Aardbeien/mascarponemousse/pistache

Een simpel zonnig dessertje. Vers fruit boordevol vitamines, luchtige mousse en wat pistache nootjes. Lekker!!

Nodig voor 2 personen:

* 250gr. Mascarpone

* 2 eiwitten

* 2 El vanillesuiker

* 2 El siroop 'pomme d'amour' of een andere zoete siroop

* enkele ongezouten pistachenootjes

* enkele blaadjes citroen melisse

* een bakje aardbeien

Klop de mascarpone stevig op/los,voeg de suiker en siroop toe. Klop de 2 eiwitten tot schuim en meng voorzichtig onder de mascarpone en zet een uurtje in de koeling!  

Versnijd de aardbeien in partjes.

Lepel een laagje mascarponemousse in een potje, leg er wat aardbeien op en leg hierop nog een laagje mousse en aardbeien.

Strooi de versnipperde citroen melisse en gehakte pistachenootjes hierover als afwerking en serveer.

Enjoy,

Kev

Dulce de leche brownies

This is a  recipe I found on a belgian blog(in Dutch), Baked Louie's, made by a young baking enthusiast named Louie. This fella sure knows how to bake and he's only 16!

 A blog filled with delicious recipes for cakes, cookies and pies off all kind. A blog worth reading!

This recipe is packed with calories but sometimes you just have to ignore them and just indulge ;)

The recipe takes 2 steps; the dulce de leche and the brownies. Start with the dulce de leche.

Dulce de leche:

Ingredients:

• 1 can of condensed milk, 305ml

Put the can, unopened, in a high cooking pot. Submerge in water and bring to a boil. 

Turn the fire lower when the water starts boiling vigorously and let it simmer for about 3 hours. Let the water cool down, take out the can, open it and pour the dulce de leche in a bowl and stirr untill you have a nice creamy texture. 

You can lick your spoon clean but don't be tempted to eat the whole bowl cause this is simply delicious.....

Brownies:

Ingredients:

• Dulche de leche
• 340gr. dark chocolate, chopped in bits
• 230gr. unsalted butter
• 50gr. unsweetened cacao powder
• 280gr. pastry flour
• 400gr granulated sugar
• 100gr. pecan nuts, chopped
• 6 eggs

Put some aluminium foil in a baking tin(+/- 20x30cm) and grease it up with some oil. 

Preheat the oven on 175°.

Melt the butter in a large pan, add the chocolate and let it melt in the butter. Then add the cacao powder and stirr well. Add the eggs, one by one and keep stirring. Add the sugar, let it melt in the mixture and then finish by adding the flour. Stirr well untill you get a thick mixture and add the chopped pecan's.

Pour half of this mixture in the baking tin and add about 4-5 spoons of dulce de leche, divided over the mixture. Swirl in the dulce de leche with a knife, creating a nice pattern and add in the rest of the mixture and repeat the step with the dulce de leche.

Put in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes.

Let it cool down, cut into pieces and serve! Delish!!!!

Enjoy,

Kev







Source recipe: http://bakedlouies.blogspot.be/2013/01/dulce-de-leche-brownies.html

@Keepontoasting - food truck

A typical American/New-york style of eating has finally come to our capital. For people on the run, hungry but with limited time this is ideal and still offers a great 'gourmet' meal instead of a greasy snack at your local friterie. Not that there is anything wrong with that but it was time for some variation.

Young chef Jean-Baptiste Nyssen -with credentials from some established restaurants, he even worked under Yves Mattagne- is the driving (pun intended) force behind this new eatery. He offers a gourmet version of the classic Croque-monsieur in 4 different preparations;

• Croq-Belge : Passendale cheese, Ganda ham, braised endives and a touch of nutmegg on white bio bread
• Croq-Italian: Mozarella, Italian ham, grille eggplants, basil pesto on oregano bread
• Croq-French: Emmental cheese, chicken breast, spinach on honey and rosemary infused bread
• Croq-Indien: Fresh Tandoori cheese, sweet&sour carrots, raisins, nuts, cilantro on curry&cardamon spiced bread

All the croques are fried on the plancha with use of weights to press them down and thus baking them golden and crunchy. You'll spot no ordinary croque-monsieur fryer in this truck

I had the Croq-Belge and I found it very tasty with the savoury endives and the melted Passendale cheese. I had only one remark and that is that I would opt for another more savoury Belgian cheese than this somewhat bland tasting Passendale. Perhaps a Chimay??

The croques cost 5€ each and for an extra 2€ you'll get a nice,small dessert as well. Today the dessert was a rice pudding with speculoos/biscoff flavour.

Great idea by this ambitous chef and I will surely return @keepontoasting .

http://www.facebook.com/keepontoasting
http://www.keepontoasting.be/

Kev

Chocolate mascarpone cake

An easy Chocolate cake recipe, based on a creamy masacarpone and fresh cheese filling. The chocolate is flavoured with powdered ginger but you can also buy chocolate with ginger allready in it if you can find that!

Ingredients:

• 250gr. mascarpone
• 200gr. fresh cheese
• 150gr. dark chocolate
• 50gr.melted butter and some more for greasing the form
• 150gr. JulesDestrooper butter waffels (or ginger bisquits or any type of hard cookie...)
• 2 eggs
• 35gr caster sugar
• 1 tsp. powdered ginger
• Springform of 20 Ø

Preheat your oven at 190°.

Break up the waffles in pieces and put them in the blender, pulse and grind to a fine crumble.

Mix the crumble with the melted butter  and spread this in the springform. Press well with the back of a spoon, certainly on the edges. Bake this in the oven for 5 minutes. Take it out and let it cool down and turn down your oven to 170°.

Mix the mascarpone with the fresh cheese to a smooth cream. Break the eggs and put them in the cheese/mascarpone cream together with the sugar.

Melt the chocolate 'au bain marie' and add the ginger to it.

Add the melted chocolate to the mascarpone/cheese mixture and pour it in the form. 

Put in the oven for 50-60 minutes. Take it out and go around the edges of the form with a thin knife to cut the the cake loose from the side of the form. Let the cake cool completely down in the form. 

Don't worry if the cake collapses a bit, that's normal.

Enjoy,

Kev

Fluffy Chocolate mousse

This is a recipe to make a nice fluffy/light chocolate mousse. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not talking about skipping calories but only texture wise! Mixing this with beaten eggwhite snow gives this a nice light texture. And all kids love this dessert!

Ingredients:

• 200gr. pure dark chocolate
• 6 eggs, separate the whites from the yolks
• 100gr. sugar
• 375ml of cream, 40%

Estimated preparation time: 30 min + a few hours in the fridge.

Melt the chocolate au bain marie.

Beat the yolks with the sugar to a foamy texture. Add the melted chocolate under this mixture.

Beat the eggwhites to stiff peaks and gently spoon them under the yolks/chocolate mixture.

Whip the cream lightly, you don't need whipped cream but lightly beaten cream and mix this under the rest. Pour in cups and set in the fridge for a few hours.

Take out half an hour before serving.

Enjoy,

Kev

Cheese cake

One of my favourite pies and  desserts. I like this very lemony, citrus-flavoured!

Ingredients:

• 500gr. of lean fresh cheese
• 250ml. of light cream
• 120gr. non salted butter, melted
• 6 tbsp. of sugar
• 2 bags of vanilla sugar
• 250gr. of speculoos bisquits
• 12gr. of gelatine sheets
• Juice of 1½ lemons and ½ green lime
• 4 apples

Preheat your oven on 180°C.

Break up the speculoos bisquits and put them in the mixer and mix untill you have a fine crumble.







Mix this crumble with the melted butter and stir well. Put a baking sheet in the springform and divide this mixture on the bottom, make sure to press firmly on the edges. put in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

Cut the apples into parts and bake them in a pan with a small knob of butter and a tbsp. of sugar untill brown caramelized. Cover the baked speculoos bottom with these appleparts.

Whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla sugar firmy untill you get peaks and mix under the fresh cheese. Heat up the lemon/lime juice and dissolve the gelatine(that you have put in cold water for +/- 10 minutes before) in it. Pour this in the cheese mixture and mix.

Now pour all of this into the baking form and let it stiffen for about 8 hours in the fridge.

You can dress this with some fruit or top with some more speculoos crumble or whipped cream.

Enjoy,

Kev

Brown sugar panna cotta and red fruit

Easy peasy dessert recipe! If I can make it everyone can!

Ingredients:

• 200ml cream
• 200ml milk
• 70gr. brown sugar
• juice of  a lime
• 2 sheets of gelatine
• 50gr. of cristal sugar
• one vanilla pod
• some handfulls of fruit: strawberry, wraspberry, blackberry,....

Cut the vanilla pod lengthwise in half and scrape out the seeds. Add the stalks together with the seeds to the milk.
Soak the sheets of gelatine in some cold water.

Heat up the cream together with the milk, brown sugar,vanilla and lime juice in a pan for about 5 mins. Keep it just under the boiling point. Stirr regulary cause this can burn quite fast!

After the +/- 5mins pas the mixture trough a siff and add the sheets of gelatine and let them dissolve in the cream.

Pour into 4 nice cups and set away in the fridge for about 2 hours.

You can serve this with some red fruit or make a coulis to nap over the panna cotta.

For the coulis:  Heat up some water in a pan and dissolve the cristal sugar in it. Don't use too much water you just want to make the sugar liquid. 

Add fruit till the pan is just full and let this turn into a nice compote in about 2 minutes on a high heat. Nap over the panna cotta, place some berries on top and serve.

Enjoy,

kev