crespelle

I really like how it sounds in Italian. 

Almost like you wanna eat the word itself when said out loud. 

It's melody rings fluffiness and comfort.  

Crespelle.

Ricotta crespelle. 

Somehow, with no proper explanation, I eat these most often during winter months and breakfast. And I like to eat them plain, naked. Additional sip of tea, coffee or latte is always welcome.

Therefore, tomorrow for breakfast you will need:

some pictures, so you can admire their beauty before you please yourself first thing in the morning..

and a recipe,

Ricotta Crespelle, makes 4-6

250g cream milk ricotta

3 eggs, separated, at room temperature

300ml milk

120g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

butter for the pan

In a bowl sift flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl mix ricotta, milk and egg yolks. Add the flour mixture to the ricotta and stir. Separately, whip egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the batter slowly, with spatula. 

Heat the frying pan over medium heat, melt a bit of butter in it and spoon about 60ml of batter into the pan and use back of a ladle to guide the batter around the pan. Bake slowly, until crespelle gets 'gold' color on both sides. Repeat with the rest of the batter.

Recipe adopted from Heidi Swanson.

get up and go

For those moments when there is really no time, or you would just rather play in the snow. But before you get up and go you must fuel yourself properly. A salad. I find this colorful, crunchy and super juicy breakfast one of my favorite for snowy winter mornings. I call this a winter salad simply because I use oranges, just in a peak of a season. It may sound a bit uncommon eating salad for breakfast, but do believe me, this one will happy your bellies and all other senses!

Serves one

Rocket salad - 30g

orange - small one

apple - 1/4, thinly sliced 

toasted walnuts - a handful

fennel - 1/4 bulb, thinly sliced

For the dressing

half lemon - juice

olive oil - 1 tablespoon

runny honey - 1/2 teaspoon

pinch of salt 

pepper to taste 

Wash rocket salad leaves and drain them on a kitchen towel or paper one. Using a sharp knife remove orange peel cutting in a downward motion, then cut in-between each membrane to get juicy slices. Quarter the apple, remove pips and thinly slice it. Place orange and apple slices in a mixing bowl. Trim the fennel, half lengthways and thinly slice and place in a mixing bowl together with other fruits. Toast walnuts in the oven for 6-8 minutes (180°C).

With the fork beat lemon juice, olive oil and honey. Place walnuts and rocket in a mixing bowl and dress the salad. Season with salt and black pepper. Toss everything gently with hands and serve.

'If I make a salad of greens and fruit and seeds it is because that is what I feel like eating, because it sits comfortably into the season.' 

Nigel Slater 

 

french apple cake

Last three months were all about apples and mainly apple cakes.

This beauty is dad's simple upside down apple cake. Apples are baked almost until jelly like consistency and then tucked in sponge cake mixture and later on dressed up with generous amount of whipped cream. Pretty much favorite among youngsters. Pleasant and mild taste, no need to think just pure joy.

This dark one is my creation. Very easy to make and very easy to eat. Dangerous if home alone. It's a bit more complex texture compared to the upper one. Lots of chopped walnuts, lots of carob, whole wheat flour, grated apples. Anyways, one pan cake with chocolate glaze, room temperature. No need to refrigerate and tastes even better the day after. 

And revelation cake, french apple cake. 
Discovered while browsing trough Posie Harwood foodblog 600acres. Recipe was firstly adopted by David Lebovitz and can be found in archives on his blog, but for my creation I have used 6 large apples (as suggested by Posie) and eau de vie instead of white rum. You might be afraid about amount of used apples compared to batter, and in this case you can use 4 large apples and follow Davids recipe. Both 'versions' work perfectly. Taste is very special and in a sense batter texture reminds me of clafoutis. I would say that alcohol is a key ingredient for this cake so you should use good quality one. As I didn't have white rum I used excellent eau de vie (fruit schnaps made of pears).

French Apple Cake

from David Labovitz and Posie Harwood

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
6 large apples, peeled and cut into chunks
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp eau de vie 

1 tsp vanilla extract
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (115g), melted and cooled to room temperature

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and cover springform pan (20-23cm) with baking paper. 

Peel and core the apples, then dice them into rather big chunks.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Beat the eggs until foamy and pale, then whisk in the sugar, eau de vie and vanilla extract. Add half of the flour mixture and stir in half of the melted butter.

Add the remaining flour mixture, then the rest of the butter. 

Fold in the apple chunks using spatula and scrape them into the cake pan and smooth the top. 

Bake the cake for about 1 hour, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Let the cake cool for few minutes before you remove the sides of the cake pan.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or by itself. 
 
Bon Appétit!