desserts recipes

cherries in syrup «spoon sweets» preserves
cherries in syrup «spoon sweets» preserves

In the olden days, whether in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, the Balkans, and also in further away Romania and some Middle-Eastern countries, every guest visiting any home, no matter how rich or poor the household was, could expect a cup of hot coffee, a cold glass of water and a small plate of room-temperature home-made "spoon sweets",...

04.07.2020
spiced apple cakes with olive oil & buckwheat
spiced apple cakes with olive oil & buckwheat

I’m almost certain you all have APPLES ! Right ? Along with some citrus fruits and maybe bananas too … the basics in the world of fruits. Let’s make an easy and modifiable apple cake that’s perhaps a little bit healthier too, but that’s up to you and your taste buds, because I’m sure you’ve all become top...

28.03.2020
«kourabiedes» butter & almond shortbread snowball cookies (with extras !)
«kourabiedes» butter & almond shortbread snowball cookies (with extras !)

These cookies truly look like SNOWBALLS so the flavors should remind you of winter, whether it’s the colder and crisper smells outside or the warmer more domestic smells inside of a warm oven or a chimney fire, comforting your bones as you’re eating them. KOURABIEDES are like buttery shortbreads, but less crispy and more...

14.12.2019
mixed roasted nuts & milk caramel tart
mixed roasted nuts & milk caramel tart

What do you get when you combine mixed roasted nuts and a milk caramel filling made with sweetened condensed milk and some eggs, and you place it inside a sweet shortcrust pastry pie shell ? You get this amazing autumn tart (or pie) ! You have the recipe & instructions for the sweet shortcrust pastry pie-shell because I posted that too...

12.10.2019
gently-baked & delicately-spiced custard & filo breakfast tartlets
gently-baked & delicately-spiced custard & filo breakfast tartlets

It’s an early morning reward, a breakfast pastry just for you. You’ve gotten up and readied yourself to brave the new day. It’s a sweetened milk & egg dish in its own crispy carrying case, still slightly warm and ever-so-gently spiced, to rock your heart and soul and body as you walk yourself to work or maybe a stroll...

20.07.2019
juicy apricot & almond tart with crunchy shortbread crust
juicy apricot & almond tart with crunchy shortbread crust

It’s like biting into a piece of a cool and light summer morning, before the sun has had time to heat up the surroundings and scramble its crystal clarity. Or with less imagery, it’s like a munching on a thick, crumbly, crunchy cookie topped with fruit jam and big pieces of juicy fruit, except that this fruit-topped crunchy cookie is...

20.06.2020
thick & chewy chocolate chunk & roasted almond cookies
thick & chewy chocolate chunk & roasted almond cookies

Or the “1-2-5” COOKIE since all the main ingredients each weigh 125 grams and are easy to remember, even the little added extras measure 1¼ tsp each which is also 1,25 teaspoons right ? And the baking time is 12 ½ minutes too.  I also tried baking them at 125°C and then let them sit in a turned off oven but...

15.02.2020
salty-sweet peanut butter & sesame tahini cookies
salty-sweet peanut butter & sesame tahini cookies

The secret to their "domed" shape is not just due to using a mini ice-cream scoop. The cookie dough must be chilled and then baked in a very hot oven (just at the beginning) so that they retain their shapes and don’t flatten and spread out ! And the rest is easy : 1 cup of flour and ½ cup of everything else and 1 egg,...

23.11.2019
'easy as pie' sweet shortcrust pastry pie-shell
'easy as pie' sweet shortcrust pastry pie-shell

It’s a double-post weekend with 2 recipes so you can make a very autumnal mixed roasted nuts & milk caramel pie, right after reading this !  Shortcrust pastry can be prepared following the simplest equation : 2 to 1 or twice as much flour as butter as opposed to puff-pastry that is 1 to 1 or equal amounts of butter to flour, and...

12.10.2019
strawberry & ricotta & almond & filo shreds mini-cakes
strawberry & ricotta & almond & filo shreds mini-cakes

That sneaky and fickle and ever so demanding FILO / PHYLLO, always letting itself dry out in under 10-15 minutes, and crumbling to pieces if exposed to the hot summer air and if not meticulously covered up with another sheet of baking paper and also a damp cloth, when you unroll it and lay it out. And sometimes it’s just ripped here and...

06.07.2019
inside-out strawberry & almond shortcake
inside-out strawberry & almond shortcake

We’re living in interesting times. Everything seems backwards, topsy-turvy, inside-out, but life goes on and it’s my sister Stella’s birthday today ! Despite the worrying situation and anxiety, everything has slowed down and almost stopped for almost everybody. For me so far, it’s been 1 workless month of partial...

10.04.2020
sugar & orange blossom syrup glazed puff-pastry flaky brioches
sugar & orange blossom syrup glazed puff-pastry flaky brioches

HAPPY NEW YEAR wishes with a sunny brunch recipe to better kick it off and perhaps a few resolutions to at least try everything once in your life, before it’s too late, because until you do or try something yourself, you’ll never realize the efforts it required to achieve it and hence may never learn to appreciate it enough...

04.01.2020
chocolate-coated & caramel-filled & dried fruits-topped «billionnaire» shortbreads
chocolate-coated & caramel-filled & dried fruits-topped «billionnaire» shortbreads

It’s a treat, like a candy bar, but more sophisticated than that. What is often called a «millionnaire» shortbread is now a «billionnaire» shortbread (perhaps because of inflation and all that) but moreso because of our evolving palates and taste expectations. We always want more. Like when we were kids and...

26.10.2019
‘summer’s end’ apricot, peach & nectarine fruit cobblers
‘summer’s end’ apricot, peach & nectarine fruit cobblers

… with a mix of stone fruits like bright orange APRICOTS, FLAT VINE PEACHES, WHITE NECTARINES and YELLOW PEACHES (but you could add some PLUMS too), all bathing and lolling around in their sweetened syrupy juices, topped by a nutty cake that rises as it bakes on top, almost floating (until it cools and settles down again) and then some...

07.09.2019
«ravani» lime & geranium & mastic syrup-soaked semolina cake
«ravani» lime & geranium & mastic syrup-soaked semolina cake

RAVANI or REVANI or both ?! And why not RAEVANI then ?! This is one of those old-fashioned and traditional Greek and Turkish cakes, that has practically disappeared from circulation and almost stopped gracing our tables for decades. Why ? Because creamier and more complicated, layered and somewhat more sophisticated creations took their place. It...

08.06.2019