LEMON MERINGUE PIE

This cake has been a mystery to me. However, I have found myself drawn by its elegance and lemon flavour – not really a popular taste in Poland. It suits wintertime as well – there are not too many fruits, except for apples, oranges and lemons. I finally plucked up my courage and made this enigmatic beautiful cake. It tastes great and has instantly become one of my favourite pies.

I have one dilemma, though. Why add eggs to the lemon cream? I prepared both a version with eggs and one without them. It turns out that, at least in my opinion, the eggs are not necessary. They do not change a lot as far as taste is concerned, maybe it gets slightly more lemon, but the sweetness of the meringue balances it perfectly. I offered the eggless, unclassic version to my English colleague and she was not insulted. In fact, she even praised it! So, we could just as easily prepare the cream without eggs. There is one problem here – once we use the yolks to prepare the cream, the whites go for the meringue. Otherwise we are left with yolks and have to put them to some purpose… Nevertheless, both version work and are recommended. I just personally am not a big fan of eggs, period.

I did make the pie a couple of times and now consider it a slammer – effective, not too well known (original in Poland at least) and really tasty! The mix of slightly sour lemon cream, meringue and short-crust is a bull’s-eye-hit.

The first version of the recipe is taken from the blog “Moje wypieki,” but – as I already mentioned – I altered the way lemon cream is prepared. I make short-crust otherwise, too, stealing this time from my brother’s wife, because she makes the world’s best short-crust!

One great advantage of this pie is that it can be prepared in advance – you can even freeze the short-crust. The lemon cream can be stored up to a week, so they say. It is the meringue itself that needs to be done at the end. You have to put it in the oven earlier, so that the pie can cool down. I read somewhere that it is recommended to eat the pie on the same day it was made, but I am usually left with some little bit for the next day and trust me – it tastes good.

*recipe*

crust:

175 g coarse-grained wheat flour (an ordinary wheat would do as well, but the coarse-grained one is better for that purpose)

100 g of butter, chopped into little pieces

yolk – save the whites for the mreingue

a pinch of salt

a bit of sugar, to your own taste (optionally)

lemon cream:

125 ml of lemon juice (from ca. 3 lemons)

lemon zest (from 2 lemons)

85 g of butter

100 g of sugar

juice from 1 orange

2 flat tablespoons of potato flour

3 yolks and 1 egg

(though, as I was mentioned earlier, the cream without eggs is good, too)

meringue:

4 whites (normal temperature)

200 g fine-grained sugar

2 flat tablespoons of potato flour

***

Prepare the crust of the tart by kneading the flour with butter and egg. You can cool it down, wrapped in foil or aluminium, in the fridge for some 15 minutes. Fill the bottom of the baking tin (ca. 21 cm in diameter), which should be greased with butter. Pierce the dough with a fork so that no bubbles emerge during baking. Cover it up with baking paper and put some beans or peas so that the pie does not fall during baking.

Bake for 15-20 minutes in 180° C. You can remove the paper then and bake some more but be careful not to overdo it!

***

In order to prepare the lemon cream, take a small pot and mix sugar, lemon peels, flour and lemon juice. Mix the orange juice with water so as to obtain 200 ml of it and pour into the pot. Stir and cook until the mixture thickens. Take it off the heat, add pieces of butter and stir until smooth.

If you wish to add the eggs, put the cream off the heat, add the yolks and the egg, stir and rehear. However, makes sure not to boil it! The cream has to be smooth and you have to watch out so that it does not come off in the form of scrambled eggs!

Pour the cream over the cold crust. Cool everything before putting on top.

***

To prepare the meringue whip the egg whites (they should be in normal temperature) to obtain a thick froth. Add sugar slowly, spoon after spoon, constantly stirring. Finally, add the potato flour and mix everything until the cream is smooth.

***

Put the meringue over the cold cream. Bake in 180° C for ca. 20 minutes.

The meringue can be formed into various shapes but be careful not to burn it, especially when it has longer, frayed ends. The meringue should be crispy on top and frothy inside, which makes it very nice.

Cool the pie before serving.

PEARS BAKED WITH BLUE CHEESE AND NUTS

I tried these pears at a party over at Magda’s (my brother’s wife) and was simply enchanted with their fantastic taste. So, I make them from time to time, as an appetizer, because Mr Owl is also eager to bite in. Such pears can be served in a number of different ways: with butter, goat cheese and blue cheeses – whatever floats yout boat. You can also add walnuts, other nuts, or sprinkle some alomnds on top. It does not take more than a couple of minutes to prepare them and they are undeniably terrific!

 

***recipe***

depending on how much one can eat…

2 pears

a piece of blue cheese

one spoon of butter

a handful of walnuts

***

Grind the walnuts, add blue cheese and butter (though it is not a must) and pund it all together carefully.

Cut the pears in half, take out the seed pods and put the filling in their place.

Bake in the oven, heated to ca. 200° C, for about 15 minutes. It is a matter of individual preference whether you like the pears to be more or less baked. 15 minutes and 200° C do not soften them entirely, so if you prefer them more delicate, bake them a little longer.

Bon appétit!

PANNA COTTA

It happens so that there has been in fact no recipe for panna cotta on my blog so far. The truth is that I have not made this dessert for a long time now. Recently I wanted to prepare something tasty, but it was already 11 pm and I had no ingredients for fancy desserts at hand. However, I found some 36% cream, vanilla extract, various alcohols and gelatine – in other words, all you need to make a panna cotta! As it was running late and I was too exhausted to try out one of those complicated recipes, I did in the simplest possible way. Julcio was not asleep, which means that there is no way I can experiment freely. Panna cotta is a kind of a dessert that you cannot botch. It is simple and effective, but a lot depends on how it is served – it leaves a lot of space for unrestrained invention. I decided not to over do it and went for a straightforward, tasty, alcohol-infused panna cotta. I served it with a cherry preserve, which was made by my mother – the best preserve in the whole world, of course.

 

*recipe*

400 ml of cream (30 or 36 %)

3 spoons of sugar

2 spoons of gelatin

1 vanilla pod or ca. 3 spoons of vanilla extract

alcohol (optional)

***

This version of panna cotta is decidedly alcoholic, because instead of the vanilla pod I added some vanilla extract which is based on vodka and also mixed in some Malibu to achieve the right taste. This may not be a favourite version of mine but it turned out to be a successful experiment. Let us do it then!

Cook the cream, add sugar and vanilla. Make sure to cut the vanilla pod and remove the seeds earlier on. You can put straight in the cream and heat together. Alternatively, you could use vanilla extract – I added 3 spoons. Dissolve the gelatin in a small amount of water and add to the the boiled cream, then stir until smooth. Add alcohol (if you wish, of course) – I put some teo spoons of Malibu. If you do not choose to add alcohol, take a bit less gelatin. My version is definitely heavily gelatined.

Here you have an alcohol bomb – panna cotta malibu, served with coffee liquor and sprinkled with dark chocolate coffee grains. The tastes do not mix, because Malibu is barely discernible, but it may indeed be too much of a good thing…

Bon appétit!

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!