sweets Archives - Use Your Noodles

The Softest Sourdough Doughnuts

February 18, 2021

Once you’ve tasted these irresistibly soft and fluffy sourdough doughnuts, you’ll never try any other! This one-and-a-half-day recipe is well worth the time it takes.

Here in Slovenia, we’ve had our carnival festival these past few days. And there is no carnival without some soft and fluffy doughnuts. Just like last year, I’ve made my sourdough doughnuts. While the ones from last year were okay considering I made them just a month after making my first sourdough starter or ever baking anything sourdough. However, the ones that I made this year were to die for!

I’m not exaggerating. The perfect size, the perfect shape, the softerst texture and the sweetest flavor. So good!

Lessons I’ve learned about sourdough in a year have paid off.

So if this is the first time making sourdough doughnuts, my number one advice is to be patient. There’s a lot of waiting involved and it’s easy to get very excited and not leaving the dough to rest or rise long enough. You just wanna go in there and work, right? However, it is really important to just watch your dough and wait, without really looking at the clock. This is also the reason there’s no very specific time frame in my recipe. The fermentation works very differently at different temperatures.

I will share my times and temperatures just so you can have some ideas of how long you should really wait.

One more thing. Be gentle with your dough. The more gentle you’ll be the more air will stay inside your dough, creating the sof center.

And the second thing, make sure to create enough dough strength so it can hold its shape. This is especially important when you’re shaping doughnuts into small balls. Take your time!

Note: if you’re not the sourdough type, I also have a very delicious yeast doughnut recipe here.

Okay scroll down for my timetable 🙂

My sourdough doughnuts making timetable:

9 am – First Levain Feeding

9 am – 3 pm levain fermenting at a variable temperature from 23-25 °C until doubled in size

3 pm – Second Levain Feeding

3 pm – 8:30 pm levain fermenting at a variable temperature from 23-25 °C until doubled in size

8:30 pm – Making the dough (first mixing, resting, kneading, first coil fold)

9 pm – 10 pm – Bulk ferment at 23-25°C (I did a coil fold at 9:30 pm and 10 pm)

10 pm – Transfering the dough into the fridge (with around 8°C)

10 pm – 8 am – Bulk ferment in the fridge

8 am – Moving the dough back to room temperature

8 am – 11 am – Bulk ferment at 23-25°C (I waited for the dough to get to room temperature)

11 am – Shaping

11 am – 9 pm – Proofing at 23-26°C (I waited for the doughnuts to double in size!)

9pm – Frying and eating two hot doughnuts 🙂

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The Softest Sourdough Doughnuts

Adapted from sourdoughmania.com

Servings 20 small doughnuts

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

Sweet Levain – First Feeding

20 g water at room temperature
50 g strong white flour (all-purpose flour works as well)
10 g sourdough starter (100% hydration)
10 g white sugar

Sweet Levain – Second Feeding

40 g water at room temperature
90 g strong white flour
20 g white sugar

Dough

400 g strong white flour
120 g milk room temperature
2 larger eggs room temperature
70 g white sugar
4 g salt
1 tsp vanilla seeds or vanilla extract
60 g softened unsalted butter room temperature

Instructions

Levain Feedings

First Feeding: Mix all ingredients for the first levain feeding. Mix just enough for all ingredients to bind. No need for kneading.
Let sit at room temperature until the levain doubles in size. Anywhere from 21-28°C or 60-82°F is okay, but keep in mind that the levain will mature quicker at higher temperatures. This stage should take anywhere from 3-10 hours.
Second Feeding: After the levain has doubled in size, it is time to feed it the second time. Add water to a bowl and shred in your levain. Mix a little to dissolve the levain. It won't dissolve entirely. Add all other feeding ingredients and knead just enough to make the levain come together in a dough.
Let sit at room temperature until the levain doubles in size. Anywhere from 21-28°C or 70-82°F is okay, but keep in mind that the levain will mature quicker at higher temperatures. This stage should take anywhere from 3-10 hours.

Dough

For the times and temperatures I used for this recipe, check the article!
Making the dough: After the levain has doubled in size the second time, it's time to mix our dough.
Dissolve the levain in milk.
Add flour, sugar, eggs and vanilla seeds or vanilla extract.
Using a stand mixer, mix the dough just enough to bring the ingredients together. Leave covered for 10-15 minutes.
After resting, add salt and knead the dough in a stand mixer for 8 minutes.
Then add softened butter and knead until the dough can pass the windowpane test (link to see how the windowpane test works in the recipe notes). The dough will separate at first, but will come back together quickly.
Bulk ferment: Transfer the dough to your bulk ferment container and do a coil fold (link to the coil fold method in the recipe notes).
Cover the container and leave to ferment until doubled in size. This should take anywhere from 4-10 hours at room temperature. You can do a part of the bulk ferment in the fridge to slow the ferment. Do a coil fold every 30 minutes for the first two hours.
Shaping: After the dough has risen about 50% in size, transfer it to your counter, but be very gentle to not release too much air from the dough.
Divide the dough into 50g pieces and roll them into small balls. Make sure to create enough tension on the balls so they keep a nice shape.
Proofing: Leave the doughnuts to rise at room temperature until doubled in size. This stage will take anywhere from 8-12 hours depending on the temperature.
Frying: After the doughnuts have doubled in size, prepare the oil for frying.
Use about 1 inch or 2.5 cm of oil and fry at a temperature between 160-170°C (320-340°F). A good indicator the temperature is perfect is to check with a wooden spoon. If little bubbles start to form around the spoon handle the oil is ready to go.
Place doughnuts top side down in hot oil, but prior to that brush away the flour. A lot of flour will burn your oil and it will not be re-usable. Fry the doughnuts for about 3 minutes covered. When they turn golden, turn them around away from yourself, so you don’t burn yourself! Fry for about 3 more minutes on the other side uncovered.
Transfer the doughnuts to a plate covered with paper towels to drain the excess oil. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.
Fill and decorate to your liking. Enjoy!

Notes

Link to the windowpane test here.

Link to the coil fold method here.

Vegan Cherry Almond Ice Cream Sandwiches

June 27, 2019

Wrap your hands around something wonderful with this vegan cherry almond ice cream between two delicious almond chocolate cookies.

Can you imagine Summer without ice cream? Hmmm… I can’t, even though I wasn’t always a huge fan of ice cream. I think I talked about it in one of my old posts.

Now, I can’t imagine how I’d survive the Summer heat without ice cream at least once a week.

Since I don’t have an ice cream machine I always make a no-churn version and I even have a little trick to make a no-churn ice cream creamy with no lumps of ice.

How do I make my no-churn ice cream smooth?

I’ve come to the conclusion that the best way is to blend the mixture again after it has frozen halfway through. I mix with a spoon once after an hour. Then, after another hour I take the ice cream out and mix it again in my blender. This mixed the ice crystals that form at the edge of the container and make it nice and smooth again. Then I return it back to the freezer and leave to freeze until done. Honestly, I think the consistency is super similar to the machine made ice cream. I’m all about gadgets, but who’s got the place?!

I created this recipe in collaboration with Tereza from Teresamisu. If you missed the last recipe we created together, here is our delicious Vegan Pea And Asparagus Pie.

We decided to use sweet cherries as the base for the recipe and start from there. Tereza is known for creating healthy dishes and a lot of them are vegan. So I was totally on board with trying to make vegan ice cream but my first thought was NO COCONUT. I love coconut, don’t get me wrong, but I hate to see sooooo many vegan ice cream recipes based on coconut milk. I was thinking there’s a way to make delicious ice cream without it, for sure. So cherries got me thinking. Almonds are the first thing that came to mind and man I’m glad I went that way!

Oh and btw, I have a coconut ice cream recipe in store for one of the next posts 😉 but that one is meant to have a coconut flavor!

This is basically a marzipan ice cream. I like marzipan and if you love it too, you are going to love this cherry almond ice cream sandwiches!

Tereza created the recipe for the cookies and guess what? She also used almond butter without us even discussing the recipe. Talk about soul sisters 🤣

You know what, I’m not gonna blab for much longer. Let’s just get to the recipe. Happy beginning of the Summer, everyone!

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Vegan Cherry Almond Ice Cream Sandwiches

Course Dessert

Keyword ice cream

Servings 5 ice cream sandwiches

Author Anja Burgar & Tereza Poljanič

Ingredients

Cherry Almond Ice Cream

1 cup medjool dates (about 10 medjool dates), pitted
2 cups almond milk (500ml)
1 cup almond butter (250ml)
2 cups cherries (350g), pitted
2 1/2 TBSP cane sugar

Almond Cookie

1/2 cup maple syrup or honey for non-vegan version
1/4 cup almond butter, peanut butter or tahini (90ml)
3/4 cup walnuts (or any other nuts), blended into a flour (90g)
1 1/2 cup cup buckwheat flour (150g)
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 TBSP cocoa powder

Instructions

Almond Cookie

In a bowl, mix up maple syrup and almond butter until fully combined. Mix in ground walnuts until fully combined. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda and raw cacao. Add it to the almond mixture. The mixture will be thick and sticky so it’s best to use your hands.
Roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter to get the desired shape. Make small dents on the surface of the formed cookies for decoration if you wish.
Place the tray in the fridge for 30 min while you pre-heat the oven to 175°C.
Bake for 10-12 mins. Remove the biscuits from the oven, transfer them to a cooling rack and let them cool down completely before assembling the sandwiches.

Cherry Almond Ice Cream

First, make the cherry jam. Place pitted cherries and cane sugar to a blender and mix until smooth. Pass the mixture through a sieve and discard the solids that remain on the sieve. Place the cherry juice in a small pot and bring to a simmer, then let simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool at room temperature.
Then prepare the ice cream base. Add dates and half of the almond milk to a blender and mix until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth.
Transfer the ice cream mixture to a loaf pan or small baking tray with high sides. Freeze for two hours, mixing once after an hour. After two hours scoop out the half-frozen mixture to a blender and mix until smooth. This way you get rid of big lumps of ice.
Transfer half of the mixture back to the same pan, then add half of the cherry jam and use the
backside of a spoon to make some swirls. Place the rest of the ice cream mixture on top and add the rest of the cherry jam. Repeat the swirling and freeze until scoopable.

Assembling The Sandwiches

When the ice cream is frozen enough to form scoops make large scoops and place them over cookies. Cover with another cookie. Place ice cream sandwiches on a tray and save in the freezer.
Leave them at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Walnut Chocolate Star Bread (Egg-free)

May 30, 2019

Walnut chocolate star bread is a eye-catching yet easy treat that will definitely make you look like a baking star!

While this gloomy weather continues, I’ll be sharing a new comfort recipe with you guys! All I want during these cold days is some sweet bread, but not just any sweet bread. I want one with nuts and chocolate – my favorite!

The idea for this walnut chocolate star bread recipe actually came from making a traditional Slovenian potica. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know my son’s allergic to eggs and he’s a kid and loves chocolate. That’s why I created this super soft and fluffy egg-free dough with a the most delicious lemony flavor. And I added some yummy chocolate to the traditional walnut filling. I baked this first during Easter and we all loved it, so I had to share it with you.

Since I never made star bread before, I decided to make it a little mor einteresting than the traditional roll. In fact, you can roll it however you like, but take into consideration that you might need to adjust the baking time if you change it’s shape.

Also, when it comes to the filling. I tested it with hazelnuts as well and it is just as delicios. Think nutella! The reason why I included wallnuts in this recipe is the traditional aspact of this dish, but basically you can try other nuts too 🙂

So, how do you make the walnut chocolate star bread?

The dough recipe is super easy. It consists of standard ingredients like flour, yeast, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, butter and milk.

For the filling you need finelly grated walnuts (or some other nuts), sugar (a part can be replaced with honey), heavy cream, butter and chocolate.

To create the beautiful star shape you need to divide the dough into three equal parts and roll each one to 26 cm (10 inch) diameter.

Cover two layers with the filling in a thin layer and not all the way to the edge. Cover with the top dough layer that’s not covered in filling.

Place a small glas or cup in the center and cut the dough radially into 16 identical strips like shown in the photo below.

Then take two strips by the ends, twist twice in the opposite directions and pinch the ends together quite firmly.

Here are some ideas to customize this chocolate star bread recipe:

swap walnuts for hazelnuts or pecans
swap lemon zest with orange zest
add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the filling
add 1/4 cup cranberries that have been soaked in warm water (or better – rum) for 10 minutes
swap dark chocolate with milk chocolate or nutella

5 from 1 vote

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Walnut Chocolate Star Bread

Course Dessert

Keyword star bread, sweet bread

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Rising time 1 hour 40 minutes

Total Time 2 hours 35 minutes

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

Sweet Dough

2.5 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup + 2 TBSP milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp dry yeast
1 tsp vanilla seeds or vanilla extract
2 TBSP unsalted butter melted

Walnut Chocolate Filling

1 cup finely ground walnuts
35 g dark chocolate
35 g milk chocolate
2 TBSP unsalted butter
2 TBSP sugar
3 TBSP heavy cream

Other

1 TBSP milk or 1 egg whisked with 1 teaspoon water (for egg wash)

Instructions

Sweet Dough

In a small bowl mix 2 TBSP sugar, half of the milk and yeast. Cover and wait for it to activate and start foaming.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the flour, vanilla seeds (or extract) and sugar at low speed to combine all the ingredients. Add the rest of the milk and melted butter and mix until the dough comes together. Lastly, add activated yeast. Continue mixing until a soft smooth dough forms. You can do this by hand, as well. Transfer the dough to a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise at room temperature for 60 minutes or until double the size.

Walnut filling

While the dough is rising, you can prepare the walnut chocolate filling. Melt butter and chocolate in heat proof bowl over the top of the saucepan with simmering water.
Add sugar to the butter and chocolate mixture and stir well.
In a small saucepan, bring heavy cream to a simmer (not to a boil!) and pour over ground walnuts. Add butter and chocolate mix to the walnuts and mix to get a uniform filling. Let cool to a room temperature.

Making the Walnut Chocolate Star Bread

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°C).
On a clean and lightly floured working surface, divide the dough into three equal parts and shape into spheres. Roll each of them out on a piece of baking paper into roughly 26cm (10inch) circles.
Leaving the baking paper below, cover one layer with half of the filling leaving a cm (1/2inch) room at the edge. Cover with the second layer and add the rest of the filling. Cover with the last layer. Place a small glass or bowl in the center and cut 16 equally-sized slices, leaving the center connected. Twist the slices in pairs away from each other. Then pinch the ends of each pair together. Set the star aside to rise for 40 minutes at room temperature.
Lightly brush the star with milk (or egg wash). Bake in the oven until deeply golden and puffy, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Tahini Bundt Cake With Kiwi Glaze

March 14, 2019

Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?

It’s Saint Patrick’s Day on Sunday, so I have a little treat for you guys. A tahini budt cake with a very delicious kiwi glaze. It has to be something green, right?

I used the last of our homegrown kiwis for this glaze. I love having kiwis because they hold very well during the Winter. Leave it in a cold place and they’ll be good until Spring. Isn’t it great to have some homegrown fruits available during the Winter?

We don’t have a huge garden but it’s better than nothing. In fact, you don’t need a lot of space to grow your own food. Even a balcony works for a lot of produce. My mission this year is to expand the garden to my balconies. I have two, one facing East and one facing West, so I can have some produce on one and some on the other, depending on what each plant prefers.

Let’s get back to the tahini bundt cake.

I love any kind of bundt cake really. But tahini bundt cake is so special I’m wondering if it is my favorite so far? Probably yes! Every bite is so full of flavor. I made this cake with oil, not butter. We all know butter adds amazing taste but oil in cakes adds softness and keeps the cake moist for a longer time. This time I added olive oil, instead of plain vegetable oil, because it adds such a nice flavor and goes so well with tahini.

Even when I make my own tahini paste I use olive oil. It just makes it taste so much better! Trust me, it’ GOOD 🙂

Okay, I’m ready to share the recipe. Are you excited? I sure am! And Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone 😀

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Tahini Bundt Cake With Kiwi Glaze

Course Dessert

Keyword bundt cake, cake

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes

Resting time 15 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

Tahini Bundt Cake

2 large eggs room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup tahini paste
3/4 cup milk room temperature
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla seeds

Kiwi Glaze

3 small ripe kiwis
3/4 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream

Instructions

Tahini Bundt Cake

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease a 6 cup bundt cake pan with butter or cooking spray.
Place the eggs and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat together at high speed until the mixture gets fluffy.
Add oil, tahini paste, and milk and mix at medium speed just to combine.
Add baking powder and vanilla seeds and mix on medium speed again just to combine.
At the end add flour and mix on low speed to combine.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and leave the cake in the pan. Cover with a cloth and leave to rest for 10-15 minutes. This will make the cake come out easily.
Remove from the pan and leave to cool down before glazing.

Kiwi Glaze

Blend kiwis in a blender. Pour the pureé in a bowl and add icing sugar. Whisk until well combined. Add heavy cream and mix again.
Pour the glaze over the cooled tahini bundt cake

Eggless Doughnuts With Orange Cream

February 28, 2019

What better way to celebrate the Carnival season but with some fluffy and soft eggless doughnuts with orange cream.

Only 5 days to Carnival. The fun starts today with ‘Fat Thursday’ as we call it. Like in other places, it gets really festive during these five days. People dress up, they go out and celebrate at processions, and of course they eat. A LOT!

Not sure about other places, but doughnuts are a big part of the Carnival in Slovenia. Each family has its own secret recipe and its favorite fillings. My mom is the one in charge of making doughnuts every year. She’s the true doughnut Yoda of the family. For years I was eating her doughnuts and never tried to make my own. This year, I decided it’s time to change that.

As you know, if you’ve been following me for a while, my son’s allergic to eggs so I’m always on search to find good eggless solutions for common foods. So why not make eggless doughnuts?

Recipes like these rarely turn out great in the first attempt but this one was spot on after the first try. It was fluffy and so incredibly soft. An stayed that way even the second day. We ate them all in a day but I always leave a bit to test how something tastes and looks the next day. These held really well which can sometimes be a problem with eggless pastry.

Since it’s still citrus season I also made an eggless pudding cream with some mandarine and orange zest to fill those delicious doughnuts. I made vanilla pudding cream, but you can play a bit here and add some cocoa powder in as well. Hmmm, I might try this as well! 😀

Do you have a ton of oranges on spare? Trust me, you’re not the only one 🙂 Why not make a delicious Dried fig and blood orange tart?

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Eggless Doughnuts With Orange Cream

Course Dessert

Keyword doughnuts

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 12 doughnuts

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

Eggless doughnuts

500 g plain flour
6 TBSP sugar
3 dl milk lukewarm
1/4 cup butter melted
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 pack dried yeast
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of turmeric
zest of 1/2 lemon

Orange Pudding Cream

250 ml milk
15 g corn starch
zest of 1/2 orange
zest of 1/2 mandarine
1/2 tsp vanilla seeds or vanilla extract

Instructions

Eggless Doughnuts

In a small bowl mix dried yeast 1 dl of warm milk and 2 TBSP of sugar. Cover and let sit for 5-10 minutes so the foam starts to form.
Meanwhile, combine flour, sugar, salt, lemon zest and turmeric in a big stand mixer bowl.
After the yeast has started to foam add it to the flour. Add the remaining lukewarm milk and mix on medium speed for a minute.
Add oil and melted butter and mix for 10 more minutes od medium-high speed.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough doubles in size.
After the dough has risen roll it out on a lightly floured surface to about 2.5 cm thick (without kneading it whatsoever). Use doughnut cutters to cut out circles or use a knife to cut any desired shapes.
Leave the doughnuts to rise for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the oil to 140°C. A good indicator the temperature is perfect is to check with a wooden spoon. If little bubbles start to form around the spoon handle the oil is ready to go.
Place doughnuts top side down in hot oil, but prior to that brush away the flour. A lot of flour will burn your oil and it will not be re-usable. Fry the doughnuts for about 3 minutes covered. When they turn golden, turn them around away from yourself, so you don’t burn yourself! Fry for about 3 more minutes on the other side uncovered.
Transfer the doughnuts to a plate covered with paper towels to drain the excess oil. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Orange Pudding Cream

Mix corn starch with 50ml of milk to form a lump-free paste.
Bring the remaining 200ml of milk to a simmer and add the starch mixture. Whisk continuously until the pudding has thickened to a very think mixture. Cover and leave for 10 minutes to cool a bit.

Filling the doughnuts

Pierce the crust of each cooled doughnut with the piping tube and pipe a little pudding into each doughnut. Do not whisk or stir the pudding when transferring it to the piping bag or it will go runny.

Double Chocolate Blackberry Ice Cream Sandwiches

August 31, 2017

Double chocolate blackberry ice cream sandwiches are a perfect ice cold refreshment for the hot late summer days!

Finally back to blogging. I took a little time of to go to the seaside and spend more quality time with the little one. He was sick a lot this past month and we’re all trying to beat a cold right now. A cold in the summer, that’s new! And awful :/

Since I’ve posted the last recipe my baby has started eating solids. I couldn’t stand looking at his big sad eyes watching us munch over whatever was on the table and the poor thing didn’t get anything. Well, turns out he’s a natural. He never once spits out food and although he doesn’t eat much, he likes everything we give him. Gotta love a good eater 🙂

I could talk baby stuff all day long. You know when people can’t shut up about what their baby has acomplished lately, what she’s eating, how she’s the best in every single way. Well, I’m one of those people right now. I get them now. My old self would hate me so much, but yeah once you’re a parent you can’t do differently 😛
I’m gonna shut up now and go to the good stuf – the blackberry ice cream sandwiches.

It was kindda hard to get some blackberries. Apparently it’s not a good season this year. But anyways I had this reciipe in my mind for a while now and I did find some, so I could try it. Actually the recipe would work with any berries for that matter. But blackberries are in season now and they are freakin’ delicious! And so are the blackberry ice cream sandwiches.

The cookies are chocolate shortbread, so they might seem too crumbly, but once they are chilled in the freezer, they absorb some moisture and they become softer. Just as I remember ice cream sandwiches from my childhood. I had them often, but they don’t seem to be very popular over here these days. Strange.

I’m gonna be quick today and finish while I still have some peace and quiet 🙂

If you want another simple ice cream recipe check out n o churn melon sorbet with basil, it’s one of my favorite summer refreshments!

Have a good one folks!

Double chocolate blackberry ice cream sandwiches are a perfect ice cold refreshment for the hot late summer days!

5 from 1 vote

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Double Chocolate Blackberry Ice Cream Sandwiches

Servings 20 sandwiches

Ingredients

Blackberry Ice Cream

600 g blackberries fresh or frozen
1 1/2 cup unrefined cane sugar
1 tsp vanilla seeds
2 eggs
1 cup whipping cream
pinch of salt

Chocolate Cookies

225 g unsalted butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla seeds
pinch of salt

Decoration

150 g semi-dark chocolate
bee pollen

Instructions

Blackberry Ice Cream

Heat blackberries, sugar, salt and vanilla seeds in a big sauce pan. Bring it to a gentle boil and cook until the volume has reduced to half. Pass the blackberry mixture through a fine mesh to remove the pits. Leave at room temperature to cool. Then transfer to the fridge until you do the rest of the recipe.
Place eggs in a heat proof bowl. Boil water in a sauce pan and place the bowl over it. The water should simmer and not touch the top bowl. Leave water to simmer on medium while whisking the eggs for 15-20 minutes or until it starts to thicken and get pale yellow. Place the eggs in the fridge for 15 minutes to cool.
Whip the cream to stiff peaks.
Once everything had cooled use a spatula to mix eggs into blackberry mixture. Carefully incorporate whipped cream. Place in an airtight container and freeze for about four hours or until the ice cream is firm, but not completely frozen.

Chocolate Cookies

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Whip butter and icing sugar until fluffy and pale yellow. Add flour, cocoa powder, vanilla seeds and salt and slowly incorporate it in the whipped butter.
Roll the dough 5mm thick and cut out 5cm circles. Move them to the baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack too cool.

Assembly

Once the cookies have cooled and the ice cream is firm enough to scoop. Use an ice cream scoop to fill ice cream between two cookies. Other option is to use the cookie cutter. This way place the cookie to the bottom of the cookie cutter then fill it with icecream and cover with another cookie. Plase in the freezer while melting the chocolate.
Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Boil water in a sauce pan and place the bowl over it. The water should simmer and not touch the top bowl.
Dip assembled ice cream sandwiches into chocolate and sprinkle with bee pollen.
Freeze until firm.

Mini Lemon Balm Rhubarb Bundt Cakes

June 22, 2017

Mini lemon balm rhubarb bundt cakes are amazing. No other words to describe them. They are delicious melt-in-your-mouth mini treats.

Folks, it’s officially summer! We’ve been having unbelievably sunny and hot weather for weeks so it feels like it’s already mid-summer. I’m keeping myself cool with loads of strawberry drinks like roasted peach and strawberry fizz and strawberry vanilla iced tea. Thank god for our garden, producing all those delicious fruits. And thank god for the mini rhubarb bundt cakes. They make these hot June days so much easier!

I’m spending so much time outside in the shade with my little baby. I love dressing him in the cute summer clothes and seing his bare feet. I could eat them up! He’s growing so fast, I can hardly keep up. He’s becoming more aware of the world and things around him, giving us the most precios smiles and giggles. I could watch those all day long.

Okay, back to the recipe.

I swear guys, these mini bundt cakes are incredibly tender and light. Rhubarb gives them such a nice sour note and the lemon balm makes them deliciously citrusy. I added a lemon drizzle to make those flavors stand out even more and make it super light and refreshing. They are my new summer crush. Sorry hubby, you’ll just have to deal 😛

The recipe is not a dense sponge recipe like for a regular bundt cake. It is more of a cupcake type of sponge. I should maybe call them cupcakes, but I love my new mini bundt cake molds which my mum gave me, that I just had to use those for the shoot. Call them cupcakes if you want 🙂

I feel like I’m being real brief these past few posts. I’m still ajusting to the fact that my free time is pretty scarce these days.

I hope you all have the best start of the summer!

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Mini Lemon Balm Rhubarb Bundt Cakes

Servings 12 cakes

Ingredients

Sponge

2 cups all-purpose flour (250g)
1 cup sugar (120g)
2 eggs
1/4 cup sunflour seed oil
200 ml plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla seeds
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 sachet baking powder (12g)
1/2 cup lemon balm finely chopped
150 g rhubarb finely chopped

Lemon Drizzle

1 1/2 cup icing sugar
2 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 cup lemon balm roughly chopped

Instructions

Sponge

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Lightly grease mini bundt cake molds. I used 12 80ml bundt cake molds.
In a stand mixer beat together sugar, eggs and oil.
In a bowl mix flour, vanilla seeds, ground ginger, ground cinnamon and baking powder.
Add flour mix to the egg mixture spoon by spoon.
Add yogurt, chopped lemon balm and mix until the mixture is smooth and even.
Add rhubarb and use a spatula or a big spoon to mix it in.
Use an ice cream scoop to fill the molds to about 3/4 full.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, until the toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the molds

Lemon Drizzle

In a mortar bash the lemon balm with 1 TBSP of lemon juice to get out as much lemon balm juice as you can. Use a fine sieve or gauze to squeeze out the liquid. Discard the solids.
Add 1 TBSP lemon juice and the lemon balm liquid to the icing sugar and whisk until smooth.

Decoration

When bundt cakes are cooled to room temperature, remove them from molds and decorate with lemon drizzle.

Lime Poppy Seed Elderflower Cake Roll

June 9, 2017

This poppy seed elderflower cake roll is a delicately light spring tea-time treat.

It’s finally here and almost over – the season of elderflowers. I’m in heaven! The smell of those amazing flowers everywhere I go..uhm, so good!

I was thinking about making a cake with elderflowers, but then I changed my mind and challenged myself to make a elderflower cake roll. Weird, but I’ve never made a cake roll. My mum makes amazing cake rolls, so why even bother 🙂 She gave me her cake roll sponge recipe and I tweaked it a little and make a delicious elderflower mascarpone filling. I added lime and poppy seeds to the sponge to make the basic recipe even more yummy 😀

Thanks mom for this super simple recipe!

There are actually (at least) two ways you can scent your filling with elderflowers.

Cooking the cream: That’s a faster way, but it involves cooking. You place elderflowers in a pot and cover it with cream. It needs to cook for about 10 minutes, but the cream should not boil.
Infusing the elderflowers in cream. This method takes longer, but you infuse the eldeflowers in cream and leave it in the fridge for one day and the cream will get a nice scent of elderflowers. So no work at all.

Both of this methods are simple and basically give the same delicious result 🙂

I made elderflower panna cotta a while ago and used the first method, because you’re cooking cream anyway. Panna cotta was sooo good, you should definitely try it! Use a basic recipe and cook the eldeflowers in the cream for ten minutes. Together with some fresh strawberries it’s an amazing no bake dessert for the hot days 🙂

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

This poppy seed elderflower cake roll is a delicately light spring tea-time treat.

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Lime Poppy Seed Elderflower Cake Roll

Ingredients

Lime Poppy Seed Sponge

1/2 cup sugar (100g)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (80g)
4 TBSP ground poppy seeds (20g)
6 eggs
zest of one lime
juice of 2-3 limes

Elderflower Cream Filling

500 ml whipping cream chilled
250 g mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup honey
2 TBSP lime juice

Instructions

Lime Poppy Seed Sponge

Separate eggwhites from the yolks and beat them until they form a firm peak (When you turn the whisk upside down eggwhites should hold, but the tips should fold back.)
Add sugar and beat for a minute or two.
Add egg yolks and beat them in.
Add flour, poppy seeds and lime zest and use the lowest setting of the mixer to fold it in or use a spatula and do it manually.
Transfer the mixture to the baking tray and bake for 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Place a clean tablecloth on a flat surface and place the baked sponge on the tablecloth top side down, leaving the baking paper on. Roll in the cloth.

Elderflower Cream Filling

Cold method: In a big bowl cover elderflower heads with whipping cream and leave to infuse for 24 hours in the fridge. After 24 hours run the cream through a fine sieve to remove the elderflower heads.
Warm method: Place elderflower and cream into a pot and cook on low heat for ten minutes. Don't let the cream boil! Leave to cool to room temperature, then remove the elderflower heads and leave in the fridge overnight.
Both methods:
Whip the cream just befor entirely firm.
Use a fork to cream the mascarope cheese.
Add mascarpone and honey to the whipped cream and use the lowest settng to incorporate it in the whipping cream.
Add lime juice and use a spatula to mix it in.

Assembly

Once the sponge is cool unroll and carefully remove the baking paper.
Juice 2 -3 limes and use the juice to soak the sponge.
Frost with elderflower mascarpone cream and tighly roll.
Leave in the fridge for an hour for easier cutting.

Welcome Baby Chocolate Buckwheat Cookies

May 4, 2017

The most delicious chocolate buckwheat cookies with wholegrain spelt and buckwheat flour and a tropical twist.

Hi guys!

I’ve been away for a month occupied by he hardest but the most rewarding job. On April 5th a little baby boy Jernej came to this world and turned our lives upside down. I never knew I could ever love someone as much as I love my baby. Kissing his forehead, massaging his super tiny feet, loving every unconscious smile when he’s sleeping and caressing his soft cheeks…

Although I’m loving every moment spent with him, I never imagined how exhausing and rewarding caring for a newborn is. After a month, I can easily say it was the toughest month of my life, although full of tears of happines and love, it was also filled with frustrations and self-distrust. Total respect to all the moms that have survived this introduction period keeping a clear mind! Saying that, my baby is sleeping well and is not fussy at all, I can’t imagine that being different…

When I came home from the hospital I was missing moving and doing whatever around the house. Lying in bed all day is totally not my MO, so I baked some cookies while Jernej was sleeping and took some photos. I named them Welcome baby chocolate buckwheat cookies 🙂 To welcome the cutest baby boy to this world <3

I love having a batch of cookies ready for the sweettooth moments of mine and my husband’s. We LOVE cookies! I’m surprised I don’t have more cookie recipes on the blog. I’ll have to change that, right?

What I love about butter cookies is, that they are super simple and you can make them in a food processor. They take no time whatsoever, but they taste sooo good! And if you make them with wholegrain flours you add so much nutritional value. In this recipe I used wholegrain spelt and wholegrain buckwheat flour, but you can easily use plain flours.

Lately I became a huge fan of unrefined cane sugar. It’s not a sugar we usually use in baking, so when I first tried it I became obsessed immediately. If you want caramelly taste without making caramel, cane sugar is the solution. I’m telling you, it makes a big difference.

Although plain buckwheat cookies are incredible, they are even tastier with some chocolate and coconut. Plus they look so pretty, don’t they?

I’m out of these cookies and now I’m waiting for elderflowers to bloom to make some Elderflower Cookie Bites with Raspberries.

Having a lot of work and being exhausted by the continuous feeding and diaper chaninging, I can’t promise I’ll be posting as often as I did before the baby, so bare with me. I’ll get the hang of it and will start posting weekly as soon as I can.

The most delicious chocolate buckwheat cookies with wholegrain spelt and buckwheat flour and a tropical twist.

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Welcome Baby Chocolate Buckwheat Cookies

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 32 cookies

Ingredients

2/3 cup wholegrain spelt flour
2/3 cup wholegrain buckwheat flour
50 g unrefined cane sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla seeds
1/4 tsp baking soda
80 g butter
4 TBSP water
dark chocolate
coconut flakes

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
Add all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until they form a ball.
Divide the dough in half, half it again and so on, until you get 32 identical pieces. Form bals with your palms.
Place on a baking paper lined baking tray and bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Move them to a wire rack and leave to cool down for at least 10 minutes.
Melt chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water. Dip the bottom half of the cookies in the chocolate and coconut and place on a pre-cooled tray lined with baking paper. Leave in the fridge to set.

Macerated Strawberry Chocolate Cake

March 22, 2017

This strawberry chocolate cake with honey macerated strawberries and chocolate rhubarb truffles is perfect for any celebration and is super easy to make and so yummy.

So, guys, it’s my birthday!

I only have one more year before I enter a new decade.

My wishes for me:

Cook more delicious foods and try lots of new combination.
Be the best mum to my precious baby, that’s still hiding in my belly.
Love every moment with my husband and our little one.
Take time for my friends and also for myself.
Continue being happy and positive.

Enough about me, let’s talk CAKE!!!

I couldn’t resist but making something chocolaty with strawberries and cream. Anyone else anxiously waiting for fresh straberries from the garden? We have a few strawberry plants and I can’t wait for them to grow fresh little fruits.

I’m not a big fan of heavy cakes, with heavy buttery fillings. That’s why I love using whipping cream in cakes. Remember the chocolate hazelnut pavlova? I think it makes cakes light and fresh, especially if you add some fresh fruits. I used plain whipping cream without sugar or anything, but you can add a little icing sugar or some vanilla.

This sponge is rich and decadent on its own and doesn’t need a heavy filling anyway!

The sponge I used in this strawberry chocolate cake is one of the best if not the best chocolate sponge I’ve ever tried. The amazing recipe is by Add A Pinch. I changed it just a little, so I’m posting my version of her delicious recipe. The recipe contains a little less sugar and the layers are thinner so they can hold the light whipped cream filling. Seriously you need to try either my or her version, both are yummy!!

Now, about strawberries. Have you tried macerated strawberries, yet? They are simply the most delicious thing. Adding a little honey makes them obviously a little sweeter, but brings the juices and creates a lovely sauce. Imagine that over icecream.

Um, de-li-cious!!!

I was feeling a little playful with this cake, so I made some chocolate rhubarb truffles. Super simple, but so good! They are made of sponge and rhubarb jam only 😀 Last year we had loads of rhubarb so I tried making my own rhubarb jam and I’m telling you I’m making it again this year.

I made this cake a day ahead, but it’s already half gone and it’s not even noon on my birthday 😛 Luckily I have my mum making me more sweets today!

This strawberry chocolate cake with honey macerated strawberries and chocolate rhubarb truffles is perfect for any celebration and is super easy to make and so yummy.

5 from 1 vote

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Macerated Strawberry Chocolate Cake

Total time includes cooling time.

Sponge recipe adapted from The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe Ever recipe by Add A Pinch. Link in the text!

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 2 hours

Ingredients

Chocolate Sponge

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla seeds or vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Honey Macerated Strawberries

200 g fresh strawberries
2 1/2 TBSP honey

Chocolate Rhubarb Truffles

chocolate sponge from one of the 7 inch tins
rhubarb jam (or strawberry jam) (40g jam per 100g sponge)

Other

300 ml cold whipping cream

Instructions

Chocolate Sponge

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Butter four 7 inch baking tins.
Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a stand mixer bowl and whisk through to combine.
Add milk, eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla seeds and mix on medium speed until well combined.
Change mixer speed to low and slowly add boiling water to the mixture. It will get quite liquid, but that's what makes it moist and rich in the end.
Pour the mixture into four baking tins and bake for about 25 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the baking tin for 10 minutes then remove form the tin and leave in a cool place to cool completely. Once it is room temperature, you can place it in the fridge to continue cooling.

Honey Macerated Strawberries

Thinly cut strawberries and place them in a bowl. Add honey and mix well, so the honey coats all strawberries.
Leave to macerate in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the cake, but at least an hour.

Chocolate Rhubarb Truffles

Take one cooled chocolate sponge and use your fingers to turn it into crumbs. Add 40g rhubarb jam per 100g of sponge and incorporate it in the crumbs. Shape 1 cm balls using the palms of your hands. The mixture shouldn't be too sticky, but moist enough to hold the shape of a ball.
Place in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the cake.

Assembling The Strawberry Chocolate Cake

Whip whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks. Place it in a piping bag with a round or a star nozzle.
Place one sponge on a serving tray and pipe one layer of whipped cream in the middle, leaving one centimeter of uncovered sponge at the edge. Pipe small balls of cream one centimeters away from each other on the edge. Place chocolate rhubarb truffles between the cream balls.
Top with one third of honey macerated strawberries.
Continue in the same way for the remaining two layers.
Refridgerate for at least an hour before serving.

Dried Fig Blood Orange Tart

February 9, 2017

One of the best flavor pairings – dried figs and orange in a perfect Valentine’s day dessert – a decadent dried fig and blood orange tart. Simple chocolate tart crust is holding a dried fig jam and a zesty blood orange curd, which is decorated with tiny orange hearts. What a treat!

It’s almost Valentine’s day.

Me and my husband don’t really celebrate it, but this year we made plans to have dinner with two our friends, so we’re having a double date. They are cooking the main dish, we are making dessert. And I think this pie is perfect for the occasion. Only change I’ll have to make is the crust, because my friend is gluten free. I’ve never made a gluten free chocolate tart crust before, so any suggestions are welcome 🙂 If I manage to do a nice one, maybe I’ll even add the recipe here.

First of all, I’m in love with the dried fig and orange combo. Blood orange or regular orange, both is super delish! I tried it for the first time in a smoothie. I was combinig these two just because I had nothing else to put in and it sounded like a great combination. Yes, yes, you’re missing a lot if you’re never tried those two together. I mean it! Go ahead, make this blood orange tart or simply take an orange and eat it next to a fig. How is it? Are you loving me right now? 😉

Okay, so I was thinking about what to make for Valentine’s day. I’ve shared a brownie recipe last year, this year I wanted something more fruity. Yesterday we celebrated the death of our greatest poet, which is also the biggest cultural holiday in Slovenia. We had a big celebration in the town where he lived, just a couple of kilometres from my village. Wow, way too many people, I had to hug my belly to protect it from the accidental bumps.

This poet liked to give out dried figs to the children. One of his nicknames was also Dr. Fig, for that reason. So I used figs as an insiration and added the oranges, because AGAIN they are perfect for each other 🙂 Of course I couldn’t go without just a tinsy bit of chocolate, so I not-so-secretly added some cocoa powder to the crust.

I’m absolutely in love with the color of the curd. I know, you’d expect a red color, especially if you look at the red juice from the orange, but the eggs and butter make it a more pale yellow to orange color. So it might look like an orange, not blood orange tart. The oranges I got were not red all the way through, if you try with oranges that have a completely red flesh you might get a slightly different result. But the eggs and butter will still make it pale. I think it’s such a romantic color, but I’m probably under pregnancy hormones influence 😛

Now let’s make a blood orange tart with dried fig jam and have the best Valentine’s day ever!

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Dried Fig & Blood Orange Tart

Makes one 22 or 25 cm (9 or 10 inch) tart.

Course Dessert

Keyword blackberry pie, blood orange tart, fig tart, puff pastry tart

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

Chocolate Crust

1⅓ cup all-purpose or wholegrain wheat flour (190g)
½ cup icing sugar (55g)
¼ cup cocoa powder (25g)
¼ tsp salt
140 g cold butter cubed

Dried Fig Jam

⅔ cup dried figs hard stem removed and quartered
1 cup 100% apple juice

Blood Ornage Curd

3 large eggs
2 egg yolks
¾ cup blood orange juice freshly squeezed
½ cup granulated sugar (100g)
zest of one big orange
150 g room temperature butter cubed

Instructions

Chocolate Crust:

Preheat the oven to 190°C
In a food processor, mix toghether dry ingredients. Add butter and pulse about 10-15 times to get dry crumbs. Add the egg and pulse just unil the dough starts to come together, but does not form a ball. Gently form a ball with your hands, no kneading is needed. Wrap into plastic foil and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes roll the dough into a circle of the diameter of your tart tin + two times the height of the sides. (My tin is 25 cm + 2,5 cm height, so I rolled it out to 30 cm). For easier rolling place a slightly wet teatowel on the counter, then baking paper over it, then the dough and another piece of baking paper. This way the dough doesn't stick to the rolling pin and the teatowel prevents the baking paper to slip. If you notice the dough is starting to stick to the baking paper, flour it lightly.
Transfer the crust to a buttered tart tin, cut away the excess dough. Make a few holes in the bottom with a fork, cover with tin foil and place baking weights (I use old coins) over the foil.
Bake for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake for 10 more minutes.
Leave to cool in the tin, before taking out or you might break the crust.

Dried Fig Jam

In a small sauce pan, soak dried figgs in apple juice for 15 minutes: After that bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a food processor or a blender and mix. I prefer the jam to still have small pieces of figs, but you can mix it all the way to a smooth jam. At first, the jam will look a little too runny, but will thicken while it cools.

Blood Orange Curd

Place eggs, egg yolks, orange juice, orange zest and granulated sugar in a heat proof bowl. Boil water in a sauce pan and place the bowl over it. Leave water so simmer on medium while whisking the egg mixture for 15-20 minutes or until it starts to thicken and it reaches 75°C (170°F).
Remove the bowl from the sauce pan and whisk in butter, a few cubes at a time.
Cover the bowl and leave to cool.

Assembly

Spread fig jam over the cooled crust and pour over cooled blood orange curd.
Leave to set in the fridge for at least 6 hours or better overnight.

Notes

The fig jam recipe is sightly adjusted from the Fig Butter recipe by Stephanie Cooks.

Nutty Apple & Poppy Seed Strudel

February 2, 2017

This apple and poppy seed strudel has four delicious mouth-watering layers – poppy seed, curd, walnut, and apple layer with sultanas. In many ways, it is reminiscent of one of the best Slovenian dessert Prekmurska gibanica.

Hi, guys!

It’s about time to make another kindda Slovenian recipe – another dessert inspired by our traditional Prekmurska gibanica. Remember the Spring Strawberry Layer Cake in a Glass, that is a very light and healthy version of the original recipe. Well, this time it’s also a little lighter, but just a little bit.

The original Prekmurska gibanica is very heavy on the fat, not that this apple and poppy seed strudel recipe is not, but much much less 😀

Okay, I’m making it sound like a dissaster of a dessert. It’s actually not and it really is one of my favorite Slovenian desserts. With four different delicious layers you can’t go wrong, right?

I left the layers as are, but added honey in two of them (the poppy seed and the walnut layer), because you know I’m addicted to honey 😉 My breakfast today… honey on bread and butter. You see! ADDICTED!

I hope you don’t get scared by the four layers, because these fillings are literally the easiest you-can’t-do-it-wrong fillings. And if you don’t like an ingredient, change it. For example, you could use different fruit, or change walnuts for some other nuts. So many choices.

This was actually one of those recipes, that I didn’t even plan to make. I was left with some phyllo dough that was about to go bad and was firstly thinking of making a simple, but yet delicious, apple strudel. But since that’s probably the most common type of strudel I make, I thought, I should do it differently this time and see if I can make a layered strudel like Prekmurska gibanica.

Guess what, yes! And it’s pretty freakin’ delish. At first I added too much poppy seeds and not enough apples, which made it a little dry, so I changed the recipe. Now it’s moist and sooo yummy.

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Nutty Apple & Poppy Seed Strudel

Course Dessert

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

POPPY SEED LAYER

100 g ground poppy seeds
100 ml boiling milk
1 TBSP honey

CURD LAYER

300 g curd
2 eggs
1 TBSP icing sugar
zest of 1 lemon

WALNUT LAYER

200 g ground wallnuts
150 ml boiling milk
2 TBSP honey

APPLE LAYER

6 medium-size apples around 1kg, peeled and coarsely grated
2 tsp cinammon
120 g sultanas
warm water

STRUDEL

500 g phyllo pastry 10 sheets of 35 x 45 cm
150 g butter melted
Icing sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

Poppy seed layer

Pour boiling milk over ground poppy seeds and mix well with a spoon. Once the mixture has cooled a little, add honey and mix again.

Curd layer

Split the eggs into egg whites and yolks. Mix curd, icing sugar, lemon zest and yolks with a spoon. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks and fold it gently into the curd mixture.

Walnut layer

Pour boiling milk over ground walnuts and mix well with a spoon. Once the mixture has cooled a little, add honey and mix again. If there's excess liquid on bottom, drain the mixture through a fine sieve.

Apple layer

Put sultanas in a bowl and cover the with warm water. Leave them to soak for 15-20 minutes, then drain. Mix together grated apples, cinammon and sultanas.

Assembly and baking: Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Coat a big baking tray with melted butter. The trey should be big enough to hold five 35cm long rolls.
Spread a generous amount of butter over one sheet of phyllo pastry with a brush, cover it with another sheet and spread butter over this one too.
Visually divide the sheet into 5 parts (lenghtwise). Spread poppy seed mixture over the first, curd layer over the second, walnut layer over the third and apples over the fourth. The first will be a little thinner, the fourth a little thicker and the fifth will be empty. Start rolling from the poppy seed layer. Roll as wide or narrow as your baking tray allows. You are going to have 5 of these rolls.
Place the rolls into baking tray and cover the tops with some more butter.
Bake for about 40 minutes, until the crust looks golden.
When you take it out the crust might look soggy, but it will get crisp once it cools.
Sprinkle with some icing sugar before serving.

Beet Chocolate Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

December 22, 2016

Even if you hate beets you’re gonna love these soft beet chocolate cupcakes with some honey cream cheese frosting on top!

Ah, yes. The beet chocolate cupcakes… I love using fruit and veggies for a the liquid substite in muffins and cupcakes. Remember the Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cashew Cream Cheese Frosting? I used pumpkin there, but here I’m using beets 😀

Fruit and veggie purées make cupcakes so soft and moist and in my experience they last longer before going dry. So perfect for baking them in advance 🙂

I know they don’t look very Christmasy, but hey… chocolate… who doesn’t love anything with chocolate on Christmas 🙂 or at any other time for that matter 😛

This Christmas I’m off cooking duty. We’re invited to my mum and dad’s on Christmas Eve and to my husband’s relatives on Christmas Day. Although I obviously love cooking it feels nice not having to prepare tons of food. We’ll only be making the traditional nut roll, everything else is done already. And then I can rest and enjoy the holidays!

I’ve been feeling very well these last couple of months, but pregnancy does a take some toll on my energy. Working hard these days before Christmas I think me and the little one deserve a little time off 😀 Thank god for mums!

Okay, back to the cupcakes!

You can actually make any other frosting if you prefer something else, but I’m a big fan of cream cheese frosting and honey. So I joined those two and I love how great the this sweet and sour frosting pairs with the earthy chocolaty taste of the beet chocolate cupcakes.

Yup, good life!

Let’s do some baking!

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BEET CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH HONEY CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Course Dessert

Keyword chocolate cake, frosting cupcakes, muffins

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 20 cupcakes

Ingredients

BEET CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla
3 TBSP cocoa powder
4 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP sunflower oil
2 cups beetroot purée
2 TBSP lemon juice

HONEY CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

200 g cream cheese room temperature
150 g soft butter
2 tsp vanilla
5 TBSP icing sugar
3 TBSP honey

Instructions

Beet Chocolate Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 170 °C.
In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, vanilla and cocoa powder.
In the bowl of the electric mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, blend toogether the eggyolks, brown sugar and sunflower oil on a medium speed until well combined.
Add beetroot purée and lemon juice and blend again.
Keep your mixer on medium speed and slowly add the flour mixture to the yolk mixture.
In a separate bowl (using a clean whisk attachment or a handmixer) whip eggwhites and a pinch of salt until stiff.
Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the eggwhites into the batter until well combined.
Divide the batter among 20 paper lined muffin cups, filling about 3/4 full.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 – 25 minutes, until the toothpick comes out clean.
Cool in the baking pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

To make the frosting, take crwam cheese, soft butter and vanilla and beat until the mixuture becomes fluffy and has a much lighter color.
Gradually add icing sugar and honey and mix until well combined.
If the frosting looks too runny, rerigirate it until it has the right consistency.

Assembly

When the cupcakes have cooled completely, spread the frosting over them and sift over some cocoa powder.

Notes

To make homemade beetroot purée you can either purée cooked or roasted beetroot. For roasting, I’m wrapping the whole beetroot in foil and remove the skin afterward.

Even if you hate beets you're gonna love these soft beet chocolate cupcakes with some honey cream cheese frosting on top! Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!

Decorated Honey Gingerbread Cookies

December 8, 2016

What would Christmas be without some decorated honey gingerbread cookies shaped like Christmas trees? These are super easy and can be done in a food processor.

Hey, hey, we’re baking again!

The way we like it, is to include our family. I can’t wait for my little one to come out and grow enough to help me with Christmas baking. I remember baking with my mum when I was little (actually we still bake together sometimes). We’d turn on the radio, sing and make some delicious cookies. I was probably slowing the whole process and annoy my mum with that. She’s a cook and is used to do everything very quickly, but she let me work at my own pace and we had a blast together.

I mostly use my husband to help me with Christmas baking these days. Aren’t I lucky to have found a man who likes to cook and bake with me?! Oh yes!

Anyway these year we’re trying new recipes and probaby some old ones that we’ve done a thousand times. One of the new ones are these lovely honey gingerbread cookies decorated with homemade royal icing. I’m not supposed to have raw royal icing, since I’m pregnant, but apparently the eggs were good and survived. We alwalys buy eggs at the same farm and store them in the fridge, so we’re reducing the risk of anything bad happening.

Okay, so I said it’s the first time I’ve made honey gingerbread cookies. Yup, I know, stupid!

Honey gingerbread cookies are actually quite traditional in Slovenia, but they are made a bit differently. They are called ‘medenjaki’, which means honey cookies in Slovene. They are spiced with similar spices, but are usually thicker and softer with a lemon and sugar glaze. I love those, they are amazing, but I’m kind of more into hard crunchy cookies right now.

I wanted to keep the honey theme though, so there’s honey in and I replaced white sugar with unrefined cane sugar, which is my absoulte favourite sweetener right after honey.

Why I love this recipe? Because it’s so easy and can be done in a food processor and if you’re not a fan of royal icing you can just skip it. They are totally delicious without is too. You can put some food coloring in and let the kids make their own colorful cookies, or make the most delicious vanilla sauce form my Hot Baked Apples with Vanilla Sauce recipe and dip them in. So many possibilities 🙂

Let’s get bakin’.

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DECORATED HONEY GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Course Dessert

Keyword christmas baking, Christmas cookies, gingerbread cookies

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes

Total Time 3 hours

Servings 60 cookies

Ingredients

HONEY GINGERBREAD COOKIES

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unrefined cane sugar
1/3 cup + 2 TBSP honey
1 egg
3/4 tsp baking soda
120 g melted butter
1 TBSP ground ginger
1 TBSP cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
big pinch of black pepper

ROYAL ICING

1 fresh egg white
1 cup icing sugar
pinch of salt

Instructions

Honey Gingerbread Cookies

Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix well with a spoon. Use your hands to knead at the end. Alternatively, you can use a food processor to make the dough come together. In that case, kneading won’t be necessary.
Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour.
Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
Leave the dough at room temperature for 10 minutes before making cookies.
On a lightly floured surface roll the dough to about 3-4mm thick and cut out the cookies.
Move them to a lined baking tray and bake for about 8 minutes (for smaller cookies. Mine were about 7,5 cm long). Adjust the time for bigger cookies.
Move them to a wire rack to cool.
Royal Icing: Beat egg white with a pinch of salt until stiff but not dry. Add icing sugar one tablespoon at a time and beat until it forms stiff peaks and you can’t feel sugar grains when rubbing it between your fingers.
It can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Decorating

When the cookies have cooled down completely put royal icing into a piping bag with a thin tip or a very small hole and decorate the way you like it. It might take a little to get the grip of it, if you've never done that, but you can do it!
Leave the icing to dry completely.

Notes

Try to use eggs that are fresh and kept in the refrigerator to minimize the risk of bacterial infection.
Keep in mind that royal icing contains uncooked eggs, so be careful not to serve them to pregnant ladies, babies, small children, or other high-risk people.

Simple Birthday Chocolate Hazelnut Pavlova

November 15, 2016

Beautiful layers of crispy and chewy meringue, decadent chocolate ganache and fluffy whipped hazelnut cream are what make this delicious chocolate hazelnut pavlova cake worth celebrating this blog’s first birthday.

Beautiful layers of crispy and chewy meringue, decadent chocolate ganache and fluffy hazelnut whipped cream are what make this delicious chocolate hazelnut pavlova cake worth celebrating this blog's first birthday.

I can’t believe it’s been a year already 😀

You heard me… this blog is still a baby, but deserves a special cake with something sparkling on top! Nothing healthy at all in this recipe, only pure indulgence. Okay, I might be exagerating, this cake is actually not nearly as sweet as cakes can be, it’s just fluffly and crunchy and chocolatty and nutty all at the same time. What can be better?

Before showing you the recipe, there are some words I need to say about my first year of blogging. It’s been fantastic. It started as my own personal cookbook, but it soon turned out, I love doing it, bringing you new delicious recipes every week. Well, almost every week, I’ve had some ups and downs 🙂 Meeting lots of new friends who share the passion for food and photography was absolute fun and hopefully more are coming my way 🙂

Thanks to everyone supporting me, trying my recipes, sharing love and being the most incredible community. I love y’all 🙂

The second aspect of this blog in my oppinion is the photography. It’s my way of relaxing and connecting with the food I prepare. Can be stressful from time to time, but the results are what makes it all worth it.

If you check my earlier recipes the photos are not that great. But as soon as I started blogging I realised good photos are a must, not just for all of you, but also for my own good feeling. So I made sure to improve and I still am. I’ve always been a very visual person and tried my work to look the best it can at agiven time. I believe practicing and taking some lessons and sometimes being hard on myself have really helped my food photography.

Well, I know you’re waiting for me to tell you something about this charming chocolate hazelnut pavlova and stop babbling about the sentimental crap 😛

I think the first birthday celebration needs a special cake, something I don’t make on a regular basis. In fact I’ve never made pavlova before, but always wanted to try. So there it was, the perfect opportunity. I’ve had some extra eggwhites in the fridge from making a traditional Slovenian dish called ‘mlinci’ and a full pantry of hazelnuts and crispy chocolade balls.

First attempt in making the meringue was a total disaster. It looked great when I turned off the oven, but I forgot to carefully read the recipe, which happens to me way too often. You’re supposed to leave the meringue in the oven to cool down, not take it out like a sponge cake. Ups, what a failure, the meringue totally collased and despite being delicious it wasn’t very flattering. So I did it again and succeded 🙂

Don’t be affraid of making meringue, like I was for a long time. It is very easy to make. However, if you’re awful at following direction I suggest you keep it together this one time, because every little small detail matters. There are some recomendations and warning in the notes below the recipe. Please, read it before baking, you don’t want a collapsed soggy pavlova 😉

I’m stopping the babble now. Over and out!

Beautiful layers of crispy and chewy meringue, decadent chocolate ganache and fluffy whipped hazelnut cream are what make this delicious chocolate hazelnut pavlova cake worth celebrating this blog's first birthday.

Print

LAYERED CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT PAVLOVA

Course Dessert

Keyword chocolate cake, chocolate pavlova, pavlova

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Cooling time 5 hours

Total Time 6 hours 55 minutes

Servings 8 pieces of 18 cm cake

Ingredients

CHOCOLATE MERNIGUE

6 eggwhites room temperature
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar
2 tsp cornstarch
2 TBSP cocoa powder

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

100 g semi-sweet or dark chocolate
200 ml whipping cream
pinch of salt

WHIPPED HAZELNUT CREAM

1/2 l whipping cream chilled
3 TBSP hazelnut paste can easily be made at home by mixing hazelnuts in a food processor until you get a smooth paste

TOPPINGS

50 g hazelnuts chopped
crispy chocolate balls or any other decoration
whole hazelnuts

Instructions

Chocolate meringue

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Draw two 18cm circles on a baking paper and place it on a baking tray.
Beat egg whites and a pinch of salt until stiff but not dry. Then add the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time. At the end add the lemon juice or vinegar and cornstarch. Beat gently until thick and glossy.
Add cocoa powder and fold it in gently, keeping some streaks of dark brown.
Spread the meringue evenly into the two circles.
Move into the oven and reduce the temperature to 120°C. Bake for about 90 minutes. It should look crisp on top and feel dry, but when you press it you should feel soft in the center.
Turn the oven off, open the door slightly, and leave in the oven to cool overnight.

Chocolate Ganache

Heat the whipping cream over medium heat until it starts forming small bubbles on the side, but doesn't boil. Remove from heat and add chocolate and a pinch of salt. Whisk until you get a smooth cream. Let cool at room temperature, then keep in the fridge before assembling the cake.

Whipped Hazelnut Cream

Whip the cream until it's almost stiff, but not buttery, then add the hazelnut paste and gently whip just a little more.

Assembly

Place one meringue on a cake stand, gently add half of the ganache on top, add half of the whipped hazelnut cream, and half of the chopped hazelnuts.
Continue with another layer of meringue, ganache (save a couple of tablespoons for decoration), whipped cream, and chopped hazelnuts.
Place whole hazelnuts, crispy chocolate balls and drizzle with the rest of the ganache.
Refrigerate before serving.

Notes

Some instructions for the perfect meringue:
Make sure your equipment is dry before making the meringue. Moisture stops eggwhite from aerating.
Make pavlova on a dry day. Moisture makes pavlova sticky.
Adding lemon juice and cornstarch will help pavlova keep its form.
Add sugar gradually to the eggwhites and be sure to beat the egg whites to the stiff point, but don’t overbeat them, just until the sugar has dissolved. Test if the sugar has dissolved by rubbing a little of the mixture between your fingers. You shouldn’t feel any grains. When you transfer it to the baking paper the mixture should hold its shape.
After baking keep in in the oven with dors ajar until it completely cools down to room temperature.
It’s better to overdry than under dry your meringue. If you are not sure if it is done, better dry it a little more. Soggy meringue is unusable, but a little bit too dry is not such a problem. Assemble the cake and after a day in the fridge, it will become crunchy.

Tag Archive for: sweets

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