Happy Potatoes Tortoise

I ate this flan a long time ago, I was having dinner at my little cousin's Marta, her mom Bianca was cooking. I loved it!! They used to call it "tortoise flan"....very funny!
I do not know why I haven't been cooking it so far. But I did last week, and here is the recipe.
If you prepare it in a big ceramic baking dish like I did, it won't be easy to serve. An option could be to prepare it in smaller cocotte, very french style!

Ingredients

1kg potatoes

30ml milk

salt

butter

150g ham

200-300g cheese (I used italian fontina, but you can use any kind of cheese)

1 egg

shredded parmesan

Preparation
Prepare the mashed potatoes with milk, salt and butter. Mix them well and put 2/2 of it in a ceramic baking dish, leaving the edges higher to contain the filling you will add later.

Cut ham and cheese in little pieces and put them in the center of the meshed potatoes.

Add the remaining meshed potatoes on top and close the flan.

Mix the egg with shredded parmesan and distribute on top of the flan.
Bake at 180 C degrees until the parmesan is melted.

Misses Valentines

Some loves San Valentine's day, others don't and prefer not to celebrate it. I think everyone should do what he feels like doing, without having to think about what is popular and what is not.
I do like San Valentine's day and because I do I prepared something special to celebrate it with my husband.

Happy Valentine's day!!

Ingredients for the crust
300g flour
130g melted butter
90g sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon backing soda

for the filling
Custard Cream
Jam
Nutella

Preparation
Put all the ingredients for the crust in the mixer/kitchen robot and knead for 1 minute.
Make a ball with the doug, cover it and let it rest in the fridge for 1 hour.

Using a rolling pin roll the dough until it is 2-3 mm thick. Use the four to avoid the doug get stuck on the pin or on the table.
With a round cookie mold, cut out the doug and place it in paper muffin cups you will have placed in the muffin pan.

Fill with the custard cream or jam or Nutella!

Bake at 175 C degrees for 25-30 minutes if you filled with cream or jam, 15 minutes if you filled with Nutella. Each oven is different so you better check the crust: when it gets golden on the edges Misses Valentines are ready!

I suggest not to mix different filling in the same pan: depending on the filling the baking time might be different.

If you fill with cream you can decorate the cake with a candied cherry: add the cherry on top after having baked the cakes.

Another idea could be to add some chopped pistachio on top before backing them.

Any of these alternatives have been a success, my guest have appreciated all of them. Enjoy!