Shortbread Biscuit Cake (Gâteaux aux petits beurres)
Sep1
Do you know the kind of dish you taste for the very first time, thinking “this is so good; imagine I’d have died without ever having a taste?” or “my palate just touched a piece of heaven “. This actually happens quite rarely to me. Mostly I need to acquire tastes and once I eat a certain type of food several times, I start to develop a liking for it. But this cake… I literally fell in love with it after the first bite.
When I first came to France, my husband took me to the birthday party of one of his friends (the most provençal family you can imagine by the way). That friend’s mum had made exactly the above pictured cake and when I threw a glance at it, my first thought was “this can’t taste good, it looks like a cake made by a child at vacation camp” (yes, I have such evil thoughts one in a while, I should get scolded^^). They seemed to have noticed the look on my face and just smiled before starting to serve up pieces. I saw the whole family jumping and snatching plates away, then silently devouring the whole piece with closed eyes. And when I finally decided to give it a try myself, I swore never to judge a dish by it’s looks - ever - again :p
Turns out the recipe is actually from an old issue of Mickey Mouse magazine, which is why it’s so suited for making with your kids. It’s really really quick on top and requires no baking, just some resting time in the fridge…
The only ingredient which might be hard to come by is the “brown” biscuits:
If you can’t get a hold of these, simply use shortbread biscuits, they taste almost the same.
Shortbread Biscuit Cake (Gâteaux aux petits beurres)
- 24 shortbread biscuits
- 125 ml lukewarm, strong coffee
- 1 fresh egg
- 75g powdered sugar
- 100g butter
- grated chocolate as garnish
In a bowl break the egg and add the powdered sugar. Incorporate it by stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture takes on the texture of a sticky fluid. In a second bowl whisk the butter until it becomes fluffy then add it to the egg and sugar mixture and beat everything until you get a smooth, rather firm cream.
Get a large, flat recipient like a big plate or a platter and start out by dropping six biscuits into the coffee (one at a time). Be careful here, biscuits get soggy really quickly (just like sponge biscuits for tiramisu). So simply drop the biscuit into the coffee, count one second, flip it and count another second then remove it and start layering the plate. When the layer of six biscuits is done, cover it by a layer of 1/4th of the cream we made earlier. Continue this way until you use up all biscuits and finish with a layer of cream. Dust the cake with grated chocolate and refrigerate for three hours.
Serves 6, please make sure to refrigerate the cake well and use it up quickly as the cream contains raw egg.
PS. I challenge you to eat more of this cake than 2 pieces at a time, so far no one we know has managed! (It really stuffs :p)
Tiramisu “Light” (Without Eggs)
Jul2
Eating a piece of tiramisu must be the biggest sin you can commit when you are watching your weight. But when you look at this delicious treat, it looks so innocent and actually also tastes fairly light, one has a hard time believing that a portion contains more calories than a human should consume during a full meal. The treacherous ingredient that makes it a calorie-bomb is the Italian triple-cream cheese mascarpone, made from crème fraîche and cream, which contains about 80% fat. Luckily there is a low-fat alternative which contains only 40% fat and tastes almost just as good, which I used in this recipe. With 420 kcal per portion I still wouldn’t recommend eating loads and heaps of this tiramisu, but it does make indulging in this all time favorite dessert weigh a little less on the conciousness 
And the best part for me is that this is made entirely without eggs, so there should be no risk even if you keep it in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Tiramisu “light” (inspired by “meine Familie & ich”)
- 500g low-fat mascarpone
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 100g sugar
- 1 tsp of vanilla
- 200 ml very strong coffee (cold)
- 4 Tbsp Amaretto
- 150g lady fingers (Italian sponge-cakes)
- Unsweetened cocoa powder to dust the top
Combine the mascarpone, sugar, zest and vanilla in a bowl and stir well. Pour the Amaretto into the coffee, prepare a form (square) to stack the tiramisu in. Now drop the lady fingers into the coffe, flip them and start layering the bottom of the form with them. Once done, if you like the sponge cakes to be well imbibed with coffee sprinkle the layer you just made with 2 additional Tsps of coffee. Cover with a layer of the mascarpone mixture and continue this way until you are out of mascarpone and finish with a layer of it. Put the tiramisu in the fridge for 2 hours and dust with cocoa powder short before serving.
Enjoy!
Crêpes for dummies
Nov0
Whatever the occasion, crêpes are simply always popular. They can be made quickly, in large quantities and can serve as savory dish as well as dessert. The crêpes in the above picture are filled with ham, grated cheese and mushrooms.
Some people confuse crêpes with pancakes but they are actually very different. Crêpes are almost as thin as a sheet of paper and mostly they are way bigger in size than a pancake. They are almost always served with a filling.
Now I’m often told that making crêpes is very difficult and that the result varies a lot. Common issues are:
- Clumps in the batter
- Batter sticks to the pan easily
- To prevent this a lot of oil/butter is often used
- Using a laddle, it is very difficult to dispense the batter equally over the frying pan so the whole surface is covered
- Crêpe breaks when one tries to flip it
Luckily I’ve gone through a lot of trial and error (while eating a lot of crêpes :D) and I discovered an amazing method that will allow you to make perfect crêpes, easily, every time.
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 400 ml milk (lukewarm)
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp salt
- 250g all purpose flour (perfect would be very fine flour which is made for liquid batters)
- 4-5 Tbsp vegetable oil
Preparation
- Mix eggs, milk and salt in a Blender. Gradually mix in flour and vegetable oil. Blend well until you see no clumps anymore. Now add some of the water until the batter has the consistency of thick pouring cream. Scoop off the foam if there is any. Keep the batter in the blending container.
- Use a paper towel to coat a flat skillet with vegetable oil (if you have a crêpière, even better). Heat up the skillet over medium-high heat. Wait until the pan is hot.
- Remove the pan from the heat by lifting it. With the blending container quickly pour in as much liquid as you need to cover the whole surface. Pour back excess batter into the blending container.
- Put the skillet back on the heat. As soon as you see that the crêpe is golden brown at the bottom, flip it. If your crêpe breaks easily, the batter was probably too liquid. Add a little more flour to the batter in that case.
- If you are preparing a savory crêpe, add cheese and other fillings now on one side of the crêpe. Fold it in a half and make sure it’s golden brown on both sides. Remove on a plate.
- Continue this way. Maybe you’ll need to reapply a little oil at some point but usually the oil in the batter is enough to keep them from sticking.
Useful Tips
- You can add a little butter too the batter to improve the taste.
- You can make the batter 2 days in advance and refrigerate it. Just bring it back to room temperature before cooking when you want to use it (and reblend a little).
- You can seperate crêpes with wax paper to keep them from sticking.
- Crêpes can be refrigerated in a plastic bag for 3 days.
- Crêpes can be frozen in a plastic bag for 3 months.
- To reheat crêpes, place them in an oven on a cookie sheet at 170°C.
- Ideas for fillings: Grated cheese, ham, mushrooms, all sort of vegetables, a fresh egg (yolk), Gorgonzola or Goat cheese. Sugar, cinnamon, chocolate, ice cream, nutella, fruit, marmelade, jam, peanut butter, maple syrup etc…
