Meme - 5 things about me

The lovely Toni, from the Daily Bread Journal, has tagged me for a meme - there you go, 5 things about me you probably don't know:

- I was fascinated by books and comic books so my mom would read to me all day long - I mean it. I wanted her to read to me all the time, and when my father arrived home from work he had to read to me, too.
One day, my mom came to the conclusion that it would be a lot easier if I could do those things by myself.
Being a stay-at-home mom, she decided to teach me how to write and read. And she did. And I was 4 years old. :)

- As a 5 year-old kid, my answer to the old question "what do you want to be when you grow up?" used to be "the owner of a newsstand". My ultimate dream back then was being able to read all the magazines and comic books without having to buy them.

- I am terrified of horror movies. Scared to death. But I watch them anyway. I don't know what happens, I just can't change the channel. And then I get so impressed I'm afraid to stay home alone. I know I'm not 10 anymore, but I just can't help it.

- Speaking of horror movies, I had a huge, huge, huge, crush on Gary Oldman after watching this film. When I saw him with long hair, glasses and those 19th century clothes I fell for him - he was so beautiful!

- I love Paris. This may sound a little cliché, but it's true. I've had this yearning for going to Paris for as long as I can remember, such an unusual feeling because I didn't know much about it when I was younger.
My brother took a short trip to Paris (and Madrid) last month and when he showed me the photos and the Louvre tickets I cried like a baby - I was carried away by emotion and can't actually explain why.
I've never been abroad and I want my first international trip to be to Paris.

I know many people have been tagged and many have already answered this meme, so if you are reading this and want to participate, consider yourself "tagged". :)

Chocolate fingers

João loves chocolate fingers so I decided to make them at home. I found a recipe on this website and since I’ve made several recipes from there I thought I should give it a try.

Just a few ingredients, a soft dough that comes together quickly and that makes a lot of cookies – I halved the recipe and got 50 fingers, 9cm each.

My husband loved the cookies - he doesn’t want the store-bought version anymore… ;)

Chocolate fingers

260g all-purpose flour
120g butter, at room temperature - not too soft
2 tablespoons baking powder
100g caster sugar
1 small egg, lightly beaten
500g semisweet or bittersweet chocolate – I used bittersweet and it worked wonderfully with the sweet flavor of the cookies

Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC/335ºF and line two baking sheets.
Place the sifted flour, baking powder and the butter in a bowl and rub them together with your fingertips until you have the texture of wet sand. Add the sugar, egg and mix until the dough comes together.
Grab small amounts of dough and roll into small "sausages" – line your working surface with baking paper to shape the cookies – it will be easier.
Carefully place the fingers in prepared baking sheets and bake for 15 minutes or until light golden.
Let the cookies cool in the pans then remove them carefully so they don’t break:

Now, you have to temper the chocolate – it has to be done properly, otherwise your coating won’t dry correctly and won’t be glossy and resistant to temperature changes.
Click here to learn how to temper chocolate correctly.

Using a fork, dip each cookie into chocolate and turn it to ensure even coating. “Fish them” out of chocolate and remove excess by tapping the fork at the edge of the bowl.
Place the covered cookies on a lined baking sheet and then refrigerate for 10-15 minutes – until the chocolate has set.
Store the chocolate finger in an air-tight container – I kept mine in a cookie tin and they were crunchy and delicious for 5 days.

Makes 75 chocolate fingers – I halved the recipe and still got 50.

Walnut braided bread

I had a sudden urge to make bread – that happens, sometimes – but didn’t have many ingredients at home.
There was a bag of walnuts that would go rancid pretty soon unless I used them – and that’s what I did.
I used a recipe from a Brazilian website and, instead of filling the bread with apricots and jam, I used brown sugar and chopped walnuts.

The dough is soft and comes together really quickly. I liked it so much I want to make it again, using apple and cinnamon for filling - can’t wait to try it.

Walnut braided bread

Dough:
240ml lukewarm milk
15g fresh yeast
6 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
500g all-purpose flour, sifted
1 egg, lightly beaten
75g unsalted butter, softened

Filling:
80g brown sugar
100g walnuts, chopped

1 tablespoon milk - to brush the bread

Grease and flour a 28cm X 40cm baking sheet.

For the filling: mix both ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.

For the dough: pour the milk in a bowl, add the yeast, sugar and salt and stir. Add 120g of the flour and mix until the mixture is uniform.
Cover with cling film or a piece of plastic and let it rise, in a warm place, for 40 minutes.
Add the egg and the butter to the dough and mix well. Add the remaining flour gradually and knead for 10 minutes or until it is smooth and elastic – it will not be sticky.
Place the dough back in the bowl, cover with cling film/plastic and let it rise, in a warm place, for 25 minutes – it will double in size.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough making a 35cm X 45cm rectangle. Divide this rectangle in 3 equal parts. Brush each part with just a little water and sprinkle with 1/3 of the filling. Roll each part as if they were jelly rolls, pinching the seams to “lock” the filling inside.
Place the three rolls of dough on the prepared baking sheet, placing the seams down – a detail I forgot. :)
Braid the rolls and pinch the ends together.

Let it rise again for 30 minutes – 10 minutes before you bake the bread, pre-heat the oven to 180ºC.
Brush the bread with milk and bake it for 40 minutes or until it’s golden and cooked through – if it starts browning too fast, cover loosely with foil.

Makes 12 slices - I got a 1.050g bread.

Dulce de leche brownies

I don’t mean to make my dear readers rush into their kitchens in a sudden urge to bake, but these are the most delicious brownies ever!

Since I made the brownies for my sister’s birthday party, I cut them bite-sized and placed them in fluted paper cases – but I’m sure they’d be wonderful cut in larger pieces, served with ice cream. Yummy.

The brownies were a hit among the 13-year-old girls.

Recipe by David Lebovitz - he even teaches how to make your own dulce de leche at home, just click here.

Dulce de leche brownies

115g salted or unsalted butter, cut into pieces
170g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped – I used semisweet because of my “target audience”
25g unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
3 large eggs
200g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
140g flour
optional: 100g toasted pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped – I didn’t use nuts
250g dulce de leche

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF.
Line a 20 cm square pan with a long sheet of aluminum foil that covers the bottom and reaches up the sides. If it doesn't reach all the way up and over all four sides, cross another sheet of foil over it, making a large cross with edges that overhang the sides. Grease the bottom and sides of the foil with a bit of butter or non-stick spray.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the chocolate pieces and stir constantly over very low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the sugar, vanilla, then the flour. Mix in the nuts, if using.
Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan.
Drop one-third of the dulce de leche, evenly spaced, over the brownie batter, then drag a knife through to swirl it slightly. Spread the remaining brownie batter over, then drop spoonfuls of the remaining dulce de leche in dollops over the top of the brownie batter. Use a knife to swirl the dulce de leche slightly.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. The brownies are done when the center feels just-slightly firm. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

David says that these brownies actually become better the second day, and will keep well for up to 3 days – I wouldn’t know because there weren’t any brownies left, and I doubled the recipe. :)

Makes 12.

This recipe was posted on the Portuguese version of my blog on Aug. 28, 2006.

Tail of round with shallots

The minute I saw this recipe I knew I had to make it for João – he loves beef, he loves onions.
It was taken from a book I have – it’s a compilation of recipes from a Brazilian food magazine. I made few changes, nothing big.

João really liked the dish and asked me to make it again, with one condition: to use striploin instead of tail of round – he told me it has much more flavor.

Since I don’t eat beef I’ll have to take his word on that. ;)

Tail of round with shallots

40g butter
400g tail of round – one piece
200g shallots
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large rosemary sprig
salt and cracked black pepper

In a pressure cooker, melt the butter and add the beef. Cook it, turning it around to get all the sides nicely browned. Season it with salt and pepper.
When it’s browned, add water until the beef is covered by it. Close the pressure cooker and when it starts whistling, turn down the heat and cook for 30-35 minutes.
Remove from heat and let it stand until all the pressure is released – be careful.
If you’re using a regular pan, proceed the same way and cook the beef for longer- just until it’s cooked through and tender.
Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC for 10 minutes.
Place the shallots in a baking dish, season them with a little salt and pepper, drizzle with the olive oil and bake them for 20 minutes – they will be soft.
Heat the beef in the same pan it was cooked – if there’s too much broth remove the excess – add the rosemary and cook for 10 minutes.
Serve it with the shallots.

Serves 2.