Summer Cake with Strawberries, Lemon and Yogurt

In summer, waking up in the morning to warm sunshine and a blue sky feels so good. But it feels even better when you know that there's a freshly baked strawberry cake waiting for you to eat it for breakfast. Well, I must correct myself: not only for breakfast, but all day long. Seriously, this cake is perfect at any time. Serve it with a spoonful of lightly sweetened plain greek yogurt on top and there you go - the most delicious summer dessert of all time!

Strawberry Summer Cake

batter
150gm butter or margarine, at room temperature
150gm white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
a pinch of ground nutmeg
a pinch of ground cinnamon
3 eggs
zest of 1 lemon (about 2 tsp)
280gm regular white flour
2 tsp baking powder
130gm plain yogurt or buttermilk

+ about 300gm of fresh fruits, cut in halves or pieces or slices - I was using 1 large nectarine cut in thin slices and about 20 large strawberries cut in halves. What kind of seasonal fruit you add totally depends on your taste. blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, pears, apricots, nectarines, kiwi, rhubarb - add anything you wish.

Preheat your oven to 200 C. Line a medium size round baking pan with baking paper but do not grease the sides of the pan. Place soft butter, sugar, lemon zest, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl and beat using a hand mixer on high speed until fluffy for about a minute. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. In another bowl sift together flour and baking powder and sieve it over the wet mixture, quickly beating it in. The batter should be very dry and sticky. Now add the yogurt or buttermilk and quickly beat it in as well making sure that everything is well incorporated. Now the batter should be extremely fluffy, light and smooth. Put the batter into the lined baking pan spreading it evenly. Arrange all the pieces or slices of fruit on top of the batter and lightly press them in. Now prepare the crumble mixture...

crumbles

30gm butter or margarine, at room temperature

30gm sugar

50gm regular white flour

a pinch of salt

Combine the ingredients for the crumbles in a bowl and beat using a hand mixer on low speed for about 10 seconds, just until the mixture is lumpy and crumbly, and arrange the crumbles on top of the cake onto the fruits. Put everything in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes until done and nicely golden. Let it cool completely and then remove the cake from the baking pan. Enjoy ...

Semolina Flatbread

As you may already know my all-time favorite is yeasted dough. Though I love bread and especially baking bread by myself, I mostly use it for sweet things e.g. buns, brioche or challah. My friendship with yeasted dough began with cinnamon raisin buns which are - honestly - the love of my life. Eating them warm when they're still fresh from the oven makes me weak. I could literally eat them all day long. 

This time I came up with an non-sweet recipe with yeast dough: arabic semolina flatbread. Coming from a country with an extreme arabic and jewish influence, flatbread has always been sort of a must-have on our table. No matter if plain or spicey, thick or thin, crispy or soft, chewy or oily, it is usually eaten with everything, either with meat or rice and vegetables. And soaking a piece of flatbread in a left-over salad dressing or sauce is just culinary heaven! Seriously, who needs meat when there's flatbread and salad dressing?

This recipe for semolina flatbread is very easy, no dough braiding, no swirling, no complicated forming. But the result is stunning. An extremely soft and fluffy inside and some toasted sesame seeds on top. The semolina goes just great in flatbread, as it gives a slightly cakey consistency to the bread and a nice yellow color. 

Semolina flatbread

20gm fresh yeast (or 2 tsp dry active yeast)
175ml warm water
250gm semolina
250gm white flour
1.5 tsp salt
125ml olive oil
1 egg (for brushing)
3 Tabsp sesame seeds (for sprinkling)

Crumble the fresh yeast into the warm water, stir a little bit and let sit for a few minutes until the mixture starts to become light and bubbly. In a large glass bowl, sift together semolina, flour and salt. Add the bubbly yeast mixture and olive oil, gently mix using a wooden spatula or spoon. If the dough seems to be dry, add a little bit more water, if it seems too wet, add some sieved flour. Now remove the dough from the glass bowl and start kneading it on a slightly floured surface for about 2 - 3 minutes until it becomes very soft and elastic. Put it back in the glass bowl, cover with a kitchen towel or a plastic wrap and leave it at a very warm place for about 60 - 90 minutes until the dough has doubled in size. Meanwhile line two large baking sheets with baking paper. Remove from the glass bowl and knead again for about 1 minute. Devide the dough in two parts. Place each part on a lined baking sheet and roll it out using a rolling pin or simply your hands. The dough should be 2 - 3 cm high/thick (about 1 inch). (It doesn't have to look perfectly even, the more natural and messy it looks, the better it will taste...) Leave the two baking sheets at a very warm place again for about 30 minutes until the dough has slightly risen. Preheat your oven to 200 C. Beat the egg and brush the top of the risen dough. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for about 30 minutes until nicely golden. Serve warm or cooled, both versions are delicious!

Simple Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (Eggless)

You definitely don't want to live without the experience of eating a fresh and still hot cookie with big melted chocolate chunks in it. Go one step further and sprinkle the top of the cookie dough with some sugar before baking, for a sweet and crunchy sugar crust. Then make yourself a cup of hot strong coffee or tea and dunk your fresh from the oven chocolate chip oatmeal cookie in it. If you think I'm overdoing it, you're mistaken. This can enormously sweeten up your life. And that's what cookies are made for, right?!

This is the first eggless oatmeal cookie recipe that I've ever tried. I'm actually not into eating vegan at all (I'm sorry, beef steak is my passion...) but I got this recipe from a very good friend of mine who is vegan. And since I needed to indulge my passion for oatmeal cookies I just had to bake them right away. As already said, they turned out really good, seriously. Although I - for some reason - prefer baking cookies using eggs, this is still a very simple and delicious recipe and I'm definitely going to bake these again as soon as possible.

Simple Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (Eggless)
makes about 20 medium size cookies

1 c sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch salt
2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 c apple juice (or any juice you like)
2 c oats
100gm chocolate chips (or just regular chocolate, chopped in small pieces)

Preheat your oven to 150 C. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients, just throw everything together and whisk well until you have a very sticky and lumpy dough. Drop tablespoons of batter on the lined baking sheets (I used between 1 and 1.5 tablespoons of dough for each cookie). Bake for about 25 minutes until done and nicely golden. Enjoy warm and fresh from the oven or completely cooled.

Optional: To get a nice sugar crust, sprinkle the top of the cookies with a little bit of sugar before you place them in the oven.

Yeasted Apple Pancakes

Coming from a family of many different races and ethnicities I grew up learning a lot about the Kazakh, Greek, Russian, Armenian, German, Korean, Jewish and Ukrainian cuisine, to mention only a few. Korean glass noodle salad, Russian black bread, Armenian kefir and Kazakh syrup sweets - as a child, I had all of this together (Goodness, I'll never forget the good old days...) If you are also of a mixed family background you'll probably know what I'm talking about. But anyway, I'm straying from the subject, let's get back to the main story I wanted to talk about: yeasted apple pancakes. As a child, I ate a lot of pancakes. No matter if those were Russian or German or Greek pancakes, no matter if they were made with buttermilk, yeast or whole wheat flour, no matter if I added honey or jam or cream cheese on top - I've tried endlessly many different kinds of pancakes. And, honestly, I still haven't fallen out of love with pancakes. They're always great, no matter what. That's why I wanted to share an amazingly delicious pancake recipe with you which uses yeast for the batter, apple slices for the top and which is perfect for a warm, fruity and sweet breakfast meal. Trust me. These. Are. Simply. Good.

Yeasted Apple Pancakes

250gm flour (I was using regular white flour, use whole wheat flour if you prefer to live on the healthy side of life)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 Tabsp sugar
20gm fresh yeast, in crumbles or small pieces
250gm warm milk
3 Tabsp melted butter or margarine
3 eggs
2 apples, in thick slices
some butter for frying

In a large glass bowl, combine flour, salt and cinnamon and mix well. Slightly press in the top of the flour mixture using your fingers to make sort of a pit or deepening, in which you have to place the crumbled yeast, sugar, melted butter and milk. Gently stir, just until a bit combined and let sit for a few minutes until the yeast mixture on top of the dry mixture starts to get light and foamy. Add eggs and start beating the batter using a hand mixer on high speed until everything is well incorporated. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel or a plastic wrap and let sit at a very warm place for about 40 - 60 minutes until the batter has risen a little bit. Now make the pancakes: melt some butter in a frying pan at medium heat, drop about 2 - 3 tablespoons of batter in the pan and place one apple slice on top of the pancake. Fry on both sides at medium heat for about 3 minutes until golden brown. Continue until batter and apple slices are used up. 

Serve while still warm adding some liquid honey or maple syrup on top of the pancakes.

 

Chocolate filled Oatmeal Ginger Cookies

  

- It's builder's tea. We dunk biscuits into it.

- Dunk?

- Means lowering the biscuit into the tea and letting it soak in there and trying to calculate the exact moment before the biscuit dissolves, when you whip it up into your mouth and enjoy the blissful union of biscuits and tea combined. It's more relaxing than it sounds.
(Quote taken from the movie 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel')

Everytime I eat cookies together with some black tea or coffee I think of this quote. My favorite ones to dunk into tea or coffee are oatmeal cookies. And my absolute all-time favorite ones to dunk into tea or coffee are chocolate filled spicey cookies. It's so simple but so delicious so that you just have to try this recipe, you won't regret it!

And oh! before I forget, here's another lovely quote I absolutely adore from the same movie:

- Everything will be allright in the end. So if it is not allright, then it is not yet the end ...

Chocolate filled Oatmeal Ginger Cookies

(makes about 1 dozen big double-cookies or about 2 dozen small double-cookies)

dough

1/2 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 cups oats

2/3 cups white flour

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of ground nutmeg

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 200C. Line 4 baking sheets with baking paper. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, just until incorporated. Sieve over flour together with baking powder, salt and spices, add oats and mix everything well until you have a thick but still soft mixture. (You might want to add a little bit more flour if it seems to you that the dough is too sticky.) Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface and cut out the cookies using a drinking glass or a cup of the size you want your cookies to be. Place the cookies on the lined baking sheets and bake for about 10 minutes until done and nicely browned. Let cool completely before filling them.

filling

about 100gm melted dark chocolate (it depends on how much filling you want to have between two cookies, if you want them to be less-sweet, reduce the amount of chocolate. If you want the extreme sugar shock, use a lot of sweet milk chocolate instead of less dark chocolate. It totally depends on your taste. You decide.)

Take two completely cooled cookies and spread some melted chocolate (about 1-2 tsp) on one and then simply stick the two cookies together. Continue to fill the remaining cookies until everything is used up. Place the filled cookies on a wire rack until the chocolate is completely cooled.

Enjoy with a hot cup of tea or coffee. And don't forget to dunk them into it.

Cheese filled Sesame Strudel

I like yeasted dough so much. Every single day I have to eat something made with yeast, no matter if it's something sweet, e.g. cinnamon rolls or something savory, like fresh bread or buns. The taste and the consistency of a baked yeast dough is simply my favorite. 

This is why I'm here to share with you one of the best savory strudel recipes on this planet. The inside contains a lot of cheese and many herbs (almost any herbs or spices can be used) while the top of the strudel is brushed with fresh olive oil and a lot of sesame seeds. This strudel is perfect either for breakfast, for lunch or for dinner, and it can be served as a side dish with meat or as a main course with a simple salad and a spicey dip.

Cheese filled Sesame Strudel

dough
500gm white flour
20gm fresh yeast, in crumbles or small pieces
2 tsp salt
300ml warm water
3 Tabsp olive oil
1 egg
2 Tabsp sugar

Combine the crumbled yeast, sugar and water in a glass bowl and set aside for about 5 minutes until the mixture is very foamy and light. In a very large glass bowl sift together flour and salt. Add the egg, oil and the yeast mixture. Mix well using a wooden spoon or spatula slowly adding the flour from the sides of the bowl. Place the dough on a floured surface and knead for about 2 - 3 minutes until you have a very soft and elastic dough. Place in the glass bowl again and let rise at a very warm place for about 1 - 1.5 hours, until doubled in size.

filling
200gm Greek white and crumbly cheese (or use any other cheese you like, fresh mozarella will be perfect as well)
1 cup cottage cheese or farmer's cheese
2 Tabsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 Tabsp coriander leaves, chopped
1 Tabsp chili sauce (I was using ajika / aджика / aџьыка, which is a very hot and spicey Caucasian red paste)
1 tsp salt
a pinch of pepper
1 tsp majoram, dried

+ about 2-3 Tabsp olive oil for brushing
some sesame seeds (about 2 tsp)
some coarse salt (about 1/2 tsp)
some black cumin seeds (about 1 tsp)
some ground dried rosemary (about 1 tsp)

Mix the Greek cheese using a fork until very crumbly. Add the cottage cheese, parsley, coriander leaves, chili sauce and as much salt, pepper and herbs as desired, mix well. 

Now fill the yeast dough: Roll out the dough very thinly in a square shape, arrange the filling mixture on top. Roll the dough in and form a strudel. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper and place the strudel on it. Brush the strudel with some lukewarm water (about 2 Tabsp) to make sure that the top of the strudel won't become dry but stays moist and wet. Let rise again at a very warm place for another hour.

Preheat your oven to 175 C. Brush the completely risen strudel with olive oil and sprinkle the top with sesame seeds, salt, black cumin seeds and rosemary. Place in the oven and bake for about 30 - 40 minutes until nicely browned.

 

Sweet Yeasted Cinnamon Swirls

Is there anything yummier than sweet cinnamon swirl buns for breakfast?
The warm scent of cinnamon and slightly caramelized top when you take the swirls out of the oven is just amazing. Actually I wanted to dust the baked swirls with some icing sugar on top but I couldn't. I skipped the icing sugar and I found myself eating the warm cakes right away just like that.
They now definitely belong to my all-time favorite recipes, I can't wait to bake them again. So please, do me a favor and bake those swirls right now. You'll love them.

Sweet Yeasted Cinnamon Swirls 
recipe adapted from Solodke (in Russian), recipe slightly changed

for one medium size round baking pan
500gm white flour
1 tsp salt
20gm fresh yeast in very small pieces or crumbles
100gm sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
300ml luke warm milk
100gm butter or margarine, melted
about 2 Tabsp ground cinnamon (or more if desired)
about 2 Tabsp white sugar (normally I increase the amount of cinnamon and reduce the sugar as I prefer the swirls or buns to have a very strong cinnamon flavour)

Combine the fresh yeast, milk and sugar in a small glass bowl and let sit for a few minutes until the mixture starts to become light and foamy.
Using a large glass bowl sift together flour and salt, form a mould in the middle of the flour mixture. Add the yeast mixture, the eggs and the melted butter. Stir carefully using a wooden spatula and adding more and more flour from the sides of the bowl until everything is incorporated. Move the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead until it becomes very smooth and elastic. (You might need to add a little bit more flour to the dough if it's too sticky.)
Place the dough in the glass bowl again and let rise at a very warm place (25° - 35°C) for about 1 hour until doubled in size.
Line the bottom of a medium size baking pan with baking paper. Combine ground cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.
Remove the dough from the glass bowl and devide into 3 equal parts. Roll out the first one into a round shape. Sprinkle the cinnamon mixture on top. Cut the rolled out dough into triangular segments. Roll in each piece of dough starting from the outside and moving inwards. Place the swirls in the lined baking pan.
Continue with the 2 remaining parts of the dogh and put everything in the baking pan. It doesn't have to be perfect, the messier you prepare the buns the cuter they will look afterwards. Sprinkle the top of the swirls with some more cinnamon and sugar if desired.
Let rise again at a very warm place for another 30 minutes until the yeasted dough has risen notably. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Bake for about 30 minutes until done and nicely browned. Remove from the oven. Take a deep breath and enjoy the amazing scent in your whole apartment. Eat.

Jewish Honey-Drizzled Syrup Cake

A soft buttery batter soaked in sweet honey syrup. What else do you need to be happy? Well, maybe a cup of strong hot mokka. 

Jewish Semolina Syrup Cake
recipe adapted from Big Girls Small Kitchen (slightly changed recipe)

batter
120gm soft butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cup milk
2 cups yellow semolina
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
a pinch of nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 175C. Line a  medium size round pan or a 20 x 30-cm baking pan with baking paper. Combine butter and sugar, cream using a hand mixer on high speed. Beat in eggs, one at a time, add milk and lemon zest and beat on high speed just until incorporated.
Sift together semolina, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sieve over the wet mixture and mix well. Fill the batter in the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes.

honey syrup
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water

While the cake is baking, prepare the syrup. Combine the ingredients for the honey syrup in a sauce pan. Place on high heat and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 5 minutes, then remove from heat. 
When the cake is done, take it out of the oven and slowly pour the hot honey syrup all over the cake using a spoon. Let soak and cool completely overnight.
Optional: Sprinkle with almonds if you like.

It's Chai Time ~ Moist Banana Cake

Honestly, this cake needs no introduction. Everything important is mentioned in the title. The cake is amazingly moist. And it contains some yummy bananas. If you have some ripe bananas to use up and if you are a cake lover, try it. It will make you happy :)

Moist Banana Cake

layers
3 eggs
16Tabsp sugar
16Tabsp oil
7 medium size bananas, mashed
16Tabsp white flour
15gm baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
a pinch of nutmeg
banana flavour (optional)

Preheat oven to 150C. Line 3 round baking pans with baking paper.
Beat the eggs and sugar using a hand mixer until very foamy and bubbly. Add mashed bananas and oil, beat in quickly. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Sieve over the wet mixture and beat again, just until incorporated. (Add banana flavour if desired.)
Fill the batter in the three prepared pans, place them in the oven and bake for about 30 - 35 minutes until done and nicely browned. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

frosting
150gm butter, at room temperature
250ml heavy cream
500gm curd cheese
1.5c icing sugar

Beat heavy cream until stiff. Add soft butter and curd cheese and beat until very smooth and well combined. Sieve over icing sugar and beat in. (Add more icing sugar if you want the frosting to be very sweet.)
Take the cooled cake layers out of the baking pans and frost the cake.

topping
80gm dark chocolate
50ml heavy cream
some sliced almonds for sprinkling

Melt the chocolate together with heavy cream until you have a very smooth and liquid mixture. Fill the melted chocolate mixture in a piping bag and decorate the cake (or just sprinkle the top of the cake with the melted chocolate if you want your cake to look a little bit messy.) Arrange the sliced almonds on the sides of the cake. Place the cake in the fridge for a few hours until it's completely cooled.
Enjoy :) 

Simple Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I took these pretty cookies out of the oven I just couldn't resist and ate nearly one half of them while they were still hot. The sides were golden and crispy while the inside was very moist and full of melted chocolate. Please try them. They're amazing.

Simple Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes about 40-45 medium size cookies

2 cups white flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of nutmeg
12 Tabsp butter or margarine (melted)
1 cup sugar (they were a little bit too sweet, next time I'm going to reduce the amount of sugar. Use 1 cup of sugar if you want your cookies to be very sweet.)
1 egg
chocolate chips, as much as desired (I used about 100gm)

Preheat oven to 190C. Whisk together melted butter, sugar and the egg. Sieve over flour together with baking powder, salt and nutmeg, mix well until you have a thick but soft dough. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. Form the cookie dough into small balls (I was using about 1 tablespoon of dough for 1 cookie) and place them on the lined baking sheets.
Bake for about 15 minutes until golden.
Let cool completely (Or eat them all immediately when they're still hot. If you are as unpatient as I am.)
Enjoy.

Viennese Apfelstrudel

After two posts about baking with apples I honestly still don't have enough of them. You can create soo many delicious things using apples, they seem to be kind of a miracle in my kitchen. There are things like apple jam, apple buns, apple muffins, apple pancakes, apple cakes, apple tarts and no matter where you put the apples in, everything turns out delicious. That's why I'm going to show you another amazing apple recipe. I'm not Austrian and I've never been to Vienna but the traditional viennese Apfelstrudel is what I fell in love with.

Viennese Apfelstrudel

dough
250gm white flour
2gm salt
1 egg
100gm lukewarm water
20gm oil

some melted butter for brushing
some sliced almonds for sprinkling

filling
1kg apples, in pieces or chunks
140gm sugar
10gm cinnamon
170gm raisins
50gm melted butter

Combine the ingredients for the dough using your hands and knead until the dough becomes very elastic and soft. Add a bit more oil if the dough sticks to your fingers.
Place in a bowl and let sit for about 30 minutes.

Combine the ingredients for the filling and mix well.
Preheat oven to 190C.
Roll out the dough in a rectangular shape on a floured surface. The dough should be very thin. Place a clean towel on the rolled out dough and roll it in very carefully making sure not to tear the dough.Flip over the rolled in towel and roll it out in the opposite direction so that the dough is now on top of the towel and not unterneath.
Arrange the filling evenly on top of the dough leaving the sides without filling.
Fold in the sides of the dough. Slowly roll in the dough with the filling using the towel.
Place on a lined baking sheet. Brush with some melted butter and sprinkle some sliced almonds on top.
Bake for about 30 - 40 minutes until golden brown. 
Enjoy :)

Apple Cinnamon Rolls ❤

Let me introduce to you the best baked stuff that has ever been made: the one and only apple cinnamon rolls. A soft and fluffy yeasted dough, heavy and sweet apple pieces and a lightly caramelized cinnamon sugar crust. The moment I took the fresh and hot rolls out of the oven we just couldn't resist the impulse to eat almost everything within few minutes...

Apple Cinnamon Rolls

dough
42gm fresh yeast, in crumbles
3 Tabsp sugar
450ml warm milk
180gm melted butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1kg white flour
2 tsp salt
a pinch of nutmeg
+ some milk for brushing

Combine yeast, sugar and half of the milk in a glass bowl and let sit until the mixture is creamy and bubbly and the sugar is dissolved.
Sieve flour, salt and nutmeg into a very large glass bowl. Add the yeast mixture, butter, remaining milk and eggs. Stir with a wooden spoon until well incorporated. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead on a floured surface for about 4 minutes until the texture becomes very soft and elastic. 
Put it back into the glass bowl, cover with a plastic wrap and let rise at a very warm place for about 1 hour.

apple filling
2 cups apples in very small pieces
1-2 tsp ground cinnamon (or as much as desired)
1/2 cup sugar

Combine the ingredients for the filling. 
Line a baking sheet or a deep baking pan with baking paper.
Take the risen dough out of the glass bowl and knead again for a few minutes. Roll it out evenly into a rectangular shape.
Arrange the apple mixture on the rolled out dough and spread evenly.
Carefully roll in the dough and cut into 12 equal parts. Place the 12 rolls in the lined baking pan. (Sprinkle with even more sugar and cinnamon, if wanted.)
Let rise again at a very warm place for about another hour. Brush the top with some milk.
Preheat oven to 175C. Bake for about 35 - 45 minutes until golden brown.
Enjoy.

Panettone

Well, let's call this a kind of failed panettone... Honestly, the texture was soft, fluffy and buttery and the taste was lightly sweet, just like it should be, but the look could be improved a bit. I really don't know why the yeasted dough rose too much or why the top of the breads was uneven and a bit overbrowned. But come on, It was my first time baking panettone and I don't have that much experience with yeasted doughs, so don't jugde me :) Nevertheless I hope that you like the pictures and give this recipe a try!

Panettone
makes two panettone breads

450ml warm milk
42gm fresh yeast, in crumbles
120gm sugar
100gm candied orange or lemon peel
150gm raisins
700 - 800gm white flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 egg yolks
200gm melted butter

Combine yeast and sugar with half of the milk, stir (using a wooden spoon) until sugar dissolves and let sit for about 5 minutes until brown and bubbly. 
Prepare the dough in a large glass bowl: Sieve together flour and salt. Add orange peel, raisins, nutmeg and mix well. Pour over the yeast mixture, melted butter and the remaining milk. Stir slowly until well incorporated. Start kneading the dough on a floured surface and add more flour if needed. Knead for about 4 - 5 minutes until soft but still a bit sticky. Place back into the glass bowl and let rise at a very warm place for about 1 hour.
Butter two round pans (if possible, use panettone pans, I was using two soufflé pans).
After the dough has doubled in size, take out of the glass bowl and knead again for about a few minutes. Form 2 dough balls and place into buttered pans. Let rise again at a warm place for about 1 - 1.5 hours.
Preheat oven to 150C. Bake the panettone bread for about 45 minutes.
Let cool completely, then remove from pans and dust with a lot of icing sugar.
Enjoy :)

Grandma's Cinnamon Roll (Strudel)

The smell of cinnamon is the one that comes into my nose and goes straight into my heart. My grandma has always been using a lot of cinnamon in anything baked and I remember her kitchen often smelling like cinnamon roll when I was little. Especially on cold winter days she still bakes about five or six large strudels at one time (which makes the whole neighborhood smell like a french bakery) and feeds our whole family until everyone's full up. That's why I'm going to adore this strudel forever. 
So here comes the recipe for you to try ...

Cinnamon Roll or Cinnamon Strudel
makes about 2 large rolls

dough
42gm fresh yeast
1.5 c warm milk
about 3/4 c sugar (it depends on how sweet you want your strudel to be)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp salt
about 800gm white flour (or a bit more if needed)

cinnamon filling
1 Tabsp ground cinnamon
1 Tabsp sugar

Combine fresh yeast and the sugar with about 5 tablespoons of the warm milk. Let sit for a few minutes until bubbly.
Add remaining milk, eggs and salt. Whisk until well incorporated.
Sieve over flour and whisk, then knead in. Continue kneading for about 3 - 4 minutes. Add a bit more flour if needed. The dough should be smooth and elastic but still slightly stick to your fingers.
Place into a bowl (make sure that you use a glass bowl otherwise the yeast might not incorporate that well). Let rise at a very warm place for about 1 hour until doubled in size.
Remove dough from glass bowl. 
Combine ground cinnamon and sugar.
Knead the dough again, for about 2 minutes until it is very soft and elastic. 
Use a roller to roll it out into a thin sheet. Sprinkle with cinnamon mixture and roll up again.
Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Place strudel onto the baking sheet and let rise at a warm place as well, for about 40 minutes.
Preheat oven to 175C. Bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool. 
(I have to admit that I can never wait until the strudel has cooled completely, I just have to eat one or two slices when it's still hot. Despite of knowing that eating hot yeasted cakes is not good for the stomach it's so delicious that I can't keep my hands off.)