Olive oil bread + "The Hunger Games"

I asked for your thoughts on “The Hunger Games” trilogy a couple of months ago and today I want to tell you that I’m hooked on the books! By some of my readers’ suggestion I started with “The Hunger Games” even though I’d watched the movie and I really liked the book – my love for the movie got even bigger. Last night I started reading “Catching Fire” and the only reason I’ve put the book aside

Buffalo mozzarella, artichoke and lemon pizza - a great idea for the weekend

Mark Bittman is trying to convince people to make pizza at home and his argument is that not only is it budget-friendly but the pizza also tastes better – I have got to agree with the guy. :)
The last time I ordered pizza at my house was nearly 7 years ago and so far we haven’t missed it – actually, to be honest, the pizzas we ate at other people’s homes (because I am the only “crazy person”

Apple and cinnamon hot cross buns for Easter + "Soul Kitchen"

Someone told me once – and I hate it that I cannot remember who it was – that I would love “Soul Kitchen” because it as a movie about a restaurant and there was food involved; since watching the excellent "The Wave" I’d become more interested in German movies, so I rented “Soul Kitchen” and yes, it is a movie about a restaurant and there is food involved, but it’s so much more than that: to me,

Cinnamon and cardamom buns

I usually feel the urge to bake yeasted breads when there is no time at all for that – go figure. And this time, to make things even more difficult I felt like baking a very specific type of bread: I wanted it to look good (I’m a complicated human being, my friends, I’ll admit to that). There was an amazing recipe using bananas in one of my current favorite cookbooks, but I would not have the

Le gibassier

I was just searching for a recipe to use some of the candied orange peel left in my fridge from making the almost mother-in-law cake, but what I found was the most beautiful bread I’d ever seen, a type of bread I’d never heard of before. I adore it when certain things lead to great discoveries, and I felt this way again a week ago, when after watching the fantastic "The Fall" I made my usual

Golden mixed greens pie

It might look like I live on sweets, but no – I eat savory food, too, and try to eat my greens as frequently as possible. :)
This tart is delicious and not difficult to make – you just need to plan accordingly so the dough has time to rise and the good thing is: you can make it in advance and reheat it before serving.

Golden mixed greens pie
slightly adapted from the absolutely gorgeous Home

Oatmeal sandwich bread

While organizing my books on the new bookshelf I grabbed "Good to the Grain" and stared at its beautiful cover (those delicious rhubarb tarts!) for a few seconds... Then it suddenly hit me: I hadn’t used that book in ages; it’s one of my favorite books and that makes me wonder about the poor books I seldom or never use. Well, that’s just me. So I decided to make something – anything – from the

Fennel seed and onion loaf

I’ve been trying to find a way to convince you to bake this bread but all I can think of is that it tastes delicious and goes really well with a glass of ice cold beer (which is always a winner imho). :)

Oh, and the leftover slices are great lightly buttered and toasted on a nonstick frying pan. There - I hope you give it a try.

Fennel seed and onion loaf
slightly adapted from the always

Iced cinnamon snail rolls and when less is more

I hadn’t made cinnamon rolls in ages and this recipe, from Bill Granger’s "Sydney Food", seemed easy and quick to put together. It was – I watched TV all afternoon and yet finished baking the rolls before dinnertime.
I tried to restrain myself and not eat one of the rolls right out of the oven, but ended up giving up the fight after 5 minutes: the warm, tender rolls, deeply perfumed with

Baked lemon ricotta doughnuts - all the deliciousness of doughnuts without frying

I love doughnuts – as do many of you, I believe – but the idea of frying them... Not so much. I’m not a fried food kind of cook – I love eating it, not making it. That is why I was quite taken by this recipe: the doughnuts are baked instead of fried and they turned out beautiful, very tender, absolutely delicious.
The filling is oh, so good – I ate several spoonfuls of it before actually

Olive and herb focaccia

I do not understand people who don’t like olives – don’t get me wrong, I have my own food pet peeves (won’t eat liver for the life of me), but olives are so juicy, so meaty and tender... I find them completely irresistible. ;)

That is why, while setting up the ingredients for this delicious bread, I pulled 20 olives out of the jar. :D

Olive and herb focaccia
slightly adapted from The Weekend

Cinnamon choc chip swirl bread

After cookies and cakes, Susan and I decided it was time to play around with yeast – we both wanted to bake from John Barricelli’s beautiful book and the cinnamon swirl bread caught our eyes (and our stomachs). :)

The bread is tender and delicious; the dough is easy to work with – not sticky! – but my idea of using chocolate chips instead of raisins turned out to be less than genius: I used

Pandoro with peach jam

I’ve been trying, for a while now, to cook and bake using seasonal ingredients – influenced by my good friend Ana Elisa – and for that reason this recipe was kept on my messy files for almost a year. Finally the peaches are in season and I could make it – this jam is so delicious it was worth waiting that long for it.

The pandoro itself is not very sweet, therefore perfect to be eaten with the

Jam buns

Yeasted challenged, fear not: these buns are absolutely easy to make and good to finish up that jar of jam that has been around your fridge for weeks (months, maybe?). :D

It’s not even right for me to take the credit over these – the standing ovation should go to my stand mixer.



Jam buns
from Donna Hay magazine

2 teaspoons active dry yeast
5 tablespoons caster sugar
¾ cup (180ml) lukewarm

Olive and rosemary breads

Joao and I are absolutely crazy for olives – that is why it is difficult for me to make a recipe that calls for them: we eat the whole jar beforehand. :D

The first time I made this recipe I used sage instead of rosemary, but after the breads were baked there was hardly any flavor left from the herb. Rosemary works beautifully here and even though it is a mighty herb it doesn’t overpower the

Apple yeast sugar tart

I love discovering things, and equally like rediscovering them – I bet you all do, too.

After leaving this book unattended for a couple of years – I checked my Amazon account and saw that the book was purchased in June, 2006 – it has found a way lately into my kitchen; after making the soup with tiny omelettes, I went through the book again – 824 pages of it – and bookmarked many, many recipes

Milk chocolate-filled cinnamon doughnuts

Still on the feasible side of promises and resolutions, I’ve been trying to make more yeasted recipes – because I always tell people I love working with yeast but taking a look at my blog that doesn’t sound very true.

I got this recipe here – the same magazine these buns came from – and highly recommend it: the doughnuts are tender, taste great and imho don’t necessarily need the chocolate

Sticky caramel buns

A couple of weeks ago the lovely Ana Elisa and I had coffee together and it was so good! We talked a lot, discovered several things in common... I already liked her in the virtual world and confirmed that she is a dear in the real world, too. :)

Then I saw that she’d drawn me on her Moleskine and that made my day. :)

Breads remind me of Ana – she’s an expert in making them – and that is why I

Babas with lime syrup

I did now know what babas were until I saw this post on Helen’s blog, a good while ago – her beautiful citrus version immediately caught my eye, but for some reason I did not try my hand at making babas until very recently.

Discovering new desserts is always a good thing, especially when they are very tender and drenched in a lovely syrup – yum! :)

The recipe comes from here – the only change

Kugelhopf with honeyed apples

One of the things I hate the most is being helpless over something - I want to change certain things but can’t. Feeling powerless drives me nuts and I don’t deal well with all the anxiety generated by my hands being tied. :S

But as far as my recipes are concerned I can take some action: this kugelhopf looked beautiful, but I did not have all the ingredients around; at least in my kitchen I can