9th Feb - International Pizza Day...

I already missed Nutella Day this year :(... I couldn't miss this one to!!! As it's Int. Pizza Day - and oh boy, I do love pizza :) We made this pizza actually 3 days ago (on Sat, when one has a day off and can actually spend some time in the kitchen). Pizza dough was completely my Hubby's invention. One half of the base 'was mine', second half - 'his'. We made something to accommodate both of us. As I had a HUGE cravings for a pineapple I just used it on my base. Hubby used mushrooms, ham etc. It worked out like male/female pizza. One half sweet and delicate, other little spice and with stronger taste. So - if you haven't eaten pizza today - what are you waiting for :) (if you have to buy - let's be it! Just DO celebrate this very versatile and world known dish.) Even if you're on a diet you have a great excuse today... and besides - who doesn't like pizza!?!


How to make it...
Ingredients
Pizza dough:
- 1 cup of warm milk
- 3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 teaspoons of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of yeast
Pineapple half:
- pineapple from can (drained and cut into pieces)
- 1 chicken breast (seasoned, fried and cut into pieces)
Mushroom half:
- 100 g of mushrooms, pealed and sliced
- 1 onion, diced
- handful of olives, sliced
- few slices of ham, cut into pieces (or any other meat you have in the fridge)
For whole pizza:
- tomato sauce (we used ready made tomato sauce with herbs, worked great)
- few slices of cheese (enough to cover whole pizza) or grated cheese
- oil of olives


Dough:
Put warm milk into a bowl. Add sugar and mix with a spoon. Add yeast, mix and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Gradually add flour mixed with salt, olive oil and start mixing. When the mixture gets too heavy to mix, start kneading the dough with your hands. Knead the dough until you have a smooth ball. If the dough cracks it is too dry. Add water bit by bit until if forms a nice coherent ball. If your dough feels more like batter, it is too wet and you need to add flour bit by bit. If you need to add water or flour, do it by small amounts. Coat the dough with olive oil, place it in a large bowl and cover it with kitchen wrap or a grocery bag. Let the dough rise for about an hour at room temperature, then push it down again so it deflates. Let it sit for about another hour. If you want to use it the next day, put it in a refrigerator. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface, put a bit of flour on top and make it into the shape of a pie by stretching it out from the center outwards.
Filling:
On a preheated pan fry mushrooms and onions till brown and tender. Put aside to cool. Spread a layer of tomato sauce on the pizza base to cover it completely. On one half arrange fried chicken breast's pieces and cover it with pineapple. On the second half spread a layer of sliced meat, fried mushrooms with onion and sprinkle with sliced olives. Cover whole pizza with cheese. Bake in preheated oven in 230 C for about 15-20 min. Serve and eat immediately (with a ketchup or some fresh salad if you like).
Bon appétit!

The easiest cake in the world - but is it good?...

I'm a little sceptic if it comes to 'ready make' cake packs etc. I've made few of them in my life and usually they tasted ... well just 'fake'. You could taste some strange flavors, additions which shouldn't be there. On the other hand - what do you expect for a fraction of the price for all the 'real products' to make that cake... All that, until I made this one today... It's simply 'coffee cake' and it's good! I'll have to try their other cake mixes too someday. I know that 'Delecta' has a huge range of cakes, ideas for cold desserts, muffins etc.


This 'coffee cake' I made today couldn't be easier. Just 2 eggs, 100 g melted butter, 50 ml water and the 'mix'. Then just mix it for 5 minutes, transform into the cake dish and bake. The smell was fantastic! Light scent of coffee and freshly baked cake. The result was very good indeed. Already half of it disappeared - and it's only me and my Hubby here ;)
So my conclusion is - not all ready cake mixes are bad. As long as you go for a good product, from good manufacturer you can actually enjoy a cake within an hour (without huge costs and labour...). If you will have a chance to try this one (made by Polish company 'Delecta') do it.
Of course nothings better than real home baked cake, but sometimes, on those lazy days, you can take some shortcuts ;)

WANTED - a good waffle's recipe! REWARD guaranteed...

I know you can see a pretty nice waffles on the photo below but... unfortunately they just look nice and yummy. I've tried MANY waffle's recipes and not even one was as I would like them. They are either rubbery, too hard or they taste like scramble eggs. Those were made this morning. I just dreamed about kitchen filled with smell of fresh made waffles, hot coffee and a lazy, good, yummy start of the day - another disaster...


The recipe I had was from the Internet this time, one of the blogs. It didn't work at all... First batch I made was inedible. Had to make some changes to the batter to save the rest of them. With natural yogurt and some strawberry jam they weren't so bad. The worst thing is that waffles are one of my favourite things in the world! I still remember when I was a child and my Mum (or Dad) used to buy them for me - warm, crispy waffles with fresh cream and fresh summer fruits... hmmmm....

So a BIG REQUEST - please, pretty please - if you have a good, tested and reliable waffle's recipe email it to me ( anulaskitchen@wp.pl )... huh? I promise to try each and everyone I get! And... what's more... for the best one, there will be a surprise from me :) as a thank you, to the person who will make my weekend mornings tastier :]


The 'little surprise' will be a collection of 20(!) coulinary e-books.

The Daring Bakers #10 Graham Wafers and Canadian Nanaimo Bars...

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

I was looking forward to this challenge, as I want to go and visit Canada some day and was very happy to have an opportunity to try something Canadian :) Although it was quite time consuming - with making my own wafers, for the first time! - I enjoyed it a lot! The final result was delicious! Once everything was made the worst thing was waiting, waiting for the bars to chill and set properly. I made some Olympic rings to honour this years Winter Olympics. I was left with a lot of melted white chocolate and decided to add it to the middle layer. All in all - great challenge, delicious dessert perfect for parties, as you can make it in a big dish and just cut small individual portions. But... you need a strong coffee to go with it - as they are VERY sweet and filling dessert! If you want to know more about Nanaimo bars go here.


How to make it...

Gluten-Free Graham Wafers
Ingredients:
- 1 cup sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour)
- 3/4 cup tapioca starch/flour
- 1/2 cup sorghum flour
- 1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 100 g unsalted butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
- 1/3 cup honey, mild-flavoured such as clover.
- 5 tablespoons whole milk
- 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract


In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.
In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.
Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 180 C. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.
Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.
Anula's changes:
- I didn't make gluten-free version, I used 2 1/2 cups plain unbleached flour
- Instead of adding 1 cup brown sugar I mixed 1/3 cup dark muscavado sugar and 2/3 brown sugar
- had to add 2 more tablespoons of milk, for the dough to stick together


Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients:
For Nanaimo Bars — Bottom Layer
- 1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1 1/4 cups (160 g) graham wafer crumbs
- 1/2 cup (55 g) almonds (any type, finely chopped)
- 1 cup (130 g) coconut (shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

For Nanaimo Bars — Middle Layer
- 1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 ml) heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons vanilla custard powder (Such as Bird’s)
- 2 cups (254 g) icing sugar
Anula's changes:
- added 50 g melted white chocolate to this layer


For Nanaimo Bars — Top Layer
- 115 g semi-sweet chocolate
- 2 tablespoons (28 g) unsalted butter
Anula's changes:
- I omitted the butter completely and used milk chocolate


For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.


Bon appétit!