La Pièce Montée

Ma cos’é questa piece montée ? Qui in Francia é praticamente l’unico dolce che viene preso in considerazione per le grandi occasioni. Comunioni, matrimoni, cresime… non si vuole altro che una bella piece montée !

E allora approfondiamo il soggetto  in modo schematico : un cono fatto di choux ripieni di crema pasticcera alla vaniglia, passati velocemente nel caramello e cementati  con lo stesso. Il tutto viene incollato su una base di croccante alle mandorle e poi si decora a piacere. In questa occasione abbiamo decorato con macarons al cacao, confetti e rose fresche di giardino..

..non ne é rimasta neanche una briciola ! Ringrazio ancora per la preziosa collaborazione le mie amiche pasticcere di fiducia Kana e Jacklyn!

Coccole di couscous

Feed someone is a love act. I feed you, I care about you.. I want you to eat! Of course because for me is a job to feed people every day here at the restaurant it can’t be a love act.. but anyway you put a little bit of yourself when you prepare a meal for someone and you’re glad when people are happy about what they are eating! Today I let someone take care of me.. my dear Tunisian friend Tijania came here to feed me with her sweet couscous.. thank you dear I really looked-for a little bit of yours couscous cuddles!

The homemade semoule comes directly from her country, it has to be steamed for 10/15 minutes and after you add almonds, rose water, caster sugar, pine nuts, raisins..

Chocolate – cheesecake muffins

These muffins are delicious, a perfect combination between the creamy sweetie cheesecake and the chocolate sponge not too sweet and really dark!

Spinach cake or Torta di spinaci

I’m not the author of this cake, but I’m a big eater of it! For a long time I thought it was eaten only in Genoa, but recently I realized that is made in many places of Italy, the funniest name that I found for it is “erbazzone” that could mean “big grass” isn’t it cute?

my mother making "erbazzone"

Gnocco fritto

Lately I am very attracted by Emilia food.. this beautiful region has a large choice of homemade gourmand food. I use to eat gnocco fritto in Sologno, a small village in appennino reggiano. It’s a kind of bread dough, fried, that you usually eat hot with Parma ham, salame or local cheese.

with Parma ham

with salame Milano

I don’t have a precise recipe to give you, because final consistency depends on flour, humidity, kind of cheese used…

Let’s say that you use 1kg of flour. Take the right amount of yeast (levure de Boulanger) to raise 1 kg of flour. Mix yeast, flour, 1 glass of warm water, 3tbsp olive oil, 1tsp salt and 250g stracchino. If you can’t find stracchino cheese (it’s hard also for me in Paris) you can use 250g thick cream. Mix with your hands for 10 minutes and see what happens.. it’s too dry? Add warm water. It’s too soft? Add one or two spoons of flour. The final result should be soft but not too sticky; you should be able to shape a ball. Put dough in a big bowl, film and let it raise in warm place for 2 hours. Roll it thin (1/2cm or less) and cut it with your cutter. Cover with film and let it raise a second time in a warm and humid place. (I put trays in off oven with some pans of boiling water inside! Yes it’s true! In this way you can create a amazzonia clime) let it raise for 1 hour and then put your gnocco in boiling oil.

EAT ME!

Mint and chocolate Tiramisu

Finally today sun is shining on Paris! Everybody wants to be outside.. that’s why customers loved my mint and chocolate tiramisu under the sun.. fresh, crunchy and creamy is the perfect idea for sunny days!

Marie Claire Enfants hors série N°4 avril – mai 2012

Its unbelievable how fun can be to make cakes sometimes.. I had the chance to make some creative sweets for the famous magazine Marie Claire Enfants.. what a great experience!

Theme is party time “savants fous”.. how to organize a scientific birthday for your children.. we have radioactive cupcakes, microscope lollipops and a gingerbread laboratory cage with rats who are running away!

Thanks to Stephanie and Jean-Baptiste to let me post these beautiful pictures!