carrot cake

This cake is fluffy nourishing and healthy.
Finally we get to a healthy recipe.
The comfort of this cake is thus for your conscience.
I did this one for my husband's birthday so that our one year old could eat too.
The cake does not get enough carrot taste, but a subtil sweetening and color.

Dough:

• 3 eggs
• 2 carrots cut in small pieces
• 200ml of sugar
• 250ml oil
• 500ml all purpose flour
• 1 tb. sp. of east
• 1 tb. sp. of vanilla extract

Filling:

• 1 orange
• 1 bunch of mint

Just put the carrots in the mixer and grind them fine. Then join the eggs and sugar and blend until you get a smooth liquid mix. Join the remaining ingredients and blend. Use a cake form with a whole in the middle or very low spread form and take it to a pre-heated oven in 160C for over 45min. Use a tooth pick to test that the dough is cooked.


While it is on the oven put the pealed orange and mint in the mixer so you get a thick filling.


When the cake is cooked and its temperature is reasonable for handling, cut it horizontally so you can spread the filling letting it drop to the interior but not the outside.
Tip: Serve with blue berries, other berries work too. If the cake doesn't vanish in that day drop the juice of one orange over its surface and center, it will keep it moist and add to the flavour.

Optional, instead of adding the orange switch 50gr of the flour by carrob and add dark chocolate chips.


Based on

Chocolate mousse cake

Who ever said you can't change your stars?
I say I can! I say I am lucky to be able to, to think that I can and to actually do.
One day I might tell the tale of my shifting tides,  how one can dream of being an artist and end up a scientist and the again all other things. But this is not that day, today I want to talk about the marvelous transformation power of a chocolate mousse into a chocolate fondant souflé.
Why can't a mousse become a souflé?
What is after all a souflé? A souflé is a french word for fluffy oven backed dish based in puffing of beaten egg whites.
And what is a mousse? It is a french word for fluffy dish based on the puffing of beaten egg whites.
You can by now see the great potential of mousses to become souflés?
The greatness of this is, it is so simple, such a rich and complex outcome and you can easily end up with two deserts -cake with "icing" and mousse- for a party by the swift trouble of an easy one -chocolate mousse. I apologise in advance for repeating myself, and giving very low level tips but I guess we all need remebering why we do things from time to time or life loses sense.

Chocolate mousse for 6:

• 200gr Dark chocolate for backing - be sure to chose the one you like the taste the most, because the whole dish flavor will depend mostly on its flavor
• 6 eggs - I would say fresh, but that goes without saying
• 125gr of sugar
• 1 table spoon of unsalted butter (or soy margarine for the lactose-free version)

Recipe:

1. Melt the chocolate with the butter. The butter keeps the chocolate from burning so put it in the bottom of the pan. Or just use the microwave, but make sure to keep stopping to stir, it is very easy to get chocolate burned while it isn't melted when heating it on the microwave.
2. While that is happening whisk the eggs yolks with the sugar until the color is lighter and you start to get some foam. By then the chocolate is melt but hot, so leave it to cool down a bit you don't want to cook the eggs.
3. Whisk the eggs whites until they can stand upside down without falling from the boul. (You will need to add a pinch of salt for them to gain body.)
4. Move the chocolate to make sure it is still soft and liquid and check with your finger to see if it isn't too hot. Then whisk the chocolate with the sugar and egg yolk mix until you get it dissolved.
5. Incorporate the egg whites gently with a whisk. (The reason I use "incorporate" and not mix and mention that it has to be done with a whisk is because this egg whites construction is very delicate and will break down to liquid if violently stirred.)

 Chocolate mousse cake:

1. 2 x chocolate mousse for 6. (the next steps should be little time after preparing the mousse, while it is still not tough)
2. Separate a third or forth of the chocolate mousse and put it to rest in the fridge.
3. Use butter to cover your oven cake pan. (unless it is silicon in which case you need no coverin)
4. Put the rest of the chocolate mousse in the pan and put it in a pre heated 190C (fan) 170C (gas) oven for about 20min. If you smell the cake all over the place you are getting close.
5. The tricky part now is that if a souflé catches a breeze of cool air it will fall and lose fluffiness. Close all your windows and doors of the kitchen, and use a tooth-pic to probe the cake and see if it is cooked at least to the tooth-pick full length. Then turn the oven off and leave the cake inside to cool gently and slowly... leave the door of the oven open or it might take forever.
6. Once the cake is cold wrap it with the part of the mousse that was set aside and keep it in the fridge until serving.

 The other great thing about this desert is that you can't go wrong. You cooked it to little, so what? It gets a mousse core. You let it catch a breeze and it broke down, so what? It is still puffy, and yummy chocolate cake and no one will get to see it beneath the "icing". It is over cooked, so what? unless you burned it, it won't get dry with the icing.

Tips:

• If you are planning on making dishes that make use of egg yolks and have egg whites to spare this mousse can take as much as 3 more egg whites per dose. In fact you might end up with a puffier version. Do keep in mind, though, that this will make the souflé more prone to breaking down. 
• I know a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse frosting or icing, or whatever you must call it is already a great fun. But can you imagine if it has yet another cover layer of Chantilly? Real Chantilly, the one you beat out of cream... it is so simple to do and can go such a long way.  Just beat cool -important that the initial temperature of the cream is low because you don't want them to heat up with the movement and end up with freshly made butter- 125gr of cream with 3 table spoons of sugar until it looks like you have dense clouds that stand on their own. Just drop the whole thing on top of the cake, making a mountain of it and with the spatula twist the mountain surface to your artistic design. It is candy for the eye and such a great bite.
• What I do for parties is make 3 x the chocolate mousse recipe and use 2 for making the cake, one for making the mousse. Then make the Chantilly that I use to top both. Perfect for parties.

Portuguese style chocolat chip cookies

There are chewy, crispy and soft chocolate chip cookies.
There are chocolate chocolate chip cookies and oat meal chocolate chip cookies.
There are cookies that crumble and cookies that crack on your mouth.
We all have a version we love, there is always one with its way to our heart.
For a portuguese, cookies are thick and tough and smooth and dry and sweet but not too much.
This cookies recepie is an adaptation of Martha Stewart's chocolate chip cookies recepie and will give you about 20 cookies (http://www.marthastewart.com/344840/soft-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies).

• 100gr white sugar
• 200gr brown sugar
• 500gr all purpose flour
• 1 tea spoon of east
• 1 tea spoon of vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 125gr butter (without salt)
• 1 pinch of salt
• add in chocolate chip, dry fruits or raisens

Just whisk the sugar with the eggs until bubbly, then add the vanilla (if liquid extract).
Then add half of the flour and dissolve it in the mix.
Then add the rest of the flour, the east and the vanilla (if powder extract).
Make sure the east is spread on the flour to avoid that it is concentrated in one cookie or so.
Mix them and then add the butter, make sure it is soft but not hot, you want to avoid boiling the mix and you want it to aggregate the dough.

Be ready for a different type of tasty cookies you can't get sick of but don't get you that addicted. These are good for children, because they are not that unhealthy (not so much sugar and butter) and the butter is not in excess avoiding that it fries in the oven. The smell of cookies will fill your kitchen and hopefully your house with the sense of homy mommy love.

I was pregnant last year and was really anxious about not knowing what to do with the baby once he would come to be. I read books and talked to people, but as a working mother doing my best I still didn't fell prepared or read nearly enough. Don't know if you ever get to. I realized once that I didn't know how to make chocolate chip cookies. I was always a fan of cookies, but at home we would bake mostly ginger cookies and that smelled like Christmas to me, not childhood. I know it makes no sense, but I started trying recipes and baking and testing and proofing, and alongside this huge belly I got the feeling that I would learn what needs to be learned and I would make my house smell like  mommy homy made chocolate chip childhood and with that I felt like I could make a home. It is not supposed to make sense, because fears don't either. Sometimes you just have to find the simple thing that gives you comfort and for me it was the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven and growing water on your mouth. I hope these give you the same feeling or that you find it somewhere else as long as you find your smell of home you will find home.

My diet is officially done. Almost reached my goal of 60kg by eating anything that I want as long as it doesn't have sugar. The last pesky kg didn't want to go, and I was becoming restless and bitchy so I decided to start gorging myself with chocolates early, before I had a chance of losing more than weight. Friendship is made of patience and my husband is a damn saint but I wouldn't want to put him through torture for god only knows how long. So I'm back on sweets, with moderation hoping to stay more or less fit. Who knows, writing about it might dampen my apatite... ya, right.

Sawdust

Sawdust is a traditional Portuguese dezert with creamy base covered in butter cookies dust. Once again, it is not the most heathy of foods, but you can't eat too much of it because it is a mouth full of reachness and it is so delitious it cures all ills. It is also very fast to prepare, though it takes a while for it to get firm in the fridge.

• Dust
• 1 box of Maria cookies (Maria cookies are used in the original recipy but Pettit beurre or dry butter cookies can be used instead)
• Filling
• 1 gelatin sheet
• 1/2 sugared condensed milk can
• 2 small cardboxes of fresh cream (250gr in total)
• 1 t. sp. sugar

It is that simple:

1. Put the gelatin sheet in water to soften.
2. Whippe the cream with teh sugar until firm (it is always a good idea to start with very cool cream because if it warms up while whipping it will become butter instead of getting us the gream chantilly we expect). The sugar is not required for taste but it is not trivial to get Chantilly without it.
3. Warm the condensed milk slightly above room temperature and disolve the gelatin in it.
4. Gently involve the whipped cream with the condensed milk to avoid breaking down the fluffyness.
5. Lay it down on a long tray and cover with film. Put on the firdge.

1. While the base is resting in the fridge beat the hell of the cookies until you have them reduced to dust. If you feel non-violent and prefer a cleaner way just mince the cookies until they are fine enough to fly if you sneeze close to them. 
2. Get the tray from the fridge and cover the white creamy filling with the sawdust.
3. This dezert should be served cold as vengence and takes about 5h to get the perfect consistency. Tastes just as good if you can't wait for it, but it will not hold on a plate and should be then be served on a bowl.

Suggestions:

1. Some people also like to introduce nuts to the sawdust, I wouldn't because I like the simple taste of cream. 
2. Another sugestion is to have coffie deppen cookies beneath the filling, this allows you to cut all the sweetness and gives you extra flavour but again, I think you lose the cream taste.  
3. You can also cut the sweetnes using a very tiny portion of a strong likor underneath the licor, something like rum, or tekila.
4. Simple condensed milk can be used instead if you want to keep a decent level of callories, it is still a great dezert, when you are not a teenager anymore your sensitivity to sugar increases making this a very strong flavored dezert. :-)

Avenge your body from all those diet-needing-comments you give yourself on the mirror, but promise to start diet tomorrow, because you will get addicted to this recipy and might get into true medical issues. You deserve love and there are few ways of love as condensed as this. 

Baltazar... so much chocolate

This is a cake for emergencies only. For when no amount of healthy food can conquer the moment and you need chocolate deepen in chocolate with chocolate icing.

• Icing
• 150g dark chocolate (start from the most relevant! Be ware you will need twice as much chocolate for the whole cake.)
• 2 t.sp. water
• 2 t. sp. of rum (ya, that is how much comfort you can expect from this cake)
• 30g of butter (unsalted and fresh so your conscience can pretend to take a sick day)
• Decoration
• 250g fresh cream
• 50g sugar
• Actual Cake 
• 150g dark chocolate (cause you can't have the perfect chocolate cake without perfect chocolate, chose wisely)
• 35g butter (unsalted again, because it is that deliciously buttery)
• 3 eggs
• 75g powder sugar (don't sniff it might get into the whole kitchen but won't be healthy on your lungs)
• 50g all purpose flour
• 1 t. sp. of rum (and the crysis is handled even more)
• 1c. sp. of yeast (to pretend the cake has less density than a chocolate bar)

Simply put:

1. Beat the egg gems with the sugar until they change into a lighter color. 
2. Join the flour and the yeast at the same time, to avoid you get the yeast in small lumps that will grow unevenly. Whisk until you have no lumps in the dough.
3. Separately, melt the chocolate with the butter to avoid burning it. Microwave can be unpredictable and might end up burning part of it before melting, be sure to stir often if you chose to use the microwave. It should, join the rum and whisk, it should become smooth and homogeneous.
4. Join the chocolate with the rest of the dough. 
5. Separately, beat the eggs whites until you can rotate the bowl upside down and no liquid falls. Then make sure the dough is at room temperature and with a whisker gently incorporate the whites with it. If you are not gentle enough your castle of whites will melt into a cry river and your cake will no longer be fluffy.
6. Put the dough in a form with a whole in the center (pudim like) and take it to the 200C pre-heated oven for 10 min, than lower the temperature to 180C and wait for 8min.
7. Make sure to use a toothpick to test if the dough is cooked before removing it.

The icing is easier to do than to resist until the cake is ready for it.

1.  Just melt the chocolate, using the butter to keep it from burning and join the water and rum to smooth the consistency. Careful that this icing will not stick easily while the cake is hot out of the oven, and it will stiffen very fast otherwise. It can be re-melt in case of the latter.
2. The decoration is Chantilly, or whipped cream to compensate for the power of the intensity of the dark chocolate in the cake and the icing. Usually use a pudding form and fill the inside cavity with the cream. It will look like an avalanche of richness after the first slice is taken. The Chantilly can be made in advance and make sure to only pore it when the cake is fully cool and the icing is tough.

Tip: If it is the season slices of fresh strawberies can be displayed around teh cake giving it an inchanted look and a devine twist in flavor.

I am currently in a one year diet without deserts, so the picture will have to wait, but trust me it is heavenly and to die for. Literaly you will abdicate of good health to try this piece and find it suites you just heavenly. This recipe was based on a Portuguese deserts book I shall find the name of and add here.

Confy food is about love and freshness

yummy is the whole point. But there is a time for frozen pizza and chips and there is a time for home made veggie lasagna with soy cream and parmesan... Everyone has their confort food, some you can buy, other you nurture into existence and delight and feast on their natural flavor and fresh ingredients. Looking into the fridge and getting inspired is only the first step to success in the latter. The next is heaven. 😉
The greatest thing is that you get the comfort from shaping food instead of only from eating, making it more efficient as a comforting hobby including the homy sent and handy experience, and healthier as nourishment.
As a full disclosure, I don't pretend to have invented these recipes. This is a compilation of food that I tried and loved, of what I felt were good ideas and changed until I loved and meals I eat and tried to figure out. My biggest inspiration is a Portuguese book of traditional food called Pantagruel and my personal hero Jamie Oliver. I hope these posts can in turn inspire you.