Tag Archives: berries

Sous Vide “Cheesecake”

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Happy Saturday and happy spring! Spring has finally arrived – and my what an impression has it decided to make this year. Apparently, this side of the world, March 2017 is the warmest since I don’t know how many years. Great for summer lovers, not so good for our glaciers and passionate hibernators. What does this mean for culinary nerds? Time for fresh and light treats. Also, time to bring dusty kitchen gadgets back to life.

My newest gadget? A sous-vide cooker. Best. Christmas. Present. Ever. (No offence to all others – your gifts were great too..). Now, what does that mean? To cook under vacuum. That’s right – you vacuum pack/seal everything before cooking it in a water bath, allowing your whatever to be completely evenly cooked at a constant low-ish temperature. Super exciting. Amazing results. Totally worth the effort. And you can even control it via bluetooth/wi-fi. I don’t think I have managed to serve such tender duck before in my life.
Anyways, back to spring. And time for a dessert. Spring desserts = berries & lemon. Ok, that’s a lie, all desserts must include some sort of citrus if you ask me, not matter what the season. Now, to incorporate my sous vide into the equation I came up with:

lemon + berries + fresh + sous vide = sous vide lemon cheesecake topped with berries

Obviously. Ok, not quite. It was the first water-bath dessert that came to mind. Nevertheless, fitting and worth a try. It turned out surprisingly well, although, the consistency could be improved. If you happen to have such a gadget at home – go ahead and try it. If not, it’s high time to invest your money into something useful ;-).

Sous Vide Lemon Cheesecake

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Citrus and Berries Vol. II

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After the success of my previous citrus and berries dessert I couldn’t get enough of the curd – I had a craving which I needed to satisfy. Almost as though I were pregnant… HAHA… definitely not the case. Anyways…. I have also never made a pavlova. What a great excuse to make both – pavlova topped with lemon curd. Sounds like pure perfection to moi.

This is actually the first time ever that I have attempted to make meringue. I was determined to make it early on during the day so if it failed I still had enough time to  quickly pop to the shops and buy replacements…… sadly sunshine and birthday bubblies kidnapped any sense of time I had and suddenly dinner was only 2 hours away. And no meringues to be seen. AAAHHHHHH. I took a deep breath, one last sip of bubblies, found this extremely helpful guide guide and switched into my Emergency Room efficiency mode. My meringues were saved.

Mini Pavlova with Lemon Curd and Berries

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Citrus and Berries

Posted in Breakfast, Dessert by

Happy Summer to you all!!! I hope you are all soaking up some sun and working on the tan;-) And so sorry for not posting….. this seems to follow my last years trend of not posting during this time of year either…. work and life just seem to have sucked me in and kept me farfar away from WordPress. Slowly I am having withdrawal symptoms -.-. Time to catch up. And what better way to begin the new recipe season than with a delicious french citrusy inspired dessert? Yes, I know my last post was about the Champagne Region and now I’m talking about France again… you must think I am french crazy. So. Not. True. But, quite frankly, they do know how to enjoy life with excellent cuisine – the wine, the ham, the endless fruit markets, not to forget the daily fresh baguette, the seafood and of course all the pâtisserie mmhhhmmmmm. My current favourite français dessert: Tarte au citron +/- meringuée. NOM. I cannot get enough of that goodness!

When recently invited to an Apéro Riche in the Basque Region, I, being me, immediately offered to bring a dessert, with Tarte au citron on the back of my mind. Admittedly, a Tarte is not the best for a standing dinner, but, nevertheless, I was determined to make lemon curd play the lead role. What did I end up with? A sharp lemon curd topped with a refreshing berry coulis and wild berries. The guests loved it. Let me know what you think:-)

 Lemon Curd with Berry Coulis

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Pancakes Galore

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So, I thought I would celebrate the start of this new blog with a break from all the cake recipes previously posted on 1234cook! (although 2 birthday cakes are still in the pipeline) and decided to go for the all time breakfast/brunch favourite: Pancakes. What better way to start or end a weekend with fluffy american pancakes drizzled with maple syrup, cinnamon sugar and berries? A simple but extremely satisfying treat. Being me, I thought making pancakes for a group of friends wouldn’t be too much trouble….. however, 50 pancakes later, I decided maybe these fluffy treats should be reserved for smaller gatherings :-P. Nonetheless, the breakfast was a delicious success. Definitely a crowd pleaser!

Fluffy Pancakes

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A Taste of Home

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You are probably familiar with those extremely lazy Sundays after a night out, the greater part entailing lounging around in bed with a constantly grumbling stomach and a craving for greasy food, but absolutely zero motivation or energy to do something about it? That probably describes most of your Sundays doesn’t it ;-)?

The most recent of such Sundays came with a rather interesting craving, but one that had to be fulfilled. After having gone through some emotionally draining turmoil (why can’t we be 5 years old again and play all day long?) in the past few weeks, my partner in crime and I longed for a soothing taste of home. Making proper butter croissants from scratch would have been excessive (although totally worth it if you ever have, let’s say, 6 hours to spare), so we opted for a low effort (and low-fat) version to satisfy our needs!

Birchermüesli

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