Swedish Rye Cookies

After a great 3 weeks vacation in Turkey and 5 weeks of procrastinating, I am finally back to blogging world. Let’s hope I will not fall behind as long as I did this time.
These cookie recipe came in my way in a local grocery store where you can buy bulk food. Despite the butter amount, I didn’t want to alter the recipe. Especially after finding great reviews on a website.
Apparently, you can use it as a Christmas tree decoration. So, if you are up to something new for your tree you might want to give this one a chance.
I liked eating these with a slice of Dubliner cheese on top, with a glass of freshly brewed tea.
* 1/2 cup butter* 1/4 cup white sugar* 1/2 cup rye flour* 1 cup all-purpose flour* 1/8 teaspoon baking powder* 1/4 teaspoon salt* 3 tablespoons water
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).2. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in rye flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well and add enough water to moisten dough.3. Roll out onto floured board. The thinner the dough, the crispier the cookies will be. I have rolled the dough about 5mm thickness.4. Cut into 2 1/2 inch rounds using cutter or floured glass. Cut small hole off center with a thimble (to hang on tree when done).5. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) or until slightly brown. Cool and hang on tree with ribbon or yarn.

Date Cookies

Garrett hosted us for cookie exchange on a nice Saturday afternoon. It was a nice get together with the Sacramento Area food bloggers and writers, as usual. Thanks once more for hosting the event Garrett!
If you are going to share/give away the food, you should always practice ahead, right? Well, not so much for me when I get the recipe from a trusted source. This time I got it from another blogger friend; Mine. Thankfully she writes her posts both in German and Turkish, otherwise it would have been at the hands of internet-translation from German to English.
The only thing I changed in the recipe was to use date paste, instead of half, pitted dates to fill in the cookies. That is because I had them at hand, and it turned out pretty good. So, either way works fine. The result is as buttery, rich as a date cookie can get. You can find dates in pretty much in every store, and date paste was purchased from an Israeli store in town.
Date Filled Cookies (40 - 44 pieces)
200 gr unsalted butter
4 Tbs yogurt
4 Tbs powdered sugar
2 tsp baking powder
approximately 400 - 420 gr all purpose flour
20 - 22 pitted dates or 450gr date paste
Topping: 2 Tbs powdered sugar + 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350F (175C)
Melt the butter, cool to touch and add yogurt & sugar. Add baking powder with the first cup of flour, and add the flour slowly, while mixing/kneading with hand until a soft dough is formed
Take small pieces (walnut size) from dough, level it in your palm, put half a date (or a teaspoonful) in it, close it tight and put on a cookie sheet. No need to space them so far apart, they will not expand
When all cookies are made, bake them in the preheated oven for 15 - 20 mins, until light brown. Cool
Mix the topping sugar + cinnamon. Roll the cookies one by one in the mix, set aside
Enjoy with a warm cup of tea/coffee or a hot chocolate!

Ammonia Cake

OK, I admit, this cake has a terrible name. Yes, I could have called it something like “snowwhite cake” or “crisp cake” but I am leaving up to you to call it however you like should you add this recipe in your recipe book.
Yes we use baker’s ammonia for this cake leavening agent and not the ammonia that one uses to clean. It makes really crips layers and you will realize how unique the texture gets once you bake the layers. It does not get soggy even after a few days of “soaking” the layers with puding.Here I will give you a basic `frosting’ (maybe calling it as a puding is a better idea?) recipe of this cake. Many people already suggested other ways to prepare it: Some said putting some strawberries in the sauce and slices in between the layers, some said adding ground nuts in between. Cocoa addition seems to be another concensus. So, up to you, however you want to decorate it.
There are two things I have to warn you about: First of all when using the baker’s ammonia make sure to look away when opening the oven’s door to remove the baked layers. Otherwise you would experience slight burns in your eyes for a short time. Not pleasent. Secondly, the cake is supposed to be 6 layers as seen in the pic. But I have never been succesful (I have made this cake many times after I wrote down the recipe about 10+ years ago.) in keeping the slices in 6 layers :( So, everybody gets slices as high as 3 layers. Maybe it is a good thing; would have been a bit too high to tackle down otherwise.Other than this, all I can say is: enjoy the cake!Ingredients:
For the layers:
1 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbs baker’s ammonia
Enough flour to make a stif dough (but soft enough to roll)
Frosting:
2 eggs
6 cups of milk
1 Tbs vanilla extract
2 Tbs of starch
2 Tbs flour
1 cup of butter
(with these measurements, I ended up having 1.5 cups extra)
Make the frosting first, so it cools down when you prepare the layers. Mix all the ingredients other than butter, and cook, stirring constantly, until it gets like a puding consistency. Remove from heat, add butter and stir well. Set aside to cool
Mix all layer ingredients until you have a stif but soft enough to roll dough. Divide into 6 (using a kitchen scale is recommended) and roll each of them as big as a dinner plate. These should not be too thin layers. Rest them for 10 mins or so, and bake them one by one (or two if you have a big enough baking tray) in a 350F oven until golden brown
Cool on cooling racks
On a cake stand, put a layer and cover with frosting. Put the other layer on and repeat until all are used up. Cool in the fridge and serve chilled.
Bon Apetit!

Mahlep Cake

It is kind of hard to name recipes sometimes. That and to remind yourself what that food tasted/looked like after seeing a recipe whatever years after you copied into your own book, we usually tag the name along with the name of the person. I took this recipe from my mom’s recipe notebook and sure enough copied down the name of the person she took from, too. Do you do the same tagging for recipes?
This one is quite easy to make and most of the ingredients can be found in one’s pantry. Maybe except mahlep; which is the kernel of a wild cherry species. You can obtain it in Greek, Middle Eastern shops and I suggest you grind the kernels just before they are used for a better taste. Mahlep powder is widely used in Turkish bakeries, and I am sure it is the same throughout the whole Middle East.
Very light in oil and has a nice texture. If you try it along with tea, and please let me know how you like it.
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1.5 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup light olive oil
2 teaspoons mahlep powder
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Topping: sesame seeeds
Preheat the oven to 350F. Mix all the ingredients to obtain batter that is thickier than usual cake batter. Pour into greased 9×13inch baking dish, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake until lightly brown and passes the toothpick test. Enjoy with tea!

Kefir Waffles

Since I started making my own kefir at home about a year or so ago I have been substituting buttermilk with kefir in every recipe. Souring the milk by stirring some lemon juice into it and letting it sit is another wellknown substitute for buttermilk but somehow I think kefir gives a better taste at the end.

The original recipe taught me one thing that made me shake my head and wonder how I could not think about it before! You know when you make waffles, as they come out of the waffle iron you stack them on top of each other (or at least I did!), and before you know it the crispy waffles are gone and you are left with the soggy ones. Well, how about sticking them in a warm oven as a single layer? That was the trick that now makes me want to make waffles again and again as they just are perfect when it is time to eat them as well as when they come out of the waffle iron.
The original recipe also has a way of making glazed bananas; for me that ended up as a big mush of bananas which was not all that good ;) We reverted back to our favourite jams and sauces.
Halving the recipe makes a perfect enough waffles for 2. Saving you a trip to Epicurios.com here is the recipe with my little changes:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
1 cup of kefir
3 Tbs unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 egg
Put oven rack in middle position, preheat to 250°F (120°C) and preheat waffle iron
Whisk the dry ingredients in a large bowl
Whisk kefir, melted butter and the egg in another bowl, then mix with the dry mixture until smooth
Cook in your waffle iron following the directions given by the manufacturer — for us 1/2 cup of batter was good for one batch. Transfer cooked waffles to the oven, in one layer to ensure crispness
Enjoy!

Dutch Baby - Oven Puffed Pancake

These lovely pancakes do not require the usual “drop 1/3 cup of batter on to pan, wait until golden brown, turn, take off the heat, repeat” type of process. In fact, they hardly require any attending. Just mixing and baking it. First I came across it in The Iron Skillet Cookbook once I have borrowed from the library, tried and loved the result. This was 8 months ago and I thought I wrote about it here, too. I guess I only wrote in the Turkish version of this site, cannot find it in the archive. Anyhow, last weekend we made them again, topping with fresh strawberry and banana slices. It was really good. I can recommend to anyone, especially if you are looking for a treat for your weekend breakfast.
We used 2 of the 8 inch (20cm) cast iron skillets, you can use a single 12 inch for a thicker result, if you do not have multiple skillets. I assume any oven proof skillet would work, nonetheless I suggest the cast iron ones.
Oven Puffed Pancakes
(2 servings)
2 tablespoon butter
4 eggs
3/4 cups flour
3/4 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
Topping
Total of 2 - 3 cups of fresh strawberry and banana slices
1/3 cup of powdered sugar
2 Tablespoon lemon juice
Put a tablespoon of butter in each skillet, heat in 400F (200C) oven until butter melts. In the mean time mix all the rest of the ingredients well. Pour into skillets, bake until puffed, golden brown, about 15mins
Make the topping while the pancakes are baking: mix the sliced fresh fruit with sugar and lemon juice, toss well
Remove the pancakes from skillet, top with the fruit slices, serve warm.

Olive Biscuits

Black or green, I love olives in every way they are prepared. Here, I am not even considering the canned sliced black things one can buy in the US supermarkets as olives. They are just not olives. A good cure to olives makes all the difference.
We have them in breakfast, as whole or as a spread, use them as fillings to pastry. Here, in this recipe, the dough contains them and you’ll have a taste of them in every bite, if you are lucky. If you were to try these, go for good olives to get a good result.
(make about 22 - 25 biscuits)
3.5 cups of all purpose flour
2 eggs (reserve one yolk for brushing the biscuits)
1 cup olive oil
1 cup plain yoghurt, preferably homemade
1 cup pitted, coarsely chopped olives (prefer using calamata or some type of marinated olives)
5 scallions (cut into 1/4 - 1/5 inch pieces)
1 bunch of fresh mint, finely chopped
1 tsps baking powder
Heat your oven to 350F (175C), lay parchment paper on your baking trays, or lightly oil
Mix all the ingredients (except for one egg yolk, and only 3 cups of flour) together. Add flour until you have soft but workable dough. Do not add too much; your biscuits would be too hard.
Take about an egg, roll like a ball, put them onto cookie sheet
Brush them with slightly beaten egg yolk
Bake in 375F (190C) for 30 - 45 minutes or till brown

No-knead Whole Wheat Bread

When I posted the no-knead bread recipe on Turkish part of Yogurtland, many people were interested in and tried with great success. And some were already asking for ideas to alter the recipe to use some whole wheat or even rye flour. Now, I am confident with using whole wheat for 50% of the flour required. I didn’t do a four/water weight ratio, but went with my insticts. Using whole wheat, obviously was going to make it require more water, so I upped the water. I also wanted to make sure that it rises, so the yeast quantity doubled as well. The result was more than satisfactory. Still didn’t have any trials with rye flour, but if I did, I would have added more yeast, water.
Another time, I used the same whole wheat recipe described above, using whey that was left over from making lor cheese.
Still do not have a cast iron pot, and my breads are cooked in the Sassafras bread baker as mentioned before and also covered pyrex dish. I want to note that using pyrex reduces the cooking time a bit, so watch out after 20 mins of baking with cover on.
1.5 cups of all purpose (or bread) flour
1.5 cups of whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1.5 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups tepid water
apply the recipe as described before.

Stuffed Grape Leaves / Dolmas / Yalanjee

It was inevitable to make this dish after my post on how to preserve the grape leaves. In fact, since then, I ended up making 3 batches for 3 different occasions. It is one of those dishes that you cannot get enough of, especially when you want an elegant finger food.
This delicious dish is easier to make than you think. If you never had a home made one, but still like the taste of the store bought one I suggest you allocate some time for this dish and prepare a feast.
Unfortunately all the restaurants (Middle Eastern or Greek) I had them here in US could not do a good job in making the filling. Such a shame and waste of the ingredients. You can even find them in tins, sold in Middle Eastern stores. Well, I made a mistake once and bought one of them. Was a total waste. Could not even finish one.

Again, if you like them, make yourself a favor and prepare them home. Better yet; find a friend to chat with while making the rolls. Later you will have a feast to share, too!
Oh, the name “dolma.” Many think it is a Greek food. No need to argue who made it first. For all I know there was a Greek, Arab and a Turkish lady in the kitchen and came up with this. But there is one thing I know for sure; the name “dolma” is derived from the verb “dolmak” which means “to be filled”, “to get full” in Turkish. Case dismissed!
You also can see it called as “yalanjee” or some spelling variation close to this. Especially in Arab restaurants. This again is another Turkish name for this wrapped grape leaves. It actually is spelled “yalancı” in Turkish (/c/ is a hard /c/) and means “lier” or “fake.” Since a similar dish is made with meat stuffing, this one is considered to be the “fake” one.
Enough of language and culture lesson? Let’s get to the recipe.
The ingredients I am listing below are ballpark. If you like more currants put some more. Not have enough pine nuts home, no problem. Also using carrots for this recipe is not that common either; my mom has been using them so I used too. Along with the currants they give a bit of sweetness which contrasts the grape leaves’ taste. Once you know how you like it, you can experiment with more ingredients as well.

The same filling can also be used to fill bell peppers, small eggplants (real tiny ones that you can purchase in Middle Eastern or Indian stores) or even the squash blossoms. For the squash blossoms what you have to keep in mind is that you should collect them when they are fully open in the morning (once it heats up, they close), and be gentle with them.
Ingredients:
Filling:
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 cup finely chopped onion
2 cup rice
1/4 cup currants
1 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp cinnamon
Salt, pepper
1 cup warm water
1 bunch of parsley (and/or dill optional)
For assembly and cooking:
grape leaves (16 oz jar should be sufficient for this amount of filling)
2.5 cups water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 – 2 lemons to decorate
Preparation:
Heat ¼ cups of olive oil in a large pot, and add onions and pine nuts stir them until they are lightly brown.
Add the rice, currants, and shredded carrots, salt and stir them well. Cook for about 2 – 3 mins. Add a cup of warm water, cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste. Stir and close the lid, turn the heat down and let it cook until no water is left.
If you have any parsley and/or dill you can chop them finely and add them to your filling. Do not discard the parsley stems.

Prepare the grape leaves by soaking them in the warm water for couple of minutes. If you have a chance to use fresh leaves, group them and cook them briefly in salty boiling water
Take a leaf, put the shiny side down, and pinch the stem – do not discard but put the stems aside. Also, while wrapping the dolmas if you come across to a leaf that is torn or not useable, do not discard, keep with those extra stems.
Put about 1 – 2 Tbs (depends how big the leaf is) of filling and start rolling them as in the pictures

All those stems or faulty leaves you have been collecting can be put at the bottom of the pot to help not burn the dolmas while cooking
I usually wrap the dolmas, and stack them on a dish until there is 2 cups worth of filling left in the pot. Then I transfer the filling to a smaller bowl, and put the collected stems at the bottom of that pot, and start stacking the uncooked stuffed grape leaves, layer by layer. No need to wash the pot; you just cooked the filling there.
If you are left with extra filling, you can either freeze them or stuff a small bell pepper. If the filling was not enough for your grape leaves, put the extra leaves back to the brine.

Put a plate on top of the dolmas and pour ¼ cup of olive oil and 2.5 cups of warm water.

Close the lid, put dish upside down to hold the dolmas down and cook on very low heat for about an hour. Make sure to check if the water is enough at least half way through cooking. You can check if they are cooked by pinching one of the leaves and see how easy it is to tear it.

Let it cool in that pot.
Transfer cooled dolmas to a serving dish, after each layer, put some lemon slices. Cover them so they do not dry out. Put in the fridge and let it cool for at least 4 – 5 hours.

Bon Apetit!