General – Page 3 – La Casa'l Forno

Posted on 24 June, 201516 May, 2018 by casalforno — Leave a comment

Bagels

After several attempts I could finally come up with a recipe for bagels that I´m satisfied with; crispy outside and tender inside. This time I needed a lot of patience to let them cool down until I could try one, and yes! that was nice!

It´s a simple recipe, and it takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes since you have to let the dough rest so it can rise. It´s very easy and you can eat them with anything that you like: cream cheese, avocado, jam…well, I´m sure you have a lot of ideas 🙂

You will need need the following ingredients:

20 gr of fresh yeast

300 gr of wheat flour

1 teaspoon of salt

200 ml of lukewarm water

sesame or poppy seeds

Start disolving the fresh yeast in 200 ml of lukewarm water, let it rest for a few minutes. Meanwhile, mix the flour with the salt. Now incorporate the mixture of yeast and water to the flour and stir until you get a soft batter. Knead for about 10 minutes, make a ball and spread a bit of olive oil on top, so it doesn´t get a crust form. Let the dough rest for about 1 hour, covered with a clean cloth , so it can rise.

After that, divide the dough into 6 or 8 pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Then flatten the ball and make a hole in the center, using the stick of a wooden spoon, for example. Place the bagels on a baking tray and let them rest for about 25 minutes.

Now, put a pan with water to boil and boil the bagels minimum 30 seconds each side (this is what gives them the crunchy layer), let them dry and paint them with beaten egg, then sprinkle the sesame and poppy seeds on top. Put them in the oven at 200 ºC for 20 minutes. Let them cool down a bit and grab one! Enjoy!

Posted on 16 June, 201516 May, 2018 by casalforno — Leave a comment

Suikerbrood (Sugarbread)

Suikerbrood or Sugar Bread is a traditional bread recipe from Holland, you can find different versions but I think the most popular recipe is the one of the province of Friesland and the one with higher amount of sugar!

Normally they eat it during the breakfast spreading butter on top, so you can imagine the loads of energy you get for the rest of the day!

It´s very easy to make and very tasty, here I show you the recipe step by step:

Ingredients:

350 gr of flour

1 pinch of salt

1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon

1 sachet of baking powder

200 ml of milk

20 gr of white sugar

200 gr of pearl sugar

50 gr of butter

First sift the flour together with the sugar and the pinch of salt. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk and add it to the flour mixture, knead well until you get a soft dough. Cut the butter into cubes and knead it into the dough until everything is blended. Cover the dough with a clean cloth and let it rest in a warm place for 20-30 minutes.

You can buy the pearl sugar, but in this case I just smashed 200 gr of sugar cubes until I got small pieces…fast and easy 🙂

After the dough has rested, knead in the sugar pieces and the cinnamon, knead for 5 minutes or until everything sticks inside of the dough. Let the dough rest again for about 10 minutes.

Place the dough in a greased pan and put it in the oven at 170 ºC during 30-35 minutes. Let it cool down for 10 minutes and unmold.

Simple and tasty!

Posted on 5 May, 201516 May, 2018 by casalforno — Leave a comment

Lemon cream with raspberries

I had a lot of egg yolks left from the ‘big chocolate cake’ that I made and I thought I had to make something with them (not even think about throwing them away)

I found this recipe that it takes about 20 minutes, plus 1 hour in the fridge and I ended up very happy with the result and I thought I will share it with you.

It happend to be that I had some raspberries at home but I think if you use whatever fruit you like, it´s going to taste just the same…delicious!

Ingredients:

Lemon zest

1/2 liter of skim milk

4 egg yolks

1 spoon of cornstarch

60 gr of sugar

125 gr raspberries

40 gr of brown sugar to decorate.

Put the milk in a pan and let it boil with the lemon zest. Whisk the egg yolks with the 60 gr of sugar until they have a clearer color (almost white). Add the cornstach with a little bit of the boiled milk; mix to integrate the ingredients well and finally add it to the rest of the milk.

Keep on stirring until the mixture starts to get thicker.

Put the raspberries on the bottom of the glass and pour the cream on top.

Keep it in the frigde for at least one hour. When it´s time to eat it, you can sprinkle some brown sugar on top and burn it with a blowtorch or with the gril in the oven.

Very easy and fresh dessert, Enjoy!

Posted on 19 April, 201516 May, 2018 by casalforno — Leave a comment

Marañuelas

My mom asked me: what is going to be your next post? Any new recipe that you have in mind? I just told her that this week I was running out of ideas and I didn´t have anything in mind yet.

‘Well, you should try the Marañuelas’, she said.. automatically my mind started to work and got a clear idea of how I wanted to present this recipe. Good! some ideas came to my mind, my mom sent me the recipe and I started to work on it.

Marañuelas are a popular sweet treat from my region in Spain (Asturias), they used to make it during Easter period, but nowadays you can find them at any time of the year.

You´ll see that they have different shapes, that is because in the early days every family would have their own shape of Marañuela, so they could distinguish them in the common oven (I think it´s so cool that they would share the same oven, it gives a nice community feeling)

It´s pretty easy to make them, and they are delicious,I hope you like them, so let´s go for it!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

250 gr of sugar

125 gr of butter

500 gr of flour

A teaspoon of baking powder

A dash of anise

A pinch of cinnamon

Lemon zest

How to make Marañuelas:

It is recommended to clarify the butter first: put the butter in a saucepan at low heat, don´t stir and just let it cook slowly. You will see that it will start forming a white foam on the surface after is cooking for five minutes. Now remove the white foam with a spoon to let the rest of the liquid butter clean, finally you can filter if there are still some remaining foam.

In a big bowl combine the liquid butter, the sugar, add the eggs (one by one), the anise, lemon and cinnamon.

Add the flour and the baking powder carefully and mix well until the dough is not sticky anymore.

Take a piece of the dough and make the shape that you like most, place them in the baking tray with some space in between because they will grow in the oven. Preheat the oven at 180º C and leave your Marañuelas in the oven for about 25 minutes.

PicMonkey Collage1 — Different shapes of Marañuelas

Let them cool down and enjoy them right away!!! Nice to have them for breakfast, coffee..what ever occasion that you think will be ok!

Have a nice day!!!

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Posted on 9 April, 201516 May, 2018 by casalforno — Leave a comment

Chocolate whoopies filled with orange custard

The whoopie pie is a US baked good that may be considered a cookie, pie or a cake, that comes from the Amish tradition.

Amish women would bake these desserts and put them in lunch boxes for the farmers; when the farmers would find the treats in their lunch, they would shout: Whoopie!

The whoopies remind me of macarons, but only because of the shape, since the way of making them is different, a bit easier I would say (yey!).

Anyway, these cookies, pies or cupcakes (whatever you want to call them), are delicious and elegant and you can always use your imagination to make the filling or the cookies with different ingredients.

Here I tell you the recipe with some tips:

Ingredients for the filling:

1 orange

80 gr butter

50 gr sugar

1 egg

100 gr of cream cheese

Ingredients for the cookies:

125 gr of flour

1/2 sachet of baking powder

40 gr butter

40 gr sugar

1 egg

100 gr chocolate spread

20 gr of cocoa powder

100 ml of milk

a pinch of salt

First make the custard: grate the skin of the orange, then squeeze the juice and set it aside. Melt the butter, then add the sugar, the egg, the orange zest and the juice. Stir constantly until it gets thicker. Remove from the fire and let the mixture cool down; after that add the cream cheese, mix well, and let it chill in the fridge.

Tip: if your custard doesn´t get thick enough (as has happened to me), you can add powdered sugar or cornstarch (maizena) while it´s on the fire.

Time to bake cookies! Sift the flour with the baking powder and add a pinch of salt. In a different bowl, mix the butter and the sugar, then add the egg, the chocolate spread, cocoa and the milk. Mix well and add to the dry ingredients from before.

So, now we have the dough to make the cookies, it´s a bit liquid but it´s ok like this. Now, put baking paper on the oven tray and with the help of the pastry bag start making the circles. Just hold the pastry bag straight for a few seconds and press slightly to release the dough.

Tip: make the circles small, they will rise in the oven and will stick to each other if you make them too big (also happened to me a few times :))

Put the cookies in the oven (preheated at 180º C) for about 10 minutes. Take them out and let them cool down, so you can take them off the baking paper easily. Now you can fill them with the orange custard.

Eat, enjoy!

Have a nice day!

Posted on 7 April, 201516 May, 2018 by casalforno — Leave a comment

Smoothie Detox

When it´s time for a nice smoothie, here I am , no one can´t stop me; I start cutting fruits and vegetables until I have a good bunch, then throw them into the blender so I can enjoy the explosion of all the vitamins and antioxidants. Of course, if anybody else is in the room with me, I´ll make sure that they have a good portion as well.

Today just a short recipe to start well the week after the Easter holidays that some of you enjoyed the past days, a detox smoothie that will give you the energie that you need to deal with a new day!!

I do not have a specific recipe, I just use the fruits and vegetables that I have at home at that moment. Here, I show you one of many: easy, healthy and delicious!

The ingredients that I´ve used this time are: strawberries, apple, banana, cucumber and cranberries. I also added flax seeds, a teaspoon of maca, coconut and biological hemp seeds.

I added soy mil, but you can also add water instead. Everything goes to the blender..and voilá! good for any time of the day!

Have a good week!

Posted on 31 March, 201516 May, 2018 by casalforno — Leave a comment

Sweet bread crown for Easter

As Easter approaches, I can´t help imagine myself having breakfast in my parents’ house having a good piece of the traditional Easter brioche followed by another one, and another…before going out and see how my childhood village fills up with people getting ready to celebrate, making plans and enjoying the great atmosphere that precedes the celebrations.

IMG_20150329_183140 — Sweet bread crown for Easter

Pity that this year I cannot join, but that doesn´t mean that I won´t enjoy a good traditional sweet…or…more than one 😉

Last year, around this time, I published the typical Easter sweet bread that you can eat in Spain during Easter, you can find the recipe here.

This year I wanted to make something different, so I kind of came up with this crown of sweet bread based on the famous Swedish cinnamon rolls. Here I explain how I did it:

Ingredients for the dough:

2 tablespoons of butter cut into cubes

225 g of flour

Half a teaspoon of salt

1 sachet of baking powder

1 egg, whisked

125 ml of warm milk

Ingredients for the filling:

4 teaspoons of butter (room temperature)

2 tablespoons of cinnamon

50g of brown sugar

The zest of one lemon and the zest of one orange

1 grated or finely chopped apple

Sieve the flour together with the salt, then add the baking powder and the butter, mix well with the help of your hands, later add the egg and the warm milk and keep kneading until you get a smooth and elastic dough.

Leave the dough in a bowl for at least 40 minutes in a warm place covered with a clean cloth until the dough doubles in volume.

After that, knead again for a minute and stretch the dough with the help of a kitchen roller.

For the filling: mix the sugar and the butter and add the rest of the ingredients: cinnamon, lemon zest, orange zest and the grated apple.

IMG_20150329_165403 — Roll the dough to get a tube shape

Roll the dough gently untlil you have a tube shape. Now cut with a sharp knife into pieces (I got 12 pieces removing the edges). Place the rolls in a previously greased round mold and put it in the oven for about 25-30 minutes at 190ºC.

IMG_20150329_182953 — Brush it with some syrup or honey

Let cool down and brush it with some syrup or honey…done! just eat and enjoy.

This dessert is going to be sold for the cancer foundation in Belgium (Kom op tegen Kanker), so I´m glad that I helped to support this good cause.

Have a good week!

Posted on 27 March, 201516 May, 2018 by casalforno — Leave a comment

Crème Brûlée

Crème Brûlée, also know as burnt cream, is a cream made by egg yolks, which surface is dusted with sugar, burned afterwards to create a layer of crunchy caramel on top of the cream. (Anybody drooling already?)

The earliest known reference comes from France, although, some say that its origins are english (Crème anglaise), and others think that is just the adaptation of the Spanish Crema Catalana.

In any case, regardless of its origins, I hope you are already thinking about trying to make it at home. I think it´s a nice dessert for a fancy dinner; elegant, simple and sooo delicious.

Here I tell you the way I made it:

Ingredients (4-6 persons)

For the base dough: (I made a base and filled it with the cream, but if you want to save time, you can do it as well without and just pour the cream in the molds)

150 g flour

25 g of cane sugar

125 g of butter

1 teaspoon of water

For the filling:

4 egg yolks

50 g of cane sugar

400 ml of cream

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Brown sugar for dusting on top

To make the base, start mixing the flour and sugar, then add the butter and knead with your hands, add the water and continue kneading until you get an elastic dough. Make a ball, wrap the dough in film paper and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Strech the dough on the working table and cut into round shape to place it into the molds, make little holes with a fork, place a baking paper on top of the mold and fill it with dry chickpeas or small balls, so the dough does not rise; keep it in the oven at 190ºC for about 15 minutes.10 minutes more without the dry chickpeas if you want it more crispy.

For the filling: start whisking the egg yolks and the sugar until they get a white color. Heat the cream and vanilla in a pan and leave it until just before the boiling point.

Add the cream to the egg yolks and sugar mixture and bring to the fire. Keep stirring until it gets thicker, remove from fire just before boiling point, otherwise you will get lumps in your cream.

Let the cream cool down before filling the molds, then sprinkle brown sugar on top of the cream and burn it with a blowtorch or just leave it in the oven for a couple of minutes on the grill position.

Et voilâ! Let the cream sit overnight in the fridge (please, do something else immediately or your Crème Brûlée wont make it to the next day 🙂

Enjoy!

Posted on 23 February, 201516 May, 2018 by casalforno — Leave a comment

Truffels

Valentine´s Day is coming soon and we are about to see screens and displays full of red and pink color. Since I´m not really a Valentine´s Day person, this time I wanted to make a nice bite with chocolate; I think it fits perfectly for those who really like to enjoy this day and it´s also nice as a present to give anytime.

Truffels! two ways of making them and very little chances that the result goes wrong. You will be the king or the queen of the Valentine´s Day with this nice chocolate treat.

Cookie truffels and chocolate truffels!

Ingredients to prepare cookie truffels:

500 g of caramelized biscuits

250 g of cream cheese

Dark and white chocolate to make the cover

Preparation:

First smash well the cookies until they are fine, then add the cheese cream and mix well until you get a smooth dough.

Place the dough in the frigde for at least 1 hour. After that you can start giving the truffels the round shape with the help of two spoons or with your hands.

Decoration: melt the dark chocolate and the white chocolate separately and deep the cookie balls inside.

Ingredients to prepare the chocolate truffels:

1 tablet of dark chocolate

3 egg yolks

200 ml of cream

Preparation:

Chop the chocolate and melt on low fire stirring well. In a saucepan aside, put the cream and warm it up. Take it out from the fire when starts cooking; then, add the chocolate to the cream and mix well, after that add the egg yolks and mix until everything is well integrated and the dough is like a smooth cream (hmmm).

Put it in the fridge for about 3 hours. After that you can start shaping the truffels with the help of two spoons.

The funny part starts now, you can decorate in million different ways: cocoa powder, chocolate sprinkles, coconut, chopped hazelnuts or almonds…

You can keep them in the fridge without problems and they are delicious! That is one easy recipe right? I hope you try it at home and have a good Valentine´s week!! Enjoy!

Posted on 14 January, 201516 May, 2018 by casalforno — Leave a comment

Oatmeal custard flan

Hi everyone!

For this new post, I wanted to make a very healthy recipe to start the new year and get rid of those calories that we were enjoying during the Chirstmas holidays.

A super simple tasty recipe, with very few calories and also suitable for vegans. A nice and healthy dessert: Oatmeal (custard) flan.

Here we go!

Ingredients:

1 liter of oat drink

Cinnamon stick

Orange zest

Lemon skin

Vanilla pod

Agar-agar (4 grams for 1 liter)

Sweetener (I´ve used Stevia, but you can also use sugar or any other that you like)

1º) In a saucepan, mix the Agar-Agar with a bit of cold oat drink, stir until everything is mixed. Then, add the rest of the oatmeal drink, cinnamon, vanilla, orange zest, lemon skin and the sweetener that you like.

2º) Bring the mixture to the fire and let it boil for about two minutes. Then take away from the fire and remove the lemon skin, vanilla and cinnamon stick and place the mixture into the custard cups.

3º) Let cool down a few minutes at room temperature before taking the cups into the fridge. Once in the fridge let the mixture solidifies (for about 1 hour and half).

4º) Once the mixture is completely cold, remove the cups.

Now, you can decorate with anything that you like: fruits, nuts, biscuits, honey or other syrup that you may like.

Enjoy!!!

I´ve decorated with pistachio, pomegranate, strawberry and smashed cookies

I hope you like this recipe; Have a nice day :)!!