Vivian's banana bread

Vivian's banana bread

🌟 Difficulty	⏱️ Time	🍽️ Serves	🔪 Skill level
★ Easy	1 hr	8–10 slices	Beginner

 I am excited to experiment with banana breads lately and after my Vegan Banana Bread-ilicious!  and the Coco-choco Banana Bread, here's my own inspiration that I consider very succesful. Consider this as an elevated version of a banana bread :)

An elevated banana bread packed with flavor and texture—moist from yogurt, rich from butter, and filled with nuts and juicy blueberries. A perfect balance between comfort and indulgence! 

Cooking with a twist!

 

Being inspired everyday is not easy, especially on repetitive tasks like cooking and baking :)

Check my cooking with a twist of today: 

• Focaccia with cherry tomatoes instead of my usual recipe with feta and oregano : just replace feta with cherry tomatos cut in half
• Chocolate cake a la sacher torte (mixing strawberry jam) instead of my usual Chocolate cake recipe : just add spoonfuls of jam on top and twist a fork to mix the jam with the dough
• My usual french brioche bread : this is so perfect that there is no need for twists ;)

Enjoy!

Yummy focaccia (with greek feta and oregano)

My favorite 3 ingredients (dough, feta and oregano) all in one recipe! And who can resist in a good focaccia in any case? If you share the same values ;) go for it! Of course, we are open minded here, feel free to adapt to your own favorites! 

Fresh (not fried) Spring Rolls

Easy, healthy, colorful fresh spring rolls from my daughter.

Just right for the Tet Nguyen Dan, the Vietnamese New Year that is on 10 of February this year. 

Adapt it to your prefernces and Enjoy! 

French chocolate king cake (Galette des rois au chocolat)

You know those days that you have the crave to bake a cake but not enough of an ingredient? 

This is one of those days that I wanted to bake a french king cake (my original recipe) but missing some almond powder. So, the idea to try for once a chocolate version seemed very inspiring and one deeeply appreciated from the youngsters here :) 

I had 100gr of almond powder instead of 140gr, so I replaced the 40gr missing with cocoa powder.

I encourage you to try it!

*Not knowing how it will turn out, I did not use the egg yolk on top, which was not bad either although it was missing some sparkle, so better not to skip :)

Cinnamon Rolls (Rich American-style)

🌟 Difficulty | ⏱️ Time | 🍽️ Serves
★★☆ Medium | 30 min + rising | 10–12 rolls

New Year, new recipes :) Soft, fluffy cinnamon rolls with a rich buttery cinnamon-brown sugar filling and optional cream cheese glaze. Extra soft, sweet, and bakery-style.

Vivian's daughter is cooking too and thanks to her I found a better recipe for Cinnamon Rolls that is a SMASH. What an amazing feeling to be outperformed by your children! To all the ones out there that just cannot resist to anything cinnamon flavored. Enjoy!  

My 2023 Christmas recipes

 Merry Xmas with my recipes! To be shared with your dearest!

Melomakarona, Kourambiedes, Stuffed Turkey, Xmas Swiss roll, Ekmek kadaif, 

Stuffed mushrooms, Mini pasticcios, Pavlova and Xmas pudding. 

Mascarpone - nutella cake

🌟 Difficulty	⏱️ Time	🍽️ Serves	🔪 Skill level
★★ Easy	50 min + chilling	8	Beginner

A gourmet chocolate cake with mascarpone and Nutella filling (an old recipe update), doubled for extra richness and topped with fresh raspberries. Soft, creamy, fruity, and perfect for celebrations — simple to make, decadent to enjoy.

One of out favorite to celebrate among family new sucesses!

Stuffed mushrooms

Stuffed mushrooms!

Here's a nice idea for a starter to serve with some nice wine next to the fireplace. Just replace the wine with some softer non-alcoholic version for me :) like a scented water where you have let infused several citrus fruits (nice idea for a new recipe btw). 

Cookies with white Wine

Have some left over white wine and do not know what to do with? I have you the recipe for!

I have indexed it here as Greek Easter cookies but you can improvise and do what ever you want with it.

Yesterday we went crazy and did a mix of various shapes like Christmas, Halloween and striped ones. We had lots of fun doing them with family, not to mention eating them :) 

PS: Better be a dry white wine though.

What to cook in October?

My top recipes for October that the weather starts to get chilly and rainy (at least in my region :) not to mention spooky because of Haloween!

• Butternut squash soup
• Croziflette, savoy specialty!
• Greek ravani (moist cake with semolina)
• Coconut "Ravani"

Super yummy all of them! 

Let me know what you think in your comments.

 

Homemade Pretzels (twist it baby!)

This is THE best recipe to prepare the saltiest soft pretzels! Look no further, my hubby tested it and we are sharing it here. Enjoy!  

Hubby is bringing tasty trends at home thanks to his travelling, here's another one that we are crazy for: 

• Kurtos Kalacs or chimney cakes

Ham and swiss cheese bread/cake

Having friends coming over? Looking for a fast meal? Are on a diet and instead of baking a sweet cake you came to your senses and decide to bake a salty one? Then this recipe is for you. Here we have just loved it! What's the secret ? The swiss cheese (aged Gruyere) that makes all the difference :)

Bake this salty cake that you can either cut in cubes and serve it with toothpicks as an aperitif or serve it with a salad and have a full and tasty meal! 

Other ideas: 

• Tomato-mozzarella-oregano cake
• Feta & dried tomatoes cake
• Aperitif or cocktail hour flower