Saturday, March 31, 2012

Sweet omelet

This recipe I found in a Slovenian cookbook my mom got from a friend of mine when he visited. It’s called “Pohorska omleta” of which my translation is now sweet omelet. I really felt the need to bake something again, but I didn’t have the ingredients of what I actually wanted to make, namely Homemade Snickers. So they’ll have to wait. Also I didn’t want to spend too long on anything, so I decided on this recipe. I just started the recipe, hoping I had all the ingredients. Here’s how it went:

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Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites
50 grams sugar
20-30 grams flour
7-10 grams vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest and/or juice
Any fruits, jams, liquor, powdered sugar, whipped cream or anything else you’d like to serve with the omelet


1. Whisk the egg whites until stiff.
2. Mix the sugars and add the sugar spoon by spoon into the egg whites, while whisking.
3. Add the lemon and mix again
4. Sift the flour over the egg-mixture and gently stir it in.
5. Butter a cake or brownie tin and leave for about 5 minutes in a preheated oven of 200 degrees Celsius or 390 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Serve with anything you like and enjoy straight away!

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After it was done, I put it on a plate with some cherry filling and powdered it with some sugar to make it look pretty. My mom, who’s on a diet, came by and tried a piece and decided it was very delicious after which she ate almost half of my omelet. I managed to shoo her away before it was all gone, but I didn’t have to. It is so filling! Mind you, this omelet takes up a whole brownie tin, but still! I had to leave the last bit “for later”. However when it was later my omelet had mysteriously disappeared!!

I hope you enjoy the quick recipe I’ve made!Leave a comment if you try the recipe and any variations you've made!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

We're having Waffles tonight!

Warning: You WILL get sick if you eat too much of them. Also, you’re GOING to be eating too much of them!
That happened to my mom. Unfortunately didn’t happen to me. After a busy day and just coming back from the groceries I hurriedly started making dinner for the family and decided on something new. I had to try some new waffles. I hurriedly made the batter, and started cooking some up while I made the second batter and in the meanwhile handed out the waffles that were ready and then started all over again to make more. Didn’t have a lot left to eat for myself and didn’t have a lot of time to make pictures, but I think it was a success. Sorry mom!

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Spinach waffles
Ingredients:
125 grams butter
100 grams spinach a la crème (freezer-type)
3 eggs
250 grams flour
A pinch of baking powder
Salt & pepper
A pinch or two nutmeg


1. Cream the butter by whisking it with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds. Beat the eggs lightly and add them to the butter and mix again. Lastly add the spinach and mix again.
2. Sift the flour with baking powder and add about one fourth into the spinach-mixture and stir. Then stir in about one fourth of the water. Alternatively add the flour and water until you have none left.
3. Heat your waffle iron and drop a few spoons of batter on it after greasing it with some oil. Wait for it to get done and eat!

If you want you can always top these with some vegetables and pop them in the oven for a bit just like I did with my Pizza Waffles! Or if you like it a bit sweet, try this recipe:

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Lemon waffles
Ingredients:
100 grams butter
100 grams powdered sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
100 ml lemon juice
50 ml orange juice
125 grams flour
50 grams powdered almonds


1. Cream the butter by whisking it with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds. Add the powdered sugar and mix again.
2. Add the eggs, one by one, and mix well between each addition.
3. Add the lemon zest, juice and orange juice and sift the flour and almonds on top and stir everything in.
4. Heat your waffle iron and drop a few spoons of batter on it after greasing it with some oil. Wait a few minutes till it’s done and enjoy!

This last recipe was actually for oranges, but I wanted something with lemon so it would fit my cherry filling better. You could try it with oranges and add a bit cinnamon and serve glühwein with it if you want a winter effect. Add more lemon, cream and powdered sugar and you'll feel a lot more like summer!
Please enjoy!

Spiced Apple Cake

With pear. Because the power of pear is totally underestimated. And dates come to think of it, because dates are totally awesome as well. It adds up to a totally fruity cake. With some walnuts sprinkled on top I think it looks like a totally ‘rustique’ cake for some reason.

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Let me tell you a secret: the cake tastes wonderful and I know you can’t wait to try it. It almost tastes healthy with all the fruits in it. Personally I think this is a way better alternative to apple pie. Then again, I’m really no fan of apple pie.

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Apple Spice Cake
Ingredients:

225 grams self-rising flour
3 spoons wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
175 grams dates
75 grams (palm) sugar
1 tablespoon apple (and pear) sauce
120 ml apple juice
2 eggs
90 ml sunflower oil
2 apples or 1 apple and 1 pear or 2 small apples and 1/2 a pear
1 tablespoon walnuts


1. Start with preparing the ingredients: chop the dates and the walnuts, grate the apples and pear and make the apple & pear sauce if you didn’t want to buy a whole jar for 1 spoon. (See recipe below)
2. Sift the self-raising flour, baking powder and cinnamon together. Add the wholemeal flour.
3. Mix the sugar with the apple sauce. And then add the apple juice, eggs -lightly beaten-, sunflower oil and grated apple and pear.
4. Finally add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
5. Line a baking tin with greaseproof paper or butter it in. Spoon the mixture into the tin and sprinkle it with chopped walnuts.
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes in a preheated oven on 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

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And? Are you getting excited as well? I should definitely try a recipe like this with only pear. That's all I have to say about it. Awesome cake. It will be made again!

Oh yes! For the apple and pear sauce! Here it goes:

Apple sauce
Ingredients:

Diced apple and/or pear
Juice and/or water
Sugar


1. Put the apple and pear in a pan in a bottom of juice. Make sure you have more fruit than juice. Make sure you always have a little bit of juice in your pan so the fruits don't burn.
2. Put the lid on the pan and leave it on the fire to simmer.
3. After a while check and stir, add more juice and leave again if necessary. Use a fork to mash the fruit and add some sugar to taste. And voilà! Super easy, super quick apple sauce!

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Edit: Want to see more recent pictures of this cake? I'm showing them off in this post!

Orange cranberry cake

I’ve got to admit I LOVE cranberries. I’m totally addicted to them, but they’re so expensive! So every once in a while I buy a package of cranberries and think of something to do with them. This time It was orange cake. Orange and cranberry isn’t a bad combination right? That’s exactly what I thought, so I searched all my books for a recipe for orange cake. Here’s what I ended up with:

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Ingredients:
125 grams butter
145 grams sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons orange zest
2 eggs
185 grams self-raising flour
125 orange juice


1. Cream the butter by beating it with an electric mixer for half a minute. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and mix again.
2. Add the orange zest and the two lightly beaten eggs and mix again.
3. Finally sift the self-raising flour into the bowl and add the orange juice and mix everything thoroughly.
4. Grease a cake tin or line it with greaseproof paper. Spoon the batter into the tin.
5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Leave the cake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

You could always add lemon zest and juice in stead of the oranges. Would also work wonderfully with cranberries. Or how about swap the cranberries for raisins? Or when we’re changing it anyway: how about an orange flavored cake with a lot of dried fruits and nuts in it? I’m thinking this definitely isn’t a bad idea!
I should write more of these ideas down on a To-do list. I always forget.

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