HOMEMADE BREAD (PAN CASERO)

Homemade bread or Pan Casero as we call it in Costa Rica is very popular. It is a soft, fluffy bread with a touch of sweetness that allow to eat with butter and jelly, or in this case filled with cream cheese and guava jelly, and of course with a fresh brewed black coffee.

This bread has a very particular flavor of the yeast and the amount of sugar on it make a sweet bread that you can not stop eat it. It is a bread with a soft flavor that you can put on it butter, jelly, honey, cream cheese, even a slice of yellow american cheese, ham or mortadela. Make your own choice and enjoy...

Some days ago I was looking at Facebook's posts, and called my attention of photo of a brown, water mouth home bread (pan casero) that my cousin Edith posted that I couldn't resist to asked her for the recipe. 

 

PAN CASERO

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup of butter
2 cups of milk
1 1/2 cups of sugar
3 tablespoon of yeast
3 eggs
2.2 lb  (1 kg) of all purpose flour
3 ounces cream cheese
guava paste
1 tablespoon of butter
1 teaspoon of sugar

Directions

Melt the butter. Put aside.

Heat the milk and the sugar at the microwave until it reached a 120 temperature.
Pour the melt butter and mix.

Transfer the milk mixture to a big bowl, add the yeast and stir until is well combine.

In a small bowl, using a fork beat the eggs just to break the yolks and combine.

Add the eggs to the milk yeast mixture and stir until is well combine.

In one addition, add all the flour. With a wooden spoon, mix all the flour with the milk until you have a soft, sticky dough.

Cover with a clean towel and let to rise to double the size. Put the bowl in the off oven and turn on only the light to heat the oven enough the dough can rise. It can take a 1 1/2 or 2 hours.

 

When the dough has risen put it on a floured surface and cut 2 ounces pieces to make a ball. Flatten it and  fill with a little piece of the cream cheese and guava paste. Close to make a ball again and put seam down onto a grease baking sheet.

In a small bowl melt the butter at the microwave and add the sugar. With a pastry brush, paint the bread.

Turn your oven to 170 and put the baking sheet with the bread and let to rise again for 15 to 20 minutes until it double the size.

Without removing the bread from the oven, put the temperature to 350 and bake it for 25 minutes or until is golden brown.

CRANBERRY RICE PUDDING

For a cold day nothing better that a warm dessert, like a rice pudding with a special touch of orange zest and cranberries, perfect after a delicious dinner to warm the soul.

This is another recipe that I modified. Originally was with cherries, but I am a cranberry fan so I decided to change it. Looking at my pantry I found a bottle of Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract, that I bought in December, and I thought it will be a good flavor for the rice..
but also I made it with regular vanilla or a bean vanilla and the result is very good too.

Because I like the rice pudding white as possible I put the cloves and cinnamon in a Stainless Steal Tea Ball Infuser, or also you can use a coffee filter. You put the species into the coffee filter and tie it to hold the spices. When you rice is ready put away the filter and you have a white rice with the flavor of the spices.

CRANBERRY RICE PUDDING

 Ingredients

2 cups of milk
1 1/2 cups of water
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 tablespoon of sugar
5 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
2/3 cup dried cranberries
3 tablespoons of heavy cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 orange zest
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
ground nutmeg, for garnish, optional

Directions

In a medium pot, put the rice, water, milk, and sugar. Bring to boiled on medium heat. Stir to prevent to stick to the bottom of the pot.

Cover and cook until the rice is tender.

In a bowl pour the condensed milk with a half of water to dilute it. Set aside.

Add to the rice the cranberries, heavy cream and cooked for a 10 minutes stirring frequently until the pudding thickens slightly.

Add the condensed milk mixture to the rice and stir until is well combined. Cook for a minute. If it is to thick you can add more milk, as desired.

Turn the heat off and add the vanilla. Serve into individual bowls and garnish with nutmeg.

COCONUT BROWNIES

Sunday, my husband arrived from the supermarket with a magazine full of amazing recipes. One of them is this delicious coconut brownies.. (I think this week was, the Brownies Week, jaja). I couldn't resist the temptation and I jumped from the sofa and I started to make them. As always, I made a little changes to the recipe, but the result was awesome, chewy brownies filled with sweet coconut and a touch of almonds... Incredible delicious brownies..

COCONUT BROWNIES

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, cubed
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 bag (1lb) brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
7 ounces sweetened flaked coconut
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup toasted silvered almonds, coarsely chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a 13x9 inch baking pan with nonstick baking spray. Line the pan with parchment paper, allowing excess to extend over the sides of the pan and spay the parchment paper with baking spray. Set aside.

In a large microwave-safe bowl combine butter and chocolate. Melt them at the microwave on high for 30 second intervals, stirring between each, until the chocolate and butter are melted and the mixture is smooth.

Add the sugar stirring until is well combine. Add vanilla and eggs, one at the time, beating well after each addition.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and stirring to combine. Pour the half of batter in the prepared pan.

In a medium bowl, stir together coconut, condensed milk and almonds, Spread coconut mixture over the batter in the pan. Evenly spread the remaining batter over the coconut mixture.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted comes out clean.

Let cool complete in pan on a wire rack. Using the excess of parchment paper as handles, lift the brownies out of the pan and cut into squares.

ORANGE CAKE

My sister, Ivannia, who lives in Costa Rica sent me this recipe. And here is our conversation.

Ivannia: "do it, it is delicious, but you need to use the whole orange included the peel"..

Me: " The peel?? I asked,

Ivannia: " yes, you need the peel, don't worry it tastes delicious and the orange flavor is wonderful".

Me: "But, does not it taste bitter?.

Ivannia: "No at all. Trust me do it.. "

Me: "Ok, I will try it"

and I did...

I found this is a very very easy and delicious recipe. I was afraid that the peel makes a bitter flavor to the cake, but I was wrong, the cake has a very good orange flavor that you can identify that you are eating an orange cake... Wonderful, amazing...

Try this cake, that the only thing you don't need is the seeds.. 

Here is the recipe.

ORANGE CAKE

 

 

Ingredients:

For the cake

1 medium orange unpeeled, (use orange with a thin peel) washed and chopped into squares, discard the seeds
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder

For the glaze

1 orange juice
2 full tablespoons of confectioner's sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven 350 F, and prepared a bundt pan with baking spray.

At the blender, pour the orange, eggs, sugar, vegetable oil, and blend until is well combined and the peel is in very small pieces .

Pour this mixture into a ball and add the flour mixed with the baking powder. Gently stir until is well combined.

Pour this batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes or until you insert a baking tester and it comes clean.

Let the cake cool but still warm, and glaze it.

For the glaze: combined the orange juice with the confectioner's sugar until the sugar melts. Let the cake cool complete before cut it.

EDIBLE GLUE

 

Edible Glue is so easy to make, in a small container with lid,  just add two tablespoons of warm water to a quarter of Tylose Powder (also you can use Gumtex from Wilton) and mix.

The powder doesn't melt at all, but put the container with the lid at the refrigerator overnight and the next day it will be clearly and ready to use.

Use only a little bit of the glue to put the pieces of your figurine, flower,etc, if you use too much the pieces will slip down.

Let the glue dry just until is sticky enough to put the other piece.

Gumpaste Fantasy Horse Tutorial

 

 

 

One of my favorites things is to modeling figurines, can be made out of gumpaste, cold porcelain or clay. When I am doing this, I am feel relax, away for the daily issues and it is the moment when you use your imagination!!!..

 

In order to attach the pieces you need edible glue. It is so easy to make and you can storage at the refrigerator. In my next post you can find the recipe..

 

Here is the tutorial. It's a step by step tutorial that is very easy to make, it is like to play with play dough, let your childhood brings out again, and the most important thing, ENJOY IT....   

 

 

Step 1: LEGS

Shape 10 grams of gumpaste into a cone. Push the thick part of the cone against the table to make the bottom part flat. With a the back of a knife make a line around the bottom to form the horseshoe. Make four legs and set aside.

 

Step 2: BODY

Make a cone with a ball of 40 grams of gumpaste. Elongate the thin part, be careful not to make to thin, because this part will be the neck. Push this part up and shape as a neck. Insert a half of  a toothpick to support the neck but leave a part out of the neck for the head.

With edible glue attach the legs to the body.

 

 

Step 3: HEAD

 

With 20 grams of gumpaste make a ball. Put the ball in one hand and with the other hand, using one finger, go back and forth at the middle of the ball to make the space for the eyes. Using a small ball tool make the nostrils and the eye cavity, and with a knife make the mouth.

 

Step 4: EYES, EARS, BRIDLE

EYES: Fill the eyes cavities with a little ball of white gumpaste and flat a little with the ball tool. Make two small circles of blue gumpaste and glue to the white part. Make a smaller black circle and glue at the bottom of the blue ones. With a toothpick and white color food make two small dot to give some light to the eyes. Using a food marker make a line around the eyes and make the eyelashes.

EARS: Make two small balls into teardrops press against the table to flatten. Put into position.

BRIDLE: Roll a thin sausage of pink gumpaste and attached around the front part of the mouth and to the sides behind the ears. Put edible glue to the toothpick that is in the neck and  insert the head, use more glue if necessary to attach the head to the neck. 

 

Step 4: TAIL AND MANE

 

 

Using purple gumpaste, make different sizes of logs and turn a like to one end to give some movement, and glue them  as a tail. MANE: Using the logs put some of them at the top of the head, between the ears and the back of the head. You can overlapping them. Decorate as you want, using bows, flowers, anything you want.

 



Mint Brownies

Some time ago I bought a bag of Crème de Menthe Baking chips (Andes) I thought that I can use it for a dessert, but still I didn't find how to use it, until today. That happen so often, if I found a product that I can see some potential to use in a new recipe, I hear a voice that says "buy it, later you figure out how to use it", specially if it is the first time I see it at the supermarket.

I found a recipe that I modify a little bit. The result was a delicious brownie with a good flavor of mint that is not overpowering, but with the traditional chocolate flavor.

My daughter decided to eat the brownies with a big ball of Triple Caramel Ice Cream at the top of the brownies, with a little of the minty chips as a decoration, (she said). Great and delicious idea.



This is a very easy recipe, basic ingredients and fast to do it.  Here is the recipe... enjoy...

MINT BROWNIES

Ingredients:

For the brownies

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup Crème the Menthe Baking Chips (Andes)
1 stick of butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup of all-purpose flour

For the frosting

0.5 ounce of unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup Crème the Menthe Baking Chips (Andes)
1 tablespoon of butter


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 8" square pan generously with baking spray.

Melt the unsweetened chocolate and baking chips at the microwave. Use interval of 10 seconds, stir the chocolate no matter it looks that is not melting, and repeat until all the chocolate is melted. Set aside to cool.

In a mixer, cream the butter with the sugar until is fluffy and have a pale color. Beat the eggs one by one. With the mixer in low speed, drizzle in the cooled chocolate until it is combined. Add the flour and mix thoroughly.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes.

Let cool in a rack before put the frosting.

Frosting

Melt together the unsweetened, baking chips and butter at the microwave and pour at the cooled brownies. Using a spatula spread the frosting on the top of the brownies and let it set.