Happy New Year 2013!

Happy New Year!! Wish everyone all the best for 2013!

Healthy Oatmeal Cookies
They are very easy and fast to make. They are not really sweet, so if you want sweeter either you add 1 cup of chocolate chip/raisin/cranberries/almond slices or put an addition of 1/2 cup of sugar. Personal preference : 1 cup almond slices to give more crunch.


Ingredients :
BOWL 1
1 egg
3/4 cup margarine softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp water

BOWL 2
3/4 cup white/whole wheat flour (1/2 cup whole wheat flour + 1/4 cup of ground flax seed)
3 cups oatmeal
3/4 tsp sodium bicarbonate
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chip/raisin/almond slices (optional)

Directions :
1- Preheat oven at 350°F.
2- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
3- Whisk BOWL 1 until foamy and light.
4- Add BOWL 2 to BOWL 1. Mix well until all dry ingredients become wet.
5- Spoon out the mixture on the baking sheets.
6- Oven for 12 minutes. Cool down. ENJOY!

Tiramisu

At my friend's farewell party, her mom made TIRAMISU! It was amazing. The day after, it was even better. As it was so good and she is a generous friend, she accepted to share her mother's famous well kept recipe with you guys :P

Tiramisu
Ingredients : 
4 eggs
120 g sugar
500 g mascarpone
400 g ladyfingers
Strong expresso

1-2 TBSP Amaretto/Baileys/Tia Maria/Rhum
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions :1- Beat egg white + 1 TBSP sugar until forms peak.
2- Whisk egg yolks + sugar until all lighter in color.
3- Add mascarpone to egg yolks mixture -- add Amaretto/Baileys/Tia Maria/Rhum -- vanilla extract.
4- Delicately add egg white in the egg yolks mixture.
5- Assemble a) ladyfingers dipped in coffee (FAST otherwise become soggy)                          
                     b) creamy mixture just prepared.... repeat and finish with the creamy mixture.
6- Sprinkle some cacao.
7- Reserve in the fridge 24h with a plastic wrap. 

~V.Cat~

Cacao 70

Hello everybody,

So what's the best place to have a get together with a friend that you haven't seen for a while? Obviously, around chocolate (between girls, it's our péché mignon but which solved and comforted us so many times :P). Moreover, my friend LOVES when i say she loves, I really mean it : She LOVES chocolate! I think it will be difficult for her to chose between chocolate and her husband (just kidding). We choose Cacao 70 for the meeting place.

We both wanted to give a try to this new place, especially after hearing people said that it was better than Juliette & Chocolat. We didn't hold ourself for the order, we wanted to have sample of their various items on the menu, so we picked : «sharing sharing» (for two). Basically, it consists of «1/4 of triple chocolate pizza, banana split waffle, chocolate snacks, warm chocolate sauce, chocolate covered ice cream, strawberries, chocolate hazelnut wafers and milk chocolate fondue served with your own personal grill to roast the marshmallows» (28.95$+tx). I should have checked the description before ordering. It was a lot, a lot and a lot of chocolate, you have to love sweet in order to be able to finish that monster. 

Sincerely, we first received a sample of their chocolate in 2 glasses, it was thick and very chocolaty (milk chocolate). Appreciated but not impressive.

Then, come the chocolate snacks, warm chocolate sauce, chocolate covered ice cream, strawberries, chocolate hazelnut wafers and milk chocolate fondue served with our own personal grill to roast the marshmallows. The small balls in the center are crispy inside like puff rice covered with chocolate, nice texture change of texture.

Here is a closer look of the personal grill which I find it really cute and fun to roast our own marshmallow.

                                        

Sincerely, it was just good for two. But the waiter came with another huge plate with again a lot of chocolate. I thought I was going to have an heart attack with that much sweet (that's why I mentioned earlier that I should have checked the complete description...). However, my friend was super happy, so what do I have to say, let's enjoy it :)

Second plate and last one (fortunately for me) : 1/4 triple chocolate pizza, banana split waffle (the bananas were caramelized before being covered with chocolate, so it added a special touch),  warm chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream.

Comment : The waffle was just okay, not enough crispy according to me but tasted just fine. My friend loved the chocolate pizza which I found quite boring : just a basic dough covered with chocolate... bofff! There was too much chocolate, it all tasted the same at the end :(

Overall, for people loving chocolate, it is a place to go. Better than Juliette & Chocolat? not sure, they both are quite the same in my opinion, but simply offer different ways of serving the chocolate. Debate still on for fans of chocolate, let me know if you have a preference and why.

Note : I found it a bit pricey for the quality and for what we got.

Rate :
Food : 4/5
Service : 3.5/5
Price/quality : 3.5/5
Overall : 11/15

Cacao 70

2087 Ste. Catherine West

Montreal, QC H3H 1M6

http://cacao70.ca/

(Menu available)

~V.Cat~

First recipe!

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Woohhoooo!! It is the first recipe that we post on this blog. So we decided to chose something that most of blog reader might like… something sweet and refreshing during this freezing and dark winter. A FRUIT TART! Yeah! (In fact, it is only because we had a pretty picture of a fruit tart that I made few weeks ago hihihi)

Ingredients:

- 150g of «pâte brisée» (you can find it in your grocery store in the frozen section).

- Pastry cream («crème patissière»): 250mL milk, 75g granulated sugar, 30g all-purpose flour, 2 eggs, 2 Tbsp Kirsch (optional) and a pinch of salt.

- Fresh fruits to decorate (strawberries, kiwis, pineapple, sliced peaches in syrup...).

Method:

1) Cook your pâte brisé à blanc in the oven as indicated on the package. (Caution : do not overcook otherwise it will be dry and hard).

2) Meanwhile, prepare your pastry cream:

- Bring the milk to boil with a pinch of salt.

- During this time, whisk eggs yolk and sugar until the mixture becomes paler. Then gradually add the all-purpose flour.

- Gradually, add the boiling milk little by little!!! (you don’t want to make an omelet)

- Pour this mixture back in the same pot as you used to boil your milk. (I don’t like washing more stuff than needed)

- Bring it to boil, but do not stop stirring the bottom of the mixture to prevent burning. (because the mixture will become thicker by the time)

- CAUTION: boil it just for a few moments only.

- Pour the mixture into a bowl cover directly ON the cream and let it cool.

3) By the time, the pâte brisée should be cook. Let it cool.

4) Cut your fruits in slices and it is preferable to chose variety of color. It is more appealing. Be creative, it is the occasion. As for the preparation of pastry cream, you are highly recommended to follow the directions and use the precise quantity ingredients mentioned above.

5) Assemble your tart, my favorite part!

- Cover your cooked pâte brisée with cooled pastry cream.

- Put fruits on it.

- You can put a glaze on it, to make it shine. I did not try this, but it might work: do not waste your peaches syrup, put it in a pot and reduce it on low heat. Then let it cool a bit before pouring delicately and evenly on the fruits or using a brush if you have one.

Easy, no? I do not really like too elaborate stuff that need a lot of hard to find ingredients. I like it fast, easy and delicious.

Notes:

- The amount of sugar in this recipe is just good. The taste will not be overwhelm by the sweet flavor.

- I will post a recipe for pâte brisée in another post, because otherwise there will be too much information.

- I have to say it, I think Pâte sablée for tart might be better :), but pâte brisée was still very good.

~V.Cat~