Halloween pumpkin – throw nothing away!

Nämä Jack O' Lanternit virnistelivät kotonani viime lauantaina, kun vietimme pieniä Halloween-kemuja viikkoa etukäteen. Juttelin aiemmin työkaverin kanssa kurpitsalyhdyistä, ja hän kertoi väsäävänsä niitä lapsensa Halloween-juhliin. Noh, kysyin tietysti innokkaana kurpitsapiirakkafanina, että mitäs hän mahtaa tehdä sisuksista. Vastaus oli, että heittää pois! No way, Jose! Kurpitsa kannattaa pistää hyötykäyttöön siemeniä myöten. Ainakin, jos kyse on suomalaisista, syötäviksi tarkoitetuista kurpitsoista.

Itse tykkään piirtää leikattavan "hatun" sekä naaman lyijykynällä kurpitsan pintaan ennen leikkausoperaatiota. Tänä(kin) vuonna kaiverrusten kanssa tuli jäätävä kiire: vieraat olivat jo ovella, kun aloittelin. Erilaisia naamainspiraatioita on netti pullollaan, mutta nyt päädyin tällaisiin pikaratkaisuihin. Joskus olisi mahtavaa taiteilla ajan kanssa!

Kun hatut on leikattu irti, kannattaa "lypsää" siemenet hedelmälihasta ja pistää talteen. Sitten alkaakin hedelmälihan irrottaminen. Itse olen ottanut talteen sekä pehmeän hötön ja lusikalla kaiverretun kovemman massan, kunnes kurpitsat näyttävät tältä:

Sitten vaan taiteilemaan pelottavia virneitä, kynttilä sisään ja lyhty on valmis! Sisukset pistän soseeksi ja teen niistä kurpitsapiirakkaa samalla hyväksi havaitulla ohjeella joka vuosi (löytyy tästä postauksesta). Yhteen piirakkaan riittää 5 dl mössöä. Näistä kahdesta n. 3 kg kurpitsasta sain ainekset 2 piirakkaan, jotka tarjoilin kermavaahdon ja vaahterasiirapin kera. Ylimääräisestä mössöstä voi tehdä vaikka kurpitsakeittoa!  

Ja sitten ne siemenet. Myönnetään, että olen itsekin heittänyt nämä aiempina vuosina pois. Mutta nyt siis valistuneena paahdoin ne uunissa. Hakusanoilla 'roasted pumpkin seeds' löytyy kasa hyviä vinkkejä ja sekä suolaisia että makeita maustamisvaihtoehtoja. Itse sokerihiirenä päädyin seuraavaan komboon: sekoitin siementen (n. 2,5 dl) joukkoon oliiviöljyä, vaahterasiirappia (se loppu, joka ei piirakan kanssa tarjottuna mennyt), kanelia ja sokeria. Siemenet levitetään uuninpellille leivinpaperin päälle yhteen kerrokseen. Omani jäivät vähän päällekkäin, mutta ihan rouskuvia niistä tuli. 150 astetta ja n. 40 minuttia. Voi pojat, kyllä maistui! :)

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If you decide to carve a Halloween pumpkin, why not use the rest of the vegetable? I make pumpkin pie with the same recipe every year, find it here. Around 3 kg pumpkin equals one pie (5 dl mashed flesh). In case any leftovers, why not make a pumpkin soup? And the seeds. If I had known how tasty they are I'd never have thrown them away previous years. There are several tasty, both salty and sweet spice mixes you can use, but as a desperate sugar lover I ended up with this combo: seeds (around 2,5 dl) mixed with olive oil + maple syrup + cinnamon + sugar. Bake in 150 Celcius for 40 minutes and serve as party snack. Omnom!

Rocky roads - it was about time

Rocky road Lily is back with rocky roads – after a months break. ;) And also back in Blogspot after using own domain name. For a while I thought I'd get rid of the blog for good, but started missing the whole blogging thing! Probably will post only every now and then, but that's better than nothing, huh? 

Oh, and the recipe.. it's an altered version of this one.

200 g milk chocolate
20 g butter
50 g small marshmallows
1 dl cashews
1 dl Daim chocolate

1. Chop the milk chocolate and melt it with butter.
2. Chop the nuts and Daim. Mix the marshmallows, nuts and Daim with cooled chocolate (leave some marshmallows for decoration).
3. Pour the mix into a pan covered with baking paper. Sprinkle some marshmallows and nuts on top. Let set in a fridge for abot an hour. Cut in small squares.
4. ENJOY :P

Pomegranate smoothie with sunshines

Wow, the biggest gap in posts ever (in the less-than-a-year -history of my blog). A valid excuse lies right in front of your eyes: take a look at the photo below. I'm never home when it's daylight and photos taken otherwise look like they were taken in a cave and someone sprayed ugly hue on them. If I was a pro photographer this wouldn't be a problem, but since I'm not, the northern darkness has hamstringed my inspirationg to blog. It's been the darkest winter in 25 years: 50 hours of sunlight since the beginning of December. How sick is that! Anyhow, today I got a proof that sun still exists, I saw it!

Oh yes, to the point: pomegranate smoothie, made by a special friend. Mix pomegranate seeds (of 1 fruit) with a banana and cherry juice. Decorate with large coconut flakes (one of us isn't a fan, as you can tell). Tip: when in lack of sunshine, company of friends brightens your day <3.

Mango cream puffs

I lost my cream puff virginity last Saturday when I decided to bake something for a friend's party. I had mango cream cheese in fridge, searched recipes with it and found this. I made the filling according to it (except doubled the amount of cream) and the dough according to this recipe (the first one on the list). At the party table these fluffy yummies were paired with the hostess' amazing sandwich cake. Nice match, I'd say!

 MANGO CREAM PUFFS (20 middle size, 35 small)

1 1/2 dl water
75 g butter
1 1/2 dl wheat flour
3 eggs

Filling
2 dl cream
200 g mango cream cheese
sugar

1. Boil water and butter in a pan. Add flour. Mix with a wooden fork until the dough turns into a firm "ball". Let it cool.
2. Add eggs one by one while mixing with mixer. After adding the first two eggs, keep mixing for 2 minutes. After adding the third egg, mix for 4 to 5 minutes. (This is essential to make the dough rise).
3. Extrude rosette-shape lumps on baking paper or use two spoons.
4. Bake in 200 Celsius for 25 minutes. Don't open the oven door for the first 15 minutes.
5. Make the filling: whip the cream and mix it with cream cheese and sugar. Cut the puffs and fill them.

New year, old tricks: cake pops!

Happy 2013, folks! 

What have I been posting about lately... more baking, less outfits (more baking -> less outfits fit). :) Oh well, fortunately the situation is not too bad after the holidays, but you can definitely tell the difference of how you feel after even a small break from exercising and simultaneously eating whatever you hand reaches first. Most often chocolate...

And what I do is share this super unhealthy caloriebomb with you: gingerbread cake pops with coconut and mint chocolate topping. Nice, huh? :) Actually these are something I made for Christmas, but ran out of time to post about. So let's make them winter cake pops instead. And if you are slimming down for now, you can always try them in February!

GINGERBREAD CAKE POPS WITH COCONUT AND MINT CHOCOLATE TOPPING WOW THAT'S A LONG TITLE

(This is my own variation of cake pops recipes I've tried so far.) 

350 g gingerbreads
100 g cream cheese
200-300 g white chocolate
coconut flakes
mint chocolate (I used Marianne flavoured Kismet bar I found in my sister's kitchen)

1. Crumble the gingerbreads into small bits and mix with cream cheese. Roll small balls and put in fridge for about 1 hour.
2. Melt the chocolate. Dip the other end of a stick in chocolate before sticking it into a ball. Roll in chocolate and sprinkle coconut flakes or crumbled mint chocolate on top.

Frozen meringue cake

This was our Christmas cake along with cranberry cheesecake. I spotted it in the latest Glorian ruoka ja viini (Gloria's Food and Wine) -magazine. It turned out pretty, but the taste was a bit too coffeeish for my tastebuds. Would work for total coffee lovers, though!

FROZEN MERINGUE CAKE

Meringue layers (4 layers):
6 egg whites
2 dl sugar
1/2 teaspoon vinegar
50 g dark chocolate

Espresso yoghurt filling:
1 can (500 g) Bulgarian yoghurt
6 egg yolks
1 dl sugar
2 dl milk
1 dl water
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon cardamom
3 tablespoons cornstarch (e.g. Maizena)
20 g butter
2 dl whipped cream
chocolate truffles

Using air circulating oven is preferred, but if using a regular oven, the meringue layers should be baked in two lots. Set the air circulating oven in 100 C, the regular in 125 C.

Separate the egg whites and yolks. Put the yolks into a small bowl and cover with cellophane. Put the whites into a big bowl and whip for a short while until foam starts to appear. Add sugar and vinegar into the foam. Continue whipping for about 8 minutes until the foam is firm and shiny and the foam tops are sharp when lifting the mixer up. Cover two baking trays with baking paper. Use e.g. a plate to draw 2 circles (diameter 18 cm) on each paper. Divide the foam into four parts and put it inside the circles. Don't spread the foam yet.

Cut the chocolate and melt it in a bowl either in a hot water bath or in a microwave in low temperature (mix every now and then) for 1-2 minutes. Run the chocolate on top of the foam piles with a spoon. Flatten the mounds to match the sizes of the circles with a spoon. Don't flatten too much to make the chocolate stay in beautiful stripes. Bake the meringue layers in air circulating oven in two levels for about 1 1/2 hours. Let them cool down.

Make the filling. Pour the youghurt into a sieve covered with a filtering paper. Lift the sieve on top of a bowl and let the yoghurt drip while making the rest of the filling. Put the yolks, sugar, milk, water, instant espresso powder, cardamom and cornstarch into a saucepan. Heat it up while mixing until it reaches boiling point. When the first bubble comes up and the blend turns into kissel, lift the pan off the cooking plate. Add butter into the pan and mix until melted. Let the blend cool down. Mix it a few times to prevent crusting. When the blend is cool, combine it with youghurt. Whip the cream and mix it with the youghurt blend.

Fill the cake. Lift a meringue layer on a serving plate and spread 1/3 of the yoghurt filling on top. Repeat twice. Place the fourth meringue layer on the very top. Put the cake in freezer and let it freeze during the night. Take the cake into room temperature about 2 hours before serving. The cake should be cold but not icy. Decorate with chocolate truffels.

Christmas cookies in a jar

This is  a nice Christmas present idea. I fell in love with the taste of these cookies so already made another set using white chocolate – not bad! 

 The whole week has been crazy running from one place to another. Finally it's time to relax and enjoy the holidays. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! <:P

CHRISTMAS COOKIES  (in Finnish here.)


100 g soft apricots (soft cranberries might make a nice variation)
2 dl (100 g) pecan nuts
100 g dark chocolate (white or milk chocolate also worth trying!)
3 dl wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
100 g butter
1 dl sugar
1 egg
2 table spoons light syrup

1. Cut the apricots, nuts and chocolate into crushed grain. Mix flours with baking powder and spices.
2. Froth butter and sugar. Add the egg while frothing. Add syrup, flour, and crushed grain. Mix the dough until even.
3. Make 30 cm long bar of the dough. Wrap it in cellophane and let harden in fridge for about 2 hours.
4. Cut the bar into 1 cm slices. Place the slices on a baking tray covered with baking paper.
5. Bake in 175 C in the middle of the oven for 12-15 minutes, until the slices get a bit brownish. Let the cookies cool down and harden on the tray.

Snowy cupcakes

GINGERBREAD COCONUT CUPCAKES

150 g margarine
1 1/2 dl brown sugar
2 eggs
3 1/2 dl wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons gingerbread spice (I mixed cinnamon (1/2), clove (1/4) and ginger (1/4))
3/4 dl milk or cream
100 g vanilla quark

On top:
2 dl whipped cream
250 g mascarponse cheese
1 dl powdered sugar
1 dl coconut milk
coconut flakes

Whip margarine and brown sugar together. Add eggs one by one. Mix dry ingredients together and add them into dough with milk/cream. Add vanilla quark. Bake about 12-15 minutes in 200 C. Let the cupcakes cool down.

Topping:
Whip the cream until foamy and mix with other ingredients (except coconut flakes). Extrude the frosting on top of cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle coconut flakes on top.

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What makes my week is a day off in the middle of it. Especially if you get to spend the night before (the night you don't need to worry about going to bed early) with good friends you haven't seen for a while. AND if this all takes place in your friend-couples' beautiful new home you have been looking forward to see. Take a closer look at the house and the decoration style at Kaisa's stunning blog No home without you.

So, we gathered together on Independence day's eve and I was asked to take care of the sweet munchies. I knew Kaisa has a lot of black and white in her decoration, so decided to make cupcakes that fit in :). That sealed the deal with black papers and coconut flakes on top. And since Christmas is coming up, gingerbread flavour seemed a good choice for the dough. The gingerbread cupcake recipe is from the blog Kinuskikissa,  but I switched the gingerbeads on top to coconut topping, which is my own variation. This flavour combination was quite ok, but the outcome was a bit dry, these "snowy" treats tasted better after a night in fridge.

Gingerbread and giggling

Pre-Christmas parties are just the best! You get to gather together with closest friends, eat Christmassy treats (Christmas spices and flavours are the best ones!), burn candles and perhaps zip a few glasses of glogg or red wine. My pre-party season started in the last weekend of November. It was nothing planned, just asked a few friends to come over and made something nice to munch. 

Usually you can find a lot of party clothes at this time of year, since it's supposed to be one of the biggest party seasons. Yet I ran through several stores and found nearly only outerwear and jumpers. I was looking for something a bit festive but not too fancy. I found this fishnet top at Vero Moda, where I don't actually shop too often. It looks pretty basic, but when taking a closer look you see a hint of metal on the surface of the fabric.

Vero Moda tank, Gina Tricot jeans, Zara heels, vintage snakeskin clutch.

Pink vintage snakeskin clutch from Beyond Retro, Stockholm.

Vintage tiger-bracelet from 80's, my favourite one, from Flea Market Valtteri (which doesn't exist anymore, R.I.P.)

Blue cheese & persimmon gingerbreads: simple and fast but pretty and tasty!

Dolling up for the night.

Nuts over nuts – pecan coconut cake

Everything delicious is unhealthy, period. Except one exception: nuts! They may be calorie bombs, but still good for you. My ultimate favourites are coconut, cashews and pecans, so after I found a recipe called 'pecan coconut cake' last fall I had no choice but to try it. I already started to plan what I'll bake for Christmas, and this sweetie has a huge potential to end up on the table. Even though I usually always want to try new recipes. We'll see!

PECAN COCONUT CAKE (in Finnish here)

Cake

200 g margarin 

3 dl sugar

3 eggs

4 dl wheat flour

70 g pecan nuts

1 dl coconut flakes

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla sugar

2 dl whipped cream

Filling and frosting

75 g margarin

6 dl icing sugar

300 g cream cheese

2 teaspoons vanilla sugar

Decoration

200 g pecan nuts

(I added some cinnamon on top) 

1. Whip soft margarin with sugar. Add eggs one by one while whipping.

2.  Mix flours, crunched nuts, coconut flakes, baking powder and vanilla sugar together. Add the blend into the dough in turns with cream. 

3. Grease and flour a cake tin (diameter about 22 cm). Make the surface even. Bake in 175 Celcius at the lowest level in oven for about an hour. Turn the cake when it has cooled down a bit. Then let it cool entirely.

4. Mix soft margarin, icing sugar, cream cheese and vanilla sugar together with a mixer until smooth. 

5. Cut the cake in three layers. Spread the filling on every layer, on top and on the sides of the cake. Decorate with pecan nuts. Cake stays juicy for several days when stored in a fridge.

Whoopies, woohoo!

They say whoopies (or whoopie pies) are the next big thing after cupcakes, macarons and cake pops. I don't know why they are hip right now, a quick googling reveals they have a long history in America. Traditionally whoopies, sweet sandwich-like treats, are made of chocolate batter and white filling. I rebelliously decided to make a blonde version. In many Finnish whoopie recipes the filling is made of cream cheese mixed with sugar and/or chocolate. The rebellious me went with marshmallow filling.

I spent last weekend at my sister's place in countryside which means my baking environment was much more pleasant than it would have been in my own small kitchen. Just love her romantic country style kitchen!

This recipe (from blog Monalisa's cakes) filled my requirements dough and filling wise.
Btw, when transforming grams into decilitres, table spoons or whatever, this publication by National Public Health Institute becomes handy. Sorry, in Finnish only!

WHOOPIE PIES

75 g saltless butter or margarin
1 egg
150 g (~1,7 dl) sugar
125 g crème fraîche
25 ml (~1,7 table spoons) milk
1 table spoon vanilla extract
55 g white chocolate
3/4 table spoon baking soda
275 g (almost 4 dl) flour
           ...
100 g marshmallows
50 ml (~3,5 table spoons) milk
125 g saltless butter

1. Melt the butter and let it cool down. Whip the egg until foamy and add the sugar 1/3 at a time until thick. Add the butter, crème fraîche, milk, and vanilla extract while whipping. Add chopped chocolate, baking soda and flour.
2. Extrude the dough onto a sheet (diameter about 2,5 cm). Bake in oven (175 Celsius) for about 13 minutes until they get some colour.
3. Filling: heat up the marshmallows and milk in a pan until smooth paste. Let cool down. Whip butter until fluffy and mix it with the marshmallow paste. Extract the paste onto a cookie and place another cookie on top of it.

Note: I added more liquid (both crème fraîche and milk) into the dough to make it more loose. I didn't have a piping tube to extrude the dough, so to make the cookies round, the dough needed to be running.

Caramel cupcakes with pecan

My mom knows I'm into baking so she surprised me with this super cute book full of the most amazing cupcake recipes (Ingrid Hancock Bjerknes: Kuppikakut / WSOY. They have an english version as well called, surprisingly, Cupcakes). It was hard to decide which ones to try first: mojito cupcakes, marshmallow cupcakes or perhaps Baileys cupcakes. The lucky winner was pecan nut cupcakes with caramel topping. The combination of those two sounded (and tasted) heavenly, and the picture sealed the deal. Ok, my versions didn't turn out that pretty, but they were delicious. Especially served with whipped cream. I think the photo in the book has been taken right after pouring the topping, whereas in my picture the topping has already dried up. 

See the recipe below and enjoy!

Caramel cupcakes with pecan

INGREDIENTS

Dough
300 g pecan nuts
200 g warm margarin
1 1/2 dl sugar
1 1/2 dl brown sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
mocha essence (I skipped this one)
4 dl sieved wheat flour
1 dl grinded almond
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 dl whipping cream
1 banana

Caramel topping
60 g margarin
100 g brown sugar
4 tabelspoons light syrup
1 1/2 dl whipping cream

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat the oven up to 180 Celcius.
2. Roast the nuts in oven about 15 minutes and let them cool down. Crunch half of them and leave the other half for decoration.
3. Whip margarin with sugar until fluffy.
4. Add eggs one by one while whipping.
5. Add cinnamon and cardamom (and a few drops of mocha essence). Whip until smooth.
6. Mix flour, grinded almond and baking powder together and add into dough. Whip for a few minutes.
7. Add whipping cream little by little.  
8. Squash the banana and add into dough.
9. Add crushed pecan nuts.
10. Fill cupcake tins half full and bake them for about 15 minutes.

Caramel topping
1. Measure margarin, brown sugar and syrup into pan and heat while mixing until bubbly. Continue mixing for another 2 minutes.
2. Add cream and keep mixing until thick.

Decoration
The topping is very running so use high edged cupcake tins. Decorate cupcakes with nuts (either crunched or whole ones). Pour the topping on top.