Category Archives: dessert

Strawberry jam crumble tart

Posted on May 20, 2015 | Leave a comment

Are you craving a sweet treat that is unfussy? Try this delicious crumble tart with any jam flavor you fancy and reap a bounty of flavors in no time!

It’s been a hektic week, juggling hundred tasks, between work and home, especially we are moving to a new flat. I wanted to prepare something sweet but very easy and effortless. Right now, i am savoring one piece of this strawberry crumble tart while writing this post.

Share with me this pleasure, head to your kitchen right away to prepare this delectable tart, I am sure you have all the ingredients:

2 1/2 cup flour sifted
200g butter cold and cubed
1/2 cup confectioner sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla
300g jam (flavor of your choice)

Mix all together until it just starts to come together. You need a crumble like dough not a solid ball of dough.

Preheat you oven 200°C. Take 3/4 of the dough and roll it in your pan (10 inches) with a half cm thickness. Bake for 10 minutes before taking out to spread the jam on top of it. Use any jam you favor, i chose strawberry for this time.

Crumble the rest of the dough over the jam and bake again for another 10 minutes.

Let it cool before serving. Personally i like it at room temperature and also cold from the fridge. It’s one of the treats light in efforts but rich in flavors just bake and slice!

Satisfy your sweet tooth and Sahtein!

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Mandarin pound cake

Posted on May 12, 2015 | Leave a comment

I’ve been craving this tangy cake for long! A real pleasure to the palate, made with fresh mandarin (you can replace it with fresh oranges) and comes with a warning label: ADDICTIVE!

This pound cake is not just looking amazing but it’s also uber delicious; As its name suggests, it’s citrusy, rich and buttery, and will surely please a lot of people. A lot of you would like NOW to pick a piece or two out of the screen.

This recipe calls for:

Cake batter:

1cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (227g about 2 sticks)
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs at room temperature
1/3 cup grated mandarin zest
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed mandarin juice
3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tbsp rum

Mandarin syrup:

1/2 cup mandarin juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Mandarin glaze:

1 cup confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tbsp freshly squeezed mandarin juice

Many times it happens a recipe calls for buttermilk and you realize you don’t have or find at the nearest supermarket. Luckily you can do it at home in just 5 minutes. All you need is a cup of milk and 1 tbsp of vinegar or freshly squeezed lemon. Pour the milk on the vinegar and let it rest for 5-10 mns. I am sure lot of you will never buy again buttermilk once you know this easy substitution. If the recipe calls for more than a cup of buttermilk you can easily double the quantity.

Heat the oven to 180°C. Grease and flour your bundt pan.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. With the mixer on medium speed, beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the mandarin zest.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, combine the mandarin juice, the buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Pour the batter in the pan and smooth the tops.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a wooden skewer comes out clean.

Meantime while the cake is getting baked, prepare the syrup: Cook 1/2 cup of granulated sugar with 1/2 cup mandarin juice in a small saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves. When the cake is done, let it cool for 10 minutes. Take it out of the pan and place it on a baking rack set over a tray. Spoon the mandarin syrup over and allow it to cool completely.

To glaze, combine the confectioners sugar and mandarin juice in a bowl, mixing with a wire whisk until smooth. Add a few more drops of juice, if necessary, to make it pour easily. Pour over the top and allow to dry.

Wrap well, and store in the refrigerator.

Now I am sure it won’t last long stored in your fridge but it will be a staple in it especially it’s spring time!

Happy Baking!

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“Mini chef in the kitchen” 4 – delicious brownies with M&M

Posted on May 5, 2015 | Leave a comment

This simple and quick recipe is packed with chocolate flavor just as your kid loves it! It’s a basic recipe every mom should share with her mini chefs!

You will need:

1 1/3 cup flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
M&M for sprinkling on top

Mix all dry ingredients; flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Let your mini chef sift the cocoa powder.

In a separate bowl mix eggs, vanilla and oil then add them to the dry ingredients.

My son loves mixing! It is the best part for him, but don’t over mix, just the time to let all ingredients combined.

You can’t imagine how beneficial this exercise is, especially on the cognitive and motor skills. Click benefits of cooking with your kids to learn more about it.

Back to our delicious brownies, pour the batter in a greased baking dish (8×12”) and sprinkle the top with M&Ms.

Preheat oven (200°C) and bake for 20-25 mins or until skewer comes out clean.

You can add more M&Ms after baking, some might drown in! My mini chef suggestion!. Wait until is set to room temperature and cut. Get ready, by this time you will be asked thousand of times if it’s ready to be cut!

As i always say, the best part is when your kids taste the reward of their efforts. Now it’s time to pack some for the teacher in the nursery, friends and uncle to taste Nady’s chef d’oeuvre. He loves to share being proud of what he did!

I can assume it’s one of the best brownies i tasted. Crispy edges with chewy inside. Can’t get enough of it. It’s going to be the brownies recipe from now on!

Try it also with ice cream or chocolate sauce! Enjoy your time with your kids and have loads of educational fun !

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

Reasons to cook with your kids – “Mini chef in the kitchen” 1- Nutella mini tarts recipe

Posted on April 29, 2015 | 4 comments

How many times you let your kids out of the kitchen, having no time to let them be involved, or just being tired and drained out of energy, or simply not in the mood. However i am sure there were many other times you really enjoyed cooking or baking together with so much fun.

No doubt, cooking with kids takes more time and effort, but for the many learning experiences you can embrace while your kids are in the kitchen, i encourage you to do it more often. Trust me the benefits to their development justify the extra efforts.

Reasons to cook with your kids:

Literacy (building vocabulary): cooking with kids gives you the opportunity to introduce new words. You will be talking about the ingredients which gives them food knowledge. They will be observing and talking about the process as well (like creaming, whisking,…). It’s good to mention the new words several times and put them in a sentence they will understand and repeat after you. And when you read for them the recipe (if they can’t read yet) they will learn also that there is a method and instructions to follow. When am with with my son i enjoy mostly the open conversation we have all the time of cooking.

Brain development by exploring their senses: sensory experience is essential for the brain development. Cooking engage all the senses of your kids; seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting (especially smelling and tasting). My son is the curious type he likes to taste everything!

Motor skills: Developing fine and gross motor skills is as important as the sensory experience. They will be training their tiny muscles (fingers, hands, arms and even all body) by stirring, whisking, beating, kneading….. I love watching my son doing all this, i see a small proud man using his beautiful hands magically 🙂

Math and logic: By counting and using the measuring cups or spoons to follow the accurate recipe.

Self esteem: you will experience the look of confidence and pride on your kid’s face when he sees the outcome and especially when he offers it to others. When i bake with my son, he keeps on telling what he did to everyone he sees, and insists on offering some of “his creations” saying : “Nady did this!” waiting for the rewards for his efforts.

All these benefits go without neglecting the amount of fun we have and the quality time together which is sacred for me.

The most important thing though is you don’t force the learning to happen, it should flow naturally. The golden rule is to enjoy the time with your kids in the kitchen.

If you like to cook with your kids but you are struggling to find simple recipes to do, follow me this week. I will be writing a series of posts with easy recipes to enjoy cooking with your mini chefs!

Today we baked mini Nutella tarts. You will need:

250g flour (sifted)
125g cold butter diced
3-4 tbsp water
nutella chocolate

Let your kid sieve the flour into a mixing bowl and add the butter cubes.

Rub the flour and butter to become like sand. Add the water one tbsp after the other and watch your genius kneading.

We placed the dough for 15 mins in the fridge before working it. Meanwhile we cleaned the mess around us.

Sprinkle little flour on your working surface and roll out the dough.

and cut circles to fit in the muffin tray.

Nady cut also hearts and stars to decorate the top of each tart.

Put almost one tbsp of the chocolate into the middle of each tart.

Let your kid choose any shape to decorate the top of the tart.

Preheat oven to 200°C and bake for 15 mns or until top is golden brown.

Meanwhile arrange again the mess you did, teaching your kids to be clean and tidy, which is an important and fun part of cooking as well.

Let it cool before your little chef taste the reward of his efforts.

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Posted in dessert, kids food, way to play

Tagged beirut, benefits of cooking with kids, blog, Brain development, chocolate, cooking, cooking with kids, easy recipe, food blogger, jaymmy, kids food, little chefs, marmite et ponpon, nutella, qatar, sensory experience, simple recipes, tart

Peach rose tartlets celebrating spring

Posted on March 26, 2015 | 2 comments

A beautiful and elegant tart, ideal to welcome the spring season and embellish your Easter tabel. Very refreshing and fall in the wow category of desserts, and what makes them even better they are very easy to do.

For these bright tarts you need to prepare Crème pâtissière (pastry cream). Check the link of the recipe posted earlier.

To make the crust you need: (yields 12 small-medium tarts)

100g butter
1 1/2 cup flower
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Combine all together and knead until the dough is smooth. Let it rest couple of hours or better overnight before rolling it in small tart molds.

Bake for 6-8 minutes on 180°C, Keep on checking, when the edges start to turn to golden, it’s time to remove, you don’t want them to get brown.

Remove form oven and let it cool. Take out the pastry cream already prepared and stored in the fridge, spread a rich layer of the cream before adding the peach slices.

If you are hosting a lunch or even afternoon tea, prepare them an hour ahead and keep them in the fridge. The best served cold, soooo refreshing!

If you are not fan of peach, you could substitute the peach with strawberry or pineapple and still deliver the same WOWness!

As festive as flavorful, these tarts are to be considered on your to do list for this season. You would love to close your eyes when eating to involve all your senses.

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More posts yet to come, stay tuned!