45 minute recipes Archives - Page 2 of 2

Pumpkin Risotto with Goat Cheese, Pancetta & Cranberries

October 20, 2016

I’m totally in love with each single bite of this delicious pumpkin risotto!

So true… Comforting and warm like a hug. Ok, I’m getting sentimental, but that’s what rainy days are all about, right? Squeezing under a soft wool blanket, watching TV or playing board games. Watching Breaking Bad and eating tons of cooked chestnut is basically all we do these evenings. I know, I know we’re so lazy! That’s what cold and rain does to us. Um, yeah, autumn is awesome. Anyone else so psyched about that?

And peeps, my weird pregnancy smell and taste is gone and I can cook as much as I want now 🙂 Happy me! My weight is probably gonna start going up more quickly now, but well, that’s supposed to happen eventually 😛 My bump is already visible and I can’t stop caressing it 🙂

Ok, enough on my prego belly. I’ve moved on from eating pasta almost every day to cooking normally, so I prepared a creamy pumpkin risotto with some delicious goodies on top.

Risotto is really a very simple dish. That’s what’s so great about it. Easy and quick to make, but add some good seasonal ingredients to it and it gets so sophisticated.

Never had a pumpkin risotto? It’s about time to start, because pumpkin adds such a nice flavor and creaminess to the risotto. What autumn recipes are all about is combining sweet with savory, so I’ve done that again. Pumpkin by itself is sweet, but I’ve added some dried cranberries on top for some sweet crunch. And who doesn’t love a little crispy panchetta and goat cheese with all of that.

This is the fanciest cozy meal I’ve had this autumn, for real!

I promise people are gonna love you for cooking them pumpkin risotto, whatever goodies you choose to put in 🙂

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Pumpkin Risotto with Goat Cheese, Pancetta & Cranberries

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

2 cups rice
6 1/2 cup vegetable or chicken stock
3/4 cups pumpkin purée (find recipe in the notes of my Mini Pumpkin Pizza recipe)
1 small onion , small cubes
8 pancetta slices
60 g goat cheese crumbled
4 springs thyme + some for garnish
1/3 cup dried cranberries
black pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 175 °C.
Place pancetta slices on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake them for 10 minutes or until they get golden and crunchy. Transfer them to a paper towel lined plate, to remove the excess fat. When it cools crumble it. Keep the fat that is left in the baking tray for later.
Wash rice under cold water and drain.
In a sauce pan boil the stock, remove from heat and leave covered.
Place a large skillet over medium heat and add the remaining pancetta fat and if necessary add a tablespoon of olive oil. Add onions and cook for 2 minutes until they get soft. Add the drained rice and fry for additional 3-5 minutes stirring constantly. When the rice gets translucent add pumpkin purée, thyme, pinch of black pepper and 1 laddle of stock (or more). You want the rice to just be covered with liquid. Cook stirring occasionally until the liquid has dissapeared into the rice. Then add another laddle of stock. Continue doing that for about 20-25 minutes or until the rice is al dente. With the last laddle of stock add half of the pancetta crumbles.
Serve immediately and top with the rest of the pancetta crumbles, goat cheese, dried cranberries and more thyme.

Pumpkin Soup with Balsamic Glazed Onions + A Big Announcement

October 5, 2016

Warm, sweet and spicy pumpkin soup will be your new favorite autumn comfort food!

Omg, it’s been so long since my last post.

So sorry for that, but I’ve had a perfectly good reason. Actually the best reason in the world. We’re having our first little baby in April! 🙂 ♥ How awesome is that! I still can’t believe it’s happening, but we’re happy and excited and can’t wait to meet our tiny bundle.

I haven’t had any major pregnancy discomforts, but one that affected my blogging: I wasn’t able to cook for a month or smell any strong smelling food. Or look at food photos. I’m still struggling with fresh veggies (which I would normally love so much!), but most of the troubles went away now that I’m in my second trimester.

I’ve been craving sweet food a lot. Not sweets, but sweet savoury food like root veggies and pumpkins. So they’re on the menu a lot these days. One of my all time autumn favorites is definitely pumpkin soup.

What makes pumpkin soup so amazing is its natural sweetness in combination with chillies. Remember how chillies go perfectly with chocolate… well, it’s the same with pumpkin. So don’t skip on it. Seriously! Add less if you’re not into spicy stuff, adding at least a little will make all the difference.

I don’t like adding much to my simple pumpkin soup recipe. No stock or herbs. Water, garlic, chilli flakes, salt and pepper are enough. I’m using pumpkin purée as my base. If you’d like to make your own check the notes in the Mini Pumpkin Pizzas recipe. A good variety of pumpkin or squash is crucial, so pick one that you absolutely love.

For me that’s hokkaido or any other with simmilar sweetness.

A very sweet pumpkin soup like this need a counterbalance, so I added balsamic glased onions with sage on top. I could eat these onions on their own, they are sooooooo good.

I’m letting you in on a little secret. I’m dreaming about autumn all year round. I love all seasons, especially when they’re just starting. All the fresh new produce and the feel of change.

But autumn is my favourite. There’s nothing like the magical feel of cold and warmth at the same time. And all the sweet produce it comes with. Yup, best season ever! I’m one of those strange people who love cold and rain 🙂

Now I’m off to warm myself with a bowl of this delicious pumpkin soup!

Warm, sweet and spicy pumpkin soup will be your new favorite autumn comfort food!

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Pumpkin Soup with Balsamic Glazed Onions

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Pumpkin soup:

4 cups pumpkin purée
3 cups water (depending on desired consistency)
1 TBSP olive oil
3 cloves garlic chopped
1/2 tsp chilli flakes (add less if you prefer a less spicy version)
salt by taste
pepper by taste

Balsamic glased onions:

1 medium sized red onion
1 TBSP olive oil
6 sage leaves
1/2 cup water
2 TBSP balsamic vinegar
salt by taste
pepper by taste

Other topping options:

crème fraîche
pumpkin seeds
pumpkin seed oil
chives

Instructions

Balsamic glased onions:

Cut the onion in half and remove the skins. Slice it into 3-5 mm thin slices.
Place a skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. Add the onions and sage and stir to cover them with oil.
Cook uncovered for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally, until the onions get translucent and a bit softer.
Add water, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and cover the skillet. Continue cooking over low-medium heat for 20 minutes or until the onions get soft.
Uncover and cook over medium-high heat for additional 5-10 minutes to lose the excess moiture and caramelise the onions. Stir occasionally to check they are not burning.

Pumpkin soup:

Place a pan over medium heat and add olive oil. Add garlic and cook until it gets golden.
Add pumpkin puree, water, chilli flakes, salt and pepper and continue cooking until the soup boils.

Decorating:

Pour hot soup into bowls and decorate with balsamic glased onions. You can add crème fraîche, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin seed oil and chives if you like.

Warm, sweet and spicy pumpkin soup with balsamic glased onions will be your new favorite autumn comfort food! Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!

Elderflower Cookie Bites With Raspberries

June 1, 2016

These cute elderflower cookie bites are what elderflower season is all about. Flowers and girliness!

Use Your Noodles - Elderflower Cookie Bites With Raspberries

It’s finally here!

Elderflower season.

I probably can’t express how anxiously I’m waiting for it every year. Elderflower is my definite favorite spring thing, apart from the sun 🙂 Why? Firstly, it smells heavenly. Second, the possiblities to use it are endless. Thirdly, it’s so girly.

First of all, I need to tell you a crazy story…

The last time I posted here, was the day of my brother’s birthday picnic party. Before it even began, me and my husband went to the picnic place and started throwing frisbee. After the second throw I tripped and fractured a bone in my foot. How lame! And to make matters worse, our dance show premiered the next day. So instead of partying, I spend three hours at the emergency and instead of doing the whole show the next day, I danced with cruches in only a few parts.

Lesson learned. I’m never playing any sport the day before the show ever again! I promise!

Anyway, a fractured bone can’t stop me to go picking elderflower.

Check out the proof on my Instagram.

These cute elderflower cookie bites are made of three layers:

buttery cookie with elderflowers
white chocolate cream with rose water
freeze-dried raspberries.

The recipe is insanely easy. The cookies are done in 25 minutes from start to finish. All it takes is to decorate them and they are ready to be served 🙂 And even if you don’t feel like putting anyhing on, they are delicious also without the cream and raspberries.

If you do decorate them, make sure to make a deep enough hole before baking, because they will expand in the oven and the hole will be shallower after they are baked.

Now, let’s go bake some elderflower cookie bites!

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ELDERFLOWER COOKIE BITES WITH RASPBERRIES

Course Dessert

Keyword cookies, thumb cookies

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Resting time 15 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 32 cookies

Ingredients

COOKIE BASE

8 eldeflower heads thick stalks removed (use 8 TBSP dried elderflower if not in season)
160 g all purpose flour
50 g unrefined cane sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla seeds
1/4 tsp baking soda
80 g cold butter cubed
4-5 TBSP milk

CHOCOLATE CREAM

50 g white chocolate
2 TBSP whipping cream
1 tsp rose water

TOPPING

32 freeze-dried raspberries

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180 °C.

Cookie base

Chop elderflower heads and add them to a food processor. Add flour, sugar, vanilla seeds, and baking soda. Pulse a couple of times to get an even mixture.
Add butter and pulse until you get a dry cookie mixture.
Add milk and mix well, until a ball of dough starts to form. Scrape the sides if necessary.
Divide the dough in half, half it again, and so on, until you get 32 identical pieces. Form balls with your palms and make a deep hole in the center with your finger.
Place on a baking paper-lined baking tray and bake for 15 minutes or until light golden color. Move them to a wire rack and leave to cool down for at least 10 minutes.

Chocolate cream

While the cookies are baking put whipping cream and white chocolate in a small bowl and place it over a small saucepan of simmering water. Stir occasionally, until the cream and the chocolate form a smooth cream.
Remove from heat and add rose water. Mix well and place in the fridge to cool for 10 minutes, then bring to room temperature.

Decorating

Using a teaspoon or a piping bag, place about 1/2 tsp of cream into the hole in each cookie and top with freeze-dried raspberries.

Notes

Make sure you make deep holes in the cookies before baking, because the cookies will expand and the holes will get shallower.

Also try these delicious spring desserts:

Spring Strawberry Layer Cake in a Glass

Peach And Celery Ice Lollies

Roasted Peach and Strawberry Fizz

May 20, 2016

Delightful spring mocktail – roasted peach and strawberry fizz!

Yey, so excited about this recipe!!!

This drink to me is like pie. You know the feeling, when you take out a pie and all the syrupy juices are sizzling around the fruit? And the smell… so good 🙂 This is like a pie in a glass 🙂

And I love it!

Delightful spring mocktail - roasted peach and strawberry fizz!

This roasted peach and strawberry fizz is soooo simple. Sometimes, I can’t belive, how many great thing you can do, with so little. This is definitely one of them! 🙂

All you’ll need to do is cut peaches and strawberries in half, roast them and blend them. Then add a little apple juice, preferably homemade or organic, and some sprakling water. And there it is.

A perfect spring drink!

While we’re on the spring subject. Spring has been awfull this year in Slovenia. Ugh, my tomato, pepper and chilli plants are barely holding on in thir tiny cups, just waiting to be planted outside.

But its so COLD. I mean, I make drinks like this, just to feel like it’s spring. It’s a crime!

But good news… Today it is sunny and we’re having a big picnic party for my brother’s and friend’s 30th birthday.

Lots of people, lots of good food, beer, friends. That’s what I call spring. Hopefuly, the weather will hold and let us have the party we deserve 🙂

Now, go on… try the the recipe 🙂

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ROASTED PEACH AND STRAWBERRY FIZZ

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Cooling time 10 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

3 peaches
600 g strawberries
1 1/2 cup apple juice
1 1/2 sparkling water
abundance of crushed ice

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 175 °C.
Cut peaches in half and remove the pit. Cut strawberries in half. Place the fruit on a baking tray lined with baking paper and roast for 25 minutes.
Take the tray out and leave to cool for 10 minutes or more.
Remove the skins from peaches and blend the flesh together with apple juice in a blender to get a smooth pureé.
Blend the strawberries separately.
Divide the strawberry pureé into 6 glasses and add ice. Pour the peach and apple juice mixture over ice and add sparkling water.
Serve immediately.

Also try this refreshing drink:

Grapefruit-Lime Cocktail with Ginger and Rosemary

Pizza Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

April 20, 2016

These sweet potatoes are filled with a cheezy pizza stuffing. A perfect way to make pizza without the crust!

Use Your Noodles - Pizza Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Pizza is one of my favorite foods. I can eat it in any form, regular crust, cauliflower crust, loaded with cheese or only with a deliciously simple tomato sauce. You name it, I eat it!

Sweet potatoes go into same category. I can eat it whenever, breakfast, lunch, dinner or midnight snack 😉

So this week I’m bringing those two together. In the shape of a decadent pizza stuffed sweet potatoes. Are you excited? I sure am!

These sweet potatoes are filled with a cheezy pizza stuffing

We’ve been working hard on our dance show, which will premiere in a month. If you are interested in how it looked the previous years, go see Tribal Bizzare site. As you would imagine, we’re spending a lot of time practicing, sewing costumes and making props for the show. It’s an exciting time! Stresfull, but fun at the same time. If you’ve got some interesting hobbies of your own, I’d love to hear about them in the comments 🙂 🙂 🙂

Ok, back to the sweet potatoes! This recipe is a little quicker that the usuall stuffed sweet potatoes. I cut the potatoes in half before baking, which shortenes the baking time and it makes the top of the sweet potato flesh even sweeter. After it is baked I mash the flesh and add A LOT of stuffing, then press it in the potato, so I can add some more on the top. Haha! These here, look almost roud, I pressed so much stuffing in. But that’s ok, right?

Sweet potatoes are basically quilt-free comfort food. All sweet and yummy, but with a low IG and loads of vitamins and minerals.

I love the fact that we can eat the skins. When I was a child, my mum would allways peel the potatoes (note: sweet potatoes were nowhere to be found in Slovenia at that time). We’d only eat the spring potatoes with the skin still on, otherwise it was chopped off! Later I realized that the skins are actually the best part of a potatoes. ♥ It goes the same with sweet potatoes.

And now…drumrolllllllllllll…the recipe –>

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PIZZA STUFFED SWEET POTATOES

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish

Keyword stuffed potatoes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 3 people

Ingredients

1 kg sweet potatoes
100 g champignons or any other mushroom that you like sliced thinly
200 g mozzarella cheese 1 cm cubes
100 g cherry tomatoes deseeded and cut into small pieces
30 g olives sliced thinly
a handful of basil chopped

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
Wash and dry your sweet potatoes. Cut them in half and oil it on both sides with olive oil. Add a little salt and pepper.
Place potato halves cut side down on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Bake sweet potatoes for 30 minutes, or until they are soft when poked with a fork.
10 minutes before the sweet potatoes are done fry the mushrooms in a pan with a little oil, until they get golden. This will take a couple of minutes.
In a bowl, prepare the stuffing. Mix mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes, olives, and basil.
When sweet potatoes are done, take them out of the oven and turn them around.
With a fork, mash the flesh and add seasoning if necessary. Stuff them with cheese mixture and press it down firmly. Add any left mixture on top.
Return to the oven for 5 – 10 minutes, until cheese has melted and got a light golden color.

Spring Strawberry Layer Cake in a Glass

March 25, 2016

This light and fresh strawberry layer cake is a perfect healthy indulgence for the sunny spring days!

First thing that comes to my mind when I think of spring is fresh fruit. Strawberries and cherries to be exact. Red is one of my favourite colours. So passionate and warm. So for this spring dessert the choise was quite obvious – strawberries.

A few weeks ago first slovenian culinary & lifestyle magazine Redegunda asked me to make a reinterpretation of a traditional Slovenian dessert. Now, if you recall me mentioning that Slovenian cuisine is mostly heavy with lots of carbs and fats, you’ll imagine it’s not easy making a light dish. I took traditional Slovenian dessert prekmurska gibanica (which is delicios by the way!) and made it into a lighter fresher and healthier dessert that you can make very quickly with almost no cooking.

Prekmurska gibanica is a layer cake has 4 layers, with phyllo pastry between them:

poppy seed layer
cottage cheese layer
wallnut layes
apple layer

I kept the four layers, but changed the ingredients quite a bit. Instead of cottage cheese I used honey and greek style yoghurt. I replaced wallnuts with hazelnuts and almonds and roasted them to make a crumble. Since it is almost spring I ditched the apples and added some fresh strawberries. That’s it. Soooo simple, but even more delicious 😀 Plus, you can showcase your lovely glassware!

Now let’s enjoy the Easter holidays, get the dishes dirty and have a strawberry layer cake!

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SPRING STRAWBERRY LAYER CAKE IN A GLASS

Course Dessert

Keyword dessert in a glass, layer cake, quick dessert

Prep Time 40 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 6 desserts

Ingredients

HAZELNUT LAYER

75 g hazelnuts
45 g ground almonds
20 g butter
50 g / 3 TBSP honey
1 tsp dried thyme

POPPY SEED LAYER

145 g ground poppy seeds
100 g / 6 TBSP honey
180 ml milk

STRAWBERRY LAYER

300 g strawberries

YOGHURT LAYER

400 g Greek-style yogurt
65 g / 4 TBSP honey

Instructions

Hazelnut layer

Chop the hazelnuts coarsely. In a skillet fry chopped hazelnuts, ground walnuts, butter, honey, and thyme for a couple of minutes, until they become golden. Stir every 10 seconds. Remove from the heat and stir for another minute, then transfer the mixture to a big plate and lay it out evenly. Wait until it cools down.

Poppyseed layer

Boil milk and pour it over poppy seeds. Add honey and mix well.

Strawberry layer

Cut strawberries into very small pieces of approx. 0,5 cm.

Yogurt layer

Add honey to yogurt and mix well. If you are using crystallized honey, melt it over a saucepan of simmering water.

Assembly

Take six 2 dl glasses and divide half of the poppy seed mixture on the bottom. Continue with half of the strawberries, yogurt, and hazelnuts mixture. Continue with the other half of the mixtures.
Serve immediately or cool in the fridge and serve later.

Turmeric Falafel Wraps + Wholegrain Spelt Tortillas

March 10, 2016

Fresh and healthy lunch with lots of colours to fill our daily rainbow – turmeric falafel wraps! And my favourite recipe for homemade wholegrain spelt tortillas!

Use Your Noodles - Turmeric Falafel Wraps

It’s March!!! Hmmm, it’s been March for more than a week, but my brain just grasped that.

Ah, I love March. Why? Because I start growing my veggies from seeds. I first tried it three years ago and I produced some tomatoes, but the plants were looking a little sad and small. Last year, though, it’s been incredible. I’ve produced toooo many tomato plants (not enough space in the garden) and added bell peppers and chilies. The summer was unbelievably sunny and warm and we had a gazillion of homemade tomatoes and chilies. No complaints here. I’ve grown bell peppers in a container on my balcony near lice infected parsley and cilantro, so imagine the disappointment. Hopefully, this year the bell peppers will join the growing madness 🙂

Okay, now. Let’s get to the recipe!

Use Your Noodles - Turmeric Falafel Wraps + Wholegrain Spelt Tortillas

I’m going double recipe today. Wholegrain spelt tortillas that you can use like regular white flour tortillas and a beautiful bright yelllow turmeric falafel.

What I love about these wraps – besides the obvious deliciousness 🙂 – are the colours. Colourful food makes me smile. If you like them use the sides that I used in this recipe or choose whatever coloured veggies you like. But choose a variety. Reds, greens, purples, yellows… Whatever you find, toss them in!

We’re making a tahini sauce to go with falafels. If you’re a dishwashing maniac like me, stop right now! By dishwashing maniac, I mean insanely washing every dirty dish that I see while I’m cooking. I hate washing dishes after the meal, I’m not crazy 🙂 My point was, there’s no need to wash the food processor after making falafels. Just add the ingredients for the sauce and the liquid will clean it up. Yep, we saved a little time right there 🙂

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TURMERIC FALAFEL WRAPS

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

FOR THE FALAFEL BALLS

2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 handful parsley
6 cloves garlic
1 small onion
2 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp ground caraway seeds
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 cup olive oil
salt to taste

FOR THE SAUCE

1 handful parsley
4 TBSP tahini paste
4 cloves garlic
1/4 big medium-hot chili
1/2 cup olive oil
2 TBSP lemon juice
black pepper to taste
salt to taste

TO SERVE

1/4 medium-size red cabbage
1 big carrot
big handful parsley
1 TBSP lemon juice
1/4 cup salted pistachios
medium-hot chili slices to taste
8 wholegrain spelt tortillas approx. 15 cm

Instructions

If you are making homemade tortilla wraps (recipe below), make the dough beforehand and leave it to rest while you make the falafels.

Falafel balls

Preheat the oven to 200 °C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until well combined. It should have an almost creamy texture with some small crumbs.
Divide the mixture into quarters. With slightly wet hands, form six balls from each quarter. Wash your hands if they get too messy, otherwise, the mixture will start sticking to them.
Place the falafel balls on the baking tray and bake them for 20-25 minutes or until just slightly golden. These falafels are very delicate, so treat them carefully.

Sauce

In a food processor or a blender combine all ingredients and pulse until the mixture is smooth.

Sides

Chop red cabbage and carrot into thin slices and drizzle them with lemon juice. Chop pistachios and parsley coarsely.

Wraps

Divide the dough into 8, roll them and cook them 30 seconds each side.
Serve falafel balls with sides and tortillas while they are hot.

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WHOLEGRAIN SPELT TORTILLAS

Course Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Resting time 30 minutes

Total Time 55 minutes

Servings 8 tortillas

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup wholegrain spelt flour
1/4 + 1/8 cup lukewarm water
2 1/2 TBSP olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, then transfer it to a flat surface and knead it for 5 minutes.
Cover with plastic foil and leave it to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
Divide the dough into 8 balls, flatten them with the palm of your hand and roll them out on the lightly floured surface to 15-20 cm in diameter.
Don’t stack the rolled tortillas or they will get soggy.
Brush off excess flour. Cook on a griddle or big pan over medium-high heat for about 30-second each side. If flour starts to accumulate in the pan, wipe it off with a paper towel.

Need more ideas for colorful lunch recipes? Here they are:

Rainbow Cabbage Soup

Spicy Pea Soup

Millet And Carrot Salad with Creamy Almond Dressing

Turkish Chicken Feast

**PRINT THIS TURMERIC FALAFEL WRAP AND WHOLEGRAIN SPELT TORTILLA RECIPES AND MAKE YOUR PERSONALIZED USE YOUR NOODLES COOKBOOK**

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Triple Chocolate Sour Cherry Brownies

February 11, 2016

Rich, melt-in-your-mouth triple chocolate sour cherry brownies. An easy recipe for decadent homemade chocolate brownie explosion.

Use Your Noodles - Triple Chocolate Sour Cherry Brownies

What’s better than chocolate? Triple chocolate. And even better are these triple chocolate sour cherry brownies with bittersweet, semi-sweet and white chocolate.

Since it is Valentine’s day on Sunday, I think it’s appropriate to do something chocolaty. One of my Instagram followers suggested I did a brownie recipe, so I’m making it! How exciting is this?

I’m by no means a brownie expert. This recipe came out by pure luck. It was one of those moments when you say, I’m just going to make something. So I did, I checked out a few recipes, written down some thoughts and ratios and started cooking. After the brownies came out of the oven the first time I was smitten by them. They were the perfect ratio between a cakey and fudgy brownie, in favour of cakey, which is what I like. Later I added more sour cherries and some white chocolate chips on top, just because I can 🙂

If you’ve ever made brownies, you know they can be fudgy and dense, or they can be more cake-like. These brownies are more on the cakey side. There is some baking soda in them and an extra egg, so they have a cakey texture on top and the bottom, but they are thick on the inside, because the ratio between butter and chocolate to dry ingredients is high. There are bittersweet chocolate chips in there, which gives them extra gooeyness. White chocolate chips and sour cherries on the top are for some sweet and sour, moist kick. Believe me, they re even better than they sound.

If you are wondering how to make a perfect brownie, Samina from The Cupcake Conffesion has written a nice post about Top 5 mistakes to avoid when making brownies. They might seem obvious, but from my own experience I say, the obvious mistakes are the ones we make most often.

As for the cooling down goes, I’m the one that’s always impatient. I want to dig in immediately. But, if you are planing on serving your brownies to someone, please don’t do that! There’s almost no possibility you’re going to be able to cut them into beautiful piceces, or even taking them out of the pan, without messing them up. The best is if you cool it down completely. If there’s no one waiting for these little goodies, dig in with a spoon, while they are hot. But watch out that no one is looking 🙂

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TRIPLE CHOCOLATE SOUR CHERRY BROWNIES

Course Dessert

Keyword brownies, chocolate, chocolate cake

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 15

Ingredients

200 g semi-sweet chocolate
110 g butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup whole grain spelt flour
4 TBSP cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla seeds
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
60 g bittersweet chocolate chips
60 g white chocolate chips
1 cup sour cherries

Instructions

Preheat the oven at 175 °C. Butter the sides and the bottom of a 20×33 cm (8×12 inch) pan and line it with baking paper.
Put the bittersweet chocolate and butter in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted.
Turn off the heat and add the sugar. Whisk until the sugar is completely combined, then remove from the saucepan and wait for the mixture to cool for about 10 minutes.
Whisk in the eggs, one by one.
Add vanilla bean powder, baking soda, salt, and a third of the flour to the chocolate mixture. Whisk well. Add the rest of the flour and whisk again until the mixture is smooth.
Stir in the bittersweet chocolate chips.
Pour the batter in the prepared pan and sour cherries. Don’t press them in.
Bake for about 25 minutes or until the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan. Keep in mind that it is better to slightly underbake than overbake brownies.
When you take the brownies out of the oven sprinkle them with white chocolate chips. Here you can press in a little if you like.
Wait for the brownies to cool completely, then lift them up together with the baking paper and cut them into 15 pieces.
Store in a plastic wrap or air-tight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

For more Valentine’s day dessert ideas check my Coffee Pudding recipe.

PRINT THIS TRIPLE CHOCOLATE SOUR CHERRY BROWNIES RECIPE AND MAKE YOUR PERSONALIZED USE YOUR NOODLES COOKBOOK

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Hot Baked Apples with Vanilla Sauce

December 11, 2015

Sizzling baked apples filled with sweet goodies is a comfort dessert for cold days. They are like a warm hug!

Use Your Noodles - Hot Baked Apples with Vanilla Sauce

Everywhere I go there’s the scent of Christmas. And I must admit I LOVE IT! I’m that geek that’s seting up the tree as soon as December starts. But this year I’m protesting. Why? I went to a drug store in September and it was already decorated and selling every bling bling available. I was annoyed. To me it ruins the magic by the time the real holiday time comes.

So I decided – no Christmas tree or decorations until the middle of December. Of course I’m tempted, so I make up with the delightfully scented food. And today I’m making hot baked apples with vanilla sauce. A great recipe for a Christmas dinner dessert. You can prepare everything in advance. Cook the sauce a day in advance and refrigerate it. Same with the apples. Stuff them and they’ll wait in the fridge. Pop them in the oven when you start your dinner and they’ll be ready by the time you finish.

Vanilla sauce

I was preparing this kind of sauce for the first time. I really belived vanilla would give baked apples a new dimension. And it does. It was worth all the fuss. Of course I had to do it a few times. First I overheated it and it became an unpleasing broth of hard boiled yolk and milk. Then it was to runny. But then I got the ratio just right. And trust me, it is not that difficult, as long as you are patient, really cook it over low heat and whisk all the time. Good thing is you can use it in so many ways. I love it on top of roasted bananas for breakfast!

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HOT BAKED APPLES WITH VANILLA SAUCE

Course Dessert

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 8 baked apples

Ingredients

BAKED APPLES

8 medium-size apples
1 1/2 cup sultanas ~200g
4 TBSP ginger jam
4 TBSP chopped almonds
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground star anise
4 tsp cocoa butter
2 cups water

VANILLA SAUCE

1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla seeds
3 yolks
3 TBSP honey
1 TBSP corn or potato starch

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).
For the filling combine sultanas, ginger jam, almonds, cinnamon, and star anise.
Carve a 3- 4 cm hole in the apples and fill the holes with the filling. Place the apples in a baking tray and add 1/2 tsp cocoa butter onto each apple. Add water to the tray.
Place the tray in the oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Poke the apples with a knife to check if it is done. If it slides in with no resistance it is baked.
Meanwhile pour milk in a small pot. Add vanilla and cook over medium heat until it is hot, but not boiling.
In a bowl beat eggs, honey, and starch until the mixture is thick and fluffy.
Gradually add milk into the egg mixture. Then pour it back to the pan and cook over low heat (very important!). Whisk constantly until the sauce has thickened. This will take about 7 -8 minutes. Remove from the heat, pour it in a cold bowl and cover, so it doesn’t form a crust.
When the apples are done, take them from the tray and onto the plates. Serve hot with vanilla sauce on the side.

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**PRINT THIS TURMERIC FALAFEL WRAP AND WHOLEGRAIN SPELT TORTILLA RECIPES AND MAKE YOUR PERSONALIZED USE YOUR NOODLES COOKBOOK**