It's National Something On A Stick Day!

It really is Something on a Stick Day! Here is what I found about this funny day:

Something on a Stick Day celebrates things on a stick. Isn't this just a neat day?  We thought you'd agree.

So what comes on a stick? Practically anything. The first thing that comes to mind is popsicles and fudgecicles. Hotdogs are poplar on a stick at campfires. There's also corndogs, and shrimp and many chinese treats. Cocktail wieners and cheese are picked and eaten on a stick(a toothpick).

You can also get just about anything on a stick when receiving food samples at a store or festival.Celebrate this fun day by serving food for meals and snacks on a stick. The kids will love it. So will you!

Isn't that great?? Well I didn't make anything specially for this day but I will post this recipe of cupcake pops I made for my moms birthday a few month ago. (love you mommy)

This recipe belongs to Bakerella, and she wrote such simple instructions that I won't even bother re-writing them but I will post the chocolate cake recipe I used for the Pops.

And here is the chocolate cake I used:

Simple Chocolate Cake:

2 1\2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

6 Tbsp dark cocoa

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp bakind soda

1 1\4 cups water

4 eggs

1 cup oil

In a bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients, then add the wet (egg, oil, water) mix until combined.

Pour mixture in a baking pan (it doesn't matter what size pan you use 'cause the cake is anyway going to get crumbled into pieces)

bake for 30 min in a 180* oven.

after that follow the step by step intructions from Bakerella.

I had some leftovers from the cupcake pop mix so I just made some pralines out of them.

Happy something on a stick day!

Pistachio Mustachio

So simple, so good! Yesterday evening I was roasting some pistachios for my dinner salad, everthing seems normal so far- until I stumbled upon a bar of white chocolate (damn that moment!). So I melted the chocolate, mixed in the roasted nuts and let it set in the freezer.

yuuuuuuuum! Needless to say I had no salad that evening.

All you need for this is some white choclate and roasted pistachios (or any other nut), you don't have to roast them but I think they are much tastier that way. (they release their flavour and get crunchy)

Nutella ella ella ella eh eh eh.....

This is such a great recipe! One of my favorite chocolate cookie recipes.

Nicole from Baking Bites describes them so well I'll just quote her here:

"I love it when a cookie looks fairly ordinary at first glance and then really “wows” you when you bite into it. These cookies fit that description perfectly. They might not look like much at first glance - thin, with no big chunks of chocolate, nuts or any other add0ins - but they win you over in one bite. They are thin and crispy, with an almost lacy texture that makes the cookies feel very light. You can taste oatmeal and butter, along with sugar and a bit of salt, with a hint of chocolate and hazelnut from the addition of a bit of Nutella to the batter. They are simply delicious.

These cookies spread a lot during baking, so it’s important to leave plenty of room between the cookies when you are placing them on the baking sheet. You don’t need much dough to make each cookie; one teaspoon of dough turns into a three inch cookie, give or take a little. They get their spread from a couple of sources, including butter/fat, leavening and a relatively small amount of flour. The fat keeps the cookies crispy, while the leavening and the relatively small amount of flour contribute to a delicate texture.

These cookies will be fairly soft when they first come out of the oven and will harden as they cool. Let them set up on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool. Once the cookies are cool and crisp, store them in an airtight container and they will keep their crispiness for several days - if the batch lasts that long. It’s easy to eat these two at a time, and they’re likely to go faster if you have coffee or vanilla ice cream around that need accompaniment." -Or Fluff!

(I love fluff)

Seriously, a jar of fluff doesn't last for more than an hour from the moment it arrives home! If you have no Idea what fluff is check out this website - and start loving it! I even have a original fluff cookbook which I will probably write about here sometime.

Nutella Oatmeal Thins:

1 cup plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
170 gr butter, room temperature
6 tbsp Nutella
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup quick-cooking oats (not instant or regular)

Preheat oven to 180°c. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together butter, Nutella and the sugars until mixture is fluffy. Beat in the egg and the egg yolk, followed by the vanilla extract.
Working at a low speed or by hand, gradually blend in the flour mixture and the oats (if you don’t have quick-cooking, pulse whole rolled oats in the food processor to chop them up a bit).
Drop teaspoonfuls of the batter onto prepared baking sheet, leaving at least 2-inches between cookies to allow for spread.
Bake for 10 minutes, until cookies are set.
Cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 6-7 dozen cookies (which is more than enough)

Pssst...It's low fat

Ok, let me just say I was not looking for a low fat recipe, it just happened! I swear!

These are great muffins plus you really cant tell they're low on fat. They smell lemony and are surprisingly moist....I don't know how low on fat they are if you eat three of them at once (like I did), but hey- don't we all try to make excuses to eat stuff we know we're not supposed to? So I think low fat lemon&poppy seed muffins are a damn good way to do so.

Just saying 'low fat' makes me feel better already!

This recipe calls for Greek yogurt (aka Labane), I highly recommend using it and not regular yogurt. Labane has a much creamier texture to it and is slightly sour.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins:

For the muffins:
2/3 cup sugar
zest and juice of 2 small lemons
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup non fat Greek yogurt
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

For the glaze:*
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

*I passed on it cause the muffins were tasty, sweet and moist even without it.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 200*. Prepare your muffin pan or whatever muffin cooking apparatus you will be using, and place on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, rub together the sugar and lemon zest until the sugar is moist and you can smell the lemon. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In another bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the yogurt, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and canola oil until well blended.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and with a rubber spatula gently and quickly stir to blend. Do not over-mix. Stir in the poppy seeds. Divide the batter evenly in 12 muffin cups.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool for about 5 minutes, and then remove them from the molds and let cool to room temperature.

To make the glaze, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar with 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Add more lemon juice as needed to get it to the consistency so you can drizzle the glaze over the muffins.

Mango Meringue

A few days ago I went to my favorite baking supply store to look for some new interesting stuff .

I wanted to buy lavender extract but they were out, then I saw Mango! What the hell can I make with mango extract? Frankly, I don't really care- All I want is to come home with some new cool stuff, so of course I bought it.

I was really inpatient and just wanted to try it out already. So what could I make that didn't involve allot of ingredients and would work well with mango flavour?- Meringues!

The thing about these meringues is that they don't really taste of mango, but they do have a strong mango aroma which adds a nice touch to the usual meringue flavour.

I wont go on about how to make the perfect meringue but I will give you this link,

It explains all about making the perfect meringue, baking it, using it, storing it.

Mango Meringue:

2 egg whites

1\2 cup superfine sugar (confectioner's sugar)

pinch of salt (or cream of tartar)

1 tsp mango extract

Preheat oven to 100*-120*, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In large bowl, beat egg whites with salt until stiff, but not dry.

Gradually beat in sugar until a little of the mixture between your thumb and forefinger feels smooth, not gritty. Stir in vanilla. Pipe or spoon small portions onto baking tray and bake 35 minutes, or until dry but not brown and come off the parchment paper easily. Turn off oven and leave meringues to cool inside.

No bees, no honey: no work, no money

Honey Comb is a well known candy in australia and uk. Fortunatly you can make your own at home! It makes sweet hard honey flavoured candy pieces that are addictive to anyone who tries them.

Honey Comb:

75 grams honey (1/4 cup)

140 grams light corn syrup or glucose (1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon)

400 grams sugar (2 cups)

20 grams baking soda (3 1/2 teaspoons)

Prepare a sheet pan (preferably with sides) with a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil and brush it with a thin coating of butter or oil. If you have a silpat, put that down and forgo the grease. Set aside.

Combine the honey, corn syrup and sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan--one large enough to allow the mixture to quadruple in size (which it will do when you add the baking soda at the end). Moisten the mixture with enough water so that there are no dry patches of sugar; then wash down any stray sugar crystals that might be clinging to the side of the pan.

Set the pan on high heat and cook and cook and cook until a candy thermometer reaches 300 F or, if you don’t have a thermometer, until the mixture turns a light amber color. While the mixture is cooking, do NOT stir it at all. Stirring can cause the sugar to seize (one moment it’s fine, one moment it’s hard and crystallized). Don’t worry about it mixing properly, it will do that on its own when it starts to boil.

When the honeycomb is sufficiently cooked, take the pan off the heat. Dump in all of your baking soda and whisk vigorously until it is well combined; while you whisk, the honeycomb will foam up dramatically. After the soda is whisked in, gently pour the mixture out onto a prepared pan and allow to cool completely, about one hour.

Once cool, break into smaller pieces and store in an airtight container. (Honeycomb is hygroscopic, meaning that it sucks in moisture from the air, leaving an unprotected initially crisp candy sticky and gooey in a matter of hours.), because it's fairly warm here I kept mine in the fridge and they hold up for quite some time.

Brush teeth immediately after consumption.

This recipe makes so much that I had to give away some, the last picture shows the little gift bag a made.

Halla-lujah !!

It's Halla time!

One of my favorite breads to eat is Halla, it goes well with almost anything!

I wanted to try something new to give the old good halla a twist. I came along this recipe and was very pleasantly surprised. It includes a basic halla recipe plus a yummy filling, which can of course be altered to your likes.

Filled Halla:

filling:

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 red onion, chopped

3 sage leaves

1 Tbsp thyme

1 green chili pepper, chopped

10 slices of dried tomatoes

halla:

500 gr (4 1\2 cups) all purpose flour

2 Tbsp dry\fresh yeast

250 ml (1 cup) of water

1 Tsp salt

1\4 cup sugar

40 gr butter

1 egg

In a bowl of an electric mixer place water, sugar and salt. give it a whisk so they will melt a little and not ruin the fresh yeast later on (if you're using dry yeast put that in first and let sit for a few minutes and then add sugar and salt).

Sift the flour and mix it with the yeast and add it to the mixer bowl, add the dough hook attachment and turn on for about a minute, then add the egg and butter, now knead for around 10 minutes until dough climbs up the hook.

When dough is finished place on a floured surface, knead a little by hand (god knows we all can use a work out) and make a nice ball shape, place in a bowl and cover to rest and rise for about an hour.

Meanwhile you can make the filling, which anyway needs cooling off.

Chop the dried tomatoes and place in a little bowl and let them soak in some olive oil so they can really release all that nice flavour.

Finely chop all the other ingredients and start cooking them in a frying pan with some olive oil' then add the tomatoes and cook everything until the mixture gets a nice dark color.

set aside to cool.

After dough has risen, roll it out to a kind of long oval shape, spread the cooled mixture on the dough and roll it over, out of the dough roll you just created, you make a snail!

Ok, I know it sounds complicated so please use the illustration below to help you out:

Ok, so after you have mastered the snail (filling and rolling), let it rest and rise one more time in a round baking pan (well oiled) for 30 min.

Then egg wash it ( I use one egg, 1 tbsp water and a bit of salt) and sprinkle with coarse salt or whatever you have at home that is sprinkable.

bake at 180* for 35-40 min. or until golden brown.

The Artisan is coming!

I got a KITCHENAID stand mixer! And it's purple too!

Now I can finally do all the stuff I ever wanted! Looking forward to kneading yeast breads and cakes and all that other stuff that is too hard to do by hand. yay!

Pears + Gorgonzola = hugs from mom for a week!

I must start with a confession: I don't like blue cheese.
However, I bought some mini pie shells and really couldn't wait to make use of them.
So of course I was too lazy to go shopping, so I decided to raid the fridge with a dark thought in my mind- the fear of finding ingredients I'll have a hard time working with: Pears and Blue cheese. yummy- NOT!

Oh man, I finally get the chance of trying out my pie skills and here I am baking with stinky cheese! I guess I'm exaggerating and it was really fun making these.

Some say pears and blue cheese are a match made in heaven, I say- They smell like feet.

If you are willing to take the risk of a very smelly kitchen, here ya go:

Pear Tartlettes:

KitchenAid pie pastry:
21⁄4 cups all-purpose flour
3⁄4 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 cup shortening, chilled well (I used 125 gr butter)
2 tablespoons margarine
or butter, well chilled
5-6 tablespoons cold water


Pear filling:
3⁄4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1⁄8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
6-8 medium pears, peeled,
cored, and thinly sliced
nice chunk of Gorgonzola (any blue cheese will do)

Filling: Combine all Filling ingredients, except cheese, in
large skillet. Stir in sliced pears. Cook over medium
heat about 5 minutes, or until hot and bubbly,
stirring gently. Set aside to cool.


Pastry: Place flour and salt in mixer bowl.
Attach bowl and flat beater to mixer. Turn to Stir Speed and mix
about 15 seconds. Cut shortening and margarine
into pieces and add to flour mixture. Turn to Stir
Speed and mix 30 to 45 seconds, or until shortening
particles are size of small peas.
Continuing on Stir Speed, add water, 1 tablespoon at
a time, mixing until all particles are moistened and
dough begins to hold together.
Divide dough in half. Pat each half into a smooth
ball and flatten slightly. Wrap in plastic wrap. Chill
in refrigerator 15 minutes.
Roll one half of dough to 1⁄8-inch thickness between
waxed paper. Fold pastry into quarters. Ease into
8- or 9-inch pie plate and unfold, pressing firmly
against bottom and sides.- or make mini ones like I did.


Fill pie shell with the warm filling and sprinkle over some of the cheese (see picture)
Using second half of dough, roll out another pastry crust. Top with second pastry crust. Seal edge. Crimp, as desired. Cut slits for steam to escape, and egg wash'em!


Bake at 200°c (400'f) for about 35 min or until golden brown.

Happy Birthday Tequila!

It's my cats birthday today! He's turning......8! You should know that he has a very disturbing addiction to marshmallows, yeah I know. Anyway, I always wanted to give homemade marshmallows a try and never really got to it. Mainly 'cause I didn't have the right equipment that could endure over ten minutes of high speed mixing....but that has changed now (more on that later!). So I got my hands on some gelatin and corn syrup and got it going!


I would not recommend using sheet (also leaf) gelatin, simply because it makes the whole deal fussier than it should be. Also, my marshmallows turned out much softer than I expected. They are of course super sweet delicious but they won't keep for more than 10 sec. in a warm hand palm, so you gotta eat'em quickly! (or use more gelatin which is probably the smarter option).
Anyway they keep real well in the fridge and when it's hot outside pop some in the freezer for marshmallow Popsicles! My mom actually puts them in her morning coffee :)
But the most important rule is: Eat them as you wish!

Here's a picture of some sugar and cornflour dusted marshmallows.....mmm

There's about the size I cut them into...again mmm...

So! Are ya ready for the recipe?? :

Marshmallows:

3 Tbsp gelatin

1\2 cup cold water

2 cups granulated white sugar (mainly to keep the marshmallows white)

2\3 cup light corn syrup

1\4 cup water

1\4 tsp salt

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Line 9 x 9-inch pan or whatever kind of container (depending on which height you want your marshmallows) with plastic wrap and lightly oil it (use unflavoured oil, such as Canola) Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a rapid boil and boil hard for 1 minute.Pour the boiling syrup into soaked gelatin and turn on the mixer, using the whisk attachment, to high speed. Add the salt (or cream of tartar) and beat for 12 minutes.

After 12 minutes, add in the vanilla extract (and food coloring if wanted) beat to incorporate. Scrape marshmallow into the prepared pan and spread evenly (Lightly greasing your hands and the spatula helps a lot here). Take another piece of lightly oiled plastic wrap and press lightly on top of the marshmallow, creating a seal. Let mixture sit for a few hours, or overnight, until cooled and firmly set.

In a shallow dish, combine equal parts cornstarch and confectioners’ sugar. Remove marshmallow from pan and cut into equal pieces (use a large knife) Dredge each piece of marshmallow in confectioners’ sugar mixture. Store in an airtight container or even in the freezer.

This recipe makes a lot, so be ready for some enjoyable tummy ace.

Happy Birthday Tequila :)