Recently I've been making lots of savoury snacks and main dishes. I guess sometimes I get a little bored of sweet treats especially when I bake so much and have leftovers every day. Sometimes I even have to eat them all day long. So a hearty vegetarian meal or a salty snack is sometimes like a relief. But next day I find myself craving for sweets again.
But now I'm actually trying to eat less sweets as in three days I'm having a birthday. That means I'll eat A LOT of sweets so this is kind of a preparation for it. I just can't decide what cake I want to make. I'm considering caramel, mocha, chocolate blackout or tiramisu. Ahh that's so difficult. !!
So this time I made empanadas with a vegetarian filling. I couldn't resist it after seeing the recipe on the wonderful Healthy Recipes blog. Even though I've made some alterations, the ingredients remained the same and the result exceeded my expectations. The pastry was flaky, buttery and soft in the middle. And the filling, despite being quite simple, was amazing - all the ingredients and spices matched together perfectly. So I just wanted to share this amazing recipe and encourage you to try it.
Recipe adapted from Healthy Recipes.
Vegetarian Empanadas
Dough:
280g/2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
113g/1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 large egg
80ml/1/3 cup cold water
1 tbsp white vinegar
Filling:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small white bell pepper, finely chopped
3 cloves minced garlic
220g mushrooms, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Egg wash:
1 large egg
1 tablespoon water
1) In a large bowl, mix
together the flour and salt. Add butter and cut with a knive until the
mixture resembles fine bread crumbs (or pulse a few times in your food
processor).
2) Whisk together the egg, water, and vinegar in a small bowl. Add to the flour mixture and mix just until forms a ball.
3) Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough for 1 hour.
4) Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high
heat. Saute onion and bell pepper about 4 minutes.
Add garlic and mushrooms. Saute about 5 more minutes, until mushrooms
are tender and all the liquid is absorbed. Add spices. Cook one more minute, stirring. Remove from
heat and set aside.
5) Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Whisk together the egg and water for the
egg wash. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove dough from
fridge and allow to rest 5 minutes at room temperature.
6) On a lightly floured surface, with a floured rolling pin, roll out
dough to about 4mm thickness. Cut twelve 10-12cm circles. Place one heaping tablespoon
vegetable mixture on one half of each circle, leaving a 2 cm border.
Brush egg wash on empty side of circle, fold dough over to make a
half-circle and close edges, then crimp edges with a fork.
7) Place the empanadas on the prepared baking sheet. Brush with egg wash.
Bake for 10 minutes. Turn empanadas over, brush the other side and bake 5
minutes longer, or until lightly browned on both sides. Cool ten minutes
on a wire rack before serving.
Simple oatmeal cookies are always a perfect choice when I crave for something sweet but not overwhelming. They're quick to make, keep for many days and are easily portable. These are very crispy around the edges and slightly chewy in the middle with a buttery, oaty taste. Simplicity wins!
Oatmeal Cookies
200g butter, softened
200g brown sugar
1 egg
125g flour
2 1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1) Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add brown sugar and beat until incorporated. Add in the egg.
2) In another bowl, mix together the flour, oats, baking soda and salt.
3) Mix the dry ingredients into the butter mixture.
4) Preheat oven to 180C.
5) Form the dough into balls and flatten a little bit. Leave some space for them to spread during baking. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown around the edges and slightly soft in the middle.
One of the best cakes I've ever made. The sponge was super light, soft and fluffy. The pastry cream gave sweetness and richness while the cream gave some lightness. Strawberries and bananas made it completely perfect. It is a real summer-must-make-cake! I have eaten many cakes like this - sponge, berries or fruits and cream. And I never was a big fan of them until I made my own version. It tastes a million times better than a store-bought cake. And it's much easier than it looks like. You can make the pastry cream and the sponge in advance. (Actually I highly recommend making the sponge cake the day before to cool it completely).
I hope I've convinced you to make this. Believe me, you won't regret it!
Strawberry Banana Sponge Cake
Pastry Cream
4 egg yolks
130g sugar
400ml milk
40g cornstarch
50g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Sponge Cake (recipe from here)
4 large eggs, separated
120g sugar
3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
120g cake flour, sifted
20g butter, melted
1 large banana, sliced
1 - 1,5 cup strawberries, halved
1 tbsp orange juice
200ml whipping cream
2-3 tbsp powdered sugar
Make the pastry cream:
1) In a heavy bottom pot, beat together the yolks, sugar and cornstarch until light and fluffy.
2) In a medium pot, bring milk to boil. Once it boils, add a little to the yolk mixture. Always keep whisking as fast as you can! Gradually pour all the milk into the yolk mixture. Do not stop whisking. Bring the pot over medium-low heat and whisk until the mixture thickens. If it starts bubbling too much, lower the heat. The pastry cream has to drop off the spoon very slowly but there musn't be any lumps. When you reach that consistency, remove from heat and let stand for 2 minutes.
3) Add the vanilla extract and butter. Mix until incorporated.
4) If there are some lumps, you can strain the pastry cream. However, I did not have any lumps because I was whisking it constantly.
5) Let cool. Cover with plastic wrap and place into the fridge.
Make the sponge Cake:
1) Beat the egg whites until stiff, gradually adding sugar. When it is incorporated, stir in the egg yolks. Stir in the milk, vanilla extract, cake flour and butter.
2) Preheat oven to 180C. Line 2 springform pans with parchment paper. Divide the batter into the pans. Bake for 15-25 minutes or until it is golden brown and springs back when pressed.
3) Cool completely.
Assembly:
1) Whip the whipping cream with powdered sugar until stiff.
2) Dip banana slices into orange juice and shake excess liquid.
3) Place one layer of cake onto a plate. Spread half of the pastry cream. Place some strawberries iver it. Cover with half of the whipping cream. Place the second cake layer on top. Cover with pastry cream, then the whipping cream and decoreate with strawberries and bananas.
4) Chill for at least 30 minutes.
Enjoy!!!
*If you use a 17cm springform pan, you will get thicker cake. You may slice it and have 4 layers instead of 2. I baked mine in a 23cm pan so my layers were quite thin.
Recipe by collecting memories
The most wonderful banana bread. Why it is wonderful? Well firstly because despite having only 25grams of butter it's still amazingly moist. And the moisture keeps for many days. Secondly, it has a strong banana flavour with the perfect amount of sugar. To me, this is the best not-too sweet snack whenever I want something delicious and healthy.
Banana Bread
250g flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 large eggs
3 medium bananas, very ripe (about 1 1/2 cups mashed)
150g sugar
25g butter, softened
1/2 cup sweetened applesauce*
*If
using unsweetened, increase the amount of sugar up to 200 grams. But I
don't recommend adding too much. The sweetness of your bread also
depends on how ripe your bananas are.
1) Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare a silicone loaf pan (if using a metal pan, lightly grease it.)
2) In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3) In another bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar and beat until combined. Stir in the eggs, applesauce and bananas.
4) Stir the dry ingredients into the banana mixture. Don't overmix. Pour the mixture into the loaf pan and smooth the top.
4) Bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted to the center comes out clean. Let cool completely and slice. (I suggest baking it in the evening and leaving overnight because it's much more delicious after it stands a bit.)
Recipe by collecting memories
So my experiments with healthier food continues. These muffins are made half from whole wheat and half from wheat flour. But the best thing is that there's no butter, only 2 tablespoons of oil and they're still very moist. These are packed with various seasonings but you can mainly taste dill in them. So the result satisfied me completely - they're delicious, guilt-free and super frangrant!
Low Fat Onion Dill Muffins
100g whole wheat flour
100g wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano
1 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
1 egg
2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
250ml whole milk
oil for greasing the muffins tins
1) Preheat oven to 180 deg. C.
2) In a bowl, mix together the first 8 ingredients.
3) In a saucepan, combine together 1 tbsp olive oil and onions. Set over medium low heat and leave. Stir time to time. When they're softened and golden brown, remove from heat. Mix in the garlic and dill. Let cool.
4) In a large bowl, beat the egg. Beat in the milk. Start adding the flour mixture. Finally, add the onions and mix just until combined.
5) Grease 9 muffin tins with oil. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin center comes out clean.
Makes 9 muffins.
Vegetarian Empanadas
