Homemade Dulce De Leche

Dulce de leche is very popular in Argentina (yes, more popular than Maradona! Sticking my tongue out) as well as in many countries in America. It is sweet, not salty-sweet as caramel, but sweet-sweet, really sweet. Dulce de leche is so good that many people just eat spoons full of this milk jam. I rather use it for chocotorta (seriously, if you don´t know what chocotorta is, rank it first in your bucket list), Brownie cake and Havannet cake.

 

This recipe is a request from a friend and reader, Paulita, who´s living in Panamá and misses dulce de leche. But hey, wherever you are, you should really try it!!!! Have it with your favorite ice cream or use it as a cake filling, you won´t regret it!!!

INGREDIENTS:

A- Patience (ha! You really want to have this to get dulce de leche)

B- 1 can (or as many as you want) of sweetened condensed milk

PROCEDURE:

FIRST STEP: Pour water into a casserole and heat. 

SECOND STEP: Remove the paper from the can and place the can on the boiling water (check picture below). Cover the casserole.

THIRD STEP: Wait, and here comes the patience part. Yes, the third step is to wait for three hours. You can leave it an extra hour if you want a darker dulce de leche, I like it light colored.

FOURTH STEP: Turn off the heat and remove the can from the water. Allow them to cool a little bit.

FIFTH STEP: Once the can is at room temperature (you don´t want to get burned) you can open the can  and enjoy. You may want to place it in the fridge for a while.

Easy,  right? There is a longer way to make dulce de leche, but you will need more patience ha, ha, ha.

 

Next, Brownie cake recipe using dulce de leche!

Tiramisú Cake, an Italian Wonder

When well done, this is one of my favorites desserts. It looks like a really complicated dessert as it is so tasty, with so many flavors you can identify in your mouth: the ladyfingers, the brandy, the eggs, the coffee, the chocolate...

Every summer my mother in law buys these delicious mini Tiramisú cakes at the supermarket, so this recipe is dedicated to her, Teresa. And now, as I promised when I posted the Ladyfingers´ recipe, I bring you a dessert you can make with these vanilla sticks in case you want to surprise a friend, a family member or, as I´ll do, surprise my husband. 

INGREDIENTS:

A- Patience

B- 8oz of mascarpone cheese

C- 2 small egg yolks

D- 2 tablespoons of sugar

E- 2oz of espresso

F- 1 1/2 tablespoons of brandy or dark rum

G- 1-2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder

H- chocolate shavings for garnish.

I- Ladyfingers (I used about 10)

PROCEDURE:

FIRST STEP: Whisk the egg yolks, the sugar and half of the brandy. Put the machine in fast speed in order for the mixture to thicken. 

SECOND STEP: Now while at a normal speed, add the mascarpone cheese spoon by spoon. The texture will be soft, like mayonnaise. 

THIRD STEP: On a plate, mix the espresso and the remaining brandy. Wet the ladyfingers with this mixture. Make sure you make it fast, you want them slightly wet. Place them one after the other on a serving dish. I used 10 in total.

FOURTH STEP: Top the ladyfingers layer with 1/3 of the mascarpone mixture and repeat the ladyfinger layering.

FIFTH STEP: Top the ladyfingers again with the remaining cheese mixture.

SIXTH STEP: Cover and let it rest in the fridge for at least 4 hours. 

SEVENTH STEP:  Garnish with powdered cocoa and shaved chocolate.

Remember, if the mixture is too runny, you might want to use a pan instead of a serving dish.
Yield: 4 servings

Send pictures of your Tiramisú cake to cooknshoutenglish@gmail.com

Ladyfingers

How cool is to make your own ladyfingers?? I always though it would be hard, but I disliked the idea of sticking with the store ones that leave me a weird synthetic taste in my mouth. So one Sunday, back home in Argentina, I thought  "What if I try making them myself?". They didn´t look exactly as the ones you can find in stores, but they tasted so much better. This time I hope they look better and if they don´t, guess what??? I don´t care!!! I want them to make Tiramisú (recipe coming soon).

This recipe goes to my friend´s son, Benito. Benito.

INGREDIENTS:

A- Patience
B- 4 egg yolks
C- 4 egg whites
D- 100grs of sugar
E- 100grs of all purpose flour
F- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
G- Confectioner´s sugar.
H- Just a little bit of salt

PROCEDURE:

FIRST STEP:   Whisk the egg whites with the salt until they form hard peaks. You will be able to turn around the bowl on top of your head without the merengue falling to your face! Or, if you don´t want to take the risk, you will se that the merengue is hard on the whisker, it does not fall. Add 50 grams of sugar (half of it) and keep on whisking.

SECOND STEP: While you whisk the egg whites with your machine, in another bowl drop the egg yolks with the remaining sugar (50 grams) and the vanilla extract. If you don´t have to electrical whiskers, use a hand whisker or even a fork. Whisk until everything is well integrated.

THIRD STEP: Once you have your merengue and egg yolks mixture ready, pour  the yellow mixture into the merengue bowl and integrate with soft movements, always in the same direction.

FOURTH STEP: Sift the flour on top of the mixture while you keep on integrating the flour to the mixture with your spatula.

FIFTH STEP: Put the mixture into a pastry bag and make the ladyfingers by pressing on to a buttered pan. You can make the ladyfingers the size you wish.

SIXTH STEP: Sift the confectioners sugar on top of the raw ladyfingers.

SEVENTH STEP: Place them in the medium temperature pre-heated oven for 10 minutes and they are ready to go!

Wait for them to cool down a little bit before placing them on a cooling rack.

Mines taste great, what about yours? Send your pictures to cooknshoutenglish@gmail.com.

Homemade Ricotta...

In my stay in NYC, I tried different ricotta brands and, to be honest, I dislike them all. So I started searching for different recipes and well, I found it.  I´m going to share it with you and with my Hungarian neighbor, Adrienn. 

This ricotta taked, literally, 15 minutes from start to end and its so easy, you will never buy ricotta at the store again. It uses three ingredients and before you will notice, you will have an amazing ricotta at home to cook whatever you wish (I´ll post some ideas for you in the future). Now, the recipe
Ahora que tenemos el ingrediente podemos pasar a la receta.


INGREDIENTS:

A- Patience
B- 4 cups of whole milk
C- 1 cup of buttermilk
D- 1/3 cup of heavy cream

PROCEDURE: (I told you it was a piece of cake!)

FIRST STEP: In a large saucepan or casserole, add all the ingredients and take to the fire. There is no need to stir. In the meantime, extend a cheesecloth or dish-cloth on a bowl.

SECOND STEP: When the mixture starts boiling, you will notice the cheese will separate from the whey. It is then that we take the saucepan away from the stove.

THIRD STEP: Remove the white cheese from the saucepan and put it on the cheesecloth. When you are done, tie the cloth to the water faucet and let it drain for 5 minutes.

FOURTH STEP: Open the cheese-cloth and voilà! You have your homemade ricotta. You can add slt if you wish. It´s better to consume it that very day, but if you leave it for a couple of days in the fridge it will be fine, though not as fresh. 

Promise to post recipes with ricotta as an ingredient in the future. But in the meantime, what are you going to cook with this delicious ricotta?

Juicy Lemon Pie

How many of you like Lemon Pie? I do, and when well done, it´s one of my favorite desserts. Why? Well, because it´s juicy, with real lemon flavor, but at the same time it´s sweet, with a heavy, thick layer of the best merengue ever.

This post goes for Paula, a friend of mine who loves this recipe. Pau, I hope will send me pictures of your Lemon Pie for me to share with the Cook n Shout followers.

This is a recipe Mom shared with me and that I´ll share for you to try it. It´s the best lemon pie I tried so far.

INGREDIENTS:


For the dough:

A- Patience
B- 100 grams of soft butter
C-1 egg yolk
D- 3 tablespoons of sugar
E- 1 tablespoons of alcohol vinegar
F- 2 tablespoons of water
G- 1 cup of all purpose flour
H- Grated lemon peel

For the filling:

A- Patience
B- 1 cup of sugar
C- 1/4 cup of corn starch (or Maizena)
D- 1 cup of cold water
E- 1/3 cup of lemon juice
F- 4 egg yolks
G- 70 grams of butter
H- Grated peel of one and a half lemon.

For the merengue:

A- Patience
B-  1 cup of sugar
C- 4 egg whites
D- Water


PROCEDURE FOR THE DOUGH:


I owe you the pictures for this procedure, because I used a ready-to use- cookie crumbs dough.


FIRST STEP: Soften the butter either in the microwave or leaving it at room temperature for a while.

SECOND STEP:  Stir the egg yolk with the sugar.

THIRD STEP: Add the vinegar, the water and the lemon peel. Stir until well integrated.

FOURTH STEP: As we stir, we add the flour. We must get as a result an homogeneous dough. 

FIFTH STEP: We place the dough to cover the base of the cake mold. If when ready we plan to serve it on a different plate, then cover a little bit of the cake mold walls in order to contain the filling.

SIXTH STEP: Bake the dough at 180 degrees Celsius until we get a dry and slightly golden dough.

PROCEDURE FOR THE FILLING

FIRST STEP: Stir the yolks a little bit to avoid having granules in the filling. 

SECOND STEP: Place all the ingredients inside a casserole except for the butter.

THIRD STEP: Take the casserole to the stove and stir while cooking. You must cook until when you move the spatula, the mixture opens like the Red Sea and closes after it. I couldn´t take a good picture of it, as the liquid moves too fast for me to take a picture with dim light.

FOURTH STEP: When the filling gets the point described above, add the butter and mix until well integrated.

FIFTH STEP: Let the filling cool just a little bit and pour it into the already baked and cold dough. Make sure it is evenly distributed.

PROCEDURE FOR THE MERENGUE 

FIRST STEP: Separate the egg yolks from the whites and pour the whites in a dry bowl. Add a little bit of salt and whisk the whites until hard peaks form (we must be able to turn the upside down without the whites falling. 

SECOND STEP: While we whisk, put the sugar inside a casserole and cover it with water. The surface of the water must be 5mm away from the sugar.

THIRD STEP: Put the casserole on the fire and wait until it boils. Once it does, wet a fork witht he syrup and let a drop fall into a glass of water. If the syrup drop looks hard, we can go to step four, otherwise, keep on boiling the syrup.

FOURTH STEP: We pour VERY gently the hot syrup into the whites. Don´t stop whisking the whites, specially when pouring the syrup. The bowl will rise temperature. Once you poured all the content of the casserole, keep on whisking until the bowl is at room temperature again. This procedure will sweet and cook the whites.

FIFTH STEP: Put the merengue on top of the filling and distribute evenly.  

SIXTH STEP: With the help of a spoon or a spatula, hit the merengue in order to form peaks. You can design this layer as you like, really.

SEVENTH STEP: You can brown the merengue by placing it in in a hot oven for 20 or 30 seconds. You must put it under the flames. 

EIGHTH STEP: Put the cake in the fridge until it´s cold enough to serve it. Enjoy.

I hope you enjoy the cake as much as I do. Don´t forget to send your pictures to cookandshoutenglish@gmail.com so I can share them in a post.

Scons For Tea

Last month I went back to my homecountry to do some paperwork. As I was leaving New York for a month my Argentinean friends decided to go out for a picnic. One of the things I baked for this picnic was sweet scons. I made them with the recipe I learned from my younger sister, Inés, to whom I dedicate this post. 

I like scons to be rustic, "homemade looking", so follow the next steps and invite your friends for tea!

INGREDIENTS:

    A-    PATIENCE

       B- 500 grs all purpose flour

   C-   4 teaspoons of baking powder

   D-   200 grs of sliced butter at room temperature

   E-   2 eggs

   F-    8 full spoons of sugar

   G-   Grated lemon peel from one entire lemon

   H-   1/2 cup of milk 

    I-    Salt, just a little bit.

   J-    1 egg to brighten the scons´ surface

INSTRUCTIONS:

FIRST STEP: Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Butter and flour a baking metal tray. 

SECOND STEP: Sift the flour, salt and the baking powder into a bowl.

THIRD STEP: Make a crown or hole in the center of the flour and add the soft butter, the eggs, sugar, grated lemon peel and the milk. 

FOURTH STEP: Knead the ingredients with your hands, but be careful as the temperature of our hands must not melt the butter any further.

FIFTH STEP: Stretch the dough so that it has a height of about 3 centimeters. We can hel ourselves with a rolling pin, but I did it with my hands, so that the texture at the surface was irregular, more homemade-like.

SIXTH STEP: With a cookie cutter mold, cut the scons and place them on the floured metal tray. With a cooking brush or your fingers, brush the scons with egg yolk before baking. For extra sweetess, you can spray them with sugar too. 

SEVENTH STEP: Bake for about 20 minutes. If after the first 10 minutes you notice that the scons are brown at the bottom, put aluminum paper underneath.

You can serve them cold or warm, plain or with jam. If you know milk jam, in Spanish dulce de leche, you will drool! Enjoy with a cup of Lady Grey.

Greek Yogurt

Ok, so this time you will need a lot, and believe me when I say this, A LOT of patience. It´s super easy, but if you are an inpatient person, maybe you will want to buy the yogurt at a store, as it takes about 20 hours (depending on the texture you want to achieve). 

With this recipe we can make the drinkable yogurt, the regular one (not too liquid not too firm) or the greek yogurt one, dense but creamy. 

The ingredients we are going to need are only two, plus the most important one: the patience. 

INGREDIENTS:

A- Patience

B- 1lt of whole milk

C- 100grs of natural greek yogurt (it can be sweetened or not, I like the first)

INSTRUCTIONS:

FIRT STEP: Grab a clean casserole and pour the whole milk inside. Heat it on the stove until you can see little bubbles on the side, but don´t let it boil.  

SECOND STEP: Let it cool a little bit in order to remove the thin layer on top. 

THIRD STEP: Now, the finger test. We must check if the temperature is adequate in order to add the yogurt. We must  be able to touch the inner base of the casserole (yes, immersing your finger in the milk) and count, very slowly, to five. if you can stand it, then we proceed to the next step. 

FOURTH STEP: Pour in the yogurt and stir. In order to avoid lumps, stir the yogurt before pouring it into the casserole, the stir the milk and the yogurt in the casserole.

FIFTH STEP: Cover the casserole with a dish towel (I always put a wooden tray on top of the dish towel too).  Put the casserole somewhere warm. You can  turn on the oven while you heat the milk and turn it off to place the casserole inside the oven. OR you can leave it on the stove (turned off) and bake some cookies in the meantime, you can try these: http://cookandshoutenglish.blogspot.com/2013/11/my-favorite-this-winter-double.html . 

 SIXTH STEP: Leave the covered casserole rest for at least 10 hours and then you can start enjoying your natural yogurt. 

BUT, if you want to achieve the Greek Yogurt consistency, then stop eating and follow the next steps:

SEVENTH STEP: Grab a bowl and cover it with a cheese towel or with a clean dish towel and pour the natural yogurt from the casserole into the bowl. Check picture below.

EIGHTH STEP: Tie the cloth as if it were a bag. I tie opposite ends first so I can easily tie it to the fridge rack afterwards. Place the bowl below the hanging yogurt to collect the whey. 

NINTH STEP: Leave it to drain for 8 hours. If you want the yogurt to be thicker, then you can leave it rest up to 10 hours. If you leave it for longer, then you will get yogurt cheese. 

TENTH STEP: Put the yogurt in a tupper, jar, etc, and refrigerate. The Greek yogurt is ready to enjoy!

Share the pictures of your Greek Yogurt with other readers by sending the pictures to cooknshoutenglish@gmail.com

My Favorite This Winter: Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

New York´s weather has been a little bit harsh on me lately...it´s freezing outside and this is just the beginning...we are not even in December. Good thing I´m going South this January, I honestly feel like a lizard here, seeking for (any) ray of sunlight, standing near the stove... Oh, how I miss the warmth of summer! But then I think about all the good winter sweet hyper-caloric recipes and then, maybe, this cold weather is not that bad after all.

And when it comes to winter, the first think that comes to my mind is chocolate. So today I share with you this double chocolate chip cookies so you can invite your friends over or maybe, serve them as dessert with ice cream (yummy, an ice cream sandwich). You can add walnuts or white chocolate...now, stop imagining the cookies and bake them!!!!


INGREDIENTS

A- Once more, patience
B- 160 grs of butter (it must be soft, almost at room temperature)
C- 1/2 cup of white sugar
D- 1/4 cup of brown sugar
E- 2 eggs
F- 1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
G- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
H- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
I- 50 grs  unsweetened cocoa powder
J- 1/2 cup of oat
K- Salt ( a little bit, like this)
L- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (or you can use grated orange peel instead)
M- Chocolate chip cookies (or/and nuts)...you can never have enough!



INSTRUCTIONS

FIRST STEP:  beat the butter with both sugars until obtaining a very soft mixture. Add the vanilla extract (or orange peel).

SECOND STEP: Add the eggs, one by one, until they are thoroughly incorporated to the mixture.

THIRD STEP: Mix and sifter the dry ingredients (except the oat). Incorporate them to the mixture.

FOURTH STEP: This is the step where you want to change the whisker to the mixing utensil (don´t know the English word for it!). For this reason this recipe is dedicated to my Dad who is always reminding me that a whisker can never work with such a stiff dough. And you know what? He´s right!
Now, add the chocolate chips or nuts (or chips and nuts) and mix.

FIFTH STEP: Add the oat and keep on mixing. Check the pictures (above and below), this is the heavy dough you want to obtain (cookie dough lovers, you will want to try this one!).

SIXTH STEP: Cover the dough with plastic wrapping paper and let it rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. 15 minutes before removing the dough from the fridge, turn on the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

SEVENTH STEP: Flour the surface where you are going to work and the dough  so it won´t stick to the rolling pin.

EIGHTH STEP: Cut the cookies, you can cut them the shape you like. Put them on a tray covered with parchment paper and take them straight into the oven.

NINTH STEP: Cook for about 10-12 minutes. When you touch them right after removing them from the oven, the center will be tender. Place them on a cooling rack and enjoy!