Snowflake macarons

Posted in Meringue by granellidizucchero

Macarons au caramel au beurre salé

Ingredients:

For the shells:

– 200g of almond meal

– 200g of powdered sugar

– 200g of caster sugar

– 146g of egg whites

– 5cl of water

– edible glitters and edible snowflake decorations

Combine the caster sugar and the water in a saucepan, place over medium heat and bring to 118°. In the meanwhile put half of the the egg whites in a mixer bowl and whip them on medium speed to soft peaks. Pour the 118° syrup in a thin, steady stream into the whipping egg whites.

Continue whipping the meringue on medium speed until the temperature drops to 50°.

In a large bowl combine the almond meal, the caster sugar and the other half of the egg whites and mix well.

Add a small part of the meringue to the almond paste and mix gently, then add the rest of the meringue, fold and scratch the surface until the batter starts to run glossy.

Put the mixture in a pastry bag with a large tip and form small circles on parchment lined sheet pans. Allow the macarons shells to sit for 1 hour until the surface feels dry to the touch.

Preheat the oven to 150° and bake the shells for approximately 14 minutes. Cool the macarons shells on the sheet pans.

For the filling:

– 50g of salted butter

– 1 cl of water

– 50 g of glucose

– 125g of powdered sugar

– 10cl of heavy cream

Put the glucose and the water in a saucepan, place it over medium heat. Add the sugar and mix well until the obtention of a blond caramel. Remove from heat and add 7g of butter. Add the heavy cream slowly while continuing mixing. Put the saucepan on medium heat and add the remaining butter. Let the mixture reach 118° and then remove from heat.

Let the caramel cool down.

Use the caramel au beurre salé to fill the macaron shells.

Decorate your macarons with edible glitters and snowflakes.

I wish you all a sweet and snowy christmas!!!!

Bon appétit,

Anna

17Nov2013

Teddy in wonderland

Posted in Cakes by granellidizucchero

Chocolate cake pops

Ingredients:

-75g of dark chocolate

-55g of butter

-90g of granulated white sugar

-2 eggs

-10g of cocoa powder

-45g of flour

-60g of chocolate chips or nuts

-1/2 teaspoon of salt

-Cake pops silicone mould (for 18 pieces)

-1 egg white

-200 g of powdered sugar

-Food coloring

-Food decorations

Preheat oven to 180°.

Put the chocolate and the butter in a bowl and place it over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat when they are melted. Stir in the cocoa powder and the white granulated sugar. Next whisk in the eggs, one at time, beating well after each addiction. Finally, stir in the flour, the salt and the chocolate chips (or nuts).

Pour into the buttered cake pops mould and bake for about 25-30 minutes at 180°.

For the frosting: whisk the egg white, add the powdered sugar and the coloring while continuing to whisk.

Dip each cake pop in the frosting and decorate them as you whish. Let the icing dry.

Bon appétit,

Anna

10Oct2013

Choco garden

Posted in Cakes by granellidizucchero

Soufflé au chocolat

Ingredients:

– 100 g of powdered sugar

– 4 g of corn flour

– 30 g of flour

– 7 eggs (1 whole, 1 yolk and 6 egg whites)

– 60 ml of milk

– 75 ml of cream

– 75 g of dark chocolate

– 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder

Take five 200 ml soufflé dishes, brush them with butter and tip a little cocoa powder in each dish.

To make the chocolate cream, mix 30 g of flour, 7 g of corn flour and 15 g of powdered sugar.

Put one egg yolk and a whole egg into a bowl, mix them well and add half of the flour mixture, blend, and tip in the rest of the flour mix.

Put 60 ml of milk and 15 ml of cream into a pan and bring them just to the boil, remove from the heat. Add 25 g of dark chocolate and beat until it is melted. Add to this chocolate mix the flour and yolks mixture. Cook this mixture over a low heath for 5 minutes, let it cool down and beat occasionally with a wire whisk.

Slowly warm 60 ml of cream to make the ganache. Just before it boils take off the heath and add 50 g of dark chocolate. Mix until it is melted and add 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder. Allow to cool.

Heath oven to 190°. Whisk 6 egg whites with an electric whisk and sprinkle in 85 g of powdered sugar while whisking.

Mix the ganche and the chocolate cream mixture in a large bowl.

Add 2 tablespoons of whisked egg whites to the chocolate mixture. Carefully fold in a third of the rest, mix slowly, add another third of the whisked eggs, take care not to lose the volume and add fold in the last third.

Fill the soufflé dishes by three-quarters with the mixture and bang each dish on to the surface so the mixture fills the sides.

Bake the soufflés for 17 minutes in the preheated oven (190°).

Decore with cocoa powder and fresh flowers.

Bon appétit,

Anna

16Jul2013

ITALIA!

Posted in Cupcakes by granellidizucchero

Muffin basilico, mozzarella, pomodoro

Ingredienti:

-200g farina

-3 uova

-100 ml latte

-10g lievito in polvere

-100ml olio di semi

-Parmigiano

-8 pomodori ciliegini

-1 mozzarella

-basilico

-sale

-pepe

-origano

-ricotta per decorare

Mettete le uova in una ciotola e sbattetele con una frusta, aggiungete del basilico tritato a pezzetti, del sale, del pepe e dell’origano e continuate a mescolare.

Versate l’olio di semi e successivamente il latte.

In un’altra ciotola unite la farina ed il lievito in polvere e versateci sopra il composto di uova continuando a mescolare per evitare che si formino dei grumi. Aggiungete al composto del Parmigiano grattuggiato, la mozzarella ed i pomodorini tagliati a cubetti.

Versate il composto in 12 pirottini, ricoprite la parte superiore dei muffin con un pò di Parmigiano grattuggiato ed infornate a 180° per 25 minuti.

Una volta fatti raffreddare potete guarnire i muffin con della ricotta.

I muffin “ITALIA!” sono ideali per accompagnare un aperitivo estivo … ovviamente all’italiana!! Ideali se gustati freddi o tiepidi.

Buon appetito,

Anna

30May2013

Panda macarons

Posted in Meringue by granellidizucchero

For my panda…

Ingredienti:

Per la base usare gli stessi ingredienti e lo stesso procedimento degli strawberry macarons senza usare però il colorante alimentare o utilizzandone uno bianco.

Per questa ricetta dovete però tenere da parte una piccola ciotolina di impasto alla quale aggiungere tre cucchiaini di cacao in polvere in modo da renderla marrone ud utlizzarla per creare le orecchie, il naso e gli occhi dei panda.

Dopo aver formato i dischetti bianchi di 3 cm di diametro sulle teglie foderate di carta da forno, versare il composto di cacao in una sac à poche con bocchetta più piccola di quella di utlizzata per creare i dischetti e creare, su metà macarons le orecchiette, gli occhi ed il naso dei panda e sull’altra metà, che sarà il retro dei panda, crare un puntino che andrà a formare la coda.

Far riposare fino a che non si sarà crata una pellicina in superficie.

Infornare a 150° per 16 minuti circa.

Per la ganache al cioccolato:

-80 g di cioccolato fondente

-100ml di panna

-28g di burro

Far sciogliere il cioccolato a bagnomaria, contemporaneamente scaldare la panna in un pentolino, a fuoco lento, fino a portarla al limite del bollore. Versare la panna sul cioccolato sciolto, mescolando. Appena avrete ottenuto un composto liscio aggiungete il burro tagliato a pezzetti, mescolate fino a che non si sarà sciolto. Riporre la ganache in frigorifero per 20 minuti.

Farcite i panda con la ganache al cioccolato e riponeteli in frigorifero per 24 ore.

Bon appétit,

Anna

Happy birthday Tunis!

20May2013

Matchstick cookies and… a curious cat!

Posted in Cookies by granellidizucchero

Matchstick cookies

Ingredients:

– 250g of flour

– 125g of butter

– 100g of sugar

– a pinch of salt

– 2 egg yolks

– lemon bark

For the decoration:

– 1 egg white

– a pinch of salt

– 130g powdered sugar

– food colouring

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend well until the cookie dough forms a ball. Put the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes. After that, roll it out on a lightly floured board to a thickness of about 3 mm, then cut out 7 cm long and 1 cm wide sticks.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper and put the cookies on it. Bake at 155° for 16 minutes or until the cookies reach a ligth golden colour. Let them cool down.

In the meanwhile prepare the frosting. Whip the egg white with a pinch of salt until it forms soft peaks. While continuously whipping the whites on hig speed, slowly add the powdered sugar and the food colouring and continue whipping until stiff peaks form.

Dunk the cookie tips in the coloured frosting.

Let the icing on your cookies dry for at least 2 hours.

Bon appétit,

Anna and Benni!

15May2013

SUN(ny)DAY breakfast

Posted in Meringue by granellidizucchero

Quick mini Pavlova

Ingredienti:

– 2 albumi

– 65g di zucchero a velo

– 1 cucchiaio di zucchero semolato

– 1/2 cucchiaio di succo di limone

– 200g di yogurt bianco

– fragole q.b

Procedimento:

Con uno sbattitore elettrico iniziare a montare i due albumi, quando diventano bianchi aggiungere il cucchiaio di zucchero semolato, sempre continuando a sbattere ad alta velocità. Dopo qualche minuto aggiungere anche il succo di limone, poco per volta. Quando gli albumi avranno raggiunto una consistenza abbastanza solida, aggiungere lo zucchero a velo, in più parti, sempre continuando a mixare gli albumi. Per ultimo aggiungere il 1/2 cucchiaio di bicarbonato.

Una volta raggiunta una consistenza ferma e lucida, versare il composto in una sac à poche con bocchetta larga e liscia. Foderare una teglia con carta da forno e formare dei cerchi con una specie di piccolo cratere nel centro. Infornare in forno presiscaldato a 130° per almeno 1 ora e mezza.

Una volta sfornate far raffreddare. Nel frattempo tagliare le fragole in piccoli cubetti. Versare un pò di yogurt al centro delle Pavlove e guarnire con le fragole.

Bon appétit,

Anna

13May2013

My first Liebster award!!!!!

Posted in Awards by granellidizucchero

Yuppppyy!!!! I’ve been nominated for the Liebster award!!!!!

I have to thank This Must Be The Plate, in particular Chiara, for this very SPECIAL surprise!!! It’s a big honour for me and for my young blog, which is only 3 months old! Grazie, grazie, grazie!!!

The Liebster award is a nice way for bloggers to recognize other bloggers with less than 200 followers. The rules are easy to follow: thank the blogger who nominated you, answer his/her 11 questions, share 11 facts about yourself, nominate your 11 favourite blogs, ask your nominees 11 questions and inform them about their nomination.

Here are my answers to This Must Be The Plate questions:

1) What is your number 1 breakfast? La colazione del campione?

Bread, jam (preferably of raspberry), a lot of butter and coffee 🙂

2) Do you listen to music while you are cooking? If yes, of which genre? Quando cucinate ascoltate musica? Se si, che tipo?

Usually I do not listen to music while cooking unless my neighbor turns up the volume too much.

3) In my kitchen I cannot renounce to….. Quale utensile non può mancare nella vostra cucina?

….my Lékué sac à poche (thank you Ivana) 🙂

4) Which is the best pastry in your town? La miglior pasticceria della vostra città?

Obviously my home! 🙂

5) Which is the most difficult recipe you tried to prepare? La ricetta più difficile con cui vi siete cimentati?

It is the Bouillabaisse fish soup.

6) When did you start cooking? Quando avete iniziato a cucinare?

Relatively late: during my Erasmus in 2011. I had no choice!!

7) Which is your best recipe? Revel your secret! Qual è la vostra ricetta migliore? Dateci il vostro segreto!

My macarons almost always achieve success, but I do not like to reveal secrets! 😉

8) What do you love about cooking? La cosa che vi piace di più del cucinare?

About cooking, especially about baking, I love the scent that emerges from the oven. Remember: “the scent of baked goods makes people nicer“.

9) Which is the reason why you decided to become a blogger? Cosa vi ha spinto ad iniziare un blog?

I decided to become a blogger because thinking that someone could make other people happy thanks to my recipes in simply amazing!

10) Which is the best Italian traditional dish? Qual è secondo voi il miglior piatto (dolce o salato) della tradizione italiana?

Artichokes “alla romana” … I love them!!!!

11) Which is your ideal menu? Il vostro menù ideale. (Sì, può anche essere solo a base di dolci!)

My ideal menu is composed by: scallops au gratin or mussels “alla scotadeo”, sea food spaghetti, oven baked sea bass with roasted potatoes and a warm chocolate and raspberry tartlet.

Eleven things about me:

– In my past life I was a squirrel

– I have an extra stomach for desserts 🙂

– I love French-style pastries

– My ideal travel: USA, West Coast trip, old cabriolet, The Heavy – Short change hero as background music and a lot of sun!!

– I’m a perfectionist

– I hate grasshoppers

– If I don’t eat breakfast I can’t start my day

– I love warm summertime evenings at the sea

– I could eat artichokes every day of the year

– I have dual citizenship: Austrian and Italian

– In my creations I like to abound with chocolate, cream and butter