Coffee break – Love… to cooking !

Delicious Carrot Walnut Muffins Recipe

“You would not enjoy Nietzsche, sir. He is fundamentally unsound.”P.G. Wodehouse, Carry On, Jeeves

Ingredients (for 12 delicious muffins):
– 1 and 1/4 cup flour (1 cup=200ml);
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar;
– dash of salt;
– 1 egg;
– 2/3 cup cane sugar;
– 8 g vanilla sugar;
– 1/4 cup sunflower oil;
– 1/2 cup milk;
– 1/3 cup chopped walnuts;
– 1 cup grated carrot.

Topping ingredients:
– 1/2 tbsp butter;
-2-3 tbsp cane sugar;
– 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C.
2 Butter muffin form.
3 Bowl 1: mix flour+salt+baking soda+vinegar.
4 Bowl 2: whisk egg with sugar and vanilla sugar, then add oil and milk and whisk until smooth.
5 Combine dry ingredients from Bowl 1 with ingredients from Bowl 2 and mix well until smooth.
6 Add chopped walnuts and grated carrot: mix well.
7 Pour the batter into 12 muffin forms.
8 Bowl 3: mix melted butter with sugar and cinnamon and spread this mixture on the top of each muffin-to-be.
9 Bake the muffins for 25 minutes at 180 C. Let them cool down and enjoy with a cup of milk, kefir or black tea!

Delicious Chocolate Banana Layer Cake

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

Batter ingredients:
– 4 eggs;
– 110 g sugar;
– 8g vanilla sugar;
– 120 g flour;
– 1tsp baking soda + 0.5 tsp vinegar;
– 1.5 tbsp cocoa powder.

Filling ingredients:
– 120 g sugar;
– 400 g sour cream 30%;
– 3 bananas.

Method
1 Preheat the oven to 180 C.
2 Whisk sugar with eggs for 10-15 min.
3 Add baking soda + vinegar and carefully mix in.
4 Add flour and cocoa powder and carefully mix in.
5 Transfer the batter to the round baking form (28cm diameter), on the baking paper and bake for 20-25 min (check if a cake is ready with a toothpick) at 180C.
6 Prepare cream: whisk sour cream with sugar.
7 Slice the bananas.
8 Cool down the cake and separate with a knife into 2 layers.
9 Add half of a cream on the first cake layer and all banana slices, cover with the second layer, spread the remaining cream.
10 Put the cake in the fridge for 2 hours.
11 Serve with fresh blueberries and enjoy!

Bake with Kids: Fun Dog Cookies Recipe

A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one?
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Ingredients

100g grated butter
150g sour cream
150g sugar
2 eggs
560g all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
optional ingredients: poppy seeds, sugar powder, raisins

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Whisk eggs with sugar, add grated butter, sour cream and baking soda: mix until smooth.
Gradually add flour and knead the dough.
Roll out dough to 0.6-0.8cm height and cut the cookies with your favorite cookies cutter. My preschooler adores dogs.
Optionally dip the cookie-to-be in poppy seeds or sugar powder
Transfer the cut cookies-to-be on the baking paper and bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes until slightly golden.
Enjoy soft and crumbly cookies. My preschooler loved them.

Eggs and Sprats Sandwich !

It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.
V.N.

Ingredients:
– 110g canned sprats
– 3 eggs
– 2tsp mayonnaise
– black pepper powder
– chopped parsley
– fresh bread rolls

Method:
1 Boil eggs
2 Combine cut boiled eggs, sprats, mayonnaise, black pepper powder and chopped parsley: mash with a fork
3 Transfer the sprats-salad on the fresh bread rolls and enjoy immediately ! Black coffee goes along perfectly 🙂

Simple Cinnamon-Snail-Cookies !

If You Hurry You’ll Miss the Miracles
Lewis Carroll

Dough ingredients:
– 100g flour
– 100g cottage cheese
– 100g butter
– 1 egg yolk
– dash of salt

Filling ingredients:
– 2-3 tbsp brown sugar
– 1.5 tsp cinnamon

Method:
1 Filling: mix sugar and cinnamon 😉
2 Dough and cookies
2.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2.2 Grate butter into the flour
2.3 Add cottage cheese, salt, egg yolk: mix until smooth and knead the dough
2.4 Roll our the dough until 4-5mm height
2.5 Distribute the filling evenly on the dough
2.6 Roll the dough into a pipe
2.7 Cut the pipe into cookies-to-be, about 7mm width
2.8 Transfer the cookies-to-be on the baking paper and bake 20-25 minutes until golden at 200C !
2.9 Serve with black coffee. Enjoy. Life is wonderful. 😀

Plum Galette by Jacques Pepin recipe

It grew cooler and even a little darker (but not much) with the coming of the night. The sky was cloudless; it was still early in July, and pretty far north; in the darkest part of that night, you would have needed pretty good eyes to read, but for all that, I have often seen it darker in a winter mid-day.
R.L.S.

Dough ingredients:
– 1 and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
-170g butter
-1/4 tsp salt
– 1/3 cup cold water
Filling ingredients (I changed a little original recipe):
-1/4+1/3 cup sugar
-3 tbsp grated almonds
-3 tbsp all-purpose flour
– 500g prune plums+200g peaches (weight with stones)
-3 tbsp butter

Directions:
1 Dough
1.1 Grate butter in flour, add salt and mix well
1.2 Add cold water, mix well and knead the dough
1.3 Roll out the dough into an oval 0.5cm width and transfer it in the baking paper to rest, make a filling meanwhile
2 Filling
2.1 Cut in stripes plums and peaches
2.2 Mix in a bowl 1/4 cup sugar + grated almonds + flour
3 Galette
3.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
3.2 Spread the sugar-almonds-flour mixture in the dough within 4 cm from the edge
3.3 Put the plums/peaches stripes on the sugar-almonds-flour mixture, top with remaining 1/3 cup sugar and chopped 3 tbsp butter
3.4 Bake galette for 50-60 minutes at 200C
3.5 Let the galette cool down and enjoy !

Rhubarb Muffins with Walnuts and Cinnamon!

There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.
R.L.S.

Ingredients (for 12 delicious muffins):
– 1 and 1/4 cup flour (1 cup=200ml)
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar
– dash of salt
– 1 egg
– 2/3 cup cane sugar
– 8g vanilla sugar
– 1/4 cup sunflower oil
– 1/2 cup milk
– 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
– 1 cup diced rhubarb

Topping ingredients:
– 1/2 tbsp butter
-2-3 tbsp cane sugar
– 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Method:
1 Preheat oven to 180C
2 Butter muffin form
3 Bowl 1: mix flour+salt+baking soda+vinegar
4 Bowl 2: whisk egg with sugar and vanilla sugar, then add oil and milk and whisk until smooth
5 Combine dry ingredients from Bowl 1 with ingredients from Bowl 2 and mix well until smooth
6 Add chopped walnuts and diced rhubarb: mix well
7 Pour the batter into 12 muffin forms
8 Bowl 3: mix melted butter with sugar and cinnamon and put this mixture on top of each muffin to be
9 Bake muffins for 25 minutes at 180 C, let them cool down and enjoy with a cup of coffee !

Les éclairs !

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
Viktor E. Frankl

My mom once made very tasty éclairs when I was a child. For some time I am searching for a recipe to reproduce that taste, but in vain… Yet hope is not lost 🙂

Dough ingredients:
– 80g all-purpose flour
– 2 eggs
– 70g butter
– 140g water
– 10g sugar
– pinch of salt

Filling ingredients:
– 240g milk
– 2 eggs
– 70g sugar
– 20g corn starch
– 20g butter

Directions:
1 Filling
1.1 Combine milk, eggs, sugar, corn starch: mix well until smooth
1.2 Pour the mixture in a non-sticking pan, medium heat: cook until thickened constantly stirring
1.3 Add butter and mix until butter is melted, set the filling aside and let it cool down
1.4 Move the filling in the fridge while making dough
2 Dough
2.1 Combine butter, sugar, water and salt in a pan, put on medium heat: keep until butter is melted constantly stirring
2.2 Add flour: continue mixing until smooth, then remove from the heat
2.3 Add whisked eggs, mix well
3 Eclairs
3.1 Preheat the oven to 180C
3.2 Form 1.5cm width x 5cm length stripes out of the dough (I used decorating tube for that) and make stripes with a fork on the surface
3.3 Bake 40 minutes at 180C and let them cool down
3.4 Fill the eclairs making a small hole on the side and using a decorating tube
3.5 Enjoy with a cup of coffee !

Cherry Scones !

There is the great lesson of ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ that a thing must be loved before it is lovable.
Chesterton, G. K.

Ingredients:
– 250g flour
– 50g butter
– 1 egg
– 100ml milk
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 25g cane sugar
– 1 dash of salt
– 1/2tsp baking soda & 1/2 tsp vinegar
– 30g dry cherries

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 220C
2 Combine flour, sugar, salt and grated butter: mix until smooth
3 Add an egg, milk, then add baking soda and vinegar in the same tsp: mix until smooth
4 Mix in dry cherries
5 Roll out the dough to 1cm height
6 Cut the scones-to-be in triangles and transfer to the baking paper
7 Bake for 15 minutes at 220C or until golden
8 Enjoy with a cup of black tea !

Lemon Cookies with Walnuts !

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.
James Boswell

Dough ingredients (for 18 cookies):
– 200g all-purpose flour
– 125g butter
– 90g sour cream
– 1 egg yolk
– lemon zest from half a lemon
– 5g vanilla sugar
– pinch of salt

Filling ingredients:
– 100g grated walnuts
– 1 egg white
– 75g cane sugar

Serving ingredients:
– some sugar powder for serving

Method:
1 Dough: combine all dough ingredients, mix until smooth and knead a dough
2 Filling: whisk egg white with sugar for 3-4 minutes, mix in grated walnuts
3 Cookies
3.1 Preheat the oven to 180C
3.2 Roll out the dough to 3mm width
3.3 Cut 10cm diameter rounds with a cookie cutter
3.4 Put 3/4 tsp filling in each round
3.5 Enclose each round with fingers into the half-moon
3.6 Put the half-moons on the baking paper and bake for 20-25 minutes at 180C
3.7 Serve the cookies sprinkles with sugar powder and with a cup of strong black tea ! Enjoy !

Prunes and Walnuts cake: taste from childhood !

Well, now that we have seen each other,” said the unicorn, “if you’ll believe in me, I’ll believe in you.”
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There

Sponge cake ingredients:
– 3 eggs
– 80g sugar
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 1 cup flour
– 1tsp baking soda + 1tsp vinegar

Filling ingredients:
– 100g unsalted butter
– 100g sugar
– 200g sour cream

– 1 cup chopped prunes
– 3/4 chopped walnuts

Directions:
1 Sponge cake
1.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
1.2 Combine eggs with sugar and vanilla sugar: whisk well for 3-4 minutes
1.3 Add flour and mix well until smooth, then add baking soda with vinegar in the same teaspoon and mix in
1.4 Pour the batter in the buttered baking form and bake for 20-30 minutes at 190C (test with a wooden stick for readiness) and let it cool down
2 Filling (while cake is being baked)
2.1 Whisk melted butter with sour cream and sugar: put the cream in the fridge for 30 minutes
2.2 Chop walnuts and prunes
3 Final steps
3.1 Spread the filling on the top of sponge cake
3.2 Decorate with chopped walnuts and prunes
3.3 Put the cake in the fridge overnight (or at least 2-3 hours) to let the filling saturate the sponge cake
3.4 Enjoy the cake in the sunny morning with a cup of strong black tea !

Fluffy Apple Pie !

Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.
Rainer Maria Rilke

Ingredients:
– 300g all purpose flour
– 80g cane sugar
– 1 egg
– 50g butter
– 0.5 cup milk
– 21g fresh yeast
– pinch of salt
– 1 kg apples (weight unpeeled) = ~6 medium apples

Directions:
1 Warm milk to ~35C (95F) and add crushed fresh yeast, salt and 1tbsp sugar: whisk until smooth and set aside for 15 minutes
2 Add egg, butter and remaining sugar: whisk well until smooth
3 Add flour: whisk well until smooth and set aside under cloth for 2 hours to let the batter rise
4 Preheat the oven to 190C
5 Pour the batter into the battered baking form (I used 25x25cm)
6 Cut each apple into ~12 lobules and cover the batter with apple lobules
7 Bake the pie for 45-50 minutes at 190C (374F), let the pie cool down before serving!

My first Chepalgash – flatbread with cottage cheese and scallion !

A big jug of coffee had just been set in the hearth, the seed-cakes were gone, and the dwarves were starting on a round of buttered scones, when there came a loud knock
J.R.R. Tolkien

Dough ingredients (for 4 flatbreads 25cm diameter):
– 300 g flour
– 250 ml Kefir
– 1/2 tsp baking soda
– 3/4 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 50 g scallion
– 250 g cottage cheese

Method:
1 Dough:
1.1 Combine kefir with baking soda and salt: mix and leave for 15 minutes
1.2 Add flour to kefir and knead a gentle dough: leave under the cloth for 15 minutes
2 Filling: combine cottage cheese with chopped scallion and mix well
3 Chepalgash:
3.1 Separate dough into 4 equal parts and form a 10cm diameter disk with hands out of each piece
3.2 Put 1/4 filling in the middle of each disk
3.3 Gather the sides up sealing the edges with the fingers in the center altogether
3.4 Turn over the disk with filling and gently roll into a ~25 cm diameter disk
3.5 Preheat butter in the skillet
3.6 Fry each flatbread for 3-4 minutes each side until golden
4 Serve with a cup of sweet black tea with lemon !

Red Currant and Chocolate Muffins !

Beautiful days do not come to you. You must walk towards them.
Rumi

Ingredients (for 12 muffins):
– 150g flour
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 52g sugar
– 50g butter
– 1 egg
– 40g chocolate buttons
– 1tsp baking soda + 1tsp vinegar
– 250g fresh red currant berries

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Whisk an egg & sugar & vanilla sugar in Bowl1
3 Grate butter to the flour in Bowl2
4 Join Bowl1 & Bowl2 content, add baking soda&vinegar in the same teaspoon: mix well until smooth
5 Add half of berries to the batter & mix well letting berries to give juice to the batter!
6 Add the rest berries & add chocolate buttons: mix well
7 Transfer the batter in the 12 buttered muffin tin cups: bake at 180C for 25-30 minutes
8 Enjoy with a cup of black coffee !

Summer Strawberry Biscuit Roll !

Donwell was famous for its strawberry-beds, which seemed a plea for the invitation: but no plea was necessary; cabbage-beds would have been enough to tempt the lady, who only wanted to be going somewhere. She promised him again and again to come – much oftener than he doubted – and was extremely gratified by such a proof of intimacy, such a distinguishing compliment as she chose to consider it.
“Emma” by Jane Austen

Dough ingredients:
– 60g flour
– 60g sugar
– 4 eggs
– 3 egg yolks

Filling ingredients:
– 250g 33% whipping cream
– 250g fresh strawberries
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 1 tsp sugar

Method:
1 Dough
1.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
1.2 Mix sugar with eggs and egg yolks and whisk them for 5 minutes
1.3 Add flour and whisk for another minute until smooth
1.4 Pour the dough on the baking paper in the 30x35cm baking form
1.5 Bake for 12-14 minutes until golden: remove from the oven
1.6 Carefully remove the baking paper (place on “new” baking paper sheet and remove the “old” one from top): roll the cake with the new baking paper sheet and let it cool down for 10 minutes
2 Filling
2.1 Wash and dry fresh strawberries
2.2 Mash 70g strawberries with sugar and vanilla sugar
2.3 Chop the rest 180g strawberries into 0.5cm pieces
2.4 Whip the cream until firm and carefully mix with mashed and chopped strawberries – beautiful filling ready!
3 Cake
3.1 Unroll the cake and put the strawberry filling on 3/4 of the cake
3.2 Roll the cake with the filling
3.3 Put the strawberry roll for 2 hours in the fridge
3.4 Enjoy 😉

Homemade Flatbread with Potatoes and Feta !

It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.
Gabriel García Márquez

Dough ingredients:
– 300g all-purpose flour
– 1 tbsp sugar
– 20g fresh yeast
– 150ml warm water
– 1 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 400g new potatoes (weight unpeeled)
– 150g Feta cheese
– 1/2 tsp black pepper

Serving/baking ingredients:
– 1 tbsp olive oil for brushing the flatbreads before baking
– chopped tomatoes for serving

Method:
1 Dough
1.1 Crush yeast into warm (30-35C) water, add 1 tbsp sugar: mix well until sugar an yeast are dissolved and leave the mixture for 15 minutes
1.2 Add flour and salt: knead the dough and leave it under cloth for 30 minutes (make the filling meanwhile)
2 Filling
2.1 Peel potatoes and boil until ready: drain extra water
2.2 Combine potatoes with feta and black pepper: mash until smooth
3 Flatbread
3.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
3.2 Separate the dough into 4 equal parts: roll out each part into 16-20cm round
3.3 Put 1-2tbsp filling in the middle of each round
3.4 Lift up ends of each round to the centre and seal them tight with the fingers. Then gently flatten into 15cm round.
3.5 Brush each flatbread both sides with olive oil and put on the baking paper
3.6 Bake for 15-20 minutes at 200C until golden and serve warm!
4 Enjoy with a cup of coffee and a good company 😉

Simple Butter Cookies with Chopped Almond !

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
Lewis Carroll

Ingredients:
– 110g all-purpose flour
– 50g butter
– 40-50g sugar
– 50g chopped almond
– 1 small egg

Method:
1 Pre-heat the oven to 190C
2 Chop almond to 0.2-0.5cm pieces (I used pre-chopped 1cm x 0.3cm almond stripes from the shop) – this is important to chop almonds not too finely to make crusty cookies 🙂
3 Mix flour, sugar and grated butter until smooth
4 Add an egg and chopped almonds: mix well
5 Form cookies out of the dough and put on the baking paper: bake 15 min at 190C
6 Serve with a cup of black coffee and have a wonderful Sunday !

Crumble Apple Cake with Walnuts !

The cup of tea on arrival at a country house is a thing which, as a rule, I particularly enjoy. I like the crackling logs, the shaded lights, the scent of buttered toast, the general atmosphere of leisured cosiness.
P.G. Wodehouse

Dough ingredients:
– 400g flour
– 250g butter
– 2tbsp sugar
– 2 packets (each 8g) Vanilla sugar
– 1 egg
– 1/2tsp baking soda + 1/2tsp vinegar

Filling ingredients:
– 5 medium apples
– 100g chopped walnuts
– 3tbsp sugar

Method:
1 Dough
1.1 Combine flour, sugar, vanilla sugar and add chopped butter: mix to crumbles
1.2 Add baking soda + vinegar in the same teaspoon and mix in to flour&sugar&butter
1.3 Add an egg and knead the dough
2 Filling
2.1 Wash, peel and grate apples
2.2 Wash, dry and chop walnuts
2.3 Combine grates apples, chopped walnuts and sugar: carefully mix
3 Cake
3.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
3.2 Separate the dough into 2 equal parts
3.3 Put the first of dough into 28cm diameter buttered baking form and flatten
3.4 Distribute the filling over the dough equally
3.5 Grate the remaining part of dough over the filling 🙂
3.6 Bake 35-40 minutes at 190C
3.7 Let the cake cool down and sprinkle with sugar powder
3.8 Enjoy the cake one Sunday morning with your favourite detective movie and a cup of strong black coffee !

Quick Almond Cookies !

I wish the world were ending tomorrow. Then I could take the next train, arrive at your doorstep in Vienna, and say: “Come with me, Milena. We are going to love each other without scruples or fear or restraint. Because the world is ending tomorrow.”
Franz Kafka

Ingredients (for 20-25 cookies):
– 50g grated almond
– 50g butter
– 75g wheat flour
– 30g cane sugar
– 1 tbsp sour cream
– 1 pinch cinnamon
– 1 pinch salt
– some almond petals for beautifying

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 190C
2 Mix grated butter with sugar until smooth
3 Add grated almond, flour, cinnamon, salt & sour cream: mix until smooth
4 Fatten 1 tsp dough within the cookie cutter on the baking paper for each cookie. Decorate each cookie with almond petals 🙂
5 Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes at 190C until golden
6 Serve the cookies with a cup of black coffee

Pears-Mascarpone Dessert !

No one’s serious at seventeen
When lindens line the promenade.
A. Rimbaud

Cocoa cake ingredients:
– 1 tbsp cocoa powder
– 75g sugar
– 5g Vanilla sugar
– 80g wheat flour
– 3 eggs
– 1/2 tsp baking soda & 1/2 tsp vinegar

Cream ingredients:
– 250g Mascarpone
– 2 tbsp 33% cream
– 2 tbsp sugar

Fruits ingredients:
– 2 Conference pears

Method:
1 Cake
1.1 Preheat oven to 180C
1.2 Whisk sugar with eggs for 3-5 minutes
1.3 Slowly add flour to whisked sugar+eggs
1.4 Add baking soda & vinegar in the same teaspoon, cocoa powder: mix well
1.5 Pour the batter on the baking paper in the baking form ~25x35cm
1.6 Bake for 20-25 minutes at 180C
1.7 Let the cake cool down and cut into 1.5cm cubes
2 Mascarpone cream: mix in a bowl Mascarpone with 33% cream and sugar
3 Dessert
3.1 Cut pears into 1cm cubes
3.2 Put in the glass level by level:
3.2.1 cocoa cake cubes
3.2.2 Mascarpone cream
3.2.3 pears cubes
and repeat the levels again 🙂
3.3 Put the dessert into the fridge overnight and … enjoy with morning coffee !
Happy New 2021 Year !

Share this:

Share this:

Ingredients

Method

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: