Holidays – Love… to cooking !

Homemade Swedish Meatballs !

Then he caught sight of the meatballs. Presto, he turned the button, the engine started buzzing, and Karlsson glided from the bed straight past the plate. He snatched a meatball on his way, rose rapidly up to the ceiling, and circled round the light, contentedly munching the meatball.
Karlsson on the Roof, Astrid Lindgren

Meatballs ingredients:
– 600g minced beef
– 1 small onion, chopped
– 1 clove garlic, chopped
– 100g breadcrumbs
– 1 egg
– 5 tbsp milk
– salt, pepper to taste
– sunflower oil for frying

Method:
1 Combine all meatballs ingredients and form meatballs, put them in the fridge for 2 hours (so that they keep the form when being cooked 😉 ).
2 Preheat the oven to 180 C.
3 Preheat some sunflower oil on the skillet and fry meatballs until golden all sides, medium heat.
4 Transfer the meatballs into the baking form and bake them 30 min at 180 C.
5 Serve the meatballs with mashed potatoes, creamy white sauce, cranberry jam and chopped parsley !

Paccheri con Salmone !

Show not what has been done, but what can be. How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.

Umberto Eco

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 180g salmon
– 150ml 33% cream
– 250g Paccheri
– 3 garlic clothes
– 80g Parmesan
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp black pepper
– 1/2 tbsp olive oil for frying
– chopped parsley/dill for serving

Method:
1 Grate Parmesan into a bowl and put in the fridge
2 Cut salmon into 1.5cm cubes
3 Chop garlic into slices
4 Simultaneously start boiling water for pasta and cooking salmon
5 Boil pasta in the salty water until ready, drain the water
6 Cook salmon for 5 min in olive oil, medium heat; add 33% cream and cook for another 5 min; add garlic slice and cook for another minute
7 Put the pasta in the frying pan with salmon for 1 min, carefully mix and transfer to the serving plates
8 Serve Paccheri with black pepper, grated Parmesan and chopped greens !

Pelmeni: Dumplings with Beef and Pork !

Patsuk opened his mouth, stared at the vareniki, and opened his mouth wider still. At that moment, a varenik jumped out of the bowl, splashed into the cream, flipped over and leapt straight up into his mouth. Patsuk opened his mouth again, and another varenik went through the same performance. The only trouble he took was to munch it up and swallow it.
Nikolai Gogol, Christmas Eve

We used to make Pelmeni on Christmas Eve, all the family was gathered together. One of Pelmeni was “lucky one”, made with a different filling from the others – the person who will get the “lucky” Pelemen’ is supposed to be lucky throughout the year!

Dough ingredients (~70 Pelmeni = 4-6 portions):
– 3 cups (1 cup = 250ml) wheat flour
– 170ml warm water
– 1 tbsp 9% vinegar
– 2 and 1/2 tbsp sunflower oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients (~70 Pelmeni = 4-6 portions):
– 250g minced beef
– 250g minced pork
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp black pepper
– 2-3 tsp grated butter

Serving ingredients (for 2 portions):
– 200g sour cream

Method:
1 Dough:
1.1 combine dough ingredients and knead the dough for 5-7 min
1.2 leave the dough under the cloth while making the filling
2 Filling: combine minced meat, spices, grated butter: mix well until smooth
3 Pelmeni
3.1 separate dough into 6 equal parts and form a 1.5cm diameter sausage from each part
3.2 cut each sausage into 1cm width pieces
3.3 roll out each piece into a ~7cm diameter round
3.4 put 1 tsp filling into each round
3.5 fold the round into a half-moon, pinch all the edges together strongly with fingers; then pull together two corners and pinch strongly with fingers
3.6 boil Pelmeni for 5 min after boiling and serve with sour cream
4 Enjoy !

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 !

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…

Braided Easter Bread

“I don’t see much sense in that,” said Rabbit.
“No,” said Pooh humbly, “there isn’t. But there was going to be when I began it. It’s just that something happened to it along the way.”
A.A. Milne

Dough ingredients:
– 450g all purpose flour
– 200ml 33% cream
– 20g fresh yeast
– 2 eggs and 1 egg white
– 60g sugar
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 1 dash of salt
– 4g lemon zest
– 250g raisins

Beautifying ingredients:
– 1 egg yolk
– 1 tbsp milk
– 20g almond petals

Method:
1 Dough
1.1 Pre-heat the 33% cream to 30-34C in a saucepan
1.2 Add to warm 33% cream: crushed fresh yeast and 2 tbsp sugar. Whisk until smooth and let it stay for 15 minutes covered with the cloth
1.3 Add to cream & yeast: 2 eggs and 1 egg white, sugar and Vanilla sugar, salt, lemon zest: whisk until smooth
1.4 Gradually add flour and raisins: knead a dough. Let dough stay in a warm place covered with a cloth for 30 minutes to let it raise 🙂
2 Braided bread
2.1 Separate raised dough into 5 equal parts, then form a 40cm long sausages out of each piece
2.2 Join all the sausages at top firmly with fingers, then braid them taking the left most and putting in the middle, then right most and putting it in the middle: repeat until you braid all the length through 🙂

2.3 Join the sausages in the end firmly.
2.4 Whisk an egg yolk with 1 tbsp milk and brush well the bread-to-be
2.5 Sprinkle the bread-to-be with almond petals
2.6 Let the bread raise for another 15 minutes (no cover now) and meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 180C
2.7 Bake the bread for 25 minutes on the baking paper at 180C
3 Let the bread cool down and serve with butter. Enjoy and Happy Easter!

Bunny cookies with almond !

The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and whiskers! She’ll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets!
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Ingredients (14-18 bunnies):
– 110g all-purpose flour
– 50g butter
– 40-50g sugar
– 50g chopped almond
– 1 small egg
– several chocolate buttons for baking

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) – do not chop too finely to make super-crusty cookies 😉
3 Mix flour, sugar and grated butter until smooth
4 Add an egg and chopped almonds: mix well
5 Roll out the dough to 0.5cm width, cut the cookies with a bunny cookie cutter, put the cookies on the baking paper. Put chocolate buttons – bunnies eyes
6 Bake the cookies for 15 min at 190C
7 Serve with a cup of black coffee and have a wonderful and sunny weekend !

Christmas Cranberry-Apricot-Raisin Cake !

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies!
Francis P. Church

Dough ingredients:
– 150g wheat flour
– 70g sugar
– 4g Vanila sugar
– 70g butter
– 2 eggs
– dash of salt
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar
– 50ml milk
– 4g orange zest

Fruit ingredients:
– 100g dried cranberries
– 50g dried apricots
– 50 g raisins
– 100ml juice mixture (elder+grapes+orange+apple juices)
– 5g spices mixture (cinnamon+clove+ginger+orange zest)
– 1-2 tbsp wheat flour

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Fruits
2.1 Wash and chop dired fruits
2.2 Soak dried fruits for 10-20 minutes in juice mixture with spices mixture
3 Batter
3.1 Combine sugar+vanilla sugar+salt+butter: mix well until smooth
3.2 Add 2 eggs and whisk
3.3 Add milk and flour: mix well until smooth
3.4 Add orange zest and baking soda with vinegar in the same teaspoon: mix well
4 Cake
4.1 Drain extra liquid from the fruits in the separate bowl (we will need this liquid yet!)
4.2 Mix dried fruits with 1 tbsp of flour
4.3 Add dried fruits to the batter and mix well
4.4 Pour batter into the buttered baking form
4.5 Bake at 180C for 40-50 minutes
4.6 Remove the cake from the oven: cover it with a juice mixture with a brush
4.7 Sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar
5 Serve ! 🎄🎄🎄Merry Christmas !🎄🎄🎄

Baked Pears with Feta, Walnuts and Honey !

At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled shows
William Shakespeare

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 conference pears
– 50g Feta or Gorgonzola cheese
– 6 walnuts
– a few dill sprigs
– 2 tsp acacia honey

Method:
1 Pre-heat the oven to 180C
2 Wash the pears, half them and de-seed
3 Cut Feta cheese in cubes
4 Put Feta cubes in the de-seeded pears and bake for 5-7 minutes at 180C
5 Serve warm pears with walnuts, dill sprigs and acacia honey.
6 Enjoy and have a great Sunday!

Notes: be careful, this recipe has an aroma of a holiday season 😉

Biscotti: Italian almond biscuits for Sunday morning !

If you pressed me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.
Michel de Montaigne

Ingredients (for 12 Biscotti):
– 130g wheat flour
– 78g sugar
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 1 egg
– 1/2 tsp orange zest
– 1/2 tsp rum or Amaretto
– 1/2 tsp baking soda & 1/2 tsp vinegar
– 63g almonds

Method:
1 Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
2 Wash almonds and dry with paper towels.
3 Combine in a bowl: flour + sugar + Vanilla sugar + egg + orange zest + rum.
4 Add to the dough baking soda in the same teaspoon as vinegar: knead the dough.
5 Mix the almonds in the dough and distribute uniformly.
6 Form ~3cm width & ~30cm length log from the dough and put it on the baking paper.
7 Bake the log for 20min at 180C until golden.
8 Remove the log from the oven and let it cool down for 5 min. Do not turn off the oven.
9 Cut the log with diagonal cuts into 1.5cm width Biscotti.
10 Put Biscotti back on the baking paper and bake for 5-10 minutes.
11 Enjoy Biscotti some nice Sunday morning with a cup of black coffee and your favourite Christmas movie. Would it be this, this, this, this or this movie? 😉

Potato Pancakes with Homemade Apple Compote

I sincerely hope your Christmas…may abound in the gaieties which the season generally brings…
Jane Austen

Potato pancakes ingredients (12-14 pancakes):
– 10 medium mashed potatoes
– 2 small eggs
– 1 chopped onion
– 2 tbsp wheat flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/3 tsp black pepper

Apple compote ingredients:
– 2 apples
– 4-6 tbsp lemon juice

Method:
1 Apple compote
1.1 Wash and de-seed apples
1.2 Chop the apples
1.3 Cook the apples with lemon juice at medium heat until tender in the pan for 4-6 minutes
1.4 Mash the apples until smooth with an immersive blender
2 Potato pancakes
2.1 Peel the potatoes and boil them until ready
2.2 Batter: mix well mashed potatoes & chopped onion & salt & pepper & eggs & flour
2.3 Pre-heat the non-sticking skillet with one olive oil
2.4 Fry 1 tbsp batter for each pancake for 2-3 minutes each side
2.5 Put the ready pancake on the paper towel to get rid off extra oil
3 Serve potato pancakes with a warm apple compote and fresh miner’s lettuce !

Snow White Cake – for a special occasion !

It was the middle of winter, and the snow-flakes were falling like feathers from the sky, and a queen sat at her window working, and her embroidery-frame was of ebony.
Brothers Grimm

Sponge cake ingredients (all ingredients for 8 servings):
– 3 eggs
– 80g sugar
– 80g wheat flour
– 2 tbsp cocoa powder
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda & 1 tsp vinegar
– 300g sour deseeded cherries

Chocolate icing ingredients:
– 50g dark 70% chocolate
– 50ml 33% cream
– 20g butter

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

Method:
1 Sponge cake:
1.1 Pre-heat the oven to 180C
1.2 Whisk 3 eggs & 80g sugar
1.3 Add cocoa powder & flour: mix well
1.4 Add baking soda & vinegar: mix well
1.5 Transfer the batter into the buttered 25x25cm baking form
1.6 Distribute the cherries over the dough
1.7 Bake at 180C for 20-25 minutes (test whether it’s ready with a wooden stick)
1.8 Let it cool down
2 Mascarpone layer:
2.1 Combine mascarpone layer ingredients: mix them well with a fork! 🙂
2.2 Put the mixture in the fridge until the cake cools down
2.3 You will get so beautiful Donau Welle waves caused by the cherries sinking in the batter… I do not have them on the photo since I flipped the cake upside down, pity. :-b
3 Butter the mascarpone layer on the cake. I distributed mascarpone only on half a cake (see photo). Distribute it overall if you aim for a thinner layer 🙂
4 Chocolate icing:
4.1 Melt chocolate & butter in 33% cream constantly stirring the mixture
4.2 Pour the icing quickly but carefully over the Mascarpone layer
5 Put the cake in the fridge overnight
6 Enjoy the cake the next day if you have a special occasion for such a cake, of course 😉 Or if falling autumn leaves make you think about sunny days by the Danube…

Homemade Tarte Flambée with Camembert and Cranberry Jam

Badger hates Society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing.
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Dough ingredients:
– 220g wheat flour
– 1 egg yolk
– 2 tablespoons olive oil
– 100ml water
– 1 pinch salt

Filling ingredients:
– 150g Camembert
– 200ml sour cream
– 50ml cranberry jam
– a few sprigs of chives
– a pinch of black pepper

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 220C
2 Mix dough ingredients and knead the dough for 5 minutes
3 Roll out the dough into a 3mm height oval or rectangle
4 Put the dough on the baking paper: bake at 220C for 5-8 minutes without filling
5 Remove the baking tray from the oven, spread the sour cream over it, then put the Camembert slices
6 Bake Tarte-Flambée for another 3 minutes at 220C
7 Spread cranberry jam, chopped chives and black pepper over the Tarte Flambée
8 Serve hot !

Pelmeni: Dumplings with Beef and Pork !

Patsuk opened his mouth, stared at the vareniki, and opened his mouth wider still. At that moment, a varenik jumped out of the bowl, splashed into the cream, flipped over and leapt straight up into his mouth. Patsuk opened his mouth again, and another varenik went through the same performance. The only trouble he took was to munch it up and swallow it.
Nikolai Gogol, Christmas Eve

Dough ingredients (~70 Pelmeni = 4-6 portions):
– 3 cups (1 cup = 250ml) wheat flour
– 170ml warm water
– 1 tablespoon 9% vinegar
– 2 and 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
– 1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling ingredients (~70 Pelmeni = 4-6 portions):
– 250g minced beef
– 250g minced pork
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
– 1 onion or 1 bunch of chopped chives

Serving ingredients (for 2 portions):
– 200g sour cream
– 2 teaspoons butter
– 1/2 bunch dill or 1/2 bunch parsley

Method:
1 Knead a dough from dough ingredients and transfer it to the fridge in a covered bowl for 30 minutes
2 Combine minced meat (no extra water!) + salt + black pepper + finely chopped onion or chives: mix everything well with a fork
3 Separate dough into 6 equal pieces: form a 1.5cm diameter sausage from each piece
4 Cut each sausage into 1cm width pieces and roll out each piece into a 5cm diameter round 🙂
5 Put 1 teaspoon filling into each round, fold the round into a half-moon and pinch all the edges together strongly with fingers, do it two times. Then pull together two corners and pinch strongly with fingers again. 🙂
6 Boil Pelmeni for 5 minutes in boiling water (at least 3 minutes after Pelmeni are floating on the top) and serve with sour cream, butter and fresh chopped parsley or dill
7 Enjoy !

Saturday pleasures: Rhubarb Meringue Cake !

Most of the dandelions had changed from suns into moons.
Vladimir Nabokov

Sponge cake ingredients (19cm diameter baking form):
– 2 eggs
– 2/3 cup wheat flour
– 2/3 cup sugar
– 3g Vanilla sugar
– 1 stalk rhubarb (150-200g)

Meringue ingredients:
– 2 egg whites
– 4 tablespoons sugar

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Make the batter: whisk eggs with sugar, then carefully mix in the flour
3 Pour the batter into the buttered baking form
4 Peel rhubarb and slice it into ~0.5cm pieces and put them over the batter
5 Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes at 180C (check if it is ready with a wooden stick, it should come out clean)
6 Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down
7 Whisk the egg whites with sugar until firm peaks for 5-10 minutes
8 Carefully put the whisked egg whites over the cake and bake for 30 minutes at 120C
9 Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down
10 Serve with fresh strawberries !

Hint:
1 Meringue can stick to the baking form if you do not let the cake cool down before putting whisked egg whites on it 😉

Paccheri con Salmone !

Show not what has been done, but what can be. How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.
Umberto Eco

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 180g salmon
– 100ml 33% cream
– 300g durum wheat semolina pasta (ideally, Italian Pasta Superior Semola)
– 3 garlic clothes
– 80g Parmesan
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon pepper
– 1/2 tablespoon olive oil for frying

Method:
1 Grate Parmesan into a bowl and put in the fridge for now
2 Cut salmon into 1.5cm cubes
3 Chop garlic into 0.5cm cubes
4 Simultaneously start boiling pasta (5) and cooking salmon (6)
5 Boil pasta in the salty water until ready and drain the water
6 Cook salmon for 5 minutes in olive oil with garlic, then add 33% cream and stew for another 5 minutes
7 Put the pasta in the frying pan with salmon for 1 minute, carefully mix and transfer to the serving plates
8 Sprinkle pasta with grated Parmesan, add black pepper and serve immediately !

Raspberry Cocoa Mascarpone Mini-Cakes !

“Hallo, Rabbit,” he said, “is that you?”
“Let’s pretend it isn’t,” said Rabbit, “and see what happens.”
A. A. Milne

Cocoa cake ingredients:
– 1 tablespoon cocoa
– 80 g sugar
– 75 g wheat flour
– 3 eggs
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/2 teaspoon vinegar

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

Raspberry ingredients:
– 250g raspberries

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Whisk sugar with eggs for 3 minutes
3 Mix in flour and cocoa to whisked sugar&eggs, then add baking soda&vinegar
4 Pour the dough on the baking paper in a large baking form
5 Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes at 180C, remove it from the oven and let it cool down
6 Cut the cake with your favorite cookie cutters 😉
7 Make the Mascarpone cream: whisk 33% cream and sugar & Mascarpone
8 Put Mascarpone cream on the cakes and decorate with raspberries & mint leaves
9 Put the cakes in the fridge overnight
10 Enjoy it next morning with a cup of green tea and have a great day ! 🙂

Strawberry custard mini-cakes !

“What day is it?” asked Pooh.
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh.”
A.A. Milne

Mini-cakes ingredients:
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 cup sugar
– 1/2 cup flour

Custard cream ingredients:
– 1 egg
– 300-350ml milk
– 75g sugar
– [optional] 2g vanilla sugar
– 20g flour
– 30g butter

Strawberries ingredients:
– 400g strawberries

Method:
1 Make sponge cakes:
1.1 Preheat the oven to 180C
1.2 Whisk eggs with sugar and finely mix in flour
1.3 Put the dough in the buttered baking form and bake for 25-30 minutes
1.4 If you want to make mini-cakes, fill muffin cups to a 1/4-1/3 height since we will need a space for cream!
2 Wash strawberries and let them dry
3 Make custard cream
3.1 Put butter in the bowl and let it wait while we are making 3.2 and 3.3
3.2 Whisk for 2 minutes milk+sugar+egg+flour (if you are not afraid of making a super-tasty custard cream, add 2g vanilla sugar, but it will add a little darker tint to the custard)
3.3 Pour the mixture from 3.2 into a saucepan and warm it over middle heat constantly stirring until it gets thicker
3.4 Remove the cream from the heat, then quickly and finely mix in butter
3.5 Let the custard cream cool down
4 Put the custard cream on the cakes, decorate with halved strawberries and put in the fridge overnight to let the custard cream penetrate the cakes and make them delicious 😉
5 Have a great weekend !

Easter Mini-Cakes (Russian style) !

Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing
Kenneth Grahame

Dough ingredients (4 servings):
– 350g flour
– 300ml Kefir
– 1 teaspoon baking soda
– 100g butter
– 130g sugar
– 1 egg yolk
– 3g Vanilla sugar
– 80g raisins
– lemon zest (1 lemon)
– 20g candied orange peel

Icing ingredients:
– 1 egg white
– 1 teaspoon lemon juice
– 1 tablespoon sugar
– 10g grated pistachio
– 20g candied orange peel

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Wash the raisins and let them dry
3 Mix in the 1st bowl Kefir with baking soda, leave it rest for 5 minutes
4 Mix finely in the 2nd bowl butter, lemon zest, sugar and flour
5 Add Kefir from the 1st bowl and an egg yolk in the 2nd bowl, mix finely
6 Add candied oranges and raisins in the 2d bowl
7 Put the dough in the buttered muffin cup forms till ~1/2 height
8 Bake 25-30 minutes at 180C and let the cakes cool for 20 minutes
9 Icing: whip for 5 minutes an egg white with sugar & lemon juice
10 Put the icing immediately after whipping on top of the cakes with a teaspoon & decorate with candied orange peel mixed with grated pistachio
11 Let the egg whites dry overnight (or you can put the cakes already with an icing in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 100C to fix the whites)
12 Enjoy and Happy Easter !

Mini Pavlova Vanilla-Strawberry Cakes: the first attempt !

The fresh smell of coffee soon wafted through the apartment, the smell that separates night from day.
Haruki Murakami

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 egg whites
– 2 tbs sugar for meringues
– 1 tsp sugar for whipped cream
– 3g vanilla sugar
– 100ml 33% cream
– 6 large strawberries

Method:
1 Start making Pavlova cakes in the evening to have them ready next morning 🙂
2 Preheat the oven to 200C (reduce it to 100C when putting the meringues to bake)
3 Whisk egg whites with sugar & vanilla sugar for 5-10 minutes until strong peaks
4 Put the whisked egg whites on a parchment paper on drawn circles: build the edge slightly with some depression in the middle
5 Put our meringues-to-be in the oven and bake for 1.5 hour at 100C. Do not open the oven and leave the meringues to rest there overnight
6 In the morning whip the 33% cream with sugar
7 Put the the whipped cream on the meringues. Decorate with sliced fresh strawberries and enjoy !

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