On Ciuchi’s second anniversary in our home, we disregarded the part of the detox connected to all types of nuts (yes, the detox was difficult!) and baked her a fine dessert (there were still strawberries available; we had strawberries until December anyway!). She runs the entire house, so she deserves everything! ♥

Use and shape as follows—

🥄 The shells

1 & ½ tbsp of psyllium seeds -> 5’ in 2 tbsp of hot water

60g gluten-free oatmeal

30g tapioca flour

a pinch of sea salt

30g Cajoont

1 tbsp of apple vinegar

Knead • Divide into 6 tartlet moulds • Cover with baking parchment • Place baking beads above • Bake for 25’ at 170°C

🥄 The filling

1 x Caju Fresh from NoMoMoo (the star ingredient)

4 tbsp of maple syrup

an organic lemon’s zest

🍓 Decorate with strawberry slices

May you live long, Ciuchi! ♥

P.S.

You can fill the above tartlets with chocolate and decorate them with raspberries; they are delicious!

🥄 Filling 2

140g vegan chocolate

50g Cajoont

10g Svmântână

100g raspberries

15g almond flakes

It is easy: melt the chocolate (bain-marie); then, mix in the cashew butter and sour cream from NoMoMoo. Fill the tartlet shells. Decorate with raspberries; the almond flakes are such a nice addition.

 

I will go on with my favourite ingredients.

Today: chocolate

Which is the chocolate I work easiest with? I used milk chocolate, white chocolate, pink chocolate, and dark chocolate (with 54.5% and 70.5% cocoa content). It is easiest for me to work with dark chocolate with 54.5% content. It has a very stable structure and a pleasant taste, as it goes very well with several other ingredients. 

Where do I select chocolate from? Africa plus South and Central America. Cocoa is terrific in these areas of our Globe. Why is Belgian chocolate so tasty? Congo!

Why do I love it? Because a chocolate dessert is a treat.

How do I use it? I like it most in the walnut cookies and the chocolate mousse.

 I will start a mini-series of suggestions for dessert making. It is based on my experiences and I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

1. Leave the eggs get to room temperature before using them. This way, you will be able to beat them stiff for meringues and creams and mix them more easily into éclair or profiterole batter.

2. Coffee brings out the flavour of chocolate. Add a teaspoon of ground coffee to desserts rich in chocolate.

3. For any recipe that requires baking, keep in mind a ±20°C margin. Test your oven well!

4. Use butter instead of sunflower oil [the 1:1 ratio works just fine]. Even in non-vegan recipes, I like using coconut oil. It’s my favourite oil. 

5. To beat the whipping cream stiff, cool the bowl and/or the mixer blades that you are using in the freezer.

6. Semolina makes the filling stiff. For instance, if you decide to bake a cassata al forno (its filling resembles the one used for the cassata in the picture), make sure to add some tablespoons of semolina to the ricotta filling.  

7. For extra-crunchy bakes, oil or butter your baking pan; for extra-fluffy bakes, sprinkle semolina onto the baking pan. 

8. When you’re preparing your puff pastry dough by adding eggs one at a time, use a mixer. It will turn out fluffier.

26 cookie halves -> 13 alfajores

120g butter (room temperature)  

80g sugar

2 egg yolks

vanilla extract

190g flour

8g baking powder

a pinch of salt

30g cocoa

+100g dulce de leche (or caramel if don’t have dulce de leche)

+45g dark chocolate

Munching alfajores was one of the loveliest dessert-related events in Argentina. I did have them in Uruguay and Chile, but Argentine alfajores had something special, with the special Argentine dulce de leche... As I miss my friends and Argentina very much, I asked my dear friend Nuria to give me the recipe. You can find Nuria and her bakes here and here – she is a very talented pastry chef!

And then, as Nuria and I are so much alike, even the recipe is listed in a simple manner that I try to use, too (I translated it and adapted it from Spanish).

Mix the butter and the sugar; add the yolks and some vanilla extract drops; continue to stir.

In a separate bowl, measure the flour, add the baking powder, the salt, and the cocoa. Mix the dry ingredients into the previous wet ones. You may even knead a bit, not too much, though, and proceed with one of the following two techniques.

Either roll out the dough and cut round cookies by using a 6cm cutter or shape balls that you crush and cut out round cookies (Nuria uses the latter technique – I tried them both out).

Bake in the preheated oven, at 180°C, for 6-7 minutes, on a baking tray lined with baking parchment, and then leave the cookies cool.

Remember, as they cool, the cookies will harden, so don’t worry if they seem too soft when you take them out of the oven. In terms of texture, alfajores are not very crunchy, anyway.

Spread dulce de leche on two halves and sandwich them together; do so for all the halves; these sandwich cookies are actually alfajores.

As a version, I wanted to chocolate-glaze them and I tested my technique on two alfajores (the amount of chocolate listed will suffice only for two – I used chocolate with 54.5% cocoa solids). I melted 30g chocolate on a steam bath; I then removed it from the heat and added the remaining 15g of chocolate, continuously mixing, until this, too, melted. This way, I tempered it, keeping it glossy and crunchy.

I tasted the butter, the notes of the dulce de leche and I returned to Argentina while I savoured them. Son geniales, mi Nu!