Chocolate chip cookies with marzipan!

Do you like marzipan?
Me, I adore it!
I eat it on its own. I nibble it while I am supposed to bake something with it.

I buy it ready, I make it myself, whatever, it is so good....

So, I made chocolate chunk cookies the other day, using a recipe I love and as there was some leftover marzipan in the cupboard (forgotten....), I added it on the cookies.

The cookies themselves are soft, so I simply took a cookie, folded it around the marzipan piece and ate it. There is no better way to eat a cookie and enjoy the combination of chocolate, brown sugar and marzipan!

Yum!


Louise

Brown butter carrot cookies!

I love brown butter. I like the taste and the smell, even the process of making it, all these brown bits that start to form!

I found I recipe that seemed interesting.

Brown Butter Carrot Cookies
recipe adapted from here

170gr butter
1 small stick of cinnamon
1 egg
170gr sugar
185gr carrots, shredded
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
240gr all purpose flour

* Put butter and cinnamon in a small sauce pan and heat until the butter begins to brown and smells like caramel.
* Throw away the cinnamon stick and pour the melted butter in a mug and place it in the fridge for 30 min.
* Beat butter until smooth.
* Add sugar and the egg and beat until combined.
* Add carrots and vanilla and mix until just combined.
* Add salt, baking powder and flour.
* Form small balls of dough with your hands and place on baking pans lined with parchment paper.
* Bake in a preheated oven 180oC for about 18 min.until the centres are set.
* Cool on a wire rack.

There were tasty and smelled nice. Quite fragrant actually! They are a very good choice, if you have a lot of carrots and it is also a nice alternative to a carrot cake!


Louise!

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies!

It is actually my goal to try and bake as many sugar cookies as possible in every possible flavor.

This time it was pumpkin!

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

1 dose basic sugar cookie dough
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix
a little orange food colouring, optional

* Prepare the dough as directed and add the pumpkin puree, spices and orange food colouring, if you want.
* Roll, chill, cut and bake until the edges are golden.
* Remove from the oven, cool a couple of minutes on the pan and then place them on a rack to cool completely.

If you like, you can frost them. I left them plain and colourless and were great!

Louise!

Orange Almond cake - gluten free!

I baked a lovely gluten free cake using my homemade almond flour. Paired with oranges, it is a mouth watering dessert.

Almond Orange cake
recipe from my mom

2 large oranges
250g almond meal
250g granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
5 large eggs

Glaze:
170gr apricot jam
2 tbsp water
Blanched almonds to decorate


* Place the oranges in a large pot of boiling water and boil for 1 1/2 - 2 hours or until soft enough for a skewer to go through with ease.
* Top up the water from time to time so as to keep the oranges fully submerged and spin the oranges around occasionally so that they cook evenly.
* When ready, drain and leave to cool.
* Chop them coarsely, skin and all and puree finely in a food processor.
* Preheat oven to 170C. Line the bottom of a 22cm round cake tin with parchment paper and butter it. Also butter and dust the sides with flour. Set aside.
* Whisk the almond meal, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl.
* Beat the eggs on medium-high speed for about 6 minutes until light and fluffy.
* Turn off the mixer and pour the orange puree and almond mixture into the eggs. Mix on low speed until just combined.
* Pour into prepared tin.
* Bake for 1 hour or until the top of the cake is just firm when pressed gently.
* Cool the cake in the tin on a wire rack.
* Once cool, invert the cake onto a serving plate and remove paper.
* Pour the glaze over the cake and brush it all over evenly.
* Decorate with almonds.

** To make the glaze, simply boil the jam with the water for about 5 min until it becomes thick and syrupy. Pass it through a sieve and it's ready for glazing!

Almond cakes are traditional. Everyone in Greece knows them and many women have at least one recipe in their collection!

It tastes great when cold, right out of the fridge.

It also freezes great. Thaw it on the counter overnight.....

.... unless you are G. He took a piece out of the freezer, left it 30 min. on the counter (literally) and ate it. He said it was so good, that he prefers it this way. Cold, dense and orangy. I didn't taste it, so I have to take his word for it, but when it comes to desserts, he knows what he is talking about!

Louise!

Chocolate Icebox "Cheesecakey" Dessert !

Well this is a very belated post indeed!

A little while back it was Easter Sunday in Greece.

As tradition has it, we were all gathered together for the big Easter Sunday lunch feast, which is comprised mostly of meaty dishes. Lamp, kokoretsi, frigadeli with liver, sausages, etc....... You get the idea!

Also as tradition has it in my family, I made the dessert! Usually I make my very favorite classic baked cheesecake, but this time I opted for something fresher.

I don't often make a no-bake cheesecake, so I don't have a specific recipe that I always use. When I do make one, it is a classic vanilla cheesecake with fruit compote topping (sour cherries or strawberry).

This time I wanted something with chocolate!

The title of this post says "cheesecakey", because there are other ingedients in this dessert as well except cream cheese, so it is not a clear cheesecake....

Icebox "cheesecakey" dessert with chocolate
recipe adapted from here

750gr chocolate cookies stuffed with vanilla filling
100gr butter melted
500gr cream cheese
200gr icing sugar
300gr instant chocolate pudding + the milk needed to make it
600gr instant chantilly cream + the milk needed to make it
1 tbsp vanilla extract

* Crush the cookies to rather coarse, but not very fine, reserving 1/2 cup for garnish.
* Combine them with the melted butter.
* Take a round pan (about 35cm) and press the cookies to the bottom.
* Mix the cream cheese with the icing sugar.
* Prepare the chantilly.
* Mix cream cheese mixture with 1/2 of chantilly and spread over the cookie layer.
* Prepare the chocolate pudding and spread it on top of the cream cheese.
* Let it set for a little in the fridge.
* Spread the remaining chantilly on top of the chocolate and sprinkle with the reserved crushed cookies.
* Let it sit in the fridge overnight.

See these layers? Crunchy bottom, cheesecake freshness, chocolate heaven, chantilly lightness and more crunchiness....


A few notes:
- It is AMAZING!
- The cookie layer is a bit hard, from the butter, so it takes a little efford to cut the bottom when serving.
- It is AMAZING!
- At first, as the dessert is cold, the pieces will hold their shape. As it gets more to room temperature, though, it will start to "slide"!. Put it back in the fridge!
- It is AMAZING!

As you may have noticed.... this dessert is soooo good! It is the great ending to a huge feast, as it is light and cool!

Everyone loved it!


Louise

Semolina Halva!

Semolina is an ingredient really really loved in Greece. We use it in both sweet and savoury recipes, in two forms coarse and fine.

The most popular is the Semolina Halva. We usually amke it during fasting periods and Easter.

It is a very classic dessert, one that complements nicely a heavy lunch.
It is also offered complementary in many restaurants, after you finish your meal.

There is no actual recipe. You simply follow a rule.

1-2-3-4...

1 cup/glass/teacup, etc.. olive oil
2 cups - // -                   semolina (coarse)
3 cups - // -                   white sugar
4 cups - // -                   water

also you can add almonds, walnuts, raisins, pine nuts or nothing at all!

Using this rule, you can try it and change it to the way you like it best, in order to suit your taste.
I use 1/2 cup olive oil and raisins.
Naturally, since it is me, I add chopped dark chocolate..... The taste is crazy!!!!

Semolina Halva
my way!

1/2 cup olive oil
2 cups semolina coarse
3 cups white sugar
4 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
raisins
100gr dark chocolate chopped

* In a small pot put the water, the sugar and the cinnamon stick and boil, until you make a watery syrup.
* In a large tall pot place the olive oil, heat it and add the semolina.
* Reduce temperature and cook the semolina, stirring very often until it changes colour and darkens. It needs to be cooked thoroughly or you will end up with a "muddy" "creamy" halva. BUT, be careful. You need to watch the pot, because it can burn easily...
* After the semolina is ready, remove the pot from the fire and CAREFULLY pour in the warm syrup. It is going to bubble so much. BE CAREFUL or you will burn yourself!!!
* Place on the fire and stir a bit.
* Remove from the fire, add the chocolate and stir. The chocolate will melt.... (yum!).
* Cover the pot with a clean dish towel and let it sit for 5 minutes.
* Pour the halva in a bundt or loaf baking pan or a silicon pan with the shape and design you like, until it is cool.
* Place on the baking pan a platter and invert the halva.

You can leave it as is, or dust with cinnamon and decorate with almonds, etc..

Most of the times I let half plain and add the chocolate to the other half and then combine them, because I like it visually.

Louise

P.S.: Sometimes I reserve a little halva in a bowl and eat it very warm... I love it!

Avocado hummus!

Chickpeas are an ingredient that I don't use often. No reason, it just happens.

I was in the super market, in the legumes section and they were calling me. And I answered. With a tasty recipe for a very healthy snack.

This recipe is inspired by a traditional Greek recipe called "fava Santorinis", which is made by pureeing, well, fava!


Avocado hummus
recipe by me

250gr chickpeas
1/2 ripe avocado
1 onion
salt, pepper
dried garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
a little parsley

* Put the chickpeas in a bowl of water and soak them overnight.
* Next day, boil them in a pot with the onion chopped.
* While they boil, using a spoon, skim the foam. It takes some time, because you want the chickpeas to soften a lot, to the point that you can mash them with a fork. That means you may need to add water while they boil.
* Strain them, reserve 1 cup of the juice and put them in a blender along with the avocado, parsley, salt and pepper, garlic and the olive oil.
* Mix thoroughly. It must look like a dense puree. So if needed, add a little olive oil or a tbsp or two from the strained juice.
* Serve and decorate with chopped onion or accompany it with fresh raw bell peppers.

** Adjust the seasoning to your taste. I love garlic, so I tend to use a little more than others!
** If you don't like avocado, just omit it.

It is very good, you must try it! Plus it is healthy!

Louise!

Daring Bakers - February 2016

Katmer Pie


After a long time, I am once again taking part in the Daring Bakers Challenges. Sometimes you want to do things, but you just can't... Life happens!

So, on with the challenge for February. This month our host was Mimica from Mimi's Kingdom.

We had to make a traditional serbian pie, called Katmer Pie, with homemade dough and filling.

I chose a savoury fillling, as I wanted it for Sunday lunch. I also played a little with the dough recipe, mainly because I didn't have lard.

Savoury Katmer Pie with cheese and sausage filling.

For the dough:

500gr all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
350 mlm warm water
40 gr butter soft
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried garlic
1 tsp dried oregano

For the filling:

1 egg
300gr feta cheese grated
150gr yellow cheese grated
3 hot dog sausages chopped
1 tbsp yogurt
pepper

Dough:
* Mix all the ingredients, except for the butter. The dough will be soft.

* Transfer it on a floured surface and knead it a little until you achieve elastic, but soft dough.

*  Divide dough in six pieces and shape every piece in round form. Leave them to rest 10 minutes.

* Roll every piece of dough into a flat disc 4mm thick. Divide them in two groups of three. Brush first piece of dough with melted butter and cover with another piece of dough. Brush second piece of dough with butter and cover with third piece. Do not brush this third piece of dough with butter (which I did and was a mess)!!!!!

* Repeat the same with another three pieces of doug.

* Leave them again to rest for 10 minutes.

* Roll every pile using rolling pin into round shape, about 6-7 mm thick.
* Using a sharp knife make eight cuts around the formed circle.

* Brush surface with melted butter and start folding the cut "petals" into the middle part of dough.

* Turn the dough so the folded parts are underneath. Do the same with another pile of dough. Leave both pieces of dough to rest until you prepare the filling.

Filling:
* Easy! Just mix everything in a bowl.

Assebly:
* Preheat the oven to 180o C.

* Roll the pieces of dough on a lightly floured surface into a large round shape to fit your baking tin.

* Cover the bottom of a buttered tin with one piece of dough and add the filling and straighten it with a spatula.

* Cover with the other piece  of dough and fold the sides.

* Make cuts on the surface to let the steam escape.

* Bake for about 35-45 min.

* Let it cool before you cut it!

In general I really really liked this dough!

It is tasty, flaky and soft. And so so easy to make. I was very happy with the fact that there was no yeast and waiting time involved!!
Yes, I will be using this recipe again.... maybe with a sweet filling this time!

Thank you Mimika for a lovely recipe!

Louise

Easy lemon shortbread cookies!

When it comes to shortbread cookies I have mixed feelings. Some times I love them and sometimes, well, not so much.
For some reason I always thought they were difficult of tricky. So, I tried a few recipes with mixed results. Regular flour, rice flour, butter, oil.... Nothing was quite as I wanted.
So, until I find a recipe to LOVE, I will be using my good old sugar cookie recipe.

What? You might ask....  Trust me, I know what I am doing.

My sugar cookie recipe MINUS the egg and MINUS 1 tbsp flour!

For the lemon flavour, just add the zest of 1 lemon and 2 tbsp lemon juice (I like them very lemony!).

Really lemony and buttery! They just melt in your mouth!

Louise!