Healthy Ice Cream

preparation time: 3 hours

What do you need for 2 serving? I used a glass of 200 ml
1/2 glass millet - preferably soaked overnight
1 1/4 glass of water
1 banana
Any sweetener - honey, sugar, agave syrup
for sprinkling: chocolate and goji berries

What now?
1 Cook grits until soft. Then set aside to cool.
2 Add banana, sweetener and blend everything until smooth - if you soaked groats overnight fork should be enough.
3 Put in the freezer for 1 hour
4 Serve with any toppings.

Upside Down Apple Cake

Upside Down Apple Cake
( Cake with apples and caramel)

Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 40 to 45 mins
Bake Temp: 165 C
Source: Adapted from here
Makes a 6" cake

Ingredients

For The Fruit Layer
Apple 1 large peeled, cored and sliced thinly
Brown sugar 1/2 c
Butter 3 tbsp plus 2 tsp softened and unsalted
Cinnamon 1 tsp
Nutmeg 1/4 tsp
Cloves 1/4 tsp

For The Cake
All purpose flour 3/4 c
Butter 1/2 c softened and unsalted
Egg 1 large at room temperature
Brown sugar 1/2 c plus 1 tbsp powdered
Baking powder 1/2 tsp
Milk 2 tbsp at room temperature
Cinnamon 1/2 tsp
Vanilla 1 tsp
Salt a pinch

Directions

We ll do the sauce first. But before we begin, make sure you have you apples sliced thinly.
Grease a 6" round cake tin generously with butter. Line the apples at the bottom of the cake tin making sure they dont overlap each other. If you have apples left, no sweat. Save it for after the sauce.
Now, heat a thick bottomed sauce pan with the ingredients for the fruit layer except the apples.
Once the butter starts melting, keep stirring the mixture until it starts bubbling. Be warned. Getting a splash of that bubbly mixture is not very nice to your skin.

When the mixture starts bubbling, remove from fire and let it cool down a bit. Dont let it cool completely or it will become hard and we wont be able to spread the mixture.
Once cool, pour the mixture evenly onto the apple layer.
In case you had some apples left out, line them up now over the sauce. Set aside.

Lets get the batter started now.
Preheat the oven to 165 C.
In a mixing bowl, sieve together the flour, salt, cinnamon powder and baking powder thoroughly.
In another bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy and light.
Now, add the egg and vanilla and whisk until light and well incorporated.
Now, add the sieved flour mixture to the egg mixture and gently fold in using a spatula until well incorporated.
Pour the mixture onto the apple layer in the tin.
Gently drop the tin on the counter once to even out the batter and to get rid of the air bubbles.
Now place the tin on a baking sheet and bake for 40 to 45 mins or until a tooth pick inserted comes clean.
My cake baked in 42 mins precisely. So i would say, watch out after 40 mins.
Once done, let cool completely on a wire rack.
Invert and voila! you have all that beautiful caramel and apple layer

Cakey Biscuit Brownies

Cakey Biscuit Brownies

Makes about 12 squares

3/4 cup butter

1 and 1/2 cups sugar

1 and 1/2 tspns vanilla extract

3 eggs

1/2 cup chocolate chips/pieces (I used half white and half milk)

1/2 cup self-raising flour

4 tblspns cocoa powder

1/2 tspn baking powder

Pinch of salt

3/4 cup broken digestive biscuits

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a square 9x9 in. baking tin. Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl, on medium heat for about two minutes in the microwave. Stir in the sugar and vanilla. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder, adding slowly to the mixture, until well incorporated. Be careful not to over mix. Stir in the biscuit pieces, and pour batter into baking tin. Bake for about 40 minutes, and leave to cool before cutting into squares.

Almond cake with chocolate

Baking temperature: 190 ^for C  
Cooking time: about 45-50 min. 

Pastry

• 175 g dark chocolate
• 175 g butter or margarine (I used Kasi)
• 125 g icing sugar
• 4 eggs
• 6 tablespoons plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 125 g ground almonds
• vanilla extract

Chocolate

• 3 heaped tablespoons icing sugar
• 3 tablespoons hot water
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa
• 2 tablespoons butter

Preparing the dough

1. Melt in a pot of chocolate cake.
2. Beat the struts STA , white mass yolks with 100 g of a sugar in the icing on ( 25 g icing sugar to leave the mass of the proteins ). Add the melted chocolate and butter and mix.
3.  Sift flour with baking soda and baking powder and d PROCEDURE Add to a mustache, sprinkle the ground almonds and mix gently Æ spoon. Rise fairly dense mass.
4. Beat the whites to a stiff paste, add the rest of the icing sugar (25 g) and then beat about 2 minutes.
5. Proteins add weight and mix with a spoon.
6. The form of baking parchment paper. Put the dough into the mold and p iec 45-50 min. at 190 C (for dry stick).

Chocolate icing 

1. In a small saucepan, mix the powdered sugar, cocoa and water. Moments boil. Remove from heat.
2. Add the butter. Mix until homogenous. Still hot sauce to pour batter.

buckwheat crepes with strawberries and chocolate sauce

buckwheat crepes with strawberries and chocolate sauce

Yield: makes about 8 crepes

ingredients

Chocolate Sauce:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup sifted cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon sea salt

2 ounces chopped dark or semisweet chocolate

Crepes

1 cup buttermilk

½ cup water

½ cup buckwheat flour

½ cup all purpose flour

3 eggs

2 tablespoons melted butter, plus more for pan

1 teaspoon sugar

¾ teaspoon salt

1 quart fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

2 tablespoons raw, turbinado or granulated sugar

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil – from your best bottle

instructions

1. To make the chocolate sauce, whisk sugar and water together in a small saucepan until dissolved. Bring to a simmer; add the cocoa and salt, whisking to blend. Remove from the heat; add chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. Cool to room temperature until thickened slightly, or refrigerate until cold (reheat before serving).
2. Combine the buttermilk, water, flours, eggs, butter, sugar and salt in a blender until smooth, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the container to incorporate any flour sticking to the side and blend for a few more seconds to mix. Cover the container (or transfer to a bowl) and chill at least 1 hour or overnight.
3. Combine the strawberries, sugar and olive oil and let stand 10 minutes or so while making the crepes.
4. Heat an 8-inch nonstick pan over medium-high heat until a drop of water sizzles instantly on the surface.
5. Brush the pan with some butter and add enough batter to thinly coat the bottom of the pan - 2 or 3 tablespoons; I use a small ladle - immediately tilting and swirling pan to make an even circle of batter.
6. Cook the crepe until the bottom is set and light golden – you can shake the pan a little to see if it slides; if it does, it’s about ready to flip. Turn the crepe over gently with your fingers or small spatula and cook the other side for another minute or two.
7. The first crepe is usually a practice one, but congratulations if yours comes out perfectly! Repeat the process with the rest of the batter, stacking crepes and layering with wax or parchment paper as you go.
8. Serve crepes topped with strawberries and warm chocolate sauce.

Mocha in a Cupcake

Ingredients

Cupcakes

150 g unsalted butter, soft

200 g dark muscovado

150 g eggs (3 medium)

150 g self-raising flour

25 g cocoa powder

50 ml milk

50 ml whipping cream

25 g cocoa powder

3 tsp instant coffee granules

1 tbsp hot water

Yield

Cupcake cases vary in sizes and height so it really depends which ones you are using. This batter makes 16 cupcakes for the cases shown in the photos.

Baking the cupcakes

Sieve all the self-raising flour and 25 g cocoa powder once. Set it aside for now.

Bring the whipping cream and milk until just coming up to boil. Take it off the heat and whisk in the other 25 g cocoa powder to make a smooth paste. Set aside, whisking occasionally so that the paste does not form a skin on the surface.

Combine the coffee granules and hot water. Let it cool.

In a mixer, cream the butter and muscovado until light and fluffy. Add the cooled coffee and reduce the speed of the mixer so that you can now incorporate the eggs.

Add an egg yolk and portion of egg white, beating well before adding another one. With the last egg, I find it helps to add just the yolk first, let the mixer beat it into the batter. Finish with just the remaining egg whites; in my experience of doing so the batter has a lesser likelihood of splitting if the eggs were slightly colder than the butter. Another tip is to crank up the speed once you have added an egg to quickly beat it in, and then lower the speed to add another one. Keep repeating this until all the eggs are in.

Fold in 1/3 of the flour and cocoa powder, then half of the cocoa powder paste. Repeat this process. Finish with the remaining 1/3 of dry ingredients, making sure that there are no clumps of flour or streaks of cocoa paste.

Spoon the batter into your cupcake moulds or cases of choice, filling only up to 2/3 of the mould or case(see notes below on levelling the cupcakes).

Bake at 160˚C - 165˚C for 15 minutes.

Leave to cool in their cases.

Swedish cinnamon buns

Swedish cinnamon buns (kanelbullar)
Total time: 2-2,5 hours. Makes about 44 cinnamon rolls.

Ingredients

• 0,5 l milk (17.6 oz, not fluid! or slightly more than 2 cups)
• 2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1,5 stick butter (170 g)
• a pinch of salt
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 egg
• 800 g (28.2 oz) all-purpose flour

Filling

• 1,5 stick (170 g) of butter, room temperature
• 1.5 tbsp ground cinnamon
• ¾ cup sugar

Toppings
1 egg
sliced almonds

Instructions
Heat up the milk to about 110-115 °F. Dissolve the active dry yeast in the milk and let it sit for a few minutes. Melt the butter and mix in with the milk. Add a pinch of salt, sugar, cardamom, egg and flour. Mix to a dough. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let rise until double the size, about 1 hour. Mix the ingredients for the filling in a bowl and set aside in room temperature.

Roll out half of the dough (unless you have a really large working bench; then you can roll out the whole thing) to a large, thin rectangle. Spread half of the filling over the rectangle (or all of it if you rolled out all of the dough), then either roll up the dough to a cylinder and cut the dough in half an inch thick slices, or make these twirly tops. Place the cinnamon rolls in muffin forms and put them on an oven tray. Now roll out the second half of the dough and do the same thing.

Let the rolls rise for another 30 minutes (up to 1 hour is okay) while you preheat the oven to 460°F. Brush the rolls with egg and sprinkle some sliced almonds on top. Bake for about 10-12 minutes until they are golden brown.

Let cool on a rack with a kitchen towel on top. Now treat yourself to a Swedish fika (coffee break) with a cup of coffee or a cold glass of milk