Today was my name day. Not many people are aware of it. 😊 I do celebrate it, though, if only with something sweet. My friend Sidra sent this recipe over more than two years ago. I’ve only managed to adapt it and try it today. However, better late than never to lick your fingers.

• I used

10 medium-large dates

10 walnut cores

10 teaspoons of peanut butter

100g hazelnut spread [we made some ourselves; to be continued] or melted chocolate

salt without anticaking agents

• Method?

Open the dates and pit them [Kara enjoyed playing with two date pits].

Place the walnut cores inside the dates, one by one.

‘Seal’ them with the peanut butter.

In the end, soak the mini-desserts in the hazelnut spread.

Before placing these treats in a dish and letting the dish sit in the freezer for half an hour, sprinkle some salt on them.

• I hope you loved them!

I had some almond flour left (bought for this cake). I had forgotten how sticky the almond flour batter is!

The ingredients?

2 eggs

65g almond flour

30g tapioca powder

3g baking powder

salt

a banana

+1 teaspoon of coconut oil

+some honey, some ground walnuts

for 4 pancakes (Φ 14 cm)

Mix the eggs, the almond flour, the tapioca powder, the baking powder, and the salt. Add the banana that you mashed.

Fry them in a teaspoon of coconut oil. They are ready when you see bubbles form in the batter.

To end in glory, serve them with honey and ground walnuts.

Honestly, they were even tastier than I expected them to be! That’s why they’re on this blog! J

I am performing an inner and outer cleaning. In short, I reorganise stuff. I may have not observed the posting days this week and unintentionally skipped a piece 3 weeks ago, but here’s a double dose. J

Today: walnuts

What terrifies me the most when working with walnuts? The thought that I could accidentally prepare a dessert with a piece of walnut shell inside!

Where do I get walnuts from? I’ve tasted walnuts from several places where they’ve grown for centuries, but Romanian walnuts are still the best for me!

Why do I love them? They are incredibly versatile; they immediately change a dessert, making it more inviting!  

How do I use them? From all sorts of cakes to pancake toppings. In my opinion, however, they shine most in cozonac.   

I’ve been thinking... what cake should I make for the kittens on their birthday? They love whipped cream. And I had one butternut squash left. Wait a minute, this can actually work!

Ingredients used:

130-150g butternut squash

30g butter

5 tbsp brown sugar

50g biscuits

20g walnuts

150g whipping cream

20g sugar

Marcel cleaned the butternut squash, cut it into slices, and let it sit in the oven for about one hour in a baking pan lined with baking parchment, at 180-200⁰C.

Then, add three butternut squash slices to a pan (about 130-150g), together with the butter and the brown sugar, stirring until you get a homogenised mix.

Separately, crush 50g of biscuits in a blender, grind the walnuts, and whip the whipping cream and the sugar.

Use a big bowl (and 2 smaller ones) to set up your dessert: the butternut squash mix as your base, a ground walnut layer, a whipped cream layer, a crushed biscuit layer, another whipped cream layer, and the final crushed biscuit layer.

Who, in your opinion, licked the bowl where I whipped the cream? :D

…a fall dessert, received as an idea from our friend Edin, a very talented pastry chef. It turned out delicious and we thank him!

We used—

30g butter

24 prunes

10-15 walnuts

3 tbsp of brown sugar

1 orange (and some orange zest)

+

150g whipping cream

15g sugar

It was easy to make.

In a 20x20cm baking pan, place 15g of butter and melt in the oven.

Pit the prunes and husk the walnuts.  

Fill the prunes with the walnut halves and place them in the baking pan.

Add small amounts of butter to each prune.

Juice the orange and add some orange zest.

Bake them in the oven for 40 minutes at 160⁰C.

We worked as a team (Marcel and I) and savoured every bite with whipped cream.