Everybody loves pancakes! // Kaikki rakastavat pannukakkuja!

American pancakes, definitely one of my favorites! I've always sort of cheated on these and got the pancake mix from store. How unprofessional! :D Therefore I wanted to challenge myself and make them from scratch without extra food additives.

For the toppings I chose something a bit healthier than the usual chocolate chips and whipped cream, so I hope you'll enjoy as well!

//

Amerikkalaiset pannukakut, ehdottomasti yksi lemppareistani! Olen aina tavallaan huijannut näissä ja hankkinut valmiin pannukakku mixin kaupasta. Kuinka epäammattimaista! :D Siksipä halusin vihdoin haastaa itseni tekemään koko setti alusta lähtien ilman ylimääräisiä lisäaineita.

Lisukkeiksi valitsin vähän jotain terveellisempää kuin tavalliset suklaahiput kermavaahdolla, joten toivon että tekin nautitte näistä!

This recipe was from one of my American cookbooks so I try to convert the amounts as well as I can. I actually have a measuring cup with both American and European measures so it's been easy for me. :)

//

Tämä resepti on yhdestä amerikkalaisesta keittokirjastani, joten yritän kääntää määrät niin hyvin kuin mahdollista. Itselläni on mittakuppi, joka sisältää molemmat mittayksiköt joten olen päässyt helpolla. :)

American pancakes // Amerikkalaiset pannukakut

~2 1/3 dl (1 cup) Flours // Jauhoja

1 tl/tsp Baking powder // Leivinjauhetta

2/3 dl (1/4 cup) Sugar // Sokeria

~2 1/3 dl (1 cup) Milk // Maitoa

2 Eggs // Kananmunaa

1/2 tl/tsp Vanilla extract // Vaniljauutetta

2 rkl/tbsp Melted butter // Voisulaa

1 Banana // Banaani

Greek yogurt// Kreikkalaista jugurttia

Honey // Hunajaa 

Mix flours and baking powder together and add the sugar. In another bowl, mix together the milk, eggs and vanilla extract. Make a little well in the middle of flours and whisk in the milk mixture ittle by little. Then finally whisk the butter in.

Prepare the pan by heating it up and melting a little butter in there. Scoop a spoonful of batter to the pan. The pancake is ready to be turned over when little bubbles appear on the surface and pop. Cook both sides golden brown.

Serve pancakes warm with sliced banana, greek yogurt and honey.

//

Sekoita jauhot ja leivinjauhe kulhossa ja lisää sitten sokeri. Sekoita toisessa kulhossa maito, kananmunat ja vaniljauute. Tee pieni kuoppa jauhojen keskelle ja sekoita maitoseos hiljalleen jauhoihin. Vispaa vielä voi mukaan viimeisenä. 

Lämmitä pannu ja sulata pieni voinokare tarttumisen estämiseksi. Annostele reilu lusikallinen taikinaa pannulle ja anna paistua. Pannukakku on valmis käännettäväksi, kun pinnalle nousee kuplia, jotka  hajoavat. Paista molemmat puolet kullanruskeiksi.

Tarjoile pannukakut lämpiminä viipaloidun banaanin, kreikkalaisen jugurtin ja hunajan kera.

Even though I did everything according to the recipe, my pancakes didn't turn out to be as puffy and fluffy as the "real" ones. I guess my ingredients weren't American enough to get the real effect. :P

//

Vaikka toimin juuri ohjeen mukaan, en saanut pannukakuista yhtä pulleita ja kuohkeita kuin "aidoista" pannukakuista. Ehkäpä ainekseni eivät olleet tarpeeksi amerikkalaisia saavuttamaan haluttuja ominaisuuksia. :P 

Grilled cheese for Popeye // Lämmin juustovoileipä Kippari Kallelle

I thank you all for the positive feedback from the latest survey on my Facebook page! Therefore I represent the first non-baking related recipe here! Most of these kind of recipes are very practical and I actually make these meals regularly, almost once a week. 

Grilled cheese sandwiches are a hit in our family. Every time you feel like getting a snack or a light supper, grilled cheese does the job. I found this updated and fresh new version of grilled cheese from Pinterest and I just love it!

//

Kiitän kaikkia teitä positiivisesta palautteesta viimeisimmästä kyselystäni Facebook sivuillani! Siispä esittelen tänään ensimmäisen reseptin leivonnan ulkopuolelta! Suurinosa näistä resepteistä ovat hyvin käytännönläheisiä ja valmistan näitä ruokia säännöllisesti, melkeimpä kerran viikossa.

Lämpimät juustovoileivät ovat hitti meidän perheessämme. Joka kerta kun tekee mieli välipalaa tai kevyttä iltasyömistä, nämä hoitavat homman. Löysin tämän päivitetyn ja raikkaan version Pinterestistä ja rakastan sitä yli kaiken!

Spinach-avocado-goat cheese grilled cheese // Pinaatti-avokado-vuohenjuusto lämpimät voileivät

4 Sanwiches // 4 Voileipää

8 slices of toast // paahtoleipä viipaletta

Basil pesto // Basilika pestoa

Grated cheese // Juustoraastetta

50 g (1 3/4 oz) Baby spinach // Baby-pinaattia

2 Avocados // Avokadoa

100g (3 1/2 oz) Goat cheese // Vuohenjuustoa

Olive oil // Oliiviöljyä

Spread some pesto on the bread slices to butter them up.

//

Levitä hieman pestoa leipäviipaleille voin tavoin.

Add some grated cheese on the both halves and layer the spinach on them as well.

//

Lisää juustoraaste molemmille puoliskoille ja lado pinaatti juuston päälle.

Slice up the avocado and put 3-4 slices just on the other slice of bread. Crumble some goat cheese on top of the avocado and flip the more empty half on top. Warm up a pan and use a little olive oil to toast the sandwich. Press the sandwich firmly with a spatula so the molten cheese glues everything together. Flip the sandwich when the surface is golden brown.

//

Viipaloi avokado ja aseta 3-4 siivua toiselle puoliskolle. Murenna vuohenjuustoa avokadon päälle ja kiepauta tyhjempi puolisko kanneksi. Kuumenna pannu ja tilkka oliiviöljyä. Paistaessasi leipää, paina lastalla leipää kasaan jotta juusto sitoo leivän yhteen. Käännä leipä, kun toinen puoli on kullanruskea. 

This will hurt your sweet tooth! [Gluten free]

Hi everone!

This week we're diving into a English dessert I've been hearing talked about a lot. Banoffee pie. The name clearly sums up the main parts of this pie: banana and toffee. Once again the crust of this pie is gluten free but don't let it bother since it's actually better tasting than a normal crust. I was pretty excited for this and when I got to taste it, it was brilliant! Although I must warn you, this pie is pretty sweet so it'll definitely remove that aching from your sweet tooth!

//

Moi kaikki!

Tällä viikolla sukelletaan ihanaan englantilaiseen jälkiruokaan, josta olen kuullut puhuttavan paljon. Banoffee piirakka. Nimi kiteyttää selväsi piirakan kaksi tärkeintä elementtiä: banaanin sekä toffeen. Jälleen kerran piirakan pohja on gluteiiniton, mutta älä anna sen häiritä, koska maku on älyttömän paljon parempi kuin normaaleissa pohjissa. Olin innoissani kuin aloitin leipomaan ja vihdoin kun pääsin maistamaan, se oli taivaalista! Täytyy kuitenkin pieni varoituksen sana antaa, koska piirakka on aika makeaa, se vie 100% varmuudella makeahampaan kolotuksen alta aika yksikön!

Crust// Pohja:

2dl (7 fl oz) Gluten free flours// Gluteiinitonta jauhoseosta

3 1/4dl (11 fl oz) Almond flours// Mantelijauhoa

1dl (3,5 fl oz) Powdered sugar// Tomusokeria

115g (4 oz) Butter// Voita

2 Egg yolks// Munankeltuaista

Filling// Täyte:

1 can (400 g/14 oz) Condensed milk// Maitotiivistettä

70g (2 1/4oz) Brown sugar// Fariinisokeria

2-3 Bananas// Banaania

1,5dl (5 fl oz) Whipping cream// Kuohukermaa

2 tbsp Powdered sugar// Tomusokeria

We're going to begin by shifting the flours and sugar into a bowl. Then continue by mixing the coolish butter into the flours by hand until it looks something like the dough in the picture underneath. After mixing well, we dunk the remaining 2 egg yolks and mix them into it by hand.

//

Aloitetaan piirakkapohjasta ja siivilöidään jauhot ja sokeri kulhoon. Tämän jälkeen hiero viileä voi käsin jauhojen sekaan, kunnes taikina näyttää kutakuinkin samalta kuin alla olevassa kuvassa. Vaivataan sekaan vielä viimeiseksi 2 munankeltuaista.

Cover up the bowl and let the dough to cool down in a fridge for an hour. After the hour of cooling down, butter up a 23cm (9 inch) pie dish and spread the dough into it. Poke it thoroughly with a fork and stick it back into the fridge for 30mins.

//

Peitä kulho kelmulla ja anna taikinan levätä jääkapissa noin tunnin ajan. Jäähtymisen jälkeen voitele 23cm piirasvuoka ja painele taikina vuokaan. Pistele pohja kauttaaltaan haarukalla ja anna levätä taas jääkaapissa 30min ajan.  

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350F), cover up the crust with a greaseproof paper and put some uncooked peas or rice on top of the paper. Bake it for 10-15mins and you should be good.

//

Lämmitä uuni 180°C, peitä pohja leivinpaperilla ja laita painoksi kypsentämättömiä herneitä tai riisiä. Paista pohjaa 10-15min ja sen piäisi olla valmis täytettäväksi. 

The we move on to the filling. We start from the toffee by heating up the brown sugar and condensed milk on the stove. Boil it for about 20 mins but be careful since I almost burnt mine because keeping the stove on too hot! After 20 mins it should be a lot thicker and have a nice caramel color in it. Let it cool down a bit before pouring it into the pie.

//

Sitten siirrytään täytteen pariin. Aloitetaan lämmittämällä fariinisokeria ja maitotiivistettä hellalla toffeeta varten. Keitä seosta noin 20 min ajan, mutta varo koska poltin omani melkein pohjaan liian kuuman hellan takia! 20 minuutin jälkeen toffeen pitäisi olla paljon paksumpaa ja väri muuttunut kauniin karamelliseksi. Anna toffeen jäähtyä vähän ennen sen kaatamista piirakkaan.

This part here should be easy. Basically just layer up each of the filling starting from the toffee. Pour it in first and then spread the sliced bananas evenly on top of it. Whip the cream with that little bit of powdered sugar and create a pretty whipped cream cover on the pie. Feel free to use imagination on this one! :)

//

Tämän osan pitäsikin olla helppo. Yksinkertaisesti kasataan piirakka kerroksittain aloittamalla toffeesta. Kaada se ensimmäiseksi pohjalle ja lisää siivutetut banaanit päälle. Vatkaa vielä kerma ja tomusokeri ja luo kaunis peitto banaanien päälle. Mielikuvitus on aina sallittua koristelu vaiheessa! :)

Something old, something new, something gluten free

Hi and welcome back!

Today we're having something a bit different on here. Lately I have discovered that I'm not able to eat normal wheat products anymore so I've been doing some research of gluten free food. Especially different restaurants made me positively surprised by their menus. There's a lot of meals for these kind of special diets. Therefore I wanted to try to bake something gluten free for the first time in my life. I had this great focaccia recipe, which was unfortunately wheat based, so I searched for a gluten free version on Internet. 

Some of you, like me, might think that gluten free means instantly bad or tasteless food. This recipe here proved my expectations wrong. You actually couldn't taste the difference!

//

Moi ja tervetuloa takaisin!

Tänään meillä on syynissä vähän erilainen tapaus. Viime aikoina en ole syystä tai toisesta pystynyt käyttämään viljatuotteita, joten olen tutkinut gluteiinittomia vaihtoehtoja. Erityisesti eri ravintoloiden ruokalistat ovat positiivisesti yllättäneet minut. Tarjolla on paljon erikoisruokavalioiden annoksia. Siksipä halusin kokeilla ensimmäistä kertaa elämässäni leipoa jotain gluteiinitonta. Minulla oli jo mahtava focaccia resepti, joka kuitenki valitettavasti oli tavallisiin jauhoihin leivottu. Etsin siis gluteiinittoman vaihtoehdon netistä.

Jotkut teistä, kuten minäkin, voivat ajatella että gluteiiniton tarkoittaa automaattisesti pahaa tai mautonta ruokaa. Tämä resepti todisti ainakin minun ennakkoluuloni vääriksi. Ero ei pysty oikeastaan edes maistamaan!

5dl (16 fl oz) Water // Vettä

25g (0,8 oz) Yeast // Hiivaa

1 Tbsp Psyllium powder // Psylliumkuorijauhetta

3 Tbsp Olive oil // Oliiviöljyä

1,5 Tsp Salt // Suolaa

2dl (7 fl oz) Dark gluten free flours // Tummaa gluteiinitonta jauhoseosta

4dl (14 fl oz) Normal gluten free flours // Gluteiinitonta jauhoseosta

120g (4,4 oz) Sun dried tomatoes // Aurinkokuivattuja tomaatteja

30g (1 oz) Black pitted olives or slices // Kokonaisia tai viipaloituja mustia, kivettömiä oliiveja

Rosemary // Rosmariinia

Fleur de sel // Sormisuolaa

Preheat the oven to 225°C (440 F)

Let's start by breaking the yeast into the 5dl of body temperatured water. Add the psyllium powder and mix it well. Let the base sit for 10mins.

//

Aloitetaan murentamalla hiiva kädenlämpöiseen veteen (5dl). Lisätään psylliumjauhe ja sekoitetaan hyvin. Anna pohjan turvota 10min ajan.

Then we can add the rest of the ingredients: oil, salt and flours. The dough is not as thick as a normal bread dough so we mix it up with an electrical mixer for about 5mins.

//

SItten lisätään loput aineet: öljy, suola ja jauhot. Gluteiiniton taikina ei ole yhtä paksua kuin normaali leipätaikina, joten se sekoitetaan vatkaimella 5min ajan.

Spread the bread on a covered oven tray and let it rise for 20mins. Then spread the toppings and little bit of oil on top of the bread: sliced sun dried tomatoes, sliced olives, rosemary and fleur de sel. Bake it for 20 minutes and voilà!

 //

Levitä taikina leivinpaperilla suojatulle uunipellille ja anna taikinan kohota 20 minuuttia. Sivele pinta öljyllä ja ripottele pinnalle loput aineet: pilkotut aurinkokuivatut tomaatit, viipaloidut oliivit, rosmariini ja sormisuola. Paista leipää keskitasolla 20 minuuttia ja valmista tuli!

Ps. I finally found the manuals for our ancient ice cream maker so there will be frosted treats coming up soon! :))

//

Ps. Löysin vihdoin ohjekirjan meidän ikivanhaan jäätelökoneeseen, joten lähitulevaisuudessa näemme myös jäädytettyjä herkkuja! :))

Chocolate chip VS raisin [Nyt myös suomeksi!]

Can you tell the difference? // Huomaatko eron?

 It is time to solve the forever going battle between chocolate chip and raisin cookies! Originally I got this recipe from my granny and it included just raisins. I realized that why not to try with some chocolate chips.. It can't be bad, right?

Honestly, I've never understood the hate against raisin cookies. I absolutely love these ones but the result with chocolate knocked me out. I don't know if it's the fact that it's CHOCOLATE or just new flavor but they probably even topped the raisin version. Even though I had this amazing experience, I'm not going to abandon the original version because the flavors fit together like a glove. Therefore the judging is up to you, my readers. Bake some cookies and tell me your opinion on my Facebook page!

//

Vihdoin on tullut aika kirjoittaa ensimmäinen suomenkielinen päivitys! Rehellisesti sanottuna kyllä vähän jännittää, kun on tottunut kirjoittamaan englanniksi jo pitkän aikaa. :D Tänään siis selvitetään taistelu suklaa- ja rusinakeksien välillä. Kysymys on jakanut mielipiteitä netissä jo pitempään, joten päätin selvittää todellisen mielipiteeni asiasta.

Sain alkuperäisen, rusinoita sisältävän reseptin mummiltani ja päätin kokeilla pientä muunnosta. Minulla ei ole oikeastaan koskaan ollut mitään rusinakeksejä vastaan, koska nämä kyseiset keksit ovat olleet yksi lemppareistani. Siispä tein puolet erästä rusinoilla ja puolet suklaahipuillla, jotta voisin vertailla. En tiedä oliko ero siinä, että ne tarjosivat uuden makuelämyksen vaiko siinä, että luonnollisesti rakastan suklaata, mutta suklaakeksit olivat mahtavia! Aion silti pitää perinteisen reseptin mielessä, koska mitäpäs sitä toimivaa enää muuttamaan. :) Teidän käsiinne jää siis pulman ratkaiseminen. Leipokaa ja kertokaa teidän suosikkinne Facebook-sivuillani!

125g (4,5 oz) Butter// voita

1,5dl (5 fl oz) Sugar// sokeria

4,5dl (15 fl oz) Oatmeal// kaurahiutaleita

1dl (3,5 fl oz) Flours// vehnäjauhoja

1dl (3,5 fl oz) Raisins// rusinoita (2dl if you're making raisin cookies only// 2dl jos teet vain rusinakeksejä)

1dl (3,5 fl oz) Chocolate// suklaata

1 tsp/tl Baking soda// soodaa

0,5dl (1,75 fl oz) Cream // kermaa

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400F)

We're going to start by mixing the dry ingredients, in the order of given up there, into the melted butter. So one more time: start with sugar, then oatmeal and flours.

//

Lämmitä uuni 200°C (400F)

Aloitetaan sekoittamalla kuivat aineet annetussa järjestyksessä sulatettuun voihin. Eli ensin sokeri, sitten kaurahiutaleet ja jauhot.

Mix the baking soda into the cream and add it to the dough.

//

Sekoita sooda kerman sekaan ja kaada se sitten taikinan joukkoon.

These were too big piles, make them even smaller cause they'll spread a lot!// Tee kasoista vielä pienempiä, koska ne leviävät aika lailla!

 Divide the cookie dough into two and mix the raisins with other and chopped chocolate with another one. Use spoons to create little piles onto the baking sheet (notice that they'll spread a lot!) Bake them for 5-10 mins depending on your oven. Mine took about 7 mins.

//

Jaa keksitakina kahteen osaan ja sekoita toiseen rusinat ja suklaa toiseen. Kasaa lusiokoiden avulla keksit pellille, mutta jätä hyvin leviämisvaraa äläkä tee kekseistä liian isoja! Paista keksejä 5-10 minuuttia uunista riippuen. Meidän uuni teki tehtävänsä noin 7 minuutissa.

Whoopsie!

Here, on the right, you can see the result when making too big cookies and bake them for too long. Left one is the perfect individual. :) They should turn golden brown when baked enough time.

//

Oikealla näette liian isoksi kasatun keksin, jota erehdyksessäni paistoin liian pitkään. Vasemmalla taas loistoyksilö. :) Tarpeeksi kun paistat, kekseistä pitäisi tulla kullanruskeita.

After all this fuzz I wouldn't take this problem too seriously. I'd say that unless I was expecting to eat for ex. choclate chip cookie and I got raisin one, I would be mad. Otherwise I'm happy with both of these and so were everybody else. Therefore let's solve this problem once in for all on my Facebook page in the following week!

Ps. Shoutout for my awesome boyfriend who has his birthday today! I love you so much boo! xoxo

//

Kaiken tämän jälkeen sanoisin, että kärpäsestä on tehty härkänen. Pettyisin siinä tapauksessa, jos odottaisin saavani suklaakeksin, mutta saisinkin rusinakeksin. Muuten jatkan elämääni hyvillä mielin, tietäen että reseptivalikoimassani on taas yksi hyvä uusi tulokas. :) Selvitetään siis lopullisesti tämä Facebook-sivuillani tulevan viikon aikana!

Ps. Synttärionnittelut parhaalle poikaystävälle ikinä! Rakastan sua niin paljon boo! xoxo 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day folks!

Finally I got to stick my fingers into a new dough. After a long break it was great to be back in the old familiar kitchen. :) This recipe is actually from one of those new cookbooks I got from there. I needed to do some converting before I got in to the business but I think I got everything right. At least the result was delicious! I remember tasting warm banana bread for the first time at my est friend's. I fell straight in love with that but forgot to ask the recipe for it. This all happened before my trip so of course I forgot all of this until I found this book which included the recipe.

I don't know if you guys noticed but I put a little poll on my Facebook page, whether I should write this in Finnish also or not. I'd really appreciate if you would give your opinion there so I'd know how to improve this blog. :) Therefore this is the last "normal" post here and depending on the poll answers, who knows, maybe the next post will be written also in Finnish! So remember to give your vote on http://www.facebook.com/ChictasticBaking

After all this rant, shall we get started?

You'll need 2 loaf pans (size 8,5 x 4,5 x 2,5 inch; 21,5 x 11 x 6cm)

Butter for greasing

6,5 dl (2 3/4 cups) Flour + extra for the dusting

2 tsp Baking powder

2 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Salt

2,4 dl (1 cup) Chopped walnuts

3 Eggs

3 Bananans (prefere ripe ones)

1 Lemon zest and juice

1,2 dl (1/2 cup) Vegetable oil

2,4 dl (1 cup) Sugar

1,2 dl (1/2 cup) Brown sugar

2 tsp Vanilla extract

Start by greasing and dusting the loaf pan and preheat the oven to 180°C (350F). Mix the following ingredients in a bowl: flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Chop the walnuts roughly and mix them into the flours. Create a little well in the middle of the flours for the wet ingredients to be mixed in.

Mash the bananas until they're smooth paste. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs just enough for them to be mixed. Apply the bananas into the eggs and stir well.

Mix the lemon zest into the eggs as well. Then it's time to add both of the sugars, oil, vanilla extract and lemon juice into the mixture and we're almost there!

Pour 3/4 of the mixture into the well and stir it well. When you're done with that, you can pour in the rest of the mixture and kind of fold it in. Try to avoid extra stirring since the bread will loose its fluffiness if done so. 

Move the batter into the loaf pan with spoon. As seen from the picture, the pan should be about half full.. or half empty if you're pessimist :D

Bake the bread on the middle level for 35-40 mins (mine actually took 50 mins for some reason). Just check it with a tooth pick or what not so it will be fully baked.

The one we have here turned out to be extremely delicious but I feel like it was missing some fluffiness. Just need to remember next time not to stir it too much. :) I'll probably make some more on next week since my brother also fell in love with this. I got a kind request from him yesterday that if I'd have any time to make some more of it soon. :D

10/10 and two thumbs up from P-chic. This is definitely going to my "best recipes" archive!  

Muffins to muffins

Hi there!

On this time, I decided to try a different style to approach my next eatable art work. I simply just dug my way through our kitchen shelves and compared those ingredients I found to different recipes. I got A LOT of muffin cups and different kind of nuts in my hands so I decided to make some simple tosca muffins. Tosca is the term for the topping which includes sugar, almonds and butter. Just FYI (; So let's get started!

Muffins:

4,5 dl (1,9 cups) Flours

2,5 dl (1 cup) Sugar

2,5 tsp Baking powder

0,5 tsp Salt

2 dl (0,85 cup) Milk

2 Eggs

2 tsp Vanilla sugar

75 g (2,65 oz) Melted butter

Tosca:

50g (1,75oz) Butter

50g (1,75oz) Almond chips

3/4 dl (1/3 cup) Sugar

2 tbsp Cream

2 tbsp Milk

Heat up the oven to 200°C (400F) and sift the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Mix them well and then mix the milk, eggs, vanilla sugar and melted butter in another bowl. After that, mix the flours into the egg bowl. There, you have the dough now! :) 

Next we're going to make the tosca topping.

Just basically melt the butter and mix the other ingredients in it. Boil it up quickly so the sugar melts and you're done. Then you're ready to fill up the cups and bake them but here's a couple of tips before you do that. I like to use a muffin tin and cover those cups with the paper cups so it's easier to take them off and there's less dishes afterwards. Also when you're filling them -- make sure that you don't fill them all up with the dough because there has to be some room for the tosca. Otherwise you end up like me. I've used to fill them all up to get really puffy muffins so I forgot that and it pretty much overflowed. Because of that, they got all sticky from outside since the tosca was all over them. Oh well! :D

So bake the muffins for 20-25mins in the middle of the oven and make sure with a toothpick that they're also baked from inside. I got 12 normal sized muffins with this amount of dough. Remember that if you're making mini muffins or large muffins, the baking time changes with them.

12 normal sized muffins = 6 large muffins = 24 mini muffins.

Large muffins need 25-30 mins in the oven, normal ones 20-25 mins, mini ones only 15-20 mins.

In my opinion, these were mucho delicioso! They're also perfect to bake at this time of the year since the tosca reminds me of falling leaves. I would definitely give 10/10 for this recipe. I just can't stop loving muffins/cup cakes. They're such a easy to make, usually the structure is perfect and moist and they're oh so cute looking! :3

Next time we're gonna have something special here. All I can reveal is that there's going to be chocolate and as far as I'm concerned, it's probably the best piece I have ever baked! So have a exciting and chictastic time until then!

Sly as a fox

Candy time! I had never thought that candy making would be such a easy task. This all began when my mom heard this conversation on the radio about rowan berries.  Since it's fall, those trees are FULL of the berries and all I had to do was to get our ladders and pick the prettiest berries from our trees in the backyard! This Finnish candy company Fazer has produced these "fox candies" for centuries and those are one of my favorite ones since when I was a kid. I've read that they used to have actual rowan berries in them in the beginning but nowadays I think they've replaced them with a some kind of aroma. 

I started by cleaning the berries up from leaves and other stuff and stored them in the freezer for the next day. We haven't got any night frost yet so the freezer does the job too. By freezing them, they get a little less sour. The next day I scooped 3dl (1,25 cups) of those frozen buddies and boiled them for 30mins. During this time, berries lose their amygdala which causes stomach problems when eaten in large amounts. My berries lost a lot of their color while boiling them so that's why the candies turned out to be more orange than red. (The real candies are red so that's why they failed my expectations.) After being boiled, the berries should be a little bit softer than before so it easier to strain through a strainer. From this amount of those berries, there should become about 1dl (o,4 cup) of puree .

So on top of that puree you need:

5dl (2 cups) Water

5dl (2 cups) Sugar

15g (0,5 oz) Agar Agar -powder or flakes

1,5dl (2/3 cup) Apple sauce

1 Tsp Tartaric acid powder

+2dl (0,85 cup) Very fine sugar to roll those cubes in (I didn't really measure the sugar for this. Just added more on the plate when needed) :)

So after you're all done with the puree, boil up the water and add the Agar Agar. Remember not to have the stove on too hot! When the liquid get clearer you can go ahead and add the sugar. Boil it up again but be careful, it burns quickly if you're not paying attention! Then lower the heat again.

When the sugar has dissolved, add the apple sauce, rowan berry puree and tartaric acid powder. Mix them carefully and let the mixture cool down. While waiting, you can go ahead and cover a pan or some kind of mold with greaseproof paper. Pour the marmelade mixture in it and let it solidify for a couple of hours. After that you're free to cut it in the pieces of your choice. Put the pieces on a greaseproof paper to a dry place to dry for about 48h. Remember to turn them around at times so they dry evenly. Drying prevents the sugar melting on top of them later. ;) When the marmelades are dry but still a bit sticky, roll them on a plate where's sugar. Keep the marmelades in a airtight box for the future.

Oh and one more thing. I've been always struggling with finding some ingredients. People don't usually tell where to find those in their recipes so let me change that here! If you're wondering where to find tartaric acid powder, the easiest place is to go to the pharmacy and ask for it fromt them. I also happened to see some at our biggest supermarket but the pharmacy is the safest place to find some. Unfortunately it's a bit more expensive there so be prepared for that.

I'll meet you next time with some cake pops so have a chictastic time till then! :)

Dancing on the rose pedals

Hi there!

Today it's time to get a little artistic with our bakings. We have some beautiful roses in our garden and therefore I wanted to harvest them before they'll freeze out there! So here's a few easy steps to save the beauty for a bit later. These kind of decorations are just a killer on a simple cake!

First, make sure that no pesticides are used on those flowers. I read that all the roses are eatable so there shouldn't be any other problems with them. Then you're free to pluck the pedals out of the flowers and pick the prettiest ones.

Basically you need just some egg white and fine sugar. I had just 1 flower here so less than 1 egg white was perfect for me. I began to "paint" the pedals one by one with the small brush and egg white. Make sure that there's egg white all over the pedal because the sugar needs it to stick on the surface! The egg white all over it also guarantees that the pedal remains in better shape for a longer time. The "painting" got me frustrated since it was quite slow so I ended up to dip those pedals in the egg white cup and wipe the extra egg white off them afterwards.

As you can see I misse one point when I was using the brush! :) Anyways, after those pedals are soaked sprinkle some fine suger all over them. In some cases the egg white melted a lot of the sugar so you just have to keep adding the sugar until it stays on the surface untouched. After sprinkling, place the pedals on a greaseproof paper whit sugar on it. Loose sugar prevents them to stick to the paper.

There you go! It very easy and beautiful way to decorate your cake. Just remember to keep those in a air-tight box and the point that even these don't last forever. After a couple of weeks they loose the bright color and the possible taste in them. So have a beautiful and chictastic time till next week!