Author Archives: Ilze Tolpeznikova

No butter, no flour oat cookies

Time to be healthy

Actually, I started to search for no flour cookies because my sister can’t eat any wheat products. Lately, it seems that there are more and more people close to myself that have some product intolerance. Thus, this recipe is dedicated to all my loved ones in that situation: Livija, Elina Evelina, and Marian. I’m offering several alternatives to prepare these cookies – just pick the one you can eat or that sounds better to you

no flour, no butter cookies

Yield: 20-30 cookies depending on size

Ingredients:

150g oatmeal
150g of mixed nuts & raisins of different kinds – select the nuts and proportion as you wish
1 medium size ripe banana or 100g of applesauce
1 egg or 2 tablespoons cornstarch (you may add some more applesauce/ banana if you use cornstarch)
100g of peanut butter
100g of sugar – you can vary the amount of sugar you put in, the more you put the crunchier and sweeter they’ll be

Raspberry-blueberry ice cream

Easy to make and healthy ice cream

I really love ice cream but unfortunately I don’t have my own ice cream maker to be able to make the traditional one at home. At the same time, I was searching for some healthy recipes so that I can eat ice cream and stay fit during summer. Two years ago, my husband gave me as a present ¨30min meals by Jamie Oliver¨ and there, amongst many other great recipes, I’ve found a perfect summer ice cream recipe: you just need some frozen berries, a little bit of sugar and natural yogurt. It takes only 5 minutest and turns out very tasty!

raspberry-blueberry ice cream

Yield: 4 portions

Ingredients:

300g of frozen raspberries & blueberries (or any other frozen berries)
2-3 tablespoons of sugar or honey
250g natural yogurt (I usually choose low-fat one)
optional: one spoon of lemon juice, some leaves of fresh mint

Cottage cheese pancakes – pankūkas pildītas ar biezpienu

My mom’s pancakes filled with cottage cheese

There is this one dish that, once you’re back home at your mom’s place, you could eat non-stop. For me, these are the pancakes filled with home made cottage cheese. They are delicious and my absolute favorite. So, since I’m in Latvia for the holidays, now is the time to write down this adorable recipe and share it with you all. I hope that you will love them and, if you don’t have time to make them, just come to my mom’s place and she will prepare them for you ;) I usually get them in the morning for breakfast – the perfect start for my day!

Cottage cheese pancakes

Yield: 12-13 pancakes, 2-3 per person

Ingredients:

Pancake dough

250g flour
0.5l whole milk
2 eggs
1 spoon olive oil
2 tea spoons of sugar
a little bit of salt

Cottage cheese filling

0,5kg whole milk cottage cheese
2 eggs (from free-range chickens is best)
100g of sugar
half a tea spoon of vanilla sugar
a pinch of salt

To accompany them jam, fresh cream and some fresh cut fruit work best.

Crème brûlée

“Burnt” custard cream

Crème brûlée is a sweet & creamy dessert with crunchy sugar on top. In Spain it is also known as ¨crema catalana¨, and everyone will affirm that it comes originally from Catalonia. To the Spanish version of creme brûlée you usually add lemon or orange peal as well as cinnamon. Here, I’ll share with you first the traditional French creme brûlée recipe, which I got from the Larousse ¨Pierre Herme¨ dessert book. I usually make it in small individual ramekins that perfectly serve one person.

creme brûlée

Yield: 8 portions

Ingredients:

500ml milk
500ml cream
4 vanilla beans
9 egg yolks
180g powder sugar
100g brown sugar

Flan parisien – Parisian flan

Short story

The Parisian flan is a typical french dessert that you can find in any “pâtisserie” in France. It consists of baked custard and a shortcrust pastry base. It is typically made with eggs, cream or milk, starch and vanilla.

parisian flan

Yield: 8 portions

Ingredients

230g shortcrust pastry
500ml milk (could add some part of cream instead)
1 vanilla bean
200g sugar
4 eggs
70g corn starch (maizena)

Mango Charlotte

Charlotte’s story

Charlotte is a very tasty, elegant looking and easy to prepare summer cake that is quite popular in France. Its core is creamy fruit mousse, bordered all around with ladyfingers. It is really a very light cake, and great for pairing with different fruits. I’ve prepared my first version with mango and it came out very well. The second version was with rhubarb and raspberries; that recipe I will share with you another time. For now, enjoy this mango charlotte decorated with raspberries.

mango charlotte with raspberries

Yield: 4 portions

Ingredients:

Mango mousse:

1 big ripe mango – should yield around 300g mango flesh, cut into small pieces
50g + 10g sugar – depends on how sweet you want it to be
4 gelatin leaves
half of a lemon’s juice & and the grated zest (optional)
50g water
100g liquid cream
10-15 ladyfingers
Some fruit for the decoration according to your taste.

Three chocolate brownie

Brownies for chocolate lowers

Brownie is something between cake and cookie: crispy outside and soft inside….and a lot of chocolate! I’m a chocolate lover and these brownies with three types of chocolate are just delicious. Mm….enjoy!

three chocolate brownies

Yield: around 16-20 square brownies

Ingredients:

185g dark chocolate
185g butter
3 large eggs
250g sugar
85g flour
40g cacao powder
50g white chocolate
50g milk chocolate
50g walnuts

Vegetable – ham quiche

Adding some vegetables to the traditional Quiche Lorraine

I suppose that you have heard already about the traditional Quiche Lorraine – bacon, swiss cheese and onions mingle in perfect harmony with eggs and cream. I adore vegetables, thus I’ve created my own, vegetable-heavy variation of this quiche. I usually add some carrots and zucchini. I also like to make the quiche quite thick, so that it remains more juicy and flavorful; thus my quiche has a bit more eggs than a traditional quiche has. It’s perfect for dinner and with these quantities serves for four to five. Also, leftovers are delicious the next day, either cold or re-heated!

Vegetable – ham quiche

Yield: 4-5 portions

Ingredients:

7 eggs
150g smoked ham
250g shortcrust pastry
250g milk
100g cheese: swiss cheese or any kind of other cheese. I sometimes use “Boursin-style” cheese or even fresh goat cheese.
1 big onion
1 medium size zucchini
2-3 carrots
salt, pepper, nutmeg

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

A tasty alternative to traditional chocolate chip cookies

I suppose that everyone knows the american-style chocolate chip cookies: crunchy outside and soft inside, combined with the wonderful taste of chocolate chips. To make these cookies a bit more healthy, I usually add oats and it actually taste even better. So, enjoy!

chocolate-oat cookies

Yield: around 15 medium size cookies

Ingredients:

80g minced oats
80g flour
80g butter (at room temperature )
80g brown or white sugar
60-50g chocolate chips or chocolate (I used dark chocolate chopped into small pieces )
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
optional: chopped nuts, raisins

Éclairs au chocolat – chocolate éclairs with vanilla filling

What are éclairs?

Éclairs is a typical french dessert which usually consist of choux pastry and are filled with pastry cream. Country by country, the filling differs. While in France, the chocolate éclairs will always have chocolate filling, in Spain, for example, the chocolate éclairs have vanilla filling. In Latvia, on the other hand, the filling is “more heavy” as we usually add more butter and cream. Chocolate ganache éclairs with vanilla pastry cream filling are my favorite ones – so, enjoy my French-Spanish recipe!

chocolate vanilla eclairs

Yield: 25 medium size éclaires, 10-12cm long

Ingredients

300g choux pastry
250-300g pastry cream

150g glaze

50g black chocolate
40g ice sugar
20g butter
1 table spoon of water

100g white fondant (fondant blanc)
20g cacao powder