Berry Basil Wine Sorbet / Ягодно Базиликовое Сорбе с Вином

During summer months I can practically live on sorbets alone, feeling fresh, chilled, light (after dropping a kilo or two) and happy as a summary of all above.

This sorbet is a little bit fancier than what I would usually make. Besides dominating strawberry taste and pleasant notes of white wine, basil definitely can be tasted too, despite it being discarded after cooking.

Here is a recipe of this lovely summer-y (and sugar free!) dessert.

500g strawberries
3 very ripe bananas (frozen)
small bunch of basil leaves
stevia sweetener to taste
200ml wry white wine (I like dry wine, semi sweet fruity one will also do)

My strawberries were frozen 2 days prior cooking, but that does not matter, fresh berries can be used. Place strawberries, basil leaves and wine into a pan ans let the mixture boil. Set the pan aside and let it cool completely and all the aromas infuse. Discard basil leaved. The mixture can now be sieved, but I skip this step very often.

Place frozen bananas into a food processor and pulse until creamy, add strawberry-wine compote and pulse until all is smooth. Freeze in an airtight container during several hours or churn in an ice cream maker.

Enjoy!:)

Coconut Orange Marshmallow Cake / Кокосово-Апельсиновый Торт с Маршмеллоу

Driving down the hill from our home to the city I noticed a lot of new flowers on fruit trees and when I saw that mimosa trees are in full blossom it just made my day!

Mimosa flowers are associated with my childhood. Every year aunt of my grandmother who lived in the south of France  would send small dried mimosa branch in an envelope. It was such an excitement for me as a child living in Soviet country:) Yeah...

So, inspired by bright fluffy yellow flowers and a lot of sun I made a cake...which actually would taste great on Easter table. Refreshing orange and coconut combination and a thick and fluffy marshmallow cream. The cake layers are on the dense side though, but tasted delicious.

Hope you enjoy it!:)

Cake

225 g soft butter
2 cups sugar
vanilla
1 t.s. salt
2 1/2 cups cake flour
10 g baking powder
1 cup yoghurt
5 eggs

Beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Add buttermilk and eggs. Mix well. Now add flour, salt, baking powder and vanilla.

Grease 2x20cm springforms with butter and sprinkle with flour. Pour the batter into them and bake at 175C  for about 50 minutes. Cool completely. Cut each cake into 2 parts horizontally. Trim the top. Drizzle each cake layer with coconut liqueur.

Marshmallow Cream

4 egg whites
drop of lemon juice
2 cups sugar
100ml water
50ml runny honey or syrup
 pinch of salt
vanilla
1 shot of coconut liqueur + more for the cake layers
grated coconut

Beat egg whites with lemon juice until soft peaks.

In a large pan combine water, sugar and honey. Bring the mixture to boil on hight heat, whisking often. Cook during 4 minutes.

Continue beating the egg whites and carefully pour the hot syrup into the whites. Add vanilla and liqueur. Beat until the cream is cooled a little (5-7 minutes).

Orange Curd

4 egg yolks
80ml orange juice
150g sugar
zest of 1 small orange
60g butter
some vanilla
1 t.s. gelatine

Place yolks, juice and sugar into a metal bowl over the simmering water. Cook, whisking often until the mixture thickens (about 10 minutes). Set aside. Add butter, zest, gelatine and vanilla. Let it cool.


Spread orange curd on the first layer of cake. Cover with another cake layer and spread marshmallow cream over this one. Cover with third cake layer and spread orange curd on top. Place the last cake layer over the rest and cover the entire cake with marshmallow frosting. Sprinkle with some remaining curd over the top of the cake , sprinkle with grated coconut.

Enjoy!

similar cake from three years ago here.

image taken from here

Apple Cranberry Pie / Яблочно-Клюквенный Пирог

Home made apple pie is always welcomed in our house. Though, we have one or two favourite recipes, I always find it interesting to try out something new.

This recipe is adapted from Dutch cooking magazine. It makes a large pie - soft and buttery dough with juicy and fragrant fruit and berries on top. Just make sure to press the berries into the dough deeper, so that they don't begin to burn in the oven.

250g dried cranberries
5 sour-sweet apples
2 full tb.s. candied orange/ orange preserves
1 t.s. ground ginger
1 t.s. cinnamon
0,5 t.s. dried thyme
about 150 ml orange juice

300g butter
2,5 cups flour
10g baking powder
6 eggs
1 t.s. salt
1,5 cups sugar

Preheat oven to 160C (fan).

Slice apples. Place cranberries, cinnamon and ginger into a bowl with orange juice and microwave for 2-3 minutes, until berries are soft.

In a mixer beat softened butter with sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one by one. Sift flour and baking powder and mix to combine.

Place baking paper into 23x32 baking tray. pour the batter into it. Place apple slices on top, pushing them deeper into the batter (skin side up). Distribute cranberries mixed with orange preserves over the apples, trying to push them into the batter.

Bake this pie during 1 hour. If the tops layer of berries begins to burn, cover with foil and continue baking.
Check for readiness with a skewer. Enjoy it warm or cold, with ice cream is even better!

Dudok Apple Pie / Яблочный Пирог Дюдок

Happy third blogoversary to me!:) I made it until today with posting and baking and taking pictures of food... haha, can not believe it!:)

Those who tried Dutch Dudok apple pie know what I am talking about...it's one of the best pies out there! When I found the recipe in the web there was no question that I should try it.

Dudok is a cafe brasserie chain in Holland. When we lived in Rotterdam it was one of the places we visited quite often. The atmosphere is very relaxed there and those pies are delicious! And we love apple pies:)
Thin and a bit crunchy crust and a lot of sweet and juicy apple filling!

So, here is a recipe.

Dough

300g flour
250g butter
0,5 t.s. salt
150g sugar

Mix everything together...you might need a bit extra flour. Chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.

Apple filling

1.5 kg apples (sour-sweet type)
app. 150 ml apple butter (just steamed and blended apples)
large tb.s. cinnamon powder
good handful of raisins
some sugar to taste

Cut apples into chunks and place them together with sugar and cinnamon into a small pan with a little bit of water. Cook during 10 minutes approximately, until tender.
Let them cool a bit.
Take the dough out of the fridge. Grease 24cm springform and press the dough into it, creating high walls.
Transfer the apples with apple butter and raisins onto the dough.

Crumble dough

90g flour
40g butter
10g vanilla sugar
40g brown sugar

Mix all ingredients together. Crumble the dough onto the top of the pie.
P.S/ I used double amount of this dough.

Bake for 50 minutes at 190C. Serve chilled (better to place into the fridge for a couple of hours).

Watermelon Cheese Salad / Салат из Арбуза и Сыра

A very easy and refreshing late summer salad, when watermelons are everywhere in abundance:) Especially here in Turkey.

Use sweet and preferably seedless type of watermelon, fresh young cheese and herbs to get a light and healthy snack.

Recipe adapted from Macro magazine
for 6 portions

1 kg watermelon
250g white young cheese or your favourite
small bunch of mint (or use dry mint leaves)
small bunch of parsley
45ml balsamic vinegar
10ml runny honey
60ml olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste

Scoop watermelon with melon scoop. Cut cheese into cubes. Place watermelon balls and cheese cubes onto plates, add fresh leaves and sprinkle with oil, vinegar and honey. Season to taste. Very quickly!:)

Lemon Poppyseed Cheesecake {light} / Лимонно-Маковый Чизкейк (облегченный)

I haven't baked for a while, which is uncommon for me these past years. Maybe because of the heat, maybe some travel stress, or first attempts in home schooling my oldest girl...or everything together. But I am glad I found time to make this wonderful treat.

This cheesecake is absolutely divine, light, sweet with tangy notes of lemon. It is very much to my liking. Even my chocolate obsessed kids gave it their approval:)

I used labne (5% fat) and Greek yoghurt (3% fat) for the cheesecake part, which made this cake lighter. For the base I used basic sponge recipe (halved the recipe). Tender and smooth lemony curd made this dessert just perfect.

Sponge recipe (adapted from here)

2 eggs

120g sugar

120g flour

3g baking powder

120g soft butter

Grease 24cm spring form with butter. In a bowl beat eggs and sugar, add flour, baking powder, butter. Do not overbeat.

Pour the batter into prepared springform and bake at 170C for about 20 minutes. Let it cool a little.

Lemon Poppyseed Cheesecake (inspired by this here)

600g labne (or strained and slightly salted yoghurt)

250-300ml Greek yoghurt

6 eggs

200g sugar

vanilla to taste

rind of 1 lemon

2 tb.s. lemon juice

3tb.s. flour

150g poppy seeds

380g condensed milk

Very easy. Basically beat labne and yoghurt well, add sugar and eggs one by one, add lemon rind, juice, condensed milk and some flour. Now add poppy seeds and mix everything well.

Pour prepared mixture onto baked sponge. The mixture will get until the rim of the spring form. Carefully place the form into preheated to 160C oven and bake for 60 minutes. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Cool completely.

Lemon curd

juice and rind of 2-3 lemons

3 eggs

100g sugar

100g butter

Melt butter and sugar in a pan until dissolved. Take it away from fire and add eggs one at a time, whisking the mixture. return to fire and whisk all the time. Pour lemon juice with zest into buttery mixture. Heat and whisk until the curd thickens. Set aside and strain. Place curd into the fridge until needed.

Serve chilled cheesecake with lemon curd on top. Mmmm

Raspberry and Lemon Coffee Cake/ Малиновый Пирог с Лимоном

I am finally home after almost two months of being away (luckily made enough of drafts to post while being away). Such long trips usually make me love my home even more!:) But, on the other hand, it gets quite boring to never go anywhere. I guess a good balance is always a key.

This delicious and moist coffee time cake I made for my "big" family gathering. The recipe is slightly adapted from BBC good food berry cake. It's no wonder that everyone enjoyed it so much! It's moist, spongy, very fragrant and sweet.

220g soft butter
220g sugar
4 eggs
1 lemon, zest and juice
250g flour
1 t.s. baking powder
200g raspberries

100g raspberries, mashed
1tb.s. lemon juice
140g sugar

Line square brownie baking form with baking paper of foil. Preheat oven to 180C.
Beat butter, sugar, add eggs one by one, add lemon zest and 2 tb.s. of juice.Fold in flour and 2/3 of berries. The batter will be a bit runny. Pour the batter into prepared tin and scatter some raspberries over the top. Bake for 1 hour.

In the meantime combine 100g raspberries, lemon juice and sugar and boil on low for several minutes to prepare a syrup. When it is ready, discard all berries from it.

Serve this cake with the syrup.

Chicken, Grapes and Blue Cheese Salad / Салат с Курицей, Виноградом и Голубым Сыром

This is just a well known great combination of tasted and textures. Sweet fruit and sharp cheese dressing, juicy pieces of chicken meat, crunchy walnuts. I love these fruity salads so much! Hope I've inspired you to make it. Give yourself a treat!:)

200g roasted chicken meat, sliced
1 medium red apple
2 handfuls red grapes, cut in half
handful toasted walnuts
rucola (enough for 3-4 people)
some parsley leaves

2 egg yolks*
1 large garlic clove
about 100ml olive oil
about 80g blue cheese
1-2 t.s. lemon juice

Place rucola leaves into a salad bowl. Add chopped grapes, sliced apple and toasted walnuts.

Beat egg yolks, adding gradually olive oil into the mixture. Add lemon juice and crushed garlic. In the end add blue cheese and continue beating.

Divide mixed salad between dishes, place sliced chicken on top of every dish and sprinkle with blue cheese dressing.

* If children are going to eat it, I would not add egg yolks. The dressing will be just as delicious without them.

Enjoy!

Peach Pudding Chocolate Cake/ Персиково-Шоколадный Торт-Пудинг

Funny, that after I wrote this post I realised that there was already a similar cake on my blog some time ago. But still, they are different. This is a collective recipe, based on many that I found on Turkish cooking sites. In Turkish it is called "köstebek pasta", which means "mole cake". There are many varieties of how to prepare it, I guess it depends on personal taste.

What is good about it is that one can put almost any seasonal fruit in it or skip the fruit part and make it vanilla, coconut, chocolate chip or any other taste. Most frequent that I saw was coconut and banana. I have chosen to add vanilla, rum and peaches to the pudding part, which made the cake more summer-y.

I hope you give it a try, because it is really very easy and delicious. My husband, actually, found it to be one of the best cakes he tried:) Oh well, his mood changes a lot:) The pudding part is really creamy, light and tender. And chocolate glaze frames it really well. If you don't feel like dark chocolate use white chocolate or just whip some cream and frost the cake.

For the cake:

3 eggs
1.5 cups sugar
1 tb.s. olive oil
vanilla
30g (3tb.s.) cocoa powder
1 cup AP flour

Preheat oven to 150C. Mix all ingredients adding one by one and mix well. Grease 22cm round cake form and pour the batter into it. Bake during 25 minutes. Do not over bake or it will be difficult to work with it, the cake will crumble.

When it is ready, let it cool and cut lengthwise in half.

Pudding cream:

600ml milk
3/4 cup sugar
80g butter
3/4 cup flour
vanilla
rum essence (or coconut flakes...)
4-5 small peaches, cut into pieces

Melt butter in a pan, add milk and flour, whisk well and stay with this mixture, whisking now and then until the first bubble appears. The cream will become thick. Add vanilla or whatever you plan to add. Let it cool a bit.

Take a bowl (about 22 cm in diameter, and it should not be too deep). Cover it with cling film. Place one thin layer of cake into it (sprinkle with some milk). If it cracks a bit does not matter, try to put all pieces close to each other. Add fruit onto the bottom, if using any.

Pour the pudding filling onto the cake, do not go over it, stop when pudding reaches top of cake. Now cover with another layer of cake. Take long hanging sides of the film and cover the cake. Place a small plate over the top and press with something heavy, like a pack of milk. Refrigerate 2-3 hours.

Take the cake out of the bowl flipping it over and free it from the cling film. Melt 160g of dark chocolate with 2 tb.s. of oil and pour over the cake. Place into freezer for 10 minutes until the chocolate sets. Transfer the cake onto a plate on which it will be served.  Before cutting into portions I always heat the knife over gas stove (or hot water is also OK). Store in the fridge.
Enjoy!

Frozen Mango Yoghurt Pops/ Йогуртовое Мороженое с Манго

I hope everyone enjoys sunny and warm weather these days! To cool off a bit and to refresh I suggest this little fruit treat:)

This is just a very quick and refreshing summer treat. Be sure to use ripe mangoes.

2 ripe mangoes (around 400g)
200g powdered sugar with vanilla
250ml water
100ml lemon juice + 1t.s. lemon zest
2-3 cardamom pods
200ml very thick yoghurt

Cook water, cardamom, lemon juice and zest and powdered sugar until it boils and continue simmering for about 5 minutes.
In the meantime blend mango flesh in food processor. Add sugar syrup (without cardamom) and blend until well combined. Wait a little until it cooled off a bit and add yoghurt. Pour into forms and freeze (overnight). Enjoy!

Makes 12 x 60ml pops.

Watermelon Strawberry Coconut Slush / Арбузно-Клубничный Лед

This fruit ice is a very handy finding for our hot summers!
We love being in Istanbul, enjoying every day here. Especially summer period...I wish it was summer all the time:) Thick curtains or window blinds on windows is a must here, it's not like it used to be in our Dutch apartment ..we had..nothing on our windows and so we enjoyed every ray of sunshine whenever the sun visited us:) But no, the weather in the Netherlands is not that bad actually. It just changes quickly.

Summers in Istanbul (really warm and pleasant weather lasts from mid April and lasts until...almost begining of December, but summer is baking) can be really hot, but luckily quite dry. And sometimes the only thing you can eat is a piece of fruit. You are actually mostly thirsty than hungry. So this kind of *food* is indeed a finding! Plus - watermelons are so cheap!:) I eat it at breakfast or throughout the day any time. It's delicious and filling and beautiful!:) So yeah...if you feel like losing some weight...come and stay with us for the summer!:)

Makes about 6 servings.

1 cup strawberries (or almost two handfuls)
2,5-3 cups cubed watermelon
2 medium sized bananas
100ml coconut milk

Place watermelon cubes and chopped banana into an airtight container and freeze (overnight).
When ready to make this ice:  take frozen fruit from the freezer. Transfer into a blender and whiz until smooth. Add fresh strawberries and whiz again. Now pour coconut milk and mix until incorporated.
Serve immediately and enjoy!

* It delicious as soft serve, but also can be frozen entirely and eaten at sorbet, if you like

Strawberry and Chocolate Cookies / Печенье с Клубникой и Шоколадом

Addictive fragrant summer cookies. You'll only need a few ingredients which are always at hand.
This is a perfect cookie recipe for the strawberry season. Really easy and delicious! The edges are slightly crunchy and centre is more chewy and soft.

1 cup melted warm butter
2 eggs
1 cup sugar (even better with 50x50 mixed with brown sugar)
2 cups AP flour
100g chopped dark chocolate (milk or white chocolate will work great as well)
250-300g chopped fresh strawberries

Preheat oven to 170C.

Mix warm butter with sugar and add eggs. Whip with a whisk until fluffy. Add flour in batches and stir well. Now add chopped chocolate and strawberries.

Using ice cream spoon scoop approximately 24 cookies onto baking tray covered with baking paper.
Bake during 20 minutes or until light brown. let them cool 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Grandma's Apple Pie {light} / Бабушкин Яблочный Пирог

I loved my great grandmother a lot. She was my inspiration since I was a kid. She lived a difficult, but interesting life. I still remember her exciting life stories that she would tell me...and the older she got the more often she would repeat them over and over again:)

Whenever I would visit her, she would have something tasty to snack on. And this apple pie  I remember very well. It was always juicy, fragrant and so very tasty!
Luckily, I have her recipe saved and today I'm making this pie for my kids.

The dough contains cottage cheese, which makes it very soft with a little crunchy crust.  I reduced amount of butter from 1 cup to 4 tb.s. and I loved the result. Be generous and use a lot of apples (but be sure to use juice and sour sweet type), because this is the most important part!:)

1 1/4 cup low fat cottage cheese
1 egg
1 cup sugar
10g baking powder
pinch of salt
1t.s. lemon juice
4 tb.s. soft butter
2 cups flour

egg wash for the top

Preheat oven to 180C. Beat butter with sugar, add an egg. Sift flour and carefully add to the liquid mixture. Add baking soda and lemon juice. Then carefully combine and divide the dough into 2 parts, one bigger than the other.
Roll bigger part of dough into square and transfer it into 20x20cm greased baking dish, creating walls as well, but they should not be high.
Divide another part of dough into 6 and prepare stripes to make lattice top.

Filling

4 large sour sweet apples, cored, cut into cubes
about 1/2 cup sugar
1t.s. cinnamon

Mix everything together and let it sit for some 20 minutes, so that the apples begin to give their juice. Or you could microwave this mixture on high for 5 minutes or so.

Place apples over the dough and cover them carefully with stripes of dough. Brush with beaten egg.
Bake for 40 minutes. They are easier to cut when cooled...although the cake is very delicious when warm!

Strawberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting/ Клубничные Капкейки с Кремом

First of all congrats to all Dutchmen for a new king Willem-Alexander! I didn't prepare anything orange though...but I was close:)

These light and fruity cupcakes do their task very well- they bring summer into your house:)  High percentage of strawberries makes them really moist and very fragrant. I reduced butter content in the dough and added some Greek yoghurt instead, which made this dessert even lighter in terms of calories. Frosting is rich, tangy and has a hint of this nice and fresh strawberry flavour.

50g butter
50g Greek yoghurt
125g flour
10g baking powder
125g sugar
vanilla
2 eggs
4 tb.s. milk
200g strawberries
zest of 0,5 lemon

Oven 200C.
Mix butter and sugar until creamy, add eggs one by one, yoghurt and milk. Stir in flour and baking powder with vanilla and lemon zest. Carefully add cut into chunks and slightly rolled in flour strawberries.
Divide the dough between 12 cupcake forms lined with paper. Bake during 15 min. Chill them completely.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

500g cream cheese
300g vanila powdered sugar
2tb.s. strawberry jam, blended
50g soft butter

Beat cream cheese and sugar powder until light, add soft butter and jam one spoon at a time. Make sure there are no lumps. Chill before piping.
This frosting is enough for 12 cupcakes and 8x60ml ice cream pops. It makes really good creamy frozen dessert for the kids. If you don't need that, just use only half of every ingredient to frost the cupcakes.

Skinny Strawberry Ricotta Clafoutis/ Диетический Клафути с Рикоттой

This is my piece of dessert:) Of course, it's not really original, but still a very tasty strawberry pudding...full of protein and low on fat and carbs. Since I'm trying to avoid fast carbs and also I am on very low grain % diet for several weeks already, this dessert is right for me:)

The texture here is slightly different than original creamy version, but the whole result was surprisingly good .. It's light, juicy, fruity and pudding like smooth. Summer is near:) Knowing that this dessert is kind of healthier makes it extra good for me:) Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

400g strawberries
2-3tb.s. liquer/cognac...
250ml milk
vanilla
pinch salt
3 eggs
sugar substitute in powder (to taste)
250g ricotta
70g buckwheat flour


Oven 175C. Mix berries with alcohol.
Heat milk with vanilla.
Beat eggs with sugar sub and salt, add milk, carefully add ricotta and flour. Using hand blender smooth the batter out. Pour this batter into lightly greased tart form  (around 25cm) and scatter berries with their liquid over the top. Bake clafoutis during 35 min. Eat warm or cold.

Roasted Plums Salad+ / Салат с Печеными Сливами+

Today I am sharing two recipes actually. It was our brunch:) The recipes are so simple yet so very tasty and healthy that I am just putting them both in one post today.
Healthy food is tasty and so pretty, actually. Well, I agree, a healthy cake...I am not sure how it would look though...

So, our breakfast took 25 minutes to prepare, approximately. It was actually one ingredient two ways. Roasted plums. In a refreshing fragrant salad with cheese and crunchy toasted almonds and in a healthy creamy chocolate yoghurt dessert/dip.

For two people you'd need:

Healthy Chocolate Yoghurt:

6tb.s. drained Greek yoghurt
2tb.s. cocoa powder
powdered sugar or substitute to taste

Mix well drained Greek yoghurt with sugar powder or substitute and cocoa powder.

Roasted Plums Salad with Cheese:

9 small plums, halved, stone removed
1-2 tb.s. runny (flower) honey
1tb.s. rose vinegar or balsamic
2tb.s. olive oil
bunch of fresh ruccola
handful of almonds
app.50g sheep cheese
black pepper, salt

Place fresh ruccola on each plate. Toast raw almonds on dry frying pan. Preheat oven to 200C. Place plum halves into a small baking dish, drizzle with honey and roast for about 15 minutes, turning half way.
Place several roasted plums on top of your salad. Add small pieces of sheep cheese. Sprinkle with toasted almonds.Drizzle with rose vinegar, olive oil and honey. Season with pepper.
Add some plums to the chocolate yoghurt and drizzle with honey if you wish. Take your time to enjoy your breakfast!:)

Healthy Pumpkin Coconut Pudding/ Полезный Тыквенно-Кокосовый Пудинг

Really healthy, sugar free, without any butter or eggs, light, but creamy and fragrant pumpkin and coconut dessert. I enjoyed every spoon of it and wanted for more!:) This pudding brightened up my day with it's bright yellow colour and silky texture. I hope you'll also enjoy it as much!

1l pumpkin purée (cooked pumpkin with some water)
sugar substitute to taste
400ml full fat coconut milk
vanilla
cinnamon
5 almost full tb.s. flour or corn starch

Take coconut milk from the fridge and carefully separate hardened part (we need approximatelly 200ml), put it aside. Add another 200ml of coconut milk, cinnamon and vanilla into hot pumpkin purée and heat it.
Mix starch with some water (use 4-5 table spoons, depending on consistency of pumpkin purée  pudding shouldn't be too thick) and pour this mixture into pumpkin purée  whisking all the time until you see it begins to bubble and thicken. Take away from the heat and chill a little.
Divide between glasses, refrigerate.
Whip hardened coconut milk that we set aside. Place into piping bag and decorate pumpkin pudding.

Baked Apple "Cupcakes" / "Капкейки" с Печеными Яблокaми

This could be a breakfast or a snack...or even a dessert? I love it any time of the day. It's healthy, it's quite filling, high fiber, high protein and they taste good! It's a crossing between apple pie, cheese cake and oatmeal cookie! Very tender and luscious filling on a cookie crust.

For the Oatmeal Crust:

2 cups rolled oats
pinch of salt
100ml yoghurt
2-3tb.s. ricotta or cottage cheese
10g baking powder
sugar substitute or sugar to taste
vanilla essence

For the Filling:

5 granny smith apples, inner part taken out
200g ricotta or cottage cheese
about 2 tb.s. yoghurt
sugar sub to taste
vanilla
1tb.s. lemon rind
1tb.s. flour or starch
some hazelnuts for topping

First remove apple core and some flesh around it. We need only a sort of a thick bracelet made of apple.
In blender mix all ingredients for the oat crust. Divide into 5 parts.

Preheat oven to 180C.

Mix all ingredients for the filling. Create a disc out of oatmeal dough, take an apple and place it on that disc, than with your wet hands create a basket with that oatmeal dough disc around apple.
Fill each apple with ricotta filling. Garnish with some hazelnuts, if desired. Place apples into a baking dish and bake around 25-30 minutes. This time should be enough for the crust to be baked and apples to be soft.

Let them cool a bit and serve warm or cold.

Oat Coconut Cream no bake Sandwiches/ Овсяное Печенье с Кокосовым Кремом без выпечки

Can sugar free and low fat be tasty? Yes, it can! And also healthy! Don't you like it?:) Actually, coconut cream is not very low on fat, but it's that kind of fat that won't harm you much.

Based on this last year recipe I made these light small pleasures couple of days ago and am about to make them again!:) Not too sweet and fragrant (think banana and coconut), good for snacking.

1 medium to large banana
1 cup (200ml) toasted rolled oats
pinch of salt
vanilla
1tb.s. raisins (optional)
1 tb.s. flax egg (1tb.s. seeds+2tb.s. water blended)
30ml desiccated coconut + more for sprinkling on top
1 can (400ml) coconut milk, chilled

Toast oats on a pan until slightly brownish. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over them and blend them to create coarse flour.
Add chopped banana with raisins and blend again until smooth, then add vanilla, 30ml coconut and flex egg.
Take with a small melon ball scoop small amounts of the "dough" and roll them in coconut, then flatten into a disk. This quantity will make around 32.

Take chilled coconut milk from the fridge. Open it carefully (without shaking), pour the liquid that is on top out and transfer coconut cream into your mixer, whip it until smooth. With the help of pastry bag pipe this cream onto half of cookies and pair cookies together. Chill before serving.

15 Favourite Light and Healthy Desserts / 15 Любимых Легких и Полезных Десертов

I will not hide the fact that I like desserts. But my ideal desserts are those after eating which I can stay energized, happy and I won't have that awful feeling of guilt. I love my healthy life style!

My granddad taught me since I was a child that sport is something you can't live without and I remember myself running in the park and doing exercises at home being still a schoolgirl. Sometimes I got frustrated looking at my friends who never exercised or were on any diet plan -  they seemed so "free" to me...that I decided to stop with all my "health" routine...which gave me 10kg+ and years...I guess around 4 years of attempts to get rid of new burden.

Since that time I keep to my good old *secret* of eating healthy and working out. Health is one of the biggest treasures in life and how stupid is it to just let it go and "feel free from obligations".....

OK, so here are my favourite 15 desserts or snacks to satisfy sweet tooth attacks and still keep me on health plan, But remember...and myself too...that moderation is another GREAT tip!:)



Я не стану скрывать, что люблю десерты, но мой идеальный десерт - десерт, после которого я остаюсь бодрой, веселой и обязательно без этого ужасного чувства вины. Я люблю свой здоровый образ жизни! 

Мой дедушка учил меня с детства, что спорт это то, без чего невозможно жить. Я помню себя еще школьницей бегая в парке по утрам и занимаясь дома упражнениями. Иногда меня расстраивало, что мои друзья, которые не знали слова диета или спорт, чувствовали себя такими *свободными*...что я решила к ним присоединиться и оставила всю свою "программу здоровье". Что "наградило" меня 10кг+ и годами (по-моему ок.4 лет) попыток их сбросить. 

С тех пор я придерживаюсь своего *секретного* правила - ешь полезную еду и занимайся спортом. Здоровье одно из самых больших сокровищ, дарованых нам и как глупо его растрачивать, чтобы почувствовать себя "свободными от правил".

Ладно, вот мои 15 полюбившихся рецептов десертов, которые удовлетворяют мои сладкие атаки и не сбивают с верного пути к здоровой жизни. Но помните...и я в том числе...что умеренность, это еще один ЗАМЕЧАТЕЛЬНЫЙ совет!:)

Carrot Poppy Seed Cake

Морковный торт с маком

Strawberry Ice Pops

Клубничное мороженое в стаканчике

Light Lemon Coconut Bars

Легкие лимонно-кокосовые пирожные

Fat/Sugar Free Cookie Dough Truffles

Трюфели без масла/сахара

Cottage Cheese Scones

Творожные сконы

Chocolate Muffin Rolls with Strawberry Glaze

Шоколадные кексы с клубничной глазурью

Baked Pumpkin Pudding Bars

Тыквенная полезная запеканка

Basil and Lemon Yoghurt Ice Pop

Йогуртовое мороженое с базиликом и лимоном

Carrot Cheesecake in a Glass

Морковный чизкейк в стакане

Baked Orange Yoghurt with Pistachio Candy Floss

Запеченый Апельсиновый Йогурт

Cinnamon-Apple Healthy Rolls

Яблочно-коричные полезные булочки

Rhubarb Jelly Vanilla Custard Trifle

Трайфл из ревеня, клубники и кремa

Cottage Cheese "Truffles"

"Трюфель" из творога

Berry and Chocolate Yoghurt Bars

Йогуртовое пирожное с ягодами и шоколадом

Boozy Strawberry Grapefruit Ice Cream

Пьяное мороженое с клубникой и грейпфрутом