Gateau Breton

After being healthy with just a soup, I think now it is time to get onto a non-healthy recipe hehe.
This is a cake my mum makes and that I requested ^^ I made it myself before but as everyone knows, no matter how many times you make something the one your mum makes is always a bizillion times better. Yes, this is a fact ;) So yes the pictures of the cake you see here was made by Mama Rithuu! Mercii!

In any case, it is a pretty simple recipe and absolutely delicious as long as you like butter and the sweet and savory combination! :) This recipe is from my mum's region in Brittany and it's very similar to dutch boterkoek (also really delicious by the way). So if you like boterkoek, you will definitely like this recipe! A must try at home! :)
Recipe also available in French at the end of this post!

Ingredients:

• 300g of flour
• 240g of butter 
• 240g of sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 pinch of baking soda

Preparation:

Little advice: best to use Breton salted butter for this recipe like the one on the photo below. If it's not available where you are, just use salted butter (very important that it is salty!)

1. Melt the butter and mix the sugar. Then add the egg yolks (make sure the butter isn't too hot so it doesn't cook the eggs ><)
   
2. Add flour and mix well until it becomes dough-y.
   
3. Butter your mould and flatten the dough into it. 
4. Lightly brush with egg yolk so it becomes golden brown when baked! :) Use a fork to do the little design as shown on the photo and bake for 30min at 180 degrees!

And when it's ready... nom nom nom

So yeah as you can see it's a pretty straight forward recipe! It's really tasty and super delicious to have for breakfast or just as a snack :P or just anytime... hehe 

Just remember, it is important to use good quality salted butter for this recipe!

Hope you try making it! :D

Recette en Francais:

Ingredients: 

• 300g de farine
• 240g de beurre
• 240g de sucre
• 3 jaunes d'oeufs. 

Preparation:

1. Faire fondre le beurre et y ajouter le sucre. Ajouter les jaunes d'oeufs.
2. Ajouter la farine et mélanger le tout
3. Mettre dans un plat beurré. 
4. Dorer le dessus au jaune d'oeuf.
5. Faire cuire pendant 30minutes a 180 degres. 

Voila! :D

Courgette Feta Quiche -Recipe-

Once you know how to make one quiche, you will be able to make a billion of other ones. This is a recipe of mine that I tried making last night.  As usual, it's easy to make (too lazy to make complicated stuff anyways :P) and I think it was pretty tasty too :P Hope you try this at home!

Sorry for the bad lighting... No natural light in London T.T

Ingredients:

Shortcrust Pastry:

• 200g plain flour
• 100g melted butter 
• a pinch of salt
• a medium egg 

Filling:

• 1 Courgette
• 1 medium sized onion
• 1 tomato (optional)
• 1 block of feta cheese
• some garlic
• 50g of grated cheese (I used emmental)
• 200-250ml of creme fraiche
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks

Preparation:

Shortcrust Pastry:

1. Add the flour, salt and butter and mix well. 
2. Beat the egg and add enough of it to bring it together and it becomes a dough
3. Make a little ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for at least 30min or in the freezer for 10-15min before placing it in the mold.
4. Using a rollin pin, flatten the dough (More or less 1cm thick. First time I made dough it was so thick it was basically raw... Nasteeh. So make sure it is thin enough!)
5. When already placed in the mold, use a fork to make little holes all over the pastry. 

If you are lazy like me you can also use already made shortcrust pastry and just place it in the mold hehe

Filling:

1. Cut the onion into small pieces and cook it with garlic. When it's cooked, set aside and let it cool down
2. In a bowl add the 2 whole eggs, the 2 egg yolks, and mix well. Add the cheese, salt and pepper. I prefer not to add too much salt because cheese is already salty. But quantity is up to you! :)
3. Cut the courgettes into very thin slices (as thin as you can and try to make sure they are the same size) and cook them with a bit of oil and garlic without breaking their shape.
4. Cover your mold with the dough of the quiche. 
5. Cut the feta into very thin slices as well and cover the entire bottom of the quiche. 
6. When the onion has cooled down, add it to the creamy mixture and mix well. You can then empty the bowl on to the dough (make sure the onions are spread out equally)
7. With your hands, take each slice of courgette and starting from the outside, line them one next to the other until reaching the center (maybe easier to check the photo :P).
8. Optional step: when I made it, I was feeling creative (haha) and I added thin slices of tomatoes in the center. My idea was to create a 'tomato flower' or something... Anyways, you don't have to do this of course :P Another way to use tomatoes is to have one circle of courgette then the next is diced tomatoes etc. I think it's a nice combination of colours, and taste wise tomato goes great with feta and courgette ^^ 
9. You can sprinkles the left over feta if you want or keep it for salad :)
10. Bake at 180C for 30-40 min depending on your oven! :) If your oven does not bake equally everywhere like mine, turn your quiche around every now and then so there isn't just one side cooking... 

Enjoy! :)

Nutella Cake

For this year's Christmas cake we decided to make something new: Nutella cake. I think everyone is a big fan of nutella and most people would probably enjoy this recipe. As a baking noob, this recipe was still quite easy to make (even for me). I found the recipe on a French site and the link in French can be found at the end of this post! :)

Ingredients for 4 nomsters

• 6 spoons of Nutella
• 150g of flour
• 120g of sugar
• 1 yoghurt (plain yoghurt)
• 3 eggs
• Half a pack of baking soda

Preparation

1. Pre-heat your oven at 180C and butter your mold and cover it with flour so the cake doesn't stick. 
2. In a big bowl, mix the eggs with the sugar (you can use an electric mixer for this). Add the yoghurt, melted butter and mix well. Once it becomes smooth, add the flour and baking soda while mixing. 
3. Finally, add the Nutella. It didn't say in the recipe but we used the electric mixer (Nutella is quite thick so it was quite a hassle to mix. It was just faster!). 
4. Once the Nutella is incorporated, add it to mold and bake it for 30 min! 

Yeeey, so easy! Ok so this cake was pretty good. One minus point, it did not taste like Nutella as much as I thought... A little disappointed with this but it was very soft and spongy. It was also nice that it wasn't too sweet. If you add more Nutella it might be a little too intense... But yes, I think you should definitely try this out! We ate it with creme anglaise (vanilla flavoured *recipe coming soon*) and it was absolutely delicious! 

Nutella cake with creme anglaise

We made it Christmassy by adding powdered sugar (kind of like snow hehe) and some little decorations as you can see on the photo :)

Can you tell how spongy it is? :)

Recette en Francais --> http://gateau.com/gateau-au-nutella-facile.htm

Enjoy!