Viennese Sandwich biscuits with Chestnut Ganache cream

I am not really fond of chestnuts. They have a nice nutty flavour but there's also a but of sweetness and blandness in them and because of that I can't say they are a favourite. For the same reason I still got a can of chestnut purée in my cupboard and that was one very hard to obtain, I remember, some time ago, as it is only available around Christmas. (Quite like the ready pumpkin purée that can be found around Halloween and then almost impossible.)
I have been looking for ideas what to do with the chestnut purée as it's expiry date was round the corner and throwing away food is just so wrong. First I was musing about some easy recipe like putting in entire can into a dough and probably bake cupcakes but I soon realised I wouldn't like the result quite as much as I expected, and throwing away food that I have spent time cooking is even wronger.
It became apparent that chestnut purée will work best in a creamy environment and more like so with chocolate. So I gave up the plans for a quiet, fuss-free and washing-up free creation. It had to be done the passionate way - with a result to die for. The chestnut purée was about to become a rich dark chocolate ganache and chestnut purée whipped cream!
The other part was easy - my favourite biscuits that I quite miss since I am in the UK - the soft yet crumbly shortbread biscuits sandwiched with cream are not too popular here. I was able to find some under the name of Viennese swirls in Waitrose though, just to remember how much I like them and to confirm tat these are my favourite biscuits of all. Of course I had to make chocolate Viennese swirls to join together with my chestnut and chocolate ganache - heaven!
I had a batch of piping bags ready and that made the whole process a bit cleaner. The swirl biscuits are relatively easy to make - the only thing to consider is to leave enough space between them as they will expand and flatten a bit during baking. Otherwise no freezing or chilling required unlike other shortbread recipes.
I made these the day before and oh, on the next morning! The cream had soften the biscuits a bit more and the flavours blended well together - yes, these definitely are a favourite!

Viennese biscuits with Chestnut Ganache Cream

Biscuits

Products:

(makes around 40 individual biscuits)

50 g icing sugar

250 g soft butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

230 g plain flour

20 g cocoa

50 g corn flour

Method:

Beat the butter and sugar until creamy and add the flour and cocoa. At that stage knead with hands until the dough is soft enough. I used a piping bag with a nozzle attached but though that a cookie press might work better as the dough is a bit hard. However it will soften a bit more in the process.

Line a baking sheet with baking paper and squeeze the piping bag to make the roses. Arrange them with at least an inch space between them.

Bake immediately (without putting them in the fridge) at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. 

Chestnut and dark chocolate ganache

Cream is enough for two doses of biscuits - so reduce by half or keep  in the fridge and use within a week.

 Products:

200 ml double cream

150 g dark chocolate

400 g chestnut purée

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

Heat the double cream but don't let it boil. Remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate pieces into it. Keep stirring gently until dissolves. Leave to cool down, cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Beat the chestnut purée with/or without some sugar. Beat the cooled ganache with the mixer for a minute and add the chestnut purée. Add the vanilla essence and continue to beat until homogeneous.

Join the ready biscuits with the cream.

They will taste even better on the next day.

Hidden Egg cake for Easter - a Success and a Failure

I admit I was a bit carried away by the enormous possibilities that the hidden cake technique allows. My idea for another hidden cake was to hide colourful eggs inside. I had the egg cookie cutter shape already (I must confess here I've got lots of cookie cutter but am more a cake person than a cookie person I'm afraid. So hidden cakes are perfect for me.) What I needed more was cake in four different colours and I was thinking of yellow, green, red and blue.
For the yellow and green eggs I was to use shapes cut out from the leftover better from the cake I already made - the hidden chick one.
So I needed blue and red colours. I thought of blueberries for the blue and beetroot for the red.
And that's where the failure happened.
Staring with the beetroot - I made a paste of cooked beetroot and a very little bit of warm water. However, I had the impression beetroot is very colouring so I decided to use it gradually until I get the required colour - that was  exactly 2 tbsp. The batter had a very nice dark pink shade and I happily put it in the oven. It had a pinkish crust too so I expected to see a light pink inside. But the result was pure yellow on the inside - a mystery. I either used not enough of the paste or something went wrong between the batter ingredients and the beetroot. Still needs improvement.
The blueberries idea did not work either so I thought I should use a little bit of blue food colouring this time and mix it with part of the pink (from the beetroot) batter. It went violet as expected.
Until baked - when the colour was blue-green ... a total mystery if you ask me. Still not sure how that happened.
So I should either use much higher quantities - as with the spinach from previous cake, or I should change the colouring agent.
However, I could go only with the green and yellow eggs anyway. (I did put the blue one too though).




For encasing the eggs I thought of a chocolate pound cake and adapted a recipe. I was lucky to have some Valrhona Dutch-process raw cocoa powder (read all you need to know about cocoa powder on David Leibovitz's post) to give it a really chocolaty feel.

The quantity I used are for two cakes, although I have to admit the second cake got less batter and had different shape as the cut out eggs were not well covered under the batter.
I believe if there is no second cake inserted the quantity will be well enough for a one pound tin.

The recipe is adapted from the Mango pound cake and Joy of Baking's Pound cake .

Chocolate pound cake for encasing a hidden cake 

(makes two loaves)

Recipe:

4 medium eggs

170 g sugar

100 g butter at room temperature

4 tbsp milk

160 g self raising flour

25 g unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method: 

Beat the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy. Add the cocoa powder and beat until well incorporated. Add the eggs one by one beating with a mixer for 20-30 seconds after each.

Finally add the flour and vanilla essence and mix with a mixer for 15-20 seconds until well incorporated. If needed finish by hand.

Assembling the hidden cake:

Line a cake tin with baking paper. lay a very thin layer of the batter on the bottom and place the cut out forms closely one behind the other. 

Cover with the batter up to almost entirely covering the forms, just a very little of the top can be left peeking. Spoon over the cut out egg forms so their tops are covered with the batter too.

Bake at 160 C fan n oven (180 C) for exactly 30 minutes. Leave on a wire rack to cool.

Sprinkle some icing sugar and cocoa powder on top or don't. It's great both ways! 

Happy faces guaranteed when you cut!

Hidden chick cake for Easter

I learned two totally unexpected things through these this cakes.

First, there is a spinach cake and it tastes great!
And second - you can twice bake a cake! (well, partly)

Let me tell you more about it!

1.Have you ever believed that spinach can be used for sweet dishes? I personally didn't have even the slightest idea. However making the Ombre cake recently made me think about food colouring and what can be done to use natural dyes - I was thinking particularly about green. It could be done using a lot of matcha of course but I wanted to give the cake to kids and too much green tea seemed inappropriate  so I thought about spinach instead. The idea seemed quite crazy to me but knowing that nothing is really invented and everything new is a well forgotten old thing I thought I should google that crazy idea and check if someone had already done it.  I wanted to specifically check how green the green colour would be.
Well for my enormous surprise - there was that recipe! It's a Turkish cake recipe Ispanakli kek (Spinach cake) and I couldn't be happier. That's the recipe I need. The colour looked pretty intense and the texture seemed great (And in reality it looks exactly as on the photos).
The spinach taste is there only immediately after baking and is completely disappeared a couple of hours ago.  After baking I realised the cake was too sweet to my taste, I could happily go with 1/3 less sugar so I should adjust that next time I bake.
Concerning quantity - it was a bit more than I needed for the specific cake I was making, so for hidden cake probably half should do fine, or it will make two 1 lb loaves.

2.Bake a cake and then bake it some more? How crazy *that* sounds?
Yes, it is possible and trending at the moment and no, the part that is already baked does not go harder.
To make it you need two cakes of different colours and a cookie cutter. You also need some free time.
The possibilities are endless!

With the approaching Easter I thought of a hidden Easter chick cake and a hidden Easter egg cake. I did both!

For the hidden Easter chick I chose to use green and yellow cakes. The green one is a spinach cake and for the second one I did a mango pound cake. (This one was also too sweet - next time maximum 200 g sugar).

Easter green hidden chick cake 

Recipe:

(makes 4 cakes)

for the mango pound cake: (from Parita's World)

makes 2 loaves or one very big and one smaller

3 medium eggs

200 g sugar 

113 g butter - soft at room temperature

1/2 medium sized mango peeled and the pulp pureed 

250 g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy, then add the eggs (I did all at once) and beat with the mixer for about two minutes. Add the mango puree and mix well, then the butter and vanilla. Beat on low speed for 15-20 seconds and finish by hand if not homogeneous.

Fill in paper-lined loaf cake tin(s) or flat tins to 2/3 of the height and bake for 45-50 minutes at 180 degrees C or 160 C fan oven.

Remove from oven, leave to cool on a rack and when well cool slice thickly and cut out forms using a cookie cutter. 

The cut out forms should be aligned one behind the other in the tin like this.

 And then covered with the second cake batter for Spinach cake.

for the Spinach cake: (from Binnur's Turkish Cookbook)

Recipe:

3 medium eggs

200 g sugar

300 g spinach leaves stalks on - blended with 50-70 ml hot water to fine puree
100 ml light olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
310 g self-raising flour
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Method:

Mix the eggs with sugar. Add the spinach puree, lemon juice and olive oil and mix well. Finally add the flour and vanilla and mix until homogeneous.
This mixture pour over the prepared cake centres - a baking paper-lined loaf tin with the arranged cut outs of the previous cake. The amount of spinach cake should be 2/3 of the tin height, but in case the cut out forms are sticking out, spoon some cake batter over them to cover. When the cake rises it will hide the entire  forms underneath.

*These products will be enough to make two cakes. Alternatively, half of the mix can be baked in a flat tin to prepare more hidden cake (as I did).

Bake for 30 minutes 180 C or 160 C fan oven. Leave to cool on a rack and wait until completely cool.

Wait to see the kids surprise when they discover the hidden picture :)

Сладкишът с ким на Билбо

За пръв път "прочетох' "Хобит или До Там и Обратно" в култовото списание-комикс Дъга и с рисунките на Сотир Гелев преди много години. Няма нужда да казвам, че чаках всеки следващ брой с голямо нетърпение, за да проследя развитието и края на историята за симпатичния чревоугодник и любител на приключения (толкова нетипично за собствения му вид), хобита Билбо. Историята за деца, която се развива в Толкиновата Средна земя, толкова много ми хареса, че след няколко години прочетох продължението и роман за по-големи Властелинът на пръстените, където можах да се запозная много по-подробно с нравите и обичаите на хобитите и другите обитатели на този вълшебен свят.

Хобитите са веселяци и обичат да си хапват и пийват добре, и храната им заема основно място в ежедневието и празниците. Кой читател не е искал да присъства на трапезата на Билбо в онзи паметен следобед, когато на гости му се изсипват 12 джуджета и един вълшебник?

 Кой не е искал да вкуси магическите вкусотии на елфите и други създания, които дават сили и смелост да продължиш напред в трудни преходи и неблагоприятни условия? Точно с такива две такива рецепти мисля да ви почерпя днес.

Нека да опитаме някои вкусотии от Средната земя ... е, донякъде ;).

Признавам, че българският превод има свой неоспорим чар и когато книгата се чете на английски много неща се възприемат по съвсем различен начин, но и двата варианта имат собствено макар и различно усещане. Угощението в началото на "Хобит" и вкусотиите на трапезата, както и цялата ситуация с гостите - се усещат съвсем различно в оригинал и превод, което дава възможност за различни интерпретации, ммм най-вече на рецептите ;)

Една от тях гласи, че Графството, където живеят Билбо и другите хобити, е идеализиран образ на селска Англия с нейните социални порядки и следователно аналози на всичко в Графството могат да се търсят в Английското Викторианско общество.
По този начн  прочутите питки с ким (в българския превод) с които Билбо нагостява джуджетата, са всъщност сладкиши с ким (Seed cake), доста популярен десерт по Викторианско време, а дори и преди това. Разликата идва от това, ще нашата пита (по-скоро като хляб) е различна от популярния английски кейк, който не е чак толкова хлебен.

Кейкът с ким е доста лек и непретенциозен, а и се съхранява добре, пък и колкото повече седи по-хубав става, та по тази причина може да се направи през почивните дни и завит в хартия за печене и да се хапва цяла седмица.

Рецептата, която използвам е адаптирана от готварската книга на Мисис Бийтън от средата на 19-ти век, пригодена за съвременни условия. Позволих си да направя няколко промени и мисля, че резултатът е съвсем задоволителен.

Ето тук са оригиналните рецепти, за който би се интересувал.

Сладкишите с ким на Билбо са хубави и кръгли (според книгата), затова използвах две кръгли тавички с диаметър 18 см., но биха могли да се изпекат в по-голяма и по-дълбока тава. Тестото трябва да заема около 2/3 от височината на тавата.


А ето и моята версия на сладкиша с ким на Билбо.

Продукти:

5 средно големи яйца

240 г захар

240 г масло

200 г брашно с набухвател

150 г брашно от спелта с 1 чаена лъжица бакпулвер

стрити в хаванче семена от 12 шушулки кардамон

2 супени лъжици семена ким стрити в хаванче

6 супени лъжици мляко

3 супени лъжици негорчива тъмна бира (Гинес е прекалено горчива за моя вкус, примерно Столично е по-подходяща)

тъмна захар (или демерара) за поръсване

Метод:

Маслото се разбива добре със захарта (аз използвах миксер) и на тънка струя се добавят разбитите предварително с вилица яйцата. Разбива се с миксер няколко секунди (не повече от минута) докато всичко е хомогенно. След това се добавят брашната и набухвателя с постоянно бъркане - аз използвам вилица - семената, млякото и бирата. Когато вичко е добре размесено, се разделя на две и се изсипва в дветет кръгли тавички, които трябва да са предварително намаслени (и евентуално набрашнени) по дъното и стените, а дъното покрито и с хартия за печене.

Кафявата захар се поръсва леко по повърхността на сладкишите (за да образува приятна коричка) и се пекат на 180 градуса за 30 минути. (Аз пекох едновременно.) За проверка дали е опечено може да се вкара клечка за зъби в средата на сладкиша и ако е готов, тя ще бъде суха след като се извади.

Вторият сладкиш може да се опакова в хартия за печене и да се съхранява на хладно за седмица-две.
А може и да го подарите на приятели :)

 

Добра почерпка за неочаквани гости по хобитски, нали?

След броени дни е премиерата на филмът по книгата Хобит: Неочаквано пътешесвие, и очаквам с нетърпение да видя как според създателите му е изглеждала трапезата на Билбо :)

А сега е време за рецепта номер две!

Golden Bailey's Chocolate Truffles for Let's Make Christmas 2012

It's his time of the year again and Christmas is just 'round the corner. Early nights, fairy lights, cosy homes, and Christmas carols in the dark. Thinking of presents for the loved ones and festive planning.



I have something to suggest for you  if you want to impress your chocolate loving friends or family with a foodie present that would be almost effortless yet still elegant to look at. Not mentioning yummy - but doesn't that apply to anything with chocolate in it?

My recipe for this season combines two essential ingredients for the Christmas holidays - chocolate and Bailey's. And the added extras of roasted hazelnuts and dried cranberries, well soaked in Bailey's. 

Strawberry and Apple Crumble with Carob Flour

Have you ever made a crumble? I tried for the very first time some months ago, what a shame, isn't it?
There are some desserts that are so easy to make one might never consider them as they are of no challenge at all. I can't tell what the reason was for me to overlook this incredibly tasty dessert for so long, provided I already love all the ingredients together and on their own, but I had to prepare it some time ago when helping my friend Sarka Babicka on a an assignment. I instantly loved it!



For a crumble it's best to use juicy fruits that would make a nice sauce. Since strawberries are in season, that was the obvious choice.
I've made some with rhubarb and apples as well, but taste check showed strawberry and apples worked much better in our family.

Special "Honey" Cake with Goat's Cream

I love adapting recipes because  am always curious to see how the results are going to turn out. Some time ago I adapted a carrot and apple cake for my nice and a friend of hers who were suffering a number of allergies.
This time I had the opportunity to adapt the recipe of the famous Medovik honey cake (which was easier to make than I expected) and to adapt a creamy cream recipe without cow's milk protein in it. 

Easter Bread and Knot Cookies - Hungarian kalacs

It is so great when you manage to track down a childhood favourite recipe, thought forever lost. And this is exactly what happened some days ago. But let's start from the beginning.

For this Easter I decided to go for a new recipe for our traditional Easter bread, which is called kozunak. The thing is, I always thought kozunak is very difficult to make - and working with dough and kneading as well. There  is some saying in Bulgaria that to make a good kozunak you have to push the dough 100 times on the table - and even though you do so it is still not sure what the end result will be.

Let's Make Christmas - Cranberry and Port Mincemeat pops

Mincemeat is something very traditional during Christmas in England and mainly comes in the form of mince pies - shortcrust pastry cases filled with the sweet, fragrant and sticky mince meat. It is usually made of dried fruit (sultanas and raisins), spices including clove and sometimes spirits.

You can make your own mince meat or you can buy it in a jar.

I admit mincemeat and mince pies are not very popular in our home, but when I saw the ready-made cranberry and port mincemeat it provoked my imagination. Cranberries (unlike dried grapes) are quite appealing in all possible forms. It might me because of the slight tanginess they have (unlike dried grapes) and the balance of sweet and tangy.

And the jar of cranberries and port just got me thinking - how about such mince pies? Then I actually had a better idea. Why not make make pops like cake pops but made of mince pies? And wrapped in chocolate. Oh, yes!

The even I am going to bring these is the Food Blogger's Gift Swap event organised by Vanessa Kimbell to be help on Nov 18, 2011 in Fortnum and Mason's department store, a British iconic symbol located at Piccadilly.

The mince pie pop recipe was designed to mimic a mince pie - but crumbled, covered in chocolate and stuck on a lollipop. Hence I thought I should use shortbread. But for a couple of reasons I could not get shortbread, and instead discovered some rich tea biscuits at home, so I used them.

I would have used less butter in case I used shortbread.

Besides super cute, the pops are so delicious!

Alternatively to inserting a lollipop stick, you can place them in pastry cases as truffles.

Mince meat pops!

Recipe:

(makes 20-24 balls)

250 gr mincemeat (I used cranberry and port mince meat from Waitrose)

10-13 rich tea biscuits (alternatively 7-8 shortbread fingers)

50 gr butter

100 gr walnut kernels

150 gr dark chocolate for dipping

for the snowflake toppers:

50 gr chocolate and shallow snowflake moulds

edible pearl powder

Method:

Crush the biscuits and walnut kernels using a pestle and mortar until relatively fine, but leave some bigger pieces.

In a bowl mix the mince meat, butter, biscuits and walnuts and mix for a couple of minutes until everything is nice ans sticky. If the mixture is not sticky enough add more biscuits.

Make balls, place on a tray and leave in the fridge for 2 hours.

Temper the chocolate. Dip the top of a lollipop stick with the chocolate and then insert into the mince meat pops.

Dip the pops into the chocolate, remove excess chocolate and place on a baking paper to dry overnight.

To make the snowflake toppers - melt the white chocolate and pour into the moulds. Place in the fridge to set. To decorate them - remove from the mould and work with a paint brush to apply the pearl powder.

to assemble the pops:

Melt a little bit of chocolate. Use a very little amount on top of the pops to "glue" the snowflake toppers.

Place in a polystyrene bock to dry.

To make the boxes I used ordinary plain colour boxes, wrapped in packing paper.

For the box toppers, I used an ordinary Christmas tree ornament snowflake, fastened to the box with a selection of ribbons!

Crustless Mini Pumpkin pies/ Crème de Pumpkin

At this time of the year the weather becomes chiller, the days shorter and generally there is less and less sunshine. But autumn is still beautiful with its shiny red, yellow and orange (and still some green) colours, the harvest and the air filled with smells of chimneys, sugar and aromatic spices as vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Autumn is orange; wrapped up in soft and chunky knitwear; it is all about the sunshine gently kissing your face in a crisp afternoon.

Autumn is a pumpkin.

Or a butternut squash.



I was looking for pumpkin but finally got home with a butternut squash. It is the tastiest kind of pumpkin, Google says. No need to sorry then.

The pumpkin pie I had in mind was going to be a butternut squash pie.
Until the crust of the pie became obviously unnecessary and I though, Oh well, why not just skip it, it's all about the pie's filling anyway!

And so ta daaa! The crustless pumpkin pies are ready, yours only for 1 small butternut squash and about 1 hour of baking!

Celebrate autumn!



Products:
(enough to fill 8-9 ramekins)

2 medium eggs

1 small butternut squash (up to 1 kg) (makes 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin puree)

1 can (410 ml) sweetened evaporated milk (I used Nestle Carnation)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1/3 tsp ground cardamom

1/3 tsp ground nutmeg

4 tsp brown sugar muscovado light



Method:

First prepare the pumpkin - cut lengthwise and remove the seeds. Place on a flat tin with 2/3 cup of water.
Bake in the oven for some 30-40 minutes until ready cooked.
Scoop out the flesh and make a puree. It should fill 1 1/2 measuring cups.

In a bowl beat the eggs with the sugar. Add the pumpkin (squash) puree mixing well, add the evaporated milk and beat until everything is well blended.

Pour into ramekins. Line a baking dish with tea towel. Place the ramekins on top. Cover with hot water to the rim.

Place the dish in a previously heated oven at 160 C for 50 minutes to 1 hour.



The method I used is the one for making crème caramel, so I guess I can call them as well crème de pumpkin ;)


And enjoy!

Smoked Truffles with Strained Yogurt and Homage to Leila Brandao

Almost two months ago I attended a food bloggers conference Food bloggers Connect held in the sophisticated Hempel Hotel in London, where I met lots of fellow bloggers and learnt and discovered many things. One of the best and yummiest discoveries being the artisan chocolates of Leila Brandao.

Apricots and Nuts Filo Roses with hint of Orange blossom

Ideas pop out in mysterious ways. Most of the time only the right ingredients in one place are enough to speak about what to make out of them or the right mindset. And there are combinations that would always work. As filo sheets and dried fruits and nuts.

I thought of this very fast and easy but still impressive dessert as of a dessert loosely based on a strudel. And rose is kind of a symbol for Bulgaria mainly because the country is a massive producer of rose essential oil. So I thought filo pastry in a rose shape is a great idea for a Bulgarian-themed dinner with fiends.

Two Gluten Free Recipes: Pancakes and Muffins

Sensitivity to gluten (the protein found in wheat) is one of the challenges to modern people. Besides the obvious stomach problems, people who are gluten intolerant could have irritable skin and some skin conditions and experience fatigue and tiredness or even have the coeliac disease which is quite a nasty thing.

Gluten is very common in processed foods and in wheat, rye and other grains and complete avoidance can be very difficult.

The problem might be either expanding or really severe judging by the increasing amount of gluten free pasta and flours offered on the market.

Or "gluten-free" might just be trendy.

Even if you don't have the sensitivity to gluten it's worth making a change and try staying gluten free for a while or that is what I thought and started to experiment with some gluten-free flour I bought in a shop. It was a mix of rice, potato, tapioca, maize and buckwheat and I found it more tasty than wheat flour and with richer flavour.

I tested it in two recipes - muffins and pancakes and they both tasted great. The muffins had

Pomegranate and Passion fruit Lightly Jellied cream

This very easy dessert is suitable for hot summery days as it is an instant thirst quencher because of the quenching properties of the soured cream and the pomegranate molasses. It just has the perfect balance of tanginess/sweetness. Well, at lest for me, as other people complained they would prefer it a bit sweeter.

I have always missed the tanginess of a proper yogurt since living outside Bulgaria (the country of the proper yogurt, in case anyone doesn't know :) ) and adding the naturally tangy pomegranate molasses, which btw according to the bottle I bought does not contain sugars except the natural ones present in the fruit, was the perfect fix for this condition.

I did not add any sugar either, but of course it can be added to taste.

To make the cream more rich in texture I added cream cheese which did the job perfectly.

Hungarian Layered Walnut Cake with Jellied Soured Cream

I love the freshness of soured cream. The best way to introduce it to filling for cakes is to mix it with cream cheese and add a little bit of gelatin to it, so it can keep a form without losing its freshness, its smooth and velvety consistency nor taste qualities.

This cream would be perfect on its own as well, in a glass layered with fruit and nuts for example.

Although an unusual combination,

Low-fat Low-sugar Childhood Classic - Biscuits Cake

Some of the tastiest desserts don't need to be difficult to prepare. When I was a child we used to make this "cake" as afternoon snack n my native Bulgaria. Sadly the cream was made of butter and jam, which makes the fat content go through the roof. Not mentioning the sugar content that we also have to worry about!

To recreate it I thought about ways to cut down sugar and fat that's what I came up with.

For the cream between the biscuits I used the 0% fat strained Greek yogurt of Total, and for the cream on top and sides of the cake - the extra low fat Philadelphia cheese.

For the jam I opted for the St Dalfour's raspberry jam - which has only fruit and concentrated grape juice instead of sugar.

About the biscuits, they have to be

Dessert Deathmach - Spiced Plum Tartes Tatins vs Rhubarb Muffins

WARNING - Two-Recipe post incoming!

When did you first try rhubarb? For good or for bad I tried it for the first time in my life, in a muffin, last week. That's it. The veg is not popular where I come from and although it is extremely popular in the UK, this is the first time I thought it probably wouldn't be such a bad idea to try it.

However I didn't go any further than muffins.

The rhubarb itself is quite sour, but with enough sugar it only adds pleasant sourness to the overall taste.

Btw, the same (about the sourness) applies for red plums as well. Although they are a bit less sour than rhubarb and more sweet. I'd say they are sour-sweet.

That's why I thought they'd work well in a tarte tatin - I like to experiment with different fruit for this dessert, but the truth is it always works! To make the mini tartes I just caramelised some sugar with butter in a 12 nest muffin tin, placed the sliced plums there, covered with the batter and baked! It's that easy.

Removing the tartes from the nests was not that easy though, but still manageable, especially if you oil the muffin tin well beforehand, and then help the cakes to release by separating them from the tin using wood spatula, or whatever instrument is relevant.

Virgin Mojito Cupcakes

I've recently read this somewhere: What are the cupcakes than an excuse to indulge ourselves with the cream cheese frosting? :)

When the summer's almost there, the sun is shining, you can feel the gentle breeze on your face, what would you think of?
I'm thinking of lazy days, contemplating the beach possibly with a refreshing drink in hand, enjoying the sunshine.
What could be more refreshing than a Mojito or Caipirinha cocktail?

The freshness of limes and mint

Earl Grey Tea-Infused Chocolates

На български по-надолу:

This year I am going to participate in the Food Bloggers Connect event and there is a questionnaire I am still to answer and one of the questions is Where do you get inspiration from? Actually I get inspiration from everything, from pieces of conversation, names of dishes, names of ingredients, even from package designs or just paper and pattern designs.

Such was the story of my crush on tea infused chocolates started when I saw a chocolate transfer sheet called Bombay and I started thinking how could chocolate and India look like if combined. With my recent obsession on Masala Chai the idea to infuse chocolates with masala chai was born naturally.

While I was experimenting with infusing ganache with fresh ginger, tea and the other ingredients, another idea struck me - to try and infuse it with Earl Grey tea. Imagining its great aroma combined with chocolate instantly provoked my curiosity.

At the end this combination worked so perfectly, there was no doubt I was going to try it again.
I spent some time thinking it over and started experimenting with various designs.

Almonds and Raspberry Cupcakes

After being let down every time I change the brand of baking soda or baking powder I use, I decided to convert to self raising flour, and that was my best move so far!
No more exploding cakes due to overdosing the baking powder or flat cakes due to inssufficient use of it! What a relief!
These cupcakes were made with the base recipe for muiffins that I use, with only a fresh raspberry inside, thus they were ideal for cupcakes as well.
The taste is more like delicate sponge cake than a muffin, but I would say better than that because it has ground almonds and less sugar.