What is best than take some time to bake sweets on a saturday. Staying home, mixing and baking. I had some leftovers of frozen blueberries. I have tried some once on the morning of Christmas Day with pancakes. Were delicious. And these muffins are also very yummii. Soft and fluffy. I have mixed 150 g flour, 50 g golden caster sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder with a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. Then mix in 1 beaten egg and 50 ml vegetable oil, and 100 ml milk. Then add the blueberries. Pour the batter into the muffin tins and bake the muffins in a pre-heated 200 C oven for 25 minutes. Cool and enjoy with a cup of hot coffee.

I wish a Happy New Year to all of you. May 2012 brings peaceful mind, happiness, good health. A better year than 2011. And hope you celebrated your evening with good laughters, good company and of course yummi food.

I could’nt not think of a better dessert to celebrate the begining of a New Year than a Tiramisu, with the hope of a new year that would be as sweet and beautiful as the tiramisu. My best dessert, ever.     

Happy New 2012!!!

Merry Christmas to you all. Hope this holiday brings Joy, Peace & Serenity to you all.

Wish you enjoyed your evening, celedrated it with your beloved ones. Enjoyed the food, the gathering, the laughters, the talks and the gifts.

 I also enjoyed preparing all the food, baking, and dressing. I enjoyed preparing the bûche de noël , with cherries filling. As well as the guests enjoyed tasting it. I also did the almond filling bûche.

Bûche de Noël

- 5 eggs, separated

- 3/4 cup cake flour, minus 2 tbsp

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 2 tbsp cocoa powder

Filling

- 300 ml cream

- 2 tbsp Tia Maria

- half jar Morello cherries, pitted

Glaçage

- 300 g dark chocolate

- 200 ml cream

- 50 g butter

- 2 tbsp Tia Maria

Preheat oven to 180C. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and doubled in size. Beat the egg whites to snow peaks, add and fold gradually to egg yolks mixture, folding slowly so not to deflate the batter. then add slowly the flour and cocoa sifted, folding until all combined. Pour in the cake pan covered with parchment paper and bake for 8 – 10 min. Let cool. and place the cake on a wet towel, roll it carefuly and leave it to cool.

Filling: Whip the cream with the Tia Maria, then add the sugar gradually. Add the cherries, drained. Unroll the cake and fill with the cream, reroll and put in the fridge.

Glaçage: In a bain-marie, melt the chopped chocolate, then, off the heat, add the butter and cream, whisking until all combined and becoming thick. Cool for a while and then spread the yole lug. and Refrigerate.

When serving, sprinkle over some icing sugar.

Enjoy.

I love that time of year. Christmas time is the best time celebrated, of the year. With all the preparations, the food and sweets bakings, the gifts shopping. It’s a magical time. Spend time with all the family, parents, sister, husband, aunts, cousins, uncle…. it is my favourite gathering. The meaning of Christmas is all around. At homes, in the streets, in schools, in the stores… in the spirits…. Hope these holidays bring  joy and peace to our hearts.

For me, Christmas couldn’t pass by without some bakings. Last week I did some gingerbread cookies. And Last night I prepared some chocolate truffles with Tia Maria, and this morning coated them with cocoa powder. And of course, the favourite dessert at christmas is the bûche de Noêl. I’m making two different yule logs tomorrow. Of course, I’ll be posting about it.

For the truffles, I chopped 100 g dark chocolate (70%), and poured over 100 ml boiled cream, let it set for 30 seconds, added 1/2 teaspoon Tia Maria ( of course, you can add the liqueur you want) and stired until all the chocolate is melted. Let cool completely before refrigerating. The next day, I spooned some of the batter between my palms and made small balls then rolled them on a parchement paper sprinkled with cocoa powder. Until all the truffles are well coated with cocoa. Put in a container and refrigerate till serving. Enjoy.

Yesterday I was home, so I took the opportunity to use the oranges we got from our tree in the backyard at the village… I’ve been wondering how to enjoy these oranges other than as a drink. I just came up with the recipe, I didn’t open any book or the internet. And it turned out to be a very delicious cake, moist, tender and citrusy. The cake has a strong orange flavour. I enjoyed it with a cup of coffee.

Orange cake

- zest and juice of 4 oranges plus zest of 1 lemon

- 5 eggs

- pinch of salt

- 1 cup caster sugar

- half cup vegetable oil

- 2 cups cake flour

- 2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 200C. Grease a cake pan, I chose a round pan.

Put the zests and the eggs and the sugar in a large bowl, beat with an electric mixer about 5 minutes until the batter is doubled in size and is light and creamy. Stir in the orange juice and teh oil.

Sift over the batter, the flour and baking powder. Fold in gently and pour in the pan and bake for 40 minutes or until the cake is golden brown.

Enjoy.

What a sweet weekend it was.

 A heart-warming rich, tasty soup is what I crave for in a cold wintery night, with a piece of bread. Last year I have prepared the butternut squash conserves but never tried the pumpkin soup. So this time I chose a nice pumpkin and head to the kitchen. Cooking it was very easy and simple. I found the recipe on one of my favourite food website, bbcgoodfood.com.

And sunday was a holiday, the feast of Saint Barbara, Eid el berbara, celebrated mostly by children who wear costumes and masks and go knocking on doors to collect candies and sweets.

The best part is the sweets we prepare. Very delicious food. I have prepared Maacroun, the anis-flavoured semolina fried dough soaked in sugar syrup and Qatayef, the pancakes filled with kashta or walnut-almond-sugar mixture. We also boil whole barley topped with nuts and sugar.

Happy Saint Barbara’s day.

Pumpkin soup adapted from bbcgoodfood.com

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 2 onions finely chopped,

- 1 kg pumpkin, peeled, deseeded, cut into chunks, baked in oven for 30 min

- 700 ml vegetable stock

- 142 ml double cream

Heat the oil and gently cook the onions until soft, for 5 min. Add the pumpkin and carry on cooking for 8-10 more min, stirring occasionally.

Pour the stock into the pan, season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil then simmer for 10 min. Pour the cream into the pan and bring again to the boil, then purée with a hand mixer. Turn off the heat and ladle into bowls, drizzle some olive oil and serve.

Enjoy.

I have always wanted to bake desserts with apples and specially an apple tart. But I kept postponing it since dealing with doughs is quite challenging and I don’t usually cook with it, even though I love eating doughs alot, and breads. But this time, I said I’m gonna do it. Of course, after some “sticky-fingers” moments, I succeeded to form a nice dough.

I enjoyed alot preparing this apple pie. And I’m gonna try other recipes with apples and cinnamon. I love cinnamon alot. I add it to a cup of tea, sprinkle it on top of pancakes with honey.

I enjoyed baking and eating this apple pie, it is delicious, has simple ingredients, and distinct flavors.

Apple Pie

For the crust:

- 2 cups All-purpose flour

- 120 g butter, cold, cubed

- 130 g sugar

- 1 egg

- pinch of salt

- 2 tbsp water

For the filling:

- 3 apples ( I used Granny Smith)

- 3 tbsp golden sugar

- 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Prepare the dough: Combine flour and sugar together in a bowl, then add the cold butter and rub the butter and flour with your fingers. Then add the egg, salt and water, and mix altogether to have a combined dough, try not to knead the dough alot. If it sticks to your fingers, use more flour. I transfered the batter onto the counter, it was easier to mix. When you have a nice dough, wrap it with a plastic sheet and refrigerate it the time to prepare the filling or for a couple of hours. I could’nt wait for hours.

Preheat oven to 200C.

Prepare the filling: Peel, core and slice apples. Mix the apples with sugar, and cinnamon.

Cut the dough in half. Put one half  between 2 baking sheets to ease the rolling thing. And roll to form a round dough then place it in an 8-inch pie plate. Fix the edges. Place the apples in plate and cover with the other rolled half dough. Cut slits in the top crust to allow steam to release in oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the apples are soft and the crust is golden brown.

Allow pie to cool before slicing. Enjoy.

A warm hearty soup is what we need and desire in a cold rainy night. The other night , I went through a book I have about soups, and I chose a creamy rich one. Never tried celery in soups. That was the time to try it. So I went to the market and got the ingredients I need to make this celery and blue cheese soup and afterwards, headed to the kitchen.

The recipe calls for Stilton cheese but I couldn’t find it so I got another kind of blue cheese. I like this spotted blue cheese, I find it exquisite, original. I added some croutons to the soup, yummiii.

Celery & Blue Cheese Soup

- 2 tbsp butter

- 1 onion, finely chopped

- 4 large celery sticks, finely chopped

- 1 large carrot, finely chopped

 - 1 litre vegetable stock

- 3-4 thyme sprigs

- 1 bay leaf

- 125 ml double cream

- 150 g blue cheese, or Stilton cheese, crumbled

- freshly grated nutmeg,

- salt and pepper

-celery leaves, to garnish

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook for 3 – 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until just softened. Add the celery and carrot and continue cooking for 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the stock, thyme and bay leaf and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are very tender.

Allow the soup to cool slightly and remove the thyme and bay leaf. Transfer the soup to a food processor or a hand blender and blend until smooth.

Return the puréed soup to the rinsed-out saucepan and stir in the cream. Simmer over a low heat for 5 minutes.

Add the blue cheese slowly, stirring constantly, until smooth. ( Do not allow the soup to boil). Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding plenty of nutmeg and pepper.

Ladle into warmed bowls, garnish with celery leaves and enjoy.

A great treat to munch on the weekends. I found this recipe while reading one of my favourite food blogs. The picture was so delicious that I made up my mind to try it. And the result was so good. With a cup of coffee. Everyone loved those muffins. Chocolate and bananas are best friends.

Banana, Hazelnut, Cocoa Muffins adapted from La Tartine Gourmande

- 115 g all-purpose flour

- 30 g hazelnut powder

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 4 tbsp cocoa sifted

- 2 eggs

- 1/2 cup blond sugar

- 100 g butter, melted

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 2 ripe bananas, mashed

In a large bowl, combine flour, hazelnut powder, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, salt.

Preheat oven to 180C. Arrange the muffin cases in the pan.

In another bowl, beat with electric mixer, eggs, sugar until pale and light. Stir in butter, vanilla, bananas. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.

Pour batter in tins and bake for 25 min. Let cool and Enjoy.

Last weekend, we visited my aunt, she has a nice house situated on a hill, facing mountains; as well a dozen of cats, of different colors and different ages… very cute but not domestic. So my aunt gave me a bucket full of fresh figs. The fig season reached its end at my village.

Tasting the poached figs that my aunt has prepared, made me want to try her recipe. The figs were juicy, sweet, aromatic, extremely delicious.

Choosing firm figs will conserve their firmness after poaching. I used a couple of scented geranium and few cloves. They gave the figs an amazing, delicious fragrance. These figs can be preserved for the winter time, and are a good dessert to be served after lunch, for your guests.

Poached Figs with Geranium

- 1 kilo fresh figs

- 1 liter water

- 250 g sugar

- a couple of geranium stems

- 5 cloves

- a juice of one small lemon

In a large pan, put the water, sugar, geranium and cloves together, on medium heat until it boils, ( the water turns into a green-yellowish color) then put the figs, one at a time, and let boil for around 45-50 minutes or even 1 hour until the water evaporates and you have a condensed syrup.

Turn off the heat and squeeze the lemon and let set and cool a bit in the pan before transfering to a glass jar. The figs can be conserved for a long period.

Enjoy.