Lemony Cream Cake!

This creamy Cake/Layered Cake, which is wonderfully fluffy and musky scented lemon, filled with traditional goat yogurt combined with Katiki Domokou (ricotta), gave us pleasant tasting -but also festive- moments.
The lemony cream inside, with intense acidic tones, is sandwiched between 2 layers of crumbly dough mixture, which makes it very special and wonderfully delicious. The almond fillet enhances its taste and appearance. It is barely sweet because this is our choice, so we accompany it with a sweet red wine.
We liked it doubly because we had in mind to enjoy it during the holidays and so we named it "Birthday Cake" in honor of the birthday person...
Yours!

work: 30′

time: 1h:30′

easy:

Greek Custard Pie with Sirup-Galaktoboureko

How does it stand out and how do you make a good Galaktoboureko?
Everything plays its role, even the size or material of the baking pan, the quality & quantity of its ingredients, the buttering, the time, the baking, and the syrup as much as are equally important to the success of the dessert. My version is «cold syrup ↔ hot sweet».
Please follow the step-by-step steps below and make this excellent Galaktoboureko all-weather, craving & disposition. A sweet passepartout that is!
Yours!

work: 2h:00′

time: 3h:00′

easy:

Tart with Lemon Cream & Blueberries

The Blueberry is a «source of eternal youth» because it prevents the formation of free radicals responsible for skin aging. Many studies show that Blueberries have the highest antioxidant activity than other fruits, offering protection from the "oxidative" attack that the body receives due to aging, infections and exposure to aggravating environmental & nutritional factors, such as cigarette smoke, atmospheric pollutants, toxins, carcinogenic compounds, etc.
In this Sweet Tart the fresh Blueberries were combined with the aroma of lemon and the sheet of crust, was folded in the shape of an accordion, where inside the folded sheets nested a simple cream with eggs & cream well beaten.
Yours!

work: 30′

time: 1h:15′

easy:

Lemony Cream Cake!

This creamy Cake/Layered Cake, which is wonderfully fluffy and musky scented lemon, filled with traditional goat yogurt combined with Katiki Domokou, gave us pleasant tasting - but also festive - moments.
The lemony cream inside, with intense acidic tones, is sandwiched between 2 layers of crumbly dough mixture, which makes it very special and wonderfully delicious. The almond fillet enhances its taste and appearance. It is barely sweet because this is our choice, so we accompany it with a sweet red wine.
We liked it doubly because we had in mind to enjoy it during the holidays and so we named it "Birthday Cake" in honor of the birthday person...
Yours!

work: 30′

time: 1h:30′

easy:

Cheese Bread

Delicious Cheese Bread complete and absolute in taste and content. A fluffy puff pastry, stuffed with Greek feta cheese and yellow cheese.
Easy & quick process without any effort, with the end result of this delicious bread, to become our hearty snack or to accompany a plate of pulses on winter days.
The dough can be made from the previous one and put in the fridge or stay on our kitchen counter all night, depending on the weather. The next day we complete the preparation and bake.
Yours!

work: 30′

time: 3h:30′

easy:

Chinese Almond Cookies

These cookies are the traditional and easiest dessert to celebrate Chinese New Year, the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It does not have a fixed date, in 2022 it was February 1 and the celebrations lasted 15 days.
As familiar as its ingredients are to us, it is nevertheless one of the most popular Chinese Pastries. They are made in every home and everyone contributes with them to the Chinese New Year Table. They are very easy to make and complete in less than 30 minutes. It is even said that they bring good luck in the New Year!
Super simple and clean materials that you probably already have in your closet. They are crunchy and buttery with a small amount of almond or vanilla extract and definitely a favorite in the crowd, young and old. In ours I replaced the sugar with Stevia, you choose what you like.

Good & Lucky Chinese New Year in the Year of the Tiger!

work: 15′

time: 30′

very easy:

Yogurt Hazelnut Cake

Velvety and fragrant this cake, with traditional yogurt and hazelnut flour, is a thin, without much sugar but very soft dessert, ideal for breakfast and snacks. It has a beautiful dark color from the hazelnuts and the intensity of their taste. Greek traditional yogurt makes it particularly fresh and tastes good. If you then sprinkle it with icing sugar, it will also be perfect at the end of a meal combined with a wonderful aromatic coffee. Children will love it and it is ideal to consume dairy products without even realizing it.
Yours!

work: 20′

time: 1h:00′

easy:

Brioche Burger Buns

Brioche dough tends to be heavy, as it is an enriched dough. This means that, in addition to the usual suspects to make bread, such as flour, water, salt and yeast, brioche dough includes egg, butter & full-fat milk. These buns, however, are light, airy, soft. So we have an enriched dough with a great taste, and not a heavy dough, with which brioche is usually made.
Making these homemade buns, with a neutral taste, so that they can be made sweet or savory choices and to enjoy them in many different ways:
☛ Plain to accompany a meal or make sandwiches & hamburger. Since they are not sweet at all by choice.
☛ Plain to accompany a meal or make sandwiches & hamburger. Since Cut in half and spread with butter and jam for a pleasant, hearty breakfast, they are not sweet at all by choice.
☛ Filled with chocolate, praline, jam of our choice or chestnut cream spread, like the ones here, to make them more festive… and which are our preference for Christmas Day.
You decide, choose and make the most delicious fluffy brioche buns for incredible combinations.

Yours!

Merry Christmas!

work: 1h:00′

time: 4h:00′

medium:

Almond Pie-Birthday Cake

Cake with Almonds, syrupy and flavored with liqueur. Whitened & grated almonds make this almond pie very tasty. The syrup at the end (and in the right amount) flavors it wonderfully and makes it tender, soft and delicious.

We made it a Cake / Birthday Cake because… because we like it that way… and to simplify the procedures we sprinkled it with a little icing sugar. Alternatively we can put almond slivers on top or just grated almonds.

Yours!

work: 20′

time: 1h:00′

easy:

Parmesan Cookies

Savory miniature cookies with lacy edges and unique taste. The savory Parmesan cookies, a small "luxury" of taste, are perfect as an appetizer or a wonderful snack / accompaniment for our favorite drink, whatever it is. They are small, they are addictive, they are a bite, they are made quickly and easily, with minimal ingredients and within 20 minutes we enjoy them. Of the few recipes, that something is so rich in taste and with so few ingredients.
I promise you, once you make them once you will want to repeat them soon…
Yours!

work: 10′

time: 20′

very easy:

Hazelnut Cookies

We make beautiful hazelnuts, buttery biscuits and enjoy them with coffee and a book. They are consumed in moderation because they become really addictive, we can comfortably eat a lot of them, a lot! They contain a little sugar but they are still made with plenty of butter. They are made mainly from hazelnut flour for all lovers of this delicious nut.
We spend some quality time with our children, making these wonderful cookies together.
Yours!

work: 50′

time: 1h:10′

easy:

Little Aubergine Pies with Homemade Kourou Dough

A Kourou Dough -Yogurt Dough- so pliable & velvety, which you will love for the comfort of its management. The pies are filled with whatever stuffing we like. Wonderful Aubergine Pies were made here, very tasty & fluffy and where the tender, grated, biscuit dough competes equally with the wonderfully delicious stuffing with eggplant and Greek cheeses, such as Gruyère & kasseri or emmental. The blue poppy seed gives them an extra click of flavor.
A suggestion for a snack for the morning coffee but also for a beer or… why not, with an easy drink and fruity wine, iced & dry Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie -the most popular variety of Italy- on our summer terrace with dear friends.
Cheers!

work: 1h:00′

time: 1h:30′

easy:

Fresh Apricot Clafoutis

It's apricot time and I'm happy. I really love these round, juicy fruits, with the color of the sunset and the velvety skin. Few other fruits, when ripe, have such a creamy texture and strong aroma that I like to smell them with deep breaths, as if I had to store it in my memory.
I realize that there are several apricot recipes on the blog which means I always put them first when it came time… If we share the same enthusiasm came the right recipe for this year, so you can enjoy them uniquely in a delicious Clafoutis.
Yours!

work: 20′

time: 1h:20′

easy:

Coconut Rolls

A recent study by the Royal Roads University of Canada on nutrition in times of crisis came to some conclusions:
«Food is a carrier of the transition from normalcy to different times in real time, at the same time. This leads to a revision of key values as well as processes of our busy economic and industrial society and its various branches, such as those related to food and entertainment. Above all, there is the aspect of survival, the realization that man is no longer dominant and, to talk about the purely practical part of food, there is a need to save resources, using all the materials at our disposal. Cooking is one of the things that connects us to natural living systems and food is something that connects us, on a deeper level, to the Earth itself».
So many people, being confined to their home, make their own food every day and pastry products have the dominant say with daily and better daily bread.
The recipe we suggest today is one of these tender doughs like brioche, is sweet, fluffy and soft buns, stuffed with dried coconut and bathed, while still hot, with sweetened condensed milk.
Yours!

work: 45′

time: 4h:00′

medium:

Greek Brioche-Easter 2020

Our Easter Tsourekia of 2020 was a beautiful experience, although their process was time consuming. We kept great waiting times for a total of 5 inflatables and which time (and inflatables) worked positively and substantially to make them fluffy, with strings and delicious buns.
Their ingredients are the classic for Tsourekia of our Greek Easter Brioche in a more enhanced dose, since 1 kg of flour was required.
Despite the long process, the hand work was very little. The dough, a perfect dough in texture and aroma also gave a perfect final result, which justified the effort and noise of the thing… But it is these family Easter traditions that create inextricable links and tasteful memories that connect us as a family, as a Nation.

We wish you a Happy Easter, with a lot of strength, so that we can face an invisible enemy who changed our lives!

work: 1h:30′

time: 6h:00′

medium:

Dark Chocolate Whiskey Cake

Dark Chocolate Cake with a lot of Whiskey, a lot of Cocoa, a lot of Nescafé and a strong ground cloves aroma, is perfect for any occasion! Sure, Chocolate has many friends and is a magical and adorable ingredient.

Chocolate is the main ingredient in Cocoa, which comes from the cocoa tree and is one of the main ingredients in pastry, in sweets, ice creams, cookies and other containing sugar. Chocolate is also called hot chocolate (decoction) based on chocolate. The one who brought cocoa to Europe was Hernando Cortez.

The Aztecs used the cocoa beans -first they crushed them and made them powder- to make a drink called «Choclatl». This drink, along with other spices, made it hot and considered it to be digestive, potent, and the best medicine of its time, which could cure any illness.

For the first time solid chocolate was produced by London's traditional coffee shop «The Mill of Coffee», which in 1674 introduced chocolate bars «a la Spanish» and a chocolate cake in solid form.

work: 30′

time: 1h:30′

easy:

Steak in Cast Iron with Black Salt

Cast Iron has the property of retaining heat for longer. So it's perfect for making the most juicy and yummy Steak as it allows for a crust to be made on the outside of the meat without overlooking the inside. It is also easier to control the baking stage and bring it to the stage that we like, using a meat thermometer. Our steak is ready when the temperature in its thickest part is:
▸rare 45-47°C
▸medium rare 50-52°C
▸medium 52-55°C
▸well done 55-60°C,
for 8-10 minutes total. These times always depend on the overall thickness of the steak & the intensity of the fire.
So we enjoy a delicious steak, with a unique taste that gives it a baking way, the distinctive aroma of wild thyme, Black Salt, and the hazelnut aftertaste of burnt butter.
You are ready to celebrate St. Valentine's Day with a super quick, hearty, and enjoyable dish, which will earn you an extra bonus at the heart of your loved one?
Follow the recipe steps and get ready for MasterChef's apron!
Yours

work: 15′

time: 1h:15′

easy:

Three Cheese Garlic Bread

Three delicious kinds of cheese that melt and roll the homemade bread buns, lots of garlic, and roasted in the oven are these addictive garlic slices. Rich, creamy, and crunchy, they combine with too many dishes to dominate the Barbecue Grills. A juicy steak or fluffy burger will taste delicious with these buns! They are also consumed on their own as a meze/ snack with the drink of our choice. Here they were combined with roasted sweet potatoes and their taste was irresistible!
Their dough recipe is two posts behind and you can find it under the heading: «Pastry for Bread & Pizza».
Yours!

work: 15′

time: 30′

very easy:

Custard Filled Pastry Torte

Custard Filled Pastry Torte-Galaktoboureko, festive and favorite!
AND YES we celebrated a Birthday with this syrupy dessert and it eaten to be lukewarm, consumed with great appetite and some (everyone?!?) loved it!
Simplifying the procedures in the dilemma of the term «Birthday Cake» the decision was made and the balance was set in this suggestion here as time and conditions were very limited… It Just very easy with ingredients like fine semolina to make air-foam pastry cream, fresh butter, crunchy pastry sheets, fresh eggs and a light aroma syrup orange. Classic, that is, without the risk of failure and with the phyllo making small crisp nests to embrace the cream. Decorated with a little orange jam and grated pistachio.

Happy Birthday my Baby!

work: 40′

time: 1h:30′

easy:

Vasilopita/New Year's Cake 2020!

Ritual & Symbols
Vasilopita {Greek:Βασιλόπιτα, Vasilópita (St.Basil-pie)} is a New Year's Day bread or cake in Greece and many other areas in Eastern & Wester Europe and the Balkans which contains a hidden coin or trinket which gives good luck to the receiver. It is associated with Saint Basil's day, January 1, in most of Greece, but in some regions, the traditions surrounding a cake with a hidden coin are attached to Epiphany or to Christmas.
On New Year's Day families cut the Vasilopita to bless the house and bring good luck for the new year. This is usually done at midnight on New Year's Eve. A coin is hidden in the bread by slipping it into the dough before baking.
At midnight the sign of the cross is etched with a knife across the cake. A piece of cake is sliced for each member of the family and any visitors present at the time, by order of age from eldest to youngest. Depending on local and family traditions, slices are cut for various symbolic people or groups.
They may include the Lord, St. Basil and other saints, the poor, the household, or the Kalikantzaroi.
In older times, the coin often was a valuable one, such as a gold sovereign. Nowadays there is often a prearranged gift, money, or otherwise, to be given to the coin recipient.
The traditions surrounding Vasilopita are very similar to Western European celebrations of the Twelfth Night & Epiphany: the King Cake (Gâteau des Rois) of France and Louisiana and the Tortell in Catalonia.

※※※※※Happy New Year 2020!※※※※※

εργασία: 20′

χρόνος: 1h:20′

εύκολο: