I am so excited to share with you the first dessert that I made from “Flour”, a cookbook published by Joanne Chang…she is amazing, after getting a degree in applied mathematics and economic from Harvard she decided to pursue culinary. You can find all the details about her on her book which I read  with amazement. The cookbook is easy to read and most importantly, it is easy to follow.

Since I was not sure what was the proper way to post a recipe from a book, I contacted Joanne and she personally assured me that I could post her recipe.

These coconut macaroons are delicious and as described in the book “chewy, sweet, soft, crispy…”, and they taste exactly as she described. The center of these macaroons are soft, creamy…yum! I do not have words to tell you how delightful these treats are and believe me they are so simple to make…really, the recipe is so simple that they can make you feel guilty.

Anyway, enough  talk and let’s move to the important part…the recipe!

Ingredients:

Pastry Cream

½ cup milk
3 tablespoons
2 tablespoons cake flour
1 pinch kosher salt
2 egg yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2-14 ounces bags of sweetened shredded coconut
6 egg whites
¾ cup sugar
1 pinch kosher salt

Preparation:

Mix the cake flour with the sugar and the salt. Add this mixture to the egg yolks.
Scald the milk until almost boiling (do not boil).
Add the scalded milk to the egg yolk mix a little at the time, whisking constantly.
Return the milk and yolk mix to the stove over medium heat, whisking continuously and vigorously until the mixture thickens and boils. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract.
Cover the cream with a plastic wrap, placing it on top of the cream and let it cool completely.

Preheat the oven at 350F and prepare the baking sheet, by placing a parchment paper (I used silicone mat).

In a large bowl, combine the coconut, egg white, sugar salt and the pastry cream. Stir all together until well combined. You can then refrigerate the dough at this stage if needed for up to 5 days.
Scoop approximately 1 tablespoon of the dough into the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for approximately 20 minutes and then transfer to the wire rack to cool completely.

The macaroons can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, most likely will not last for 3 days.

Thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes and have a great week!

Now that the warm weather is here, I keep the ice cream bucket in the freezer all the time, so I am ready for a quick and fast frozen dessert.
This is a very simple and refreshing yogurt dessert. I love the color and the flavor of this frozen yogurt, nothing like the combination of fragrant mango stirred together with the tartness of yogurt…

Ingredients:

2 large mangoes
2 tablespoon vanilla vodka
2 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ cup agave syrup
1 cup Greek yogurt

Fresh strawberry and mint leaves for garnish

Method:

Cut the mango in small pieces and blend together with vodka, lemon juice and agave syrup. Add the yogurt to the mango mix and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Place the mango/yogurt mix into the ice cream maker and follow the instructions of your ice cream maker.

Garnish with strawberry and mint leaves.

If you enjoy this simple recipe for mango frozen yogurt you might want to check on strawberry frozen yogurt as well.

Did you know that there are more than 1000 different varieties of mangos? Mangoes are rich in vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants. Mangoes contain enzymes that are good tenderizing agent, therefore often used for marinade.

Thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes and have a great week!

Some of you must be thinking kum…what? Yes, kumquat. They are little olive shape oranges with rind that is sweet and  juice in the center that is sour, therefore many people just eat the rind.

I have a dwarf kumquat tree that only gave me 5 little ones, but a friend of mine has a big kumquat tree. So I have been getting lots of them while I wait for mine to give more fruits. I like them raw, but I just can eat so much, therefore decided to make a preserve.

Since I grew up with it, I love it and like the whole fruit, I mean almost, except the seeds. My husband did not acquire the taste for it, either raw or  preserved…so I was like, if you do not like it,  do not force yourself so I have more for myself…am I being selfish?

Anyway, I made a couple of versions by using turbinado sugar and coconut sugar. Today I am sharing the one made with turbinado sugar.

I can eat the preserved kumquat like candy…and the syrup is great when diluted in water, either hot or cold. It is so tasty with a touch of tartness.

If you have a chance, please give this a try. If you find out that you do not like them raw, try this simple recipe for kumquat preserve.

Ingredients:

1 ½ lb fresh kumquats
1 ½ cup turbinado sugar
8 whole cloves

Method:

Wash  the kumquats well by soaking in lots of water. Drain the kumquats and place them in a pot with hot water and let them boil in high heat for a minute.

Drain well and place the kumquat back into the pan. Add sugar and cloves, turn the heat to low and let if cook for approximately 1 ½ hour or until the water has been reduced and kumquats are in a thick syrup.

Remove from the heat and let it cool. Store in glass jar and refrigerate. Serve cold over ice cream, bread, cake or anyway you like.

And some vacation pictures from the resorts and Tulum…

I hope you enjoy this simple recipe for kumquat preserve and the pictures 

Did you know that kumquat has its origins in Asia? Kumquat was introduced into Florida from Japan in 1885.

Thank you for visiting Simple Recipes…have a colorful week!

I hope you all had a great weekend…since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day I thought that this simple recipe of cheesecake decorated with bright red strawberry sauce would be appropriate for the occasion.

The cheesecake is very light when compared to the classic cheesecake. In a way it is between a cheesecake and a chiffon cake. This cottony cheesecake was adapted from Alex Goh’s recipe from Passionate About Baking.

Ingredients:

Cheesecake

1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs separated
1 ½ tablespoon butter
4 oz. cream cheese
1/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
5 tablespoon cake flour
2 ½ tablespoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt
pinch cream of tartar

Strawberry Sauce

1 lb fresh strawberry
3 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon water
½ lemon zest
½ tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in ½ tablespoon water

Method:

Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 325F
Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the corn starch, egg yolks, vanilla extract, lemon juice, pinch of salt and mix well.

Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

Add the cheese mixture to the egg white by folding gently and not deflating the egg white. Pour into a cake pan lightly greased and floured.

Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 325F.

Strawberry Sauce

In a sauce pan place the strawberries and all the listed ingredients, first in high heat until starts to boil, then turn the heat to low and let is cook until the strawberries are soft and the sauce is reduced.

Add the corn starch diluted in water to the strawberries and continue mixing until the sauce turns thick.

Let it cool before serving with the cheesecake.

I hope you enjoy this simple recipes for a very light and yet tasty cheesecake and …

You might want to check out the vanilla chiffon cake with lemon curd or the meringue kisses cookies, they are perfect for Valentine’s Day!

Thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes and have a great week ahead!

Some how I have two consecutive posts with mini cupcakes…well, we were invited for a BBQ at our friend’s boat. Diana lives in a 54 foot boat in Marina Del Rey and love to entertain…so I told her that I would make some mini cupcakes. I decided to make a conventional yellow batter for the cake and cover it with pineapple cream cheese frosting to bring a more fruity flavor to the cupcakes and of course decorate the mini cupcakes with blueberries and raspberries to make them blue and red. I have to confess that I was some how disappointed with the cake texture, I expected to be a little lighter…anyway, here it is…
I was able to make 40 mini cupcakes and had some leftover frosting, which we were able to finish very fast 

Ingredients:

Cake Batter
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1/3 cup skim milk

Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese
2/3 cup sugar
10 oz crushed pineapple (natural juice) well drained
8 oz cool whip

Method:

Cake
Shift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder, set aside. In a large bowl blend together the butter and the sugar until a cream texture. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix well. Add the milk and yogurt to the batter and the flour mixture. Pour approximately 1 tablespoon into small size bake cups (1 in). Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350F for 8 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes out on the rack, let the cupcakes cool completely.

Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting
In a large bowl mix the cream cheese with the sugar until forming a cream, add the drained pineapple to the cream cheese. Gently fold the cool whip to the pineapple cream cheese cream. The pineapple cream cheese frosting is ready to be used.

This is a very easy and simple cupcake recipe…the cake is very light and moist since yogurt and the egg whites in the form of soft peak were added to the batter. Both frosting and the cake contain orange rind, which give the cupcakes a very citrus flavor. The cupcakes can be baked ahead, and frozen. On the day that you want to serve them, make the frosting while the cupcakes are defrosting, top them and they are ready to be serve

Cake Batter

Ingredients:

¼ cup orange juice
1 cup fat free natural yogurt
1 tablespoon orange rind, grated
2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup or ¼ lb butter
3 eggs, separated
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
¾ cup sugar

Method:

Sift the flour with the baking powder. In a small bowl mix the orange ring with the yogurt and the orange juice.

Cream the butter and approximately 3/4 of the sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the vanilla extract and the egg yolks one at the time, until very light and airy.

Add the half of the sifted flour with approximately half of the yogurt mix. Mix gently and repeat with the rest of flour and yogurt.

Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until foamy, add the remaining of the sugar and continue to beat until soft peaks.

Gently fold approximately 1/3 of the egg white into the batter, then fold in the remaining egg white, avoiding deflating the batter.

Fill the cupcake cups to 2/3 and bake in pre heated oven at 350F for approximately 10 minutes until a inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Let the cupcakes cool down before icing them.

Mascarpone Frosting

Ingredients:

2 cup mascarpone cheese
5 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
1 tablespoon orange rind, grated
1 teaspoon orange blossom

Method:

Mix all the ingredients until fluffy.

Top the cupcakes with the mascarpone frosting and serve.

Did you know that mascarpone cheese is made by coagulating cream with a weak acid?

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This is a recipe that I used to use when back in Brazil decades ago…and decided to revive it. It is simple and easy. It is three layers: caramel (which will melt), bananas, and the cake batter.
The cake batter is a recipe from a University classmate’s mom. I lost contact with her after moving to US and every time I make this cake I wish I could find her again.
This cake is great accompanied with a cup of your favorite tea.

Ingredients:

Caramel
½ cup sugar
¼ to 1/3 cup water

Cake batter
¾ cup sugar
1 stick butter
2 cup all-purpose flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
1 pack flan powder dissolved in 6 tablespoon milk
3 eggs

Banana sliced to cover a 9 x 9 pan

Method:

Caramel
Mix the sugar with the water and cook in medium heat until the sugar caramelized. Once turned brownish, pour in the pan, and every spread the caramel. Be careful since the pan will be very hot. Set aside and let it cool.

Once the caramel settle and cool down, place the sliced banana on top of the caramel.

Cake batter
In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg one at the time by continuous beating. Add the flour and baking powder to the egg mix, beating gently. Add the milk with the flan powder dissolved in it. Put the batter on top of the layer of banana and bake in a pre-heated oven for 45 to 50 minutes.
Remove from the oven and flip the cake. Let it cool before serving.

Did you know that bananas are naturally radioactive? It is because of its high levels of potassium and a small amount of potassium-40, which is the largest source of natural radioactivity found in animals and humans.

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