Appetising lettuce rolls with smoky red fish

All kinds of snack rolls are essentially cool. But as is the case with most dishes, there's something inside us screaming 'I WANT TO EAT SEASONAL'! And despite all the coolness factor in ham rolls with cheese filling, I don't quite feel like them now. Come on, it's not even raining. And the hold-your-skirt-or-you'll-go-home-without-it wind does not really count.

Even though I didn't know it before, I now know that lettuce can be rolled into a cool summery appetiser.

That's why they invented the phrase sex, drugs 'n' lettuce rolls, baby!


Lettuce rolls with smoky red fish

lettuce leaves
light grapes
raisins

about 200 g garlic flavoured cream cheese
1/2 dl diced tomatoes
1/2 dl pieces of smoked red fish
1 tbsp raisins

1. Mix cream cheese with diced tomatoes, smoked fish and raisins.
2. Spread the mixture onto lettuce leaves and make them into rolls. Place them into the fridge for a half an hour (I didn't do that, but it will make the filling stiffer).
3. Cut the rolls into bite-sized pieces and top with a grape and a raisin.

They actually have this fresh feeling to them, which is unusual for this kind of appetisers. There's just about enough smoky fish flavour that is complemented by the sweetness of the raisins. The grapes are good on the rolls, but I'm wondering if olives would do an even better job. Next time, right?

A cheesecake for the minority: Licorice!

Although I'm ill as in really ill right now and almost can't taste a thing, here's a treat I made a month ago. So I TOO could remember what good food tastes like:)

Ohh, licorice.

There's just too little variety in Estonia. Whenever I go to Finland, I know exactly what I'm going to buy. Always the same licorice candy mix from the ship's Tax Free. Then definitely a package of licorice chewing gum. And if I'm lucky - some licorice ice cream, a tube of licorice sauce to bring home or even a licorice flavoured Tupla chocolate.

Nevertheless I've come upon very few recipes using licorice (candies) as an ingredient. I made a licorice cheesecake with gelatin for a friend mad about the candy two years ago, but at last I made my first baked licorice cheesecake that had been developing itself in my head for too long a time.


I didn't tell my parents of the origin of the cake before they had eaten their first bites. The funny thing...they both liked it. Although neither of them belongs to the licorice-loving minority...very very weird indeed. But positively surprising.

Licorice cheesecake with chocolate and lingonberry jam

180 g chocolate cookies
50 g melted butter
100 g licorice candies (regular)
1 dl heavy cream
500 g cream cheese
3 eggs
1/2 dl sugar
vanilla
1 1/2 dl lingonberry jam
50 g grated dark chocolate

1. Crush the cookies into a fine powder and add the butter to make the crust. Grease a springform pan (mine was 27 cm), press the crust onto the bottom and up the sides. Bake at 175C for 10 minutes.
2. Chop the licorice candies into little pieces and combine with the heavy cream in a saucepan. Boil on low until the cream is quite dark (the candies don't have to be dissolved completely).
3. Pour the mixture into a food processor and process until quite smooth.
4. Add cream cheese, eggs, vanilla and sugar. Process until smooth and incorporated well.
5. Warm up the jam (on the stove/in a microwave) and spread on the pre-cooked crust.
6. Pour the filling over the jam and sprinkle the grated chocolate on top.
7. Bake for about 40 minutes more.

The overall impression of the cake is quite chocolate-y (I already hear you shouting 'haha chocolate again - and you said you weren't a chocoholic!'). The flavours of chocolate and licorice suit each other very well and a plus side of the melting-in-your-mouth chocolate coating is also that it covers the grey-ish cheesecake (you see? there's a reason for the chocolate!).

The licorice taste isn't overpowering or anything in the final result, but moderatlely present - that explains why my parents didn't spit their mouthfuls out, but rather asked for more.
I hoped the lingonberry jam would be seen more between the layers, but it kind of melted into the crust. Nevertheless it gives it's slightly bitter accent to the cake.


When in search for licorice recipes on the web, I did notice some of them: Licorice pudding from The Well-Seasoned Cook, Licorice ice cream published in the Courier Mail and Martha Stewart's Black Licorice Creme Brulee Tarts.

Maybe you've got your own to share?
Oh, well, I'm off to tea and napkins...

Rye bread pudding with berries

Leftover rye bread usually turns into leivasupp (literally 'rye bread soup') at our household, but this time I felt like making something else. And, I like the kitchen full of something elses. This particular something else here is a perfect opportunity to use up those summer berries stacked in the freezer.


Rye bread pudding with berries

200 g rye bread slices
2 dl apple juice
4 egg yolks
4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
100 g cream cheese
4 dl (frozen) berries (I used morellos and bilberries)
1 tbsp sugar

1. Soak the rye bread slices in the apple juice, stirring occasionally, for an hour.
2. Beat the yolks together with the 4 tbsp sugar and cinnamon with an electric mixer. Add cream cheese and beat until incorporated well.
3. Make sure there aren't any big pieces in the bread and apple juice mixture, then mix the two bowlfuls together.
4. Grease a 24 cm pie pan and cover the bottom with berries, sprinkle 1 tbsp of sugar on them, then pour the bread batter over them.
5. Bake at 200C for 20 minutes, serve warm with vanilla ice cream or vanilla sauce.

The berries on the bottom turn into mild chunky jam, a succulent memory of summer. The rye bread pudding on top is moist in a good cream cheese-y way and the yolks sure have used their charm somewhere in there too.
As I mainly used fine rye bread this time, it's taste (and color!) was a bit lighter, but next time I'd like to go for darker bread with seeds. Oh yes. I've tried making rye bread pudding a few times before and always cursed myself for it afterwards, but this one here worked like a charm.


The dessert is great for eating while still warm, but it's good when cooled down to. You just need to have a cup of milk beside to keep you happy;)

A rustic take on chocolate brownies

How much do you love chocolate?

(Don't shout! Don't shout! Come on...it was a rhetoric question!)

I've never been a champion at munching chocolate by chunks. Well, I'd like to nibble on some flavoured chocolate or have chocolate omelette for breakfast from time to time, but a cheesecake/apple cake/another good cake will always stand above chocolate cakes in my top 10.

Regular chocolate cakes don't really attract me that much, BUT I'm momentarily sold when I see something different. It has to be different different. It has to confuse my taste buds before I've even read through the recipe. This cake, my darlings, qualified enough to spend time at the back door of my mind for a long time.

It's a brownie recipe that uses barley flour as the only flour. I wouldn't have believed it could work out so well without all the fancy gluten. But it did. It's a cake that bloody could. Barley flour's got my soul now!

Chocolate brownies with barley flour
(Estonian magazine Oma maitse )

200 g butter
150 g dark chocolate
2 dl coarsely chopped walnuts
1 dl dried cranberries or cherries
3 eggs
2 dl sugar
2 dl barley flour

1. Melt butter in a saucepan and add chocolate chunks. Stir over low heat until incorporated well. Remove from heat.
2. Beat the eggs with sugar with an electric mixer until stiff.
3. Add the chocolate mixture, whisking, then add the flour and chopped walnuts and berries (if using cherries, cut them into two). Mix carefully.
4. Bake at once in a greased baking pan at 180 for 20-30 minutes (I used a 24 cm pan).
5. Let cool before serving.

The cake is, essentially, a brownie full of deep chocolate taste, but isn't as smooth as usually, but a bit grainy inside. Barley flour gives it a more crumbly texture and an intense, a bit rustic flavour that suits so well with walnuts. Dried cherries or cranberries add sweetness, but aren't very recognizable on the whole.

I found a most suitable way for completing the taste of the cake by adding some neat slightly flavoured cream.



Cinnamon-vanilla cream topping

1 dl heavy cream
100 g cream cheese
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp sugar
vanilla
pinch of salt

1. Combine cream cheese, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt in a bowl, beat with an electric mixer until fluffy.
2. Add heavy cream and beat some more until you reach your desired consistency.

The cream completes the strong flavour of the cake perfectly and creates a fluffy contrast with the dense chocolate brownie. The flavour itself is kind of a shadow of a flavour, but this is the aim here - to let all the rustic delight stand out.

Right now I'd say I love chocolate pretty much!:)

Cream cheese ice cream

Cream cheese, just like my favourite - curd cheese - makes everything better.

I adapted the recipe from the lovely Tartelette, my step-parent in the Adopt a blogger event. She's great! I've enjoyed reading her blog for several several months now and in addition to her professional photos I like her attitude towards cooking.
Actually I made this ice cream quite some time ago, but it looks like the event was timed perfectly before me writing about it...

But I did not dare call it cheesecake ice cream. What would make it cheesecake ice cream for me? First - for me cheesecake is primarily baked cheesecake. Could I make an ice cream that tastes like that? Amy suggested adding chunks of it. In case you're wondering, I'm drooling right now:) So - more cream cheese into the ice cream, chunks of baked cheesecake and chunks of cookies too. I'm up for the challenge!

But for now, I recommend this - mouthwatering!

Cream cheese ice cream
(adapted from Tartelette, serves 4-6)

4 dl milk
1 1/2 dl heavy cream
1 3/4 dl sugar
2 egg yolks
90 g cream cheese

1. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, warm up the milk and the cream, then slowly pour a small amount on the egg yolks to temper, then add the remaining part.
3. Stir the mixture well and pour it back into the saucepan, cook over medium-low heat until the cream thickens. Don't let it reach the boiling point!
4. Remove from heat and whisk in the cream cheese (It's easier to do so if you first add some of the mixture to the cream cheese so it's not so solid).
5. Cool the mixture to room temperature. Then cover and refrigerate until cold. Process in an ice cream maker or beat with an electric mixer every 30 min-1 hour (depending on the freezer's temperature - just check your ice cream!) until the consistency is right.

I really was pleased with the result, considering I'm an ice cream amateur. This time I got the consistency right, at least:)

There's cream cheese flavour, alright, but I'm greedy for more! It's sweet, yes, creamy, mild, perfect with a sour pie. It tastes...jolly. It's an amusement park ice cream with a small hint of upper class.
Now, I'm making myself a schedule for WHEN there's time for another batch of cream cheese cheesecake ice cream!

Smoked sausage mouthful with pineapple cream cheese

A what's-in-the-fridge snack. Don't you just love them sometimes? Well these mouthfuls smell and sound like dinner party and that's where they'll probably be headed sooner or later.

Thin crisps of quality smoked sausage are good on their own too. But they're just like potato chips - there's never too much dip sauce. This cream cheese topping can also be served seperately as a dip, but individual mouthfuls seemed to do the thing for me. If I'm really able to see into the future and these snacks will be served at a dinner party, they most definitely need fresh basil leaves for garnishing (did I really use dried basil? a traitor among the world of cooks! but that's how what's-in-the-fridge snacks work).


Smoked sausage mouthful with pineapple cream cheese

Thinly sliced smoked sausage (or salami)
1 dl pineapples from a compote
1 dl cream cheese
basil

1. Preheat your oven to 110C . Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (I use a silicone baking sheet instead) and arrange the sausage slices on it. Cook them in the oven for about 12 minutes.
2. Take the sausage slices out of the oven and let them drain on paper towels.
3. Now the cream cheese topping. Puree the pineapple slices or pieces together with the cream cheese and that's it.
4. Serve the cream cheese topping on cooled crisps, sprinkle with some (preferably fresh) basil.


Crunchy, creamy, salty, spicy, exotic, sweet - contradiction does its thing here. Pure tastes are like a compliment for both the mind and the body.

Like swimming in peanut butter

Before cheap jars of peanut butter appeared in our stores (and that was only tiny bits of time ago), I decided to give it a try and buy one (and definitely not the cheapest) good-looking foreign jar. A jar of creamy peanut butter, really full of taste. So, impressed by its content, I visited the jar with a little spoon quite often and finally scooped out every bit of it. Although about 1 1/4 cups of it went into this cake. Why eat just peanut butter when you can add a little something to it and feel like eating loads more peanut butter?



Peanut butter cheesecake
(adapted from Epicurious )

450 g cream cheese
1 1/4 cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
3 eggs
vanilla
150 g chopped dark chocolate

1. Grease a springform pan or a ceramic baking pan (this is what I used). If you're using a springform pan, wrap it carefully with aluminum foil.
2. With an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar, sour cream and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time. Finally mix in chocolate and pour the batter into your baking pan.
3. Place the baking pan into a larger one, then fill the large pan with hot water so that it comes about half way up the sides of the smaller baking dish.
4. Bake the cake at 160C/325F for about an hour and cool it completely before serving.

Yes, the cake is very peanut buttery. Oh and cream cheesy, it's true. Although eating huge amounts of it sounds wonderful, you wouldn't want to do it. Small slices are already nicely rich and fill the belly enough. With a cup of coffee, on spring mornings like today? For me this cake is a reminder of quality peanut butter. Looking forward to the day when these jars full of taste are sold in every supermarket, I'm really trying to ignore the cheap ones now. Oh, well, it's Estonia.
And swimming in peanut butter? Not really one of my dreams.

Having-it-all muffins

What if you had a muffin dream? No, really, let's imagine. What would the muffins be like? They should have every good thing in them, right? Starting with...honey. Definitely some berries. And I really like cheesecake, they should have cheesecake too. What about almonds? And cinnamon? Lime? After a day outside in the cold I was ready to take the challenge. What a lovely challenge it was. As a base recipe, I used a recipe for honey muffins.


Honey muffins with cheesecake and everything

Muffin batter:
100 g butter, at room temperature
150 g honey (liquid or melted)
1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
2 eggs
4 dl flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon

Cheesecake mixture:
350 g cream cheese
2 eggs
1 dl sugar
vanilla

some cherries
sliced almonds for coating

1. Prepare the cheesecake mixture. With an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese, sugar, two eggs and vanilla.
2. Now the muffin batter. Beat together butter, honey, lime juice.
3. In another bowl, beat the eggs with a pinch of salt and add to the mixture.
4. Mix flour with baking powder and cinnamon, add to the mixture and stir until just combined.
5. Now fill the muffin pan. Place a cherry or some on the bottom of each cup, then add muffin batter. Pour cheesecake mixture over it and cover with sliced almonds.
6. Bake at 200C for about 18 minutes.

The muffins taste overwhelmed by honey, teased by the scents of lime and cinnamon. Cherries add a sourish juiciness and complete the overall sweet taste. The mild cheesecake topping with crunchy almond slices...the muffins do have a nice combination of textures.

It's repeated often that too many flavourings should not be used together. Well this time I put everything together and it worked just fine. Or actually...these muffins are the best I have ever made. And together with some cold milk...the best I have ever eaten (although I admit I'm not a big muffin fan). Having a muffin dream would not be so bad after all.