The Spanish Connection: Alfajores de maicena

Alfajores is a popular Spanish confectionery made up of two shortbread cookies held together by a dollop of delicious dulce de leche or jam. It looks like a delectable French macaron but it's a different type of sweet altogether. I have not heard about Alfajores before but this Spanish delight is quickly an inspiration to my taste buds. For instance, it has given me the idea of using corn flour (or corn starch in some continents) into my cookie recipes for a light, crumbly biscuit. I cannot forget my first bite of this sweet sandwich, the biscuit that held it together is so light it almost melts in your mouth with every bite!

Alfajores de maicena is a version that uses dulce de leche as the center of the sweet sandwich; and this is the recipe we used. I have to thank my friend, K for introducing this cookie sandwich to me and his diligence in making dulce de leche with a can of condensed milk while watching Office Space. :P



We picked a recipe that was written in Spanish and neither of us understand that language much. Thank god for Google, translation cannot be easier.

So this is a translation of the recipe, taken from the blog of Martiniano Molina.

Alfajores de maicena:

250g butter
150g sugar
3 egg yolks
300g corn flour/corn starch
200g super fine flour (we just used all-purpose flour)
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of 1 lemon
1 can of dulce de leche (made from double boiling a can of condensed milk)
200g shredded unsweetened coconut


Method:
The recipe did not include a temperature for the oven, so when in doubt use 350F.


1. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add yolks and lemon zest in and mix well.
2. Mix the corn starch, flour, baking soda and baking powder into the butter batter until a smooth dough is formed.


3. Knead the dough slightly and form it into a flat disc, flatten it with a rolling pin until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Use extra corn starch while rolling if the dough sticks.


4. Use a round cookie cutter and cut the dough into circles and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-18 minutes.


5. Once the cookies are baked, let them cool for about 15 minutes before spreading a dollop of dulce de leche on one biscuit and sandwich it with another. Roll the biscuit sandwich's corner on the shredded coconut so that it sticks to the dulce de leche.


Wrap your alfajores in plastic wraps after it's made and store them in the fridge. They keep quite well and is delicious cold or in room temperature.

I think we did pretty well from our own interpretation of the translated recipe. ;)

You should try Alfajores, they are unlike their cousins, the French Macarons where the biscuits are crispier. But these two recipes do share a similar trait; sandwiching delicious sweet condiments with cookies can never go wrong.

Apple Cherry Pie with Decorative Lattice Crust

Everyone is just cherry these days. It's cherry season and Bings are popular because they are big, juicy and delicious eaten on its own. However, Bing Cherries are also especially good when used in baking.

The other day; about a week and 3 days ago, around 4.30pm in the afternoon, I decided to make an apple cherry pie and a whole lattice crust design for fun. Those pretty lattice crusts are easier than I thought, it's just cutting the dough into strips and weaving it over each other on the pie until the effect is achieved.

And because I had half a puff pastry in the fridge at the time, I decided to use it to make my lattice top. And it's decidedly the best decision because after the pie's baked, the lattice was a beautiful crispy crust.


The Apple Cherry Pie is a very simple recipe.

Filling:
4 Apples - I used Macintosh apples, cut into chunks
1 cup of fresh Bing cherries, pitted
3/4 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract/ 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
a few scrapes of lemon zest
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of corn starch

Crust:
1/2 pack of puff pastry, de-frosted
1.5 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup very cold butter, cut into small cubes
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2-3 tablespoon of cold water
1 egg for egg wash
sugar for sprinkling


Method:
1. Combine all the ingredients for the filling in a large bowl, mix, and let it sit in the fridge until ready to use.

2. Make the bottom crust first by combining flour, salt and sugar - mix well. Add butter cubes in and rub the butter into the flour with the tip of your fingers until the flour resembles wet sand. You can use a food processor for this but i prefer using my fingers. The flour should be able to hold it's shape when you clump some in your hand.

3. Add 1 tablespoonful of cold water at a time and mix until the dough come together. Knead the dough into a ball and then flatten it into a disc shape. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.



4. Pre-heat oven at 350 F and grease your 9-inch pie pan with some butter.

5. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out until it is 1/4 inch thick with a roller. Bring it to the pie pan and mould the dough to the pie pan. Don't trim off the excess dough yet.

6. Pour the apple and cherry filling into the crust. Now roll out the defrosted puff pastry until it's 1/4 inch thick and cut it into 1.5cm strips. Create a lattice design by weaving the strips of pastry over the pie. You can always forgo the lattice work and just put the puff pastry over the pie for a conventional top crust as well. After that is done, use a fork and crimp the edges. Trim off the excess dough. Brush some egg wash over the top of your pie crust and sprinkle some granulated sugar over the top, this will give you a nicely browned crust.



7. Bake your pie at the lowest rack in your oven for 45 minutes. This will let your pie crust at the bottom brown up nicely - it's a great tip from Alton Brown.


Once your pie is done, let it sit for at least 3 hours before cutting it. This is an important step if you want your pie to look like the picturesque slice that it can be. :)



That lattice crust makes the pie look like it's out of an Enid Blyton's children's book, doesn't it?

Sun dried Tomatoes and Cheese Souffle + a rant.

Who said it's too much work to have a nice fancy souffle for Sunday brunch? I whipped this up in 40 minutes, and if you can work faster than me, maybe even less time. Like all things in life, you need to put a bit of time in what you do. None of those instant gratification BS because it desecrates the enjoyment of eating together and making food. And it's Sunday brunch, the most important meal before the week's grind - you owe it to yourself and your family to eat well. Nothing like a bit of family bonding and togetherness over good souffle to tie the week up.

And before I digress further, souffles are incredibly easy to make and a joy to eat. It goes both ways, savory and sweet. They encompassed all food that is fancy and highly priced plastered with a delusional idea that it's hard to make. Well, my foodie friends, souffle for brunch is not a folly, it's a pleasure. :)

My recipe incorporates sun dried tomatoes, spring onions and cheddar cheese.



Sun dried Tomatoes and Cheese Souffle Recipe:
100 grams of all-purpose flour
100 grams of butter
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites, beaten stiff
250 ml milk
2 tablespoons of chopped sun dried tomatoes
2 whole green onions, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 450F. Heat up a full electric kettle of water. Grease 6 ramekins with butter and dust with flour.



1. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form. When you turn the bowl over, the egg whites should stay in the bowl and not fall on your head. If it does, shampoo and start over. You'll need approximately 8 minutes of whisking by hand, non-stop or set it in your trusty stand mixer on high. Set the egg white aside for later.




2. In a medium size pan, melt butter completely and add the flour in. Stir until a soft doughy batter forms. Turn off heat but leave the pan over the burner. Add milk, little by little and mix until the dough resembles more of a thick roux. Add the sun dried tomatoes, green onions, garlic, cheese, salt and pepper. Mix well.



3. Temper your roux by adding 1/4 of your egg whites in first, mixing it well. Add the rest of your egg whites into the roux and gently fold them in. Once that's done, pour the batter evenly into all 6 of your ramekins.



Clean the edges with your thumb so spillovers are cleaned up. This ensures that your souffle rises nicely vertically and not lopsided.



4. Set the ramekins in a baking tray filled with hot water up till the middle of the ramekins and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes. Your souffle should rise and brown nicely over the top.


5. Serve immediately with your favorite salad.

I made a tropical slaw with honey and balsamic dressing.

Tropical Slaw with Balsamic Dressing
1/4 cup of mangoes, cut into small dices
10 leaves of romaine lettuce, julienne
dried currants (optional)
2 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon lime zest + a squeeze of juice
1 tablespoon of honey
salt and pepper

Method:
Mix the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, salt and pepper together really, really well.
Add it over the salad and toss lightly.

Dinnervibe Featured My Vegetarian Paella Recipe!

Say hello to DinnerVibe, folks! A new weekly e-newsletter that sends simple, delicious dinner recipes to your email box. It caters to the family and cooking for the family, so all you mommies and daddies out there should subscribe to their weekly newsletter to cure your mid-week kitchen nightmare.

Subscribe to Dinnervibe.

Dinnervibe does a weekly feature of recipes. My Vegetarian Paella recipe is one of the featured recipes this week and I am glad they picked that. It's one of those one pot wonder recipes families can enjoy that is both delicious and affordable.

Vegetarian Paella

Pop on over and check out the other recipes they have on their site and check out the contest they currently have if you submit a family favorite recipe. You stand to win a nice sexy pair of earth-friendly wooden spoons from EcologicProducts.

Roasted Cauliflower Risotto

Bad weather on a summer day is noticeably gloomier. Maybe it's the fact that we expect sun instead of dark clouds. To me, a rainy day is the perfect day for comfort food. A day like today warrants eating food that warms the soul.

I've decided to make risotto again. After all, my arborio rice is not going to last forever, there are beetles and bugs waiting to make babies in them and I hate it when that happens. The last time I made risotto was a time when the season was still cool. This time I want to make a summer inspired risotto. I had a bunch of ingredients to use but I decided to close my eyes and pull one out of my fridge -- a cauliflower!

Not a entirely a summer vegetable but it'll have to do. Roasted, they are delicious. That's right.. I'll make a roasted cauliflower risotto!


The inspiration for this risotto is to make it look like a roasted cauliflower. The color, the flavor and the accompanying ingredients should resemble that fact. And I must say, it does have a nice golden roasted look to it, the specks of red and green simple represents the fresh herbs and spices I use while roasting the vegetable. :)

Here's my Roasted Cauliflower Risotto recipe:

Roasting the cauliflower:
1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

The rest of the ingredients:
1.5 cups of arborio rice
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of butter
1 onion, diced finely
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1 stick of celery, finely diced
1/2 cup of diced zucchini
2 red chillies, de-veined and chopped finely
1 cup of white wine
1 cup of vegetable broth
1 and 1/4 cup of water

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 400F. Mix white wine, vegetable broth, water into a measuring cup.

1. In a baking tray, combine the cauliflower, olive oil, paprika, parsley, salt and pepper together. Toss them well to evenly coat the cauliflower florets.

2. Bake for 40minutes. Reserve aside for later use.

3. In a pan, heat olive oil and butter together until it melts, let the butter brown slightly for that nutty taste. Add the onions, garlic, chilies and celery and saute them until they become soft. This will take approximately 5 minutes.

4. Add the rice into the pan and saute it until it becomes slightly translucent. The rice grains will have a translucent ring around the edges when this happens. Roasting the rice like this gives it a nice base flavor. Now add 1/2 cup of the broth (you mixed earlier) in and stir to cook the rice. Add your zucchini into the pan as well.

Making risotto requires patience and lots of love. You need to keep stirring the pot as it cooks so that it doesn't burn the bottom.

5. Keep adding the liquid and throw in a handful of roasted cauliflower florets in, alternately, to cook and keep stirring until all the liquid is used up. The cauliflower will cook down as you keep adding liquid in and will incorporate itself beautifully into the risotto.

Your risotto should technically have the consistency of an creamy oatmeal porridge when it's done but each individual grain of rice still holds together for that al dente texture. Taste your rice for the right texture, if it's still raw in the middle add a bit more water and cook for another 10minutes.



Serve your risotto immediately. Now doesn't that look like a roasted cauliflower in a risotto? It tastes nutty and deliciously good too!

Leftovers can be made into risotto balls, and that would another post of its own. ;)