When grand-ma' cooks

Soon I'll write one story a month! At this rate, nobody will dare take a look. So I'm going back. I have some recipes waiting to be posted as well. The photos are ready, recipes almost written. What am I waiting for?

Black Forest cupcakes

message for Christmas of 2009 :

When I prepared the first recipe of cupcakes for Christmas - the craters dates, you know - I realized that if I followed the book for all the quantities of the others cupcakes, I'd find myself with a hundred small cakes to eat. If they were biscuits it would be all right, but they're definitely not... The two recipes that I give here are complete and correspond to a dozen muffins or thirty cupcakes. In both cases, they were eaten quite fast.

Dear spicy Good-Fellows

message for Christmas of 2009 :

For the first time this year, I decided to make gingerbread fellows, with a recipe as traditional as possible. I wanted them to implode with spices and to have the funniest shape I could master. The recipe that was the most attractive to me was the one in La cuisine des Fées, by Christine Ferber, and despite the fact tha the dough has to rest for an extremely long time, I must say they have nothing like those I have tasted before. The taste of spice blends perfectly with orange zest, and honey gives them a barely sticky texture that melts against the puck.

A Milky Way on your table

message for Christmas of 2009 :

This year, Christmas also rhymed with homemade, whether it was for meals or for gifts. But an other part of Christmas I couldn't leave behind was the table. This is the place where all members of the family reunite for hours before midnight, and I wanted it to be inviting, shiny and homely. So I plunged my hand into my magic bag and found a paper somewhat festive that could decorate our large white tablecloth.

Jingling Christmas balls

message for Christmas of 2009 :

For a second batch of stilish biscuits I used a recipe that could maintain a fairly clear color, like a blank canvas ready to be interpreted by the painter. The comparison is a bit strong, because I do not pretend to make art here, especially when my goal with these crunchy painted biscuits was to find an occupation for my youngest and impatient cousin! Of course, it's impossible to keep his attention during such long hours of design, so I took over until the end! I don't complain at all. I loved doing that.

Stained glass window biscuits

message for Christmas of 2009 :

I found perfect cookies to put a small Christmas tree with golden thread to keep them high. But that's a shame to leave them in there because they are really good, very dry and crispy, yet softer after a few days of waiting. In addition, it's quite cheap, doesn't take place in the house once the holidays have passed. The best point : every year you can renew these. This recipe comes from many websites, but I found it on the great page held by Jasmine.

Jonsi's trufflelesque fudges

message for Christmas of 2009 :

I promised myself that I would make the squary chocolate fudges Jonsi & Alex showed on their website. Though the shape of the ones I made is nothing like the originals, I think they taste the same. At least I hope so. I gave them the form of marbles, because it was the easiest to do (apart from the obvious shapeless rock) and I rolled them in cocoa to prevent them from sticking together.

This is the first time I had to use agave syrup and I was really curious to try it. Its texture is similar to honey, but the taste doesn't resemble at all. This is not particularly tasty. It reminds me of cactus though I've never tasted cactus. But what is sure, is that this syrup has quite a phenomenal sweetness which inspires me lots of culinary experiments!