Oat bran pancakes

Since we’re spending the golden week in Ohara I’m cooking/baking every day for breakfast and with the weather being very unstable, this morning I wanted something new, something different in texture and taste. I was having some oat bran and thought it could be a good base to start with. So I browsed a bit for inspiration and found two things, first an idea for a recipe, second a nice website/app that I didn’t know about: yummly.com and seems very well designed to find recipes and inspiration. I’ve also started posted recipes there so I will probably keep you updated anout that soon.

As for our breakfast I prepared some oat bran cinnamon pancakes with using mainly oat bran to which I added a little of flour, baking powder, salt, brown caster sugar, one egg, soy milk and plenty of cinnamon powder. Stirred well and cook in a hot pan until golden. Perfect straight or with butter, honey, marmalade…

May 5, 2016

Semolina bread

When we were in Sicily I bought different types of flour and in particular a delicious semolina. I used it often for making pasta but I suddenly remembered a bread recipe using it and decided to try it for our breakfast this morning. The process is basically the same as making bread with plain flour except that 1/3 of the flour is replaced by semolina. I gives a very white bread with a soft and tender heart and a very thin and crusty shell. I shaped it as a regular bread but I assume it can be shaped differently too. Extremely delicious for breakfast with jam.

May 4, 2016

All Isumi everything

With friends from France and their kids visiting us in Ohara for a few days we’ve been busy showing them around, going to the beach, swimming and I’ve been busy in the kitchen preparing for our meals and trying to show them the best of the area: veggies, fruits, fish and pork. So for breakfast I prepared a huge (the biggest bread I’ve ever cooked) half whole wheat half white flour bread and I bought Isumi ham and cheeses, some local jam, honey and harvested a few fruits from the garden. Simple and delicious.

May 2, 2016

Baking!

We have friends from Germany visiting us and they’ve bring some nice cheese, so I’ve baked quite a lot and bigger breads than usual. This one is a big loaf of half campagne with poppy and flax seeds, perfect for breakfast with cheese.

March 28, 2016

Apple, vanilla and cinnamon cookies

I love to eat freshly baked and still warm bread, pancakes, brioche or whatever for breakfast, but it is unfortunately not possible every morning. So sometimes I bake in the evening so that we have something ready in the morning. And for that tarts, cakes and cookies are the best. I love the classic mix apple-vanilla-cinnamon, so i made some kind of thick cookies with fresh apples on top for our breakfast. The trick is to have them not too sweet for breakfast, so I mixed the flour with oat bran and just a little of sugar and a little of butter, I added one egg and a little of baking powder, plenty of cinnamon powder and vanilla beans. I then roll the dough to 3mm thick and cut the shapes of the cookies. I peeled the apples and cut the shape too a little smaller and topped the cookies with it. Baked them at 170deg for 20min. And added a little of vanilla on top. Simple and perfect anytime of the day actually!

March 23, 2016

Breakfast time

When we were in Karuizawa, they would serve delicious scrambled eggs for breakfast, so this morning when I asked A. What he wanted to eat he asked for creamy scrambled eggs to accompany the dried tomatoes fougasse I was making. Perfect since I just bought fresh eggs. For the fougasse I used my classic recipe, just add Sicilian dried tomatoes. For the eggs, simple, pre-heat a small pan and grease it a bit, keep a low heat during the whole process, add 2 eggs per personne in the pan, and with cooking chopstick start to mix gently, to obtain an homogenous batter. Then anytime the bottom and the edges start to harden mix again and again until the eggs have the consistency you like. Serve immediately, add a bit of salt and pepper on top. Have a good Sunday!!!

February 21, 2016

Natsumikan fluffy and frosted cakes

We have two natsumikan trees in the garden, or also called amanatsu. Every year the trees are covered with fruits and usually I would make jam with them and also use the zest since I know they are perfectly safe of chemicals and other nasty products. Usually the fruits are rather sour but this year they are incredibly sweet, as I discovered while making some fluffy cakes with the peel and the juice. For the fluffy cakes I used the recipe of the madeleine but put a little more baking powder and baked them at 180deg until golden. And because the juice of the fruit is really good I did a little frosting using only ice sugar and juice. Perfect for tea or breakfast!

February 1, 2016

Cinnamon buns

Last weekend, to change a bit from French bread and pastries I decided to try a recipe from my new Nordic cookbook and tried some cinnamon buns. As a first try, I didn’t know exactly what it would look like but I found the quantities quite unbalanced and in particular too much yeast, so I deliberately changed them. That plus the poor temperature control in the house in winters led to delicious but rather dense buns. So this time I decided to make it differently and to put a little less butter and more yeast and got a pretty decent result saying that for the second rise I let the dough out in the kitchen all night, where the temperature is anout 17deg when we’re up and it drops to 7deg by the time we wake up.

The process is actually simple. The ingredients for about 8 buns are the following: 250g of flour (hard flour for bread); 80ml of milk (I used soya milk because that’s what I had); 40g of butter + 40g at room temperature; 40g of sugar + 20g (I personally use only brown suger); 1 egg; 5g of salt; 6g of natural dry yeast; a few cardamom pods (I love the taste it gives to the buns, but it’s optional); cinnamon powder.

In a small pan heat the milk, the cardamom and the first 40g of butter, until the butter as melted. Add the 40g of sugar. Stir well. In a bowl add the flour, the yeast, the salt , the egg. Stir well. Add the mix from the pan and knead until smooth, and shiny. Let rise under a wet clothe until the dough is about twice bigger. If, like me the room temperature is low it takes quite some time. Once it has risen, move the dough on a sheet of cooking paper and roll the dought softly into a flat rectangle of a little less than 1cm high. With a spatula spread the butter at room temperature in a thin layer over the dough (on the long side of the dough leave a few cm without butter to close the rolls, then sprinkle cinnamon and the rest of the sugar on top of the butter. Roll the dough along the long edge starting from where the butter is, finishing where there is none, to for a long log. Then cut the buns and wait for the second rise (probably 1h). Heat the oven at 200deg. Move the buns in paper cases (I didn’t the first time and all the good filling went away instead of soaking into the bun, a pity!), add a egg wash if you fancy (I don’t) and bake for 12 to 15min. Just out from the oven is for me the best way to enjoy them!!

January 24, 2016

First bread of the year

When we left Japan in December it was still the end of autumn, in our garden the Japanese mapple trees were all red, the gingko had just lost all its leaves, the camelias were starting to bloom. 15 days later, the mapple leaves have all fallen, at first sight only the camelias haven’t changed, but with a closer look, the daffodils are blooming, the magnolias and the plum trees are full of buds already big, and the garden is metamorphosing slowly towards spring. From now on it’s going to be the coldest days, but the garden needs a lot of attention to get ready for spring: tree treaming, weed removing, cutting, grooming, planting… So we spend a lot of time outside in the cold, and there’s nothing better to start such days with a warm energizing rustic bread for breakfast. My recipe is simple: 50g of rye flour, 200g of white flour, 170g of water, 14g of sordough, 4g of natural dry yeast, 6g of salt. 20min cooking at 230deg, plus 5min in the oven cooling down. Perfect with jam, honey, butter or whatever pleases you!!!

January 2, 2016