Let it snow, let it snow and snow.

So this is christmas: snow , christmas trees, christmas carols, gift giving season and lots of eating (diet after the holidays excuse,sounds familiar?!) lights and shopping.Well, I've always liked to cook and entertain at christmas season, something about winter,food and friends and family gatherings that takes the best out of me.
But most of all I like to make cookies arround this time of the year.I love the smell of freshly baked cookies that come out of the oven and Frank Sinatra singing and keeping me company while baking them.
These chocolate espresso snowcaps cookies at christmas time are a great treat plus they make a wonderful gift.I love the way they crack while baking and after you've covered them in a good dust of confectioners' sugar, so the outcoming result is a beautiful snowflake like cookie.
The coffee in the recipe engages very well with the chocolate and enhances the chocolate flavor.
I took the recipe from Martha Stewart christmas cookies.Last year I decide to give these cookies as a christmas gift to my colleagues. They loved them

Happy Baking!

Chocolate espresso snowcaps

Ingredients

140 gr all-purpose flour
35 gr unsweetened cocoa powder
4 teaspoons instant espresso
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
60 gr unsalted butter
160 gr packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
100 gr bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 tablespoon milk
Confectioners' sugar, for coating

Method

Sift together dry ingredients: flour,cocoa, espresso , baking powder and salt.
Cream Butter and sugar in a separate bowl then beat in egg and mix well using an electric mixer until well incorporated.Add melted an cooled chocolate and mix using the electric mixer on low speed.Add dry ingredients and mix until well combined.Add milk and mix just until incorporated.Flatten dough into a disk and wrap in a cling then freez for 45 minutes to firm.

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Line two baking trays with parchment paper. Shape dough into 1 cm balls. Pour confectioners' sugar (about 1/2 cup) into a medium bowl; working in batches, roll balls in sugar twice, letting them sit in sugar between coatings.

Place on prepared baking sheets, 2 cm apart. Bake until cookies have spread and coating is cracked, 12 to 14 minutes; cookies will still be soft to the touch. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

A helping hand...

It is not easy to be far away from your family and close friends raising kids alone with your husband.I know it is more satisfying this way but still, everyone needs a helping hand every now and then.I gave birth one month ago and ever since I am playing a super woman ,prohibiting myself from collapsing even if I am tired.After all you need to keep things going and functioning for everybody's sake; especially when you have a pre schooler that needs the reassurance of "business as usual." So my family couldn't be with me this time around to help with the new baby, but I got a helping hand from my friend Hanan who came all the way from Bologna with her toddler to help with the kids and many more things. She cooked ,she helped babysitting my little prince while out taking Elin to kindergarten.
Apart from the great things she did for us, she was a great cook as well and she made us delicious "Manaeesh" a delicious Arab pita like bread topped with zaatar and baked in a special electric pot. It is funny that everytime Arabs meet or get together abroad they think of Manaeesh :-)

So I am dedicating this post to my friend Hanan and her sweet little pie Nadeen. Thanks for being such a great help and such a great company for us.








Manaeesh
yields about 25-30 little manaeesh

Ingredients

1 kg flour
20 gr yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
1 tb salt
1/4 ts sugar
4 tb zaatar*
3 tb olive oil

Method
Put the flour in a high edged large bowl and make a hole in the middle.In a cup, disolve the yeast with two ts lukewarm water and put in the hole that you've created before.Add salt, sugar and half a cup lukewarm water. Mix the ingredients with your hands then start to cover the hole with the flour and knead the dough. Add water as needed to creat a pizza like dough.Dough is ready when not sticky and when bowl sides and edges are clean.You should have a large ball of dough at the end.Cover the dough with a couple of dry kitchen cloths for one hour and leave to rest. After one hour the dough should be doubled in size, that means its ready .Start to cut little balls then cover them for another half an hour to rest.After that, start rolling these balls the same way you roll a pizza dough but without stretching the edges.Arrange them in raws on a large table cloth then cover with another one and let rest for half an hour.Mix the zaatar with the olive oil.Using the tips of your fingers ,start tapping slightly on the rolled dough in order to creat little holes .Put one to two tb zaatar with oil and spread it all over the dough.Bake in the electric pot for 2-3 minuts until brownish in color and edges are crisp and dry.Alternatively , you can bake in the oven for 5-6 minutes at 170°depending on the type of oven you have.

Happy baking!






Notes:
*Zaatar is a minced origano mixed with salt and sesame seeds, you can find it in Arabic grocery stores.

** you can top these manaeesh with some white cheese (like feta or primo sale or Arabic white cheese)mixed with Sumack and olive oil.It is a delicious alternative for Zaatar as illustrated in photos.

15 minutes apple cake!

Years ago I was in a search of a good apple cake that wouldn't be so complicated to make.I love autumn , winter and the holiday season but most of all I love the smell of apples and cinnamen that run through the house when preparing an apple cake. So in order to compilment the cold weather and the fog that refuses to go away these days, I made this delicious apple cake.It is very tasty and moist plus you only need 15 minutes to prepare it(apart from one hour to bake it.)

Happy baking!

A super easy apple cake

Ingredients
for a 24cm pan.

1 kg grany smith apples, peeled and cut into quarters.
1 ts sugar
1 ts cinnamen

200 gr sugar
75 gr melted butter
2 eggs
2 ts lemon juice

1 ts baking powder
170 gr flour
1/4 ts salt

Method
Mix one teaspoon sugar with one teaspoon cinnamen ,mix with the peeled and cut apples.
Grease and dust a 22cm pan then put a baking sheet at the bottom of the pan,arrange cut apples in an even way.In the meanwhile, beat together: sugar, eggs,melt butter and lemon juice.In a separate bowl, sift together flour,baking powder and salt then add gradually to the eggs and butter and mix until incorporated.Pour mixture above the apples and sprinkle one tablespoon sugar mixed with one teaspoon cinnamen on top of the cake.Bake in a preheated oven 170° for one hour. cake is ready when golden brown in color.

Announcement

Dear friends and all ,I am taking an advantage of the little break I have between breastfeeding and nappy changing to tell you that after a long period of absence I am happy to finally announce the birth of our second bunddle of joy :-)
Baby Giovanni Amir was born on October 27th 2011 ,3 weeks before his due date.
His proud sister and parents are so happy. After this sleeping deprived period will pass, I will be back again with new recipes of food and cakes I like to make.


Selma

Lemon and wild berries muffins

Whenever I am in the mood for something sweet and baked, but have no powers or the mood for preparing and baking a cake, I go for cupcakes.I know that sounds silly because the same batch can do either a whole cake or cupcakes.But the idea of deviding it into cups looks more simple to me,I might be talking out of despair (Eight months pregnant, do I have the power or the mood to do anything? don't know.)
I had the recipe for these cupcakes from a collegue of mine at work.Instead of the whipped cream with white chocolate that tops those beautiful creatures,I strongly advice you to use a cream cheese frosting.It engages very well with the lemony taste and the wild berries.(I made the whipped cream frosting because I was too lazy to make the cream cheese icing)

Happy Baking!


Lemon and wild berries cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup yogurt (plain)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup lemon juice
A zest of two lemons
1/2 cup oil (not olive oil)
1 cup frozen wild berries

Method

Preheat oven into 170°.Put paper cups in a cupcake pan.
In a mixing bowl , put together flour,baking soda,baking powder and salt.
In another mixing bowl, whisk together eggs,sugar,yogurt,lemon juice ,lemon zest and oil until you have a smooth mixture.Add flour mixter and mix,just until combined.Add frozen wild berries and mix gently.
Devide mixture in the paper cups and bake for 15-25 min or until golden in color and a skewer inserted in them comes out clean.
Take out from oven and let cool completely.

Whipped cream frosting

Ingredients

250ml heavy cream
150 gr white chocolate
15 gr butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small sauce pan bring to a boil half of the heavy cream then put the white chocolate in and let melt on a low fire.Add butter and let melt.Put aside and let cool.In the meanwhile,whip the rest of the heavy cream with an electric mixer until stiff in consistency.Pour in the white chocolate mixture and the vanilla extract ,then continue to beat with the electric mixer just until combined.
Frost the cupcakes with the white chocolate whipped cream.

Knafe

I made up my mind! This time I will do it!" After all ,how hard it can be? If everybody else tried it , then I can surely do it as well."
Those thoughts have been running in my mind for quite a while,I have been thinking about trying to make the famous Arab dessert Knafe or Kunafe as some call it.This Arab sweet is a syrian dessert but it is eaten all over the Arab world.I was always terrified to try making Arab desserts, because somehow they seemed very hard to make.So after looking at other food blogs and watching many videos on how to prepare this delicious dessert, I decided it was time.I couldn't find filo dough so I used the vermicelli noodles instead, the result at the end came out the same.Instead of the sweet Arab cheese, I used mozzarella cheese and Primo sale cheese ( an Italian cheese with no salt that I use for making desserts.)
We ate the whole thing,and I felt so proud to finally make this yummy syrian dessert.

Knafe

Ingredients

1 package Vermicelli noodles
250 gr Mozzarella cheese (hard mozarella)
250 gr Primo sale cheese or any sweet cheese (not cream cheese)
250 gr butter
100 gr ground pistacchios (for garnish)
1 cup water (for syrup)
2 cups sugar (for syrup)

Method
Put the Vermicelli noodles in a hot boiling water and cover for two minutes for softening them.
Take out noodles from water and put in a colander.Let cool for five minutes.
Soften butter and put it on vermicelli noodles and mix. Start to separate noodles from each other to avoid sticking.While doing it , cut the noodles using your fingers in order to form small pieces.
Butter a 22cm pan very well and take half of the vermicelli mixture and place it on the bottom of the pan, press it well with your fingers in order to form a stable base.
Cut the mozzarella cheese and the primo sale cheese into small pieces and cover the base of the pan with it. Put another layer of vermicelli noodles on top of the cheese mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven (170°)for 20-25 minutes or until the vermicelli on top are gloden brown.

In the meanwhile,start preparing syrup, by adding two cups of sugar to one cup water in a small sauce pan. Stir very well until sugar is disolved. Syrup is ready when not too thick and not too liquid. Take off the fire and pour it while still hot on the knafe.Sprinkle pistacchios on top of the knafe for garnish.

Polpette di Melanzane

I had some old eggplants in the fridge, and since am finishing all the stuff in there before heading to our summer vacation,I decided to do something with them.I asked Elin if she's in the mood for having polpette for dinner, and she said yes. So I jumped on the occasion and decided to prepare Italian eggplant balls or polpette di melanzane.I made some tomato sauce with basil to accompany these polpette,the result? Heaven!


Polpette di Melanzane

Polpette(eggplant balls)

2 medium eggplants
1 egg
50 gr grated parmesan cheese
4-5 chopped basil leaves
2 Tbs chopped parsley
4 Tbs bread crumbs (grated)
2-3 slices of old bread
50 gr grated pecorino romano cheese
4 slices galbanino cheese cut into dices (optional)
Salt
pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
grated bread crumbs for coating polpette.

For the tomato sauce

3 medium tomatoes
1 Tbs toamto paste
1/2 onion cut into dices
basil
salt

Method:

Polpette

wash eggplants and pat dry then cut into small pieces, bring to boil for few minutes in a pot with water and salt.
In the meantime, cut slices of old bread and soak in some water to soften them.
When eggplants are soft, put in colander and let cool a bit.
In a separate bowl put the bread, eggplants,parmesan cheese, pecorino cheese, galbanino cheese , egg, parsley, basil salt and pepper. Add nutmeg and bread crumbs and mix , you might want to add more bread crumbs (grated bread crumbs) in order to have a more solid mixture.Put mixture in the fridge to firm for about an hour.After you've taken mixture out of the fridge,start to form medium balls and cover them with bread crumbs.
In a deep frying pan, put vegitable oil that is enough to cover the eggplant balls.When hot, start to fry the eggplant balls until light brown in color.Put on absorbing paper after frying them to absorb excess oil.


Sauce:
Sautè chopped onions with 2 Tbs olive oil, then add diced tomatoes and cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and 1/4 cup of water and continue to cook.This time over a low flame.Add salt and towards the end add some basil leaves and mix gentely with tomatoes ,just until falvoures are combined.

Serve eggplant balls with some of the tomato sauce.

Notes:

*You can make a meaty version of these eggplant balls, by omitting the pecorino and the galbanino cheese and adding 1-1 1/2 cups minced meat.

*Instead of Galbanino cheese , you can use Scamorza cheese which is smoked Mozzarella.

Endings and Beginnings

This Friday,Elin will finish her second and last year at the day care,so in order to thank her wonderful caregiver/teacher Laura,I decided to bake her some cookies.I asked Elin if she wants to help and she said :"Ok,But I am the one that holds the electric mixer" At the end we held it together and started to operate immediately.Elin drew a nice drawing for her teacher and decided that she was good enough to recieve some of her princesses' Stickers on the drawing :-)
For the cookies I decided to make the "double face cookies" a wierd name I know , but it comes from the fact that one side of the cookie is with pistacchio and the other one is with dried figs, with a chocolate filling in between.Cookies came out yummy.Please see notes below before making these cookies.I took the recipe from an Italian book called: Sale & Pepe

The process of making these cookies is similar to the process of making Macroons with some changes of course. So when you make them try to follow some steps for satisfying results:


1. use a piping bag with a tip number 4 or 5 to pipe little circles.When piping, use a small quantity as they tend to spread a lot.

2.work with mixture when still cold, it makes piping a lot easier.

3.To avoid sliping while Working, use a very small quantity of mixture under the four corners of the baking sheet in order to attach to the pan and stop from moving while piping.

Double face cookies

6 egg whites
240 gr confectioners' sugar
120 gr all purpose flour
120 gr butter
60 gr pistacchios,peeled and cut into small pieces.
100 gr dried figs,cut into small pieces
60 gr fine dark chocolate

Method

Mix egg whites with the confectioners' sugar using an electric hand mixer for about 2-3 minutes.
Incorporate gradually the flour and continue mixing for one minute more.Add melted butter and mix gently.Put in the fridge for 4 hours.
Cover two baking pans with paper baking sheets and start piping with a tip number 4 or 5 , small circles about 2-3 cm (it will spread on it's on) if not use the back of a wet teaspoon for spreading mixture circles.
Sprinkle on half of the cookies the pistacchios and on the other half sprinkle the cut dried figs.
Cook in a preheated oven (180°) for 5-6 minutes , or until they are golden in color.
Put aside to cool.
Cut the chocolate in small pieces and let melt in a bowl over a simmering water (bain marie).
Take chocolate off fire and let cool. Then take a tablespoon of the melted chocolate(while still warm) and spread it over the back of the pistacchio cookie.Let cool for ten minutes and cover with the fig cookie to form a sandwich.

Enjoy!

As good as it gets

Last weekend I met a friend at the california bakery for a saturday brunch in Milan.Seeing all the baked goods and all the cakes you could just dream of, made me feel like going home and prepare a big , thick ,fatty cheese cake. On the way home I told my friend that I heard a scandenavian woman once say: "I never ate a good cake in Italy" and that just made me think cheese cake!

Well, there are plenty of good cakes in Italy, but I could hardly find a place that makes a real good cheese cake, except the california bakery of course.
I started to look arround and I found this simple cheese cake recipe on the coo.kie fairy
I skipped the glazing part at the end and I left the strawberries without any glaze.It would be a good idea though to glaze the strawberries in order to maintain their freshness .I didn't need that since cake was diminished withen a day and a half :-)




Cheese cake with strawberries

Ingredients

For the crust

250 gr biscuits (like graham crackers)
120 gr butter
1/3 cup brown sugar

Filling

600 gr cream cheese (like philadelphia)
200 gr sugar
3 Tbs lemon juice
2 1/2 ts vanilla extract
1/8 ts salt
3 Tbs all purpose flour
5 eggs

Coating

2 cups sour cream
3 Tbs sugar
1/2 ts vanilla extract
2-3 cups fresh strawberries
1/2 cup strawberry or raspberry jam


Crust:
Preheat oven to medium heat 160° and put all dry ingredients of crust in a food prossesore until you get a sticky crumbs. Stick the crust to the base of a ring pan (24 cm) and on the sides and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.Let cool aside.

Filling:
In a large mixing bowl, mix together cream cheese,sugar,lemon juice, vanilla and salt just until incorporated.
Add flour and mix a little bit.Then add eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined.
Pour the cream cheese mixture over the biscuit crust and bake for 55 minutes until surface is light gold and some light cracks have formed.
Leave to cool for 10 minutes.

Coating:
Mix together all coating ingredients and pour on top of the cake,bake for 5 minutes until coating on cake is stable.
Cool for 10 minutes then separate the cake from sides of ring pan and chill in the fridge over a night.
Cut srawberries and arrange on a cake in circles. Heat the strawberry jam with 3 Tbs water and after cooling a bit ,pour thinned jam on the strawberries.

Enjoy!








Note: In order to keep the crust crispy and in order to avoid falling down the sides during baking, freeze the crust with the pan half an hour in the freezer before baking.

Am back!

It's been a long long time since I last updated this blog, I know. I took a long break because many things have happened in my life recently ,and the most important event is that am pregnant with our second child :-)

Well, for a whole five months I was a nausea and vomit victim so I couldn't even think of cooking or writing about food , such a pitty , since food is my biggest passion. So now am back , with new recepies and new enthusiasm hoping to provide you with things I like to cook and bake and not only...
Summer in Italy and particulary in July is very very hot.So we find ourselves often looking for new recepies trying to refresh ourselves during these hot months of summer.Although I know it might not sound so fresh for a summer , I find it a light recepie that can be eaten hot or cold. I found this recipe on one of the italian cooking magazines , it is a spinaci with Cherry tomatoes and Pecorino cheese quishe.You can change the pecorino and put feta cheese which is more appropriate for summer, but then mind the salt because feta is very salty.


Spinaci Quishe

Ingredients:

1 ready to use puffpaste

500 gr spinech

3 garlic cloves

1 medium onion

10 cl oil

1/2 teaspoon nut meg

250gr cherry tomatoes

250 gr cream cheese

3 eggs

50 gr black olives

100 gr pecorino cheese

50 gr emmental cheese.

salt and pepper


Wash spinach, peel garlic cloves and onion then cut them finely, Put some olive oil in a skillet and sautè garlic and onions then add all spinach in.Season with Salt, pepper and nut meg.

Put sauteed spinach in a colander to drain excess liquids.Wash tomatoes and cut in halves. Preheat oven to 210c°
Pass the pie pan under the tap cold water.pat dry and place the puffpaste inside the pan.Use a fork to form some holes in the bottom of the puffpaste.

In a large mixing bowl, put cream cheese and eggs together and mix gently , then add to the spinach.Add mix into the pie pan covered with the puffpaste.Add the tomatoes and the black olives on top.

Cut the pecorino cheese into small cubes then add them on top, finish by sprinkling the grated Emmental cheese and some drops of olive oil. Bake for 45 min.