Mocca white chocolate muffins

That was my old dream to make muffins both with coffee and some chocolate. Of course not everything run smoothly this time. For example, take into account that if you melt sugar instead of mixing it with tlour it becomes a liquid ingredient and you have to add some extra flour. Let's say, twice more than originally presumed. Secondly, you can always ask a neighbour for... an egg. And finally, you can drop the bag of sugar while sprinkling it into the milk so anyway you have to double all the other ingredients...

Mocca white chocolate muffins

540 g flour (yeah...)

3 heaped tspns cream of tartar

1,5 heaped tspns baking soda

pinch of salt

375 ml milk

140 g brown sugar

70 g vegetable oil

100 g white chocolate chopped (or more...)

3 tspns of instant chicory coffee

1 slightly beaten egg

1. Lightly heat the milk, dissolving all the sugar and coffee and cool down.

2. Mix the sifted flour, cream of tartar, soda, salt and the chopped chocolate.

3. Add an egg and oil to the milk and combine with the dry ingredients.

4. Bake for 25 minutes at 185 degrees. Makes really large 12 muffins.

Another surprise can be that your yummy chocolate has melted completely (you just forgot that it used to happen before) which however does not affect the general reception.

And how to make a good shot if I am so impatient because of apetite?

Polish basic yeast dough. Old recipe, new exciting buns

I love the yeast dough as everyone in Poland does. It is not that difficult to make and is so versatile! Some are afraid of the rising time, unnecessarily. That is the pleasure to commune with a living organism. And to shape it into real doughnuts or to sink in some  sour rhubarb, sweet strawberries or succulent berries. Or to bake buns for an afternoon treat.

Marzipan apricot yeast buns

650 g flour

250 ml milk

40 g fresh yeasts*

100 g sugar

2 eggs

few drops of almond essence

100 ml vegetable oil

200 g marzipan, divided into 30 pieces

15 dried apricots, chopped into stripes

* Dry yeasts are also working but don't believe that all you have to do is to mix it with the flour!!! Handle them exactly as you would treat the fresh yeasts.

1. Warm the milk till tepid.  Dissolve yeast. In a bowl with sifted flour make a hole and pour in the milk. Mix with some of the flour until the mixture gets the thickness of a thick youghurt. Sprinkle with some flour, cover with a cloth and leave until frothy. 

2. Beat the eggs, sugar and almond essence well.

3. Using the electric beater (that is the cleanest way, traditionally you would use a hand or a wooden spoon) mix in the dough the egg mixture and oil. Take out onto a  pastry board and knead until smooth and flexible and then a few minutes more. Use some extra flour for kneading if necessary. Leave covered with a cloth in an oiled bowl for proofing. It needs to double the size.

4. Punch the dough and take out onto floured pastry board. Divide into four pieces, form logs of them, and divide each one into 7-8 pieces (about 40 g each). Place a piece of marzipan and a bit of apricot in the middle and close the dough over it. You can also roll it for a few seconds for a more regular shape. Place on an oiled parchment paper, facing the joint downwards. Cover with a cloth and leave until doubled the size.

5. Put to the hot oven, 180 degrees, for 20-25 minutes. Buns should be gorgeous brown, if you are not sure, check the bottom. If the bottom is fair, leave buns for some time more. It cannot be burnt, but can be really brown. 

This yeast recipe can be a base for many other cakes and buns, all you have to change is the shape. The dough itself is not too sweet so it balances well the marzipan, but for a fruit cakes you can use some extra sugar. For the doughnuts, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar when mixing the eggs with the leaven, later place a teaspoon of jam (preferably the rosehip jam) in every dough portion, stick well, leave to rise and deep-fry in a vegetable oil. We love the sweetened cottage cheese buns here. The even easier way is to roll out the dough for 1 cm, cut with a glass or a cutter circles of about 5 cm diameter, place a teaspoons of jam, fruits, or other filling on top and leaving these to rise. I also love to roll the dough thinly (about 0,5), spread it with jam, raisins, sugar and cinnamon, or whatever you have, form a Swiss roll, cut it into slices and spread the slices on a baking tray to rise.
 

I won't write anything else, you have to make it yourself, to play with the soft dough, to watch the proofing, to shape the small jewels, and to hold off yourself from the aroma appealing hot buns. I wait for your thoughts how you've made it.

Cenci rombs

Yummy, yummy, yummy! Another recipe from the series 'while we have no oven'. For the Fatty Thursday we have a special Polish version of cenci. We then treat ourselves with doughnuts also. This recipe is a modified version of the traditional cenci. The difference is that I use here less eggs so it is even cheaper but still very very good. This huge portion dissapeared in two days (there is much of them from this amount of ingredients). To good to deny it, hard to resist.

Cenci rombs

600 g flour

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking powder

6 Tbsps icing sugar

200-300 ml milk

1/2 l oil for frying

1.  Sieve the flour, baking powder and icing sugar onto the kneading surface.

2. Add slightly beaten egg and milk (this one gradually) and knead until smooth and  not sticking.

3. Divide into four pieces. Roll out very thinly one after another using some extra flour for dusting. Cut into small rombs.

4. Heat the oil in a heavy pan. Fry until golden on both sides. Drain on the paper towel.

5. Cool down and dust heavily with the icing sugar. The more sugar the better!!!

6. Hide well if you want to have some for later.

 I guess that this dough with less milk and no sugar would result in some quite nice home made chips. 

Celeriac cream soup

Early and cold this year's autumn is a fact. That is why we are going to use the whole splendid celeriac the good mother-in-law we are given by.

 Celeriac cream soup
(two portions for abnormal, according to Septime, people or 4 for the others)



1 medium (about 10 cm in diameter) celeriac with leaves
4 medium size potatoes
2 carrots
1 onion
1 tomato
fresh ginger 3 slices
50 g butter
1,5 l vegetable or chicken stock (can be from cube)
half tsp nutmeg salt and pepper to taste
thick cream and fresh chopped parsley for finishing

1. Peel and cut vegetables into chunks.

2.  Soften the celeriac leaves on butter on medium heat in a pot.

3. Add the vegetables and ginger and cover with stock. Bring to boil.

4. Cook until the vegetables are soft. Blend well and season.

5. Decorate with a dollop of a thick sour cream or plain yoghurt  and some chopped parsley. Serve with yummy bread. I am in.

Mushrooms in cream

Another mushroom must dish are mushrooms in cream. This is the easiest way to go with them (unless we taste them raw). This is a very easy starter that can feed you as well as a main course. This recipe applies to different mushroom kinds. Really elegant and a very ancient one option are chanterelles or saffron milk caps just fried on butter with no cream added and sprinkled with some parsley. Onion is optional in both cases but I prefer it.

Mushrooms in cream

for 2 people

150 g bottom mushrooms, porcini or others

1 small onion

50 g butter

salt to taste

150 ml double cream

1. Melt the butter in the frying pan. Chop the onion and fry until transparent.

2. Cut the mushrooms into slices. Add to the frying pan. Toss while frying. Season. You can experiment with spices here (I've tried recently the fennel  sprig which produced a nice result).

3. When the mushrooms are done add the cream, reduce the cream until thickened a bit, check the seasoning. 

4. Serve hot with bread.

Except the photos nothing is left. It's curtains.

Veggie's must mushroom cutlets

 While my husband was away I held a mushroom festival in my kitchen. Cutlets are rather rare fare among the mushroom dishes. They are worth trying as mushrooms provide the nice moist consistency to the dish. That is way you have to be quick with quite loose mixture to be fried. The carrot gives extra colour to the food and the parsley gives a really pleasant taste to the final product, as the optional ginger. Enjoy!

 

Mushroom cutlets

for 2 people

150 g bottom mushrooms

1 onion

1 carrot

2 Tbsp oil

1 tsp fresh ginger chopped, soy sauce (optionally)

1 egg

5 Tbsp flour

salt, pepper

small bunch of parsley

breadcrumbs

oil for frying

1. Chop the onion and brown in the frying pan. Add the chopped carrot.

2. Wash and cut the mushrooms into smaller pieces, add to the onion, cook until the mushrooms are done. Here add some ginger and soy sauce and fry for 2 minutes. Cool down.

3. Chop half of the parsley. Process the mushrooms (it doesn't have to be a smooth paste), add parsley, flour and slightly beaten egg. Mix well.

4. Take about 2 tablespoons of the mixture and coat carefully in the breadcrumbs. If you find the batter to loose you can add more flour but then the final product won't be so juicy.

5. Heat the oil (a layer of 0,5 cm should be fine) and fry on both sides.

6. Serve with mashed potatoes and cooked vegetables. Decorate with the remaining parsley.

It also goes well between two bread slices:-)

Polish marinated porcini mushrooms

Boletus edulis, more commonly known as porcini (meaning a piglet, did you know that?!) used to be served only in the noble houses in the Old-Polish era. Polish name of this mushroom, borowik, means 'a forest mushroom' and the popular name calls it prawdziwek meaning a true mushroom', both stressing its royal status among Polish mushrooms (by the way, the English name is penny bun or cep and the French cèpe de Bordeaux). They have something aristocratic in their look and their firm flesh makes a great base for many dishes. Mostly it would be boletus in cream or soup of dried mushrooms. One of the favourite ones are the pickles which are said to be perfect to go with Polish vodka. Thus it is unbelievable that boletuses were introduced to New Zealand and the South Africa...

Marinated boletus (marynowane prawdziwki)

For a 200 ml jar

100 g cleaned mushrooms cut into pieces

1 small onion, halved and sliced

300 ml water

1 tsp salt

pinch of sugar

Bring the water with spices to boil. Add mushrooms and onion and cook slowly for half an hour. Drain.

Marinade:

300 ml water

200 ml table vinegar (10%)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

5 allspice grains

5 peppercorns

1-2 bay leaves

Bring the water with spices to the 

boil, simmer for 5 minutes. 

Place mushrooms in a warm sterlized jar and carefully cover with boiling marinade. Quickly screw the lid on and turn over the jar. Leave it upside down until cold. That way it should be sealed well (with the lid concave). However if you are not sure if the jar is airtight, you can pasteurize it by placing the jar in a pot and pouring over the water nearly to the lid, bringing to boil and boiling slowly for 10 minutes or so. Then take the jar out and leave to cool.

Let the mushrooms marinate at least for a month. It keeps really well and makes a good gift when visiting friends from other countries;-)

This recipe applies to many types of mushrooms, among others chanterelle or the bottom mushroom. Enjoy!