Another Chocolate Cake Recipe - Always for the Win

Another chocolate cake recipe in less than one month? It seems so...Blame the cold weather of the last week and the early mornings, when I am looking for a companion for my strong Turkish coffee. As I also started to clean up the kitchen of the things that are usually forbidden during the Pesach holidays - coming up in less than one month in a chametz-clean kitchen near you, I decided to finally use some of the things that were in my pantry for a longer time. Add a pinch of creativity and this delicious chocolate cake was born, that even my big one, usually very critical towards everything I do - teenage years may last longer than expected - noticed that it is really something special.

Ingredients

2/3 cup grated almonds

1/2 cup grated coconut

1 1/3 cup white flour

7 gr. baking powder

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup brown cocoa dissolved in warm water

2 tablespoons honey

50 pistachio grated, for the decoration

Directions

Heat the oven at 250C, at least 10 minutes before starting the baking. Smear vegetable margarine on the oan before adding the ingredients.

In a bowl, add the ingredients, one by one, and mix well after each of it and bring it to bake in the oven.

Ten minutes into the oven, add the pistachio. Another idea would be to add the pistachio directly to the ingredients, which make it into a nice crunchy interior. 

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Baking time: 45 minutes

To be served with a warm cuppa or a hot chocolate or coffee. Even after three days, the interior was moist, because I kept the cake outside, at the room temperature, instead of storing it in the fridge. It serves around 25 moderate sizes of delicious pieces of cake. 

Bon Appétit!

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Spicy Cookies for a Healthy Start into the Day

I've started to experiment lately with turmeric, either as the classical 'golden milk' or in savory recipes, as a coating for the fish. One of those mornings, I had another genius ideas - thank you baby D. for waking me up at 6.30: why not create my own turmeric cookies. However, I had to find also a balance for the strong taste of this spice, therefore, I matched it with cinnamon and some freshly grated ginger too. The results were very easy going, delicious and a good companion for the lunch box or any other short trip snacks. It can be done easy and baked within one hour. What can you expect more from a cookie?

Ingredients

700 gr. white flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

200 gr. white sugar - brown sugar is also a good option

1 tablespoon turmeric

1 tablespoon cinnamon

125 ml. sunflower oil

4 medium-sized eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger

Directions

Heat the oven at 250C, at least 10 minutes before starting the baking. Add a parchment paper on a big tray. 

Add the dry ingredients one by one and mix well. Especially when you are dealing with spices, it is very important to do some extra mixing as it is important to have them spread properly. Add the eggs, the oil and the ginger. As usually when I want a smooth dough, I add some warm water and mix again for another couple of minutes. 

Split the dough into medium-sized portions and let it bake for around 15 minutes each batch.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 45 minutes

Make it into around 20 big spicy cookies

Bon Appétit!

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Easy, Skyr-based Scones

I've tried my hand on scones several times in the last blogging years, very often with tasty results. They are easy to prepare, always delicious and with a low chance of failure. All you need is a bit of imagination and some basic ingredients - like flour, baking powder and salt. The rest can be easily matched from the fridge or pantry.

Yesterday, I was thinking to have some of them again, because wanted to have some afternoon snacks and we were quite out of good treats.

You can have those scones with a cuppa or a big coffee mug, fill with jam - my latest love is a fig jam that I hope it will never finish - or add some extra cheese for some dairy taste. I was very happy to find an extra use of the Skyr Yogurt, an Iceland-made product which I instantly fell in love with a couple of years ago and would love to explore more in some next posts. Brought from Norway over thousand years ago, Skyr is officially classified as cheese. It has the consistency of the strained yogurt but with a much milder flavor.

Ingredients
500 gr. white flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon backing powder
300 ml. Skyr Yogurt
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds for the garnish

Directions

Heat the oven at 250C, at least 10 minutes before starting the baking. Mix the ingredients and let them interact with each other for at least 10 minutes. By hand, make small doughs and add them on a parchment covered tray. Bake it in the oven for around 20 minutes or until completely baked.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 25 minutes
Make it into 20 tasty little scones. To be eaten immediately!

Bon Appétit!

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White Cheese-Filled Pita Bread

Pita bread, simple or filled with cheese, sometimes even with plum jam, used to be an usual food in my childhood and since I started to do my own baking I tried more than once to prepare it, with results that were considerably better than my home-made foods as a child. As in January I haven't cooked or baked anything interesting - but stay tuned as a fantastic foodie news will come tomorrow - this afternoon I decided to use some ingredients available in the kitchen and get back to some serious baking. To be honest, it was also the pressure of not having any bread left so it was an emergency situation we were dealing with. 

But it was actually a great occasion to offer to my kiddo my childhood staple for the first time, while also enjoying some bites, although in a heavy oily ambiance. The good thing is that I survived the experience which also involved high-temperature frying without any serious burning incident, which was a great achievement. During my last Hanukkah preparations a big splash of hot oil landed on my left wrist and for more than a month my hand looked like just escaping a suicidal attempt. 

Ingredients 
- for the dough
4 cups white flour
1 package dry yeast - the equivalent of 7 gr.
2 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
- for the frying and filling
250 white cow cheese grated
250 ml. sunflower oil

Directions

Dissolve the yeast into 200 ml. warm water until it looks bubbling. Add the 3 cups of flour and the beaten eggs. Mix by hand or with a spatula. Let the dough to rest outside under a warm cover for around 1 hour. You can also keep it overnight in the fridge.

After one hour, take the dough out and split into 9 small pieces. Roll it by hand. Spread the white cheese in the middle and cover it with the dough. 

Meanwhile, heat the pan at 250C for 1-3 minutes. Add the oil and heat it for another 3 minutes. Add the pita shaped dough to the pan and eventually press it on in the middle with a stainless steel spatula. It helps to eliminate the air from the dough and create a compact pita ready to be fried. 

Serves: 9 cheese-filled pita.
Preparation time: 1 hour

Although you can eat it simply like that, moderately warm, eventually accompanied by an equally warm mint tea or a glass of cold Ginger Ale. If you are really hungry and want to combine as many ingredients as possible, you can also add: some fresh salmon, yellow cheese, a spread of cottage cheese, a boiled egg, hummus.
As a fresh healthy company, you can make a cucumber, tomatoes and avocado salad. Some tasty black olives are also a good idea. 

All being said, it seems like this week will have many foodie adventures in the making. For now, I can only be happy for bringing back childhood memories on my plate.

Bon Appétit!

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Cornbread Muffins instead of Bread

When I am out of bread in the house, I don't worry, as I always have in my pantry enough ingredients to create fast savory substitutes which might be much better than any other baking product I can find on the market. 

I've tried the zucchini and savory muffins recently, but this time I wanted to learn better how to use the cornflour which is an ingredient I hardly use more than once the year, if ever. 

The following improvised recipe was easy to prepare and bake and delicious enough to disappear in less than half a day. 

Ingredients

250 gr. cornflour

2 cups white flour

8 gr. baking powder

2 medium eggs

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

500 gr. butter milk

1 tablespoon Osem consomme

150 gr. black sesame for decoration

Directions

Warm the oven at 250C, at least 15 minutes before you are ready. In a muffin iron, add 12 colourful muffin sheets.

Mix the ingredients well, until you have a compact paste. Pour it into the muffin papers. In the end, spread the black sesame seeds.

Bake it in the oven for 45 minutes.

I served it with yellow cheese, ricotta and spicy black olives. It is a perfect afternoon and breakfast snack, or some take away travel goodies.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 45 minutes

Serves: 12

Bon Appétit!

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