Estonian way barley bread

Actually i have no idea how to call it in English, in Estonian it is called odrajahu karask. And for a salty thing it is really really good ! I remember trying it when i was a child and even then i liked it, especially when it comes out of the oven and eaten with eggs and butter paste!
I think it one of the best traditional things we have here :)

Things to make the batter :

125 gr of curd cheese (when in France, also can substitute with 20% fromage blanc)
200 ml of milk or kefir
a pinch of salt
1 ts of sugar
1 egg
50 gr of butter, melted
150 gr barley flour
50 gr of regular wheat flour
1 ts of baking powder

Heat the oven to 180°degrees
Beat the egg with curd cheese and milk/kefir, salt and sugar.
Mix in a separate bowl the 2 flours with the baking powder.
Then mix in the melted butter lastly the mix of flours and the baking powder.
Bake in a smaller size pan for ab 20 min.
Enjoy as it is or also with a soup it is an absolute yumm !
I added some roasted hemp seeds on top and had it with a fried egg :)

perfect breakfast !

My home-made muesli:
200 gr of old fashion oats
50 gr of Brazilian nuts
50 gr of almonds
50 gr of goji berries
50 gr of raisins
50 gr of dried cranberries
50 gr of palm sugar
50 gr of coconut oil

Heat the oven to 200°degrees.
Mix the oats and nuts well with coconut oil, palm sugar and cinnamon. Lay them on the baking pan so there would be an even layer. Bake them ab 20 min (while taking them out every 5 min to stir a bit so it wouldn't be too chunky)
Then leave them to cool and later mix with the dried berries. Absolutely lovely with yogurt !
Or just to keep in a jar for the busy days:)

For those cold long evenings ...

one m u s t eat chocolate !! this is my rule at least :)
So this chocolate muffin recipe has made oh so many dark evenings a little brighter :)

Yes, it is probably not the most original recipe, but it is just so good that you can just loose yourself eating the whole thing raw :)

150 gr dark chocolate
100 gr of coconut oil
200 gr of flour (for example i mixed 100 gr of rice flour and 100 wheat flour)
150 - 200 gr of palm sugar
2 ts of baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 eggs
2 ts of vanilla sugar
100 ml of full fat milk
5 Cs of coca powder

Heat the oven to 200°degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients : flour(s), baking powder, cocoa powder and salt (don't forget the salt!), put aside.
Separate the egg yolks and whites, beat the egg yolks with the sugars until they reach a creamy texture.
Melt the dark chocolate and coconut oil while stirring constantly. Let it cool. Mix in the milk.
Beat the eggs whites until it is bright white and not liquid :)

Now just mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, and last mix the egg whites gently with the rest of the dough.
Spoon the dough into the muffin pan and bake for ab 20 - 25 min.
Enjoy :)

To remember the summer ..

Yes, the weather is all rainy and foggy here in Estonia. So thank god for freezers that help us to reserve the small bits of summer greatness. This time i found some lovely rhubarb and yes, what better to do than make a cake. With creme fraiche of course ! Actually the creme fraiche is a little bit different than the estonian hapukoor, but i think either would work well with this recipe.

For the dough:
250 gr of plain/all purpose/spelt flour
150 gr cold butter
2 TS of unrefined cane sugar
1/4 ts of salt

Combine all the ingredients together by hand or food processor. Put in the baking pan. Let it sit for ab 1 h in the fridge.

For the filling:
400 gr of rhubarb
400 gr of creme fraiche
200 ml of milk/single cream
3 eggs
100 gr of unrefined cane sugar
1/2 ts of cinnamon
1 ts of vanilla sugar
Beat the eggs with the milk and cream, sugar and spices for ab 3 min.

Heat the oven to 180° degrees.
Actually there is no real need to pre-bake the base. Depends on the taste really. I just took the dough out of the fridge and poured the rhubarb and then the rest of filling to the basis.  Bake for ab 40 min or until it looks nicely set.
Here's what i ended up with :

The best carrot cake

I love carrots. In a soup, as a side, in a salty pie, muffins ... this list can go on for (p)ages.  So when i had some left, making this cake was inevitable :) I also decided to mix the tastes by adding coconut flour and - oil. I must say the cake was eaten in minutes, so it must have been a  good choice :)

Ingredients :
400 gr of carrots, peeled and shredded
5 eggs
60 gr of coconut flour
160 gr all purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
pinch of salt
50 gr of coconut oil
100 gr of (raw palm) sugar
50 gr of sour cream

Heat the oven to 180° degrees.

Beat the eggs, mix in sugar, carrots, coconut oil and sour cream.
In another bowl sift together different flours, baking powder and salt.
Now pour the dry mix into the carrot mix.

Bake for ab 50 min up to an hour.
Yes it take for a while, but on my opinion it is worth the wait :)

Pain perdu with marshmallows !

Yes, i'm definitely one of those people "blessed" with a sweet tooth. I know i'm not alone, so i decided to post this wonderful dessert recipe.

You know, sometimes i wake up alll excited about the sun shining through my window. Ready to seize the day, to eat all my veggies and fruit. But then, JUST when i was ready to be the best version of me, nope, they had no more carrots NOR blueberries at the market today. And yes, when i decided to get the last strawberries and walk home, it started pouring rain ... SO what's a girl gotta do with herself? Yes, i went home, opened my "dark days" closet and opened a pack of marshmallows. And baked this lovely pain perdu. Just to prove myself that i still got it (not the sweet tooth, but the will to bake :))

Ingredients:

8 big slices of old toast

200 ml of milk (i used full fat raw milk, but others should work fine too)

2 medium sized eggs

50 gr of honey(or sugar)

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

100 gr of marshmallows

Heat the oven to 180°degrees. Butter a pan, it can be a regular 24 cm one, but also another sizes will work, then it'll become more of a one layer baked french toast. 

Beat the eggs with milk and honey. Layer the bread slices. Pour the eggs and milk mixture on the bread. Lastly put the marshmellows as the top layer. Bake for ab 25 min. If you have a fancy oven, use the grill option for the last 5 min, but it'll be delicious in any case :)

We estonians like to enjoy it with a cup of milk, but it's everybody's own choice how to have it, hot or cold, straight from the oven with a spoon (my preference!) or for the next days brunch. Basically whichever makes you happy :)

Thank you foodies !

Next runner up of my favorite recipes is a pound cake, adapted from this lovely blog LOTTIE + DOOF. I love love looove to search for food blogs and was especially happy when i found this one. The lovely pictures and creative recipes gave me just the kick i needed to plunge into my kitchen again and not to give up.
Yes i am still new to the world of blogging, and yes my pictures are far from what people are posting these days. But hey, i bet even Julia Child didn't bake her perfect charlotte chantilly aux fraises with the first time. I  get inspiration from other blogs often, but I hardly ever copy everything (except for macaroons, gotta watch out with these !) , i always like to add my own little zing and touch to make the recipes more like me.
This time i added the wonderful gooseberries i had picked from my garden yesterday, and instead of olive oil i used rape oil, which is more commonly used here.

Almond gooseberry cake

125 gr of all purpose flour
60 gr of almond meal
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
3 medium eggs
50 gr palm sugar
50 white sugar
100 ml rapeseed oil
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
100 ml of rapeseed oil
100 ml of grapefruit juice
100 gr of gooseberries

It was actually quite easy to make.
The overn should be ab 180° degrees.
Mix all the dry ingredients together (flours, baking powder, salt)
Whisk the eggs with the sugars until it's a bit bubbly and fluffy, then add oil, juice and cinnamon.Mix well again.
The worse part is cleaning the gooseberries, no thank you to the black ends !
Then pour the liquid mix to the dry ingredient mix and mix them with each other. Pour the mixture into the pan, i used a long bread one, but a round 9 inch one would work fine too. Then add the gooseberries.
Bake for ab 30 - 40 min or until it's golden on the top but nice and moist inside.

To new beginnings!

Finally i am doing this !
Writing my thoughts down as a blog has been on my mind for ages, but well, as it often goes, life gets me down, cuts in between and ends my other projects.
But this is it, i'm finally taking the lead and writing my blog :) There's even a saying in estonian "Kaua oodatud kaunikene" which basically means long waited/longed for must be a good thing !

So i will kick it off with a vietnamese recipe for tofu snacks, that i learned through a cooking class i took in Hanoi. Since now i have moved back to Estonia, i have adapted it a bit so it'll be easier to digest for estonian taste. Here goes :

Vietnamese tofu rolls

Ingredients

300 gr of fresh firm tofu

1 medium size egg

3 - 4 dried mushrooms (originally used shiitake,which is on the photo), in Estonia i used dried chanterelles, soaked

salt, pepper

(black) bread crumbs

1 dl oil

* vietnamese fish sauce for dipping

Crumble the tofu to a bowl, add the egg, salt and pepper to your taste and chopped up dried mushrooms.

Form little balls with the palm of your hand. You can also add a tablespoon of soy sauce or what the hell, why not sour cream for the taste. But Don't smush them too much, they should maintain their moistness. 

Roll the balls in the bread crumbs. Since i am now in Estonia, i like to use dark bread crumbs, but also white bread one will work fine.

Heat a big pan with the oil. Fry the balls for ab 5 min or until they're nice and brownish.

Enjoy with some sort of a dipping sauce, first time i tried the balls dipped in fish sauce. but it really depends on peoples taste, so soy sauce or a some other your favorite sauce should work fine :)