Bollo de Pan duro or Bread Pudding Slices

This recipe is from my mom, from when we were growing up. I had it zillions of times growing up because it is made of old bread. It is a good one because it makes you understand that anything, anything can be turned into dessert with a little bit of sugar (and some cinnamon!).As you can see the pictures are not fancy! I mean, yes you can say, it looks bad! like who would eat that, right? 

INGREDIENTS:
-1 old baguette.
-4 eggs.

-1 tablespoon of cinnamon.

-4 tablespoons of butter.

-100 grams grams of sugar.

-15 mg of baking powder.

-1,5 cups of walnuts.

-1 cup of raisins.

-1 cup of milk.

STEPS:
1. Cut the bread in pieces, place in bowl and soak with milk. Let it soften for about 10 or 15 minutes.
2. In the meantime, in another bowl, melt the butter and add to the beaten eggs. Now add the 6 tablespoons of sugar.
3. Now drain the excess of the milk of the bread, as much as you can and discard it.
4. Now add the eggs mix to the bread and mix well. 
5. Add cinnamon, walnuts and raisins.
6. Sprinkle more cinnamon on top if you want.
6. Now place all the mix in tray for about 30 minutes to 200 degrees. It should dry up and the top should dry too.  You might have to play with your oven, don't let burn but don't let it be uncooked....ah you know...oven stuff...

 So good! An inexpensive dessert perfect for meriendas. Thanks mom.

Easy blueberry Cheesecake

                              

 This cheese cake is really easy and really good. I picked it up from my jewish book (as a matter of fact I have no idea how to copyright her cause it is from a book not a website). 

So this cheesecake is not too sweet and the amounts are pretty much perfect! Baking is a great great art you all. It is so precise! I am learning a lot about this. There is not a "more or less" with baking, you better measure your ingredients and follow the freaking recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
-200 grams of blueberries.
-1 kg of fresh cheese (queso fresco).

-3 eggs.

-120 grams of sugar.

-1 pinch of salt.

-some drops of vanilla.

-90 grams of flour.

STEPS:

1. Preheat your oven to 160.

2. Prepare the dough, so mix in a bowl the cheese and eggs. Beat and mix well.

3. Now add the sugar, salt and vanilla. 

4. Now add slowly the flour.

5. Now pour the mix in a dish with baking paper. The original recipe recommends 20x20 but mine was bigger.

6. Now bake in 160 degrees for about an hour or so until it is firm.

In hindsight I wish I had put more blueberries on top. Next time I will. You can also add raspberries or red berries, etc. Also keep an eye to your oven because it might take longer or less. Also, last tip, the following day it tastes much much better. Let it cool off and leave it alone! 

                    

Warm Bacon Potato Salad

Spring is coming you all, and salads are due! Finally some cold-lukewarm food for picnics. 

Today I needed carbohydrates. What to do? I looked in the fridge and I had potatoes, some bacon! The bell rang: some cool potato salad. And I remembered these recipes that looked drooling with bacon and green onions.

INGREDIENTS:
-700 grams of potatoes.
-300 grams of bacon.
-1/2 white onion.

-4 sticks of green onions.

-1 teaspoon of onion powder.

-5 tablespoons of vinegar (white or rice).

-2 tablespoons of sugar.

-1 tablespoons of dijon mustard.

-seasoning; salt and pepper.

STEPS:

1. Boil potatoes. Cut in half so that they cook quicker.

2. In the meantime dice up the bacon in small bits and fry until it is brown. Set apart.

3. Now, with the same grease of the pan cook the onions that you have diced up previously. Brown them and set apart.

4. Dice up the green onions and set apart as well.

5. Now prepare the dressing. Mix the vinegar, the sugar, the dijon mustard, the salt and pepper and the onion powder. It has to be sour, sweet, salty all at the same time.

6. Now mix everything together, potatoes cut in wedges or quarter, the dressing and the bacon, onions and green onions together and coat well.

7. Serve warm. 

It's so so good, a great combo of flavours. As my friend Tep says: everything is better with bacon. 

Amazing Crunchy Curry Chicken Salad

Wow! What a salad. This salad really rocked my world, it is the salad that you eat in Delis in New York City or London. The type that you want more of but it is so expensive..so you buy a sandwich but it is 7 or 8 and you are still hungry! so annoying.  

Well it is super easy to make and this recipe is very good. It has a lot of crunch and very little curry...a slight touch. I had been meaning to do it for a long time and finally we had a picnic cause Spring is coming!

INGREDIENTS:

For the sauce:

-1/4 cup of mayonnaise.
-1/4 cup of plain yoghurt. 
-1 tsp lemon juice.
-1/2 teaspoon of honey.
-1 teaspoon of curry powder or even less.
-1/4 teaspoon of salt.-cracked pepper.

-3 stalks of celery.

-3 whole green onions.

-1/2 cup of almonds.

-1/2 cup of raisins.

-2,5 cups of cooked chicken.

STEPS:

1. There are basically no steps other than cut up the salad ingredients in slices, the green onions, almonds and celery.

2. Mix all the other ingredients of the sauce and mix together stirring.

3. Add it all in a bog bowl and enjoy.

Coconut Slices = What to do with coconut pulp-

Now that I have been making coconut milk I have all this coconut pulp left. Do you? Well don't throw it away, you can make desserts!  

Australians are suckers for coconut! must be the influence of the asians, so I found a good recipe, perfect for all that pulp, I mean you do not even have to dry it out. I reduced the sugar of this recipe, the original one called for 3/4 cup but I added 1/2 and it was perfect (for my taste).

INGREDIENTS:

-1 cup of flour.
-1 teaspoon of baking powder.

-1 cup of coconut pulp.

-125 g butter melted.

-1/2 cup of milk.

-1 tsp of vanilla extract.

-1/2 cup of sugar.

-2 eggs.

-1/4 teaspoon of salt.

For the icing:

-1 teaspoon of butter.

-50 grams of icing sugar.

-1 drop of food coloring.

-1 tablespoon of boiling water.

-1/2 cup of coconut.

STEPS:

1. Combine flour, salt, sugar, coconut and melted butter in bowl and mix well with fork. It should become a thick paste.

2. Now add the eggs, milk and vanilla and mix well. 

3. Spread the thick mixture into a tray with baking paper (everybody's solutions to life baking paper), and bake for 40 minutes to 180 degrees or whatever it takes. 

4. If it is too white on top, turn grill on for a few minutes, to give it a lovely golden tone.

5. Now you have two options, you can wait for it to cool off and the do the icing and then spread the coconut on top, or straight after the oven you can sprinkle it with lots of coconut and will stick to the top cause it is still wet. 

I did the icing but next time I will definitely just spread the coconut because it is too sugary for me with icing. By the way as you can see I ate half of the cake before I could decorate it...it was real good.  

 

                       

Tomato Soup

I have been so fed of my own soups lately. I needed a new one, and I remembered this one from A Cup of Jo and Kenton was impressed. Not hard, just needs a lot of garnish at the end.

INGREDIENTS:

-600 grams of canned tomatoes. 

-2 tablespoons of butter.

-4-5 tablespoons of tomato paste, or tomate frito.

-half an onion.

-2 garlic cloves.

-2-3 teaspoons of sugar.

-1 teaspoon of thyme.

-1 teaspoon of italian herbs.

-some cream.

-salt and pepper.

STEPS:

1. Melt the butter and sautee in it the onions and garlic in saucepan.

2. Now add the thyme and the tomato paste until it caramelizes a little.

3. Now add the tomatoes can, with the juice and break the tomatoes a bit.

4. Now add 4 cups of water or 1 litre, or slightly less and bring it to a boil.

5. Now reduce the soup a little, bring it down to a simmer and let the water evaporate a little, like 20 minutes.

6. Now puree it with a hand mixer.

7. Now add the cream, I added like 30 ml, and it improves the consistency a lot.

8. Now add the sugar, otherwise it is too acidic.

9. Now add your spices until you feel satisfied. I added salt, pepper, italian spices, more thyme and finally another dab of tomato pasto. 

10. If you serve it with parmesano cheese on top, your world will rock.

Cheesecake La Viña

Last summer I made this cheesecake from the Basque Country. Pretty good and super easy. No wonder it is everywhere in the internet. I'd say it's not the spongy cheesecake, but more of a flan-custard texture. It's really quite good. Here it is:

INGREDIENTS: 

-600 grams of cream cheese.

-4 eggs.

-300 ml of double cream (36%fat).

-180 of white sugar.

-1 tablespoon of corn flour.

STEPS:

1. Whip up the cream cheese with electric mixer a bit until it is smooth and creamy.

2. Now add sugar to it.

3. Crack eggs and integrate one by one.

4. Now add the flour and make it disappear.

5. Now add the cream and incorporate with the blender.

5. Pour into baking paper in a medium pot.

6. Bake for 50 minutes to 180 degrees in the middle of oven heat from both. If it gets too brown on top cover with aluminium-

7. Let it cool off for a few hours and then stick in fridge. The cake actually tastes better the following day.

Yum, a keeper recipe. My family loved it on a picnic day.

 

How to make Peanut Butter

I had no idea peanut butter was so easy! 

but I can also see the benefits of buying it! ha. Kenton is addicted to peanut butter, he buys one jar per week. Yup, that's right, I am not kidding.  

So I made this and I was so happy! Finally we could save some money every week! this peanut butter works out to be 1 euro per jar, and his is 4 euro. But then he announced me to that he prefers the one he busy at Bangladeshi.....

Anyway, here is the recipe! it is a good one. Well done Big Bold Baking. 

INGREDIENTS:
-2 cups (284 grams) of roasted salted peanuts.

-1,5 tablespoons of honey.

-4 tablespoons of vegetable oil (but never olive oil).

-a strong food processor.

1. Grind up your peanuts with a strong food processor. I used my hand mixer and let's say it was nearly the last time I used, nearly broke it. Do not do it with a hand mixer, it's just too much the paste it creates. 

2. When you have the fine paste after grinding your peanuts for about 2 minutes in your strong food processor, add the oil and the honey. 

3. Grind again and that's it.

Gemma calls for 2 tablespoons of honey, I think it is a great ratio, but if you like it less sweet add 1 tablespoon or 1,5. Also you can add a little more oil, but I liked mine more like this.

This is a great discovery. I even put it in a peanut butter jar I had!