Turkish Baklava

The first time I tasted baklava was almost 20 years ago when we were on a family holiday in Turkey.

It's a common dessert also in South-Western Asia and in the Balkans.

I still have my own personal reasons to believe that the best baklava is Turkish :)

Base:

500 g phyllo pastry sheets

150 g butter

200 g chopped pistachios

200 g chopped almonds

100 g sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Syrup:

200 ml water

3 tablespoons lemon juice

150 g sugar

50 g honey

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Grease a rectangular baking pan with butter.

Chop the nuts and mix with cinnamon and sugar.

Cut the phyllo in half for each sheet to fit the bottom of the baking pan. Start buttering each sheet of phyllo as you place them in the pan. Every 5-7 sheets spread a layer of nut mix. Continue layering and when finished, cut the pastry with a sharp knife diagonally to form diamond shaped pieces. 

Bake in the centre of oven for about 40 minutes until the pastry turns golden brown.

 

Let the baklava cool and in the meantime prepare the syrup. Mix in a pan water, lemon juice, sugar and honey. Heat the mix to boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Pour the hot syrup over the pastry and let it cool well. Place it in the fridge waiting to be served.

 

Cut into pieces and serve accompanied with strong Turkish style coffee or tea.

Chocolate Eggs & Halva

Halva is delicious eaten alone but goes also well with yoghurt, ice cream and.. chocolate.

Inspired by the blogger "The Londoner" I made my version of filled chocolate Easter eggs.

CHOCOLATE EGGS FILLED WITH HALVA MOUSSE

Hollow chocolate eggs

Mousse:

250g quark
200 g vanilla halva
1 juice of a lime
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
2 teaspoons sugar

Cut the chocolate eggs into halves. For the filling mix together quark, crushed halva, sugars and lime juice. Fill the eggs and serve with tea or coffee.

Here also some pics from our cottage at the lake <3

Reindeer :)

Sunset

Marianne Semifreddo

Semifreddo with mint flavoured Marianne chocolate is one of our Mum's specialities.
She has made it for 20 years, usually for Christmas but as I wasn't here with them the last time,
we made it now.

The recipe is super easy if you find the ready crushed Marianne, otherwise you can crush whole candies with a machine. Obviously you can also replace the product with another mint flavoured chocolate,
I believe the original is sold just in Scandinavia :)

MARIANNE SEMIFREDDO

150 g Marianne crush
2 eggs
35 g sugar
300 ml cream

Prepare a cake tin covering it with a plastic wrap.
In a one bowl whisk using an electronic mixer eggs and sugar together. In another bowl whisk cream and add it in the first mix with crushed Marianne.
Pour the mixture in the covered cake tin and place in the freezer for at least for 4 hours.

Remove from the freezer just before serving, overturn the cake tin on a serving plate and decorate if you wish. Serve immediately and enjoy :)

Pavlova

My Sister kindly asked me to make a Pavlova cake for our Easter dinner.

The cake was named after a famous Russian ballet dancer, Anna Pavlova when she was visiting Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s. They still don't know for sure which country can take the credit for the original recipe which contains a meringue base, creamy topping and berries / fruits.

For this version I chose sea-buckthorn gelee and cape gooseberries that give the cake a nice springly colouring.

PAVLOVA CAKE

Meringue:

4 egg white
hint of salt
200 g sugar
2 teaspoons of white balsamic vinegar
+ some butter

+ 150 g sea-buckthorn berry gelee

Topping:

250 ml cream
250 g quark
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
2 tablespoons sugar

+ cape gooseberries

Preheat the oven to 125 C. Line an oven tray with a baking paper and make a circle (about 25cm diameter) brushing with melted butter.

Use an electronic mixer to whisk together egg whites and salt adding sugar little by little. Whisk at least for 8-10 minutes until the texture is thick and all the sugar is dissolved. Add white balsamic vinegar and whisk still a moment.

Spoon meringue on buttered circle on the baking paper. Form higher peaks on the edges to create a nest. Bake in the centre of the oven for 1,5 hours. Let the base cool.

 

For the toppin whisk the cream until it's hard. Add the quark and both sugars still whisking.

Start spreading the gelee in the centre of the base leaving the borders without. Add the topping with a spoon on top of the gelee and decorate with berries.

Keep the pavlova in a cool place until served (best served in 1-3 hours, otherwise the base gets too moist)

Easter with the Family

My Sister arrived from Helsinki the other day and finally the whole Family has been together again <3
We came straight to our cottage here at the beautiful lake and it has been so relaxing: reading books, skiing, eating, sauna and sleeping..

Besides spending time with my family the thing I love most about Easter is chocolate. And cakes. And candies.

I brought from Italy the "Colomba" cake which is a traditionally served in this period.
We like to eat it together with chocolate eggs and bunnies.

When me and my sister were little, we played a kind of "hide and seek" game with the Easter treats.
During the night our parents hide them and in the morning we searched all over the house while they gave us the tips "cool / warm".

Maybe now we are too old for that.. Or are we? I think we should still continue the tradition ;)

Girls Night

No matter how old I get I still love pink and cute things. 

Yesterday I got to spend some quality time with my Mom. This included afternoon shopping, relaxing sauna, facials, mani & pedicure + delicious gourmet chocolates and rose sparking wine :)

Nut & Seed Bread

We had a dinner at my Mother's Aunt house last week and she had made delicious little breads.
I asked her the recipe but she answered that it was different every time.
For this version I chose these ingredients. You can use the flours, seeds and nuts you like.

NUT & SEED BREAD

Dough:

100g white flour
100 g oatmeal
100 g rye flakes
2 teaspoon baking powder
100 g sun flower seeds
100 g sesam seeds
200 g natural yoghurt
50 g cashews

Heat the oven up to 200 C. Mix together flour, oatmeal, rye flakes, baking powder and seeds in a bowl. Start adding yoghurt little by little mixing with a kitchen spoon.
Cover an oven pan with baking paper and with the help of the spoon pour small amounts of dough (10 cm in diameter). Press breads gently with a fork and add on top some cashews.
Bake in the centre of the oven for 10-15 minutes until they turn to light brown colour.

Best served immediately with fresh butter and cheese accompanied with your favourite salad.