It troubles me, this cake.  It took two days to make it, it wasn’t cheap, with the butter biscuits and dulce de leche and yet it sits in the fridge and it’s inedible. It’s so horrendously sweet that having more than one small piece would make me sick.  Annoying, really.  The recipe is Dorota’s from mojewypieki.com and this lady knows what she’s doing. Maybe she used different biscuits, less sugary, maybe different brand of dulce,  I’m quite sure I will not only not be making it again, I’m wondering what to do with it. Could give it to somebody, a neighbour with 2 small boys maybe, but if the kids find it too sweet as well, it will look like I’m dumping it on someone. :-/

I started making it yesterday. I used 300 g of buttery French biscuits, lined the base of the tin with them, them warmed up about 300 g of canned dulce the leche( I used Nestle) and poured it over the biscuits. Then used another layer of biscuits on top.

In a pan I warmed up a glass of milk with about 4 tbsps of sugar and vanilla paste and 60 g of butter. In another pot I had half a glass of milk, 2 tbps of plain flour, 2,5 tbsp of potato flour and 2 eggs. All this whipped together I poured onto the boiling milk and mixed until thickened.  A bit like home made budyn. While still warm, it went onto the biscuits, then the last layer of them on top, cling film and into the fridge for the biscuits to soften. Today I finished it with whipped cream and grated, bitter chocolate.

It looks good, but is far too sweet, even for Florian. :-/

My approach to fitness; this afternoon was a perfect time to get on the floor and do some stomach flattening exercises,  but a thought occurred to me, that we had no dessert for this evening.

Fortunately I came across a cheesecake recipe book lately and found a few things to remember, like a maple and pecans combination. I happened to have everything that  I needed to make it, so I did. The base out of ginger biscuits and melted butter, prebaked. Philadelphia cheese whipped with a touch of brown sugar, some double cream heated up with maple syrup and a gelatine leaf, added to the cheese while whipping.  It set in the fridge within a few hours and was finished with some pecans, that I had roasted earlier with a bit of maple syrup. And a splash of it on top too. Sweet, indulgent, rich. Followed by peppermint tea and no exercising whatsoever. 🙂

What did I learn today? That kiwi, when used with the ring is actually quite pretty. The dessert itself would not win the Michelin star for amazingness and creativity, but I used the remaining cream and Philadelphia from the fridge, the base was pretty tasty, although I couldn’t be bothered to pre-bake it, as I normally do with mini- cheesecakes, same goes for the flaked almonds. And yet they turned out cute and tasty. I’m planning on some more playing with the kiwis.

Amazing how easy it is to come up with a name for a dessert having drunk 2 cucumber martinis and some red wine, the wine in the glass right now is beautiful Amarone.

I made this dessert/cake in preparation for the weekend, Jedrus was to come and Wuj Mariusz. Jedrus is here, Mariusz sadly down with some nasty bacteria at home, taking antibiotics and not even thinking about alcohol.

The base of the cake is my regular sponge, spiked with red food colourant. Pink sponge looks cool and appetizing!

On the sponge there’s a layer of fresh strawberry mousse mixed with setting strawberry jelly. The top layer- whipped cream with about a half of lemon jelly. And to finish, just a sprinkle of grated dark and white chocolate.  The whole thing is light, fruity and moreish. Yum.

Four years plus of writing the blog and no traditional tiramisu, how is it even possible?

Jana sent me a photo of the meal she recently had in Spain and said she had tiramisu for dessert; I thought it’s been too long since I last made it.

I used vanilla flavoured instant coffee to soak the biscuits in and in terms of booze, my favourite Hazelnut Soplica.  So much of it, in fact, that driving after having this dessert would not be a good idea. 😉

I whisked 2 egg yolks with about 3 tbsp of sugar, then whisked in 250 g tub mascarpone and I guess around 2 tbsps of the hazelnut vodka.  One whipped egg white loosened it up a notch. I made 2 layers, sprinkled it with cocoa and topped with some fresh blueberries.

Lovely flavour, my only complaint- maybe a touch too wet, I must have soaked the biscuits too long.  Yum.

John Torode mentioned another good use for buttermilk would be using it in panna cotta.  We happened to make the American pancakes on Sunday, the leftover buttermilk was sitting in the fridge, so it was time to see, if Torode knew what he was talking about. Panna cotta is delicious and takes no time at all to make, so I googled buttermilk panna cotta and went for Paul Hollywood’s recipe. I also googled how to lose baby fat from the stomach, but wasn’t as successful in executing some excercise, as I was in making the dessert.

For 2 dessert dishes and 2 small silicone ones I used 150 ml of both buttermilk and double cream, 35 g of sugar and 1, 1/4 leaf of gelatine, plus a touch of vanilla paste. Paul Hollywood suggested blueberries, I used strawberries, chopped inside the dessert.  Instead of a regular coulis I glazed it with maple syrup, worked a treat!

To be repeated. 😉

We found it lighter than the regular panna cotta, tasty and delicious.

I had some  leftover limes from the mojitos and no dessert for tonight, a can of coconut cream in the pantry and about an hour, while the baby slept in the garden. All this resulted in 4 little cheesecakes.

Usual base of crushed biscuits with melted butter, plus some desiccated coconut this time, flash baked and cooled. Half a box of Philadelphia cheese whipped with coconut cream and a juice of 2 limes, which I sweetened and heated up in order to dissolve 1,5 leaves of gelatine in. I also added a splash of baccardi rum, but can’t really taste it, to be frank.  I topped the cheesecakes with toasted desiccated coconut and some lime rind and left to set for about 4 hours.

Nice, could be a touch sweeter, but what would make it great I’m thinking would be Malibu rum.  Maybe after one day we decide to have a pina colada party. 🙂

Dare I say, I finally mastered it. Took lots of attempts, dozens of eggs, litres of cream and plenty of- however cholesterol is measured- but the ones I made today are perfect. I made 6, 4 for tomorrow( Ewa’s bringing her new chap over for dinner) and 2 for us for today, to make sure they’re ok to serve to people.

The recipe’s Michel Roux’s. For 6 of my small ramekins I used 5 egg yolks, creamed with 4 tbsps of sugar. 300 ml of double cream heated up with 90 ml of milk and generous tsp of vanilla paste.  The flavoured, hot cream gently poured into the eggs, the froth discarded, then into the bain marie for 35 minutes in 140 degrees. After 35 minutes I switched off the heat and left them inside the oven for another 10 minutes.  Finally, finally pleased with the texture. Yeah!! 🙂

The photo rather unconventional today, those are the 4 ones in the fridge awaiting Ewa and the chap tomorrow.

Oh, and a smile from Izzie, who is yet to discover lovely things like creme brulee.

x

A spontaneous creation to finish off the cottage pie dinner. It took me quite a long time to make it, as little Miss Banks was in constant need of attention this afternoon.  Got there in the end.

Simple base, as usual, biscuits and butter, flash baked in the oven. Left to cool. One nice, soft, ripe pear was enough to flavour 4 small cheesecakes, not to overpower them. I cooked it quickly with a splash of water and a gelatine leaf, then blitzed half a container of Philadelphia cheese, some double cream, icing sugar, lemon juice and the pear together.  I should have used a bit more gelatine, maybe another half a leaf, they were not perfectly set.  For the top a strawberry dipped in white chocolate, the remains of which I poured on top of the desserts.  Very pleasant, not too heavy( small amount of cheese). Yum.