bounty chocolate: February 2011

Mini buckwheat pancakes

For some people, retail therapy means lots of clothes, shoes, DVDs... To me, it means ingredients for my recipes. :)

After buying this beautiful book, I went crazy and started buying lots of different types of flour: buckwheat, barley, rye... Time went by and I haven’t baked with them as I should have. Not good, Patricia. Not good.

Buckwheat flour begging to be used + Bill Granger’s recipe +

President Clinton’s oatmeal cookies

I swear I’m not trying to get a job as an oatmeal poster girl, and I’d already decided on which oatmeal cookies were my favorite, but tell me: would you resist making a recipe with such great reputation? :)

These cookies are so delicious I regretted halving the recipe. Mr. Clinton’s taste in cookies is far superior to his taste in... Never mind. :D

President Clinton’s oatmeal cookies
from

Chocolate chip bread pudding

My sister made me watch the awful “Season of the Witch” – I have to say that putting up with Nicolas Cage for 1 ½ hours is huge proof of my love for her. :)
When the movie was over and Dominic Sena’s name appeared on the screen it all made sense to me – a bad director could not deliver a good movie. :)

On the other hand, I always expect great recipes from Nigella – and this bread pudding is no

Pastel vasco with blackberry compote

I have been using my cookbooks a lot more lately and there’s one person to be “blamed” for that: my baking buddy, the lovely Susan. :)
Putting my cookbooks to good use was one of my New Year’s resolutions and I’m glad it’s one I’ve been able to keep.

This cake has become one of my favorites: it’s already filled when you remove it from the oven and the rum smell is just wonderful; the batter

Banana, chocolate and coconut muffins

Since you are not tired of my banana recipes, here comes another one, with a special help from good friends coconut and chocolate. :)

Quick to put together and delicious, these muffins are perfect for the rainy day/couch/TV combo – but I can assure you they taste great on a summer day, too. ;)

Banana, chocolate and coconut muffins
slightly adapted from here

2 cups (280g) all purpose flour
2

Blueberry tea cake and cookbooks that make me cry

Something I’d never imagined possible has happened to me – and twice so far: I cried reading cookbooks.

Reading about Barbara Lynch’s childhood years brought tears to my eyes; I became a huge fan of hers even before trying her recipes. But it all started with John Barricelli’s beautiful book: a couple of lines about him growing up without his parents and I was crying like a baby – maybe

Lemon raspberry crème brûlée

The lovely Sabrina is the one responsible for my preparing this dessert – she commented on one of my posts one day, asking for a lemon crème brûlée. That’s when I realized that I’d tried orange, but not lemon yet. Shame on me. ;)

These little pots of heaven were devoured in no time (I halved the recipe below)– the addition of raspberries made them extra special.

Lemon raspberry crème brûlée

White chocolate passion fruit truffles

You may think that I’m on a passion fruit kick, but what really happened is that I got carried away, bought a load of passion fruit and therefore had to use them all. :)

These truffles are soft, delicious, and the zing of the passion fruit perfectly balances the sweetness of the white chocolate. You can follow Candace’s recipe and dip the truffles in melted chocolate, but I wasn’t bold enough

Fig galettes

It’s been a tough week – I know that hating our job is not a healthy or positive feeling, but that’s how I feel; my patience has been tested so many times in the past 5 days I feel like a hero. :)

What comforts me is that in a couple of hours I’ll be home, on my couch, with a cookbook on my lap, choosing something to bake tomorrow – I guess I’ll use this amazing book again.

Fig galettes

True Love: A Human Heart Cupcake

That's cake!

I saw this and absolutely had to share it with everyone. Lily Vanilli is supporting young people with cancer and delighting scientists, geeks and deranged woodsmen everywhere by baking special bleeding heart shaped cupcakes this Valentines day.

"Scarily realistic, each edible heart cake is baked with a delicious red velvet sponge, cream cheese frosting and blackcurrant cherry 'blood'. A single ʻbleeding heart cakeʼ is priced at £7 and comes in a cute perspex box tied with apink or red ribbon with a personal note."

The cake is available exclusively through their website and 20% of the proceeds go directly to charity.

For those of us in love with the idea of baking up bits of anatomy for loved ones, Lily Vanilli provides instructions on their blog. Doesn't sound too difficult, right? How about a gallbladder cupcake? Or a Kidney? Yum yum.

Whatever you do though, don't eat your bleeding heart cake like this guy (Warning: graphic cake consumption. I love the cake but I'm now a little scared of Tim Wheeler). Well you can, but I'm not certain you'll earn many points with your significant other on Valentines day--unless they're a zombie.

Devilish angel food cake with passion fruit curd

I’m baking with Susan again – and I almost had to call for help to stop eating this cake. :)

I kept lying to myself saying that “this is practically only egg whites” after eating each slice of cake, then Susan wrote me the same thing in an email. You see, it’s not only my fault. ;)

I made some passion fruit curd to serve the cake with, but now I have an eye on Suz’s version with raspberry

My Picks For Re-Inventing the Lamington 2011!

Mr P's Beautiful Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge Lamingtons

Those of you who follow Mr. P's blog Delicious Delicious Delicious may be aware that he is hosting his second Re-Inventing the Lamington Contest and I am taking part as a member of the judges panel.

It was thanks to Mr. P's Lamington contest last year that I discovered the delicious Australian snack cake, the Lamington. I also discovered, that with all their dipping and coating, lamingtons are the kiss of death to any fresh cleaned kitchen. I love all the entries and have the utmost respect for all the effort--and cleaning--that all the bakers put forth for this contest.

So, I spent a good part of my weekend going over the Lamington ideas submitted to Mr. P and weighing the merits of each.

I also relied heavily on my ability to lick my laptop's computer screen and taste photos of food--one of my many very special super powers.

So, after wiping the drool off my Macbook's keyboard, I settled on three ideas that appealed to me the most.

Orange Blossom Cheesecake with Pomegranate Honey

Posting one of my favorite desserts today: Cheesecake!

That irresistible, pure vice dessert that draws me back into the kitchen again and again for marathon baking sessions.

Unfortunately, cheesecake isn't about instant gratification. It can be maddening when you're enduring cravings. Waiting for the ingredients to lose their chill. Then the long baking time and even longer time to cool, chill and set up. The reward for all that waiting: a rich creamy dessert that promises happiness with each bite, while it stealthily fills out your hips.

This cheesecake is an absolute winner. The flavors are amazing and I can honestly say it is one of the best cheesecakes I've ever eaten.

Let me take you on a brief cheesecake tour, starting from the bottom up. We've taken the classic graham cracker crust and added ground pecans, cinnamon and cloves to give it a subtle spicy nuttiness. The creamy cheesecake is fragrant with orange blossom and zest. Then we have our sauce, a sweet and tart reduction of pomegranate, raspberry and honey. Complementing the floral citrus flavor of the cheesecake perfectly.

It was so good that I ate every single slice I cut to stage and photograph. How many was that? Forget it. I will never admit it.

Plum sorbet sandwiches with molasses cookies

My first ice cream sandwiches – I could not believe how moreish these are. :D

Even thought I thought the cookies overpowered the sorbet flavor a little – I would go for vanilla cookies with this sorbet next time – these sandwiches were pretty good. :)

Speaking of moreish, I’m hoping Natalie Portman gets the Oscar this year: not only because her performance on “Black Swan” is absolutely

Venetian carrot cake

I’m not one of those people who think that one has to love everything about their country just because they were born there – no, definitely not my style. There are lots and lots of things about Brazil I’m not fond of, lots of things that need to change.

That said, I have to be honest with you: Nigella’s Venetian carrot cake is good, but our Brazilian carrot cake wins by a landslide. ;)

Raspberry Marshmallows

I've been craving raspberries for the past two weeks, so everyone will have to forgive what is likely to become a series of raspberry themed posts.

I've been wanting to post a fruit flavored marshmallows for a while now. However, I had not stumbled upon quite the right recipe. I could always fall back on my regular marshmallow base and dress it up with some food coloring and flavoring oils but I wanted something that had a fresher taste. A lush homemade marshmallow that packed real fruit flavor.

I lucked out when I stumbled upon this recipe at Butter Sugar Flour, utilizing only four ingredients and needing no artificial flavors or colors. Just plenty of fresh raspberries.

So it came as no surprise when I popped a few of these marshmallows into my mouth and they tasted just like these.

Plum and cinnamon jellies

Plum jellies – to me, this dessert sounded so unusual; my thoughts exactly after reading, a long time ago, that Sean Penn would play a gay man in a movie. Turns out he was perfect for the part and the movie was excellent – and I’m not even a fan of Gus Van Sant.

As for the jellies, I ate 3 out of the 4 portions – I thought you should know that. :)

Plum and cinnamon jellies
from Kitchen: The