bread baking 2

Announcing BBD #2: Bread with Fruit

If there’s one thing that’s in season all around the world right now, it’s fruit. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re enjoying berries, peaches, and all of the goodness summer has to offer. Our friends in the Southern Hemisphere aren’t quite as lucky - since it is winter there, their fruit choices are more limited, and they’re enjoying winter fruits and preserved (frozen, canned, dried) fruit. In the grand scheme, though, everyone can access fruit in one form or another.

One thing that we all have in common is our passion for baking. And this month, I’d like you to include fruit in your bread recipes. It can be any kind of bread (yeast, quick, etc) and any kind or form of fruit (fresh, dried, preserves, etc). So the guidelines are simple. It has to be a bread and it has to have fruit in some form. Let your creativity guide you! Use your farmers markets for inspiration. Most of all, have fun and bake something delicious!

How to participate?
Bake a bread with fruit, take pictures (if possible) and blog about it between now and Sunday, 1st of August 2007. Please include a link to this announcement and eventually a link to the round-up. The round-up will be posted in a few days after the 1st of August.

Send an email to columbusfoodie(at)gmail(dot)com with the subject “BBD #2″ including
- your name
- your blog’s name and your blog’s URL
- the recipe name and the post’s URL
- your location
- for non-English posts, the language it is in
- if you’d like a pic included with your submission, please include it in the email. I can resize it.

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I believe that Zorra is still looking for people to host, so if you would like to host one of the next breadbakingday, send me an e-mail to kochtopf (at) gmail (dot) com.

Also, please feel free to use the banner in your posts, which mgb was so kind to make. Just right click on it to save it.

SHF 33

Sugar High Friday 33

I'm proud to host the 33rd edition of Sugar High Friday "Tropical Paradise". Domestic Goddess Jennifer, the originator of Sugar High Friday, kicked off the food blogosphere's travelling sweet tooth extravaganza in October 2004. Since her inaugural white chocolate theme to her dessert cravings last month, we've seen all sorts of sugary goodness made from puff pastry to coffee to soy to flowers.

The rules are simple: Make it sweet and make it tropical. So whether you live in a tropical locale, are relaxed and tan from a recent tropical vacation, or just daydreaming of one, create something sweet and write about why it says "tropical" to you.

Please post your SHF #33 Tropical Paradise creation on your blog anytime between now and Monday July 23th. I will post the SHF round-up on Friday, July 27th.

Email your submission to me at

Please include the following information:
1. Your name and location
2. The name of your blog
3. The permalink to your SHF #33 post
4. 100x100 pixel image of your creation (photo is optional)

The deadline for emailing your submission to me is Tuesday, July 24th.

No blog? No problem. Just email me your name and location, the name of your tropical creation and, if you have one, a 100x100 image. I'll be happy to include your submission in my round-up.

mascarpone lasagna (once upon a tart)

mascarpone lasagne for the lazy cook


if you are an italian, you might wanna chop off both my hands and legs, if you read this recipe. this is a recipe for the lazy cook. a lasagne that is pulled together in about 15 minutes ("impossibile!", you might shout). let me mention, that it is - probably not italian - but really good and creamy. the parma ham and the porchinis add a wonderful spicy flavour and make this a wonderful comfort dish, that's done in a dash.
i do it all without a white sauce, but use mascarpone instead (easy, no cookin'!). even though it's not friday yet, it is my contribution for this weeks presto pasta night, hosted by the lovely ruth. girls - now do we like lazy lasagne nor not?



RECIPE

2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 shallots, finely diced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
a hand full of dried porchinis, soaked in hot water
about 800g of canned plum tomatoes
a pinch of sugar
salt and freshly ground pepper
a hand full of fresh basil, roughly chopped
250g fresh pasta sheets
5 slices of parma ham
250g mascarpone
about 300g mozzarella, torn in pieces
some parmesan cheese, for "dusting"
fresh basil, to garnish

heat the oven to 190 c°.

heat the olive oil in a pan and cook shallots and garlic until soft, add porchinis and cook for about 2 minutes. then add the plum tomatoes, season with sugar, salt and pepper and simmer for about 15 minutes, then add the chopped basil.
lightly oil a large dish, then add a layer of tomato sauce, then add some of the mozzarella, cover generously with mascarpone and grate some parmesan cheese on top. add layer of parma ham, then cover with fresh pasta sheets. continue - finishing with a layer of tomato sauce, then add some mascarpone & mozzarella. generously season with freshly ground pepper.

bake for about 40 minutes until everything is melted and fragrant. dust with some more parmesan before serving and garnish with fresh basil.

rhubarb brulee tarts (a whisk and a spoon)

Rhubarb Brûlée Tartlettes with Ginger - makes 6 servings
adapted from Regan Daley’s In the Sweet Kitchen

6 (4 1/2 -inch) pâte brisée tartlette shells, pre-baked, cooled and left in their forms
1 1/2 T redcurrant or plum jelly
2 scant T finely chopped crystallized ginger
1/2 cup turbinado sugar for brûlée

for the rhubarb:
3/4 pound rhubarb stalks, washed, trimmed and cut into 3-inch lengths
1/4 cup plus 1 T packed light brown sugar

for the custard:
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup plus 1 T granulated sugar
1 T unsalted butter, cut into bits
pinch of salt

- For the rhubarb: Place the cut rhubarb and light brown sugar into a pot over low heat. Cover and cook (gently stirring a few times) for 5 to 10 minutes until the rhubarb is tender, but still holds shape. Drain and cool the rhubarb to room temperature before using, or refrigerate if making ahead. Either discard the juice from the drained rhubarb, or reduce it to syrup consistency if desired for plating.

- For the custard: Set up a water bath by bringing about two inches of water to a simmer in a large pot and setting a heatproof bowl on top. Pour cream into a separate small saucepan and add the pinch of salt and the seeds and pod from the vanilla bean. Pot the pot on medium heat to scald the cream. Put the yolks and sugar in the bowl set over the gently simmering water bath. While cream is heating, constantly whisk the yolk mixture over the water bath. When cream is scalded and the yolk mixture is thick and pale, temper the cream into the yolks. Leave the mixture over the water bath, stirring constantly with a spoon until it thickly coats the back. This will take 5 to 7 minutes. Strain the custard through a fine sieve and stir in the butter until melted and incorporated. Press plastic onto the surface to avoid a skin and refrigerate until cool.

- Assembling the tartlettes: Preheat the oven to 325°F/170°C. Place the tartlette shells on a flat baking sheet. Gently melt the jelly and brush the bottoms of the shells with a thin layer. Spoon a couple of tablespoons of cooked rhubarb into the shells and smooth out. Divide the chopped ginger among the shells and spoon custard on top. If desired, place a few nicely shaped pieces of rhubarb across the top. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The filling should be a little jiggly in the center, but slightly set around the edges. Cool the tarts on a rack (the custard will further set). Place in the refrigerator if not eating within two hours (although you should not prepare them more than five hours in advance, according to Daley).

- To serve: Remove the tartlettes from their shells and sprinkle on the turbinado sugar. Using a kitchen torch, melt and caramelize the sugar. If you have placed some rhubarb on top of the tarts like I did, sprinkle sugar and brûlée AROUND the exposed pieces. They will burn if you torch them. Serve immediately with the rhubarb syrup, if using.