Super easy orange-mandarin sorbet

Sorry for not updating my blog for ages but the end of my school-year was pretty hectic. The exams and other works took a lot of time. I'm trying to compensate it during the summer by posting more.

         One day we had lots of mandarins and their peels were so tight that we couldn't peel them. I happened to have an ice cream machine and I used it to make some sorbet. After juicing the mandarins I added some orange juice to increase the amount of the juice. There were at least ten mandarins and after halving them I had 20 halves to juice. That took a while because we don't have a proper juicing machine, just a citrus juice extractor.

         To make this even simpler you don't have juice the fruits yourself. You can add ready-made juice from a bottle. Also you don't have to use just orange or mandarin. The world is full of fruits that can be juiced and be made to sorbet. Experiment with different juices to find your own favourite.

         When I had the juice I just poured it in the chilled ice cream machine and let it freeze for 30 minutes. The machine did all the work for me: the freezing and the mixing of the juice. It's also easy to make without the machine. Just pour the juice in a bowl and put it in a freezer. Let it freeze for a few hours and mix it a few times with an electric mixer during the freezing.

        The result was delicious but in the borders of being too sour. If you like sweet then you can add some sugar but it's not necessary.





 

American Chocolate Muffins

 The best things in American chocolate muffins are the big chocolate chips. You never get bored enough to not eat them. It also took me only about fifteen minutes to put these in the oven.  Here's the recipe:

American Chocolate Muffins

• 6dl Flour
• 2tsp Baking powder
• 0.5dl Cocoa powder
• 1.5dl Brown sugar
• 200g Chocolate chips
• 2 Eggs
• 2.75dl Milk 
• 1.5dl Oil 

Mix the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Distribute evenly among the molds. Cook in 200° for about 20 minutes.


 

White Chocolate Bread Pudding

 I made this bread pudding a few days ago. It was boosted with white chocolate and raspberries. I used frozen ones because I didn't have any fresh ones. I first forgot to put the liquids (because of small font). Then I put them later. It didn't affect to the taste at all and to the look a lot. So here's the recipe:

    Bread pudding:  

250g White chocolate

25g Salt-free butter

250g White bread or bun

250g Fresh or frozen raspberries

4 Eggs

6dl milk

2 tablespoons sugar

Melt the sugar with butter in a small bowl. Cut the bread into cubes. Put half of the bread into a casserole and pour half of the chocolate mixture on them. Put half of the raspberries on them. Put the rest of the bread onto the casserole and chocolate and raspberries. Whisk eggs, milk and sugar a bit. Pour into the casserole. Let it soak for 20 minutes.

     Cook in an oven in 190°C for about 30 minutes. Let it chill for 10 minutes and serve.

A date cake in a cool pi mold

I made this date cake for christmas table. I made it in a pi model we bought from New York last summer. So here's the recipe:

A date cake

• 250g Dates
• 3 dl Water
• 1.5 dl Sugar
• 200g Margarin or butter
• 2 Eggs
• 2 tspns Baking powder
• 2 tspns Vanilla sugar
• 3.5 dl Wheat flour

Chop the dates and boil in a pan with water and sugar until pureed. Add water to the warm mixture and let it melt. Chill and add the eggs one by one while whisking. Compound baking powder and vanilla sugar with flours. Add to the date mixture.Mix as little as possible. Pour into an oiled mold and cook in 175°C for about an hour.

Simple, but still amazing-tasting gingerbread house

I made this cool house at our independence day (6.12, I'm a Finn). I used some ready-made gingerbread dough and printed the patterns from the net. Then I cut them and rolled the gingerbread. I cut the shapes of each peaces. I baked them in an oven in 200°C for about ten minutes. Then I let them cool and glued the pieces together with a mixture of water and powdered sugar. Then I decorated it with powdered sugar.

Epic crêpes suzette

We made some crêpes suzette a week ago. Its basically just crepes and caramelised orange segments. The brown spots in the plate are just reflections. So, here's the recipe.

For batter:

1kg flour

2kg milk

6     eggs

       Orange zest

For sauce:

       Some orange segments and juice

       Sugar

       Butter

       Some cointreau for flambéing

Mix the batter ingredients in a bowl. Put about two tablespoons of sugar on a pan an let it melt. Add butter and let it melt. Then add cointreau and flambé it. Add orange juice and segments. Serve.

Pancakes

I made some pancakes today. It was quite simple. I ate it with raspberry jam, maple syrup and ice cream.

  Pancake batter:

1l         Flour
2l         Milk
6          Eggs

Mix and let it swell.

Fry using high heat with margarine. Serve with anything you like.

   

Butterscotch cake

I made some butterscotch cake yesterday. It tasted excellent but didn't look as good... I made it with a basic cake base and filled it with raspberry jam and covered with whipped cream and butterscotch. I made a few mistakes: First I shouldn't have used the top layer of the cake base as the top layer of the cake. It was rough and made it look like stupid. Second I should have put the butterscotch before the whipped cream. The cream lost it's texture and drained to the table. It's better next next time. Here's the recipe.

Cake Base:

4             Eggs
1½dl       Sugar
2dl          Flour
1tspns     Baking powder

Whip eggs and sugar. Add flour and baking powder. Put into a tin and cook in 175Cº for 20 to 30 minutes.



                                                                                     
                                                                                      Butterscotch:
               
                                               2 dl        Cream
   2dl         Sugar                     1tspn      Butter                     1tspn      Vanilla sugar                                                                                                                          Mix cream and sugar in a pan and heat. Boil until thickens. Add butter and vanilla sugar.

American pumpkin pie

I made this a few days ago and it was a success. It tasted a bit weird because it
was the first time I was eating a pumpkin pie. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

a pie pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
3 cups pumpkin glop
1.5 cans milk

For pie crust

1.5 cups flour (about 6 ounces by weight) - plain flour, not self-rising.
2 tablespoons sugar
100g cold butter
1/4 cup cold water

Step 1 -  Prepare the pumpkin

Wash the exterior of the pumpkin 

in cool or warm water, without soap.

Cut the pumpkin in half and scrape
the stuff inside the pumpkin away.  
You want to get out
that stuff that coats the inside
surface. Remove the stem, 
and put the pumpkin into a 
microwaveable bowl. 

Put a couple of inches of water in 

the bowl, cover it, and put in the 

microwave.  I cooked it on high
until it is soft.  That may take 20
minutes or more, 

so like anything else, try 15 minutes,
see how much it is softened, then
do 5 minute increments until it is soft.

Cook the pumpkin until it is soft .   

By blending it, you give the pie a
smooth, satiny texture.

The pumpkin is now cooked and
ready for the pie. 

Step 2 - Make the pie crust

Preheat the oven in 425 F (210 C)
 degrees.

Mix  the flour, butter and sugar
in a food processor. Add water and mix.

Step 3 - Mix the pie contents and pour into the pie crust

Step 4 - Bake the pie

Bake at 425 F (210 C ) for the first 15 minutes, then turn the 

temperature down to 350 F  ( 175 C ) and bake another 45 to 60 minutes, 

until a clean knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Step 5 - Cool the pie and eat it

Taken from here: http://pickyourown.org/pumpkinpie.php

Old-fashioned American apple pie

Hello, I made today this good old-fashioned American apple pie. It tasted good, but I will put more apples next time. And some sort of sauce (vanilla,...). This recipe was taken from here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Old-Fashioned-All-American-Apple-Pie-104114