Desserts and Sweet Treats | Finding Feasts

Napoleonki – the Polish version of Millue Feuille

FinSki's Napoleonki1 — Click on image for recipe

Desserts are not my ‘thing’, I mean I am happy to eat them but my cooking skill lie with savory food. My hubby isn’t a huge dessert fan either so I don’t particularly go out of my way to make desserts each week. The extent of dessert in our household is ensuring that we have a constant (err never ending) supply of chocolate mini magnums in the fridge for Imogen, all hell can break loose otherwise! I’m also not very good at making desserts and have had many failed attempts. Give me a mystery box of savoury ingredients and I can guarantee you that I will be able to whip something up, without a recipe. Sweet dishes are my nemesis.

If there is one thing that I admire about my mum that’s the fact that she can can whip up a Polish dessert blind folded! When I visit my parents house there is always a cake, a tort, a slice or some other sweet hiding in the fridge. I always get excited about visiting them because I know I’ll be eating wholesome good home cooked food, but then I end up leaving very full, simply because I can’t resist the temptation of sampling everything else that she has in her fridge, including the sweet stuff which always takes be back to my childhood days of living at home.

Each May I host a Mother’s Day lunch at my place and this year mum made Napoleonki which are another one of Poland’s best known desserts and share a striking similarity to the French dessert Mille Feuille, a vanilla/custard type slice also known as Napoleon.

I haven’t eaten Napoleonki for probably about 10 years and for very good reasons, one because just looking at them makes me put on about 10 kilos! Two because once I have one, I want another.

With the family luncheon finished, dessert came out and I made a bee line for the Napoleonki slice and with just one bite I was transported to my childhood days of eating desserts a plenty without a worry in the world. Days of Polish family gatherings where the tables were filled with food as far as the eye could see and laughter, banter and eating went on forever!

One of the things I love about cooking and eating, is how it can make you feel, the memories that it can create and the memories that it can bring back.

Having finished my slice I knew what I had to do next and that was to make very first Napoleonki!

So my dear friends, what’s a dish that brings your childhood memories flooding back?

Bella

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Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Belgium Waffles w/ Oats

Finding Feasts - Belgium Waffle w Oats — Click image for recipe

Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Belgium Waffles w/ Oats, or more appropriately, The Best Darn Waffles You Are Ever Going To Eat!

After stumbling across a Nordic Ware Stovetop Waffle Maker at a charity store recently, I was on a mission to find the perfect recipe. Bella’s hubby has found his recipe and can make it in his sleep if need be; happily making them on the weekend for their daughter. BTW, if you are looking for a waffle maker, this one is fantastic, I cannot recommend this one enough; slim line means it slides in with your chopping boards – minimal loss of space plus makes the prefect belgium style waffle with the deep holes and perfect texture. Downside is you need to keep an eye on the time.

I didn’t want a fussy recipe, some asking to separate the eggs and whip the egg whites to stiff peaks before folding it in to the batter; one step too much for first thing in the morning for me. I wanted a quick, tasty recipe that produced a crispy outside and a soft fluffy inside… every time! …and here it is… Just two bowls are needed: Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl, melt the butter in another then add the rest of the wet ingredients, combine the wet with the dry and you’re done, easy.

You could almost trick yourself into thinking that these were kind of healthy since there are oats in the mix – whatever you need to do to make it alright to eat waffles, do. Just make sure you give this recipe a go!

Deliciously naughty breakfast -Blondie 🙂

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Olive Oil and Zucchini Chocolate Mini Cakes

Olive Oil and Zucchini Chocolate Mini Cakes are a stunningly moist and slightly spiced chocolate cake that will certainly be enjoyed by all.

The original recipe is from Julie Le Clerc’s gorgeous cookbook, Little Café Cakes.

Needing a treat for the school lunch box lead me to this one but with what I had in the cupboard it turned out a little different. To start with I used Dutch processed cocoa powder, which you aren’t suppose to use with baking soda but since the recipe also asks for baking powder I took my chance. I used 2 large zucchini’s so there was A LOT of zucchini. I threw in dried cranberries and chocolate bits for extra sweetness as it wasn’t very sweet but the end result was surprisingly good. I have written the recipe to what Julie Le Clerc documented – adding the cranberries and chocolate bits… oh and using olive oil rather than canola, just to show you that you can mix up recipes a little and still end up with a great end result.

As I used so much zucchini I ended up with some extra mixture so poured it into a pie tin and made an extra large soft cookie that master M absolutely loved! More so than the actual cakes so I will remember to make more of the giant ‘cookie’ next time.

These are dark, moist and tasty – enjoy! Blondie

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White Chia Seed Banana Bread

White Chia Seed Banana Bread is a great way of incorporating the healthy goodness of chia seeds into your kids’ lunch boxes. Plus they are so fun to eat as they are little balls of popping seeds that all kids will love.

This is part of my New Years resolution, the one where I have to make one recipe from any book or magazine that enters my house, and as you can see below, sadly I have fallen way behind…

So in order to get back on track I have made an important decision, that is, I am allowed to be inspired by recipes within the books and magazines, hence this little gem of a recipe.

Vol.2 of Nourish magazine 2014 had a big article on chia seeds with some nice recipes, but I really needed something for the lunch box, which is where I chose to incorporate the seeds into my normal Banana Bread recipe. Voila, a popping banana bread that I know Seb is going to love.

Popping seeds of goodness… Blondie xx

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Chocolate Brownies – the packet kind!

FinSki's Chocolate Brownies 1 — Click on image for full recipe

Come on, admit it, these chocolate brownies look good huh! Firm on the outside, rich, dark and gooey on the inside, a devilish treat if you ask me.

Did I slave over the oven with these? Definitely not.

A few weeks ago Imogen was in her ‘mum let’s bake some cup cakes mood’. This goes something like this…we head out to the shops, buy the packet mix and additional ingredients, get home and prepare everything and she suddenly disappears but some how reappears again when it is time to lick the spoon!

Having baked the same old velvet cup cakes over and over again I jumped at the opportunity to try something totally new. You won’t believe this but I have never made chocolate brownies before! Yup…never! I know…deprived childhood huh.

It was a Sunday, I was not the least bit interested in baking anything but Imogen found this mix at Thomas Dux…

The packet came with choc chips and all that I needed to add was 2 eggs and some melted butter, too easy!

I’m no expert at making chocolate brownies but these were pretty good! For $4.99, I highly recommend keeping a packet in your pantry for the ‘just in case’.

Bella 🙂

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Chocolate Sachertort

Finding Feasts - Sachertort — Click image for recipe

Have you got your mother’s day gift and day sorted yet? Better hurry! It’s mother’s day this Sunday 11th May.

I love mother’s day, not because of the gifts (they do help tho…wink…wink…nudge…nudge hubby if you are reading this!) but because I love seeing my daughter’s face the night before when she schemes up complicated breakfasts for my husband and her to cook in the morning. I generally wake up to clatter and bang noises in the kitchen and then have an amazing breakfast waiting for me down stairs. Post breakfast there is no time to rest though because it’s time to get cooking for the family mother’s day lunch which has been hosted at our place for the last few years.

Mum always brings dessert however two years ago I surprised her with this fantastic dessert – a chocolate sachertort.

I attempted my first sachertort about 3 years ago when my husbands mum, Heather bought me a baking book. It’s fair to say that I don’t particularly have a sweet tooth but this recipe is divine!

I am proud to say that I can now make it with my eyes closed; well almost!
It’s the perfect after dinner dessert, rich, gooey and yummy!

PS…HAPPY ‘late’ MOTHERS DAY to all the mums!
xox Bella

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Ridiculously Rich Dark Chocolate Sorbet

FF - Dark Chocolate Sorbet — Click image for recipe

Ridiculously Rich Dark Chocolate Sorbet, the title is no joke, It truly is ridiculously rich!

If I were to choose my favourite flavour combination for dessert it would have to be strawberries and chocolate… strawberries dipped in chocolate, strawberry filled chocolates etc. Actually, no, Chocolate and mint would be my favourite, wait, no… coffee and lemon. Damn! I’ve got alot of sorbets to make 🙂

Anyway, this is a great start to my sorbet odyssey as they are very simple to prepare and great to have on hand. You could make this a little more adult by adding your favourite liquor – there is already vodka in it to stop it from setting rock hard but also add cointreau for a choc orange flavoured sorbet or add a hazelnut liquor.

Divide the pre frozen sorbet into small batches and you could make an endless flavour combinations to tease your friends with… the flavour combinations are truly endless.

Bowl licking good! Blondie

Dark Chocolate Sorbet

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