Zucchini bread with nuts and raisins

This Summer I made zucchini bread. I'm not sure it qualifies as "bread" per se given the amount of sugar in it but I guess it's just like banana bread and pumpkin bread which are called bread to make people think they're eating bread when they're actually having cake :-)

This zucchini bread has lots of fresh zucchini, hence the green color, raisins and nuts. It makes for a great snack or breakfast. If you've never had it - if you live in Europe probably you haven't - you should try: it tastes great and has lots of good stuff in it! Plus it's super easy to make and you can freeze it down if you want to keep a portion for another time.

Recipe for a 28 cm-long bread

2 eggs
1.6 dl colza oil
2.8 dl sugar
3.2 dl zucchini, shredded
4.8 dl flour
2/3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 dl dark raisins
1.5 dl chopped pecans/walnuts

Beat eggs in a bowl. Add oil and sugar, mix.
Add the shredded zucchini and mix.
In another bowl mix flour, salt, baking powder and soda, nuts and raisins.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix.
Transfer the batter to a greased and floured cake/loaf pan.
Bake at 175C for 55-60 min (until a toothpick comes out clean).

Banana-nut muffins

Sometimes I bake because I want to and sometime because I need to. Last weekend I baked because I had to. I had no food in the fridge for breakfast and I was too lazy to go to the grocery store. I took a brief look at my kitchen and fridge and found some old bananas. So I set to make banana-nut muffins for breakfast. I really like them, they're super easy to make, and all you need to make sure of is to have overly ripe bananas. I included toasted pecan nuts in them, but you can also use walnuts or peanuts, or skip them entirely.

They're great for breakfast or as snack during the day. You can keep them for a few days and I would recommend storing them in a ziplock bag to make sure they don't dry. I also froze them down and ate them a week later, and they were still moist and excellent. Try them !

Recipe for 12 banana-nut muffins

3.6 dl flour
1.5 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten
4 very ripe bananas, mashed
1.2 dl sugar
0.6 dl brown sugar
1.2 dl melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 dl pecan nuts, toasted and chopped

In a bowl mix flour, baking soda and salt.
In another bowl mix mashed bananas, sugar, egg, butter and vanilla extract.
Add the flour mix and mix until just incorporated.
Finally add the chopped pecan nuts.
Divide into 12 muffin forms in a muffin pan and bake 20-25 min at 175C.

Classic apple tart with apple compote

Last week was my birthday so I wanted to celebrate it with a big apple tart. I have often made simple apple tarts but I sometimes find them too dry. This recipe here is composed of a nice pie crust, covered with a homemade apple compote, topped with a geometrical layer of thin apple slices, the whole thing finally glazed with quince jelly to add a shiny touch. This tart almost looks like it comes from a bakery shop :-)

The apple tart is easy to make and you can also prepare certain parts ahead of time: the dough can be stored in the fridge for several hours or even days and the apple compote as well. Also, if you are worried your compote is too "wet", you can pre-bake your pie crust 7-8 min in the oven before spreading the compote and placing your apples. The only challenge here is to slice the apples thinly and to place them tightly enough on the compote. Try it, I really liked it!

Recipe for a big apple tart:

Pâte brisée (dough)
250 g flour
130 g butter
30 g sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 eggyolk
some water (2 tbsp)

Apple compote
600 g apples (about 4 apples)
1-1.5 dl sugar
a few drops of lemon
some cinnamon
some water

Garnishing
700 g apples (4-5 apples)
some sugar
some quince or apricot jelly

First prepare the dough (pâte brisée). In a bowl mix flour, sugar and salt. Add cold butter pieces and mix with your hands making crumbs. Add the eggyolk plus some water and mix into a stiff dough. Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Peel all apples and sprinkle some lemon on them to prevent oxidation.

Cut up 600 g of apples in big pieces and place in a sauce pan, along with sugar, cinnamon and some water. Adjust sugar and cinnamon to your taste. Heat up and let apples cook under lock for about 15-20 min. When apples are well cooked, remove the lid, crush and mix the apples with a wooden spoon, mixing until the compote/purée has "dried" (no water left). You want your compote to be quite dry so it doesn't wet your dough. Let it cool down.

Slice thinly in quarters the remaining apples.
Grease and flour a tart pan.
Take out the dough from the fridge and roll it out onto a floured table. Transfer to the tart pan and prick it with a fork.
Spread the apple compote on the dough and then place the thin apple slices tightly together in a geometrical pattern (make it tight because apples shrink while baking).
Sprinkle some sugar on top and bake in the oven at 200 C for about 35-40 min.

No-bake, passion fruit cheesecake

When I arrived in Sweden last week I found about 2 kg of ripe passion fruit in the fridge. I remembered a nice cheesecake with passion fruit coulis that I had tasted a while ago. Since I had no eggs in the fridge I set to come up with a cheesecake recipe without eggs and that required no baking. I have already tested and posted the classic cheesecake recipe (which requires about 1 hr of baking) so this one is quite different in that it takes a lot less time to prepare and is a bit lighter and fluffier.

The passion fruit coulis is great with this no-bake cheesecake and you can also top the classic cheesecake or panna cotta with it too. The cornstarch will enable the coulis to thicken a bit and stay on top of the cheesecake when slicing, but if you like your fruit coulis more fluid you can skip the cornstarch. I also used the leftover passion fruit coulis in my breakfast the next day it was great :-)

In any case, try this no-bake cheesecake recipe, I really like it and makes for a nice dessert in Summer!

Recipe for a 24 cm springform cake

Base:
250 g digestive biscuits
150 g melted butter

Filling:
600 g cream cheese, room T
150 g sugar (1.5 dl)
1 vanilla pod
2-3 tbsp passion fruit juice
2 tbsp water
3 leaves gelatin
3 dl liquid cream, whipped

Topping:
200 g passion fruit pulp
1 tbsp maizena (corn starch)
1 dl water
60 g sugar

Crush finely the digestive biscuits, add melted butter and mix a bit with a spoon. Grease a spring form and cover the base and sides of it with the biscuit mixture. Refrigerate for at least 10 min (leave it in the fridge until you need it).

In a bowl whip cream cheese (it has to be at room T), sugar and seeds from a vanilla pod.
In a small saucepan, heat up a bit the water and passion fruit juice. Add pre-wetted gelatin sheets and swirl until melted.
Add melted gelatin to cream cheese mix while mixing. Finally fold in the whipped cream.
Transfer the cream to the spring form and even out the surface. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours (overnight is better).

Place sugar and passion fruit pulp in a saucepan. Mix maizena and water in a bowl and add to the fruit. Heat up while stirring (don't stop) on medium heat and stir for about 3-4 min until thickened. Let the fruit cool down and then transfer on top of the cake. Refrigerate for another 2 hrs.

Rhubarb cobbler

A few days ago my friend Scott brought be a raspberry cobbler. I didn't know what a cobbler was beyond its shoe-mender definition. But I loved the cake. It was moist, sweet, a bit bready, and full of fruits. Since I had a lot of rhubarb at home I decided to try and make a rhubarb cobbler and it came out great. You can eat it straight out of the pan with a spoon but I recommend serving it lukewarm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, it's just perfect :-)

Recipe of the rhubarb cobbler (small pyrex dish)

2.4 dl milk
2.4 dl flour
2.4 dl sugar
5 dl rhubarb cut in 2cm-pieces
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.6 dl melted butter (4 tbsp)

extra: some more sugar for sprinkling

Whisk sugar, flour, baking powder and milk in a bowl. Add melted butter and mix.
Grease a pyrex dish with butter. Pour half of the batter, add half of the fruit, then pour the remaining batter and sprinkle the remaining fruit pressing them in a bit.
Sprinkle 2 tbsp sugar on top and bake approximately 50 min at 175 C. Then sprinkle another 2 tbsp of sugar and bake for another 10 min.

Let it cool down a bit and serve lukewarm as is or with some whipped cream, double cream, or vanilla ice-cream.

Rhubarb crumble

Spring is rhubarb season and I love it! Rhubarb is both sweet and sour and makes for nice summery desserts, like rhubarb pie, rhubarb walnut muffins, and rhubarb almond cake. Since a few years now, I make rhubarb crumble, with rhubarb from my parents garden :-), but I never posted the recipe, simply because I couldn't manage to make nice pics of it. I'm still not very satisfied with these pics but I'd like to share the recipe.

This crumble is based on butter, sugar, and flour, like most crumbles, and it also includes pecan nuts, cinnamon, and oats to add some extra crunchy and taste to it. If you have guests over, you can bake it during dinner and serve it (luke)warm with some vanilla ice-cream, like the one from my favorite ice-cream shop in Lausanne, it will taste great!

Rhubarb crumble (for a 20x30 cm dish)

0.5 kg rhubarb, peeled and cut in pieces
2 tbsp white sugar
a few drops of lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest

For the crumble:

3 tbsp (45 g) butter
0.9 dl brown sugar
0.6 dl flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
a pinch of salt
0.6 dl oats
0.6 dl chopped pecan nuts

In a bowl mix rhubarb pieces, sugar, and lemon; set aside.
In another bowl, mix brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and butter by hand. Add oats and nuts and mix.
Generously butter a baking pan. Add rhubarb pieces (without the juice that came out while sitting) and cover with the crumble mix.
Bake in the oven 45-50 min at 180 C until crunchy and golden.
Let it cool down a bit and serve with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Lemon and blueberry yoghurt cake

In Summer it's nice to eat refreshing desserts, like sorbets, fruity mousses, and fruit cakes with a nice lemonade or ice-tea. It's not quite Summer yet but I felt like making one of those fruit cakes for my friends last week. I came across a lemon blueberry cake which I modified a bit and liked a lot.

The base of the cake is a yoghurt and lemon dough to which you add a lot of fresh blueberries and that you finally cover with a wonderful, sweet lemon glaze. It takes less than 10 min to mix the ingredients and you can easily store it in the freezer. If you're looking for an easy good cake to eat for coffee or for breakfast I recommend you try this recipe!

Recipe for a 30 cm-long cake

4.8 dl flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1.2 dl colza oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2.4 dl sugar
2.4 dl plain yoghurt
1 lemon, juice + zest
3 dl fresh blueberries

Icing:
1.8 dl powder sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice

In a bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt. In another bigger bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients and sugar. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just incorporated (don't overmix). Finally incorporate blueberries in dough.
Transfer to a greased + floured cake pan. Bake 55-60 min at 175C until done. Let the cake cool down a bit and then remove it from the pan.

Once the cake is cool, prepare the icing. Mix powder sugar with lemon juice to obtain a viscous mix (you may need to add a few more drops). Drizzle the glaze on top of the cake with a spoon and wait a bit for it to harden before serving.