much chocolate and the drips were not visible. Second time, with less chocolate, ended up perfectly. Easy to remove from the ball and from the film after hardening.  With trees, was just a play... I had some left over chocolate from the splash and I wanted to draw something with it. Just perfect from the first try.
The next day, was the decoration day. First, I was not sure how the cream will hold to cover the cake on the side. I used the trick to put some mascarpone in it and worked great. It was just a bit difficult to pipe it out but it was a piece of cake to smooth it.
Second, and the most scaring part was the dripping. I was wondering about a lot of things: would the consistency of the topping be good to do the drops? would the cream melt while pouring the chocolate? Well, everything turned out to be just perfect. When the dripping stage was over, I felt confident to have a nice cake.
Now, once the photo was done, I cannot wait to cut it when the New Year has arrived.

I used to eat a lot of pears in my childhood. I remember those yellow juicy pears leaking on your hands when eaten. But somehow, when I think about tarts, apples comes first than pears into my mind. This time instead, pears are the main ingredient for this tart.
Remember to use pears that are not that soft otherwise it will be difficult to slice them nicely.
As a filling there is a secret ingredient and this one is the ground almond (or almond powder). I din't have almond powder so I had to grind it myself.
For decoration I played a bit with chocolate. I picked some strawberry leaves from my garden and painted them with chocolate on the textured side. After resting them in the fridge, I removed the strawberry leaves and wooow.... I had wonderful chocolate leaves. It was a bit tricky to remove the leaves as the chocolate was quickly melting on my hands and I had some broken but most of them were perfect to decorate my tart. Here it is....

It is amazing how normal dishes can look outstanding by just changing the styling. I baked potatoes so many times but slicing them and arranging them in rose shapes was something fun to do. The result was a tray of potato roses.
They can be served as a side dish instead of the classic squared gratin. They can be eaten as a muffin, with a spoon or in an original way (as my daughter did), petal by petal.

When time is an issue, I make the simplest bread I can. This is exactly the best example of a bread that does not complicate my life. Whenever I can, I do all sorts of experiences with bread recipes, but sometimes I just need bread on the table the next day. Making simple breads doesn't mean reducing quality. It means reducing to the minimum the tasks you need to take to produce it. This is what I like about making bread: the complexity you can choose it, you can keep it simple and have your daily bread on the table or you can go to a more elaborated recipe and get outstanding breads.
This recipe is about a daily bread...

Everytime I bake a bundt cake I recall the funny story of the bunDDDTTTT cake from the My Greek Fat Wedding movie. And yes, there is a hole in this cake :).
The variety of the bund cake tins was already impresive in the metalic form until the silicone versions appeared and extended the variety to an impressive level. When I saw this mold it was a wow moment for me. I saw also the mini versions of it and I was in love. Silicone entered our live in all domains but for cooking utensils it became a new era.
This was the first time to use them and I was wondering how I am gonna take the cakes out as they have curved shape on top. Luckily the recipe helped me as the cake reduced a bit in size when cooling. Taking it out was then a (one) piece of cake :)
Comparing to my metalic bundt tins these molds are way too small. Nevertheless, they look fantastic and the little ones fits perfectly in my kids snack boxes.

While outside is rainy and cold, I am not at all in the mood to bake my breads in the wood fired oven. However, I do bread every week, and for these kind of unpleasant days I simply bake my bread inside, in my conventional oven from the kitchen.
I have experimented to bake the 2 loaves of this bread in 2 cast iron pans, one on top of the other. Of course, I had to use their lids to capture the steam inside, so the 2 layered pans fit at the limit into my oven.
The result was not disappointing and gave me the desire to continue experimenting this type of baking.
As for the taste, it immediately send your mind to a forgotten farm somewhere in the country side. Texture of the crumb is perfect, with bigger and smaller wholes. Just perfect.
Now, please grab the chair, take a sit and enjoy my bread...

Making these apple roses was challenging but doing them was a lot of fun. I couldn't estimate exactly in the beginning how many would result from 500g of puff pastry, so I ended up doing a lot, more exactly about 40 pieces.
The not funny part was doing the puff pastry. It took a day to make the pastry so the roses were scheduled for the next day.
I've learnt a lot with this recipe. One of the thing was that, doing everything by yourself is very time consuming. Next time I would probably buy the puff pastry and do only half of the recipe.
Doing the roses was challenging and amazing in the same time. Finding the best position to place the apple slices on the dough strips followed a learning curve. In the end, I was happy with the result and the most difficult was to eat them without feeling sad to destroy a beautiful flower design.
However, it was an experience that I recommend to all as it brings a lot of satisfaction in the end, both visually and tasty.

I baked sweet potato pies before and I was always impressed. It is consistent, it is sweet, fine and delicious. This one makes no exception.
Although it is sweet, this cake has 0g of sugar / sweetener in it. It makes me wonder if I should call it a desert or a side dish. If you want it more sweet, you can serve it with caramel sauce, but for me is sweet enough and has a very slight sour flavor due to the apple and the lemon juice addition.
Nevertheless, some whipped cream on top or on a side in the serving plate makes a perfect combination.

It is normal to revisit old recipes that remains in your memory both as an image and as taste. This is the story with this recipe.
There are few differences with my old recipe of Fine apple tart but the look is totally different.

Cooking in cast iron skillet is one of favorite way of cooking.We tend to forget our old way of cooking in natural materials for new ones that promise the Moon on the sky. Yes, it has also disadvantages: it is a heavy pan, sometimes sticks and it needs seasoning after each use. However, it is healthy, it is tested over centuries, it gives taste to food and is so versatile in terms of the heating used. I got rid of all my teflon pans and I kept only one that serves me for frying, cooking and for baking.
I love potatoes baked in the oven and combining two types of potatoes in one skillet makes the taste more interesting. Potatoes in this recipe are not melted in oil. I used a thin layer of oil only for the bottom of the pan to avoid sticking and I brushed spiced butter to add more taste and avoid drying them on the top. In the end, they are not heavily greased and is a pleasure to eat them as a side dish.

When your child asks you for chocolate biscuits, you leave your chores aside and you start doing them.
While from my big daughter I was expecting her to get involved in the preparation process, well.... I was not expecting that my son of 2,5 years old to be that excited too. After this experience, I feel like opening a new era of cooking with my kids, and more biscuits recipes will most probably come :)).
For this simple recipe I spend almost a haft of a day with my kids. It is not a complicated one, but it takes time. As this is a lovely time spent together with my kids I do not bother if it takes longer. Making the chocolate shapes was probably the most time consuming as I had a silicone candy sheet with only 8 shapes. That ment to fill in the shape, put it in the fridge for 15 minutes, take out the chocolate shapes and redo the proces for 4 times. Of course it can be kept simply by simply spooning the chocolate on the top of the biscuits and this will reduce the time considerably.
For the other part with making the dough and cutting the biscuits.... well here it was the fun for the kids. Even my son, couldn't resist to cut by himself with all the biscuit cutter shapes.
As for me, I was expecting to offer these biscuits as a snack to my children when they go to school. My hopes were in fact too high as one of the tray was gone after just tasting :)

Cooking mushrooms to get out with a tasty dish is always a challenge. Each mushroom has its own taste and for each, you may prefer a way of cooking or another.
I started some time ago to avoid somehow buying mushrooms. The reason is simple, my kids hate them. I hated mushrooms with all my heart as well when I was a child. But one day I rediscovered them and tried my mother recipes that once I would have died if somebody would have forced me to taste.
Few years ago, I went to Italy and I remember a countryside restaurant displaying their beautiful mushrooms at the entrance. Inside I tried them as a starter and their taste cannot simply get out of my mind since then.
I've tried other types of mushrooms but it is difficult to compete with my memories.
Yesterday it was one of those ordinary working day. But on my way to work there is a man selling all sort of country vegetables and fruits and that in the middle of the town. He had in wooden boxes 4 uncommon types of mushrooms, that you won't find in an normal supermarket.
My eyes were caught by these little yellow fellows and with an impulse I saw myself buying them. I went home and I had a weird feeling. I knew to cook normal mushrooms, but what about these guys? How I was supposed to cook them so I can get their best flavor? I did some researches and finally made them in a sauté style.
With the first part I made an omelette. It gave an interesting good taste to the omelette but its flavor was not entirely revealed. As for the first time I followed the recipe without onion and garlic, for the second part of mushrooms I decided to add them and eat them as a side dish.
This second time, these little yellow fellows opened their flavor to me in amazing way.
Nice to meet you my lovely chanterelles....

A sponge cake is usually a very easy desert to do. My mother used to do it very often in my childhood. Last week I was asking myself what snack to give to my daughter. Sponge cake was the right answer. My daughter didn't know exactly what this was so she was a bit reluctant to the idea. But when I made it, the cake disappeared in one day and my daughter requested me to make more. My son also got really fond of the cake as well. A real battle between them about who has the biggest slice. I had then no chance than to bake the cake a second time this week.
When I am baking for kids, sugar is at low quantities between ingredients. This recipe is for a large cake and the sugar is not predominant for the taste. I like it like this and my children did not complain at all about not being enough sweet. Otherwise, if you like very sweet cakes you can even increase the quantity up to 400g of sugar instead of 150g.
This cake is easy to make but can be even more simplified. I made 4 layers with different shades by adding gradually one teaspoon of cocoa powder in the remaining batter. It can be done with just 2 layers (one with and one without cocoa). At the limit, cocoa powder can be considered optional but in this case you obtain a simple yellow sponge cake. I like however that my cakes looks nice also not just taste well.

So here it is ...

Some people like to find a good recipe and stick to it. I also try to find good recipes but I am always tempted to change little things to test other versions as well. The possibility to change your recipes of breads are practically unlimited. Even if you use the exact same quantities there will be always something different in the home baking unless you use a perfectly controlled environment. Days differs as temperature, flours differs from year to year even for the same source. But this is what makes for me bread cooking fun: you know what you are up to but you never know what you'll get exactly.

Simple breads are not low quality breads. When it comes to bread, simple means easy, not cheap or less tasty. On the contrary, using just one or maximum 2 flour types specialize the taste of the bread. The mixture of spelt with white wheat flour is for sure an old good match that makes your mind travel back through time to the country side.

Cooked in a pan simplifies the bakers process, although without, would look much more interesting.
No matter the shape, the taste is the same, so let's try it.

My weakness for lemon tarts is well known. This combination of sour and sweet of the lemon custard simply drives me crazy. If I add another great weakness that I have for meringues it is very hard for me to resist in front of such a tart.

Although this tartelettes requires 3 steps to do them, eating them is like in an instant. It takes a bit of time and work to prepare them but every bite is well deserved.

I often enter in fresh fast food restaurants to grab a quick lunch. While queuing to pay my food I watch the deserts exposed strategically just in front of me. They look fantastic, like fresh harvested mushrooms. Many times I wonder how do they make them to look so perfect and so beautiful? Regardless the impressive look and the first impuls to put one on my tray, I pay my food without picking any of them. The reason is evident ... I can do better myself while knowing exactly what's inside.

Mines, they may not look like a "star" but they look pleasantly and decent. Above all, they are homemade with great passion and pleasure. They are exactly the kind of deserts I would give to my children without having second thoughts. I also have the great satisfaction of controlling the amount of sugar inside.

Doing them is another story. Making deserts with my daughter is one of the things I really enjoy. She is so actively involved in measuring correctly the ingredients and mix them all (or one after another) and I do not want to lose these great moments spent together with my daughter. For her is a game, but for me, as an adult, sharing all the tricks and experiences with her is like creating history. I, myself, do remember such moments from my childhood when I was doing cakes with my mother and those moments are kept very dear to me. Now it's my time to create sweet memories for my own daughter.

Therefore, is there a reason for me to buy muffins from a shop?

It is not the first time that I make this recipe. I made a variation with chocolate here. However, I think that this time I enjoy them the most. Without the addition of chocolate you get the chance to taste the pure basic dough. Surprisingly, they really made an outstanding impression.
To give them a specific note, I added some pearl sugar that I found lost in my pantry on a bottom of a paper box. The crunchy and caramelized spots created by the pearl sugar after baking where the cherries of this cake.
I have not appreciated them that much in the beginning but when my kids asked for a 3rd portion I ate a full one myself so I can distinguish what makes them like them so much. They are soft, they almost melt into your mouth and the aroma of almond combined with vanilla makes them special.

You may try and taste different recipes of breads but going back to the simplest one gives an incredible feeling of satisfaction. In the end, the basic ingredients: flour, water and salt is all you need. Sourdough is made only from flour and water. The gluten addition is optional just to improve the proteins of the flour. To the limit, if you prefer not to use salt for the bread, you end up having a bread that is made of only 2 ingredients. Isn't it amazing that you could achieve to do a bread with with only 2 ingredients?
But for my taste, salt is a must be inside bread. You can put up to 2% of salt inside. I usually chose to put less, somewhere around 1%.
By choosing different types of flours you enrich the taste. But this doesn't mean that going to one single, basic wheat flour won't lead you to a great result. And here is the proof.

The recipes you like leave a strong footprint in your mind. For me, the Vermont sourdough bread is a reference recipe. Its taste and its texture left deep pleasant memories and from time to time I like to try different versions of it. For this time, I needed a sandwich bread to be able to easily fit it in the toaster. But basically, the recipe is almost the same. The addition of sesame seeds distinguish this bread form other versions I made and always the taste and texture do not disappoint me.

I have tried this recipe in many different ways. Every time I've got an excellent result and it is difficult to say which one was the best. I've tried to bake it in a conventional oven, I've tried to replace the seeds with sesame or chia but all the times I chose the sandwich shape just for practical reasons. With the wood fired oven you do not have to much control over the temperature once the loaves are inside. I tend to get the breads a bit overcooked when using the natural fire, as it was the case for this one.
When changing the seeds I do not find a big striking difference between the versions related to taste. So, feel free to use your preferred kind of seeds.

Manitoba four is well known for its high protein content. This means more gluten, so a higher chance to have a beautifully risen bread. When using this type of flour in your bread no extra addition of gluten is necessary. When baked, the crumb I find it whiter than classical wheat flour.
Here it is a simple recipe where the Manitoba flour is used exclusively. If you decide to stay on an evening late, you can follow the timing that I used. Or, you can simply put the dough overnight in a cooler place.

Putting herbs into my bread is not a new experience for me. I have tried different types of aromatic herbs to see how they fit with the taste of bread. In all cases, these breads bring something specific. They are not just simple breads, they are specialized breads with a specific aroma. The aroma is super strong. Each time I try to do a herbal bread it makes me remember that it does not fit with all kind of food. For example, spreading just some butter on a a slice works great, and sprinkling some salt over it makes it perfect. However, if on top of the butter you add some jam, things starts to taste weirdly. You might like it but for me, this is not a perfect match.
More, Herbes de Provence contains strongly aromatic herbs. Savory foods are simply complemented by this bread.
In particular, for this recipe, I made a visit to an organic shop and I have filled my pantry with some organic flours. Special flours, special aroma... the direction was clear for me to pick this incredible combination of herbs. As again I targeted the sandwich shape of the bread, using bread pans was the chosen option.
This bread is really special, you love it or you hate it. On top of the taste, this bread in particular brings me back amazing memories from Provence, so you can imagine that I appreciated a lot this bread.
Now lets see how to do it...

I have this biscuit stamp with the text "C'est MOI qui l'ai fait" for years. My daughter used to play with it for play-doh when she was small. My son loves to dismantle it while playing with it. But one day, my daughter told me: "Mommy, we have never made biscuits with this".  It was clear to me then that its time has arrived.

One of the reason I cook at home is that I can control what I put inside. For biscuits (and generally sweets) the ingredient I take care the most is sugar. And yes, I usually cut it in half at least. For this recipe, the original one requested 300g. Oh no... far from me the idea that I would put this amount of sugar in biscuits that I offer to my kids. 75g was more than enough. And believe me, after tasting them I would not put not even one single gram more. The are perfect as they are. But if you prefer it sweeter, feel free to put more. The cost of eating too much sugar is too high for me to pay it with my family's health.

I have to make a confession:"C'est MOI qui l'ai fait" is not true. This is the first recipe on my blog that I didn't do it myself. My daughter did it. You can understand that I am so proud of her. I only helped in cleaning the dishes and giving some guidelines. I was not expecting this moment to arrive so soon but it was her desire to do them by herself. Would it be something genetic? Hmmm... we'll see in time.

Let's talk a bit about the results. These biscuits are simply melting in your mouth. They do not make so many crumbs as others, so I am happy to not run to clean after my kids when they steal one piece from the box. This is the kind of biscuits that I would definitely enjoy near an unsweetened cup of tea.  It is the bite that make you close your eyes, focus on the bite and say with your lips closed "Mhmhmhmmmmm". Now I dream on ... they are not meant for me... but for my kids :)
Do you want to taste them as well? Sorry guys, I do not sell. But here is the recipe... go to the kitchen and you can try it yourself.

One day I received a roll-on deodorant from my good friend who is doing all her cosmetics home-made. Using it was not any different from an usual one bought from a supermarket. Maybe the scent was more intense although that was not a bad thing. Efficiency was however great.
In the meantime I have tried my own recipes, but not on roll-on. I have tried a solid one based on sodium bicarbonate that work fine for 12 hours with only the drawback that was staining the clothes. It was washable but it wasn't very appealing during the day to wear it.
Of course I have remembered my good old friend and put my hand on the phone. She provided me this recipe, I've tried it and used it for some weeks already and I can only say that this is the ONE. The one that I a going to do and use from now on. I'll never again be back on bought deodorants from supermarkets and that is a decision I made long time ago. Of course there are alternatives that I also appreciated over time, like buying the ones proposed in bio shops or alum stones but they are expensive.
I remember my first impression when I have seen the recipe: where on Earth I am going to find these ingredients? They are not very common and you can find them here in Belgium mainly in specialized shops for DIY cosmetics. Internationally, I found some interesting online shops that can help.
Let's take them one by one and see what these weird ingredients are for.
The xanthan gum is a thickener. That gives a jelly texture to the deodorant.
The alum powder fights against multiplication of bacteria so also the unpleasant smell. It is 100% natural and can be used also by people with allergic reactions or sensitive skin.
The sage essential oil has multiple roles. It serves as a preservative, it protects against microbes and it provides a lovely aroma.
The mint essential oil comes with antiseptic and antimicrobial properties.
The cosgard is only used for preservation. This ingredient allows your deodorant to be kept for 3 months without other unwanted bacteria to be developed.

Now that we understand why these ingredients are crucial for our recipe, just have a look on the directions bellow and ...  That's it! You have your own home-made deodorant!

In the last 3 weeks my daughter has repeated me a wish: "I want an apple cake!". The lack of time has delayed my duty to comply with my daughter's wish but I couldn't postpone it anymore so this was the day.
I've tried many recipes of apple cakes, that were more fancy and elaborated and this time I wanted the most simplest (and delicious) as possible.
As I was also having some guests, the cake should also have been big enough for all of us. I then took the biggest pan I have found, removed the handle so it could fit in the oven and started to prepare it. My daughter was helping me with the mix of ingredients and I was preparing the apples. With four hands, the cake was prepared in almost no time.
Then we cooked it, let it cool and reversed it on a big plate.
When I first saw it reversed I didn't dare to put the knife in it. It was like a huge sweet flower in the middle of my kitchen table. Clearly the cutting moment had arrived and I was wondering if there would remain at least one piece to make a photo of it. So, I had to sneak and make a photo while it was not yet finished.
It arrived that my daughter loved the cake so much that she asked a piece of it every day at school. For me and my husband, we had only enjoyed one small piece as the rest was gone or reserved :).

This is that kind of recipe that you might end up doing it over and over again and learn the recipe by heart as it is simple and extremely tasty.

Serve it with some whipped cream and it becomes a madness.

I made this recipe dozens of times and I feel like doing it over and over again. I tried different versions of it but finally I stayed to this one. It grows perfectly every time, both in the wood fired oven and in a conventional oven. I also used baking pans when I wanted a perfectly squared shape to use for example for sandwiches. Every time, this recipe didn't let me down.
The most impressive part of this bread is the taste and its texture. When eating a bite feels like traveling back in time, a hundred years ago, to a dinner in the country side.

I find this recipe also to be very flexible. I prefer the option to make the first fermentation overnight. When it is not very cold, I let the dough outside the house in a closed bowl. If there is freezing outside, I put the dough it in the pantry where I have a constant temperature of 10-11ºC in the cold winter days.

I usually prepare the dough on Saturday evening, and on the next morning when I wake up, I check how much it has raised. Also the initial temperature of the ingredients plays a little role in how raised the dough is and not only the temperature during the night.

After the final fermentation, I arrive to bake this bread as early as 12 PM the next day or even later at 5pm. It mainly depends on the room temperature where the dough is let to raise. This also gives you flexibility in your day schedule so you can fit the bread making into your life not the opposite.