Chocolate cookies almost without butter

These cookies are a beauty!!! An intense chocolate flavor with a crunchy outside and a thick smooth brownie like inside. But the best of all is that it is not made with a third of butter and a third of sugar. The butter can easily be replaced by margarine (it is a small quantity used to smoothen the melted chocolate) and the condensed milk is nowadays available made from coconut, so it is easy to transform this into a lactose free version of the recipe.

 Ingredients:

• 50gr butter
• 200gr 70% cooking chocolate
• 1 condensed milk tin (396gr)
• 25gr oat flour
• 200gr self-raising flour
• 1 egg

In a small cooking pot put the butter and then the chocolate broken into small chunks.

Take it to low heat and mix it to avoid it burns. Add the condensed milk and continue to mix. Once homogeneous add the oat flour and the normal flour and again mix until totally incorporated. Remove from the heat and add the egg while mixing.

The mix will be a bit soft, if you have the self-control required let it cool in the freezer for half an hour, otherwise use a icecream scoop to spread the dough in even balls on the oven tray. I wouldn't pad them down because I want them tall and filled with the smooth core, but if you prefer the crunchy outside pad them down to flatten slightly. They will flatten a bit naturally while cooking, mine were made without padding them down so you can check your preference.

Then cook them at 180C for about 12min. Be careful, with their dark brown color it won't be easy to see that they are cooked, you will need to touch them with the back of a spoon to check their consistency and don't forget they toughen once cooled so don't expect them to be rigid before removing from the oven. Better check the time.  

inspired in

Fruit pancakes

 Fruit based pancakes for snacks to eat on the car on the way to a weekend at the grandparents.

With all healthy things to pretend it is a meal and limited stickiness to avoid car wash tragedies.

Ingreedients:

• 200gr flour
• 70gr oat flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 tea spoon of east
• 4 table spoons of sugar (2 if you intend on adding syrup or substituting the milk by the fruits liquid)
• 250ml milk (for a lactose free use the liquid from the canned fruit or juice instead)
• 3 eggs
• 4 table spoons of melted butter + enough to fry (for lactose free substitute by margarine)
• 435gr can of pineapple/peach or pealed apples 

Add everything but the fruit to the food processor. 

Then cut your fruits into vey thin slices so the fruits will cook. This is specially important for apples and pears and not so much for pineapple and peach. 

If you have a form for pancakes use it because it will allow the fruits to be added without the dough going overboard to the frying pan, it may even allow you to make two at a time.

Add a tiny bit of butter to a frying pan and heat it up until melted.

Pour a small portion of the dough into the pan, enough that it becomes a generous pancake and not enough that you have trouble flipping it.

 

Once the dough starts to get some bubbles add the fruits on top, pressure them a little to sink so the surface is not that uneven.

Remove the form and flip the pancake. 

You should end up with tiny caramelized fruit pies. 

To either serve with syrup warm and fragrant or to reserve for a later snack that is drier but yummy.

based in original recipe

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

Base:

- 125gr heavy cream

- 2 table spoons of sugar

Flavours:

- mango - about 400gr of mango pulp

- chocolate - 4table spoons of powder cooking chocolate (the higher the chocolate quality the better the ice cream) 

- 50gr frozen berries

- 150gr of red fruits put in a food processor until made into a pulp

Make chantilly by whisking the heavy cream.

Whisk in the flavor and freeze. 

Or eat as such for mango mousse.

frozen anti-oreo

The thing I love the best about oreos is the contrast. I know I am not alone in finding it irresistible the dark bitter chocolate of the cookie with the sugar based American filling. I was wondering what to do with butter coockies my husband left in open air... Let's call them softened. 

I had some Philadelphia cream cheese waiting for a chance to become cheesecake... But the coockies were integral and looking so pitiful and I wanted me some oreo effect, some chocolate...some dark quality cooking chocolate. I ended up with a delicious sweet and salty frozen cheese chocolate cake. 

Ingredients :

125gr Philadelphia original cream cheese

125gr heavy cream (cold, directly from the fridge) 

4 table spoons of sugar

 package of butter coockies

8 table spoons of dark powder cooking chocolate (4 for the base + 4 spread on top) - if you don't have powder dark chocolate just melt some and you will get the same effect, just make sure it is high quality chocolate

100gr milk

In a food processor mix the coockies, the 4 ts of dark chocolate and the milk. Press brzzz a few times until you get a lovely dark paste. Spread this dough on the form base and press it with the back of a table spoon. 

Beat the heavy cream with the sugar until stiff. With a fork crush the Philadelphia until smooth otherwise it will be hard to incorporate. Incorporate the cheese into the cream. Drip the thick smooth cream to the form and spread it over the base. 

Paint the top with the remaining chocolate if it is powder be careful not to inhale it, if it is melted just fill a spoon and move it fast over the cake, the spilling of the chocolate will make lines of black magic on it. 

Depending on how hot the day is you can serve it after a few hours on the fridge or a few on the freezer (harder to cut but a marvelous ice cream). 

Peach Jello

Very fresh, simple and easy way to feed peaches to your kids in the summer.

Ingredients:
2 bags of peach flavored jello
1 can of peaches

As instructed by the jelly manufacturer dissolve the 2 bags of jello in the right amount of boiling water. Then add the juice of the canned peaches instead (in the same measure) of the cool water. Cut the peaches in slices and add them to the mix when it reaches room temperature. Put it on the cooler and you have yourself a very peachy jello.

strawberry crepes

My son was watching Pepa the pig. They were eating strawberry pancakes, with small strawberry pieces in it. He was so hungry with the thought of it he asked me out loud from the sofa to get him some. Background story: it is 06/2020, covid pandemic rendered us working from home with the kids confined to the tv watching system, it was almost lunch time and I was getting hungry for pancakes too. - "Are you crazy? I am working, where am I gonna find strawberry pancakes? They don't just grow on trees" - "Oh, ok." -was his disappointed answer but no fuss, no screams and not another word about it.
So latter before dinner as I was watching the fridge striving for an inspiration, tired of making rice, and pasta and potatoes and so on... I decided maybe I could actually make it an omelet... with flour... and milk... all very healthy options and then again that is called a crepe.
So we ended up having strawberry crepes for dinner and he was so happy I made them because he asked for them I made a precedent I am still paying for. Four days in a row he has been making requests and getting disappointed they aren't served as in a restaurant.
Anyhoo...
The crepes were delightful and I realized they worked much better that the original recipe if you don't want to lose time filling them with jam, in between frying them for a rotation of four hungry mouths, because they are wonderful on their very own.

Ingredients:

- 250gr flour

- 650 ml milk

- 6 eggs

- 8 tb. sp. sugar 

- butter to fry
- 150gr fresh or frozen strawberries or blue berries or wild berries mix

First you want to boil the berries with 2 of the table spoons of sugar in low heat. Once you can get 100ml of juice out of it you can let it cool.
You can add as much juice as you remove of milk, in a 750ml 0 sum game, but I used about 100ml of the berries sauce and the rest I reserved as a topping for after frying the crepes.
Using a food processor mix all the remaining ingredients and you will have a pink or slightly purple soup (depending on the fruits you chose). Don't include the pieces of fruit or they will stick to the pan and burn.
Fry the crepes as thin layers of dough spread on the hot frying pan and then have fun:
 as they are;
 delight yourself with the remaining berries over the top;
 or, the most decadent version of all, melt a few squares of dark chocolate bury the berries on the middle of the crepe and let the velvety brown liquid drool over the top of a twice folded crepe.
I can tell you my two-year-old seemed like a vampire gorging on the tips of her fingers turned red from all the sauce.

yogurt cake drowned in orange

My father in law keeps surprising me with the best recipes he finds online and then changes to taste. This time it was an orange yogurt cake. The best thing about yogurt cakes are usually the fact that you don't use butter as fat and they are easy to make. This one was so fluffy and flavored you couldn't tell it was an yogurt cake, probably because it is actually an omelet (takes a lot of eggs). I still want to try lowering the sugar level, but am afraid it doesn't taste overly sweet and would lose a lot from it.

Ingredients:
 - 5-6 eggs
 - 300gr white cast sugar
 - two oranges (juice and jest)
 - 2 yogurts
 - 350gr all purpose flour
 - tea spoon of east

Variations:
 - can of pineapple instead of the orange
 - 80gr of sugar extra

Beat the eggs with the sugar until they are smooth, filled with air and no sugar can be detected. Add the yogurt, the jest and the juice of ONE orange. Mix it and add the flour and the east. Once it is all incorporated without beating it too much stop, so it doesn't loose most air.
Cook it in a large thin form at 180C for 40min.
You get a very spongy, fluffy cake that you will control your curiosity and hunger for until it lowers its temperature to room temperature. Drown it in the second orange juice and you will have a fabulously wonderful delight with lots of sugar but not much else of harm. ;-)

As a variation I tried using canned pineapple. Instead of the juice and jest of an orange I used half a cup of the canned pineapple juice, reserving the rest for a topping.
Once the cake was done I heated up the extra sugar with the remaining pineapple juice and stir under medium heat until darken. I then removed it from the heat, added the pineapple cut in pieces and stirred a little longer.

The result was then poured over the cake that had been seating to cool and I can say it is a great alternative to the tart tartin. Try it, enjoy and let me know so I can pass the sentiment to my father in law.

New alternative, just use the pineapple juice instead of the orange and decorate on the form:

Tradicional apple pie and cookies

Ingredients:

• 300gr  Flour
• 200gr butter
• Water as needed
• 4 table spoons sugar
• 200gr raisens

Mix the ingredients with your hands and extend the dough with the help of a role.

Fill the pie with apple mousse with apple chunks.

I do usually twice the dough and with the left over dough you can make cookies, simply by adding raisins and making a large role you cut with a knife 50mm thick into cookie sized disks.

Once baked I added a layer of melted chocolate but it takes a few hours for it to dry.

Flaky peach pie

Ingredients:

• 420gr (3 1/2cups) all-purpose flour
• 1 table spoon salt
• 2 table spoons cast sugar
• 178ml (3/4cup or 170gr) oil or extra virgin olive oil for additional richness
• 83ml (1/3cup) almond milk

Filling ingredients:

• 1 large can of peach or 500gr peach sliced left to rest for 1-3h in 4 table spoons of sugar
• 1 table spoons all-purpose flour
• 1table spoon of butter or margarine for the lactose-free version

Recipe:

For the crust, mix all the ingredients with your hands until homogeneous and spread the pie dough with the help of a role. Spread a little over half the dough on the lower part of the oven form.

For the filling, in a frying pan add the flour and the butter and set on medium heat.
Then proceed as for bechamel by adding gradually the peach liquid (instead of milk).

Let it cook until thick. 

Spread the peach slices over the pie crust and then add the "peach bechamel".
Spread the remainder dough on the counter and with the help of a knife create strips of it.
Then add the dough strips over the pie filling to cover the pie as seen in several youtube tutorials.

original recipe

Mango Cake

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 pinch of salt
1 small can of mango pulp
125gr sugar
500gr flours
1 tea spoon east
80ml (74gr) oil or for extra richness extra virgin olive oil

Recipe:

Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
Add the sugar to the yolks and beat them until thicker and whitish.
Add the oil and mango and mix it all until homogenous.
Finally add the flour and east and mix.
Add the egg whites bitten with the pinch of salt until stiff and incorporate them.
Don't worry that the dough is thick and sticky, it is just like a carrot cake.
Take the oven at 180C for about 45min.

It has a rich sent and taste to mango. It is moist and dense like a carrot cake and it is a significant source of fruit for thin nitpicking kids. They will still prefer the fresh mango, fortunately. But as a tea time snack it is more filling and it is a canned alternative without the overwhelming sweetness of mango pulp.

 Original recipe

Sugarfree carob-chocolate cake

 Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup maple syrup
2 cups Greek yogurt
1 table spoon backing powder
1 table spoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/2 cup cacao
1/2 cup carob
1 1/2 cup flour

Frosting:
250gr cream
3 table spoons stevia

original recipe

cake turned bad

Ingredients:
500gr flour
250gr honey
250gr olive oil
6 eggs
1 tea spoon cinnamon
1 tea spoon ginger powder

1 tea spoon of funel

Recipe:
Add all into a mixer and mix until smooth. Incorporate the egg whites and take it in a pudding form to the over at 180C for at least 45min.

A very simple lactose-free cake that is dense like the traditional portuguese cookies called broas.
It has a single taste but it shouldn't be too bizarre for kids either. To me it is the perfect non-event cake.

Marble cake

Ingredients:

• 250gr flour
• 125gr sugar
• 200gr butter
• 150gr dark chocolate
• 2dl milk
• 3 eggs
• 2 tea spoons east

Ingredients for the frosting:

• 200ml heavy cream
• 80gr dark chocolate
• 80gr pink chocolate

Recipe:

Wisk the egg yolks with the sugar until thicker and yellowish. Add the melted (or softened) butter and wisk again until you get a buttercream consistency. 
Mix in the flour with the east and finally add the milk.
Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt and three drops of lemon juice until stiff.
Incorporate them into the remaining dough. 
Divide the batter into two.
Melt the chocolate and softly incorporate it into one half of the batter.
Put the white batter first on the baking form with a center peak and then the dark one.
Using a toothpick mix it slightly (you want some funny images to arise from this).
Bake for at least 45 min at 180C.

Recipe for the frosting:
Melt both chocolate in different bowls.
Add half the cream to each.
Drop the dark chocolate on top of the cake before it is cold in way that it runs from the top inwards.
Do the same with the pink chocolate but have it flow from the top outwards.
With a toothpick or something as sharp mix the frostings at the top making funny drawings.
It can look amazing if you have a good hand for it, which I don't, but it still looks amazing even if not a marble at all. :-)

Pinaple tart tartin

Ingredients:

• 250gr pineapple in slices
• 6 eggs
• 240gr sugar
• 225gr butter
• 450gr flour
• 1 tea spoon east
• 150ml milk or pineapple juice or a combination of both

Recipe:

Take 100gr of the sugar (and 100ml pineapple juice if you have some) onto a pan and heat it slowly until it starts to darken.

As soon as it does spread it on a form for the oven. If you miss your window of opportunity heat it up a a little until melted maybe add a little of juice again and then spread it on the form.

Distribute the ananas slices over the caramel.

Beat the egg yolks with the remainder 60gr of sugar until light yellow.

Mix in the melted butter, than the flour with the east, the milk and the juice.

Beat the egg whites until stiff and incorporate on the rest of the cake mix.

Add the cake batter on to the form that already has the caramel and the ananas.

Take it to a pre-heated over at 180C.

original recipe

when turned out of the form.

Maybe for this forum I should have used more pineapple. 🤔

Mango mousse

Ingredients:

• 200ml heavy cream
• 2 table spoons sugar
• 2 eggs
• 200ml mango pulp
• pinch of salt

Recipe:

Beat the heavy cream with the sugar until you get a heavy chantilly.

Beat the egg whites with the pinch of salt until hard.

Mix the mango with the egg yolks, add the chantilly and incorporate the egg whites.

Leave it in the fridge over night.

Cod fish Pataniscas

Ingredients:

• 100gr flour
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 large sal dried cod fish stake
• 1 small onion
• 1 table spoon of white wine
• 1 hand full of persil
• 25ml water (preferably from boiling the cod fish)

Boil the cod fish and keep 25ml of the water.
When it has cooled down remove all bones and skin and with your fingers crumble the stake into smaller pieces.
In a blender put all ingredients but the cod fish and blend it until smooth.
Than add the cod fish and with a spoon m ix it all together.
Cover a pan's surface with olive oil and heat it up.
Use a soup serving spoon to deliver a portion of the liquid and let it cook until slightly golden. Then turn it on the other side just as you would pancakes.

For these I didn't have any onions so I used prey instead... So they are a bit green. 😁 As you can see it is just like fish pancakes.