June 20, 2011

Ricotta cheese donuts with chocolate sauce

Its time for a quick dessert, very easy and so simple that even a cat could do it...yes a cat
THAT  simple.

I bought a few days ago some Ricotta Cheese and came up with the idea of making little donuts and side them with a chocolate sauce. Its a nice treat and especially if you have them at night drinking a vanilla chai. It may not be heaven but it gets pretty damn close.

Ingredients

Ricotta cheese donuts (makes 24)

-Enough oil to fry the donuts
-1 cup Ricotta cheese (try to use a good quality cheese, otherwise the flavor will be a little blend and you do NOT want that to happen.)
-3/4 of a cup with flour
-2 teaspoons of baking powder.
-1 piece of lemon zest
-1 good pinch of salt to really increase the Ricotta flavor.
-2 eggs
-5 teaspoons of sugar (maybe a little more, depends on how sweet you want them..i used 5 and the flavor was just fine)
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Some powdering sugar (just enought to coat them)

In a bowl mix the flour along with the baking powder, lemon zest and salt.
In another bowl mix the Ricotta , sugar, eggs and vanilla extract
Now just pour the flour mixture onto the ricotta mix and incorporate well enough until everything is nice and mixed.

Heat the oil until it reaches a temperature of aproximately 175 C.

And with a spoon take a  little bit of the mixture and pour it carefully into the oil so the donut starts to fry, in less than 2 minutes each donut should be ready for both sides.

(See Photos for a more detailed explanation)

Chocolate sauce

115 g of dark chocolate
1/2 cup whipping cream

Melt the chocolate in a water bath and once it has melted set aside.
Heat the cream on a small pan and once it has reached a hot temperature (not boiling oc course) pour it over the melted chocolate and stir until its completely mixed.




Flour, baking powder, lemon zest and salt.



Le Sucre!


Ñom-Ñom


Ricotta Cheese, Eggs, vanilla extract and sugar


Flour and ricotta mixed together


Ricotta donuts done!
 (i like them crispy so i fried them a little bit longer)


YAY!


115 g of Dark choclate


Chocolate sauce



Here are some pics of the Ricotta donuts plated.





Thats just me making some awesome mess....

June 13, 2011

Brazilian lemonade



This heat wave got me thinking that including a fresh beverage into my weekly routine wouldnt be a bad idea...

This lemonade is the easiest thing you can do. 
Its fresh, fun and easy to do...what more can you ask for?

All the credits go to "Our best bites " Blog check it out it has some really cool and fun ideas and the photos are really good.  I modified the recipe by adding a dash of Curacao



Ingredients

3 Big lemons (try to get the fresh looking ones and wash them well because youre using the whole lemon!)

1 cup sugar

6 cups water

1 can of condensed milk

A dash of Curacao

Once you have washed the lemons cut them into 8ths and put the half of them into the blender with 3 cups of water and 1/2 cup of the sugar, then  with a strainer put all the liquid into the jar youre serving...then just add the other half of the lemons along with the water and the rest of the sugar into the blender, finally add the condensed milk also into the blender and mix thoroughly. Put through a strainer into the jar and throw in some ice cubes!

If you want you can add a dash of curacao to get some color and modify a little the flavor






Lemons cut into 8ths


Blend half the lemons with 3 cups of water and 1/2 cup of the sugar


Put through a strainer and get all the liquid you can from those lemons


Blend the other half....yeah this recipe doesnt get any more easy.


Add the can of condensed milk into the second mixture


BBBBBSSSSTTTTTT!!!


Finally again put the mixture through a strainer into the jar youre serving (i used a bowl...)



Brazilian lemonade with a dash of Curacao

Its such an easy recipe and I really recomend you to try it sometime...you wont regret it . 
Trust me.

June 7, 2011

Old school Carrot Cake

This whole recipe started when i had to make the birthday cake of my girlfriends father...but the  carrot cake is a cake that i havent been able to perfect, for some reason ALWAYS when i tried to make it something always went wrong.(oven went off several times etc.) I know its a noob-proof cake even with the marzipan decorations...

I decided to go for an old-school rustic version (flavors and presentation), and after I tasted it I must say its a definetely must...

Ingredients.

2 Cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon of baking powder (royal)
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons cinnamon
3 1/2 eggs
1 cup of vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups of grated carrots
a handful of nuts.

In the mixing bowl put the eggs, oil and the sugar and in a separate bowl put the flour, baking powder, salt and  cinnamon.
Whisk together the eggs, oil and sugar and then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mix until everything is well-incorporated and then throw in the carrots.

Pour into a 12  inch cake springform pan and bake around 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Betun or frosting

1 package of philadelphia cream cheese
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
a few drops of vanilla extract.
4 cups of confectioners sugar

Put the first 4 ingredients on an electric mixer and cream them until the mix gets a smooth texture. Then add slowly the sugar and keep on with the mixing until you have used all of the sugar.



A few carrtos and the lemon for the frosting


On the left bowl I mashed up the oil, sugar and eggs


Flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt


Pic 1 + Pic 2 + grated carrots


Bake for around 50 minutes at 175 C.


Let it cool for about 30 minutes before you apply the frosting and spray on the nuts.


You might end up with something like this




BONUS!!!

When i was doing my mise en place...
Out of nowhere my cat appeared and started to scratch itself with the table on what seemed to be a  convulsion episode...epic.