Honey Pie

Honey Pie: a birthday cake or my sister? Both! Both sweet as honey! I browsed for a week through recipe books, culinary magazines and foodblogs to find the right Bday cake to hold 19 candles for Claudia. Then I met  a super recipe on Palachinka‘s foodblog and I couldn’t help. Browsing and browsing, I kept on coming back there, it was so irresisitible! So I decided to make this delicious honey pie, curious about the result and fascinated by a amazing shot!

I followed the recipe by the book, intrigued by the making of the honey biscuits. Very unusual – for me – the cream made with semolina: I will definitely make it again, it was delicious.

I will write down the recipe as it is written on Palchinka’s blog, with my notes colored in pink!

::::: HONEY PIE :::::

Ingredients for the biscuits:

• milk, 3 tablespoons
• honey, 2 tablespoons (I used orange blossom honey)
• extra virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons
• sugar, 150 gr
• flour, 400 gr
• baking soda, 1 teaspoon
• egg, 1
• rum, you need this later when assembling (I used pomegranate juice)

Cook milk, oil, honey and sugar on medium heat until sugar dissolves, stirring continuously. Remove from heat. Sift flour with baking soda and pour hot milk mixture in it. Add lightly beaten egg, and knead into soft dough. Cover with a kitchen cloth and leave for about 15 minutes to rest. Then, divide it into 4 equal parts and flatten each piece as flat as you can on a piece of baking paper. Bake each biscuit in a preheated oven on 180°C for about 5 minutes, or until light golden. Stay in front of the oven, watch how it bakes carefully and be prepared to take them out fast as they could easily burn. I placed Claudia just in front of the oven to watch it carefully!

Ingredients for the cream:

• milk, 500 ml
• semolina, 5 tablespoons (I used semolina flour, the one you use to make home made pasta or bread)
• zucchero, 150 gr
• vanillin sugar, 1 bag (I used a vanilla pod)
• butter, 200 gr
• powdered chocolate, 3 tablespoons

Boil milk, sugar and vanillin sugar vanilla pod. Remove from heat and stir in semolina flour. Cook on low heat, stirring continuously, until it thickens and then remove from heat and cool down completely. I didn’t need to cook it again: it got thick and firm as soon as I added semolina flour. Beat butter creamy with a mixer, and then, beat semolina cream in it. Divide into 3 equal parts and stir chocolate into one of them.

Assembling: Sprinkle one biscuit with rum. I wanted to use pomegranate juice because I wanted something pink and something to contrast the sweetness of honey, but it didn’t work, sigh. Next time: rum. Spread 1 part of white cream, cover with another biscuit, sprinkle with rum, spread chocolate cream over, cover again, again sprinkle, white cream, biscuit, rum. Don’t worry if your biscuits aren’t perfectly shaped. Cover tight with a cling film and leave in the fridge overnight. Tomorrow, you will be able to cut through the cake like through butter. Now, you can cut away the non-perfect parts and shape it as you like. Sprinkle with some powdered sugar before serving.

ENJOY THIS PIE AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN CLAUDIA!

See you next week: I’m going to London with Claudia for a weekend!