Making Of Gingerbread: Sweet And Yummy

for the gingerbread:
per 2 cups flour -
1 / 2 cup sugar
5 1/4 ounces (150 grams) honey
1 egg
1 / 2 teaspoon baking powder
1 3/4 ounces (50 grams) almonds or walnuts
ground cinnamon and cloves

for the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
4 tablespoons water
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Here is another great recipe from the Russian “Book of tasty and healthy food” – gingerbread with honey.

This recipe is for a pan approx. 13 x 8 inches
Stir an egg with sugar and grind in a bowl, add honey, cinnamon and clove powder, baking powder. Stir well, add flour and knead for 5-10 minutes. To make the dough turn dark, it is necessary to add burnt sugar (roast some sugar in a small pan, add
1 1/2-2 tablespoons of water,  boil and then add to the dough).

Put the dough onto a baking sheet or in the form, oiled and floured, flatten, sprinkle with almonds or walnuts and place in the oven preheated to 350F (180C) for 15-20 minutes. Cut the gingerbread along the middle, fill with jam, and covered with glaze atop (optional). Before serving, cut in small rectangles, like brownies. Enjoy!

Crostata Con Frangipane Al Pistacchio E Rosette Di Mela

I discovered this delicious cake in the magazine “La Cucina Italiana”, and I was blown away by the look of it. Reading through the the recipe has confused me a little, because it is more in the format of the French cuisine. The note to the recipe did shed some light though: it said that this cake is a kind of a tribute to the French “Tarte Bouquet de Roses” and its creator Alain Passard, the 3-star chief of the restaurant “L’Aprege” in Paris. Which makes this tart an Italian-French one. Either way, let’s get to the baking!

Preparing the dough: mix all ingredients (see above) with a pinch of salt to a smooth, pliable dough. Add the egg yolks last. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for 1 hour in refrigerator.

Preparing the pistachio cream (15 minutes before the dough is rolled out): ground pistachios with the sugar in a blender. Stir the softened butter with the yogurt, giving it the pistachio mixture. Then add the egg and pinch of salt, and stir everything into a smooth, creamy mixture.

Preparing the rosettes: boil 1 / 8 gallons (700 ml) of water with the sugar. Slice apples with the peel into very thin slices (preferably with a slicing machine). Put the apple slices into sugar syrup, boil and strain. Let apples cool down, and then form them to rosettes (you need approx. 3 apple slices per rosette).

Baking: Roll out the dough approx. 1/8″ (3-4 mm) thick, place it  in a 10 1/4″ (26 cm) round baking pan. Pull up the dough so that it is completely covers the pan’s walls. Fill in  the pistachio cream up to approx. 3/8″ (1 cm) below the top edge. Put the pan in the oven and bake for about 35 minutes at 330F (170C).
Take the pan out of the oven, let cool down for 5 minutes – so that the pistachio cream hardens -  and insert the apple rosettes atop. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and put back into the oven for another 10 minutes. Then let cake cool down and garnish with chopped pistachios.

Note: for the sake of photo shoot I’ve used a pan of 15 cm (approx. 6″)

Sweet Crostini With Goat’s Curd, Figs And Honey

for 4 servings:
4 slices ciabatta bread (or other white bread)
2 figs
a few spoonfuls of honey
several small sage leaves
5 1/4 ounces (150 grams) goat’s curd

Today we’ve got a superb gourmet appetizer to share with you. Everyone (or almost everyone) knows how deliciously well goat’s curd mixes with figs, but in this particular case I’ve gone a step further, adding honey and sage – the result is simply marvelous!

Let’s get to it: cut the ciabatta bread into thin slices,  and cut figs in quarters. Sprinkle with olive oil and bake in oven at 390F (200C) for approximately 15 minutes. Sspread the curd on the bread and put figs atop. Lightly pepper and garnish with herbs, then pour with some honey. It is important to do this just before serving, because Crostini are meant to remains crisp despite the juicy filling. And be sure to serve these things warm. Enjoy and don’t forget to let us know how you liked it!

An Ultimately Simple Walnut Cake

for the cakes:
1 cup flour
2 / 3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/8 ounces (5 grams) baking powder

for the cream:
10 5/8 ounces (300 grams) cream fraiche
3 1/2 ounces (100 grams) butter
2 / 3 cup sugar
1 cup ground walnuts

Today I’m going to share a very simple, very quick yet very delicious cake. Take a look inside your fridge: you will most likely have all the ingredients available. This cake is based on biscuit, which makes it very simple. I occasionally prepare it for our small quiet family holidays, and my family loves it. Let’s begin!

Important: before you start to cook the cream, make sure the butter and cream fraiche are at the room temperature.

Begin with the biscuit base: whisk eggs with sugar until sugar dissolves, then gradually add the flour sifted with baking powder, and stir thoroughly. Pre-heat your oven to 350F (180C). Pave the baking pan with baking paper oiled with butter. Put the dough in the baking pan and flatten it. Bake for about 40 minutes.

When the foundation is ready, have it cool down to the room temperature. Carefully (!) cut in halves lengthwise (so that you’ll have two thin cakes out of one).

Now let’s start making the cream. Mix butter and sugar until sugar dissolves, then add the cream fraiche and stir thoroughly. Finally add the ground walnuts (leaving 2-3 tablespoons for sprinkling) and gently stir again. The cream is ready, but before it is put on cakes, you need to soften them just a little. For this cake I recommend the following: lubricate the entire surface of the cakes with plain water, using a baking brush – this softens the dense crust. Once you’ve done that,  put about a third of the cream on one of the cakes and spread it evenly, then place the top cake and brush its surface and edges with the remaining cream. Sprinkle with remaining nuts and put in the fridge for a few hours (or even better, leave it in the fridge overnight).