Category Archives: dessert

quench your thirst with homemade flavored water

Posted on July 3, 2014 | Leave a comment

Ditch boring water and satisfy your thirst with healthy all natural homemade quenchers.

Water is very essential to your good health, it makes up about 60% of your body weight. Every day you lose water through your breath, perspiration, urine and bowel movements, but since every system in your body depends on water to function properly, you must replenish its water supply. Studies determined that your water needs depend on many factors, including your health, how active you are and where you live but roughly we can say an adequate intake for men is 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day and for women 2.2 liters (about 9 cups).

It’s a huge amount of water if you think about it and you are not a water lover! That’s why here is 3 homemade recipes for naturally flavored water with added health benefits, to encourage you meet your daily needs, and stay hydrated especially it’s getting really hot outside!

citrus kiss:

Slice up one lemon, one orange and one grapefruit, add them to one liter of water. The longer the ingredients steep, the stronger the flavor will be, so mix them up a few hours ahead depending on how strong you want the taste to be.

Apple cinnamon:

Wedge up one full apple and toss in one cinnamon stick. This one has a great kick, it helps boost your metabolism.

Cucumber, mint lemon:

Slice up one or two cucumbers and soak in handful mint leaves and one sliced lemon.

You can soak in any fruit you like. Would love to have your new flavors suggestions if you already tried one!

So refreshing that I am sure I will hear lots of ahhhhhh when you try these!

tiramisu oh tiramisu! Warning: it’s addictive!

Posted on June 16, 2014 | 6 comments

It’s always thrilling to get involved in food preparation, especially in family gatherings. I believe it adds warmth and fun. Meeting over food is a no fail plan, always!

Tiramisu, an italian bliss suitable for your cravings, so addictive you will be coming for more!

You will need:

500g mascarpone cheese
20 lady finger
half cup confectioner’s sugar
4 tbsp rum
2 tbsp instant coffee
1 1/2 cup of warm water
cocoa for topping
cherry or strawberry for decoration

Mix mascarpone, sugar and 2 tbsp of the rum. Add 1-2 tbsp water to make it more diluted.

In a bowl mix the warm water, coffee and remaining rum.

In a cup put some of the cheese mixture and insert 3-4 lady finger (depending on your cups size) after dipping in the coffee rum mix.

Cover with mascarpone and sprinkle some cocoa. Decorate with cherry or strawberry. This quantity yields 8-10 portions depending on the size of your cups.

Serve it to your loved ones and give them the pleasure to enjoy a dessert and a smile!

Buon appetito!

6 Comments

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Tagged blog, cherry, cocoa, coffee, desert, jaymmy, lady fingers, marmite et ponpon, mascarpone, recipe, rum, tiramisu

la miche de Nana

Posted on June 12, 2014 | 10 comments

Miche or country bread, is typically a large round loaf made from either natural leavening or bakers yeast. Most traditional versions of this bread are made with a combination of white flour, water, leavening and salt.

La miche de nana (Nadra my mother in law) is the sweet version of this traditional bread, tastes like brioche and even more delicious!

Spending time with the family, cooking together, chatting and laughing is a treasure! Preparing this miche was so fun over 3 stages to get this golden braid!

It’s a very simple recipe made with love. The secret is patience. For 4 braids of 35cm each you need:

1 1/2 cup butter melted
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup milk
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of mahaleb (aka St Lucie cherry or prunus mahaleb)
flour to knead the dough

Mix butter and sugar. Add milk, eggs, vanilla, yeast, baking powder and mahaleb. Add flour little by little and knead the dough until it’s not sticky anymore. Let it rest for at least 6 hours, or overnight for a better leavened dough.

Divide it into four parts and each part to three equal parts to make the braids. You can always reduce the recipe in half if you don’t want to make the whole quantity. But trust me it’s so delicious you will regret not to!

Again you have to keep it to rest for ten hours before baking. That’s why i said patience is the key to a successful miche.

Brush the surface with egg yolk and bake for 20-25 minutes on 200ºC.

The irresistible aroma filling the house will kill your patience. I am sure you will not let it cool to try your first piece that will drag many more!

You can shape it other than braids, for instance teta prepared these small parts for nady! He was so excited and participating in the whole process!

Family cast for this yummy yummy miche:

Teta nana: “the loving baker”, who prepared everything
Aunty Salma: “the great observer,” taking notes of the recipe, promising to bake it after her wedding which is so soon yeyyy!!
Uncle Hani: “the miche taster” and Nady’s football buddy
My precious Nady: “The energy sucker”, who made the process longer, we were all running after him, and we ended up by dancing in a circle 🙂
Antoun: “long distance killer” kept updated on whatsapp and facetime until he joins in two weeks
And me behind the cam!

Sahten! God keep your families and happy times to all!

10 Comments

Posted in dessert

Tagged baking, blog, bread, brioche, desert, jaymmy, marmite et ponpon, miche, recipe

15 minutes nutellissimo brownies!

Posted on June 9, 2014 | 5 comments

This easy and fast recipe will make you stand up on your feet now and go to the kitchen to prepare these inviting nutella banana brownies. Am sure you will find the ingredients home:

nutella jar (350g)
3 eggs
15 tbsp flour
2 medium bananas

For the ganache:

200g dark chocolate
200g heavy cream

Mix nutella, eggs and flour and bake in a greased pan for 10 minutes, in the middle rack (180ºC). I used a square pan (18x18cm)

Let it cool before laying the banana slices on top and cover it with the chocolate ganache.

How we make chocolate ganache:

Put 200g of dark chocolate into a large heatproof bowl (must first be chopped into small pieces so that it will melt evenly). Bring 250 ml of cream just to a boil over medium-high heat or put for 3 mns in microwave; pour over chocolate. Let stand 10 minutes.

Stir the mixture very gently, incorporating the cream steadily, without overworking. The mixture should begin to appear glossy.

Let it cool for 20 mns in the fridge before using it.

For a beautiful presentation, decorate the top with edible flowers. I am taking advantage of being in lebanon where i find flowers at my ease.

Personally i find banana pairing beautifully with nutella, but if you are not fond of banana you can replace it with strawberry or pineapple. It tastes also wonderful

These beautiful red flowers created an attractive contrast! Fruits and flowers work like magic. The more colors you have on your plate, the more inviting your dish can be. It’s not a secret that we eat with our eyes first!

Brownies are best served with a perfect round ice cream scoop as Salma, my sister in law says! She is right 🙂

Yesterday, I baked this beautiful cake at my in laws, they are chocolate lovers, and here is the proof!

Am sure this cake will not live longer than couple of hours if you are nutella lovers. Sahtein 🙂

5 Comments

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Tagged baking, banana, blog, brownies, chocolate, easy, edible flowers, fast, ganache, jaymmy, marmite et ponpon, nutella, recipe

a welcome drink – traditional batrouni lemonade (laymounada batrounye)

Posted on June 4, 2014 | 6 comments

Batroun is a touristic destination in North Lebanon. My home town, a major destination for the beautiful beaches and the vibrant nightlife.

Batroun is known for its fresh lemonade, which is sold by most of the cafés and restaurants in the town. This simple drink made from lemons, sugar and water has many variations in different parts of the world.

This version is the famous batrouni one:

juice of 4 big lemons (1 1/2 cup)
zest of one lemon
1 cup sugar
3 cups cold water

All i can say It’s about the technique:

Wash the lemons and cut in four.
Add the sugar and squeeze the lemon wedges with your hands until they release half of the juice.
Add the zest of one large lemon and let the mix stands in the fridge for 15 minutes
Take it out and totally squeeze the lemons, strain the juice, add the water and mix until the sugar is totally melted. Et voila!

The most refreshing and succulent lemonade.

Some like it more diluted, or more sweet or less sweet… It’s subject to taste. You can add orange blossom water too if you want to take it to another level. As you can add few mint leaves, but the traditional one is the simplest basic one.

If you have people visiting, a pitcher of fresh homemade lemonade is a traditional welcome drink especially on hot summer days!

Daily consumption of 120 ml of lemon juice per day, when mixed with two liters of water, has been shown to reduce the rate of stone formation in people susceptible to kidney stone.

Batroun has the largest cup of lemonade (more than 5000 liters) to break Guinness world record! Enjoy and regards from Lebanon 🙂