French Fridays With Dorie - Nutella Tartine

Chocolate, thick and oh so sweet

From a spoon, it's you I eat,

You look so good, taste so nice

I'd even eat you on fried rice...

~ Nutella poem, Ninja Girl

January was a write-off as far as blogging is concerned. Here I am thinking February will be much, much better but I've already missed last week's French Fridays recipe, Gorgonzola-Apple Quiche, something I had so wanted to bake as well! Already, I'm running out of excuses as to why I've gone MIA lately...let's just say life has taken over and left me with very little time and energy to focus on my culinary activities and writing. To quote E.B. White, "I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day". Yes, too right, my friend!

Anyway, back to today....I couldn't possibly pass up the chance to make this week's FFWD recipe, Nutella Tartine. Well, it isn't even a recipe per se but an assemblage of several beautiful ingredients we all have in our pantries (and if you don't, you should start questioning if you're really living, you know).

Nutella Tartine is a favorite French after-school treat and apparently - because I hardly drink coffee - it also goes quite well with a hot cup of espresso. All you have to do to make it is warm up several spoonsfuls of Nutella, then drizzle it over buttered, toasted brioche slices. In Pierre Hermé's version as recounted by Dorie in Around My French Table, the toasted bread is slathered with bitter orange marmalade, Nutella and sprinkled on top with chopped hazelnuts and fleur de sel. 

Of course, in my version of Nutella Tartine, that would be wholemeal toast spread with a layer of butter, a layer of peach jam (I had run out of marmalade, sadly) and frivolously decorated with thin orange slices, warmed-up Nutella, toasted almonds and pink river salt. These deviations from the original Tartine didn't affect its deliciousness one bit, that much I can assure you. 

So Voilà...this week's recipe has been accomplished! Next week's will be a savory one - Mussels and Chorizo with or without Pasta. Oh, that will be a challenge for me as I'm really not that good with all things seafood, or let me rephrase that, all things savory. If you're keen though, come back next week to this same spot to see how I've done. No sorry, don't come back....just come and cook with us in French Fridays with Dorie :). 

I've really missed you, Doristahs (my Dorista sistahs and brothahs). Here's wishing all of you a weekend crammed with heaven!

Nutella Ding Dong Cake

A Ding Dong Cake - now doesn't that name just fire up the imagination? When I was assigned the blog Sweet Flours for this month's Secret Recipe Club, I found out that the blog author Allison and I have one thing in common - a big sweet tooth. Her blog features plenty of baked goodies which makes it a dream site for me. She actually baked this cake for her great grandmother's 91st birthday, and another time once before for her 89th birthday. I took my cue from great grandma, that lady sounds like she has quite a discerning taste in her choice of birthday cakes :).

At first I hadn't a clue why the cake was named so, but after a bit of googling discovered that Ding Dong cakes are those little chocolate-covered cakes with with a white creamy filling sold by Hostess Brand. The ones I so obviously had never eaten while growing up. While Allison had made a regular cake-sized version of Ding Dongs, I decided to make the original puck-sized ones because sometimes eating minicakes makes things a bit easier on the conscience. And a lot easier for me to fit into my skinny Levi's too, not that they're not already made of stretch denim, but still...

The recipe for this cake originally came from Smitten Kitchen, but the adapted recipe can be found here on Sweet Flours. The process of making the minicakes was slightly fiddly, but nothing that I hadn't already done in my kitchen many times. The coffee-chocolate cake batter was straightforward enough, however the marshmallow filling needed a fair amount of whisking in a bowl placed over a pan of simmering water, a bit like making swiss meringue buttercream frosting but without the butter. 

In an original Ding Dong (I just love saying that!), the entire chocolate cake is coated with a thin layer of chocolate glaze but Allison had coated her birthday cake with chocolate ganache, all glistening on the top and sides. I was a bit short for time on this occasion so my topping was simply warmed up Nutella (30 seconds in the microwave) that I spread with a knife and let drizzle a bit down the sides. Did I just say simply Nutella? Of course, that wasn't the case at all because you and I know that Nutella is King and in actual fact stole the show!

    

This will be my last participation in the Secret Recipe Club. It has been really fun discovering many new blogs and cooking from my assigned ones, however I feel it's time to get back to doing my "own thing". Creating recipes that come from my own heart and imagination and make me truly fulfilled, you know. I'm on a quest to get my old ding dong back! :-)

We Should Cocoa - Marie Chocolate Fudge Cake with Purple Sweet Potato and Nutella Onde-Onde

Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you.
~Richard Brinsley Sheridan

As I was coming to the end of my morning jog recently, I came across two butterflies 'dancing' around each other in mid-air. They were black butterflies, with beautiful purple spots on their wings, and the unusual sight of their interaction literally stopped me in my tracks. I observed them for 15 minutes, keeping still as they flew around me whilst also flying in circles around each other. I took it to be some sort of courtship or mating ritual, definitely on a more complex plane than The Bachelor or Bachelorette. It was quite fascinating, I had never seen anything like it, especially up so close except on National Geographic Channel. I had no clue why those butterflies were flying around me as if they had given me their explicit approval to become a voyeur to their activity.

#BakeTogether - Spiced Up and Stormy #Irene Double Chocolate Nutella Mousse Cookies

Stop with the labels, we are not jam jars.
~ Caroline Casey

For those who were affected by Hurricane Irene a mere fortnight or so ago, it will be a while before they shall be able to forget the image below and the limitless power of Mother Nature. Despite humankind's incredible intelligence and technological prowess, something like this reminds us all of how helpless we are when pitted against such powerful forces of nature.

Nutella and Peanut Butter Stripe Bread

If you've perused through enough of my posts and recipes, you may have noticed my slight obsession with the creation of stripes, swirls and spirals in my edibles. As well as a borderline addiction to pinks and purples :-). As idiosyncratic as it sounds, these are the things make me happy...my brain probably swims in a pink and purple sea of swirls and stripes on a daily basis. Imagine that. I like to think that I'm quite normal; each to his own, wouldn't you say?  

Secret Recipe Club - Homemade Nutella Apple Coconut Chocolate Pop Tarts

I wish all my friends' houses were connected to mine via secret tunnels.

~ Blue Lady at tumblr.com

Whenever the Secret Recipe Club event rolls around, I feel as if I'm being given the opportunity to bear someone a precious gift. Not only to the blog owner that I'm assigned to by the event host, Amanda of Amanda's Cookin', but also to you, my friends and readers. So this month I'm lucky enough to get Savor The Thyme owned by the incredibly hip and talented Jennifer. I'm not sure why I've never come across her blog before this assignment but once I looked through it, I was hooked. There are plenty of healthy recipes using fresh and 'real' ingredients that I felt rather spoilt for choice. More than that, there is a paragraph in her 'About' page that sums up everything I myself personally value where she says:

"I believe in a healthy lifestyle and family: To us that includes being healthy physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It includes great times with friends, life experiences and lots of hugging and laughing."

Well, I don't know you from Eve, Jennifer....but I think we could be psychological twins! I hope you will view this attempt at one of your recipes as a gift from me, 8000 miles away. To everyone else, go and discover Savor The Thyme now, for that is really my gift to you. 

Goji Berry Tart with Nutella and Spelt Crust

May you eat an unfamiliar dessert in a strange land at least once every three years.
May you wake up... and start dancing while you're still half-asleep.
May you spray-paint Rilke poems as graffiti on highway overpasses...
May you learn to identify by name 20 flowers, 15 trees, 10 clouds, and one extrasolar planet...
May you dream of taking a trip to the moon in a gondola powered by firecrackers and wild swans.

Rob Brezsny

 

Okay, for my very first recipe of the year, I turned to dessert which is my favorite course, of course! I wanted to bake with an unusual ingredient (for me, at least) and that is goji berries. They're commonly available everywhere now, especially in health stores, so why did I say they were unusual? Well, I haven't come across many desserts that have incorporated their flavors fully, they are usually just sprinkled onto/into the dish. That's something that begs to be rectified and I want to do it here, today.

Anyway, have you ever had goji berry custard tarts before? I mean, actual goji berries (or less benignly known as wolfberries) blended into a custard and hiding underneath it a pleasant dollop of Nutella? And what would you think if all that pink custard was contained in a crust made from spelt flour? Because that's exactly what I made.

 I love that you can still spot the husks in the spelt flour!

A few years back, the benefits of goji berries were impressed upon us when they were commercially touted as a superfood. As a premium health drink, goji is an expensive investment towards a superfunctioning body, however nowadays I see the dried berries being sold at supermarkets everywhere at reasonable prices. We normally consume them as a crunchy snack (better than a bag of crisps, hey!) or else we brew them in soups or as hot drinks.

In fact, goji berries have been used for 6,000 years by herbalists in China, Tibet and India to promote everything from circulation to longevity. There’s even an unsupported marketing claim that a man in China who consumed goji berries daily had lived to be 252 years old. Firstly, unless you want to be Rob Pattinson’s eternal squeeze (wolfberry, hello), who really wants to live that long? And secondly, the addition of Nutella to this recipe will quickly whittle away 200 out of that 252 years… so much for longevity!

As for the crust, I've seen a few baking recipes floating around that use spelt flour. Spelt apparently contains more protein than wheat, and the protein in spelt is easier to digest. Always one for helping my body along, I was curious to give it a try. While aisle-surfing at the supermarket the other day, I'd spotted spelt flour on the shelves, so of course I grabbed a bag to take home.

This spelt crust certainly lived up to my expectations, which doesn't mean anything considering I had none to begin with. It was nutty in flavor and the spelt provided a cookie like quality, crisp-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside, to the crust which I found simply delightful. It’s a surprisingly apt companion to the subtly sweet, tarty (somewhere between a cherry and a cranberry), unusual taste of goji. To be completely honest, you can omit the Nutella because its distinctive flavor is a distraction from the goji. But I wanted to include Nutella this time because let's face it, having Nutella around (in anything, even just sitting quietly in its jar!) makes the heart beat faster... Don't you think?

 

Okay, here's my overall verdict on the tart:

Spelt crust - thumbs up, nutty and super-scrumptious!

Goji custard filling - love the pinkish-turned-terracotta color after baking, and the fact that you can still taste the tartness of the berries amidst the swirl of vanilla and custard. The goji as a garnish provided a refreshing pop as you bite into the tart.

Nutella - hmm.. nommm... I'm sure there's a Nutella heaven out there somewhere!

By the way, if you didn't already know, I have a giveaway going on here. The closing date for entries is tomorrow, 5 January, so do check it out if you're at all interested.

Goji Berry Tart with Nutella and Spelt Crust

Makes six 3-inch tarts

Ingredients:

Spelt Crust

300g wholemeal spelt flour (stoneground)

125g cold butter, chopped into cubes

100g caster sugar

1 egg

Goji Custard Filling

1/2 cup dried goji berries, soaked in water for 20 mins

1 cup milk

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1teaspoon vanilla extract

6 tablespoons Nutella

Method:

1. Make the crust first: in a bowl, rub the cold butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar. Make a well in the center of the mixture, add egg and gently knead the flour into a pastry ball. Spelt flour is very sticky to work with, so if you find the dough too sticky after adding the egg, just sprinkle extra spelt flour over the flour until it no longer sticks to your hands. Be careful not to overwork the dough. (At this point, you can

2. Preheat oven to 200C. Divide dough into 6 balls, take one and press onto the base and sides of a 3-inch tart pan (1-in deep) to form the crust. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls. Prick the base of the crust with a fork several times to release hot air while baking.

3. Place tart pans in the oven and immediately turn oven temperature down to 175C. Bake for 15 minutes.

4. In the meantime, prepare the filling. Drain the soaked goji berries, take about 1/2 cup of these and place in the blender with milk, eggs, sugar and vanilla. Leave some berries for garnishing (after soaking, the berries will expand and you'll have more than 1/2 cup). Process until thoroughly blended. Drain the mixture into a bowl using a fine sieve. This removes the goji seeds.

5. After 15 minutes, remove the semi-cooked spelt crust from the oven. Spoon a tablespoonful of Nutella into each crust (you can flatten the dollop slightly with your spoon). Then carefully pour the goji custard into the crust, filling it until just below the rim of the crust. Sprinkle some goji berries on top, they will sink slightly during baking. You can also garnish tarts with the soaked berries after baking, this looks more attractive but doesn't alter the taste in any way.

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes until custard is just set. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a rack for about 10 minutes. Turn tarts out of pans and garnish with soaked goji berries, if you wish.

Muffin Shortbread Cookies With Nutella-Cranberry Filling

Yes, I know. I've disappeared, gone on hiatus for about a fortnight. What can I say? The well sometimes run dry, I wasn't even the inspired to write about stuff not related to food. Such as why I've disappeared, for example.

But today, today I'm back. At first, I thought of writing about my various kitchen disasters to date as I'm sure someone out there would be interested. Who doesn't like to be reminded that we food bloggers are only human, after all? Then quite suddenly, a simple new recipe I came up with turned out to be a success. A cookie recipe at that. So I'm going to write about this instead and save the exploding kitchen story for another day. I'm sure you guys can wait.

I've called these Muffin Shortbread Cookies because I decided to bake the shortbread dough in mini-muffin pans. They held the distinctive muffin shape but melted in the mouth like typical shortbread once you bite into them. As for the Nutella filling, hey, who needs to explain away Nutella? It's just plain good to have it in any recipe, that's my opinion. Since Christmas is just around the corner, chucking in some chopped cranberries along with the Nutella elevates this humble shortbread to the likes of the Festive-Cookie Brigade!

 

Before I get on to the recipe, I'm doing another post tomorrow. It seems strange to post two days in a row after my recent absence, but it's for the International Incident Party hosted by Penny of Jeroxie.com.  Catch this blog again tomorrow, you won't be disappointed!

Muffin Shortbread Cookies With Nutella-Cranberry Filling
Makes 48-50 cookies
Ingredients:
Shortbread
2 cups flour
1 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Filling
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup Nutella
1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped finely

Method:
1. First, make the shortbread. I do it the stressfree way - just place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend it for a minute or so until the dough forms into a ball. Remove dough, place in a bowl and chill in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.
2. For the filling, add butter and flour in a bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, then add the Nutella and dried cranberries and knead into a ball with your hand.
3. To assemble the cookie for baking, make small round balls with the shortbread and press into the base of a non-stick mini-muffin cup. Crumble the Nutella-cranberry filling on top, then place another larger ball of shortbread on top and press down so that its surface is even with the top of the muffin cup. Do this with the remaining shortbread and filling.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 10-12 minutes (depending on the size of your muffin tin) until the shortbread dough turns a light golden brown. Leave to cool completely in the pan. To remove muffin cookies, turn the tray over and give it a firm tap against a hard surface. The muffins will pop out easily. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.