Rose petal and cranberry for a romantic panettone

Let’s have a bite of dolce vita…

Blog-checking lines: The December 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by the talented Marcellina of Marcellina in Cucina. Marcellina challenged us to create our own custom Panettone, a traditional Italian holiday bread!

Yes, the flavor has just been invented. Sweetened dry cranberries, soaked in a little Christmas tea and dry rose petals. I added a little orange blossom water to the dough and that’s all.

Yep, broken. I tried to hang it to dry. Well, never again. LOL.

It’s very “cake-like”, maybe next time, I’ll use bread flour. But besides, it’s delicious for me. I wouldn’t trade it for those industrial ones like M*tt*.

My recipe. I mix in my home-bakery :

For 3 mini panettoni

A
25 cl lukewarm water (or skim milk)
2 ts dry yeast
350 g cake flour
1/2 ts sea salt
B
60 g black sugar
0.5 ts dry yeast
1 tbs orange blossom water
3 egg yolk
90 g softened butter
C
1/2 cup dry sweetened cranberries
prepared tea
dried roses

Day 1 : Mix A and knead. Let overnight.
Day 2 : Add B, knead. Let double. Add C. Let triple.
Bake a 160 degree Celsius.

Would sting for cake… honey, it’s a beehive torte

Bienenstich (bee sting) or nid d’abeilles (beehive) is a Summer brioche. Serve it very very cold, on a garden table, in the shade of a tree. You’ll see thousands of bees preying on it. Well I have not tried, I don’t want to risk losing even a bit of it to insects…

What’s the deal ?

1+1+1= une tuerie(food to slaughter for).

The honey is hidden in the cream fudge…

… or this looks like honeycomb ? Well, if you had the good taste to make it flat, you could place the almond slices one by one on the top…

Cream is hidden in the brioche… not well hidden. There is more cream than cake.

Rich brioche. I flavored it with honey, pomelo zest and orange blossom water.

Very cold milky vanilla cream.

Carnival doughnuts : orange blossom farting nuns

This is the season of Carnival in Europe. The tradition is to make all sorts of beignets (doughnuts).
The pets de nonnes are very popular home-made treats in France.
Pets de nonne literally means “farts of a nun”.

Because this looks like a nun’s veil. And the sainte woman can “prout prout” into the oil :

Even if actually most people use a spoon and gets this round shape.

That’s a pâte à choux(same dough as cream puff). I made it, this time, with olive oil and water instead of milk and butter, but don’t worry, that doesn’t make them healthy at all. They are flavored with orange blossom water and cane sugar and the olive oil, the trio is great.

When fried, they double of volume.

So they are very light, fluffy, full of air :

They are delicious hot or room temperature, with or without sugar on top. And that’s addictive, if you eat one, you eat them all. And you become phaaaat like a pig, but that doesn’t matter because you’re going to Lent till your so skinny that you need an emergency refueling of chocolate. Well, whatever your religious practice : enjoy the Carnaval Mardi-Gras !