 |
| French kids really enjoy nutella on a slice of fresh bread but homemade chocolate spread tastes 200 times better! |
I was inspired to give
this recipe a French title. I know Nutella is far from being a French specialty
but every kid in France know about it and well, just loves it. It’s one of the
most common thing we eat when coming back from school at 5pm. Because in
France, we have diner at around 8 pm. So kids (and grown ups too!!) often have
to snack between lunch and diner. And a slice of bread with chocolate or
Nutella and a glass of fresh milk is usually what’s being eaten here.
I used to love Nutella
too, but I have to admit that just reading the ingredients list on the back of
the jar has frightened me a lot. Moreover, I tend to think it’s a bit too sweet
and too fat.
It doesn’t mean that I
dislike the association of chocolate and hazelnuts. On the contrary. It’s
probably one of my favorite ones. Bakers in France are full of great idea to
invent flavored chocolate spread. A member of my family had once told me about
Christophe Michalak's one.
So I thought why not
try it. And I did it. And I should never have! Trust me, it’s probably the most
delicious thing you’d want to have as a snack when coming back from school. And
it’s gluten free. This hazelnut and chocolate spread has everything to look
forward to!! Just take a spoon and you won’t be able to get yourself out of the
jar. So I clearly advise you to hide it if you don’t want to ruin all the
efforts you made to have that bikini body ready for summer time!
 |
| How long will you resist the temptation to taste it ? |
Ingredients for a big
jar:
-
270 g
Hazelnut
-
150 g
powdered sugar
-
120 g
granulated sugar
-
150 g milk
or dark chocolate
-
10 g unsweetened
cocoa powder
-
10 g oil
-
3 g salt
1.
Preheat
your oven to 350°F.
2.
Place the
hazelnuts on a baking sheet and roast them for 25 minutes or until they become
dark brown, almost black
3.
Let the
hazelnuts cool down and wrap them in a clean kitchen towel to remove the skin.
4.
Line a
baking sheet with foil
5.
In a
saucepan, prepare a caramel: bring the granulated sugar over a boil. Don’t stir
too much, just enough to make sure all the sugar is melting and is being turned
into a caramel. Add half of the salt in the end. Stop the caramel when it’s
brown.
6.
Immediately
pour the caramel onto the lined baking sheet. Tilt the sheet to spread the
caramel as thinly as possible. Let harden completely (about 15 minutes).
7.
Break the
cooled caramel into pieces.
8.
In a food
processor, grind 120 g of hazelnuts with the caramel until you get a
homogeneous paste. Set it apart.
9.
Grind the
rest of the hazelnuts with the icing sugar in a food processor, until you
obtain a smooth hazelnut paste.
10.
Place the
chocolate in a medium bowl. Set the bowl over a large saucepan of simmering
water. Stir often until the chocolate is melted. Remove the bowl from over the saucepan and
pour the melted chocolate in the hazelnut paste. Mix the ingredients together:
you have just made a gianduja.
11.
Add to the
gianduja the first hazelnut mix (hazelnut and caramel). Grind the whole thing
until you have a homogeneous paste. Add the oil, the rest of the salt and the
unsweetened cocoa powder. Keep grinding until you obtain the texture wished.
We’ve had two
wonderful weeks lately: a big bright sun, a cloudless sky and very soft
temperatures with almost no wind. It felt like spring even though the calendar
states we still have to wait a couple more days to officially in spring.
But in my kitchen,
there are no seasons, almost. I have to admit that I like to cook local
products and that means that somehow I respect the seasons. What I mean is that
I cook according to the weather. And since we have a very spring-like weather,
I wanted to cook a dish that was green, green as the grass growing in gardens,
green as the new vegetables that we will soon be enjoying, green as the nature
all around me is blooming.
I will stop the poetry
here and simply share with you my zucchini soup recipe. It’s a classic in
France, I think. Most women and especially mothers have heard of it here and
they use it to make their kids eat soup. Because we put in some Laughing Cow
cheese. Yes yes yes, some cheese! It gives the soup a creamy and soft taste and
chase the bitter taste zucchinis can sometime have. Just try it, you won’t be
disappointed.
I like serving mine
with some homemade croutons and a drizzle of olive oil. It enhances the
flavors.
Zucchini soup – serves
4:
-
3 large
zucchinis
-
5 portions
of Laughing Cow cheese
-
Basil to
taste
-
2 table
spoons olive oil
-
Salt and
pepper to taste
Peel and cut the
zucchinis in large pieces. Cook them in some salted boiling water until they
are tender (a knife can be easily put in and out the vegetables). Keep the
cooking water and set the zucchinis in a blender or a food processor.
Mix the zucchinis with
the basil, salt and pepper. Add a bit of the cooking water and the cheese. Keep
adding some of the water until you get the consistency you wish.
Serve hot with
homemade croutons and a drizzle of olive oil.
I’ve been wanting to
cook sweet potatoes for a while. So I did it, finally. But of course, I
couldn’t make my mind on the way I was going to cook them. I think I chose the
perfect day to cook my sweet potatoes. They always remind me of summer and
guess what, today was one of the scarce sunny days we had during the winter in
Western France. So to celebrate the sun, I cooked my sweet potatoes a sweet way
but a sunny way.
I chose to cook mashed
sweet potatoes. I cooked the vegetables in some milk with vanilla and ginger.
The taste was just perfect and exotic, exactly as I expected it. The ginger
reminded of my mother whom I miss a lot and who loves it so much that she would
put it in every dish she cooks if only everyone shared her love for this
flavour.
With the leftovers of
my milk, I baked a spicy custard with cardamom and orange zest. It made a nice
desert to end our sweet potato meal.
My second recipe was a
very simple one but very comforting one. I cooked sweet potatoes fries in the
oven with olive oil, rosemary and we ate them with some home made mayonnaise.
It was very simple, fast and easy to do but fries, as in every household, are
always a winner.
So that’s it, here is
my sweet potatoes variation. I hope you enjoy it.
Serves 2 to 3 people:
Mashed sweet potatoes:
-
1 large
sweet potato
-
75 mL milk
-
Half a
vanilla pod
-
A small
piece of fresh ginger
Peal and cut the sweet
potato in large cubes. Cut the vanilla pod in two and retrieve the inside.
Thinly slice the ginger.
Bring the milk to a
boil and throw in all the ingredients, including the empty vanilla pod.
Cook the potatoes for
about 20 minutes or until they are soft. Use a food processor to mash them with
the ginger and some of the milk (I used about 20 mL).
Serve hot with some
slices of roasted pork for example and a few sesame seeds.
Sweet potato fries:
-
1 long
sweet potato
-
Olive oil
to taste
-
Lemon
pepper to taste
-
Salt to
taste
-
Rosemary to
taste
Heat your oven on 390°
(200° C).
Peal and cut your
sweet potato in fries-shaped pieces. Lay them on a baking tray. Season them
with some olive oil, rosemary and lemon pepper.
Cook your fries for
about 20 minutes. Add the salt once that they are cooked and serve them with a
homemade mayonnaise and a salad.
Bon apétit!
