For the body and soul...(in English)

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2011-09-12T08:38:00.000-04:00

The blog has been moved to: http://forthebodyandsoulpl.blogspot.com/

Daring Bakers: Red Currant and Poppy Seed Individual Cheesecakes

2009-04-27T16:45:00.003-04:00

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I was actually surprised how much freedom we were given with this challenge. Jenny has given us a basic cheesecake recipe and let us be as creative with it as we wish. How fun was that!!!

I've opted for red currant cheesecake for a simple reason. Red currants which are almost never available here, suddenly and unexpectedly appeared in my grocery store and I just couldn't resist them.

I didn’t have enough currants to make the whole recipe, so I decided to scale it and make only 1/3 of it. Also, I decided to add some poppy seeds to the batter, they didn’t taste much, but were a really nice complement to the red currants. For the crust, I opted for amaretti cookies, which gave the cheesecake some extra flavour that went really well with the red currants.

I really enjoyed my first challenge and cannot wait to see the next one. Thank you for the recipe Jenny. It was truly delicious!!!

Here's my recipe, for the original basic cheesecake recipe check Jenny's blog here.

Red Currant and Poppy Seed Individual Cheesecakes

Makes 4-5 individual cheesecakes

For the crust:
60 g amaretti cookies
40 g butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon sugar

For the cheesecake:
200 g cream cheese
70 g sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoon poppy seeds
50 g red currants

1. Preheat the oven to 175 °C (350 °F).
2. Crush the amaretti cookies in a food processor. Mix with melted butter and sugar and press into the ramekins or custard cups.
3. Using an electric mixer beat the cheese and sugar until smooth.
4. Beat in the egg mixing constantly until well combined.
5. Pour in the cream and lemon juice and mix until smooth and creamy.
6. Pour the batter into the ramekins. Place the ramekins in a large baking dish filling the dish with boiling water until halfway up the side of the ramekins.
7. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the cheesecakes are solid around the edges but still jiggle a little in the center.
8. Cool in the oven with the door ajar for 1 hour.
9. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely. Once the cheesecakes are cold, chill in the fridge overnight.

Taste & Create: Whole Wheat Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce

2009-03-31T15:17:00.007-04:00

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been almost one year since I participated in Taste and Create last time. Taste and Create is a monthly food blog event organized by Nicole from For the Love of Food blog. The participants of the event are paired together and have to try a recipe from each other's blogs. This time my partner was Natalie from Oven Love food blog. Natalie made my corn soup, while I opted for her delicious whole-wheat pancake recipe. I’ve never had American pancakes before, so when I saw the recipe on Natalie's blog, I thought it’s a perfect occasion to finally try them. They looked amazingly tasty, and seemed more healthy than most of the pancake recipes I’ve seen so far.

The pancakes came out truly delicious, incredibly soft, delicate and very fluffy. In the original recipe they're served with strawberry sauce, which is basically chunky strawberry puree with a little bit of maple syrup. The sauce didn't come out particularly sweet, and since the pancakes aren't themselves very sweet either, I served them with some honey to drizzle. Enjoy!!!

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce

Makes 12-14 pancakes

FOR THE PANCAKES:
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup whole-wheat flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
¾ cup skimmed milk
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp honey
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

srtawberry sauce, maple syrup or honey to serve

FOR THE STRAWBERRY SAUCE:
4 cups frozen strawberries, thawed
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp maple syrup

TO MAKE THE PANCAKES:
1. Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. In another bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, buttermilk, honey, and vanilla extract.
3. Preheat a large nonstick griddle or skillet over a medium-low flame.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with dry ingredients. Mix
only enough to combine them. The batter should remain lumpy.
5. Use a 1/4-cup measuring cup to ladle the batter onto the griddle or skillet.
6. Cook over medium heat until small bubbles appear on the surface of each pancake, then turn and cook until golden brown.
7. Serve warm with the strawberry sauce and maple syrup or honey.

TO MAKE THE STRAWBERRY SAUCE:
1. Using a food processor, process the strawberries into chunky puree.
2. Place together with the lemon juice in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat until warm.
3. Stir in the maple syrup.

Recipe adapted from The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life by Ellie Krieger

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Recipe in Polish/ Przepis po polsku:
Razowe pancakes z truskawkami

Magdalenas

2009-03-18T16:11:00.008-04:00

Today’s recipe is my entry for Sugar High Fridays, a monthly food blog event started by Jennifer from The Domestic Goddess food blog . This month the event has been hosted by the owner of In My Box food blog. The task was to prepare a dessert that is at least 100 years old.

I’ve been planning to make magdalenas for a while, so when I’ve learned that these little Spanish cakes have been actually baked since the Middle Ages I decided to give them a try.

Magdalenas are little sponge cakes somehow similar to French madeleines. They’re incredibly soft and moist inside, and a little bit crunchy outside. What makes them different from French madeleines is their shape - French madeleines are baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions, while the Spanish magdalenas use mini muffin pan. Unlike the French madeleines which are made with real butter, original Spanish magdalena recipes use olive oil.

Even though some modern recipes replace the olive oil with margarine or butter, sometimes also adding some milk to the batter, I opted for the original olive oil version. Searching through Spanish food sites, I found a few similar recipes which used an equal weight of olive oil, flour, sugar and eggs, often with a hint of lemon. The only difference between the recipes was actually the amount of baking powder. Some of the recipes used significant amounts, while other didn’t use baking powder at all. I decided to check whether the baking powder is really necessary here and made half of my magdalenas with and half without it. The result? To be honest, I didn’t notice any significant differences in the structure of the cakes, neither in their flavour. Also, all the magdalenas have risen the exact same high, although the ones with baking powder were ready a few minutes earlier.

As for the olive oil flavour, well, it’s palatable, but totally dominated by a wonderful lemon flavour, so no need to worry about that. And, if you really can’t stand a little bit of olive oil flavour, you can always use sunflower oil instead. Also, if you don’t have mini muffin pan, regular muffin pan will work as well.

Magdalenas

Makes about 36 little cakes

250 g olive oil (or sunflower oil)
250 g eggs*
250 g pastry flour or all-purpose flour
250 g sugar
lemon zest grated of one large lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (350 ° F). Grease or line mini muffin pan.
2. Whisk the eggs. Gradually add the sugar whisking constantly until you obtain smooth batter.
3. Continue whisking, gradually pouring the olive oil in.
4. Fold in lemon zest and sifted flour.
5. Spoon into prepared muffin pan.
6. Bake for 20 to 35 minutes (the time will vary depending on the size of pan you're using).

* you'll need about 4 extra large eggs in this recipe. Weight the eggs with their shells.

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Recipe in Polish/Przepis po polsku:
Hiszpańskie magdalenki

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

2009-03-14T04:38:00.000-04:00

The spinach and ricotta cannelloni is one of the dishes I serve most often at my place. I’ve been making the cannelloni for years now and we've never really got bored with it. In fact, both me and my husband like them so much, that we cook them almost every week. It’s a truly delicious meal, and, once you’ve mastered the recipe it’s really quick to prepare. It also reheats well, so you can prepare it in advance. Some people (my sister for example), prefer to eat their cannelloni only the next day as with time the pasta develops more flavours.

I like my cannelloni most with white wine sauce, but I know some people prefer tomato sauce. If you too decide to use tomato sauce instead of the wine sauce, add some water to it, as the pasta absorbs a lot of liquid while baking.

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

Serves 4

1 package cannelloni pasta (you’ll need about 16 shells)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed or minced
300 g frozen spinach, thawed
400 g ricotta cheese
40 g (8 tbsp) Romano or Parmesan cheese, grated
salt
pepper

WHITE WINE SAUCE:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
200 ml dry white wine
250 ml milk
salt
white pepper

1. In a large pan heat the olive oil, add the garlic and cook for a few seconds. Add the spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes (if the spinach is not completely thawed this will take longer). Leave to cool slightly.
2. When the spinach is slightly cooled combine with 4 tbsp grated Romano or parmesan cheese and all the ricotta. Season with salt and pepper. Fill the cannelloni shells with the mixture (I spoon the mixture with a tiny dessert spoon, alternatively, you can use piping bag)
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). In meantime prepare the sauce. Melt the butter and flour in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until you have smooth paste. Add a little wine alternating with a little milk, stirring well after each addition. Continue until all the wine and milk has been used and the sauce starts to thicken. Stir constantly. Season with salt and white pepper.
4. Pour half of the sauce into a large baking dish, arrange the cannelloni in a single layer over the sauce, cover with the rest of the sauce, sprinkle with the remaining Romano or parmesan. cheese. Bake for about 40 minutes or until tender.

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Recipe in Polish/Przepis po polsku:

Cannelloni z ricottą i szpinakiem

Smoked Salmon, Leek and Goat's Cheese Quiche

2009-03-02T03:08:00.006-05:00

Let me start by saying that quiche isn’t a common dish in Poland. The first time I ate quiche as a teenager on a school trip to London. I didn’t know what exactly a quiche was at that time, and, to be honest, I thought that it must have been English rather than French dish. Shouldn’t they serve us English food on a trip to England after all?

I truly discovered the whole concept of quiche only later in Quebec. I was surprised how easy and quick it is to make. All you need is a pastry crust, eggs , cream (or milk) and filling of your choice: bacon in case of famous quiche Lorraire, or other fillings such as fish, veggies, herbs... whatever you like.

In today’s recipe I used smoked salmon, leek, goat's cheese and a little bit of chives. The goat cheese flavour was subtle, yet palatable and it paired very well with the salmon. The addition of chives made the quiche taste light and refreshing. It’s a wonderful dish on the day when you cook it, but also reheated in the oven next day. I suspect some of you might like it cold too- anyway, I do ;-)

Smoked Salmon, Leek and Goat's Cheese Quiche

FOR THE CRUST:
250 g all purpose or pastry flour, sifted
150 g cold butter, cut into cubes
4 tbsp iced water
pinch of salt

FOR THE FILLING:
200 g smoked salmon
1 leek (white part only)
1 tbsp olive oil
100 g soft goat cheese
1 cup (250 ml) milk (at least 2% fat)
3 extra large eggs
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chives, chopped
salt
pepper

1. Place the flour, salt and butter in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture looks crumbly. While the motor is running, add water, spoon by spoon to form smooth dough. Transfer to a flat surface and knead slightly to form a ball.
2. Grease the tartlet pans with butter. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Line up the tartlet pan. Cover with a piece of parchment paper and fill with baking weights or uncooked peas or beans. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 390°F (200°C ). Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes, take out from the oven and remove the parchment paper and weights.

TO PREPARE THE FILLING:
1. Slice the leek. In a frying pan heat 1 tbsp olive oil, cook the leek until tender but not brown.
2. Cut the salmon into small pieces.
3. In a bowl beat slightly the eggs and milk. Add crumbled goat cheese and chives. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper.
4. In a separate bowl combine pieces of salmon and leek. Arrange in the tart shell. Cover with the egg and milk mixture.
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes before unmolding so that the batter sets, then serve.

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Recipe in Polish/Przepis po polsku:
Quiche z wędzonym łososiem, porem i kozim serkiem

White Chocolate and Vanilla Muffins

2009-02-22T07:57:00.007-05:00

Those of you who read my post about Apple Muffins with Nutmeg and Cinnamon might remember I mentioned white chocolate muffins recipe back then. They were one of the first muffins I’ve ever made and, even though I tried lots of different muffin recipes since that time, they have remained my favourite. I love their delicate structure and wonderful white chocolate flavor perfectly balanced with the addition of the lemon peel to the batter. I had never baked anything with white chocolate before this recipe, so it actually made me discover how delicious white chocolate can be when used in baked goods. The original recipe for the muffins comes from : Le codron Bleu Home Collection: Muffins. The addition of vanilla to the batter as well as the icing are my own ideas. Enjoy!!!

White Chocolate and Vanilla Muffins

Makes 12

DRY INGREDIENTS:
380 g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
125 g caster sugar
200 g white chocolate

WET INGREDIENTS:
2 eggs
375 ml milk
1 teaspoon lemon peel
½ vanilla pod (reserve the other half for the icing)
160 g butter, melted

WHITE CHOCOLATE ICING:
200 g white chocolate, roughly chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
½ vanilla pod

1. Preheat the oven to 210°C (410°F). Grease or line muffin pan with paper muffin cups.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients except white chocolate into a large bowl.
3. Chop the chocolate roughly. Add to the dry ingredients.
4. Split half of the vanilla pod lengthways, scrape out the seeds.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. Add the lemon peel and vanilla seeds.
6. Pour the egg mixture and melted butter into the bowl with dry ingredients. Stir with a metal spoon to combine. Do not over mix!!!
7. Spoon into the muffin pan filling ¾ full.
8. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean.
9. Let cool slightly before removing from the pan. Serve warm or cold with the white chocolate icing.

WHITE CHOCOLATE ICING:
Break the white chocolate bars into pieces. Melt with olive oil and vanilla seeds in a heatproof dish over a pan of simmering water. Spread over cooled muffins. Let the icing set slightly before serving.

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Recipe in Polish/Przepis po polsku:
Muffinki z białą czekoladą

Chocolate and Raspberry Tartlets

2009-02-21T16:33:00.006-05:00

Chocolate crust, creamy mascarpone and beautiful raspberries drizzled with sweet syrup...doesn’t it sound like a perfect tartlet? The inspiration for this was a picture posted by Bea from La Tartine Gourmande food blog. Bea, didn’t give the recipe, but this couldn’t stop me. There was a Chocolate Weekend coming on Polish food blogs and I wanted to make chocolate and raspberry tartlets. So, I did. And here’s the result.

Chocolate and Raspberry Tartlets

Makes 6

FOR THE CRUST*
125 g all –purpose or pastry flour
15 g cocoa
35 g caster sugar
pinch of salt
80 g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 large egg yolk
about 2 tbsp iced water

FOR THE MASCARPONE CREAM:
200 ml heavy cream
3 tbsp icing sugar
225 g mascarpone

FOR THE RASPBERRIES IN SYRUP:
250 g raspberries (frozen are fine)
40 g sugar
2 tbsp water

FOR THE TOPPING:
200 g fresh raspberries

1. Grease the tartlets pans.
2. Place the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt and butter in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture looks crumbly. While the motor is running, add egg yolk and water, spoon by spoon to form smooth dough. Transfer to a flat surface and knead slightly to form a ball.
3. Divide the dough into six equal pieces. Roll out each piece on a lightly floured surface. Line up the tartlets pans.
4. Place a piece of parchment paper over each tartlet and fill with baking weights or uncooked peas or beans. Refrigerate overnight (or at least 3 hours).
5. Preheat the oven to 190°C (370°F)
6. Put the tartlets straight from the fridge to the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven, remove the parchment paper and weights. Return to the oven and bake for 5 minutes more, or until the dough feels completely baked. Leave to cool for about 5 minutes, unmold and leave to cool completely.
7. In the meantime prepare the raspberries in syrup. Place the sugar, water, and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil stirring until the sugar dissolves. Boil for 3-4 minutes, reduce the heat and add 250 g of raspberries. Simmer for about 3 minutes or until syrup forms. Set aside to cool completely.
8. Prepare the cream. Whip the cream with the sugar. Fold in mascarpone.
9. Spoon the cream onto the pastry cases. Just before serving, top with a few fresh raspberries + some raspberries from the syrup. Drizzle with more syrup. Serve immediately.

*prepare one day in advance to chill properly.

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Recipe in Polish/Przepis po polsku:
Czekoladowe tartaletki z malinami

Risalamande

2009-02-05T19:55:00.017-05:00

Today’s recipe is a rice pudding served with warm cherry sauce at Christmas time in Denmark. Apart from flaked or chopped almonds, one whole almond is added to the rice. The person, who finds the almond, should save it discreetly until everyone finishes the desserts. Only then, the almond is revealed and the person receives a little gift.

Now, you might wonder why I make a Danish Christmas dessert at this time of the year. It’s all cause of Kiiri, a Polish girl, who has organized a food blog event featuring Scandinavian recipes.

I didn’t follow a particular recipe for this pudding. Reading dozens of recipes on food blogs and other food pages, I have noticed that all of them call for the same ingredients: milk, rice, whipping cream, almonds, vanilla and a little bit of sugar. The quantities of the ingredients have varied from recipe to recipe, but that was actually a good thing as I could adjust them according to my taste. Also, the method of cooking the rice was different in different recipes. Old recipes asked for bringing the rice to boil, removing it from the heat, wrapping the pot in newspapers and blankets and leaving it this way for about 2-2.5 hours or until the rice is cooked. More modern versions just simmer the rice on a very low heat for about 1 hour. Since I have a “keep warm” function on my cooker, I decided to make use of it. I cooked the rice on a low heat for 10 minutes, brought it to boil, removed from the heat and left the pot with the rice covered on the “warming center” on my cooker for about 1 hour.

Making the cherry sauce was a little bit more complicated. Danish people often buy ready sauce, but since I had a bag of beautiful frozen sour cherries at home I decided to make my own sauce. I don’t know whether my sauce is similar to the Danish one or not, but together with the rice it tasted truly delicious. And I was the lucky one who has found the almond :-)

Risalamande

Serves 4

4 cups full-fat milk
1/3 cup (65 g) short-grained rice
½ vanilla pod (reserve the other half for the sauce)
1 cup whipping cream
3 tbsp caster sugar
65 g almond flakes
1 whole almond

1. Split half of the vanilla pod lengthways, scrape out the seeds.
2. Place the milk and vanilla in a heavy-bottomed pan. Bring to a boil.
3. Reduce the heat. Add the rice gradually stirring constantly.
4. Increase the heat and bring to a boil again.
5. When the milk boils, reduce the heat, cover and simmer on a very low heat for about 1 hour or until the rice is cooked. Stir from time to time, making sure that the rice doesn’t stick too much to the bottom.
6. Leave to cool completely.
7. Whip the cream together with sugar. Fold the whipped cream and almonds into the rice. You can add more sugar or more almonds if you wish. Serve with warm cherry sauce (recipe below)

Cherry Sauce

1 ½ cup (about 185 g) frozen cherries*
½ tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp sugar
½ vanilla pod
1 ½ cup water + 2 tbsp cold water
1 heaped tbsp potato starch (corn starch can be substituted)

1. Place the cherries in a medium saucepan. Add lemon juice, sugar and 1 ½ cup water. Add the vanilla pod. Simmer until the cherries are tender.
2. Combine the potato starch with 2 tbsp cold water.
3. Bring the cherries to a boil. Remove the vanilla pod from the pot. Reduce the heat, and , stirring constantly, slowly pour the water with the starch. Simmer for a few minutes until the sauce thickens slightly.

* I used frozen sour cherries in this recipe, but regular sweet cherries should work as well.

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Recipe in Polish:
Risalamande (duński deser ryżowy)

Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-01-14T15:51:00.013-05:00

The idea of baking chocolate cookies came to my mind while making a chocolate cake for my brother-in-law's birthday. While the cake was in the oven my entire kitchen, whole appartment in fact, become filled with a wonderful aroma of chocolate. No one could resist that. Neither could I. So, I decided to bake something with chocolate also for myself. I opted for these totally chocolate chocolate chip cookies recipe. As the name says, the cookies tasted totally chocolate and made my kitchen smell chocolate not less than when I was baking the cake. Needless to say, they were also totally delicious!! The recipe makes 12-14 cookies - it doesn’t sound like many, but believe me, even though they’re truly delicious, it’s almost impossible to eat more than a few. They’re just too...chocolate. The recipe for these extremely chocolate cookies comes from Nigella Lawson (see the video below). The only change I’ve made was using golden caster sugar in place of regular white sugar.

Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 12-14 cookies

125 g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
150 g flour
30 g cocoa, sieved
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
125 g soft butter
75 g light brown sugar
50 g golden caster sugar or regular white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, cold
350 g dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 340°F (170°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Melt the 125 g chocolate in a heatproof dish over a pan of simmering water.
3. In a medium bowl combine the flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
4. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars. Add the melted chocolate and mix again until completely combined.
5. Add vanilla extract and cold egg. Beat until well combined.
6. Add the dry ingredients, mix on the lowest speed until well combined.
7. Stir in chocolate chips.
8. Using an ice-cream scoop, scoop 12-14 mounds of the dough onto prepared baking sheet, spacing the cookies about 2.5 inches (6 cm) apart. Do not flatten them.
9. Bake for about 18 minutes. Leave on the baking sheet for 4-5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to let them cool and harden.

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Nigella making the cookies:

Recipe in Polish:
Obłędnie czekoladowe ciastka Nigelli

Almond Cheesecake with Sour Cherry Compote

2008-12-18T10:14:00.001-05:00

In Poland lots of people have sour cherry trees in their backyards. So did my parents. The two lovely trees which used grow next to our house, were giving us beautiful cherries. I could never wait for the first fruit to appear. I’m not a fan of very sweet fruit in general, so I truly enjoyed their slightly tart flavor, eating the cherries either fresh alone, or cooked in desserts. I loved to pick the cherries into large bowls to use them later in my favorite sour cherry cake which I would bake with a recipe given to me once by my aunt. Sour cherries are juicier and more flavorful than their sweet cousins, which makes them perfect for desserts and baking. Not to mention, sour cherry jam, juice, and yogurt…something that it’s easily available in every grocery store in Poland. Delicious!!!

In Quebec, on the other hand, sour cherries are very hard to obtain. So, when I saw a package of the sour beauties in the Eastern European grocery store a while ago, I just couldn’t resist them. I missed sour cherries so much!!! I was a little disappointed there was only one little package left - there wouldn't be enough cherries to bake my aunt’s cherry cake, I thought , and decided to keep them frozen for late use. I realized I still have them in the freezer only last week when I was planning to make an almond cheesecake. Aren't cherries and almonds a perfect combination of flavors? Well, for me they surely are.

So, I decided to make an almond cheesecake with sour cherry compote. I used mascarpone cheese and fromage frais and added grounded almonds and amaretto liquor for the almond flavor. For the bottom of the cheesecake, I made amaretti crust from this recipe. Since I’ve never made compote before, I had to read a few recipes like this one and this one before I could actually make one myself. Not very sweet itself, together with the compote, the cheesecake was simply delicious. The almond and cherry flavors make it a perfect cake for the holiday season.

Almond Cheesecake with Sour Cherry Compote

For the crust:

35 g sliced almonds, toasted
2 tbsp sugar
100 g amaretti cookies
2-3 tbsp butter, melted

For the filling:
750 g quark or other fresh cheese (I used 4% fromage frais from Liberte brand)
500 g mascarpone cheese
5 eggs
170 g sugar
75 g grounded almonds
75 ml (5 tbsp) amaretto liquor
75 (5 tbsp) heavy cream
½ lemon, juice and zest of

For the cherry compote:
250 g frozen sour cherries
½ cup sugar
100 ml water
A few tablespoon amaretto liquor
½ lemon, juice

1. Preheat the oven to 170 °C.

2. In a food processor combine amaretti cookies, toasted almonds and sugar. Add melted butter and mix. Press crumb mixture evenly over the bottom of slightly greased springform pan. Prebake for about 10 minutes.

3. Using an electric mixer, at high speed beat the eggs and sugar until pale. At low speed beat in mascarpone cheese and quark cheese, a few spoons at a time. Add cream, amaretto liquor , lemon juice, lemon zest, and grounded almonds, one ingredient at a time, mixing well after each addition.

4. Place the filling on the prepared crust. Bake for 1 hour. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and immediately run a thin knife around the edge of the cake. Let stand for 5 minutes, then return to the oven and bake for 15 minutes more. Remove from the oven and let cool. Refrigarate for about 3 hours. Serve with the cherry compote.

Cherry Compote:

Place the water, lemon juice, amaretto liquor and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat stirring until the sugar dissolves. Boil until thin syrup forms, about 7 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and add cherries. Cook until desired consistency ( it’s up to you whether you keep your cherries whole, or let them break slightly). Let cool, then cover and chill in the fridge. The compote keeps in the fridge for about 1 week.

Recipe in Polish:
Sernik migdałowy z wiśniami

Smoked Salmon, Leek and Tomato Tartlets

2008-11-29T07:50:00.007-05:00

- I feel like smoked salmon, I said to my husband as the ideas for salmon dishes were appearing one by one in my head: Norwegian Soup, pasta with salmon and capers, smoked salmon and lemon risotto, a few tasty tarts and tartlets recipes... We opted for the last one. I started with a recipe for smoked salmon tartlets from Sarah Branbery’s book Tarty i tartalrtki (Tarts and tartlets). I replaced half of the salmon with leek and tomatoes and used duck egg yolks in the place of chicken one - they’re larger and have milder flavor.

We ate the tartlets for dinner topped with a splash of sour cream and fresh dill and lots of green lettuce on the side. They were delicious. Delicate flesh of salmon and pieces of vegetables covered with creamy yolk and crème fraîche mixture simply melt in your mouth. They actually taste a lot like a quiche, but since there are no whole eggs in the recipe (just egg yolks), I guess “tartlet” is probably more proper name here, is it?

Since quiche is one of my husband’s favorite dishes I couldn’t wait to hear if he liked them. When, after his first bite, he put his fork and knife away, I was sure he didn’t enjoy them as much as I did. I wouldn’t be surprised. All in all, he has been eating quiches for all his life and this was my first quiche-like recipe.

-And? How do they taste?, I asked with curiosity

After a long while of silence, I was relieved to hear an answer:

- They’re similar to quiche, but... better. Honestly, it’s the best quiche I’ve ever had in my life.

Then he said something more, but since I’ve promised I wouldn’t write it here, I cannot tell you ;-)

Bon appétit!!!

Choose large egg yolks for this recipe. I used egg yolks of duck eggs, but chicken egg yolks will work just as fine.

Smoked Salmon, Leek and Tomato Tartlets

Makes 6

FOR THE CRUST:
125 g all purpose flour, sifted
pinch of salt
75 g cold butter, cut into pieces
2-3 tbsp iced water (place the water for a few minutes in the freezer before using)

FOR THE FILLING:
120 ml ( ½ cup) crème fraîche
1 teaspoon horseradish
½ teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon capers
salt and pepper
½ leek (white part only)
1 tbs olive oil
1 large tomato or 4-5 cherry tomatoes
100 g smoked salmon
dill, chopped

TO PREPARE THE CRUST:
1. Grease the tartlets pans with butter.
2. Place the flour, salt and butter in a food processor. Process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. While the motor is running, add water spoon by spoon to form smooth dough. Knead the dough lightly.
3. Divide the dough into six equal pieces. Roll out each piece on a lightly floured surface. Line up the tartlets pans.
4. Place a piece of parchment paper over each tartlet and fill with baking weights or uncooked peas or beans. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 390°F (200°C )
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes, remove from the oven, remove the parchment paper and weights and set aside.

TO PREPARE THE FILLING:
1. Slice the leek. In a frying pan heat 1 tbsp olive oil, cook the leek until tender but not brown.
2. Peel and seed the tomato. Cut into small cubes and drain on a paper towel.
3. Cut the salmon into small pieces.
4. In a bowl combine crème fraîche, horseradish and capers. Season with ½ teaspoon lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add egg yolks and stir to combine.
5. In a separate bowl combine pieces of salmon, leek and tomatoes. Gently combine the two mixtures together.
6. Spoon into pre-baked pastry. Bake for 15 minutes. Leave to cool for 5 minutes before unmolding. Serve.

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Recipe in Polish:
Tartaletki z wędzonym łososiem, porem i pomidorami

Pear and Pecan Salad

2008-11-16T19:03:00.006-05:00

The Pear and Pecan salad recipe is my own creation prepared for Nut Weekned, a Polish food blog event hosted by Ela from My Best Food blog.

The first time I tried pecans was in Canada a few years ago. At first I wasn’t really impressed with them. Only later I discovered that pecans actually become very flavorful and tasty when toasted. In this salad recipe I coat the nuts with honey, maple syrup and spices and then toast them in the oven which makes them truly delicious. I usually prepare more of them as it's impossible to not to sneak a few before the salad is ready to serve ;-)

Pear and Pecans Salad

Serves 4

1 package red leaf curly lettuce
1 pear

FOR THE NUTS:
½ cup pecans
1 teaspoon olive oil
½ tbsp honey
½ tbsp maple syrup
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/8 teaspoon black ground pepper
¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350°F (170°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl combine the nuts with olive oil, honey, maple syrup and spices. Spread on prepared baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes, stirring occassionaly. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

FOR THE MAPLE DRESSING:
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp maple syrup
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Place all the dressing ingredients in a jar. Shake until well combined.

Wash and dry the lettuce, if the leaves are big tear them into pieces. Peel, core and cut the pear either in cubes or strips. Divide the lettuce leaves into four plates. Sprinkle with pieces of pear and nuts. Pour the maple dressing over the salad and serve immediately.

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Recipe in Polish:
Sałatka z gruszką i pekanami

Apple Muffins with nutmeg and cinnamon

2008-11-07T13:20:00.011-05:00

I chose a delicious apple muffin recipe to post today. The muffins are incredibly moist, soft and very aromatic with a nice touch of nutmeg and cinnamon. They aren't very sweet themselves, so the key here is to sprinkle some sugar on the top before baking. The sugar gets nice and crusty and tasty truly delicious.

The recipe for these has somehow special meaning to me as these were the first muffins I’ve ever had in my life, and also the first ones I’ve ever baked myself. I was nineteen years old and I had just bought one of my first cookbooks ever, which happen to be entirely devoted to muffins. In Poland where I grew up, muffins have never been particularly popular and it was nearly impossible to buy muffin pans at that time, so I made them in tartlets molds (the same ones which I used for pistachio and raspberry financiers a few weeks ago ). The day I baked them my sister had guests. They loved my little baked goods so much that a moment later I was trying another recipe from the same book. I chose white chocolate muffins with some sliced almonds sprinkled on the top. They came out the same delicious and I still bake them often, so I’ll surely post the recipe here some day.

According to the recipe this should make 6 large muffins. I use smaller muffin pan which usually makes sixteen.

Apple Muffins with nutmeg and cinnamon

FOR THE MUFFINS:

375 g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3 tbsp caster sugar
155 g unsalted butter
3 tbsp honey
2 eggs
170 ml milk
3 apples

FOR THE CINNAMON SUGAR:
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tbsp caster sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Grease or line muffin pan with paper muffin cups.
2. Peel and core the apples. Cut into very small cubes. (or grate).
3. Sift all the dry ingredients to a large bowl. Make a well in the center.
4. Heat the butter with honey over low heat until melted.
5. In a separate small bowl, mix together the eggs and milk.
6. Pour the egg mixture and the butter mixture into the well in the dry ingredients. Add the apples and mix.
7. Spoon into the muffin pan filling ¾ full.
8. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean.
9. Let cool slightly before removing from the pan. Serve warm or cold.

Source of the recipe: Le codron Bleu Home Collection: Muffins, modified

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Recipe in Polish:
Muffinki z jabłkami

Pumpkin and Ginger Jam

2008-10-28T09:59:00.002-04:00

I picked this pumpkin and ginger jam recipe to feature on Pumpkin Festival, a Polish food blog event hosted by Bea from Moja Kuchnia food blog (the blog is also available in French here). It was easy to make and came out delicious. What I particularly like about it, is that the jam isn't too sweet and has a lovely slightly spicy ginger flavor which goes perfectly with the mild pumpkin taste. The author of this lovely recipe is Pille from Nami Nami food blog. You can check the original recipe on her blog here.

Pumpkin and Ginger Jam

Makes 4 jars (250 ml each)
1 kg pumpkin , diced
60 g freshly grated ginger
1 lemon
200 ml water
500 g jam sugar (with pectin)

1. Wash and dry the lemon . Grate the zest. Remove the white pith and discard. Cut the lemon flesh into small pieces.
2. Place the pumpkin, water, lemon flesh and ginger in a large heavy bottomed pot. Cover and simmer until soft. Remove the lid for the last 5-10 minutes of cooking to enable the extra moisture to evaporate.
3. Smash the pumpkin with a wooden spoon , or if you want a very smooth jam, press through a fine sieve.
4. Add sugar and lemon zest. Cook for 10 minutes.
5. Spoon hot jam into sterilized jars and close immediately.

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Recipe in Polish:
Dżem z dyni z imbirem

Cumin Bread

2008-10-26T10:18:00.006-04:00

Whenever I think about bread, I see a warm, aromatic loaf with crunchy golden crust and soft inside. That’s how I remember bread from my childhood. It tasted best when still warm, directly from the bakery. I remember my father going to buy another loaf as the one he had bought in the morning often didn’t last even till lunch time. I was able to eat half of such loaf myself. We used to have the bread plain or with a thick layer of cold butter, and everyone wanted to get the heel...

I don’t know if it’s still possible to obtain such bread. The loaves sold in bakeries nowadays do not taste as good as the ones I remember from my childhood. I understand and admire people who don’t buy bread anymore, but decide to bake it themselves. I’ve never really had enough courage to try to make my own loaf before, and I guess I still wouldn’t have the courage, if not Margot from Kuchnia Alicji food blog. Margot has started a weekly food blog event in which food bloggers bake bread with a recipe chosen by the host of the event. Each weekend the recipe is different. The Cumin Bread which she has chosen from Zorra 's blog this weekend , looked so delicious that I couldn’t resist and decided to bake it too.

This is the first real loaf of bread I've ever baked. And, even though it’s far from being perfect, I wouldn’t exchange it for any store-bought bread. It’s been ages since I had such a delicious fresh and aromatic bread, crusty outside and very soft inside. I would only skip the cumin or replace it with another spice next time (caraway seeds, perhaps), as both me and my husband are not big fans of the spice.

The original recipe for the bread can be found on Zorra's blog here. Zorra made her bread using fresh yeast, which is the kind of yeast I usually use in Poland. I didn’t manage to find such yeast in Canada, so I used active dry yeast instead and it worked fine too.

Cumin Bread

For the cream crumbs:
150 g cream 35-36% fat

For the pre-ferment:
220 g flour
5 g salt
half a teaspoon active dry yeast (or 0.5 g fresh yeast)
170 ml water

For the final dough:
270 g flour
20 g whole wheat flour
150 ml water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast (or 0.8 g fresh yeast) pre-ferment
50 g cream crumbs
7 g salt
10 g cumin

To make pre-ferment:
Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth with a spoon. Cover with a plastic wrap or dish towel and leave at room temperature for 2 hours. Refrigerate overnight.

To make cream crumbs:
Bring the cream to a boil. Heat over low heat until the fat separates, and the milk solids turn into nutty brown crumbs. Leave to cool.

Final dough:
1. Dissolve the yeast in 50 ml water. Mix the rest of the water with preferment.
2. Place all the ingredients except salt in a stand mixer bowl. Stir with a hook on the lowest speed.
3. Add salt and mix for six minutes on speed 2. The final dough should be smooth and a bit sticky.
4. Cover with plastic wrap or dishtowel and let rise for 30 minutes.
5. Transfer the dough onto a flat surface, stretch and fold (the exact Strech & Fold instruction can be found on Zorra’s blog here). Cover and set aside for another 30 minutes.
6. Shape the dough into one big or two small loaves. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let rise for 45 minutes.
7. In the meantime preheat the oven to 420°F (220°C).
8. Just before baking, spray or brush the loaves with some water and slash with a sharp razor. 9. Transfer to the preheated oven. Bake for 15 minutes, open the oven door to release the steam, bake for 20 minutes more. If the bread turns too dark, cover with aluminum foil.
10. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

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Recipe in Polish:
Chleb z kuminem i prażoną śmietanką

Hazelnut, Chocolate & Banana Bread

2008-10-13T13:25:00.000-04:00

From my apartment’s window I have a beautiful view on... squirrels. Only for my first few months in Canada, I have seen more squirrels, than during my whole life in Poland. I love to watch them jumping in the trees, running next to the window, or eating delicious nuts. Today, I got jealous of the squirrels delicacies, and decided to bake something with nuts too.

I opted for Nut, Chocolate & Banana Bread from one of my favorite food blogs, La Tartine Gourmande. The author of the blog, Béatrice Peltre takes the best food (and not only food !!! ) pictures I’ve ever seen. And I don’t mean only the quality (even though this is highly professional too), but mainly the food styling. Served on colorful dishes, decorated with fruit, flowers, and fresh herbs, Béa’s cakes, desserts and other meals, look so delicious that it makes you want to eat them all right away and ask for more ;)

The original recipe asked for walnuts, but since I was feeling more like hazelnuts today (Aren’t they squirrels’ favorite nuts???), I replaced them. Also, I increased slightly the amount of chocolate and I used milk chocolate in place of dark chocolate. Even though I think dark chocolate would be delicious as well.

The hazelnut and chocolate combination turned out perfect as usual. The bread tastes absolutely delicious. I don’t know if it’s the flour, or the addition of almond butter (which, I absolutely love, by the way), but the bread has a very original flavor I have never encountered before. Both I and my husband truly loved it :)

The recipe below is my adapted version of Béa's bread. The original version of the recipe can be found on her food blog, here.

Hazelnut, Chocolate and Banana Bread

¾ cup (100 g) quinoa flour
½ cup (80 g) white rice flour
½ cup (80 g) tapioca starch
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup (150 g) blond cane sugar
2 tbsp almond butter
1/3 cup (80 ml) olive oil or canola oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
¾ cup (80 g) hazelnut, toasted
3 tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted
¾ cup (75 g) milk chocolate, roughly chopped
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C)
2. Grease and flour an 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch loaf pan.
3. In a bowl (or using stand mixer equipped with a paddle), lightly beat the sugar with eggs.
4. Add the oil and almond butter, and then vanilla extract.
5. Add mashed bananas, mix until smooth.
6. In a separate bowl, combine quinoa flour, white rice flour, tapioca starch, baking soda, and baking powder.
7. Fold in the egg mixture. Stir until combined.
8. Add nuts and chocolate and stir until the ingredients are just combined.
9. Place the butter into the loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool before unmolding.

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Przepis po polsku:
Ciasto orzechowo-bananowe z czekoladą

Financiers aux framboises...

2008-10-12T11:19:00.017-04:00

I wanted to bake something more ‘autumnal’ today, but when I saw the recipe for raspberry and pistachio financiers, I just couldn’t resist them...

Financiers, also called friands are little almond tea cakes originating from France. I already posted a recipe for them once here. Unlike Donna Hay’s recipe which I had used back then, this recipe doesn’t use baking powder at all. The cakes come out even more delicious. Soft, delicate, spongy, just wonderful!!! Traditionally, financiers are baked in oval or rectangular molds resembling bars of gold, but since I don’t have them (yet), I used other molds instead.

The recipe comes from one of my favorite French food magazines Cuisine Gourmande.

Use real butter (no margarine) in this recipe. Cooked until golden brown it will add a light nutty flavor to the cakes. The raspberry - pistachio combination is truly delicious, but feel free to experiment with other fruit/nuts. The cakes taste delicious plain as well.

Raspberry- Pistachio Financiers

Makes 12 cakes

125 g raspberries
1 tbsp unsalted pistachios, shelled
125 g butter
100 g icing sugar
30 g flour
90 g almond meal
3 egg whites

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F (180°C). Grease 12 friand molds or other molds you use.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan; heat over low heat until it turns nutty brown and some of the milk solids separate. Leave to cool.
3. Sieve flour and icing sugar into a large bowl. Add almond meal and stir to combine.
4. Add egg whites, one at a time, stirring well after each addition. Add cooled butter and stir until the ingredients are well combined.
5. Spoon the batter into prepared molds. Press a few raspberries and pistachios into each cake.
6. Bake for 15-25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool before unmolding.

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Przepis po polsku:
"Finansjerki" z malinami

White Chocolate - Blueberry Cheesecake

2008-10-06T20:59:00.008-04:00

Even though I’d usually eat a bar of dark, rather than white chocolate, in baked goods and desserts I definitely prefer the taste of the white one. White chocolate pairs especially well with different berries; the lightly tart flavor of the fruit balances its sweetness and makes the chocolate less bland.

White chocolate-blueberry cheesecake is certainly one of the best cheesecakes I’ve ever eaten. It’s very moist, wet, in fact, and incredibly creamy, with well balanced sweetness and delicate white chocolate flavor. I’ve found recipe for the white chocolate–blueberry cheesecake in Gardening Life magazine, but I didn’t follow it exactly*

I used wild blueberries here, but regular blueberries will do as well.

White Chocolate-blueberry Cheesecake

FOR THE CRUST:
100 g Petit Beurre biscuits
80 g butter, melted

FOR THE FILLING:
3 packages 375-g fresh cheese (Liberté old style cottage cheese or quark)
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 vanilla bean
4 eggs
8 oz (225 g) white chocolate
½ cup blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F (175 °C)
2. Line an 9-inch springform pan with aluminum foil
3. Crush the biscuits in a food processor. Mix with melted butter and press into prepared pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Set aside.
4. Increase oven temperature to 450 °F (230 °C)
5. Split the vanilla bean lengthways, scrape out the seeds. Mix with the cheese. Set aside.
6. Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water
7. Using an electric mixer, beat the cheese until very smooth. Add the sugar and salt and beat until well combined.
8. Beat in eggs, adding one at a time and scraping the sides as needed until the mixture is smooth.
9. Mix in white chocolate. Fold in blueberries.
10. Spoon the cheese mixture onto the prepared crust. Bake on the bottom rack of oven for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 210 F (100 °C) and continue to bake for 1 hour. When done, the cheesecake should be mostly solid around the edges but still jiggle a little in the center when you shake the pan.
11. Immediately run a thin knife around the edge of the cake.
12. Cool the cake in the oven with the door ajar for 1 hour.
13. Remove from oven and chill overnight in the fridge.

* The original recipe uses graham cracker crumbs for the crust, and cream cheese and vanilla extract in the filling.

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Recipe in Polish:
Sernik z białą czekoladą i jagodami

Wild Blueberry Pierogi

2008-10-05T09:47:00.012-04:00

As a little girl I used to spend lots of time at my grandparents’ place. Among all the beautiful memories I’ve kept from that time there’s my grandmothers’cooking. Even now, when I close my eyes, I still can smell and taste all the delicious meals she used to cook for us.

Like most of kids, I loved when my grandmother made sweet dinners...fruit soup with homemade noodles, cheese blintzes with homemade vanilla cheese, potato pancakes sprinkled with sugar, or pierogi, delicious dumplings filled with vanilla cheese or wild blueberries picked up in forest by my grandparents.

No one else’s pierogi have been as delicious as the ones made by her. The secret of her pierogi is simplicity. My grandmother’s dumplings have always been made with only three ingredients, flour, boiling water, wild blueberries...well, maybe also a pinch of salt and that’s all. There’s no egg or olive oil, so often used in other recipes, in her pierogi dough. Such dough is certainly not easy to work with, it takes long to knead it, it’s not easy to roll, and it gets dry quickly (that’s why it’s important to keep it covered with damp cloth) . The result is worth the effort though. The dough made this way comes out incredibly thin, almost transparent, but firm at the same time. This way you can fill your dumplings with plenty of blueberries without danger of destroying it. Served with breadcrumbs and butter and sprinkled with a little bit of sugar such pierogi taste absolutely awesome!!!

In Poland blueberry pierogi are usually served with sour cream and a little bit of sugar. As I've mentioned, I prefer to eat my pierogi with butter and bread crumbs, especially if I have them as a main meal. If you prefer lighter version or want to serve your pierogi for dessert rather than main meal, cream would be a better choice. I suspect this pierogi would taste delcious with vanilla yoghurt as well.
I don’t give the exact proportions of water here as it depends on the flour you use. The flour I use in Canada, takes much more water than the Polish one. Start with 150 ml, and then add as much water as needed to make firm and elastic dough. The water you’re adding should be hot, wait a little before you continue kneading the dough, to not to burn yourself.

Wild blueberry pierogi

makes about 60 dumplings

500 g all purpose flour
boiling water (see head notes)
pinch of salt
500 ml (2 cups) wild blueberries

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Make a whole in the center and pour boiling water into it. Stir the mixture together with a fork, gradually incorporating the flour into the whole.
2. Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Add more water if needed. Wait a little with the kneading after each addition of water, to not to burn yourself.
3. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or cover with a damp dishtowel and let it rest for at least half an hour at room temperature.
4. Take a workable portion of dough and roll out very thin on a floured surface.
5. Using a drinking glass or round cookie cutter, cut circles (approximately 3 inches in diameter) Roll out each circle a little bit more or stretch it with your fingers; the dough should be very thin.
6. Spoon some blueberries into the center of each circle. Fold each circle in half around filling to form a semicircle, and firmly press edges together with your fingers. The edges should be free of filling.
7. Transfer the pierogi to a lightly floured baking sheet. Cover with a dishtowel.
8. Continue to fill and form pierogi, until all the dough has been used.
9. Cook or freeze uncooked for later use.

Cooking pierogi:
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Gently place a few pierogi in boiling water (do not cook more than a few pierogi at a time). Boil, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to keep them from sticking to the bottom. When the pierogi are floating on the surface let them cook 2 minutes more. Be careful to not to overcook them. Remove ready pierogi with a slotted spun or skimmer. Serve with cream or melted butter and bread crumbs topping (see recipe below). Sprinkle with sugar.

Freezing pierogi
Place uncooked pierogi on a lightly floured cookie sheet, make sure the pierogi are not touching each other. Place the dish in the freezer.When the pierogi start to freeze and are not sticky anymore, you can transfer them to plastic bag.

Melted butter and bread crumbs topping

4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp bread crumbs

1. Place the bread crumbs into a pan. Cook on a low heat stirring from time to time until the crumbs turn golden brown. Be careful to not to burn them.
2. Add the butter and heat until the butter is bubbling. This will take a couple of minutes.
3. Pour the bread crumbs and butter over the pierogi.

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Recipe in Polish:
Pierogi z jagodami

Zucchini Soup

2008-10-02T12:47:00.006-04:00

I cannot even count how many zucchini soup recipes I have tried in my life. The results were never satisfactory. Most of recipes turned out bland, tasteless and watery. Other called for strong spices and other ingredients which made the zucchini flavor almost unpalatable. I was already losing hope that soup made of zucchini (which is one of my favorite vegetables, by the way) might taste good at all.

Today’s recipe comes from Cuisine Gourmande magazine (the same one from which I made Zucchini and Pesto Lasagna a while ago). Disappointed with all the zucchini soup recipes I had tried before, I didn’t expect much from this one either. The addition of curry powder didn’t seem like a good idea for me; too spicy, I thought. Still, I decided to give it a try. The result really surprised me. The soup came out delicious, with wonderful creamy consistency and perfectly balanced flavors. There’s nothing I would add or remove from it. The recipe is just perfect. The delicate flavor of coconut milk goes perfectly with the mild zucchini taste. Also using curry powder turned out to be a good idea, thanks to its spicy flavor, the soup doesn’t taste bland. I loved the idea of topping the soup with slices of zucchini (they were raw in the original recipe, I cooked them slightly with olive oil), their crunchy texture gives a nice contrast to the creamy consistency of the soup. Delicious!!!

Indian Zucchini Soup

Serves 4

800 g zucchini
½ lemon
2 small onions
1 clove of garlic, crushed
3 teaspoons curry powder
200 ml coconut milk
500 ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper

1. Dice the onion.
2. Wash and dry all the zucchini (do not peel them). Reserve one nice small zucchini, dice the remaining ones.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Add the onions and sauté for two minutes. Stir in curry powder.
4. Add garlic and zucchini. Pour in coconut milk and vegetable stock. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, slice the reserved zucchini. Heat a little bit of olive oil in a separate pan, add the zucchini and sauté for one to two minutes.
6. Puree the soup with a hand blender. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
7. Serve individual bowls topped with slices of zucchini and a pinch of curry powder.

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Recipe in Polish:
Indyjska zupa z cukinii

Jagodzianki (Wild Blueberry Buns)

2008-09-21T08:45:00.010-04:00

Soft, spongy, delicate with plenty of sweet and juicy blueberries inside; that’s jagodzianki, the wild blueberry buns my mother used to bake each July when I was going for my exams in Poland. I missed wild blueberry (or actually bilberry) season in Poland this year. Jagodzianki, however, have kept tempting me with their luscious look for the last three months, appearing one by one on almost all Polish food blogs. Since the season for wild blueberries starts much later in Québec than in Poland, I had to wait with baking them. Only now, when the wild blueberries are in season here, I finally made them too. They came out exactly as my mother's ones, golden outside, soft and delicate inside. Delicious!!!

If you want to make jagodzianki, make sure that the bread crumbs and vanilla sugar you use, do not contain corn or potato starch. The excess of starch would turn the blueberry filling into jelly and you want your blueberries to stay a little juicy. If bread crumbs without starch are not available, reduce the amount of them to one tablespoon, or if the blueberries you use are not very juicy (I find Canadian wild blueberries much less juicy than the Polish ones) omit them completely.

Jagodzianki (Wild Blueberry Buns)

Makes 18-20 buns

FOR THE DOUGH:
½ kg all purpose flour
2 eggs
½ cup sugar
2 tbsp butter
50 g fresh yeast, or 4 ½ teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup (250 ml) milk
pinch of salt

FOR THE BLUEBERRY FILLING:
½ kg fresh wild blueberries
2 tbsp bread crumbs
3 tbsp sugar
2 packages (8 gr each) vanilla sugar

egg
1 tbsp milk
sugar

1. Heat the milk over low heat until slightly warm, but not hot.
2. Place the yeast in a bowl (if you use fresh yeast, crumble them). Add the heated milk, 1 tablespoon of the sugar and 1 tablespoon of the flour. Stir to combine and dissolve. Cover with plastic wrap or dishtowel and set aside for about 10 minutes in a warm place.
3. Beat the eggs and sugar together until thick and pale.
4. Melt the butter.
5. Sift the flour to a large bow, add pinch of salt, then pour in the yeast mixture. Stir to combine.
6. Add the egg mixture and melted butter. Stir until well combined.
7. Knead the dough until smooth and no longer sticks to your hands. Shape the dough into a ball. Transfer to a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap or dishtowel and leave to rise for about 1 hour.
8. Place the blueberries in a bowl. Combine with sugar, vanilla sugar and bread crumbs.
9. Divide the dough into 18-20 equal pieces. Form ball from each of the piece. Flatten on your hand. Spoon the filling into the center of each circle. Raise edges of dough and pinch together over filling, then roll between palms snowball fashion to form balls.
10. Place on greased baking sheet. Cover with a dishtowel and let rise for about 20 – 30 minutes.
11. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Just before baking whisk the egg with milk and brush on the buns, sprinkle with some sugar.
13. Bake for 20 minutes, or until buns are golden.

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Recipe in Polish:
Jagodzianki

Zucchini and Pesto Lasagna

2008-09-17T13:02:00.016-04:00

Zucchini is one of my favorite vegetables. Light, crunchy with a delicate aroma and flavor, it works well in almost any kind of dish. I really like to have zucchini with pasta. So, when I saw a recipe for zucchini and pesto lasagna in Cuisine Gourmande magazine, I just had to try it. The lasagna came out really delicious, light, fresh, aromatic, perfect for dinner on a warm day.

The recipe calls for pesto sauce, you can use either store bought pesto, or, like me, prepare it yourself (see the recipe for homemade pesto below). If the pine nuts are hard to obtain or too expensive, you can always replace them with sunflower seeds. If you decide to use dry lasagna noodles in place of fresh ones, cook them first in a slightly salted water.

Zuchinni and Pesto Lasagna

1 kg zucchini, cut into thin slices
9 fresh lasagna noodles
250 ml light cream
3 teaspoon pesto genovese*
1 ball (125 g) mozzarella cheese, sliced
40 g Parmesan cheese, grated
1 clove of garlic, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper

1. In a large skillet heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the zucchini and garlic and cook for about 5 min. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Place the cream into a small pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low; simmer 3 min. Remove from the heat, stir in pesto and half of the Parmesan cheese. Season with pepper.
3. Preheat the oven to 410°F (210 °C)
4.Spoon 1/3 of the cream, pesto and Parmesan mixture in prepared baking dish, top with three lasagna noodles, then arrange 1/3 of the zucchini slices. Repeat twice with the remaining cream, pesto and Parmesan mixture, lasagna noodles and zucchini finishing with zucchini. Top with slices of mozzarella, sprinkle with remaining Parmesan.
5.Bake the lasagna for about 20-30 minutes, or until the zucchini is tender and the cheese is melted.

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*Pesto Genovese

Makes about 125 ml

25 g pine nuts
35 g basil leaves
1 large clove of garlic
25 g Parmesan cheese, grated
60 ml extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

1. Toast the pine nuts in a small pan, leave to cool.
2. Wash and dry basil leaves.
3. Place the pine nuts, basil, garlic, and Parmesan cheese in a blender. Blend slowly pouring the olive oil.
4. Season with salt and pepper.

Store covered in a fridge up to five days.

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Recipe in Polish:
Lazania z cukinią i sosem pesto

Skubaniec Cake

2008-09-05T10:05:00.012-04:00

Skubaniec is a delicious Polish crumb cake with fruit and meringue. The first time I've had Skubaniec, was in Weranda Caffe, which is one of my favorite cafés in Poznań, Poland. Served with strawberry sauce, sprinkled with nuts and decorated with fresh lemon balm leaves, the cake tasted absolutely awesome!!! A few weeks after my last visit to Weranda Caffe, I found my mother’s recipe book by chance and, surprisingly, a recipe for Skubaniec cake in it. Since that time, I’ve been baking the cake constantly experimenting with different kinds of fruit.

My favorite fruit combination so far has been raspberry and rhubarb, which I've made lately here, in Québec. In Poland, it was nearly impossible to buy fresh rhubarb and raspberries at the same time, so I've never tried such pairing before. I could have probably used frozen raspberries, but simply never thought about that. If like me, you've never had raspberry and rhubarb pairing before, try it, it's a delightful combination of flavors!!!

As I said, you can use any type of fruit you want in this recipe. Both fresh and frozen fruit will work well. The original skubaniec recipe calls for cocoa in one part of the dough, but depending on the fruit I use, I often skip on it. I think in case of some fruit, the cake simply tastes better without it. In Poland I usually use Kasia margarine in this recipe; here I made the cake with soy margarine, but butter will work fine too. Use what's more convenient for you.

If you ever happen to be in Poland, don't forget to try homemade Skubaniec cake in Weranda Caffe, here's the address:

Weranda Caffe
ul. Świętosławska 10
Poznań

Skubaniec (Raspberry Rhubarb Crumb Cake)

For the cake:
5 egg yolks
250 g margarine or butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
1 cup sugar
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

For the fruit filling:
700 g rhubarb
300 g raspberries
½ cup sugar

For the meringue:
5 egg whites
pinch of salt
2 tbsp potato starch
3 tbsp sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C).
2. Wash the rhubarb, then trim and cut into 1.5 cm pieces. Place in a bowl and cover with half a cup of sugar. Set aside.
3. Combine the flour, baking powder and sugar. Using your fingertips, rub the margarine into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add egg yolks and form a dough.
4. Tear 2/3 of the dough into small pieces, scatter evenly at the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch (22 x 32 cm) baking pan. Reserve the rest of the dough, preferably in the fridge.
5. Strain the rhubarb, then sprinkle together with raspberries over the dough in the pan.
6. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, gradually add the sugar and potato starch and continue beating until glossy. Spread the meringue over the rhubarb and raspberry mixture, then scatter with pieces of the remaining dough.
7. Bake for about one hour.

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Recipe in Polish:
Skubaniec z malinami i rabarbarem

Ceramic Café

2008-08-06T12:57:00.007-04:00

No recipe today. This time I want to tell you about a wonderful place I visited last weekend together with my husband.

Ceramic Café is not an usual café, it’s both café and pottery studio at the same time. It’s a just a perfect place to come with kids, friends, or even alone. It’s really a place for everyone. No special skills are required. Painting ceramic is extremely fun and really really easy. Needless to say how relaxing it is to paint a piece of ceramic, while sipping coffee and eating a piece of cake or a cookie ;)

The painting starts with choosing a ceramic piece. You can chose among the whole range of plates, saucers, mugs, bowls, vases, ceramic animals, etc. (I chose an espresso cup). Once you chose your piece, someone from the staff sits with you at the table and explains briefly how to paint. Then, you simply take a pencil and sketch your design. If drawing is not your strong point, no worries, there are ready stencils available at the café. You can copy them with carbon paper and color with paints. No mixing paint to obtain new colors is required when you paint ceramic. You’ll get basic colors on your table with a sample of other available colors you can ask for. The staff is extremely friendly and helpful, so if you have any doubts, you can always ask questions. Besides, there are instructions in both French and English available on each table.

If you get hungry, you can order a light meal. Ceramic café offers a wide range of salads, sandwiches, foccacias, panini and bagels. There’s also special menu for kids and a few cakes and cookies available. The opening hours are late, so if you want to spend some time without children, you can always come in the evening and relax sipping a glass of wine or beer.

The prices start with $6 per hour for painting for children and $8 for adults. If you decide to spend 3 hours in the café, you pay $12. The prices don’t include ceramic pieces which cost about $8-15 per item. The price of a meal is about 5-10 dollars for a sandwich or salad.

Once your painting is done, you leave your piece in the café for glazing and firing. The piece will be ready to pick up one week later. My espresso cup will be ready next Sunday :)

Address:
1370, Chemin Sainte-Foy
G1S 2N6 Québec
http://www.leccs.com/

Post in Polish:
Ceramic Café

Strawberry salad

2008-07-09T12:35:00.006-04:00

It’s hard to believe but it’s been more than two months since I’ve blogged last time. The reason of my long absence was moving from Poland to the place, from where my husband comes from, Quebec. I arrived to Canada at the beginning of June; however it’s taken us some time to settle in the new place. There are still many things we miss here, however the necessary kitchen appliances are already there, so I can happily start cooking, baking and blogging again. :)

Today’s recipe is a quick and easy salad made with juicy strawberries, crunchy lettuce and walnuts drizzled with delicious strawberry dressing. Even though made with strawberries and honey, the dressing isn’t sweet. The salad is light and refreshing, perfect for warm summer days. I sprinkled my salad with chopped walnuts, but you can also use hazelnuts (either chopped or whole), sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds if you like.

Strawberry Salad

Serves 4

head of lettuce (preferably lollo rose, frisée or oak leaf )
250 g strawberries
2 tbsp walnuts
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp honey
salt
pepper

Wash and dry the lettuce, if the leaves are big, tear them into pieces. Slice half of the strawberries. Toss in the lettuce leaves. Divide the salad into 4 plates. Sprinkle each portion with chopped nuts.

To make the dressing, combine the remaining strawberries with the white wine vinegar, olive oil, honey, salt and pepper in a blender or food processor. Process until smooth. Pour the dressing over the salad.

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Recipe in Polish:
Sałata z truskawkami

Sardinian Ricotta Cake

2008-04-26T00:14:00.011-04:00

This is definitely the best plain cake I’ve ever tried, light and spongy with intense lemon flavor; the use of ricotta cheese in the batter provides a nice smooth texture and adds a little bit of richness to the cake. Delicious and so easy to make. The cake originates from Sardinia island in Italy, but I've found the recipe for it on Le Chou de bruxelles food blog in French here. Hope you’ll try it!!!

Sardinian Ricotta Cake
300 g flour
300 g sugar
300 g fresh ricotta cheese
3 eggs
1 lemon, zest and juice of
16 g (3.5 teaspoon )baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F)
2. Place ricotta and sugar in a large bowl. Crush with a fork until smooth and creamy.
3. Stir in egg yolks, lemon zest, flour and baking powder.
4. In a mixing bowl beat egg whites until stiff peak then gently fold them into the batter. (this might be a little difficult as the batter is rather thick if so add lemon juice)
5. Place the batter in 22 cm baking pan.
6. Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool completely.

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Recipe in Polish:

Sardyńska babka z ricottą

Anzac Biscuits

2008-04-23T02:51:00.010-04:00

These are wonderful cookies, extremely crispy on the first day; they become softer with time; both ways they taste absolutely delicious!!! The name of the cookies Anzac stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. Their origin is not clear, however, it is said that these long-keeping cookies were baked by Australian/New Zealand women during the WW I for the soldiers fighting overseas.

I made the cookies for Taste & Create food blog event hosted by Nicole from For the Love Of Food blog. The rules of the event are simple- Nicole pairs you with another food blogger and then you have to cook something using a recipe from your partner's blog. This month I’ve been paired with Allen from Eating Out Loud blog. Allen has lots of wonderful recipes on his blog from which I’ve chosen Anzac biscuits. I’d come across the recipe for these cookies on a few other food blogs before and really wanted to try them, and since there’s Anzac Day in Australian and New Zealand on 25^th April, it was a perfect timing.

I baked the cookies twice. First time I followed the recipe from Allen's blog almost exactly (the only change I made was replacing golden syrup with maple syrup as the first one is quite hard to find in Poland). Even though the cookies came out tasty, they had some soda aftertaste that I didn’t like. So, I baked the cookies once again adapting the recipe slightly. I reduced the amount of baking soda in the recipe, I used cane sugar in place of white sugar and added a little bit of sea salt. The cookies came out perfect, very crispy at the edges and a little chewy inside without the soda aftertaste. The addition of sea salt makes these cookies very similar to my favorite Polish oat cookies Złotoksłose sold in grocery stores here. Delicious!!!

Here’s my adapted version of the recipe, Allen's recipe can be found on his blog here. I used Demerara sugar in this recipe, but regular sugar or brown sugar will work well too. If like meyou have trouble finding golden syrup, maple syrup or honey will make a nice substitution. Enjoy!!!

Anzac Biscuits

makes about 36 cookies

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
3/4 cup flour
1 cup cane sugar
8 tbsp (115 g) unsalted butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tbsp boiling water
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C (320 F). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, oats, coconut, and sea salt.

3. Combine the baking soda and boiling water in a small bowl to dissolve.

4. In a small pan over low heat combine the butter and golden (or maple) syrup or honey.

5. Remove from the heat and stir in baking soda and water mixture.

6. Pour into the bowl containing the dry ingredients and stir.

7. Roll into small bowls, place on parchment generously space apart.

8. Press down with the back of a spoon to flatten.

9. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until the cookies are deep golden brown on top.

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Recipe in Polish:
Ciasteczka Anzac

Lime, White Chocolate and Coconut Muffins

2008-04-17T03:59:00.026-04:00

These muffins are really irresistible; they're fragrant and very refreshing with a subtle taste of coconut and intense sweetness of white chocolate cut by the tart flavor of lime. The coconut provides a nice contrasting structure to the melting white chocolate, while the lime flesh gives the muffins some extra moistness. All these together make a delightful combination of textures and flavors. The recipe for these has been adapted from Grab Your Fork food blog. The original version can be found here. Enjoy!!!

Notes to the recipe: Malibu can be substituted with another coconut liquour.

Lime, White Chocolate and Coconut Muffins

150g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
40g caster sugar
100g white chocolate, chopped roughly
1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1 egg
100ml milk
2 tbsp Malibu
50g butter melted and cooled slightly
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 lime

Preheat the oven to 200 C (390 F).
Grease or line 12 muffin cups.
Grate the zest of the lime and set aside.
Cut the outer pith from the lime and then carefully slide the knife under one membrane and gently remove a segment of lime flesh. Continue until all lime flesh has been extracted into a bowl for later use.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar, coconut, and white chocolate. Make a well in the centre.
In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together the egg, milk, vanilla and Malibu. Stir in lime flesh and rind.
Pour the egg mixture and melted butter into the well. Mix quickly just until the ingredients are combined, taking no more than 15 seconds as over-mixing will prevent them rising.
Spoon into the muffin pan filling ¾ full.
Bake for 20 minutes .

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Recipe In Polish:
Muffinki limonkowo-kokosowe z białą czekoladą

White Truffle Cake

2008-04-11T13:18:00.013-04:00

I made this cake first for my husband’s birthday two years ago when he wasn’t my husband yet. He loved it and asked for it again this year. This time I’ve decided to improve the recipe slightly by adding vanilla seeds to the truffle. The result was absolutely delightful!!! I’ll never make this cake without adding vanilla again. If you don’t have vanilla bean, use vanilla extract instead, but do not skip on it. This is sooooo much better with vanilla in it!!! Even though the main ingredient in this cake is white chocolate, the cake is not over-sweet. The sponge cake is fluffy and tender with a subtle taste of white chocolate, while the truffle resembles a cheesecake and combines two wonderful flavors –delicate sweetness of white chocolate and intense vanilla flavor.

White Truffle Cake
Recipe source: Bellefontaine, Jacqueline Chocolate, adapted

For the sponge cake:
2 eggs
4 tbsp caster sugar
5 ½ tbsp all purpose flour
50 g (1 3/4 ounces) white chocolate, melted

For the topping:
300 ml (1 1/4 cups) heavy cream
350 g (12 ounces) white chocolate, broken into pieces
250 g (1 1/4 cups) cream cheese or quark cheese
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

To make the sponge cake:

Grease an 8 inch (20 cm) springform pan and flour the base.
In a bowl, beat the eggs and superfine sugar with an electric mixer for 10 minutes, or until the mixture is very light and foamy and the whisk leaves a trail that lasts a few seconds when lifted.
Sift the flour and carefully fold in with a metal spoon.
Fold in the melted white chocolate.
Pour the mixture into prepared pan and bake in a preheated oven at 350 F (180 C) for 25 minutes or until springy to the touch.
Cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Return the cold cake to the pan.

To make the truffle:

Place the cream in a pan, stir in vanilla seeds
Bring to a boil, stirring to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Remove the pan from the heat, add the white chocolate pieces, and stir until melted and combined.
Allow to cool, then stir in the cream cheese.
Pour the mixture on the top of the cake and chill for about 3-4 hours.
Remove the cake from the pan and transfer to a serving plate. Decorate.

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Recipe in Polish:
Torcik z białą truflą

Poppy Seed Tartlets with Cherry Tomatoes

2008-04-09T14:30:00.019-04:00

This is one of my favorite tartlet recipes. What is special about them, is the addition of poppy seeds to the crust. The poppy seeds give the tartlets incredible flavor, which goes perfectly with the sweetness of the cherry tomatoes. Besides, baked in muffins pans, these tartlets look absolutely adorable!!! The recipe has been adapted from Sarah Banbery's “Tarts” cookbook.

Notes to the recipe : The original recipe called for cheddar cheese. I used Edam cheese in place of cheddar as it’s easier to obtain in Poland. Use what’s more convenient for you. You can also use cream cheese or quark instead of ricotta cheese in this recipe.

Poppy Seed Tartlets with Cherry Tomatoes

For the crust:
225 g all purpose flour
pinch of salt
100 g cold butter, cut into pieces
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
2-3 tbsp iced water

For the filling:
24 cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
25 g butter
25 g all purpose flour
270 ml milk
salt
pepper
50 g cheddar cheese, grated
100 g ricotta cheese
fresh basil leaves

Grease 12 muffin cups.
Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl.
Add the butter and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly.
Add poppy seeds, iced water and form a dough ball.
Roll out the pastry on lightly floured surface and cut out twelve circles ( 5 inches each).
Transfer to muffin pan, pressing down gently.
Cover with parchment paper and fill with a layer of dried beans.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before baking.
Preheat the oven to 390 F (200 C).
Remove the tartlets from the fridge and bake for 10 minutes.
Take out of the oven, remove the beans and parchment paper and set aside.
Place the tomatoes on a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil and bake for about 5 minutes.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan, add the flour and stir until combined.
Add milk, little by little, stirring thoroughly to avoid lumps.
Bring to a simmer and cook for a few minutes until the sauce thickens.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add the cheddar cheese and stir to combine.
Stir in ricotta cheese.
Place two cherry tomatoes into each tartlet. Top with 1-2 tbsp béchamel sauce. Bake for 15 minutes.
Garnish with fresh basil leaves and serve.

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Przepis po polsku:
Makowe tartaletki z pomidorkami koktajlowymi

Coconut and Apricot Cake

2008-04-04T01:46:00.015-04:00

This is a fabulously easy and quick cake to make; you just put all the ingredients to a bowl, mix them with an electric mixer, stir in the apricots and raisins, and the batter is ready to go to the oven. It all takes only about five minutes. The cake is long to bake, but this is actually a very pleasurable experience as, while in the oven, the cake perfumes the entire house with a wonderful coconut scent. It comes out from the oven extrememly moist, tender and very fragrant. The use of coconut milk adds a depth of coconut flavor which, I suspect, couldn’t be achieved by desiccated coconut alone. The recipe for this delicious cake comes from a Polish food blog (some posts also in English) White Plate written by Liska. The original recipe in Polish can be found on her blog here. Enjoy!!!

Coconut and Apricot Cake

200 g unsalted butter, softened

3 eggs

150 g caster sugar

100 g desiccated coconut

50 g all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

150 ml coconut milk

200 g dried apricots, roughly chopped

100 g raisins

Preheat the oven to 300 F (150 C)
Grease 20 cm springform pan.
Using an electric mixer, mix all the ingredients, except raisins and apricots until smooth.
Stir in dried apricots and raisins.
Pour into the pan. Bake for 1 ½ hour.
Let cool before removing from the pan.

Przepis po Polsku:
Ciasto kokosowo-morelowe

Creamy Carrot and Coconut Milk Soup

2008-03-28T15:17:00.015-04:00

This is a truly delicious soup, amazingly thick and creamy with whole range of wonderful aromas and flavors; the recipe for the soup comes from a Polish cookbook Smak życia (Taste of Life) written by a model, Agnieszka Maciąg. The book is a wonderful collection of delicious and healthy recipes from all over the world. There’s Japanese miso soup recipe, as well as Thai salad with crab, herring cooked Swedish way, and recipe for cookies from a Polish magazine, issue 1937. The recipes are accompanied with beautiful pictures of food and places from which the recipes come from. Looking at all those wonderful photographs you can almost smell and taste all the delicious meals as well as feel the atmosphere of all the wonderful places shown in the pictures. Agnieszka talks about food with passion and curiosity. For her cooking is pleasure and trying new dishes an adventure.

“In Brazil women laugh while cooking, so that there’s joy and love in their food. Cooking is a creative process. In the kitchen we become artists of life. We experience the sacred in ordinary things. For me cooking is not chemistry, it’s magic.’’

says Agnieszka, and I fully agree with that ;)

Creamy Carrot and Coconut Soup
(adapted from Smak życia by Agnieszka Maciąg)

serves 2

½ kg carrots, diced

1 tbsp butter

0,5 inch (1-2 cm) fresh ginger root, peeled and grated

375 ml (1 ½ cup) vegetable stock

1 cup (250 ml) canned coconut milk

½ lemon, juice of

salt

¼ tea spoon nutmeg

1 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped

1. Heat the butter in a large heavy bottomed pan, add the carrots and pepper. Sauté for a few minutes stirring occasionally.
2. Add the ginger, a pinch of salt and nutmeg.
3. Pour in warm vegetable stock, cover with a lid and simmer until the carrots are soft. If there's not enough stock to cover the carrots, add some water.
4. Stir in coconut milk, cook for 3 minutes more.
5. Add the lemon juice.
6. In blender or food processor, puree soup until smooth.
7. Sprinkle with coriander leaves.

Przepis po polsku:
Krem z marchewki z mlekiem kokosowym

Taste & Create

2008-03-24T16:20:00.014-04:00

I’ve discovered this delicious salad recipe thanks to Nicole from For the Love of Food blog. Nicole has been hosting a food blog event Taste and Create, in which participants are paired together to try out a recipe from each other's blogs. Nicole has paired me with Johnny from Le Petit Kitchen blog. The blog was created only a month ago, so there weren't many recipes to choose. What’s made the choice even harder is that in most of the recipes there are no exact quantities of ingredients given. I’ve opted for salad as this is the kind of recipe in which you don’t really need exact quantities. Besides, making more salads was one of my New Year’s resolutions this year. Since I haven’t posted even one salad recipe on my blog yet, I thought this food blog event is just a perfect opportunity to start making some. The salad came out really delicious, light and very refreshing. I was actually surprised how well all the different flavors blended together. I’ll definitely make it again :)

Notes to the recipe: The original recipe (which can be found here) asked for blood oranges, but I used mandarin oranges instead; I also omitted the dill and used less lemon juice for the vinaigrette.

Californian Salad with Fruit and Goat Cheese

lettuce
pear
mandarin orange
goat cheese
pistachios, roughly chopped

balsamic vinegar

FOR THE VINAIGRETTE*
lemon juice
olive oil
dill (optional)

1. Heat the balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan over low heat until thick . Remove from the heat and let cool.
2. Tear the lettuce into small pieces. Cut the pears and oranges, crumble the goat cheese.
3. To make the vinaigrette mix olive oil with lemon juice and dill.
4. Place the pears, oranges, crumbled goat cheese, and lettuce in a big bowl and toss gently.
5. Transfer the salad to plates, drizzle with some of the vinaigrette and balsamic vinegar.
6. Garnish with pistachios. Serve.

* I made vinaigreette using 1 part of oil to 4 parts of lemon.

Przepis po polsku:
Sałatka kalifornijska z owocami i kozim serem

Easter Braided Bread

2008-03-24T04:15:00.012-04:00

This bread is something my family is always looking forward most on our Easter table. I made it first a few years ago using a recipe from a magazine – I can’t remember now what exactly was the magazine. The bread is truly wonderful, tender and fluffy; filled with a whole range of grains it’s just a wonderful combination of textures and flavors.

Easter Braided Bread

600 g flour
20 g fresh yeast (also known as compressed yeast or cake yeast)
2 tbsp sugar
1- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
375 ml (1 ½ cup) slightly warm water

100 g carrots, grated
2 tbsp pistachios, chopped
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon lemon juice

4 tbsp poppy seeds
2 tbsp sunflower seeds

3 tbsp finely ground almonds
1 tbsp sesame seeds

1. Crumble the yeast in a large bowl. Add 100 g of flour, 1 teaspoon of sugar and all the water. Stir to combine. Cover with a dishtowel or plastic wrap and set aside for 30 min.
2. In a big bowl combine the remaining flour, sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt. Fold in the yeast mixture; knead to form dense, smooth dough. Cover the bowl with a dishtowel or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place for another 30 min.
3. When the dough’s doubled in size, knead for 1-2 minutes, then divide into three equal parts.
4. Preheat the oven to 200 C (390 F).
5. Combine the grated carrots, pistachios, lemon juice, and ginger together. Add to one part of the dough, knead until the carrots are incorporated. Add more flour if sticky.
6. Knead the second part of the dough with poppy seeds and sunflower seeds and the third part with ground almonds and sesame seeds.
7. Roll each piece into a long strand. Lay the strands side by side and gently braid them.
8. Place the woven dough in a wreath shape on a greased cookie sheet, tucking the ends under. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
9. Brush with water. Bake for about 30 minutes.

Przepis po polsku:
Wielkanocny warkocz

Happy Easter

2008-03-22T13:07:00.012-04:00

Hope you have beautiful Easter filled with joy, love, happiness

and lots of tasty sensations ;)

Happy Easter to everyone!!!

Nutella Madeleines

2008-03-18T12:31:00.011-04:00

The recipe for these wonderful madeleines comes from a French food blog Tart'in & Chocolate. The cookies are incredibly tender and fluffy with a wonderful nutty flavor. The inclusion of Nutella to each of the cookies provides wonderful melting sensation in your mouth. They're certainly the best sponge cookies I've ever had.

Nutella Madeleines

Makes 1 pan

3 eggs
40 g caster sugar
50 g flour
40 g unsalted butter
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp Nutella + a drop of Nutella for each madeleine

Melt the butter in a saucepan, then off the heat, stir in Nutella and caster sugar.
Using an electric mixer beat the eggs until pale and thick.
Sift the flour and baking powder over the eggs, and gently fold in.
Combine with the cooled butter, sugar and Nutella mixture.
Leave to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 370 F (190 C)
Grease madeleine molds. Fill the molds with the cake mixture.
With a tip of a knife place a drop of Nutella on each madeleine cookie.
Bake for 10-15 min.
Remove the madeleines from the molds and let cool on a rack.

Przepis po polsku:
Magdalenki z Nutellą

Tiramisu

2008-03-16T12:52:00.014-04:00

Tiramisu is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable Italian desserts in the world. Made of layers of mascarpone cheese and sponge fingers biscuits soaked in coffee and liquor tastes absolutely divine. I love it for its creaminess and coffee and cocoa flavor, but also, because it’s one of the desserts, in which I can use Marsala wine, which I truly love. Here’s my version of the dessert, adapted from The Australian Women’s Weekly magazine. Unlike the traditional tiramisu, this has been made without addition of eggs.

TIRAMISU

Serves 4-6

125ml (½ cup) boiling water
2 teaspoons dry instant espresso coffee
60ml (¼ cup) Marsala or other liqueur*
200 g packet sponge fingers
200 ml (4/5 cup) thickened whipping cream
2 packages Dr. Oetker’s Whip it (optional)**
2 ½ -3 tablespoons icing sugar
375 g mascarpone cheese
2-3 tbsp good quality cocoa powder

Combine the water, coffee and Marsala in a shallow bowl. Dip the sponge fingers in the coffee mixture; place half of the biscuits side by side on the bottom of an 8 x 8-inch pan (20 x 20 cm) .
Beat the cream, Dr. Oetker’s Whip and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, then fold into the mascarpone.
Spoon half the mascarpone mixture on sponge fingers in pan. Smooth with a spatula or spoon. Sprinkle with half of the cocoa.
Apply second layer of sponge fingers .Top with the remaining mascarpone mixture then remaining cocoa.

Notes to the recipe:
* The original recipe didn't use Dr.Oetker’s Whip. I added it to the cream to make sure my tiramisu would be firm enough to be served on a plate. If you prefer to serve your tiramisu in glasses, you can skip the Whip.
** I like Tiramisu with Marsala most, but other liqueurs such as Amaretto, brandy or coffee liquor (e.g. Kahlua) would work well too. Fell freet to use the one you like most:)

Przepis po polsku:
Tiramisu

Corn Soup

2008-03-08T11:44:00.022-05:00

I had never been a fan of corn. So, when my friend, M. had given me a recipe for corn soup, I put it away with no intention of using it. A few years later, at a fair in Quebec city, it happen to me to order a spinach tart with which I was served cream corn soup. The soup really surprised me. It had beautiful pale yellow color and tasted much much better than any other corn dish I’ve ever tried. In fact it was one of the best cream soups, I’ve ever eaten. Back in Poland I looked for the recipe my friend had given to me, and decided to make corn soup myself. The soup came out mild and creamy, very similar to the one I had eaten in Quebec. The only difference is that the soup I had in Canada was served plain, while my friend’s soup is served with leeks and carrots, which makes it even more delicious :)

When I found out that Zorra from 1 x umrühren bitte blog has asked food bloggers for cooking yellow dishes for International Women's Day, I thought right away about making the corn soup. Zorra has chosen yellow as it’s the color of Mimosa, a flower which is given to women on their day in some countries. Also in Poland women receive flowers, chocolates and other gifts on their day (the flowers don’t really have to be yellow though). I’ve already received 4 boxes of chocolate today, a bottle of wine and, even thought there’s no tradition of giving yellow flowers in Poland, I've got a beautiful yellow tulip from my husband:)

Corn Soup

1 can (400 g ) corn
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, sliced
½ cup heavy cream
½ l vegetable stock
1 tbsp butter
½ leek, sliced
salt
white pepper
paprika

1. Boil sliced carrots in lightly salted water until desired tenderness. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for 3 minutes, just until the onion starts to soften.
3. Add corn and vegetable stock and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the corn is tender.
4. Remove from the heat and puree using a hand blender until smooth.
5. Return the soup to the pan; add cream, leek and carrots. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes or until the leek is tender.
6. Season with salt, white pepper, and paprika.

Przepis po polsku:
Zupa kukurydziana

Lemon White Chocolate and Pistachio Cake

2008-03-03T18:17:00.011-05:00

This is a wonderful cake, light, tender and very moist. The sweet taste of white chocolate is a perfect complement to the refreshing flavor of the lemon. Besides, white chocolate pairs incredibly well with pistachios; It makes just a perfect combination of textures and flavors, elegant and absolutely delicious!!!

The inspiration for the cake comes from Chatelaine magazine, the August 2007 issue. In the original recipe (which you can find here), it was actually called a loaf and was made without chocolate at all. Since I wanted to make a cake rather than a bread, I decided to add some white chocolate to the recipe. It adds extra sweetness and provides a little bit of richness to the cake.

Note's to the recipe: I like pistachios with white chocolate most. If you aren’t into white chocolate much, you can use milk chocolate instead. If you decide to omit the chocolate completely, add 1/2 cup of sugar more to the batter for the right sweetness. This cake will keep well at room temperature 1 day, refrigerated up to a week or frozen up to 2 months. Enjoy!!!

Lemon White Chocolate and Pistachio Cake

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 lemon
1 cup (250 ml) coarsely chopped shelled pistachios
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar + 1/4 cup for the glaze
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup (150 ml) milk
100 g white chocolate, roughly chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Grease lightly a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a medium bowl stir flour with baking powder and salt. Grate peel from lemon, then stir in. Coarsely chop nuts.
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter until smooth.
4. Gradually beat in 1 cup (250 ml) sugar until well mixed, 2 minutes.
5. Gradually add the eggs and beat well until light and fluffy.
6. Add the dry ingredients alternating with the milk.
7. Add chocolate and nuts and mix until ingredients are just combined. Do not overmix.
8. Pour batter into pan, bake until deep golden brown and a cake tester or skewer inserted into centre of loaf comes out clean, about 50 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, squeeze 3 tbsp (45 ml) juice from lemon into a small bowl. Stir in 1/4 cup (50 ml) sugar. It won't completely dissolve.
10. When loaf is baked, remove pan to a rack. Using a cake tester or skewer, immediately poke several holes in top of loaf. Brush or drizzle half of lemon glaze over hot loaf. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove the loaf. Carefully turn upside down. Evenly brush or drizzle remaining lemon glaze overtop.

Przepis po polsku:
Ciasto cytrynowe z białą czekoladą i pistacjami

Granola with Cashew Nuts and Cranberries

2008-03-01T13:23:00.006-05:00

I can't imagine a day without having breakfast in the morning . I'm always very hungry when I wake up and can't wait to eat something tasty. One of my favorite breakfast recipe is homemade granola. It's not only healthier than cereals from a grocery store, but also tastes better. What I like most about homemade granola though is that you can add whatever you want to it, the number of possible combinations is countless. The inspiration for today’s granola comes from Design Sponge blog. I've made a few changes to the original recipe, but the result remained the same, amazingly crunchy and absolutely delicious:)

Notes to the recipe: The original recipe, which can be found here , was made with honey, not maple syrup. I used maple syrup as I think it pairs better with cranberries, but you can, of course, use honey if that’s more convenient for you. I didn't want my granola to be very sweet, so I didn't use much sugar. Feel free to add more sugar if that suits your taste. I like this granola most with plain soy milk, but you can have it with regular milk or yoghurt as well.

Granola with Cashew Nuts and Cranberries

3 cups rolled oats
1/4 raw sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sliced almonds
3/4 cup raw cashews
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F).
2. Combine all the ingredients, except for cranberries, in a large bowl.
3. Spread out on a cookie sheet.
4. Bake for about 20 minutes, stirring and turning occasionally, until toasty golden brown.
5. After baking, allow to cool thoroughly. Stir in the cranberries. Store in an airtight container or glass jar at room temperature.

Przepis po polsku:
Granola z orzechami nerkowca i żurawiną

Banana Cherry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

2008-02-28T07:46:00.014-05:00

The recipe for these tasty banana cupcakes comes from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. As most of Nigella’s recipes, these are incredibly easy and quick to make. They’re best warm, either fresh from the oven or heated in the microwave. When they get cold, the only thing you can actually taste in them is banana. The other flavors are barely palpable even though I’ve increased the amount of dried cherries (the recipe below includes the change). Heating brings the subtle flavor of chocolate and cherries out of the cupcakes and makes them taste really delicious!!!

Banana, Dried Cherry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12-14 cupcakes

125 g unsalted butter
200 g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas
4 tbsp sour cream
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
300 g plain flour
80 g dried cherries, roughly chopped
50 g white chocolate, roughly chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F) / gas mark 4
2. Grease or line 12 muffin cups.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then, off the heat add the sugar, vanilla and bananas, mashing them with a fork in the pan.
4. In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggs a fork, add the cream, then fold them into the melted butter, sugar, and banana mixture.
5. Add the baking soda and the baking powder and stir in.
6. Add the flour, cherries, and white chocolate. Mix gently with a spoon just until the ingredients are combined.
7. Spoon into the muffin pan filling ¾ full. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden on top.
8. Remove the cupcakes in their paper to wire rack and leave to cool lightly.

Przepis po polsku:
Bananowe babeczki z suszonymi wiśniami i białą czekoladą

Raspberry Streusel Muffins

2008-02-19T14:36:00.024-05:00

The first time I made these delicious muffins was in

Canada

last summer. In

Canada

there are raspberry fields where you can go with your own basket and pick up as many raspberries as you want. Then the raspberries you've picked up are weighted and you pay for them. Picking up raspberries this way is much cheaper than buying them in a grocery store and so much more fun. Both I and my husband love raspberries, so we loved to go to pick up raspberries together and try new raspberry recipes after. Some of our favorite recipes were Grilled Salmon with Raspberry Sauce, Raspberry and White Chocolate Tart (delicious, but rather expensive if you buy raspberries in a grocery store), and these lovely muffins. I made them again last week with frozen raspberries and streusel topping with cardamom and the result was absolutely awesome!!! The sweet and spicy flavor of the streusel topping is just a perfect complement to the moist and fruity muffins. The idea of using cardamon in raspberry muffins comes from Dagmar from A Cat In the Kitchen food blog who also made raspberry and cardamon muffins with crumbles a few weeks ago. The recipe for my muffins comes from one of the cookbooks from Le cordon Bleu series published by Könemann. The only thing I’ve changed was the streusel topping; the original one was made without oat meal and spices.

Notes to the recipe: You can use either fresh or frozen raspberries in this recipe. If you use frozen raspberries, do not thaw them as they will color the batter pink. If you don't have raspberries, I suspect the muffins would also be delicious with bluberries, bilberries, or strawberries.

RASPBERRY STREUSEL MUFFINS

FOR THE MUFFINS:
375 g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
115 g brown sugar
150 g raspberries (fresh or frozen)
2 eggs
250 ml (2 cups) milk
125 g butter, melted

FOR THE STREUSEL TOPPING:
50 g butter, melted
50 g flour
50 g rolled oats
50 g brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon cardamon

1. Heat the oven to 210 C (410 F). Grease or line 12 muffin cups.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Add the sugar and raspberries and stir. Make a well in the centre.
3. In a small jug beat lightly eggs and milk.
4. Pour the egg mixture and melted butter into the well. Mix gently with a metal spoon just until the ingredients are combined. Do not overmix, the batter should be lumpy .
5. Spoon into the muffin pan filling ¾ full.
6. To make streusel topping, combine oat, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and cardamon in a small bowl. Pour in hot melted butter; stir to combine into crumbs. Sprinkle mixture evenly over top of each muffin.
7. Bake the muffins for 30 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Przepis po polsku:

Malinowe mufinki z kruszonką

Grilled Salmon with Raspberry Sauce

2008-02-06T13:39:00.003-05:00

Salmon is definitely my favorite fish of all. Smoked, or fresh, in pasta or rice, on a tart or pizza, in a sandwich or even in soup it never disappoints. One of my very favorite ways of cooking salmon though is with this wonderful raspberry sauce. The recipe for this delicious salmon comes from a leaflet I picked up at a grocery store in Québec. My husband cooked it first for me one summer afternoon, after we went to pick up raspberries together. It was very romantic dinner and certainly one of the most delicious meals I’ve ever had in my life. The combination of sweet and slightly sour flavors of the sauce is just a perfect compliment to the moist and delicate fish. The dish is simple and quick, looking a little sophisticated at the same time. Served with green vegetables it would make perfect romantic dinner for two, and since the Valentine’s Day is coming up, I thought it's just the right time to make it again and blog about it.

Notes to the recipe: You can use either fresh or frozen raspberries in this recipe. If raspberry vinegar isn't available for you, increase the amount of balsamic vinegar instead. If you don't have indoor grill, you can broil or bake the salmon. Not actually the same, but it's the best alternative to grill I can think of.

Grilled Salmon with Raspberry Sauce

Serves 2

250 ml (1 cup) raspberries
1 1/2 tbsp. raspberry jam
1/2 tbsp. raspberry vinegar
1/2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar (or 1 tbsp if you skip on raspberry vinegar)
30 ml (2 tbsp.) olive oil
juice and zest of 1/4 lemon
300 g salmon filets or steaks
Salt and pepper
Fresh mint or basil leaves

1. Clean and season the salmon with salt and pepper.
2. Place the raspberries in a small bowl, crush with a fork. Add jam, vinegars, oil, lemon juice and lemon zest. Stir until well combined.
3. Place the salmon in a dish, pour the marinade over the salmon, marinate in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
4. Remove the salmon from the marinade. Grill the salmon on medium hot grill, turning once during cooking.
5. In the meantime, transfer marinade to a small pan. Bring to boil over low heat, cook stirring constantly until lightly thickened.
6. Serve the salmon hot, topped with warm raspberry sauce. Decorate with fresh mint or basil leaves.

Przepis po polsku:
Łosoś w malinowym sosie

Recette en Français:
Saumon grillé aux framboises

Traditional Polish doughnuts

2008-02-01T15:53:00.009-05:00

One of my New Year’s resolutions this year was to cook something Polish once a month. Since yesterday was Fat Thursday in Poland, it was a perfect time to make Polish pączki. Let me explain. Fat Thursday is the last Thursday before the Lent, which is celebrated in Poland by eating enormous amounts of Polish doughnuts called pączki. Pączki are similar to American jelly-filled doughnuts, but unlike the American doughnuts, which are usually very sweet and filled with lots of jelly after frying, Polish doughnuts are filled with only a little of the filling which is placed inside the doughnut before it is fried. The most common filling is jam, but there are places in Poland where you can also buy pączki filled with advocaat custard. My grandmother, who makes delicious doughnuts, usually fills them with powidła, which is a common filling for homemade doughnuts. Pączki are usually covered with powdered sugar or icing and, sometimes, topped with candied orange peel.

Even though pączki are available in Poland all year-round, Fat Thursday is actually the only time in the year when I eat some. My favorite doughnuts are the ones filled with rose hip jam, which is the most popular Fat-Thursday filling. I usually buy the doughnuts in a bakery, but since Tartelette and Peabody have organized Time to Make the Doughnuts food blog event this year, I thought it’s a great opportunity to learn how to make Polish doughnuts myself. They’re probably longer to make and harder to fill than American doughnuts, but believe me that the effort is rewarding. My doughnuts came out wonderful, very light, tender and absolutely delicious!!!

A few notes to the recipe: The recipe calls for fresh yeast, if you have trouble finding them, I suspect active dry yeast might work well, (I haven’t tried it yet). While searching the Internet for Polish doughnuts recipe, I have found many simplified recipes which use less egg yolks and no alcohol. Do not reduce the amount of the egg yolks!!! The doughnuts which contain more yolks eggs absorb less oil. Also alcohol when incorporated into doughnut dough reduces the absorption of frying oil. Most of Polish doughnut recipes call for rectified spirit, feel free to use vodka or rum instead. Before frying, make sure the oil is hot enough. Test the temperature by frying a piece of dough; if it floats up immediately and turns golden quickly, you can start frying. To keep the oil temperature constant while frying, fry only a few doughnuts at a time. Crowding will lower the oil’s temperature and produce greasy doughnuts. I filled my doughnuts with rose hip jam, but feel free to use the filling of your choice.

Pączki (Traditional Polish doughnuts)
Makes 3 dozen medium doughnuts

FOR THE DOUGHNUTS:
1 kg flour
100 g fresh yeast (also known as compressed yeast or cake yeast)
75 g sugar
½ liter (2 cups) milk
8 yolk eggs
100 g unsalted butter, melted
16 g vanilla sugar
50 ml rectified spirit or vodka
orange rind, grated
pinch of salt
1 liter of vegetable oil for deep -frying

FOR THE FILLING:
350 g rose hip jam mixed with 2 tablespoons rum (optional)

FOR THE ICING:
350 g icing sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
water
candied orange peel to decorate

1. Heat 250 ml (1 cup) of the milk over low heat until slightly warm, but not hot (too hot milk will kill the yeast).
2. Crumble the yeast in a large bowl. Add the heated milk, 1 tablespoon of the sugar and 5 tablespoons of the flour. Stir to combine and dissolve. Cover with dishtowel and set aside in a warm place. Let rise until spongy.
3. Place the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and 2 tbsp of slightly warm (but not hot) water in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until fluffy and pale.
4. Add the egg mixture, the remaining milk, the alcohol, and orange rind to the yeast mixture and stir until all the ingredients are well combined.
5. Pour the liquid into the sifted flour and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined. If the mixture is too dry add more milk.
6.Knead the dough by hand for at least 20 minutes or until smooth and soft. The softer the doughnut dough, the more tender the doughnuts will be.
7. Gradually add the melted butter and continue kneading until the dough incorporates it and is no longer sticky.
8. Shape the dough into a ball. Transfer to a large bowl, cover with a dishtowel and leave in a warm place until doubled (about 1 hour).
9. Place half of the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle the dough lightly with flour and, using a rolling pin, roll to a thickness of 1/2-inch.
10. Using a drinking glass or round cookie cutter, cut circles (approximately 3 inches in diameter).
11. Spoon about 3/4 teaspoon of the filling into the center of each circle. Raise edges of dough and pinch together over filling, then roll between palms snowball fashion to form balls.
12. Transfer the doughnuts to a parchment lined baking sheet (do not flour the baking sheet). Cover with a dishtowel, and let rise in warm place until doubled.
13. Repeat until all the dough has been used.
14. Heat the oil over medium heat in a deep heavy frying pan. Use enough oil that doughnuts can float freely (about 2,5 inches). Test the temperature by frying a small piece of dough; it should bubble and float up immediately.
15. Fry 3 doughnuts at a time. Cook on each side until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side. Then remove to drain on paper towels.
16. To make the icing, sift icing sugar into a bowl. Mix through 2 tablespoon lemon juice, then gradually add enough water to obtaining a mixture with a suitable consistency to spread. Spread over the doughnuts with a brush. Top each of the doughnuts with candied orange peel.

Przepis po polsku:
Tradycyjne polskie pączki

For those who like almonds...

2008-01-27T02:48:00.008-05:00

There was Grandmother’s Day in Poland last Monday, and I wanted to bake something for my grandmother for that occasion. I had spent hours looking through cookbooks and cooking magazines to choose the best recipe. Finally, I opted for friands recipe. I decided to make these little almond cakes as the recipe resembled pear and almond cake I had baked a week before. The cake was absolutely delicious, so I thought that another recipe with almonds would be a perfect choice. Well, it wasn’t. Not that the cakes were not good, they were delicious, both I and my husband absolutely loved them. They were soft, they were spongy, they were moist and… they did taste almonds…but when my grandmother tried one, you could see from her face she didn’t share my love for these cakes. At first, I couldn't understand why, but then it reminded me that my grandmother did not like almonds. She had mentioned it to me a few weeks before Christmas when we talked about almond flavor in poppy seeds cake, but I totally forgot about that. So, if you do not like almond flavor either, forget about these cakes, you wouldn’t like them. But if you’re (like me) a fan of almonds, I suspect you’ll love them. They’re simple, but absolutely delicious, perfect with a cup of coffee in the morning or any other time of the day.

The recipe was adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2. I altered the recipe slightly by adding vanilla sugar to the batter and reducing the amount of icing sugar. I also beat the egg whites slightly, even though the recipe didn’t ask for that. I didn’t have friands molds, so I baked my friands in muffin pans, I turned them upside down after baking as they looked nicer this way. I baked my friands plain, but you can top them with some fruit before baking. I suspect they would be delicious with raspberries, but feel free to use the fruit you like most. Also, if you don’t have almond meal, you can make your own by processing whole almonds until finely ground. Since my friands were meant to be a gift, I decorated them with icing and sugar flowers, but I think they would be better without the icing, served with a dash of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Friands
(adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2)

125 g butter
1 cup almond meal
1 cup icing sugar
16 g vanilla sugar
¾ cup all-purpose flour, sifted
½ teaspoon baking powder
5 egg whites

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350° F)
2. Grease 12 friand molds or muffin pans.
3. Heat butter in a saucepan over low heat, whisking frequently, until golden brown.
4. Place the almond meal, icing sugar, vanilla sugar, flour, and baking powder in a bowl and stir to combine.
5. In a separate bowl, lightly beat egg whites with a fork, then fold them into dry ingredients.
6. Add the butter and stir to combine.
7. Spoon 2 tbsp of the mixture into each mold.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and springy to touch but moist in the centre.

Przepis po polsku:
Friands (Migdałowe babeczki)

Risotto with Broccoli and Peas

2008-01-22T06:31:00.003-05:00

Most of the people (at least here, in Poland) associate Italian cuisine only with pastas or pizzas, less often with Italian soups, salads, or desserts. But when it comes to rice, most Poles would first think about Asian rather than Italian food. It’s too bad as Italian risotto is one of the most delicious and definitely most comforting rice dishes on earth. It requires a little patience and lots of attention, but it usually calls for simple ingredients and it’s really easy to make.

One of my favorite risotto recipes is Risotto with Broccoli and Peas. I love its mild, well –balanced taste and incredible creamy texture, it's absolutely delicious!!! The recipe originally came from a Polish magazine; I cannot recall now what exactly its title was. Anyway, I’ve altered the recipe considerably.

A few notes to the recipe:
1. For firm and creamy risotto use Arborio rice. Vialone nano or Carnaroli would also work, but other types of rice might become mushy when cooked.
2. I always use bullion cubes in my risotto, if you do so too, make sure you have good quality cubes.
3. You can use the herbs of your choice in this recipe. I used parsley as this is the most common herb in Poland, but herbs such as basil, oregano, thyme will also work well.

Risotto with Broccoli and Peas

serves 4

500 ml (2 cups) vegetable stock
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 medium garlic cloves, grated
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
200 g Arborio rice
125 ml (1/2 cup) dry white wine
300 g fresh broccoli florets
150 g frozen peas
handful fresh parsley, roughly chopped
salt and freshly ground white pepper
125 ml (½ cup) heavy cream
to serve:
parmesan cheese, grated

1. Place the broccoli and peas into a saucepan of boiling salted water, cook for about 3-4 minutes. Drain.
2. Bring the stock to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Keep it warm over low heat.
3. Heat the oil in a large, heavy saucepan. Add the onions and gently cook until begin to soften, about 4 minutes. Do not let the onions turn brown. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
4. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the rice and cook for 1 minute.
5. Pour in the wine and simmer for about 2 minutes, stir constantly.
6. Begin to add the stock a ladleful at a time allowing the liquid to be absorbed into the rice before adding more, stir frequently.
7. Cook until the rice is soft and the texture is creamy but each grain is still a bit firm inside, about 25 minutes. Add hot water if you run out of stock. ( I added about 250 ml (1 cup) of water)
8. Stir in broccoli, peas, and parsley.
9. Stir in the cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.
10. Before serving, sprinkle with pecorino or parmesan cheese.

Przepis po polsku:
Risotto z brokułami i groszkiem

White Chocolate Bounty

2008-01-12T14:27:00.006-05:00

The inspiration for today’s recipe comes again from Dagmar’s food blog. A few days before Christmas, Dagmar posted a wonderful Homemade Bounty recipe that I really wanted to try. I didn’t want my bounties to be the exact copy of the chocolate bars available in shops though. The original Bounty bars are covered either with milk or dark chocolate (this one is harder to obtain in Poland thought). I came up with the idea of using white chocolate instead. Another adjustment I’ve made was adding vanilla extract to the coconut filling. The result was absolutely delicious!!! White chocolate, coconut and vanilla is absolutely divine blend of flavors!!! The coconut filling came out a little softer than the one in the original Bounty bar, but it didn’t influence its wonderful taste.

White Chocolate Bounty
( based on Dagmar's Homemade Bounty recipe)

200 g unsweetened shredded coconut
100 ml heavy cream
70 g icing sugar
70 g unsalted butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
200 g white chocolate

1. In a big bowl combine coconut and icing sugar.
2. Heat the cream and butter in a small saucepan over low heat ,stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted. Add vanilla extract. Pour the mixture over the coconut and sugar. Stir until all the ingredients are well combined.
3. Using your hands, shape little balls of mixture. The balls will be a little hard to form, try to do it by pressing small amounts of mixture together.
4. Place the balls on a parchment lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
5. Melt the white chocolate in the top of a double boiler over hot, not simmering water or in the microwave. Using a toothpick dip each ball in the warm melted chocolate, place the balls on a parchment lined baking sheet. Place in the fridge for 30-60 min to allow the chocolate harden before serving.

The bounties should be stored in the refrigerator.

Przepis po polsku:
Bounty w białej czekoladzie

New Year's Resolutions

2008-01-10T16:57:00.002-05:00

Dagmar from A Cat In the Kitchen food blog posted her New Year’s resolutions a few days ago. Since I also made some food related resolutions this year, I thought it‘s still not too late to blog about them too ;) So, here they are:

1. Post on my blog more often (at least twice a week).

2. Cook one Polish dish a month.
I’ve realized recently that the only time in the year when I actually eat/cook traditional Polish food is at Christmas. So, this year I want to learn how to make all the delicious Polish meals I remember from my childhood. I would also like to play a little with the ingredients of some of the traditional Polish recipes to make them more “international”, for example make traditional Polish pierogi with unusual filling.

3. Make more salads.

4. Buy a good cookbook with traditional Polish recipes (needed to follow the resolution no 2).

5. Blog a little bit about me.
I think it’s always nice for the readers when they (you) can read a little bit about the author of the blog. Anyway, I always prefer those blogs whose authors reveal a little bit about themselves to the blogs whose authors stay anonymous.

6. Improve my English skills (or at least my food related vocabulary).
Well, English is not my native language and I’m aware that my posts will never be as well written as the texts of native English food bloggers. Still, I hope I’ll manage to improve my English a little.

7. Blog about my cookbooks.
I wonder how it’s possible I didn’t write about one cookbook yet. I definitely have to change that;)

8. Buy a new camera.
To take better pictures of food of course ;)

9. Organize my recipes.
I have hundreds of recipes cut out from magazines or printed from the Internet that need to be organized.

10. Try more new ingredients.

11. Make a list of recipes to try.

12. Work more on the Polish version of my blog.
The Polish version of my blog is simply a translation of some of the recipes from my English blog with no introductory text at all. This year I would like to make my Polish blog look more like the English one.

Have a wonderful 2008!!!

Banana and Orange Muffins

2008-01-04T08:07:00.006-05:00

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. today morning when my husband was still asleep. I wanted to surprise him with nice breakfast in bed, so I baked him these delicious muffins. Personally, I never eat muffins that early in the morning, but my Canadian husband is much more used to having sweet breakfasts than me, so banana muffins made perfect breakfast for him.

The recipe I used was actually a recipe for banana bread, but I got a wonderful muffin pan for Christmas and really couldn't wait to try it. So I decided to turn the bread recipe into muffins. The bread was originally made with lots of nuts and cranberries, but I wanted my muffins plain, so I omitted them completely. I also reduced the amounts of oil and sugar. The result was wonderful!!! My husband said they were the best muffins he had ever had in his life! I tried some later in the afternoon and I have to admit they’re really really delicious, extremely moist and very aromatic!!! Their wonderful warm banana and orange smell fills the entire house.

Banana and Orange Muffins
(adapted from What's Cooking Baking cookbook)

DRY INGREDIENTS:
175 g all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
125 g brown sugar
2 ripe bananas, mashed
zest of one orange, grated

WET INGREDIENTS:
5-6 tbsp orange juice, freshly squeezed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
125 ml sunflower oil

1. Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F). Line a muffin pan with paper baking cups, you'll need ten of them.
2. Sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add brown sugar and orange peel. Mix well. Fold in mashed bananas.
3. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Mix well.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just mixed and moistened. Do not over mix.
5. Fill each muffin cup to 3/4 full.
6. Bake 30 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Cool 5 min. and then remove from pans.

Przepis po polsku:
Mufinki bananowo-pomarańczowe

Mushroom and Sauerkraut Pierogi

2007-12-30T04:01:00.009-05:00

Pierogi are classic Polish dumplings stuffed with a variety of fillings. The most common fillings for savory pierogi include quark cheese with potatoes and onions, minced meat, and sauerkraut with mushrooms. The sweet version of pierogi is usually made with sweet cheese, bilberries, or strawberries. The most common toppings for pierogi are fried onions for the savory version, sour cream with sugar for the sweet version, and melted butter with bread crumbs for both. These are the most popular fillings and toppings in Poland, but you can really make pierogi with anything you want. I’ll try to give you some more ideas in my future posts.

Today’s recipe is with sauerkraut and mushrooms as it’s the version traditionally eaten on Christmas supper in Poland. In my family, it’s always my grandmother who prepares Christmas pierogi. She makes them amazingly thin and light with lots of filling and serves them with delicious melted butter and breadcrumbs. No one else can make as delicious pierogi as she does.

I had cooked pierogi many times before, but it’s the first time I made them with sauerkraut and mushroom. For the filling I adapted a recipe from the Polish food magazine Kuchnia, the December issue number 12 (154). The two major changes I’ve made to the recipe were increasing the amount of sauerkraut and reducing the amount of butter. For the dough I used my grandmother’s recipe. The dough turned out harder too work with than the dough I usually make, but the result was rewarding. The pierogi came out very thin and light, almost transparent, exactly as my grandmother’s ones. The taste of mushroom in the filling was stronger than in my grandmother’s pierogi (I use different recipe after all), but still the pierogi were absolutely delicious and everyone in my family loved them:)

The recipe makes about 80 pierogi, which is, of course, long to make, but it is really worthwhile making them in large quantities as they can be stored frozen without lost of quality. It takes only a few minutes to cook frozen pierogi so they’ll be perfect for a quick lunch or dinner whenever you don’t have much time for cooking.

Sauerkraut & Mushroom Pierogi

Sauerkraut and Mushroom Filling*
(recipe adapted from Kuchnia magazine, December issue number 12 (154))

1,5 kg sauerkraut
150 g assorted dried wild mushrooms
2 onions, finely chopped
125 g butter or margarine
salt
black pepper

1. Place the mushroom in a large bowl. Pour warm water over the mushroom and soak overnight. Next day, place the mushrooms and water mixture in a large pot, simmer for about 10 min. Drain, keep the water.

2. Drain and rinse sauerkraut. Place in another pot, add the water you had used to soak the mushroom and cook until tender. Drain and leave to cool.

3. In a medium pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add onions. Cook for about 2 minutes, until softened. Do not let the onions turn brown.

4. Squeeze the liquid from the mushrooms. Mix the mushrooms, sauerkraut, onion and butter mixture together and grind in meat mincer. If you don’t have meat mince, chop the sauerkraut and the mushroom finely with a knife.

5. Season with salt and lots of black pepper.

*You can prepare the filling in advance and keep it in the fridge up to 2 days.

The dough
(my grandmother's recipe)

1 kg all purpose flour
pinch of salt
about 300 ml boiling water

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl.
2. Make a whole in the center and pour boiling water into the crater.
3. Stir the mixture together with a fork, gradually incorporating the flour into the whole.
4. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.
5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or cover with a damp dishtowel and let it rest for at least half an hour at room temperature.
6. Take a workable portion of dough and roll out very thin on a floured surface.
7. Using a drinking glass or round cookie cutter, cut circles (approximately 3 inches in diameter) (see the picture)
8. Roll out each circle a little bit more (you can also stretch the dough with your fingers).
9. Spoon about 1,5 teaspoon of the filling into the center of each circle.
10. Fold each circle in half around filling to form a semicircle, and firmly press edges together with your fingers. The edges should be free of filling.
11. Transfer the pierogi to a lightly floured baking sheet. Cover with a dishtowel.
12. Continue to fill and form pierogi, until all the dough has been used.
13. Now you can cook your pierogi or freeze them for later use.

Cooking pierogi:
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.
2. Gently place a few pierogi in boiling water (do not cook more than a few pierogi at a time). Boil, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to keep them from sticking to the bottom.
3. When the pierogi are floating on the surface let them cook 2 minutes more. Be careful to not to overcook them. 4. Remove ready pierogi with a slotted spun or skimmer.
5. Top with melted butter and bread crumbs mixture (see recipe below). Serve immediately.

Freezing Pierogi for later use:
1. Place your pierogi on a lightly floured cookie sheet, make sure the pierogi are not touching each other.
2. Place the dish in the freezer.
3. When the pierogi start to freeze and are not sticky anymore, you can transfer them to plastic bags.

Melted butter and bread crumbs topping

butter
bread crumbs

1. Place the bread crumbs into a pan. Cook on a low heat stirring from time to time until the crumbs turn brown. Be careful to not to burn them.
2. Add the butter and heat until the butter is bubbling. This will take a couple of minutes.
3. Pour the bread crumbs and butter over the pierogi. Serve.

Przepis po polsku:
Pierogi z kapustą i grzybami

Pears in Coffee Caramel Sauce

2007-12-25T06:22:00.008-05:00

I made this delicious dessert for Dni Kawy (Coffee Days), a Polish food blog event hosted by Mysza from Kulinarne Wyzwania Myszy blog. The event took place from 21st till 23rd December, but with all the Christmas preparation I didn't manage to blog about it at the right time:(

The recipe I used comes from one of the back issues of Polish magazine Oliwia and it's really quick to make. I had never thought about pairing pears and coffee before, so the recipe seemed really interesting to me. The dessert came out really tasty, even though the coffee flavor was very subtle. For stronger coffee taste you can brew your espresso triple strength or more. And if you’re not coffee fan at all, you can make this dessert without coffee at all. The result will be still delicious.

Pears in Coffee Caramel Sauce
(adapted from Polish edition of Olive magazine)

serves 4

8 pears, peeled (I used 4 huge pears)
200 g sugar
100 ml espresso coffee, ground brewed double strength
100 ml heavy cream
water

1. Put ½ liter water into a pan, bring to boil. Add 50 g of sugar and the pears. Make sure the pears are covered to the top with the water. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer for about 10-15 min. Then, transfer the pears to bowls.
2. Put the remaining sugar and 70 ml of cold water in a saucepan and stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Continue to cook without stirring until it turns light brown, do not allow to burn.
3. Pour the coffee into the cream and stir until well blended.
4. Remove the pan from the heat. Carefully, and quickly, stir the mixture of coffee and cream into the sugar.
5. Return the pan to medium heat and continue to stir the mixture until thoroughly mixed. Turn up the heat and boil until the mixture thickens. Leave to cool.
6. Pour caramel sauce over each pear and serve.

Przepis po polsku:
Gruszki w kawowym karmelu

Coconut Macaroons

2007-12-20T13:15:00.005-05:00

My husband is coming to Poland tomorrow and since I haven’t seen him for 4 months, I wanted to bake something special for him. I asked what he would like and he chose coconut macaroons. I usually make macaroons with a recipe similar to the one Pille posted on her blog recently, but I wanted to try something a little bit different this time. I’ve found this fabulously easy and quick recipe on one of my favorite Polish food blogs, Moje wypieki, but it originally comes from a book Taste of America. I didn’t make any significant changes to the recipe, except that I used vanilla sugar instead of vanilla extract. I also made more macaroons (about 40) than in the original recipe. The macaroons came out golden and incredibly delicious!!! Here's the recipe:

Coconut Macaroons

makes about 40 macaroons

60 g (1/2 cup) flour
pinch of salt
340 g (4 1/2 cup ) unsweetened shredded coconut
260 ml (a little more than 1 cup) sweetened condensed milk
15 g vanilla sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (350 F )
2. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Add vanilla sugar. Stir in the dried coconut.
3. Pour in the sweetened condensed milk; stir until all the ingredients are well combined.
4. Using your hands, shape little balls of mixture and set onto greased cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until macaroons are golden brown (do not over bake).
6. Immediately remove from cookie sheets.

Przepis po polsku:
Kokosanki

Norwegian Soup

2007-12-15T03:59:00.004-05:00

I first ate Norwegian soup when I went to Warsaw to apply for Canadian visitor visa. After a long travel by train, short night at the hotel, and hours spent in the line to the embassy (I joined the line at 4:00 in the morning to have my interview only a little before 11:00), I dreamed about something comforting to eat. On the way back from the embassy, I stopped at a small café at the Warsaw train station and tried this wonderful soup there. I have no idea if it's really Norwegian recipe or if it’s called this way only cause we use Norwegian salmon here, but no matter from which country the recipe comes from, it's absolutely marvelous!!! The salmon goes perfect with fragrant dill and the potatoes provide the soup with wonderful creamy consistency.

Back home I searched the Internet for salmon soup recipes and I found one very similar to what I had in Warsaw on a Polish site. I’ve made a few changes to the recipe. I changed some amounts to get the right consistency; I used white instead of black pepper, vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, and oil instead of butter. The soup turned out wonderful - thick, creamy, incredibly comforting, and absolutely delicious!!!

Norwegian Soup
(adapted from this page)

1,5 (6 cups) liter vegetable stock
250 g smoked salmon, cut into small pieces
2 onions, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil (the original called for 20 g butter instead)
1 kg potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
120 -150 g cream (I used 12%, but heavy cream will do as well)
nutmeg, freshly grated
horseradish sauce (optional)
lots of fresh dill, loosely chopped
salt
white pepper

1. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over low heat. Add the onions and sauté for 3 minutes (the onions should be tender but not brown).
2. Add potatoes and vegetable stock and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
3. Remove from the heat and puree with a blender until smooth.
4. Return the soup to the pan, add cream and pieces of salmon. Reheat gently.
5. Season with black or white pepper, nutmeg and horseradish if you like (I use about 1-2 teaspoons). Taste and salt if needed.
6. Serve topped with lots of dill.

Przepis po polsku:
Zupa norweska

Autumn Hazelnut Cake

2007-12-02T09:45:00.007-05:00

Hazelnut was the first nut I’ve had in my life. When I was 2 years old we had a hazelnut tree in our garden. One of my earliest childhood memories is the one of my grandfather picking up a nut from the tree for me. He was choosing the biggest and the most beautiful one and it made me feel so special… When I was three we moved out from the house and I have never seen a hazelnut tree again, but my love for hazelnuts has remained unchanged.

So, when I saw the recipe for a cake with hazelnuts and pieces of dark chocolate on Every Cake You Bake blog, I couldn’t wait to try it. I made the cake last Friday and it turned exactly as I had imagined - extremely moist and fluffy with a wonderful hazelnut flavor. The combination of flavors and textures in the cake is just perfect.The pieces of chocolate taste absolutely sensational when they melt in your mouth and the apples add extra moistness to the cake.

The recipe originally comes from an Austrian leaflet and was called Autumn Apple and Nut Cake, but since the cake has strong nutty flavor and the apple flavor is very subtle, I’ve decided to change the name. I also altered the recipe slightly by reducing the amount of sugar (the original called for 250 g ).

Autumn Hazelnut Cake
(adapted from Every Cake You Bake blog)

6 eggs, separated
250 g unsalted butter or margarine
200 g sugar
250 g all purpose flour
1 packet (16 g) vanilla sugar
3-3,5 teaspoons baking powder
120 g hazelnuts
100 g dark chocolate
2 apples peeled, cored, and cut into cubes

Preheat the oven to 140°C (280 F)

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add the sugars and beat again until mixture comes together and is no longer crumbly.
Add the flour and baking powder and stir with a spoon until well combined. Then, stir in the apples.

Put all the nuts into a food processor and grind up without turning them into a powder.

In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff peaks. Fold in the chocolate pieces and ground hazelnuts. Gently fold the egg whites mixture into the batter.

Pour the mixture into the greased and floured springform pan and bake for 1 1/2 hour.

Onion Day

2007-11-27T08:45:00.007-05:00

As there was Zibelemärit (onion market) in Berne, Switzerland yesterday, Zorra from 1 x umrühren bitte blog has declared 26th November as an Onion Day. She invited food bloggers from all over the world to join the celebration by preparing a dish with onions on 26th November and blogging about it today. Even though I’m not a big fan of onions, there’s one onion recipe I absolutely love! The dish is Red Onion, Feta and Olives Tart and it’s definitely the best savory tart I’ve ever had!!!

The first time I tried this recipe though, it wasn’t that good at all. The mistake I made was omitting balsamic vinegar. I didn’t have balsamic vinegar at home and thought it would taste fine without it too. Well, it didn’t. It turned out that the vinegar was really an essential ingredient in the tart, as without it, the onions came out too sweet. This time, however, I followed the recipe and the result was amazing. The vinegar balanced the sweetness of the onion and sugar mixture and the tart came out delicious. The combination of flavors of sweet (but not too sweet this time) onions and savory feta and olives is absolutely genius.

The recipe comes from the Polish edition of Good Food: 101 Veggie Dishes cookbook and asks for ready puff pastry. I made the pastry myself using Nigella Lawson’s Processor Puff-Pastry recipe from How to Be a Domestic Goddess, I altered the recipe slightly by omitting the lemon juice though. The pastry came out great: buttery, flaky and tender.

Red Onion, Feta and Olives Tart
( adapted from the Polish edition of Good Food:101 Veggie Dishes)

Serves 4

25 g butter
2 large red onions, finely sliced
2 tbsp light brown sugar (e.g. Demerara or Light Muscovado)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
450 g puff pastry (see the recipe below)
100 g feta cheese, crumbled
175 g black olives, sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
basil, chopped

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400F)

Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the onions and season to taste with salt. Fry for 10 minutes until golden and soft stirring occasionally. Add sugar and balsamic vinegar, and cook for a further 5 minutes until the juices are reduced and syrupy. Leave to cool.

Roll out the pastry on lightly floured surface. Lightly grease 25 cm (10 inch) tart pan, then line with the pastry. Cover with the onion mix. Scatter the feta and olives over. Drizzle the olive oil over the topping.

Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastry is risen and golden and the base is crisp. Top with the basil. Serve with green salad.

Processor Puff-Pastry*
( adapted from How to Be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson)

250g strong white flour
pinch of salt
250g cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 cm slices
5-6 tablespoons iced water

Pulse the flour and salt together in the processor, then add the butter and pulse 3-4 times, the pieces of butter should still be visible. Add the iced water, and pulse till the pastry begins to form a ball, then form a ball with your hands. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for half an hour.
Dust a surface with flour, roll the pastry out into a long rectangle, and fold it in three like a business letter.Now turn the folded pastry so that if it was a book the spine would be on your left. Repeat twice more, turning every time.
Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for another half an hour before using it.

* This makes enough for 2 tarts, so you may need to scale the recipe.