Author Archives: Ilze Tolpeznikova

Cinnamon rolls

Kanēļmaizītes

In Latvia cinnamon rolls is a very popular treat for breakfast and a great snack to accompany coffee or tea in a cold winter afternoon. My grandmother used to make them quite often and I loved them. They are soft and with light caramel on top. Make sure you eat them freshly baked, that’s when they taste best. Enjoy!

cinnamon rolls

Yield: 40 small size cinnamon rolls

Ingredients:

250ml warm milk (ca. 40C)
2 eggs
80g butter
560g flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
140g brown sugar
1 packet instant yeast
sugar & cinnamon & some butter to spread on top of the dough
1 egg

Pistachio tiramisu

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Original taste tiramisu

At the beginning of this year we went for a weekend to Budapest. One of the nights there, we had a very good meal in a nice restaurant and as my husband is a tiramisu lover – we ordered it for dessert. But, it was quite an unusual and tasty tiramisu – pistachio tiramisu. I really enjoyed it. Thus, I’ve decided to prepare it myself. Enjoy this pistachio tiramisu!

pistachio tiramisu

Yield: 4 tiramisu

Ingredients:

ingredients

250g mascarpone
4 eggs
4 spoons of pistachio paste
100g sugar
150ml espresso
2 tea spoons of amaretto liqueur
8-10 lady fingers
100g chopped pistachos

Tarte tatin

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Upside-down apple pie

The “tarte Tatin” is an upside-down pie in which the fruit (usually apples) is caramelized in butter and sugar before the pie is baked. As the base you can use either short-crust pastry or puff pastry. I’ve prepared an apple tarte tatin with well caramelized ‘Golden Delicious’ apples and shortcrust pastry.

tarte tatin

Yield: 8 portions

Ingredients:

250g shortcrust pastry
1,5kg apples (Golden Delicious)
200g powder sugar
130g semi-salted butter

Pelmeņi

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Latvian dumplings

Pelmeņi are dumplings consisting of a filling wrapped in a thin dough. They didn’t originate from Latvia – they are very popular in Russia as well as other Eastern European countries. If you know Asian food, you might associate them with gyoza – just the ingredients are different. The usual filling in Latvia consist of minced meat. I’ve filled my pelmeņi with smoked meat and mushrooms. I think that the best ones are home-made, because you can choose your own filling and adapt them according to your taste. So, be courageous and make your own 😉

pelmeni

Yield: ca. 30-35 pelmeņi (3-4 portions)

Ingredients:

Dough

2,5 cups of flour
1 egg
1/2 cup of milk
a little bit of salt

Filling

200g of smoked meat
200g of mushrooms
salt, pepper

Breton biscuits

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Crunchy butter cookies from Britany

The “galettes sablées bretonnes” are typical french butter cookies made from butter, flour, sugar and eggs. The traditional shape is round and the tops of the cookies are usually brushed with the egg yolk, giving them a shiny and golden appearance. “Sablée” means sand in French, and refers to the sandy like texture of the biscuits. This is really a very easy to make recipe, and the result tastes very good.

galettes bretons

Yield: 30 biscuits

Ingredients:

200g flour
130g sugar
1,5 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
125g of salted butter (room T)
1 egg
1 egg yolk + 5cl of water

Arroz con leche – Milk rice pudding

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Creamy rice pudding

“Arroz con leche” is a creamy and sweet rice dessert served in households all over Spain (and other Latin countries). To give it some special flavor, in Spain they usually add lemon peal and cinnamon.

Every family has their own “arroz con leche” recipe. I’ll share with you my Spanish grandma’s recipe, that is known as the very best in my husband’s family. It is usually served cold with cinnamon or a caramelized sugar crust on top of it….and yes, it is very tasty 🙂

arroz con leche

Yield: 20 portions of “arroz con leche”

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of cold water
1 cinnamon stick
peel of one lemon – just the yellow part
1/2 teaspoon of salt
250g of medium grain rice (“arroz redondo” or “round rice”)
3l of milk
250-300g of sugar

Yogurt pancakes

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Soft and light pancakes

When I was small, my grandma prepared pancakes from curdled milk and they were very tasty. So, having these memories in mind, I’ve replaced curdled milk with natural yogurt. The pancakes turn out very soft and almost melt in your mouth. I hope that you will try them!

Yogurt pancakes

Yield: 10-12, depending on size

Ingredients:

2 pots of 125g natural yogurt
2 table spoons of sugar
1 tea spoon of baking powder
1 cup of flour
1 egg
olive oil

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Raspberry financier

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Almond financier with raspberries

I’ve wanted to prepare financiers for quite a while – I always enjoyed eating them but never dared to try to bake them. Next to the madeleine, the financier is probably the most popular little French cake, common for breakfast or afternoon snacking (or “goûter”). It is made of finely ground almonds, egg whites, butter and powdered sugar. The name comes from their shape: they are usually formed to look like a brick of gold. If they come out well, they should have crusty exterior and a moist interior, tasting almost as if they were filled with almond paste. To give them some summer taste, I’ve added raspberries and changed a bit the traditional form…and yes, they still taste very good!

raspberry financiers

Yield: 10 small size financiers

Ingredients:

110g powder sugar
100g butter (room Temperature)
45g flour
60g fine ground almonds
3 egg whites
20 raspberries – 2 for each
optional: 1 tea spoon of amaretto (my personal touch 🙂 )

Fig & goat cheese salad

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Sweet summer salad

I’ve discovered fresh figs while living in Paris -before that, I had never tried them fresh, only dried. The fig is believed to come from Western Asia and to have been distributed later throughout the Mediterranean area. It is a rather sweet fruit with a tough peel and a jelly-like flesh. I like eating fresh figs alone, but the best combination I’ve discovered is a fig & goat cheese salad – a sweet & salty combination and a perfect starter for a summer dinner.

fig & goat cheese salad

Yield: 4 persons

Ingredients:

150g rocket leaves
10-15 fresh dark figs
100g goat cheese – any kind
walnuts – optional
olive oil
balsamico vinegar
2 tea spoons of honey
salt, pepper

Fudgy chocolate cake with blueberries

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Add some berries to delicious chocolate cake

I think that you may have already noticed that chocolate is one of my favorite ingredients 🙂 This summer when I visited my family in Latvia, I went to a new restaurant in Jurmala called ¨Legend¨. This is a special place not only because my cousins’s husband, Janis Zvirbulis, is a chef there, but also because the food is delicious. Unfortunately I couldn’t try everything I wanted (yet!), but there is this one dessert that I still have dreams about: a chocolate cake with cream and blueberries on top. Wonderful combinations! I didn’t get the secret recipe but I’ve created my own version of a chocolate cake with blueberries and ice-cream.

fudgy chocolate cake

Yield: 8 portions Ingredients:

200g of dark chocolate
60g unsalted butter
100ml cream
6 eggs
150g sugar
a little bit of salt
one tea spoon vanilla sugar
1 spoon of cacao powder
some blueberries, icing sugar and ice cream for decoration