Quick croissants, simple and with apricots

My kids are crazy about French croissants and the truth is we like them too. The only problem is that it can be pretty difficult to find good quality butter croissants in bakeries (most of them are made with margarine) and it's really difficult to bake them at home (they are so many steps to follow and it takes more than 2 days to fold them, refrigerate them, fold them again etc. Too much stress).
So, when my kids asked for croissants NOW, it was a real challenge for me to find a healthy, tasty  and quick recipe.
Long story short, I decided to bake some butter croissants, similar to the French ones but without all the folding and refrigerating. So, the recipe is really simple, you need maximum 15 minutes of effective preparation plus some time to freeze, then rise the dough. They turned out very very good, different than the French version, but fluffy and really tasty. I left some of them simple (you can fill them after baking with cream cheese or homemade pate) and I filled some of them with apricot slices, both versions were great.

Ingredients:
- 300 g flour;
- 150 g cold butter, diced;
- 100 ml lightly warmed milk;
- 1/2 pack active dry yeast;
- 1 egg yolk and 3 Tbsp of milk for the egg wash;
optional:
- a pinch of vanilla or orange powder, by taste;
- 1-2 sliced apricots/ other fruit (for filling the croissants).

Method:
Dissolve the yeast in the lightly warmed milk. Let it cool completely (even in the fridge) or it will melt the butter.
Place the flour (and vanilla/orange powder, if using) and the diced butter in a bowl and mix with your fingers or with a fork until you get a rough sandy texture. You need to leave whole grains of butter as they will melt in the oven and give a nice texture to the croissants.
Add the cold milk with yeast and mix for a couple of minutes until you get a dough. Don't knead the dough too much, otherwise the butter will melt. Give it a relatively square shape, cover with cling film, and put it in the freezer for 45 minutes.
Remove the dough from the freezer, roll it flat onto the table in a rectangular shape (length double than width). It will be pretty difficult in the beginning as the dough is frozen and it might break. Just stick the pieces together and continue as fast as possible (the coldest the dough remains, the better).
Fold the dough as following: put the ends together so that they meet in the middle of the rectangle, like a letter. Turn it on the other side (so the folded ends will be underneath) and then turn it 90 degrees clockwise. Repeat the procedure 3-4 times, then roll it into a long rectangle (from this one you will cut the croissants).

Cut the rolled dough into equal rectangles, then cut every rectangle on one diagonal. Add the filling on the shortest edge of each triangle, then roll to the opposing vertice.
Place the croissants on a tray lined with baking paper and coat them with egg wash. Let them rise, in a warm place, for about 1h.
Preheat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius.
Cover the croissants with one more layer of egg wash, then bake them for 10-15 minutes (depending on their dimension).
Remove from the oven and let them cool a bit (if you can 😍) before you serve.

Enjoy!

Strawberry & banana pudding cake

This is the cake I made for International Children's Day (1st of June) and it's actually a Fraisier type of cake, adapted to be baby friendly. I got inspired by a wonderful cake I saw on a Romanian blog called Savori Urbane (recipe here) and I decided to bake something similar (at least in aspect, as I changed the ingredients a bit...).
I wanted to prepare a cake just the right size for our family's dinner so I used a cake tin of 10 cm diameter, with a removable ring. I made some more batter though, so apart from the small cake I also had 3 mini-tarts (baked in silicone molds), that we "tasted" the evening before. They were yummy!

So, here's my take on Fraisier cake, baby friendly version. For larger cake tins, just double or triple the ingredients.

Ingredients:
For the base:
2 eggs
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1/2 banana, mashed

For the banana & vanilla pudding:
250 ml milk
1/2 vanilla bean
3 egg yolks
1/2 banana, mashed
15g cornstarch
75g butter 80% fat, room temperature

For the filling and topping:
10-15 small strawberries

Method:
Base:
Preheat the oven at 190 degrees C.
Mash the banana, add the egg yolks and oil and mix well. Add the flour and mix some more.
Separately, beat the egg whites until fluffy and add them to the batter. Mix carefully, using a spatula, to keep as much fluffiness as possible.
Pour the batter into tins / molds (I used a cake tin and 3 silicone molds - see some of the cakes in the picture below). Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the surface is golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool. Cut the cake base into 2 layers.

Pudding:
Heat up the milk with the vanilla bean and the vanilla seeds (be careful to remove it from the heat when it starts boiling).
Meanwhile, mix the egg yolks with the mashed banana until they get foamy. Add the cornstarch and mix well. Pour the hot milk gradually (after you removed and discarded the vanilla bean) and mix well.
Put the batter back on the stove and stir continuously with a silicone spatula. Let it simmer for a few minutes, until it gets thick and remove from the heat. Pour the pudding in a bowl lined with cling film and cover with the cling film's margins and let cool (if left uncovered, it will form a crust).
Whisk the butter (room temperature) until it gets creamy and a bit fluffy and add the cold vanilla pudding on top. Continue mixing until you it gets nice and creamy. If the butter starts separating, just continue to mix. It should be fine in a few minutes.

Wash the strawberries, dry them on a paper towel and cut 4-5 of them in halves.

Cake assembly:
Place half of the cake base on a plate, with the ring from the cake tin around it. Cover with a little pudding and place the halved strawberries on the circle, with the cut part outside. Then, fill all the inside with whole strawberries.

 
Pour more pudding into the tin, to cover all strawberries and press with a spoon, so that the cream gets everywhere between the fruit. Place the other half of the cake base on top, cover it with some more pudding and decorate with strawberries.
Let it cool in the fridge for a few hours before removing the ring.
Enjoy!

Best banana bread recipe (sugar free)

From all the banana bread recipes I've tried so far, this one was definitely the best (and the most appreciated). It needs just 5-10 minutes to prepare and about 1h to bake. 

Ingredients:
- 3 medium bananas, very ripe, mashed;
- 2 eggs;
- 1/2 cup milk;
- 7 Tbsp oil;
- 1 tsp baking soda;
- seeds of a vanilla bean or 1/2 tsp vanilla powder;
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon;
- 1 3/4 cups white flour;
- a handful of walnuts, ground, or chopped (minimum 50g).
* this recipe does not contain sugar, the bananas are usually tasty enough. If you like concentrated sweets and you have no restrictions, you can add 2-3 Tbsp of honey or another sweetener of your choice.

Method:
In a bowl (or in the blender), mix the mashed bananas, eggs, oil, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and (if using) sweetener. Separately, mix the flour, baking soda and ground walnuts. Add the dry ingredients over the liquid mix and stir until smooth. Pour in a loaf pan lined with baking paper and bake in the preheated oven (180 degrees Celsius), for about 50 minutes - one hour, until it passes the toothpic test. Let it cool in the tray for at least 15 minutes and cut only when completely cooled.
Enjoy!

Apple and walnut pastry rolls

I decided to vary a little bit the weekend desserts/snacks (too many muffins and biscuits) so these traditional Romanian pastry rolls sounded like a good idea (and indeed they were!). They are usually filled with Turkish delight or with jam but, since we avoid sugar altogether, I filled them with apple pieces covered with ground walnuts. They are pretty easy to prepare and they make a perfect snack for the little ones.

Ingredients:
- 150g butter;
- 150g sour cream;
- 4g dry yeast;
- 230g plain flour (+/- 10g);
- 1/2 tsp vanilla powder;
- 1/2 tsp  orange zest powder (optional);
- for the filling: 1 big apple, one handful ground walnuts.
* you can choose to omit yeast and the rolls will have the texture similar to biscuits; with yeast they resemble more the puff pastry. Yeast does not affect the taste!

Method:
In a bowl mix the flour, yeast, vanilla and orange powder. Add the butter (diced) and the sour cream and mix well until you get a firm, non-sticky dough (but not hard!).
Meanwhile, peel the apple, remove and discard the core and stem and cut it in sticks (about 1 x 1 x 2 cm), then roll every piece in the ground nuts until fully covered. Set them aside.
Cover the dough with cling film and place it in the fridge for at least 30 min. Cut it in 6 pieces; form a ball out of each piece. Roll each bowl in (more or less) round shape and cut triangles out of it. Place the apple pieces on the wider part of the triangle and roll towards the narrower side (see picture below).



Place the rolled pieces on a tray lined with baking paper and bake in the preheated oven (180 degrees C) for about 25 minutes (or until golden brown).
Enjoy!

Fruit sushi (vegan)

I saw this fruit sushi idea a while ago, on Tasty (the original here) and it seemed brilliant (it looked really good and seemed pretty easy to make). So, when I saw sushi rice in our local supermarket (they don't always have it), I bought it and I made the recipe.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup of sushi rice (or another short grain rice); 

- 1/2 cup coconut cream;

- 1/4 tsp vanilla powder (or the seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean);

- 2 kiwis;

- 2 mandarins;

- 1 ripe mango.

* this recipe contains no added sugar! If you like sweeter taste, add to the rice a sweetener of your choice.

Method (detailed photos of the method can be found at the end of this article):

Add one cup of rice to 1 and 1/3 cups of water, bring to a boil then reduce fire and let it simmer over low heat for 15-17 minutes. Do not stir! When the rice absorbed all the water remove from fire (taste it and if it's not completely cooked you can add a little bit more water and continue to boil or, if it didn't absorb all water you can leave it a bit more on the fire so the mixture gets pretty solid. Add 1/2 cup of coconut cream and the vanilla bean and stir. Let the rice mixture cool.

Cover a bamboo mat with cling film and spread about 1/2 of the rice on it, in a rectangular shape (if you don't have a bamboo mat use just the cling film). Place inside a row of kiwi sticks and a row of mandarin slices. Roll it and cover the roll with thin slices of mango. Wrap in cling film and let it cool in the fridge for 1/2h.  

Repeat the process with the remaining rice or form little rice balls and cover them with fruit slices (like nigiri).

Slice and serve.

Enjoy!