Chocolate Date Banana and Walnut Cake

After all the fruity cakes and desserts that I’ve made this summer, it felt it was time for a chocolate-based cake, using dark cocoa powder, along with chocolate chips.

Spiced Banana, Walnut and Chocolate Muffins, with Chocolate Frosting

As often happens, I found two ripe bananas in the kitchen, and decided to use them as a base for quick muffins.

Oatmeal-Spelt Cookies with Nuts and Dried Cranberries

Oatmeal cookies are among my favorite cookies, and I always enjoy experimenting with finding new flavors for the basic recipe. This time, since I like the unique flavor and texture of spelt flour, I decided to combine it with the oatmeal in the following recipe.

Sweetened Condensed Milk Dough Filled Cookies

The following tasty cookies were inspired by THIS blog post. Though the cookies looked very tasty, I was mostly intrigued by the dough, which listed condensed milk as one of the ingredients. The use of condensed milk in pastry dough was new to me, and I wanted to give this unique dough a try.

Camembert en Croûte with Salted Caramel Balsamic Pears

Baked cheese is one of my favorite ways of serving semi-soft cheeses. The baking process enhances the cheese flavors and makes its texture even creamier. Served with fresh, or cooked fruits, (check HERE for a recipe with quince cooked in spiced red wine) the combination is even tastier.
In the following recipe, I took this combination a step further, and baked the cheese, along with cooked pears, “en croûte”, i.e. in a buttery puff pastry crust, and the result was simply irresistible.

Walnut and Raw Cacao Cookies

I recently realized that, while I use walnuts in various recipes, I don’t use them as often when baking cookies. With this in mind, I was set to create cookies with walnuts as the main ingredient.

Leeks, Gruyère Cheese and Walnuts Mini Bakes

Leeks are among my favorite vegetables, and are now at their best; fresh, plump and juicy. So obviously, I found myself buying some and then had to decide how to cook them. While I could use one of my former the recipes (check THIS PAGE), but this time, I’ve decided to use them as a base for mini-bakes.

Chicken Salad with Grapes, Tarragon, Mint and Walnuts

Chicken salad is a great dish for buffet-style relaxed entertaining. It can be prepared ahead of time, and tastes even better after chilling. It is easy to serve, and it pairs well with different dishes and salads.

Zucchini-Banana Muffins with Dried Fruits, Nuts and Chocolate Chips

Zucchini season is here and, once again, I bought too many. So I’ve decided to use them in some simple  and nutritious muffins.

Spiced Brownies with Walnuts, Dried Cranberries and Cream Cheese Swirl

Chocolate and cream cheese combination is one of my favorites, so when I was planning to bake a batch of brownies, I’ve decided to add a cream cheese swirl to it.

Peach, Walnuts and Cinnamon Crumble

Fresh peaches are everywhere now and I find it hard to resist baying them. The ones I’ve found this week were so ripe and juicy, I could see they will not keep for long. So I’ve decided to use some of them in a quick crumble – one of the easiest and tastiest fruit desserts.