This is a spin up of a classic cinnamon rolls, but using pumpkin (butternut squash in fact) inside the dough, because it is autumn and squashes are all over. Also, as a filler, I don’t use cinnamon, but you could definitely add some if you want. I used almonds this time, but use whatever nuts you have and like.
The reason for this recipe is, in fact, a visit from a friend of ours, that does not eat dairy. So I accepted the challenge and baked something that might seem ordinary for many, but not usually done in a dairy free version. He was more than happy with the rolls. So I had to get the recipe online as well and sent some from the new batch to him again.
I hope you enjoy and give it a try.
Love,
Andra
Dairy Free Butternut Squash Rolls
This is a dairy free option for sweet rolls, or sticky buns, and on top of that it uses butternut squash in the dough, that lends the rolls a bright yellow color. They are sticky and delicious, soft and perfumed. Best eaten lukewarm. I do recommend heating them a few seconds in the microwave before eating them the following days, due to the coconut oil that hardens at room temperature.
Mix all the ingredients for the dough. Use a stand mixer to knead the dough for about 8-10 min, or knead by hand, but it is a very sticky dough and quite soft.
Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover and let proof until doubled in a warm place.
Extend the dough on a floured surface to form a rectangular shape, of a thickness of about 1 cm. Try to get the air out from the dough.
Pour and spread half of the melted coconut oil on top of the rectangle, spread the sugar mixture, pour the rest of the coconut oil and sprinkle the chopped almonds.
Roll the rectangle on the larger side to form a long log shape, seal the end and put it underneath the log. Cut the log in chunks of approximately 5 cm length. As a tip: use a dental floss to cut them (see in the video how).
Put the pieces in an oiled tray, leaving some spaces between them. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let proof until they fill the tray. In the meantime preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Bake the rolls until they start to change color on top. In the meantime make the syrup by boiling the coconut milk with the sugar and some ground vanilla or vanilla extract.
Take the rolls out when they start to get golden on top and spread evenly the syrup on top and all the crevices. Then bake for another 10 min.
This is a very easy chocolate brownie recipe that will be full of chocolate flavor, with a crunchy on the top, airy in the middle texture. You can go lighter or heavier on the sugar, as you like. You can use white or brown sugar, use extra additions of your choice like nuts, raisins, chocolate bits…make it at your own taste.
I like brownies, although I don’t eat to many cakes, savory stuff is rather my thing. But chocolate brownies are somewhere on the top of my “cake stuff” I like. They are very uncomplicated, beginner friendly and quick to make.
I encourage you to try baking them, and also adapt it to your taste regarding sweetness and the other additions you want to put in.
Chocolate Brownies
A very easy and quick recipe for chocolate brownies. They will melt in your mouth and get you the chocolate punch without being overpowering.
Prepare a baking tray of 40 x 20 cm or similar (mine was 35 x 27) with parchment paper or a silicon pad.
Melt the chocolate and the butter together. You can use a water bath, or use the microwave with sets of 10-20 seconds and mixing in between the sets. Chocolate should be completely melted.
With the help of a hand mixer, or a sand mixer with the whisk attachment, mix the eggs with the salt and sugar until they get fluffy.
Add the orange zest if you want. (optional)
Incorporate the chocolate mixture and fold with a spatula in upward downward movements, until the chocolate is incorporated.
Sift the flower on top of the chocolate and fold it lightly until all the flour is incorporated.
You can add now the optional ingredients, like nuts, raisins, etc.
Pour into the prepared baking tray and smooth the surface to get equal thickness overall.
Bake for 25 min at 180 °C.
Let cool in the tray for 5 min, then remove and cool on a cooling rack.
Here in Germany, wild garlic can be found in spring everywhere in the woods, where a little sunshine comes through the trees, and it is the signal that spring is here and everything will come to life. And this wild herb can be turned into soup for our enjoyment.
Wild garlic, called Bärlauch in German, would translate to bear leeks. It is eatable and delicious, with a strong smell and taste of garlic, and can be a nice addition of taste an color in many dishes. You can use it for pesto, soups, stews, or even on top of pizza.
Today’s recipe is a creamy and velvety soup. It is very easy and apart from the wild garlic, you probably already have all the other ingredients.
Be sure to identify correctly the plant before collecting and eating it. It is used in spring, it has broad leaves that smell of garlic, some white delicate but juicy flours. The scientific name is allium ursinum. You can find more information on the internet about it, or go picking some with a person that knows it well.
Wild Garlic Soup
This is a soup that is made in spring, when wild garlic grows in abundance in clearings in the woods, and it is a delicious free ingredient that nature offers us so generously.
One of my favorite foods when I was younger was Pizza. Nowadays I don’t eat it too often, because I have some issues with the gluten, or it has some with me. But I wanted to explore the pizza dough and come up with a recipe that can be made at home, and not needing fancy equipment. My partner told me the other day that this pizza could be perfectly fine to be sold in a restaurant. So that is enough praise for me.
I want you all to be able to do it at home, so you enjoy not only a very tasty pizza, but also one that is more digestible due to its long fermentation. And you can choose your topping and know exactly what you get in it.
I would say the basics are: a 70% hydration, long fermentation, and hot oven. The hot oven is usually the issue in our homes, but we will make do, by preheating the tray that comes with the oven, flipped, on the highest temperature the oven can get to (mine 275°C), and the fan turned on.
I used a baking tray with perforated bottom for a better circulation of the heat, but you can use parchment paper. I avoid using too much things that are usable just once, but I did use parchment paper in the past and it works just fine.
The recipe is flexible regarding timings, and how long you leave it to ferment, I will leave you here 2 options that you might want to use to fit into your timetable.
You can find the recipe bellow and I hope it is all clear and easy to follow. If you have more question, please let me know in the comment section.
Homemade Pizza | Neapolitan Style
This Neapolitan Style pizza is so easy to make and needs no special equipment, It has crunchy crust and chewy inside and is delicious and addictive.
On day 1, in the evening, start making the poolish by mixing all the ingredients mentioned above. Ferment covered overnight.
On day 2 in the morning, to the poolish, add the rest of the flour(200 g), and the salt dissolved in the 50 g of water. Mix well. Rest covered for half an hour.
Perform a set of 8 stretch and folds on the dough. Leave to ferment 1 or 1 and 1/2h, depending on the temperature. It should puff up a little.
Prepare a shallow, rectangular plastic or glass container that has a lid, by oiling the inside with olive oil.
Oil the work surface and flip the dough into it. Split in 3 or 4 parts and from each one make a tight ball, by folding the edges into the inside, or tucking in the sides into the bottom of the ball.
Place the balls into the prepared container, cover and leave at room temperature for an hour.
Place the container in the fridge for 12, 24 or 36 h.
One hour before baking, remove the container from the fridge and leave in a warm place.
Preheat the oven at maximum, option with fan, and insert the oven pan, flipped upside down, to heat inside the oven. This will act as our baking pizza stone.
Prepare the pizza sauce by crushing the tomatoes and adding the herbs, olive oil and salt.
Prepare all other toppings, grating cheese, cooking ingredients, etc. They all have to be ready before starting with the dough.
After the dough got to room temperature we can start the extending the dough. Carefully pick one ball from the rectangular container, flip it on a plate with a lot of flour, flip it again the plate, so that the other one soaks the flour, lay the dough on the working surface and punch it lightly in the middle with your fingers, leaving a circle on the exterior that is not punched.
Flip it with the bottom up and punch again the center, flip it back on the good side and start stretching it from the inside out, and pulling lightly on the exterior to stretch it, so that the interior will have a thin dough and the exterior will have a 1-2 cm dough ring that is thick and not stretched at all.
Transfer to the baking dough or parchment paper and adjust again the dough.
Spread a thin layer of the tomato sauce, and back for 2-3 min, until the tomato sauce has dried a little and the outer ring of dough is slightly golden.
Remove from the oven, lay your topping starting with the parmesan cheese, and finishing with mozzarella if you use it, brush some olive oil on the outer dough (the one that is thicker) and bake for 2-3 min more, until it acquires the color that you like.
Let cool on a cooling rack until you cut and serve, which should be while still warm.
This is the easiest version for the classic French Pastry, eclairs. We will choose how much pastry cream and ganache frosting we want in our desserts, and we will not be constraint by the shape of the eclairs.
I loved eclairs since I was a little girl, and I am not a dessert person, for sure. I liked the fact that they were in fact not so sweet, and they had both vanilla and chocolate, and none was overpowering.
But every time I baked them, the classic way, I struggled to get them all in a nice shape, some would deflate, some were deformed, and most of them were difficult to glaze and fill. And then we would eat them in a moment…so much work for so little time.
And then came the Éclair Pie revolution. The pastry so easy to be baked thinly, filling and frosting in a matter of a few minutes, the whole cake done in just a few hours. What a treat. The baking of the 2 dough layers takes me one hour, because I bake them one after another, but if you have a big enough oven, or you want to bake them at once in 2 separate levels, it can be reduced to half. And in the meanwhile you can make the cream. So you might have the desert don in less than an hour, and you just have to leave it to cool in the fridge…the hardest part.
But I can assure the simplicity of this dessert will make up in deliciousness. To be honest, this one does not last long in our house.
I hope you try it out, even if you are a beginner, and let me know in the comments if you liked it and what you would change in the recipe.
Éclair Pie
A very easy but delicious version of the famous French pastry. This will make you want to eat the whole pie in a sitting.
In a saucepan boil the water with the butter (oil) and salt.
When boiling add the flour at once and remove from heat mixing well until flour is all incorporated.
Return to medium heat 1-2 minutes, stirring continuously, until the dough starts to stick to the bottom a little.
Remove from heat again and leave to cool until just slightly warm.
Add the eggs to the dough one by one, and mix well after adding every egg, until the egg is fully incorporated.
On two parchment papers, draw on each a circle with approximately 24-26 cm diameter, and distribute the dough between those two circles, spreading it uniformly and thinly. I leave a finger between the dough and the circle, in the oven it will expand a lot, more than the circle. So keep that in mind.
Bake the circles on the back of a baking tray, in a preheated oven at 220°C for 10 min, then lower the heat to 180°C and bake them 20 min more.
Remove from the oven and completely cool on a cooling rack.
While the circles bake, prepare the filling by mixing the milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and corn starch. I start with just a little milk and the rest of ingredients until they are completely mixed, and then I add the rest.
Cook the filling on a medium heat, stirring continuously, until it thickens.
Remove from the heat and add the butter in the hot mixture, stirring very well until the mixture is smooth.
Leave it to cool (covered) or cool it on a water bath.
Lay one of the circles on a serving plate, add the cooled filling, layer the other circle on top and press slightly.
For the ganache, chop the chocolate, heat the whipping cream until it starts to boil, and add it to the chocolate.
Stir patiently until smooth and pour on top of the cake.
Leave for at least two hours in the fridge and then serve.
A very simple and delicious butter cookie, that will give you crispy, tender and flavorful cookies and will make your house smell like heaven while baking. They can be stored for a long time in a air tight container, for whenever you got your sweet tooth.
It does not need special equipment and you can make a batch very quickly, no need for waiting too long. The ingredients are simple, and you probably already have everything you need in your cupboard.
We don’t eat too many sweets in my home, but this is one of my partner’s favorite. He munches on them gladly and they are usually finished in a few days.
I hope you give it a go and let me know down in the comments if you liked it.
Simple Butter Cookies
A simple, yet delicious recipe, that can be quickly done and can store for weeks in a airtight container.
This is a recipe for absolute beginners, and/or for people that don’t want to get into the trouble of making and then feeding a sourdough starter, and rather prefer using commercial yeast. It requires minimal effort, and no special equipment other than a cast iron pot with a lid, aka Dutch oven.
I developed this recipe because I noticed people are afraid of getting into the sourdough starter “business”. Although I rather recommend a sourdough bread, for its flavor and its long shelf life, I understand that not everybody has the time or interest to be taking care of a living being.
So for this recipe you will only need flour, dry yeast, salt and water. You will start the mixing of the dough in the evening before the baking day, stretch and fold the dough 2 times (no need for kneading), and leave it to proof overnight. Next day you shape it, let it rise in a basket and then bake it.
Flour
I chose all purpose flour for this recipe, because I suppose it is what any household has. If you want to use another one, like bread flour, you might need to add a little more water.
Anyways, in general, all flours need more or less flour than others, it depends how dry it is, where you store it, what type of wheat, etc. But you can start with this recipe and then experiment in the following trials with more water if you want it more moist, or less water if you think it was too hard to work with it because it would not want to stay in place.
But I must warn you, the more water you add, the more difficult it will be to shape it in the final phase. This recipe has a 65% hydration. That means, for every 100 g of flour, I added 65 g of water. I think it is an easy to work with hydration for a beginner, without the bread being too dry.
The recipe calls for 700 g of flour and 455 g of water. If for example you want to change the hydration to 70%, for the 700g of flour you will have to add 700g * 0,70 = 490g of water.
Yeast
I used active dry yeast, that you can mix it directly with your flour. If the instruction on the packages tell you to activate it in some water before, do that. The recipe calls for 1/4 tea spoon of yeast. I doubled it because I had around 16-17°C in my kitchen and I did not want to wait too long in the morning for the dough to rise. If you have an usual home temperature of 24°C, use the quantity from the recipe.
Water
If your tap water has a lot of chlorine, use filtered water. Here in Germany, in the area where I live, the water is really good, and does not smell or taste la chlorine, so I can use directly tap water for the bread. But too much chlorine can kill the yeast, so better use filtered water.
The temperature of the water should be room temperature. If you use colder, it will slow the fermentation, if you use warm (around 40 °C), it will ferment faster. Be aware that the taste wins a lot in case of longer fermentations. After the 2 stretch and fold that you will do, you can even pop the dough in the fridge and leave it for more time than just overnight. You will have to check though if you have to leave it more on the counter then, for it to rise to a doubled volume.
Salt
I used pink salt, but use whichever you have at hand. Be aware though, that table salt will make the dough saltier if you use the same amount. So you might have to use less. Salt is important not just for taste, but also for the texture of the dough, it makes it tighter and more elastic. But if you don’t want to use salt at all, it is also ok.
Baking
I recommend a Dutch oven for the baking of the bread. It creates something like a mini oven inside the oven, where the moisture of the bread is trapped inside because of the heavy lid and helps the bread have more oven spring, it rises more, before the crust gets settled. For the browning, later we just remove the lid and allow the crust to get to harden and acquire taste and crunchiness.
Professional ovens can inject steam while baking, but since we do not have such fancy ovens in our homes, we can use this solution of a Dutch oven. It is a very useful tool in the kitchen, I cook all the time in it, making soups, stews, frying things, and of course bread baking.
Ok, I hope I explained decently what is think is important for making this bread. If you do decide to make sourdough bread, take a look at my recipe here.
If you have any questions, write them in the comment section bellow and I will try to answer if I know.
Overnight No Knead Bread | with commercial yeast
This recipe is for anyone that is busy or a beginner in baking bread and does not want to take care of a sourdough starter. It uses all purpose flour and commercial yeast, so it can be done by anyone.
In the evening before baking day (for me it was at 7 PM ), mix flour, salt and yeast.
Add the water and mix with your hands, a wooden spoon or a Danish dough whisk, until combined and no flour is left dry.
Cover and leave at room temperature for an hour.
After an hour do around 10 stretch and folds, picking up the dough from one side, stretching it and then bringing it onto its opposite side or the center of the dough. Turn the bowl around 90 degrees and continue the same procedure 8-10 times.
Cover and rest another hour, then do a second stretch and fold.
Cover and leave it for the night.
Next morning (7 AM for me), check the dough, it should have doubled in volume. If not, leave it some more.
When dough is ready, preheat the cast iron pot with its lid, in the oven, at 220 °C.
For the last fermentation you can use a proofing basket, or a bowl with a tea towel on top, or a strainer with the tea towel. Sprinkle flour generously on whichever you choose.
Sprinkle lightly some flour on the working bench.
With a dough scraper or a spatula, detach the dough from the sides and turn it onto the floured bench.
Fold a few times the dough, grabbing it from the exterior and bring it into the center. Pinch it in the center and then turn the dough 90 degrees and fold again. Do this 8 times, or until you can feel the dough is getting tight.
Then flip it with the seam side down, and with both of your hands, drag the ball from the far end towards you, tucking it underneath a little. This will create tension on the surface of the ball. Rotate 90 degrees and repeat the dragging and tucking, 4 times in total.
Place the dough, flipped with the seam side up, into the proofing recipient you chose.
Cover and leave to rest 45 min or until when poked with the finger, the dough comes back up slowly and leaves a slight dent into the surface.
Remove the pot from the oven with the help of some oven mittens.
Flip the dough onto a parchment paper, slice once in the center, from one side to the other, with a sharp knife or a razor blade. This first cut has to be quite deep, maybe 1 cm, so that the dough can have place to rise. You can make additional ornamental cuts on the sides if you like.
With the help of the parchment paper, transfer the dough into the cast iron pot, cover with the lid, and bake in the preheated oven for 30 min.
After 30 min, remove the lid and bake for 15 min more.
Remove the bread carefully and leave on a cooling rack until completely cooled.
This is one of those recipes that you think it might be complicated, but it is not. And is so delicious and healthy. Usually eggplant can absorb a lot of oil, but I chose to just coat them lightly and then fry them in a dry pan. And they are still equally delicious.
I tried also coating them first in starch and then fry them, but it is not worth the hustle. They have the same taste as just fried with little oil. I also made the variant of using ground meat, and they are also good, but really, on they own, they are as good as any other variant.
I like eggplant a lot, and I use it in various forms, experimenting with cooking methods and recipes. I think they are highly underestimated as a main ingredient, and people feel a little shy on using them. I am here to encourage you to try to incorporate them in your cooking habits and you will not be sorry about it.
This recipe has a Chinese origin. I like authentic Chinese food and I like to explore its cuisine and experiment a little bit. The recipe calls for Black bean garlic sauce, which can be found in Asian supermarkets. But if you don’t have one near you, you can substitute with some more garlic than the recipe calls, and some oyster sauce or hoisin sauce. And if those are not available either, then add some more soy sauce and a bit of water and starch slurry, just a spoon or two. We want a creamy consistency to coat the eggplant pieces.
Enough talking about them, I hope you give this recipe a try and let me know if you liked it.
Fried Eggplant – Chinese Style
A very easy and delicious classic takeout food, perfect for a quick dinner or lunch, with some white rice on the side.
1Tbsp.black bean garlic sauceor oyster sauce, or hoisin sauce
2Tbsp.soy sauce
1Tbsp.cooking wineoptional
Sesame oil
Instructions
Cut the eggplant in finger length pieces. Drizzle some neutral oil to coat them lightly.
Mince garlic and ginger. Cut thinly the scallion.
Fry the eggplants in a dry pan, medium-high heat, turning them on all sides every 3 min, until they are soft and bendy. Set aside.
Heat the pan again, add some neutral oil and fry the garlic and the ginger until fragrant and lightly golden. Add the black bean garlic sauce, soy sauce, cooking wine. Stir for a few seconds.
Add the eggplant and coat everything with the sauce.
Add a little water if it looks too dry.
Add the scallion and sesame oil and serve.
Video
Keyword chinese food, eggplant, quick, savory, vegetables
This is one of my favorite Chinese dishes, it is sometimes spicy, other times just a little, depending on the pepper you use. Making it at home allows you to choose the level of hotness. And it is freaking addictive. It is great as part of a variety of Chinese dishes served at once, with rice, for sharing with your beloved ones.
I discovered this dish at a local authentic Chinese restaurant, where they have European style Chinese food menu, and other authentic ones, Sichuan or Cantonese. And when I discovered this later one, I just got hooked on the real Chinese food. I like food kind of spicy, so that did not scare me. But to be honest, not all dishes are hot hot hot. Some are none at all, and some are just mildly.
Anyway, I ate so many times this dish, that I pursued in discovering how to do it. There are a lot of recipes for this on the Internet, and I suppose there is not a right and a wrong way. My version resembles the one I eat in the restaurant from my neighborhood. But I am probably doing it slightly different, who knows…
It is not difficult to make, it does not take too much, and it is absolutely amazing. Only the boiling of the pork belly and then cooling it might take a while. But now, in winter, I just leave the peace of meet outside a little while I cut the vegetables, and it is ready to slice.
If you can find, search for a quite fatty piece of meat, and a thick one. Last time, I just found a smoked one, with more meat than fat, and a little skinny. But it worked just fine, so use what you can find.
The secret of this dish is to use Toban Djan, aka Chili Bean Sauce. You can probably find it in the Chinese supermarkets, it is quite common. It gives the dish the saltiness, some hotness and a lot of umami Flavor.
We like to eat it with rice, and some other lighter additional dish, like boiled Pak Choi, or cucumber salad, or braised eggplant, because this is quite a strong flavored dish.
I hope you give it a try and let me know if you got hooked as I did.
Double Fried Pork – Sichuan style
This is a spicy dish, typical from the Chinese Province Sichuan, it has a very strong and addictive flavor and is best paired with rice and boiled green leaves, like Pak Choi.
Boil the pork belly with one piece of ginger, sliced, one onion, five spice, Sichuan pepper corns, 1 Tbsp. soy sauce, 1 Tbsp. cooking wine. Cover the meat with water. Boil until a chopstick pierces easily through the meat.
Take out the pork belly and cool completely.
In the remaining liquid, or in clean warm water, soak the black mushrooms.
Chop finely the ginger and the garlic.
Cut the onion and the pepper in big chunks.
Cut the cooled pork belly into thin slices.
In a wok drizzle the oil and place the pork slices in one layer.
Stir and turn occasionally the slices onto their other side until golden.
Make a place inside the middle and fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant, then add the peppers and the onion.
Stir fry until vegetables are a little cooked, but still crunchy.
Add the hydrated mushrooms, the Toban Djan, then the soy sauce, scallion and cooking wine.
This is a very easy and quick to prepare cake, the perfect companion for a nice hot cup of tea. It is light and fluffy, not too sweet and quite refreshing from the lemon zest and juice.
You can choose to drape it in a sugar lemon drizzle as I did (because it was quick), or maybe a cream cheese frosting would be more of your taste. Either way, you have to try it, it is not a pretentious cake and suitable for any beginner.
The quantity of the lemon juice can be adjusted to your taste, I like sour things and I think next time I will add some more juice, but for “normal” people I think it might be ok. You will not feel the sourness, it will just make it fresh and light.
The cake recipe uses oil, and not butter, so that it does not make it too heavy. I used a mixture of neutral sunflower oil and olive oil, but feel free to use any oil you like, even coconut oil might be fine. I think the olive oil, together with the lemon, also makes the cake quite fresh. And the poppy seeds will brighten the look of it. To be honest, you cannot feel so much of their taste.
If you do decide to give it a try, please let me know if you liked it, or if you would tweak it in some way.
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake | Tea Cake
This is a very easy and delicious light and fluffy cake, perfect with a cup of tea or a lemonade.
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