Greek Christmas Filled Cookies

Cookies/Finikia/Melomakarona, a recipe from the East full of aromas and memories of lost homelands! Stuffed, traditional, Lenten and syrupy cookies.
The syruping is done in a saucepan and while the syrup is kept warm on a very low heat.
We prepare Finikia, which are consumed during the Lenten days before Christmas but also as a sweet delicacy for Christmas and New Year's Day along with the other Christmas desserts of the Twelve Days, such as Melomakarona, Kourabiedes, hills of fried honeyed Diples fragrant and fluffy Vasilopites! And even Isli, Christmas Bread, Kouloures, New Year's Loukoumades, Pancakes and other local sweets, festive, symbolic and ritual, that are prepared in every corner of Greece.
Yours!

Merry Christmas 2024! 🎄
Happy Holidays!

work: 1h:00′

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:

Traditional Greek Orange Cake with Syrup

Juicy, easy, fluffy and full of aromas Traditional Greek Orange Cake with Syrup, which is made with crust leaves, finely chopped & hidden inside and with strained yogurt. It is syruped with a thick orange syrup to make the flavors even more orange. The taste of orange floods the palate so pleasantly and so intensely, uniquely!
Of all the syrupy sweets of Greek Cuisine, this orange pie is by far our favorite. It's because oranges are our favorite fruit! It combines beautifully with a ball of our favorite ice cream and the flavors take off.
Yours!

work: 20′

time: 1h:00′

easy:

Greek Easter Cookies

Easter Cookies/ Biscuits -and not only Easter- with a different approach but with all the aromas of Greek Easter, such as Chios Mastic, Mahlepi, Kakoule (Cardamom) and the aroma of orange.
Light, tasty, soft, digestible and special. They are made very easily with their wonderfully velvety dough, which is given by the addition of pure yogurt and the light corn oil. They are relatively sweet with a little sugar added because our opinion is that this is how a cookie should be in order for a savory platter of cheeses and cold cuts to accompany our drink.

Happy Easter!

work: 1h:20′

time: 2h:30′

easy:

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:

Lemon-Flavored Yogurt Jelly

Refrigerating dessert with Greek natural yogurt, lemon jelly & cookies stuffed with lemon flavor. 5 hours later we enjoy a healthy low-calorie lemony yogurt. A delicious dessert like this, made by all moms, with cookies of different flavors, rusks, savoiardi-biscuits or any kind of seasonal fruit or jams . Here with crispy filled cookies on the base and crumbled on top and a nice velvety cream with lemon zest & yogurt jelly.
Yours!

work: 20′

time: 5h:30′

very easy:

Healthy Banana Pancakes

What is so special about this recipe? Well, let's start with the pancakes. They are extremely soft, light, healthy & fluffy like soft pillows! Roasted & crushed hazelnuts add a wonderful, crispy texture and the unique aroma of roasted nuts. The layers of caramelized bananas in maple syrup and brown sugar in the intermediate layers of the «tower», sometimes a little sloping to look like that of Tower of Pisa, add even more delicious, sweet and sticky flavors to these Pancakes. You just have to try them on to know what I'm talking about!
From above we decorate with whatever we like. If they are spring pancakes, we put antioxidant fruits of the forest, such as strawberries, raspberries & blueberries, which are among the superfoods, almond slivers & plenty of maple syrup.
Make a lot and fill, with these healthy Pancakes, children's dishes with all the above and they will be amazing…
Yours

work: 20′

time: 40′

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 Halva

This here, Semolina Halva is young, handsome and scandalous, without question or hesitation, he also has a caramelized taste like an extra bonus in the suitcase with his dowry. There is a little secret about him and it is about the technique of his preparation. It will be revealed to you later, reading the article or enjoying it, if you make it!
Forget the well-known 1 2 3 4 etc. of the ingredients here arithmetic changes, it's not like when we were kids and they taught us our first sweets… Confectionery is an evolving art, it's very special and strict, I would say, even if it concerns the simplest of sweets. Sometimes the simple does not mean simplistic, the depthless approach to the real.
Its ingredients, thanks to which it becomes very light and aromatic, apart from the well-known semolina, are nuts, cinnamon, juice and orange zest as well as orange spoon sweet chopped!
Yours

work: 45′

time: 2h:45′

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:

Coconut Panna Cotta with Pomegranate

«Mother's Day is a feast in honor of mother and motherhood. In Greece and many other countries, it is celebrated on the second Sunday of May.
The first references to Mother's Day and Motherhood come from Ancient Greece.
Mother Earth (Gaia) the wife of Uranus is the personification of nature, that gives birth to the whole world and is worshiped as the supreme deity. The cult then passes to her daughter, Rea, Saturn's spouse and sister. Rhea is worshiped as the "Mother of the Gods", as she seems to be the first to bear birth and to raise her children with breast milk. Ancient Greeks attributed prices to Rhea every spring, as she was goddess of land and fertility».

Happy Mother's Day to those mothers who nurture with their guileless love, the happiness of their children.

work: 20′

time: 4h:20′

very easy:

Almond Pears-Amigthalota

The Argosaronic Islands, Cyclades, Dodecanese and all of our islands -and not only- make and celebrate with these Amigthalota/ Almonds Pears, snowy sweets of joy and hospitality to welcome new life, new names, new beginnings, and new pleasures. Snowy as the purity of the happy moments of our life and flavored with the essence of the blossoms of the sour orange.
As many as our islands are so many variations of this simple and such a beloved delicacy. Grated almond, egg white and fine semolina make up the basic principle to make these fragrant sweets and smell the home tradition and joy!
Yours!

work: 30′

time: 1h:00′

easy:

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Brownies

With gentle children's taste in which succumb from toddlers to old age, both innocent and outrageous, when soaked with alcohol, strawberries are popular and favorite.
Passepartout fruit, fresh used in a variety of sweets, juices and sorbets, at breakfast or brunch, in warm croissants, dipped in melted chocolate, in jams, cakes and Brownies… The melted Chocolate, with its velvety, tender texture, swirls over and covers them as much as to hide their ruddy presence.
Yours Brownies & Strawberries!

work: 20′

time: 50′

easy:

Forest Fruit Cinnamon Rolls

Easy cinnamon rolls with our favorite forest fruits with sour taste and beautiful colors. They are easily made of glaze and dressed festively for those who are or feel in love.
Spend your time beautifuly and celebrate. The day of lovers has arrived and is an opportunity to feel festive and cheerful even with a simple sweet with cinnamon rolls and reddish forest fruits.
Yours!

work: 20′

time: 40′

very easy:

Dates & Nuts Roll

An easy, simple and delicious sweet recipe for these rolls of dates and nuts, flavored with orange and cloves and sprinkled with grated pistachios. It is a healthy and tasty sweet, fat-free and sugar-free, but the dates give all the sweetness to these rolls, since they are already a sweet temptation.
Sweet rolls with dill and nuts have their origins in India where they are made and eaten a lot.
Yours!

work: 30′

time: 2h:30′

easy:

Melomakarona - Greek Christmas Honey Cookies

Melomakarona the Greek!
Melomakarona is a famous Greek delicacy to enjoy the Christmas season. They are made with flour, semolina, beer, olive oil and fresh butter from sheep and goat of unique flavor, stuffed with nut and dipped in syrup of honey, sugar and mandarin with extra grated nut with spices to sprinkle them on top.
Oriental spices, honey and citrus aromas to smell our homes during Christmas, this beautiful and hopeful celebration of Christianity!

Happy Christmas!
Happy Holidays!

work: 1h:00′

time: 2h:00′

easy:

Coconut Truffles

Truffles are always a favorite sweets of a bite, made without baking most of the time. It is economical and very easy, unlike the deliciousness and pleasure it offers us. Either as a gift or as a treat remains high in our preferences and kept in the refrigerator for whatever time we look for it to surprise us.
Our current proposal for Truffles coconut is gluten free and is a variation of previously published & already known recipe Coconut Truffles-Raffaello, that many of you have made and loved. Differentiation lies in the absence of almond (not excluding it if you prefer it) and the color added to make it more scandalous.
Easy and festive wear their pink dress and decided to make the first appearance at the premiere of Christmas dishes for this year.

Happy Holidays,
Merry Christmas!

work: 30′

time: 1h:30′

very easy:

Lemon-Cream Cheese Crescent Rolls

Super fluffy soft croissants, filled with velvety and very lemony cream cheese, soft and a little sweet. They are laced with a mixture of sugar and lemon juice for even more intense flavor. In every bite a pronounced citrus flavor erupts in the palate.
I think this quick dessert will give a little joy to our Sunday's relaxed breakfast which can be evolved or combined with other delicacies for a perfect Brunch.
Yours!

work: 12′

time: 25′

very easy: