Spekulaas

Christmas in Belgium calls for these fragrant, spicy, crunchy cookies.


Ingredients:

• 110 g butter 
• 150 g brown sugar (variation for my grandfather = sugarfree uses 75gr stevia + 75gr of oat flour and 2 teaspoon of lemon juice) 
• 50 ml milk 
• 250 g flour 
• 10 g baking powder 

Original grounded spice mix for speculaas: 

• 10 g ground cinnamon 
• 5 g ground nutmeg 
• 5 g ground cloves 
• 5 g ground ginger 
• 2 g ground white pepper

Mix the solids, dissolve the liquids and join them together under the rule of five.😉
Let the dough cool for a while in the fridge and spread the dough in 3mm thickness.

Cut the dough in nice looking forms and put it in the oven at 180C.
Or in the case that you don't really feel like losing the time decorating use a ice-cream scoop dispenser

 and once you have your uniform scoops of dough press them down with a spoon's back.

and you will end up with rustic uniform cookies.

Original recipe video.

Gingerbread cookies

Nothing says Merry Christmas better than the smell of  freshly backed ginger bread cookies.
We have been making them since children and we used a recipe I no longer find, hope to find it someday but this one is almost alike.

Ingredients:

• 125gr butter (variation for lactosefree uses soy butter)
• 3 table spoons maple syrup
• 100gr brown sugar (variation for my grandfather or sugarfree uses 50gr stevia + 50gr of oat flour and teaspoon of lemon juice)
• 300gr self-rising flour
• 0.5 teaspoon cinnamon
• 0.5 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2  teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon of east

raisins to place as eyes and buttons (leave on water while making the dough to avoid the raisins getting too dry or burn in the oven)

Mix the solids, dissolve the liquids and join them together under the rule of five.😉
Let the dough cool for a while in the fridge and spread the dough in 3mm thickness.
Cut the dough in nice looking forms and put it in the oven at 180C.
Be careful, remove them form the oven as soon as their edges look darker than the center or you smell their delightful fragrance, otherwise they will be over cooked and hard as a rock. Still tasty though.😊

original recepie of cookies

Sugarfree, Lactosefree, Glutenfree, frosting and filling

Sugarfree, Lactosefree, Glutenfree,...
I wanted to find frosting and filling for a baby's first cake (smash cake), but the healthiest I found was made with cream cheese, which I am not ready to give my 1 year old.
So I thought that maybe... just maybe... I could figure out a way to get the smooth feeling of cream without actually using it... and that is when I remembered avocado!



It is so perfect one wonders why no one has ever done it.
So, I have tested and the only issue I could find is the color.

It will be difficult to make a cake that is not greenish.... even using blue berries you end up with something turquoise.
In any case, it is fantastic in texture.

Adding just a little of fruit results in variations of color and taste (sweet level also):

Blue berries - very sweet

Kiwis - bit acid

Using a tough mango instead makes it much less green and almost as smooth, but still dark yellow which should still allow you to reach the other colors:

Boiled carrot - needs added maple syrup

Strawberry

Blue berry

So it is not a perfect rainbow, but she won't notice and she will adore it.😉

I'll add pictures as soon as I have taken them, but so far I only had time to test on a bowl.

Sweet potato breads - Merendeiras

These small sweet potato breads are very typical Portuguese and bring the sent of a new year.
They are soft, filled with vitamins and naturally sweetened, making these the perfect side to a glass of milk in the morning.
Like any bread, these are better eaten shortly after leaving the oven but will be remarkably kept on the deep freezer for a morning of longing.

Ingredients:

• 1kg Boiled sweet potato (keep the water)
• 1kg Flour
• 300g Sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 cups nuts, dry fruits or/and candy fruit 

Process:
Smash the peeled boiled potatoes in a large bowl.
Beat the sugar with the eggs until the sugar is dissolved.
Add the sugar to the potatoes and stir it all together.
Gradually add the flour and if needed some of the water used to boil the potatoes. Keep in mind that working the dough will render it less dry, so avoid adding water until you have worked a bit the flour into the dough.
The dough is sticky and should be handled with a hand or a tough wooden spoon up from the farthest point of the bowl lower and then towards you in circular involving movements that will introduce air making if fluffier.
You can add all the nuts and fruits and make all of the breads a like, I have a picky son for whom I only add raisins and sometimes prefer to have a version with nuts and another with nuts and fruits. So I add to different parts of the dough different beads.
Once you have your dough turn the oven up to 160C and using a small bowl with flour and a spoon drop a full spoon of dough into the flour and roll it until it is manageable and then lay it on a tray that goes to the oven.

You should end up with something like the picture:

check this movie for details on how to handle the dough.

Pepper fish á la Portuguese

Very simple, nice and colorful fish will leave an amazing smell over the kitchen. It is very simple and fast to prepare but takes long on the oven.

Ingredients:

• 2 Sea bream like fish with only the guts removed (skin and bone left untouched)
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 2 red bell peppers
• 1 large onion
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 4 carrots
• 8 small or 4 large potatoes
• 1/2 cup of red wine
• olive oil
• 2 laurel leaves 
• 4 slices of chouriço
• paprika
• salt

Heat up the oven to 180C.
Start by getting a large oven tray, large enough to contain all the ingredients.
Boil water in a pan with some salt.
Wash the potatoes skin if you enjoy it or peel them if you don't.
Cut the potatoes in small thumb sized pieces.
Get the potatoes to soften in the boiling water for about 2 min if they are peeled and 4 min otherwise.
Let the potatoes dry and cool while you prepare the rest.
Peel the  carrots and cut them in quarters along their length.
Cut the peppers and onion in stripes of less than a finger thickness.
Pile the vegetables (including potatoes and cloves of garlic) on the tray.
Add the chouriço and three soup spoons of olive oil and mix it all with your hands and spread them on the tray.
Place the fish carefully - to avoid it crumbling- side by side on top of the veggies and sprinkle it with olive oil, salt and paprika.
15 min later...
When the skin of the fish starts looking crunchy take the tray out.
Use a large spatula to remove the fish to a dishes.
Add half a cup of wine to the veggies and mix them before laying the fish again side by side on top with the most cooked side down and put the tray back in the oven.
15 min later...
Remove again the tray from the oven and the fish from the tray.
This time generously add olive oil to the veggies and mix them.
Lay the fish again on top of the veggies with their most cooked side down.
15 min later..
Should be done!
This means the skin of the fish should be crispy, easy to remove and that the meat of the fish should slide right off the bone with minimum effort. The potatoes should be well cooked with a roasted skin and the peppers should be almost melting. There should also still be olive oil based sauce covering the base of the veggies.

Enjoy. 😉

carbonara with vegies

One of my fast go to recipes is carbonara based. I have the habit of always having eggs and soy cream on the fridge, so any day I am running against the clock or find myself without fresh food for an elaborate meal this is what I do:

Ingredients:

• 1ltr water to boil
•  500gr tagliatelle
• 1 package of soy cream
• 3 eggs 
• all the veggies you have left in the fridge/pantry (good examples that work perfectly: broccoli, bell peppers, peas, corn, frozen mushrooms
• salted or left over meats
• garlic, onions, leek,... anything of sorts to braise.

The key to a fast meal is to always start by the longest process and try to have it running while you do everything else in parallel. In this case the longest thing is the pasta, so just get your slightly salted water boiling and submerge the tagliatelle on it.
On a frying pan braise all that needs it with the meats and a little olive oil, otherwise just heat up the olive oil. To avoid getting the olive oil to high temperature and frying just add a bit of the boiling water from the pasta to the pan from time to time. Season the meats if you are not adding salted meats -like ham or bacon.
Start adding vegetables by order of how slow they cook (or if they are frozen) and how well done you like them (ex: broccoli and carrots take very long to cook, but I enjoy the carrots a bit tougher so I will add the broccoli early but the carrots not that much).
Then add all vegetables that don't take long but need time to absorb the flavors of others like mushrooms or tofu.
When the pasta is ready save some of its water but remove it all from the pan, adding the soy cream to keep it moist.
Finally add all canned food and the whole eggs. Let the eggs break as you stir the vegetables on the pan and add a bit of the water from the pasta to avoid them cooking to fast ang getting too dry.
Get the pasta in the frying pan for one last stir and to let it absorb the carbonara mix.
Serve it then and enjoy the veggies smuggled in this very tasty dish. 

Oreo like cake

I don't know about you, but to me what makes oreo irresistible is the contrast of the bitter dark chocolate with a tough texture and the smooth sweet sugar based filling. The problem is that it is, as all cookies we buy maybe even more than most, not the most healthy thing to eat on the huge quantity that is required to satisfy our appetite. For that reason I went looking for an oreo-like cake but most of what I found use actual oreos and mix them with more grease and more sugar. I finally found what I was looking for, a dark chocolate cake and figured the filling could be replaced by marzipan instead, also very sweet but a lot healthier.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1+1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 cup butter (or soy margarine to make lactose-free version)
• 1/2 cup sugar (for adults, 1 cup for children since they don't appreciate bitterness as much)
• 2 eggs
• 250g marzipan or gazing fondant (for children the fondant will be closer to oreo in taste but it is much less healthy)

Set the oven to 180C.
Dissolve the cacao powder and pinch of salt on the boiling water.
In a different bowl beat the eggs with the sugar and when they are lighter in color join the soft butter. Once homogeneous add the cup of flower and mix.
After mixed add the chocolate and the last of the flour continuing to mix.
Fill two small equal forms with the dough so it reaches about two to three fingers high.
Put both forms in the oven for 45min.
Check that the dough is baked using a toothpick and assuring that no dough comes stuck to it.
Knead the marzipan to soften and then spread/roll it on a surface.
Take a cake out of the form, add the layer of marzipan on the top and the add the second cake on top.
It will look yummy and taste like a fight of tastes and textures just like your favorite cookies.