Coffee cream cake with berries - sugarfree!

Another one of my cakes that you can make completely sugarfree if you want, but it works with sugar just as well. All the sugar I put in this one was two packs of vanilla sugar but you can leave that out and substitute it with xylitol.

I baked a sponge cake in a medium sized cake ring, the recipe is in one of the previous posts, in case you need a bulletproof recipe for a sponge cake. This one is made of 7 eggs, containing only xylitol and the above mentioned vanilla sugar that can be left out.

Ingredients for the coffee cream:

• 500 grs of mascarpone
• 400 grs of whipping cream 
• 1 pack of express gelatine fix
• 1 cup of coffee brewed in half a cup of water
• liquid sweetener 

Fruits on top: blueberries, raspberries, red currant and blackberries but obviously it's up to you what you want to decorate your cake with.

Whip the cream and carefull whisk in the mascarpone, add the coffee and the sweetener and give it a thorough stir. It probably won't be thick enough so you will have to use the gelatine fix. Just pour it in and mix the whole cream again thoroughly. Taste it, make sure it's sweet enough and that you don't need to add more coffee.

Cut the sponge cake in three layers, and top the bottom layer with the coffee cream, lots of it! :) Sprinkle some of the red currant on top of the cream and cover it with the next layer of sponge cake. Do it all over again, then place the last layer on top.

Cover the whole cake with the leftover cream and arrange the rest of the fruit on top, any way you like. I would recommend putting the cake in the fridge for a couple of hours, so that it can set and the sponge cake can absorb some moisture from the cream.

Tortilla wraps with tuna and chicken seasoned with herbs

I like wrapping things in tortillas because there's no limit to the versions that you can come up with. There is only one trick to it: you have to warm the tortillas up otherwise they will break. I don't recommend microwaving them, it's a lot better if you throw them in a dry and hot pan, and give each side no more than 30 seconds. It's healthier and they will taste even better. If you don't know how to wrap a tortilla, you might find this link useful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GOnGbTHqN8  

 6 tortillas (25 cms in diameter) should easily serve 4 people.

Ingredients for the tuna filling:

• 1 can of tuna in brine
• 2 tablespoons of mayo
• juice of quarter of a lemon
• salt
• freshly ground pepper

Drain the tuna and with loosen up the chunks with a fork, add the mayo and the lemon juice, the salt and the pepper and give it a thorough stir. You want to taste it and add more lemon juice or salt, if needed.

Ingredients for the chicken:

• one chicken breast fillet
• salt
• freshly ground pepper

Slice the chicken breast up any way you like really, I cut it into thinner slices, and cook each side for only a couple of minutes so that they don't become dry. Don't forget to sprinkle some salt and pepper on top of each side.

Ingredients for the sauce with herbs:

• 3 tablespoons of sour cream
• 1 tablespoon of mayo
• 1 handful of chives
• 1 handful of thyme
• a bit of parsley
• salt
• freshly ground pepper 

Chop all of the herbs fine, the thyme leaves you only need to pick from the stems, and add everything to the mayo and sour cream. Add the salt and the pepper, stir it and then taste!

There's only one thing left to do: fill the tortillas and wrap them up. What I added to the one with chicken was iceberg salad, ruccola, cherry tomatoes cut in halves, finely chopped spring onions, some cheese and of course the sauce. The one with the tuna also had some ruccola in it, along with spring onions, tomatoes, cheese and I tried one with sauce in it, it was awesome!

The secret to the perfect apple pie and its recipe

It's not hard to make a good applie pie, you only have to pay attention to a couple of minor details. Based on my experience with different kinds of applie pie I can say that there are 3 very important characteristics that make an apple pie the best one you can make:

1. The filling has to be sweet and sour enough at the same time. There's nothing worse than when you can't taste the apples because the whole filling is just too sweet. 

2. You mustn't overcook the apples for the filling. It has to be soft and it has to have the right texture for a filling but you mustn't cook it until it all falls apart. 

3. The crust needs some whole grain flour in it, it will taste a lot better than when you only put plain flour in it. 

And of course you always have to apply the golden rule: lots of filling, with a thin crust! :) 

Ingredients for a medium sized pie:

• 300 grs of plain flour
• 100 grs of any kind of whole grain flour
• 50 grs of fresh yeast
• 150 mls of milk
• 100 grs of granulated sugar
• 100 grs of cold butter
• 1 coffe spoon of ground cloves
• 1 egg for the egg wash

•  3 kgs of apples approx., mix sweet and sour kinds if possible
• 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons of xylitol
• zest of one lemon
• juice of 1,5 lemons
• two handfuls of raisins
• 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

 It's best to prepare the dough first and while it rests you can make the filling. Measure the two types of flour, mix them with the cloves, also add the butter, crumble it into the flour mixture. Heat the milk up a bit, not too hot though, and add a bit of sugar and the yeast. You have to let it rise, then you can add it to the flour mixture. When that's done, you can just be lazy as I usually am, and throw the whole thing into the machine so that it kneads it instead of you. If you don't have the possibility, you will have to go in and do it with your hands. You can add warm water if it's not sticking together but in the end it has to be a flexible, easy to handle dough, so if it's too sticky just add some more flour. Put it away until you make the filling so that the yeast can do its job. 

For the filling you will have to peel the apples and grate them. When that's done, you will have to squeeze the juice out of the apple (by the way if you drain it in the end you get a pure, 100% natural apple juice and it's delicious!) which you have to put into a pan along with the raisins, the cinnamon, the lemon juice, the lemon zest and the sugar (and the sweetener), on low heat. Let it cook for about 15 minutes, give it a good stir every now and then and taste it, that's very important. You can add more sugar/sweetener or lemon juice if needed. When done, let it cool for a while. 

 All you have to do now is get your rolling pin and roll the dough out so it can fit into the tin of your choice, lined with baking paper. Add the filling and decorate it in any way you want! It needs about 20-25 minutes at 180 C in the oven.

Salmon & lemon spaghetti in 15 minutes

This might be the quickest spaghetti recipe I ever tried, it's very minimalistic but if there is salmon involved, there is never need to add so many other ingredients. 

Ingredients:

• 1 piece of salmon fillet, about 100 grams, without skin
• 1 thicker spring onion
• 1 big handful of whole grain spaghetti
• juice of half a lemon
• 2 tablespoons of sour cream
• salt and a bit of oil 

While you wait for the water to boil, slice the spring onion fine and start cooking it in a saucer pan on low heat with only a bit of oil. Once you got started on the onions, you can prepare the salmon. It needs to be cut into small cubes (if there are any fish bones in the fillet you will find them when cutting it up), and thrown into the pan with the onions. 

Give it a good stir, then add the lemon juice and sprinkle some salt on the pieces. They need only 5 minutes to be fully cooked, then you can stir in the sour cream and add the drained spaghetti.

Dried fruit and chocolate milk loaf

This milk loaf is basically another version of this recipe, so I will write the recipe down now, which I didn't do the first time I uploaded it on the blog. It's a bit time consuming but definitely worth the effort.

 Ingredients:

• 350 grams of  plain flour
• 100 grams of whole wheat spelt flour
• 50 grams of fresh yeast
• 70 grams of butter
• 100 grams of caster sugar
• 1 egg for the dough
• 1 egg for wash 
• 200 mls of lukewarm milk
• all kinds of dried fruit
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• zest of one lemon
• zest of one orange
• 2 tablespoons of rum
• 100 grams of dark chocolate 

Measure the two types of flour for the dough and then mix it with the sugar. Then you can add the butter and the yeast, cut into pieces, and crumble it into the flour. Add the cinnamon, the nutmeg, the egg and the milk. Give it a good stir with a wooden spoon and when it starts to combine well, keep kneading it with your hands. It has to become this soft but not sticky dough, so you can add a bit more flour, if needed. Place it in a bowl, cover it and let it rise for about an hour. 

In the meantime mix the dried fruit with the rum, so they can soak it up and be even more delicious ;) Also, line a middle sized cake ring with parchment paper. When the dough is double its original size, give it another round of kneading, and then cut the dough into 8 pieces. What you need to to with each of them is stretch them out with a rolling pin so they are more or less 10 cms wide and  25 cms long and have a rectangular shape. Then fill the pieces with the dried fruit and the chopped up chocolate. Then roll it up starting from the longer side of the rectangle, and roll the whole thing up so it's shaped like a bun. 

 

 

Place each of these in the cake ring, next to each other so that there's not space in between the buns. When you have all of them inside the cake ring, give the whole thing a good egg wash. Bake it in the oven at 180 C for about 45 minutes. When done, take it out of the ring, let it cool down and ice it with icing sugar dissolved in a bit of cold water.

 

Grilled mozzarella wrapped in Black Forest ham

Not having access to Parma ham and buffalo mozzarella, I had to re-design and make this amazingly delicious dish with regular mozzarella that you can buy in any store and Black Forest ham. Ruccola and balsamic vinegar lovers will appreciate this recipe, I hope :)

 

Ingredients, serves 2: 

• 3 mozzarella balls 
• fresh ruccola, the amount depends on how much you like it... :)
• 9 slices of Black Forest ham
• dark balsamic vinegar 

Cut each mozzarella ball into three pieces and wrap each of them in one slice of ham. If it wants to fall apart,  you can stick a toothpick in each piece. Heat up a tiny bit of oil in a pan and grill both sides of the ham, and when that's done, pour in the vinegar. Let the acid boil away, so that it thickens and becomes very sticky. 

Pile the ruccole up on a plate, and place the hot pieces of wrapped mozzarella right on top of it. Pour the remaining "dressing" all over it, so it can mix with the ruccola too.

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.