Flan - Creme Caramel

Flan is one of the easiest desserts ever, you don't need lots of ingredients or baking skills to get this sweet perfect the first time, promise.

You just need

0.5L of milk
3 eggs
3Tbsp of sugar, plus extra for the caramel

Fist we have to make the caramel, put some granulated white sugar in a pan with a few drops of water, don't worry if you pour too much water, it just will take longer to make, heat it up and don't stir it until it starts to become brown, it will not work otherwise. Once is made pour it in a aluminium container, I use disposable ones because my flanes are for sale, you can use ceramic or glass, meanwhile is oven-safe is ok.

Meanwhile the caramel is cooling down, pre-heat the oven at 120C, the flan need to be cook really slow.

In a bowl, combine the milk, eggs and sugar mix until combine, and pour thought a strainer into the container with the caramel.

Now cover your flan with tin foil to avoid burn the bottom of the flan and put it in a big container and pour some cold water, more or less to the middle of the flan container (bain-marie) and put in the oven for 1h.

Once is cook for 1h remove from the oven and let it cool at room temperature inside the bain-marie.

Torrijas

Is a bit late for any Easter recipes but I decided to write about torrijas. Apparently at the beginning it was a food given to women after giving birth to help them recover, after, they evolved as a way to go through Lent Fasting.

Now we buy bread for the occasion, some people like to make torrijas with brioche but traditionally it was a way of using leftover bread.


Ingredients:

1 baguette -large, that have to be sliced, each slice about 1.5cm
4 eggs
1L of milk
1 cup of granulated white sugar
1 lemon peel
1 orange peel
1tsp of cinnamon
Sunflower oil

In a sauce pan we warm up the milk with the cinnamon, the lemon and orange peels and half of the sugar. Stir the milk so the sugar can be disolved.

Heat up the milk just until is about to start boiling.

Leave the milk aside for about 10 minutes.

Remove the lemon and orange peels and soak the slices for about 12 seconds each and place them in a tray.

Meanwhile the oil is warming up we whisk the eggs, when the oil is hot we soak the bread in the eggs and place them into the oil and we fry them until both sides of the bread have a toasted colour.

Put the bread on some paper kitchen towels to we rid of any extra oil.

Place the bread in a container and add some of the leftover milk and the sugar we put aside on top of the bread.

You can enjoy the Torrijas hot or cold.

Praline Cake

This cake is super sweet so is only suitable for real sugar lovers XD

Is made with 2 vanilla and 1 chocolate sponges, filled with a homemade vanilla and chocolate custard and covered in a praline buttercream.

Strawberry and Cream Cake

This is a really easy and tasty cake, is the perfect summer combination: 2 vanilla sponges, filled with chantilly cream and topped with fresh strawberries, what's not to like?

Toasted Coconut Cake

I love coconut, so when I found a coconut cake recipe I couldn't help myself and I baked it, the first time was for a friend's birthday and afterwards for a coffee shop in Glasgow. The recipe I found has sautéed pineapple in the topping but I wanted the cake to be all about the coconut so after some changes in the recipe that's what I've got, the sponges are soft, moist and have a subtle coconut after taste, but the buttercream is full of coconut flavour.

Sponges

• 540g of flour
• 12g of baking powder
• 1tsp of salt
• 340g of unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 340g of egg whites
• 355ml of unsweetened coconut milk
• 1Tbsp of vanilla extract
• Coconut cream

Pre-heat the oven to 177C and line and butter three 8" cake tins.

Shift together flour, baking powder and salt (dry mix)

Place the butter in the bowl of a standing electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat until light and fluffy.

Add the sugar and continue to beat, remember to scrap the sides of the bowl.

whisk the egg whites, coconut milk and vanilla extract (wet mix)

Start adding the wet mix and the dry mix in turns to the butter and sugar mix while the electric mixer is working. Once you add everything you'll have to add some coconut cream to get the batter a little bit more wet, you'll have to add maybe between 1-2 Tbsp.

Once everything is mix divide the batter between the 3 cake tins.

Bake for about 25mins or until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes back clean.

Coconut Buttercream

• 2Tbsp of coconut milk
• 1tsp of vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 240g of butter (room temperature)
• 1Tbsp of coconut cream
• 600g of icing sugar
• 250g of desiccated coconut.
• 1Tbsp of coconut cream.

Place the butter in the bowl of a standing electric mixer with the paddle attachment and beat until light and fluffy.

Start adding the icing sugar (shifted), add a little at a time and mix well.

In a bowl mix the vanilla extract, salt and coconut milk. Add it to the butter and sugar mix and after is well mix add the coconut cream, you can add a bit more if you want your buttercream easier to spread.

Once the sponges are cold, we cut them to give them an even shape.

Place the first sponge on a cake board and spread a layer of buttercream, place the second sponge on top and gently press it on the fist one so the sponges are secured on place. Spread more buttercream and do the same with the third sponge, this time spreading a fine layer of buttercream all around the cake too. Put the cake into the fridge. At this point you'd have a lot of buttercream left, just keep it on a side while we get the finishing touches for the cake.

While the cake with the buttercream is getting colder, we put the desiccated coconut into a pan and toasted, remember to keep the heat low and remove constantly, we want the coconut toasted not burn.

Once is toasted leave it to cool down.

When the coconut is cool down, we take the cake from the fridge and add like half of the toasted coconut to the buttercream we have left, we mix it really well with a spoon and spread evenly all over the cake, when the cake is covered in the buttercream, we press the rest of the toasted coconut to the sides of the cake and sprinkle with it the top of the cake.

Now you just have to enjoy the cake :)

Morcilla (blood sausage) and Pear Pie

This is a pie from my area that I didn't know about so when during my last holidays when visiting my parents I had to try it. This is a really strong pie so if you have a weak stomach keep away from it :D

Pie Dough

• 250g of flour
• 150g of butter
• 1tsp of salt
• 1 egg
• 1Tbsp of milk

Pear compote

• 400g of peeled and de-cored pears
• 100g of sugar
• 1 lemon peel
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 2 cups of water

We make a dough with the ingredients, you can buy it but I always prefer to make my own crust, homemade always taste better :)

We put the ingredientes for the pear compote in a sauce pan over a slow heat and leave it to cook until the pears are soft.

Meanwhile the pears are cooking we peel 2 morcillas (blood sausages) and cut the filling in small pieces.

Once the pears are cook remove them from the sauce pan, put them over a chopping board and cut them in small pieces.

Dust with flour your working surface and roll out half of the pie dough with a rolling pin and line your pie tin. Prick the base of the dough with a fork.

Mix together the morcillas and the pears. Spread the mix evenly over the dough.

Roll out the other half of the dough and close the pie borders with a fork.

Paint the surface with a beaten egg.

Cook for about 20 min at 200C.

Coffee and Walnut Marshmallows

I bought a marshmallow recipe book a few months ago and finally I had time to try some of the recipes. I chose this one because it was the easier, I had all the ingredients in the house and because I love coffee. The result is fantastic, is bitter and sweet and I love the crunchiness given by the walnuts, maybe next time I would top them with dark chocolate.

By the way I have the full coffee set that goes with that cup, is older than me and it was my mother's and I always loved it so when I moved out of my parents house my mother gave it to me :)