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!

Chocolate cake with mascarpone & nutella filling

[Update: Check the gourmet version too here: Mascarpone nutella cake]

Recently, I went to an italian restaurant and tried a cake that had some kind of nutella filling and I just loved it! Who can resist to Nutella anyway? If I add that it had also mascarpone, the same cheese that we use for my favorite Tiramisu, then you can imagine the rest ;)
Useless to say, that I searched immediately to find such a recipe and reproduce it at home :)
You know me, I cannot resist to deserts...
I dedicate this recipe, that I chose from all the stuff that I have found on the web, to my son's class and their teacher who is fan of my blog (I am honored) as I imagine that they would like it a lot and it's easy to prepare. Here it goes:

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!!!

I've got a Kenwood Kmix!

Amazing cooking news!

I've got a brand new stand mixer the KENWOOD Kmix98, the latest model in a fancy color (lemon yellow :) that is

• powerful, 
• solid, 
• of big capacity 
• and practical.

What more to ask from such a tool?

It replaced my old Moulinex Ovatio maxipress duo that had lots of tools but was not very solid, as most tools were in plastic in comparison with the Kmix that have them in metal.
(I've got the majority of the tools btw brand new, so please if they might be in need to someone just let me know to pass them for free... they might fit to the latest model, as they look similar btw)

What do you have?

Brownies

Here's a classic recipe that was missing from my blog, so here it is the recipe for ...
... BROWNIES! or at least something similar to it :)
In France, that I live, they call it "pave au chocolat", btw.
Anyway, it is delicious and kids love it, so get ready for baking and let's start!

Ribbon cake as Easter cake!

Happy greek Easter even with a delay!
All the best to you and your families...

Heres my inspiration for a cake that I came up with, as this year for several issues I did not want to make a more fancy cake, as this Easter coincided with a bad anniversary...
You want to know more about it?
Let's call it the Ribbon cake!

Zucchini muffins

Remember the delicious zucchini balls that I have presented a long time ago?
Discover today my personal touch to turn them to muffin-like starters in a xmas dinner that I have organized recently. They looked gorgeous and they tasted even better! Just try them...
Procedure

• Use the same recipe for the filling and simply pastry dough (cut in disks) and assemble them in a muffins tray. 
• Sprinkle on top with some yellow cheese. 
• Bake for about 30min at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan.

Butternut squash soup

Comforting food today, one of my favorite soups, the butternut squash soup.
I did not have big pumpkin seeds to decorate at the end, as a friend does and it's so yummy, so enjoy our homemade funny faces using sour cream :)

Happy Halloween!

Greek Mosaic Dessert (Kormos / Chocolate Biscuit Cake) Recipe reminder!

Remember the recipe for Greek Mosaic Dessert (Kormos / Chocolate Biscuit Cake)? I have done it this weekend for my daughter that it's her favorite summer cake and I cannot describe you how much we love this classic recipe...
You have definitely to try it!

Improvement this time is that I have used a cute silicone mold that is great for this cake. No doubt I will continue to make in this one from now on :) 

Summer time cooking!

Do you have a crave for a bbq?

Summer is the perfect time to indulge yourself with meat cooked over charcoal and everything that accompanies such a treat.

Approaching 15 of August that is a holiday in several places, I suggest the typical greek combination of souvlakia and tzatziki, and why not a greek salad that is an old-time classic.

Add some grilled vegetables like zucchini and eggplants that will not pass unnoticed for sure.

Kali oreksi! (aka enjoy your meal in greek :)

Banoffee pie, finally! (the almost easy way;)

If I ever had to make a top ten list with my favorite desserts, I would include on top my Tiramisu ;) and somewhere in the middle I would add the cheesecake, cannoli a la siciliana and of course the banoffee pie.
While I am trying to decide for the order, let's discover together a pie that is very popular and if you have never tried before, this is the moment to go ...
Banoffee stands for banana+toffee (caramel cream) and it's a pie that was invented or better evolved (as all recipes do) in the 70's, the period that all marvels have been born (like me :))))
There is lot's of discussion about what is the best way to do it on the web, especially concerning the toffee part that is called also "dulce con leche" or "confiture de lait" in french and you can get it even ready made at the supermarket! This is my favorite article that discusses about it.
Have I persuade you ? Let's go then!