Waffle on!

You don't need me to tell you how good waffles are. I just hope the picture shows how good these waffles were.

I have always thought that waffle irons were merely extravagant kitchen toys, but exploring the world of Belgian waffles has convinced me otherwise. As I have said before, purchasing the right, good quality equipment is really important. My brothers gave me this waffle iron as a birthday present after I read 100s of reviews on waffle irons. The result is pretty fab - thank you bros!

There are many, many different types of waffles out there from various regions in Belgium. I wanted to recreate what I have always considered to be a 'Belgian style' waffle - it turns out these light, square-shaped are of the 'Brussels' variety.

With all good cooking, the devil is in the detail. Here you want to get a light and airy batter, to obtain a nice and light waffle. Waffle recipes from other regions of Belgium require yeast and plenty of time to prove to get a slightly more bready result. Keep your mixture light and full of air, and be gentle with it when you're mixing it all together.

Here's how I made them.

Ingredients

- 125 g flour

- 250 ml milk

- 10 g caster sugar

- 100 g melted butter

- 4 eggs yolks

- 4 egg whites

- 10 g salt

- 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract

- Icing Sugar (for dusting)

Method

• Warm the milk and vanilla extract
• In a large bowl mix the four, caster sugar, and salt.
• Make a well
• Mix the eggs yolks and place in the centre of the well
• Combine the milk and butter
• Bit by bit, add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and mix all together
• In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form
• Gently fold into the first mixture. You want to keep enough air in the mixture for a light result
• Heat your waffle iron
• Cook to instructions
• Enjoy with whatever toppings you like!

17 down, 10 to go.... it's the final countdown!

Oh Belgium...

The country that works as a perfect metaphor to describe everything good (and bad) about the European Union. On the good, it is a country that despite its cultural, linguistic, and political issues, has still managed to keep it together. On the bad, Belgium seems to be in a constant identity crisis, most recently gaining the world record for elapsed time without an official government. The European Union too has seen better times than in recent years, and like other unions and states may become a thing of the past. 

 

Waffles are the perfect choice of dessert to represent Belgium. A strong marker of their national identity, waffles are both Flemish, and Walloon. Moreover, there are many, many different types of waffles out there. One Belgian website I found listed 18 recipes including one made with beer, naturally. 

The political and economic climate in Europe does look pretty miserable these days, but its at times like these that I like to look at the European Union motto of ‘Unity in Diversity’’… or just make some Belgian Waffles!

Delizioso!

Well I got a little bit of help with this one, from an Italian friend who is amazing in the kitchen. Recently she has shown me some really authentic pasta and risotto recipes and of course - Tiramisú!

This dish is easy, easy, easy to make. It's also a bit of fun to assemble. The recipe is pretty fail-safe and you can play about with  some of the ingredients if you like.

Thank you Italian friend for showing me a wonderful way to make Tiramisú!!

Here's how we made it...

Ingredients:

 

- 250ml whipping cream

- 250gm mascarpone

- 150ml Marsala wine or Whiskey or any liquor you like

- 3 egg yolks

- Coffee

- 1 packet/400gms Savoiardi Biscuits (ladyfinger biscuits)

- 200gm Sugar

- Cocoa powder for dusting

• Make about 300mls of fairly strong coffee
• Stir in 50ml of whatever liquor you've chosen to use
• Whip the cream 
• In another bowl cream the sugar and egg yolks together
• Alternate stirring in the cream, mascarpone, and remaining liquor
• Assemble the pudding in a large, flat casserole dish
• Lightly dip a savoiardi biscuit in the coffee mixture and place on the base of the casserole dish
• Continue this until a layer is laid out on the dish
• Cover the biscuit layer with a layer of the cream mixture
• Repeat these two layers
• Depending on how big your dish is, you may have enough to make another two layers
• Dust the top layer of cream with cocoa powder
• Cover the dish and refrigerate for at least one hour
• When ready serve, dust again with cocoa powder

Buon appetito!!

16 down, 11 to go....

Grande Italia!

So this one is a rather special milestone on this culinary journey; I speak fluent Italian, I have spent a lot of time in Italy, and I have eaten my fair share of Tiramisú!

Tiramisú is a wonderful little pudding that is really very easy to make, the difficulty is usually in finding all the ingredients in the same shop. Here in Dublin, there are plenty of Italian shops that sell all sorts of things which make me homesick for Roma, including everything you need to make a mean Tiramisú.

‘Tiramisú’ literally means ‘pick me up’. This is derived from Venetian dialect, where too the pudding comes from. There is no mention of Tiramisú anywhere prior to the 1960’s. I would guess it’s a dish that has come in to existence solely due to its ingredients of mass produced foods. See – processed foods aren’t all bad!

If you’ve never tried Tiramisú before, well, you’re in for a real treat. If you like cream in your coffee, then this is definitely one for you.

Denmark 2012

Danish Pastries or Wienerbrød (literally Viennese bread) are wonderful mouthfuls of delight, they are however, a little time consuming to make! All the work is put in to making the dough and they are definitely worth the effort. The dough will keep well in the fridge, and you can have delicious Wienerbrød whenever you like.

This recipe makes for a rather large batch which is intended to make some and keep some, so you may want to half it.

Here’s how I made them

Ingredients

For the Pastry

-          1kg flour

-          500 ml milk

-          2 tsp. Ground Cardamom

-          3 eggs (whisked)

-          1 tsp. salt

-          21g Dried Yeast (about 3 sachets)

-          450 grams of butter (no that’s not a typo!)

-          120g sugar (preferably granulated or caster)

Here are some suggestions for fillings (but use your imagination)

·         Apple and Cinnamon (stew some chopped sour apples with a knob of butter, a little water, sugar , and ground cinnamon)

·         Jam (lingonberry, raspberry, blueberry)

·         Cinnamon (sugar and lots of ground cinnamon)

-          Melt 125g of the butter (but keep the rest of the butter in the fridge)
Let the butter cool slightly

-          In another saucepan gently heat the milk and the sugar

-          Dissolve the yeast in the milk and sugar mixture

-          When the yeast has dissolved pour the melted butter in to the mixture

-          Sift all of the flour, salt, and cardamom in to a large bowl

-          Make a well and pour in the milk mixture and the whisked eggs

-          Bring the dough together and gently knead

-          Allow to rest for about 30 minutes in a warm place

-          While the dough is resting, cut the remaining butter in to small pieces and return to the fridge

-          After the dough has rested, knock it about a little and knead again on a floured surface

-          Roll the dough out in to a long rectangle, no more than 1cm thick

-          With the wide end of the dough facing you, dot some butter over exactly two thirds of the dough (from  either left to right or right to left leaving one third free)

-          Fold the third with no butter over the adjacent third with butter

-          Fold these over the final third with butter

-          Roll this dough out in to another rectangle

-          Repeat with some more butter and fold and roll

-          And again…

-          Until all the butter is gone!

-          Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for a couple of hours

-          When you are ready to make some pastries preheat your oven to 220 C

-          Cut off a piece of the dough and roll out to a thin rectangle, no more than ¼ cm thick

-          Cut this in to squares

-          On each side of the square cut a slit halfway towards the centre

-          Bring each corner toward the centre and pinch

-          Fill the centre with your favourite filling

-          Alternatively fill the centre of the rectangle with the cinnamon and sugar mixture, roll up and chop in to swirls

-          Place the pastries on baking tray and bake for about 10 minutes

·Enjoy these guys with a morning coffee

 15 down, 12 to go…

 

Denmark on my mind...

Denmark has been the focus of its fair share of attention recently and if you live in Europe, you can't really escape it. This year, Denmark has the honour of hosting the the European Union Presidency for the first six months of the year. In recent times however, this also means hosting the Presidency of a Union that is in a bit of a crisis. I find it distasteful that all of the great cultural and political aspects of working together in a Union seem to be put on hold as soon as money gets involved...

On a more upbeat note however, Denmark has been heavily on my mind as I have been addicted to the Danish T.V. series 'Forbrydelsen' or 'The Killing'. The show is set in Copenhagen where we follow detective Sara Lund as she trails through the streets of Copenhagen trying to find Nanna Birk Larsen's killer. It has really taken off here in the UK and Ireland, with everybody at the edge of their seats wondering Who killed Nanna Birk Larsen!?!?! Do you know?? I do, I do!! ;-)

Europe and the European Union is a changing place and Denmark is a bit of a hot spot for cultural and political activity. This year they are hosting the E.U. Presidency, in 2009 they hosted the UN Climate Summit, and in 2014 they are hosting Europe's largest multi-disciplinary science conference. I'm all clued in to this at the moment as since moving back to Dublin, I've found that Dublin has been declared 'City of Science' for 2012 and is hosting this European Science Conference later this summer - not too bad for Dublin!!

So my conclusion is that it can't all be doom and gloom in Europe - let's celebrate the Danish Presidency in style and bake some of their traditional pastries or 'Wienerbrød'. The name translates as 'Viennese bread' and is a pastry that is made in to all sorts of shapes and filled with everything from jam to marzipan to custard – delicious!! It takes a little bit of time (and love) to make them, so check back soon and I'll let you know how I got along...