TATIN TART FROM PUFF PASTRY

It might just be the simplest tart in the whole world, but the final effect is incredible, especially when you compare it to the amount of time and effort you need to put into the preparation of this dessert. I prepare this tart quite often these day exactly because I do not have a lot of time on my hands but do have a yearning for something sweet. Moreover, chocolate is now out of the picture because Mr Owl is on a diet. There is not need to prepare the pastry on one’s own as it is possible to buy ready-made puff pastry. It saves a lot of time. Due to the fact that puff pastry and apple desserts are something that I prepare regularly, I was able to try out various versions, but I have to admit that the Tatin Tart is my strong personal favourite. This dessert is especially recommended when we are having unexpected guests and want to prepare something quickly. All you really need is puff pastry and some apples.

 

[caption] small tatin tarts

*recipe*

puff pastry

6 apples

100 g of sugar

50 g of butter

cinnamon (optional)

***

Peel the apples and cut them into quarters, or even smaller slices, taking out the core of course. Melt some butter and sugar on a frying pan and add the apples. What I often do is stew it in a covered pan, especially if the sugar, after turning into caramel, forms larger pieces which are not eager to melt again. Stir from time to time so that the whole apples are covered in caramel. Optionally, add cinnamon, or – as I sometimes do – use vanilla sugar.  Grease the tin with butter and put the apples with caramel inside, covering them in puff pastry and rolling its sides towards the middle. Pierce the pastry with a fork.

 a large tatin tart

Bake in the oven, heated to 200° C, for about 20 minutes. Flip the tart after cooking (using a plate or chopping board).

Bon appétit!

GOLDEN NUT AND CARAMEL TART

This one of my all-time favourites: it looks good, takes 20 minutes to make and provides heavenly pleasures for the palate, if you like very sweet stuff, of course. I found the original recipe in “gazeta kuchnia,” but already tried out many version with different types of nuts and dried fruit. Once I soaked nuts, raisins and apricots in vodka and that version has become legendary with my family…

***recipe for the golden tart***

tart:

200 g of flour
10 dag of butter
3 spoons of water
1/2 spoon of salt
1 egg (optional)

The pastry is more crumbly if you do not add the egg, but I usually throw one in.nut and caramel filling:

15 dag of sugar
14 dag of double cream (30% or 36%, both work well)
10 dag of shelled wallnuts
golden flakes

These flakes are made from real gold and are available from art supply shops (in Warsaw you will find one in Mazowiecka Street). There are some fake alternatives, but they are not edible, in contrast to the real gold which you freely eat. I got the poisonous version so far and have not yet decided to buy the real stuff.

You can prepare the dough from condensed sweetened milk that comes in cans. All you need to do is boil it for 3 hours. It tastes quite good, actually.

First we need to make the tart:

Mix and knead flour, butter, salt, water and egg (if you want to add it). That is basically it, for this is one of the most basic pastries, though open for modifications. You can skip the water or egg and balance salt with sugar. Once the dough is ready and smooth, form a ball out of it, wrap in foil and put in the fridge. You can always make some more and freeze it in for some occasion like unexpected guests or an unexpected surge of laziness. Cool the ball in the fridge for 15 minutes, but if it takes longer, do not worry.

Now we need to prepare the caramel filling:

Put the sugar in the saucepan and heat until it melts. You have to stir it all the time so as not to burn it. The sugar should become brown and melt, becoming lovely liquid caramel. At this point, add cream, but do it carefully, for it will foam and fly, all kinds of bizzarre things taking place in the saucepan, but only for a short time. Nevertheless, keep stirring. It may take a while for the sugar to mix with the cream. There is no need to worry – in the end you will have a nice and tasty caramel filling. Let it cool down and add cushed nuts.

In the meanitme take out the tart, roll it out so that it is half a centimeter thick and put it in the greased baking tin. Bake for ca. 15 minutes in 180° C.

The baking time can vary and you should always check whether it is nicely browned. Yesterday it took me even 25 minutes, but maybe the temperature was a bit too low. Do not forget to pierce the tart with a fork prior to baking so as not to allow any bubbles to come out. One more thing you can do is cover it with foil and put some beans on top. In this way, the sides of the tart will not sink.

This is basically everything. If you have the golden flakes and some time on your hands you can decorate the tart with them.

VOLCANO BIRTHDAY CAKE

 Our little owl (the older one) celebrated his third birthday! With his latest fascination being – besides windmills – volcanoes with lava, craters and explosions, it was obvious that the cake had to be a volcano! Let me introduce to you Julek’s third birthday cake – the volcano!

The cake itself is traditional, consisting of a sponge cake, two creams and cherry preserve. It is a rather worn-out set, but it suits my kids best, because I cannot prepare them a deeply coffee- or nut-flavoured one and they do not really fall for chocolate either.

recipe

sponge cake:

6 eggs

6 spoons of wheat flour

6 spoons of potato flour

12 spoons of sugar

1/2 spoon of baking powder

*

chocolate and nut cream:

300 g of double cream

200 g of milk chocolate (bitter if you prefer)

handful of chopped nuts, e.g. cashew nuts, walnuts and Brazilian nuts

*

mascarpone cream:

500 g of mascarpone cheese

500 g of cream (36%)

4 spoons of icing sugar

vanilla essence

*

punch:

1 glass of boiled water

3 spoons of sugar

half a glass of lemon juice

*

cherry preserve

***

1. Prepare the sponge cake using the following principle: for each egg add 1 spoon of wheat flour, 1 spoon of potato flour, 2 spoons of sugar and 1/4 spoon of baking powder. I prepare the cake from 6 eggs and use a tin that has 21 cm in diameter. You will need at least 500 g of icing for such a cake.

Beat the egg whites stiff, add sugar and beat some more. Add yolks and, after that, flour mixed with baking powder, stir.

2. A piece of advice from my mum: instead of potato flour you can use wheat flour but add a spoon or two of vinegar, as it helps curdle the whites, makes the sponge cake lighter and prevents it from sinking. I should try that next time.

For this occasion, I baked the cake in my grandma’s tin which has a hole in the middle so that the cake would resemble a real volcano.

Bake in a 21-cm tin for 35-45 minutes in 180º C. Check whether the sponge cake is dry with the help of a small stick.

Now comes the infamous dropping of the cake! I do not have any idea how I manage to pull it off, but I always drop it! For the uninitiated: you drop the cake when it’s still in the tin, from the height of about half a meter, which supposedly prevents it from sinking. Whether it is true or not, I always do it and my sponges are puffy enough.

When the sponge cake cools down, take out of the tin and slice into three layers.

*

Prepare the mascarpone cream by whisking the cream with mascarpone cheese and icing sugar. You can add a few drops of vanilla aroma. I also added two colourings – red and yellows – to achieve that desired lava effect.

Prepare the punch by melting sugar in the water and adding lemon juice.

Prepare the chocolate cream by melting chocolate in hot water and cool it down. Beat the cream, add melted chocolate and stir until smooth. Add chopped nuts and mix well.

With all the ingredients ready, we can begin assembling the volcano!

*

Slice the sponge cake into three layers.

Moisten the bottom layer with lemon punch and place cherries on top. Cover it delicately in chocolate cream – mine was a bit crumbly and would not spread well so I put some of the mascarpone cream on top, so as to level the layer and make the structure of the cake hold better.

Add the second layer, moisten with punch, put the mascarpone cream on top and add a couple of cherries (not too many). Add the last moistened layer, but remember: the bottom should be moistened most and the top of the cake should be the driest.

Fill the empty middle with whatever’s left – lots of chocolate cream on the bottom, then cherries, mascarpone cheese, chopped nuts and cream on top.

Decorate the top – I covered it in a mascarpone-cream cream and sprinkled with bitter chocolate and cocoa. I made the lava tongues from cream and fondant. I also added a couple of M&Ms (yellow, red and orange ones, of course) and a couple of golden balls. I sprinkled some golden powder on top and on the lava tongues to make them fiery.

Bon appetit!

THE INCREDIBLE CHOCOLATE MUFFINS – BROWNIE CUP CAKES

These muffins are my ultimate culinary achievement becuase basically everyone (enjoying the sweet stuff) is enchanted and terribly praises them. I considered it to be rather suspicious burt the muffins nevertheless disappear almost the second they are served and everyone is happy. They were a big hit during this year’s Easter holidays and have since regularly been served on Mr Owl’s table, who devours them in a single gulp. This made me cut them out for some time.

Muffins are very handy because of their chocolate heart, which leaves a lot of room for experiments. You can basically stuff them with everything – I tried many fillings: various types of chocolate (bitter, milk, black and white Toblerone triangles, Irish Cream, cherry preserve and coffee. Basically, hoever, all of them are really tasty. I encourage you to try them out because it does not take more than 10 minutes to prepare them, wheras the final effect is defintely worth trying.

The recipe for brownie cup cakes comes from the “Rondelek” website.

***recipe for 12 muffins***

150 g of bitter chocolate + 6 cubes

80 g of butter

90 g of sugar

2 spoos of flour

4 eggs

***

Heat the oven to 240° C. Melt the chocolate and butter in water. Whip the eggs with sugar so that the mixture is white. Add flour and melted chocolate, stir. Fill the cup pans, greased with butter, with the mixture, each to half its height. Place the chocolate bit in the middle and fill up the the tins.

Bake for 10 minutes in 240° C.

 

muffins stuffed with white and milk Toblerone chocolate

 

Bon appétit!

IRISH CREAM MUFFINS

I decided to try out a recipe from Kuchnia (Cuisine) as I'm a big fan of everything with irish coffee. The muffins are quite interesting as they're not that sweet but the taste of alcohol is pretty noticeable :) The ones from the pictures above are special as I added whisky from a famous Polish oboist – Tytus Wojnowicz to them. Let's taste the oboe muffins!

***Recipe***

for 14 muffins:

400 g flour

100 g sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

 pinch of salt

1 egg

250 ml heavy cream

170 ml coffee liqueur

170 ml whiskey

*

Mix flour with sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat the egg, mix it with cream and liquers, pour it into dry ingredients and stir it. Put paper-lined muffin tins in the moulds and fill them full. Bake the muffins in the oven for 20 minutes in 200C.
A tip for sweet-lovers: you can always spoon some chocolate toppings on to the cakes to make them sweeter!

ENGLISH BIRTHDAY CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE AND COFFEE CREAM AND CHERRIES

We will celebrate the second birthday of young Owl in January, 23! It's difficult to believe that the time passes so quickly :) ! This time instead of organizing one big party I will prepare 3 small ones. On Sunday, January 23 we will meet with our family so the birthday cake has to be more dignified ;) That's why I thought about decorating it with roses. The cake is made of sponge cake and this time I decided to soak it properly to make it less dry. I flooded my mother's best jam with vodka so the cake will not be eaten by the young Owl :) (at least the sponge part of it but I prepared a coffee punch, which also contained vodka). Unfortunatelly, a chocolate cream which I was dreaming about, is not good for the basis of the cake. As I was in a need of a basis :) and didn't want it to be a buttery one I added mascarpone cheese with heavy cream. Chocolate cream is coffee-flavoured, I added coffee punch to two sponge tops to make coffee a dominant flavor.

And, frankly speaking, the cake was wonderful! My mother in law ate 3 pieces of it, which was the best proof that it was good :) And my aunt, who is a Birthday Cake Expert and makes the best cakes ever said that it was delicious, luxurious and exquisite! Enough of boasting the cake, I don't want someone to make it and complain that it wasn't that good :), but honestly, the cake is tasty. It's quite sweet but alcohol and cherries spice the flavor. And don't forget that this cake almost swims in alcohol so after eating it everyone was a bit drunk and the atmosphere became nice and easy-going. Really, a cool birthday cake! :D

* Recipe *

Sponge Cake:

6 eggs

6 tablespoons flour

6 tablespoons potato flour

12 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

*

Chocolate Cream:

300 g heavy cream

200 g of milk chocolate (or bitter, if you like)

2 teaspoons espresso coffee or 2 teaspoons of instant coffee brewed in a small amount of water

*
Mascarpone Cream:

250 g mascarpone cheese

250 g 36% cream

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

*

Coffee Punch:

3 teaspoons instant coffee

1.5 tablespoons sugar

50 ml of alcohol, vodka, brandy, etc.

*

Cherry Punch:

cherry jam flooded with vodka, about 100 ml, or cherry brandy

***

Below are the recipes for sponge cake, mascarpone cream and coffee cream pasted from the previous cake :)

Follow the recipe for the sponge cake, that is: add 1 tablespoon wheat flour, 1 tablespoon potato flour, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder to every egg. I usually do sponge cakes with 6 eggs in a baking tin which diameter is 21 cm, then I need about 500 g of icing to cover the cake (it you cut the sides there will be some icing left).

Whip egg whites to stiff, add sugar and beat it. Add yolks, flour mixed with baking powder and stir it together. Bake the sponge cake in the baking tin of 21cm, for 35-45 mins in 180C, a little stick can help you check whether the sponge is already dry.

And there is famous sponge-dropping after baking it ... I seriously don't know what is all this dropping about but I do it all the time :) For those who are not familiar with sponge-dropping: we drop the sponge (in the baking tin :) on the table from around half meter. It is supposed to prevent sponge from lowering. I always do it and my sponges are fluffy :)

Wait for the sponge to cool down and take it out from the baking tin. Cut it to get 3 pieces.

*
Whip the heavy cream with mascarpone cheese and powdered sugar to make a cream and do the punch: brew instant coffee with sugar and add alcohol when it cools down.

Next comes the chocolate cream: dissolve chocolate in a water bath and cool it down to the room temperature. Whip the heavy cream, add coffee (not necessarily), liquid chocolate and stir it carefully.

No it's the time for cherry punch (if you'd like that :) so mix vodka with jam.

Here we go, we have everything, now we have to put it all together ;)

Soak the top with cherry punch, put cherries on it and cover it carefully with chocolate cream. Put the second sponge top onto it, soak it with coffee punch and put mascarpone cream on it. Put the last sponge top on it. It should be soaked with coffee cream and the soaked part should be below, the cake should not be that soaked on the surface. I cover the surface and the sides of the cake with mascarpone cream.

And it's time to decorate it with icing!