sweet

Spiced, gooey brownies with candied ginger

April 1, 2019 by Ariel Leave a Comment

Ohhhhh snap. These are the good ones.

When I first made this recipe, a few week ends ago, my bestie and I added a little secret ingredient to make them “magical” and then we went on this crazy adventure all around Montreal. Allow me to be dead honest, some parts of this adventure is a little blurry today but overall we had a blast and I’ll forever cherish this memory. Today, I’m offering you the updated, upgraded and non magical version of this delicious creation which I hope you’ll love as much as I do.

The recipe doesn’t make that many brownies and can easily be a serving for one. I used a much smaller pan (6″ x 8″) to make sure they are thick enough so all the gooeyness shines through. It’s also my fifth time tweaking this recipe (my friends are drowning in brownies from all the previous batches as it would have been impossible for me to eat everything) to make sure they are banging and I really think they are!

If you’re a fan of decadence and gooeyness, you got to try this recipe. Enjoy!

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Angel food cake

March 20, 2019 by Ariel Leave a Comment

It took me a little time to tweak this one even if it’s a very simple recipe. Most of everything found out there (I thought) uses way too many egg whites and since I live alone, the last thing I wanted was to end up having to eat a huge cake on my own. Not that I wouldn’t be able to eat it in full but, this where I have to draw the line at being a solitary foodie.

So this recipe only uses 6 egg whites and make a much smaller cake which is perfect if you live alone and/or you just don’t like to share your food (like Joey from Friends). The most important aspect of this preparation is to make sure you start with stiff peaks when whisking your egg whites AND that you take your time to fold the flour/powdered sugar mix in to the egg whites. After this, you’re pretty much set and you’ll soon have a deliciously fluffy sponge cake to devour.

Growing up, this cake has always been my all time favourite and if I had known how easy it was to make it, I would have stopped buying the pre-made ones at the grocery full of bad ingredients. Everything is always better when it’s homemade so don’t get too intimidated by the procedure, it’s really not that complexed.

Angel food cake

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour 5 mins

Author: ZestyandSpicy.com

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 1 cake

Ingredients

Bowl 1
- ½ cup of all purpose flour, sifted
- ½ cup of powdered sugar, sifted
Bowl 2
- 6 room temperature egg whites
- ½ cup of regular cane sugar
- ½ teaspoon of cream of tartar
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon of almond extract

Instructions

- Pre-heat the oven at 350, DO NOT GREASE the tube pan.
- Sift all the ingredients of the bowl #1, reserve.
- Mix in the egg whites the cream of tartar, both extracts, salt and a bit of the sugar and start whisking with an electric mixer. Gradually add more cane sugar while mixing on the fastest level until the full ½ cup if incorporated and you end up with STIFF PEAKS.
- Take the flour/powdered sugar mix from the bowl #1 and VERY SLOWLY FOLD IT in to the egg whites. Take your time on this step, if you go too fast, the cake won't rise as much as it should.
- Transfer the batter in to the UNGREASED mold, smooth the top and put in the oven for 45minutes.
- Cool down the cake upside down on a cooling rack and gently unmold once it's fully cooled down.

Sourdough maple sticky buns

February 11, 2018 by Ariel 2 Comments

If you’re nursing a sourdough starter, there’s always this one day where you have too much of it and, before feeding it, you have to discard some. Since I don’t like thinking I’ve been “wasting” all this precious flour and water, this recipe is a delicious way to use your discarded starter.

There’s only one word to describe these… AMAZEBALLS. They are drenched in maple and brown sugar and the bread texture is soft and elastic. I really hope you’ll get a chance to try this recipe because it’s absolutely delicious and really easy to do.

Definitely one of those sweet treat worth cheating on your diet.

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Sweet Sesame, Potato & Chickpea Curry on Black Japanese Rice

September 5, 2016 by Ariel Leave a Comment

This is clearly not a traditional curry but it is inspired from what I know about the culture.

The idea started from the seasoning attached to this recipe. Pre-made spice blends save my life when I’m uninspired after a long day working and, this seasoning was inspired from the episode of Chef’s Table (…on netflix, you HAVE to watch it) where they featured the progressive restaurant Gaggan in Bankok. The way Gaggan Anand described the perfect flavour balance of his dish made my head spin and this is what I was able to come up with. Some red chili powder would be interesting to give it a spicier twist but, I sadly didn’t have any on hands. Instead, I choose to top the curry with a little bit of Kochukaru (Korean red pepper flakes, used in kimchi) and it gave it the little spiciness I didn’t add in the seasoning.

I hope you’ll enjoy this potato & chickpea curry recipe and new spice blend attached to it. Make sure to have a small container for the remaining seasoning because you’ll have extra to be creative with.

Happy Cooking! *^_^*

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Maple & Carrot Semolina Cake

September 13, 2015 by Ariel 1 Comment

Just tasted this beauty I made yesterday.

Usually, it’s not my style to let some freshly baked goods wait on the counter before being honoured by our palates but, by the time it had come to the right temperature, it was getting way too late for me to indulge in such decadence. As a first “fall baking” project, I’m very pleased with the results and I’m sure you’ll be pleased to. The final texture is extremely silky soft and dense, very close to a pound cake but with a nice variation because of the semolina flour.

Cut yourself a slice, toast it the traditional way or put in the oven for a few minutes before devouring it with melted butter or cream cheese spread on top.. It’s worth it.

Bon Appétit!

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Avocado Brownies! ….no brownie pan needed!

May 19, 2015 by Ariel 3 Comments

Have you ever woken up from an amazing night of sleep craving something terrible?

Here I was, 7:30am, in my kitchen baking brownies and trying to find a way to avoid using any oil or butter because it’s not because I want to pig out on brownies at 7:30am that I want to gain a million pounds.

Did you know you can substitute avocado for butter using a 1 : 1 ratio in your baked goods and get the same result?

O_O

YES YOU CAN!! …and these bad boys are the perfect example that it is possible to bake without butter or oil. Pillow soft (80% cake like and 20% fudge like), not too sweet and a perfectly balanced dark chocolate taste for the fancy palate.

I have topped mine with simple, sliced almonds but add a little sugar glaze on top and they become out of this world!

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Max’s Pink Smoothie

April 3, 2015 by Ariel 1 Comment

Max’s always like his breakfast smoothies to be sweet and full of fruits. While I’m on a the green smoothie train, he usually prefer to step away from the heartily kale for the sweetness of the fruits. I’ll admit, this smoothie is pretty delicious but………… I still prefer mine 😛 hihi

If you’re like him and have a sweet tooth, this is for you!

Enjoy!

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Moist Orange & Almond Buckwheat Cakes in Light Syrup

April 16, 2013 by Ariel 3 Comments

I havent had much time in my kitchen lately, 2 weeks ago I had one of my contracted model Gemma Lynx staying at my place for a full week to shoot for her upcoming website and the next after that, Max and I got super sick. It was such a pleasure to go back to my pots and pans the week end after getting better, smelling all my spices and plan a bunch of tasty goodies for my friends and family. One of the first thing I wanted to make once I got back was some sweets, it’s one of the funnest thing to create for me and I wanted to start using this awesome buckwheat flour I had bought at the grocery a few days before.

I LOOOOOOVE buckwheat and I’m happy Max likes it too because it’s extremely healthy. I invited one of my friend who kept telling me that he hate buckwheat to have him taste my latest creation because I like to challenge people like that. Now I can officially say that he now changed his mind about this flour right after tasting my moist orange & almond buckwheat cakes.

Like I just said, these cakes are extremely moist and drench in an infused light syrup with cloves, star anise, pepper, coriander seed and cardamon pods… Give them a try, it’s so worth it.

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Sweet & Salty Cajun Roasted Almonds

February 2, 2013 by Ariel 4 Comments

I always have nuts laying around in my house. Either roasted with spices or just raw, I love them all. It’s a great and healthy way for me to get a boost of energy and make sure I eat all your good fat and control my blood sugar to get me through the day at the computer or on the go at a photo shoot. I’ve been wanting to show you all the great recipes you can do with my homemade cajun spice blend but didn’t had much time as you can probably see by the number of updates on the site. So this morning I decided that enough was enough and I had to shoot at least one recipe! Good news, I ended shooting 3 new recipes including this one so make sure you don’t miss the next updates because they are going to be delicious 😛

Ok enough chatting and more recipe right? I hope you’ll enjoy this simple snack that can be eaten on the go or maybe while you’re watching the football game on Sunday? 😉

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Roasted Fennel with Grains of Paradise, Honey and Thyme

January 25, 2013 by Ariel 1 Comment

I meant to post this yesterday but life had decided otherwise…

Here’s the first recipe of many others where I’m using the amazing grains of paradise that we learned about in my previous post. Like I told you in that post, one of my favorite uses for these amazing peppery seeds is on roasted veggies and what’s better than roast fennel bulbs seriously. This recipe is simple and delicious plus you can serve this side dish with pretty much anything. I personally love it on the side of a big juicy steak 😉

Enjoy!

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