Montbéliard Winter Roast – A Hearty Oven Dish with Potatoes, Mushrooms & Sausages

Winter calls for warmth, comfort, and hearty flavors, and this oven-baked dish with Montbéliard sausages, potatoes, and mushrooms has become a staple in my home. Originally, I created it as a side dish for cheese fondue, thinking of those who couldn’t enjoy melted cheese due to intolerance or preference. But it quickly took on a life of its own—loved by everyone, requested again and again, and now a winter classic in my kitchen.

I hope that this effortless and flavorful Montbéliard Winter Roast, brings the same warmth and joy to your table. Try it, and let me know how it turns out!

French brioche bread variations

I share in this blog one of the most amazing recipes for French Brioche Bread, that if you have not tried it yet, now is the time! 

I have just added some variations that will motivate you even more: cinnamon rolls and pralina snail. With Valentine's day ahead, the last one in a heart shape might be a smash ;) 

French chocolate king cake (Galette des rois au chocolat)

You know those days that you have the crave to bake a cake but not enough of an ingredient? 

This is one of those days that I wanted to bake a french king cake (my original recipe) but missing some almond powder. So, the idea to try for once a chocolate version seemed very inspiring and one deeeply appreciated from the youngsters here :) 

I had 100gr of almond powder instead of 140gr, so I replaced the 40gr missing with cocoa powder.

I encourage you to try it!

*Not knowing how it will turn out, I did not use the egg yolk on top, which was not bad either although it was missing some sparkle, so better not to skip :)

Waffles

French breakfast to it's best! Waffles are called "gaufres" in french and if you have never tried them before or were looking for a basic recipe that it's easy and works very well, then try this one :)

French brioche bread

Brioche is a french fluffy dough bread that includes eggs, milk, sugar and butter, it's something between a bread and a cake and it tastes like heaven!!!

You can find various versions in several other countries like in my home country, Greece, that we call them "tsourekia".

It's a recipe that I just loooooove and was missing from my blog despite the fact that I am baking them often, so let's start 2019 with this recipe ....

February 2 the day of crepes in France!

In France, February 2 (yesterday) is the day of crepes.
They call this day "Chandeleur" (Candlemas in english) and it is linked to religion (commemorate the purification of Virgin Mary and the presentation of baby Jesus)
but practically, people are making and consuming lots of crepes. 
You won't believe the amount of Nutella, and rest of ingerdients that are consumed those days.
As this is the weekend the closest to the Chandeleur, here's a recipe reminder to succeed your crepes and here is one for pancakes if you are too lazy for crepes :)

Happy Chandeleur!!!

French orangettes

Orangettes is a traditional french food gift during Xmas. It is actually candied orange peel stripes dipped in dark chocolate that if you like the combination of orange and chocolate you will get addicted to it!
I would like to thank the teacher of a school that I am a volunteer that proposed me to help with doing them this year in order to finance the school trip of their class by selling them to a Christmas market.

I have never done them before, so it was a challenge for me but also a heavy responsibility. So I had to make them first at home to be sure that I am well trained.
End of year period is very busy so I did not have enough time to get nice photos but I did my best given the circumstances. 

The result though was delicious !!!  but be prepared... it takes time too !!!

I can share the recipe with you and here it is the original recipe that we were based on.

Happy 2018 !

Happy New Year to all !
Cook more, less war in this world ...

How about starting the year by making this delicious french Epiphany cake (Galette des rois)?
I think that my 2018 version is the best that I have ever done :)

Cherry clafoutis (clafoutis aux cerises in french)

Cherry clafoutis (clafoutis aux cerises in french) is a classic french dessert for summer that is pretty easy to make. It has actually fresh cherries in a rich custard that you can serve warm or at room temperature.
Traditional clafoutis is made with cherries that have still their pits that french say that make a difference in taste. I have used ready-made cherries that have already been pitted and preserved in a light syrup, though. It's so easy to make and so summerish that I could not resist to add it to my blog that time of the year! And if you are among the lucky ones that have a cherry tree, here's how to use your extra cherries :)

Happy & tasty summer !

Truffade auvergnate (sort of :)

Sometime ago, I was honored to accompany my son's class to a field trip in Auvergne (a french region), more precisely in Cantal a department in south-central France, with its capital at Aurillac.
We spent a dreaming week in a farm surrounded by animals, warm-hearted people and a beautiful, green scenery thanks to the volcanoes that the region is known for.
One of the last dinners, we had the chance to try one of their typical dishes, the delicious "Truffade Auvergnate" which is a sort of a thick pancake made with sliced potatoes, garlic and cheese (more precisely the variety called "fresh tomme" or Cantal jeune). For more information, search the web, for example wikipedia. After some scooping on the web, I've found that there exists also a similar recipe, "The Aligot", but I have never tried it yet. Maybe the next time that I will visit the region :)
Cheese is one of the typical products there, with Cantal cheese (one of the oldest in France, from the time of Gauls) but also Saint- Nectaire and Salers.
Cantal cheese is a firm (semi-hard) cheese, made from raw or pasteurized cow's milk from the Salers breed. According to the time of aging, it can be found in three varieties:

• Cantal jeune (1-2 months aged)
• Cantal entre deux (2-6 months)
• Cantal vieux ( more than 6 months)

In the recipe that I will provide you today (easy but so tasty!), I have used Cantal entre deux, that was the only one that I could find easily (sorry Celian for not being too concentrated the day that you proposed me to buy some when we were there, but I can now admit that I have some intolerance and that kind of cheese it always scares me :) 
Here it goes ....

King cake (Galette des rois in french)

Galette des rois is a traditional french cake that is made for Epiphany (6 of January). It celebrates the arrival of the Three Wise Men in Bethlehem to visit baby Jesus. 
It is composed of a puff pastry cake, and a small charm in china, the fève, is hidden inside. The person who finds it becomes the king or the queen of the day. It is usually filled with frangipane, a cream made from sweet almonds, butter, eggs and sugar but there are several other derivatives as well at modern times.
I would like to thank Vanille, a girl of my son's class that put a recipe in their class blog and I could not resist and did it! It is so easy to make actually, check it for yourselves...

French pear tart (Tarte bourdaloue ou tarte aux poires et frangipane)

My husband's favorite dessert is a french tart with pears and almond paste that in french is called "tarte aux poires et frangipane" or "tarte bourdaloue" or "tarte aux poires normande" as it's origon is Normandy in north of France.
I just made a great version of it and all family got excited ! As always, I will note it down in my blog to never miss it again :) As one thing is sure: I am going to make it again soon !
Here it goes...

French chocolate cake (Gateau au chocolat - with bananas?)

[UPDATED] Gateau au chocolat is the french chocolate cake that is more liquid in the center than a sponge cake. I started to make this cake for a friend that could not eat gluten and my kids loved it, so I keep doing it often :)
I update today this recipe by adding 2 sliced bananas and some cinnamon inside that I believe will add a sparkle to this recipe and change from the classic version. You can do the same by adding pears instead of bananas. Up to you ...
Once in a while, you have to play a bit with classic recipes, that's the fun with cooking :) 

Croziflette, savoy specialty!

Croziflette today, a traditional french recipe and special tribute to the french region known for the Alpes mountains, Savoy! It's a twist from "tartiflette" that is made with potatoes, while this one is made with a special type of pasta that is called "crozet" that has the shape of tiny squares. It is not a dish that is low in calories, but it is a perfect dish for apres-ski after spending a full day in the slopes. So, ski maniacs all around the globe, this is for you :)
If you cannot find crozets, you can replace it with any small pasta.

Beef "bourguignon", french touch!

Special tribute today to the country that hosts me for almost 20 years ...
A classic dish with beef that in french is called "boeuf bourguignon" and a recipe that if you like cooking you should not miss :)
You will need good red wine, and depending on how fanatic you are with wine, adjust the quantity that you will use. I am not so, so I do not put much, but feel free to adapt to your taste! 
You will need...

Crepes, the best way to start your day !

Crepes(= the french pancakes), the best way to start your day!

When I have some more time to prepare the breakfast, like on weekends, one of my favorite ideas is to make crepes. Of course, no need to say, kids love them, and not only... There are many recipes out there for crepes, but I will give you here the recipe that I chose among them. The "magic" ingredient that makes for me this recipe interesting is the corn flour. The recipe that I will give you is from the box of the corn flour, that I tried once and I adopted it. These crepes are melting in the mouth, "moelleux" as french call them.

Ingredients

200 gr flour or (100gr flour and 100gr corn flour)
500ml of milk 

2 eggs
vanilla

Procedure

Put in a bowl the milk and add both types of flour and vanilla. Whisk well. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs as for omelette and add them to the rest ingredients. Mix well together. If you have time it is better to leave the mixture to rest for about 30 min. In my case, I use the mixture immediately and still the result is very good as you can see :)

Heat a lightly oiled frying pan over high heat. Pour enough of the mixture to cover the bottom and tilt the frying pan, in a circular way, to spread it homogeneously. Leave it for about 2 min to be done.

Then, turn it using a spatula and leave it for about a min. Your crepe is ready! Cover each crepe according to your preferences, here today is nutella.