Mushroom Pierogi

BEST pierogi you'll ever try. Challenging, but worth the effort!

Pierogi dough:*
500g flour

1 large egg, lightly beaten

240ml warm water
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp sour cream

*You will only need to make half of the recipe. Or you can also double the ingredients for the filling and freeze some of the pierogi (what I did). You should get around 60 pierogi if you make the whole batch.

1) Place flour in a large bowl. Mix in the egg, water, salt and sour cream. Mix until well combined. Knead until you get elastic, soft but not sticky dough, about 10 minutes. 

2) Place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rest while you prepare the filling.

3) Roll out the dough into 2-4mm thickness. Cut circles, fill them and pinch to seal. 

4) Boil 5-8 minutes, until floating. (I like to boil them longer as I like softer pierogi). 

Pierogi filling:

400g mushrooms, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
pinch pepper

1) Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add onions and saute over medium-high heat until softened and browned. Add  garlic and mushrooms. Stir to combine. Cover and cook until mushrooms start to release liquid. Uncover, increase heat and cook until all the liquid evaporates, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and let cool.

Now you can fry your pierogi if you want them to be crispy. I browned half of them and can't really decide what tasted better. Try frying half of them and decide what you prefer.

butter, to fry (optional)
sour cream, to serve

1) Heat oil in a skillet. Place cooked pierogi into the skillet and brown both sides over medium-high heat. Top with sour cream and serve. Enjoy!

Recipe by collecting memories

Sticky Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

Bananas. Peanut butter. Honey. Oats. Applesauce. 

I can't describe how much I love each of these ingredients. And when they come together I am the happiest person on the earth. 

These sticky bars are kind of easy to make. As they're no-bake you can probably throw everything in a bowl and have them ready in 5 minutes. Okay, you actually have to wait several hours until they firm up and that's a hard thing to do. So I highly recommend making them in the evening and refrigerating overnight. So you won't be tempted everytime you pass the fridge.

One important note about these yummy bars is that they're quite sticky. I considered trying to bake these and expect that the heat would dry them out a little and make less sticky but in fact I'm not going to do this. They're simply too good as they are. Believe me, the taste is so good that nothing else matters.

Sticky Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

1 medium overripe banana, mashed
4 tbsp honey
50g salted peanut butter
1 tbsp applesauce
1 1/2 cup quick oats
1 cup old-fashioned oats

1) In a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, combine banana, honey, peanut butter and applesauce. Stir until melted.

2) Add oats and mix to combine. Press into 10x20cm baking dish and refrigerate several hours until firm. Keep refrigerated.

Recipe by collecting memories

Pumpkin Pie Bread (Low-Fat)

Recently I've been trying to incorporate pumpkin in every kind of dessert. I already made a pumpkin pie, a pumpkin bread, pumpkin cupcakes and there are still too many things to make with it. Pumpkin Bread has been in my plans for a long time. However, I didn't want it to be just an ordinary pumpkin bread. I guess many of you have already baked one and it would be boring to see another bread recipe.

How about a bread with a dense, moist pumpkin center and a golden chewy crust? The texture is somewhere between a chewy blondie and a fudge. Amazing! Want to hear another great thing? It's almost fat-free. Yes, you know how much I love turning my baked goods healthier. It only contains two egg yolks and is oil and butter free. Three amazing ingredients - applesauce, pumkin and honey keep this bread amazingly moist. One important thing: I used a homemade pumpkin puree which was made out of a boiled pumpkin. Homemade pumpkin puree has more moisture and I believe that it works better in this recipe.

Finally, there's one more thing which I loved about this bread. Ground oats. Oats and pumpkin is such a great combination!

Pumpkin Pie Bread (Low-Fat)

2 cups homemade pumpkin puree (you can probably use canned)
2 tbsp applesauce
2 tbsp honey
160g white sugar
2 eggs
125 all purpose flour
125g ground oats
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1) Prepare a 22x10cm silicone baking pan (if using metal, line with parchment paper or lightly grease). Preheat oven to 180C.

2) In a small bowl, combine together all-purpose flour, oat flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.

3) In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add white sugar, honey and beat to combine. Add pumpkin puree and applesauce and beat well.

4) Fold the flour mixture into pumpkin puree mixture and mix just until incorporated. Place the mixture into baking pan.

5) Bake for 1 hour. The cake will look underbaked but this is how it has to look like. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Let sit at room temperature or in the fridge several hours to set and then slice. Enjoy with a cup of tea.

Recipe by collecting memories

Bread Pizza

Pizza has always been one of my favourite Italian dishes. Even though I love experimenting with topping ingredients and love the additions such as pineapple, pickles or blue cheese, I always  love to come back to the basics. Mushrooms, cheese, tomato sauce and some herbs is everything I need for the best pizza. However, the crust sometimes takes too much time to mix up, knead, roll out etc.  So I thought I could use white sandwich bread instead of making pizza dough. It took no time and helped me to use up the old bread. And you know what? It was so good. The crust was browned and crunchy and and the surface of the bread absorbed some of the pasta sauce. The topping was perfectly delicious and cheesy. What is more, I liked that this was divided into small portions. If you have no time but crave for pizza, there's nothing better than topping slices of white sandwich bread with your favourite pizza ingredients.

Bread Pizza

6 slices white bread
~1 cup of homemade tomato sauce*
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
dried oregano
dried basil
salt (optional)
180g mushrooms, sliced
80g gouda cheese, shredded

*My tomato sauce contains parsley, onions, garlic, pepper and a dash of olive oil so you may add these seasonings too. If there's no oil in your tomato sauce, I highly recommend adding some, or sprinkling the bread with about a teaspoon of oil before topping.

1) Preheat oven to 200 deg C. Prepare a tray with parchment paper.

2) Place bread slices on the baking paper. Top each of them with tomato sauce. Sprinkle with garlic, oregano, basil and a pinch of salt.Top with mushrooms and sprinkle with cheese.

3) Bake as long as you wish. This may take from 5 to 25 minutes. I like to bake them longer because I like my bread extra crispy and browned.

Recipe by collecting memories

Crustless Pumpkin Pie

The Pumpkin Season has finally begun and the house smells like fall. I have more pumpkin than I need and I can't wait to realize new pumpkin recipe ideas. The first one I would like to share with you is the crustless pumpkin pie. This is a classic pumpkin pie made with sour cream and a small amount of flour to help it hold its shape. This pie is much lighter than the traditional pie so you can actually eat more of it. And, what is more, this is kind of a magic pie. During the baking, the top becomes slightly caramelized which was my favourite part of it. 

P.S. Last week I made a round up of my summer recipes and picked out the best ones. If you haven't seen it yet, please check it out here!

Crustless Pumpkin Pie

2 cups pumpkin puree
150g light brown sugar
3 large eggs
100g sour cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp cinnamon
20g flour

1) Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Lightly grease a 18cm baking pan.

2) In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add sugar, sour cream and pumpkin. Whisk until incorporated. Add salt, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and flour. Mix to combine.

3) Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set in the middle. Let cool completely and transfer to refrigerator. Let sit for at least 4 hours or overnight before serving.

Recipe by collecting memories