Tag Archives: Russian

Spiced Plum Cake with streusel

What could be better than a moist and sweet cake that takes minutes to put together? I always like to explore different butter cake recipes; I’ve tried to use different types of flour, with milk or yogurt.. Actually, most of the recipes turned out good. But for the seasonal autumn recipe, I decided to add spices and crunchy streusel to make it more rich. Spiced plum cake with streusel topping The cake is warmly spiced, plus ripe plums make it more soft. It is so delicious and yet so easy. Perfect as a midday treat! It’s also good and tasty on the next day, in case if you got any leftovers, though it never lasts long. 🙂 It goes really well with a dollop of mascarpone. You can sprinkle the cake with icing sugar, or pour over a maple syrup, but for me the cake has enough sweetness.

Spiced Plum Cake with streusel

Servings: 6-8
Time: 45-50mins
Difficulty: easy
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* In stead of store-bought almond powder, I suggest to buy whole almonds, dry-roast them and then blend into powder. Walnuts are also nice and can be used instead of almonds.

Ingredients

7-8 plums, firm but ripe, pitted and cut into fourths or sixths (I used dark and yellow plums)

110g butter, at room temperature

70g brown sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

100g plain flour

20g cornflour

50g almond powder*

1/2 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

1/2-1/3 tsp cardamom, finely ground

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg, finely ground

1/6 tsp cloves, finely ground

60g yogurt (I used lowfat, but full fat is ok too)

Streusel

40g wholewheat flour or fine oats

15g butter, soft

20-30g demerara or white sugar

1-2 Tbsp walnuts or pistachios, roughly chopped

For serving

mascarpone or whipped cream

maple syrup, if desired

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 18cm cake tin (you can use 10-15cm cake tin also, the cake will be higher; or 20cm round tin is ok too).
Cream butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs one at a time (don’t over-beat, just stir to combine).
Mix together flours, almond powder, salt and all spices. Add to the egg mixture a little bit at a time. Finally add yogurt.
Spoon mixture into the cake tin. Individually place plums at an angle to make rings, using gentle pressure to push them slightly into batter. Leave about 2cm between each plum.
For the streusel, mix the butter into flour. Add sugar, nuts and combine until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over the cake.
Bake for 45-50 minutes. Once baked remover from the oven and allow to cool 10 minutes before serving.
Slice and serve with a dollop of mascarpone or whipped cream. If it’s not enough sweet, pour over the cake maple syrup.

Enjoy the cake with a nice cup of hot tea!

Whirls with poached figs, nuts and spices

The arrival of autumn brings with it the longing to bake more pies, cook rich and hearty dishes, like stews and endless cakes. Spices are an ideal way to add extra aroma to everyday dishes. Add a depth of flavour to your favorite bake and spice up cookies with sweet cinnamon, aromatic nutmeg or mildly-sweet allspice!

The aroma of these gorgeous cookies tells you that autumn season is in the air! Fill your home and heart with wonderful fragrance and warmth!

First, I poached dried figs in cognac and sugar, and only then I chopped them and add to the cookie dough. You can substitute alcohol with water. Store figs with liquid in the fridge. You can serve such figs over the yogurt or cereal, alongside cakes and pancakes, or even add to the roasted chicken or pork.

Whirls with poached figs, nuts and spices

Ingredients

Poached dried figs

150g dried figs, remove stems

100ml water

1 Tbsp brown sugar (or more, depends on your taste)

100ml cognac or brendy

Whirls/Cookies dough. Yield 8 pieces approx.

4 medium poached figs, finely chopped

20g mix of walnuts and hazelnuts, chopped

75g butter, room temperature

3Tbsp brown sugar

1 egg, at room temperature

3 Tbsp sour cream

180g plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

2 all spice berries, finely ground

1/3 tsp ground cinnamon

a good pinch of freshly grated nutmeg or 1/4 tsp powder

a pinch of salt

Instruction

Poached dried figs

In a small saucepan add water and figs, bring to boil on medium-high heat. Add sugar and cognac. Figs should be lightly covered in a liquid, if it’s not enough add more hot water.
Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until figs are tender. Turn figs once or twice so each side is poached evenly. Let it cool, then transfer to a small jar. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.

Whirls/Cookies dough

In a mixing bowl beat butter with sugar until pale. Add egg and gently mix. Then add sour cream and combine.
Combine flour with baking powder, salt and spices. Add it along with nuts and figs to the cookie dough.
Mix a soft dough. Cover, let rest in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Tear 2 small balls from the dough. On a lightly floured surface roll out each piece into rope-shape (I made the length 25cm each), spin around each other and join the ends.
Line the baking tray with baking paper. Bake in preheated 200C/400F oven for 20 minutes. Let it cool a bit for 5-10 minutes.
Sprinkle with icing sugar, if desired. Serve warm or cold with a glass of milk.

Enjoy!

milkandbun.com

I’m bringing these delicious and beautiful cookies to all lovely guests at Fiesta Friday party! Let’s eat, drink and have fun!

Autumn Pumpkin Roll

October is a pumpkin harvesting month, and also a time for making delicious amber-color pumpkin dishes, like cream-soups and pies. And the Halloween is coming very soon! I love this time of the year, I believe autumn is the most beautiful season. Well, Emirati autumn is different, but let me pretend that it’s autumn here. 😀 It’s raining outside, and golden, brown and flame-colored laves are falling down from trees..

In real the heat is becoming less intense and nature is waiting for the cool season to come.

And only one thing is on my mind – baking! This is one of quickest recipes, I swear! 😀 Especially, if you already have puff pastry in your fridge. So, you need cut pumpkin and apples, and saute it in butter, then mix with couscous and roll into puff pastry. That’s it! Since I prefer not very sugary bakes, I make the roll almost not sweet, the sweetness of pumpkin and apples is more than enough here. I slice the ready roll and serve warm with hot tea. 🙂 In case if you want sweeter, add more raisins and brown sugar! Anyway, the roll will be so delicious and comforting!

It doesn’t matter what’s the weather outside, when your home is filled with amazing scent of dark brown sugar, cinnamon and baked veggies!

Autumn Pumpkin Roll

I suggest to make own puff pastry, you can keep it in the freezer for several weeks, or if it’s store-bought, be sure that it made from butter not palm oil or margarine!

You may vary the quantity of pumpkin and couscous to suit your taste.

Ingredients

250g butter puff pastry

150-200g pumpkin

1 small apple

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 Tbsp butter

50-60g couscous, cooked

30g raisins (black or golden)

1 Tbsp dark brown sugar (or increase for sweeter option)

1/3 tsp cinnamon

a pinch of salt

1 egg yolk

Method

Cut apple and pumpkin into small cubes, add to the pan with butter, drizzle with lemon juice and saute on medium-high heat for 5-6 minutes. Let the mixture cool.
Soak raisins in warm water or cognac for 10 minutes, then drain.
In a medium bowl combine pumpkin, apple, raisins with couscous. Add salt, sugar, cinnamon and give it a good stir.
Arrange the mixture on the puff pastry sheet. Make the roll, brush it with egg yolk.
Bake in preheated 180C/360F oven for 25 minutes.

Serve warm with tea in your favorite tea cup! 🙂

Happy autumn! ❤

Prune Cookies

It’s autumn somewhere.. and time to harvest or buy beautiful apples, plums and pumpkins, make tasty preserves, and bake! Perhaps you will be surprised but I wish tomorrow (or even a whole month) would be grey and cheerless here! We I mean myself and some of my friends got a bit tired from burning sun this summer, and few days back a little miracle happened here – it was raining! Yay! But only for an hour or so. 😀 To be honest, when I lived in my hometown I didn’t like the beginning of autumn; rains were too often, boots and trousers caked with mud was a normal thing!

Autumn here is a totally different season! October is the beginning of a large influx of tourists amazing weather in Dubai, temperature goes down and days become cooler, people become happier; it’s a season of barbecue in parks, outdoor cafes and long walks. Not to mention the fact that I’m going to bake more cakes and pies, and fill my home and blog with quintessential autumn flavours. 🙂
This cookies recipe is super easy, tasty and suits autumn mood! The main secret ingredient is prunes (dried plums) soaked in a cognac, and I can easily say that these cookies become my favourite!

Prune Cookies

You can use dark chocolate with hazelnuts or plain milk chocolate, or even omit it.

Ingredients

8-9 prunes

50ml cognac

50-60ml water

1 Tbsp brown or muscovado sugar

50g butter, room temperature

2 Tbsp brown or dark muscovado sugar

1 egg

100g flour

1/3 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

40g dark chocolate (70-80% cacao), roughly chopped

40g roasted walnuts, finely chopped, optional

Method

Into small pan add prunes, sugar and water. Bring to boil, add cognac and boil for 5-7 minutes more. Remove from the hob and let cool. Roughly chop prunes.
In a mixing bowl, beat butter with sugar, then mix in egg. Add 2 tsp syrup from prunes.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the mixture into batter and combine.
Carefully fold into batter dark chocolate, nuts and chopped prunes (without syrup).
Bake in preheated 180C oven for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

The recipe adapted from Russina tv-show “Edim doma”

Pozharsky kotleti

Hey-hey! How is the weekend going on? I’m glad to join Fiesta Friday party this time! And share famous Russian recipe – Pozharsky kotleti, which are chicken cutlets, scrumptious and tender. Hope, you will love it and recreate at home! 🙂

Firstly, I’d like to tell you how the recipe became popular. It’s dating back to the late 18th or early 19th centuries. There are two history versions of the recipe. The first one says about Evdokim Pozharsky, who lived in small town Torzhok with his family; he was an ordinary person and owner of small tavern, but he bore the same family name with famous Russian imperial family Pozharsky. During that time the town was very important because it’s located on the highway from Moscow to St.Petersburg.

Dariya Pozharsky inherited the tavern from her father; she started to cook cutlets from chopped meat (chicken, turkey, hazel hens), and decided to add this dish to the menu. The legend says, that one day the Russian Emperor Nikolay I was passing by the town and stopped to have a rest and food. He tried cutlets and was so impressed by this dish, that immediately invited Ms.Dariya to St.Petersburg, where she became the lady of high society.

The other legend says, that Nikolay I decided to visit prince Pozharsky; the prince wasn’t expected to welcome such important guest and prepare chic dinner, so he/his chef cooked cutlets from chicken chopped meat and bread (the only meat which was available in the kitchen).

Pozharsky kotleti - Russian chicken cutlets

Servings: 4
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Ingredients

Chicken fillets 500-600g

Large onion 1

Fresh white bread or baguette 1

Warm water 80-100ml

Clarified butter or butter 50g (25g for onion frying + 25g for the meat)

+extra butter (or sunflower oil) for cutlets frying

Salt, pepper to taste

Method

Finely chop the onion and fry it in the butter until soft and pale (don’t brown it).
Cut off the crust from baguette, finely chop it and set aside.
Put 3-4 bread slices in a small bowl, soak in the water for few minutes, then squeeze a bit of water out.
Finely chop or mince chicken fillets, add soaked bread, butter, season with salt and pepper, and combine well. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Divide chicken mince into several cutlets (medium size) and coat with fresh breadcrumbs.
Heat butter or oil in cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Cook cutlets just until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer cutlets to a baking shit and bake in preheated 200C/400F oven for 7-8 minutes.
Serve with your favorite vegetables and/or boiled potatoes and sauerkraut.

Enjoy!!!