Sunday, 29 September 2013

Black Chokeberry juice

I got some chokeberries from my friends and decided to do some juice. I found some recipes and decided to go on my own way a little... I've never done any juices but I think I did okay :)

about 1l of black chokeberries
3dl water
0,5tsp citric acid (I got it from the pharmacy)
2dl sugar

1. Blend the berries in a pot with a blending machine.

2. Boil some water and mix the citric acid in it. Let the mixture to cool down a bit.

3. Add the water in the berry pot. Mix them together.

4. Let the mixture be in the fridge for 2 days. Mix couple times.

5. Crush the berries through a sieve to another pot with your hands. (Use gloves! This berry tends to color everything...)

6. Pour every last drop and berry through the sieve.

7. Mix 2dl of sugar to the juice you have created. This may take little time since the juice is cold.

8. Bottle the juice.


Those who have more sweet tooth person in them can add more sugar to the juice since the chokeberry is quite sour.

I also noticed that 1:1 is good if you want to dilute the juice a bit with water. I like this juice just as it is. :)


Friday, 27 September 2013

Coconut dreams

I just love coconuts...!

Ingredients:
2 eggs (separate the egg yolks and whites)
170g sugar
2tsp lemon juice
280g coconut flakes 

1. Put the oven to heat to 180'C.

2. Whisk the egg whites until they are foamy and fluffy.

3. Add the egg yolks one by one and mix well in between.

4. Add the sugar little by little and mix well after every adding. 

5. Add the lemon juice and mix well.

6. Mix in the coconut flakes with a big spoon.

7. Mold tiny balls from the mix with your hands.

8. Bake the coconut balls in the oven for about 15 min.

Thursday, 19 September 2013

Carrot cupcakes

I got a multipurpose machine from my parents and decided to test how well it grates the carrots and mixes the dough. Everything went well :).

2 eggs
2dl sun flower oil
200g brown sugar
1,5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp lemon juice
4dl wheat flour
250g grated carrot
2 tbsp crushed hazelnuts



1. Mix the eggs, oil and sugar well together.

2. Add the baking powder, cinnamon, vanilla and lemon juice and mix well.

3. Add the flour gradually in and mix well.

4. Put the grated carrots and nuts in. Mix them in the dough with a big spoon, for example.

5. Heat the oven to 180'C.

6. Put the dough to cupcake pans. Fill the molds up to half way or little over.

7. Bake the cupcakes in the oven for about 20-30mins until they have risen and the dough wont stick to a toothpick.

8. Let them cool down and enjoy :)

Tuesday, 17 September 2013

Karelian pie

I did some Karelian pies with my friends and they tasted so good... I've done these before but now I changed the recipe a little.

~30 pies

Filling:
5dl water
2,5dl porridge rice
1 l(liter) full fat milk
2tsp salt

Crust:
2dl cold water
2tsp salt
2dl wheat flour
~3,5dl rye flour

Greasing:
50g margarine
1dl water

Filling:
1. Boil the water and add the rice in it. Remember to mix the rice so that it won't burn. Let the rice absorb the water (~10min).

2. Add the milk and salt and let the mistura boil in medium heat (~30-40min). Remember to mix at least every 20 seconds so that it won't burn! You have to keep and eye on this one. When done, let it cool down.

Crust:


1. Mix the salt and flours to cold water. Create a nice, firm dough.

Making the pies:
1. Take about 1/5 of the dough and roll it to be about 0,5cm thick (use enough flour so that the dough won't stick to the table/rolling pin).

2. With  a round glass cut pieces (about 6-7cm in diameter) from the rolled dough.

3. Roll the pieces to be round, thin discs.

4. Add some rice porridge to the center (~1cm thick layer). Leave about 2cm space from the edges.

5. Flip the two opposite side edges on top of the rice. Start to pinch the edges to form a nice, neat sides to the pie. (I use my thumb and index finger.)

6. Bake the pies in the oven in 275'C for around 10-15min. 

Greasing:
1. Put the water and margarine to a pot and melt them together.

2.  Drown the baked pies to the margarine-water mixture and put them then on a paper towel to cool down and absorb the margarine mixture.


Enjoy the Karelian pies with some egg-butter spread (spread made of butter and hard boiled eggs) or just as they are. :)


Monday, 16 September 2013

Cinnamon rolls

Oh, I love these...! And I think they get even more better after being in the fridge one day.

First I did the bun dough with my basic recipe.

Inside the buns to make cinnamon rolls I needed...

100g room temperature margarine (or even melted)
2-4 dl sugar
1dl cinnamon

1 egg to be spreaded on the buns
some sugar

1. I did the basic bun dough and let it to rise double in size.

2. Then I rolled 1/3 of the dough to be rectangle-like in shape (about 30cm x 60cm) and about 1 cm thick.

3. I buttered the dough plate from the top with margarin. (I'm not afraid to put it too much ;) The more the better...)

4. I mixed the sugar and cinnamon together (about 0,5-1dl cinnamon and 2dl sugar) and sprinkled it on the dough plate so that it was covered completely with the sugar-cinnamon-mix. 

5. Then I rolled the dough plate from top to bottom to be like a big stick.

6. I cut the stick like this: so that the other side of the piece is about 2cm wide and the other 4cm.
 
7.  I put the oven to heat to 220'C.

8. I picked up the rolls on the baking tray and placed the piece so that the narrower end was on top. Then I pushed the piece from the top with my both thumbs.

9. I let the rolls rest a while on the baking tray (about 10min). Then I spreaded some egg on them and sprinkled sugar on top.

10. I put the cinnamon rolls to the oven and let them bake for about 10min until they were golden brown.

Sunday, 15 September 2013

Buns

Here is the basic bun recipe that I love...

5dl milk
50g yeast (fresh)
2dl sugar
1 tsp salt
2 eggs (another one is spread on the buns)
1-3 tsp cardamom (to taste)

15-16dl wheat flour
150g margarine

1. First I heated the milk to be tepid and mixed the yeast in it.

2. I mixed the salt, sugar, one egg and about two tea spoons of cardamom to the milk-yeast mixture. Then I started adding about half of the flour amount.

3. After adding half of the flour I mixed in the room temperature margarine and the rest of the flour and kneaded the dough until it didn't stick to my hands anymore.

4. I put the dough in a warm place and let it rise double in size.

5. I started doing the buns by rolling them inside my palms and put the oven to 190'C.

6. I let the buns to rise under a cloth for a while and then spread some egg on them and sprinkled some sugar on top.

7. I let the buns to bake in the oven for about 15-20min until they were golden brown.