Category: Coffee break

Morning Cottage Cheese and Almond Cookies !

Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.

Hans Christian Andersen
Cottage Cheese and Almond Cookies

Dough ingredients (for 9-10 triangles):
– 100g flour
– 100g cottage cheese
– 100g butter
– 1 egg yolk

Filling ingredients:
– 3 tbsp brown sugar
– 3 tbsp grated almond

Method:
1 Filling: mix sugar and almond
2 Dough and cookies
2.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2.2 Grate butter into the flour
2.3 Add cottage cheese, egg yolk: mix until smooth and knead the dough
2.4 Roll our the dough until 4-5mm height
2.5 Distribute 2/3 the filling evenly on the dough
2.6 Cut the dough into 5×5 cm squares, fold them into triangles
2.7 Transfer the triangles on the baking paper and distribute on them the remaining filling
2.8 Bake the cookies 20-25 minutes until golden !
2.9 Serve with black tea in the morning and do something kind.

Simple Cinnamon-Snail-Cookies !

If You Hurry You’ll Miss the Miracles

Lewis Carroll
Snail Cookies

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. 😀

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 !

Le vrais Käsekuchen !

Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.

Albert Schweizer

Dough ingredients:
– 200g all purpose flour
– 75g buter
– 75g cane sugar
– 1 egg

Filling ingredients:
– 500g quark
– 125g butter
– 225g cane sugar
– 200g 33% whipping cream
– 200g sour cream
– 3 eggs

Method:
1 Dough: mix all dough ingredients (it is easy to grate butter dropping it in flour) and knead the dough, set it alone
2 Filling
2.1 Whisk eggs with sugar & butter (it is easy to first grate butter dropping it in sugar)
2.2 Add quark and sour cream: mix until smooth
2.3 Add whisked separately whipping cream and carefully mix
3 Cake
3.1 Preheat the oven to 180C
3.2 Distribute the dough evenly on the buttered baking form
3.3 Add filling
3.4 Bake for 60 minutes at 180C
4 Serve it cold with black coffee and let wonderful thing hurry into your life! We all need it and let it be so.

Simple and Healthy Oatmeal-Banana Cookies !

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
Healthy Oatmeal-Banana Cookies

Ingredients:
– 150g ripe banana
– 100g oat flakes
– 50g all-purpose flour
– 30g butter
– [optional] 1 tbsp sugar
– [optional] 30g almond flour – almond adds a special flavour to the cookies!

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Grate butter and bananas (it’s easy to grate butter when roll it in flour)
3 Combine oat flakes, flour, sugar, almond flour with grated butter and bananas: mix all until smooth
4 Form rounds from dough (1 cookie from 1 tbsp dough) and out them on the baking paper
5 Bake the cookies at 180C for 16 minutes and serve with black tea with milk 🙂

Warm Tuna Toast with Carrot !

For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away,
And the shadows eaten the moon.

W. B. Yeats 
Warm Tuna Toast with Carrot

This is a quick and healthy snack – just what one needs for a working break along with a cup of strong black coffee and inspiring thoughts! But what I am talking about – Love is all we need! 🙂

Ingredients (4 toasts):
– 4 slices of wholegrain bread
– 2 boiled carrots
– 140g canned tuna
– 3 eggs
– 2-3 tsp mayonnaise
– chopped dill
– 2 tsp butter

Directions:
1 Boil carrots and eggs until ready
2 Tuna salad: combine grated boiled carrot & eggs, canned tuna, mayonnaise, chopped dill: mix well
3 Put the tun salad on the bread slices
4 Melt butter in the frying pan and toast bread slices one-side for 2-3 minutes
5 Serve warm with a cup of black coffee and enjoy your day !

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
éclairs

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 !

Christmas Walnuts Cookies !

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Dough ingredients (for 18 cookies):
– 200g all-purpose flour
– 110g butter
– 75g cane sugar
– 5g vanilla sugar
– 90g sour cream
– 1 egg
– lemon zest of half a lemon
– pinch of salt
– 100g grated walnuts

Method:
1 Preheat oven to 200C
2 Bake walnuts for 10 minutes at 200C to make them easy to chop, set aside
3 Combine flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon zest, salt and grate butter to dry ingredients, mix well
4 Add sour cream, egg and chopped walnuts: knead a dough
5 Form with hands 2cm diameter balls out of dough, dipping them in flour
6 Bake the cookies at 190C for 25-30 minutes
7 Enjoy the cookies with Christmas fruits punch and Merry Christmas !

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.
Cherry scones

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
Lemon cookies with walnuts

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 !

Apple Envelops !

“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
Apple envelopes


Dough ingredients:
– 1 cup (1 cup = 250ml) flour
– 150g cottage cheese
– 75g sugar
– 4 tbsp sunflower oil
– 1 egg
– 1 pinch salt

Filling ingredients:
– 2 medium apples, sliced

Beautifying ingredients:
– 1 egg yolk

Method:
1 Dough
1.1 Combine all dough ingredients and knead the dough
1.2 Let the dough rest for 20 min in the fridge
2 Envelopes preparation
2.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2.2 Peel and deseed 2-3 apples, cut them into 48 slices – yes, adults enjoy the numbers 😉
2.3 Divide the dough into 2 equal parts
2.4 Repeat with each dough piece:
2.4.1 Roll out into ~24cm round and separate with a knife into 4 segments
2.4.2 Make 3 diagonal cuts like on the leaf going diagonally from the side to the center line
2.4.3 Put 6 apple slices on the center line and enclose the apple slices from the left and from the right side with a dough
2.5 Put envelopes on the baling paper and brush them with egg yolk
2.6 Bake the envelopes for 25-30 minutes at 200C
3 Enjoy the envelopes with a cup of strong black tea ! … and the sun will be shining tomorrow too 😉

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
Prunes and Walnuts cake: taste from childhood

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!

Simple and Cosy Morning Muffins with Cocoa !

“. . . gentleness is stronger than severity, water is stronger than rock, love is stronger than force.”

Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

Ingredients (for 6 muffins):
– 1 egg
– 42g sugar
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 60g milk
– 50g sunflower oil
– 100g all purpose flour
– 2 tbsp cocoa powder
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 190C
2 Butter muffin form cups
3 Combine an egg with sugar and vanilla sugar: whisk for 3-4 minutes
4 Add milk, oil, flour: mix well until smooth
5 Add baking soda and vinegar in the same teaspoon: mix well
6 Put 2 tbsp batter in a separate cup and add there 2 tbsp coca powder and 1 tsp milk
7 Pour the main part of batter in 6 muffin forms, decorate tops with cocoa batter
8 Bake for 20 minutes at 190C and serve with a cup of cocoa! Great morning is awaiting you 😉

Healthy Breakfast – Cottage Cheese Zapekanka with Homemade Cherry Compote !

The centuries will roll by, and schoolboys will yawn over the history of our upheavals; everything will pass, but my happiness, dear, my happiness will remain, in the moist reflection of a street lamp, in the cautious bend of stone steps that descend into the canal’s black waters, in the smiles of a dancing couple, in everything with which God so generously surrounds human loneliness.

Vladimir Nabokov, Selected Letters
Cottage Cheese Zapekanka with Homemade Cherry Compote

Zapekanka ingredients (4 servings):
– 500g cottage cheese
– 2 eggs
– 2 tbsp flour
– 2 tbsp semolina
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar in the same teaspoon

Cherry compote ingredients (4 servings):
– 300g frozen cherries without stone
– 1 tbsp cornstarch
– 50-70ml water

Serving ingredients (4 servings):
– 200g sour cream
– fresh mint leaves

Method:
1 Zapekanka
1.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
1.2 Batter: combine cottage cheese, eggs, flour, semolina, sugar, baking soda and vinegar: mix well with a fork until smooth
1.3 Transfer batter to the buttered baking form and bake for 30-40 minutes until golden at 190C
2 Cherry compote
2.1 Transfer in the skillet washed cherries, water and cornstarch: mix well and cook for 5-7 minutes at medium heat
3 Serve Zapekanka with warm cherry compote and cold sour cream ! Enjoy ! 🙂

Homemade Trdlo or Trdelník !

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style
In the air there’s a feeling of Christmas

Bing Crosby

I always tried Trdlo when being in Prague! Today I ventured to cook it myself – Christmas aroma filled up my kitchen and brought back some nice memories, flavour of frozen snowy morning and sparkling garlands. I can’t wait for Christmas eve to come to enjoy Trdlo again with a cup of cocoa.

Ingredients (for ~10 Trdlo):
– 190ml milk
– 430g flour
– 60g grated butter
– 21g fresh yeast
– 1tbsp brown sugar
– 2 egg whites and 1 egg yolk
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 20-40g grated butter for buttering carton rolls
– 60g brown sugar
– 1tbsp grated nuts or walnuts
– 1tbsp cinnamon

Method:
1 Filling
1.1 mix in a cup sugar, cinnamon and grated nuts
1.2 grate butter and keep it in a bowl at room temperature while the dough is being prepared
2 Dough
2.1 Warm up milk to 35C and add crushed fresh yeast and 1tbsp sugar: whisk until smooth and leave in a warm place for 15 min
2.2 Add grated butter, 2 egg whites, 1 egg yolk, salt: whisk well
2.3 Add flour constantly mixing, knead a dough and leave in a warm place under cloth for 30 min
3 Trdlo
3.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
3.2 Knead dough with a stretch and fold technique for 2-3 min and separate into 10 equal pieces
3.3 Form a long 0.8cm diameter rope out of each dough piece 🙂
3.4 Wrap paper towel carton rolls with a baking paper: butter baking paper with fingers
3.5 Wind up a dough rope around a buttered paper towel carton roll
3.6 Butter Trdlo surface with fingers before rolling in nuts-cinnamon-sugar mixture
3.7 Roll well each Trdlo in nuts-cinnamon-sugar mixture
3.8 Bake Trdlos for 15 minutes at 190C: serve hot! Jingle bells-jingle bells…

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
Chepalgash - flatbread with cottage cheese and scallion !

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

Filling ingredients:
– 50g scallion
– 250g 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 !

Sunday Cinnamon Rolls !

‘There you are! It only needed a little more energy,’ said Karlson. ‘Now just put on the coffee, and set a nice little tray and get out a few little buns…’

Astrid Lindgren, Karlson flies again

Dough ingredients (for 8 cinnamon rolls):
– 190ml milk
– 430g (+ 10-20g for rolling) flour
– 60g butter
– 21g fresh yeast
– 40g brown sugar
– 2 egg whites and 1 egg yolk
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 60g butter
– 60g brown sugar
– 1tbsp cinnamon

Beautifying ingredients:
– 10ml milk
– 1 egg yolk

Method:
1 Filling
1.1 mix sugar & cinnamon
1.2 grate butter and keep it in a bowl at room temperature while the dough is being prepared
2 Dough
2.1 Warm up milk to 35C and add crushed fresh yeast and 20g sugar: whisk until smooth and leave in a warm place for 15 min
2.2 Add grated butter, 2 egg whites, 1 egg yolk, remaining 20g sugar, salt: whisk well
2.3 Add flour constantly mixing: mix until smooth and leave in a warm place for 30 min
3 Cinnamon rolls
3.1 Preheat the oven to 180C
3.2 Knead dough with a stretch and fold technique for 4-5 min and roll it out to ~40×40 cm
3.3 Butter the dough with grated butter from the bowl
3.4 Distribute evenly sugar & cinnamon mixture
3.5 Roll the dough up and cut in 5cm width buns
3.6 Put the buns on the baking paper 3-4cm aside from each other
3.7 Brush the buns with milk-yolk mixture
3.8 Bake the buns for 25-30min at 180C until golden!
3.9 They are wonderful for breakfast 😉

Red Currant and Chocolate Muffins !

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

Rumi
Red Currant and Chocolate Muffins

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 !

Simple Morning Scones inspiring a wonderful day !

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
Simple Scones

Ingredients:
– 225g flour
– 50g butter
– 1 egg
– 100ml milk
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 17g cane sugar
– 1 dash of salt
– 1/2tsp baking soda & 1/2 tsp vinegar

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 220C
2 Bowl1: whisk well an egg with milk, sugar, Vanilla sugar: pour in a Bowl2 1tbsp of mixture for brushing the scones
3 Bowl3: grate butter into the flour, add salt
4 In Bowl1 join ingredients from Bowl1 & Bowl3, add baking soda and vinegar in the same teaspoon: mix everything well until smooth
5 Roll out the dough to 1cm height
6 Cut the scones-to-be with your favourite cookie cutter
7 Transfer the scones-to-be on the baking paper and brush with the mixture from Bowl2
8 Bake the scones for 15 minutes at 220C or until golden
9 Enjoy with a cup of black tea or coffee if you, like me, don’t trade your morning coffee for anything. Serve with blackcurrant jam! 🙂

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