Maple pecan pie

In a month it's Thanksgiving which means turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and also Maple Pecan Pie, which is what today's post is about. It is a dessert many Europeans do not know about and a typical dessert in North America composed of (guess what?) pecan nuts and maple syrup and that people eat all year round but also for Thanksgiving.

For this recipe I used a pâte sablée (sweet shortcrust dough made with an egg) but you can also use a harder pâte brisée (same but with water) or sweeter pâte sucrée (different method with creamed butter and more sugar) as you prefer. Also I used rum but you can use Bourbon or nothing at all. This recipe was adapted from a 9-inch pan recipe (23 cm diameter) so I reduced everything by 1/3 but you can easily make a bigger pie if you have more guests! Enjoy :-)

Recipe for a 20cm tart form:

1.6 dl maple syrup
0.8 dl brown sugar
0.5 tbsp rum
3 tbsp melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
approx 3 dl pecan nuts

pâte sablée:
125 g cold butter
3 tbsp powder sugar
250 g flour
1 beaten egg
1.5 tbsp milk

Prepare the dough (pâte sablée first). Mix sugar and flour first, then mix with cold butter by hand making crumbs.  Add the beaten egg and milk and mix until forming a ball. Refrigerate for 1 hour at least.

Roll out 3/4 of the dough on a floured table (approx 4 mm-thick) and transfer to a buttered + floured pie form. Prick the dough with a fork and pre-bake 10 min at 200C.

Mix maple syrup, sugar, rum, butter, eggs and vanilla in a bowl. Add 2 dl lightly crushed/grossly chopped pecans to the batter and transfer it to the pre-baked pie crust. Decorate with the remaining whole pecan nuts. Bake in the oven at 175 C for about 40 min.

Orange cake, by Pierre Hermé

After the Lemon cake by Pierre Hermé, here is its equally juicy and delicious Orange counterpart: the Orange cake by Pierre Hermé.

Recipe for a high 30cm-long orange cake

400 g sugar
zest from 3 oranges
6 eggs
190 g cream
375 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
150 g melted butter, room T

For the orange glaze / syrup:
150 g water
65 g sugar
juice from 3 oranges

Mix sugar and lemon zest and leave to rest 10-15 min. Add eggs and beat until while and foamy. Add cream, rum, mix. Slowly add flour + baking powder + salt (pre-mixed) while mixing to have a nice homogenous batter. Last add melted butter (cooled down to room T), mix, and transfer to a buttered + floured 30cm cake pan. Bake in the oven 90 min at 160C (or until a knife comes out clean of it). (you can also use a longer cake pan and in that case you'll bake the cake in less time: e.g. 60 min for a 38cm-long cake pan)

While the cake is baking, prepare the syrup. In a saucepan heat up sugar and water until it boils. Let it cool down and then add lemon juice. When the cake comes out of the oven, glaze it with the lemon syrup/glaze with a brush (it will seem like a lot of syrup but the cake acts as a sponge and will absorb it all). Let the cake cool down and then take it out of the cake pan.

Banana chocolate chip Bundt cake

 

 

This week I again had overly ripe bananas (I had a few leftover bananas after baking banana-walnut bread last week). A few months ago I made oatmeal-banana-chocolate chip muffins and remembered the banana-chocolate combo was a killer... so guess what? I went on to make the best banana-chocolate chip cake ever (I am not sure the pics convey this but believe me it's too good).

I found the recipe here and replicated it with a bit more banana and some more chocolate. It is too easy to bake so make sure you and your friends are hungry when you make it :-) This banana-chocolate chip cake is dense, moist, and insanely good... If you love bananas and chocolate, this recipe is for you. Let me know how you like it! (I still dream of it...)

Recipe for a Bundt cake*:

4 very ripe bananas, mashed
230 g butter (room T)
2 eggs
4.8 dl sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
7.2 dl flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2.4 dl sour cream or yoghurt
200 g bittersweet chocolate

Cream the butter (whip it). Add sugar and whip more, until well incorporated. Add eggs one by one, beating in between each one. Add vanilla extract and mix. Add mashed bananas and mix on low speed.
Mix remaining dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt) in a separate bowl (not the chocolate). Add 1/2 of dry ingredients to wet mix and mix on low speed. Add sour cream/yoghurt, mix, and finally add the other 1/2 of dry ingredients and mix.
Chop up chocolate into chips and fold in. Transfer the dough into a prepared Bundt cake form and bake approx. 1h10 at 175 C.

*you can half all the amounts for a 24cm-long cake

Adapted from: http://www.foodlibrarian.com/2013/11/banana-chocolate-chip-bundt-i-like-big.html