Moist Chocolate Cake

I have something to confess, I'm a bit of a chocolate cake snob. I don't really enjoy the "birthday cake" chocolate cake or the chocolate cakes at parties, I usually find them to be a bit to dry and not really special and so I generally skip it altogether. Yet when I try a rich, moist chocolate cake I'm head over heals for it. This recipe is exactly that, with no flour and beaten egg whites this cake is anything but an average dry chocolate cake. It has become my go to chocolate cake recipe! 

Recipe bellow 

Moist Chocolate Cake: 

Recipe from Iris Gilbert 

40x27 cm. (13x9 inches) baking dish 

Ingredients: 

400 grams dark chocolate roughly chopped 

200 grams butter

1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon milk

10 eggs, separated

1 cup sugar

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch

additional whipped cream for topping

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C (300 F) butter baking pan

Melt chocolate and butter in hot water bath or double boiler. Once chocolate is melted turn off heat and add milk. 

Beat the egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar for two minutes. Add cornstarch, mix until blended. Add the chocolate mixture and mix throughly. 

In a separate bowl beat egg whites and 1/2 cup sugar until becomes stable with soft peaks. 

Gently fold egg whites into chocolate mixture. Transfer to baking pan. 

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until soft crumbs come out when checked. 

Cool on baking rack. Best served in room temp. with a dollop of whipped cream. 

Keep in airtight container in fridge.  

Apple Pie

As I've mentioned before apple deserts bring back fond memories, and will always have a special place in my heart. My mom and I are both fans of apple anything, and so it was most appropriate that for her birthday I would make her an apple pie. This was my first attempt at an apple pie with no one around to help me. Thankfully it was a huge success! Not only did it turn out beautifully, but it was really delicious and most importantly it passed my mom's approval! 

Recipe below,

Apple Pie

Recipe from this Israeli cookbook (only in Hebrew)
9 1/2 inch (24 cm.) pie plate

For dough:
280 grams (2 cups) all purpose flour
150 grams salted butter
80 ml. (1/3 cup) cold water

For filling:
1 kilogram. granny smith apples
100 grams (1/2 cup) sugar
100 grams (1/2 cup) brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 1/2 Tbsp. all purpose flour
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

For topping:
A bit of milk or egg for brushing
1 Tbps. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Make the dough:
Add flour and butter in a mixer until crumbly. Add cold water gradually until dough forms into a ball. Cover dough and let rest for an hour in fridge.

Make the filling:
Peel and cut apples to slices of 1/2 cm. Mix apples with both sugars, cinnamon, flour and lemon juice.

Preheat oven to 180 C. (350 F.)

Assemble:
Part the dough in two. Roll one half of dough to a 30 cm. (12 inch) disk, transfer dough to pie dish. Pressing down to the sides of the pie dish (I pierced the dough with a fork a few times to get out air bubble as well). Spread the apple filling evenly in the dish. Roll out the second half of dough into the size of the pie dish, and cover the dish. Use a fork to press down sides. Make a few cuts in the center to let out steam. Brush the top with the milk or egg, mix the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and spread over pie.

Bake the pie either on the bottom of the oven for 45 minutes or until golden.

Wait until completely cool before slicing. Best served with vanilla ice cream!

Homemade Pizza

Making pizza at home is one of those things that brings back a whole bunch of good memories from my childhood. My mom used to make it all the time, for birthday parties and all us kids got to make their own pizza or just for a fun afternoon at home. I loved helping her, my job was always grating the cheese. Homemade pizza is really easy to make and you can top it with all your favourite things. I now make it often at home, it is a great dinner for a relaxed Saturday at home. I use this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, make a sauce out of crushed tomatoes, onions, garlic, salt and pepper. And top it off with whatever I feel like at the moment. For this pizza I did mushrooms, tomatoes and fresh and hard mozzarella. It turns out delicious every time.  

Ricotta Sweet Buns

In Israel these sweet buns are simply called yeast pastries, they are like a combination of Challa (Jewish bread) with its soft texture and cake with the touch of sweetness and ricotta filling. I admit I have a minor addiction to yeast pastries, Max knows one of the first things I do when returning to Israel is stop by the nearest bakery to buy a few cheese filled pasteries. I have saved this recipe for a while and finally decided it was time to make it. I can really only say they are amazing, and after making these I decided my search for the perfect sweet bun recipe can end here. The recipe is from one of my favorite bakeries in Tel-Aviv, Dallal Bakery. If you are ever in Tel-Aviv, go to Neve Tzedek my favorite neighborhood in Tel-Aviv and look for this bakery!

See the recipe below...

Ricotta Sweet Buns
Makes 10-11 buns
*Notice dough has rest in the fridge overnight)
(please notice this recipe is in grams, cup measurements in brackets)

For dough:
500 g. (3 1/2 c. + 1 Tbsp.) flour
70 g. (1/3 c. + 1 tsp.) sugar
10 g. (2 tsp.) salt
25 g. (5 tsp.) instant dry yeast
5 large eggs
200 g. (1 c. minus a Tbsp.) butter (at room temp.)

For syrup:
100 g. (1/2 c.) sugar
120 ml. (1/2 c.) water

For Filling:
70 g.(3/4 c.) softened butter
450 g.(2 c.) ricotta cheese
90 g.(3/4 c.) powder sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1 yolk
2 tsp. cornstarch
80 g. (around 1/2 c.) dried cranberries or chocolate chunks

Make the dough:
Add flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a mixer bowl and beat together. Add eggs one at a time and beat at low speed for 4-5 min. until you get an elastic dough. Add butter gradually and beat on medium speed for about 10 min. until the dough is smooth and shiny. Place dough in a bowl and cover, let rest overnight in fridge.

Once your dough has rested overnight make the syrup:
Bring the water and sugar to a boil, lower the heat and cook for 5 min. Let cool.

Make the filling:
Add butter, ricotta cheese, powder sugar, and vanilla and mix together. Mix in egg and yolk slightly. Add cornstarch and mix until just incorporated.

Prepare baking sheet with baking paper. If you would like your buns to keep their shape bake in a round cake baking pan.

Make the buns:
Roll the dough on a floured counter top into a rectangle of 70 cm. length and 25 cm. width, thickness of 3 mm. Spread the filling evenly on rectangle and sprinkle cranberries or chocolate on top. Gently roll the dough to make one long roll. Cut into 10-11 rolls with a sharp knife. Place buns in baking pan. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let rise for an hour or until double in size.

Preheat oven to 170 C (340 F) degrees.

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately after taking them out of the oven brush with syrup and let cool before serving them.

Enjoy every minute and crumb!

Chocolate Molten Cakes

Three weeks ago we moved in to our new apartment. We are so amazingly blessed to have this cute little apartment in a great location and with such a great community around us. I am beyond happy to finally have a home to ourselves. A place to relax and of course bake amazing things. So to celebrate our first Saturday at home I made these chocolate molten cakes. I was looking for something chocolaty but easy to make since we still had a lot of unpacking to do. These molten cakes are pretty much made of chocolate bars and some butter, with the perfect soft and pudding-like center. Along with a scoop of ice-cream these make a great Saturday afternoon. See recipe below...

 

Chocolate Molten Cakes

makes 6 medium cakes or 12 small individual cakes

2 Tbsp. butter, melted
2 Tbsp. cocoa
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup cream
5 eggs
3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/4)
2/3 cup flour

Butter the cupcake pans and sprinkle the insides with cocoa, coating completely.

To make the batter, place chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl, then top it with butter and cream. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until the chocolate is smooth. When chocolate has cooled slightly, stir in eggs, sugar and flour. Pour into prepared cupcake pans. Refrigerate for 1 hour (at least) and up to a couple of days.

Bake at 230 C (450 F) degrees for 10 minutes for regular 12 cupcake pan size and 15-18 for jumbo 6 six cupcakes pan size, just until the outsides and most of the top have set, and the centers are still slightly runny. You can insert the tip of a knife to test. You just want a bit of the very center to be a thick pudding like texture. Let them cool for 5 minutes, then place a sheet pan on top of the muffin pan and invert them.

Serve with whipped cream or ice-cream.

Salt And Rosemary Crusted Potatoes

Potatoes are a standard dish that I usually don't follow a recipe for and just cut them up put salt, pepper, olive oil, garlic and whatever else I feel like at the moment and let them sit in the oven for a while. But I have been wanting to make this standard dish into something more enjoyable and these potatoes are truly amazing. They turned out so soft in the middle but perfectly crunchy on the outside. 

See the recipe bellow...

  

Salt and rosemary crusted potatoes:
serves 6

• 6 large or medium sized potatoes
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/4 c. kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp. chopped rosemary
• butter for serving

Preheat the oven to 200° C (400° F). Scrub the potatoes clean and dry them with paper towel. Pierce the potatoes several times and brush with olive oil. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Combine salt and rosemary into a medium bowl, roll potatoes in mixture to create crust. After rolling all the potatoes in the mixture use the extra mixture to create six mounds on the lined baking sheet. Place each potato on a mound of the mixture. 

Bake for 1-11/2 hours depending on the size of the potatoes. Test with a skewer to make sure they are baked through, being careful not to damage the crust. 

Serve hot with a dollop of butter in the middle. 

Peanut Butter Cookies

What can be better than chewy soft peanut butter cookie? This is diffidently the cookie I make for comfort. I made these before we left Israel and I wish I could have one right now! It is the taste of home. Max loves peanut butter (I'm sure he is addicted) so these were a huge hit. This recipe is really easy and the cookies are so comforting. I love mine plain and simple but I also make some for Max and my family with dark chocolate chunks and some with white chocolate chunks. All the variations turned out great. I used this recipe from A Cup of Jo. I divided the dough into three and added dark chocolate chunks to one third, white chocolate chunks to one third and the rest I did plain. 

Chocolate Espresso Cupcakes

I just love cupcakes, they are easy to make, cute and delicious. What can be better than that? These cupcakes are absolutely perfect, the touch of espresso really brings them to a different level from just a regular chocolate cupcake. I made these for my birthday in the beginning of the month and shared them at my office. They were a huge hit, the cupcake by itself is amazing but the frosting is perfection! The combination of dark chocolate and espresso, need I say more? 

I used this recipe from "Call me Cupcake" 

  

Pumpkin Cheesecake

 Pumpkin cheesecake is the best way to celebrate the beginning of December! The perfect combination between pumpkin pie and cheesecake, makes this a must during the holiday season. Pinterest made me dream about pumpkin desserts with all the amazing recipes, and I really couldn't wait to fill the house with the aromas of cinnamon and nutmeg. Since in Israel pumpkin is used mainly (if not only) for savory dishes and most people don't understand the amazingness of pumpkin pie, my mom and I have a little tradition of making pumpkin pie during this season and enjoying it all to ourselves. This year we decided to make it a little lighter and so we made this cheesecake. 

Here is the recipe: 

Crust:

We made this basic pie crust by Smitten Kitchen.

Filling: 

300 grams of cream cheese

2 c. pureed pumpkin

3 eggs

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 tbsp. cinnamon 

1 tsp. vanilla

1/8 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg 

2 tbsp. flour 

While the pie crust is chilling make filling and heat oven to 175 c.:

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg mixing until smooth. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined. 

Pour into crust, bake for 1 hour or until tooth pick comes out clean. 

Best served after it has been refrigerated for at least 4 hours and with a spoonful of whipped cream on top

Seven Recipes to Try this Holiday Season

Oh how I miss that feeling of the holiday season! Every year since I left Canada this season is the one I miss the most. Holiday decoration, recipes and ideas are everywhere on the web and I want to be part of it all. I always try to bring a little of the holidays to Israel, although they do not celebrate them here. We have plenty of Jewish holidays, but Thanksgiving and Christmas will always hold a special part of my heart. We usually have a small Christmas dinner with friends and we put up a small Christmas tree in our home. One of my favorite part of the holidays is going over to friends and of course all the delicious candy and cookies. So I rounded up seven recipes that would be great to try this holiday season.

Above, Chocolate Covered Sea Salt Caramels. 

Butter Cookie Sandwiches with Chesnut Cream

Coconut Caramel Corn

Pumpkin Woopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Filling

London Fog Shortbread

Pumpkin Spice Biscotti

Nutella Cream Puffs

Homemade Tortillas

Have you ever made tortillas at home? Since I was little my mom made tortillas at home, with the exception of the years we lived in Mexico. After tasting the real tortillas I only buy tortillas if I am extremely lazy. They are so easy to make at home and are much more enjoyable this way. Of course these are not as good as real Mexican tortillas made in Mexico, but they are the best I can get here. 

Here is my mom's recipe: 

4 c. Flour (I like to use half whole wheat half white) 

1c. Warm water

1 tsp. salt 

1 tbsp. oil ( I use olive oil, but any kind of oil works) 

Mix all the ingredients together and form a ball. Make 6 balls out of dough. On a lightly floured surface roll out into thin tortillas. Warm up frying pan to medium heat, using a tiny bit of oil fry each side. 

That's it! Aren't these so simple? They are also much healthier than the store bought ones since you can add whole wheat and control the amount of salt and oil. I highly recommend trying them. They are best served warm as tacos or quesadillas. 

Coffee Lover

Are you a coffee lover? I definitely am! I love my two mugs of coffee a day, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. I have a routine four-o’clock coffee break, which I am quite strict about and if for some reason I must skip it, my whole day feels ruined. I usually have my coffee break with a little something sweet, whatever I have on hand it really doesn't matter as long as I have good coffee. I even kept this routine during my mandatory years in the military, and to this day my friends from the army like to make fun of my “rule” of having a coffee break. Of course since then my breaks are much more eloquent with French pressed coffee and not instant which is the best we could make in our impromptu kitchen. 

How do you drink your coffee? I use a French press, which I love. It makes great coffee; I also like filter coffee but I find that the French press makes coffee with a dark rich texture. Have you ever tried it? It’s really great and easy. Of course, one of the most important things about coffee is the mug you drink it in. It makes all the difference if you drink from a beautiful mug, doesn’t it? Here are a few mugs I am loving right now.

Love these natural tones

Mociun - amazing shop I just discovered

Paper and Clay