St. Valentine's day

Want to find an excuse to try this
triple chocolate mousse cake?

How about St. Valentine's day ? (Indeed, it is today, 14 of February :)

Otherwise, anything with nutella will do!

February 2 the day of crepes in France!

In France, February 2 (yesterday) is the day of crepes.
They call this day "Chandeleur" (Candlemas in english) and it is linked to religion (commemorate the purification of Virgin Mary and the presentation of baby Jesus)
but practically, people are making and consuming lots of crepes. 
You won't believe the amount of Nutella, and rest of ingerdients that are consumed those days.
As this is the weekend the closest to the Chandeleur, here's a recipe reminder to succeed your crepes and here is one for pancakes if you are too lazy for crepes :)

Happy Chandeleur!!!

Nutellotti, the nutella cookies!

Who doesn't like Nutella? So, imagine a recipe full of Nutella in a form of cookies and only 3 ingredients... Nutellotti... Yummy! A popular recipe, that had to be in my blog too.
Thanks to my dear daughter, crazy in love with Nutella, we made together those marvelous cookies and ate them all in once!

Ingredients (only 3!)
180gr of Nutella
1 egg
150gr of flour for cakes

Kürtőskalács: Authentic Hungarian Chimney Cakes Recipe

Homemade Kurtos Kalacs (Chimney Cakes)

This Romanian pastry, called Kürtőskalács, is often known in English as chimney cakes. It’s a fluffy, sweet yeast dough (similar to brioche) rolled in a sugar and cinnamon mix, sometimes with ground walnuts. Traditionally, it was served at weddings, and today you can find them at street kiosks baked over coal grills.

My husband first tried them in Prague during a work trip and came back raving about how soft and delicious they were — saying I would surely love them! I found recipes online but never tried making them myself… until tasting them in Budapest, where I ate at least two a day 😄. Eventually, one busy evening, my husband surprised me by making them at home!

So here’s our homemade version, inspired by these two recipes (thank you!):

• Honest Cooking

• Pearls of Baking

Tip: you’ll need several paper towel rolls to make the moulds before starting.

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INGREDIENTS

Dough:

• 240 g all-purpose flour (high quality)
• 7 g active dry yeast
• 30 g sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 45 g melted butter
• 120 ml lukewarm milk

Topping:

• Melted butter
• Sugar
• Cinnamon

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INSTRUCTIONS

1. Prepare the moulds: Use paper towel rolls or similar. Cover completely with aluminum foil and brush with melted butter.

2. Activate the yeast: In a small bowl, mix milk, a little sugar, and yeast. Let it sit 10 min until foamy.

3. Make the dough: In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients with the milk-yeast mixture. Knead for about 5 min. The dough will be sticky — do not add more flour.

4. First rise: Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour (I like to cover mine with a blanket).

5. Shape ribbons: On a floured surface, roll dough into thick sheets. Use a pizza cutter to cut 1.5 cm wide ribbons.

6. Wrap the moulds: Wrap ribbons around the buttered moulds, brush with butter, and roll in the sugar-cinnamon mix.

7. Bake: Place on a tray and bake at 190°C (375°F) for about 20 min or until golden brown.

8. Cool and serve: Tap the cakes to release them from the moulds and let rest for a few minutes (if you can resist!).

Share these only with your loved ones! 💖

Love this recipe? Get 44 authentic Greek recipes in my eBook – Discover here!

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French orangettes

Orangettes is a traditional french food gift during Xmas. It is actually candied orange peel stripes dipped in dark chocolate that if you like the combination of orange and chocolate you will get addicted to it!
I would like to thank the teacher of a school that I am a volunteer that proposed me to help with doing them this year in order to finance the school trip of their class by selling them to a Christmas market.

I have never done them before, so it was a challenge for me but also a heavy responsibility. So I had to make them first at home to be sure that I am well trained.
End of year period is very busy so I did not have enough time to get nice photos but I did my best given the circumstances. 

The result though was delicious !!!  but be prepared... it takes time too !!!

I can share the recipe with you and here it is the original recipe that we were based on.

Happy 2018 !

Happy New Year to all !
Cook more, less war in this world ...

How about starting the year by making this delicious french Epiphany cake (Galette des rois)?
I think that my 2018 version is the best that I have ever done :)

My french baby!

And suddenly, I felt an urge to make a new blog.
It's been a year that I am thinking about it. I was working it in my mind and here it is: 
Discover my brand new french baby-blog

"Instants (extra)ordinaires" 

= (Extra)ordinary moments in english.

Enjoy!
 

Happy Halloween!

What best to have fun ending of October than celebrating Halloween ?
Cooking, activities, decoration, colors... lots of ideas in the web! Just to keep track of what is in my blog let's recapitulate...


Have fun cooking butternut soups, halloween cookies, mini apple pies, Halloween fingers or just apple pie like this one, this one or this one.

Decorate your house entrance with jack-o-lanterns, following my son's short tutorial in the numbered photos (no1 is missing as it is about choosing your pumkin's face :)

Here's some fun finger food for Halloween: the Halloween fingers!

Or, make fake injuries with makeup and scare your friends (not my favorite though!) like this homemade one from my kids...

Whatever you prefer, just try to get with friends and/or family and have fun and enjoy life!

Jam roll

Old time classic recipe coming straight from our youth... jam rolls!
Here's a fast & easy recipe to keep track in my blog. Thanks Vilma for reminding it to me!
I use strawberry jam here, but my dear friend Vilma brought one in our place for a bbq, a tasty one filled with Nutella ... hmmmm just gorgeous!!!
The result here is a fast prototyping, as I am busy and do not have the luxury for better photos or decoration... the essential is here though :)

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?

Autumn is here!

I am not very active lately in this blog, but that doesn't mean that I am not cooking, though.
Autumn is a busy period for me, so please be patient for more dynamic posts :)
For the time being, just enjoy some photos of backstage while cooking...
The moto of the month, that can be adjusted to cooking, as basics are important, but so does creativity :

First, LEARN the RULES... 

then break them !

Zucchini and feta tarte

Here's a simple, light and tasty tarte for summer dinners...

Happy summer!