Vanilla and rosewater madeleines

Thank you for so many great ideas and suggestions on the lavender marshmallows – I knew you would help me out. I’ll keep you posted about my lavender experiments. :D

Once again, flowers – this time, roses paired with a flavor that comes from an orchid... It almost feels like spring.

Vanilla and rosewater madeleines
from Donna Hay magazine

2 eggs
75g caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
75g all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
80g butter, melted

Rosewater icing:
160g confectioners’ sugar, sifted
40ml boiling water
¼ teaspoon rosewater

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla seeds in a bowl and whisk to combine. Sift over the flour and baking powder and whisk to combine. Add the butter and whisk until combined. Spoon the mixture into a 12-hole greased madeleine pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool on a wire rack – they were easily removed from the pan once cold.

To make the icing, place the confectioners’ sugar, water and rosewater in a bowl and mix to combine – or add the water gradually and check for icing consistency.
Place the rack of cooled madeleines over a baking tray and spoon over the icing and allow to set – I found it easier to quickly dunk the madeleines in the icing; I let them dry and then repeated the process so the icing would be thicker.

Makes 12 – I got 9 like the ones on the photos and 15 smaller ones

Lavender marshmallows

It seemed like a good idea – something delicate, almost ethereal. But it did not turn out as I expected...

Have you tried lavender marshmallows? I remember seeing a photo on a magazine, months ago, but there was no recipe – it was an ad from a bakery or something. I decided to use a vanilla marshmallow recipe from DH mag #36 adding the dried lavender instead of vanilla extract.

The marshmallow was actually quite good – delicious and fluffy. But the problem was biting into the lavender buds – they tasted sort of bitter. Maybe grinding them with the sugar before making the syrup would solve this problem – I would love to hear your opinion about it.

Lavender marshmallows
adapted from Donna Hay magazine

4 tablespoons powdered gelatin
1 cup (240ml) warm water
660g caster sugar
1 1/3 cups glucose syrup
2/3 cup water, extra
3 tablespoons dried edible lavender*
200g confectioners’ sugar, sifted
35g (about 3 tablespoons) corn starch

Place the gelatin and warm water in the bowl of an electric mixer, stir well to combine and set aside. Place the sugar, glucose and extra water in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil and cook without stirring for 5-6 minutes or until soft ball stage (115ºC/240ºF) on a sugar thermometer.
With the mixer running at high speed, gradually add the hot syrup to the gelatin mixture. Add the lavender and beat for 10 minutes or until thick and fluffy. Pour into a lightly greased 25x35cm (10x14in) baking dish lined with non-stick baking paper, cover with lightly greased non-stick baking paper and refrigerate overnight (I used regular baking paper and oiled it very well).
Place the icing sugar and corn starch in a bowl and stir to combine. Turn the marshmallow onto a surface lightly dusted with a little of the icing sugar mixture and carefully remove the paper. Cut into 5cm (2in) squares – to make cutting easier, dip the knife in boiling water and wipe dry between each incision.
Dust with remaining icing sugar mixture and store in an airtight container

Makes 25 - I halved the recipe above, used a 20cm (8in) square pan and got 36 smaller marshmallows

Vanilla ice cream with pear wafers

Don’t go away, please – there’s nothing vanilla about this recipe. :D

I have to be honest and tell you that in the past I would have laughed at someone if they told me they loved anything vanilla. Because to me, back then, there was nothing to love. But that was in my pre-blogging days - after tasting the real thing everything changed. I got so hooked on vanilla that after I finish preparing a recipe with the pod I keep smelling my fingertips – that’s a funny thing to see, believe me. :D

To go with this wonderful ice cream (David Lebovitz, who else?), I made some pear wafers, a recipe from my favorite magazine, issue 39.

Vanilla ice cream
from The Perfect Scoop

1 cup (240ml) whole milk
pinch of salt
¾ cup (150g) sugar
1 vanilla bean
5 egg yolks
2 cups (480ml) heavy cream
a few drops of vanilla extract

Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the milk with the tip of a paring knife. Add the bean pod to the milk.

Stir together the egg yolks in a bowl and gradually add some of the warmed milk, stirring constantly as you pour. Pour the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula. Strain the custard into the heavy cream, add the vanilla extract and stir well. Rinse the vanilla bean and put it back into the custard and cream to continue steeping. Chill thoroughly, then remove the vanilla bean and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Makes about 1 quart (950ml)

Pear wafers
from Donna Hay magazine

1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
2 sensation pears, thinly sliced*

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/320ºF. Place the sugar on a plate and press the pear slices into it, both sides. Place the slices on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake for 15 minutes. Turn and cook for a further 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks until crisp.
Pear wafers can be served with sorbet, ice cream or panna cotta, or on a cheese plate with a strong blue cheese or as a petit four with coffee.

* make sure to use a kind of pear that is dry and won’t release much water – believe me, I tried it with the soft type and a flood of syrup took over my oven. :S

Makes about 12

Toffee butter crunch

I did something wrong with this recipe. Two mistakes, actually.
After finishing the candy making, I realized that I’d forgotten to chop the slivered almonds for the topping. Not to mention I did not toast the nuts at all. :S

But, in my defense, my mind was somewhere else for a good reason - I’d just discovered this absolutely gorgeous blog and lost track of time going through it. :D

Toffee butter crunch
from here

½ cup coarsely chopped almonds, toasted – I used flaked almonds
1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (200g) sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon light-colored corn syrup
¾ cup (130g) semisweet chocolate pieces
½ cup finely chopped almonds, toasted

Line a 32.5x22.5x5cm (13x9x2-inch)* baking pan with foil, extending foil over edges of pan. Sprinkle the ½ cup coarsely chopped nuts in pan. Set pan aside.

Butter sides of a heavy 2-quart (2 liter) saucepan. In saucepan melt butter. Add sugar, water, and corn syrup. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until mixture boils. Clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Reduce heat to medium; continue boiling at a moderate, steady rate, stirring frequently, till thermometer registers 143ºC/290ºF, soft-crack stage (about 15 minutes). Watch carefully after 137ºC/280ºF to prevent scorching. Remove saucepan from heat; remove thermometer. Pour candy into the prepared pan.

Let candy stand about 5 minutes or till firm; sprinkle with chocolate. Let stand 1 to 2 minutes. When chocolate has softened, spread over candy. Sprinkle with the ½ cup finely chopped nuts. Chill until firm.
When candy is firm, use foil to lift it out of pan; break into pieces. Store tightly covered – I kept it in the fridge to keep the chocolate layer hard.

* I used a 30x20x5cm pan.

Makes about 680g (1 ½ pounds)

Cherry chocolate chip cookies

Last month I decided to spend one of my days off watching movies. Joao was at work, so I could rent all the wacky films I love so much without him giving me the “I-married-an-alien” look. :)

After staring at the store shelves for quite a while I came to the conclusion that none of those new movies appealed to me. I ended up renting older movies and what a great thing that was – Ryan Gosling saved my afternoon.

That trip to the video store inspired my following baking session – after going through recently saved/bookmarked recipes, I chose one I’d printed over a year prior to that day: Nemmie’s great cookies.

Cherry chocolate chip cookies

3 cups (420g) all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
¾ cup (132g) packed brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups (350g) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup (130g) tart dried cherries, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla extract. Blend until incorporated.

Add the sifted dry ingredients, the chocolate chunks, and cherries and mix in slow speed just until incorporated. Make balls with 1 ½ tablespoons of dough and place on prepared sheets, 5cm (2in) apart. Slightly flatten the balls and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until golden in the bottoms. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

I halved the recipe and got 24 cookies