white new year

My New Year celebration was white, but not cold. We've been busy with long chit chat over non-stop dinner flooded with "I swear to God" I'll only eat once a year filled with lots of calories and guilt food and alcohol of course. I hope yours was a fantastic one too.

Come January in France Gallete de Roi (King's Gallette) is a typical dessert we eat in family or with friends. A tradition to honor the Three Kings visit to the holy manger. In the Southern France we boast of our Brioche de Roi (Kings Brioche), a fluffy brioche perfumed with orange flower that is topped with candied fruits.

I maybe a little bit busy for awhile for our big move to the tropics but I'll try to catch up on you guys. Happy Happy New Year to all! May this new year be filled with lots of hope and peace for everyone else!

Photos above are taken at Villard de lans in the region of Isere in France.

Kings Brioche

Ingredients:
330 g of flour
1 tsp of yeast
20 g of sugar
6 g of salt
4 eggs
24 cl of milk
170 g of butter
1 tablespoon of water of orange flower (eau de fleur d'oranger)
1 teaspoon of rhum
zest of one lemon
100 g of chopped orange confit

For the decoration:
30 g of fruit confits (candied fruit) chopped
1 tablespoon of crystallized sugar
1 tablespoon of apricot jam mixed with 2 tablespoons of water

In a bowl put the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and egg yolks and add the milk little by little and continue mixing until they become homogenous. Add the butter and continue kneading the dough until they dont stick to the hands. Let this dough stand for an hour. Flatten the dough to release the air and add the fleur d'oranger, rhum and chopped fruit confit. Continue kneading again and let it raise for another hour. Butter your brioche mold and put the dough inside. Brush it with egg yolk and egg mixture. Pre heat the oven and bake it for 20 minutes at 200° celsius. In microwave oven heat up the apricot jam with water. Using a brush glaze the top of your brioche. Decorate it with sugar and fruit confit.

Honey, Fig & Bacon Bread

"comme-ci comme ça"

The house is starting to get empty. Most important stuffs have been boxed already and ready for shipment to our new address, and the rest also now in their carton will be left behind here in France. Choosing which stays and go was really a tough job for me. Asking myself do I need it or can I live without it, put me in such a dilemma. And I must tell you I really have to go a lot of my kitchen gadgets :-( sadly.

But despite this vacuum invading the house we are getting more and more busy with lots of stuffs; my upcoming birthday, the christmas and new year celebrations, last minute appointments left and right. And oh the long list of christmas gifts to buy and pack, whew, tiring but really fun. In other words I'll be probably popping here and there.

And oh, that thing about living my dreams, well nothing really fancy. It's just about buying and having our own beach resort and opening my Italian restaurant. I love sun and the sea, but I don't really eat fish so I needed some pasta and pizza to comfort me by.

Here's an easy bread recipe I'll be sending off to Susan of Wild Yeast for her Weekly Yeastspotting! If you love bread this thing is for you.

Honey Fig and Bacon Bread

Ingredients:

for the leavening
1 teaspoon of dry yeast
50 g of flour
2 tablespoons of honey
100 g of water

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients to make your leavening. Mix them well. Let it rise for two hours.

550 grams of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
200 grams of water
200 grams of bacon chopped
200 grams of dry fig chopped

In another bowl put your flour, salt, the leavening and the water little by little. Once the dough does not stick to your hand you dont need to add the rest of the water. Continue kneading until it becomes, soft, elastic and does not stick to your hand. Form in a ball and let it rise for about four hours. Flatten it and make a rectangular shape. On the top cover it with your bacon and fig. Roll it from one side to the other. Let it rise for another 45 minutes. Bake it in a preheated oven at 240° for 35 minutes. If you want a crusty bread put a ramekin with some water during the baking process.

Pain au lait

What I have to give up in the morning living here in France....

1. Those lousy morning perked up by the smell of strong coffee called Kapeng Barako that my dad used to boil over and over again...

2. The taste of hot pandesal buns freshly delivered by the neighbor spread with some Coconut jam, dunked into a hot coffee and ends up in my hungry mouth...

3. The delicious scent of (although this is subjective for in here they considered it stinky in the morning) dried fish served with garlic fried rice and sugar cane vinegar.... yummy..

4. The busy and noisy neighborhood that I grew up where people peddle breakfast in the morning; champorado (chocolate rice pudding), fried noodles, rice based pastries, newspapers or even freshly catched gossip from the corner...:-)

Sigh...I have to give up all of these for a sweet, simple and soothing mornings of bread and jam. I am not complaining, let's just say an over baked croissant skinned girl in Europe was just simply yearning. And I guess only home-sick gourmet could understand what I am talking about.

I'm sending over some of these bread to Lore of Culinarty for her Original Recipes event. Don't miss to check the round-up!


Pain au Lait au fleur d'orange
Small Milk Bread with orange blossom water
for about 10 to 12 pieces

Ingredients:
300 grams of flour (type 55) or about 2 and half cups
15 grams of fresh yeast
12.5 cl of milk (half a cup)
75 g of semi melted butter (about one stick)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of orange blossom water
1 egg yolk for brushing

Procedure:
Dissolve the yeast on your warm milk, then add 100 grams of flour, mix them and let it stand for about 30 minutes or until the yeast activates. Add the rest of the ingredients: flour, butter orange blossom water and salt. Mix them well. Knead the dough to let the air enter into the dough and make the gluten act. Let it rise for about an hour and half. Form ten or twelve small balls then make that oval shaped of the bread. Let it rise again for thirty minutes. Brush them with the egg yolk. Pre-heat the oven at 210° and bake them for 15 to 20 minutes.

Apricot Bread (Abricotine)

Get well soon....

Sleeping has become my enemy. For days, I guess maybe weeks, I have forgotten now, how many hours I have really slept. You know, that good night sleep without having to count how many sheeps have jumped over the fence nor scribbling blank thoughts on the ceiling. That good night sleep that makes you dream, that makes you travel, that makes you wonder that gives you happiness the day after. I dread bed. I wish to get out from this loop but I couldn't. This is the price we have to pay for being a nurturing parent.

The picture of my sick daughter's desperately haunt me, intensely. Medicines, warm milk and blanket are not as powerful as my loving arms to appease her. Oh my poor angel, she cries for me, she clamors for me. I symphatize her. Everytime I close my eyes, I dream that this is just a dream. And that tomorrow will be a better day.


This is one of my daughter's favorite bread. I feel like color orange; the color of the sun. Hoping for a better days for my little girl. I am sending off this to Nithya of A Culinary Odysssey the host for this week's Foods in Color: Express Your Mood that creative event created by Sunshinemom of Tounge Ticklers.

Apricot Bread (Abricotine)

For the bread dough see the recipe here:
for this vegetarian recipe I took off the eggwhite needed for brushing the dough.

Ingredients:
half a kilo of fresh apricots cleaned, halved
half a cup of sugar
one vanilla pod
10 g of melted butter
3 tablespoons of almond shivels

Procedure:

Start by macerating your apricots with sugar and vanilla in a small casserole. Let it stand for two hours or until apricot gives off some juice. Cook it slowly over low fire for about five minutes. Set aside. Once the dough is ready, roll them on your floured surface. Cut small rectangular shapes and brush it with your butter. Put your apricot and make the two sides of your dough meet in the middle. Drizzle with sugar and almond shivels. Bake in a pre-heated oven( 180° celsius) for about 15-20 minutes.

Country Bread

"Bread is the king of the table all else is merely the court that surrounds the king" -Bromfield

When I was in high-school Economics was my least favorite subject. Well how could we expect young minds to see the importance of this matter in our daily lives when our number one concern was getting the attention of our crushes and getting rid of our pimples? But that was long time ago. Today, every time I open newspapers and watch the news on TV I am guilty as the rest of the French people who see nothing but concern on our diminishing purchasing power. And when this topic is on the line the swelling prices of bread naturally comes.

The French people and bread have traveled faithfully together in their history. Bread accounted for more than a staple food but symbolized hope, justice and stability, a food for poor people par excellence. Imagine that it was only in 1793 that bread comes to be for everyone, rich or poor, the bread of equality. So what happens when baguette, croissants, baguette à l’anciènne and other bread becomes costly? Well they don’t go on the street to do their protest but rather spend more time in the kitchen to bake their own bread.

I’ll be sending this to Susan for her weekly Yeastspotting. And by the way Click’s theme for this month is all about crust. I had the pleasure to be invited as a one of the judges in this fabulous food photo event. I can’t wait to see your crunchy crusts pour over at Jugalbandi the creator of this event.

Country Bread (Pain de Campagne)
for 800 grams of bread

20 g of dry yeast (about 2 teaspoons)
320 g of luke warm water
600 g of bread flour
10 g of sugar (about 1 teaspoon)
10 g of salt (about 1 teaspoon)


In a separate bowl dissolve the dry yeast with some of your warm water. Let this stand for about fifteen minutes. In another bowl put the flour, salt and sugar. Add your diluted yeast and start working on your dough. Add little by little the water. Do not pour all the water as consistency of dough varies from flour to flour. Continue working on your dough until it becomes smooth. Let it stand for an hour covered by a wet towel. As soon as the dough have risen you will need to do the second part of the kneading. Put some oil on your hand flatten the dough to let the air out. Start kneading again for few minutes. Do as you please for the size and shape of your bread. I cut mine in small equal parts and make a small ball shape. I let it stand for another hour covered with wet towel. Preheat the oven at 200° celsius. Put a ramekin with water inside as you bake your bread. With the aid of a sharp knife make small lits on top of your bread. I diddn't put some slits on my bread. Bake it for 20-30 minutes depending on the size of your bread.

My other bread recipes:

French Baguette
Croissants
Mini-flute Bread