Carrot horn rolls

Let me start by saying these cookies have the silliest name: horn rolls. Really? At first I thought it was a mot-à-mot translation from Romanian and had a good laugh with my hubby, but it turns out that's what they call them. Still silly, but if you have a better name for them, please let me know. Until then, let's prepare our ingredients, shall we?

Ingredients:

250 g all purpose flour

125 g mascarpone

100 g caster sugar

40 g finely shredded carrot

1 large egg

5 g orange zest

3 g baking powder (roughly 1/2 teaspoon, if you are a fan on the imperial system)

pinch of salt

fruit preserve (jam) of your choice

1 egg yolk

powder sugar

Directions:

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder and set aside. In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, the orange zest and the shredded carrot and mix well, using a rubber spatula. Gradually add the flour mixture. You have now reached the point where you need to get the spatula out of the way and start using your hand(s). Knead the dough until it's soft and does not stick to your hands, form a ball, cover it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for about half an hour. Meantime clean the flour from the kitchen counter, table, floor, and your pet, if you happen to own one. Preheat your oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and place rack in center. Line your tray with baking paper. You might still have some flour on your face and, of course, your clothes. I always do. Ask your husband to open than preserve jar, you won't be able to do it and ladies must not spew profanities, goddamned jars! As you can see, those 30 minutes are now long gone, so get the dough out of the fridge.

Dust some flour on a wooden surface and roll the dough into a circle 0,5 cm (0,2 inch) thick. Using a sharp knife or pastry wheel, cut the disk into 8 equal-sized wedges. If you want the horn rolls to be a little smaller (mine were close to ginormous), cut the dough into 10 wedges. Or, even better, cut the dough in half and roll each piece into a 0,3 cm thick disk. Then cut six wedges out of every disk. There's not much science here, so feel free to divide the dough as you like, keeping in mind that smaller horn rolls need to be watched closely toward the end of the baking time (smaller amounts of dough need a shorter baking time).

Put the jam (I used quince preserve on half of them and strawberry on the other half) on each triangle, not too much because it will ooze out. Starting at the wide end of the wedge, roll the dough into a crescent shape. Brush the pastry with the remaining egg yolk and bake for about 25 minutes or until the top and the bottom are golden brown. Leave to cool on a wire rack and dust with powder sugar.
As you can see in the picture above, I only have seven horn rolls in the tray. That is because I ate one before taking the picture. I am like that, you know?

Recipe slightly adapted from Laura Adamache.

Beetroot chocolate cake

When my neighbor asked me if I wanted a beetroot from her vegetable garden, my first thought was „yay, natural food coloring!”. But then, as she handed me the beetroot, I realized it was way too big to use it only just to make juice and then color the frosting with it, since I wasn't planning to bake cupcakes for the entire neighborhood. So I decided to look around for a dessert recipe that uses beetroot. I found Nigella's recipe and I must say I was intrigued by this odd combination: cocoa and beetroot. Odd to say the least, but why not give it a try? If you feel adventurous enough (and I think you do, because you are reading this, and that's the first step) give it a try and I promise you won't be sorry.

Ingredients:

For the cake

175 grams plain flour

5 grams baking powder

75 grams cocoa powder

225 grams caster sugar

3 eggs

225 grams raw beetroot (roasted, peeled and chopped)

200 ml sunflower oil

pinch of salt

For the frosting

200 grams mascarpone cheese

start with 75 grams confectioner's sugar and work your way up, until you get the desired consistency and sweetness

beetroot juice for the color (optional)

Directions:

Wash the beetroot first, peel and cut into quarters. Place it in a pot and cover it with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook it until soft when poked with a fork (depending on the size, this may take up to 30 minutes). Remove from the pot and set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and place rack in center of the oven. Grease a 20 centimeters (8 inch) bundt pan.

When the beetroot has cooled completely, place it in a blender and puree it. Add the eggs (one at a time) and the oil, beat well after each addition. It is possible not to puree the beetroot and only slightly mash it with a fork in order to have larger chunks of beet in the cake, if you think you would like it better that way. In that case, beat the eggs in a separate bowl before pouring them over the beet, and fold the rest of the ingredients with a silicone spatula, careful not to smash the beetroot chunks.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa, add the sugar. Fold the flour mixture into the beet mixture with a rubber spatula.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and level with the back of a spoon. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan, once chilled invert on a wire rack.

While the cake is cooling, prepare the frosting by mixing the mascarpone with the icing sugar. The beauty of this frosting is that you decide how sweet (and how pink) you want it, so stop from time to time to lick the spoon. The one that you're using to mix the cheese and the sugar, there's no point in licking another. You may add a few drops of beetroot juice, if you like it pink. But I guess everybody likes pink, so why not?

Peanut butter cookies

When I have first tasted peanut butter I was absolutely grossed out. I still don't like it as is, but when it comes to peanut butter cookies, well, things change. I believe that if you grow up accustomed to certain flavors, you are most likely to accept and like them as a grown up, but it takes tame to accept (or even like in the end) new flavors, new ingredients, new combinations. That's me and peanut butter. Peanut butter cookies – good. Peanut butter without cookies – not so good.

Ingredients:

200 g unsalted butter

200 g superfine sugar

1 large egg

200 g peanut butter. Creamy or crunchy, as you wish.

350 g flour

5 g baking powder

pinch of salt

Directions:

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, for about 3 minutes. Add the egg and peanut butter, beat until well blended. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.

Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes and in the meantime preheat you oven to 180 ºC (350 ºF).

Shape dough into 2,5 cm (1 inch) balls, place balls on a baking sheet about 5 cm apart (2 inches). Make a crisscross patter using a fork, or, even better, use the meat hammer (meat tenderizer). You may consider yourself especially lucky if the pounding surface is round and large, enabling you to get an even pattern and the job done much quicker. Who's the mother of all cookies now? You, of course.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

Notes:

If you don't have superfine (caster) sugar, you can make your own. Place granulated sugar in a food processor or coffee grinder and pulse until it reaches a super-fine, but not powdery consistency.

When making the pattern on the cookies, try to use a meat hammer instead of a fork. It's quicker and the pattern will look better.

Mini cheesecake

Everybody loves cheesecake, so let's get down to business. For this recipe I use pressed cottage cheese, because, well, there's a problem with cream cheese around here. And by 'problem' I mean we can only find salted cream cheese, yuck, so we're forced to be creative. Looking for a solution to the cheesecake problem, I've had one of my friends tell me she buys excellent cottage cheese from a local farmer and I've decided to give it a try. The result was even tastier than I could have hoped for, so if you're looking for a cream cheese replacement in this recipe, pressed cottage cheese is my solution. However, I have never used the store bought kind, quark or curd cheese, but if you get to do it, please let me know how it goes.

Ingredients for six 10 centimeters (4 inch) tartlets.

If you decide to bake a dozen tartlets, please remember to double all quantities

170 grams digestive biscuits

90 grams butter

250 grams pressed cottage cheese

1 large egg

200 ml sour cream

100 ml milk

75 grams sugar

5 ml (1 teaspoon) vanilla extract

15 grams flour

pinch of salt

Directions:
Preheat you oven to 160ºC (320ºF) and place rack in center.

Process the biscuits until fine, transfer to a medium bowl. Stir in the melted butter until evenly moistened. Press crumb mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of your tartlet pans and bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack while preparing the filling.

Beat the cottage cheese, sugar and egg until combined. Add the sour cream, flour, salt, and vanilla extract, mix well. Gradually add the milk, scraping down the sides of the bowl from time to time. Depending on the consistency of your cottage cheese and sour cream the amount of milk needed in this recipe may vary. My advice is to add it gradually, until your reach the desired consistency, rather creamy than runny.

Spread the filling into the pans; bake the cheesecake for about 30 minutes or until just set. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecakes cool inside with the door ajar (this prevents them from cracking).

Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. Serve with fresh fruit or berry reduction (recipe coming soon).