Addictive Parmesan Cheese & Garlic Rolls

These mouthwatering cheese rolls are so good, I hardly had enough time to photograph them before they all disappeared from the tray without a trace. And to top that, they are easy to make you'll find yourself fighting the urge to make them every week.

While I was making them, a friend was visiting and I really wanted to spoil her a little bit, becoming a new mom and all. So while we were chatting away, the smell of baked goods was spreading around the house. Oh.. the magic begins...

My friend devoured them one by one and by the time she got to the third one said it was the perfect company for a cold glass of bear. So we opened up one and had a fantastic "after noon tea". 

They did go fast, they didn't even have enough time to cool, but I did manage to put a side a couple of these comfort magic balls for my darling husband to munch on when he got home. He said they were like little pizza rolls without the tomato sauce.... mmm... now that's a thought for next time! 

No Yeast! No Raising time! No waiting! Very fast and easy!

Let's bake!

To make the dough mix in a bowl the cottage cheese and yogurt (You can use a mixer if you want to but it's not a must). Sift flour, baking power, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix well. 

Add the flour mixture into the cottage cheese and mix well until a ball of dough forms. Work it a little bit until unified.

Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough on a generously floured surface to a 1/2 cm thick rectangle. 

Melt butter and mix with garlic, basil and a pinch of salt. We are going to use this mixture to spread over the dough, brush the baking tin, and brush the rolls once they are out of the oven, so son't use all of it on the dough. Scatter the cheese evenly and roll the dough starting from the wide edge to a long roll.

Trim the edges and cut rolled dough into 2 portions. Then cut each portion into 2 again. So we have 4 rolls. Now cut each roll into 3 portions to end up with 12 rolls.

Brush a muffin tin with some of the butter mixture (saving the last bit for later) and place the rolls, cut-side facing up.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until puffed and golden and the cheese is bubbly. 

Now all is left is to fight off all the little hands coming to see what smells soooooo good in the kitchen.

Cheese & Garlic Rolls

Great for entertaining, superb as a quick breakfast.

Makes 12 prep: 10min cook: 20min

Adapted from "My Sweets" by Chen Shoukroon

For the dough:

250 gr Cottage cheese

200 gr Plain yogurt 

350 gr Plain flour

10 gr Baking powder

1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp Salt

For the Filling:

100 gr Butter

100 gr Parmesan cheese (or any other kind you like)

2 tbsp Chopped fresh Basil

4 Cloves of garlic crushed

Pinch of salt

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 200°C. 

Mix in a bowl cottage cheese and yogurt.

Sift flour, baking power, bicarbonate of soda. Add salt and mix well. 

Add the flour mixture into the cottage cheese one and mix well until a ball of dough forms. Work it a little bit until unified.

Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough on a generously floured surface to a large rectangle until 1/2 cm thick. 

Melt butter in the microwave, and mix with garlic, basil and a pinch of salt Spread half of the butter mixture onto the dough (Remember, save some for late). 

Coarsely grate cheese and scatter evenly on top of the butter.

Roll the dough into a long roll starting from the wide edge.

Using a sharp knife trim the uneven edges.

Cut the roll into 2 portions. Then cut each portion into 2 again. So we have 4 rolls. Now cut each roll into 3 portions to end up with 12 rolls.

Brush the muffin tin with some of the butter mixture (saving the last bit for later) and place each roll in a hole cut side facing up.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until rolls puffed and golden and the cheese is bubbly. 

Notes:

1. In my old oven the baking process took 20 minutes. Different ovens will have different baking times.

Happy days my friends. Happy days.

Easy & Delicious Chocolate cake

A quick and easy chocolate cake, you can cook up in minutes while the guests are at the door. I made this for a Sunday night dinner with friends just to have a sweet end for the weekend. It can easily be baked for a mid week sweet treat without working too hard. It's moist, chocolaty, and has a great texture. 

For an extra delicious and sinful result you can frost it with a chocolate cream or a divine ganache. For me it hit the spot just the way it is.

Moist and chocolaty.

Chocolate Cake

Adapted from Delicious Magazin 2004 By Valli Little

Serves 6 prep: 15min cook: 35-40min

Ingredients:

200 gr    Dark chocolate

175 gr    Unsalted cold butter

175 gr    Raw sugar

150 gr    Flour

100 gr    Almond meal

125 ml   Milk

2 tsp      Baking powder

4            Eggs

Icing Sugar for dusting

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 180°C, butter up and line a 20x20 square baking tin with parchment paper.

Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl and heat in the microwave for 10 seconds, stir well. Continue with 10 seconds pulses and stirring until smooth. Set aside to cool.

Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. 

Place butter and sugar in a separate bowl and mix using an electric beater for 5 minutes or until creamy. 

Add eggs one at a time and mix well after each egg.

Using a spatula, gently fold in: Flour, Almond meal, Baking powder, Milk and melted Chocolate. Be careful not to over mix it.

The batter will have a grainy texture and won't look too chocolaty. That's OK it will come together during baking.

Pour mixture into the cake tin and bake for 35-40 min or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool to room temperature before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Notes:

1. In my old oven baking time was 40 minutes, but baking times may vary in different ovens. 

2. You can use a 20cm round cake tin if you would like instead of the square one 

3. Raw sugar can be replaced with granulated sugar.

Wicked Alfajores From Latin America

Today I had a triumph in the kitchen, baking these gorgeous little crumbly Alfajores, filled with Dulce de leche and covered with coconut shreds. Absolutely divine! These little cookies came to Israel with the wave of immigrants from Argentina in the 1980's after the economic depression. They took Israel by storm and flooded the market. Every coffee shop around every corner had them on offer, and what a treat it was! 

Traditionally the cookies are filled with Dulce de leche and rolled in coconut but you can change the filling to what ever you like, Nutella, Caramel or even sweetened cream cheese. You can also loose the coconut if you don't like it, but from my experience the traditional cookies are the best.

Dulche de leche can be expensive and not easy to come by at some places, so the best solution is to make it yourself. It's easy to make homemade Dulce de leche, however time consuming. If you don't mind the wait, I found a very easy recipe, that doesn't include you, standing next to it stirring for 3 hours, at Taste.com: Dulce De Leche.
My little triumph in the kitchen was the best result I could ask, for the journey after the best Alfajores. At the beginning of the week I found a recipe in a highly recommended foodie blog. It looked great and was raved by other readers, so I thought I'll give it a go. After a lot of preparing, mixing, rolling, cutting and baking, the result was a disaster! The cookies I got didn't look even close to the real Alfajores nor did it taste like it.

Oh, the disappointment! I couldn't believe it, How could this happen?! So I wrote to the blogger asking for advice hoping she could guess what went wrong, but no joy. I didn't get any reply, not even an 'I don't know what happened', which was also disappointing.

So I decided to go on with my journey for the perfect Alfajores and just try a different recipe. And so I did! And what a joy! The most crumbly, sweet, perfect Alfajores I ever tasted! This is the recipe I brought to you today from Mako, published by Densher, after recuperating from one bad recipe and one bad cold.

Let's get baking!

We don't need much to create the magic.

Place in a large bowl with high rime, butter and icing sugar and mix until creamy.

Add eggs one at a time and mix well after each egg.

Sift cornflour into a separate bowl to get rid of the lumps. Add cornflour bit by bit and mix well every time until incorporated before you add some more.

Sift flour over the bowl with the mixture and mix well until a sticky dough is formed.

Empty the bowl with your fingers onto a clean and floured surface.

Gently form into a unified ball. The dough is very easy to work with and easily comes together. At this stage you can cut the dough in half and freeze one half if desired. Cutting the dough into 2 portions makes the rolling easier.

Use a rolling pin dusted with flour to roll the dough into a large disc about 3mm thick. Make sure it is thick enough, we need that thickness. Not too thick though, the cookies are quite dry and it might get too much for one cookie. 

Use a 4cm cookie cutter to cut little circles.

Note: the size of the cookies will determine how many cookies you'll get. The bigger they are the less cookies you'll get. The original recipe stated that this amount of dough with a 3-4cm cookie cutter will make 40 cookies. However I used a 4cm cookie cutter (yes I measured, and yes I can be that way) and I got enough dough to make 80 cookies! So obviously estimating with your eye isn't enough. So if you don't have a gang of people to feed, you can freeze half the dough. I did.

Arrange 2 cm apart onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper, and straight into the preheated oven. I tasted the first couple of cookies in my oven to help me figure out the baking time I needed.

This is how they look like when the come out of the oven: white, dry, creaked a little on top and spotty looking on the bottom.

Assembly line. I found that it was more time officiant to place a few cookies, face down, in a row and generously fill with a teaspoon (if you get stingy on the filling, the cookies might end up too dry and in the bin). Don't bother spreading it around, it might damage the cookies. It will get even when pressing the second cookie on top.

Make little sandwiches by placing another cookie on top of the ones with the Dulce de leche. Make sure you press the cookies very gently with the palm of your hand and not with your fingers because they are very delicate and will break easily. Wipe excess filling using your fingers if needed but remember the filling needs to 'overflow' a little to help the coconut stick to the sides.

Roll in the coconut shreds and enjoy your little works of art.

Happy Days my friends. Happy days.

Alfajores

Little bundles of joy.

Makes about 80 prep: 30min cook: 7-10min each try

Ingredients:

200 gr    Unsalted cold butter

1 cup     Icing sugar

1 cup     Plain flour

3            Eggs 

1 tsp      Vanilla extract

10 gr      Baking powder

500 gr    Cornflour (yes 500 gr it's not a mistake)

For the Filling:

400 gr    Dulc de leche/Nutella spread 

1 cup     Shredded/Desiccated coconut

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 180°C and line a baking try with parchment paper.

In a large bowl with high rime, place butter and icing sugar and mix until creamy using an electric beater.

Add eggs one at a time and mix well after each egg.

Add Vanilla extract and baking powder and mix again.

Sift cornflour into a separate bowl and add it gradually to the butter mixture while mixing. 

Sift flour over the bowl with the mixture and mix well until just combined and a sticky dough is formed.

Empty the bowl onto a clean and floured surface and gently form into a unified ball. 

Cut the ball of dough in half. Cover one half with cling film and put aside or freeze if desired. 

Use a rolling pin dusted with flour to roll the dough into a large disc about 3mm thick. 

Cut little circles with a 4cm cookie cutter or a small cup/jug.

Arrange 2cm apart onto the baking tray and bake for 7-10 minutes each tray at the bottom part of the oven. The cookies should puff up a little and dry out a little but stay white, don't let them get golden.

Cool on the tray before transferring to a wire rack. 

When cooled completely, fill generously with your preferred filling and roll in coconut.

They will keep in a tightly sealed box/cookie jar for up to a week.

Notes:

1. In my old oven the baking process took 8 minutes exactly for each tray. 

2. You can freeze the dough if desired, and defrost in the fridge before bringing to room temperature.

3. I used home made Dulce de leche but you can use store bought which you can find in specialty shops and delis. 

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Sweet Sweet Challah

What can be better than the wonderful smell of freshly baked bread filling the house of a Friday night? A Freshly baked sweet Challah! This luscious sweet bread is traditionally made weekly for Friday night dinner and on special holidays, and last Friday night that is exactly what I wanted to smell.

My excitement about baking happens from first sight. If I surf through the web on a regular weeknight and suddenly come across a picture of delicious seductive sweet Challah like this one above, I know immediately what will be my next post about. I need to fall in love with the idea of eating the baked goods I'm watching before I decide to make it myself. And that is exactly what happened when I saw this Challah recipe, published in "My sweets" (by Chen Shoukroon), when I looked into cheesecakes last week in her blog. I just knew I had to make it! Better yet, I had to make love to it, because bread you make with love or not make it at all.

Now, I know that some people are not comfortable using yeast, it seems complicated or time consuming. But it's actually quite easy and rewarding, especially if you are using dry yeast. The problems that comes up; like dough not rising or ending up with dry, though bread is a thing of the past. Back than we had only fresh yeast to work with, which can be fantastic, but very sensitive so you really had to know how to work with it.

Also a little disclaimer: Some of the recipes I'll bring in these posts are firsties for me. And this Challah is no different, this is my first Challah experience. I love to experiment with new things and try new recipes. I'm addicted to the excitement that comes with discovering new outcomes from my oven. So you will go through the ups and downs of my baking experiences along with me. Having said that, I've been an armature baker since I remember my self. I am experienced in the kitchen and I learned a lot along the years so I always expect the best and so should you. Don't be afraid to try new recipes and most of all don't be afraid working with yeast. 

So here we go on the roller coaster again...

This is what we need to get started!

Sift the flour into an electric mixer bowl. If you don't have a mixer, don't worry you can hand knead your dough, I did so too. Use a large bowl to start with.

Add salt and mix well. It's important to mix the salt well so it won't have direct contact with the yeast when we add it later.

Add sugar and mix again, I used raw sugar.

Add yeast and give it another good mix so it spreads well.

Using a kneading hook, start mixing on low and add the egg and butter. I tried to give it a go with my electric beater but it didn't work so I continued by hand.

Add the milk and then gradually add the water until the mixture becomes dough. 

Important: When the mixture becomes a dough stop adding water, even if you have some left. On the other hand if you are out of water and the mixture is too dry and didn't come together to a unified dough than add more water, little by little until it becomes a dough (I was out of water and added a little more).

Now it's time for the love making. Knead the dough for 10 minutes. If you are kneading by hand, place dough on a lightly floured surface and use the palm of your hand with pushing motions. Don't use too much flour for dusting, the dough should stay a little sticky.

 

Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a plastic bag (not cling film, we need some air to come in) and a tea towel and put aside in a warm place for 1.5 hours until double in size.

After it has risen, cut the dough into 2 equal segments and then each segment into 3 equal parts. Roll the parts into a long strings equal by length and thickness.

Make a braid out of the 3 strings.

Number the strings in your head, 1(far left) 2 (middle) 3 (far right). 3 comes over 2 and "becomes" 2 and then 1 comes over 2 and "becomes" 2 and so on.

I tucked the end bits underneath the challah, to have a rounder shape at the edges. You can roll the edges a bit for a pointy result.

Brush with the egg mixture if using. You can definitely use both egg wash with sesame/poppy seeds, and honey glaze at the end of the baking process to make it sweet and shiny. I did.

Ready for second rising.

Butter is Challah's best friend.

There is no doubt it is best eaten on the day of baking. You could freeze the Challa's or easily half the recipe to make just one Challah if there aren't enough people to share, but...

Once again you should know, once you start there is no turning back! 

Sweet Challah

Beautiful for a special dinner or holidays.

Makes 2 prep: 30min + rising time cook: 30-45min

Ingredients:

1 kg        Plain flour (I used 00) 

100 gr     Unsalted butter softened and cut into cubes

3/4 cup   Sugar or raw sugar (150 gr) 

1 tbs       Salt (18 gr)

2 tbs       Dry Yeast (18gr)

1 cup      Warm Milk (240 ml) 

3/4 cup   Warm water (180 ml)

1             Egg

For the egg wash:

1 Egg

1 tbs Water

Sesame/poppy seeds to sprinkle 

For the Honey glaze:

4 tbs Honey

4 tbs Hot water

Preparation:

Sift flour into an electric mixer bowl, add salt and mix well with a large metal spoon. Add sugar and mix again. Add dry yeast and mix until mixed well into the flour. Using the kneading hook, start mixing on low and add the egg and butter. Knead until you get a crumbly mixture. 

Add the milk and then gradually add the water until the mixture becomes a dough. 

Important: When the mixture becomes a dough stop adding water, even if you have some left. On the other hand if you are out of water and the mixture is too dry and didn't come together to a unified dough, than add more water, little by little until it becomes a dough (I was out of water and added a little more).

Now it's the love part. Knead the dough for 10 min at least until you get a soft and elastic dough. If you are doing it by hand you'll get a bit of a work out. On a floured surface knead with the palm of your hand using pushing motions. Put your body's weight into it and form the dough back every 1-2 pushes. 

Check out this tutorial to get a better idea on how to hand knead your dough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWj8oHMPFm0

When done with the kneading process, oil up a clean bowl with a little oil. Form a ball out of the dough, tucking the edges underneath. Roll it a little in the bowl so it will all be covered with oil ending up with the smooth surface on top. Cover the bowl with a plastic bag (not cling film) and a tea towel and put aside in a warm place for 1.5 hours until double in size. 

After it has risen, cut the dough into 2 equal segments (each one will become a Challah). Knead a little one segment to take the air out, and divide it into 3 equal parts. Roll all parts into long strings equal by length and thickness. Make a braid out of the 3 strings. 

Check out this tutorial to get a better idea on how to braid a Challah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR6aIAh2Vt8

Check out this tutorial to see different types of braiding if you want to try something different: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUZEz4elX8E

Repeat with the second part of the dough to make the second Challah. Place both Challa's on a baking tray lined with a parchment paper. 

If using the egg wash: 

Beat the egg well in a small bowl and mix with the water. Brush the Challa's gently with the egg wash and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. Set aside in a warm place to rise again for 30 min. 

In the meantime warm the oven to 180°C. Bake for 25-30 min until the Challah has browned up nicely and risen well. 

If using the honey glaze:

Skip the egg wash part and bake according to the instruction above.

When it comes out of the oven immediately brush with the honey mixed with water glaze.

Notes:

1. If you want to make the dough a day ahead, you can rise the dough in the fridge overnight. 

2. In my old oven the baking process was well over an hour. So it's a lot more than than the original recipe stated, but as you know, baking time might vary with your oven, check the Challa's after 25 minutes and see if it needs more time.

3. You can freeze the baked challa's if you want to. Wrap properly so it won't get any moisture and defrost in room temperature. warm it up in the oven for a better result. 

4. Freezing the dough itself is not recommended. 

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Halva and Coffee Cheesecake

One of my favorite holidays is Shavuot. Why? Because this is the time of year to appreciate the fruit of the land and more importantly eat cheese dishes, until you can't cheese no more. Cheese quiches and frittatas, cheese filled pastries, Cheese puffs, Cheese sticks, Feta and goat cheese salads, creamed pastas and potatoes and the highlight of the night, cheesecakes in different colors, shapes, sizes and flavors will be loaded in abundance to the Shavuot dinner table. How can you not love a holiday that encourages you to have as much cheese as you want, and than some more. 

So with cheesy ideas in mind I went on looking for the perfect cheesecake to bring to the Shavuot table. I love all cheesecakes, the lemony ones, the all berries ones and surely the New York baked cheesecakes. But this time I wanted something really special for the holiday, something full of flavor that will stand out of all the cheesecakes anyone had before. And there it was, I found this recipe in one of my favorite sweet sites  "My sweets" (מתוקים שלי) published by Chen Shoukroon. This wonderful, rich, full flavored cheesecake with halva and coffee was everything I was looking for. And so it was my friends, so it was. I changed a few things to fit the local supermarket but I tried to be as loyal as I can to the original recipe. 

Cheesecakes in general you would make a day ahead of the event and this little beauty can wait in the fridge even 2-3 days before you serve it. So it does take some planing, but when it comes to cheesecakes, it's worth the wait. Don't forget to frost the cake only on the day you plan on serving it, and remember to plan ahead.

O.K. here we go...

All excited and ready to go!



 To make the biscuit base, place biscuits in a food processor and process until resembles breadcrumbs. Add melted butter and process for a few more seconds until combined.



Press the biscuit mixture to the base and sides of the pan using a cup or the back of a spoon.

To make the filling, place cream cheese and sugar in an electric mixer. I have an electric beater and it works wonders. So if you don't own an electric mixer don't get discouraged just use what you have.



Beat for a few minutes until combined.

Add the halva and mix well.

Add eggs one at a time and mix after each one until completely incorporated in the mixture.



Add cream and beat until combined.



Add the coffee liquor and mix again until smooth. You can replace the liquor with 2 teaspoons of instant coffee melted in 1/4 cup hot water. Let it cool before adding to the filling.

Pour the mixture gently onto to the prepared pan and shake pan lightly for a smooth surface.

It's time to make the chocolate topping. Make the topping on the day you serve the cake so it wont dry out and crack. Pour hot cream onto the chocolate and stir until completely melted.

Pour chocolate onto chilled cheesecake and swivel around to cover the top evenly.

After chilling in the fridge it's time to decorate the cake with the leftover chocolate.

Warning! This cake is not for the faint of heart.

Once you start there is no turning back!

Halva and Coffee Cheesecake

Decadent rich dessert for a special night. 

Makes 16 prep: 30min cook: 80min 

Ingredients: 

250 gr      Chocolate or plain biscuits
120 gr      Unsalted butter

For the filling:

1 kg         Cream cheese at room temperature
150 gr      Raw sugar or Castor sugar
4              Eggs at room temperature
350 gr      Vanilla Halva
60 ml       Coffee liquor
125 ml     Thick cream

For the frosting:
150 ml     Thick cream
150 gr      Dark Chocolate
1 tbs        Coffee liquor

Preparation: 

Line 24cm spring-form baking pan with baking parchment, bottom and sides.
Melt butter and set aside to cool. Place biscuits in a food processor and process until resembles breadcrumbs. Add melted butter and process for a few more seconds until combined.
Transfer the biscuit mixture to the prepared pan and press to the base and sides using a cup or a spoon. Place in the freezer for 20 minutes.
In the meantime preheat oven to 160°C (Fan is not recommended).  
Place chilled pan in the oven and bake for 10 min. Cool completely.

To make the filling: Place cream cheese and sugar in an electric mixer and beat until smooth. Add the halva and mix well. Add eggs one at a time and mix after each one until well combined. Add the coffee liquor and cream and mix again until smooth. Use a spatula when needed to scrape the edge of the bowl to make sure you have a unified mixture.
Pour the mixture gently into the prepared pan with the chilled base. Bake for 80 minutes. The cake should be light golden on top and still wobbly. 
Cool in the oven for 10 min with the door ajar. Take out of the oven and cool to room temperature before placing in the fridge overnight.


The next day make the topping: Chop chocolate and place in a heatproof bawl. In a small saucepan heat cream until just reaches boiling point and pour over the chocolate. Put aside for a minute or two and then stir well until smooth. Add the coffee liquor and stir to combine. If too hot let it cool down a little before pouring onto the cold cheesecake. Pour 2/3 of the topping over the chilled cake. Swivel the pan so the chocolate evens out all over the surface. Return to fridge for another hour. Chill the rest of the chocolate in the freezer for an hour or so before transferring into a piping bag.  Use the remaining chocolate mixture to decorate as desired. I used a small round piping nozzle for the edges. For the center of the cake I used the back of  a tea spoon. 

Notes:
1. For the filling I recommend 500 gr full cream cheese and 500 gr light or even super light cream cheese.Otherwise the end result might be too rich.  
2. In my old oven it took 80 min to golden. The baking time might change with your oven, check the cake after 70 minutes and see if it's going well.
3. Usually cheesecakes are made one day ahead, they just get better the more the stay in the fridge.
4. Wait with the frosting step until the day you plan on serving it.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.