Eating in Tallinn, Estonia, part 1: Cheesecake

I arrived in Estonia today and will stay there for 3 days. There was a snow storm all day long so the sightseeing was postponed and it was shopping day instead! So my dear and I went to Rocca al Mare shopping center, which is apparently the biggest one around here. And after 2h of intense shopping we were hungry. There was a food court there with restaurants from all around the world, but we had to choose one. So that s how we ended up at Mack BBQ restaurant. And they had cheesecake! So well... I had to order one! And I wasn't disappointed at all! First it looked really nice, and it smelled awesomely good! Then the taste was a little bit different from the New York style cheesecake. This one was tasting refreshing! It was delicious!

Finland's Karelian pasties

Living in Finland for 5 years now, I have learned to cook and bake some of their traditional dishes. And those little pasties are my favorite! Many people spread egg butter on them, but i prefer to just spread slightly salted butter. It's delicious. You can eat it with a soup or any meal, or as a replacement for bread (that's how i eat it), or just on its own.

Ingredients:


For the crust itself:

• 25cl water
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 190g white flour
• 190g rye flour

For the filling:

• 50cl water
• 30cl rice for porridge
• 90cl milk
• 1,5 tsp salt

For the basting sauce (just mix the ingredients together):

• 12,5cl cup hot milk
• 2 tbsp melted butter

Instructions for the crust itself:

Mix the water, salt, and melted butter in a large bowl and stir in the white flour.

Beat until smooth. 

Add the rye flour and mix until well blended. 

Put the dough on a floured board and knead for 3 minutes. 

Shape it into a roll about 6 cm in diameter and then divide into 12 equal portions. 

Dust with flour and pat each portion into a small round cake. 

Then roll out into a circle about 15 cm in diameter. 

Instructions for the filling (rice porridge):

Boil the water, then add the rice. 

Boil until the water has saturated the rice.

Add the milk and stir the filling for a few minutes. 

Reduce heat and let simmer for about 40 minutes.

Stir every now and then.

When it seems thickish, your porridge is ready.  

Then add the salt and put it aside to cool.

Instructions for making the pasties:

Preheat your oven to 230 degrees celcius.

To fill, place 3 or 4 tbsp of the rice porridge on each circle of dough and spread to within 2cm of the edge. 

Fold two sides of the dough onto the filling, forming an oval shape, but leave around 2cm wide strip of the filling exposed. 

Crimp the edges of the dough. 

Place the pasty on a greased baking sheet and put in the oven for 15 minutes or until lightly browned, basting twice during the baking with the milk and butter mixture. 

Baste once again when you take them out of the oven.  

You can eat them hot or cold, they are delicious both ways! 

Enjoy!

Madeleines

Those cute little cake are traditional small cakes from my region, Lorraine, in France. They are sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell shaped depressions. It's a little cake that I love to eat with tea or hot chocolate.

Here you can see how the pans look:

Ingredients:

• 125g butter, softened
• 125g flour
• 125g vanilla sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder 

Instructions:

Preheat your oven at 180 degree celcius.

Mix the sugar and butter until frothy.

Add the eggs one by one. Mix well.

Then add the flour and the baking powder. Mix well until smooth.

Pour in the pans and put in the oven for 20 minutes. 

Enjoy!

Devil's chocolate muffins

If you love chocolate, this recipe is definitely for you! I wanted to put as much chocolate as you can in a muffin, and here is the result of this food experiment! I would say that it's heaven in a muffin!

Ingredients for 6 big muffins:

• 115g cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 115g cane sugar
• 115g butter, softened
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 egg white
• 50g cooking chocolate
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 6cl milk
• 100g chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat your oven at 175 degrees celcius.

Mix the sugar with the softened butter until smooth.

Add the egg yolk, the melted chocolate and the vanilla extract. Mix well.

Add the milk little by little, alternating with the flour (mix well each time). Add the baking powder. Mix well. 

Beat the egg white, and then add it slowly to the former mix.

Then add the chocolate chips and mix well. 

Pour in muffin tins and put in the oven for 25/30 minutes. 

Enjoy!!

Sweet and Sour pizza

Last weekend I was craving for a pizza, but not any pizza. I wanted a homemade sweet and sour pizza. I've discovered this pizza for the first time last summer in south of France, in a small restaurant situated in the seaside resort of Port Leucate. And as I'm already of fan of everything that mixes sweet and sour, I just right away fell in love with this pizza. And now I want to share it with you, as I'm sure there is people out there, who like me love the food which mixes sweet and sour tastes. But... here comes the recipe:


Pizza dough


Makes 3 thin crust pizzas (30cm diameter)


Ingredients: 

• 340g flour
• 1 tea spoon sugar
• 1 tea spoon dried yeast
• 1 tea spoon salt
• 1,5 table spoon olive oil
• 22,5cl warm water

Instructions:

Mix 225g of flour with the sugar, dried yeast and salt. 

In a bowl mix the olive oil and the water.

Add it slowly to the flour/sugar/yeast/salt and mix until smooth with electric mixer (best is to use a kneader).

Add 115g of flour and knead the dough until it gets smooth and flexible.

Then form a ball with it, put it in a big bowl and cover it with a tea towel. 

Place the bowl in a lukewarm area and let it rise for 3h. The dough should double in volume. 

After the 3 hours, cut your dough in 3 and form 3 small balls. If you don't need 3 pizzas, you can put the ball(s) in clingfilm and then in the fridge or freezer. 

With a rolling pin, make a 30cm diameter circle.

Your dough is ready to be filled!

Sweet and Sour pizza

Ingredients:

• 6 slices of goat cheese
• 2 slices of bacon cut in pieces
• 6 prunes
• 6 walnuts
• Grated emmental
• Tomato puree
• Honey

Preheat your oven at 240 degree celcius. 
Fill your pizza dough with all those ingredients, tomato puree on the bottom, honey and grated cheese on top, everywhere. All other ingredients in between, as you wish! Then put it in the oven for around 5 minutes. Bon appétit!