Banoffee pie!

This week Dimitra shares her favorite summer dessert. Banana and toffee make a dreamy combination! Here is a super easy recipe for a fresh banana pie.

Ingredients:

½ pack of butter cookies (or digestive)

3 tbs butter

1 can of sugared milk

2-3 bananas

4 tbs sugar 

1 pack of cream

How to:

1. Crash the cookies and mix them with the melted butter. But the mix on your serving plate to create the base.

2. Put the closed can of sugared milk to boil in low temperature for three hours. The sugared milk will become a thick caramel cream. (You can store the can for a month before opening it)

Put the caramel cream on top of the cookie base on your serving plate.

3. Slice up the bananas and put them in the serving plate.

4. Whip the cream with the sugar. You can add more sugar if you want it sweeter. But don't forget that the caramel cream adds a great amount of sweetness to your cake. Cover the tart with the whipped cream and your dessert is ready.

ENJOY!!

Keep it in the fridge. The bananas will start getting dark after 1 day, but they are still eatable.

Super Quick Pasta with Arugula (Rocket Salad)

This week our dear Yini from Kotona created a quick & delicious pasta recipe for all busy people out there! There are no measurements for this under 10 min recipe, just go with your taste buds!

This is what you will need:

• Dry spaghetti or left over spaghetti 

• Arugula (Rocket salad) 

• Peccorino or Parmesan cheese*

• Olive oil 

• Wedge of lemon 

• Salt and pepper 

 * To make it vegan, substitute cheese with grated cashews.

Cook the pasta according to instructions on the packet or heat up your left over spaghetti.
Toss together with arugula and olive oil until the arugula is wilted slightly by the heat of the pasta. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with grated cheese and a squeeze of lemon.

Bon Appétit!!

Written by Yini from Kotona.etsy.com

Carrot Muffins: From the oven to the sketch pad

I love carrot cake! What I love more than carrot cake is carrot muffins! They are more easier to make and in my opinion they taste and look better! This was my first time I make those muffins, they attracted my artistic eye so bad that I had to paint them! Check the sketches at the bottom of the post.

INGREDIENTS:

• 12 muffins approximately
• 1 egg
• 150 gr sugar
• 2 Tbsp honey
• ¼  tea cup of orange juice/grapefruit works too
• ¼ tea cup oil
• ½ grated orange/grapefruit zest  
• 2 full tea cups of grated carrots
• 1 tea cup flower
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla aroma
• 1 tea cup full of grated walnuts
• ½  tsp  Cinnamon and Ginger  powder
• 2-3 Tbsp Coconut flakes 

 For the cream:  

• 1 packet (200gr) of natural cream cheese (Filadelfia or the cheeper one work fine as well) 
• 125 gr Mascarpone
• 5 Tbsp powder sugar 
• 1 tsp grated orange zest 
  

Start with mixing all the “moist” ingredients: eggs,oil , the orange/grapefruit juice. Then add the sugar and the honey. Whisk them good but without using an electric mixer . 

 

Add the carrots and the zest. Mix all the ingredients well and add the “dry” ones last: flower, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla aroma, spices, walnuts, coconut.

Set the oven to 180ºC and bake 25-30 min. Leave the muffins to cool down.

Meanwhile you can start preparing the cream. Just mix all the cream ingredients in a ball using an electric mixer. You can use whatever decoration you have and want.

 

As I said I love carrot cake so I got really inspired and tried eating and painting at the same time. The result was : lots of colors and muffin decoration everywhere :D

But it was a fun experience. Stay tuned for my next cooking-painting experience. I take also requests!

P.S Pastries only! :-)

Written by Simona from ColorfulSimone.etsy.com

Cornetti: The Italian croissant

Here you have my ultimate recipe for an Italian croissant, also called cornetti in Italian.

What makes them special is that the pastry tastes more like a brioche, less buttery than the typical french style croissant (and also much more easy to make!)

Italian croissants

Makes 16 croissants.

Ingredients 

PASTRY

• 500 gr flour (I used refined pastry flour) 
• 50 gr butter (room temperature)
• 25 gr fresh yeast
• 150 gr milk
• 150 gr sugar
• 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk 
• 1 tsp vanilla arome
• 1/2 lemon zest (grated)
• 2 Tbsp of powdered sugar for dusting

FILLING (optional)

• 150 gr dark chocolate (or Nutella, marmalade, etc.) 

Making the dough

Warm up the 150 gr of milk a little bit (c.a. 30ºC), remove from the stove and add the yeast. Mix until it dissolves completely. Set aside.

In a large bowl mix 500gr of flour with the 150 gr of sugar. Add the lemon zest.

Cut the 50gr butter into small pieces and add it to the mixture.

Add 2 eggs and the milk, knead until it does not stick to your fingers.
You can either do it by hand or - if you are as lazy as I am - with the help of a stand mixer (I used my lovely KitchenAid with dough hook attachment at medium speed about 10 min.).

Rolling the dough

1. Separate the dough in two parts and make two balls out of it.

2. Put the balls in two airtight containers and let it set for 2 hours at about 30ºC (my home is around 20ºC so I placed the containers in the oven at minimum temperature).

Now comes the funny part, how to actually roll the dough into croissants:

3. Dust one of the balls in flour and roll it into a circle like you will be making pizza.

4. With the help of a sharp knife, cut it into 8 triangle shapes as shown in the picture below.

5. Add a piece of chocolate in the widest part of the triangle.

6. Brush the narrow part of the triangle with a bit of water.

7. Take the bottom of the triangle and tightly roll it up into a croissant shape.
Repeat steps 3 to 7 with the other ball of dough.

8. Let them set for 3 more hours at room temperature, leave enough space between the cornetti because they will double its size. You can skip this step if you are planing to freeze them*.

* in that case just put your beautiful cornetti straight to the freezer. Whenever you feel like eating them, take the frozen cornetti out from the freezer the night before and let them defrost overnight at room temperature.  

Baking

Set the oven to 180ºC.

Whisk 1 egg yolk with a bit of milk.
Place the cornetti onto the baking tray and brush them all over with the egg mix.

Bake for about 15 min. (or until they are golden brown)
Let them cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Yummy!

Published by Alba from Made of Sundays

Warm and cozy winter dessert

I don't know about you, but one of my favourite things about winter is walking around in warm woolen socks and huddling on my couch with a hot cup of my ultimate favourite tea, the Masala Chai.

Because I love Chai Tea so much, I’m always for ways to incorporate this sweet spicy flavor into my recipe experiments: cupcakes, cookies, cakes, ice-cream... Today, I have taken it to the next level: rice porridge.

So, if you are looking for a warm and healthy winter dessert (or breakfast), look no further than this: 

Masala Chai rice porridge

Serves 4

For the Chai Tea

• 8 green cardamom pods
• 8 cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 8 black peppercorns
• 3 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled
• 1 vanilla pod
• 4 Tbsp black tea leaves
• 50 gr brown sugar
• 250 ml whole milk  *

For the rice porridge

• 200 gr porridge rice
• 1,5 l whole milk *
• 30 gr brown sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• Cinnamon powder or grated dark chocolate for garnish 

 * If you are vegan, this recipe can be easily adapted by simply replacing the milk with 1 l soya milk + 0,5 l almond or coconut milk. It will taste delicious!

Instructions

Make the Chai Tea

1. Crush the cardamom pods and cloves. 
2. Put 750 ml of water in a small saucepan and add the crushed spices, one cinnamon stick, peppercorns and ginger piece and bring it to boil. 
3. Split the vanilla pod lenghtwise into two halves and add it to the pan. 
4. Add the milk and sugar to the pan and bring it to boil one more time. 
5. Remove from heat, add the tea and let it infuse for 15 minutes with the saucepan covered.

Make the porridge

1. Strain the Chai Tea mixture into a medium size saucepan.
2. Add the rice, milk, sugar and cinnamon stick. Bring it to boil. 
3. Reduce the heat to a simmer, stir and cover. 
4. Cook at low heat for about 25 minutes or until the rice is tender, stir occasionally. 
5. Serve warm with a bit of cinnamon powder or grated dark chocolate on top

There you have it, the perfect recipe to keep you warm and happy until the spring comes. What about you guys?  What kind of comfort food gets you through winter?

Hopefully these things will help get us all on the fast-track to an early spring (screw that groundhog and his stupid predictions and his stupid shadow). How are you getting yourself through winter?  - See more at: http://avoidingatrophy.blogspot.fi/2014/02/7-things-to-get-you-through-this-never.html#sthash.1F722R7F.dpuf

Published by Alba of Made of Sundays