While outside is rainy and cold, I am not at all in the mood to bake my breads in the wood fired oven. However, I do bread every week, and for these kind of unpleasant days I simply bake my bread inside, in my conventional oven from the kitchen.
I have experimented to bake the 2 loaves of this bread in 2 cast iron pans, one on top of the other. Of course, I had to use their lids to capture the steam inside, so the 2 layered pans fit at the limit into my oven.
The result was not disappointing and gave me the desire to continue experimenting this type of baking.
As for the taste, it immediately send your mind to a forgotten farm somewhere in the country side. Texture of the crumb is perfect, with bigger and smaller wholes. Just perfect.
Now, please grab the chair, take a sit and enjoy my bread...

Making these apple roses was challenging but doing them was a lot of fun. I couldn't estimate exactly in the beginning how many would result from 500g of puff pastry, so I ended up doing a lot, more exactly about 40 pieces.
The not funny part was doing the puff pastry. It took a day to make the pastry so the roses were scheduled for the next day.
I've learnt a lot with this recipe. One of the thing was that, doing everything by yourself is very time consuming. Next time I would probably buy the puff pastry and do only half of the recipe.
Doing the roses was challenging and amazing in the same time. Finding the best position to place the apple slices on the dough strips followed a learning curve. In the end, I was happy with the result and the most difficult was to eat them without feeling sad to destroy a beautiful flower design.
However, it was an experience that I recommend to all as it brings a lot of satisfaction in the end, both visually and tasty.

I baked sweet potato pies before and I was always impressed. It is consistent, it is sweet, fine and delicious. This one makes no exception.
Although it is sweet, this cake has 0g of sugar / sweetener in it. It makes me wonder if I should call it a desert or a side dish. If you want it more sweet, you can serve it with caramel sauce, but for me is sweet enough and has a very slight sour flavor due to the apple and the lemon juice addition.
Nevertheless, some whipped cream on top or on a side in the serving plate makes a perfect combination.

It is normal to revisit old recipes that remains in your memory both as an image and as taste. This is the story with this recipe.
There are few differences with my old recipe of Fine apple tart but the look is totally different.

Cooking in cast iron skillet is one of favorite way of cooking.We tend to forget our old way of cooking in natural materials for new ones that promise the Moon on the sky. Yes, it has also disadvantages: it is a heavy pan, sometimes sticks and it needs seasoning after each use. However, it is healthy, it is tested over centuries, it gives taste to food and is so versatile in terms of the heating used. I got rid of all my teflon pans and I kept only one that serves me for frying, cooking and for baking.
I love potatoes baked in the oven and combining two types of potatoes in one skillet makes the taste more interesting. Potatoes in this recipe are not melted in oil. I used a thin layer of oil only for the bottom of the pan to avoid sticking and I brushed spiced butter to add more taste and avoid drying them on the top. In the end, they are not heavily greased and is a pleasure to eat them as a side dish.

When your child asks you for chocolate biscuits, you leave your chores aside and you start doing them.
While from my big daughter I was expecting her to get involved in the preparation process, well.... I was not expecting that my son of 2,5 years old to be that excited too. After this experience, I feel like opening a new era of cooking with my kids, and more biscuits recipes will most probably come :)).
For this simple recipe I spend almost a haft of a day with my kids. It is not a complicated one, but it takes time. As this is a lovely time spent together with my kids I do not bother if it takes longer. Making the chocolate shapes was probably the most time consuming as I had a silicone candy sheet with only 8 shapes. That ment to fill in the shape, put it in the fridge for 15 minutes, take out the chocolate shapes and redo the proces for 4 times. Of course it can be kept simply by simply spooning the chocolate on the top of the biscuits and this will reduce the time considerably.
For the other part with making the dough and cutting the biscuits.... well here it was the fun for the kids. Even my son, couldn't resist to cut by himself with all the biscuit cutter shapes.
As for me, I was expecting to offer these biscuits as a snack to my children when they go to school. My hopes were in fact too high as one of the tray was gone after just tasting :)

Cooking mushrooms to get out with a tasty dish is always a challenge. Each mushroom has its own taste and for each, you may prefer a way of cooking or another.
I started some time ago to avoid somehow buying mushrooms. The reason is simple, my kids hate them. I hated mushrooms with all my heart as well when I was a child. But one day I rediscovered them and tried my mother recipes that once I would have died if somebody would have forced me to taste.
Few years ago, I went to Italy and I remember a countryside restaurant displaying their beautiful mushrooms at the entrance. Inside I tried them as a starter and their taste cannot simply get out of my mind since then.
I've tried other types of mushrooms but it is difficult to compete with my memories.
Yesterday it was one of those ordinary working day. But on my way to work there is a man selling all sort of country vegetables and fruits and that in the middle of the town. He had in wooden boxes 4 uncommon types of mushrooms, that you won't find in an normal supermarket.
My eyes were caught by these little yellow fellows and with an impulse I saw myself buying them. I went home and I had a weird feeling. I knew to cook normal mushrooms, but what about these guys? How I was supposed to cook them so I can get their best flavor? I did some researches and finally made them in a sauté style.
With the first part I made an omelette. It gave an interesting good taste to the omelette but its flavor was not entirely revealed. As for the first time I followed the recipe without onion and garlic, for the second part of mushrooms I decided to add them and eat them as a side dish.
This second time, these little yellow fellows opened their flavor to me in amazing way.
Nice to meet you my lovely chanterelles....

A sponge cake is usually a very easy desert to do. My mother used to do it very often in my childhood. Last week I was asking myself what snack to give to my daughter. Sponge cake was the right answer. My daughter didn't know exactly what this was so she was a bit reluctant to the idea. But when I made it, the cake disappeared in one day and my daughter requested me to make more. My son also got really fond of the cake as well. A real battle between them about who has the biggest slice. I had then no chance than to bake the cake a second time this week.
When I am baking for kids, sugar is at low quantities between ingredients. This recipe is for a large cake and the sugar is not predominant for the taste. I like it like this and my children did not complain at all about not being enough sweet. Otherwise, if you like very sweet cakes you can even increase the quantity up to 400g of sugar instead of 150g.
This cake is easy to make but can be even more simplified. I made 4 layers with different shades by adding gradually one teaspoon of cocoa powder in the remaining batter. It can be done with just 2 layers (one with and one without cocoa). At the limit, cocoa powder can be considered optional but in this case you obtain a simple yellow sponge cake. I like however that my cakes looks nice also not just taste well.

So here it is ...

Some people like to find a good recipe and stick to it. I also try to find good recipes but I am always tempted to change little things to test other versions as well. The possibility to change your recipes of breads are practically unlimited. Even if you use the exact same quantities there will be always something different in the home baking unless you use a perfectly controlled environment. Days differs as temperature, flours differs from year to year even for the same source. But this is what makes for me bread cooking fun: you know what you are up to but you never know what you'll get exactly.