Homemade, Easy-to-Make, Apple Strudel

Crumbly and buttery crust, filled with sweet and soft baked apples and raisins.
Perfect easy and quick dessert for your holidays family dinner!

Do you need a last-minute dessert idea, to complete your holiday dinner menu?
This apple strudel might be the perfect solution: soft and sweet, baked apples and raisins, wrapped in crispy and buttery pastry. And it tastes amazing served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.
This recipe is super fast and easy, I used frozen puff pastry, just like with the croissant with Nutella and hazelnuts. With the dough already made, you cannot really get this recipe wrong. All you have to do is prepare the filling and bake. Only few ingredients, and that's it! So you have a lot of time to prepare all the other dishes for your holiday meal.
My best friend from Vienna, after I made this strudel, told me she toasts the breadcrumbs with butter before spreading them on the pastry. This gives a little more buttery-ness  to the dough. It seems like a great idea. And she is the expert - strudel after all is an Austrian dessert! So I definitely trust her and  I will try it next time! I will keep you updated.

Ingredients: serving 6-8

• 1 sheet of puff pastry,  thawed (I used Pepperidge Farm)
• 2 apples (I used machintosh apples)
• half cup (65 gr) of raisins
• 1/3 cup (40 gr) of plain breadcrumbs 
• 1/3 cup (60 gr) of sugar
• 1 lemon, zest
• 1/4 cup (30 gr) of pine nuts
• a couple of tablespoons of milk

Preparation time: about 1 hour
Directions: 
1. Thaw the puff pastry if you haven't done so. Preheat the oven to 375º F (190º C)
2. Peel the apples and cut in thin slices and small pieces. In a large bowl, combine the apples, raisins, pine nuts, sugar and lemon zest.

3. Open and stretch out a little the puff pastry onto parchment paper. Sprinkle the pastry with the breadcrumbs, and cover with the apple mixture.

4. Helping yourself with the parchment paper if needed, roll the pastry and seal using a few drops of milk. Remember to place the seam under the strudel. Using a sharp knife, make a few cuts on top. This is necessary so the strudel won't break open when baking.

5. Brush the top with milk, and bake for about 40 minutes, until golden on top.

Sprinkle with powder sugar if you'd like before serving. This is great both warm or at room temperature.

 Enjoy!

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

This butternut squash soup is creamy, rich and velvety. 

Perfect for a light dinner after a busy holiday weekend!

Have you been eating too much this past week, like I did? And you don't feel like cooking anything too complicated after a busy holiday weekend? Here is a great recipe for a light family dinner.
This simple and quick butternut squash soup is perfect after an holiday week of too much cooking and even more eating. It's thick, velvety and rich. Quick and easy. A serious crowd-pleaser especially for these cold winter nights. Enjoy!

Ingredients: serving 4

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• half onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 14 oz (400 gr) butternut squash, peeled and seeded
• 2 medium potatoes (10 oz, 300 gr)
• few leaves of basil, sage and parsley
• 2 cups of vegetable broth
• 4 tablespoons of heavy cream
• salt

Preparation time: 45 minutes
Directions:
1. In a large pan, saute the chopped onion and crushed garlic in the olive oil
2. Peel, clean and cut in small cubes the potatoes and the squash. Add to the pan.

3. Add the vegetable stock, and the herbs tided with a string. Add an extra cup of water. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes until the potatoes and the squash are tender.

4. Remove the herbs. Use a blender to puree the squash and potatoes. Add the cream and salt to taste if necessary.

Serve hot with bread crostini, toasted bread cubes.

Buon Appetito!

MAKE BUTTER IN YOUR STAND MIXER

Do you have a lot of heavy whipping cream leftover from the holidays like I do?  If so, consider turning it into butter with your stand mixer. It only takes about 15 minutes tops, and the mixer does all the work.

This isn't something I would make on a regular basis, but it IS perfect for very special occasions (try mixing in your favorite herbs or spices). It is also a fun project you can do with your kids.

All it takes is some heavy whipping cream + salt, + a stand mixer + 15 minutes .... and "hocus-pocus", you will have butter!!

 

Start out with a quart of ICE COLD heavy whipping cream

Whip it, on medium high, in your stand mixer, using the wire whisk attachment. It will try and splatter a little, so I usually cover my whole mixer with a dish towel.

Whip until you get nice stiff peaks, like this (should take about 4-5 minutes.

Now this next step is where the "butter" starts to happen. Change from your whisk to your paddle attachment. Let the mixture beat for a few more minutes (at medium high speed,)and it will start to look a little more yellow and it will "loosen up" considerably. This is when you need to make a serious plastic wrap cover for the top of your bowl because it starts to splash.

The mixture will start to separate like this:

 

Don't freak out, this is what its supposed to look like. The buttermilk is starting to separate from the butter.

After it has whipped a little longer, the mixture will completely "break down" and separate, like this: (click on the photo to get a better look).

Although this liquid is called buttermilk, it is very thin and nothing like commercial buttermilk. 

You are now done with the whipping stage (the whole process takes about 12-15 minutes) but there are a couple more steps:

Put the butter into a strainer, and drain off the liquid, It will look like this:

Rinse the "chunks" under VERY COLD running water (the water will not effect the butter as long as it is very cold). Squeeze the pieces together as you rinse the butter. You are basically trying to rinse out any little pockets of milk liquid.

 

Work 1/2 teaspoon table salt into the butter (or you can leave it unsalted). To do this step, I put the butter back in the stand mixer and beat it for a few seconds, so the salt would be evenly distributed.

Finally you have butter !!

 

A quart of heavy cream will make 10 ounces of delicious butter. It will keep in the fridge for about a week, or you can freeze it.

 

 

This sounds like a LOT of steps, but they are really

very simple and straight forward.

 

 

 

ENJOY !!!

 





Cannelloni Pasta with Spinach and Ricotta Cheese

Make your holiday dinner special with this classic Italian cannelloni pasta stuffed with creamy spinach, delicate ricotta and rich besciamella sauce. 

Your family and dinner guests will be wowed by this classic and traditional Italian primo piatto, perfect for your holiday meal: cannelloni pasta stuffed with delicate ricotta cheese and fresh, organic baby spinach.
And today I will share you my secret to make this cannelloni creamier than (maybe) you have ever eaten. You are probably familiar with besciamella, right? The heavenly creamy, rich, white sauce, used in lasagna and other oven baked pasta. I not only use besciamella sauce to cover the cannelloni before baking them, but I make some extra and add it to the ricotta and spinach filling. The inside of each cannellone will be soft and moist, creamy and cheesy. Yes! So much better this way.
Happy Holidays!

Ingredients: to make around 16 cannelloni, serving 4-5

• around 16 cannelloni pasta, or lasagna pasta (a little less than one box)
• 12 oz (340 gr) fresh, organic baby spinach
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
• 10 oz (280 gr) of ricotta cheese (I used whole milk)
• 1 egg
• around 5 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese (divieded)
• salt

for the besciamella sauce:

• 3.5 cups (825 ml) milk
• 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup (75 gr) of all-purpose flour
• salt, nutmeg

Preparation time: one hour
Directions:

1. Simmer the spinach in slightly salted water for about 5 minutes.

2. Prepare the besciamella sauce using the quantities above and following this recipe
3. Drain well the spinach and cut in pieces. In a pan, saute' the garlic cut in slices with one tablespoon of butter. Add the drained spinach and salt to taste if necessary. Saute' for a couple of minutes, to remove the extra water and give the butter-garlicky flavor to the spinach.

4. In a bowl, mix together the spinach (I removed the garlic) with the ricotta cheese, the egg, and around 3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. Stir in one cup of besciamella sauce.

5. Preheat the oven to 375º F (190º C). Drizzle a couple of tablespoons of besciamella sauce on the bottom of a baking pan. Using a small spoon or a piping bag, fill the cannelloni pasta with the ricotta and spinach filling, and place them on the baking dish. It might get messy, but that's not a problem. Everything will be covered up with white sauce. You can always make your piping bag using wax paper or a sandwich bag, with one corner cut.

6. Cover the cannelloni with the remaining besciamella sauce. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese. Bake covered for 10 minutes. Uncover and finish cooking for 15 more minutes, until the cheese on top is melted and golden, and the pasta is fully cooked.

Serve hot! Buon appetito

Custard Filled Puff Tower with Caramel Sauce - Profiterol with Caramel

Perfect dessert for your holidays: heavenly delicious puffs filled with rich custard cream, 

all piled up and decorated with crunchy caramel. Irresistible!

This recipe will FOR SURE make a big impression at your holiday dinner table.
Ready to learn how to make these delicious cream puffs?!?
It's not a hard recipe and it uses quite basic ingredients. But it involves many steps.
You first need to prepare the cream puffs, and make sure they are properly baked. If not, they deflate once they are out of the oven. Still good, but not so pretty!
Second, you need a deliciously creamy custard. You probably can't go wrong with this recipe. I made it with corn starch, not flour, and it tastes delicious. It's thick and rich, with pudding-like texture. Amazing with the puffs!
Now, you can fill the puffs with the cream and enjoy them just like that.

Or you can add some caramel, and assemble them in a tower. To make the caramel, you only need to cook the sugar until melted and golden in color. No other ingredients. Easy, but a bit messy. Caramel quickly cools down and sticks everywhere. It ended up all over my kitchen. Stove, counters, floors, ... my camera - please don't ask!
You will need to dip each puff in the hot, melted caramel, and decorate it as you like. Also, be really careful: it's easy to burn your fingers ... yes, I'm talking from experience!
Many steps, but trust me: every bite of this dessert if filled with a soft and sweet bigne', stuffed with heavenly and rich cream, with a sugary caramel crunch.
After all this work, you can take a deep breath, sit down, serve yourself... hmmm... let's say: three puffs (or more!), close your eyes, and enjoy!

Ingredients: to make 26 puffs about 2 inches in diameter
For the puffs:

• 4 oz, 1 stick (110 gr) unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons (30 gr) sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt
• 10 fl oz (300 ml) water
• 1 cup (150 gr) all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs

For the custard cream:

• 12 fl oz (355 ml) of whole milk
• 4 fl oz (120 ml) heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup (100 gr) sugar
• 4 tablespoons (40 gr) of corn starch

For the caramel (optional):

• 1 cup (200 gr) of sugar

Preparation time: 90 minutes
Directions:

Step 1: Let's start with the puffs: in a large pan, bring to a boil 10 oz of water with the butter cut in pieces, sugar, vanilla extract and salt.

Step 2: As soon as the water starts to boil, whisk in the flour. Lower the heat, and mix continuously.
When the mixture starts to detach from the sides of the pan, remove from the heat. Place the dough in a different bowl and let cool down for 10 minutes or so.

Step 3: In the meantime you can prepare the custard cream so it has time to cool down. Follow this recipe. using 12 oz of whole milk, 4 oz  heavy whipping cream, 1 teaspoons vanilla extract, 4 egg yolks, 1/2 cup of sugar and 4 tablespoons of corn starch, as listed in the ingredients. Store the custard in the refrigerator when cool, covered with plastic wrap until the puffs are ready.
Step 4: When the puff dough is a bit cooler, mix the eggs, one at the time, until the mixture is nice and smooth.

Step 6: Preheat the oven to 350º F (180º C). Pipe the mixture into balls onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or silicone mat. Make sure you leave enough space between the puffs, because when they cook they will increase in size.

Step 7: Bake for 30-35 minutes, until they are nicely golden on top. Turn off the oven, and leave the puffs inside, with the door slightly open, until they cool down a bit. This will prevent the puffs to flatten down once outside the oven.

Step 8: Once the puffs are cooled down,  use a piping bag, and fill the puffs with custard cream.

Step 9: If you would like to make a tower, first decide where to place the puffs, and get an idea on how you would like to build it (how many pieces and which are the largest that you will place on the bottom). To prepare the caramel: in a large pot, with heavy bottom, melt the sugar over medium heat. Stir until all the sugar is melted and has a golden color. Remove from the heat and dip the bottom of the cream puffs in the caramel. Place them on the serving plate. The caramel will become hard very quickly so you won't be able to move the puffs. 

Finish the tower and decorate with more caramel, and whipped cream if you like. To make the star, I used melted caramel on parchment paper spread out in the shape of a star (as well as I could). It quickly cools down and easily peel off. You can place it on top of your puff tree, using more caramel to hold it up.

Happy Holidays!