Cinnamon Buns

Slightly changed, the recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients (for around 20 buns, depending on size):

• 20g of fresh yeast
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• 2 glasses of flour
• 1/2 glass of milk
• 1 egg
• 63g of melted, cooled down butter
• pinch of salt

Filling:

• 70-80g of melted butter
• 1/3-1/2 glass of brown sugar
• few teaspoons of ground cinnamon

Optional filling ingredients:

• raisins

Preparation:

1. Take a bowl, put yest, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of flour and half of the milk, stir, to prepare a leaven and put aside in a warm place, for around 15 minutes (it needs to double its size).
2. During that time, melt 63g of butter and cool down a little.
3. Take another bowl, put remaining flour, salt, egg and the rest of milk and sugar inside. Add the leaven. Knead for around 10 minutes, till smooth. 
4. Add milk and knead again till it stops sticking to a hand. Put aside in a warm place, so that it doubles its size again (it may take more time than previously).
5. During that time, melt the butter for the filling.
6. Take a baking tray, put baking paper on it. Put aside.
7. Divide the dough into 3 parts. Take a rolling pin and roll out (using only a little flour) the first piece. Distibute the butter all over, sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon and opitionally raisins.
8. Roll up (tight, tube shape) and cut into 3-4 cm pieces.
9. Put every piece gently on previously prepared baking tray, leaving some space between every bun, cause they will grow up.
10. Bake for 10-15 minutes in 180C.
11. Bon appetit! ;)

Pumpkin muffins

During such cruelly cold weather there is nothing better than a comfortable chair, mug with steaming tea(or cocoa ;) ) and.... something sweet and tasty, for the pleasure... like these muffins ;) These are one of my naphew's favourites :) Not really difficult to prepare, aaand the feeling of guilt because of eating something sweet, especially in the evening is smaller, because it's made of pumpkins... and pumpkins are healthy, aren't they? ;)

Also, with no regret or sadness that the pumpkin season is over - you can easily use tinned pumpkin :)
The recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients:

• 50g of butter
• 1/3 glass of brown sugar
• 1/3 glass if white sugar
• 1,5 glass of flour
• 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon if nutmeg
• A pinch if salt
• 1/4 glass if oil
• 2 eggs
• 200g of tinned pumpkin pieces
• 1 jar of plum jam

Top(optional):

• plum jam
• powdered sugar
• whipped cream
• caramel

Preparation:

1. Take the tinned pumpkin. Drain it off and smash, using for example a blender.
2. Take a mixer's bowl. Put chopped butter, brown and white sugar inside. Put aside.
3. Take a bowl, put flour, baking powder and baking soda inside. Add cinnamonn, nutmeg and salt. Mix precisely.
4. Mix butter and sugars for around 2-3 minutes. After that time, gradually start adding oil, mixing all the time. 
5. Continue mixing, add one egg, when it links, add another. 
6. Add pumpkin puree, mix till smooth.
7. Add bowl with flour and spices, mix till everything links.
8. Put in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
9. At the end of that 1 hour's time, start preheating the oven to 180C.
10. Take a muffin tin, grease it or put paper muffin cases inside.
11. Put some of the dough inside every paper case (preferably not more than 3/4 of the paper case).
12. Put in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, till muffins grow and turn gold.
13. Cool down... or not, but be careful not to burn yourself ;)
14. Bon Appetit! :)

Mascarpone Pancakes

That's a very tasty idea, for instance for those of you who don't eat meat on friday or enjoy eating something cruelly sweet while drinking coffee ;)

Ingredients:

Pancakes:

• 160g of flour
• 300ml of 3,2% milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoon of sugar
• 16g of vanilla sugar
• pinch of salt
• 30g of melted, cooled down butter

Filling (optional):

• 250g of mascarpone cheese + 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar
• chocolate and caramel sauces
• almonds
• fruit

Preparation:

1. Take a mixer and its bowl. 
2. Put flour, milk, eggs, sugars and salt inside, mix till smooth.
3. Add melted butter, mix till smooth again. Put aside.
4. Take another bowl. Put mascarpone cheese and powdered sugar inside. Mix with a fork or spoon, gently, a little.
5. Take a quite big frying pan(flat one, preferably), grease it with oil, and using a paper towel, distribute the oil on the entire frying pan.
6. Turn on the heat so that it heats up.
7. Put some dough on the pan and distribute it immidiately on the entire frying pan, to make a thin pancake.
8. Fry for few minutes on both sides.
9. Put the pancake on a plate.
10. Distribute mascarpone mixture on the entire pancake surface. Add caramel sauce.
11. Fold the sides of the pancake, then its bottom and at the end the top.
12. Overturn. Decorate with chocolate sauce, almonds, fruit.
13. Bon Appetit!

Bajadera

Bajadera. What is it? Well - that's a fantastic, last second idea which always works, always tastes delicious as it is chocolate sweet, soft and moist. 

I do recommend, especially when you have no time and your oven is tired as it is a non-baking recipe ;)
But - if You have time and enjoy baking, decorating, creating sweet wonders - see also Bajadera Reindeers.

Quite changed recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients:

• 400g of dried pound cake (preferably lemon or vanilla flavoured)
• 120g of mascarpone cheese
• 80g of nutella
• 350g of milk chocolate
• favourite mincemeat (including for example nuts, almonds; or  baking cocoa)
• some plastic small sticks
• sprinkles for decoratation

Optional ingredients:

• 10-25ml of Rum
• dried fruit - but in very small pieces

Preparation:

1. If your pound cake isn't dried enough, it is a good idea to crumble it into very small pieces and put it in the preheated oven(over 180C) for a couple of minutes.
2. Take a mixer and it's bowl. Put mascarpone cheese and nutella inside. Mix till smooth.
3. Put dried pound cake to the bowl and mix everything till smooth. 
4. Here is the time to add and mix optional ingredients if desired.
5. Cover with foil and cool down in the freezer for 45 minutes.
6. During that time, prepare a rectangular bakewell pan or loaf tin or - something that you can put in your freezer. Put some baking paper on its bottom.
7. Take the dough out from the freezer and start making small balls, put each of them in previously prepared pan/tin.
8. Put back in the freezer for another 30 minutes.
9. During that time prepare small paper muffin cases and sprinkles around you.
10. Also, take a pot, put chocolate (in small pieces) inside and melt on a very low heat.
11. Take one ball from the freezer, dip 1/3 of a stick inside a ball and dip in the chocolate, so that it covers the entire ball, take out from the chocolate, wait till the excess of chocolate falls down.
12. As the ball is very cold, the chocolate will stiffen on it very fast, so as soon as you take it out from the chocolate pot, take out the stick, put it on a muffin case and decorate.
13. Store finished bajaderas in the fridge.
14. Bon Appetit! ;)

Gourmet Sensation vol. 2

Here is another version of my Gourmet Sensation. Don't try to call it 'worse' or 'poor'! ;) You will have problems to stop devouring it ;) It is same easy and same tasty :) 

And - it gets better with time :)

Ingredients:

• 2-3 packs of biscuits (butter ones)
• 2 vanilla custards (here is a recipe for home-made custard called 'budyn', you'll probably need to double the ingredients to make it suitable for that cake)
• 2 tins of fudge
• 36% cream: 2 options:

*if powdered:

you will need 2 sachets which need to be combined with milk (the method of preparing it is written on the sachet, you will probably need around 200 ml of milk per sachet)
* if real, fresh, liquid one, to whip it up: 1 packaging(around 330 ml, but it is ok to use more)  + 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar + here I do recommend using some kind of powder that can stiffen the cream (in Poland: śmietan-fix, made mainly of glucose and starch)

• baking cocoa, to sprinkle the top of the cake (or grated chocolate, preferably dark chocolate, because the cake is really sweet itself)

Preparation:

Briefly, tiers:

1. biscuits
2. custard/budyń
3. biscuits
4. fudge
5. biscuits
6. whipped cream
7. chocolate/cocoa

Preparation:

* every tier will cover the entire surface of the tin.

1. Take a rectangular springform cake tin.
2. Put one tier of biscuits on the bottom of your cake tin.
3. Prepare the custard and pour it on biscuits (don't wait till it cools down).
4. Take a pot, pour some water inside, start heating.
5. Open tins with fudge, put them in the pot. Boil on a low heat (keep looking at it, but nothing bad should happen). Stir from time to time.
6. Put another tier of biscuits - no need to wait till the custard is cold.
7. Stir the fudge slowly, check if it isn't burning anyhow (though it shouldn't).
8. If the water with tins already boils, stir the fudge and turn off the heat. Using for instance a tea towel, take the first tin and a spoon, and pour the fudge on the biscuits. Distribute all over the biscuits. Take another tin and reapeat the action.
9. Put another tier of biscuits.
10. Put everything in a cold place or in a fridge, so that it cools down completely.
11. Prepare whipped cream.
12. When the cake is cooled down, distribute whipped cream all over the top.
13. Shortly before serving, sprinkle the top with chocolate/cocoa.
14. Keep in a fridge.
15. Bon Appetit! :)

Orange-Chocolate Cheesecake

I was pretty unsure about this Cheesecake as I was doing it completely on my own and I was afraid of many, many things. But... I served it and all the guests were stunned! Asking where did I buy it. And they were even more shocked when I told them that I did it on my own :) And everyone, literally, everyone asked for the recipe! That's the best award I could have got for that cheesecake :) So now I'm sharing the secret for a perfect Christmas Cheesecake with You :) 
Some details: This cheesecake has a consistency of a mousse, so it melts on a palate, it's quite refreshing, because of oranges and what is its biggest advantage - it's easy and quick to prepare, because without turning on the oven ;) Enjoy! :)

Bottom of the cake:

• 200g of chocolate shortbread-like biscuits
• 80-100g of melted butter

Cheesecake: (all the ingredients must be in a room temperature except for water)

• 500g of cheesecake cheese (might be vanilla flavoured)
• 250g of mascarpone cheese
• 250ml of 36% cream
• 100-140g of powdered sugar* 
• 1/2-1 teaspoon of orange extract
• 100g of orange skin
• 40g of powdered gelatin
• 140 ml of boiling water

Decoration:

• Orange slices
• Icing sugar
• Star anise

*About the powdered sugar: here are two nice propositions. First one, is to add a lot of powdered sugar to the cheesecake - around this 140g. If so, the cheesecake mousse is really sweet. But, it is also a good idea, to add only around 90-100g of powdered sugar and after the cake is done, to distribute Royal Icing(recipe is here) on the top of the cake.

Preparation:

Bottom:

1. Take a springform cake tin. 
2. Put baking paper on the bottom of the tin.
3. Take the cookies and crumble them on a very small, sand-like pieces.
4. Mix precisely with butter. It needs to have a consistency of a wet sand.
5. Put in a tin, align, make smooth, knead.
6. Put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

Cheesecake:

1. In a glass, mix gelatin with hot water and stir till gelatin melts completely. Put aside so that it cools down.
2. Take a mixer and its bowl. Put cheesecake cheese inside, add mascarpone, cream and mix till completely smooth.
3. Add powdered sugar and orange extract and mix till smooth again (it is advisable to taste the cheesecake to check if it is sweet enough).
4. Take a spoon. Take around 3 tablespoons of the cheesecake mixture and mix with gelatin. Stir precisely, it needs to link.
5. Put the gelatin-cheesecake mixture back in a mixer's bowl. Mix precisely.
6. Add orange skin and mix again.
7. Pour on the bottom. Put in the fridge till it stiffens.
8. If desired - add icing and decorate for example with oranges, anise.
9. Keep in the fridge.
10. Bon Appetit! :)

Christmas Trees

Ahhh, my favourite muffin dough in one of its creations... :) I bake them only once a year, for Christmas cause of that smell and taste... mmmm! :) entire house smells of cinammon while baking them :) that increases the Christmas atmosphere ;) So - this time - Christmas trees :) They're perfect once baked, wonderful while still hot/warm and still perfect after a day or two ;) Soft, quite wet, mouth-watering :) match a lot of additional ingredients :) Must try ;)

Recipe for the dough comes from this website.

Recipe for the butter-cream comes from this website.

Ingredients (all of them have to be in a room teperature):

• 3 glasses of flour
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder
• 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
• a pinch of salt
• 230g of butter or margarine
• 1,5 glass of white sugar
• 4 big eggs
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/4 glass of milk (3,2%)

Buttercream:

• 4 egg whites
• 1 glass of white sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 300g of butter, in a room temperature, chopped into small cubes
• vanilla extract
• green food colouring (in a gel or powder, not in a liquid)

Additionals:

• Sprinkles

Preparing muffins:

1. Prepare muffin tins, or any other desired tin (but if it is a metal tin, where you can't put paper muffin cases, it needs to be greased)
2. Take a bowl, put flour, baking powder, cinammon and salt inside.
3. Take a mixer and its bowl, put butter and sugar inside, start mixing to get a fluffy, bright mixture.
4. Add eggs, one after another, mixing after every single egg.
5. Add vanilla extract and mix again.
6. By turns: add some 'dry' ingredients (flour with baking powder, salt and cinnamon), mix, add some milk, mix and again, dry ingredients, milk... till all of them are mixed in a bowl.
7. Put in previously prepared tins (not full, 1/2-3/4 of its height).
8. Put in the oven and bake in 180C for around 20 minutes (check, by using a toothpick).
9. Cool down (at least before putting the cream ;) )

Preparing buttercream:

1. Take egg whites, mix with sugar. Prepare a 'bath' for them.* Keep stiring and heating the mixture over boiling water till the sugar completely melts.
2. Cool down the mixture if it got hot. 
3. Put in the mixer's bowl and beat, around 10 minutes to get white, shiny, stiff a meringue.
4. Start adding the butter, one piece after another, mixing after adding every piece. While adding it may look like it is curdled, but don't panic, it's perfectly fine :) (although I did panic, so you are justified if you did panic as well ;)
5. When the mixture is stiff and all the butter is mixed, add vanilla extract and food colouring, mix.

Preparing Christmas Trees:

1. Take a pastry bag with a star-like tin nozzle, put the buttercream inside and start distributing on the muffin.
2. Start from the middle of the muffin and making circles go it its edge.
3. Decorate with additionals.
4. Bon Appetit! ;)

*A bath is simply boiling the ingredients, but not boiling them in a water, but keeping them in a bowl over a steam.