Sardinian Ricotta Cake

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

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

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

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C (390 F).
2. Grease or line 12 muffin cups.
3. Grate the zest of the lime and set aside.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together the egg, milk, vanilla and Malibu. Stir in lime flesh and rind.
7. 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.
8. Spoon into the muffin pan filling ¾ full.
9. Bake for 20 minutes .

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Recipe In Polish:
Muffinki limonkowo-kokosowe z białą czekoladą

Coconut and Apricot Cake

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

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

Przepis po Polsku:
Ciasto kokosowo-morelowe

Taste & Create

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

Nutella Madeleines

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

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

Przepis po polsku:
Magdalenki z Nutellą

Granola with Cashew Nuts and Cranberries

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

White Chocolate Bounty

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

Coconut Macaroons

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

Autumn Hazelnut Cake

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.

Baked Penne with Pumpkin and Broccoli

I have to admit that I didn’t really appreciate pumpkin. The only time I had had pumpkin before was in a pumpkin soup cooked by my friend. I had never cooked anything with pumpkin on my own before. It all changed this autumn when Polish food bloggers started cooking meals for the Pumpkin Festival. Looking at the pictures of all the delicious meals they had cooked, made me want to try pumpkin too. I’ve started with baked penne recipe from Ela’s blog. The recipe, which originally comes from the Italian magazine Cucina Italiana, called for Italian speck, but I made a vegetarian version of it - I omitted the speck, doubled the amount of broccoli, and increased the amount of pumpkin and cream. I have already made this penne twice and both times it came out fabulous!!!! It not only tasted delicious but also looked so beautiful. I just loved the mix of colors in it. I'll definitely make it again.

Here’s my vegetarian version of the recipe, but if you want, you can add some speck or ham to it, just fry them with a little olive oil before.

Baked Penne with Pumpkin and Broccoli

400 g roasted pumpkin puree*
300 g penne
325 g broccoli
3 tbsp heavy cream
parmesan, grated (I used about 50 g)
butter
salt
black pepper

*To make pumpkin puree, preheat the oven to 180°C (350F). Cut the pumpkin in half and scrape out the seeds and threads. Place the pumpkin in the oven and roast until the pulp is soft. Remove the pulp from the rind with a spoon. With blender or food processor, blend the pulp until smooth.

Bring a large pot of water to boil, salt it, cook the broccoli. Remove the broccoli, add penne to the same water and cook until al dente. Drain.

Mix the pumpkin pulp with cream and 2 tbsp Parmesan. Season with salt and lots of pepper.

Toss the pasta with the pumpkin sauce and broccoli. Pour into a greased baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan and butter pieces. Bake for 20 minutes or until the top is golden and cheese melts.

Przepis po polsku:
Penne zapekane z dynią i brokułami

Carrot Soup

I’ve wanted to try a carrot soup for a quite long time, but I just didn’t have any nice recipe. Luckily, a few days ago I came across Stevi’s Bread and Butter blog and found a lovely carrot soup recipe there. I cooked the soup for supper yesterday. I changed a little the proportions to make the recipe smaller and I spiced it up a little with white pepper and ginger. The result was really tasty - very creamy and warming, thus perfect for cold autumn days. The orange juice adds a nice fruity flavor to it, but be careful not to add too much as it tastes stronger than you might expect.

Carrot Soup
(based on a recipe from Stevi’s Bread and Butter blog)

1 tbsp butter
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
½ kg carrots, peeled and chopped
750 ml vegetable stock
rind and juice of half an orange
salt
white pepper
ginger

Heat the butter in a large pan, add the onions, leave them for 2 - 3 minutes.

Add carrots and the stock to the pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the carrots are tender. Remove the carrots and onions, but do not throw the stock away.

Liquidise all the ingredients using blender or food processor and add the puree in the stock.

Reheat gently for a couple of minutes. Season to taste.

Before you serve, add the orange juice. Grate the orange rind and garnish the individual bowls.

Przepis po polsku:
Zupa krem z marchwi

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

I’d been asked to make a cheesecake for a family feast. I wanted to make something different from traditional heavy cheesecakes we usually eat in Poland. I opted for a White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. Combining raspberries and white chocolate always tastes heavenly. So, does in this cake. The sweetness and mildness of white chocolate balance perfectly with the tartness of the raspberries. The only thing I would change is the crust which turned out rather tough. I think it would work out better without white chocolate addition. I’ll try that next time.

The recipe originally comes from The Australian Women's Weekly 'Cheesecakes, Pavlovas & Trifles' but I’ve found it translated into Polish on Galeria Potraw which is my favorite Polish food forum.

Some minor changes I’ve made to the recipe:
1. I added vanilla sugar to the cheese.
2. I substituted digestive biscuits with Petit Beurre ones (they’re easier to obtain in Poland).
3. I baked my cake for about 60-70 minutes instead of 90 minutes as the recipe says.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

FOR THE CRUST:
200 g digestive biscuits
90 g white chocolate
80 g unsalted butter

FOR THE FILLING:
½ cup cream (30% fat)
200 g white chocolate
250 g mascarpone cheese
250 g quark cheese
¼ cup caster sugar
1 pouch vanilla sugar
3 eggs
2 egg whites
250 g raspberries

Line the bottom of 23 cm springform pan with aluminum foil. Using a food processor or blender, process the biscuits to fine crumbs. Melt the chocolate and butter together over low heat, stirring constantly. Combine with the crumbs. Press into the bottom of the springform pan with the back of a spoon. Put into the fridge for about half an hour to set.

Preheat the oven to 160C (320F).

Put the cream in a heavy-bottomed pan. Bring to boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Break the chocolate into little pieces and add to the cream. Stir with a spoon until the chocolate and cream are smooth and the chocolate is melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

Beat together the mascarpone cheese, quark cheese, sugar and vanilla sugar until smooth, then add 3 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the chocolate mixture beating until well-combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites to sniff peaks then fold into cheese mixture.

Pour the cheese filling into the chilled biscuit base. Gently press 250g of the raspberries into surface. Bake for 1-1 ½ hours. Cool in oven with door ajar. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Przepis po polsku:
Sernik z białą czekoladą i malinami