Tag: christmas

Eggnog Chocolate Mousse

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

When Zvonimir and I arrived to Canada, it was just before Christmas season, and eggnog was one of our first “must try” discoveries. Inspired by the ongoing competition between hot chocolate and eggnog, we decided to make a fusion and end this story in an everlasting love affair 🙂

With Christmas on its way, we thought you might like to try this as a decadent, creamy, winter dessert 😀

Eggnog Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients

  • 2-3 ginger cookies (optional) for a crunchy twist!
  • 2 small vanilla instant pudding (3.4 ounces each)
  • 375 ml (1½ cup) milk
  • 500 ml (2 cups) of eggnog
  • 230 ml (8 oz or 1 cup) Cool whip or whipped cream
  • 200 g (3/4 cup) melted chocolate of your choice

Preparation

  1. Mix the pudding, eggnog and milk in a bowl for about 2 minutes, then mix in the cool whip or whipped cream (without actually whipping it, confusing, I know).
  2. Put half of the mixture in a glass, add some crushed ginger cookies, and pour the rest of the mixture over the cookies. Serve the mousse in bowls or any way you like.
  3. Melt the chocolate on steam or in the microwave.
  4. Place the melted chocolate on top, cool overnight in the fridge and enjoy eating it the next day.
  5. You can add some cookies on top for decoration.

Are you eggnog or hot chocolate team? 😀

Christmas Tree Jam Cookies

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

This week is all about Christmas cookies 🙂 This is one of many variations of classic Linzer cookies that are very popular in Croatia. Traditionally they come with a hole on one side, allowing jam some breathing room and an audience 😉

They originally came to our Christmas tables from Linz, Austria, which is where they got the name from. Interestingly, they originated as a small version of world’s oldest torte recipe: Linzer Torte. Torte was created in the 17th and the cookies took two more centuries to develop, seeing the first light of day in the 19th century.

Ingredients

  • 300 g (2 1/4 cup) all purpose flour
  • 60 g (1/3 cup) starch
  • 90 g (1/2 cup + 2 1/2 tbsp) of powdered sugar
  • 20 g (2 tbsp) vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
  • 210 g (3/4 cup + 2 tbsp) cold butter, cut into slices
  • 4 egg yolks

Preparation

  1. Knead the dough from all the ingredients.
  2. Let it rest in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.
  3. Preheat the oven to 200 °C (395 °F).
  4. Roll out thinly and make cookies in shapes of your choice with a variety of molds. I used Christmas tree mold because Christmas 😀
  5. Place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
  6. Bake for 10 minutes.
  7. When cooled, spread them with the jam of your choice ( I used apricot), connect two by two and decorate according to your own inspiration.

For decoration mix egg whites with powered sugar to make the icing and sprinkle them with colorful decorations.

Tell us what’s your favorite Christmas cookie in the comments bellow!

Chocolate Crinkles

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Every Christmas, a platter of cookies is something I always look forward to. I have a TO BAKE Christmas list with a new addition every year. A few years back I made these delicious crinkles, and they keep reappearing on the list 😀
These are simple to make and fun to eat, great way to include your kids in spending quality family time baking 🙂

Chocolate Crinkles

Ingredients

Makes about 40 cookies

  • 225 g (1 cup) good quality dark chocolate (at least 78% cocoa)
  • 60 g (1/4 cup) butter
  • 100 g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 225 g (1 3/4 cup) all purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon
  • icing sugar for dusting

Preparation

  1. Brake chocolate roughly into pieces and stir together with the butter.
  2. Melt the chocolate and the butter in a double boiler on steam. Stir constantly until the ingredients dissolve. When done remove from the heat and cool off.
  3. Mix the eggs with sugar on high speed until the mixture is light and thick, add the vanilla extract and slowly add melted chocolate.
  4. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon to taste. Stir them into the egg and chocolate mixture, cover, and then store in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours. Dough should be sufficiently chilled and firm so it can be nicely shaped.
  5. Preheat the oven to 170 °C (340 °F).
  6. Cover the baking sheet with parchment paper.
  7. Shape the cookies with hands into balls, size a bit less than the size of a walnut.
  8. Roll them in powdered sugar until they are completely covered.
  9. Place them on a baking sheet and bake them for 10-12 minutes until they get crust on the outside. They should still remain soft inside.
  10. Cool them on the rack before serving.

What will you bake for the first time this Christmas?

Išleri Cookies

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Tasty cocoa cookies dipped into chocolate and filled with delicious cream that resembles the cream used for cream puffs. This type of cookie is typical for northern and eastern Croatia. These are traditional cookies prepared for many occasions, especially Christmas and weddings. They can also be yellow with cocoa cream.

Ingredients

makes 20 combined cookies

Dough

  • 200 g (1 1/2 cup) all purpose flour
  • 140 g (1/2 cup) butter
  • 70 g (6 tbsp) granulated sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 3 tbsp cocoa

Cream

  • 3 eggs
  • 150 g (3/4 cup) sugar
  • 100 g (1/3 cup) butter
  • 10 g (1 tbsp) vanilla sugar

Glaze

  • 60 g (1/3 cup) dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
  • 2 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil

Preparation

  1. Of the ingredients knead the dough, roll out thinly between two sheets of parchment paper and cut into circles. I used shot glass 😀
  2. Bake them between 5-10 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 °C (355 °F). They just need to get a little color. You need to take them out even if they are a bit soft, leave them on the cooling rack, they will later harden. Let them cool completely.
  3. In the meanwhile, prepare the glaze. Melt the chocolate with oil and dip half of the cookies. Let them cool on the rack before connecting them with cream.
  4. For the cream, mix eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar until combined.
  5. Cook the cream in double boiler or on low heat. Steer with spatula. That way the cream doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Cook the cream until it’s thick. Let it cool off completely. In the cooled cream mix in well-made butter.
  6. Combine chocolate covered cookie with the uncovered one with cream.

Decorate as you like 🙂

What is your favorite Christmas cookie?

Walnut Roll

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Most Croats cannot imagine their celebration, whatever the occasion is, especially Christmas, without the Orahnjača – Walnut roll, traditional Croatian recipe for yeast-based dessert.

Along with the walnut filling, poppy seed filling is common. Usually, one roll is made with walnuts and the other with poppy seeds. This recipe makes two rolls.

This recipe is part of Foodies+ Christmas Recipes from Around the World cookbook, amazing cookbook with over 400 pages that shares many recipes you can use all year round. All proceeds are going to Action Against Hunger.


Ingredients for the dough

  • 100 g (1/2 cup) sugar
  • 20 g (5 tsp) vanilla sugar
  • 500 ml (2 cup) milk
  • 20 g (2 tbsp) dry yeast
  • 800 g (7 2/3 cup) all purpose flour
  • 115 g (1/2 cup) butter, melted
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 tbsp of rum (optional)
  • zest of two lemons

Ingredients for the filling

  • 500 g (5 1/2 cup) walnuts, ground
  • 2 egg whites
  • 200 g (1 cup) sugar
  • 100 ml (1/2 cup) milk, scalded
  • 1 tsp rum (optional)

Many Croats put raisins in the filling, previously soaked in rum, but I’m not a fan 😀

Preparation

  1. In a large bowl mix flour, yeast, salt, sugar and vanilla sugar.
  2. Add egg yolks in the flour mixture.
  3. In a separate bowl warm the milk (not hot) and add butter to dissolve.
  4. Slowly mix in milk and butter mixture. Beat with a wooden spoon or with electric mixer spirals until blisters begin to form on the dough and the dough starts removing from the bowl edges.
  5. Add rum and lemon zest. Mix well until combined.
  6. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it stand in a warm place until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.
  7. In the meantime, prepare the filling. Beat egg whites until stiff.
  8. Pour the scalded milk over the ground walnuts.
  9. Combine with sugar and rum. Allow to cool.
  10. Gently fold in beaten egg whites.
  11. To assemble spread flour on a large table-cloth.
  12. Divide the dough into two parts.
  13. Roll each part out very thin and fill with walnut filling.
  14. Roll by lifting the edge of the table-cloth on which the dough was rolled out.
  15. Grease the baking pan. Place the rolls into the pan.
  16. Put in the oven on 50 °C (125 °F) to rise again.
  17. Then heat the oven to 170 °C (240 °F) and bake for 40-50 minutes or until they become golden. Let cool in the pan.
  18. Brush with oil when cooled.

Note: It is very important that there is no draft in the room where the dough is rising. It will not rise properly.

What is your traditional Christmas dessert?

Minty Thaw – Hot chocolate with a Christmas twist

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Hot chocolate is wonderful way to warm yourself on a cold winter day. It’s smooth, creamy and decadent. A dessert you can drink! With a touch of a holiday spirit, it can be a great addition to your festive table.

This recipe makes about 1 1/3 cups (325 ml).

This recipe is part of Foodies+ Christmas Recipes from Around the World cookbook, amazing cookbook with over 400 pages that shares many recipes you can use all year round. All proceeds are going to Action Against Hunger.

Ingredients

  • 250 ml (1 cup) milk
  • 100 g (½ cup) milk chocolate
  • ¼ tsp vanilla extract
  • 60 ml (¼ cup) mint flavored liqueur
  • 60 ml (¼ cup) whipped cream
  • Christmas candy for decoration

Preparation

  1. Heat and stir milk in a small saucepan on medium heat until bubbles form around edge.
  2. Chop the chocolate.
  3. Remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and vanilla.
  4. Stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
  5. Add liqueur and stir well.
  6. Separately beat whipped cream to soft peak.
  7. Pour into tall glass or Christmas mug of your choice.
  8. Top with whipped cream.
  9. Sprinkle crushed mint candies over whipped cream and add a candy cane or peppermint stick for stirring.

Replace mint liqueur with different liqueurs for more variety, like Bailey’s or coffee liqueur.

What is your favorite Christmas drink?

Warm Onion Sauce

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Serve warm onion sauce as an addition to cooked meat and other foods. In making of this sauce pay attention to the density. The sauce should be neither too thin nor too thick. Usually it is made to have consistency as cream.

In Croatia it’s usually served with cooked meat from the chicken and beef soup. It’s rich in flavor and it complements cooked meat and vegetables perfectly!

This recipe is part of Foodies+ Christmas Recipes from Around the World cookbook, amazing cookbook with over 400 pages that shares many recipes you can use all year round. All proceeds are going to Action Against Hunger.

Ingredients

serves 10

  • 5 finely chopped onions
  • 5 tbsp lard/butter/oil
  • 10 tbsp all purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1 tbsp white vinegar
  • water or broth enough to get the necessary thickness
  • 1 tbsp of fresh chopped parsley leaves for garnish

Preparation

  1. In the frying pan on heated oil fry sugar until golden.
  2. Add finely chopped onions and simmer until golden.
  3. Add flour, fry until golden as well.
  4. Add water or broth and a tablespoon of vinegar, salt, and let it to cook on low heat until you get the wished consistency. When you pour the liquid onto the onions, it is necessary to add it little by little, while stirring well, otherwise the lumps will create.

Before serving, whisk the sauce and sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Tip: you can chop onions in the food processor to speed up the process and get finer onion texture.

What is your favorite sauce or gravy?

Stuffed Christmas Turkey with Croatian Flat Bread – Mlinci

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

What would Christmas be without turkey on the table?! This is a traditional turkey recipe from Northern Croatia made with Mlinci, all time favorite. To make a flavorable turkey, you need to get your hands “dirty” 😀 All the flavor comes from the spices you rub inside and outside of it.

This recipe is part of Foodies+ Christmas Recipes from Around the World cookbook, amazing cookbook with over 400 pages that shares many recipes you can use all year round. All proceeds are going to Action Against Hunger.

Ingredients

Serves 8-10

  • 1 turkey 3-4 kg
  • 600 g (4 1/2 cups) all purpose flour
  • 10 g (2 tsp) salt
  • 400 ml (1 1/2 cup) of lukewarm water
  • sunflower or vegetable oil per taste (you can substitute with butter or lard)
  • 2 slices pancetta/bacon
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • herbs of your preference (oregano, thyme, parsley)

Preparation – flat bread

  1. Mix flour, salt and lukewarm water to make a smooth dough.
  2. Divide it into 8 equal parts and each roll out thinly into 40×32 cm (16×12 inch) size.
  3. Spread each dough on a baking sheet and bake it at 230 °C (445 °F) for about 7 minutes.
  4. When they are done, break them into large pieces and set store them in food container until you need to serve them.

Preparation – turkey

  1. Couple of hours before roasting the turkey, you need to spice it up. Rub thoroughly the salt inside and outside of the turkey with addition of herbs on the inside. Also, for turkey to be juicer, make little pockets on the outside with the knife in which you press thinly sliced pancetta and garlic.
  2. Stuff the turkey with the bread and bacon stuffing. Close it with toothpicks or cooking thread.
  3. Put the stuffed turkey in a baking pan, pour over hot oil and bake for about two and half, three hours on 200-220 °C (390-425 °F). To make sure that the turkey is done, stab the white meat with the fork. If the fork enters easily, the turkey is roasted.
  4. During roasting, slowly pour the oil on the turkey for the first half hour, and when you run out of oil, continue with water. After one hour, every half hour use the liquid in which the turkey is baked for pouring.
  5. Cut the flat bread into small pieces and cover with boiling water. Leave them a few minutes in the pan to soften (not too much) and then drain well.
  6. Remove the portion of the turkey fat liquid in which the turkey was roasting and pour over the flat bread in a serving dish.
  7. Cut the turkey and serve with mlinci.

Tip: You can make Mlinci ahead and have them stored in a container for days before using.

What do you traditionally eat for Holidays?

Croatian Christmas Bundt Cake (Božićni Kuglof)

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

This cake is perfect for any Sunday family dinner. Although usually made during the Holiday season no one is going to complain if they have a bite or two in the off season. The addition of the apple makes this bundt cake a bit better than the others. Unless you’re a weirdo who’s into dry bundt cakes.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

The combination of nuts and dried fruits I use in this recipe works very well to create a balanced flavor and texture. It received five star rating across the board with all the testers who got to sample it.

Croatian Christmas Bundt Cake cross cut so inside and outside of the cake is visible
Inspiration to get your mouth watery

Traditional Croatian recipe (the way grandma used to make it) has raisins (but who really likes raisins? Zvonimir raises hand, alone.) and arancini. Arancini denominates two different foods, one is what you easily find when you Google it, the other one is what I actually mean here. A dried orange peel covered in sugar, traditional Croatian dessert from the coastal region. Why can’t they just pick an original name? Sigh…

As fun as it would be to rant about language and baking history, you’re here to get your hands dusted into sweet, sweet…

Tools you need

  • Bundt cake pan because you’re making a bundt cake and, well, that’s what you make bundt cakes in 🙂
  • Mixing bowls. Before you can put the ingredients into the bundt cake pan, you need to mix them somewhere. Mixing bowls to the rescue!
    Make sure bowls you use are adequately sized. There are few things worse than overflowing bowls.
  • Measuring spoons to, you know, measure things with them
  • Kitchen scale because baking is a fine art and perfection is a little bit more reachable when you quantify things
  • Peeler to peel the apple
  • Grater because it’s one letter away from being great, and you also need it to grate the apple
  • Spatula makes mixing things into other things easier
  • Electric mixer. Mixing is great and all, but doing it by hand can get exhausting. Sometimes you can outsource that work to a family member. Other times you need a bit more power.
  • Kitchen mittens. Things get hot in the oven. ‘Nuff said.

Ingredients

Servings: 6 people

  • 2 tablespoons rum
  • 50 g dried cranberries
  • 50 g thinly sliced almonds
  • 50 g coarsely cut walnuts
  • 1 peeled, grated apple
  • 150 g brown sugar
  • 1 package (9 g) vanilla sugar
  • 110 g all purpose flour (unbleached)
  • 50 g cornstarch
  • 1 package (14 g) baking powder
  • 90 g melted unsalted butter
  • 3 large eggs
  • powdered sugar for coating
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves

Preparation

  1. Preheat the oven to 170 °C (340 °F)
  2. Soak dried cranberries in rum until soft
  3. Mix flour and cornstarch with baking flour and spices (nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and cloves)
  4. In a separate bowl mix eggs with both sugars until foamy
  5. Into eggs and sugar mixture mix in with spatula
    • Dried cranberries with rum
    • Apple
    • Almonds
    • Walnuts
    • Flower mixture and melted butter at the end
  6. Mix well until compact
  7. Oil or butter bundt pan and dust with flour
  8. Bake for 45 min until golden brown. Pro tip: pick with a toothpick and if nothing sticks, you’re golden.
  9. Leave the cake in the pan until it cools
  10. Take the cake out of the bundt pan and dust it with powdered sugar

Wrapping up

If you’re the adventure type who likes to stray from a beaten path, test it with any other nuts or dried fruit as you desire or have available in your pantry.

Let me know in the comments which combinations worked well for you and share this on social media.

Bread and Bacon Stuffing

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Have some old bread that you don’t know what to do with but don’t want to throw away?

We’ll teach you how to spice it up with some bacon and other stuff to make a delicious stuffing for a bird roast.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

This is one of the best ways to use up old bread and to make your Sunday family dinner a little more special than it already is. If you still have some left, consider cinnamon french toast for desert 😉

Traditionally, this stuffing is served with turkey on Christmas as a part of Croatian culinary heritage. Great thing is that you can use this stuffing with any bird of your choice: chicken, turkey, duck… Just add sauce or gravy of your choice with a vegetable salad on the side and your family will be very grateful.

This recipe is part of Foodies+ Christmas Recipes from Around the World cookbook, amazing cookbook with over 400 pages that shares many recipes you can use all year round.

Tools you need

  • Chef’s knife to cut onion, bacon and parsley
  • Cutting board to, yes, cut things on it 🙂
  • Mixing bowls. You’ll need to mix all the ingredients somewhere.
    Make sure bowls you use are adequately sized. There are few things worse than overflowing bowls.
  • Measuring spoons to, you know, measure things with them
  • Spatula makes mixing things into other things easier
  • Frying pan to fry onions, garlic and pancetta.

Ingredients

  • 3 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 small onion
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 6 slices pancetta/bacon
  • 3 slices of soft white bread
  • 1 Tbsp milk
  • 2 eggs
  • finely chopped fresh parsley
  • salt and pepper
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano

Preparation

  1. Tear the bread into rough cubes and place in a shallow bowl.
  2. Drizzle the cold milk on and let them soak while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
  3. Finely chop the onion, garlic, pancetta and parsley.
  4. Whisk the eggs with a fork  in a separate bowl.
  5. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan on medium high heat and fry the onion, garlic and pancetta until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes and set aside.
  6. Squeeze the bread to get rid of the milk and place in a bowl.
  7. Tip the fried ingredients into the bowl with the bread.
  8. Add whisked eggs, parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Mix well until combined.
  9. Stuff your chosen bird with it and cook according to the relevant recipe.

What do you do with old bread?

Foodies+ Christmas Recipes from Around the World

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

It’s a fabulous project with amazing people for a worthy cause!

And it feels great to be a part of it. Joined with over dozen people with their Christmas traditions, Zvonimir and I are very happy to present Croatian Christmas to the world 🙂

foodieschristmasrecipesbook

If you ever wondered what different people all over the world traditionally eat at Christmas time, this book is here to answer that burning question of yours 😉
It also gets you head in and hands on to experiencing it. Wanna change things a bit this Christmas? Or just make weekend cuisine memorable leading up to your Christmas traditional? It’s really up to you.

This book is more than a Christmas present or a great cookbook. With all proceeds going to Action Against Hunger, this, more than 400 pages book, with almost 100 recipes from all around the world, is a piece of art with charitable note. Action Against Hunger is a global organization that aims to save the lives of malnourished children in over 40 countries. You can feel a little bit better about yourself while you’re celebrating.

It is a privilege to be a co-author along with great contributors such as Azlin Bloor, Lisa Watson, Nomad Dimitri, Joy Stewart, Shana Shameer and Indrani Sen. Their food knowledge and experience is priceless 🙂

Available on Kindle on your favourite Amazon site: Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon AUS.

Book Contents

Supporting Cast
Starters, Soups, Sides, Stuffing, Sauces and Gravies

The Main Performance
We’re not just talking turkey, baby!

La Dolce Vita
Because Life should always be sweet!

Time for a Tipple
Always Happy Hour somewhere, right?

Feeding a Crowd
Canapés and other party food for the planned and uninvited guests!

Gifts from the Kitchen
The way to anyone’s culinary heart!

Menu Suggestions
And Basic Recipes, because we pay attention to detail!

Available on Kindle on your favourite Amazon site: Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon AUS.

Bon appétit!