tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49303029176308690302024-03-12T16:02:34.773-07:00mushitzamushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-67289851627055483062012-12-12T10:04:00.000-08:002012-12-12T10:04:41.226-08:00Matcha Macarons with Shiro-an – Kuro Goma Filling
I've been neglecting this pastry journal of ours for a long while, but at last I'm bringing it to life again.
The last few months have been busy and lazy in the same time. We visited my sister in France but this wasn't the usual trip to Paris since she moved to a small village near La Rochelle.
Although I do missed Paris and all the rumpus there I found the sojourn extremely mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-11079190627471736012012-08-28T03:24:00.001-07:002012-08-28T03:24:43.917-07:00Safflower Buns with Prunes
Who would have thought that an exotic spice as saffron would be a staple in a traditional English recipe. The history behind this is an intriguing matter and should you want to know more about it don't hesitate to nip across to My Custard Pie. I love calling in at Sally's site for a regular pie of an extremely good and amusing read.
Saffron buns with raisins were chosen from Sally from My mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-48252932897311338282012-08-21T04:43:00.001-07:002012-08-21T05:05:33.937-07:00New York Cheesecake
This cheesecake recipe uses no water bath and this is why I like it so much. Plus, I've made it at least a dozen times at home and the result is always satisfactory. We used to make it at the pastry course last year and I think this was one of their bestsellers since we had it on the to-do list quite often.
Tea: Because of the sour cherry jam the cheesecake goes well with smoked tea like mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-9616805802784990362012-08-15T04:11:00.001-07:002012-08-15T04:11:46.880-07:00Caramelized Phyllo Napoleons with Vanilla Pastry Cream and Raspberries
There are times when a certain dessert occurs to be a great hit amidst our friends and simultaneously extremely easy and non-demanding for completing. Here's one such case. Apparently everybody fell in love for the crunchy caramelized phyllo.
These Napoleons turned out also to be very photogenic and we just couldn't restrain ourselves of snapping a shot of them of any possible angle. So. mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-66147288548434030172012-07-28T07:07:00.001-07:002012-07-28T07:07:53.398-07:00Grape Must Bread
This month the recipe for the Fresh from the Oven challenge was quite intriguing – mosbolletjies(honestly I have no idea how is this supposed to be read), a.k.a. grape must buns. It was Tandy from Lavender and Lime who stirred our bread baking enthusiasm for new experiments. Tandy makes her own grape must so if looking for a recipe, go to her post. We, however, had grape must in the freezer.mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-6131759412308211262012-07-24T09:33:00.000-07:002012-07-24T09:33:24.537-07:00Apricot Frangipane Tartlets
Apricot season has come and gone but it was so short that I couldn't get enough of my favourite fruits. 3 years in a row the apricot trees in Vetren didn't give fruits, this is why this year I was overexcited about the apricot abundance. I was shuttling around under the apricot trees stalking for just fallen overripe fruits. This is exactly how I like them – overripe, just fallen from the treemushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-21459096792830244952012-07-17T06:13:00.002-07:002012-07-17T06:14:42.612-07:00Pistachio – Blackberry Entremet
Cleaning the freezer I found a bowl with the last batch of last year's blackberries, and I didn't even remember it was there, lucky me. Besides, we had a small jar with insignificant amount of pistachios – only 50 grams, but it was enough to throw an entremet.
The inspiration for this one came from Hidemi Sugino again, and to be more exact – his Sicile entremet. But as always I couldn't mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-35463134296174044522012-07-11T08:49:00.001-07:002012-07-11T08:49:52.337-07:00Cardamom – Safflower – Jaggery – Walnut Cookies
I had a strange incident. Several months ago I was in the bank and the teller asked me to write some data. Instinctively I looked around in a search for the keyboard, but instead she handed me a pen. I know it was something completely normal but apparently I've become so used to my laptop that I feel the keyboard as an extension of my hands. I remember those first days when I was writing mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-7764082129806495362012-06-20T03:54:00.001-07:002012-06-20T03:54:38.782-07:00Raspberry Cakes with Matcha - Cream Cheese - White Chocolate Frosting
Raspberry season has started. Our freezer is still packed with raspberries from the bumper harvest last summer and I'm trying to turn them into desserts in order to make place for the new ones, so you are going to see a lot of raspberry sweets in the coming weeks. Hope you like raspberries.
There are several combination which I'm totally mad about: raspberry-matcha tea, raspberry-chocolate mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-58855342957437838792012-06-18T15:24:00.000-07:002012-06-18T15:30:57.578-07:00Matcha-Chocolate Tangzhong Bread
Ever since we tried Aoki's matcha croissants I crave for them almost on a daily basis. We tried to recreate them twice with no significant results. I searched for the original recipe but couldn't find any, so now it's all about match and fix work. For now we had to stop our green croissant exploits due to the rising temperatures but we'll continue the straggle over that task when the weather mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-42744148804028499572012-06-13T14:49:00.001-07:002012-07-16T04:21:26.761-07:00Melissa Raspberry Entremet
I'm expecting my head to burst out any moment. My mind is in a state of rattling elation, thoughts of all kind are hopping and popping forming a hodgepodge of exaltation, trepidation, expectation. A thread of sadness is coming through but it quickly and voluntary mingles with the growing mass of emotions. Questions are sprouting and my mind is trying hard on keeping track on them. I have themushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-44682812965285636202012-05-30T10:46:00.000-07:002012-05-30T10:46:19.798-07:00Ginger Crème Brulée
Rainy days had come more than a fortnight ago and apparently they won't drop off soon. The sky opens its womb and pours itself furiously day after day. Heavy drops of water are performing wild dances of crop massacre. When I left Vetren last week the garden was already looking like marshland and I don't even want to imagine what it's like today – strawberries rotting on the ground while still mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-2309055398557559162012-05-14T08:17:00.000-07:002012-05-25T09:29:06.924-07:00Raspberry Financiers
Tea makes great part of our life. On our way back from Paris both of our suitcases were packed with tea and teaware. (Of course there were also 3 kilos of chocolate couverture, a kilo of cocoa butter, sac of 50 vanilla beans, small packet of tonka beans, a jar of malted almond spread, black sesame paste, spices and more chocolate.)
My catalogue booklet from Le Palais des Thés became worn outmushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-63514662043280625252012-05-08T06:25:00.000-07:002012-05-08T06:25:39.449-07:00Pastry Adventures in Paris – Part II
hot chocolate at Un Dimanche à Paris
We had the luck of having spring sunny smiles all the time we were in Paris, except for one Sunday when we went picnicking and it rained all the day but that didn't deter us from keeping to our intentions.
But good weather has its downs, it's not that I'm complaining of the sun, not at all, but when it's warm there is no hot chocolate. I don't get it –mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-24793375940655630762012-04-10T07:44:00.001-07:002012-04-10T07:44:37.007-07:00Pastry Adventures in Paris – Part I
I find this photo extremely relaxing, mainly because of the stretching guy on the background. Taken on rue Mouffetard.
Two weeks were definitely not enough to eat our way through Paris but we did our best to fulfill this hard task.
Normally the things come about in a totally different way – I would go there for 2 months, try and taste all the things of my beforehand compiled list, examine mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-26741314064151012002012-02-28T04:14:00.000-08:002012-02-28T04:14:39.373-08:00Tahini Cookies
I'm working hard these days in order to finish all my work for March before we head to Paris in 2 weeks. So I'm popping along just to post a quick recipe for tahini cookies. I had an urge for sesame, opened the fridge, combined this and that and my impulse led to these cookies which I happened to make already 3 times the past month.
Tahini Cookies Recipe:
Makes: 50 – 55 cookies
150 gr all mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-30919827130790730712012-02-23T04:47:00.000-08:002012-02-23T04:47:43.595-08:00Pâte de Coing / Quince Paste
The sells woman from the fruit and vegetable shop asked me with great curiosity what I'm using for all the quinces I'm buying. She has no idea but I'm buying from other places too. Actually, wherever I see quinces, I'm sold. I love their flavour so much that sometimes I eat them plain, just poached, with nothing added. But I also made quince jelly, quince frangipane tarts and galettes, quince mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-37090702638685991872012-02-04T04:42:00.000-08:002012-08-16T04:26:25.593-07:00Poppy Seed Tea Cake
Minus 15 to minus 25 isn't the normal temperature for our part of the world but this is what we are dealing with for the last 2 weeks. Everything is white and transparent with snow and ice. And it's like the nature prepares itself for renovation.
It's just the right time for some tea and cake. This time it's poppy seed cake with lots of poppy seeds that produce a crunchy pop sensation mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-33958982156550936062012-01-28T03:21:00.000-08:002012-01-28T03:21:14.857-08:00Tangzhong Bread
For the second time we are hosting the January Fresh from the Oven challenge.
This time we decided to make bread using the Tangzhong (water roux) method. It was Yvonne Chen's book "The 65º C Bread Doctor" published in the 1990s that made this method so popular. We however don't have the book but took the recipe from Christine's Recipes.
It's the texture that differs this bread from any othermushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-63735122105178814752012-01-19T10:31:00.000-08:002012-01-19T10:31:47.014-08:00Palmiers
“Resistance is like swimming against the current, exhausting and pointless.” I'm thinking over these words for awhile, ever since I finished Joanne Harris' Five Quarters of the Orange. It happens to me quite often, when reading a book to think over certain sentences, phrases and circumstances. To transfer them over my life and live through them. To consider them as signs. A sign searcher - this mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-3315603480672138452011-12-16T09:32:00.000-08:002011-12-16T09:32:58.035-08:00Chocolate Coconut Cookies
There are certain moments when everything seems possible, when fairy-tales come real, when one can see beyond the imaginary frontiers of the universe. Maybe being a daydreamer what I am makes it easy to believe and see.
I was having a coffee with a friend today and she said her son who is 4 still believes in Santa. I'm 29 and I do believe into the magic with all my heart. Does that make me mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-77266746665686338952011-12-14T02:06:00.000-08:002011-12-14T02:06:05.538-08:00Candied Ginger – Milk Chocolate – Roasted Pineapple Tartlets
We made these tartlets some time ago(believe it or not but it was in April) and they were extremely delicious but I never found time to write down the recipe. Since I've promised myself to finish all the things initiated through the year before its end there was no more time for procrastinating.
The original recipe is from Larousse du Chocolat by Pierre Hermé, but we changed it a little bit bymushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-80411020999178070192011-12-09T09:34:00.000-08:002011-12-11T08:11:35.211-08:00Chocolate Walnut Muscovado Cookies
Almost every Sunday I bake cookies for Ivan to take to work for his tea pause. So I'm always in search for new cookie recipes. When I'm out of inspiration I stick to the classic shortbread cookie or just transform a recipe I've already done. These cookies fall under the latter case.
We used to make them often at the hotel during the pastry course this summer, since they served them with the mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-11862169119102258762011-12-07T11:43:00.000-08:002011-12-07T11:43:56.982-08:00Moelleux au Chocolat with Avocado Mousse
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“Merde!”- cursed the french salesgirl when my sister specified exactly which piece of moelleux au chocolat she'd like. Of course it was the biggest one. And knowing what goodness lurks in it wouldn't you ask for the biggest piece if you had such a choice. Me and my sister exchanged mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930302917630869030.post-1315063203965480552011-12-01T00:07:00.000-08:002011-12-01T00:07:23.130-08:00Quince Frangipane Tartlets
Recently I found I'm extremely picky when it's about fruits mixed in desserts. There are certain fruits which I enjoy eating when raw but never or at least rarely when cooked. Like lemons, oranges, whatever citruses you name, if turned into curd – this is something I am definitely not fond of, but I do love them when candied and use lemon zest even more often than vanilla.
Normally I do like mushitzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016857762472764037noreply@blogger.com3