Pink Grapefruit Gin and Tonic

Turn a classic gin and tonic into a delicious gin cocktail by adding pink grapefruit and aquafaba for a fabulous delicate foam.

Turn a classic gin and tonic into a delicious gin cocktail by adding pink grapefruit and aquafaba for a fabulous delicate foam.

Yay, it’s Spring! I’ve been waiting for it for such a long time. I say that’s a good enough reason to have a cocktail. Are you with me?

Today’s the day for a very refreshing and just a little fancy pink grapefruit gin and tonic. Secret ingredient – aquafaba. It adds such a delicate foam and also such a flavor. I just recently discovered aquafaba and I’m in love. If you never tried it, please do. It will rock your world. I made meringue a couple of weeks ago and it’s pretty fabulous. I might even prefer it to the egg white meringue. Still deciding, they are both so good!

Turn a classic gin and tonic into a delicious gin cocktail by adding pink grapefruit and aquafaba for a fabulous delicate foam.
Turn a classic gin and tonic into a delicious gin cocktail by adding pink grapefruit and aquafaba for a fabulous delicate foam.
Turn a classic gin and tonic into a delicious gin cocktail by adding pink grapefruit and aquafaba for a fabulous delicate foam.

How to make the beautiful foam?

The trick to getting the beautiful foam from aquafaba is to use a cocktail shaker. A mason jar works as well, although it requires a bit more shaking, but you can get the job done 🙂 Funny story. After the photoshoot, I saved the cocktail so me and my husband would drink it in the evening. The foam was almost gone by the evening so I wanted to shake the whole thing a bit. But totally forgot that the cocktail also includes tonic. Hello, bubbles! And hello, explosion! You can imagine the rest. Luckily I had enough so we could both have a sip or two. And a mess to clean up 😛

Turn a classic gin and tonic into a delicious gin cocktail by adding pink grapefruit and aquafaba for a fabulous delicate foam.
Turn a classic gin and tonic into a delicious gin cocktail by adding pink grapefruit and aquafaba for a fabulous delicate foam.
Turn a classic gin and tonic into a delicious gin cocktail by adding pink grapefruit and aquafaba for a fabulous delicate foam.

Guys, tomorrow I’m turning 31! In the morning I’ll be baking a cake for myself 🙂 Oh who am I kidding, I’ll probably bake more than one. Don’t judge 😀 We’ll have some friend and family over for the weekend so I need to equip myself with some goodies. I’ll probably also bake my plum apple galette. It is a big hit at my house.

Have a great weekend and cheers!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Turn a classic gin and tonic into a delicious gin cocktail by adding pink grapefruit and aquafaba for a fabulous delicate foam.
5 from 1 vote
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Pink Grapefruit Gin and Tonic

Course Cocktail, Drinks
Keyword cocktail, gin and tonic, pink grapefruit cocktail
Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 4 servings
Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup gin
  • 1/2 cup tonic
  • 1/2 cup grapefruit juice freshly squeezed
  • 1/4 cup + 2 TBSP aquafaba
  • ice

Ginger syrup

  • 1/4 cup water boiled
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • thimbs size ginger peeled and roughly chopped

Instructions

Ginger syrup

  1. Pour boiling water over chopped ginger and cover. Let steep for 10 minutes, then uncover and leave to cool for five minutes.

  2. Once cooled a bit add honey and mix until honey dissolves. Leave to cool completely and refrigerate before making the cocktail.

Pink Grapefruit Gin and Tonic

  1. Pour gin, grapefruit juice, aquafaba and ginger syrup in a cocktail shaker and top with a handful of ice. Close the lid securely. Shake vigorously until you see foam on top.

  2. Pour into four glasses and serve immediately.

Turn a classic gin and tonic into a delicious gin cocktail by adding pink grapefruit and aquafaba for a fabulous delicate foam.

Tahini Bundt Cake With Kiwi Glaze

Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?

Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?

It’s Saint Patrick’s Day on Sunday, so I have a little treat for you guys. A tahini budt cake with a very delicious kiwi glaze. It has to be something green, right?

I used the last of our homegrown kiwis for this glaze. I love having kiwis because they hold very well during the Winter. Leave it in a cold place and they’ll be good until Spring. Isn’t it great to have some homegrown fruits available during the Winter?

We don’t have a huge garden but it’s better than nothing. In fact, you don’t need a lot of space to grow your own food. Even a balcony works for a lot of produce. My mission this year is to expand the garden to my balconies. I have two, one facing East and one facing West, so I can have some produce on one and some on the other, depending on what each plant prefers.

Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?
Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?
Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?
Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?
Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?
Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?

Let’s get back to the tahini bundt cake.

I love any kind of bundt cake really. But tahini bundt cake is so special I’m wondering if it is my favorite so far? Probably yes! Every bite is so full of flavor. I made this cake with oil, not butter. We all know butter adds amazing taste but oil in cakes adds softness and keeps the cake moist for a longer time. This time I added olive oil, instead of plain vegetable oil, because it adds such a nice flavor and goes so well with tahini.

Even when I make my own tahini paste I use olive oil. It just makes it taste so much better! Trust me, it’ GOOD 🙂

Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?
Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?
Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?

Okay, I’m ready to share the recipe. Are you excited? I sure am! And Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone 😀

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?
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Tahini Bundt Cake With Kiwi Glaze

Course Dessert
Keyword bundt cake, cake
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Resting time 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

Tahini Bundt Cake

  • 2 large eggs room temperature
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup tahini paste
  • 3/4 cup milk room temperature
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla seeds

Kiwi Glaze

  • 3 small ripe kiwis
  • 3/4 cup icing sugar
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream

Instructions

Tahini Bundt Cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease a 6 cup bundt cake pan with butter or cooking spray.

  2. Place the eggs and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat together at high speed until the mixture gets fluffy.

  3. Add oil, tahini paste, and milk and mix at medium speed just to combine.

  4. Add baking powder and vanilla seeds and mix on medium speed again just to combine.

  5. At the end add flour and mix on low speed to combine.

  6. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

  7. Remove from the oven and leave the cake in the pan. Cover with a cloth and leave to rest for 10-15 minutes. This will make the cake come out easily.

  8. Remove from the pan and leave to cool down before glazing.

Kiwi Glaze

  1. Blend kiwis in a blender. Pour the pureé in a bowl and add icing sugar. Whisk until well combined. Add heavy cream and mix again. 

  2. Pour the glaze over the cooled tahini bundt cake

Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?
Make this tahini bundt cake to wow everyone with a new exciting flavor! Plus a sweet kiwi glaze on top. What can be better?

Eggless Doughnuts With Orange Cream

What better way to celebrate the Carnival season but with some fluffy and soft eggless doughnuts with orange cream.

What better way to celebrate the Carnival season but with some fluffy and soft eggless doughnuts with orange cream.

Only 5 days to Carnival. The fun starts today with ‘Fat Thursday’ as we call it. Like in other places, it gets really festive during these five days. People dress up, they go out and celebrate at processions, and of course they eat. A LOT!

Not sure about other places, but doughnuts are a big part of the Carnival in Slovenia. Each family has its own secret recipe and its favorite fillings. My mom is the one in charge of making doughnuts every year. She’s the true doughnut Yoda of the family. For years I was eating her doughnuts and never tried to make my own. This year, I decided it’s time to change that.

As you know, if you’ve been following me for a while, my son’s allergic to eggs so I’m always on search to find good eggless solutions for common foods. So why not make eggless doughnuts?

What better way to celebrate the Carnival season but with some fluffy and soft eggless doughnuts with orange cream.
What better way to celebrate the Carnival season but with some fluffy and soft eggless doughnuts with orange cream.
What better way to celebrate the Carnival season but with some fluffy and soft eggless doughnuts with orange cream.
What better way to celebrate the Carnival season but with some fluffy and soft eggless doughnuts with orange cream.
What better way to celebrate the Carnival season but with some fluffy and soft eggless doughnuts with orange cream.

Recipes like these rarely turn out great in the first attempt but this one was spot on after the first try. It was fluffy and so incredibly soft. An stayed that way even the second day. We ate them all in a day but I always leave a bit to test how something tastes and looks the next day. These held really well which can sometimes be a problem with eggless pastry.

Since it’s still citrus season I also made an eggless pudding cream with some mandarine and orange zest to fill those delicious doughnuts. I made vanilla pudding cream, but you can play a bit here and add some cocoa powder in as well. Hmmm, I might try this as well! 😀

What better way to celebrate the Carnival season but with some fluffy and soft eggless doughnuts with orange cream.
What better way to celebrate the Carnival season but with some fluffy and soft eggless doughnuts with orange cream.
What better way to celebrate the Carnival season but with some fluffy and soft eggless doughnuts with orange cream.

Do you have a ton of oranges on spare? Trust me, you’re not the only one 🙂 Why not make a delicious Dried fig and blood orange tart?

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

What better way to celebrate the Carnival season but with some fluffy and soft eggless doughnuts with orange cream.
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Eggless Doughnuts With Orange Cream

Course Dessert
Keyword doughnuts
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 12 doughnuts
Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

Eggless doughnuts

  • 500 g plain flour
  • 6 TBSP sugar
  • 3 dl milk lukewarm
  • 1/4 cup butter melted
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 pack dried yeast
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • pinch of turmeric
  • zest of 1/2 lemon

Orange Pudding Cream

  • 250 ml milk
  • 15 g corn starch
  • zest of 1/2 orange
  • zest of 1/2 mandarine
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla seeds or vanilla extract

Instructions

Eggless Doughnuts

  1. In a small bowl mix dried yeast 1 dl of warm milk and 2 TBSP of sugar. Cover and let sit for 5-10 minutes so the foam starts to form.

  2. Meanwhile, combine flour, sugar, salt, lemon zest and turmeric in a big stand mixer bowl. 

  3. After the yeast has started to foam add it to the flour. Add the remaining lukewarm milk and mix on medium speed for a minute.

  4. Add oil and melted butter and mix for 10 more minutes od medium-high speed.

  5. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough doubles in size.

  6. After the dough has risen roll it out on a lightly floured surface to about 2.5 cm thick (without kneading it whatsoever). Use doughnut cutters to cut out circles or use a knife to cut any desired shapes.

  7. Leave the doughnuts to rise for about 15 minutes.

  8. Meanwhile, heat the oil to 140°C. A good indicator the temperature is perfect is to check with a wooden spoon. If little bubbles start to form around the spoon handle the oil is ready to go.

  9. Place doughnuts top side down in hot oil, but prior to that brush away the flour. A lot of flour will burn your oil and it will not be re-usable. Fry the doughnuts for about 3 minutes covered. When they turn golden, turn them around away from yourself, so you don’t burn yourself! Fry for about 3 more minutes on the other side uncovered.

  10. Transfer the doughnuts to a plate covered with paper towels to drain the excess oil. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Orange Pudding Cream

  1. Mix corn starch with 50ml of milk to form a lump-free paste.

  2. Bring the remaining 200ml of milk to a simmer and add the starch mixture. Whisk continuously until the pudding has thickened to a very think mixture. Cover and leave for 10 minutes to cool a bit.

Filling the doughnuts

  1. Pierce the crust of each cooled doughnut with the piping tube and pipe a little pudding into each doughnut. Do not whisk or stir the pudding when transferring it to the piping bag or it will go runny.

What better way to celebrate the Carnival season but with some fluffy and soft eggless doughnuts with orange cream.

Roasted Orange Chicken

Tender roasted orange chicken marinated in orange juice and soy sauce served with roasted potatoes is a quick and easy dinner recipe everyone will love.

Tender roasted orange chicken marinated in orange juice and soy sauce served with roasted potatoes is a quick and easy dinner recipe everyone will love.

Hello guys! I have an exciting new recipe

A lot of people have told me lately that they look for quick lunch and dinner recipes that are healthy as well. I always loved anything roasted, more so lately with my son keeping me busy. Anything that can be prepared in advance and doesn’t take a lot of my time is super handy.

I made this roasted orange chicken last week and I love how it turned out. I need to make something quickly with a few ingredients I had in the fridge. You really don’t need a lot of fancy ingredients to make a fancy meal. Doesn’t this look fancy? Trust me, no fancy ingredients were added. Oranges are the not-so-secret ingredients that add such a nice color and make it looks like you worked your but for the meal 🙂

The marinade ends up making the most delicious sauce and adds so much flavor to he chicken. Wanna know the best part? I took me less than 10 minutes to prepare before tossing into the oven and relaxing!

Tender roasted orange chicken marinated in orange juice and soy sauce served with roasted potatoes is a quick and easy dinner recipe everyone will love.
Tender roasted orange chicken marinated in orange juice and soy sauce served with roasted potatoes is a quick and easy dinner recipe everyone will love.
Tender roasted orange chicken marinated in orange juice and soy sauce served with roasted potatoes is a quick and easy dinner recipe everyone will love.
Tender roasted orange chicken marinated in orange juice and soy sauce served with roasted potatoes is a quick and easy dinner recipe everyone will love.

The whole family was sick the past month and a half. It’s been only a few days since we’re actually all okay and we’re hoping it ended. There’s nothing less fun but being home with a sick kid or being sick yourself or even worst both of you sick. We weren’t able to go out for more than a few minutes a day and we were FREAKING OUT!

We were drinking lots of elderflower turmeric tea and eating a ton of soup! And finally got better… fingers crossed.

To be honest, a lot of the time I wasn’t even able to cook anything even slightly decent. Thank god for my mum, we were crashing her lunches a lot. Parents rock, right? I hope my son says that about me some day!

Tender roasted orange chicken marinated in orange juice and soy sauce served with roasted potatoes is a quick and easy dinner recipe everyone will love.
Tender roasted orange chicken marinated in orange juice and soy sauce served with roasted potatoes is a quick and easy dinner recipe everyone will love.
Tender roasted orange chicken marinated in orange juice and soy sauce served with roasted potatoes is a quick and easy dinner recipe everyone will love.

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Tender roasted orange chicken marinated in orange juice and soy sauce served with roasted potatoes is a quick and easy dinner recipe everyone will love.
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Roasted Orange Chicken

Course Main Course
Keyword chicken, roasted chicken, roasted potatoes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 2 people
Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

  • 500 g chicken thighs (approx. 2 chicken thighs)
  • 400 g young potatoes
  • 1 orange cut in slices
  • 1 whole garlic bulb
  • 1/2 TBSP soy sauce
  • 2 TBSP freshely squeezed orange juice
  • 1 tsp ground garlic
  • 1/4 tsp crushed black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 2 TBSP olive oil
  • salt to taste
  • 10 thyme springs

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 190 °C.

  2. Combine together soy sauce, orange juice, ground garlic, crushed black pepper, cayenne pepper, and 1 TBSP olive oil. Pour over the chicken thighs and let sit until you prepare the potatoes.

  3. Cut potatoes in 2 cm chunks and drizzle with 1 TBSP olive oil and add salt to taste. Mix well.

  4. Place potatoes in a baking tray and add chicken thighs skin side up. Add orange slices and thyme springs.

  5. Roast in the preheated oven for 50 minutes.

Tender roasted orange chicken marinated in orange juice and soy sauce served with roasted potatoes is a quick and easy dinner recipe everyone will love.

Double Chocolate Blackberry Ice Cream Sandwiches

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

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 🙂

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

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.

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

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 no churn melon sorbet with basil, it’s one of my favorite summer refreshments!

Have a good one folks!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Double chocolate blackberry ice cream sandwiches are a perfect ice cold refreshment for the hot late summer days!
5 from 1 vote
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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

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. Whip the cream to stiff peaks.

  4. 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

  2. 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.

  3. 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

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. Dip assembled ice cream sandwiches into chocolate and sprinkle with bee pollen.

  4. Freeze until firm.

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

Spicy Goat Cheese Pesto Pizza

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!

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.

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!
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! 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!

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.

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!

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) 🙂

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!

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

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

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
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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

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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!

  4. 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

  1. 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

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the crust.

  5. Decorate with more basil leaves before serving.

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!

Lime Poppy Seed Elderflower Cake Roll

This poppy seed elderflower cake roll is a delicately light spring tea-time treat.

This poppy seed elderflower cake roll is a delicately light spring tea-time treat.

It’s finally here and almost over – the season of elderflowers. I’m in heaven! The smell of those amazing flowers everywhere I go..uhm, so good!

I was thinking about making a cake with elderflowers, but then I changed my mind and challenged myself to make a elderflower cake roll. Weird, but I’ve never made a cake roll. My mum makes amazing cake rolls, so why even bother 🙂 She gave me her cake roll sponge recipe and I tweaked it a little and make a delicious elderflower mascarpone filling. I added lime and poppy seeds to the sponge to make the basic recipe even more yummy 😀

Thanks mom for this super simple recipe!

This poppy seed elderflower cake roll is a delicately light spring tea-time treat.This poppy seed elderflower cake roll is a delicately light spring tea-time treat. This poppy seed elderflower cake roll is a delicately light spring tea-time treat. This poppy seed elderflower cake roll is a delicately light spring tea-time treat.

There are actually (at least) two ways you can scent your filling with elderflowers.

  1. Cooking the cream: That’s a faster way, but it involves cooking. You place elderflowers in a pot and cover it with cream. It needs to cook for about 10 minutes, but the cream should not boil.
  2. Infusing the elderflowers in cream. This method takes longer, but you infuse the eldeflowers in cream and leave it in the fridge for one day and the cream will get a nice scent of elderflowers. So no work at all.

Both of this methods are simple and basically give the same delicious result 🙂

I made elderflower panna cotta a while ago and used the first method, because you’re cooking cream anyway. Panna cotta was sooo good, you should definitely try it! Use a basic recipe and cook the eldeflowers in the cream for ten minutes. Together with some fresh strawberries it’s an amazing no bake dessert for the hot days 🙂

This poppy seed elderflower cake roll is a delicately light spring tea-time treat.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

This poppy seed elderflower cake roll is a delicately light spring tea-time treat.
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Lime Poppy Seed Elderflower Cake Roll

Ingredients

Lime Poppy Seed Sponge

  • 1/2 cup sugar (100g)
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (80g)
  • 4 TBSP ground poppy seeds (20g)
  • 6 eggs
  • zest of one lime
  • juice of 2-3 limes

Elderflower Cream Filling

  • 500 ml whipping cream chilled
  • 250 g mascarpone cheese
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 2 TBSP lime juice

Instructions

Lime Poppy Seed Sponge

  1. Separate eggwhites from the yolks and beat them until they form a firm peak (When you turn the whisk upside down eggwhites should hold, but the tips should fold back.)

  2. Add sugar and beat for a minute or two.

  3. Add egg yolks and beat them in.

  4. Add flour, poppy seeds and lime zest and use the lowest setting of the mixer to fold it in or use a spatula and do it manually.

  5. Transfer the mixture to the baking tray and bake for 10 minutes.

  6. Remove from the oven. Place a clean tablecloth on a flat surface and place the baked sponge on the tablecloth top side down, leaving the baking paper on. Roll in the cloth.

Elderflower Cream Filling

  1. Cold method: In a big bowl cover elderflower heads with whipping cream and leave to infuse for 24 hours in the fridge. After 24 hours run the cream through a fine sieve to remove the elderflower heads.

  2. Warm method: Place elderflower and cream into a pot and cook on low heat for ten minutes. Don't let the cream boil! Leave to cool to room temperature, then remove the elderflower heads and leave in the fridge overnight.

  3. Both methods:

  4. Whip the cream just befor entirely firm.

  5. Use a fork to cream the mascarope cheese.

  6. Add mascarpone and honey to the whipped cream and use the lowest settng to incorporate it in the whipping cream.

  7. Add lime juice and use a spatula to mix it in.

Assembly

  1. Once the sponge is cool unroll and carefully remove the baking paper.

  2. Juice 2 -3 limes and use the juice to soak the sponge.

  3. Frost with elderflower mascarpone cream and tighly roll.

  4. Leave in the fridge for an hour for easier cutting.

This poppy seed elderflower cake roll is a delicately light spring tea-time treat.

Cherry Braised Beef Brisket With Creamy Mashed Potatoes

This cherry braised beef brisket is incredibly tender and comforting. When served with some creamy mashed potatoes it makes a perfect dish for the rainy spring days.

This cherry braised beef brisket is incredibly tender and comforting. When served with some creamy mashed potatoes it makes a perfect dish for the rainy spring days.

We are actually having very hot days for days now. It almost feels like summer, so I’m only wishing for rainy days. Don’t get me wrong, I love summer and sunny days, but the heat came way too quickly, I’m not prepared! Well, at least I get to wear some nice summer dresses and I get to diss the socks, which I hate 🙂

Okay, our cherry tree is again full of cherries, we can’t eat them all, they ripe so fast. We’re making juice for the winter and save some in the freezer. Besides we eat tons of them every day and I’m not complainig. Who doesn’t love fresh cherries?

This cherry braised beef brisket is incredibly tender and comforting. When served with some creamy mashed potatoes it makes a perfect dish for the rainy spring days.This cherry braised beef brisket is incredibly tender and comforting. When served with some creamy mashed potatoes it makes a perfect dish for the rainy spring days.

Even though I L.O.V.E. cherries in desserts and drinks, I’m also loving how wonderfully they complement savory dishes. Remember the Cherry, brie and bacon grilled quesadillas? So yummy!!

Me and my husband absolutely love braised beef and when we got hold of a nice piece of brisket with ribs we couldn’t resist but adding some cherries and some lovely herbs from the garden to some classical braising veggies, like carrots, onions and celery. Result… AMAZING!

Seriously. It’s not like you can tell there are cherries in the dish besides the pieces of cherries, obviously. But they add such a nice sweet flavour. I can’t get over it, I’m doing this dish again for the whole family this weekend.

This cherry braised beef brisket is incredibly tender and comforting. When served with some creamy mashed potatoes it makes a perfect dish for the rainy spring days.This cherry braised beef brisket is incredibly tender and comforting. When served with some creamy mashed potatoes it makes a perfect dish for the rainy spring days.This cherry braised beef brisket is incredibly tender and comforting. When served with some creamy mashed potatoes it makes a perfect dish for the rainy spring days.

Since this recipe takes 6 to 7 hours to make, we started cooking at five in the morning. Luckily we wake up at that time anyway to feed the baby 🙂 I’m guessing we’ll be braising more now that we’re waking up at night 😉

This cherry braised beef brisket is incredibly tender and comforting. When served with some creamy mashed potatoes it makes a perfect dish for the rainy spring days.

One more thing that’s completely unrelated. I’ve been on the best treasure hunt since I’ve started shooting food. My friend is cleaning her grandma’s old apartment so she invited me to go and take a look if there’s anything I’d need for my photography. Well, I found a huuuuge bag of goodies 🙂 I’ve even used some of them in this photoshoot. I know I’m bragging, but I can’t help it 😉

Have a great day you guys!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

This cherry braised beef brisket is incredibly tender and comforting. When served with some creamy mashed potatoes it makes a perfect dish for the rainy spring days.
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Cherry Braised Beef Brisket With Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 7 hours
Total Time 8 hours
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Cherry Braised Beef Brisket

  • 1 kg beef brisket
  • 400 g cherries depitted
  • 2 big carrots
  • 2 onions
  • 2 celery sticks
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 3 rosemary springs
  • a handful of basil
  • 5 thyme springs
  • 1 l chicken stock
  • salt
  • black pepper
  • cayenne pepper

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

  • 8 medium sized potatoes
  • 200 g butter room temperature

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 140°C.

Cherry Braised Beef Brisket

  1. Season the brisket generously with salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper.

  2. Sear all sides of the brisket on a hot skillet with a splash of oil for about a minute or two.

  3. Move the brisket to a plate.

  4. Cut carrots, onions and cellery into 1 cm chunks.

  5. In the same skillet sweat the carrots, onions and cellery for about 10 minutes.

  6. Move the brisket and the vegetables to a baking tray and add cherries, garlic, rosemary, basil and thyme and add the stock.

  7. Bake in the preheated oven for 6 to 7 hour or until the meat gets very tender and almost falls apart. when sliced.

  8. Remove from the oven and move the meat to a plate. Cover it with tin foil. Meanwhile use a hand mixer to thicken the liquid. You can mix all of the liquid with vegetables, or you can keep some vegetables to be seen in the sauce.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

  1. Cook potatoes in salted water until tender. Start with cold water! Cooking time depends on the size of potatoes.

  2. Remove the skins and add butter. Mash with a masher until creamy.

This cherry braised beef brisket is incredibly tender and comforting. When served with some creamy mashed potatoes it makes a perfect dish for the rainy spring days.

Macerated Strawberry Chocolate Cake

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.

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.

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. 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.

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!

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.

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.

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. 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.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.

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!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

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
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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

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Butter four 7 inch baking tins.

  2. Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a stand mixer bowl and whisk through to combine.

  3. Add milk, eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla seeds and mix on medium speed until well combined.

  4. 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.

  5. Pour the mixture into four baking tins and bake for about 25 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.

  6. 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

  1. Thinly cut strawberries and place them in a bowl. Add honey and mix well, so the honey coats all strawberries.

  2. Leave to macerate in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the cake, but at least an hour.

Chocolate Rhubarb Truffles

  1. 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. 

  2. Place in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the cake.

Assembling The Strawberry Chocolate Cake

  1. Whip whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks. Place it in a piping bag with a round or a star nozzle.

  2. 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.

  3. Top with one third of honey macerated strawberries.

  4. Continue in the same way for the remaining two layers.

  5. Refridgerate for at least an hour before serving.

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.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.

Pull-Apart Chicken Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie)

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.

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? 😀

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.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.

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.

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. 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.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.

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 😉

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.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.

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.

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

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.
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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

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

Filling

  1. In a preheated skillet roast chicken breast cubes with a tablespoon of olive oil for a minute or two until they get golden.

  2. 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.

  3. Remove from heat and add feta, nutmeg and black pepper. Mix well and set aside.

Assembly

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

  2. Line a 23 cm (9 inch) cake mold with baking paper.

  3. 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.

  4. Coat the tops with more olive oil and bake for 20 minutes.

  5. Remove from the oven and pour the egg mixture over the baked rolls.

  6. Return to the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes.

  7. Remove form the oven and wait for 5 minutes before removing the rim. Be careful, it's still hot!

  8. Serve warm or cold.

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.

Antioxidant Packed Blueberry Matcha Smoothie

This blueberry matcha smoothie is full of antioxidants and a perfect energy boost for the morning. It’s a delicious healthy vegan, dairy free and gluten free green smoothie with blueberry mash. So good!

Antioxidant Packed Blueberry Matcha Smoothie. This blueberry matcha smoothie is full of antioxidants and a perfect energy boost for the morning. It's a delicious healthy vegan, dairy free and gluten free green smoothie with blueberry mash. So good! | www.useyournoodles.eu

I’m getting so excited about spring and can’t wait for everything to go green. We’re already able to waste our time outside in nothing else but a sweater. Remember my love of balcony life. Well, here it is! I can almost smell spring 😀 Winter this year sucked, almost no snow… I mean it was cold, which is okay by me, but no snow. Come on, that’s just unfair!

Yeah, yeah, I’ll stop complaining 😉

This spring will bring a new little cuddling creature to our life, so there’s really nothing to complain about. Only one more month to go, but I’m hoping sooner 🙂 Can’t wait to meet you little baby! These past 8 months went by really fast, I got very attached to my big belly and the very intesnse baby kicks. I’m begining to think this baby will be a kickboxer or something. I remember reading about having to count kicks if the baby is not moving enough and then I think is there also something like kicking too much?! Probably not 🙂

Antioxidant Packed Blueberry Matcha Smoothie. This blueberry matcha smoothie is full of antioxidants and a perfect energy boost for the morning. It's a delicious healthy vegan, dairy free and gluten free green smoothie with blueberry mash. So good! | www.useyournoodles.eu Antioxidant Packed Blueberry Matcha Smoothie. This blueberry matcha smoothie is full of antioxidants and a perfect energy boost for the morning. It's a delicious healthy vegan, dairy free and gluten free green smoothie with blueberry mash. So good! | www.useyournoodles.euAntioxidant Packed Blueberry Matcha Smoothie. This blueberry matcha smoothie is full of antioxidants and a perfect energy boost for the morning. It's a delicious healthy vegan, dairy free and gluten free green smoothie with blueberry mash. So good! | www.useyournoodles.eu

Back to the recipe!

With the spring knocking on the door, the season of some new green leaf veggies is starting and I’m able to add them to my green smoothies. I got hold of some really nice fresh spinach last week and I couldn’t resist to make a delicious smoothie for breakfast. There are still some frozen wild blueberries in the freezer, which I love for breakfast. In the winter I heat them up and pour over the pancakes with some yogurt. Yum!

Antioxidant Packed Blueberry Matcha Smoothie. This blueberry matcha smoothie is full of antioxidants and a perfect energy boost for the morning. It's a delicious healthy vegan, dairy free and gluten free green smoothie with blueberry mash. So good! | www.useyournoodles.euAntioxidant Packed Blueberry Matcha Smoothie. This blueberry matcha smoothie is full of antioxidants and a perfect energy boost for the morning. It's a delicious healthy vegan, dairy free and gluten free green smoothie with blueberry mash. So good! | www.useyournoodles.eu

Ok, ok, back to the smoothie. So I named this drink matcha smoothie, because I added a little for some nice morning tea feeling. Mmm, cozy 🙂 I don’t know why exactly, but for me drinking matcha – in any form – is like a warm hug. Even if I drink it cold.

I couldn’t resist but adding some lime juice to this almost-spring-celebrating smoothie. Delicious! 🙂 It’s sweetened with honey, which you probably already know is my favorite sweetener 🙂

Now I’m anxiously waiting for strawberries, especially wild strawberries to make strawberry layer cakes and elderflower to make some cookies. With a little bit of luck, the baby and I will be well enough by the time those two are in season and we’ll be strolling through forests searching for these beauties 🙂

Antioxidant Packed Blueberry Matcha Smoothie. This blueberry matcha smoothie is full of antioxidants and a perfect energy boost for the morning. It's a delicious healthy vegan, dairy free and gluten free green smoothie with blueberry mash. So good! | www.useyournoodles.eu

And now here’s the recipe, finally. This matcha smoothie is packed with antioxidants and contains a bunch of cashews and an avocado so it will leave you fed for a while. Cheers!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Antioxidant Packed Blueberry Matcha Smoothie. This blueberry matcha smoothie is full of antioxidants and a perfect energy boost for the morning. It's a delicious healthy vegan, dairy free and gluten free green smoothie with blueberry mash. So good! | www.useyournoodles.eu
5 from 1 vote
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Antioxidant Packed Blueberry Matcha Smoothie

Total Time 5 minutes
Servings 2 people

Ingredients

  • 1 cup cashews soaked overnight
  • 2 cups water
  • 1/2 avocado
  • 50 g spinach (or a big handful)
  • 4 tsp matcha powder
  • juice of 1 1/2 limes
  • 2 TBSP sunflower seeds
  • 3 TBSP honey (or other sweetener for vegan version)
  • 1 cup blueberries

Instructions

  1. Mix everything except blueberries in a blender until smooth. If the smoothie is to thick add more water.

  2. Place blueberries in two glasses and mash them gently with a spoon or a mortar.

  3. Pour the green smoothie over mashed blueberries and enjoy!

Antioxidant Packed Blueberry Matcha Smoothie. This blueberry matcha smoothie is full of antioxidants and a perfect energy boost for the morning. It's a delicious healthy vegan, dairy free and gluten free green smoothie with blueberry mash. So good! | www.useyournoodles.eu

Crunchy Mocha Frozen Yogurt with Date Caramel

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.

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!

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?

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!

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.

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.
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.

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…

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.
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.

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

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

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.
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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:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Keep the coffee shaped puffs in an airtight container.

Frozen Yogurt:

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. Transfer it back to the container and freeze until you like the consistancy, probably about 2 hours.

Date Caramel:

  1. 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. 

  2. The caramel keeps in the fridge for at least 2 weeks.

Assembly:

  1. 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 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.
[This post was kindly supported by Polonapolona. I was provided some mugs for this post. No other compensation was received.]

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! Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!

Dried Fig Blood Orange Tart

One of the best flavor pairings – dried figs and orange in a perfect Valentine’s day dessert – a decadent dried fig and blood orange tart. Simple chocolate tart crust is holding a dried fig jam and a zesty blood orange curd, which is decorated with tiny orange hearts. What a treat!

One of the best flavor pairings - dried figs and orange in a perfect Valentine's day dessert - a decadent dried fig and blood orange tart. Simple chocolate tart crust is holding a dried fig jam and a zesty blood orange curd, which is decorated with tiny orange hearts. What a treat!

It’s almost Valentine’s day. 

Me and my husband don’t really celebrate it, but this year we made plans to have dinner with two our friends, so we’re having a double date. They are cooking the main dish, we are making dessert. And I think this pie is perfect for the occasion. Only change I’ll have to make is the crust, because my friend is gluten free. I’ve never made a gluten free chocolate tart crust before, so any suggestions are welcome 🙂 If I manage to do a nice one, maybe I’ll even add the recipe here.

One of the best flavor pairings - dried figs and orange in a perfect Valentine's day dessert - a decadent dried fig and blood orange tart. Simple chocolate tart crust is holding a dried fig jam and a zesty blood orange curd, which is decorated with tiny orange hearts. What a treat!
One of the best flavor pairings - dried figs and orange in a perfect Valentine's day dessert - a decadent dried fig and blood orange tart. Simple chocolate tart crust is holding a dried fig jam and a zesty blood orange curd, which is decorated with tiny orange hearts. What a treat!

First of all, I’m in love with the dried fig and orange combo. Blood orange or regular orange, both is super delish! I tried it for the first time in a smoothie. I was combinig these two just because I had nothing else to put in and it sounded like a great combination. Yes, yes, you’re missing a lot if you’re never tried those two together. I mean it! Go ahead, make this blood orange tart or simply take an orange and eat it next to a fig. How is it? Are you loving me right now? 😉

One of the best flavor pairings - dried figs and orange in a perfect Valentine's day dessert - a decadent dried fig and blood orange tart. Simple chocolate tart crust is holding a dried fig jam and a zesty blood orange curd, which is decorated with tiny orange hearts. What a treat!
One of the best flavor pairings - dried figs and orange in a perfect Valentine's day dessert - a decadent dried fig and blood orange tart. Simple chocolate tart crust is holding a dried fig jam and a zesty blood orange curd, which is decorated with tiny orange hearts. What a treat!

Okay, so I was thinking about what to make for Valentine’s day. I’ve shared a brownie recipe last year, this year I wanted something more fruity. Yesterday we celebrated the death of our greatest poet, which is also the biggest cultural holiday in Slovenia. We had a big celebration in the town where he lived, just a couple of kilometres from my village. Wow, way too many people, I had to hug my belly to protect it from the accidental bumps.

This poet liked to give out dried figs to the children. One of his nicknames was also Dr. Fig, for that reason. So I used figs as an insiration and added the oranges, because AGAIN they are perfect for each other 🙂 Of course I couldn’t go without just a tinsy bit of chocolate, so I not-so-secretly added some cocoa powder to the crust.

One of the best flavor pairings - dried figs and orange in a perfect Valentine's day dessert - a decadent dried fig and blood orange tart. Simple chocolate tart crust is holding a dried fig jam and a zesty blood orange curd, which is decorated with tiny orange hearts. What a treat!
One of the best flavor pairings - dried figs and orange in a perfect Valentine's day dessert - a decadent dried fig and blood orange tart. Simple chocolate tart crust is holding a dried fig jam and a zesty blood orange curd, which is decorated with tiny orange hearts. What a treat!

I’m absolutely in love with the color of the curd. I know, you’d expect a red color, especially if you look at the red juice from the orange, but the eggs and butter make it a more pale yellow to orange color. So it might look like an orange, not blood orange tart. The oranges I got were not red all the way through, if you try with oranges that have a completely red flesh you might get a slightly different result. But the eggs and butter will still make it pale. I think it’s such a romantic color, but I’m probably under pregnancy hormones influence 😛

One of the best flavor pairings - dried figs and orange in a perfect Valentine's day dessert - a decadent dried fig and blood orange tart. Simple chocolate tart crust is holding a dried fig jam and a zesty blood orange curd, which is decorated with tiny orange hearts. What a treat!

Now let’s make a blood orange tart with dried fig jam and have the best Valentine’s day ever!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

One of the best flavor pairings - dried figs and orange in a perfect Valentine's day dessert - a decadent dried fig and blood orange tart. Simple chocolate tart crust is holding a dried fig jam and a zesty blood orange curd, which is decorated with tiny orange hearts. What a treat!
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Dried Fig & Blood Orange Tart

Makes one 22 or 25 cm (9 or 10 inch) tart.

Course Dessert
Keyword blackberry pie, blood orange tart, fig tart, puff pastry tart
Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

Chocolate Crust

  • 1⅓ cup all-purpose or wholegrain wheat flour (190g)
  • ½ cup icing sugar (55g)
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder (25g)
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 140 g cold butter cubed

Dried Fig Jam

  • ⅔ cup dried figs hard stem removed and quartered
  • 1 cup 100% apple juice

Blood Ornage Curd

  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • ¾ cup blood orange juice freshly squeezed
  • ½ cup granulated sugar (100g)
  • zest of one big orange
  • 150 g room temperature butter cubed

Instructions

Chocolate Crust:

  1. Preheat the oven to 190°C

  2. In a food processor, mix toghether dry ingredients. Add butter and pulse about 10-15 times to get dry crumbs. Add the egg and pulse just unil the dough starts to come together, but does not form a ball. Gently form a ball with your hands, no kneading is needed. Wrap into plastic foil and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

  3. After 30 minutes roll the dough into a circle of the diameter of your tart tin + two times the height of the sides. (My tin is 25 cm + 2,5 cm height, so I rolled it out to 30 cm). For easier rolling place a slightly wet teatowel on the counter, then baking paper over it, then the dough and another piece of baking paper. This way the dough doesn't stick to the rolling pin and the teatowel prevents the baking paper to slip. If you notice the dough is starting to stick to the baking paper, flour it lightly.

  4. Transfer the crust to a buttered tart tin, cut away the excess dough. Make a few holes in the bottom with a fork, cover with tin foil and place baking weights (I use old coins) over the foil.

  5. Bake for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake for 10 more minutes.

  6. Leave to cool in the tin, before taking out or you might break the crust.

Dried Fig Jam

  1. In a small sauce pan, soak dried figgs in apple juice for 15 minutes: After that bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a food processor or a blender and mix. I prefer the jam to still have small pieces of figs, but you can mix it all the way to a smooth jam. At first, the jam will look a little too runny, but will thicken while it cools.

Blood Orange Curd

  1. Place eggs, egg yolks, orange juice, orange zest and granulated sugar in a heat proof bowl. Boil water in a sauce pan and place the bowl over it. Leave water so simmer on medium while whisking the egg mixture for 15-20 minutes or until it starts to thicken and it reaches 75°C (170°F).

  2. Remove the bowl from the sauce pan and whisk in butter, a few cubes at a time.

  3. Cover the bowl and leave to cool.

Assembly

  1. Spread fig jam over the cooled crust and pour over cooled blood orange curd.

  2. Leave to set in the fridge for at least 6 hours or better overnight.

Notes

The fig jam recipe is sightly adjusted from the Fig Butter recipe by Stephanie Cooks.

One of the best flavor pairings - dried figs and orange in a perfect Valentine's day dessert - a decadent dried fig and blood orange tart. Simple chocolate tart crust is holding a dried fig jam and a zesty blood orange curd, which is decorated with tiny orange hearts. What a treat!
One of the best flavor pairings - dried figs and orange in a perfect Valentine's day dessert - a decadent dried fig and blood orange tart. Simple chocolate tart crust is holding a dried fig jam and a zesty blood orange curd, which is decorated with tiny orange hearts. What a treat! Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!

Nutty Apple & Poppy Seed Strudel

This apple and poppy seed strudel has four delicious mouth-watering layers – poppy seed, curd, walnut, and apple layer with sultanas. In many ways, it is reminiscent of one of the best Slovenian dessert Prekmurska gibanica.

This apple and poppy seed strudel has four delicious mouth watering layers - poppy seed, curd, walnut and apple layer with sultanas. In many ways it is reminiscent of one of the best Slovenian dessert Prekmurska gibanica.

Hi, guys!

It’s about time to make another kindda Slovenian recipe – another dessert inspired by our traditional Prekmurska gibanica. Remember the Spring Strawberry Layer Cake in a Glass, that is a very light and healthy version of the original recipe. Well, this time it’s also a little lighter, but just a little bit.

This apple and poppy seed strudel has four delicious mouth watering layers - poppy seed, curd, walnut and apple layer with sultanas. In many ways it is reminiscent of one of the best Slovenian dessert Prekmurska gibanica.

The original Prekmurska gibanica is very heavy on the fat, not that this apple and poppy seed strudel recipe is not, but much much less 😀

Okay, I’m making it sound like a dissaster of a dessert. It’s actually not and it really is one of my favorite Slovenian desserts. With four different delicious layers you can’t go wrong, right?

I left the layers as are, but added honey in two of them (the poppy seed and the walnut layer), because you know I’m addicted to honey 😉 My breakfast today… honey on bread and butter. You see! ADDICTED!

I hope you don’t get scared by the four layers, because these fillings are literally the easiest you-can’t-do-it-wrong fillings. And if you don’t like an ingredient, change it. For example, you could use different fruit, or change walnuts for some other nuts. So many choices.

This apple and poppy seed strudel has four delicious mouth watering layers - poppy seed, curd, walnut and apple layer with sultanas. In many ways it is reminiscent of one of the best Slovenian dessert Prekmurska gibanica.

This was actually one of those recipes, that I didn’t even plan to make. I was left with some phyllo dough that was about to go bad and was firstly thinking of making a simple, but yet delicious, apple strudel. But since that’s probably the most common type of strudel I make, I thought, I should do it differently this time and see if I can make a layered strudel like Prekmurska gibanica.

Guess what, yes! And it’s pretty freakin’ delish. At first I added too much poppy seeds and not enough apples, which made it a little dry, so I changed the recipe. Now it’s moist and sooo yummy.

This apple and poppy seed strudel has four delicious mouth watering layers - poppy seed, curd, walnut and apple layer with sultanas. In many ways it is reminiscent of one of the best Slovenian dessert Prekmurska gibanica.
This apple and poppy seed strudel has four delicious mouth watering layers - poppy seed, curd, walnut and apple layer with sultanas. In many ways it is reminiscent of one of the best Slovenian dessert Prekmurska gibanica.

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

This apple and poppy seed strudel has four delicious mouth watering layers - poppy seed, curd, walnut and apple layer with sultanas. In many ways it is reminiscent of one of the best Slovenian dessert Prekmurska gibanica.
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Nutty Apple & Poppy Seed Strudel

Course Dessert
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

POPPY SEED LAYER

  • 100 g ground poppy seeds
  • 100 ml boiling milk
  • 1 TBSP honey

CURD LAYER

  • 300 g curd
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 TBSP icing sugar
  • zest of 1 lemon

WALNUT LAYER

  • 200 g ground wallnuts
  • 150 ml boiling milk
  • 2 TBSP honey

APPLE LAYER

  • 6 medium-size apples around 1kg, peeled and coarsely grated
  • 2 tsp cinammon
  • 120 g sultanas
  • warm water

STRUDEL

  • 500 g phyllo pastry 10 sheets of 35 x 45 cm
  • 150 g butter melted
  • Icing sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

Poppy seed layer

  1. Pour boiling milk over ground poppy seeds and mix well with a spoon. Once the mixture has cooled a little, add honey and mix again.

Curd layer

  1. Split the eggs into egg whites and yolks. Mix curd, icing sugar, lemon zest and yolks with a spoon. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks and fold it gently into the curd mixture.

Walnut layer

  1. Pour boiling milk over ground walnuts and mix well with a spoon. Once the mixture has cooled a little, add honey and mix again. If there's excess liquid on bottom, drain the mixture through a fine sieve.

Apple layer

  1. Put sultanas in a bowl and cover the with warm water. Leave them to soak for 15-20 minutes, then drain. Mix together grated apples, cinammon and sultanas.

Assembly and baking: Preheat the oven to 200°C.

  1. Coat a big baking tray with melted butter. The trey should be big enough to hold five 35cm long rolls.
  2. Spread a generous amount of butter over one sheet of phyllo pastry with a brush, cover it with another sheet and spread butter over this one too.
  3. Visually divide the sheet into 5 parts (lenghtwise). Spread poppy seed mixture over the first, curd layer over the second, walnut layer over the third and apples over the fourth. The first will be a little thinner, the fourth a little thicker and the fifth will be empty. Start rolling from the poppy seed layer. Roll as wide or narrow as your baking tray allows. You are going to have 5 of these rolls.
  4. Place the rolls into baking tray and cover the tops with some more butter.
  5. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the crust looks golden.
  6. When you take it out the crust might look soggy, but it will get crisp once it cools.
  7. Sprinkle with some icing sugar before serving.


This apple and poppy seed strudel has four delicious mouth watering layers - poppy seed, curd, walnut and apple layer with sultanas. In many ways it is reminiscent of one of the best Slovenian dessert Prekmurska gibanica.

This apple and poppy seed strudel has four delicious mouth watering layers - poppy seed, curd, walnut and apple layer with sultanas. In many ways it is reminiscent of one of the best Slovenian dessert Prekmurska gibanica.

Black Sesame Covered Chewy Turmeric Bagels

The softest low-fat black sesame covered chewy turmeric bagels that are ridiculously tasty and a great basis for a breakfast sandwich.

The softest low-fat black sesame covered chewy turmeric bagels that are ridiculously tasty and a great basis for a breakfast sandwich.

Hey, guys!

Guess what, it’s the first time we’re making bread together. A shocker!! Ok, we’ve made some flatbread, but not bread like this.

Bread making is definitely one of my biggest cooking/baking passion. Digging in the dough and getting your hands all sticky and messy is the best part of making bread at home. And if you think it’s hard, it’s actually not. Sometimes it requires a little time, but it’s mostly just waiting and admiring your beautiful work. How’s that for a change of perspective.

If you’re kneading the dough by hand it’s also a great exercise. Win-win 😀

The softest low-fat black sesame covered chewy turmeric bagels that are ridiculously tasty and a great basis for a breakfast sandwich.

I’ve just recently discovered the art of cooking the bread before it goes to the oven and that’s so lame, right? How could I be ignorant for so long! Cooking the dough before putting it in the oven makes for a nicely browned crust and a chewy middle. Like all bread, I like bagels best when they’re hot. I was always told that eating warm bread would hurt my stomach, but I’ve been doing that for all my life and my stomach is just fine. For now 😀 What can I do, it simply tastes better and its so soft. Who’s with me?

The softest low-fat black sesame covered chewy turmeric bagels that are ridiculously tasty and a great basis for a breakfast sandwich.
The softest low-fat black sesame covered chewy turmeric bagels that are ridiculously tasty and a great basis for a breakfast sandwich.

The awesomest chewy turmeric bagels

Okay, enough of my babbling…

We’re making bagels today. Not the typical New York style bagels, but similar – chewy turmeric bagels with some amazing black sesame seeds on top. I’ve added a bunch of turmeric in the dough, which gives it such a beautiful vivid golden color and a nice aroma along with a hint of bitterness. And the black sesame is just awesome. It has a stronger taste than the lightly colored sesame and it contains a whole bunch of necessary minerals.

I was eager to try it for a while, but it’s not that easy get in Slovenia. And if you do get it it’s very expensive. Finnaly I got my hand on a big bag of it and tried it in this recipe. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Besides the obvious, that they look great, they are now even tastier and healthier 🙂

One thing that makes bagels different from normal bread is that we’re using less yeast, which gives it some extra flavor and dense texure inside. We don’t want the bagels to be bready, but rather chewy and moist. Cooking them in water infused with baking soda will make the crust seal and prevent it from rising more in the oven, which will also help create the dense middle and will give the crust a nice darker color. Actually in this case, because we’ve added turmeric to the dough it will become sort of orange or red in some places, so don’t get scared, nothing’s wrong 😛 It’s just more fun!

I like to serve bagels with cream cheese or some creamy beet dip with smoked salmon and some leafy greens like spinach or arugula.

The softest low-fat black sesame covered chewy turmeric bagels that are ridiculously tasty and a great basis for a breakfast sandwich.

Yum, yum…let’s go bake!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

The softest low-fat black sesame covered chewy turmeric bagels that are ridiculously tasty and a great basis for a breakfast sandwich.
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BLACK SESAME COVERED CHEWY TURMERIC BAGELS

Course Appetizer, Breakfast, Side Dish
Keyword bagels, bread
Total Time 4 hours
Servings 14 bagels

Ingredients

CHEWY TURMERIC BAGELS

  • 6 cups all-purpose flour (900g)
  • 1 TBSP active dry yeast
  • 2 1/2 cups lukewarm water
  • 1 TBSP turmeric
  • 1 TBSP salt

COOKING

  • 1/2 TBSP baking soda per 2 litres of water

TOPPINGS

  • black sesame seeds
  • cornmeal Optional. I like to use it, because it prevents the dough to stick on the paper and it gives the bagel a nice crunch

Instructions

  1. In a bowl of your stand mixer combine 3 cups of flour, all the water and yeast using a whisk. Cover with a cloth and let rise for 30 minutes.
  2. After 30 minutes you will see bubbles on the surface of the dough mixture. Add the remaining flour, turmeric and salt and using a kneading attachment start kneading the dough. Knead for about 10 minutes, then cover the dough with plastic foil and leave to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour and 30 minutes or until it has doubled in size.
  3. Punch the dough and give it a couple of kneads. Divide the dough into 90-110 g chunks. Flatten each piece with hands fold in the sides and roll so you get a cylinder (like a spring roll). Using the palms of your hands roll out the cylinder to about 20 cm long, then overlap one end over the other, pinch hard and use your palm to roll these two ends together.
  4. Let rise covered with a cloth for an hour.
  5. Bring water with baking soda to a boil in a wide skillet. Let it gently simmer while you cook the bagels 60-90 seconds each side. Drain and dip one side of the bagel while still a little wet in black sesame seeds and the other in cornmeal.

  6. Place on a tray lined with baking paper and bake for 20-25 minutes at 220°C until you get a nice golden and red color.

Notes

NOTES
Don’t overcrowd the bagels in water, because they will rise a bit and they may change the shape if they touch other bagels.

The softest low-fat black sesame covered chewy turmeric bagels that are ridiculously tasty and a great basis for a breakfast sandwich.
The softest low-fat black sesame covered chewy turmeric bagels that are ridiculously tasty and a great basis for a breakfast sandwich. Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!