Hazelnut rum balls

Chocolate-y rum balls made with cookie and cake crumbs are quite a classical favourite treat for me. I think I've tried almost every kind they sell in Estonia, I've chosen my favourites and over time I've eaten a ton. A big ton, not a small one. A ton of rum balls.

Although I've never succeeded in making the perfect rum ball at home, I've now succeeded in making quite a perfect variation of it. Hazelnuts have always seemed like good company for a decent rum ball and condensed milk is probably good company for anyone interested in the very quintessence of company.


Pardon for the blurry pictures. I had a bunch of wide-smiled compliment-throwing hungry friends over and they didn't like the idea of leaving any truffles alone.

Hazelnut rum balls

2 dl ground hazelnuts (if you have time - from about 200g hazelnuts, dry-roasted on a skillet and rubbed while warm in a cloth to remove peels)
1 dl cookie or cake crumbs
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp butter
1 dl sweet condensed milk
vanilla
rum essence
dark chocolate and hazelnuts for decorating

1. Mix ground hazelnuts, cookie crumbs and cocoa powder well.
2. Melt butter and mix well with condensed milk. Add rum essence and vanilla, then pour the mixture over the dry ingredients and mix very well.
3. Place the mixture into the fridge for a half an hour, make small balls from it and then let them harden in the fridge again.
4. Melt dark chocolate over a water bath, dip the balls into the chocolate and place them onto foil or parchment paper. Before they harden, decorate each ball with a hazelnut. Store in the fridge.

Although the taste differs according to the crumbs you use, the flavour of hazelnuts is still nicely obvious. Teasingly flirtatious with the rum flavour in the truffles, it really creates a good mild combination that goes together really well with chocolate.

The balls are best eaten when they've spent a day in the fridge. The taste is smoother, the texture is harder, the delight is grander.

The rum balls will also be taking part of this month's Waiter, there's something in my... event, themed Dried fruit and nuts which is hosted by Andrew of Spittoon Extra.

And in the Monthly Mingle event, hosted by Mansi of Fun and Food, themed Appetizers and Hors'Doeuvres.

I really have to make these rum balls when no guests will be coming around;)

Hazelnut cookies with black pepper and a dash of rosewater

I am often skeptical about all sorts of cookies. I frown. I try to imagine them in my mouth. I assure myself they're not good for anything and then go and eat some yoghurt instead. But being a food blogger, there are a number of other food bloggers I'd believe even if they told me that salmon flavoured hot chocolate was a real treat. Or, maybe, let's just limit that to 'a dash of pepper exalts the flavor of hazelnuts like no other'.


Clotilde was so very right about that statement when altering a cookie recipe by Laurence Salomon. This was already my second batch! And I seldom make a second batch! Nevertheless these got overbaked a little - never pick up your phone when you know you have to take your cookies out of the oven in no time!


Hazelnut cookies with black pepper and rosewater
(Clotilde's adaption from Laurence Salomon's 'Fondre de plaisir')

100 g whole hazelnuts
200 g wheat flour
70 g oat flakes
120 g sugar
1 tsp baking soda
a good pinch salt
1/4 tsp (freshly ground) black pepper
130 g butter, chilled and finely diced
2 tbsp rose water (can be replaced with plain water)

1. Toast the hazelnuts in a dry skillet until fragrant. Rub them in a clean dishcloth while they're still warm to remove the husks and chop roughly after they've cooled down
2. Combine the hazelnuts well with the rest of the dry ingredients, from flour to pepper, in a medium mixing bowl.
3. Add the diced butter and rub it into the dry ingredients with your fingers or a wire pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
4. Add the rose water and stir it in until the dough comes together just enough that you can gather it in two balls.
5. Cover the bowl and set aside somewhere cool for 1 hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 150°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Shape the dough into balls a bit larger than walnuts, flatten them slightly, and place them on the prepared baking sheet, leaving them a little elbowroom to expand.
7. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden and set. Let stand for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transfering to a rack to cool completely.

The cookies are crumbly, they're moderately sweet, they're unique in their own way. The pepper completes the taste instead of fighting it and does create a nice warm feeling in the throat. Weird to say this, but it kind of warms up the taste too. Rosewater is recognisable but not striking.

In the end you'll get a small bowlful of hazelnut cookies. Not pepper cookies. Not rosewater cookies. Hazelnut cookies - crumbly and wonderful, with little surprises, perfect enjoyed together with cold milk.

And perfect for a cosy girls' night.

Hazelnut cake with curd cheese and black tea cream : My layered cake dream just came true

I've kept my promise.
I'VE KEPT MY PROMISE!

Who would have guessed? I made this yum curd cheese mousse with black tea in late August and promised to make a layered hazelnut cake with black tea egg-buttercream filling. And...well...I almost kept it. That's a start, right?:)

Maria Öhrn is a fabulous Swedish cookbook author. I browsed through her 'Tårtor' (or 'Tordid' in Estonian, I don't know if it's been translated to English) in a bookstore, said some kind words about it and ended up getting two of these books for my birthday.

Woosh.
Better 2 than none, right? Anyway, although the book contains only about 30 recipes, they are all so very different and most of them have this nice twist to them. I love twists. I could eat twists every day. For this layered cake I used Maria's recipe for hazelnut cake (originally paired with canned pears and Nutella!)


Hazelnut cake with curd cheese and black tea cream
(cake base recipe from Maria Öhrn's 'Tårtor' (Cakes))

200 g hazelnuts
1 dl potato starch
1 tsp baking powder
1 ml salt
6 egg yolks
6 egg whites
2 dl sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 batch of curd cheese mousse with black tea
for decorating: black tea glazed apples and caramelized hazelnuts

1. Grind hazelnuts well using a food processor or a coffee grinder
2. Mix hazelnut flour with potato starch, baking powder and salt.
3. In a clean and dry bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
4. Beat the yolks slightly with sugar using a whisk, add dry ingredients and milk to the mixture
5. Gradually add the egg white.
6. Pour the batter into a greased 24 cm springform pan. Bake at 175C for about 45 minutes (it took me only about 35). Let the cake cool completely
7. Cut the cake into two layers and spread the curd cheese mousse between them and on the top and the sides (Use quite much of it between the layers). Chill at least for a couple of hours before serving.
   
8. If you wish, decorate with black tea glazed apples and caramelized hazelnuts, setting the apples in the center of the cake and the nuts along the sides. This can be done either before or after chilling the cake.

Black tea glazed apples
(adapted from Epicurious)

2 smaller apples
1 dl sugar
2 teabags of black tea
powdered sugar

1. Combine sugar with 2 dl of water in a saucepan and add teabags.
2. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves, reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile peel the apples, slice both into 8 wedges and cut out the cores.
4. Remove teabags from the syrup and add apple wedges. Simmer at low heat for about 15 minutes.
5. With a slotted spoon, transfer the apples onto a rack (used in the oven) set over a baking tray and drain them for 10 minutes.
6. Preheat your oven's grill function. Then sprinkle the apple wedges with some powdered sugar and put both the rack and the baking tray into the oven (you need the tray so that the liquid that drips from the apples doesn't stick to the bottom of your oven). Grill for 3-5 minutes. Let cool.

Caramelized hazelnuts

1 1/2 dl hazelnuts
2 tbsp powdered sugar
a pinch of salt

1. Use unpeeled nuts for a rustic effect or peel them. To do that, just roast them on a dry skillet for some time and then rub the peels of with the help of a kitchen towel.
2. Combine all three ingredients on a pan over moderate heat.
3. When sugar starts to melt, reduce heat to low and stir the nuts constantly until they are covered with caramelized sugar
4. Pour the nuts onto a piece of foil in a single layer and cool.

My expectations were sky-high, because OF COURSE I'd tried bits and pieces of the cake when I cut it into 2 layers and it was, even at that moment, moist and rich in hazelnut flavour. I love that cookbook. In the end, it worked out really well for me, the flavours melted into each other and each bite was moist and had the sensational taste of 'I did it'. The flavours of black tea and hazelnut are both strong and I have a hunch there's something similar to them. I got the permission of making the cake again. Honoured, really, I'm honoured:D

I love how the decorations came out. The apples are really into tea, I'd say, and could make a great dessert by their own. Not peeling the hazelnuts was also a good choice, for this rustic appearance is perfect for an autumn-y cake. And if this cake doesn't say autumn then they're certainly is no autumn outside.

And I'd eat this cake every time somebody brings a store-bought obviously &#"@! vegetable fat cake with &#"@! vegetable fat cream to a family gathering. And I really don't care about good will if the cake is really lousy.
This cake isn't. Hah.

The overwhelming taste of cashew nuts, with just a dash of rosewater

I haven't yet recovered from the rosewater virus. After rosewater lassi I made rosewater and black tea granita and the illness probably isn't going to stop after this fudge either...

This fudge is actually called Kajoo Barfi, it's an Indian dessert, rather a candy, that's especially popular in southwestern parts of the country.

Cashew nut fudge with rosewater (Kajoo Barfi)
(Julie Sahn's Classic Indian Cooking, Epicurious)

4 3/4 dl cashew nuts
1 3/4 dl sugar
1 tbsp butter
2 tsp rosewater

1. Place cashew nuts in a bowl and pour boiling water over them, soak for 1 hour.
2. Drain the nuts and grind them to a fine paste in a food processor or in a blender. Add sugar and turn your food processor/blender on once more to mix it with the paste.
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add the nut paste. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook the paste for 20 minutes, frequently stirring it and scraping the sides and bottom of the pan. The fudge has to become thick and sticky.
   
4. Meanwhile prepare a surface for the fudge: a greased cookie sheet, a greased baking pan, foil or silicone mat. It has to be about 22 cm x 22 cm (9 inches)
5. Mix in the butter and pour the fudge onto the prepared surface and spread it evenly. Let cool thoroughly.
6. When cool, brush with rosewater
7. Cut into squares or diamond-shaped pieces. The recipe suggests about 4 cm (1 1/2 inch) pieces, but I like smaller ones better.

I decided to brush only half of the fudge with rosewater (on the right in the picture on the right:)), worrying about what my family would say. I accidentally used all of it, though! The fudge took more time to dry, but the amount of rosewater was actually perfectly OK. The fudge itself is chewy and sweet, quite soft too, I'd say. An overwhelming taste of cashew nut must be one of the best tastes in the world - this is one good recipe for achieving it.

And this fudge is something I could eat...forever.

Broccoli pleasure for one

I spotted the recipe for Broccoli with hazelnut butter on Epicurious. Although it was love at first sight, the reviews made me want it even more - someone actually wrote it was the only way to get his/her children eat their veggies.

But...
...someone forgot to buy hazelnuts. Not a big deal! I had just the amount of salted pistachios and figured these could suite the dish even better.

Although I made this dish for one, I'm going to include the original quantities for 6 people. It's so fast that cooking this for one is not a problem, but rather a blessing. Instead of steaming I just blanched the broccoli - steaming is a technique I have yet to study... I can't help but add salt to the boiling water - come on, what's a veggie without taste?


Broccoli with pistachio butter
(adapted from Epicurious; serves 6 (1))

900 g (150 g) broccoli
80 g (15 g) butter at room temperature
115 g (20 g) salted pistachios (weighed after shelling)
black pepper

1. Cut broccoli stems into 1/2 cm slices and florets into 2 1/2 cm pieces
2. Boil the stems for 3 minutes, then add the florets and boil for 5 more minutes
3. Finely grind half of the pistachios and mix with butter, season with pepper (the pistachios have enough salt to them already)
4. Drain the broccoli and mix well with the butter mixture.
5. Chop pistachios that are left over and add.
6. Serve warm

This is one of the easiest and most delicious broccoli dishes I have had and made. I will definitely make this again - probably tomorrow already:) The broccoli is just tender enough and pistachios add a crunchy effect. Plus the dish has the nicest green colour! I'm sure it would make a great side dish for chicken as well.
Do make your kids eat this.

A sweet mosaic of cookies

I just couldn't resist buying the Australian cookbook Sweet Food when I first browsed through it in a bookstore (actually it was the second time, but first sounds so much more poetical). For me a big deal of the recipes inside are exotic, using ingredients that are unusual in an Estonian kitchen - macadamia nuts for example, which are quite often in the ingredient lists. Ask an average Estonian what a macadamia nut is - you'll probalby hear the answer 'Misasi?' or - in English - 'A what?'

One of the first recipes that caught my eye was of cracked cookies (the name may differ in the English version, as I'm re-translating the recipe from Estonian). Their appearance is just so...wow that I was sure I'd be making them before I'd even read through the recipe. The cool look is achieved by rolling balls of cookie dough in powdered sugar before baking - that will leave a two-coloured cracked effect.

I substituted the allspice in the recipe with a double amount of cinnamon and pecan nuts with walnuts. I do have a budget, you know.


Cracked chocolate cookies
(adapted from Sweet Food)

125 g soft butter
370 g soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
60 g melted chocolate
80 ml milk
340 g flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
salt
85 g chopped walnuts
powdered sugar

1. Beat together butter, sugar and vanilla until the mixture is light and creamy.
2. Add eggs one by one
3. Add chocolate and milk (I was afraid that chocoalte would turn lumpy when added to the cool mixture and mixed it with warm milk first).
4. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, cinnamon and a pinch of salt onto the butter mixture and mix well.
   
5. Add chopped walnuts.
6. Cover the dough and place it in the fridge for at least 3 hours (you can also prepare the dough the evening before)
7. Preheat the oven to 180C and slightly grease 2 griddles.
8. Use a teaspoon for measuring and make balls out of the dough (the recipe said this technique would make about 60 cookies - I got over 80 though I scooped quite much dough every time)
9. Roll each ball in a small bowl with powdered sugar so that it's covered well and place the balls onto the griddles, leaving enough space between them
   
10. According to the recipe you should bake the cookies for 20-25 min. I baked my best batch only for 18 minutes - the edges shouldn't look very dark when you take the cookies out of the oven. Even if they don't get burnt - too much time mean rock cookies.
11. After removing from the oven, leave for about 3-4 minutes, then place on a rack and let cool.

I subconsciously tried to find the cookies I had baked for 18 minutes afterwards - they were softer inside and seemed to have more taste. The cookies were moderately sweet and had a charming scent of cinnamon. This is rather a cacao-holic cookie than a chocoholic one, if I'm allowed to say such a thing! And I do believe one can't refuse eating something that looks like a sweet mosaic. Even if he or she has accidentally used a too long baking time and it cracks under the tooth like a real one:)



I wouldn't say these were the best cookies ever, but they were good and looked like A-class celebrities. That's great enough for me!

Halva - a dessert that knows no limits

For me the definition of halva (or halvah, halava) has always been peanut halva. In Estonia these shiny packages with Ali Baba on them are known to everybody. We do have quality sesame halva too and even sunflower halva in little plastic bags that one can find in those little shops with questionable value on some streetcorner.
Yes, peanut halva. I remember spying on the biggest pieces when my mom used to cut it up for the family. Now I've been grabbing a knife when someone has bought a package to sneak some of it into a dessert or onto a cake. It's superb with apples. And berries. And curd cheese. And yoghurt.


Halva is a widespread dessert, but it's usually made of tahini (sesame paste) or semolina flour. It was about a year ago when I discovered an Indian recipe for carrot halva (my heart went 'ooh' and 'aah' at the same time) and began seeing all the opportunities: vegetables, seeds, nuts. Why not try beetroot halva?
In any case, halva is a very sweet dessert that's always served cold. Honey is a usual component, but different spices, raisins, syrups, pieces of nuts, vanilla etc can be added. I tried to find my own basic recipe for peanut halva. Although the final result is not exactly what I had hoped it to be, it makes a delicious dessert. I believe you could cheat a bit here by just using store-bought peanut butter.


Peanut halva with vanilla

140 g peanuts
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp honey
vanilla

1. Roast the peanuts on a dry skillet until golden brown.
2. Grind the peanuts and sugar to flour-like consistence (I used a coffee grinder as my food processor wouldn't have been good enough for the nuts to be finely ground).



3. Add honey and vanilla. Pulse in a food processor until the consistency is really smooth and the halva can be formed or has already formed a stiff ball.
4. Shape the halva to your liking, wrap it into plastic wrap and let it stand in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.



The finished dessert isn't as crumbly as the store-bought version, but tastes as good. It can be sliced easily: it won't fall apart or flatten. I believe the best way of serving it is indeed to just slice it. It's consistence is somewhere between crumbly and soft. The taste slightly reminds of peanut butter and that's probably because the amount of sugar added is smaller than usual. It may be just a bit sticky on the tongue. But the fingers! The feeling on my fingers after eating it was just like after eating store-bought halva, so it must be the real thing!

What next? I'd like to try adding syrup instead of sugar or just more sugar to make the halva harder. Heating up the whole thing after reaching smooth consistency is another idea: it would reduce the proportion of liquid and sugar in it would start to caramelise. Using cashews next time would be great. One day carrot halva has to be tried too, but that's already another day, another recipe and another story.

This post will be taking part in the event Monthly Mingle #9, this month's theme being Arabian Nights.

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.

Nutty milk of cashews and almonds

I believe I could never be vegetarian or vegan. Not that I couldn't resist eating animal products, I just don't really see the point for me to do it. But nuts make veganism neat. Nuts are the thing.


So if you don't want to drink milk for some reason or just want to experience something different and surprisingly good, try nut milk. Looks just like the real thing and tastes even better. I only used 2 dl of water when making my nut milk, the result was quite rich but at the same time silky and tasteful. You may add more water if you want a lighter version.


Cashew and almond milk

1 dl cashews and almonds (in all)
2-4 dl water
1 tsp honey
vanilla

1. Grind the nuts (you may peel the almonds first if you like) very well, you may even make a paste of them.
2. Start adding water, bit by bit in the beginning. You may do it in a food processor or in a blender.
3. Add some vanilla and honey (or whatever else you like) to add more taste.
4. You may strain the nut milk or not, cool it or use it immediately. It will keep in the fridge for about three days.



I used the nut milk on some cereals, my father preffered to drink it by itself. But it can be used like real milk or cream (depends on the richness)...everywhere. I really love pancakes made with coconut milk so I believe this version of nut milk would work great in them too.