healthier banana bread

Healthier. Not healthy. Because it's still a dessert, isn't it? But this banana bread is partially made of whole wheat flour, olive oil, yogurt, and dark brown sugar which make it .... healthier, right? 

cocoa/hazelnut/banana muffins

It's pouring. I need chocolate. 

Pear+Apple+Chocolate Crumble, with Pecans+Pistachios

That's the second recipe from the foodblog La Tartine Gourmande that I made. The first one was a Chocolate and Nut Cake. They are both excellent. What I like about this crumble is the combination pear+chocolate (one of my favorites) and the crunchy side brought by the nuts. I put only pecans because I didn't have any pistachios on hand. A good excuse to make this dessert again soon.

Zuppa Inglese Veloce Veloce

The "Zuppa Inglese" is my husband's favorite dessert and is becoming my older daughter's too. I've found a way to speed up the recipe. Still delicious. That's a zuppa inglese "veloce, veloce" (very quick). 

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

I received the book "Good to the Grain" by Kim Boyce in June. I really wanted that book. However I've never tried any of its recipes yet. I think I was intimidated. I wanted to pick the perfect recipe right away. Then the other day I've read a blog article about the whole wheat chocolate chip cookies from that book. I felt like I had to bake these cookies. So I did!

Chocolate and Nut Cake

This summer in Italy - Piemonte - I've eaten a cake made with nuts instead of flour. I really liked it. So when I saw the recipe of a chocolate and nut cake on the net (La Tartine Gourmande), I immediately wanted to try it. I must also say that the pictures from the blog were so inviting... Take a look.

Brownies

A friend of mine has just lent me the cookbook from Tartine,  another well known San Francisco Bakery&Cafe. She advised me that the brownies are the best ever. She is american so we can trust her 100%...

Homemade Ferrero Rochers

Some more Ferrero inspired stuff. The recipe comes from the book  Mon Cours de Cuisine: Les Basiques Chocolat, p. 61. But you can find a similar one here, by Christophe Felder.

Nutella: Take II

I didn't give up. My second batch of homemade nutella is getting closer to the original than the first try. According to Alberto it is not quite there yet, but this does not stop him  from taking a spoonful whenever he passes by... The girls love it. They especially love the "crunchy-nutty" part of it. And me? I'm usually not a big Nutella  fan, but I prefer my version with only natural ingredients to the industrially processed original. You can find the recipe here (from the blog: Italy in San Francisco).

Chocolate Tartlet

I still had some leftovers of the marmalade tart's dough waiting in my fridge... So I made 2 mini chocolate tarts with candied orange zests on top. The filling is a ganache au chocolat from the book Mon cours de cuisine: Les basiques Chocolat (p.8). You can obtain it putting 15 cl of warm heavy cream over 150 gr of chocolate, wait about 2' and mix. Now the problem is that I have some ganache au chocolat's leftovers!!! I have to figure out what to do with it. It will never end...

Banana Bread

An american classic again: the banana bread. A friend of mine - who is american - gave me the recipe about 2 years ago. I made it so many times since then. Always successful. The recipe is adapted from the magazine Bon Appetit. You can find it here. 

Bread + Eggs + Milk + Sugar = Bread Pudding

We've discovered the existence of the bread pudding only a few months ago. Alberto immediately felt in love with it. It is very similar to our pain perdu. But WAY better. The basic ingredients are the same: bread + eggs + milk + sugar. But the bread pudding is baked in the oven instead of fried in the pan. It is thicker. And it tastes  different every time you bake it depending on what you put inside (different kinds of bread, fruit, chocolate, caramel, alcohol, ...) The recipe I've tried today is a variation of the "traditional" bread pudding: a panettone bread pudding. Yummy. Since we love the bread pudding so much, I bet there will be some more posts about it. Be ready.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The winter never ends this year. We have a rainy day again today. Rainy and windy. A good excuse for baking some cookies. Since I've been here in the US, I've tried several recipes. The one I like the best is this one (in french). Important tip: do not mix the dough too much.

"Pseudo" Nutella

Camille helped me peeling the hazelnuts. She was very motivated since I told her that we were going to make Nutella. The result is ok but far away from the real Nutella. I'll keep trying and let you know...