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! :)

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! ;)

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 :)

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 1^st 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! ;)

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 1^st 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)

Basil paste

I came across this recipe while looking for an alternative breakfast recipes. This paste sounded really perfect to me - something new, quick and easy to make. And - believe me, it tastes really, really good - some of you may know flavoured butters (smaksełko? ;) ) - they were extremely popular some time ago and very tasty, though I can't find it in any shop, can you? This is not a butter, as it is made of cottage cheese. Though I'm sure it would be same delicious as a butter! It is perfect for example with: fresh, hot bread/rolls, with cold meats, tomatoes, for brushetta, ciabatta bread... :)

Recipe, slightly changed, comes from this website.

Ingredients:

• 250g of cottage cheese (low-, semi- or full-fat)
• a bunch of fresh basil
• 1/2-1 clove of garlic
• 8 tablespoons of oil 
• 1 teaspoon of black ground pepper
• a pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of sichuan pepper

Preparation:

1. Put the cheese in a bowl, add spices (black pepper, salt, sichuan pepper). 
2. Take a blender and its bowl (or any bowl suitable for blending), put basil, garlic and oil inside, blend till smooth (or almost smooth). 
3. Mix basil paste with cottage cheese, blend till smooth.
4. Store closed in the fridge.
5. Bon Appetit! :)

Puff pastry cookies with strawberries and Nutella

Are unexpected guests coming soon? Don't you have a clue what to put on the table? Are you organizing a party where sophisticated cakes aren't a suitable match? This is an easy, quick, and overtasty solution :) I do strongly recommend :) They're outrageous!

The recipe comes from this website, as usually, I changed a tiny little bit :)

Ingredients:

• 1 packing of good quality ready made puff pastry
• 1/2 jar of Nutella (or something very similar in taste to Nutella)
• 100 g of strawberries
• powdered sugar

Optional ingredients:

• chopped pistachios (to sprinkle the top)

Preparation:

1. If your puff pastry is totally frozen - defrost it. It needs to be in a room temperature (so that it won't shrink during baking).
2. Take your puff pastry and using a shape cutter (in every shape you want, it doesn't need to be a heart shape) make as many shapes as you can from your puff pastry. Roll the leftovers of the puffpastry and use it as well. If the puff pastry is too sticky - use some flour (sprinkle it on the puff pastry and rolling pin)
3. Put the cutouts on a baking sheet (remember to put the baking paper on your baking sheet)
4. Put in the middle of every cutout 1 teaspoon of Nutella
5. Take the strawberries and - optionally - cut them into halves.
6. Put the strawberries on Nutella.
7. Bake in 200 C for 15-17 minutes (may be ready faster - keep an eye on them - if the colour is gold - it is ready). Cool down.
8. Add some powdered sugar on the top.
9. Bon Appetit ! :)