Yogurt panna cotta on chocolate fudge brownie

In Italy I was once served panna cotta that was just out of this world. A display fridge full of desserts was placed next to the bar, the waiter took a panna cotta out of it's mould and poured a ladle full of chocolate sauce on top before bringing it to our table. The vanilla flavoured cream pudding melted in my mouth, feather light texture, and the warm chocolate sauce was perfectly rich and gooey.
Last week we had dinner guests and I decided to make dessert. I have wanted to make panna cotta ever since that evening in Italy and now was the perfect opportunity. Replacing some of the cream with Greek yogurt makes this dessert light and fresh. Serving it on top of chocolate brownie is indulging and of course optional. I also added cardamom to the recipe bit that is optional too and can be replaced with vanilla. This is a recipe for 4 small panna cotta so if you decide to serve without the brownie I'd double the recipe.
Panna cotta
75 ml cream
150 ml Greek yogurt
40 grams caster sugar
1 leaf of gelatin

Soak the gelatin leaf in cold water. Bring the cream and sugar (and cardamom if using) to boil. Stir in the Greek yogurt. Squeeze the water out of the gelatin and add to the cream mix. Stir until smooth. Pour into 4 cups or moulds, let set for 4 hours or over night before serving.

Chocolate brownie
75 grams butter
1 egg
100 grams caster sugar
40 grams flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
pinch of salt

Melt the butter and let cool down. Add all other ingredients and stir until smooth and even. Bake for 15min on 160C.

To assemble the panna cotta and brownie; Cut out rounds of the brownie with a cup or mould the same size as the panna cotta. Dip the panna cotta in hot water and tip it out of its mould on top of the brownie. Serve with some fresh berries or a dusting of cocoa powder.

Italian meringue

If you ever think of making meringues, and you should, this is the recipe to use. Sugar and water is boiled to a thick syrup that is poured over beaten egg whites and whisked until cooled, this creates a very firm glossy mixture that can be used as an ingredient in mousses, parfaits and ice creams, or just piped into little bite sized meringues that will look very professional. You will need a hand held electric mixer and a kitchen thermometer. It might sound like a lot of work but once you take time to read the recipe and follow it you wont regret making Italian meringues. The recipe here will make a small batch, maybe a good idea to start small and just double it next time. I made my meringues very small and got about 15 out of this batch.

60 grams caster sugar
20 grams water
30 grams egg white
6 grams caster sugar

Bring the larger amount of sugar and the water to boil in a pot, turn down the heat and let simmer. When the mix comes to 115C start beating the egg white with the small amount of sugar, beat to quite firm peaks. When the sugar syrup reaches 120-124C start pouring over the egg whites while beating. Continue beating until the mix is completely cold. Pipe or spoon the mix into little meringues on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 3H on 80C.

Rye loaf for toasting

Having a passion for baking can sometimes be tricky when there is only two of us eating my baked goods, we simply can not eat everything while it is fresh and I don't know how many times I have ended up throwing away things. Personally I don't eat that much bread anymore and for breakfast I mostly eat cracker bread rather than toast. Martin on the other hand loves a couple of slices of toast with beans for breakfast. We all know that toast bread does not have to be fresh to be tasty. Brilliant I think because it allows me to bake loaves of bread, slice it and freeze. Toast bread like this does not even have to be defrosted but goes straight into the toaster from the freezer. Here is a version that is easy to make and it is quite healthy too, usually I put mixed seeds in it but if you like nuts or maybe dried fruit that work well too.

7 grams dried yeast
250ml water
50 grams rye flakes
50 grams rye flour
200-250 grams strong white flour
1tbsp honey
1tbsp salt
50 grams mixed seeds


Bring 200ml of the water to the boil, add rye flakes, rye flour and seeds and stir into a thick porridge. Let cool down to room temperature. Dissolve the yeast in the remaining 50ml water(luke warm) and add to the rye mix. Add honey, salt and half the flour. Work as much flour in to the dough so it it easy to knead and not too sticky, but be careful not to add too much flour, the dough will get to compact and have difficulties to rise properly. Knead the dough for 5 min and let prove until doubled in size. On a floured surface knead into a loaf, put in a loaf tin and let prove again until doubled in size. Bake for 30-40min on 220C.

Brown butter pecan shortbread

Back home there is a very old fashioned grinder we used when grinding nuts for certain pastries. It is attached to a table top and lets you by hand grind nuts or coffee in to fine powder. Nuts and coffee can of course be bought ground already but there is something special about making things on your own. At a recent trip to Stockholm I came across one on these grinders in a little old style hard ware shop. I bought it and brought it back to Ireland and was very eager to try it out. Having a bag of pecan nuts in my cup board i decided to grind them into fine powder, toast it and use in a brown butter short bread biscuit. The result; lovely crumbly biscuits with a rich flavour of nutty butter and sweet toasted pecans. Go on and try it.

100 grams butter
50 grams brown sugar
150 grams plain flour
50 grams pecans
1 large egg yolk

Melt butter in a pot, let it start to foam and smell nutty. When the colour in brown take of the heat and let cool down.
Grind pecan nuts and toast in a dry hot pan until golden in colour. Let cool down.
Beat sugar and butter until fluffy and pale, add egg yolk, pecans and flour. Knead quickly into a dough. Roll out to a square about 1cm thick. Prick with a fork and score little rectangular biscuits in the dough with a sharp knife. Bake for 30-35min on 160C. Sprinkle with caster sugar just after it comes out of the oven. Let cool down before cutting in to biscuits.

Banana pockets

I think you recognise the picture of half brown, sort of sweet smelling bananas in the fruit basket staring at you, begging you to use them. Banana cake is not an option, there has been way too many of them lately in my kitchen and even though I do like banana cake it can be a bit much sometimes....
Two years ago I worked in an Italian/Irish restaurant in Dublin, sort of modern European cuisine. As a pastry chef at the time I was, together with the head chef, working on the dessert menu. Banoffie Pie is a classic dessert here in Ireland and we wanted to use the flavours of it but take them to a new dimension, put a real twist on it. The result; a smooth toffee flavoured parfait served with a hot, crispy banana and almond pastry. That is a dessert I still dream about, it was just so perfect.
Someone asked me the other day to make something sweet suitable for diabetics, specially children suffering from not being able to eat the same yummy desserts/sweets like their friends. It is tricky with things that has to be sweet but without sugar, personally I do not use artificial sweeteners and even though honey is better than sugar I was on a mission to make something as natural as possible without any type of sweetener/sugar. Having over ripe bananas at home and thinking of that toffee and banana dessert an idea started to take place in my mind. And that is how it happened that I created a little snack or dessert without any sugar, but oh so tasty. Little spring roll pastry pockets filled with banana, served with crunchy almonds and maybe a drizzle of honey.

4 sheets of spring roll pastry
2 bananas
almonds, toasted
honey

Cut each sheet into 4 squares. Put 2 and two together and place on a dry, clean surface. Cut each banana into 4 pieces, slice each piece into 4 slices. Place 4 slices of banana on each pastry sheet. Roll together like spring rolls and seal with a little water. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake on 200C for 15 min or until crisp and golden. Serve hot with honey and almonds.

Tabbouleh

My home town has a big population of people from the Middle East, and as a result of that there is a lot of small shops selling all sorts of, for us Europeans, new and different ingredients. One of those shops is located not far from my parents house and I recall going there as a child with my mum to buy the best feta cheese, pickled chillies, pistachio nuts and olives. The shop is tiny but sacks full of all types of nuts, seeds and grains are stacked on the floor, and the walls covered in shelves up to the ceiling filled with boxes, bags and containers of all sorts of ingredients. Most things are bought by weight and it makes so much more sense than buying pre-packed, boxed ingredients in the super market. The owner of the shop was called Jakob, an old man with a big heart. He always filled the bag with a little bit extra, but still only charged for the weight you had asked for.
Cous cous and Bulgur is becoming more and more popular here in Ireland but I have had it for more than ten years i think. Personally I eat it instead of rice or potatoes with meat, or even just with vegetables as a salad. One typical dish with bulgur is tabbouleh; finely chopped parsley, tomatoes and onion dressed with lemon juice and olive oil is a tangy side dish to any BBQ and must be tried!

60 grams bulgur
120ml vegetable stock
30 grams flat parsley
1 tomato
1/4 white onion
1 small clove of garlic
1/2 lemon, juice
olive oil, salt, pepper

Bring the vegetable stock to boil and add bulgur. Turn down heat to very low and let simmer under a lid for 15-20 min. Fluff up with a fork and let cool down.
Chop parsley very fine. Cut the tomato in to quarters, take the seeds out, chop into small cubes. Chop the onion and garlic finely. Combine bulgur, tomato, onion and garlic and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper, drizzle some olive oil on top.

Chcolate sponge with mocha frosting

I have blogged about this recipe before but that time as Mocha Muffins. Traditionally it is made in a large tray and then cut into squares/bars, but this time I still did not stick to that but made it as a cake. It is so tasty when fresh but it does keep pretty well for a couple of days since the frosting on top will protect the sponge cake from drying out. I made a small cake, still enough to feed 8 people, and used one sandwich tin to bake it in. If you double the recipe and use two sandwich tins you could fill it with layer of frosting in the middle and spread over the top as well, that would make a great birthday cake.

Cake
1 egg
75 grams butter
130 grams caster sugar
130 grams plain flour
1.5tsp baking powder
75ml milk
1 1/2tsp cocoa powder

Melt butter and put aside to cool down. Combine flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Whisk egg and sugar until very fluffy and pale, add butter and stir until smooth. Add the dry ingredients through a sieve and fold in, last add milk and stir until all is well blended. Pour into a greased sandwich tin and bake for 30-40min. Let cool down while making the frosting.

Frosting
50 grams butter
1tbsp cocoa powder
3tbsp coffee
100 grams icing sugar

dessicated coconut or hundreds and thousands

Melt the butter and add coffee, sugar and cocoa powder. Stir until well combined and spread over the cake. Sprinkle with coconut or hundreds and thousands.