FairyLand: April 2011

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Caramelized Apple Brownie

And here we are again!!! :) May is just around the corner and spring makes slowwww steps towards us..It should be sunny and reaaally warm here this time of the season..but instead it is rainy and a bit cold still..
Today we're making a slightly different kind of applepie, that I'm sure u'll love!!! :)
Ingredients:
For the apples:
1/2 cup brown sugar (100gr.)
50 gr.butter
2 apples washed and cut in thin slices (leave the peel on)
For the brownie:
110 gr. butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups all purpose flour, sieved
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp grounded cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup roughly chopped walnuts
2 apples in thick sticks
Preparation:
Warm the butter with the sugar in a pan until melted. Pour the mixture in a round pan and add the apple slices, spread like a vendalia(one next to the other).

In a bowl beat the butter with the sugar until fluffy and white. Add the eggs (whisked) and beat until well blended. Then gradually add the flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Keep beating until everything is well mixed and then add the apple sticks and the walnuts. Fold the mixture with a spoon and add it on top of the apple slices.

Bake in preheated oven at 180 C for about 40 mins until golden brown.

Let it cool for about 10 mins and then turn it upside down.

Enjoy with vanilla ice-cream!!! :)
Good luck!!!

xoxo
B.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Easter Bread..tsoureki!!

Great Friday today...and I finally found some time to post that easter bread recipe I had told you about...Soo, get your ovens warm and start baking!!! I promise you won't regret!!! ;)
Ingredients:
80gr. wet yeast
380 ml fresh full fat milk + 80 ml more, luke-warm
4 eggs, preferrably bio + 2 more for topping
250 gr milk butter at room temperature, cut in pieces
1.360 all-purpose flour (strong) sieved
240 gr. caster sugar
2 pinches salt
16 gr. machlepi (about 2 tsps, not very full)
16 gr. mastic crystals (about 1 tsp) crushed with a little confectioner's sugar, until they become light dust
file almond for topping
Preparation:
1.In a small bowl we add the 80 ml of lukewarm milk and dissolve the yeast in it.
2.In the mixer bowl we put all the solid ingredients, the flour, the sugar and the salt.
3.We add the eggs...
4...the yeast mixture..
5...and the rest of the milk.
6. We mould the ingredients in medium speed until well blended.
7.We partially add the butter and keep moulding.
8.At first, the dough will be sticky. DON"T get carried away and add more flour.As you keep moulding you will see that the dough gathers on the mixer hook. Then it is ready.
9.We add the mastic and the machlepi and mould for a few more seconds.
10.We make a ball with the dough, put it in a bowl, cover it with a towel and let it in a warm place for 2-3 hours(maybe more) to double in size.
11.We transfer the dough on a surface and mould it a little with our hands, so that the air leaves.
12.We divide the dough in pieces. Depends if you want to make big tsourekia or little ones. I divided it in 100 gr.each. Make little balls and then shape it however you like.

13.Place them in the oven pan on baking paper and let it double in size again, for about 1 hour in warm place.
14.Mix the 2 remaining eggs with a liitle water and with a brush, spread it over the tsourekia. Carefully, because if you pinch it, the air will go and it will flatten.
15.Sprinkle with the almonds and bake in preheated oven at 170 C for about 30 mins, until it becomes golden brown.
The house will smell like Easter and your bellies will crave for that delicious treat!!!
Enjoy with a glass of hot cocoa, spread with honey, jam or nutella, or even as it is with red boiled eggs!!!
Good luck!!!:)
And Happy Easter to u all!!! May the Holy Spirit fill our hearts with love, faith and compassion!!

xoxo
B.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Easter Cookies

And since greek orthodox Easter is just around the corner..it's perfect time for baking some cookies too..:)
Ingredients:
500 gr. milk butter at room temperature
500 gr. sugar
4 eggs
1/2 water glass of fresh orange juice
Grind of 3 oranges
10 gr. baking powder
1 tsp. not full baking soda
2 vanillas
1 pinch mastic crushed
1 pinch salt
1.350 gr. all purpose sieved flour
Preparation:
Beat the butter with the sugar, the salt, the mastic, the grind and vanillas for 6-7 mins until fluffy. In a bowl we beat the eggs and add them in the mixer bowl. We add the baking soda well mixed with the orange juice. We slowly add the flour with the baking powder. We must have a fluffy and easy to mould dough.

We cover it and let it rest for at least 30 mins.
We shape the cookies in whatever we like and add them in pans covered with baking paper. We beat an egg yolk with a little sugar in a bowl and spread it with a brush over the cookies.

We bake in preheated oven at 180C for 20-25 mins, until golden brown. We let them cool in a rack and keep them in airtight box.

Good luck!!
You should definitely try them!! They are mmmm....delicious!!! :)

xoxo
B.

P.S. Stay tuned for Greek Easter Bread (Tsoureki) recipe!!! ;)

Raspberry Chocolate Muffins :)

Hello everyone!!!! :) Hope you are all wonderful and smiling!!! So...I got back from a lousy day at work yesterday afternoon...feeling sooooo tired and troubled, with an awful headache..
And what better way to make all these pass from baking???? :)
So..here we go..
Recipe from Golden Book of Baking.
Ingredients:
300 gr. all purpose-flour
150 gr. caster sugar (superfine)
2 tsps. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
125 ml milk
125 ml sour cream (I used Greek strained yoghurt and worked out just fine)
60 gr butter, melted
1 large egg, lightly beaten
150 white chocolate coarsely chopped (You can mix other chocolates if you like. I used half white and half dark)
150 gr fresh or frozen raspberries

Preparation:
Sieve the flour, baking powder and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add the sugar and the salt. In another bowl beat the milk, sour cream or yoghurt, butter and eggs until just blended. Stir the milk mixture into the dry ingredients. Then add the chocolate and raspberries. Spoon the batter into a 12-cup muffin pan lined with paper baking cups, filling each three quarters full.

Bake for 25-30 mins in preheated oven at 180C, or until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Good luck!!!
Hope you enjoy!!

xoxo
B.

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Support our proposal to the United Nations

Saturday, April 02, 2011

Mwah Salt And Pepper

Hello honeys!!! :) I hope you are perfectly well!! I bought a sweet salt & pepper shaker the other day that i just had to share with you. It's just sooo perfect and everyone asks where i bought it from...;)

There are so many cute designs...little dogs, little angels, cartoons, funny couples...A princess and a frog..:)

Visit the site for many more..

So..check some of the collection..

xoxo

Friday, April 01, 2011

I Will Survive...

I'm in a "pissed off" mood today...so I devote a song to myself and all of you out there!!! :)
Don't let anyone treat you in a way you don't deserve...
And you know what?? People should like us for what and for who we are..Not for what they want us to become...
Stay true to yourselves and you will always win..;)

Kissessss!!
xoxo
B.

Greece...

I was watching some summer photos from holidays yesterday..and I decided to write a post about homeland..
Greece..for those who don't know..is a tiny,little country at the south of Europe..Greece..the land of gods, the land of philosophy, history, mythology, psychology, theater, literature..The land of Alexander the great, of Socrates, of Plato..
I know that we are going through some of our roughest times as a nation..but I always like to believe that after a storm, sunshine always comes..:) And besides...this is a post about the good things...;)
Along with some photos i collected..i'll translate an email that reached me the other day about greeks..I don't unfortunately know the original author, so my apologies for that, but i find it amazingly true, so I had to write it..And I'm sure greeks that read it will smile, and foreigners will get jealous..
Enjoy people..
xoxo
B.

"Friends will say Hi.
Greek friends will give you a huge hug and a big kiss.
Friends call your parents "mr" and "mrs".
Greek friends call your parents "uncle" and "aunt".
Friends have never seen you cry.
Greek friends cry with you.
Friends eat at your table and go.
Greek friends spend hours eating, talking, laughing and just hanging out.
Friends borrow your things for a few days and give them back to you.
Greek friends keep borrowed things until you forget they're yours..:p
Friends know enough about you.
Greek friends can write a book about you with many many details.
Friends dumb you, if most people do.
Greek friends don't give a sh@t for the world and are with you.
Friends knock on your door or call you when they want to visit.
Greek friends open the door and say "I'm heeeeere".
Friends are for a while.
Greek friends are for life." :)