Pistachio And Chocolate Torte

Pistachio, rose water always delicious together, it reminds me a lot of of Middle Eastern dessert. When you add chocolate into the mixture, the flavor becomes quite a unique, not too over powering, but slightly sweet with delicate scent of rose. You can simply omit it if you are too sensitive about any scent. Since I am not overly too excited  of any kind of too sweet chocolate cake, I only used a little less sugar, and prefered to use dark chocolate that has high percentage of cocoa butter in it, in this case I used 70%. No rule though, if you prefer sweeter cake, increase the amount of sugar to  3/4 cup, and use  any kind of dark chocolate that suit your palate.

Pistachio And Chocolate Torte 
adapted from  trissa's Pistachio and Chocolate (Gluten Free) cake
make one 9-inch cake

1 cup  ground pistachios

1/2 cup almond meal

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

8 oz - 70% dark chocolate

4 oz butter, cut into pieces

1 tsp Rose water 

5 eggs (room temperature), separated

1/2 cup superfine sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9-inch cake pan, line the base with parchment paper, then grease the paper as well. Set aside.

Mix ground pistachios,  almond meal, and baking powder. Set aside.

Melt chocolate and butter over barely simmering water, cool slightly, mix in 1/4 cup of the sugar, Rose water, and egg yolks. Fold in pistachio-almond mixture, set aside.

Beat the egg white until foamy, slowly add the remaining 1/4 of sugar, beat until stiff but not dry. Take a big scoop of beaten egg white, and mix it into the chocolate-nut mixture. Then, fold in (gently) the rest of the egg white, just until you no longer see the white streak. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out almost clean with a few crumb cling to it.

Citrusy Ricotta Tart

We are going to have rack of lamb for dinner tonight, and for dessert? I really want to have something citrusy, something light, and not too cakey type of dessert.  I think this ricotta tart is perfect for that reason, plus I have Meyer lemon in my garden that need to be pick, and some leftover candied orange peel in my refrigerator. 

Citrusy Ricotta Tart

serve 8-10

1 recipe for basic sweet pastry dough

1 cup milk

100 g semolina flour

2 medium size Meyer lemons, zested and juiced

425 g ricotta

3 medium size eggs

100 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup chopped candied orange peel, optional

To prepare the tart shell: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Butter an 9 x 2 inches ring pan, place it directly on top of parchment paper. Roll out the pastry dough slightly larger then the ring pan, then transfer it over the ring pan, and gently press the side using your fingers. Using a rolling pin trim off the excess. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. 

While the dough is resting, heat the milk over medium heat, add semolina flour, stir until semolina turn into porridge consistency. Add lemon juice and the lemon zest, stir for couple more seconds. Remove from the heat and cool completely.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Once the semolina has cooled, place it into a mixer bowl, add ricotta, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract. Using paddle attachment, mix the ingredients on a low speed into a smooth batter. This only take for a minute or so. Scrape the batter into the tart shell. Scatter candied orange peel on top if desire. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the tart is set and still slightly jiggle in the middle when the pan is gently shake. Cool completely before serving.

Update (2. 27.11):

Hello all, I just made this tart again, I apologize that there are couple of things that I need to correct in this post. Thank you!

1. I forgot to mention that, after the tart shell finish resting, take it out from refrigerator, place it on a baking sheet. Put a piece of parchment paper on top of tart shell, add beans to cover entire shell, blind bake for 15 minutes, take it out from the oven, remove the beans and parchment paper, return to oven, and bake for another 10 minutes. Cool before proceed the  next step.

2. I found out that if you let the milk to become a boil, the semolina started to curdled. So, make sure hot enough just to heat the milk, then add the semolina flour, stir only for a few seconds just until smooth. 

Whole Grain Anadama Bread

For Heather, the host of February  BBD # 36, for Zorra who always has brilliant blog events, especially her bread baking event, and to Susan (YeastSpotting) who made me love wild yeast, and baking more bread. 

Many of you are already familiar with Anadama bread, I, on the other hand, never made it before. I've seen the recipe in my book, as always I only scanned through it without any attempt to make it. Only after I learnt that Heather chose this month's theme to bake bread with corn, I decided to try Anadama Bread.  I made this bread using the recipe from Peter Reinhart's book, "Whole Grain Breads". I hope you all like it.

Update 1/10/11 : I consider this bread is somewhat healthier then the original Anadama, because the use of the whole grain flour in it.  So, I am sharing this with fellow bloggers who set up a different goals for their lives. My goal is pretty simple, include more whole grain, and legumes (which I don't like to eat), and drink a lot of water. For Eat.Live.Be for a better 2011. 

Roscon De Reyes (Twelfth Night Bread)

For those who celebrate the Epiphany day, here is one of the many version of King Cake. The one I made here is from Spain called Roscon De Reyes. I made the Mexican version a while back which was pretty good as well. Another version of King Cake is the one from  France, called Galette des Rois or Phitivier. The later seem to be my family favorite, perhaps is the pastry like cake and the almond frangipane that make Phitivier easily become favorite among my family. We'll see if I have the time to make it again.

For YeastSpotting

Roscon de Reyes (Twelve Night Bread)
recipe adapted from : Pepita Aris's Spanish Cooking

450 g (4 cups) bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
25 g (1 oz) fresh yeast
140 ml (2/3 cup) lukewarm milk
75 g (6 tbs) butter
75 g (6 tbs) sugar
grated lemon zest from 1 lemon
grated orange zest from 1 orange
2 eggs
1 tbs brandy
1 tbs orange flower water
dried bean (optional)

For Topping:
candied orange peel, and glazed cherry
almond fakes

For Egg Wash : 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 teaspoon milk

Line a  large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Save some flour aside, more or less 1/2 cup. Sift the remaining 3 1/2 cups flour  and salt into a large bowl, make a well in the center. Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix fresh yeast with milk until completely dissolved. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour well, stir in flour from around the side of the bowl to make a thick batter. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup flour over the top of the batter. Leave to sponge for about 15 minutes.

Using paddle attachment on an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on a medium to medium high speed until light and fluffy, add egg one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add lemon zest, orange zest, orange flower water, and brandy, beat on low just enough to incorporate them. Switch to dough hook attachment, add flour dough to the bowl. Knead until dough is smooth, elastic and shiny, about 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer into lightly grease bowl, cover with plastic, and live to rise in a warm room temperature for 1 to 2 hours, or until double in size.

Lightly flour the counter top, turn the dough directly on top. Lightly flatten it with your hands, then using a rolling pin, roll into to 65 cm x 13 cm (26 x 5 inch). Starting from the end closest to you, start to roll the dough into  a long rope. Transfer into prepare baking sheet, connect and seal the end together to make a ring shape. Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and leave to rise in a warm room temperature for 1 to 2 hours until double in size.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Brush the dough with egg wash, decorate with candied orange peel and glazed cherry, then sprinkle in almond flakes. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until golden. 

Turn out into wire rack to cool completely. 

Happy New Year To You All !

Photo courtesy my son AD