Summer, Sun and Strawberries

I love this weather. Summer's almost here but there's still a light breeze in the air!

Also, I can eat my Strawberries!!!

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

And other than simply eating the awesome juicy sweet citrus-y  (yes, both :P) fruit all by itself, I did the next best thing:

A Strawberry Tart

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

I used the same pie crust recipe I always use. It took me some time to find the perfect one but I finally found it (and by some, I mean YEARS). Then I used the Cake Boss's Italian Custard Cream recipe (I wanted to try and use something other than my French Crème Pâtissière recipe). 


The pie crust is too good not to share so you'll find the recipe below.


Then I sliced up some strawberries with my new strawberry slicer =D and arranged them on top of the tart.

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Then I used some my Aunt's strawberry jam to glaze the top.

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Pie Crust

What You Need

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 170 g unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
• 1 large egg, separated
• 2 tablespoons ice water

What to Do

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Add the butter and mix using your hand or a pastry blender.
3. Whip the egg yolk with the water.
4. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and add the egg mixture.
5. Mix the dough well until it holds together. If it's too sticky add some more flour, if it's too crumbly add some more water. (But be careful not too add too much as it will affect the texture of the crust)
6. Wrap the dough and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
7. Take out your dough, roll it out and place it in your pie pan. Place in refrigerator for 15 minutes.
8. Using a fork, punch holes in the dough in order for it not to rise during baking.
9. Place aluminum foil over your dough and place some beans over the foil (this will also help the pie not rise)
10. Bake for 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 176 degrees Celcius.
11. Take your crust out of the oven and using a brush, spread some whipped egg white over it.
12. Return and bake for another 8 minutes, until it's golden in color.

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Back to Basics - Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was looking around Deezert and noticed that I had a very important thing missing! I have no idea how I could have forgotten such an important part of the dessert world!

Yes, you've guessed it:

Chocolate Chip Cookies..my favorite kind of cookies!

Photo Credit: Deezert

Crunchy on the outside, goey and moist on the inside.

I found this amazing recipe on AllRecipes.com (my go-to site for recipes) and tweeked it a bit to suit my chocolate-y needs. You'll find the recipe at the end of this post. 

Photo Credit: Deezert

  

Photo Credit: Deezert

Photo Credit: Deezert
Cookies and a cup of milk!

What You Need:

• 1 cup butter at room temperature  (around 225 g)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. hot water
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

What to do:

1. Cream together the butter and sugars till light and fluffy.
2. Add the eggs - one at a time - and beat the mixture. Stir in the vanilla using a spatula.
3. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and add to the mixture along with the salt.
4. Sift and add the flour. Drop in the chocolate chips. Mix using a spatula. DO NOT over mix the dough. Work it just until the flour disappears.
5. Cover the mixture and refrigerate it for at least an hour. (The longer you wait - if you can wait (I never can) - the yummier the cookies will turn out to be). The reason for this is that if you directly bake the cookies, the mixture will get soggy and directly start melting. It's better to let the dough rest and then bake the cookies.
6. Scoop up 1 tablespoon of dough (I use an ice cream scoop) at a time and place them around 2 inches  apart on a baking sheet or an ungreased pan (the dough already contains lots of butter and should not stick). Recipe will make around 2 dozen cookies.
7. Bake the cookies for around 10-12 minutes in a preheated oven (170 degrees Celsius), or just until the edges brown.
8. Directly transfer them to a cooling rack in order to let them toughen up a bit (if they're crumbly, let them cook for a minute or so on the pan)
9. After they've cooled down, DIG IN! (Don't forget to place the rest in an airtight container to keep them fresh - if there was any left!)

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Lazy Cake

You know how sometimes you reach a place where you know the advanced steps of something but have forgotten all about the basic simple ones?

Yes well, this is very similar to my story with lazy cakes! I know how to make a complicated fondant rose cake but when it comes to a simple biscuit cake, it NEVER comes out the way I want it. I've tried MANNNNYY recipes and none work! Biscuit cakes are one of my favorite cakes (surprise! surprise!) so it is very important that I find an AWESOME recipe.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was having lunch with my family at Leila's in Verdun and I was looking at that amazing wall they have. It was full of old pictures, ornaments and books. I love the atmosphere there, very neo-classical! Anyway, I was looking and I found this book called: " أنا و ابي والشوكولا " which is Arabic for "Chocolate, my dad and I".

I quickly looked inside and sure enough it was a recipe book for everything chocolate!!! And sure enough they had a lazy cake recipe!!! =D I was thrilled! I went home and tried the recipe and it turned out.....

wait for it.....

AWESOME!!!!!!!!

I want to share it with you:

Here's the English Translation:

Preparation time: 12 minutes

Freezing Time: 3 hours (I couldn't wait that long though :P I took it out after around 2!)

Amount: One Cake

Ingredients:

• 4 Biscuit packs (I used Ghandour, aren't those biscuits just amazing?!) - crumbled and crushed
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 250 ml of milk (one cup)
• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 200 g softened butter
• 125 g chocolate

What to do:

1. Melt the butter and chocolate in a saucepan on medium heat and then add the sugar, egg, milk and vanilla. Mix well!
2. Remove the mix from the heat and add the crumbled biscuits. Mix well with a wooden spoon.
3. Place the mix in pan of your choice. (I have an english cake pan that I wrapped in plastic wrap first. I then added the mix and closed the top with more plastic wrap.)
4. Place the pan in the freezer. (I thought the freezer was too strong for it, so I placed it in the refrigerator for the last 30 minutes.)

Note: You can cover it with a chocolate glaze, if desired!

FINALLY: taste the most delicious lazy cake you'll ever eat!!

Here's how mine turned out.

 I hope you give it try! And don't forget to tell me how it turned out =)

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A million sheets of heaven: Mille Feuilles

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Mille Feuilles: Puff pastry with French cream and a topping of powdered sugar! Is there a more perfect combination?

I found in this recipe in the Cake Boss's book. (I plan of trying out all his recipes! There's a 100 of them =D ) But he calls these Napoleons. The only difference is the topping. I used powdered sugar, whereas his had icing on top.

My family has been asking for this dessert for a long time now, and I've always been afraid of how the puff pastry will turn out. It's a bit hard to control, but once you know how to work with it, you'll get the results you want.

Anyway, I made this dessert by following these steps:

1. I baked two rectangle puff pastry sheets.

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

2. In order to make French Cream, I mixed both Italian Custard Cream with Whipped Cream. Whipped Cream is simply 1 cup Whipping cream to 1/4 cup sugar whipped until thick. The Custard is bit more complicated but the basic idea is that you should simmer some milk with vanilla essence on medium low heat. In a separate bowl, whip up egg yolks, sugar and cake flour. Then mix both together until thick. After taking of beat, you add a LITTLE bit of butter and refrigerate. (I'll make a more detailed recipe soon and add it to the index :) )
3. You cut up the puff pastry and assemble!
4. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top.

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Bon Apétit! 

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Rose Battenburg Cake

Tomorrow is my parent's 23rd anniversary. They've been together 23 wonderful years! (20 of which were awesome, I'm guessing :P !)

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Well, yes: you guessed it: I baked a cake! =D

I wanted to do something romantic but fun at the same time, so I finally decided on this new type of cake I came across while reading one of my favorite blogs : Sprinklebakes 

It's called: Battenburg, basically it's a looong sponge cake that when cut would show a yummy two-by-two check pattern of 2 colors. 

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Colors and Cupcakes

Colors and Cupcakes
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

I had a craving for cupcakes this afternoon...with lots and lots of frosting!!
So I closed my books and went into the kitchen.
Unfortunately I did not have any cupcake papers =( and it was too cold to get out of the house and get them. So I tried to make do without them. I baked them as I bake my cakes, with some butter and flour-ing the pan.

I used Martha Stewart's Polka Dot Cupcakes recipe with a few twinks here and there. And I made some classic oh-so-sweet frosting (recipe below), colored it with the beautiful Wilton colors I have (yay!) and had fun decorating them.

This is my first try at cupcake decorating, I usually just frost them. They turned out OK I think.
And as they say: practice makes perfect. I'll keep on practicing until I make the perfect frosted cupcake!

Here's how they turned out.

Colors and Cupcakes
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Colors and Cupcakes
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Colors and Cupcakes
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Frosting - as easy as can be:

What you need:

• 200 g butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbs. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla essence
• Few drops of food coloring (optional)

Tools you need:

• Bowl
• Hand Mixer (Your hand with a spatula will do, but you'll need some muscles :P)
• Spatula

What to do:

1. Cream the butter for about 3 min. using the mixer. The butter will become soft and pale.
2. Add the sugar gradually and mix until incorporated.
3. Add the milk and the vanilla and mix well.
4. In order to color your frosting, add a few drops of food coloring and mix till the color is mixed entirely with the frosting.

Tip: In order to have a smooth frosting texture, use the spatula to move all bubbles inside the mixture. Just mix and cream the frosting until it's all smooth and YUMMY!! =D

Happy Cupcake-ing!

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Sugar Cookies Recipe

Sugar Cookies are great for a lot of occasions, whether you want Holiday cookies or just a simple sweet cookie, they're pretty amazing.

Sugar Cookies
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Here's how i do mine:

What you need:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder

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