Frangipane Toast

This toast is almost like a dessert for breakfast. The toast is covered with a layer of creamy frangipane and topped with toasted slices of almond. Perfect with a cup of tea or coffee.

Okay, you might feel that I am cheating…this is a simple version of the Frangipane Rolls. Since we had so much frangipane rolls, I decided to use up the almond cream so it would not go bad. In this recipe I used the same dough, just in different format. I spread a generous layer of almond cream, sprinkled some sliced almond and voila…

Can I tell you a secret? I just learned when writing this post that the past tense of the verb “spread” is “spread”…so interesting as I am see myself always learning English…

Going back to the toasts…after the layer of sliced almond, I had them all packed two by two with the sliced almond facing each other (so it would not “glue” together) and together they went into a freezer bag and freezer. A week later, I just popped them into a 350F directly from the freezer to a preheated toaster oven and baked for about 15 minutes, or until the almonds were golden…just before serving sprinkled powder sugar on it and here we had in front of us an amazing toast. It was absolutely delicious…each bite came with all three layers of light and crunchy almond, creamy and fragrant almond cream, and finally a soft and cottony layer of rich bread.

As you can see, this is a no-recipe post…all the ingredients and methods can be found HERE. I hope you get to try this, as it is much easier and adaptable for our busy life.

Below is what I did…by pictures…

And the toasts are ready for your enjoyment!

Did you know that almond is a rich source of B and E vitamins? Some research papers suggest that consumption of almonds consumption can increase blood levels of HDL (high density lipoprotein, good cholesterol) and decrease LDL (low density lipoprotein, bad cholesterol)?

Thank you for visiting Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

Ice Cream Swiss Roll

Can you find a better combination than ice cream and cake? Well, in this Swiss roll ice cream cake you have them both, all in one bite.

This is a fun Swiss roll, especially during the hot weather. And the best part of it, is that you can prepare way in advance and store in the freezer until you are ready to serve.

The recipe is super easy…just use a simple sponge cake batter…and instead of cream, fruit for the filling, I simply filled with ice cream…the choices in regards to flavors are countless…chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, coconut, lemon…you can mix and match any kind of flavor for the sponge cake with any flavor of ice cream…it is up to you to color it the way you want…

Ingredients:

3 eggs, separated
55 g cake flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
30 g vegetable oil, I used avocado oil
30 g milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
50 g sugar
Ice cream of your choice ( I used pistachio)

Method:

Have handy two 9 x 13 inch or 23 x 28cm baking trays, line one with parchment paper. To avoid the paper slipping, brush some butter on the try to “stick” the paper.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and set aside.

In a large bowl whisk egg white to foamy and add sugar, continue to whisk the egg white at medium speed to form to stiff peaks. Do not over beat, as the egg white should still remain very shiny.

In another large bowl, mix egg yolks, vanilla extract, sugar, cooking oil and fresh milk together until a light pale yellow forms and the mixture is slightly thicken.

Combine the flour mixture to the egg mix. Mix gently until all the flour is well incorporated.

Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk/flour mix in 3 portions. Fold well with a spatula after each addition of egg white. Do not over mix.

Take out about 1 ½ to 2 tablespoons of the cake batter and add 1 drop of red coloring liquid. Mix and pipe dots on the baking tray, with the help of a wooden toothpick, design your pattern by placing the tip of the stick in the middle of the dot and dragging outwards.

Place the tray in the preheated oven for about 1 minute. Transfer the parchment paper to other tray.

Pour the remaining batter onto the patterned tray. Make sure to spread the batter evenly with the spatula. Gently tap the try on the table top to remove large air bubble trapped in the batter during mixing.

Place the tray in the oven and bake for approximately 10 minutes at 350F and then turn down the temperature to 325F and bake for another 5 minutes.

Remove the desired ice cream from the freezer and let it sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes.

When done baking, remove the cake from the tray and transfer onto a wire rack to cool. After cooling, flip the cake onto a plastic sheet.

Spoon the ice cream on the sponge cake. Spread evenly throughout the cake and gently roll up to make a Swiss roll.

Wrap with the plastic sheet and place the roll in the freezer for a couple of hours.

When it is time to serve, remove the Ice cream Swiss roll from the freezer, slice accordingly to the thickness you desire and let it sit for a couple of minutes at room temperature.

Thank you for visiting Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

Esfiha – Baked Meat Pie

This is a very popular snack found in Brazil, it is mainly another version of our “hamburger” the ground meat baked wrapped in a bread dough.

Sorry for being away…this couple of weeks so much has happened in my life…one of my very good friends has stopped all the treatments for cancer, therefore she is under palliative and hospice care, with the support of my husband I flew with her out of state to help and spend some time with her along with her family. During the time I was with her, we talked and talked, we laughed and cried, we remembered facts in the past, places we went together, we teased each other…and we comforted each other…it was so hard to say goodbye when was time for me to come home, but she was always very gracious and comforting, telling me that she was okay and that I could leave and not to worry about her. It was an experience that I have never imagined going through…it was a life lesson, being able to face death openly and accept that we all one day will have to come across with. As for now, we still communicate by text and phone, and I am so thankful that she is in such a good spirit, very peaceful, serene and enjoying every day.

I hope I did not spoil your day by sharing this event…now the bright side of my post…a recipe for esfiha, which are simply meat pies. Esfiha are very popular in Brazil. These meat pies are of Middle East origin and they are found everywhere, a very common street food. They can be open-faced, like pizza and topped with cheese, lamb, beef or vegetables.

What I have here is a closed one, and for the dough I used an Asian inspired recipe, therefore the bread dough is super soft and cottony as compared to the recipe that I originally posted HERE…no more ”talk” and let’s head for the recipe. By the way, these meat pies are so tasty and juicy, they can be frozen, and are great as an appetizer or as a main dish served with a side salad. One more thing…they are usually served with hot sauce or wedge of lime/lemon.

Ingredients:

Dough, from HERE

Meat Filling
1 lb 85% fat ground beef
2 tomatoes, seed removed and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
¼ teaspoon ground all spice
½ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Egg Wash
1 egg
½ tablespoon water

Method:

In a large mixing bowl combine the ground meat and all the other ingredients, mixing them together. Set aside in the refrigerator for approximately 2 hours. Remove the excess of liquid. Mix again gently and it is ready for the assembly.

Assembly:

After the first rise, divide the bread dough into small balls, approximately 45 to 50 g each. Roll into small circle of about 12 cm or 5 inch in diameter.
Place in the middle of the circle approximately 2 tablespoons of the meat mixture.
Fold the circle into thirds, forming a triangle shape pie. Seat the ends and place them on a cookie sheet lined with a silicone mate or parchment paper.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cover the pies and let them rise for approximately 30 minutes or until the pies double of its original size.

Gently brush the top of the pies with the egg wash.

Bake the pies in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Please note that some of the filling might “leak” and it should be bubbling.

Remove from the tray and let it cool on a wire rack. Serve warm with hot sauce and/or lemon/lime wedge.

Did you know that esfiha is also called sfiha in Arabic? It means meat with dough. In Brazil, esfiha is very popular due to the presence of a large Arab population.

Thank you for visiting Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

Strawberry Coulis

This is very easy and great to have available all the time. I like to make when the strawberries are in season and store them in the freezer and when needed just thaw and use in any way you like. I like this strawberry coulis with cheesecake, ice cream, spherical yogurt, yogurt, panna cotta, cakes or even in drinks, like lemonade, margaritas, daiquiris, and the list goes on and on.

Ingredients:

2 lb of fresh strawberries, cleaned, hulled and cut into quarters
¼ cup sugar
¼ water
Lemon to taste

Use fresh…

or freeze.

Method:

In a medium pan place all the ingredients and cook under medium heat. Once it boils remove from the heat and let it cool.

Using an immersion blender or regular blender, puree until smooth.

Cover and refrigerate or freeze using by pouring the strawberry coulis in ice mold and freeze for later use.

If prefer you can use raspberries or even a mix of strawberries and raspberries.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful day!

Frozen Edible Flowers

I have been growing violas since last year, they are very easy to grow and fun to use in the kitchen. They have a pleasant pea flavor and are great to use for decorating desserts or toss into a green salad.

I started with seeds…it was very easy and I was very happy when I noticed the little leaves coming from the soil…
after a while there were so many flowers…more than I asked for, and I felt bad just tossing them out. So I froze the little flowers in the ice cube tray. Once the flowers were frozen, I removed from the tray and stored in an airtight contained in the freezer for future use. This ice cubes can be used when serving juice, cocktails or simply ice water. You cannot imagine smiles when serving drinks with these little flowers in the ice cube…a simple idea that can generate big smiles.

I hope you enjoy this simple idea of frozen edible flowers.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful day!

Frozen Basil Dollops

Have you ever found yourself with so much fresh basil that you do not know what to do with it? Well, this happened to me…my basil plants were so beautiful but we had to go for vacation and I knew that if I left them in the pots they would be all dead by the time we came home, so I desperately search in the internet for a solution. So here I am sharing with you what I found…an efficient and easy way to preserve fresh basil by creating a paste with a small amount of olive oil and freeze.

Place the clean and dried basil leaves in the food processor

Slowly drizzle olive oil or any oil of your preference into the processor’s bowl with the basil leaves until a thick paste.

Once the basil and oil turns into a paste, turn the processor off and spoon on a silicone mate.

Place the basil in the freezer for a few hours or overnight until completely frozen.

Once the basil paste dollops are frozen, remove from the silicone mate and place them in airtight container in the freezer.

Now this frozen basil paste are ready for any of your favorite dishes!

I hope you enjoy this simple idea for storing basil.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful day!

Lemon/Lime Juice Cubes

Do you find yourself with lots of lemons or limes? Here…you can do the following:

1. Squeeze juice out of the lemons or limes
2. Pour in the ice cube mold
3. Freeze until the juice is solid
4. Remove and store in an air tight container in the freezer
5. When in need of lemon or lime juice, just pop one, two or as many as you want.

I love to use this iced lemon juice in my tea, lemonade, sauces.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful day!

Brioche

I must admit that I do not watch my diet, I always believed that moderation is the key therefore if I crave for something I will go for it…in moderation. With that said, every time that I plan to bake brioche I get turned off once I see the amount butter that is required…well, I could not resist and eventually went ahead with the plan to make brioche. I can tell you that when the butter was added to the dough and struggling to get incorporated in the dough, I was like “OMG, this is insane! But when the loaf of brioche came out of the oven the alarming image of the butter trying to be incorporated to the dough disappeared…and here I was one slice after another…

I adapted this recipe from Food.com and used the bread machine for all the mixing and kneading. This came out deliciously rich, buttery with such a luxurious texture…we enjoyed it warm with strawberry jam and slightly toasted…for your information, I did not regret making this bread. If you have not baked brioche I urge you to try…it is worth every single bite.

Ingredients:

Sponge
¼ cup warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 large egg

Dough
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
¾ cup all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons butter at room temperature

Method:

Place the milk, yeast, egg and 1 cup of the flour in the bread machine bucket, set to mix until all the ingredients are well blended. Set the sponge aside to rest uncovered for 30-40 minutes.

After this resting time, add the sugar, salt, eggs, and ¾ cup of the flour to the sponge. Set in the machine to kneading setting until dough is smooth, make sure that you scrape the sides of the bucket.

Add the butter one tablespoon at the time until all the butter is incorporated to the dough. It will be very sticky but do not be attempt to add more flour, eventually the butter will be all incorporated in the dough and the dough will be very soft and smooth.

Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature until doubled its original size for approximately 2 to 2 ½ hours.

Deflate the dough by pulling the dough and then letting it fall back into the bowl. Quickly shape the dough by Dividing the dough into three balls, and each into 3 little balls. Braid them and put the braid in the mini pan. (The original recipe calls for a second rise in the refrigerator overnight)

Cover the pans with plastic film and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly brush each loaf with egg wash (1 egg beat with 1 tablespoon water), Use the ends of a pair of very sharp scissors to snip a cross in each ball of dough.
Bake the loaves for about 30 minutes, or until top of the bread is golden color.

Cool to room temperature on a rack and enjoy!

This brioche can be stored in the freezer, by wrapping the bread tightly with plastic bag.

If you enjoy this Brioche recipe you might want to check on Chocolate Marble Bread or Sweet Rolls.

Thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes [dot] Me and have a great week!

Panko Crusted Crab Cakes

Crab Cakes…with Panko, and Some Pictures…

I am baaaack…and want to share with you a simple recipe for crab cakes and some of my vacation pictures.

I love crab cakes, every time when in restaurants that serve crab cakes I am ordering…so I decided to make myself. After searching for recipes throughout the internet I opted out to come out with my own version, which I must confess that I kind of mix and match what I thought I would like in my crab cake…and yes I used panko for the crust. After making these crab cakes I realized that they are so simple to make…

The good thing about making your own crab cakes, is that you can store them in the freezer and bake or pan fry anytime when you feel like having it. Just freeze on a flat tray until frozen so the cakes stay nicely shaped, then you can place them in a Ziploc bag.

When it is time to serve, just defrost for approximately half an hour (do not have to be totally defrosted) and you can either bake or pan fry with a little oil. I can guarantee you that you will not be able to tell that they were frozen. It is very good to have it handy in the freezer.

Ingredients:

1 lb. crab meat in can
2 small potatoes, cooked and slightly mashed
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 green onions finely chopped
1 egg
1 teaspoon dry parsley (I’d rather use fresh one, but did not have at the time)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon bay seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste.

Panko

Canola oil, spray

Method:

In a big bowl, add the crab meat, green onion, bell pepper, parsley, bay seasoning, salt and pepper and mix gently. Add to the crab mixture the lemon juice, lemon zest and the egg. Again very gently because I like my crab cakes with lumps of crab meat and not all smashed.

In a deep dish place the panko, make

Make small patties and coat with panko.

Spray the patties with the canola oil and bake in a 400F pre heated oven for approximately 20 minutes.

Serve hot.

I hope you enjoy this simple recipe for crab cakes and as I mention, great to have them in the freezer for an elegant appetizer of even as a meal with a side of salad.

Now the pictures…lots of pampering and relaxation. Can you guess where did we go?