Colomba Pasquale

My husband is not into sweets – I guess that the Universe knows better, right? :) – but he likes certain baked goods, like panettone and Colomba Pasquale. However, the store-bought versions are so heavily scented with artificial essences that he no longer eats them – he says those baked goods are not what they used to be when he was younger anymore and that all those artificial ingredients disagree with his stomach. Therefore, he was very excited about my homemade Colomba, and after having a slice of the freshly baked bread he said that not only it tasted delicious – like “the real deal” – he felt absolutely fine after eating it.

The picky-eater hubby enjoying my Colomba Pasquale really made my weekend, and reading that the production on season 2 of “House of Cards” is expected to start this month was the icing on the cake. \0/

Colomba Pasquale
slightly adapted from the always delicious and beautiful Australian Gourmet Traveller

Starter:
¾ cup + ½ tablespoon (110g) all purpose flour
⅛ teaspoon dried yeast
90ml water, room temperature

Colomba:
1 ½ cups + 1 ½ tablespoons (225g) all purpose flour
¼ cup + 1 tablespoon (62g) granulated sugar
3 tablespoons (42g) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs, whole
1 large egg, yolk and white separated
2 teaspoons dried yeast
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
finely grated zest of 1 orange
½ cup (75g) golden raisins
1/3 cup (35g) dried cranberries
75g dried apricots, finely diced
60g finely chopped candied orange peel

Topping:
1/3 cup (66g) demerara sugar
1/3 cup (33g) almond meal
30g flaked almonds

For starter, stir ingredients in a bowl until smooth, cover with plastic wrap and stand at room temperature for 12 hours.
Transfer starter to an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, add flour, granulated sugar, butter, the whole eggs, the yolk, yeast, vanilla and orange zest and mix on medium speed until dough is smooth and shiny and starts to leave sides of bowl (about 8 minutes). Add dried fruit and candied peel, mix to combine, then cover and stand until doubled in size (1-2 hours).
Knock down dough and divide into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other. Shape the larger piece into a 30cm-(12in) long cylinder, tapering slightly at one end, and place on a large baking sheet lined with foil. Form remaining piece into a 20cm-(8in) long cylinder and lay across the larger cylinder, about one-third of the way down from the tapered end. Cover with a tea towel and stand until slightly risen (35-40 minutes). In the meantime, preheat oven to 190°C/375°F.
Topping: combine demerara sugar, almond meal, almonds and egg white in a bowl, scatter over dough, bake for 15 minutes, reduce oven to 160°C/320°F and bake until golden and cooked through, 15-20 minutes (cover with foil if colomba gets too brown). Serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves 10

Date madeleines

Madeleines are a regular treat on this blog and I’ve already baked them in several different flavors – all of them delicious, by the way – but when I saw Annie Bell’s recipe for date madeleines I was very intrigued: the idea of adding puréed dates to the madeleine batter sounded really interesting. It would also be a nice way to use up the last dates I had left – believe it or not after lebkuchen and Martha's cookies I still had a handful of them around; certain ingredients in my house seem to take the Gremlin route no matter what I do. :D

The madeleines turned out really good: moist from the addition of ground almonds and with a very subtle caramel flavor.

Date madeleines
from the beautiful beyond words Annie Bell's Baking Bible (I bought mine here)

100g dates, pitted and chopped
1/3 cup (80ml) water
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons (24g) granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons honey
50g self raising flour*
½ teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
½ cup (50g) almond meal
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled + a bit extra for buttering the pans
icing sugar for dusting

Place the dates and water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil, then simmer until dates are tender and mushy (I used a potato masher to get a paste out of the mixture). Add the baking soda, mix well, then remove from the heat.
Using an electric mixer, whisk the eggs and sugar together until they are almost white. Whisk in the lemon zest and honey. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over the mixture and lightly fold in. Fold in the almond meal and vanilla. Fold in the melted butter and the date mixture.
Cover and chill in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Lightly brush two madeleines molds with the extra butter and refrigerate for 5 minutes. Fill each mould about 2/3 full and then bake in for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and turn them out on to a wire rack to cool.
Dust with icing sugar and serve.

* I replace the self raising flour with 50g all purpose flour + 1/3 teaspoon baking powder + pinch of salt

Makes 15-20 – I made the exact recipe above and got 52 madeleines total: 12 using 1-tablespoon capacity molds and 40 using ½-tablespoon capacity pans

Fruit-and-nut cookies

The first time I saw a date I thought it looked... weird. That encounter happened when I was old enough to know better than to judge food by its looks, so I decided to try it anyway and it was delicious - it is an ingredient I don't use very often, but definitely should.

I had some dates left from making the lebkuchen and did not know what to make with them - Martha came to my rescue with these cookies, which combine other ingredients I love: pistachios, dried apricots and coconut. Irresistible and easy to make.

Fruit-and-nut cookies
slightly adapted from the delicious and foolproof Martha Stewart's Cookies

2 ¼ cups (315g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon table salt
1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (175g) packed light-brown sugar
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups (150g) sweetened shredded coconut
1 ½ cups chopped dried apricots
1 ½ cups chopped dates
1 ½ cups (195g) pistachios, whole and unsalted

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; cream butter and sugars until creamy and light and color. Mix in eggs, one at a time, until combined; mix in vanilla.
Reduce mixer speed to low. Add flour mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in coconut, apricots, dates and pistachios.
Drop batter, 2 heaping tablespoons at a time, onto prepared sheets, spacing 5cm (2in) apart. Flatten slightly. Bake until golden brown around the edges, 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven; transfer cookies on baking paper to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Makes about 3 dozen – I halved the recipe above, used 2 leveled tablespoons of dough per cookie and got 26

Almond citrus drizzle cake

Many, many posts ago one of you left me a not very happy comment about how biased I am towards certain actors/actresses; I’m sorry, but I can’t help it: when I like something – or someone – I really like it/them.

I have my preferences and they usually dictate what I watch, listen to, eat. That is why it’s no surprise that upon receiving this absolutely delicious cookbook the first recipe I tried from it was this citrus loaf – the idea of drenching a cake with orange and lemon juice is already a favorite around here, but this time there is an obscene amount of almond paste in the cake, which made it moist beyond words.

Unlike actors, actresses and directors, I don’t usually play favorites with recipes, but this one certainly deserves an award for Best Cookbook Debut Ever. :)

Almond citrus drizzle cake
slightly adapted from the great Piece of Cake: Home Baking Made Simple

Cake:
¾ cup + 1 tablespoon (115g) all purpose flour*
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon table salt
1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (224g) granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 cup almond paste, room temperature – I used homemade, recipe here
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ tablespoon limoncello (optional)

Drizzle:
¼ cup (60ml) lemon juice
¼ cup (60ml) orange juice
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 22x12cm (9x5in) loaf pan, line with baking paper and butter the paper as well - I used this pan but there was still some better left; I baked it in a 1-liter capacity loaf pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer cream butter, sugar, lemon and orange zest until creamy. Add the almond paste and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Beat in the vanilla and the limoncello (if using). On low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients mixing just until incorporated – finish mixing by hand with spatula. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden and risen and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool over a wire rack while you make the drizzle: in a small bowl, combine all the ingredients. Immediately pour over hot cake (don’t wait longer or the sugar will dissolve in the juices), gradually, waiting for some of the drizzle to be absorbed by the cake before pouring more. Cool in the pan, then carefully unmold and remove the paper.

* by the time I finished preparing the cake batter I found it too liquid; I then mixed in ½ cup (70g) all purpose flour

Serves 6-8

Almond filled brioche with plum compote + "House of Cards"

After I finished watching the fourth season of “Breaking Bad” – I hope season 5 arrives soon here in Brazil – I immediately began watching “House of Cards”: I’d been wanting to watch the series ever since I first read that David Fincher was developing something for TV – I’m a huge fan and will watch anything this guy makes.

As usual, Fincher doesn’t disappoint: the series is fantastic – script, music, and the cast, everything in perfect tune. All the actors are giving excellent performances, but Kevin Spacey is the soul of the series – I might be biased because he’s one of my all time favorite actors and is part of movies I deeply love, but to me he’s kicking some serious ass as Frank Underwood, which might be one of the best characters ever played.

If the world were a fair place there would be 10 Kevin Spacey or 10 Bryan Cranston for each Robert Pattinson out there. :D

And if the world were really a fair place I would be able to eat brioche for breakfast every day, especially this almond filled version, very tender and so delicious, with a spoonful of homemade plum compote. Yum. :)

Almond filled brioche
adapted from two wonderful books: How to Bake and Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Brioche:
500g strong white bread flour + extra for dusting (I used all purpose flour)
½ teaspoon table salt
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
10g dried yeast
140ml whole milk, warm
5 medium eggs*
250g unsalted butter, very soft

Filling:
4 tablespoons (56g) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup almond paste – I used homemade, recipe here
¼ cup (35g) all purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract (optional)
¼ teaspoon orange flower water (optional)

Put the flour into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the salt and sugar to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add the milk and eggs and mix on a slow speed for 2 minutes, then on a medium speed for a further 6–8 minutes, until you have a soft, glossy, elastic dough. Add the softened butter and continue to mix for a further 4–5 minutes, scraping down the bowl periodically to ensure that the butter is thoroughly incorporated. The dough should be very soft. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for at least 7 hours, until it is firm and you are able to shape it. In the meantime, make the filling: place the butter, almond paste, flour, sugar, egg, vanilla, almond extract and orange flower water in a food processor and process until smooth.
Butter a 20x30cm (8x12in) baking pan.
Take your brioche dough from the fridge and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Knead 3-4 four times, then roll it out onto a 35x20cm (14x8in) rectangle. Spread the almond filling evenly on top of the dough, then roll it like a cylinder, beginning with the longer side. Cut into 9 slices then arrange them about 2.5cm (1in) apart onto the prepared pan. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave to prove for about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F.
When the brioche is proved, bake for 20-25 minutes or until brioche is golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

* I only had large eggs at home, so I used 4; noticing that the dough was a bit dry, I added the 5th egg

Makes 9

Plum compote
own creation

250g plums, halved, stones removed, each half sliced into quarters
3 tablespoons granulated sugar - my plums were really sour; adjust the amount of sugar depending on the plums you have on hand
½ tablespoon lemon juice
pinch ground cinnamon
1 ½ tablespoons water

Place the plums, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until plums are tender and juicy. Cool completely. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Serves 2-4