I Am Delicious

Rum & Cream Cupcakes

Rum and cream cupcakes are again a great option for a nice dessert or sweet breakfast. I love the smell when baking and delicious taste when having my morning coffee with one cupcake. Best thing about this recipe is that apart of the cake itself you can be really creative for a cream, fruits and decoration.   

Prep Time: 55 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:                                       

• 1 glass of sugar 
• 3 large eggs
• 70 g raisins
• 5-6 Tbsp dark rum
• 300 g plain flour
• 25 g yeast
• 150 ml lukewarm milk
• 150 g butter
• 1 pinch of salt
• 20 g vanilla sugar
• fruits, jelly and icing for decoration. You can create nice jelly shapes like I did - anything you like  

Method:

1. Soak the raisins in the rum for as long as you wish. Of course, the longer, the better.

2. Add the flour to a large bowl and create a hole in the center. Crumble in the yeast. Add 3-4 Tbsp of lukewarm milk, 2 Tbsp of sugar and create a dough.

3. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and leave in a pre-heated oven to 50 C for approx. 15 minutes. Oven must be pre-heated and switched off. The dough should expand almost a double of its size and develop plenty of air bubbles.

4. Now add the remaining sugar, milk, vanilla sugar, eggs, flakes of soft butter, salt and soaked raisins into the dough. I also add a few additional spoons of dark rum for a better taste :)

5. Kneed the mixture using a dough hook of a hand-held mixer. Again cover the dough and leave it in a pre-heated to 50 C and switched off oven for approx. 30 minutes until it has doubled the size. 

6. Once your dough is ready, fill cupcake baking moulds to approx. 2/3 full. Do not overfill. Am using silicon moulds for that as I think they are best. Do not forget to springle some oil over the moulds so your cupcakes won't stick when baked.

7. Place the moulds into the center of a pre-heated to 180 C oven and bake for approx. 25 minutes. Cupcakes are ready when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

8. Cool aside then remove cupcakes from the moulds and place on wire racks to cool completely.

9. Now time to decorate. I used a whipped cream with 1 Tbsp of orange liquer, decorated with icing sugar and fruits. Additionally, I created nice and funny shapes jellies in two flavours: cherry and kiwi. You can be as creative as you wish.

ENJOY!!!

 

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Orange and Chocolate Muffins (Cupcakes)

Orange and chocolate muffins are so delicious that I cannot resist to stop preparing them. I love the smell when baking and incredible taste of orange mixed with white chocolate when having my morning coffee. Best thing about muffins is that you can be really creative and you can bake your own designed muffins.  

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:                                       

• 1 glass of sugar - I use powder sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 glasses of plain flour
• 200 ml fresh orange juice
• 400-500 ml butter milk
• 100 g butter
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 250 g orange jam
• 100 g white chocolate
• 100 g candied orange
• 100 ml cointreau liqueur
• 20 g vanilla sugar
• 1/3 tsp salt
• chocolate for decoration 
• decorate your orange muffins as desired - be creative 

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C (top and bottom heat).

2. Cut the chocolate into small pieces. Mix the flour with sugar, salt, baking powder and vanilla sugar.

3. Beat the eggs, then add orange juice, cointreau liqueur, buttermilk, melted butter and orange jam. Then add these ingredients into flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Mix well.

4. At the end add candied orange and white chocolate into the mixture.

5. Fill the muffin (cupcake) baking moulds to approx. 2/3 full. Do not overfill. Am using silicon moulds for that as I think they are best. Do not forget to springle some oil over the moulds so your cupcakes won't stick when baked.

6. Place the muffins into the center of a pre-heated oven and bake for approx. 20 minutes. 

7. Muffins are ready when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

8. Cool 5 minutes then remove cupcakes from the moulds and place on wire racks to cool completely.

9. If the muffins are not coming out, carefully move a blunt blade along the rim.

10. Decorate with dark chocolate. Remember to be creative.

ENJOY!!!

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Little Sauerkraut And Mushroom Pies

Little sauerkraut and mushroom pies are a perfect accompaniament for any clear soup like Christmas beetroot soup called in Polish barszcz. These little pies are made from puff pastry which you can make yourself or buy a ready pastry in supermarket. My pies are just for two bites so a perfect little snacks. It might look complicated to prepare but not that difficult. Most important is to have a great sauerkraut and mushroom filling. 

Prep Time: 15 minutes                                   

Cook Time: 80 minutes

Ingredients:                                       

• 600 g pastry for pies (at its most basic, it is a mixture of flour and fat bound with water to form a paste) - puff pastry
• 1 kg sauerkraut mixed with two grated carrots and 1 Tbsp of cumin
• 45 g dried mashrooms eg. edible boletus, king bolete
• 2 big onions - chopped
• 6-8 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1 l of boiling water
• 1 egg - beaten

Method: 

1. Finely chopped onion fry in a large skillet with olive oil. Keep stirring until onion is soft and translucent.

2. Pour hot water into dry mashrooms and leave aside for 10 minutes.

3. Now cook the mashrooms with some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper for 10 minutes.

4. Cut sauerkraut into small pieces. Add sea salt and pepper. Now add cooked mushrooms together with their boiling sauce. Now add boiling water and cook on medium-low heat until half of water evaporates. Should take approx. 30 minutes. 

5. Roll out the pastry in the flat surface, dusted with a bit of flour and form a square shape, then cut it creating two triangles. Pastry should be max 5 mm thick. Triangle hight should be about 10 cm long.

6. Prick each triangle with a fork. Brush each square with well beaten egg.

7. Spread 1 Tbsp of sauerkraut and mushrooms on on each pastry. 

8. Now connect two opposit corners of pastry together. Brush with an egg again.

9. Put the tarts on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake in pre-heated to 180 C degrees oven for approx. 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.

10. Serve hot. You can serve it plain, as is, or together with a clear soup like beetroot soup. 

ENJOY!!! 

Poppyseed Roll (Strudel) Recipe

Poppyseed cakes are very popular in Poland, especially for Christmas and Easter time. Some Poles believe that poppyseed brings luck. I decided to use a real poppyseed, however, canned filling works well in this recipe unless you want to grind your own - like me! Does not take that much to prepare, however requires quite a technique to roll the dough. Just try and you will love it as much as I do. 

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Wait Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:                                       

• 100 g all purpose flour 
• 100 g potato starch
• 150 g powder sugar
• 8-10 egg yolks
• 4-5 egg whites - beaten
• 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar
• 1 Tbsp vanilla essence

Filling Ingredients:

• 750 g ground poppyseeds
• 400 g sugar
• 4 Tbsp of honey
• 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 20 g softened butter
• 100 g dried raisins
• 100 g diced candid orange and lemon rind - chopped or grated
• ground walnuts, sliced almonds
• 4 egg whites - beaten
• 150 ml dark rum 
• chocolate or frosting to decorate

Method:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites. Add sugar and vanilla sugar at the end. Add egg yolks and stir well with a spoon. Add vanilla essence, mixed potato and all purpose flour. Stirr well, until you have a creamy mixture.  

2. Pour the mixture into a baking tray. Sponge cake should be approx. 1 cm thick. 

3. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C. Bake the cake for 10-13 minutes until cake starts to turn gold.

4. When the sponge cake is ready, remove it immediately from the oven. Otherwise it will start to dry too much. Move it to the kitchen towel sprinkled with some powder sugar. Cover it with another kitchen towel but make sure it is damp.

5. Now we will prepare the poppyseed filling, unless you have the canned one so you can directly move to step 7.

6. Walsh the poppyseed. Move to the pot, pour enough water to cover entire poppyseed and cook for 30-35 minutes. Clean the raisins, add dark rum and leave aside to soak a bit. Ready poppyseed must be filtered first. Now we have to mill it three times at least. Mix milled poppyseed with sugar, honey, cocoa powder and beaten egg whites. Melt the butter on a large skillet and add poppyseed. Cook, stirring for 5-10 minutes. Now, almost ready poppyseed filling mix with the raisins and all remaining rum, diced candid orange and lemon rind, almonds and ground walnuts. Leave it aside to chill a bit. Your filling is ready now.

7. Remove the damp kitchen towel from the sponge cake and paste the poppyseed filling on the cake. Roll the cake using the kitchen towel which is under the cake. Wrap in kitchen foil and leave to cool down in a fridge for 1 hour.

8. Before serving glaze with frosting or chocolate and sprinkle with desired topping.

ENJOY!!!

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Christmas Gingerbread Little Cakes

I love Christmas and everything around that magic time. Gingerbread recipes are part of my Christmas since years. This time I decided to prepare a funny version of traditional gingerbread cake. Just try and you will love it as much as I do. 

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:                                       

• 250 - 300 g powder sugar
• 250 g butter
• 3 eggs
• 20 g vanilla sugar
• 1 Tbsp rum essence
• 200 g honey
• 500 g all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 - 3 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 Tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 500 - 600 ml warm milk
• 100 ml dark rum 

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. 

2. In a large mixing bowl mix together butter and sugar. Add beaten eggs. Mix all together and add honey. Keep mixing. 

3. Add into a creamy mixture vanilla sugar, rum essence and rum. Mix again.

4. At the end, add flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and ground cloves. Mix well. At the end add warm milk and make sure you blend well the creamy mixture. The mixture cannot be too dense because then it will be a real challenge to fill the baking moulds.   

5. Fill the baking moulds to approx. 2/3 full. Do not overfill. Am using silicon moulds for that as I think they are best. Do not forget to springle some oil over the moulds so your cupcakes won't stick when baked.

6. Place the moulds into the center of a pre-heated oven and bake for approx. 30 minutes. 

7. Your cakes are ready when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

8. Cool 5 minutes then remove your cakes from the moulds and place on wire racks to cool completely.

ENJOY!!!

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Cognac Pancakes with Orange and Banana

Cognac pancakes are simply heaven in your mouth. Because we are adding some cognac, the cake will become very tender and fluffy. Takes about 40 minutes to prepare. Must be served hot, straight from the pan. We are using only fresh ingredients here thus your pancakes are nutritious meal. I like to have it for dinner or late Sunday breakfast. Enjoy!!!

Prep Time: 15 minutes                                    

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Wait Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:                                       

• 250 ml cold milk
• 200 ml mineral water with gas
• 4 yolks
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 5-6 Tbsp cognac
• 250 g all purpose flour
• 40-50 g melted butter
• 1 Tbsp oil to fry the pancakes
• 4 oranges, peeled and cut into small pieces - no seeds
• 2 large bananas - cut into 1 cm slices
• 3 Tbsp brown sugar
• 30 g butter
• 60 g hazelnut - roasted in 190 C, peeled and chopped

Method: 

1. In a large mixing bowl combine the following ingredients: milk, mineral water, yolks, cognac, sugar, all purpose flour and melted (not too hot) butter (40-50ml). Mix well with an electric mixer on high speed until the mixture has a cream consistency. Should take about 5 minutes. Whisk until lumps are completely gone. Mixture cannot be too dense. Set the mixture aside in the fridge for about 2 hours to 'breath'.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with 1 Tbsp of oil. You can apply it using a paper towel to avoid excess of oil. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side. Should take 60-80 sec on one side and about 30-50 sec on the other side of the pancake. They will turn into nice brown color.

3. Before you put pancakes in one pile, set it aside for a moment letting to cool down, otherwise they will stick to each other.  

4. Now we will prepare banana and orange dressing. Peel 2 oranges and cut into small pieces. Remove white parts as much as you can and remove all the seeds. 

5. Squeeze 2 remaining oranges to get the juice into a large cooking pot. Then add 30 g of butter. Place on low-medium heat and stir until butter is melted. Add brown sugar and stir until sugar melts in orange-butter juice. Add pieces of orange and slices of bananas.

6. Roast hazelnuts in a pre-heated oven to 190 C until lightly colored and skins are blistered. Should take about 10 minutes. Wrap nuts in a kitchen towel and let steam 1 minute. Rub nuts in towel to remove loose skins and cool completely. Then finely chop all the nuts. 

7. Now fold each pancake into quarters creating a triangle and pour orange and banana mixture on the top of the pancake. Season with finely chopped roasted hazelnuts on the top.

8. Serve hot.   

ENJOY!!!

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Delicious Apple Pancakes

Apple pancakes are very easy to prepare. Perfect option for nutritious and hot breakfast. Ideal for cold winter mornings on Saturday. For me, these little pancakes bring back great memories from when I was a little kid spending my summer holidays in a countryside with my grannie.  Apple pancakes made polish way taste delicious and should be eaten fresh just after preparation. Enjoy!!!

Prep Time: 10 minutes                                    

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:                                       

• 2 eggs
• 1-1.5 glass of all purpose flour
• one package of vanilla sugar
• 3/4 glass of sugar
• fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 glass milk - you can also add 1 Tbsp cream 
• 1/2 glass soda mineral water
• a bit of salt but just a bit
• 3-4 big sour apples - peeled and cut into pieces
• 100 g margarine or butter

Method: 

1. Eggs beat well with milk, add water, flour, sugar and a bit of sea salt. The mixture should have a consistency of a dense cream. 

2. Peel the apples and cut in pieces. In order to avoid apples turning brown too fast, sprinkle them with fresh lemon juice. Add to the pot and mix.

3. Leave the mixture for 20-30 minutes in room temperature. Your pancakes will be softer.

4. On a hot frying pan preheat some butter or margarine. When butter or margarine is hot, drop the mixture with a table spoon to the frying pot and create a couple of circular spots. Make sure that pancakes do not stick completely to each other. 

5. When your apple pancakes turn brown-gold, turn them into other side and continue frying. Remove when both sides are gold. Repeat the sequence, add more butter or margarine to the pot, melt it and do the next series.

6. Each pancake series should be drained on a paper towel for 1-2 minutes.

7. Ready pancakes should be served hot. You can eat them plain or put some powdered sugar on the top once cold. I prefer hot version of pancakes with nothing on the top.

ENJOY!!!

Italian Tiramisu For Everyone (in Polish: Wloskie tiramisu dla kazdego)

There are many recipes and versions of Tiramisu but the basic and original ingredients are: mascarpone cheese, eggs, espresso, some sugar, amaretto liquor and lady fingers of course. This recipe will be the purest version of real Italian dessert. I have tried Tiramisu many times in restaurants all over the world and still I like the most the one I prepare at my own kitchen.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Wait Time: 120 minutes 

Ingredients:                                       

• 2 packages of lady fingers (sponge fingers) - approx 300 g
• 6 pasteurized eggs
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 500 g mascarpone cheese
• 8 small (8oz) espresso cups 
• 4 shots of amaretto liquer (can be also brandy, cognac or rum)
• 4 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa to dust

Method:

1. Prepare espresso shots and pour all into a shallow flat bowl. Add three shots of amaretto and 1 Tbsp of cacoa. Leave aside to cool down.

2. Beat egg yolks with sugar until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Add mascarpone cheese and 1 shot of amaretto (can be also brandy, rum or cognac). Again keep mixing until creamy.

3. In a separate mixing bowl, beat egg whites.

4. Pour beaten egg whites into mascarpone and mix only a bit in order to blend all the ingredients. Do not over mix.

5. Dip lady finger biscuits in the espresso mixture just long enough to let them absorb enough espresso and amaretto mixture (approx. 5 sec). Remember to do it with sugare side up. Make sure all biscuits after espresso bath look completely dark.

6. Place the soaked ladyfingers on the bottom of a 13 by 9 inch baking dish, breaking them in half if necessary in order to fit the bottom. Remember to lay biscuits with sugar side down.

7. Once the first layer of biscuits is ready, put the mascarpone mixture across. The layer should be about 1 cm thick. So with that amount of mascarpone - egg mixture it should be about a half of the mixture. 

8. Dip another layer of espresso moistured lady fingers on the mascarpone mix. Lay them sugare side down.

9. Spoon last layer of mascarpone across the biscuits. The layer again should be about 1 cm thick.

10. Dust remaining cocoa on the top of mascarpone mixture. 

11. Cover ready Tiramisu with a wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 8 hours.

ENJOY!!!

Prosciutto & Cheese Twisters (in Polish: Paluszki z ciasta francuskiego z szynka Prosciutto i serem)

Great salty pastry which I like a lot. Here you can use your imagination because you can make your twisters with anything you like. Exampleas could be: cumin, sea salt, prosciutto, cheese etc. Great as a starter, especially when still warm, straight from the oven. Very easy to prepare and simply delicious. Just give it a try and you will see how delicious it is.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:                                       

• 600 g pastry for pies (at its most basic, it is a mixture of flour and fat bound with water to form a paste) - puff pastry
• 2 Tbsp flour 
• 4-5 Tbsp mustard
• 200 g grated cheese - can be Gruyere, Cheddar or even Mozzarella
• sea salt in crystals & freshly ground black pepper
• 20 slices of Prosciutto ham or excellent quality bacon
• 2 large eggs - beaten 

Method:

1. Prepare a baking flat dish - best would be like a tray.  Put parchment paper inside the tray.

2. Roll out the pastry in the flat surface, dusted with a bit of flour and form a rectangle. Pastry should be max 5 mm thick. Rectangle hight should be as long as your prosciutto slices.

3. Spread the mustard over the pastry and sprinkle with grated cheese. Line up slices of prosciutto as shown on the picture and add black pepper.

4. Cut the pastry into smaller rectangles.

5. Carefully pick up each piece of pastry and twist it 3-4 times. Lay all on earlier prepared tray. Put the pastry in the fridge for approx. 20 minutes to firm up a bit. 

6. Pre-heat the oven to 220 C. Once you remove the pastry from the fridge, brush beaten eggs over each piece and sprinkle crystals of sea salt or anything else you like. Can be cumin as well.

7. Bake in the oven for approx. 20 minutes in 200 C until twisters turn gold - brown.

8. Ready to eat twisters serve warm or cold.

ENJOY!!! 

Lemon - Cranberry Cupcakes (in Polish: Cytrynowo-zurawinowe babeczki)

Cupcakes also called muffins are easy and really quick to prepare. Best thing about it is that you can be really creative and you can bake your own recipe cupcakes. Lemon-cranberry ones here can be prepared almost very last minute when you expect sweets hungry visitors. You can be creative here and replace cranberries with anything else you wish, like chocolate chips, raisins or any other dry fruits. Remember only to soak them a bit in cold water so they will become soft and juicy. 

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients:                                       

• 250 g sugar
• 5 eggs
• 250 g plain flour
• 250 g butter
• 2.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 vanilla stick
• 20 g vanilla sugar
• the juice of 3 lemons - no seeds
• frosting (icing) sugar for decoration (any color you wish. I chose lime and rose)
• decorate your lemon-cranberry cupcakes as desired - be creative 

Method:

1. Soak the dried cranberries in cold water for minimum 2 hours. That way they will become tender inside your cupcakes.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 160 C (top and bottom heat).

3. Mix the eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar with soft butter.

4. Add inside of vanilla stick. Do not forget that we use only the inside of vanilla stick.

5. Mix the baking powder with the flour and add into eggs with sugar and butter.

6. Add lemon juice and keep mixing until you receive a smooth mixture.

7. Add soaked cranberries and stir carefully.

8. Fill the cupcake baking moulds to approx. 2/3 full. Do not overfill. Am using silicon moulds for that as I think they are best. Do not forget to springle some oil over the moulds so your cupcakes won't stick when baked.

9. Place the cupcakes into the center of a pre-heated oven and bake for approx. 20-25 minutes. 

10. Your cupcakes are ready when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

11. Cool 5 minutes then remove your cupcakes from the moulds and place on wire racks to cool completely.

12. If the muffins are not coming out, carefully move a blunt blade along the rim.

13. Frost and decorate your lemon-cranberry cupcakes as desired. Remember to be creative.

ENJOY!!!