Dinner Rolls

 
Bread making is an art, an activity that gives me peace, calmness and takes away all my stress. Kneading, putting your fingers through the soft and gooey dough, pressing and pulling stimulates your nerves and relaxes you. I think. At least for me, this is so. It is about patience and care. Since I bought some books about bread-making, I stopped going to the bakery. I am making a different type of fresh bread every week now. Plus, I always thought I needed special equipment, oven, a big multipurpose kitchen. However, you can make almost all types of bread at home. These bread rolls are perfect to start your meal, with a tiny bit of butter and jam; or they can make a great snack for whenever you feel like during the day. They are easy to make, and pretty quick. This is a practical but cool recipe to impress your friends.

Ingredients:
150 ml milk
60 gr butter (3 tablespoons give or take) 
2 table spoons of sugar
3 teaspoons of dry yeast
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons of salt 
550 gr flour
Poppy seeds to decorate 

How to:

1. Heat the milk in a sauce pan. Once it starts boiling, turn off the heat and add butter and sugar. Mix well and wait for it to reach a warm temperature.

2. In a small bowl, melt the dry yeast inside 3 or 4 table spoons of milk. The milk has to be warm, not cold and the yeast should melt completely. Just stir once and let it sit for a short while. 

3. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs. Add the milk and sugar mixture and the yeast mixture. Add the flour and bring everything together to form a soft dough.

4. When everything is combined and you have a dough, knead for 5-7 minutes. When I say knead, do it like the bakers do. Pull the dough outwards and then bring into itself, like folding and making a ball and do it again. That is the basic tip for kneading bread. 

5. Make a ball of dough and put in a bowl, cover with cling film, then wait for 1 or 1 and a half hour to rest. In this time, the dough will rise to double.

6. After the dough has risen, take on a clean counter dusted with flour. Then cut into two pieces.

7. Take one of the pieces, make into a cylinder shape and cut into 8 equal pieces. Do the same with the other big piece. Before you start shaping the dough, turn the oven on for 220 degrees Celsius.  

8. From this step on, it is up to you to decide the shape. You can make long strips and roll them like a snail shell. Or by holding each end and rolling them towards the middle, you can create another shape. You can make an 8 shape also. You can bake some of them like small balls if you can't be bothered to shape each and every piece. 

9. You can take your bread rolls onto the baking sheet or tray. Leave 3 centimeter distance between one and another as the rolls tend to rise in the oven. Brush them with egg yolk and generously sprinkle with poppy seeds. That's it! You will have nice, sweetish bread rolls to start your meal and impress your friends. Eat and enjoy!

Three Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love it. My husband loves it. Our friends love it. Three types of chocolate and plenty of walnuts, little flour, some sugar and here you are a yummy, soft and crunchy at the same time, totally delicious American cookies. Really very easy to make, these cookies will make you feel like a real baker! After you taste these, you will never be able to buy those dry cookies from the supermarkets. You don't have to have any special equipment or ingredients, just use your regular eating chocolate, all it takes is 30 seconds to cut them into chunks. And the best part is it only takes 15 minutes to make, 12 minutes to bake, 2 minutes to devour! =) Come on, get into the kitchen.

Ingredients:
50 gr of milk chocolate
50 gr of white chocolate
50 gr of bitter chocolate
1/3 cup of walnuts
100 gr un (1 cup, give or take)
1 egg
1 glass or 1,5 cups of brown sugar
3 table spoons of butter

How to:
1. Start with heating your oven to 190 degrees. Prepare your baking sheet or thin-edged tray.
2. Chop the chocolates and walnuts all together on a big cutting board randomly, do not bother too much or try to make them in equal sizes. Some might be tiny crumbs and some can stay as big as hazelnuts. That's the whole point of this cookie recipe.
3. Add the flour, brown sugar, egg and room temperature butter on top and start kneading. In 2 or 3 minutes, your dough should start taking shape.
4. When you have a nice, soft and a little bit sticky dough, take out small pieces, maybe a size of a meatball, round it inside your palm, put on your tray and press with your thumb to make it flat, but they shouldn't be too thin. They will become flatter while baking in the oven, so your dough must be half a centimeter, almost one centimeter thick on the tray. Also, don't forget to leave 2 centimeters of space in between. Another tip here, try to use a tray with very thin edges, the more the cookies are in contact with the warm air inside the oven, the better. Deep trays cut the flow of heat.
5. Bake for exactly 12 minutes in 190 degrees. They should look golden but they should feel soft when you press with your fingers. They tend to toughen a little bit later on, so don't worry. We are trying to have crunchy cookies with a chewy feel on the inside. That's why, you can try baking them for 10 minutes first and if they are really soggy or the same colour, you can go on for a couple of more minutes. Whatever happens, don't leave your cookies inside the oven. Once you turn off the oven, take the tray out and let them rest for 10 minutes, if possible on a tin. Otherwise, they will go dry and very tough and unpleasant.
6. Now you are ready to have one with a cup of coffee. Make and share this happy recipe with your friends, it is a very nice home-made gift. Have joyful coffee breaks!
 

Savoury Leek Sponge

Today's star is leek. It is my favourite winter vegetable and since the season is changing, I wanted to share this savoury cake recipe because it is really so good. I have tried it many times and I can say that corn flour is the key. It makes the cake so crispy and crumbly and it works very well with leek. This cake is perfect for teatime or as a snack at any time of the day; it's got only olive oil and feta cheese inside, so I can say that it is pretty healthy. And easy to make as well.

Ingredients:
4-5 leeks
2 eggs
1 cup of corn flour (not corn starch)
3/4 cup of flour
1 cup of full fat Greek/Turkish  yoghurt
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 up of extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of mahlab (if you can't find it you can skip it)
1 teaspoon of pepper
A small chunk of feta cheese
Sesame seeds and black cumin to sprinkle over the top


How to:
1. Start with washing the leeks carefully. I have learned that if you cut the edge of the leek a little bit, then the water can go in easily and any leftover soil will be removed. Chop them into very thin slices or you can use your blender for this. But I want to feel the leek pieces when I bite into the cake, so I prefer chopping them by hand.
2. Mix the eggs, flour, corn flour, baking powder, olive oil, yoghurt, salt, pepper, mahlab in a large bowl. Add the leeks into the mixture.
3. Take your baking tray or dish (I recommend using a two-three centimeter/1-2 inch deep dish), brush with some olive oil and pour the mixture into the pan. Try to spread it evenly by using a spatula or a spoon. Then, crumble some feta cheese on top, mix a little bit, not too much that the cheese will sit at the bottom.
5. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and black cumin and bake in the 200 degree hot oven for 35-40 minutes. Leave to cool before you slice it -if you can wait that is! Bon apetite.

 Cake batter is ready to go in the hot oven.

Yummy! Crispy top and soft and smooth inside.

Cheese and Spinach Filo Pie

Filo pastry with cheese and spinach is my all time favourite Turkish pastry. This saturday I wanted to make a pie but I couldn't be bothered with making a dough, chilling it, cooking it blind and so on. Instead I used the miraculous 'filo pastries'. By using these thin sheets I not only saved time, but also avoided using butter in the dough mixture. In this way we have a lighter -and equally tasty- savoury pie.You might argue that a 'pie' cannot be light, but believe me this is really not heavy on carbs because you can adjust the layer of filo. You can make the base thick or thin. This can be a vegetarian light dinner with some tomato salad on the side or you can toss some chicken breast with spices to complete your protein in your meal (as I did here). Serve when warm or directly out of the oven -my mouth is watering just thinking about the smell!

Ingredients:
2 sheets of filo pastry
3 eggs
3 soup spoons of yoghurt
1 handful of shallots
400 gr of spinach (one big bunch)
1 sausage (or if you are in Turkey, sucuk)
300 grams of feta cheese 
Salt, pepper
1 teaspoon of dried basil
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
Melting cheese to grate on top
Olive oil

How to:
1. I prepared this dish for two and my first preparation was to put some olive oil on a small round dish and turn the oven on 175 degrees Celsius.
2. After this I started to layer the sheets of filo pastry. The pastry I got from our 'yufka' shop were pretty big, so two of them made a 5 layer base and it was enough for us. You can decide how thick you like your pie base to be, just don't forget to lightly brush every layer with olive oil. It will make your pie filo yummy. Alternatively, you can add some milk, which will make the filo very soft. We do it inside some 'boreks' but I chose to put only olive oil for this recipe. 
3. Next, whisk your eggs in a bowl. Add the shallots inside; cut the shallots into two depending on their size. If you don't have any shallots, you can also use white onion but with shallots, the onion taste is subtler.
4. Add yoghurt, salt, pepper, basil, nutmeg and feta cheese and mix all of them carefully. Finally, add the washed and dried spinach and mix.
5. Before you add the mixture on top of the filo pastry, there is an important tip here. As spinach contains a lot of water inside, it can get juicy while baking in the oven and it might make your pie a bit soggy. In order to prevent this, you can pour a handful of bulghur on top of your filo base. You won't notice or taste bulghur while eating the pie. If you don't do it, still it won't affect the overall result so much.
6. If you're a vegetarian, you can skip this step but I wanted to make my quick pie tastier, so I cut a piece of 'sucuk' (you can use a spicy beef sausage or a thin choritzo instead) into tiny pieces and dumped them on top of the mixture. Alternatively, you can add dried tomatoes instead. :)
7. Once you cover everything with any grated cheese you fancy (in this dish I used traditional Turkish 'fresh kasar' cheese), your pie is ready to bake in the oven in 175 degrees for 45 minutes.
8. This is a very practical recipe that you can prepare for tea time, afternoon snacks, for brunch guests or for a light dinner as I did here. Since it would be our dinner, I wanted to add some sautéed chicken breasts to go with it. Chop the chicken breasts into chunks, cook in with some garlic, tomato paste, milk and olive oil in high heat. They are ready in 15 minutes. Bon apetite! 

 Step by step, filo pie in the making.

 My mouth starts to water...

The result and I wish I could add the amazing smell of melted cheese and spicy Turkish sausage. Yum!

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to my cooking blog! After starting my blog in Turkish, I wanted to write all of my recipes in English to reach more people and more friends. My happy kitchen is mainly Mediterranean, with touches of British cooking and baking that I learn from my mother-in-law. This is a happy recipe blog, so please feel free to post any comments and ideas, your input is important for me. In this blog, I not only write the recipes of my own, at the same time I share food that I tried, tasted and liked. I post recipes from my friends' and family members' specials, as well as well-known, traditional tastes.
I realized that posts about baking are more popular, they bring more followers, more likes and comments. However, I am still willing to share my cooking and roasting and any other recipes for those who are interested in healthy food or Mediterranean cuisine. 
Since this is a new beginning, in my first picture I want to share my latest baking shopping! A nice hug to everyone who stopped to read my short note and are willing to follow my posts. Bon apetite!