Use a square baking pan, cover it with baking paper
Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Butter will foam, bubble, and crackle. Keep stirring. Light sediment will appear. Keep stirring an reduce heat to low. Wait until sediment turns rich brown and butter smells nutty. Remove from heat.
Add salt and sugar, stirring to incorporate.
Add flour until well combined
Add water and form a dough.
Transfer dough to the baking pan. Try to press into an even layer. Prick all over with a fork.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until evenly golden with slightly browned edges.
In the same pan as you did the crust. Add all filling ingredients except lemon juice and butter. Stir to combine.
Add lemon juice and mix.
Now cook over medium-low heat, stirring and scraping constantly.
When filling begins to thicken, reduce heat to low. Cook until is slightly thickened, and coats spoon.
Remove from heat. Add butter, mix until combine.
Strain filling onto baked crust. Tilt pan to spread evenly.
Bake for 20 minutes, until the filling is set. The filling should barely jiggle when the pan is shaken.
Allow the bars to cool down at room temperature before moving to the fridge.
You can serve later or next day. Cut with a clean knife.
I made several mistakes. I added the egg whites to the mix and I burned the egg mix so for that reason you see brown spots.
I have baked a vegan version but I wanted to try the traditionalversion.
Ingredients 1 bag of tea 200g fresh Medjool dates 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1 teaspoon grating nutmeg 85g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing (at room temperature) 85g dark muscovado sugar (I used brown) 170g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting 2 eggs pinch of salt
Carame Sauce: 125g unsalted butter 62.5g dark muscovado sugar (I used brown) 62.5g white caster sugar optional 1 shot dark rum 200ml double cream
Serving
Vanilla ice cream
Process
Pre-heat oven at 180C
Chop the dates and cover in boiling water until soft with a tea bag
Cream the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs to the butter/sugar, the add the flour. Pinch of salt
In a hand blender or similar, add the dates with some water and the spices.
Add the date mix to the butter/sugar/flour. Combine properly
Grease a pan with butter and flour. Pour the mix.
Bake for 40-45 minutes. Use a stick or knife to be sure the cake is ready (should come up clean)
Prepare the caramel sauce, in a pan, add the butter and two types of sugar. When it is boiling add the the shot and wait for the alcohol to evaporate.
Add the cream and mix for 1 minute to avoid burning. The more you cook the sauce, the thicker will get later on.
Remove the sauce from the heat.
Once the cake is ready, make some holes in the top and pour the caramel sauce on the top, use a brush to cover the whole surface.
For serving
Cut a portion, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a bit of caramel on top.
It was really tasty. I wonder how the restaurants serve it always warm! I guess the caramel sauce and cake can be pre-heated?
This is a “new” recipe It is a bit different from the one I used before as it doesnt use bread starter. One issue is still the sugar (I think) I use orange juice and that is not as sweet as Mosto.
Ingredients
250ml orange juice 125ml olive oil 62.5g sugar (next time use 100gr) 14g dry baker’s yeast (1 sacket) 2 medium eggs (reserve 1/2 for brushing) 1 pinch of salt 500g strong flour (>12gr protein) (maybe a bit more next time)
Process:
Warm up a bit the orange juice. Dont boil it. You should put a finger without burning
Mix in a bowl the orange juice, yeast, oil, sugar and eggs.
Add the flour bit by bit. And the salt, It will be sticky
Knead the dough by hand until smooth. Mine was sticker than the video and took me a while until it became that shiny.
Put it in a bowl and let it rest until double in size
Then divide the dough. I made pieces of 190gr aprox. Then pinch them to form a ball and shape them.
Let is rest until double is size
Pre-heat oven at 180C
Before baking, brush them with a mixed egg and add a pinch of sugar on top.
Bake until golden (20m or more)
Just before getting into the oven
After baking
The ones from my hometown are more spongy, mine are a bit too dense.
The color and share were good (still far from the real ones) and the taste as well was not close to it. Still you can enjoye them with a nice hot chocolate 🙂
I haven’t tried in a while so yesterday was the day. This hit the spot.
Simple ingredients and good result. Although I struggle when recipes use “cup” measures…. I did a smaller batch (two cups and one egg) and my batter was too liquid compared with the video, so I will have to try again.
Dry Ingredients
3 cups of flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tbsp baking soda
Wet Ingredients
2 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3 eggs
Frying
Butter or coconut oil (I guess whipped salted butter, is just buying salted butter and whip it?)
Process
Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl
Mix all wet ingredients in another bowl
Pour the wet mix into the dry bowl and mix a bit, dont overdo it.
This is the difficult part. In a hot pan (at mid-heat), use the butter or oil for frying. I used a small frying pan so I just did one big pancake at each time. Wait for the edges to by brown/fried. Dont stir. Once you see (several) bubbles on top, then you can flip the pancakes (I had to add a bit of oil to avoid burning)
I made 6 pieces. Dont look amazing but tasted really good. So can’t complain
This is a typical Portuguese cake. I have done it before, but some years ago so time to repeat. And this is the original recipe.
Carob can be used as a replacement for chocolate. It is a pity is not used much more.
Ingredients:
6 eggs (divided into whites and yolks)
200g sugar (brown if possible)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
200g melted butter
180g of self-rising cake flour (if not, normal flour)
1 tsp baking powder
60g carob powder (as much pure as possible)
50g chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc)
optional: 1 tbsp of alfarroba (carob) liquor or almond liquor (amarguinha)
Process:
Pre-heat oven 180C
Beat the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and butter until it becomes an aerated mix. You can use a hand mixer for this.
Shift the flours and baking powder together, and add gradually into the wet mix. Mix with a wood spoon!
Beat the egg whites into soft peaks, then fold into the batter.
Once all mixed, add the chopped nuts. Be sure they spread equally
Butter a cake pan. Then spread evenly the batter.
Bake for 30-35 minutes. The goal is to have a kind of brownie, moist. So try to not get the center fully dry. This is the most difficult part for me. So if the top is baked (with a crust) and using a toothpick doesnt come 100% clean, it is ok.
Take the cake and let it cool down
Before getting into the oven
Day after:
The look is quite “chocolaty” and tastes very good! But I overbaked it… the cake should be less dry.
2 balls of mozarrella (or smoked mozarrela if you find it)
Parmigiano
Process
Spread salt generously over the eggplants. Let is rest for 30 minutes. This is very important step to remove the acidiness.
The eggplants should have sweat some water. Clean all the slices with water and dried them with a towel.
In a sauce plan at medium heat, pour a glop of olive oil, when hot, add the garlic. Dont burnt it !!! Then add the tomato passate and basil/oregano. Add salt/pepper. Add a bit of honey, optional. Simmer for 30 minutes or so. Leave aside.
Heat up a pan with some sunflower oil to deep fry the eggplants. The oil is ready with you put the tip of a wood spoon and fezzes.
Pre-heat oven at 200C
Coat slightly the eggplant slices with flour and deep fry until golden in both sides. 2-3 minutes each side. This is the most tedious part. But it is worth it. After removing form the pan, use kitchen paper to absorbe excess oil.
In an oven dish (metal/glass), pour a bit of the tomate sauce. Add a layer of eggplant, add slices of mozarella, add some basil/oregano, grated parmigiano . Repeat: tomate, eggplant, mozarella, basil/oregano, grated parmigiano.
Bake in the oven at 200C for around 30 minutes of golden on top.
