Date and pecan tartlets filled with chocolate cream, gluten - free

Easy to make, gluten free, perfect dessert for hot summer days. There is no need to bake. Mixed dates and pecans are very sticky and it's easy to make tartlets of this mixture. Although a few minutes of chilling is recommended. To make delicious, rich, chocolate cream melted chocolate and Mascarpone cream is enough. We loved them.

 Ingredients for 4 tartlets:

• 200g dates
• 70g pecans

 Put the dates and pecans into blender and mix them until finely blended. The mixture should resemble bread crumbs but when pressed small bits should stick to each other. 

Divide the mixture among four tartlets' tins. Press the bits with your fingers or back of the spoon  to the bottom and sides of the tins. Insert to the fridge to chill for a few minutes.

In a meantime prepare the filling.

Ingredients for chocolate cream:

• about 120g dark chocolate
• about 150g Mascarpone cream
• 4 pecan halves for decoration
• chopped pecans for decoration

 Melt the chocolate in a microwave or in a bowl placed over a pot with simmering water. Set the melted chocolate aside for a few minutes to cool down. Then add Mascarpone cheese. Using and electric mixer whisk until smooth. 

Remove the tartlets from the fridge. Divide the cream among all of them. Smooth the cream on the top. Place one pecan halve in the middle of each tartlets and sprinkle the edges with chopped pecans.

Put them back to the fridge and chill them for a few minutes.

Then gently remove from the tins and enjoy ! 

Recipe in Polish

Rosewater pistachio cupcakes

Rosewater and pistachios are interesting combination of flavours. We adults enjoyed them a lot, children weren't really interested. Although my oven wasn't working properly at that time and the cake itself was a bit too moist we still found them really tasty. I am pretty sure I will try this recipe again when my oven will be fixed and compare. For now please have a look on mine a little bit under baked cupcakes, with lovely mascarpone frosting.

The original recipe comes form this website.

Ingredients for 12 small cupcakes:

• 50g unsalted pistachios
• 60g ground almonds
• 25g flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 100g butter
• 100g sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp milk
• 2 tsp rosewater
• 1/ tsp vanilla extract

 Remove pistachios from their shells place the nuts in blender and blend them until powered. Place them in the bowl, add almonds, flour, baking powder and mix well

Preheat the oven to 170C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Put the butter and sugar into an electric mixer bowl and beat them until pale. Add the egg while beating. When is incorporated add the milk, rosewater and vanilla. Wait again until well incorporated. Stop the mixer. Gently fold in the nut and flour mixture. Spoon the batter into paper cases, about 3/4 full.

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until the skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

Baked cupcakes leave in the muffin tin for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool down.

 In a meantime prepare the frosting.

Ingredients for frosting:

• 100g whipping cream
• 250g mascaropne cheese
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• splash of vanilla extract
• few drops of red food colouring

 Put all ingredients into an electric mixer bowl and beat them until smooth and creamy. Transfer the frosting into a piping bag with a nozzle. Decorate the cupcakes. You can also sprinkle them with chopped pistachio nuts.

Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish 

Chocolate and Amaretto mini cheesecakes (no bake)

Today I would like to present this divine chocolate cheesecakes. They are made of amaretti cookies, cream cheese, mascarpone and chocolate with a hint of Amaretto. I made them in a circular shape in silicone XL size muffin tin but still it was tricky to take them out.  I would recommend to use paper cases or make this cheesecake in a big spring form tin. Anyway I finally have mine out, decorated them in Easter style and enjoyed them a lot.

My inspiration comes form here.

Ingredients for bottom layer:

• 200g amaretii cookies
• 50 - 70g* melted butter
• 100g lady fingers biscuits

* I was concerned about amount of fat in this recipe. I didn't want to add a lot of butter to the bottom layer. I have added only 50g of butter but then realised that bottom layer was too crumbly. I would recommend to add more butter so the crumbs mixed with butter would be more moist. 

Melt the butter. Place the biscuits in the blender and blend them until resemble sand. Stir in the butter, press with your finger to check if crumbs stick together.

Divide the mixture among muffin tin cups. Press to the bottom with back of the spoon.

Set aside to the fridge to chill. Prepare the cheesecake layer.

Ingredients for cheesecake layer:

• 250g Mascarpone cheese
• 100g Philadelphia cream cheese
• 200g dark chocolate
• 25 ml Amaretto

Place the Mascaropne and Philadelphia cheeses in a blender, add the Amaretto and whisk until smooth. 

Melt down the chocolate either over the pot with simmering water or in microwave. Pour the melted chocolate into the blender. Whisk again until smooth and evenly chocolaty.

Spoon the cheesecake layer on top of the crumb layer. Put the tin into a fridge and chill for at lest 2 hours. Mine were in the fridge overnight. After that time remove form the tin and decorate with some almond sticks and chocolate eggs. 

 

  Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish

Banana muffins with banana liqueur

Recently I have found a full bottle of banana liqueur in my cupboard. I have decided to try to add this liqueur into  muffin's batter. I was quite happy with the result. Muffins were spongy, fluffy and chewy at the same time, with a hint of banana. I also added some liqueur into frosting and was delicious too. Rich, sweet actually could be eaten without the muffins. 

Ingredients for  7 muffins:

• 1 banana
• 60 ml banana liqueur
• 1 egg
• 50 ml natural yogurt
• pinch of salt
• 80 ml sugar
• 250g self - rising flour

 Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Mash the banana with fork. Add the liqueur, egg and yogurt and stir well. Then add the flour, sugar and salt mix again until all ingredients are just combined.

Spoon the batter into paper cases, 3/4 full. bake in preheated oven for 20 -25 minutes until skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Transfer baked muffins into a wire rack to cool them down. 

Ingredients for frosting:

• 65 ml double cream
• 100 g Mascarpone cheese
• 50g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp banana liqueur
• 1 banana
• lemon juice

 The cream, Mascarpone, and sugar place in an electric mixer bowl and whisk until creamy. Then add banana liqueur and whisk again. Put into a fridge for an half an hour to chill before decorating the muffins. 

If you wish to put slice of banana on top of each muffin, slice the banana and cover the slices in lemon juice this will prevent the banana from turning brown.

Put the chilled frosting into icing bag with nozzle and decorate the muffins. On top of each place a slice of banana. 

 Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish

Almond cupcakes with mascarpone frosting

Those aromatic, rich and dense almond cupcakes are perfect for Christmas. Topped with Mascarpone frosting which should resemble Christmas trees. They are easy to make and look lovely. Perfect as a small Christmas gift or edible table decoration. 

The recipe for a cupcakes comes from this web site and the one for frosting from this one. 

Ingredients for 12-15 cupcakes:

• 140g flour
• 100g ground almonds
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 175g caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp almond essence
• 3 eggs
• 100g natural yogurt 
• 175g melted butter

Preheat the oven to 190C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Melt the butter down and set aside to cool down. Place the flour, almonds, baking powder, sugar in a bowl and mix them together. Set aside. In separate bowl whisk the eggs, almond extract and natural yogurt.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ones add the melted butter and mix until combined. 

Spoon the batter into paper cases, about 3/4 full. Bake in preheated oven for 20 -25 minutes. Bake until skewer inserted in the middle on the cake comes out clean.

Transfer baked cupcakes into a wire rack to cool them down completely before piping the frosting.

Ingredients for frosting 12 cupcakes:

• 100ml cold double cream
• 250g Mascarpone cheese
• 5 tbsp icing sugar*
• green food colouring
• almond essence
• chocolate starts
• sugar sprinkles

* if you wish you can add more sugar as those frosting is not very sweet

Place the Mascarpone cheese, sugar and food colouring in a bowl and mix them until smooth . 

With an electric whisk whisk the double cream until foamy. Then add the almond essence and Mascarpone mixture. Mix all ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Put the frosting into piping bag with nozzle and decorate the cupcakes. Place the chocolate star on top and sprinkle with some sugar sprinkles. 

For recipe in Polish please click here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW 2014 YEAR !!

Enjoy !

Pumpkin and mascarpone muffins

Soft, fluffy, moist cake with cinnamon scent. That would be the best description of those muffins. Even children enjoy eating them, which is not so obvious when there are veggies in the cake. 

The rapeseed oil which I used for baking had nutty flavour so I decorated my muffins with some roasted and salted cashew nuts.

Ingredients for 12 - 14 muffins:

• 170g pumpkin pure
• 240g flour
• 170g sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 125g mascarpone 
• 120ml oil
• 1 egg

Preheat the oven to 190C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a big bowl. 

In a separate bowl mix together the pumpkin pure, oil, egg and mascarpone cheese. Pour this mixture into a bowl with dry ingredients. Combine all ingredients together until just moist. 

Spoon the batter into prepared earlier muffin cases about 3/4 full. Bake in preheated oven for 25 - 30 minutes. Check with toothpick if ready. If toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean then cake is ready.

Transfer muffins to the wire rack to cool down. While muffins are cooling down prepare the frosting.

Ingredients for frosting:

• 125g mascarpone cheese
• 30g icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 
• nuts

In a bowl combine the cheese, sugar and vanilla. Chill in a fridge for about 30 minutes.

When muffins are cool down completely spread a thick layer of frosting on top of each muffin and decorate with some nuts. 

Enjoy !

White chocoate - cupcakes and frosting

They were really delicious. The white chocolate frosting wasn't as smooth as I would prefer but was really tasty. About the cake - light, fluffy with lovely crust. I used to bake them before, here is the recipe  and we really enjoyed them. I think they worth to give them a try. 

Ingredients for 12 -18 cupcakes:

• 100g butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• 275g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 100g white chocolate melted
• 125ml warmed milk

Preheat the oven to 170C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Put the butter and sugar into an electric mixer bowl and beat until pale and smooth.

Then add one egg at the time mixing continuously.

In a meantime warm up the milk to the body temperature, set aside. And melt down the white chocolate, set aside.

Sift the flour into a bowl with baking powder. 

Set the mixer on low speed and add half portion of the flour and half of the milk. When mixed, pour in the melted chocolate and add remaining flour and milk. Mix until batter will have smooth and creamy texture.

Spoon the batter into prepared muffin tin. Fill them half full as they rise a lot while baked. Bake 20-25 minutes until skewer picked in the middle comes out clean. When ready transform to the wire rack to cool down.

In a  meantime prepare the frosting.

Ingredients for frosting:

• 100g white chocolate
• 50g soft butter
• 250g mascarpone cheese
• 200g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

To get smooth texture frosting all the ingredients need to be in room temperature.

Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool down.

Place the butter and mascaropne into electric mixer bowl and beat them until smooth. Then add the icing sugar and beat well. Next add the vanilla extract. At last pour gently in the white chocolate beating continuously. Ready frosting is a little bit runny. Place it in the fridge to chill it. 

After about an hour when cupcakes are cooled and frosting chilled you can decorate the cupcakes. 

Enjoy !

Apricot couscous cupcakes

Those dense, satisfying, tasty cupcakes appeared on my blog only because of my curiosity. When I found the recipe here I simply had to try it. I have never add couscous into a cake batter so I was really wander what comes out of this experiment.

Ingredients for 12-18 cupcakes:

• 50g dried apricotes
• 2 eggs
• 105g caster sugar
• 50g melted butter
• 155g couscous
• 155g flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp ginger

Put 110g of apricotes (50g for batter and 60g for frosting) into a pan and cover with water. Bring  to a boil and simmer for fifteen minutes. The apricotes should be plump.

Drain the water out. Keep the water to cook couscous.

Place the couscous in a bowl and pour over the apricots water add some boiling water to cover couscous completly and add some to have about 1 cm more water above the couscous. Set aside to bulk.

Put the cooked apricots in a blender and blend them until you have a pasty puree. 

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Melet the butter and set aside to cool down. In a big bowl whisk the eggs and sugar until combined. Stir in the melted butter. Add the couscous, flour, baking powder, ginger and stir until just combined. Then stir in the apricot pure. Fill the cupcake liners to the top and bake for 20 minutes.

Transfer the cupcakes to the wire rack to cool them completly before add the frosting.

Apricot frosting:

• 60g apricot pure
• 125g mascarpone
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• apricot chunks

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Spread over each cupcake top and sprinkle wit some apricot chunks. 

Enjoy !

Coconut mini cheesecakes

The idea for coconut mini cheesecakes came form coconut cappuccino muffins. The cream cheese filling was so tasty that I decided to bake it separately as small cheesecakes with of course coconut streusel on top. As it was an experiment I baked only 5 of them. They were divine :) 

Ingredients for 5 mini cheesecakes coconut streusel:

• 30g flour
• 40g sugar
• 20g dessicated coconut
• 2 tbsp melted butter

Melt the butter. Put all dry ingredients into a small bowl and whisk them. Then stir in the melted butter. Set the mixture aside.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line muffin tins with paper cases. I used slightly bigger ones so it was easy to remove baked cheesecakes form them to serve. 

Prepare the cream cheese layer.

Ingredients for cream cheese:

• 100g cream cheese
• 50g mascarpone
• 70g sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Put all ingredients into an electric mixer bowl and beat them until just combined. Set aside.

And now is the time to prepare the last layer. The cheesecakes bottoms.

Ingredients for cheesecakes bottoms:

• 73g digestives cookies (6 cookies)
• 20g margarine

Place the cookies and margarine into a blender and whisk them until well combined.

Take prepared earlier muffin tin lined with paper cases and place it font of you. Spoon the digestive cookies mixture on the bottom of each paper case. Press the crumbs with a back of the spoon. Divide evenly among all paper cases. Then put a layer of cheese mixture again divide evenly among all paper cases. Then sprinkle with coconut streausel.

Bake for 25 minutes. After baking time remove form the oven and leave in baking tin to cool down. Serve when completely cooled. You can keep them in the fridge to cool down. 

Enjoy ! 

 

Coconut cappucino muffins

When I found this recipe on Sprinkle Bakes blog I had to try to bake those muffins. I just thought they must have been delicious and believe me they were.  Coffee cake with chocolate chips, filled with creamy cheese and sprinkled with coconut streusel... what else to add. And they are not difficult to make, although I modified the recipe slightly.

 

First step to prepare those muffins would be coconut streusel.

Ingredients for coconut streusel:

• 60g flour
• 80g sugar
• 40g desiccated coconut
• 2 tbsp melted butter

Place dry ingredients into a medium size bowl and combine them. Put the 125g butter ( you will need it later for muffin batter) into a sauce pan or a bowl and melt the butter on a heat or in microwave. Pour two tablespoons of melted butter into dry ingredients, set aside the remaining butter. Whisk all ingredients together and set aside.

Ingredients for 12-18 muffin:

• 280g flour
• 150g sugar
• 2 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250 ml milk
• 2 tbsp instant coffee
• 125g melted butter
• 1 egg
• 100g chocolate chips

 In a big bowl whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. 

Pour the milk into measuring jug add instant coffee and whisk until dissolves then add the egg and whisk well. 

Pour the wet ingredients to the bowl with dry ones, add melted butter and whisk until just combined. At last, but not at least, gently fold in the chocolate chips. 

Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Prepare the cheese filling.

Ingredients for cheese filling:

• 200g cream cheese
• 100g mascarpone
• 140g sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Place the cream cheese, mascarpone  and sugar  into an electric mixer bowl and beat well. Then add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until smooth and creamy.

Put in front of you prepared earlier muffin tin with paper cases, the muffin batter, the cream cheese filling and the coconut streusel. Put one table spoon of batter into each paper case, then put one heaped teaspoon of cream cheese filling and cover with muffin batter. Don not over load the muffin cases, 3/4 full is enough as the batter while baked rises and spreads on the sides. When all the muffin cases are full sprinkle the batter with coconut streusell. Bake for 20-25 minutes. When well risen and golden remove from the oven, leave for a few minutes into baking tin then transfer to the wire rack to cool down. Enjoy !

Carrot cake muffins

Carrot cake muffins were moist, sweet, aromatic, packed with nuts, raisins and of course carrots. Topped with mascarpone cheese frosting and decorated with walnut looked looked very elegant. The recipe comes from 'Easy muffins' cookbook.

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 280g flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• pinch of salt
• 115g brown sugar
• 200g grated carrot (about 2 medium size carrots)
• 50g chopped walnuts
• 50 raisins
• 2 eggs
• 175ml milk
• 6 tbsp flavourless oil like grape seed oil, sunflower oil
• 1 orange juice (about 50 ml)

Peel of the carrots and grate them. Set aside. Chop the walnuts and set aside. 

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Sift the flour, baking powder, mixed spice and salt into a big bowl. Add the sugar and whisk well. Then stir in the carrots well. Gently stir in the walnuts and raisins.

In separate jug whisk the eggs add the milk, oil, orange juice and whisk well. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients bowl. Stir gently until just combined. Do not over mix.

Spoon the batter into paper cases. Bake for 20 minutes. After that time poke the muffins with with toothpick if it comes out clean it means that cake is bake din the middle. Transfer the muffins into wire rack and leave them to cool down.

In a meantime prepare the frosting.

Ingredients for frosting:

• 140g mascarpone cheese
• 35g icing sugar

Put the icing sugar and cheese into a small bowl and whisk the with a fork. Be gentle as sugar may dust all around. Whisk until light and fluffy.

When the muffins are cooled place a spoon of frosting on each muffin top and spread. Decorate with the walnuts. Enjoy !

 

Strong lemon cupcakes

I was inspired by Simmon Rimmer lemon drizzle cake recipe and decided to change it into cupcakes. I was only partly happy with my decision, as I had plenty leftovers. No... not cupcakes them self, they were lovely, although very sour, but the amounts of cream and lemon juice were too big, calculated to big cake not small cupcakes. Coming back to cupcakes they were really nice, cake was spongy and delicate, cream lemony. They were very tasty.

Ingredients for lemon drizzle:

• 4 lemons, juice only*
• 75g caster sugar

* next time I will squeeze only two lemons, first of all I got too much liquid, second of all the mixture was to sour

 

Squeeze lemons over a sieve. Get rid of stones. Pour the juice into a jug add sugar and stir together. Set aside.   

Ingredients for sponge (12 cupcakes):

• 200g caster sugar
• 200g butter
• 2 lemons, zest only
• 3 eggs
• 200g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

Grease muffin tin holes and sprinkle with some flour, set aside. Preheat the oven to 180C.

Put the sugar, lemon zest and butter into electric mixer bowl and beat until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs one at a time, let the egg to be completely incorporated into the mixture before adding the next one. With a metal spoon carefully fold in the flour and the baking powder.
Spoon the batter evenly between muffin tin holes. Bake for 20-25 min until toothpick stick in the middle comes out clean.
Let them cool for a 5 min in baking thin, then transfer to a plate. Prick the top of each cupcake with toothpick and pour over the lemon drizzle mixture to soak the sponge. Set aside. I haven't used all of the lemon juice as the cupcakes became to sour for me. I kept this mixture in the fridge as I think is great to add to the tea.

Ingredients for lemon cream:

• 2 egg yolks
• 75g caster sugar
• 50g butter
• 2 lemons juice and zest
• 300g mascarpone

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a pan over a low heat until the sugar is melted. Add the butter, lemon and lemon zest and continue to cook, whisking continuously until the mixture has thickened and is smooth and well combined.  Set aside to cool down completely. 

With a spoon stir in mascarpone. I added more than recommended 100g as lemon cream was to sour for me that's way I received too much of a cream.

When the cream is ready. Slice each cupcake into half and place some cream in the middle, cover with remaining cake. You can add some cream on the top as a decoration and dust with icing sugar. Enjoy !