Mpougatsa, the greek custard pie!

Went to Greece for vacations and got addicted to mpougatsa for breakfast? Here's how to make it back home and extend your vacations a bit through food :)

Made with crusty fyllo and filled in with a custard cream made out of semolina is served dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon. It makes the perfect breakfast or anytime snack and why not as a dessert.

Waffles

French breakfast to it's best! Waffles are called "gaufres" in french and if you have never tried them before or were looking for a basic recipe that it's easy and works very well, then try this one :)

Belgian Liege waffles (Gauffres de Liège)

Autumn Sundays for me need to start with a nice homemade breakfast to gather everyone around the table and enjoy the warmth of the family. One of the recipes that we like to prepare are ... Waffles!
And if Waffles are great, the Belgian ones, I would say even more :) Thanks to Nathalie, my Belgian ex-colleague that made me discover them!
The difference lies in the pearl sugar and the dough that looks like a brioche (airy and fluffy) thanks to the fresh yeast.
You need to dispose also a waffle iron as in my photos though.
If you share my philosophy and you are ready to try, here it goes...
Note: This recipe doesn't include sugar unless at the end, so if you like, like my daughter a salty version, feel free to add some bacon, cheese or anything else that your instinct tells you :) 

French brioche bread

Brioche is a french fluffy dough bread that includes eggs, milk, sugar and butter, it's something between a bread and a cake and it tastes like heaven!!!

You can find various versions in several other countries like in my home country, Greece, that we call them "tsourekia".

It's a recipe that I just loooooove and was missing from my blog despite the fact that I am baking them often, so let's start 2019 with this recipe ....

Chocolate chip muffins

Start your day with them!

A classic recipe that still not so easy to find that works well...
So, here it is my favorite!

Milopitakia, greek mini apple pies or cookies

October, the month of apples!

That's why I decided to present you today a recipe that was missing from my blog and that I like a lot: milopitakia!

Milopitakia, in greek, means mini apple pies but they are actually more kind of apple-filled cookies to be more precise.

Whatever you call them, I am sure that you will like them once you taste them, so here it goes in order to have them for real at your place :)

They look gorgeous too, no?

Feta cheese balls

Remember the recipe of feta cheese pies (tyropitakia)?
It's one of our favorite salty starters and if you have never tried it before this is the moment to do it!

I am giving you an alternative that is pretty simple, much simpler than the original recipe.

French pear tart (Tarte bourdaloue ou tarte aux poires et frangipane)

My husband's favorite dessert is a french tart with pears and almond paste that in french is called "tarte aux poires et frangipane" or "tarte bourdaloue" or "tarte aux poires normande" as it's origon is Normandy in north of France.
I just made a great version of it and all family got excited ! As always, I will note it down in my blog to never miss it again :) As one thing is sure: I am going to make it again soon !
Here it goes...

Halloween shortbread biscuits ("sablés" in french :)

 Halloween is approaching and I just found some really spooky biscuit stamps that I knew that would drive crazy my kids, especially my son, who is fond of Frankestein :)

I found it as a good excuse to test a recipe on shortbread biscuits that in french they call them "sablés". 

I cannot describe enough the excitement at home when they discovered the stamps! 

I can only tell you that we ended baking late at night, on top of a really busy day.... 
I was not in my best of mood, knowing that they will be tired for school the next day, but my... they had so much fun that eventually I thought, what the hell! I could make an exception :)))) 
Here it goes... and hope that you will have as fun as we had making them!

Kmix cookies

My first chocolate cookies with my brand new Kmix are a pure success! Just try them... *yummy*

I have used first the "K" tool to beat the butter with sugar and eggs and then changed to the kneader tool as you can see in the photo to finish the final dough with flour and chocolate chunks.
I made about 30 delicious cookies.
Just play with baking time as depending on your flour it might vary slightly.
And if you want something exceptional in taste, just try my daughter's idea to make a cookie sandwich with ice-cream!!!

Playing with pastry or the "snail pie"

Want more ideas to play with the puff pastry? Here's one more ... the snail pie :)

Aperitif (or cocktail hour) flower!

Living in France, I became keen with the idea of an "aperitif" that is a cocktail hour in between meals that might include a simple drink or a small buffet with some finger food.
Have a glimpse of the latest trend that I did in a hurry with whatever I had in my fridge and that was still delicious despite all odds :)
I had only 1 pastry dough so I made half the flower but it's enough to get the idea still...

Recipe reminder (muffins)

I am currently reading an interesting book about consuming sugar. So, I was resisting in making a sweet treat, but I admit that I am addicted and I cannot avoid it :)
Have a look in my chocolate-banana muffins to see why I could not resist...
Try NOT to do them! :P

Chocolate chip cookies

What to do in a rainy day? Make chocolate chip cookies and boost your moral and the one of your dear ones to the maximum :)
Classic recipe, that similar you can find all around the web, but I like to keep good recipes once found, so here it is the one that I prefer...

"Tsoureki", the greek easter sweet bread!

[Updated 22/04/2019]
I have now a marvelous recipe here :

French brioche bread

No recipe today (too tired :), just photos to show you my "tsourekia", traditional greek easter sweet breads that are formed of braided strands of dough.
Just google the name and you will find lots of recipes out there and next year I will give you mine ...
For the time being, I am just telling you that they taste great and we have almost consumed all of them in half a day, imagine :))))
Just click on "More..." to enjoy more photos !

Grissinis

Hubby loves Grissinis, so here's a reason to try to make them :) I have to admit that he likes the Greek version but I will try today the original ones from Torino...  that I like sooo much :) And with the remaining dough, I will make some nice small rounded breads, what do you say?
Who does not like those crunchy delicate fluffy delicious thinny bread sticks? No excuses of not trying, as it is pretty easy...

Pancakes from Cyprus or "Pites tis Satziis"

When I was a child, my grand mother used to make a kind of greek pancakes that I just couldn't resist :)
She was making a huuuuge dish and she was offering them to all the clients of my father's shop... Lucky guys, yes I know!
Unfortunately, I have lost my grand-mother very early at an age that I did not appreciate cooking so much, thus I lost also almost all of her precious recipes (I still have great memories from her though, which is what counts most...). Why am I telling you all this now? Simply because I have seen recently a recipe that looked very similar to my grandma's pancakes and you guessed well... I tried it immediately and I have fallen in love with it. All kids in my neighbor too btw :))) 
The recipe that I am going to give you here is from Cyprus and they call it "Pites tis Siatziis" (Google it).

Desert roses or "roses de sable"

These chocolate treats with corn flakes have the looks of  "desert roses" and despite the fact that they are not "gourmet cuisine" (you do not even need to bake!) they will definitely charm your children :)
My son likes them a lot and it's thanks to him that I tried them today with his help of course ...

Oat flakes cookies

Healthy (?) cookies today! I had some left overs of oat flakes from a visitor and I was thinking what to do with that. Until I have seen in the package a recipe for cookies... The ones that know me, can predict the rest :) I was waiting the opportunity to try it. And guess what? I did it!
I cannot say that I am thrilled but they have a nice surprising taste of sesame that I love and a friend of mine that was passing by could not wait them to get out of the oven and found them delicious. Your turn now...

Vivian's king's cake or "Vassilopita" in greek

In Greece, the 1st of January we make our favorite cake or a special recipe from our region and we hide inside a coin (covered with aluminum foil, of course :) and we call it "Vassilopita". It's the equivalent of the "king's cake" or the "Galette de roi" that we find in other christian countries for the Epiphany.
We gather in family and share the cake and the one that will get the hidden coin will be the king of the year, aka the lucky of the year...
I will share with you the recipe that I adopted since the birth of my daughter, that is a very fluffy cake scented with orange zest and rich in ground almonds. You can make it all year through but it has some luxury touch that makes it a good candidate for a special occasion :) Here it goes...