Apple Apricot Pie

I love apple pie but I wanted to tune it a bit and ad some summer touch! So I added some apricots! Their sweet and sour taste makes a perfect mach with apples. The dough is very delicate and crispy so every time you bit in the apple apricot filling will gently melt in your mouth. It is super easy and I am sure you will love it!

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

• 250g of cold butter
• 400g flour
• 1 egg
• 1 yolk
• 150 g sugar
• 1 small teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 package of vanilla sugar

For the filling:

• you can use 250ml prepared apple mouse or do it yourself from here: My mum's apple pie
• 2 fresh apricots, cut in small cubes

Preparation:

You can make your pastry by hand, or simply pulse all the ingredients into a food processor. If making by hand, sieve the flour with the baking powder, sugars into a large mixing bowl. Add chopped butter and mix with your hands until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and the yolk and gently work it together until you have a ball of pastry dough. Sprinkle a little flour over the pastry, then wrap it in cling film and pop it into the fridge to rest for 0.5h - 1 hour.

Preheat your oven to 180ºC. Take your cooled pastry out of the fridge. Prepare a pie dish around 28cm in diameter. Flour a clean surface and a rolling pin. Cut off the half of your pastry and put that aside. Roll the rest into a circle just over 1.5cm thick.  Put your pastry circle into the dish and push it into the sides. Take a fork and make some small holes in the pastry, then put the dish into the oven and prebake for about 15min. Take it out and cool down.

Take your apple mouse and the apricot cubes and pour into the prebaked pastry. Take the remaining half of the pastry and roll again over 1cm thick. With a knife cut the pastry into stripes, put them on the top of your apricot - apple mouse forming a chequered pattern.

Again put it into the oven and bake for another 30min until the top of the pie gets a nice golden color.

Bon appétit!!!

White Chocolate Almond Raspberry Sweet Rolls

Can you imagine starting your morning with these fluffy, sweet raspberry rolls?? Mmmm I love them! These are one of my favorites and I promise you once you try them you just can't stop eating! In general I love all yeast pastries just can't get enough of them! Yeast scares off many of you but believe me it is not that difficult as it sounds juts give it a try and you see you will be repeating this recipe!! The only downside of this recipe is that the rolls disappear in minutes!!! 

Ingredients:
For the dough:

• 7g instant yeast
• 100ml warm milk
• 50g powder sugar
• pinch of salt
• 400g flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 yolks
• 50g soft butter

For the filling:

• 60g white chocolate, grated 
• 40g almond flakes
• 1 spoon vanilla sugar
• 100g fresh or frozen raspberries

Preparation:

Prepare 22cm round tin. 

Mix together the milk and yeast and set aside for 10 minutes. Once the yeast has foamed up pour them to the mixing bowl of a stand mixer and add flour, sugar and the pinch of salt. Whisk all together. Start whisking and start adding eggs one by one, the same with the yolks. Mix on low speed using the dough hook or if you are patient and brave enough start knitting by hand :) Keep knitting around 15min and during the last 5min add the softened butter. Gradually add more flour, if needed, until the dough is elastic and does not stay stuck to the mixing bowl. The texture will be quite soft and elastic like a gum. Cover the dough with a tea towel and leave to rest for about 1 hour. The dough should double of its size. 

Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a floured surface. Roll out the dough into a 10x12 rectangle. Sprinkle the dough with the vanilla sugar, almonds and raspberries (if you are using frozen raspberries make sure you do not defrost them before, keep them frozen). Roll into a jelly roll shape. Slice into 2cm slices. Place in your prepared baking tin. You can use the remained egg white to brush your rolls, it will give them a delicate shine! 

Preheat the oven to 50ºC place your baking tin and leave it for 30min to rest again. You will see your rolls start growing again. Now amend the temperature to 180ºC and bake for 22min. 

I never glaze my rolls as I am to impatient to eat them so I just use powder sugar to sprinkle them a bit!!! 

that's the prepared dough and the rolls how they look before and after growing :)

...and the result is just Delicious!!! 

YUM, YUM, YUM!!

Summer Strawberry Cake

I guess I really am in a strawberry mood!! Or maybe it is the summer mood…Strawberries will always remind me of warm and sunny days. I really can feel the summer coming soon when the days are longer and the mornings become pleasant even more when you can have a delicious strawberry cake for breakfast :) This recipe is probably the easiest I have even done and it is ready whiting few whisks and minutes! You can also use different fruits like berries or raspberries, any will make a great combination. Of course it is perfect not only for breakfast but also to accompany an afternoon tea!! 

Don't get scared as the dough comes out quite thick and this is to carry al the "heavy" strawberries so that they stay on the top of the cake. Enjoy! 

Ingredients:

• 100 g butter
• 130 g sugar
• 1 large egg
• 100ml buttermilk or milk, whatever you have in the fridge
• 180g flour
• 1 package instant vanilla pudding (40 g)
• 1,5 tsp baking powder
• 1 package vanilla sugar (16g)
• as many strawberries as you can fit into your cake ;-)

Preparation: 

Preheat your oven to 180ºC. Prepare 22cm round tin. Beat butter together with the sugars either in the food processor or in a bowl with a whisk, until pale. Add the egg and keep whisking. When the ingredients have combined start adding buttermilk and all the dry ingredients, whisk until all combines again. 

Pour the mixture into the tin and place strawberries cutter in pieces (ith the cutter part upwards) and bake for 50min. You can check to see that it's ready by sticking a cocktail stick into the centre of the cake. It should come out clean and not sticky, if it is still sticky just leave it in the oven for 5-10 minutes more.

Skinny Strawberry Cheesecake

If you are constantly on a diet, like me, :) and you are worried about your hips but you can't live without sweets I have a perfect solution for you!!! This cheesecake is extremely aromatic and the strawberry smell is just crazy! The strawberry aroma will surround your kitchen from the first minutes of baking! A great spring recipe which will bring some sun to your house :)

Ingredients: 
For the bottom:

• 1 cup of oatmeal or granola
• 50g melted butter
• 50g brown sugar - optional 

For the cheesecake:

• 500 g low fat cheese (I used quark 01g fat)
• 2 eggs
• 110 g sugar
• 1 package of vanilla instant pudding
• 1 package vanilla sugar (16g)
• 300g strawberries (you can use frozen strawberries in that case remember to not defrost them before)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and prepare a 22-25cm round tin.

For the bottom: Mix the granola or oatmeal together with the melted butter and sugar and pour into the prepared tin. With a spoon or with your opened hand press the granola forming a flat surface. Put into the oven and bake for 15min. 

For the cheesecake: Take all your ingredients except the strawberries and combine  them together until you get a nice smooth texture. Note that we are adding the entire eggs to the mixture and we will not beat the egg whites separately.. Pour your cheese mixture into the tin, cut the strawberries into peaces and place them on the cheesecake gently pushing them into the mixture. Bake for approx. 60min. Before taking out of the oven leave to cool down for an hour and if you can resist put into the fridge and cool down over night. If you can't resist, like me, just bite in!!!!!

Easy Strawberry Ice-cream

I can feel the summer coming soon! This beautiful warm weather outside waked up an ice-cream monster in me :) I love ice-cream!! Every warm day is only perfect when accompanied by an ice-cream! This strawberry ice-cream is super easy because you need only 3 ingredients! No ice-cream machine, no eggs, no need to use fancy ingredients or tools only strawberries and cream!!! Yuuuummmm!!! I want to share with you two ways of prepping this ice-cream one with fresh other with frozen strawberries!!! Lets see which one you prefer :) 

PS. Thanks Angela for the beautiful cup :)

Ingredients:

• 250 g strawberries (frozen or fresh)
• 500 ml whipping cream
• 1 package vanilla sugar (16g)
• Optional you can add some sugar for taste

Preparation:

There are two ways of making this ice-cream…If you are using frozen strawberries you will be able to eat the ice-cream straight away! You just need to crush your strawberries in a blender, don't get scared as it makes quite a lot of noise ;-) In the mean time whip your cream until it is creamy and smooth forming nice white peaks. Now gently and constantly mixing combine the crushed strawberries, you will see that the cream starts freezing while you combine the strawberries. Don't mix too long as it will start melting again. And you are done!!! Enjoy!

If you have fresh strawberries blend them and set aside. Whip your cream until smooth and thick. Add carefully the strawberrie pulp to the cream and combine all together. Pour into a box and freeze for minimum 4-5hours. Take out of the freezer 5 minutes before serving. 

Hazelnut Nutella Muffins

This muffins are made for all Nutella lovers!! They are easy to make and are ready within minutes in just one bowl whisk!! They are extremly moist and soft and the crunchy hazelnut topping gives them the perfect finish!! The muffins are specially delicious when they are still warm so be carful because they disappear in minutes ;-) 

Ingredients: 

Makes 12-15 muffins

• 300g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 150g sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 package vanilla sugar (16g)
• 250ml milk or buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 85g butter, melted
• 150g Nutella (100g for the batter, 50g to fill the muffins)
• 50g chopped hazelnuts

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners.

In a mixing bowl beat together butter, 120g sugar, vanilla sugar, salt until smooth and creamy. Keep steering and start adding eggs one by one until all combines. Add 100g Nutella combining the ingredients. Add flour, baking powder and baking soda and whisk until all the ingredients combine. Don't overmix, the less you mix the more tender they will be! With a spoon scoop evenly into the prepared cupcake liners. To each muffin add a bit of Nutella (1/2 teaspoon) and cover it with your mixture. Remember to fill the muffin cases only 3/4 cavity otherwise they might overflow. Sprinkle the muffins with the chopped hazelnuts and the rest of sugar. Bake for about 25-30min. You can check if that the muffins are ready by sticking a cocktail stick into the centre of each muffin. It should come out clean and not sticky, if it is still sticky just leave it in the oven for 3-5 minutes more.

Walnut - Honey Pound Cake

I think that walnuts and honey are the perfect couple! So why not to put them all together into a punt cake? I just loved this recipe. All that delicious honey sirup which the cake has drunk makes it incredibly moist and flavorful…. It is great to accompany with tea or coffee or already enjoying it for breakfast! Give it a try and I promise you will not regret!! 

Ingredients:

• 200g soft butter
• 200g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 200 flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 50g full natural yogurt
• 1 package vanilla sugar (16g)
• 6 spoons honey
• 60g hopped walnuts

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 175ºC and prepare a teacake mould 8cm x 27cm. 

Beat eggs and sugars together either in the food processor or in a bowl with a whisk, until pale. Add butter, yogurt, flour, salt and baking powder and whisk until combined. Now add 4 spoons of honey and again combine all together. Add walnuts and again whisk until they combine with your cake mixture. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for around 50-60 minutes. You can check to see that it's ready by sticking a cocktail stick into the centre of the cake. It should come out clean and not sticky, if it is still sticky just leave it in the oven for 5-10 minutes more.

When the cake is still in the oven prepare the honey sirup: pour 50ml water into a pot add 2 spoons of honey and on a low heat cook until the water evaporates and the liquid reduces by half. Now if your cake is ready take it out of the oven and immediately sprinkle the hot cake with your honey syrup. Sprinkling it when still hot makes your cake will drink all the honey syrup, and that is the secret to keep the cake moist and juicy :)