Shells

170g flour

2 tbsp of sugar

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 tbsp of cocoa powder

1 tbsp of butter

1 small egg

3 tbsp of Port (if you don’t have Marsala)

Filling

325g ricotta

130g sugar

for 8 cannoli

I don’t like the scent of burnt oil in the house; on the other hand, I was craving cannoli. I’m thinking, ’Could I bake them?’.

I had prepared the filling the previous night, draining ricotta and mixing it with the sugar.

To make the cannoli shells, mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, cocoa, butter, and egg. To give them their typical flavour, add 3 tablespoons of Port if you lack the classical Marsala.

Knead until you have a compact dough (insist until all the ingredients are fully incorporated!). Let it sit in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into 8 balls. Then, crush them and roll them out. Draw circles using a 12cm-diametre bowl. Cut them out. Wrap them around the cannoli tubes. Use a few drops of water to stick the ends.

Place the cannoli tubes into a baking pan. Then, bake in the preheated oven at 180°C for 15 minutes.

By using a piping bag, fill the shells with the ricotta and sugar mixture.

Tip: I prefer filling the shells every time we have cannoli, keeping the piping bag in a mug in the fridge.

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!

It was our girls’ birthday. ♥ Pi, Teo, Piti, Zo, and Gri turned 1 on February 19^th. It was a fun celebration! They even had balloons because they love them very much! J

In addition to the birthday cake, I wanted to bake them some treats because there’s no day without treats for us. Here’s how you can make them, too!

Use

125g organic wheat flour

3g sea salt

65g buffalo yoghurt

1 medium egg

3 tbsp of shredded Grana Padano

Mix the flour, the sea salt, the buffalo yoghurt, and the egg. Shred 3 tablespoons of Grana Padano. Then, knead until you get a compact dough.

Leave it for 30 minutes in the fridge. Then, take it out and roll it out (thickness: 2mm); cut out the treats (I received a kitten cutter at Christmas and I was happy to use it). You’ll get 12-15 treats depending on the cutter you choose.

Bake them at 180⁰C in the preheated oven for 10 minutes on baking parchment, in a large baking pan.

When they cooled, the girls went crazy with them.

They were a success!

You can keep the remaining treats in a sealed bag for 2-3 days (my cats and kittens ate them all).

Makes 4 pancakes (Φ 14 cm)

1 banana

1 egg

120g yoghurt

65g flour

4g baking powder

5g vanilla sugar

+ butter à pan

+ hazelnut spread à serving  

At times, we are craving a filling and fast breakfast. These pancakes can be a successful candidate to this end.

How to make them?

Mash the banana, add the entire egg, the yoghurt (I used buffalo yoghurt), the flour, the baking powder, and the vanilla sugar. Mix well.

Butter the pan and let it heat up. Spread a big ladle of batter onto the entire surface of the pan (thickness: 2-3 mm); flip the pancake only when you see bubbles form. (Be careful – banana pancakes have a different texture than regular pancakes; it is more difficult to work with them and are stickier.)

Serve them warm with a hazelnut spread. Not even our cats were indifferent.

Here’s a recipe right before Christmas, if you’ve not already baked everything. My dear Cristina gave it to me – and I thank her!

I only adapted it a bit; I can say that it was successful. I’ll also prepare it for Christmas Eve.

This is what you’ll need J for 28-30 sărăţele (or a large baking pan)—

125g sour cream

75g (melted and cooled) butter

6g salt

4g yeast

200g flour

+ 1 egg

+ shredded cheese

+ caraway seeds

How to make them?

Mix the sour cream, the butter, and the salt; then, add the yeast and the flour, being careful not to deactivate the yeast by placing it into contact with the salt.

Knead until you get a compact dough. Cover it and let it sit for one hour. It won’t rise much, but it will get more tender.

Split the dough into four equal pieces to make your job easier. Using a cutting roll, cut the sărăţele and place them into a large baking pan, on baking parchment.

After brushing the egg onto the sărăţele, you can leave them as such (plain) or sprinkle shredded cheese and/or caraway seeds onto them.

How to bake them?

Place the baking pan for 10-13 minutes in the preheated oven at 200⁰C, depending on how crunchy you want them to turn out. I like them fluffier.

They won’t last long, but they will bring smiles along!

Merry Christmas, with joy! ♥

P.S. I’ve lately been using only sour cream (200g) for a portion of sărăţele. The result is fluffier.

For a vegan version of the sărăţele, use the following ingredients for half of a portion (14-15 sărăţele):

80ml Yaygurt

3g salt

2g yeast

120g flour

Make them as shown above. Serve them warm!

I believe that each family has a recipe of delicious plain cookies that moms and grandmas would bake. My recipe’s in my Mom’s handwriting but has been adapted from my Godmother Maria.  

So, I baked these cookies last night. They turned out great and reminded me of the tranquil moments of my childhood!

Do you want to bake them?

For 18 cookies, you’ll need—

250g flour

100g sugar

4g baking powder

lemon zest from 1 organic lemon

2 tbsp milk

1 egg

50g butter

Mix all the ingredients in the above-specified order. Knead well. You’ll feel like you can’t incorporate all the flour, but you will.

The dough will be balanced, so you won’t need flour when you roll it out (its thickness should be 4-5mm).

Use the cutters of your liking and place the cookies in a baking pan lined with baking parchment.

Bake in the preheated oven at 180⁰C for 15 minutes.

So, how are they? J

12 muffins

a (ripe) banana

120g gluten-free oatmeal

4g baking powder

85g peanut butter

an egg

25g agave syrup

25g walnuts

This recipe’s for those days when you’d like to munch something baked fast, which is equally tasty!

How to bake them?

Crush the banana, add the oatmeal, the baking powder, the peanut butter, the egg, the agave syrup, and the walnuts – cleaned and lightly crushed.

Using a tablespoon, divide the batter between the muffin moulds/papers.

Bake in the preheated oven, at 170⁰C, for 10 minutes. Then, lower the temperature at 150⁰C, rotate the baking pan and bake for 8 minutes more. 

Even kittens (who do not go crazy after bananas) will love them!

The strawberry season hasn’t yet ended and... I had only baked myself a small cake on my name day, so I told myself... ’Why not?’.

You will need the following ingredients, in addition to the tartlet moulds, for the 

CRUST

150g flour

70g (melted and cooled) butter /oil also goes – I used flaxseed oil/

1 egg yolk

10g vanilla sugar

1 tbsp vinegar

2 tbsp water

a pinch of salt

CREAM

1 egg

165ml milk

60g sugar

25g flour

a dash of vanilla extract

+butter/oil and flour -> baking moulds

+at least 15-16 large strawberries

All these make 8 tartlets. J

I made the dough based on this recipe and I split it into 8. I used flaxseed oil instead of butter. Bake the mini crusts for 20 minutes, in the preheated oven, at 160⁰C. To keep the crusts thin, I used baking beans.

To make the cream, beat the egg and the sugar. Add the flour and mix very well. Pour the mix into the milk boiling with the vanilla extract. Continue to mix until you see bubbles forming. Pour the cream into the mini crusts (I took them out of the moulds first).  

Let them cool a bit and place them in the fridge.

Marcel’s suggestion was to place the strawberries (cleaned and cut into slices) onto the tartlets right before serving. They were fresher this way.

There is so much versatility offered by the various crust and cream recipes, combined with nature’s gifts to us!

baking pan diametre: 20cm

Filling:

500g spinach

100g (Feta) cheese

1 egg

2 garlic cloves

50g butter

Pie sheets:

250g flour

10g salt

30ml olive oil

100ml water

1 tbsp vinegar

+olive oil, flour -> baking pan

+butter -> brush on the pie

While travelling through Greece and in the Greek restaurants and stores in Romania, I’ve had my fair share of spinach pie (Spanakopita). I’m crazy about it. So, why not bake my version of Spanakopita at home?

Place baking parchment on the bottom of a baking pan with a detachable bottom, cutting out the excess paper. Oil the side with olive oil and flour it.  

First, make the dough for the pie sheets, mixing the flour, salt, olive oil, water, and vinegar. Knead and split the dough into four equal parts.

Then, make the filling (Marcel helped out). Wash and clean the spinach. Sauté in butter until it softens. Spill out the excess liquid and add the crumbled cheese, the beaten egg, and the crushed garlic. Leave for three more minutes to cook on low heat.

Roll out the pie sheets, one by one, adding the filling and folding the edges of the sheets. You’ll have three such double layers, with one last sheet covering them all (butter it before it goes into the oven).

Bake in the preheated oven at 200°C for 25 minutes.

P.S. Pies entirely baked at home are wonderful!

Makes 10

330g flour

5g dry yeast

½ sachet vanilla sugar

125g sugar

100g butter (at room temperature)

1 egg

1 tbsp of yoghurt

80ml water

Filling

140g ground walnuts

1 teaspoon of cocoa powder

3 teaspoons of sugar

1 tbsp of milk

+

1 egg white

1 teaspoon of sugar

+ honey for serving

Here’s a dessert that I wished to prepare for a long time. My Mom used to bake it when I was a little girl. It seems pretty autumnal to me!

Knead a dough from flour, yeast, vanilla sugar, and sugar. Add the butter at room temperature (it will crumble), the egg, the yoghurt, and the water. Let the dough rise for 1 hour.

Add the cocoa powder, sugar, and milk into the ground walnuts.

Cut the dough into two equal parts. Roll out the first sheet (30x20cm); brush the walnut mix onto it. Roll out the second sheet and place it on the first sheet. Beat an egg white with sugar until stiff and brush it onto the second sheet.  

Then, roll both sheets, stick them with a few drops of water and brush the roll with the egg white and sugar mix that will be left. Cut 2 cm-thick pieces and place them into a baking pan lined with baking parchment. Bake in the preheated oven, at 200°C, for 10-12 minutes.

They are wonderful with honey! ♥