Paska, Easter Bread

Easter is one of my and my family favourite holidays. From childhood I remember  its rich traditions, like the blessing of a basket of Easter foods which becomes the Easter Sunday brunch, being the first meat meal, after a strict fast on Good Friday and Saturday. One of the special foods in that basket is a round shaped Easter Bread, called Paska in Romanian or Paszka in Hungarian. The top of this bread is  decorated with a cross dough ornaments. This is  my family Paska recipe, which makes one large loaf.

Ingredients:

500gm sifted all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten

25gm fresh yeast or 20gm dry yeast

1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 cup milk, lukewarm
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. lemon zest

50 gm raisins ( optional)


Directions:

• In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water. Let stand for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, scald the milk. Add the sugar, stirring with a whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat, and let cool.Add the beaten eggs, sugar, melted butter, salt, and  lemon zest. Mix thoroughly. Stir in enough flour to make dough that is neither too soft nor too stiff.
• Knead until the dough no longer sticks to the hand.
• Turn the dough on a floured board, or other work surface, and knead until smooth and satiny.
• Place in a bowl, cover, and let it rise in a warm place until double in bulk.
• Punch down and let it rise again.
• Prepare your loaf pans by thoroughly greasing them with shortening.
• Divide the dough into 2 parts, leave a small part for ornamental decorations.
• To make ornaments, one of them being the cross, you roll out some dough into a rope like shape and form it into an ornamental cross to place in the middle of the top of the bread.
• After loaf is decorated, dip a pastry brush in whole egg, and gently brush the bread tops, and ornaments, to give them a nice golden color once baked. 
• Set the loaves in a warm place, once more, until almost double in bulk. Do not let the loaves rise longer than necessary, because the ornaments will lose their shape.
• Preheat you oven to 400 degrees, and bake the bread for 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350 degrees, and bake for 30 minutes longer, or until done.
• Remove the loaf from the pan, and cool completely by covering the whole with a clean cloth a bit humid.

To thaw, keep covered, to prevent from drying out.

Dios Beigli

Beigli is a real Hungarian Christmas treat, we bake this for Easter as well. This pastry is is basically a rolled up crust with lots of filling. Walnut and poppy seed are traditional cakes for holliday.

Since this is such a traditional food in Hungary, there are as many recipes as there are families. The dough, for example, can either be risen dough or crumbly dough. The recipe I am including here today is the one I have put together from various recipes over the years, now one of my own

Makes 4 loaves

Ingredients
1 kg white flour
200 g butter softened
150 g lard (no, you shouldn’t substitute)
80 g sugar
3 tablespoons 20% fat sour cream
3 egg yolks
20 g fresh yeast or 15g dry yeast started in 1/2 cup warm milk
1/2 cup warm milk or as needed at the end to obtain a good dough
pinch of salt
1 lemon zest

Walnut filling
400g walnuts (1.75 cups)
50gm sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk
3 eggwites beaten
1 Rum essence
50 gm raisins 

Poppy seed filling
1 1/2 cups (8 oz.) poppy seeds
1/4 cup unsalted butter (see cooking instructions for pareve subs)
1 cup milk (see cooking instructions for pareve subs)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten

Method
One of the secrets for this recipe is that all ingredients must have same temperature at start and the kitchen should not have open window with cold air getting in, I know it sounds funny but it affects the quality of the dough to raise....

• Combine 1/2 cup warm milk with the yeast and 1 tbs sugar. Set aside for 5 minutes until foamy.
• Process the flour, butter softened, egg yolks, salt, sour cream in a food processor until breadcrumbs form. Transfer to a bowl. you can work out this dough by hand as well.
• Mix in the yeast mixture. Knead and add the lemon zest and more flour or milk to get a good soft dough, knead until smooth. Place in an oiled bowl. Cover and set aside for 45 minutes. 
• For Walnut filling, heat the milk with the sugar to dissolve, leave it to cool. Add the walnuts mixed with cocoa , add the egg whites beaten and mix softly to obtain a finely smooth paste. 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Knead the dough until smooth, then halve. Roll each portion out to a 13cm x 24cm rectangle. Spread with the walnut filling. Roll up. Slightly flatten to about 7cm wide. Place on a lined baking tray. Brush top with 1 egg, beaten.Stand 20 minutes.

Bake for 35-40 minutes.

This beigli will stay soft up to a week.

Plum Dumplings (Silvas Gomboc)

Plum Dumplings are a real treat, its a potato dough surrounding a pitted plum juicy with sugar and cinnamon, and buttered bread crumbs. It's an absolute European delicateness.

Serving ; 6 person

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients;
18 Italian plums, washed, split, pit removed
10 medium sized Potatoes
2 egg beaten
4 cups of flour
1 tsp. salt
Buttered bread crumbs
Sugar
Cinnamon

Cooking Method;
Peel potatoes and cook in salted water till soft.
Drain and peel.
Mash potatoes and let it cool, add  flour and salt on a kneading surface.
Make a well and add egg and knead gently till all is blended.
On a clean floured surface, roll dough out to a 3"diagonal roll
Cut dough into 3/4"-1" slice and put a plum into center of each slice.

Place 1/2 tsp. sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon in the hole of the plum.
Fold edgers of the dough to the middle and roll the dumpling in your hands till round.
Cook a few dumplings at a time in salted water for about 10 minutes.
Remove with a slotted spoon.
Place in a pan in which bread crumbs have been toasted in oil (one cup crumbs to 1/4 cup oil or butter)
Keep warm.
When all the dumplings have been cooked and are in the pan, gently spoon the bread crumbs, butter, sugar and cinnamon mix over all.

Serve warm with bread crumb topping and a more suggar with cinnamon mix or sugar icing if desired.

Cheese cake (Túrós pite)

This cheese cake is one of our favorite cake, its easy to make and it will stay soft for couple of days.

Dough:

200gm shortening (Crisco) or butter/ margarine
125g sugar
2 spoon sour cream
350gm flour
4 egg yolks
1 baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp lemon extract (optional)


Filling:
500 gm cottage cheese

300 gm Philadelphia cream cheese

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 packets vanilla sugar
1 lemon peel
2 tbsp. lemon juice option

1/2 cup of semolina
Make Filling :
In a blender, combine cottage cheese, Philadelphia cream cheese, eggs, lemon peel and juice, vanilla, sugar and salt. Blend until smooth. Pour into first layer of prepared crust.

Make the dough:
Cream shortening and sugar thoroughly, then add beaten egg yolks. Mix well. Sift flour and salt with baking powder. Alternate adding flour and sour cream to the mixture. Mix well, The dough will be quite crumbly and hard to put together, don't mix it more than is necessary. Form into a big ball cover with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for an hour.

Heat oven to medium-high (190°C, 375°F).

Cake assembly;

Take half of the dough and layer with a spoon and level it, to fit the bottom of an 8 inch square baking dish which you have buttered. The mixture is crumbly and difficult to roll it if you chose another method to assembly the cake. Spread the semolina on the first dough layer and add the cheese filling and distribute it evenly over the dough. On top of the cheese filling spread  add the other half of the dough by grating it on top of the filling and level it slightly with a spoon, or try to roll the dough in a thin layer and put on top of the filling.



Bake it for 35-45min, remove from heat, add icing sugar on top, let it cool and cut in square.

Diplomat cake with Yogurt

This is a delicious Romanian dessert called Diplomat, it’s a refreshing light version of the original, as the filling is with yogurt and whipping cream, no eggs, no cake pound.

This cake is great idea to have for parties, hot summer days or new year eve, but not only.


With a little creativity you can replace the lady fingers with the cake pound, you can substitute the can fruit with real fruits or other fruit cans whatever you like.

Prepration Time: 30-45min
Servings: 8

Ingredients;
10 lady fingers for a 9" pan
Filling:

400 g yogurt ( greek is best and optional with vanilla flavor)
500 ml Whipping Cream liquid
1 pouch 10gr. stabilizer for whipping cream Dr. Oetker
3 pouches Gelatine “Knox”
1 small can peaches small bits
1 small can pineapple small bits
250 gm sugar if use vanilla yoghurt or 300gm sugar if use natural yogurt
Decorations:1 large orange, optional kiwi, grapes, banana and Whipping cream

Drain the pineapple and the peach fruits from cans, keep 7/8 of the total juice for the gelatin mixture, and 1/8 for the lady fingers, cut the fruits in small pieces and let it drain while you prepare the pastry cream.

In a bowl, mix the 3 gelatin with ½ cup of cold pineapple juice, then add ½ cup of hot peach juice and stir constantly until completely dissolved.

In a bowl prepare the filling, beat the yoghurt with sugar about 3 minutes, in a separate glass bowl beat the whipping cream with the stabilizer until stiff, then fold in the yoghurt mixture slowly. Gradually, slowly poor the gelatin mixture an continue to fold the mixture smoothly. Add the drained fruits and fold into the cream slowly.

Cut the orange and kiwi in thin slices for decorating the cake.

Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto a round cake pan and arrange slices of orange and kiwi at the bottom and walls of the pan on the plastic wrap. Pour the cream in the cake pan over the fruit slices. Put each lady finger in the fruit juice with one side to get moist and place with the dry side on top of the cream, arrange the lady fingers to cover the cream surface. Cover the cake pan and refrigerate for about 5 hours or overnight, until it is thoroughly chilled.
After the cake is completely chilled remove from the fridge and turn upside down the cake pan, remove slowly the plastic wrap, and you can ornate with more whipping cream if you like but it is not necessary.

Crepes with Banana cream

This traditional Hungarian dessert can be served with a variety of spreads, including strawbery jam, Nutella cream cheese, etc. This specific recipe is filled with Banana whipped cream

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 cups Flour
2 1/2 cups Milk
7 oz Water or Carbonated Water
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Sugar
1 tablespoon of oil

Oil or Butter to grease

For Filling;
3-4 banana
2 cups of whipped cream

Servings: cca. 10-12 pcs
Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 45min -1hour

Directions:

Mix flour, salt and sugar. Combine well beaten eggs and milk. Add egg and milk gradually to flour mixture, beating to a thin smooth batter. Let batter sit for at least 1 hour.

Coat about an 8 " pan with oil or butter. Ladle in just enough batter to cover bottom evenly. Brown lightly on both sides, and set aside. Continue this until batter is used up.

Keep the ready pancakes in warm oven. Spread with different kinds of jams, cocoa-sugar or cinnamon-sugar mixture, or sweetened cottage cheese; roll up and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Cut the banana in small pcs and mix with the whipped cream, fill the crepes with this banana mixture or with the filling of your choice, decorate and Enjoy!

Isler Cookies,

This is a famous cookie recipe mostly baked during holiday time in Europe.

For cookies

300 g flour
250 g unsalted butter, soften
125 g ground nuts walnuts and almonds
125 g powdered sugar

1 backing powder
1 Tbsp rum
a pinch of salt


For the filling

2 egg yolks

120g sugar

1 vanilla sugar

30g flour

1 tablespoon cocoa

150g  milk 

200g unsalted butter

Filling Preparation

In a small sauce pan mix all the above ingredients except butter, put on the slow heat and mix continuously until it start to thickens and boil, remove from heat and let it cool. Once the cream is cooled add the butter little by little ( butter should be creamed in advance and soft prior adding to the cream)

Glaze

200 g chocolate melted with little butter and water.

Method for cookies preparation

1) Cream soften butter with powdered sugar. Do not over-mix. Incorporate flour, ground nuts, pinch of salt and rum into the butter-sugar mixture until the whole thing come together. Chill in fridge for  at least 1 hour.

2) After an hour, roll out the pastry until the thickness of 3 mm. Use round cookie cutter to cut pastry. Cut until all pastry are used. Baked for 10-12 mins at 175°c

3) Let cookies cooled. Meanwhile, melt chocolate to get ready for assembly.

4) Sandwich cookies with preferred cream and top with chocolate glaze

5) Store cookies in a tin can and place in a cool place at least overnight, to allow the flavour to develop.

Apple cake "Almas porlos testa"

This apple cake is quite popular in Hungary and Romania and is easy to make.

Dough:

200gm shortening (Crisco)
150gm icing sugar or regular
½ cup sour cream
500gm flour
3 egg yolks
1 baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp lemon extract (optional)


Filling:
1 1/2kg sour apples
1 cup sugar
2 packets vanilla sugar
ground cinnamon to taste or 1/2 tbsp
1 tbsp. lemon juice option

1/2 cup of breadcrumbs

Make Filling :
Peel apples, core, and grate. Add other filling ingredients except bread crumbs, and mix. Put the mixture in a pot on slow heat and cook it for 3-5 min till part of the juice came out from apple. Drain the apple mixture, the juice put asside it wont be used for cake.
Taste and adjust sweetness and tartness, let it cool.

Make the dough:
Cream shortening and sugar thoroughly, then add beaten egg yolks. Mix well. Sift flour and salt with baking powder. Alternate adding flour and sour cream to the mixture. Mix well, The dough will be quite crumbly and hard to put together, dont mix it more than is necessary. Form into a big ball cover with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for an hour.

Heat oven to medium-high (190°C, 375°F).

Cake assembly;

Take half of the dough and layer with a spoon and level it, to fit the bottom of an 8 inch square baking dish which you have buttered. The mixture is crumbly and difficult to roll it if you chose another method to assembly the cake. Spread the bread crumbs on the first dough layer and add the apple filling with the and distribute it evenly over the dough. On top of the apple filling spread the cinnamon and vanila suggar. Add the other half of the dough by grating it on top of the apple filling and than level it slighlty with a spoon, or try to roll the dough in a thin layer and put on top of the filling.

Bake it for 35-45min, remove from heat, add icing sugar on top, let it cool and cut in square.

Fresh Strawberry Cake

This is a lemony Strawberry Cake very light and will stay soft for few days.




Ingredients;

200 gm sugar
120gm butter


2 eggs
1 vanilla sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
300gm flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 lemon grind
lemon juice from 1 lemon
150gm sour cream

3egg whites for topping (optional)

2 cups strawberries or mixed berries such as raspberries, strawberries and blueberries
1 cup whipping cream, whipped

Preheat the oven to 375°F.


Coat a 9"x9" baking pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the suggar with butter until smooth on medium speed, add eggs one by one untill fully incorporated, add vanilla, salt. Add the flour, the baking powder, sour cream and beat until thoroughly combined. Pour the batter evenly in the baking pan, cut the berries add them on top of the batter.


Bake for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean, and 10 minutes before cake is ready, add on top of the hot cake 3 hard beaten egg whites, then let it backe for another 10 minutes.






When cooled, top with fresh whipped cream.






Makes 12 servings

Cheese Sticks (Sós stangli)

There isn’t a Christmas that goes by that I don’t make these Sós stangli . They are easy to make especially if not from scratch, I am using the puff pastry, they go fast and great salty snack for beer.

Ingredients

1 Package (397 g) Tenderflake^®Puff Pastry, defrosted overnight in refrigerator

300 g mozarela or chedar cheese, shredded

2 egg white or whole for brushing

1/2 tsp salt

caraway seeds

Instructions

1. PREHEAT oven to 450˚F (230˚C).
2. DIVIDE pastry into two equal pieces. Roll out half of pastry on a lightly floured surface into a 9-inch (25 cm) rectangle. 
3. Brush the entire surface with egg wash, and sprinkle cheese, salt and caraway seeds.
4. Sos tangli traditionally are cut into long sticks as you can see in the picture above.
5. Place these sticks on the prepared baking sheet bake for about 10 min or until golden brown.

Mille-feuille or Napoleon

Napoleon or Mille-feuille 

This is a classic French pastry which is popular in Europe. It's made by alternating layers of pastry with custard cream, and it isn't difficult to make at home, particularly if you use frozen puff pastry dough.


Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Chilling time: 2 hours
Total Time: 3 hours, 25 minutes
Yield: 8 servings


Ingredients: 


For the Pastry 390 gm. frozen puff pastry or "Tenderflake" 1 package

 For the Filling or  Pastry Cream 

2 cups half and half or light cream
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons flour
40gm corn starch
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (or 1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring) or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 whipping cream stabilizer

Yields enough pastry cream for two 9" or 10"


Preparation:

Ahead of Time

Make the Pastry Cream. Creme patissiere, or pastry cream, is a vanilla-flavored filling for pastries. Once it has cooled to room temperature, chill it in the fridge until needed.
In a medium-sized saucepan, heat the half and half cream with the vanilla bean almost to boiling.

While the cream is heating, mix the egg yolks and sugar together in a large bowl, then whisk in the flour and cornstarch until the mixture is smooth.

Remove the vanilla bean from the milk, and gradually whisk the hot milk into the egg mixture. Strain the mixture back into the saucepan, and place over medium heat, stirring or whisking constantly until the mixture thickens and reaches a boil. Continue cooking for half a minute longer, stirring hard and constantly to keep the pastry cream smooth.

Remove the pastry cream from the heat. (Stir in the vanilla flavoring at this point if you did not use a vanilla bean). Place a layer of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pastry cream to avoid a skin forming, and leave to cool.


Separately in a small mixing bowl beat whipping cream with the stabilizer and until soft peaks form. Fold whipped cream into warm pastry cream and leave it to cool completely in the fridge.
The pastry cream can be used when cool, or covered and refrigerated for up to several days until needed. Stir chilled pastry cream before using. 

Bake the pastry layers.

Preheat your oven to 400° F (200° C). Roll out the puff pastry dough into an elongated rectangle the thickness of a thin piece of cardboard. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into three equally-sized pieces.

Transfer the dough to a baking pan (or pans) lined with parchment paper and pierce the dough all over with a fork. Cover the dough with another sheet of parchment paper and place a baking pan or pie weights on top to weigh down the dough as it bakes.

Bake the dough, in batches if necessary, about 15-20 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown. The weights and top layer of parchment paper pan may be removed the last five or so minutes of baking to help color the dough if necessary.

Transfer the dough to racks to cool completely.


Assemble and Decorate the Mille-Feuille

It's best to work on a flat surface for easy transfer of the finished pastry to a serving dish. Have everything at hand – the baked puff pastry layers, the pastry cream, and the ingredients for frosting and decorating. Don't worry if your baked pastry layers look unevenly sized; before  assembly you'll be trimming the edges for a uniform look and save the edges for decorating the cake.

Start by distributing 1/3 of the pastry cream over one layer of baked puff pastry. Top with another layer of dough, pressing gently to adhere it to the pastry cream below. Spread the remaining the other 1/3 of the cream over the second layer of pastry. Top with the third layer of pastry and again press down gently and spread the remaining 1/3 all over the top and edge of the cake.

Next, working quickly, crumble the left over puff pastry edges and mix with the super fine (powder) sugar.
Spread the crumble puff pastry all over the cake on top of the cream and on the sides of the cake.


A traditional Napoleon is filled with plain pastry cream but if desired you may add a thin layer of fruit preserves such as seedless raspberry or strawberry jam/

bon appetite

Baklava

Servings: 18

"A Greek favorite that makes everyone think you are a master chef and is sooo easy to make!! I taught a Greek friend how to make apple pie and she taught me this fabulous recipe. The phyllo dough for this recipe is found in the freezer section of most grocery stores. Add a little lemon zest to the sugar sauce, if desired."

Ingredients:


1 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough

1 pound chopped nuts

1 cup butter

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


1 cup water

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup honey


Directions:



1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C). Butter the bottoms and sides of a 9x13 inch pan.



2.Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fit pan. Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2 - 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. The top layer should be about 6 - 8 sheets deep.



3.Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. You may cut into 4 long rows the make diagonal cuts. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp.



4.Make sauce while baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes.



5.Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool. Serve in cupcake papers. This freezes well. Leave it uncovered as it gets soggy if it is wrapped up.

Cremsnit (Placinta cu crema de vanilie)

This is one of everyone's favorite cake, its called Cremes and is made from puff pastry and vanilla cream, sounds very simple, the trick is in the technique of putting all together, to get the famous Cremsnit .

Ingredients;

1 Tenderflake^® Puff Pastry thawed at room temperature (200 and some grames)
Cream

6  eggs
100 g flour ( amidon for cake)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
350 gr white sugar
1L  milk
250g butter unsalted

whipping cream ( optional)
200 ml heavy cream
2 Tablespoons powder sugar
***
Instructions:
PREHEAT oven to 450˚F (230˚C).
DIVIDE pastry into two equal pieces. Roll out half of pastry on a lightly floured surface into a 9-inch (25 cm) rectangle. Place pastry onto a parchment lined baking sheet and pierce the dough all over with a fork. BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until pastry is golden and pears are tender. REMOVE baking sheet from oven and let cool slightly.
For cream heat the milk  thoroughly bring to a boil on the stove in a large sauce pan as you will need to add later the eggs mixture.
Meanwhile  separate the egg whites from the yolks and place them in large bowls
Whip the egg whites with  the sugar + vanilla extracts untill hard and puffy, add the yolks, followed by the flour, mix with a wood spoon.
Pour the eggs mixture in the boiling milk and mix at a low temperature stirring constantly and keep over the stove until the mix thickens (medium heat). Remove from heat, let the filling cool a little bit than add the butter cut in small pieces and mix untill a smooth crea.

Prepare the whipped cream and have it handy

Put the base line baked cold puff pastry sheet in the pan and spread cold cream filling over it, wait 5 minutes and then spread the whipped cream, align the the other puff pastry sheet on top
Garnish with powder sugar and put in a cook place to set or place in the fridge and indulge in it the next 3 hours (morning would be perfect)

Cream puffs (Ecler)

Homemade cream puffs will please your guests,  they are so easy to make, especially if you fill them with instant vanilla pudding. The baked puff shells are a simple mix of milk, butter, water, salt and eggs.

Prep Time: 30 Minutes

Cook Time: 25 Minutes

Ready In: 55 Minutes

Servings: 20


Ingredients:

2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk

1/2 cup butter
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs

Directions:
1.Mix together vanilla instant pudding mix, cream and milk. Cover and refrigerate to set.

2.Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

3.In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet.

4.Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Centers should be dry.

5.When the shells are cool, either split and fill them with the pudding mixture, or use a pastry bag to pipe the pudding into the shells.

bon apetite

Geta's Best Rum Brownies

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 35 Minutes
Ready In: 50 Minutes
Servings: 24

This is a very Rich, dark, and chocolatey, brownie cake, the recipe uses room esence, cocoa powder, semi-sweet chocolate morsels, and butter, to bake the best chocolate treat."

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup of white sugar
1 tablespoon rum extract( if not available you can substitute the vanila extract )
1 baking powder
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease with butter a 9x13 baking dish.

In a large bowl combine the melted butter, sugar, and rum. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each, until thoroughly blended.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until blended. At the end stir in the chocolate morsels. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking dish.

Bake in preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove, and cool pan on wire rack before cutting.

Bon apetite

Banana Bread baked in Bread Machine

Out of all the recipies out there this is a very easy delicious banana bread that is especially quick in the bread machine to bake it.

Servings; 15
Ingredients;
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup white sugar
4 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 eggs
3 bananas, peeled and halved lengthwise

Directions:

Place all the ingredients in the pan of the bread machine.

Select the Quick Bread setting, and press Start. Watch the mixing the bread ingredients and if necessary, use a rubber spatula to push the dough from the sides of the bread pan. Smooth out the top of the loaf with the rubber spatula.

The Bake cycle time may vary with machines, but should be about 50 minutes. To test the bread for doneness, insert a toothpick into the center top. Remove the toothpick. If the bread is done, the toothpick will come out clean. If there is dough on the toothpick, reset the machine on Bake and continue to bake an additional 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove the pan from the machine, but allow the bread to remain in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove the bread to cool completely on a wire rack.

Bon apetite!

Diplomat Cake with Fruits

This is a delicious Romanian dessert, and my favorite during my childhood and there might be dozens of different recipes and different plating ideas, but I try to make this cake with lady fingers which is the quick way to make it.

This cake would be great idea to have for parties, or at winter time but not only, below is the recipe which I use and if you follow it, there is guarantee of success to get this delicious cake as in my picture.

With a little creativity you can replace the lady fingers with the cake pound, you can substitute the can fruit with real fruits or other fruit cans whatever you like.

Prepration Time: 30-45min
Servings: 8

Ingredients;
10 lady fingers for a 9" pan
Filling:500 ml Whipping Cream
1 pouch 10gr. stabilizer for whipping cream Dr. Oetker
1 vanilla sugar 9g
2 pouches Gelatine “Knox”
1 can 398 ml peaches sliced
1 can 398 ml pineapple sliced
4 eggs
8 tablespoon sugar
Decorations:1 large orange
1 large kiwi
optional ; Whipping cream

Drain the pineapple and the peach fruits from cans, keep 7/8 of the total juice for the gelatin mixture, and 1/8 for the lady fingers, cut the fruits in small pieces and let it drain while you prepare the pastry cream.

In a bowl, mix the 2 gelatin with ½ cup of cold pineapple juice, then add ½ cup of hot peach juice and stir constantly until completely dissolved.

In a separate saucepan prepare the pastry cream over moderate heat, beat the eggs with the sugar over double boiler until it starts to congeal about 3 minutes, then slowly poor the gelatin mixture an continue to whisk constantly, until the cream is thick, about 3 minutes. Remove from double boiler and let stand to get cold.
Beat the whipping cream with vanilla sugar and the stabilizer in a glass bowl until stiff, then fold in the warm/cold pastry cream slowly and gradually. Add the drained fruits and fold into the cream slowly.

Cut the orange and kiwi in thin slices for decorating the cake.

Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto a round cake pan and arrange slices of orange and kiwi at the bottom and walls of the pan on the plastic wrap. Pour the cream in the cake pan over the fruit slices. Put each lady finger in the fruit juice with one side to get moist and place with the dry side on top of the cream, arrange the lady fingers to cover the cream surface. Cover the cake pan and refrigerate for about 5 hours or overnight, until it is thoroughly chilled.
After the cake is completely chilled remove from the fridge and turn upside down the cake pan, remove slowly the plastic wrap, and you can ornate with more whipping cream if you like but it is not necessary.