Fresh projects for fresh moments

Exotic lemon touches in the basic crust, even more balanced with citruses on top of the vanilla cream.

Crust ingredients:

2 eggs

120 g. caster sugar

100 g melted lard/butter

1 tsp baking soda

1 vanilla powder

300 g flour

bio lemon peel

Preparation:

Sift the flour together with the baking soda and vanilla powder. Beat the eggs with the sugar, add the melted lard. Mix in butter crumbs and after that form the dough. Grate some lemon peel at the end. If the dough is too sticky, leave it for 15-20 minutes in the fridge.

Separate the dough in 12 balls, each put in preliminary oiled and flour sprinkled tarts form. Preheat the oven to 170 Deg. Shape the mini tarts and bake for about 20 minutes - until they turn light brown. Leave them to cool down and take them out of the forms.

Prepare the cream filling as in 100 ml cold milk first mix the egg yolks and the corn starch. The rest 500 ml milk boil with the sugar. Add the boiling milk to the cold starch mixture, while stirring all the time. Put back the pot with the milk on the heat and don't stop stirring. It will gradually thicken. After removing from the plate, put a spoon of butter and leave it to cool off.

Put some cream filling on top of each mini tart. If you serve them right away, decorate with the fruits. I left the mini tarts only with the cream, I decorate just before serving so that the fruit stay fresh and avoid using gelatine. Of course, if you wish, you can decorate them altogether and spread some jelly on top to be preserved. Enjoy!

This is a variation of the shortbread sticks you would buy in stores but in fact this shortbread could surprise you ;)

They are full of combo of pastry and butter cream, the layers are common sponge cake layers.

When the ingredients combine, however, and are covered with two kinds of chocolate, and you get this not so common pleasure ;)

Preparation:

For the classic sponge cake mix eggs with sugar and beat with the mixer until the mixture gets tripled in size and white in color. Then, while still beating, add the flour spoon by spoon.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Put some baking paper on the shallow oven tray, pour the dough onto the tray.

Bake no more than 12-13 minutes. After cooling down, slice in two pieces - these are shortbread layers.

For pastry cream put milk and sugar in a pot to boil. Stir the flour in half a cup cold milk and add the beaten yolks. The milk (boiling hot) should be poured into the flour and yolk mixture while stirring constantly and hard. Pour back the cream in the pot where the milk was previously boiling. It takes a few minutes to get thicker and start to look like more like a cream. Don't forget to stir all the time otherwise it will stick to the pot and will be ruined. Leave it to cool off at least 20-30 minutes.

Butter cream is prepared by softened butter, whisked together with powder sugar. Beat them with the mixer at a lower speed. When the ingredients are fully combined, start to add spoon by spoon the cool pastry cream. And there you go the filling for the shortbread. It's nice to leave it for 10 minutes in the fridge before spreading it between the layers.

Prepare the chocolate glaze with the melted milk chocolate, either in a bowl over boiling water or in the microwave oven. When it's fully melted, add the oil for shine. If you dip directly the shortbread in the chocolate, you'll need far more chocolate. So I did the following: First I spread a thin layer of chocolate on on side (this should be the bottom) and cooled for 10 minutes in the fridge. Then I flipped them over on baking paper and poured some more chocolate on top and the sides. You can do that on a grid as well. Another 10 to 15 minutes in the fridge and then I decorated with the dark chocolate.

Now you can switch on the coffee maker if you aren't patient enough. They need just 30 minutes in the fridge and you can go ahead and try them. Actually if you leave them overnight they would taste best but who would wait for so long?

P.S. The pastry cream along with butter cream is too much for cake layers. You'd rather prepare a double doze cake layers or you can use the cream for another cake or cupcakes.

A nice finish to the post Christmas and New Year's light dinner of soup is a French mini bun. Fresh and crispy outside, smelling of butter inside. They are still fresh on the next day, taste fluffy and yummy.

Ingredients for 12 pieces:

80 ml warm water

120 ml milk

4 g dry yeast

300 g flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

25 g soft butter

Some more flour for kneading and sprinkling

Preparation:

Dissolve the yeast in the water and milk. Sift the flour, together with sugar and salt. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ones. Knead for about 10 minutes. If the dough remains sticky, add some more flour.

Leave the dough in a warm place for about 1,5-2 hours, it should double its size. Add the soft butter, the dough would be sticky until it takes all the butter. Add some more flour if needed. Separate into 12 small balls and leave them on a pan, covered with a moist towel for a 15 minutes. Then remove the towel and let them rest and raise for another minutes. Preheat the oven at 220-230 degrees.

Sprinkle the buns with flour and make a little cut on top of them. Bake about 18-20 minutes. Let them cool down on a metal grid.

Around Christmas we always end up with a crate of winter pears that simply cannot be eaten no matter how hard we try. And of course longer as they stay, softer they become. The next step is putting them into some sort of cake.🙂

In this case, pear and chocolate cupcakes. They taste so soft and spongy, you should definitely try them. Pure chocolate cupcakes for me are a little bit hard on top if there are made with vegetable oil and milk. These cupcakes texture however, is soft both on the outside and inside.

Ingredients::

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sunflower oil
• 1 cup yogurt
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 package baking powder
• 1 vanilla powder
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 2 pears
• 50 g chocolate of your choice (black or milky)
• whipping cream for decoration

Preparation:

Beat eggs with sugar with a mixer, until the mixture gets lighter in color. Pour gradually the oil, then yogurt, while still beating. If the vanilla is liquid, add it to this mixture.

Sift the flour in a separate bowl together with the baking powder and stir with the cocoa.

Mix the liquid and the dry ingredients and stir well. Grate the pears and the chocolate and add them carefully to the cake mixture.

Heat the oven to 180 degrees and prepare cupcake paper baskets. The ingredients here are enough for 24 cupcakes. Spread in the baskets and bake 20-22 minutes, depending on your oven.

After the cool down, decorate with the whipped cream and finish with come chocolate or sugar sprinkles. You can have them right away!

Every cook has his own recipes which are always successful and make him the star of the day :) Well this is one of these recipes. There is no way it would lower down during baking or after that. There is no way it would be squished or taste too sweet, on the contrary, fluffy and smelling of vanilla and cocoa. We love it chocolate coated and nut sprinkled but powder sugar also does the trick.

The cake would be eaten fresh from the oven, with barely enough time to be coated and sliced.

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups of sugar

2/3 cups sunflower oil

1 cup milk

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder (Dr.Jotker is the best choice)

1 tbsp vanilla flavour

2 tbsp cocoa

100 g chocolate coating

Preparation:

Beat eggs with sugar with a mixer, until the mixture gets lighter in color. Pour gradually the oil, then milk with vanilla, while still beating.

Add the beforehand sifted flour along with the baking powder to the liquid mixture. Don't do it at once, adding the flour should be done gradually, at 3-4 stages.

Grease your pan and sprinkle with some flour to prevent from sticking. Preheat your oven to 180 deg Celsius. Put 2/3 of the mixture in the pan, add the cocoa to the rest and stir well. Pour the brown mixture onto the white one, you could move in around with the spoon to achieve a "marble effect" . Bake around 45-50 minutes, depending on your oven type.

It is important not to take it right away out of the oven. Let it rest and cool while the oven door is slightly open. After it is entirely cooled down, turn it upside down in a serving plate and pour over the melted chocolate.

Добре е да се изчака с яденето няколко часа, но дори и да избързате, няма да сбъркате. Да ви е сладко!

Fluffy and soft, a real pleasure to the senses. The pumpkin is so deeply hidden inside that there is no way to be discovered. Even people who are not so fond of pumpkin eat with pleasure not knowing the reason for the nice orange color.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 egg

125 г. масло

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Chocolate glaze out of 100g chocolate and little butter/oil.

Leave the butter at room temperature and beat with sugar. You can do it either with a mixer or in hand with a fork. Add the beaten egg and the pumpkin puree. Be careful the puree would not be too hot because it will curdle. This is not such a big problem for the dough but in this case you would need more flour.

In a separate bowl sift the flour with the baking powder and the soda. Add the salt, cinnamon, nutmeg. Stir well and pour the pumpkin mixture. The dough is thick and sticky but don't be tempted to add more flour otherwise the cookies won't be soft enough. The texture should be somewhere between cake and bread dough. There is no need to knead with hands.

Cover your pan with baking paper. Form round cookies with the help of two table spoons. Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg for about 20-22 minutes.

Leave them to cool down after baking. Melt the chocolate and add some oil/butter. Decorate the cookies as you wish. They are ready to be served as long as the chocolate glaze hardens.

I've been forced lately to cook as healthy as possible. Which is not so bad considering well being advantages. And the result is here - baking salty muffins and besides suitable for low calorie diet. ;)

Ingredients for 12 pieces:

• 2 middle zucchinis, grated

• 1 cup wholegrain wheat or rye flour

• 1 egg

• Green herbs at your choice - parsley, green onions, dill, etc.

• A pinch of salt, black pepper, garlic powder

• 100 g yellow cheese

• 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp baking powder

• 3-4 tbsp olive oil

After grating the zucchinis you should squeeze them to get rid of their moisture. It helps muffins stay fluffy, not sticky. Add the green herbs and the beaten egg.

Mix in a bowl the flour, baking powder, garlic powder. Add the grated zucchinis. Grate the cheese and stir it with the oil and together with the zucchini and flour mixture. If it is too liquid, add some more flour. It should look as thick as cupcake mixture.

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees, prepare paper baskets or use a silicon tray. Spread the mixture and bake about 35-40 minutes.

They are tasty while still warm, unfortunately when they cool down, some taste is lost. The go well with gaspacho or tomato sauce.

Valentine honey cookiescookies

We won't get away from hearts in the most loving month of the year. And what is better that honey-chocolate heart-shaped cookies mmm :)

This is a standard honey cookies recipe, the trick is no more flour than stated here and no more baking than 10-12 minutes. They stay soft and melt in your mouth.

For the cookies you need:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup honey
• 1/2 cup sunflower oil
• 5 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon+ginger+cloves powder
• 1 tsp baking soda

For the decoration:

• 200 g black or milk chocolate
• 100 g white chocolate
• jam at your choice (mine is plum jam, it combines perfectly with cinnamon and honey in cookies)
• 1 tbsp oil

Приготвяне;

Sift the flour in a big bowl, stir together with cinnamon and other Christmas spices.

In another bowl put together honey and the baking soda, in order to "neutralize".

In a third bowl beat the eggs and sugar, gradually pour the oil and the honey. After you stir it very well, add the liquid mixture to the flour and start kneading. It will probably be sticky but don't be tempted to add much flour because cookies will get too firm. Sprinkle some flour to roll out the dough easier. Cut the cookies with a heart shaped cutter - 2 sizes, to get linzer-like cookies. :) Bake at 200 degrees on baking paper not more than 10-12 minutes

It is recommended to spread the jam on the still warm cookies thus helping them to get softer.

The rest that won't be glued with jam should be cooled down a little bit. Chocolate glaze is made very easy in the MW - 2 minutes at lower intensity. The chocolate is melted best with 1 tbsp oil for glittery effect. Decorate the heart-shaped cookies with black and white chocolate.

They taste best after few days stored in a cool place. If ever they could last so long! ;)

Vegan cheesecake with apples and cinnamon

Healthy and very tasty alternative to the traditional cheesecake. You can have it with no excuse, it doesn't contain any sugar at all.

Ingredients for the basics:

• 1 cup raw nuts (cashew/walnuts/almonds)
• 5-6 dry dates
• 1 tbsp coconut oil

Cream and decoration:

• 4-5 average sweet apples
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• raw pumpkin seed

Put apples on a pan using baking paper, dig out the seed and the stem and put some cinnamon inside. Bake 30 minutes at 200 degrees. Leave to cool down and blend them to a smooth puree. If the apples are a little bit sour add a tsp of honey in each apple.

You can soak the nuts in water in advance but no problem if you skip this. Blend them with the dates, add in the coconut oil. Spread the mixture onto a little pan or into separate glasses. Decorate on top with pumpkin seeds. Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.