Iguanodon & Chameleon

I think I already said that Crostata is probably my favorite cake, and this is a crostata with a plus 🙂

It’s a recipe typical of the city of Rome, and more precisely of the Jewish ghetto, and even more precisely it seems (it is said) it has been first created by the very old Jewish pastry shop called “Boccione”, that still makes it nowadays.

The fruit used in this recipe is the visciole, which is slightly acid but quite sweet and it is one of the 3 types of Prunus cerasus existing in Italy (the other two are amarena, of light red color and more acid, and the marasca, smaller and more bitter and acid). I think in English it is called Morello cherry.

In the past there were a lot of these fruits by the markets, nowadays much less, unfortunately most of people prefer the…

Finally there are a lot of good eggplants now…I use to wait this season to prepare one of my favorite recipes: Parmigiana di melanzane 🙂

But I try to fry as less as possible, so I’m not doing it so often 🙂

This is a very good alternative, the grilled eggplants are lighter than the fried ones (although different) and also the ricotta is lighter than mozzarella (cow ricotta is made with whey so it has much less fats than mozzarella).

If you would like you could use some bechamel sauce, but that makes it a bit heavier.

In this case instead of buying an industrial ricotta I opted for a local artisanal Orda, which is a local product here in Hungary, very similar to the ricotta and it’s made with whey too (avoid instead the local tùrò, which is often mistaken as a substitute of the ricotta…

Do you you have too much pesto at home? 😀 then here it is a good solution 😀

If you love pesto, then you are going to love this recipe. It requires some job, but it’s not too complicated, moreover if you prepare more you can also freeze it, and eat it whenever you want, also as a last minute choice 🙂

It’s possible to add also some mozzarella, or scamorza, or provolone, but I didn’t want to make it heavier, anyway with all this pesto it’s definitely tasty enough 🙂 Moreover, instead of ricotta I used an artisanal orda, which is a traditional Hungarian product very similar to ricotta, since it’s made from whey too.

Let’s see how to do it.

INGREDIENTS (5-6 people):

For the pasta:

• 300 g flour
• 3 eggs

For the filling:

• 400 g pesto genovese
• 300 g ricotta

For the bechamel sauce:

• 250 ml…

I made my first Mac and Cheese last month and I’ve now made 4! Yeah, I’m into it. I didn’t realize how easy Mac and Cheese is to make. From afar, it seemed intimidating and maybe not my first choice for a meal. I never order Mac and Cheese at a restaurant, why would I make it at home?

Boy was I wrong. Homemade Mac and Cheese is next level delicious and hearty. You can make it exactly how you want it to taste. And it’s very flexible. Aka, it’s hard to mess up.

It’s also a great meal when it seems like there is nothing in the fridge to make. That’s really where this recipe started, just looking around the kitchen trying to avoid ordering out. I had some pasta and a lot of a little bit of different cheeses. Making something out of seemingly nothing is delicious and…

By Angelika Hanna

Recipe:

Prep Time: 15 min + 30 min refrigerating time

Cuisine: North American

Author: Angelika Hanna /Zest4Food

Ingredients:

• Dark chocolate to melt (I used dark chocolate wafers)
• Any sort of nut of your choice (I used hazelnuts and peanuts)
• Holiday-themed sprinkles

Instructions:

1. Place the chocolate wafers in a large heat-safe bowl and place the bowl on top of a medium-sized pot half filled with water.
2. Heat water over medium-high heat.
3. Let the chocolate melt, stirring frequently.
4. When the chocolate is melted, turn the heat off and fold the nuts into the chocolate. (You can do this with the bowl still sitting on top of the pot.)
5. Spoon the chocolate-nut mixture on a baking sheet and spread evenly using a spatula into a rectangle. (You don’t have to line your baking sheet with parchment paper nor grease it. Once the chocolate is hardened, it…

By Angelika Hanna

These Rum Truffles are a delicious adult treat for the holiday season.

Good news about Rum Truffles is their versatility without losing any of their basic fudgey chocolate-rum flavor. Rum Truffles can be adapted in various ways: Nut-free or with your favorite nut-type. You can be creative in finishing your truffles with a variety of coatings: colorful sugar sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, shredded coconut cocoa powder, icing sugar, or anything else you come up with.

No-bake, the alcohol stays in the truffle and should not be consumed by anybody who drives afterwards.

The variant I feature in this post is Rum Truffles with walnutchunks and grinded wafer biscuits and coated in cocoa powder and icing sugar.

Recipe:

Prep Time: 30 min

Total Time: 1 hour ++

Yield: 35 (1 inch) truffle balls

Cuisine: World Cuisine (with apparently roots in Denmark)

Author: Angelika Hanna /…

The credit for these delicious cookies go to my cousin’s wife Manja in Germany. Manja and her two daughters are avid bakers during the holiday season. They baked 21 different sorts of cookies this year. I saw her photos on FB and these truffle cookies caught my attention. I translated the recipe from German into English and am thrilled to share it with my blog community.

Recipe:

Prep Time: 45 min

BakeTime: 8 min

Rest Time: 1-2 hrs

Cuisine: German

Author: Angelika Hanna /Zest4Food

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 2 cups pastry flour
• A little less than 1 cup icing sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• A little less than 9 tbsp unsalted butter
• 100 g (3.5 oz) marzipan
• 1 package vanilla sugar

For the truffle filling:

• 5.4 oz dark unsweetened chocolate to melt (I used Baker’s)
• A little less than 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp…

By Angelika Hanna

Recipe:

Prep Time: 25 min (+ cooling time)

Bake Time: 20 min.

Yield: Approx. 20 cookies

Cuisine: World Food

Author: Angelika Hanna /Zest4Food

Ingredients:

• 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Holiday sprinkles
• Dark melted chocolate to dip

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a bowl, mix together butter, sugar, and vanilla extract with an electric mixer.
3. In a second bowl, sift together the flour and salt.
4. Add the flour mix gradually to the butter-sugar mixture.
5. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together.
6. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for 30 min.
7. Roll out the dough and cut shapes with holiday cookie cutters of your choice. ( I used a tree shape)
8. Place the shapes on an…

By Angelika Hanna

This recipe is inspired by one of my favorite Food Network cooks Molly Yeh. I took Molly’s Chocolate Sea Salt Rugelach recipe as a guideline for my Chocolate Roll Ups with a few changes I made to my ccokies. Molly’s rugelach are on the salty side; I made my rolls less salty and a bit sweeter instead.

Recipe:

Prep Time: 40 min plus 1 hrs cooling time

Bake Time: Approx. 24 min

Yield: 40 cookies

Cuisine: Canadian/North American

Author: Angelika Hanna /Zest4Food

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups pastry flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 pinch of kosher salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cubed and cold
• 8 oz cream cheese (I used Philadelphia cheese), cool, straight from the fridge
• 2 large egg yolks plus 1 large whole egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips or chopped…

By Angelika Hanna

Recipe:

Prep Time: 20 min

Bake Time: 45 – 50 min

Cuisine: North American, Canadian

Author: Angelika Hanna /Zest4Food

Ingredients:

For the Brownies:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• A pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
• Ground walnuts for sprinkling

For the Ganache Frosting:

• 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 6 tbsp whipping cream
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter

Instructions:

For the Brownies:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Line an 8-inch square baking dish with parchment paper. Leave two opposite sides longer than the dish as a handle to lift the baked brownie square out.
3. Prepare 3 separate bowls with ingredients and set aside.
   • Bowl 1 (Large): Combine the sugar and cocoa…