Archive for May, 2008

Awards

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

Award! My little blog won an award. Oh my GOD, even 2 awards! Can you believe?!
When one starts a food blog, it’s really hard for him to believe that people, people he doesn’t know and actually feel committed to read it, are going to. At least these were my thoughts as I started this blog. Then came the first visits from people I didn’t know, boy was I happy to see that on the site’s statistics! I can’t even begin to tell you how the first comment threw me up the roof with joy! And now these 2 awards - true happiness!

Actually, I got them quite a long time ago, and I’m passing them on only now because of major lack of time. So first of all thanks a lot, to the 2 wonderful bloggers that felt that my blog deserves them - it made me so so happy!

A month and a half ago, dear Manuela from “Baking History” gave me the “You make my day” award - that really made MY day! Thanks a lot my dear, and I’m so sorry for passing this along just now. I’m passing it along to:

You make my day

- Mad Baker - Karen lives in Singapore, has a great passion for macarons, and makes one of the most beautiful macarons I’ve ever seen. Her photos are amazing as well! Because she sells her baked goods, though, recipes are almost never present in her posts, so unfortunately it’s a feast for the eyes that can’t be recreated, but it’s a great sight, nonetheless.
- Joy the Baker - She’s a very talented pastry chef, whose blog I read regularly. I absolutely adore her writing, her photos are amazing and everything she makes looks just delicious! She even once made an amazing podcast - a live video of her making a cheese and apple cake!
- Tartelette - She’s French and lives in the US, a very talented baker and she’s been blogging since 2005! I love to read her stories, and more than that, love to see that accurate finishing touch she leaves on every product of hers.
- Canelle et Vanille - Aran lives in Florida, and comes from a family of many pastry chefs, and is a pastry chef herself. On her blog you can find gorgeous photos and wonderful mouth watering creations, that will make you wanna bite right into your screen.
- Cherrapeno - Nicisme, Nicisme… I think I fell in love instantly with her wonderful blog, that’s so beautifully and cleanly designed! And more important than that - all she makes looks so wonderful, makes me want to recreate instantly. Every time a new post is uploaded, it puts a smile on my face and makes my tummy crave :)

Nicisme is also the one that passed the E for Excellence award to me. Thanks, Nic, I was so thrilled to receive this from you! I’m passing it along to:

 E for Excellence

- Bron Marshall - Bron’s blog is simply amazing! The simplicity of the site’s design, along with the amazing photos, creative dishes and recipes that sound so good, you almost add all of them to your “to make” list - all these make her blog truly excellent in my (and in many other surfers) book.
- Make Life Sweeter - Linda lives in the Netherlands, and in the past she lived in Israel for a while, and so she has a warm corner in her heart for our country, and visits some Israeli food blogs. I love her blog so much, I always love her choices of recipes, great platings and servings for the food she makes, and  of course - very tempting photos!
- Joy the Baker - I’ve put Joy’s blog in both lists, because she indeed makes my day, but her blog is also excellent from every point of view!
- Cherrapeno - Same thing with Nicisme, that received many awards from many bloggers in the relatively short time she’s been blogging! Absolutely wonderful blog you’ve got there, Nic!
- My Mom’s Recipes and More - Chanit is a very talented Israeli baker and cook. Her blog has many many readers (I know, because when she linked to my blog in her “recommended new blogs” corner, the visits to my blog were almost doubled :) ). Chanit tries (and succeeds) to recreate childhood tastes, from her grandmother’s and mother’s kitchen, a thing that really makes me relate to her blog, other than it being a very cozy and invinting one - with the great recipes the chooses to make.
- Baking History - Manuela has a wonderful theme for her blog, a truly wonderful idea - she recreates historical dishes, for example she once baked a Lincoln Cake, following a recipe reated in 1865 to commemorate USA’s President A. Lincoln. How cool is that?! A lot of yummy traditional Jewish food can be found there as well, delightful photos and great recipes all in all.
- Maya’s World - It’s a Romanian food blog, Maya puts a lot of effort into taking very detailed photos of all the steps that make the complete dish. She makes traditional Romanian food, as well as modern food from all over the world. Great choice of recipes, wonderful photos - her blog has all the elements that make an excellent food blog.
- Bazek Alim - This is an Israeli food blog, written by Maya also (a different one, though :) ). Maya is a web designer, and that definitely shows in her beautiful site, in the gorgeous food styling she makes, and also in her stunning photos, that have wonderful compositions. Her recipes always have a price tag - how much will cost you to make the dish, cute added bonus to a wonderful blog, and usually are very easy to make, and very well explained. I’ve tried her chocolate fondants, they came out sooo good!

Manuela and Nic, thanks a lot for the awards, and mainly for thinking that my little blog is worth it! :)

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Cookies with character

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

These cookies have been on my “to do” list for quite a while, since I’ve first seen them on Cherrapeno, a wonderful food blog written by Nicisme. Actually, I’ve already told you about her in the post where I made the marvelous white chocolate and cranberries cookies. Pecan pie is my all time favorite dessert, and I’m absolutely mad about its cookie version. Last weekend, as I was searching my mind what dessert to prepare, they suddenly hit me. I was so gonna make them!

Pecan pie cookies

It was great fun making them, it was Friday night, we were at my Mom’s, and for a change we prepared the dinner as well as the dessert, so it was a really fun cooking evening together. The cookies are real easy to make and just by the smell of the dough you can already know that they’re gonna be great. And indeed they came out fantastic, eventhough I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1 cup all purpose flour, because I ran out of it after 1 cup. That’s also the reason of their darker color. The brown sugar made them really soft and gave them that melt in your mouth texture that I’m a sucker for in cookies, and the filling was simply excellent! Also the quantities of the recipe were exact, the filling was just enough for all the cookies and there were no remains - a thing that in my book turns a good recipe into a great one.

Pecan pie cookies

So yeah, these cookies can’t win a beauty contest, but their taste makes up for their lack in looks, I can assure you. Thanks Nicisme, for yet another great recipe!

Pecan Pie Cookies / Adapted by Nicisme from Land O’ Lakes
Makes about 45 medium sized cookies

For the cookies:
1 cup packed soft brown sugar
3/4 cup (170 gr) unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour (it’s possible to substitute 1 cup with whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking powder

Pecan Filling:
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1/4 cup double cream (heavy whipping)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Heat the oven to 350°F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the brown sugar, butter, egg and vanilla extract together until creamy.
3. Beat in the flour and baking powder until well mixed.
4. Shape the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Make an indentation in each cookie with your thumb; rotate thumb to hollow out slightly.
5. Combine all the filling ingredients in small bowl; fill each cookie with 1 rounded teaspoon of filling.
6. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 1 minute before removing from cookie sheets.
7. The cookies can be made ahead and frozen for up to 3 months.

Pecan pie cookies

עוגיות פאי פקאן / עיבוד של Nicisme למתכון מ - Land O’ Lakes
עבור כ-45 עוגיות בגודל בינוני

רכיבים:
לעוגיות:
1 כוס דחוסה סוכר חום כהה
170 גרם חמאה, רכה
1 ביצה
1 כפית תמצית וניל
2 כוסות קמח (ניתן להחליף כוס אחת בקמח מלא)
1 כפית אבקת אפיה

למלית הפקאן:
1 כוס אגוזי פקאן קצוצים גס
1/2 כוס סוכר חום כהה
1/4 כוס (60 מ”ל) שמנת מתוקה
1 כפית תמצית וניל

הכנה:
1. מחממים תנור ל - 175 מעלות.
2. מקציפים את הסוכר והחמאה עד לקבלת תערובת קרמית.
3. מערבבים פנימה קמח ואבקת אפיה עד לקבלת תערובת אחידה.
4. יוצרים כדורים מהבצק, מניחים על תבנית מרופדת בנייר אפיה ויוצרים גומה במרכז כל עוגיה בעזרת האגודל.
5. מערבבים את כל חומרי המלית בקערה קטנה. ממלאים כל עוגיה במלית (אני יצרתי עוגיות בגודל כדור פלאפל קטן, ולכן נדרשה לי 1/2 כפית מלית לכל אחת).
6. אופים 8-12 דקות, או עד שהעוגיות משחימות קלות (או קשות, תלוי איך אתם אוהבים את זה :) )
7. ניתן לשמור במקפיא עד 3 חודשים.

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Posted in Cookies | 5 Comments »

Seriously rich chocolate goodness

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

 Fondant

The unfortunate fire that I told you about in my last post happened 3 hours after Daniel, Avi’s brother’s girlfriend and me finished preparing 3 kinds of desserts for the Passover evening dinner. We made macaroons (the American coconut cookies), macarons - it was my first time and they came out really good and with a great chewy center, as they should. It’s a real shame I can’t share it with you guys… But it’s a great reason for making my second batch sooner than I planned! We also made a no-sugar cheesecake for one of our dinner guests.

Fondant

So all in all, after the fire, I remained with no dessert for the Passover dinner. That was definitely a situation that had to be fixed, and so I made this great chocolate fondant. I followed the recipe of a dear Israeli blogger friend of mine - Maya from Bazek Alim, adapting the recipe to fit the flourless Passover restriction. It’s a great recipe and it turned out great even in the Passover version! Thanks Maya for a yummy recipe, and also many thanks for oferring me to come and cook with you at your home! This is a really generous offer, and I think it also could be lots of fun. I’ll be in touch with you about that.

Fondant

Since I baked it at my mother’s house, in an oven I didn’t bake in before, I baked one test fondant, it took 12 mins in her oven and the result was perfect! A liquid chocolate center wrapped up in a cloudy-like chocolate soft crust… So much YUM!
Unfortunately, thinking I’ve mastered the fondant art in just one try, when I baked the ones for the guests, I left them 2 mins more in the oven (each one of them was bigger than the test one), which resulted in a very small liquid center. It was still very tasty, no doubt about that, but it left me with a bit of a sad feeling for succeding on the test round and failing (or succeeding less) on the important round.

Fondant

Fondant

Baking time is crucial in this recipe. You should bake your fondant just until its margins have stabilized, but the center is still soft and hasn’t firmed up yet. It’s best to spend the last 3-4 mins near the oven, keeping a close eye on these little pieces of yummyness. Baking one of them in advance in order to test the time it takes in your oven is highly recommended.

Fondant

Chocolate Fondant / Maya from Bazek Alim, with my adaptation for Passover
Makes about 6 regular muffin sized fondants

Ingredients:
150 gr bitersweet chocolate
150 gr butter
2 eggs
a pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
4 1/2 Tbsp sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp flour (Passover version: substitue with 3/4 Tbsp Matzos flour and the rest potatoes flour or corn flour)

Directions:
1. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a Bain-Marie or in the microwave. Stir well until a uniform mixture is formed.
2. Add in the 2 eggs and the pinch of salt and whisk well until incorporated.
3. Add in the egg yolks and whisk well until inpcorporated.
4. Add in the sugar and stir well, so that in the next step, when adding the flour in, only a minimal stir will be needed.
5. Add the flour and stir only until incorporated.
6. Pour into greased ramekins or muffins pan, and bake in an oven preheated to 356F (180 C). As mentioned in the final paragraph of the post, keep a close eye on your fondants and take them out when their margins have firmed but the center hasn’t yet.

Fondant

Fondant

פונדנט שוקולד / עיבוד של מאיה מבצק אלים למתכון של רוני ונציה עם התאמה שלי לפסח
עבור 6 פונדנטים בגודל של מאפין סטנדרטי

רכיבים:
150 גרם שוקולד מריר
150 גר חמאה
2 ביצים
קורט מלח
2 חלמונים
4 1/2 כפות סוכר
2 1/2 כפות קמח (לגרסת הפסח: החליפו את הקמח ב - 3/4 כף קמח מצה והשאר קמח תפו”א או קורנפלור)

הכנה:
1. ממיסים את החמאה והשוקולד ביחד במיקרו או מעל ביין מארי (סיר בתוך סיר).
2. מוסיפים את 2 הביצים והמלח וטורפים היטב עד לקבלת תערובת אחידה.
3. מוסיפים את החלמונים וטורפים היטב.
4. מוסיפים את הסוכר וטורפים היטב.
5. מוסיפים את הקמח וטורפים רק עד לקבלת תערובת אחידה, לא יותר מדי על מנת שהתוצאה הסופית לא תהיה צמיגית.
6. שופכים את התערובת לתוך כלי הפונדנט (או לתבנית המאפינס) המשומנים ואופים בתנור שחומם מראש ל-180 מעלות. כפי שכתוב בפסקה האחרונה בפוסט, כדאי להשגיח צמוד בדקות האחרונות של האפיה, על מנת להוציא את הפונדטנים בול בזמן - כאשר השוליים שלהם התייצבו אך המרכז עדיין לא.

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Posted in Cakes, Desserts, Holidays | 7 Comments »