Turkish coffee creams: Little cup of my love

I got this coffee a long time ago (my sister traveled to Turkey, and she bought this coffee as a souvenir), and I really don't know what to do with it. The Turkish coffee is different from other kind of coffee in a method of preparation and the Turkish coffee are ground or pounded to the finest powder. When prepare it, you will have to boil it with the water then serve without filter the grounded coffee bean out, and that is the main problem for me.

I find it very hard to drink the coffee that contain the coffee bean in it (or because I don't know how to prepare it properly, my coffee had a burnt taste), so I need to find a better way to enjoy it.
And the Olive magazine from last month is my answer for me, actually the recipe comes from the book name:................... There are a lot of interesting recipe in the magazine, but I can see only one recipe, that I want to try.
The Turkish Coffee Cream, this little cup is so tempting, the ingredients are interesting too. The coffee mix with the cardamon (actually, there is a cinnamon in the ingredient list too, but because my sister doesn't like it, so I just leave it out) and the chocolate. So, the fragrance of it is very good, and the texture is like a thick chocolate mousse.

This kind of dessert is very good to serve after dinner, esp. when you prepare a dinner for someone special (^ ^), the feeling of lingering the thick delicious mousse while talking with the one you love, well, I like this kind of feeling.
Actually, if you can't find the Turkish coffee, you can use the other kind of grounded coffee, as I said that it's not the kind of the coffee, it's the way that you prepare it.
So, come along with me and have a happy time with the small cup of love!

Turkish Coffee and Cardamom

Turkish coffee creams

Makes 2 little glasses (shot-size)

24g	finely ground Turkish coffee
1	cardamom pods, crushed
100ml	double cream
20g	dark chocolate, grated
2	egg yolks
22g	caster sugar

• Moisten the coffee with a little water and put onto muslin square with the cardamom pods, then tie securely with kitchen string to make a bag.

Put the cream into a heavy saucepan with the muslin bag and bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to cool and infuse for about an hour.

• Squeeze the muslin bag back into the pan to extract as much flavour as possible, then discard it. Reheat the infused cream gently, then add the grated chocolate and stir until it has melted.

• In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar. Pour on the hot cream mixture and whisk gently to combine.

Pour the mixture back into the rinsed-out pan and cook gently until it thickens to a custard consistency. You should be able to draw a distinct line through the custard on the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and cool in a sink of iced water. Stir from time to time as the mixture cools down.

• Spoon the coffee cream into 2 petite pots or little glasses (shot-size) and chill well before serving.

Turkish coffee creams: Little cup of my love

Basic Lady Finger: Basic biscuit recipe, that everyone should have!

This is very easy to make and very good to have at home ^ ^. The lady finger is making from the egg, sugar and flour, it's interesting that only three ingredients can turn into something special.

The recipe comes from the book this book is one of his in my collections ^ ^.
Actually I love his books, but I rarely use his recipe haha, not that it's very hard to make, because there are many basic recipes like biscuits, cake etc., but each time that I read, there are many things I want to do! Anyway, I try to use it more often ^ ^.
So, I start with this basic recipe, the one that you can use for your charlotte, eat with the the ice cream or your tiramisu. When you use it for charlotte, just pipe the finger close to each other so it becomes a band, that you can cut it to fit the size of your pan in your recipe and reduce the baking time a little bit.

The batter of this recipe is very good, if you whip the egg white into very firm peak, you can let it sit on the counter for 15 minutes without any problems, so there is no rush for baking.

Basic Lady Finger
Makes 80 fingers

6	large egg whites
130g	Sugar (a)
25g	Sugar (b)
5	Large egg yolks
100g	All purpose flour, sifted

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 200°C.

1. In an impeccably clean, dry mixer bowl with a clean, dry whisk attachment in place, whip the egg whites on high speed until they turn opaque and form soft peaks. Still whipping on high, gradually add 130g of the sugar (sugar a). Continue beating until the whites are glossy and hold very firm peaks. It’s important that the whites develop into a really firm meringue this is what will allow the batter to rest on the counter for 15 minutes and still maintain its shape. Set aside for the moment.

2. In another bowl, whisk the yolks and the remaining 25g of sugar (sugar b) together until they are well blended, about 1 to 2 minutes. Working with a rubber spatula, gently fold the yolk mixture into the beaten whites. Then fold in the flour, sifting the flour over the mixture in a few additions and incorporating it gingerly. (No matter how delicately you fold in the flour, the batter will deflate. Don’t worry but do be gentle.) The batter is now ready to be piped and baked according to your recipe’s particular instructions.

To pipe and bake

The following are general directions for piping and baking ladyfinger batter.

• Confectioner’s sugar

1. Fit a large pastry bag with a plain ½ -inch tip and set aside until needed. Cut two pieces of parchment paper to fit two large baking sheets.

2. Gently spoon the batter into the pastry bag. Start making a ladyfinger band by piping plump logs of batter from top to bottom within the pencil lines. Pipe one ladyfinger log, keeping firm and steady pressure on the pastry bag, you should end up with ladyfingers that are about 1 inch x 4 inch and about ⅔ to ¾ inch high. Dust it lightly with confectioner’s sugar and pipe the second band in the same fashion; dust it with confectioner’s sugar too. Refill the bag when you run out of batter.

Let the piped batter rest on the counter for 15 minutes, during which time the confectioner’s sugar will pearl, or form beads.

3. Give the bands a second light dusting of confectioner’s sugar and slip the baking sheets into the oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes, just until the fingers are golden. Slide the parchment off the baking sheets and transfer the fingers, on their parchment sheets, to racks. Allow to cool to room temperature.

4. When the fingers are cool, run an offset spatula under the disks and bands to loosen them from the paper.

Basic Lady Finger: Basic biscuit recipe, that everyone should have!

Prune Cake, less sugar, more delicious!

This is my mission, ^ ^, I got this request and after reading it, I wanted to make it so badly. It's not a hard thing to make prune cake, but it's not the simple, because this one has to be low sugar.

The one who wrote the e-mail for me said that she really want to make the prune cake with less sugar because her mom love to eat prune cake but the only problem is she has a diabetic >*<. So, I start by reading many recipes possible but I just couldn't find the right one, some are good but not good enough so I decided to create the recipe by myself. The main point of this cake is the prune cake that contain as little sugar as possible, but when reduce the amount of the sugar from the recipe, it can make the cake too dry and crumble, so I add a small portion of the sour cream to balance it. By plumping up the prune before putting it in the cake prevent the cake to become dry from the dried fruit. I choose to use the basic quick bread method to making this cake because it's easy and better way to use with oil. The result is very good, the cake is not too sweet, soft and moist. Even you think that prune cake can't be less sweet because of the sweetness of the prune, you will be wrong. I hope that this cake will be good enough for anyone, having diabetic or not, you will be happy to eat this cake.

Prune Cake
Makes 21x8cm loaf

175g	Dried prune
125g	All purpose flour
¼ tsp	Salt
1tsp	Baking powder
¼ tsp	Baking soda
50g	Sugar
1	Egg
60ml	Corn oil
¼ c	Sour cream

Preheat the oven to 180°C
Line the 21x8cm pan with the baking paper, set aside.
Take 4 prunes out and cut them in half, set aside for decorating.
Put the rest of the prune into the small bowl, pour the hot water over, rest for 20 minutes until the prunes are plumping up.
Drain the prunes and cut them into small pieces, set aside.

Put the egg, oil and sour cream together and whisk to combine.
Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar, whisk to fully combine.
Mix the prune into the flour mixture, then make a well in the center.
Pour the egg mixture in the hole and mix with the spatula until just combine.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly golden and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Prune Cake, less sugar, more delicious!