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.

Simple Banana Yogurt Bread

It's quite weird but I absolutely hate bananas while I absolutely love banana cake. Well, I know that's not normal, but come one... we all have strange quirks we can't get rid of. Face it. I hate bananas. I love banana cake.
But a moist banana cake with some yogurt added to the batter is even better. Although I'm still not entirely sure why those kind of recipes are called 'banana bread' instead of simply 'banana cake', I don't mind at all as long as the so-called 'bread' is delicious. Just as the Spanish proverb tells us 'If there is no bread, cakes will do.'
 

Simple Banana Yogurt Bread

1 cup sugar
2 Tabsp butter
2 eggs
3 cups white flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 mashed bananas combined with 2 cups of yogurt or instead use 2 cups of bought banana yogurt (containing real bananas or banana flavour)

Preheat your oven to 180C. Line a loaf pan with baking paper. Cream butter and sugar together using a hand mixer on high speed until very fluffy. Add the eggs and beat in. Add the mashed bananas+yogurt or the banana yogurt and beat in as well. Sieve over flour, baking powder and salt and quickly beat in just until incorporated. Do not over beat. Pour the mixture into the lined loaf pan and bake for about 45 - 55 minutes until done and the top of the cake is golden brown. Let cool completely.

Optional: Sprinkle the top of the cake with some melted chocolate or dust the cake with some icing sugar.

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.

Moist and Rich Lemon Sour Cream Cake

Let's just say: This cake is an excellent mixture between creamy and fruity. 

If you have been following the recipe posts on my blog (I know you have! right??!!) you have probably noticed that I don't care much about low-fat products. I've never enjoyed them and I rarely use them. Instead, I think that a healthy amount of fat in your food makes the meals even more delicious. So if it says in the recipe 'sour cream' definitely use real sour cream, if it says 'whipping cream 40%' use real whipping cream 40%, if it says 'butter' use real butter. Have you ever tried to make one dessert with low-fat buttermilk (1% fat) and another with usual heavy cream (50% - 60% fat) and then compared the taste of both with each other? Then you know, obviously, that you cannot make a nice dessert or a sweet cake without using fat. Impossible.

That's why this mouth-watering cake contains full-fat sour cream in the frosting and a looot of fresh vegetable oil in the cake layers. 

Bake it. 

Frost it. 

Decorate it. 

Enjoy a piece. 

And then another. 

Never worry about calories. 

If you have a really healthy lifestyle with a lot of exercising, you can enjoy as much baked stuff as you desire without falling sick or becoming overweight.

So here comes the recipe . . .

Lemon Sour Cream Cake

cake layers

3 eggs

zest of 2 large lemons 

16 Tabsp sugar

16 Tabsp vegetable oil

5 Tabsp cold water

16 Tabsp white flour

15gm baking powder

1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 175C. Line the bottom of two regular round baking pans with baking paper. Beat the eggs, sugar and lemon zest using a hand mixer on high speed until very light and foamy. Add oil and water, beat in quickly. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and sieve it over the wet mixture. Beat in quickly just until incorporated. Fill in the two lined baking pans and bake for about 20 - 30 minutes until nicely golden. Remove from the pans and let cool completely.

lemon glaze

juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed

1 tsp sugar

Whisk together lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Brush the top of each cooled cake layer with the sweetened lemon juice. Let soak for a few minutes.

frosting

1000gm full-fat sour cream / crème fraîche

250gm white sugar

1 Tabsp corn starch

grated chocolate (optional)

Combine sour cream, sugar and corn starch in a large bowl and beat using a hand mixer on high speed until the mixture becomes very creamy and fluffy for about 2 - 3 minutes. Frost the two cake layers. (Sprinkle some grated chocolate on top, if desired.) Let cool and soak completely for a few hours or overnight. Enjoy :)

Apple Chocolate Cheesecake

The combination of a nice buttery crust, a heavy chocolate cheesecake and a fruity apple cake is weird. I admit that. But still, it's really worth trying. If you are a passionate breakfast lover like me you're going to adore this cake. It's perfect for breakfast. 

Apple Chocolate Cheesecake

dough
5 Tabsp butter
1 1/4 cups flour
1 egg
a pinch of salt
1 Tabsp sugar
1/4 cup water

Combine the ingredients for the base. Place on a floured surface and knead until the dough is soft and elastic. Roll it out. Line a medium size baking pan. Place the dough in the lined baking pan with the sides of the dough hanging out.

batter/filling
500gm curd cheese
2 eggs
100gm butter
150gm chocolate
2 Tabsp corn starch
5 Tabsp semolina
3 Tabsp cocoa powder
100gm sugar

+ 5 large baking apples, cut into slices or pieces
 
Preheat the oven to 200C. Melt together the butter and chocolate in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, curd cheese and sugar. Sift together the dry ingredients and sieve over the wet mixture. Beat in quickly until incorporated. 
Arrange half of the apple slices on the dough in the baking pan and spread about one half of the cheesecake mixture on top of the apples. Arrange the remaining apples on the cake mixture and spread the rest of the batter on the apples.
Fold back the sides of the dough. Bake for about 40 - 50 minutes until done and nicely browned. 
Dust with some icing sugar if you like.

 

 

 

 

Wedding Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream Frosting

A few days ago my great-grandparents had their 65th wedding anniversary. Since this is a huge number of years and and amazing event, my whole big family was celebrating as if there was no tomorrow. Everyone in my family loves to talk loudly, to eat a lot, to sing out of tune and to hug each other like crazy. So, in short, I was having a great time. Not only because of my lovely family but also because of all our delicious traditional food. And I can say with pride that somewhere on the dessert table between about hundreds of other cakes, there were some beautiful little chocolate cupcakes with a pretty buttercream frosting made by me. And now they are requested and desired for every future celebration or family event. 
That's why you should definitely try them. The batter is extremely moist and soft while the buttercream is very fluffy and creamy. They're perfect for any special occasion. So here comes the recipe ...

Chocolate Cupcakes With Caramel Buttercream Frosting
(cupcake recipe taken from raspberricupcakes, I slightly changed the recipe)

cupcakes (makes about 12 medium size cupcakes)
95gm white flour
150gm sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tabsp unsweetened cocoa powder
6 Tabsp hot water
85gm melted butter
6 Tabsp buttermilk or low-fat yogurt
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line 12 muffin pans with muffin paper cups. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine cocoa powder and hot water and stir until the mixture is a thick paste. (According to Steph, this step intensifies the chocolate flavour of the cupcakes. I think it definitely works. The cupcakes had a very strong and delicious chocolaty taste. So don't skip this process.) Beat together the chocolate paste, butter, buttermilk and the egg. Sieve over the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. Fill the batter in the prepared muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes until done. Remove from the pan and let cool completely. 

buttercream
100gm butter, at room temperature
200gm cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups icing sugar
2 Tabsp caramel syrup (or use any other kind of syrup you like)
3 tsp corn starch

Beat together butter and cream cheese. Sieve over corn starch and beat in quickly. Sieve over the icing sugar and continue beating for about 2 minutes until very smooth and well incorporated. Add the syrup and mix. The mixture should be very thick but smooth. Frost the 12 completely cooled cupcakes. (Optional: I decorated the frosted cakes with some dark chocolate roses. Use whatever you wish.)
Enjoy :)

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 :) 

Carrot Orange Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting

Well, I had some carrot left-overs. I love carrot cake. And I love cream cheese. So I combined those two yummy elements and and about one and a half hours later I had some lovely carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting sitting in my kitchen waiting for me to eat them all up.

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
makes about 12 medium size cupcakes

cupcakes
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
2 cups finely grated carrots
zest of 1 orange

Preheat oven to 150C. Line 12 muffin pans with muffin cups.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
Beat the eggs for about 1 minute. Add sugar and orange zest and continue beating until very light and foamy. Quickly beat in oil. Sieve over the dry ingredients and mix until you have a soft batter without any lumps. Fold in the grated carrots and mix well. Fill the batter into the prepared muffin cups and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes. Let cool completely.

frosting
112gm butter, at room temperature
250gm curd cheese (or cream cheese)
1 cup icing sugar

Beat butter and curd cheese using a hand mixer until incorporated. Sieve over the icing sugar and beat again. The frosting should be very smooth and thick. Fill into a piping bag and frost the cupcakes.
Optional: Use orange jelly and melted chocolate to decorate.
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.

It's Chai Time ~ Rocher Chocolate Orange Cake

Although I don't like chocolate that much, especially filled chocolate, I was amazed by this cake. One of my best friends is kind of a chocolate addict and as she was having a really tough week filled with many exams this cake was a gift for her. It turned out great, she liked it very much. So if you have any chocolate or pralinés to use up you should try this recipe, you're going to love it!

Rocher Chocolate Orange Cake

Cake Layers
4 eggs
16 Tabsp sugar
16 Tabsp oil (sunflower or any other)
16 Tabsp white flour
15gm baking powder
zest of 2 ver large oranges

Preheat oven to 150C. Line 2 round baking pans with baking paper. Do not grease the sides.
Beat the eggs with sugar and orange zest until very foamy and light. Add oil and beat in quickly. Combine flour and baking powder and sieve over. Beat in until well incorporated.
Fill into the 2 prepared baking pans and smooth the top. Bake for about 20 - 30 minutes until done and nicely browned. Let cool completely.

Frosting
500ml heavy cream
500gm curd cheese (I used low fat)
200gm dark chocolate, grated
4 Tabsp cocoa powder
1 cup white sugar

Whip the cream to soft peaks. Add rest and beat in until smooth. Frost the two completely cooled cake layers.

Topping
50gm melted chocolate
16 Rocher pralinés

Decorate the top of the cake with melted chocolate as desired. Arrange the Rocher pralinés on top. You can also sprinkle the top of the cake with crushed chocolate bars or any other kind of filled chocolate.
Enjoy :)

Gateau Aux Crêpes

 

Crêpes for breakfast are delicious. A lot of crêpes with cream spread in between are even more delicious. But a lot of crêpes with cream and a topping of raspberries and a dark chocolate ganache are unbeatable. 
You can create so many different breakfast meals or desserts with a simple egg batter fried in a pan, no matter if you prefer the French, the American, the Russian or the Jewish version of pancakes. This is one of them:

Gateau aux Crêpes

Crêpes
1l milk
560gm white flour
salt
6 Tabsp sugar
5 eggs
zest of 1 lemon

Whisk eggs with half of the milk and the lemon zest. Sieve over flour, salt, sugar and whisk in quickly until well incorporated and very smooth. Pour in the remaining milk and whisk well until there are no lumps. The batter should be very liquid and smooth.
Let sit for about 1 h.
Heat some vegetable oil in a medium size pan and fry about 20 crêpes on both sides until golden brown.
Let cool completely.

Frosting
500ml whipping cream
500gm curd cheese
100gm sugar

Combine the ingredients for the frosting in a large bowl and beat using a hand mixer until very smooth.
Place one crêpe on a large plate and spread some frosting on top. Arrange another crêpe on top and frost again. Continue until crêpes and frosting are used up completely (or eat the rest...). Do not frost the sides.
Put the cake in the fridge and let cool.

Topping
100gm very dark chocolate, in pieces
100ml whipping cream
some raspberries (as much as desired)
grated white chocolate (as much as desired)

Place chocolate and cream in a small sauce pan and melt it on medium heat while continously stiring. Remove from heat as soon as the mixture is completely melted.
Sprinkle the top of the cake with the chocolate ganache (or use a piping bag if you want an even pattern). Arrange the raspberries on top of the cake and sprinkle with grated white chocolate.
Enjoy :) 

Honey Layer Cake

Some weeks ago, my grandpa brought me a huge jar of liquid honey that he got somewhere. The first thing that my mom said was "Please bake a honey layer cake! I want one!" I admit that my first thought about so much honey was the same. If you try this cake you will understand why. It has the incredible ability to take away all bad moods and rainy days within the first two seconds of chewing. No person on this planet has the strenght to refuse to eat a second piece of this cake. Or even a third one, in some cases...

And though I was using a lot of honey there's still so much left, fortunately. I keep looking for another delicious honey cake recipe checking out some baking blogs. So, there's definitely going to be another honey cake post soon. Wait for it!

Honey Layer Cake

layers
4 eggs
300gm sugar
a pinch of salt
8 Tabsp liquid honey
3 tsp baking powder
200gm melted butter or margarine
24 Tabsp white flour

Prepare the batter for the 4 layers. Preheat oven to 175C. Line 4 round baking pans with baking paper. (Or use 2 pans and bake the layers in 2 steps, preparing 2 layers each time.)
Beat eggs, sugar and salt on high speed using a mixer until very light and bubbly, for about 4 minutes.
Quickly beat in the melted butter or margarine until incorporated.
Combine honey and baking powder in a saucepan on medium heat while continously stiring. The baking powder lumps should disappear and the honey should become very watery. Keep stiring until the mixture starts to rise and becomes very bubbly. As soon as it has doubled in amount, remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.
Then pour the honey mixture into the egg-butter-mixture and beat in just until well combined. 
Sieve over white flour and beat in as well. The batter should be really smooth and soft without any lumps.
Pour into prepared pans and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes until done. Let cool completely.

frosting
500gm curd cheese (I was using low-fat)
400gm сметана or sour cream
4 - 5 tsp powdered sugar (depending on how sweet you want your frosting to be)

Prepare the frosting. Combine the ingredients for the frosting and beat well until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is smooth and fluffy. 
Take the cooled honey layers and frost until the complete frosting mixture is used up.

topping
50gm dark chocolate
3 tsp whipping cream
about 50gm sliced and toasted almonds

Prepare the ganache. Melt chocolate and cream in a small saucepan while stiring. Remove from heat when the chocolate has melted completely.
Pour the ganache mixture into an icing bag and decorate the top of the frosted cake as desired. 
Sprinkle sliced almonds onto the sides of the frosted cake.
Enjoy :) 

It's Chai Time ~ Vanilla Cherry Cupcakes

Well, I made these cupcakes some months ago but still, I'd like to post some pictures and the recipe since they were pretty and very delicious. There's just something amazing about a soft, fruity batter combined with a milky, creamy frosting. So if you have no idea what to have with a nice cup of tea today, try them!

Vanilla Cherry Cupcakes
makes about 18 medium size cupcakes

batter
1.5c white flour
2 tsp baking powder
150gm butter or margarine, softened
1/2c (homemade) vanilla sugar
1/2c white sugar
2 eggs
about 1.5c fresh cherries, cut in small pieces

frosting
200gm сметана / sour cream / soft cream cheese
100 - 200gm yogurt (it depends on how much frosting you want to have on your cupcakes)
4 tsp vanilla sugar

Preheat oven to 150-170C. 

Prepare the frosting: Beat together all ingredients for the frosting using a mixer until well combined and fluffy. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and keep in fridge while baking the cupcakes.

Prepare the batter: Line about 18 muffin cups with cupcake baking cases.

Whisk together flour and baking powder.

Beat butter, sugar and eggs using a mixer on high speed until light and creamy. Sieve over flour mixture and quickly beat in, just until incorporated. Do not over beat.

Fold in the cherries. 

Fill batter into prepared muffin cups and bake for about 30 minutes until done and nicely browned. Let cool completely.

Take the cooled frosting out of the fridge and frost the cupcakes as desired.

Decorate with anything pretty, such as cherries, grated chocolate or chocolate beans.

Keep in fridge.