Chocolate puff pastry...

I was really tired some weeks ago and I decided to make some puff pastry to relax (laughs). The last puff pastry dough I made was perfect, real delight and it was very easy to do. The secret is the method called Rough Puff Pastry, developed by French chef Michel Roux. It is different from all the puff pastry recipes out there because it eliminates the need to prepare two doughs and then wrap the butter brick with that made of flour and water. The recipe of Michel Roux tells to mix it all at once, carefully of course, and then goes direct to the folds. I loved the recipe and decided to make a chocolate version, or better, cocoa version.



The idea to make a chocolate pastry thing I got from Pierre Hermé who has developed his own version of a chocolate puff pastry, but his version is the so called "inverted" dough, which is very labor intensive. My chocolate puff pastry is just an adaptation of Michel Roux rough and the result is just as good with a flaky consistency and slightly savory taste.

I made some changes tough. I made six folds instead of the four indicated by Roux. The cocoa mass is more delicate, melts easily and for that reason I did one fold at a time and did six folds in total, instead of four.





What exactly you can do with more than a kilo of chocolate puff pastry? Anything you would make with the regular one... Why not start with a pears and chocolate tart?





Chocolate Puff Pastry

A variation of the rough Puff Pastry from the Pastry by the French chef Michel Roux.

Para ver um passo a passo do método tradicional de massa folheada clique aqui. Para ver minha postagem com a versão normal da massa folheada do Michel Roux clique aqui .

500 gramas de manteiga sem sal gelada
450 gramas de farinha de trigo
50 gramas de cacau em pó
1/2 colher de chá de sal
150 ml de água gelada

How:

In a clean, dry surface, make a circle with the flour and add the sifted cocoa and salt. With the help of a fork mix the flour to cocoa. Then add the diced butter. With the fingertips (or fork) go mixing the butter mixture to flour, cocoa and salt until it forms a crumbly and dry mass. then add water to the few and continue stirring until a homogeneous mass. You may not need to use any water or possibly need to use more water than indicated, it depends on the environmental conditions of your kitchen and the quality of flour used.


Do not over mix the dough too, while mixing butter to flour, to prevent the butter to melt too fast. Careful with the adding of the water. I have not needed to add any water indicated, only half to form the dough. Maybe you need it all, maybe you don´t.

Once the dough got stick together, make a ball and wrap the dough in plastic and light film and refrigerate for half an hour.
Once chilled, remove the dough from the refrigerator and open on a floured surface. Careful not to add too much flour to the surface. Roll the dough to form a rectangle with size close to 40CM X 20CM and then fold the dough in three, just like folding as a letter. First you fold the top part down, to the middle and then you fold the bottom part up to the middle. Just like folding a letter. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place the dough in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or half an hour. Tip: before wrapping the dough in the plastic, make some marks on the dough with your fingers, two little marks, to help your remember that you have folded the dough twice.

Roll the dough again until it forms a slightly larger rectangle with 50CM X 30CM. Fold the dough into three again, always vertically. The top part down and the bottom part up, like a letter (that was fold number THREE). Then, turn the folded dough and place it vertically in front of you and roll the dough again, into another 50 X 30 rectangle (the same size as the previous rectangle) and fold it again, as a letter (that is fold number FOUR). Make FOUR finger marks on the surface of the dough to remind you the numbers of fold you have already done. Wrap the dough in plastic again and place the dough in the fridge for 20 more minutes.

Repeat the folding twice again, to reach a total of SIX foldings. At the end of the sixth fold place the dough in the fridge again for 40 minutes. After that your cacao puff pastry is ready to be used.

You now have around 1kg (two pounds) of puff pastry. Divide the dough and place the parts in a clean fresh film or a sealable plastic bag. Place them in the freezer or in the fridge, you case you plan to use it immediately.

It can stay in the fridge for up to 3-4 days and in the freezer for up two months. After their cold mass is ready to use.

Coconut financier with raspberries, nut free and lactose free...

Financier is a world famous French cake made with almond meal and large amounts of browned butter. Nevertheless, my coconut financiers are made with neither nuts or regular butter. I have just adapted my personal recipe for this deliciously dense cake to be able to serve it to my stepson, who is heavily allergic to nuts. I love financiers and the thick dense texture of these baking-powder-free-and-egg-whites-only cake and have made it with all sorts of nuts. Hazelnut, pistachios, cashew nuts and Brazil nuts are just some of them. You can find the other recipes by clicking the links to Almond financiers, de Hazelnut financiers, de Cashew nut financier and Pistachios financiers.




The Macarons, another world famous French speciality, just like the Financiers, can also be made by using flours of all sorts of nuts and go perfectly well made with any one of those other nuts. And with seeds. Perfectly good Macarons and financiers can be made using flours obtained by finally grounding seeds of all sorts, as you can see in my delicious Omega seeds macarons with Matcha. I made those by grounding a mix of sesame, pumpkin, sunflower and flax seeds into a fine flour and used it just like I would use the regular almond flour. I added some Matcha, mostly for the color and because the recipe I was using recommended it (you find the link to original recipe I used here), and the result was perfect and that you can see in the pictures. Back to Financiers, well, these cakes can also be made by using ground seeds or, as you can see today, finely grounded dried unsweetened coconut flakes.




I have made Coconut Macarons and they are my all time favorite macarons, they are so light and flavorful and best eaten without filling (I prefer macarons without any filling). I made those also inspired by my nut allergic stepson who had never tried a macaron before I decided to master macarons without the use of nut flours. There might be some people out there who will see those nut free macarons and nut free financiers as culinary anomalies. In some ways they are anomalies, but once the results of my coconut macarons are good, the texture and the looks are just identical to the original ones, the taste is to die for, and allergic people can dive in, I think they are just perfect.

Another thing to be considered, if you want to learn how to make macarons and financiers and do not want to waste money on expensive nut flours, you can start by trying to master them with coconut instead. Once you find a good recipe, just go for it and try as many times as you want, guilty free. Here in Norway the unsweetened dried coconut costs less than 20% of the price of the same of almonds, not to mention the ready made almond flour which costs even more. If, like me, you prefer all organic, it adds up a little more what makes the experiments with coconut worth the try.





Coconut Financier with Raspberries - Nut free and Lactose free


2,5DL (one cup) dry unsweetened coconut flakes
2 DL (3/4 cup) wheat flour (use gluten free flours if you prefer)
2 DL (3/4 cup) confectioners sugar
150g egg whites (4 a 5 claras) at room temperature
150g coconut butter
50g coconut oil
Half vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla powder or vanilla extract)
40 to 50 Fresh of frozen raspberries (optional)


How:


Put the coconut butter, the coconut oil and the scraps of the vanilla bean (not the vanilla extract, that must be added later or it will totally evaporate) in a heavy pan and let it simmer and boil, over very low heat, until the coconut butter starts to look like a very light caramelized liquid and really aromatic. The butter process needs attention because it can go quite fast, keep your eyes on it. Remove the butter from heat and let it cool.

In a food processor (or a coffee grinder) and process the coconut flakes to obtain a not very fine coconut flour. Add the sugar and process until you get a fine and homogeneous mix. Add the wheat flour and pulse a little bit more to incorporate. Transfer the mix of flours to a bowl. Once the coconut butter is lukewarm you are ready to go. Using a whisk the egg whites, in a large bowl, beat the egg white to break them and whisk until they start to look foamy. Add the mix of flours, slowly, in parts. With the whisk, mix until all the flour is incorporated to the egg whites. Finally add the melted butter. If you are using the vanilla extract add it now, with the butter and using a spatula or large metal spoon, mix well and softly until all the butter is incorporated to the batter. Let the batter cool in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, ideally 1 hour.

Set the oven at 175C (325F) and let it heat while the batter cools. Meanwhile prepare the pans, greasing them well with coconut oil or any other type of grease you prefer. You can use cupcake, muffin or tartelettes pans to bake the financiers if, like me, you don´t really like (and don´t have) the traditional financiers pans. Scoop one or two tablespoons of batter into the prepared pans and press one or two raspberries on top of them. Don´t fill the pans too much because the cake will raise.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes. Remove immediately from pan, while warm.


Obs 1. Time of baking depends of the size of the pan. Regular cupcake pans take 15 minutes.
Obs 2. Don´t over bake because it can get really dry.
Obs 3. Don´t let the batter rest in the fridge for too long, differently from the batter made with regular butter, which is very easy to scoop even extra cold, the cold coconut oil get very, very hard and can be very difficult to scoop the batter into the pans if it is really hard. The time in the fridge should be just enough to completely cool the batter, to allow it be scooped instead of poured into the pans.




I used the coconut butter shown in the picture, a delicious creamy butter made of organic coconut. You can just use coconut oil, in case you don´t find coconut oil, or use a mix of coconut oil and the solid part of the coconut milk. To use coconut milk you have to first drain all the liquid that separates from the solids, in the can. Then use the solids of the milk with coconut oil, according to the recipe.




It is funny to speak of macarons and financiers as world famous French specialities since there are, all over the world, many cakes and cookies that are made exactly the same way as the French macaron and financier. Even if they end up looking differently. It is a fact that the French cuisine went viral world wide, the French versions became the rule, but there are amazing versions of those two being made all over the Middle East and Europe, with not so famous names!

A Jam Made of Favorites: Mango and Strawberry Jam

The first time I tried this jam I was in France, in a village called Niedermorschwihr where I bought my first jar of mango and strawberry jam at the Au Relais de Trois Epis. I made a post about Niedermorschwihr here and the Au Relais de Trois Epis where Madam Ferber's central quarters are located.

Christine Ferber is known as the grand master of jams, or the jam fairy and hers are the most famous jams in France these days. Christine Ferber, or Madame Ferber, plays amazingly well with fruits, berries, herbs and nuts, mixing wisely and surprising us all. She is known for adding chocolate to her jam, making some of those jams extra dense and bold and velvety and extra delicious. I made two chocolate jams inspired by Madam Ferber and you can see my Banana and Chocolate jam here and my Rapsberry and Chocolate e here. I made some changes, but they were directly inspired by her jams.

It might sound a little bit arrogant but the jam I made, with delicious in season Norwegian strawberries, tasted much better than the one I bought at by Madam Ferber's maison in Niedermorschwihr. I used more strawberries than mangoes in my mix, while Madam Ferber clearly uses more mangoes and we can feel it not only because of the color of her jam, which is more orange, but the light strawberry flavor also indicates more mangoes were added to the mixture. Equal amounts of fruits would still produce a red jam with a quite dominant strawberry flavor, I have tried half and half and decided to go for a greater amount of strawberries in my mix.

If you dare to try this recipe don't settle with mine, go experiment with different amounts and find the mix that suits you better. Use different types of strawberries too...

The mixture made of mango and strawberries is a mixture of favorites as mango is the world's most eaten fruit while strawberry is the world's favorite berry. People get quite surprised to learn that mangoes are the world best seller fruit, as they think about themselves and all the bananas, apples and oranges they usually eat. Mangoes are native to Southeast Asia, originally the area where today is the country of India, where mango trees have been cultivated and loved for more than 20.000 years. Mango is naturally the national fruit of India and this country alone responds for more than 50% of the world production of mangoes, while it exports only 1% of its production... 99% of India's mango production is destined to the local markets. Can you imagine how much mango it takes to feed the love of a population of more than 1 billion people?

If the dominance of mangoes can be a surprise to some, there is no surprise in the fact that strawberries are a world favorite. Strawberries are a fabulous berry, delicious anywhere you find them. More or less sweet, more or less acidic, a strawberry is a strawberry, the distinctive aroma, the red color, the magical flavor, all together making it simply wonderful.

The Norwegian strawberries are a chapter apart, extra sweet and extra red, little or no acidity at all, due to the time the berries spent buried under snow during the long and cold Norwegian winters. Unfortunately, this does not mean they are free from toxic chemicals used in strawberry production. Even in cold Norway the strawberries are heavily sprayed and these berries should be well washed before eating and eaten in small amounts. The only good alternative is organic strawberries which are growing more and more every year. It is a challenge to grow organic strawberries, but the conventional one is not but better because, as expected, the bugs and pests are wiser that the chemical industry, and as humans we got to do better than that...

Mango and Strawberry Jam
(Inspired by Christine-Ferber)

300 grams of mangoes in cubes (preferably organic)
450 grams halved washed strawberries (preferably organic)
300 grams organic sugar (this is up to you, use more if you like)
2 tablespoons lemon juice

How:


In a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat cook the mangoes and the strawberries with 100ml of water. Once the mixture boils reduce the heat and let it cook until the fruits are soft, circa 10 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and using a hand mixer mix the fruits until they are homogeneous. Take the pan back to stove top, add sugar and lemon and cook until the right consistence. Around 10 minutes more. To check if the jam is ready, check the consistence by adding a teaspoon of jam to a cold plate. If the jam spreads it is not ready. Once it is ready the jam will gel immediately once in contact with the cold plate.

This recipe makes around 3 glasses of 250 ml to 300 ml.

Tips:

To check if the jam is ready, test its consistence by adding a teaspoon of jam to a cold plate. If the jam spreads around, more like a liquid, it is not ready and needs extra cooking time. However, if the jam is ready it will hold its form and gel immediately once in contact with the cold plate.

Always remember that the gel will thicken after it is completely cooled down, so avoid over cooking it if you don't want to end up with a thick fruit paste.

Add sugar according to your taste and the quality of the fruits you have in mind. You are not obliged to follow old school of jamming and add equal parts of fruit and sugar. Today is is pretty OK to break the rule of extra sweet jams and make more fruity and less sweet. In jam making it is very important how to sterilize and manipulate the jam once it is ready, to avoid dangerous mold.

It is OK if you want to keep the fruit pieces and avoid the processing part. In that case add the sugar and cook a little extra time to reduce the liquids a little more.

Sesame, Flax, Sunflower, Pumpkin Seeds & Green Tea Macarons with Chocolate Ganache

We are crazy for nut based macarons, but when I tried my first nut free macaron, made out of dried coconut flakes, I got totally obsessed with the idea of trying other nut free possibilities. Nothing to say against nuts. They are super healthy and delicious and I am not allergic, but the possibility to make those beauties with "omega seeds" are just irresistible. I made these macarons with organic seeds from a mix of seeds that include sesame, flax, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. We sell the seed mix at our store. You have to process the seeds with some powdered sugar to make a very fine seed flour and you are ready to go. The good thing is that you can choose to use only the seeds you like.


This recipe is based on this recipe which is part of an entire series dedicated to nut free macarons.

Omega Seeds Mix & Matcha Macarons & Chocolate Filling
Based on this nut-free macaron recipe

I used Matcha, from Clearspring

100g mix of organic sesame, sunflower, pumpkin and linseeds (flax seeds)
200g organic confectioners sugar
1 Tbsp Japanese green tea pulver (known as: Matcha)
100g organic egg whites
50g organic unrefined sugar

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Prepare a large pastry bag or a good plastic bag that you can use to pipe the batter. If using a pastry bag make sure it is fitted with the small plain tip. Make sure to prepare the pans for the baking by lining them with parchment paper or silicone mats (which I don't have).

In a food processor grind the seeds with the confectioners sugar and the green tea powder until a very fine mixture starts to form. Sift the mixture and reserve the larger bits that did not pass through the sieve. You might have to do some extra processing and sifting until most of the mixture have passed through the sieve. You can relax if up to 2 tbsp of seeds did not pass through the sieve. Set them aside to sprinkle over the macarons before baking.

In a bowl combine the egg whites with the sugar and using a stand mixer or a hand mixer (it doesn't matter) whip the egg white until you get a very stiff and dry meringue.

Add the dry ingredients to the meringue. You can add all at once or in parts, since it doesn't matter, do as you like! Fold the mixture with a rubber spatula. Fold until the mixture has a homogeneous thick consistency. There must be not one single white meringue spot visible in the batter. Make a test with a little spoon to check the batter, if it flattens it is most probably good to go. If a peak is formed you might have to add some extra folds to the batter. Transfer the batter to the plastic bag or pastry bag and pipe into small circles, 2 to 3 cm diameter.

You can always draw the circles on the parchment before piping if you don't feel sure about the size. Give the circles some space between them so they will not stick to each other once they start to grow in the oven. Sprinkle the seed that didn't pass the sieve over the piped macarons.

Tips: To avoid those air bubbles you can rap the sheets over your kitchen counter top 2 or 3 times, to dismantle the air bubbles that can crack the domes of the macarons.


Bake for 12 minutes. Let them cool before removing from paper. Properly baked macarons don't stick to the paper so, if you want to check if they are done just try to remove the one of them, that one on the corner of the pan, near the oven door. If it comes out clean they are done. Let them cool completely to release the others from paper.

Dark Chocolate Ganache Filling

100g organic single or double cream or any other milk free cream
100g organic 60 to 75% dark chocolate, chopped

Lay the chocolate in a bowl and set aside. In pot over medium heat bring the cream to a boil. Add the cream to the chocolate and whisk until homogeneous. Let it cool and place it in a plastic bag. Tie the plastic bag with a rubber band, lay it in a bowl and refrigerate. You want to refrigerate the ganache enough to thicken it into a piping consistence, not more. So keep you eye on it.

Pipe 1/3 to 1/2 teaspoon of ganache on the bottom part of one macaron shell. Top with another macaron shell and press slightly to sandwich the two halves together. Place the sandwiched macarons in a air tight container. They will keep fresh to up to a week. Better eat them fresh. In my opinion freshly baked macarons have a better consistency.

Organic Raspberry and Chocolate Jam

Since my visit to Niedermorschwihr and Les Relais des Trois Epis de Madame Ferber I've been obsessed with jams and I've been experimenting some new flavors and mixtures almost everyday. I must confess that sometimes, in face of some of the best jams I have ever made, I wish I had the guts to start a jam business. All natural and organic jam producer I would be. My jam dreams became the perfect pair to the fruits of our garden specially our organic raspberries. Raspberries are perfect to mix with other fruits and a small amount is sufficient to add color and the most amazing perfume and elevate the jam to another level. So far I have mixed raspberries (with and without seeds) to peaches, cloudberries, chocolate, rhubarb and apple.



Our raspberry harvest this summer was plenty and lasted wonderfully long even if everything around here was delayed for at least three weeks this year due to one of the worst winters of all times. But let's not talk about winter yet, let's talk raspberries and chocolate. Jars of this precious jams were available in Christine Ferber's relais and I could have bought one there but instead I preferred to buy other blends instead and tried to make my own raspberries and chocolate jam. Christine Ferber works with a chocolate with 64% of cocoa solids but I used an organic chocolate with 70% cocoa instead and according to her own recipe she uses a lot more sugar than I was willing to use. Besides I aimed at a 100% organic raspberry and chocolate jam so I decided to use whatever organic dark chocolate I could find. The higher content of cocoa certainly gave the jam a more intense chocolate flavor but it was perfect to me, might need some more sugar some might say. You can always add more sugar to this recipe but never remove it. One more point to Madame Ferber's score, she keeps a high score around here!



Organic raspberry and chocolate jam

(Inspired by recipe from Christine Ferber's Mes Confitures).

800 organic raspberries
1 1/2 cup of organic fair trade cane sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons of lime juice
100 grams organic fair trade chocolate with 70% cocoa solids

How:

In a pan over medium heat cook the raspberries with sugar and lime juice until it starts boiling. Once it boils reduce heat and let it boil for five minutes. Remove from heat, let it cool slightly before passing the mixture through a metallic sieve. Press well mixture, with a spoon to get as much juice as possible and discard the seeds. Measure the sieved mixture and transfer it back to the pan. Add more sugar if you think it is necessary and let the mixture cook over medium heat until boils is slightly reduced, 5 and 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, remove from heat and add the bits of chocolate whisking with a wire whisk to incorporate the chocolate completely. Add 100grams of chocolate for each 500ml of jam. Transfer the jam to a sterilized jar and close the lid tight. Let it cool completely and refrigerate. Keep refrigerated.

1. I recommend to keep it refrigerated and consume in two weeks after the jar is open.
2. I have sieved the pulp through a not very tight metal sieve and some seeds pass through the net and I think it looks perfect, those little seeds are the trademark of the raspberry, right?

In a Cathedral state of mind

Nidaros Domen, Trondheim's majestic cathedral. All the Norwegian kings are crowned in Nidaros Domen.




Maybe it is because we live in a town which is marked by the monumental presence of one of Europe oldest medieval cathedral or, maybe, it is just some kind of unconscious way of expressing my appreciation of the religious environment. I must confess that consciously speaking I don't miss any of the religious rituals forced into my life by family traditions which I left behind as soon as I could. Even if I am an atheist, I love cathedrals, their majestic presence, provocative language and powerful symbolism. But I can see through their powerful provocative language, what speaks to me are the amazing strength behind the human beings who gave their lives to design and construct those temples. In the pictures Nidaros Domen, here in Trondheim and two amazing French cathedrals we visited this rainy summer: Notre Dame de Reims or Our Lady of Reims and another Notre Dame, the Strasbourg Cathedral or Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg.



Notre Dame de Reims, the old Cathedral de Saint Remi is a beautiful cathedral, World heritage, but I fell for the Notre Dame in Strasbourg...



I was astonished by the adoration of this old sister in front of the huge cathedral. She sat there, and sat, and sat, for hours observing the grandeur of the medieval architecture. We walked around, got some info from the tourist office and she was still there observing, trying to find some answers, maybe.



The Cathedral of Strasbourg was really beautiful and looked more dramatic during those gray and rainy days of July. The weather didn't help the pictures but the entire visit was really amazing.

A place called Niedermorschwihr...

There is a small village in France with a very strange name, in South Alsace, the region of the Upper Rhine, located 6km from Colmar and 373km from Paris, which hides a little factory of the most special jams. In this very small French village with the German name Niedermorschwihr is located Au Relais des Trois Epis the jam epicenter of Christine Ferber, France's number one jam master.

Around a corner in the Rue des Trois Epis is located la Maison Ferber a small factory where Christine Ferber produces her famous jams. From Niedermorschwihr her creations win the world in small and medium sized jars, decorated with white and red polka dots fabric, filled with artisanal deliciousness and loaded with France's most profitable creation: terroir.



The flavors of Madame Ferber's jams mix local Alsace fruits, tropical fruits, flowers (most rose and violet), herbs, spices of all sorts, nuts and chocolate. The storeAu Relais des Trois Epis (the only one in the village of Niedermorschwihr by the time I was there) is a mixture of bakery, delicatessen, bookstore and grocery market and it offers a little bit of everything, to please both the tourist and the locals of Niedermorschwihr: fruits, cakes, tarts, biscuits, cheese, charcuterie d'Alsace, bien sur, fresh fruits, Ferber's entire book collection, Alsatian pottery pots, detergents and commercial soap. The large selection of jams which fills the shelves which take an entire wall of the small shop is the main attraction to foreign visitors who come from everywhere in the world.

At a certain distance from the place we could already feel the strong aromas of jam in the making in the air. Per was the first to notice it. How much I wish my house could smell that way and I really wished I could master the art of jam making, just like Pete and Celia from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. OK, my jams are pretty good, I must admit without embarrassment, but I must learn to experiment more, I need to learn some more about the chemistry of preserving, to be more aware of the limits of sugar, acid juices and pectin in the fruit soup. For that reason I pushed my Per Niedermorschwihr to visit Madame Ferber's relais.




I was not planning to leave the place empty handed and it would not have been possible at all. We bought five jars of jam, some bread and some meringue. We bought two jars to offer as gifts to my in laws: a seedless Raspberry jam (Framboise d'Alsace) and Black Cherry (Cerises Noir d'Alsace). I picked two for me: Strawberry and Mango (Fraises d'Alsace et mangues) and Rapsberry, green apples and pistachio (Framboises d'Alsace, Pommer Verts et Pistaches) and Per picked a jar for him: Blackcurrant, apple and violet (Cassis, pommes et violette). It was pretty difficult to choose the flavors and up to the last minute I was changing the flavors. I could have bought more jars but what I was looking for was some inspiration to work and create with my the fruits from my own garden this year.




The Strawberry and mango jam (Fraises D'Alsace et mangue) should have been called Mango and Strawberry jam as the mango is the dominant not only in flavor but in texture of the jam is that of the mango pulp. The flavor is perfect, intense, mild, perfect amount of sugar, not acid at all and the perfect presence of the strawberry on the back of the mixture. No seed, no pieces, no strings nothing to distract the most amazing taste. I would never have made jam with mango and strawberries as in Brazil, where I grew up, the season for best mangoes doesn't coincide with that for the best strawberries, which is concentrated in winter months. It is a foreigner thing though, when one is dealing with imported fresh or frozen mangoes one is able to create perfect mixtures using these adorable fruits and create amazing jams. Oh, how much I wish I had bought two jars of this jam instead...




As soon as I am able to put my hands on some well ripen mangoes, I will try to make my own version of this jam to which I hope will be adding some amazingly perfect Norwegian strawberries. However, if you have access to some good and ripe mangoes make your own version of this jam now, you won't regret this mixture. Don't forget to add some terroir (from your mangoes or your strawberries or even your sugar) to you jam too, the origin of the produce is definitely part of the magical result, don't you think?



If one of these days you find yourself wandering around Alsace, try to find the way that takes you to Niedermorschwihr and the Au Relais des Trois Epis, you won't regret...


Christine Ferber's Au Relais des Trois Epis
18, Rue des Trois Epis
68230 Niedermorschwihr
Alsace