Dried cranberry and white chocolate cookies

I'm gonna sound like a commercial now: are you craving something sweet but you don't have a lot of time to bake? Then this cranberry and white chocolate cookie recipe is the one for you! :)) But really, it takes only 15 minutes to make the dough, and another 5 to make it into cookies, and then the baking is 10-12 minutes. If you really don't have much time, you can add the chocolate to the dough but if you feel like being creative, I suggest decorating the top of the cookies with it. 

 Ingredients which will make about 17 cookies:

• 13 dkgs of plain flour
• 13 dkgs of whole grain spelt flour
• 10 dkgs of sugar
• 8 dkgs of cold butter 
• 2 eggs
• two handfuls of dried cranberries
• a handful of raisins
• 1.5 tablespoons of candied orange peel
• a pinch of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

Mix the two types of flour with the sugar, the cinnamon and the baking powder. Crumble the butter into the flour mixture, then add the two eggs. You can start stirring it with a wooden spoon in the beginning but then you'll have to dive in and knead the dough with your hands, until almost done. In that exact moment just add the dried fruits and the orange peel and finish the dough. Line some parchment paper in a baking tin and shape the cookies so that they are of 6 cms of diameter, approximately. Bake them at 180 deg Celsius for about 10-12 minutes, until the top becomes golden brown. Place them on a cake rack and let them cool, while you melt the white chocolate. You can decorate the cookies with the melted chocolate, almond flakes and cranberries. 

Spicy salmon with avocado salsa and potato salad in horseradish dressing

Having a bigger amount of salmon at home is just great, you can always take a piece out of the freezer. Although I bought this particular salmon for Christmas, it is almost time so it's not cheating... ;) All of these 3 recipes are very easy and quick to make, perfect for a Sunday lunch. 

Ingredients for the salmon:

• 1fillet of salmon (approx. 10-15 dkgs)
• half a teaspoon of smoked paprika
• half a teaspoon of ground coriander
• half a teaspoon of ground caraway seeds 
• juice of half a lemon or lime
• one teaspoon of soft brown sugar  
• half a teaspoon of chili powder
• salt 

Pour the lemon juice on the salmon fillets and give it a stir, so that the juice covers the entire piece of salmon and let the lemon juice do its job until you prepare the  seasoning. Mix all of the spices with the sugar and then take the fillet and roll it into the spices, so the entire salmon is covered in the lovely spice mixture. Heat a bit of oil in a pan and cook both sides of the salmon for 5 minutes tops, you don't want to dry it out. 

 

Ingredients for the salsa:

• 2 ripe avocados
• a handful of cocktail tomatoes
• juice of half a lemon
• a bit of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 thin spring onions
• salt
• freshly ground pepper

The avocados need to be cut into smaller cubes, the tomatoes into quarters. Slice the onions fine and then add the salt, the lemon juice, the olive oil and the salt and pepper. Give it a good stir and let it rest for a while.

Ingredients for the potato salad.

• 10-12 pieces of small potatoes
• 2.5 dls of sour cream
• two pieces of spring onions
• 1 tablespoon of grated horseradish
• 2 tablespoons of white vine vinegar
• zest of one lemon
• salt, freshly ground pepper

Cook the potatoes in salted water until soft, then drain them and let them cool down. When that's done, you can peel them and cut them in quarters. Add the vinegar and the lemon zest, give it a stir. Meanwhile you can stir the horseradish into the sour cream, slice the onions fine, add the pepper and the salt and in the end mix everything together. Add more salt, if needed

Mexican stlye pita pizza

Pita can be a great replacement for pizza crust when you don't have the time for making it yourself. Especially for those of you who prefer thin crust pizzas. The pita will get extra crispy in the oven below the topping making the whole pizza much lighter than usual. 

Ingredients, serves 4 people:

• 6 small pitas
• pizza cream or ketchup
• half a can of sweet corn
• one can of red beans
• 1,5 red onions 
• spicy chorizo 
• 2 tomatoes
• chilli flakes 
• grated cheese 

Take the pitas apart, and spread the pizza cream or ketchup on top of each piece. Top it with the rest of the ingredients and sprinkle some chilli flakes on top, then you can also sprinkle the cheese. They need around 15 minutes to get crispy at 200 deg Celsius in the oven. They can also be served cool! :)

 

Lemon and chocolate mousse cake

The first step of cake making is the sponge cake that I always make from scratch. I have a recipe for sponge cake that always works, so I will share that now. If you want to prepare a big cake, you can plan on a sponge cake with 8 eggs but you can always reduce the number of eggs by 2 depending on the size of the cake you are making.

Ingredients:

• 8 cold eggs separated
• 4 tablespoons of  caster sugar
• 8 tablespoons of plain flour sifted
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract / flavour

It's important for the eggs to be cold. First you have to separate the whites from the yolks. With an electric beater start whisking the egg whites, gradually adding the sugar. Beat the whites until stiff peaks. Then stir the vanilla extract/flavour into the yolks and add the whole mixture to the whites. From now on you can only use a spoon for stirring. Carefully whisk the yolks and the whites together, gradually sifting the flour into the mixture. When it's done, you know you did it right if it doesn't collapse, but looks more like a really light dough. Line parchment paper on the bottom of a cake ring and butter the ring from the inside. Spread the sponge cake mixture in the cake ring and bake it at 160 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes. You can check if it's ready with a needle or a knife. If you are using a fan-assist oven, at half time I advise you to turn the fan off and let the heat come from below so that the sponge cake can rise. After 10 minutes you can turn the fan back on. When done, let it cool down on a cake rack. 

Lemon mousse:

• 800 grs of Greek yoghurt
• 2 packs of express gelatine
• zest of one leomon and juice of one and a half
• zest of one orange and juice of one and a half
• 4 tablespoons of icing sugar

For the lemon mousse, all you have to do is mixing the yoghurt with the lemon and orange juice, the zest and the sugar. If it's sour and sweet enough, you can add the gelatine and let it rest until you make the chocolate mousse. 

Chocolate mousse:

• 20 dkgs of good quality dark chocolate
• 400 mls of cream
• juice of half a lemon

Whisk the cream until it becomes stiff and then add the orange juice and the melted chocolate. Give it a thorough stir. 

Assembling the cake:

Cover the cake ring from the inside with non sticking foil. Cut the sponge cake in three layers and lay the bottom part back in the cake ring. Pour the yoghurt cream on top of the first layer of sponge cake and cover it with the middle layer. Now you can spread the chocolate mousse on top and cover the cake with the top layer. It needs one night in the fridge so that the gelatine sets. You can decorate it the next day however you want, I used lemon cream and chocolate ganache.

 

Ildi's fresh cheese and lemon crepe cake with chocolate icing

Months ago my friend Ildi got the idea of a cake made with crepes in my head, which is really unfair to do by the way, if you don't have a fresh cheese and lemon crepe cake with you because all you will be able to think about for the rest of the day, how delicious it can be. Since my dear Ildi is the owner of the idea, this cake will be named after her, especially because it was made for her wedding reception for the first time. I really hope she will like it, and even if we are about to meet, I want to wish her all the happiness in the world in here too! :)

Ingredients for a cake of 12 slices:

• 10-12 pieces of crepe
• 25 dkgs of ricotta
• 25 dkgs of fresh cheese
• 1 dl of cream
• 4 gelatine leaves
• zest and juice of one lemon, plus juice of another half of a lemon
• sugar or sweetener according to taste

Chocolate frosting:

• 1,5 dls of cream
• 5 dkgs of butter 
• 20 dkgs dark chocolate

Stir the fresh cheese with the ricotta, the sweetener or sugar, the lemon zest and the lemon juice, until you get a smooth mixture. It needs to be tasted by all means, because it has to be lemony and sweet enough. Put the cream on the heat and keep it there only until it comes to a boil. Meanwhile soak the gelatine leaves in cold water, and when it's soaked and soft, take it out, squeeze the water out of it and add the leaves to the cream. Give it a good stir, and you can add this to the cream as well. To speed up the process you can put it into the fridge for a while so that the gelatine can start to set. Now is the time to set together your cake ring and cover the bottom part with kitchen film.When that's done, you can lay down the first crepe.

If you are lucky, your pancake pan will be the same size as your cake ring. Approximately two tablespoons of cream goes in between two layers of pancake. You just have to keep building the layers. For the chocolate frosting, the cream needs to be brought to a boil together with the butter and then mixed with the chocolate. It will melt nicely, but it needs to be smooth so stirring thoroughly is very important. You can let it set for a while before you start using it. When half of the pancakes are already in the cake, you can spread some chocolate frosting in between two pancakes in the middle of the cake. Then continue with the layers and spread the frosting on the top of the last pancake. Let it cool down for a couple of hours in the fridge. Then take the cake out, take off the side of the cake ring, and cover the sides with the frosting as well. Keep it in the fridge until serving.

Whoppie pies with apricot jam and chocolate cream on top

 This is not the last time I make these pies, that's for sure, I definitely want to try and make them in a sugarfree version because I'm really into them right now. This time it's the absolutely not diabetic and first version. They are small but rich nonetheless, plus they are easy to make. 

Ingredients for approx. 30 pies: 

• 13 dkgs of butter
• 1 egg
• 15 dkgs of brown sugar
• 25 dkg plain flour
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 3 dl of yoghurt
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder 

• 1,5 dl of milk
• 10 dkgs of dark chocolate
• 1 teaspoon of rum flavour
• 3 dkgs of butter
• liquid sweetener 

 

Using an electric beater, beat the soft butter with the sugar and when it's frothy enough, add the egg and keep beating until fluffy. In another bown combine the flour with the cocoa powder and the baking soda. Add the vanilla extract to the butter-sugar-egg mixture, then continue with adding the flour mixture and the yoghurt gradually in batches. When this is done, line two baking trays with baking paper and place the dough into a plastic bag with the corner cut off. Push the dough out and make little balls of it, of abour 3 cms wide. It is very important not to overbake them. They need approx 6-8 minutes at 175 deg Celsius in a fan assist oven. You can check if they are ready by gently pushing your finger into the top of the whoopie pie while in the oven, and if it's flexible enough and comes up, it's ready and you can take it out of the oven. Move them over a cake rack and let them cool down. Meanwhile you can make the chocolate topping. Bring the milk together with the butter to a boil and turn the heat off, then add the dark chocolate and give it a thorough stir until the chocolate melts completely. Add the rum flavour too and let it cool down completely in the fridge. It will thicken and you will be able to spread it on top of the pies. Until the cream cools down, prepare the whoopie pies. Get one piece which will be the top, spread some jam on it and stick another one on the bottom. Let it rest and then top it with the chocolate cream. I let it rest in the fridge until the next day. 

Guacamole with coctail shrimp

My cute mom knows I love shrimps in any way prepared so she bought me the other day a pack of frozen cocktail shrimps. We decided that today will be the day when we cook it and yesterday I could buy ripe avocados in the store for a ridiculous price (which is funny because usually you can buy unripe ones for three times this money) so today's lunch choice was kind of obvious. It's healthy and really delicious! 

Ingredients for the shrimp: 

• 500 grs of frozen cocktail shrimps
• one tablespoon of butter
• a big clove of garlic
•  lemon juice

Ingredients for the guacamole:

• 4 ripe avocados
• half an onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 tomato
• lemon juice
• salt and pepper
• one tablespoon of olive oil

Take the shrimps out of the freezer the day before or if you forgot that, you can wash the frozen shrimps in lukewarm water right before cooking it. Melt the butter in a saucer pan and add the grated or mashed garlic. Then turn the heat up and add the shrimps.  You have to cook it until it lets the water out and then only until the water boils away. Turn off the heat and let it cool down, adding a bit of lemon juice and salt in the end.

With a spoon take the inside of the avocados out and mash them with a fork. Chop the onion, the garlic and the tomatoes fine and add them to the avocado mash. Add some lemon juice, salt and freshly ground pepper, and the olive oil. Give it a good stir and add more lemon juice and salt if needed. You can stir the shrimps in with the guacamole too if you want to. Toast some wholegrain toast bread, spread some ofr the guacamole on the toast and sprinkle the shrimp on top. 

Sugarfree strawberry vanilla cake

The most important thing about this cake is that it was made for my dear Granny's 80th birthday :) Apart from the optional 2 packets of vanilla sugar, it is totally sugarfree, except for the ladyfingers but you can leave those out.

Ingredients for the sponge cake:

• 6 eggs
• 5 tablespoons of flour
• 4 tablespoons of xylitol
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla flavour

Ingredients for the cream:

•  half a litre of milk
•  2 packets of vanilla custard powder
• 10 dkgs of butter
• 2.5 dl of cream
• 1 vanilla fruit
• zest and juice of one lemon
• half a kg of fresh strawberries
• 3 tablespoons of diabetic strawberry jam
• xylitol and liquid sweetener according to taste

Separate the yolks from the whites and beat the whites up with the xylitol. Mix the vanilla extract with the yolks and add the mixture to the whites. Sift the flour into the mixture and give it a good but careful stir. Lay parchment paper in a cake ring and spread the dough into the ring, bake it at 160deg Celsius for about 20 minutes. 

Prepare the vanilla custard with the milk and let it cool down. With an electric beater whisk in the melted butter, the lemon zest, the lemon juice and the inside of the vanilla beans. When it's all in, you have to add the cream and keep whisking until you get a smoothe cream. Cut the sponge cake in two, and lay the bottom half back in the bottom of the cake ring. Spread a little bit of the cream on the sponge cake and cover it with the sliced strawberries. Save some of the cream for the decoration, the rest you can spread on top of the strawberries, and then cover the top of the cream again with strawberries. Spread some jam on the other half of the sponge cake and put it on top of the cream and strawberries. Put the cake in the fridge for the night. The next day you can just spread the rest of the cream all over the cake. Also you have to cover one side of the ladyfingers with the cream and push them into the coconut flakes. Stick the ladyfingers on the outside of the cake. Put some strawberries on top and cover it with red jelly.

Pesto chicken with parmesan dumplings

It's not my own recipe although I had to adjust it a little, I read the original in the hungarian edition of Good Food. Kind of a complicated recipe so only make it when you have the time. I used my own home made basil pesto of which we have a lot in the freezer :) 

Ingredients, serves 4: 

•  8 upper chicken thighs, skin and boneless
• 5 dkgs of smoked bacon
• 3 sticks of celery
• half an onion
• half a leek
• 5-6 pieces of sun dried tomatoes
• 3 handfuls of peas
• 2 dls of white wine
• half a litre of chicken stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 10 dkgs of basil pesto
• 10 dkgs of flour
• 5 dkgs of butter
• 1 teaspoons of baking powder
• 5 dkgs of grated parmesan cheese
• a handful of toasted almonds

Get a dish that you can put in the oven later, so basically one that doesn't have any plastic handles. You have to brown the chicken thighs first, on a bit of olive oil, just until both sides get a slight golden colour. Take them out and in goes the bacon, which you have to fry until crispy. Then you can add the finely chopped onion, leek and celery. Cover it and steam until they become soft. Then you have to add some flour, give it a good stir and pour the wine into the pan. Bring it to the boil, then add the chicken broth and the bay leaves. Cover the pan again and cook the chicken for at least half an hour. If there is too much liquid, don't cover it and just let it boil away. After 30 minutes you can add the peas, the dried tomatoes and the pesto. Give it another good stir. 

You have to make a crumble with the flour and the butter, then add the baking powder and the cheese. Add cold water to the mixture so that you can make a sticky dough out of it. Form little dumplings of the dough and put them nex to the chicken bits. Sprinkle the almond on top and put it in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 200 degrees.

Raspberry and strawberry cream Charlotte cake

Ingedients for the swiss roll:

• 4 eggs
• 4 tablespoons of sugar
• 5 tablespoons of flour
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla flavour
•  4 tablespoons of raspbery jam

 Separate the eggs and beat the whites with the sugar. Mix the yolks with the vanilla flavour and stir the mixture into the whites carefully. Sift the flour into the egg mixture and give it another good stir, until you can't see any flour lumps any more. Lay some parchment paper on a baking tin and spread the sponge cake dough on the paper. Bake it for 15 minutes at 160 deg Celsius. Take it out and while it's still hot, roll the sponge cake into a dish towel (clean of course:)) and let it cool down. When it's cold, roll it out, peel the paper off, spread the jam on the inside of the sponge cake, and roll it back up. Let it rest for a while.

Ingreidents for the raspberry cream:

• 8 dls of cream
• 4 tablespoons o sugar
• 60 grs of instant gelatine
• 50 dkgs of fresh or frozen raspberries
• 15 dkgs of fresh strawberries 
• juice of half a lemon

Whip the cream with the sugar and the lemon juice, plus the instant gelatine. 3/4 of the whipped cream goes with the raspberries, you have to mix the fruit with the cream carefully. The rest is for the strawberries which need to be cut in small pieces. If you want to make it sweeter, you can add more sugar.

How to put the cake together:

Slice the swiss role as thin as you can. Get a round bowl and line it with plastic wrap. You will have to line the inside of the bowl with the swiss role pieces. Then fill it first with the raspberry cream, then the strawberry. Cover it with plastic wrap again, and leave it in the fridge for a night. The next day get the plate that you want the cake on, and put it on the bowl, turn it upside down and if you did everything right, the cake will stand on the plate in one piece :)

Hungarian style onion quiche

This is one of my favourite reicpes with onions. This is the kind of food that I could eat as long as I have any of it in front of me. Not the quickest recipe in the world but the good thing is that it can be completely different when it's still hot and when it gets cold. You make one quiche and you can eat it for days. Don't let the amount of ingredients frighten you, it's absolutely worth it in the end. 

Ingredients: 

For the filling:

• 2 kgs of onions
• 6-8 big cloves of garlic
• 10 dkgs of sliced bacon
• 5 dls of sour cream
• 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds
• 2 eggs
• 15 dkgs of cheese 
• salt, pepper 

For the crust:

• 37 dkgs of plain flour
• 3 dkgs of bran meal 
• 5 dkgs of yeast
• 1.5 dls of milk
• half a dl of vegetable oil
• salt, pepper

Cut the bacon in little pieces and fry them in a bit of oil. The onions need to be cut in thin slices. When the bacon is done, add the onions and the chopped garlic. Sprinkle the salt on top and give it a good stir. Cover the pan and let it steam for half an hour, give it a stir from time to time. Then remove the lid and let the onions brown a little bit. Add some salt and pepper to the sour cream and mix it thoroughly with the two eggs.

Meanwhile measure the flour and the  bran meal and mix them together. Add the yeast to the warm milk, maybe add a tiny bit of sugar too to help the yeast to rise. Then mix the flour with the yeast and the milk, the oil and all the other ingredients. Kneed it until you get a flexible dough. Let it rise until it's double the original size. Then you can get a deeper baking tin, lay some parchment paper on it and roll out the dough so that it fits into the pan plus it has a 1 cm high crust on each side. Spread the onion mixture on top of the crust and carefully pour the sour cream on top. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top of the whole thing and bake it in the oven at 200 deg Celsius until it becomes golden brown.

Sugarfree banana cheesecake

This was the first time I tried to make a cheesecake, in this case it was a birthday cake for my sister. It is an awesome cake, you can make it with basically any fruit and any flavour. I'm sure I will make other ones in the future, my favourite part is the cream, which even though you have to bake it, remains frothy and bubbly when done. It's not the quickest or easiest recipe but don't let that keep you from trying it :) 

Ingreidents for a 20 cm cake tin:

• 15 dkgs of full grain butter biscuits
• 5 dkgs of butter
• 25 dkgs of mascarpone
• 330 grs of greek yoghurt
• 15 dkgs of xylitol
• 3 tablespoons of flour
• liquid sweetener according to taste
• zest of one lemon
• juice of one lemon
• 3 whole eggs 
• 1 vanilla pod, craping the beans out
• 2 bananas
• sliced fresh fruits for the topping
• 1 packet of colourless cake jelly powder 

Line the base of the cake tin with parchment paper. Grate the biscuits and melt the butter, then mix the two together thoroughly. When it's done, pour the mixture into the pan and press it down with your hands, making it even everywhere. Preheat the oven to 160 deg Celsius and bake the crust for 10 minutes, then take it out and turn the oven up to 200 degreees. With an electric mixer, whisk the mascarpone so that it becomes smooth, add the yoghurt, the lemon zest, the lemon juice and the vanilla beans. With a fork, smash the bananas in another dish and when it is totally pureed, add it to the cream base. Whisk it again with the bananas and taste it, if it's not sweet enough, add some liquid sweetener. If you are happy with how it tastes, you can add the flour (sifted) and the eggs, but you have to stir it with a spatula or a wooden spoon from this moment on. Stir it until you get a smooth mixture. Grease the sides of the cake tin with butter and sprinkle it with some flour so that it covers the buttered cake ring. Pour the mixture on top of the crust. For the first 10 minutes bake it at 200 degrees and then lower it to 140, leaving the oven door open for the first 3 minutes. Bake it for another 25 minutes and then turn the oven off,  again leaving the door open. If you let it cool down in the oven, the top won't crack. Once it's cold, you can cover it with chocolate cream, put the sliced fruit on top and cover the fruit with the cake jelly.