#bread and cakes

[whatshouldieatforbreakfasttoday]

Apple and cranberries scones - cooking with friends

Scones… well… it’s not an easy subject and it hasn’t been one for a very long time. Everything has changed thanks to Monet who shared a perfect scone recipe with me (girl, my whole family is grateful, especially Tomasz who feels more safe now). And it clicked and since then I made numerous variations and it always works out. I am afraid that I’ll go back to my experiments one day, but for now I’m a happy baker.

Scones may look like small buns but it's so much more. It takes just minutes to make them, 15 minutes more to bake and even less to consume. Tastes great when hot and most probably when cold - hard to say, we always eat it straight from an oven. I love mine with butter or cream cheese and home made jam. There's as many options as you wish. And you can experiment with fruits or veggies or dried fruits...just be creative :)

You will need:

2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

50g butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup greek yogurt

1 small apple cubed

2 tbsp dried cranberries

1 egg yolk with a bit of milk for glaze

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add butter cut in small cubes and rub it into the flour mix. Add yogurt, sugar and mix a bit, so all the ingredients combine. In the end add cubed apples and cranberries and knead only a bit, so the fruits will spread equally.

Place dough on a flat surface and roll about 2 cm high round shape. Cut our round shapes using a form or a glass. Brush each scone with an egg yolk mixed with milk.

Bake in 200*C for about 15-18 minutes.

Enjoy, Marta

[kyreniacommentator]

What's New on BRT2 Television 8/11/2014 - Latifa and The Food Lodge

What’s New on BRT2 Television 8/11/2014 – Latifa and The Food Lodge

Television News from BRT2 Latifa and The Food Lodge

  By Can Gazi

My guest this week on A Cup of Conversation is Latifa who was born in Morocco but grew up in England and is a trained cook, food technologist and nutritionist. Whilst working in Dubai she met Sonja who comes from Hamburg in Germany who had been a media specialist working for TV stations.

Friends who relocated from Dubai to North…

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[whatshouldieatforbreakfasttoday]

Apple bread - my first real bread!

For this recipe you need to have a starter. I was lucky to get it from a friend, so if you want to make the whole process much easier, ask your friend or buy it in a store.

You will need:

150 g active starter

500 g wheat wheat flour

2 tsp salt

1 small apple cut in small cubes

350 ml warm water

In a bowl mix all the ingredients, place it in a form lined with a baking paper. Cover with a silver foil and leave in a warm place for about 8h.

Bake in 200*C for about 40 minutes.

Enjoy, Marta

[whatshouldieatforbreakfasttoday]

Bread rolls with mozzarella cheese served with a tuna spread

PS. She eats like a tiger as well ;)

I found this recipe on Yammie's Noshery and it looked so good, that I had to make it

You will need for bread rolls with cheese:

25g active yeast or 2 tbsp yeast in powder

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup olive oil

3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

2 cloves garlic, squeezed

1 tbsp mixed herbs (optional)

mozzarella cheese

mix of cheese or cheddar cheese for topping, grated

Mix water with yeast and let it work for few minutes. Meantime melt butter and mix it with oil. Add yeast with water, mix it, then add 1 cup of flour, sugar, salt and and squeeze in garlic. Mix it and then add second cup of flour, mix it, add third cup of flour and knead the dough for 10 minutes. Place it in a bowl brushed with an oil and put in warm place for about an hour (You can warm up an oven to 50*C and place bowl with the dough inside).

Put some oil on your hands and start to grab small pieces of dough, flatten it, place a nice piece of mozzarella inside and cover it by combining edges, so cheese is hidden inside the dough. Do it well, so cheese won’t leak. Place it on a baking tray covered with paper. You should make around 20 of them. Each one sprinkle with pieces of grated cheese.

Bake in 180*C (375*F) for about 15 or 20 minutes (depends on an oven), until nicely brown and cheese on top is baked.

I served mine with a tuna spread. You can use this recipe or try something new:

You will need for tuna spread:

1 can of tuna in oil, drained

2 eggs hard boiled

2 tbsp cream cheese

2 small pickled cucumbers

pinch of salt and pepper

Chop eggs and cucumbers and mix with the rest of ingredients in a bowl. If you like your spread more sweet, add 1/2 of small apple.

Enjoy, Marta

[whatshouldieatforbreakfasttoday]

Popovers with mushroom spread and rucola

To make him feel better and convince to put his sunglasses on and go for a walk with me, I made him a nice breakfast. Everything is easy to prepare and not really time consuming. Mushroom spread will take you 15 minutes and you can store it in fridge. Parmesan and herb popovers won't take much longer and is definitely worth trying. I found recipes on two lovely blogs: The vanilla bean blog and White on rice couple.

You will need for mushroom spread:

350g champignons, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

200g feta cheese

1 garlic clove, chopped

3 tbsp greek yogurt

pinch of salt

Saute mushrooms on 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. It will release water and you need to wait till it evaporates (around 10 minutes). Stir in chopped garlic and fry for one more minute. Put it on side so it cools and then place in blender (or food processor) with feta, yogurt and salt. Process until smooth. 

For popovers with parmesan and herbs (for 6):

1 cup milk

2 eggs

2 tbsp butter, melted

1 cup flour

pinch of salt

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

2 tsp finely chopped herbs (sage, thyme, basil or what you like)

Preheat your oven to 225*C and grease a muffin forms.

In a bowl mix all the ingredients and divide dough between muffin cups. Bake for 15 minutes and then decrease temperature to 200*C and bake until it's golden. 

Enjoy, Marta

[whatshouldieatforbreakfasttoday]

Bread with rice

You will need (for two about 550 g breads or four 280g each):

480g bread flour

30g milk powder

40g suger

8g salt

8g instant yeast

200ml milk

170g thang zhong

40g butter

180 g brown rice, cooked, unsalted

For thang zhong:

30g bread flour

150ml milk

Let's start with preparing thang zhong. Sounds complicated but could not be easier. In a small pot mix milk and bread flour, put on a small heat and cook, while mixing, until it will become thick. Then remove from a heat, cover with a foil and put on a side to cool down.

Remember that you'll need a cooked brown rice, that is cooled down as well. 

In a big bowl mix all the ingredients for bread except for butter and rice. Knead it for about 5 minutes, then add butter, knead a bit more, add rice, knead until it will  be equally distributed in a dough. Form a ball, place it in a bowl brushed with an oil, cover with a tea towel and put aside for about an hour to grow.

When your dough grown, place it on a tabletop, divide into 2 or 4 pieces, cover and leave for another 15 minutes. After this time place the dough in 2 or 4 forms brushed with an oil and leave it in a warm place for about 45-60 minutes. During this time the dough should cover 80-90% of a form. Bake in 190*C for about 35 minutes. Baked bread cool down on a grid.

Original recipe comes from here.

Enjoy, Marta 

[whatshouldieatforbreakfasttoday]

Coconut scones

This is also the time when I'm going through recipes and I want to eat everything. But then the daylight comes (so essential for my pictures), I want to take pictures of what I've prepared and the state of "standing next to my body" appears. I promise to make my pictures better soon. I hope that it will pass soon because hanging out with friends in the evening is too hard when the only thing I can concentrate on is my pillow.

I baked this scones in the middle of the night as I needed something for my jam. I used Martha Stewart recipe but I added coconut instead of blueberries and yogurt as a replacement of cream (I did not feel like going to a store at 4 am). Martha says that to create soft scones you shouldn't mix or knead it too much. I think she's right. 

You will need (for 8):

2 cups flour

3 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp cold butter, cut into small cubes

3 tbsp coconut

1 tsp grated lemon zest

3 tbsp yogurt plus you can brush tops of scones if you like

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat your oven to 200*C. In a bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. The next step will be to add butter (remember that you need it cut in small cubes), coconut flakes and the lemon zest. In a small bowl mix together eggs and yogurt and then add it to the dry ingredients. Mix it just a little bit, until all the ingredients come together. Place the dough on a floured surface and knead just a little bit (just few times). 

Flat the dough so it's about 3 cm thick and cut it like on a picture. Transfer it on a baking paper and bake for around 20-22 minutes. Tastes amazing with a homemade jam :)

Enjoy, Marta

[whatshouldieatforbreakfasttoday]

Lemon Raspberry Muffins

For the fresh beginning something simple and delicious. My partner loves muffins and can eat 6 in one day - sounds impossible - not for him. They are simply delicious with a bit of butter and a morning coffee.

To prepare them you will need:

190 g flour

100 g sugar

100 g butter

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

2 tablespoons lemon juice

zest of one lemon

1,5 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

cup of raspberries

All products should be in a room temperature.

Heat the oven to 175*C. In a bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Then in another, smaller bowl mix eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest and pour it into the dry ingredients. Add the butter and mix everything slowly until it connects (you may have small pieces of butter in a cake - it will make muffins more delicate). No it's time to add juicy raspberries. 

Put some paper into the muffin tin and fill recess with cake. Then bake them for around 20 minutes. The last think to do is to eat them with a bit of spread castor sugar on a top.

Enjoy your breakfast! Marta.