This is the reason why I love berries...

Have a lovely week...

Raspberry Sorbet

Last weekend, even though strawberry season was over, I visited Andrew's Scenic Acres hoping there would be some left. I was really disappointed to see that there were barely any strawberries left, until I saw a girl leaving with a big basket of RASPBERRIES. I could get some berries after all!. It was the perfect day for raspberry picking, cloudy but nicely warm and humid, just the perfect day of summer!...

Raspberry Sorbet came to mind as I kept picking all the fresh berries! 

Raspberry Sorbet

200 g of sugar
180 ml water
750 ml red wine
400 g raspberries

Bring to a boil the sugar, water and wine in order to burn the alcohol from the wine. Let boil for over a min, then remove from the heat, add the raspberries and cover. Let it sit for 1 hour, strain the mixture to get rid of all the little seeds and refrigerate until completely chilled.

Freeze in an ice cream maker as instructed by the manufacturer and ENJOY!

A different Rhubarb recipe!

As we are heading into spring time, I couldn't help but notice all the beautiful rhubarbs at my produce shop. I've never tried rhubarb before, so I didn't really know what the flavour would be or what to expect, but I knew I wanted to cook it in a unique way, so... I started thinking of ways to use it. I wanted to make some sweet tamales and thought that a nice rhubarb filling would be a great idea, and I was right, the taste was amazing! So I was really glad that my new creation actually went really well. I guess I was in a creative mood and really just went with it!.. I'll do this more often!

Rhubarb Sweet tamales

Ingredients:

For the Rhubarb filling:

3 rhubarbs cut into 1 inch chunks
1/3 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean

Tamales:

2 cups of natural corn flour "Minsa Tamales" brand
1 cup of water
1 cup of sweet and condensed milk
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter

12 cornhusks previously boiled

Directions:

For the filling, place the rhubarb chunks with the sugar and vanilla bean seeds over medium heat, put the lid on and stir the rhubarb once every 5 mins for approx 15 mins until you get a thick marmalade consistency. Meanwhile prepare the tamales dough. First beat the butter until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl combine the corn flour, baking powder and salt. Add the water and sweet & condensed milk until thick. Add the thick batter to the butter and beat until everything is well combined.

To asemble, put a spoonful of the batter into the previously boiled corn husks (this make them soft and manageable). Spread the batter with your spoon in the middle of the corn husk, then add a teaspoon of the filling and wrap it to avoid the filling or the tamale batter to spread out. Steam the tamales in a deep pot for almost 1 hour or until the batter is set. You can eat them at this point or if you want for them to be more set you can let them cool in the fridge and reheat them later. ENJOY!

And if you want to kick it up a nodge, you can serve your tamales with a delicious, hot, silky and sweet atole.. believe me, on a weather like today where I am seeing just outside my window a weird mix of icy rain.... it is a great treat!

GB Breads & Cookies ...

I have not been posting a lot of recipes lately, it has been a crazy winter. Taking 2 baking courses plus doing my regular work hasn't been easy. So, I will just be posting today a couple of pictures to show you what I have been up to!..

I have been absolutely enjoying these courses and in May I'll come back for more!! I still have 3 weeks to go but meanwhile here is a peek of what I have baked so far..

I promise to post more recipes soon! And just letting you know I also started uploading videos on How To... some of the recipes: White Bread Video & Lemon Blossom Cookies!

Stay tuned!

White Bread

Lemon Blossoms (Butter Cookies)