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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Sweet Bread with Almond Filling



Recipe coming soon...... but be sure this will taste great with a nice hot cup of coffee from


https://www.1850coffee.com/

And here comes the recipe:

You will need the following for the dough:

300 g flour sifted
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar

60 g butter, soft in small cubes

1 packet of dried yeast (I prefer Red Star)
100 ml milk, lukewarm

1 egg, beaten (keep a little aside to brush the bread before baking)

Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the salt and the sugar and combine well, add the soft butter. Dissolve the yeast in a little bit of milk and let proof for a few minutes. Add the mixture, the rest of the milk and the egg to the flour and stir the ingredients from the middle. Once it all starts coming together and knead the dough until it is very smooth and elastic.

Cover, set it at a warm spot and let rise until it is doubled in volume. Then roll it out into a rectangle to approximate 3 mm thickness.

Filling:

150 g almonds, ground
3 tbsp sugar
1 apple, grated
1/2 lemon, zest and juice
4 - 6 tbsp heavy cream or milk (half and half works too)

**Apricot Preserve

Combine the almond meal and the sugar in a bowl, add the finely grated apple, the lemon zest and lemon juice and combine well. Add the cream and stir until everything is well combined.

Spread the almond mixture evenly over the rolled out dough, leaving only a small edge. Then roll the dough from both sides toward the middle and place in a prepared 13 to 15 inch cake form. Brush with the reserved egg and sprinkle with some slivered almonds.

Let rise again, then bake in a pre-heated 425 F/ 220 C oven for about 35-40 minutes.

ENJOY!

** if you like the tart/sweet flavor of apricot preserve, spread the apricot preserve on the rolled out dough before you spread the filling.

Also if you like you can glaze the baked, still hot bread with a sugar glaze. You'll need 100 g powdered sugar, 1/2 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tbsp water. Mix and brush the baked bread with it.




Monday, February 14, 2011

Almond/Nutella Macarons - Gluten Free

Finally.... I took the time and made Macarons.... and I think they turned out great and they are easy to make. Just look at these gorgeous and tasty little things!

Finished Almond Nutella Macarons!

You don't need a lot of fancy tools and crazy ingredients... A mixer, parchment paper, a spatula and a pastry bag with different size tips is all you need. Oh and of course the ingredients and a bit of time.

Almond Nutella Macarons
Here is what you need:

2 egg whites
100 g sugar (superfine)
2 sprinkles salt

Nutella for filling


Prepare two baking sheets, by covering them with parchment paper. You can either use a shot glass or any other small round object to mark small circles on the paper or you can just pipe the mixture as you go, keeping them as close to the same size as possible.


Unbaked Macarons
Start by placing you egg white in a mixing bowl and beat them with the salt until they are super stiff and peaks form (you should be able to turn the bowl upside down and nothing will drop out), then beat in half of the sugar, beat until the egg white is very shiny.

Once you have done that, take your spatula and slowly fold in the remaining sugar and the almond flour (to get rid of any clumps in the almond flour, sift it), add in the almond flour a little at a time so you don't get any lumps in it. Fill in a pastry bag and pipe on the prepared baking sheets.


Then let the macarons dry for about 15 minutes, while they dry, preheat your oven to 325F. Once your oven has reached the correct temperature, bake the macarons for about 12 minutes, after the first 5 minutes open the oven door to let out steam.

Macaron Assembly
Take your macarons out of the oven and let them cool, while they cool down, fit your pastry bag with a small tip, or you can just use a plastic zip-loc bag and cut off a tiny bit of the tip, fill it with Nutella and then pipe some Nutella on one macaron, taking another one and twisting it on to make a little sandwich.


Repeat until you've filled them all...... then serve on a nice platter or package and give them to your favorite people. I'm sure they'll love them! Who can resist something that's made with LOVE!