Apples & Bananas Cake

I've been eyeing up those apples for a while now. 4 apples sitting nicely in a matching green plate on the coffee table waiting for someone to eat them & for the past 3 days I pass by them & think...cake/jam/something? today I thought it was time!

A quick google search for Apple Cake Recipe lead me to see "Apples & Banana's cake", I look over to the kitchen to see if there were bananas in the fruit bowl...2? yes!!!

Now I can make this recipe (which I hear about for the first time but thought was delicious by name only)

Eggless Chocolate Mousse

I've always been scared to think about making chocolate mousse, or mousses in general. Their texture makes them seem so difficult to perfect at home. Everytime I looked up a recipe, it had "eggs" as a third ingredient  and that was exactly when I would stop reading & decide let me just order some when I'm out next..UNTIL I saw something on Hershey's website and couldn'tbelieve there was an alternative or better I say an Eggless way to make chocolate moussee..

Stuffed Basboosa

Basboosa is a traditional Middle Eastern dessert made with semolina and yogurt, then soaked in a rose water syrup. One of my all times favourite desserts to have. I love basboosa in all it forms (except the coconut version), I really do.

When I went to Egypt last month, I made sure that everywhere I went I tried thier basboosa, It was kind of my way to grading the cafe's/restaurants. I even brought some back home.

This recipe combines Basboosa and Baklava (sweet pastry made of layers of phyllo dough filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup). I always looked at the picture in the book and thought to myself, this is good. And it really was...

Once a cookie, now a cupcake

After the success of my Brownies, I thought Why not cookies? I always thought cookies were easier to buy than to make, you can then eat them right away (while walking, shopping, driving, etc...). A day before, I went and got all the ingredients (the right sugar, the right flour,...), now I was technically and mentally prepared to start the mission of making cookies.

First, which recipe to use?
Why not the Hummingbird bakery cookbook.

I followed the recipe very carefully considering that I am making this for the first time (and deep inside I wanted it to be a success), actually I felt proud that I am making a cookie dough from scratch.

11.01.'11

During my last trip to Dubai, I stopped by Kinokuniya (a book store if you're wondering). With no reason or intention to buy anything, I left with 3 books one of which is BAKING one step at a time by Marianne Magnier-Moreno. What made me buy this without even thinking was the pictures. Every step in baking the 70+ recipes had a picture showing how it was done. I felt this was excellent, as one major issue I have with baking is that sometimes I'm not sure if the batter is supposed to look like this? or how is it cut? coloured? covered? and all...

To test the book, I made Brownies (something I never made before because I thought it was too complicated).

Kunafa

It was a long week, followed by a short weekend. I woke up in time for lunch and I had a series of places to be in before bedtime (funeral, charity market, ceramic cafe, laundry) and all were 30 minutes drive away from each other.

If I don't make something now, most probably I won't make anything till the coming weekend (which I realised I will be out of country then). Being a challenge seeker, I wanted to make something that I have never made before & never though about making. So Kunafa was it.

We have a friend that specialised in Kunafa making, being Lebanese of course, and she doesn't ind making for us whenever we felt like it. Kunafa for those not familiar with it, is an Arabic dessert (Levant and Egypt to be specific), it has different variations and different fillings. I chose to make the easiest, made of bread and mozzarella cheese. Everyone was napping after heaving weekend lunch, perfect opportunity to experiment (so if I fail, no one would know).

The recipe required 8 slices of bread, we had only7 & since they were slightly bigger than the regular bread it wasn't an issue. So bread and butter crumbled in the bottom of the greased cake pan, topped by a layer of cheese, then I heated 1cup of milk together with 3 tablespoons of semolina until thicken and poured over the cheese layer (this is to protect the cheese from burning) and into the oven for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, I made the very easy syrup. 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of water & 1 tablespoon of rosewater heated until the sugar is dissolved and then left to cool. The 25 minutes are now over, flip the Kunafa onto the serving dish & pour the syrup over it or serve on the side.

you could decorate the individual slices

And there you have it, a successful Kunafa & a proof that I'm still doing what I promised to do :-)

Cheers

First Attempt

Promising to commit isn't easy. Especially straight after new year's weekend.

I was tired, bored, home with everyone here feeling the same....then I thought, let me start today, it's only the 2nd (I kind of gave up when I didn't do anything on the 1st Jan). Close to 7 pm I searched through the books I have for something I can make using the very little stuff we had at home, no one was willing to volunteer to go to the supermarket and I definitely wasn't willing to drive either, I found a very simple chicken recipe that didn't require a lot of ingredients, Chicken Arayes Wraps. By reading the method it sounded easy, actually it was, apart from the time-consuming chicken boiling part during which I managed to make my usual Banana Cake (which I got from a Kids Cookbook I was given when I was 11).

decoration as per the picture in the book