Whole grain tea-biscuits filled with fig jam

I remade the classic tea-biscuit recipe because I was curious if it could me made with whole grain flour and xylitol. Not very surprisingly, it can :) It's true tough that it's not that easy to handle it, I had to make the pieces by hand, that's why they don't look as pretty as they should. But despite all that, it's still very delicious :) You have to let them rest at least one night because that's when they gather the humidity from the jam and they become super soft. 

Ingredients:

• 16 dkgs of butter
• 15 dkgs of xylitol (powdered) 
• 6 egg yolks
• 25 dkgs of whole grain flour
• zest of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or flavour
• half a jar of fig jam
•  5 dkg of dark chocolate

Mix the soft butter with the sugar until it becomes fluffy. The easiest way is to use a mixer. When that's done, add the yolks one after the other. After that add the flour too and give it a good stir so that there aren't any lumps of flour in it. Add the lemon zest and the vanilla flavour too, and give it a last stir. You have two options from here: form little balls of it by hand or use a plastic bag, cut off the edge and push the dough out. Press them onto the baking tin. Bake them in the oven at 180 deg Celsius for 10 minutes tops until the edge becomes golden. Then wait until they cool down and stick the tops and halfs together with the jam. You can cover the top with melted dark chocolate.

Chicken stripes coated in cornflakes with coleslaw

I've been meaning to try chicken coated in cornflakes, and I have had the intention of making coleslaw for days now, so today I united these two in a very american lunch :) The good thing about this chicken is that you don't have to deep fry it, it only needs a bit of oil because the chicken breast gets done very quickly. It's not a very quick dish, I suggest making it on weekends when you have time to deal with the coating. 

Ingredients for the chicken: 

• about 3/4 kgs of chicken breast, cut in stripes
• 4-5 tablespoons of flour
• 3 eggs
• a packet of non flavoured cornflakes
• 1 teaspoon of grated chili
• one and a half tablespoons of roast chicken seasoning
• 1 teaspoon of dried garlic  

 Ingredients for the coleslaw: 

• 1 small head of cabbage cut in thin stripes
• 2 carrots
• 1 stick of celery
• half a leek
•  juice of half a lemon
• 4 tblspoons of mayo
• 4 tblspoons of sour cream
•  salt, pepper 

Sprinkle the dried garlic, the chili powder and the roast chicken seasoning onto the chicken stripes and give it a good stir. Then roll the stripes first into the flour, then the beaten eggs, then the smashed cornflakes. The easiest way to crush them is to put the flakes into a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Then fry them in a bit of oil until both sides are golden brown. 

For the salad, sprinkle some salt onto the cabbage and let it rest for a while. Meanwhile slice the other vegetables up very thin, and then add them to the cabbage. Mix the dressing and pour it onto the salad mix. Let it rest for a while because it might need some extra salt or lemon juice, or a bit of ground caraway seeds. 

Chocolate-rapsberry birthday cake

I made this cake for my dear older sister's birthday, I'll publish the recipe later :)

Chocolate and orange pie - sugarfree

It is official: I love xylitol. It is a natural sweetener, looks and behaves exactly like sugar and it doesn't have this nasty after-taste that most sweeteners do. The only downside is that it is quite expensive but if you buy bigger amounts at a time, it's pretty economic. This pie doesn't contain any sugar, except for the 74% dark chocolate, I wouldn't say that it's completely diabetic but I would recommend this pice to people with diabetes in small amounts.

Ingredients for the crust:

• 10 dkgs of plain flour
• 10 dkgs of Graham flour 
• 2 tablespoos of cocoa powder
• 10 dkgs of butter
• 10 dkgs of xylitol
•  zest of one lemon

Ingredients for the cream:

• 2 dls of milk
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 10 dkgs of butter
• 20 dkgs of 74% dark chocolate
• 60 grs of xylitol
• one tablespoon of rum
• zest of one orange
• juice of half an orange

Mix the two types of flour together, rub the butter in it, add the cocoa powder, the xylitol and the zest of lemon. Start kneading it, if it wants to fall apart after kneading for a while, add a teaspoon of sour cream. When it's done, let the dough rest for a while. Then roll the dough out and place it into a fruitcake pan. Stick it with a fork a couple of times, and then bake it for 15 minutes at 190 deg Celsius in the oven. Meanwhile mix the xylitol, the orange juice, the zest of the lemon and the butter with the milk and wait until it starts boiling. Then add the cocoa powder gradually (it's better if you sift it) and then the chocolate. Stir it until the chocolate melts completely. Then get an egg whisk and whisk the cream until it cools down. Then pour the cream on top of the crust and put it in the fridge until the cream sets completely.

Chicken curry with sweet corn and bamboo slices

I'm not always the biggest fan of curry flavoured things but sometimes I'm just in the mood, like today, plus I had this jar of bamboo slices for ages that I wanted to use. The secret to a good curry is the impressive amounts of spices that you put in it, possibly in the beginning when you can roast them a little bit in the pan, that's when all the flavours come out. You can do a curry with basically any vegetables, I had carrots, sweet corn and these bamboo slices at home right now.

Ingredients for a bigger batch:

• 1 chicken breast sliced
• 2 carrots
• 1 can of sweet corn
• 1 jar of sliced bamboo
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons of sour cream
• cumin
• chili powder
• curry powder
•  ginger (fresh)
• coriander seeds
• 2 smaller onions
• 4 cloves of garlic

Chop the onions fine and start cooking them in a bit of oil. When it's almost done, add the cumin and the corander seeds. Fry them a litle bit and then you can add the chicken and the rest of the spices (add as much as you like according to your taste but I think at least a teaspoon of every spice is neccessary). Add the carrot too and give it a good stir. Then cover the pan and wait until the carrot is cooked. Then you can add the sweet corn, the bamboo, the coconut milk and the sour cream. Give it another good stir and let it boil for another 15 minutes. Cooked rice is perfect with it.

Barbecue chicken thighs with carrot rissoles

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken thighs
• 2 tablespoons of ketchup
• 1 tablespoon of barbecue sauce
• 1 tablespoon of chili sauce
• one squeeze of lemon
• 2 teaspoons of honey
• 2 carrots
• 1 dry bread roll soaked in water
• 1 smaller onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
•  2 eggs

Stir the ketchup, the barbecue and the chili sauce, the lemon juice and the honey together. Pour the whole mixture on the chicken and give it a good stir so that each leg is covered with the sauce. Put the legs into a heatproof dish and cover it with tin foil. It needs about an hour at 200 deg Celsius, the last 15 minutes is without the foil so that the skin can become crispy. Meanwhile cut the carrots into match sized bits and gently crush them with your hands. Add the eggs, the bread roll, the finely chopped onions and garlic, some salt and stir the whole thing very thoroughly. Heat just a little bit of oil in a pan and fry the rissoles in the oil, until both sides are golden brown. I also cooked some brussels's sprouts as garnish. 

Pirog with red cabbage

This is a bit different version of pirog than the original one because it's not made of flaky pastry and I used red cabbage as well for the filling. The dough is half part Graham flour, half part plain flour. I was curious if it tastes good with red cabbage in it and surprisingly I liked this version even more. The next day there were only a couple of pieces left :)

Ingredients for 2 big oven pans

• 15 dkgs of plain flour
• 30 dkgs of Graham flour
• 20 dkgs of butter or margarine
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 6 tablespoons of sour cream
•  half of a red and a white cabbage, rasped
•  caraway seeds
•  2 tablespoons of sugar
•  grated cheese
•  1 egg

 

Rub the margarine or butter into the flour and add the salt and the sour cream. Knead the dough until it becomes easy to handle. Let it rest until you make the cabbage filling. Start heating up the sugar in a pan and when it's golden, add the lightly salted cabbage. Cook it until it becomes soft, stir it often. When it's done, let it cool down. Roll the dough out quite thin and cut squares out of it. Put some filling in the middle, sprinkle some cheese on it and fold the dough into a triangle shape. Push down the edges with a fork, put the triangle on the oven pan and give it an eggwash. It needs 15 minutes in the oven at 200 deg Celsius.