Doesn’t this cherry ricotta tartlet look great? It is not only as delicious as it looks, it is also very easy to make and does not require any baking (or any baking skills for that matter). So you don’t have … Continue reading No-Bake Cherry Ricotta Amaretti Tartlets
My friend Antonella took a sabbatical to be trained as a professional pastry chef in Italy. Upon her return, she baked acetani for us, wonderful almond-orange cookies that are crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and have lovely aromas … Continue reading Acetani (Italian Almond-Orange Cookies)
Naan bread from India differs from ‘regular’ leavened bread for two reasons: it is made with yogurt and/or milk instead of water, and it is cooked quickly in a very hot oven (tandoor). If you don’t have a tandoor, you … Continue reading Naan Bread
Hazelnut and coffee are a great combination, and this torte has it all: crunchy hazelnuts, crispy hazelnut meringue, and a luscious coffee-flavored buttercream. For this cake I used the recipe of the famous retired Dutch pastry chef, Cees Holtkamp. I’ve posted … Continue reading Hazelnut Mocha Meringue Torte
Pastiera is a traditional Easter cake from Naples, filled with boiled wheat, ricotta, and candied citrus. The wheat provides an interesting texture and also makes the cake quite filling. The candied citron, candied orange, lemon zest, orange blossom water, and … Continue reading Pastiera Napoletana
Research has shown that eating nuts on a regular basis is healthy. The best reason for baking these cookies however is that they are delicious! They are gluten free and dairy free, if that matters to you. Walnuts and hazelnuts … Continue reading Walnut-Hazelnut Cookies
This recipe is an embellishment on the easy flourless chocolate cake I posted about recently. I decorated the cake with whipped cream and amarena cherries, and used the syrup of the amarena cherries for the cake batter instead of hot … Continue reading Flourless Chocolate Tartlets with Amarena Cherries
Do you like chocolate? Do you like to impress your guests with your skills in the kitchen? Do you find baking a bit intimidating? Then this is the perfect recipe for you! This flourless chocolate recipe is much easier than … Continue reading Easy Foolproof Flourless Chocolate Cake
With our new ‘pet’, the sourdough starter that lives in our fridge and needs to be fed once a week, I’ve been baking sourdough bread and learning about it along the way. Before I started with this sourdough adventure, I … Continue reading Sourdough Bread
We have a new pet! It is alive and lives in our refrigerator, and needs to be fed at least once a week. Today most yeasted breads are made by adding instant yeast or fresh yeast to do the dough, … Continue reading How to Make Your Own Sourdough Starter (Lievito Madre)
As every year, for my birthday I baked to treat my colleagues. This year I made a pound cake, almond cookies stuffed with amarena cherries, and an Italian apple cake. Other than Dutch appeltaart (the same as American apple pie), Italian torta … Continue reading Torta di Mele (Apple Cake)
A friend who came over for dinner announced he would bring a late harvest Sauvignon Blanc, a Sancerre to be more precise. This is the dessert that I came up with to accompany it: cheesecake made from goat cheese. Goat … Continue reading Goat Cheesecake
Cannoli are Sicilian tubes of deep-fried pastry stuffed with sweetened sheep’s milk ricotta. Traditionally they were prepared for carnevale, but nowadays they are prepared year round and not just in Sicily. The stuffing can be enriched with chocolate chips, candied fruit, … Continue reading Cannoli
December 5 is the date of the Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas) celebration in the Netherlands. Sinterklaas is a bearded fellow dressed in red who gives presents to children. Sounds familiar? The Coca Cola company moved him to Christmas and the North … Continue reading Kruidnoten
Traditional strudel isn’t made with puff pastry but with its own special dough. Although its origins are Turkish (related to baklava), it now mostly known as a recipe from Austria. You can also find strudel in North-East Italy, because of … Continue reading Apple Strudel
One of my co-workers, a nice lady called Heleen, mentioned that she had a great recipe for carrot cake. That got my attention as I was looking for a dessert recipe with vegetables. She lent me a book from Slow … Continue reading Carrot and Almond Cake (Torta di Carote)
If you like chocolate, you will love these chocolate bombs. They use the same batter as the flourless chocolate cake I posted ages ago, but they bake more quickly and there is no need to glaze them. The secret ingredient … Continue reading Flourless Chocolate Muffins
When we told Lucia of the B&B we stayed at in Roseto degli Abruzzi that we were going to visit the Calanchi di Atri, a beautiful landscape close to the town of Atri, she advised me to also check out … Continue reading Pan Ducale
When I saw the Blood Orange Polenta Cake on Please Pass The Recipe, I made a note on my Coming Soon page to remind myself to make it. It was a logical choice as dessert for the gluten free dinner … Continue reading Orange Almond Cake
For the first time ever I’m going to cook dinner for someone who is gluten intolerant. (Luckily her version of the intolerance allows me to use my regular kitchen equipment as long as it has been cleaned.) I’m not going to … Continue reading My First Gluten Free Bread
Crostata is a very popular Italian fruit tart that is eaten both for dessert and breakfast. When we visited Jo of My Home Food That’s Amore, she gave us some goodies to take home including two jars of homemade apricot … Continue reading Apricot Jam Tart (Crostata alla Confettura di Albicocche)
Clafoutis is a flan-type cake from France, usually stuffed with cherries. I’ve stayed very close to the recipe of Stéphane’s great grandmother, which he posted on his wonderful blog My French Heaven. It is quite easy to make and it … Continue reading Clafoutis
You may think I’m obsessed with the combination of almond and amarena cherries. Recently I posted about this meringue cake and these cookies. So why yet another post that features this combination? Well, I really liked the texture of the … Continue reading Almond Cherry Cookies (Bocconcini all’Amarena)
I really like the combination of amarena cherries and almonds, as you may have noticed from this almond meringue cake with amarena cherries. I also really liked the texture of Mimi’s hazelnut cranberry cookies. And so it wasn’t hard to … Continue reading Almond Amarena Cookies
In many workplaces in in the Netherlands it is a tradition to treat your coworkers to baked goods on your birthday, either homemade or store-bought. About a decade ago I worked with a guy called Benno and he was crazy … Continue reading Banana Eclairs (Bananensoezen)
After the success of my first homemade puff pastry, I thought croissants and pains au chocolat would be just as easy. There is one major difference though: croissants and pains au chocolat (basically croissants with a different shape and stuffed … Continue reading Homemade Croissants and Pains au Chocolat
When we visited Conor and ‘the Wife’ in Tipperary, she made us a wonderful meringue cake with raspberries using her mother’s recipe. It was lovely and we loved it. I decided then and there that I would bake one too, … Continue reading Almond Meringue Cake with Amarena Cherries
This orange muffin came about because I saw a recipe for Orange Bundt Cake on Campari & Sofa, and thought it would be nice to make this as muffins for a pretty dessert. Claudia’s source for the recipe was Marcella … Continue reading Orange Muffins
Most of my food shopping is planned, but sometimes I buy an ingredient on a whim because I haven’t used it in a while, without having a plan what to do with it. And so I had some cranberries sitting in my fridge, waiting for a purpose. The last time I had to throw them out because they had gone bad before I used them. Cranberries are not on my usual repertoire. When I saw Mimi’s recipe for Cranberry Hazelnut cookies, I knew I had found the destiny of those cranberries as I also had some hazelnuts I needed to use up. I’m glad that I did, because they were great! The combination of cranberries and hazelnuts works very well, and the cranberries give the cookies a very nice freshness. I also liked the soft tender texture of the cookies very much. I will definitely make them again. Thanks, Mimi!
Continue reading “Mimi’s Cranberry Hazelnut Cookies”
Today was my birthday and in the Netherlands it is customary (although not everyone complies) to treat your co-workers to cake on your birthday. This cake can be store-bought or homemade, and it’s easy to guess what I chose. I love gevulde speculaas, which is spiced sweet shortbread (speculaas or also known as speculoos outside the Netherlands), stuffed with almond paste. Speculaas is very Dutch, as it celebrates the spices that were imported by the Dutch (from today’s Indonesia) in the 17th century. It is very popular around the St Nicholas celebration (December 5). The spice mix contains many of the spices that were very exotic back then: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardemom, and white pepper. The combination with almonds works very well. Continue reading “Gevulde Speculaas (Speculoos Stuffed with Almond Paste)”
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