Ginger Syrup

Ginger -aromatic and spicy. Its wonderfully versatile - its used in both sweet and savoury recipes. I always add a slice or 2 of ginger when I cook beef (it helps get rid of the 'beefy' smell when I particularly want it to taste fresh and clean.). I also love ginger beer. The Greeks have a drink they call 'tsitsibira', which is a type of fresh and refreshing ginger beer. To make this drink, it involves using yeast and letting it ferment in bottles, and I shall attempt that one day! But for now, I am going to make a simple ginger syrup that I can use to make my easy fizzy ginger drink, or use it as a syrup on top of ice creams and yogurts.

Ingredients: (makes a bit less than 1 cup of syrup)

Ginger, approximately 100g, cleaned and roughly chopped

2 cups of water

200g of sugar 

*Note: This is just an approximation. I usually use less sugar, or substitute with honey or agave syrup. But the spiciness of the ginger will overpower the sugar, and it will help to keep!

Preparation:

1. In a blender/food processor, roughly 'chop' the ginger with the water.

2. In a saucepan, add the sugar/sweetener and ginger mix, scraping off as much small bits from the food processor as you can.

3. Heat to boil, and then turn the heat down to simmer. Occasionally check the syrup and stir for about 40-45 minutes until it has turned into a wonderful gooey mess. Leave to cool.

4. Once cooled, strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer, pressing with the back of the spoon to squeeze as much sugary liquid into your bowl.

5. Store in any container of your choice (that can be covered) and it will keep in the fridge for about 2 weeks. (I usually end up using all of it within 1 week!)

Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

Pardon the kinda-blurry picture. I only managed to take 2 photos of these cookies before they were devoured. Here is another better looking photo for you to enjoy. I will update this post in the future with more pictures. 

As with my previous post, it is Christmas and I enjoy making cookies during the holiday seasons. This is inspired by another Keiko Ishida recipe from her Okashi cookbook, but I have decided to use coarsely ground hazelnuts to replace the blanched almonds in her original recipe. Hazelnuts and chocolate go hand in hand really well - like Nutella. The hazelnuts give it a soft, brittle texture that makes it so easy to eat. 

Ingredients: (makes about 30-40 cookies)

40g of coarsely ground hazelnuts

150g pastry flour

20g of cocoa powder

120g of unsalted butter softened

70g of icing sugar

A pinch of salt

1 egg yolk

Granulated sugar for dusting

What you will need:
Cling film
A baking tray, lined with parchment

Spatula

A mixer: handheld or standalone. Or, a husband-shaped-whisk-wielding helper to help. (Elbow grease)

Wire rack

Preparation:

1. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together. Set aside

2. Beat the butter, icing sugar and a pinch of salt until smooth and creamy. Add the egg yolk, and mix well.

3. Fold in the flour and cocoa powder mixture using a spatula. Add in the hazelnut and fold them in. too. Cover the bowl with cling film and refrigerate for 15 - 20 minutes.

4. This is the time to clean your kitchen, preheat the oven to 160 degrees C, and line your baking tray with parchment.

5. Roll out the dough into a log and slice it into uniform sizes. The number of cookies you get depends on the size of your log.

6. Dip the edges of the cookies in the granulated sugar, and arrange on the baking tray.

7. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

8. Remove, then cool on the wire rack before serving.

Green Tea Cookies

Green tea - full of anti-oxidants and my staple drink. I drink it hot or cold, every day, winter or summer. And matcha, which is the powdered version of green tea is probably one of the best flavours out there. Matcha ice-cream is superb!

For Christmas, I have decided to not make the normal Greek Christmas Kourabiedes cookies but make these. I found this recipe in Keiko Ishida's Okashi cookbook, which is full of wonderful recipes.

These disappeared almost immediately. I managed to save a few for my good friend Eleni and she loves them! I will get more matcha in the near future, so I can make more Green Tea inspired bakes.

Keiko adds more green tea leaves as a garnish on top of each cookie, but I didn't want to make it too strong in the tea flavour department, so I omitted that last ingredient. You can add it if you want, but the matcha adds enough of a punch on its own.

Ingredients:  (makes about 40 - 50 small cookies)

240g of pastry flour, chilled
15g of green tea powder Matcha (about 1 tablespoon)
150g of unsalted butter, room temperature
130g of icing sugar
A pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
Granulated sugar, as needed
1 egg white beaten

What you will need:
Cling film
A baking tray, lined with parchment

Spatula

A mixer: handheld or standalone. Or, a husband-shaped-whisk-wielding helper to help. (Elbow grease)
Pastry brush

Wire rack

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, sieve the flour and the green tea powder together, twice. Set aside.

2. Beat the butter, icing sugar and the pinch of salt together until soft and creamy. Add the egg yolks and mix well.

3. Add the flour and green tea mixture into the bowl. Fold with a spatula.

4. Cover the dough with cling film and chill in the fridge for 15 - 20 minutes.
5. This is the time to clean your kitchen, preheat the oven to 150 degrees C, and line your baking tray with parchment.
6. Roll out the dough into a log and slice it into uniform sizes. The number of cookies you get depends on the size of your log.

7. Dip the edges of the cookies in the granulated sugar, and arrange on the baking tray.
8. Brush the egg white on the cookies with a pastry brush. It makes the cookie smooth and shiny. I made half with the egg white glaze, and half without.

9. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
10. Remove, then cool on the wire rack before serving.

Homemade Bread

What can I say about freshly baked warm bread? Its great. 'Nuff said. Having freshly baked bread is great for the weekend. It doesn't take long, and this is a basic recipe that you can add to if you want. Add in olives and cheese and you get a very tasty savoury bread that you eat it on its own or as a sandwich. I have added a can of pitted dark cherries once (drained of its liquid syrup) and it became a partially sweet bread that I made into excellent French Toast.

Ingredients: (makes 1 big loaf)

500g of flour (look for one that says 'bread flour'. If not all-purpose flour works fine, too)
7g sachet of fast-acting yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp of olive oil
Lukewarm water UP to 350ml

Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients except for the water and olive oil in a mixer, using the dough-mix extension. If you don't have a machine, check out no.4.

2. Start the machine on slow. Add in the olive oil. Then slowly add in half of the water, bit by bit. Increase speed to medium low, and add the water gradually until its all mixed but not too sticky. You may not use all of the water, I sometimes have about 1-2 tablespoons of water leftover.
3. Continue the 'kneading' for about another 7 minutes on low. Remove the dough into a greased/oiled bowl, and cover with a clean tea towel. Leave to rest in a warm airy place for about 30-40 minutes until the size has doubled. Go to no. 5.

4. If you don't have a mixer, this is what you do - mix the dry ingredients thoroughly in a bowl, and make a well in the center of the flour mix. Add the oil in the well, and add 100ml of water on top of the oil. Gently fold in the flour in the water, from the outside edge of the bowl towards the center (towards the well) and do that until all of the liquid is absorbed. Slowly add as much water as you need while you are mixing/folding until the flour stops sticking to you fingers. You might have leftover water, and that's ok. You don't want the dough to be too sticky. Prepare a work surface for you to knead the dough. Follow the instructions on how to knead dough. In a greased/oiled bowl, cover it with a tea towel, Leave to rest in a warm airy place for about 30-40 until risen.

Before

After

5. Mould the risen dough, push the air out of it (I use the punching method, but gently, of course.) This is when you can include additions to your bread - chopped olives or cheese and just knead gently into the dough.

6. Shape the dough into your desired shape - you can make a rather flat rectangle to make a focaccia-like bread, or shape it into a bread tin to make a bread loaf.

7. Here I have garnished the bread with a mix of crushed mix pepper, sea salt, rosemary and dried rose petals (I bought this herb mix from a small deli in Northern Italy.). Garnish as you desire, or leave it plain. 

8. Cover with the tea towel, and leave it to rise again, for another 30 minutes.

9. With 10 minutes to go until the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Bake the bread for 15 minutes, and then lower the temperature to 180 degrees Celsius for an additional 20-25 minutes.

10. Check with a toothpick to ensure that the bread is fully baked. If it comes out clean, its ready!

11. Remove the bread onto a cooling rack, and when its cool enough to touch (so that you don't burn your fingers) you can start eating it! Its great when eaten warm with a bit of butter. Serve it however way you want to.