New York cheesecake

When I was in New York, I remember myself trying to find a good place to enjoy and try, for the first time, a piece of New York cheesecake. In fact, I remember myself looking for a bakery while coming back from the Metropolitan Museum, and before deciding to enjoy a Hot frozen chocolate from Serendipity, instead. I would continue looking for some more days, until, one evening in Grand Central Station, waiting for the train to Pelham. I really love that place, it is an amazing station and felt like home to me, but what surprised me more was the mini market it has inside. 

As you'll probably know if you have read my posts about New York, I always bought some fruits to dinner and two Magnolia Bakery cupcakes as a dessert for me and Jessica, but, one day I decided to buy myself a good piece of New York cheesecake in the market, so I got out of the Grand Central Station, went to the stairs of the Public Library, sat down there and enjoyed my cake. It was a cold december evening and the Bryant Park was full of Christmas shops and ice-skaters, and that cheesecake, despite of being too heavy for me, was full of flavour and vanilla smell. You can feel I miss New York city, can't you?

For the crust:

- 200g digestive cookies

- 50g melted butter

First of all, preheat the oven to 180º. Start making the crust. It is really simple, we just have to crush the digestive cookies and combine it with the melted butter, until it resembles wet sand. Press the crumbs over the bottom and the sides of a spring form pan. Cover and refrigerate while making the filling. 

For the filling:

- 200g cream cheese

- 100g granulated white sugar

- 3 eggs

- 80g greek yogurt

- lemon zest

Place the cream cheese and the sugar in a bowl. With an electric mixer, start combining both ingredients until smooth, but not too much. It is important not to overbeat the butter because we don't need too much air inside. Add the eggs, one at a time, the greek yogurt and the lemon zest. Beat until combined, but remember, not more.

Pour the filling inside the refrigerated crust, bake the cake for 15 minutes and then, lower the oven temperature to 120º and bake for 45-60 more minutes, until it is firm but still wet at the center of the cake. Let it cool and rest for a few hours in the fridge before serving. 

Broad bean pesto bruschetta

Spring is at its height, we notice it everywhere, but also, and specially, in our fridges. Broad beans are one of these spring products appearing in my fridge, and I search for healthy, fresh recipes to use them. I try to choose recipes where they can be eaten raw, because I want to enjoy they flavour, without being overcooked. 

In addition, we have started running (again), and the truth is that after making some exercise, you feel like eating some healthy, fresh and tasty plates. This bruschetta has all these qualities and, furthermore, it has this broad bean pesto. 

The broad beans pesto, also called marò sauce, is a typical italian sauce, despite of not being so known as the original pesto sauce. Accompanied with the pesto, this bruschetta made with fresh tomatoe and gouda cheese on a bread loaf is a delicious and healthy dinner. 

Broad bean pesto:

- Broad beans

- Garlic

- Olive oil

- Parmesan cheese

- Pine nuts

- salt

Peel the broad beans and remove th rough outer shell of the bean (not necessary if you are using the smaller ones). Place the beans, the garlic and a pinch of salt in a food processor (despite it is better if using a mortar), combine with the cheese and the pine nuts and start adding the olive oil, until well integrated. 

Carob flour rolls

As a Mediterranean town, there are lots of carob trees in my town and its area. Its fruit is a black pod, normally elongated and its picking is in autumn, after the almonds and before the olives, but it can take longer than January. It is told that its pods were eaten during starving Spanish civil post war, and I am afraid that long after it, too. Later, it was also used to make chocolate or low quality ice-creams.

However, recently, the carob flour has started being consumed and sold again, but not as a poor quality ingredient, but as the perfect substitute for cocoa powder and chocolate in some recipes. It tastes totally like chocolate, it has a strong chocolate flavor, but with just a 2% fat in front of the 23% fat of the pure cocoa.

This is a delicious, easy recipe, which can be served in individual portions or as a swiss roll. As you can see in the photos it’s really light and fluffy, and you can add chocolate ganaché to cover. A healthier and tasteful alternative to cocoa.  

For the sponge

- 3 eggs

- 100g white sugar.

- 35g carob flour

- 30g corn starch

Preheat the oven to 180º.Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Whisk the yolks with sugar utnil pale and fluffy, and start adding carob flour and corn starch until well incorporated. Add the egg whites softly until well combined.

Take a sheet pan, with baking parchment and pour the mixture on it, smoothing it into the corners. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Lay out a clean cloth on the work surface and turn out the sponge to the cloth, carefully. Roll it out and let it rest while whipping the cream.

For the filling:

-100ml cream

- 2 tbp honey

- 1 tbp sugar

Whip the cream with the sugar and combine it with the honey. Spread the cream over the entire surface of the cake leaving margins.

Strawberry jam

I discovered the easiness of making jam just a few months ago when I made the fig jam and I became a totally jam-making obsess. I can just tell but good reasons to go to your kitchen right now and start making jam with any seasonal fruit you have in your fridge: it's easy and cheap; it's healthy as you control the amount of sugar and other components it will bring; you’ll be totally grateful when in autumn you will be able to taste your amazing spring fruits jam and above all, it tastes wonderfully natural. 

I bought 6.5lb of strawberries and I got seven jars of absolutely extraordinary homemade jam. Surely, I am going to can some more before the season is over because I am using it not only for breakfast, but also for desserts and ice creams, so I am going to run out soon. 

My mother uses to make preserves of lots of things; jam, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, fried tomato sauce… and she ha san old fridge specifically for preserves. Now, I strongly believe in the importance of doing these preservations and to take profit of seasonal ingredients we have. In addition, it allows me to control the additives or conservatives I eat in my life, as you can really use high quality ingredients in your preserves.

The preservation process is quite simple, but you have to follow some steps to ensure the quality and the safety of the food. One of these steps is to boil the jars during fifteen minutes to sterilize them and let it cool before adding the jam. The second is to assure all the jars are hermetically seal, and I use a simple method for that, which I’ll explain later.

Strawberry jam

- 1kg (2.2 lb) fresh strawberries.

- 400g (0.88 lb) brown sugar. 

- one lemon juice

Clean the strawberries and cut them in slices. In a large saucepan, mix together the cut strawberries, the brown sugar and the lemon juice. Turn on heat and bring it to boil while stirring often. Let it simmer for thirty to forty minutes until desired consistency. Beat the strawberries and pour into the sterilized jars.

I always cover the jam with a disc of waxed paper before sealing the jars. Now, we are going to seal the jars hermetically and it’s really simple: when the jars are sealed and the jam is still hot, turn them over and let it cool and rest overnight before turning them back. They’ll be hermetically closed. 

Saint George's Bread

Saint George is a very special day here in Catalonia. In fact, I would add, this is the most special day for lots of people, including me. Saint George is our Valentine's day, but the tradition is not only to give a present to our lovers, but to give books and roses as presents. Only books and roses, so this is an amazing day for writers, as well as for flowers sellers. As you can imagine, the streets fill with roses and books shops and everybody walks around while choosing the right book and the most precious rose for their partner. This is a really colorful, beautiful day for everybody. But aside of being a great day, I always have the feeling of being the start of something, the start of spring or warm days, and I always remember it as an optimistic and cheerful day.

This day also arrives to the bakeries, and one of the most typical products is this Saint George bread, which was created 25 years ago by Eduard Crespo, a baker from Barcelona. This bread shows the catalan flag, made with a typical sausage meat called "sobrassada" from Balearic Islands and white bread dough with grated cheese. Both doughs are wrapped by another one with nuts. 

This recipe isn’t difficult if someone is used to making bread but it can be a little confusing because of the assembly process. I will try to explain you, but due to this reason, it is better if you have a look at this video, in which you’ll be able to see the creator of this bread while making it. As I said before, the bread has three different doughs (cheese, “sobrassada” and nuts) which have to be made separately, because they haven’t the same moistness so we won’t need the same quantity of flour

Cheese dough

-         300g bread flour

-         8g yeast

-         Salt

-         100g grated cheese

-         175g water

In a bowl, whisk the flour, salt and yeast until well combined. Start adding water while stirring with a fork or a spoon. When the dough is quite solid, start turning the mixture with your fingers. The, transfer the dough to a clean working surface a bit of flour and knead for ten minutes. The dough has to be soft and not sticky. Return the dough to the bowl covered with a towel and let it rest for half an hour.

Sobrassada dough

-          250g bread flour

-          100g water

-          125g “sobrassada”

-          8g yeast

In a bowl, mix the flour, the yeast and the sobrassada with the fingers until quite combined. Add water while stirring with a spoon and then knead the dough in the surface until soft and not sticky. Let it rest for another half an hour while you prepare the other dough. 

Nuts dough

-          250g bread flour

-          150g water

-          8g yeast

-          10g granulated sugar

-          80g chopped nuts

Proceed similarly to the other doughs and add the nuts before letting it rest for a half an hour. 

When finishing the third dough, the cheese dough is probably ready and almost doubled in size. In this case, with the working surface lightly floured and with the rolling pin, start rolling out the dough to rectangle of 1 centimeter of thickness. Set aside, and do the same with the sobrassada dough. However, in this case, the rectangle should be a bit smaller than the cheese one.

Now, take the sobrassada dough and lay on the top of the cheese dough. With a knife, cut the sobrassada dough in four fringes, like in the video. You will have four sobrassada and cheese fringes and another cheese one. We have to put them one above the other, starting and finishing with a cheese fringe. These will be the stripes of the flag.

Take the nuts dough and roll it out in a similar way as the others. Put the stripes of the flag in the center of the nuts dough and wrapped it with the dough. I am sure you now understand why I recommended watching the video!

Now, cut it into slices of about 8-10 cm with a knife or dental floss and let it rest on the baking sheet for one hour. Preheat the oven at 200º and bake them for twenty minutes or until lightly brown.

Enjoy!

Beet hummus

There are certain ingredients which tend to be forgotten. Certain foods which not only we never cook, but also we hardly know what to do with them. Parsnip, radish, red cabbage and beets, among others, are on my list. I never buy them, but sometimes they appear in my fridge (as part of the organic food basket) and then I have to look for the best manner to cook them. This week has been radish and beets turn. The firsts are still there; the beets have been converted to an original and delicious recipe, which  enlarges my official list of recipes from now on, not because of the recipe, but also because it has turned to be a very healthy food. 

These situations are great chances to discover and taste new flavours and recipes. And, sometimes these recipes, which come unintentionally, arrive to stay. This is one of these.

I am not sure if I have ever told you I am absolutely obsessed with hummus. I love it. I eat hummus every week and more than once. Thousands of different recipes and combinations, and a unique way of eating legumes. The colour of beets makes it really beautiful and appetizing, and it gives an extra point of creaminess. A perfect recipe as an appetizer with toast or pita bread.


Beet hummus
- 2 beets
- 1/2 onion, chopped.
- 7oz chickpeas cooked.
- 1 tbsp tahini
- olive oil
- lemon juice
- salt

Clean the beets perfectly, cover with water in a saucepan and simmer for 20 minutes or until they are tender. Let them cool. Meanwhile, sauté the onion until soft and lightly golden. Place the beet, the onion and the chickpeas in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Add tahini, lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pulse again. Check and season if necessary. 

Serve with toast or pita bread. My recommendation: serve on a toast with melted camembert. Delicious.

Rose cake

Last Friday was my birthday, I turned 27. Despite some stomach problems I decided to make my birthday cake although it wasn't a red velvet cake, as I initially had been thinking, but a basic vanilla cake with rose decoration.

I don't really feel like telling what supposes for me to have turned 27, nor think about what I'll do or won't do, what I want or don't want... I don't want to, but I don’t lye if I say that during the last few weeks, even months, these questions have been occupying my whole time and energy. What I want here, now, is just to be positive and keep going on, trusting in myself and in people around me and to celebrate these 27 years, accepting them as best as possible. And this cake really helps me... of course it does!

Today's cake is a vanilla rose cake filled with cream cheese and strawberry jam. I used an old recipe for the basic cake which I don't know from it came from. The truth is that after making some different recipes for these kinds of cakes, I have decided I'll always use my "genoise" recipe, which is butter free. I haven't found any other better than that.

For the rose decoration you can find lots of tutorials on the net, but I have to say it's a really easy technique. I recommend you to practice with some roses before starting with the cake.

Rose cake

For the cake:

- 2 cup (250g) flour

- 1 cup (225g) sugar

- 2/3 cup butter at room temperature. 

- 4 eggs

- 2/4 cup milk

- 1tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp salt

- 2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180º. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, the salt and the baking powder. In another bowl, separate the egg yolks and the whites and whip these egg whites on high speed until peaks form. Reserve. 

In a large bowl, beat the butter for two minutes, add sugar and keep beating until the mixture becomes creamy and pale yellow. Add the egg yolks, one by one, until it is perfectly combined. It is the time to add vanilla extract. 

Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until combined; alternate the flour with the milk until all ingredients are added. 

Finally, add the whipped egg whites and fold carefully until the mixture is smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 180º for about 45 minutes. Let it cool for 10 minutes before unmolding. 

For the filling: 

- 1 cup (250g) cream cheese.

- 1 tbsp strawberry puree

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the cream cheese with the strawberry puree until smooth.

For the buttercream frosting:

- 1 cup (250g) butter. 

- 1 cup and 1/3 caster sugar.

- 1 tbsp strawberry puree

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the butter until creamy and yellow pale; add the caster sugar, slowly, while beating. Add the vanilla extract and strawberry puree.