the bread in one bite

With the approach of the cold season, the fun of cooking is enhanced by a renewed pleasure and we start to receive and pamper our guests with new delicacies. A sure way to surprise them is to welcome them with the unique smell of homemade bread.

profiteroles with chocolate, butter cream and dulce de leche

Mtc! Health! Here we go again...each month from the 1st to the 26th  I repeat to myself  "no, no I won't do that this time, not at all, ...the profiteroles, la pate de choux as it is said in Paris in the upper floors, but we're crazy!?!   

Oh well however... it's raining and raining I can't go out in the park, so perhaps I can try, at least it's a recipe of  my guru, idol, mentor Luca Montersino I can not do mistakes with his own recipe. No, no it's absurd, I do not have the time to do it, but they decide that you do a race, one blogger decides we have to use 1 egg, 1 egg have you heard? what can I do with 1 egg, one omlette? But however at last I could do it: because I've got the egg, even the flour, the cream no, but I invent something for the filling, chocolate yes, always in great quantity from Ecuador, so I think that yes I go ahead I try...and yes I've got it! I've succeded in making pate de choux ...great Montersino, great satisfaction.

Ingredients for about 70 puffs:

I have exactly devided in 3 the original doses indicated by Montersino. 

• 360g eggs (weighted shelled)
• 245g water
• 222g butter
• 35g whole fresh milk
• 233g flour
• 1 pinch of salt

For the filling:

• Dulce de Leche
• butter cream: 150g butter  130g icing sugar e 1 tbs vanilla liqueur

For the chocolate frosting:

• 400gr dark chocolate (57%)

For the caramel:

• 150gr sugar
• 4 tbs water

Method: 

1. In a heavy bottomed pot pour the water with the cold butter cut into small pieces with a pinch of salt. Melt over low heat and wait until boils well; then pour all in one the sifted flour; mix vigorously with a wooden spoon until the dough comes away from the walls. 

2. Pour the mixture into the pot of the food-processor (DOESN'T NEED TO BE COOLED) Montersino docet and has always reason. At moderate speed knead the dough and pour in the milk, that will lower the temperature; then pour 2 eggs at a time and wait until they are well incorporated before adding the others. 

3. The mixture must have the aspect of a smooth cream, and if it's needed, add another egg or an half. Brush melted butter on the baking trays and dab the excess with paper towels. No parchment paper is needed, because ... (see it on youtube in the video of Montersino). Put the mixture in a sac a poche and make many puffs distanced one from another. Bake at 220° for about 10 minutes (it took me 15').

For the butter cream mount all the ingredients until fluffy and pour it in a pastry bag.

For chocolate frosting, see here the method for tempering chocolate.

With the pastry bag fill the puffs with buttercream and others with the dulce de leche (soften a few seconds in microwave). Then dip in the tempered chocolate only the surface and make the classic pyramid. In the interstices decorate with the buttercream made down friom the pastry bag.

Decorate as desired with threads of caramel.

pistachios plumcake and the sea at Colosseum

Last week there was a storm in Rome and I was at the Coloseum to get to work. Under the Coloseum there was a sea, yes you read well a sea, real waves of water like those at the sea.

divine brownies by linda collister

The title anticipates its qualities: soft and moist inside, crunchy outside, in a word, divine. 

I got  here the recipe. Here is her description:

"No Nuts, no coffee, nothing added to these brownies to distract from the main attraction – dark chocolate and cocoa. Take care not to overcook, brownies are meant to be gooey in the middle – it’s what makes them so gorgeous to eat."