Taste & Create: Whole Wheat Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce

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

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

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

White Chocolate and Vanilla Muffins

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

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

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

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