One year ago, right before Christmas, I discovered a recipe for some Italian almond cookies by Nonna Fina. They turned out so great that they became a popular treat in our family. I adapted my ricciarelli recipe; you could try it out these Holidays!

You need:

225g almond flour

150g sugar

2 egg whites (room temperature)

*Vegan ricciarelli are possible, with 6 tbsp of water + 2 tbsp of psyllium or flaxseeds.

a dash of salt

the lemon zest from half a lemon

3 drops of almond extract (optional)

How to bake them?

Beat the egg whites with the salt. Add the almond extract if you decide to use it.

In a separate dish, mix the almond flour, sugar, and lemon zest.

Add the foam to the mix; stir easily. The dough will be slightly sticky.

Split the dough into two parts; shape them into two rolls. Cut the dough slices with a knife. Shape them into diamonds. Then, place them into a baking pan lined with baking parchment. You will get 13-14 ricciarelli from a roll.

Bake them for 15-20 minutes at 180°C. After 10 minutes, supervise them so you don’t burn them. ;-)

Enjoy them! ♥

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.

What to use for 7 waffles?

130g flour

3g baking powder

200ml milk

3g salt

30g (melted and cooled) butter

2 tbsp of pumpkin seed butter

How to make them?

Have your waffle-making device ready.

Mix all the ingredients. Transfer the batter to the waffle-making device by using a ladle. Be careful! The batter will be very elastic. You can place a ball of batter in the middle of the waffle mould – it will spread when heated.

These waffles are very filling. They can even be used as ’bread slices’ or eaten with vegetables and cheese. 

🧇 

130g flour

3g baking powder

150ml sparkling water

50g vegan sour cream

3g salt

30g (melted and cooled) butter or vegan butter

I wanted to try another version of the waffles because I was out of milk, so I used vegan sour cream and sparkling water; keep the remaining ingredients unchanged. Of course, you can use vegan butter instead of the butter.

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.

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.

200ml milk

5 teaspoons of sugar

1/3 teaspoon of salep powder

a drop of rose water

+ dried rose petals

I knew from a very dear Albanian friend that you could drink salep powder with water and milk. She made them both for me in Gjirokastër two years ago but I’ve only tried the milk version since in AlUla. And I fell in love!

(Note 1: You can use plant-based milk. Note 2: Cornstarch has become very popular as a salep powder substitute. In this drink, however, I prefer the latter.)  

Mix the milk, the sugar, and the salep powder. Let it boil (it will thicken a bit).

Add some rose water to your mix.

Then, pour everything into a cup and sprinkle dried rose petals on top.

You’ll love it. It took me back to Saudi Arabia. Really.

Because in the hot season, life usually starts in Saudi Arabia after 5pm and it’s difficult to find breakfast, this was one of our life savers during our trip there. This and the juices.  

I’m not a coffee drinker (I just chew the coffee beans – don’t laugh); still, I enjoyed it.

With the help of my kitchen elf, here’s the recipe.

You’ll need—

1 espresso

150ml milk

3 teaspoons of sugar

3 tbsp of pistachio butter

+ dried rose petals to decorate your latte

First, make the espresso.

Then, boil the milk and the sugar until it’s foamy.

Add the pistachio butter to an empty cup.

Pour the milk over the pistachio butter and then the espresso.

Decorate with dried rose petals if you have any; we found some from Medina.

For a full experience, mix. ♥

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.

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!

500ml milk

4 tbsp sugar

100g dried figs

+cinnamon, nutmeg to decorate

I travelled to Albania during late spring and a friend suggested I’d try oshaf – the signature dessert of Gjirokastër.

I liked it so much... that I knew I had to make it myself. The timing is right, as I’ve just bought Romanian figs from Sviniţa – the tastiest I’ve ever had.

Mix the milk and the sugar in a pan, on low-medium heat. Add the figs (mine were all halves) and let the mix boil. Traditionally, they use sheep’s milk, but I only had cow’s milk.

Fill the ramekins with the mix and place them into a baking pan filled with water (3 cm high). Bake in the preheated oven, at 120°C, for one hour.

Gjirokastër tradition calls for cinnamon and nutmeg powder on a classical oshaf, after the dessert sits for at least 2 hours in the fridge.

When your week is really hard (and you’re like me), you will crave some comfort food.

I made fried bananas, for 2, as follows:

50g flour

2 teaspoons of sugar

a pinch of salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 tbsp of cornstarch

zest from half a lemon

60ml milk

2 medium-large bananas

6 tbsp honey

+oil for frying

Mix the flour, the sugar, the salt, the cinnamon, the cornstarch, and the lemon zest. Add the milk.

Cut the bananas into larger pieces and roll them through the batter.

Fry them until brown when the oil is hot.

We ate them with honey... yum!

…hoping for a better week ahead! ☼

This year, in the Danube Delta, I serendipitously met Vero. I had been looking for a classic Romanian brownie recipe for a while. I found that, too. J I tasted this cake made by her and then she gently gave me the recipe.

I cut the ingredient amounts in half, I used butter instead of oil and I added less preserves than in the original recipe (my cherry preserves was sweet enough).

Baking pan: 34 x 24 cm | 12 slices

[I like my slices as flat as possible]

260g flour

120g sugar

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder with vinegar poured over it

20g cocoa powder

60g butter (room temperature) or oil

1 drop of rum essence

250ml water

55g walnuts

1/3 jar of preserves [here is a possible recipe]

Mix the flour, the sugar, the baking powder with vinegar poured over it, the cocoa powder [and I’m officially left without any cocoa powder brought from Brazil!], the butter, the rum essence, and the water. Then, grind the walnuts and add them into the batter and then pour the latter into the buttered and floured baking pan.

Lastly, add tablespoons of preserves from place to place and cover the preserves with batter.   

As I like my Romanian brownie slices moist, I only baked the cake for 20 minutes, in the preheated oven at 180°C.

Thank you, dear Vero! The cake was a success and more people can bake it and enjoy it from now on! ♥

I tried salep for the first time (I didn’t even know its name!) in Iran. Right before going snowboarding in Dizin, I felt like catching a cold; our host Shookoo then poured some powder into a hot water cup – I even found psyllium seeds inside the composition that had turned gummy. It helped me feel better and I went to the pharmacy to take some for home.

Last month, Marcel and I arrived in Gjirokaster and were welcomed dearly. The following morning, Erland helped us out with the translation while Emine, his Grandma, shared some Albanian cuisine insights; I did the same.

Among others, she mentioned a mountain orchid tubercle; she then made a drink, explaining that it was best drunk in winter or when catching a cold. She insisted that the powder she used was fully ’organic’. Bingo – I connected the dots and told them my Asian story.

Here’s the recipe for 2 portions; hope it’s useful!

1 teaspoon of salep powder

200ml water

Variant: 200ml milk (even vegetable milk – I tried it out with coconut milk)

Leave the water with the salep powder on medium heat for 6 minutes.

Let it cool for 5 minutes.

Pour into 2 cups and drink it as such or add milk to it before drinking.

It is wonderful to travel with an open heart – for new friends and new experiences!