Une brioche toute simple, mais si moelleuse – Une brioche parmi tant d’autres

This brioche is simple, quite unpretentious and low-key, light, fluffy but nonetheless very tasty, just like we enjoy to have on some mornings with butter, jam and strong coffee. There are many versions and kinds of brioches, you just have to play around with quantities of eggs, flour, sugar butter and yeast, but the technique is always the same: a “pâte levée“, a “rised dough” . Pâte levée technique consists of preparing the dough the night before with a yeast, then refrigerate it overnight. The cold will enable the dough to ferment slowly in a cold environment, therfore acidity developed by the cells of the yeast will give more flavor to the ingredients and a better aspect to the dough due to the reinforcement of the tenacity of gluten.

Anyone who has been to France knows what brioche is, it’s probably as famous as Eiffel Tower, baguette and croissant. After brioche tressée that tastes more like Pain au lait (milk bread?) that I have been making for a while and the extra rich Farro brioche with goose egg, I went back to a more simple and traditional version of brioche. Retour à la simplicité.

Basically its origin goes back to Middle Ages in Normandy where similar “rised dough” have been retraced. Brioche is not considered a bread in France but a viennoiserie, which is slightly different. Techniques of making viennoiseries are similar to those of making bread but since they have more fat and sugar content, they’re considered more like pastries.

On Friday evenings when I realize I have nothing left for the Saturday morning breakfast, I start making one of those brioches, yes it needs to be prepared the night before and needs to rise in the refrigerator overnight for a light and fluffy dough. I am afraid you cannot cut any corners if you don’t have a bread-machine and will have to wait for the day after to enjoy it.

Breakfast is sacred in my little world and getting up in the morning with nothing to eat is not an option! Even though I have been living in the US for many years, I am not used to the brunch concept, I guess it’s hard to change habits. Brunch is a little confusing, it makes sense if you get up at 11 am but not if you’re up at 7 am like me and have breakfast as early as 7:30 am, call me boring but I like to stick to my traditional coffee, bread, jam and butter in the mornings. Et non, on ne se débarasse pas de ses habitudes comme ca! (no, you don’t get rid of your habits so easily!).

I have been playing around with ingredients quantities, putting less sugar than required because I love jam on my brioche slice so it’s sweet enough for me but you can certainly add more sugar in the dough if your tooth is sweeter.

Ingredients for 6 people

• 10.58 oz (300 g) flour
• 1.5 cup lukewarm milk
• 1.41 oz (40 g) sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3.17 oz (90 g) butter
• 1 dose dry yeast or fresh yeast
• 2 pinches salt

Preparation

Place flour in a mixing bowl, add dry yeast (if using fresh yeast, needs to be dissolved in milk), sugar. Mix well all ingredients.

Add one egg, milk and salt and gradually mix all ingredients. When the dough has thickened, add the extra egg. Knead the dough to incorporate the egg. It might be sticky at the beginning, but keep kneading.

Add butter at the end and mix until the dough becomes elastic but not too sticky. Let it rise for 3 hours. Then, knead a little to remove the “air”.

Place in the refrigerator overnight with a plastic warp, and preventing air from getting into the container.

In the morning, remove dough from the refrigerator, knead slightly and cut in 4 equal parts and form little balls. Place each ball in a greased rectangular baking pan loaf.

Let it rise for an additional hour and cook in a pre-heated oven at 365-370F for about 40 minutes.

Let it cool and enjoy plain or with your favorite jam. I don’t usually add extra butter, since the dough has already some, but you can!

Breads, Breakfast/Brunch Breakfast/Brunch, brioche, french

Aussi délicate qu’une fleur – Gelée de coings

I have been completely away from my computer and the internet world since I arrived in Nancy. The weird thing is that when I come home, I just disconnect completely from my computer and phone. I like the slow pace, relaxed energy and long walks in the nature with my mom and barely feel like turning on the computer. It’s been cold and freezing lately, the cold bites my skin and is quite invigorating but as long as the sky is blue I am happy. Yesterday, January 2nd the crazy country wide sales have started and the shops will remain exceptionally open on Sunday (in France on Sundays usually all stores are closed), the streets are packed with shoppers looking for the best deals.

My mom has been going crazy cooking for the holidays and to be honest, I have barely touched anything. The January 1st lunch was comprised of 12 course meal lunch going from traditional Escargots (snails) using her own recipe, to Foie gras roulé au pain d’Épices et figues (Foie gas rolled in spicy bread with figs), to Cannelloni with spinach and ricotta, and tons of other dishes. I am just wondering how much weight I’ll gain when I’ll get back to the US since my jeans are already starting to get a little tight. So the next week will be posts that she made, from her own recipes or old recipes she took from books here and there.

This is one of my favorite jams, to me quince preserve smells like a flower and is so addictive. My parents have many quince trees in their garden, and my moms makes a delicious quince preserve and paste. This region of France is quie famous for its quince trees. Every morning I spread it on brioche or pains au lait and I just feel like eating the most delicately perfumed flower. It’s deep orange-red color and perfume makes this preserve the sexiest of all. The literal translation of “Gélee” is “Jelly” and the juice of the fruit is used instead of the fruit itself. When making quince preserve, the leftover cooked fruit flesh is used to make a quince paste which is a delicious sweet treat.

For jams and preserves, the quantities of fruits is the same as quantity of sugar. In this case, quantity of sugar used is the same as quince juice. So I did not put exact quantities. For example, here the juice obtained after cooking the fruits is equal to quantities of sugar you will use. For this recipe my mom used less sugar so, for 2 lbs of juice obtained, she used 6 oz (170 gr) of sugar.

Ingredients for 2-3 jars

• Quinces, washed, cut in quarters and unpeeled (just the stem needs to be removed)
• Sugar
• Water

Preparation

First wash quinces well to remove the little “hair” from its skin. Dry them. Remove the stem and cut them in quarters. Do not remove seeds since it’s the seed that make the jelly texture.

Place in a large pot and cover with water. You need enough water to just cover the fruits not more. Cook at high heat until it boils, then decrease heat and cook slowly.

When the fruits are cooked. Filter the mixture and keep the juice. Add sugar to the juice and bring back to boil slowly for about 15 minutes or until the preserve thickens. When the preserve has thicken, remove from heat and place in jars.

Let it cool and close jar with cover tightly.

Breakfast/Brunch Breakfast/Brunch, jam, quince preserve, spread

C’est au tour de l’oie de pondre – Brioche d’épeautre à l’oeuf d’oie et eau de fleur d’oranger

I went to whole Foods again this morning, and I decided to buy a goose egg after the last week experiment with duck eggs. Instead of another omelette, I wanted to try and bake with them since I heard so many wonderful things about how delicious pastry you can get with the use of goose eggs. They’re larger and even richer than duck’s eggs, and more expensive, since one costs $5. I know my mom used to make pasta with those, my uncle in Italy has geese and always gives her some of his eggs, and I don’t think there’s anything that can please her more that that.

So going back to my Whole Foods story, I arrived at the cash register and the cashier had no idea how much they were, so I told him $5 each and he did not believe me, so he proudly decided to give it to me for free. He said there is no price, so it’s free. I like that principle. Oh well, I rarely get free stuff, so I for once I left happily holding carefully my egg in my hand since it was so big, it didn’t fit anywhere and I certainly did not want to break it.

I had made brioches a while ago that turned out really well, so I took that recipe, making some changes to quantities and ingredients but still using the same technique of letting it rest overnight in the refrigerator, and adding some flavors to the dough. Et voilà ma belle brioche!

I think I will have to get used to baking more since this neighborhood I moved into, there are absolutely NO bakeries, and that is a big bummer. There is one a couple of blocks down but I looked at the bread and pastries and they don’t look very appetizing at all, so I will have to either drive miles to get bread or do it myself. I am no baker, and it takes time to make good bread so not sure how that will work. Call me crazy but the other thing I do when I go into a bakery, is look at the cleanliness of the windows. If the windows are dirty, it’s not a good sign of cleanliness of the overall bakery and I walk away.

Goose eggs can very a lot in size, and they’re about the equivalent of 3 regular eggs. Mine was very big and the yolk amazingly huge, so my brioche quite rich. I added half farro flour that I am in love with. I also used Écorce d’orange en poudre, (orange peel powder) I bought in France. I’m sure you can find something similar in the US, probably in some health food stores. The brioche is deliciously perfumed with orange blossom water and rich while being light at the same time. So yes, goose eggs make great pastries and brioches.

Ingredients for 2 brioches

• 1/2 lb (or 250 g) white flour
• 1/2 lb (or 250 g) farro flour
• 1 large goose egg
• 1 cup (or 250 ml) milk
• 1 regular egg yolk for topping
• 2.82 oz (or 80 g) butter, soft and diced
• 2.82 oz (or 80 g) sugar
• 1 tbs orange blossom water
• 1 tsp orange peel powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp beer yeast dissolved in 4 tbs lukewarm water (or dry yeast)

Preparation

In a large mixing container, mix both flours, add sugar and salt. Make a whole in the center and add egg, orange blossom water and orange peel powder. Mix well and gradually add milk, vanilla extract and yeast. At this point, you will obtain an elastic dough. If the dough is too liquid and sticky, add flour. Knead well. Add butter incorporating it carefully to the dough but do not over knead or “heat” the dough. Let it rise for about 2 hours.

Knead again and place in in the refrigerator overnight. Knead the dough again, then cut dough in two equal pieces, then cut again each piece in three . You should have six little dough balls. Grease two loave pans and place three pieces of dough in each pan, and let it rise for another additional 2 hours.

Baste top of each loaf with egg yolk, and cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 30 minutes. Check once in a while to see the top didn’t burn. Remove from the oven and eat lukewarm with jam or as is.

Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts Breads, brioche, brunch, Dessert, farro, goose egg, orange blossom water, spelt

C’est la saison des coings! – Sandwich de brioche grillée à la ricotta, miel et coings caramelisés

Again, one of those days where I made a trip to la Boulange to get some Brioche, among many other things…I keep forgetting that Whole Foods distribute it. We are so used to savory sandwiches that I wanted to use the best brioche in town for some sweet morning treat. If you have a little time in the morning for breakfast it’s delicious with a nice cup of coffee. I thought half of it would be enough and I have to admit that both pieces were not.

Usually brioche can be greasy, especially the one you buy at the store, it is indeed filled with butter. So you cannot eat it every day, or you might have to get a membership at the local gym and work your calories out! Sorry, I am indeed a fitness freak and seems like I am built with a calories counting machine inside my head. BUT that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy eating and that I eat fat-free stuff. You can really love wholesome and fabulous food that is still healthy and good for the mind and body. Anyway, la Boulange brioche is not that greasy, at least you don’t have shiny fingers after you finished eating it!

It is quince season, and using seasonal ingredients is really the best. So obviously, running into those quinces, I had no other option than buy them. In France, where I grew up, during fall we have tons of those and make jams with them. That quince jam is so delicious, it smells like a perfume and seriously, you just want to spread some on your neck.

You cannot eat quince raw like you would eat a pear. It needs to be cooked, so you can use them for making chutneys, or jams or just caramelize them in a pan.

For 2 people

• 4 slices of brioche (about 1.5 cm thick)
• 4 tbs ricotta
• 2 quinces, peeled and sliced
• vanilla powder
• 2 tbs honey
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbs butter

Preparation

Cut brioche in four slices. Melt butter in a non-stick pan, add quince slices, sprinkle with a little sugar and brown both sides.

Grill brioche in a grill pan on both sides. Top one slice with 2 tbs ricotta, sprinkle with vanilla powder. Add honey and quince slices. Top with the other brioche slice.

Breakfast/Brunch, Express - Less than 30 minutes Breakfast/Brunch, brioche sandwich, honey, quince, ricotta

Mère canard a aussi pondu – Omelette aux oeufs de canard, onions, tomates, chèvre et herbes

I found those beautiful duck eggs at Whole Foods a couple of days ago, among quail and ostrich eggs! I bought six and just two were left so I figured that was going to be my lunch. First I wasn’t sure if I was going to post it or not, then I decided it would all depend on the final look. Pretty and tasty was going to be posted. Just pretty could have been, but just tasty was not. Obviously it was both.

I am not a huge fan of Whole Foods but some of my clients want only organic products and the only place I can find them is Whole Foods, since the Rainbow does not have any animal-based products. So, I have been shopping there for myself digging for some interesting products as well and I have to admit that they do carry some unusual and local products which makes the shopping quite fun.

I haven’t had duck eggs for such a long time, my mom used to make homemade pasta with them and it makes a beautiful yellow dough. They contain more fat and are tastier than regular eggs. You can use them instead of using regular eggs, but they’re heavier and bigger, and the yolk has a deep orange color. When using duck eggs in recipes, you might need to change proportions, since they’re bigger than regular eggs.

You might wonder what’s the big deal of eating duck eggs? They make great pastries, and do have a special flavorful taste. So those are good enough reasons.

Omelette is the French word for frittata but not sure how to call it in English, I think Americans use the Italian word if I’m not mistaken. This omelette is really delightful, enhanced by herbs and goat cheese combined with the sweetness of caramelized onions, it all makes a great brunch dish.

I love omelettes, but never make them. Don’t you have something you love but never think of making it? In my case, that’s omelette…

Ingredients for 2 omelettes

• 4 duck eggs
• 2 tomatoes, seedless and peeled, roughly chopped
• 1 large yellow onion, sliced
• 2 tbs mixed herbs (basil, chives, parsley, etc..), finely chopped
• 3 tbs goat cheese, crumbled
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a pan, add onions and brown them. Add tomatoes, cook for a few minutes, but do not let it turn mushy. Add salt and pepper.

In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs with herbs salt and pepper. Pour on top of onion mixture. Cover with a lid and cookd until the bottom part is golden brown, and top of omelette is cooked. Add goat cheese on half the side of the omelette and fold the other half on top. Cook for a few more minutes and serve with a green salad.

Breakfast/Brunch duck eggs, frittata, goat cheese, herbs, onions, tomatoes

On se fait un pique-nique? – Sandwich aux légumes grillés, chèvre et tapenade

I am still in the middle of boxes and no kitchen cabinets and no silverware and tons of boxes filled with junk stuff…the bad news is that I need to cook tomorrow for some new clients and that I am still wondering how it will happen…All I want right now is sleep 24 hours straight.

This is the second post featuring a sandwich, just because I am not a sandwich fan…but sometimes, they can be fun to make, even if you don’t eat them. I wouldn’t say this is a quick one to make, since you need to grill your vegetables first but still it’s fun put it together and look at all the bright colors combined. When you organize a picnic party, those can come in handy since they’re tons of vegetables packed in two slices of bread, so instead of eating junk food at a picnic, you can actually enjoy some healthy food.

Sandwiches for me, were only eaten during the time my parents and I would leave Nancy to drive to Italy. My mom would make a few of them for the 10 hour drive trip, since my dad would drive straight, without any stop in between point A to point B. You needed to have some sort of food handy in the car. My mom would get up at 2 am and make a few panini per il viaggio and by 3 am we would be on the road. I hated to get up at 2 am…but my dad always wanted to hit the road on Sunday at 3 am because there would be no truck on the freeways (trucks don’t drive on Sundays) and the freeways in Europe are not as large as the one in the US…now at 70 years of old, he still gets up at 2 am to hit the road at 3 pm and there is nothing and no one that will make him change his mind.

In France, the most traditional sandwich you get, is the jambon, beurre, cornichons = ham, butter and cornichons (It’s not really a sandwich country). On a great crunchy baguette, with great ham and salted butter, it’s wonderful. What I like about the real French baguette is that there is very little crumb, the middle is airy and not dense, so it’s not as filling as some other breads. Now many boulangeries are making some fancy sandwiches with all kinds of baguettes and all kinds of stuffing (but always on baguette) and even though I am not a sandwich fan, I somehow like the ones on baguettes once in a rare while because they have a lovely crust and almost no mie (the breadcrumb inside) that is the stuffy part.

Ingredients for 4

For the Kalamata olive tapenade spread

• 1 cup kalamata olives
• 1/4 cup capers
• 3 tbs. olive oil
• ½ tsp garlic crushed
• ½ tsp. extra strong Dijon mustard

For the sandwich

• 2 small size eggplants, cut crosswise
• 3 zucchini, sliced lengthwise
• 4 tbs sundried tomatoes
• 1 cup arugula
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 4 tsp parsley, chopped
• 2 tsp oregano, chopped
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 4 tbs crumbled goat cheese
• 4 tbs roasted peppers, sliced and well drained
• 2 tsp olive oil

Preparation

For the spread

mix all ingredients in a mixer.

For the sandwich

Grill eggplants and zucchini in a grill pan or regular grill. Place in a mixing bowl with sliced roasted peppers. Add parsley, oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.
Cut country bread in two, grill on a grill pan or regular grill.
Spread 1 tbs. of tapenade on each slices of the bread. Add arugula, avocado, grilled zucchini and eggplant. Add sundried tomatoes, roasted peppers and goat cheese.

Breakfast/Brunch, Vegetarian - dairy goat cheese, roasted peppers, sandwich, tapenade, zucchini

Jeux de pommes – Galettes de pommes, ricotta et beurre d’amande

I started this little post a while ago and never managed to finish it, since I have a 30 minutes break in between this craziness move, I just wanted to finish it and move on.

Originally I wanted to make savory frittelle with the ricotta I had bought, something with capers and parsley, then I woke up one morning and had nothing to eat for breakfast (like this morning), and that is bad news. It rarely happens, I always make sure I have food for breakfast. No coffee for my Brikka, and no bread for my toaster. (so I had to use the Nespresso that I really don’t like, I have to admit that I am a coffee snob). As much as I have very light dinners, my breakfasts are quite substantial and I really need to eat in the morning. Usually, I don’t get grumpy if I am hungry, I just chew a gum and I can last a couple of hours….except in the morning. Les petit-dejeûners sont sacrés!! Breakfast are sacred!

When you have nothing to eat, then pancake is the solution…I think those are similar to pancakes in terms of texture and consistency even if technically they might not be pancakes (I don’t know I am not a pancake expert). They tend to be tender and soft…

The almond butter adds a little natural sweetness and nutty taste to it. As much as don’t care for peanut butter, I love almond butter.

Those pancakes are completely made with wholewheat flour and a quite healthy little morning treat, if you have nothing else to eat and don’t feel like going out for breakfast.

Ingredients for 10 pancakes

• 2 medium size fuji apples
• 4 tbs light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 5 tbs ricotta
• 7 tbs wholewheat flour
• 1 tbs almond butter
• zest of one lemon
• 2 tbs golden raisins
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
• 1 tsp baking powder

Preparation

In a mixing container, grate peeled apples, squeeze them in your hand to somehow remove extra juice, then add lemon juice to prevent them from browning. In another container, mix ricotta, eggs and sugar and beat until the mixture becomes smooth. Add lemon zest, almond butter and flour, vanilla extract and powder, raisins and baking powder.

In a non stick pan, place one large tbs of mixture and let it cook on one side, then turn on the other side when they turn golden brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve hot with a apple sauce on the side.

Breakfast/Brunch apples, Breakfast/Brunch, pancakes, raisins, ricotta

Mon doigt s’est coincé dans le pot- Ebelskivers à la nutella

Well, I would have never thought to make something with Nutella…Usually, I don’t cook with Nutella, I just eat it from the jar, and when the jar is half empty, I use my fingers. No worries, I do not stick my finger in any jar that I serve guests, in case you are wondering, that would be quite un-hygienic.

I had this conversation with Mary from Keep Learning Keep Smiling not that long ago. She admitted she loves condensed milk so much probably as much as I love Nutella that she likes to lick it from her fingers which I thought was funny. She gave me the idea to write a post about it. I don’t eat Nutella that often, I buy a similar organic Hazlenut-coconut spread that seems to be healthier, but still Nutella is an institution, so sometimes I buy it to serve it with crêpes because I have a friend who would not eat crêpes without it. I am not sure Nutella is made to be cooked, it’s a pâte a tartiner, and usually those spreads don’t do well at high temperatures. So I figured I had to use it in a recipe where it does not cook that much.

So looking at my pile of pans, I saw this ebelskiver pan I bought a while ago when I worked for that family with two kids…they loved those little balls (all kids do) with raspberry stuffed in the middle. If you have kids, they will go crazy for those ones. Ebelskivers are Danish (Dutch too have their own version), they look like round donuts but are not fried, they’re filled with all kinds of things, raspberries, jam, cheese, etc… I filled half of those with Nutella and half with blackberry jam, so if you are a Nutella fan, you will love those. I don’t think I need to give you a description on how  delicious they are when Nutella melts in the heart of those cute little balls. It’s easy to imagine.

Usually I stick to French and Italian cuisines since I grew up with those and I don’t adventure myself in Dutch or Scandinavian cuisine or other ones I have not been exposed to. I think to understand a cuisine, it’s important to understand its culture, its country, its traditions. Those ebelskivers are an exception to the rule, because they are something in between donuts and pancakes and that I grew up eating bignè. The batter is close to a pancake batter with some slight changes.

The little trick is that you need a specific pan…but that pan is available in many US stores, so no this is not a fancy pan I brought back from Europe, I bought mine at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Ingredients for 12 ebelskivers

• 4.23 oz (or 120 g) flour
• 1 tsp palm sugar (or other raw sugar)
• 1 egg
• 5.74 fl oz (or 170 ml) milk
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 0.50 oz (or 15 ml) oil
• vanilla powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, mix flour and baking powder together. In another bowl, beat egg yolk and sugar vigorously, then add milk and beat until the mixture gets smooth. Add vanilla beans and powder. Add oil. Mix well. Add gradually the egg/milk mixture to the flour, stirring constantly until you get a smooth batter. Beat egg white until it get stiff, then incorporate to the mixture.

Heat the ebelskiver pan, greasing each hole with very little oil. Pour some batter in each hole. Do not fill the whole to the top since the ebelskivers tend to rise. When the batter has risen up to the top of the hole, check the bottom to see if the ebelskiver has turned golden brown. At this point, add whatever you want in the middle. You can add a piece of fruit (I love them with a raspberry), some jam, nutella, etc…Then using two bamboo sticks, turn each ebelskiver on the other side. To make sure they’re cooked, stick a stick inside and remove to see if the batter adheres to the side of the stick. If so, decrease heat and continue cooking and checking color and making sure they don’t burn.

Remove from pan, sprinkle with powder sugar and serve hot.

Breakfast/Brunch Breakfast/Brunch, brunch, danish donut, donut, ebleskiers, jam, nutella, raspberry

Ne casse pas l’oeuf!! – Oeuf poché sur fèves, mange-tout et asperges sautées, balsamic et pecorino

I have had some poached eggs lately at a new little place that used to be a French restaurant called Couleur Café run by French people. It closed down, and opened again under another name, Pizza Nostra run by the same people and now it’s an Italian restaurant, well the menu is more Italian than French. I liked it before when they were serving French cuisine and I like it now serving Italian cuisine. One of my favorite brunch menu item is the poached eggs on asparagus artichokes and eggplants with a side of frisée.

The best poached egg salad I had was in Lyon. Of course, if you ever go to Lyon, you need to order a Salade Lyonnaise at L’Est one of Paul Bocuse’s four brasseries (one of the most famous French chefs of this century). The four brasseries are comprised of Le Nord, Le Sud, L’Est and L’Ouest (North, South, East and West). That salad is really a masterpiece. Unlike other French cities, where you tend to get very tiny portions on your plate, Lyon is very different in that respect. That salad was enough for four people and so rich that it had probably the amount of calories I consume in three days…but a real delight. Actually, Lyon is my favorite city in France, I prefer Lyon than Paris, it reminds me of San Francisco, a very livable size city, a clean metro, and nicer climate.

So going back to our egg, what do you do when you get a poached egg? Do you break the egg right away or eat the rest of the dish and break the egg at the end? I think I never really changed from when I was 8 years old. I just hate to break the egg and see the yolk dripping by, sometimes I just feel like sticking the whole egg in my mouth, just not to break it.

Ingredients for 2

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup snap peas
• 1 cup fava beans, skin removed
• 4 asparagus, cut in 1 inch pieces
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp mixed herbs, chopped (parsley, chives, etc…)
• 4 slices pancetta, diced (optional)
• balsamic vinegar for drizzling
• parmesan or pecorino, shaved
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add shallots, brown them, then add pancetta, let it cook for a couple of minutes until it gets a little crunchy, then add garlic. Stir for a couple of minutes, then add snap peas and asparagus, salt and pepper. Cover and let it cook at slow heat.

Remove fava beans from the pod. Bring water to a boil in a small pot, then add fava beans. Cook for one minute depending on the size of the beans. Drain, let it cool and remove the skin from the beans.

Add to the snap peas and asparagus mixture.

To poach the eggs: In a medium size pot, bring water to a boil with salt and vinegar. When it started to boil, reduce heat so that it boils very slowly. Break egg in a bowl and slowly bring the bowl on top of the boiling water and pour it very slowly and carefully in the water. Make sure the egg whites don’t get spread out in the water, and bring the white close to the yolk. You can use two spoons to try to “glue” the egg whites all together on top of the yolk. remove the egg carefully and place in cold water to rinse the vinegar and stop the cooking process.

When the vegetables are cooked but not overcooked, drizzle with balsamic vinegar, shave some parmesan on top. Spoon vegetables in serving plates, place one poached egg on top, Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Breakfast/Brunch asparagus, fava beans, parmesan, pecorino, poached egg, snap peas

Une petite douceur pour le déjeûner… ou pas – Mini manqués aux poires et la confiture de mûres

Not that I particularly love to celebrate my birthday as a great or special day at all, but it’s the nostalgic side of me that talking. I like to do something different every year because I want to remember it the following years. I don’t like to see time go by, so every year for 12 October, I do something I remember…Year after year, I look back and I think about that particular time. I think it’s a family disease, we are all so nostalgic in my family, probably because when you leave your country, you tend to get attached to what reminds you of your past where you grew up. I don’t know.

Those cakes do not remind me of my childhood but they’re so good that I used them as my birthday cakes. I am not crazy about traditional birthday cakes, nor their overly sweet icing. We call those manqués, basically a manqué is a cake with butter, a topping but needs to have a certain thickness.  I had some ripe pears that were left out after the chocolate crêpes, and wanted to use them in something sweet.

Those little cakes are great for breakfast, they have a particularly soft and velvety texture that melts in your mouth and they’re filled with a mixture of healthy wholegrain flours. I had some chestnut flour that I absolutely love in desserts, it gives a sweet nutty taste that would give any cake a very unique touch.

Usually for breakfast I don’t have anything too sweet, just some toasts with jam and coffee, not really cakes. When I am in France I get croissants and pains au chocolat for the first couple of days, then after the croissants orgy, I go back to toasts since they’re less heavy in butter.

I figured those manqués would better be served for dessert with some whipped cream but this morning I had no more bread left, so one of those cakes did the job, and honestly it’s a wonderful breakfast treat. From now on, I will make them for breakfast, beside you can keep them for a few days in a plastic container, they do not dry up at all.

Ingredients for 4 individual cakes

• 2 pears, peeled and sliced
• 70 g butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 80 g wholewheat flour
• 50 g chestnut flour
• 50 g white flour
• 100g light brown sugar
• 2 tbs heavy cream
• 3 tbs blackberry jam
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation

In a mixing container, beat eggs and butter for a couple of minutes until the mixture becomes smooth. Add cream, then add eggs, flours, vanilla extract, cream and baking powder progressively.

Butter individual deep molds (like ramequin type) or if you have silicon molds, even better. If you don’t have any individual molds, you can also use a larger deep dish one. Place nicely pear slices at the bottom of each ramequin, then divide batter equally between each of them.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 376F for about 30 minutes. Let it cool for about 10 minutes, and unmold. Warm jam in a small pan until it gets a little more liquid, then add jam on top of each manqué and serve.

Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts blackberry jam, Breakfast/Brunch, Dessert, jam, manque, pear cake, pears