My Mother-In-Law’s Nut Cake

 

150g of whole sugar (like sucanat)

4 eggs (organic or from your chickens)

100g of flour (wheat, buckwheat, rice or a mix)

1 tsp of baking powder

20 grounded walnuts

20 walnuts (in big chunks)

125g of raw milk butter or coconut oil

Turn the oven on at 190°C.

Whisk the eggs and the sugar until it whitens. Add the butter in chunks.

Mix the flour, the baking powder, and the grounded nuts.

Mix the eggs with the flour and add the chunky walnuts.

Pour in a mould that you previously buttered and floured.

Cook in the oven for 40 minutes.

If you make small individual cake, it will cook 25 to 30 minutes. The blade of a knife has to come out clean from the cooked cake.

It’s a perfect cake to take advantage of the beautiful nuts we get this time of year.

It has a soft center and a nice crust. Just remembering the taste makes me remember the time we ate it close to the fire and I feel warmer already!

for those searching inspiration for homemade iced cookies

 For I gave a cooking classes last Saturday about cookies and I think after this little introduction, some were ready to go further. if you get your hands at making cookies, this book might inspire you to decorate them.

Nothing beats offering homemade cookies when you’re invited somewhere. Might as well make them good looking!

In this book, you’ll find cookies recipes, of course but the most interesting stuffs are about the icing, the techniques to decorate cookies, and the creative forms you could make yourselves. 

The book is called “Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits”, written by Harriet Hastings & Sarah Moore (queens of cookies in the US).

 

Gift and dinners season is here so, instead of bringing flowers, offer pretty cookies!

a nice custard pie (to serve with Japanese tea)

A good, homemade, custard pie; I think nothing’s beats it after a nice autumnal walk. I breath fresh and humid air from the woods and the fields. No one in sight. Sometimes a little bundle of fur passes by very quickly. I walked on a crunchy carpet of dead leaves, avoided puddles and mushy earth, and filled my nostrils with the scent of mushrooms, moss, hazelnuts. And what about the great colors around the hills…

The dough recipe has been posted earlier (I got it from Maggie Beer’s book “Maggie’s Harvest”). It’s rich and as great with a sweet or salty filling. Also it works great with gluten-free flour. 

250g of flour (I chose buckwheat flour)

200g butter in cubes

125 ml sour cream

1 pinch of salt

 

Mix the flour, the salt and the butter with a pastry blender or a fork until the mix is sandy.

Add the cream and mix until you can form a ball. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes.

Spread the dough and use it for 2 tin of 24cm diameter (you can freeze one of the two).

Refrigerate again for about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven at 200°C.

Prick the dough with a fork and cover with cooking paper.

Spread some weight (ceramic balls, rice or dry beans) on the paper and cook in the oven for 15 minutes.

Take the weight off as well as the cooking paper and put back in the oven for 5 minutes.

 

To garnish the dough, a very simple custard does the trick (the amount is for 1 pie):

250ml de cream (either raw cream or veggie cream: oat, almond, coconut,…)
2 eggs
½ grated vanilla pod
2 tbsp of maple syrup  or honey

I don’t put too much sugar because I like it light on the sugary front and the pie is satisfying enough that way!

 

I serve this pie with warm tea, preferably Japanese (kukicha is great but sencha and bancha are even better to balance the creaminess of the pie).

 

When is the next outdoor walk?

 

buckwheat blinis with salmon

Here is an easy way to please guest without too much fuss in the kitchen. It’s cute and delicious. It can be made in minutes if you have the ingredients at hand.

The blinis:

1 cup of buckwheat flour

1 cup of water

1 pinch of sea salt flakes

2 tbsp of dried sea weed for salad (here, we call it the fisherman’s sea weed mix)

Mix all the ingredients well and cook small quantities (blini should be about 4cm diameter) in a little bit of butter.

Smoked salmon tartare:

1 piece of smoked salmon (about 150g of a filet, not slices)

1 lemongrass stick

1 chive

1 tbsp of rice vinegar

2 or 3 branches of fresh mint 

Cut the salmon into small cubes to get a tartare.

Mince the lemongrass, chive and mint. Toss everything together with the rice vinegar.

Place a small spoonful of tartare on a blini and decorate with a small mint leaf. 

Well and quickly done for a chic appetizer!

The mint and the lemongrass give freshness to the salmon while the “earthiness” of the blini take the soft texture of the fish to another level. 

It’s fresh and nourishing, light and rich in flavors.