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.

I didn’t manage to wish ’Happy New Year!’ to you yesterday, but I am doing it now! Have sweetness in your life during the entire year! ♥

We all have many desserts in our homes during this time of the year. When they finish, if you have a waffle-making device – I received one from my Dad on my birthday – and you’re searching for a light dessert, here’s a great recipe. You won’t need too many ingredients—

(for 7 waffles)

130g flour

3g baking powder

200ml milk

5g vanilla sugar

2 tbsp of sugar

30g (melted and cooled) butter

+ 150g whipping cream

15g sugar

blueberries (or any other fruits preferred by you)

Mix all the ingredients.

Transfer parts of the batter to the waffle-making device by using a ladle.  

Mix the whipping cream and the sugar.

Serve the waffles with whipped cream and blueberries – you will be happy like a child! 

🧇 

For a lighter version of the waffles, here are the ingredients I came up with—

130g flour

3g baking powder

150ml sparkling water

50g vegan sour cream

5g vanilla sugar

30g (melted and cooled) butter or vegan butter

You can have your sweet waffles with a hazelnut spread and pear slices.

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.

Finally, here’s my favourite milkshake. It’s so easy to make!

In a blender, mix

250ml milk

2 bananas

4g vanilla sugar

for 1 minute. Then, pour into glasses, add a large ice cube, and cool down!

It is enough for 2 people.

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!

5 egg whites

2 tbsp vinegar

200g sugar

10g vanilla sugar

5 tbsp cornstarch

+

10 pcs of passion fruit

3 teaspoons sugar

+

250g whipping cream

25g sugar

I haven’t baked a large Pavlova in a while – only its mini version. After Christmas, I was, however, left with many egg whites. Without a cake made by me on my birthday, it was time to bake it!

Beat the egg whites; when they are stiff, pour in the vinegar. Continue to mix, adding the sugar and the vanilla sugar mixture bit by bit. The cornstarch comes in at the end.

Line a baking pan with baking parchment. Using a round shape (mine is 23 cm wide and 7 cm deep), pour the mixture, level it, and remove the shape. 

Bake for 2 hours in the preheated oven at 100°C (after baking, leave the meringue in the oven for 5-10 more minutes with the door slightly open; it will prevent it from cracking).

In the meantime, scoop out the passion fruit pulp. Add the sugar and mix.    

When the meringue has completely cooled, beat the whipping cream with the sugar. 

Decorate by using a pouch to add tufts of whipped cream (Marcel’s idea) and the passion fruit mixture on top.

Use what’s left from the passion fruit mixture for individual slices when you serve them – that is if your Pavlova keeps in the fridge without being munched. :D  

THE CRUST

150g flour

70g (melted and cooled) butter

1 yolk

1 sachet vanilla sugar

1 tbsp of vinegar

2 tbsp of water

a pinch of salt

+2 tbsp of semolina

+butter and flour -> your baking pan

THE FILLING

3 quinces

1 apple

100ml water

50g sugar

30g butter

cinnamon

Here’s a very quick and tasty pie for the end of fall/beginning of winter and for all those who still have quinces. J

Make the crust based on this recipe. Sprinkle the semolina onto the crust, to absorb the juice of the fruit pieces.

To make the filling, clean the quinces and the apple and cut them into cubes. Pour them into a pan, together with the water, sugar, and cinnamon, and place it on low-medium heat. Let the butter melt slowly on top of all the ingredients.

After the mix boils, the water level drops, and the fruit pieces are caramelised, you can transfer them to the crust.

Bake in the preheated oven, at 170ºC, for 15 minutes.  

One slice won’t be enough.

CRUST

150g flour

70g butter (melted and cooled)

1 egg yolk

1 vanilla sugar sachet

1 tbsp vinegar

2 tbsp water

a bit of salt

FILLING

250g mascarpone

50g whipping cream

10g sugar

40ml condensed milk

+butter and flour -> your baking pan

+14-15 fresh figs

Well, I am still baking classically, using many types of ingredients, especially as, at the end of August (summer), we drove to Sviniţa to buy fresh figs. The largest fig farm in Romania is located there. They may be small but they’re so flavourful!

You can bake the crust using the recipe found here.

I wished to prepare a creamy filling. In my opinion, mascarpone and figs go well together.

If you love whipped cream more, remove the condensed milk from the recipe, replacing it with some extra 100g of whipping cream. Use 35g of sugar for the entire amount of whipping cream.

For the initial filling, add the whipped cream to the mixed mascarpone and then the condensed milk.

Pour the filling over the crust after you let the crust cool a bit.

Place the washed figs cut in half over the tart. Let it sit in the fridge.

I served each slice cold, in a summer mood! ☼

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.