These are my father’s favorite ones, along with granola bars and a kind of muffins I made at the very beginning of my blogging activity, made with orange and chocolate. Why these? Because, in his own words, they are good, sweet, fragrant with lemon and are exceptionally soft and smooth. Besides that, candied lemon zest is the perfect complement, along with a golden and citrus syrup (ok, I added a few notes of color!). I love them a lot as well, but for a matter of color matching.

Let’s have a few steps back to high school time for a moment… ok, maybe more than a few steps. I have never studied History of Arts  in a proper way, but it was one of my favorite subjects. I have mixed memories, but some of them remained vivid, especially those related to one of my favorite artists, Michelangelo. I like the way he paints bodies with a plastic style, as if sculpted. I love especially his use of colors, resolute, brilliant and vivid, based on the principle of complementary contrast.

Red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple. The colors do not melt or fade into one another, but they are intertwined, creating a shimmering effect of bright colors, full of energy, an explosion! I remember the dress of a female figure in the Sistine Chapel, yellow and purple: it was really beautiful. Since then I love the juxtaposition of these two colors and when I found these cutie purple paper cups I couldn’t help but look for a yellow recipe, the most yellow I could find, to recreate once again this wonderful contrast of complementary colors. That is how the presentation of these cupcakes with lemon syrup was born, recipe taken with some changes (mainly the removal of orange) from the cookbook Cupcakes – small luxuries for the palate.

Ingredients for 36 tiny cupcakes:

• cold butter, 125 gr diced
• granulated sugar, 230 gr
• grated lemon rind, 4 tablespoons
• eggs, 3
• milk, 125 ml
• self rising flour, 185 gr

Lemon syrup:

• sugar, 230 gr
• lemon rind thinly sliced
  

Preheat oven to 180°C. Add diced cold butter, sugar and grated lemon rind in a saucepan and stir over low heat until the sugar melts, then transfer everything into a large bowl. Fold in eggs, milk and flour and whisk just to mix with electric whips.
Spoon the mixture into muffin molds lined with paper cups and bake for 15 minutes until a toothpick stuck in center comes out clean, then let them cool on a rack.

To make lemon syrup, combine 200ml of water and sugar in a saucepan and warm over low heat, stirring, until the sugar melts. Add the lemon zest and let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the liquid becomes syrupy and golden.

Decorate each tiny cake with zest and a few spoonfuls of syrup.

P.S. ready for a surprise? Saturday there will be a Mad Hatter Tea Party at me with many friends and sweet treats .. Sunday I’ll publish the photos!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Lemon syrup cupcakes, Michelangelo’s style

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The diktat was clear from the beginning. The aim was to make one of those cakes that:

If you do not lick your fingers you enjoy only half of the pleasure. One of those that, although you won’t admit it even under torture, you dream to finish it spoonful by spoonful all by yourself, without sharing it with someone else. Or, better, maybe one of those desserts that you sit there with the little finger to clean the mould or scrape up the last crumbs so as not to see it lost.

Ele conquered me with the words by licking their fingers. From there on, I began to mentally browse through all chocolate and sweet-toothed recipes that came to my mind, but none seemed up to my ultimate goal… Dissolution of sinking a spoon into a heavenly and chocolaty cream.

The solution was soon knocking at my mind, while my taste buds began to dance the hula in view of what was awaiting them: Extra Dark chocolate fondant – because it has been years that I wanted to do it, chocolate and orange custard – for a comforting and reassuring feeling to not loose yourself completely into the sensual swoon of fondant, whipped cream and raspberries in syrup - for a fruity and joyful touch. The result is a glass with chocolate … to lick your fingers!

Chocolate Fondant:

• 70% dark chocolate, 250 gr
• butter, 200 gr
• eggs, 4
• icing sugar, 100 gr

Preheat oven to 180° C. Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler. Add sifted icing sugar and stir until you have a creamy smooth and homogeneous mix.

Fold in whole eggs, one by one, beating with a whip. Pour into a plum cake mould lined with baking paper and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove vrom the mould and let cool on a tray.

Custard (*) with chocolate and orange

• eggs, 2
• sugar, 4 tablespoons
• flour, 2 tablespoons
• grated dark chocolate, 50 gr
• whole milk, 500 ml
• orange peel (orange part only, not the white)

(*) This is not the canonical recipe, but this is what I always do at home, easy to make and tested for over 30 years!

Warm milk in a jug. In the meanwhile add eggs, sugar and flour in a thick-bottomed saucepan and stir with a whisk to a smooth cream. Add grated chocolate and orange peel, pour over the hot milk, stirring constantly. Put on low heat and stir with a wooden spoon until the cream is thick, veiling the spoon.

Remove from the heat, cover with cling film and let it cool.

Assembly

• whipping cream, 500 ml
• raspberry in syrup
• chopped hazelnut

Whip cream until stiff without adding sugar. I wanted a final dessert not too sweet.

Cut the fondant into slices and place a piece of it at the bottom of each glass. Cover with a generous spoonful of chocolate and orange custard and add a layer of whipped cream and some raspberries. Make again a layer of fondant, a layer of custard and a layer of whipped cream. End with raspberries, a spoonful of their syrup and a handful of chopped hazelnuts to create a crunchy sensation.

Let rest in the refrigerator for at least one hour. With these doses, not considering the tablespoons of cream that you steal in the assembly, or the slices of fondant that – poor things! – will be eaten before their glorious end, I made 4 large glasses and 8 small cups.

You have time till the end of February to take part to this competition! Hurry up!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Chocolat verrines… to lick your fingers!

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Since my cousin Marghe gave me this wonderful book Cupcakes, small luxuries for your palate, by Luxury Books, I can’t help! I keep on leafing through it, looking at it, admiring it, dreaming on its glossy pages, running my fingers over the vintage cover, gripping the book in my hands as it was a treasure!

Every recipe is so interesting, but there was recipe… it has been love at first sight: clementines! This year I’m really victim of a clementine addiction, I used them everywhere, from Jamie’s clementine curd to a salad with fennel, clementines and block olives…

Ingredients for 20 cakes:

• milk, 185 ml
• camomile flowers, 5 gr plus flowers to decorate cupcakes
• butter, 150 gr (maybe 120 are enough…) softened and diced
• caster sugar, 230 gr
• eggs, 3
• grated clementine peel, 2 tablespoons
• clementines, 300 gr – peeled and deseeded
• semolina flour, 60 gr
• self rising flour, 155 gr

Clementine icing:

• sifted icing sugar, 155 gr
• grated clementine peel, 1 teaspoon
• clementine juice, 2 – 3 tablespoons

Preheat oven to 180°C. Pour camomile flowers into milk and and bring it to the boil: let it simmer for 5 minutes then filter the milk. Peel and deseed clementines, removing the inner skin as weel if too thick. Add clementines, butter, sugar, eggs, clementine peel,flour and semolina flour and stir with and electric beater.

Spoon mixture into 20 moulds lined with cake cases and bake them for 8 – 10 minutes, until firm and dried. Let them cool on a wire rack.

Now, let’s make the icing. Add icing sugar, clementine peel and clementine juice into a metallic bowl, combine until they turn into a paste. Cook it in a bain marie over a pot with simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water) until it melts down. Sprinkle your cupcakes with the icing and decorate it with a camomile flower.

We loved them! Everyone loved them! They are firm and so scented with clementine aroma, besides that camomile enriches them with an unique hint. Clementine is a wintry fruit, but these cupcakes are so joyful and colorful that they seem the right link in between winter and spring.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Clementine and Camomile Cupcakes

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#Pink# I’m not talking about one of the most popular Aerosmith song (even if I love it!) but I’m referring to the colour: it’s quite easy to understand that I love pink, you can tell it from my blog layout, isn’t it? Yesterday I was feeling like muffins, and I wanted them pink! I decided to use an Egyptian Hibiscus tea, a gift from a friend for Christmas. This was the first time I have made Hibiscus tea: what a wonderful aroma and colour!

Then, the drama! As I poured Hibiscus tea into ricotta cheese, it turned out a soft and light pink, but as I kept on adding ingredients, it got darker and darker, until I reached a light blu – green – violet colour as I removed muffins from the oven: alien muffins! The final icing – made with white chocolate and Hibiscus tea – helped to balance the chromatic impact

Now, let’s talk about the positive sides of these Lilac Muffins: first of all, the large use of ricotta cheese makes them soft, light and fondant, they melt on your tongue. Then, white chocolate and Hibiscus tea is a superb marriage, as white chocolate is sweet while Hibiscus tea enriches the taste with a fresh and fruity touch.

Dry ingredients:

• plain flour, 400 gr
• sugar, 150 gr
• baking powder, 4 teaspoons
• salt, 1 teaspoon
• white chocolate, 100 gr (roughly chopped with a knife)

Liquid ingredients:

• ricotta cheese, 300 gr
• sunflower seeds oil, 85 ml
• Hibiscus tea, 300 ml
• eggs, 2 albumens and yolks separated

Icing ingredients:

• white chocolate, 100 gr
• Hibiscus tea

Pour in a small pot at least about 400 ml of water (it will reduce simmering) and bring to the boil. Add a large tablespoon of Hibiscus and let it boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and keep aside.

Preheat oven to 185°C. Mix dry ingredients and liquid ingredients (all but albumens) in two different bowls. Whip albumens until they form soft peaks and finally mix all the ingredients.

Fill muffin moulds (I obtained 18 muffins – if you want you can line moulds with nice and colourful cake cases) and bake for 15 minutes or make the skewer test.

To make the icing, melt white chocolate on a bainmarie or using your microwave, then stir in some hot Hibiscus tea tablespoons, mixing throughly, until you reach a velvety and liquid texture. Drizzle muffins with the lilac icing and let the icing cool down and get firm before you serve them.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Lilac muffins: when white chocolate meets Hibiscus tea

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It was such a long time since I last made muffins, so today I’m offering you this recipe, really really rapid and easy… I’m still in trouble with my web connection, both in the office and at home, so this is the best I can do now!

The recipe is easy to write down and to make: I was feeling like sweet, and in half an hour I was baking light muffins, with a red heart made of raspberry jam, enriched by muesli and vanilla.

Muffins with muesli, vanilla and raspberry jam

Dry ingredients

• White flour, 240 gr
• Muesli, 75 gr
• Baking powder, 75 gr 3 teaspoons! Sorry for the mistake!
  
• Sugar, 120 gr
• Salt, 1 teaspoon
• Grated apple, 1

Liquid ingrediens

• Half skimmed milk, 150 ml
• Sunflower seed oil, 110 ml
• Eggs, 2
• Vanilla, 1 pod split in a half and seed scaped

Other ingredients

• Raspberry jam
• Granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Mix dry ingredients. Peel and deseed apple, and grate it into the flour mixture, to avoid it form getting brown. mix all the liquid ingredients and add vanilla seed to the liquid mixture. Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture and combine with a wooden spoon.

Pour a tablespoon of batter mixture into small muffin moulds, put a rasberry jam teaspoon in the middle and cover with another batter tablespoon. Sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake for 25 minutes: muffins will be golden and puffy.

P.S. These pictures are taken on my office window, to testify a rich breakfast with my colleagues!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Muffins with a raspberry heart

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Summer 2009 Cupcake Crawl

Good morning everyone! Today’s post is entirely dedicated to a cupcake crawl, held by Kitchen Rap. I’ve been asked to take part at this competition and, since I love cupcakes, I accept the challenge and here I am.

::::: MATCHA AND WHITE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES :::::

Ingredients for 12 cupcakes:

• plain flour, 200gr
• milk, 125ml
• white chocolate, 100gr
• butter, 100gr
• caster sugar, 100gr
• eggs, 2
• baking powder, 1 teaspoon
• matcha tea powder, 2 teaspoons

Ingredients for the topping:

• white chocolate, 200gr
• cream, 100ml + 200ml
• butter, 70gr
• hazelnuts, 10
• caster sugar, 2 tablespoons

For the cupcakes

Preheat the oven at 160°C.

Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat them with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add eggs and beat well. Sift over flour and baking powder and beat until combined.

Melt 50gr of white chocolate with milk in a bain-marie and fold in into the mixture together with 2 teaspoons of matcha tea powder and the leftover white chocolate, reduced into small chuncks.

Spoon the mixture into 12 x 1/2 cup capacity muffin tins lined with paper patty cases. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool on a wire racks.

For the topping

Place white chocolate, cream (only 100ml) and butter in a bowl and cook in a bain-marie: stir until melted and smooth. Remove and set aside to cool completely. Add 200ml of cream and beat with electric beaters until thick and fluffy.

Toast hazelnuts in a non-stick pan, set aside too cool and peel them with your fingers to remove the outer bitter skin. Reduce into small chuncks with a knife and place in a non-stick pan with 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and 1 tablespoon of water. Let the sugar melt and move the pan until all the hazelnuts are coated with melted sugar. Sprinkle the hazelnuts on a greased baking foil and set aside to cool.

Cupcakes, at last

Spread white chocolate fudge icing over cupcakes and top with coated hazelnuts.

This is the result: smooth velvety sweet white chocolate fudge icing, then crunchy hazelnuts to enjoy your teeth, then you lost yourself in a soft and intense matcha tea muffin, with white chocolate nuggets to surprise you.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Summer 2009 Cupcake Crawl

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Don’t you know? Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the first one, the one that charges you with sparkling nergy. At home, we strongly belive in the power of breakfast, even if we have slightly different habits about this moment of the day. Mum loves having her breakfast all alone, reading a book, with hot milk and coffee.

As regards my father, Claudia and me… the story is totally different. We love taking our time, haveing breakfast in the garden, with juices, toasted bread and jams. These tiny cakes are perfect for one of our breakfast glorious moments!

• wholemeal flour, 150 gr
• eggs, 2 whisked
• caster sugar, 125 gr
• extravirgin olive oil, 100 ml
• peeled and grated carrots, 100 gr
• peeled diced apples, 100 gr
• raisins, 4 whole tablespoons
• salt, 1 teaspoon
• baking powder, 1 teaspoon
• sodium bicarbonate, 1/2 teaspoon
• cinnamon, 1 teaspoon

As always, I follow the muffin making directions.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl (wholemeal flour, caster sugar, raisins, baking powder, sodium bicarbonate, salt, cinnamon, carrots and apples – talking about that, cover carrots and apples with some flour, to prevent them from getting spoilt).
In an other bowl, mix eggs and olive oil.
Combine dry ingredients with egg and olive oil mixture.
Pour into tiny muffin moulds and bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean and dry.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Tiny cakes with apples and carrots

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They are very good, fragrant and with a lovely dried tomato flavour.They are best eaten the next day, cut in a half and spread with goat’s milk cheese and olives, philadelphia and chive, grilled eggplants and mozzarella… everything that softens the muffin, that becomes a kind of sandwich!

::::: WHOLEMEAL FLOUR MUFFINS WITH SUN-DRIED TOMATO PASTE :::::

Ingredients for 12 medium muffins:

• wholemeal flour, 200 gr
• milk, 150 ml
• eggs, 2
• extravirgin olive oil, 100 ml
• sun-dried tomato paste, 4 tablespoons
• dried thyme, 1 tablespoon
• dried oregano, 1 tablespoon
• baking powder, 1 tablespoon
• salt, 1 pinch

Mix together all the dry ingredients (flour, thyme, oregano, salt, baking powder) and, in a separate bowl, all the liquid ingredients (eggs, milk, extravirgin olive oil, sun-dried tomato paste). Then, stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture until just combined.
Spoon the mixture into 12 muffin moulds until you reach 2/3 of the quantity they can contain.
Bake in preheated oven (180°C) for 30 minutes, or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Some notes:

1. I used a very little pinch of salt because my sun-dried tomato paste was very savoury and tasty.
2. The extra virgin olive oil I used is a sicilian DOP extra virgin olive oil, the same I used to make the dried tomato paté, because it suits well with the tomato flavour.
3. You can substitute sun-dried tomato paste with black or green olive paste.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Wholemeal flour muffins with sun-dried tomato paste

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Reading The tea house on Mulberry Street I came across banana muffins and I was so eager to try them! They’re sunny, as the banana is, and they smell of topics. They come at the end of an hard working period… so here the recipe for my first gathering, the one helded by Gialla tra i fornelli!

• flour, 350gr
• baking powder, 3 teaspoons
• sugar, 110gr
• grounded cinnamon, 1 teaspoon
• vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon

• coconut milk, 165ml
• extra virgin olive oil, 100ml
• eggs, 2grated apples, 260
• grsmashed banana, 220gr

• caster sugar
• icing sugar, 5 tablespoons

Preheat the oven to 180°.
Mix together all the dry ingredients and, in a separate bowl, all the liquid ingredients, but the grated apple and the smashed banana.
Then, stir the banana and apple into the flour mixture until just combined, adding the liquid mixture at last.
Spoon the mixture into muffin tins until you reach half of the quantity it can contain, sprinkle each muffin with some caster sugar.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cooked when tested with a skewer.
Mix the icing sugar with some cold water teaspoons and you’ll have a simple icing for the muffins! Pour some icing drops over each muffin and leave it to cool.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Banana muffins

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Ingredients for about 16 muffin:
espresso garnish:

• freeze-dried coffee, 2 tablespoons
• powdered almonds, 4 teaspoons
• brown sugar, 4 tablespoons

streusel garnish (have a look on Wikipedia to see what streusel is):

• softened butter, 4 teaspoons
• flour, 2 tablespoons
• brown sugar, 4 tablespoons
• espresso garnish, 1 tablespoon

dry ingredients:

• flour, 240gr
• rolled oats, 75gr
• baking powder, 3 teaspoons
• sugar, 85gr
• grounded cinnamon, 1 tablespoon
• salt, 1 teaspoon

liquid ingredients:

• milk, 150ml
• extra virgin olive oil, 110ml
• eggs, 2
• grated apples, 260gr

Preheat the oven to 205°.
Make the espresso garnish mixing together all the ingredients.
Make the streusel garnish mixing together all the ingredients using your fingers or a fork.
Mix together all the and, in a separate bowl, all the liquid ingredients, but the grated apple.
Then, stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture until just combined, folding in the apple at last.
Spoon the mixture into 16 muffin tins untill you reach half of the quantity it can contain, sprinkle each muffin with 2 teaspoons of espresso garnish and swirl with a spoon to mix the mixture and the garnish, add some mixture more, then fill up the tins with the streusel garnish.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Coffee Muffins

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