A rainbow of tastes

Chocolate Babka and “The Dinner Party” Do you remember that one episode of Seinfeld with  Chocolate Babka  ? It was “ The Dinner Party ” episode who introduced me to this deliciousness. I remember this one very well after so many years. The “team” goes to a dinner party and Elaine says they shouldn’t go empty handed, so she decide to buy a bottle of wine and a chocolate babka to bring to the party. While Kramer and George’s responsibility is to buy the wine, Elaine and Jerry stop at a bakery to take the babka. But as always, everything goes wrong and they have to settle for a “lesser” babka: the cinnamon one :). And this was the first time I heard about babka. I must say that I was so curious about its taste back then, but silly me… I totally forgot about it. Until few days ago when, when while browsing through my magazines, I found an interesting pistachio babka recipe. I immediately remembered that Seinfeld episod...

Best Homemade Chocolate Brownies Who doesn’t love a good  Chocolate brownie ? But have you ever noticed how difficult it is to find a recipe that has everything you want in a brownie? So, for many years I’ve tried to find the best recipe without any luck. Until now! 🙂 This is the best homemade brownie I have tried.  It is fudgy and gooey, but also dark, intense and super chocolaty. This recipe is super easy, with truly spectacular results and you are definitely going to love it! Ingredients for Chocolate Brownies : 226 g salted butter, plus more for pan 340 g good quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 3 large eggs, room temperature 1 1/4 cups brown sugar (I used half coconut and half brown sugar) 1  cup pecan halves, coarsely chopped 2 tablespoons good quality cocoa powder 3.4 g instant espresso powder (optional) half a teaspoon vanilla powder 50 g dark or milk ...

D-shaped Cream Tart with white chocolate mousse On every social media, when searching for Cream Tart, you will find some pretty amazing looking cakes. They are cut into numbers or letters and even shapes and are also known as “Number Cake” or “Letter / Alphabet Cake”. This unique twist on the traditional cakes is actually not new. It’s been around for years, but lately has become very popular on Instagram and especially in Adi Klinghofer’s feed, a talented Israeli baker ( @adikosh123 ). Check her out as her desserts are pure art. Simply WOW!  The Cream Tart is made of delicious cookie layers filled with your choice of frosting (filling) and, of course, always topped with edible flowers, herbs, fresh berries, small pieces of chocolate, candies, meringues and macarons, etc. When I fist saw one of these cakes, I fell in love instantly. How could anyone not to! They look perfect, aren’t they?! But I must say that I was also curious ...

Thai Yellow Chicken Curry With Peanuts & Baby Potatoes To keep the trend with delicious Thai dishes, today is our first attempt of making a curry: Yellow Chicken Curry (ไก่แกงเหลือง) –  Gang Garee Gai. Our recipe uses salted peanuts and baby potatoes and it’s served with Basmati rice.  For this recipe, we used store bought yellow curry paste, but since we loved this curry so much and we want to eat more, we decided that next time to make our own paste. Our yellow curry has a well blended taste, not too spicy or sweet. If you haven’t made Thai Yellow Chicken Curry before,  we are hoping you give it a try! Definitely, you won’t be disappointed! Makes 2 servings Ingredients  for Yellow Chicken Curry : 300 g chicken breast, cut into bite size 6 baby potatoes, well washed 2 small shallots(I used banana shallots) 60 g yellow curry paste (or aprox. 6-5 tsp) 1 teaspoon minced ginger 300 ml light coconut milk 1/2 cup salte...

Stir-Fried Spicy Cashew Chicken - Thai-Style Ever since visiting Thailand, we dreamed about the delicious Thai-Style Cashew Chicken.  So spicy, filled with flavours and such good looking dish. A really feast of tastes with a bit of crunchiness, overall a well balanced dish that everyone is going to love it.  Finally, last week we got to try it and the result was pretty good.  Here is our recipe for 2 servings: Ingredients for the Cashew Chicken sauce: 3 tbsp sweet soy sauce 2 tbsp fish sauce 1 tsp sugar a bit or salt and pepper 2 small chili cut into small pieces 2 red peppers, thinly slice 1 small onion, thinly slice 1 spring onion, diagonally sliced 100 g of cashew 300 g chicken cut into bite size some neutral vegetable oil (we used sunflower) 1 tbsp of flour lime and cilantro (optional) How to make the Thai Cashew Chicken :  Wash and pat dry the chicken. Cut all the ingredients (chic...

Moroccan Almond Pastries – M’hanncha Cake What is M’hanncha?   M’hanncha, a Moroccan Almond Pastry (snake), is a traditional dessert from Morocco made from rolled filo pastry stuffed with almond frangipane infused with exotic flavours and coiled like a serpent.  This snake cake can be made in very large sizes and served at different gatherings but also in smaller and individual portions.  M’hanncha Cake is very tasty and delicate dessert, with a perfect texture, crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. Also, the flavours are in perfect balance with the texture, so as a conclusion: it’s a treat that you should not miss; you won’t regret it! 🙂 The ingredients below are for 2 medium cakes. Ingredients for M’hanncha Cake: 100 g almond meal 1 egg 100 g butter, room temperature 100 g icing sugar 1 tablespoon all purpose flour 1 tablespoon rosewater few dried rose petals (optional) lemon and orange zest 4 large sheets of fresh filo pastry few p...

Lækkerier magazine and Macarookies Few days back I saw an amazingly well made danish magazine. After a bit of browsing through out its pages I decided to buy it. Great idea! It is called “ Lækkerier ” and it’s filled with recipes for some delicious and great looking desserts and breads. Its name actually can be translated into “Delights or Delicacy” and let me tell you that this magazine has lots of delights, the only drawback is the difficulty of some of those recipes. Many of them require culinary and baking training and skills, however there are few that can be successfully made also by amateurs. And in today’s post I am trying to write about 1 recipe that everyone can make. But first few more words about this magazine. This edition theme is: “Grøn” which means “Green”. So all the recipes presented in this edition of the Lækkerier magazine are made with green ingredients, like: matcha powder, pistachio, pumpkin seeds, mint, basil, and other herbs, squash, spinach, kiwi, avocado...

Chocolate Easter Egg Nest Cake Who doesn’t love a simple, yet tasty dessert for Easter? Especially when decorated accordingly to Easter theme! Making this cake was the perfect excuse to buy these delicious and pretty good looking mini candy coated eggs. Don’t you think they look perfect? And they really taste amazing. How and where did I find these cute eggs? As a matter of fact, I bought these from Italy, just one day before returning to Denmark from a 16 days holiday spent in the country of pizza and pastas. Once I’ve seen them, I thought they will look good on a cake. So, after I eventually decided on the turquoise colour (the decision was hard, as they had lots of beautiful colours) and I instantly thought on how my Easter Cake should look like: dark layers and egg nest, turquoise frosting and candy coated eggs. Below is the recipe I’ve used to make this cake and as for the egg nest, check out this amazing youtube tutorial  on how to make it.  It’s a bit messy but qu...

Homemade Gluten Free Cookies These easy-to-make homemade Gluten Free Cookie s are simply everyone’s favourite! They are crunchy around the edges, soft in the centre and moreover, the entire family and all the friends will love them! If you don’t want your cookies gluten free, then you might choose any other type of flour to substitute the gluten free oats. The ingredients below are for aprox. 20-24 fairly large pieces. Ingredients for Homemade Gluten Free Cookies: 300 g Muscovado sugar (or other brown sugar) 250 g unsalted butter, softened  2 eggs  340 g gluten free old-fashioned oats, processed into a fine meal (or gluten free oat flour) 6 g salt  5 g baking powder 100 g dark chocolate  How to make Homemade Gluten Free Cookies: Preheat oven to 160 °C . Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine oatmeal flour with baking powder. Mix well and set asid...

Macarons with dark chocolate buttercream My first Macarons ever with a very decent result! They even have feet :). I’m a huge fan of the classic French macarons, however I never thought to give them a try. Honestly, I’ve always felt intimidating by them. Few days ago, Dragos asked me to bake him some macarons. Oh boy, so much research and work to make this impressive cookie. So, back to Dragos' request. Of course, I could not refuse him and after a lot of reading I decided to bake some macarons. I was so happy with the result, I even danced when I saw the feet of my macarons. But before I dug in, I searched the internet and read everything I had to know about how to make the perfect macarons, how they should look when proper done, how important is to measure the ingredients and how to keep them fresh. There are lots of amazing video tutorials, detailed techniques and recipes that’ll come out perfect every time. I am truly happy and confident to try to make macarons again...