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


Procedure

1. In a bowl, empty the Nutella (a silicone spatula is the ideal tool) and with a fork mix first the egg in it and then the flour to make a nice soft dough. 
2. Form with your hands a long cylinder of about 3cm of diameter. 
3. Cut with a sharp knife slices of 2cm and with the back of a wooden spoon press in the middle as in the photos.
4. Align the cookies in an oven dish covered with parcement paper leaving some space in between.
5. Bake at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan for 10min. 
6. Take them out of the oven, allow a few minutes to cool down (if you can resist :) and consume with moderation !!! 

Enjoy!
P.S: You can find in the web, several versions of Nutellotti where often they fill the hole in the middle of the cookies with Nutella, but I think that despite that indeed is sinful and very attractive, it is too much.

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Kurtos Kalacs or chimney cakes

This romanian pastry that is called Kurtos Kalacs, is often called in english chimney cakes. It's a fluffy yeast dough (similar to brioche) that is sweetened rolling them to a sugar and cinnamon mix, sometimes even in ground walnuts, and at old times used to be served in weddings. Nowdays, we can find them in small street kiosks that bake them in coal grills.
Hubby tried them first in Prague on a trip for his work and came back telling that it was so soft and delicious that I would surely love it!
I searched for the recipe on the web and indeed I found how to make them at home but eventually never tried them. It took me a couple of years until I would taste them in Budapest (I liked them so much that there was no day passing without eating at least two!!!) But still coming back home, I did not dare to try making them... until one evening, coming back home from a busy day, hubby had made them for me!!! That was a nice surprise :)
So, here it is our homemade Kurtos based on the following 2 recipes found online (thank you both!):

• http://honestcooking.com/kurtoskalacs-chimney-cake/ (Honest cooking)
• http://pearlsofbaking.blogspot.fr/2013/11/chimney-cake-kurtos-kalacs.html?m=1 (Pearls of baking) 

*** Beware, you have to find several carton moulds (from paper towels) before doing the recipe ***


Ingredients
240gr all purpose flour (of high quality)
7gr active dry yeast
30gr sugar
a bit of salt
1 egg
45gr melted butter
120ml lukewarm milk

For the topping:
melted butter, sugar, cinnamon
 

Procedure

1. Start by making the moulds. Use the cartons from paper towels or similar. Cover them completely with aluminium foil and brush the melted butter all over them.
2. Put in a small bowl the milk, some sugar and the yeast and allow around 10min to get foamy.
3. In the bowl of your mixer add all the ingredients and the above milk-yeast mixture. Knead to form a dough and continue for about 5min.
4. The result is a quite sticky dough. Do NOT add more flour, this is how it should be.
5. Cover and allow the dough to rise for an hour in a warm place. Often I cover it with a blanket :)
6. With a silicone spatula, cut parts of the dough and in a well floured surface shape thick sheets.
7. With a pizza cutter, divide in long ribbons of 1.5cm wide.
8. Start to wrap those ribbons around the homemade-buttered moulds like shown in the photos. When completely covered, brush them with butter and roll them in the sugar-cinnamon mix.
9. Arrange them in an oven tray like in the photos and bake at 190 degrees of Celsius for about 20min or until they get a nice golden color.
10. Tap them to get out of the moulds and allow a few minutes to rest if you can resist :)

Share only your dear ones !!!
   
 

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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.


Ingredients: (for about 500g of orangettes)
3 big oranges (organic, untreated)
250g white sugar
50cl of water
200g of good quality dark chocolate (around 60-70%)

Procedure

1. Wash well the oranges and peel them carefully cutting the skin in quarters.
2. Put them in a casserole covering them with cold water and boil them for 5 min. 
3. Drain and redo the last step once more.
4. Drain and let them cool.
5. Cut in thin strips of about 0.5cm getting the maximum of length possible.
6. Prepare the syrup with water and sugar. When start boiling add the strips and boil for 5 min. Allow to cool completely and repeat once more the whole step.
7. When completely cool, arrange them in a cooling rack and allow overnight to dry.
8. The next day, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (bain-marie).
9. Drop a handful of the orange peel strips and turn them with a fork to coat. 
10. "Fish" them one by one with the fork, allowing the excess to drip off. Arrange them in a tray lined with parchment paper. Allow them to dry completely in a cool place.
11. Once done (best the next day), make small decorated bags and offer them to your dear ones! 

Enjoy!!!   

  

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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 :)

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