Home-made bread with thick, crunchy skin

A very tasty bread and a very good recipe. I guess it is impossible to fail... :) The only disadvantage is time, which is why it is good to prepare the dough in the evening and bake it the next day, in the afternoon/evening.

Recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients:

• 300 g of flour
• 100 g of wholemeal flour
• 1,5 teaspoon of salt
• 20 g of fresh yeast (or 1 teaspoon of instant yeast)
• 300 g of cold water

Optional ingredients:

• wholemeal flour or bran or poppy to sprinkle the top of the bread
• a handful of pumpkin or other seeds to 'upgrade' the bread :) 

Preparation:

1. Put the flour in a big bowl. Add salt, crumbled yeast and stir using a spoon. Add water and stir again(quickly, shortly, so that all the ingredients link).
2. Cover the bowl with foil and put aside for 12-14 hours in a room temperature (it grows).
3. Sprinkle the kitchen surface with flour, put the dough on it. Fold it 3-4 times, using your hands.
4. Take a clean cloth, sprinkle it with flour, put the dough on it. Cover the dough using the same cloth and put aside in a warm place for another 1-2 hours (it grows again).
5. After 1,5 from these 2 hours in point 4, put the oven's lattice on the lower part of the oven (1/3), take a clean casserole (with its lid) and put it in the oven. Start preheating the oven to 240-250C.
6. When these 2 hours end, take out the casserole from the oven (be careful it will be very very hot!) and put the dough inside it (sprinkle your hands with flour, it is easier to move the dough then).
7. Cover the casserole with its lid and bake for 30 minutes. 
8. After 30 minutes, take of the lid and bake for another 15-30 minutes. Advisably, after 5-10 minutes, cover the top of the bread with foil.
9. Take out from the oven, cool down.
10. Bon Appetit! :)

Home-made Cherry Liqueur

The best home-made liqueur. Why? Because here you decide, whether it is more sweet or more 'spicy' ;) A private recipe :)


Ingredients:

• 2 kg of ripe cherries
• 1,5 kg of sugar
• 1 litre of vodka
• 1/2 litre of rectified spirit

Preparation:

1. Wash the cherries. Put them to a big (around 7 litre big) jar, add all the sugar, stir or shake. Close the jar, put aside. 
2. For the next couple of days, once a day, shake the jar, to help the sugar melt.
3. After a week, add vodka and rectified spirit. Stir till all the sugar totally melts. Close the jar.
4. Put aside for a week.
5. Bon Appetit! 

You can keep trying it whether you want more sugar or vodka and you can add it as you wish.

Icing sugar

Ahh, that's a very useful tool, to make your cakes or cupcakes  not only taste good but also look wonderful :)It is a very easy way to decorate cakes, cupcakes, cookies, etc. in every pattern imagined.

Ingredients:

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

Optional ingredients:

• flavoured extract - vanilla, almond, lemon, etc.
• food colouring

Preparation:

1. Put all the ingredients together and stir to get a desired consistency of the icing (needs to be thick). 
2. Put into a piping bag and distribute over cake, cupcake, etc. in any pattern desired.
3. Bon appetit ;)

Home-made bread

Very tasty bread, quick in preparation, because instead of other recipes it doesn't require leaving the dough for 12-24 hours. And you can add other seeds if you want to. I do recommend it. 

I have got the recipe from my workmate ;)

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of flour
• 100 g of baker's yeast
• 3 teaspoons of sugar + a little bit of milk
• 2 tablespoons of salt
• 1 litre of warm water
• 1 glass of sunflower's seeds
• 1 glass of flax seeds
• 1 glass of pumpkin's seeds

Preparation:

1. Put everything in a pot. Stir, so that all the ingredients mix and you get the dough. 
2. Leave for a while. ( it rises)
3. Stir again.
4. Put in a bread baking form. Leave for 15 minutes.
5. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes in 180C-200C
6. Bon appetit :)

* It is highly probable that you will have a lot of dough from that recipe for more than 1 bread baking form. Bake everything at once if possible (everything needs to be placed at the same level in the oven - in the middle - remember, we always bake in the middle level of the oven, not to burn the top or the bottom)

* To keep the bread fresh, you can freeze some of it. Defrost during the night before using.

Home-made chocolates

A definite gourmet sensation. Easy to prepare, can remain in the fridge for a quite long time.

Can be prepared out of every kind of chocolate, but definitely those made of milk chocolate are the best.

The filling may vary as well. 

I used a lot of silicone forms to prepare them, even ice silicone forms. Surprisingly they seem to be the best - cause they are big enough and vary in shapes :)

The original recipe comes from this website, but I have changed the filling from raspberries to strawberries.

Ingredients: (for 25-30 chocolates - it depends on forms)

• 150-200 g of raspberries/strawberries
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 200 g of white chocolate
• 50 ml of 36% cream
• 200 g of milk chocolate (good quality preferred)
• 
  

Optional ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of vodka

Preparation:

1. Take a pot and put inside strawberries/raspberries with sugar. Boil for 2 minutes, then rub it through the sieve, throw away the kernels.
2. Now it is the right moment for optional ingredients. Add vodka and boil till the excess of water evaporates.
3. Break white chocolate to smaller parts and add it to raspberry/strawberry puree. Then add also cream. Stir everything till the chocolate melts and everything is smooth. Cool the puree. It should get thicker after cooling.
4. Prepare your silicone form (here, it needs to be silicone form, because other way, you wouldn't be able to take your chocolates out of the form).
5. Melt your chocolate - put it in a pot with double bottom and put it on the lowest heat. This is very important - because your chocolate instead of melting may burn and there may be some lumps*. A good idea is to heat the pot and turn off the heat. The chocolate will melt (because of the warmed up pot) and no lumps should appear.
6. Take a pastry brush, put it in the melted chocolate and apply it to every hole in your silicone form. Do it precisely - spread the chocolate over the entire hole - both bottom and sides. Wait till it dries and put another tier of chocolate.** Wait till it dries.(you can put them in the fridge for 15-30 minutes)
7. Put something around one teaspoon of the fruit puree into every hole. Do not fill the entire hole till the edge - leave some free space for the last closing tier of chocolate.
8. Using a pastry brush/a teaspoon put the last tier of chocolate on every small chocolate. Once you put both the puree and the last tier of chocolate - put your chocolates in the fridge for at least an hour.
9. Carefully take them out of the silicone form (bundle out of the form). These chocolates may remain really for a long time in a room temperature. But keep them in the fridge if there is no need (no guests ;) ) for keeping them on the table.
10. Bon appetit ! :)

* If there are lumps but the chocolate is not burnt - add one tablespoon of milk (or more if you see after stiring that one is not enough), warm it up and stir.
** the bottom and sides of your chocolates need to have double tier of chocolate not to break while taking them out of the silicone form. This is why it needs to be done precisely and twice.