Swedish cinnamon rolls

Who doesn't like cinnamon rolls? There's not a moment in the day when I don't fancy one. This recipe is Nigella's and as all her recipes its quite easy to make and you'll be very pleased with the results. When the rolls are in the oven, your place will smell like heaven...

Ingredients:

For the dough:

600g plain flour

100g sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

21g of dried yeast or 45g fresh yeast

100g melted butter

400ml milk

2 eggs

For the filling:

150g softened butter

150 sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 egg beaten

For the glaze:

1 cup icing sugar

splash of water

Method:

You need a 33cm x 24cm square cake tin, or you can make them separate in an oven tray. Preheat oven to200degrees. Mix the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl. Mix the butter with the milk and eggs. Mix with your hands or in the mixer using the dough hook, until smooth and springy. Form a ball and place it in a oiled bowl, cover and let it rise for 30 minutes or more.

Form a rectangle with the dough, you may need more flour for the mixture to become less sticky, mix the ingredients for the cinnamon butter and spread it all over the surface of the rectangle, roll it until you have a sausage. Cut it into 2 cms slices and placethem in the baking tray, keep them some centimetres apart from one another, let them rise again, brush them with the egg and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

You can also try to make them stuck to one another in a cake tin, or in an oven dish, like in the photos above, let them rise for haf an hour or 45 minutes and bake them, 20 minutes or until a skewer comes away clean.

Once they are baked, transfer them to a cooling rack, let them cool and mix the ingredients for the glaze until it becomes a runny but sticky mixture and GLAZE!

Green tea noodle salad with prawns, ginger and chili

This is the salad I always make at home whenever I am in need of something healthy, spicy and oriental. I use prawns, but you can use chicken strips, or fish or turkey instead. Sesame oil gives this salad an aromatic touch, and if you want to enhance the flavours keep it in the fridge for half an hour before serving.

The main ingredient is the green tea noodle, and you can find them in any oriental supermarket, the same as the lemongrass.

You can use soba noodles or even spaguetti if you can't find green tea noodles. Same with the fish sauce, if you can't find it, it's OK.

Ingredients:

Half a packet green tea noodles

a handful of bean sprouts previously blanched in hot water for 3 minutes

half a red chilly thinly sliced

1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

5 or 6 cooked prawns

a handful of fresch coriander finely chopped

Half a red onion finely chopped

3 spring onions finely sliced (only the green part)

1 stick lemon grass finely sliced

sesame seeds for garnish

For the dressing:

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce

the juice of half a lime

Method:

Boil the noodles according to the instructions in the packet, (if the instructions are in japanese, well...use your imagination) rinse with cold water when done and put them in a big bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients. In a small bowl, mix the ingredients for the dressing, pour over the salad and coat well. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve, sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

Checkerboard Cake

This is a fun to make and different cake, astonishing and impressive, this cake will really test your culinary skills as well as your patience and stillness ability when assembling it. The idea came from the Autralian womens weekly (again) but I change their sponge recipe. So, here it is:









First, you will need a deep 19cms cake tin. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. You will need two different sponges, on plain and one chocolate, then you have to cut them into thick strips and glue them using the glaze.





Ingredients:



For the white sponge:



90g softened butter

90g sugar

3 medium eggs

120g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon vanilla extract





For the glaze



3/4 cup apricot jam

2 teaspoons powdered gelatine or 3 gelatine leaves





For the chocolate ganache



6 tablespoons milk

4 tablespoons double cream

3 tablespoon water

41/2 tablespoon glucose syrup

250g dark chocolate in chunks













Method:



For the plain sponge:



Mix the butter and the sugar, add the eggs one at a time and the vanilla, then the sifted flour and baking powder. Pour in the tin and bake at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer comes away clean. Stand cake 5 minutes before turning onto cooling rack.













For the chocolate sponge follow the same method but use 30 grams of cocoa powder, and 90g of plain flour.





Melt the ingredients for the ganache on a low heat, or the microwave, and cool to room temperature.Beat with wooden spoon until is thick and spreadable.













Once the cakes are done and cold, cut into equal strips. Heat the jam in the microwave and add the gelatine, (if you use the leaves soak it in cold water first). For assembling the cake, glaze every strip on all the sides (this will be the glue) and form a perfect square, alternating the colours. Spread the ganache all over the cake, store in the fridge for at least an hour, so it will be easier to cut it into slices, and enjoy this chocolate beauty....

Olive, tomato and parmesan baked ricotta

I was feeling lazy that night, didn't fancy a lot of cooking, I was looking for something light, quick and simple to make...and I found it, Australian women's weekly....again. This is their page, where you can find their tasty and fancy recipes. My vegetarian husband was more than happy, I was more than happy too!





Ingredients:



60g finely grated parmesan cheese



500g ricotta cheese



2 eggs



1 clove garlic, crushed



1 teaspoon finelay grated lemon rind



100g semi-dried tomatoes, or oven roasted tomatoes chopped(fresh tomatoes will do fine)100g pitted black olives finely chopped



Salt and pepper



50g fresh basil leaves finely chopped











Method:



Preheat oven to 180. Grease six hole muffin pan or individual ones. Divide half the parmesan among pan holes, shake pan to coat the sides.





Combine ricotta, eggs, garlic, tomato, olives, lemon zest, basil, salt and peper and remaining parmesan in medium bowl. Divide mixture in holes, smooth surface with a spatula. Bake for 20 minutes or until firm. Cool for ten minutes before unmolding.













Drizzle with olive oil, and serve with more bastil leaves, olives, rocket salad or bread.

Madeleines, and how good it's to have an assistant

This tiny finger food sponges, are perfect for any moment of the day. Dust them with icing sugar, and they are a wonderful pleisure for the palate. This recipe comes from here, a paradise for us who like to bake. I want to thank my little and adorable assistant (my nephew) for his invaluable help in the making of this photo shoot. I had to pay him with madeleines!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted

1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2/3 cup (133 grams) granulated white sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Icing sugar to dust

Method:

In a small bowl place the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until well blended. In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar at medium-high speed until the mixture has tripled in volume. Add the vanilla extract and beat to combine. Sift a small amount of flour over the egg mixture and, using a large rubber spatula, fold the flour mixture into the beaten eggs to lighten it. Sift the rest of the flour over the egg mixture and fold in being sure not to overmix or the batter will deflate. Whisk a small amount of the egg mixture into the melted butter to lighten it. Then fold in the cooled melted butter in three additions. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or several hours, until slightly firm.

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Generously butter two 12-mold madeleine pans. Dust the molds with flour and tap out the excess. Drop a generous tablespoonful of the batter into the center of each prepared mold, leaving the batter mounded in the center. (This will result in the classic "humped" appearance of the madeleines.) Bake the madeleines for 11 to 13 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the centers spring back when lightly touched. Do not overbake these cookies or they will be dry.Remove the pans from the oven and rap each pan sharply against a countertop to release the madeleines. Transfer the madeleines, smooth sides down, to wire racks to cool. The madeleines are best served the same day but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days or frozen, well wrapped, for up to 1 month. Dust with icing sugar.

Makes about 24 - 3 inch (8 cm) madeleines. You can freeze them.

Variation:

Divide the dough in two, add the zest of a lemon and an orange to each one of them for a citrus and delicious flavour.

Pastel de Choclo, a Southamerican delight

This recipe is dedicated to my chilean friends, to their beautiful country and their gastronomy. This dish is the national pride, no wonder...It´s succulent, full of flavours, delicious, and on top of that, the well known, omnipresent, and beloved corn, with so many varieties in all Central and Southamerica, specially in Mexico (I particularly loved the black corn) and the main ingredient throughout the culinary history of this wonderful continent. Here´s to them, to the other side of the ocean people, Viva Chile!

Ingredients:

4 pieces corn on the cob or one bag of frozen sweetcorn

2 cups of milk

500g mince beef

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 onion finely chopped

1 small bunch basil

2 hard boiled eggs sliced

handful of olives

handful of sultanas

salt and peper

3 or 4 sprigs of saffron or 1 teaspoon of turmeric

sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Grate the corn kernels and blend with the milk and the basil, salt and peper and pour this mixture on to a pan, heat until it thickens. Cook for 5 minutes. Reserve.Fry the onion in oil, until it changes colour, add the mince beef, and brown, until is cooked, season with salt and pepper, add the cumin and saffron or turmeric. Add the olives and sultanas, and arrange this mixture over an earthenware dish in one thick layer, top with the egg slices, cover everything with the corn mixture,spread the surface with sugar and cook in the oven for 20 minutes, or until its golden brown.

This dish is best served with a chilean salad, which is a mix of tomato slices, very thin slices of onion, chopped coriander lemon juice and olive oil.

Danish pastries for everybody

I love puff pastry, it has endless possibilities. Either sweet or savoury, stuffed, glazed...well, ask the danish, they are THE masters. These mini danish pastries are so cute you won't be able to resist, and they are two bite size. Some of them are stuffed with a delicious almond paste, very easy to make, and I am going to use it many times for a lot of sweets. Other are filled with a cinnamon butter, or vanilla buttercream. I love making them this size, they look more cute, in my opinion. They are very easy to make, and if you wonder how to fold them and fill them more graphically, all the answers are here, it's a website where you will learn wonderful things about the pastry, so, there you go, there's no excuse now.

Ingredients for all the pastries:

Two packets of ready made puff pastry

Apricot jam for brushing once they're baked

Cinnamon wheels

For the cinnamon butter:
100 g softened butter

3 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Mix and reserve.

Glaze:
1 cup icing sugar

splash of water

Method:
Roll a rectangle with the puff pastry, put down a thin layer of the cinnamon butter and roll the top edge, cut thin slices of this sausage and bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 12 minutes.Once dried glaze with the tip of a spoon.

Bear paws

Ingredients:

Sliced almonds

For the almond paste:

1 cup ground almond

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 egg white

splash of almond extract (I used a splash of amaretto)

Mix everything and reserve.

Method:
Make a square with the puff pastry, make a small roll of the almond paste and place it close to the edge.Roll and close, seal with water. cut small cuts and shape. Place one laminated almond in each "toe"and scatter more almonds over the top. Bake for 12 minutes. Cool in racks and brush with the warm jam.

Jam Pinwheels

Shape the pinwheels according to Joe, place a teaspoon of jam in the center and bake for 12 minutes. Brush with the jam.

Vanilla Wheels

A handful of crushed almonds.

For the buttercream

1 cup softened butter

splash of vanilla extract

1/2 cup icing sugar

Mix the above ingredients and spread a thin layer on a rectangle of puff pastry, carefully fold it down and cut into thin strips, roll them and shape like a small wheel. Sprinkle some crushed almonds and bakefor 12 minutes. Cool in racks and brush with jam.