Love potion

For all of you who celebrate Valentine's day, here is a recipe that will surely make your other half melt: 

A homemade chocolate soufflé served with a raspberry cream. 

I always thought this was going to be a difficult recipe but it turns out to be easy if you follow the exact instructions and measurements. I used Gordon Ramsay's recipe which you can find here or on youtube here. 

We don't celebrate Valentine's day as we prefer to surprise each other with romantic gestures when we least expect it, but to all of you who celebrate it: Happy Valentine's day! 

Tips:

*Before placing the soufflé in the oven, make sure that the border of your ramequin is clean so that the  soufflé can rise properly.

*Serve with a spoon of homemade raspberry cream  

Raspberry Cream recipe (from Gordon Ramsay's Desserts cookbook) 

200g raspberries  

squeeze of lemon juice

1-2 tablespoons of icing sugar

300ml double cream - chilled

1- Purée the raspberries in a blender, add the lemon juice and sweeten with icing sugar (to taste)

2- Pass the puree through a sieve into a bowl, cover and chill

3- Just before serving, whip the cream until if forms soft, floppy peaks, then fold in the raspberry purée

Enjoy!

Christmas baking week - My first gingerbread house

Here we are in the final series of the Christmas baking week: my first gingerbread house.

I thought it was going to be the most challenging recipe of the week but it turned out to be pretty simple!

For the gingerbread dough recipe click here,  once you have cut out the dough into house pieces bake them and let them cool down completely. In the meantime prepare the royal icing which is what you will use to put the house together, the texture of the icing should be very thick if not there is chance your house will fall apart, here is the recipe I used:

Royal icing recipe: 

2 egg whites

4 cups of confectioner's sugar

1/2 tsp of cream of tartar 

Once you have constructed the house decorate as you wish using the rest of the icing and your favorite candy! I also added my Christmas meringues do you remember them?   

I wish you all a Merry Christmas :)

Rustic marmalade crostatine

The other day I felt like plunging back to my childhood... Crostatine were a daily must for the italian merenda (snack) when back from school. Whilst I use to eat the already packaged ones, I thought it was a very simple recipe to try out and it turned out to be delicious :) 

The recipe consists of a short crust pastry (which recipe you can find by clicking here) , marmalade ( I used apricot and strawberry for this one)  and some icing sugar to sprinkle over it when ready to serve. 

When your short crust pastry has rested in the fridge for a least 1 hour,  place it into your baking tins and lay the marmalade in each one, use remaining shortcrust to decorate as desired. Bake at 180 C for about 25min and let them cool completely ... Enjoy :)