Hallullas, a chilean bread

In Chile, families either buy marraquetas or hallullas as the bread to be enjoy at home. Hallullas are a lot easier to do at home. This recipe captures the flavor of the hallulla. Enjoy!

Hallullas
for 24 breads

Ingredients:

     500 grams all purpose flour
     275-290 ml of warm water
     1 packet of yeast (7 grams)
     1 teaspoon granulated sugar
     2 teaspoons of fine salt
     50 grams of vegetable shortening or butter at room temperature

Preparation:

     Mix together the flour, yeast, salt and sugar, star adding water to form a dough. Knead for 5 minutes with the bread machine or mixer or 10 minutes by hand.
     Add the butter, mix until fully incorporated in the dough, knead 10 minutes more with the machine or 20 minutes by hand until the dough is soft and smooth dough. Let stand covered 10 minutes.
     Extending the dough over a floured counter until it reach a thickness of 1 cm, folded in half and stretch again, repeat the stretch and fold steps 4 times in total. Sprinkle with flour if necessary.
     Re-roll the dough until it is of 5-7mm thick, cut with a 10cm round cake pan diameter. Place on greased baking sheet or silicone paper.
     Let rise in a warm place for 1 ½ hours or until double in size.
     Preheat oven to 400F or 200C.
     Bake until very browned, about 16-18 minutes.
     Remove, let cool on a wire rack and eat!

Lucuma mousse

A delicious and different mousse, it highlight the flavor of the lucuma.

Bavarois or Lucuma mousse 
8 people

Ingredients:

     1 can evaporated milk, very cold
     1 1/2 cup whipping cream
     2 envelopes unflavored gelatin (14 grams)
     1 pot of mashed lucuma (400 grams), available in Latin Supermarkets. Is like a jelly.
     4 tablespoons cold water

Preparation:

     In a small bowl put 4 tablespoons of water, sprinkle the gelatin powder and stir with a small spoon or stick, ensuring that all the gelatin gets wet.
     Mix the cream with the evaporated milk and beat at high speed for 8 minutes. It should double in volume.
     Add the mashed lucuma and beat until fully incorporated about 3 minutes on high speed.
     In the meantime put the gelatin in the microwave at full power and heat 15 seconds, stir, if not completely dissolved, heat 5 seconds more, repeating until it all dissolved.
     Add the dissolved gelatin, strain if necessary, to the mixture of lucuma, beating at low speed.
     Pour entire mixture into the mold where it will be serve. It can be placed into a mold that can go to the refrigerator and then unmold to serve.
     Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.
     Serve cold.

Granados-Chilean Summer bean soup

This soup scream summer when my country is bursting with crops of corn, tomatoes, beans and everything is sweet and full of flavor. This soup is vegetarian in is conception. Some people will top the soup with a braised chorizo, but most of the people will eat it just like this, toped with a spoon of a mixture of lard or oil with sweet paprika.

Granados-Chilean Summer bean soup
4-6 people
Ingredients:

• 750 grams of beans, I used speckled butter beans, shelled (without pods)
• 1 large or 2 medium onion, diced
• 2 cups winter squash, like butternut, already peeled and diced, about 400 grams
• 3 ears of corn or a bag of frozen corn
• basil, a small bunch
• 1 tomato, peeled, seeded and diced, optional
• Salt and pepper
• 1 clove garlic, minced, optional
• paprika to serve

Preparation:

1. In a large pot bring to boil the beans in cold water with salt. Once boiling, cover and cook 15-20 minutes. Once cooked strain, saving the cooking water for the soup.
2. In the same pan heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil, add onion and cook for 5 minutes stirring occasionally, until translucent. Add garlic if using, cook 1 minute.
3. Add the corn, squash, tomatoes and basil if using, salt and pepper to taste, stir and add the water used to cook the beans, just enough to cover the vegetables. If using fresh corn, you can add it grated and avoid using the blender later.
4. Cover and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes until the pumpkin is cooked. With the blender grind the vegetables, leaving a few pieces or to taste.
5. Add the beans and heat all, adjust the seasoning. Serve hot with paprika.

Enjoy!

Dulce de leche walnut cake, manjar walnut cake

A classic cake from Chile, were you can buy it everywhere. We call the dulce de leche "manjar" it translate as delicacy, pretty much everybody in Chile is a die hard of the flavor. Many of us grew up eating it as a sandwich, very much like peanut butter and jelly we ate ours manjar cheese. And this cake is one of the best sellers at bakeries.


Dulce de leche walnut cake
20 people-25 cm in diameter
Ingredients:
for walnut cake,
180 grams of roasted nuts in the skillet over medium heat, about 8 minutes
85 grams of granulated sugar
30 grams all purpose flour (if you have bread flour use it)
4 eggs
1 egg yolk
3 egg whites
30 grams of granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
30 grams butter, melted and hot


Preheat oven to 200C or 400F. Prepare 3 round cake pan 9 "or 23cm in diameter, cover the bottom with a circle of silicone paper. In food processor finely grind the nuts and the 85 grams of granulated sugar. Mix with the flour in a large bowl and stir. 
Working with a standmixer or hand blender incorporate to the flour mixture the eggs beating on low speed one at a time, add the yolk, once incorporated beat on medium speed until mixture looks smooth and light. In another bowl very clean make a meringue: Beat the egg whites on high speed until foamy. Add a pinch of salt and vanilla, beating on low speed now add 30 grams of granulated sugar slowly as a stream. Then beat on high speed until a firm, shiny meringue, about 5 minutes.
Carefully add the meringue  to the nuts batter, 1/3 first and then the rest of the meringue. Divide into 3 molds of 23 cm in diameter, weigh to make sure to put the same amount of batter (about 210 grams each). 
Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until they are brown and dry to the touch.

for the sweet syrup to moisten the cake,
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar


In a small saucepan heat water and sugar over low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolved. Allow to cool.

to assemble the cake,
3 walnut cake
syrup
1 1/2 kilo of dulce de leche (3 cans of manjar La Lechera) warmed in the microwave to make it easier to spread, pour each jar in a bowl and heat about 30-45 seconds, stir well
2 cups chopped walnuts for garnish and sprinkle toasted


Unmold the cakes, reserving the most beautiful and smooth for the last layer. Place the first cake layer and sprinkle with 1/3 sweet syrup, cover with a layer of warm dulce de leche and sprinkle with chopped nuts. Repeat with the next layer, ending with a layer of cake, moisten with the remaining third of syrup and cover the entire cake with dulce de leche, sprinkle with nuts if desired. Let stand overnight.

Chacarero, an easy steak, green beans, tomato sandwich

Whoever happened to think that green beans belongs in a sandwich deserves our gratitude. Even my husband who is Chilean had forgotten how good is this sandwich and was not excited with this diner, then obviously wanted more. In Chile, is made in marraqueta, but you can replace it with French bread.
This sandwich has no mayonnaise or ketchup, if you like heat you can slice a light green chile, I usually use the thai chile.

Chacarero, an easy steak, green beans, tomato sandwich
for 2 people

Ingredients:

•      1 marraqueta or French bread slices lightly toasted
•      1 sirloin steak tenderized or cube steak
•      green beans
•      tomato
•      butter

Preparation:

1. Wash the green beans, cut the ends, and cut them lengthwise with a knife. Place them in a bowl and add a splash of water and sprinkle of salt, cook in the microwave 6 minutes, taste and cook until tender but still crisp. In my microwave they take 8 minutes. Allow to cool.
2. Add salt and pepper to the meat. In a medium skillet over high heat heat 1 teaspoon oil and cook the steak 1 minute per side. Cut into strips if desired.
3. Cut the tomatoes into slices and season with salt.
4. Cut and smear the bread with butter, place the meat, then tomatoes and chile if using, and finally the green beans. Serve immediately.

Truffle cake, truffle torte

This cake is very popular in Chile, is not your usual pancake, their are very thin layers of cake, much like tradicional European pastries. It is a labor of love, but the taste is amazing.

Truffle cake pancake
for a 24cm or 8' diameter cake, about 30 people

for the ganache,

     450 grams of chopped couverture chocolate, I use one with 60% cocoa, Callebaut brand
     2 1/4 cups of heavy whipping cream cold
      4 tablespoons butter at room temperature

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl.
Place the cream in a small saucepan or in a Pyrex glass, heat over medium heat or microwave until it boils gently and you can see bubbles around the edges. Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate and let stand 1 minute. With a spatula or wooden spoon stir, in circles starting from the center out, the mixture to obtain a shiny chocolate cream, this takes some time, it is important to stir gently to keep it shiny, do not beat. Add the butter and stir until completely dissolved with the same gentle and circular movements.
Cool the ganache over the counter, will solidified to have a consistency like mayonnaise, this is the time to use it to fill and decorate.

for pancakes,

     500 grams of flour all purpose
     2 teaspoons of baking powder
     400 grams of granulated sugar
     12 eggs
     375 grams of butter at room temperature

preparation:
Preheat oven to 350F or 180C.
Prepare 15 circles of 24cm-8' diameter of silicone paper, leaving an ear to handle them.
Separate the whites from the yolks. Combine the flour with the baking powder.
In a bowl beat the egg whites until foamy with mixer on high speed, about 3 minutes.
In a bowl working with a mixer cream the butter with the sugar. With the mixer on low speed now start adding the yolks to the butter mixture wait to be incorporated before adding the next egg yolk, in total about 5 minutes. Then add 1/3 of the mixture of flour and baking powder, beat at low speed to incorporate, add half of the egg whites, then the other 1/3 of the flour mixture, the remaining whites and the latest addition to the flour mixture. Beat on low speed until it forms a homogeneous batter.Place 1/2 cup of batter in each prepared paper and spread with a spatula or knife, leaving an even layer, work on top of a half sheet pan.Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, do not let it brown because they have more tendency to break and stick. Peel the paper of and start filling the cake immediately, putting a thin layer of ganache between each pancake. You will have some 15-16 pancakes.Covered the whole cake in ganache and then put a layer of chocolate glaze.For glaze,Reserve 1/2 cup of ganache in a pyrex jar, heat 10 seconds in the microwave, add 1 tablespoon or honey, mix and drop into the center of the cake, then gently tip over the cake, refrigerate for 5 minutes to solidify.
This cake does not need to be refrigerated, leave it rest the whole night. Enjoy the next day.
For more pictures you can visit my Spanish blog

Honey cake

Here are not very popular, but I grown up eating honey cakes and I love so. This recipe came from a dear friend, is a family recipe, obviously you have to use a honey like because the cake will have that flavor, the other important thing is that grows a lot in the oven, so do not fill the mold beyond half or they overflow.
Honey cake
12 muffins or 1 pound cake


Ingredients:

• 1 cup honey
• 125 grams of butter unsalted
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 1/2 cup warm milk (20 seconds in the microwave on high)
• 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar or white
• a pinch of salt or 1/4 teaspoon
• 2 1/2 cup sifted all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180C or 350F.
2. Pour the honey in a glass pyrex bowl add butter and heat in microwave on high for 30 seconds, stir well (for 1 minute), this should melt all the butter and mix with honey, if it is necessary,  heat 20 seconds more.
3. With a mixer, beat eggs on medium speed until frothy, about 2 minutes, add the honey and melted butter, milk, salt and vinegar, beat on low speed until incorporated everything. Sift the flour with baking powder and pour over the batter, beat at medium speed for 1 minute, at first the dough will look lumpy, must beat until it is homogenous and look like a batter. Pour into buttered pan covered with paper or silicone, may use a long cake pan or a round or make 12 cupcakes, just remember not to fill a lot of the molds.
4. Bake 45-50 minutes for large cakes or cupcakes for 25-28 minutes, test with a stick should come out dry. Cool in pan 5-10 minutes, then unmold and let cool completely.
5. You can save it in a bag for up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months.