LEFTOVER RASPBERRIES...

At any point in time, us cooking & baking lovers, will always be faced with leftovers...and I'm not speaking about leftover pizza slices that some people enjoy eaten cold for breakfast (I never really got that?), I'm talking about leftover egg yolks, ganache, pistachios, orange zest, or, in this case raspberries. Do you remember the raspberry cheesecake I posted not too long ago? Well after the cheesecake was baked and devoured by all, I was faced with handfuls of raspberries leftovers...I could have of course eaten them plain (which I did, some of them), I could had made ice-cream, or a crispy tarte fine (thin puff pastry tart), or even raspberry jam... but for some reason, my leftover remedy has always seemed to be muffins! They just seem perfect in every way... they are of the ideal size whether for breakfast or to accompany of cup of coffee, they look alluring on a tray inevitably tempting friends & family who pass through the kitchen, they can transport themselves conveniently to picnics or to work... they are pretty to look at and easy to make, and loved by (almost) everyone!

So what on earth could had stopped me from making muffins with my raspberry leftovers?!

And take these almond-raspberry muffins as an sweet interlude until I get back cooking in my beloved kitchen that I missed so much when I was away in Cuba last week...!

Raspberry-Almond muffins:

For approx 12 muffins:

2 eggs

100gr sugar

100gr melted butter

50ml milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence or a vanilla pod.

140gr flour

70gr ground almonds

5gr baking powder

Pinch of salt

Handful of delicious raspberries

Shredded almonds for decorating (and for crisp!)

Preheat oven to th4/180C/350F.

In a bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together. Add the butter,milk and vanilla mix well. Add the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt, mix well. Then gently throw in the raspberries and stir...gently! Transfer batter to muffin moulds (with containers, optionally). Fill moulds in 3/4th of the way. Top off with a generous layer of shredded almonds and bake for 30mins. Check with a sharp knife if well cooked, if not extend baking by intervals of 10mins, always at th4. Remove, and let cool.

RASBERRY CHEESECAKE

Before I start writing about raspberries, cream cheese, and other sinful deliciousness, I need to mention a couple of things :
1) I’ll very very very likely be away on a trip end of this week (I’m taking a few days off from work, hurrah!)… destination will be revealed upon my return- but I can tell you from now that I’m very excited about where I’m going, and I think my camera is in for a real treat!

2) Today’s subject is cheesecake, as you probably guessed…and for this I need to make a confession. I’ve made cheesecake only twice in my life- this being the second time. I know, this can be a shock to some of you, but the truth is that cheesecake just happens to be one of those things I just don’t make at home…for some unknown reason. When I have a slice, it’s usually when I’m eating out.
Anyway- with that said, you can imagine that this second attempt to make cheesecake was quite a dramatic and intense experience for me as more then six years have gone by since my last home-made version. So I was crossing my fingers hoping that this would work out. I did tons of research to unlock the mystery of what makes a perfect cheesecake- from the baking time, to using or not using a water bath in the oven, to how long one should be mixing the ingredients, so on and so forth.

Finally, my gut feeling and baking experience helped lead me to a conclusion and I think I came up with a recipe (which was the result of research and a combination of many recipes) that I will keep and use again and again, because the result was just lovely! Each bite was a wonderful creamy rich experience with chunks of raspberries that reminded me spring time is very near, contrasted by a fragrant speculoos base…mmmm, pure delight!

Raspberry cheesecake (recipe for a 20cm diameter round cake mould)

200gr speculoos
25gr butter, melted
100gr sugar
Vanilla essence or pod
2 eggs
450gr cream cheese
100gr soured cream (in France, look for ‘crème fraiche’)
200gr raspberries + a handful for decoration
Raspberry coulis (optional)
Icing sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to th4/160C/350F.
Butter the sides of the cake mould, and line the bottom with parchment paper. Crush the speculoos to powder (either manually or in a mixer), and mix with the butter as to form a dough. Place this dough on the bottom of the mould, smoothing it out with your hand or the bottom of a cup. Bake for 10 mins, remove and set aside. In the meantime, mix the sugar, vanilla, and eggs and mix briefly (you don’t want too much air). Add the cream cheese and soured cream, mix at low speed until texture is creamy with no lumps. Throw in the raspberries and stir gently with a spatula. Transfer to mould and bake for 50 mins. At the end of baking time, turn oven off and leave cheesecake inside the oven for 30 mins. Remove, let cool and place in fridge overnight. Decorate with fresh raspberries, coulis and icing sugar, enjoy!

P.S: do NOT use frozen raspberries for inside the cheesecake. It will release water and you will have a soggy texture- trust me on this one!

The nameless dessert

Oh my God, OMG, oh my gosh, however you like to write it... but the point is: OMG, I can't find a name for this dessert that I've made! Very frustrating indeed! And now that I've mentionned it, this dessert is the result of frustration- winter frustration! I just wish it could be summer all year long!!! I can't stand having cold hands and feet all the time, driving to work early in the morning when it's dark...and coming back home from work...and it still being dark! So to cheer me up, fortunately there's the wonderful therapeutic effects of cooking! I am SO convinced more then ever that the best medecine in the world happens to exist in our very own kitchens.

One way that drifts me to a summery place is daydreaming of flavours and colours to use in a future recipe. I start imagining a certain palette of colours, textures and tastes...then count down the days until I finally have the time to make it all become real. For this go, I must had been thinking of many pinks and whites, because the result turned out to be:

I am still not so good with "verrine" type desserts, but hopefully I will improve. These cups contain a base of biscuits roses de Reims followed by a raspberry coulis, a layer of litchis in a rose petal confit, coconut ice cream and loukoum for decoration. All these ingredients taste wonderfully good together... but I still haven't come up with a name for this dessert!

Litchis & Biscuits Roses de Reims

After having made this, I certainly do admire those people who manage to make picture-perfect verrines! I always end up with a mess of layers...which nonetheless tastes good once eaten. If only photographs could allow viewers to see...and taste!

But what counts the most, is that for those minutes of eating the "nameless dessert", my mind and thoughts were no longer in cold Paris...but away on an island, with the sun shining all day over sandy golden beaches and deep turquoise waters... if only...

Recipe for the nameless dessert:

Ingredients:

• Biscuits Roses de Reims


• Raspberry coulis


• Litchis


• Rose petal confit


• Coconut icecream


• Loukoums


• Shredded coconut

Method (pretty straight forward, as you will see!):

1. Dice peeled litchis, and mix them with rose petal confit. Set aside.


2. Take out the glass containers, cups, verrines..whatever it is you will use.


3. Place a layer of biscuits roses de Reims. I like a lot of crunch, so my layer is thick.


4. Follow by raspberry coulis


5. Then, add a layer of the rose petal litchis.


6. Soften up coconut icecream, and spread a thick layer of that. You can also just place a scoop of ice cream if you want to go quicker...


7. Decorate with shredded coconut and small pieces of loukoums.


8. Place in freezer for about 10-15 minutes, just so that the softened ice cream becomes icecream once again. Don't keep in freezer for too long though, because then the litchis will become icecubes!

Enjoy!

P.S: my favourite part is the magical element the loukoum adds to all the other textures! You'll understand why if you make this!