Rich chocolate bundt cake with dark chocolate ganache

It was my birthday at the beginning of November and I wasn’t planning to make my own cake this year. I’ve been very tired, to say the least. Raising a toddler during a pandemic without any help from family or an immediate support system since we’re living away from our home country and families, has been brutal.  

 

Aris, my sweetest two year old boy, demands my constant attention and energy, and even though I love being a stay at home mom and giving him my all, it leaves little to nothing for anything else, let alone birthday cake making. I desperately needed someone to make me a cake yet, in the end, I couldn’t resist and I made this.

 

A simple affair, admittedly, but still utterly satisfying and fit for a birthday. It’s a chocolate ganache bundt cake that’s moist and very fluffy yet holds itself well, with barely any crumbs left behind on your plate when you have a slice, something I do appreciate in a cake as I hate dry cakes. Full of dark chocolate, thus intensely chocolatey, yet not too sweet, and addictive to the core. 

 

Of course, since the holidays are here, I would definitely say this rich ganache cake would be ideal for one of your festive meals. It’s even better the next day which makes it perfect for those days during the holidays when you want to prep as much food as possible for a festive meal or gathering.

Happy Christmas and happy holidays to all who celebrate!

 

 

 

Rich chocolate bundt cake with dark chocolate ganache
Barely adapted from Zoe Bakes Cakes by Zoe Francois

Use the best possible chocolate you can find and/or afford but also a chocolate whose flavor you love. It will make all the difference in the end result.

 

Yield: 12 slices

 

Ingredients

for the cake

40 g Dutch-processed cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting the pan

120 g heavy cream (30-35% fat)

100 g good quality dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, finely chopped

60 ml buttermilk

180 g all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp sea salt

165 g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing the pan

300 g granulated white sugar

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, at room temperature

3 large egg yolks, at room temperature

for the ganache

180 g heavy cream, 30-35% fat

170 g good quality dark chocolate, 55% cocoa solids, finely chopped

Pinch of sea salt

Special equipment: bundt pan (at least 2.4 liters capacity), fine sieve, stand mixer or electric hand-held mixer

 

Preparation

for the cake

Preheat your oven to 165°C.

Butter your bundt pan well, making sure you don’t leave any small pieces of butter in the pan, and then dust with cocoa powder. Tap the excess off.

In a small saucepan, add the cream and place over a medium-low heat. Once it starts to bubble a little around the edges, add the chocolate and immediately remove from the heat. Swirl the pan so that the chocolate is submerged in the cream and let stand for about 2-3 minutes. Then, using a wire whisk, whisk until you have a smooth mixture. Pour into a medium-sized bowl and add the buttermilk. Whisk to combine and leave to cool.

In another medium-sized bowl, sieve the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl), add the butter and beat with the paddle attachment (or with a hand-held mixer) on medium-high speed until creamy and smooth, for a couple of minutes. Turn the speed down to low and add the sugar and the vanilla. Mix until incorporated and then turn speed up to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, for about 7 minutes. Scrape the bowl of the mixer often so that the ingredients are incorporated evenly.

Turn down the speed to medium-low and add the eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, beating just until combined and scraping down the bowl after each addition.

Then add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix on low speed, just until combined. Add ½ of the cooled chocolate mixture and mix until just incorporated. Repeat with another 1/3 of flour, then the rest of the chocolate mixture and finally the last 1/3 of the flour, scraping the bowl and the paddle attachment after each addition.

Pour the cake batter into your prepared bundt pan, gently tap the pan on the counter a few times to make sure that the batter has settled fully and smooth the top with an offset spatula.

Place the pan on a thin baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes, before inverting the cake onto the wire rack to cool completely. The cake needs to be completely cool before you glaze it with the ganache.

for the ganache

In a medium-sized saucepan, add the cream and place over a medium-low heat. Once it starts to bubble a little around the edges, add the chocolate and salt, and immediately remove from the heat. Swirl the pan so that the chocolate is submerged in the cream and let stand for about 2-3 minutes. Then, using a rubber spatula, stir and mix until you have a smooth mixture.

Transfer the ganache to a bowl to cool a little bit. 

Place a plate underneath the wire rack that the cake stands on. Pour the warm ganache over the cake. The extra ganache will slide off the cake and into the plate without creating a pool around it. Scoop up the ganache from the plate and place it in the fridge, covered with cling film. Use it to make scrumptious truffles or just eat it as is.

Allow the ganache to set and then transfer the cake to a serving plate. Serve and enjoy!

Keep it covered, in a cool place in your kitchen, but not in the fridge. It keeps perfectly for 3-4 days.

 

 

Sweet potato and carrot soup with ginger

Sometimes, only soup will do. Either because the weather turned and the cold makes your body yearn for something to warm it up, or because your soul needs something comforting, something smooth and tasty that feels like a hug.

 

 

Soup can accomplish that. This soup did it for me. For all three of us. Aris loved it (if this is something one can say about a two-year-old) which was a surprise because it was the first soup I actually served to him as, you know, soup, not mixed with other ingredients to bulk it up; just plain old soup, with bread to help him and dunk it into the liquid, and he really liked it. He didn’t eat a lot, granted, but it was a great first step. As for us, we devoured it.

 

It’s sweet and aromatic from the spices and the ginger, which gives it a slight peppery kick that, if you want, you can intensify by adding more ginger. I didn’t, as I knew Aris was going to eat it too, otherwise I would add double the amount. The good squeeze of lemon when serving the soup, gives it a welcomed citrus acidity to offset the sweetness of the root vegetables which really balances all the flavors of the dish. 

 

Sweet potato and carrot soup with ginger

Ingredients

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 red onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, sliced

2 cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and thickly sliced

3 medium-sized orange sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thickly

3 medium-sized carrots, peeled and sliced

1 tsp vegetable stock powder or 1 vegetable stock cube

1 Tbsp tomato paste

Sea salt

¼ tsp sweet paprika

¼ tsp turmeric powder

¼ tsp ground coriander

1/8 tsp ground cardamom

200 ml coconut milk, full-fat

Freshly ground black pepper or hot chilli flakes & lemon juice, for serving

 

Preparation

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. When it starts to shimmer, add the onion and sauté to soften. Add the garlic and sauté, being careful not to burn it. Then add the sweet potato and carrots, and sauté for a few minutes. Add the ginger, vegetable stock (powder or cube), tomato paste and all the spices plus the salt, and mix well. Add enough hot water to completely cover the contents of the pot and then add 1 cup more water. Mix well, turn heat up to high and when it starts to boil, turn heat down to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Then add the coconut milk and simmer for another 10 minutes or until the vegetables have softened.

Turn the heat off and leave to stand for 5 minutes.

Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until creamy and smooth. Check the seasoning and serve with some black pepper or hot chilli flakes and lots of lemon juice to cut through the sweetness.

Enjoy!

 

Tomato, feta and black garlic tart with puff pastry

When I was in Greece last month, I took tomatoes, good tomatoes, for granted. They were just there, everywhere, juicy and ripe, as red and as sweet as they could be. And then I returned to the Netherlands, the land of the greenhouse tomatoes, which, don’t get me wrong, have served us well all these years, they’re decent, but the mere sight of them left me with a deep longing for the sun-kissed, -hugged and –made love to Greek tomatoes.

 

 

While at the local open market the other day, I spotted the ones you see in the photos of this post. My heart skipped a beat and their vibrant color and even aroma, made me hopeful and giddy. Fresh, in season, naturally grown tomatoes! I may have elbowed a couple of people trying to get to them before they did, but hey, all is fair in love and war (of the tomatoes).

 

 

Once home, I will admit that I ate a couple of them on the spot, over the sink, with a good sprinkling of Greek coarse sea salt from the island of Elafonisos that I got as a gift from a friend while in Greece, and they were very good. Not as good as the Greek ones, don’t get it twisted, but they were good enough to make me smile.

 

 

Some of them we ate sliced, over sandwich bread (I know! But I’m not one to turn my nose up to good white sandwich bread) slathered with homemade mayonnaise and with lots of sea salt and white pepper. And the rest went in this glorious tart. Yes, glorious. Because not only these tomatoes were involved, but feta was involved, and black garlic too, which is like the love child of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar, with a pinch of tamarind and a dash of molasses, and very addictive indeed.

 

 

I used puff pastry but shortcrust or any other galette/tart pastry, like this spelt pastry, or this whole-wheat one, would do as well. The flavors were sweet and salty, savory and umami, buttery and tart. What more could you ask? Go on then, make it, before all the good tomatoes are gone, it’s so easy and quick and it can be your next lunch or dinner.

 

Tomato, feta and black garlic tart with puff pastry

Guys, feta is Greek. Please don’t talk to me about any other feta. It’s like talking to an Italian about the Parmigiano Reggiano your country makes. No. Unless your country is Italy, your country does not make Parmigiano Reggiano, period. Let alone good one. Same with feta. Let’s aaaaalways use the Greek one, okay? Otherwise, you’re using something else. Barrel-aged, semi-hard to hard (not dry) feta would be best here. Yeap, there are different kinds of feta in Greece.

To those who have never used or eaten black garlic before: black garlic is supposed to be tender, soft and sticky, not dry and hard. The first time I ever bought the stuff a long time ago, it must have been on the shelf for ages, not properly sealed, and it was so dry I couldn’t tear it apart no matter how hard I tried. I thought I was doing something wrong, I wasn’t. Lesson learned, if it’s dry, toss it out.

 

Yield: 1 large tart, 6 large pieces

 

Ingredients

1 rolled-out sheet of puff pastry, about 25x40 cm (you could always make your own puff pastry too)

85 g feta, hard or semi-hard

130 g Greek yoghurt, 5% fat

2 black garlic cloves, peeled

2-3 tomatoes of different colors and sizes, thinly sliced

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Ground sumac

Extra virgin olive oil

1 egg, beaten lightly with a fork, for glazing the pastry

Fresh mint leaves, for finishing

 

Preparation

Preheat your oven to 185-190 C.

In a small bowl, mash together the feta, yoghurt and black garlic cloves using a fork to get it as smooth as you can, although it is expected to be grainy. Add freshly ground black pepper (3-4 turns of the pepper mill) and a couple of pinches ground sumac, and mix well. 

 

Place the puff pastry sheet on a baking pan lined with baking paper and lightly score a frame, using a knife. Spread the feta mixture evenly inside the frame using preferably a small, bendy, offset spatula, so you don’t make any holes in the pastry.

Arrange the sliced tomatoes on top, overlapping them slightly but not too much so they bake evenly. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper, a little sumac and finally drizzle with a little olive oil. 

 

Brush the frame with the beaten egg and place the pan on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the pastry has a nice golden brown color and the tomatoes have softened and cooked.

Remove the tart from the oven and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and scatter a few fresh mints leaves over the top.

Cut into pieces and enjoy warm!

 

 

Veal biftekia (Greek meat patties) with koulouri and tzatziki

Nothing beats a nice, charred and juicy Greek bifteki (meat patty) for dinner, any day of the week, especially when you serve it on top of a sliced, homemade koulouri (Greek, sesame-coated bread ring) and some refreshing, pungent tzatziki. 

 

 

Last week, while shopping at a large super market that oftentimes carries unusual and rare vegetables and fruits, I came across a basket full of wild garlic. Wild garlic, this time of the year! I couldn’t believe it. Don’t know where it was from, but I couldn’t resist getting it because I adore wild garlic. I used it in the beef patties, but since it’s not in season now and even when it is it’s difficult to find in many places, you can substitute with regular garlic. I also used it in the tzatziki, the recipe for which can be found here and of course, the bread rings recipe is here. 

 

Veal and wild garlic* biftekia (Greek meat patties) with koulouri and tzatziki 

Needless to say that the quality of the veal you use is key in the flavor of the biftekia. Buy ground veal with some fat in it as it will give your biftekia extra flavor but not too much fat as they will be too greasy and heavy. Also, what’s important in the final flavor and texture is the proper mixing of the ingredients and the resting of the mixture in the fridge. 

You can make great souvlakia with these biftekia too. Just shape them into longer ovals, put them inside a Greek pita, add tzatziki, tomato and onions, or your own favorite ingredients, and dig in.

*As mentioned above, you can substitute the wild garlic for regular garlic since it's not in season now.

 

Yield: 9 small-ish biftekia or 4 large ones

Ingredients 

for the biftekia (meat patties) 

500 g ground veal 

2 red onions (about 110 g net weight)

1 large handful flat-leaf parsley

3 wild garlic leaves (with stems attached) or 1 garlic clove

1 tsp pul biber (Aleppo pepper) or hot chilli flakes

1 tsp sweet paprika

¼ tsp Greek dried oregano

Freshly ground black pepper, 20 turns of the pepper mill

1 tsp sea salt

2 Tbsp olive oil, for cooking

to serve

tzatziki (you can substitute the wild garlic in the recipe with 2 garlic cloves)

koulouria/simitia (Greek bread rings)

lemon

tomatoes or cherry tomatoes

 

Preparation

In a small food processor, add the onion, garlic and parsley and finely chop. Add all the ingredients for the biftekia, except the oil, in a medium-sized bowl that fits in your fridge, and mix very well, kneading the mixture for 5-6 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and place the bowl in the fridge for 2 hours.

Shape the patties. Give them an oval shape and then flatten slightly the tops.

 

Heat a frying pan well over medium-high heat. Okay, now I gotta talk about something. Frying pans. Not all are created equal. Even though I use from time to time non stick pans, like Tefal, I tend to avoid them for two reasons. First, because they are harmful to our health and second, because as far as meat (chicken, steak, offal, patties) mushrooms and tofu is concerned, they can’t cook them well. How well a pan conducts and retains heat is dependent upon the material the pan is made of and of course this affects cooking. For example, copper heats up super fast and also gets cold super fast once off the heat. Iron/cast iron on the other hand takes a bit of time to heat up but retains that heat well after it has been taken off the heat. Carbon steel pans heat up quickly and retain heat well after they have been taken off the heat. Also, whether or not a pan has the ability to create a natural patina, like iron and steel pans do, is crucial in the final flavor and texture of the cooked meat. You are familiar with the Maillard reaction, no? If not, you can read about it here.

So the pan I use is a carbon steel pan with a beeswax layer by de Buyer (Mineral B model), which creates a non stick patina with time and cooks better than any other pan I have ever used, including my beloved yet hardly used anymore le Creuset cast iron pan. Also, the double sided grill/griddle from le Creuset, which I have been using for maaaany years, especially for making pork souvlakia is also excellent for cooking meat patties. I prefer, however, the de Buyer pan as it is less heavy (talking about the small one here; the larger one I have is almost as heavy as the Creuset griddle, if not heavier). Ugh! Let's get back to the recipe. As soon as the pan heats up, lower the heat to medium and add the olive oil. When it starts to shimmer, add the patties and cook to your liking. I like them well cooked, so for small-ish patties, I cook them for 7 minutes per side.

serve the dish

Cut the bread rings lengthwise, place the biftekia on top so the bread soaks up the juices and becomes even more delicious, add the tzatziki and tomatoes and squeeze lots of lemon juice over the patties.

Dig in and enjoy!

 

 

 

Watermelon, feta and sumac salad

I made this salad the other day, actually on my Name Day, on a whim, after inhaling the sweet aroma of a freshly cut watermelon and wanting to eat it right then and there but not on its own. Yes, it was my Name Day, and one would assume that dinner would have been something fancy yet this, this was all I was craving and wanted.

 

Fresh, crisp watermelon dripping with pink-reddish juices, salty feta, fiery red onion, exotic, zingy lime juice, rich, smooth extra virgin olive oil, bright, fresh mint and a beautiful little concoction of sea salt crystals rubbed together with some ground, lemony and tart sumac sprinkled over the whole salad.

Had it with some Cretan barley paksimadia and was as happy as I could ever be with my Name Day dinner. 

 

 

 

Watermelon, feta and sumac salad

Feel free to make this salad your own by adding ingredients you have on hand and prefer. I would also go for some olives, especially green ones which I love, or capers, and surely, a few ripe, cherry tomatoes would be great here too.

 No amounts given because salad. Do your thing.

 

Ingredients

Watermelon, juicy and crisp, freshly cut

Feta, Greek of course, gently cut with your fingers into small pieces

Red onion, thinly sliced

Lime juice, freshly squeezed

Extra virgin olive oil, Greek of course

Fresh mint leaves, picked and torn

Sea salt crystals, I use Maldon

Ground sumac

 

Preparation

Take a large platter and arrange the watermelon pieces. Squeeze some lime juice over the fruit, to enhance the sweet flavor and scatter the onions around. Add the feta. Drizzle with olive oil. Rub together in a small bowl the salt and sumac, and sprinkle it generously over the top. Add more sumac if needed and finish with the mint.

Enjoy immediately.

 

Tiramisù ice cream

Hello hello hello!

Long time no see!

Hope you are all well, friends.

For those of you not following me on instagram, you may have been wondering where I’ve been these past three years. Well, I had a baby! Aris was born on 5 July 2019, he is two years old now, and what can I tell you, time flew.

 

As you can understand, the blog and cooking in general had, and has, taken a back seat, to say the least. Cooking to feed my toddler is like a full time job, with five meals a day, so I don’t really have the energy to cook elaborate dishes that would be of any interest to you, the dear readers of this little blog of mine.

Even when I do manage to cook something of notice, alas, there’s rarely time to take any decent photographs or write down the recipe, and to be honest, sitting down to write a blog post seems difficult and time-consuming. So what’s changed and I am here now? A reader told me the other day how much she misses my recipes and posts here on my blog, and apart from being flattered and touched, it also made me want to revive my blog as soon as possible. I said to myself: “You need to get back!”. In order to do that, however, something has to change, so I decided to keep my posts short and sweet and I do hope that you will still enjoy them.

 

So, here I am; with a recipe for this gorgeous tiramisù ice cream that’s utterly delicious. It has a mascarpone, Kahlua and brandy base and a mocha syrup that runs through it, making it incredibly luxurious. It’s creamy, smooth, rich, sweet but not cloyingly so, and the syrup is sticky and shiny with an intense coffee flavor. There’s something you need to know about this ice cream, though; the alcohol content is high! Not that that’s a bad thing, eh? Considering we are still going through a pandemic, a little booze will definitely not hurt us.

Hope to be back soon with more recipes, as I have already started photographing and cooking a bit more, and yes, damn it, it’s good to be back.

 

 

 

 

Tiramisù ice cream

This is the prefect ice cream dessert. It contains the sweetness, the booze and the coffee you need after a meal, all in one. 

 

Yield: about 1 kg

 

Ingredients

for the ice cream

450 g mascarpone

125 ml cream, full-fat (35%)

125 ml whole milk

130 g caster sugar

Pinch of sea salt

60 ml Kahlua (or other coffee-flavored liqueur)

40 ml brandy

for the mocha syrup

100 g caster sugar

80 ml agave syrup

50 g Dutch-processed cocoa powder

125 ml strong espresso (already brewed coffee), or 125 ml water mixed with 1 Tbsp espresso granules)

½ tsp pure vanilla extract or paste

 

Special equipment: food processor, ice cream machine

 

Preparation

for the ice cream

In a food processor, add all the ingredients for the ice cream and puree until the sugar is dissolved and you have a smooth mixture. Empty in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge until it has really chilled. Then, churn in your ice cream machine following the manufacturer’s instructions.

for the mocha syrup

As the ice cream base is chilling in the fridge, make the mocha syrup.

In a medium-sized saucepan, add the sugar, agave syrup, coffee (or water + coffee granules) and cocoa powder, and cook over a medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture begins to slowly boil. Continue to cook, whisking constantly, for 1 minute, and then remove the pan from the heat. Add the vanilla and stir. Empty the mixture in a clean bowl and allow to cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge until the syrup has really chilled. In order to use it, it needs to be really cold, as it is easier to hold the swirl and not dissolve in the ice cream base.

Note: use only ¾ of the mocha swirl in your ice cream because it’s a lot. The rest you can keep in an airtight container in your fridge for about 2 weeks and you can use it in your coffee, in smoothies, over other ice creams or pancakes or waffles, you name it!

Mixing the two ice cream components

Right before the ice cream is churned, add a generous amount of the mocha syrup at the bottom of a container that you will use to store the ice cream in the freezer. I used enough syrup to cover the bottom of my container. Then add a generous layer of the churned ice cream on top. Continue alternating layers of syrup and churned ice cream, finishing with the mocha syrup. I made 6 layers of mocha syrup in total (so 5 layers of churned ice cream). Don’t be tempted to mix the layers together or stir to do a marble effect like you would with cakes because the ice cream will turn out a weird color without the distinctive ripples thus without distinctive flavors.

Cover the ice cream either with plastic wrap or a lid and place in the freezer until the ice cream firms up.

Keep it in the freezer for a week or so.

 

 

• Barely adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz