May 15

Roulette is one of my favorite desserts. There are a variety of ways to change up the recipe and add variations that satisfy your taste buds!! For now I am sharing a simple recipe for this tasty sweet.

Roulette

Roulette

Ingredients (serves at least 6 people):
5 eggs
5 tablespoons sugar
Powdered Sugar–desired amount
1 to 1.5 tablespoons vanilla
oil
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4.5-5 tablespoons flour
heavy whipping cream –enough to use inside the roll and outside the roll

Directions for making bread for roulette:
Place foil in a 13 in X 9 in pan. Grease the foil a bit and sprinkle with some flour. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Use two large bowls. In one add the 5 egg whites and in another add the 5 egg yolks.

In the bowl with the egg whites add 1.5 tablespoons sugar and use a mixer to mix it until the egg whites puff up.

In the bowl with the egg yolks add 3.5 tablespoons sugar (remainder of sugar) and blend well with blender. Then add the vanilla and 3 tablespoons of oil and blend well again. Finally add the baking powder and flour and blend.

Now add the egg white mixture to the egg yolk mixture and use a spatula to gently mix the contents. Note: do not stir too much.

Empty the mixture into the pan and spread out evenly then place in oven for 10 - 12 minutes (if you think it needs more time or less time to cook adjust the time…ovens vary). Before you remove the roulette bread wet a towel and have it prepared to move the foil onto.

When you remove the pan from the oven take the foil off and place it onto the wet towel you have prepared. Begin rolling the foil with the bread still on it and then wrap the wet towel over the foil. This well help it cool faster. Set the bread aside for 30 minutes to 45 minutes.

step1roulette

Directions to prepare the cream filling:
In a bowl mix together heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar (to any desired sweetness). You want to use the mixer and mix until the whip cream becomes thick and forms peaks.

Leave the whip cream in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. I usually make the whip cream after I set the rolled up bread aside to cool.

step2roulette

Directions to prepare the Roulette:
Once you are ready to apply the whip cream to the rolled up bread you will remove the towel and then un-roll the foil and bread. Gently separate the bread from the foil …be careful it can tear up easily if not careful.

step3roulette

Using a spatula apply whip cream to the inside of the bread and then gradually begin rolling the bread again.

step4roulette
step5roulette

You can then apply whip cream on the outside.

step6roulette

If you chose you can even add cocoa or something else to the whip cream you are applying on the outside to decorate it or add a bit of variety to the flavor (you can be creative).

step7roulette

Place the Roulette in the fridge for 3-4 hours prior to serving.

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Apr 26
Bastani Akbar Mashti

Bastani Akbar Mashti

Its almost summer and what better way to celebrate than have my all time favorite Persian Bastani (ice cream) Akbar Mashti!!! Below is a simple way to make this treat. :)

Ingredients (for at least 8 servings):
3 quarts creamy/rich vanilla ice cream
1/2 pint heavy whip cream — you can adjust the amount of whip cream based on your desire to have more or less in the ice cream

3/4 cup rose water (golab) — you can adjust this amount to your liking
chopped pistachio –desired amount (usually not too much ~ 1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon saffron –might be best to mix with a tad bit of hot water to become liquid prior to use (adjust the amount if you desire more or less saffron)

Directions:
First you will need to pour the whip cream into a deep enough plate where you can place it in the freezer to become frozen. You don’t want it to be too thick, so if needed use more than one dish to pour the whip cream into. Once the whip cream is frozen you want to take a knife and cut it until little square pieces are formed.

Something to keep in mind is that you dont want the ice cream to melt when you are preparing it. I typically put ice in a large bowl and then put a smaller bowl on top of the larger bowl…the ice will keep the smaller bowl cold. Then pour all the vanilla ice cream into the smaller bowl and use a large spoon or spatula to mix the ice cream. Add the saffron, rose water, frozen whip cream squares and pistachio (you might want to keep some pistachios for later) and stir with the spatula until everything is evenly mixed.

Once the Akbar Mashti is mixed up pout the ice cream into a suitable container that can be placed back in the fridge. At this time if you like sprinkle some pistachios on top of the ice cream (this is best if using a rectangular or square container to store the bastani in). Allow the ice cream to freeze again and then serve as desired.

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Mar 18

Samanoo is one of the seven items that is typically placed on the Sofreh Haftseen for Norouz. However, it can be made and eaten at any time. The sweetness is all natural and comes from the wheat, but some choose to add more sugar.

Ingredients:
250 grams of unpelted wheat –the same that is used to grow sabzeh
1000 grams of wheat flour — I used whole wheat
sugar (optional) –for those who want a sweeter Samanoo

In other words you use four times more wheat flour compared to your wheat.

Video Recipe:

Directions:
Making it takes a couple of days.

Day 1
Wash the unpelted wheat and soak in a bowl with cold water.

Day 2
Empty out the water in the bowl and add cold water once again.

Day 3
Wet a paper towel and place it on the bottom of a dish (a dish you plan to have the sabzeh grow in). Use a strainer to empty the wheat and rinse the wheat. After you rinse the what add it to the dish with the wet paper towel on the bottom. Soak cotton cloths (or paper towels) and place on top of the wheat. Place this dish in a warm area. Note: you will notice that roots are beginning to appear.

Day 4 - Day 6
Wet the cotton cloths at least twice a day until the wheat roots/sprouts have grown. When you begin to see some of the sprouts turning green thats when you know the wheat is ready to be used for the making of Samanoo.

Note: it may be that you will need to grow your wheat a bit longer. Its important to keep an eye on the spouts and decide when they are ready.

Day 7
On this day my wheat was ready to be used for making Samanoo. To begin you will break off amounts of the wheat (sprouts and roots included) and put it in a blender, add water, and puree/liquefy the wheat. Keep breaking off bits of the wheat and add to the blender with additional amounts of water. By the time all the wheat is blended the concentration will look like oatmeal or Halim.

Empty the contents of the blender into a fine mesh strainer (the strainer should be placed over a bowl). Slowly turn the blended wheat around so that the liquid can seep through. Note: you dont want to push anything through the strainer besides the liquid. Then transfer the blended wheat into a cotton cloth. You will wrap up the sides of the cloth and begin squeezing any remaining liquid milk out into the bowl.

Then empty the contents of the cloth back into the blender, add more water, and liquefy/puree a bit more. Then repeat the steps of using the strainer and then the cloth. You want to continue this process until the milky color is no longer visible. For the amount of wheat mentioned above (250 grams), I repeated the steps about six times.

Then in a large pot add your wheat flour. Gradually begin pouring the liquid onto the flour and mix. You want to add enough of the liquid so that the flour has no lumps and is smooth.

Turn the burner heat on to a medium temperature. Constantly stir the mixture. Since I used whole wheat the color darkened quicker. However, whole wheat does have a texture due to the Saboos (bran). Also, the sweetness usually comes from the unpelted wheat, but if you prefer your Samanoo to be very sweet you should add some sugar.

You need to continue stirring until the water is completely evaporated. Once the water is evaporated the mixture will look something like Halva. You want to fry it for a couple of minutes (no need to add any oil since the wheat has natural oils). Then begin adding hot water gradually and stirring again so no lumps exist.

You can place the lid onto the pot in a way which stream can still escape. You no longer need to continuously stir, instead you can stir every 10-15 minutes. Again you want to allow the water to evaporate and the Samanoo to thicken.

Once the it is close to being ready you can even place a cloth or towel onto the lid and cover the pot for an additional 30 minutes to gather additional moisture.

This process takes awhile, and for the amount of wheat and wheat flour I used it took approximately 5 hours from the time I began cooking the mixture for the Samanoo to prepare. After its ready you can pour it into a dish and allow it to cool before serving.

Samanoo

Samanoo

It helps to have some extra people around to stir :)

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