Moon Sables

I made this cookies for my daugther´s school work of ¨the moon phases¨ at the end she and her friends offered them to the parents and they just dissapeared

Ingredients

1-1/4 cups all purpose flour

 pinch of salt

 1/4 cup of sugar
1/2finely ground almonds
peel of 1 lemon
1/3cup butter,softened
2egg yolks

Glace
powder sugar with a few drops of lemon juice, and 1 drop of blue food coloring  

How to

Grease several baking sheets with butter or lined paper

Stir flour, salt and sugar in medium size bowl

mix in almonds and lemon peel

Cut in butter until mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.

Add egg yolks and mix to form a soft dough.

Roll out dough on a floured surface, using a moon cookie cutter cut out the figures.

Place slightly apart

Refrigerate unbaked for 30 minutes

Preheat oven to 350F

Bake Moon Sables for 15 to 20 min or until light brown.

Remove, when cool, decorate with a pipe and the colored sugar icing.

Enjoy!

Choco-Banana Cake

Sometimes I have leftover bananas and I make the traditional banana cake, but I thought adding a little chocolate will be interesting, this is a very easy cake and you can enjoy it anytime

Ingredients

CAKE

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup oatmeal (grounded)

4Tbs. melted butter

3/4 cup milk

1 Tbsp vanilla 

2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup mashed bananas

DECORATION

3/4 cup chocolate ganache if desired for decoration

HOW TO

Preheat oven to 350F.

grease and line parchment , you can use a rectangle mold or any you like.

In a large mixing bowl , sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar and grounded oatmeal.

In a small mixing bowl combine the butter, milk, eggs , banana and finally the chocolate chips.

Combine both mixtures, do not overmix.

Pour batter into mold

Bake until lightly golden, and a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 min.

DECORATION

Pour some chocolate ganache over it, I grounded a chocolate cookie bar and just made a little decorations over it, . hope you like it, simple and delicious.

Easy and yummy Chocolate Dessert

This is a very easy dessert, first you have to do a chocolate mousse, and then use what you have on hand meringues and lady fingers in this case, you may also use another kind of cookies if you like, make layers refrigerate and enjoy

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
2 cups whipping cream

3/4 cup powder sugar

1 8-oz cream cheese

1/2 cup cocoa

FOR DECORATION

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

10 medium meringues

20 lady fingers

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

With electric mixer blend cream cheese and half of the sugar, when it is perfectly integrated add cocoa.

In another bowl mix the whipping cream with the second half of the sugar. till soft peaks form.

Blend the cheese mixture with the whipping cream, then the mousse is ready

LAYERS

Put a layer of the mousse in a transparent mold then add crushed meringes and sift some cocoa on top, add another layer of mousse and a layer of crushed lady fingers and sift more cocoa on top, to end another layer of mousse finishing again wiht sifted cocoa.

DECORATION

Cut ladyfingers by the middle and decorate the bowl

refrigerate for at least one hour

enjoy!

Chocolate Twix Tart

This recipe comes from an Egyptian friend, one day talking about it he shared with me his secret and I just made a few little changes that suited me better, I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do

CRUST

1 cup all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 large egg yolks
1 tbsp cocoa powder
 
DULCE DE LECHE FILLING

1 can of dulce de leche (380gr)

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

1 cup heavy whipping cream
5 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped

FOR CRUST

Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 375°F. Butter 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Blend flour, sugar, and salt in processor. Add 1/2 cup butter; process until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add egg yolks; process until moist clumps form. Add cocoa powder; blend in using on/off turns. Press dough onto bottom and up sides of prepared pan. Bake until crust is golden brown, about 20 minutes. Cool in pan on rack.

FOR GANACHE
Bring cream to simmer in small saucepan. Remove from heat; add chocolate. Whisk until smooth. Let stand until slightly cooled but still pourable, about 10 minutes.

TART ASSEMBLE

Spread Dulce de Leche evenly over the tart surface and then pour the ganache on top.

 Refrigerate tart uncovered until chocolate is firm, about 2 hours. do ahead Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.

Upside Down Pineapple Cake with Caramel Sauce

Upside Down Pinapple Cake, what to say, its a traditional cake, easy to do and maybe found in all our Mom´s Recipe Book, but wait, not everything has been said about this fruitful delight.  This recipe also comes from a great course I attended, so check it out and enjoy!

Ingredients

 CAKE

1 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar

3 eggs
7 grs. vanilla
1 can condensed milk
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 can pinneapples in syrup
3/4 cup pinneapple syrup(from the can)
canned cherries
walnuts

CARAMEL

1/3 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup butter

SAUCE

1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of butter
1/2 cup half and half

1 1/2 tbsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp.rum

HOW TO

grease and line round mold.

CARAMEL

Prepare caramel by putting butter and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat, until the sugar has melted.

CAKE 
With a mixer cream butter, and sugar until light and fluffy, add vanilla and eggs one by one. Add sifted flour, baking powder and mix well.

Blend both mixtures adding the condensed milk, the pinneapple syrup.

Place the caramel on the base of the mold, then the pinneapples an the cherries in the center,

Pour the batter and bake for 50 min.medium oven.

 SAUCE
In small saucepan melt butter with the brown sugar over medium heat, bring to a boil whisk constantly , remove from heat and whisk the vanilla, rum and the milk.

Serve warm or cool with the cake, as desired

Baileys and Ladyfingers Cheesecake

My cheesecake cravings have no end, so I imagine the ladyfingers would give a nice texture to this baileys cheesecake, and I was right, it came out delicious and nice looking too :).

 BASE

20 ladyfingers

CHEESECAKE

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese

1/2 cup of sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

4 Tbsp. Baileys (original irish cream)

2 eggs separated

HOW TO

Grease a round pan

Line wax paper to the base

Arrange the lady fingers in the base, (it must be all covered,break them if you still have spaces)

Soften cream cheese mixing at medium speed of an electric mixer , add   sugar and vanilla

Add Baileys and egg yolks

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, fold into cream cheese mixture.

Pour over lady fingers.

Bake at 300 degrees for 55 minutes

let it stand and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, and enjoy, if you want to give it a more elegant look, try doing some decorations with piped chocolate ganache

Special Turtle Cheesecake

This is one of my favorite cheesecakes, it combines my favorite ingredients, a crowd pleaser without any doubt, hope you like it

CRUST

150 gr. Oreo cookies
30 gr. pecans
25 gr. Melted butter

CREAM CHEESE CHOCOLATE AND PECAN FILLING
768 grs. cream cheese
100 grs. sugar
35grs. cornstarch
3 eggs

1 egg yolk
15 grs. vanilla extract
20 grs cocoa

40 grs.caster sugar
60 ml Amaretto liquor

50 grs. Toffee

TOFFEE

150 grs. sugar
135 grs .
Preheat oven to 300F.

 

CRUST

Combine cookie crumbs with melted butter and pecans press firmly in the base of a 24 cm. pan.

FILLING

In a large bowl beat the cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy, then the cornstarch.

Add egg yolk and eggs one by one, then the vanilla, beat until smooth.

Take out 2/3 of this mix and put it in another bowl, and add the cocoa, caster sugar, amaretto and pecans.

TOFFEE

In a saucepan heat sugar until light brown color and add the whipping cream, (it has to be hot) mix perfectly ( this has to be with quick movements) until perfectly blended

ENSEMBLE

Pour over the crust a part of the plain cheesecake mix, then the chocolate mix and the toffee, the 3 layers in an irregular form.

Then do the layers again.

Bake for 55 to 60 min.

After it has cooled down use a knife to carefully loosen the cheesecake to better unmolding.

Take it out of the oven even if you think it´s not done, it will stand and finish it´s cooking outside, if you really feel it´s undercooked leave it in the switched off oven for 25 min, or overnight.

Let it stand in the fridge at least 6 hours and ready!!!!

ENJOY!