I got my favourite pistachio butter today and prepared something I had wished for a long time – my version of Dubai Chocolate.

For 390g-400g of chocolate or 6 bars of 65g, respectively 2 bars of 200g, I used:

100g 40% milk chocolate

100g 65% dark chocolate

1 teaspoon of coconut oil

6 spoonfuls of kataifi

6 teaspoonfuls of pistachio butter

Wash and dry your silicone mould (it is easy to buy, you will see).

Melt the milk and dark chocolate on a steam bath; finally, add the coconut oil and mix.

I was lucky to find ready-made (and roasted!) kataifi in Albania. Sprinkle the kataifi over the first layer of chocolate added to the mould.

Add the pistachio butter over the kataifi, spreading it carefully.

Pour the remaining chocolate over each bar-to-be, levelling everything.

You don't need to wait for too long. Marcel kept checking the chocolate in the fridge. It took about one hour to harden.

The result thrilled us!

Here’s such a fun and quick recipe for when you’re craving gluten-free cookies!

You’ll need—

5 tbsp of water

2 tbsp of psyllium seeds

120g oatmeal

a pinch of sea salt

4 tbsp of coconut sugar

2g baking powder

60g (melted) butter

+10 chocolate chips

for 20 cookies

Let the psyllium seeds soak for about 5-10 minutes (use hot water if possible).

Mix the ingredients in the specified order until you reach the chocolate chips.

Form the cookies.

Place them in a baking pan lined with baking parchment.

Add a chocolate chip per cookie for half of them.

Bake for 25 minutes at 170°C.

You can taste them after they cool a bit. They’re so buttery!

P.S. You can use coconut oil for the vegan version.

40g brown sugar

salt

3 tbsp cocoa powder

3 tbsp cornstarch

420ml milk

80g sour cream

100g dark chocolate

Homemade puddings and pudding powder puddings are a million miles away. This one is the best version I’ve had. I hope that you agree!

Mix the brown sugar, salt, cocoa powder, and cornstarch in a deep pan. Then, add 120ml of milk and stir well until there are no more lumps. Pour the remaining milk and mix in the sour cream.

Start heating the mix on low heat. Stir from time to time. After boiling, add the chocolate (chips or cut into pieces); stir until it is incorporated.

Remove from heat and place the pudding into the serving dishes. Let the pudding cool; place the serving dishes into the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Enjoy it!

I have this recipe from my dear friend Paula. Thanks to her, I discovered hungryhappens.net; we tried several recipes from the blog, even together! ♥

I adapted the recipe. I baked it on our anniversary; Marcel loved it (when he immediately asks for a second slice, he likes a dessert a lot). J

Use

a large ripe banana

30ml flaxseed oil

a medium egg

85ml agave syrup

vanilla extract

a teaspoon of ground coffee

2g baking powder

90g almond flour

90g tapioca powder

salt

30g dark chocolate

How to bake it?

Mash the banana, add the flaxseed oil, the egg, the agave syrup, the vanilla extract, the ground coffee, the almond flour, the tapioca powder, the salt, and 15g of dark chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into a round silicone baking pan, using the remaining 15g to decorate the cake.

Then, bake the cake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven at 180⁰C.

You’re going to enjoy this cake a lot!

Homebaked. A different thing. J 

Here are the ingredients that you need—

500ml whipping cream

50g sugar

25g tapioca flour

vanilla extract

50g dark chocolate

for the filling

3 eggs

150g sugar

10g vanilla sugar

230g flour

4g baking powder

20g cocoa

120ml milk

70g butter

for the batter

+2 bananas

+butter and flour -> baking pan

First, make the filling.

Place the whipping cream, sugar, and tapioca flour (you can replace it with starch), mixed beforehand in a pan, on low heat. Stir from time to time, removing the pan from the heat after the cream has boiled. Then add the vanilla extract, then the chocolate pieces. Place the pan immediately in the fridge. This way, the chocolate will melt, but not completely, keeping its crunchiness.

Mix the eggs with the sugar well. Continue to incorporate, with the help of a wooden spoon, the vanilla sugar, flour, baking powder, cocoa, milk, and then the melted and cooled butter.

Pour the batter into a round mould that has been previously buttered and floured. Bake in the preheated oven at 180⁰C for 30 minutes.

Let the cake cool. Then, cut out a piece of the cake (leave approximately 2 cm from the edge). Scoop out pieces from the cut-out cake, crumble them and place them into a bowl.

Place the bananas cut into half on the bottom of the scooped-out cake.

Mix the cream and pour it on top of the bananas. Then, start making the molehill cake from the pieces scooped out from the cake. Let the cake sit in the fridge for at least one hour before cutting it and serving it.

For someone who’s been a fan of chocolate-covered prunes for as long as I have known him (and kept searching for them throughout our trips in Moldova and Ukraine), Marcel found the perfect weekend. I worked (well, he did, too) and had no time to prepare sweets.

He used

500g prunes with nuts

200g dark chocolate

He melted two-thirds of the chocolate on a steam bath and then stirred in the remaining third. This way, he was able to temper the chocolate, which kept its shine and crunchiness.

By using some grill clippers, he soaked the prunes into the melted chocolate and then placed them onto baking parchment, in a large baking pan. He placed the pan into the fridge until the chocolate hardened (we recommend keeping the bonbons in a cool place even after the chocolate hardens).

They’re a feast for all choco lovers!

This is the cake that my Mom used to bake every year, on December 31^st – her birthday. I have wanted to make it for a long time and the moment was right this year, on my Dad’s birthday.

200g butter [I used homemade butter]

200ml milk

200g sugar [I used 100g coconut sugar and 100g regular granulated sugar]

3 tbsp cocoa

9 tbsp flour

½ sachet baking powder

4 eggs

100g dark chocolate

30 walnuts

First, make the syrup by mixing the butter, milk, sugar, and cocoa in a pan, on medium heat. Let it boil and then cool.

Then, put aside 15 tablespoons from this mix. Into the syrup that you’ve got left, add the flour, the baking powder, and the egg yolks. Beat the egg whites stiff and slowly stir them into the mix.

Pour the mix into a baking pan (I used a round baking pan with a removable bottom) and bake in the preheated oven, at 180°C for 10 minutes and 150°C for 25 minutes more.

While the cake cools, make the glaze. Add the dark chocolate into the syrup and let it melt on low heat. Remove the walnuts from their shells and toast them; then, add them to the syrup. Pour the glaze onto the cake and let it cool.

’...hey, Dad, did the cake’s flavour remind you of anything?’ J♥

Makes 10 portions (10*5 choux)

Choux pastry

125ml water

60g butter

a pinch of salt

130g flour

4 eggs

Filling

2 eggs

330ml milk (+3-4 tbsp milk)

120g sugar

50g flour

a drop of vanilla extract

2 sachets vanilla sugar

Chocolate sauce

200g dark chocolate

30g butter

500ml milk

20g cornstarch

Éclair – chou – profiteroles. The perfect triad – even my Mom had them written down one after the other. I had baked the first two; so, profiteroles were still on the list. Marcel is crazy about this dessert, so I made it today and…

To make the shells, add the water, the butter, and the salt into a pan and place it on low heat. When the mixture boils, add the flour at once, stirring fast with a wooden spoon. Turn off the heat and let the dough cool. Add the eggs one by one, stirring continuously. Don’t add an egg until the one before was fully incorporated.

I’ve recently read that using a mixer for an extra-airy dough would be a smart trick. Why do we think that mixers should only be used with cold ingredients? J

Fill a pastry bag with a 1-cm nozzle (I still use a cup to make my life easier) and – on a baking tray lined with parchment paper – pipe out small balls, about the size of large sour cherries (says Mom). Leave a 2-cm space between them.

Bake the shells in the preheated oven, at 190°C, for the first 15 minutes, and then at 170°C, with the oven’s door slightly open, for 5 more minutes.

Take them out of the oven, place them on a rack (I also placed aluminium foil underneath the rack).

When the shells cool, by using a pastry bag nozzle, make a hole on the back of the shells and start filling. I usually fill all the shells once, I leave the cream set, and then I fill them one more time.

You need to make the pastry cream. Mix the yolks with 2/3s of the sugar amount until you get a foamy cream. Add 3-4 tablespoons of milk and mix again. Add the flour and immediately pour into the milk (simmering with the vanilla extract). Stir continuously until it boils. Remove from heat and add the egg whites beaten until stiff with the remaining sugar. Finally, add the vanilla sugar for that extra touch.

I ate profiteroles often in Turkey. They use a pretty gooey sauce there – and I’m still researching the recipe. However, at the end of 2020, in Egypt, I found a delicious chocolate sauce while having one of my breakfasts. I ended up talking with the chef and he told me the ingredients used.

Inspiration for the chocolate sauce came from these two sides. Melt the chocolate and the butter on a steam bath, add the milk; when the mix is hot, stir in the cornstarch. Continue stirring until it boils and you’ll get a wonderful chocolate sauce.

In the end, put 5 choux into a cup and cover them with chocolate sauce. You’ll probably ask for a refill.

...the wait was worth it.  

Makes 20 cookies

330g ricotta

140g sugar

zest from 2 organic oranges

260g flour

a pinch of salt

1/2 sachet of baking powder

85g butter (melted)

3 tbsp orange juice

1 egg

20g dark chocolate

+7-8 tbsp flour

It all started like a game. ’I have some delicious ricotta. It will go bad. What should I do?’

This is how these cookies were born. They are soft, fluffy, and tasty. Marcel loved them (and he is very critical).

I baked them again.

It is easy. First, mix the ricotta, the sugar, and the orange zest and let the bowl sit in the fridge for half an hour.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, the salt, the baking powder, the melted butter, the orange juice, and the egg. Add the ricotta, sugar, and orange zest mix that sat in the fridge. Start kneading and add flour until you get a non-sticky dough.

Divide the dough into two pieces. Roll out one of them on a baking mat and, by using a cutter, cut out 8 cm circles (thickness: 50mm). Place them in a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Follow the same steps with the second piece of dough. I added 4 chocolate chips to half of the cookies. Bake them for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, at 180°C.

The cookies keep well in casseroles with a lid and are perfect for the road. Wherever it takes you.

-        My love, we can’t have cakes every day... even though they’re delicious.

[’of course we can!’ I say to myself, but then I think about it and feel that my man may be right, so I make a healthy dessert]

You can make it, too, and here are the ingredients (and then the method)—

(for 1 portion)

150g blackberries

75g yoghurt

100g raspberries

50g sour cream

30g almonds (soaked)

10g dark chocolate

It’s very easy to make: blend separately, two by two. First off, the blackberries and the yoghurt.

Then, the raspberries and the sour cream.

Last, the almonds and the chocolate.

Pour by layers into a bowl and then mix and savour.

Very healthy, very filling!

For the vegan version, you can use two vegan yoghurts of different flavours.

It’s still summer in the southern hemisphere and we’ve had some springish days, so what about some no-bake mini-cheesecakes?

What did I use (made 2)? [multiply the amounts if you’re making this dessert for more people]

35g Oreo crumbs + 2 tbsp melted butter for the base

200g urdă or cottage cheese mixed with            

25g powdered sugar

65g double cream

a generous amount of organic orange zest

a drop of vanilla extract

15g dark chocolate chips [or 2 tbsp Nutella]

Let everything set in round 8cm shapes; freeze the mini-cheesecake for 1 hour, take it out, let it warm, and decorate it with Nutella or melt the chocolate on a steam bath and pour it over it.

It's a fabulous dessert!