La Crème brulée a l'érable.. oups can't do the accent !

Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at 01:25AM

 

This is something we all got to love. I had the chance to try it back home a few year ago during a visit in the Old Quebec city. There is nothing better than a good crème brulée after dinner, but I have to say that the touch of maple made all the difference. I was proud to be from Quebec that night. Actually I reproduce it at home and it is pretty simple to do, if you follow this recipe. To impress you friends over dinner or simply to test yourself try this incredible crème brulée a l érable. This dessert goes perfectly with a wine such as Sauternes or Moscato.
Here is the recipe and enjoy the sweetness and delicateness of this dessert.

Ingredients
-1 cup of 2% milk
-1 cup of 35% creme
- 2 teaspoons of pure maple essence
- 4 eggs yolk
- 10 tablespoon of real maple syrup
- granulated maple sugar

Recipe
1- In a large heavy bottom pan mix milk,cream and maple essence.
2- Bring to boiling point, reduce temperature and let cook for 3 minutes.
3- Let cool down completely.
4- Once cooled, filter the mixture through a sieve. Reserve.
5- In a pan at low heat let the maple syrup reduce to 90 ml (5 tablespoons). While heating up the maple syrup lose some liquid. Pour in a large glass bowl and stir with a fork until it has cool down. This help the consistency of the maple syrup.
6- Add the eggs yolk to the maple syrup and mix with the help of a hand mixer at low speed. Mix until smooth and creamy.
7- Add the eggs-maple mixture to the milk/cream mixture. Mix well with the help of a wooden spoon.
8- When the mixture is smooth and creamy pour in 4 individuals ramekin. Place the ramekin in a deep pyrex or ceramic mold. Then add enough water in the pyrex to reach 3/4 of the ramekin. Make sure you don't pour water in the ramekin but on the outside, its actually just a cooking technique!
9- Cook in the oven a 275 degree F for 1hour and 20 minutes.
10-Let cool down for 2 hours
11- To add the crust on the top, pour a small layer of maple sugar on the top of each ramekin. Then preheat your oven at broil and bring your grill to the top. Cook there for 2 minutes. If you have a gas burner you can also use this. Let cool slightly before serving !!

 

It's the season for maple syrop ! Yeah ! 

Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 10:53PM

It's the best season of the year, after the holidays and the summer of course. I cherish memory of my childhood where we all used to go to the sugar shack ! We learned how to cultivate maple syrup and how to use it. We had an amazing fest of pancake, egg, ham, bacon, French toast drenched in maple syrup. You can imagine all of us on a sugar high all afternoon running in the woods and throwing snow balls at each other.This recipe reminds me of this time. Im sure you'll love it, it's perfect for bringing to a party or as a dessert!

Maple syrup cone
- 1 box of mini ice cream cone (not the flat bottomed one)
- 1 cup of white sugar
- 1/2 cup of butter
- 1/2 cup of maple syrup
- 1/2 cup of 35% cream
- chopped walnuts for decorations

Recipe
1- In a very thick bottom pot bring all the ingredients except the cream and the walnut to a boil for 8 minutes.
2- Reduce heat to low stirring constantly, add the 35% cream.
3- Boil a low heat for 5 minutes.
4- Pour the mixture in the mini-cone. Cover with some chopped walnut.
5- Let them cool in the fridge at least a few hours before serving.
Tips: In order to have the cone standing up for the cooling process you can use a empty egg container in which you pierce a hole with a pen. Just sit the cone on the hole.

 

Sweet and very healthy bread

Monday, January 3, 2011 at 10:56PM

We, as French Canadian, love our bread! My favorite has always been the thick French bread. Default to make that, or for a simply healthier version I decided to make some whole wheat bread. The great thing is that you can add anything you like to it. I'll give you the basic recipe and some variation I like.

Whole wheat bread

Ingredients
-12 cups of whole wheat flour
-5 1/2 cup of water
-3 tablespoon of yeast and 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
-1/4 cup of honey
-1/2 cup of canola oil

Recipe
1- Combine in a very large bowl water, yeast, salt, canola oil and honey.
2- Mix well and let sit for 5 minutes.
3- Add the flour, one cup at the time, mixing well between each cups.
4- Once it is well mixed, knead for 10 minutes.
5- Shape into one long log about 3 feets.
6- Cut into 4 logs. Cover with a damp towel and let rise for 2 hours.
7- Bake at 325 degree F for 35 minutes.
8- Put onto cooling rack immediately until room temperature.
Tips ! You can freeze the bread if you dont want to bake all of them. Once it as rised put in a freezer bag that is been removed from all air. The day of the baking let thaw in the fridge until baking.

Variations
- I always put ground chia seeds and ground flax seed in the dough.
- You can also add sunflower or pumpkin seed
- Raisin and cinnamon
- Olive and Rosemary
- Cheese and jalapeno
- Dried cranberry and walnut
- Almond and dried bluerries
- Bacons bits and onions

 

A petit je ne sais quoi ! Perfect Profiterole

Thursday, December 30, 2010 at 11:07PM

 

Well, I have promise it and this time I am holding my promise. It's been a rather busy day and a busy night. It's hard sometime to manage everything and do all else your suppose to do like cleaning, cooking, hanging out with friend, take care of loves one and yes, working. I've learn quickly that I could actually use some tactic in order to make this easier for me. As a perfect example, I use cooking as a form of relaxation and a way to relieve stress. Of course it is much easier if I don't have to run to the grocery and if I have some time in the front of me. But everything is much easier with some preparation. I have learn to cut veggie in advance, to put them in a bag especially made to preserve them longer. I have learn to make my dough in advance for bread per example and freeze it. I also like to cook chicken with seasoning on Sunday and have it for my lunch during the week. One other very good time saving trick is the slow cooker ! I have save so much time with it. I prep my veggie and meat at night and put them in the slow cooker in the morning on low for 8 hours. I arrive home and it's all ready to go. A can of mushroom soup, chicken soup, tomato soup and you have a whole different recipe ! Also by cooking I don't have to clean the dishes as much, I leave this work to someone else to do !
The recipe of the day is one of my favorite. I wouldn't say it's French Canadian, but it's part of our culture. I had this the first time I beleive I was 16 and I totally love it. I never though I could make them myself until recently.

I found this recipe and decided to modify it to my taste.

Time: 45 minutes
Chilling time 1:00 hour to 3:00 hour

Choux pastry
- 5 tbsp of butter plus extra for greasing
- 3/4 cup of water
- 3/4 all purpose flour
- 3 eggs beaten

Custard filling
- 1/4 cup of Birds Custard powder
- 3 tablespoon of sugar
- 2 1/2 cup of water
- 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped

Chocolate sauce
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon of water

Choux recipe
1- This is precise, make sure you follow the recipe. Preheat the oven at 400 F. Grease a large cookie sheet
with butter.
2- Put the water and the butter into a pan and bring to a boil.
3- Sift the flour into a bowl.
4- Once the water and butter is boiling add the flour. Remove immediately from heat.
5- Use a hand mixer and stir the mixture until it create a paste and leaves the side of the saucepan clean.
6- Leave to cool for 5 minutes
7- Add the beaten egg and mix until you have a soft and dropping consistency.
8- Pour the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 to 1 cm plain tip. If you don't have one you can use a ziploc bag that you will cut the corner for the previous mentioned measurement.
9- Pipe small balls onto the cookie sheet. If you want bigger profiterole you may want to have a ball the size of a golf ball.
10- Bake for 25 minutes, once it is cook pierce a little hole in each ball to let the steam escape. Let cool.

Custard
1- Mix sugar and custard in a large saucepan.
2- Gradually add the milk. Cook on medium heat and stir until well blended.
3- Bring to a full boil,stirring frequently. Add the vanilla beans.
4- Let cool for 20 minutes. Pour the mixture onto a pastry bag with a small pipe.
5- This time again you can use a ziploc bag but with a hole half the size of the other one.
6- Let chill for an hour or more if needed.

Put it together
Once the mixture as been chilled it's time to put it all together. You will pierce a hole in the profiterole. I use a straw it's much easier and look more neat. Once you have done all the choux, you will take your bag filled with custard and fill each inside of the choux with it. It's actually easier if you have a pastry bag but you can understand the principle.
Once it's done you will need to make the chocolate sauce. You melt the chocolate on very low heat on a heavy bottom pan or on high in a double broiler. You don't want it to burn. Add the water and stir.
Once it is melted you dip the top of the profiterole in the chocolate. Let cool in the fridge on a big cooking sheet.
Wow it's done, bring it to a party and you'll be the next star, but to be honest I'm not too sure you'll still have some once you get there !