best summer recipes Archives - Use Your Noodles

Summer Harvest Cream Cheese Tart

August 21, 2019

Celebrate the late Summer produce with this delicious summer harvest cream cheese tart.

Can you believe it that it’s almost the end of August? Before the Summer begins I always have lots of plans and prep for all the activities like it’s going to last for a year. And then it goes by so so quickly. I don’t usually mind because I love Autumn, but this year the Summer was super short here. I would love for it to last for at least a couple more months.

Anyway, tomatoes are here. And peppers! I found these perfect colorful tomatoes at a local farm before we had our own. Well, we had a few and I mixed those in. Aren’t they pretty? I mean the color is amazing but they taste even better.

They are getting more abundant now so I’m planning on making this summer harvest cream cheese tart again sometime soon along with the roasted tomato galette that I’ve been making for years.

After finding these beautiful tomatoes and peppers I really felt like making something similar to pizza but with less work. I love how easy it is to make it. A puff pastry crust, a garlicky cream cheese spread and fresh summer harvest veggies like tomatoes, peppers, and onions. It’s a perfect late Summer dish! You can add other veggies that you find in the garden right now.

How to make a perfect puff pastry crust?

This crust doesn’t need any pre-baking, but I do have a few tips that make this crust beautiful and delicious.

Score a cm (1/2 inch) edge around the crust. This is going to separate the edge from the middle where the filling will be.
Make some holes with a fork in the center part of the crust where the filling will go. This will prevent the crust from puffing up and give a nice crunchy crust.

Print

Sumer Harvest Cream Cheese Tart

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine Mediterranean

Keyword puff pastry tart, summer tart, tomato tart

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 4 people

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

1 sheet of puff pastry
4-5 big tomatoes
1 bell pepper or any other pepper

Cream cheese Spread

1/2 cup cream cheese (100g)
1 TBSP honey
1/2 tsp salt
1 garlic clove
a few basil leaves

Garnish

basil
pine nuts
sesame seeds
1 egg for egg wash

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200°C/390°F.

Cream cheese spread

Finely chop basil and garlic.
Add garlic, basil, salt, and honey to cream cheese and mix with a spoon to get a silky consistency.

Tart

Place the puff pastry onto a sheet pan lined with baking paper. You can make a rectangular tart or make them any other shape.
Score a 1cm (1/2 inch) edge around the puff pastry like shown in the images above.
Using a fork make holes in the center part of the pastry.
Spread the cream cheese filling onto the center of the tart.
Cut onions, tomatoes, and peppers into thin slices and place them on top of the tart.
Using a fork, whisk one egg and spread a thin layer over the edge of the tart. Sprinkle with some sesame seeds.
Bake in a preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until the puff pastry is golden and crunchy.
Serve warm or cold. Garnish with fresh basil and pine nuts.

No-bake Frozen Coconut Cakes

August 2, 2019

These no-bake frozen coconut cakes with sweet creamed coconut and Greek yogurt on top of a no-bake almond crust are the perfect summer desserts. Add some whipped cream and seasonal berries and you’re in it for a win!

Hi guys! We’re back from our summer vacations and I’m ready to go back to work. We went to the seaside, tried camping with our son for the first time, we went to a spa, hiking, biking and lots more. So pretty active as we like it. I must admit I missed cooking and shooting food a little bit, so I’m excited to start new projects next week.

But today, I’ll be sharing a recipe for these delicious mini no-bake frozen coconut cakes which many of you liked on Instagram. It wasn’t intended for the blog, but for the Eat Capture Share Summer challenge that was organized by Kimberly from The Little Plantation.

Lots of people have been asking me if I’ll share the recipe and it’s finally time. These really ended up not only beautiful but also very delicious and refreshing.

First, I wanted to use coconut yogurt, just try it out. I’ve never tried coconut yogurt, so I have no idea how it tastes. If I ever test it with this recipe, I’ll let you know and add that version if I find it tasty. All I had at home was Greek yogurt which I love and always have some in my fridge. I mixed it with some creamed coconut and icing sugar and… omg the taste! If you love coconut, you’re gonna love it.

I added some whipped cream and red currants on top, but you can add any seasonal fruits or something more exotic like mango or honey-roasted bananas.

What is creamed coconut?

Have you ever made anything with creamed coconut? It’s the solid version of ground-up coconut flesh. You’ve probably heard of coconut milk and coconut cream. Both of them are made using creamed coconut mixed with some amount of water. Coconut cream has lower water content than coconut milk. If you ever want to make something with coconut, but don’t want the liquid then creamed coconut is what you need.

It’s actually very simple to make at home as well. All you need is a good food processor or a coffee grinder and some desiccated coconut. By grinding the desiccated coconut as finely as possible, you’ll get a thick paste called creamed coconut. I assume that the bought version is somehow additionally dried or stripped of fat. I’m not sure. I assume since it’s harder and drier than the homemade version.

Both are delicious and both can be used in this recipe.

Print

No-bake Frozen Coconut Cakes

These no-bake frozen coconut cakes with sweet creamed coconut and greek yogurt on top of a no-bake almond crust are a perfect summer dessert. Add some whipped cream and seasonal berries and you're in it for a win!

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword bundt cake, coconut cake, frozen cake, no-bake cake, yogurt cake

Prep Time 10 minutes

Freezing time 3 hours

Total Time 3 hours 10 minutes

Servings 6 mini cakes

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

No-bake Crust

60 g Medjool dates pitted (2-3 dates)
2 TBSP desiccated coconut
2 TBSP almond butter
1 TBSP coconut butter

Coconut Cream

2 cups Greek yogurt (about 400g)
1/4 cup creamed coconut
1/2 cup icing sugar

Toppings

1/2 cup whipping cream
seasonal berries for topping

Instructions

No-bake Crust

Add all ingredients to a food processor and mix until just sticking together.
Divide the mixture into 6 silicone muffin moulds and press down with your fingers to cover the bottom.

Coconut Cream

Add all ingredients to a food processor and mix until smooth.
Top the no-bake crust with the cream.
Place the cakes in the freezer for 2-3 hours or until frozen enough to take from the moulds. If you save them for later, take them from the freezer 30 minutes before serving.

Decoration

Right before serving whip the whipping cream until stiff and top the cakes. Decorate with seasonal berries.

Roasted Peach Coconut Slushie

July 25, 2019

This roasted peach coconut slushie is so fresh and easy! This icy blend of sweet peaches and coconut cream is perfect summer treat.

Oh, I love this Summer so much! It’s not as hot as last year but warm enough for it to feel like Summer. We’re chilling in the garden most a lot and we’re so lucky to have a lot of kids in the neighborhood so they all play together and all us parents have time to chat and refresh with cocktails and ice cream.

Today I’ll be sharing a recipe that’s sort of like a mix of a mocktail and ice cream. At least I think so 🙂

It’s a delicious roasted peach coconut slushie. A frozen drink is what it is! And if you’ve been reading my blog for some time, you know I love roasting fruit because roasting adds such a nice flavor and it caramelizes the sugar, therefore, it gets even sweeter. With this one I wanted to add a bit of creaminess and coconut cream seemed like the perfect food to complement sweet peaches.

Roasted peaches are seriously one of the best things there is. If you’ve ever tried my Roasted Peach And Strawberry Fizz you know what I’m talking about. This is the most popular recipe from my blog and I say it’s definitely amazingly delicious because the fruit is roasted.

So the recipe…

It’s very simple. All it takes is for you to roast some peach wedges, peel them and freeze them. Add some coconut milk, cane sugar, bee pollen and lastly some ice cubes to make it really icy.

Then you simply blend these and you get the most refreshing creamy summer slushie.

If you love slushies and you wanna try another really great one, here’s my Watermelon Slushie Recipe.

Print

Roasted Peach Coconut Slushie

Course Dessert

Keyword ice cream, slushie

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 3 servings

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

3 peaches
1 cup coconut milk chilled
3 TBSP cane sugar
2 TBSP bee pollen optional
1/2 cup ice cubes

Instructions

Remove the pits from the peaches and cut them into eight wedges each.
Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake in a preheated oven at 175°C (350°F) for 25 minutes.
Leave the peaches to cool for 10 minutes before peeling the skins off. Freeze the peaches without their skins overnight.
In a blender, mix frozen peaches, coconut milk, sugar, and ice cubes until you break the ice into very small grains.
Serve immediately.

Vegan Cherry Almond Ice Cream Sandwiches

June 27, 2019

Wrap your hands around something wonderful with this vegan cherry almond ice cream between two delicious almond chocolate cookies.

Can you imagine Summer without ice cream? Hmmm… I can’t, even though I wasn’t always a huge fan of ice cream. I think I talked about it in one of my old posts.

Now, I can’t imagine how I’d survive the Summer heat without ice cream at least once a week.

Since I don’t have an ice cream machine I always make a no-churn version and I even have a little trick to make a no-churn ice cream creamy with no lumps of ice.

How do I make my no-churn ice cream smooth?

I’ve come to the conclusion that the best way is to blend the mixture again after it has frozen halfway through. I mix with a spoon once after an hour. Then, after another hour I take the ice cream out and mix it again in my blender. This mixed the ice crystals that form at the edge of the container and make it nice and smooth again. Then I return it back to the freezer and leave to freeze until done. Honestly, I think the consistency is super similar to the machine made ice cream. I’m all about gadgets, but who’s got the place?!

I created this recipe in collaboration with Tereza from Teresamisu. If you missed the last recipe we created together, here is our delicious Vegan Pea And Asparagus Pie.

We decided to use sweet cherries as the base for the recipe and start from there. Tereza is known for creating healthy dishes and a lot of them are vegan. So I was totally on board with trying to make vegan ice cream but my first thought was NO COCONUT. I love coconut, don’t get me wrong, but I hate to see sooooo many vegan ice cream recipes based on coconut milk. I was thinking there’s a way to make delicious ice cream without it, for sure. So cherries got me thinking. Almonds are the first thing that came to mind and man I’m glad I went that way!

Oh and btw, I have a coconut ice cream recipe in store for one of the next posts 😉 but that one is meant to have a coconut flavor!

This is basically a marzipan ice cream. I like marzipan and if you love it too, you are going to love this cherry almond ice cream sandwiches!

Tereza created the recipe for the cookies and guess what? She also used almond butter without us even discussing the recipe. Talk about soul sisters 🤣

You know what, I’m not gonna blab for much longer. Let’s just get to the recipe. Happy beginning of the Summer, everyone!

Print

Vegan Cherry Almond Ice Cream Sandwiches

Course Dessert

Keyword ice cream

Servings 5 ice cream sandwiches

Author Anja Burgar & Tereza Poljanič

Ingredients

Cherry Almond Ice Cream

1 cup medjool dates (about 10 medjool dates), pitted
2 cups almond milk (500ml)
1 cup almond butter (250ml)
2 cups cherries (350g), pitted
2 1/2 TBSP cane sugar

Almond Cookie

1/2 cup maple syrup or honey for non-vegan version
1/4 cup almond butter, peanut butter or tahini (90ml)
3/4 cup walnuts (or any other nuts), blended into a flour (90g)
1 1/2 cup cup buckwheat flour (150g)
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 TBSP cocoa powder

Instructions

Almond Cookie

In a bowl, mix up maple syrup and almond butter until fully combined. Mix in ground walnuts until fully combined. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda and raw cacao. Add it to the almond mixture. The mixture will be thick and sticky so it’s best to use your hands.
Roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter to get the desired shape. Make small dents on the surface of the formed cookies for decoration if you wish.
Place the tray in the fridge for 30 min while you pre-heat the oven to 175°C.
Bake for 10-12 mins. Remove the biscuits from the oven, transfer them to a cooling rack and let them cool down completely before assembling the sandwiches.

Cherry Almond Ice Cream

First, make the cherry jam. Place pitted cherries and cane sugar to a blender and mix until smooth. Pass the mixture through a sieve and discard the solids that remain on the sieve. Place the cherry juice in a small pot and bring to a simmer, then let simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool at room temperature.
Then prepare the ice cream base. Add dates and half of the almond milk to a blender and mix until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth.
Transfer the ice cream mixture to a loaf pan or small baking tray with high sides. Freeze for two hours, mixing once after an hour. After two hours scoop out the half-frozen mixture to a blender and mix until smooth. This way you get rid of big lumps of ice.
Transfer half of the mixture back to the same pan, then add half of the cherry jam and use the
backside of a spoon to make some swirls. Place the rest of the ice cream mixture on top and add the rest of the cherry jam. Repeat the swirling and freeze until scoopable.

Assembling The Sandwiches

When the ice cream is frozen enough to form scoops make large scoops and place them over cookies. Cover with another cookie. Place ice cream sandwiches on a tray and save in the freezer.
Leave them at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Strawberry Rhubarb Galette With A Twist

June 20, 2019

This simple and classic strawberry rhubarb galette with a twist will sure to be your new summer favorite!

Here’s another pie second week in a row. Okay, it’s a galette, but technically that’s a pie, right? I’m obsessed with pies lately. The shortcrust pastry and fresh seasonal ingredients are a perfect combo. Plus there’s so little work with pies and galettes. Although they look like you put a ton of work into making it. Remember, I love this kind of recipes 🙂

It’s getting pretty hot in our neck of woods but I’m baking all the time anyway even though we don’t have air-conditioning. All of a sudden there’s a ton of fruit and we can’t eat it all raw. So making pie is a perfect way to fix it.

Btw, if you still don’t have my guide to eating seasonally, you can get one here. I also address the issue of using the abundance of a certain season to make foods for later when it’s not available.

So I took the classic combo of sweet red strawberries and juicy tart rhubarb and make it into a delicious strawberry rhubarb galette. But I added a little twist to it. DA DA DAM…

Here it goes…

It’s ELDERFLOWER. I added a few tablespoons of elderflower cordial to marinate the strawberries and rhubarb. It’s very subtle but adds a nice kick. If you like, you can also add some elderflower blossoms right into the filling! Or sprinkle some on top before serving. Gotta love elderflowers <3

As for the pastry, it’s a very simple sweet shortcrust pastry. It’s a prooved recipe, that I use almost every time I make a sweet pie. To find out how you can make the pastry extra flaky check my previous post. So how ’bout we start cookin’?

Print

Strawberry Rhubarb Galette With A Twist

Course Dessert

Keyword galette, pie, rhubarb pie, strawberry pie

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Resting Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Servings 8 slices

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

280 g flour (1 1/3 cup)
140 g butter chilled and cubed, (1 1/4 stick)
3 TBSP cane sugar
5-6 TBSP ice cold water

Strawberry Rhubarb Filling

400 g strawberries greens removed and cut in quarters
300 g rhubarb stems cut into 1 cm (1/2 inch) chunks
1/4 cup cane sugar
3 TBSP elderflower cordial

Other

1 TBSP milk
1-2 TBSP cane sugar for dusting

Instructions

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

Combine flour and sugar in a food processor. Pulse to mix. Add the butter and pulse a few more times. You should still be able to see some small chunks of butter no bigger than peas.
Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of ice water over flour mixture at a time. Pulse a couple of times. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it's ready. If not, keep adding water onetablespoon at a time.
Strawberry Rhubarb Filling
In a large bowl, mix cut strawberries and rhubarb with sugar and elderflower cordial. Transfer to a large strainer and place over a bowl to catch the liquid. Leave for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Assembling the Galette

After the dough has chilled in the refrigerator for an hour, you can roll it out. If it is too stiff, let it sit for 5-10 minutes at room temperature before rolling.
Sprinkle a little flour on a flat, clean work surface and on top of the dough.
Place a clean baking sheet onto a work surface and sprinkle it with some flor. Using a rolling pin, roll it out from the center of the dough to about 3-4 mm (1/8 inch). Every once in a while you may need to gently lift under the dough and add a sprinkle of flour.
When the dough has reached the right size transfer the crust together with the baking paper onto a baking tray.
Place strained strawberry and rhubarb mixture over the pastry. Leave 2-3 cm edge and fold it over the fruit to form a galette.
Using a brush, cover the crust with milk and sprinkle with sugar.
Place the galette in the freezer while the oven is preheating to 200°C.
Bake the galette for 40 minutes and leave to cool before cutting.

Vegan Pea And Asparagus Quiche

June 12, 2019

This simple vegan pea and asparagus quiche recipe is so easy to make and a great way to treat your guests!

I can’t believe it’s already the middle of the year! I feel like the Winter has been way too long this year (although, I love it so much). Not even a month ago I was still wearing a winter coat and this past weekend I’ve been swimming in the sea. Crazy!

I’m so glad it’s summer already. Okay, late Spring, but it feels like Summer 🙂

If there’s one ingredient I love about this time of year it’s asparagus. I love it raw because it tastes kinda like peas and I love eating peas raw just as well. But both of those are also incredibly delicious cooked. So, today I’m sharing a recipe for a vegan pea and asparagus quiche that I created together with the lovely Tereza Poljanič from Teresamisu.

We were secretly admiring each other’s work for a long time, so we met a while ago and came up with the idea of creating a couple of recipes together. If you don’t know her yet, go check her out! Tereza is a multi-talented lady. She runs her blog, a TV cooking show, writes cookbooks and so much more. Such an inspiring lady!

Back to the recipe!

This was my first time trying out tofu filling. I don’t cook with tofu very often so I was pleasantly surprised by how flavorful the filling came out. It’s a very simple filling. All you need is some onions, garlic and some herbs like basil and mint. We used pumpkin seed tofu, but you can use any firm tofu. The almond milk makes it all very creamy and ties everything together.

Place some fresh asparagus and peas on top, bake and that’s it.

Oh yeah, and we included a delicious crust recipe. Here are some tips on how to make the crust flaky and how to prevent it from shrinking during baking.

How to make a flaky pie crust:

Use cold ingredients and use your hands as little as possible so you’re not warming up that dough.
Little chunks of butter (or coconut butter) should still be visible in the dough. The size of the chunks shouldn’t be larger than a pea.

How to prevent pie crust from shrinking?

Resting the pie crust is crucial. It should rest after making the dough and after you’ve rolled out the dough and placed it in the pie tin
Don’t overwork the dough. This way it gets too firm and shrinks.
Don’t stretch the dough when placing it in the tin.
Poke holes in the bottom.
Use pie weights or dry beans to weight down the crust while pre-baking.

5 from 1 vote

Print

Vegan Pea And Asparagus Quiche

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Keyword vegan quiche

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Resting Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time 2 hours 35 minutes

Author Anja Burgar & Tereza Poljanič

Ingredients

Dough

280 g all-purpose flour (1 1/3 cup)
140 g coconut butter (or regular butter for a non-vegan quiche) chilled and cubed, (1 1/4 stick)
4-5 TBSP ice cold water
2 tsp salt

Filling

400 g Tereza’s Choice pumpkin tofu or any other firm tofu
100 ml almond milk (1/3 cup + 1 TBSP)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
bunch of basil and mint chopped
handful of peas
handful asparagus

Instructions

Dough

Combine flour and salt, in a food processor. Pulse to mix. Add the butter and pulse a few times. You should still be able to see some small chunks of butter no bigger than peas.
Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of ice water over flour mixture at a time. Pulse a couple of times. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it's ready. If not, keep adding water one
tablespoon at a time.
After the dough has chilled in the refrigerator for an hour, you can roll it out. If it is too stiff, let it sit for 5-10 minutes at room temperature before rolling.
Sprinkle a little flour on a flat, clean work surface and on top of the dough.
Using a rolling pin, roll it out from the center of the dough. Every once in a while you may need to gently lift under the dough and add a sprinkle of flour.
Using a rolling pin, roll it out from the center of the dough. Every once in a while you may need to gently lift under the dough and add a sprinkle of flour.
When the dough has reached the right size, gently roll it around the rolling pin and place it over the pie tin. Do not stretch the dough.
Use your hands to gently press the dough into the tin.
Use a rolling pin to roll over the edges to trim them.
Place the prepared crust into the refrigerator for another 30 minutes, then take it out and use a fork to create small holes on the bottom. Don't worry, once the dough is baked the wholes will disappear.
Place a piece of aluminum foil onto the crust and add dried beans or pie weights onto the crust and bake it for 15 minutes at 200 °C.
Take the baked pie out of the oven and leave to cool slightly.

Fillling

Meanwhile prepare the tofu filling. Caramelize the onion and add garlic at the end. Then blend the tofu in a food processor with 100 ml of almond milk and the caramelized onion and garlic, blend until smooth consistency.

Finishing the Quiche

Add the filling on top of the pie crust, lastly add peas and asparagus on top. Brush with a little olive oil and bake another 20-30 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.

Grapefruit-Elderflower Mocktail

June 7, 2019

Relaxing in the summer heat with a cold grapefruit-elderflower mocktail can be one of the great pleasures in life. Flowery and citrusy – the best kind!

After the elderflower cordial recipe from yesterday, I just had to make a delicious summery mocktail. Nothing beats the summer heat like a super refreshing drink. I made a non-alcoholic recipe, but I added a hint on how to make it boozy in the notes if you like that 🙂

We’re spending so much time outside now, that it’s finally hot and feels like summer is just around the corner. You know, no more long sleeves and socks… Grrr, I hate them, I truly do! The greatest time of year is when I can move my socks to the back of the closet. So yeah, we’re thinking about buying some kind of transportable cooker or grill, so that we can prepare dinners outside.

During the Winter it’s become such a nice habit to cook the dinner together with hubby and son. We really wanna continue doing this through the Summer, but we also want to be outside as much as possible.

Back to the recipe, this is another very simple recipe and it literally takes minutes to make. And if that is not enough, it’s packed with flowery elderflower flavor and has the citrusy zing of grapefruit and lime. What else could you ask for?

What if I don’t have elderflower cordial on hand?

You can use fresh or dried elderflowers just the same. Pour half a cup of boiling water over 2 elderflowers and add 1/4 cup sugar. Let steep for 10 minutes. Let cool down. Use it as the syrup in the mocktail.

Print

Grapefruit-Elderflower Mocktail

Course Cocktail, Drinks

Keyword elderflower mocktail, grapefruit mocktail

Servings 4 drinks

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

1/3 cup elderflower cordial (link to the recipe in notes)
3/4 cup grapefruit pink grapefruit juice
2 TBSP lime juice
1 1/2 cup sparkling water

Instructions

Mix elderflower cordial, grapefruit juice and lime juice in a jar.
Place ice cubes in 4 glasses.
Pour over the mocktail mixture and add sparkling water.
Serve immediately.

Notes

ELDERFLOWER CORDIAL RECIPE HERE
COCKTAIL VERSION: Add a shot of gin to each glass and enjoy!

Double Chocolate Blackberry Ice Cream Sandwiches

August 31, 2017

Double chocolate blackberry ice cream sandwiches are a perfect ice cold refreshment for the hot late summer days!

Finally back to blogging. I took a little time of to go to the seaside and spend more quality time with the little one. He was sick a lot this past month and we’re all trying to beat a cold right now. A cold in the summer, that’s new! And awful :/

Since I’ve posted the last recipe my baby has started eating solids. I couldn’t stand looking at his big sad eyes watching us munch over whatever was on the table and the poor thing didn’t get anything. Well, turns out he’s a natural. He never once spits out food and although he doesn’t eat much, he likes everything we give him. Gotta love a good eater 🙂

I could talk baby stuff all day long. You know when people can’t shut up about what their baby has acomplished lately, what she’s eating, how she’s the best in every single way. Well, I’m one of those people right now. I get them now. My old self would hate me so much, but yeah once you’re a parent you can’t do differently 😛
I’m gonna shut up now and go to the good stuf – the blackberry ice cream sandwiches.

It was kindda hard to get some blackberries. Apparently it’s not a good season this year. But anyways I had this reciipe in my mind for a while now and I did find some, so I could try it. Actually the recipe would work with any berries for that matter. But blackberries are in season now and they are freakin’ delicious! And so are the blackberry ice cream sandwiches.

The cookies are chocolate shortbread, so they might seem too crumbly, but once they are chilled in the freezer, they absorb some moisture and they become softer. Just as I remember ice cream sandwiches from my childhood. I had them often, but they don’t seem to be very popular over here these days. Strange.

I’m gonna be quick today and finish while I still have some peace and quiet 🙂

If you want another simple ice cream recipe check out n o churn melon sorbet with basil, it’s one of my favorite summer refreshments!

Have a good one folks!

Double chocolate blackberry ice cream sandwiches are a perfect ice cold refreshment for the hot late summer days!

5 from 1 vote

Print

Double Chocolate Blackberry Ice Cream Sandwiches

Servings 20 sandwiches

Ingredients

Blackberry Ice Cream

600 g blackberries fresh or frozen
1 1/2 cup unrefined cane sugar
1 tsp vanilla seeds
2 eggs
1 cup whipping cream
pinch of salt

Chocolate Cookies

225 g unsalted butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla seeds
pinch of salt

Decoration

150 g semi-dark chocolate
bee pollen

Instructions

Blackberry Ice Cream

Heat blackberries, sugar, salt and vanilla seeds in a big sauce pan. Bring it to a gentle boil and cook until the volume has reduced to half. Pass the blackberry mixture through a fine mesh to remove the pits. Leave at room temperature to cool. Then transfer to the fridge until you do the rest of the recipe.
Place eggs in a heat proof bowl. Boil water in a sauce pan and place the bowl over it. The water should simmer and not touch the top bowl. Leave water to simmer on medium while whisking the eggs for 15-20 minutes or until it starts to thicken and get pale yellow. Place the eggs in the fridge for 15 minutes to cool.
Whip the cream to stiff peaks.
Once everything had cooled use a spatula to mix eggs into blackberry mixture. Carefully incorporate whipped cream. Place in an airtight container and freeze for about four hours or until the ice cream is firm, but not completely frozen.

Chocolate Cookies

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Whip butter and icing sugar until fluffy and pale yellow. Add flour, cocoa powder, vanilla seeds and salt and slowly incorporate it in the whipped butter.
Roll the dough 5mm thick and cut out 5cm circles. Move them to the baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack too cool.

Assembly

Once the cookies have cooled and the ice cream is firm enough to scoop. Use an ice cream scoop to fill ice cream between two cookies. Other option is to use the cookie cutter. This way place the cookie to the bottom of the cookie cutter then fill it with icecream and cover with another cookie. Plase in the freezer while melting the chocolate.
Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Boil water in a sauce pan and place the bowl over it. The water should simmer and not touch the top bowl.
Dip assembled ice cream sandwiches into chocolate and sprinkle with bee pollen.
Freeze until firm.

Spicy Goat Cheese Pesto Pizza

July 6, 2017

Italian flavors with a twist in one delicious spicy goat cheese pesto pizza loaded with fresh cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and black olives. I could eat this pizza every day!

Wow, the summer this year. I can’t complain. Sunny weather, nice breeze and Aperol spritz in the evenings – what else could I wish for? The baby is sleeping very well so far, during the night as well as the day and his playtimes are getting longer. Finally! I absolutely love singing to him with his curious eyes on me all the time 🙂

In a couple of days we’re heading for some much needed vacations beside a beautiful lake under the mountains. Even though we love the seaside, we’re more of a lake and river type of swimmers. We love the sunny beaches and the waves by the sea, but hate the salt. The place we’re going to is quite isolated with just a couple of vacation houses nearby. So hopefully we’ll get some peace and quiet.

Okay back to the recipe. I have a ton of basil in the garden. A couple of years ago I sowed an entire bag of seeds in one small pot and it turned out the best idea ever. Why? Because you can start picking basil as soon as it starts growing leaves. Of course it’s way too crowded and I pick the whole plants in the begining to decrowd the pot. I leave some to grow into big bushy plants.

Basil was the whole inspiration for this recipe. I love pesto esecially with basil. I tried making it with goat cheese and it is seriously delicious. Add some mozzarela, tomatoes and olives and put all of them on the best pizza dough and you’ve got a treat. I included an amazing and very easy pizza dough recipe, but you can use your own. My whole-grain spelt dough would work just as well.

This pizza dough rises slowly in the fridge for a day and it is the best pizza dough I’ve made to this date. In fact most pizza places will make the dough in advance as well. Slow rise at low temperatures makes the dough nice and elastic, so you can strech it out very thinly. I didn’t do this with this pizza, but I love making it super thin for my tomato sauce pizza only. Which reminds me… I should totally share the recipe.

Second thing with making your pizza dough perfect is high temperature. Although I sometimes bake it at 230°C only, to make it more bready. Again look at the photos, the dough turns out looking something like that. If you crank up the temperature you’ll get an even crunchier crust. One thing I always do is place the baking tray in the oven when I turn it on, so it heats uo nicely. A pizza stone would be an even better option, but I don’t have one (yet) 🙂

I’ll stop babbling and get to the recipe. Have a lovely day you guys!

Italian flavors with a twist in one delicious spicy goat cheese pesto pizza loaded with fresh cherry tomatoes, mozarella and black olives. I could eat this pizza every day!

5 from 1 vote

Print

Spicy Goat Cheese Pesto Pizza

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

4 cups bread flour
1 1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 sachet of yeast (7g)
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt

Goat Cheese Pesto

1 cup chopped basil
30 g mild goat cheese
20 g parmesan
3 TBSP pine nuts
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp chilli flakes
3 TBSP olive oil (or more if necessary)

Spicy Goat Cheese Pesto Pizza

pizza dough
goat cheese pesto
400 g mozzarella
500 g cherry tomatoes
100 g black olives
2 tsp chilli flakes
basil for decoration

Instructions

Pizza Dough

Mix all ingredients in a stand mixer or by hand. Knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and soft, but not sticky.
Slightly oil a big bowl with at least double the volume of the dough. Leave the dough rest in the bowl covered with plastic wrap for about an hour or until double the size.
Knead again and return to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and save in the fridge for 24 hours. Be sure to use a large bowl, because the dough will continue rising in the fridge!
Remove from the fridge, divide the dough into four an knead again to for four balls. Cover with a cloth and leave at room temperature at least an hour before using the dough.

Goat Cheese Pesto

Place all ingredients except basil into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add basil and pulse for a few more seconds.

Spicy Goat Cheese Pesto Pizza

Preheat the oven to 230°C or preferably as hugh as your oven goes leaving the baking tray or pizza stone in the oven. If using pizza stone make sure you leave it in the oven long enough to be extremely hot.
Uncover the dough, but don't knead again from this point on. Use a small amount of flour to spread the dough into a desired shape. In this recipe form a 20 cm circle with a thick edge.
Spread basil pesto over the thin center of the dough and cover with sliced or pulled-appart mozzarella. Top with cherry tomatoes, black olives and chilli flakes.
Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the crust.
Decorate with more basil leaves before serving.

Refreshing Vanilla Strawberry Iced Tea

March 30, 2017

A refreshing spring vanilla strawberry iced tea – perfect combination of rooiboss tea, vanilla and strawberries. Keeps you cool and hydrated during sunny spring days!

I’ve made this delicious drink last week while baking the strawberry cake for my birthday. My birthday is on March 22nd and it just happens that that’s also World Water Day. I love that! I love water! Water is also my absolute favorite drink in the entire world, besides tea. I don’t actually know anyone who would drink as much tea as I do.

I’m gonna be honest with you – tea can get boring at times. Adding fruits and some ice will do the trick though. Makes it refreshing and adds a bunch of vitamins to your drink. Since I was already making the strawberry cake last week I figured why not make a strawberry iced tea. I had a ton of strawberries anyway.

Lately, I’ve been obsessing over rooibos tea, which I find so nice and sweet with a slight vanilla flavor. Besides my daily three cups of raspberry leaf tea this is the one tea I drink the most. Since it’s getting quite warm over here, I’m drinking it cold. And GUESS WHAT it’s a perfect match for strawberries. It really is! And since I’m loving the mild vanilla flavor in the rooibos, I added more vanilla, ‘cuz WHY NOT?

Yay, my favorite refreshing iced tea was born 😀

Let me know if you try it and think the same!

Regarding the prego belly. It’s still here and the baby is still very and I mean VERY lively. Doesn’t seem to want to come out any time soon, but we never know. I’m hoping for April 1st!

Seems like the last month my sweet cravings have gone over the roof. I’m eating more junk than ever and feeling so so regretful about that. I should probably stop feeling like that, because it doesn’t really do much good. I still eat junk if I feel like it. Okay, I’ve kindda managed to keep myself away from nutella. Kindda… I make pancakes for breakfast just to have an excuse to eat Nutella. Otherwise I have like five slices of bread with butter and honey for breakfast. Okay, honey is now bad, but the amount of honey is. Trust me five slices full of dripping honey is too much. But I guess the cravings will go aways eventually 🙂

Did I mention there’s honey in the strawberry iced tea? Of course there is, duh 😛

I’ve also managed to do some gardening. I’ve tranfered my little tomato seedlings to bigger pots, so they’ll have enough room to grow. The truth is, we have to buy tomatoes by the middle of July, sometimes even more. It’s seems so unfair. I’m looking at the growing plants for months before the tomatoes go red. It always seems like the wait is way too long, although totally worth it. Okay, I’m babbling. I’ll stop now.

That’s all for now! By the time I post another recipe I might be writing with one hand full of baby cuteness. If you don’t hear from me for a while, you know what happened 😉

A refreshing spring vanilla strawberry iced tea - perfect combination of rooiboss tea, vanilla and strawberries. Keeps you cool and hydrated during sunny spring days!

5 from 1 vote

Print

Refreshing Vanilla Strawberry Iced Tea

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

250 g strawberries
600 ml water
4 tsp red rooibos tea
2 TBSP honey
1/4 tsp vanilla seeds (from one vanilla pod)

Instructions

In a big saucepan boil water and add red rooibos tea and steep covered for 10 minutes. After the tea has finnished steeping strain it into a big jug.
Uncover and leave to cool.
Meanwhile, remove strawberry stems and discard. Place the strawberries in a blender and make a smooth purée. If you prefer your purée to be without the tiny pits, strain it through a fine strainer.
When the tea has cooled down to almost room temperature add honey and mix well. Add strawberry purée and vanilla, mix well and pour into glasses filled with ice.

Macerated Strawberry Chocolate Cake

March 22, 2017

This strawberry chocolate cake with honey macerated strawberries and chocolate rhubarb truffles is perfect for any celebration and is super easy to make and so yummy.

So, guys, it’s my birthday!

I only have one more year before I enter a new decade.

My wishes for me:

Cook more delicious foods and try lots of new combination.
Be the best mum to my precious baby, that’s still hiding in my belly.
Love every moment with my husband and our little one.
Take time for my friends and also for myself.
Continue being happy and positive.

Enough about me, let’s talk CAKE!!!

I couldn’t resist but making something chocolaty with strawberries and cream. Anyone else anxiously waiting for fresh straberries from the garden? We have a few strawberry plants and I can’t wait for them to grow fresh little fruits.

I’m not a big fan of heavy cakes, with heavy buttery fillings. That’s why I love using whipping cream in cakes. Remember the chocolate hazelnut pavlova? I think it makes cakes light and fresh, especially if you add some fresh fruits. I used plain whipping cream without sugar or anything, but you can add a little icing sugar or some vanilla.

This sponge is rich and decadent on its own and doesn’t need a heavy filling anyway!

The sponge I used in this strawberry chocolate cake is one of the best if not the best chocolate sponge I’ve ever tried. The amazing recipe is by Add A Pinch. I changed it just a little, so I’m posting my version of her delicious recipe. The recipe contains a little less sugar and the layers are thinner so they can hold the light whipped cream filling. Seriously you need to try either my or her version, both are yummy!!

Now, about strawberries. Have you tried macerated strawberries, yet? They are simply the most delicious thing. Adding a little honey makes them obviously a little sweeter, but brings the juices and creates a lovely sauce. Imagine that over icecream.

Um, de-li-cious!!!

I was feeling a little playful with this cake, so I made some chocolate rhubarb truffles. Super simple, but so good! They are made of sponge and rhubarb jam only 😀 Last year we had loads of rhubarb so I tried making my own rhubarb jam and I’m telling you I’m making it again this year.

I made this cake a day ahead, but it’s already half gone and it’s not even noon on my birthday 😛 Luckily I have my mum making me more sweets today!

This strawberry chocolate cake with honey macerated strawberries and chocolate rhubarb truffles is perfect for any celebration and is super easy to make and so yummy.

5 from 1 vote

Print

Macerated Strawberry Chocolate Cake

Total time includes cooling time.

Sponge recipe adapted from The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe Ever recipe by Add A Pinch. Link in the text!

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 2 hours

Ingredients

Chocolate Sponge

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla seeds or vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Honey Macerated Strawberries

200 g fresh strawberries
2 1/2 TBSP honey

Chocolate Rhubarb Truffles

chocolate sponge from one of the 7 inch tins
rhubarb jam (or strawberry jam) (40g jam per 100g sponge)

Other

300 ml cold whipping cream

Instructions

Chocolate Sponge

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Butter four 7 inch baking tins.
Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a stand mixer bowl and whisk through to combine.
Add milk, eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla seeds and mix on medium speed until well combined.
Change mixer speed to low and slowly add boiling water to the mixture. It will get quite liquid, but that's what makes it moist and rich in the end.
Pour the mixture into four baking tins and bake for about 25 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the baking tin for 10 minutes then remove form the tin and leave in a cool place to cool completely. Once it is room temperature, you can place it in the fridge to continue cooling.

Honey Macerated Strawberries

Thinly cut strawberries and place them in a bowl. Add honey and mix well, so the honey coats all strawberries.
Leave to macerate in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the cake, but at least an hour.

Chocolate Rhubarb Truffles

Take one cooled chocolate sponge and use your fingers to turn it into crumbs. Add 40g rhubarb jam per 100g of sponge and incorporate it in the crumbs. Shape 1 cm balls using the palms of your hands. The mixture shouldn't be too sticky, but moist enough to hold the shape of a ball.
Place in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the cake.

Assembling The Strawberry Chocolate Cake

Whip whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks. Place it in a piping bag with a round or a star nozzle.
Place one sponge on a serving tray and pipe one layer of whipped cream in the middle, leaving one centimeter of uncovered sponge at the edge. Pipe small balls of cream one centimeters away from each other on the edge. Place chocolate rhubarb truffles between the cream balls.
Top with one third of honey macerated strawberries.
Continue in the same way for the remaining two layers.
Refridgerate for at least an hour before serving.

Pull-Apart Chicken Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie)

March 16, 2017

This chicken spanakopita (Greek spinach pie) is the best comfort food I can imagine for spring. Hearty and rich, flavored with cheeses, leeks and chicken, but also loaded with fresh spinach. And to top it all, it make s a perfect early picnic dish, since it is pull-apart. I don’t think anything could make me more excited right now.

You all know by now, how excited I get when I see spring starting to blossom. If I’d have to choose I’d say winter is my favorite season, but there’s something magical about early spring. The thing I love the most is to go out in the forest and pick fresh new wild foods. By now I’ve already picked the earlies small fragrant leaves of wild garlic and I’m waiting for more spring goodies to start growing.

I didn’t use wild garlic in the recipe, although it would fit in just perfectly.

Since we’re talking about wild food, I’d love to know your spring wild food favorites? 😀

Chicken Spanakopita

I love anything wrapped in phyllo dough or even making my own phyllo dough. Okay, I cheated with this one, I bought it 😉 But whenever I have time I make my own. It makes a huge difference. If you have the chance to find freshly made phyllo dough in your local food market, buy it. Your dishes will go from great to awesome.

I mean it!

Spanakopita is originally made without meat and in layers of phyllo dough. I added chicken for some extra flavor and to make my hubby happy 😀 I figured why not make it easier to serve and make it more like individual böreks. Imagine if börek and pie would have a baby, it would look like that! Wrapped in mini rolls and served without cutting.

The ingredients are pretty basic but delicious each on it’s own. For sure, spinach is the hero of the dish. And you can get amazing fresh baby spinach in spring in any food market. I like combining it with leeks, since it makes the food so incredibly sweet and fragrant. The combo with feta, chicken and nutmeg is so good.

To hold it all together, I made a ricotta, egg and cream mixture and poured it over the rolls. This also makes the pie dense and creamy in the bottom, but the top stays crunchy. So make sure you dont pour the mixture all the way to the top.

It might no be a traditional spanakopita, but it is just as delicious and the main ingredients remain feta and spinach.

With some extra foodies 😉

These would be awesome at a picnic party or any party for that matter. They take a little time to assemble, but the cooking process is sooo simple. Since it is quite rich, you can actually feed up to about 8 people with it, if they are not huge hungry men 😉 or me!

This is by far my favorite spring pie and I’d serve it with spring strawberry layer cake in a glass following as dessert.

Picnic menu, done!

A glass of roasted peach and strawberry fizz to go along and you’re good to go 🙂

This chicken spanakopita (Greek spinach pie) is the best comfort food I can imagine for spring. Hearty and rich, flavored with cheeses, leeks and chicken, but also loaded with fresh spinach. And to top it all, it make s a perfect early picnic dish, since it is pull-apart. I don't think anything could make me more excited right now.

Print

Pull-Apart Chicken Spanakopita

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

Chicken Spanakopita

16 sheets phyllo dough
300 g chicken breast 1cm cubes (or use leftover chicken)
1 small leak cut into quarter lenghtwise and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
500 g fresh spinach (or frozen and drained of excess water)
200 g feta cheese crumbled
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Egg Mixture

2 eggs
60 g ricotta cheese
60 ml whipping cream
a generous pinch of salt

Instructions

Egg mixture

Mix all ingredients for egg mixture together with a fork or a whisk, to get a smooth creamy texture.

Filling

In a preheated skillet roast chicken breast cubes with a tablespoon of olive oil for a minute or two until they get golden.
Add leaks, garlic and spinach and cook uncovered for about a minute or until the spinach cooks down. I you're using baby spinach this will take a minute, older spinach takes two to three minutes. If there is any excess water in the skillet drain it before filling the pie otherwise it will get soggy.
Remove from heat and add feta, nutmeg and black pepper. Mix well and set aside.

Assembly

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Line a 23 cm (9 inch) cake mold with baking paper.
Lightly coat one pyhloo sheet with olive oil, cover with another phyllo sheet and coat with olive oil again. Over the long edge of the dough spread one eight of the filling about 4 cm wide. Roll the dough to get a long roll. Now roll this into a snail shape and place it in the cake mold. Repeat until you've used all the sheets. I like to start placing the rolls on the sides first and add the last one in the middles, since the last one usually has less or more filling than the others. This makes the pie look more even.
Coat the tops with more olive oil and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and pour the egg mixture over the baked rolls.
Return to the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes.
Remove form the oven and wait for 5 minutes before removing the rim. Be careful, it's still hot!
Serve warm or cold.

Crunchy Mocha Frozen Yogurt with Date Caramel

February 23, 2017

This creamy mocha frozen yogurt with mocha puffs and date caramel combines a perfect cup of coffee with some cocoa and dates in a form of frozen dessert. Breakfast or dessert, it’s up to you! A little extra thing is the recipe for mocha cocoa puffs, which you can add to your morning cereal bowl.

Welcome to breakfast heaven!

If you thought a cup of coffee was necessary in the morning, wait until you try this. It’s freakin’ mocha frozen yogurt with some extra mocha puffs and date caramel on top.

It’s so decadent and indulgent, but not unhealthy, which is what I love in a good breakfast. Don’t we all?

So, the whole thing started because I needed a refreshing cereal breakfast, that wasn’t the boring milk and cereals. I though icecream. That’s indulgent, but using yogurt is probably a smart decision. I thought mocha flavor would be an awesome addition to frozen yogurt, so I made these lovely coffee bean shaped mocha puffs. Yay, you can eat them with good old milk too, isn’t that a nice touch? Keep them in a dry place in your pantry and have them at hand for whenever you feel a coffee rush.

It totally became my personal morning coffee. You probably already know I don’t drink coffee and when I do it’s decaffeinated. So are these mocha puffs, but you can make them with caffeine, no problem!

I love serving the mocha frozen yogurt in these crazy cool mugs by Polonapolona. They are the cutest and they love their morning coffee served with a a bang 😀

Oh, did you notice the caramel drippings? This is the date caramel, the easiest thing to make in the entire world and so so delicious.

Like like lick-the-sides-of-the-cup awesome 😀

And absolutely necessary on a heaped cup of this goodness.

So, baby update.

I’ve been doing some last shopping for the baby, which is very tiring, since I’m not much of a shopper. What I do is, write a paper with all the stores and what to buy where and then head out. I compare prices online to save time spent in the actual shop. Don’t get me wrong, I love market shopping, but fluorescent lit stores are horrible. If it’s a special foods, fabric or furniture store, then it’s fine, I get distracted. Everthying else is just a big pain in the you know what!

Okay, enough complaining. The good thing is, I think I’m actually well prepared for the arrival of the little one. Some minor thing are missing (like the crib – not minor :P), otherwise we’re good if the baby accidentally surprises us.

Okay, back to food…

What would I do to eat this every single day for the rest of my life. Um… I should totally do that!

Print

Crunchy Mocha Frozen Yogurt with Date Caramel

Total Time 6 hours

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

Frozen Yogurt:

1 kg Greek style yogurt (about 4 cups)
5 TBSP honey

Mocha Puffs:

3/4 cups almond flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (or whole grain flour)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
4 tsp instant coffee
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/4 cup honey
2 1/2 TBSP butter , melted

Date Caramel:

1 cup dates , roughly chopped
1 TBSP nut butter (I like almond or cashew butter)
3/4 cup water
pinch of salt

Instructions

Mocha Puffs:

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
In a food processor mix all dry ingredients: almond flour, al-purpose flour, cocoa powder, instant coffee, baking soda and salt. Add honey and butter and pulse until a ball forms.
Make little balls with palms of your hands using three quarters of the dough. The remaining quarter of the dough and flatten it on the baking paper to about 5mm thick. Add the balls to the baking paper and use a spoon handle to make little dents in the middle of the balls and make them look like a coffee bean. You can leave them round as well.
Bake for 6-7 minutes, keeping a close eye to what’s happening in the oven. The puffs burn very easily. Take them out when they are still a little soft but firm. They will harden as they cool down.
Break apart the flattened baked dough when it has cooled down. You can leave some chunks. You’ll use that to mix in the frozen yogurt.
Keep the coffee shaped puffs in an airtight container.

Frozen Yogurt:

Mix yogurt and honey in a blender and transfer the mixture to an airtight container. Freeze for about 3-4 hours, mixing the yogurt with a fork every 30-45 minutes.
Add it back to the blender and mix well to get a smooth texture. At this point the mixture will get a bit runny again, but that is fine. At this point add the broken coffee puffs and fold in the frozen yogurt.
Transfer it back to the container and freeze until you like the consistancy, probably about 2 hours.

Date Caramel:

Soak dates in water for 10 minutes, then add a pinch of salt and mix them in a food processor. If you like your caramel more runny, add a little more water.
The caramel keeps in the fridge for at least 2 weeks.

Assembly:

Take frozen yogurt out of the freezer when it’s the right consistency or 30 minutes before serving if it’s fully frozen. Scoop up in serving bowls and top with mocha puffs and date caramel.

[This post was kindly supported by Polonapolona. I was provided some mugs for this post. No other compensation was received.]

Roasted Tomato Galette with Olive Tapende

August 25, 2016

The sweetest most delicious tomato galette honoring the season of homegrown tomatoes.

This is one of my favorite dishes in the entire world and I’m not exaggerating.

I’ve been making it for a couple of years now and I’ve perfected the recipe in the meantime.

I’ve talked about my love of tomatoes a lot and roasting them like in the Simple Fish Slider with Roasted Garlic Sauce. The basic technique of roasting tomatoes is the same as in the slider recipe.

But for this beautiful galette we’re gonna roast them TWICE. Yep, that’s right. First roasting helps the tomatoes loose excess moiture and the second one brings all the components together and adds extra sweetness to the tomato galette.

Isn’t this awesome?

You could easily use big tomatoes as well, but make sure, they loose most of their moisture after the first roasting, otherwise you’ll get a soggy crust.

And we don’t want that!

The crust should be flacy and crunchy, hence the pre-roasting. Important step – don’t leave it out!

This tomato galette is filled with so many other ingredients that complement the tomato.

Like olives, anchovies, fresh herbs like basil and olive oil.

All of those incredible ingredients in one dish 🙂 Perfection…

Let’s roast some tomatoes!!!

Print

ROASTED TOMATO GALETTE WITH OLIVE TAPENADE

Yields one 28-30 cm (11-12 inch) galette.

Course Appetizer, Main Course

Keyword blackberry pie, blood orange tart, tomato pie, tomato tart

Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients

CRUST

1 1/4 cup wholegrain spelt or wheat flour
60 ml ice-cold water refrigerated for a while
1/2 tsp salt
110 g ice-cold butter cubed

TAPENADE

1 cup green olives pits removed
5 dried tomatoes
5 anchovies
1 TBSP pine nuts
a handful parsley
a handful chives
a handful basil
olive oil

FILLING

3 cups cherry tomatoes 600-800g
parmesan
3 TBSP olive oil
salt
pepper
1 egg
1 TBSP cold water

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 190 °C

Crust

Combine butter and flour in a food processor to get a dry mixture. Add salt and water and pulse until the dough starts to form a ball, but not any longer to not overheat the dough. Wrap it in plastic foil and store it in the fridge for an hour.

Roasted cherry tomatoes

Halve the tomatoes, cover with olive oil, salt, and pepper and toss to spread the seasoning. Place cut-side up on a baking tray covered with baking paper and bake for about 30 minutes or until the tomatoes get a nice golden color and have lost a lot of their moisture.

Tapenade

Chop parsley, chives, and basil into smaller chunks and place them in a food processor. Add olives, dried tomatoes, anchovies, pine nuts, and 4-5 TBSP olive oil. Pulse to get an almost smooth texture. Add more olive oil if necessary.
Turn the oven up to 220 °C.

Galette

Roll the dough to about 3mm thick circle. Spread the tapenade over the dough, but leave a clean 2-3cm edge. Cover with roasted tomatoes and fold the edges in over the tomatoes.
In a small bowl beat an egg with a TBSP of cold water and spread thinly over the crust edges.
Sprinkle the galette with some grated parmesan and a little pepper.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until the crust is golden and crunchy.

Notes

Dough recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

No-Bake Blueberry Cheesecake

July 21, 2016

What better way to enjoy summer but with this melt in your mouth no-bake blueberry cheesecake!

First let me brag a little. My broken leg is getting much better. I’ve been cycling, swimming, dancing… It feels very liberating to be able to move normally.

And to be able to hold stuff in my hands. What?

Yeah, when you’re using crutches it’s hard to even bring your meal to the table, go figure. Don’t get me wrong, I had my highly developed methods to do this, but I’m glad to be rid of them. 🙂 🙂

Now to the no-bake blueberry cheesecake…

Let’s admit it. Noone want’s to bake a cake in the crazy summer heat. But we still want cake, right?

A light fluffy refreshing cheesecake that melts in your mouth.

All you need is your favorite cookies. If you like chocolate chip, go for it! You could even use Graham crackers (don’t forget to add a little sugar or honey if you use those). I’m using butter cookies, yum!

I’m ashamed to admit, but the first time I’ve tried cream cheese frosting was three years ago in Norway, when I had their famous carrot cake. It was enough to become obsessed with it. This cream cheese filling is made similarly to that frosting.

Only it contains a secret ingredient. One that I shouldn’t really be eating, because my body doesn’t process it well. But once in a while it’s fine to sin. It’s not sin if it’s good, is it?

…

Yoghurt 🙂

I added it, because it gives the cheesecake a little freshness and sourness to the filling.

Oh yeah and did I mention the filling is freaking creamy and not overly sweet. The sweetnes actually depends more on the cookies and the fruit you use.

As for the fruit, you could use any kind that you like. We are blueberry freaks over here, so we can’t resist them and their little blue faces.

Or the cheesecake filling for that matter. Or the no-baking part.

Ah, all of it 😀

Go on, treat yourself!

Print

NO-BAKE BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE

Course Dessert

Keyword no-bake pie

Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

CRUST

200 g cookies any kind you like
30 g butter or more, depends on the type of cookies (2 TBSP)

FILLING

50 g butter (3 1/2 TBSP )
100 g cream cheese
3 TBSP honey
50 g Greek-style yogurt regular yogurt is also fine
1/4 tsp vanilla seeds
zest of 1/4 lemon

TOPPING

100 g / 1 cup fresh blueberries

Instructions

Crust

Use a food processor to grind up the cookies or crush them in a zip bag with a rolling pin.
Melt the butter for the crust and mix it with cookie crumbs. The mixture should be sandy but feel a little grease when you pinch it. Add more melted butter if necessary.
Press the mixture onto the bottom of the 18-20 cm (7-8 inch) pie or cake pan and let it cool in the fridge. If you are using a cake pan, you can carefully remove the sides of the pan before cooling the crust.

Filling

With an electric whisk beat butter to create a light and fluffy texture.
Add cream cheese and honey and whisk until well combined.
Add yogurt, vanilla seeds, and lemon zest and whisk a little more.

Assembly

Fill the crust with the filling and top with fresh blueberries.
Store in the fridge. Serve at room temperature.

Notes

You can easily replace blueberries with any other fruit.

Want another no-bake dessert? Here it is:

Spring Strawberry Layer Cake in a Glass