Bundt-a-Month: Mocha Fudge Cake with coffee icing

They say that one of the good things about blogging is that it's not just a diary, but a record of our current ideas, interests, hobbies and thoughts and that it's interesting to see the evolment of them all. Looking back at my postings I've come to the conclusion that I get obsessed with one thing from time to time and all my postings revolve around it. For example, in summer all my postings had to do with the sea and almost nothing else- not my crafting, not my travels, not my cooking, not my garden. This period of time, I'm into cooking and baking, hence I post only about them. Does this happen to you, or do your postings vary in theme? Have you noticed?

So, within this cooking obsession framework, I made the AWESOME Mocha Fudge Cake with coffee icing (see here for the recipe) for the weekend. It's taken from the best cookbook I own so far: BBC Good Food Magazine Book of Cakes and Bakes. It's a cake I used to make quite often in the past but it's been like forever since I last made it and I thought that it would be a great contribution to the Bundt-a-Month baking event, organized by Baker Street, a paradise-site for people who love baking. Thanks to Greenthumb, I heard about it and decided to take part. So....here it is!

The cake has a strong coffee flavour which is enhanced by the icing. I used a really old- I might even say vintage- bundt passed on to me by my mum. It's the tin my childhood cakes were made in! I haven't stopped using it ever since, and this blog event was the perfect opportunity to make it famous!!!!!!!

The cake is divine with a cup of coffee and I assure you, you will try really hard not to eat it at once when you make it!

Tiramisu Veloce Recipe

From the lovely comments you left on my last posting, I saw that many of you or your families are tiramisu lovers!Since it's a super easy recipe, why not make it yourselves this weekend? I made it with a few alterations and made only half of it (served 6).

Here's what you'll need:

15 sponge fingers
285ml good strong coffee
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp icing sugar
500 g mascarpone
2 vanilla pods
140ml vin santo (I used brandy and some of my mum's walnut liquer)
zest and juice of 1 orange (I skipped this! )
100 gr best-quality dark chocolate (I used cocoa)

Arrange the sponge fingers in a deep dish. 
Sweeten the coffee with the caster sugar and pour over the sponge fingers, covering them completely (they will suck it all up). Pour over them the orange juice as well.
Whisk the mascarpone with the icing sugar and the seeds of the vanilla pods. 
Add the vin santo.
Lay the mascarpone mixture over the sponge fingers.
Grate chocolate and orange zest on top or simply finish off with  a good layer of cocoa.

It won't take you more than 15' to make, I assure you!

Good luck!

PS The recipe is taken from Jamie Oliver's 'Jamie's Italy'

Αubergine salad

This salad, eaten throughout summer as appetizer in Greece, is one of my favourites. Super easy to make and in season, now that the aubergines are at their best!

You need:

2 aubergines
1 1/2 tbs olive oil
1/2 tbs balsamic or plain vinegar
1 clove of garlic
parsley
salt to taste

Grill the aubergines all around until their skin is burnt. Don't worry, this is the secret for its particular taste!Burn them!!!!!Yeahhhh!

Scoop their inside and put it in the multi blender with the rest of the ingredients.

Serve with some parsley and olive oil springled on top.

It's great to eat with homemade bread, as a dip or as spread for super deli sandwiches!!!

Enjoy!

Fluffy

In my last posting I shared the vanilla icecream recipe. As you might have noticed, it requires many egg yolks. But what about the leftover egg whites? I thought I'd make some fluffy meringues to accompany my vanilla icecram and make some yummy sweet sandwiches!

Meringues are really easy to make, however a bit time consuming as they need to stay in the oven for 1-2 hours until dry in the middle. 
In this recipe you will need a magical Greek ingredient: Chios mastiha .It's a resin coming out of a tree that grows only in one place in the whole world: the island of Chios!And what's more, only in a specific area on the island!It has a unique taste, that suits the meringeues perfectly! In the case that you can't find mastiha resin in the super market, you can make them using a drop of mastiha ectract, any other exctract you want, or, simply nothing, as this recipe suggests.

 Chios Mastiha Meringues

 Ingredients:

100g caster sugar
100g icing sugar
100g egg whites
optional: 1 piece of mastiha resin (I put it in my multi bender with a bit of the caster sugar until it turned into dust)

 First, I preheated my oven in 100C and lined a baking tin with baking paper.

PROCESS: 
I beat 100 g caster sugar with 100 g of egg whites and the mastiha on the low speed of my electric mixer  (this is really important! Don't get impatient!) for 20' until there were stiff peaks.

Then, I stopped the mixer, and folded 100 g of icing sugar with a spoon really carefully to prevent the meringue from getting unfluffy.

BAKING: 
I spooned the mixture in my piping bag and formed little meringues on my  baking paper. I put them close to one another as they don't change in shape during baking.

I baked them for 1 1/2 hours, until they were dry in the middle. 

I let them dry and saved them in a tin box.

TIPS

tip1: you can add a drop of your favourite extract: vanilla or mastic.
tip2: you can reduce the icing sugar and add some cocoa instead
tip3: if you don't have a piping bag, just spoon them on the baking paper!
tip4: To make sure they're baked I always taste one before I take them out of the oven. If they're not dry, I leave them a while longer and check again. Never fails!
tip5: In the case that you resist eating them at once, you can keep them in a tin box for months! Tried and tested!

Now, how about some ideas on how to eat them?

Eat them alone!

Ctush them and springle them over your icecream.

Make pavlova for one or more in a bowl with some cream and strawberries.

Sandwich whipped cream or icecream between two meringues.

Enjoy!

As far as me, now that I've mastered the art of baking meringues, my next project will be baking macarons!

I scream 'ICECREAM'

I'm sure that everyone likes icecream.How about you? I love it! It's the perfect dessert on a hot day, and we have many of those in Greece! However, due to the fact that it's usually made of artificial ingredients instead of natural ones, I don't usually buy it , hence I don't enjoy it as much as I would like to.
I've been meaning to make some since last summer, but the recipe required an icecream maker, which I didn't have. So, this summer I decided to give it a go the traditional way, using a mixer.I made my fav flavour, vanilla. Not only was the easiest thing to make, but it was the most delicious ice cream I had ever tasted! My parents told me that it's exactly the same icecream that people used to eat before the massive production.My father even recognized the taste!

In this photo you can see an icecream vendor in the 50's . See the quantity of the icecream offered? The quantity of eggs and cream explains it! I found the photo in the Greek magazine 'Γλυκιές Ιστορίες' from which I sourced the recipe as well.

 

I only had a small spoonful each time and the strange thing was, that because it was made of natural ingredients just a tablespoon was enough to make me feel content and not ask for more!
The ingredients are the simplest you could think of, suffice that you have a kitchen thermometer and a mixer:


Whisk 100 gr of caster sugar with 5 eggs yolks .
In a pot put 250 gr of cream, 250 gr of milk and the seeds of 1 vanilla pod. 
Add the egg mixture and heat. 
Stir carefully until the mixture reaches 84 C., then take away from the heat. 
Pour the mixture over a strainer into a bowl.
Let it cool and then freeze.
Mix it with the mixer every 40', 3-4 times just to avoid having crystals in the icecream.

Enjoy!

What's your fav flavour?

Do you make it or buy it?

Tyropita

I've noticed that you mostly like my postings on Greek cuisine. I'm really happy I can share my recipes with you and I always post food we actually eat in my family. Nothing fancy or cut out of magazines. Simple homefood.
Today, I have another traditional Greek recipe for you: tyropita. It is something like bread with feta cheese.A super easy snack. All you need, is to mix the following simple ingredients together and bake it!

You will need:
2 eggs
2 cups of lukewarm milk

3 cups of all purpose flour
9gr dried yeast 

350-400 gr feta cheese in crumbles
1-2 pinches of salt (the feta is salty, so, use salt to taste)
pepper
olive oil
fresh thyme οr oregano or rosemary

• Preheat the oven at 108-200 C.
• Mix the flour and the yeast. 
• In another ball beat the eggs with the milk and pour it in the flour mixture. Mix well.
• Add the feta and the seasoning.
• Brush olive oil in a baking tray and pour in the mixture. Drizzle olive oil and thyme on top.
• Leave it to rest for 30' .

Then, bake for 20-30', until golden.  

Enjoy!

tip 1: as you see in the picture above I have used all three kinds of herbs on different parts of the pie, leaving one plain.

tip 2: you can add chopped olives on top and have an olive and feta kind of bread

tip 3: you can add onion slices on top

Pumpkin Cake with olive oil

Last weekend I made a pumpkin cake and small ones for my friend's girls. It's a moist, rich in flavour cake, quite versitile with  the option to add dried fruit, such as raisins, or any nuts you like, such as walnuts. I love the fact that instead of butter, it's made entirely of olive oil! 

I drizzled a simple lemon frosting and lemon zest on top, which truly make a difference....and here it is!

Simone has asked for the recipe, so, here it is :

250g pumpkin, grated
1 1/2 cups of sugar
3 cups of self raising flour
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of soda
1tsp lemon zest
1tbsp cinammon

1 cup of olive oil
2 eggs

Mix all the dry ingredients.
Beat the eggs in another bowl, then add the olive oil.
Pour the liquid mixture into the dry one, mixing with a spoon. The end product should be dry, something like a soft dough.
Pour in a tin (no need to butter it) and bake at 180 C, for an hour, until baked inside.

Pour over the icing, made with icing sugar and lemon juice.

GOOD LUCK!

Galatopita (milk pie)

To continue my olive oil themed cooking/baking, I have another classic recipe for you: galatopita (translation: gala=milk, pita=pie : pie with milk).

 Great for a snack or  breakfast. It's the same case as tyropitakia: mums make it all the time to have something to give to the kids. It's very common all over Greece and goes way back in time, when households were poor and had only basic ingredients at their disposal, milk being the basic as every household in the country used to have goats or sheep. 

I didn't use to eat it, not until  my good friend Sophia gave me a piece to try, as well as her recipe eventually! Ever since, I make it often enough and this one, I'm taking it to school tomorrow as a treat for my colleagues.

As usual, just a few ingredients and a simple method that goes like this:

GALATOPITA 

1 lit milk
1 cup of caster sugar
1 cup of semolina flour
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
olive oil
cinammon

Preheat the oven at 180-200 C.
Put the milk, sugar and salt in a pan. Stir with a wooden spatula scraping the bottom of the pan to avoid the milk from sticking.
When steams start to come out (way before it starts boiling) add the semolina flour and keep on stirring with a whisk to avoid any lumps.

 When it comes to a boil and has a thick consistency, take out of the heat and leave  to cool. Then, stir in the eggs.

Brush a tin with olive oil (mine is appr. 22x35 cm ). 
Pour the mixture in, drizzle some olive oil and springle some cinammon all over.
Bake for 50-60', until it has a golden brown crust and bottom like this:

Serve cold.

tip 1: You can serve it with honey for a most healthy breakfast!
tip 2 :You can add a bit of orange zest or vanilla extract for flavour 
tip 3: Youc can dust some icing sugar for more sweetness and some extra cinammon.

My 10' spagghetti

This is what I cook when I have a craving for pasta and no time at all to prepare a sauce: spagghetti with feta cheese. It is a pasta dish we cook in my family (I don't know if there are many families that make it, I know some for sure though) and you only need spagghetti, feta cheese and olive oil:

1. We boil the spagghetti for 8' and drain it . 

2.We put olive oil on the pan and when it sizzles, we add the drained spagghetti and some crumbled feta cheese. 

3.We give it a stir and we serve. 

That's it! 10'  tops!Talk about fast food!

However, to make this dish more 'gourmet', I have added two more ingredients to the basic recipe- if one can call it 'recipe': mushrooms and spring onions.They really make a difference.

Here is what I do:

When the spagghetti is ready and drained, I put 2-3 tbsp olive oil, the spring onions and the mushrooms in slices in the pan for a few minutes. 

 

I add the drained spagghetti and some feta cheese in crumbles. 

I stir until the cheese melts and I serve with fresh, ground pepper. 

You should give it a go!

There is still time to enter my TWO GIVEAWAYS! 

Here are the links:

 olive oil giveaway 

 earbud pouch giveaway

Looking forward to your entries!

 

Tyropitakia with feta cheese

Hello and a big thanks to everyone who has entered my two giveaways! In the case that you haven't already, there is time left until February 10th. Click on these links to enter the olive oil giveaway and/or the earbud pouch giveaway. 
Today some baking is in order! 
 Yesterday I made myself a most favourite and classic Greek snack, tyropitakia (small feta cheese pies).

I remember my mum making them at least once a week, either for us kids to have for dinner, for school or both! There are lots of recipes , however, this one is very easy to make and really tasty, as long as you can find some good quality feta cheese (very important!). Needless to mention the amazing smell of the baking pastry in the house. With a green salad aside, makes the perfect supper!

Enjoy!

Tyropitakia with feta cheese (makes 30-35)

Ingredients:

250 g margarine (at room temperature)

500 g self-raising flour

200 g Greek style yogurt

200 g feta cheese, crumbled, seasoned with some pepper

1-2 tbsp milk

sesame seeds/ black sesame seeds (optional)

Process:

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Put all the indredients (except for the feta cheese and milk) in a bowl and mix with your hands, until you have a nice, soft dough. In the case that the dough is dry, you might need to add 1-2 tbsp of milk.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl

Roll small balls out of the dough in the size of a walnut. 

This is what crumbled  feta should look like, seasoned with black pepper

Pat each ball into your palm and put some feta seasoned with some pepper in the centre. 

Close the dough, pressing around with your fingers (at this point you can freeze the ones you don't need to bake, seperately, one by one).

The steps in photos

Place on a tray with baking paper (optional: press a fork along the side you closed the tyropitakia-classic grandma's design!). Leave to rest for 30' then bake for appr. 20', until golden.

  tip 1: you can brush them with milk and springle sesame seeds or even black sesame for a more intense flavour

tip 2: you can freeze them, just before baking, if you don't want to eat the whole batch and put in the oven straight from the freezer.

tip 3: they accompany salad or soup as a side dish/starter very well

 ΚΑΛΗ ΕΠΙΤΥΧΙΑ!

Koulourakia with olive oil and orange

In my previous olive picking and a giveaway posting I mentioned that in Greece we use olive oil in baking, too, apart from cooking. This caused some interesting reactions by readers who'd like to learn more about it.
I have already posted two Greek traditional dessert recipes (loukoumades and fanouropita) that olive oil is a basic ingredient, however, I'm going to present a new one, especially since Michelle  has asked for it. So, I'm going to show you how to make Greek orange koulourakia. 

 As in almost every Greek recipe, the ingredients are simple, basic and few. 

 ORANGE KOULOURAKIA

(makes 25-27)

60 grams olive oil

60 grams orange juice

200 grams all-purpose flour

70 grams icing sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp  orange zest 

The process is equally dead simple:

1. Put the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the liquids. Mix with a spoon in a soft but not sticky dough.

          tip:  Don't overmix, just enough to combine the ingredients. If the dough gets sticky on your fingers, just add 1-2 tbsp of flour, and simply mix again.They should be enough. If you add too much flour and you mix too much koulourakia will be hard instead of crunchy. 

2. Cool for 30-60' in the fridge.

3. Roll the dough into koulourakia as seen in the picture above and place them on a baking tray covered with baking paper.

tip: don't put too close together, as they double in size

4.Bake at 170-180 C, for about 15-20', until golden.

They're perfect for a cup of tea, a healthy snack for kids (we always give koulouria to kids in Greece throughout the day), or even good to go with a cup of milk. And don't let me even mention the wonderful orangey smell that the house gets filled with while baking!I really hope you try it out and I'm looking forward to your feedback!

  

And remember my giveaway! 

The deadline is on the 10th February.

In this posting you can find all the details on how to enter!

Looking forward to your comments!

Loukoumades

My cold persists. I woke up with a bonus: sore throat. So, my only comfort today was my breakfast. To help it go away, I had to eat some honey. So I thought, why eat it plain? The occassion calls for honey puffs (loukoumades). And honey puffs it was!

Yummy! Done in 1/2 hour!

250gr plain flour

2gr dried yeast

a pinch of salt

warm water
plenty of olive oil for deep frying

Just mix them well until you have a thick consistency as in the photo. Leave it for 1/2 hour in a warm place to rise. In a pan put plenty of good olive oil. When it's really hot, deep fry spoonfulls of the mixture until golden. Dry on kitchen paper twice and serve with honey, groung walnuts, and cinammon. 

This traditional Greek sweet is usually made in winter, where the extra calories are more appreciated and the indredients are in abundance. Honey, walnuts and cinammon are great for our health. My grandma used to make it when she baked bread. She would keep some of the mixture to make loukoumades. I hope you try the recipe.

Enjoy!

The hit of the picnic

The hit of the picnic were these two dips.

Not only did they serve as a thick pool for the meatballs (and our fingers!) to dive in, but  for the potato chips, too.Our fingers were totally covered in our attempt to have some before the others finished it! There was some serious quarrel there! 

They were light and healthy, as their base was Greek style yogurt. I totally recommend them as they're pretty easy to make- you just mix all the ingredients together. However, there is a trick: they're best made overnight as the flavours combine better. 

Here are the ingredients you'll need:

For the mild one:

1 carton of Greek Style yogurt (200g)

2 tbsp of mustard

some parsley

salt to taste

For the spicy one:

1 carton of Greek Style yogurt (200g)

1 tsp of curry

1tsp of coriander

2 gloves of garlic, smashed

Black pearls

It's the time of year that my good friend Sophia gives me organic Vostizza currants, or as I prefer to see them, black pearls.

I can't describe their sweetness and flavour!!!!!!

Having so much quantity, I try to think of ways I can use them. And the best way I find, is to make traditional Greek pastries. It's such a pity, that, although there are so many traditional recipes, very few people nowadays make them, and certainly not people of my age. In the past, our grandmothers used Vostizza currants to sweeten the sweets in lack of sugar. In modern times,where traditional recipes have been replaced with ones from other cuisines, I find putting old recipes back on the menu is actually gourmet. 

 

Not to say healthy as these recipies contain ingredients regularly used in Greek cousine such as: olive oil, orange juice, cinammon, nuts and currants. 

I mostly make three basic recipes with these currants. The one I'm presenting today, Fanouropita- a kind of moisty cake made in honour of Saint Fanourios (I honour him very regularly, I must say ;), having replaced buttery cakes with it in my everyday diet ), apple pie and koulouria (cookies).

I can't tell you how well they complement autumn chilly afternoons as well as fill in the house with a sweet, cozy, autumny smell. 

Here is the recipe, easy and quick!

Just combine the following in a bowl:

 3 1/2 cups of self raising flour
1 cup of sugar
3/4 cups of olive oil
1 cup of orange juice
1tsp baking soda
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
1 cup of vostizza currants
3 tbsp of brandy
1 1/2 tbsp cinammon 

Empty in a buttered (or brushed with oil) baking tin.
 Bake at 180 C until dry, for about 45'(like a cake).

And if you do try the recipe, let me know how it went!