Monday 21 July 2014

Cherry Éclairs


Uhh, at first they seem so quick and easy, but the filling and final preparing them was more of a challenge :) However, the final outcome is really wonderful :) I gave a good plate for my brother, but before he reached his house, the plate was already empty ;) 
It would be a sin, not to recommend them ;)
This recipe is a mix of recipes from those two pages.


Ingredients:

Éclairs dough:
  • 250 ml of water
  • 125g of butter or margarine
  • 1 glass of flour
  • 4 eggs
  • a pinch of salt

Filling:
  • 200 ml of milk
  • 300g of cherries (fresh or frozen)
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 20g of flour
  • 20g of potato starch
  • 90g of sugar
  • 1 packaging of vanilla sugar
  • 1 tablespoon of butter

Icing:
  • 1 glass of powdered sugar
  • 4-5 tablespoons of water

Optional icing ingredients:
  • flavoured extract - vanilla, almond, lemon, etc.
  • food colouring
  • or - instead of icing - ganache, chocolate frosting

Optional ingredients - decoration:
  • cherry (or any other flavour - different fruit, caramel, chocolate, coffee, nut...) mousse
  • whipped cream
  • fruit
  • nuts
  • mincemeat

Preparation - dough:
  1. Take a baking tray, grease and put baking paper on it. Put aside.
  2. Take a pot, put water, butter and salt inside, boil.
  3. When brought to boil, add flour and stir energetically (to prevent the bottom from burning). The dough should be smooth and should not stick to the pot.
  4. Put aside, to let it cool down completely.
  5. When cooled down, mix the dough with eggs, for a quite long time, till smooth.* 
  6. Put the dough inside a syringe or a piping pastry bag with a steel piping nozzle (preferably quite big star shape).
  7. Distribute long pieces of cake, leaving some space between them, as they will grow quite much.
  8. Bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes, on 200C. Make sure they're ready inside.
  9. When baked, cool down and cut lengthways.
* Longer mixing helps it grow up in the oven later on, as there is no baking powder.


Preparation - filling:
  1. If your cherries are frozen - defrost, make sure there are no kernels, pour away the water.
  2. If fresh - throw away the kernels.
  3. Put the cherries in a bowl. Mix, with a mixer, till smooth, to get a mousse. If there's cherry juice, pour it away, for a different use.
  4. Take a pot, pour milk and add cherry mousse inside. Start boiling. When brought to boil, turn off the heat and put aside to let it cool down.
  5. Take a mixer and its bowl, beat the eggs with sugar and vanilla sugar. Add flour and potato starch. Using a spatula, mix precisely.
  6. Gradually add cherry milk mixture to the mixer's bowl, stiring precisely.
  7. Put the mixture back in the pot and start boiling. Stir all the time, as it will thicken, like a custard, quite fast. Be careful not to burn the bottom.
  8. When thick and ready, add butter and stir, to let the butter melt. Cover with foil and put aside, to let it cool down. Later on, when cool, keep in the fridge (it will thicken more), till you need it.

Preparation - icing sugar:
  1. Put all the ingredients together and stir to get a desired consistency of the icing (needs to be thick). 

Finishing:
  1. Prepare a baking grill or another baking tray, cover with baking paper, put aside.
  2. Take the top pieces of your Éclairs and dip in previously prepared icing. 
  3. Transfer them into steel baking grill or baking tray and leave for a while in the fridge.
  4. Put the cherry filling inside a syringe or a piping pastry bag with a steel piping nozzle (preferably quite big star shape) and distribute it on the bottom piece of your Éclair in any way desired. You can add fruit, whipped cream or use only the cherry filling.
  5. Cover with the suitable top piece covered with icing.
  6. Store in the fridge.
  7. Bon Appetit! :)

Sunday 13 July 2014

Fruit Jellies

Very tasty, fruity, healthy, natural jellies, possible to be prepared from many different fruit, especially, if you have no idea, what to do with them or when they are...way too ripe ;) 
Lack of artificial substances is undoubtedly their biggest advantage.
They might be sprinkled with sugar (though I prefer sugar-free jellies :) ). It is a quick, light and delicious form of confectionery. My little naphew's face and hands are all in strawberry jelly now, so I guess they're tasty, hi hi ;)
Recipe comes from this website.


Ingredients:
  • 30 g of gelatin
  • 1 glass of water
  • 1-2 glasses of sugar (it depends how sweet you want your fruit puree to be)
  • 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
  • 500-600 g of fruit (either frozen or fresh - preferably: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, currants, cherries)*

* I mixed blueberries with strawberries, which is why they are so dark.


Optional ingredients:
  • sugar or powdered sugar - to sprinkle the jellies

Preparation:
  1. Take a bigger, clean pot and put the fruit inside. Boil for 15 minutes. Grate through the sieve, to seperate puree and kernels. 
  2. Take only 3/4 glass of the mousse** to prepare jellies. Put the glass with mousse aside.
  3. Take another pot, put gelatin inside and pour the water. Wait for 4 minutes. Heat, till all the gelatin melts (stir). Add 1-2 glasses of sugar, boil and  stir till the sugar melts. Add lemon juice. 
  4. Boil for around 10 minutes on a very low heat. Turn off the heat and leave the mixture for 5 minutes. Take away the foam if any appears.
  5. Mix with fruit mousse.
  6. Take a flat form, cover with cling film or foil. Pour the mixture inside. Put it in the fridge for around 12 hours, or till the jelly stiffens.
  7. After that time, take it out of the form and cut it in any shape you like - you can use only a knife to make small squares or cookie cutters to make shapes.
  8. Sprinkle with sugar/powdered sugar - preferably only those you want to eat now.
  9. Jellies can remain (in a closed box) in the fridge for max. 2 weeks. 
  10. Bon appetit! :)

Saturday 12 July 2014

Plum Dumplings

That's a very delicious, quick, easy and light dinner :) Soft, sweet, might be served with butter, sugar or shredded coconut. Children love it! It is definitely worth trying! :)
Recipe comes from my Grandmum :)

Ingredients:
  • 10 boiled potatoes
  • 2-3 pinches of salt
  • around 300 g of flour
  • 500 g of plums
  • 1 egg

Extra ingredients:
  • butter
  • sugar
  • shredded coconut

Preparation:
  1. Take a middle-size clean pot, fill with water, add some salt (2-3 pinches).
  2. Add potatoes and boil them till soft (10-15 minutes).
  3. In the meantime, wash the plums, throw away the kernels, cut the plums into halves.
  4. Take a pot, pour water inside, start boiling.
  5. Take a big bowl, put boiled potatoes inside, smash till you get a smooth 'dough', cool down.
  6. Add flour, and egg, knead till you get a dough, which is not extremely sticky and you can form a ball (which is why I put 'around' 300g of flour - depending on your potatoes - some of them come out more sticky after boiling, some of them less = in some cases you might need more/less flour). Make the ball flat. Put one half of the plum in the middle of the dough, add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, close(it needs to be done very precisely), forming a ball again.*
  7. When the water in the second pot is boling, put your dumplings inside, boil for around 5-7 minutes.**
  8. Take them out of the water (they cannot remain in the water).
  9. Here you can distribute extra ingredients over boiled dumplings - some butter to melt or sprinkle them with sugar/shredded coconut.
  10. Bon Appetit! :)
* It is not necessary to add sugar, you can make them without any sugar (but they might come out sour, especially if the plums are sour, so I do recommed adding it).
** If the dumplings 'swim' on the top of the water, they're ready.

Friday 11 July 2014

Meringue Cookies

Mmm! Very nice and elegant cookies! Equally sweet and sour. Though if You don't like the sour taste of lemon, the filling may be different, as a lot of fillings match here :) 
And - If You're running out of time, there is no need to bake a home-made meringues, as they're available in most supermarkets.
Those cookies - smaller or bigger - will wonderfully decorate the table. 
I think a pyramid of sweet meringues on a big white plate, on a wedding table would look just purely perfect .. don't You think? :)
Recipe for meringues, slightly changed, comes from that website.



Ingredients:

Meringue:

  • 3 egg whites 
  • 200g of sugar (finely ground)
  • a pinch of salt
Lemon curd:
  • 3 eggs 
  • lemon zest and lemon juice from 3 lemons 
  • 100g of powdered sugar 
  • 100g of cool butter 
Additional ingredients:

  • food colouring (powdered or gel)

Preparation:

Meringue:

  1. Prepare a baking sheet, cover with baking paper.  Draw a lot of small circles all over the baking sheet, leaving some space between those circles (diameter: max 5 cm). Put aside. 
  2. Take a mixer and its bowl, put egg whites and salt inside, start beating. After a while, start adding sugar, one tablespoon after another, mixing precisely all the time. The beating should take 10-15 minutes, not less. The meringue after the beating should be stiff and shiny and sugar should dissolve completely. 
  3. Here is a good time to add food colouring, as much as you wish, and mixing precisely. Note that the colour will fade a little bit due to the baking process, so add a little bit more of it, not to be dissapointed with the final colour of the cookies.
  4. Using a syringe, distribute the meringue on the baking sheet, on previously drawn circles. 
  5. Put in the oven and bake for 60-90 minutes (or a little bit longer) in 120C. After that time, meringue cookies should be crunchy. 
  6. After baking, keep in a room temperature, till the filling is ready.

Lemon curd:

Lemon curd requires a 'bath' so it is necessary to have a suitable pot and a bowl, that can be put one on another.

  1. Chop the butter into smaller pieces. 
  2. Take a pot, put some water inside, start boiling it. 
  3. Take a bowl that matches the pot, put eggs inside, beat. 
  4. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, powdered sugar and stir till everything links and there are no lumps. 
  5. Now put the bowl on the top of your pot (make sure the bowl stands out from the pot so that you don't get burn) and slowly keep heating up the mixture (don't boil it). 
  6. Keep adding the butter, one piece after another, stiring after adding. 
  7. When all the butter is melted in the mixture, turn off the heat and put the bowl with lemon curd somewhere aside, to let it cool down. 
  8. Then put your lemon curd in the fridge so that it stiffens more. 

Finishing:
  1. Take a meringue, distribute some filling on its bottom and link with another small meringue cookie.
  2. Bon Appetit! :)

Monday 7 July 2014

Sunflower cake

Ohh delicious! Remains in a constant battle with Gourmet Sensation ;) I have no idea which one is better! Easy to make, will smitten all your guests ;) 
P.S. here is a small secret: as this cake contains sunflower seeds, it is claimed that it is very beneficial for men (prostate).
This particular recipe is my cousin's own :) 
Greetings for you my Dear and thank you for sharing the recipe :)


Ingredients:

Sponge cake:
  • 7 egg whites
  • 7 egg yolks
  • 1 glass of sugar
  • 2/3 glass of baking cocoa
  • 2/3 glass of flour

Sunflower frosting, part 1:
  • 200g sunflower seeds (or 100g sunflower seeds + 100g walnuts)
  • 100g of butter
  • 8 tablespoons of sugar
  • 4 tablespoons of milk


Sunflower frosting, part 2:
  • 300g of butter
  • 1 tin of fudge

Optional ingredients:
  • 1/3-1/2 glass of vodka


Preparation:
Sponge cake:
  1. Take a rectangular baking pan, put baking paper all over it. Put aside.
  2. Take a bowl, sieve flour and cocoa to that bowl, twice.
  3. Put egg yolks in another bowl and stir/beat, so that they link. Put aside.
  4. Start preheating the oven to 170C.
  5. Take a mixer and its bowl, put egg whites inside and beat on a low rotation for around 2-3 minutes, till the foam appears. At this moment start adding sugar, spoon after spoon. The mixer can work faster right now. Now beat the eggs for additional 8 minutes.
  6. After those 10 minutes or so, while still mixing, keep adding egg yolks, one spoon after another, making sure that the egg yolks linked precisely with egg whites before adding another spoon. 
  7. Turn off the mixer and using a spatula, slowly, gently, in 3 parts, add flour+cocoa to the mixer's bowl.
  8. Pour the dough into previously prepared baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, checking, with a toothpick, if it is ready as it may take a little bit more or less time.*
  9. Take the cake out from the oven and throw on a kitchen's surface.
  10. Cool down.


    * and, as always - if you see that your toothpick is absolutely clean and the cake seems ready - don't hesitate to take it out from the oven. Also, if you know that your oven tends to burn the top of the cake and you can see that your top starts to burn, put foil all over that top, it will prevent it from burning, and keep baking. On the other hand - if your oven tends to burn the bottom - put a baking tray under your baking pan with a cake.

    Sunflower frosting, part 1:

    1. Take a pot, put butter, sunflower seeds and milk inside, boil.
    2. Take a baking paper, put the mixture on it and bake in the oven for 20 minutes in 180C.
    3. After that time, take the sunflower seeds out from the oven, let it cool down and crush into small pieces. 


    Sunflower frosting, part 2:
    1. Take a mixer and its bowl, beat the butter (around 8 minutes). Add fudge, mix again till it links.
    2. Add some sunflower seeds-mixture (part 1), leaving some part of it to sprinkle the top, and mix again.
    3. Here is a moment to add alcohol, if desired. Preferably - add one tablespoon of vodka, taste if it is strong enough for you - if yes, the frosting is ready, if not - keep adding till you feel it is enough.

    Finishing:
    1. Distribute the frosting all over the cake, sprinkle with remaining sunflower seeds mixture from part 1.
    2. Store in the fridge, covered.
    3. Bon Appetit! ;)


    Sunday 6 July 2014

    Cherry Cube

    Ohh wonderful! Truly chocolate, soft, mouth-watering - and - to my great surprise - it is not heavy and not extremely sweet :) frankly, it is its enormous advantage! 
    This cake will wonderfully decorate your table and enrapture your guests. I do recommend.
    Recipe, slightly changed, comes from this website.


    Ingredients:

    Cocoa dough, part 1:

    • 3/4 glass of oil
    • 1/2 glass of water
    • 1 glass of sugar
    • 3 tablespoons of baking cocoa

    Cocoa dough, part 2:
    • 5 egg yolks (room temperatured)
    • 5 egg whites(room temperatured)
    • 1/2 glass of white sugar
    • 1,5 glass of flour
    • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
    • 1 teaspoon of baking soda

    Cherry cream:
    • 500ml of 36% cream, very cold (before using, put in in the freezer for around 15 minutes)
    • 800g of cherries (fresh or frozen)
    • 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
    • 5 tablespoons of sugar
    • 24g (=6 teaspoons =6 gelatin leaves) of powdered gelatin 

    Chocolate frosting (ganache):
    • 125 ml of 36% cream
    • 125g of chocolate (I used 70% cocoa chocolate, but you can use half of milk and half of plain chocolate)

    Additional ingredients:
    • Glacé cherries for decoration
    • 1/2 glass of cherry brandy or amaretto
    • whipped cream

    Preparation:

    Dough:
    1. Put all the ingredients from part 1 in a pot. Start boiling, stir, till all the ingredients link and sugar melts. Turn off the heat and cool down.
    While the first part is almost cooled down, time for part 2:
    1. Sieve the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Put aside.
    2. Take a rectangular baking pan (preferably 25x35cm). Put baking paper all over it.
    3. Take a mixer and its bowl, put egg whites inside and start beating (it will take 10 minutes). At the end of that time, gradually start adding sugar.
    4. Add egg yolks and mix, on a low rotation, till smooth.
    5. Add cooled down 'part 1' and stir precisely with a spatula or spoon. 
    6. Pour the dough into previously prepared baking pan.
    7. Bake for 35-45 minutes minutes in 180C. Preferably, as always - check if the cake is ready with a toothpick.
    8. Cool down in an open oven.
    While the cake is cooling down, prepare the filling:

    Cherry cream:
    1. Take a big pot, put cherries inside (no need to defrost frozen ones), add sugar, lemon juice and bring to boil.
    2. After that time, if there is too much cherry juice in your pot (especially from frozen cherries) take all of it out, so that only cherries remain in a pot.
    3. Take a blender and mix till smooth.
    4. Put gelatin in a glass, cover with hot, boiling water (just a little bit of boiling water, to cover the gelatin is enough) and keep stiring till the gelatin dissolves.
    5. Add to blended cherries and stir precisely. Let it cool down completely.
    6. Take a mixer with its (another ;) ) bowl, put 36% cream inside and beat till stiff (depends on mixer's power it will take between 5-10 minutes).
    7. In 3 parts, start adding cooled down cherry mixture. When done, put in the fridge for a while.

    Finishing:

    1. Take a big piece of baking paper. 
    2. If the cake cooled down completely, cut into equal 2 pieces (the best way to do it is to use a thread).
    3. Put the first piece of cake on your baking paper. Lift it, and put it back in the baking pan.
    4. Here is a good time, to take alcohol and with a spoon, distribute it all over the piece of cake.
    5. Cover with cherry filling, put another piece of cake (add alcohol if desired) on it and the remaining part of the filling. 
    6. Put it in the fridge for around 15-20 minutes. During that time, prepare the chocolate frosting.

    Ganache:
    1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces. 
    2. Put the cream in a pot, boil. Turn off the heat. Add chocolate and stir till it links and you receive a smooth frosting. Put aside for a while.

    1. Take the cake out from the fridge, distribute the frosting all over the top, and put back in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
    2. After that time, decorate your cake with glacé cherries, distributing them quite far away from each other, so that you can cut equal cubes. It is also possible to put some whipped cream all over the cake and then, on it, a cherry, like here, in that recipe.
    3. Store in the fridge.
    4. Bon Appetit :)

    Thursday 3 July 2014

    Shortcake - Mazurek

    Traditional Polish Easter cake. Though its 'traditionally traditional' version is very flat, crunchy, with variety of toppings like mincemeat, my version, deriving from south part of Poland is much higher, with different filling, very easy and very sweet :) 
    I do recommend, not only for Easter ;) Children should love it too :)
    Recipe - thanks to my mum hand-written 'cookbook on a piece of paper' ;)



    Ingredients:
    • 500g of flour
    • 1 egg
    • 3 tablespoons of honey
    • 100g of margarine
    • 1 teaspoon of soda
    • ½ glass of powdered sugar

    Sweet semolina filling:
    • 3 tablespoons of semolina
    • 500ml of milk
    • ½ glass of powdered sugar
    • 100g of butter
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla/almond extract

    Top:
    • ready-made (or home-made) chocolate frosting

    Preparation:
    1. Put all the ingredients in a bowl. Knead them, till they link and divide into 3 parts.
    2. Take rectangular baking pan and distribute all ovet it a baking paper.
    3. Roll the 1st part of the dough all over the pan.
    4. Bake in 170C for 10-15 minutes(or longer if neccessary), till it gets gold.
    5. Do the same with the remaining 2 pieces of the dough.
    In the meantime, prepare the filling:
    1. Take a pot, pour the milk inside and start boiling. When it reaches 100C, add semolina and keep stiring all the time (make sure that there are no lumps), still boiling it on a low heat (be careful it will thicken fast and may start burning on the bottom of the pot). 
    2. Stir for a while, till it thickens completely, turn off, put aside and let it cool down.
    3. Take a mixer and its bowl, add butter and powdered sugar, mix for around 7 minutes. 
    4. After that time, start adding cooled down semolina, one spoon after another.
    5. At the end, add extract mix precisely.
    Finishing:
    1. Take a plate on which you would like to store the cake (as later on it will be quite difficult to change the plate).
    2. Put the first piece of dough on a plate. Cover with filling.
    3. Put another piece of dough and use the remaining filling.
    4. Cover with the last piece of dough.
    5. Prepare the chocolate frosting and distribute all over the top of the cake.
    6. Bon Appetit! ;)

    Wednesday 2 July 2014

    Strawberry Yoghurt Cake

    I was looking for a nice strawberry cake recipe. But not the strawberry cake I’ve already made, ahh, I craved for something new, as I’m addicted to trying new recipes. And I found this strawberry yoghurt cake. One word: Wow! That’s the quickest and the one of the cheapest cake I’ve ever made! And I needed to bake 2 pans, one after another, day after day, cause it disappeared so quickly! I’m utterly shocked! And how many variations this one particular cake has, that’s unbelievable! Delicate, spongy, sweet, perfect for a morning coffee and for a nice lunch at work ;-) What’s more, that’s one of the ‘light’ cakes, so we can feel excused for eating half of the baking pan ;) (giggle) 
    I do recommend!
    The only thing that I found particularly difficult to explain to You is a polish dessert - powdered, quick, jelly-like, fruit-flavoured 'kisiel'. I can't find an equivalent for it in English. I do encourage You to look up for it. Wikipedia defines it as 'kissel' and explains a little bit what it is. If You are unable to buy it, You can easily use jam ;)
    I made quite a lot of changes, though still - big thanks for KwestiaSmaku for the recipe!

    Ingredients:

    1 glass = 250ml
    • 2 big eggs
    • 1 glass of greek yoghurt
    • 2 glasses of flour
    • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
    • 500g of strawberries
    • ¾ -1 glass of sugar
    • 2 tablespoons of vanilla sugar
    • 25g of melted butter (or 25g of oil)
    • 1 powdered strawberry kissel
    • 2-3 tablespoons of strawberry jam


    Optional ingredients:
    • Powdered sugar
    • X g of any other berries ;) (I had one bowl of currants from my garden, so I used them J)
    • Icing sugar


    Preparation:
    1. Bring eggs and yoghurt to room temperature.
    2. Prepare 3 bowls. Mix flour with baking powder very precisely and sieve to the 1st bowl. Put aside.
    3. Wash your fruit. Take 500g of strawberries, cut out the leaves, divide into halves (250g each), put in remaining 2 bowls. Cut the strawberries into halves (if the strawberry is really big – 3 pieces)
    4. Take a mixer’s bowl. Put sugar and vanilla sugar inside.
    5. Melt the butter in a small pot.
    6. Take a rectangular baking pan (preferably 20x30 cm, might be a little bit bigger), grease it precisely with soft butter. Put aside.
    7. Start preheating the oven to 165C.
    8. Prepare the kissel as the recipe on the packaging says. Mix with jam. Mix 1/3 of this kissel-jam mixture with one strawberry bowl. Put aside.
    9. Add eggs to the mixer’s bowl with sugars.
    10. Using a mixer, start beating for 7 minutes. After that time, put the mixer aside, add yoghurt, melted butter, sieved flour with baking powder and slowly, precisely, for a short time, stir, using a big spoon or spatula, only till all the ingredients link, not longer.
    11. Put the dough in previously prepared greased baking pan, distribute the dough all over the pan.
    12. Take a bowl with kissel strawberries. Here – preferably – don’t use much of the kissel as it may destroy the cake, it is perfectly enough if there is some kissel on the strawberry. Put the strawberries all over the cake, leaving some space between them (chequered pattern works and looks perfectly).
    13. When done, put it in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Observe your cake, it might take less or more time for Your cake to be ready, as every oven works differently – You are probably the person who knows it best.
    14. After those 20 minutes, if the top is gold, use a toothpick to check, if it is ready inside. If not – cover the top with foil and bake for another 10 minutes or so.*
    15. Cool down, take out from the pan. Take the second bowl with strawberries and kissel, fill the holes in the cake - firstly with some kissel, then with a strawberry.
    16. Sprinkle the cake with (for instance) remaining fruit (or any other additional fruit if You have prepared them), powdered sugar, icing sugar or add remaining kissel all over the cake.
    17. Bon Appetit! ;)


    *the cake should be much bigger, its sides should stick out from the pan, the top should be gold and a toothpick clean (if there is any cake glued to a toothpick, it is not ready yet)