Milk tea biscuts - Молочные коржики.

These biscuits were a common treat in Soviet Russia at the school buffets. They cost 8 kopees (equivalent of 8 cents) and were quite popular. Currently it is one of the most nostalgic requests of Russian people leaving abroad. The recipe is quite simple. Here is what you'll need:

110 ml of milk
200 gr sugar
Vanilla extract
Coffee extract
100 gr of butter
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
400 gr flour

Egg yolk for glaze

Mix milk and sugar in a heat proof bowl, bring to a boil and let sugar dissolve. Pour syrup over butter and let butter melt and dissolve in syrup. Add vanilla and coffee extract, egg, baking soda and flour. Mix gently until soft dough forms. Roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut the biscuits out with about 5 inch biscuit cutter, brush with egg yolk and let stand while the oven is heating up to 400 F. Bake about 12 minutes or until golden.
Can keep for 2 to 3 days in an air tight container.

Lemon "Muffin Top" Cake

I got this recipe from MarthaStewart.com and the cake is absolutely fragrant and has wonderful texture to it. The recipe is based on olive oil that provides for great crust and great earthy flavor.
Here is what you'll need:
1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for pan
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
About 1 1/2 cups of chopped dry fruit- I have tried it with dates, raisins and dry apples- all good, raisins is significantly sweeter then other options
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest (from 1 lemon)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare 9 inch tart pan or cake pan oiled with a tea spoon of olive oil.

In a bowl whisk together oil, milk, and egg; set aside. Add flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt and stir with a rubber spatula just until smooth (do not overmix). Gently fold in dry fruit and lemon zest.
Spread batter in prepared pan; set pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.
Cool in pan 15 minutes before unmolding cake onto a wire rack to cool completely. Keep, wrapped in plastic, at room temperature up to 1 day. To serve, cut into wedges.

Chocolate Chip ( Or Rum Raisin) Oatmeal Cookies

I am not a very big fan of American food and Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookes to me are very American. May be it is that way just for me... Any way, when my daugher came from her school cooking class and brought this recipe for us to make at home together, I can't say that I was full of enthusiasm deep inside. I expected it to be too sweet and just too much of all tastes that define cookies. But I figured that we'll be baking it together and it just would be fun because of that. Well, I have to admit that I was wrongand that the cookies are absolutely out of this world! They are just right and now on my favourite cookie list. We made two types: chocolate chip for little girls and rum raisin for big girls. Every one was happy!

Here is what you'll need:

1/2 cup butter or 110 gr

1 egg

1 cup of flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tea spoon vanilla

1/2 tea spoon baking soda

1 cup quick cooking oats

3/4 cup chocolate chip ( if you would like to make it with raisins substitute the amount desired and soak it about 1 tablespoon of rum or coffee liquire)

Remove butter from refrigirato 30 minutes before cooking. Preheat oven to 375F. Place butter in mixing bowl and beat for 30 seconds. Add egg, sugar, brown surag, vanilla and baking soda to butter. Beat for about 2 minutes. Slowly add oat and mix well. Use a wooden spoon to fold in chips and raisins.

This cookies bake the best if you make them small. We used a small icecream scoop or you can use 2 teaspoons. Leave about 2 inches between the cookes. bake for 8-10 minues. Alow to cool and enjoy!

Green Gram Lentil with Spinach (Moong Dal with Palak)

One of my colleagues is from India and we frequently exchange recipes and overall really enjoy cooking and sharing. She gave me this recipe to try and it came out quite delicious. It is a wonderful dish for dinner and a small cup of it can be part of lunch.

Here is what you'll need:

1 cup of split Green Gram Lentil (Moong Dal)

2 to 3 cups chopped Spinach

1 tea spoon chili Powder

1/2 tea spoon turmeric powder
1 tsp hing (Asafetida)

2 table spoons of butter

1 tea spoon chopped garlic

1 tea spoon graded ginger

salt to taste

Wash and soak lentils for 30 min to and hour. Cook lentils and turmeric, chili powder and salt in presser cooker for about 20 minutes after the presser build or about 40- 45 minutes using regular method. Lentils should be very soft. Mash lentils with the spoon. Add the spinach, mix thoroughly and cook for about 4 minutes.

Melt butter in the pan, add garlic and saute till fragrant, add ginger and hing. pour over lentils. Mix thoroughly.

Enjoy with balsamati rice.

Lemon Bars

This is one of my most favorite combinations: buttery crust and sweet and bitter lemony filling.

My romance with this recipe started in the local natural foods market- I have tried their lemon bar and liked it so much that went to their chief to ask for a recipe. They told me that it is proprietary information and they can not give it to me. So I have started experimenting and trying different combinations until I have archived very comparable result.


Here is what you'll need:

For the dough:

1 3/4 sticks of butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon extract
2 1/4 cup all- purpose flour



For the filling:

1 large lemon, graded with zest
1 large , preferably green, apple
1/2 cup sugar or to taste
1 tsp of lemon extract

The rest is quite easy. Beat the butter with sugar and salt together until soft and fluffy. Add lemon extract. Add in the flower and mix in carefully until the dough forms.

At this step I have tried few different ways of assembling the bars and my favorite ended up being to divide the dough in 2 part- one of them about 3/4 and the other about 1/4. Then refrigerate for about 30 min so that it is still soft but hard enough to grade.

While the dough if chilling, prepare the filling. Grade lemon and peeled apple on the grader, add the sugar and lemon extract.

I recommend using fluted tart pan and place in on the baking pan in the oven.. Butter it up some and grade the bigger part of the dough. Press in in lightly. Spread the filling, take care of the edges. Then grade the smaller part of the dough. don't worry if you can see the filling. It would come out fine.

Bake at 350F ( about 175C) until it is golden on top. Cool down before cutting.

My Grandma's roll up fruit cookie

This is a very fast and easy recipe that one likes to have on hand when cookies are needed within an hour. They come out flaky and buttery with the flavour of fruit filling that you've chosen.If you will go for something more sour it would be tangy or sweeter- it would be a sweet tooth pleaser.

Here is what you'll need:

1 egg
1/4 tea spoon baking soda
1 table spoon vinegar
pinch of salt
1/2cup water

2 sticks (about 200 gr) margarine or butter
2 cups flour

If you want to make larger amout of dough can use 2 1/2 cups of flour to 250 gr of margarine.


Break egg in the cup and mix lightly, add soda with vinegar and salt and add water so that it becomes 3/4 of a cup.

Put butter and flour in the bowl and cup with pastry cutter until it reaches the stage of fine crumbs. Start adding liquid ingredients gradually and continue cutting with pastry cutter. continue till dough forms. stop adding liquid once sufficient for the butter flour mixture.

Cut dough in half and roll our each half about 1 to 2 ml thick. Cut into wedges. Put preserves of your choice and roll up.

Bake at 350F for about 16 to 18 minutes or until golden on the edges. Once cooled can dust with powdered sugar.

Baklava

In St-Petersburg they used to have the store that was called “Eastern Sweets”. It was right on the main street of the city- Nevskii Prospeckt. To this day I remember what a treat it was to buy some sweets there. And they would have baklava and fudge and sorbet and nougat and kurabeye (sweet buttery cookies) and million other tasty things- or at list it seemed that way when I was a kid. When I’ve found this recipe on http://www.azcookbook.com/, I right away felt that this would be the taste that I remember from those early days. And it surely is! I did small modification- I love spices too much, so I've added some clove and cinnamon to filling and to the dough. It is not too sweet and plain delicious!

Here is what you'll need:

The Dough

3 cups of flour
8 oz of butter
1 cup of sour cream mixed with teaspoon of baking sode
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/3 teaspoon of clove, ground

The Filling

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 egg whites
2/12 cups walnuts, finely chopped
1 tea spoon cinnamon

Incorporate butter into the flour using pastry cutter. Add sour cream and soda mixture and add egg yolks. Continue incorporating with the pastry cutter until it comes together. Divide into 3 parts and chill for 1 hour.

For the filling combine sugar, spice and egg whites and add to the chopped nuts.

Take 8 by 12 inch pan. Roll out the first piece of dough to approximately fit the pan, transfer to the pan and adjust with your hand up to the edges. Spread half of the filling. Roll out the second piece of dough. Stretch a bit with your fingers to fit the pan up to the edges. Spread the second half of the filling. Roll out the third piece of the dough. Lay it on the top of the filling. Brush the top with egg wash.

Cut the pastry into diamond shapes with the sharp knife. Place a walnut piece on each piece of pastry.

Bake at 350 F for about 40 minutes. Let cool completely.