Chocolate and cardamom pudding with berries, and over 3,000 views

Yesterday Google recorded 3,228 page views, a new record for me, and interestingly over 2,000 views were from the UK (which is usually 4th or 5th in the audience statistics). Once again most viewed post was this one, but the Turkish delights also did well, as did all the recent Xmas posts. Of course it could simply be a robot that checks every single page and steals recipes, but never mind, it is lovely to top the 3,000 mark, and by more that 200 too!

And now to the recipe, nothing to it really, but I like chocolate with cardamom and berries, and the kids loved the glasses!!! These are quite cute grappa glasses that sit on the side and can roll around like a spinning top, in fact I don't use them much because they are quite wobbly, but they do give that 'ship-in-a-bottle' feel to food, and are perfect for verrines and fancy dinners.

I made a chocolate cream with one egg, 1/2 tbsp flour, 2 tbsp sugar, 50 g dark chocolate and 250 ml milk. In the end I added a few seeds of cardamom. I poured the chocolate pudding into the glasses and when it was cold I added raspberries, strawberries and other berries... but I have to say that this part wasn't that easy, I should get myself some long and skinny tongs!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Christmas recipes and ideas

Here are some recipes and ideas for Christmas, please click on the captions for the links.

Classic Christmas

From top left clockwise: 

Mont Blanc Mille-fuille, 

Panforte, 

Vegan Panforte,

Strawberry and Balsamic non-alcoholic aperitif

Small Treats

From top left clockwise: 

Homemade Marzipan,

Marzipan Fruit,

Calissons,

Turkish Delights

Christmas 'Shapes'

From top left clockwise:

Star Biscuits,

Christmas Origami Decorations,

Christmas Biscuits,

More Biscuits

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Fresh As raspberries, lychees and feijoas dipped in dark chocolate

Usually every Christmas I make dried apricots, nuts and other dried fruit dipped in dark chocolate, but this year I am using Fresh As freeze dried fruit. The flavour is really intense, and the texture completely different, crispy and fresh! I used dried raspberries, dried lychees and dried feijoas. I had friends around and everything disappeared in no time. Most people preferred the raspberries, but I preferred the lychees and Max the feijoas. I did the mandarins already here, and I am pondering about the next fruit to try!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

One simple custard for many puddings...

For the Custard:
3 free range eggs
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp flour
1.5 l full cream milk
Vanilla essence

Mix the eggs with the sugar and flour and add the milk slowly. Simmer until the custard thickens then add the vanilla essence. I pour some in a large bowl, then once cool I topped it with whipped cream, some lime and passion fruit curd (made by Ken) fresh raspberries and cherries, and ground pistachio. I had lots of custard left and I put some in some shot glasses. I added some 72% dark chocolate to the remaining hot custard and made some chocolate mini puddings for more shot glasses. I topped some of the chocolate puddings with pistachio, and other with cream and fruit of blackcurrant powder (from Fresh As). Some of the vanilla mini puddings were also topped with cream and fruit, and others with the lime and passion fruit curd. A nice selection of mini pudding to take to the Slow Food Committee meeting, easy but sure to impress! Here you are Clinton, the recipe for you, maybe you can make them for the next meeting :-).

With this recipe I take part in the contest

Dolci al Cucchiaio

Di Dolci a Gogo

Thank you Imma!!!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Cupcakes to take to school...

...for birthdays, or for the teacher, or for a special friend. It is becoming a trend, I need to find more little paper boxes! FYI, the purple icing is done with blackcurrant powder, and the roses by Arantxa and our Japanese exchange student Yui.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Amarena Cherry Cupcakes for Sweet New Zealand, and remembering friends

Ingredients

120 g butter

3 eggs

130 g sugar

1/2 tsp lemon zest

200 g self-rising flour

60 ml milk

12 Italian Amarena Cherries (I used Toschi)

to sprinkle:

icing sugar

Fresh As Blackcurrant powder

Makes 12 cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line a 12-muffin tray with cupcakes paper cups.

Melt the butter in a jug, either in the microwave or in the oven (while the oven is warming up for the cupcakes). Place the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk, using an electric beater, until the mixture looks light and pale yellow in colour. Slowly add the melted butter and the lemon zest. Keep beating at a low speed now; add half of the flour followed by half of the milk. Add the rest of the flour and milk and keep beating making sure that there are no lumps. Divide the mixture between the 12-cupcake cases and add one cherry on top of each cupcake, pressing it down lightly.

Bake for about 18-20 minutes, until golden brown at the top. You can also check by inserting a toothpick into the cupcakes: if it comes out clean the cupcakes are ready. Remove the cupcakes from the tin and let them cool down. Mix the icing sugar with the Fresh As Blackcurrant powder and dust the top of the cupcakes.

This recipe is for Sweet New Zealand, this month hosted by Bridget of After Taste. All Kiwi bloggers living in NZ or overseas can participate, for inspiration just have a look at last month's event, hosted by Sugar and Spice.

Blogger Arfi proposed to dedicate this Sweet New Zealand session to our fellow blogger and friend Barbara of Winos and Foodies, who passed away last Saturday. Barbara was a real lady, in every sense, and we will all miss her. She is also one of the first blogger I have met when I started blogging  (I guess that in those days we didn't have many NZ bloggers!), but among all of us Kiwi bloggers I think that Arfi was possibly the one who knew her better, so I will direct you to her words to farewell Barbara.

These are sad times, I have also lost another friend last week, he was only 49 and he left behind a wife and two kids, and a big hole in our hearts. I didn't really plan to talk about him here, in my blog, in a way it is so personal, as his wife is one of my closest and oldest Italian girlfriends, and a colleague too, and when we live all so far away from home we have become like an extended family. But cancer is such a terrible illness, and after so much crying I just want to say to all of us: please, let us look after ourselves.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Blackcurrant coconut macaroons

A super easy and quick recipe for the weekend! My husband loves coconut macaroons, and I often make them if I have some leftover egg whites. 

I just made a meringue base with egg white and more or less the same amount of icing sugar (this time I had 2 eggs whites). To add interest I included one tbs of Fresh As Blackcurrant powder. The colour was very pretty!

Then I folded in some dried coconut, enough to make them 'spoonable' over a baking tray, lined with the Lynette's baking sheet I won form blogger Zo. Nice to use a baking sheet that can be recycled over and over again!

I Baked at 100 C for an hour or so and then I let them dry with the oven door open. They aren't pretty, but they are nice, and gluten free too :-). Have a smashing weekend!!!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Gorse flower cupcakes, foraging in Anawhata

Gorse cupcakes and Anawhata

On Sunday we went to Anawhata, one of my local beaches, and one of my favorites, as you can only reach it walking down a path in the bush. There are many gorse plants around, a weed in New Zealand, but the flowers are lovely and smell like coconut. They are also edible so I picked some on the way back.

The walk to the beach

From top left clockwise: Vegetarian humor on a sign (and no, it wasn't me!), the path to the beach, the beach and a far away surfer (needs to carry his board down, and then up again the path!), cute shells on the black sand.

Beautiful seaweed

I picked about two large handful of gorse flowers, made a syrup with a 100ml of water and 1 tbsp of icing sugar, put the gorse in the hot syrup and let it rest for one night. 

For the gorse cupcakes: 

120 g butter

3 eggs

130 g sugar

1/2 tsp lemon zest

200 g self-rising flour

100 ml gorse flowers and syrup

Makes 12 cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line a 12-muffin tray with cupcakes paper cups.

Melt the butter in a jug, either in the microwave or in the oven (while the oven is warming up for the cupcakes). Place the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk, using an electric beater, until the mixture looks light and pale yellow in colour. Slowly add the melted butter and the lemon zest. Keep beating at a low speed now; add flour followed by gorse and syrup and keep beating making sure that there are no lumps. Divide the mixture between the 12-cupcake cases and bake for about 18-20 minutes, until golden at the top. You can also check by inserting a toothpick into the cupcakes: if it comes out clean the cupcakes are ready. Remove the cupcakes from the tin and let them cool down. 

Would you like to know what they tasted like? They tested like banana cupcakes!!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Pineapple jelly... I mean, agar agar!

We all know of the enzymes of certain raw fruit (pineapple, papaya, kiwi etc) that won't make jelly, or agar agar, set. And also that cooking the fruit first will stop the problem. Or using canned fruit! 

But the only canned fruit I use is mango pulp (to make mango agar agar pudding, in fact) and I was just wondering... wondering... if the Fresh As pineapple powder, having been freeze dried, would still have those enzymes... so I tried. I used 500ml of water, boiled it and added 1 tsp of sugar, 1 tbsp of Fresh As pineapple powder and 1 level tsp of agar agar. I simmered everything for one minute and then poured it into 4 individual jelly moulds. I used these colorful ones, when the agar is set you just remove the lid at the bottom and they should pop down. Should. We actually shook them a bit! The pineapple puddings were fresh and fragrant, not too sweet (the sugar ratio was perfect) and I liked the flavor, although my husband and the kids told me that I could have put in a bit more pineapple powder for more zing! I will try a different Fresh As powder soon for more puddings!!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Fig Cupcakes

Yes I know, I keep publishing cupcakes, but hey, I love them!! And this idea works so well I really wanted to share it! The fact is that the figs of the old tree up our driveway are always too small to make an "impression". They are nice, but never big and juicy and even if they get that way (the ones on the top branches that get all the sun) the birds get to them, not me! So I usually cook them in a cake, but this idea is prettier! Make you favourite vanilla cupcake batter (I use this one - but without the pine nuts), and then fill the cupcake cases only half way up. Insert a whole (small and firm) washed fig in each one and the bake. At the end you can just sprinkle with icing sugar. I can assure you that you will be pleased!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Mandarin Crème

Oh yes, yummy yummy. At home we love crèmes, especially Arantxa and me (Max prefers chocolate puddings, but this one he approved of!). 3 eggs (medium-small) + 2 heaps tbsp sugar + 250ml cream + 1 tbsp of dried mandarin segments (put these in only at the end when the crème is thick and velvety). Remember to mix well while simmering so that the eggs don't curdle, some people find it easier to make the crème at bain Marie (double boiling) but I just use a low flame and good whisk. Pour into 4 glasses. Before serving add whipped cream, shaven dark (really dark) chocolate and some more segments of dried mandarines, which are crunchy and will create a nice contrast with the creamy texture underneath. To me, heavenly!!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

My best homemade chocolates so far: nama choco with fruit powders

Actually, these would be perfect for Mother's Day, and they are so easy to make!!

Nama choco are my favourite Japanese chocolates, to make them I followed this recipe from talented blogger Nami of Just One Cookbook. Basically it is the same recipe for chocolate ganache: two parts good quality chocolate to one part of cream, and this time I used Whittakers Dark Cacao 62%. Brake the chocolate with a knife and then melt with the cream over a pot of water at Bain Marie. Pour into a rectangular/square container, smooth the top and refrigerate. When set cut with a warm knife, rinsing the knife in hot water and drying it between each cut. Yum, the chocolates already look yummy as they are!!

At this stage you should dust them with cocoa, but after doing that I added some colour.

Mostly I used Fresh As powders: passion fruit, pineapple, strawberry and blackcurrant. Then I used some Fresh As dried blueberries slices, and some spirulina powder (green tea would go well too!). So all the colour are naturals, and yet they are so bright and beautiful!

I have to say that they looked and tasted so professional that I will make them again. At home we are real  intense chocolate lovers, so these nama choco went down a treat (when I told the kids that I made nama choco they said "YESSSS!"), then I tried them on my Italian language students, and they liked them too, so I thought of putting the recipe on the blog :-). The fruit powders works well not only for colour, but to offer a fresh fruity note to the intense and creamy chocolates. These should be stored in the fridge, but take them out 20 minutes before serving them, unless it is a hot day, or you are one of those people who like chocolate straight from the fridge (and that I can never understand!).

And when these are finished (I still have a couple left in the fridge) I'll move on to the goodies that my husband brought me from South America, lots of chocolates (from the expensive to the 'over the counter') to try, and the first are going to be my favourite: Alfajores! Usually he gets them from Argentina, but this time they came from Chile, I wonder if they are going to be very different. Maybe Gloria can tell me if this is a good brand?

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I am entering this recipe for Sweet New Zealand #10, the monthly blogging events for Kiwis, this month hosted by Jemma of Time for a Little Something.

We are still looking for a host for June, especially if you haven't had a turn yet!!!

Please contact me if you like to host: remember that you must be living in New Zealand, of be a Kiwi living/blogging overseas.

Last item on this post: Tomorrow Arantxa and I will be here all day to show kids how to make sugar roses. Please come and join us, Corban Arts Centre, Henderson, Auckland

Free art workshops and activities, children's performances, schools' art exhibitions of children's art, photography and multi-media.

Date: Saturday 5 May, 2012 | Time: 10 am – 4 pm | Free entry and parking (onsite).

Mandarin Chocolates

This is too easy! I just used some Fresh As  mandarin segments (they are freeze dried) and dipped them in melted dark chocolate (I used Whittaker's 72% Dark Ghana). That's all.

Click here if you like to win some Fresh As mandarine segments (plus some Fresh As strawberry powder and strawberry slices). The competition is closing on 29 April.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Frangipane Verde al profumo di Sambuca

Yes this is different! Just try it! But don't think that is something completely new! Where I come from in Italy they make a tart called Erbazzone Dolce, filled with spinach, ricotta, almond and flavored with an aniseed liqueur called Sassolino. Here in NZ it is difficult to find Sassolino so I use Sambuca. If you like the recipe for Erbazzone Dolce you can find it in Sweet As, or it was recorded on Radio New Zealand (ages ago, when I was interviewed by Kim Hill on Saturday Morning), and the recipe is also on the Radio NZ website here. 

But the time instead of making Erbazzone Dolce I made a Spinach Frangipane for the MT Challenge!

The base recipe is similar to Ambra's, but I used salted butter (so I didn't need to put salt in the pastry) and sambuca  instead of lemon zest.

For the base:

- 200g plain flour

- 100g  butter, soft

- 100g sugar

- 1 egg 

- tbsp sambuca

Mix together and then spread (I couldn't be bothered rolling it, I spread it with fingers) into a 23 cm round baking tin  lined with baking paper. 

The MT Challenge said that for the frangipane filling we had to use this recipe (in Italian). Then we could add the fruit/ingredients we liked, and after seeing that all the chocolate/pear/apple/various-things were already taken, I choose spinach. Ah!!! I am sure that there isn't a green Frangipane yet!

For the filling:

- 100g ground almond

- 100g unsalted butter, soft

- 100g sugar

- 1 egg

- 30g potato flour of corn flour

- 1 tbsp orange blossom  water (here we could choose our own flavoring, so I choose sambuca)

- 3 portions of frozen chopped spinach defrosted at room temperature

Mix together in this order and then fill the pie crust. Bake at 180°C for about 30 minutes, or until the crust looks cooked and the top has lightly risen. Let the Frangipane cook down completely before removing from the baking tin.

This post is for the MTC di Aprile hosted by Menù Turistico

I made this cake yesterday because it was a holiday, 25 April, Anzac Day, and Festa della Liberazione in Italy! In the morning I took the children horse riding in Karekare. It was a beautiful day and the horses had my last carrots (the veggie garden has all been dug up now!). Well, apple season now, so the horse can have apples instead, but I learned a new fact: Caroline, who owns the horses, told me that they should eat as many carrots (and carrot leaves) as they like, but only a limited number of apples! I hope that my new carrots will grow fast now! In the photos Billy eating a carrot, and Laddy drinking from an old bath tab (and yes, that blue strip in the background is the sea!).

In the afternoon (and what a sunny day it was!) we had the Spinach Frangipane for snack and in the evening we went here to celebrate Anzac Day and Festa della Liberazione. It was a very special occasion, I even had to do a short speech, and I felt honored to be part of the remembrance for both NZ and Italy.

To end a long post, if you are in NZ, please remember to enter this giveaway, closing on 29 April!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©