Tag: baking

Hazelnut and spices cake

It is not often that I make vegan cakes but sometimes there is no choice. I really wanted to make a cake, start mixing flour, baking powder, sugar, and when it cake to the eggs, I realized I didn’t had any. And I didn’t feel like buying cheap eggs from the kombini (not because they are cheap, but because they come from I don’t know where, and how). But since the cake was on its way I just added a reasonable amount of hazelnut powder, and a bit of vegetal oil and soya milk to moisten the dough until I obtained a normal consistency for the dough. Then I added some anise seeds, cinnamon, cardamom in a large amount. And baked at 150 degrees for 30min. The result was a delicious fluffy cake, perfectly balanced in taste between the hazelnut and the spices. Something to try again for sure!!!!

Have a nice weekend! 

Rosemary and bacon scones

My passion for scones is endless and I love to test new variations. Largely inspired by the cooking magazine I brought back from Chicago this summer, and waiting for chillier days, I finally made some salted scones. I didn’t follow the recipe from the magazine, rather took the opportunity to have plenty of fresh rosemary in the garden to prepare these scones. And to give them a little bit more twist and consistency I added wheat bran in the dough. And everyone loved them so much, they disappeared in a flash!

I use regular flour, about 150g, wheat bran, 2 large tbs, 40g of butter, 12cl of milk, a large branch of fresh rosemary, a piece of bacon or a few slices, 1egg, salt and baking powder. I mix the flour, the salt, the baking powder, the wheat bran, the egg together, add the milk. If the dough is too sticky add a bit of flour, if too dry a bit of water or milk. Knead rapidly. Cut the bacon and the rosemary and add to thd dough. Knead 2min. Pre heat the oven to 200deg. Roll the dough to obtain a large dough of 2cm high max and cut the scones (knife, shape… everything can do!). Bake until golden (12 to 15min usually). Serve as bread, or eat alone!

Bread making

The temperature is getting low at night these days; and mornings, though sunny are quite chilly. I love then more than ever to have hot bread, freshly baked, for breakfast. But because temperature in the house is much lower controlling the bread making is also much difficult. Yet, with more experience each year, I start to really manage to make bread with a more consistent result. A. loves white breads for breakfast so I prepared a big gâche bread this time.  just 250gof white flour, 175g of water, 7g of salt and 5g of dry yeast. Kneaded until soft and smooth, then proven for a few hours (the house is barely 15deg inside) and shaped as a flat ball. I bake it the following morning for 30min (or until golden) at 230deg. 

Breakfast

Usually my morning routine in Tokyo is very simple: after waking up I do a little pilates workout, then take care of the laundry, in the mean time A. prepares breakfast for us and takes care of the dishes.  So when A. is away my morning routine is quite busy since I have to squeeze in everything… 

Hopefully this weekend end I made a huge German black bread and we packed on fresh produce at the farmers market: persimmons, early tangerine (which green color is normal, not that they are not ripe!!!) and cheese from Komagata factory. And I am very lucky because my uncle in France has a few hives and makes delicious honey. Perfect for an Autumn morning!

Chocolate & walnuts cake

It was raining and it has gotten a bit chilly so the autumn cooking is officialy on! And I again got inspired by American cooking. I didn’t follow any specific recipe but just baked some chocolate cake with walnuts. Prunellia is a much better cook than me when it comes to brownies, chocolate cakes etc… Because she goes with the ful blast recipe of butter, dark chocolate… Of course my version is not as rich because I can’t eat that, and may seem a little dry because I don’t use a lot of butter, but for me it’s exactly how I like it. Simple and tasty to go with my tea! 

Quiche!

I think this recipe base is becoming my all-time favorite for the quiche: it’s simple and it mixes Japanese and French flavors perfectly. The quiche is a traditional dish in France, simple to prepare and accomodate with everyone taste. The twist comes from the ingredients I use in the egg base: bonito flakes (katsuobushi) and soya sauce. It gives a subtle flavor of dashi and Japan. For the dough you can use whatever flour you like or have around. I change all the time: white wheat, whole wheat, spelt, buckwheat, rice… A combination of the above mentioned is good too. I usually prepare a sable dough because I like it better, but brise dough works well too. Veggies are only seasonal fresh veggies and this time I pocked some end of summer mushrooms: shiitake (well you can fond them all year round!) and bunashimeji, a white smooth version of shimeji. That’s it!

Getting ready!

On August 20th I will cook for the final of a cooking contest. It’s my first cooking contest and I have clue how it works. For me cooking is quite an intimate experience, I usually cook alone and enjoy it very much, so cooking in front of people is going to be a fun challenge!!! For the contest I needed to write down the recipe of the dish I will cook and more difficult the quantities required. Since I cook by feeling, on the spot, with the ingredients I have I don’t keep track of what I put in exactly, hence I started this cooking diary to keep track of my ideas, but not the recipe in detail as you may have noticed. So I wrote down some numbers in my recipe but I needed to check if they were actually ok. For example with 100g of buckwheat flour and a bit of rice flour can I roll a dough big enough for a 20cm pie dish etc… I guess I could, but I needed to be sure before the contest. And since tomorrow I leaving Japan for more than 2 weeks (going to the US and Canada) and I won’t have much time when I come back, I finally did it last night. And everything seems to work well!!! I didn’t put to much effirt on the shape, but the taste was amazing!!! I have a winner I’m sure, hope to convince!!!!

Kaya cookies

Still with this coconut milk! It’s incredible how much you can try with just a can! I’ve had some nice tries and some that just didn’t work as they were supposed: coconut milk salted caramels. That’s how I ended up with a sort of kaya instead of the caramels. Delicious, addictive… My kaya is basically coconut milk and caramel that I cook to obtain something a little creamy and brownish. After that I mix flour, baking powder, I used a beat of wheat bran for the texture, a bit of butter and 2tbs of kaya. Stir well and make little coin size cookies that I bake 13min at 170-180deg. Simple and delicious though again the baking kind of weaken the coconut milk flavor.

Coconut milk and spices scones

Once the coconut can is opened, better use it! It’s really rare I use canned food but for coconut milk it is really nice (and for chick peas). The milk is really rich and creamy. So after I used a few for the curry I’ve been cooking with it a little bit. And first thing I dud was to prepare some scones for breakfast. I replaced the milk in the recipe with coconut milk. I added vanilla, cardamom seeds and some fresh gratted ginger. Baked and serve with some kind of homemade kaya: coconut milk cooked with sugar until creamy. It was delicious but it seems that the coconut milk loses a lot of taste when baked., so the spices gave most of the flavor to yhe scones.

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